OMNIUM SANCTORUM HIBERNIAE

Category: Saints of Down

  • Saint Maclaisre of Bangor, May 16

    A couple of days ago we looked at an obscure female saint, Lassar, who shares her feast day with the well-known Saint Carthage of Lismore. Today we meet the same name in another form in the person of a seventh-century abbot of Bangor, who shares his May 16th commemoration with the famous Saint Brendan the Navigator. Our abbot’s name, Mac Laisre, describes him as the son of Lasre and Canon O’Hanlon assembles the evidence from the calendars and annals for his feast day below. One source he doesn’t mention though is the poem preserved in the Bangor Antiphonary on ‘The Commemoration of our Abbots’. The poem, consisting of eight strophes of eight lines each, lists the abbots beginning with the founder Saint Comgall, whose feast is also celebrated in the month of May,  describing how Christ has endowed them with heavenly virtues. It begins:

    Sancta sanctorum opera
    Patrum, fratres, fortissima,
    Benchorensi in optimo
    Fundatorum aeclesia,
    Abbatum eminentia,
    Numerum, tempra, nomina,
    Sine fine fulgentia,
    Audite, magna mereta ;
    Quos convocavit Dominus
    Caelorum regni sedibus. 

    The holy, valiant deeds
    Of sacred Fathers,
    Based on the matchless
    Church of Benchor;
    The noble deeds of abbots
    Their number, times, and names,
    Of never-ending lustre.
    Hear, brothers; great their deserts,
    Whom the Lord hath gathered
    To the mansions of his heavenly kingdom.

    Of our saint it says:

    Inlustravit Maclaisreum,
    Kapud abbatum omnium 

    He rendered Maclaisre illustrious,
    The chief of all abbots;

    [Text and Translation from Rev William Reeves, ‘The Antiphonary of Bangor,’ in Ulster Journal of Archaeology, Vol.1 (1853), 168-179.]

    This suggests that although he may today be an obscure figure, he retained a prominent reputation within his own community. Canon O’Hanlon writes:
    St. Maclaisre, Abbot of Bangor, County of Down.

    The Martyrology of Tallagh  records this saint, at the 16th of May, as Mac Lasre, Abbot of Bangor. At the same date, the Bollandists  enter Maclasrius, Abbas Benchorensis, in Ultonia. Allusion is made to him, by Father John Colgan,  as having died, during the reigns of Conall and Kellach, joint sovereigns over Ireland. The “Chronicum Scotorum ” places the death of Mac Laisre, Abbot of Bennchair, at A.D. 644, the year when it is stated Bede was born. On this day, Mac Laisre departed to a brighter and a better world, in the year 645, according to the Annals of Ulster, and of the Four Masters. The Martyrology of Donegal  registers on this day, as having veneration paid him, Maclaisre, Abbot of Bennchor.
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  • Saint Cas of Bangor, April 26

     Last year I made a post on an abbot of Bangor, Indreachtach, commemorated on April 26, whose death is recorded in the Irish annals at the year 901. Canon O’Hanlon remarked that we should therefore not be surprised to find this holy man’s name missing from the earliest of the Irish calendars, the Martyrology of Tallaght, which modern scholarship seems to date to around the year 830. There is, however, a second saint commemorated on April 26 associated with the famous County Down monastery, Cas, whose name is recorded in the Tallaght Martyrology. His feast is also noted in the later Martyrology of Donegal and by Bishop William Reeves, translator of Adamnan’s Life of Saint Columba, in a calendar of local saints compiled as an appendix to his work Ecclesiastical Antiquities of Down, Connor and Dromore. Other details, however, are lacking, as Canon O’Hanlon explains:

    St. Cas, of Bennchar, or Bangor, County of Down.

    We find an entry in the Martyrology of Tallagh; at this date, regarding Cas of Bennchair. The Bollandists record Cassius Benchorensis, at the 26th of April. We know not whether he attained any superior position, in this celebrated monastery. The Martyrology of Donegal mentions, that Cas, of Bennchar, had a festival on this day. In the Irish Calendar, contained in the Common Place Book F, we have his name also entered. In that calendar, moreover, compiled by the Rev. William Reeves, his name occurs.

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  • Saint Suairleach of Linn Duachaille, April 23

    April 23 is the commemoration of an eighth-century abbot of the monastery of Linn Duachaille, Saint Suairleach. The locality of this monastery has been the subject of some dispute; in the mid-nineteenth century the Anglican Bishop William Reeves was confident that Linn Duachaille was to be identified with Magheralin in County Down but at the beginning of the twentieth century this thesis was challenged by another Anglican cleric in favour of Annagassan, County Louth. In his entry for today’s saint, Canon O’Hanlon, writing in the 1870s, follows the thinking of Bishop Reeves and describes the saint as being from Magheralin, County Down. I will bring that account first and then the evidence in favour of Annagassan. Whatever the truth of the location of this monastery, it was a sufficiently well-known foundation that the passing of some of its abbots were recorded in the Irish Annals. Saint Suairleach is among these, with his death being recorded in the year 770. Sadly, Linn Duachaille monastery features even more heavily in the Annals thanks to the frequency of the Viking attacks upon it beginning in the ninth century.

    St. Suairleach, Abbot of Magheralin, County of Down.

    According to one account, this holy man is said to have belonged to the northern province, and to the parish of Magheralin. This lies, partly in the barony of Oneilland East, county of Armagh, but chiefly in that of Lower Iveagh, county of Down. However, the entry in the Martyrology of Tallagh, at the 23rd of April, for the saint of this day, is Soardlech ind Edhnen. There he seems to be associated in locality, with the holy man, of whom a notice succeeds. One townland in the parish of Magheralin is yet called Linn Huachuille, where the old monastery stood. It was so called, from St. Colman, or Mocholmoc, the founder, who died in 699. On this day, the Martyrology of Donegal, registers a festival in honour of Suairleach, Abbot of Linn Duachaille. According to some accounts, this holy abbot died, A.D. 770; while A.D. 774 is set down for that event, in the Annals of Ulster. Subsequently to this date, that place was frequently ravaged by the Danish invaders, as recorded in our chronicles.

    Rev John O’Hanlon, Lives of the Irish Saints , Volume IV, (Dublin, 1875), 465.


    Monastery of Linn Duachaill.—It is in the townland of Linns, close to the village of Annagassan, that we find the first trace of an ecclesiastical establishment in the Parish of Gernonstown. St. Colman MacLuachan is said to have founded a church or monastery here in the seventh century. It was known by the name of Linn Duachaill (i.e.. Duachaill’s pool), or Linn Uachaill from a demon named Duachaill, who is said to have infested the place and terrified the neighbourhood until destroyed by St. Colman. Duachaill’s pool is still pointed out at the junction of the Clyde and Dee before they enter the sea at Annagassan. Dr. O’Donovan once thought that Linn Duachaill was Magheralin. Co. Down, and at first Bishop Reeves seems to have had the same opinion. But both those antiquaries found it necessary to correct their opinion on becoming acquainted with the topography and traditions of Annagassan. For Linn Duachaill was on the banks of the river called Casan Linne (Martyr. Doneg., Mar. 30, p. 91, cp Colgan Acta SS., pp. 792-703), and this river is mentioned in the “Circuit of Ireland ” as lying between the Vale of Newry, or Glen Righe, and Ath Gabhla on the Boyne. The name ” Casan”=”paths” survives in Annagassan. According to Joyce (Names of Places, p. 373) “Casan ” was originally joined with “Linne Duachaill” and became shortened to ” Casan linne,” which is preserved in Annagassan=Ath-na-gcasan, “the ford of the paths.” Dr. Todd, who has an important note on the subject in ” Wars of the Gaedhil with the Gall,” p. lxii., says, Annagassan=Aonach g Casain, i.e., the ” Fair of Casan.” Joyce’s interpretation is, I think, to be preferred, as the people still speak of the “Pass of Linns ” and this pass, as pointed out, lay further up the River Glyde, about a quarter of a mile from Duachaill’s pool, and near the spot where the monastery founded by St. Colman is believed to have stood.

    The Four Masters and Annals of Ulster do not tell very much about the Monastery of Linn Duachaill. The following entries in the former refer to it : —

    699. — Colman of Linn Duachaill died on 30 March.

    752. — Siadhail, Abbot of Linn Duachaill, died.

    758.— Anfadan, Abbot of Linn Duachaill, died.

    770. — Suairlech, Abbot of Linn Duachaill, died.

    803. — Thomas, Bishop, Scribe, and Abbot of Linn Duachaill, died.

    826. — Clemens, Abbot of Linn Duachaill, died.

    Rev. J. B. Leslie, History of Kilsaran Union of Parishes in the County of Louth, (Dundalk, 1908), 89-91.

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