OMNIUM SANCTORUM HIBERNIAE

Author: Michele Ainley

  • The Old Age of Saint Fiacc of Sletty

    October 12 is the feastday of Saint Fiacc of Sletty, a bard converted by Saint
    Patrick and later made a Bishop. A paper detailing his life can be read at the blog here. Below is a beautiful tribute to the saint in his old age when, despite
    his advancing years, there was no lessening of his ascetic discipline:

    …Fiacc in his old age lived a life of extraordinary austerity. At the
    beginning of Lent he usually left his monastery unattended, taking with
    him only five barley loaves, and these strewn with ashes. He forbade any
    of his monks to follow him, but he was seen to go to the hills to the
    north-west of Sletty, a wild and solitary district. In one of these,
    called Drum Coblai, he had a cave which sheltered him. The hill itself
    has been identified with the Doon of Clophook, which is just seven
    miles to the north-west of Sletty. Its eastern slope ‘which is steep and
    beetling’ rises abruptly to the height of 150 feet; at its base is the
    cave thirty-six feet deep by twelve in width. Close at hand there was an
    ancient church and cemetery, doubtless founded there in honour of the
    saint. Local tradition still remembers him; but as he was not seen
    coming or going to his church at Sletty, the wise people came to the
    conclusion that he had an underground passage through the mountains all
    the way to his own church. The fame of his sanctity and austerities
    still clings like the mists of morning to the mountain sides of Slieve
    Margy, where he spent his last and holiest days.

    The poet-saint
    sleeps amid many miracles with kindred dust in his own church of Sletty,
    within view of the spires of Carlow. An ancient stone cross still
    standing is said to mark the spot on the right bank of the river where
    his holy relics rest. He was one of the earliest of our native prelates,
    he led an austere and humble life, he was deeply attached to the person
    and to the memory of his beloved master St. Patrick, and his influence
    has been felt for many ages in all the churches of Leinster. His poetic
    Life of St. Patrick, to which we have already referred, is beyond doubt
    an authentic poem; and if so it is the earliest and most authentic of
    all the Lives of the Saint. In any case it is an invaluable monument of
    the history, the language, and the learning of the ancient Church of
    Ireland….

    Most Rev. Dr. J. Healy, The Life and Writings of Saint Patrick (Dublin, 1905), 399-400.

     

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  • The Nativity of Saint Colmán Elo, October 3

    On October 3, some of the Irish calendars record the feast of the nativity of Saint Colmán Elo. The marking of the birth of this saint as a separate feast is perhaps a reflection of his importance as a scholar and monastic founder. He lived c.560–611 and the most important work ascribed to his authorship is the ascetical poem the Apgitir chrábaid (the alphabet of piety). Some modern scholars have also suggested that Saint Colmán may have been the author of the hymn in praise of Saint Patrick, traditionally attributed to Secundinus (Sechnall). I have written about this hymn, Audite omnes amantes, and reproduced a translation of it at my blog dedicated to the three patrons here. Interestingly, genealogical sources record that Colmán Elo of the moccu Béognae was a relative of Saint Colum Cille of Iona, who also has the feast of his nativity listed on the calendars at December 7. Indeed, Saint Colmán features in the Life of Columba by Adamnan and left Iona after the death of its founder in 597 to establish his own monastery at Lann Elo, modern Lynally, County Offaly. The primary feast of Saint Colmán Elo is on September 26 and a post on his life can be read at the blog here. 

    Content Copyright © Omnium Sanctorum Hiberniae 2012-2022. All rights reserved.

  • Saint Erc, the Bishop, October 2

    On October 2 the Irish calendars list a Saint Erc but without any further details as to when or where he flourished. His name is absent from the Martyrology of Oengus but the Martyrology of Tallaght records Herci episcopi at this date. The later twelfth-century Martyrology of Gorman records his name as does the seventeenth-century Martyrology of Donegal. There are a number of Irish saints named Erc (Earc, Erk, Ercus, Herc), the most well-known of whom is Saint Erc of Slane, an important figure in the hagiography of Saint Patrick. Another is Saint Erc of Alltraighe, who features in the hagiography of Saint Brendan of Clonfert and then there is the Erc recorded in the Life of Saint Seanán as one of three bishops left behind by Seanán on Scattery Island. In addition to these saints known from hagiogaphical sources, there is also Saint Erc of Donaghmore in County Kildare whose feast also falls in the month of October, on the 27th. Pádraig Ó Riain in his Dictionary of Irish Saints suggests that since the Donaghmore saint’s feast day is within the octave of the feast of the famous Erc of Slane on November 2, they may well be the same person. Is it significant too that Erc of Slane’s feast falls exactly one month to the day after that recorded for Erc the Bishop?  Dean Anthony Cogan on page 61 of the first volume of his diocesan history of Meath noted that 

    Colgan says that, in the old calendars, Ercus is treated of on 2nd of October and 2nd of November.

    Saint Erc, therefore, provides a very good illustration of the complexities involved in trying to disentangle the feast days and individual careers of Irish saints who share the same name!
     

    Content Copyright © Omnium Sanctorum Hiberniae 2012-2022. All rights reserved.