Celebrating the Saints

Only a few months to go now! This autumn the Department of Irish and Celtic Languages and the Long Room Hub in Trinity College, Dublin will host the symposium Celebrating the Saints: A Focus on Martyrologies and Calendars (October 28-9, 2016).

This symposium calls attention to martyrologies and calendars from the early medieval to early modern period. In many cases, these texts are understudied by virtue of being used for reference only, and some remain unedited altogether. The aim of the conference is to bring the rich variety of martyrologies and saints calendars surviving to attention, and to bring together scholars from diverse fields of expertise working on these texts. It is hoped that the event will give a new impulse to scholarly debate on the nature and function of the texts as well as create a new network for future collaboration.

This symposium will address, among others, the following themes:

  • The transmission and reception of martyrologies and calendars
  • The (socio-)historical background to their writing and copying
  • Questions of form and composition; metrical and historical martyrologies
  • Martyrologies and calendars in the light of (local) cult development
  • Their connection to the liturgy
  • Secular and scientific material in the martyrologies

The keynote lecture will be given by Prof. Em. Pádraig Ó Riain, who will be speaking on ‘A ninth-century Tallaght strategy? Selective editing in Óengus’s martyrologies’.

Registration will open in September. For the programme and more information see:  celebratingthesaints2016.wordpress.com/