A Communion of the Created: Beasts, Books, and Saints in early Medieval Irish *vitae*.

This paper addresses the roles of human and non-human animals in the religious narratives of early medieval Ireland. Texts are drawn from the *Acta Sanctorum Hiberniae* with an emphasis on those found in the *Codex Salmanticensis*.  Selected narratives betray a construction of both human and non-human animals as together occupying the community of the Created—the Incarnated--- with the Divine functioning as the powerful Other. The problematic categorizations of “domestic”, “wild”, and “fabulous” animals will also be explored leading to a discussion on the role of traditionally “wild” animals in conjunction with sacred texts and non-human animals as participants in the cosmological transformations of early medieval Ireland. The paper concludes with a comparison of the manner in which human and non-human animals are conceived in the narratives of St. Francis versus the early Irish saints, particularly in the concept of their relationship and access to the Divine Other.