WEB PAGE ON THE NATURE OF STUDY
A HISTORICAL APPROACH
This seeks to find objective information. This is difficult to obtain for early centuries.
Very few writers write history in the Celtic period. So a historical approach builds up a picture of what the historian thinks is probable in the light of facts already known from sources such as these:
1. Autobiographical writings.
2.Hagiography (Lives of saints)
3.Other writings.
4. Archeology.
Hagiography refers to a Life of a saint. The aim of most hagiographers is not that of a modern biographer who seeks to unearth facts about their subject, warts and all - perhaps choosing facts that will titivate the reader. The aim of the hagiographer is to show God at work in a human life. Hagiographers tended to use a formula in writing a ‘Live’. They would expect a dream or prophecy at their subjecct’s birth, miracles such as the Gospels record Jesus or the apostles performing, a sign at theirr subject’s death, and miracles at their grave following death.
Other aims might be to promote their section of the church by making claims for their saint. Hagiographers who wrote centuries after the death of their subject sometimes rely on folklore, legend and imagination. With suchwritings, e.g.Bishop Rhygifarch’s c Life of David, scholars ask the question: Is there a reason why this material is included other than that it actually happened? Certain incidents or sayings may be thought to have the ring of truth, especially those that do not bring particular credit to the writer’s cause.
A historian decides what is probable in, say a Life of a saint, by assessing the aim of that writer and how stories fit in to the whole picture.
Autobiographical writings:
Patrick’s Declaration and his Letter to a British ruler.
Columbanus’ letters, sermons, rules and poems.
Historical writings
Bede’s History of the EnglishChurch and Nation: material on the history and saints of his native Northumbria, the largest English kingdom, is substantially more reliable than his material on places and periods other than his own, and than most hagiographers. He demonstrates the instincts of a historian; he reveals his sources and how reliable he thinks they are.
Hagiographies with eyewitness material
A hagiographer is mainly concerrned to show how God worked in the life of the saint, what kind of person the saint was and of how they were part of the linked tradition of Christ, the apostles, desert Christians and later saints.
written within a generation or two of their subject that include material from eyewitnesses include:
Antony by Bishop Athanasius
Martin of Tours by Sulpicius Severus
Columcille by Adomnan of Iona
Cuthbert by Bede
Samson by an anonymous monk
Columbanus by Jonas.
CENTRES OF CELTIC LEARNING
University of Georgia, USA teaches Gaelic. Elise Henken.