OMNIUM SANCTORUM HIBERNIAE

Category: Saints of Louth

  • Saint Christian O'Connarchy of Mellifont, March 18

    Mellifont Abbey: A Guide and Popular History (1897)

    We commemorate an Irish saint today who achieved high office within the Church and who was a pioneering leader of the Cistercian order at its original foundation of Mellifont Abbey, County Louth. As Canon O’Hanlon explains below, we really should know more about the life and career of Saint Christian O’Connarchy, but alas the accounts of him that were promised to the great seventeenth-century hagiologist, Father John Colgan, never did materialize. It is rather a pity as Saint Christian sounds like an interesting man living in interesting times:

    St. Christianus, or Giolla Criost O’Conarchy, first Abbot of Mellifont, County of Louth. [Twelfth Century.]

    The last of the Fathers, as St. Bernard is affectionately termed by the Church, infused new vitality into the decaying monastic spirit of Western Europe; and, at a time when, but for a mighty spiritual influence, the fervour of religious observance might have languished. From France, his institute extended to these islands. So early as 1128, Giffard, Bishop of Winchester, had introduced the Cistercian Order into Great Britain. It was originally instituted,by Stephen Harding, an Englishman of remarkable energy and holiness, and, it had one of the most illustrious of the mediaeval saints for its true patron.

    The founder of Waverley Abbey had noble imitators. Soon, Furness Abbey,  in Lancashire, Fountains Abbey, in Yorkshire, New-Minster, Kirksted, and Roche, followed. The Order went on spreading, until the work of monasticism was finished in England. Then, it was found, that there were seventy-five Cistercian houses of men, in England, and twenty-six nunneries, belonging to the same Order. Notwithstanding, however, their great influence, the English branch is singularly barren, in historical memorials. At a somewhat later period, the Cistercian Order was introduced to Ireland, and the present holy abbot presided over the first house there established. The Life of this holy man, Christianus, or Christian,—sometimes called Christianus Ua Condoirche or Giolla Criost O’Conarchy,—had been frequently promised to Colgan; yet, he was not able to procure it, when he published from various sources those Acts, which are to be found in his work. The Bollandists, at this day, only have a few brief notices regarding him, and they preferred waiting to see, if his life should turn up, and reveal to them evidence, that any ancient writer had called him Sanctus or Beatiis. The English Martyrology, Arnold Wion, Ferrarius, Vincentius, and Hugh Menard, insert his name, in their several Calendars.

    According to some accounts, he was born or educated, at Bangor, in Ulster; and, if we credit Colgan, this holy man was a disciple, and also the Archdeacon, of St. Malachy O’Morgair, Archbishop of Armagh; and, afterwards, he most probably travelled with the venerable prelate, when first leaving Ireland for Rome, about the year 1138, and when he visited Clairvaux, the great house of St. Bernard, on his way. Returning by the same route, it seems probable, that Christian was one of the four disciples, who remained as postulants, under the charge of St. Bernard, and who were admitted as monks of the Cistercian Order. When St. Malachy reached Ireland, he felt a great desire to found a house, and to procure a superior and monks from that Order to inhabit it; so that soon the Abbey of Mellifont, a few miles from Drogheda, in the present county of Louth, was founded by Donough O’Carroll, and, in the year 1141, St. Bernard sent over Christian, when duly trained, as the superior of some French brothers, to plant the good seed. About the year 1142, Mellifont seems to have been occupied, and here Christian lived for some time, with his monks. It has been asserted, that Christian was subsequently elevated to the See of Lismore, and that he was the identical Papal Legate, who was present at the Council of Kells, assembled in the springtime of the year 1152,  and over which Cardinal John Paparo, Priest of St. Laurence in Damaso, presided, at the instance of Pope Eugene III. Besides, the distinction given to Christianus O’Conairche, as Bishop of Lismore, and Legate of the Sovereign Pontiff for Ireland, he is called head of the Irish monks; but, in the latter case, we must understand, probably, only those of the Cistercian Order, in Ireland.

    It is untrue, as has been advanced by some, that he was bishop over Down, succeeding St. Malachy O’Morgair there, or that he presided as Archbishop over Armagh. Equally false is the account, that he departed this life, so early as A.D. 1148. It has been supposed, that Christianus presided over one or two other Synods held in Ireland, and in the capacity of Apostolic Legate. Mellifont Abbey having been completed, about the year 1157, it was consecrated, with a magnificent rite and solemnity. Then and there, a numerous Synod of bishops—the Archbishop of Armagh included, with kings, chiefs and princes attending—was assembled. Large gifts were bestowed on the Abbey, by these magnates. Again, in the year 1158, it is stated, that a Synod of the clergy of Ireland was convened, at Eri-mic-Taidhg, in Laeghaire, at which twenty-five bishops assisted, with the Legate of St. Peter’s successor. Their object was to ordain rules and good morals. The Comorban of St. Patrick was present, and the assembled clergy ordered a chair, like every other bishop’s in Ireland, for Flaithbheartach Ua Brolchain, the successor of St. Colum-Cille, and also they decreed the arch-abbacy of the Irish churches in general, as his due. The present holy abbot must not be confounded with Christian O’Morgair, the brother of St. Malachy, and who presided over the See of Clogher. Citing the authority of Petrus de Natalibus, and of the English Martyrology, in the list of Henry Fitzsimon, we have Christianus, Bishop, entered, at the 18th of March. In the anonymous Catalogue of National Saints, published by O’Sullivan Beare, at the same date, he is simply called Christianus. The Bishop of Lismore, Christian O’Conarchy, must either have resigned his See, or died before 1159, for even at this date, we find recorded the death of his successor, Maelmaire Ua Loingseach, Bishop of Lismore. In Harris’ Ware, it is stated, that Christian O’Conarchy resigned his See, about the year 1175, and that having grown tired of all worldly pomp, this resignation happened a long time before his death. He is said to have lived to an advanced age, and to have died, in the year 1186. Again, it is related, that he was buried at Odorney, alias Kyrieleyson,—a monastery of his own Order,—in the county of Kerry. However, regarding the foregoing statements, and the present holy man’s identification, in reference to them, much uncertainty remains.

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  • Saint Mael-Muire Ua Gormáin (Marianus O'Gorman), July 3

    July 3 is the commemoration of a twelfth-century Augustinian abbot of the monastery of Cnoc na n-Apostol (Hill of the Apostles) in County Louth. Although this is the first post I have made in honour of his feast day, he is no stranger to the blog for Saint Mael-Muire ua Gormáin (Marianus O’Gorman) was himself a hagiologist whose lasting contribution to the study of the Irish saints is his calendar, known as the Martyrology of Gorman. His name appears quite simply on July 3 in the Martyrology of Donegal as ‘MAELMUIRE UA GORMAIN, Abbot of Lughmhagh.’ Below is an account of the man and his monastery from the nineteenth-century scholar, Whitley Stokes, who edited and translated Saint Mael-Muire’s metrical calendar from a manuscript copy in the Royal Library, Brussels:

    The Author of the Martyrology, and the Place in which it was composed.

    The author of the Martyrology now published was Mael-Maire hua Gormain, otherwise called Marianus Gorman, abbot of Cnoc na n-Apstol ‘ the Hill of the Apostles,’ a monastery of Canons Regular of St. Augustine at Knock close to the town of Louth. All that is really known of him is derived from the preface to his Martyrology, which uses the first person (rodherbsamar fuaramar, tuccsamar) when referring to the author,and may well have been written by Gorman himself, though Colgan ascribes it to an ancient scholiast.

    Hence it appears that Gorman was abbot of Cnoc na n-Apstol (otherwise called Cnoc na Sengán, ‘ the Hill of the Pismires ‘), and that he composed his Martyrology while Ruaidre hua Conchobair was King of Ireland, while Gelasius or Gilla mac Liac was archbishop of Armagh, and while Aed hua Cáillaidhi was bishop of Oriel, i.e., the present counties of Louth, Armagh, and Monaghan. Ruaidre began to reign as monarch of Ireland about the year 1166 and retired in 1183 to the monastery of Cong, where he died in 1199. Gilla mac Liac was archbishop of Armagh from 1137 to 1173, when he died. Aed hua Cáillaidhi was bishop of Oriel from 1139 to 1182. The result is, if the statements in the preface are true, that Gorman must have composed his Martyrology at some time between 1166 and 1174, ‘circa annum 1167,’ says Colgan.

    It must, however, be admitted that the Martyrology commemorates two saints—Gilla mac Liacc at March 27, and Gilla mo Chaidbeo at March 31, of whom the former died in 1 173, the latter in 1174. We are therefore driven to one of two hypotheses—either the statements in the preface are not true, and the Martyrology was composed after 1174, or the commemorations just mentioned were added after the completion of the poem. The latter hypothesis seems the more probable. The tradition of the Irish literati agrees with the preface, and the commemorations in question are at the ends of the stanzas in which they respectively occur, and may well have been inserted in accordance with the suggestion in the preface: ‘If defects are found therein, let the erudite . . . add; but let them not spoil the course of the poem.’ Who made these insertions does not appear. In 1181, according to the Four Masters, Maelmuire Hua Dunain, Abbot of Cnoc na Sengán in Louth, died. Of him Colgan, Acta Sanctorum Hiberniae, p. 737, says :

    ‘ Hic videtur esse B. Marianus Gormanus, author Martyrologii, a nobis laudatus, quem constat anno 1172 fuisse eiusdem monasterii Abbatem, ut praefatio eius Martyrologio prefixa, tradit’ If Colgan’s conjecture be right—and Lanigan agrees with him—the insertions may have been made by Gorman himself But I know of no sure instance of an Irishman being called at one time after his paternal, at another after his maternal, grandfather.

    Gorman is commemorated in the Martyrology of Donegal at July 3. He was probably canonised, not by the Apostolic See, but by his metropolitan, the archbishop of Armagh, just as in 1153, St. Gaultier, Abbot of Pontoise, was canonised by the archbishop of Rouen.

    The monastery of Cnoc na nApstol, or Cnoc na Sengán, in which Gorman probably wrote, was founded by Donnchad húa Cerbaill, King of Airgeill (Oriel), in honour of SS. Paul and Peter. The best evidence of these statements is an Irish entry, dated Jan. I, 1170, in an antiphonary formerly belonging to the cathedral church of Armagh, but now in the library of Trinity College, Dublin, Class B, Tab. I. No. i. This entry is printed in Petrie’s work on the Round Towers, p. 391, with the following translation :

    Kalend. Januar. V. feria bin. X. Anno Domini MCLXX. A prayer for Donnchadh O’Carrol, supreme King of Airgiall, by whom were made the book of Cnoc na nApstal at Louth and the chief books of the order of the year, and the chief books of the Mass. It was this great king who founded the entire monastery both [as to] stone and wood, and gave territory and land to it, for the prosperity of his soul in honour of [SS.] Paul and Peter. By him the church throughout the land of Oirghiall was reformed, and a regular bishopric was made, and the church was placed under the jurisdiction of the bishop. In his time tithes were received, and the marriage [ceremony] was assented to, and churches were founded, and temples and cloictheachs were made, and monasteries of monks and canons and nuns were re-edified, and nemheds were made. These are especially the works which he performed for the prosperity [of his soul] and reign, in the land of Airghiall, namely, the monastery of monks on the bank of the Boyne [both as to] stone and wooden furniture and book, and territory and land, in which [monastery] there are one hundred monks and three hundred conventuals, and the monastery of canons of Termann Feichin and the monastery of nuns, and the great church of Termann Feichin, and the church of Lepadh Feichin and the church of * * *.

    So the Four Masters at the year 1148: ‘ The church of Cnoc na Sengán was finished by the bishop Ua Caellaidhe and Donnchadh ua Cearbhaill, and was consecrated by Ua Morgair, a successor of Patrick; and a neimeadh, i.e., ecclesiastical land, was assigned to it in Lughmadh….

    Whitley Stokes, ed. and trans.,  Félire Húi Gormáin, The Martyrology of Gorman, (London, 1895), xix-xxi.

     

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  • Blessed Malchus of Mellifont, June 28

    At June 28 Canon O’Hanlon has a brief notice marking the feast of a monk from the Cistercian foundation at Mellifont, County Louth. Mellifont Abbey was founded in 1142, the first Cistercian monastery to be established in Ireland. Its first abbot was said to be Saint Christian O’Connarchy, who died in 1186 and whose own feast day is March 18. Some sources say that the founder abbot was succeeded by his brother, Malchus, as the writer of an 1897 guide to the monastery explains:

    About the same time [i.e. 1186], there died at Mellifont, a holy monk named Malchus, who is said to have been St.Christian’s brother and successor in the abbatial office, as has been related above. Ussher, quoting St. Bernard, positively asserts that he was St. Christian’s brother. And Sequin, who, in 1580, compiled a Catalogue of the Saints of the Cistercian Order, mentions Malchus in that honoured roll, and styles him “a true contemner of the world, a great lover of God, and a pattern and model of all virtues to the whole Order.” He says, “he was one of St. Malachy’s disciples in whose footsteps he faithfully followed, and that he was renowned for his sanctity and learning, as well as for the many miracles he wrought.” His feast was kept on the 28th of June.

    Mellifont Abbey, Co. Louth, its ruins and associations : a guide and popular history (Dublin, 1897), 64-65.

    Canon O’Hanlon has only the briefest of notices for this holy monastic:

    The Blessed Malchus, Monk of Mellifont, County of Louth.

    [Twelfth Century]

    At this date, the Bollandists have a feast for the Blessed Malchus, of the Cistercian Order in Ireland, on the authority of Henriquez and Chalemot.

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