medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
Kevin (d. earlier 7th cent.?; in Old Irish: Cóemgen and Caoimhghin; in Latin: Coemgenus, Caimginus, and Keivinus) is recorded under this day in the later eighth- or very early ninth-century _Martyrology of Tallaght_. The founder of the abbey of Glendalough in today's county Wicklow, he occurs in liturgical texts from at least the ninth century onward, not only from the British Isles but also from places of Irish monastic activity on the Continent (e.g. Reichenau). Kevin's surviving medieval Vitae (BHL 1866-1868; the last mentioned is in the _Magnum legendarium Austriacum_) and his vernacular Lives are transmitted in witnesses of the thirteenth century and later but are thought to derive, perhaps through a twelfth-century reworking, from a probably ninth-century ancestor. These have him found a number of churches, connect him with many other saints, and ascribe to him many miracles. Of the latter perhaps the most famous medievally were his causing a willow tree to produce apples (curative apples named for him appear in the Old Norse _Konungs skuggsjá_ [_Speculum regale_]) and his allowing a blackbird to nest in his open hand (a version of this is in Gerald of Wales' _Topographia Hiberniae_). Today is Kevin's day of commemoration in the Roman Martyrology.
The restored eleventh-century round tower at Glendalough:
http://tinyurl.com/87tfbbt
http://tinyurl.com/74pek26
The restored and greatly expanded St. Kevin's church at Glendalough:
http://tinyurl.com/842wpng
http://tinyurl.com/h7ymfen
St. Kevin as depicted (enthroned; holding a bird in his left hand) in an earlier thirteenth-century copy of Gerald of Wales' _Topographia Hiberniae_ (London, BL, Royal MS 13 B.viii, fols. 1r-34v, fol. 20r):
http://tinyurl.com/8y269lv
http://tinyurl.com/jxgu47n
Best,
John Dillon
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