OMNIUM SANCTORUM HIBERNIAE

Author: Michele Ainley

  • Saint Attracta's Stags

     

    Below is a poem telling the story of the miracle of the hard-hearted King Keannfaelid and Saint Attracta, whose feast is celebrated on August 11:

    THE BALLAD OF SAINT ATHRACTA’S STAGS

    ATHRACTA was a maiden fair,
    A Prince’s daughter she;
    Down to her feet fell golden hair,
    A wondrous sight to see.

    And all amid this golden shower,
    The sweetest rosebud face
    Blossomed like a dew-fed flower
    Upon a stem of grace.

    Yet loved she not the court of kings,
    But in the wild would be,
    With but one maid her hair to braid
    And bear her company.

    So, near Lough Gara’s silver sheen,
    They built of turf and bark
    A hut wherein from springtide green
    They dwelt through winter’s dark.

    On seven cross-roads the hut was made,
    That they might offer rest
    To pilgrims by the night waylaid,
    And strangers hunger-pressed.

    To draw them water from the lake,
    To till their little soil,
    Two ancient horses did they take,
    Outworn for other toil.

    Once gallant chargers these had been,
    Keen-eyed and prancing gay,
    Who tourneys brave and wars had seen,
    All decked in bright array.

    But now their age in peace was spent
    By kind Athracta’s side ;
    No gallant wars, no tournament,
    And yet they served with pride.

    Their neighbors in the forest glades
    Were stately, antlered deer,
    Nor of the two most holy maids
    Had these, their brothers, fear.

    So dwelt the maidens there alone
    For many months and years,
    The doings of the world unknown,
    Its wars, its woes, its tears.

    But strife was stirring in the land,
    And kings must castles build,
    To guard them from the foeman’s hand
    With fire and weapon filled.

    And so the King’s most stern decree
    Went forth upon a day,
    “My serfs must build a fort for me,
    Each must his service pay”.

    “Each man and maiden must fulfill
    In this great work his share ;
    It is the King of Connaught’s will,
    Let tardy hands beware!”

    Athracta sent unto the King :
    “We be but maidens twain,
    My Liege, we cannot do this thing,
    I beg we may refrain.”

    But sternly sent he back the word,
    “Ye maids must do your part.”
    He was a hard and cruel lord,
    No pity touched his heart.

    So forth they fared into the wood,
    Athracta with her maid,
    To fell the timber as they could,
    Without of men for aid.

    Heavy the axe and full of pain
    Each weak and skill-less stroke,
    Yet strove the maids again, again,
    With walnut, beech, and oak.

    Until upon the wagon cast
    By which the horses stood,
    Their bleeding hands had piled at last
    The goodly logs of wood.

    But when Athracta saw the steeds
    Straining with feeble will
    To draw the heavy load, it needs
    Must make her eyes to fill.

    Athracta spoke all piteously,
    “Alack ! poor broken things,
    Must you, too, bear your painful share
    To save the pride of Kings?”

    “How can I ease your burden, how,
    My faithful servants still?
    My little hands are bleeding now
    With toil beyond their skill.”

    “O mistress dear,” then spoke her maid,
    “These be but feeble nags;
    How would the King’s pride be dismayed
    If you could harness Stags!”

    “Thou sayest well,” Athracta vowed.
    “Come hither, Stags!” she cried,
    And lo! the thud of hoofs grew loud
    Ere yet the echo died.

    “Come hither, Stags!” O’er green and glade
    The silver summons thrilled,
    And soon the space about the maid
    With antlered kings was filled.

    Through moss and fern and tangled trees
    Twelve panting creatures broke,
    And bending low their stately knees
    They knelt beneath the yoke.

    Now harnessed in the horses’ stead
    The great Stags strained their best,
    To please the Lady at their head
    And follow her behest.

    But lo! a vexing thing then happed;
    Scarce had they gained the road,
    The rusty chains of iron snapped
    Beneath the heavy load.

    Yet paused she not in weak despair,
    This noble-hearted maid,
    But loosed her heavy golden hair
    Out from its double braid.

    She loosed her locks so wonder-bright
    And shook them to the breeze;
    It seemed a beam of yellow light
    Had sifted through the trees.

    Then from amid this golden net
    She plucked some silken strands,
    And where the chains had first been set
    She bound them with her hands.

    She tied the ends against the strain,
    And knotted them with care,
    Then bade the Stags pull once again
    Upon the ropes of hair.

    And lo! the slender harness held,
    And lo! the antlered steeds
    Went forth to prove their generous love
    Lent to a maiden’s needs.

    Straight to the King her gift they bore
    To fill his heart with shame;
    And her true maiden went before
    To show him whence they came.

    Now when the King this wonder saw
    He turned all pale and red,
    “She hath a greater power than law,”
    He vowed, and bowed his head.

    “She hath a greater power than I,
    Whose slaves the wild stags be,
    And golden hair like this might snare
    E’en the wild heart of me.

    “No need to her of castles stout,
    No need of moat or tower,
    With antlered guardians about
    Her lonely wild-wood bower.

    ” No need to her of watch or ward,
    With friends like these at hand ;
    Bid her from me henceforth to be
    Queen of her little land.

    “Henceforth she is no serf of mine,
    Nor subject to my throne;
    Where’er her golden hair may shine
    That is her realm alone.”

    So where the seven cross-roads met
    Still dwelt the holy maid,
    Her hut a place of refuge set
    For all who shelter prayed.

    Her realm a holy place of peace,
    Where, with the ancient nags,
    Lived out their days in pleasant ways
    Athracta’s faithful Stags.

    Abbie Farwell Brown, The Book of Saints and Friendly Beasts (Boston and New York), 1900, 69-77.

    Content Copyright © Omnium Sanctorum Hiberniae 2012-2015. All rights reserved.

  • Saint Liadhain of Killyon, August 11

    We have an unusually large number of female saints commemorated on the Irish calendars at August 11. Among them are Saint Attracta and Saint Lelia and now we can meet another holy lady whose feast occurs on this day, Liadhain of Killyon. We have already been introduced to Saint Liadhain on the blog when discussing the feast of Saint Brunsecha. Tradition says that Liadhain was the mother of the man known as the ‘firstborn of the saints of Ireland’, Ciarán of Saighir, and that she was also a monastic foundress in her own right. Canon O’Hanlon tell us what else is known of this mother of saints and of the efforts of the 19th-century scholar John O’Donovan to identify the locality where she flourished:

    St. Liadhain, Abbess, of Killyon, King’s County.

    [Fifth or Sixth Century.]

    This holy woman, according to received traditions, must have flourished during the very infancy of Christianity in Ireland. According to the Martyrology of Donegal, a festival was celebrated, at the 11th of August, to honour Liadhain, daughter of Eochaidh. She descended from the race of Laighaire, the son of Niall. We are told, she was mother to Ciaran of Saigher, and the first Abbess among the virgins—i.e., female—saints of Ireland. There was a religious establishment at a place called Killiadhuin, supposed to have been founded by the present saint, and named after her. It is now identified with Killyon, near Seir-Kieran. Two acres of land are said to have been under the old buildings; but, only a small portion of the walls are now be seen. Already allusion is made to this place, on the banks of the small stream, called the Camcor River. At one time, John O’Donovan thought the parish of Killyon, in the barony of Upper Moyfenrath, in the County of Meath, had been that specially dedicated to St. Lidania. This parish of Killyon is bounded on the north by the parish of Killaconnican; on the east by the parishes of Castlerickard and Clonard; oh the south by the latter parish, and on the west by the County of Westmeath. There were detached portions of this parish within that of Clonard. However, this opinion of Mr. O’Donovan was afterwards retracted, although, as he supposes, and with a great possibility of conjecture, that the parish of Killian, in the County of Meath, had also been dedicated to the present saint. The remains of an ancient church are in a cemetery. There was a holy well in the churchyard, at the gable of the old church. This was said to have been dedicated to the Virgin Mary; but, as the traditions were just extinct in the district, when he visited that locality [in the 1830s], Mr. O’Donovan could place little reliance on them. Under the rule of St. Liadhain or Liadania, lived St. Brunsecha, a holy virgin. Both are supposed to have flourished in the fifth or sixth century.

    Content Copyright © Omnium Sanctorum Hiberniae 2012-2015. All rights reserved.

  • The Arrival of Saint Maelruain with the Relics of the Saints at Tallaght, August 10

    Canon O’Hanlon has a notice of a wonderful feast of the translation of the relics of the saints by Saint Maelruain of Tallaght at August 10:

    The Arrival of St. Maolruain, with the Relics of Virgins and of other Saints, at Tallagh, County of Dublin.

    In the Martyrology of Tallagh, we find a festival for this day, as characterized at the head of this paragraph. We learn from the Life of St. Aengus, the Culdee, that he often travelled about, engaged on inquiries, which enabled him to illustrate the Saint-History of Ireland. Doubtless, he failed not to collect some relics of those holy persons, whenever he travelled abroad; and, it is likely, that his distinguished superior and local contemporary, St. Maelruan, who had kindred tastes, made special journeys for similar purposes. One of these returns must have been solemnly commemorated at Tallagh, in the eighth century, and before the death of St. Maelruan, on the 7th July, 792. That commemoration was probably continued annually, on this day, and at that particular place, in recognition of those treasures deposited by the holy founder in the house of his religious community.

    This would have been a purely local commemoration specific to this County Dublin monastery, and scholar Westley Follett suggests that it may in fact commemorate the anniversary of its founding:

    According to the Annals of the Four Masters Tallaght was founded in 774. The Martyrology of Tallaght appears to commemorate the occasion on 10 August with the notice ‘Mael Ruain came to Tallaght with his relics of the saints, martyrs and virgins’. [1]

    This feast thus gives us a glimpse into the development of the cult of the saints in eighth-century Ireland as well as the part played by this particular monastery. Tallaght is perhaps most famously associated with the Céile-Dé movement, but also left a lasting hagiological legacy. For this monastery was associated with the production of the earliest surviving Irish calendars of the saints, The Martyrology of Tallaght and the Martyrology of Aengus. The former is essentially a copy of the Hieronymian Martyrology which reached Ireland in the eighth century (possibly via Iona) to which the commemorations of native Irish saints was added. Follett comments:

    It should not be overlooked that non-Irish saints were venerated at Tallaght. The Martyrology of Tallaght (edd. Best and Lawlor, 62) commemorates August 10 with the comment, ‘Mael Ruain cum suis reliquiis sanctorum martirum et uirginum ad Tamlachtain uenit’. Given the paucity of native martyrs in Ireland, we may presume these were the relics of non-Irish martyrs. [2]

    Various sources connected to the monastery of Tallaght give a further glimpse of devotion to the saints. The Preface to the Martyrology of Aengus, which scholars seem to agree used The Martyrology of Tallaght as a source and was written within a generation of the time of Maelruain, records a particular devotion to Saint Michael the Archangel on the part of Maelruain and claims that relics of the archangel were kept at Tallaght:

    Now it is that Maelruain who decided that he would not take land in Tamlachtu until Michael (the Archangel), with whom he had a friendship, should take it; and because of that agreement there are in Tamlachtu relics consecrated to Michael. [3]

    Follett also quotes two further Tallaght documents which show how devotion to the saints was practiced as part of the monastic day. The first is from The Teaching of Maelruain:

    It was their practice that one man should read aloud the Gospel and the Rules and miracles of the saints while their brethern were at their rations or eating their supper, so that their attention should not be occupied with their dinner. [4]

    and is confirmed in The Rule of the Céile-Dé:

    It is the practice of the Céile-Dé that while they are at dinner one of them reads aloud the Gospel and the Rule and the miracles of the saints, to the end that their minds may be set on God, not on the meal. [5]

    Finally, there is a post in the archive on an even earlier Irish saint with an interest in collecting the relics of Ireland’s holy men and women, Saint Onchu of Clonmore. The scholiast notes on his feast day record the story of his over-enthusiasm when he insisted on collecting a finger from the still-living Saint Maedoc! As a result, Maedoc prophesied that the relic collector and his collection would never leave Clonmore. And thus the Connaght man Onchu, likened in the list of parallel saints to Saint Ambrose, came to be buried at the County Carlow monastery of Saint Maedoc.

    References

    [1] Céli Dé in Ireland: monastic writing and identity in the early Middle Ages (Boydell, 2006), 173.

    [2] Ibid, 210, footnote 246.

    [3] W. Stokes, ed. and trans., The Martyrology of Oengus the Culdee (London, 1905), 12-13.

    [4] Follett, op.cit., 180.

    [5] Ibid.

    Content Copyright © Omnium Sanctorum Hiberniae 2012-2015. All rights reserved.