Canon O’Hanlon’s Lives of the Irish Saints records at January 12 a Saint Cummine (Cummeine, Cummain) who illustrates many of the difficulties faced by hagiologists in trying to discover the identity of some of our native saints:

The German scholar, Michael Richter, in his recent volume on Bobbio, the Italian foundation of Saint Columbanus, rules out this connection and assigns the Bobbio saint’s feastday to July 9. Cummine is a relatively common name in the Irish sources, the most famous saint of this name being the scholarly Cummine the Tall.

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

At January 11 we commemorate one of the successors to Saint Kevin of Glendalough, Bishop Anfadan. He is recorded in the very earliest of the Irish Martyrologies but Canon O’Hanlon is unable to pin down definitively when he flourished:

St. Amphadhan, or Anfadan, Bishop of Glendalough, County of Wicklow.

We can only discover, in reference to this holy successor of St. Kevin, that an entry is made in the Martyrology of Tallagh, at the 11th of January, Anfadan, Bishop of Glendalough. The period of this bishop’s rule, we have not been able to ascertain. In the Annals of the Four Masters, there is mention of Anfadan, Abbot of Linn-Duachail, who died A.D. 758, but he does not appear to have had any connection with Glendalough. We read, likewise, in the Martyrology of Donegal on this day, about an Amphadhan, Bishop of Gleanndaloch. His name has been Latinized, Amphianus, in a table following the Martyrology proper.

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

January 10 is the commemoration of Saint Diman (Diomman) of Inishkeen. Canon O’Hanlon’s account records what is known of him and of the difficulties in identifying his precise locality. The County Louth Archaeological Journal for 1955 contains an article called ‘In Search of St. Diomoc’ which might shed some further light, certainly O’Hanlon believed he was a northern saint:

St. Diman or Diomman, of Inishkeen.

The present saint must have flourished at an early period, for his name occurs, at this date, in the Martyrology of Tallagh. There the entry is Diman Innsi-Cain in the published copy; and in the Franciscan manuscript, there is a nearly similar rendering. In the Martyrology of Donegal, we find Diomman, of Inis-Caoin, recorded at the 10th day of January. In the table postfixed to this Martyrology, the compiler has added a comment, at the entry of this saint’s name, to see the similar names, and Dioma of Cluain-Caoin. By this observation we are left to infer, that a doubt seems to have arisen regarding the present saint’s identity with a St. Diomog of Cluain-Caoin, who was venerated in the county of Limerick, or with some other saint bearing this name. We find the death of a Dimma, who was a bishop, announced at A.D. 662; but we do not know the name of that see with which he was connected. Neither may we identify him with the present or any other saint of the name, for want of further knowledge. The rank or position the present holy man held in the Church has not transpired, and we have to search for his place, which seems to us most likely to be found in the northern province… There are two parochial denominations of Inniskeen or Enniskeen. One of these is that situated partly in the baronies of Louth and Upper Dundalk, in the county of Louth and province of Leinster, but chiefly in the barony of Famey, county of Monaghan and province of Ulster. The other Enniskeen is that situated partly in the barony of Clankee, county of Cavan, and partly in the baronies of Lower Kells and Morgallion, county of Meath. However we cannot be assured, for want of authorities to favour such an opinion, that the present holy man had any ministerial connexion with any of the foregoing places.

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