OMNIUM SANCTORUM HIBERNIAE

Category: Saints of Offaly

  • Saint Fíonán Cam of Kinnity, April 7

    April 7 is the feast of an interesting saint, Fíonán (Finan) Cam, of Kinnity, County Offaly but also associated with various locations in County Kerry.  The Martyrology of Oengus records on this day:

    7. Finan the squinting,
    of Cenn Etig,
    around whom is
    much of clamour :

    There is a gloss on this entry, added by later anonymous commentators, which reads:

    Finán the Crooked of Cenn Etig. Of Húi Luchta was he, i.e. of Corcu Duibne, and of Ciarraige Luachra was his mother. That crookedness was in his eyes, i.e. he looked crookedly at his fosterfather when he was asking something for his guests. “Thou hast leave to be thus, semper,” says the foster father, even Brenainn son of Findlug.
    Fíonán Camm, i.e. crooked was his eye, of Cennetig in Sliab Bladma. Of the Corcu-duibne was he.
    A salmon of red gold came: it went in the west after sunset, against the womb of white Beccnat, (Finan’s mother) so that it became her husband, (i.e.) when she was bathing in Loch Lein: ut dicitur: Now thou hast no earthly father: the Holy Ghost has saved thee, has fostered thee.
    Inde alius dixit:
    Becnat, daughter of vast Idgna, the precious stone that was not scanty: like the Son of the Virgin, Finán Camm was born of her.
    In Becnat’s womb thou wast for a while, for thou wast conceived thro’ God’s word: an earthly father thou hast not, the Holy Ghost has saved thee, has fostered thee.
    Finan Camm brought wheat into Ireland, i.e. the full of his shoe he brought. Declan brought the rye, i.e. the full of his shoe. Modomnóc brought bees, i.e. the full of his bell and in one ship they were brought.
    Finan is entitled to true circuits, a measure of wheat for every household, the full of his brazen shoe: a tribute that no great saint had taken.
    Well, there is certainly much to unpack here! Let’s begin with his title of ‘The Crooked’. The Irish word cam means bent or crooked and when applied to an individual usually signifies some sort of curvature of the spine or limbs. In the case of Fíonán Cam, however, the bend is in his eyes, hence his title of ‘Fíonán the Squinting’. The commentator references Fíonán’s foster-father, Saint Brendan in relation to this and the Latin Life of Saint Fíonán confirms the relationship between the two. It tells us, in a trope typical of hagiography, that Saint Brendan predicted the future greatness of their son to Saint Fíonán’s parents, who as a child undertakes seven years of study of the monastic life with his saintly mentor. Brendan later directs Fíonán to the place of his resurrection at Kinnity, where he establishes his own monastery.
    Then we pass to the extraordinary conception of Saint Fíonán, which the commentator tells us involved a salmon. This too is upheld in the surviving written Lives of the saint, although in the opening to the Latin Life, translated by Pádraig Ó Riain in his 2018 collection Four Offaly Saints, the fish does not approach Fíonán’s mother while she is bathing in the lower lake at Killarney, but rather descends upon her during a vision:
    Holy Fíonán belonged to the family of Corca Dhuibhne; his father’s name was Mac Airdhe and his mother was called Beagnaid. This is how he was conceived; his mother saw a fish of reddish colour airborne from the direction of the rising sun, which entered her womb through her mouth, and she conceived from it. She told this to a wise and religious man who said to her: ‘The child in your womb will be a holy man, and he will have grace from God’.
    Wherever his mother went, for as long as he was in her womb, not a drop of rain, snow or hail touched her garment; her spittle cured every illness and feebleness, and whatever she served of food, however little or poor, it was enough for one and all.

    P. Ó Riain, Four Offaly Saints- The Lives of Ciarán of Clonmacnoise, Ciarán of Seir, Colmán of Lynally and Fíonán of Kinnitty (Four Courts Press, 2018), 81.

    It seems that the object of this episode is not to glorify Beagnaid, the expectant mother, but to show that the miracle-working power of her saintly son was present from the very beginning. The idea that his conception does not involve a human father, despite the fact that the name of Saint Fíonán’s sire is one of the first things the writer of the Life tells us, is perhaps designed to emphasize the purity of the saint as well as his likeness to Christ.
    The final section of the commentator’s annotations claims that Saint Fíonán is responsible for the introduction of wheat to Ireland. Daphne Pochin-Mould in the entry for Saint Fíonán on page 159 of her 1964 book The Irish Saints, makes this observation:
    The gloss on the entry for Finan Cam in the Martyrology of Oengus records the curious tradition that “Finan Camm brought wheat into Ireland, i.e. the full of his shoe he brought. Declan brought the rye, i.e. the full of his shoe. Modomnóc brought bees, i.e. the full of his bell and in one ship they were brought. Finan is entitled to true circuits, a measure of wheat for every household, the full of his brazen shoe: a tribute that no great saint had taken.” This recalls the shrine of Brigid’s shoe in the National Museum, and makes one wonder whether at one time a shoe of Finan Cam was similarly enshrined and venerated, and carried on the due collecting circuits.

    I haven’t encountered this tradition of shoes and dues collections before and would like to know more about it. The most recent thinking on the shoe shrine of Saint Brigid though is that it dates to the early eighteenth century.

    As we have seen, the Martyrology of Oengus associates Saint Fíonán with Kinnitty alone but the Latin Life places him at various locations in County Kerry. The List of Homonymous Saints preserved in the twelfth-century Book of Leinster records eleven saints who share the name Fíonán, so perhaps it is not surprising to find that Saint Fíonán Cam has become entangled with Saint Fíonán Lobair ‘the leper’ of Swords, County Dublin. Fíonán Lobair is credited with the patronage of the church at Innisfallen, which may be because, according to Pádraig Ó Riain’s Dictionary of Irish Saints, in south Kerry Saint Fíonán’s feast was celebrated on 16 March, the feast day of the leprous one of Swords. Modern scholarship suggests that despite this confusion over the feast date it is the Kerry native, Saint Fíonán Cam, who is the true patron of Innisfallen.

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  • The Nativity of Saint Colmán Elo, October 3

    On October 3, some of the Irish calendars record the feast of the nativity of Saint Colmán Elo. The marking of the birth of this saint as a separate feast is perhaps a reflection of his importance as a scholar and monastic founder. He lived c.560–611 and the most important work ascribed to his authorship is the ascetical poem the Apgitir chrábaid (the alphabet of piety). Some modern scholars have also suggested that Saint Colmán may have been the author of the hymn in praise of Saint Patrick, traditionally attributed to Secundinus (Sechnall). I have written about this hymn, Audite omnes amantes, and reproduced a translation of it at my blog dedicated to the three patrons here. Interestingly, genealogical sources record that Colmán Elo of the moccu Béognae was a relative of Saint Colum Cille of Iona, who also has the feast of his nativity listed on the calendars at December 7. Indeed, Saint Colmán features in the Life of Columba by Adamnan and left Iona after the death of its founder in 597 to establish his own monastery at Lann Elo, modern Lynally, County Offaly. The primary feast of Saint Colmán Elo is on September 26 and a post on his life can be read at the blog here. 

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  • Saint Cairpre Crom of Clonmacnoise, March 6

     

    On March 6 the Irish calendars commemorate a 9th-century successor to Saint Ciarán at Clonmacnoise, Cairpre Crom. Described as a bishop, he features in a curious piece of apocryphal literature in which by his prayers and those of his community he rescues the soul of an Irish king’s son from purgatory. Canon O’Hanlon in Volume III of his Lives of the Irish Saints cites the evidence for the saint’s feast day on the various calendars and recounts the story of Cairpre Crom and the suffering soul of Maelsechlainn:

    Article III. — St. Cairpre or Corpre Crom, Bishop of Clonmacnoise, King’s County. [Ninth Century.]  

    The days of this holy man were cast, in a dangerous period; for, the Danish and Norwegian invasions were then rife, over many districts, in Ireland. Yet, the heirship of sanctity did not depart from our island, and the present bishop was renowned, in his time. From various sources, Colgan and the Bollandists have legendary Acts of this St. Corpre, at the 6th of March, on which day we find him noted, as Carpre cruim [no Cruinn], in the Martyrology of Tallagh. The designation Crom, meaning “crooked,” or “curved,” had probably some relation to a personal deformity. Bishop Challoner commemorates him, at this date. So Marianus O’Gorman and Cathal Maguire, likewise, record his feast. We find entered, on this day, in the Martyrology of Donegal, Cairpre Crom, who was son of Feradhach, son to Lughaidh, son of Dalian, son to Bresal, son of Maine Mor, from whom descend the Ui Maine, of the race of Colla da chroich.

    This saint belonged to the posterity of Heremon. It is probable, he was born, in the earlier part of the ninth century, and that he belonged to the community, at Clonmacnoise. He succeeded to the Blessed Moeldarius, or Maelodhar, Bishop of this place, who died in the year 886. Cairpre Crom is styled. Bishop of Cluain-mic Nois, and head of the religion of the greater part of Erinn, in his time. Hence, we may infer the great eminence, as an ecclesiastic, he attained.

    The legend of Coirpre Crom, Bishop of Clonmacnoise, who died A.D. 899, and of Melaghlan or Malachy, Monarch of Ireland, who died A.D. 860, is contained in the Leabhar Breac, which belongs to the Royal Irish Academy. In the O’Longan Manuscripts, R.I.A., Dublin, there is an ancient prose legend, regarding St. Ciarain of Cluain Mac Nois and Cairbre Crom. This is likewise contained in Scholia, affixed to the Festilogy of St. Aengus. From this, Colgan infers the Acts of St. Carpre were formerly extant, and that this fragment may be deemed an excerpt, which the O’Clerys have thus abridged. It is stated, that to Corpre was shown the spirit of Maelsechlainn, son of Maelruanaidh, King of Erinn, according to an old legend. To their account, the O’Clerys append the following observation: A.D. 1022, on the 4th of the Nones of September,  Maelsechlainn died. On a certain day, when Cairpre was praying alone in his church, after vespers, he saw a coal-black figure, coming towards him, so that it stood in his presence. The bishop asked who he was when the apparition answered, that it was Maelsechlainn, son of Maelruanaidh, and he told him every kind of pain which he was suffering in Purgatory, with other particulars, besides the cause why himself and. his spiritual director had been thus punished. Then we are told, that the bishop undertook to make intercession for the king; and, he ordered certain priests to pray for the priest, to bring him from pains. The bishop announced, that he should himself pray for the king. They did so, respectively, and to the end of the half year. As Cairpre was at prayer, towards the end of that period, he saw the king coming towards him, and half-speckled; when, he returned thanks to the bishop, for what had been done for him. The king then implored him to do the same, until the end of another half-year. The clerics obeyed this request, while they fasted and prayed fervently, giving frequent alms, to the end of another half-year. Then the king came in a bright form towards Cairpre, and returned thanks to the holy bishop, for what he had done. The monarch told him, that he should go to heaven, on that day, and that the priest should enter it on the next day. Cairpre asked why the king should go before the priest. The king said, it was owing to the excellence of the bishop’s prayers, and to the superiority of his over the priests’ intercession. This was in allusion to twelve priests, who were at Chiain Mic Nois, at that time. Then, the king, giving thanks to and blessing the bishop, ascended into heaven, in his presence.

    Among other things related, in the year 894, St. Cairbre Crom, with a Synod of Seniors, assisted at a convocation, held at Inis-Aingin, now Hare Island, in Lough Ree, on the River Shannon. At this time, the place itself was invaded, by the people of Connaught. A man was mortally wounded there, and the shrine of Ciaran was profaned. This bishop died A.D. 899, according to the “Annals of the Four Masters.” An eloquent and a distinguished bishop of the Church, alluding to the words of a venerated and learned ecclesiastic, has remarked, when we hear of those marvellous things, concerning miracles and visions, the Catholic does not believe, that he is bound to accept them all, since those reported miracles have to be examined, upon the very same laws of evidence, by which any other facts are examined. Thus, in the legend of the present holy prelate, an old tradition is here set down, but solely as a curious illustration of our Irish mediaeval folk-lore implored.

    Note: This post was first published in 2013 but has been revised in 2022.

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