OMNIUM SANCTORUM HIBERNIAE

Category: Irish Saints

  • Saint Machar, November 12

    November 12 is the feast of one of the many Irish saints for whom a Scottish career is also claimed -Saint Machar. Below is an account of him from the work of Dom Michael Barrett:

    NOVEMBER 12 St. Machar or Mocumma, Bishop, 6th century.

    THIS saint was the son of Fiachna, an Irish chieftain, and was baptised by St. Colman. In his youth he became a disciple of the great St. Columba, and when that saint went to Scotland, Machar accompanied him, together with eleven other disciples. After some years he was made a bishop, and was sent by St. Columba with twelve companions to preach to the pagan Picts of Strathdon, in the north-east of Scotland. It is said that his holy master commanded him to found a church in the spot where he should find a river forming by its windings the shape of a bishop’s pastoral staff. Such a configuration he found in the river Don, at the spot now known as Old Aberdeen. Here he accordingly fixed his seat, and the cathedral that rose from the humble beginnings of a church instituted by Machar now bears his name.

    Besides the old Cathedral of Aberdeen, there are in the same county two parishes, formerly joined in one, which are known as New and Old Machar, respectively. At Kildrummie, in Aberdeenshire, is a place called (after the saint) ” Macker’s Haugh.” There is St. Machar’s Well, near the cathedral, at Old Aberdeen; the water used always to be taken for baptismal purposes to the cathedral.  At Corgarff, in Strathdon, is another spring known as Tobar Mhachar (the well of St. Machar); miracles were formerly obtained there. Of this spring the legend is related of a priest, in time of famine, drawing from it three fine salmon which lasted him for food till supplies came from other quarters.

    St. Machar’s feast was restored to Scotland by Pope Leo XIII in 1898.

    Dom Michael Barrett, O.S.B., A Calendar of Scottish Saints (2nd. revised ed., Fort Augustus, 1919), 163-164.

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  • Saint Fintan Munna of Taghmon, October 21

    October 21 is the feast of Saint Fintan better known as Saint Munna. Munna is an important figure who features in a number of well-known episodes from the lives of the Irish saints.  He also played a significant role in the Paschal Dating Controversy. All the sources suggest that he was quite a fiery character who was not to be crossed lightly. There is a 2015 account of Saint Munna by scholar Gilbert Markus written for the Kilmartin Museum Trust available online here. Below is an older account of the saint from another Scottish author which summarizes the main points of his career:

    21 St. Mund or Fintan-Munnu, Abbot, A.D. 635, 
    HE was born in Ireland, and was a contemporary of St. Columba. He bears the character of being the most austere of all the Irish saints, and suffered grievously from bodily infirmities with the greatest resignation. Crossing over to Scotland, he dwelt for a time upon an island of Loch Leven, still called after him by the title of Eileanmunde. A more important foundation was afterwards made by this saint at Kilmun, north of the Firth of Clyde, in Argyllshire. An old burial ground still marks the site of the monastery founded by St. Mund; the hills and wooded glens which surround the spot make up a scene of striking beauty. A small bay in the vicinity is called ” Holy Loch”. It is a matter of dispute whether the title came from its proximity to St. Mund’s foundation or from a shipload of earth from the Holy Land, destined to form part of the foundation of a church in Glasgow, and reputed to have been sunk in a storm near that spot. It is said that St. Mund made application to Baithen, St. Columba’s successor at Iona, to be received as a monk of that monastery, but that Baithen advised the saint to return to Ireland and found a monastery there. The holy abbot gave this advice on account of a prophecy of St. Columba, who had foreseen St. Mund’s desire, and had declared that God willed that saint to become abbot over others and not the disciple of Baithen. It was owing to this advice that St. Mund returned to his native land and founded Teach-Mun (Tagmon) in Wexford, which became famous under his rule. Mediaeval documents mention the saint’s pastoral staff as preserved in Argyllshire; its hereditary custodian held a small croft at Kilmun; it may have been in honour of this saint that a fair was held at that place for eight days during April as alluded to in records of 1490. No trace of the above relic now remains. In Ireland this saint is known as St. Fintan-Munnu; but Mundus or Mund is the title which appears in Scottish records.
    Dom Michael Barrett, O.S.B., A Calendar of Scottish Saints (2nd. revised ed., Fort Augustus, 1919), 151-152.

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

  • 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.