OMNIUM SANCTORUM HIBERNIAE

Category: Uncategorized

  • Saint Moluainn of Killmologe, October 18

    October 18 is the commemoration of a County Down saint, Moluainn of Killmologue in the Mournes. The Martyrology of Donegal records:

    18. D. QUINTO DECIMO KAL. OCTOBRIS. 18.

    MOLUAINEN, of Tamlacht, in Boirche.

    The diocesan historian, Father James O’Laverty, brings the following account of Saint Moluainn and includes some interesting footnotes. I wonder if there is still such a ‘wonderfully well preserved’ site at this location, it certainly sounded quite impressive when the author was writing in the 1870s. There is a picture of ‘Saint Macquilla’s well’ in the undated reminiscences of an ‘old timer’ here which appears to relate to the same locality but this account says that there is now no trace of the shrine mentioned by Father O’Laverty. Our saint does not feature in the work of Bishop William Reeves on the dioceses of Down, Connor and Dromore, so Father O’Laverty’s is the only information I have available:

    In the townland of Ballyveaghmore there is a place called Killmologe; the people have lost every tradition regarding it, yet the place is considered gentle, and it is therefore wonderfully well preserved. Killmologe signifies the church of St, Luan or St. Lua.* There are many saints of that name St. Bernard mentions in the life of St. Malachy a St. Luan, who studied in Bangor, and afterwards founded one hundred monasteries. The patron of Killmologe is more probably St. Moluainen of Tamlaght in Boirche (Tamlaght in Upper Mourne), whose festival, according to the Martyrology of Donegal, was observed on the 18th of October. Killmologe is a space of ground nearly circular, containing almost a statute acre, its diameter being 240 feet. It is surrounded by a high ditch which is formed by banking up the clay which was taken from the trench on each side of it. The ditch is faced and topped with great stones embedded in the earth. This enclosure has two gates or openings, one to the east and one to the west. On entering the enclosure by the western opening there is, on the left side, what seems to have been a well, and a little farther on a large stone is met, having a cup shaped hole hollowed out of it, which may have been used for holding Holy Water, or perhaps for crushing the corn used for food. On the southern side of the enclosure are three circles of stones embedded in the clay, they seem to be the foundations of rude buildings. One of them which is better defined than the others has a narrow opening on the south side towards the fosse. Near the eastern opening, but towards the south side of it, there are the traces of a rude square building. Outside the circumvallation on the north side there is a large flat stone, in which are scooped two hollows, similar to what in other parts of the country are said to be the marks made by the knees of a saint. This venerable spot, surrounded by what in ancient times was called a Cashel, is exactly similar to an ecclesiastical establishment described by the Venerable Bede as erected about the year 676, in the island of Farne, near Lindisfarne, by St. Cudbert, an Irishman, who had been trained to monastic discipline in Iona.—” Now this dwelling-place was nearly circular, in measure from wall to wall about four or five perches. The wall itself externally was higher than the stature of a man; but inwardly, by cutting the living rock, the pious inhabitant thereof made it much higher in order by this means to curb the petulance of his eyes, as well as of his thoughts, and to raise up the whole bent of his mind to heavenly desires, since he could behold nothing from his mansion except heaven. He constructed this wall not of hewn stone, nor of brick and mortal, but of unwrought stones and turf, which he dug out of the place. Of these stones some were of such a size that it seemed scarcely possible for four men to lift them; nevertheless it was discovered that he had brought them from another place and put them on the wall assisted by heavenly aid. His dwelling place was divided into two parts, an oratory namely and another dwelling suitable for common uses. He constructed the walls of both by digging round, or by cutting out much of the natural earth inside and outwardly, but the roof was formed of rough beams and thatched with straw.” — Life of St. Cudbert by the Venerable Bede. An enclosure, such as Killmologe, surrounding a group of ecclesiastical buildings, when it was built of stone or of earth faced with stone was termed a Cashel, and sometimes a Cahir; they were in imitation of the fortresses in use among the pagan Irish, and frequently they were pagan fortresses that were given up to the clergy. Killmologe may have been Cathair Boirche, the princely residence of Eochaidh Salbhuidhe, before it fell to the possession of St. Moluainen.+

    * Moluainen is equivalent to My dear little Luan. An Irish way of saying St. Luan. The Irish used the diminutive of the name of a saint as a mark of affection and prefixed Mo-my as an expression of devotion ; the diminutives an, in, og, were often postfixed, thus the name, Aodh by this process is changed into Mo-Aodh-og (Mogue), while Luan becomes Moluainin and Molog.

    + An ancient poem preserved in the Martyrology of Donegal describes St. Becan when he was visited by St. Columbkille and the Monarch of Ireland, as engaged in erecting a similar structure.

    Making a wall praying
    Kneeling, pure prayer,
    His tears flowing without unwillingness
    Were the virtues of Becan without fault.

    Hand on stone, hand lifted up,
    Knee bent to set a rock.
    Eye shedding tears, other lamentation.
    And mouth praying.
    Rev. James O’Laverty, An Historical Account of the Diocese of Down and Connor, Ancient and Modern, Vol. I (Dublin, 1878), 26-28.
     
    Content Copyright © Omnium Sanctorum Hiberniae 2012-2015. All rights reserved.

  • Saint Cubretan of Moville, October 17

    October 17 is the commemoration of Saint Cubretan, a holy man associated with the County Down monastery of Moville. The Martyrology of Donegal records:

    17. C. SEXTO DECIMO KAL. NOVEMBRIS. 17.

    CUBRETAN, Anchorite, of Magh-bile.

    Although the passing of various abbots of Moville is recorded in the Irish Annals, they do not note our saint and thus there is no information recorded about the period in which Cubretan the Anchorite flourished. The Anglican scholar, Bishop William Reeves gives this brief sketch of the monastery with which he was associated:
    MAGH-BILE – This church, which stood a short way from the head of Strangford  Lough, and about an English mile to the N. E. of Newtownards, was founded by Finian, or Findbarr [fionn barr ‘white top’], as he was sometimes called,—” a flavis capillis ” (Maguir). The ancient Life of St. Comgall, in the Books of Armagh and Kilkenny, speak of him as ” Vir vitae venerabilis S. Finbarrus Episcopus, qui jacet in miraculis multis in sua civitate Maghbile”. Marian Gorman styles him “Findianus corde devotus, Episcopus de Mag-bile’… The Annals of Inisfallen refer the death of St. Finian to the year 572. It is calculated that his church was founded about the year 540. The memory of this Finian was so much revered in the diocese of Down, that he was regarded as the patron saint of that part of Ulster.

    Rt Rev. William Reeves, Ecclesiastical Antiquities of Down, Connor and Dromore (Dublin, 1857), 151.

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

  • Saint Riaghail of Muicinis, October 16

    The Irish Calendars commemorate Saint Riaghail of Muicinis on October 16, a saint who may also have been honoured in Scotland. There he was later confounded with an eastern saint said to have brought the relics of the apostle Andrew to Scotland. The Monasticon Hibernicum has this to say of Saint Riaghail and his locality:

    Mucinis, Regulus, who was living in the time of the great St. Columb, was abbot of Mucinis, in Lough-Derg, bordering the County of Galway; his festival is held here on 16th of October.

    to which Bishop Moran has added:

    The name of St. Regulus, in Irish Riaghail, is entered in the Martyrology of Donegal, on the 16th of October: — “Riaghail, Abbot of Muicinis, in Loch Deirgdheire.” He is also commemorated in the Felire of Aengus with the strophe: — “Riaghail, gifted was his career.” His Acts are inserted in the Breviary of Aberdeen and he is especially honoured in St Andrew’s, in Scotland, on March 30th and October the 17th.

    Rt. Rev. P.F. Moran, ed.,M.Archdall, Monasticon Hibernicum, Volume II, (Dublin, 1876), 223.

    I was left unsure if our Irish saint is the same as the saint venerated in Scotland and turned to Bishop Forbes’ work on the Scottish calendars to see what evidence he could muster:

    REGULUS or RULE. March 30 and October 17.—The commemoration of the Scotch S. Regulus occurs in the Breviary of Aberdeen on March 30, the same day as that of “S. Regulus or Rieul, who, having converted the country of Senlis to the faith, about the same time that S. Dionysius preached in France, was made first bishop of Senlis, and died in peace in the midst of his flock.”—(Alban Butler ad diem, on the authority of the Bollandists and Tillemont.) So Usuardus, “Apud castrum Silvanectensium, depositio Sancti Reguli episcopi et confessoris.”—(Ed. Seller, p. 180.) Another day, the 17th of October, is also kept in his honour: Quoniam in quadragesima de eo non fuerit servitium, omnia sicut in alio festo, sed differtur in crastinum (Brev. Aberd. pars estiv. fol. cxxviii.); and it is remarkable that the 16th of October is the day of S. Riaghail, abbot of Muicinis, in Lough Derg on the Shannon (Mart. Donegal). He is commemorated in the Felire of Aengus at October 16th as

    Riaguil raith arremsin.
    [Riagail gifted was his career.]

    which is glossed by
    i. Riagail Muicindsi fa Loch derc.
    [i.e. Riaghail of Muicinis in Loch Derg.]

    The Breviary of Aberdeen says that he is specially honoured in S. Andrews and its diocese. The Martyrology of Aberdeen associates him with the church of Kylrewni…

    Alexander Penrose Forbes, D.C.L. Bishop of Brechin, Kalendars of Scottish Saints, (1872), 436-437.

    Thus it would appear that it is the close coincidence of the feast days of the Irish saint and of the Scot  which suggests they are the same person. The Irish Bishop Moran, however, presents a plausible case for the presence of our Saint Riaghail in Scotland in another of his works. After establishing that the original name for St Andrew’s was Kilrigmond, he says:

    The first mention which we find of Kilrigmond points it out as a monastery of Irish religious, and, among other saints, the patron of Kilkenny, St. Canice, pursued there a life of holy seclusion for some  time. Even St. Regulus himself is found to have been one of those Irish saints, and his name is none other than the Irish Riaghail. He was a contemporary of St. Canice, and famed in our early church as abbot of Muicinish, in Lough Derg, on the Shannon, and, like many of our saints, it is probable that he made North Britain the theatre of his missionary zeal, and closed his days at Kil-Rigmond. It was only in the year 736 that the Pictish monarch, in gratitude to God for a great victory which he had achieved, erected there a church in honour of his patron, St. Andrew, which he enriched with vast possessions, and which in the course of time became the royal and primatial church of the whole kingdom. At the time that St. Andrew’s was thus founded, Kil-Rigmond had the Irishman, Tuathal, for its abbot, whose demise is recorded in the Annals of Tighernach under the year 747.

    Right Rev. P.F. Moran, Irish Saints in Great Britain (Dublin, 1879), 200.

    Note: For more on the legend of Saint Regulus see here.