The Latin Lives of St Laurence of Dublin

The four Latin ‘ lives’ of St Laurence O’ Toole (with ancillary material) were critically edited for a doctoral thesis by Maurice Roche in 1981. Sadly Dr Roche died in an accident in 2003. The thesis went ‘ missing’ but photographs of it were made available to Mary Kelly and from these Charles Doherty and Mary produced this book. Contact was made with Dr Roche’ s relatives who were happy to see his work in print. It was a two volume thesis (now reduced to one). The first consisted of chapters on the life and career of Laurence and invaluable analyses of each of the ‘ lives’ revealing the relationships among them and highlighting the very diverse approaches of the hagiographers to their material. The second contains the critical editions of the ‘ lives’ . For the first time we have a complete dossier of the hagiography of the saint. Critical editions of documents concerning the canonisation and translation followed the ‘ lives’ . Finally, draft translations of the two most important ‘ lives’ (found by his relatives) are appended. The thesis is of fundamental importance for scholars working in twelfth- and thirteenth-century Irish, English and European history.

Charles Doherty is retired from the School of History and Archives, UCD. Dr Maurice Roche completed his PhD at UCD in 1981. Working as a senior aide to Mary Harney, he died in 2003 following an accident. At the time of his death Mary Harney wrote: “ Maurice was the brightest and sharpest person I ever had the privilege to know.” Mary Kelly, now retired, was an OPW guide at Glendalough for many years.