Sacred Networks: New Perspectives on Hagiography and Saints’ Cults in the Celtic and Norse Worlds was held on 1-2 May at University College Dublin, and was organised by the Celtic Hagiography Network and Norse Hagiography Network (Courtney Selvage, Tiffany White, Jesse Harrington, Davide Salmoiraghi, Steffen Hope, Russell Ó Ríagáin, Sarah Waidler, Natasha Bradley and Nicholas Thyr).

The theme of our conference, “New Perspectives,” was intentionally broad, as we sought to include speakers in all stages of their careers to speak on all aspects of hagiography and to highlight the work of early career scholars. Professor Siân Grønlie, author of The Saint and the Saga Hero, delivered an incredible keynote lecture on Jóns saga postula. We were able to open the conference on 30 April with an exhibition of manuscripts at the Royal Irish Academy, and end with a tour of St Audoen’s Church, Christ Church Cathedral, and the National Museum of Ireland collections.

The question sessions for each panel were open discussion as we sought to establish and progress interfield and intergenerational dialogues. In the context of hagiography we felt this was crucial, considering the long history of the study of hagiography in Celtic Studies, and hagiography as a ‘new’ field in Old Norse/Scandinavian Studies. A comment that arose in many forms over the course of the conference was “I didn’t know that” and attendees felt they had learned much from the conference, which emphasises the importance and value of conferences with comparative themes, and the many perspectives presented by our speakers and given by attendees.

The conference was free of charge and streamed online, and we had around seventy total attendees online and in person over both days. The funding received from SSNS, which we are exceedingly grateful for, enabled us in many ways to facilitate this wonderful opportunity to bring the work of early career scholars to the forefront, as well as to commission a local artist (Patrick McHugh) to design a logo for our programmes and posters which embodied ‘Celtic’ and ringerike style knotwork in representation of our two networks coming together. We are glad to have been able to put on such a successful conference and to facilitate greater understanding of our respective hagiographies and saints, as well as new conversations and connections between our fields going forward.

Thank you so much for the support of the society again. The funds from SSNS were mainly used towards a drinks reception, printing costs (posters, programmes, etc), student dinner bursaries, travel costs, and dinner for our keynote speaker, and enabled us to host and organise an incredibly successful event.

• Dr Courtney Selvage (University of College Dublin)