OMNIUM SANCTORUM HIBERNIAE

Author: Michele Ainley

  • Saint Siollan of Lismore, December 21

     
    Among the saints commemorated at December 21 on the Irish calendars is Siollan, Bishop of Lismore. The Martyrology of Donegal records:
    21. E. DUODECIMO KAL. JANUARII. 21.
    SIOLLAN, Bishop of Lis-mór.
    A diocesan historian gives this summary of the famous monastery of Lismore:
    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:
    Sillan, bishop of Lismore . .. . .. Nov. 21.
    Rev. Patrick Power, Waterford & Lismore – A Compendious History of the United Dioceses (Cork, 1937), 5-6.
    I note that Canon Power has listed our bishop’s feast at November 21, but as we have seen he is listed at December 21 in the Martyrology of Donegal and also at this date in the Martyrology of Gorman. I assume, therefore, that this is a typo, as I can find no saint of this name listed at November 21, only at December 21.

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  • Saint Fraech of Cluain Collaing, December 20

    December 20 is the feast of Saint Fraech (Froech, Froegius, Fraegius), known as Cruimhther or Presbyter Fraech of Cluain Collaing, now Cloone, County Leitrim. The entry in the Martyrology of Donegal records:

    20. D. TERTIO DECIMO KAL. JANUARII. 20.
    CRUIMHTHER FRAECH, of Cluain Collaing, in Muintir Eoluis. He was of the race of Conmac, son of Fergus, son of Ross, son of Rudhraighe.
    The Martyrology of Gorman notes:

    Presbyter Fraech the facile [easy], a constant champion.

    Saint Fraech was obviously the founder of a monastery in this locality and although no Life of Cruimhther Fraech survives, he features in the various Lives of Saint Berach of Kilbarry, whose feast is commemorated on February 15. Charles Plummer’s translation of one of these Lives of Saint Berach gives us the basic details:

    16) Now St. Berach was born in the house of his mother’s brother, Fraech the Presbyter, son of Carthach, in Gort na Luachra (the Close of the Rushes), near Cluain Conmaicne. And in that place there is (now) a mother-church and a cross, and the stone on which St. Berach was born. And Presbyter Fraech subsequently offered this estate to Berach. Presbyter Fraech too it was who baptized St, Berach, and fostered him till he was old enough to study.

    Canon O’Hanlon in his Lives of the Irish Saints expands upon the connection between Saint Fraech and his nephew in his account of Saint Berach on February 15 (Volume II, pp. 536-537):
    According to the Irish Life of our saint, his father’s name was Nemnald… Fionmaith, sister to Cruimhther Fraech, of Cluain Conmaicne, in Muinter-Eolais, was his mother…
    Their holy relative, named Froegius, or Froech, lived in a certain district, and there he occupied a cell. After reciting matins and lauds, he went out, about the middle of the night, and looking in the direction of Connaught, he beheld a globular and bright luminous halo surrounding the house of Nemnald, and of his wife, Fionmaith. Wondering what such a spectacle portended, Froech said to one of his disciples, “Go to the house of my brother-in-law, Nemnald, and inform me, if my sister hath given birth to a boy: if so, bring him to me.” Obeying this order, the messenger at once set out for the house, where, on his arrival, he found a very beautiful infant with Fionmaith. Having learned from the messenger those instructions, given by Froech, the child was accordingly sent to him. When the latter saw how highly gifted, by nature, his infant nephew was, he directed that baptism should be administered, in the church, so that the neophyte should be washed with the water of regeneration, and that thus he might be presented to Christ.
    The first name given to the child was Fintan, until he had been brought to the font, by his uncle, St. Froech who baptized him. The parents had been required to know, what name ought to be imposed on their child, when they replied, it must be Berach. This being agreed to, Froech said afterwards, “Rightly has this name been given to him, for he shall be a saint, and his place shall be in Heaven.” We are furnished with an interpretation, for the name of Berach; namely, that it has the signification of one, who takes a direct and an exact aim, at an object, or as reaching one, so to speak, with the point of a sword… When baptized, the mother naturally desired her infant to be sent home; yet, Froech said to her, “Know you, my dear sister, that no further care of this boy shall belong to you, for with me shall he remain, since God, who created him, is able to cause his growth, without being suckled by a mother.” To this strange request Fionmaith assented, and in a truly miraculous manner, Froech became a foster-father to the child. The latter grew up by degrees, and the Almighty seemed to supply every want, incident to his condition. By Froech, also, was Berach taught the rudiments of learning, when a mere infant. As the child grew up, he evinced the most affectionate regard towards his uncle. His piety and his love for learning were very admirable, so that his time was wholly engaged with prayer and study. His intellectual and pious disposition, even at this early age, boded his future eminence and great sanctity. He laboured to imitate his holy relative, and in the course of time, no other child of earth seemed to equal him, in the practise of good works.

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  • Saint Samthann of Clonbroney, December 19

    December 19 is the feastday of one of my favourite Irish saints – Samthann of Clonbroney, County Longford. The Martyrology of Oengus devotes its entire entry for this day to her:
    C. xiv. cal. Ianuarii. 
    19. Blithe unto my soul,
    with the vastness of her host,
    be the fair pure manna of elemental God,
    Samthann of Clúain Brónaig !
    The later Martyrology of Donegal reads:
    19. C. QUARTO DECIMO KAL. JANUARII. 19. 
    SAMHTHANN, Virgin, of Cluain-Bronaigh, in Cairbre in Tethbha, near Granard. She was of the race of Fiatach Finn, monarch of Erin. The age of Christ when she went to heaven was 734.
    We are blessed in having a surviving Life of Saint Samthann which records how, having forsaken her aristocratic husband on their wedding night to follow the religious life, she came to the monastery of Clonbroney and was put in charge by its founder, Saint Fuinech. The following excerpts from the Vita Sanctae Samthannae Virginis have been taken from Dorothy Africa’s translation:
    5. At that time the foundress of Clonbroney, the blessed virgin Fuinech, dreamt that sparks of fire in the likeness of Saint Samthann came and consumed the whole monastery, and then rose up in a great flame. She told her dream to the sisters and gave this interpretation: “Burning with the fire of the Holy Spirit, Samthann will make this place shimmer by virtue of her merits and in the splendour of miracles”. For that reason, Fuinech sent for Samthann and gave her the community.
    Like Saint Brigid of Kildare, with whom she has much in common, many of Saint Samthann’s miracles concern food and in the one recorded below, she also emerges as a saint with a sense of humour:
    6. After she had taken charge, first she wanted to construct an oratory of trimmed timber, and so she sent for carpenters and other workmen to bring in timber from forests nearby. One of the carpenters, observing the paucity of the provisions and the number of workers, thought to himself “Oh, if only we could have forty wheaten loaves with butter and cheese and milk, for such a quantity of bread suffice us.” Man is not frustrated in his desire for something his soul has desired. For through the merits of holy Samthann, all he had thought he saw placed before him. The intimate of Christ, giggling, said “The thought of your heart is fulfilled is it not?” And he said to her “Indeed so Mistress, there is neither something in addition, or anything missing.” Then all gave thanks to God and ate their fill.
    But, as an Irish saint, it doesn’t do to cross her, even at a distance:
    16. Once the holy servant of Christ desired to build a large hall for the work of the sisters, and sent Nathea the prioress with the craftsmen into the forest of Connacht for pine timber. When they had searched for three whole days without finding the wood, the weary group decided on the fourth day to return home. While they slept that night, the blessed Samthann suddenly appeared in a dream to her disciple Nathea, saying “Tomorrow morning cut down bog willows at the root, and you will find enough pine lying there.” At daybreak, they did just so as she instructed, and found the pine they desired. But the owner of the woods, seeing such a heap of pine, said, “unless you buy them, you will not get these trees.” Nathea said to him “we will buy them willingly”. The following night Samthann appeared in a vision to that man. She spoke in a threatening voice, saying “What tempts you fellow, to withold these things offered to God?” Then she struck his side with a staff, saying “wretch, unless you do penance, know that you will die very soon.” Next morning, that man, stung by penance, gave them the lumber outright. When word got out, the inhabitants of the region praised God as manifest in the holy Samthann. They provided sixty yokes of oxen and conveyed all that wood back to the monastery.
    But, of course, the Life balances such accounts of the saint’s displeasure with accounts of her mercy. Below is my very favourite instance of her clemency, where Saint Samthann deals leniently with a young whippersnapper who fails to show her the proper respect:
    23. Once the community of brothers on the isle of Iona sent some of their members to the holy Samthann with a boatload of wool. While they were clearing the level surface (of the sea), the calm of the air changed suddenly. The waves, raised by the heightening of the winds, menaced them angrily with death. A lad among them spoke up foolishly, saying, “Let’s throw the granny’s wool overboard lest we sink”. The navigator of the ship refused to allow this, and said, “Certainly not, with the old lady’s wool we shall either live or die”. With this remark, such serenity of the sea ensued that the wind disappeared altogether and they resorted to rowing. Then the same boy piped up again, “Why can’t the granny provide us any wind now?” The navigator responded, “we believe that God will assist us for the sake of her merits”. At once the wind filled their sails and they capitalized on this gift for three whole days and nights until they reached the harbour at Colptha. When they had arrived at the monastery of the blessed virgin, they saluted her as they entered and kissed her hand. When the aforesaid lad approached her, the virgin said “Now what was that you were saying about me at sea when the storm threatened you with death?” The boy was confounded into silence with shame. She said to him “Never doubt this, if ever dangers corner you, call upon me boldly”.
    The Life ends with a beautiful image of Saint Samthann’s journey to heaven at the end of her earthly life:
    26. On the very night in which her spirit returned to heaven, the holy abbot Lasran, of whom we spoke earlier, awoke and saw two moons, one of which dipped towards him. He was mindful of his own request, for he had asked her that when she passed to the celestial realm she would bend toward him. Recognizing her in the guise of a star, he said, “Well done, Samthann, faithful servant of God, for now you are ushered into the rejoicing of the Lord, your spouse.” In this fashion she faded away, climbing into the sky, where eternal life is enjoyed for ever and ever, Amen.
    Dorothy Africa, trans., Life of the Holy Virgin Samthann, in T. Head, ed., Medieval Hagiography – An Anthology (Routledge, 2001), 97-110.
    Amen indeed!

    A further selection from the Life of Saint Samthann can be read here.

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