Alexander O'Hara | Harvard University (original) (raw)

Videos by Alexander O'Hara

St Columba's life and memory, as recorded and perpetuated by his monastic familia, consciously pl... more St Columba's life and memory, as recorded and perpetuated by his monastic familia, consciously placed him in the tradition of a number of prominent late antique saints. This lecture will consider the saints his community drew upon to craft St Columba's image with a particular focus on the enduring interest his community evinced in the Egyptian Desert Fathers, St Antony of Egypt and St Paul of Thebes. This presentation will show how these monastic pioneers were a crucial component of the Columban familia's cultural memory by examining key pieces of literature and art produced by his community from the seventh to the eleventh centuries.

3 views

The Book of Kells (Trinity College Dublin MS 58) contains the four Gospels in Latin based on the ... more The Book of Kells (Trinity College Dublin MS 58) contains the four Gospels in Latin based on the Vulgate text (St Jerome, 384AD), intermixed with readings from the earlier Old Latin translation. The date and place of origin of the Book of Kells have attracted a great deal of scholarly interest. This lecture will give an introduction to the Book of Kells - The Great Gospel of Colmcille – discuss its provenance, composition and iconography. In addition a detailed theological reading of one or more of the fully illustrated pages will be presented.

3 views

Adomnan’s Life of Columba famously described St Columba as a ‘Pilgrim for Christ’. This was certa... more Adomnan’s Life of Columba famously described St Columba as a ‘Pilgrim for Christ’. This was certainly the identity that the Iona community attributed to him after his death but were there any traces of this identity in Columba himself as an exile from Ireland? This paper explores this question in the earliest sources and the identity of Columba as a peregrinus pro Christo. This identity is clarified in the context of Scriptural tradition that Columba was steeped in. The Word of God contains not just meta-narratives but existential categories of displacement and the formation of identity. These themes emerge first in the Old Testament with the people of Israel called out into the desert and led to the promised land. It is also seen in the spirituality of the psalms that are often marked by a process of orientation leading to disorientation and that finally leads to re-orientation on the part of the person or community of faith.

1 views

The first lecture in the series Columcille in Context: Theologians and Historians in Conversation... more The first lecture in the series Columcille in Context: Theologians and Historians in Conversation to Commemorate the 15th Centenary of the Birth of Saint Columba of Iona (521/ 2021) organised by Dr Alexander O'Hara, Loyola Institute, Trinity College Dublin. The first lecture was delivered by Professor Thomas O’Loughlin, Professor Emeritus of Historical Theology, University of Nottingham on 9th June 2021.

The feast-day, dies natalis, of any saint is a central element of the cult. How, once it has been established, does the cycle of community commemoration contribute to the reputation for holiness, and form a basis for the growth of the hagiographical dossier in calendar, martyrology, and vita?

99 views

The second lecture in the Columcille lecture series organised by Alexander O'Hara at the Loyola I... more The second lecture in the Columcille lecture series organised by Alexander O'Hara at the Loyola Institute, Trinity College Dublin on 29th June 2021 given by Professor Jonathan Wooding
Honorary Professor, Medieval and Early Modern Centre, University of Sydney. The early Irish motif of peregrinatio (self-exile as an expression of monastic vocation) is best known from studies of St Columbanus (d. 615) and those who followed in his path to the Continent. His older contemporary and namesake Columcille (St Columba of Iona, d. 597), was also a peregrinus. Assessments of the peregrinationes of Columcille and his monastic familia, however, are complicated by a local historiography that at times struggles to dissect different causes of monastic travel and settlement. This presentation will examine a number of instances of peregrinatio in the western Scottish and Atlantic islands, from the sixth century, the time of Columcille himself, through to the ninth century.

176 views

The seventh and final Columcille lecture delivered by J.-Michel Reaux Colvin, Modern & Classical ... more The seventh and final Columcille lecture delivered by J.-Michel Reaux Colvin, Modern & Classical Languages & Literatures Department, The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga on 14th December 2021. Series organiser, Dr Alexander O'Hara, Fulbright Fellow and Visiting Scholar, Department of Celtic, Harvard University. While Bede spends much of his Historia ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum [HEGA] concerned with matters of Britain’s neighbors to the west, the only Irish author he mentions by name is Adamnán of Iona, a kinsman and abbatial successor of St Columba. Bede was intimately familiar with members of the monastic familia of Columba, who appears in the latter’s HEGA, first heroically in iii.4 and later rhetorically in iii.25. This lectur focuses on Adamnán’s De locis sanctis and Bede’s reworking of these materials in HEGA, v.15-17. Bede’s reception of Adamnán’s work illuminates much about his thinking about Iona’s social network, specifically, and Ireland and its people, more generally

191 views

Books by Alexander O'Hara

St Sunniva: Irish Queen, Norwegian Patron Saint , 2021

Flyer and book order details for St Sunniva book.

Alvheim og Eide Akademisk Forlag, 2021

Collected volume exploring the medieval cult of the Irish saint Sunniva, patron of Bergen and Wes... more Collected volume exploring the medieval cult of the Irish saint Sunniva, patron of Bergen and Western Norway whose relics were translated from the island of Selja to Bergen in September 1170. These essays explore the development of the medieval cult up to the present day. The twelve chapters take a closer look at Sunniva's role in society, politics, literature, liturgy and art, and simultaneously investigate why people today have found renewed interest in this female saint, and in the modern resurgence of pilgrimage routes and destinations along the western coast of Norway.

Jonas of Bobbio, writing in the mid seventh century, was not only a major Latin monastic author, ... more Jonas of Bobbio, writing in the mid seventh century, was not only a major Latin monastic author, but also an historical figure in his own right. Born in the ancient Roman town of Susa in the foothills of the Italian Alps, he became a monk of Bobbio, the monastery founded by the Irish exile Columbanus, soon after his death in 615. He became the archivist and personal assistant to successive Bobbio abbots, travelled to Rome to obtain the first papal privilege of immunity, and served as a missionary priest on the northern borderlands of the Frankish kingdom. He spent the rest of his life in Merovingian Gaul as abbot of the double monastic community of Marchiennes-Hamage, where he wrote his Life of Columbanus, one of the most influential works of early medieval hagiography.

This book, the first major study devoted to Jonas of Bobbio, his corpus of three saints' Lives, and the Columbanian familia, explores the development of the Columbanian monastic network and its relationship to its founder. The Life of Columbanus was written following a period of crisis within the Columbanian familia and it was in response to this crisis that the Bobbio community in Lombard Italy commissioned Jonas to write the work. Alexander O'Hara presents the Life of Columbanus as a subtle and clever critique of the changes and crises that had taken place in the monastic communities since Columbanus's death. It also considers the life of Jonas as reflecting many of the changing political, cultural, and religious circumstances of the seventh century, and his writings as instrumental in shaping new concepts of sanctity and community. The result of the study is a unique perspective on the early medieval Age of Saints and the monastic and political worlds of Merovingian Gaul and Lombard Italy in the seventh century.

Table of Contents

Introduction: Reading Jonas
1. Conflicting Visions of Community: The Legacy of Columbanus
2. New Rules: The Agrestius Affair and the Regula Benedicti
3. An Italian Monk in Merovingian Gaul
4. Stilo texere gesta: Jonas the Hagiographer
5. Jonas and Biblical Stylization
6. The Miracle Accounts
7. Sanctity and Community
Epilogue
Appendices
Distribution of Biblical quotations and allusions in Jonas's hagiography
The Use of the Bible in the Vita Vedastis
The Use of the Bible in the Vita Iohannis
The Use of the Bible in the Vita Columbani
Miracle Accounts in the Vita Columbani
Miracle Accounts in Adomnán's Vita Columbae
Miracle Accounts in Book II of Gregory the Great's Dialogues
Miracle Accounts in the Vita Vedastis
Miracle Accounts in Vita Iohannis
Miracles in Muirchú's Vita Patricii
The Manuscripts of the Vita Columbani
Graphs of Miracle Accounts in Vita Columbani
Bibliography

The period 550 to 750 was one in which monastic culture became more firmly entrenched in Western ... more The period 550 to 750 was one in which monastic culture became more firmly entrenched in Western Europe. The role of monasteries and their relationship to the social world around them was transformed during this period as monastic institutions became more integrated in social and political power networks. This collected volume of essays focuses on one of the central figures in this process, the Irish ascetic exile and monastic founder, Columbanus (c. 550-615), his travels on the Continent, and the monastic network he and his Frankish disciples established in Merovingian Gaul and Lombard Italy.

The post-Roman kingdoms through which Columbanus travelled and established his monastic foundations were made up of many different communities of peoples. As an outsider and immigrant, how did Columbanus and his communities interact with these peoples? How did they negotiate differences and what emerged from these encounters? How societies interact with outsiders can reveal the inner workings and social norms of that culture. This volume aims to explore further the strands of this vibrant contact and to consider all of the geographical spheres in which Columbanus and his monastic communities operated (Ireland, Merovingian Gaul, Alamannia, Lombard Italy) and the varieties of communities he and his successors came in contact with — whether they were royal, ecclesiastic, aristocratic, or grass-roots.

Table of Contents

Preface
List of Abbreviations
Maps
Contributors
Foreword Walter Pohl
Part I: Columbanus in Context
Chapter 1: Introduction: Columbanus and Europe Alexander O'Hara
Chapter 2: Columbanus and the Language of Concord Damian Bracken
Part II: The Insular Background
Chapter 3: The Political Background to Columbanus's Irish Career Dáibhí Ó Cróinín
Chapter 4: Movers and Shakers? How Women Shaped the Career of Columbanus Elva Johnston
Chapter 5: Columbanus's Ulster Education Alex Woolf
Part III: The Frankish World
Chapter 6: Columbanus in Brittany Ian Wood
Chapter 7: Columbanus and Shunning: The Irish peregrinus between Gildas, Gaul, and Gregory Clare Stancliffe
Chapter 8: Orthodoxy and Authority: Jonas, Eustasius, and the Agrestius Affair Andreas Fischer
Chapter 9: Columbanus and the Mission to the Bavarians and the Slavs in the Seventh Century Herwig Wolfram
Part IV: On the Fringe: Columbanus and Gallus in Alamannia
Chapter 10: Between the Devil and the deep Lake Constance: Jonas of Bobbio, interpretatio Christiana, and the Pagan Religion of the Alamanni Bernhard Maier
Chapter 11: Drinking with Woden: A Re-Examination of Jonas's Vita Columbani I. 27 Francesco Borri
Chapter 12: Between Metz and Überlingen: Columbanus and Gallus in Alamannia Yaniv Fox
Chapter 13: Quicumque sunt rebelles, foras exeant! Columbanus's Rebellious Disciple Gallus Philipp Dörler
Part V: Lombard Italy and Columbanus's Legacy
Chapter 14: Columbanus, Bobbio, and the Lombards Stefano Gasparri
Chapter 15: Disputing Columbanus's Heritage: The Regula cuiusdam patris (with a translation of the Rule) Albrecht Diem

Jonas of Bobbio was an Italian monk, author, and abbot active in Lombard Italy and Merovingian Ga... more Jonas of Bobbio was an Italian monk, author, and abbot active in Lombard Italy and Merovingian Gaul during the seventh century. He is best known as the author of the Life of Columbanus and His Disciples, one of the most important works of hagiography from the early medieval period, that charts the remarkable journey of the Irish exile and monastic founder, Columbanus (c.550-615), through Western Europe, as well as the monastic movement initiated by him and his Frankish successors in the Merovingian kingdoms. Jonas also wrote two other, occasional works set in the late fifth and sixth centuries: the Life of John, the abbot and founder of the monastery of Reome in Burgundy, and the Life of Vedast, the first bishop of Arras and a contemporary of Clovis. Both works provide perspectives on how the past Gallic monastic tradition, the role of bishops, and the Christianisation of the Franks were perceived in Jonas's time. Jonas's hagiography also provides important evidence for the reception of classical and late antique texts as well as the works of Gregory the Great and Gregory of Tours. This volume presents the first complete English translation of all of Jonas of Bobbio's saints' Lives with detailed notes and scholarly introduction that will be of value to all those interested in this period.

This is a compilation of the writings of the Irish saint and monastic founder Columbanus to mark ... more This is a compilation of the writings of the Irish saint and monastic founder Columbanus to mark the 14th centenary of his death in 2015. It is aimed at a non-specialist readership and as an introduction to Columbanus's life and thought. It includes a translation of the earliest poem on Ireland written by one of Columbanus's monks. With a foreword by Dr Mary McAleese, former President of Ireland.

Papers by Alexander O'Hara

Irish Historical Studies , 2023

This article highlights some of the historiographical trends over the past one hundred years in h... more This article highlights some of the historiographical trends over the past one hundred years in how the Irish diaspora in early medieval Europe has been studied. The role of the peregrini, the Irish monastic exiles who left Ireland for Britain and continental Europe from the sixth century onwards, has to some extent been marginal and tangential to the historiography of this island. Forms of modern ‘Irophobia’ in some scholarship have also led to an obfuscation of the early medieval religious and ethnic landscape by seeking to minimise Irish cultural influence. The article argues that by contextualising the phenomenon of Irish clerical exile in Europe within broader theological and comparative frameworks, further research in this field has the potential to clarify the influence of the Irish and to show how the experience of exile contributed to the formation of both Irish and European identities in the middle ages. Available as Open Access article here: https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/irish-historical-studies/article/lacuna-in-irish-historiography-the-irish-peregrini-from-eoin-macneill-to-the-cambridge-history-of-ireland-and-beyond/64FB943D14DBAB55C7E6A0F098D182B0

Leadership, Social Cohesion, and Identity in Late Antique Spain and Gaul (500-700), 2023

Saint Walbert: Le rayonnement du moine luxovien dans le royaume franc au VIIe siècle, 2017

Updated article in French on Jonas of Bobbio and contested legacy of Columbanus with full referen... more Updated article in French on Jonas of Bobbio and contested legacy of Columbanus with full references.

St Sunniva: Irish Queen, Norwegian Patron Saint , 2021

Introduction and translation of the twelfth-century liturgical text Acta sanctorum in Selio conce... more Introduction and translation of the twelfth-century liturgical text Acta sanctorum in Selio concerning the Selja saints and St Sunniva.

St Sunniva: Irish Queen, Norwegian Patron Saint, 2021

This chapter presents new evidence for the authorship of the earliest Norwegian hagiography from ... more This chapter presents new evidence for the authorship of the earliest Norwegian hagiography from the twelfth century, the Passio Olavi and the Acta sanctorum in Selio concerning Saint Sunniva and the Selja saints. It proposes that the English Cistercian abbot, Ranulf of Lysa, the first abbot of the Cistercian community at Lysa, south of Bergen, may have been the author of both Latin works. It explores the background and context to the development of the cult of Saint Sunniva.

Jonas of Bobbio and the Legacy of Columbanus, 2018

Introduction and Table of Contents to my book on Jonas of Bobbio and the Legacy of Columbanus: Sa... more Introduction and Table of Contents to my book on Jonas of Bobbio and the Legacy of Columbanus: Sanctity and Community in the Seventh Century, Oxford University Press 2018.

Colomban et son influence: Moines et monastères du haut Moyen Âge en Europe, 2018

Argues that the monastic rule for nuns known as the Regula cuiusdam ad virgines previously ascrib... more Argues that the monastic rule for nuns known as the Regula cuiusdam ad virgines previously ascribed to the third abbot of Luxeuil, Waldebert, but now ascribed as the work of Jonas of Bobbio, was written for the double monastery of Marchiennes-Hamage in northern France where Jonas was abbot from c.640 on. Published in the collected volume, Colomban et son influence: Moines et monastères du haut Moyen Âge en Europe (Rennes: Presses Universities de Rennes, 2018), pp. 287-93.

3 views

1 views

99 views

176 views

191 views

St Sunniva: Irish Queen, Norwegian Patron Saint , 2021

Flyer and book order details for St Sunniva book.

Alvheim og Eide Akademisk Forlag, 2021

Table of Contents

Irish Historical Studies , 2023

Leadership, Social Cohesion, and Identity in Late Antique Spain and Gaul (500-700), 2023

Saint Walbert: Le rayonnement du moine luxovien dans le royaume franc au VIIe siècle, 2017

St Sunniva: Irish Queen, Norwegian Patron Saint , 2021

St Sunniva: Irish Queen, Norwegian Patron Saint, 2021

Jonas of Bobbio and the Legacy of Columbanus, 2018

Colomban et son influence: Moines et monastères du haut Moyen Âge en Europe, 2018

Introduction and overview of Columbanus and Peoples of Post-Roman Europe, ed. Alexander O'Hara (O... more Introduction and overview of Columbanus and Peoples of Post-Roman Europe, ed. Alexander O'Hara (Oxford University Press, 2018), pp. 3-17.

Treasures of Irish Christianity Volume III: To The Ends of the Earth, ed. Salvador Ryan, Dublin: Veritas, 2015

Short essay on earliest poem about Ireland from the seventh century.

Death and the Irish: A Miscellany, ed. Salvador Ryan, Dublin: Wordwell, 2017

Short article on the cult of St Sunniva in Norway in relation to traditions of hagiographical wri... more Short article on the cult of St Sunniva in Norway in relation to traditions of hagiographical writing about Irish saints.

Columbanus established a number of important monasteries in Merovingian Gaul, Alamannia, and Lomb... more Columbanus established a number of important monasteries in Merovingian Gaul, Alamannia, and Lombard Italy between AD 591 and his death in AD 615: Annegray, Luxeuil, Fontaine, Bregenz, and Bobbio. But what were the factors that lay behind his choice of these sites? Did he play an active role in the foundation process or was he at the whim of his royal patrons, who gave him these lands on which to establish his monasteries? This article proposes that a more complex and dynamic process underlay the choice of these sites, whereby Columbanus and his royal patrons acted in concert to appropriate ancient healing cult sites within a Christian pastoral framework. The commonalities shared by these sites at Annegray, Luxeuil, Fontaine, Bregenz, and Bobbio reveal a pastoral element to Columbanus’ establishment of his monasteries. This has important implications for how these sites are interpreted and for understanding Columbanus’ role as a peregrinus and monastic founder on the continent.

In 1012 an Irish pilgrim following the overland pilgrimage route to Jerusalem was murdered by the... more In 1012 an Irish pilgrim following the overland pilgrimage route to Jerusalem was murdered by the inhabitants of Stockerau near Vienna on the false suspicion that he was a Czech spy. Following his death, miracles began to occur and he came to be venerated as a saint by the local people. In 1015 renown of this new saint came to the attention of the ruler of this frontier region of the Eastern March of Bavaria, the Babenberg margrave, Henry I. The margrave appropriated the incorrupt body of the martyr and took it to his stronghold at Melk. The spiritual power of the new saint was a valuable asset for Henry, a marcher lord in the process of consolidating his power base in this volatile, frontier region. This article considers the role of the cult of St. Coloman in affirming Babenberg power and authority and in the process helping to shape a new identity for the region that would become Austria. It presents a new edition and English translation of the Passio et Miracula S. Cholomanni, a composite work of Benedictine hagiography from the eleventh and twelfth centuries and the principal source for the cult of St. Coloman.

A brief notice of new manuscripts containing the works of Columbanus and Jonas of Bobbio in the l... more A brief notice of new manuscripts containing the works of Columbanus and Jonas of Bobbio in the libraries of Stift Klosterneuburg and Staatsbibliothek Berlin

Viator, 2013

"The Miracula Sancti Columbani offers a unique monastic perspective on monastic/aristocratic con... more "The Miracula Sancti Columbani offers a unique monastic perspective on monastic/aristocratic
conflict in tenth-century Italy, in an area and period in which other narrative sources are lacking. It recalls a
translatio strategy to Hugh of Provence’s royal court in 929 in response to the incursions of Bishop Guido
of Piacenza. When these events were redacted decades later, a different sort of diocesan threat presented
itself—this time by Bishop Giseprand of Tortona, who used his position as abbot of Bobbio to alienate
lands. The Miracula reveal a shift in the nature of episcopal ambition towards private patronage, and a proactive
(if ever-changing) relationship between “royal” monastery and sovereign, during a time when the
landscape of royal power was shifting. Cultic innovations and accompanying hagiographic material provide
an often-neglected perspective onto the agency of institutions and the use of institutional memory and the
public sphere to negotiate and contest their rights.
"

This article considers the self-identifications of three seventh century monastic writers - Colum... more This article considers the self-identifications of three seventh century monastic writers - Columbanus, Jonas of Bobbio, and Valerius of Bierzo - and how Christian dialectics of exile shaped their identities.

Reconsiders Jonas's treatment of death and the afterlife in Book II of the Vita Columbani and arg... more Reconsiders Jonas's treatment of death and the afterlife in Book II of the Vita Columbani and argues that, in contrast to earlier monastic authors (such as Gregory the Great), Jonas was using these accounts for an institutional, not an eschatologial, purpose. In narrating these accounts of beatific and malignant deaths, his aim was to persuade a specific audience to observe more faithfully Columbanian monastic practices and that the surest way to salvation lay in adhering to this rigid monastic way of life.

Considers the evidence for the dissemination of the Vita Columbani in Merovingian Gaul. Using a n... more Considers the evidence for the dissemination of the Vita Columbani in Merovingian Gaul. Using a number of seventh-century texts as well as the Vita itself, it proposes that the Vita Columbani had a wider dissemination in Merovingian Gaul than has hitherto been acknowledged. It suggests that the Vita was not merely confined to monastic and ecclesiastical circles, but was also intended for a royal and aristocratic audience closely linked to the Columbanian communities.

The Irish-princess-virgin-martyr, St Sunniva, is one of the most enigmatic of Scandinavian saints... more The Irish-princess-virgin-martyr, St Sunniva, is one of the most enigmatic of Scandinavian saints. The site of her martyrdom, the island of Selja on the west coast of Norway, became an important monastic and episcopal centre during the eleventh century. Towards the end of the twelfth century her relics were translated to Bergen, the new centre of the bishopric, and a hagiographical text was written for liturgical use. This article presents a new reading of the Sunniva legend based on the wider hagiographical, political, and ecclesiastical contexts in which it developed. It argues that the legend, drawing from a continental hagiographical tradition of attributing Irish origins to obscure saints, sought to forge an identity for the bishopric of Bergen in its new royal and ecclesiastical environment.

PhD dissertation, University of St Andrews (June 2009), Jan 1, 2009

University of St Andrews PhD dissertation on the hagiographical writings of Jonas of Bobbio (c.60... more University of St Andrews PhD dissertation on the hagiographical writings of Jonas of Bobbio (c.600 to c.679 AD) under the supervision of Professor Robert Bartlett, FBA. Awarded Carnegie Scholarship (2005-'08) and Donald Bullough Scholarship (2005) for doctoral research. The PhD dissertation was published in revised and updated form as a monograph with Oxford University Press in the series Oxford Studies in Late Antiquity in 2018 as Jonas of Bobbio and the Legacy of Columbanus: Sanctity and Community in the Seventh Century. The PhD thesis is available here: https://research-repository.st-andrews.ac.uk/handle/10023/899?fbclid=IwAR3iFcW6ZnzT_YTPxLohOn1a3EYvNr7e7xllC7f7jdWnQ7YUsR1Prvvq6H4

Historische Zeitschrift , 2021

Review of David Defies, From Sithiu to Saint-Bertin. Hagiographic Exegesis and Collec- tive Memor... more Review of David Defies, From Sithiu to Saint-Bertin. Hagiographic Exegesis and Collec- tive Memory in the Early Medieval Cults of Omer and Bertin. (Studies and Texts, Vol.219.) Toronto, ON, Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies 2019.

Review of Roy Flechner and Sven Meeder (eds.), The Irish in Early Medieval Europe: Identity, Cult... more Review of Roy Flechner and Sven Meeder (eds.), The Irish in Early Medieval Europe: Identity, Culture, and Religion, New York: Palgrave Macmillan 2016. Published online in The Medieval Review 08.03.2017. Link here: https://scholarworks.iu.edu/journals/index.php/tmr/article/view/23484

Review of Michael Richter's book on Bobbio in the early Middle Ages

Review of Marios Costambeys's book on the abbey of Farfa in the early Middle Ages

Early Medieval Europe

Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages. Edited by Hendrik Dey and Elizabeth Fentress. Disciplina Mon... more Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages. Edited by Hendrik Dey and Elizabeth Fentress. Disciplina Monastica 7. Turnhout: Brepols. 2011. 387 pp. + 89 b/w figures. EURO 95. ISBN 978 2 503 54091 7. This excellent and stimulating book grew out of a conference held at the American Academy in Rome in 2007 on the topic of space in early monasticism. It brought

Summary of ERC Advanced Grant on Social Cohesion, Identity, and Religion in Europe 400-1200 led b... more Summary of ERC Advanced Grant on Social Cohesion, Identity, and Religion in Europe 400-1200 led by Prof Walter Pohl and team in Vienna from 2011 to 2016. An edited volume on Social Cohesion and its Limits is forthcoming from the Austrian Academy of Sciences Press.

The period between 400 and 1200 AD saw the emergence of new fundamental modes of identification i... more The period between 400 and 1200 AD saw the emergence of new fundamental modes of identification in Europe. Firstly, strong religious identities took shape and became hegemonic over vast regions where Christian communities developed. And secondly, new kingdoms with ethnic denominations were formed, and the Roman Empire gave way to a pluralistic political landscape. Most ethnic designations for medieval and modern states in fact go back to that period. Both processes, not least through their interaction, created new forms of social cohesion, but also of conflict, and had a deep impact on European history up to this day that has not been sufficiently understood yet. Universal religion and ethnic/national particularism have always been regarded as opposite principles. But that is only part of the picture, and the proposed project is intended to look systematically at the ways in which religious and ethnic identities interacted, both as forms of discourse and as social practices.

In studying the Early Middle Ages, the project addresses a period that has been neglected in debates about ethnicity and the rise of the nation. By choosing a long-term perspective, it attempts to historicize ethnicity and religion. This should be achieved by a double approach: Careful source studies combined with methodological reflections to avoid modern projections; and comparison with areas beyond the frame of the project, for instance, the early Islamic World. The intention is not so much to study specific ethnic processes, but the cultural and social matrix that made them possible, and shaped them. Specifically, the project will concentrate on the ways in which the Bible inspired new discourses of identity and ethnicity, and in which the formation of Christian communities could enhance ethnic and political cohesion. Important political, affective and cognitive resources for the political role of ethnicity in European history were created in Late Antiquity and the Early and High Middle Ages, c. 400–1200 AD. They provided a potential that could be used at different stages in European history, not least, in the development of the modern nation.

Programme and Abstracts from international conference held in Vienna, Nov. 2013

NYU Glucksman Ireland House Roundtable, October 2022 , 2022

This roundtable discussion at Glucksman Ireland House at New York University held on 7th October ... more This roundtable discussion at Glucksman Ireland House at New York University held on 7th October 2022 examined some of the earliest ideas of what it means to be ‘Irish’ and the perception of Ireland and the Irish in sources from the medieval period. Ranging from early views of an island at the very edge of the world to the development of a multifaceted Irish identity incorporating different peoples and narratives of the past, this discussion featured contributions from Dr. Alexander O’Hara and Justin Colvin, authors of the forthcoming book Savage/Saint Island: Imagining Ireland and the Irish from Classical Antiquity to the Anglo-Norman Conquest, Dr. Patrick Wadden, co-editor of the recently published Origin Legends in Early Medieval Western Europe and Dr. Máire Ní Mhaonaigh, Professor of Celtic and Medieval Studies at the University of Cambridge and Principal Investigator for the Leverhulme Trust Project, ‘Mapping the Medieval Mind: Ireland’s Literary Landscapes in a Global Space’. This event was hosted by Dr. Sarah Waidler, lecturer at Glucksman Ireland House. Link to online recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OgNEmdrj_70

by Albrecht Diem, Matthieu van der Meer, Matthew Gillis, Abigail Firey, Irene van Renswoude, Clare Woods, Zachary Yuzwa, Marijana Vukovic, Columba Stewart, Eric Shuler, Manu Radhakrishnan, Matthew Ponesse, Abraham Plunkett-Latimer, Alexander O'Hara, Rob Meens, Sven Meeder, James LePree, Kathryn Jasper, Andrew Irving, Julie Hofmann, Zachary M Guiliano, Brendan Cook, Isabelle Cochelin, Susan Boynton, Courtney Booker, Daniel Abosso, Bruce Venarde, Corinna Prior, and Mariel Urbanus

http://hildemar.org/

http://hildemar.org Hildemar of Corbie's Commentary on the Rule of Benedict (ca. 845CE) is a m... more http://hildemar.org

Hildemar of Corbie's Commentary on the Rule of Benedict (ca. 845CE) is a major source for the history of monasticism, but it has long been accessible only in two obscure nineteenth-century editions of its Latin text. The goal of the Hildemar Project is to make the entire commentary more accessible for research and teaching purposes. The first step is to provide a fully searchable version of the Latin text along with an English translation. This translation is a collaborative effort of more than fifty scholars, including specialists in monasticism, Latin, manuscripts studies, and Carolingian history.

Currently a slightly revised version of the Latin text from Rupert Mittermüller’s edition [Regensburg, 1880] is available on the site. The translation of all seventy-three chapters – one for each chapter of Benedict’s Rule – is now complete.

The website also provides a complete list of the manuscripts of Hildemar’s Commentary (with links to manuscript catalogues and manuscripts available online) and a complete bibliography of scholarship on Hildemar and his work.

The next step in the project will be to improve the Latin text presented on the website by providing links to the different versions of Hildemar’s work. Users will be able to compare the (problematic) nineteenth-century edition with the original manuscripts. A long-term goal of the Hildemar Project is to provide a new edition of Hildemar’s Commentary that meets the standards of a critical edition but also capitalizes on the greater flexibility and customization available in a digital environment.

The Hildemar Project is a collaborative project that profits from the expertise of as many scholars as possible and is tailored to the needs and interests of its users. Any form of feedback, suggestions for improvement, identification of sources, or commentary on the Latin text are welcome. Please either use the Forum or contact us directly.