OMNIUM SANCTORUM HIBERNIAE

Category: Irish Saints

  • Saint Colman of Lambay Island, June 26

    On June 26 we commemorate another of the many Irish Saints Colman, this one with the interesting epithet ‘of the refectory’. He appears to be associated with an island off the County Dublin coast, I must admit that I had never heard of Lambay Island before and so was interested in this illustrated article on its history here. The author repeats the information given by Canon O’Hanlon below, that Saint Colman was the deacon left in charge of the island monastery by Saint Columcille:

    St. Colman, Son to Roi of the Refectory, and over Lambay Island Church, County Dublin.

    The name of Colman Partraighi appears in the Martyrology of Tallagh, at the 26th of June. This appears to be the St. Colman, son of Roi, belonging to Reachrainn, according to Marianus O’Gorman, who enters him in the Calendar at this date. He is said to have been that deacon, placed by St Columkille, over the church founded by him in Reachrann, now Lambay Island, off the County Dublin coast. He flourished, about the middle of the sixth century. At the same date, in the Martyrology of Donegal, his name occurs as Colman Proinntighe, or of the refectory. In a Manuscript Calendar of Professor Eugene O’Curry, at this same date, he is entered simply, St. Colman.

    Photo Credit: Malahide Historical Society

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

  • Saint Tiú of Rubha, June 24

    Canon O’Hanlon begins his accounts of the saints for June 24 with the following notice of what he believed to be an obscure County Down holy woman:

    ST. THIU, PATRON OF RUBHA, DIOCESE OF DOWN.

    THE festival of St. Thiu or Tiu, of Rubha, is celebrated, on the 24th of June, according to the Martyrology of Donegal. This female saint’s name does not appear in the earliest Irish Calendars; so, it is probable, she flourished after the eighth century. She belonged, it is said, to the posterity of Eochaidh, son to Muiredh, who descended from the race of Heremon. We are informed, likewise, that Rubha was the name of this holy woman’s place, and that in Ard Uladh it was situated. Some doubt existed, regarding the modern denomination of Rubha. A learned writer inclines to the opinion, that it is identical with the townland of Echlinville, in Ballyhalbert parish, otherwise St. Andrews, barony of Upper Ards, and called at present Row or Grange-Row, but formerly Rowbane or Rheubane. The adjoining townland is still called Rowreagh. In the year 1306, we find a chapel, named Grangia, on the townland of Gransha, parish of Inishargy, and barony of Upper Ards, in the county of Down. The townland of Gransha, at the south end of Inishargy parish, is bounded southwardly by the River Blackstaffe, which was formerly regarded as a line of demarcation, between the Great and Little Ards. About a mile eastward of this townland, the other chapel, called Row or Grange Row, stood. This seems to have been the place, anciently called Ruba, and Anglicized Rue or Rubha. Before the middle of the last century, the name of Rheubane was changed by James Echlin, Esq., who had a seat here, to Echlin-ville, which was called after himself as being the proprietor. The old chapel formerly stood at the entrance to Echlinville demesne; but, a single trace of its ruins cannot be seen at present. In the O’Clerys Calendar, Rubha is located, also, in the Ards of Ulster.

    The entry in the Martyrology of Donegal, referenced by Canon O’Hanlon above also presents Tiu as a female saint:

    Tiu,  of  Rubha,  i.e.,  Rubha  is  the  name  of  the  place,  and  in  Ard- Uladh  it  is  situated.  She  is  of  the  posterity  of  Eochaidh,  son of  Muiredh,  who  is  of  the  race  of  Heremon.

    Bishop William Reeves mentions this calendar entry and includes Saint Thiu of Rubha in his own calendar of the saints appended to the 1847 Ecclesiastical Antiquities of Down, Connor and Dromore, but does not mention the saint’s gender.

    In the 2011 A Dictionary of Irish Saints, however, Professor Pádraig Ó Riain does not address the issue of the saint’s gender but says that Tiú is a son of Fionán, attached by the genealogists to a branch of the Ulaidh of east Ulster and that ‘his’ feast was June 24.  So, there would appear to be a question around whether Saint Tiú is actually a male saint. There are cases where even much more well-known saints, Dabheog of Lough Derg and the great Saint Maol Ruain of Tallaght, to name two who come to mind, were described as females to researchers in the nineteenth century. 

    Note: This post, first published in 2014 was revised in 2022.

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  • Saint Crunmael, Son of Ronan, June 22

    June 22 is the feastday of a Saint Crunmael, son of Ronan, whom the Martyrology of Donegal links to a place known only as Berrech. The saint is an enigmatic figure but this does not deter Canon O’Hanlon’s attempt to link him to a parish called Kilberry in County Kildare. This place contains a holy well at which a patron day or ‘pattern’ was celebrated on June 22 up until the middle of the nineteenth century. This led the good Canon to wonder if the celebration was originally held in honour of Saint Crunmael, but had become drawn into the wider rural celebrations of Saint John the Baptist’s Feast on the evening of June 23 or on the day of June 24. Ultimately, the case for linking Kilberry to Saint Crunmael seems to be non-proven. The calendarist Duald Mac Firbis, writing in the seventeenth century, added the possibility that our saint was a tenth-century abbot of Beg-Eri whose death by drowning was recorded in the year 964. However, as the first record of our saint occurs in the Martyrology of Tallaght, written at the end of the eighth century or beginning of the ninth, I don’t see how this could be the same individual. In his new Dictionary of Irish Saints, Pádraig Ó Riain notes that Saint Crunmael is known from a number of sources, which seek to locate him in different places. One does indeed locate him in County Kildare, but at a place called Kilcrow, another provides him with a son called Aodh Róin and has him at a church called Cluain Aird, not the great Clonard monastery of Saint Finnian, but possibly part of a parish of Saint Peter’s in the Wexford barony of Forth. It thus seems that Saint Crunmael is yet another of the Irish saints whose precise identity is impossible to establish:

    St. Crunnmael, Son of Ronan, of Berrech.

    According to the Martyrology of Tallagh, at the 22nd of June, there was a festival for Crunmaeil mic Ronain. The Calendar of the O’Clerys states, likewise, that he was of Berrech. There is a parish, called Kilberry, in the barony of Narragh and Rheban West, in the county of Kildare. It borders along the River Barrow, lying about two and a-halt miles northwards from the town of Athy. A burial-ground now enclosed, within which interments yet take place is there, on the east bank of the River Barrow. The foundations of a very old church are in it, but scarcely traceable; for, they are overgrown with sloe-thorns, hawthorn bushes, briers, and old trees. The reed-grown course of the River Barrow passes by, and its bank formerly had been the western boundary of the graveyard, before it was enclosed by a rather modern stone wall.

    Near the old cemetery, there is a celebrated well, called Tobbera, or Toberara. This beautiful and clear stream rushes with great force from beneath the roots of a very ancient ash tree, where it forms a broad yet shallow pool. Thence it issues, in a devious but short and rapid course, until it renters the Barrow. On the verge of this river, and on a bank somewhat elevated, Toberara finds its source. It is incorrectly stated, to have been dedicated to St. John.

    The writer was informed, by an old inhabitant, living in the vicinity, that a patron had been formerly held there, and always on the 22nd of June; but, this practice has been discontinued, since the year 1840. It should be a curious subject for enquiry to ascertain if this Kilberry could have been a comparatively modern denomination, derived from Berrech and Kill “church,” as connected with St. Crunnmael. The circumstances of the local patron having been formerly held, on the 22nd of June, at least lends some degree of credibility to such a supposition. In Mrs. St. John’s Poem “Ellauna,” allusion is made to a pretty little island, named Teigh Berara, midway between Reban and Athy. We are told, there was a well sacred to St. John, at that place; and in the early part of this century, the ferryman on the River Barrow is stated to have had many pilgrims going across to perform pilgrimages there, on each Midsummer Day, June 24th.

    In Kilberry, the ruins of two castles, which appear to have been remarkably strong in mediaeval times, yet remain; and those were intended to guard the English pale, on that side of the River Barrow. In the same parish of Kilberry, there is also another graveyard; but apparently, less ancient than the former, although nodoubt of very considerable antiquity. That unenclosed graveyard was much frequented for interments.The extensive ruins of an old church, with very thick well built walls, and mantled over with large clusters of ivy, may be seen within a large meadow-field, and near a high road, not very far from the River Barrow. A tall and square tower rises near the old church, and adjoining the east gable. Both the eastern and western gables of the church are yet very perfect. The graves—as observable in many ancient Irish churchyards —mostly lie on the south side of the burial-ground. The walls of the old building are now greatly delapidated. There are various fragments, apparently of old monastic buildings, and those also of considerable apparent solidity and importance, not far removed from the graveyard. An old castle rises on the other side of the road. Very fertile and improved land is near this site. Towards the north and west, the Killone and Stradbally hills, in the Queen’s County, appear to great advantage, from a scenic point of view.

    According to the Martyrology of Donegal, veneration was given, at the 22nd of June, to Crunnmael, son of Ronan. Under the head of Tamlacht, Duald Mac Firbis enters a Cronmael, abbot of Beg-Eri, as also bishop and lector of Tamlacht. He was drowned A.D. 964, at Tochar Eachdhach. It seems probable, however, that he was not identical with the present saint.

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