The Stowe Enigma: Decoding the Mystery

Abstract

The Stowe Missal is something of an enigma for the modern scholar. In attempting to decode this enigma, we discover that two avenues of investigation open up before us. We can treat the Stowe Missal as the exemplar of a Celtic liturgical tradition, but we are hampered in this approach by the fact that Stowe is a lone example of this tradition. Alternatively, we can examine this missal as an insular example in the wider western liturgical tradition and see what this has to tell us about the liturgical practice of the ninth-century Irish Church. This is the approach adopted in this article.