Music, Liturgy, and the Veneration of Saints of the Medieval Irish Church in a European Context ed. by Ann Buckley (review)

The notion of Ireland as a land of saints has always generated its devotees. Such has been the vigour of enthusiasm for Ireland as having a multitude of saints and as pursuing its own Celtic identity, imagined as at odds with Romanizing orthodoxy, that a good deal of romantic extravagance has been invested in notions of a Celtic Church and a spirituality that is different from Rome's. This volume sets out to counter such notions, by emphasizing the European framework in which the Irish saints have been venerated. From the outset, it must be said that it provides an authoritative synthesis on a subject that has been too little studied from a European perspective. Ireland suffered what some have called 'cultural genocide' in the late sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, resulting in the near extinction within the country of manuscripts copied between the early and late medieval periods. As a consequence, our knowledge of its liturgical culture is fragmentary in the extreme, and often dependent on a few surviving manuscripts preserved outside of the country. Buckley has gathered together an impressive group of scholars who all seek to place veneration of Irish saints within a European context. A common theme is criticism of the notion of an autonomous Celtic liturgy as a romantic enthusiasm and, in its place, emphasis on the Gallican traditions from which it derives.

The dominant focus in this volume is on the way liturgy articulates local identity, most often studied through the offices of individual saints, but within a larger ecclesial framework. There are a few general essays, notably the introduction by Buckley and an overview of early Irish chant by the late Michel Huglo, as well as a closing overview by Liam Tracey, 'Celtic Mists: The Search for a Celtic Rite'. Nils Holger Petersen offers a stimulating reflection on the role of liturgy preserving cultural memory by considering how Irish saints were remembered in a Norwegian context. Perhaps a surprising omission (apart from a brief mention by Buckley in her introduction) is discussion of the eighth-century Ratio de curs<ib>us, which documents and defends distinctions between the cursus scottorum and the cursus gallicorum, formulated just as the Roman liturgy was being imposed across many continental abbeys which proudly remembered their Irish founders. While there can be little doubt, as Huglo and others show, that the melodies preserved in Offices for Irish saints may derive from ancient Gallican chants, the question remains whether foundations claiming an Irish legacy considered themselves to preserve a distinct liturgical tradition. One theme that comes out from Buckley's excellent paper 'From Hymn to Historia', as well as from other contributions, is the magnitude of the transformation brought about within liturgical practice in the twelfth century. Only from this date do we find a full blown liturgical Office for a saint emerging on the continental pattern. There are a large number of specialist studies in this volume about saints whose Irish origins rest on legend rather than firm documentation: Bernhard Hanngartner on St Fintan of Rheinau, Pieter Mannaerts on St Dympna of Gheel, Patrick Brannon on St Canice at Kilkenny Cathedral, Ciaran O'Driscoll and Patricia Rumsey on St Brendan, and Senan Furlong on St Patrick. Each of these has much to offer, both from a musicological and liturgical perspective.

The title of the volume may disguise the fact that it also contains some fascinating contributions relating to Scotland and Wales. Thus, Betty Knott writes about the Office for St Kentigern in Glasgow, while Greta-Mary Hair offers important political context to understand why St Andrew rather than St Columba became patron saint of Scotland—the simple reason is that St Andrew, brother of St Peter, was perceived by the Scottish kings as a more worthy apostolic authority...