OMNIUM SANCTORUM HIBERNIAE

Category: Irish Saints

  • Saint Toman of Mungret, July 26

    A County Limerick saint is recorded in the Irish calendars at July 26, as Canon O’Hanlon explains:

    St. Thoman, or Toman, of Mungret, County of Limerick.

    The name of Thoman, without further designation, appears in the Martyrology of Tallagh, at the 26th of July. At the same date, in the Martyrology of Donegal, the name is entered as Toman, of Mungairit. We have already seen, this place is situated, about three miles south-west from Limerick City, and within the county of Limerick.
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  • Saint Lassar, July 23

    One of a number of Irish female saints with the name of Lassar (Lasair, Lasre, Lassara) is commemorated on July 23.  Canon O’Hanlon in his Lives of the Irish Saints initially seeks to associate this one with the locality of Killasseragh in County Cork. Lassar of Killasseragh is one of a trio of sisters whose memories are preserved in folk tradition within County Cork, where each was assigned the patronage of neighbouring parishes. One popular story was that angels made a road between the parishes so that the sisters could more easily communicate with each other. However,  in his Dictionary of Irish Saints, Pádraig Ó Riain argues that the County Cork Lassar is commemorated in the Martyrologies on May 7, the day after her sister Inneen of Dromtarriff. Thus although Canon O’Hanlon has plumped for Killasseragh as the locality associated with today’s Saint Lassar in the heading of his account, he has no firm basis for doing so, a fact he later concedes. Such are the complexities of dealing with homonymous saints that we may never know the precise identity of the holy woman commemorated on this day:

    St. Lassar, or Lasre, of Killasseragh, Parish of Kilmeen, County of Cork.

    At the 23rd of July, the name of Lasre is met with, in the Martyrology of Tallagh. St. Lassar’s day, although marked in the Calendar at the 23rd of July, seems to have been commemorated by stations at the 24th. The townland of Killasseragh, in the parish of Kilmeen, and barony of Duhallow, county of Cork, is called after this saint. It seems very probable, also, that another townland so called, in the parish of Ballynoe, barony of Kinnatalloon, in the same county, has derived its name from the present holy virgin. In the south-west of the county of Fermanagh, the ruins of an old church, with a holy well, dedicated to a virgin called St. Lassara, are still to be seen. It is now called Killassery. In the glen of the Marble Arch, where there are very remarkable caves, and on its western side—upon the brow of a hill not difficult of access—is shown St. Lasser’s cell. This is a souterrain. It has, however, no further connexion with a church in the neighbourhood, dedicated to the patron St. Lasser. Some inconsiderable remains of this old building yet exist. We do not undertake to say, that the foregoing localities are in any manner connected with the present St. Lassar; for, there are other saints bearing her name, and not distinguished by any special locality; but, we thought it not amiss, to place upon record here, information which may somewhat help towards a future identification, regarding one or other of the Lassars or Lassaras mentioned in our Calendars. The Martyrology of Donegal notes Lassar simply, at the 23rd of July.

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  • Saint Moroecha Mac Naeb, July 22

    On July 22 Canon O’Hanlon brings details of an Irish saint described as a ‘boy-saint’ in the seventeenth-century Martyrology of Donegal. I think this is the first time I have come across an Irish saint specifically recorded as a child. The memory of Saint Moroecha Mac Naeb is first preserved in the earliest of the surviving calendars, the late eight/early ninth-century Martyrology of Tallaght and his youthfulness prompts Canon O”Hanlon to sound very Victorian when musing on the nature of the Irish children of his own day at the end of the piece:

    St. Moroecha Mac Naeb, or Morecha, a Boy-Saint.

    It seems quite probable, that this holy child did not exceed the years of puberty, and that ” he was taken away lest wickedness should alter his understanding,  or deceit beguile his soul.” [Wisdom, c. iv., v. ii.] At the 22nd of July, a festival is  recorded in the Martyrology of Tallagh,  in honour of Moroecha Mac Naeb. Further particulars are hardly known concerning him. Again, the Martyrology  of Donegal registers him at the same date, as Morecha, a boy-saint. In our day, we have had a knowledge of the simple and guileless innocence of Irish children, whose good and almost sinless dispositions gave promise of a riper sanctity. Parents find real treasures in such children, and they are greatly open to censure, if the arch-enemy afterwards be allowed to destroy the working of God’s grace, in the souls of their dearest charge.

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