OMNIUM SANCTORUM HIBERNIAE

Category: Irish Saints

  • Saint Brendan of Clonfert, May 16

     

     

    First Day Cover Faroe Islands, 1984

    May 16 is the commemoration of one of the most famous of the Irish saints, Brendan of Clonfert. Saint Brendan, known as ‘the Navigator’ because of his travels at sea, was well-known throughout medieval Europe due to the translation of the account of his voyage into a number of languages. In his summary of the career of the sailor saint for the Dictionary of National Biography, Irish Anglican writer, the Reverend Thomas Olden, described the Navigatio as ‘the most popular legend of the Middle Ages.’ Writing in 1886, Olden refers to the unpublished Irish Life of the saint preserved in the Book of Lismore, but just four years later Whitley Stokes published the text and its translation. That volume can be read online at the Internet Archive. Fourteen years before either of these, however, the Irish Ecclesiastical Record published an extensive account of Saint Brendan in a four-part series. Before we move to Olden’s shorter piece, let’s begin with a summary of the evidence for the feast of Saint 
Brendan on the Irish calendars taken from another nineteenth century clerical scholar, the then Bishop of Ossory, the future Cardinal Patrick Francis Moran:

    The name of St Brendan occurs in all our ancient martyrologies; and his feast is invariably marked on the16th of May. Thus, St Aengus in the Felire on that day : —”The summons of Brendan of Cluain Into the victorious eternal Kingdom” and the gloss adds: — “ie., the calling of Brendan of Clonfert to the Kingdom of God.”

    The Martyrology of Tallaght has, on the same day: —” Brendini Cluana Ferta.” Marianus O’Gorman devotes one line to his memory: — ” Brendan, without a particle of pride.” The Martyrology of Donegal has a long notice of our Saint on the 16th of May, and styles him “Abbot of Cluainferta-Brenainn.” The Martyrology of Christ Church published by Dr. Todd, has also “Sanctus Brendanus, Abbas et Confessor.”

    Selbhach, in his ”Metrical List of the Saints of Inisfail” thus commemorates SS. Brendan and Mochuda:

    “Brendan, son of fair Findlug,
    And Mochuda, son of Findall,
    A holy pair with penitential countenances,
    Of the race of Ciar, son of Fergus.”

    The very ancient Catalogue of Saints “who were similar in their manner of life” preserved in the Book of Leinster, unites together “St. Thomas the Apostle, and St Brendan of Clonfert.” St. Cuimin of Connor, also, in his poem on the characteristic virtues of the Saints of Ireland, devotes a strophe to our Saint: —

    ”Brendan loved perpetual mortification, 
According to his synod and his flock.; 
Seven years he spent on the great whale’s back; 
It was a distressing mode of mortification.”

    … The Sees of Ardfert and Clonfert honour St Brendan as their patron. Innumerable places in various parts of Ireland bear his name, and several churches are dedicated to God under his invocation. In Scotland, as we leam from the Martyrology of Aberdeen (see Kalendars of Scottish Saints by Dr. Forbes, 1872, page 286), St Brendan ruled as patron “the royal island of Bute” (regalem insulam de Buta): indeed, as Fordun informs us, it was from a cell erected by St Brendan, which, in the old Gaelic, was called Bothe, that the whole island of Bute derived its name (nostro idiomate BOTHE. —Fordun, lib. i., cap. 29). Eassie in Forfarshire, is also dedicated to St Brendan; and many churches in Mull, St Kilda, and other parts of Scotland, still preserve his name.

    Right Rev. P.F. Moran, ed., Acta Sancti Brendani (Dublin, 1872), vi-viii.

    BRENDAN or BRENAINN, SAINT (484-577), of Clonfert, was born in 484, at Littus li, or Stagnum li, now Tralee, co. Kerry. He is termed son of Finnloga, to distinguish him from his contemporary, St. Brendan of Birr [q. v.], and Mocu Alta, from his great-grandfather, Alta, who was of the race of Ciar, descendant of Rudraighe, from whom were the Ciarraighe, who have given their name to Kerry. His parents, though free and well born, were in a relation of dependence, and under the rule of their relative, Bishop Erc. Some have thought this was the well-known bishop of Slane, Co. Meath; but there were many of the name, and he seems to have been rather the head of a local monastery, and permanently resident in Kerry. Here Brendan was born, and when a year old was taken by Erc and placed in charge of St. Ita of Cluain Credhail, in the south-west of the county of Limerick. Remaining five years with her, he returned to Erc to begin his studies, and in course of time, when he had ‘read through the canon of the Old and New Testaments,’ he wished also to study the rules of the saints of Ireland. Having obtained Erc’s permission to go to St. Jarlath of Tuam for the purpose, with the injunction to return to him for holy orders, he first paid a visit to St. Ita, ‘his nurse.’ She approved of his design, but cautioned him ‘not to study with women or virgins, for fear of scandal’ and he then pursued his journey, and arrived in due time at Tuam. On the completion of his studies there he returned to Bishop Erc, and was ordained by him, but never proceeded beyond the order of presbyter, such being the usage of the second order of Irish saints to which he belonged.

    It seems to have been at this period that the desire took possession of him to go forth on the expedition which formed the basis of the ‘Navigation of St. Brendan’ the most popular legend in the Middle Ages. Some difficulty has always been felt with regard to the date usually assigned to it, as he must have been then sixty years of age, and it is not easy to reconcile it with the other facts of his life (LANIGAN); but this difficulty seems to arise from the belief that there was but one voyage, as stated in the versions current abroad. The unpublished Irish life, in the ‘Book of Lismore’ (A.D. 1400), removes much of the difficulty by describing two voyages, one early in life and the other later on. It states that at his ordination the words of Scripture (St. Luke xviii. 29, 30) produced a profound impression on him, and he resolved to forsake his country and inheritance, beseeching his Heavenly Father to grant him ‘the mysterious land far from human ken.’ In his sleep an angel appeared to him, and said, ‘Rise, Brendan, and God will grant you the land you seek.’ Rejoiced at the message he rises, and goes forth ‘alone on the mountain in the night, and beholds the vast and dim ocean stretching away on all sides from him’ (such is exactly the view from Brandon Hill), and far in the distance he seems to behold ‘the fair and excellent land, with angels hovering over it.’ After another vision, and the promise of the angel’s presence with him, he goes forth on his navigation, but, after seven years’ wandering without success, is advised to return to his country, where many were waiting for him, and there was work for him to do. That Brendan may have undertaken some such expedition, and visited some of the western and northern islands, is quite possible; for it is certain that Irish hermits found their way to the Hebrides, the Shetland and Faroe Islands, and even to Iceland (DICUIL).

    Somewhere about this time may be placed his visit to Brittany, which is not noticed in the Irish life. He is said to have gone thither between 620 and 530. After a considerable stay he returned home. But the desire to reach the undiscovered land was not extinct, and now it revived with new vigour, and once more, after consulting Bishop Erc, he went to St. Ita and asked her ‘what he should do about his voyage.”My dear son’ she replied, ‘ why did you go on your [former] expedition without consulting me? That land you are seeking from God you shall not find in those perishable leaky boats of hides; but, however, build a ship of wood, and you shall find “the far land.’” The vessel of the first voyage is described in the ‘Navigation ‘ as covered with hides (SCHRODER). He then proceeded to Connaught, and built ‘a large wonderful ship’ and engaging artificers and smiths, and putting on board many kinds of herbs and seeds, the party, sixty in all, embarked on their voyage, and, after many adventures, reached ‘that paradise amid the waves of the sea.’

    The story of the ‘Navigation’ had ‘taken root in France as early as the eleventh century, was popular in Spain and Holland, and at least known in Italy, and was the favourite reading, not only of monks, but of the widest circle of readers’ (SCHRODER); but it had been altered from its original form, the two voyages compressed into one, and the adventures of other Irish voyagers worked into it. The legend in this form is traced by Schroder to the Lower Rhine; but he is unable to conjecture why it was connected with Brendan’s name. It was, however, only one of a class of Irish tales, known as ‘Imramas,’ or expeditions, of which several are still extant; and the popularity of this particular legend abroad may be accounted for by the fact that when it was taken to the continent in the general exodus of Irish clergy in the ninth and following centuries, owing to the Danish invasions, the monks of Brendan’s order in one of the numerous Irish foundations on the Rhine thought fit to exalt their patron by dressing up the legend in a manner suited to the popular taste.

    Some of the adventures have been supposed to be derived from the ‘Arabian Nights’; ‘but there is reason to think that the converse is more likely (WRIGHT). There is proof of the intercourse of Irish monks with the East in the ninth century (DICUIL); and some of the stories, as that of the great fish, called in the ‘Navigation’ Iasconiua (Ir. iasc, a fish), which Sinbad took for an island, are essentially of northern origin.

    It seems to have been after his return from this voyage that he founded, in 553 (A. F. M.) the monastery of Cluain Fearta, ‘the lawn of the grave’. now Clonfert, in the barony and county of Longford, which afterwards  became a bishop’s see.

    He subsequently visited St. Columba at Hy, in company with two other saints. This must have been after 563, when he was in his seventy-ninth, year. On this occasion he may have founded the two churches in Scotland of which he was patron (REEVES).

    The last time we hear of him is at the inauguration of Aedh Caemh, the first Christian king of Cashel, in 570, when he took the place of the official bard, MacLenini, who was a heathen. On this occasion Brendan was the means of the bard’s conversion, when he gave him the name of Colman. He is since known as St. Colman of Cloyne. Brendan died in 577, in the ninety-fourth year of his age. His day in the calendar is 16 May.

    [Bollandists’ Acta Sanctorum, Maii, tom, iii, Antverpiae, 1680; Colgan’s Egressio Familise Brendani, i. 72; Wright’s Early English Ballads (Percy Society), vol. xiv., 1844; Schroder’s Sanct Brandan, Erlangen, 1871; Reeves’s Adamnan’s Life of Columba, 1857, pp. 55, 220, 223;  Lanigan’s Eccl. Hist. ii. 22, &c. ; Dicuil, De Mensura Orbis, Paris, 1814; O’Curry’s MS. Materials of Irish History, p. 288, Dublin, 1861; Beatha Breanainn, MS., in the Book of Lismore, Royal Irish Academy, Dublin; the Book of Munster, MS. 23, E 26, in Royal Irish Academy.]

    T. 0.

    Sir Leslie Stephen, ed., Dictionary of National Biography, Volume VI (London and New York, 1886), 259-261.

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  • Saint Carthage of Lismore, May 14

    The Story of St Carthage (1937)

    May 14 marks the feast of another important monastic saint, Carthage (Carthach)  or Mochuda of Lismore. The various Lives portray Saint Carthage as a master of the ascetic life who, attracting the envy of others, was forced to leave his home of 40 years, the monastery of Raithin, and to undertake a ‘long march’, before founding the monastery at Lismore. A surviving monastic rule is attributed to Saint Carthage, which I hope to make available on the blog in the future. The Irish calendars agree in listing his feast day at May 14 and the entry in the Martyrology of Donegal pays tribute to his reputation for penitence:

    14. A. PRIDIE IDUS MAII 14.

    MOCHUDA, Bishop, of Lis-mor; and he was also abbot of Raithin at first. He was of the race of Ciar, son of Fergus, son of Ross, son of Rudhraighe, and of the progeny of Ir, son of Miledh.Carthach was another name for him. It was he that had the famous congregation consisting of seven hundred and ten persons, when he was abbot at Raithin; an angel used to address every third man of them. Cuimin, of Condeire, in the poem beginning, “Patrick of the fort of Macha loves”, states that no one that ever lived before him had shed half as many tears. Thus he says:

    “Mochuda loves the piety;
    Famous is every story of his stories ;
    Before him no one had shed
    Half what he shed of tears.”

    A.D. 636

    Canon O’Hanlon has a very full account of the life and miracles of Saint Carthage, but I reproduce below a shorter piece written by Irish Jesuit scholar, Father John Ryan, best known for his seminal work Irish Monasticism, first published in 1931 but still used as a reference source today. He contributed an introduction to a 1937 book, issued to commemorate the 1300th anniversary of the saint’s death. Father Ryan is in fine form as he introduces the life of Saint Carthach, but first, let us turn to the synopsis of “The Story of St. Carthage” given in the book to get the basic facts of the saint’s career:

    St. Carthage or Mochuda was born in vicinity of Castlemaine 564; as a boy while herding his father’s flocks he forms a friendship with Maoltuile, Chieftain of Ciarraighe Luchra; at age of twelve he meets Bishop Carthage, the Elder. After some opposition on part of his father, the boy becomes a disciple of the Bishop. He makes religious profession at age of twenty, 584; is ordained priest and founds monastery of Kiltullagh 590-592. Compelled to leave Kiltullagh, he visits Bangor, where he spends a year. Various other visits. At last he founds Rahan 594-595. Spends forty years at Rahan during which he occasionally journeys to Kerry and the South. Expulsion from Rahan, Foundation of Lismore 635 or 636. Death 637.

    Introduction

    by Father John Ryan, S.J.

    St. Carthach’s life belongs so much to the seventh century that he is usually not numbered among the great monastic founders. Legend relates that St. Columcille visited him at Rahan, but the celebrated Saint of Iona was about to enter on the way of eternity when first settled in the midlands, and it is not recorded, nor is it likely, that he left his island home in the closing days of his earthly pilgrimage. Whilst St. Carthach was still young Monasterboice had entered on the the second century of its existence. Before his death Iona had been ruled for fourteen years by its fifth abbot, and no less than six successors of St. Ciaran had sat in the abbatial chair of Clonmacnoise. His appearance is thus at the end rather than at the beginning of Irish monastic origins.

    Yet the life of St. Carthach differs in no substantial feature from the lives of the distinguished founders of the sixth century. The tragedy of his expulsion from Rahan, which has given him a place apart in monastic history, which was not the consequence of any personal eccentricity. He had come from Kerry to Meath, but hundreds of monks before him had left their native heath and had been acclaimed enthusiastically by the people among whom they settled. Thus St. Enda though born in Meath was welcomed in Arran; St. Bairre, a Conachtman, was welcomed in Cork; St. Brendan came from Kerry to Clonfert, St. Cainnech from Ulster and St. Molua from Limerick to Ossory; and so on. That St. Carthach fell a victim to regional jealousy is a phenomenon so strange that it calls for special explanation. Some light is thrown upon it by the politics of the day, on which a word will be said presently.

    To assure proper balance and proportion it is of supreme importance to note that the expulsion from Rahan has a very small place in the record of St. Carthach’s doings and sufferings. Attention should be fixed on the life led by him and his monks and on the good done by their example and teaching during the forty years of their activity in the midlands. This is what Father Carthage’s simple, sincere, and devotional biography so effectively helps to achieve. Those who read this book will find themselves deeply moved by the ascetic earnestness of those early days. St. Carthach’s Rule tended, if anything, on the side of strictness. The Saint refused at first to acquire even an ox or plough, so that tillage had to be done by the spade alone. The land about Rahan, rich and fertile beyond what would be expected in that relatively barren countryside, still bears witness to the enrichment of the soil by many generations of monastic toilers. In old age as in youth St. Carthach remained rigid in his preventative measures against relaxation, to such an extent that some Britons among his monks, distraught by the stern discipline, determined to drown him in the neighbouring Cloddagh! But pleasant memories also survived of the Saint’s kindliness and charity, and there can be no doubt that Rahan and Lismore, like the countless other monasteries of the country, were homes of prayer and work and tender selfless piety, replete with the spirit of gladness that springs from the love of Christ our Saviour, verdant oases in the dreary waste of human pride and cruelty.

    To return to the expulsion from Rahan. The early seventh century was a period of rapid advance of the Eoghanacht power of Munster and of Uí Néill power in Central Ireland. In the clash between the dynasts of these proud, ambitious septs, St. Carthach came unwittingly to figure. We must recollect that men whose names the passage of time has clothed in a romance of legend were to their contemporaries just ordinary beings of flesh and blood who controlled political destinies. Such a prince in Carthach’s childhood was Diamait, son of Fergus Cerrbeóil, son of Conall, son of Niall of the Nine Hostages. Diarmait’s chief fortress seems to have been at Kells. His son Aed Sláine, and his son Colman Mór, became ancestors of the ruling families in the eastern and western midlands. Rahan was founded within ancient Mide territory when Aed Sláine was Joint-King of Ireland. After that monarch’s death the policy of Uí Néill expansion was pursued vigorously by five of his sons. At this time too, the Eoghanachts of Munster were adding day by day to their strength in the South. Munster territory, moreover, happened to include a section of Éile which was later transferred to Leinster. Through this small state Munster extended so far north that Rahan might also be regarded as a frontier monastery. Now St. Carthach was a Munsterman and many of his monks were doubtless drawn from the same province. Rahan might thus be looked upon as a Munster foundation just within the Mide border. As such it was obnoxious to the sons of Aed Sláine, who in 636, in a time of extreme political tension, compelled the aged abbot to return to his own people. The episode was so dramatic that the storytellers seized on it avidly as the ground-work for a tale. Thanks to their expert hands the romance of the expulsion makes good reading, but who can tell how much of it is history? Thus, the sinister role, as instigators, assigned to the abbots of Clonard, Durrow and Clonmacnoise, must be considered doubtful; all the more so as the abbot of the last mentioned monastery, Crónán Derg, was himself a Munsterman. What can be said with certainty is that St. Carthach was expelled from Rahan by local overkings, the sons of Aed Sláine, and that the blow was borne bravely by the outraged abbot and his faithful community.

    Man proposes but God disposes. What was meant to be a humiliating retreat, became, in fact, a triumphal march; and what appeared to be a catastrophic end became, in fact, a glorious beginning. St. Carthach’s misfortunes brought him generous sympathy in his own Déise country, and before his death he had seen arise a new foundation that was to outshine Rahan in brilliance. For the jewel that had been snatched away a brighter jewel was providentially substituted. All that Lismore did to promote the honour of God and to perpetuate the memory of St. Carthach is described delightfully in Father Carthage’s pages.

    Father Carthage O.C.S.O., The Story of Saint Carthage, (Browne and Nolan, 1937), ix-xii.

    Canon O’Hanlon depicts the repose of Saint Carthage in his diseart as the crowning of a long and fruitful life:

    After this, finding his strength failing him, on account of his labours and extreme age, the holy bishop began to feel a great disinclination for interruptions caused by people, who flocked to him from every side. Having taken council with the brethren, and obtained their unanimous consent, he went to a certain secret and safe place. Here, there was a renowned monastery, in a valley. It lay eastwards from his own greater monastery, and yet, not far removed from it. Here, too, with a few attendants, he remained during a year and six months, leading an eremitical life, and being wholly occupied, in the contemplation of holy things. After some time spent in this place, he was visited by his monks, and by some of the older and more decrepid brethren. To these, he addressed religious discourses, full of instruction, on dogmas of the Church. His homilies also contained admonitions, suitable for the lives of those, to whom they were directed. The author of his Life represents Carthage, as a solace to the aged; as safety, for the infirm; as a source of consolation, for the sorrowful; as a foundation, for those in despair; as abounding in faith, for those in doubt; and, as a firm guide, for those who were young. St. Carthage saw, that the holy old men and many of his monks had much trouble in ascending and descending the steeps, leading to that valley, where he dwelt, and when coming to visit him. Finding that his end was fast approaching, he called the brothers, and then ordered, that he should be brought to the parent house, so that he might not be an occasion of further trouble to them. But, the merciful and omnipotent God had now intended to remove his illustrious servant, from the scene of his labours. The Heavens were suddenly opened. Then, an army of Angels was sent, and it seemed as if these blessed spirits were moving in triumph to welcome him. On seeing the Heavens open, and the Angels advancing towards him, St. Carthage caused himself to be brought into the middle of the valley. Telling the holy seniors what he beheld, he ordered the Body and Blood of our Lord to be brought, and towards a place, where a fountain was afterwards seen. Here, a cross was also erected, and it was called, in future time, “the cross of migration.” Having then given many pious admonitions, and having received the Body and Blood of our Lord, in the Most Holy Sacrament, being surrounded by his holy seniors, and a multitude of brothers, he bade them all farewell. Then, kissing each one in order, with great piety and affection, he ascended with the Angels from earth to Heaven.

    The holy Abbot departed this life, on the second of the May Ides 7—corresponding with the 14th of this month—the date assigned for his feast. His death is placed, so early as 631, in the Bodleian copy of the Annals of Inisfallen; but, at 636, by Duald Mac Firbiss, as also in the Annals of Ulster, of Innisfallen, and of the Four Masters. The feast of St. Carthach is commemorated, in the “Feilire” of St. Oengus, at the 14th of May. At the 14th of May, in the Martyrology of Tallagh, his name is set down as Carthaigh, /.., Mochutta Lis-moir. On the 14th of May, the Kalendar of Drummond inserts the Natalis of St. Carthach, Bishop and Confessor, in Ireland, with an encomium on his virtues. This day, the Martyrology of Donegal enters the name of Mochuda, Bishop, of Lis-mor ; and, as it notes, he was also abbot of Raithin, at first. Under the head of Lis-mor, Duald Mac Firbis enters, Mochuda, bishop, quievit 636, May 14th.

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  • Saint Tighernach of Boirche, May 13

     

    May 13 is the feast of an 11th-century saint associated with the County Down Kingdom of the Mournes, or Boirche, as it was originally called. Saint Tighernach was tutor to the famous chronicler monk Marianus Scottus and rejoiced in the title of ‘chief anamchara of Ireland.’ The following account of his life has been distilled from Canon O’Hanlon’s Lives of the Irish Saints, Volume 5:

    This distinguished and holy teacher was universally esteemed and beloved by the clergy of Ireland. The scene of his labours was but a small island, set in the bosom of the Atlantic; but, the seed he had sowed was destined to produce a harvest of souls among his pupils. This pious doctor is supposed to have been master to Marianus Scotus, and he is called the chief anmchara of Ireland. St. Tighernach—or as styled also by his disciple Tigernach Borchech—probably belonged to the eleventh century. Marianus Scotus declares, that from his superior Tigernach, he learned the cause of Amnchad’s or Anmchad’s exile, on the occasion of his having committed a slight fault. That superior of the celebrated chronologist is supposed to be identical with the present holy man. We are told, he was one of the Abbots of Bangor; yet, I cannot find his name on the list of Archdall, of Rev. Dr. Reeves, or of Dr. O’Donovan, when treating about that place. The Annals of the Four Masters relate, that a certain Tighernach Boircheach, chief anmchara of Ireland, was an anchoret and a successor of Finnen, Abbot of Clonard. By the postfix to the name Tighearnach, we are to understand, that he was of Beanna-Boirche Mountains, near the source of the Upper Bann, in the county of Down… Colgan states, that this Tighearnach was abbot over Clonard, where a celebrated monastery had been founded, in the sixth century. He was an anchoret, likewise, and a successor of St. Finnen, in that place.

    We read from the Irish Annals, that in 1059, great diseases prevailed in Laighin, and which caused the death of a great number of persons there. This holy and learned servant of Christ died of the plague, in A.D. 1061. This is the date assigned by Tighernach, the Irish Annalist, for the great pestilence, which raged in Leinster, and which seems to have extended its ravages to other parts of Ireland. At the 13th of May, the Natalis of St. Tighernach, Anchoret and Confessor, in Ireland, is entered in the Kalendar of Drummond. On this day was venerated, as we find set down, in the Martyrologies of Marianus O’Gorman, and of Donegal, St. Tighernach, of Boirche.

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