Saints’ Cults in the Celtic World (review)

Despite the promise of its title, the majority of the contributions to this volume have the much narrower focus of devotional interaction between northern England and southern Scotland. Most of the essays represent papers first delivered at the Leeds International Medieval Congress in 2006, with the stated aim of addressing “the way in which devotion to particular saints might transcend or cross linguistic, cultural and political boundaries” (p. xi).

James E. Fraser (pp. 1–17), who examines “the movements of St. Andrew in Britain, 604–747,” concludes that there is “something genuine underlying the twelfth-century foundation legends” of St. Andrews in Scotland (pp. 4–5). Using comparisons with the Continental pattern of linked devotion to Peter and Andrew, as also exemplified in Britain at Canterbury and Rochester, York and Hexham, he argues that this was replicated by the eighth century at Rosemarkie and Cennrígmonaid (St. Andrews) in Scotland (pp. 15–17).

Thomas Owen Clancy (pp. 18–41), who discusses the meagre evidence for the cults of Saints Patrick and Palladius in Scotland, concludes that the cult of Palladius was present in the Scottish Mearns at an early date, and that the impetus for it came from Ireland (p. 25). In relation to Patrick’s cult, Clancy’s focus is on the Dumbarton area, the foundation of nearby Kilpatrick, and the subsequent diffusion of the saint’s cult, which he dates to before 870, when Ail Chluaide (Dumbarton Rock) was sacked by Vikings (p. 27–29). Clancy adds a valuable set of appendices on the traditions of both saints, and on Kilpatrick in the thirteenth century, accompanied by a map showing dedications to Patrick in the kingdom of Strathclyde (pp. 33–41).

Fiona Edmonds (pp. 42–65) traces the influence of the cult of St. Patrick on personal names in eleventh-century Strathclyde and Northumbria. She sees the adoption of the name Gos (Welsh gwas) Patric (devotee of Patrick) by members of the Bamburgh dynasty in Northumbria as a result of interaction with the kingdom of Strathclyde, where, as is also shown by Clancy, Patrick’s cult was strong (pp. 51–54). The strength of Patrick’s cult is set out in detail, with attention also being drawn to its popularity among the Scandinavian settlers (p. 59). In an appendix to her paper (pp. 63–65), Edwards adds a useful list of name-forms, mainly of the Gospatric type.

The paper on “Kentigern among the Britons” by John Reuben Davies (pp. 66–90) raises a number of important points concerning the influence of later hagiographies on our understanding of the “Age of Saints” in Britain and elsewhere. Early evidence for Kentigern’s cult is slight, amounting to little or nothing in Brittany, to a bare mention in the Welsh Annales Cambriae, and to little more in north Britain, until Jocelin’s Life was composed toward the end of the twelfth century. The Life was composed, according to Davies, with a view to supporting Glasgow’s case for independence from York; Glasgow’s rise to prominence is also dated to about this time, and the dedications to the saint in Cumberland and Wales are also seen as likely products of the same period. The evidence of Kentigern’s cult leads Davies to the conclusion that our view of the “Age of Saints” has been extensively conditioned by twelfth-century hagiography (p. 90).

Karen Jankulak (pp. 91–118) addresses the evidence for adjacent saints’ dedications in Wales, Cornwall, and Brittany and the influence of this common-enough phenomenon on our perception of early Celtic history. Having discussed the juxtaposition of dedications to David and Non in these countries, she attributes some examples to literary influence (pp. 101–5). She also draws the important conclusion that recurrent adjacency could be just as malleable as other aspects of the veneration of the Celtic saints and could very often be the result of later reinterpretation of the earlier record (p...