St. Blog's resident Cistercian just darn can't remember who last week's green-vested saint-o'-the-day was. Hilarity ensues.
***
I seem to remember he was Romano-British by birth so I presume this means last week we ought to have been chowing down on a two-course meal of sphaghetti and steak and kidney pie, right? I have no idea where all the soda bread and corned beef is coming from... (Ducks angry shower of flying potatoes). *
***
The strangely brief life of St. Patrick written up in the Golden Legend places him, weirdly enough, in Scotland (though considering, for instance, the Irish-born philosopher is called Scotus Eriugena, there seems to have been some etymological blurriness about the local geography in Latin) , and is only long enough to repeat that unfortunate incident when he accidentally stuck the spike of his crozier through the foot of a local king he was baptizing. The chieftain, a hardy soul, thought it was part of the ritual 'til explained otherwise.
***
A friend of mine commented recently something to the effect that she was neither Italian (St. Joseph, which came this last non-penitential Friday to a church basement near you) nor Irish (duh), and therefore was splitting the difference and going out and partying on St. Cyril of Jerusalem's day last Thursday.
*I'm 1/4 Irish (I think), so I'm allowed to make jokes like that. Or at least that's my excuse. Also, corned beef is utterly unknown in Ireland, or at the very least isn't considered particularly representative. Like 90% of the odd stuff associated with St. Paddy's (Green Beer, I'm looking at you), it's what one Irish-from-Ireland friend of mine calls "Oirish," or faux-Hibernian, at worst the product of Hollywood moonshine and at best more Irish-American than Irish per se.
I love
ReplyDeletethis one from last year's St Patrick's Day.
"Would Your Highness like to borrow a tissue next time?"
The "Scoti" were an Irish tribe before "Scotia" was a place. The Dal Riada crew of Scoti came over from Ireland to parts of Scotland, England and Wales, and founded a kingdom there. Everybody else was Picti, Picts. The whole Scotland thing is what happens when you don't restrict immigration. :)
ReplyDelete"Eriugena" means "born in Eriu" (Eire), though, so it's pretty clear in Latin just which group of Scoti the man was from.
Oooh. Apparently it was Pope Leo X who got sick and tired of both Scoti territories being called "Scotia", and decreed that only Scotland be called "Scotia" in Latin anymore.
ReplyDeleteAnd apparently there is dispute whether "Scoti" referred originally to all Gaels, or just to the Dal Riadans.
I never knew that.
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
ReplyDeleteI'd be inclined to compare the way Ireland and things Irish get presented in the USA to the way the Catholic Church and things Catholic gets presented in apocalyptic Hollywood movies.
ReplyDeleteTraditionally "Scot" was another name for "Irishman." The medieval origin legends of Ireland trace the genealogies back to the eponymous Gaedhal and his wife Scota, alleged daughter of Pharaoh. Gaedhal, supposedly a Scythian prince (in medieval times, the Irish/Scots were thought to have come from Scythia), was said to have been a friend of Moses at the time of the Exodus. Gaedhal's descendant Milesius of Spain (Milead Esbaine, which means simply "the Soldier of Spain") is also said to have married another Scota, daughter of another Pharaoh. Another legendary descendant of Gaedhal was Ebher Scot, a name supposed to signify "the Iberian Scythian" (i.e. the Iberia of the Caucasus Mountains, not Spain or Ireland), but probably a doublet of two Irish eponyms, the "Irish Irishman."
ReplyDelete"Scotia" thus was anciently another name for Ireland, and was brought to Scotland by the Irish (i.e. "Scots") of Dalriada. Eventually the royal family of Dalriada got the upper hand over the Picts, and the name "Scotia" came to be applied to their kingdom. It's one of those ironies of history that the "Scots" today are a different nation than the "Irish," since "Scot" was originally a synonym for "Irishman."
The definitive work on British history* explains the situation thus:
ReplyDeleteThe Scots (originally Irish, but by now Scotch) were at this time inhabiting Ireland, having driven the Irish (Picts) out of Scotland; while the Picts (originally Scots) were now Irish (living in brackets) and vice versa. It is essential to keep these distinctions clearly in mind (and verce visa).
*
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteMissing footnote from the above: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1066_and_All_That
ReplyDelete