#irish books
I am planning a trip to Ireland in May to be with my great uncle on his 100th birthday. While I’m there, I’ll also make time for a yoga retreat with my dad, visiting sites steeped in folklore, and reconnecting with the land of some of my ancestors. A memoir, a novel, and a witchcraft book are each on my to-read list in preparation. (more…)
I felt like a stranger to myself, like I was no longer living my life but instead being propelled through it by interesting forces beyond my control.
— Sally Rooney, Concord 34.
Today we bring you an 1809 English language edition of Jocelin’s Life and Acts of Saint Patrick. Jocelin of Furness (active 1175-1214) was a Cumbrian Cistercian monk and hagiographer. John de Courcy (1150-1219), an Anglo-Norman lord and conqueror of what is today Northern Ireland, and Tommaltach Ua Conchobair (ca. 1150-1201), archbishop of Armagh, commissioned Jocelin to write a biography of St. Patrick. What at first glance seems to be an unlikely alliance between a foreign Norman knight and a native Irish prelate was in actuality a strategic power move. The territories of Armagh and Dublin were rivals for political and religious dominance in Ireland at the time, and both de Courcy and Ua Conchobair had a vested interest in promoting Armagh as the diocese founded by St. Patrick himself. In fact, Ua Conchobair is listed as one of the coarbs (Gaelic heirs) of the patron saint of Ireland.
Evidently, the Dublin-based Hibernia Press did not take the pro-Armagh/anti-Dublin bent of Jocelin’s hagiography too personally when they reprinted this version in 1809. In fact, they enhanced the Cistercian monk’s text with a re-engraving of an illustration featured in Thomas Messingham’s 1624 Florilegium insulæ sanctorum; the facsimile frontispiece shows three of the principal Irish saints: St. Columba, St. Brigid, and, of course, St. Patrick, who quite literally takes center stage.
As a parting piece of trivia, the legend of St. Patrick’s expulsion of snakes from Ireland can be traced to Jocelin’s version of the saint’s biography (see passage above). This is why Messingham depicted St. Patrick with snakes fleeing at his feet. May the snake-free luck of the Irish be with you today!
Images from: Jocelin of Furness. The life and acts of Saint Patrick … Dublin: Hibernia Press, 1809.
Call no.: BR1720 .P26 J6 1809
Catalog record: https://bit.ly/3t3ggoJ
