OMNIUM SANCTORUM HIBERNIAE

Author: Michele Ainley

  • The Seven Bishops of Tamhnach Buadha, July 21

    On July 21 the Irish calendars record another of those interesting groups of saints, in this case seven bishops. It often happens that we do not have the names of the individuals who make up these sorts of groupings but the seventeenth-century hagiologist, Father John Colgan, suggested that our septet were brothers and preserved Latinized names for them. Canon O’Hanlon starts off his account by explaining the sacred significance of the number seven before getting into the details preserved in the sources of The Seven Bishops of Tamhnach Buadha:

    The Seven Bishops of Tamhnach Buadha.

    The mystic number of seven in relation to our Irish saints and ecclesiastics has been as frequently recorded in our ancient books, as it has been found so often noted in the Sacred Scriptures. When Noe was commanded to enter the ark with his family, God said to him: “Of all clean beasts take seven and seven, the male and female.” Pharaoh, in his dream, saw “seven kine, very beautiful and fat, come up from the river” and ” other seven also came up out of the river, ill and lean fleshed.” Again, God ordered Josue to go with his army in procession around Jericho during seven days, and on the seventh, “the priests shall take the seven trumpets,” etc. Then with reference to sacrifice, we read that Balaam said to Balac, King of Moab: “Build me here seven altars, and prepare as many calves, and the same number of rams, and they laid together a calf and ram upon every altar.” Again, when Ezechias purified the temple of God, profaned by the wicked King Achaz, “they went into the house of the Lord, and they offered together seven bullocks, and seven rams, and seven lambs, and seven he-goats, for sin.” Examples of the same kind could easily be multiplied, but we have now to deal with an instance of seven Bishops in the Irish Calendars, and united on the same day for popular veneration. A festival, to honour Secht n Eps. Tamhnaighe, appears in the Martyrology of Tallagh. There were seven bishops, named respectively Saints Aidus, Diermit, Foebarchuo, Maclasrius, Manchinus, Tarchell, and Tinius, while these are said to have been seven brothers. They were sons of Muredac, son to Fochern, son of Dichull, son to Crimthann, son of Armedac, son to Senach, son of Aid Loga, son to Oscuon, son of Mienach, son to Lugad, son of Imchad, son to Fidchur, son of Eochod, son to Ennius Monchaoin, son of Ros, surnamed Rig-Foda, son of Fiacha Suighde, son of Feidhlemid Reachtmhar, founder of the Desies family. Colgan thinks those may be the seven bishops venerated at Tamnach-Buadha, on this day. Selbach enumerates twenty-three saints descending from Fiach Suighdhe, and venerated in our different Calendars. At this date, the Martyrology of Donegal records the Seven Bishops of Tamhnach Buadha [Bishop Tedda of Tamhnach.] We find seven bishops, the sons of one father, adds the Calendarist, while their names and history are among the race of Fiach Suighdhe, son to Feidhlimidh Reachtmhar, son of Tuathal Teachtmhar. There is an almost incredible number of Irish townlands, denominated Tamhnach—Anglice Tawny or Tawnagh either singly or in composition; yet, among these, it appears no easy matter to identify Tamhnach Buadha with any one of them. The ancient etymon probably has become obsolete among our modern local names. Under the head of Tamhnach Buadha, Duald Mac Firbis enters the seven bishops from Tamhnachbuadha, at July 21st.

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  • Saint Caramnan, July 20

    Another name to add to the ever-growing list of obscure Irish saints appears in the calendars on July 20. Canon O’Hanlon can write only a couple of sentences about Saint Caramnan:

    St. Caramnan or Carmnan.

    The name of St. Caramnan, without any further addition, appears in the Martyrology of Tallagh, at the 20th of July. In the Martyrology of Donegal, at this same date, his name is written Carmnan.
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  • Saint Aedhan of Lismore, July 19

    On July 19 the Irish calendars record the commemoration of Saint Aedhan,  an abbot of Lismore, County Waterford. We will start with a summary of the history of this famous foundation by a diocesan historian:

    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:

    Aedhan, abbot of Lismore .. . … July 19.

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

    Canon O’Hanlon’s account of Saint Aedhan in Volume VII of his Lives of the Irish Saints, brings in a few other sources:

    St. Aedhan, Abbot of Lismore, County of Waterford.

    The name of St. Aedhan, Abbot of Lismoir, appears in the Martyrology of Tallagh, at the 19th of July. In the list of Aids or Aedhans given by Colgan, the present holy Abbot is included. In the Irish Calendar, compiled for use of the Irish Ordnance Survey, at xiv. of the August Kalends, there is an entry of this holy man, who is not designated, however, as Abbot. His name also occurs in the Martyrology of Donegal, at this date, as Aedhan of Lis-mor.

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