OMNIUM SANCTORUM HIBERNIAE

Author: Michele Ainley

  • Saint Berehert of Tullylease, December 6

    The Berechtuine Stone

    December 6 is the feast of another saint whose identity and day of commemoration raise the same sort of difficulties as that of Saint Gobban – Saint Berehert founder of a monastery at Tullylease, County Cork.

    The Martyrology of Donegal records:

    6. D. OCTAVO IDUS DECEMBRIS. 6

    BERETCHERT, of Tulach-leis.

    but gives no further details. So what else do we know of this saint? Below is a short paper on Saint Berehert which summarizes some of the sources for his life. I originally sourced this from the Tullylease parish website but can no longer find a working link:

    St. Berehert of Tullylease
    by V. Rev. Robert Forde, P.E. 

    At the Synod of Whitby, in northern England, held in 664 A.D., the majority of those present voted to accept the Roman system for deciding the date of Easter. St. Colman, Abbott-Bishop of Lindisfarne with others disagreed and decided to return to Ireland where they established two monasteries, one for the English monks in Mayo and an island monastery for the Irish monks. 

    Tradition tells us that a young Saxon Prince from Winchester left the group, travelled across Ireland and came to Tullylease, which was then a stronghold of Druidism. Despite firm opposition he established a large monastery which lasted for over 700 years – he was named Berehert. 

    In the Annals of the Four Masters the death of Berichter is recorded ‘Berichter of Tullach-leis died on 6 December, 839.’ If this entry is accurate, the monastery founded by Berehert, almost 150 years before, was well established, and here we commemorate a later Abbot. 

    In 1230 we find the following entry in the Annals: ‘A holy monk, chief Master of Carpenters in Tullach-leis died today’. This entry is important as it clearly shows the extent and the national reputation of the schools and workshops of Tullylease monastery.
    The Monastery also excelled at metalwork. The beautiful cover of St. Patrick’s Bell, now in the National Museum, was decorated by a family of Noonans, who were closely associated with Tullylease. 

    The Berechtuine Stone 

    The Monastery had large stone-carving workshops. Many of these stones are still extant. The most famous is the Berechtuine Stone, incised with a Greek cross, expertly carved and ornamented, with inscriptions in Latin and Greek. The Greek text reads : ‘XPS’ which is the abbreviation for Christus or Christ. The other corner of the stone is missing and probably contained the Greek letters for Jesus.’ IHS’ 

    The Latin inscription translates: ‘Whoever reads this inscription, let him pray for Berechtuine.” For many years, it was accepted that Berechtuine was another name for Berehert and this beautiful monument was erected to honour the Founder. A long article by Professor Henderson of Cambridge and Professor Okasha of University College, Cork on the carved stones of Tullylease showed conclusively that they were two separate people. Therefore, we honour two saints in Tullylease! 

    This Berechtuine Stone is dated about 800 A.D. The extant monastic buildings that we see today date from about 1200 to 1500 

    About 1200, the Monastery took the ‘Rule of The Canons Regular of St. Augustine’ and in 1415, Henry IV annexed the Monastery to the Priory of Kells in Kilkenny. From Tullylease, at least five other churches were founded in Munster, and probably a foundation in Leinster and one in Connaught. 

    In 1993, the historian Dr. Daphne Pochin Mould took an aerial photo of the site in mid-December, on a clear frosty evening. A large portion of the ‘massive external enclosure bank of the early monastic site’ showed clearly on photo. It is now possible to trace the external original boundaries of the monastery. 

    The people of Tullylease are very proud of the Monastery. They take great care of it, and they are most grateful that Bishop Magee chose the Tullylease as a special place of Pilgrimage for Jubilee 2000.

    Now this writer has established two conflicting traditions about Saint Berehert, one that he was a Saxon prince who came to Ireland after the Synod of Whitby and the other that he was a 9th-century monastic bearing the same name as his founder. But there is a further complication as Saint Berehert has also been identified with a saint commemorated on 18 February. This is a Saint Nem, Bishop of Drum Bertach, an even earlier figure associated with Saint Patrick. O’Hanlon in his entry for 18 February records:

    St. Nem, Bishop of Drum Berthach. This holy man is entered in the “Martyrology of Tallagh,” as Nem, Bishop of Droma Bertach. By some writers, this saint has been confounded with a St. Beretchert, Berichter or Berechtuine, of Tullylease, county of Cork—thought to be locally called St. Ben or St. Benjamin. This identification, however, admits of very great doubt. The Martyrology of Donegal records on this day Nem, Bishop of Drum Berthach. It seems difficult to identify this place, but, very possibly, it may be in or near Tullylease. We may ask, too, if the St. Nem of our Calendars could have been corrupted into the local pronunciation of Ben. This seems, at least, possible. Colgan thinks, the present saint may have been St. Patrick’s disciple, who was set over Tullachrise, in the diocese of Connor. It is said to have been one of the churches St. Patrick erected in Dalaradia. Under the head of Druim-bertach, Duald Mac Firbis records, Nemh, Bishop of Druim Bertach, at February the 18th.

    There is thus no doubt that a Saint Nem is commemorated on February 18 but how he became identified with our Saint Berehert is unclear. Interestingly, O’Hanlon also records that:

    ‘Every male child, born on St. Berechert’s day, is called by his name, which is regarded as the Irish for Benjamin. We are told, that from remote times, the saint’s day has been unaccountably transferred from the 6th of December to the 18th of February. At the former date, we shall have more to state, in reference to St. Berechert.’

    Alas, O’Hanlon did not live to publish his December volume so we cannot know what other evidence he might have presented.

    So, it would seem that we cannot identify the person of Saint Berehert commemorated on December 6 with any certainty. I am intrigued by the process which has led the monastic founder of Tullylease to be identified with a 5th-century Patrician Bishop, a seventh-century Saxon refugee and a ninth-century Irish monastic. Which is the real Saint Berehert? I’m not sure if we can ever know.

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  • Saint Colmán ua hEirc, December 5

    We can add Saint Colmán ua hEirc to the long list of Irish saints of this name with a commemoration found on the Irish calendars at December 5. This Saint Colmán is associated with the great Saint Erc of Slane as the Martyrology of Gorman makes clear in its entry for the day:

    5. c.

    Colman ua hEirc oebgel

    which is translated as ‘beautiful, bright Colman, Erc’s descendant.’

    The Martyrology of Donegal simply records the name Colman Ua h-Eirc at this date. It is possible, since the abbatial succession in Irish monasteries was often kept within families, that our saint could be an actual as well as a spiritual successor to Saint Erc of Slane. In a compendium of entries relating to Slane taken from the various Irish annals the Meath diocesan historian, Father Cogan, records more than one successor to Saint Erc who bore this name including: 

    746. Colman of the Britons, Abbot of Slane, died.

    823. Colman, son of Oiliolla, Abbot of Slane, and also of other churches in France and Ireland, died.

    838. Colman, Abbot of Slane, died.

    946. Colman, airchinneach of Slane, was slain by the foreigners.

    Rev. A. Cogan, The Diocese of Meath – Ancient and Modern, Volume I. (Dublin, 1862), 63.
    I cannot, of course, equate any of these individuals with the saint Colmán ua hEirc, commemorated on December 5.

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

  • Saint Berchán of Clúain Sosta, December 4

    On 4 December the Martyrology of Oengus first commemorates two martyrs of the universal church and then records:

    one of our noble elders was the
    modest Fer da lethe (‘ man of two parts ‘).

    The scholiast notes:

    Fer da lethe, ‘man of two parts,’ i.e. Berchán of Clúain Sosta in Offaly. Or Fer da lethe in Laid Treoit in Scotland. A priest was he.
    Man of two parts, i.e. half of his life in the world and the other half in pilgrimage, ut ferunt periti.

    The later Martyrology of Donegal elevates the priest to the status of Bishop but retains the title ‘man of two parts’:

    4. B. PRIDIE NONIS DECEMBRIS. 4.

    BEARCHAN, Bishop and Apostle of God, of Cluain-sosta, in Ui-Failghe. He was of the race of Cairbre Righfoda, son of Conaire, who is of the seed of Heremon. Ferdaleithe was another name for him, i.e., he spent half his life in Alba, and the other half in Erin, as he himself said :

    ” At first we were in Alba,
    The next first in Meath;
    Truly it was not foolish sleep that I went bent on,
    I did not find the face of a hero by sleeping.”

    and a later hand has added this note:

    [” The four prophets of the fine Gaels,
    Better of it the country whence they came,
    Colum Cille, Moling the perfect,
    Brenainn of Biorr, and Berchan.”]

    The man of two parts, perhaps appropriately, also has two feastdays. The Martyrology of Tallaght commemorates Berchán of Clúain Sosta on August 4. The existence of two separate feastdays has not been explained, it is interesting though that in Clonsast the people gathered at the holy well of Saint Berchán on 3rd December, which would be the eve of his feast on the 4th. Below is a summary of his life which accepts the August date as his feastday:

    Berchán Scottish bishop, poet and prophet c.770

    According to the Book of Leinster, Berchán, son of Muiredach was the great-grandson of Ainbcellach, a Scots king of Cenél Loairn who seized the Dál Riata kingship in 697-8 and who died in 719. Berchán became a cleric and settled in Ireland at Clonsast (Cluain Sosta) Co. Offaly, where he founded a monastery. He was remembered in Gaelic tradition as a prophetic writer and he is best known as the apocryphal author of the Prophecy of Berchán – a 12th-century Middle Irish poem of some 204 stanzas alleging to predict the quality and length of reigns of Scottish and Irish kings, beginning with the time of Columba and Áedán mac Gabhráin, and ending with Donald Bán (1093-7) son of Duncan I. Although the prophecies in the Scottish section are attributed to a fifth-century author, it seems clear that Berchán of Clúain Sosta was the person to whom the poem was originally attributed. Berchán is supposed to have uttered the first half of the work in c.718 and to have died c.778 which is not impossible if he were the great-grandson of Ainbcellach of Dál Riata. Although the earliest manuscript of the Prophecy dates to the 18th century, fragments of the work are preserved in the Book of Leinster, c. 1170, and the poem is seen as an 11th-century compilation. Berchán’s festival was kept on 4 August. His name may be commemorated in the Scottish placename of Kilbarchan in Renfrew, while St. Braghan’s Well survived at Clonsast into modern times. Berchán’s nickname of fer-dá-leithe (Man of Two Portions) was explained in medieval tradition as referring to his two careers – one in Ireland and the other in his Scottish homeland.

    A. Williams, A.P. Smyth and D.P.Kirby, A Biographical Dictionary of Dark Age Britain: England Scotland and Wales c. 500-c. 1050 (1991), 61.

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