OMNIUM SANCTORUM HIBERNIAE

Category: Irish Saints

  • Saints Ethnea and Fidelmia, January 11

    M.F. Cusack, The Life of St. Patrick (1871)

    Saints Ethnea and Fidelmia (Ethna and Fidelma) are sisters who feature in one of the most beautiful stories from the hagiography of Saint Patrick. The pair boast an impressive aristocratic pedigree, being the daughters of King Laoighaire and grand-daughters of Niall of the Nine Hostages. Their story is set against the backdrop of the struggle between Christianity and paganism as Saint Patrick comes to Croghan, the royal residence of the kings of Connaught. There he encounters these daughters of King Laoighaire. We can let Saint Patrick’s biographer, Tirechan, take up the story:

    Afterwards, then, before sunrise, holy Patrick came to the well that is called Clebach on the eastern slopes of Cruachu. They sat down beside the well, and suddenly there appeared two daughters of King Loiguire, Ethne the fair and Fedelm the red. These had come, as is the women’s custom, to wash in the morning. They found the holy gathering of bishops with Patrick by the well, and they had no idea where they were from or what was their nature or their people or their homeland; but they thought that maybe they were men of the si or the gods of the earth or phantoms.

    The girls said to them: “Are you really there? Where have you come from?”

    Patrick replied to them:”It would be better for you to confess faith in our true God than to ask questions about our origin.”

    The first girl asked: “Who is God and where is God, and whose God is he, and where is his house? Has your God sons and daughters, gold and silver? Is he alive forever? Is he beautiful? Have many people fostered his son? Are his daughters dear and beautiful to the men of this world? Is he in heaven or on earth, in the sea, on mountains, in valleys? Give us some idea of him: how may he be seen, how loved; how may he be found – is he found in youth or in old age?”

    In reply, Patrick, filled with the Holy Spirit, said: “Our God is the God of all people, the God of heaven and earth, of the seas and the rivers, the God of the sun and the moon and of all the stars, the God of the high mountains and of the deep valleys. He is God above heaven and in heaven and under heaven, and has as his dwelling place heaven and earth and the sea and all that are in them. His life is in all things; he makes all things live; he governs all things; he supports all things. He kindles the light of the sun; he builds the light and the manifestations of the night, he makes wells in arid land and dry islands in the sea, and he sets the stars in place to serve the major lights. He has a son who is coeternal with him and of like nature. The Son is not younger than the Father nor the Father than the Son; and the Holy Spirit breathes in them. The Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit are not separate. Truly, now, since you are daughters of an earthly king, I wish that you will believe and I wish to wed you to the king of heaven.”

    And the girls said, as if with one voice and from one heart: “Teach us most diligently how we may believe in the heavenly king, so that we may see him face to face. Direct us, and we will do whatever you say.”

    And Patrick said: “Do you believe that you cast off the sin of your father and mother through baptism?”

    They replied: “We believe.”

    “Do you believe in penance after sin?”

    “We believe.”

    “Do you believe in life after death?” “Do you believe in the resurrection on the Day of Judgment?”

    “We believe.”

    “Do you believe in the unity of the Church?”

    “We believe.”

    And they were baptized, and a white veil placed on their heads. They demanded to see the face of Christ, to which the saint said: “Unless you taste death, and unless you receive the sacrament you can’t see the face of Christ.”

    They replied: “Give us the sacrament, so that it will be possible for us to see the Son, our bridegroom.”

    They received God’s eucharist and slept in death. Their friends laid them both in one bed, covered with their clothes, and raised a lament and a great keen.

    The druid Caplit, who had fostered one of them, came and wept. Patrick preached to him, and he believed, and the hair of his head was shorn. And his brother Mael came and said: “My brother believed in Patrick, but I don’t. I will convert him back again to heathenism”.

    And he spoke harsh words to Patrick and to Mathonus. But Patrick preached to him and converted him to God’s penance. The hair of his head was shorn. Its style had been that of the druids – “airbacc giunnae“, as it is called. From this comes the most famous of Irish sayings, “Calvus [‘bald ‘, i.e. ‘Mael’] and Caplit: the same difference” – they believed in God.

    When the days of keening the kings’ daughter came to an end they buried them beside the well of Clebach and made a round ditch in the fashion of a ferta. That was the custom of the heathen Irish. But we call it relic, that is, the remains of the girls.

    And the ferta was granted in perpetuity to Patrick and his heirs after him, along with the bones of the holy girls. He built an earthen church in that place.

    (translation from Liam de Paor, Saint Patrick’s World, 163-165).

    Canon O’Hanlon admits that the evidence for the numbering of Ethnea and Fidelmia among the saints of Ireland on 11th January, owed more to the 17th-century hagiologist Father John Colgan than to the Irish calendars. A Saint Feidelmai is listed on the Martryology of Tallaght on January 11, as was noted by Colgan, who also noted the presence of a Saint Ethnea on the 28th February. Thus, as O’Hanlon confesses:

    ‘The only reason Colgan had for placing the festival of both holy virgins at this day was the circumstance of a St. Fedelmia first occurring in our calendars, and a want of knowing that day to which their Acts could more appropriately be assigned.’

    Whether either of these saints listed on the calendars can be identified with the daughters of Laoighaire is open to question. But as Canon O’Hanlon points out, Colgan has good reason for his making sure these ‘heroic virgins’ occupy their place:

    ‘First, all the Acts of St. Patrick concur in recording their admirable innocence of life, their miraculous conversion, and their no less miraculous passage to the society of their Spouse, Jesus Christ. Secondly, the fact of a church having been erected to their memory, at the place where they died, manifests the affectionate reverence entertained for them by St. Patrick himself. Thirdly, the transmission of their relics, from the first place of their deposition to the Metropolitan See of Armagh, indicates still more the respect in which those noble virgins were held, long after their departure, and which seems corroborative of their having been in the odour of sanctity. ‘

    Who could disagree? The beauty and pathos of the story of the conversion of these royal sisters at the well and of the wonderful confession of faith which their questions elicited from Saint Patrick, make them indeed worthy.

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  • Saint Neachtain of Dungiven, January 8

    On January 8 the Irish Martyrologies commemorate a seventh-century Scottish saint associated with the monastery at Dungiven, County Derry. North-west Ulster has always had strong links with Scotland and Saint Neachtain appears to have been born in Scotland but to have founded a monastery in the territory of a tribe called the Cianachta. They occupied the lands of the Roe Valley, but their chief royal site was at Dungiven. One scholar has suggested that they were mercenary vassals of the Uí Neill, rewarded with lands for their services ‘much as the gallowglass clans from Scotland and the Isles were rewarded with irish lands by the Gaelic lords of the later middle ages’ (F.J.Byrne, Irish kings and high-kings (London, 1973), 68.) The Irish annals name two saints associated with the Cianachta – a convert of Saint Patrick’s called Ciannan, founder of Duleek in County Meath, whose death is recorded in 489, and Nechtan Ner of Dungiven, whose death is ascribed to 679. Canon O’Hanlon will guide us through the story of Saint Neachtain as found in Volume I of his Lives of the Irish Saints:

    St. Neachtain or Nechtanan, of Dungiven, County Derry.

    The present holy man was probably the first founder of a church here, and he seems to have been taken as the local patron. The Martyrology of Donegal enters the festival of St. Nechtain of Dun Geimhim, in Cianachta Glinne Geimhin, at this date. He is commemorated in the Martyrology of Tallagh, on the 8th of January. Most likely he was born about the beginning of the seventh century.

    It seems to be doubtful, whether the present holy man had been born in Ireland or in Scotland. In a gloss to the Feilire of St. Oengus, we read, “anair de Albain,” i.e., “from the east, from Alba,” applied to the name of Nechtan. It may be probable, he was born in the latter country, or at least that he came over from it into Ireland. He has been identified with the great saint of Deeside, called Nathalan, in the Breviary of Aberdeen. This holy man is called Nachlan or Naughlan, by the common people. According to the Aberdeen Breviary, he is thought to have been born in the northern parts of the Scoti, in ancient times, and at Tullicht, within the diocese of Aberdeen.

    He was a man of great sanctity and devotion. Though educated as the member of a noble family, when he learned that turning the soil approached nearest to the occupation which favoured holy meditation, he abandoned all other pursuits to cultivate fields. Thus he wished the body to be industriously occupied, so that he might never allow his mind to be overborne in a struggle with dangerous temptations. While he thus waged warfare against the devil and a perishing world, a terrible famine broke out among his neighbours, relations, and friends. Most of the people were nearly lost, owing to hunger and want of food. But the singularly disinterested Nathalan, moved by the highest spirit of charity, distributed all his grain and stores, in the name of Christ, to the poor. At the spring time, no seed was left him, even to sow his lands; yet, God wrought a miracle, which produced an abundant harvest. When this time came, however, and when a great multitude of both sexes had been collected to gather in the crop, a tremendous tempest of rain and a whirlwind prevented the husbandmen and women from pursuing their labours. For a moment losing patience, and being excited to anger, along with other reapers, the saint murmured a little against God. The tempest soon ceased. But, on second thought, Nathalan, feeling he had offended the Divine Majesty, was induced to bind himself by vow to continue a rigid course of penance. This ended, it is stated, and in a miraculous way, after he had visited the thresholds of the Blessed Apostles Peter and Paul, in the city of Rome. There, too, he sought the monuments of the saints, so thickly placed on every side. Hearing a report of his extraordinary miracles and sanctity, the Supreme Pontiff summoned him into his presence. Notwithstanding the saint’s reluctance, he was persuaded, at length, to assume the episcopal dignity. If we are to place implicit faith in these accounts, probably either before his going to Rome or after he had left it, the saint visited Ireland, and then he must have founded Dungiven, or at least he spent some time there. But, it must be allowed, we feel at a loss to determine the period.

    In the practice of Divine contemplation, having rendered himself very acceptable to all at Rome, by permission of the Sovereign Pontiff, as we are informed, Nathalan got permission for returning to that part of Scotia, whence he sprung. In extreme old age, he visited his natal soil. He then built the churches of Tullicht, Bothelim, and Colle, at his own expense. He also dedicated them to the Almighty, and long afterwards they existed in those provinces, as monuments of his zeal.

    The death of St. Nechtain occurred A.D. 677, according to the Annals of the Four Masters, but we find the rest of Neachtain Neir recorded A.D. 678, in the Annals of Ulster. We meet no less than four different saints of this name recorded in our calendars – One at 22nd of April—erroneously assigned by Colgan’s printer to the 11th;— another at the 2nd of May—St. Patrick’s disciple;— St. Neachtain, a virgin, at the 22nd of November, besides the present saint.

    It would seem that this holy man died in Britain, on the 8th of January, after the performance of many wonderful miracles. He is said to have been buried with great reverence at Tullicht. St. Nachlan is patron of Tullicht. There in after time he often afforded health to the sick, who came to seek it piously and devoutly. At Tullicht a cross of very early type, incised on a rude granite slab, once lay in the parish church. It now forms the top lintel to one of the doors of the old kirk there. He is also the patron of Balthelney, or rather Bothelney, now Meldrum. Owing to the fervour of his prayers, Nathelan is said to have averted a raging pestilence from this place. Long after this tradition, and when the saint’s name was even forgotten, the parishioners kept the 8th of January as a feast, on which they did no work. At the old kirk here, about three miles from the town of Old Meldrum, is Naughlan’s Well. At Collie or Cowle, his name is rhymed among the fishermen:

    ” Atween the kirk and kirk ford,
    There lies St. Nauchlan’s hoard.

    and in the parish of Kildalton, in Islay, we find Kilnaughtan.

    Content Copyright © Omnium Sanctorum Hiberniae 2012-2015. All rights reserved.

  • Saint Cronan Beg, January 7

    Among other saints commemorated on the Irish calendars at January 7 is one associated with the monastic settlement at Nendrum on Mahee Island. Here is the entry for the life of Saint Cronan Beg from Volume One of Canon O’Hanlon’s Lives of the Irish Saints:

    St. Cronan Beg, Bishop of Nendrum, County of Down.
    [Seventh Century.] 

    This prelate obtained his cognomen, probably owing to his being under the middle size. Cronan Beg, or “the little,” bishop over the ancient Aendrum, had a festival on this day, according to the Martyrology of Donegal. The Martyrology of Tallaght simply registers Cronan, bishop, at the 7th of January. His place is now distinguished as Inis Mahee, in the county of Down. It is a portion of Tullynakill parish, and it lies about a quarter of a mile from the shore in Strangford Lough. This island is situated about thirteen miles N.N.E. from Downpatrick. The name of this present bishop will be found in a letter, written from Rome, A.D. 640, on the subject of the Pascal Controversy. In his tract on some of the Irish bishops, Duald Mac Firbis says, that perhaps this is he with whom Caendruim is placed; and his remark seems to have reference to a subsequent entry regarding the rest of Cronan, Bishop of Caondruim, who died about the year 639. Other, and more reliable, authorities place his demise at the 7th of January, A.D. 642. As may be seen, this date is only a little over a year later than the date of the epistle from Rome, addressed to him in common with other Irish bishops. Some very interesting remains of antiquity are yet traceable on Mahee Island.

    The Internet Archive also houses a charming pamphlet by John Vinycomb, entitled The Monks of Mahee Island. The author provides an introduction to the site from an antiquarian perspective but quickly proceeds to his own poetry. He offers us first, this poem on the monks and then a composition on the Mermaid of Mahee, a legend of Strangford Lough. This cautionary tale concerns a temptress of the deep who beguiled one of the monks with her siren song, only for the matins bell to recall him to his vocation and to face the wrath of Father Abbot.

    THE MONKS OF MAHEE ISLAND

    In olden days, as I’ve heard say
    Old records tell the story
    How men retired to deserts wild,
    To praise God and His glory.

    To people rude and wild they preached,
    And taught the truth in sadness,
    Besought the Lord to bless the land,
    With thankful hearts, in gladness.

    For all the good His bounty gave,
    Of sunlit sea and sky,
    The beauteous earth, the stars above,
    The hope of heaven on high.

    And some in lonely isles set up
    Their church and tower round,
    Beneath whose shade their prayerful lives
    In benisons were bound.

    In old Mahee, the sacred isle
    By Strangford’s silent shore,
    The peaceful monks in prayer would kneel,
    And aid from heaven implore.

    To banish sin and shame from earth,
    And touch the heart with love :
    To make the world’s all-sinful souls,
    More meet for heaven above.

    The monks are gone, their deeds remain,
    Old savage habits banished :
    The world is better that they lived,
    Tho’ church and tower have vanished.

    To simple faith and honest toil
    Came peace like gentle maiden :
    And in her train the Arts of life
    With love and blessings laden.
    Hear now the words of saints of old,
    Come down from ages hoary :
    “O save the world from sin and strife,
    And give to God the glory.”

    The mermaid poem is too long to cite in full here, but is accompanied by the author’s own sketch of an inn sign at Kircubbin showing the watery lady in all her glory. Wonderful stuff. You can read the original in full here.

    Finally, the paper by Bishop Reeves on ‘The Church of Nendrum’, which both Canon O’Hanlon and Vineycomb cite, is also online. It can be found in Volume 8 of The Ulster Journal of Archaeology (1902), pages 13- 22 and continued on pages 58-68 of the same volume.

    Content Copyright © Omnium Sanctorum Hiberniae 2012-2015. All rights reserved.