OMNIUM SANCTORUM HIBERNIAE

Category: Uncategorized

  • Saint Killian of Würzburg, July 8

    July 8 is the feastday of Saint Killian (Kilian, Cillian, Chilianus), an Irish missionary saint martyred in continental Europe along with two companions on this day in the year 689. It is therefore perhaps appropriate that we allow another Irishman exiled to the continent at a later period, the Abbé Mac Geoghegan, to remind us of Saint Killian’s career. The Abbé’s History of Ireland Ancient and Modern was published in French around 1750, an English translation was issued in Ireland in the early 19th century and a second edition in New York in the 1840s. In the footnotes to his account of Saint Killian, the Abbé cites various continental chroniclers to prove the saint’s Irish origins and I have reproduced those here. Finally, the picture below shows one of the special items issued jointly by the Irish and German post offices in 1989 to commemorate the 1300th anniversary of Saint Kilian’s martyrdom.

    St. Kilian, a native of Ireland, called the apostle of Franconia, left his country with two companions called Colonat and Totnan, the one a priest and the other a deacon; being desirous to visit the church of Rome, he took his route through Flanders and Germany on his arrival in Rome, having been presented to pope Conon, the holy father found him to be possessed of so much wisdom, and so perfect in his knowledge of the holy Scriptures, that he ordained and appointed him to preach the gospel to the infidels of Franconia, where having converted duke Gosbert, and a great number of his subjects, he fixed his see at Würtzburg, of which he was the first bishop, and was afterwards honoured as a martyr.

    Gosbert, whilst he was a pagan, married Geilana, his brother’s wife; but being converted to Christianity, St. Kilian, like another John the Baptist, reproached him with truly apostolical freedom, for this incestuous marriage, and advised him to separate from her; Gielana, exasperated at the holy prelate’s reproof, caused him and his companions to be assassinated on the 8th of July, 689, the day on which they are honoured by the church as martyrs.

    The removal of these holy bodies by St. Burchard, bishop of that see, gave rise to the Hexastich, as subjoined; it was written in the beginning of the sixteenth century, by Doctor Engilhard Funkius. Some works are attributed to St Kilian, namely a treatise against Arianism, and one against extraneous worship.

    Selections from Continental Writers Quoted by Abbé Mac Geoghegan to Prove the Irish Origins of Saint Kilian:

    “From a district of Austria, and a castle called Wirtzburg near the river Meuse, the birth-place of the martyr Chilianus and two of his companions, who after coming from the island of Scotia (Ireland) preached the gospel of Christ in the above places.” —Martyrology of Rhabanus.

    “The holy Kilianus born in the island of Hibernia (Ireland) is considered as a renowned bishop of Würtzburg.”—Marianus Scotus

    “Saint Kilianus an Irish monk, preached in these times the evangelical doctrine to the eastern Francs, and is called their apostle.”—Chronicles of Cardinal Bellarmini.

    “In a district of Austria, where stood a castle of New France, nay a city as in the Teutonic dialect, Wirtzburg, situate near the river Meuse, signifies, the martyrdom of St. Kilianus, the first bishop of that city, and that of his two disciples, Colonatus a presbyter, and Totnanus a deacon,took place. They came from Ireland, the island of the Scots, and after receiving the authority of the apostolical see, they preached the name of Christ to that city and district.”—Martyrology of Notker.

    “The martyrdom of Saint Kilianus, the first bishop of Wurtzburgh, and of his two disciples Colonatus a presbyter, and Totnatus a dean, who coming from Hibernia the island of the Scots, having received their authority from the apostolical see, preached the name of Christ in that place and the surrounding country.”—Notker le Begue, monk of St Gall.

    The History of Ireland Ancient and Modern taken from the most authentic records and dedicated to the Irish Brigade by the Abbé Mac Geoghegan (Dublin, 1844), 117, 194.

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

  • The Legend of Saint Mochaoi of Oendruim

    The Legend of Saint Mochaoi of Oendruim

    by Seamus O Cuisin

    ST MOCHAOI was born about 420 A.D.; founded the abbey of Oendruim (pronounced Endrim; i.e.,”the single ridge”), on the beautiful island bearing that name, about 450; and died in the year 496 or 497. For several centuries the abbey, in which education and monasticism were combined, occupied a prominent position, and from it emanated a number of subsequent founders of similar institutions. Between 974 and 1178 history is silent in regard to it; but it is certain that, from its position on Loch Cuan (Strangford), which was infested by Danish marauders, it came in for a large share of their devastating attentions. From its affiliation, in 1178, with an English religious establishment, it seems to have fallen into a condition of decay; and in 1450 it is simply noted as a parish church in the charge of the Bishop of Down.

    The island of Oendruim or, as it is now called, Mahee, from Inis Mochaoi, in memory of its patron saint and founder is situated most picturesquely on Strangford Lough, about seven miles from Comber, and is approachable on foot or car by a fine modern causeway, which crosses an intervening island. On the shore end of the island may be seen many remains of the stone buildings which superseded the original wooden structures in the history of this venerable, romantic, but popularly-neglected shrine. These remains include the stump of a round tower; traces of extensive foundations, once partially laid bare by the late Bishop Reeves, and now almost entirely hidden from sight again; the site of the harbour, where anchored “ships” from Britain; evidences of a God’s-acre, hallowed by long time and association ; and a fairly complete castle of a later period. The circuit of the island can be made on foot leisurely in a couple of hours, and the walk affords a view of the extensive waters of the once Dane-infested lough, the distant hoary walls of Greyabbey, the haunts of Saint Patrick, the scene of the death of Ollamh Fodhla, and the daring and unscrupulous deeds of De Courcy, and many other places of interest.

    Baile Draigin (Ballydrain) about half-way between Comber and Mahee Island is so called from baile, a place, and Draigin, a blackthorn tree; and the reader will observe the connection between this place and the story. No trace of a church, however, has yet been discovered at Ballydrain.

    Rudraide (pronounced Rury) is the modern Dundrum Bay.

    The idea contained in the following verses has been variously rendered by several eminent authors. The incident in which it is here embodied may, however, be fairly claimed as the oldest version the original in fact.

    Quoth good Saint Mochaoi of Oendruim:
    “I will build for Christ my master
    Here a church, and here defend Him
    And His cause from all disaster.”
    Seven score youths cut beam and wattle;
    Seven score hands unseared in battle
    Their unstinted aid did lend him,
    Fast and ever faster.

    But though arm, and voice loud-ringing,
    To a test of toil defied him,
    Right and left the wattles flinging,
    Not a tongue could dare deride him;
    For, before them all, he stood
    Finished, waiting. Not a rood
    From the spot a bird was singing
    In a thorn beside him.

    Sang no bird in ancient story
    Half so sweet or loud a strain:
    Seaward to the loch of Rudraide,
    Landward then, and back again
    Swelled the song, and trilled and trembled
    O’er the toiling youths assembled,
    Rang around ‘mid summer glory
    There at Baile-draigin.

    Far more beautiful the bird was
    Than the bright-plumed bird of bliss,
    And the Abbot’s feeling stirred was
    To its deepest depths, I wis ;
    ‘Til, as from the fiery splendour
    Moses saw, in accents tender
    Spake the bird, and lo! the word was:
    “Goodly work is this.”

    “True,” quoth Saint Mochaoi of Oendruim,
    ” ‘Tis required by Christ my master
    Here to build, and here defend Him
    And His cause from all disaster :
    But my blood mounts high with weening
    Of this gracious word the meaning.”
    Nearer then the bird did tend him,
    Fast and ever faster.

    “I shall answer. I descended
    From mine angel soul’s compeers,
    From my home serene and splendid
    To this haunt of toil and tears;
    Came to cheer thee with a note
    From an angel’s silvern throat.”
    Then he sang three songs: each, ended,
    Made a hundred years.

    There, through days that dawned and darkened,
    With his wattles by his side,
    Stood the island Saint, and hearkened
    To that silvery-flowing tide ;
    Stood entranced, and ever wonder’d
    ‘Til had circled thrice a hundred
    Years, o’er fields life-lade or stark, and
    Cuan’s waters wide.

    Then, when came the final number,
    Ceased the angel-bird its strain,
    And, unheld by ills that cumber
    Mortals, sought the heavenly plain.
    Then the Saint, in mute amaze,
    Round him turned an anxious gaze,
    And from that far land of slumber
    Came to earth again.

    There his load, ‘mid weed and flower,
    Lay beside him all unbroken,
    ‘Til, with thrice augmented power,
    From his holy dream awoken,
    Up he bore it to his shoulder,
    Broad, and not a hand’s-breadth older.
    Scarce, thought he, had passed an hour
    Since the bird had spoken.

    Toward his island church he bore it.
    Lo! an oratory gleaming,
    And ” To Saint Mochaoi “writ o’er it.
    “Now,” quoth he, “in truth I’m dreaming.
    Say, good monk, at whose consistory
    Shall I solve this mighty mystery,
    And to form of fact restore it
    From this shadowy seeming?”

    So he spake to one who faced him
    With a look of mild surprise,
    One who swiftly brought and placed him
    ‘Neath the Abbot’s searching eyes.
    Leave him there. Not mine to rhyme of
    Deeds that filled the later time of
    Him who, fain though years would waste him,
    Ages not nor dies.

    Ends the wondrous old-time story
    Of the bird’s long, lethal strain,
    Sung through summers hot and hoary,
    Winters white on mount and main ;
    And the monks, to mark the mission
    Of the bird so says tradition
    Built a church to God’s great glory
    There at Baile-draigin.

    Ulster Journal of Archaeology,  Vol 10 (1904), 100-103.

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

  • Saint Colman and the Water Monster

    June 7 is the feastday of Saint Colman of Dromore. Below is an account of one of the stranger episodes in Saint Colman’s life, his encounter with a ‘water monster’. Such creatures are not unknown in Irish hagiography; the most famous encounter between a saint and a denizen of the deep is probably that of Saint Columba with a sea monster, recorded in Adamnan’s Life of Columba. The author here is our own Canon O’Hanlon, this time wearing his other hat as a writer of Irish folklore under the pseudonym Lageniensis, the Leinsterman. His concluding remarks suggest that he takes the entire matter of this creature very seriously, but perhaps a Leinsterman’s naivety about crocodiles can be forgiven in a country where we’ve never even seen a snake:

    Not far from the episcopal city of Dromore, flow the lazy deep waters of the River Lagan, and often the Patron Saint, Bishop Colman, rambled along its banks in prayer and meditation. Indeed, if tradition speak the truth, often he passed over it with dry feet. But, it was well known, a great water monster lurked beneath its surface, always in quest of prey. Notwithstanding the danger of approaching him, yet, an incautious and innocent young damsel went down the bank, and stood upon some stepping-stones to beetle her linen. The wily monster sailed slowly towards her, and before she was aware of his approach, he suddenly reared his huge head from the deep, opened his tremendous jaws, and at one gulp swallowed the poor maiden alive. Although her terror was very great, yet she had presence of mind to call out, “Oh, holy Colman, save me!” Her cry was heard by the saint, and he prayed to Heaven for her release. Some of the girl’s companions who stood on the bank, and who witnessed that fearful doom, set up shouts and screams. But St. Colman approached the river, and commanded the infernal beast to deliver up his prey. Then the girl he had swallowed was cast unharmed on the bank. There, to this very day, are shown the tracks of the holy bishop’s feet, and that path down to the Lagan is called “St. Colman’s road.” The monster of the deep was afterwards banished far off, and to the shores of the Red Sea; but whether he survives in the shape of a modern crocodile—they are said to live for centuries—and sheds tears for his past delinquencies, or whether he has been long buried in the sands of Egypt, must furnish matter for further inquiry, as history and tradition are alike silent on the subject.

    ‘Lageniensis’, Irish Local Legends, No. VIII, The Water Monster (Dublin, 1896), 26-27.

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