OMNIUM SANCTORUM HIBERNIAE

Category: Irish Saints

  • Saint Finlugh of Tamlachtfinlagan, January 3

    January 3 is the feast of two saintly brothers, Fintan and Finlugh. Last year I looked at the life of Saint Fintan of Doone in a post which can be found here, now we can turn to the life of his brother Finlugh as recorded by Canon O’Hanlon in Volume 1 of his Lives of the Irish Saints:

     

    ST. FINLUGH, LUGAD OR FINN-LUGAIN, PATRON OF TAMLACHTFINLAGAN, COUNTY OF LONDONDERRY. [Sixth Century.]

    This holy man was brother to the preceding saint [i.e. Fintan of Doone], but whether senior or junior to him does not appear. He is variously named. Sometimes he is called Finlog or Finlugh, Lugad, Lagan, or Logha. The latter forms appear to represent his original name, to which the prefix Finn or Fionn, which signifies ” white” or “fair,” was afterwards added. This appellation was probably bestowed on account of some quality of complexion, or from the colour of his hair. He had the same father and mother as Fintan; and to the former biography the reader is referred for notices regarding them. At the 3rd day of January, St. Finlog, as well as his brother Fintan, was venerated at Dunbleisque, or Doone; and again do we learn from St. Aengus and his commentator, from the “Martyrology of Tallagh,” from the ” Calendar of Cashel,” and from Marianus O’Gorman, as also from the “Martyrology of Donegal” that St.Finlog had been venerated at Tamlacht Finnlogha, or Finlagan, in the territory of Cianachta Glinne Geimhin, on this same day. Finlog seems to have been originally the disciple of his brother, at Dunbleisque, where, as has been- already related, it was predicted that he should pass over the sea, and die an exile from the country of his birth. In the former life we have already related the manner of his departure. It is thought probable, that he went to Iona, and that he was the identical Findluganus, who interposed to save the life of his great master, St. Columkille, in the island of Hinba. We are informed, that while living here St. Columkille had resolved on excommunicating certain oppressors of religious houses. Among these, Joan, the son of Conall, was especially conspicuous. One of his wicked associates was called Lamh Dess. Instigated by the devil, he rushed on the saint with a spear intending to kill Columba. To prevent this dreaded result, one of the brethren, named Findlugan, put on the saint’s garment and interposed his person, being ready to die for sake of the holy man. But St. Columba’s garment served as a kind of strong and impenetrable shield, which could not be pierced by the thrust of a very sharp spear, although made by a powerful man. The brother who wore it remained safe and uninjured under divine protection. The ruffian who attempted this outrage, and whose name is found Latinized Manus Dextra, retired, thinking he had transfixed the saint with his spear. Exactly one year afterwards, when the saint was in the island of Hy, he said: ” A year has just now elapsed since that day when Lamh-dess did his best to put Findlugan to death in my place, but that man is now slain, as I believe, and on this very hour.” So it happened; for at that moment, according to the saint’s revelation, in an island which is Latinized “Longa,” in English, “Long Island,” a battle was fought between a number of opposing warriors. Lamh-dess alone was slain by Conan, son of Baithen, and transfixed with a dart. It is said, this stroke was given in the name of St. Columba.

    After the fall of Lamh-dess the battle ceased. Whether these events occurred before or after what remains to be noted regarding St. Finlog cannot very clearly be ascertained. Again, St. Columkille is said to have founded a religious establishment at a place near Lough Foyle, in the barony of Kenaught, county of Londonderry. The townland is called Tamlacht. Over the house thus established the great father of Irish monasticism placed his disciple, Finlog, as first abbot. Hence the place seems to have derived its appellation of Tamlachtfinlaghan. It is now a parish in the diocese of Derry. The place of the old monastic site is marked by a much frequented cemetery, within the enclosure of which are the ruins of an old church. Whether any portion of this building dates back to the time of St. Finlog may very fairly be questioned…

    Besides his cultus at Tamlacht Finnlaghan, and Dunbleisque, St. Finlog appears to have been venerated, likewise, on the island of St. Finlagan, where are the ruins of a small chapel dedicated to him. That island lies within Loch Finlagan, in the parish of Killarrow, at Islay, or Ila. From this fresh water lake flows the Killarrow river, and between the chapel of St. Finlagan and the east coast at Kilcholmkill stood a chapel dedicated to St. Columba. Before the year 1380, John, lord of the Isles, is said to have roofed the chapel of Finlagan and other churches. He gave them, moreover, proper furniture for the service of God, and for the maintenance of officiating clergy. The lords of the Isles exercised the right of patronage in connexion with the chapels of St. Finlagan and of St. Columba. On the island cemetery of Finlagan the wives and children of the island lords were buried, while these latter were buried at Iona—regarded as still more sacred ground. It may have been the case that a part of St. Columba’s missionary enterprise embraced Islay, and that St. Finlog either founded a church at Loch Finlagan, or lived and, perhaps, died there ; but great uncertainty prevails in reference to these matters.

    The Christian courage and charity of this saint deserve well the encomium of Prince O’Donnell, for he desired to sacrifice his own life in preserving that of his great spiritual father, whose loss to the Church Findlugan deemed irreparable on earth. Greater charity than this no man possesses, when he is ready to give up his own life for the safety of his friends. Utterly unselfish and nobly generous was his spirit of self-devotedness. His humility and obedience were equally conspicuous, for he felt ready to accept any injunction which might best promote God’s honour. In either Scotia his religious acts were conspicuous; and the people both of Ireland and of Scotland have just reasons for celebrating his virtues.

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  • Saint Baluíne, October 4

    On October 4 our early Irish calendars present us with something of a mystery surrounding a female saint with the name of Baluíne. The Martyrology of Oengus begins:

    D. iv. nonas Octobris.
    Áil Marcellum nepscop
    co nhaidbli a bríge,
    la céssad na hóige
    in ballgel Baluíne    .
    4. Beseech Marcellus the bishop,
    with the vastness of his vigour,
    at the suffering of the virgin,
    the bright-limbed Balbina.
    The phrase ‘suffering of the virgin’ would imply a female martyr, yet as we know, the vast majority of the early Irish saints who suffered martyrdom did so contending for the faith in other countries. It is clear from the scholiast notes on this entry that later commentators were perplexed and sought to find a local identity for the ‘bright-limbed Balbina’:
    4. Baluina .i. tair ata, nó isi Bicsech ó Chill Bicsige i nHuaib macc Cuais Midhe. R1 . in marg. Baluina uirgo et martir. Nó commad hí Baluina .i. Bicsech o Chill Bicsechi i nHuib Maccuais Mide, sed non est uerum. R1
    4. Balbine .i. in the east she is. Or it is Bicsech of Cell Bicsige in Hui mace Uais in Meath. in marg. Baluina virgin and martyr. Or maybe Baluina is Bicsech of Cell Bicseche in Hui Macc-uais of Meath; sed non est uerum.
    Bigsech of Kilbixy is an Irish female saint whose feastday is commemorated on June 28. In Canon O’Hanlon’s account of her, which I posted here, he remarked that ‘this saint appears to have had another festival, at the 4th of October.’ But did she? For Balbina was not an Irish woman at all, despite the attempted Gaelicization of her name, but one of the early Roman martyrs. There seem to be two saints of this name, the first, commemorated on March 31, is said to have been the daughter of a Roman official called Quirinus and is linked to the discovery of Saint Peter’s chains. There is a second Balbina, however, whose name is attached to one of the Roman catacombs, and inevitably the identities of both have been the subject of some confusion over the centuries. In Volume 5 of his work The Sacramentary: Historical and Liturgical Notes on the Roman Missal, Ildefonso, Cardinal Schuster, records at October 4 ‘Saint Balbina, Martyr’ and it would seem that this is the second Balbina, who gave her name to the Roman cemetery and who was commemorated on this day, even in Ireland!

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  • Saint Nuadu the Anchorite, October 3

     

     

     

     

     

     

    On October 3 the Irish calendars record a holy man with one of the most ancient of Irish names, Nuadu or Nuada the anchorite. The Martyrology of Tallaght, the earliest of the Irish calendars, records him simply as Nuadu anchorita, ‘Nuadu, the anchorite’. He does not feature among the saints listed at this day in the Martyrology of Oengus but the 12th-century monastic, Marianus O’Gorman, describes him as Nuadu, nuagel, ‘fresh-fair Nuadu’, in his calendar. A note adds anchoiri, ‘an anchorite’. The name is also recorded in the 17th-century Martyrology of Donegal in its more modern form of ‘Nuada, anchorite’. Although no further information is given on the calendars, I have recently been reading a paper on ‘The Officials of the Church of Armagh to A.D. 1200’ in which I encountered Nuadu, an early ninth-century bishop of Armagh who is also described as an anchorite. He is number 33 on the Ancient List of the Coarbs of Patrick compiled by H.G. Lawlor and R.I. Best, where two notices from the Annals of Ulster, the first recording a visit to Connaught and the second recording his repose, are reproduced beside his name on page 323:

    811. Nuadha abbas A. migrauit to Connaught cum lege Patricii et cum armario eius. AU.

    Nuadu, abbot of Ard Macha, went to Connacht with Patrick’s law and his casket.

    812. Nuadha of Loch Uamha episcopus et anchorita, abbas A. dormiuit. AU.

    Nuadu of Loch nUamac, bishop and anchorite, abbot of Armagh, fell asleep.

    Loch nUamac has been identified as Loch Nahoo, in the parish of Drumlease, County Leitrim, by scholar T. M. Charles-Edwards, who also notes ‘Drumlease was attached to the Patrician familia, as shown by two documents in the Book of Armagh…It belonged to the minor kingdom of Calraige in north-east Connaught. Nuadu’s interest in the province of Connaught is shown by 811.1.. (The Chronicle of Ireland (Liverpool, 2006), note 1, p.271.)

    I was hoping that the author of the paper on the officials at Armagh might be able to provide a definition of the term ‘anchorite’ in the context of early medieval Irish monasticism, but this is all he had to say:

    13. Anchorite (Old and Middle Irish anchara, ancair, Latin anchorita.) Thirteen mentions of holders of this title are recorded in the chronicles. It first appears in 725 as a designation for Eochaid, the last being Abel and Gilla Muiredag in 1159. This role could be linked with other functions: Nuadu is called bishop and anchorite, Forannán was comarba, bishop and anchorite, Ioseph was bishop, abbot, comarba and anchorite.

    Hérold Pettiau, ‘The Officials of the Church of Armagh to A.D. 1200’ in A. J. Hughes and W. Nolan, eds., Armagh History and Society: Interdisciplinary essays on the history of an Irish County (Dublin, 2001) 125.

    The later medieval idea of an anchorite was of someone who withdrew from the world entirely and who was differentiated from a hermit by his strict enclosure, as R. M. Clay, author of a study of English anchorites explains:

    THE anchorite differed from the hermit in that he lived in stricter seclusion, and was not free to wander at will. He was not merely, as the word αναχωρητης signifies, withdrawn from the world: he was inclusus, shut up in a strait prison, whether in church, chapel, convent, or castle… (‘Anchorites in Church and Cloister’ in Hermits and Anchorites of England (London: Methuen, 1914).

    This later notion of an anchorite, if it also applied in Ireland, would seem to preclude someone from carrying out the duties of a bishop as an inclusus would not be free to undertake a visitation of his ecclesiastical territory as our Bishop and anchorite Nuadu did of Connaught in the early ninth century. I’m thus still uncertain what the term anchorite meant in our context and will have to do some further research.

    I remarked at the beginning of this post that the saint Nuadu commemorated today bears one of the oldest of Irish names. This point was made by the author of a book on Irish saints in the 1960s:

    Nuada, an anchorite, whose name is found in one of the Three Tragedies of the Gael and one of the oldest legends in Ireland, the Children of Turenn. Nuada in that legend is Nuada of the Silver Hand, so called because he lost his arm at the First Battle of Moytura between the Tuatha de Danaan and the Fomorians, which is held by some authorities to have taken place anno mundi 3303, and was supplied with a silver one by his physician Dianecht instead. It is therefore a name, and a lovely one, of great antiquity.

    (Eoin Neeson, The Book of Irish Saints, (Cork, 1967) 176.

    Despite the pagan mythological origins of this name, our anchorite Bishop Nuadu is not alone in bearing it in ninth century Christian Ireland. Scholar Clare Downham has brought together the entries from the Irish annals relating to the Vikings and records this entry from the Annals of the Four Masters under the year 845:

    AFM 843.10

    Sloighedh la Gallaibh Atha Cliath a c-Cluanaibh Andobhair, 7 argain leiss Chille h-Achaidh, 7 martradh Nuadhat mic Seigeni leo.

    [A military outing by the foreigners of Áth Cliath to Cluain an Dobor, and the enclosure of Cell Achid was raided; and Nuadu son of Ségíne, was martyred by them.]

    There are also various other instances of this name to be found in the annals and calendars, the Martyrology of Donegal, for example, contains two other saints Nuada, one a bishop commemorated at February 2 and the other an abbot at December 2. Sadly, nothing more seems to be recorded of these individuals either. I cannot, of course, definitively identify the ninth-century bishop and anchorite Nuadu with the saint commemorated today, but find it of great interest that this very old name of Irish legend continued to be popular as a Christian name and was borne by men of various ecclesiastical ranks who feature in our native calendars of the saints.

     

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