No CrossRef data available.
We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.
We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 01 January 2025
Several writers in the recent outburst of Dante literature dwelt on his debt to Ireland, to the legends of St. Fursey and to the literature dealing with the most renowned pilgrimage of the western world, the Purgatory of St. Patrick in Ireland. I call it ‘the most renowned’ because centuries before the birth of the glorious martyr of Canterbury, pilgrims visited the lonely isle in Donegal where tradition says that St. Patrick spent several periods of penance.
Legends grew around the holy spot, and the literature of Europe teems with references to the Purgatory of St. Patrick with its wonderful cave where some penitents saw visions of worlds of sorrow and of joy. From nearly every nation in Europe came pilgrims:
’ With footsteps strong’ and bosom brave Looking for that mysterious Cave,
Where the pitying heavens still show
How my salvation I may gain
By bearing in this life the purgatorial pain.’
From England came Alfred the Great. From Wales came the Knight Owen about the year 1153. The wonders seen by him in the cave are recorded in the Chronicle of Roger of Wendover. From Italy came Guarino da Durazzo and Godelath (1248). The Royal Library of Turin holds records of the wonders seen and heard by him in the holy spot. From Flanders came Le Sire de Beaujean in 1305. In the weird cave he had a vision of souls in hell, some of whom he recognised. From Hungary in 1353 came George Crissaphan, and his wonderful visions are long to narrate.