![]() ![]() Yet, as with the nun early on lecturing Alex about the dates and facts necessary for us (if not a scholar) to find out about the English invasions and Roman domination of Ireland's countercultural worship and somewhat suspect beliefs from the 5th c, it gets awkward to read a novel where characters must recite such information to each other for our necessary benefit. Terrell interprets Brigid as part-goddess by will, part-bishop, open to a blend of matriarchal and Marian devotions, who consecrated by a dying Patrick manages to bridge pagan with Celtic church practices- until Rome gets wind of "heresy" and sends Decius, a spy posing as scribe. Terrell, in the style of theological speculation in the form of historical fiction, shows how Alex Patterson, an appraiser of relics and reliquaries, learns about the altered tale via the apocryphal "rejected" gospels that come with refugees after the collapse of the Roman Empire into Ireland, bringing with them alternative views of Christianity. If Gerald of Wales in his 12c journey through Ireland saw a treasured book that was not the famed one already at Kells, but that of Brigid's Kildare monastery from the 5c, how might its reliquary, and its secrets, alter- if slightly- how Rome treats women, and how the Church interprets the cult of the Virgin Mary? ![]() ![]() ![]() It's an ingenious twist on a medieval glitch. ![]()
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