OMNIUM SANCTORUM HIBERNIAE

Author: Michele Ainley

  • Saint Maedóc of Lismore, December 29

    December 29 is the feast day of a saint of the monastery of Lismore, Saint Maedóc. In the Irish annals the successors to Saint Carthage of Lismore are sometimes styled as abbots and sometimes as bishops. The Martyrology of Donegal gives our saint the latter title:

    29. F. QUARTO KAL. JANUARII. 29.

    MAEDHOG, Bishop, of Lis-mór.

    Here is a brief reminder of the history of Lismore and its founder:

    The church and monastery of Lismore, which grew to be one of the renowned centres of ancient Irish learning and piety, owed its foundation to St. Mochuda of the 7th century. Mochuda, otherwise Carthage, was a native of Kerry, and he had been abbot of Rahan in Offaly. It is probable that there had been a Christian church at Lismore previous to the time of Mochuda, for in the Saint’s Life there is an implied reference to such a foundation. Be this as it may, Mochuda, driven out of Rahan, with his muintir, or religious household, migrated southward, and, having crossed the Blackwater at Affane, established himself at Lismore in 630. In deference to Mochuda’s place of birth the saint’s successor in Lismore was, for centuries, a Kerryman. Lismore grew in time to be a great religious city, and a school of sacred sciences, to which pilgrims from all over Ireland and scholars from beyond the seas resorted. The rulers of the great establishment were all, or most of them, bishops, though they are more generally styled abbots by the Annalists. Among the number are several who are listed as Saints by the Irish Martyrologies, scil:

    Maedoc, bishop of Lismore … . .. Nov. 29.

    Rev. Patrick Power, Waterford & Lismore – A Compendious History of the United Dioceses (Cork, 1937), 5-6.

    Not for the first time I notice that Father Power’s quotation of the feast days from the Martyrologies seems to be out, for in both the Martyrology of Donegal and in the Martyrology of Gorman our saint is listed at December 29 and not November. I assume this is a typo.

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  • Saint Iarlaithe of Tuam, December 26

    Although his feast is now celebrated on June 6 in Ireland, the Irish calendars record the commemoration of Saint Iarlaithe (Iarlath, Jarlath) of Tuam at December 26. The Martyrology of Donegal makes mention of his reputation for ascetic
    spiritual practices as well as for prophecy. The entry ends with an
    intriguing prediction that ‘three heretical bishops’ would be among his successors before Mael, ‘the first powerful man’ would make things right once again:

    26. C. SEPTIMO KAL. JANUARII. 26.

    IARLAITHE, Bishop, of Tuaim-da-Ualann, in Connacht. He was of the race
    of Conmac, son of Fergus, son of Ross, son of Rudhraighe, from whom the
    Clanna-Rudhraighe are called; and Mongfinn, daughter of Ciordubhan, of
    the Cinel Cinnenn, was his mother. He used to perform three hundred
    genuflexions every night, and three hundred genuflexions every day, as
    Cuimin, of Coindeire, states. Thus he says :

    ” The noble Iarlaithe loves,
    A cleric who practised not penury,
    Three hundred genuflexions each night,
    Three hundred genuflexions each day.”

    It was Iarlaithe that predicted every bishop that would come after him
    at Tuaim. And he predicted that Mael would come after the three
    heretical bishops who were in his city, &c. This is the quatrain
    which speaks of the Mael, viz. : 

    “The Mael the first powerful man.”

     Below is an account of Tuam from the Moran edition of Archdall’s Monasticon Hibernicum, which contains some interesting information on the rediscovery of the relics of Saint Iarlaithe in the seventeenth century:

    St. Jarlath is said to have made it a cathedral in the beginning of the sixth century; and it is also said that a city was built here in honour of this exemplary bishop. His remains were preserved at Tuam, in a chapel called Temple-na-scrin, i.e. the church of the shrine. After the death of this saint, we meet with three persons who are expressly said to have been abbots of Tuam, viz.: Cellach, son of Eochad, who died in the year 808; Nuadat Hua Bolchain, abbot and anchorite, who died 3rd October, 877; and Cornac, son of Kieran, abbot of Tuam and prior of Clonfert, who died in 879.

    The festival of St. Jarlathe, now kept on the 6th of June, is marked in our calendars on the 26th of December, on which day he is commemorated in the Martyrology of Donegal. He was born in the 5th century, and is said to have received in his childhood the blessing of St. Benignus, of Armagh. He established a religious house at Cluainfos. i.e., “the valley of retreat,” about a mile from the present town of Tuam, and subsequently erected the church and monastery of Tuam. St. Jarlathe was remarkable for his austerities, and in the poem of St. Cuimin of Connor, on the characteristic virtues of the Irish saints, he is styled “one who practised not penury,” and who made three hundred genuflections each day, and the same each night He died about the year 540. His relics were preserved in a rich shrine in a separate church, thence called Skreen, in the town of Tuam. Dr. John Lynch, writing in 1672, describes a portion of the old walls of this Skreen as still standing, though the place was then used as a barn. He adds that in the beginning of the century, while some men were engaged in threshing corn, they remarked something shining in the floor; removing the clay, they found a rich ornamental case enclosing the relics of St. Jarlathe — ” Cupream thecam quinquangularem S. Hierathii Reliquias includentem:” this was brought to Dr. Daniel, the Protestant Archbishop, who privately handed it over to the Roman Catholic Vicar-General, Francis Kerevan, by whom it was consigned to a good Catholic family for safe keeping. Colgan speaks of these relics as still preserved in his time. During the episcopate of Aed O’Hoisin, the cathedral was built through the munificence of Turlogh O’Connor, Monarch of Ireland.

    Rt. Rev. P.F. Moran, ed., M.Archdall, Monasticon Hibernicum, Volume II, (Dublin, 1876), 225-227.

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  • Saint Temnióc of Clonfert, December 23

    23. The passion of eight hundred fair martyrs with sixty noble ones who were slain: with my Temnióc of the king-folk of truly good Clúain fertae.

    Thus does the Martyrology of Oengus read for December 23. The scholiast tells us a little more about ‘my Temnióc’:

    23. Temneóc i.e. from Clúain ferta Molua, i.e. the cook of Molua of Clúain ferta.

    Saint Molua was the founder of a monastery at Clonfert-Molua or Clonfert-Mulloe as it is also known. There is an entry for his life here. Our saint was a member of the monastic household. Archbishop John Healy in his classic survey of the monastic schools of Ireland has this to say about Saint Temnióc’s domain – the monastic kitchen:

    One of the most necessary buildings for a laura or monastery was the kitchen — the cuicin in Irish, or culina in Latin. St. Patrick’s ‘kitchen’ at Armagh was seventeen feet long,and is spoken of as one of the principal buildings within the lis, or monastic enclosure. The Tripartite Life of the Saint in the same place tells us that the Great House was twenty- seven feet in length, and consequently much longer than the ‘ kitchen’ with which it seems to have been connected. The Great House—if not the church—was in all probability the refectory or dining-room, which is more generally and appropriately called in Irish, the proinn-teach, or dinner-house. It is doubtful if we have any specimens of the Refectories or Kitchens of our earliest monasteries still surviving, because as a rule they were composed of perishable materials…..

    The ordinary meal for the ‘family’ was barley or oaten bread, with milk when it could be had, and a little fish, perhaps sometimes eggs. Flesh meat was rarely allowed except on high festival days or when distinguished strangers came to the monastery. The brethren were then allowed a share of the good cheer provided for the strangers. There was, however, except for those labouring in the fields, only one meal in the day — the Columban Rule borrowed from Bangor expressly says that the fare was to be plain and taken only in the evening, that is, after noon. Vegetables, porridge, and baked bread are the principal items mentioned as allowable, and barely as much as would support life. Excessive abstinence from food, however, was to be deemed a vice, not a virtue; but to some extent a monk was to fast every day. The ‘order of refection, and of the refectory,’ is one of the most interesting portions of the Rule of St. Carthach of Lismore. He allows an ample meal for the workman and special delicacies for the sick. On Sundays and other festivals of the year, especially on the greater festivals, meals were increased.’ From Easter to Pentecost was also a season of full meals “without fasting, heavy labour, or great vigils.” The Summer and Winter Lent are more bitter to laics than to monks, for to the latter all seasons should be as Lent. The meal was to be at vesper time only, except from Easter to St. John’s Day, when a refection was also allowed at noon. The bell was to be the signal for the meal, but first there was a Pater with three genuflections in the church; then the meal was blessed. Alleluia was sung, and a benediction pronounced by the Senior, who said, “God bless you.” The meal was followed by thanksgiving, after which all retired to their cell for private prayer preparatory to vespers. Wednesday and Friday were generally fast days.

    Insula Sanctorum et Doctorum or Ireland’s Ancient Schools and Scholars by the Most Rev. John Healy (6th edition, Dublin, 1912), 96, 101-2.

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