OMNIUM SANCTORUM HIBERNIAE

Category: Saints of Dublin

  • 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

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  • Saint Santán, June 10

    June 10 sees the recording of the name of an episcopal saint, Santán, in the Irish calendars. The seventeenth-century hagiologist, Father John Colgan, suggested that he may be the man of this name mentioned in the hagiography of Saint Fechin of Fore. Canon O’Hanlon seeks to associate him with Kilnasantan in County Dublin, although by his time the church there was attributed to the patronage of Saint Ann. Professor Pádraig Ó Riain, however, who has made a particular study of the genealogical sources, presents a quite different picture of our saint in his authoritative 2011 Dictionary of Irish Saints. Santán here is depicted as one of the three sons of a British king and an Irish mother, indeed his very name derives from the Irish sanct, itself borrowed from the Welsh sant. Both these terms derive ultimately from the Latin sanctus, saint. The Dictionary also lists a number of other locations possibly associated with our saint including Kirk Santan on the Isle of Man. Interestingly, the Manx also confused the Welsh/Irish Bishop Santán with Saint Ann.  Canon O’Hanlon though appears unaware of these details in his account below:

    St. Sanctan, or Santan, Bishop.

    Veneration was given on this day, 10th of June, to Sanctan or Santan, a bishop, as we find entered in the Martyrologies of Tallagh, and of Donegal. It has been conjectured that the present St. Sanctan may have been identical with a young man, who was rescued from captivity, by St. Fechin, Abbot of Fore. Another conjecture may be quite as correct, viz., that he was connected with Kilnasantan, near Bohernabreena, near the head waters of the River Dodder, county of Dublin. Kilnasantan was granted by Archbishop Comyn—who built and endowed St. Patrick’s Cathedral, Dublin—to the College of St. Patrick, and confirmation of that grant was made by Pope Celestine III., in the year 1191. In 1231, Archbishop Luke, granted this church to St. Patrick’s Cathedral, on demise of Andrew de Menavia, the holder of it as a prebend. In 1306, it was returned as wasted by the O’Tooles, and in 1326, the English sheriff describes it, as belonging to the manor of Tallagh, but “lying within the Irishry,” therefore waste and unprofitable. During the border wars of the middle ages, the exercise of Divine service in it was rendered difficult to the English settlers. In the sixteenth century, it ceased to be a church for worship, a chapel having been erected at a place called by the Irish Templeogue, or “the new church.” The old church of Kilnasantan is now a ruin; but it measured about 18 paces in length by 5 in breadth. Although built at a very early period, and in a sequestered spot,  its walls exhibit no contemptible skill in masonry. Early in this century were rude and broken granite crosses on the piers of its entrance, a large broken font inside the gate, and some tombs of the last century, uniformly and grotesquely sculptured.

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  • The Holy Daughters of Leinin, March 6

    There are a number of interesting saints commemorated on March 6, but I have chosen to look at a group of holy women whose name lives on in the placename of Killiney, County Dublin. Canon O’Hanlon brings us the details, first of one group of five sisters and then of another sister called Brighit.

    THE HOLY DAUGHTERS OF LEININ, SAINTS DRUGENIA, LUIGENIA, LUICELLA, MACHA AND RIOMTHACH, AT THE CHURCH OF KlLL-NA-NINGEAN, NOW SUPPOSED TO BE KILLININY, COUNTY OF DUBLIN. [Sixth or Seventh Century.]

    In the last chapter of the “Sanctilogium Genealogicum,” these sisters are said to have been the daughters of Leninus, son to Garrchon, son to Donacius, the son of Conamalius, son to Colgan, son to Cronmael, son to Altius, son to Aengus, the son of Nuadatus, &c. In the Martyrology of Tallagh, these sisters are not named, at the 6th of March; but, there they are called, Ingena Lenini, or the “daughters of Leninus.” Marianus O’Gorman, Charles Maguire and the Martyrology of Donegal place the festival of these holy ladies, at the 6th of March. The site for their church is determined, by Dr. O’Donovan, to have been comprised, within the greater part of the barony of Rathdown, in the present county of Dublin, or in some northern part of Wicklow County. There the sept of Ui-Briuin-Cualann was located. According to William M. Hennessy, the place where these pious ladies lived was in the southern part of the county of Killiney Church, County of Dublin. It is now said to be known as Killininy, or Kilnanaughnin, near Fir House Convent, Bohernabreena. There is an old ruined church at Killiney, on the sea-shore of Dublin County, and near the beautiful bay, to which the church gives name…. Whether it was at Killininy, or at Killiney, the pious daughters of Lenin lived, seems an uncertain matter ; but, it is probable enough, that while their sister Brighit remained at the latter place, the following five occupied the former as a residence. Thus, the Martyrology of Donegal enters the daughters of Leinin, as Druigen, Luigen, Luicell, Macha and Riomhtach. These are said to be sisters of Brighit, daughter of Leinin. Their place is called Cill-inghen-Leinin, in Ui-Briuin Cualann, in Leinster. All of those pious ladies, here venerated, were sisters to St. Colman the Bishop and Patron of Cloyne Diocese and, accordingly, they seem to have lived, towards the close of the sixth or the beginning of the seventh century.

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