Máel Brigte mac Tornáin

Abbot of Armagh and Iona

Máel Brigte mac Tornáin, also known as Maelbrigte mac Durnan (died 22 February 927), was an Irish clergyman who served as abbot of Armagh from 883 and, in his role as Coarb of Colum Cille, as the Abbot of Iona, non-resident from 891, holding both positions until his death.^[1]^[2] He is likely responsible for commissioning and may have worked on the Mac Durnan Gospels,^[2] an illuminated manuscript now held in the Lambeth Palace Library in London.^[3]

Origins

Máel Brigte was a distant member of the royal lineage of Colum Cille of the Uí Néill of Tyrconnell and a member of the Cenél mBógaine a sept of the Cenél Conaill. Two of his cousins were also members of the paruchia of Colum Cille; Dubhthach mac Dubáin († 938), abbot of Raphoe, would succeed him as abbot of Iona and Caencomhrac († 929), abbot and bishop of Derry.^[4]

Abbot of Armagh and Iona

Máel Brigte began his career at several monasteries, including Lusk and Devinish, according to the 10th century text Baile Bricin. He was made Archbishop of Armagh in 883 on the death of Cathassach mac Robartaig.^[4] Following the death of Flan mac Máele Duin, he was named "Abbot of Iona in Ireland and Scotland." The appointment of one man to both positions demonstrates the disarray the Irish clergy found themselves in at the turn of the 9th century, faced with the devastating raids by Vikings in the Irish Sea and the resulting impoverishment or even destruction of religious communities. Iona even seems to have been unoccupied at that time.^[5]

In 893, Máel Brigte intervened to settle a tribal conflict during Whitsuntide in county Armagh by imposing on one of the parties a tribute of 630 cows and by hanging four Ulstermen. In 913, he traveled south to Munster to pay the ransom of a Breton pilgrim, probably another victim of the Vikings.^[5]

References

^ Ó Canann, Tomás G. (2005). "The Political Context of the Prose a Version of "Immram Snédgusa 7 Maic Ríagla"". The Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland. 135: 130–135. ISSN 0035-9106. JSTOR 25549931. Retrieved 15 March 2021.
^ ^a ^b Dodwell, Charles Reginald. The Pictorial Arts of the West, 800-1200. Yale University Press. p. 92. ISBN 978-0-300-06493-3. Retrieved 15 March 2021.
^ Lapidge, Michael; Gneuss, Helmut; Keynes, Simon. Learning and Literature in Anglo-Saxon England: Studies Presented to Peter Clemoes on the Occasion of His Sixty-Fifth Birthday. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-25902-6. Retrieved 15 March 2021.
^ ^a ^b Moody, T.W.; Martin, F.X.; Bryne, F.J. (2011). A New History of Ireland IX Maps, Genealogies, Lists. A companion to Irish History part II. Oxford: Oxford University Press. pp. 239–257. ISBN 978-0-19-959306-4.
^ ^a ^b Williams, Ann; Smyth, Alfred P.; Kirby, D. P. (1991). "Máelbrigte mac Tornáin (Mac Durnan) abbot 888-927". A biographical dictionary of dark age Britain : England, Scotland, and Wales, c. 500-c. 1050. London: Seaby. p. 175. ISBN 1-85264-047-2.