OMNIUM SANCTORUM HIBERNIAE

Category: Saints of Wexford

  • Saint Fintan Munna of Taghmon, October 21

    October 21 is the feast of Saint Fintan better known as Saint Munna. Munna is an important figure who features in a number of well-known episodes from the lives of the Irish saints.  He also played a significant role in the Paschal Dating Controversy. All the sources suggest that he was quite a fiery character who was not to be crossed lightly. There is a 2015 account of Saint Munna by scholar Gilbert Markus written for the Kilmartin Museum Trust available online here. Below is an older account of the saint from another Scottish author which summarizes the main points of his career:

    21 St. Mund or Fintan-Munnu, Abbot, A.D. 635, 
    HE was born in Ireland, and was a contemporary of St. Columba. He bears the character of being the most austere of all the Irish saints, and suffered grievously from bodily infirmities with the greatest resignation. Crossing over to Scotland, he dwelt for a time upon an island of Loch Leven, still called after him by the title of Eileanmunde. A more important foundation was afterwards made by this saint at Kilmun, north of the Firth of Clyde, in Argyllshire. An old burial ground still marks the site of the monastery founded by St. Mund; the hills and wooded glens which surround the spot make up a scene of striking beauty. A small bay in the vicinity is called ” Holy Loch”. It is a matter of dispute whether the title came from its proximity to St. Mund’s foundation or from a shipload of earth from the Holy Land, destined to form part of the foundation of a church in Glasgow, and reputed to have been sunk in a storm near that spot. It is said that St. Mund made application to Baithen, St. Columba’s successor at Iona, to be received as a monk of that monastery, but that Baithen advised the saint to return to Ireland and found a monastery there. The holy abbot gave this advice on account of a prophecy of St. Columba, who had foreseen St. Mund’s desire, and had declared that God willed that saint to become abbot over others and not the disciple of Baithen. It was owing to this advice that St. Mund returned to his native land and founded Teach-Mun (Tagmon) in Wexford, which became famous under his rule. Mediaeval documents mention the saint’s pastoral staff as preserved in Argyllshire; its hereditary custodian held a small croft at Kilmun; it may have been in honour of this saint that a fair was held at that place for eight days during April as alluded to in records of 1490. No trace of the above relic now remains. In Ireland this saint is known as St. Fintan-Munnu; but Mundus or Mund is the title which appears in Scottish records.
    Dom Michael Barrett, O.S.B., A Calendar of Scottish Saints (2nd. revised ed., Fort Augustus, 1919), 151-152.

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  • Saint Cuan of Airbhre, 10 July

    I

    A County Wexford saint, Cuan of Airbhre, is commemorated on the Irish calendars at July 10.  Canon O’Hanlon brings us the details:

    St. Cuain or Cuan, of Airbhre, in Hy Kinsellagh.

    At the 10th of July, the festival of Cuan is found in the “Feilire” of St. Aengus. A commentary annexed states, that he was Cuan Airbre in Ui-Cennselaig, and he is the same as Cuan of Maethail Broccain in Desi of Munster. This latter place, as we are told,  was in the deaconate of Killbarrimedin, in the diocese of Lismore, and where there was a church and a well dedicated to St. Cuan. The Martyrology of Tallagh registers a festival at the 10th of July, in honour of Cuain of Airbir, in h Cendselaigh. The Martyrology of Marianus O’Gorman has a similar identification, according to Father O’Sheerin, when furnishing some particulars regarding the present saint to the Bollandists, who allude to him at the present date. We are informed by Dr. O’Donovan, that Kilquan, in the county of Wexford, takes its name from a church dedicated to the present holy man. Tobar Cuan was situated five chains south-west from the ruins of Kilcowanmore, as we learn from the same gentleman. Notices of a religious man named Cuan are introduced in the Acts of St. Fintan of Dunbleisque, and Colgan thinks he must be identical with the present saint. At this date, in the Martyrology of Donegal, is recorded Cuan, of Airbhre, in Ui Ceinnsealaigh, in Leinster ; and he is the same, we are told, as Cuan, of Maethail Brogain, in Deisi Mumhan. Among many other saints bearing the same name, he is mentioned by Colgan. His place has been identified with Cuain Airbhre, in Hy Kinsellagh, a place now called Ballybrennan, at Kilcowanmore, barony of Bantry, and county of Wexford. This part of Ireland, it would appear, formerly abounded in silver.  The Kalendar of Drummond  has notices of St. Cuain, at the 10th of July.

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  • Saint Mosiloc of Cloonatten, July 13

    At July 13, Canon O’Hanlon has a notice for a County Wexford saint whose name appears on all of the calendars, but of whose life we otherwise have very few details. In the account below of Saint Mosiloc, I have transferred some of the original footnotes citing the calendar entries plus remarks by the Irish Ordnance Survey scholars, John O’Donovan and W. M. Hennessy, on the locality associated with the saint, into the text. There is a website dealing with the study of Wexford placenames here. Finally, please note that the Martyrology of Aengus records the saint at the 13th of July and not June as printed on page 224 of Volume 7 of The Lives of the Irish Saints:

    St. Mosiloc or Mothiolog, of Cloonatten, Parish of Kilmichael Oge, County of Wexford.

    The name of this holy man, as Siloc, is entered in the “Feilire” of St. Aengus, at the 13th of June. There he receives a high encomium. In the “Leabhar Breac” copy we have the following stanza, translated into English by Whitley Stokes, LL.D. :—

    “Sweet the name with splendour
    of Evangelus the sainted,
    with my Siloc of the kings,
    he went into the noble realm of peace.”

    In a commentary added, he is styled and identified as “my Siloc, i.e., of Cell Mo-siloc in Ui-Degad, in Ui-Cennseliag.” Hence, it should seem, that Siloc was simply his name, and it is entered Silog in the Calendar of Cashel. Veneration was given to Mosiloc Cluana Daethcain, at the 13th of July, as appears in the Martyrology of Tallagh. In Rev. Dr. Kelly’s edition of the Martyrology of Tallagh, this place is identified with Clonkeen, Queen’s County. His name and place are elsewhere differently entered. At this same date, we find in the Martyrology of Donegal, Mothiolog, of Cill Mothiolog, in Ui-Ceinnsealaigh, or Mothiolog, of Cluain Aithghin. This place is Cloonatten, in the parish of Kilmichael Oge, in the barony of Gorey, and county of Wexford. A note by O’Donovan says, “Mothiolog now corrupted to Kilmichaelog,” I find another note appended by William M. Hennessy to this ancient denomination, “Kilmokiloge or Kilmichaeloge, near Gorey, County Waterford,”(? Wexford). There is a curious old church in that locality. In the Kalendar of Drummond the feast of this saint is inserted, at the present date. Thus: “13 iii. Idus. In Hibernia Sancti Confessoris Mosiloc.”—Bishop Forbes’ “Kalendars of Scottish Saints”, p. 18. There is an entry of Mosilocus, at the 13th of July, in the work of the Bollandists. Father O’Sheerin supplied them with the notice inserted.

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