A Communion of the Created: Beasts, Books, and Saints in early Medieval Irish *vitae*.

This paper addresses the roles of human and non-human animals in the religious narratives of early medieval Ireland. Texts are drawn from the *Acta Sanctorum Hiberniae* with an emphasis on those found in the *Codex Salmanticensis*.  Selected narratives betray a construction of both human and non-human animals as together occupying the community of the Created—the Incarnated--- with the Divine functioning as the powerful Other. The problematic categorizations of “domestic”, “wild”, and “fabulous” animals will also be explored leading to a discussion on the role of traditionally “wild” animals in conjunction with sacred texts and non-human animals as participants in the cosmological transformations of early medieval Ireland. The paper concludes with a comparison of the manner in which human and non-human animals are conceived in the narratives of St. Francis versus the early Irish saints, particularly in the concept of their relationship and access to the Divine Other.   

The corpus of Irish hagiographical texts is large and varied, both in time and language, for texts were produced in two languages--Latin and Irish” and the bulk range in date from the seventh to the twelfth centuries with the earlier in Latin and a marked move to the vernacular in the ninth century.  The narratives betray a mixture of influences--biblical, classical Greek biographies, Christian exempla, native heroic saga tradition; there is an extensive scholarly discussion debating the extent of the various influences.  No doubt the pre-Christian Celts had sacred narratives, but as their culture did not place an emphasis on writing, they had no sacred written text; much of the work of an entire class people--the druids--centered around memorizing vast amounts of traditional material transmitted orally.  Therefore, the concept of written sacred texts, for this culture, was of specifically Christian origin.  The sacred texts mentioned in the saint’s lives would have been, in all probability, scriptural or liturgical.

The cosmology of the Celtic pre-Christian world is complex but can basically be described as animistic. The Celts believed that all aspects of the natural world contained spirits, divine entities with which humans could establish a rapport:  non-human animals themselves thus possessed sanctity and symbolism. Animals were acknowledged as being both like and unlike human beings and this continuity/discontinuity both connected animals to the world of humans and made them a fundamental part of that other, non-human world. 

Animals played an important part in Pre-Christian Celtic organized religious cults and worship rituals. One example of continuity from pre-Christian traditions carried over into the composition of the Lives of the saints is the privileging of cows with red and white coloration—an indication of “otherworldly origins in pre-Christian Celtic society.  For example, “the appearance of five cows ‘albas auribus rubicundes’ [white with red ears] marked the beginning of Saint Molina’s monastery at Ross Bualeadh. (4VSH 2.215) The infant Brigit is saved from starvation by a white cow with red ears (Bethu Brigte)

 The concept of animals having supernatural knowledge with particular reference to the location of the holy--in this case, God’s chosen place for a monastic site--is a recurring theme in the hagiography of Early Christian Ireland.   Numerous accounts narrate deer, boar, stags and even a sow revealing the divinely appointed location to the saintly searcher. It is salient to note that communication from the Divine is not moving through human animals to non-human animals in these accounts. Often communication from the Divine in Irish texts travels in the opposite direction—as a privileged communication from the Divine meant for human animals but communicated through non-human animals.

Given the importance of bodies of water in Irish cosmology, it is perhaps not surprising that early Christian Irish saints had a remarkable affinity for water mammals. The otter, particularly seemed to understand its role as specifically that of “fishmonger of the saints. St. Kevin was regularly supplied with fish by a friendly otters who also performs a service for him in conjunction with a sacred text.  “One day while the saint was reciting his hours he dropped his psalter into the lake.  Afterwards an otter came to Kevin bringing the psalter with him from the bottom of the lake, and not a line or letter was blotted (literally drowned)’”   Services offered the saints by freshwater otters are partnered by saltwater seals.  Saint Mochua of Balla,  irritated with fishermen who had refused him fish, replied  “If there were a servant of God below, he would bring us somewhat.’  Whereupon a seal cast on the shore four salmon for the saint and his companions.” A seal returned Saint Cuthburt’s book after he had dropped it in the water and Saint Patrick is said to have celebrated Holy Mass while standing on sealskin.        

Thus one can tease out a connection between certain animals and sacred texts but this connection stops short of conflation.   Animals may rescue texts, hold texts, carry texts, be stood on while celebrating the mass i.e. reading texts but the Lives do not speak of animals becoming texts--despite the physical reality that the texts are written on parchment. The animal--sacred text motif within the Lives of the Early Irish Saints falls within the confluence of, on the one hand, a specific holy object and, on the other hand a highly selective strata within the animal kingdom. This strata lies within a categorization which eludes the binary of the domestic animal as symbol of civilization/culture and the wild animal as representing bestial chaos.

These patterns in early medieval Irish literature stand in contrast to the later configurations of St. Francis with regard to the triangular relationship of the Created—human animals and non-human animals to the Creator.  For the most part, Francis’ interactions with nonhuman animals focus on teaching or helping those animals. The early medieval Irish texts tend to focus on nonhuman animals helping human animals with often an implication that the Divine had been in communication with nonhuman animals to promote assistance to the human animals (lost sacred texts) or to serve as a conduit for the Divine in communication with the human half of the communion of the created.