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 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.

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  • Saint Moeldod of Mucnaimh, May 13

    May 13 is the commemoration of an abbot of Mucnaimh, which Canon O’Hanlon argues is modern Mucknoe, County Monaghan. He is able to describe something of Saint Moeldod’s genealogy, but otherwise there are few details. Pádraig Ó Riain, in his 2011 Dictionary of Irish Saints, has been able to trace how this otherwise obscure Irish saint was noted in the German martyrologies linked to the Irish foundation at Cologne. He also identifies him as one of the reputed victims of the Buidhe Chonaill (‘the Yellow Pestilence’) plague which claimed the lives of so many Irish saints in the 6th/7th centuries:

    St. Moeldod, or Moeldodius, Abbot of Mucnaimh, or Mucknoe, County of Monaghan.

    At this date, in the published Martyrology of Tallagh, we meet with the name of Moeilidoid; while, a nearly similar entry is in the Franciscan copy. The Bollandists have given some brief Acts of this saint, at the 13th of May. Father Godefrid Hennschenn was the compiler. We are informed, that St. Moeldod was a member of the great house of the Orgiel dynasts, representing the three Collas. It will be difficult, however, to determine the exact time, when he flourished; but, we may partially approximate to it, by following the genealogical tree of his family. St. Moeldod, or Maldod, was son to Eingin, son of Aldus, son to Fiach, son of Fiech, son to Eugene, son to Brian, son of Muredach Meth, son to Imchad, one of Colla Dacrioch’s sons. We have few particulars to state regarding this saint. We are told, however, that he was Abbot of Mucmaimh, in Orgiellia, or Uriel; and that place has been converted by Archdall into Monaghan, said to have been anciently called Muinechan. The Rev. Dr. Lanigan asserts, that it was well known an old monastery stood at Monaghan—which he identifies with Mucnaimh—and, of this, Moeldod was Abbot, if not the founder. Such identification, however, is quite incorrect… Mucnamh sometimes written Mucshnamh— is now identified with Muckno, a parish in the barony of Cremorne, and county of Monaghan. Chiefly within its bounds is the beautiful lake of Mucno, with its soft and swelling shores richly wooded, and having pretty isles and islets to diversify its fine landscapes… It is situated, near to Castleblaney. The time, when this saint lived, has not been specified. The feast of a St. Maldod, Confessor, in Ireland, occurs, likewise, on the following day, May 14th. At this date, in his Scottish Menology, Dempster speaks of Maldod, Bishop, in Ireland, a Scot by birth, and a man distinguished for his great holiness, remarkable patience, and the influence of his virtuous example. As a proof of these assertions, he adds the letters M.C.; by which he asserts, the Carthusian Martyrology to be indicated as authority, Canisius, and Adam Walasser. The Bollandist writer, in the “Acta Sanctorum,” had not seen this latter work; but, in the former authors, he found nothing regarding Moeldod’s episcopacy, or about his Scottish origin. It is supposed, however, that this saint was identical, with an Abbot, who ruled over Muc-naimh monastery. His feast was assigned to this date, by Richard Whitford, in his English Martyrology. Also, on this day, the Martyrology of Donegal, registers the name Maeldoid, of Mucnamh, as having been venerated.

    Note: The introduction to this post, first published in 2014, has been revised in 2022.

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