Irish saints’ Lives in Central European manuscripts: hagiography and monastic networks in the high-medieval period

Abstract:
More than 60 years have passed since Ludwig Bieler drew attention to “the sudden appearance in Southern Germany of a group of Irish hagiographical texts” in the second half of the 12th century. Indeed,
traces of this lost collection of Lives are found in various manuscripts of Austrian and Bavarian origin. Comparison of the surviving codices and some new discoveries now allow a tentative reconstruction of the original content and structure of the collection, and shine light on the process of manuscript transmission. A study of the manuscript tradition of one of the texts, the Life of St Rónán of Dromiskin, lays bare the central role of the Irish Benedictine monasteries (Schottenklöster) of Germany and Austria in the circulation of Irish hagiographical material. A new appraisal of the content of the Vita sancti Ronani also helps to reveal a previously unknown chapter in the ecclesiastical history of 12th-century Ireland.

Speaker:
Diarmuid Ó Riain is currently a visiting research fellow at the Moore Institute. He has been a post-doctoral researcher and lecturer at the University of Vienna since 2013, where he works within the “Visions of Community” special research programme. His sub-project concerns medieval hagiographical collections, with a particular focus on the compilation and transmission of the late-12th-century Magnum Legendarium Austriacum. Diarmuid’s doctoral research at University College Dublin related to the history of the Irish Benedictine monasteries or Schottenklöster in medieval Germany and Austria.
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