OMNIUM SANCTORUM HIBERNIAE

Category: Saints of Down

  • Saint Maelrubha of Bangor, April 21

     

    April 21 is the feastday of a northern saint, Maelrubha, who first enjoyed a career at Bangor monastery but then went on to found his own establishment at Applecross in Scotland. It is interesting to note that the Irish and Scottish sources do not agree in their presentation of this saint. The Irish see him as a monastic founder who carried the Bangor connection across to Scotland where he died peacefully at the age of eighty. The Scottish sources accept the Irish birth and Bangor connection of their saint of Applecross, but go on to make him a martyr of the Vikings and commemorate him on August 27. The scholarly Irish Anglican Bishop, William Reeves, believed that the Scots had confounded the Irish abbot with another saint and laid out a detailed body of evidence in a paper on Saint Maelrubha published in an antiquarian journal in 1862. The paper is too long to be reprinted here, but the volume is available through Google Books and at the Internet Archive. Fortunately the author made a summary of the Irish evidence, both from the calendars and from other sources, which will serve as an introduction to Saint Maelrubha as the Irish saw him:
    …April 21 being established as the day of his death, we refer to the Irish calendars, where we find the following interesting notices. And first, the Feilire or Festival-book of Aengus the Culdee, a writer who flourished in the early part of the ninth century; —
    “In Alba, in purity.
    After abandoning all happiness,
    Hath gone from us to his mother,
    Our brother Maelrubha.”
    Upon which is written the following note by an early hand: —
    “and it is in Alba he is, i.e., in Conpur Crossan ; and this the festival of his death. Subtan, daughter of Setna, and sister of Comgall of Bennchar, was his mother; and in Aburchresen his church is”
    Next in order is the Martyrology of Tamlacht, an ancient calendar, which simply gives under each day the name of the saint and his principal church. At the 21st of April it has the commemoration,
    ” Of Maelrubha of Bangor.”
    The Calendar of Marian Gorman, compiled about the year 1167, commemorates, at same day,
    ” Maelruba the holy.”
    Upon which is the gloss, “Abbot of Benchar.”
    Lastly, the Calendar of Donegall, collected from ancient authorities, by the O’Clerys, in the early part of the seventeenth century, thus notices the saint: —
    “Maelrubha, son of Elganach, of the race of Eoghan, son of Niall, abbot of Benchar; and he blessed also [a place] in Scotland, i.e., in Apur Crossan, A.D. 721. Eighty years was his age when he resigned his spirit. Suaibhsech the name of his mother. Or, it was Subtan, daughter of Sedna, sister of Comgall, was his mother.”
    From the above, it may be seen that all the Irish authorities, both Annals and Calendars, are unanimous in referring his death to the 21st of April.
    The following is a connected summary of the preceding observations: —
    St Maelrubha, son of Elgana and Subtan, descended on his father’s side from Niall the Great, through the Cinel Owen race; and by his mother, from the Dalaradian stock, and, through her, nearly related to St Comgall, was born on the 3d of January 642. He received his early training at his kinsman’s famous monastery of Bangor, where he rose so much in esteem that, according to some authorities, he became the abbot, or what is more probable, was appointed to the subordinate station of prior. In 671, having attained his twenty-ninth year, he left his native country and withdrew to Scotland. Two years, which were probably spent in choosing a place of abode, having elapsed, he settled in 673, at Apurcrossan, the north-west coast of Scotland, where he founded a church, which became the nucleus of a conventual establishment, following the order of Bangor, and for a long period affiliated to that monastery.
    After a presidency of fifty-one years, during which time he enjoyed a character of great sanctity, he died a natural death at Apurcrossan, on Tuesday, the 21st day of April 722, at the age of eighty years, three months, and nineteen days.
    Such is the Irish statement of his history, and it is too circumstantial and too well attested to admit of its being called in question. Scottish authorities, while they agree with the Irish in coupling the name and memory of the saint with Applecross, as his principal church, differ very materially from them as to his date, history, and festival. Indeed, it is difficult to avoid the alternative of supposing that they have confounded the acts of two saints, or, that a good deal of what is set down to Maelrubha by them, is gathered from comparatively recent and debased tradition…
    Content Copyright © Omnium Sanctorum Hiberniae 2012-2015. All rights reserved.
     

  • Saint Killian, Confessor, April 19

     

    Remains of Round Tower at Maghera

    April 19 is the commemoration of a Saint Killian, whom Canon O’Hanlon seeks to place in the area of Maghera, County Down. The saint’s name and feastday are recorded in various sources, but there is perhaps no definitive evidence offered to clinch the theory that he is to be identified with a Saint Cillen of Rathscillen, brother to Donard the Hermit. The ‘very competent archaeologist and ecclesiologist’ to whom O’Hanlon refers in his account below is Father James O’Laverty, author of a five-volume diocesan history of Down and Connor, a work available through the Internet Archive. St Cillen and his locality are discussed by Father O’Laverty in Volume 1, beginning at page 51.

    ST. KILLIAN, CONFESSOR.

    WE are told, by Colgan, that the festival of a St. Killian, confessor, was kept on this day. We have no further account, regarding him, than this simple record, in our earliest authorities. His name, without further distinctive particulars, occurs, in the Tallagh Martyrology, and in that of Marianus O’Gorman, as the Bollandists notice, when recording Killenus, in their great work, at the 19th of April. There was a Cillen, the son of his mother Derinilla, who had children by four different husbands. He is said to have belonged to Achadhcail, in the territory of Lecale, at the bank of Dundrum estuary. A very competent archaeologist and ecclesiologist seems to identify his place with Rathscillan, near Maghera, County Down. He tells us, that Rathscillan signifies “the Rath of Cillan,” and that St. Donard had a brother, named Cillen, whose church was somewhere in the neighbourhood.

    Among the possessions of the See of Down, at the end of the twelfth century, and recited in a patent roll, belonging to the Tower of London, are Rathmurval, along with Rathsillan. The former was the old name for Maghera. There is a difficulty, however, in identifying Rathscillan, as there is no place in that neighbourhood, now known by the name. Yet, as is evident, by the grouping of names, Rathsillan must have been near Maghera. In a field, at Wateresk, are the remains of an ancient cemetery, which once was enclosed in a rath. This site exactly corresponds with that of the church of St. Cillen, as described by St. Aengus the Culdee. It was in the territory of Lecale, and it lay close to the estuary of Dundrum. It must have been in early times, like Maghera, a scene for the piety and labours of some eminent ecclesiastic. On this day, Cillen is mentioned in the Martyrology of Donegal, as having been venerated. The name of St. Killein occurs, also, in thee Martyrology, now preserved in the Royal Irish Academy; but, it does not seem possible, to recognise his place or period.

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

  • Saint Tassach of Raholp, April 14

    On April 14 we commemorate a saint with a role in Patrician hagiography, Tassach of Raholp, County Down.  For tradition says that it was Saint Tassach who administered the Holy Communion to Saint Patrick on his deathbed. He is associated with the site of a small church at Raholp, and an online report on recent excavations at the site can be read here. Below is Canon O’Hanlon’s account of the saint which draws on the various traditions surrounding him, chief of which was that Tassach was a skilled craftsman whose name is linked to the most famous relic of Saint Patrick, the Bachall Íosa, or Staff of Jesus.

    ST. TASSACH, BISHOP OF RAHOLP, COUNTY OF DOWN.
    [FIFTH CENTURY.]

    FROM his peculiar connexion with the great Irish Apostle, St. Patrick, the present holy personage deservedly fills a niche, among our earliest Christian celebrities. The name of Tassach, Bishop, occurs, in the Martyrology of Tallagh, at this date. While the Bollandists enter his name, S. Tassagus, from the same authority, they state, that nothing had come under their reading regarding him, or the other Irish Saints it notices, on the 14th of April. Our national hagiologist. Father John Colgan, appears to have prepared some acts of this saint, for publication, at this day; and, he promised a further dissertation, regarding the present holy man, at the 14th of April. In one passage of the Tripartite Life, our Saint’s name seems to have been rather erroneously written Tassa. The name of this holy bishop is to be found, likewise, in Fitzsimon’s Catalogue of our national Saints.

    It may be reasonably conjectured, that St. Tassach was born some time, in the earlier part of the fifth century ; but where or when, we are not able to ascertain. His parents were pagans, we may presume, and it seems not unlikely they were connected with the northern parts of Ulster, which are associated, likewise, with the ministry of this holy bishop. Being classed, as a disciple of St. Patrick, St. Tassach was baptized, most probably, among the earliest converts made, when that part of Ultonia, where the Irish Apostle first landed, had been visited. Either he was brought up to some skilled workmanship in metals, or he had a natural taste for mechanics and art, in such a direction. But, we are at a loss to discover, when the Irish Apostle formed the acquaintance of Tassach, and learned to appreciate his sincere piety and artistic ingenuity…

    It seems probable, that St. Tassach had been prepared for the priesthood, by St. Patrick himself; but, by whom he was ordained, we do not discover. Again, Tassach had the gift of prophecy, for the Apostle of Ireland, he had predicted, should receive the Holy Viaticum, at his hands. We are informed, that St. Tassach was appointed as bishop over the Church, at Raholp; but, our early annals do not record any successors in this See. The townland lies, in the west angle of Ballyculter Parish. In a sub denomination, called Banagher, or Benagh, about 100 yards to the right of that road, leading from Downpatrick to Ballyculter, are the ruins, called Churchmoyley. Tradition ascribes the foundation of the Church of St. Patrick, to whom the present saint was artificer, and bishop, as stated in an old gloss, to the Martyroiogy of St. Aengus. Here, St. Tassach most probably lived, and in close relationship, with his venerated Master, especially during the declining period of St. Patrick’s life. The church ruins and cemetery there occupy about half a rood of ground. From its elevation above the surrounding field, the latter appears to have been formerly a rath.

    We are furnished with very few details, which might enable us to form a proper estimate of St. Tassach’s missionary career. He was one of Patrick’s most favourite companions, and an artificer, who manufactured for him croziers, crosses, shrines, and bells, according to received accounts. Even, by St. Fiach, we are told, that Tassach was a worker in metals, for St. Patrick; and, it is stated, that he first covered the staff of Jesus, with elegant workmanship, in his art. One of the most remarkable events of his life is the recorded fact, that he was the Tassach, who gave the body of Christ to St Patrick and at the request of the Apostle, in the monastery of Sabhall, or Saul, as the Life of Patrick states. Besides, various Acts of our Apostle allude to him, as having administered the Holy Communion to St. Patrick, when he had been admonished by the Angel of his approaching end, and during the holy man’s last illness. At Kill-Chlopta,near Down, his Natalis was celebrated; but, we have no account of when he died, only that we may safely infer, St. Tassach survived his illustrious master, in the government of his particular See. From an early date, this holy Bishop seems to have been venerated in the Irish Church; and, we find him commemorated by St. Aengus, in his Feilire, at the 14th of April. At the same date, he is noticed, in the Martyrology of Marianus O’Gorman. Likewise, on this day, we find mentioned in the Martyrology of Donegal, the name of Tassach, Bishop, of Rath Colptha, or Raholp, in Ulster, i.e., in Leth-Cathail, now known as Lecale. Under the local heading, Duald Mac Firbis enters, Bishop Tassach—in Rath-Colpa—Patrick’s artist—it was he that gave the communion to Patrick, before his death; at April the 4th is the date for his feast. In Scotland, St. Tassagh was commemorated, likewise, on this day, as we find it, in the Kalendar of Drummond. This commemoration was due, doubtless, to the circumstance of his close connection during life with St. Patrick, whose glorious and holy departure he helped to sooth and lighten, by the body and blood of our Divine Lord.

     

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