Along with the entry for Saint Ultán of Cúl Corra on the Irish calendars at January 17 we find Saint Earnán (Earnain, Eirnín) of Tigh-Earnain, another obscure saint. There are 13 saints of this name on the twelfth-century List of Homonymous Saints, Father Colgan in the seventeenth century knew of 18 and there are 25 listed by Canon O’Hanlon from the martyrologies. In his Dictionary of Irish Saints Padraig Ó Riain has observed that the majority of saints who bear this name have some sort of relationship to Saint Colum Cille. Canon O’Hanlon, in Volume I of The Lives of the Irish Saints, ends his account of Saint Earnán of Tigh-Earnain by noting Father Colgan’s suggestion that he may have been a disciple of Iona’s founder. There are indeed a number of holy men called Earnán found in the hagiography of Saint Colum Cille, including one said to be his uncle, but none specifically identified with the Saint Earnán of Tigh-Earnain, commemorated on January 17. Canon O’Hanlon was also confused by a reference to the name of Hernind (Herninn) in the Martyrology of Tallaght, but its later editors solved the ‘Ernain and Hernind’ conundrum by noting:
‘Ernán from Tech Ernáin’ – Herninn is evidently a misreading of Ernain written above the line in the exemplar, and here inserted out of place’.
(R.I. Best and H.J.Lawlor, eds, The Martyrology of Tallaght from the Book of Leinster and MS. 5100-4 in the Royal Library, Brussels, (London, 1931), 9).
So, there never was a Saint Herninn sharing the honours with Saint Earnán. Although Canon O’Hanlon casts around for possible locations for Tigh-Ernain, overall this saint’s precise identity and location remain problematic. Below is the account of Saint Earnán of Tigh-Earnain taken from the January volume of The Lives of the Irish Saints:
Article III. St. Ernain, of Tigh-Ernain.
It is mentioned in the Martyrology of Tallagh that veneration was given to Ernain and Hernind of Tigh -Ulltain follows on the17th of January. Whether one or both of those saints be set down, to represent the following holy person is uncertain. In the Martyrology of Donegal an Ernain, of Tigh-Ernain, is recorded as having a festival on this day. Tigh may have been only a contraction for Tigh-Ernain.There is a Tigh-Airindan, i.e., ‘the house of Airindan or Farannan’. This place is so called at the present day; yet it has sometimes been Anglicised Tifarnan, or more usually Tyfarnham. It is the name of a townland, and of a parish, in the barony of Corkaree, and in the county of Westmeath. Perhaps this local denomination might be equivalent to Tigh-Ernain. But the Rev. A. Cogan has identified this saint’s place with the present Teghernain, and he has it in the county of Meath. With some doubt of identity expressed, Colgan states this Ernan, whom he calls Mernoc, likewise, may have been one of St. Columkille’s disciples.
Rev. John O’Hanlon, Lives of the Irish Saints, Volume I, (Dublin, 1875?), p.297.
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