OMNIUM SANCTORUM HIBERNIAE

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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.

  • All the Saints of Ireland, November 6

    November 6 is the Feast of All the Saints of Ireland and, since it is the date on which I started Omnium Sanctorum Hiberniae in 2012, is also this site’s patronal feast. As my original inspiration was the monumental Lives of the Irish Saints of John, Canon O’Hanlon (1821-1905), it seems fitting to mark the feast with this splendid tribute taken from the introduction to his very first volume. I would like to thank everyone who has supported the blog over the last decade and wish you the blessings of the Feast. Beannachtaí na Féile oraibh go Léir! Orate pro nobis omnes Sancti Hiberniae!

    By the Irish prelates and religious, vast numbers of sainted persons were inscribed on our martyrologies and calendars; churches were built in their honour, and called after them; their relics were frequently preserved there, and exposed for veneration to the faithful; litanies and hymns were composed in their honour; Masses and offices were celebrated in their name; they were invoked by prayers; while every just title of religious prescription has hallowed their memory, leaving them as our guardians and intercessors in heaven.

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