OMNIUM SANCTORUM HIBERNIAE

Author: Michele Ainley

  • Saint Modomnoc, February 13

     

    Saint Modomnoc (Domnoc, Dominic,) commemorated on February 13, was a student of the monastic life under the patron of Wales, Saint David of Menevia. Most of the information recorded about Saint Modomnoc comes from the Life of Saint David. He does, however, also appear on the Irish calendars. The Martyrology of Oengus records:

    B. Idibus Febr.

    13. In a little boat, from the east, over the pure-coloured sea, my Domnoc brought vigorous cry! the gifted race of Ireland’s bees.

    and the Martyrology of Donegal:

    13. B. IDIBUS FEBRUARII. 13.

    MODHOMHNOG, of Tioprat Fachtna, in the [south] west of Osraighe. He was of the race of Eoghan, son of Niall.

    The curious reference in the Martyrology of Oengus to the ‘race of bees’ is explained by a story in the Life of Saint David:

    43. After that the aforesaid Modomnoc had devoted himself for a long lapse of years to the humility of obedience, his virtuous merits increasing, he sought the island of Ireland. The whole multitude of bees followed the ship which he had entered and settled with him in the ship, where he had sat down, on the ship’s prow. For as he attended on the bees’ quarters, he paid heed with the rest of the work of the brotherhood to the hives in rearing the young of the swarms, whereby he might procure some luxuries of sweeter food for those in need. He, loath to defraud the fraternal community, returned, re-appearing in the presence of the holy father, and attended by the swarm of bees, which flew to their own quarters. David blessed him for his humility. Then bidding farewell to the father and brethren, and being saluted, he went away, but again the bees follow him. And it so happened that, whenever he started forth, they also followed. Again, a third time, he sailed for a while, and it happened as before. The swarms followed him, and he returned to David thrice. On the third occasion holy David dismissed Modomnoc to sail with the bees, and he blessed them, saying, ” May the land to which ye hasten abound with your offspring. Never may your progeny be wanting in it. Our monastery will be deserted for ever by you. Never shall your offspring grow up in it.” That this has continued till now we have learnt by experience, for we find swarms imported into the monastery of this father, but they, remaining there a little while, gradually cease. Ireland, however, wherein never could bees exist till that time, is enriched with abundance of honey. And so by the blessing of the holy father they have multiplied in the island of Ireland, since it is agreed that they could by no means exist there at first, for if you should cast Irish earth or stone in the midst of bees, they would shun it greatly, being scattered and flying away.

    This story of Saint Modomnoc being responsible for the introduction of bees to Ireland is one which seems to have captured the imagination of various writers at different times. The 3rd-century author, Gaius Julius Solinus, appears to be the source of the idea that Ireland and its very earth were inimical to bees:

    ‘There is no snake there; few birds; no bee; so that if any one should scatter dust or pebbles brought from thence among the hives [in other countries] the bees would desert their combs’.

    This tale was still being told at the time of the 17th-century hagiologist Father John Colgan, who would have none of it. For him the story that Ireland had no bees before Saint Modomnoc introduced them was easily refuted:

    ‘for Bede states, in his Ecclesiastical History, lib.1, c.i, that ‘the island was rich in milk and honey..’ … But that bees and honey had existed in Ireland before this Dominic was born, is evident from the irrefragable testimony of the rule of St Albeus [Ailbe] in which (No. 37) we read:- ‘When they [the monks] sit down at table, let their be brought herbs or roots washed with water, in clean baskets, also apples, beer and honey from the hive, the breadth of an inch, i.e. so much of honey-combs’.

    Colgan sought a more rational explanation:

    ‘Therefore, against the authority of St. Aengus and others who assert positively that St. Dominicus [Modomnoc] was the first who brought bees into Ireland, it is to be remarked that this should be understood only of a certain species of bees; for there are in Ireland domestic or hive bees, and wild bees, and bees of different kinds and colours. St Dominic appears to have introduced the first hive bees into Ireland, from whose seed the domestic bees have been disseminated in that country.’

    quoted in John O’Donovan, ‘Pre-Christian Notices of Ireland’ in Ulster Journal of Archaeology, Vol. 8 (1860), 250.
    Wade-Evans, the translator of the Life of Saint David, speculates that the Welsh saint’s dismissal of the bees may be explained by his opposition to the brewing of mead for monastic consumption.
    Whatever the truth, Saint Modomnoc after his return to Ireland settled at Tiprad-Fachtna in County Kilkenney. He is also associated with a church called Lan Beachaire, ‘the Church of the Bee-Keeper,’ now Bremore, near Dublin. Canon O’Hanlon summarizes the evidence for his festival.
    ‘At Tibberaghny, his feast was chiefly celebrated, and of that place, he appears to have been the chief patron. His natalis, or departure from this life, is celebrated on the 13th day of February, according to Maguire and other writers. Another festival is kept in his honour, however, on the 18th day of May, according to the same authorities. The year of his death is not known; but, he flourished, about the middle of the sixth century.

    At the 13th of February, St. Oengus, in his Feilire, commemorates not only St. Modomnoc, but also the account of his having introduced bees into Ireland. The Calendar of Cashel, the Martyrology of Tallaght, Marianus O’Gorman, Cathal Maguire, and the Martyrology of Donegal, agree. In the Circle of the Seasons, he is commemorated, as a bishop and confessor. In Scotland, his memorial was kept. At the Ides, or 13th of February, the festival of St. Modomnoc, confessor in Hibernia, is set down in the Kalendar of Drummond. This is also stated to be the date for his departure to Christ.’

    The Life of Saint David also records that thanks to a miracle of the Welsh master, his pupil Modomnoc was saved from a premature departure to Christ:

    41. Modomnoc by name, was excavating a road with the brethren on the steep near the confines of the monastery, whereby an easier access might be made for wayfarers to convey their burdens of necessities. He said to one of those who were working, “Why dost thou work so lazily and so slowly?” The man, stirred by the spirit of anger against him who said the words, lifted up the iron which he held in his hand, to wit, a two-edged axe, and attempted to strike him on the head. The holy father, David, saw this from a distance, and raised his hand towards them, making the sign of the cross; and so the hand of him striking was withered.

     

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

     

  • Saint Fethgna of Armagh, February 12

     

    On February 12 we commemorate a 9th-century Archbishop of Armagh, Saint Fethgna. The bishop is listed as the 39th in the list of ‘coarbs’ or successors of Patrick:

    39. Fethgna xxii. i.e. of the vigils, son of Nechtan of the Clann Eclidagh.

    H.J. Lawlor and R.I. Best, eds, The Ancient List of the Coarbs of Patrick in PRIA Vol. 35 (1919), Section C, no. 9, 326.

    The Martyrology of Donegal records:

    12. A. PRIDIE IDUS FEBRUARII. 12.

    FETHGNA, successor of Patrick, head of the religion of the Gaoidhil, A.D. 872.

    and a note in the table of the saints appended to the calendar adds:

    Fethgna, successor of Patrick (Mansuetus . . .12 Feb.)

    Canon O’Hanlon comments that the Latin word mansuetus ‘is probably inserted to signify, that he was of a meek disposition.’

    If this is so, his meek disposition would surely have been tested by finding himself as leader of the flock at a time when the Viking raids on Ireland had intensified. Armagh was not spared. Bishop Fethgna succeeded Diarmaid O’Tighearnaigh as Archbishop of Armagh, in 852. Just a few years earlier, the Annals of Ulster record the fate of one of the Abbots of Armagh:

    845. Forinnan, abbot of A., was taken prisoner by Gentiles in Cluain comarda with his reliquaries and his community, and carried off by the ships of Limerick.

    and five years later ‘Armagh was devastated by the foreigners’.

    The Annals then record that a serious sack of Armagh was carried out in 867 during Saint Fethgna’s episcopacy by Amhlach or Amlaf, the Norwegian:

    Ardmacha was plundered and burned with its oratories by Amhlach. Ten hundred was the number there cut off, both by wounding and suffocation, besides all the property and wealth which they found there was carried off by them.

    If the theory advanced by the nineteenth-century writer W. F. Skene is correct, Saint Fethgna was aided in his efforts to rebuild Armagh by the Welsh church of Llancarvan. Skene suggested that a reference to Saint Fethgna appears in a Welsh manuscript known as the Welsh or Cambridge Juvencus. On the last page of this manuscript, are fifty lines of Latin hexameter, of which the words ‘dignissime Fethgna” can alone be distinguished. He believed that this could be our saint and a potential link between the Welsh and Irish churches was strengthened for him by this entry in the Brut y Tywysogion of Caradoc of Llancarvan:

    883 “And the same year Cydivor Abbot of Llanveithin (or Llancarvan) died a wise and learned man and of great piety. He sent six learned men of his abbey to Ireland to instruct the Irish.”

    Skene adds ‘Surely they were sent in consequence of the destruction of the seats of learning in Ireland by the Danes, and thus may some learned Welshmen have been brought in contact with the Bishops of Armagh.’

    W.F. Skene, Archaeologia Cambrensis, Vol 10, (1864), 153-4.

    Whatever the truth of this theory, there are some other mentions of Bishop Fethgna in the Irish Annals. In the Annals of Ulster he is listed as an attendee at an important gathering:

    859. A royal assembly at Rath Aedha mic Bric . . . including Fethgna, coarb of Patrick.

    The same Annals record his death:

    874 Fethgna episcopus heres Patricii et caput religionis totius Hiberniae in pridie nonas Octobris in pace quieuit.

    O’Hanlon could not explain why, if the Annals are correct in placing the death of Saint Fethgna on October 6th, the calendars commemorate his feast on February 12.

     

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

  • Saint Gobnait of Ballyvourney, February 11

    Saint Gobnait (Gobnata, Gobnet, Gobnat) is one of those saints whose memory is kept alive in popular tradition, but whose written Life has been lost. The seventeenth-century hagiologist, Father John Colgan, reported that in his time her Acts were extant in the south Munster area but had not been published. Her feast appears on the Irish calendars on February 11:

    The Martyrology of Oengus records:

    11. My Gobnat from Muscraige Mitaine, i.e. a sharp-beaked nun, Ernaide is the name of the place in which she is. Or Gobnat of Bairnech in Moin Mor in the south of Ireland, and of the race of Conaire is she : a virgin of Conaire’s race.

    The later Martyrology of Donegal entry reads:

    11. G. TERTIO IDUS FEBRUARII. 11.

    GOBNAT, Virgin. At Moin-mor, in the south of Erinn, is her church, [and at Baile Mhuirne.] She was of the race of Conaire, son of Modh-Lamha, monarch of Erinn ; she is of the race of Heremon.

    Canon O’Hanlon summarizes the mentions of Saint Gobnait on other calendars:
    ‘The designation, Gobnat Ernaidhe, i Muscraidhe Mitine, occurs, in the Martyrology of Tallagh, at the 11th of February, The Calendar of Cashel enters, at the same date, St. Gobnata, the nun, of the village of Boirne, or Bairnigh, in Munster, and she belonged to the race of Conaire. Charles Maguire says likewise, at this day, Gobnata, of Ernuidhe—I know not where it is—or Gobnata, of Burneach of Moinmhor, in the southern part of Ireland, and she is of the race of Conaire. Marianus O’Gorman, also, states, St. Gobnata, virgin of Moinmor; her church lies in the southern part of Ireland. In Scotland, too, her memory was revered. The holy virgin Gobnat departed to Christ, on the iii. Ides—corresponding with the 11th—of February, according to the Kalendar of Drummond.’

    Thus the calendar references establish her as being both a nun and of aristocratic lineage. They also concur that she flourished in the Ballyvourney, County Cork area, which is borne out by the survival of ruins of a church and other monuments bearing her name in that location. However, for other information, the only source we have is popular devotion and local folklore. The webpage of the Diocese of Kerry has collected some of this:

    ‘The main centres of devotion to Gobnait are Inis Oírr (Aran Islands), Dún Chaoin in West Kerry and Baile Bhúirne near the Cork/Kerry border. There are a number of other places which carry her name – often as Kilgobnet or Cill Ghobnait – near Dungarvan and Milltown in Co. Kerry for example. All of these sites carry a link to the story of Gobnait and the journey undertaken by her to seek “the place of her resurrection”.

    Tradition records that Gobnait left her native Clare to escape some enemy and went to Inis Oírr where an early medieval oratory dedicated to her is extant on the north side of the island near the shore (cf. Archaeological Inventory of County Galway (West Galway), BÁC, 1993, p.96 No. 552, it is known locally as Cill Ghobnait). While on Inis Oírr an angel appeared to her and told her that the “place of her resurrection” was not to be there but in the place where she would find nine white deer grazing. Gobnait then left Inis Oírr and travelled through the southern, coastal counties – Kerry, Cork and Waterford. The foundations associated with her mark her various stops in her search for the nine deer. These places include Dún Chaoin as mentioned, Kilgobnet near Dungarvan and Kilgobnet (between the MacGillicuddy Reeks and the Laune, accessible from the Killorglin/Beaufort Road on the southern side of the Laune; it is interesting to note that this Kilgobnet is also said to have been the original site of the Lughnasa festival now held in Killorglin – Puck Fair! cf. Máire Mac Neill, The Festival of Lughnasa, Oxford, 1962, 299). At various stages of her journey Gobnait met white deer – three at Clondrohid and six at Baile Mhic Íre – but it was only when she crossed the Sullane river that she found the nine as foretold at Baile Bhúirne. This place, on a rise overlooking the Sullane and looking towards the Derrynasaggart hills was where she settled, died and was buried “to await her resurrection”. She is regarded as the great protector of Baile Bhúirne and is much associated with healing. One story tells of how she cured one of her nuns who was sick and how she kept the plague away from Baile Bhúirne by drawing a line along the eastern borders of the parish with her stick beyond which the plague never came. Many accounts exist of how Gobnait prevented invaders (said to have been O’Donoghues of the Glens) from carrying off the cattle – on their approach she let loose the bees from her hives and they attacked the invaders, forcing them to flee. One version of the tale has the beehive turning into a bronze helmet and the bees themselves turning into soldiers. It is said that it was the O’Herlihys who sought her help and that they handed down the bronze helmet from one generation to the next as a great source of protection. M.T. Kelly, writing in the JCHAS , Vol.III No. 25. (1897), p.102 , suggests that Windele had come across accounts of this helmet but that it had been lost somewhere in Kerry. Another version has the beehive turning into a bell which then became Gobnait’s bell.’

    Another story is told of how, during her lifetime, foreigners came intent on building a castle in Baile Bhúirne, but that the locals opposed this (reminiscent of more recent times and rows over development!). Every night after the builders had left the saint knocked down their building by throwing her bell at the castle. Eventually they gave up, the site, ‘Carraig an Chaisleáin’ is still pointed out as proof of the power of Gobnait. Another version of this tale has Gobnait casting a stone ball at the castle each night. This ball is now said to be the one in the wall of the medieval church and can be seen on the rounds.

    Saint Gobnait is an example of how a saint’s memory and cult was kept alive by the oral tradition, in the absence of written accounts. Today this popular devotion centres around the holy well dedicated to her and there is also an old statue which is exhibited for veneration on her feastday in Ballyvourney. This has a specific ritual attached to it:

    ‘A medieval wooden image of Gobnait, kept traditionally in a drawer in the church during the year, is venerated in the parish church on this day. The devotion is known as the tomhas Gobnatan. People bring a ribbon with them and ‘measure’ the statue from top to bottom and around its circumference. This ribbon is then brought home and is used when people get sick or for some special blessing. The statue is thought to belong to the 13th c.’

    The photograph below shows someone taking ‘Gobnait’s measure’ on her feastday:




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