OMNIUM SANCTORUM HIBERNIAE

Category: Irish Saints

  • Saint Balin of Tech-Saxon, September 3

    September 3 is the feast of an English saint who came to Ireland with Saint Colman of Lindisfarne following the decision of the Synod of Whitby to adopt the Roman dating of Easter. Saint Balin or Balloin is said to have been a brother of Saint Gerald of Mayo, as Canon O’Hanlon explains:

    St. Balin or Balloin, of Tech-Saxon.

    The present holy man was a brother to St. Gerald, or Garalt, whose life has been given, at the 13th of March. The Martyrologies of Marianus O’Gorman, of Cathal Maguire, and of Donegal, record the festival of St. Balan or Balloin, at the 3rd of September. It is stated, that he came from England to Ireland, with his brothers, Gerald, Berikert and Hubritan, after the middle of the seventh century. He lived at a place, called Tech-Saxan, or the House of the Saxons, most probably because it had been founded or occupied by himself, or by his brothers, or by some of his countrymen, who accompanied him from England. This place is said to have been in Athenry Parish, in the Diocese of Tuam, and County of Galway. Castellan places this St. Balo in the province of Connaught, and his feast at the present day, as noted by the Bollandists.

  • The Sons of Caiman, September 1

    On September 1 we find the commemoration of another of the collective groups of saints who crop up frequently on the Irish calendars.  As is so often the case, all we have is their patronymic, but no details of how many individuals comprised the group or when or where they flourished. Canon O’Hanlon can bring only the records from the various calendars in Article VIII for the day in his Lives of the Irish Saints, Volume IX:

    The Sons of Caiman.

    A festival to honour the Sons of Caimene is set down, in the Martyrology of Donegal,  at the 1st of September. It seems probable, those holy brothers flourished, after the eighth century, as they are not contained, in that copy of the Martyrology of Tallaght in the Book of Leinster, at the Kalends of September, nor in that published by the Rev. Dr. Kelly, for which day entries are missing. Their particular names do not seem to be ascertainable.

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  • Saint Aedh, the Martyr, August 31

    There is a rather intriguing entry in the Martyrology of Tallaght at August 31 for a Saint Aedh, described as a Martyr. This is interesting, first because an early Irish martyr, at least on home soil, is a very rare bird indeed and secondly because he is but one of a number of saints who bear this name whose feasts are commemorated on this day. The most well-known of the saints Aedh (Aodh, Aedhan, Aid, Aidan) whose feasts are recorded today on the calendars has to be Saint Aidan of Lindisfarne, but there is also a Deacon Aedh. The Aedh who was also a ‘martyr’, however, remains an enigma and as far as I can see is recorded only in The Martyrology of Tallaght. Canon O’Hanlon has but a single sentence to write on this saint in Volume VIII of his Lives of the Irish Saints:

    St. Aedh, Martyr.

    Veneration was given to an Aedh, Martyr, at the 31st of August, as we find set down in the Martyrology of Tallagh. Again, under the head of Inis Cathaigh, Duald Mac Firbis enters, Aedhan, bishop, from Inis-Cathaigh, at August 31st. The reason for this localization, however, is not stated.

    Content Copyright © Omnium Sanctorum Hiberniae 2012-2016. All rights reserved.