Bethóc, Prioress of Iona
Bethóc ingen Somairle[note 1] was a 13th century prioress, considered to have been the first of Iona Nunnery. She was a daughter of Somairle mac Gilla Brigte.
In about 1203, Bethóc's brother, Ragnall mac Somairle, founded the Benedictine Iona Abbey. Sometime afterwards, he founded the Augustinian nunnery on Iona. The precise foundation date of the Benedictine and Augustinian houses are unknown.[3] According to the Book of Clanranald, Bethóc was a "black nun", while the History of the MacDonalds states that she was prioress of Iona.[4] That Bethóc was associated with Iona, as claimed by these clan-traditions, is corroborated by an inscribed stone on Iona. In about 1695, Martin Martin described the Gaelic inscription to have read "Behag nijn Sorle vic Ilvrid priorissa" (which translates as "Prioress Bethóc, daughter of Somairle, son of Gilla Brigte").[5] The transcription was still legible in the 19th century.[6][note 2] It has been suggested that Bethóc was the original owner of the Iona Psalter, now preserved in the National Library of Scotland.[8]
Notes
- ^ Bethóc appears in modern English-language secondary sources under various names: Beatrice, Bethag,[1] and Bethoc.[2]
- ^ In the early 19th century, the inscription was recorded to have read "Behag Niin Shorle vic Ilvrid Priorissa".[7]
References
- Footnotes
- Bibliography
- McDonald, Russell Andrew (1995), "Scoto-Norse kings and the reformed religious orders: patterns of monastic patronage in twelfth-century Galloway and Argyll", Albion: A Quarterly Journal Concerned with British Studies (The North American Conference on British Studies) 27 (2): 187–219, JSTOR 4051525 .
- Sellar, William David Hamilton (1966), "The origins and ancestry of Somerled", The Scottish Historical Review (Edinburgh University Press) 44 (140), JSTOR 25528658 .
- Sellar, William David Hamilton (2004), "Somerled (d. 1164), king of the Hebrides and regulus of Argyll and Kintyre" (Subscription or UK public library membership required), Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/26782, http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/26782, retrieved 5 July 2011 .
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Bethóc, Prioress of Iona |
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First prioress of Iona Nunnery |
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