OMNIUM SANCTORUM HIBERNIAE

Author: Michele Ainley

  • How Saint Odhrán saved Saint Patrick's Life

    February 19 is the feast of Saint Odhrán (Odran, Odhran, Oran) whom tradition records as the faithful chariot driver to Saint Patrick. The vignette below recounts how he was faithful to his saintly master until the end:

    ST. PATRICK, APOSTLE OF IRELAND.— HOW ST ODRAN SAVED THE SAINT’S LIFE.

    St. Patrick, the Apostle of Ireland, was taken captive in his youth by King Niall, in one of his raids into Gaul. He served seven years in bondage as a swineherd, with Milcho, a chief who lived in the County Antrim. Having escaped to Gaul, he had a vision in which he heard the voice of the Irish crying out: “We entreat thee, holy youth, to come and walk still among us”. Patrick was deeply affected by this vision, and he was subsequently commissioned, to his great joy, by Pope Celestine, to bear the faith of Christ to the pagan Irish. His mission was miraculously successful. He won the entire nation to the doctrines of Christ without a drop of blood having been shed through persecution, a fact unexampled in the history of Christianity.

    But there was one martyr during his mission. A certain idolater named Failge, a great adversary of Christ, resolved to kill the saint, who had destroyed the idols to which he was bound. Odran, Patrick’s driver or charioteer, having discovered the danger, requested his master to change places with him in the chariot, pretending that he was greatly fatigued. The saint, always happy to exercise his humility, gladly acquiesced. Ere long they arrived at the spot where the assassin lay in ambush, and as they were passing, the wretch rushed forward, and mistaking the driver for the servant, pierced Odran with a spear. The saint now understood Odran’s motive, and his grief was great over his pious and devoted disciple. The vengeance of God fell on the murderer, for he died on the same day. St. Odran is ”the only Irish martyr on record that suffered in Ireland by the hands of an Irishman.”

    Content Copyright © Omnium Sanctorum Hiberniae 2012-2018. All rights reserved.

  • The Birth and Baptism of Saint Mogue

    BIRTH AND BAPTISM OF ST. MOGUE.

    Saint Killian, on a day of the days missed his oxen which he pastured at Fenagh in Cavan, and set off in quest of them. He came up with them on the edge of Templeport lake, standing without a stir, and looking steadfastly at the island which lay in the middle of the sheet of water. The ferryman’s house was near the spot, and he asked the wife if anything remarkable had happened in the island during the night. She said that a strange woman had got herself ferried across to it, and had been delivered of a fine man child. Moreover the bedpost which she had grasped in her pains had sent roots into the ground; and from its top had sprung branches in full leaf and flower, and gone through the roof. “Where’s your husband and the boat?” said the saint. “At the farther side of the lake,” said she. “Bring out something, on which you may go across to the island for the infant, that I may baptise him.” “There is nothing on which I could sit or stand but the hearthstone, and sure that would not do.” “Well, try it.” “But sure I couldn’t lift it.” “Make the attempt.” She did so, and the flag was no heavier than a thin dry board. The saint placed it on the water, bade the woman get on it, and spread out her shawl to catch the breeze. She obeyed, and had a delightful sail to the island.

    There she received the child from Eithne its mother, brought it to the saint, and he baptised it by the name of Mogue. The woman then re-conveyed it to the island to its mother, and in time he became a priest, spent some time with St. David in Wales, and during the later years of his life governed the Bishopric of Ferns in Wexford. The miraculous hearthstone afterwards conveyed many a corpse to its place of interment in the island.

    Patrick Kennedy, The Fireside Stories of Ireland, (Dublin, 1870), 127-128.

    Note: For a full account of the life of Saint Mogue see a paper by Bishop P.F. Moran here.

    Content Copyright © Omnium Sanctorum Hiberniae 2012-2018. All rights reserved.

  • Saint Columbanus and The First Christmas Tree

    Henry van Dyke, The First Christmas Tree (1897)

    I was somewhat amused to find the following article from a 1913 Australian newspaper attributing the origins of the Christmas tree to our own Saint Columbanus and his missionary labours among the Germanic peoples of early seventh-century Europe. Now I have certainly heard that the Christmas tree was introduced to these islands from Germany, but in the nineteenth century by Queen Victoria’s husband, Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha. The writer below, however, confidently asserts that ‘careful research’ disproves a Germanic origin for the Christmas tree and that its origin is traced to an Irishman – Saint Columbanus. That may come as news to the English who claim that their own great missionary saint among the Germanic tribes, Saint Boniface, holds the honours. I have to admit that it comes as news to me too,  I doubt very much that any individual can claim to be the originator of the Christmas tree or that its origins can be traced in an unbroken line back to pre-Christian practices. I suspect Saint Columbanus might just say ‘Bah, humbug!’.

    THE CHRISTMAS TREE

    ITS ORIGINS TRACED TO THE IRISH SAINT COLUMBANUS

    Familiar us is the Christmas tree to us, and as dearly-beloved as it is to the people of the civilised world, it is surprising how very few there are who know of its origin, or its introduction into the celebration of the most beautiful and impressive festival of the year, legends there are in plenty, but few of them seem founded upon a basis of fact. Most of them, have been handed down – with the customary “warping from the original story”- from generation to generation. The use of the fir tree in the celebration of Christmas is usually believed to have originated in Germany. Careful research proves this to have been a fallacy. As are so many of the ancient customs and institutions, its origin as a Christmas adjunct is traced to an Irishman.

    It was Saint Columbanus, who engaged in converting the pagans of Germany and Switzerland to Christianity, found them so firmly impressed with the sacredness of trees -especially the fir- that he conceived the idea of endowing them with an illustrative Christian meaning. To these people, the tree was an object of worship from which no amount of reasoning would convert them, and because of this, Saint Columbanus and his fellow missionaries found it an especially favourable symbol for their use.
    As far back as the seventh century the fir tree, because of its evergreen verdure, was known in Christmas [Christian?] writings and pictures as a symbol of eternal life, while a legend, dating from the same period, represents an old man bearing a lighted tree, who entered every home at Christmas time and granted a single wish to each of the inmates.  The evolution of this beneficent old personage with his beautiful fir into our own Santa Claus and his gift-laden tree is easily traced.
    THE CHRISTMAS TREE. (1913, December 24). Northern Star (Lismore, NSW: 1876 – 1954), p. 10. Retrieved December 20, 2017, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article72348547

    Content Copyright © Omnium Sanctorum Hiberniae 2012-2017. All rights reserved.