Pilgrimage in deed, but perhaps not word: The Ailithrech as Servant of Rome.
| Where: | International Congress on Medieval Studies, Western Michigan University, Kalamazoo |
| When: | May 2011 |
As part of an ASIMS session (American Society of Irish Medieval Studies)
The ailithrech, probably inspired by the eremitical escapes of early Egyptian saints, was a stock character in early Irish Christianity. The Romanisation of the Irish church caused a shift in monastic practice, stressing communal life rather than that of the hermit. Yet ailithre continued. Just as the Roman church repurposed pagan deities, it also repurposed the eastern side of early Irish christianity by altering institutions such as ailithre. Henceforth the ailithrech was to be understood less as a hermit and more as a missionary. Irish holy men, who several generations previously would have made ailithre on a remote island, were now expected to make their (now Romanised) peregrinatio abroad to convert pagan lands, turning their backs on Ireland and offering up their missionary work for the love of God.
This paper examines the shifting meaning of the word ailithre from Old Irish right through to the modern Irish oilithre, questioning the conventional translation of the word as "journey to a foreign land" and examining the Latin index peregrinatio as it shadows the word right through to the modern day.
posted by sacsanua @ 3:01 PM
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