Commemorating the Past: The Breton Church and its Irish Element, c.800-1100

Abstract

Brittany's beginnings as a refuge for British migrants meant that, historically, Brittany seemed looked to the Insular world for its culture, language, and religion. Beginning in the ninth century, Brittany faced several ruptures which affected the Breton church directly. These ruptures not only included the increased Carolingian hegemony over the region, but the adoption of Benedictine reform, the nascence of a Breton royal dynasty, and the viking invasions. In the midst of these developments, Breton monastic centres produced hagiographies to remember the lives and deeds of their founder saints, and particularly, their insular origins and careers. Wales, and to a lesser extent, Cornwall, play a key role in these hagiographies, which is unsurprising due to the Welsh and Cornish origins of Brittany. However, Breton hagiographers also recalled a past in which Ireland and Brittany had close links, although the evidence to support this is not always straightforward. This thesis studies Breton hagiographies c.800-1100 through the lens of cultural memory to examine to how Ireland and the Irish were represented in a Breton monastic context. It measures to what extent the Irish influence on the Breton church affected the manner in which Breton monastic communities navigated the historical ruptures mentioned earlier. Looking at a dossier of ten Breton saints, this thesis argues that there was a significant Irish influence in Breton hagiographies produced in the west of Brittany. With the exception of the hagiographies of the abbey of Land?vennec, which shows evidence for a direct connection with Ireland, the Irish influence on other hagiographies was mediated through Wales. Moreover, the commemoration of these saints and their Irish connections suggests that Breton monastic identity in the west of Brittany was shaped by spiritual ideologies shared with Ireland.