OMNIUM SANCTORUM HIBERNIAE

Author: Michele Ainley

  • Saint Brendan of Birr, November 29

    November 29 is the feastday of Saint Brendan of Birr, a sixth-century saint sometimes known as Brendan the Elder to distinguish him from his younger, nautical namesake, Brendan the Navigator. The early Martyrology of Oengus pays tribute to Saint Brendan’s reputation as a prophet:

    29. The royal feast of Brenann
    of Birr, against whom
    bursts the surface of the sea:
    he was a fair diadem, noble !
    the white chief of Erin’s
    prophets.

    whilst the later Martyrology of Donegal gives an example of his prophetic gifts and mentions that in the list of parallel saints, he is equated with the apostle Bartholomew:

    29. D. TERTIO KAL. DECEMBRIS. 29.
    BRENAINN, Abbot, of Biorra, A.D. 571.

    He was of the race of [Corb, son of] Fergus, son of Ross, son of Rudhraighe; and Mannsenawas the name of his mother; and at Tamhlacht-Maoilruain both are buried. Life of Ciaran of Saighir, chap. 25. 2

    A very ancient old-vellum-book, which contains the Martyrology of Maelruain of Tamhlacht, states, that this Brenainn, i.e.,Brenainn of Biorra, had a similarity in habits and life to Partholan, i.e., Bartholomeus, the Apostle. The Life of ColumCille states, chap. 8, that Brenainn had foretold that ColumCille would be born, some time before his birth. It was he that composed this quatrain for Colum Cille; Life of Colum Cille, chap. 245:

    ” Colum Cille our master;
    A mouth that never uttered a lie;
    He shall be our senior,
    Although he be young.”

    Here is a brief account of Saint Brendan of Birr from a 19th-century ecclesiastical history of Ireland:

    Birr, in the barony of Fercall. St. Brendan, senior, of ” Biorra, or Birr,” to distinguish him from Brendan, junior, of Clonfert, was the son of Luaisrene, and is stated to have been of an illustrious family of Munster.

    He is reckoned among the relatives of St. Erc, of Slane, and the descendant of prince Corb, who resided in the Decies. Clonard was the school in which he received his education, and among the principal disciples of St. Finnian he was highly esteemed for his sanctity and supernatural gifts as a prophet. He was intimate with the Kierans, Brendan of Clonfert, and chiefly with Columbkille, to whom he rendered an important service.

    St. Adamnan relates, that a certain synod, supposed to have been held in Geashill, in the King’s county, had issued a sentence of excommunication, not a just one, however, against Columba, on account of some venial and excusable proceeding. On the arrival of Columba at the synod, Brendan, who saw him at a distance, rose up, saluted him with great respect, and embraced him. Some of the assistants or principals at the synod, taking Brendan apart, remonstrated with him for having shewn such attention to a person whom they had so severely censured. Brendan replied, “If you had seen what the Lord has been pleased to make manifest to me this day concerning this elect of his, whom you are dishonouring, you would never have passed that sentence: whereas the Lord does not in any manner excommunicate him in virtue of your wrong sentence, but rather exalts him still more and more.” They, then asking how this could have been, were assured by Brendan, that he saw a luminous pillar advancing before this man of God, when on his way, and holy angels accompanying him through the plain. Therefore, added Brendan, I dare not treat with contempt, him whom I see preordained by God, as a guide of nations unto life. Upon which the whole proceedings were withdrawn, and the whole synod paid Columba the greatest respect and veneration.

    At what precise period St. Brendan founded the monastery of Birr is not recorded. It must have been founded before the year 563, that in which St. Columba repaired to the north of Scotland. Brendan died on the 29th of November, A.D. 571. The exit of Brendan to the other life was revealed to St. Columba, then in Hy, the very moment it happened. In one of the lives of Columba it is said, that Brendan had composed some verses concerning the virtues and exemplary conduct of St. Columba, who was much esteemed by the abbot of Birr.

    Rev Thomas Walsh and D P Coyningham, Ecclesiastical History of Ireland (New York, 1898) 502-503.

    Archbishop John Healy relates that the revelation to Saint Colum Cille on Iona is not the only miraculous occurrence surrounding the death of Saint Brendan preserved in the sources:

    St. Brendan of Birr, is to be carefully distinguished from his more celebrated namesake of Clonfert. He is sometimes called Brendan the Elder—Brendanus Senior—and like Brendan of Clonfert, came of the race of Fergus MacRoy, which produced more saints and heroes than, perhaps, any of the other Celtic tribes. The two Brendans were together at Clonard under St. Finnian, and both are ranked amongst the Twelve Apostles of Erin. St. Brendan of Birr was especially remarkable for the fulness of the prophetic spirit which he possessed; and, according to one account, it was in obedience to his counsel that St. Columba, after the battle of Cuil-Dreimhne, resolved to leave Ireland, and preach the Gospel in Alba. It is said that on the same occasion he befriended Columcille at a Synod held near Teltown in Meath, where an attempt was made by some of the ‘saints’ to excommunicate Columba for his alleged share in bringing about that bloody conflict.

    It is certain that Brendan was highly esteemed by all his contemporaries, and when he founded his monastery at Biorra, or Riverstown, as it would be called in English, it soon grew to be a very celebrated institution. The Four Masters, at A.D. 553, tell us that ‘Brendan of Birr was seen ascending a chariot into the sky this year.’ This entry is not intended to signify that he died, but rather that, like St. Paul, he was taken up to heaven for a little, for his death is noticed by the same Four Masters, under date of the year A.D. 571, when they tell us that he died on the 29th of November. The real date appears to have been A.D. 573.

    Insula Sanctorum et Doctorum or Ireland’s Ancient Schools and Scholars by the Most Rev. John Healy (6th edition, Dublin, 1912), 522-523.

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  • Saints Laidhgenn, Cainneach and Accobran, November 28

    November 28 is the feast day of a trio of brothers, Laidhgenn, Cainneach and Accobran, the sons of Bochra. The Martyrology of Oengus and its accompanying gloss record:

    28. A chief trio that is not transitory,
    with Trophimus the unabating,
    Bochra’s (three) sons perennial triumph!
    from smooth Ached Rathin.

    sons of Bochrae, i.e. three brothers from Achad rathin in the Dési of Munster. Bochrae was their mother’s name. Laidgenn and Caindech and Aed-cobran their names.

    The Martyrology of Gorman records:

    The soldiers have been magnified: Bochra’s three warlike sons.

    to which the gloss has been added:

    i.e. Laidcenn, Cainnech and Accobran, from Achad Rathin in Húi meic Caille in Dési of Munster. Bochra is their mother’s name.

    In an an article on an inscribed ogham stone discovered in County Kerry in 1893, the Anglican antiquary, Bishop Graves, identified the inscription as a request for a prayer for the soul of one Comaign, son of Fitalin. His researches began with the name Fitalin as he explains:

    I lost no time in trying to find the name FITALIN in Irish hagiological and historical documents. I looked in vain in the Annals and Martyrologies, and in the different copies of the Sanctilogium Genealogicum. At last, in the treatise De Matribus Sanctorum Hiberniae (ascribed by Colgan and others to Aengus the Culdee), I lighted upon a name, Fidlin, which, as the hard t of the ancient Ogam would be softened into n in the more modern mss., can safely be identified with that which appears in the inscription. This name occurs in two passages of the treatise De Matribus, as given in the Book of Leinster:

    (1). Bochra was the mother of the three sons of Fidlin, viz. Laidcend, and Cainnech, and Aedchobran.
    (2). Bochra was the mother of the three sons of Irlamain, viz. Fidlin, and Liadnain, and Dulechain.

    The Book of Ballymote and Book of Lecan agree with the Book of Leinster as to (2) ; but in (1) they read “Bochra was the mother of the three sons of Bochra,” the names of the sons being the same. Laidhgenn, Cainneach, and Accobran, the three sons of Bochra, are commemorated on November 28, in the Martyrologies of Donegal and Tallaght, and by Marianus Gorman. In the Felire, “the sons of Bochra” are celebrated in the text on that day, while the Commentator in the Lebar Breac gives their names as above. They are described as “of Achad Raithin in Ui-mic-Caille in Deisi Mumhan.”

    Rt.Rev. Dr. Graves, On an Ogham Monument Recently Found in County Kerry in PRIA. 3rd ser: v.3 (1893), 374-379.

    Another 19th-century Anglican cleric, Sabine Baring-Gould, was confident that he had identified the last of the three sons of Bochra, Accobran, with a Saint Achebran, patron of Saint Keverne in Cornwall:

    Achebran is presumedly the Irish Aed Cobhran, one of the sons of Bochra; and his brothers were Laidcenn and Cainrech. Bochra was the name of the mother. Their father’s name is unknown. The three brothers were commemorated as Saints of Achad Raithin in Ily MacGaille, in Waterford. But Aed Cobhran had a special commemoration on January 28, as having a cell under Inis Cathy. He was consequently associated with S. Senan, if he belonged to the period. His cell was not in the island of Inis Cathy, but at Kilrush on the mainland, in Clare. He is there forgotten; there are two old churches in the place, but both are named after S. Senan. This is due to Aed Cobhran not having founded his church, but to his having occupied one belonging to S. Senan.

    It is probable that Achebran came to Cornwall along with S. Senan and the party that attended S. Breaca, and that he made his settlement in the Lizard district. Cobhran became Kevern, for the Irish bh is sounded like v. In later times he seems to have been forgotten or mistaken for S. Cieran, from whom he is wholly distinct. If we are not mistaken, he settled permanently in France, where his name was still further corrupted into Abran…

    ..The day of Aed Cobhran, as already said, in the Irish Martyrologies, is January 28, but he is also commemorated along with his brothers on November 28. In that of Donegal he is mentioned as of Cill-Ruis or Kilrush, in the county of Clare, but he is no longer there remembered. Cill-Ruis was in the diocese of Iniscathy, which seems to indicate, as already mentioned, that he was a disciple of S. Senan, who is the Cornish Sennen. He is commemorated in the Felire of Aengus, and in the Martyrology of Tallagh as well.

    S. Baring-Gould and J. Fisher, The Lives of the British Saints: the Saints of Wales and Cornwall and such Irish saints as have dedications in Britain in four volumes. Vol. I. (London, 1907), 106-7.

    I was interested to see that Canon O’Hanlon in his entry for Saint Acobran of Kilrush on January 28, makes no mention of a Cornish (much less a French) career for this saint, nor does he identify him with the son of Bochra. A modern scholar of Cornwall’s saints, Nicholas Orme, says of Saint Keverne:

    Achevran or Achovran (modern Keverne), a male saint, since at least 1086 and probably since at least the 10th century as he occurs in the early list of Cornish saints. He was probably in origin an independent figure, but by 1266 he was equated with the Irish saint Ciarán of Saighir, and by the 15th both were identified also with Piran.

    Nicholas Orme, English Church Dedications with a Survey of Cornwall and Devon (Exeter, 1996), 94.

    I don’t think therefore that we can put much trust in Baring-Gould’s thesis that Saint Acobran of Kilrush is to be equated with Acobran, one of the three sons of Bochra and with the Cornish saint Keverne. I haven’t been able to discover any further information on him or his brother saints.

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  • Saint Sechnall of Dunshaughlin, November 27

    November 27 is the feast day of a fifth-century saint – Sechnall, a bishop associated with Saint Patrick and credited with the authorship of two important hymns found in both the Irish Liber Hymnorum and the Bangor Antiphonary. I have posted a translation of the hymn to Saint Patrick here. Sechnall is perhaps better known under his Latin name Secundinus, and is one of the trio of bishops (along with Auxilius and Iserninus) said to have worked alongside our national apostle. In his commemorative volume of studies on Saint Patrick, scholar David Dumville looks at the name Secundinus and what it might tell us about the man behind it:

    Secundinus is a well known Late Latin name, a derivative of Secundus … Several known fifth-century bishops bore the name and in Gaul it continued to be used into the seventh century when we find bishops of Lyon and Sisteron called Secundinus.

    In Irish sources the vernacular name-form Sechnall is found for Secundinus. The equation has been accepted by scholars but the detailed philological history of the loan has never been worked out…

    St Sechnall is known as the patron of Dunshaughlin in Co. Meath, a short distance from Tara. His cult seems to have been attested from as early as appropriate sources are available: his feast day is 27 November. …compound personal names embodying the saint’s name were created in the central middle ages.

    On this basis, while it would be possible to allow that Bishop Secundinus could have been a literary invention of the seventh century, the existence of the vernacular name (and everything which pertains to it ) effectively disallows such speculation. It is simplest to suppose that Secundinus was a fifth-century cleric (though not necessarily a bishop) who worked in Ireland; it is at least possible that he was a Continental and could thus be assigned to a date as early as the mid-fifth century if we associate him with the Palladian Church. The possibility is not to be excluded, however, that he was a Christian and perhaps a cleric of the earlier time…

    D.N. Dumville (ed.), Saint Patrick A.D. 493-1993 (Boydell Press, 1993), 99-100.

    Saint Sechnall is honoured in the Martyrology of Saint Aengus with this entry, which mentions his authorship of the hymn in praise of Saint Patrick:

    B. v. cal. Decembris.

    27. A stream of wisdom with
    splendour, Sechnall diadem of
    our lords, has chanted a melody
    noble profit ! a praise of
    Patrick of Armagh.

    The later scholiast adds another note on the same theme but attributes the saint’s origin to Lombardy and makes him not merely the hymnographer of Saint Patrick, but also his nephew:

    27. Sechnall, i.e. from Domnach Sechnall in the south of Bregia.

    He spread (?) a road, great his choice,
    Sechnall, diadem of our sages,
    throughout Erin’s host, beautiful, blessed,
    the praise of Patrick of Armagh.

    i.e. a son of Patrick’s sister, i.e. from Domnach Sechnaill in Fir Breg, and of the Lombards of Italy was he. He was sprung from Lombardy, and there his name was Secundinus.

    The later Martyrology of Donegal repeats that Saint Secundinus is a blood relative of Saint Patrick, but adds that in the list of parallel saints he is equated with Saint Hilary, another revered episcopal hymnographer:

    27. B. QUINTO KAL. DECEMBRIS. 27.

    SEACHNALL, i.e., Secundinus, Primate of Ard-Macha. He was the son of Liamhain, sister of Patrick ; and at Domnach Sechnaill, in Bregia, his church is. The Life of Patrick states, book 2, chap. 25, 3 that Patrick erected a church at the place where Secundinus used to pray alone under a leafy tree, and that the sign of the cross is in that place, i.e., at Topar Mucna, in Connacht, as is understood from the Acts of Patrick.

    A very ancient old-vellum-book, spoken of at Brighit, 1st of February, and at Patrick, 17th of March, states, that Bishop Sechnall had a similarity in morals and life to Hilarius, bishop and sage.

    We conclude with an account of Saint Seachnall from Father Cogan’s 1862 diocesan history of Meath:

    The first notice of Dunshaughlin which occurs in our annals a very remarkable one indeed is its connection with St. Seachnall. In fact it owes its origin to this saint, and derives its name from him “Domhnach (Dominica) and Seachnall or Seachlann” – St. Seachnall’s Church. St. Seachnall or Secundius was a native of Gall, and son of Restitutus, a Lombard, by, it is said, Liemania, otherwise named Darerca, who is usually said to have been sister to St. Patrick. According to Tirechan’s list, Secundinus and Auxilius, his brother, were disciples of St. Patrick, and seem to have accompanied him from the commencement of his mission to Ireland. After a few years they were sent to Britain or Gaul to be consecrated, as, according to the established usage of the Church, three bishops are required for the consecration of another. The Annals of Ulster and Innisfallen remark, at A.D. 439, that the Bishops Secundinus, Auxilius, and Isserninus, were sent this year to aid St. Patrick. St. Seachnall fixed his see at Dunshaughlin, and was reputed a very wise, prudent, and holy man. In the Four Masters he is called “St. Patrick’s bishop without fault”. So high was the opinion St. Patrick had of him that when he went to preach the Gospel in Leinster and Munster, he appointed St. Seachnall to preside over the converts of Meath and the North. Hence he is called St. Patrick’s vicar or suffragan. It is recorded that on one occasion he expressed disapprobation at St. Patrick’s extreme disinterestedness in refusing presents from the wealthy, by means of which he could support the religious converts who might be in distress. On St. Patrick explaining his reasons St. Seachnall asked forgiveness, and composed a hymn in his honour which, most probably, was the first Christian Latin hymn composed in Ireland. It has been published by Father Colgan, and republished by Ware, who calls it an alphabetical hymn, because the strophes, consisting each of four lines, begin with the letters of the alphabet, following in order. It appears too in the ancient Antiphonarium Benchorense, a work certainly beyond one thousand years old, which has been republished by Muratori. There are different readings in the various editions, but substantially the same. St. Seachnall’s hymn is frequently referred to in our ancient writers, and many favours are promised to those who reverently recite it. After a holy and edifying life, his suffraganship having lasted for six years, St. Seachnall died on the 27th of November, 448, in the seventy-fifth year of his age, and was interred in his own church of Dunshaughlin. He was the first bishop who died in Ireland, and has been held in special reverence throughout the diocese of Meath. As an instance of this, the name Maol-Seachlan (servant of St. Seachnall) was common amongst the ancient Irish (but particularly in the royal race of Meath. The O’Maolseachlains, or O’Melaghlins, who belonged to the great branch of the Southern Hy-Nialls or Clan Colman, took their name from their ancestor Maolseachlain (Latinised Malachias and Anglicised Maiachy), who again took his name from the first Bishop of Dunshaughlin. This name O’Maelseachlain has been Anglicised MacLoughlin since the reign of Queen Anne.

    Rev. A. Cogan, The Diocese of Meath Ancient and Modern. Vol. I. (Dublin and London, 1862), 55-57.

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