Traveling monastic paths: Mobility and religion at medieval Irish monasteries

Travel is recorded as a notable event in the lives of many high-status Irish monks and nuns, and according to medieval Irish texts, they traveled extensively in continental Europe, Ireland, Scotland, Wales, and England to lead and found monastic communities (CharlesEdwards, 2000; Flechner and Meeder, 2016; Hughes, 1966; Johnston, 2016; Loveluck and O'Sullivan, 2016). In the early medieval period (5th-12th centuries AD), mobility is cited as part of the mechanism for spreading and popularizing Christian practice in a previously pagan society (d'Arcy, 1974; Hughes, 1966). In the late medieval period (12th-16th centuries AD), monastic orders from elsewhere in Europe, such as France and England, founded abbeys in Ireland (O'Keeffe, 2003; Stalley, 1987). Mobility is a mechanism that can introduce new cultural practices through relatively long and definitive moves between communities (Anthony, 1990; Baker and Tsuda, 2015; Burmeister, 2000; Tilly, 1978), and religious institutions are formed and changed by the cultural practices of the members who participated in the religion (Stark, 1996). However, medieval texts do not indicate how common it was for medieval Irish people to be mobile if they were not one of the venerated saints or part of the elite class, and it is unclear what role mobility truly played in the spread and practice of Christianity. Did people who lived monastic lives in medieval Ireland experience mobility differently than those in lay communities?