Amra is the name of certain ancient
Irish elegies or panegyrics on native
saints
In religious belief, a saint is a person who is recognized as having an exceptional degree of holiness
Sacred describes something that is dedicated or set apart for the service or worship of a deity; is considered worthy of spiritual res ...
. The best known is ''Amra Coluimb Chille'' (the song of
Columbkille
Columba or Colmcille; gd, Calum Cille; gv, Colum Keeilley; non, Kolban or at least partly reinterpreted as (7 December 521 – 9 June 597 AD) was an Irish abbot and missionary evangelist credited with spreading Christianity in what is toda ...
).
''Amra Coluim Chille''
According to the traditional account the ''Amra Coluim Chille'' was composed about the year 575 by
Dallán Forgaill
Eochaid mac Colla ( 560 – 640), better known as Saint Dallán or Dallán Forgaill ( sga, Dallán Forchella; la, Dallanus Forcellius; Primitive Irish: ''Dallagnas Worgēllas''), was an early Christian Irish poet and saint known as the writer of ...
, the
Chief Ollam of Ireland of that time, in gratitude for the services of
St. Columba
Columba or Colmcille; gd, Calum Cille; gv, Colum Keeilley; non, Kolban or at least partly reinterpreted as (7 December 521 – 9 June 597 AD) was an Irish abbot and missionary evangelist credited with spreading Christianity in what is toda ...
in saving the bards from expulsion at the great assembly of
Druim Cetta in that year.
"The Amra is not", says Stokes, "as Professor Atkinson supposed, a fragment which indicates great antiquity." Strachan, however, on linguistic grounds, assigns it in its present form to about the year 800 (Rev. Celt., XVII, 14).
Stokes, too, seems to favour this view (ibid., XX, 16). But Strachan adds "perhaps something more may be learned from a prolonged study of this and other such as the Amra Senain and the Amra Conroi." Dallan was the author of the former, "held in great repute", says Colgan, "on account of its gracefulness", and also of another Amra on St. Conall Cael of
Inishkeel in
Donegal Donegal may refer to:
County Donegal, Ireland
* County Donegal, a county in the Republic of Ireland, part of the province of Ulster
* Donegal (town), a town in County Donegal in Ulster, Ireland
* Donegal Bay, an inlet in the northwest of Ireland b ...
, with whom he was buried in one grave.
Editions
The ''Amra Coluim Chille'' was printed with a translation by O'Beirne Crowe in 1871 from the imperfect text in the
Lebor na hUidre
The manuscript known as Lebor na hUidre (English translation: Book of the Dun Cow) is the oldest extant written in Gaelic (Irish), and the texts included therein recount Irish history through an eschatological lens. The Christian authors who c ...
; also in his edition of the "
Liber Hymnorum" by Professor Atkinson, and in his "Goidelica" by Whitley Stokes, from an imperfect text in
Trinity College, Dublin
, name_Latin = Collegium Sanctae et Individuae Trinitatis Reginae Elizabethae juxta Dublin
, motto = ''Perpetuis futuris temporibus duraturam'' (Latin)
, motto_lang = la
, motto_English = It will last i ...
.
The Bodleian text (Rawlinson B. 502) was edited, with a translation, for the first time (Rev. Celt., vols. XX-XXI) by Stokes.
The standard modern edition of the Amra is the 2019 work by Jacopo Bisagni.
[ rit. ed. r.Bisagni, Jacopo, Amrae Coluimb Chille: a critical edition, Early Irish Text Series 1, Dublin: Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies, 2019]
References
External links
Saint Dallán Forgaill (c.560 -c.640), alias Eochaid Éices
Sources
{{Catholic, wstitle=Amra
Christianity in medieval Ireland
Christian hagiography
Christian poetry