Revisiting the Holy Well

On the typology and the worship status of sacred trees with a special reference to the Middle East

“…Concerning ancient Syria White states, "this early nature worship, whether of numerous Baalim of the Syrian oases or the local nymphs of the sacred springs of Hellas, required only the marked-off enclosure of holy ground beside the spring, or about the circle of trees in the sacred grove" [[ 82 ]:115]. Sacred trees associated with sacred wells are common in Britain even today [[ 35 ]:40–42; [ 83 ]:30].…”

The sacred and the body politic at Ireland's holy wells

“…Sociologist Michael Carroll and folklorist Diarmuid Ó Giolláin (who cites Carroll) suggest that distinct aspects of Irish popular religiosity such as doing the rounds at holy wells did not exist prior to the Reformation (Carroll ; Ó Giolláin ). Both ignore the archaeological record and narratives found in the early Christian hagiographies which provide insights into the mentalité of Early Christian Ireland .…”

Enchantments of stone: Confronting other-than-human agency in Irish pilgrimage practices

“…Set at the base of the conical peak, the cairn is the first in a sequence of ‘stations’, which pilgrims traditionally circumambulate clockwise, while reciting a sequence of prayers. Such rounding rituals appear in 19th-century accounts of turas , ‘journey’ practices undertaken at Croagh Patrick and other, more locally venerated pilgrimage sites around Ireland (Harbison, 1991; Hardy, 1840: 56–57; Ó Giolláin, 2005). The many pilgrims who return annually can observe a shifting assemblage of offerings deposited at Leacht Benáin and other stations along the path: crucifixes, photographs of departed loved ones, pendants of the Virgin and other saints, as well as coins, elastic hair ties, a golf tee, a plastic glow-in-the-dark star, and various other small trinkets a pilgrim might have had on their person.…”