OMNIUM SANCTORUM HIBERNIAE

Category: Irish Saints

  • Saint Breacnat, July 3

    Another of the many completely obscure Irish female saints is commemorated on the Irish calendars at July 3. As is so often the case, all we know of the holy lady, Breacnat, is her name, as Canon O’Hanlon explains:

    St. Breacnat, Virgin.

    It is mentioned in the Martyrology of Donegal, that veneration was given at the 3rd of July to Breacnat, a virgin. The Bollandists a note this entry, likewise, but through a typographical error, they write “Breenada virgine victoriosa,” at this same date.

    Content Copyright © Omnium Sanctorum Hiberniae 2012-2015. All rights reserved.

  • Saint Canice, July 2

    Canon O’Hanlon notices that Saint Canice (Kenneth, Latinised Canicus) of Kilkenny, whose feast day in Ireland is celebrated on October 11, seems to have a local celebration in Scotland on July 2:

    Reputed Festival of St. Canicus, among the Hebrideans, Scotland. [Sixth Century] 

    Among the Scottish Entries in the Kalendar of David Camerarius, as found in Bishop Forbes’ work,  there is a festival set down for St. Cahinnicus, Abbot, at the 2nd of June. The Bollandists copy this notice, likewise, but they remark, that his Acts more properly refer to the 11th of October, at which date they were destined for further illustration.

    I note that the entry actually alludes to the 2nd of June but this is obviously a misprint. Just to be sure I double-checked the text of Bishop Forbes, where it can be found on page 238 of his Kalendars of Scottish Saints. The entry is in Latin but is easily read:

    JULIUS.

    2 Die. Sanctus Cahinnicus Abbas miraculis & vitae puritate apud Hebridianos & Orcadenses Scotos Celebris.

    Saint Canice enjoyed a widespread cult in Scotland, where he is more commonly known as Saint Kenneth. Pádraig Ó Riain has suggested that he may actually be Saint Colum Cille in a different guise.

    Content Copyright © Omnium Sanctorum Hiberniae 2012-2015. All rights reserved.

  • Saints Failbe of Cell Eó, June 30

    June 30 is the commemoration of Saint Failbe who is associated in the calendars with the locality of Cell or Cill-Eó. He may or may not be linked to another saint from the same place, Caelán. The Martyrology of Gorman lists ‘holy Failbe and Coelán’ with the note ‘Failbe and Caelán in Cell Eó’.  The two are similarly linked in the later Martyrology of Donegal but in the earlier Martyrology of Tallaght they are listed separately as ‘Coelan Dachoe’ and ‘Falbe of Chill Eó’ i.e. ‘from Cell Éo’.  Canon O’Hanlon deals with them separately in Volume VI of his Lives of the Irish Saints and places Cell-Eó, which the place names glossary in the Martyrology of Gorman translates as ‘the church of the yews’, in County Longford:

    St. Failbe of Cill-eo, County of Longford.

    The published Martyrology of Donegal seems to place this saint, together with St. Caolan, at Cill-eo, for the 30th of June. However, the Irish Calendar,  belonging to the Royal Irish Academy, has a different entry, as we shall see, when treating about St. Caolan. Of this saint, it remarks, that he was of the Clan Ruighre, and that his place was Cill-eo, in the County of Longford.

     

    Content Copyright © Omnium Sanctorum Hiberniae 2012-2015. All rights reserved.