Isle of the Saints: Monastic Settlement and Christian Community in Early Ireland

by Lisa M. Bitel

Isle of the Saints recreates the harsh yet richly spiritual world of medieval Irish monks on the Christian frontier of barbarian Europe. Lisa Bitel draws on accounts of saints' lives written between 800 and 1200 to explain, from the monks' own perspective, the social networks that bound them to one another and to their secular neighbors.

Genres: History, Ireland, Medieval, Nonfiction

268 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1990

About the author

I am a recovering academic, medievalist, Celticist, and budding novelist. Few things make me happier than an intellectually intriguing historical or historal-fantasy novel with vivid landscapes and characters that you wish were you.

Reviews

[Mack · Rating 3 out of 5]

even his horse shed tears 😭😭😭

[Whitney · Rating 4 out of 5]

There is a large tendency for books of this sort to be dry and uninteresting. This book is not anything of the sort. The author does a great job engaging the reader in the world of Irish monasticism. There are many wonderful things to be learned about early Irish Christianity and this is a great book for anyone interested in the history of Ireland, especially since it is well-sourced and a conglomeration of a HUGE amount of scholarship on the subject. My favorite part of this book is how the author writes of things such as miracles and angels in such a way that it conveys the realism of these things for Irish saints that is lost in our modern world.

[Kristin Gleeson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Bitel writes in an engaging manner to explain the life and daily reality of the early monks in Ireland. She explains how integral the monks were to the life of the community, though their theology might have inferred differently. Bitel's work helped shift perspectives of monks from the earlier idea that they lived in isolation. Bitel is a thorough scholar who writes from a definite feminst viewpoint.