OMNIUM SANCTORUM HIBERNIAE

Author: Michele Ainley

  • Saint Noémlug, November 19

     

    On November 19 the Martyrology of Gorman records the name of Saint Noémlug, with a prayer for his protection:

    19. A.

    N[o]emlug dena nemdaib fri demnaib in domain.

    Noemlug of the heavens (be) against the demons of the world.


    The Martyrology of Donegal records the name only, in the later rendering Naemhlugh and an interesting name it is too as it seems to contain both the element holy noem/naemh and the name of the pagan deity Lug/Lugh. Thus to call our holy man Saint Noémlug is actually a tautology. The index of persons appended to the 1895 edition of The Martyrology of Gorman, however, gives a different derivation for the name:
    Noémlug (‘holy-small’), Nov. 19. Naemhlugh, Mart. Don. better spelt Noéblug. Not known.

    The corresponding index of the Martyrology of Donegal simply records:

    Naomh Lugh, 19 Nov. 


    but adds a note from the translator:

    Lugh. i.e. Saint Lugh or Holy Lugh. This name ought perhaps to have been under Lugh in this index. Nesslugh, one of the three sons of Nesan, occurs at 15 Mar. 
    Indeed, even a quick glance at the entries for saints by the name of Lugh and its variants Lughaidh, Lughan, Lughair etc. reveals around two dozen holy men recorded in this Martyrology alone. Obviously, the name of this Irish pagan deity is not an uncommon one among Irish Christian holy men. Another plain and simple ‘Lugh’ is recorded on January 16, but whether he, or the Nesslugh mentioned above bear any relationship to the saint commemorated today is another matter. 

    The name of Noémlug does not occur in the earlier Martyrology of Oengus at November 19 and I have no further information on when and where he flourished.

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  • Saint Ronan of Dromiskin, November 18

    November 18 is the feast of a seventh-century County Louth abbot, Ronan of Dromiskin, a victim of the dreaded Buidhe Chonaill plague of the 660s. When I first began to look into the details of the saint’s life I was confused by references to a Ronan of Drumshallon, who may have been the same person. In the extract below however, from a 19th-century antiquarian paper on the monastic history of County Louth, this confusion is put down to the great 17th-century hagiologist, Father John Colgan, having been somewhat imprecise in his terminology regarding the location of Dromiskin:

    THE earliest mention of Dromiskin, or, as it would be more correctly spelt now, Drumiskin, is the establishment there of a church, or monastery, by St. Patrick

    “Extruxit etiam ecclesiam, postea celebrem, quae Druim-Inisclainn, appellatur, in regione de Delbna; in qua etiam duo ex ejus discipulis, nempe DaLuanus de Croebheach et Lugadius Aenghusio, Natfraichi filio, Mumoniae Rege, natus.”

    to which Colgan appends this note:

    “Nobile Monasteriutu de Druim inis clinn (Canonicorum, ut puto, Regularium) est in ea Comitatus Luthensis parte quae hic Delbna appellatur, et est juxta civitatem Pontanam”

    a remark which, evidently, misled Archdall, Lanigan, and others, as to its position, which they assigned to Drumshallon, within four miles of the municipal bounds of Drogheda.

    The neighbouring abbey of Louth maintained its ecclesiastical position much longer than did that of Dromiskin. It may appear improbable that two churches, each intended to be a centre of missionary work in a country only dimly illuminated by a glimmer of Christianity, should have been established and built about the same time, at Dromiskin and at Louth, within six miles of each other, but it is really not so. The fertile plain of Muirtheimhne was a granary for the marsh and forest country on its west, which grew comparatively little corn, and for the mountainous districts to the north, which mostly reared cattle. The beauty of its gently undulating surface attracted the notice of the apostle as he travelled northwards from Munster, after his seven years’ sojourn there.

    Dromiskin lay close to the high road leading to Ulster, along the shore of Dundalk bay. It seems evident that the founding of a church at Dromiskin must be assigned to this time, for the first presiding bishop or abbot of the establishment was Lugaidh, son of Aenghus, King of Munster, who had been baptized by St. Patrick, at Cashel, while he was in the South of Ireland. Colgan mentions another disciple of the saint as being at Dromiskin at the same time, Dala, or Molua of Creevah, but of him we know nothing further here. Lugaidh is numbered among the saints of Ireland. He died A.D. 515 or 516, and his festival is November 2nd…

    The next abbot at Dromiskin, of whom we have any account, though he was not the next in succession, was Ronan, son of Berach. Berach was a disciple of St. Dagoeus, bishop of Inis Chaoin (Iniskeen), about the middle of the sixth century. A miracle, performed by him, similar to Elisha’s, in 2 Kings iv. 42-44, as we are told, caused his master to say he was unworthy of such a pupil; and on his leaving, Dagoeus gave him a short staff (Bacull gearr), and a bell, which, under the name of Clogberaigh, was preserved, as a relic, at Cluan da lochia. However this may be, after leaving Iniskeen, he entered into the monastic state at Glendalough, and died Abbot of Cluain-Cairpthe, in Roscommon.

    St. Ronan was a more remarkable character than his predecessor, St. Lugaidh, of whom we have but little more than his name and royal pedigree. His name occurs in history; he was venerated for a long time after his death, and is still remembered by a holy well at Dromiskin bearing his name. He is said to have suffered an indignity at the hands of Suibhne, son of Colman Guar, prince of Dalaradia, whom he denounced; in consequence of which Suibhne went mad after the battle of Magh Rath (Moira). If, according to Tighernach, this battle was fought in A.D. 637, St. Ronan must have been abbot before that year, and the period of his rule must have been a long one.

    In the year 664 a pestilence, which broke out first in England, made its appearance in Ireland. Irish writers call it Buidhe Chonail, or the Yellow Jaundice. Among its numerous victims, St. Ronan’s name is recorded. He died, November 18th. His relics, which we may presume had been carefully preserved at Dromiskin, were, one hundred and thirty-two years afterwards, placed in a shrine of gold and silver. But the Danes were even then coming into Ireland; forty-three years after that they had begun plundering in Louth, and it must have fallen into their hands soon after……

    F. W. Stubbs, ‘Early Monastic History of Dromiskin, in the County of Louth’ in The Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland, Fifth Series, Vol. 7, No. 2 (Jun. 30, 1897), pp. 101-113.

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  • Saint Duilech of Clochar, November 17

    On November 17 we remember an early saint of County Dublin, Duilech (Doulach) of Clochar. The scholarly Anglican Bishop William Reeves read a paper to the Royal Irish Academy in 1859 on the church of Saint Duilech, and as he brings together the evidence from the Irish calendars and genealogies I have excerpted the following from his work:

    MEMOIR OF THE CHURCH OF ST. DUILECH.

    St. Duilech is one of those early Irish ecclesiastics whose memory is preserved in the Calendar and local association, but of whose history, and even date, almost all documentary evidence has perished. Ledwich, indeed, refers to a statement, that a life of the saint was preserved at Malahide; but such a record, if it ever existed, is now unknown; and in the absence of any mention of the saint’s name in our Annals, we are obliged to fall back upon his pedigree as the only available material even for conjecture as to the age in which he lived. He is set forth in the sacred genealogies as the son of Malach, or Amhalgaidh, son of Sinell, and eighth in descent from Fergus Mac Rosa, whose date is referred to the Christian era. But, allowing thirty years to a generation, this would only bring him down to the year of our Lord 240; so that several generations are manifestly omitted. However, there are other saints of the same race, the dates of whose obits, or the names of whose contemporaries are recorded, and whose relative distance from a common head will measure that of St. Duilech. St. Mochoemhog, or Pulcherius, who was ten degrees, died in 656 ; Cruimther Fraech, who was nine degrees, was a contemporary of St. Columcille, who died in 597 ; St. Iarlath of Tuam, who was eight degrees, was a little senior to St. Brendan, and flourished about 540 ; and lastly, St. Mobhi, surnamed Mac Ui Alda (from Alia, a common ancestor with St. Duilech), was uncle to St. Duilech, and seven degrees, and his obit is recorded by Tighernach at 630. We may, therefore, taking an average of the dates of these ecclesiastics, all of whom were of the race of Conmaicne, son Fergus mac Rosa, assign the year 600 as about the age in which St. Duilech flourished.

    His festival is the 17th of November; and in the calendar of Christ Church he is styled ” Sanctus Dulech Episcopus et Confessor,” though in the Martyrology simply ” Sanctus Dulech Confessor.” But whatever may have been his ecclesiastical rank, his patronage was very limited, for, besides the church under consideration, I know of none other where he was commemorated, unless Cillduleg, which was the Irish name of Grange Gorman, was derived from him.

    That there was an early local veneration of his memory appears from the Feilire of Oengus (a composition of the commencement of the ninth century), where at his festival, November 17, he is introduced in the verse:—

    la Duilech cain clochair.
    With Duilech the beautiful, of Clochar.

    After him, in 1171, Maelmuire, or Marian O’Gorman, in his metrical Calendar, at same day, notices
    Duilech craibdech clochain.
    Duilech the devout, of Clochar.

    Upon the former of which is the gloss :—’of Clochar Duiligh, by Faeldrum on the south, i. e. beside Sord of Columcille.’
    And upon the latter:—’by Faeldrum on the south, in Fingull.’

    Or, as O’ Clery, more fully, in the Calendar of Donegall:—’ Duilech of Clochar by Feldruim, on the south, in Fingal; and Clochar-Duiligh is the name of his town, beside Swords of Columcille. He was of the race of Conmac, son of Fergus, son of Ros, son of Rughraidhe.’
    Thus, Clochar is given as the Irish name of his church in native documents, ranging from 800 to 1600.

    But, like many primitive foundations, it lost its local importance in the twelfth century, when superseded, on account of position, family interest, or some other cause, by the parish church. In the Bull of Pope Alexander III., which confirmed to St. Laurence O’Toole, in 1179, the possession of his see, mention is made of many ancient churches in the county, both north and south of the city, but none of St. Duilech’s: there is, however, a denomination called Tertia Pars de Clochair [trian Clochair], which may have denoted the site and land of this ancient church, then waste.

    The parish that absorbed St. Duilech’s cell was Ballygriffin, which probably first obtained its severalty, as it got the name of Griffinstown, under a Welsh settler. The new parish church was founded close to the manorial castle of Balgriffin, and its outline is still discernible on the sward at the left-hand side entering the avenue of Balgriffin Park. It is not marked on the Ordnance Survey, and might escape any eye but one accustomed to the shades of extinct churches. It consisted of a nave and chancel, about eighteen yards long. The churchyard also is under meadow, but a faint outline of its precincts remains. This church was under the patronage of St. Sampson, a Cambrian saint, and thus the parochial name and the dedication agree in indicating a Welsh occupant about the time of the English Invasion.

    Rev. W. Reeves, Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy Vol. 7 (1857 – 1861), pp. 141-147.

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