OMNIUM SANCTORUM HIBERNIAE

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  • Saint Tuilelaith of Kildare

    On January 10 Canon O’Hanlon brings us an an account of a ninth-century abbess of Kildare. The name of Saint Tuillelaith is recorded in the Irish annals rather than in the calendars.  Her memory was preserved in the works of  the seventeenth-century Franciscan hagiologists, Fathers John Colgan and Michael O’Clery.  The latter, in association with a team of other Donegal Franciscans, produced The Annals of the Four Masters, recording the history of Ireland from earliest times up to their own day. It simply records: 

    The Age of Christ, 882 

    …Tuilelaith,  daughter  of  Uarghalach, Abbess  of  Cill-dara,  died on the 10th of  January… 

    Father Colgan undertook the mammoth task of researching and writing the Acta Sanctorum Hiberniae, but sadly only lived to produce the volumes for the first three months of the year.

     As the name of this successor to Saint Brigid is the only information we have about her, Canon O’Hanlon piously muses on the vocation of Abbess Tuilelaith in Article IV for this day in Volume I of his Lives of the Irish Saints:

    Article IV. St. Tulelacia, or Tuillelaith, Abbess of Kildare. 
     [Ninth Century]
     
    This holy superioress is called the daughter of Huargalach. Her tender soul eagerly imbibed heavenly doctrine, and was wonderfully affected with the things of God. After a time, when she had grown up, she dedicated herself to Him, and took delight in nothing else but in thinking, speaking, or hearing of her Heavenly Spouse, and entertaining herself with His Divine love. She was Abbess of Kildare; and, according to Colgan, she died on the 10th of January, A.D. 882. This date also agrees with one in the Annals of the Four Masters, where she is called Tuilelaith, daughter of Uarghalach. True virtue breathed around her an atmosphere of holiness which all her subjects felt. It seemed something marvellous to meet with one so pure-minded, and so unsuspecting of evil in a world of corruption.

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  • Saint Baoithín, January 9

     

    On January 9 the calendars record the name of a Saint Baoithín (Baithin, Baeithin), but without any further specific information he must remain elusive. Canon O’Hanlon gives this short account in Volume I of his Lives of the Irish Saints:

    Article VIII. St. Baithin. 

    The preservation of a saint’s name is too frequently in our calendars the mere representation of a well-spent life. A festival, in honour of Baithin, is recorded in the Martyrology of Tallagh, at the 9th of January. Nothing more explicit occurs, where Baeithin is simply set down in the Martyrology of Donegal, on this day. His place is not recorded.

    Content Copyright © Omnium Sanctorum Hiberniae 2012-2023. All rights reserved.

  • Saint Lochaid of Moville, January 2

    On January 2 the Irish calendars commemorate Saint Lochaid (Lochait) an abbot of Moville, County Down, the monastery founded by Saint Finnian, who was described in the Life of Saint Comgall as ‘the bishop who sleeps amid many miracles in his own city of Magh Bile’. Not a great deal of information has survived about today’s saint, for as Canon O’Hanlon notes below his death is not recorded in the Irish annals:

    Article IV. St. Lochaid or Lochait, Abbot of Magh Bile or Moville, County of Down. 
     
    The religious community presided over by this saint was situated near the head of Strangford Lough. It lay about an English mile to the north-east of Newtown Ards. We learn from the “Martyrology of Donegal,” that the feast of Lochait, Abbot of Magh-bile, had been celebrated on this day.  A similar entry is met with in the “Martyrology of Tallagh,” at the 2nd of January. Although our annals have deaths of various bishops and abbots of Maghbile, yet this holy man’s name does not appear among them. It is difficult, in consequence, to assign his exact place in the local and abbatial succession.

    Content Copyright © Omnium Sanctorum Hiberniae 2012-2023. All rights reserved.