The monastery, according to St. Benedict’s Rule, was supposed to be a “household of God,” but – given the presence of all-too-human frailty – the truth has been more complicated, according to Colmán Ó Clabaigh, OSB, the spring 2016 Burns Library Visiting Scholar in Irish Studies at Boston College.
A Benedictine monk of Glenstal Abbey in County Limerick, Brother Ó Clabaigh will discuss how ethnic rivalry, madness, alcohol abuse and personal ambition affected the religious communities of late medieval Ireland, at the annual Spring Burns Visiting Scholar Lecture on March 2. The lecture, titled “Fifty Ways to Cleave Your Brother: Mayhem, Mischief, & Misfits in Medieval Irish Monasteries,” will take place at 4:30 p.m. in Burns Library.
Brother Ó Clabaigh, a medievalist specializing in the history of monasticism and religion in late Medieval Ireland, earned his bachelor’s degree from National University of Ireland-Galway and, after undertaking research in Italy, Belgium and Oxford, received his doctorate in 1998 from NUI.
His many publications, solo, edited or co-authored, include The Franciscans in Ireland, 1400–1534: from Reform to Reformation, Art and Devotion in Medieval Ireland and Soldiers of Christ: the Knights Templar and Knights Hospitaller in Medieval Ireland. His monograph The Friars in Ireland, 1224-1500 was awarded the 2013 National University of Ireland Prize for Irish Historical Research. He also has contributed to numerous Irish and international journals, and has lectured and taught courses for institutions and organizations in Ireland, Great Britain, Italy and Nigeria.
In addition to pursuing his current research on popular religion in Medieval Ireland, as Burns Scholar Brother Ó Clabaigh is teaching a course, Religion and Society in Ireland, c. 1215 to c. 1526, in the History Department.
The Burns Scholar Lecture is free and open to the public, but registration is request via this link. For further information about the lecture, including directions and parking, call (617)552-3282.
–Office of News & Public Affairs