saints' lives

Lives of Irish saints were most often composed to assert property or territorial claims, and date mainly from periods when such claims were being put forward for the first time or being contested. The earliest lives, in Latin, belong to the second half of the 7th cent. Two lives of St Patrick of Armagh were compiled by Muirchú and Tírechán. A life was also composed for St Brigit of Kildare by Cogitosus. At Iona Adamnán wrote a life of Colum Cille shortly before 700. From c.850 to 950 a group of vernacular lives were written. The earliest of these was that of Brigit of Kildare; the latest a life of Adamnán, composed shortly after 950 at Kells.