Bell shrines are metal objects built to hold individual early medieval
hand-bells, particularly those associated with early Irish saints. Although the enshrinement of bells lasted from the 9th to the 16th centuries, the more well-known examples date from the 11th century. Nineteen such Irish or British bell shrines survive, along with several fragments (mostly
crests), although many more would have been produced. Of those extant, fifteen are Irish, three are Scottish and one is English. Most follow the general shape of a hand-bell capped with a crest above a semicircular cap that matches the shape of a bell handle.
The shrines are mostly of bronze and decorated with silver,
rock crystal
Quartz is a hard, crystalline mineral composed of silica (silicon dioxide). The atoms are linked in a continuous framework of SiO4 silicon–oxygen tetrahedra, with each oxygen being shared between two tetrahedra, giving an overall chemical fo ...
and
niello
Niello is a black mixture, usually of sulphur, copper, silver, and lead, used as an inlay on engraved or etched metal, especially silver. It is added as a powder or paste, then fired until it melts or at least softens, and flows or is push ...
. They can be classified into two basic formats; at first as fixed mounds attached to the bell known as "applied" shrines (eight examples) and later as separate autonomous metal containers (eleven examples). Those of the latter type could no longer be rung and so were used for ceremonial or display purposes only. Decorative material includes silver, gold, glass and rock crystal, and of designs using
filigree
Filigree (also less commonly spelled ''filagree'', and formerly written ''filigrann'' or ''filigrene'') is a form of intricate metalwork used in jewellery and other small forms of metalwork.
In jewellery, it is usually of gold and silver, m ...
,
cloisonné
Cloisonné () is an ancient technology, ancient technique for decorating metalwork objects with colored material held in place or separated by metal strips or wire, normally of gold. In recent centuries, vitreous enamel has been used, but inla ...
,
openwork
In art history, architecture, and related fields, openwork or open-work is any decorative technique that creates holes, piercings, or gaps through a solid material such as metal, wood, stone, pottery, cloth, leather, or ivory. Such techniques ha ...
, and
interlace patterns. The majority are in the collections of the
National Museum of Ireland
The National Museum of Ireland () is Ireland's leading museum institution, with a strong emphasis on national and some international archaeology, Irish history, Irish art, culture, and natural history. It has three branches in Dublin, the arch ...
(NMI), the
National Museum of Scotland
The National Museum of Scotland in Edinburgh, Scotland, is a museum of Scottish history and culture.
It was formed in 2006 with the merger of the new Museum of Scotland, with collections relating to Scottish antiquities, culture and history, ...
(NMS) and the
British Museum
The British Museum is a Museum, public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is the largest in the world. It documents the story of human cu ...
(BM).
The surviving examples are undated and unprovenanced, and very few have inscriptions. A number were found in bogs, within church walls, or at the bottom of rivers, presumably after they were hidden during the
Viking
Vikings were seafaring people originally from Scandinavia (present-day Denmark, Norway, and Sweden),
who from the late 8th to the late 11th centuries raided, pirated, traded, and settled throughout parts of Europe.Roesdahl, pp. 9� ...
and later
Anglo-Norman invasions of Ireland. Others were kept by successive generations of hereditary keepers but by the 17th century, had become seen as objects of superstition and of low historical value. The revaluation of early medieval metalwork craftsmanship began in the mid-19th century and since an 1838 a lecture by George Petrie on "ancient Irish consecrated Bells", a number of these shrines are considered highpoints of both Irish and Scottish
Insular and early
Romanesque metalwork.
Early Irish and Scottish hand-bells
Origins

Early Irish church
hand-bells (Irish: ''clog'') are the most numerous surviving forms of early medieval relics from either Ireland, England or Wales, and were likely the most prestigious, given they were widely thought to have been built either for or by the saint. Approximately 300 examples are known, with the majority produced between the 5th and early 12th centuries. The bells were passed between generations of successive abbots and clerics, and served a number of communal functions, including the marking of
canonical hours
In the practice of Christianity, canonical hours mark the divisions of the day in terms of Fixed prayer times#Christianity, fixed times of prayer at regular intervals. A book of hours, chiefly a breviary, normally contains a version of, or sel ...
and calling for
mass
Mass is an Intrinsic and extrinsic properties, intrinsic property of a physical body, body. It was traditionally believed to be related to the physical quantity, quantity of matter in a body, until the discovery of the atom and particle physi ...
. However, by the 12th century hand-bells had largely been replaced by larger church tower bells, and although many stayed in use, their production declined.
In the early medieval period, monks served a number of functions in the communities in which they lived. At the most fundamental level, their
devotions and prayers were seen
intercessory between mortals and the divine, and so were seen as mediators for the community. This role was reinforced in the settlements where the monks held a bell relic from an early
insular church saint. The role of mediator appears in the
hagiography
A hagiography (; ) is a biography of a saint or an ecclesiastical leader, as well as, by extension, an adulatory and idealized biography of a preacher, priest, founder, saint, monk, nun or icon in any of the world's religions. Early Christian ...
of a number of such saints;
Patrick Patrick may refer to:
*Patrick (given name), list of people and fictional characters with this name
* Patrick (surname), list of people with this name
People
*Saint Patrick (c. 385–c. 461), Christian saint
* Gilla Pátraic (died 1084), Patrick ...
(fl. 5th century) supposedly made "a pact
ith God
The Ith () is a ridge in Germany's Central Uplands which is up to 439 m high. It lies about 40 km southwest of Hanover and, at 22 kilometers, is the longest line of crags in North Germany.
Geography
Location
The Ith is ...
for favourable treatment of the Irish in exchange for his services as a missionary". Later the bell of
Ciarán of Saigir
Ciarán of Saigir (; 5th century – ), also known as Ciarán mac Luaigne or Saint Kieran (), was one of the Twelve Apostles of Ireland and is considered the first saint to have been born in Ireland,''Catholic Online''St. Kieran/ref> a ...
(d. c. 530) was "taken through the surrounding district for the co-swearing of chieftans
..and the exaction of the tributes of the saint's monastery."
Types

The bells vary in size and level and type of decoration depending on their age. They typically have a tapered
quadrilateral
In Euclidean geometry, geometry a quadrilateral is a four-sided polygon, having four Edge (geometry), edges (sides) and four Vertex (geometry), corners (vertices). The word is derived from the Latin words ''quadri'', a variant of four, and ''l ...
shape. Of the seventy-three surviving examples identified in 1980 by the archeologist
Cormac Bourke
Cormac Bourke (born in Dublin) is an Irish archeologist specialising in Medieval studies, early church history and insular Christianity. He is a former, long term, curator of Medieval Antiquities at the Ulster Museum, Belfast, and currently works ...
, forty-two are of iron and the rest of bronze. He identified two broad groups. His class 1 bells are made from sheet
iron
Iron is a chemical element; it has symbol Fe () and atomic number 26. It is a metal that belongs to the first transition series and group 8 of the periodic table. It is, by mass, the most common element on Earth, forming much of Earth's o ...
plates lined with
bronze
Bronze is an alloy consisting primarily of copper, commonly with about 12–12.5% tin and often with the addition of other metals (including aluminium, manganese, nickel, or zinc) and sometimes non-metals (such as phosphorus) or metalloid ...
coating and joined by
rivet
A rivet is a permanent mechanical fastener. Before being installed, a rivet consists of a smooth cylinder (geometry), cylindrical shaft with a head on one end. The end opposite the head is called the ''tail''. On installation, the deformed e ...
s, range in height from to and were constructed by folding the main sheet along its short axis and then folding its shoulder-pieces to cover the crest and top edges. Class 2 bells are in cast bronze, with the bell and handle cast as a single piece. They are usually slightly smaller, with a range from . Class 4 bells, dating from the 9th century and produced until the 16th century, designate the numerous replicas or imitations of earlier bells.
A small number of the later shrines and shrine fragments have inscriptions. Some have decorative
lozenge
Lozenge or losange may refer to:
* Lozenge (shape), a type of rhombus
*Throat lozenge
A throat lozenge (also known as a cough drop, sore throat sweet, troche, cachou, pastille or cough sweet) is a small, typically medicated tablet intended to ...
s, perhaps drawing from
Carolingian
The Carolingian dynasty ( ; known variously as the Carlovingians, Carolingus, Carolings, Karolinger or Karlings) was a Frankish noble family named after Charles Martel and his grandson Charlemagne, descendants of the Arnulfing and Pippinid c ...
Ivory carving
Ivory carving is the carving of ivory, that is to say animal tooth or tusk, generally by using sharp cutting tools, either mechanically or manually. Objects carved in ivory are often called "ivories".
Humans have ornamentally carved ivory sinc ...
. All of the extant shrines were built for iron bells; presumably as this class was older, they were more likely to be associated with a known early saint. Several were thought to have been owned or constructed by saints such as
Patrick Patrick may refer to:
*Patrick (given name), list of people and fictional characters with this name
* Patrick (surname), list of people with this name
People
*Saint Patrick (c. 385–c. 461), Christian saint
* Gilla Pátraic (died 1084), Patrick ...
,
Colum Cille
Columba () or Colmcille (7 December 521 – 9 June 597 AD) was an Gaelic Ireland, Irish abbot and missionary evangelist credited with spreading Christianity in what is today Scotland at the start of the Hiberno-Scottish mission. He founded the ...
and
Kentigern
Kentigern (; ), known as Mungo, was a missionary in the Celtic Britons, Brittonic Kingdom of Strathclyde in the late sixth century, and the founder and patron saint of the city of Glasgow.
Name
In Wales and England, this saint is known by his b ...
.
Function
The shrines were commissioned to bestow status and the ecclesiastical location or office holding the original bell-relic. According to Bourke, "enshrinement promoted bells as ecclesiastical trophies and accessories to saint's cults." Objects associated with early saints were venerated in Ireland and Britain during the
early medieval period
The Early Middle Ages (or early medieval period), sometimes controversially referred to as the Dark Ages, is typically regarded by historians as lasting from the late 5th to the 10th century. They marked the start of the Middle Ages of Europe ...
for their reputed
miraculous powers and became an important feature of religious life. Irish monasticism generally avoided dissecting the corporeal remains of its leaders for relics and instead venerated objects with which the saint had had close personal contact. From the 10th century, relics were often cased in elaborate metal covering, with bell shrines,
staffs,
cumdach
A (, in Irish "cover"Joynt (1917), p. 186) or book shrine is an elaborate ornamented metal reliquary box or case used to hold History of Ireland (400–800), Early Medieval Irish manuscripts or relics. They are typically later than the book t ...
s (book shrines),
house-shaped shrine
House-shaped shrine (or church or tomb-shaped shrines)Crawford (1923), p. 82 are early medieval portable metal reliquaries formed in the shape of the roof of a rectangular building. They originate from both Ireland and Scotland and mostly date fr ...
s and pieces of clothing being the most common types. The practice of enshrinement was so unique to Ireland that
Gerald of Wales
Gerald of Wales (; ; ; ) was a Cambro-Norman priest and historian. As a royal clerk to the king and two archbishops, he travelled widely and wrote extensively. He studied and taught in France and visited Rome several times, meeting the Pope. He ...
(d. ) remarked the Irish had "great reverence
orbells that can be carried about, and staffs belonging to the saints,...so much so that they fear to swear or perjure themselves in making oaths on these, much more than they do in swearing on the gospels".

A second period of enshrinement lasted from the early 14th to late 15th centuries, when the earlier reliquaries were heavily reworked or refurbished; thus many of these objects are said to have been built in two phases. Shrines from the second phase were often commissioned by secular owners who used their prestige to reinforce personal loyalty from a local bishop as insurers of treaties or contracts and to grant authority for tax collection.
Of the nineteen surviving Insular bell shrines, fifteen are Irish, three are Scottish, and one is English. Twelve are associated with a particular saint, in the other cases the identity of the saint is lost. It is assumed that by the time the bells were enshrined, they were already venerated
relic
In religion, a relic is an object or article of religious significance from the past. It usually consists of the physical remains or personal effects of a saint or other person preserved for the purpose of veneration as a tangible memorial. Reli ...
s; there is no contemporary mention or documentation as to why or by whom they were commissioned or constructed; apart from brief inscriptions on three intact shrines and one crest fragment. Although some sources expect that they were commissioned by high-kings for
abbey
An abbey is a type of monastery used by members of a religious order under the governance of an abbot or abbess. Abbeys provide a complex of buildings and land for religious activities, work, and housing of Christians, Christian monks and nun ...
s, the art-historian Karen Overbey observes that the lack of documentary evidence means the objects cannot be contextualized "nor located in secular and ecclesiastical politics".
Characteristics
The shrines retain the tapered quadrilateral shape of hand-bells. Their basic shape is constructed with a number of iron or bronze plates: four on the sides and one covering the base. The plates are typically richly decorated with materials such as silver,
rock crystal
Quartz is a hard, crystalline mineral composed of silica (silicon dioxide). The atoms are linked in a continuous framework of SiO4 silicon–oxygen tetrahedra, with each oxygen being shared between two tetrahedra, giving an overall chemical fo ...
, and
niello
Niello is a black mixture, usually of sulphur, copper, silver, and lead, used as an inlay on engraved or etched metal, especially silver. It is added as a powder or paste, then fired until it melts or at least softens, and flows or is push ...
. It is thought that this decoration occurred on flat sheets after the panels were cast, but before they were assembled.
Their front plates typically contain a large central
cross
A cross is a religious symbol consisting of two Intersection (set theory), intersecting Line (geometry), lines, usually perpendicular to each other. The lines usually run vertically and horizontally. A cross of oblique lines, in the shape of t ...
added in their second, late medieval phase, although some of these are lost. Where the Christ figure does survive, it is often outsized compared to his cross and shows a figure that is obviously dead, with a drooping head and rigid body. According to Overbey, such foregrounds emphasise the role of "monastic prayer as powerfully apotropaic, even
salvific
Salvation (from Latin: ''salvatio'', from ''salva'', 'safe, saved') is the state of being saved or protected from harm or a dire situation. In religion and theology, ''salvation'' generally refers to the deliverance of the soul from sin and its c ...
...holy relics are simultaneously safeguarded and defensive; the saints and their guardians, whether angelic or monastic, protect each other".
Although four examples are missing their bells, those bells that survive are made of iron: iron bells were no longer being produced by the end of the 10th century, while bronze bells were later and continued to be made into the 12th century, thus making them less likely to have an association with an early Irish saint. A number of surviving iron bells contain rivets or rivet holes, indicating that they were once enshrined.
The shrines usually have handles or brackets on the short sides. These would have held straps or bronze chains as the shrines were intended to be carried around the shoulder for display at procession, pilgrimage or
at battle. The wire chain for the Scottish Bell shrine of Kilmichael survives and is long and made from series of
s-curved links.
Selected examples
The better-known bell shrines include the
Shrine of St. Patrick's Bell (), the badly damaged Corp Naomh (cap and crest 10th century; front and back panels 15th century), the Bell Shrine of St. Cuileáin (11th or 12th century) and the Bell Shrine of St. Conall Cael (15th century).
[Bell shrine of St. Conall Cael]
. British Museum
The British Museum is a Museum, public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is the largest in the world. It documents the story of human cu ...
. Retrieved 22 October 2022 From its inscriptions, it is known that Patrick's shrine was commissioned after 1091 by the
Uí Néill
The Uí Néill (; meaning "descendants of Niall") are Irish dynasties that claim descent from Niall Noígíallach (Niall of the Nine Hostages), a historical King of Tara who is believed to have died around c. 405. They are generally divided ...
High King
Domnall Ua Lochlainn
Domhnall Ua Lochlainn (old spelling: Domnall Ua Lochlainn) (1048 – 10 February 1121), also known as Domhnall Mac Lochlainn (old spelling: Domnall Mac Lochlainn), was king of the Cenél Eogain, over-king of Ailech, and alleged High King o ...
, and donated to the
Bishop of Armagh
The Archbishop of Armagh is an archiepiscopal title which takes its name from the see city of Armagh in Northern Ireland. Since the Reformation, there have been parallel apostolic successions to the title: one in the Catholic Church and the ot ...
. It is the earliest known example and is believed by Bourke to have been the innovation on which all later examples were based.
File:Campana di san patrizio e il suo contenitore, da armagh, co. armagh, VI-VIII secolo, poi 1100 ca. 09 (cropped).jpg, Interlace patterns on the left side of St. Patrick's Bell Shrine: the earliest, most elaborate and best preserved surviving example of the type. National Museum of Ireland
The National Museum of Ireland () is Ireland's leading museum institution, with a strong emphasis on national and some international archaeology, Irish history, Irish art, culture, and natural history. It has three branches in Dublin, the arch ...
(NMI).
File:Reliquiario del corp naomh (sacro corpo), argento e bronzo con cristallo di rocca, da Templecross, co. Westmeath, x poi xv secolo, 01.jpg, The Corp Naomh (''Holy'' or ''Sacred Body''). The original bell is lost, as is the identity of the associated saint. NMI.
File:St Cuileain Bell.JPG, Bell Shrine of St. Cuileáin. While the structure is intact, most of the decorative panels are lost. British Museum
The British Museum is a Museum, public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is the largest in the world. It documents the story of human cu ...
(BM).
File:Contenitore della campana di san Senano di Inis Cathaigh, xi secolo, dal'isola di scattery, co. di clare.jpg, Shrine of St. Senan's Bell, 11th or 12th century, NMI.
File:The Guthrie Bell Shrine.jpg, The Guthrie Bell Shrine, 12th century. National Museum of Scotland
The National Museum of Scotland in Edinburgh, Scotland, is a museum of Scottish history and culture.
It was formed in 2006 with the merger of the new Museum of Scotland, with collections relating to Scottish antiquities, culture and history, ...
(NMS).[Iona Bell]
. National Museum of Scotland
The National Museum of Scotland in Edinburgh, Scotland, is a museum of Scottish history and culture.
It was formed in 2006 with the merger of the new Museum of Scotland, with collections relating to Scottish antiquities, culture and history, ...
. Retrieved 22 October 2022
File:Bell Shrine of Conall Cael (front 2).jpg, Bell Shrine of Conall Cael. The bell is 6th century. Although the shrine was initiated in the 12th century it underwent a major reworking in the 15th century.[Speakman, Naomi]
Bell and Bell Shrine of St. Conall Cael
. Cleveland Museum of Art
The Cleveland Museum of Art (CMA) is an art museum in Cleveland, Ohio, United States. Located in the Wade Park District of University Circle, the museum is internationally renowned for its substantial holdings of Asian art, Asian and Art of anc ...
& Columbia University
Columbia University in the City of New York, commonly referred to as Columbia University, is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Churc ...
. Retrieved 7 November 2022 British Museum.
File:Bell Shrine of Kilmichael Glasssary Anderson 1881 Fig 78 scotlandinearlyc00ande 0243.jpg, Bell shrine of Kilmichael (near Lochgilphead
Lochgilphead (; ) is a town and former burgh in Argyll and Bute, Scotland, with a population of around 2,300 people. It is the administrative centre of Argyll and Bute Council. The village lies at the end of Loch Gilp (a branch of Loch Fyne) an ...
) or the Tor A'bhlarain' bell shrine, 12th century, encasing a 7th–9th century bell possibly associated with Colmcille
Columba () or Colmcille (7 December 521 – 9 June 597 AD) was an Irish abbot and missionary evangelist credited with spreading Christianity in what is today Scotland at the start of the Hiberno-Scottish mission. He founded the important abbey ...
, NMS; drawing by Margaret Stokes.
File:The Wallace Collection (38648145045).jpg, Bell Shrine of St. Mura, 11th century. Reputed to have come from the Abbey of Fahan
Fahan (; pronounced 'Fawn'. ) is a district of Inishowen in the north of County Donegal, Ireland, located south of Buncrana. In Irish, Fahan is named after its patron saint, Saint Mura, first abbot of Fahan, an early Christian monastery.
Hi ...
, County Donegal, Ireland, where Saint Mura (c. 550-645) was the first abbot. Now in the Wallace Collection
The Wallace Collection is a museum in London occupying Hertford House in Manchester Square, the former townhouse (Great Britain), townhouse of the Seymour family, Marquess of Hertford, Marquesses of Hertford. It is named after Sir Richard Wall ...
, London.
References
Notes
Sources
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External links
The Bells of the Irish Saints 2021 video lecture by Cormac Bourke of the NMI
{{Bells
Bell-shrines
Celtic art
Celtic Christianity
Medieval art
Medieval history of Ireland
Medieval history of Scotland