OMNIUM SANCTORUM HIBERNIAE

Category: Saints of Armagh

  • Saint Segin of Armagh, May 24

     

    May 24 is the commemoration of a seventh-century Archbishop of Armagh, Saint Segin or Segineus. Canon O’Hanlon begins his entries for this day with an account of the life of Saint Segin, whose episcopate seems to have witnessed some memorable natural phenomena :
    ST. SEGINEUS, OR SEGIN, ARCHBISHOP OF ARMAGH.
    [SEVENTH CENTURY.]
    AS first in dignity of those saints, whose names belong to this date, the holy Archprelate Segineus deserves the first notice. The simple entry, Segin, Airdmacha, appears in the Martyrology of Tallagh, at this day. The Bollandists enter a festival for Segineus, also, at the 24th of May, on the same authority. There is a St. Segineus, son of Ronan, son to Loarn, son of Fergus, son to Conall Gulban, according to the pedigree of Seluacuis, and the “Sanctilogium Genealogicum.” Colgan seems to think, he may have been the present prelate. This saint is said to have been from Achadh-Claidhibh —rendered Aghaclive—the situation of which does not seem to have been discovered. He was born, probably, about the beginning of the seventh century. Of his earlier years and education we have no account. The commentator on the Table subjoined to the Martyrology of Donegal has it stated, that the term of office for Seighin, Bishop of Ardmacha, commenced in the year 641, or 644; but, this appears to be a date much too early for his incumbency. During the year specified, Thomain Mac Ronan was in possession. When Tomain, who ruled over the Church of Armagh as Bishop, died, A.D. 660, Segineus was chosen to succeed him, A.D. 661. The years of his Archiepiscopate are periods of sore trial, for in 670, and again, in 687, the city of Armagh was consumed by accidental fire. During his primacy took place that remarkable eclipse of the sun, in the year 663, followed by a summer, when the sky seemed to be on fire, and during the Kalends of August, an awful mortality swept off multitudes of the people in Ireland, as also in England. The year 684, is that assigned for the Quies of Segene, Bishop of Ardmacha, in the “Chronicum Scotorum.” The “Annals of the Four Masters” place his death, at A.D. 686. The Martyrology of Donegal has it A.D. 687, and this agrees with the Annals of Ulster. Segin is said to have governed his diocese twenty-seven years, and to have died, on the 24th of May, A.D. 688, which is the date given for it by Sir James Ware, and which an excellent authority pronounces to have been the true year. According to the Martyrology of Donegal, veneration was given on this day to Seighin, Bishop of Ard Macha.

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  • Saint Maelbrighde of Armagh, February 22

     

    The Irish calendars commemorate on February 22 a ninth/tenth-century saint, Maelbrighde (Moel-Brigid), who held the see of Armagh during some rather turbulent times. The calendars and annals list him as not merely a successor to Saint Patrick at Armagh, but also a successor to Saints Columcille and Adamnan. The Martyrology of Donegal reads:22. D. OCTAVO KAL. MARTII. 22.

    Maelbrighde, son of Dornan, successor of Patrick and of Colum Cille ; a man full of the grace of God, and a vessel of the wisdom and knowledge of his time. He was of the race of Conall Gulban, son of Niall. Saerlaith, daughter of Coulebaith, son of Baothghel, was his mother. A.D. 925.

    Canon O’Hanlon takes up the life of Saint Maelbrighde:

    This distinguished saint was son to Tornan, who was descended lineally, and the twelfth in generation, from Conall Gulban. He was thus of the same royal stock as St. Columkille himself. The mother of Moel-Brigid was Soerlathia, daughter to Culebaith, and she was also of noble birth. The name given to him signifies “the servant of Brigid,” or “the tonsured of Brigid,” or ” the consecrated to Brigid,” or “the Brigidian.”

    Our saint soon became greatly distinguished, for his virtues and learning. In consequence of an opinion entertained, respecting his varied merits and accomplishments,he was appointed comorban or successor of St. Adamnan, most probably as Abbot over Raphoe. He was elevated, also, to abbatial dignity —probably at a later period— over the church of St. Columba, at Derry, according to Colgan.

    …After enjoying those dignities, our saint was elevated to the Primatial See of Armagh. On account of his great zeal for religion, and the exercise of eminent wisdom and virtue, he obtained a name and repute for being, ” Head of Religion in Ireland, and of the greater part of Europe.” There is a difference of opinion, among our Irish Annalists and modern writers, regarding the order of succession, in Armagh See, as, also, with regard to the names of its incumbents. Maelcoba Mac Crunnvail, Abbot of Armagh, is said to have died, at an advanced age, A.D. 885, or 887. It is thought our saint, as his immediate successor, then promoted to the coarbship.

    During the time of this Archbishop’s administration, a great riot took place in Armagh Cathedral Church, between the Hy Nialls of Kinel-Eogain or Tyrone, and the people of Ulidia or East Ulster. Flaithbheartach, son to Murehadh, was chief over the former faction, and Atteidh, son to Luighne, chieftains over the latter. This riot, which occurred, about Whitsuntide, in the year 889, was appeased by the Archbishop’s influence and exertions. This prelate induced both parties to abstain from violence, and to make due reparation to Almighty God, whom they offended, and to atone for the violation of St. Patrick’s law. He is said to have been a man remarkable for his inflexible justice. From the Ulidians, Moel-Brigid obtained hostages and an offering of thirty times seven cumhals to the church; while, four Ulidians, the chief instigators of this riot, after being proved guilty were hung. In like manner, the Kinel Eogain rioters repaired those outrages committed by them, and as many more of these were hung. An act of violence is recorded, as having taken place in Armagh, during this Archbishop’s administration. In the year 907, the privileges of the Cathedral of Armagh were violated by Kernach Mac-Dulgen, by dragging a captive out of the church, who had taken sanctuary there, and by drowning him in Loch-Kirr, west of the city. But, this violation was retaliated on Kernach, by Neall Glundub, then King of Ulster, and afterwards of Ireland, who drowned him in the same lough. Several serious disasters and disturbances occurred in Armagh, during the term of our saint’s incumbency. We read, that the Archbishop took a journey towards Munster, A.D.  908, to procure the liberation of a strange Briton, who being a pilgrim in the country, had been unjustly detained there as a captive. Respecting the result of Moel-Brigid’s mission, we are not informed. While he sat in this See, Armagh was three times taken and plundered by the Danes, namely, in 890, 893, and 919; and, it was once set on fire in the year 914. According to the most reliable accounts, Moel-Brigid ruled over Armagh Metropolitan See for a duration of forty years; so yet, the Calendar of Cashel gives him only twenty-nine years of rule. He departed this life, at a good old age, on the 22nd of February.

    The Annals of the Four Masters recorded the death of Saint Maelbrighde thus:

    A.D. 925 : “St. Maelbrighde, son of Tornan, successor of Patrick, Colum Cille, and Adamnan, head of the piety of all Ireland, and of the greater part of Europe, died, at a good old age, on the 22nd of February, in commemoration of whose death it was said :

    On the eighth of the calends of noble March,
    Maelbrighde, most gifted of the brave Gaedhil [died]
    Since the Divine Son of God was born
    Upon the earthly world in carnal shape,
    Five years and twenty, nine hundred,
    To the death of Maelbrighde in evil hour.
    It was not a year without events;
    Premature the death of the Abbot of Ard-Macha,
    Maelbrighde, head of Europe.”

     

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  • Saint Fethgna of Armagh, February 12

     

    On February 12 we commemorate a 9th-century Archbishop of Armagh, Saint Fethgna. The bishop is listed as the 39th in the list of ‘coarbs’ or successors of Patrick:

    39. Fethgna xxii. i.e. of the vigils, son of Nechtan of the Clann Eclidagh.

    H.J. Lawlor and R.I. Best, eds, The Ancient List of the Coarbs of Patrick in PRIA Vol. 35 (1919), Section C, no. 9, 326.

    The Martyrology of Donegal records:

    12. A. PRIDIE IDUS FEBRUARII. 12.

    FETHGNA, successor of Patrick, head of the religion of the Gaoidhil, A.D. 872.

    and a note in the table of the saints appended to the calendar adds:

    Fethgna, successor of Patrick (Mansuetus . . .12 Feb.)

    Canon O’Hanlon comments that the Latin word mansuetus ‘is probably inserted to signify, that he was of a meek disposition.’

    If this is so, his meek disposition would surely have been tested by finding himself as leader of the flock at a time when the Viking raids on Ireland had intensified. Armagh was not spared. Bishop Fethgna succeeded Diarmaid O’Tighearnaigh as Archbishop of Armagh, in 852. Just a few years earlier, the Annals of Ulster record the fate of one of the Abbots of Armagh:

    845. Forinnan, abbot of A., was taken prisoner by Gentiles in Cluain comarda with his reliquaries and his community, and carried off by the ships of Limerick.

    and five years later ‘Armagh was devastated by the foreigners’.

    The Annals then record that a serious sack of Armagh was carried out in 867 during Saint Fethgna’s episcopacy by Amhlach or Amlaf, the Norwegian:

    Ardmacha was plundered and burned with its oratories by Amhlach. Ten hundred was the number there cut off, both by wounding and suffocation, besides all the property and wealth which they found there was carried off by them.

    If the theory advanced by the nineteenth-century writer W. F. Skene is correct, Saint Fethgna was aided in his efforts to rebuild Armagh by the Welsh church of Llancarvan. Skene suggested that a reference to Saint Fethgna appears in a Welsh manuscript known as the Welsh or Cambridge Juvencus. On the last page of this manuscript, are fifty lines of Latin hexameter, of which the words ‘dignissime Fethgna” can alone be distinguished. He believed that this could be our saint and a potential link between the Welsh and Irish churches was strengthened for him by this entry in the Brut y Tywysogion of Caradoc of Llancarvan:

    883 “And the same year Cydivor Abbot of Llanveithin (or Llancarvan) died a wise and learned man and of great piety. He sent six learned men of his abbey to Ireland to instruct the Irish.”

    Skene adds ‘Surely they were sent in consequence of the destruction of the seats of learning in Ireland by the Danes, and thus may some learned Welshmen have been brought in contact with the Bishops of Armagh.’

    W.F. Skene, Archaeologia Cambrensis, Vol 10, (1864), 153-4.

    Whatever the truth of this theory, there are some other mentions of Bishop Fethgna in the Irish Annals. In the Annals of Ulster he is listed as an attendee at an important gathering:

    859. A royal assembly at Rath Aedha mic Bric . . . including Fethgna, coarb of Patrick.

    The same Annals record his death:

    874 Fethgna episcopus heres Patricii et caput religionis totius Hiberniae in pridie nonas Octobris in pace quieuit.

    O’Hanlon could not explain why, if the Annals are correct in placing the death of Saint Fethgna on October 6th, the calendars commemorate his feast on February 12.

     

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