OMNIUM SANCTORUM HIBERNIAE

Author: Michele Ainley

  • Saint Banbán of Leighlin, November 26

     

    A saintly bishop, Banbán of Leighlin, is commemorated on the Irish calendars on November 26. The earliest, the Martyrology of Oengus, records him as:

    ‘Banbán a sparkling mass of gold’ 

    and the scholiast notes add:

    ‘Banbán, i.e. bishop of Lethglenn’.

    The 12th-century Martyrology of Gorman records him as:

    ‘vigorous Banbán’ 

    and it too has a gloss:

    ‘bishop of Lethglenn: of the Corco-Duibni was he’.

    The 17th-century Martyrology of Donegal combines the information in its entry:

    26. A. SEXTO KAL. DECEMBRIS. 26.

    BANBHAN, Bishop, of Lethghlinn. He was of the Corca Duibhne.

    I was hoping that I might be able to find some further information in the diocesan history of Kildare and Leighlin by the Rev. Michael Comerford, but he makes no mention of our bishop in the list of those who occupied this see. A note by the translator of the Annals of Ulster says that:

    The Felire of Oengus at 26 November mentions a Banbán, Bishop of Leighlin, of the Corco-Duibhne, who is not noticed in Ware’s list of the bishops of that diocese.

    and warns that our saint of 26 November should not be confounded with another saint of the same name who is known as ‘Banbán the Wise’ and whose feastday is given in the Martyrology of Donegal on May 9. He died, according to the Annals, in the year 720.

    W. M. Hennessy, ed. and trans., The Annals of Ulster – A Chronicle of Irish Affairs from A.D. 431 to A.D. 1540, Volume 1 (Dublin, 1887), 176-177.

    It would thus seem that although the feast of our Saint Banbán is well-attested in the Calendars, the Annalists and the later compilers of the lists of episcopal succession of Leighlin have not noticed him. Eoin Neeson comments:

    BANBHAN or Banvan, bishop of Leighlin about whom nothing else is known. His name is interesting as it might be an indication that he was the first native Irish bishop in that area, Banba being a name for Ireland.

    E. Neeson, The Book of Irish Saints (Cork, 1967), 206-207.

    I’m not sure what to make of that curious suggestion. I agree that the name is interesting, but the existence of Banbán the Wise shows that it is not unique, unless of course, we are dealing with another feast of the same individual. The founding Bishop of the see of Leighlin is held to be the 6th/7th-century Saint Laserian or Molaise, whose feastday is commemorated on April 18. He, however, found a monastery already established at the site by Saint Gobban, who relinquished the abbacy to Laserian in fulfilment of a heavenly vision of a coming saintly stranger who would gather together in that place as many servants of God as there were angels in the heavenly host. Dr Comerford’s history reconstructs the list of successors to Saint Laserian only from the year 725 and does not mention our saint Banbán among them. Perhaps it is possible that he was one of the earlier abbot/bishops and flourished sometime in the period between the death of Saint Laserian in 639 and the death of Saint Manchen of Leighlin in 725, the first of the founder’s successors recorded by the Irish Annals.

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  • Star of the world, Catherine, helper of the Greeks

    November 25 is the feastday of a saint much-loved in the East – Catherine of Alexandria. In common with other eastern martyrs, like Saints George and Margaret of Antioch, her cult flourished in the medieval West and accounts of her martyrdom appear in a number of European versions, including a fifteenth-century Irish one. I was particularly pleased whilst visiting the National Museum in Dublin to see on one of the reliquaries a figure of Saint Catherine, complete with her wheel, in the company of our native saints. They also join her in the medieval Irish poem, Réalta an chruinne Caitir Fhíona. Below is a  translation by Father Lambert McKenna, published as part of a series on bardic poetry in the Irish Jesuit periodical, Studies. I think it is a beautiful tribute to the great martyr and I love its presentation of our native saints as exemplars of the same holy virginity that Saint Catherine embodied.

    1. Star of the world, Catherine, helper of the Greeks; she succours most of the races of every province there against death.

    2. Catherine curly-haired maid, branch of victory; face as the bloom of fresh apple-tree; bright brow.

    3. Bright brow has she, daughter of the King of the Greeks, who never accepted suitor; in the hue of her cheeks is the sheen and colour of the berry.

    4. The berry’s colour and summer sunshine is in her ruddy cheek; many the curl bending from its stem in her coifed hair.

    5. In the shape of Catherine’s round eyes no Grecian woman surpassed her; round eye that gazed on no young warrior; lips deep-red and white.

    6. Face as apple-blossom; bosom as swan; maid inviolate; down is not whiter than her gleaming white hand; grey eye in fair cheek.

    7. No maiden do I see like her in charm but I entreat her; may Mary’s Son hide away my folly.

    8. Brighid of Éire and Alba, Virgin of the Isles, she is the soft white bloom of virgins, ….

    9. Athrachta succour of the Luighnigh; great her zeal; she is the fair-footed virgin of the Búill; waxen candle.

    10. Bright gentle Ciarán, Colum Cille – gentle the company! – Pádraig, Martain, Mongan, Manann, Comann, Coireall.

    11. The Trinity, great Mary and Michael, the host of the sun, (and) eleven thousand virgins of the Búill, flower of fair maids.

    Notes


    9. Athracta of Cell Sáile in Críoch Conaill; but she is here connected with Luighne, Co. Sligo.

    10. Mongan, Martyr Oeng., Sept. 3; Manann, Martyr Don., Feb. 23; Caireall, ibid, June 13; several saints named Comman occur in the Martyrologies.

    Lambert McKenna, ed. and trans., ‘Some Irish Bardic Poems XV. St. Catherine of Alexandria’ in Studies: An Irish Quarterly Review, Vol. 19, No. 75 (Sep., 1930), pp. 439-440.

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  • Saint Colman of Cloyne, November 24

    November 24 is the commemoration of a poet-saint, Colman of Cloyne. Below is a short account of his life taken from the Moran revision of Archdall’s famous text on the monasteries of Ireland, the Monasticon Hibernicum, serialized in the Irish Ecclesiastical Record.

    COUNTY OF CORK.

    Cloyne. The account given by Archdall of this ancient and venerable see is meagre in the extreme. The see of Cloyne was founded by St. Colman Mac Lenin, who was closely allied by blood with the reigning family of Munster. His genealogy in the Book of Lecan traces back his family to Mogha Nuadhat ; but the Martyrology of Donegal leaves us in uncertainity as to whether he was descended from that Prince, or from another distinguished chieftain named Lughaidh Lagha. In his early years he was famed for his rare poetic talents, and was honoured with the title of Royal Bard of Munster. In after times he dedicated his minstrelsy to religion, and composed several poems on sacred subjects a fragment of one of these, being an elegant metrical Life of St. Senanus was known to Colgan, who describes it as “stylo vetusto et pereleganti patrio sermone conscriptum.” (Acta SS., page 339). In the Book of Lismore, there is another short poem in Irish, composed by St. Colman, in praise of St. Brendan. It thus begins:

    “Brendan, flame of victorious lightning ;
    He smote the chafer, he ploughed the waves
    Westward to the populous assemblative place
    The fair-sided Land of Promise.”

    At the request of St. Ita, St. Brendan, on a certain occasion, went forward to meet the youthful Colman, and admonished him to enter on a life of penance, saying ” God has called thee to salvation, and thou shalt be as an innocent dove in the sight of God.” Colman, throughout the remainder of his life, was docile to the inspirations of grace, and became illustrious among the saints of Ireland by his learning and virtues. Towards the close of his earthly pilgrimage, hearing of the fame of the school of Lough Eirce, he wished, though himself a master in the paths of perfection, to visit that monastery, and to enrol his name among the disciples of St. Finbarr. Our annalists do not mark with precision the year in which St. Colman founded the Monastery of Cloyne. It was certainly not before the year 550, for it is recorded that, at the inauguration of Aodh Caomh, King of Cashel, about that time, our saint took part as the royal minstrel of Munster.

    There seems, however, no ground for doubting the acccuracy of the statement made by O’Halloran in his History of Ireland (vol. 3rd, page 76) on the authority of the Psalter of Cashel that Eochaidh, Monarch of Ireland in the year 560, founded the Church of Cloyne for St. Colman.

    According to the Annals of The Four Masters, St. Colman died in the year 600 (i.e., 601 of our present computation), and the 24th of November is the day on which his festival is marked in all the ancient calendars, and on which it is still observed in the Diocese of Cloyne. Our patron of Cloyne must not be confounded with another St. Colman, who was honoured on the same day : both these saints are thus commemorated by St. Oengus in his Felire, at the 24th November:

    “With Cianan of Daimliac,
    A beautiful ear of our wheat.
    Mac Lenine the most excellent,
    With Colman of Dubh-chuillenn.”

    The Martyrology of Donegal preserves the following quatrain, from the ancient poem Naemhsheanchus, on the Saints of Ireland:

    ” Colman, son of Lenin, the full,
    And Mothemneog, son of Cerban,
    Were of the race of two brothers
    Oilioll Oluim, and Lughaidh.”

    The old Latin Life of St. Brendan passes the following eulogy on St. Colman:

    “This Colman, the son of Lenin, was for learning and a holy life chief among the saints. He founded the Church of Cloyne, which is at this day a cathedral, and famous throughout the province of Munster.”

    Monasticon Hibernicum in Irish Ecclesiastical Record, Volume 7 (1871) 436-437

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