OMNIUM SANCTORUM HIBERNIAE

Category: Female Saints

  • Saint Comgell, September 19

    September 19 is the commemoration of an elusive Irish female saint, Comgell. Her name is recorded on the earliest surviving Irish calendar, the Martyrology of Tallaght, as Comgell, virgin, and her feast is also noted on the later Martyrologies of Marianus O’Gorman and of Donegal. Like so many of our holy women, however, we have no details of when and where she flourished, thus Canon O’Hanlon can only bring us the details from the calendars:

    St. Comgell or Caomhgheall, Virgin.

    A festival in honour of Comgell or Caomhgheall, Virgin, is found registered in the published Martyrology of Tallagh, at the 19th of September, although the 16th of October Kalends—corresponding with the 16th of September—is substituted. A similar error occurs in the Book of Leinster entry of her name. At this same date, Marianus O’Gorman commemorates Comgell, noticed by his commentator as having been a virgin. In the Martyrology of Donegal, she is commemorated at the 19th of September.

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  • Saint Richardis of Swabia, September 18

    Among the saints listed for September 18, Canon O’Hanlon includes an entry for a European Empress, Richardis of Swabia. Hers is a rather startling story, the wife of Emperor Charles the Fat, she was accused of adultery with her husband’s chancellor and subjected to the trial of ordeal by fire. Needless to say, she survived and retired to a monastery. It seems that there was some tradition of her having been born in Scotia and thus some of the later hagiologists claimed her for Ireland. In the early middle ages it was common for Ireland to be known in Latin as Scotia and only later for the term to be applied to what we now know as Scotland.  Canon O’Hanlon rarely has any difficulty in going along with the claims of sixteenth/seventeenth-century hagiologists that the offspring of alleged ‘Scottish’ kings can be listed among the Irish saints, although whether there actually was any link to this country is another question:

    Feast of St. Richarde or Richardis, Empress and Virgin.

    This saintly and noble lady is referred to, at the 18th of September, by Platius, Henry Fitzsimon, and the anonymous list of Irish Saints, published by O’Sullivan Beare, have her classed among the Irish Saints. The Bollandists have inserted such accounts as could be collected regarding this holy woman, at this date, in a historic sylloge. They tell us, that by some recent writers, St. Richardis is said to have been born in Scotia, and to have been the daughter of a Scottish king. However, this account has been rejected and refuted by Matthew Rader. Other writers think she was born in Alsace, and that she was daughter to the Count Erchangier, of Nordgau. She was renowned for her virtues, and married the Emperor Charles le Gros. With him she was crowned and consecrated, A.D. 881, by the Sovereign Pontiff John VIII. Notwithstanding that she lived with her husband in a state of virginity, she was accused of incontinency; but, by a public trial her innocence was fully proved. With consent of the Emperor she quitted the Court and retired to Andlau on the Lower Rhine, where they had founded and endowed a monastery. There she lived for many years. After death various miracles attested her sanctity. When Pope St. Leo IX. passed through Alsace A.D. 1049, he had the body of St. Richardis raised and placed in a grand monument behind the high altar. The parish church of Etival, in the diocese of St. Die, still preserves some relics of St. Richardis, but the rich shrine which once contained them perished during the excesses of the French Revolution. It seems to have been Colgan’s desire to publish her Acts, at this same date, as we find Richardis Imperatricis mentioned on the posthumous list of his MSS.

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  • Saint Lassar of Clonmore, September 15

    September 15 is the commemoration of one of more than a dozen female saints who bear the name of Lassar. The task of separating these individuals is not made any easier by the association of today’s holy lady with the place name Clonmore. Clonmore is an anglicisation of the Irish cluain mór, the large meadow and is itself shared by localities throughout the island. The most famous in terms of ecclesiastical sites is perhaps Clonmore, County Carlow and in his account below Canon O’Hanlon is informed by one of his correspondents that this is indeed the Clonmore of our saint. If this is so, she is the only female saint I have come across in connection with this monastery whose two most well-known saints are the founder Maedoc and the zealous relic collector Saint Onchu. Finally, the calendarist Marianus O’Gorman’s description of Saint Lassar as bright and shining is a reference to the fact that her name is derived from the old Irish word for flame.

    St. Lassar of Clonmore.

    This pious Virgin, St. Lassair, of Cluain-mor, was venerated at the 15th of September, as we read in the Martyrologies of Tallagh. The name of Lasra, Lassar, Lassera or Lassair was not an unusual one among the Irish female Saints.  Of these, some are distinguished by their patronymics; others by their connexion with a particular locality; while others are not recognizable under either category. The present St. Lassar is said to have been of Cluain-mor. Many places, bearing the name of Clonmore, are found in various parts of Ireland. Mr. John McCall informs the writer, however, that the place of this holy virgin was Clonmore Maedhoc, now Clonmore, in the County of Carlow, which place has been already described at the 8th of February, when treating about St. Oncho or Onchuo, Confessor. At the 15th of September, the bright St. Lassar is invoked in the Martyrology of Marianus O’Gorman, as the shining one who is not decrepit. A commentator adds, that she was of Cluana Moir. At the present date, likewise, Lassar is noticed in the Martyrology of Donegal.  The same entry occurs in the Irish Calendar, belonging to the Ordnance Survey Records.
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