OMNIUM SANCTORUM HIBERNIAE

Category: Irish Saints

  • Saint Colmán Lobhar of Moynoe, May 21

     

    On May 21 we find the feast of Saint Colmán, one of a number of Irish saints to be described as lobhar, a ‘leper’. The name Colmán is derived from Colum and along with a bewildering number of other variants is one of the most commonly found names on the Irish calendars of the saints. Our foremost modern hagiologist, Pádraig Ó Riain, has argued that many of these saints represent local manifestations of the cult of the most famous Colum of them all – Saint Colum Cille (Columba). Saint Colmán Lobhar of Moynoe, County Clare, might fit this theory. Canon O’Hanlon in Volume V of his Lives of the Irish Saints lists the evidence from the calendars and offers some observations on the nature of the ‘leprosy’ associated with our saint:

    Article VII. St. Colman, Lobhar, or the Leper, of Magh-n-ec- or Moyne, County of Clare

    In the”Feilire”of St.Aengus, the festival of “zealous Colman, a leper,” is mentioned at this date;’ and, therefore we may infer, that he flourished, at an early period, in the Irish church. His office is not known. The Martyrology of Tallagh registers this name, at the 21st of May. His place is called Maighe Eo. The Bollandists have a festival for Colmanus leprosus de Magh-eo, on the same authority; but, as they allege, little more can they find regarding him, except that Colgan refers Colmanus Lobhar and his feast to this date. Muighe-Eo—which was in Dal-Cais—must be distinguished from Mayo, in Connaught. Its fuller denomination was Maigh-neo-Norbhraighe, now known as Moynoe, or Mayno, an old church, which gives name to a parish, on the margin of Lough Derg, in the barony of Upper Tulla, and county of Clare. A church at this place had been burned by the Conmaicni, in 1084. This church is mentioned, also, in the Caithreim Toirdheal-bhaigh, or “Wars of Thomond,” at the year 1318, as the hereditary termon of the Ui-Bloid. This day veneration was paid to Colman, Lobhar, or the Leper, of Magh-n-eo, in Dal-glais, as we find entered,in the Martyrology of Donegal. It  seems not improbable, that some of our saints, called Lepers, had not been afflicted with the same form of disease, known as leprosy, in certain countries at the present time; and, it is likely enough, that their malady was some form of erysipelas, or of a skin distemper, corresponding with the bodily infirmity to which allusion has been made.

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  • Saint Connachtach of Iona, May 10

    May 10 is the feast of Saint Connachtach, an 8th/9th century abbot of Iona. This successor to Saint Colum Cille enjoyed a particular reputation as a scriba selectissimus, a scribe most choice, but the evidence from the Annals suggests that his tenure as abbot was of short duration and set against a backdrop of Viking attacks. Cowley Father, the Rev. Edward Craig Trenholme, gave a summary of the careers of the abbots of Iona in his 1909 guide to the historic monastery. He begins his listing of those in the ninth century with our saint:  

    THE NINTH CENTURY.

    18. Connachtach (801-802), “a scribe most choice and abbot of Ia”, had a short and troubled term of office. It must have been in quieter times and a lower station that he attained to fame as a “scriba selectissimus.” Some marvellous manuscripts of the Irish monastic scribes survive to show what Connachtach’s title implies. But alas! for such peaceful arts and Iona’s stores of precious writings in the calamitous ninth century. The Danish attack on the monastery in 795 proved the preliminary of a long period of terror, blood, and fire, in which Iona won the glory of “red martyrdom,” but lost well-nigh all else. In Connachtach’s first year the monastery was burned by the “Gentiles,” and the Abbot died next year. The ravagers returned again and again, as we shall see, but after each successive attack the love and veneration of the monks of Iona for their home forced them to re-establish themselves there at all perils.

    Rev. E. C. Trenholme, The Story of Iona, (Edinburgh, 1909), 67.

    Canon O’Hanlon in his account of Abbot Connachtach gives him the alternative name of Cormac and suggests that he may have met his death at the hands of the Viking raiders:

    Article III. Cormac or Connachtach, Abbot of Iona.
    [Eighth and Ninth Centuries.]  
    On the authority of the Martyrology of Tallagh, which enters Cormac at the 10th of May, Colgan assigns to this day, the festival of the present holy man. This authority is followed, likewise, by the Bollandists, who remark on the number of Irish Saints so called, as enumerated by Colgan, when treating about several bearing that name. Connachtach—a name substituted for Cormac—is said to have been a select scribe, and he became Abbot of Iona, most probably, after the demise of Bersal Mac Seghine, which is given, at the year 801, having been incumbent for thirty-one years. Connachtach followed his predecessor to the tomb, after a very short term of rule. He died according to some accounts, in 797—but recte 802—assuming the corrected chronology found, in Dr. O’Donovan’s Annals of the Four Masters. The cause assigned for Connachtach’s death, is not recorded; but as Hy-Columcille was burned by the Gentiles, A.D. 802, it is probable enough, that our Abbot met with a violent death, at their hands, having perished during the calamity inflicted on his religious community.

    Some modern writers have suggested that Abbot Connachtach’s reputation as an eminent scribe makes him a possible candidate for involvement in the creation of the Book of Kells, traditionally believed to have been produced at Iona. In a lecture of 2011 Arne Kruse argued:

    The organisation of what was tremendous artistic activity on Iona sometime in the second half of the eighth century would have been an economic and logistical challenge. The effort must have been conducted by an inspired leader with extraordinary managerial and artistic skills. The one in charge would have been the scribnidh or scribe of the community, an office which carried equal importance to that of the abbot. The scribe behind the tribute in copper, stone and vellum is anonymous. However, if it is correct that the intense artistic activity may have taken place toward the end of the eighth century, there is a chance that the mastermind could have been Connachtach, ‘an eminent scribe and abbot of Ia’, who, according to the Annals of Ulster, died in 802, possibly during the Viking raid that very year. It is rare to hear of scribes in the annals, and the mention of Connachtach could be because he was murdered, although the murder itself is not mentioned. On the other hand, it can also be that Connachtach was such an extraordinarily brilliant scholar, artist and coordinator that his death merited a note.

    Arne Kruse, ‘Columba and Jonah – a motif in the dispersed art of Iona’, Northern Studies, vol. 45, (2013), 18.

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  • Saint Banbán the Wise, May 9

    May 9 is the feast of Saint Banbán, whom the calendars dub ‘the Wise’ (Latin, sapiens). He is one of a number of saints who share this ancient name, as the online version of the nineteenth-century Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological, and Ecclesiastical Literature edited by John McClintock and James Strong helpfully lists:

    Banban

    In Irish hagiology there are several Banbans given.

    (1.) Two of these are probably the same person, Banban the Wise, attached to separate days, May 1 and 9. Colgan (Tr. Thaum. p. 176) is of the opinion that the Banbanum to whom St. Patrick committed the Domnach Mor, or large basilica in Magh-Sleacht, was Banban the Wise. He also supposes him to have been a son of Richella, sister of St. Patrick. In Tr. Thaum he is called presbyter, but at May 1 the Mart. Tallaght calls him bishop.

    (2.) Bishop of Leithglinn, commemorated Nov. 26; the abbot of Claenadh (Clane, County Kildare), who died A.D. 777.

    (3.) Another bishop, put by Mart. Doneg., etc., on Dec. 3.

    Canon O’Hanlon rather adds to the confusion in the entry for Saint Banbán in the May volume of his Lives of the Irish Saints. For he seeks to equate him with a scribe of Kildare and insists that he is also known as Colmán:

    Article III. St. Colman, Banban, the Wise, Supposed to have been Scribe of Kildare. 
    [Seventh and Eighth Centuries.]

    By Colgan, the holy Colman is identified with a Banban, or a Banan, venerated at the 1st of this month. There, his pedigree has been given, and as has been stated, he belonged to the Nan-Decies race. However, this does not seem to be very certain. Referring to the Martyrology of Tallagh, and to other Irish Martyrologies, the Bollandists commemorate Banbhanus or Banuanus Sapiens, at this day. He is thought, by Colgan, to have been a relation of St. Patrick, and to have been that faithful prophet alluded to in the Acts of the great Irish Apostle. In the Martyrologies of Tallagh and of Donegal, his name is simply entered as Banban, “the sage,” or “the wise.” It is probable, this was the name by which he was best distinguished; but, he appears to have been known as Colman, likewise, and as there were many saints so denominated in our calendars, his skill as a scribe may have determined the additional appellative. He died, on the 9th of May, A.D. 720 if, as seems probable, he was the St. Colman Banban, scribe of Cill-dara. The Annals of Ulster and Archdall place his death at 724.

    So, as we can see, there are differing traditions surrounding the figure of Saint Banbán, the Wise. Pádraig Ó Riain in his authoritative 2011 Dictionary of Irish Saints feels that it is telling that today’s May 9 feast is the octave day of May 1 and that both days commemorate the same individual. He also feels that the Saint Banbán, Bishop of Leighlin, commemorated on November 26, is a further feast of the same holy man.

     

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