Inventing Odrán: saints, pilgrims and politics in medieval Iona

Abstract

A saint called Odrán appears as part of several other saints’ Lives, often in a role closely connected to his death, and sometimes in a way which made him an alter ego of the principal saint of the Life. Such a death – whether of Odrán or another saint – could establish the sanctity of a site and could also express hierarchies of ecclesiastical authority. The cult of St Odrán on Iona, first attested in the twelfth century, fits this pattern. It is related to the claim that Derry made at the time to authority over the Columban familia. The cult of Odrán is also related to the layout of Iona's holy places – chapels and burial grounds – and to the ritual movement between them involving both the living and the dead.