Women in a Celtic Church
Subtitle: Ireland 450 - 1150
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
Published: May 24, 2002
Language: eng
Number of pages: 340
ISBN-13: 9780198208235
First sentence: Sometime in the latter half of the fifth century, a British missionary living in pagan Ireland wrote in a letter which survives to this day, 'The sons and daughters of the Irish kings are giving themselves to be monks and virgins of Christ-I cannot count their numbers.
Description: "A history of women in the early Irish church has never before been written, despite perennial interest in the early Christianity of Celtic areas, and indeed the increasing interest in gender and spirituality generally. This book covers the development of women's religious professions in the primitive church in St. Patrick's era and the development of large women's monasteries such as Kildare, Clonbroney, Cloonburren, and Killeedy. It traces its subject through the heyday of the seventh century, through the Viking era, and the Culdee reforms, to the era of the Europeanization of the twelfth century. The place of women and their establishments is considered against the wider Irish background and compared with female religiosity elsewhere in early medieval Europe. The author demonstrates that while Ireland was distinct it was still very much part of the wider world of Western Christendom, and it must be appreciated as such."--Jacket.