The concept and practice of pilgrimage in early medieval Ireland : from the fifth to the ninth century

Abstract

This dissertation focuses primarily upon the practice of pilgrimage ex patria (‘[away] from one’s country’), the act of abandoning one’s homeland, usually permanently, for the sake of God, a practice that was uniquely popular among the early medieval Irish. The origins of the medieval ideal of pilgrimage ex patria lie in the biblical, exegetical and monastic sources of the early Christian and late antique periods, which by the beginning of the fifth century had amalgamated to form a coherent ideal, and shortly thereafter, a formulaic devotional act. This study begins with an in-depth discussion of what ‘pilgrimage’ meant: it is a complex and multi-layered concept. The two chapters of Part I address the development of a coherent ideal of peregrinatio in a Christian context: Chapter one examines the Latin terms peregrinus, peregrinatio and peregrinari (‘pilgrim/stranger’, ‘pilgrimage/journey’ and ‘to travel/to be a stranger’); chapter two reveals how these words became attached to both a spiritual ideal of Christian alienation and an actual, physical ritual of devotion. The three chapters of Part II then explore the manifestations of peregrinatio in early medieval Ireland. Chapter three begins with an analysis of the scriptural and excgetical sources that were demonstrably available to the Irish, and proceeds to explore the ideological underpinnings of actual practiccs of devotional separation in Ireland, from the idealised Christian embodiment of spiritual alienation—ascetic monasticism—to the more problematic topic of Irish pilgrimage ad loca sancta. Chapter four then describes the social, legal and cultural contexts of these acts of pilgrimage—and includes a short discussion of gender—in early medieval Ireland, and the peculiarities and innovations to which these contexts contributed.