Aspects of the Life of Colmán of Lynn

Abstract

Hagiography is narrative material relating to the saints. This may take various forms, including poetry and prose tales, but most often it consists of the written Life of a saint. From the outset it is to be kept in mind that a ‘Life’ of a saint does not necessarily equate to a biography, though it may contain biographical information. Rather, it is useful to view hagiography as containing as much, if not more, information about those who composed it than it does about its subject saint. Saints’ Lives provide a useful window into concerns and issues important to the communities in which, or for which, they were produced. A Life composed in the twelfth century may therefore allow us great insight into the politics, policies, religious and world-views of the twelfth-century society in which the Life was composed, but tell us relatively little about the saint and society of the ...