archetypal narratives

266 Pages·2016·2.13 MB·English

ARCHETYPAL NARRATIVES:
TOWARD A THEOLOGICAL APPRECIATION OF EARLY CELTIC HAGIOGRAPHY

ELIZABETH M. G. KRAJEWSKI, M. DIV.

DR JANE CARTWRIGHT
DR MARTIN O’KANE

Statement:
This research was undertaken under the auspices of the
University of Wales Trinity Saint David and was submitted in
partial fulfilment for the award of a PhD in the faculty of
Theology, Religious Studies and Islamic Studies.

August, 2015

Abstract
This study aims to interpret Lives of Christian saints as examples of religious literature.
Hagiography is commonly studied as an historical artefact indicative of the politics or
linguistics of the time in which a text was composed, but few theorists have attempted
to interpret its religious content. As these texts were composed within monastic
environments I argue that the religious content may be illumined by a methodology
which identifies an implicit theology of sanctity within the narrative.
The biblical hermeneutic method proposed by Paul Ricoeur in the mid-twentieth
century is applied to the earliest Lives of Samson, Cuthbert, and Brigit. These three
date from the mid- to late-seventh century, a time of secular and ecclesiastical change,
in some cases profound turmoil. Historical context for the composition of each text is
presented; texts are analysed for biblical allusions and literary sources, and submitted
to structural analysis. Motifs of religious and archetypal significance are derived from
the work of theorists in folklore, anthropology, Bible, and the History of Religions.
Each text is examined for motifs and patterns that disclose the structural framework
used to organize the work. The structural analysis is then used to highlight central
themes in the text.
This interpretive process imagines a dynamic encounter between text and reader
which combines historical inquiry with biblical hermeneutic, fulfilling Ricoeur’s
expectation that the encounter would expand the reader’s horizon of meaning.
Samson’s encounters with serpents and sorceress function as an initiatory pattern
drawing monastics into a dynamic of spiritual growth. Cuthbert’s time on Farne Island
includes echoes of the Desert Saints as well as the crucifixion of Christ and results in a
brief but powerfully kenotic episcopal ministry. Brigit’s Kildare becomes the locus of
the New Jerusalem, City of Refuge and Peaceable Kingdom.
85,708 words

DECLARATION:
A work of this nature can never be done alone, and while acknowledging individuals
runs the inevitable risk of unintentionally overlooking someone of importance, there
are some who must be named.
Members of two institutions have supported this research project. First, the past and
present staff of the University of Wales, then Lampeter, now Trinity Saint David,
including Dr Jonathan Wooding and Dr Karen Jankulak whose guidance through the
MA in Celtic Christianity was essential to the decision to proceed to the doctorate.
Then Dr Barry Lewis, whose encouragement with the development of this
methodology came at a critical time. And finally, Dr Jane Cartwright and Dr Martin
O’Kane, whose patience and critical reading of this work have made it possible to craft
a thesis in this new vein. While all scholarly input is appreciated, any errors in the text
are my own.
The second institution is Colby-Sawyer College, the site of my employment, research,
and teaching for the past decade. Among the staff and faculty who have provided
support and assistance over that time are the library staff, including Carrie Thomas,
Sondra VanderPloeg, Erica Webb, Kelliann Bogan, Nancy Langley, E. Landon Hall, and
Wende Butler Brock, and academic colleagues Dr Deborah Taylor, Dr Patrick Anderson,
Dr Margaret Wiley, and Dr Thomas Kealy. For providing an environment of support and
encouragement, I will always be grateful.
Finally, to my wise and patient husband, Charles, without whose wit, warmth,
intelligence and support this endeavour could never have been imagined, let alone
completed.
THERE ARE THOSE
There are those we know
buried
not far beneath this green land
with whom
we have not spoken for a long time
who remember
what we have forgotten.

One day they will speak again
surprised at their own voices
singing the old song,
how the earth is given and taken
how the world will come again.

And we who also listen surprised
will come again to the land of lands.
Our own, the place we’ve chosen,
after the false start
and the slouching toward
falseness.

And find ourselves on the old roads
but new, walking with Blake, head up,
toward Jerusalem.

David Whyte, Where Many Rivers Meet

List of Abbreviations
AASS Acta Sanctorum
BB Bethu Brigte
C&P Connolly and Picard, Vita Sanctae Brigitae
CCEL Christian Classics Ethereal Library
JRSAI Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland
KJV King James Version of the Bible
MGH Monumenta Germaniae Historica
NPNF Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers
ODNB Oxford Dictionary of National Biography
VA Vita Antonii
VBC Vita Sanctae Brigitae, by Cogitosus
VCA Vita Sancti Cuthberti, Anonymous
VM Vita Martini
VP Vita Prima Sanctae Brigitae
VS I Vita Samsonis, first text
VS II Vita Samsonis, second text
VSH Vitae Sanctorum Hiberniae

Table of Contents
Chapter One: Introduction
1.1 Research Questions 1
1.2 Selection of texts 3
1.3 Selection of motifs 4
1.3.1 Overview 4
1.3.2 The Bible as paradigmatic religious narrative 5
1.3.3 References to time and place 6
1.3.4 ‘Pagan’ motifs in the Bible 7
1.3.5 Sources of archetypal motifs 7
1.3.6 Mircea Eliade and comparative religious motifs 8
1.4 Hagiography in relation to other prose genres 10
1.4.1 Hagiography and Historiography 10
1.4.2 Hagiography and mythology 16
1.4.3 Hagiography and folklore 17
1.4.4 Hagiography and heroic biography 20
1.4.5 Hagiography, myth, and the Bible 23
1.4.6 Hagiography and parable 25
1.5 The role of archetypal psychology 27
1.6 Hagiography and the Nature of Sanctity 29
1.7 Method 36
1.7.1 Overview 36
1.7.2 Paul Ricoeur and narratology 36
1.7.3 Employing the method: First step, ‘The world behind the text’ 39
1.7.4 Second step: ‘The world of the text’ 40
1.7.5 Third step: ‘The world before the text’ 40
1.8 Outline of the thesis 41

Chapter Two: Vita Samsonis I
2.1 World behind the text 43
2.1.1 Introduction 43
2.1.2 Dating and purposes of the text 44
2.1.3 Secular and ecclesiastical history 47
2.1.3.1 Migration of Britons to Armorica 47
2.1.2.2 Samson, Childebert, and ‘Commorus’ 49
2.1.3.3 Samson, Germanus, and Gildas 50
2.2 The world of the text: Samson as biblical and archetypal hero 52
2.2.1 Sources and analogues 52
2.2.2 Hagiographical sources 53
2.2.3 Biblical sources and analogues 56
2.2.3.1 Conception and Childhood 58
2.2.3.2 Ascetic practice and signs of sanctity 60
2.2.3.3 Healing and blessing 63
2.2.3.4 Serpents and the appearances of evil 66
2.2.3.5 Samson from the Book of Judges 72
2.2.4 Archetypal motifs 73
2.2.4.1 Wisdom, knowledge, prophecy, and wise men 74
2.2.4.2 Motif of three 74
2.2.4.3 Pairs and Opposites: life and death, light and dark 75
2.2.4.4 Mobility and Sanctuary 76
2.2.4.5 Serpents and Poisons 79
2.2.5 World of the text: Structural analysis 81
2.2.5.1 Introduction 81
2.2.5.2 Short examples of separation episodes 84
2.2.5.3 First episode of separation and liminality 85
2.2.5.4 First Initiatory Complex 85
2.2.5.5 Two brief episodes of separation 89
2.2.5.6 Second initiatory complex: Shamanic initiation 90
2.2.5.7 Aftereffects and secondary initiates 91
2.2.5.8 Aftereffects and the encounter with power 93
2.3 The world before the text 94
2.3.1 Interpretation of the narrative 94
2.3.2 Effect of appropriation on the reader 101
2.4 Conclusions 103
Chapter Three: Vita Cuthberti
3.1 World behind the text 106
3.1.1 Introduction 106
3.1.2 Dating, manuscript tradition, and edition used for this study 106
3.1.3 Sources 108
3.1.4 Secular and ecclesiastical history 110
3.2 World of the text 117
3.2.1 Major biblical allusions and precedents 117
3.2.2 Hagiographical models 122
3.2.3 Folk motifs 123
3.2.4 Psychological archetypes 123
3.2.5 Structural analysis 124
3.2.5.1 Introduction 124
3.2.5.2 Book One 126
3.2.5.3 Book Two 131
3.2.5.4 Book Three 137
3.2.5.5 Book Four 143
3.3 World before the text 148
3.4 Conclusions 158

Chapter Four: Cogitosus, Vita Sanctae Brigitae
4.1. World behind the text 162
4.1.1 Introduction 162
4.1.2 The manuscript tradition and discussion of priority 163
4.1.3 Secular and ecclesiastical history 168
4.1.3.1 Seventh-century Ireland 168
4.1.3.2 Was Kildare a civitas? 171
4.1.4 Sources for the Vita Brigitae 174
4.2 World of the text: Cogitosus’s vision of Kildare and its saint 179
4.2.1 Cogitosus’s selection of episodes 179
4.2.2 Biblical Themes and Their Sources 180
4.2.2.1 Edenic Harmony with Nature, Genesis 1 and 2 181
4.2.2.2 Cities of Refuge, Numbers 35 and Deuteronomy 19 181
4.2.2.3 Peaceable Kingdom, Isaiah 2 and 11 182
4.2.2.4 New Jerusalem, Revelation 21 183
4.2.3 Structural Analysis 185
4.2.3.1 Miracles as Parables 185
A. Preface: on Kildare 189
B. Time in Eden 190
C. Transformations 193
D. Reversals of Expectations 194
E. Tamings 197
F. Recapitulations 201
G. Kildare, the New Jerusalem 204
4.2.3.2 Chiastic Structure of the Narrative 208
4.3 World Before the Text 211
4.3.1 Encountering biblical models: saint, city, and text 211
4.4 Conclusions 216

Chapter Five: Conclusions
5.1 Overview 221
5.1.1 Research Question and Method 221
5.2 The Theological Encounter with Hagiography 222
5.2.1 Monastic Spirituality and Understandings of Sanctity 223
5.2.2 Psychological Hermeneutic and Archetypal Psychology 224
5.2.3 Narrative Theology 226
5.2.4 Historical Theology 228
5.3 Directions for Future Research 229
5.4 Response to the Research Questions 230

Bibliography 233
CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION

1.1 RESEARCH QUESTIONS
This thesis will pose a set of theological questions concerning the structure and
content of three saints’ Lives from the late seventh century. The questions are as
follows: Can a hermeneutic approach similar to that of a biblical hermeneutic be
attempted with hagiographies? What sources does the hagiographer use to create a
unique, yet recognizably Christian, image of his saintly protagonist? Can these texts be
read as models of sanctity, in particular for monastic spiritual formation? How does
the historical context influence their composition? And ultimately, what impact may
these texts be theorized to have upon their audiences?
In addressing these questions particular attention will be paid to the oft-noted
mix of biblical precedents, extra-biblical Latin sources (in particular, fourth- and fifth-
century saints’ Lives), and allegedly pagan elements contained in the chosen
narratives. A more general statement of the question might be: how might readers of
these seventh-century hagiographies interpret the texts and be impacted in the
encounter with them? The reasons why these are theological questions include the
observations that the structure as well as the content of the texts are closely related to
biblical models, and can be seen to convey models of sanctity based on the life of
Christ and his earliest followers. The need for interpretation arises because the texts
move beyond simple imitation and take into account such influences as the historical
context of the author and the particular charism or character of the religious
community within which the hagiographer is writing. Combining elements of narrative
theology, historical theology, and a theology of spirituality, and drawing on the long
practice of biblical hermeneutics, this project seeks to interpret the meaning of the
texts as narratives conveying concerned knowledge to Christian, and particularly
monastic, readers.
Biblical and extra-biblical elements in early Latin literature have been
thoroughly catalogued by various scholars including Thomas O’Loughlin,1 Elissa

1 Thomas O’Loughlin, Gildas and the Scriptures: Observing the World Through a Biblical Lens (Turnhout:
Brepols, 2012); ‘Rhygyfarch’s Vita Dauidis: an apparatus biblicus’, Studia Celtica, 32 (1998), 179-188;
‘Patrick’s Declaration of the Great Works of God (the Confessio) in Celtic Spirituality, ed. by Oliver Davies
(New York: Paulist Press, 1999).
1