OMNIUM SANCTORUM HIBERNIAE

Author: Michele Ainley

  • Saint John the Apostle and the Early Irish Church

    The Martyrology of Oengus devotes its entire entry for December 27 to
    two of the apostles – Saint John and Saint James. It reads:
     
    D. vi. cal. Ianuarii.
    27. The sound sleep of John in Ephesus
    splendid the bordgal (?)
    -with the ordination of James his brother, who is highest.
    The scholiast adds:
    27. a splendid bordgal, i.e. John’s valour (gal) was in Ephesus a splendid valour, i.e. a valour that went out over the border (bord) quasi dixisset Ephesus was full de operibus eius. his brother is highest, i.e. the greater is sollemnitas etc.
    I haven’t read any specialist commentary on this entry but wonder if the word bordgal was an archaism which the later scholiast did not understand himself and sought to explain.

    There is a body of material concerning the beloved disciple preserved in the Irish sources. In an earlier post on the Irish tradition of the Antichrist, I had mentioned an Apocalypse of Saint John as one of its sources. In the article by Father Martin McNamara that I looked at then, he mentions that the Liber Flavus Fergusiorum preserves a composite Irish text containing episodes from the Beatha Eoin Bruinne, the Life of John the Beloved Disciple (literally John of the Breast), plus fragments of what seems to be an Apocalypse of John. Saint John received this epithet because he reclined on the the breast of Christ at the Last Supper (Jn. 13:25). This composite text was translated from Latin into Irish by an Augustinian friar, Uighisdin Mac Raighin, who died in 1405. It has been translated into English in a volume of texts edited by Father McNamara and Dr. Maire Herbert and so below are some extracts from the Apocalypse and Death of John to mark the feast of the Beloved Disciple, still commemorated on December 27 in the West, although the East celebrates this feast on September 26:

    10. Thereafter John said to his disciples: “go and make a burial-place for me in front of the altar. Cast out the earth far away from it, and make it very deep”. This was done, and he himself went into it and lay readily down on the ground, and stretched up his two hands towards the Creator, saying:
    11. “I thank you, O Creator,
    Christ, the mighty Lord,
    great Heavenly Father,
    gentle soft-spokem brother,
    excellent noble teacher,
    who gently and lovingly
    calls me to your banquet,
    who well understands
    that I desire to go
    to be with you in your kingdom.
    You perceive, O divine kinsman,
    how my heart has loved
    your truth and your word,
    loved to contemplate
    and look on you totally,
    I give you thanks.”
    15. Now I entrust and hand over your people believing in Christ, who have obtained wisdom, true knowledge and sagacity, and have been blessed and baptized. Take me to you, as you promised me in the company of my brethren, Paul, Peter, Matthew, and Thomas, and the other apostles, so that I may partake of the great feast which you have created from the beginning, and which has no end. Open the divine gates and beautifully-draped windows, and the path which is undarkened by the devil, without opposition, without hostile onset. Send your splendid angelic messenger to cherish and protect [me], for you are the almighty Christ, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, who lives and flourishes for all eternity”. And all the people answered: “Amen”.
    16. Then a great brightness came upon the people for the space of one hour of the day. Such was the extent of the illumination that it could not be looked on. Everyone threw themselves on the ground. Then there came to them a beautiful fragrance, and perfume of angelic incense.
    17. Thereafter they raised their heads, and looked at the burial-place. They found nothing there in place of the valiant priest, the eloquent judge, the devout helper, the wise preacher, the splendid confessor, the merciful dispenser of forgiveness, red-cheeked and blue-eyed, namely, John, the beloved apostle.. And thus John parted from the final things of this world.
    18. The suffering and afflicted of the nearby district gathered to that place, and they were cured of all their ills.
    19. As for the body of John, it is in a beautiful golden tomb, and at the end of each year, the best youth, who is without defilement or sin, is chosen, and he goes to cut John’s hair and pare his nails, and when he has completed that task, he partakes of the body and sacrifice of Christ, and he himself ascends to heaven on that day.
    Thus John’s body remains without putrefaction or corruption. Indeed, it is as if he were in a deep sleep, and it will be thus until Doomsday.
    M. Herbert and M. McNamara, eds. and trans., Irish Biblical Apocrypha: Selected Texts in Translation (Edinburgh, 1989), 96-98.

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  • 'Thou art the Mother of the Great King' – an Irish night prayer in honour of Our Lady

    Below is the text of a beautiful night prayer to Our Lady, which I first posted some years ago. It is such a wonderful text that it deserves a second outing.


    A devotional poem, dated c.900 runs:

    O Mary, my blessing on thee in every part that thou mayest commend me tonight to thy Son.
    O Queen of all the virgins in the wide world, pray for me to thy great good Son that I may be saved.
    That thou mayest bring triumph from the world with numerous hosts, bring me to heaven swiftly by thy grace.
    By thy birth, by thy glory, come to me; to the house of thy great good Son lead me by the hand.
    By the choice that was made of thee over every part, by the Father, faultless worth, by the Son,
    By the Holy Spirit who has bestowed every grace on thee, to bring me to heaven, fair the place, be it thy share.
    By every angel, by every virgin, by every saint, bring me in the company of the (heavenly) hosts with noble peace.
    With my soul, with my body, with my understanding and with my sense, I am under thy protection as long as I may be here.
    Mayest thou save me, whether early or late I leave the world, from every danger with numerous hosts, from every attack.
    I throw myself on thy breast, on thy knee and on thy cheek, on thy soul, on thy blood, on thy flesh at all times.
    Under thy protection may I be here and yonder against every strait, mayest thou be my guard always (until I come) to the King of the stars.
    O Mary, hear my cry to holy heaven so that thou mayest be my shelter against the host of base devils.
    Except for Christ thou art the one most abounding in grace who has visited the world, thou hast defeated the devil in battle in thy course.
    Thou art the vessel in which was the manna, O fair generous one; thou art the shrine in which was for a while the Son of the King of the stars.
    Thou art the golden cup in which was the wine which intoxicates and gladdens the host for all eternity.
    Thou art the paradise in which was the sweet tree of life; thy Son has taken the hostage of the (human) race, O pleasant Sun.
    Thou art the mother of the great King, Son of swift God; thy countenance shines gloriously like the sun.
    Mayest thou save me from sin, from the plague of cold hell; let not the demon near me, O radiant sun.
    May it be a protection to me to praise thee – blessed is that; whoever practises it rightly, may he have heaven.
    The prayer of each strong noble saint to thee: thy prayer along with each to pure Christ:
    That I may have the gift of diligent piety always; that I may shine like a star yonder in heaven;
    That no demon may come to me when I shall die; that I may not get torment nor plague from the King of the clouds.
    May I not part from Christ here nor yonder; the house where is the Son of the King of the stars, may I be there.
    The blessing of rich and poor on thy Son; O Mary, my blessing on thee in every part.

    Source: B. O Cuiv, ‘Some early devotional verse in Irish’, Eriu, XIX, 13-17 in P.O’Dwyer O.Carm, Mary – a history of devotion in Ireland (Dublin, 1988), 64-65.


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  • Nobler than kings, the King who was born in Bethlehem



    Nobler than kings,
    the King who was born in Bethlehem was a royal birth;
    every prophet had foretold for a long time
    that he would be born in the reign of Octavian.
    Saltair na Rann, 10th century.


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