Reviewed by: St Samson of Dol and the Earliest History of Brittany, Cornwall and Wales ed. by Lynette Olson Stephen Joyce Olson, Lynette, ed., St Samson of Dol and the Earliest History of Brittany, Cornwall and Wales (Studies in Celtic History, 37), Woodbridge, Boydell Press, 2017; hardback; pp. vii, 219; 1 b/w map; R.R.P. £60.00; ISBN 9781783272181. Editor Lynette Olson has collated eight articles based on a colloquium held in 2013 in Sydney on the potentially earliest surviving insular life, that of the significant British monastic and episcopal figure, St Samson of Dol. The Vita Prima Samsonis, dated variously from c. 600 to c. 850 in a Breton context, narrates the life of Samson (d. c. 565), active in Britain, Ireland, and Gaul in the sixth century. The articles, from a range of impressive contributors, investigate questions of dating, ascetic networks, literary contexts, peregrinatio, and commemoration. In a useful introduction, Olson lays out the issues encountered when approaching the Vita Prima Samsonis (VIS). Setting out its unique geographic and chronological landscapes, and the problems marrying them with a satisfactory date of composition, Olson points to the need for contextualizing the work. She raises important questions that are subsequently dealt with by the other contributors. Richard Sowerby tackles the unusual emphasis on Samson's genealogy in the VIS. In examining the narratives stressing Samson's active involvement in extending family control over monastic houses, Sowerby proposes the VIS as an exemplar for spiritual against covetous family networks. In doing so, he advocates that the VIS is based on an earlier original composed in late sixth- or early seventh-century Cornwall, countering detractors of Samson's aristocratic family as it moved from the secular to the religious life. Joseph-Claude Poulin follows up on Sowerby's use of family networks to attempt a dating of the VIS in its current form. His article, in French with an introduction in English, identifies two distinct perspectives in the text. This, combined with an analysis of formal borrowings, leads Poulin to conclude that the VIS was written toward the end of the eighth century in Brittany, but was based on an older version. The theme of formal borrowing is taken up by Caroline Betts in the next chapter. In it, she examines the notable narrative similarities between the VIS and the Gallican life of Bishop Paternus of Avranches (d. c. 564), a neighbouring contemporary of Samson. The Vita Paterni was written by Venantius Fortunatus(d. c. 600) in the last decades of the sixth century. She concludes that the borrowings from the Vita Paterni are integral to the VIS, and must belong to the older lost version in the context of some form of territorial contestation. Subsequently, Ian Wood examines Samson as representative of a British form of peregrinatio, one that precedes the more well-known Irish model as represented by Columbanus (d. c. 615). He argues that Columbanus followed an established British tradition, but that this was subsequently overshadowed by a reading that privileged the Irish. This notion of privileging the Irish is touched upon by Constant Mews in his chapter comparing the literary and liturgical settings of the VIS with a defence of Gallican and Irish liturgical traditions known as the Ratio de cursus, perhaps [End Page 190] written by a devotee of Columbanus in North Italy. Mews notes that while the VIS records the beginnings of a British mission to Europe without acknowledging the British apostle to Ireland, Patrick, the Ratio celebrates an Irish-inspired monastic network in Europe that includes Patrick, inferring distinct contexts in the seventh and eighth centuries respectively. Jonathan Wooding follows up with an examination of the VIS as witness to monasticism. Noting that the main concerns of the VIS are monastic rather than episcopal, he tracks the narrative that reflects Samson as distant from the monastic communities he lived in and as a reluctant abbot, a narrative that propels Samson into the requisite role of pastoral leadership. Wooding argues that the ascetic progression from monastic communities to the solitary life is integral to becoming both a bishop and a peregrinus in the VIS. Finally, Karen Jankulak examines the lack of a cult dedicated...
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Jan 14, 2018
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