OMNIUM SANCTORUM HIBERNIAE

Author: Michele Ainley

  • Saint Cubretan of Moville, October 17

    October 17 is the commemoration of Saint Cubretan, a holy man associated with the County Down monastery of Moville. The Martyrology of Donegal records:

    17. C. SEXTO DECIMO KAL. NOVEMBRIS. 17.

    CUBRETAN, Anchorite, of Magh-bile.

    Although the passing of various abbots of Moville is recorded in the Irish Annals, they do not note our saint and thus there is no information recorded about the period in which Cubretan the Anchorite flourished. The Anglican scholar, Bishop William Reeves gives this brief sketch of the monastery with which he was associated:
    MAGH-BILE – This church, which stood a short way from the head of Strangford  Lough, and about an English mile to the N. E. of Newtownards, was founded by Finian, or Findbarr [fionn barr ‘white top’], as he was sometimes called,—” a flavis capillis ” (Maguir). The ancient Life of St. Comgall, in the Books of Armagh and Kilkenny, speak of him as ” Vir vitae venerabilis S. Finbarrus Episcopus, qui jacet in miraculis multis in sua civitate Maghbile”. Marian Gorman styles him “Findianus corde devotus, Episcopus de Mag-bile’… The Annals of Inisfallen refer the death of St. Finian to the year 572. It is calculated that his church was founded about the year 540. The memory of this Finian was so much revered in the diocese of Down, that he was regarded as the patron saint of that part of Ulster.

    Rt Rev. William Reeves, Ecclesiastical Antiquities of Down, Connor and Dromore (Dublin, 1857), 151.

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  • Saint Riaghail of Muicinis, October 16

    The Irish Calendars commemorate Saint Riaghail of Muicinis on October 16, a saint who may also have been honoured in Scotland. There he was later confounded with an eastern saint said to have brought the relics of the apostle Andrew to Scotland. The Monasticon Hibernicum has this to say of Saint Riaghail and his locality:

    Mucinis, Regulus, who was living in the time of the great St. Columb, was abbot of Mucinis, in Lough-Derg, bordering the County of Galway; his festival is held here on 16th of October.

    to which Bishop Moran has added:

    The name of St. Regulus, in Irish Riaghail, is entered in the Martyrology of Donegal, on the 16th of October: — “Riaghail, Abbot of Muicinis, in Loch Deirgdheire.” He is also commemorated in the Felire of Aengus with the strophe: — “Riaghail, gifted was his career.” His Acts are inserted in the Breviary of Aberdeen and he is especially honoured in St Andrew’s, in Scotland, on March 30th and October the 17th.

    Rt. Rev. P.F. Moran, ed.,M.Archdall, Monasticon Hibernicum, Volume II, (Dublin, 1876), 223.

    I was left unsure if our Irish saint is the same as the saint venerated in Scotland and turned to Bishop Forbes’ work on the Scottish calendars to see what evidence he could muster:

    REGULUS or RULE. March 30 and October 17.—The commemoration of the Scotch S. Regulus occurs in the Breviary of Aberdeen on March 30, the same day as that of “S. Regulus or Rieul, who, having converted the country of Senlis to the faith, about the same time that S. Dionysius preached in France, was made first bishop of Senlis, and died in peace in the midst of his flock.”—(Alban Butler ad diem, on the authority of the Bollandists and Tillemont.) So Usuardus, “Apud castrum Silvanectensium, depositio Sancti Reguli episcopi et confessoris.”—(Ed. Seller, p. 180.) Another day, the 17th of October, is also kept in his honour: Quoniam in quadragesima de eo non fuerit servitium, omnia sicut in alio festo, sed differtur in crastinum (Brev. Aberd. pars estiv. fol. cxxviii.); and it is remarkable that the 16th of October is the day of S. Riaghail, abbot of Muicinis, in Lough Derg on the Shannon (Mart. Donegal). He is commemorated in the Felire of Aengus at October 16th as

    Riaguil raith arremsin.
    [Riagail gifted was his career.]

    which is glossed by
    i. Riagail Muicindsi fa Loch derc.
    [i.e. Riaghail of Muicinis in Loch Derg.]

    The Breviary of Aberdeen says that he is specially honoured in S. Andrews and its diocese. The Martyrology of Aberdeen associates him with the church of Kylrewni…

    Alexander Penrose Forbes, D.C.L. Bishop of Brechin, Kalendars of Scottish Saints, (1872), 436-437.

    Thus it would appear that it is the close coincidence of the feast days of the Irish saint and of the Scot  which suggests they are the same person. The Irish Bishop Moran, however, presents a plausible case for the presence of our Saint Riaghail in Scotland in another of his works. After establishing that the original name for St Andrew’s was Kilrigmond, he says:

    The first mention which we find of Kilrigmond points it out as a monastery of Irish religious, and, among other saints, the patron of Kilkenny, St. Canice, pursued there a life of holy seclusion for some  time. Even St. Regulus himself is found to have been one of those Irish saints, and his name is none other than the Irish Riaghail. He was a contemporary of St. Canice, and famed in our early church as abbot of Muicinish, in Lough Derg, on the Shannon, and, like many of our saints, it is probable that he made North Britain the theatre of his missionary zeal, and closed his days at Kil-Rigmond. It was only in the year 736 that the Pictish monarch, in gratitude to God for a great victory which he had achieved, erected there a church in honour of his patron, St. Andrew, which he enriched with vast possessions, and which in the course of time became the royal and primatial church of the whole kingdom. At the time that St. Andrew’s was thus founded, Kil-Rigmond had the Irishman, Tuathal, for its abbot, whose demise is recorded in the Annals of Tighernach under the year 747.

    Right Rev. P.F. Moran, Irish Saints in Great Britain (Dublin, 1879), 200.

    Note: For more on the legend of Saint Regulus see here.

  • Saint Colman of Stockerau, October 13

    October 13 is the feast day of an 11th-century Irish saint, Colman (Coloman) of Stockerau. I have previously published a paper on his life here, but below is the entry for the saint from Father John Lanigan’s Ecclesiastical History of Ireland. Father Lanigan applies his customary sceptical approach to the sources and like many of the Irish writers on the saints doesn’t disguise his irritation at the Scottish calendarist Thomas Dempster’s clumsy attempt to claim this saint as a Scot, rather than an Irishman. Dempster chose to ignore the reality that in the early Middle Ages Ireland was referred to as ‘Scotia’ and claimed everyone described in continental sources as a ‘Scot’ as a native of his own country:

    Various distinguished Irishmen still continued to visit foreign countries. Colman, or as usually called by continental writers, Coloman, who is styled patron of Austria, (1) left Ireland early in the eleventh century, (2) together with some other persons, for the purpose of a pious visit to Jerusalem. (3) He arrived A.D.1022 in the eastern part of Norica, now Lower Austria. Its inhabitants were then at variance with the neighbouring nations of Bohemians, Moravians, &etc. On Colman’s stopping at the small town of Stockerau he was seized as a spy sent by the enemies of Austria, and thrown into prison. On the next day he was strictly examined, but although he told the plain truth, would not be believed. He was then most cruelly tortured, and at length, on his persisting in declaring his innocence, was hung from an old tree together with two robbers. While his body remained suspended from his gibbet, it continued sound and entire; and it is said that his hair and nails continued to grow. The hay or twig rope, by which his head was fastened, and even the old tree, are stated to have bloomed and revived. These extraordinary phenomena excited great attention, which was ranch enhanced by the circumstance of blood flowing from his body on occasion of a part of his flesh having been cut off for the purpose of being used in effecting a certain cure. It was now concluded, that Colman was a truly holy man, and that he had been unjustly put to death. Accordingly he was honored as a martyr, and his body was taken down and deposited with great pomp in the churchyard of Stockerau. Several miracles are said to have attested his sanctity, and Henry, marquis of Austria, was so moved by them, that he had the body removed to his residence Medlicum, alias Medlica, or Mellica, now Melck. (4) On its removal it was found entire, and was placed in St. Peter’s church of that town on the 7th of October A. D, 1015, three years after Colman had been murdered. A Benedictine monastery was soon established there in honour of this saint, which has become very famous and still exists in great splendor. Erchinfrid, who has written the Acts of Colman, (5) was the third abbot of this monastery. He relates, in addition to what has been hitherto stated, several miracles wrought after his death, which it would be too tedious to repeat. He constantly calls him a Scotus, by which appellation, although he does not make mention of Ireland, or name the land of his birth, it may, considering that the Irish were then universally called Scoti, and that they were greatly in the habit of going abroad on pilgrimages, be fairly presumed that Colman was an Irishman. Erchinfrid has nothing about his having been of royal parentage, as some later writers have announced. (6) The name of this saint as a martyr is in the Roman martyrology at 13 October.

    (1) Colgan (A.A. SS. p. 105.) calls him apostle of Austria; but there is no reason for giving this title; for, besides Austria having been a Christian country before the arrival of Colman it does not appear that he preached there, or that he had even time to do so. Nor do I find, that Colman was an ecclesiastic. The title given to him by German writers is that of patron of Austria. The most detailed account of him is that by the abbot Erchinfrid, who was contemporary with him, or very nearly so, and which has been published by Lambecius, Commentariorum de Bibliotheca Caesar. Vindohon. Lib, ii. cap. 8. Colman is treated of also by Ditmar and other chroniclers, by Baronius, Annal &c. at A, 1012, and other writers.

    (2) According to Erchinfrid’s account Colman’s departure from his own country must have been only a short time before his death, which occured in 1012. Colgan says, (ib. p. 107.) that he had left Ireland before the close of the tenth century. I wish he had told us, where this information is to be found.

    (3) Baronius was mistaken in saying that Colman had been often at Jerusalem. But he had not seen the narrative of Erchinfrid.

    (4) Mabillon says (Annal, Ben. ad A, 1017.) that Colman’s body was buried at Melck, which he calls Mezelikim, by order of the then emperor. This is a mistake, grounded on authority inferior to that of Erchinfrid, who positively states, that Henry, marquis of Austria, was the prince, by whose order that was done. He was also wrong in assigning Colman’s death to said year 1017.

    (5) See above Not. I. The miraculous circumstances relative to Colman’s remains are attested also by Ditmar, who was bishop of Mersburg and a contemporary of his, as he died in 1019.

    (6) Surius has at 13 October an ode written in honour of St. Colman by John Stabius, historiographer of the emperor Maximilian I. It begins thus:

    Austriae sanctus canitur patronus,
    Fulgidum sidus radians ab Areto,
    Scoticae gentis Colomannus acer
    Regia proles.

    Ille dum sanctam Solymorum urbem
    Transiit dulcem patriam relinquens,
    Regios fastus, trabeam, coronam,
    Sceptraque tempsit.

    Propter et Christum peregrinus exul
    Factus in terris alienis ultro
    Caelicam pura meditatus aulam
    Mente fideque.

    Then, comes an account of Colman’s transactions much in the manner as related by Erchinfrid; for instance,

    Austriae terras agitabat amens
    Tunc furor: fortes Moravos, Bohemos,
    Pannones bello simul implicabat
    Inferus hostis.

    Ergo dum sanctum hospitio recepit
    Oppidum nostro Stockheran vocatum
    Patrio ritu, &c.

    It was, I dare say, on the authority of this ode that Baronius said that Colman was of a royal family. Dempster, wishing to make Colman, a Scotch prince, fabricated a story of his having been a son of Malcolm I. king of Scotland. To that shameless liar it is sufficient to oppose the silence of Buchanan, who, although he makes mention of more than one son of Malcolm, has nothing about this celebrated St. Colman. Harris, (Writers at Colman of Lindisfarne) remarking on Dempster’s assumption, fell, as indeed some others had before him, into a strange mistake, confounding Colman of Austria with the one of Lindisfarne. He did not know that the former was killed in 1012, whereas the latter lived in the seventh century.

    Rev. J. Lanigan, An ecclesiastical history of Ireland, from the first introduction of Christianity among the Irish, to the beginning of the thirteenth century, Volume III, (Dublin, 1829), 440-441.

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