Irish Saints of December: Buite of Monasterboice

The monastic site at Monasterboice, County Louth is most famous today as the home of the Cross of Muiredach, one of the finest examples of a 'Celtic cross' to be found in Ireland. Less well-known perhaps is the founder of the monastery, Saint Buite, who flourished in the sixth century. His feast on December 7 is well attested in the Irish calendars. The early Martyrology of Oengus records for this day:

7. With the passion of Polycarp
with his noble, streamy
train, the bright feast of
victorious Buite, from treasurous
Monaster(boice).

to which the later scholiast has added:

of Buite, from Manistir in Mag Breg. Buite, i.e. living. Or bute, i.e. fire as is said in the proverb bot fo Bregaib 'fire throughout Bregia,' whence is now said butelach, i.e. where there has been a great fire.- Or bute quasi bete, from beatus. Beatus autem dicitur quasi bene auctus, for fair was his aggrandizement, a star manifesting his conception, as happened at the manifestation of Christ. Or bute quasi beo De, for unto God (Dia) he was alive (beo), as hath been written' 'they which live shall not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto Him which died for them and rose again,' doing in this world, not their own will, but His who suffered for them.

Bute son of Bronach, son of Balar, son of Cass, son of Nia, son of Airmedach, son of Fergus, son of Isinchan, son of Fiacc.

The Martyrology of Donegal follows the attempts to explain the derivation of the saint's name, but adds that in the list of parallel saints Buite is likened to the Venerable Bede:

7. E. SEPTIMO IDUS DECEMBRIS. 7.
BUITE, i.e., Boetius, Bishop of the Monastery. It was in the year of our Lord 520 that he died, i.e., the day on which Colum Cille was born, as stated in the Life of Buite himself. Buite, son of Bronach of Mainister-Buithe, was of the race of Connla, son of Tadhg, son of Cian, son of Oilioll Oluim. A very ancient old-vellum-book, mentioned at Brighit, 1st of February, states that Buite, son of Bronach, and Beda the Wise, had a resemblance to each other in habits and life.

“The bright festival of Buite the Victorious”
Buite that is, he is called Beo or Buite, which signifies 'fire' ut in proverbio dicitur, & etc. Bot fo breghaibh, (Fire under liars), unde dicitur hodie 'Butelach', i.e., ubi fit magnus ignis. Buite, however, is quasi Beti ab eo, quod est beatus. Beatus autem dicitur, quasi bene auctus vel aptus for it was a great increase of honour to him that a star manifested his birth, as it manifested the birth of Christ. Or Buite, quasi Beode, because God was life to him : sicut scriptum est, “Qui vivunt jam non sibi vivant sed ei qui pro ipsis mortuus est, et resurrexit; non suam seculi in hoc mundo voluntatem [facientes], sed ejus qui pro ipsis passus est.”

So there is much to discover about 'Buite the fair and vigorous' as the Martyrology of Marianus O'Gorman calls him. He has thus joined the long list of saints about whom I need to undertake more research. In the meantime though, here is a short introduction to his life from an early guide book to the area.

MONASTERBOICE

Home of Ireland's Crosses

The story of Monasterboice dates back to the sixth century, but like so many other settlements of that period, the facts available regarding its construction and inhabitants are few. It is known, however, that the monastery was founded by an ecclesiastic named Buite, a descendant of one of the chieftains of Munster.

He lived until the year 520 A.D. so it is considered more than likely that he, at some stage of his youth, came into direct contact with St. Patrick. He travelled extensively through Italy, Germany and England before beginning work on the Monasterboice monastery on his return to Ireland.

In the course of his travels throughout Ireland Buite is said to have cured many people, sometimes in the strangest ways. Once, a blind man, carrying a cripple, pleaded with Buite to cure them of their infirmities and were told to anoint themselves in the water through which his carriage had passed. They did so and were cured.

On another occasion while hastening to save the life of a captive of the High King he found the river Boyne, which he had to cross, swollen in flood. But when he struck the water with his staff a passage was cleared for him and, like another Moses, he crossed safely.

To his dismay he found the prisoner had already been beheaded. But, Buite proceeded to replace the head and restore the man to life. Legend has it that thereafter the restored man spent the remainder of his days tending the monastic garden at Monasterboice.

Many other stories are told of his works which resulted in cures for people and animals. But, perhaps the strangest of all was the manner in which Buite is reputed to have died. Walking one day in the monastery cemetery he was filled with a desire for death and he is said to have ascended a ladder provided by angels.

The other monks watched in amazement, but Buite returned with a disc of glass in front of his face which enabled him to see without being seen. He remained with his monks for several more months and before he died foretold of the coming of St. Colmcille, who it is thought, was born on the same day.

K. MacGowan, The Boyne Valley (Dublin, n.d.), 23-4.

The troparion for Saint Buite alludes to the saint's miracles in restoring the dead to life:

Troparion of St. Buithe tone 8

Great wonderworker and ascetic, O Father Buithe, who by the power of thy prayers didst restore the slain to life,/ intercede with Christ our God that He will grant us life eternal in the realms of the blessed.

Irish Saints of December: Berehert of Tullylease

December 6 is also the feast of another saint whose identity and day of commemoration raise the same sort of difficulties as that of Saint Gobban - Saint Berehert founder of a monastery at Tullylease, County Cork.

The Martyrology of Donegal records:

6. D. OCTAVO IDUS DECEMBRIS. 6

BERETCHERT, of Tulach-leis.

but gives no further details. So what else do we know of this saint? Below is a short paper on Saint Berehert which summarizes some of the sources for his life:

St. Berehert of Tullylease
by V. Rev. Robert Forde, P.E.

At the Synod of Whitby, in northern England, held in 664 A.D., the majority of those present voted to accept the Roman system for deciding the date of Easter. St. Colman, Abbott-Bishop of Lindisfarne with others disagreed and decided to return to Ireland where they established two monasteries, one for the English monks in Mayo and an island monastery for the Irish monks.

Tradition tells us that a young Saxon Prince from Winchester left the group, travelled across Ireland and came to Tullylease, which was then a stronghold of Druidism. Despite firm opposition he established a large monastery which lasted for over 700 years - he was named Berehert.

In the Annals of the Four Masters the death of Berichter is recorded 'Berichter of Tullach-leis died on 6 December, 839.' If this entry is accurate, the monastery founded by Berehert, almost 150 years before, was well established, and here we commemorate a later Abbot.

In 1230 we find the following entry in the Annals: 'A holy monk, chief Master of Carpenters in Tullach-leis died today'. This entry is important as it clearly shows the extent and the national reputation of the schools and workshops of Tullylease monastery.

The Monastery also excelled at metalwork. The beautiful cover of St. Patrick's Bell, now in the National Museum, was decorated by a family of Noonans, who were closely associated with Tullylease.

The Berechtuine Stone

The Monastery had large stone-carving workshops. Many of these stones are still extant. The most famous is the Berechtuine Stone, incised with a Greek cross, expertly carved and ornamented, with inscriptions in Latin and Greek. The Greek text reads : 'XPS' which is the abbreviation for Christus or Christ. The other corner of the stone is missing and probably contained the Greek letters for Jesus.' IHS'

The Latin inscription translates: 'Whoever reads this inscription, let him pray for Berechtuine." For many years, it was accepted that Berechtuine was another name for Berehert and this beautiful monument was erected to honour the Founder. A long article by Professor Henderson of Cambridge and Professor Okasha of University College, Cork on the carved stones of Tullylease showed conclusively that they were two separate people. Therefore, we honour two saints in Tullylease!

This Berechtuine Stone is dated about 800 A.D. The extant monastic buildings that we see today date from about 1200 to 1500

About 1200, the Monastery took the 'Rule of The Canons Regular of St. Augustine' and in 1415, Henry IV annexed the Monastery to the Priory of Kells in Kilkenny. From Tullylease, at least five other churches were founded in Munster, and probably a foundation in Leinster and one in Connaught.

In 1993, the historian Dr. Daphne Pochin Mould took an aerial photo of the site in mid-December, on a clear frosty evening. A large portion of the 'massive external enclosure bank of the early monastic site' showed clearly on photo. It is now possible to trace the external original boundaries of the monastery.

The people of Tullylease are very proud of the Monastery. They take great care of it, and they are most grateful that Bishop Magee chose the Tullylease as a special place of Pilgrimage for Jubilee 2000.

I have reproduced the photograph of the 'Berechtuine stone' but if you visit the parish website where the article was originally published here, you can see the aerial photograph of the monastery site.

Now this writer has established two conflicting traditions about Saint Berehert, one that he was a Saxon prince who came to Ireland after the Synod of Whitby and the other that he was a 9th-century monastic bearing the same name as his founder. But there is a further complication as Saint Berehert has also been identified with a saint commemorated on 18 February. This is a Saint Nem, Bishop of Drum Bertach, an even earlier figure associated with Saint Patrick. O'Hanlon in his entry for 18 February records:

St. Nem, Bishop of Drum Berthach. This holy man is entered in the "Martyrology of Tallagh," as Nem, Bishop of Droma Bertach. By some writers, this saint has been confounded with a St. Beretchert, Berichter or Berechtuine, of Tullylease, county of Cork—thought to be locally called St. Ben or St. Benjamin. This identification, however, admits of very great doubt. The Martyrology of Donegal records on this day Nem, Bishop of Drum Berthach. It seems difficult to identify this place, but, very possibly, it may be in or near Tullylease. We may ask, too, if the St. Nem of our Calendars could have been corrupted into the local pronunciation of Ben. This seems, at least, possible. Colgan thinks, the present saint may have been St. Patrick's disciple, who was set over Tullachrise, in the diocese of Connor. It is said to have been one of the churches St. Patrick erected in Dalaradia. Under the head of Druim-bertach, Duald Mac Firbis records, Nemh, Bishop of Druim Bertach, at February the 18th.

There is thus no doubt that a Saint Nem is commemorated on February 18 but how he became identified with our Saint Berehert is unclear. Interestingly, O'Hanlon also records that:

'Every male child, born on St. Berechert's day, is called by his name, which is regarded as the Irish for Benjamin. We are told, that from remote times, the saint's day has been unaccountably transferred from the 6th of December to the 18th of February. At the former date, we shall have more to state, in reference to St. Berechert.'

Alas, O'Hanlon did not live to publish his December volume so we cannot know what other evidence he might have presented.

So, it would seem that we cannot identify the person of Saint Berehert commemorated on December 6 with any certainty. I am intrigued by the process which has led the monastic founder of Tullylease to be identified with a 5th-century Patrician Bishop, a seventh-century Saxon refugee and a ninth-century Irish monastic. Which is the real Saint Berehert? I'm not sure if we can ever know.

Irish Saints of December: Gobban of Old Leighlin

We begin the entries for the month of December with two saints whose exact feastdays and identities are the subject of some confusion and debate. First is Saint Gobban, who is commemorated in the Martyrology of Oengus on December 6:

6. The feast of Gobban,
shout of thousands! with a
train of great martyrdom, the
angelic rampart, the virginal
abbot, lucid descendant of
Lan.

Notes

6. of Gobban i.e. of Cell Lamraide in Hui Cathrenn in the west of Ossory, i.e. a thousand monks it had, as experts say.
angelic wall, i.e. angels founded the wall of his church for him.
Lane, i.e. an old tribe, which was once in the south of Ireland, and of them was Gobban.

Is this holy abbot the founder of the monastery at Old Leighlin? The problem is that there are a number of saintly Gobbans listed in the Irish calendars, including one 'Goibhenn, of Tigh Scuithin', who is commemorated on 23 May. He too has been identified with the founder of Old Leighlin. The classic work on Irish monastic foundations, the Monasticon Hibernicum, (following the authority of Colgan) believes, however, that the Saint Gobban commemorated on December 6 is the founder of the monastery at Old Leighlin:

St. Gobban was the founder of the monastery of Leighlin. There are several saints of that name in the Irish Calendars, but Colgan judged that most probably our saint was the " St. Gobban of Kill-Lamraidhe, in the west of Ossory," who is honoured on the 6th of December: " Hunc Gobanum existimo fuisse ilium celebrem mille monachorum patrem qui postea Ecclesiam de Kill-Lamhraighe rexit" (Acta SS. p. 750). The "Martyrology of Donegal" styles him " Gobban Fionne, of Kill-Lamhraidhe, in Ui-Cathrenn, in the west of Ossory. . . A thousand monks was the number of his convent, and it is at Clonenagh his relics are preserved. He was of the race of Eoghan Mor, son of Oilioll Olum" (p. 327). St. Laserian having visited the monastery about the year 600, St. Gobban, struck with his many virtues, placed it entirely under his charge, and went himself to found another religious house at Kill-Lamhraige, in a western district of Ossory.

Monasticon Hibernicum or A Short Account of the Ancient Monasteries of Ireland in Irish Ecclesiastical Record, Vol 6 (1869), 198-99.

This identification was also accepted by a 19th-century priest who published a three-volume history of the dioceses of Kildare and Leighlin:

Annals of Clonenagh
A.D. 639. St. Gobban, who founded the monastery of Old Leighlin, and afterwards resigned it to St. Laserian, retiring in 632 to Killamery in Ossory, died this year and was interred at Clonenagh. His feast was observed on the 6th of December.

"Gobban's feast, a shout of thousands, with a train of great martyrdom, angelic wall, abbot of virginity, lucid descendant of Lane." (Feil. Aeng.)

The Gloss in Leab. Br. and entry in Mart. Donegal state that “in Clonenagh are Gobban's relics."

Rev M Comerford" Collections relating to the Dioceses of Kildare and Leighlin" Vol. 3(1886)

All the sources relating to Saint Gobban preserve the tradition that after founding an important monastery at Old Leighlin, he later committed it to the care of Saint Laisren (Molaise, feastday April 18) and retired to another foundation in Ossory. The Life of Saint Laisren as preserved in the Salamanca MS describes how St Laisren discovered the monastery at Leighlin and assumed its leadership:

(S.8 continued.) The holy abbot Gobanus and his followers served God there. When he heard of the arrival of the man of God [Laisren] he went to meet him and after greeting him led him reverently to the monastery. As they came to the door of the monastery, a certain woman then carrying the body of her son who had been beheaded by robbers, earnestly begged St Lasrianus in the name of God that he might restore her son to life. His feelings of pity were stirred by the lamentations of the mother and he turned to his usual help of prayer, and having placed the head beside its body he restored the dead man to life and gave him back to his mother. Then blessed Gobanus made a treaty of spiritual brotherhood with him, giving him the place and everything in it and setting up a monastery for himself in another place.

Colum Kenny, Molaise – Abbot of Leighlin and Hermit of Holy Island, (Morrigan Press, 1998), 47-48.

So, whilst we cannot say with complete confidence that it is the founder of the monastery of Old Leighlin who is commemorated on December 6, the Martyrology of Oengus makes it clear that an important monastic figure is honoured on this date, a man who is said to have had one thousand monks in his charge and whose relics had been preserved. Thus we can say 'Holy Father, Gobban, pray to God for us!'.

Irish Monastic Wisdom for the Nativity Fast

I made an introductory post on the collection of Irish monastic wisdom known as the Aipgitir Chrábaid, or 'The Alphabet of Devotion', back in September. On that occasion I posted the list of complementary virtues with which the text opens. Now I offer a further sample of the riches of the Alphabet, which although written by a monastic for monastics, is nevertheless a treasury of wisdom for all Christians. In the selection which follows, the writer warns of the temptation of being beguiled by vices in place of virtues, a temptation which may be all the more acute during a season of fasting.

It is proper that we not let the vices beguile [us] in the guise of the virtues.

For laxity can beguile [us] in the guise of compassion,
severity in the guise of righteousness,
pride in the guise of uprightness,
unholy fear -
which does not protect righteousness,
which does not denounce wrong -
in the guise of humility,
meanness and avarice in the guise of moderation,
arrogance in the guise of chastity,
presumptuosness in the guise of abstinence,
wastefulness and prodigality in the guise of generosity,
intemperate anger in the guise of spiritual fervour,
feebleness and effeminacy in the guise of tranquillity,
hardness and calculation in the guise of steadiness,
haste (?) and flightiness in the guise of genius,
partiality (?) and instability in the guise of flexibility,
laziness and indolence in the guise of detachment,
hesitation in the guise of prudence.

John Carey, King of Mysteries - Early Irish Religious Writings (Dublin, 2000), 237.

An Irish Poem on the Virgin Mary for the Feast of Her Presentation

Today on the Church calendar is the forefeast of the Presentation of the Theotokos in the Temple. The sources for this episode in the life of the Mother of God are found in the apocryphal Protoevangelium of James, which tells us that the parents of Our Blessed Lady presented her for service in the Temple when she was three years old. There she remained until puberty when her marriage was arranged. This is one of the great feasts of the Orthodox Church, and so I was pleased to find an eighth-century Irish poem which reflects this tradition included with Professor James Carney's translations of the Poems of Blathmac and the Irish Gospel of Thomas. He says in his introduction:

The poem to the Virgin Mary .. would appear to be of the same date as the Irish Gospel of Thomas, and is simply an effort to assure us that the Blessed Virgin was of noble lineage. The poet was familiar with the view that Mary before her marriage to Joseph was one of the virgins serving in the Temple at Jerusalem. This idea is as old as the Book of James or Protoevangelium which is assigned to the second century.

It is interesting to see that these apocryphal sources were known to the Early Irish Church. I imagine that establishing the ancestral background of the Blessed Virgin would have struck a chord with the Irish writer, given that Ireland's own tribal society took a keen interest in matters genealogical. The poem begins with a clear statement of the tradition that the Mother of God spent her childhood in service reading the Law and the Prophets as a preparation for her great role in salvation history.

III. A Poem on the Virgin Mary

1. Mary is the mother of the little boy who was born on Christmas night: she read the Prophets and the Law until she was experienced in service.

2. The woman was not unstable, the holy maiden was sage; she conceived with steadfastness and glory the well of divine wisdom.

3. Hail to you! whatever may come, O blessed amongst women. Hail! You will receive in your womb a being called Jesus.

4. A being who has been born before worlds, who has given life to the dead; there is not apparent - though it is clear that it is not falsehood - in the Vetus or the Nouum a being like him.

5. The mother who has borne the boy is without doubt ever-virgin; when the place from which she comes is known numerous are her kinsfolk.

6. Of 1 the people who sacrificed the Lamb who were in the city of Zion , of the posterity of Noah and Shem: it is Jerusalem.

7. A maiden of the seeds of the kings, a queen of the race of David; it was no low-class kin in addition to that; the maiden was of the tribe of Juda.

8. The woman was a daughter of Israel, the maiden was of noble race. Mary is the name of the woman who conceived in Bethlehem of Juda.

1= 'She (Mary) is of...'

James Carney, ed. and trans., The Poems of Blathmac Son of Cú Brettan - Together with the Irish Gospel of Thomas and a Poem on the Virgin Mary (Dublin, 1964), xviii; 108-111.

Coire and its Apostle

December 3 is the commemoration of a saintly king whose story has fascinated me since I first read about it on Father Ambrose's celt-saints list. This is the story of Lucius, an early king of Britain, who is credited with being a missionary to an area of Switzerland later associated with the Irish saint Fridolin. Scholars suspect that some sort of confusion has arisen here and caused a British [Welsh] king who requested a missionary effort to his own land to be conflated with a missionary who laboured in Switzerland and was martyred there. Below is the text of a paper on Saint Lucius and his sister Saint Emerita, who is commemorated on the day after her brother. It appeared in the Irish Ecclesiastical Record of 1895 and gives a good account of the devotion which these early martyrs still inspired in the region at the end of the nineteenth century, especially as the author was able to access the Coire Breviary and read the Lessons for the saints' feasts.

COIRE AND ITS APOSTLE

COIRE, Chur, or Quera for by all these names it is known, according as its title is French, German, or Romanesque will always have a special interest for Catholics of the British Isles, on account of its connection with St. Lucius, and St. Fridolin. From the former, a British prince, this part of Switzerland received her faith in the earliest ages of Christianity; whilst the latter, an illustrious Irish Abbot, revived the faith and spread monasticism in the sixth century. From a visit paid in1879, and also in the May of this present year, and from sundry information derived therefrom, the writer hopes to awaken some interest in this ancient capital of Rhoetia, the modern Canton of the Grisons.

This town, of about eight thousand inhabitants, almost equally divided between Catholics and Lutherans, is situated on the slope of the Mittenburg, a lofty and well-wooded mountain. The latter dwell in the lower part, and are split up into two sects ; each have a separate Church ; and, from a onversation with a priest of the cathedral, they seem to have lost all prestige, to have no bishop, and, in fact, are destitute of that dignity which a State Church enjoys in Protestant countries. Nevertheless, they appear to live on good terms with their Catholic neighbours. On the other and, the true Church seems to hold the ascendancy, as well from a topographical as from a religious point of view. The highest part of the city is known as the "Episcopal Quarter," and here in the "Hof," or square, stands the quaint old cathedral, flanked on one side by the residences of the bishop and clergy, and on the other, by the handsome day-schools for boys and girls of the parish. In the centre of the square (which is strictly a spacious triangle) is a large stone cistern, with a finely-carved pillar in the centre, having four statues of saints in the niches, with water constantly flowing from four spouts. The whole is an interesting piece of mediaeval Gothic work. This square is entered from the lower town, through what may be called the apex of the triangle, by the steep tunnelled passage of an old gate-way, the rooms over being known as the "Ampthor," or the "Canons' Tavern." A gloomy tower of great antiquity adjoins the Episcopal Palace, and is said to be partly of Roman construction, and to mark the site of the martyrdom of St. Lucius. It is called the Marzol (martiola), and is used [as an archive office and muniment room. An ecclesiastical seminary stands higher up the mountain, overlooking the cathedral, and near at hand is the large Cantonal School for Higher Education. Here boys of thirteen to eighteen years, from the town and adjacent country, are taught music, drawing, languages, &c. They are conspicuous as they stroll along the streets, or woodland paths, in their handsome uniform of dark blue, and silver buttons; and though all are polite in manner, the Catholic students always raise their caps to a priest.

In the centre of the town is the Rhoetian Museum, full of curiosities and paintings, interesting to Switzers, the chief being a wonderful work on oak-panels of Holbein's "Dance of Death." When we consider the treasures kept here, and the library of twenty-five thousand volumes, as also the sacred shrines of silver and copper in the cathedral sacristy, it will be seen that this quaint little city is well worth a visit of the antiquarian. The following account, however poor and scanty in detail, of the connection between Coire and Great Britain, as shown in her ecclesiastical history, can hardly fail to interest the Catholic reader.

Every 3rd of December, the capital of the Grisons keeps high festival "in honour of her Apostle and Patron, the "solemnity," as it is styled in their Calendar, of St. Lucius, king and martyr. Through the kindness of one of the clergy, I obtained the Proper Lessons from the Breviary of the diocese of Coire, Breviarium Curense, to aid me in writing this article. These Lessons, along with the scattered fragments gathered from other sources are the only matter at hand for this purpose.

In that most authentic record, the Roman Martyrology, there occurs for December 3rd, the following : "At Coire (Curiae), in Germany (!) St. Lucius, king of the Britons, who, first of those kings, received the faith of Christ, in the time of Pope Eleutherius." Likewise, in the British Martyrology, for the same date, occurs this notice: "At Coire, or Chur, in the land of the Grisons, the festivity of St. Lucius, said to have been a British prince, who, through the zeal of the glory of God and the conversion and salvation of souls, going abroad, preached the faith of Christ among the" Switzers and Grisons; where he was made Bishop of Coire, and at length ended his days by martyrdom. His feast is solemnly kept with an octave, in the diocese of Coire, where there is, not far from the city, an ancient monastery which bears his name." December 4th, "At Coire, the festivity of St. Emerita, virgin and martyr, sister to St. Lucius."

The interesting question now arises as to who is this St. Lucius, and is he the same as the Leurwg Vawr, or "Great Light" (Latinized into Lucius), who sent to Pope Eleutherius for an Apostle to convert his subjects. It is a most pleasing discovery, that from such scanty accounts as we possess of the primaeval Christianity of Western Europe, there seems no doubt but that he is one and the same saint. Thus, a spiritual relationship is established between our country and the Grisons Canton, which through many vicissitudes and the throes of the Reformation has clung to the faith, and yet preserves with honour the bones of her Apostle in the cathedral of Coire.

Before turning to the Proper Lessons of the Coire Breviary for the feast of St. Lucius, let us notice the Third Lesson of the English Supplement to the Breviary, for St. Eleutherius, May 29th: " He (the saint) received, by ambassadors, letters from Lucius, King of the Britons, asking for ministers of the Divine Word, to whom he despatched Fugatius and Damianus, priests of the Roman Church. The king and his whole family, as well as nearly all his subjects, were by them regenerated in the holy laver of baptism." This fact is also mentioned in the Roman Martyrology for May 26th.

The oldest Welsh records, such as the Book of Llandaff, give the names of four missionaries sent from Rome – Dyfan, Ffagan, Medwy, and Elvan; and it is certain that churches dedicated to these saints formerly existed near Llandaff. It is stated in this book, that Leurwg erected the first church at Llandaff. which was the first in the island of Britain, and he bestowed the freedom of the country and nation upon those who were of the faith of Christ." Hence it was that Llandaff naturally laid claim to the Archiepiscopal dignity, being styled, in this book, the "foundation of Leurwg ap Coel" (i.e., Lucius, son of Cole). The evidence of the British Martyrology is interesting on these points of our early history - :
" Jan. 2. At London, the commemoration of the holy Confessors, Elvan and Medwyne, who (according to divers historians and ancient records) being sent to Rome by King Lucius to the holy Pope Eleutherius, to desire missionaries from thence, who might receive him and his people into the Church of Christ, returned home so well instructed in the Christian faith, as to become both eminent teachers and great saints. Elvan is said to have been the second Bishop of London, and to have converted many of the Druids to the faith of Christ."
" Jan. 3. At Avallonia, now Glastenbury, the commemoration of the Apostolic Missionaries, Fagan and Dwywan, or Deruvian, honoured by the ancient Britons among their primitive saints. They are called by the Lessons of theRoman Breviary, May 26, Fugatius and Damianus : and are there said to have been sent by St. Eleutherius, the Pope, for the conversion of the Britons, which they happily effected. The antiquities of Glastenbury further inform us that they, in their progress through Britain, visited the solitude of Avallonia, and found there the old church, supposed to have been built by St. Joseph of Arimathea and that they there appointed twelve of their disciples to lead a monastical, or eremitical life in the neighbourhood of that holy church; which number of twelve, they say, was kept up by succession till the days of St. Patrick."

A pleasing coincidence occurred to the writer when visiting Coire in last May. Having recited the Proper Lessons of the English Breviary of St. Eleutherius, above alluded to as making mention of St. Lucius, he was anxious to identify the latter saint with the patron of the city. The priest he consulted in the matter straightway handed to him the Proper Lessons from the Coire Breviary, which solved the difficulty, and which are now presented to the reader. On this same day, May 29th, the Feast of St. Augustine, our Apostle, was being kept in the Cathedral, and it seemed another link between England and Switzerland, when, at High Mass, were chanted the words of the Collect: "Concede, ut, ipso interveniente, errantium corda ad veritatis tuae redeant unitatem, et nos in tua simus voluntate Concordes."

" Dec. 3. In Solemnitate S. Lucii, Eeg. Ep. et M. Basilicao Cathedralis, ac Diocesis Curiensis gloriosissimi Patroni primarii, Duplex I. cl. cum octava."

“Lucius, King of the Britons, son of Coillus Justus, for a long while abandoned to the superstitions of the Gentiles, became acquainted with the wonderful works of the Christians, and, pondering carefully over the integrity of their lives, he determined to embrace that religion, to which he had never shown any dislike. Nevertheless, because he discovered that they appeared to be objects of hatred to other nations, and especially the Romans, and that they were subjected to every kind of suffering, insult, and torment, he judged it better to put off his conversion to another time. Afterwards, however, he learned that several Romans of high standing, and, among others, men of senatorial rank, had embraced the Christian faith, and that the Emperor himself, Marcus Antoninus, was of a milder disposition towards the Christians, by whose prayers a victory had been gained.

Without any further delay, ambassadors were sent to Eleutherius, the Roman Pontiff, to say that he wished to be admitted within the ranks of the Christians. In order to gratify his devout behests, the Pope sent Damianus and Fugatianus into Britain, who instructed and baptized the king."

"Lucius, now filled with heavenly zeal, began to despise the things of. this world, and having abdicated his throne, he wandered over large tracts of country, in order to spread the Christian faith. Coming to Rhoetia, he reached a town called Augusta-Vindelicorum, and there converted a leading man, named Patritius, along with his entire family, and many of the citizens. On this occasion, the first temple was built to the true God, which place, by a change of name, is said to be now the town of St. Gall. But the hatred and envy of wicked men were now excited, and he was beaten, stoned, and finally cast into a well, whence he was drawn out by pious hands in a half dead condition.

"He now departed to Alpine Rhoetia, where he took up his abode in a rocky cave, where a throng of persons came to him, on account of a fountain (which exists to this day), sovereign for diseases, but especially those of the eyes. Thus, by word and example, he brought almost the whole of Rhoetia under the yoke of Christ ; and being made bishop of that nation, he ruled for a long period, glorious for his virtues and miracles, until he was seized by the pagans and stoned to death. He received the crown of martyrdom on the 3rd day of December, about the year 182, in the tower called the Martiola (Marzol), at Coire, which is now the episcopal see."

This Coillus, or Cole, is, doubtless, the British Prince, who founded the ancient town of Colchester (Coili-castra), which was in our earliest times a bishopric. In Butler's Lives of the Saints, May 26th, it is stated that the Bishop of Colchester was present along with two other British bishops at the Council of Aries, A.D. 314.

The Gospel used for the feast of St. Lucius is that of the " Good Shepherd," the same as is used for St. Thomas of Canterbury.

We here give the Lessons for the feast of St. Emerita, virgin and martyr, whose feast is kept as a "greater double," on the 4th of December, as being connected with the history of her brother :

" The virgin Emerita, sister of St. Lucius, King of Britain, having been taught by him the Christian doctrine, and baptized by the legate of St. Eleutherius, wished to copy her brother in the practice of her faith and of every Christian virtue. Wherefore she demolished the idols and their temples ; she built churches and provided them with all things necessary : she gave all her goods to the poor. Having brought many into the fold of Christ ; and spurning an earthly kingdom, in order to follow after the things that are of God, she determined, in spite of all obstacles, to go abroad after her brother. Thus, having made every careful provision for the kingdom and its needs, Emerita, despising all earthly riches and pleasures for love of Jesus Christ, took up the pilgrim's staff, and, with a pious retinue of men and women, set out in search of her holy brother. Wandering through many lands, she at length found him at that very spot which is now Coire, preaching in his mountain cave, and expounding the rudiments of the faith to the people. When she had made
herself known to Lucius, and had given him her reasons for coming thither, they both gave thanks to God, and both spent a long time together in holy prayers and canticles of praise.

"Emerita, having both by word and example, confirmed the preaching of St. Lucius, was at length accused by certain Pagans of being a Christian. When these could by neither entreaties nor threats prevail upon her to abjure the Christian faith, she was put to many tortures, and at last burnt to death at the town of Trimonte. Thus did she finish her martyrdom ; and the faithful, hearing of it, took the bones and ashes of the holy martyr, and placed them in a fair linen cloth. On the spot where her relics were interred, there afterwards arose a Church in honour of the Holy Virgin Mary, St. Andrew the Apostle, and of St. Emerita, Virgin and Martyr."

The rocky cavern, here alluded to, is in a wood on the Mittenberg, above the town, and is a favourite place of pilgrimage for the devout visitor to Coire. At certain times, too, it is thronged by the natives, who come here for spiritual exercises, and it can be easily reached in about half an hour by any of the climbing paths that lead to it through the forest glade. The beetling cliff shelters a small chapel dedicated to St. Lucius, in which there is a handsomely adorned altar, used occasionally for Mass. This marks the hollow spot, where, as in another " Sagro Specu" of Subiaco, our royal saint prayed and instructed, and shone as a veritable "light to the Gentiles," a "Leurwg Vawr" to the Pagans of Rhoetia. Near this small chapel is a block of stone, with a basin-like cavity, where tradition says he administered the holy rites of baptism. From this spot is a magnificent view, and one that will never be forgotten. It embraces the open valley of the Rhine, in the direction of Thusis, with the mighty Calanda and the Pizokel, right and left respectively, whilst at the foot of the mountain, immediately below this cave of the St. Luzikapelle lies snugly ensconced the city of Coire. In this net-work of walks, which extend up the mountain side of the Mittenberg, the geologist and the botanist will find much to delight and interest them. Amongst other curious flowers, we noticed a strange kind of black columbine.

The Cathedral of Coire is a quaint and irregular edifice, the nave and chancel being evidently built at separate times, since their arches do not coincide. The choir is reached by a double flight of nine well-worn steps, and contains some finely-carved stalls for the canons, and a very old high altar,over which is a splendid triptych of oak-carving, richly coloured. Here are painted groups of saints, and various mysteries of the Passion. The work is alto-relievo, and was carved in 1492, by Russ of Lucerne, being painted by Wahlgemuth, of Nuremberg. It is said by competent judges to be " among the sweetest and most beautiful creations of fifteenth century art" (Burkhard). In the nave, just below the choir, and between the two flights of steps, is a second altar, used for popular devotions, the high altar being used for the daily Canonical High Mass at 7, and Vespers at 2 p.m.

In the sacristy are some' valuable treasures. The chief of these are the shrines, containing the bones of St. Lucius and St. Emerita ; two splendid large silver busts, adorned with jewels, of these two saints ; a silver cross, and some old vestments. But not the least interesting remains are two copper shrines of the seventh or eighth centuries, undoubtedly of Celtic design and origin. They are covered on all sides with that well-known interlacing ribbon pattern, of the most elegant design, and would vie with any similar shrine in the museum of Irish antiquities in Dublin. They evidently point to the time when St. Fridolin and his monks dwelt in these parts.

WILFRID DALLOW.

Irish Ecclesiastical Record, Volume 16 (1895), 1099-1106.

Irish Saints of November - Brendan of Birr

29 November is the feastday of Saint Brendan of Birr, a sixth-century saint sometimes known as Brendan the Elder to distinguish him from his younger, nautical namesake, Brendan the Navigator. The early Martyrology of Oengus pays tribute to Saint Brendan's reputation as a prophet:

29. The royal feast of Brenann
of Birr, against whom
bursts the surface of the sea:
he was a fair diadem, noble !
the white chief of Erin's
prophets.

whilst the later Martyrology of Donegal gives an example of his prophetic gifts and mentions that in the list of parallel saints, he is equated with the apostle Bartholomew:

29. D. TERTIO KAL. DECEMBRIS. 29.
BRENAINN, Abbot, of Biorra, A.D. 571.

He was of the race of [Corb, son of] Fergus, son of Ross, son of Rudhraighe ; and Mannsenawas the name of his mother ; and at Tamhlacht-Maoilruain both are buried. Life of Ciaran of Saighir, chap. 25. 2

A very ancient old-vellum-book, which contains the Martyrology of Maelruain of Tamhlacht, states, that this Brenainn, i.e.,Brenainn of Biorra, had a similarity in habits and life to Partholan, i.e., Bartholomeus, the Apostle. The Life of ColumCille states, chap. 8, that Brenainn had foretold that ColumCille would be born, some time before his birth. It was he that composed this quatrain for Colum Cille; Life of Colum Cille, chap. 245:

” Colum Cille our master;
A mouth that never uttered a lie;
He shall be our senior,
Although he be young.”

Here is a brief account of his life from a 19th-century book:

Birr, in the barony of Fercall. St. Brendan, senior, of " Biorra, or Birr," to distinguish him from Brendan, junior, of Clonfert, was the son of Luaisrene, and is stated to have been of an illustrious family of Munster.

He is reckoned among the relatives of St. Erc, of Slane, and the descendant of prince Corb, who resided in the Decies. Clonard was the school in which he received his education, and among the principal disciples of St. Finnian he was highly esteemed for his sanctity and supernatural gifts as a prophet. He was intimate with the Kierans, Brendan of Clonfert, and chiefly with Columbkille, to whom he rendered an important service.

St. Adamnan relates, that a certain synod, supposed to have been held in Geashill, in the King's county, had issued a sentence of excommunication, not a just one, however, against Columba, on account of some venial and excusable proceeding. On the arrival of Columba at the synod, Brendan, who saw him at a distance, rose up, saluted him with great respect, and embraced him. Some of the assistants or principals at the synod, taking Brendan apart, remonstrated with him for having shewn such attention to a person whom they had so severely censured. Brendan replied, " If you had seen what the Lord has been pleased to make manifest to me this day concerning this elect of his, whom you are dishonouring, you would never have passed that sentence: whereas the Lord does not in any manner excommunicate him in virtue of your wrong sentence, but rather exalts him still more and more." They, then asking how this could have been, were assured by Brendan, that he saw a luminous pillar advancing before this man of God, when on his way, and holy angels accompanying him through the plain. Therefore, added Brendan, I dare not treat with contempt, him whom I see preordained by God, as a guide of nations unto life. Upon which the whole proceedings were withdrawn, and the whole synod paid Columba the greatest respect and veneration.

At what precise period St. Brendan founded the monastery of Birr is not recorded. It must have been founded before the year 563, that in which St. Columba repaired to the north of Scotland. Brendan died on the 29th of November, A.D. 571. The exit of Brendan to the other life was revealed to St. Columba, then in Hy, the very moment it happened. In one of the lives of Columba it is said, that Brendan had composed some verses concerning the virtues and exemplary conduct of St. Columba, who was much esteemed by the abbot of Birr.

Rev Thomas Walsh and D P Coyningham, Ecclesiastical History of Ireland (New York, 1898) 502-503.

Troparion of St Brendan of Birr tone 8

Most glorious ascetic and chief of Ireland's Prophets, O Father Brendan, thou wast a bright beacon in the western isle guiding many to salvation./ At thy heavenly birthday the Angels rejoiced and miraculously announced their joy to our Father Columba./ The prayers of the righteous avail much for us sinners./ Wherefore O Saint, pray to God for us that He will find us a place in the Mansions of the Blest.

The Advent Fast in the Irish Church - 2

Below is the text of a fuller response by Father Sylvester Malone to the challenge posed to him on the antiquity of the Advent Fast and on the Irish loan word for fasting. It is worth noting that even in modern Irish, the days of the week reflect the practice of fasting. Wednesday, Dé Céadaoin is literally the day of the first fast, céad aoin, Friday, Dé hAoine is literally the day of the fast, whilst Thursday, Déardaoin , is literally dia idir dhá aoin, the day between two fasts. In his paper Father Malone musters some interesting evidence, including the observation of a 'Lent of Saint Martin' in the wider church as well as for the existence of a 'Summer Lent'. What was particularly noteworthy to me though was his reference to the statement of the Irish compiler of the law of fasting "that fleshmeats may be used in the great Lent;" because then "other things are scarce." In the latter part of the paper it is confirmed again that the old habits of strict fasting died hard among the Irish. So, there is much of interest in this paper, I regret that I cannot easily reproduce the footnotes giving the various sources which the author used, but the original volume can be consulted online.

THE ADVENT FAST IN THE IRISH CHURCH.

[We publish with much pleasure the following interesting paper on a question started in the last number of the RECORD.]

In my hurried note to the RECORD, I alluded to two references as indicating the lines on which an argument might be constructed in proof of Advent fasts prevailing from the beginning in the Irish Church, and I now hasten to open up these lines, and complete the argument.

St. Adamnan, born in the year 620, in warning the Irish people of the visitations which in vision he saw impending over them because of neglect of religious duties, recommends, among other remedies, the observance of a Triduum four times a year. The first Triduum was to take place on the first Wednesday of the Winter Lent, the second on the first Wednesday of the Spring Lent. In the first place here there is question, I contend, of the Advent fast. Irish writers, when explaining the fasts of the year, state that there may be a " relaxation on the eves of the principal festivals of the year, to wit, Christmas and the two Easters." The second Easter was to take place in summer. Its date was thus fixed: "The 17th of the month of July takes place, and the Sunday next in succession to it is the Summer Pasch." Now as we learn that among other reasons for Lent one was in order "to prepare for the reception of the Body of our Lord," we may clearly infer then, as the Spring and Summer Paschs had fasts preceding them, that Christmas, classed as the third fundamental solemnity of the year, also had its Lent. Hence the relaxation of the fast on the eve of Christmas. Because if the fast had not been of unusual duration there would not be need of relaxation, and because otherwise the fast preceding it, though one of the three chief ones of the year, would not equal the fasts that preceded minor feasts.

The relaxation at the end of the Winter Lent or Advent above referred to is only an application of a general Canon. An Irish writer, after speaking of various kinds of fasts, of the besetting temptations attendant on them, and of the other weapons to be used by Christians in the spiritual warfare, goes on to speak of a tempered fast: " A tempered fast is one which grants release at the endings of high celebrations, or noble solemnities, or on grand festivities, or Sundays." Surely if any solemnities had noble endings it was Advent the eve of one of these three festivals declared to be the most fundamental in the Calendar.

Nor need we be surprised at the term Winter Lent ; for there was even the Summer Lent. The venerable Leabhar Breac, after speaking of Ascension-Thursday and Pentecost, which was preceded by fasts, says, " the Sunday next following the 25th of June is the Sunday on which begins the Summer Lent." Quadrages or Lent was the term applied to the fast of Advent, Easter, and Summer, indifferently, and its peculiarly distinctive meaning was determined by the adjunct specifying the season at which the Lent occurred.

That this designation of Advent was not peculiar to the Irish Church is made abundantly evident. Almost contemporaneously with its use in the ancient Vision of St. Adamnan we find Advent referred to, as in Irish manuscripts, so also in the annals of the Continental Church. For instance, there was question of seeking a relaxation of the observance of Advent, for which a fine had to be paid. Thus a diploma, dated 735, required forty Lucii (coins) from the monks of Nomantula for the Lent of St. Martin. Martene assures us that by this was understood the Advent. And St. Peter Damian, who lived in the 11th century, speaks of "the Quadrages or Lent which was usually observed by the faithful before the birthday of our Lord." If then in other churches Advent was understood as designated by the name of St. Martin's Lent, surely there can be no difficulty in understanding what Irish manuscripts meant by the Winter Lent.

Now that we are certain of the existence of the Advent fast from the earliest ages in the Irish Church, our inquiry shall be as to its duration. At present it is of uniform length through the Church, but it was not so in earlier times. It lasted for a month here, for six weeks elsewhere, and in some places extended to nearly two months, beginning on the first of November. In looking into a ninth century Missal, the Irish Corpus Missal, all we learn from it is that there was a Mass for the first Sunday of Advent, thus implying that there was at least a second Sunday. The Epistle is the same as we have now for the first Sunday of Advent, but this should not lead us to pronounce that its duration then was the same as now: for the Gospel is that of our present third or fourth Sunday. But in looking into the Festology of Aengus, Cele De, the question is at at once settled. Under the 13th of November, I read:

" On the Ides (of November) the death of Eutaic, a martyr was he whom you praise near Christmas, high and all prayerful festival, at the appearance of the beginning of Lent."

This entry puts beyond question the fact that the Advent fast had a place among the observances of the Irish Church. Its duration then was nearly commensurate with that in the Ambrosian Liturgy.

And while the Festology written before the end of the 8th century gives a very high antiquity to the Advent fast, a still older date may be vindicated for it by the Vision of St. Adamnan already referred to. The Saint, in warning the people of Erin against impending woes, prescribes the fasts of the Tridua during the Winter and Spring Lents, and in doing so, says that he only urges on them the observance of the " covenants left them by God and St. Patrick." Here we have the authority of a Saint and Irishman for tracing the Advent fast to the days of St. Patrick. Those who witnessed the death of St. Patrick could have lived to see the birth of St. Adamnan. Such testimony must render quite improbable the opinion of Martene and Benedict XIV., which attributes the origin of the Advent fast in the sixth century to St. Gregory.

The opinion then which attributes the institution of the Advent fast to St. Martin of Tours in the fifth century, derives some countenance from its introduction by his nephew, our national Apostle, and from the tenacity with which the Irish Church adhered to its observance till after the Reformation.

Notwithstanding the mention of the Advent fast in connexion with the Ides of November, there is reason for judging that it did not begin invariably on the thirteenth of the month, but on the following Sunday: for the other Lents began on Sunday. We have seen already a rule laid down for finding the Sunday on which the Summer Lent began: the Easter Lent began also on Sunday. This we can infer from the rules for the Triduum in the Vision of Adamnan, which prescribed the second Triduum on the first Wednesday of Lent. Now, if the Lent began on Wednesday, as at present, the writer would have spoken of the first of Lent, rather than of the first Wednesday in Lent.

Besides, we know as a matter of fact, that the present four days' fast before Quadragesima was not usual before the middle of the ninth century. If the Summer and Easter Lents began on Sunday, it is inferrible that the Advent Lent also began on a Sunday.

Now, if we suppose, as there is reason for doing, that each day in Advent was a fast day, it would consist, abating the six Sundays, of an average of thirty-four fasting days. In my calculation I presume that the Advent did not begin till the Sunday following the 13th of November; because the entry in the Festology states that the fast did not begin,but that its commencement appeared or approached, on the Ides of November ; and because it was on a Sunday Advent began in other churches.

The duration of the Summer Lent could not have been more than three weeks ; because it began on the Sunday next succeeding the 25th June, and the Summer Pasch began on the next Sunday following the 17th July: now as the Spring Lent ended on Easter Sunday, so should we conclude that the Summer Lent closed on the Sunday of the Summer Pasch. Its length then, was, by this calculation, half that of the Spring Lent.

It is quite certain that the length of the ancient Advent dwindled down to that of the Advent at present before the Reformation. For the Sarum Use and, what is more to the point, a Breviary written in the closing years of the 15th century, by a Killaloe priest, give only four Sundays to Advent.

As in regard to the length, so too in regard to the character of the Advent fast, there was a variety of practices in different countries. In some places the Advent preparation consisted of abstinence, in others fasting formed a part of it; and some of those who fasted confined their fast to special days in the week.

The Irish Church, which yielded to none in Christendom in the strictness of its fasts, in all probability extended the fast to the entire six weeks of Advent.

We must bear in mind that the three Lents in the Irish Church were designated by the common name Corgais or Quadragesima. Whenever an adjunct followed the word it was in order to determine its duration, and the season in which it took place. Therefore, by an acknowledged canon in the use of language and that of common sense, it is only reasonable to attribute, without notice to the contrary, the same meaning to the common word Lent when used by the same writers and applied to the same matter. On that account we are to infer that the character of the Lent was the same in each of the three Lents.

This view of the matter is confirmed by those writers who spoke of the fast on Christmas Eve: "thick milk and honey are mixed on the eve of the chief solemnities; to wit, at Christmas, and the two Easters." The greatness of the solemnity led to the above indulgence, which supposed a fast like the Easter and Summer fast, but different from the mere three days' fast of the Triduum.

I remarked before that a distinction had been kept up between the several Lents not merely as belonging to different seasons, but as qualified by the intervening festivals. Thus during the Easter Lent, in which occurred St. Patrick's festival, rather liberal fare was allowed on his festival, unless it fell on Friday. But with the exception caused by the accompanying festivals, all the Lents were treated as of the same character.

There is, it must be admitted, a distinction sometimes made between the food allowable in Lent and out of it. The expounder of the law on Lent says "that fleshmeats may be used in the great Lent;" but this distinction of the great from the other Lent does not establish a difference in the ordinary character: for the writer assigns a reason for the distinction, because then "other things are scarce."

The writer takes care to assign the reason of the indulgence in the great Lent: because other necessaries, milk, honey, vegetables, were more scarce then than during the other Lents.

But in general the same character was assigned to the various Lents. Hence in the very next line it is stated that "on the high festivals which fall on Thursday or Tuesday during the Lents half selanns " are given. Here the same character and treatment are given of the several Lents.

The Advent fast did not, as stated in a reference to Ferraris, fall into disuse in the twelfth century. It lingered on not only in Ireland but in other countries. Alexander III.,writing in the thirteenth century, says, that " the fast is observed by us during the Advent of the Lord."

The Advent fast which prevailed in the Church through most of the Middle Ages fell into disuse in the fourteenth century. The custom of fasting fell into desuetude now in one country, and by-and-by in another; but it was only in the year 1370 that it may be said to have been repealed by Pope Urban V., at Avignon.

And though not generally binding, the fast, however, was subsequently observed in some countries; but in no country was it more warmly cherished than in Ireland. That Irish Church which was among the first to receive it, was the last to give up the Advent fast. On that account we find the distinction kept between the various Lents to the end of the Middle Ages. Nothing is so common to writers of the fifteenth century in Ireland as the use of the Crucifixion Lent, or Easter Lent as contradistinguished from the Winter and Summer Lents. Hence writers in the fifteenth century lay down rules for determining the recurrence of the latter.

The same reverence for Advent fasts made the Irish Church cling to their observance as to the observance of holidays, even when retrenched. This is so certain that Dr. French, Bishop of Elphin, writing in 1803 to Dr. Moylan, states that the feasts of the Purification, Nativity, and Conception were kept holidays of obligation, though not so in other dioceses, because the Church of Elphin, in previous years, did not avail itself of the Indult extended to the rest of the Church.

Hence, too, when Clement VIII. issued an Indult in the year 1598, exempting the Irish from abstinence, they did not avail themselves of its privileges. The bishops of the Dublin Province met at Kilkenny in 1614 and promulgated anew the Indult. Even then the faithful did not avail themselves of it. And in sixty years subsequently, Clement X. had to issue another Rescript, and another synod had to promulgate it, in order to convince the people that the fasts thitherto binding were relaxed by the Papal Indult. Even this did not prevent the faithful from observing the fasts.

After sending my hurried note to the RECORD, I took an opportunity of looking the O'Renehan Collections through, and failed to see in them a proof against the existence of Advent fasts in our Irish Church. On the contrary, I found an allusion, and only once, in them to Advent in connexion with fasts. The passage runs thus:

"Besides on all Fridays of the year, as on the Vigils of the Nativity, Conception, and Annunciation, and likewise of the Purification of the B. V. M., a fast is observed by the more devout everywhere (as some fast even in the Advent season), which is set down by others to devotion rather than to a strict obligation ; but whether the custom arises from mere devotion or strict obligation, the Vigil of the Purification is transferred by a Decree of the Synod of Armagh in favor of St. Bridget."

Now this entry would rather prove than otherwise the existence of the Advent fast in Ireland before the year 1778. It is a statement made out in the year 1649 of a representative meeting of the priests of the Province of Armagh, which took place in the year 1614.

The fast on the Vigil of the Purification was set down by some to mere devotion; but the provincial synod judged it unsafe to deny the existence of a strict obligation, and therefore transferred the Vigil fast.

The parenthetic clause, asserting the Advent fast, is not spoken of either as observed by the devout merely, or as of doubtful obligation. The synod had no idea of qualifying that clause by what follows, as it did not contemplate legislating for the Advent fast as for the Vigil fast; nor did the synodal statement, on the observance of the Vigil fast by the rather devout, affect the Advent fast in the succeeding parenthesis- as some fast even in Advent time - because the agents in fasting in the latter case are different from those in the former. It is not said jejunatur a devotioribus (prout jejunatur etiam tempore Adventus); but the form given, jejunatur a devotioribus (prout a quibusdam jejunatur tempore Adventus), shows that the Advent fast spoken of as observed is implied to have been of obligation.

For those who observed the doubtfully binding fast of the Vigil are not the same as those who observed the Advent fast, the former were the devout, the latter were different; and we all know it is only a penitential observance of obligation that is respected by the indevout. On that account we may fairly infer the fast of Advent in the seventeenth century to have been regarded as the continuation of an immemorial custom of obligation. And even granted the Advent then to have been of mere devotion, still it militates for my contention.

But though the authority of the Synod at Drogheda is unexceptionable as vouching for the existence of the Advent fast, its conduct in regard to legislation on the holidays is more open to exception. It appears to have acted on its own responsibility in transferring Vigils, specially composed as it was of only the second order of the clergy, and thus practically to have recognised condemned principles of the famous Synod of Pistoia in 1786. However their loyalty is unquestionable.

I may observe that though there is no general law by which the Advent fasts prevail through the Church, yet they are more general than is commonly believed.

There is scarcely a country, to my knowledge, in which they do not obtain. The Supreme Pontiffs took an opportunity, in issuing Rescripts as to the suppression of Vigils and fasts, to restore the old discipline of the Church. Not only in Europe but even in America where no Indult was required, because there had been no suppression of feasts, a fast of one or two days in Advent prevails.

Each theologian, imagining that the Indult in regard to the Advent fast was peculiar to his own country, and it may no doubt be subject to special conditions, did not think it well to discuss its nature on principles of universal application. But the absence of allusion to the fast in the text of theological treatises is no proof that it does not prevail in the country of their writers.

For instance, I refer to Scavini who, though a canon of the Church of Novara, omits all allusion to Advent in his text, but in a note quotes the Indult of Pius VII., which made the same concessions under like conditions to Savoy as to Ireland.

Notwithstanding the various incidental points touched on, the principal aim of this article has been, as well to supplement the few remarks in my last note, as to evolve the suppressed premiss of an enthymeme. On the former occasion I glanced at the existence of several Lents in the Irish Church, and on the present have shewn, at least to my own satisfaction, that these Lents were of different durations, and as such were expressed by the common word corgais, forty.

I therefore feel entitled to repeat as an unquestionable fact now what was only an assertion a while ago, at the close of a short note, when my argument had been incomplete, that corgais supplies a remarkable instance of the conventional signification of a word becoming not only different from, but essentially contradictory to, its etymological and original meaning.

S. M.

Irish Ecclesiastical Record Ser 3, vol 2, 1881, 104-113.

The Advent Fast in the Irish Church -1

As a member of the Russian Orthodox Church, I am today entering into the fast in preparation for the Nativity of Our Lord. Coming from the Western Church, the idea of preparing for Christmas by fasting for 40 days was an unfamiliar one, as in the Catholic Church the discipline of fasting has been progressively weakened to the point where it has become a largely nominal practice. It is not so in the Orthodox world and it was not so for the Early Irish Church. Below is the text of an interesting debate on the subject of the Advent Fast and the Irish Church which appeared in the Irish Ecclesiastical Record in the early 1880s. The debate was sparked by a contribution of the President of Maynooth College to the Record's regular column on theological questions. In the course of his reply, Father Walsh suggested that the Advent Fast was a relative novelty in Ireland:

Moreover, rigid as the discipline of our Irish Church has from the beginning been in regard to fasting and abstinence, the fast of Advent was established in Ireland only about a hundred years ago. This is plain from the documents published in that most interesting, but unfortunately by no means widely circulated work, Dr. Renehan's Collections on Irish Church History, edited by the present venerated Bishop of Kerry. The circumstance is especially noteworthy when taken in connexion with the fact, which we also learn from the documents published in the work referred to, that until a comparatively recent period, that is to say, until within the last two or three hundred years, every Wednesday and Saturday throughout the year was, according to the Irish discipline, a day of abstinence from meat and every Friday, a day of abstinence from eggs and even lacticinia as well. Yet the fast of Advent had then no place in the observances of our Church. It was not introduced until the year 1778. [emphasis mine]

Irish Ecclesiastical Record Ser 3, vol 1, 1880, 749.

This claim proved too much for Church historian Father Sylvester Malone who fired off a letter to the Editor:

SIR. I have just read with usual pleasure, and, I hope, profit, the latest of the many able contributions by the Very Rev. President of Maynooth College to the RECORD. I refer to that on the Advent Fast. It occurs to me, however, that in p.749, there is a misstatement, made on the strength of the O'Renehan Collections on Irish Church History &etc, that the Advent Fast has been known in Ireland only since the year 1778.

If I read Irish MSS. correctly, that Fast had been in use in Ireland more than a thousand years previously. Thus in the Rule for the Culdees its existence is implied.

" Skimmed milk on Sundays of the great Lent to the people of severe penance."

So again in the Vision of Adamnan, born in 624, the Advent Fast is not only implied but expressly mentioned as the Winter Lent. After speaking of the manner in which the Triduum should be observed, the holy writer proceeds to define when each of the four Triduums was to take place.

" The first Triduum then, unless necessarily to be transferred, should usually begin on the Wednesday after entering on the Winter Lent; the second Triduum on the first Wednesday of the Spring Lent."

These entries leave no doubt as to the prevalence of the Advent Fast in Ireland. Of course Dr. Walsh's solid theological grounds are not at all affected by the historical aspect of the question.

In conclusion, I may remark that the Irish loan-word for Lent is corgais, a contraction for quadragesima, that is forty, the fast of forty (days). By and by a fast of a shorter nature was called Corgais from a familiarity with the Quadragesima ; and thus proves not only that a conventional meaning of a word may be different from, but even essentially contradictory to, the original derivative signification of the word.
I remain, yours, &c.,
S. MALONE.

Dr Walsh was invited to respond:

At the request of the Editor, I have read the foregoing interesting note contributed by my friend, Father Malone. As I should be most unwilling to have it supposed that in any statement of mine, theological or otherwise, I was misled by my reliance on the work referred to in my Paper, in the last number of the RECORD, I think it well to add a few observations in further explanation of the point to which F. Malone calls attention.

1. In the first place, I should say that the Advent Fast which I had in view when writing or, to speak more accurately, the Advent Fast to which I wished to confine my remarks was that which is now observed in Ireland and also in other countries throughout the Church. I took it for granted that not a few readers of the RECORD might possibly be under the impression as I confess that I myself was until a few years ago, when I was set right by the learned editor of Dr. Renehan's Collections that in Ireland the Advent fast had come down to us like the fasts of Lent, or of the Quatuor Tempora, or of the various Vigils throughout the year. Every student of theology is, of course, aware that the Advent fast is not one of the fasts imposed, as those others are, by common ecclesiastical law. But I thought it not unlikely that many were of opinion that, at least in Ireland, this fast had come down to us from the early ages of our Church as a portion of that specially rigid discipline in fasting, for which our forefathers were so remarkable from the very beginning. Hence I considered it would interest many to learn that such was not the case that, even in Ireland, the Advent fast, instead of being a remnant of ancient discipline, was of very recent institution that it had no existence among us even at that period, two hundred years ago, when the extreme rigour of the Irish discipline of fasting is attested by that most interesting collection of ecclesiastical documents, for the collection and publication of which the Irish Church is indebted to Dr. Renehan and Dr. M'Carthy and that, in fine, as set forth in one of the documents of that collection, its institution dates from a time, barely a hundred years ago, the year 1778. As to the existence of an Advent fast of a very different kind, which existed in Ireland at the interesting period of our history to which Fr. Malone refers, I had no thought of explicitly referring. In fact I thought it better not to do so, as it seemed to lie altogether outside the drift of my Paper.

2. The footnote referring to the article in Ferraris' Bibliotheca, in regard to the Advent fast of ecclesiastical antiquity, indicated, I thought with sufficient plainness, that I distinctly marked off that aspect of the question as altogether omitted from my discussion of the practical question regarding the present fast of Advent, which alone I had undertaken to consider. But as it is a point of no little interest, and as F. Malone has so kindly contributed the important evidence set forth in his letter, regarding the observance of this more ancient fast in Ireland, it may be well to add, that as regards the Western Church generally, this fast, as stated by Ferraris, fell into disuse about the twelfth century. So that, whether as regards the ancient observance of the fast, or the subsequent disuse and abrogation of it, the Irish Church was by no means singular.

3. In reference to the Irish word corgais (from quadragesima) as used to designate the ancient fast of Advent, I would suggest for Father Malone's consideration, and possibly investigation, a point which may prove to be of some interest. Is it quite certain that the word corgais, as thus applied, furnishes an instance of a word employed conventionally in a sense different from its derivative or etymological signification? The Advent fast of our present discipline is no doubt a fast of much shorter duration than the forty days fast of Lent. But is it quite clear that this was true of the earlier fast to which Father Malone refers? He has done so much for the elucidation of questions concerning our ancient ecclesiastical usages, that I venture to hope he will be able to throw some light on this point. It is one, I need not say, which lies altogether outside the range of my reading.

4. My reason for raising the question is that, as regards ecclesiastical antiquity generally, there is no doubt that, in many countries, the ancient fast of Advent, was, like that of Lent, a fast of forty days. Ferraris quotes several authorities on this point. So also does Benedict XIV., in his erudite Instruction on the time of Advent, contained in one of the Pastoral Letters which he published for the diocese of Bologna, when he was Archbishop of that See, before his elevation to the Chair of Peter. " Multis saeculis," says Ferraris, " Adventum 40 diebus . . constasse indubium est. , . Hinc Adventum vocatum fuisse Quadragesimam, in Vita B. Dominici Loricati legimus, et in Sacramentariis Ratholdi, abbatis Corbiensis." It is, in fact, still observed as a fast of forty days in many of the Churches of the East. Even in the Western Church, this ancient usage is still to some extent preserved in more than one religious order, in the fast of forty days in preparation for the feast of Christmas. It would be interesting to ascertain if a similarity in our ancient usage may not prove to be the true explanation also of the term corgais, or quadragesima, as applied in Ireland to the fast of Advent.

W. J. W.

Irish Ecclesiastical Record Ser 3, vol 2, 1881, 48-51.

Thus the ball was left in Father Malone's court and he responded with a paper on the subject which I shall post next. What was interesting to me from Dr Walsh's initial contribution was his acknowledgment that a more rigorous tradition of fasting in general survived among the Irish laity until the mid-17th century:

The discipline of the Irish Church in reference to abstinence on fasting days is now in substantial accordance with the provisions of the common law. But it may not be out of place to note, that down to so recent a period as the middle of the seventeenth century it was characterised by excessive rigour in this respect. The use of meat was prohibited on all Wednesdays throughout the year. And in addition to the abstinence from meat, prescribed by the common law on Fridays and Saturdays, every Friday during the year, and in many parts of the country every Saturday was a day of rigorous abstinence from eggs and lacticinia such as is now observed only on two or three days in the first and last weeks in Lent. Besides, in many districts, every Friday throughout the year was observed as a day not merely of abstinence, but of strict fast.

Indeed, when the rules were relaxed by Rome, the Irish Bishops hesitated to bring in some of the changes for fear of scandalizing the faithful!:

Clement VIII., in 1598, issued a Bull, empowering the Irish bishops to dispense with many of these austerities. The bishops of the province of Dublin, assembled in Provincial Synod at Kilkenny, in 1614, under the presidency of Dr. Eugene Mathews, Archbishop of Dublin, published this Bull, and, availing themselves to a certain extent of the authority which it communicated, dispensed with the more rigorous portions of the abstinence previously observed. In several points, however, the abstinence from meat on Wednesdays throughout the year, and from eggs on Fridays and Saturdays no change was made, the bishops evidently fearing that a relaxation of the ancient discipline in these respects would shock the tender consciences of the faithful.

Irish Ecclesiastical Record Ser 3, vol 1, 1880, 25, 149.

Saint Sechnall's Hymn to Saint Patrick

Below is an early twentieth-century translation of the hymn in praise of Saint Patrick traditionally attributed to Saint Sechnall. Previous generations of scholars have been unenthusiastic about this hymn, known as Audite omnes amantes from its opening lines, on the grounds that it did nothing to increase understanding of the historical Saint Patrick. In Dumville's volume of revisionist studies, however, Andy Orchard has made a much more appreciative re-examination of it and provided a fresh translation. Hopefully in the future I can reprint the preface to this hymn from the Liber Hymnorum, but for now, this is a 1905 translation, also in the public domain. Modern scholars would be less confident than this translator about claiming that the hymn was definitely written before 452, but the concensus still is that it is a very early work. In the original Latin, 'Audite omnes amantes' is an abcedarian hymn, with each stanza beginning with successive letters of the alphabet. X is Xpistus (Christ in the Greek spelling), Y is Ymnos (hymn) and Z is Zona (Girdle) in case you were wondering!

ST. SECHNALL'S HYMN TO ST. PATRICK

Circ. a.d. 452 ; Translated from the original Celtic Latin by Fr. Atkinson, S.J., Wimbledon College

With Introductory Note by Fr. Power, S.J., Edinburgh

[Among Celtic scholars there is as much unanimity as to the very early date of the Hymn of St. Sechnall, as there is about the genuineness of the two documents written by the hand of St. Patrick the Confession and the Epistle to Coroticus.

St. Sechnall's Hymn in honour of 'The Master of the Scots' cannot be dated later than A. D. 452, that is, about twenty years after the arrival of St. Patrick in Ireland. It is thus by far the earliest document, metrical or otherwise, written in Celtic Latin.

Tradition ascribes it to Sechnall (Secundinus), the contemporary and kinsman of the Apostle of the Scoti.

The internal evidence (see especially Stanza I.) points unmistakably to the fact that when the poem was written St. Patrick was still alive and in the zenith of his fame.

Haddan and Stubbs, Bishop Dowden, and many others have remarked on the absence of any reference in the panegyric to the miracles of the man celebrated in Irish legends as the greatest Thaumaturgus since the days of the Twelve Apostles. The traditional explanation of the Irish legend is, that Patrick not only fell foul of his panegyrist, but ruthlessly revised many passages which he considered too complimentary to the 'rusticissimus peccator.' However that may be, the whole composition tends to show that all Scotia (Ireland) became Christian in an incredibly short time.

The evolution of the Continental Latin, first introduced with its script into Scotia by St. Patrick, is another interesting fact attested by the pseudo-classical alphabetic poem of St. Sechnall. No one, as far as I know, has yet noticed the extraordinary resemblance of St. Patrick's Latinity to that of St. Gregory of Tours. The latter wrote in what is now admitted to have been the vulgar tongue of Christian Europe in the fifth century. St. Sechnall, who must have been taught by some Italian of the Celestino-Palladio-Patrician mission, shows a marked advance on the portentous syntax of the uncouth Gaulish Latin of St. Patrick. The improvement was steadily maintained till it reached a very fair degree of perfection in the Latin works of St. Columbanus of Bangor, Iona, Luxeuil, and Bobbio.

The accompanying hymn was printed for the first time by Muratori. Its popularity in modern days has been quite eclipsed by the Eucharistic Hymn of St. Sechnall, found in the Antiphonary of Bangor, and beginning

Sancti venite,
Christi Corpus sumite.

A good translation of the latter from the pen of Dr. Neale may be read in Hymns Ancient and Modern.

The best MS. of the 'Praise of St. Patrick' is to be found in the Book of Armagh. There is another venerable copy with a few variants, formerly preserved at St. Isidore's, Rome, but now transferred to the Franciscan monastery, Merchant's Quay, Dublin. This MS. in Stanza III. gives the reading Petrus, instead of Petrum, and is followed I do not know why by Haddan and Stubbs, and Cardinal Moran.

A rhymed translation of the following poem has been printed by Miss Cusack on pp. 597sqq. of her immense volume, Trias Thaumaturga. Father Atkinson's version will, I think, be preferred. The worst that I can say of it is that, as a piece of poetry, it is superior to the original. The task of the translator was a difficult one. St. Sechnall's composition, however historically interesting, is little better than prose cut into lengths. Father Atkinson's duty was to eschew ornament, like his original, and yet to write poetry. His fidelity to St. Sechnall and his self-restraint in the use of poetic diction can only be appreciated by those who will compare his rendering with the Latin Hymn as given in Canon Warren's noble edition of the Antiphonarum Banchorense.

Readers acquainted with the muscular conciseness and elliptical Latin of St. Sechnall's Hymn to St. Patrick, beginning Audite omnes amantes, may at first blush be surprised that the new translator, who is not new to poetry, should have chosen the far-extended line of the hexameter. Like other translators, he is under the law of faithfulness to the meaning of the first Irish poet, but no one would require of him to render a congested verse of somewhat 'barbarous' Celtic Latin by an equally short verse of English that would puzzle the modern reader and jar on the musical ear.]


Listen ye lovers of God as I tell you of Patrick the Bishop,
Man whom the Master hath blest, hero of saintly deserts ;
How for the good that he does upon earth, he is likened to angels,
How for his life without flaw, peer of Apostles he stands.

Every tittle he guards of the mandates of Christ the All-Blessed ;
Bright in the sight of the world glitters the light of his works ;
Wondrous and holy indeed the example he sets and men follow,
Praising the Lord for it all, praising the Father above.

Steadfast is he in the fear of his Maker; his faith is unshaken ;
Firm as on Peter the Church rises up-builded on him ;
God hath allotted to him the place of Apostle within it,
'Gainst it the portals of hell never are strong to prevail.

Him hath the Master elected a teacher of barbarous races,
Cunning with seine of the truth, fishing for men with his net,
So that from waves of the world he may win unto grace the believing,
Making them follow their Lord up to His throne in the skies.

Christ's are the talents he sells, the excellent coin of good tidings,
Claiming them back from our clans, fruitful with usury's gain ;
Certain for meed of his toil, for price of his prodigal labour,
Some day with Christ to possess joy in His heavenly realm.

Faithful in service to God is he God's most glorious envoy,
Model and type to the good what an Apostle should be,
Preacher with word and with action to such as God calls for His people,
So that if word be too weak, action may urge them to good.

Christ hath his glory in keeping, yet here upon earth is he honoured,
Worshipped by all who behold, e'en as an angel of God ;
Yea, for as Paul to the Gentiles, so God hath sent him His Apostle,
Guiding the steps of men home, unto the Kingdom of God.

Humble in spirit and body, the fear of his Maker hath filled him,
Though for his goodness the Lord loveth to rest on his soul ;
Deep in his flesh that is sinless he carries the mark of the Master,
Patiently bearing nor e'er glorying save in the Cross.

Dauntless and restless he feeds the believing with heavenly banquets,
Lest they that journey with Christ, faint as they walk on the road,
Furnishing forth unto all for their bread the words of the Gospel
Lo ! as the manna of old multiplied still in his hands.

Chaste for the love of his Lord, he warily keepeth his body
Wrought and adorned as a shrine, meet for the Spirit of God :
Yea, and the Spirit for ever abides amid works that are cleanly,
Yea, 'tis a victim he gives living and pleasing to God.

Light of the world is he, kindled ablaze, as was told in the Gospel,
Lighted and set on the stand, shining far out to mankind :
Stronghold is he of the King, a city placed high on the hill-top
Plentiful riches are there, stored for the Master of all.

Surely shall Patrick be called in the heavenly kingdom the greatest,
Who what his holy words teach, bodies in goodness of deed ;
Pattern and model of all, he guides the van of the faithful,
Keeping in pureness of heart trust ever clinging to God.

Boldly he blazons the name of the Lord to the infidel races,
Giving them grace without end, out of the laver of life.
Day after day for their sins unto God he makes his petition,
Slaying for health of their souls victims worthy of God.

Worldly acclaim doth he flout, that God's law may yet be established,
While at God's Table he stands, all is as dross in his eyes ;
Thunder of this world may crash ; undaunted he faces its crashing,
Glad in the tempest of wrong, since that he suffers for Christ.

Shepherd so faithful and true of the flock that the Gospel has won him,
Chosen by God's own self ward of the people of God,
Chosen to pasture His people with teaching appointed from heaven,
Risking his life for the flock, after the pattern of Christ.

Him hath the Saviour raised to be Bishop because of his merits,
Counsellor unto the priests fighting the battle of God,
Giving them raiment to wear and food from a heavenly storehouse,
Holy celestial words, quitting his task to the full.

Lo ! to the faithful he bears the call of the King to His nuptials,
Wearing the nuptial robe, clad with the garment of grace.
Heavenly wine doth he draw without stint in celestial vessels,
Bidding God's people approach unto the heavenly cup.

Hid in the sacred Books, a sacred treasure he found him,
Seeing the Godhead clear under the Saviour's Flesh,
Holy and all complete are his merits that purchase the treasure.
'Warrior of God,' is he called, looking on God with his soul.

Faithful witness is he of the Lord in Catholic precepts,
Precepts carefully stored, salt with the message divine ;
So that man's flesh may never corrupt into food for the earth-worms,
Kept by the heavenly juice fresh to be offered to God.

Labourer noble and loyal is he in the field of the Gospel,
Sowing in sight of the world seeds of good tidings of Christ ;
Sowing with lips that God guards seed in the ears of the wary,
Making their hearts and their minds tilth of the Spirit of God.

Christ for Himself hath made choice ; His deputy here hath He placed him,
Out of two tyrants' holds setting their prisoners free
Ransoming slaves from the chains of men who held them in bondage,
Freeing from Satan's rule numberless souls that were his.

Hymns and psalms doth he sing to the Lord with St. John's Revelations ;
Chanting to hasten his work, building the people of God.
Into their keeping he gives the law in the Name of the Triune,
Teaching the Persons are Three, simple the Substance of God.

Girt with the girdle of God, by day and by night never ceasing
Unto his Lord and his God, riseth his prayer without rest ;
Mighty the toil is, and sure the guerdon that waits for his labour
Lordship along with the Twelve over the people of God.

Listen ye lovers of God as I tell you of Patrick the Bishop,
Man whom the Master hath blest, hero of saintly deserts ;
How for the good that he does upon earth, he is likened to angels
How for his life without flaw, peer of Apostles he stands.

The Celtic Review, Vol.2 (1905), 242-245