Ten Thousand Saints

"Exactly – Butler’s Ten Thousand Saints . This is a wonderfully scholarly and yet irreverent book which pokes fun at every aspect of Irish notions of sanctity, and includes detailed descriptions of the activities of St Patrick’s sister, St Lupita. Butler writes, ‘Perhaps because Lupita’s name recalls lupanar (a brothel) and lupanus (lewd) in Latin, or maybe because lupait means a little pig in Irish, she was very careless with her reputation.’ Lupita had a flock of illegitimate children sired by three other Irish saints, and was finally caught in flagrante with one of them by her brother, who was so cross that he drove over her three times in his chariot, with the result that she died, and in spite of her waywardness was immediately allowed into heaven while Patrick was singing her requiem over her dead body. St Patrick then said that her descendants would be allowed into heaven too, but they would all be sickly. Butler however has a serious point, showing that most of the myriads of oddly named and eccentrically behaved Irish saints are in fact mythical tribal ancestors or local gods. They were turned into saints to facilitate the Christianisation of the country in the fifth and sixth centuries."