OMNIUM SANCTORUM HIBERNIAE

Category: Irish Saints

  • Saint Maclaisre of Bangor, May 16

    A couple of days ago we looked at an obscure female saint, Lassar, who shares her feast day with the well-known Saint Carthage of Lismore. Today we meet the same name in another form in the person of a seventh-century abbot of Bangor, who shares his May 16th commemoration with the famous Saint Brendan the Navigator. Our abbot’s name, Mac Laisre, describes him as the son of Lasre and Canon O’Hanlon assembles the evidence from the calendars and annals for his feast day below. One source he doesn’t mention though is the poem preserved in the Bangor Antiphonary on ‘The Commemoration of our Abbots’. The poem, consisting of eight strophes of eight lines each, lists the abbots beginning with the founder Saint Comgall, whose feast is also celebrated in the month of May,  describing how Christ has endowed them with heavenly virtues. It begins:

    Sancta sanctorum opera
    Patrum, fratres, fortissima,
    Benchorensi in optimo
    Fundatorum aeclesia,
    Abbatum eminentia,
    Numerum, tempra, nomina,
    Sine fine fulgentia,
    Audite, magna mereta ;
    Quos convocavit Dominus
    Caelorum regni sedibus. 

    The holy, valiant deeds
    Of sacred Fathers,
    Based on the matchless
    Church of Benchor;
    The noble deeds of abbots
    Their number, times, and names,
    Of never-ending lustre.
    Hear, brothers; great their deserts,
    Whom the Lord hath gathered
    To the mansions of his heavenly kingdom.

    Of our saint it says:

    Inlustravit Maclaisreum,
    Kapud abbatum omnium 

    He rendered Maclaisre illustrious,
    The chief of all abbots;

    [Text and Translation from Rev William Reeves, ‘The Antiphonary of Bangor,’ in Ulster Journal of Archaeology, Vol.1 (1853), 168-179.]

    This suggests that although he may today be an obscure figure, he retained a prominent reputation within his own community. Canon O’Hanlon writes:
    St. Maclaisre, Abbot of Bangor, County of Down.

    The Martyrology of Tallagh  records this saint, at the 16th of May, as Mac Lasre, Abbot of Bangor. At the same date, the Bollandists  enter Maclasrius, Abbas Benchorensis, in Ultonia. Allusion is made to him, by Father John Colgan,  as having died, during the reigns of Conall and Kellach, joint sovereigns over Ireland. The “Chronicum Scotorum ” places the death of Mac Laisre, Abbot of Bennchair, at A.D. 644, the year when it is stated Bede was born. On this day, Mac Laisre departed to a brighter and a better world, in the year 645, according to the Annals of Ulster, and of the Four Masters. The Martyrology of Donegal  registers on this day, as having veneration paid him, Maclaisre, Abbot of Bennchor.
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  • Saint Fionnchadh, May 16

     

    May 16 is the feastday of Saint Brendan of Clonfert, one of the most famous of all Irish saints. Canon O’Hanlon, however, brings us the details of a much less well-known saint who shares this date of commemoration with The Navigator, a Bishop called Fionnchadh:
    St. Fionnchadh, Bishop.
    An entry is found, regarding Findchad, a Bishop, in the Martyrology of Tallagh, at the 16th of May. The Bollandists simply note Findchadus Episcopus, from the same source, and for the same date. On this day was venerated Fionnchadh, Bishop, as we read in the Martyrology of Donegal.

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  • Saint Lassar, May 14

    May 14 is the feast day of Saint Carthage of Lismore, a saint with a wealth of hagiographical traditions associated with him. By contrast it is also the commemoration of an obscure female saint, Lassar, one of fourteen saints who share this name, based on the Old Irish word for flame. It occurs too as a name for men, with Saint Molaisse or Laserian being the most famous example. Only one of the female saints Lassar has a surviving Life, a late 17th-century composition which may have been modernised from a Late Middle Irish original. The subject of that Life has a feast day on November 13 at which time I hope to bring some selections from the work. Whether there is any relationship between the various female saints Lassar is hard to fathom, it may be that there are a number of distinct individuals who happen to share the name or it may be that some were commemorated on more than one day. Canon O’Hanlon can only write a few lines on the Saint Lassar commemorated on May 14:

    St. Lassar, or Laisre.

    A record of Laisre is found in the published Martyrology of Tallagh, at the 14th of May, and it is also in the Franciscan copy. From the same source, the Bollandists  enter at this day the festival of St. Lasra, or Lassara, with a reference to what had been said regarding Cassara Virgo—evidently a mistake for Lassara Virgo—placed among the pretermitted feasts, at the 11th of May. On this day, veneration was given to Lassar, as we read, also, in the Martyrology of Donegal.

    Content Copyright © Omnium Sanctorum Hiberniae 2012-2015. All rights reserved.