OMNIUM SANCTORUM HIBERNIAE

Category: Uncategorized

  • The Holy Wells of Achill Island

     

    Holy wells played a large part in the preservation of the memories of the saints of Ireland, acting not only as sites where their intercession could be sought, particularly for healing, but as the focal point for the celebration of a saint’s ‘pattern’ or feast day. They are found throughout the country, including on Ireland’s off-shore islands. Below is a brief account of three of the holy wells of Achill Island, County Mayo, from a 1910 work by P.W. Joyce. The first seems to be connected to a Saint Damnet and attracted pilgrims on August 15. The second is linked to Saint Colman, who sought refuge in the west of Ireland at ‘Mayo of the Saxons’ following the adoption of the Roman date of Easter. Joyce records that this well too was still being visited by Achill’s older people in his day. The final one is equally interesting and illustrates many of the difficulties associated with the attribution of holy wells to specific saints in folk tradition.  It is known as Saint Finan’s well but Joyce is doubtful about this, I presume his remarks on the placing of a well-known prefix, in this case mo, ‘my’ to many saints’ names explains how the Minan cliffs have been interpreted as deriving from ‘Mo Finan’, which he feels may be ‘fanciful philology’. Instead he offers an intriguing alternative explanation concerning a former parish priest and his remarkable saddle horse! Interestingly, the Connaught Telegraph of August 8, 2022 carried a report that the holy wells of Mayo are to be surveyed by archaeologists so perhaps we can learn more of those on Achill Island in the near future:

    THE HOLY WELLS OF ACHILL ISLAND.

    We take the liberty of introducing the reader to the holy wells in Achill, which show that this storm-swept island was not untrodden by the saints of ancient Ireland.

    There is a holy well at Kildownett, hard by the graveyard, which a tradition, but a very faint one, connects with a St. Damnet. It is still visited by pilgrims on the 15th of August. There is also one of more note at Sliabh More, called after St. Colman, the patron of Dukinella church. Probably St. Colman may have crossed over from Inish Boffin to Achill Island, in search of a suitable site for a monastery, wherein to segregate the Saxon monks who followed him and his Irish disciples from Lindisfarne. The Celts and Saxons seemed to have found it more  difficult to practice the evangelical counsels, living under the same roof. Accordingly, their prudent founder, St. Colman, left the Celts in possession of Irish Boffin and went in search of a monastic site for the Saxon brethren. He at length succeeded in founding a monastery at Mayo, which was called Mayo of the Saxons. The old people still make pilgrimages to St. Colman’s well.

    The third and last, which we wish particularly to describe, is situated in a scene of solitude and beauty close by the Cathedral Rocks in the Keel strand. It was, indeed, a happy thought to make it holy. The wonders of nature around, mountain majesty and thundering sea, make fitting scene for the wonders of grace; for the voice of the mountains and the voice of the sea seem to have suggested to all  the sages thoughts of the “great beyond.” The sea here, especially, preaches a beautiful sermon to one who may choose to listen and: 

    “Wander by the pebbly beach,
    Marking the sunlight at the evening hour,
    And hearken to the thoughts the waters teach – 
    Eternity, eternity and power.”

    The well is situated under the shadow of the Minan cliffs, and is named St. Finan’s well. The tradition is that St. Finan gave his name, not only to the well, but to the mountain also, which should be properly called Finan’s cliff. Perhaps the practice of our fathers who placed a well-known prefix before the names of many of our saints, may explain the difficulty of deriving the modern name from Finan. This, however, is probably fanciful philology, and the usual explanation remembered by the very old people to have been parish priest of the island, and the possessor of a wonderful saddle horse, that braved every danger by night as well as by day. 

     P.W. Joyce, A Forgotten Part of Ireland, (Tuam, 1910),  58-62.
     

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

  • The Feast of the Transfiguration in the Martyrology of Oengus

    August 6 is the day on which the Feast of the Transfiguration is celebrated throughout the Universal Church. However, it was not always so, as a German ecclesiastical historian explains:

    From quite an early date, this festival had been celebrated in divers churches, both East and West, on different days. The date now observed, the 6th August, was appointed for the festival by Calixtus III. in 1457, in memory of the victory over the Turks, gained by John Capistran and George Hunyadi, at Belgrade. In the choice of a day, he seems to have been influenced by the Greek calendar, where the festival had already been kept on this day.

    K.A. Heinrich Kellner, Heortology: A History Of The Christian Festivals From Their Origin To The Present Day (London, 1908), 105.

    One of those different days is found on the early ninth-century Irish calendar, The Martyrology of Oengus. Here the Feast of the Transfiguration is commemorated on July 26, as Canon O’Hanlon noted in his entries for this day in Volume VII of the Lives of the Irish Saints:

    Article IV. Festival of Christ’s Transfiguration on Mount Tabor.

    According to the “Feilire” of St. Aengus, at the 26th of July, the Feast of the Transfiguration of our Divine Lord on Mount Tabor was commemorated in the ancient Irish Church. To this a comment is found affixed. In the Bruxelles copy of Usuard this Feast is also set down, and while the Bollandists give the text, they express ignorance of the source whence it had been drawn, but they refer to the 6th of August as the chief Festival held in the Universal Church.

    26. At the passion of Jovianus
    with his fair train of pure gold
    was the Transfiguration, at daybreak,
    of  Jesus on Mount Tabor.

    The accompanying note reads:

    26. on Mount Tabor, i.e. in the tribe of Nephthalim, on a mountain of Galilee. Transfiguration of Christ etc.

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

  • The Angel of Saint Lugith

    August 4 is the feast of Saint Molua of Kyle. I have previously posted an account of his life here, but today we have a reminder of his many miracles in an 1878 article reprinted from The Messenger of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. The Messenger, official magazine of the Apostleship of Prayer, was originally founded in France in the mid-nineteenth century but quickly spread to the English-speaking world.  The article below was part of a series called ‘The Angelic Year’ in which episodes from saints’ lives which featured the presence of angels were highlighted. Our Saint Molua, here called Lugith, was chosen for the month of August. Various versions of the Life of Saint Molua have survived and provided a wealth of material for the article’s theme. Angels are found in the Lives of many Irish saints, most famously perhaps in that of Saint Patrick whose guardian angel is named as Victor. It is also commonplace in hagiography for the saint’s holiness to be apparent from his earliest days and there are a number of miracles from the childhood of Molua cited in the article. Another stock element is the passing by of a noteworthy saint who recognizes the potential in the holy child and either predicts his future greatness or claims him as a protégé. Thus we see Saint Comgall (called Cougall here), founder of the monastery of Bangor in County Down, call the young Molua to be his disciple. Aspects of medieval hagiography can appear bizarre to the modern reader and we may wonder, for example, at the curious episode where Saint Molua equates the presence of sheep with that of women. Yet this is a confirmation that care of sheep was women’s work in early medieval Ireland, with the Life of Saint Brigid, for example, depicting Ireland’s patroness acting as a shepherdess in her early days. But it is the presence of the angel guiding and guarding Molua in life and in death which draws together all of the episodes the anonymous writer in The Messenger has chosen to honour this most interesting saint on his feast day:

     The Angel of St. Lugith.

    Lugith was born, about the year 520, of very pious parents, near Mount Logher, on the west bank of the Shannon, in Ireland. He was the youngest of three sons, but the most richly endowed with heavenly gifts. The divine predilection for him was first manifested on the following occasion: His father’s flocks, having strayed into a neighbor’s pastures, were taken and put in pound, whereupon Sochte, Lugith’s mother, went to reclaim them, taking her infant son with her. Now it happened that this neighbor had for a long time been afflicted with acancer in the breast. When Lugith entered his house, God permitted him  to see the child all surrounded with light. “Oh!” said he, “bring that child here and let him put his little hands on my head.” Sochte, who carried Lugith in her arms, approached the sufferer; but the child being frightened at the excitement and groans of the sick man, began to cry when he saw his arms stretched out towards him; and while his mother, notwithstanding his resistance, was holding him over the invalid, a few of his tears fell on the cancer and immediately cured it. The cattle were restored and Sochte returned home with a joyful heart.

    When Lugith was somewhat older he used to go to the fields with other children to watch the sheep. During the winter they would make a fire and gather merrily around it. One day they had lit a fire near the bed of a dried-up stream and were warming themselves by it, when suddenly a torrent, formed by the rains which had fallen higher up the country, came rushing along overflowing the banks, and extinguished the fire. Lugith ran away taking with him a brand to light a fire somewhere else; but the brand, too, went out. While the child stood looking sadly at the extinguished brand which he held in his hand, an angel appeared at his side and made the sign of the cross over it. The brand forthwith blazed up and Lugith and his companions lit another fire and warmed themselves around it.

    At another time Lugith disappeared, and for a day and a night no traces of him could be found. At length, his father, Carthach, found him asleep in a field, but did not dare approach him because he saw standing near him a beautiful young man clad in white, and from the spot where the child slept there issued a fragrance sweeter than the perfume of the choicest flowers. Carthach ran to call the priests, and when one of them came, the angel vanished and the child awoke. From that day forth all earthly food lost its savor to this priest, from the impression he retained of the sweet odor embalming the innocent child.

    Another day, while charged with keeping the calves apart from the cows, Lugith fell asleep again. It is needless to say that the calves and cows were soon together. Sochte perceiving this ran in all haste to awaken Lugith, and in her anger had raised her hand to strike him, when the guardian angel of the child seized her arm and stayed the stroke. Fainting with fear she fell prostrate to the ground, and Lugith ran to drive back his calves.

    Being at another time at a short distance from his father and mother, but without any playmates, there came three youths and began to play with him. Joining their hands together and supporting Lugith on them, the youths, in sight of Carthach and Sochte, ascended to the skies and disappeared from view. For a great part of the day they saw nothing of him; but all of a sudden, while his afflicted parents were lamenting and praying, the three youths laid Lugith down before his mother.

    About this time the holy priest Cougall was passing through that country. As he drew near the abode of Lugith’s parents, he suddenly stopped, and pointing towards a certain field, he said to the monks who accompanied him: “Go and see what is down there.” On reaching the field the monks found Lugith asleep in a clump of rushes, and noticed that at every breath he drew the rushes near his mouth were enveloped in flame. They awoke Lugith and brought him to the holy priest. Cougall sent for his parents and asked them if they were willing to let the child go with him, saying that he would rear and educate him. Carthach and Sochte accepted the offer with thanks, and Lugith followed St. Cougall to the monastery. One day while the child was learning his letters, St. Cougall saw an angel seated by his side and helping him to spell and encouraging him with caresses to overcome his dislike for his task.

    One day when he was sent to the farm to bring the daily supply of milk to the monastery, the horse stumbled and the milk was all spilled. He was looking at the spilled milk in great distress of mind and not knowing what to do, when his guardian angel appeared and said to him: “Fill the vessels with water at yonder spring.” As the water was poured in it was changed into milk, and that day the monks wondered much at the exquisite flavor of the milk which Lugith brought.

    A long time after this it was the will of God that Lugith himself should become a founder of monasteries. Accompanied by some monks and taking with him five cows, he set out towards his mother’s country. Here he was badly received and was considering whither he should next go, when his guardian angel told him to turn his steps towards Rosbilech. The following night an angel appeared in a dream to a rich man of Rosbilech named Bledue, and said to him: “To-morrow a monk will come hither driving five white cows with yellow ears; thou shalt offer him thy possessions, for thou shalt be a religious in his monastery.” But Lugith, having heard the bleating of a sheep in the place, said to his brethren: “We shall not remain here, for where there are sheep there also are women; and where there are women, there also is sin; where there is sin, there is the devil; and where the devil is, there is hell; ” and he sought a more solitary place.

    One day while he was looking at a barren mountain near his monastery, his guardian angel said to him: “If thou wish it, that mountain shall become a fertile land covered with harvests and all shall be thine.” “No”, blessed angel,” replied Lugith, “my brethren would then lose their humility.” “Brethren,” he used to say to his religious, “labor faithfully with your hands and nothing shall be wanting to you, and you shall become true religious.”

    When Lugith perceived that his end was approaching he went to visit St. Cronan, and at his departure asked for a consecrated host that he might communicate on the way. He had not travelled far when he was obliged to stop from fatigue. Turning to the monk who accompanied him, “Brother,” said he, “if you saw on the one side the inhabitants of heaven and on the other those of earth, to which side would you go ?” “To the side of the inhabitants of heaven, without doubt,” replied the Brother.” Then give me the Blessed Eucharist that I may go to them,” cried Lugith, and shortly after communion, he passed away. His death took place on Saturday, August 4, 602.

    It was revealed to the Blessed Fintan that for the seven days following the death of Lugith there was extraordinary rejoicing in heaven, and an assuagement of the pains of purgatory. The occasion of this revelation to St. Fintan was the following: His guardian angel was wont to visit him twice a week, on Thursdays and Sundays; but at this time he did not visit him for seven consecutive days. When Fintan saw his angel again on Sunday, the 12th of August, “Why,” said he, “O angel of God, didst thou not come to me on Thursday?” “During the week just passed,” replied the angel, “the angels have not visited the saints on earth; a great friend of God has come to heaven from the land of Erin, and all remained to greet him: his name is Lugith.” “I see,” rejoined Fintan, “that Lugith singly has done more for the glory of God than all the rest together; find out for me in heaven, good angel, what has made Lugith so pleasing to God and to his guardian angel.” An instant later the angel reappeared and said to him: “Lugith mingled sweetness and love with the rigor of his correctness, and he never humbled any of his brethren that he did not also give him new courage; as for thee, thou art too harsh with thine.”

    Lugith, while guardian of his brethren, had imitated the sweetness and charity of the angel who guarded himself. The angels are perfect imitators of Jesus; those who imitate their angels will find themselves at the last day living copies of Jesus.

    ‘The Angelic Year: August – The Angel of St Lugith’,  The Messenger of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, Second Series Vol. 5, No. 8 (1878),  356-358.

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