Saints’ Lives in Seventh Century France and Ireland

Abstract: Lives of saints appear in Ireland in the seventh century without native literary antecedents. Instead, the literary model derived from continental hagiographical traditions, specifically Frankish hagiography through the Irish monastic foundation at Péronne, which was closely associated with Louth and Armagh as a sort of paruchia connected to St. Fursey. After the end of the Roman Empire and the rise of the new Frankish kingdoms, the function of saints’ Lives in Francia had changed as social, political, literary, and religious contexts changed. Irish Lives likewise addressed the needs of Irish society in the midst of the Paschal Controversy and disputes over ecclesiastical authority, but the Irish Lives are distinct from the continental ones. While the continental Lives treat recently dead saints, the Irish Lives go back centuries, to the foundation of Armagh and Kildare. The reason for this key distinction is that in the midst of Ireland’s rapidly changing political, social, and religious contexts, the sanctity and power of the founder-saints served as a source of authority in the seventh century.