OMNIUM SANCTORUM HIBERNIAE

Category: Saints of Armagh

  • The Blessed Aidus Hua-Foirreth, June 18

    On June 18 Canon O’Hanlon brings a brief account of a tenth/eleventh century cleric of Armagh, Aidus Hua-Foirreth. He is distinguished from most of the other holy men who appear on this blog in that his name is not recorded on the calendars of the Irish saints but rather in the Irish Annals. The Annals of the Four Masters record:

    The Age of Christ, 1056. Aedh Ua Foirreidh, chief lector and distinguished Bishop of Ard-Macha, died on the 14th of the Calends of July, in the  seventy-fifth year of his age, as is said:

    Of brilliant fame while he lived was
    Aedh O’Foirreidh the aged sage ;
    On the fourteenth of the Calends of July,
    This mild bishop passed to heaven.

    Canon O’Hanlon cannot add much more detail except to acknowledge the role played by the great seventeenth-century hagiologist, Father John Colgan, in flagging up the memory of this learned bishop:

    The Blessed Aidus Hua-Foirreth. [Tenth and Eleventh Centuries]

    In his Appendix to the Acts of St. Patrick, Colgan has introduced the name of the Blessed Aidus Hua-Foirreth, chief scholastic, and bishop of Armagh, or rather suffragan, who died on this day. But that  writer adds little more, which might give a clue to his identity, except that he died A.D. 1056, in the seventy-fifth year of his age. The Bollandists, following Colgan’s statement, notice him, at the 18th of June.

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  • Saint Nuad of Armagh, 19 February

     

    A ninth-century Archbishop of Armagh, Saint Nuad (Nuada or Nodtat), is commemorated on February 19. Canon O’Hanlon records:

    St. Nuad, St. Nuada or Nodtat, Archbishop of Armagh

    [Eighth and Ninth Centuries.]

    At the 19th of February, Colgan and the Bollandists have entered some biographical notices of this holy archbishop, who enjoyed the supreme ecclesiastical dignity in Ireland for a brief period. Nodtat or Nuada, bishop, is mentioned in the Martyrologies of Tallagh, of Marianus O’Gorman, and of Donegal, on this day. He was at first a monk, and also an anchorite. From this state of life, and even against his own will, he had been promoted to the abbatial, and thence translated to the archiepiscopal dignity. His birth-place or residence is said to have been situated at Lough Uama. This signifies the “lake of the cave,” the water being said to rise out of a cavern, and the position is also assigned to Breiffny. Here, it is thought, he led the life of an anchoret. The lough, to which allusion has been made, was in the present county of Leitrim. It sometimes flowed back into that cave, whence it issued ; and, the people living on its borders especially believed, that this was an indication of the Dynast’s approaching death, or that of his children. Ancient Breffny comprehended the present counties of Cavan and of Leitrim. It was divided into Upper and Lower, or East and West Brefiny. In the latter division, called Brefiny Hy-Ruairc, our saint must have lived, until he was called to a higher dignity, on the death of St. Torbach Mac Gorman. This event took place, on the 16th of July, A.D. 812. Archbishop Nuad visited Connaught, A.D. 810 or 815; and, he is there reported, to have made a reformation of some abuses, which had crept into the churches. The Catalogue of the Armagh Primates allows three complete years, for the presidency of Nuad ; but, these must be understood, with the addition of some months, reckoning from the death of Torbach, on the 16th of July, A.D. 812, to the 19th of February, A.D. 816. Other authorities, however, place his demise before this date, viz., at the year 811 or 812. Under the year 811, this passage occurs in the Annals of Ulster, “Nuad of Loch-Huama, bishop, anchorite, and Abbot of Armagh, fell asleep.”

    Lanigan’s Ecclesiastical History of Ireland says that ‘in 811 Nuad made a visitation of some part of Connaught and on that occasion relieved some churches there from an annual offering, which used to be made to that of Armagh’ (Vol 3, p.252).

    The Ancient List of the Coarbs of Patrick lists Nuada as the 33rd holder of the episcopal see of Armagh.

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  • Saint Torbach Mac Gorman of Armagh, July 16

     

    Canon O’Hanlon brings us details of an eighth/ninth-century Archbishop of Armagh, Torbach Mac Gorman, at July 16:

    St. Torptha, or Torbach Mac Gorman, Archbishop of Armagh.

    [Eighth and Ninth Centuries.]

    At the 16th of July, the Martyrologies of Tallagh, and of Donegal, register simply the name, Torptha. He was identical with a celebrated Archbishop of Armagh, whose father’s name was Gorman. He descended from the Kinel-Torbaich, i.e., the Hy Kellaich of the Bregian district, in the east of Meath. He was an admirable lector and abbot of Ard-Macha. He only sat for one year, after having been elevated to the primatial dignity. He is known as Torbach Mac Gorman. He departed this life, on the 16th of July, A.D. 807, or recte 812.

     

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