I like the main idea Bitel is exploring here—looking at the cults of two early medieval female saints, Genovefa of Paris and Brigit of Kildare, within the religious, political, gender and material landscapes in which they lived. I think there's a lot of interesting work which remains to be done, exploring the interstices of gender, religion and topography, and Bitel does quite well at sketching out the landscape in which fifth century Gaulish and Irish holy women lived.

I do have some serious reservations, however. Genovefa and Brigit are largely discussed separately, to the extent that the book feels more like two essays welded together rather than a comparative study. I would have liked to see more comparison, and perhaps more discussion of early Christian women who had similar careers—the Empress Helena springs to mind. As with previous works of Bitel's that I've read, I have big methodological problems with her writing. The sources for such early figures are of course limited, and must be used with care; however, Bitel never really engages with the problem of using hagiographic texts to reconstruct a reality, and at times the line seems to be blurred between discussing the actual historical figures called Brigit and Genovefa and the later creations of multiple hagiographers.

Additionally, some of the archaeological evidence Bitel uses (especially about early Christianity in Britain is outdated, and she occasionally has a tendency to state as fact things which are disputed—no one is certain as to where St Patrick was born, for example, and if you're going to take a firm position on that, then you need to footnote the fact that there are alternative points of view. I also have some issues with her grasp of Irish, particularly issues of transcription/transliteration. I am only familiar with Modern Irish, of course, but it's not so dissimilar from Old/Middle Irish that I don't have some reservations. When my confidence is undermined about such small issues, I'm a little less minded to buy Bitel's overall argument. ( )