OMNIUM SANCTORUM HIBERNIAE

Category: Irish Saints

  • Saint Colga of Lusk, February 20

    February 20 is the feastday of Saint Colga the Wise, lector at Clonmacnoise, reputed teacher of the English saint Alcuin and author of a famous prayer known as the Scuab Chrabhaidh (Broom or Besom of Devotion). I was interested to see that in his entries for this day in Volume II of his Lives of the Irish Saints, Canon O’Hanlon does not begin with this famous Saint Colga but with another, lesser-known abbot of Lusk, County Dublin, who shares the same name. Indeed, it seems that Colga of Lusk is assigned this feast day by the 17th-century hagiologist Father John Colgan, simply on the grounds that this is the day when his Clonmacnoise namesake is commemorated:

    ARTICLE I.—ST. COLGA, ABBOT OF LUSK, COUNTY OF DUBLIN

    [SEVENTH CENTURY.]

    EVERY step, taken in religious progress, tends to purify and to ennoble a monk’s profession. Nor can it fail to impart a generous and an honourable impulse, in the home of his choice. Colgan acknowledges his inability to discover any important biographical particulars, regarding this saint, with the exception of a few, which are entered in his collection. The Bollandists and Dr. Lanigan have only a passing allusion to him. It is supposed, that our saint was son to Moenaegh, and that he presided over the monastery of Lusk, as abbot. This establishment is thought to date back so far as before the close of the fifth century, when St. MacCuilinn or Macculind, its founder, is said to have died. The place is certainly most ancient, and it has many historic associations of very great importance. In the old graveyard may still be seen a very perfect specimen of an Irish round tower, attached to a mediaeval church, which has lately undergone restoration, in a very excellent style of Gothic architecture. No doubt, a more ancient church occupied this site. This holy man flourished about the year 690, or even later ; for, he is named, as one of those who subscribed with other prelates of Ireland, to the Acts of a synod, held by Adamnan, about the year 695 or 696. A copy of these decrees, called the Cain Adhamnain, or the “canons of Adamnan” had been in Colgan’s possession. He has also placed on record some of the subscribers’ names, to these statutes. Wherefore our saint was not identical with one bearing a similar name, and exercising a like office, in the same place, and whose death occurred A.D. 782, according to the Annals of the Four Masters. The Colga, who died in 782, or more correctly, 787, is expressly named in our Annals, as son to Crunnmail. The present St. Colga did not long survive the year, in which the celebrated synod of Adamnan had been held  for, we read, about the death of his successor, an abbot of Lusk, who departed this life, in the year 731. The present holy man died, probably, near the beginning of the eighth century ; nor do we know what reason, his namesake, Father John Colgan, had, for giving him a festival at this date, beyond the circumstance of another celebrated Colga or Colgu having been venerated on the 20th day of February.

  • Saint Muadhnat of Caille, January 6

    Among the saints commemorated on the Irish calendars on January 6 is a County Sligo holy woman, Muadhnat of Caille. As Canon O’Hanlon explains below, she is one of three saintly siblings, the Daughters of Nadfraich:

    St. Muadhnat, Virgin, of Caille, Drumcliffe, County Sligo.

    [Sixth Century.]

    In numerous instances, we find it was customary in the Irish Church to venerate, on the same day, saints of a particular family, community, or place. Nor is it probable, that all such persons could have died on that particular festival. It rather appears to have been a matter of convenience, thus to classify and unite them, for various good reasons. The present holy woman, and the other two virgins, who follow in order, are said to have been the daughters of Naidfraic, and sisters to St. Molaissius, Abbot of Devenish. The Martyrologies of Tallagh and of Marianus O’Gorman, as also a Commentator on St. Aengus, place the festivals of those pious sisters at the 6th of January. They were venerated at a place called Enac-ard. We find that Caille is said to have been the name of St. Muadhnat’s habitation. It seems to have been situated in Cairbre, and near Drum-cliabh. This was probably her natal place. It is now known as Drumcliffe, a parish in the barony of Lower Carbery, and county of Sligo.  It lies near the sea-shore, a little to the north of Sligo, and it is situated within the diocese of Elphin. A portion of its round tower here remains, as a proof of its ancient consequence. St. Columkille is said to have been the first founder of a religious establishment, at this place. From the sixth century, Drumcliffe had its abbatial succession, and the herenachy of the Church became limited in the eleventh century to the family of O’Beollain or O’Boland. To St. Columkille is attributed the poetic sentiment of attachment to this spot :—

    Beloved to my heart also in the West—
    Drumcliffe at Culcinne’s strand.

    Its situation is one of great attractiveness to the tourist, and yet in a district but little frequented.

    The present Protestant church stands on the site of an ancient religious establishment; while many relics of the past are observable throughout the parish. We are told that a religious house had been founded here by a St. Fintan, a disciple of St. Columba, at a place called Cailleavinde. This was probably the Caille, where St. Muadhnat’s Convent stood.

    St. Muadhnat is mentioned in the Martyrology of Donegal, as having had a festival on this day. She lived in the sixth century. In the table appended, she is also called Muaghneat, i.e., Mo-Aignes. In the published Martyrology of Tallagh, we find a notice at the 6th of January, Ingen Natfraich, in Enach-airdd. There is probably a mistake for Ingena, the plural form, and which relates to the festival of Natfraich’s daughters. Likewise, incorrectly joined, there is an entry together with St. Diarmaid, whose feast occurs this same day.

  • Saint Fiadhnat, January 4

    Another of the many obscure Irish female saints is commemorated on January 4. All we know of Saint Fiadhnat is the recording of her name in the Irish calendars, and in the absence of anything else to say Canon O’Hanlon sounds wonderfully Victorian as he complains about the number of females ‘addicted to idle or frivolous pleasures’:

    St. Fidnatan, or Fiadhnat, Virgin. 

    Numberless females are found in society addicted to idle or frivolous pleasures. Their lives are spent as a taper that wastes away its substance, giving little or only a very flickering light. The name of Fidnatan, virgin, is mentioned in the “Martyrology of Tallagh,” on the 4th of January. Besides this entry, Fiadhnat, the same virgin, is recorded on this day in the “Martyrology of Donegal.” The distinction of sanctity accorded her proves the genuine merits of her well-ordered life.

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