OMNIUM SANCTORUM HIBERNIAE

Author: Michele Ainley

  • Belgium Honours Saint Dymphna

    Today is the feast of Saint Dymphna, a saint who embodies all of the difficulties in trying to untangle the facts about the lives and identities of the Irish saints. The story that has come down to us is of a seventh-century Irish princess who fled the incestuous attentions of her deranged father and ended up dying a martyr’s death in Belgium. However, her name is not recorded in any of our early native calendars of the saints and the first mention we have of her story is in a thirteenth century Life written by a Flemish monk. Belgium has continued to cherish her memory and in the article below, taken from a syndicated piece published in the New Zealand press in 1925, we get a flavour of the celebrations held to honour the reputed 1325th anniversary of her arrival in that country. The writer also seeks to explain her patronage of those suffering from mental illness:

    BELGIANS HONOR SAINT DYMPHNA.

    A succession of feasts to commemorate the 1325th anniversary of the arrival on Belgian soil of the Irish Princess, Saint Dymphna are now taking place in the unique town of Gheel (says a Louvain message under date June 18). The celebrations are of truly royal splendor. In the jubilee procession held recently, bishops and prelates escorted the relics of the Saint. Her history was represented in floats and groups of which the Irish flag and harp, and oldtime Irish costumes were prominent features.

    Dymphna was a young and beautiful princess leading a Christian life at her pagan father’s court in Ireland. Solicited by him to contract a union against which nature rebelled, she fled from home with a retinue of attendants and the saintly old priest Gerebernus.

    They put to sea in a frail skiff and landed, after passing through a series of adventures, upon the Belgian coast, near Antwerp. Penetrating into the interior, they travelled until they reached a point in what is now the township of Gheel, where they pitched their tents and thought themselves safe.

    But the King, thwarted in his designs, set out in pursuit of his fugitive daughter reached Belgium also, and there traced her whereabouts by the coins with which her party had paid their way through the land.

    Having come upon her retreat, he again urged her marriage. Dymphna resisted as before. Exasperated into fury, the unnatural father imbrued his hands in his child’s blood, severing her head at one blow of his sword, whilst his companions put to death the holy priest who, by his counsel and example, had assisted the young Irish maiden  to keep unsullied her faith and her purity.

     It was not many years after the unfolding of this double tragedy that the people of the country witness to it began to pay a religious homage to the victims, but particularly to Dymphna. To her they had recourse to obtain the cure for themselves or a for others of various diseases, but especially of diseases of the mind. 

    Regarding the father’s passion as a manifestation of insanity and considering that the daughter triumphed over it in a manner most heroic and most pleasing to God, they reasoned that Dymphna in Heaven most assuredly would listen to prayers in favor of the unfortunate wretches whom insanity makes strangers to the calls of reason and humanity.

     Grateful for the blessings secured through her intercession, her humble devotees, poor peasants of the unfertile Campine, built a chapel upon the very spot where she had spent three months of her sojourn among them.

    Her relics and those of her companions were kept in this chapel until the completion in the XIV century of the magnificent temple erected at Gheel through the generosity of the ever-increasing number of pilgrims to St. Dymphna’s Shrine and the princely munificence of the still extant de Merode family.

    Catholic World,New Zealand Tablet, Volume LII, Issue 33, 2 September 1925

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  • Saint Carthach of Lismore, May 14

    May 14 is the feast of Saint Carthach (Carthage, Carthagh. Mochuda) of Lismore. I have previously published an introduction to the saint here and a paper on his life here but today we have a fresh reminder of his career courtesy of The New Zealand Tablet:

    ST. CARTHAGH.

    Lismore Cathedral is said to have been founded by St. Carthagh (McCarthy) about the year 636, and was subsequently repaired and partially rebuilt in the year 1130 by Cormao, the son of Mauretus, King of Munster. We have but very imperfect accounts of this saint and his works. At one time Lismore vied in importance with the moat flourishing cities of Ireland, having had a university and being a bishop’s see. Besides its monasteries, it is said that it contained no fewer than 20 churches. The ruins of several were still standing within the last century. It is stated on good authority that King Alfred of Northumbria was among the noble persons who received their education at Lismore. When St. Carthagh founded the Cathedral of Lismore he also established an abbey of Canons Regular. St. Carthagh’s rule is still extant in Irish, and was very severe. These monks lived in the same manner as the Trappists at present, confining their diet to vegetables, which they raised with their own hands. When Carthagh was a youth, like David, he watched his father’s flocks. His piety, gentleness, and grace attracted the notice of the prince of the province and his wife, who was daughter to the king of Munster, and they became very fond of the boy. While tending his herd one day a bishop and suite passed, chanting hymns. The boy was so captivated by this psalmody that he followed them to the gate of the convent, where they stopped and passed the night outside listening to them. The prince, who loved the boy, sought him everywhere, and when he returned he asked him why he did not come as usual on the previous evening. ‘My Lord,’ he replied, ‘I did not come because I was ravished by the divine song of the holy clergy; please heaven, lord duke, that I was with them, that I might learn to sing as they do.’ The prince admitted him to his table, offered him a sword, buckler, lance, and other gifts, to turn him from his purpose; but the boy refused them, saying ‘that he wanted no gifts, he wanted but one thing, to chant hymns like the saints of God.’ In the end he prevailed and was sent to the Bishop to be made a monk. St. Carthagh was descended from Ire, second son of Milesius, and was a native of Munster. Tie was the first abbot of Ratheny, in Westmeath, which he founded, and in which he is said to have governed over 800 monks. About the year 631 he was driven from Ratheny by King Blathmac. Afterwards he became Bishop of Lismore, where he built a cathedral and several schools. He did not survive his labors long, for he died in the year 638, full of the odor of virtue and sanctity.

    ST. CARTHAGH.,New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXVIII, Issue 10, 10 May 1900

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  • St. Cathaldus of Taranto, May 10

    May 10 is the feast of Saint Cathaldus (Cataldus, Cathal), an Irish saint who flourished in Italy. His life and career is still the subject of debate, an 1896 paper can be found here but below is a rather succinct summary from 1909, courtesy of The New Zealand Tablet:

    St. Cataldus, Bishop and Confessor.

    St. Cataldus,  the second apostle and patron saint of Taranto, was born in Ireland about the year 615, and whilst a youth was sent to study at the great monastic school of Lismore. Whilst returning from a pilgrimage to Jerusalem, in which he was accompanied by some of his disciples, the vessel was wrecked in the Gulf of Taranto, not far from the city of that name. When the Irish Bishop saw this beautiful city given over to pleasure and vice his spirit was moved within him, and in burning language he implored the inhabitants to return to the service of God, Whom they had forgotten. It happened at this time that there was no bishop in the city, so the people besought Cataldus to remain with them, to which request he reluctantly acceded. The saint succeeded in bringing back the inhabitants to the service of God, and Taranto became a Christian city in reality, as well as in name. St. Cataldus died towards the close of the seventh century, and his remains were buried in a marble tomb, which up to this day is preserved in the sacristy of the Cathedral of Taranto.

    St. Cataldus, Bishop and Confessor.,New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXXVII, Issue 9, 4 March 1909

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