Do you know about Tallaght’s links to the Franciscans stretching back to the ninth century?
In case you did not know, today marks the feast day of St Francis.
Although Tallaght is better known for its links to the Dominican Monks in the Priory, there are links to the Franciscans that stretch back much further.
Indeed, a very important manuscript survives today because it was preserved by them.
The A3 Martyrology, which is part of the Book of Leinster, was produced in Tallaght in the first half of the ninth century at the Monastery of Tallaght.
To find out more about this intriguing piece of history, we asked Associate Professor at the UCD School of History, Dr Elva Johnston for some background and insight into the Franciscans and Tallaght.
Today is the feast day of St Francis, founder of the Franciscans.
The Tallaght connection is through a really important manuscript that was preserved by the Franciscans in the seventeenth century and which survives today because of them.
I decided to celebrate it and other manuscripts from the Franciscan collection on twitter.
The manuscripts are in UCD as a result of a partnership between the university and the Franciscans (UCD-OFM partnership). Here’s a bit about it and its link with Tallaght.
For the day that's in it, treasures of the UCD-OFM collection: A1 (Psalter of Caimín), A3 (Martyrology of Tallaght), A13 (The Four Masters) pic.twitter.com/4Rrd1WVGIS
— Peritia (@PeritiaEditors) October 4, 2017
The manuscript with the Tallaght connection is known as A3. It is a vellum manuscript from the twelfth century and is part of a longer one known as the Book of Leinster.
The rest of that manuscript is in Trinity College. A3 is what is called a martyrology, a list of saints on their feastdays.
The A3 martyrology is unique. It was produced in Tallaght in the first half of the ninth century (what we have now is a copy).
It lists Continental and Irish saints and is the very first Irish martyrology. But it does more than this. It includes items of interest to the monastery of Tallaght, such as details of its collection of relics and things of relevance to its community.
Tallaght was a very important monastery and produced documents that give us a great insight into Irish Christianity but also into things like diet, lifestyle and gender.
While A3 is a centrepiece there are other great manuscripts in the UCD-OFM collection which contain texts originally written in Tallaght.
Another manuscript, A31, contains its rule. For instance, churchmen in Tallaght and Finglas debated whether monks could drink ale or not. Finglas was more liberal! The monks of Tallaght are sometimes regarded as very strict. However, they had a good record in supporting women in the religious life and didn’t simply condemn them as other traditions did.
With all the texts it produced, Tallaght must have had an important scriptorium. Thanks to the Franciscans we know much more about it than we would otherwise.
