Ireland of my heart - English Flowers of Orthodoxy 10

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The Flowers of Orthodoxy




Ireland of my heart

English Flowers of Orthodoxy 10


ORTHODOX CHRISTIANITY – MULTILINGUAL ORTHODOXY – EASTERN ORTHODOX CHURCH – ΟΡΘΟΔΟΞΙΑ – ​SIMBAHANG ORTODOKSO NG SILANGAN – 东正教在中国 – ORTODOXIA – 日本正教会 – ORTODOSSIA – อีสเทิร์นออร์ทอดอกซ์ – ORTHODOXIE – 동방 정교회 – PRAWOSŁAWIE – ORTHODOXE KERK -​​ නැගෙනහිර ඕර්තඩොක්ස් සභාව​ – ​СРЦЕ ПРАВОСЛАВНО – BISERICA ORTODOXĂ –​ ​GEREJA ORTODOKS – ORTODOKSI – ПРАВОСЛАВИЕ – ORTODOKSE KIRKE – CHÍNH THỐNG GIÁO ĐÔNG PHƯƠNG​ – ​EAGLAIS CHEARTCHREIDMHEACH​ – ​ ՈՒՂՂԱՓԱՌ ԵԿԵՂԵՑԻՆ​​ / Abel-Tasos Gkiouzelis - https://theflowersoforthodoxy.blogspot.com - Email: gkiouz.abel@gmail.com - Feel free to email me...!

♫•(¯`v´¯) ¸.•*¨*
◦.(¯`:☼:´¯)
..✿.(.^.)•.¸¸.•`•.¸¸✿
✩¸ ¸.•¨ ​




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Orthodox churches / parishes in Ireland



Greek Orthodox Church of the Annunciation
46 Arbour Hill, Stoneybatter, Dublin 7, D07 W6T7, Ireland
Tel.: +353 89 983 4204


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Serbian Orthodox Church
Artane Oratory of the Resurrection, 
Kilmore Rd, Beaumont, Dublin 5, Ireland
Tel.: +353 85 181 8407

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Romanian Orthodox Church
Leeson Park, Ranelagh, Dublin 6, Ireland
Tel.: +353 87 614 8140


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Holy Apostles Peter and Paul, Patriarchal Metochion, Russian Orthodox Church
Harold's Cross Rd, Harold's Cross, Dublin, Ireland
Tel. +353 86 734 7934

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Orthodox Monastery of the Life-Giving Spring
Ard Ciaran, Raghrabeg, Shannonbridge, Co. Roscommon, N37 Y153, Ireland
Tel: +353 89 483 1802

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Romanian Orthodox Church "St. Patrick and Calinic de la Cernica"
Pembroke, Co. Cork, Ireland
Tel: +353 87 677 2241

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St. Colman's Russian Orthodox Church
Cork Rd, Raheenduff, Stradbally, Co. Laois, Ireland
Tel: +353 85 831 3962


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Saint Nicholas Romanian Orthodox Church
St Mary's Rd, Galway, Ireland
Tel: +353 86 228 2690


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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.

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Irish High Crosses / Irish Celtic Crosses
(8th-9th ce.)

High Crosses or Celtic Crosses as they are also known, are found throughout Ireland on old monastic sites. Along with the Book of Kells and the Book of Durrow, these High Crosses are Irelands biggest contribution to Western European Art of the Middle Ages. Some were probably used as meeting points for religious ceremonies and others were used to mark boundaries. The earliest crosses in Ireland were made of wood and metal and probably much smaller than the great stone monuments we see today. It was generally accepted that the Western Ossory group were amongst the earliest examples of High Crosses to be found in Ireland. Their design imitates the wood and metal crosses before them; but a recent study suggests they may not be 8th century but possibly mid 9th century. These crosses are mainly found within a few miles of each other at Kilkieran, Kilree, Killamery and the finest examples at Ahenny. The majority of scriptural crosses are also believed to have been erected around the 9th century and there are several local groupings: the North Leinster group includes Kells, Monasterboice and Duleek; the Midlands group includes Clonmacnois Tihilly and Durrow; and another distinct group of granite High Crosses are those of the Barrow valley that includes Castledermot, Graiguenamanagh, Moone, St Mullins and Ullard.


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Irish High Crosses at Ahenny in Co Tipperary, Ireland - 8th century

Ahenny

Probably the earliest group of ringed high crosses, the Ossory group includes these two fine high crosses at Ahenny in Co Tipperary. Found at the monastic site of Kilclispeen these crosses imitate the earlier wooden crosses which were encased with a metal binding, the stone bosses imitate the studs that would have covered the rivets, these held the metal and wooden crosses together. Dr Francoise Hardy dated the crosses to the 8th century based on parallel designs in metalwork. The sandstone crosses are skillfully carved with intricate geometrical designs. The plain base of a third cross also remains on site. About three kilometres from here, just over the border in Kilkieran graveyard, county Kilkenny, are four more crosses belonging to the Ossary group. Two of those crosses are similar in style to the crosses at Ahenny.

The North Cross

The north cross stands at 3.13 metres high and is the finest example. It has a conical shaped cap-stone, which may represent a bishops mitre. A conical cap is also present on the east and west crosses at Kilkieran. The cap was discovered nearby and placed on the cross in the 1900s. I presume there was a tenon joint present on the top of the cross to hold the capstone in position. A tenon joint can be seen on the cross head at Kilree, where the capstone is missing.

The South Cross

The figure sculpture on both crosses appears only on the base and without the best lighting conditions it's very difficult to make out. The detail of the North Cross base, south face, pictured above right, shows David bringing the defeated Goliath to Jerusalem.

Both crosses are made out of sandstone and best viewed around mid-day during the summer, when the high relief of the sculpture is shown at its best. The cross, east face pictured left below, stands at 3.90 metres high.

Situated: In Ahenny, County Tipperary. From Carrick-on-Suir take the R 697 North, after 5 kilometres take a left at Scrogh Bridge then take the next right. Two kilometres down this road there is a church on your right, the crosses are in a field immediately to the right of the church.


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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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From the wisdom of Saint Patrick of Ireland (+461)


* Never trust a dog to watch your food.

* I am certain in my heart that all that I am, I have received from God.

* If I have any worth, it is to live my life for God.

* I am Patrick, yes a sinner and indeed untaught; yet I am established here in Ireland where I profess myself bishop. I am certain in my heart that 'all that I am,' I have received from God. So I live among barbarous tribes, a stranger and exile for the love of God.

* And there I saw in the night the vision of a man....coming as it were from Ireland, with countless letters. And he gave me one of them, and I read the opening words of the letter, which were, The voice of the Irish...and as I read the beginning of the letter I thought that at the same moment I heard their voice - they were those beside the Wood of Voclut, which is near the Western Sea - and thus did they cry out as with one mouth: We ask thee, boy, come and walk among us once more.

* Let anyone laugh and taunt if he so wishes. I am not keeping silent, nor am I hiding the signs and wonders that were shown to me by the Lord many years before they happened, who knew everything, even before the beginning of time.

* That which I have set out in Latin is not my words but the words of God and of apostles and prophets, who of course have never lied. He who believes shall be saved, but he who does not believe shall be damned. God has spoken.

* No one should ever say that it was my ignorance if I did or showed forth anything however small according to God's good pleasure; but let this be your conclusion and let it so be thought, that - as is the perfect truth - it was the gift of God.

* Here's to a long life and a merry one. A quick death and an easy one.

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Saint Tassach Bishop of Raholp, Ireland (+495)

14 April

Died c. 495. Tassach was a disciple of Saint Patrick, who appointed him as the first bishop of Raholp, County Down, Ireland. He was a skilled artisan who made crosiers, patens, chalices, credences, shrines, and crosses for the many churches Patrick founded.

Tassach's rule is for ever memorable for the fact that he was selected by the national Apostle to be with him in his last moments and to administer the Holy Viaticum to him. This event is thus chronicled in The Martyrology of Donegall; Tassach of Raholp gave the Body of Christ to Saint Patrick before his death in the monastery of Saul.

He is often confused with Saint Asicus of Elphin (f.d. April 27), who had the same skills and is said to have died the same year.


CELTIC SAINTS 

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Father Thomas Carroll, Ireland: From Irish Soldier to Orthodox Priest

By Christos Mouzeviris


Father Thomas Carroll is a 70-year-old priest in Dublin, Ireland.

He grew up rural county Tipperary, in a family with strong military ties. His father fought in Gallipoli, while his great uncle was at the battle of Thessalonica during the first World War.

Growing up in a Catholic secondary school, he felt called to take holy orders but was told he was not ready, so he followed the family tradition and joined the military.

“We seem to be a family that was always involved militarily. There was discipline among us, but the rules were not too strict. Yet, I could never consider myself a free spirit,” he recalls.

It was while serving in Cyprus with the UN in the 1960s that Father Carroll’s life, vocation and future were set on a path that led him to a narrow brick-built church in the centre of Dublin. A church which stands out from others in the city because of richly gilded decorated screen which separates the altar from the nave, but also because it is orthodox.

To prevent its servicemen being influenced in anyway, the UN did not permit any interaction between them and either communities. However, Father Thomas could not entirely follow the discipline, that both the peace keeping forces and his family have edified him.

“I had a few acquaintances with Cypriots, but the only person that I had a lot of communication with, was a Greek orthodox priest in a village,” he recounts. Father Thomas would meet up with him on a regular basis, to talk about theology and argue regarding everything around it.

“We often could not agree on anything, but he left a lasting impression on me,” he continues.

That prompted him to explore the Orthodox religion further, but when he returned to Ireland there were only a handful of Greeks and Cypriots living in the country. They did not have an established community, so nobody could help him.

It was only when the Archbishop of Great Britain Methodios, established the first parish in Ireland in 1981, that became possible for him to talk to people with the same interest.

Prior to this he had contacted the Greek Orthodox archdioceses in London, but nobody responded to his letters. “They probably thought that I was some guy seeking only information,” Father Thomas says.

When the parish has been established by Methodios, a friend happened to mention it to him by chance. He then got around there straightaway, but it took him another 5 years before he decided to make the “big jump” and convert.

“I eventually became an Orthodox in 1986, so I do not do anything in a hurry as you see,” he jokes. “But after that, I was committed. I took early retirement from my job in 1996 and went to study theology for 5 years.”

After the conclusion of his studies, he initially served as a deacon for four years in his new parish, before eventually becoming a priest. And to him it is a vocation, not his profession.
Ultimately, it was the outward portrayal and the beautiful liturgies of the orthodox dogma, that attracted him to it.

“I came from the tradition that initially the Catholic Church came from, with many similarities in liturgy and rituals. But after the Second Vatican Ecumenical Council in the ‘60s, everything changed and became more simplified,” the priest explains.

For Father Thomas, the traditional poignant ceremonies had been stripped from the Catholic faith. Services had become to some extend “protestantized” in the method of worship, minimalised. So, he realised that it was not for him.

This inevitably left a big hole in his spiritual life, that he couldn’t relate to this new situation in the Catholic Church.

“This is where Orthodoxy entered my life and gave me something tangible to hold on to. Something about the church itself, its layout, the rituals even the smell of incense, would grab you straight away,” he describes.

At the time, among the Orthodox community in Ireland, there were about 20 nationalities. The original parish was founded for all orthodox Christians within the island of Ireland, regardless of any jurisdictions.

As immigration increased into Ireland, many of these new arrivals established their own communities and Father Thomas’ parish eventually became primarily Greek. The community has grown in recent years due to the increasing emigration from Greece, thus the future of his parish looks secure.

For Father Thomas, a church is a living thing and must adapt to society, rather than society adapting to it. Another reason why he admires the Greek Orthodox Church, is because it reaches out to every nationality.

“All Greek orthodox archdioceses in the UK, have up to 30% clergy that is non-Greek, thus the liturgies are commonly English speaking. Other jurisdictions like the Romanian or Russian, are operating in their language solely for their own people,” he says.

The priest believes that breaking down language and nationality barriers is very important for a modern religion, especially when attracting young individuals.

Otherwise they could be at the mercy of fundamentalist evangelical churches, while others may become attracted to radical Islam. “They are giving them something to live for, when often they have nothing,” claims Father Thomas.

He is the only one who converted to Greek orthodoxy in his family. “It did not make any difference to most of them, but I think today they would be happy with my choices,” he says.

“If you asked me how Ireland is responding to a church of different dogma about 50 years ago, there would be quite hostile reaction to it. Now nobody cares. At the last count, there were about 130 different religions the country, most of them established during the past 15 years,” Father Thomas explains.

About 50% of those are ethnic African churches. “But the people of Ireland are accepting all religions in their country now. Maybe the reason is that most of them do not go to the church themselves,” he continues.

“Young people particularly, who are carrying on the catholic faith in Ireland, have absolutely no animosity to anybody outside this tradition,” he concludes.

Father Thomas is one example of a man, who did not just follow a religion due to family, community or national traditions. He researched, reached out and when the time was right, he found what was best for him.


JTO2


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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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Orthodox Celtic and Anglo-Saxon Church

http://orthodoxy-rainbow.blogspot.com/search/label/english%20articles

http://orthodoxy-rainbow.blogspot.com

Orthodoxy-Rainbow


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2021: Noted British Author Paul Kingsworth Baptized at Orthodox Monastery in Ireland


The noted British author, thinker, and activist Paul Kingsnorth was united to Christ in holy Baptism at the Romanian Orthodox monastery in Shannonbridge, Ireland, on the feast of Christ’s Baptism on January 6 this year.

“As a Western newcomer to Orthodoxy, I have a lifetime’s learning journey ahead of me, but I already feel like I have arrived home,” he commented on this momentous step.

Kingsnorth, 49, who lives in rural Galway, Ireland, is known for both his fiction books and essays on the environment, as well as the environmental-activist Dark Mountain Project, which he founded in 2009 and directed until 2017. However, he was never a materialist, like many others in the movement, he says. Instead, he has been searching for the deeper Truth for many years.

“I first discovered Christian Orthodoxy four years ago when I walked into a small church in Bucharest. That powerful experience stayed with me, but I could not have known that it would lead me on a journey that would lead to me becoming a member of the Romanian Church,”

Kingsnorth told the Basilica News Agency.

“I felt both joyful and peaceful afterwards … and cold! But a stronger sense that I had arrived somewhere I was meant to be. My reception into the Church has been a great privilege, and the [Romanian] community here in Ireland has been so welcoming to me and my family,” the writer said.

Father Tudor Ghi??, who baptized Kingsnorth, recalls that he impressed upon the famous writer that being a Christian is a never-ending work that should bring spiritual joy, deeper than the initial feelings of enthusiasm upon finding Orthodoxy.

On his own website, Kingsnorth writes that he was on a long spiritual search that led him through Zen Buddhism, Taoism, mythology, Sufism, traditionalism, Wicca, and various other practices. However, something was always missing.

He writes:

Then, in 2020, as the world was turned upside down, so was I. Unexpectedly, and initially against my will, I found myself being pulled determinedly towards Christianity. It’s a long story, which I might tell one day. Suffice it to say that I started the year as an eclectic eco-pagan with a long-held, unformed ache in my heart, and ended it a practicing Christian, the ache gone and replaced by the thing that, all along, I turned out to have been looking for. In January 2021 I was baptised and received into the Eastern Orthodox Church. I don’t know where the path leads from here, but at last I know how to walk it.

Rod Dreher, an Orthodox author and admirer of Kingsnorth, who once recommended him to read Kyriacos Markide’s The Mountain of Silence, writes that,

“Paul is different. He sees the emptiness of our mechanical civilization with much wiser and more searching eyes than Houellebecq, but he also has hope, because even before he was a Christian, Paul believed in the sacred. He sensed the presence of the divine immanent in nature. He only needed to make contact with the Source.”

In September, OrthoChristian reported that Orthodox actor and musician Jonathan Jackson moved to Ireland to help support the newly-established Monastery of the Life-Giving Spring Romanian Orthodox Monastery in Shannonbridge.

https://journeytoorthodoxy.com/2021/06/noted-british-author-paul-kingsworth-baptized-at-orthodox-monastery-in-ireland/

JTO2


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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 Macartin Bishop of Clogher, Ireland (+505)

24 March

Died c. 505; feast day formerly March 24. Saint Macartin (in Irish - Aedh mac Carthin) was an early disciple and companion of Saint Patrick during the latter's missions into pagan territory. He is said to have been consecrated bishop of Clogher in Tyrone by Patrick in 454. It is said the Saint Brigid, Macartin's niece, was present at the founding of the see. Tradition names Macartan as the strong man of Saint Patrick, who established the church in Clogher and spread the Gospel in Tyrone and Fermanagh.

Macartin is also one of the earliest Irish saints to be known as a miracle-worker. His holiness is revealed not so much by any "vita," which are non-existent, but by the high veneration in which he is held. Saint Bede records that the earth was taken from his grave as holy relics. His Office is the only one to survive from an Irish source.

A reliquary, called the Great Shrine of Saint Mac Cairthinn, which was designed to contain relics of the True Cross as well as his bones, has been altered over the centuries but still survives as the Domnach Airgid in the National Museum. Its inner yew box was given to Macartin by Patrick together with the latter's episcopal staff and Bible.

The Cloch-Oir (Golden Stone), from which this ancient diocese takes its name, was a sacred ceremonial stone to the druids, It was given to Macartin by an old pagan noble, who had harassed Macartin in every possible way until the saint's patient love won the local ruler to the faith. The stone is still preserved and the noble's son, Tighernach of Clones, succeeded Macartin as bishop.



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Saint Caimin of Lough Derg (of Inniskeltra), Ireland (+653)

24 March

Died 653; in some places his feast is celebrated on March 25. The Irish Saint Caimin was half-brother to King Guaire of Connaught and Cumian Fada (f.d. November 12), and himself a distinguished scholar. But he retired from the vanities of the world to live asa hermit on Inish-Keltra (Caltra) in Lough Derg near Galway. Although Saint Columba of Terryglass (f.d. December 12) had founded a monastery on the island a century earlier, Saint Caimin is the reason the people call it "Holy Island" after many disciples were drawn there because of his reputation for holiness. Later in life he founded a monastery and church, named Tempul-Cammin, on the island of the Seven Churches.

The monastery on Inish-Keltra thrived through 1010 (when its last recorded abbot died) despite its being in the direct path of the Danish invaders. The abbey was plundered c. 836 and again in 922. Brian Boru restored the church c. 1009. Now, however, only ruins recall the grandeur of Inish-Keltra's past: the 80-foot tall round tower, early grave markers, and ivy-covered church ruins.

Saint Caimin was a fellow-worker with Saint Senan (f.d. April 29). A fragment of the Psalter of Saint Caimin, claimed by some to have been copied by his own hand, still exists in the Franciscan library at Killiney, County Dublin. He is also credited with authorship of the Commentary on the Hebrew Text of the Psalms (Benedictines, D'Arcy, Healy, Husenbeth, Montague, Muirhead, Neeson).


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Saint Enda, Abbot of Arranmore, Father of Irish Monasticism (+6th ce.)

21 March

Born in Meath; died at Killeany, Ireland, c. 530 or 590; feast day formerly on March 16.

In the 6th century, the wild rock called Aran, off the coast of Galway, was an isle of saints, and among them was Saint Enda, the patriarch of Irish monasticism. He was an Irish prince, son of Conall Derg of Oriel (Ergall) in Ulster. Legend has it that the soldier Enda was converted by his sister, Saint Fanchea (f.d. January 1), abbess of Kill-Aine. He renounced his dreams of conquest and decided to marry one of the girls in his sister's convent. When his intended bride died suddenly, he surrendered his throne and a life of worldly glory to become a monk. He made a pilgrimage to Rome and was ordained there. These stories told of the early life of Saint Enda and his sister are unreliable, but the rest is not. More authentic "vitae" survive at Tighlaghearny at Inishmore, where he was buried.

It is said that Enda learned the principles of monastic life at Rosnat in Britain, which was probably Saint David's foundation in Pembrokeshire or Saint Ninian's (f.d. September 16) in Galloway. Returning to Ireland, Enda built churches at Drogheda, and a monastery in the Boyne valley. It is uncertain how much of Enda's rule was an adaptation of that of Rosnat.

Thereafter (about 484) he begged his brother-in-law, the King Oengus (Aengus) of Munster, to give him the wild and barren isle of Aran (Aranmore) in Galway Bay. Oengus wanted to give him a fertile plot in the Golden Vale, but Aran more suited Enda's ideal for religious life. On Aran he established the monastery of Killeaney, which is regarded as the first Irish monastery in the strict sense, `the capital of the Ireland of the saints.' There they lived a hard life of manual labour, prayer, fasting, and study of the Scriptures. It is said that no fire was ever allowed to warm the cold stone cells even if "cold could be felt by those hearts so glowing with love of God."

Enda divided the island into ten parts, in each of which he built a monastery, and under his severe rule Aran became a burning light of sanctity for centuries in Western Europe. Sheep now huddle and shiver in the storm under the ruins of old walls where once men lived and prayed. This was the chosen home of a group of poor and devoted men under Saint Enda. He taught them to love the hard rock, the dripping cave, and the barren earth swept by the western gales. They were men of the cave, and also men of the Cross, who, remembering that their Lord was born in a manger and had nowhere to lay His head, followed the same hard way.

Their coming produced excitement, and the Galway fishermen were kept busy rowing their small boats filled with curious sightseers across the intervening sea, for the fame of Aran-More spread far and wide. Enda's disciples were a noble band. There was Saint Ciaran of Clonmacnoise (f.d. September 9), who came there first as a youth to grind corn, and would have remained there for life but for Enda's insistence that his true work lay elsewhere, reluctant though he was to part with him. When he departed, the monks of Aran lined the shore as he knelt for the last time to receive Enda's blessing, and watched with wistful eyes the boat that bore him from them. In his going, they declared, their island had lost its flower and strength.

Another was Saint Finnian (f.d. September 10), who left Aran and founded the monastery of Moville (where Saint Columba spent part of his youth) and who afterwards became bishop of Lucca in Tuscany, Italy. Among them also was Saint Brendan the Voyager, Saint Columba of Iona, Jarlath of Tuam (f.d. June 6), and Carthach the Elder (f.d. March 5) These and many others formed a great and valiant company who first learned in Aran the many ways of God, and who from that rocky sanctuary carried the light of the Gospel into a pagan world.

The very wildness of Aran made it richer and dearer to those who lived there. They loved those islands which as a necklace of pearls, God has set upon the bosom of the sea, and all the more because they had been the scene of heathen worship. There were three islands altogether, with lovely Irish names: Inishmore, Inishmain, and Inisheen.

On the largest stood Saint Enda's well and altar, and the round tower of the church where the bell was sounded which gave the signal that Saint Enda had taken his place at the altar. At the tolling of the bell the service of the Mass began in all the churches of the island.

O, Aran, cried Columba in ecstasy, the Rome of the pilgrims! He never forgot his spiritual home which lay in the western sun and her pure earth sanctified by so many memories. Indeed, he said, so bright was her glory that the angels of God came down to worship in the churches of Aran (Attwater, Attwater2, Benedictines, D'Arcy, Delaney78, Encyclopaedia, Farmer, Gill, Healy, Husenbeth, Kenney, Montague).


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Saint Frigidian of Lucca, Bishop, from Ireland (+588)

18 March

Born in Ireland; died 588; feast day formerly March 15. In spite of the Italian name Frediano, by which he is usually called, St. Frigidian was an Irishman, the son of King Ultach of Ulster. He was trained in Irish monasteries and ordained a priest. His learning was imparted by such flowers of the 6th century Irish culture as Saint Enda and Saint Colman.

St. Frigidian arrived in Italy on a pilgrimage to Rome and decided to settle as a hermit on Mount Pisano. In 566, he was elected bishop of Lucca and was persuaded by Pope John II him to accept the position. Even thereafter the saint frequently left the city to spend many days in prayer and solitude. As bishop he formed the clergy of the city into a community of canons regular and rebuilt the cathedral after it had been destroyed by fire by the Lombards.

His most famous miracle:- the River Serchio frequently burst its banks, causing great damage to the city of Lucca. The citizens reputedly called on their bishop for aid. He asked for an ordinary rake. Fortified by prayer, Frigidian commanded the Serchio to follow his rake. He charted a new, safer course for the water, avoiding the city walls, as well as the cultivated land outside. Miraculously, the river followed him.

Sometimes there is confusion between Saint Finnian of Moville and St. Frigidian. They could perhaps be the same person but the links have never been well established. Frigidian is still greatly venerated in Lucca (Attwater, Bentley, Encyclopedia).

In art, St. Frigidian walks in procession as the Volto Santo crucifix is brought to Lucca on an ox cart. He may also be shown changing the course of the Serchio River or as a bishop with a crown at his feet (Roeder).


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Saint Patrick, Enlightener of Ireland (+461)

17 March

Born in Scotland (?), c. 385-390; died at Saul, Strangford Lough, Ireland, c. 461.

I was like a stone lying in the deep mire; and He that is mighty came, and in His mercy lifted me up, and verily raised me aloft and placed me on the top of the wall. --Saint Patrick

The historical Patrick is much more attractive than the Patrick of legend. It is unclear exactly where Patricius Magonus Sucatus (Patrick) was born--somewhere in the west between the mouth of the Severn and the Clyde--but this most popular Irish saint was probably born in Scotland of British origin, perhaps in a village called "Bannavem Taberniae." (Other possibilities are in Gaul or at Kilpatrick near Dumbarton, Scotland.) His father, Calpurnius, was a deacon and a civil official, a town councillor, and his grandfather was a Christian priest.

About 405, when Patrick was in his teens (14-16), he was captured by Irish raiders and became a slave in Ireland. There in Ballymena (or Slemish) in Antrim (or Mayo), Patrick first learned to pray intensely while tending his master's sheep in contrast with his early years in Britain when he knew not the true God and did not heed clerical admonitions for our salvation. After six years, he was told in a dream that he should be ready for a courageous effort that would take him back to his homeland.

He ran away from his owner and travelled 200 miles to the coast. His initial request for free passage on a ship was turned down, but he prayed, and the sailors called him back. The ship on which he escaped was taking dogs to Gaul (France). At some point he returned to his family in Britain, then seems to have studied at the monastery of Lerins on the Cote d'Azur from 412 to 415.

He received some kind of training for the priesthood in either Britain or Gaul, possibly in Auxerre, including study of the Latin Bible, but his learning was not of a high standard, and he was to regret this always. He spent the next 15 years at Auxerre were he became a disciple of Saint Germanus (f.d. July 31) and was possibly ordained about 417. Germanus is also said to have consecrated him bishop. [This is incorrect - Patrick was consecrated bishop by St Maxim of Turin during the time he was returning from Rome to Auxerre].

Heric of Auxerre wrote in the 5th century:

Since the glory of the father shines in the training of the children, of the many sons in Christ whom St. Germain is believed to have had as disciples in religion, let it suffice to make mention here, very briefly, of one most famous, Patrick, the special Apostle of the Irish nation, as the record of his work proves. Subject to that most holy discipleship for 18 years, he drank in no little knowledge in Holy Scripture from the stream of so great a well-spring. Germain sent him, accompanied by Segetius, his priest, to Celestine, Pope of Rome, approved of by whose judgement, supported by whose authority, and strengthened by whose blessing, he went on his way to Ireland.


The cultus of Patrick began in France, long before Sucat received the noble title of Patricius, which was immediately before his departure for Ireland about 431. The centre of this cultus is a few miles west of Tours, on the Loire, around the town of Saint- Patrice, which is named after him. The strong, persistent legend is that Patrick not only spent the twenty years after his escape from slavery there, but that it was his home. The local people firmly believe that Patrick was the nephew of Saint Martin of Tours (f.d. November 11) and that he became a monk in his uncle's great Marmoutier Abbey.

Patrick's cultus there reverts to the writing, Les Fleurs de Saint-Patrice, which relates that Patrick was sent from the abbey to preach the Gospel in the area of Brehemont-sur-Loire. He went fishing one day and had a tremendous catch. The local fishermen were upset and forced him to flee. He reached a shelter on the north bank where he slept under a blackthorn bush. When he awoke the bush was covered with flowers. Because this was Christmas day, the incident was considered a miracle, which recurred each Christmas until the bush was destroyed in World War I. The phenomenon was evaluated many times and verified by various observers, including official organisations. He is now the patron of the fishermen on the Loire and, according to a modern French scholar, the patron of almost every other occupation in the neighbourhood. There is a grotto dedicated to him at Marmoutier, which contains a stone bed, alleged to have been his. It is said that in visions he heard voices in the wood of Focault or that he dreamed of Ireland and determined to return to the land of his slavery as a missionary in the footsteps of Saint Palladius (f.d. July 6). In that dream or vision he heard a cry from many people together come back and walk once more among us, and he read a writing in which this cry was named 'the voice of the Irish.'

In his Confessio Patrick writes: It was not my grace, but God who overcometh in me, so that I came to the heathen Irish to preach the Gospel . . . to a people newly come to belief which the Lord took from the ends of the earth. Saint Germanus consecrated him bishop about 432, and sent him to Ireland to succeed Saint Palladius (f.d. July 6). the first bishop, who had died earlier that year. There was some opposition to Patrick's appointment, probably from Britain, but Patrick made his way to Ireland about 435.

He set up his see at Armagh about 444 and organised the church into territorial sees, as elsewhere in the West and East. While Patrick encouraged the Irish to become monks and nuns, it is not certain that he was a monk himself; it is even less likely that in his time the monastery became the principal unit of the Irish Church, although it was in later periods. The choice of Armagh may have been determined by the presence of a powerful king. There Patrick had a school and presumably a small "familia" in residence; from this base he made his missionary journeys. There seems to have been little contact with the Palladian Christianity of the southeast.

There is no reliable account of his work in Ireland, where he had been a captive. Legends include the stories that he drove snakes from Ireland, and that he described the mystery of the Trinity to Laoghaire, high king of Ireland, by referring to the shamrock, and that he singlehandedly--an impossible task--converted Ireland. Nevertheless, Saint Patrick established the Church throughout Ireland on lasting foundations: he travelled throughout the country preaching, teaching, building churches, opening schools and monasteries, converting chiefs and bards, and everywhere supporting his preaching with miracles.

At Tara in Meath he is said to have confronted King Laoghaire on the Celtic Feast of Tara which coincided with Easter Eve. On that day the fires were quenched throughout the country. The penalty for infringing the superstitious custom by kindling a fire was death. Nevertheless, Patrick kindled the light of the Paschal fire on the hill of Slane (the fire of Christ never to be extinguished in Ireland). When Laoghaire and his men went to apprehend the violator of their sacred night, they were treated to a sermon that confounded the Druids into silence, and gained a hearing for Patrick as a man of power. During the course of the sermon, Patrick picked up a shamrock to use it as a symbol of the triune God.

Patrick converted the king's daughters Saints Ethenea and Fidelmia (f.d. January 11). He threw down the idol of Crom Cruach in Leitrim. Patrick wrote that he daily expected to be violently killed or enslaved again.

He gathered many followers, including Saint Benignus (f.d. November 9), who would become his successor. That was one of his chief concerns, as it always is for the missionary Church: the raising up of native clergy.

He wrote: It was most needful that we should spread our nets, so that a great multitude and a throng should be taken for God. . . . Most needful that everywhere there should be clergy to baptize and exhort a people poor and needy, as the Lord in the Gospel warns and teaches, saying: Go ye therefore now, and teach all nations. And again: Go ye therefore into the whole world and preach the Gospel to every creature. And again: This Gospel of the Kingdom shall be preached in the whole world for a testimony to all nations.

In his writings and preaching, Patrick revealed a scale of values. He was chiefly concerned with abolishing paganism, idolatry, and sun-worship. He made no distinction of classes in his preaching and was himself ready for imprisonment or death for following Christ. In his use of Scripture and eschatological expectations, he was typical of the 5th-century bishop. One of the traits which he retained as an old man was a consciousness of his being an unlearned exile and former slave and fugitive, who learned to trust God completely.

There was some contact with the pope. He visited Rome in 442 and 444. As the first real organiser of the Irish Church, Patrick is called the Apostle of Ireland. According to the Annals of Ulster, the Cathedral Church of Armagh was founded in 444, and the see became a centre of education and administration. Patrick organised the Church into territorial sees, raised the standard of scholarship (encouraging the teaching of Latin), and worked to bring Ireland into a closer relationship with the Western Church.

His writings show what solid doctrine he must have taught his listeners. His Confessio (his autobiography, perhaps written as an apology against his detractors), the "Lorica" (or "Breastplate"), and the "Letter to the Soldiers of Coroticus," protesting British slave trading and the slaughter of a group of Irish Christians by Coroticus's raiding Christian Welshmen, are the first surely identified literature of the British or Celtic Church.

What stands out in his writings is Patrick's sense of being called by God to the work he had undertaken, and his determination and modesty in carrying it out: I, Patrick, a sinner, am the most ignorant and of least account among the faithful, despised by many. . . . I owe it to God's grace that so many people should through me be born again to him.

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 6 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. See http://www.ireland-now.com/heritage/myths/histofpatrick.html

There are many places in Ireland associated with S. Patrick but none more than Croagh Patrick in County Mayo where he spent the forty days of Lent in 441 and saw devils as flocks of black birds and was sustained by the angels of God appearing as white birds filling the sky. On the last Sunday in July the age-long annual pilgrimage draws thousands to scale the mountain.

The National Museum at Dublin has his bell and tooth, presumably from the shrine at Downpatrick, where he was originally entombed with Saints Brigid and Columba. St Patrick's Church in Belfast claims to possess an enshrined arm.


The high veneration in which the Irish hold Patrick is evidenced by the common salutation, May God, Mary, and Patrick bless you. His name occurs widely in prayers and blessings throughout Ireland. Among the oldest devotions of Ireland is the prayer used by travellers invoking Patrick's protection, "An Mhairbhne Phaidriac" or "The Elegy of Patrick." He is alleged to have promised prosperity to those who seek his intercession on his feast day, which marks the end of winter. A particularly lovely legend is that the Peace of Christ will reign over all Ireland when the Palm and the Shamrock meet, which means when St. Patrick's Day fall on Palm Sunday.

We are told that often Patrick baptized hundreds on a single day. He would come to a place, a crowd would gather, and when he told them about the true God, the people would cry out from all sides that they wanted to become Christians. Then they would move to the nearest water to be baptized.

On such a day Aengus, a prince of Munster, was baptized. When Patrick had finished preaching, Aengus was longing with all his heart to become a Christian. The crowd surrounded the two because Aengus was such an important person. Patrick got out his book and began to look for the place of the baptismal rite but his crosier got in the way.

As you know, the bishop's crosier often has a spike at the bottom end, probably to allow the bishop to set it into the ground to free his hands. So, when Patrick fumbled searching for the right spot in the book so that he could baptize Aengus, he absent-mindedly stuck his crosier into the ground just beside him--and accidentally through the foot of poor Aengus!

Patrick, concentrating on the sacrament, never noticed what he had done and proceeded with the baptism. The prince never cried out, nor moaned; he simply went very white. When Patrick turned to take up his crosier and was horrified to find that he had driven it through the prince's foot!

But why didn't you say something? Your foot is bleeding and you'll be lame. . . . Poor Patrick was very unhappy to have hurt another.

Then Aengus said in a low voice that he thought having a spike driven through his foot was part of the ceremony. He added something that must have brought joy to the whole court of heaven and blessings on Ireland:

Christ, he said slowly, shed His blood for me, and I am glad to suffer a little pain at baptism to be like Our Lord (Curtayne).

In art, Saint Patrick is represented as a bishop driving snakes before him or trampling upon them. At times he may be shown (1) preaching with a serpent around the foot of his pastoral staff; (2) holding a shamrock; (3) with a fire before him; or (4) with a pen and book, devils at his feet, and seraphim above him (Roeder, White). He is patron of Ireland and especially venerated at Lerins (Roeder, White).


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Saint Finnian Lobhar (the Leper), Abbot (Finan) in Ireland (+560) - 16 March

Born at Bregia, Leinster, Ireland; died February 2, c. 560. Little is authentically known about Saint Finnian because the records of his life are conflicting. He is said to have been the son of Conail and descendent of Alild, king of Munster. He may have been a disciple of Saint Columba (f.d. June 9) (or perhaps he was trained at one of Columba's foundations); others, that he was a disciple of Saint Brendan (f.d. May 16). He was ordained by Bishop Fathlad, and may have been consecrated by him.

Finnian built a church that is believed to have been at Innisfallen in County Kerry and so is considered by some scholars to have been the founder of that monastery. Later he lived at Clonmore Abbey in Leinster and then went to Swords near Dublin, where he was made abbot by Columba when he left. Another account has him abbot of Clonmore Monastery, where he was buried, for the last thirty years of his life.

Lobhar means "the Leper," a name he acquired when he reputedly assumed the disease of a leper to cure a young boy of an illness.


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Saint Gerald of Mayo, Ireland (+731) - 13 March

Born in Northumbria, England; died in Galway, Ireland, 732. Saint Gerald became a monk at Lindisfarne and probably followed Saint Colman to Innisbofin Island, Galway, Ireland, when the Celtic liturgical practices were displaced in Northumbria.

He became a monk, then abbot, of the abbey known as Mayo of the Saxons, which Colman founded for the English following a quarrel between the English and Irish monks. The abbey flourished and was so well known for the erudition of its monks that Blessed Alcuin (f.d. May 19) corresponded with its abbot and monks. He lived to a great age and may have witnessed the introduction of Roman observances into his abbey. Gerald is sometimes said to have been consecrated bishop, but this is uncertain.

He is believed to have founded the abbeys of Elytheria, or Tempul-Gerald in Connaught, as well as Teaghna-Saxon, and a convent that he put under the care of his sister Segretia. He was buried at Mayo, where a church dedicated to God under his patronage remains to this day.


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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).



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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.


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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).

* * *

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.


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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)


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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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Félire Óengusso Céli dé



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Ireland: The Land of Saints

The vast majority of the Saints of Ireland lived during the 4th–10th centuries, the period of early Christian Ireland, when Celtic Christianity produced many missionaries to Great Britain and the European continent. For this reason, Ireland in a 19th-century adage is described as "the land of saints and scholars".

The introduction of Christianity into Ireland was during the end of the 4th century. Its exact introduction is obscure, though the strict ascetic nature of monasticism in Ireland derives from the Desert Fathers. Although there were some Christians in Ireland before him, Patrick, a native of Roman Britain, played a significant role in its full Christianisation.

Some of the most well known saints are the Twelve Apostles of Ireland and Brigid of Kildare.


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Saint Abbán of Leinster, Ireland (+520)

May 13

Saint Abbán moccu Corbmaic (d. 520 AD), also Eibbán or Moabba, is a saint in Irish tradition. He was associated, first and foremost, with Mag Arnaide (Moyarney or Adamstown, near New Ross, Co. Wexford) and with Cell Abbáin (Killabban, County Laois). His order was, however, also connected to other churches elsewhere in Ireland, notably that of his alleged sister Gobnait.

Three recensions of Abbán's Life survive, two in Latin and one in Irish. The Latin versions are found in the Codex Dublinensis and the Codex Salmanticensis, while the Irish version is preserved incomplete in two manuscripts: the Mícheál Ó Cléirigh's manuscript Brussels, Royal Library MS 2324-40, fos. 145b-150b and also the RIA, Stowe MS A 4, pp. 205–21. 

Abbán arrives in the area between Éile and Fir Chell, i.e. on the marches between Munster and Leinster: Abbán converts a man of royal rank from the area and baptises his son. m                    

Other sources for Abbán's life and order include the Irish genealogies of the saints and the entries for his feast-day in the martyrologies. His pedigree is given in the Book of Leinster, Leabhar Breac, Rawlinson B 502 and in glosses to his entries in the Félire Óengusso.

His pedigree in the Irish genealogies, which appear to have been composed in the interest of Cell Abbáin, suggests that he belonged to the Uí Chormaic (also Moccu Chormaic or Dál Chormaic). It identifies his father as Laignech (lit. "Leinsterman"), son of Mac Cainnech, son of Cabraid, son of Cormac, son of Cú Corb, while an Irish note to the Félire Óengusso (for 27 October) largely agrees if substituting Cabraid for Imchad. The Lives, on the other hand, state that his father was Cormac son of Ailill, king of Leinster, who died in 435 according to the Annals of the Four Masters, and name his mother Mílla, sister to St Ibar.

Nothing is known of Abbán's early life. The Lives tell that he was expected to succeed his father in Leinster, but that his devotion to God and the saintly miracles which he wrought while still in fosterage soon made clear that he was destined for a career in the church. The boy was sent to his maternal uncle, the bishop Íbar, with whom he travelled to Rome. In Italy, Abbán's saintly powers proved to be of much use in warding off any danger presented by men, monsters and supernatural phenomena. Throughout the text, Abbán can be seen demonstrating his powers, exercising special authority over rivers and seas.

Abbán had six brothers who all appear in the Martyrology of Donegal as bishops: Damán Uí Chormaic of Tígh Damhain (Tidowan), in the barony of Marybouragh, Co. Laois; Miacca Uí Cormaic of Cluain Fodhla in Fiodhmar (borders Uí Duach/Bally Fíodhmor, Ossory); Senach Uí Chormaic of Cillmór; Lithghean Uí Chormaic of Cluain Mór Lethghian in Uí Failge (Barony Ophaly, Co. Kildare); Dubhán Uí Chormaic; Toimdeach Uí Chormaic of Rosglas, Monasterevin, Co. Kildare.

Dár Cairthaind and Ethne are listed as his sisters in the 'Accent of the Saints', while Gobnait of Baile Bhuirne, Cork and Craobh Dearg are mentioned as his sisters in other accounts.


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2011: Number of Orthodox Christians in Ireland doubled over five years


According to the latest 2011 census there are over 45 thousand Orthodox Christians in Ireland, reports Interfax-Religion.

This figure is two times larger than it was in 2006 and four times larger than in 2002. Thus according to the official data Orthodoxy is the fastest growing religion in Ireland, says the website Russianireland.com.

The largest center of Orthodoxy in the country is Swords, the county town of Fingal, where 1168 Orthodox Christians reside according to the 2011 census data.

The census also showed that the majority of the Orthodox Christians in Ireland are Romanians (26%), followed by Irish (20%) and Latvians (12.5%).

“Orthodoxy is not something new or strange In Ireland; it has always existed here. It is well-known that Irish Christianity before the 11th century was very similar to ours. But after Ireland was conquered by the British this denomination had been intentionally removed by the Pope. That is probably why many Irish perceive Orthodoxy as something special and dear”, said the Rector of the Patriarchal representation of the Russian Orthodox Church in Dublin, priest Michael Nasonov.

According to him, there are seven parishes of the Moscow Patriarchate in Ireland already.

The most common religion in Ireland is Roman Catholicism (3.86 million people, 84.2% of the population), followed by Protestantism (over 134 thousand people) and Islam (over 49 thousand people).

http://orthochristian.com/57148.html

JTO2


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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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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 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
http://www.ardaghdiocese.org/page5.html
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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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Saint Colman of Kilmacduagh (St. Colman MacDuagh), Ireland (+632) - February 3

In the Martyrology of Tallaght, St Colman is commemorated on February 3, but in other Calendars and in Ireland today he is remembered on October 29.

Born at Corker, Kiltartan, Galway, Ireland, c. 550; died 632. Son of the Irish chieftain Duac, Colman was educated at Saint Enda's (f.d. March 21) monastery in Aran. Thereafter he was a recluse, living in prayer and prolonged fastings, at Arranmore and then at Burren in County Clare. With King Guaire of Connaught he founded the monastery of Kilmacduagh, i.e., the church of the son of Duac, and governed it as abbot-bishop. The "leaning tower of Kilmacduagh," 112 feet high, is almost twice as old as the famous town in Pisa. The Irish round tower was restored in 1880.

There is a legend that angels brought King Guaire to him by causing his festive Easter dinner to disappear from his table. The king and his court followed the angels to the place where Colman had kept the Lenten fast and now was without food. The path of this legendary journey is called the "road of the dishes."

As with many relics, Saint Colman's abbatial crozier has been used through the centuries for the swearing of oaths. Although it was in the custodianship of the O'Heynes of Kiltartan (descendants of King Guaire) and their relatives, the O'Shaughnessys, it can now be seen in the National Museum in Dublin (Attwater, Benedictines, Carty, D'Arcy, Farmer, MacLysaght, Montague, Stokes).

Other tales are recounted about Saint Colman, who loved birds and animals. He had a pet rooster who served as an alarm clock. The rooster would begin his song at the breaking of dawn and continue until Colman would come out and speak to it. Colman would then call the other monks to prayer by ringing the bells.

But the monks wanted to pray the night hours, too, and couldn't count on the rooster to awaken them at midnight and 3:00 a.m. So Colman made a pet out of a mouse that often kept him company in the night by giving it crumbs to eat. Eventually the mouse was tamed and Colman asked its help:

So you are awake all night, are you? It isn't your time for sleep, is it? My friend, the cock, gives me great help, waking me every morning. Couldn't you do the same for me at night, while the cock is asleep? If you do not find me stirring at the usual time, couldn't you call me? Will you do that?

It was a long time before Colman tested the understanding of the mouse. After a long day of preaching and travelling on foot, Colman slept very soundly. When he did not awake at the usual hour in the middle of the night for Lauds, the mouse pattered over to the bed, climbed on the pillow, and rubbed his tiny head against Colman's ear. Not enough to awaken the exhausted monk. So the mouse tried again, but Colman shook him off impatiently. Making one last effort, the mouse nibbled on the saint's ear and Colman immediately arose--laughing. The mouse, looking very serious and important, just sat there on the pillow staring at the monk, while Colman continued to laugh in disbelief that the mouse had indeed understood its job.

When he regained his composure, Colman praised the clever mouse for his faithfulness and fed him extra treats. Then he entered God's presence in prayer. Thereafter, Colman always waited for the mouse to rub his ear before arising, whether he was awake or not. The mouse never failed in his mission.

The monk had another strange pet: a fly. Each day Colman would spend some time reading a large, awkward parchment manuscript prayer book. Each day the fly would perch on the margin of the sheet. Eventually Colman began to talk to the fly, thanked him for his company, and asked for his help:

Do you think you could do something useful for me? You see yourself that everyone who lives in the monastery is useful. Well, if I am called away, as I often am, while I am reading, don't you go too; stay here on the spot I mark with my finger, so that I'll know exactly where to start when I come back. Do you see what I mean?

So, as with the mouse, it was a long time before Colman put the understanding of the fly to the test. He probably provided the insect with treats as he did the mouse--perhaps a single drop of honey or crumb of cake. One day Colman was called to attend a visitor. He pointed the spot on the manuscript where he had stopped and asked the fly to stay there until he returned. The fly did as the saint requested, obediently remaining still for over an hour. Colman was delighted. Thereafter, he often gave the faithful fly a little task that it was proud to do for him. The other monks thought it was such a marvel that they wrote it done in the monastery records, which is how we know about it.

But a fly's life is short. At the end of summer, Colman's little friend was dead. While still mourning the death of the fly, the mouse died, too, as did the rooster. Colman's heart was so heavy at the loss of his last pet that he wrote to his friend Saint Columba (f.d. June 9). Columba responded:

You were too rich when you had them. That is why you are sad now. Great troubles only come where there are great riches. Be rich no more.

A Prayer:

May God's angels guard us
and save us till day's end,
protected by God and Mary
and Mac Duach1 and Mac Daire
and Colm Cille
till days' end.

Aingil De dar gcoimhdeacht
's dar sabhail aris go fuin;
ar coimri De is Mhuire,
Mhic Duach is Mhic Daire
agus Colm Cille
aris go fuin.

Saint Colman of Kilmacduagh (St. Colman MacDuagh), Ireland (+632)


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Saint Buo of Ireland, missionary in Iceland - February 5

Died c. 900. In the 7th and 8th century, Irish missionaries were working in Iceland and the Faroe Islands, before the discovery of the islands by the Norwegians in 860. When they arrived they found Irish bells, books, and staffs. The Irish geographer Dicuil in "De mensura orbis terrae" notes that certain clerics remained on the Iceland Island from February 1 until August 1. Saint Buo was one of the distinguished missionaries who evangelized the province around Esinberg, while he was still a very young man (D'Arcy, Fitzpatrick2, Little, Neeson, O'Hanlon, Toynbee).


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Saint Mel of Ardagh and Saint Melchu, Bishops and Martyrs in Ireland - February 6

Died c. 488-490. Mel and his brother Melchu (plus Munis and Rioch) were sons among the 17 sons and two daughters of Saint Patrick's sister, Darerca (f.d. March 22) and her husband Conis. While all of the children are reputed to have entered religious life, Mel and Melchu, together with their brothers Muinis and Rioch, accompanied Patrick to Ireland and joined him in his missionary work.

Patrick ordained Mel and Melchu bishops. Patrick is reputed to have appointed Mel bishop of Ardagh, and Melchu to the see of Armagh (or vice versa). There is some evidence that Melchu may have been a bishop with no fixed see, who may have succeeded his brother. Some scandal was circulated about Mel, who lived with his Aunt Lipait but both cleared themselves by miraculous means to Patrick, who ordered them to live apart.

According to an ancient tradition, Mel professed Saint Brigid as a nun. During the rite, he inadvertently read over her the episcopal consecration, and Saint Macaille (f.d. April 25) protested. The ever serene Mel, however, was convinced that it happened according to the will of God and insisted that the consecration should stand.

From the Life of Saint Brigid, 1 February http://groups.yahoo.com/group/celt-saints/message/697
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.

Nothing is definitely known about these saints; however, Mel has a strong cultus at Longford, where he was the first abbot-bishop of a richly endowed monastery that flourished for centuries. The cathedral of Longford is dedicated to Mel, as is a college.

The crozier believed to have belonged to Saint Mel is now kept at Saint Mel's College in a darkened bronze reliquary that was once decorated with gilt and coloured stones. It was found in the 19th century at Ardagh near the old cathedral of Saint Mel.

The various sources are rather confusing. It is possible that Mel was bishop of Armagh and/or that Melchu and Mel are the same person (Attwater2, Benedictines, Coulson, Curtayne2, D'Arcy, Delaney, Farmer, Healy, Henry2, Montague, Ryan).


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Quotes of Saint Patrick of Ireland (+461)


* So I live among barbarous tribes, a stranger and exile for the love of God.

* If I be worthy, I live for my God to teach the heathen, even though they may despise me.

* I grieve for you, how I mourn for you, who are so very dear to me, but again I can rejoice within my heart, not for nothing have I labored, neither has my exile been in vain.

* The Lord opened the understanding of my unbelieving heart, so that I should recall my sins.

* I prayed in the woods and on the mountain, even before dawn. I felt no hurt from the snow or ice or rain.

* For after chastisement from God, and recognizing him, our way to repay him is to exalt him and confess his wonders before every nation under heaven.

* I am Patrick, a sinner, most uncultivated and least of all the faithful and despised in the eyes of many.

* Before I was humiliated I was like a stone that lies in deep mud, and he who is mighty came and in his compassion raised me up and exalted me very high and placed me on the top of the wall.

* He who believes shall be saved, but he who does not believe shall be damned. God has spoken.

* Christ before me, Christ behind me, Christ in me.

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Irish Orthodox Christian ascetic practice of prayer in cold water

In August 2021, I made a trip to Downpatrick, County Down. This is a very special little town which includes the final burial place of Saint Patrick. The visitor centre unfortunately left much to be desired in regards to its scholarship! However, my knowledge of Saint Patrick and the saints who he baptised, led me to add the very nearby Saul Church to my itenary, the first church established by Saint Patrick in Ireland. The building was a barn donated to him by Saint Dichú. Saint Patrick’s misssion in Ireland started and ended in the same region.

It was someone else in my party who suggested the next nearby site connected to Saint Patrick which was the Struell Wells. They are Holy Wells, blessed by Saint Patrick. A sign mentioned that he prayed the Psalms in the water at night.

This did not mean very much to me at the time. My attention was especially caught and returned to the Struell Wells when on another trip, not long after my trip to Struell Wells, with a fellow parishioner of my local Orthodox church. He came to my hometown of Bangor to visit Bangor Abbey whose founder was Saint Comgall. On the way to Bangor Abbey, through a park, there are some signs about each of the most well-known saints of Bangor Abbey (https://irishortodoxa.wordpress.com/2022/01/05/saints-comgall-columbanus-and-gall-and-bangor-abbey/). I took the following photos on my mobile phone.

For the second time I saw a reference to entering cold water as an ascetic practice! I connected the dots and from then on was aware of this as a practice of more than one Irish saint.

My post on Saint Kevin of Glendalough is marked as December 19th, 2021. While researching him, I read about his most well-known miracle – while praying in the lake at Glendalough with his arms raised, he was so still that a blackbird landed and made a nest in his hand. At first, I did not realise but finally I looked past the attention-grabbing miracle to notice the context – Saint Kevin was praying in the water of the lake. Now I really started to notice the pattern.

Although I had written about Saint Ciarán (or Kieran) of Saigir long before, it was only at a later date that I found his entire hagiography. One of his miracles is recorded below:

One night Kieran 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.

And I later read in the life of Saint Féchín of Fore:

During the Lent, Féchín 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.

Finally, I read in Book V, Chapter XII of Saint Bede’s ‘Ecclesiastical History of the English People’ the story of a man from Northumbria who died but came back to life many hours later. He had a vision of the afterlife, including the torments of the sinful. Although he had been a layman with a family, after this he began a monastic life. It is related of him that:

He had a more private place of residence assigned him in that monastery, where he might apply himself to the service of his Creator in continual prayer. And as that place lay on the bank of the river, he was wont often to go into the same to do penance in his body, and many times to dip quite under the water, and to continue saying psalms or prayers in the same as long as he could endure it, standing still sometimes up to the middle, and sometimes to the neck in water; and when he went out from thence ashore, he never took off his cold and frozen garments till they grew warm and dry on his body. And when in the winter the half-broken pieces of ice were swimming about him, which he had himself broken, to make room to stand or dip himself in the river, those who beheld it would say, “It is wonderful, brother Dritheim (for so he was called), that you are able to endure such violent cold; ” he simply answered, for he was a man of much simplicity and in different wit, “I have seen greater cold.” And when they said, “It is strange that you will endure such austerity;” he replied, “I have seen more austerity.” Thus he continued, through an indefatigable desire of heavenly bliss, to subdue his aged body with daily fasting, till the day of his being called away; and thus he forwarded the salvation of many by his words and example.

Although he was from Northumbria and not Ireland, it was Irish monks from Iona who converted the Northumbrians to Christianity. It is likely that the practice of entering water for prayer was taught by the Irish to the Northumbrians. This is something I stumbled upon over the last year or so of research of the Irish saints and I have never seen someone gather this information and present it together before. It is fair to say it was an Irish Orthodox Christian practice. I do not know if this can be seen in the lives of saints from other times and places or if it originated in Ireland.

P.S. The examples multiply! After writing this post to this point, I came across yet another case. This was from Rhygyvarch’s Life of Saint David of Wales. It is chapter 31 and it is written:

The father himself pouring forth fountains of tears daily, irradiating with censed holocausts of prayers, and blazing with a double flame of charity, consecrated with pure hands the due oblation of the Lord’s Body, and thus after matins proceeded alone to angelic discourse. After this he immediately used to seek cold water, in which by lingering a long while wet he subdued every heat of the flesh.

With all this evidence, it is irrefutable that this was a British and Irish Christian practice. Now the most pertinent question remains, was this unique to Britain and Ireland or was this also practiced by their nearest neighbours in Gaul? I consider it likely but I have not read very many lives of Gallic saints and so I have not seen an example from there but there certainly could be. British and Irish monasticism was inspired very directly by Gaul and so this is why I have reason to assume they learned the practice from there. Furthermore, I wonder if this was a practice further abroad and I wonder if it continues even up to the present day in a specifically Orthodox Christian ascetic context?

P.P.S. If you are tough enough, get your swimming shorts on and your prayer book out and try it for yourself!


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