OMNIUM SANCTORUM HIBERNIAE

Category: Groups of saints

  • The Sons of Erc, April 19

     

    On April 19 we meet another of the groups of Irish saints, the Sons of Erc of Darmagh. Following the work of Meath diocesan historian, Dean Anthony Cogan, Canon O’Hanlon identifies this place with the Columban monastery of Durrow. We have no further specifics about Erc’s saintly sons, but interestingly, the calendars appear to preserve a second feast day for them at November 12:

    The Sons of Erc, of Darmagh, said to have been Durrow, King’s County.

    The Martyrology of Tallagh enters as a festival, MacErcca of Dermaigh, at this same date [i.e. April 19]. This place, which is Anglicised ‘the plain of the Oaks’ is said to have been identical with the present Durrow, a parish, partly in the barony of Moycashel, county of Westmeath, but principally in that of Ballycowan, King’s County. This monastery was founded by St. Columkille, about the year 550; and on a site, granted by Bredan, a chief of Teffia. Other accounts have the foundation of Durrow, at A.D. 546. It was subsequently governed by St. Lasren; but, St, Columba retired here, and drew up certain rules and instructions, for the future good government of this celebrated house. We have a long list of annalistic entries, referring to it, and reaching down to the time of its suppression, by Queen Elizabeth.

    The saints here commemorated appear to have had a second festival, at November the 12th. Marianus O’Gorman, at this day, has an entry of those holy men; and, at this date also, quoting his authority, and that of the Tallagh Martyrology, the Bollandists enter Filii Ercae de Dermagia. The festival in honour of the sons of Erc, of Dermagh, was celebrated, on this day, as we read in the Martyrology of Donegal.



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  • The Sons of Terchur, April 13

    On April 13 the earliest of the Irish calendars, the Martyrology of Tallaght, commemorates a group of saints associated with the lakeland area of County Fermanagh, the Sons of Terchur. There are quite a few saints grouped under their patronymic to be found in the Irish calendars. In some cases we have names preserved for the individuals but in many others they are simply known collectively. The memory of the sons of Terchur is carried forward into the 17th-century Martyrology of Donegal, but without any further detail. Canon O’Hanlon fills up some of the space in his article by a romantic description of the scenery of the saints’ locality, accompanied by an engraving, and by way of contrast to their holy way of life selects a later medieval episode from the Irish Annals:

    The Sons of Terchur, of Loch-mac-Nein.

    On the 13th of April, we find entered, in the Martyrology of Tallagh Mac Tarchair, Locha mic Nina. This place was identical with Lough-Mac-Nen, now Lough Macnean, situated between the counties of Fermanagh, Cavan and Leitrim. The very romantic scenery, about the margin of Lough Mac Nean, is enhanced greatly by that beautiful sheet of water, extending between the counties of Fermanagh and of Leitrim, while several islands seem to float over its surface. On one of these, called Innisshee, there is a crannog, and it lies to the left of the Hanging Rock, a magnificent cliff over the Lake, and which is shown in the engraving. The Island itself is in the centre of the Lough, and the view as presented in our illustration is that appearing from Belcoo. A bridge at this village carries the road across to the northern extremity, which is situated in the county of Cavan.

    The sons of Terchur, are mentioned, in the Martyrology of Donegal, as having had veneration paid to them, on this day. They are also said to have been of Loch-mac-Nein; but, whether their place of retirement was on an Island, situated in the lake itself, or whether it was to be found on the shores which border it, we have now apparently no clue left us, which could serve to discover that particular site.

    In the year 1499, the Annals of the Four Masters’ state, that Con Carragh and John O’Roorke took Melaghlin Mac Rannall, a prisoner, and they conveyed him to Inis-Ochta, an Island on Lough Mac Nen. But Rory Maguire rescued the prisoner, and slew these two sons of O’Roorke. It seems hurtful to generous and refined feeling, that deeds of violence should be associated with so charming a locality; and, even more so, when it is known, that holy men had once sanctified those places which are historic, by their living presence, although we can only learn of them and their associations with the scene, through the patronymic above recorded.

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  • Saint Tuililatha of Kildare, January 6

    January 6 is the feast day of a group of three female saints, collectively known as the ‘Daughters of Nadfrac’. Often with such groups of saints we do not have the names of the individuals who comprise it, but in this case the sources preserve the identities of  three distinct holy women- Muadhnat, Tuililatha and Osnat- albeit that that they are all commemorated on the same day. The three sisters are associated with monastic foundations in different parts of Ireland. Canon O’Hanlon starts with Saint Muadhnat, but as I have come across some further research on this saint at the last minute, I will start instead with the middle sister, Saint Tuililatha (also known as Tallula, Tuilach and more recently, Tuilclath), a successor to Saint Brigid as abbess of Kildare. At the end of his short piece Canon O’Hanlon follows the authority of the seventeenth-century hagiologist, Father John Colgan, in telling us that she flourished about the year 590, having been somewhat less impressed by the eighteenth-century Anglican antiquary, Mervyn Archdall, author of the famous survey of Irish religious houses, Monasticon Hibernicum (1786):

    St. Tallulla or Tulilach, Virgin, and Abbess of Kildare, County of Kildare. [Sixth Century.]

    The spouse of Christ leaves her home with its comforts, its joys, and its happy associations, as the bird leaves earth beneath it, soaring upward towards the skies, where it feels exposed to less danger and enjoys truer liberty. A sister to the aforementioned holy Virgin [i.e. St. Muadhnat] was St. Tallulla or Tulilach. By Archdall she is incorrectly called Falulla, and apparently without authority he assigns her rule over a community to A.D. 580. Tallulla, Abbess of Cill-Dara, or Kildare, occurs in the Martyrologies of Marianus O’Gorman and of Donegal, on this day. The epithet, Virgin, is affixed to a nearly similar entry in the Martyrology of Tallagh at the 6th of January. Here she is called Tuililatha. It cannot be ascertained, whether she preceded or succeeded St. Comnat in the government of nuns at Kildare for we only learn that the present holy abbess flourished about the year 590.

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