OMNIUM SANCTORUM HIBERNIAE

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  • 'Pure was her heart amid the wicked': In Praise of Saint Samthann

    December 19 is the feast of Saint Samthann of Clonbroney, County Longford. She is one of only a handful of women saints to have left a written Life and I have posted some selections from the Life of Saint Samthann here. Although the Life is the most important source of information regarding this saint it is not the only one. She features in a number of other sources including the poem below, attributed to an eighth-century high king, Aodh Allán, son of Fearghal. In it the poet pays tribute to Saint Samthann’s reputation for asceticism and her courage in the struggles of the monastic life:

    “734: Fifth year of Aed Allan.

    Saint Samtain, virgin, of Cluain Bronaig (Longford), died on December 19. It was of her that Aed Allan gave this testimony:

    “Samtain for enlightening various sinners,
    A servant who observed stern chastity,
    In the wide plain of fertile Meath
    Great suffering did Samtain endure;

    She undertook a thing not easy,
    Fasting for the kingdom above.
    She lived on scanty food;
    Hard were her girdles;

    She struggled in venomous conflicts;
    Pure was her heart amid the wicked.
    To the bosom of the Lord, with a pure death,
    Samtain passed from her trials.”

    Charles Johnston, Ireland, Historic and Picturesque, (Philadelphia, 1901), 226.
     

     

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  • Saint Colum of Terryglass at Inishcaltra

    December 13 is the feast of Saint Colum of Terryglass, County Tipperary. He is also credited in the Life preserved in the Salamancan Codex with being the founder of the monastery at Inishcaltra, an island off the western shore of Lough Derg, County Clare. Professor Pádraig Ó Riain has translated The Life of Colum of Terryglass in his 2014 collection Four Tipperary Saints and below are three short extracts which deal with Saint Colum’s time on the holy island of Inishcaltra. In the first we see a familiar trope from hagiography, where a saint is directed to a particular location by an angelic messenger. Then once there a source of sustenance is miraculously provided for him in the form of a sweet-tasting tree sap which also has ‘the inebriating quality of wine’. Finally, we have a sample of Saint Colum’s spiritual wisdom prompted by a question from one of his faithful monastics:

    …An angel of the Lord then appeared to him, to say ‘Arise and go to Inishcaltra’. There he found an old man by the name of Mac Reithe, to whom the angel said: ‘Relinquish this island to Colum and go somewhere else as a monk of his’, which he did.

    Then, on the day of Colum’s arrival on Inishcaltra, the Lord made a meal for him, for there was a certain tree on the island by the name of lime-tree whose sap, on dripping down, filled a vessel and had the taste of honey. The fluid had the inebriating quality of wine, and Colum and his followers were sated by this excellent liquid.

    Colum then lived on Inishcaltra for a long time, and the birds of the sky clung intimately to him there, flying about his face and playing. At this, his disciple Nadh Caoimhe said: ‘Why, master, do the birds not take flight from you: they truly avoid us?’ Colum replied: ‘Why should birds avoid a bird? Just as the bird flies, so does my mind never cease from flying to heaven’.

     P. Ó Riain, ed. and trans., ‘The Life of Colum of Terryglass’ in Four Tipperary Saints, (Four Courts Press, 2014), 15~ 16~ 17~, p. 13.

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  • The Character of Saint Finnian

    The Character of Saint Finnian

    Finian died at Clonard, in A.D. 552. An old writer has left us the following sketch of his character: — “He was full of wisdom, as a scribe most learned to teach the law of God’s commandments. He was most merciful and compassionate, and sincerely sympathised with the infirmities of the sick, and the sorrows of the afflicted; and in every work of mercy he was most ready with his assistance. He healed with mildness the mental and bodily ills of all who came to him. Towards himself he exercised the strictest discipline, to leave to others a good example. He loved all from a pure heart. He abhorred all carnal and mental vices. His ordinary food was bread and herbs, his drink water; but on the festivals of the Church, he ate bread made of corn, and drank a cup of ale, or whey. When obliged to take moderate repose, he slept not on a soft and easy couch, but rather on the bare ground, with a stone for his pillow. In a word, he was full of compassion toward all other men, but of strictness and severity to himself.”

    Vita St. Finian,— Colgan’s AA. SS. p. 397.

    W. G. Todd, A History of the Ancient Church in Ireland (London, 1845), 31.

    Content Copyright © Omnium Sanctorum Hiberniae 2012-2022. All rights reserved.