Stay tuned for this article:
“The Crosfigell or Cross-Vigil in Celtic Orthodoxy: Sources, Theology, and Practice”
It is to be released by St Andrew’s OCC on the last week of December 2025.
Notes and Sources (with full URLs)
[1] Rule of the Céli Dé / “Rule of the Culdees” (primary text & English)
PDF edition and translation of the Rule (hosted on CelticOrthodoxy):
https://celticorthodoxy.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/RULE-OF-THE-CELI-DE.pdf
Parallel edition of the “Rule of Tallaght” (includes the same material in another form):
https://www.scribd.com/document/701200015/The-Rule-of-Tallaght
[2] Neil Xavier O’Donoghue, The Eucharist in Pre-Norman Ireland: Liturgy, Practice, and Society (PhD thesis, Maynooth)
Detailed discussion of the Rule of the Céli Dé passage on the “Breastplate of Devotion” (lúirech léire), the sequence “Pater… Deus in adjutorium… festina,” and its integration with the standard Western office formula (Gloria Patri and the sign of the Cross):
https://mural.maynoothuniversity.ie/id/eprint/5263/1/Neil_Xavier_O_Donoghue_20140722085341.pdf
[3] E. J. Gwynn & W. J. Purton, The Monastery of Tallaght, Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy 29C (1911)
Includes the “Teaching of Mael Ruain,” with descriptions of multiple cross-vigils, a gloss defining one cross-vigil as “lying prostrate with his arms stretched out in the form of a cross,” and the account of the cross-vigil with thirty Paternosters:
https://archive.org/download/monasteryoftalla29gwynuoft/monasteryoftalla29gwynuoft.pdf
[4] Amy G. Remensnyder, “Sacral Geographies: Saints, Shrines, and Territory in Medieval Ireland,” in Topographies of the Sacred (Brepols, 2012)
Discusses the term crosfigell as the “vigil of the Cross,” identifies it with the orans attitude in a crucifixion-like posture, and notes how the Félire Óengusso calls this posture lúirech léire (“breastplate of devotion”):
https://www.academia.edu/1906765/Sacral_Geographies_Saints_Shrines_and_Territory_in_Medieval_Ireland_Brepols_2012_
[5] Thom, The Ascetical Theology and Praxis of Sixth to Eighth Century Irish Monasticism (PhD thesis, University of Edinburgh)
Synthesises early Irish sources on fighill / figel / crosfigell, describing it as a form of prayer “performed kneeling or prostrate on the ground, with the hands extended in the form of the cross,” and emphasising its role as a physically demanding vigil that disciplines body and mind:
https://era.ed.ac.uk/bitstream/1842/7273/1/370588_vol1.pdf
[6] Lisa M. Bitel, Isle of the Saints: Monastic Settlement and Christian Community in Early Ireland (Cornell University Press, 1990)
Uses Gwynn & Purton’s material to describe Irish monks (including Mael Ruain) performing cross-vigils, “chanting prayers while stretching their arms out rigidly in the form of a cross,” highlighting this posture as a known monastic practice:
https://www.scribd.com/document/905532196/Lisa-M-Bitel-Isle-of-the-Saints-Monastic-Settlement-and-Christian-Community-in-Early-Ireland-1990-Cornell-University-Press-Libgen-li
[7] Kuno Meyer, “An Old Irish Treatise De Arreis,” Revue Celtique 15 (1894)
Edits and translates the early Irish penitential De arreis (“Of Commutations”), which contains multiple penances involving cross-vigils with the Beati, genuflexions, and blows; includes phrases like “seven Beati in cross-vigil” and “Beati immaculati in cross-vigil without lowering the arms”:
https://www.scribd.com/document/295854830/Meyer-1894-an-Old-Irish-Treatise-de-Arreis
[8] E. Monge Allen, “Beati immaculati in via: Sin and Reconciliation among the céli Dé of Tallaght and Terryglass” (research thesis / article)
Explains figel / crosfigell as either a time of vigil or a characteristic bodily posture, often linked with reciting Psaumes 118/119 and other psalms “without lowering the arms,” and analyses its role within Céli Dé penitential practice:
https://researchrepository.universityofgalway.ie/bitstreams/f421d801-a704-4c95-afa7-889c2c576bb7/download
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