Neil Xavier O'Donoghue. The Eucharist in Pre-Norman Ireland.

Abstract

F. E. Warren's monumental The Liturgy and Ritual of the Celtic Church, first published in 1881, is a landmark of scholarship that has yet to be superseded—something clearly recognized by Neil Xavier O'Donoghue when he had Warren's work reprinted in 2010. Much work has been done, however, and many important insights have been gained, in the generations that have passed since Warren wrote. O'Donoghue has sought to bring these developments together in a single volume, in order that it may be “possible to appreciate the Eucharist in pre-Norman Ireland in a fresh light based on modern scholarship” (p. 199). The main body of the book comprises three chapters. “Historical Background” traces the history of Irish Christianity from the conversion period down to the sweeping political and ecclesiastical changes of the twelfth century, as well as the evolution of the liturgy of the Eucharist in the church as a whole, with particular attention to usages in the early Middle Ages. “Written Sources,” by a significant margin the longest chapter of the three, considers not only the relatively meager but crucially important liturgical documents that have reached us from early Ireland but also some of the evidence afforded by such sources as penitentials, saints' lives, homilies, poems, and a range of other texts. The third chapter deals with “Archaeological and Iconographic Sources,” including such material questions as the sources of sacramental wine and bread.