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English Flowers of Orthodoxy 12
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Saint Conan of the Isle of Man (+648)
13 January
Conan is said to have been a disciple of St. Patrick, and to have lived to a very advanced age.
The Bollandists place Saint Conan amongst the early bishops of Man, and John Colgan gives an account of his life and labours. Unfortunately, the history of the Isle of Man in the fifth and sixth centuries is very obscure, and it is difficult to verify biographical details. However, Conan, who is also described as "Bishop of Inis-Patrick" left a distinct impression of his zeal for souls in the Isle of Man. Some authorities give the date of his death as 26 January, but Colgan, quoting from the ancient Irish martyrologies, gives 13 January, on which day Conan's feast is observed.
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Saint David of Wales (+589)
St David is the greatest figure in the Welsh Age of Saints, the bringer of Christianity to the Celtic tribes of Western Britain and the only native-born patron saint of the countries of Britain and Ireland.
His mother, St Non, gave birth to him on a Pembrokeshire clifftop during a raging storm. As she delivered him, a bolt of lighting is said to have struck a rock she was clinging to, splitting it in two and creating a holy well, which exists to this day. The nearby ruins of St Non’s Chapel also mark his birthplace.
St David was thought to have performed a number of miracles during his life, but the most famous one occurred when he was preaching to a large crowd in Llanddewi Brefi. When people at the back complained they could not see or hear him, the ground on which he was stood rose up to form a hill. At that very moment, a white dove, sent by God, settled on his shoulder.
It’s said that David played an important role in the battle between the Welsh and the Anglo-Saxons. The Welsh were losing more and more ground and part of the problem was that they couldn’t tell their foes apart from their own men, as their clothing was so similar. David called out to them: “Welshmen, you must mark yourselves so that you can better tell who is Saxon and who is Welsh.” Plucking a leek from the ground, he continued: “Here, wear these so you will know any soldier who does not have a leek is your enemy.” Although some of the soldiers thought this rather an odd idea, they went along with it as the monk was a man of God. Soon, every Welsh soldier was wearing a leek in his helmet and before long, the Welsh had won the battle. Leeks are still worn by the Welsh on his feast day (and national day of Wales), 1 March.
St David was well over 100 years old when he died on 1 March 589.
https://celticroutes.info/celtic-highlights-old/people-places/st-david/
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Saint Aidan of Lindisfarne (+651)
St Aidan was an Irish monk and missionary who travelled to Wales to study under St David. On his return to Ireland, he was inspired to build his own monastery at Ferns. St Edan’s Cathedral, thought to be the smallest cathedral in Western Europe, now stands on the site.
It’s said that during a later visit to Pembrokeshire, St David died in St Aidan’s arms.
https://celticroutes.info/celtic-highlights-old/people-places/st-david/
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St Colman O’Ficra and his ducks (+7th century)
St Colman O’Ficra was a saint who lived in the 7th century and founded a monastery on what is now St Colman’s Church in Templeshanbo, County Wexford.
Between two graveyards is a holy well and at this spot there was once a large pond supplied with water from the well. For many years after St Colman’s death a number of ducks lived on the pond and were believed to be under the saint’s special protection. St Colman had been fond of birds, and ducks were his favourites. The ducks were treated with great affection and tenderness, so much so that they became very tame and would even take food direct from the hands of the pilgrims who visited.
As these ducks were under such protection, legend said nothing could harm them – not that any of the villagers would dare to even disturb a single feather on their heads. However, because the ducks were so tame, someone fetching water from the pond on a dark night would occasionally head home with rather more than they’d bargained on. Without realising, they’d throw the contents of the vessel, bird and all, into a pot over a fire for boiling. But no matter how long the fire burned, or how much wood was added to it, the water stayed stone cold. Upon further inspection, the duck would be discovered swimming about in the pot and returned to the pond none the worse for its experience, at which point the pot would heat and the water boil without further delay.
https://celticroutes.info/celtic-highlights-old/people-places/st-colman-and-his-ducks/
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Lismore Abbey of Saint Carthage of Ireland (+6th century) and Saint Declan of Ardmore, Ireland (+5th century)
Lismore Heritage Town has had its fair share of visitors through the ages. St Carthage arrived here in 635 and founded Lismore Abbey, which attracted scholars from across Europe. Unfortunately, its riches also drew the rather less desirable Vikings, who proceeded to ransack the town and burn it to the ground.
A 30-minute drive south from Lismore will bring you to the coastal village of Ardmore. St Declan came across the village in the 5th century - albeit guided there by a stone on the waves, as opposed to a map or sat-nav – and founded a monastery. Today, its ruins are Ireland’s oldest Christian settlement. If you happen to be here on the 24th July, his feast day, join the pilgrims on the 4km cliff walk to St Declan’s Well to pay tribute.
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Saint Kevin of Glendalough, Ireland (+618)
The unfiltered beauty and heavenly tranquillity of Glendalough in County Wicklow is what attracts almost three-quarters of a million visitors each year. It’s also what brought St Kevin here in the 6th century, to spend 7 years in isolation before founding the monastery.
He chose to live in a metre-high cave by the shore of the upper lake. St Kevin’s Bed, as it is known, can still be seen from the north shore. It’s said he wore only animal skins, and that he threw them off in winter to immerse himself for hours in the freezing lake and, to achieve a similar effect in summer, to plunge himself into forests of nettles.
St Kevin had a deep love for nature and respect for all its creations. While praying in his cell with his arm outstretched, a blackbird nested in his hand. Kevin was forced to hold his hand there with trance-like stillness until all the eggs had hatched and the chicks had fledged and flown away.
His hospitality extended to his fellow man too. Despite spending 7 years in solitude, he became known as a holy man and teacher. Others came to Glendalough to follow his way of life and soon a monastic settlement was established, which would become one of the great spiritual centres of Christianity in Ireland.
Kevin and his monks generously provided free education and board to noblemen and commoners alike. Unlike many other monasteries, they were also happy to receive those who did not intend to become monks, but who simply wanted to learn.
Kevin’s story is often referred to as a journey from seclusion to community and much of it can still be traced at Glendalough. Despite being one of the tourism jewels in the crown of Ireland’s Ancient East, if not Ireland as a whole, you won’t have to wander too far to find the spirituality and peacefulness that drew monks to Glendalough all those centuries ago.
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The connection between Ireland and Wales is Saint Patrick (+493)
Talking of saints, possibly the strongest connection between Ireland and Wales is St Patrick. While it’s universally accepted that St Patrick is the patron saint of Ireland – with many more countries joining in on 17 March celebrations – what’s less well-known is that he wasn’t born in Ireland. In fact, evidence suggests that he was born in a part of Western Britain that is now modern-day South Wales and spoke the language from which Welsh originated.
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Saint Columba of Iona (+597) and the monster of Lake Loch Ness, Scotland
The earliest report of a monster in the vicinity of Loch Ness appears in the Life of St. Columba by Adomnán, written in the 7th century AD. According to Adomnán, writing about a century after the events described, Irish monk Saint Columba was staying in the land of the Picts with his companions when he encountered local residents burying a man by the River Ness. They explained that the man was swimming in the river when he was attacked by a "water beast" that mauled him and dragged him underwater despite their attempts to rescue him by boat. Columba sent a follower, Luigne moccu Min, to swim across the river. The beast approached him, but Columba made the sign of the cross and said: "Go no further. Do not touch the man. Go back at once." The creature stopped as if it had been "pulled back with ropes" and fled, and Columba's men and the Picts gave thanks for what they perceived as a miracle.
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Saint Leila (Layla) of Limerick, Ireland (+6th century)
August 11
Saint Lelia the virgin is connected to the diocese of Limerick, Ireland. Her feast day is August 11th. She is the sister of Saint Munchin who is also one of Limericks patron saints. Lelia is the great great granddaughter of Prince Cairtheann, who was baptized and converted to Christianity by Saint Patrick who is Ireland's Patron Saint in Singland, which is also in the diocese of Limerick.
Being the sister of St. Munchin, she came from a family that was true in their faith and together they were able to spread it all around Limerick. She has inspired many to do what they didn't think they could and help out others through their hard times.She devoted all her time to helping others instead of herself.
Lelia is a person of faith because she has changed so many lives in her work. She gave up so much to help other even though times were hard when she was living, she still seemed to make sure everyone was taking care of.
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Saint Ciarán of Clonmacnoise, Ireland (+549), one of the Twelve Apostles of Ireland
September 9
Saint Ciarán of Clonmacnoise (c. 516 – c. 549), supposedly born Ciarán mac an tSaeir ("son of the carpenter"), was one of the Twelve Apostles of Ireland and the first abbot of Clonmacnoise. He is sometimes called Ciarán the Younger to distinguish him from the 5th-century Saint Ciarán the Elder who was bishop of Osraige.
Ciarán was born in around 516 in County Roscommon, Connacht, in Ireland. His father was a carpenter and chariot maker. As a boy, Ciarán worked as a cattle herder.
He was a student of Finian's at Clonard and in time became a teacher, himself. Columba of Iona said of Ciarán, “He was a lamp, blazing with the light of wisdom.” In about 534, he left Clonard for Inishmore where he studied under Enda of Aran, who ordained him a priest and advised him to build a church and monastery in the middle of Ireland. Later, he travelled to Senan on Scattery Island (in about 541). In 544, he finally settled in Clonmacnoise, where he founded the Monastery of Clonmacnoise with ten fellow companions. As abbot, he worked on the first buildings of the monastery; however, he died about seven months later of a plague, in his early thirties. His feast day is 9 September.
One story tells that he lent his copy of the Gospel of St Matthew to fellow-student St Ninnidh. When Finnian tested the class, Ciarán knew only the first half of the Gospel. The other students laughed and called him “Ciarán half-Matthew.” St Finnian silenced them and said, “Not Ciarán half-Matthew, but Ciarán half-Ireland, for he will have half the country and the rest of us will have the other half.”
Another tale relates that as a student, a young fox would take his writings to his master, until it was old enough to eat his satchel.
He is supposed to have told his followers that upon his death, they were to leave his bones upon the hillside, and to preserve his spirit rather than his relics.
INS.
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Saint Adrian of Canterbury, England (+710)
9 January
Born in Africa; died at Canterbury, England, January 9, 710.
Saint Adrian became abbot at Nerida near Naples, Italy. Upon the death of Saint Deusdedit, the archbishop of Canterbury (England), Pope Saint Vitalian chose Adrian to replace the bishop because of his great learning and piety. Adrian seemed to be the perfect leader for a nation new in its Christianity. Yet Adrian demurred saying that he was not fitted for such a great dignity. He said that he would find someone else more suited for the task.
The first substitute was too ill to become archbishop. Again the pope urged the post on Adrian. Again Adrian begged permission to find someone else. At that time a Greek monk from Tarsus named Theodore was in Rome. Adrian nominated Theodore to the pope. Theodore was willing to become archbishop of Canterbury, but only if Adrian agreed to come to England and help him. Adrian readily consented to this compromise. It was agreed that Adrian would accompany Theodore to England as his assistant and adviser. On March 26, 668, Theodore was consecrated archbishop of Canterbury and two months later the two set sail for England.
They were a perfect team. Theodore appointed Adrian abbot of SS Peter and Paul abbey, afterward called Saint Augustine's, at Canterbury, where he taught Greek and Latin for 39 years. Here Adrian's learning and virtues were best employed. In addition to these languages, Adrian taught poetry, astronomy and math, as well as Scripture and virtue.
Into the minds of his students, Adrian poured the waters of wholesome knowledge day by day, according to the Venerable Bede. The school became famous for its teaching and trained such as Saints Aldhelm and Oftfor. Bede records that Saint Adrian was very learned in the Holy Scriptures, very experienced in administering the church and the monastery, and a great Greek and Latin scholar. He also is said to have commented that some of Adrian's students spoke Latin and Greek equally as well as their native languages.
The abbot also helped the archbishop in his pastoral undertakings. There can be no doubt that the flourishing of the English Church in Theodore's time owed much to Adrian.
Adrian was known for miracles that helped students in trouble with their masters, and miracles were associated with his tomb in Saint Augustine's Church.
CELTIC SAINTS
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Saint Nectan, Hermit-Martyr in Wartland, England, from Wales (+510)
June 17
Saint Nectan was born in Ireland but moved to Wales when he was young in 423 AD, the eldest of the 24 children of King Brychan of Brycheiniog (now Brecknock in Wales). Saint Nectan heard of the great hermit of the Egyptian desert, St Anthony, and was inspired to imitate his way of life. Seeking greater solitude, Saint Nectan and his companions left Wales, intending to settle wherever their boat happened to land. Saint Nectan and his companions wound up on the northern coast of Devon at Hartland, where they lived for several years in a dense forest. The saint's family would visit him there on the last day of the year. Later, he relocated to a remote valley with a spring.
At Hartland, Saint Nectan lived in the solitude of a remote valley where he helped a swineherd recover his lost pigs and in turn was given a gift of two cows. Saint Nectan's cows were stolen and after finding them he attempted to convert the robbers to the Christian faith. In return, he was attacked by robbers who cut off his head. The same authority says that he picked his head up and walked back to his well before collapsing and dying. Seeing this, the man who killed Saint Nectan went out of his mind, but the other thief buried him. From that time, miracles began to take place at Saint Nectan's tomb. Local tradition says that wherever the blood from Saint Nectan's beheaded head fell, foxgloves grew.
Saint Nectan is also associated with St Nectan's Glen and Waterfall at Trethevy, near Tintagel, in Cornwall, where it is claimed he spent some time as a hermit. Saint Nectan is believed to have sited his hermitage above the waterfall. He rang a silver bell in times of stormy weather to warn shipping of the perils of the rocks at the mouth of the Rocky Valley.
Saint Nectan is also said to have appeared in 937, on the eve of the Battle of Brunanburh. A young man from Hartland felt himself afflicted with the plague and called upon God and Saint Nectan to help him. Saint Nectan appeared to the young man just after midnight and touched the afflicted area of his body, healing him. When King Athelstan heard of this, asked for more information about Saint Nectan. The young man urged the king to have faith in Saint Nectan with faith, and he would be victorious. After the battle, Athelstan visited Hartland and donated property to the saint's church.
Saint Nectan's feast day is 17 June, the day of his death (+510). He is the Patron Saint of Hartland, Devon, England.
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From the life of Saint Ciarán (or Kieran) of Saigir, Ireland (+530)
One night Saint Ciarán (or Kieran) of Saigir, Ireland (+530), and a pilgrim named Germanus that was with him entered into a stream of cold water, in which, when they had now been for a long time, Germanus said: “Kieran, I may no longer hold out in the water.” Kieran made the sign of the Holy Cross upon the water, whereby he turned it to be temperate and of bathing heat; and there they were praising God.
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From the life of Saint Féchín of Fore, Ireland (+655)
During the Lent, Saint Féchín of Fore, Ireland (+655), was accustomed to go and pray at midnight in the stream at Esdara A monk named Pastól went along with him into the stream, and when he was on the side below Féchín he could not endure the water for heat. And when he was on the side above (Féchín) he could not endure (it) for exceeding cold. When Féchín understood this he called him beside him and moderated the water for Pastól so that it was endurable. And Féchín told him not to relate this to any one. So that it was after Féchín’s death that he related it. And God’s name and Féchín’s were magnified thereby.
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Saint Cormac mac Cuilennáin of Ireland (+908)
Saint Cormac was from a noble family and had the title of bishop before he took the title of King of Munster in 902. Although he was from a noble family, it was not usual for them to rise to the position of king. He died in the Battle of Bellaghmoon in 908.
Flaithbertach mac Inmainén was the abbot of the monastery on Scattery Island and was in a role like an advisor to Saint Cormac. A war was brewing with Leinster, whose king was Cerball mac Muirecáin who was Saint Cormac’s fosterbrother, and they mustered an army. However, prior to the battle Flaithbertach fell from his horse in the army camp. This was taken as a bad omen by many in the army and they deserted. A peace treaty was made and Saint Cormac was inclined to accept it but Flaithbertach convinced him to go ahead with the battle despite being outnumbered significantly. Saint Cormac foresaw his death and took the Eucharist before the battle.
As for the Battle of Bellaghmoon, many of the Munstermen fled early and the entire army was soon routed. Saint Cormac died when he fell from his horse after it slipped in blood. The enemy soldiers beheaded him which was not met with the approval of the High King Flann Sinna as they expected. He said they had done an evil deed. He arranged for the proper burial of head and body.
Flaithbertach was captured and imprisoned for a time before being allowed to return to be the abbot of Scattery Island. He later succeeded Saint Cormac as King of Munster, there having been a vacancy for a while.
The Fragmentary Annals say: “Why, then, should the heart not be moved and mourn this awful deed, that is, the killing and hacking up (with abominable weapons) of the holy person who was the most skilled that ever was or will be of the men of Ireland? A scholar in Irish and in Latin, the wholly pious and pure chief bishop, miraculous in chastity and in prayer, a sage in government, in all wisdom, knowledge and science, a sage of poetry and learning, chief of charity and every virtue; a wise man in teaching, high king of the two provinces of all Munster in his time.” In regards to his greatness as a scholar, we have a very important document, the Sanas Cormaic (Cormac’s Glossary). It is something like a dictionary or encyclopedia that has over 1,400 words in Gaelic with their meanings and sometimes etymologies. It is the first European encyclopedic dictionary in a language other than Greek or Latin.
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Saint Bronach (St Bronacha), Virgin of Glen-Seichis, Ireland
2 April
Date unknown. The name of this virgin is registered in the martyrologies of Tallaght and Donegal. Glen-Seichis is the old name of Kilbroney or Kilbronach in County Down near Rostrevor, Ireland, which takes its present name from her. Saint Bronach's Bell is the subject of a well-known Irish legend of a mysterious, invisible bell that rang in Kilbroney churchyard.
In 1885, a storm ripped down an old oak tree near Kilbroney, and in its branches was found a 6th-century bell. For many years the denizens heard a bell ringing and attributed it to a supernatural origin. It seems, however, that the bell was hidden during the Reformation to prevent its removal or destruction. Over the years the tongue had worn away, so the bell stopped ringing, yet talk of it did not. The bell and Bronach's cross can now be found at the parish church of Rostrevor.
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Saint Sincheall, Abbot of Killeigh, Ireland (+5th ce.)
26 March
5th century. Sincheall, an early Roman convert of Saint Patrick (f.d. March 17), was abbot-founder of the monastery and school at Killeigh, Offaly, Ireland, where he had 150 monks under his direction. The community flourished until the 16th century (Benedictines, D'Arcy, McManus, Montague, Sullivan, Tommasini).
St. Sinell or Senchell. said to be the first to be baptised by St. Patrick. He lived as a hermit in Clane, Co. Kildare afterwards founding a community in the present parish of Killeigh, Co. Offaly. Killeigh is derived from Cill Achaidh the original name. Two saints of this name resided at Killeigh.
The Martyrlology of Donegal has this verse about St. Senchell:
The men of heaven, the men of earth, a surrounding host, thought that the day of judgement was the death of Seancheall. There came not, there will not come from Adam, one more austere, more strict in piety; there came not, there will not come, all say it, another saint more welcome to the men of heaven.
And from the Annals of the Four Masters
Page 137 http://celt.ucc.ie/online/T100005A.html
1] The family of Patrick of the prayers,
2] who had good Latin,
3] I remember; no feeble court were they,
4] their order, and their names.
5] Sechnall, his bishop without fault;
6] Mochta after him his priest;
7] Bishop Erc his sweet spoken Judge;
8] his champion, Bishop Maccaeirthinn; [the Saint above]
9] Benen, his psalmist;
10] and Coemhan, his chamberlain;
11] Sinell his bell ringer,
12] and Aithcen his true cook;
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Western Europe was the home of many venerable Orthodox Saints, such as St. Patrick, St. Ita, St. Declan, St. Ia, St. Aidan, St. Hilda etc.
For the first thousand years after the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ, Rome was a faithful part of the Orthodox Church, and Western Europe was the home of many venerable Orthodox Saints, such as St. Patrick, St. Declan, St. Ia, St. Aidan, St. Hilda, St. Columba, St. Ita, St. Ursula, St. Olaf, St. Sunniva, St. Ambrose, St. Hillary, St. Vincent, St. Gregory, St. Benedict, and many others. All of these Saints — as well as their prayers and liturgies — are fully Orthodox, and continue to be beloved by Orthodox Christians today.
https://orthochristian.com/143205.html
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Saint Aidan 1st Bishop of Lindisfarne, England (+651)
In the 7th century, the Anglo-Saxon kingdom of Northumbria fluctuated between Christian and pagan monarchs. One of their great Christian kings was Saint Oswald of Northumbria. He converted to Christianity in his early youth while he was in Dál Riata, the Western area of Scotland where many Irish people lived in those times. It was in this area that the famous Iona monastery was located. Saint Oswald held Iona in high regard and so when he became king he sent a messenger to Iona to request one of their monks to be sent to Northumbria for the purpose of converting pagans and instructing the Christians to the high standards of excellence that Iona was known for. The abbot at that time was the fifth abbot of Iona, Saint Ségéne mac Fiachnaí, and he selected Saint Aidan for this mission. Saint Oswald gave Saint Aidan a monastery in a place called Lindisfarne and Saint Aidan was followed by many other Irish monks to Northumbria.
As he spent an important part of his life in England, Saint Aidan is mentioned multiple times in Saint Bede’s ‘Ecclesiastical History of the English People.’ In Book III, Chapter V, Saint Aidan is described in this way:
Chapter V
OF THE LIFE OF BISHOP AIDAN. [A.D. 635.]
From the aforesaid island, and college of monks, was Aidan sent to instruct the English nation in Christ, having received the dignity of a bishop at the time when Segenius, abbot and priest, presided over that monastery; whence, among other instructions for life, he left the clergy a most salutary example of abstinence or continence; it was the highest commendation of his doctrine, with all men, that he taught no otherwise than he and his followers had lived; for he neither sought nor loved any thing of this world, but delighted in distributing immediately among the poor whatsoever was given him by the kings or rich men of the world. He was wont to traverse both town and country on foot, never on horseback, unless compelled by some urgent necessity; and wherever in his way he saw any, either rich or poor, he invited them, if infidels, to embrace the mystery of the faith or if they were believers, to strengthen them in the faith, and to stir them up by words and actions to alms and good works.
His course of life was so different from the slothfulness of our times, that all those who bore him company, whether they were shorn monks or laymen, were employed in meditation, that is, either in reading the Scriptures, or learning psalms. This was the daily employment of himself and all that were with him, wheresoever they went; and if it happened, which was but seldom, that he was invited to eat with the king, he went with one or two clerks, and having taken a small repast, made haste to be gone with them, either to read or write. At that time, many religious men and women, stirred up by his example, adopted the custom of fasting on Wednesdays and Fridays, till the ninth hour, throughout the year, except during the fifty days after Easter. He never gave money to the powerful men of the world, but only meat, if he happened to entertain them; and, on the contrary, whatsoever gifts of money he received from the rich, he either distributed them, as has been said, to the use of the poor, or bestowed them in ransoming such as had been wrong. fully sold for slaves. Moreover, he afterwards made many of those he had ransomed his disciples, and after having taught and instructed them, advanced them to the order of priesthood.
It is reported, that when King Oswald had asked a bishop of the Scots to administer the word of faith to him and his nation, there was first sent to him another man of more austere disposition, who, meeting with no success, and being unregarded by the English people, returned home, and in an assembly of the elders reported, that he had not been able to do any good to the nation he had been sent to preach to, because they were uncivilized men, and of a stubborn and barbarous disposition. They, as is testified, in a great council seriously debated what was to be done, being desirous that the nation should receive the salvation it demanded, and grieving that they had not received the preacher sent to them. Then said Aidan, who was also present in the council, to the priest then spoken of, “I am of opinion, brother, that you were more severe to your unlearned hearers than you ought to have been and did not at first, conformably to the apostolic rule, give them the milk of more easy doctrine, till being by degrees nourished with the word of God, they should be capable of greater perfection, and be able to practice God’s sublimer precepts.” Having heard these words, all present began diligently to weigh what he had said, and presently concluded, that he deserved to be made a bishop, and ought to be sent to instruct the incredulous and unlearned; since he was found to be endued with singular discretion, which is the mother of other virtues, and accordingly being ordained, they sent him to their friend, King Oswald, to preach; and he, as time proved, afterwards appeared to possess all other virtues, as well as the discretion for which he was before remarkable.
Chapters XIV-XVII tell us about several of the most noteable miracles and good deeds of Saint Aidan, including miracles associated with one of his relics which was a post that he was leaning on at the time of his death. On two occasions it did not burn in fire and chips from it caused miraculous cures.
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Saint Finan 2nd Bishop of Lindisfarne, England (+661)
Saint Aidan’s successor as Abbot of Lindisfarne was Saint Finan who was also sent from Iona. His abbacy was a time in which the good work of Saint Aidan was continued on and many more converts to Christianity were made. A great enemy of the Christian Anglo-Saxons was their fellow Anglo-Saxon, but pagan, King Penda, king of the Mercians. He made frequent wars with them and so it was a great acheivement for the Christian kingdoms when King Penda’s son converted to Christianity! The son’s name was King Peada, king of the Middle Angles. He was baptised by Saint Finan. After this, he supported the conversion of his people. Furthermore, King Sigebert, king of the East Saxons, was preached to by King Oswy, the Christian king of Bernicia and Northumbria. King Sigebert decided to convert and Saint Finan also baptised him.
Saint Finan sent Saint Cedd, one of the great Anglo-Saxon saints to preach to these nations and Saint Finan ordained him as bishop of the East Saxons. With the baptism of these two kings and the ordination of this saintly bishop, Saint Finan of Lindisfarne was a central figure in the conversion of the Middle Angles and the East Saxons.
It is also during the abbacy of Saint Finan that the Easter dating controversy began to become an issue. This is related to the Gregorian missions which had been sent from Rome with their dating method. Christians using this method had now arrived further north and encountered the other method of calculation. The tensions arose at this point but would not reach their culmination for a few more years.
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Saint Colmán 3rd Bishop of Lindisfarne (+664)
It is during the abbacy of Saint Colmán, also sent from Iona to take over Lindisfarne, that the Easter dating controversy had to be resolved in Northumbria. An impossible situation had emerged as King Oswy was celebrating Easter in accordance with the calculation method of Iona and Lindisfarne whereas his wife, Queen Eanfleda, was celebrating Easter according to the other method because she had been brought up in Kent which used the Roman method. The Synod of Whitby was called in 664 and ultimately it was decided that Northumbria would follow the Roman method.
Saint Colmán left Lindisfarne with those monks who were disappointed with the result of the synod. He returned to Iona and then to Ireland where he founded the great School of Mayo which was also known as Mayo of the Saxons because of the Anglo-Saxons who came with him. This is covered in Book IV, Chapter IV of ‘Ecclesiastical History of the English People.’ The most notable of these Anglo-Saxon followers of Saint Colmán was Saint Gerald of Mayo who became the next abbot. This new monastery was on a small island called Inishbofin.
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Saint Tuda 4th Bishop of Lindisfarne, England (+664)
A consequence of the Synod of Whitby was the splitting of the position of Abbot of Lindisfarne and Bishop of Lindisfarne. For Saints Aidan, Finan and Colmán, they assumed and held each position simultaneously. After the departure of Saint Colmán, Saint Tuda became the Bishop of Lindisfarne. He was also Irish but he was from southern Ireland which in large part was following the Roman method. At the same time, an Anglo-Saxon called Saint Eata was made Abbot of Lindisfarne on the recommendation of the departing Saint Colmán.
However Saint Tuda’s abbacy was extremely brief because the Yellow Plague began in the same year as the Synod of Whitby (664). He caught the plague and died within months of taking the position. This was the end of an era for Lindisfarne because instead of electing a new Bishop of Lindisfarne, a new jurisdiction was drawn and the Bishop of York became the bishop for an area that included Lindisfarne. This situation would last from 664 until 678 when Lindisfarne would again have a bishop centred there (the first of whom would be the aforementioned Saint Eata who was already the Abbot of Lindisfarne). 664 was the end of an era for Lindisfarne as it was no longer closely associated with Iona and Irish monks but it would have saintly Anglo-Saxon abbots in the future and continue the legacy that began with Saint Aidan.
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Saint Rumon οf Tavistock, England (+6th ce.)
4 January
Born c.AD 515.
Rumon is a saint of some controversy. He is chiefly the patron of Tavistock in Devon, but also apparently of several churches in Cornwall and Brittany where he is variously called Ruan or Ronan. It is not completely certain that the character referred to in each was the same man.
According to the relic lists of Glastonbury, Prince Rumon was a brother of St. Tugdual and, therefore, one of the sons of King Hoel I Mawr (the Great) of Brittany. Tradition says he was educated in Britain-probably Wales-but that he later accompanied St. Breaca on her return from Ireland to her Cornish homeland. Like Tudgual, he had presumably travelled to Ireland to learn the Holy Scriptures. He is said to have lived in a hermitage on Inis Luaidhe, near Iniscathy, and was eventually raised to the episcopacy. In Cornwall, he founded churches at Ruan Lanihorne (on the River Fal), Ruan Major & Minor (near the Lizard Peninsula), a defunct chapel in Redruth and at Romansleigh in Devon; but he quickly moved on to Cornouaille in Brittany, with St. Senan as his companion.
Rumon met up with St. Remigius in Rheims, which would place him in Brittany around the early 6th century, the probable time of his birth if he was a son of Hoel Mawr. At any rate, he settled first at St. Rénan and then moved on to the Forest of Nevez, overlooking the Bay of Douarnenez. He seems to have acquired a wife, named Ceban, and children at some point. He may be identical with Ronan Ledewig (the Breton), father of SS. Gargunan and Silan. His lady wife took a distinct dislike to Rumon's preaching amongst the local pagan inhabitants and considered him to be neglecting his domestic duties. The situation became so bad that she plotted to have Rumon arrested.
Hiding their little daughter in a chest, Ceban fled to the Royal Court at Quimper and sought an audience with the Prince of Cornouaille-supposedly Gradlon, though he lived some years earlier. She claimed that her husband was a werewolf who ravaged the local sheep every fortnight and had now killed their baby girl! Rumon was arrested, but the sceptical monarch tested him by exposing the prisoner to his hunting dogs. They would have immediately reacted to any sign of wolf, but Rumon remained unharmed and was proclaimed a holy man. His daughter was found, safe and well, whilst his wife appears to have received only the lightest of punishments. Despite this, her troublemaking persisted and Rumon was forced to abandon her and journey eastward towards Rennes. He eventually settled at Hilion in Domnonia, where he lived until his death.
There was much quarrelling over Rumon's holy body after his demise. His companion had thought to keep one of his arms as a relic and brutally cut it off. A disturbing dream soon made him put it back though. Later, the Princes of Cornouaille, Rennes and Vannes all claimed the honour of burying him in their own province. The matter was decided by allowing him to be drawn on a wagon by two three-year-old oxen who had never been yoked. Where they rested, he would be interred. However, the body would not allow itself to be lifted onto the cart, except by the Prince of Cornouaille; so it was no surprise when the cattle chose Locronan in the Forest of Nevez, near his former home.
It is unclear when Rumon's relics left Locronan-despite the 16th century shrine still to be seen there today. It was suggested by Baring-Gould & Fisher that they were removed to safety in Britain during the Viking coastal attacks of AD 913 & 14. Tradition says they were taken to Quimper, thence to Ruan Lanihorne in Cornwall. In AD 960, however, Earl Ordgar of Devon founded his great Abbey of Tavistock, on the edge of Dartmoor. He translated the body of Rumon into the abbey church with much pomp and ceremony and there it remained, working miracles for nearly six hundred years: until the Dissolution of the Monastery in the late 1530s. Some relics, however, may have made their way back to Brittany, by the 13th century, including, perhaps, his head.
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Saint Peter, Abbot in Canterbury, England (+608)
December 30
Died c. 606-608; feast at Saint Augustine's in Canterbury is kept on December 30. Saint Peter was a monk at Saint Andrew's Monastery in Rome until, in 596, he was sent by Pope Saint Gregory the Great to England with the first group of missionaries under Saint Augustine of Canterbury. In 602, Peter became the first abbot of SS. Peter and Paul (afterwards Saint Augustine's) at Canterbury.
Saint Peter was probably the monk delegated by Augustine to take news to the pope of the first Anglo-Saxon conversions. He then brought back Saint Gregory's replies to Augustine's questions. Later Peter was dispatched on a mission to Gaul, but was drowned in the English Channel at Ambleteuse (Amfleet) near Boulogne. According to the Venerable Bede, the local inhabitants buried him in an "unworthy place" but, as the result of a prodigy of mysterious light appearing over his grave at night, translated his relics to a church in Boulogne with suitable honour.
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Saint Pega of Mercia, England (+719)
8 January
Born in Mercia, England; died in Rome, Italy, c. 719. Saint Pega, the virgin sister of Saint Guthlac of Croyland, had her hermitage in the Fens (Peakirk = Pega's church in Northhamptonshire) near that of her brother. When he realised that his death was near (714), he invited her to his funeral. In order to get there, Pega is said to have sailed down the Welland, and cured a blind man from Wisbech en route. Guthlac bequeathed to her his psalter and scourge, both of which she gave to the monastery that grew up around his hermitage. After Guthlac's death, she is said to have made a pilgrimage to Rome and to have died there. Ordericus Vitalis claimed that her relics survived in an unnamed Roman church in his day and that miracles occurred there.
https://celticsaints.org/2022/0108d.html
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Saint Merryn Missionary in Cornwall, England & Brittany, France (+6th ce.)
4 April
6th century. Missionary in Cornwall and Brittany. Saint Merryn is the titular patron of a place in Cornwall. He may be identical with the Breton saint honoured at Lanmerin and Plomelin. During the medieval period, the legendary Saint Marina was believed to have been its patron. For this reason, the Cornish St. Merryn observes the feast on July 7, whereas the Breton feast is on April 4.
https://celticsaints.org/2022/0404c.html
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Saint Ethelburga of Lyminge, England (+647)
5 April
Died c. 647. Saint Ethelburga was the daughter of King Saint Ethelbert of Kent (f.d. February 24), who had been converted to Christianity by his wife Bertha (Tata) and Saint Augustine of Canterbury (f.d. May 27). Ethelburga married the pagan King Edwin of Northumbria. She and her chaplain Saint Paulinus (f.d. October 10) helped persuade Edwin to become a Christian in 627 and a saint (f.d. October 12). The behaviour of his wife, as much as the preaching of Paulinus, must have had a great influence in the conversion of Edwin and his court. Pope Boniface wrote to her to encourage her, addressing the letter To his daughter, the most illustrious lady, Queen Ethelburga, Bishop Boniface, servant of the servants of God ... He sent her the blessing of St Peter, and a silver mirror with an ivory comb adorned with gold, asking her to accept the present in the same kindly spirit as that in which it is sent.
Edwin encouraged the advancement of Christianity in his kingdom, but on his death, paganism returned, and Ethelburga and Paulinus were forced to return to her native Kent. There she founded a double monastery at Lyminge where her brother Eadbald gave her the site of an old Roman villa at Lyminge, on Stone Street, near the Roman fort of Lymne.
St. Ethelburga continued at Lyminge to the end of her life, and there remains a recess in the South wall of the parish church, which was probably her tomb, and her well on the village green, in a good state of preservation. When Lanfranc founded the Collegiate Church at Canterbury for the parish clergy of the city, he translated the relics of St. Ethelburga, and they were enshrined there, just outside the Northgate, until the time of the Dissolution of the monasteries by Henry VIII (Attwater2, Benedictines, Delaney).
Saint Ethelburga is portrayed in art as a crowned abbess with the Abbey of Lyminge, where she is venerated.
https://celticsaints.org/2022/0405c.html
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Quotes of Saint Sophrony of Essex, England (+1993)
No one can bear to live with a saint, because the saint’s word is fiery. The saint ascends the Cross with his whole life; he is crucified. And the one who lives with him cannot bear this life of the Cross.
There are no writings by female saints. This is not because there are fewer holy women than men. There are more holy women, but female saints lead a hidden life; they are able to keep their life secret. The All-Holy Virgin received great grace from God. We do not have revelations that come from the All-Holy Virgin, but we know that she had great grace; the Church and all who pray to her are aware of it.
Also, women did not need to reveal their experiences in order to guide their flock. All those who have left us a few of their words were Abbesses. But male saints, too, would have kept silent, and we would not have their writings, had it not been necessary for them, as people with responsibility and shepherds of the Church, to guide their flocks.
God’s covenant with human beings is His call to each one. Accepting the call is keeping the Covenant.
Priests share in Christ’s martyric priesthood. The Pope exercises his authority from a high position. Orthodox priests share in Christ’s self-emptying, in the martyric priesthood of Christ, Who was crucified and went down to Hades.
The trials that the saints underwent are greater than our own trials, because their hearts were sensitive and everything in their lives took on larger proportions. Christ’s Cross transcends any human martyrdom because Christ was sinless. We inherit death and we strengthen the power of death throughout our lives with our sins.
Christians will always be misunderstood by those around them.
We should also respect the freedom of non-believers and atheists, and not judge them. Then they too will leave us free to do our work.
In Greece they are prone to gossip and easily take offence, but at the same time they have intuition, and they understand that other people have good intentions and mean well. This is because Greece is an Orthodox country.
When someone has a rule from his spiritual father not to take Holy Communion, but he takes Holy Communion because he thirsts for it, then, apart from being disobedient, he does harm to his soul, because afterwards he stops thirsting for Holy Communion. If, however, he obeys his spiritual father, he will continue to thirst for Holy Communion. This thirst is beneficial. Just by keeping the word of one’s spiritual father one receives grace from God.
https://thoughtsintrusive.wordpress.com/2015/07/10/various-words-from-elder-sophrony-of-essex/
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Saint Oengus (Aengus, Oengoba) the Culdee, Abbot & Bishop (+830) - 11 March
Born in Ireland; died c. 830. The appellation "Culdee," Ceile De, or Kele-De means "worship of God," which became the name of a monastic movement otherwise known as the "Companions of God." Oengus was of the race of the Dalriadans, kings of Ulster. In his youth, renouncing all earthly pretensions, he chose Christ for his inheritance by embracing the religious life in the monastery of Cluain-Edneach (Clonenagh) in East Meath (County Laois). Here he became so great a proficient both in learning and sanctity, that no one in his time could be found in Ireland that equalled him in reputation for every kind of virtue, and for sacred knowledge.
To shun the esteem of the world, he disguised himself and entered the monastery of Tamlacht (Tallaght Hill), three miles from Dublin, where he lived for seven years as an anonymous lay brother. There he performed all the drudgery of the house, appearing fit for nothing but the vilest tasks, while interiorly he was being perfected in love and contemplation absorbed in God. After his identity was discovered when he tried to coach an unsuccessful student, he returned to Cluain-Edneach, where the continual austerity of his life, and his constant application to God in prayer, may be more easily admired than imitated. For example, he would daily recite one-third of the Psalter (50 Psalms) while immersed in cold water.
He was chosen abbot, and at length raised to the episcopal dignity: for it was usual then in Ireland for eminent abbots in the chief monasteries to be bishops. He was known for his devotion to the saints. He left both a longer and a shorter Irish Martyrology, and five other books concerning the saints of his country, contained in what the Irish call "Saltair-na-Rann." The short martyrology was a celebrated metrical hymn called "Felire" or "Festilogium." The longer, "Martyrology of Tallaght" was composed in collaboration with Saint Maelruain of Tallaght (f.d. July 7).
He died at Disertbeagh (now Desert Aenguis or Dysert Enos), which became also a famous monastery, and took its name from him (Benedictines, Farmer, Husenbeth, Montague).
Another Life:
To Aengus many ascribe the reform of Irish monasticism and its emergence as an ordered ascetic and scholastic movement. He is called the Culdec because this reform produced the groups of monks in Ireland and Scotland, who were really anchorites but lived together in one place, usually thirteen in number after the example of Christ and His Apostles. The name Culdec probably comes from the Irish Ceile Dee (companion) rather than the Latin Cultores Dei (worshippers of God). The Culdees produced the highly decorated High Crosses and elaborately illuminated manuscripts which are the glory of the Irish monasteries.
Aengus was born of the royal house of Ulster and was sent to the monastery of Clonenagh by his father Oengoba to study under the saintly abbot Maelaithgen. He made great advances in scholarship and sanctity but eventually felt he had to leave and become a hermit to escape the adulation of his peers. He chose a spot some seven miles away for his hermitage which is still called Dysert. He lived a life of rigid discipline, genuflecting three hundred times a day and reciting the whole of the Psalter daily part of it immersed in cold water, tied by the neck to a stake. At his dysert he found he got too many visitors and went to the famous monastery of Tallaght near Dublin, without revealing his identity, and was given the most menial of tasks. After seven years a boy sought refuge in the stable where Aengus was working because he was unable to learn his lessons. Aengus lulled him to sleep and when he awoke he had learnt his lesson perfectly.
When the abbot of St. Maelruain heard of this monk's great teaching gifts he recognised in him the missing scholar from Clonenagh and the two became great friends. It was at Tallaght that Aengus began his great work on the calendar of the Irish saints known as the Felire Aengus Ceile De. As for himself he thought that he was the most contemptible of men and is said to have allowed his hair to grow long and his clothing to become unkempt so that he should be despised. Besides the Felire one of his prayers asking for forgiveness survives, pleading for mercy because of Christ's work and His grace in the saints.
Like all the holy people of God, Aengus was industrious and had a supreme confidence in His power to heal and save. On one occasion when he was lopping trees in a wood he inadvertently cut off his left hand. The legend says that the sky filled with birds crying out at his injury, but St. Aengus calmly picked up the severed hand and replaced it. Instantly it adhered to his body and functioned normally.
When St. Maelruain died in 792, St. Aengus left Tallaght and returned to Clonenagh succeeding his old teacher Maelaithgen as abbot and being consecrated bishop. As he felt death approaching he retired again to his hermitage at Dysertbeagh, dying there about 824. There is but scant evidence of the religious foundations at Clonenagh or Dysert but he will always be remembered for his Feliere, the first martyrology of Ireland. He is honoured on 11th March (Walsh, Cross, Flanagan).
https://celticsaints.org/2022/0311a.html
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Saint Samthann, abbess of Clonbroney, Ireland (+739)
Saint Samthann was a woman betrothed on orders of the king to a particular nobleman against her wishes. However on the night before the wedding, the fiancé was awoken by a vision of a supernatural light. Following it to see where it was landing, he arrived to see Saint Samthann’s face lit up by the light. Recognising that she had a great sanctity, the nobleman and king accepted her rejection of the marriage and allowed her to take vows as a nun as she desired. She grew in the spiritual life until she eventually became the Abbess of Clonbroney.
As abbess, she set an excellent standard for her nuns in regards to asceticism and voluntary poverty. She was blessed with miracles and Clonbroney would continue to be an important monastery for a long time to come.
https://irishortodoxa.wordpress.com/2022/05/31/8th-century-irish-saints/
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Sayings of Saint Patrick of Ireland (+461)
* If I have any worth, it is to live my life for God so as to teach these peoples; even though some of them still look down on me.
* I pray to God to give me perseverance and to deign that I be a faithful witness to Him to the end of my life for my God.
* Sufficient to say, greed is a deadly deed. You shall not covet your neighbor's goods.
* Daily I expect to be murdered or betrayed or reduced to slavery if the occasion arises. But I fear nothing, because of the promises of heaven.
* I am imperfect in many things, nevertheless I want my brethren and kinsfolk to know my nature so that they may be able to perceive my soul's desire.
* Christ in the heart of every man who thinks of me, Christ in the mouth of everyone who speaks of me, Christ in every eye that sees me, Christ in every ear that hears me.
* He [God] watched over me before I knew him, and before I learned sense or even distinguished between good and evil, and he protected me, and consoled me as a father would his son.
* Christ be with me, Christ within me, Christ behind me, Christ before me, Christ beside me, Christ to win me, Christ to comfort me and restore me, Christ beneath me, Christ above me, Christ in quiet, Christ in danger, Christ in hearts of all that love me, Christ in mouth of friend and stranger.
* Christ beside me, Christ before me, Christ behind me, Christ within me, Christ beneath me, Christ above me.
* May the strength of God pilot us, may the wisdom of God instruct us, may the hand of God protect us, may the word of God direct us. Be always ours this day and for evermore.
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Saint Senan of Scattery, Ireland (+544) - March 8
Died c. 560. Senan was the principal of the numerous Irish saints with this name, and is credited with making a remarkable succession of monastic foundations on islands at the mouths of rivers and elsewhere, from the Slaney in Wexford to the coast of Clare. The stories that have survived about St. Senan suggest a man of considerable complexity of character. He is said to have visited Rome and on his way home stayed with St. David (f.d. March 1) in Wales. On his return to Ireland, he founded more churches and monasteries, notably one at Inishcarra near Cork. He finally settled and was buried on Scattery Island (Inis Cathaig) in the Shannon estuary, where there is still a fine round tower and other early remnants. There are indications that he spent some time in Cornwall, but appears to have had no connection with the Land's End parish of Sennen (Attwater, Benedictines).
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Senan was born at Kilrush in County Clare where his parents, Erguid and Comgella, owned land and were well to do farmers. In his youth he had to do some fighting for his overlord but it was while he was about the more peaceful occupation of looking after his father's cattle that the call came to forsake the world and devote himself to religious study. His conversion was caused by a great wave that broke at his feet as he was walking on the sea shore, then ebbed leaving a clear path for him across the bay, and finally closed behind him. He saw this as a sign that his lay life was over and, breaking his spear in two, he made a cross of it and set out for the monastery at Kilnamanagh in County Dublin.
Senan was obviously a resourceful man for he miraculously automated the mill at the monastery so that it ground the grain without him having to leave his books. He made great progress in his studies and after his ordination he visited other centres of learning before returning to his home country to found a number of religious houses. The most famous of his foundations was on Scattery Island, Iniscathaigh, and before he could build his monastery there he had to rid the island of a ferocious beast after which it was named, the Cata. The monster is described as exceedingly fierce and breathing fire and spitting venom which make some believe that it was a tribe of wild cats. However, Senan protected by his faith, expelled it with the sign of the Cross, ordering it never to harm anyone again.
The Archangel Raphael is said to have aided him and there was an incident when Senan was searching for water for his monks that the Archangel directed the holly stick with which he was probing and water gushed out of the dry ground. Senan left his stick in the hole and on the next day he found that it had grown into a tree. Raphael also helped S. Senan to ensure safe crossing to the island for his monks.
The ruins on Scattery include those of six churches, the Saint's grave which provides miraculous cures in the church known as Temple Senan and a spectacular round tower, the tallest in the whole of Ireland. He died on March 1st but his burial was postponed to the octave day of his death to enable those from the neighbouring communities to attend, so his festival is observed on March 8th.
https://celticsaints.org/2022/0308a.html
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Twelve Apostles of Ireland
Saint Finnian of Clonard is often called the "Teacher of the Irish Saints." At one time his pupils at Clonard included the so-called Twelve Apostles of Ireland:
Brendan of Birr (f.d. November 29)
Brendan the Voyager (f.d. May 16)
Cainnech (f.d. October 11)
Ciaran of Clommacnois (f.d. September 9)
Columba of Iona (f.d. June 9)
Columba of Terryglass (f.d. today)
Comgall of Bangor (f.d. May 11)
Finian of Moville (f.d. September 10)
Kieran of Saigher (f.d. March 5)
Mobhi (f.d. October 12)
Molaise (Laserian) of Devendish (f.d. August 12)
Ninidh of Inismacsaint (f.d. January 18)
Ruadhan of Lothra (f.d. April 15)
Sinell of Cleenish (f.d. October 12).
(You might note that this is more than 12; this is a very elastic twelve with different saints added at different times)
https://celticsaints.org/2021/1212a.html
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St. Derfel Gadarn of Bardsey Island, Wales (+6th ce.)
5 April
5th or 6th century. According to tradition, Saint Derfel was a great Welsh soldier who fought at the Battle of Camlan (537), where King Arthur was killed. He may have been a monk and abbot at Bardsey and later a solitary at Llanderfel, Merionethshire, Wales, thus becoming its founder and patron. A wooden statue of him mounted on a horse and holding a staff was greatly venerated in the church at Llanderfel until it was used for firewood in the burning of John Forest, Queen Catherine of Aragon's confessor, at Smithfield, England. The remains of Derfel's staff and horse can be seen in Llanderfel.
https://celticsaints.org/2022/0405a.html
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Saints Probus and Grace, husband and wife, in Wales (+5th ce.)
5 April
Date unknown. Probus and Grace are traditionally considered to be a Welsh husband and wife duo. The church of Tressilian, or Probus, in Cornwall is dedicated in their honour. St Probus' and Saint Grace's relics are still within the Church that has grown over the site of his oratory.
https://celticsaints.org/2022/0405d.html
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Saint Patrick of Ireland (+461) and the laws of Ireland in the 5th century
"The Annals of the Kingdom of Ireland" by the Four Masters state that by the year 438 Christianity had made such progress in Ireland that the laws were changed to agree with the Gospel.
That means that in a few years a 60 year old man was able to so change the country that even the laws were amended. St. Patrick had no printing press, no finances, few helpers and Ireland had no Roman roads to travel on.
Orthodox Ireland
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Saint Ciaran of Saigher, Bishop and Confessor of Ossory, Ireland (+530) - March 5
5th century. St. Ciaran or Kieran, the Elder is believed to have been a contemporary of St. Patrick if not a precursor of this great saint. He was born at Cape Clear, where there is a church reputedly built by him, but he went to the Continent for his education and was ordained and consecrated bishop there before returning to Ireland. He settled as a hermit at Saighir near to the Slieve Bloom Mountains but soon disciples were attracted to him and a large monastery grew up round his cell, which became the chosen burial place for the Kings of Ossory. His mother Liaden is said to have gone to Saighir with a group of women who devoted their lives to the service of God and the members of her son's community.
There are many stories of miracles wrought by God through Ciaran, including several restorations to life of those who had died, and there are charming tales of his relations with the animal kingdom. One of these related how the most blessed bishop and first begotten of the Saints of Ireland "as a youth saw a hawk swooping down and snatching a fledgling from its nest. Ciaran, moved with pity for the little creature, prayed for its deliverance and the hawk flew down and laid it at his feet, torn and bleeding, but at once it was wonderfully restored to health and strength. There are considerable remains at Saighir among them the carved base of a high cross and St. Ciaran is regarded as the Patron of Munster with the fifth of March as his feast day.
and:
This St. Kieran is commemorated in all dioceses of Ireland, for he is reputed to have been the "firstborn" of Irish saints.
Kieran's biography is full of obscurities. It is commonly said, however, that he left Ireland before the arrival of St. Patrick. Already a Christian, and of royal Ulster blood, he had determined to study for the Church; hence, he secured an education at Tours and Rome. On his return from France, he built himself a little cell in the woods of Upper Ossory.
There he spent the next few years as a hermit. Inevitably, however, other devout men joined him to form a monastery called "Saigher" (that is, "Sier-Ciaran," - "Kieran's Seat"). Later, he built nearby a monastery for women, the care of which he entrusted to his mother Liadan. Thus Kieran, rather than Brigid, seems to have been the pioneer founder of Irish women's convents. Around these foundations arose a village called Saigher, after the monastery.
When St. Patrick arrived in Ireland to carry the Faith throughout Erin, Abbot Kieran gave him his glad assistance. Some writers say that Kieran was then already a bishop, having been ordained while on the continent. It seems more likely, however, that he was one of the twelve men that Patrick, on his arrival, consecrated as helpers. It was customary in the early days for abbots to be ordained as bishops but to remain heads of their monasteries. The Diocese of Ossory considers Abbot Kieran as its first bishop. (He may also be the St. "Piran" venerated in Cornwall, Wales and Brittany.)
Many legends inevitably arose, too charming to leave untold, about this ancient hermit and bishop.
One story involves the Christmas communion of St. Cuach, Abbess of a monastery far away from Saigher. She had been Kieran's nurse when he was a child, and as a priest he always celebrated Mass for her community on Christmas night, after having presided at the midnight Mass of his own abbey. But nobody could figure out how he got to the convent of Ross-Bennchuir, so many miles distant, and returned that same night. The chronicler of the story suggests that it was by a miracle like that in which God once lifted up the prophet Habakkuk by the hair of his head and sped him from Palestine to Chaldea.
A second tale was that of Chrichidh, the boy from Clonmacnois whom St. Kieran had admitted to his monastery as a servant. One Easter the young servant mischievously extinguished the Easter Fire. (This was lighted at the monastery annually on Holy Saturday, and then kept burning all year as the only source of warmth or light in the monastic household.) Kieran predicted that for this thoughtless act, the lad would meet an untimely death. The very next day, as Chrichidh sauntered through the woods, he was killed and eaten by a wolf.
Soon afterward, St. Kieran the Younger (of Clonmacnois) arrived at Saigher, and was invited to dine by its monks. But he said he would not eat with them until his young friend Chrichidh from Clonmacnois had been restored to life. Out of hospitality in their chilly abbey, the older Kieran prayed for a little heat, and a ball of fire landed in his lap, which sufficed to warm up monks and visitor. Bishop Kieran then told his namesake that he should not hesitate to sit at table with them, for the boy was about to enter. Thereupon Chrichidh, raised from the dead, came in, sat down, and began to eat with his usual gusto.
The last story also concerns a miraculous resuscitation. King Aengus of Munster had seven minstrels whose songs about dead heroes pleased him. These minstrels, wandering through the land, were one day murdered by the king's enemies. They threw the bodies into the waters of a bog and hung their harps on a tree. Aengus mourned the loss. But St. Kieran informed him that the identity of the murderers and the place of the killing had been revealed to him. The king accompanied the saint to the spot. After Kieran had fasted a day on bread and water, the bog went dry, and he and Aengus saw the seven bodies of the songsters lying in the mud. Kieran then prayed that they might come back to life. Although a month dead, all seven promptly arose, their lives fully restored. Taking their harps, they thanked their benefactors with a recital of their sweetest songs.
The chronicler concluded, That bog has remained dry ever since. Whatever the truth of this legend, one central fact remains certain: that God will heed the prayers of a worthy person. Ask, said our Lord, and you shall receive.
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Saint Dymphna the Virgin-Martyr in Ireland (+620)
Saint Dymphna’s name in Irish means poetess. Her mother was a pious Christian but her father was a pagan. Her father, Damon, was a king in a region in the north of Ireland called Oriel. In her youth, Saint Dymphna took a vow of chastity.
Unfortunately her mother died when she was still young. After this, there was a change in her father as he sunk into a deep depression. He was encouraged by those close to him to remarry in the hopes that this would improve his dark mood. However, he said he would not marry any woman less beautiful than his wife. After a long search for such a woman, none could meet his exacting standard. As his mental and spiritual health deteriorated, Damon began to be attracted to his own daughter due to her physical similarity to his deceased wife.
Realising his intentions, Saint Dymphna fled Ireland with her priest, Saint Gerebernus. They sailed to continental Europe and arrived in a city called Geel (in Belgium). While there she gave much in charity to the poor and sick. Damon eventually discovered her location and went there himself. He ordered his soldiers to kill Saint Gerebernus. He was martyred and Damon tried to convince Saint Dymphna to return to Ireland but she adamantly refused. Enraged, Damon himself drew his sword and beheaded her. The residents of Geel buried and venerated them.
The site of their tombs healed many from madness. In the 15th century, it attracted pilgrims from all over Europe. A tradition began to allow the people suffering from madness to stay at the homes of the citizens of Geel. They would be encouraged to work and participate in the life of the city and were not looked on with contempt or even as patients. Incredibly this tradition has persisted to the modern day and Geel is infamous for its community driven efforts to heal the mentally and spiritually disturbed.
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St. Modomnoc O'Neil (Domnoc, Dominic, Modomnoc) of Ossory, Ireland (+550)
February 13
Died c. 550. Modomnoc, descended of the Irish royal line of O'Neil, had to leave Ireland to train for the priesthood, since he was a student before the creation of the great Irish monasteries. His name is most likely to have been Dom or Donogh but the Celtic saints were so tenderly loved that "my", "little" and "dear" were very often added to the names, which completely altered their appearance. Another disciple from Ireland much loved by St.David was originally called Aidan, but usually appears in accounts of the monastery as Maidoc.
He crossed the English Channel to be educated under the great Saint David at Mynyw (Menevia, now Saint David's) Monastery in Wales. All those who resided in the community were expected to share in the manual work as well as the study and worship, and there is a story which tells how one day Modomnoc was working with another monk making a road, when he had occasion to rebuke him for some matter. The other monk was seized with anger and took up a crowbar, but before he could bring it down on Modomnoc, SaintDavid, who was witness to the incident, stayed his arm by his spiritual powers and it remained paralysed.
Modomnoc was given charge of the bees and he loved it. And so did everyone else--they all loved honey, but few like taking charge of the hives. Modomnoc liked the bees almost more than he liked their honey. He cared for them tenderly, keeping them in straw skeps in a special sheltered corner of the garden, where he planted the kinds of flowers best loved by the bees.
Every time they swarmed, he captured the swarm very gently and lovingly and set up yet another hive. He talked to the bees as he worked among them and they buzzed around his head in clouds as if they were responding. And, of course, they never stung him.
At the end of summer, they gave him much honey, so much that Modomnoc needed help carrying it all inside. The monks never ran out of honey for their meals or making mead to drink. The good Modomnoc thanked God for this, and he also thanked the bees. He would walk among the skeps in the evening and talk to them, and the bees, for their part, would crowd out to meet him. All the other monks carefully avoided that corner of the monastery garden because they were afraid of being stung.
As well as thanking the bees, Modomnoc did everything he could to care for them in cold and storm. Soon his years of study ended, and Modomnoc had to return to Ireland to begin his priestly ministry. While he was glad to be returning home, he knew he would be lonely for his bees. On the day of his departure, he said good-bye to the Abbot, the monks, and his fellow students. Then he went down to the garden to bid farewell to his bees.
They came out in the hundreds of thousands in answer to his voice and never was there such a buzzing and excitement among the rows and rows of hives. The monks stood at a distance watching the commotion in wonder, You'd think the bees knew, they said. You'd think they knew that Modomnoc was going away.
Modomnoc resolutely turned and went down to the shore and embarked the ship. When they were about three miles from the shore, Modomnoc saw what looked like a little black cloud in the sky in the direction of the Welsh coast. He watched it curiously and as it approached nearer, he saw to his amazement that it was a swarm of bees that came nearer and nearer until finally it settled on the edge of the boat near him. It was a gigantic swarm--all the bees from all the hives, in fact. The bees had followed him!
This time Modomnoc did not praise his friends. How foolish of you, he scolded them, you do not belong to me but to the monastery! How do you suppose the monks can do without honey, or mead? Go back at once, you foolish creatures! But if the bees understood what he said, they did not obey him. They settled down on the boat with a sleepy kind of murmur, and there they stayed. The sailors did not like it one bit and asked Modomnoc what he intended to do.
He told them to turn the boat back for Wales. It was already too far for the bees to fly back, even if they wanted to obey him. He could not allow his little friends to suffer for their foolishness. But the wind was blowing the boat to Ireland and when they turned back, the sail was useless. The sailors had to furl it and row back to the Welsh coast. They did it with very bad grace, but they were too much afraid of the bees to do anything else.
Saint David and the monks were very surprised to see Modomnoc coming back and looking rather ashamed. He told them what had happened. The moment the boat had touched land again, the bees had made straight for their hives and settled down contentedly again. Wait until tomorrow, advised the abbot, but don't say farewell to the bees again. They will be over the parting by then.
Next morning, the boat was again in readiness for Modomnoc and this time he left hurriedly without any fuss of farewell. But when they were about three miles from the shore, he was dismayed to see again the little black cloud rising up over the Welsh coast. Everyone recognised the situation and the sailors turned back to shore immediately.
Once more the shamefaced Modomnoc had to seek out David and tell his story. What am I to do? he pleaded. I must go home. The bees won't let me go without them. I can't deprive you of them. They are so useful to the monastery.
David said, Modomnoc, I give you the bees. Take them with my blessing. I am sure they would not thrive without you. Take them. We'll get other bees later on for the monastery.
The abbot went down to the boat and told the sailors the same story. If the bees follow Modomnoc for the third time, take them to Ireland with him and my blessing. But it took a long time and a great deal of talking to get the sailors to agree to this. They did not care who had the bees as long as they weren't in their boat.
The abbot assured the sailors that the bees would give no trouble as long as Modomnoc was onboard. The sailors asked, if that were so, why the bees did not obey Modomnoc's command to return to the monastery. After much back and forth, the sailors were finally persuaded into starting out again.
For the third time the boat set sail, Modomnoc praying hard that the bees would have the sense to stay in their pleasant garden rather than risking their lives at sea. For the third time he saw the little black cloud rising up in the distance, approaching nearer and nearer until he saw it was the same swarm of bees again. It settled on the boat once more. This time it did not turn back. Modomnoc coaxed his faithful friends into a sheltered corner of the boat, where they remained quietly throughout the journey, much to the sailors' relief.
When he landed in Ireland, he set up a church at a place called Bremore, near Balbriggan, in County Dublin, and here he established the bees in a happy garden just like the one they had in Wales. The place is known to this day as the Church of the Beekeeper.
He became a hermit at Tibberaghny in County Kilkenny and some say he was later consecrated Bishop of Ossory (Benedictines, Curtayne).
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Saint Gobnata (Gobnet, Gobnait) of Ballyvourney, Ireland (+6th ce.) - February 11
6th century One of the most popular of the saints of Munster, she was born in County Clare but had to flee from enemies and took refuge in the Isle of Aran, where there is a church at Inisheer, Kilgobnet, Gobnat's church. After a time an angel appeared and told her that this was not to be the place of her resurrection but she must make a journey until she came upon nine white deer and this would be the sign for her to settle and build a monastery.
So she set out to search for the spot that God had chosen for her and she founded churches on the way, among them Dunguin in County Kerry and Dungarven in County Waterford. It was in County Cork that she saw three white deer near Cloudrohid; then at Ballymakeera she saw six and going further she arrived at Ballyvourney and found nine grazing near a wood. There she founded her monastery.
Saint Abban of Kilabban, County Meath, Ireland, is said to have worked with her on the foundation of the convent in Ballyvourney, County Cork, on land donated by the O'Herlihy family, and to have placed Saint Gobnat over it as abbess.
St Gobnat had a particular calling to care for the sick and she is credited with saving the people at Ballyvourney from the plague. She is also regarded as the Patroness of bees. Gobnata (meaning "Honey Bee", which is the equivalent of the Hebrew "Deborah") Of course honey is a useful ingredient in many medicines but she is said to have driven off a brigand by sending a swarm of bees after him and making him restore the cattle he had stolen. In fact she seems to have been very able in dealing with brigands. Set in the wall of the ruined church at Ballyvourney there is a round stone, which she is said to have used as a sort of boomerang to prevent the building of a castle by another brigand on the other side of the valley from her monastery. Every time he began building she sent the stone across and knocked down the walls, as fast as he could build, until he gave up in despair.
There is a field near to the village called the Plague Field commemorating the area she marked out as consecrated ground, across which the plague could not pass. The "Tomhas Ghobnata", which is the Gaelic for Gobnat's measure, a length of wool measured against her statue, is still in demand for healing, and in the church a much worn wooden statue of the thirteenth century is preserved and shown on her festival. At Killeen there is Gobnat's Stone, an early cross pillar that has a small figure bearing a crozier on one side.
A well still exists at Ballyvourney that is named after her. As with many Irish saints, there are stories of wondrous interactions with nature.
Her grave in the churchyard at Ballyvourney is decorated with crutches and other evidence of cures obtained through Gobnata's intercession. Among the miracles attributed to her intercession were the staying of a pestilence by marking off the parish as sacred ground. Another tradition relates that she routed an enemy by loosing her bees upon them. Her beehive has remained a precious relic of the O'Herlihys.
The round stone associated with her is still preserved. In art, Saint Gobnata is represented as a beekeeper.
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Saints Máel Ruain (+792) and Óengus of Tallaght, Ireland (+824)
Most of the great Irish monasteries were founded in the 6th century. The next generations of saints often were trained at sites such as Clonard, Clonmacnoise, Iona, etc. However, there was one more great monastic foundation that would be established later than the rest. That was Tallaght, founded in the 8th century by Saint Máel Ruain.
The etymology of Tallaght refers to a gravesite for victims of plague. Tallaght is referred to in the Lebor Gabála Érenn as the burial site of the Partholonians, a people group, who were wiped out by a plague in Ireland’s ancient history. This is a topic that should be of great interest to those interested in an Orthodox Christian perspective of the history of Ireland because texts such as the Lebor Gabála Érenn were written and passed down by the Church and are a part of its tradition.
Less is known about Saint Máel Ruain himself than the monastery and its successes. Regularly referred to resources for anyone studying the Irish saints are the Martyrology of Tallaght and the Martyrology of Óengus, both produced from the monastery of Tallaght. It is also from Tallaght, while Saint Máel Ruain was abbot, that a monastic movement known as the Céilí Dé, anglicised as the Culdees, began. This is a large topic that has a range of interpretations in academic literature. Orthodox Christian appraisals of the Céilí Dé are hopefully on the near horizon!
The other great saint of Tallaght was Saint Óengus. He had been a hermit in a hermitage that he founded called the Dísert Óengusa but his piety and asceticism eventually attracted many visitors. Saint Óengus wished for more solitude and obscurity and for this reason left and joined Tallaght as a lay brother, disguising his significant reputation and experience in monasticism. Saint Máel Ruain eventually discovered his true identity. As implied by the name, the Martyrology of Óengus was written by him.
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Saint Ita of Limerick, Ireland (+570)
January 15
Died c. 570. Saint Ita is the most famous woman saint in Ireland after Saint Brigid (f.d. February 1), and is known as the Brigid of Munster. She is said to have been of royal lineage, born in one of the baronies of Decies near Drum in County Waterford, and called Deirdre.
An aristocrat wished to marry her, but after praying and fasting for three days and with divine help, she convinced her father to allow her to lead the life of a maiden. She migrated to Hy Conaill (Killeedy), in the western part of Limerick, and founded a community of women dedicated to God, which soon attracted many young women. She also founded and directed a school. It is said that Bishop Saint Erc gave into her care Saint Brendan (f.d. May 16), who would become a famous abbot and missionary (though the chronology makes this unlikely). Many other Irish saints were taught by her for years. For this reason, she is often called foster-mother of the saints of Ireland.
Brendan once asked her what three things God especially loved. She replied, True faith in God with a pure heart, a simple life with a religious spirit, and open-handedness inspired by charity.
An Irish lullaby for the Infant Jesus is attributed to her. Saint Ita's legend stresses her physical austerities. The principle mark of her devotion was the indwelling of the Holy Trinity. Like other monastic figures of Ireland, she spent much time in solitude, praying and fasting, and the rest of the time in service to those seeking her assistance and advice.
She and her sisters helped to treat the sick of the area. Many miracles are also attributed to her including one in which she reattached the head to the body of a man who had been decapitated, and another that she lived only on food from heaven.
Although her life is overlaid by much unreliable material, because she has been so popular and her "vita" was not written for centuries, there is no reason to doubt her existence. There are church dedications and place names that recall her both in her birthplace and around her monastery. She is also mentioned in the poem of Blessed Alcuin (f.d. May 19), and her cultus is still vibrant (Attwater2, Benedictines, Delaney, Farmer, Montague, Riain, Walsh, White).
An extract from the entry on St. Ita in Edward Sellner's The Wisdom of the Celtic Saints.
Ita (also Ite or Ide) is, after Brigit, the most famous of Irish women soul friends. Her hagiographer even describes her as a second Brigit. A sixth-century abbess, Ita founded a monastery in Country Limerick at Killeedy (which means Cell of Church of Ita). She came from the highly respected clan of the Deisi, and her father, like Brigit's, was resistant to her becoming a nun. After gaining his permission, Ita left home and settled at the foot of Sliabh Luachra, where other women from neighbouring clans soon joined her. There she founded a monastic school for the education of small boys, one of whom was Brendan of Clonfert. She evidently had many students, for she is called the Foster-mother of the Saints of Erin.
Ita's original, some claim, was Deirdre, but because of her thirst (iota) for holiness she became known as Ita. This quality may have been what drew so many women to join her monastery and families to send their sons to her. Ita wanted her students to become acquainted with the saints as soul friends. Besides her mentoring, Ita is associated with competence in healing and with an asceticism that an angel had to warn her about.
Ita died in approximately 570. Her grave, frequently decorated with flowers, is in the ruins of a Romanesque church at Killeedy where her monastery once stood. A holy well nearby, almost invisible now, was known for centuries for curing smallpox in children and other diseases as well.
Her feast day is January 15.
Ita's Qualities as a Child, and the Fiery Grace of God
Ita was born in Ireland of noble lineage, that is, of the stock of Feidhlimidh Reachtmiher, by whom all Ireland was supremely ruled for many years from the royal fort of Tara. He had three sons, Tiacha, Cond and Eochaid. Ita was born of the people called the Deisi, and from her baptism on she was filled with the Holy Spirit. All marvelled at her childhood purity and behaviour, and her abstinence on the days she had to fast. She performed many miracles while she was yet a small child, and when she could speak and walk she was prudent, very generous and mild toward everyone, gentle and chaste in her language, and God-fearing. She consistently attempted to overcome evil and always did what she could to promote good. As a young girl she lived at home with her parents.
One day, while Ita was asleep in her room the whole place seemed to be on fire. When her neighbours came to give assistance, however, the fire in her room seemed to have been extinguished. All marvelled at that, and it was said that it was the grace of God that burned about Ita as she slept. When she arose from her sleep, her whole appearance seemed to be angelic, for she had beauty that has never been seen before or since. Her appearance was such that it was the grace of God that burned about her. After a short interval, her original appearance returned, which certainly was beautiful enough.
Ita's Dream and the Angel that Helped Discern Its Meaning
Another day when she went to sleep, Ita saw an angel of the Lord approach her and give her three precious stones. When she awoke she did not know what that dream signified, and she had a question in her heart about it. Then an angel appeared to her and said, Why are you wondering about that dream? Those three precious stoned you saw being given to you signify the coming of the Blessed Trinity to you, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Always in your sleep and vigils the angels of God and holy visions will come to you, for you are a temple of God, in body and soul. After saying this, the angel left her.
Ita's Desire to be Consecrated to Christ, and her Parents' Resistance
Another day Ita came to her mother and announced to her the divine precepts the Holy Spirit had taught her. She asked her mother to seek her father's permission so that she might consecrate herself to Christ. But her father was defiantly opposed to what she desired. The request was also very displeasing to her mother , and when others added their petitions, Ita's father vehemently refused to give permission. Then Ita, filled with the spirit of prophecy, said to all: Leave my father alone for a while. Though he now forbids me to be consecrated to Christ, he will come to persuade me and eventually will order me to do so, for he will be compelled by Jesus Christ my Lord to let me go wherever I wish to serve God. And it happened as she had predicted. This is how it came about.
Not long afterward, Ita fasted for three days and three nights. During those days and nights, through dreams and vigils, it became clear that the devil was waging several battles against Ita. She, however, resisted him in everything, whether she slept or watched. One night, the devil, sad and grieving, left Ita with these words: Alas, Ita, you will free yourself from me, and many others too will be delivered.
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Saint Fechin of Fobhar (Fore), Ireland (+665) - January 20
Born at Bile Fechin (Connaught), Ireland; died c. 665. Saint Fechin, the abbot-founder of several Irish monasteries, was trained by Saint Nathy (f.d. August 9) at Achonry, County Sligo. After a life of sanctity, he died during the great pestilence which came upon Britain and Ireland in the year after the Council at Whitby and felled four Irish kings and nearly two-thirds of the populace.
Fechin's name is particularly connected with that of Fobhar (Fore or Foure) in Westmeath, which was his first monastic foundation, and an important one for its manuscripts. Fechin was the son of Coelcharna, descendant of Eochad Fionn, brother to the famous king Conn of the Hundred Battles, and his mother Lassair was of the royal blood of Munster. When fit to be sent to school he was placed under St Nathy of Achonry.
Having finished his studies he was ordained priest, and retired to a solitary place at Fore in Westmeath, there to live as a hermit. But he was followed by many disciples, and Fore became a monastery. Here he eventually governed over 300 monks. He is said to have pitied the monks engaged in grinding their corn in querns, he therefore brought water from a marsh to the monastery, by cutting a tunnel through the rock, and then established a water mill. Of this Giraldus Cambrensis relates the following :-
There is a mill at Foure, which St Fechin made most miraculously with his own hands, in the side of a certain rock. No women are allowed to enter either this mill or the church of the Saint; and the mill is held in as much reverence by the people as any of the churches dedicated to him.
His influence was very great with the kings and princes of his age. The Saint finding a poor leper, full of sores one day, took him to the Queen, and bade her minister to him as to Christ. She bravely overcame her repugnance, and tended him with gentle care. of three hundred monks. He also established a religious house in the island of Immagh, near the coast of Galway. The inhabitants were then pagans, but Fechin and his monks converted them.
The monastery dedicated to the Virgin Mary which he founded in Cong is renowned because of the Cross of Cong, one of the great treasures of Ireland, which had been hidden in an old oaken chest in the village, and now resides in the National Museum in Dublin. Both the church and monastery at Cong were rebuilt in 1120 for the Augustinians by Turlough O'Connor, who gave them the bejewelled processional cross he had made to enshrine a particle of the True Cross. Cong Abbey also served as the refuge for the last high king of Ireland, Roderick O'Connor. The monastery was suppressed by King Henry VIII.
St. Fechin's other foundations include those at Ballysadare (his birthplace?),Imaid Island, Omey and Ard Oilean, from which came the oldest manuscript about his life. All of these are now in ruins. His memory, however, is also perpetuated at Ecclefechan and Saint Vigean's (the name under which he is invoked in the Dunkeld Litany), near Arbroath in Scotland, where a fair was held on his feast day.
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Saint Colman of Lismore, Ireland, Abbot and Bishop (+702) - January 23
Died c. 702. Saint Colman succeeded Saint Hierlug (Zailug) as abbot-bishop of Lismore in 698. During his rule the fame of Lismore reached its peak (Benedictines).
The Monastery of Lismore
As the School of Armagh in the North of Ireland, and that of Clonmacnoise in the centre, so the School of Lismore was the most celebrated in the South of Ireland. It was founded in the year 635 by St. Carthach the Younger, in a most picturesque site, steeply rising from the southern bank of the Blackwater. Its founder had spent nearly forty years of his monastic life in the monastery of Rahan on the southern borders of ancient Meath, in what is now King's County. He dearly loved that monastery which he had founded and which he fondly hoped would be the place of his resurrection; but the men of Meath - clerics and chieftains - grew jealous of the great monastery founded in their territory by a stranger from Munster, and they persuaded Prince Blathmac, son of Aedh Slaine, of the southern Hy Mall, to expel the venerable old man from the monastic home which he loved so well. The eviction is described by the Irish annalists as most unjust and cruel, yet, under God's guidance, it led to the foundation of Lismore on the beautiful margin of what was then called Avonmore, the great river, a site granted to St. Carthach by the prince of the Desii of Waterford.
Lismore was founded in 635; and the founder survived only two years, for he died in 637, but Providence blessed his work, and his monastery grew to be the greatest centre of learning and piety in all the South of Erin. The Rule of St. Carthach is the most notable literary monument which the founder left behind him. It is fortunately still extant in the ancient Gaelic verse in which it was written. It consists of 185 four-lined stanzas, which have been translated by O'Curry - who has no doubt of its authenticity - and is beyond doubt one of the most interesting and important documents of the early Irish Church.
The Rule of Saint Carthage can be found in The Celtic Monk: Rules & Writings of Early Irish Monks Uinseann O'Maidin OCR, pub. Cistercian Studies Series Number 162, 1996. ISBN: 0879076623 (pb) and 0879075627 (hb).
But Lismore produced a still more famous saint and scholar, the great St. Cathaldus of Tarentum. His Irish name was Cathal, and it appears he was born at a place called Rathan, not far from Lismore. Our Irish annals tell us nothing of St. Cathaldus, because he went abroad early in life, but the brothers Morini of his adopted home give us many particulars. They tell us he was a native of Hibernia - born at Rathan in Momonia - that he studied at Lismore, and became bishop of his native territory of Rathan, but that afterwards, inspired by the love of missionary enterprise, he made his way to Jerusalem, and on his return was, with his companions, wrecked at Tarentum - the beautiful Tarentum - at the heel of Italy. Its pleasure-loving inhabitants, forgetting the Gospel preached to them by St. Peter and St. Mark, had become practically pagans when Cathaldus and his companions were cast upon their shores. Seeing the city given up to vice and sensuality, the Irish prelate preached with great fervour, and wrought many miracles, so that the Tarentines gave up their sinful ways, and from that day to this have recognised the Irish Cathaldus as their patron saint, and greatly venerate his tomb, which was found intact in the cathedral as far back as the year 1110, with his name Cathaldus Rachan inscribed upon a cross therein. Another distinguished scholar of Lismore, and probably its second abbot, was St. Cuanna, most likely the half-brother and successor of the founder. He was born at Kilcoonagh, or Killcooney, a parish near Headford in the County Galway which takes its name from him. No doubt he went to Lismore on account of his close connection with St. Carthach, and for the same reason was chosen to succeed him in the school of Lismore. Colgan thought that the ancient but now lost "Book of Cuanach", cited in the "Annals of Ulster", but not later than A.D. 628, was the work of this St. Cuanna of Kilcooney and Lismore. It is also said that Aldfrid, King of Northumbria, spent some time at the school of Lismore, for he visited most of the famous schools of Erin towards the close of the seventh century, and at that time Lismore was one of the most celebrated. It was a place of pilgrimage also, and many Irish princes gave up the sceptre and returned to Lismore to end their lives in prayer and penance. There, too, by his own desire, was interred St. Celsus of Armagh, who died at Ardpatrick, but directed that he should be buried in Lismore - but we have sought in vain for any trace of his monument.
Two interesting memorials of Lismore are fortunately still preserved. The first is the crosier of Lismore, found accidentally in Lismore Castle in the year 1814. The inscription tells us that it was made for Niall Mac Mic Aeducan, Bishop of Lismore, 1090-1113, by Neclan the artist. This refers to the making of the case or shrine, which enclosed an old oak stick, the original crosier of the founder. Most of the ornaments are richly gilt, interspersed with others of silver and niello, and bosses of coloured enamels. You can see the crosier here:
http://www.discoverlismore.com/images/lismorecrozier.jpg
http://www.nyu.edu/classes/overbey/shrines/shrines-Thumb.00001.html
The second is the "Book of Lismore" found in the castle at the same time with the crosier, enclosed in a wooden box in a built-up doorway. The castle was built as long ago as 1185 by Prince John. Afterwards the bishops of Lismore came to live there, and no doubt both crosier and book belonged to the bishops and were hidden for security in troublesome times. The Book of Lismore contains a very valuable series of the lives of our Irish saints, written in the finest medieval Irish. It was in 1890 admirably translated into English by Dr. Whitley Stokes. One of the Saints' Lives (paraphrased), Saint Fanahan of Brigown, may be read here http://incolor.inetnebr.com/jskean/Fanahan.htm
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Saint Jarlath, first Bishop of Tuam, Ireland (+540)
December 26
Saint Jarlath, also known as Iarlaithe mac Loga (fl. 6th century), was an Irish priest and scholar from Connacht, remembered as the founder of the monastic School of Tuam and of the Archdiocese of Tuam, of which he is the patron saint.
Saint Jarlath of Tuam is said to have belonged to the Conmhaícne, who ruled over the greater part of what would become the parish of Tuam.
Saint Brendan the Voyager (+577) is said to have visited Connacht to study under the famous Jarlath. One day, when Jarlath was in his old age, Brendan advised his mentor to leave the school and to depart in a newly built chariot until its two hind shafts broke, because there would be the place of his resurrection (esséirge) and that of many after him. Because Jarlath acknowledged the divinity and superior wisdom of his pupil, saying "take me into thy service for ever and ever", he gladly accepted his advice. His travel did not take him very far, as the shafts broke at Tuaim da Ghualann ("Mound of two shoulders"), that is, at Tuam.
Saint Jarlath died, "full of days", on 26 December, circa 540, aged about 90 years old.
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St. Beoc (Beanus, Dabeoc, Mobeoc) of Ireland (+5th-6th ce.) - 1 January
5th or 6th century. Beoc was a Cambro-Briton, who crossed over from Wales to Ireland and founded a monastery on an island in Lough Derg, Donegal (Benedictines).
St Daibheog of Lough Derg
In the Martyrology of Tallagh we find this insertion : Aedh, Lochagerg, alias Daibheog. His name is Latinized Dabeocus, and he is frequently called Beanus.
At a very early date, this saint lived on the island ; but for what term of life does not seem to have been ascertained. Few notices of the place occur in our ancient annals. We read, in the Martyrology of Donegal, that Dabheog belonged to Lough Geirg or Loch-gerc, in Ulster. There, also, three festivals were annually held in his honour, namely, on the 1st of January, on the 24th of July, and on the 16th of December.
According to St. Cummin of Connor, in the following translation from his Irish poem on the characteristic virtues of the Irish Saints :-
Mobeog, the gifted, loved, According to the Synod of the learned, That often in bowing his head, He plunged it under water.
Whether or not St. Patrick had any acquaintance with St. Dabeoc can hardly be discovered. But, we are told, while the latter, with his clerics, lived on the island, and when his vigils had been protracted to a late hour one night, a wonderful brightness appeared towards the northern part of the horizon. The clerics asked their master what it portended.
In that direction, whence you have seen the brilliant illumination, said Dabeog, the Lord himself, at a future time, shall light a shining lamp, which, by its brightness, must miraculously glorify the Church of Christ. This shall be Columba, the son of Feidlimid, son of Fergus, and whose mother will be Ethnea. For learning he shall be distinguished ; in body and soul shall he be chaste ; and he shall possess the gifts of prophecy.
See Colgan's Trias Thaumaturga. Quinta Vita S, Columbae. Lib. i., cap. X, pp. 390, 391.
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Saints Ethenea (Ethna) and Fidelmia (Fedelma) of Ireland, Virgins (+433) - January 11
Died 433. The story is told that one summer day the little daughters of King Laoghaire of Connaught, Ethna and Fedelma, who were barely out of childhood and full of fun, went for their daily bath in a private place near the palace, a place to which no one ever came so early in the morning. But this special day they were surprised to hear voices and see tents encamped on the grassy slope near the pool.
There was a drone of a strange language and every now and again a sweet voice broke into song and mingled with that of the birds in the nearby woods and the murmuring of the river. Saint Patrick and his companions, who had arrived during the night with a message for the King of Connaught, were praying the Divine Office in Latin. Finally, each group spied the other.
The older princess asked, Who are you, and where do you come from?
Patrick hesitated, then said: We have more important things to tell you than just our names and where we're from. We know who the one true God is whom you should adore. . . .
The girls were delighted, rather than annoyed. In a flash something seemed to light up inside them, to make a blinding white blaze in their hearts and minds. They knew at once that this was real, real news and that it was true. It all happened instantaneously. Then they asked a whole torrent of questions:
Who is God? Where does He live? Will He live forever? and on and on as excited young people do.
Patrick answered each question quickly and simply. He, too, was delighted: the light that blazed up in the girls was in the man, too, and the three lights together made a tremendous glow. Everyone else stood listening raptly, feeling lucky to be witnesses to the saintly man and the sweet girls--and the Holy Spirit in their midst.
Oh, tell us how to find the good God. Teach us more about the kind Jesus, who died upon the Cross. Tell us more, more, more, the princesses urged. But there was no need for more; the two had already received the gift of the Spirit of Truth.
Patrick led them to their bathing pool, where he baptized them. For a short time thereafter, Ethna and Fedelma were very quiet for they were in deep prayer. Meanwhile, Patrick prepared to offer the Holy Sacrifice. Then the princesses began again, I want to see Jesus Christ now, said Ethna.
And so do I, echoed Fedelma. I want to be with Him in His home forever.
Patrick, moved by this loving longing, very gently explained that they would not be able to see God until after their death. They were still young, so it would be a long time before they could see Him as He is. If they lived good Christian lives, then they would be able to go to God for always and great joys would replace the present sorrows. The girls pondered this as Patrick began the Offering.
As the holy Offering went on everyone was still, but the river and woods seemed to sing God's praises. Then the youngest man rang a little bell and all bowed their heads. Jesus Christ was with them in the grassy knoll in the king's park. Soon the bell rang again. Patrick beckoned the princesses forward and gave them Holy Communion.
For a little while the girls looked so happy and so beautiful that they were like angels. And then, we are told, they died. They longed so much to be with Jesus that they died of longing. Saint Patrick was exceedingly happy to have met such quick and whole-hearted belief (Benedictines, Curtayne).
This other retelling of the meeting between Patrick and the two young girls is from Muirchu's 7th century Life of Saint Patrick:
On his missionary travels, Saint Patrick came to Rathcroghan near Tulsk. At the well of Clebach beside Cruachan (probably today's Tobercrogheer), he pauses for a rest.
Rathcroghan, the rath of Croghan, is an ancient Celtic royal burial place, rich in earthworks and earlier megalithic remains. The seven-foot-high standing stone in the middle of a ring-fort is said to mark the burial place of the pagan monarch Daithi.
While Patrick and his clerics are assembled at the well, two royal maidens, fair Ethne and red-haired Fedelma, come to wash their hands. These two daughters of Loeghaire are being brought up in Connacht by the two wizards, the brothers Mael and Caplait. Surprised at the strange appearance of the monks and priests, the girls ask them who they are, and where they come from. Patrick replies that it were better for them to believe in the true God than to ask such questions.
Ethne then asks him:
What is God? Where is God. And of whom is God?
And where is God's dwelling place?
Does your God have sons and daughters?
Has he gold and silver? Is he immortal?
Is he beautiful?
Have many people fostered his son?
Are his daughters beautiful and beloved of men?
Is he in heaven or on earth?
Or on the plain?
In what manner does he come to us?
In the mountains? In the glens?
Is he young or old?
Tell us of him, in what manner is he seen?
Filled with the Holy Spirit, Patrick answers them:
Our God is the God of all men, the God of Heaven and Earth,
of seas and rivers, of Sun and Moon and stars,
of high mountains and deep valleys,
the God over Heaven and in Heaven and on Earth,
and in the sea and in all that is therein.
He informs all these things, he brings life to all things,
he surpasses all things, he sustains all things.
He gives light to the Sun, and to the Moon by night.
He makes fountains in the dry land and islands in the seas,
and he sets the stars in their places.
He has a Son, co-eternal with himself and in his own likeness.
Neither is the Son younger than the Father,
nor the Father older than the Son.
And the Holy Spirit breathes in them.
The Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit cannot be divided.
In truth I wish to unite you to the Heavenly King,
you who until now are the daughters of an earthly king.
Believe!
With one voice and heart, the two girls answer: In what way can we believe in the Heavenly King? Instruct us most diligently so that we may see him face to face, inform us and whatever you tell us we will do.
Patrick asks them if they believe that in baptism the sin of their father and mother will be cast off, to which they reply We believe.
Patrick asks them if they believe in repentance after sin, in life after death, in resurrection on the Day of Judgement, in the oneness of the Church. To all of these questions the girls reply We believe.
They are then baptized, Patrick blesses the white veils over their heads, and they beg to see the face of Christ. Patrick tells them that until they receive Communion and taste death, they cannot see Christ's face. They reply: Give us the Communion so that we may see the Son, our Bridegroom.
They receive the Holy Eucharist and fall asleep in death. They are wrapped together in one shroud, and are greatly bewailed by their friends.
The Druid Caplait, the foster-father of one of the girls, comes to Patrick lamenting. Patrick preaches to him and he, too, believes, and is baptized and tonsured. The other Druid, Caplait's brother Mael, comes to Patrick to tell him that he will bring his brother back to the pagan creed, but Patrick preaches to Mael also, and he, too, is converted, and tonsured.
The period of mourning then being over, the bodies of Ethne and Fidelma are buried near the well of Clebach. A circular ditch is dug around the burial place, as is customary (Tirechan adds) among the inhabitants of Ireland.
from Muirchu's Life of Saint Patrick
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Saint Manach of Lemonaghan, Ireland (+7th ce.)
January 24
St. Manchan lived in Leamonaghan, it is about two kilometres from Pollagh. St. Kieran of Clonmacnoise gave him some land and he formed a monastery in the year 645 AD. Nothing now remains but the ruins and the surrounding graveyard. The foundations of the original buildings may still be traced but the larger ruins are those of a church built at a later date.
About 500m from the monastery is a little stone house which Monchan built for his mother Mella. This place is known locally as Kell and the ruins of the house can still be visited today. It is said that one day the saint was thirsty and there was no water at the monastery. He struck a rock and a spring well bubbled up, it is now known as St. Manahan's well. It is visited by people from all around especially on January 24 each year. It is claimed that many people have been cured of diseases after visiting the well.
There are many stories about the saint. One of the most famous of them explains why the people of Lemonaghan will not sell milk. St. Manchan had a cow that used to give milk to the whole country side for which there was no charge. The cow became famous and the neighbouring people of Kill-Managhan got jealous and stole his cow. When St. Manchan eventually found his cow it was dead, he struck it with a stick and the cow came back to life and returned to supplying milk.
St. Manchan's shrine was made in 1130 AD in Clonmacnoise, it contains some of his bones including the femur. On the shrine are placed brass figures, in 1838 it was placed in Boher church. It is the largest shrine of its kind in existence today. The guardians of the shrine through the centuries are the Mooney family (my ancestors!)
St Manchan's Shrine is preserved in Boher church, near-by. This shrine is the largest and most magnificent ancient reliquary in Ireland and was made at Clonmacnois about AD 1130. It is a gabled box of yew wood with gilt, bronze, and enamelled fittings. It still contains the relics of the saint. There are ten remaining figures of a possible 50 or 52 on the cover.
Shrine of Saint Manchan
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St. Manchan lived in Lemonaghan for 19 years. During this time he looked after the spiritual needs of the locality. He waas known for his kindness and generosity, his wisdom and his knowledge of sacred scripture.
In 664 AD he became ill and was struck down by the yellow plague a disease which desolated Ireland at the time. He died and wad buried locally. After his death the place became known as 'Liath Manchan', which means Manchan's grey land.
How St. Manchan came to Lemonaghan
In 644, Diarmuid, High King of Ireland was on his way to fight a battle against Guaire, the King of Connaught, when he stopped off at Clonmacnois to ask the monks for their prayers for his success. Having won the battle, a grateful Diarmuid granted Ciarán, abbot of Clonmacnois, the "island in the bog" which we now know as Lemonaghan, provided that he send one of his monks there to Christianize it.
St. Ciarán chose St. Manchan for the mission. The thriving community that was already on the island were converted to Christianity by St. Manchan. He then went on to establish a monastery there. He built a cell for his mother, St. Mella, in an adjoining piece of high ground, and the intervening bog was bridged by a togher or walkway made from sandstone laid on brushwood and gravel. St. Manchan is alleged to have taken a vow never to look at a woman as part of his orders, so he is supposed to have had to sit back to back with his mother in order to communicate with her.
St. Manchan had many followers at Lemonaghan and ancient headstones still survive from the era. St. Manchan's well was used for cures since pagan times, and continues to be used for a variety of cures today, as is the holy water font in the ruined church in the graveyard.
St. Manchan
a visit to a historic Offaly centre Monday, 24th January
Midland Tribune 27th April 1935
By Tomas O'Cleirigh, M.A., National Museum.
I was in the little two-horse train which labours west from Clara to Banagher and the outlook was desolate. There was another chap in the carriage. He sat hunched up in the corner with his nose to the window. One glance convinced me that it was useless to say anything and there the two of us kept on staring rather lovingly at a wilderness of bog stretching away to the Slieve Bloom Mountains. It seemed to me that there was a kind of promised land on the other side. On past a few scattered farm houses some grey boulders and the ruins of a church. I found myself thinking dismally enough of the tourists. After all what do they get? Just ruins, ruins and more ruins- the saddest ruins in Europe. Then suddenly I heard my friend of the opposite corner speak in a mournful kind of way with his nose still glued to the window - "That's Leamanaghan, a quare kind of place, decent people, too, the best in the world, people who'd give you all the milk you could drink but wouldn't sell a drop of it for all the gold in Ireland and it's all by raison of a cow, saint Manchan's cow."
The Grey Land
I went through a storm of real Irish rain to see Leamanaghan that very evening. It is four miles from Ferbane in County Offaly and hidden away in a vast bog region which is dotted with scattered boulders of magnesian limestone. The general depression is summed up in the name - Liath Manchan - the grey land of Manchan. Aye! The grey, lonely, chill land of Manchan. St. Manchan lived here and died in A.D. 664. That might have been only yesterday, however as far as the good neighbours are concerned because he is the one subject over which every man, woman and child can get really voluble.
I was taken to see the ruins of his church and then down to his well and heard how when you are sick should pray here, walk three times round it and then, go back and leave a little present for the saint himself in the window of the church. He had quite a good collection when I was there - a strangely human and pathetic little collection among which I noticed a girl's brooch, some small religious articles, a boy's penknife, a G.A.A. footballer's medal and strangest gift of all for a saint of Manchan's calibre - a demure little vanity box! After that I was told that on the 24th January when all the rest of the world works, the people of Leamanaghan just take a holiday and make merry because it would be the unpardonable sin to think of work on their Saint's day.
The Saint's Cow
They have all kinds of stories about the good saint but the best one of them all explains why Leamanaghan people don't sell milk. Here it is - Saint Manchan had a cow - a wonderful cow that used to give milk to the whole countryside - good, rich milk for which no charge was ever made by the saint. Then, the people of the neighbouring Kill Managhan got jealous and watched and there chance. One fine day when Manchan was absent they came and stole the cow and started to drive her along the togher through the bog back home to Kill Managhan. The good cow, suspecting something was wrong, went backwards and most unwillingly, fighting, struggling and disputing every inch of the way. Now she'd slip designedly on the stones: again she'd lie down but every where she went, she managed to leave some trace of her rough passage on the stones of the togher. The marks are there to this day, - hoof marks, tail marks - every kind of marks and the chef-d'oeuvre of them all has a place of honour at the entrance to the little school. Alas! In spite of that very gallant resistance, the cow was finally driven to Kill Managhan. There, horrible to say, she was killed and skinned.
In the meantime, the saint returned, missed his cow, and straightaway started in pursuit. He succeeded in tracing the thieves by the marks on the stones and arrived just at the moment when she was about to be boiled. He carefully picked the portions out of the cauldron pieced them together, struck at them with his stick and immediately the cow became alive again. She was every bit as good as ever, too, except that she was a wee bit lame on account of one small portion of a foot which was lost. She continued to supply the milk as before, and, of course, no charge was made by the saint. Ever since the famous custom still lives on, and good milk is given away but never gold by the loyal people of Leamanaghan. Now, can any lover of the grand faith of Medievaldom beat that?
The very old vellum books state that Manchan of Liath was like unto Hieronomus in habits and learning. I can well believe it. Some distance away from the church is the little rectangle cell which he built for his mother - Saint Mella. Cold, austere and with no window, you get the shivers by even looking at it. There is also a large flag-stone on the togher leading from the well, and they say the saint and his mother used to meet here every day and sit down back to back without speaking a word because the saint had vowed never to speak to a woman!
A Famous Shrine
Leamanaghan people are, I gather, a tenacious class. Not only have they so zealously guarded the cow tradition but they have succeeded, despite the groans of sundry learned antiquarians, in still keeping in their midst the saint's precious shrine. It has a special altar all to itself in the church of Boher. But the first thing I noticed when I went along to see it was a wonderful green in a Harry Clarke window. The shrine itself has been many times described, notably so by the Rev James Graves in 1875.
St. Manchan is credited with writing a poem in Irish that describes the desire of the green martyrs:
Grant me sweet Christ the grace to find-
Son of the living God!-
A small hut in a lonesome spot
To make it my abode.
A little pool but very clear
To stand beside the place
Where all men's sins are washed away
By sanctifying grace.
A pleasant woodland all about
To shield it (the hut) from the wind,
And make a home for singing birds
Before it and behind.
A southern aspect for the heat
A stream along its foot,
A smooth green lawn with rich top soil
Propitious to all fruit.
My choice of men to live with me
And pray to God as well;
Quiet men of humble mind --
Their number I shall tell.
Four files of three or three of four
To give the Psalter forth;
Six to pray by the south church wall
And six along the north.
Two by two my dozen friends --
To tell the number right --
Praying with me to move the King
Who gives the sun its light.
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Saint Cannera of Inis Cathaig, Ireland (+530) - January 28
Died c. 530. Little is known of Saint Cannera except that which is recorded in the story of Saint Senan (f.d. March 8), who ruled a monastery on the Shannon River, which ministered to the dying--but only men. Cannera was an anchorite from Bantry in southern Ireland. When she knew she was dying, she travelled to Senan's monastery without rest and walked upon the water to cross the river because no one would take her to the place forbidden to women. Upon her arrival, the abbot was adamant that no woman could enter his monastic enclosure. Arguing that Christ died for women, too, she convinced the abbot to give her last rites on the island and to bury her at its furthermost edge. Against his argument that the waves would wash away her grave, she answered that she would leave that to God.
Cannera told the abbot of a vision she had in her Bantry cell of the island and its holiness.
Double (male and female) monasteries already existed in Ireland.
Probably because Saint Cannera walked across the water, sailors honour their patron by saluting her resting place on Scattery Island (Inis Chathaigh). They believed that pebbles from her island protected the bearer from shipwreck. A 16th-century Gaelic poem about Cannera prays, Bless my good ship, protecting power of grace. . . . (Benedictines, D'Arcy, Markus, O'Hanlon).
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Saint Dallan Forghaill (of Cluain Dallain), Martyr in Ireland (+640)
January 29
Born in Connaught, Ireland; died 640. Dallan, a kinsman of Saint Aidan of Ferns (f.d. January 31) and a renowned scholar in his own right. The intensity of his study strained his eyes to the point where he became blind.
In 575, Dallan was the Chief Bard of Ireland, a position second only to the king in honour. When the king of Ireland, Aedh MacAinmire, called upon the Assembly of Drumceat to abolish the bardic guild and its privileges, Saint Columba (f.d. June 9) successfully argued that the bards were necessary to preserve the history of the nation and that it would be prudent to punish abusive bards rather than destroy the order.
In recognition of Columba's defence of the bards, Saint Dallan wrote a panegyric, "Amra Choluim Kille" or "Eulogy of Columba". To account for its obscure and intentionally difficult language, legend tells us that in his humility Columba would only permit it to be written if it were incomprehensible to the Irish. Saint Dallan also wrote the "Eulogy of Senan".
Today's saint reorganised and reformed the Bardic Order and initiated a strictly supervised school system for it that encouraged the cultivation of the Gaelic language and preservation of its literature. The order itself was active until 1738 when Turlough O'Carolan, the last of the great Irish bards and composer of the tune of the "Star Spangled Banner," died. Until that time, the bards participated in every major Irish celebration.
He is venerated as a martyr because he was murdered at Inis-coel (Inniskeel) by pirates who broke into the monastery (Benedictines, D'Arcy, Healy, Kenney, Montague, Montalembert, Muirhead).
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Saint Brigid of Kildare, Ireland (+525)
February 1
Born at Faughart (near Dundalk) or Uinmeras (near Kildare), Louth, Ireland, c. 450; died at Kildare, Ireland, c. 525; feast of her translation is June 10.
We implore Thee, by the memory of Thy Cross's hallowed and most bitter anguish, make us fear Thee, make us love Thee, O Christ. Amen.
--Prayer of Saint Brigid.
Saint Brigid was an original--and that's what each of us are supposed to be, an original creation of the Almighty Imagination. Unfortunately, most of us get caught up in the desire to be accepted by others. We conform to the norm, rather than opening up to the creative power of God and blooming to render Him the sweet fragrance of our unique lives. We miss the glory of giving God the gift of who we were intended to be.
Brigid lacked that fault. She got things done. She had a welcome for everyone in an effort to help them be originals, too. She was so generous that she gave away the clothes from her back. She never shied away from hard work or intense prayer. She would brush aside the rules--even the rules of the Church--if it was necessary to bring out the best in others. Perhaps for this reason, the saint who never left Ireland, is venerated throughout the world as the prototype of all nuns. She bridged the gap between Christian and pagan cultures.
Brigid saw the beauty and goodness of God in all His creation: cows made her love God more, and so did wild ducks, which would come and light on her shoulders and hands when she called to them. She enjoyed great popularity both among her own followers and the villagers around; and she had great authority, ruling a monastery of both monks and nuns.
Her chief virtue lay in her gentleness, in her compassion, and in her happy and devoted nature which won the affection of all who knew her. She was a great evangelist and joined hands gladly and gaily with all the saints of that age in spreading the Gospel. So great was her veneration throughout Europe that the Medieval knights, seeking a womanly model of perfection, chose Brigid as the example. This theory maintains that such was the image of Brigid as the feminine ideal that the word "bride" passed into the English language. (This is unlikely, however. The word probably derives from the Old German "bryd," meaning bride.)
Historical facts about Saint Brigid's life are few because the numerous accounts about it after her death (beginning in the 7th century) consist mainly of miracles and anecdotes, some of which are deeply rooted in pagan Irish folklore. Nevertheless, they give us a strong impression of her character. She was probably born in the middle of the 5th century in eastern Ireland. Some say her parents were of humble origin; others that they were Dubhthach, an Irish chieftain of Leinster, and Brocca, a slave at his court. All stories relate that they were both baptized by Saint Patrick. Some say that Brigid became friends with Patrick, though it is uncertain that she ever met him. Beautiful Brigid consecrated herself to God at a young age. She was veiled as a nun by Saint Macaille at Croghan and consecrated as Abbess by Bishop Saint Mel at Armagh.
The Book of Lismore bears this story:
Brigid and certain virgins along with her went to take the veil from Bishop Mel in Telcha Mide. Blithe was he to see them. For humility Brigid stayed so that she might be the last to whom a veil should be given. A fiery pillar rose from her head to the roof ridge of the church. Then said Bishop Mel: Come, O holy Brigid, that a veil may be sained on thy head before the other virgins. It came to pass then, through the grace of the Holy Spirit, that the form of ordaining a bishop was read out over Brigid. Macaille said that a bishop's order should not be confirmed on a woman. Said Bishop Mel No power have I in this matter. That dignity hath been given by God unto Brigid, beyond every (other) woman. Wherefore the men of Ireland from that time to this give episcopal honour to Brigid's successor.
Most likely this story relates to the fact that Roman diocesan system was unknown in Ireland. Monasteries formed the centre of Christian life in the early Church of Ireland. Therefore, abbots and abbesses could hold held some of the dignity and functions that a bishop would on the Continent. Evidence of this can be seen also at synods and councils, such as that of Whitby, which was convened by Saint Hilda. Women sometimes ruled double monasteries; thus, governing both men and women. Bridget, as a pre-eminent abbess, might have fulfilled some semi-episcopal functions, such as preaching, hearing confessions (without absolution), and leading the neighbouring Christians.
Beginning consecrated life as a anchorite of sorts, Brigid's sanctity drew many others. When she was about 18, she settled with seven other like-minded girls near Croghan Hill in order to devote herself to God's service. About 468 she followed Saint Mel to Meath.
There is little reliable information about the convent she founded around 470 at Kildare (originally Cill-Daire or 'church of the oak'), the first convent in Ireland, and the rule that was followed there. This is one of the ways Brigid sanctified the pagan with the Christian: The oak was sacred to the druids, and in the inner sanctuary of the Church was a perpetual flame, another religious symbol of the druid faith, as well as the Christian. Gerald of Wales (13th century) noted that the fire was perpetually maintained by 20 nuns of her community. This continued until 1220 when it was extinguished. Gerald noted that the fire was surrounded by a circle of bushes, which no man was allowed to enter.
It is generally thought to have been a double monastery, housing both men and women--a common practice in the Celtic lands that was sometimes taken by the Irish to the continent. It's possible that she presided over both communities. She did establish schools there for both men and women. Another source says that she installed a bishop named Conlaeth there, though the Vatican officially lists the See of Kildare as dating from 519.
Cogitosus, a monk of Kildare in the eighth century, expounded the metrical life of St. Brigid, and versified it in good Latin. This is what is known as the Second Life, and is an excellent example of Irish scholarship in the mid-eighth century. Perhaps the most interesting feature of Cogitosus's work is the description of the Cathedral of Kildare in his day:
Solo spatioso et in altum minaci proceritate porruta ac decorata pictis tabulis, tria intrinsecus habens oratoria ampla, et divisa parietibus tabulatis.
The rood-screen was formed of wooden boards, lavishly decorated, and with beautifully decorated curtains.
Probably the famous Round Tower of Kildare dates from the sixth century.
The sixth Life of the saint printed by Colgan is attributed to Coelan, an Irish monk of the eighth century, and it derives a peculiar importance from the fact that it is prefaced by a foreword from the pen of St. Donatus, also an Irish monk, who became Bishop of Fiesole in 824. St. Donatus refers to previous lives by St. Ultan and St. Aileran.
Even as a child Brigid showed special love for the poor. When her mother sent her to collect butter, the child gave it all away. Her generosity in adult life was legendary: It was recorded that if she gave a drink of water to a thirsty stranger, the liquid turned into milk; when she sent a barrel of beer to one Christian community, it proved to satisfy 17 more. Many of the stories about her relate to the multiplication of food, including one that she changed her bath-water into beer to satisfy the thirst of an unexpected clergyman. Even her cows gave milk three times the same day to provide milk for some visiting bishops.
Brigid saw that the needs of the body and the needs of the spirit intertwined. Dedicated to improving the spiritual as well as the material lives of those around her, Brigid made her monastery a remarkable house of learning, including an art school. The illuminated manuscripts originating there were praised, especially the Book of Kildare, which was praised as one of the finest of all illuminated Irish manuscripts before its disappearance three centuries ago.
Once she fell asleep during a sermon of Saint Patrick, but he good-humouredly forgave her. She had dreamed, she told him, of the land ploughed far and wide, and of white-clothed sowers sowing good seed. Then came others clothed in black, who ploughed up the good seed and sowed tares in its place. Patrick told her that such would happen; false teachers would come to Ireland and uproot all their good work. This saddened Brigid, but she redoubled her efforts, teaching people to pray and to worship God, and telling them that the light on the altar was a symbol of the shining of the Gospel in the heart of Ireland, and must never be extinguished.
Brigid is called the 'Mary of the Gael' because her spirit of charity, and the miracles attributed to her were usually enacted in response to a call upon her pity or sense of justice. During an important synod of the Irish church, one of the holy fathers, Bishop Ibor, announced that he had dreamed that the Blessed Virgin Mary would appear among the assembled Christians. When Brigid arrived the father cried, "There is the holy maiden I saw in my dream." Thus, the reason for her nickname. Her prayers and miracles were said to exercise a powerful influence on the growth of the early Irish Church, and she is much beloved in Ireland to this day.
When dying at the age of 74, St. Brigid was attended by St. Ninnidh, who was ever afterwards known as "Ninnidh of the Clean Hand" because he had his right hand encased with a metal covering to prevent its ever being defiled, after being the medium of administering the viaticum to Ireland's Patroness.
She was interred at the right of the high altar of Kildare Cathedral, and a costly tomb was erected over her. In after years her shrine was an object of veneration for pilgrims, especially on her feast day, 1 February, as Cogitosus related. About the year 878, owing to the Scandinavian raids, the relics of St. Brigid were taken to Downpatrick, where they were interred in the tomb of St. Patrick and St. Columba.
A tunic reputed to have been hers, given by Gunhilda, sister of King Harold II, survives at Saint Donatian's in Bruges, Belgium. A relic of her shoe, made of silver and brass set with jewels, is at the National Museum of Dublin. In 1283, three knights took the head of Brigid with them on a journey to the Holy Land. They died in Lumier (near Lisbon), Portugal, where the church now enshrines her head in a special chapel.
In England, there are 19 ancient church dedications to her. The most important of which is the oldest church in London--St. Bride's in Fleet Street--and Bridewell or Saint Bride's Well. In Scotland, East and West Kilbride bear her name. Saint Brigid's Church at Douglas recalls that she is the patroness of the great Douglas family. Several places in Wales are named Llansantaffraid, which means "St. Bride's Church." The Irish Bishop Saint Donato of Fiesole (Italy) built a Saint Brigid's Church in Piacenza, where the Peace of Constance was ratified in 1185.
The best-known custom connected with Brigid is the plaiting of reed crosses for her feast day. This tradition dates to the story that she was plaiting rush crosses while nursing a dying pagan chieftain. He asked her about this and her explanation led to his being baptized.
Traditional Irish blessings invoke her. Brid agus Muire dhuit, Brigid and Mary be with you is a common Irish greeting, and in Wales people say, Sanffried suynade ni undeith, St. Brigid bless us on our journey. A blessing over cattle in the Scottish isles goes: The protection of God and Colmkille encompass your going and coming, and about you be the milkmaid of the smooth white palms, Brigid of the clustering, golden brown hair (Attwater, Benedictines, Bentley, Delaney, Encyclopaedia, Farmer, Gill, Groome, Montague, O'Briain, Sellner, White).
She is usually portrayed in art with a cow lying at her feet, or holding a cross and casting out the devil (White). Her emblem is a lighted lamp or candle (not to be confused with Saint Genevieve, who is not an abbess). At times she may be shown (1) with a flame over her; (2) geese or cow near her; (3) near a barn; (4) letting wax from a taper fall upon her arm; or (5) restoring a man's hand (Roeder).
Brigid is the patron saint of Ireland, poets, dairymaids, blacksmiths, healers (White), cattle, fugitives, Irish nuns, midwives, and new-born babies (Roeder). She is still venerated highly in Alsace, Flanders, and Portugal (Montague), as well as Ireland and Chester, England (Farmer).
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