At 8:50 AM -0400 8/3/00, Thomas Renna wrote:
>May I ask if any members of the list know of saints who are presented as
>prophets?
>
>I am currently working on the notion of prophecy in the Life of St Clare
>of Montefalco and St Margaret of Cortona (whose Legenda I am translating
>into English). I'm trying to determine if the lives of women saints in
>the 13th century reveal any new tendencies in the treatment of saint as
>prophet.
At 9:43 AM -0500 8/3/00, Patrick Nugent wrote:
>I can't put my hands on it at the moment, but it is my recollection that
>Bernard of Clairvaux's life of St. Malachy the Irishman presents M as --
>among other things -- a prophet.
Bernard does portray Malachy as a prophet, but those prophecies are
fairly localized (the time and place of his death, the founding of
Mellifont, whether those he cures will live or die, etc). The
apocalyptic prophecies later attributed to him are unlikely to have
originated with him.
Prophecy was a fairly common aspect of sanctity in Ireland. All four
sanctae Hiberniae with extant medieval vitae are portrayed as
prophets (Brigid, Íte, Samthann, and Darerca), although it is most
pronounced in Íte's cult. Dating Irish vitae is extremely difficult;
I believe Íte's vita was originally written before the eighth
century, but it survives only in a much later recension in the Codex
Kilkenniensis, probably compiled in the early 13th century.
Independent reference to her role as prophet exists from the early
ninth century, however, and according to the Vita Prima (probably
written in the eighth century, though based on seventh-century
sources), Brigid's first words were a prophecy (that Connacht would
belong to her), a gift she continued to demonstrate throughout her
Lives, although not to the extent that Íte did.
Maeve
|