The architectural setting of the cult of relics in early medieval Ireland

Ó Carragáin, Tomás

The architectural setting of the cult of relics in early medieval Ireland

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_Carrag_in_T_2003_Architectural_Setting_of_the_Cult_of_Relics_JRSAI_133.pdf(6.27 MB)

Published Version

Date

2003

Authors

Ó Carragáin, Tomás

Abstract

Most early ecclesiastical sites in Ireland were characterised by a separation between the main congregational church and the principal reliquary focus. It is argued that this reflects the fact that they were often initially founded as ecclesiastical settlements, and that cemeteries were usually a secondary development. Translation only occurred at a minority of sites, but even then the separation between liturgical space and reliquary space was usually maintained by placing corporeal relics in outdoor stone shrines or in metal reliquaries housed in diminutive shrine chapels built over the original gravesite. In this regard, Irish clerics of the eighth and ninth centuries seem to have imitated Early Christian memoriae, perhaps especially the aedicule in Jerusalem, rather than contemporary relic-cults in Francia or England. It is suggested that they had indigenous reasons for doing this including the particularly close link in Ireland between the development of the cult of relics and the concept of the Christian cemetery.

Keywords

Ireland , Ecclesiastical sites , Relics , [HumanEnvironment]

Citation

Ó Carragáin, T. (2003) 'The architectural setting of the cult of relics in early medieval Ireland', Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland, 133, pp. 130-176. Available at: https://www.jstor.org/stable/25509112?seq=1 (Accessed: 16 February 2026)