OMNIUM SANCTORUM HIBERNIAE

Author: Michele Ainley

  • Saint Mac Laithbhe of Donoughmore, May 20

    May 20 sees the commemoration of yet another obscure Irish saint whose only memorial is the recording of his feast day on the Irish calendars. In the case of Saint Mac Laithbhe ‘son of Laithbe’ even the recording of an associated locality is of no help as ‘Donoughmore’ is too generic a place name in Ireland to assist in identifying him, as Canon O’Hanlon explains:

    St. Mac Laithbhe, of Donoughmore.

    At the 20th of May, we find a record of this saint, in the published Martyrology of Tallagh, as Mac Laithbhe Domnaighmoir. This latter word was the name of a place. Many localities, called Donoughmore, are known in various parts of our Island; so that it is difficult to discover that one, with which he had been connected. Marluithaes de Momech-mou is noted by the Bollandists, at the 20th of May, and for this feast, the Tallagh Martyrology is quoted;  but, we suspect, the reference has been taken incorrectly from that source. The Martyrology of Donegal,  on this day, registers Mac Laithbhe, of Domhnach-mor. as having been venerated.

    However, on May 27 we find the feast of Saint Eithearn of Donaghmore. He is associated with Domhnach-mór-mic-Laithbhe ‘the great church of the son of Laithbe’ near Slane, County Meath. It has been established that churches which include the word Domhnach (Lord), in their names are among the earliest in Ireland and are linked to the mission of Saint Patrick. It seems that Eithearn is the son of Laithbe described in the church’s title.  Slane is, of course, a locality with well-established Patrician credentials.  Pádraig Ó Riain, in his 2011 Dictionary of Irish Saints, suggests that as May 27 falls within the octave of the May 20 feast of Saint Mac Laithbe, that both days thus probably commemorate the same man, Eithearn, son of Laithbe. 

    Note: This post, first published in 2014, has been revised in 2022.

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

  • Saint Richella, May 19

    On May 19, one of the earliest surviving Irish calendars, the Martyrology of Tallaght, records the name of an Irish female saint, Ríceall, latinized as Richella. Canon O’Hanlon discusses three saints of this name, one of whom tradition says was a sister to Saint Patrick. It proves impossible, however, for him to definitively identify the saint Richella commemorated on this day. More recently, Pádraig Ó Riain in his 2011 Dictionary of Irish Saints, confirms that there are three holy ladies of similar name, whose root is the word rí, king, all of whom are difficult to disentangle. Canon O’Hanlon in his entry for the saint below lays out the evidence from the seventeeenth-century hagiologist, Father John Colgan:

    ST. RICHELLA, VIRGIN.

    In the Martyrology of Tallagh published and unpublished —we find this saint’s festival set down, on the 19th of May. Marianus O’Gorman and Charles Maguire mention this holy virgin, likewise, in their Calendars, and at the same date. According to the accounts of ancient writers, St. Patrick had a sister bearing the name. But, as there were two other Richellas, in our list of Irish Saints, it may be difficult to determine the virgin, whose festival is this day commemorated. One of these was St. Richelia, the daughter of Attractus, and of King Leagaire’s race. Her descent will be found, in the “Menelogium Genealogicum,” cap. 3. The other was Richella, or, according to others, Richenna, called also Reynach, or Regnacia. She was daughter to Fintan, and sister to St. Finnian of Clonard, as may be seen in a Life of the latter, published by Colgan. Her Life will be found, at the 18th of December.

    There was a certain church or monastic establishment, in the territory of Lugne, within the Connaught province, and there a St. Richella is said to have lived. Kill-Richille, in the diocese of Clonfert, was probably connected with the residence of a saint bearing this name; yet, it is not easy to determine that particular Richella—if indeed she was one among the three mentioned—who had been venerated in either of those places. In a list of St. Patrick’s five sisters, the name Cinnenus is substituted for Richella, by Ussher; and Colgan found, likewise, in an old fragmentary vellum Life of St. Patrick, the name of a fifth sister to the Irish Apostle, as Cinnenus, and not Richella. But, as the form of the name Cinnenus is not applicable to a female, Colgan thinks we ought rather read, Cinne noem, signifying St. Cinna. Now, it would seem, that Richinne has the signification regia Cinne; wherefore, Colgan argues, it is possible, the doubtful word may be properly resolved into Richinne or Richella. The same researchful hagiologist tells us, he could not discover, whether or not Richella became a mother. It might come within the range of possibility, also, that Barbanus, or Banbanus, of Mag-slecht, and a kinsman of St. Patrick, had been her son; although, Colgan did not know, whether this relationship had been through a brother or sister, or in what collateral line. This, however, is only a very groundless conjecture; and, also, any attempt to represent our saint as a sister to the illustrious St. Patrick must prove equally futile. In the Irish Tripartite Life of St. Patrick, it may be observed, the saint left by him, over the church at Domhnach-Maighe-Slecht, is called Mabran Barbarus. The Bollandists notice the feast of Richella, an Irish virgin, at the 19th of May. Little is known, however, regarding her place in our ecclesiastical history.

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

  • 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.