OMNIUM SANCTORUM HIBERNIAE

Category: Irish Saints

  • Translation of the Relics of Blessed Thaddeus McCarthy

    Ireland witnessed a special occasion on September 12 1897 with the translation from Ivrea in Italy to Cork of the relics of the fifteenth-century Bishop, Blessed  Thaddeus (Tadhg) McCarthy (1455-92). This humble and saintly man had been appointed Bishop of Ross but was illegally deprived of his See and died in Italy before he could return, vindicated, to Ireland. An Australian newspaper report gave its Irish expatriate community a flavour of the excitement of the day on which he finally came home four centuries later:

    IRELAND.

    Blessed Thaddeus McCarthy.
    The Catholics of Cork celebrated with great pomp and ceremony the translation of the remains of the Blessed Thaddeus McCarthy, a former Bishop of the diocese of Cork, who flourished in the latter part of the fifteenth century, and was beatified by the Church twelve months ago. The remains have been resting for four centuries in the Cathedral of Ivrea in Italy, but now they are deposited beneath the altar of St. Mary’s Cathedral, Cork. A procession consisting of the clergy representing the the various dioceses, with their Bishops in full canonical vestments accompanied the remains, which were enshrined in a golden sarcophagus, and borne on the shoulders of four canons through the streets to the cathedral. The route was lined by members of the various religious confraternities and was decorated with triumphal arches and banners. High Mass was celebrated, and in the evening there was a display of fireworks from the Cathedral Tower, while illuminations were displayed on a large scale throughout the city.

     W.A. Record (Perth, WA: 1888 – 1922), Saturday 30 October 1897, page 6

    Here at home the occasion was commemorated by a poem from Alice Esmonde in The Irish Monthly. Alice Esmonde was the pseudonym of Tipperary woman Margaret Mary Ryan, a regular contributor of verse to this magazine. Here she contrasts the sad circumstances under which Blessed Thaddeus left his homeland centuries earlier with the warm welcome which greeted his return:

    BLESSED THADDEUS MAC CARTHY *

    From the sunshine and the rain
    Of the exiled centuries,
    From the blue Italian seas,
    You have come to us again:
    Home to us and dear old Ireland,
    To the Land of Saints, your sireland,
    And to-morrow and to-morrow,
    By the Lee that saw your sorrow
    And your pain,

    You will rest with sheaf and crown,
    Home amongst us evermore,
    Fair you found the Irish shore,
    When September fields were brown —
    You had anguish ere you left us,
    For dissensions tore and reft us;
    Now the city runs to meet you,
    And your kith and kin to greet you
    With renown.

    You have won the victor’s goal,
    Kept your heart from earthly taint,
    my Father, my Saint!—
    Spotless, stainless, kept your soul.
    How the bells ring out your glory
    How the people tell the story,
    As your ashes home they’re bringing,
    While the music and the singing
    Proudly roll!

    To God’s Heaven when we pray,
    You are there of our own kin;
    Every Irish heart within,
    There’s a place for you alway.
    How the people’s hearts are swelling,
    As with tears of love they’re telling
    Of your life so sad and holy.
    Of the patience sweet and lowly
    Of your day.

    Oh, the honours God pours down
    On His victor in the strife!
    Oh, the beauty of your life,
    Oh, the glory of your crown!
    Far away in glen and valley,
    By the hill-side and the alley,
    Tears of joy for you are stealing,
    In the cabins where they’re kneeling,
    And the town.

    Since you went in grief away,
    Slow and slow the ages flow,
    Full four hundred years ago —
    Looking back seems yesterday —
    Since on lonely deathbed lying
    Far from home and Ireland dying,
    In the still October even,
    Angels bore your soul to Heaven,
    Now we pray,

    One dear hour to see your face.
    Our sweet exile, our own Saint!
    You whose lips made no complaint.
    High of blood and brave of race.
    Welcome, welcome home to Ireland,
    To the Land of Saints, your sireland,
    And we thank the Lord who crowned you,
    For the glories that surround you.
    For His grace.

    Alice Esmonde

    * Blessed Thaddeus, Bishop of Cork and Cloyne, died at Ivrea in Piedmont in 1492. His relics, which were kept there ever since with great reverence and with that fame of miracles, were deposited with joyful solemnity in the Cathedral of Cork, September 12th, 1897.

    The Irish Monthly, Volume 25 (1897), 596-7.

    The memory of this wonderful man, who so richly deserves to complete the path to official recognition of his sanctity, is cherished and upheld by the Blessed Thaddeus MacCarthy’s Catholic Heritage Association. At their blog you can see pictures of the beautiful reliquary of Blessed Thaddeus in the Cathedral where he now rests.

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  • Saint Golgus (Colgus of Iona), July 17

    Some of the problems faced by hagiologists in their study of the saints are illustrated by Article VIII for July 17 in Volume VII of Canon O’Hanlon’s Lives of the Irish Saints. Hesuggests that in the supposed feast on this day of an Abbot Golgus, we may be dealing with a case of mistaken identity. The error has been made by the seventeenth-century Scottish calendarist David Camerarius:

    Reputed Feast of St. Golgus, Abbot.

    At the present date, David Camerarius mentions a Golgus, Abbot, said to be alluded to by Adamnan, in his Third Book—assumed to be in his work Vita S. Columbae—and by other writers. While the Bollandists insert this reputed feast, on his authority, they remark, that under such form, they could not find his name, and therefore, they defer classing Golgus, Abbot, among the saints, until strengthened by further authority than that of Camerarius.

    So, this raises the possibility that behind ‘Golgus’ lies a member of the Iona monastic community, Colgus.  Indeed, although he does not say so here, in the Introduction to Volume I of his magnum opus Canon O’Hanlon wrote that a ‘St. Colgius or Colchuo, is said to have been author of a Treatise on the Miracles of his Master, St. Columkille’.

    A footnote states plainly that

     In Dempster’s “Historia Ecclesiastica Gentis Scotorum,” tomus i., lib. vii., num. 578, he is called “St. Golgus.”

    Thus it seems that Canon O’Hanlon had already concluded that Golgus is probably a misspelling of Colgus (Colgius), a Latinization of the Irish name Colga. He reiterates this conclusion in the final footnote to his article on the mysterious Saint Golgus:

    Probably Camerarius meant to have written Colgius, who is mentioned by Adamnan, in lib iii., cap.20, but whose festival – if one he had – is not known.

    Here is an account of Colga of Iona and one of the miracles of its founding saint to which was a witness from the classic translation of Bishop William Reeves:

    CHAPTER XXI.
    Of another very similar Vision of great brilliancy.

    ANOTHER night also, one of the brothers, whose name was Colga, the son of Aid Draigniche, of the grandsons of Fechrech mentioned in the first Book, came by chance, while the other brothers were asleep, to the gate of the church, and stood there for some time praying. Then suddenly he saw the whole church filled with a heavenly light, which more quickly than he could tell, flashed like lightning from his gaze. He did not know that St. Columba was praying at that time in the church, and after this sudden appearance of light, he returned home in great alarm. On the following day the saint called him aside and rebuked him severely, saying: “Take care of one thing, my child, that you do not attempt to spy out and pry too closely into the nature of that heavenly light which was not granted thee, but rather fled from thee, and that thou do not tell any one during my lifetime what thou hast seen.”

    Life of Saint Columba, founder of Hy. Written by Adamnan. Edited by William Reeves (Edinburgh 1874), 92.

    Knowledge of Colga of Iona seems to be confined to this source and I have not been able to find another recorded feast day for him. Ó Riain’s A Dictionary of Irish Saints does not mention this saint in connection with the Golgus recorded on the Scottish calendars at July 17 but suggests that he may be identical with Saint Colga of Kilcolgan, County Galway.
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  • St. Cathaldus of Taranto, May 10

    May 10 is the feast of Saint Cathaldus (Cataldus, Cathal), an Irish saint who flourished in Italy. His life and career is still the subject of debate, an 1896 paper can be found here but below is a rather succinct summary from 1909, courtesy of The New Zealand Tablet:

    St. Cataldus, Bishop and Confessor.

    St. Cataldus,  the second apostle and patron saint of Taranto, was born in Ireland about the year 615, and whilst a youth was sent to study at the great monastic school of Lismore. Whilst returning from a pilgrimage to Jerusalem, in which he was accompanied by some of his disciples, the vessel was wrecked in the Gulf of Taranto, not far from the city of that name. When the Irish Bishop saw this beautiful city given over to pleasure and vice his spirit was moved within him, and in burning language he implored the inhabitants to return to the service of God, Whom they had forgotten. It happened at this time that there was no bishop in the city, so the people besought Cataldus to remain with them, to which request he reluctantly acceded. The saint succeeded in bringing back the inhabitants to the service of God, and Taranto became a Christian city in reality, as well as in name. St. Cataldus died towards the close of the seventh century, and his remains were buried in a marble tomb, which up to this day is preserved in the sacristy of the Cathedral of Taranto.

    St. Cataldus, Bishop and Confessor.,New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXXVII, Issue 9, 4 March 1909

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