OMNIUM SANCTORUM HIBERNIAE

Category: Irish Saints

  • Saint Baitan, Abbot of Clonmacnoise, March 1

     

    On March 1 the Irish calendars commemorate Saint Baitan, a seventh-century abbot of the monastery of Clonmacnoise. The entry in the Martyrology of Donegal reads

    1. D. KALENDIS MARTII. 1.

    BAOTAN, Mac Ua Corbmaic, abbot of Cluain-mic-Nois, A.D. 663.

    Saint Baitan (Boetan, Baotan, Buadan, Boedan, Baithan, Da-Buadoc) succeeded Aedlugh, whose death is recorded in the Annals at 26th of February, 651, as abbot of Clonmacnoise. Here is how one nineteenth-century writer described him:

    BAEDAN MAC UA CORMAIC,

    whose tribe was of the illustrious Conmaicne Mara family, succeeded in the Abbacy. Ware, Lanigan, and Lynch, in his MSS. history, style this holy man Baitan O’Cormac, ” first a Monk, then Abbot, and lastly Bishop of Clonmacnoise; a man of much piety and learning.” He is named in our Martyrologies, on the 1st of March; but there, as well as in our ancient Annals, receives only the title of Abbot. This is a strong confirmatory proof of the assertion with which we set out, namely, that Abbot and Bishop may here be taken as synonymous. This holy Bishop’s obit, is put down by some as having taken place in 663, and by others, in 660. About that year the plague, called Buidhe Connaill, began to rage in Ireland, and of it some of the most remarkable men of that time in Ireland died.

    Rev John Monahan, Records Relating to the Dioceses of Ardagh and Clonmacnoise (Dublin, 1886), 82.

    Canon O’Hanlon summarizes the evidence for Saint Baitan’s feast on the calendars:

    Baitan, Bishop of Cluan, is mentioned in the Martyrology of Tallagh, as having a festival on the 1st of March, which it appears was the date for his death. Marianus O’Gorman, and his Scholiast, as also Maguire, concur in their statements. We read, in the Martyrology of Donegal, that Baotan, Mac Ua Corbmaic, Abbot of Cluain-mic-Nois, was venerated on this day. The year 660 is assigned for the death of this holy abbot, by the Chronicon Scotorum, and by the Annals of Clonmacnoise; but, A.D. 663, according to the Annals of Ulster, and of the Four Masters.

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  • Saint Dichuill of Airiudh-muilt, February 28

    To close the month of February, Canon O’Hanlon brings a notice of a saint linked to the locality of Lough Erne. Although he does not say so in his brief entry for Saint Dichuill of Airiudh-muilt, I am assuming that O’Hanlon is referring to Lough Erne in County Fermanagh:

    St. Dichuill, of Airiudh-muilt, Lough Erne.

    In the Martyrology of Tallagh, and at the 28th of February, we find recorded, “Dichuill Mac Maelduibh in Airudh Muilt oc Locuibh Eirne.” Marianus O’Gorman has an entry, which is somewhat similar. The Martyrology of Donegal registers on this day, Diochuill, son of Maoldubh, of Airiudh-muilt, on Loch Eirne. It seems impossible, at present, to identify this saint’s locality, or to determine whether it was on an island, or along the shores.

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  • Saint Beccan the Blind, February 26

    We commemorate Saint Beccan on February 26, to whose name the epithet of ‘the blind’ is attached in the seventeenth-century Martyrology of Donegal. His name, however, was preserved in the earliest  of the Irish calendars along with a place name which Canon O’Hanlon argues was in County Dublin:

    St. Beccan, or Becanus, The Blind, Probably of Kinsealy, County of Dublin.

    This holy man flourished, probably at an early period, for he is registered, in the Martyrology of Tallagh, at the 26th of February, simply as Beccan, Chind-sali. In the Martyrology of Marianus O’Gorman, at this day, there is an entry, Becanus Kinsalie. It is probable, his place was near the village of Kinsaly, some three miles from Howth, in the present county of Dublin. This saint appears, from the epithet applied to him, to have laboured under the loss of sight. Becan, the Blind, of Ceannsaile, had a festival, celebrated on this day, as we read in the Martyrology of Donegal.

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