The Meeting of Paul and Brendan

Last year I looked at an Irish Saint Paul, assigned January 25 as a feast day by Colgan because this date was the commemoration of the baptism of Saint Paul the apostle. This Irish Paul was said to have been a disciple of Saint Patrick who later pursued the eremitical life on a lonely island. There the intrepid voyager, Saint Brendan, discovers him, an encounter related in chapter twenty-six of the Navigatio. The episode appears to be a retelling of the famous ‘meeting of Paul and Anthony’ from the Life of Saint Paul of Thebes. I remain fascinated by the translation of the eastern Saint Paul the Hermit into an Irish context, and have been enjoying a paper on the subject by scholar Éamonn Ó Carragáin. He begins by discussing the place of honour held by the two saints in the Irish church:

When the saints are mentioned in the Irish sources, it is primarily as the exemplars and prototypes of the eremitic life, and hence of monasticism. Thus the Life of St Columcille in the Book of Lismore gives the monastic life as the first way by which men are summoned to knowledge of God; and the monastic vocation is described as ‘the urging and kindling of men by the divine grace to serve the Lord after the manner of Paul, and of Anthony the monk, and of the other faithful monks who used to serve God in Egypt.’ In the Stowe Missal, likewise, Paul and Anthony are named as the exemplars of the eremitic life.

Ó Carragáin goes on to contrast this appreciation for the pair among the Irish with the attitude of the Anglo-Saxons:

Saints Paul and Anthony seem to have been popular in Celtic lands because the Irish, and their Scottish settlements, revered them as prototypes of monasticism. For Anglo-Saxon monks, St Benedict of Nursia would usually have occupied this position of pre-eminent reverence. Wandering anchorites who met, however providentially, in the desert could not be honoured with unqualified reverence by communities founded on a vow of ‘stabilitas loci’. For later Anglo-Saxon homilists, ‘instability of place and wandering from place to place’ was a product of sleacnes (sloth), one of the eight capital sins.

Saint Brendan finds ‘Paul the Spiritual Hermit’ living on a small circular-shaped island. For thirty years he has been fed by an otter, which brings him a fish and firewood for cooking every three days. When Saint Brendan arrives, however, the hermit has moved to occupy ‘two caves, the entrance of one facing the entrance of the other, on the side of the island facing east’. The otter no longer brings food, as the hermit now subsists entirely on the waters of ‘ a miniscule spring, round like a plate, flowing from the rock before the entrance to the cave…when this spring overflowed, the rock immediately absorbed the water’.

Ó Carragáin comments:

We clearly have here, not another version of the life of Saint Paul the First Hermit, but a different figure, set in a new landscape which develops in an original way the themes of the desert scene in the Vita Sancti Pauli. This Irish Spiritual Hermit inhabits a landscape which is entirely symbolic; and its symbolism is primarily eucharistic. We have already seen the eucharistic significance of the symbol ‘fish’. The eucharistic significance of water that is miraculously given from a rock is equally central to Christian tradition. St. Paul’s gloss on the ‘wandering rock’ which accompanied the Israelites in the desert [1 Corinthians 10:1-4] is relevant to the island-rock which sustains this Spiritual Hermit. [In a footnote the author also says: in his use of the spring as an image for Christ’s giving of himself as drink, the author of the Navigatio is probably thinking also of such texts such as John 7:37-8 and John 19:34.]

The writer argues that the point of all this eucharistic imagery is revealed at the end of the chapter when the hermit gives Brendan and his crew a supply of water from the spring to act as the sole sustenance for their next forty-day voyage. The symbolism is further brought into focus when we note that Saint Brendan’s voyage comes to an end on Holy Saturday and thus the meeting with the hermit must have taken place on or close to the first Sunday of Lent.

Ó Carragáin has many more interesting points to make on the meeting of Paul and Brendan, but for now I will conclude with his tribute to the writer of the Navigatio and his use of the Vita Sancti Pauli:

The wit of the Navigatio depends on an unobtrusive mastery of paradox: the author demonstrates that the famous scene of the meeting of Saints Paul and Anthony can be re-enacted, not with bread alone, but with other images of how man is fed by God’s word. He transforms the famous scene in the Vita in such a way as to suggest that fasting gives sustenance to the spirit, and that the contemplative vocation (the vita theorica) can provide fulfillment even on stony ground.

The details of chapter xxvi of the Navigatio can thus be seen to interact, as it were in a form of counterpoint, with the corresponding details in the Vita Sancti Pauli; and it can be seen that to appreciate the sophisticated virtuosity of the Navigatio it is necessary to have some recollection of the Vita. No doubt the author of the Navigatio felt he could depend on his monastic readership for such a recollection. In the scene in which St Brendan meets St Paul the Spiritual Hermit, the author clearly was just as preoccupied with the eucharistic themes of the recognition of and union with Christ as Jerome had been in the Vita Sancti Pauli. The Navigatio therefore provides strong confirmatory evidence that for Irish audiences the meeting of St Paul and St Anthony had primarily a eucharistic significance. The way in which the Spiritual Hermit is made to greet St Brendan with the verse ‘ecce quam bonum et quam iocundum habitare fratres in unum’ suggests that the author of the Navigatio is making explicit another theme which he saw Jerome’s account of the meeting of Paul and Anthony to imply: that friendship and community could, miraculously, be found even in the desert. This theme may also be relevant to the ‘Paul and Anthony’ panels on the high crosses, those monastic scenes of courteous friendship which the sculptors consistently placed in eucharistic contexts.

Éamonn Ó Carragáin ‘The Meeting of Saint Paul and Saint Anthony: visual uses of a Eucharistic motif’ in G. Mac Niocaill and P.F. Wallace, eds. Keimelia – studies in medieval archaeology and history in memory of Tom Delaney (Galway University Press, 1988), 1-58.

Irish Saints of January: Manchan of Lemanaghan

Last year I posted a number of items relating to Saint Manchan , commemorated on 24 January and also on his famous shrine. He is a saint much loved by a modern son of the Mooney family who were the hereditary keepers of his shrine, Hieromonk Ambrose of New Zealand. If you do not already subscribe to Father Ambrose's daily digest of the Celtic and Old English saints, please follow the celt-saints link and sign up.

Below is a paper from the Irish Ecclesiastical Record on Saint Manchan and his Shrine, it does not present the saint's life in so readily-accessible a form as last year's entry from O'Hanlon, but there are some interesting points nonetheless. I was particularly intrigued by the reference to the claim that the Apostle James had come to Ireland and written his canonical epistle here. I was also interested to see the author suggest that Saint Manchan may be the author of the "Wonders of the Scripture," a text once attributed to Saint Augustine but now acknowledged to be of Irish authorship. I hope to post something about this text and its author the 'Irish Augustine' in the future. I have looked already at some of the writings attributed to Saint Manchan here.

ST. MANCHAN: HIS CHURCH AND SHRINE.

ABOUT three miles north-east of Ferbane, King's County, skirting the main road to Clara, may be seen the site of the once celebrated monastic establishment founded about the middle of the seventh century, by St. Manchan, of Liath. Standing on a low swell, an armlet of well-reclaimed bog, it gently rises above the extensive moors with which it is almost surrounded. Here, in the midst of scenery of a character altogether desolate and lonely, but poetic and sublime, are to be found what remains of the Church and house of Manchan. Both repose beneath the shadow of one of the "Seven Fair Castles" of MacCoghlan of Delvin Eathra, and within sight of St. Columb's famous Durrow, and the now celebrated Intermediate College conducted by the Jesuits at Tullabeg. Lemanaghan was originally subject to the jurisdiction of Clonmacnoise, having come out from that great centre of religion, science and art, as a monastic foundation.

Like so many others of our once famous abbeys, it had its origin in royal munificence, as the following passage taken from the Annals of the Four Masters will clearly show:

"A.D. 645, the battle of Carn Conaill (probably Ballyconnell, in the vicinity of Gort, Co. Galway), was gained by Dermot, King of Ireland, over Guiare, King of Connaught, in which the two Cuans were killed - viz., Cuan, the son of Enda, King of Munster; and Cuan, the son of Connell, Chief of Hy-Figente; and also Talmnack, Chief of Hy-Liathin. Guaire was routed from the field. On marching to the battle King Dermot passed through Clonmacnoise, and the congregation of St. Kieran prayed to God for his success, and through their prayers he returned safe.

" After the King's return he granted Tuaim-n-Eirc, i.e., Liath Manchan, with its divisions of land, i.e. (all the lands included under that name), as an Altar Sod or Altar land, to God and St. Kieran, and he pronounced three maledictions on any future King of Meath if any of his people should take (with violence), even so much as a drink of water there."

MacGeoghegan, in his translations of the Annals of Clonmacnoise, gives much the same account: "The battle of Carne-Connell, in the Feast of Penticost, was given by Dermot MacHugh Slane, and going to meet his enemies went to Clonvicknoise to make his devotion to St. Queran, was met by the abbots, prelates, and clergy of Clonvicknoise in procession, where they prayed God and St. Queran to give him victory over his enemies, which God granted at their requests, for they had victory, and slew Cuan, King of Minister, and Cuan, King of Feiginty, and so giving the foyle to his enemies, returned to Clonvicknoise again to congratulate the clergy by whose intercession he gained the victory, and bestowed on them for ever Foyminercke, with the appurtenances, now called Lyavanchan, in honour of God and St. Queran, to be held free, without any charge in the world, in so much that the King of Meath might not thenceforth challenge a draught of water thereout by way of any charge."

It was thus Clonmacnoise obtained the ownership of that place, a spot afterwards celebrated through its connection with him who established thereon a monastery. The personal fame and greatness of its founder and patron was the occasion of acquiring for it a new name viz., Liath Manchan a name by which not alone the group of monastic ruins, but the entire parish is called and known even to this day.

The founder and patron of this old monastic establishment was Manchan. Considerable uncertainty, however, surrounds his identification, for there were several saints of that name. In the Irish calendars, records are to be found of twelve distinct festivals set apart to honour saints called Manchan. Just as there have been many saints called Ronan and Lasera, so, too, there have been several Manchans. Of these the more celebrated were Manchan, Abbot and Bishop of Tomgraney, County Clare; Manchan, of Dysart Gallen, Queen's County, who was called the wise Irishman. The remains of his church and monastery are still to be seen in a sequestered and romantic valley, surrounded by scenery of a character charmingly picturesque and lovely. But Manchan, of Liath Manchan, was the greatest of them all. Ware states that amongst the alleged works of Richard Fitzralph, Archbishop of Armagh, was a Vita Sancti Manchani.

It is even said that Ussher had it in his hand, but Dr. Todd and others searched for it in Ussher's Library and failed to find it. Some say it is in the Bodleian Library, Oxford. If so I hope yet to read it. Meanwhile, 1 shall set down now what appears to be certain from present available sources regarding Manchan of Leinanagh.

The Annals of Clonmacnoise state "it was erroneously affirmed that Manchan was a Welshman, and came to this country with St. Patrick." It seems good then to set down his pedigree to disprove their allegations. Manchan was the son of Failve, who was the son of Augine, who was son of Bogany, who was son of Connell Galban, the ancestor of O'Donnell, as is confidently laid down among the genealogies of the saints of Ireland. It is, moreover, certain that he was a very learned man, at least in the Scriptures and Theology, for he was called the Jerome of Ireland, being "very like unto him in habits of life and learning. He wrote a book entitled the "Wonders of the Scripture," which is still extant in the third vol. of St. Augustine's works, and is falsely ascribed to him. Several writers assert that James, the Son of Zebedee, propagated the Gospel in Spain and the western countries, and came to Ireland and wrote his canonical epistle there. Manchan denied all that, and held that the epistle was written by James, Son of Alphoeus, and that neither of the Apostles of the name of James ever left their own country. "He slew James with the sword, and set the people to seize Peter also." (Acts xii.)

Besides he was a poet of a very high order, having composed that charming poem -
" Would that, O Son of the living God!
O eternal, ancient King!"&c., &c.

O'Flaherty quotes another poem of Manchan's, beginning with the words, "Since Idols were expelled."

It appears to be beyond all doubt that he was very highly venerated in his time for learning as well as sanctity, for Tigernach, the earliest of our annalists, having recorded his death as Bishop and Abbot, speaks of him as one of the most eminent persons who fell victims to that great mortality which, sparing neither sinner nor saint, prevailed in Ireland about the year 661.

It is thus recorded in the Annals of Clonmacnoise " A.D. 661, Enos of Ulster and St. Manchan of Leith, together with many other princes, bishops and abbots, died of the said pestilence." It was called the Buidhe Connail, or yellow plague. The Four Masters record his death at the year 664, but they are generally three, and sometimes five years later than the Annals of Clonmacnoise.

Archdall, after placing the death of St. Manchan, the patron of Lemanaghan, under the year 661, adds, under the year 694: "We find another St. Manchan of Leth, who lived after this year." For this he refers to Colgan, Acta, S.S.,p. 382, but the year 694 there is only a misprint for 664, which is the date of the Four Masters, from whom Colgan translated the passage. Petrie thinks Archdall’s mind was a blunt one.

In the year 1838 Mr. Petrie visited Lemanaghan, and he tells us in the record of his visit that he sketched the original church and oratory of St. Manchan, and found it to be only twenty-four feet in length, and fifteen in width. He added that "it presents to the antiquary an interesting characteristic specimen of the architecture of the seventh century." The parish church still remains, and is situate in the village of Lemanaghan, and in tolerably good preservation. It is of much larger size and of later age, as is observable from its ornamented doorway, which exhibits unmistakable features of the architecture of the eleventh or twelfth century.

Not far distant are three holy wells, to which the blind, lame, and persons afflicted with other chronic diseases come on the anniversary of the patron saint's death, the 24th January.

A togher or paved causeway leads to one of these wells, and extends further on by several yards, until it reaches the low swell on which is to be seen the cell which St. Manchan built for his mother. The antiquarian will be much interested on reaching this spot. This road, which resembles in many respects that leading from the Seven Churches to the Church of the Nuns, or Dervogail’s restored Church, is paved with large flag-stones. At the end of it you come upon an old Cyclopean building, surrounded by an ancient Mur, or wall of earth, faced with stonework.

The enclosure is rectangular and measures fifty yards by thirty-six.

About the centre of this enclosure stands a rectangular cell of extreme antiquity, measuring about eighteen by ten feet, the walls being over three feet in width or thickness. The doorway is squareheaded. The lintel passes through the entire thickness of the wall. There is no sign of any mode of hanging or fastening a door the sides are inclined, and there is no window in the sides of the building. This is the cell which tradition states Manchan built for his mother, St. Mella.

How appalling was not the rigor and severity of sanctity in those days! Ivy now mantles this curious cell, and the enclosure or Cashel is planted with trees.

But the most interesting object of all connected with this celebrated monastic foundation is the shrine of St. Manchan. Scrinium Sancti Manchani, the Annalists declare to have been called, opus pulcherrimum quod fecit opifex in Hibernia.

This venerable shrine certainly holds a conspicuous place amongst Irish ecclesiastical antiquities. Being a monument of very high antiquity, it cannot fail to awaken at all times a lively interest amongst antiquarians, affording, as it does, an illustration of a class of objects formerly numerous, but now very rare. " It was covered by Roderick O'Conor, and an embroidering of gold was carried over it by him in as good a style as a relic was ever covered in Ireland." - Four Masters.

There is, and always was, an intimate connexion between shrines, reliques, pilgrimages, and processions. The shrine containing a relique was at first a plain chest of wood. Gradually it became the subject of more or less ornament in proportion to the veneration attached to the object it contained. Shrines originally portable, thus became in course of time large and stately structures, and were set up in churches for the veneration of the faithful. The origin of shrines is traceable to a very remote period. The Israelites, for example, when they were departing from Egypt, took with them the bones of Joseph (according to his own direction) and kept them during their many years' journeyings into the promised land. When the dead man was restored to life on. touching the bones of the Prophet Elisha, when diseases departed and evil spirits went out of them, to whom handkerchiefs and aprons that had touched the body of St. Paul were applied ; the foundation was laid for that veneration which found one mode of expression in the decoration of the shrine. The veneration amongst Christians for reliques and shrines began in the Apostolic times. St. Ignatius, who was a disciple of St. John the Evangelist, and who is believed to have been the child that our Lord took in his arms, was martyred at Rome, A.D. 107, and his bones were afterwards collected and placed in a napkin, and carried to Antioch, and preserved as an inestimable treasure left to the Church. Likewise, after the martyrdom of St. Polycarp, Bishop of Smyrna, who is commended in the "Revelations," and who was a disciple of St. John, the Christians who were present at his death, A.D. 147, took up his bones more precious than the richest jewels and tryed above gold," and deposited them where it was fitting, and probably in some secure depository until they could be honorably enclosed in a shrine.

In Ireland, the use of shrines is contemporaneous with the introduction of Christianity. So great has been the veneration in which our ancestors held them, that in spite of the wars and revolutions of so many centuries, a few well authenticated examples are still to be seen amongst us. And there are many places in Ireland which have been called Skryne or Skreen, owing to the bones of some saint having been deposited there in a shrine. The shrine of St. Colomba, per varios casus per tot discrimina rerum - the chief object for so long a time of the roving and murderous northmen's search was brought from Iona to Ireland for safety. Walafridas Strabus thus writes of it: -

" Ad sanctum venere patrem pretiosa metalla
Reddere cogentes queis sancti sancta Colombae
Ossa jacent, quam quippe suis de sedibus, arcam
Tollentes tumulo terra posuere cavato
Cespite sub denso gnari jam pestis iniquae
Hanc praedam cupiere Dani."

In England, Durham and Canterbury possessed the most celebrated shrines, viz., those of St. Cuthbert, the Venerable Bede, and Thomas a Becket.

By the order of Henry VIII. both were despoiled, when that of Cuthbert, an Irish saint, was broken open, the Commissioners, to their amazement, observed the body of the saint entire and uncorrupt, arrayed in his pontifical vestments. Dismayed, they stopped short, until they learned the king's pleasure. When it was known, the body was buried beneath the place where the shrine had been.

Scott, following the popular traditions regarding the concealment of St. Cuthbert's reliques in some part of Durham, wrote the following: -

"Where his cathedral huge and vast
Looks down upon the Wear,
There deep in Durham's Gothic shade,
His relics are in secret laid;
But none may know the place,
Save of his holiest servants three,
Deep sworn to solemn secrecy,
Who share that wondrous grace."

In England, nearly all the shrines were broken and plundered at the time of the Reformation. Those of Edward the Confessor, and of St. Werburgh, remain, and are preserved at Westminster Abbey and Chester.

In Ireland, the destruction was not so complete, owing to the tenacity with which its ever faithful Catholics clung to their faith. Its shrines, reliques, and consecrated objects, they guarded as the apple of their eye. It is honorable to our national character to have preserved, in spite of the strongest temptations, with such becoming fidelity, those sacred deposits, and over so many generations after they had lost their other possessions. But to return to the shrine of St. Manchan. It is preserved in the Chapel of Boher, near to the Prospect Station, on the Great Southern and Western Railway to Athlone. It was formerly kept in a small thatched building used as a Chapel in the penal times. Local traditions state that the Chapel was burned, but the shrine was miraculously saved from the fire. It was afterwards cared by Mr. Mooney, of Doon, who finally placed it in the hands of its natural and best guardian and protector, the Parish Priest for the time being, where it now rests.

Like Colomba's shrine, it has travelled much, but under different circumstances and from different causes. It has been at two of the great Exhibitions in Dublin. It was at one of the great London Exhibitions, and it was at one of the great Exhibitions of Paris, held during the reign of Napoleon III., who sent a gold medal to the then Bishop of Ardagh, Dr. Kilduff, of happy memory, in consideration for the loan of so valuable a relic. The following is the inscription on the medal :

EMPEREUR NAPOLEON III.
Exposition Universelle
De MDCCCLXVII. A Paris
Rev. EVEQUE KILDUFF
Histoire du travail pour services rendus.

In the lapse of time it has lost some of its original ornaments, but a fair idea of what it was in its perfect state may be gathered from the fac-simile (No. 1857) by Dr. Carte, to be seen in the Gold Room of the Royal Irish Academy. In this fac-simile the deficient parts have been restored from those which remain. In form this very valuable relic (four hundred pounds sterling were offered for it, but they would not sell it for money) resembles that generally belonging to the ancient Ciborium, and usually represented by the top of the stone crosses. Some think the form of this ancient shrine was adopted in imitation of the high pitched stone roofs which covered the ancient cells of the Saints in whose memory and honor they were made. Its material is of yew, and artistically covered with brass-work, inlaying of ivory and enamelling. On each of its two sides are crosses formed in the centre, and extremities by five large cups or paterae. Underneath are to be seen figures in bass-relief, formed of brass also and separate from each other. The figures of one side have been lost altogether, but eleven still remain on the other. There are fifty-two figures missing, which filled in the other six compartments.

The vacant places in the wood of the shrine proclaim their absence. Mr. Graves, in his beautiful essay on this shrine, illustrated by striking and excellent photographs, which are so valuable in connexion with such a subject, observes that he heard on undoubted authority, the servant-maid of one of its conservators, set to work to clean it, and succeeded in scouring off most of its gilding. It reminds one of the fate of the CONG IRISH MANUSCRIPTS, IN VELLUM, SPLENDIDLY ILLUMINATED. One of the figures, however, is in the Petrie Collection of the Royal Irish Academy in the same room with the Crozier of the Clonmacnoise Abbots and the Chalice of Ardagh, objects of much interest to the antiquarian. There is also at present another of these missing figures in possession of his Lordship, Dr. Woodlock, the venerated Bishop of Ardagh.

A learned writer on this subject thus briefly describes this shrine: "The Shrine of St. Manchan is a wooden chest of cruciform figure that is of a wedge resting on its base with the edge uppermost. The two principal sides which slope upwards after the manner of a double reading desk, overlap both the base and the triangular ends or gables." But any description of this Shrine, minus photographic views, can convey only an imperfect notion of its beauty. There is one figure, that of a warrior helmeted and wearing the philibeg or kilt, which deserves a passing notice, for it, together with the other figures, illustrates not only the state of the fine arts in Ireland before the arrival of the English, but, moreover, proves that the use of the kilt was not confined to the Scottish Highlanders, but was common amongst the Irish.

Petrie tells us in his Book on the Round Towers, that before the irruptions of the Danes in the eighth and ninth centuries there were few distinguished Churches in Ireland without costly shrines containing the relics of their founders.

Cogitosus speaks of the two shrines of Kildare and their costly materials. There were, moreover, the shrines of Sts. Bridgid and Ciaran, and Ronan and Comgall, and a host of others. There were the decorations of St. Bridgid's Church, of which Cogitosus tells, and the frescoes at St. Cormac's Chapel, on the Rock of Cashel, not yet wholly destroyed; there were the illuminations of the religious books in which the painter's skill was best known.

There was that copy of the Four Gospels seen by Cambrensis, and so much praised even by him.

There were those beautiful works of art and many others well calculated to excite admiration. But the Annalists say pulcherrimum opus quod fecit opifex in Hibernia fuit Scrinium Sancti Manchani. Surely the words of the great skeptical poet Byron, apply here with double force :

“Even the faintest relics of a shrine
Of any worship wake some thoughts divine."

The following extract from Petrie will, I hope, appropriately conclude my observations regarding this shrine:

"This reliquary, sadly mutilated as it is, still preserves enough of its original characteristic features to enable us to form a correct idea of its primeval, costly and elaborate beauty, and to become intimately acquainted with what may be regarded as the linal development of that phase of Celtic art-ornamentation in Ireland, which has excited such a deep interest throughout Europe in our own time.
"And in this shattered, mutilated shrine we behold an impressive illustration of the final extinction of that graceful imaginative art, as well as that of the Monarchy, which had seen its birth and fostered its development."

Throughout this essay I have assumed that the word Moethail which occurs in the " Annals of the Four Masters," is one of the errors of transcription, or guesses to supply an obliteration, in the Annals of Clonmacnoise, from which they copied the reference to this shrine. Moreover, many writers suppose St. Manchan of Mohil, and St. Manchan of Lemanaghan, to be the same person, and thus he is styled the patron of Seven Churches, and invoked in the Tallaght Martyrology in the following words:

" Sanctum Manchan cum ejus centum et viginta fratribus invoco,
per Dominum nostrum Jesum Christum, &c."

From what I have written, the following conclusions may be drawn: 1st, Manchan was a practical man, in that he was the builder or promoter and patron of Seven Churches; 2nd, he was a poet; 3rd, having been the most learned man of his day in the Sacred Scriptures, he was therefore a distinguished theologian; 4th, he was a saint. This is a union of qualities rarely found in the same person.

J. MONAHAN.

Irish Ecclesiastical Record Volume VII, (1886), 203-213.

Irish saints of January: Mocelloc of Telach Olainn

Last year at this date, January 23 on the Church Calendar, I posted on the life of Saint Maimbod, an Irish missionary to Europe who met a martyr's death. The other saints with whom he shares his feastday are all much more obscure figures. Among them is a saint commemorated in the Martyrology of Tallagh as 'Mocelloc o Thilaig Ualann.' O'Hanlon tells us that the name of this place occurs twice in the Annals of the Four Masters but that the editor, John O'Donovan of Ordnance Survey fame, was unable to identify this place with any modern location. The saint, of whom nothing more seems to be known was also commemorated in the Martyrology of Donegal as 'Mocheallog, of Tualach Ualann'. O'Hanlon himself felt that this location was probably Tullyallen in County Louth.

This saint is not the only Mocelloc commemorated on the Irish calendars, there is for example another saint of this name whose feast is on March 7. I have a post about him here. Moceloc of Magh-Scethe features in the Life of Saint Declan and I have a post featuring some extracts here.

Irish Saints of January: The daughters of Comgall

The earliest Irish calendars - the Martyrology of Oengus and the Martyrology of Tallagh- both make reference to a feast on January 22 of the daughters of Comgall - Lassir, Columba and Bogha - and associate them with the church of Glenavy in County Antrim. The origin of this northern church is mentioned in the Tripartite Life of Saint Patrick, where it was first known as Lettir-phadraic but later as Lann Abhaigh. Canon O'Hanlon brings together the evidence from the sources for us before concluding with a triumphal flourish:

The Daughters of Comgall, Colma, Bogha, and Lassara, of Glenavy County of Antrim.

The Martyrology of Tallagh mentions a festival on the 22nd of January in honour of Comghaill's daughters, Lassir, Columba, and Bogha. Some confusion in rendering their names appears to have crept into our calendars. According to the Martyrology
of Donegal, on this day was venerated Colma, also called Columba, Bogha, and Laisri, three sisters. These virgins belonged to the sept, and were daughters of Comhgall, son to Fianglach. They were buried and venerated at Leitir Dal-Araidhe ; they were disciples—or, according to another version, foster-children—to Comhgall of Beannchair, or Bangor. According to the poem beginning " The Hagiology of the Saints of Inis-Fail," they are of the Dal m Buain, the race of Eochaidh, son of Muireadh. The place called Lettir in Dalaradia was anciently known as Lettir-Phadruig, after the Irish Apostle St. Patrick, who there first built a church. From the disciple, called Abhac, placed over it, Lann-Abhaich,'*; Lan-avy, and finally Glen-avy, were titles given to this spot. It is a parochial church in the diocese of Connor, and in the ancient territory of Delmunia. It is said, that the present church does not occupy the original site ; but that old Glenavy churchyard lay at some distance, in an angle formed by the Glenavy and Pigeonstown roads. Yet this account seems inconsistent with an existing tradition. Glenavy parish is situated within the barony of Upper Massereene, and in the county of Antrim. At a place called Camus Comhgaill, those holy women are also said to have been venerated. This, by others, is also thought to be the spot where their bodies had been interred. The holy virgins' names are included in the calendar compiled by the Rev. William Reeves. They are likewise entered in the Kalendar of Drummond; but, apparently in a most incorrect manner, at the xi. of the February kalends, which corresponds with this date. Thus in early ages, and in the same family, we find many saints, while from the fifth to the eighth century Ireland appeared to realize the glorious vision of a church which St. John had in Patmos.

O'Hanlon also contacted the then parish priest of Gelnavy who in a letter dated 2nd May, 1873, furninshed some further local detail which appears in a footnote:

There is no vestige of the old church of Glenavy. A tradition exists, that the Protestant church is on the site of the old one. It is divided by a river from what is supposed to be the old cemetery, where, according to Reeves, were buried the three sisters. These are said to be the sisters of St. Comgall, abbot and founder of Bangor. He came from Maheramorne, near Lame. Perhaps there was a religious house in Glenavy, to which the three sisters retired. There is no ruin whatever on the spot.

Reeves is Bishop William Reeves, an Anglican scholar who produced a most useful volume on the ecclesiastical history of the northern dioceses. He too quotes from the sources beginning with the Martyrology of Oengus on January 22:

" Exitus filiarum Comgalli".
"i.e. at Lettir in Dalaradia they are[buried], and from Dalaradia they are [sprung]".

Their names are given in the Calendar of the Clerys at the same day:

"Colman, Bogha, et Lassera, three sisters, and three virgins, and they were foster children to Comghall of Bangor, and they are [interred] at Lettir in Dalaradia; or [according to others] it is at Camus Comghaill they are [resting]".

Their descent also is given by Colgan :
" SS. Boga, Colma sive Columba, et Lassara virgines, tres filiae Comgelli filii Fingalacii filii Demaui filii Nuathalii filii Mutalani filii Cantalani filii Fiengalacii filii Niedi filii Buani a quo Dal-Buain, Coluntur in Ecclesia Litterensi in Dalriedia [recte Dalaradia] 22 Januarii".—(Act. SS., p. 471.)

Rev. W. Reeves, Ecclesiastical Antiquities of Down, Connor and Dromore (Dublin, 1847), 237.

Irish Saints of January: Maccallin of Therasche

Today's saint, commemorated on January 21 on the Church Calendar, is a tenth-century monastic who laboured in northern France and Belgium. It is possible to see the abbey of Saint Michael where he served as abbot here. Canon O'Hanlon records what is known of him:

SAINT MACCALLIN, OR MALCALLAN, ABBOT OF SAINT MICHAEL'S MONASTERY AT THERASCHE, AND ABBOT OF WASOR, IN BELGIUM.

The acts of St. Maccallin—so far as they are known—have been compiled by the Bollandists, and by Colgan, while they are found in the Benedictine collection. From these sources, also, Bishop Challoner has published a brief account of this holy man. A goodly-sized volume, relating to his "gests," had been once preserved, as the monks at Wasor had assured Colgan, but this unfortunately has been lost. The Bollandists read a life of St. Maccallin; this however was filled with wondrous and incredible prodigies, although nowhere in it was there any mention of his festival. The Bollandists consider, that the name of this saint, as differently rendered Makkallinus, or Maccallinus, Makalinus, Malcallinus, Malcalanus, Malacanus, seems from its Irish or Scottish compounds capable of being rendered," Son of Chilian," " of Kalan," or " of Kalin." Colgan states, that he should be most correctly named Malcallan, a name found more than once in our Irish annals.

This holy servant of God was an Irishman by birth. However, it has been stated, that Malcalin, said to have been Abbot of Verdun, and venerated on the 21st of January, was a native of Scotland. Dempster allows, notwithstanding, that he was educated in Ireland, where he lived under a regular discipline or rule." In the earlier half of the tenth century, St. Forannan, had already left our island, and directed his course to Flanders. Here he was called to assume the government of Wasor monastery, on the River Meuse. Going through Britain about the year 946, with St. Cathroe, St. Fingen, St. Lazarus, and with other pious companions, St. Maccallen sought the shrine of St. Fursey at Perrone. They were hospitably received and entertained by Herswindes, a noble matron. She was wife to Count Filbert, who dwelt not far from Perrone, in Picardy. Those holy pilgrims had signified their desire for leading a solitary life in some proper place, where they might freely serve our Lord, and live by the labour of their hands. Their benefactors recommended St. Malchallan to Agnoald, who was abbot over Gorze, in Lorraine. Under this holy superior, Malcallan became a professed monk. Cathroe sought another pious destination. Previous to this course, however, those thirteen Irish companions who had arrived in France, seemed by common consent to have resolved on selecting St. Cadroe as their superior. St. Malcallan's powers of persuasion were chiefly used to secure his consent. This could not be obtained, however, owing to the holy man's true humility. The fellow-voyagers appear for a considerable time to have been maintained through the bounty of their noble patrons, who pointed out to them a place in the wood of Therasche, which might be suitable for their retired manner of living. This spot was dedicated to the holy Archangel Michael, and there they built dwellings. The count and his wife contributed to their comforts and convenience in every possible way. Those religious finally chose Malcallan for their superior. Under his conduct, for some time, they were exercised in watching, fasting, and prayer. St. Cathroe, the chief of his companions, desiring greater perfection, chose to embrace for his manner of life the Benedictine institute. At that time St. Benedict's rule was observed in its full vigour at the celebrated monasteries of Fleury in France, and of Gorze in Lorraine.

After St. Cadroe and St. Malcallan had made their respective professions, the good lady, Herswindes, desired and obtained their return to Thierasche. There St. Malcallan was constituted abbot over St. Michael's Monastery. This her husband, Count Eilbert, had founded in that forest. The Count established another great monastery, at Wazor, upon the River Meuse. It lay between Dinant-and Huy. This he gave to the same saint. Both of these abbeys Malcallan governed for some time, in such manner as to unite most perfectly the care of his own sanctification with the perfection of that religious community committed to his charge. At last, finding it too great a burthen to govern, at once, two distant monasteries, he resigned that of Wazor to St. Cathroe. Then Malcallan lived retiringly in St. Michael's Monastery, at Therasche. Some have affirmed, that St. Malcallan was abbot over St. Michael's Abbey at Verdun. But this is a mistake of many writers who followed the "Martyrologium Anglicanum." There was no abbey of St. Michael at that place, as shown by Menard, who properly observes, that his veneration at the Church of St. Michael the Archangel was not in Verdun. Thus Ferrarius states, and he adds, moreover, that in Lotharingia, this Abbey of St. Michael, over which Makalin had been abbot, was placed. Saussay and Wion made a similar mistake. About the year 975, St. Cadroe is said to have died, when the government of his community devolved once more on St. Maccallin. It is generally believed, he was the third abbot over Wasor, in the order of succession.His elevation and enthronement were attained with the common assent of the Bishop of Metz, and of all his own subjects. He obtained the rule of souls and the care of those pertaining to him in the Basilica of St. Michael. At Therasche this holy abbot went to bliss in the year 978, as Flodouardus, a contemporaneous writer, records : "The man of God, Malcallan, an Irishman by nation, on the eve of St. Vincent, the deacon and martyr, left this transitory life, which he hated; and happily began to live with the Lord, whom in his lifetime he had continually served. As to his body, it lies buried in the Church of Blessed Michael the Archangel. This abbey, during the time of his corporal stay in the world, he had piously governed. His obsequies were honourably and religiously performed ; while in aftertime, he was regarded as a saint, and his memory was held in great popular veneration.

St. Malcallan's Abbey of St Michael is well known to have been in Thierasche or Tierarche, a province of Belgic Gaul, on the confines of Haynault. It was situated within the diocese of Laon, on the River Aisia, over the village of Hiersson. There this holy abbot's festival is duly celebrated on the 21st of January, which the Calendarists have allowed to be the date for his festival. Thus, Dorgain and Hugh Menard place it, in the Martyrology of their order. Truly might this venerable missionary exclaim with holy David, "Lord, Thou has proved me and known me ; Thou hast known my sitting down and my rising up. Thou hast understood my thoughts afar off : my path and my line Thou hast searched out." That the Almighty approved his course of life upon earth has been manifested, in the fruits his labours procured, and in that hallowed memory bequeathed to the inhabitants of those places he had adorned and blessed before he was called away to Heaven.

Irish Saints of January: Molagga of Timoleague

Last year for this day, January 20 on the Church Calendar, I made a number of posts in honour of the great Saint Fechin of Fore, the apostle of Connemara. This year I am looking at the life of another saint who shares this day with Saint Fechin, Saint Molagga of Timoleague. This saint was extremely well-travelled, tradition credits him with having been a student of Saint David of Wales as well as having gone on to found churches in Scotland. He is also associated with a number of localities in Ireland, not to mention with a number of other Irish saints, and thus I would be interested to see how modern scholars assess the career of Saint Molagga. To introduce his life however, I am reproducing some extracts from an article on Timoleague in a nineteenth-century Catholic magazine which summarizes all of the traditional stories about this most interesting saint:

TIMOLEAGUE

...Timoleague is just an easy, half-Englished way of pronouncing the Irish words meaning the "House of Molaga"; and Molaga was one of the early Saints when Ireland was young in the Christian faith for which it has suffered so much. Like many another Saint of that time, he had much to do with his brother missionaries of the Celtic race in Scotland and Wales ; and his own life was spent in much travelling to and fro, studying and founding monasteries and doing any good work that came to hand, even to spreading the culture of bees in his own Ireland.

It is common enough among these early Irish Saints and yet it is strange, when one comes to think of it that they have left their names bound up with all the different periods of their country's history. This is because of the work done so well by them during their busy lives, and of the work done after they were dead and gone by the devotion of the common people to them through the succeeding centuries. Thus, in the case of Molaga, we have a few antique bits of building in the rude, primitive style of the early Celtic Christians, dating from himself or his disciples and telling a story of zeal for the glory of God's house and the salvation of souls. Then we have the fine "Abbey" built much later in his honor by friars who came over from Italy hundreds of years after his death. And, in their turn, these splendid arches now stand broken and open to the day with only the ivy to clothe them round about, and the birds and winds to make music where the priests once sang to the glory of God and the Saint God gave them Molaga....

It was in the territory of Fermoy, on the bound of the present barony of Condons and Clangibbon, far toward the north- eastern corner of County Cork, that our Saint was born, in the old principality of the O'Keefes which was long known as the Roches' country. He was of the family of the O'Dugans, possessors of this territory of the "woodland," as it was called. His parents were humble tillers of the ground, as were many who were kin to the petty Kings then governing the land. They had long been childless, and had all their hopes in the heavenly kingdom. One day, as they were sowing a ridge of flax on the south side of the road that runs along the little river Funshion, a troop of priests passed by travelling somewhither with St. Cummin the Long at their head. The Saint foretold to them that they should bring forth a son to their old age, as did Abraham and Sara; "that he would be a friend of learning, and that he should sit in the smooth hill of the plain as Abbot of the school."

When the child of prophecy was born, his parents brought him to the Cross of the Dun or neighboring Fort; and, behold, St. Cummin was at the ford awaiting to baptize one with whom, indeed, he was to be connected all his life. Here, later on, arose the church of Aghacross. Its ruins remain by the bend in the river ; and beside it is still an ancient well, consecrated to the Saint and flowing with its clear waters by lone Molaga's holy cells.

The cells of the Saint, which he built for himself and his disciples in the rude fashion of the time, have still their ruins on his "smooth hill of the plain." They are in the Saint's own parish of Tempul Molaga ; for his name, as we have said, remains everywhere here, however far away and dim may be the memories of the period in which he lived. On the southern slope of the hill, with the mountain stream winding below, the cashel or termon wall encloses an open space in which are the early oratory, a church of later date, another square building, and two of those crosses which speak so pathetically of the faith of Erin. The oratory is some twenty feet from the church. A great ash tree overshadows its eastern window, inside which according to ancient custom stood the altar whereon Christ -the mystic Day spring and Orient from on high- was offered in the Holy Sacrifice, even as now in the nearest and scarcely less humble parish church. Forty years ago there were six of these trees, and the walls stood much higher; but everything is slowly disappearing before the hand of man. So much the more necessary is it that the holy associations of the place should be preserved while there is yet time. Eighty feet away and still along the southern side of the hill, are four pillar stones as if to mark a boundary. To the west stretch afar the Galty Mountains in swelling waves, blue in the distance and mingling nearer the deep shadows of retreating valleys with the great russet spots on greenclad slopes which form so characteristic a picture in the memory of the tourist through Southern Ireland.

Molaga -a young Culdee or Irish monk- did not long remain in the monastery after the years of his studies were over. He had gathered together a few disciples in this spot. But there were still Druids and idolatrous practices in the country ; and he felt himself driven forth, sore at heart, from the midst of so many evils. So he set out for Connor in Ulster, where there had been
a bishop since the time of the Apostle St. Patrick. It still forms a bishop's see, though long since united under one head with Down. Like the other holy men of his day, he carried a bell with him to give sign of the exercises of devotion. It was lost by him on the way, and its recovery was the occasion of founding a church (now Kill-foda in O'Neil-land East), whose lands were afterward called the Termon of the bell, while the " priest's mistake of his bell " passed into a proverb. From this he wandered on into Scotland and down to Wales, to the disciples of the great St. David of Menevia, a title which in our own day after centuries of forced apostasy on the part of the Welsh people has again been given to a Catholic bishop's see.

After some time spent in Wales, the Saint returned to his own country. He had received during his stay in other lands, first, the name by which we know him for Mo-laga is the kind-hearted Irish way of saying " My Lachen," the name bestowed on him by the religious children of St. David ; and second, a bell presented to him in memory of the religious ties he had formed with them. This present was enough to leave his name to a place in Wales, long called Boban-Molaga.

St. David had always been in communication with his Celtic brethren of Ireland, and another of his disciples- Modomhnog, or Dominic of Ossory- had brought home with him from the Welsh monastery a swarm of bees, the culture of which he introduced among the Irish monks. But by this time " My Dominic's " bees were in need of another trained hand for their due care ; and the services of our own Saint were eagerly demanded by the chieftain of what is now Dublin, as soon as he arrived there on his way homeward. He took this as an indication of the will of Providence ; for he was ever distrustful of the voice of flesh and blood in seeking again his native region among the hills of Munster Liath-Muine. So a church and land were given him a little to the north of what is now Balbriggan town ; and the King of Dun Dubhline ordered that every person in his domains should pay the Saint a pighin or penny every three years for his support, while he was to take charge of the patriarchal swarm of the Irish bees. In the midst of the blessed ground where the dead of his race are still laid away in the hope of the same resurrection which he preached, are the ruins of his old chapel of Lambeecher in Bremore, which is nothing else than the good Welsh name Llan-beachaire or "Church of the Beeman." ...

We next find St. Molaga amid St. Kieran's Seven Churches of Clonmacnoise on the River Shannon, the greatest of the ancient Irish establishments of religion and learning. About this time his old neighbors of Fermoy came to beg him to return to his own monastery of Tulach-mhin the smooth hill on the plain. They promised him many things, even fifty white milch cows every successive year ; and when he sent them away, they simply came back to him accompanied by their beseeching wives and children. He could no longer withstand so earnest entreaties ; and henceforth, to his death, his name is associated with his native home. It afterward became known by his name as Labba or Leaba Malaga " the Bed of Molaga ;" for there, as all tradition has it, his mortal remains still lie awaiting the resurrection. ...

One of the latest acts of the Saint had been to imperil his life for his brethren by ministering to them in the time of the terrible "yellow plague" the Buidhe Chonnuil...

It is not in connection with his last resting-place, but with the great Abbey called by way of excellence the " House of Molaga" Teach-Molaga that our Saint's name is chiefly known. Colgan, the historian of the Irish Saints, gives on the 20th of January " the feast of St. Molaga, Confessor, Patron of the Church of Timoleague." This was probably the site of one of the Saint's primitive monasteries; but its present memories date only from the coming of the Franciscans, in 1240.

The Messenger, Vol. VI (xxvi). January, 1891, 3-18.

From one island to another: St Brigid’s crosses for Haiti

Making Saint Brigid's crosses for charity seems to be something of a theme this year. Below are two reports from different parts of Ireland - Achill Island in the west and Fermanagh in the north-west - where school children are making and selling Saint Brigid's crosses to aid the Haiti earthquake relief fund.

From one island to another: St Brigid’s crosses for Haiti

Transition Year students from McHale College on Achill Island reached out the hand of solidarity from one island community to another by making St Brigid’s crosses to help raise funds for the victims of the Haiti Earthquake.

Last week up to 30 of the TY students collected as many rushes as they could to make the crosses which will be sold in local shops. Local craft maker, Kathleen McNea visited the school to show the students how to make different types of crosses. Many of the students had forgotten how to make them since National School but under Kathleen’s tutition, they quickly got the hang of it.

‘From one island to another’ is the theme of the fundraiser and the students hope to sell as many St Brigid’s Crosses as possible to play their part in raising funds for the people of Haiti. The crosses will be on sale this week in businesses across the island and in Mulranny and Newport. The public are asked to support this worthy cause.

Mayo News Friday 22 January 2010 14:46

Pupils making St Brigid's crosses for Haiti relief fund

THE pupils of St Mary's Primary School, Killesher - some 23 of them - are busy making St Brigid's crosses which they intend selling at Masses locally this weekend to raised money for the people of Haiti.

The school has a tradition of making the crosses to mark St Brigid's Day (1st February) but, this year, as key Stage 2 teacher, Brian McGrath explained, the youngsters raised their sights higher.

"It's something we thought about, on how to support the people of Haiti in some way. We finally decided that, with St Brigid's Day coming up and her feast being celebrated in rural areas, we thought it would be a good idea that a small donation towards the crisis would help people out."

The crosses will sell for £2 each and, if need be, the children will make more.

The project involves the entire staff of the school and the actual makers are drawn from P 5,6 and 7. The crosses are made from rushes and the task of teaching the art was taken on by Mr McGrath and two classroom assistants, Debra Drumm and Shirley McAloon.

"It was a slow start", Mr McGrath admitted, " but they got there eventually. We will see how many we will get through to start with and, if needs be, we will make more. We're being invited by Jim Ledwith to make them in Aughakillymaude Hall tomorrow, so those we make there will also help out.

"The crosses will then be blessed by Canon (Brian) McNamara in the school on Friday morning and they will then be on sale at Masses this weekend.

Fermanagh Herald Wed, Jan 27, 2010

Kilkenny group revives old tradition of making St Brigid's crosses for charity

At this time of the year I always find it interesting to see how the feast of our national patroness is being marked around the country. This is a report from today's Irish Times, good to see an Irishwoman reviving a genuine tradition of our saint.

Kilkenny group revives old tradition of making St Brigid's crosses for charity

MICHAEL PARSONS In Castlecomer, Co Kilkenny

Today, St Brigid's Day, was once a widely observed feast-day, when hand-woven crosses were hung in homes

ONCE A common sight in homes throughout Ireland, the traditional St Brigid's cross is gradually disappearing. Today though, a community group will sell the ancient Irish symbol on the streets of Kilkenny in an effort to keep the tradition alive.

Today is St Brigid's Day (Lá Fhéile Bhríde), formerly a widely observed feast-day, when crosses hand-woven from rushes (reeds) were hung in homes - usually over a door - to protect the household from fire and disease.

The ritual involved first burning the previous year's cross and saying a short prayer to invoke the saint's blessing.

In rural areas, crosses were often also placed in outbuildings housing farm animals, especially in cowsheds "to keep the milk flowing".

As long ago as 1945, the journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland noted that "in some parts of the country the custom is unknown and in others it has died out and is remembered only by a few old people".

Margaret McGrath (71), a retired primary school teacher who lives at Boherkyle, outside the north Co Kilkenny town of Castlecomer, is determined to maintain the custom.

For the past week, she and a group of fellow parishioners have been making thousands of St Brigid's crosses for sale by volunteers to raise funds to pay for repairs to their local church.

It took her "about five minutes" to weave a cross from rushes collected by a local farmer who, she said, "it would be better not to name as he'd hate people to think his land was boggy".

"Every Irish family has a Brigid," she said, and the cross "is a great Irish tradition and part of what we are". She was "really sorry" that RTÉ television had dropped the image of St Brigid's cross, once used as the signature logo or "ident" by the national broadcaster.

The Castlecomer group has received requests from overseas for the crosses and Ms McGrath had "just posted one" to her son Fionán in Montreal.

Anna McDonald (49), originally from Co Louth, said St Brigid was reputedly born at Faughart near Dundalk in 453 AD but settled in Kildare, where she asked the king of Leinster for land to establish a monastery.

The king offered her as much land as her cloak would cover and when St Brigid laid the garment on the ground, it miraculously spread to cover the entire Curragh.

This gave rise to a tradition, now almost extinct, of "hanging a sheet or cloth from the window of a house on St Brigid's Eve".

According to folklore, the origin of St Brigid's cross derives from the saint's visit to the home of a pagan chieftain in Kildare who was on his death-bed.

She wove a cross from rushes on the floor and explained its significance which persuaded the dying man to convert to Christianity.St Bridget, like St Patrick and St Colmcille, is one of the traditional patron saints of Ireland.

Volunteers will make and sell St Brigid's crosses throughout Kilkenny city today for €3.

The Irish Times - Monday, February 1, 2010

Irish Saints of January: Blaitmaic of Iona

Although today on the civil calendar is February 1, and I send greetings to all who celebrate Saint Brigid today, on the Church Calendar it is January 19 and the feast of a martyred monk of Iona, Saint Blaitmaic (Blathmac). Last year I posted on the martyrdom of this brave monk at the hands of the Vikings, using John Marsden's book 'The Fury of the Northmen' to put into its historical context. He believes that the saint was subjected to a particularly gruesome form of blood sacrifice. That post can be found here. It contains extracts from the biography of the saint written by Walafrid Strabo within a couple of decades of the event, and Marsden also makes some interesting points about the transfer of saints' relics at this time. This year, however, I offer a paper from the Irish Ecclesiastical Record which summarizes the life and death of Saint Blaitmaic. Although the contribution is unsigned, the author is in fact none other than dear old Canon O'Hanlon, and represents his entry for the saint at January 19 in the first volume of Lives of the Irish Saints.

ST. BLAITMAIC, OF IONA, MARTYR.

SOME individuals are heroic in action; others in patient suffering. This noble saint, whose memory is held in honour on the 19th day of January, justly deserves the meed of praise for his fortitude under both aspects. Blaitmaic's biography has been elegantly composed, in Latin hexameter verses, by Walafridus or Galafridus Strabo, a learned Benedictine monk, who died A.D. 847. This celebrated writer was an accomplished mediaeval poet. His greatly admired composition was written at the instigation of a venerable superior, Felix, and it appeared most probably some short time after the tragic but glorious death of the noble subject, suggesting Strabo's fine poem.

We are unable to state on whose authority events associated with the life of Blaitmaic depend, as they are metrically narrated by Strabo; but it is probable, they had been taken from some relation given by monks connected with Iona monastery. These informants, too, might have had a personal knowledge concerning the martyred Christian hero, and even of the circumstances attending his death. His interesting Acts have been frequently written in various forms, as well in prose as in verse.

St. Blaitmaic or Brah Mac, which name, according to Strabo and Bollandus, means " the beautiful son," seems to have been gifted with singular graces even from his very infancy. This child, the delight of his parents, was of Royal extraction, and of noble birth. He was born in Ireland, most probably, about the middle of the eighth century. St. Blaitmaic was prospective heir to his father's possessions, the ornament and hope of his family and country.

At an early age he was distinguished for almost every virtue and merit. He is described as being of sound judgment, prudent, a great lover of holy purity, and humble, notwithstanding his exalted birth. The innate nobility of his soul surpassed that of his race. Accomplishments were not wanting to add a royal grace to his character ; sober and circumspect, he was pleasing in mien, and agreeable in disposition . Although remaining in the world he was not one of this world's votaries. He had resolved upon devoting himself wholly to religious services, but kept this secret locked up within his own breast, until such time as he could most conveniently put his resolution into practice. Without his father's knowledge, Blaitmaic withdrew privately to a monastery, where he practised all exercises of a monastic life, until his retreat was discovered.

Hereupon, the fond parent, who loved his son according to the instinct of worldlings, repaired to this monastery; and he brought a band of friends and acquaintances, whose exertions and entreaties it had been supposed must have exercised great influence in changing Blaitmaic's purpose. Besides the chiefs and people, a bishop and several abbots united their persuasions with those of his father to induce the Saint to resume his former rank. But the pious prince resisted all these solicitations, and persevered in his happy course of life.

He looked upon himself as a servant to all the religious in the monastery, although esteemed beyond expression by his fellow-cenobites. He was distinguished by religious silence, and the observance of monastic discipline: by attentive study of the sacred Scriptures and books of ecclesiastical science, he edified all through his conduct and conversation. In due time, he was made superior of the religious community; and this band of religious he governed more by example than by precept. Christ Jesus was the sole object of his praise and glory, as of his discourse and allusions. Peace was his shield, prayers were his coat of mail; patience was his field for victory, and the word of God his sword; mildness characterized his conduct towards the monks; he became all things to all of them, that he might gain all to Christ. He was ever hopeful and loving; practising every virtue and avoiding every imperfection; and ever referring his actions to the great Author of our being. Thus his example brightened as a beacon before the eyes of his disciples; and these latter progressed towards perfection under the directing zeal of their saintly superior.

Our Saint burned with a desire of martyrdom; and to attain this object, he had often attempted to visit strange lands, but had been prevented by his people. On a certain occasion, Blaitmaic thought to effect his retreat under cover of night, and through a secret path. He was accompanied by a small band of disciples; but the fugitives were arrested and brought back. However, his wishes were at length gratified; for he contrived to escape from his native country. Blaitmaic directed his course to Iona, "the sacred isle" of Columba. The Danish ravages had been frequently directed against the shrines and altars of unprotected religious that peopled this known island. But, in a knowledge of this fact, Blaitmaic grounded his hopes for securing to himself the palm of martyrdom.

He had been gifted from on high with a spirit of prophecy. Hence, before a hostile irruption, which took place after the commencement of the ninth century, Blaitmaic predicted to his companions, in Iona monastery, a storm which was about to burst upon them. This seems to have occurred during the incumbency of Diarmait, the twentieth abbot in succession to the great St. Columkille.

Before the northern pirates, with their fleet, had reached the shores of Columba's sacred isle, Blaitmaic called the monks together, addressing them as follows: " My friends, consider well the choice which is now left you. If you wish to endure martyrdom for the name of Christ, and fear it not, let such as will remain with me arm themselves with becoming courage. But those who are weak in resolution, let them fly, that they may avoid impending dangers, and nerve themselves for more fortunate issues. The near trial of certain death awaits us. Invincible faith, which looks to a future life, will shield the brave soldier of Christ, and the cautious security of flight will preserve the less courageous."

These words were received by the religious with resolutions suited to the confidence or timidity of each individual. Some resolved to brave the invaders' fury, together with their holy companion ; some betook themselves to places of concealment until this hostile storm had passed.

On the morning of January the 19th, A.D. 823, 824, or 825, St. Blaitmaic, robed in vestments of his order, had been engaged in celebrating the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. Whilst he offered up the Immaculate Host, he stood as a self-immolated victim, prepared for sacrifice. The band of his faithful religious, anticipating a coronal of martyrdom, knelt around ; with tears and prayers they besought mercy and grace before the throne of God. This, truly, must have been a sublime spectacle, and one never yet surpassed in the records of human heroism. Whilst engaged in these services,the loud shout of their destroyers was heard thundering without the church. The Pagan and pirate Danes rushed in through its open doors, threatening death to the religious, and almost immediately afterwards these barbarous threats were put in execution. The monks, expecting this irruption, had the precaution to remove a rich shrine, containing St. Columba's relics, from its usual place. They buried it under ground, so that it might thus escape the profanation of those savage invaders. That rich prize was what the Danes chiefly sought. They urged Blaitmaic to show them the place of its concealment. But our Saint, who knew not the particular place where it was buried, with unbending constancy of mind opposed himself to this armed band. Although unarmed himself, he put forth some futile efforts of strength to stay the ravages of his enemies. He cried out, at the same time, "I am entirely ignorant regarding those treasures you seek for, and where they are buried. But, even had I a knowledge of all this, my lips should yet be closed. Draw your swords, barbarians, take my chalice, and murder me. Gracious God, I humbly resign myself to Thee!" The barbarians immediately hewed him into pieces with their swords, and with more diabolical rage, because they were disappointed in their expectations for obtaining spoil. At this time the Abbot Diarmait was probably absent from Iona, and the holy martyred priest it would seem, worthily represented their Superior's authority among the religious. The body of St. Blaitmaic was buried in that place where his glorious crown of martyrdom had been obtained, according to his biographer Strabo; and many miracles were afterwards wrought in favour of several persons, through the merits and intercession of this great soldier of Christ.

We have not been able to discover whether our Saint ever enjoyed any superior dignity at Iona; but it would seem, from the preceding narrative, that he exercised considerable influence over the minds of his brethren on that island. We are told that in the Irish language this Saint is called Blathmhac. The first syllable of this compound name has an equivocal signification. Blath, when pronounced long, has the literal meaning " a flower," and the metaphorical signification "beautiful;" when pronounced short, it is rendered into the English words "honour" or "fame." The word Mhac is Anglicised "son." Truly was this heroic man named. For not alone was he the son and heir apparent to his father's temporal possessions, but he became one of God's glorified children, secured in the enjoyment of a heavenly inheritance. He plucked the flower of martyrdom with unbending constancy, and he blooms with distinguished brilliancy, "as the apple-tree among the trees of the woods." His memory deserves to be honoured in the Church, since he achieved a distinguished reputation. This is one, likewise, which no concurrence of events can ever tend to tarnish or destroy.

Irish Ecclesiastical Record, Volume 9 (1873), 502-508.

Some Catholic Prayers to Saint Brigid

I felt it my duty while browsing in a charity bookshop last week to pick up a battered prayerbook, sitting forlornly on the shelves. It turned out to be a 1941 edition of Saint Anthony's Treasury, a volume still in print, although like many classic prayerbooks (the Garden of the Soul comes to mind) it is not what it used to be. The 1941 edition, however, had a comprehensive selection of prayers to Irish saints, which, alas, have been gradually whittled down in successive editions. Below are the prayers in honour of Saint Brigid which I have reproduced exactly as they appear in the prayerbook:

1. A prayer composed in 1902 by Cardinal Moran.

2. A prayer whose source is unknown to me.

3. A Novena to Saint Brigid which remains in popular use.

4. A collect.

5. A Litany of St Brigid. The wording is slightly different to that found in the collection of litanies by Benjamin Musser O.F.M which circulates online. The Musser version also concludes with the collect above, whereas the version in St. Anthony's Treasury concludes with two different prayers.

Cardinal Moran's Prayer to St. Brigid

O Glorious St. Brigid, Mother of the Churches of Erin, patroness of our missionary race, wherever their lot may be cast, be thou our guide in the paths of virtue, protect us amid temptation, shield us from danger. Preserve to us the heritage of chastity and temperance; keep ever brightly burning on the altar of our hearts the sacred Fire of Faith, Charity, and Hope, that thus we may emulate the ancient piety of Ireland's children, and the Church of Erin may shine with peerless glory as of old. Thou wert styled by our fathers " The Mary of Erin," secure for us by thy prayers the all-powerful protection of the Blessed Virgin, that we may be numbered here among her most fervent clients, and may hereafter merit a place together with Thee and the countless Saints of Ireland, in the ranks of her triumphant children in Paradise. Amen.

Prayer to St. Brigid

Dear St. Brigid, brilliant star of sanctity in the early days of our Irish faith and love for the omnipotent God Who has never forsaken us, we look up to you now in earnest, hopeful prayer. By your glorious sacrifice of earthly riches, joys and affections obtain for us grace to "seek first the Kingdom of God and His justice" with constant trust in His fatherly care. By your life of laborious charity to the poor, the sick, the many seekers for light and comfort, obtain for us grace to be God's helpers to the utmost of our power during our stay on earth, looking forward, as you did, to our life with Him during eternity. By the sanctified peace of your death-bed, obtain for us that we may receive the fulness of pardon and peace when the hour comes that will summon us to the judgment seat of our just and most merciful Lord. Amen.

Novena to St. Brigid
Foundress of Religious Women in Ireland
(To begin on the 23rd January)

O Glorious St. Brigid, Patroness of Ireland and Mother of the Churches, protect the Irish Church and preserve the true Faith in every Irish heart, at home and abroad. Obtain for us the grace to walk faithfully in the path of Christian perfection during life, and so to secure a holy and happy death, with life everlasting, in thy blessed company, through Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen.

Prayer to St. Brigid
Patroness of Ireland
(Feast, February 1st.)

O God, Who givest us joy by the power of the intercession of Blessed Brigid the Virgin, graciously grant that we may be assisted by her merits by the example of whose chastity we are enlightened. Through Christ our Lord. Amen.

Litany of St. Brigid

(For private recitation only.)

Lord, have mercy.
Christ, have mercy.
Lord, have mercy.
Eternal Father, have mercy on us.
Divine Son, have mercy on us.
Holy Spirit, have mercy on us.
Holy Mary, Virgin of Virgins, Pray for us.
Blessed St. Brigid, Pray for us.
Consecrated spouse of the King of Kings, Pray for us.
Corner-stone of the Monastic Institute in the Island of Saints, Pray for us.
Brigid, Patroness of Ireland, Pray for us.
Model of Irish Virgins, Pray for us.
Mother of Religious, Pray for us.
Pattern of holiness, Pray for us.
Intercessor for the Irish clergy, Pray for us.
Mediatrix for the Irish people, Pray for us.
Protectress of the faith preached by St. Patrick, Pray for us.
Enjoying with him the clear vision of God, Pray for us.

Lamb of God, Who takest away the sins of the world: spare us, O Lord.
Lamb of God, Who takest away the sins of the world: graciously hear us, O Lord.
Lamb of God, Who takest away the sins of the world: have mercy on us.

Let us Pray

O God, the Author of all sanctity, grant that we who inhabit the Island of Saints, may, through the intercession of St. Brigid, walk in their footsteps on earth, and so arrive with them to the possession of Thee in Heaven. Through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Pour forth on us, we beseech Thee, O Lord, the spirit of Thy wisdom and love, with which Thou hast replenished Thy holy Servant, St. Brigid, that sincerely obeying Thee in all things, we may by a zealous imitation of her virtues, please Thee in faith and works. Through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

St. Anthony's Treasury - A Manual of Devotions (Anthonian Press, Dublin, 12th edition, 1941), 275-278.