Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Dedication
- Contents
- List of Figures
- Preface
- Introduction
- 1 “Founded upon the Rock Which is Christ”: What Patrick and His Promoters Reveal about Women in the Early Irish Church
- 2 “A New and Apostolic Band of Virgins Arose”: Darerca, an Exceptionally Learned Abbess
- 3 “The Safest City of Refuge”: Brigid the Bishop
- 4 “God is Always Present with Those who Exemplify Such Devotion”: Íte, Foster-Mother of the Saints of Ireland
- 5 “Do not Harass my Sisters”: Samthann, an Abbess not to be Crossed
- 6 “I Place Myself under the Protection of the Virgins all Together”: Sister Saints with Something Like a Life
- Conclusion
- Appendices
- Appendix A The Sites
- Appendix B The Sources
- Appendix C Feast Days of Early Medieval Irish Female Saints
- Appendix D Glossary
- Appendix E Pronunciation of Personal Names
- Bibliography
- Index
- Frontmatter
- Dedication
- Contents
- List of Figures
- Preface
- Introduction
- 1 “Founded upon the Rock Which is Christ”: What Patrick and His Promoters Reveal about Women in the Early Irish Church
- 2 “A New and Apostolic Band of Virgins Arose”: Darerca, an Exceptionally Learned Abbess
- 3 “The Safest City of Refuge”: Brigid the Bishop
- 4 “God is Always Present with Those who Exemplify Such Devotion”: Íte, Foster-Mother of the Saints of Ireland
- 5 “Do not Harass my Sisters”: Samthann, an Abbess not to be Crossed
- 6 “I Place Myself under the Protection of the Virgins all Together”: Sister Saints with Something Like a Life
- Conclusion
- Appendices
- Appendix A The Sites
- Appendix B The Sources
- Appendix C Feast Days of Early Medieval Irish Female Saints
- Appendix D Glossary
- Appendix E Pronunciation of Personal Names
- Bibliography
- Index
Summary
Caillech/calliagh: nun, but also wife, old woman, hag, witch
Céli De (Irish): literally, “clients of God.” A religious movement of particular importance in the eighth century which emphasized austerity and asceticism. The singular is céle De. It is often anglicized “culdee/culdees.”
Cell: church, monastic community
Cult: religious veneration
Currach: an early Irish kind of boat, also a name given to Mag Liffey, or the field of the Liffey, the countryside surrounding Kildare.
Doctissima abbatissa (Latin): exceptionally educated abbess. Said of Darerca.
Extant: surviving
Familia (Latin): literally family; monastic community as well as the community protected by the patronage of a given saint.
Fine (Irish): family, a subset of túath (tribe or clan)
Gregorian Reform: eleventh- and twelfth-century reform of the Catholic church which emphasized the moral reform of the clergy and the centralization of the ecclesiastical hierarchy.
Hagiographer: biographer of saints
Hagiography: biography of saints
Hiberniae (Latin): of Ireland
Hypocorism: nickname
Mag (Irish): field, plain
Magister (m)/Magistra (f) (Latin): master/mistress, teacher, head of community
Muimme (Irish): foster-mother
Paruchia (Hiberno-Latin): affiliation of monastic communities, deriving from parochia (Latin)
Penitentials: texts which systematically calculate penances to atone for sins
Penitentialists: authors of penitentials
Peregrinatio (Latin): pilgrimage; exile undertaken for the love of God
Peregrina (f)/peregrinus (m): pilgrim, someone who has undertaken voluntary exile for the love of God
Pre-Patrician saint: saints said to work in Ireland before Patrick's arrival (Ibar, Ciarán, Abbán, Declan)
Sanctae (Latin): saints, female. The singular is sancta. The masculine is sanctus (plural sancti).
Sanctarum (Latin): of the saints, female. The masculine equivalent is sanctorum.
Syneisaktism: profound partnerships between unrelated religious men and women, whose mutual commitments to each other and Christ required them to sacrifice or sublimate their sexuality.
Túath (Irish): tribe or clan; extended kin-group
Vitae (Latin): literally, Lives, meaning biographies. The singular is vita.
- Type
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- Information
- Sacred SistersGender, Sanctity, and Power in Medieval Ireland, pp. 284 - 285Publisher: Amsterdam University PressPrint publication year: 2019