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Woods, David, “Adomnán, plague and the Easter controversy”, Anglo-Saxon England 40 (2011): 1–13.

  • journal article
Citation details
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Article
“Adomnán, plague and the Easter controversy”
Periodical
Volume
40
Pages
1–13
BibTeX
Description
Abstract (cited)
Adomnán's description (Vita Columbae II.46) of how the intercession of St. Columba preserved the Picts and the Irish in Britain alone among the peoples of western Europe against two great epidemics of bubonic plague is a coded defence of their use of the traditional Irish 84-year Easter table against the Dionysian Easter table as used throughout the rest of western Europe. His implication is that God sent the plagues to punish those who used the Dionysian table. Hence Adomnán still adhered to the 84-year table by the time that he composed the Vita Columbae c. 697. It probably took a third epidemic 700–c. 702 to persuade Adomnán that his interpretation of the earlier epidemics was incorrect, so that Bede (HE V.15) is correct to date his conversion to the Dionysian table to a third visit to Northumbria c. 702.
Subjects and topics
Headings
Easter controversy Irish medicine and medical writing
Sources
Texts
History, society and culture
Agents
AdomnánAdomnán
(fl. c.628–704)
Adomnán mac Rónáin was abbot of Iona (r. 679–704) and author of the Latin Life of St Columba and an account of the holy places of the Near East (De locis sanctis). He is credited with the proclamation of the Lex innocentium or Cáin Adomnáin at the Synod of Birr.
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Contributors
C. A., Dennis Groenewegen
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February 2015, last updated: June 2020
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