OMNIUM SANCTORUM HIBERNIAE

Author: Michele Ainley

  • Saints Marinus and Anianus, August 16

    Canon O’Hanlon mentions in Volume 8 of his Lives of the Irish Saints at August 16 that the seventeenth-century hagiologist, Father John Colgan, had intended to publish an account of a saintly duo, Marinus and Anianus on this date. Sadly, he died before he could do so. Canon O’Hanlon did not know of this pair, which is surprising since his Anglican contemporary, the scholarly Bishop William Reeves with whose work O’Hanlon was certainly acquainted, delivered a paper on them to the Royal Irish Academy in 1863. Their accepted feast day is November 15 so on what basis Colgan assigned them to August 16 is not clear. The pair were seventh-century missionaries to Bavaria, Marinus, a bishop and his companion Anianus of a lesser ecclesiastical rank. Both were martyred, there is some interesting speculation on the identity of their ‘Vandal’ attackers here. I will, however, hold over the Reeves paper until November 15, he too has some interesting speculations to offer on the original Irish names that might lie behind the Latinized forms in which they have come down to us. For now, Canon O’Hanlon has to admit defeat:

    Saints Marinus and Anianus.

    At the 16th of August, Colgan intended to have published the Lives of Saints Marinus and Anianus, as we learn from the posthumous list of his Manuscripts. Elsewhere, I have not been able to find any account, that might serve to explain their connection with Irish hagiology.

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  • 'The Clouds are Her Chariot' – The Feast of the Assumption, August 15

    August 15 is the Feast of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary and below are a couple of brief quotations relating to the feast connected with the monastery of Bobbio. Bobbio was, of course, founded by the Irish Saint Columbanus. In the late seventeenth century, a visiting Benedictine monk, Jean Mabillon, visited Bobbio and discovered in its library a wonderful codex dating from a thousand years earlier. The ‘Bobbio Missal’, as the codex is now known, has been described as ‘one of the most intriguing liturgical manuscripts that were produced in Merovingian Francia’. Earlier generations of scholars were keen to assert a firm Irish provenance for this seventh-century Gallican liturgy, but modern scholars have failed to prove any direct Irish link, apart from the manuscript’s location at Bobbio. In her 1938 historical account of Irish devotion to the Blessed Virgin, Helena Concannon quoted some snippets from it relating to today’s feast:

    From the Mass for the Feast of the Assumption found in the Bobbio Missal:

    “…her soul is wreathed with various crowns; the apostles render sacred homage to her, the angels intone their canticles, Christ embraces her, the clouds are her chariot, paradise her dwelling, where, decked with glory, she reigns amidst the virgin-choirs.”

    From a Sermon on the Assumption Preached at Bobbio:

    “Celebrating today (the preacher says) the Assumption of the Holy Mother Mary, dearest Brethern, it behoves you to rejoice in spirit, in that God has willed for your salvation to raise her from the earthly dwellings to the heavenly mansions. The Mother of Our Lord is assumed today by God, the Creator of all things, to the heavenly kingdom, and she who by her chaste child-bearing brought life to the human race, today ascends to Heaven to pray to God at all times for us. Let it be our prayer, whilst we keep the day of the Assumption, that she may assist us by her merits, and may protect us from the snares of Satan, that so through her we may deserve to attain the joys of Paradise.”

    The Queen of Ireland – An Historical Account of Ireland’s Devotion to the Blessed Virgin by Mrs Helena Concannon (Dublin, 1938), 41-42.

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  • St. Lughaidh of Cluain Fobhair, August 6

    August 6 is the feast of an Irish saint with an ancient name – Lughaidh. He is associated with a locality called Cluain Fobhair. Despite the fact that he appears on the earliest calendars and that the seventeenth-century hagiologist,  Father John Colgan, intended to include him in his work, both the man and the place are impossible to identify with any certainty, as Canon O’Hanlon explains:

    St. Lughaidh, of Cluain Fobhair.

    The present saint most probably flourished before the tenth century, for his name is commemorated at this date, in our most ancient Irish Martyrologies. It seems to have been Colgan’s intention to have edited the Acts of St. Lughidius, on this day, as would appear from the posthumous list of his MSS. He was connected with a place, designated Cluain Fobhair. There is a townland called Cloonfoher, in the parish and barony of Burrishoole, in the County of Mayo; a Cloonfore, in the parish and barony of Rathcline, in the County of Longford; a Cloonfower, in the parish of Termonbarry, barony of Ballintober North, and County of Roscommon, as also a Cloonfower, in the parish of Kilkeevin, and barony of Castlereagh, County of Roscommon. Those denominations are all equivalent to Cluain Fobhair. The Martyrologies of Tallagh and of Donegal mention, that at the 6th of August, veneration was given to Lughaidh, of Cluain Fobhair. In the Irish Calendar, preserved in the Royal Irish Academy, there is a similar entry.
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