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.

    Content Copyright © Omnium Sanctorum Hiberniae 2012-2016. All rights reserved.

  • Saint Abbán of Moyarney, October 27

    One of the saints, commemorated on October 27 in the Martyrology of Oengus as ‘Abbán an abbot fair and train-having’, presents us with something of a mystery as to his identity. One problem is that as the scholiasts’ notes make clear, the lifespan of this saint was said to have exceeded three hundred years:

    27. Abbán, great-grandson of Cormac, i.e. from Cell Abbain in Hui Muiredaig and from Mag Ernaidi in Húi Cennselaig, i.e. in Húi Buidi; and a great-grandson of Cormac is he himself; and this is the feast of his nativity.

    Abbán, son of Laignech, son of Cainnech, son of Imchad, son of Cormac, son of Cucorp.

    Seventeen pure-shaped years, in addition to the number three-hundred, the age of Abbán, shapely lord, while he was in the body.

    This plus the extraordinary number of churches which claim Abbán as founder, has led many writers to speculate that there must have been more than one saint of this name, even though the sources try to present a single individual, Abban of Kilabban, a nephew of Saint Ibar, whose feast is commemorated on March 16. Writer Eoin Neeson attempts to clarify the matter:

    ABBAN of Moyarney, County Wexford. An abbot who has been confused with Abban of Killabbban in Laois and whose feast-day is on March 16. They may have been the same individual, but there is no certainty either way. Tradition would suggest that there were two Abbans, while holding that there was only one; but if so he must have been singularly long-lived for he died in 630, yet is reputed to have preached before the coming of Patrick (432). It is probable that there were two Abbans, to-day’s being the latter. He was of royal blood and, indeed, was imprisoned by his father because he chose the Church rather than the local kingship. He is invoked against shipwreck.

    Eoin Neeson, The Book of Irish Saints (Cork, 1967), 190.

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

  • Saint Colman of Seanbotha, October 27

    October 27 is the feastday of yet another Irish Saint Colman, this one associated with the locality of Sean Botha, which the great 19th-century scholar John O’Donovan identified as the present day Templeshanbo, County Wexford. Father Jerome Fahey gives the following account of Saint Colman in his diocesan history of Kilmacduagh:

    In the Martyrology of Donegal we find the following notice of St Colman Hy Fiachrach: “Colman Ua Fiachrach of Sean Botha in Ui Ceansealaigh. He is of the race of Fiachra.” We find a supplementary notice of the Saint, which casts much additional light on his descent, in the Customs of Hy Fiachrach.

    Here we are told that his mother was Fearamhla, sixth in descent from Dathy, and fifth from Fochaid Breac, ancestor of St. Colman Mac Duagh. “And she was the mother of St. Colman, the son of Elochaid, who is, i.e, lies, interred at Sean Bhotach in Hy Censiolaigh.” And in the Martyrology of Donegal it is added, ” He is of the race of Fiachra.” We also find, on the same authority, that the “three O’Suanaighs,” memorable amongst our early Saints, were his brothers, as were also St Aodhan of Cluain Eochaille and St Dichlethe O’Triallaigh.

    We find in the life of St Maidoc, that he was a contemporary of St Colman of Kilmacduagh. St. Colman Ua Fiachrach was therefore a contemporary as well as a kinsman of Guaire, King of Connaught It is therefore not improbable that he may have built his church at Kinvara for the convenience of his pious relative and his court He afterwards became abbot of the monastery at Seanbotha, in which he was interred.

    The church of Seanbotha is identified by O’Donovan as that now called Temple-Shambo, “which is situated at the foot of Mount Leinster, in the barony of Scarawalsh and county of Wexford.” The monastery of Temple-Shambo was probably founded by himself. His festival was observed there on the 27th October, the exact date on which his feast is fixed in the Martyrology of Donegal.

    Rev. J. Fahey, The History and Antiquities of the Diocese of Kilmacduagh (Dublin, 1893), 31.

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