OMNIUM SANCTORUM HIBERNIAE

Author: Michele Ainley

  • The Sons of Caelan, November 16

    Another of the groups of saints commemorated on the Irish calendars occurs on November 16. The Martyrology of Donegal records:

    THE SONS OF CAELAN, of Mucurt-mór

    The earlier Martyrology of Gorman speaks rather more lyrically of this grouping in its entry:

    16. E.

    No slender slanting fence are Coelán’s sons…
    whilst a note adds ‘From Muccart mór’.
    The index of place names appended to the Stokes edition of the Martyrology of Gorman records that a place called Mucart is mentioned in the Annals of Loch Cé. I have been unable to find out any further details about either the Sons of Caelan or about the locality associated with them. They can thus be added to the long list of Irish holy men whose names are preserved at the date of their commemoration on our calendars, but about whom there is no other surviving information.

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

  • Saint Connait of Lismore, November 15

    Among the saints commemorated on November 15 on the Irish calendars is Connait, an eighth-century abbot of Lismore. The Martyrology of Donegal records the date of his repose:

    15. D. DECIMO SEPTIMO KAL. DECEMBRIS. 15.

    CONNAIT, Abbot, of Lismor, A.D. 759.

    A diocesan historian of Lismore gives this summary of Abbot Connait’s monastery:

    The church and monastery of Lismore, which grew to be one of the renowned centres of ancient Irish learning and piety, owed its foundation to St. Mochuda of the 7th century. Mochuda, otherwise Carthage, was a native of Kerry, and he had been abbot of Rahan in Offaly. It is probable that there had been a Christian church at Lismore previous to the time of Mochuda, for in the Saint’s Life there is an implied reference to such a foundation. Be this as it may, Mochuda, driven out of Rahan, with his muintir, or religious household, migrated southward, and, having crossed the Blackwater at Affane, established himself at Lismore in 630. In deference to Mochuda’s place of birth the saint’s successor in Lismore was, for centuries, a Kerryman. Lismore grew in time to be a great religious city, and a school of sacred sciences, to which pilgrims from all over Ireland and scholars from beyond the seas resorted. The rulers of the great establishment were all, or most of them, bishops, though they are more generally styled abbots by the Annalists. Among the number are several who are listed as Saints by the Irish Martyrologies, scil:

    Connait, abbot of Lismore (died 759) … Nov. 15.

    Patrick Power, Waterford & Lismore – A Compendious History of the United Dioceses (Cork, 1937), 5-6.

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

  • Saint Constans of Lough Erne, November 14

    November 14 is the feastday of a holy man of Lough Erne, Constans, who is described as a ‘priest and anchorite’ in the Martyrology of Donegal:

    CONSTANS, Priest and Anchorite, of Eo-inis, in Loch Eirne, in Uladh, A.D. 777. He was of the race of Colla Uais, son of Eochaidh Doimhlen, monarch of Erin.

    The year 777 is given as the year of Saint Constans’ repose in the Annals of Ulster which records:

    Constans, sapiens Locha nEirne quievit.

    The Martyrology of Gorman, also at 14 November records:

    Constans of Erne whom we recognise, who was a gracious chief of (monastic) rule.

    Among the traces of the monastic settlements of Lough Erne which survive today are a collection of enigmatic stone carved figures on White Island. Figure number 3 in the collection has been identified as possibly being that of Saint Constans. Pictures and suggested identifications of the figures can be found here. According to the site ‘The figure with the bell and crozier has been identified as Patrick, Christ Abbot of the world, or Constans founder of the Abbey.’

    Archdall’s Monasticon Hibernicum records that the relics of Saint Constans were still extant in the 14th century:

    Inis-Eo or Eonois. Another island in the same lough; St. Constans, the son of Fuasclac, who was abbot and anchorite here, died November 14th, A.D. His bones were translated into a shrine by Matthew, Bishop of Clogher, on the 6th of September, 1308.

    Rt. Rev. P.F. Moran, ed.,M.Archdall, Monasticon Hibernicum, Volume II, (Dublin, 1876), 161.

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