Throughout the long history of Irish monasticism, the experience of women monastics has, until recently, been relatively sidelined. A desire to redress this inspired the decision in 2021 to dedicate the fifth Glenstal History Conference to exploring the various ways in which women responded to the monastic and ascetic vocation in medieval and early modern Ireland. Whether as practitioners or as patrons, women found creative and dynamic ways to pursue their calling as ‘Brides of Christ’ between the fifth and the seventeenth centuries, often in the face of tremendous difficulties and challenges. Their lives of prayer and service are sometimes hard to glimpse but the combined interdisciplinary perspectives of these essays brings them into sharper focus. The collection also demonstrates the current vitality of research on this topic and includes contributions by both established and emerging scholars.

The volume is dedicated to Dr Dagmar Ó Riain Raedel in recognition of her outstanding contribution to Irish and European medieval history and, in particular, to the study of medieval Irish-German monastic relations.

Contributors: Tracy Collins (National Monuments Service); Bishop Anne Dyer (diocese of Aberdeen and Orkney); Abbess Máire Hickey OSB (Kylemore Abbey); Elva Johnston (UCD); Colm Lennon (MU); Marian Lyons (MU); Bronagh McShane (NUIG); Colmán Ó Clabaigh OSB (Glenstal Abbey); Dagmar Ó Riain Raedel (ind.); Cathy Swift (Mary Immaculate College, UL); Yvonne Seale (SUNY, Geneseo).

Tracy Collins is an archaeologist with the National Monuments Service and a founding director of Aegis Archaeology Limited, a heritage consultancy. Bronagh Ann McShane is a historian of women, religion and confessionalization. Her book, Irish women in religious orders, 1530–1700, was published in 2022. Martin Browne and Colmán Ó Clabaigh are monks of Glenstal Abbey, Co. Limerick.

Table des matières :

Foreword
Abbess Máire Hickey OSB

Introduction
Tracy Collins & Bronagh Ann McShane

‘On the brink of the wave’: Towards an archaeology of female religious in early medieval Ireland
Tracy Collins

Locating female saints and their foundations in the early medieval Irish martyrologies
Elva Johnston

Soul sisters: Two Irish holy women in their late antique context
Catherine Swift

The other peregrinatio: Pilgrim nuns in medieval Regensburg and their Irish connections
Dagmar Ó Riain-Raedel

Putting women in order: A comparison of the medieval women religious of Ballymore-Loughsewdy and Prémontré
Yvonne Seale

Keeping it in the family: Familial connections of abbesses and prioresses of convents in medieval Ireland
Mary Ann Lyons

Marginal figures? Quasi-religious women in medieval Ireland
Colmán Ó Clabaigh OSB

Sisters of the priory confraternity of Christ Church, Dublin, in the late middle ages
Colm Lennon

Who were the nuns in early modern Ireland?
Bronagh Ann McShane

Epilogue
Brides of Christ: Ladies of fame and women worthy of praise
Bishop Anne Dyer

Informations pratiques :

Brides of Christ Women and monasticism in medieval and early modern Ireland, éd. Martin Browne OSB, Tracy Collins, Bronagh Ann McShane & Colmán Ó Clabaigh OSB, Dublin, Four Court Press, 2023 ; 1 vol., 248 p. ISBN : 978-1-80151-022-6. Prix : € 45,00.

Source : Four Court Press