OMNIUM SANCTORUM HIBERNIAE

Year: 2013

  • Saint Diarmaid of Inis-Clothrann, January 10

    The feast of Saint Diarmaid of Inis-Clothrann is commemorated on the Irish calendars at January 10.


    The Martyrology of Donegal records:
    10. C. QUARTO IDUS JANUARII 10.
    DIARMAID, Bishop, of Inis-Clothrann, in Loch-Ribh. He is of the race of Fiachra, son of Eochaidh Muighmheadhoin. Dedi, daughter of Trena, son of Dubhthach h-Ua Lughair, was his mother, and this Dubhthach was chief poet to Laoghaire, son of Mall, who was monarch of Ireland, at the coming of Patrick into Ireland, and he showed honour and great veneration to Patrick, and believed in him, as appears from Patrick’s Life, and Patrick blessed him. It was Diarmaid that composed the Cealtair Dichill in verse, in which he invoked a countless number of the apostles and saints of the world, and of the saints of Ireland, as a protection and shelter for himself, just as Colum composed the hard poem called the Luirech or Sgiathluirech of Colum-Cille, which begins: “The shield of God as a protection upon me,” &c. “They shall protect me against every danger,” was the beginning of what Diarmaid composed.
    and the Feilire of Saint Oengus:
    C. iiii. id. I pray a fervent prayer
    That they go not into the bad place [hell]
    Milid the chaste comely helmet
    Diarmait of Inis Clothrand.
    Canon O’Hanlon informs us further that:

    ‘Diermaid of Innsi-Clothrand, without any other designation, occurs in the Martyrology of Tallagh, at the 10th of January. Also at the 10th of January, the “Kalendarium Drummondiense” notes the passage of St. Diermait, confessor, to the Lord, in Ireland. Besides, under the head of Inis Clothrann, for the 10th of January, Duald Mac Firbis enters Diarmaid, bishop, from Inis-Clothrann, in Loch Ribh, who sprung from the race of Dathy, King of Erin ; and from Dedi, daughter to Trian, son of Dubhthach ua Lughair, chief bard of Erinn’.

    So, the 10th of January is well established as the feastday for this saint, even if the year of his death is not recorded. O’Hanlon believes he flourished in the sixth century and goes on to tell us first of his pedigree and then of his life:

    ‘In various Irish calendars and records we are furnished with the pedigree of this celebrated saint. He is called in Irish, Naoimh Dhiarmuit, which signifies Diermit “the Just,” or “the Holy.” He is said to have been son to Lugna, and to have followed seventh in descent from Dathy, King of Ireland, who was killed about the year 427. This holy Diarmait belonged to the Hy-Fiachrach family, who inhabited a considerable part of the Connaught province. According to Oengus the Culdee, and Maguire, his mother was named Dediva, but following another account, in the Calendar of Cashel, her name was Editua,of the Kiennacht country. She is said to have been of noble race and the mother of many saints. She was a grand-daughter to Dubtach O’Lugair, arch-poet, who so courteously received St. Patrick, when he preached in the royal palace of King Leogaire at Tara. In his early youth, St. Diermit made great progress, both in learning and sanctity. After the usual course of ecclesiastical studies, having first become a monk, he was afterwards ordained priest. The duties of this office he discharged with great zeal, fervour, and fidelity. He became a spiritual director and teacher, it is said, to St. Kieran of Clonmacnoise, and he was also a friend to St. Senan, Abbot of Iniseathy. Besides the exalted opinion entertained of him by many distinguished ecclesiastics, the laity conceived a most extraordinary veneration for his character. That surname, by which he was distinguished, served to indicate the depth and sincerity of this feeling. According to Colgan, he composed a sort of metrical psaltery. In this the names of the principal holy persons are invoked, including those of fifty two Irish saints. This work was written in very ancient and very elegant metre. Some of those celebrities mentioned, however, appear to have lived after St. Diermait’s time, in the opinion of Colgan. Such names he supposes to have been interpolations of a later period. The names, St. Malruan and St. Adamman alone, are instanced, as examples of additions by another and a more recent writer.

    St. Diarmaid sought a retreat on Inis-Clotran Island, placed within Lough Ree, and here, surrounded by the spreading waters of the Shannon, he erected a monastery. It afterwards became famous, on account of many persons, distinguished for their learning and piety, who were found within its enclosure. After St. Diermit, there flourished and reposed at Inis Clothran, St. Senach, abbot of this place, A.D. 719, whose feast occurs on the 20th of April; St. Eochodius, abbot, A.D. 780 ; St. Curoius, abbot, and a most learned doctor, A.D. 869; Aldus O’Finn, bishop, A.D. 1136; Nehemus O’Dunin, a man of letters, a poet and an excellent historian, who died on the 17th of December, A.D. 1160. (Besides these, others are mentioned in the “Annals of Clonmacnoise” and in those of All Saints’ Island. See also Dr. O’ Donovan’s” Annals of the Four Masters,” vol. i., pp.318, 319, 386, 387, 514, 515; and vol. ii., pp. 1052, 1053, 1 136, 1 137). St. Diermit was abbot over the community here, and which he had collected around him. Whilst on this island, we may suppose, without giving much credence to fabulous accounts, regarding the manner in which their transmissions up and down the Shannon were made, that frequent interchanges of friendship took place between the holy abbots of Inis Clotran and Iniscathy.’

    The abbot of Iniscathy was Saint Senan and Saint Diarmaid is indeed mentioned in the various Lives of St Senan. I found an example of the ‘fabulous transmissions up and down the Shannon’ between the two in the Life of St Senan from the Book of Lismore, which also features a holy woman named Brigit:

    2399. Brigit, daughter of Cii Cathrach, of the Hui Maic Tail, a Virginal holy maiden, set up in a church on Cluain Infide, on the brink of the Shannon. She had a chasuble as alms for Senan, and she had no messenger, so she made a little basket of rods of holly, and she put moss to it, and placed the chasuble in it, and put her … to ask for the Sacrifice, and then she set the basket on the Shannon, and said (to the river) : ‘ Thou hast leave to bear that with thee to Inis Cathaig.’

    On the day, then, that the chasuble came to Inis Cathaig, Senan said to his deacon : ‘ If thou findest aught on the strand, thou hast leave to bring it hither.’

    The deacon went and found the basket on the strand, and carries it to Senan. Senan takes out the chasuble and puts it upon him. Thereafter two stones of salt are put into the same basket, and the box containing the Sacrifice is (also) put in, and the basket is set upon the same water, and Senan said to it : ‘ Thou hast leave to carry this to Cluain Infide and display the box and the one piece of salt to Brigit, and thou take the other piece of salt to Inis Clothrann to Diarmait.’

    When the basket reached Cluain Infide, Brigit went to it and takes thereout the box and one of the two pieces of salt. The stream of the Shannon then swept away the basket (containing the other piece of salt) and left it in Inis Clothrann with Diarmait. So after that Brigit and Diarmait gave thanks to God and to Senan.

    Canon O’Hanlon also gives some examples of the continuing popular devotion to Saint Diarmaid. First, there is a curious incident recorded in a letter by John O’Donovan of Ordnance Survey fame:

    ‘The present situation of Inis-Clothran—now called Inchcleraun—is admirably distinguished with its antique remains on the Ordnance Survey Townland Maps for the County of Longford. The inhabitants of Cashel parish, in this district, call it the Seven Church Island,” and consider it to have been the most important of those various islands on Lough Ree. The people about the shores have a very special veneration for St. Diermait, who is said to have blessed all the islands in the lake, except one, to which an Irish name is given. This signifies in English” the forgotten island.” Popular traditions abound, in connexion with the ruins of a church, Templedermot, named after our saint, and the “clogas” or square belfry of Dermot, for the desecration of which, a remarkable punishment befel the Quaker who resided on Inchcleraun. The boatman, who rowed Mr. O’Donovan over to this island, declared, that about six weeks previously he and two others saw plainly and distinctly in the noon-day, a tall and stately figure walk along the waves from Inchcleraun with a measured step, until this apparition disappeared in the dim distance, near Athlone. The boatman and his companions believed the phantom to be St. Diermait, or some other early saint, connected with the island, and who had come to visit his old habitation on earth. (See John O’Donovan’s letter, dated Longford. May 22nd, 1837. “Letters and Extracts Containing Information Relative to the Antiquities of the County of Longford, collected during the progress of the Ordnance Survey in 1837,” pp. 54, 56.)’

    The impious Quaker was not the only person to have fallen foul of our saint. A note appended to the Table of Saints in the Martyrology of Donegal records beside the name of Saint Diarmaid:

    On Loch Ribh in Cuircne, and no woman or young female child can touch his Relig (sepulchral church). And a Saxon heretic woman, who violated it, cried out and died immediately. Inis Diarmada is the name of the island, with many Religs and monasteries.

    O’Hanlon points to a second incident involving Saxon heretics and the holy things of Saint Diarmaid:

    A beautiful ivory statue of St. Diermit, for a long time, had been preserved on the island. In order to save it from the Vandalism of Protestant Reformers, it was buried in the earth. Afterwards, it was removed, by the brother of a regular priest. He wrote an account concerning this discovery to the Irish hagiologist, Father John Colgan. The name of this person has not been given, lest, as Colgan asserts, the Iconoclasts might be enabled to discover St. Diermit’s image, and subject it to their usual process of destruction. (See Colgan’s ”Acta Sanctorum Hiberniae,” X. Januarii. Vita S. Diermitii, cap. vi and n. 18, p. 52. ) It may be asked, is this curious and artistic relic of olden times yet in existence ?

    That would indeed be interesting to know.

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  • Saint Fine, Abbess of Kildare, January 9

    Canon O’Hanlon has a very short entry for Fine or Finia, an eighth-century abbess of Kildare, whom the great 17th-century Irish hagiologist, Father John Colgan, believed had died on January 9, an event recorded in the Irish Annals:


    St. Finia or Fine, Abbess of Kildare. [Eighth Century.]
    Because truth and innocence of life distinguish holy virgins, they live without stain before the throne of God. We are informed by Colgan, that Finia, Abbess of Kildare, died on the 9th of January, A.D. 800. The same year is set down for the death of this Fine, in the Annals of the Four Masters.
    Although it is not expressly stated, Colgan seems to regard this day as dedicated to her memory.
    It seems impossible to discover much else about this particular successor to Saint Brigid as an individual, but Christina Harrington, in her valuable work on the role of women in the Irish church, can place the office of abbess into a context for us:
    The sources of material on Irish abbesses are extremely patchy, and the overall quantity of evidence quite slim. The Irish left no guiding or prescriptive texts on this office; there is no surviving correspondence such as is found in Anglo-Saxon England and which proves so illuminating for the abbess’s position there. There is a small but important quantity of legal material in which are found occasional notes concerning abbesses’ rights and privileges; there is a large amount of hagiography containing anecdotes about abbesses; and there are annal entries for abbesses of the most famous houses…
    In female saints’ Lives, the characterization of the foundress serves repeatedly to restate the holy ideal not only for the ordinary nun, but also for the abbess, since in Ireland the major female saints were abbesses. As the spiritual heir of the foundress saint, the abbess was supposed to manifest at least in part her patron’s virtues and be in her own lifetime a role model in the religious life. The Lives also offer insights into the practicalities of an abbess’s duties, both to her own nuns and also to the outside world. Thus the foundress formed the prototype for the abbess’s role, both spiritually and practically….
    In her community of nuns, the abbess too was the supervisor and governor, domina and mother. In the female Lives, the abbess is the person who is directly responsible for ensuring the monastery’s survival. She decides if the community is to move location. She procures food and beer in times of scarcity, and organizes help in fending off attackers in times of danger. It is she, for example, who asks for charitable help from clerics, monasteries, and other nunneries when her own community runs into difficulty.
    Decisions on who joined the familia were within the abbess’s remit: it was she who approved the intake of novices and the adoption of fosterlings and abandoned babies. She was responsible for the maintenance of the moral standard and adherence to the rule. Then there were matters of discipline, and in the Lives the abbess appears as inspector, judge, and setter of punishments.
    Like the foundress saint whose heir she was, the abbess had to strive to embody the seemingly contradictory qualities of world-renunciation and temporal dominion. She was to uphold the ascetic tradition whilst at the same time shoring up and even expanding her church’s sphere of control…
    One of the abbess’s most important tasks in the continued work of aggrandizing her church was the provision and reception of hospitality, which in early medieval Ireland formed one of the major currencies of social interchange, social cohesion, and assertion of power and status. Failing to provide hospitality to those whose rank warranted it brought dishonour upon the failed host; providing abundantly brought status, and fulfilled economic and/or ecclesiastical obligations…
    The ideal abbess was a provider of abundance to all the religious superiors who came to her community. A poem attributed to St Brigit from the tenth or eleventh century, shows her as the giver of hospitality: the feast she provides is one of spiritual nourishment, and her overlord is none less than Christ and the hosts of heaven. Hospitality was a Christian virtue and Brigit its exemplar, just as Monenna was treated as an exemplar of the discipline of fasting.
    C. Harrington, Women in a Celtic Church- Ireland 450-1150 (Oxford University Press, 2002), 165-169.
    Harrington has much more to say about the office of abbess, and has a particularly interesting analysis of the power that these women were able to wield in both the secular and the ecclesiastical spheres. Irish law did not see women as legally competent and some of the sources upheld the need for all women to have a male ‘head’. In theory this would seem to create a problem for Abbesses as the equivalent of male ‘heads’ of religious communities. Yet the sources also indicate that this was not necessarily so in practice. Harrington sees the accounts of abbesses acting as confessors or soul-friends as especially important to the question of ‘headship’, although of course an Abbess could not hear confession in the sacramental sense. Indeed, some Abbesses were even prized as soul-friends by men, Saint Samthann of Clonbroney is one famous example. Abbesses like Fine were also drawn from the Irish aristocracy of the day and thus derived some of their authority from their connections to powerful ruling families. In her case this authority was bolstered by the fact that Fine was the heir to a foundress of exceptional sanctity, and it is surely a mark of how important a figure the Abbess of Kildare was felt to be that the Irish Annals continued to record the deaths of the successors of Saint Brigid for centuries after her passing.

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  • Saint Neachtain of Dungiven, January 8

    On January 8 the Irish Martyrologies commemorate a seventh-century Scottish saint associated with the monastery at Dungiven, County Derry. North-west Ulster has always had strong links with Scotland and Saint Neachtain appears to have been born in Scotland but to have founded a monastery in the territory of a tribe called the Cianachta. They occupied the lands of the Roe Valley, but their chief royal site was at Dungiven. One scholar has suggested that they were mercenary vassals of the Uí Neill, rewarded with lands for their services ‘much as the gallowglass clans from Scotland and the Isles were rewarded with irish lands by the Gaelic lords of the later middle ages’ (F.J.Byrne, Irish kings and high-kings (London, 1973), 68.) The Irish annals name two saints associated with the Cianachta – a convert of Saint Patrick’s called Ciannan, founder of Duleek in County Meath, whose death is recorded in 489, and Nechtan Ner of Dungiven, whose death is ascribed to 679. Canon O’Hanlon will guide us through the story of Saint Neachtain as found in Volume I of his Lives of the Irish Saints:

    St. Neachtain or Nechtanan, of Dungiven, County Derry.

    The present holy man was probably the first founder of a church here, and he seems to have been taken as the local patron. The Martyrology of Donegal enters the festival of St. Nechtain of Dun Geimhim, in Cianachta Glinne Geimhin, at this date. He is commemorated in the Martyrology of Tallagh, on the 8th of January. Most likely he was born about the beginning of the seventh century.

    It seems to be doubtful, whether the present holy man had been born in Ireland or in Scotland. In a gloss to the Feilire of St. Oengus, we read, “anair de Albain,” i.e., “from the east, from Alba,” applied to the name of Nechtan. It may be probable, he was born in the latter country, or at least that he came over from it into Ireland. He has been identified with the great saint of Deeside, called Nathalan, in the Breviary of Aberdeen. This holy man is called Nachlan or Naughlan, by the common people. According to the Aberdeen Breviary, he is thought to have been born in the northern parts of the Scoti, in ancient times, and at Tullicht, within the diocese of Aberdeen.

    He was a man of great sanctity and devotion. Though educated as the member of a noble family, when he learned that turning the soil approached nearest to the occupation which favoured holy meditation, he abandoned all other pursuits to cultivate fields. Thus he wished the body to be industriously occupied, so that he might never allow his mind to be overborne in a struggle with dangerous temptations. While he thus waged warfare against the devil and a perishing world, a terrible famine broke out among his neighbours, relations, and friends. Most of the people were nearly lost, owing to hunger and want of food. But the singularly disinterested Nathalan, moved by the highest spirit of charity, distributed all his grain and stores, in the name of Christ, to the poor. At the spring time, no seed was left him, even to sow his lands; yet, God wrought a miracle, which produced an abundant harvest. When this time came, however, and when a great multitude of both sexes had been collected to gather in the crop, a tremendous tempest of rain and a whirlwind prevented the husbandmen and women from pursuing their labours. For a moment losing patience, and being excited to anger, along with other reapers, the saint murmured a little against God. The tempest soon ceased. But, on second thought, Nathalan, feeling he had offended the Divine Majesty, was induced to bind himself by vow to continue a rigid course of penance. This ended, it is stated, and in a miraculous way, after he had visited the thresholds of the Blessed Apostles Peter and Paul, in the city of Rome. There, too, he sought the monuments of the saints, so thickly placed on every side. Hearing a report of his extraordinary miracles and sanctity, the Supreme Pontiff summoned him into his presence. Notwithstanding the saint’s reluctance, he was persuaded, at length, to assume the episcopal dignity. If we are to place implicit faith in these accounts, probably either before his going to Rome or after he had left it, the saint visited Ireland, and then he must have founded Dungiven, or at least he spent some time there. But, it must be allowed, we feel at a loss to determine the period.

    In the practice of Divine contemplation, having rendered himself very acceptable to all at Rome, by permission of the Sovereign Pontiff, as we are informed, Nathalan got permission for returning to that part of Scotia, whence he sprung. In extreme old age, he visited his natal soil. He then built the churches of Tullicht, Bothelim, and Colle, at his own expense. He also dedicated them to the Almighty, and long afterwards they existed in those provinces, as monuments of his zeal.

    The death of St. Nechtain occurred A.D. 677, according to the Annals of the Four Masters, but we find the rest of Neachtain Neir recorded A.D. 678, in the Annals of Ulster. We meet no less than four different saints of this name recorded in our calendars – One at 22nd of April—erroneously assigned by Colgan’s printer to the 11th;— another at the 2nd of May—St. Patrick’s disciple;— St. Neachtain, a virgin, at the 22nd of November, besides the present saint.

    It would seem that this holy man died in Britain, on the 8th of January, after the performance of many wonderful miracles. He is said to have been buried with great reverence at Tullicht. St. Nachlan is patron of Tullicht. There in after time he often afforded health to the sick, who came to seek it piously and devoutly. At Tullicht a cross of very early type, incised on a rude granite slab, once lay in the parish church. It now forms the top lintel to one of the doors of the old kirk there. He is also the patron of Balthelney, or rather Bothelney, now Meldrum. Owing to the fervour of his prayers, Nathelan is said to have averted a raging pestilence from this place. Long after this tradition, and when the saint’s name was even forgotten, the parishioners kept the 8th of January as a feast, on which they did no work. At the old kirk here, about three miles from the town of Old Meldrum, is Naughlan’s Well. At Collie or Cowle, his name is rhymed among the fishermen:

    ” Atween the kirk and kirk ford,
    There lies St. Nauchlan’s hoard.

    and in the parish of Kildalton, in Islay, we find Kilnaughtan.

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