OMNIUM SANCTORUM HIBERNIAE

Category: Groups of saints

  • The Sons of Gerán, April 1

    We can begin the month of April with the commemoration of an obscure grouping of saints, known as The Sons of Gerán. How many individuals comprised the group is not recorded, indeed the only information Canon O’Hanlon is able to bring us is the recording of their names on the various Irish calendars:

    The Sons of Geran, or Goran.

    Who these holy persons were has not been known, nor can it be ascertained, at what particular time they flourished. In the published Martyrology of Tallagh, the entry, Mic or “sons of” Gerain, at the 1st of April, will be found, although incorrectly placed by the scribe. The Bollandists notice them, as “Filii Gorani,” at this date, and on the same authority. On this day was celebrated a festival, in honour of The Sons of Gerán, as we find recorded, in the Martyrology of Donegal.

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  • The Daughters of Cainnech, September 24

    When I first saw the notice for The Daughters of Cainnech in the list of contents of saints commemorated on September 24 in Volume 9 of the Lives of the Irish Saints, I assumed that Canon O’Hanlon would be unable to bring us any details apart from the notices from the calendars. In this case, however, a County Waterford priest had written to the author with details of the lineage and locality of these holy women, whom he linked to Saint Declan. Cainnech’s daughters are only one of a number of similar filial groupings recorded on the Irish calendars, the most famous of which is probably the Daughters of Leinin, whose name lives on in the County Dublin placename now Anglicized as Killiney. In some of these cases, like Leinin’s daughters or the Daughters of Comgall who are commemorated on January 22, tradition records the names of the individuals who make up the group. That doesn’t seem to be the case here, but the locality where the daughters of Cainnech flourished is firmly identified with Molough, near Clonmel, County Tipperary. In the 14th century the Butler family founded a nunnery dedicated to Saint Brigid of Kildare on the site, and I have reproduced the details and sketch of the ruins.

    The Daughters of Cainnech, or Maghlocha, County of Tipperary. [Sixth Century.]

    According to the manuscript and published Martyrology of Tallagh, the Daughters of Cainnech had veneration paid them, at the 24th of September. The Martyrology of Marianus O’Gorman commemorates the festival of Cainnech’s chaste daughters, at this same day. The glossographer adds, that they belonged to Maigh Locha. Their parentage and locality have been fully identified. These holy women were the children of a chieftain who lived in the time of St. Declan, patron of Ardmore, and whose castle had been saved from fire by the latter. Their place was formerly called Magh Locha, now Molough, near the great bend of the River Suir, and not many miles from Clonmel, in the County of Tipperary. There they seem to have lived in religious retirement, most probably some time in the sixth century. Of their lives, however, we find no record.

    Long after that time, their place is said to have been the site for a nunnery, dedicated to St. Brigid, in the former diocese of Lismore. It is mentioned by Archdall, as being in the County of Tipperary; but, he is wrong in placing it near Carrick-on-Suir. The ruins of the old nunnery of Moylough are situated on level ground, about one furlong north of the River Suir. In the year 1840, two parts of this building remained, viz., a chapel and a lateral house; but, from the fragments of walls about them, it appeared to have been a habitation of considerable extent. The church or chapel remaining was then in a tolerable state of preservation, extending from east to west, and measuring in length on the inside 60 feet, in breadth it was 27 feet, 6 inches. Two windows were in the east gable, constructed of chiselled and brownish sand-stone. There were three windows on the southwall, but these were much disfigured and built up with rough masonry. The door-way was on the south wall, and at a distance of fourteen feet from the west gable; it was constructed of chiselled and ornamental lime-stone on the outside, and of chiselled sand-stone on the inside. The west gable had been surmounted by a belfry, having two semi-circular arches, constructed of brownish and chiselled sand-stone. The lateral house extended to the northwest of the chapel, and touching it at the north-west corner. It was fifty-five feet in length on the outside, and twenty-seven in breadth. Its walls were three feet six inches in thickness, and about fourteen feet in height.

    In the Martyrology of Donegal, their festival is also inserted, at the 24th of September.

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  • The Seven Bishops of Aelmagh, August 23

     

    August 23 is the commemoration of a group of bishops on the earliest of the surviving Irish calendars, the Martyrology of Tallaght. It is one of a number of entries which group individuals in this way, in his account below Canon O’Hanlon believes it reflects the use of sacred numbers in a Christian context. We do not know much about these particular bishops, Canon O’Hanlon wonders if they are also mentioned in the Litany of Aengus which can be read on the blog here.

    The Seven Bishops of Aelmhagh, i.e. at Donihnachmor, probably in the County of Leitrim.

    The mystic number seven marked some of the most important events and regulations among the Jews. Thus, the seventh day was the Sabbath; the seventh year was the sabbath of the land, in which the people were commanded not to sow the land, nor to prune the vineyards. And again, when seven weeks of years—(i.e. forty-nine years)—were past, the people were ordered to hold the jubilee on the fiftieth year, when “remission was to be proclaimed to all the inhabitants of the land.” But, it is needless to multiply examples from the Old Testament, where the word occurs nearly one hundred times, as a sacred and peculiar mode of enumeration. So are we struck with the use of the word seven, in our old Litanies and Calendars. It is entered in the published Martyrology of Tallagh, that veneration was given at the 23rd of August, to Sect— Septem—nesp. Domnaighmoir, Elmaighi. Somewhat differently is this entered in the Book of Leinster copy of the Martyrology, at the same date. This place, or its equivalent, Aelmhagh, signifying “Plain of the Lime,” was in Calraighe; but, we are not told, in which of the many districts thus called in Ireland it had been situated. There were several tribes called Calraidhe or Calry, and so noticed as being descended from Lewy Cal. The names of the places so called serve to perpetuate the memory of those clans. Thus, one of them settled in the ancient Tenia, and the denomination is locally preserved in Slievegolry, near Ardagh, in the County of Longford. Moreover, Calry, in the County of Sligo, and it is thought Calary in Wicklow, still preserve the names of those tribes. Although in the notice of Aelmhagh, at A.M. 3790, Dr. O’Donovan does not attempt to identify Aelmhagh, in Calraighe; yet, when he meets an account of the Calraighe of Aelmhagh, at A.D. 781, he says, this Sept was probably one, otherwise called Calraighe-an-Chala, and seated in the barony of Clonlonan, in the County of Westmeath.

    Under the heading of Domhnach-mor-Aolmaighe, Duald Mac Firbis records the seven bishops of Domhnach-mor-Aolmaighe, at August, 23rd. In that old Irish Litany, ascribed to St. Aengus, there is an invocation of the seven bishops of Domnach Calliraigi—most probably referring to those of Aelmaighe, although the latter denomination has not been introduced. The history of those bishops we are unable to unfold; nor is it possible for us to state when they lived, or if all had been contemporaries. It seems most probable, however, that they were commemorated, as having passed out of this world, in successive periods, and as having been buried subsequently in the place which has been mentioned. We are assured by Duald Mac Firbis, and by his learned Irish topographical commentator, that Domhnach-mor-Aelmhagh or Aolmaighe is in Breifne-O’Ruiarc; and consequently, that it is now known as Donaghmore, in the barony of Dromahire, and County of Leitrim. We find recorded, likewise, in the Martyrology of Donegal, at this same date, The Seven Bishops, of Aelmhagh, i.e., at Domhnach-mor.

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