OMNIUM SANCTORUM HIBERNIAE

Category: Irish Saints

  • St. Mumbolus of Lagny, May 9

    At May 9 Canon O’Hanlon brings an account of an Irish saint associated with the French foundation of Saint Fursey at Lagny. It would be interesting to know which Irish name lies behind the Latinized Mumbolus. The sources seem to suggest that he succeeded the founder but that his embrace of the Irish ascetical tradition proved too much for some in the community and that he was forced out to pursue the eremitical life instead. The sources also record two distant feast days for Saint Mumbolus, one at May 9 and a second at November 18. One of these may well be the actual date of the saint’s death and the other the translation of his relics. Canon O’Hanlon tells us that the saint’s relics were moved in the ninth century:

    St. Mumbolus, or Mombolus, Hermit and Abbot of Lagny, France.

    [Seventh Century.]

    In the time of this holy man, a pious emulation seized the Christian Irish and Scots to leave their homes, and to become evangelists, among people living on the Continent. St, Mumbolus or Mombolus was born in Ireland, probably in the seventh century. Afterwards, he went over to France. There, he entered the Monastery of Lagny, as a disciple to St. Fursey. But few particulars regarding him have been recorded, by Miraeus  and Molanus, who place his festival, at the 18th of November. After the death of his master, although third in succession, he became principal over this monastery. But, his government of the inmates seemed to them rather austere; and, a confederacy of many among the community having been formed against him, he withdrew, in company with some fervent companions, to a place called Condrynus, near the River Isara, now known as L’Isere. Here, he lived the life of an anchorite, and he happily departed to a better state, towards the close of the seventh century. At the 9th of May, Dempster  has the Deposition of Mombulus, Abbot of Lagny. It is probable, he died, on the 9th of May; and, at the same date, Wion, Dorgan, Ferrarius, as also an Irish authority [Father Stephen White], have noted his feast. The Bollandists commemorate him at this day;  but, as they state, these authorities cited, and most of the other saint-writers, have another feast for him, at the 18th of November. The relics of this saint were removed, from his place of deposition, by the Bishops of Cambray and of Noyon, about the year 831.
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  • Saint Inneen of Dromtariff, May 6

    The female saint commemorated today, May 6, is interesting on two counts. First, because her festival is not actually recorded on the calendars but is preserved in popular devotion and secondly because she has no proper name. Irish readers will recognise the word iníon, ‘daughter’ in the anglicized word Inneen. Folklore records that she was one of three sisters, her sibling Lateerin has an interesting tale associated of her own to which we will return on her own feast day of July 24. Here is a brief introduction to Saint Inneen from a contributor to the Journal of the Cork Historical and Archaeological Society, who wrote under the pseudonym ‘Mananaan Mac Lir’:

    The 5th of May is the festival of a nameless saint who is known as An Inghen Buidhe a Drom Tarbh, i.e. “the yellow (haired) daughter of Dromtariff” (“the ridge of the bull”). The local tradition is that SS. Lateerin of Cullin, Lassera of Killossory, in Kilmeen parish, and this “yellow-haired daughter,” were sisters who led an eremitical life in those three respective and adjoining parishes in Duhallow. One night the angels came down from heaven and made a tochar  i.e. “causeway,” from Killossory to Dromtariff, and thence to Cullin, so that those holy women might the more easily meet and converse with one another. The “patron day ” at Killossory is now discontinued, but a large “patron” isstill held at Dromtariff holy well on each recurring May 5. The locality of “the yellow-haired daughter’s” holy well — about one hundred and fifty yards south of Dromtariff grave-yard and overlooking the majestic Blackwater — is shown on the Ordnance Townland Maps for the county Cork, sheet 31.

    Journal of the Cork Historical and Archaeological Society, Volume II (1896), 319.

    Canon O’Hanlon has little other information to offer, although he cites May 6 rather than May 5 as the feast day:

    St. Inneen, Dromtariff Old Church, County of Cork.

    In the diocese of Kerry, there is an old church at Dromtariff, in the parish so called, and county of Cork, where a female saint, called Inneen, was venerated, on the 6th of May. According to popular tradition, she was the sister of St. Lateerin, who is likewise popularly known, at Cullin, in that part of the country, and to an older sister, who lived at Kilmeen. It it stated, according to a local tradition, that the angels of Heaven made a road, one night, from Kilmeen  through Dromtariff and on to Cullin, so that the three sisters might the more conveniently visit each other once every week. Much obscurity hangs over their history, as their celebrity appears to be merely local; although, the people, in their part of the country, have a great veneration for those sisters.

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  • Saint Senan, May 5

    On May 5 the earliest of the Irish calendars, the Martyrology of Tallaght, records the name of a Saint Senan but without any further details. The seventeenth-century hagiologist, Father John Colgan, believed him to have been an abbot, as Canon O’Hanlon explains:

    St. Senan.

    The simple entry of Senan’s name is in the published Martyrology of Tallagh at this date; and, a similar record is found in the Franciscan copy. The Bollandists, who enter his feast, on the same authority, and at the 5th of May, have remarked, that Colgan sets him down as an Abbot; although, when or where he exercised such an office, and his acts, are not recorded. The Festilogy of St. Aengus, Marianus and Maguire are also quoted.  On this day was celebrated a festival in honour of Senan, as we find entered in the Martyrology of Donegal.
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