OMNIUM SANCTORUM HIBERNIAE

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  • Saint Connait of Lismore, November 15

    Among the saints commemorated on November 15 on the Irish calendars is Connait, an eighth-century abbot of Lismore. The Martyrology of Donegal records the date of his repose:

    15. D. DECIMO SEPTIMO KAL. DECEMBRIS. 15.

    CONNAIT, Abbot, of Lismor, A.D. 759.

    A diocesan historian of Lismore gives this summary of Abbot Connait’s monastery:

    The church and monastery of Lismore, which grew to be one of the renowned centres of ancient Irish learning and piety, owed its foundation to St. Mochuda of the 7th century. Mochuda, otherwise Carthage, was a native of Kerry, and he had been abbot of Rahan in Offaly. It is probable that there had been a Christian church at Lismore previous to the time of Mochuda, for in the Saint’s Life there is an implied reference to such a foundation. Be this as it may, Mochuda, driven out of Rahan, with his muintir, or religious household, migrated southward, and, having crossed the Blackwater at Affane, established himself at Lismore in 630. In deference to Mochuda’s place of birth the saint’s successor in Lismore was, for centuries, a Kerryman. Lismore grew in time to be a great religious city, and a school of sacred sciences, to which pilgrims from all over Ireland and scholars from beyond the seas resorted. The rulers of the great establishment were all, or most of them, bishops, though they are more generally styled abbots by the Annalists. Among the number are several who are listed as Saints by the Irish Martyrologies, scil:

    Connait, abbot of Lismore (died 759) … Nov. 15.

    Patrick Power, Waterford & Lismore – A Compendious History of the United Dioceses (Cork, 1937), 5-6.

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  • Saint Constans of Lough Erne, November 14

    November 14 is the feastday of a holy man of Lough Erne, Constans, who is described as a ‘priest and anchorite’ in the Martyrology of Donegal:

    CONSTANS, Priest and Anchorite, of Eo-inis, in Loch Eirne, in Uladh, A.D. 777. He was of the race of Colla Uais, son of Eochaidh Doimhlen, monarch of Erin.

    The year 777 is given as the year of Saint Constans’ repose in the Annals of Ulster which records:

    Constans, sapiens Locha nEirne quievit.

    The Martyrology of Gorman, also at 14 November records:

    Constans of Erne whom we recognise, who was a gracious chief of (monastic) rule.

    Among the traces of the monastic settlements of Lough Erne which survive today are a collection of enigmatic stone carved figures on White Island. Figure number 3 in the collection has been identified as possibly being that of Saint Constans. Pictures and suggested identifications of the figures can be found here. According to the site ‘The figure with the bell and crozier has been identified as Patrick, Christ Abbot of the world, or Constans founder of the Abbey.’

    Archdall’s Monasticon Hibernicum records that the relics of Saint Constans were still extant in the 14th century:

    Inis-Eo or Eonois. Another island in the same lough; St. Constans, the son of Fuasclac, who was abbot and anchorite here, died November 14th, A.D. His bones were translated into a shrine by Matthew, Bishop of Clogher, on the 6th of September, 1308.

    Rt. Rev. P.F. Moran, ed.,M.Archdall, Monasticon Hibernicum, Volume II, (Dublin, 1876), 161.

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  • Saint Lasair of Killesher and Aghavea, November 13

    On November 13 we celebrate the feast day of the last of the handful of Irish female saints who has an extant written Life. The Life of Saint Lasair, however, is the least known and also the latest written, dating as it does to the 17th century. Our saint shares her name with over a dozen others, most of whom are completely obscure. A list of them can be found on the page dealing with homonymous saints here. To introduce our holy lady, below is an account from a diocesan history which refers to the sources. As you will see, Saint Lasair is associated with more than one locality in the lakeland county of Fermanagh, she is also associated with a County Roscommon site, Kilronan, named after the man identified as her father in the sources:

    On the south-eastern shore of Lough Mac Nean, and in County Fermanagh, is the ruined church of Killesher, which has given its name to the parish. Its Gaelic form is Cill Laisir, which has given its name to the parish. Its Gaelic form is Cill Laisir, i.e. the church of St. Laisir who is patroness of the parish. In the Martyrologies we find the entries of no fewer than fourteen saints of the same name, and it is not quite easy now to determine with certainty which of them is here intended. Lassar of Achadh Fada appears in the Martyrology of Donegal on January 6th. O’Donovan, who visited Killesher in 1834, records that there is a Tobar Laistreach beside the ruined church; also the cell of St. Laisir is pointed out in the same town land. But he did not establish the particular saint to whom the church and well were dedicated. 

    In Brother Michael O’Clery’s work on the Genealogies of the Kings and Saints of Ireland – Genealogiae Regum et Sanctorum Hiberniae – in the Franciscan Library, there is a reference to St. Lasair which, however, establishes her identity. The entry concerning her genealogy is as follows: 

    Lasair ingen Ronain m Ninnedha m Aodha m Feargosa m Nélline m Muircertoigh m Muireadhoigh m Eogain m Nell [i.e., Niall] Naoighiallaigh. 

    O Achadh Beither agus o Cill Lasair for bhrú Loca mic nEn, 13 Nou. 

    This identifies St. Lasair, or Laisir, of Cill Lasair beside Loch Mac Nean, with the daughter (ingen) of Ronan, son (m) of Ninnedh, etc., descended from Niall of the Nine Hostages, monarch of Ireland, who died A.D. 405. Her festival is entered on Novemebr 13. It may be accepted without further question that the Cill Lasair for bhrú Loca mic nEn is identical with the present Killesher. Achadh Beither, of which place she is also mentioned as patroness, is also in Co. Fermanagh; it is now Aghavea. 

    Even a century ago, when O’Donovan visited Killesher, the traditions concerning St. Lasair do not appear to have been well remembered. Further local enquiry may ascertain whether there may exist any collateral evidence, such as the date of the annual pattern, which would verify from traditional sources, the festival date of St. Laisir.

    Philip O’Connell, The Diocese of Kilmore – Its History and Antiquities, (Dublin, 1937), 122-123.

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