Cecilíu saga is an Old Norse-Icelandic saints' saga that recounts the legend of St Cecilia. It is preserved in three manuscripts, but is only complete in Kirkjubæjarbók.[1] The version of the saga preserved in Stock. Perg. fol no. 2 includes two Icelandic miracles of St Cecilia.[2][3] These are notable for being one of the very few examples of miracles performed by non-native saints, and as an example of early hagiographic composition in Iceland rather than translations from Latin exemplars.[4] Cormack notes that while these miracles may be late compositions, "they give the impression of being genuine records of an early cultus".[2]
Cecilia's feast day November 22 was adopted as Holy Day of Obligation in Iceland in 1179 under Þorlákr Þórhallsson.[2]
The saga also includes an account of the passions of Sts Tiburtius and Valerian.[5]
Cecilia appears in three Old Norse-Icelandic poems: Vísur Cecilíu (ca. 1300-1500); Cecilíudiktur (ca. 1400-1550); and the fourteenth-century Heilagra meyja drápa (stanzas 18-21).[6]
Bibliography
editA comprehensive bibliography can be found in Wolf's The Legends of the Saints in Old Norse-Icelandic Prose.[7]
Manuscripts
edit- AM 235 fol.
- AM 429 12mo (Kirkjubæjarbók)
- Stock. Perg. fol no. 2
Editions
edit- Foote, Peter (1962). Lives of Saints: Perg. fol. nr. 2 in the Royal Library, Stockholm. Early Icelandic Manuscripts in Facsimile 4. Copenhagen: Rosenkilde and Bagger.
- Unger, Carl Richard (1877). Heilagra manna søgur. Vol. 1. Christiania. pp. 276–297.
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link) - Wolf, Kirsten (2011). A Female Legendary from Iceland: "Kirkjubæjarbók" (AM 429 12mo) in The Arnamagnæan Collection, Copenhagen. Manuscripta Nordica: Early Nordic Manuscripts in Digital Facsimile 3. Copenhagen: Museum Tusculanum Press. pp. 92–108.
- Wolf, Kirsten (2003). Heilagra meyja sögu. Íslensk trúarrit 1. Reykjavík: Bókmenntafræðistofnun Háskola Íslands. pp. 101–122. [Modern Icelandic edition]
References
edit- ^ Wolf, Kirsten (2003). The Legends of the Saints in Old Norse-Icelandic Prose. Toronto, Buffalo, London: University of Toronto Press. p. 71. ISBN 9781442646216.
- ^ a b c Cormack, Margaret (1994). The Saints in Iceland: Their Veneration from the Conversion to 1400. Subsidia Hagiographica 78. Bruxelles: Société des Bollandistes. p. 89. ISBN 2-87365-006-0.
- ^ Svanhildur Óskarsdóttir. “II: 7 Miracles.” In Handbook of Pre-Modern Nordic Memory Studies: Interdisciplinary Approaches, edited by Jürg Glauser, Pernille Hermann, and Stephen A. Mitchell, 433–38. Berlin: De Gruyter, 2018.
- ^ Margaret, Cormack (2005). "Christian Biography". In McTurk, Rory (ed.). A Companion to Old Norse-Icelandic Literature and Culture. Malden, Oxford, Victoria: Blackwell Publishing. pp. 30.
- ^ Wolf, Kirsten (2003). The Legends of the Saints in Old Norse-Icelandic Prose. Toronto, Buffalo, London: University of Toronto Press. p. 74. ISBN 9781442646216.
- ^ Wolf, Kirsten; Van Deusen, Natalie M. (2017). The Saints in Old Norse and Early Modern Icelandic Poetry. Toronto, Buffalo, London: University of Toronto Press. pp. 57–59.
- ^ Wolf, Kirsten (2013). The Legends of the Saints in Old Norse-Icelandic prose. Toronto, Buffalo, London: University of Toronto Press. pp. 71–74. ISBN 9781442646216.