OMNIUM SANCTORUM HIBERNIAE

Author: Michele Ainley

  • Saint Ecbrit the Saxon, December 8

    There is a rather intriguing saint who occupies the entire entry of the Martyrology of Oengus for  December 8:

    8. The triumph of humble Egbert,
    who came over the great sea:
    unto Christ he sang a prayer
    in a hideless coracle.

    The scholiast has noted:

    8. Ichtbrichtan, i.e. from Diln Geimin in Ciannachta of Glenn Geimin, or in Mayo of the Saxons, in the west of Connaught. Or in Connaught, i.e. in Mayo of the Saxons in Cera. Vel in alio loco diuersi diuerse sentiunt. Or of Tulach leis of the Saxons in Munster, and Bercert is his name. Or Icht-ber etc., i.e. Ichtbricht who is in Tech Saxan (‘the House of the Saxons’) in Hui Echach of Munster, and he is a brother of Benedict of Tulach leis of the Saxons. And a brother of theirs is Cuithbrecht, and in the east [i.e. in Britain] he remained.

    ‘Mayo of the Saxons’ is inextricably linked to the Paschal Dating Controversy, as following the adoption of the Roman method of calculating the date of Easter at the Synod of Whitby in 664, Saint Colman of Lindisfarne led a group of monastics unwilling to accept the new practice back to the west of Ireland. Saint Colman founded a monastery on the Island of Inisboffin where he and his brethern, which included a number of Saxon monks, could continue with the Irish practices but tensions arose and eventually a separate foundation was made on the mainland. This was known as Mágh nEó na Saxan or Mayo of the Saxons. Mayo of the Saxons developed quite a reputation as a monastic school under the leadership of Saint Gerald and continued to attract English students.

    As we have seen from the scholiast’s notes above though, there is some uncertainty as to where exactly our saint Ecbrit or Egbert fits into the picture. His memory was certainly passed on, for the Martyrology of Marianus O’Gorman also records ‘Ecbyrht’ on this day and the Martyrology of Donegal has a note on ‘ECBRIT, or Icbrit. Marianus. He seems English’ added by a later hand. The earlier scholiast raised the possibility that this Saint Ecbrit may be related to Berechert of Tullylease, who is commemorated on December 6. In my post on Saint Berechert, whose identity is equally problematic, there was mention of a tradition that he was one of three Saxon brothers. The translator of the Martyrology of Oengus, Whitley Stokes, however, raises another possibility in his index to the work:

    Ichtbrichtan, Dec. 8, pp. 256, 258, probably the Northumbrian Egcberct who persuaded the community of Hi to adopt, the catholic Easter and the coronal tonsure, Baeda H.E. III. 4, v. 9, 22, Reeves Col. 379.

    Now this Northumbrian saint does have a distinct identity recorded in the sources. Below is an account of him from Archbishop John Healy’s work on the monastic schools of Ireland:

    Another eminent saint and scholar of foreign origin .. was Egbert of Northumbria. Bede gives a very interesting account of this eminent man. He was sprung from the nobility of Northumbria, and appears to have been born in A.D. 639.

    With another young noble named Ethelun, Egbert went over to Ireland, like the crowds of his countrymen, ‘to pursue divine studies, and lead a continent life.’ They sojourned in the monastery, called in Irish Rathmelsigi… Colgan says that this monastery of Rathmelsigi was in Connaught ; but he does not specify, and probably did not know, the exact locality. In the Martyrology of Donegal, we find reference to “Colman Rath-Maoilsidhe ” (at Dec. 14th ) which is in all probability the monastery referred to by Colgan. This Colman is different from Colman of Innisbofin, whose festival day is the 8th of August. It is not improbable that his monastery was situated at the place called Rath-maoil, or Rath-Maoilcath, both of which were situated near Ballina, on the right bank of the Moy. Everything points to the fact that most of the young Northumbrian nobles and ceorls, who came to the West of Ireland in crowds at this period, landed in the estuary of the Moy, and then going southward, took up their abode, or founded their religious houses wherever they could obtain suitable accommodation. St. Gerald’s Abbey of Mayo was not then established (in a.d. 664) ; and so Egbert and his companions put themselves under the guidance of St. Colman, or some of his successors, in this monastery of Rath-Maoilsidhe.

    Just then the terrible Yellow Plague made its appearance in Ireland, and carries off one-half of its population. All the companions of Egbert and Ethelun were cut off by the plague ; and now they themselves were attacked, and became grievously ill. Then Egbert, whilst he had yet a little strength remaining, rose up in the morning, and going out of the chamber of the sick, he sat down alone, and began to think of his past sins ; and he asked God’s pardon for them with many tears. He prayed, too, earnestly that God would not yet take him out of the world, but would give him time to atone by his good works for the sins of his youth. And if God deigned to hear his prayer, he vowed never to return again to his native Britain, but to live as a pilgrim in some strange land ; and, moreover, to recite the Psalter dailv, and to fast continuously for twenty-four hours once a week. When he returned to the sick chamber, Ethelun, his companion, was asleep ; but presently awaking, he told Egbert that his prayer was heard by God ; then he gently rebuked him, for he had hoped that together they would go into life everlasting. Next day Ethelun died ; but Egbert recovered from his sore sickness, and lived to be ninety years of age, when he departed from this life.

    He was ordained a priest; “and his life,” says Bede,”adorned the priesthood, for he lived in the practice of humility, meekness, continence, justice, and all other virtues.”He loved the Irish greatly, and lived amongst them for fifty years (a.d. 664-715), preaching the Gospel, teaching in his monastery, reproving the bad, and encouraging the good by the bright example of his blameless life. He not only kept his vow, but he added to it, says Bede ; for during the whole Lent he took but one meal in the day, and that was nothing but bread in limited quantity, and thin milk from which the cream had been skimmed off. Whatever he got from others—and he got much—he gave to the poor.

    For many years he had been resolving in his mind to sail round Britain, and go to Germany to preach the Gospel to the pagan tribes who dwelt there, and who were kindred to his own nation of the Angles. But God had willed otherwise. There was in Egbert’s monastery an old monk who had many years before been minister to Boisil, Abbot of Melrose, an Irish foundation in Scotland. Now one morning after matins, Boisil appeared to this aged monk, who at once recognised his old master, and commanded him to tell Egbert that it was God’s will that he should give up his proposed journey to Germany, and go rather to instruct the Columbian monasteries in the right method of keeping Easter, and of tonsuring the head.

    Egbert fearing that this vision might be a delusion, still continued his preparations for Germany, and did not obey the direction given by Boisil. Then that saint appeared for a second time to his minister, and commanded him to make known to Egbert, in a more imperative way, what it was God willed him to do. ” Let him go at once,” he said, ” to Columba’s monastery of Hy, because their ploughs do not go straight, and he will bring them into the right way.” Moreover, the ship in which he was preparing to set out for Germany was wrecked in a storm, and thrown upon the shore, leaving, however, his effects intact. Egbert, taking this as a further manifestation of the Divine will, gave up his project of going to Germany, and set sail for Iona. Wictbert, however, one of his associates in religion in Ireland, went in his stead, and for two years preached the Gospel in Friesland, but reaped no harvest of success amongst the pagans. So he returned once again to Ireland, and gave himself up to serve God during the rest of his life, as he was wont to do before his departure, in great purity and austerity; “so that if he could not be profitable to others by teaching them the faith, he took care to be useful to his own beloved (Irish) people by the example of his virtues.”

    Now when this holy father and priest, Egbert, beloved of God, and worthy to be named with all honour, came to the monastery of Iona, he was honourably and joyfully received by the community. He was also a diligent teacher, and carried out his precepts by his example, so that he was willingly listened to by all the members of the community. The effect of his frequent instructions and pious exhortations, was that at length the community of Hy consented to give up the inveterate tradition of their ancestors in religion, and adopt the new discipline, which by this time had been received everywhere else throughout the Irish Church. Now surely, this was, as Bede observes, a wonderful dispensation of Providence, that these very monks of Iona, who were the first to preach the Gospel in Northumbria, should afterwards be persuaded by this Northumbrian priest to accept the correct discipline and true rule of spiritual life. And stranger still, it was on Easter Day, the 24th of April, a.d. 729, that this man of God went to his eternal rest ; whereas, but for his exertions, that Easter festival would not have been duly celebrated on that day, but, in accordance with the unreformed system, would have been celebrated in that year towards the end of March, whilst the rest of the Church was observing the fast of Lent.

    Insula Sanctorum et Doctorum or Ireland’s Ancient Schools and Scholars by the Most Rev. John Healy (6th edition, Dublin, 1912), 591-593.

    So here we have a Saint Egbert, an Englishman who comes to study in the west of Ireland and who is clearly linked to the Paschal Dating Controversy. Yet the one obvious difficulty in being able to accept Stokes’ identification with our saint is that this individual is said to have died on the very day of Pascha itself, whereas the Irish sources commemorate him on December 8. There is also no mention of this Saint Egbert being one of a number of brothers.

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

  • Feast of the Birth of Saint Colum Cille, December 7

    December 7 marks the feast of the birth of Saint Colum Cille (Columba), an event still remembered in the oral tradition and locality of Gartan, County Donegal. Another account of this feast can be read at my other site here, but below is an account of Gartan and its famous son from a 19th-century antiquarian guidebook.

    GARTAN

    St. Columbkille was born at Gartan, in the territory of Tirconnell, near the base of the Glendowan mountains.

    Manus O’Donnell chief of Tir-Connell, who died in 1532, has furnished the fullest collection of the acts of St. Columba, the patron saint of Tir-Connell… Manus O’Donnell records how it was he who had ordered the part of this life which was in Latin, to be put into Gaelic, and who ordered the part that was difficult (i.e. very ancient Irish,) to be modified, and who gathered and put together the parts scattered through the old books of Erin, and who dictated it out of his own mouth with great labour and a great expenditure of time in studying and arranging all its parts, as they are left here in writing by us, in love and friendship for his illustrious Saint, Relative and Patron, to whom he was devoutly attached”.

    In this work Manus O’Donnell describes the territory of Gartan. “That land, Gartan, which lies in the County of Tir-Connell is desolate, even to the appearance of a wilderness, on account of the very lofty mountains which take up its whole extent to the north, but a declivity which is adjacent to the more cultivated plains and exposed to the rays of the sun, and lakes situate at the foot thereof, render it most delightful in the Summer season”.

    LOUGH BEAGH

    St. Columbcille was born on the 7th December, A.D. 519 (as Colgan, has the date), O’Donnell gives 520, and Reeves gives 521, as that most likely to be the true period; he was forty-two years of age when he removed to lona; his death occurring there thirty-four years later.

    Around Gartan as the birth-place of St. Columbcille, shall always be centered a portion of the interest and veneration that is attached to his name.

    The parish of Gartan extends north to Calabbar Bridge, where the road to Dunlewy branches off. Its western boundary skirts west of the Dooish mountain, as it rises 1994 feet over the waters of Lough Glen-Veagh. Through a chasm formed by some mighty convulsion, the Lough extends for a distance of about three and a-half miles in length, by an average of about four hundred and fifty yards in breadth. Here is ‘ Lone Glenveagh”. The weird beauty of the place must be seen, it cannot be painted or sufficiently described…

    …As we proceed south, its eastern confine passes through the centre of Lough Kibbon, (a corruption of its Irish name Loch-mhic-Ciabain) we reach Gartan Loch, or Lough Beagh, sheltering amidst the more “cultivated plains”, mentioned in 1532 by Manus O’Donnell. This Lough extends in a south-westerly direction about two and a-half miles, with a more sinuous foreground, and is from a quarter to half a mile in width. Here on its banks St. Columbcille was born.

    The lines of St. Mura of Fahan cited by O’Donnell and the O’Clery’s are: “He was born at Gartan by his consent; And he was nursed at Cill-mic Neoin [Kilmacrennan] and the son of goodness was baptized at Tulach Dubhglaise [Temple-Douglas] of God”.

    Dr. Reeves observes that the local traditions decidedly confirm this Irish account. The writer, several years ago traversed every spot of this district, and stood on the flagstone pointed out by the people as St. Columbkille’s Stone, that marks the place where it is traditionally stated he was born. This stone is to be seen to the S.W., in the townland of Lacoo.

    The stone is about eighteen feet in circumference, and is indented with about sixty holes of average depth of two and a half inches. The flagstone itself is about six inches thick.

    W.J. Doherty, Inis-Owen and Tirconnell – being some account of Antiquities and Writers of the County of Donegal (Dublin, 1895), 13-16.

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

  • 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.

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