The Beheading of Saint John the Baptist and the Irish

August 29 is the commemoration of the Beheading of Saint John the Baptist, a feast which is marked in the earliest of the Irish Martyrologies, the Martyrology of Oengus. This feast held a particular significance for the Irish, who believed that a wicked druid, Mag Roth, had volunteered to act as the executioner of the Baptist. His actions had thus condemned the entire country to the possibility of vengeance on this feastday. It must have been, therefore, with some dread that the day of August 29 dawned in Ireland, and indeed in the year 1096, the Irish actually believed that their hour of reckoning had finally arrived. We will start with the entry for this day from the Martyrology of Oengus, before going on to an examination of the various prophecies connected with Saint John's Feast, and of the character of Mag Roth. This peculiarly Irish angle on the commemoration of the Beheading of John the Baptist, which remains a major feastday in the Eastern Church, might have remained just one of those obscure pieces of trivia one comes across in books, if it weren't for the fact that the Irish really did believe the end of the world was nigh in the year 1096.


The Martyrology of Oengus begins innocuously enough:

29. Announce the suffering
of John the Baptist, a world
with piety, with nine virginal
hundreds, on Elijah's ascension

but the accompanying notes to this entry introduce a very different note - one of apocalyptic terror involving the deadly Besom (or Broom) of Fanait which will cleanse the whole country in one fell swoop (or should that be sweep?) plus some sort of all-consuming fiery dragon:

'29. Declare the passion of John Baptist,
ideo dicitur, etc.

Dear John's decapitation in great Macerunda,
Sebaste - the course is written - the name of the village wherein he was buried.

If he has been struck, if he has been slain, if he has been axed - mighty the cause -his like - pleasant the jewel - will never be on Banba's shore.

The world's women, save a few of them, burn in the fire of Doom :
to speak to them is unmeet after the murder of John.

In vengeance for the killing of John comes the Besom out of Fanait to expurgate Ireland at the end of the world, as Aileran of the Wisdom foretold, and Colum cille, i.e. at terce precisely will come the Besom out of Fanait, ut dixit Colum cille :
" Like the grazing of two horses in a yoke will be the diligence with which it will cleanse Erin."

Of the Besom Aileran said :
" Two alehouses shall be in one garth side by side. He who shall go out of one house into the other will find no one before him alive in the house he will enter, and no one alive in the house from which he will go. Such will be the swiftness with which the Besom shall go out of Fanait." .

Riagail said :
" Three days and three nights and a year will this plague be in Ireland. When a boat on Loch Rudraigi shall be clearly seen from the door of the refectory, then comes the Besom out of Fanait."

A Tuesday in spring, now, is the day of the week on which the Besom will come in vengeance for John's passion, as Moling said :
On John's festival will come the onslaught, which will search Ireland from the south-east,
a fierce dragon that will burn every one it can, without communion, without sacrifice, etc. '

It is clear that we need some sort of guide to help us make sense of these strange prophecies, and fortunately, a 19th-century scholar will assist us in the next post.

The picture above is of a bronze by iconographer Aleksandras Aleksejevas whose work will be the subject of an online exhibition in December here.