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This dissertation analyzes the representation of Irish saints in hagiographies written on the European continent between the eighth and tenth centuries. Its aim is to further the understanding of how non-Irish hagiographers conceptualized Irish peregrini pro Christo for their continental communities, which also adds to the larger discussion of how Irish influence was perceived on the early medieval continent. It is a close analysis of twenty-one saints’ Lives written about eighteen saints who were portrayed as making the ascetic and lifelong exile known as peregrinatio pro Christo to different communities in western Europe in the Carolingian and the immediate post-Carolingian periods.
In each chapter, I investigate specific traits used to promote the holiness of these saints, and I scrutinize whether any of those traits can be designated as uniquely “Irish”. By distinguishing what was characterized as “Irish” in certain saints’ Lives, this project historicizes how the continent understood the Irish, and, subsequently, how they viewed the influence of the Irish on the continent. Chapter One explains how the saints’ Irish origin was portrayed, and therefore how much the hagiographers knew about Ireland. Chapter Two outlines the patterns through which the hagiographers exemplified the peregrini pro Christo status of their saints, particularly the ascetic and almost otherworldly nature of such an exile. Chapter Three looks at how some saints were depicted as monachi and some as clerici, depending on what kind of community the saints created or integrated into on the continent and the audience for which the vita was written. Chapter Four surveys the scholarly attributes of the saints, considering that the Lives were written at the time when prestigious Irish scholars were living, working, and teaching in continental monastic centers. Chapter Five concerns the interactions and status each saint had with external authority figures beyond their communities: popes, bishops, nobles, and kings. Each continental hagiographer in this corpus developed a Life to exemplify an Irishman’s sanctity, and this analysis argues that there is significance to the patterns the writers used.