OMNIUM SANCTORUM HIBERNIAE

Category: Groups of saints

  • The Seven Virgins of Armagh, October 8

     On October 8 the Irish calendars commemorate a group of holy women within the diocese of Armagh. The entry in the Martyrology of Oengus does not specify the number of these saints but the (rather unfortunate) translation by Whitley Stokes describes them as ‘a bevy of virginal girls’:

    A. viii. idus Octobris.

    Lécsit lúth co nani
    ar bithaittrib rígi
    trét ingen co nógi
    la paiss find Faustíni.

    8. They left power with splendour
    for eternal possession of the Kingdom,
    a bevy of virginal girls
    at the white passion of Faustinus.

    The scholiasts’ notes, however, introduce the idea of ‘septem filiae’, seven girls:

    8. a bevy of girls, i.e. in Cell na nóebingen ‘ the Church of the holy girls’ in the precinct of Armagh, i.e. septem filiae. Or maybe they are the holy virgins who are in Cell na n-ingen to the east of Armagh.

    The later Martyrology of Donegal refers on this day to:

    THE SEVEN HOLY VIRGINS, of the Termon of Ard-Macha.

    This is but one instance of saints occurring in sevens within the Martyrology, there are, for example, commemorations of the Seven Bishops of Cluaincua on October 3 and of the Seven Sons of Stiallan, on October 27.

    I assumed that the present seven virgins of Armagh are connected to the hagiography of Saint Patrick and wondered if they may be connected to this episode from the Tripartite Life:

    Once on a time there came nine daughters of the King of the Lombards, and a daughter of the King of Britain on their pilgrimage to Patrick. They stayed at the east of Armagh in the place where Coll na n-Ingen (the Maidens’ Hazel) stands to-day. They sent to Patrick to ask if they might go to see him (to Armagh). Patrick said to the messengers, ‘Three of the virgins will go to heaven, and do ye bury them in the place where they are — namely, at Coll na n-Ingen. Let the rest of the virgins go to Druim Fendeda (or the Champion’s Ridge), and let one of them go as far as the hillock in the east.’ – and this thing was done.

    Most Rev. J. Healy, The Life and Writings of Saint Patrick (Dublin, 1905), 513.

    The reference in the Martyrology of Oengus that they ‘left power with splendour for eternal possession of the Kingdom’ would certainly seem to tie in with the idea of princesses becoming nuns. Although the Tripartite Life talks of nine daughters of the King of the Lombards plus a daughter of the King of Britain, Saint Patrick prophecies that three will go to heaven which would reduce their number to seven. I will have to do some further research and see if recent scholarship can cast any more light on this enigmatic group.

     

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  • The Daughters of Carpre, August 15

    The earliest of the Irish calendars commemorates a group of holy women known collectively as the daughters of Carpre on August 15. How many sisters this group comprised is not recorded, indeed apart from a notice in The Martyrology of Tallaght appended to the name of the male saint Saran, also commemorated on this day, nothing more is known of them as Canon O’Hanlon explains:
    Feast of Carpre’s Daughters.
    In addition to the Festival and veneration observed at this date, as we read in the published Martyrology of Tallaght, for Firdacrioch et St. Saran, the Daughters of Carpre are likewise commemorated. In that copy, contained in the Book of Leinster, they are also noticed, at the 15th of August. Further light we cannot obtain, regarding these holy women, who are not mentioned at this date, in the Martyrology of Donegal.
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  • Saint Ossin and Fifty Monks of Tengaidh, July 19

     

    At July 19 the Irish calendars commemorate a saint Ossin and fifty monks, but as Canon O’Hanlon explains, we can uncover nothing else about them. The number fifty in this context commonly occurs in relation to monks, it is one of the Christian sacred numbers and also one of the traditional Irish divisions of the psalter, known as ‘the three fifties’.

    ST. OSSIN OR OISSEINE, AND FIFTY MONKS, OF TENGAIDH.

    At the 19th of July, the Martyrology of Tallagh registers a festival to honour Ossin o Thergaidh ocus Coeca Manach imbi. From such an entry, we should be inclined to suppose, that Ossin must have been an Abbot, and that he presided over a community of fifty monks, at a place set down as Thergaidh, but more correctly Tengaidh, as given in the O’Clerys’ Calendar. It is difficult to know where this place had been situated. Nor can we find, among the townland names of Ireland, any near approach to it in spelling or in pronunciation…

    At the 19th of July, in the Martyrology of Donegal, we find recorded Oisseine, and fifty monks, of Tengaidh. In the Irish Calendar, which belonged to the Irish Ordnance Survey, there is an entry of this Oseine, at the xiv. of the August Kalends, which corresponds with the present date. We cannot find any other records, to afford satisfactory information regarding St. Oissene and his fifty monks of Tengaidh.

     

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