OMNIUM SANCTORUM HIBERNIAE

Category: Irish Saints

  • The Prayer of Saint Atty

    A couple of days ago I reprinted a poem by Philadelphia resident Patrick J. Coleman on the founding of the diocese of Achonry by Saint  Nathy.  Now we have another of his poetic offerings, this time in praise of Achonry’s female patroness Saint Attracta and her role as peacemaker and protectress.

    THE PRAYER OF SAINT ATTY.*

    A LEGEND OF ACHONRY

    KING Connor made an edict old:
    “A royal palace I will build;
    Tribute I order of the gold,
    From every clan and craftsman’s guild.

    “Tithings of scarlet and of silk,
    Curtain and screen of regal woof
    Deep-uddered heifers, rich in milk,
    And bronze and timber for the roof.

    “From Leyney’s lord, in token due
    Of fealty, I will ordain
    A hundred masts of ash and yew,
    A hundred oaks of pithy grain.”

    “Saint Atty, keep us safe from scath
    And shield us in the battle crash!
    For roof of royal house or rath
    We will not render oak or ash!”

    Thus lowly prayed the Leyney clan,
    While sang the birds in bush and brake.
    As fast they mustered, horse and man,
    To face the foe by Gara’s lake.

    For, wroth’ at heart, came Connor’s clan;
    Ah, Christ! they made a horrid front,
    With red spears bristling in the van.
    And shields to brave the battle-brunt.

    From wing to wing in wrath they rolled,
    Crested with helmets all afire.
    Of burnished bronze or burning gold.
    To martial measures of the lyre.

    A dreadful war! the blessed saints
    Defend to-day the Leyney clan!
    For they must reel before the steel
    Of such a hosting, horse and man.

    From sounding sheaths the swords flamed out,
    The clattering quivers echoed loud,
    From their dark ranks the battle shout
    Broke out, as thunder from the cloud.

    “Saint Atty, keep us safe from scath!”
    Thus made the Leyney men their prayer ;
    When lo! adown the forest path
    Trooped, lily-white, a herd of deer!

    Broke from the branching thicket green,
    While mute the watching warriors stood;
    Such gracious deer were never seen
    In Irish fern or Irish wood;

    And, mighty marvel, on their backs.
    Bound by a maiden’s tresses gold.
    Clean-hewn as if by woodman’s axe.
    The tribute of the wood behold !

    Nor paused the sylvan creatures sweet,
    But gliding onward, like to ghosts.
    Cast off the wood at Connor’s feet
    In wondrous wise betwixt the hosts;

    Then vanished in the forest green.
    While mused amaze the king and kern;
    And nevermore from then were seen
    In Irish wood or Irish fern.

    Down dropped the sword to thigh and hip,
    “God’s will be done, let hatred cease!”
    Rose up the cry from every lip.
    And harps attuned a chord of peace.

    Yea, “blessings broke from every lip,
    To God and to His saints above.
    And hands that came for deadly grip
    Were mingled in fraternal love.

    ” ‘Gainst scath or scar our battle-shield
    Is Atty, saint of Leyney’s clan!”
    They sang, as homeward from the field
    They hied, unscathed, horse and man.

    For in her chapel in the wood
    The boding war had Atty seen,
    And for the people of her blood
    Made prayer amid the forest green.

    And men do say that on that day
    She saved the Leyney clan from scath,
    Such power there is when lowly pray
    The pure of heart and keen of faith.

    And still when autumn gilds the lea,
    And scythes are shrill in meadows ripe,
    The rural pageant you may see
    Sporting with jocund dance and pipe.

    The village women you may mark
    In Leyney, at Saint Atty’s well.
    Ere yet hath trilled the risen lark
    In golden mead or dewy dell.

    PATRICK J. COLEMAN.

    *Saint Atty is the loving name of the people of Achonry for Saint Attracta, the patroness of the diocese.

    The Irish Monthly, Volume 18 (1890),80-82 

     

     

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  • A Hymn in Honour of Saint Moninne

    July 6 is the Feast of Saint Moninne of Killeevy, one of three women saints along with Brigid and Bronagh important to the people of the historic kingdom of Oriel in south-east Ulster. She is also one of the handful of Irish female saints with an extant written Life. There are many fascinating aspects to Saint Moninne. One was her reputation for asceticism, the Life of Monenna preserved in the Codex Salamanticensis calling her ‘the daughter of John the Baptist and the prophet Elias’. Whilst asceticism was certainly a feature of the Early Irish Church, it is unusual to see a female saint being described in this way. The other was her ‘manly spirit’ for her female body is no barrier to Moninne’s wholehearted pursuit of the eremetical way of life. There is thus a distinct flavour of the desert spirituality of Saint Anthony the Great to the life of this County Armagh abbess. In addition to the Salamanca Life there is also a Vita Sanctae Monennae compiled by a tenth or eleventh-century Irish monk called Conchubranus. He takes Moninne out of her Irish hermitage and portrays her as a pilgrim to Rome and founder of  churches in England and Scotland. The twelfth-century Abbot Geoffrey of Burton was convinced that Conchubranus was writing about his own abbey’s founder and expanded the Irish monk’s text into The Life and Miracles of Saint Modwenna. There has been a great deal of research into Saint Moninne and fresh translations of her various Lives in recent years. Mario Esposito (1887-1975) first published the text of the Life by Conchubranus in 1910 and included two abcderarian hymns in honour of the saint as an appendix. As a tribute to Saint Moninne on this her feast day I reproduce the opening verse from the first hymn and the closing verse of the second:

    Deum deorum dominum,
    Autorem vite omnium,
    Regem et sponsum uirginum
    Sempiternum infinitum,
    Invocemus perualidum
    Sancte Monenne meritum,
    Ut nos ducat post obitum
    In regni refrigerium.

    Let us invoke God, Lord of gods,
    Creator of the life of all,
    King and spouse of virgins,
    everlasting, infinite,
    and the very strong
    merit of holy Monenna
    that she may guide us after death
    to the refreshing of the kingdom.

    Sancta Monenna,
    lux huius mundi ascendit,
    in candilabro nitidum sponsum
    sicut sol in meridie.
    Qui regnas in secula seculorum. Amen.

    The holy Monenna,
    light of this world,
    ascended to her shining spouse
    in a candelabrum like the midday sun.
    Who reigns for ever and ever. Amen.

    Mario Esposito,  Ymnus Sancte Monenne Virginis in Appendix to “Conchubrani Vita Sanctae Monennae.” Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy. Section C: Archaeology, Celtic Studies, History, Linguistics, Literature 28 (1910), 202-51.

    Content Copyright © Omnium Sanctorum Hiberniae 2012-2021. All rights reserved.

  • Saint Colman Steallan of Terryglass, May 26

    May 26 is the commemoration of Saint Colman Steallan, a saint of the monastery of Terryglass, County Tipperary. This foundation produced a number of notable holy men including Saint Colum, one of the ‘12 Apostles of Ireland‘ and Maeldithruib the anchorite. The manner in which the name of today’s saint has been recorded in the calendars has given rise to some confusion, not helped by the fact that Colman, Colum, Columb, Colm, Columba are all different ways of transliterating the same name. In the case of today’s saint, some of the later calendars talk of the feast of Steallan, as if we are dealing with two separate people. The latest authoritative guide to the saints of Ireland, Pádraig Ó Riain’s  A Dictionary of Irish Saints (2011), accepts Colmán Stiallán as a single individual and suggests that the epithet Stiallán attached to the name of this particular Colman may perhaps be translated as ‘the little strip’. Canon O’Hanlon records this of the little strip of
    Terryglass, in Volume V of his Lives of the Irish Saints:

    St. Colman Steallan, of Terryglass, County of Tipperary [Sixth and Seventh Centuries.]

    At the 26th of May, we find inserted, in the Martyrology of Tallagh, the name of Colman Stellain, Tirdoghlass, now Terryglass, as having been venerated. The Bollandists also follow this statement, and have some references to Colgan’s work, where allusions are made to our saint. The present holy man is placed in order of succession, after the Abbot Natchoemius or Mochoeminus—said to have been brother to St. Coemgenus, and who died, A.D. 584. The festival in honour of Steallan—as simply entered—of Tir-dá-glas, was celebrated on this day, as we read in the Martyrology of Donegal. In the table, postfixed to this work, we find his name Latinized Stellanus. It would seem, that this record, as published, distinguishes a St. Colman from the present St. Stellan, for there appears a separate entry of both these names. Marianus O’Gorman follows the Martyrology of Tallagh, in uniting both names, apparently for one person, who was venerated on this day, at Terryglass, on the eastern border of Lough Dearg. Other writers—such as Archbishop Ussher and our annalists—call him by the name of Colmanus Stellanus. However, there can hardly be any doubt, that this latter must be the proper entry, for in the “Annals of the Four Masters,” we read, that St. Colman Stellan of Tir-da-ghlas, died on the 26th of May, A.D. 624. With this agrees, likewise, the entry of his departure, in the “Chronicum Scotorum.” Other accounts place his death at 625; while Archbishop Ussher has it so late as 634. The festival of Stellan was observed on the 25th of May, as we find it in the “Feilire” of St. Aengus; and, appended to this notice is an Irish comment, in that copy, contained in the “Leabhar Breac,” which is followed by a Latin one, giving the series of Abbots, for Tir-da-glas and Cluain eidnech. It seems doubtful, notwithstanding, whether Colman should be separated from Stellan; but, many writers regard them as one and the same person.

    Content Copyright © Omnium Sanctorum Hiberniae 2012-2021. All rights reserved.