Beccán mac Luigdech

Beccán mac Luigdechwas a 7th-century Irish composer ofChristian poetryandmonkofIona.He is known for having composed two vernacular poems,Fo réir Choluimb( "Bound to Colum" ) andTiugraind Beccáin( "The last verses of Beccán" ), which were writtenc.640 in praise of StColumba,the founder of Iona.Along withAmraCholuim Cille,the fragment of theLifeof StCumméne(Cummian) andAdomnán'sLifeof Columba, the poems offer a contemporary glimpse of the monasticfamiliaof Iona in the 7th century.Beccán has been identified with the Beccánsolitarius( "hermit, anchorite" ) who along withSégéne, abbot of Iona,was addressed in a letter written by Cumméne inc.632–33 concerning theEaster controversy.He may also be the Beccán ofRùm,whose death is recorded in the entry for 677 in theAnnals of Ulster.

Secondary sources

• Charles-Edwards, T.M..Early Christian Ireland.Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000.
• Ó Cróinín, Dáibhí.Early medieval Ireland, 400-1200.London: Longman, 1995.

Further reading

• Fo réir Choluimb,ed. and tr. Fergus Kelly in "A Poem in Praise of Columb Cille."Ériu24 (1973). pp. 1–34.
• Tiugraind Beccáin,ed. and tr. Fergus Kelly, "Tiughraind Bhécáin."Ériu26 (1975). pp. 66–98.
• Clancy, Thomas Owen and Gilbert Márkus.Iona. The Earliest Poetry of a Celtic Monastery.Edinburgh, 1994. pp. 129–34.
• Walsh, M. and Dáibhí Ó Cróinín, (ed. and tr.).Cummian's Letter de Controversia Paschali and the De Ratione Conputandi.Pontifical Institute of Medieval Studies, Studies and Texts 86. Toronto, 1988. pp. 7–15.
• Herbert, Máire.Iona, Kells and Derry: the history and hagiography of the monastic Familia of Columba.Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1988.