Máire
Johnson s. xx–xxi
Contributions to journals
The medieval Lives of Ireland’s saints constitute one of the island’s largest bodies of evidence from the Middle Ages. These texts draw upon many sources for their textual inspiration, using models from the Bible, numerous apocryphal works, and from vernacular saga and romance to construct the image of the holy men and women they commemorate. In Ireland, these textual models often focus upon the Prophet Elijah and, by extension, his associate Elisha, a focus that has not previously been studied. These Elijan parallels not only reveal elements of the Irish hagiographers’ views of how to construct holiness, but also suggest the hagiographers’ arguments for the early Church as Ireland’s sole unifying spiritual and political force.
The medieval Lives of Ireland’s saints constitute one of the island’s largest bodies of evidence from the Middle Ages. These texts draw upon many sources for their textual inspiration, using models from the Bible, numerous apocryphal works, and from vernacular saga and romance to construct the image of the holy men and women they commemorate. In Ireland, these textual models often focus upon the Prophet Elijah and, by extension, his associate Elisha, a focus that has not previously been studied. These Elijan parallels not only reveal elements of the Irish hagiographers’ views of how to construct holiness, but also suggest the hagiographers’ arguments for the early Church as Ireland’s sole unifying spiritual and political force.