OMNIUM SANCTORUM HIBERNIAE

ALL THE SAINTS OF IRELAND

  • Saint Muadhnat of Caille, January 6

    Among the saints commemorated on the Irish calendars on January 6 is a County Sligo holy woman, Muadhnat of Caille. As Canon O’Hanlon explains below, she is one of three saintly siblings, the Daughters of Nadfraich:

    St. Muadhnat, Virgin, of Caille, Drumcliffe, County Sligo.

    [Sixth Century.]

    In numerous instances, we find it was customary in the Irish Church to venerate, on the same day, saints of a particular family, community, or place. Nor is it probable, that all such persons could have died on that particular festival. It rather appears to have been a matter of convenience, thus to classify and unite them, for various good reasons. The present holy woman, and the other two virgins, who follow in order, are said to have been the daughters of Naidfraic, and sisters to St. Molaissius, Abbot of Devenish. The Martyrologies of Tallagh and of Marianus O’Gorman, as also a Commentator on St. Aengus, place the festivals of those pious sisters at the 6th of January. They were venerated at a place called Enac-ard. We find that Caille is said to have been the name of St. Muadhnat’s habitation. It seems to have been situated in Cairbre, and near Drum-cliabh. This was probably her natal place. It is now known as Drumcliffe, a parish in the barony of Lower Carbery, and county of Sligo.  It lies near the sea-shore, a little to the north of Sligo, and it is situated within the diocese of Elphin. A portion of its round tower here remains, as a proof of its ancient consequence. St. Columkille is said to have been the first founder of a religious establishment, at this place. From the sixth century, Drumcliffe had its abbatial succession, and the herenachy of the Church became limited in the eleventh century to the family of O’Beollain or O’Boland. To St. Columkille is attributed the poetic sentiment of attachment to this spot :—

    Beloved to my heart also in the West—
    Drumcliffe at Culcinne’s strand.

    Its situation is one of great attractiveness to the tourist, and yet in a district but little frequented.

    The present Protestant church stands on the site of an ancient religious establishment; while many relics of the past are observable throughout the parish. We are told that a religious house had been founded here by a St. Fintan, a disciple of St. Columba, at a place called Cailleavinde. This was probably the Caille, where St. Muadhnat’s Convent stood.

    St. Muadhnat is mentioned in the Martyrology of Donegal, as having had a festival on this day. She lived in the sixth century. In the table appended, she is also called Muaghneat, i.e., Mo-Aignes. In the published Martyrology of Tallagh, we find a notice at the 6th of January, Ingen Natfraich, in Enach-airdd. There is probably a mistake for Ingena, the plural form, and which relates to the festival of Natfraich’s daughters. Likewise, incorrectly joined, there is an entry together with St. Diarmaid, whose feast occurs this same day.

  • An Irish Poem on the Wise Men

    J. R. Allen, Early Christian Symbolism in Gt Britain and Ireland (1887)

    January 6 is the feast of the Epiphany, which in the western church is associated with the bringing of gifts to the infant Christ by Magi from the East. Today we take it for granted that there were three wise men, with the names Caspar, Melchior and Balthasar, but this tradition was a long time in the making. The account of the visit in Saint Matthew’s Gospel makes no mention of the number of magi, much less their names, and the idea that there were three wise men seems to be based solely on the number of gifts recorded in the gospel. The Visit of the Magi is a popular theme in medieval European art including that of Ireland. One intriguing representation is found on the tenth-century Muiredach’s Cross at Monasterboice and if you look at the image above you will see that there are actually four figures approaching the newborn Christ.  The identity and significance of the ‘fourth man’ is still a subject of debate among scholars. The Magi also occur in Irish literary sources. In a paper delivered by the scholarly Irish Anglican Bishop, William Reeves, on the subject of an Irish manuscript held in the British Museum, he describes the contents of Folio 5 b as:

    An Irish poem on the Wise Men of the East who were led by the star to Bethlehem, consisting of eleven quatrains….The poem is as follows, and the accompanying translation is from the accurate pen of Mr. Eugene Curry.

    Auirilius, Humilis, the noble,
    Malgalad, Nuntius, of fierce strength,
    Melcho the grey-haired, without guile,
    With his grey and very long beard.

    A senior with a graceful yellow cloak.
    With a grey frock of ample size,
    Speckled and grey sandals without fault,
    He approached not the King without royal gold.

    Arenus, Fidelis, the munificent,
    Galgalad the devout and fervent;
    A red man was Caspar in his vesture
    A fair, blooming, beardless youth.

    A crimson cloak round the comely champion,
    A yellow frock without variety,
    Grey and close-fitting sandals:
    Frankincense unto God he freely presented.

    Damascus was the third man of them,
    Misericors, without dejection,
    Sincera gratia without restraint,
    Patifarsat the truly-grand.

    A grizzled man with a crimson, white-spotted cloak:
    Crimsoned stood he, above all without competition,
    With soft and yellow sandals,
    Who presented myrrh to the Great Man.

    These are the names of the Druids
    In Hebrew, in Greek to be quickly spoken,
    In Latin which runs not rapidly.
    In the noble language of Arabia.

    The colour of their clothes hear ye.
    As spoken in each of their countries:
    Selva, for the performers of heroic deeds,
    Debdae, Aesae, Escidae.

    Three were the Druids without gloom;
    Triple were their gifts in noble fashion;
    Three garments were upon each man of them;
    From three worlds they came without debility.

    Mary, Joseph, and noble Simeon,
    Of the tribe of Judah of the noble kings,
    Are in the house in which every hand is a lighted torch.
    All together with the Trinity.

    May we do thy will, O King,
    And desire it with all our heart:
    Thou art gracious to relieve us in our distress,
    Since the day thou wast adored by Aurelius.

    Rev W. Reeves, ‘On an Irish MS. of the Four Gospels in the British Museum’, Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy, Vol. V., (1853), 47-50.

    Dr Reeves goes on to discuss the possible sources for the descriptive information relating to the Magi in his footnotes but as these are all cited in Latin I won’t reproduce them here. He also later discusses the dating evidence for the Manuscript and concludes that  it was written in the twelfth century.

  • Saint Fiadhnat, January 4

    Another of the many obscure Irish female saints is commemorated on January 4. All we know of Saint Fiadhnat is the recording of her name in the Irish calendars, and in the absence of anything else to say Canon O’Hanlon sounds wonderfully Victorian as he complains about the number of females ‘addicted to idle or frivolous pleasures’:

    St. Fidnatan, or Fiadhnat, Virgin. 

    Numberless females are found in society addicted to idle or frivolous pleasures. Their lives are spent as a taper that wastes away its substance, giving little or only a very flickering light. The name of Fidnatan, virgin, is mentioned in the “Martyrology of Tallagh,” on the 4th of January. Besides this entry, Fiadhnat, the same virgin, is recorded on this day in the “Martyrology of Donegal.” The distinction of sanctity accorded her proves the genuine merits of her well-ordered life.

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