Below is an account of a saint commemorated on this day, Airennan, a successor at the monastery of Tallagh to its founder Maelruain. Canon O’Hanlon tells us what is known of him and speculates that Saint Airennan may even have been known to Saint Oengus the Martyrologist himself. He also refers to the confusion between our saint and the famous sapiens of Clonard, Saint Aireran, whose feast day falls in December, but both appear to be distinct learned holy men:

St. Airennan, Bishop of Tallagh, County of Dublin.

[Eighth Century.]

The Martyrology of Tallagh enters Airendan, Bishop of Tallaghta, at the 10th of February, and in the Martyrology of Donegal, we find entered, on this day, the name of Airennan, Bishop of Tamhlacht, now Tallagh, in the county of Dublin. He was born, most probably, during the earlier part of the eighth century; and, it is also likely, that he made his religious profession at, or soon after, the foundation of Tallagh, in the year 769. Under the head of Tamlacht, Duald Mac Firbis places Airennan, or Erennan, Bishop of Tamlacht, at February 10th. In the Dublin extracts, belonging to the Irish Ordnance Survey, and at the same date, in the Irish Calendar, we have this holy man’s name occurring, as connected with Tamlacht. This, too, agrees with Ward’s statement. As St. Melruan, the founder died, A.D. 787, or recte 792 the promotion of St. Airennan must be deferred to a subsequent period; and, accordingly, we find his death announced as Airfhindan, Abbot of Tamhlacht-Maeleruain (Tallaght), at A.D. 798, or recte 803. He therefore seems to have been the immediate successor of St. Melruan, whom he survived in office, only for a few years. He must, also, have been the companion of St. Oengus the Culdee, at Tallagh. In our calendars, we find the name of a St. Aireran, also called Aileran, surnamed “the Wise,” Abbot of Clonard. The present saint’s name is not very dissimilar. He is also known as Airenan, and called ” the Wise.” ” He appears to have exercised the duties of a bishop, in addition to those of abbot. So far as we know, he is not distinguished as a writer.

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December 18 is the feast of a County Dublin saint, Maignenn (Maignan, Magnenn) whose name is still recalled today in the placename Kilmainham. Saint Maignenn is a fascinating saint whose Vita contains many weird and wonderful episodes which rather shocked some of the 19th-century churchmen who wrote about the lives of the saints. He had, for example, a ram which used to carry his prayer books, as the Martyrology of Donegal explains in its entry for the day:

18. B. QUINTO DECIMO KAL. JANUARII. 18.

MAIGHNENN, Bishop and Abbot, of Cill-Maighnenn, near Athcliath. He was of the race of Colla-da-crioch. Sinell, daughter of Cenannan, sister of Old Senchell the saint, was his mother. He had a ram which used to carry his psalter and his prayerbook. There came a certain robber and thief, and stole the ram. Maighnenn, with his thrice nine clerics, went after the robber to his house. The robber denied having stolen the ram by oath on the relics, and on the hand of Maighnenn himself. The ram was cut up in quarters in a hole in the ground, after the robber had eaten what was in his belly. The ram spoke below in the hole. Maighnenn and his thrice nine persons looked up to heaven, and gave thanks to God for this miracle. But the robber was deprived of his eyesight, and their strength left his feet and his hands, and he said in a loud voice, “For God’s sake,” said he, “O Maighnenn, do not deprive me of the light of heaven for the future.” When Maighnenn heard the repentance of the sinner, he prayed fervently to God for him, and he recovered his eyesight again, and he was eminent in religion as long as he lived. And the name of God and of Maighnenn was magnified by that miracle.

In his notes to Archdall’s Monasticon Hibernicum, the then Bishop of Ossory P.F. Moran lamented “It is a pity that such a ridiculous fable should usurp the place of more authentic history about this holy man.” Yet modern scholars would readily recognize a number of hagiographical motifs from this story of the ram and the robber. First, there is the slight done to the saint’s honour by the robber, who compounds his sin by swearing his innocence not only on the relics but on the very hand of the saint himself. That cries out for punishment and it is duly delivered as his perjury is exposed by the miraculous cries of the ram. The thief is then deprived of his eyesight, and this is a motif which operates on more than one level, denoting spiritual blindness for example and recalling the encounter between Christ and the blind man in the Scriptures. Then there is the fact that this ‘ridiculous fable’ is actually a vehicle for conveying the mercy and sanctity of Saint Maignenn whose actions lead to a sinner being turned around and to the name of God being magnified. I think, therefore, that Bishop Moran perhaps missed the point of this hagiographical account with all of its rich symbolism – the three times nine clerics in attendance on the saint, the fact that a beast is subject to his will and the ability of Maignenn to successfully intercede for a sinner such as this – all tell me quite a lot about this holy man and in a much deeper way than ‘authentic history’ might have done.

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On November 17 we remember an early saint of County Dublin, Duilech (Doulach) of Clochar. The scholarly Anglican Bishop William Reeves read a paper to the Royal Irish Academy in 1859 on the church of Saint Duilech, and as he brings together the evidence from the Irish calendars and genealogies I have excerpted the following from his work:

MEMOIR OF THE CHURCH OF ST. DUILECH.

St. Duilech is one of those early Irish ecclesiastics whose memory is preserved in the Calendar and local association, but of whose history, and even date, almost all documentary evidence has perished. Ledwich, indeed, refers to a statement, that a life of the saint was preserved at Malahide; but such a record, if it ever existed, is now unknown; and in the absence of any mention of the saint’s name in our Annals, we are obliged to fall back upon his pedigree as the only available material even for conjecture as to the age in which he lived. He is set forth in the sacred genealogies as the son of Malach, or Amhalgaidh, son of Sinell, and eighth in descent from Fergus Mac Rosa, whose date is referred to the Christian era. But, allowing thirty years to a generation, this would only bring him down to the year of our Lord 240; so that several generations are manifestly omitted. However, there are other saints of the same race, the dates of whose obits, or the names of whose contemporaries are recorded, and whose relative distance from a common head will measure that of St. Duilech. St. Mochoemhog, or Pulcherius, who was ten degrees, died in 656 ; Cruimther Fraech, who was nine degrees, was a contemporary of St. Columcille, who died in 597 ; St. Iarlath of Tuam, who was eight degrees, was a little senior to St. Brendan, and flourished about 540 ; and lastly, St. Mobhi, surnamed Mac Ui Alda (from Alia, a common ancestor with St. Duilech), was uncle to St. Duilech, and seven degrees, and his obit is recorded by Tighernach at 630. We may, therefore, taking an average of the dates of these ecclesiastics, all of whom were of the race of Conmaicne, son Fergus mac Rosa, assign the year 600 as about the age in which St. Duilech flourished.

His festival is the 17th of November; and in the calendar of Christ Church he is styled ” Sanctus Dulech Episcopus et Confessor,” though in the Martyrology simply ” Sanctus Dulech Confessor.” But whatever may have been his ecclesiastical rank, his patronage was very limited, for, besides the church under consideration, I know of none other where he was commemorated, unless Cillduleg, which was the Irish name of Grange Gorman, was derived from him.

That there was an early local veneration of his memory appears from the Feilire of Oengus (a composition of the commencement of the ninth century), where at his festival, November 17, he is introduced in the verse:—

la Duilech cain clochair.
With Duilech the beautiful, of Clochar.

After him, in 1171, Maelmuire, or Marian O’Gorman, in his metrical Calendar, at same day, notices

Duilech craibdech clochain.
Duilech the devout, of Clochar.

Upon the former of which is the gloss :—’of Clochar Duiligh, by Faeldrum on the south, i. e. beside Sord of Columcille.’
And upon the latter:—’by Faeldrum on the south, in Fingull.’

Or, as O’ Clery, more fully, in the Calendar of Donegall:—’ Duilech of Clochar by Feldruim, on the south, in Fingal; and Clochar-Duiligh is the name of his town, beside Swords of Columcille. He was of the race of Conmac, son of Fergus, son of Ros, son of Rughraidhe.’

Thus, Clochar is given as the Irish name of his church in native documents, ranging from 800 to 1600.

But, like many primitive foundations, it lost its local importance in the twelfth century, when superseded, on account of position, family interest, or some other cause, by the parish church. In the Bull of Pope Alexander III., which confirmed to St. Laurence O’Toole, in 1179, the possession of his see, mention is made of many ancient churches in the county, both north and south of the city, but none of St. Duilech’s: there is, however, a denomination called Tertia Pars de Clochair [trian Clochair], which may have denoted the site and land of this ancient church, then waste.

The parish that absorbed St. Duilech’s cell was Ballygriffin, which probably first obtained its severalty, as it got the name of Griffinstown, under a Welsh settler. The new parish church was founded close to the manorial castle of Balgriffin, and its outline is still discernible on the sward at the left-hand side entering the avenue of Balgriffin Park. It is not marked on the Ordnance Survey, and might escape any eye but one accustomed to the shades of extinct churches. It consisted of a nave and chancel, about eighteen yards long. The churchyard also is under meadow, but a faint outline of its precincts remains. This church was under the patronage of St. Sampson, a Cambrian saint, and thus the parochial name and the dedication agree in indicating a Welsh occupant about the time of the English Invasion.

Rev. W. Reeves, Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy , Vol. 7 (1857 – 1861), pp. 141-147.

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