OMNIUM SANCTORUM HIBERNIAE

Category: Saints of Kerry

  • Saint Echlech, Cuimmein and Coemhan, August 14

    August 14 is the feast of a trio of brothers, the three sons of Daighre – Echlech, Cuimmein and Coemhan. Canon O’Hanlon suggests that they should be located within the County Kerry parish of Kilcummin and in his account provides a glimpse into the traditional pious practices of the Irish countryside. His source here is the Ordnance Survey scholar, John O’Donovan, who was writing in 1841. The letters of O’Donovan and his colleagues are an important source of information on the Irish saints as they record the existence of sites, devotional practices and traditions regarding the saints in the various places they visited. Often the dates they noted for pattern days can give a clue to the commemoration of the feast days of the saints in the local areas. In this case, however, the people seemed to have gathered at the holy well not on August 14 but on the eve of May 1:

    Saints Echlech, Cuimmein and Coemhan, three Sons of Daighre.

    In the Martyrology of Tallagh, Cummine, Caeman and Aicclig, are the names set down in separate lines and in the preceding order, but without any further designation of their parentage. In that copy, contained in the Book of Leinster, they are placed in like order. In the Martyrology of Marianus O’Gorman, these saints are commemorated at this date… There is a parish dedicated to a saint having the name of Cummein, and which is called Kilcummin. It is situated in the barony of Magunihy, County of Kerry. The old church belonging to this parish is situated on a ridge of fertile land, within the glebe of Kilcummin. In 1841, it measured on the inside 56 feet in length, and 19 feet 6 inches in breadth. Its side walls were 3 feet 5 inches in thickness, and 10 feet in height; being built of green unequally sized stones, cemented with lime and sand mortar. The west gable was destroyed nearly down to the ground; only 3 feet of its height then remaining, but the other walls were nearly perfect. The internal portion of the east window was disfigured, but its external part was in a state of excellent preservation. The window, measuring 5 feet 2 inches in height, and 11 inches in width, was pointed and formed of cut lime stone; the sill was 4 feet 8 inches, from the outside ground level. At the distance of 8 feet from an east gable, there was a window in the south wall. This had been destroyed on both sides, with the exception of one stone left on either external side, These were chiselled lime-stones, and the distance between them was only 7 inches. A rude representation of the head and face of St. Cummin—as is believed—was carved on brown sand stone, which projected from the wall, near the northern extremity of the east gable and on the outside. There was also a large graveyard attached to this church. In the townland of Gortnagowan, in the east division of this parish, there stood a caher or circular stone fort, called Caher-Crovderg, i.e., the Fort of the Red-handed. On the eastern side of it, a holy well lay, at which stations were performed by the peasantry, on May eve. They also drove their cattle into the fort, and made them drink the water of this holy well, which was believed to possess the efficacy of preserving their animals from all contagious distempers, during the ensuing year. Colgan thinks St. Coeman, a deacon, and a disciple of St. Patrick, to be identical with one of these saints. He was set over the church of Ard-lice, commonly called Sean Domhnach. In the O’Clerys’ Calendar of Donegal, we find the three sons of Daighre, Echlech, Cuimmein and Caemhan, had veneration given them at the 14th of August.

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

  • Saint Moling Luachra, June 17

     

    June 17 is the feastday of one of the most important saints of Kerry, Moling Luachra. Saint Moling, whose original name was Daircell, is linked to such legendary figures as Gobban Saor, the smith, and Suibhne Geilt, the madman of the forests, as well as to other Irish saints such as Brendan the Navigator. Below is a summary of his life written by 19th-century Irish Anglican clergyman, the Rev. Thomas Olden:

    DAIRCELL or TAIRCELL, otherwise MOLLING (d. 696) (Annals of Four Masters), was the son of Faelan, a descendant of Cathaeir Mor, who was king of Leinster and monarch of Ireland A.D. 358. In the Latin life published by the Bollandists few particulars are given, but the Irish life in the royal library of Brussels has the following account of his parentage.

    Faelan was a brugaidh, or farmer, at Luachair, now Slieve Lougher, a wild upland district near Castle Island in Kerry. Having accumulated considerable wealth, he returned to his native territory, Hy Degha, situated on the river Barrow. His wife, Eamnat of Ciarraighe (Kerry), had a beautiful sister with whom Faelan fell in love. After some time, finding she was about to become a mother, she fled by night from her sister’s house to her native place. Here, on the bleak upland of Lougher, she encountered a snowstorm, and worn out and exhausted gave birth to a child. She was tempted to strangle the babe, when a dove sent from heaven flapped its wings in the mother’s face, and prevented her from accomplishing her purpose. Meanwhile St. Brendan of Clonfert, whose church was not far off, hearing of the occurrence, had the mother and child brought to him. He placed the child in charge of one of his clergy, who baptised him, and gave him the name of Taircell (gathering), in allusion to the manner in which the dove ‘ gathered’ him to her with her wings.

    After some years he asked and received permission to go forth and collect alms for the maintenance of the students, and also for the carrying on of divine service. One day when returning from visiting Lougher for this purpose he was stopped by a strange robber band, described in the story as ‘people in the guise of spectres.’ They threatened to rob and kill him. He asked to be allowed to try and escape by his swiftness. ‘Let his request be granted’ said the hag, ‘for swift as the wild deer are we, and swift as the wind is our dog.’ Taircell then made three springs, in which he passed over the whole of Lougher, landing in the third on the enclosure of the church. ‘Henceforth’, said his tutor to him, ‘you shall be called Moiling of Lougher from the leaps (linge) you have made’.

    He now learnt something of his parentage from his mother, after which his tutor ‘ cut his hair and put the tonsure of a monk on him,’ and desired him to go to St. Maedoc of Ferns. At this time Molling is described as a well-favoured youth:’whiter than snow was his body, ruddier than the flame the sheen of his cheek.’ He first visited St. Modimoc at Cluain Cain (Clonkeen, co. Tipperary) ; here he entered into a covenant with the community ; passing on to Cashel the king promised him a site for a redes, or abbey church, but in the night an angel reproached him for having asked for it when a place was already his at that point on the Barrow where St. Brendan thirty years before had made a hearth, and the fire was still kept burning;from this he proceeded to Sruthair Guaire (Shrule in the Queen’s County), and thence southward till he beheld a watch of angels over the point of Ross Broc, above the river Barrow. Reaching the place he found St. Brendan’s hearth, and there he founded his house and church, and it was thenceforward known as Tech Molling, or St. Mullens. It was his permanent dwelling. It is indeed stated in one of his lives that he spent part of his time at Glendalough, but this appears to be an error arising from the fact that there was another Daircell, a contemporary, who was bishop of Glendalough.

    Some time after, the great yew tree of Lethgle known as the Eo Rossa sell, and St. Molaise divided it among the saints of Ireland, and St. Molling having claimed his share sent for the famous artist Goban to construct an oratory for him of the wood, “When it was finished the price demanded was as much rye as the oratory would contain. ‘ Turn it up,’ said Molling, ‘and put its mouth upwards. So Goban laid hold of it by both post and ridge so that he turned the oratory upside down, and not a plank of it started from its place, nor did a joint of any of the boards move from the other.’ Moiling then sent messengers throughout his territory telling them of the demand, but the reply was that all their country could not supply so much, and he had to perform a miracle to pay the debt.

    Molling was held in the highest honour throughout Leinster. There was at this time a dispute between the Leinster people and the joint kings of Ireland, Diarmuid and Blathmac, with respect to the boundary of their territories, and St. Molling’s assistance being invited, it was finally arranged that he and the kings should start from their respective homes at the same time, and that their place of meeting should be the boundary. But the kings treacherously posted parties in ambush all the way from Slieve Bloom to Ath Cliath (Dublin) to intercept the saint on his journey northward. Aware of their intention, he and his attendant assumed disguises and passed them safely, with the result that the boundary line was drawn in favour of Leinster. Some years after (674) Finnachta the Hospitable succeeded to the kingdom of Ireland. He had exacted the tax called the boruma twice from the Leinstermen, but was resisted on a third occasion. He therefore prepared to levy it by force, when Bran, son of Conall, king of Leinster (d. 687), summoned the laity and clergy of Meath, and it was decided to send for St. Molling. He assembled a synod of his elders, and after a solemn invocation of the Trinity set out for the court of the king. When he arrived he advised peace, and was then urged to undertake the negotiations, the king addressing him in highly flattering language as ‘ the victorious star of Broc,’ ‘the Daniel of the Gael,’ &c., and promising him a ‘silken hood,’ with more substantial rewards. He undertook the perilous adventure, and addressing himself to King Finnachta, asked for a respite in the collection of the boruma. ‘ For how long?’ he was asked. ‘A year,’ he replied. ‘We cannot grant it,’ said the Ulstermen. ‘Half a year, then.’ ‘No,’ they replied. ‘Well, then, till Luan ‘(Monday). ‘It shall be given,’ said the king. St. Molling then took securities for the agreement, ‘binding on him the Trinity and the four gospels of the Lord.’ But the word Luan was ambiguous; and meant not only Monday but the day of judgment, and Molling accordingly informed the king that the engagement he had made signified a permanent remission of the boruma, and he admitted the interpretation, adding, ‘I will not break my promise.’ It should be mentioned that another account attributes the remission to Molling’s terrifying the collectors by threats of vengeance. In consequence of the remission of the boruma Finnachta is reckoned a saint in the ‘ Martyrology of Donegal'(14 Nov.), where the hospitable or festive king looks rather out of place.

    In the time of Giraldus Cambrensis Molling was reckoned one of the four prophets of the Irish race, and the prophecy or rhapsody called the ‘ Baile Molling’ is attributed to him, but, according to O’Curry, it was not written until about 1137. It would appear, however, that the ground for this title was rather his knowledge of character,’such was the grace of prophecy in him that if asked he could tell people’s characters, how they should live, the manner of their death, and their future deserts.’

    He was also known as a poet, and more poems are attributed to him than to any other Irish saint except St. Columba. A very curious one has been published by Mr. Whitley Stokes from the ‘Book of Leinster,’ and as it is quoted in a manuscript of the ninth century, little more than a century after his death, it is probably authentic. It is a dialogue between the saint and the devil, and treats of the happiness of the Christian and the misery of the wicked. The statement that Molling was made ‘archbishop of Leinster ‘ by King Bran in 632 and placed in the chair of St. Maedoc of Ferns gives Colgan and Lanigan much trouble, but the story is evidently a late invention, as the king died in 601, and the ‘Life of St. Brigid,’ by Cogitosus, on which Colgan founds an argument, belongs not to the seventh century, as he supposed, but to the ninth.

    A book named ‘ The Yellow Book of Molling’ is lost, but a Latin manuscript of the four gospels, attributed to him, is preserved in Trinity College, Dublin.

    The high Christian character and gentleness of the saint are ascribed by his biographers to his having been born on ‘the day on which the Holy Ghost descended on the apostles.’ How considerate he was is shown by the story of the leper. One day when he was preparing for the holy communion, a man, hideously deformed by leprosy, approached and asked to be allowed to partake of the chalice. Hesitating for a moment, he immediately called to mind the passage, ‘I will have mercy and not sacrifice,’ and permitted him to partake of it ; the story adds that the Lord supplied the saint with another chalice. Molling died on 17 June, in the eighty-second year of his age. The Dublin copy of the Annals of Tigernach states that he died in Britain. The year seems certainly to be 696.

    [Betha Mollincc, Irish manuscript in the Royal Library of Brussels; Bollandists’ Act. Sanct., Junii 17, iii. 406, &c. ; Martyrology of Donegal ; Lanigan’s Eccles. Hist. iii. 132 ; Annals of the Four Masters, A.D. 106, note ; Stokes’s Goidelica, 2nd ed. pp. 179-82.] T. 0.

    The picture is of an enamel produced by craftswoman, Anne Murphy.Content Copyright © Omnium Sanctorum Hiberniae 2012-2015. All rights reserved.

  • Saint Brendan of Clonfert, May 16

     

     

    First Day Cover Faroe Islands, 1984

    May 16 is the commemoration of one of the most famous of the Irish saints, Brendan of Clonfert. Saint Brendan, known as ‘the Navigator’ because of his travels at sea, was well-known throughout medieval Europe due to the translation of the account of his voyage into a number of languages. In his summary of the career of the sailor saint for the Dictionary of National Biography, Irish Anglican writer, the Reverend Thomas Olden, described the Navigatio as ‘the most popular legend of the Middle Ages.’ Writing in 1886, Olden refers to the unpublished Irish Life of the saint preserved in the Book of Lismore, but just four years later Whitley Stokes published the text and its translation. That volume can be read online at the Internet Archive. Fourteen years before either of these, however, the Irish Ecclesiastical Record published an extensive account of Saint Brendan in a four-part series. Before we move to Olden’s shorter piece, let’s begin with a summary of the evidence for the feast of Saint 
Brendan on the Irish calendars taken from another nineteenth century clerical scholar, the then Bishop of Ossory, the future Cardinal Patrick Francis Moran:

    The name of St Brendan occurs in all our ancient martyrologies; and his feast is invariably marked on the16th of May. Thus, St Aengus in the Felire on that day : —”The summons of Brendan of Cluain Into the victorious eternal Kingdom” and the gloss adds: — “ie., the calling of Brendan of Clonfert to the Kingdom of God.”

    The Martyrology of Tallaght has, on the same day: —” Brendini Cluana Ferta.” Marianus O’Gorman devotes one line to his memory: — ” Brendan, without a particle of pride.” The Martyrology of Donegal has a long notice of our Saint on the 16th of May, and styles him “Abbot of Cluainferta-Brenainn.” The Martyrology of Christ Church published by Dr. Todd, has also “Sanctus Brendanus, Abbas et Confessor.”

    Selbhach, in his ”Metrical List of the Saints of Inisfail” thus commemorates SS. Brendan and Mochuda:

    “Brendan, son of fair Findlug,
    And Mochuda, son of Findall,
    A holy pair with penitential countenances,
    Of the race of Ciar, son of Fergus.”

    The very ancient Catalogue of Saints “who were similar in their manner of life” preserved in the Book of Leinster, unites together “St. Thomas the Apostle, and St Brendan of Clonfert.” St. Cuimin of Connor, also, in his poem on the characteristic virtues of the Saints of Ireland, devotes a strophe to our Saint: —

    ”Brendan loved perpetual mortification, 
According to his synod and his flock.; 
Seven years he spent on the great whale’s back; 
It was a distressing mode of mortification.”

    … The Sees of Ardfert and Clonfert honour St Brendan as their patron. Innumerable places in various parts of Ireland bear his name, and several churches are dedicated to God under his invocation. In Scotland, as we leam from the Martyrology of Aberdeen (see Kalendars of Scottish Saints by Dr. Forbes, 1872, page 286), St Brendan ruled as patron “the royal island of Bute” (regalem insulam de Buta): indeed, as Fordun informs us, it was from a cell erected by St Brendan, which, in the old Gaelic, was called Bothe, that the whole island of Bute derived its name (nostro idiomate BOTHE. —Fordun, lib. i., cap. 29). Eassie in Forfarshire, is also dedicated to St Brendan; and many churches in Mull, St Kilda, and other parts of Scotland, still preserve his name.

    Right Rev. P.F. Moran, ed., Acta Sancti Brendani (Dublin, 1872), vi-viii.

    BRENDAN or BRENAINN, SAINT (484-577), of Clonfert, was born in 484, at Littus li, or Stagnum li, now Tralee, co. Kerry. He is termed son of Finnloga, to distinguish him from his contemporary, St. Brendan of Birr [q. v.], and Mocu Alta, from his great-grandfather, Alta, who was of the race of Ciar, descendant of Rudraighe, from whom were the Ciarraighe, who have given their name to Kerry. His parents, though free and well born, were in a relation of dependence, and under the rule of their relative, Bishop Erc. Some have thought this was the well-known bishop of Slane, Co. Meath; but there were many of the name, and he seems to have been rather the head of a local monastery, and permanently resident in Kerry. Here Brendan was born, and when a year old was taken by Erc and placed in charge of St. Ita of Cluain Credhail, in the south-west of the county of Limerick. Remaining five years with her, he returned to Erc to begin his studies, and in course of time, when he had ‘read through the canon of the Old and New Testaments,’ he wished also to study the rules of the saints of Ireland. Having obtained Erc’s permission to go to St. Jarlath of Tuam for the purpose, with the injunction to return to him for holy orders, he first paid a visit to St. Ita, ‘his nurse.’ She approved of his design, but cautioned him ‘not to study with women or virgins, for fear of scandal’ and he then pursued his journey, and arrived in due time at Tuam. On the completion of his studies there he returned to Bishop Erc, and was ordained by him, but never proceeded beyond the order of presbyter, such being the usage of the second order of Irish saints to which he belonged.

    It seems to have been at this period that the desire took possession of him to go forth on the expedition which formed the basis of the ‘Navigation of St. Brendan’ the most popular legend in the Middle Ages. Some difficulty has always been felt with regard to the date usually assigned to it, as he must have been then sixty years of age, and it is not easy to reconcile it with the other facts of his life (LANIGAN); but this difficulty seems to arise from the belief that there was but one voyage, as stated in the versions current abroad. The unpublished Irish life, in the ‘Book of Lismore’ (A.D. 1400), removes much of the difficulty by describing two voyages, one early in life and the other later on. It states that at his ordination the words of Scripture (St. Luke xviii. 29, 30) produced a profound impression on him, and he resolved to forsake his country and inheritance, beseeching his Heavenly Father to grant him ‘the mysterious land far from human ken.’ In his sleep an angel appeared to him, and said, ‘Rise, Brendan, and God will grant you the land you seek.’ Rejoiced at the message he rises, and goes forth ‘alone on the mountain in the night, and beholds the vast and dim ocean stretching away on all sides from him’ (such is exactly the view from Brandon Hill), and far in the distance he seems to behold ‘the fair and excellent land, with angels hovering over it.’ After another vision, and the promise of the angel’s presence with him, he goes forth on his navigation, but, after seven years’ wandering without success, is advised to return to his country, where many were waiting for him, and there was work for him to do. That Brendan may have undertaken some such expedition, and visited some of the western and northern islands, is quite possible; for it is certain that Irish hermits found their way to the Hebrides, the Shetland and Faroe Islands, and even to Iceland (DICUIL).

    Somewhere about this time may be placed his visit to Brittany, which is not noticed in the Irish life. He is said to have gone thither between 620 and 530. After a considerable stay he returned home. But the desire to reach the undiscovered land was not extinct, and now it revived with new vigour, and once more, after consulting Bishop Erc, he went to St. Ita and asked her ‘what he should do about his voyage.”My dear son’ she replied, ‘ why did you go on your [former] expedition without consulting me? That land you are seeking from God you shall not find in those perishable leaky boats of hides; but, however, build a ship of wood, and you shall find “the far land.’” The vessel of the first voyage is described in the ‘Navigation ‘ as covered with hides (SCHRODER). He then proceeded to Connaught, and built ‘a large wonderful ship’ and engaging artificers and smiths, and putting on board many kinds of herbs and seeds, the party, sixty in all, embarked on their voyage, and, after many adventures, reached ‘that paradise amid the waves of the sea.’

    The story of the ‘Navigation’ had ‘taken root in France as early as the eleventh century, was popular in Spain and Holland, and at least known in Italy, and was the favourite reading, not only of monks, but of the widest circle of readers’ (SCHRODER); but it had been altered from its original form, the two voyages compressed into one, and the adventures of other Irish voyagers worked into it. The legend in this form is traced by Schroder to the Lower Rhine; but he is unable to conjecture why it was connected with Brendan’s name. It was, however, only one of a class of Irish tales, known as ‘Imramas,’ or expeditions, of which several are still extant; and the popularity of this particular legend abroad may be accounted for by the fact that when it was taken to the continent in the general exodus of Irish clergy in the ninth and following centuries, owing to the Danish invasions, the monks of Brendan’s order in one of the numerous Irish foundations on the Rhine thought fit to exalt their patron by dressing up the legend in a manner suited to the popular taste.

    Some of the adventures have been supposed to be derived from the ‘Arabian Nights’; ‘but there is reason to think that the converse is more likely (WRIGHT). There is proof of the intercourse of Irish monks with the East in the ninth century (DICUIL); and some of the stories, as that of the great fish, called in the ‘Navigation’ Iasconiua (Ir. iasc, a fish), which Sinbad took for an island, are essentially of northern origin.

    It seems to have been after his return from this voyage that he founded, in 553 (A. F. M.) the monastery of Cluain Fearta, ‘the lawn of the grave’. now Clonfert, in the barony and county of Longford, which afterwards  became a bishop’s see.

    He subsequently visited St. Columba at Hy, in company with two other saints. This must have been after 563, when he was in his seventy-ninth, year. On this occasion he may have founded the two churches in Scotland of which he was patron (REEVES).

    The last time we hear of him is at the inauguration of Aedh Caemh, the first Christian king of Cashel, in 570, when he took the place of the official bard, MacLenini, who was a heathen. On this occasion Brendan was the means of the bard’s conversion, when he gave him the name of Colman. He is since known as St. Colman of Cloyne. Brendan died in 577, in the ninety-fourth year of his age. His day in the calendar is 16 May.

    [Bollandists’ Acta Sanctorum, Maii, tom, iii, Antverpiae, 1680; Colgan’s Egressio Familise Brendani, i. 72; Wright’s Early English Ballads (Percy Society), vol. xiv., 1844; Schroder’s Sanct Brandan, Erlangen, 1871; Reeves’s Adamnan’s Life of Columba, 1857, pp. 55, 220, 223;  Lanigan’s Eccl. Hist. ii. 22, &c. ; Dicuil, De Mensura Orbis, Paris, 1814; O’Curry’s MS. Materials of Irish History, p. 288, Dublin, 1861; Beatha Breanainn, MS., in the Book of Lismore, Royal Irish Academy, Dublin; the Book of Munster, MS. 23, E 26, in Royal Irish Academy.]

    T. 0.

    Sir Leslie Stephen, ed., Dictionary of National Biography, Volume VI (London and New York, 1886), 259-261.

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