OMNIUM SANCTORUM HIBERNIAE

Category: Welsh saints

  • ‘I beseech a wonderful king': The Hymn of Saint Sanctán

    Below is a hymn attributed to Saint Sanctán (Santán), who, although he is described in the Martyrology of Oengus on his May 9 feast day as ‘famous Bishop Sanctán’, remains intriguingly obscure. Canon O’Hanlon’s account of the saint, which can be read at the blog here records the traditions concerning his British origins and those of his brother Saint Matoc (Madog). The Preface to the hymn, preserved in the early eleventh-century Irish Liber Hymnorum, says that it was composed as Saint Sanctán was on a visit to his brother at the island which bore his name, Inis Matoc. The island’s location has never been identified, although Canon O’Hanlon notes that an island in the lake of Templeport, County Leitrim had been suggested. He also notes that as the the Preface makes clear, up until the visit which inspired the hymn Saint Sanctán was ‘completely ignorant of the Scottish language; but, that he miraculously obtained the gift of Irish metrical composition’. A most timely and useful miracle indeed! Below is the text of Saint Sanctán’s hymn, with a tribute to the author appended, taken from the 1898 translation of The Irish Liber Hymnorum by Bernard and Atkinson:

    PREFACE TO ST. SANCTAN’S HYMN.

    ‘I beseech a wonderful king” Bishop Sanctan composed this hymn, and it was on his going to Clonard westward to Inis Matoc that he composed it; he was brother to Matoc, both of them being of British race, but Matoc came into Ireland earlier quam Bishop Sanctan. Causa autem haec est, to free it ab hostibus, and that his brother should be allowed (to come) to him in insulam; Scoticam uero linguam usque ad horam hanc non habuit sed deus ei tam cito eam donauit. Tempus autem dubitatur.

    St. Sanctan’s Hymn.

    I beseech a wonderful King of angels,
    for it is a name that is mightiest;
    to me (be) God for my rear, God on my left,
    God for my van, God on my right!

    God for my help,—holy call—
    against each danger, Him I invoke!
    a bridge of life let there be below me,
    benediction of God the Father above me!

    Let the lofty Trinity arouse us,
    (each one) to whom a good death (?) is not (yet) certain!
    Holy Spirit noble, strength of heaven,
    God the Father, Mary’s mighty Son!

    A great King who knows our offences
    Lord over earth, without sin,—
    to my soul for every black-sin
    let never demons’ godlessness (?) visit me !

    God with me, may He take away each toil!
    may Christ draw up my pleadings,
    may apostles come all around me,
    may the Trinity of witness come to me!

    May mercy come to me (on) earth,
    from Christ let not (my) songs be hidden!
    let not death in its death-wail reach me,
    nor sudden death in disease befal me!

    May no malignant thrust that stupefies and perplexes
    reach me without permission of the Son of God!
    May Christ save us from every bloody death,
    from fire, from raging sea !

    From every death-drink, that is unsafe
    for my body, with many terrors!
    may the Lord each hour come to me
    against wind, against swift waters!

    I shall utter the praises of Mary’s Son
    who fights for good deeds,
    (and) God of the elements will reply,
    (for) my tongue (is) a lorica for battle.

    In beseeching God from the heavens
    may my body be incessantly laborious;
    that I may not come to horrible hell
    I beseech the King whom I have besought.
    I beseech a wonderful King.

    Bishop Sanctan … a sage
    soldier, angel famous pure-white,
    may he make free my body on earth,
    may he make holy my soul towards heaven !

    May there be a prayer with thee for me, O Mary!
    May heaven’s King be merciful to us
    against wound, danger and peril!
    O Christ, on Thy protection (rest) we !

    I beseech the King free, everlasting
    Only Son of God, to watch over us;
    may He protect me against sharp dangers,
    He, the Child that was born in Bethlehem.

    J.H. Bernard and R. Atkinson (eds. and trans.), The Irish Liber hymnorum, Vol. II (Henry Bradshaw Society, London, 1898), 47-48.

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  • Saint Santán, June 10

    June 10 sees the recording of the name of an episcopal saint, Santán, in the Irish calendars. The seventeenth-century hagiologist, Father John Colgan, suggested that he may be the man of this name mentioned in the hagiography of Saint Fechin of Fore. Canon O’Hanlon seeks to associate him with Kilnasantan in County Dublin, although by his time the church there was attributed to the patronage of Saint Ann. Professor Pádraig Ó Riain, however, who has made a particular study of the genealogical sources, presents a quite different picture of our saint in his authoritative 2011 Dictionary of Irish Saints. Santán here is depicted as one of the three sons of a British king and an Irish mother, indeed his very name derives from the Irish sanct, itself borrowed from the Welsh sant. Both these terms derive ultimately from the Latin sanctus, saint. The Dictionary also lists a number of other locations possibly associated with our saint including Kirk Santan on the Isle of Man. Interestingly, the Manx also confused the Welsh/Irish Bishop Santán with Saint Ann.  Canon O’Hanlon though appears unaware of these details in his account below:

    St. Sanctan, or Santan, Bishop.

    Veneration was given on this day, 10th of June, to Sanctan or Santan, a bishop, as we find entered in the Martyrologies of Tallagh, and of Donegal. It has been conjectured that the present St. Sanctan may have been identical with a young man, who was rescued from captivity, by St. Fechin, Abbot of Fore. Another conjecture may be quite as correct, viz., that he was connected with Kilnasantan, near Bohernabreena, near the head waters of the River Dodder, county of Dublin. Kilnasantan was granted by Archbishop Comyn—who built and endowed St. Patrick’s Cathedral, Dublin—to the College of St. Patrick, and confirmation of that grant was made by Pope Celestine III., in the year 1191. In 1231, Archbishop Luke, granted this church to St. Patrick’s Cathedral, on demise of Andrew de Menavia, the holder of it as a prebend. In 1306, it was returned as wasted by the O’Tooles, and in 1326, the English sheriff describes it, as belonging to the manor of Tallagh, but “lying within the Irishry,” therefore waste and unprofitable. During the border wars of the middle ages, the exercise of Divine service in it was rendered difficult to the English settlers. In the sixteenth century, it ceased to be a church for worship, a chapel having been erected at a place called by the Irish Templeogue, or “the new church.” The old church of Kilnasantan is now a ruin; but it measured about 18 paces in length by 5 in breadth. Although built at a very early period, and in a sequestered spot,  its walls exhibit no contemptible skill in masonry. Early in this century were rude and broken granite crosses on the piers of its entrance, a large broken font inside the gate, and some tombs of the last century, uniformly and grotesquely sculptured.

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  • Saint Brynach of Carn Engyli, April 7

    April 7 is the feast day of an early Welsh saint, Brynach of Carn Engyli. The details of this holy man’s life are shrouded in obscurity, but one suggestion is that he may have started life as Brenach, an Irishman. This is a thesis that Canon O’Hanlon is happy to embrace in the April volume of his Lives of the Irish Saints. He begins by saying that the 12th-century Life of the saint has been published by Rees, this volume, Lives of the Cambro British saints, of the fifth and immediate succeeding centuries, from ancient Welsh & Latin mss. in the British Museum and elsewhere, with English translations, and explanatory notes, to give it its full title, is available at the Internet Archive here. There is also a ready-formatted translation from the 1944 work of A.W. Wade-Evans, Vitae Sanctorum Britanniae et Genealogiae, available here. This medieval Life depicts our saint as voluntarily renouncing the comforts of his high-born status in order to embrace the hardships of the peregrinatio pro Christo. It ends with this tribute:

    With how many and how great miracles this saint shone, while he sojourned in the body, with difficulty could any one tell. At last it pleased the Most High to snatch his saint from this preparatory and unstable habitation, and to place him happily in celestial glory among his holy and elect ones. He passed from this world on the seventh day of April, and his body lies buried below the eastern wall of his church. Brynach, saint of God, rejoices in heaven, and great wonders are frequently done on earth, our Lord Jesus Christ performing them.

    Canon O’Hanlon has this short account:

    St. Brynach, or Brenach, of Carn Engyli, Wales.

    [Fifth Century.]

    His Life, which is to be found in a Manuscript, belonging to the British Museum, has been lately published by Rees. St. Brynach, as he is called by the Welsh writers, or Brenach, was an Irishman by birth. In Michael Alford’s work, the name of Bernacus Abbas is entered, in his Index, as being among the Saints of Anglia; but, the reference to his place, in the Annals, finds only a counterpart in omission. The Bollandists notice him, at the 7th of April, as Abbot Bernacus; and, they state, that his place of abode was traditionally held to have been, in northern Cambria. But, as not having ascertained the genuineness of his Acts, nor his place in history, nor having had time to investigate properly his cultus, they pass over Bernacus Abbas, for want of better information- He is said to have flourished, before the middle of the fifth century. This saint performed great miracles. He lived in a solitary spot, on the banks of the Caman, where he erected a cell and a church. These were encompassed by hills. Here he served God faithfully, until summoned to his heavenly reward. He often ascended a high eminence, to enjoy the vision and discourse of Angels. It was afterwards called the “Mountain of Angels.” It now bears the name Carn Engyli, and it overhangs the Nevern. At its foot was built a church. St. Brenach passed out of this world, on the 7th of April. His relics were placed, under the eastern wall of his church.

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