OMNIUM SANCTORUM HIBERNIAE

Author: Michele Ainley

  • Saint Conval of Strathclyde, May 18

    May 18 is one of the commemorations of Saint Conval, a disciple of the Scottish Saint Kentigern. His feast day is recorded as September 28 in the Aberdeen Breviary, whose modern editor, Alan Macquarrie, remarks that the Lessons appointed for the day ‘give the appearance of having been drawn from a vita et miracula of St  Conval, but this has not survived’. The Lessons begin by associating Saint Conval with Saint Kentigern but go on to describe his reputation as a healer.  Since September 28 seems to be his main feast day, at least at Inchinnan, the site with which he is mainly associated, I will prepare another and more detailed post on Saint Conval for this date. The account below has been taken from Bishop (later Cardinal) P.F. Moran’s 1879 work Irish Saints in Great Britain. It was a matter of some pride to the Bishop that Irish immigration into Glasgow had revived the memory of this saint in the suburban parish of Pollockshaws:

    One of the most illustrious of St. Kentigern’s disciples was St. Conval, who inherited in an eminent degree the zeal and sanctity of his great master. He was the son of an Irish chieftain, and forsaking his country and friends, through the desire of winning souls to God, sailed to the banks of the Clyde, and enrolling himself among the clergy of St. Kentigern, soon proved himself a devoted missioner, and became a bright ornament of the Scottish Church. In many of the mediaeval records he is styled Archdeacon of Glasgow, and by his untiring labours he merited to be honoured as a second apostle of that great city. Each memorial of the saint was long cherished by the faithful to whom he ministered. The rock on which he landed on the sea-shore, and on which in after years he was wont to pray, was held in the greatest veneration, and several churches erected under his invocation attested the reverence and fond affection in which his hallowed memory was held. It is recorded that he visited his countryman, King Aidan, of Dalriada, and was welcomed by that prince with the highest honours. The purport of St. Conval’s visit was probably to secure the aid of King Aidan for the religious works in which he was engaged south of the Clyde; and we are further told that, at that pious monarch’s request, St. Conval passed into the Pictish territory, and there gained many souls to God. He also visited St. Columba, and seems for a time to have been associated with that great saint in his missionary labours.

    He is venerated as patron at Inchinnan, in Renfrewshire, on the Clyde, about seven miles below Glasgow, and Boece writes that the saint’s relics were still preserved there in his time. Near the ancient fort of Inchinnan there stood, till a comparatively late period, an ancient Celtic cross, erected in honour of St. Conval. Now its base alone remains. He was also venerated at Cumnock and at Ochiltree. The parish of Pollokshaws had also our St. Conval for its patron, although his feast was there kept in the month of May. “Its ancient church,” thus writes the learned Cosmo Innes, “probably stood beside the castle upon the bank of the Cart. It was dedicated to St. Convallus, the pupil of St. Kentigern, whose feast was celebrated on the 18th of May.” A church bearing St. Conval’s name existed at Eastwood down to a comparatively late period. The burial ground attached to it is still used, and a portion of it near the still-flowing fountain that supplied the monks with water is set apart for the exclusive interment of Catholics, but no trace of the ancient church or monastery now remains. Near the burial ground there was a ruin known as the “Auld House,” which, with its enclosure, was called “St. Conval’s Dowry.” His memory after having been forgotten for three hundred years has been revived in our days by the erection of a beautiful church at Pollokshaws, dedicated to God under the invocation of the Blessed Virgin and St. Conval…

    Rt. Rev. P. F. Moran, Irish Saints in Great Britain (Dublin, 1879), 156-159.

    Note: This post, first published in 2012, was revised in 2024.

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

  • Saint Siollan of Devenish, May 17

    On May 17 we commemorate Saint Siollan, a seventh-century abbot of the monastery at Devenish Island, County Fermanagh. Canon O’Hanlon’s account of the saint and his lakeland home begins and ends with a romantic flourish:

    St. Siollan, Bishop of Daimhinis, or Devenish Island, County of Fermanagh.
    [Seventh Century.]

    It is a sight never to be forgotten, when Lough Erne seems, as it were, holding her mirror to the relics around St. Molaisse’s monastery. The round tower—simple, erect, and exquisitely tapering skywards—looks a fit emblem of hope, as the descending sun illumes its cap with golden light; while, down in the silent depths of the lake—less distinct, of a deeper and more dreamy shade—extends the reflection, as if veiling the mysterious past. The name Sillan, a Bishop—without any further designation—occurs in the Martyrology of Tallagh, at the 17th of May. We have Sillanus Episcopus, likewise, in the Franciscan copy of the Tallagh Martyrology, at the 17th of May. The Bollandists also enter his festival, on the same authority. In the Acts of St. Berach, allusion is made to a holy man, named Sillanus, who was miraculously restored to life, at a place called Rath-ond, but, of whose history little more seems to be known. A conjecture is offered, by Colgan, that he may be identical with the present holy man, yet this is hardly probable. The following identification is doubtless the true one, where at this date the Martyrology of Donegal records the veneration of Siollan, Bishop [of Daimhinis]. This has the English signification of “deer island.” His place of habitation was on the historic and beautiful Island of Devenish, so picturesquely situated, on Lower Lough Erne, about two and a-half miles below the town of Enniskillen, and in the county of Fermanagh…

    …The death of St. Molaisse, the founder of Devenish, is assigned to A.D. 563, and he was succeeded by St. Natalis, or Naal, the period of his demise not being stated. The next in succession, as revealed in our Annals, was St. Sillan. His term of incumbency seems assignable to the seventh century, and with the abbatial it is likely he exercised episcopal functions. We learn, that the present bishop died, on the 17th of May, A.D. 658, according to the Annals of the Four Masters. Under the head of Daimhinis, Duald Mac Firbis enters, Siollan, bishop of Daimhinis. Summer finds Devenish clothed in rank, luxuriant herbage. Except in the grey walls and the solitary hut of a herd, no trace of man is there to be seen. But, when the grass dies, and when winter has stripped this ancient home of its cattle, food, and verdure, the old gardens of the community can be traced, in many a boundary line. Even the presence of herbs and plants, which, though old in the soil, are not found in other islands of the lake, or on the surrounding hills, is indicated by the solitary habitant who acts as guide, and who lives upon this insulated spot.

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

  • Saint Fionnchadh, May 16

     

    May 16 is the feastday of Saint Brendan of Clonfert, one of the most famous of all Irish saints. Canon O’Hanlon, however, brings us the details of a much less well-known saint who shares this date of commemoration with The Navigator, a Bishop called Fionnchadh:
    St. Fionnchadh, Bishop.
    An entry is found, regarding Findchad, a Bishop, in the Martyrology of Tallagh, at the 16th of May. The Bollandists simply note Findchadus Episcopus, from the same source, and for the same date. On this day was venerated Fionnchadh, Bishop, as we read in the Martyrology of Donegal.

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