The Cult of Relics in Early Medieval Ireland, by Niamh Wycherley

Abstract

Niamh Wycherley’s monograph study assesses the evidence for the cult of relics in early medieval Ireland by examining literary sources, linguistics and archaeological finds from approximately the fifth to ninth centuries. The majority of the sources and consequently most emphasis relates to developments in the seventh- and eighth-century Church, a famously dynamic period in Irish history. In the book’s six chapters, she briefly sketches the history of relic culture in the world of Late Antiquity (ch. 1), outlines the origins of the cult of relics in Ireland (ch. 2), discusses the importance of translatio (translations) in relic culture (ch. 3), the role of relics in church consecrations (ch. 4), the varied uses of relics (ch. 5) and the link between relics and identity which had implications for power and control in early medieval Ireland (ch. 6). She endeavours to associate relic culture in Ireland with broader trends in European Christianity; the presentation of the material, including associating early medieval practices with ‘relic’ cultures of different types in the modern world, lends accessibility to the work.