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

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dc.contributor.authorÓ Carragáin, Tomás
dc.date.accessioned2026-02-12T16:00:01Z
dc.date.available2026-02-12T16:00:01Z
dc.date.issued2003
dc.description.abstractMost 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.en
dc.description.versionPublished Version
dc.format.mimetypeapplication/pdfen
dc.identifier.authororcidÓ Carragáin, Tomás §0000-0001-7227-4287
dc.identifier.citationÓ Carragáin, T 2003, 'The architectural setting of the cult of relics in early medieval Ireland', Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland, vol. 133, pp. 130-176.
dc.identifier.endpage176
dc.identifier.issn0035-9106
dc.identifier.journaltitleJournal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland
dc.identifier.otherORCID: /0000-0001-7227-4287/work/205576173
dc.identifier.startpage130
dc.identifier.urihttps://hdl.handle.net/10468/18521
dc.identifier.volume133
dc.language.isoen
dc.publisherRoyal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland
dc.relation.urihttps://www.jstor.org/journal/jroysocantirel
dc.relation.urihttps://www.jstor.org/stable/25509112?seq=1
dc.rights© 2003, the Author. Published by the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland. All rights reserved.
dc.rights.accessrightsopen access
dc.statusPeer reviewed
dc.subjectIreland
dc.subjectEcclesiastical sites
dc.subjectRelics
dc.subject[HumanEnvironment]
dc.titleThe architectural setting of the cult of relics in early medieval Irelanden
dc.typeArticle (peer-reviewed)
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