> From: B.M.COOK [SMTP:[log in to unmask]]
>
> This may be a bit simplistic, but could the solution to the problem be
> simply this - Just as many - all ? - Christians were given the names of
> Christian saints, it is not reasonable to suppose that many ordinary
> Celtic men and women were given names that were either identical with the
> name of one of their
> deities, or were a male/female/ diminutive version of that name ? And is
> it
> not at least possible that some of these people became Christian converts
> and even saints ?
>
I don't think anyone has suggested that this scenario never
happened. However, when one finds a site where a deity was once honored and
one finds a saint with a very similar or derivative name being honored at
the *same* site on the *same* festival day or nearly so with actions that
appear more pagan than Christian in origin--and this happens
repeatedly--then one can, I think, reasonably conclude that a divinity may
well have been eheumerized. To suggest that all such cases are merely
"ordinary Celtic men and women" given the names of deities is, in my
opinion, to overlook an important aspect of the ways that Celtic religious
and social beliefs and practices were converted to Christianity. It also
overlooks the fact that more often than not, Celtic humans were *not* given
the names by which we know deities, possibly because most deities were best
known by titles rather than proper names. But even in Christian practice, we
occasionally see distinctions being made: for example, children may be named
Ma/ire but only the mother of Jesus is known as Mu/ire.
Also, there are stories which are literally the tales of how deities
were baptized and converted, not simply into Christians but mortals. A good
example is the story of Li/ Ban who appears in several "secular" tales but
also becames St. Li/ Ban, the mermaid. The story is that to escape a
disastrous flood, she turns into the shape of a fish (or partially a fish).
Her faithful lap dog becomes an otter (literally a water dog, in Irish) so
that he may stay with her. For hundreds of years they live this way, while
the world changes around them. Eventually, Li/ Ban meets up with a saint or
is caught by fishermen who take her to a saint. After telling the marvels of
her life, she accepts the new faith, is baptized, and dies/goes to heaven.
There is also the issue of ubiquity. When one finds one site after
another throughout previous or present Celtic areas associated with the same
sorts of festival actions on the same sites that were previously associated
with deities, it and when the historicity of the saints who have become
associated with the site is questionable or unsupported, then is it not
reasonable to suggest that, for example, in many places Lugh has become
Patrick, Columcille, or Michael? Or to conclude that the title, Brigit (high
or exalted one) has been imposed over dozens of local goddesses, especially
when one finds that the cult of such a saint did not acquire such ubiquity
until several hundred years after her reputed death and only when the
fortunes of the patron kin-group have taken a sharp turn for the better?
Time and again, this is what we see in Celtic saints' cults:
genealogies associated with names identified as deity figures, devotions at
sites and on dates once associated with the same deity figures, patron
saints who have no verifiable historicity, names that suggest they have been
derived from earlier deity figures, patronal associaiton with kin-groups
also associated with those deity figures.
Francine Nicholson
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