OMNIUM SANCTORUM HIBERNIAE

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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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  • Teach me, O Trinity

    E. Hull Poem, Book of the Gael (1913)

    To mark Trinity Sunday, below is a poem taken from a 1913 collection of texts and translations by the Anglican writer Eleanor Hull (1860-1935). She is perhaps best known for her English versification of the hymn ‘Be Thou My Vision’. Miss Hull contributed translations from Old Irish to many of the scholarly journals of her day and published various books on early Irish history and mythology. The poem below, by the 12th/13th-century writer Muireadhach Albanach Ó Dálaigh, is a beautiful plea to the Holy Trinity:

    TEACH ME, O TRINITY

    By Murdoch O’Daly, called Murdoch “the Scotchman” (Muredach Albanach), on account of his affection for that country; born in Connaught towards the close of the twelfth century.

    TEACH me, O Trinity,

    All men sing praise to Thee, 
    Let me not backward be, 
    Teach me, O Trinity. 
    Come Thou and dwell with me, 
    Lord of the holy race; 
    Make here thy resting-place, 
    Hear me, O Trinity. 
    That I Thy love may prove. 
    Teach Thou my heart and hand. 
    Ever at Thy command 
    Swiftly to move. 
    Like to a rotting tree 
    Is this vile heart of me; 
    Let me Thy healing see, 
    Help me, O Trinity. 
    Sinful, beholding Thee; 
    Yet clean from theft and blood My hands; 
    O Son of God, 
    For Mary’s love, answer me. 
    In my adversity 
    No great man stooped to me, 
    No good man pitied me, 
    God ope’d His heart to me. 
    Lied I, as others lie. 
    They deceived, so have I, 
    On others’ lie I built my lie — Will my God pass this by? 
    Truth art Thou, truth I crave, 
    If on a lie I rest, I’m lost ; 
    My vow demands my uttermost; 
    Save, Trinity, O save!
    Eleanor Hull, ed. Poem Book of the Gael,  Translations from Irish Gaelic Poetry into English Prose and Verse, (London 1912), 156-157.

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