OMNIUM SANCTORUM HIBERNIAE

Author: Michele Ainley

  • Saint Moling Luachra, June 17

     

    June 17 is the feastday of one of the most important saints of Kerry, Moling Luachra. Saint Moling, whose original name was Daircell, is linked to such legendary figures as Gobban Saor, the smith, and Suibhne Geilt, the madman of the forests, as well as to other Irish saints such as Brendan the Navigator. Below is a summary of his life written by 19th-century Irish Anglican clergyman, the Rev. Thomas Olden:

    DAIRCELL or TAIRCELL, otherwise MOLLING (d. 696) (Annals of Four Masters), was the son of Faelan, a descendant of Cathaeir Mor, who was king of Leinster and monarch of Ireland A.D. 358. In the Latin life published by the Bollandists few particulars are given, but the Irish life in the royal library of Brussels has the following account of his parentage.

    Faelan was a brugaidh, or farmer, at Luachair, now Slieve Lougher, a wild upland district near Castle Island in Kerry. Having accumulated considerable wealth, he returned to his native territory, Hy Degha, situated on the river Barrow. His wife, Eamnat of Ciarraighe (Kerry), had a beautiful sister with whom Faelan fell in love. After some time, finding she was about to become a mother, she fled by night from her sister’s house to her native place. Here, on the bleak upland of Lougher, she encountered a snowstorm, and worn out and exhausted gave birth to a child. She was tempted to strangle the babe, when a dove sent from heaven flapped its wings in the mother’s face, and prevented her from accomplishing her purpose. Meanwhile St. Brendan of Clonfert, whose church was not far off, hearing of the occurrence, had the mother and child brought to him. He placed the child in charge of one of his clergy, who baptised him, and gave him the name of Taircell (gathering), in allusion to the manner in which the dove ‘ gathered’ him to her with her wings.

    After some years he asked and received permission to go forth and collect alms for the maintenance of the students, and also for the carrying on of divine service. One day when returning from visiting Lougher for this purpose he was stopped by a strange robber band, described in the story as ‘people in the guise of spectres.’ They threatened to rob and kill him. He asked to be allowed to try and escape by his swiftness. ‘Let his request be granted’ said the hag, ‘for swift as the wild deer are we, and swift as the wind is our dog.’ Taircell then made three springs, in which he passed over the whole of Lougher, landing in the third on the enclosure of the church. ‘Henceforth’, said his tutor to him, ‘you shall be called Moiling of Lougher from the leaps (linge) you have made’.

    He now learnt something of his parentage from his mother, after which his tutor ‘ cut his hair and put the tonsure of a monk on him,’ and desired him to go to St. Maedoc of Ferns. At this time Molling is described as a well-favoured youth:’whiter than snow was his body, ruddier than the flame the sheen of his cheek.’ He first visited St. Modimoc at Cluain Cain (Clonkeen, co. Tipperary) ; here he entered into a covenant with the community ; passing on to Cashel the king promised him a site for a redes, or abbey church, but in the night an angel reproached him for having asked for it when a place was already his at that point on the Barrow where St. Brendan thirty years before had made a hearth, and the fire was still kept burning;from this he proceeded to Sruthair Guaire (Shrule in the Queen’s County), and thence southward till he beheld a watch of angels over the point of Ross Broc, above the river Barrow. Reaching the place he found St. Brendan’s hearth, and there he founded his house and church, and it was thenceforward known as Tech Molling, or St. Mullens. It was his permanent dwelling. It is indeed stated in one of his lives that he spent part of his time at Glendalough, but this appears to be an error arising from the fact that there was another Daircell, a contemporary, who was bishop of Glendalough.

    Some time after, the great yew tree of Lethgle known as the Eo Rossa sell, and St. Molaise divided it among the saints of Ireland, and St. Molling having claimed his share sent for the famous artist Goban to construct an oratory for him of the wood, “When it was finished the price demanded was as much rye as the oratory would contain. ‘ Turn it up,’ said Molling, ‘and put its mouth upwards. So Goban laid hold of it by both post and ridge so that he turned the oratory upside down, and not a plank of it started from its place, nor did a joint of any of the boards move from the other.’ Moiling then sent messengers throughout his territory telling them of the demand, but the reply was that all their country could not supply so much, and he had to perform a miracle to pay the debt.

    Molling was held in the highest honour throughout Leinster. There was at this time a dispute between the Leinster people and the joint kings of Ireland, Diarmuid and Blathmac, with respect to the boundary of their territories, and St. Molling’s assistance being invited, it was finally arranged that he and the kings should start from their respective homes at the same time, and that their place of meeting should be the boundary. But the kings treacherously posted parties in ambush all the way from Slieve Bloom to Ath Cliath (Dublin) to intercept the saint on his journey northward. Aware of their intention, he and his attendant assumed disguises and passed them safely, with the result that the boundary line was drawn in favour of Leinster. Some years after (674) Finnachta the Hospitable succeeded to the kingdom of Ireland. He had exacted the tax called the boruma twice from the Leinstermen, but was resisted on a third occasion. He therefore prepared to levy it by force, when Bran, son of Conall, king of Leinster (d. 687), summoned the laity and clergy of Meath, and it was decided to send for St. Molling. He assembled a synod of his elders, and after a solemn invocation of the Trinity set out for the court of the king. When he arrived he advised peace, and was then urged to undertake the negotiations, the king addressing him in highly flattering language as ‘ the victorious star of Broc,’ ‘the Daniel of the Gael,’ &c., and promising him a ‘silken hood,’ with more substantial rewards. He undertook the perilous adventure, and addressing himself to King Finnachta, asked for a respite in the collection of the boruma. ‘ For how long?’ he was asked. ‘A year,’ he replied. ‘We cannot grant it,’ said the Ulstermen. ‘Half a year, then.’ ‘No,’ they replied. ‘Well, then, till Luan ‘(Monday). ‘It shall be given,’ said the king. St. Molling then took securities for the agreement, ‘binding on him the Trinity and the four gospels of the Lord.’ But the word Luan was ambiguous; and meant not only Monday but the day of judgment, and Molling accordingly informed the king that the engagement he had made signified a permanent remission of the boruma, and he admitted the interpretation, adding, ‘I will not break my promise.’ It should be mentioned that another account attributes the remission to Molling’s terrifying the collectors by threats of vengeance. In consequence of the remission of the boruma Finnachta is reckoned a saint in the ‘ Martyrology of Donegal'(14 Nov.), where the hospitable or festive king looks rather out of place.

    In the time of Giraldus Cambrensis Molling was reckoned one of the four prophets of the Irish race, and the prophecy or rhapsody called the ‘ Baile Molling’ is attributed to him, but, according to O’Curry, it was not written until about 1137. It would appear, however, that the ground for this title was rather his knowledge of character,’such was the grace of prophecy in him that if asked he could tell people’s characters, how they should live, the manner of their death, and their future deserts.’

    He was also known as a poet, and more poems are attributed to him than to any other Irish saint except St. Columba. A very curious one has been published by Mr. Whitley Stokes from the ‘Book of Leinster,’ and as it is quoted in a manuscript of the ninth century, little more than a century after his death, it is probably authentic. It is a dialogue between the saint and the devil, and treats of the happiness of the Christian and the misery of the wicked. The statement that Molling was made ‘archbishop of Leinster ‘ by King Bran in 632 and placed in the chair of St. Maedoc of Ferns gives Colgan and Lanigan much trouble, but the story is evidently a late invention, as the king died in 601, and the ‘Life of St. Brigid,’ by Cogitosus, on which Colgan founds an argument, belongs not to the seventh century, as he supposed, but to the ninth.

    A book named ‘ The Yellow Book of Molling’ is lost, but a Latin manuscript of the four gospels, attributed to him, is preserved in Trinity College, Dublin.

    The high Christian character and gentleness of the saint are ascribed by his biographers to his having been born on ‘the day on which the Holy Ghost descended on the apostles.’ How considerate he was is shown by the story of the leper. One day when he was preparing for the holy communion, a man, hideously deformed by leprosy, approached and asked to be allowed to partake of the chalice. Hesitating for a moment, he immediately called to mind the passage, ‘I will have mercy and not sacrifice,’ and permitted him to partake of it ; the story adds that the Lord supplied the saint with another chalice. Molling died on 17 June, in the eighty-second year of his age. The Dublin copy of the Annals of Tigernach states that he died in Britain. The year seems certainly to be 696.

    [Betha Mollincc, Irish manuscript in the Royal Library of Brussels; Bollandists’ Act. Sanct., Junii 17, iii. 406, &c. ; Martyrology of Donegal ; Lanigan’s Eccles. Hist. iii. 132 ; Annals of the Four Masters, A.D. 106, note ; Stokes’s Goidelica, 2nd ed. pp. 179-82.] T. 0.

    The picture is of an enamel produced by craftswoman, Anne Murphy.Content Copyright © Omnium Sanctorum Hiberniae 2012-2015. All rights reserved.

  • Saint Aitheachan of Colpe, June 16

    In Volume VI of his Lives of the Irish Saints, Canon O’Hanlon has details of an obscure County Meath saint commemorated on June 16:

    St. Aitheachan or Athcain of Inbher Colpthai, Colpe, County of Meath

    [Probably in the Sixth Century]

    A festival in honour of Aitheachan, Colptho, is set down in the Martyrology of Tallagh, at the 16th of June. The place, with which this saint was connected, is further known as Invercolp, or Colpe, in the barony of Lower Duleek, and county of Meath. It lies at the mouth of the River Boyne. Eithne, daughter of Concraidh, was his mother, it is further stated. Little seems to be known regarding the history of this saint, who flourished probably in the sixth century.  In the Martyrology of Donegal, at this same date, his name appears as Athcain of Inbher Colpthai.

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

  • Saint Beoc of Wexford, June 15

     

    Below is a paper by the nineteenth-century scholar, Margaret Stokes, on an Irish saint, Beoc, who is linked to both Wexford and Brittany. His name, however, does not appear in any of the ancient Irish calendars. Modern scholar, Gwenael le Duc, has written a paper on ‘Irish saints in Brittany: Myth or Reality?’ in which he subjects the idea that Brittany was awash with Irish saints to critical examination. His conclusion is that the numbers have, for all sorts of reasons, been highly exaggerated and that Brittany was not a favoured European destination for the Irish at all. He believes that St Beoc (also known as Veoc and Vouagy) is a conflation of a Breton saint, Bee’heu and Vouga, an Irishman celebrated on June 15. As Stokes’ paper below shows, however, whatever the truth of his origins, the saint had a flourishing cult:

    ST. BEOC OF WEXFORD, AND LAN VEOC IN BRITTANY, JUNE 15. (DIED 585.)

    BY Miss MARGARET STOKES, HON. FELLOW.

    By the beginning of the fifth century there dwelt two brothers in the county of Wexford, Bishop Cairpre, [1] and Beoc, [2] now called Veoc. He is said to have been first a priest, and then a bishop, in Armagh. [3] But, seeking a desert place where he could devote his life to contemplation, he left that country and journeyed southwards till he reached the south-eastern point of Ireland, where he remained for some time studying the word of God with prayer and working miracles in healing. He enclosed a small tract of land upon the sandy shore near Carnsore point, and there he built a little cell and oratory, consecrating a holy well close by, whose waters are still held to be possessed of healing virtues.

    The wide sands near Beoc’s cashel are strewn with huge dark boulders rounded by the Atlantic waves. Standing on one of these, Beoc longed to reach the continent that he knew lay beyond the far horizon, but he could see no boat to bear him thither. Then, as he prayed, the stone on which he stood began to move, and gliding down the shore, floated with him out to sea. In a night and a day it bore him to the shore of Brittany and leaving the saint at a place to the south of the bay of Douarnenez, called Lan Veoc, the stone returned whence it came. One fragment, however, that bearing the impress of the saint’s head, was broken off and left behind in Brittany. Albert le Grand thus continues this legend : At the port of Comouaille, the name of which was Penmarch, many who at that time were walking on the shore, and sailors of ships which were standing at anchor in the harbour, when they saw this huge mass floating to them from afar, thought that some great ship was being driven to land by the force of the waves, the storm having broken over it and having destroyed its mast. But when it entered the harbour, they all stood terrified, because that huge rock, like a ship, was carrying towards them a man seated on its summit. The saint descended to land, and immediately the rock turned back to sea, and all the crowd who were present looking on it directed its course towards Ireland whence it came.

    That miracle being noised abroad among the surrounding villages, called up a great multitude of men desirous of seeing the saint. The Penmarchian citizens, also moved by so great a miracle, offered thanks to God, because he had sent to them so holy a man, and receiving him with great hospitality, they assigned him a house wherein to dwell. There he often preached the word of God and miraculously healed the sick, winning many souls to Jesus Christ.

    Subsequently the saint erected a hermitage half a-mile from the city, into which he betook himself to live quietly to God ; but when the people flocked to him daily in great crowds he resolved to change his abode.

    On a certain day, the saint going forth from his hut met a woman upon his way who, inspired by an evil spirit, sang insulting songs before him. The saint gently reproved her, but when nothing availed, leaving her, he silently went his way ; yet she, unhappy woman, soon felt the divine condemnation of her wickedness, for, seized with great internal pain, she fell dead on the earth. Beholding her punishment, St. Veoc ordered the corpse to be carried into the church, and unmindful of the injuries he received from her, he knelt upon the ground, and with tears besought the Lord that he would permit the soul of that wretched woman to return to her body, lest, dying impenitent, she should at the same time forfeit eternal life. The saint had scarcely finished his prayers when she flung herself at his feet, beseeching forgiveness. This being granted, she went home praising God, who had shown himself wonderful in his servant St. Veoc.

    Immediately the fame of so great a miracle spread abroad through all Cornouaille, and called forth very many from all the places around to his hermitage. But he, fearing lest so great a crowd of men should disturb the quiet of his devotion, determined to carry out the scheme he had long proposed to himself. He therefore went across an arm of the sea from LAN VEOC, and came to Brest, where he was unwilling to stay ; but crossing over through the district of Lesneven, he buried himself in a very dense wood, where, having erected an oratory with a little hut beside it, he was joined by some religious men, with whom he spent his time in holy works until it pleased God to call him away to the reward of his pious labours. He died on the 15th of June, about the year 585. His disciples buried him under the altar of his chapel, in which place God afterwards wrought so many miracles through his intercession that, the wood being cut down, a chapel was built in the same place, and dedicated to his name, which St. Tenenan, Bishop of Leon, subsequently raised to the rank of a parochial church. The revered relics of St. Beoc were honourably preserved here until the arrival of the Northmen in Brittany, at which time this country was desolated, and his remains were transferred elsewhere. However, his missal is religiously preserved in his sacred church, by touching which fever patients think themselves relieved. Many of his relics are also preserved in the chapel called after his name, erected on the shore of the great ocean, one mile from Penmarch, in the parish of Treguenec, in the diocese of Cornouuille, which chapel is constantly visited by persons suffering from fever, who gradually regain their health there.

    Some part also of the rock remained which had brought him over, and it stands to this day in the parish of Treguenec, a mile from Penmarch, in a cemetery of a chapel called from the Saint, and on it is seen, even now, the impress of the saint’s head. Wherefore pilgrims who visit the chapel for the sake of religion, in order that they may be relieved from fevers, are wont to recline their head upon the rock, and to carry away with them water blessed by contact with the sacred relics, which is drunk by those suffering from fever, or is sprinkled on their forehead.

    The vestiges of St. Beoc which still remain in the County of “Wexford are to be found on the seashore, in the parish of Cam. They consist of a ruined church, and cashel, enclosing an ancient cemetery, a holy well, and a huge boulder-stone just above tide-mark, on which a cross is incised.

    [Please refer to the original volume for details and illustrations of this church]

    The holy well of St. Beoc is in the field between the church and shore. Here steps may be seen leading down to a natural spring of clear water about two feet in depth. A semicircular enclosure of strong masonry confines three sides of the well, which is open in front, and shadowed by briars and creepers, a tangle of quick and bryony and wild rose-bush threatening to hide the steps from view by which the pilgrims still descend to the healing waters, said by the poor in the neighbourhood to be an unfailing cure for toothache. The stone of St. Beoc, on which he is said to have sailed from Carnsore point to Brittany, and which returned after depositing its burthen on a foreign shore, is still shown upon the seashore. It is a huge boulder, well rounded by the action of the waves. At the sides are two deep cuttings, apparently meant for iron stanchions, by means of which the stone appears to have once been fixed, so as to stand upright. A rude cross is deeply incised on the front of the stone, which, having fallen on its face, only reveals its back to view. However, by kneeling down and peering under the stone a portion of this cross may be discerned. It is possible that at one time it may have been fixed up on end and marked to commemorate the departure of some remarkable person from the shore.

    “The county of Wexford, being the gate of the Kingdom of Ireland” as Colonel Richards, writing in 1656, has termed it, is probably a rich field for the explorer or pilgrim in search of vestiges of the first missionaries to and from the continent in the early Christian period ; yet it will be difficult to find any of greater interest than the view we have here described. As seen from the summit of the casbel or enclosing wall which surrounds its cemetery, it would form a good subject for a landscape painter. To the north-east lies the bright village of Churchtown, its low headland stretching far into the sea, the sandy reaches of the shore to the south scattered with huge dark boulders of granite, whose grey tones, broken by the rich bronze and umber of the sea weed, form a solemn contrast to the dancing wavelets and blue distant sea. Such is the fresh and charming background to the pathetic little ruin, the Irish home of our Breton saint, now overgrown with ivy and brambles, sea-pink, blue scabious, and other sea-side plants.

    Notes

    [1] Cairpre, patron of Cill Carbrey in Wexford, near the meeting of the rivers Boro and Slaney.

    [2] Beoc. The name of this saint has gone through many changes and corruptions, and is now printed Vaugh on the Ordnance Survey Map. He is sometimes styled Mobioc or Dabioc Vake, Vogues, Vauk, Vouga.

    [3] Father Shearman traces his origin to Tennon Dabeog, at Loch Derg in Ulster “Loca Patriciana,” p. 158.

    [Authorities “Boll. AA. SS.,” June 15, p. 1061, par. 4. ” De S. Vouga seu Veo, episc. in Britannia Annorica . . . ab Alberto le Grand.” Lobineau, “Les Vies des SS. de Bretagne,” ed. M. L’Abbe Tresvaux, Paris, 1836, vol. i. Shearman, ” Loca Patriciana,” p. 157. O’Hanlon, ” Lives of Irish SS.,” vol. vi., p. 668.]

    Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland, 1893, 380-385.

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