OMNIUM SANCTORUM HIBERNIAE

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  • The Death of Saint Killian and his Companions

    DEATH OF ST KILIAN AND HIS COMPANIONS.

    St. Kilian, accompanied by two companions, went from Ireland to the vicinity of Wurzburg to preach the Gospel. The fame of his deeds reached the ears of Duke Gosbert. The latter had Kilian summoned to his court, listened to him with attention, immediately renounced his idolatry, and with several of his courtiers received holy baptism. But St. Kilian’s joy over his success was marred by the knowledge that Gosbert had married Gailana, the wife of his living brother. Gosbert promised the saint to dismiss his wife, and then proceeded on a campaign. Gailana, however, heard of what was in contemplation. She wickedly took the terrible resolve to have the holy bishop and his companions murdered. She gave for this purpose a large sum of money to two of her servants. These forced their way at early morning into the sleeping-chambers of the castle, and drawing their swords, slew the bishop and those who accompanied him.

    Short Instructive Sketches from the Lives of the Saints for the use of Parochial and Sunday Schools, Academies &etc. (New York, 1888), 68-69.

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  • A New Hiberno-Latin Hymn on Saint Martin of Tours

    Professor Michael Lapidge has published the text of a hymn to Saint Martin, which although it has been preserved in a collection of materials called the pseudo-Bede Collectaneum published in Basle in 1543, is felt by Lapidge to be of Irish provenance. The prayer to Saint Martin is one of a group of six which have identifiable links with early insular prayerbooks, but scholars have long felt that many of the prayers in Anglo-Saxon prayerbooks derive from Irish sources. Lapidge argues that this prayer to St Martin has obviously originated outside France since it calls for protection against shipwreck for visiting pilgrims and, since early medieval England does not have a literary tradition of veneration of Saint Martin, Ireland is the most likely point of origin. The author goes on to argue for a seventh-century date, based on linguistic analysis and comparisons with other Irish hymns of that period. Lapidge’s paper gives only the Latin text, but below is a translation by David Howlett, with some accompanying notes.

    Deus Domine Meus ‘A New Hiberno-Latin Hymn on Saint Martin’

    1. God, my Lord, I am the one responsible for Your death: be patient now with me, who are strong and powerful.

    2. I adjure the true God, always one and triune, that I may have power now to go to Saint Martin.

    3. I ask now the King of Kings, Who is divine light, that I may be able now, just to visit Saint Martin.

    4. Christ, God of gods, Whose majesty is wondrous, make me to lament, healed, before Saint Martin.

    5. Direct the way clearly, O Nazarene Jesu, so that I may be able excellently to bewail sins there.

    6. For me an aid through shipwreck will be the support of Christ’s soldier Martin.

    7. I wish to visit you; make me come to you, who are of such great virtue, O my Saint Martin.

    8. O my Saint Martin, intercede now, I beg, for me, grieving ill, burdened by the disgrace of sins.

    9. O my Saint Martin, for me now intercede, lest the wisps of flame of perennial punishment touch me.

    10. O my Saint Martin, beloved of the throng of the heavens, lest I be a sharer of punishment help me.

    11. O my Saint Martin, help me that I may enjoy at the end the perennial bread of life.

    12. Glory to You, Father, Who are Brother and Mother.

    Notes

    The first 5 stanzas are addressed to God. The central sixth stanza describes the aid of Saint Martin against shipwreck on the journey from the poet’s home, presumably in Ireland, and the shrine of Saint Martin, presumably at Tours. The last 5 stanzas are addressed to Saint Martin. The doxology is addressed to God. The most appropriate occasions for recitation of this hymn might be the two principal feasts of Saint Martin, 4 July and 11 November.

    David Howlett, The Celtic Latin Tradition of Biblical Style, (Dublin, 1995), 183-186.

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  • Saint Columba and the Woman Escorted by the Angels to Paradise

    June 9 is the feastday of Saint Colum Cille [Columba] of Iona.  As I have previously noted on the blog, Iona’s founder shares his feastday with his immediate successor and kinsman, Baithin. Canon O’Hanlon, however, has another feast to record for this day, one which comes directly from Book III of Adamnán’s Life of Saint Columba:

    Feast of a Holy Woman whose Name is unknown, and who was borne into Heaven by Angels. [Sixth Century.]

    At this date, we find introduced into a Calendar the festival of a beatified woman, whose name is not known, but whose soul St. Columkille beheld ascending into Heaven. After a great struggle with demons, the Angels came to receive her into the mansions of everlasting bliss. This festival is noted by the Bollandists, among the pretermitted saints. 

    The calendar to which Canon O’Hanlon refers is named in the footnotes as the ‘Gynaeceo Arturi’. I was unable to find out any further information on this source. Below is the text from the Life of Saint Columba from which this feast is drawn. It is interesting to note that the witness to this miracle was a Saxon monastic who worked as a baker at the monastery of Iona:

    [III 10] Of a vision, in which St. Columba beheld angels bearing to heaven the soul of a virtuous woman

    Likewise, on another occasion, when St Columba was dwelling in Iona, one day he suddenly looked up towards heaven and said:

    ‘Happy woman, happy and virtuous, whose soul the angels of God now take to paradise!’

    One of the brothers was a devout man called Genereus the Englishman, who was the baker. He was at work in the bakery where he heard St Columba say this. A year later, on the same day, the saint again spoke to Genereus the Englishman, saying:

    ‘I see a marvellous thing. The woman of whom I spoke in your presence a year ago today – look!- she is now meeting in the air the soul of a devout layman, her husband, and is fighting for him together with holy angels against the power of the Enemy. With their help and because the man himself was always righteous, his soul is rescued from the devils’ assaults and is brought to the place of eternal refreshment.’

    Richard Sharpe, ed. and trans., Life of Saint Columba, (Penguin Classics, 1991), 213.

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