OMNIUM SANCTORUM HIBERNIAE

Author: Michele Ainley

  • Saint Sillan the Abbot, October 10

    At October 10 the earliest of the Irish calendars, the late eighth-/early ninth-century Martyrology of Tallaght, records the name Sillani abbatis.  The name of Sillan the abbot is also recorded in the twelfth-century Martyrology of Gorman as well as in the seventeenth-century Martyrology of Donegal. No further details of the saint, his locality or his monastery have survived. Curiously, Eoin Neeson in his compendium of Irish saints makes no mention of the abbot on this day but instead records ‘Siollan, a holy woman of Inchigeela, County Cork’. I can’t find any other evidence for this holy woman, all of the other saints with the name Siollan or Sillan I’ve come across are male, the most famous perhaps being Saint Sillan of Bangor, commemorated on February 28.

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  • Saint Dinertach of Clonmore, October 9

    October 9 is the commemoration of Saint Dinertach, a monastic  of Clonmore. The 12th-century martyrologist, Marianus O’Gorman, describes him as Dinertach ail, ‘Dinertach the bashful’ in his entry for the day. Canon O’Hanlon’s contemporary, Dr Michael Comerford, notes the saint in passing in the last of his three-volume diocesan history of Kildare and Leighlin:

    “Clonmore or Cluain-mor-Maedhoc i.e. the great meadow of Maedhoc is among the most hallowed places connected with the lives and the labours of several of our Irish saints. Clonmore in Leinster, formerly a very celebrated monastery, in which many saints are buried, and are venerated. St Maedhoc whose feast was celebrated on 11 April, St Finian Lobhair on 16 March, St Stephen on 23 May, St Ternoc on 2 June, St Lassa on 15 September, St Dinertach on 9 October and St Cumin on 18 September (A. A. S. S. 597). The monastery of Clonmore was founded by St Maedhoc in the sixth century…”

    Rev M. Comerford, Collections Relating to the Dioceses of Kildare and Leighlin, Volume III, (Dublin, 1886), 178.
    Eoin Neeson, writing in 1967, says at October 9:
    “The feast-day of another saint with an old Irish name which has fallen into disuse. The saint himself is obscure, but the name was common well before the Christian period. He is:
    DINERTACH, a monk of Clonmore.”
    E. Neeson, The Book of Irish Saints (Cork, 1967), 179.
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  • The Seven Virgins of Armagh, October 8

    On October 8 the Irish calendars commemorate a group of holy women within the diocese of Armagh. The entry in the Martyrology of Oengus does not specify the number of these saints but the (rather unfortunate) translation by Whitley Stokes describes them as ‘a bevy of virginal girls’:
    A. viii. idus Octobris.
    Lécsit lúth co nani
    ar bithaittrib rígi
    trét ingen co nógi
    la paiss find Faustíni.
    8. They left power with splendour
    for eternal possession of the Kingdom,
    a bevy of virginal girls
    at the white passion of Faustinus.
    The scholiasts’ notes, however, introduce the idea of ‘septem filiae’, seven girls:
    8. a bevy of girls, i.e. in Cell na nóebingen ‘ the Church of the holy girls’ in the precinct of Armagh, i.e. septem filiae. Or maybe they are the holy virgins who are in Cell na n-ingen to the east of Armagh.
    The later Martyrology of Donegal refers on this day to:
    THE SEVEN HOLY VIRGINS, of the Termon of Ard-Macha.
    This is but one instance of saints occurring in sevens within the Martyrology, there are, for example, commemorations of the Seven Bishops of Cluaincua on October 3 and of the Seven Sons of Stiallan, on October 27.
    I assumed that the present seven virgins of Armagh are connected to the hagiography of Saint Patrick and wondered if they may be connected to this episode from the Tripartite Life:
    “Once on a time there came nine daughters of the King of the Lombards, and a daughter of the King of Britain on their pilgrimage to Patrick. They stayed at the east of Armagh in the place where Coll na n-Ingen (the Maidens’ Hazel) stands to-day. They sent to Patrick to ask if they might go to see him (to Armagh). Patrick said to the messengers, ‘Three of the virgins will go to heaven, and do ye bury them in the place where they are — namely, at Coll na n-Ingen. Let the rest of the virgins go to Druim Fendeda (or the Champion’s Ridge), and let one of them go as far as the hillock in the east.’ – and this thing was done.”
    The reference in the Martyrology of Oengus that they ‘left power with splendour for eternal possession of the Kingdom’ would certainly seem to tie in with the idea of princesses becoming nuns. Although the Tripartite Life talks of nine daughters of the King of the Lombards plus a daughter of the King of Britain, Saint Patrick prophecies that three will go to heaven which would reduce their number to seven. I will have to do some further research and see if recent scholarship can cast any more light on this enigmatic group.

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