OMNIUM SANCTORUM HIBERNIAE

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  • Saint Colmán Muilinn of Derrykeighan, January 1

     

    We start the new year with a feast of one of the many Irish saints Colmán to be found on the calendars. Colmán Muillin, Colmán of the mill, is an early saint from County Antrim whom genealogical sources claim was a grandson of Mílchú or Míleac, the man who held Saint Patrick in slavery. The calendar entry in the Martyrology of Donegal tells us that it was in a mill that he used to make obeisance to his brethern and thus acquired his name. Pádraig Ó Riain’s Dictionary of Irish Saints tells us that Colmán Muillin was also reputed to have been part of ‘a marauding group of laymen’ whose leader was none too pleased when he opted to follow Saint Colmán Éala of Lynally instead. Below is Canon O’Hanlon’s account of the saint taken from Volume I of his Lives of the Irish Saints:

    Article IV. St. Colman Muilinn, of Derrykeighan, County of Antrim. [Fifth or Sixth Century.]

     From various accounts, it would appear, the Church of Derrykeighan must have been one of the oldest foundations in Ireland. Its first administrator is stated to have been brother to St. Mochay, who died towards the close of the fifth century. The name of this place seems to have been derived from doire ‘an oak wood’ and from chaochain, a proper name, and also meaning, “purblind.” Foundations of the original church remain in the old churchyard. Upon them stand the roofless walls of an old building.

    Colman Muilinn is simply entered in the “Martyrology of Tallagh” on this day. He belonged to a place known as Derrykeighan, in the county of Antrim, and within the diocese of Connor. Further particulars concerning him we read in the “Martyrology of Donegal.” There it is stated that Colman Muilinn, of Doire-Chaechain, belonged to Dal-Riada, in Ulster. Bronach, daughter of Milchu, son to Buan, is said to have been his mother. We are informed, likewise, that it was in a mill St. Colman used to make obeisance to the brethren. No clue to the date of his death can be found in our Annals.

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  • A Prayer to the Saints at the End of the Year

    The following prayer to the saints is found at the end of the notes to the Martyrology of Oengus after the final entries at December 31. I have previously posted a similar prayer from the Martyrology of Gorman here. Both of our martyrologists entreat the intercession and protection of the Irish saints whose feast days they have recorded for us. Saint Oengus uses the affectionate diminutive Ísucán when asking Christ to grant his prayer, which the translator Whitley Stokes has rendered as ‘O dear little Jesus’:

    May every saint who has been, is, and will be till doom victorious division –
    in Christ’s pious company, may they be helping me! 
    May they be helping me in heaven and on earth,
    and come in their bands to work along with my soul. 
    O dear little Jesus, [Ísucán] may it thus be fulfilled!

    Every saint, every holy virgin, every martyr, whom I have recounted, every high apostle, 

    their prayer for me to God whom I fear, may it protect me from every fierce danger!

     W. Stokes ed. and trans., The Martyrology of Oengus the Culdee (London, 1905, p. 263).

     

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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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