OMNIUM SANCTORUM HIBERNIAE

Author: Michele Ainley

  • Saint Arbogast of Strasbourg, July 21

    21 July is the feastday of yet another Irish missionary in Europe, Saint Arbogast, whose name is forever linked with that of his successor and fellow countryman Florentius; both are attractive and interesting figures.  I was struck by the echoes of Saint Brigid in Arbogast’s oak tree and was not surprised to see that the church associated with these two saints also has an altar dedicated to Ireland’s patroness. The few details below on Saint Arbogast have been taken from Roísín Ní Mheara’s guide to Irish saints in Europe:
    Arbogast and Florentius
    Strassburg, not seated directly on the Rhine, used the waterways of the Ill for river barges trading with the city. Here, outside the walls, near the Ill landing place stood the monastic school of St Thomas, another early Christian foundation with strong Irish connections. Two Irish bishops of sixth century Strassburg, associated probably with Trier, have left their mark here on the present day Protestant church of St Thomas. With an attached institute of learning, including a seminary of theology, it pays tribute to a spiritual heritage when St Thomas was called the ‘cradle of Alsatian Christianity’. Bishop Florentius, claimed to be of Irish birth and nobility by his biographers, founded the monastery, choosing the peripheral site with intent. The conversion of country folk being his main concern, he encouraged pilgrimages to the grave of his predecessor and countryman Arbogast, entombed in St Thomas. This place, associated in tradition with early Christian baptisms, had also an altar dedicated to St Brigid.

    Who are Arbogast and Florentius? The scarcity of sixth century documentation clouds the path of pioneer days when these missionaries entered Alsace, starting, we are told, with hermitages, to be consequently called to the see of Strassburg by Merovingian kings. The impression received points to the category of learned Irishmen who were drawn, first to the cultural centres of southern Gaul, becoming then infused into Trier for reformatory and apostolic reasons.

    Arbogast and Florentius are treated with awe in the tenth century life of St. Dicuil, a chronicle from the Columbanian abbey of Lure in Burgundy. They are presented as shining examples, religious leaders, ‘of all Strasburg’s holy patrons the holiest’…

    The accepted date for Arbogast’s arrival in Alsace is 550. His bishopric was preceded by a sojourn in the forest of Hagenau. This dense oakland, the haunt of anchorites, was called the Sacred Grove of Northern Alsace. Within it Arbogast had his cell. An oak tree of huge dimensions marks the spot. Indicative are the hamlets Saint-Arbogast and Chene (=oaktree) on the road from Strassburg to Weissenburg/Wissembourg.

    On the northern fringe of the forest Surburg, Arbogast’s first monastery was founded. It was destroyed in the Thirty Years War. The abbey church has since been restored to house the founder’s tomb. His effigy is also in an old Gothic sanctuary in the centre of Surburg village. The cult of Arbogast was widely spread throughout Alsace, but his ministry was concentrated in the North and there are further indications that he travelled to these parts from Trier.

    Roísín Ní Mheara, Early Irish Saints in Europe – Their Sites and their Stories (Seanchas Ard Mhacha, 2001),113-115.
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  • Saint Curifin the Pious, July 20

    There is another obscure saint commemorated on July 20, about whom we know frustratingly little. Canon O’Hanlon summarizes the evidence from the Irish calendars for the feast of Saint Curifin the pious:

    St. Curifin or Cuirbin, the Pious, in Hy-Fidhgeinte, County of Limerick.
    This saint seems to have lived before or during the ninth century, as he is named by our earliest Calendarist. In the Feilire of St. Oengus, at the 20th of July, there is a festival set down for “pious Curufin.” In an Irish commentary postfixed to this proper name, we find the following remark, as translated into English “in Ui-Fidgente in Munster is Curufin.” In the Martyrology of Tallagh, at this date, the simple entry Curifin occurs. The O’Clerys connect this holy man, with the territory of Hy-Fidhgeinte, which derived its denomination from the descendants of Fiacha Fidgeinte, son to Daire Cearb, who was the son of Oilill Flannbeg, King of Munster, in the latter part of the third century. It comprised the barony of Coshma, and all that portion of the present Limerick County, which lies to the west of the River Maigne. Thus, we are told, in an old document, that the country of the Hy-Fidgeinnte extended from Luachair Bruin to Bruree, and from Bruree to Buais. A festival is inserted in the Martyrology of Donegal, at the 20th of July, in honour of Cuirbin, the Pious, in Ui Fidhgeinte, in Munster. It is likely, this saint is identical with one entered Cruibin, at this same date, in the Introduction to that work.

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  • Saint Ossin and Fifty Monks of Tengaidh, July 19

     

    At July 19 the Irish calendars commemorate a saint Ossin and fifty monks, but as Canon O’Hanlon explains, we can uncover nothing else about them. The number fifty in this context commonly occurs in relation to monks, it is one of the Christian sacred numbers and also one of the traditional Irish divisions of the psalter, known as ‘the three fifties’.

    ST. OSSIN OR OISSEINE, AND FIFTY MONKS, OF TENGAIDH.

    At the 19th of July, the Martyrology of Tallagh registers a festival to honour Ossin o Thergaidh ocus Coeca Manach imbi. From such an entry, we should be inclined to suppose, that Ossin must have been an Abbot, and that he presided over a community of fifty monks, at a place set down as Thergaidh, but more correctly Tengaidh, as given in the O’Clerys’ Calendar. It is difficult to know where this place had been situated. Nor can we find, among the townland names of Ireland, any near approach to it in spelling or in pronunciation…

    At the 19th of July, in the Martyrology of Donegal, we find recorded Oisseine, and fifty monks, of Tengaidh. In the Irish Calendar, which belonged to the Irish Ordnance Survey, there is an entry of this Oseine, at the xiv. of the August Kalends, which corresponds with the present date. We cannot find any other records, to afford satisfactory information regarding St. Oissene and his fifty monks of Tengaidh.

     

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