Sacred Sisters: Gender, Sanctity and Power in Medieval Ireland by Maeve Callan (review)

Abstract

Maeve Callan’s Sacred Sisters: Gender, Sanctity, and Power in Medieval Ireland, like many of her works, aims to be accessible to a general audience interested in gender and early Irish history and so navigates the line between academic and popular history. For the scholar, much of the value of Sacred Sisters lies in its study of neglected female saints such as Moninne, Samthann, and Íte, who were likely much more prominent in medieval Ireland than surviving evidence would suggest and who have long needed investigation. For future academic writing on these saints, Callan’s work will undoubtedly be the starting point, and she has collected sometimes scant source material into a single place, particularly for saints like Gobniat who lack hagiography altogether. Similarly, Callan has collected the lives of the initial saints Moninne, Brigid, Íte, and Samthann in her Appendix B, and though none are newly translated, they are usefully gathered for future scholarship (much of the material can also be accessed in The Field Day Anthology of Irish Writing, Volume IV: Irish Women’s Writings and Traditions, ed. Bourke et al. [Cork University Press, 2002]).