Sacrifice and Salvation in Echtgus Úa Cúanáin’s Poetic Treatise on the Eucharist
‘Sacrifice and Salvation in Echtgus Úa Cúanáin’s Poetic Treatise on the Eucharist’, in Envisioning Christ on the Cross: Ireland and the Early Medieval West, ed. J. Mullins, J. Ní Ghrádaigh & R. Hawtree (Dublin: Four Courts Press, 2013), pp. 181-94
This essay discusses the use of the Passion narrative in Echtgus Úa Cúanáin’s Middle Irish poetic treatise on Eucharistic doctrine, arguing that Echtgus chose to emphasise the role of Christ as priest, and enactor of the first Eucharistic feast at the Last Supper, rather than focusing on Christ’s sacrifice on the cross. Connections with Lanfranc’s letter on Eucharistic doctrine and the Eucharistic controversy depicted in Bernard of Clairvaux’s Life of Malachy are also explored, as is Echtgus’s use of Paschasius Radbertus, De corpore et sanguine Domini.