OMNIUM SANCTORUM HIBERNIAE

Category: Irish Saints

  • Saint Lassar, Daughter of Lochan, September 30

    Last year we remembered the commemoration of a mystery Saint Brigid at the end of September and this year we can remember an equally mysterious Saint Lassar. Canon O’Hanlon records what the Calendars have preserved of her memory:

    St. Lassar, daughter of Lochain.

    The published Martyrology of Tallagh registers a festival to honor Lassar, daughter of Lochan, at the 30th of September. Somewhat differently is she entered in the Book of Leinster copy. The record of Lassar is also found in the Martyrology of Marianus O’Gorman, on this day ; the commentator observes that she was daughter to Lochain. The feast of Lassar, daughter of Lochan, is entered in the Martyrology of Donegal at this date.

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  • Saint Dairi the Widow, September 28

    September 28 is the feast of the interesting Saint Sinach Mac Dara, whose memory remains fresh among the people of the west coast of Ireland. He shares his feastday with a number of other Irish saints, among them a holy widow called Dairi. In the Irish language the word for a widow, baintreach, means literally ‘a woman who ploughs’, presumably because in the absence of her husband a widow is forced to undertake this arduous work for herself. Not that the Irish female saints were any strangers to hard work on the land, their Lives record that Saint Brigid herded sheep and churned butter and Saint Moninne’s community preserved her hoe as a sacred relic long after her death. What the circumstances of Saint Dairi’s life were I do not know, Canon O’Hanlon is able to bring us only a notice of her at this date in the Martyrology of Donegal:

    St. Dairi, a Holy Widow.

    We read in the Martyrology of Donegal that veneration was given to Dairi, a holy Widow, at the 28th of September. In the table, postfixed to this Martyrology, her name and distinctive state is Latinized Daria, Vidua.

     

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  • Saint Fintan, September 27

    September 27 is the commemoration of one of the many Irish saints who bear the name of Fintan (Fionntain). In his account of the saint below, Canon O’Hanlon makes the case for Saint Fintan of Howth and engages in an illustrated discourse on the remaining ruins at this County Dublin site, only to finish up by saying that he doesn’t have any evidence that this is the Saint Fintan commemorated today! I find this a charming, if occasionally irritating, feature of Canon O’Hanlon’s work and even if we cannot conclude that the Fintan named on the Irish calendars at September 27 is Saint Fintan of Howth, I welcome the opportunity to learn of him.

    St. Fionntain, or Fintan.

    Nothing particular appears to be known regarding this St. Fionntain, whose name occurs, in the Irish Calendars at this date. The entry of Fintan’s feast at the present day is noticed, in a line of Marianus O’Gorman’s Irish metrical Festilogy. [It is translated as follows by Dr. Whitley Stokes:” Fintan himself against plunderings.”] Among the many holy men having the same name, and without any other designation, it seems difficult to know when and where he lived. On the peninsula of Howth, in the vicinity of Dublin, and at a considerable elevation on the Hill, may be seen the small church or oratory of a St. Fintan. It is supposed to have been formed out of the “survivals” of at least two churches—it may be of more—one of which was of much greater dimensions than the present church, and the other was about the same size as the structure now extant. The present “St. Fintan’s” appears to stand partly on the site of that early oratory. An examination of the foundations shows, that they are laid at two levels. Evidence for such conclusions are seemingly afforded, by the peculiar stone dressings of the apertures, such as found in the door, small windows, and interior recesses. There is a gable over the western door, now covered with ivy, but having an ope for a bell in its upper part; while between it and the door-way, there is a recessed circular window. The whole of the interior had been plastered with mortar, and the exterior was dashed; but, both the mortar and the dashing have fallen off, leaving only an indication that the walls had been thus treated. At the western end are traces showing, that the ends of beams resting on the side walls supported a loft, while light was afforded only from the circular window already mentioned.

    A short distance from the church is the holy well of St. Fintan, but any tradition of the day when pilgrims resorted to it has not been preserved in the locality to give a possible clue, which might serve for the patron’s identification. An ancient cemetery surrounds the oratory, and there are still to be seen several tombs and graves. The scenery around St. Fintan’s Oratory has been described and admirably versified in a local legend, which introduces Aideen as the heroine, and records her rest under a remarkable Cromlech, in the adjoining beautiful demesne of Lord Howth. From the simple entry of his name, at this date, we do not feel warranted in connecting the present Fintan with this locality; neither is it established, on any fair grounds, that any other so called had been venerated at Howth. We find Fionntain merely set down in the Martyrology of Donegal, at the 27th of September, and the same notice is in the Irish Calendar, belonging to the Ordnance Survey Records.

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