OMNIUM SANCTORUM HIBERNIAE

ALL THE SAINTS OF IRELAND

  • Saint Kevin of Glendalough, June 3

    Míl Críst i crích nÉrenn,
    ard na-ainm tar tuind tretan,
    Cóemgen cáid cáin cathair,
    i nGlinn dá lind lethan.

    A soldier of Christ into the border of Erin,
    a high name over the sea’s wave:
    Coemgen the chaste, fair warrior,
    in the Glen of two broad loughs.
    Thus does the Martyrology of Oengus record the feast of Saint Coemgen (Coemghen, Caoimhghin, Kevin) of Glendalough on June 3rd. Whilst Saint Oengus has devoted his entire quatrain for the day to Saint Kevin, the prose Martyrology of Tallaght simply records Caemgin ab Glinne da Locha, Kevin, abbot of Glendalough. Saint Marianus O’Gorman starts his entries for the day with just the saint’s name Caemgen, but the entry in the seventeenth-century Martyrology of Donegal incorporates many of the traditions which had grown up around Saint Kevin in the intervening centuries. It also references the saint’s genealogy which places Saint Kevin among the people of the Dál Messin Corb, who controlled the Leinster kingship in the fifth century.
    Despite being one of the most well-known and well-loved of Irish saints, remarkably little historical information has survived about Saint Kevin. In his classic study of the sources for early Irish Christianity, J.F. Kenny wrote:
    GLENN-DÁ-LOCHO (GLENDALOUGH) AND ST. COEMGEN

    Glenn-dá-locho,”Valley of two lakes” (Glendalough), a lonely and picturesque valley in the midst of the mountains of Wicklow, contains some of the most noteworthy monuments of pre-Norman ecclesiastical architecture in Ireland. These, and the many references in the annals and elsewhere indicate that Glendalough was an important centre of Irish religious life from the sixth to the twelfth century. The reputed founder of the monastery of Glendalough was Coemgen, or Coemghen (anglice Kevin), who was, we are told, of the royal race of Leinster. He retired to the glen to lead a hermit’s life, and the disciples who gathered around him formed the monastery. The death of Coemgen is entered in the Annals of Ulster under 618 and 622, but the record is doubtful. He is given an age of one hundred and twenty or one hundred and thirty years, which may be a misunderstood chronological datum.
    There are five versions of the Life of Coemgen. The first, in Latin, is quite extensive. The second is much shorter, being an abbreviated text prepared at a late date for lectionary or homiletic use in some monastery. The Irish texts are late, and are not closely related to the Latin. Plummer’s conclusions regarding these documents may be summarised as follows: Version iii is an incomplete and somewhat careless summary of an earlier Life; Version iv is a composite production, based in part on material similar to that used by iii; Version v is derived mainly, but not entirely, from iv. The date of the first version seems to be the tenth or eleventh century.
    J F Kenny, The Sources for the Early History of Ireland: Ecclesiastical (1929), 403-4.
    The three Irish Lives of Coemgen translated by the Rev. Charles Plummer in his Bethada Náem Nérenn collection are available to read through the Internet Archive here. His edition of the Latin text of the Vita Sancti Coemgeni can also be found there. All of the surviving Lives portray Saint Kevin as a strict ascetic in the tradition of the Desert Fathers who relishes solitude, subsists on herbs and follows a strict programme of ascetical practices, praying whilst up to his waist in the waters of the lough, praying crois-fhigill, ‘cross-vigil’, where the arms are outspread in imitation of Christ’s position on the cross and sleeping in a cave. Scholar A.P. Smyth also notes:
    The hagiographical lore relating to Kevin living in the tree-tops and praying in the trees owes something to the motif of the wild man in early Irish literature, as well as to the stylite movement among ascetics in Syria  and elsewhere in the Near East.
    A.P. Smyth, ‘Kings, Saints and Sagas’ in K. Hannigan and W. Nolan eds., Wicklow – History and Society – Interdisciplinary Essays on the History of an Irish County (Dublin, 1994), 52.
    Given these connections to the traditions of the Desert Fathers, it is perhaps no surprise to see that on the twelfth-century List of Parallel Saints, which equates Irish saints with those of the Universal Church, Saint Kevin is given as the equivalent of Saint Paul the Hermit. This third-century Egyptian saint, hailed as the first hermit, actually made his way onto the Irish calendars at January 25 as well as having a cameo role in the Navigatio of Saint Brendan. I have previously written about this here.  Saint Kevin’s ascetical reputation is also reflected in the hymn of Saint Cuimin of Connor on the characteristic virtues of the Irish saints. In telling us what Saint Kevin loved he wrote:
    Caoimhghin loved a narrow cell,
    It was a work of mortification and religion,
    In which perpetually to stand,
    It was a great shelter against demons.
    The temptation of a hermit by a demon in female form is also a topos found in the traditions of the Desert Fathers. The Latin Life depicts Saint Kevin as repelling the unwanted advances of his temptress by arming himself with the sign of the cross and then striking her with bundles of nettles, after which, in true hagiographical fashion, she sees the error of her ways and commits to a life of sanctity.
    In time however, the solitary ascetic of the Upper Lake attracted a community around him and moved to the Lower Valley to found his monastic civitas. As is usual in hagiography, the establishment of any new monastic site requires some supernatural intervention. Canon O’Hanlon, in Volume V of his Lives of the Irish Saints, narrates the story of how Saint Kevin was persuaded to make this move, according to the Latin Life:

    An Angel of the Lord came to St. Kevin and said: “O saint of God, the Lord hath sent me with a message, that you may be induced to go to a place he hath appointed for you, eastwards from the lesser Lake. There you shall be among your brethren, and it shall be the place of your resurrection.”

    Saint Kevin, however, is initially reluctant to move saying:

    “If it would not displease the Lord,  I should wish to remain to the day of my death in this place, where I have toiled for Christ.”

    So the angel adds a further inducement:
    The Angel answered: “If  you, with your  monks, go to that place  indicated,  many sons of light shall  be always in it and after your time, the monks shall have a sufficiency of earthly possessions, and many thousands of happy souls shall arise with you, from that place, to the kingdom of Heaven.”

    After further reassurance about the future fame and prosperity that Glendalough will enjoy and with his objections to the stoniness of the new proposed site dealt with by the angel, Saint Kevin and his heavenly advisor ‘walked upon the waters of the Lake, towards a locality indicated’. Then:

    Not long afterwards, the same Angel appeared to St. Kevin. He said: “In the name of our Lord Jesus  Christ, arise with thy monks, and go to that place, which the Lord  hath ordained for thy resurrection.” After pronouncing these words, the Angel departed.

    The move to the Lower Lough does not signify any lessening of Saint Kevin’s commitment to the ascetical life, as this verse from the Metrical Irish Life, the second in Plummer’s list, confirms:

    Coemgen was among stones
    On the border of the lake on a bare bed,
    With his slender side on a stone,
    In his glen without a booth over him.

    He may no longer have been sleeping in the original ‘Kevin’s Bed’ cave site on the Upper Lough, but the new site still saw the saint committed to a hard and stony resting place and still at the mercy of the elements. None of the Lives date to the lifetime of the saint but instead reflect the realities of succeeding centuries when Glendalough had expanded to become an important site of both pilgrimage and burial. The moving away from the original sites on the Upper Lough associated with Saint Kevin is dealt with in this later hagiography by having the saint persuaded by an angel that this relocation is God’s will. It may well be though that in the discussions between Saint Kevin and the angel we can discern an echo of the actual discussions that would have taken place within the community at Glendalough about the expansion of their monastic ‘city’. When exactly the move from the Upper Lough to the Lower took place is not known, but Smyth suggests that it may have been in the eighth century.

    Saint Kevin died in 622 and his ultimate resting place is still debated. In between the original site at the Upper Lough and that of the monastic city on the Lower lies the church of Reefert, Ríg Ferta, ‘the Cemetery of the Kings’. Saint Oengus the Martyrologist in the Prologue to his calendar of the saints declares ‘the cemetery of the west of the world is multitudinous Glendalough’. Reefert is one possible location for Saint Kevin’s tomb, although his remains may well have been translated from their original burial place and enshrined with great ceremony in the monastic church at a later period. The Annals of Ulster record at the year 790 the comotatio of the relics of Saint Kevin. This term refers to the taking of relics on circuit, most likely to other churches associated with Glendalough and would support the likelihood that the founder’s relics were housed in a richly-decorated shrine for public veneration.

    In the centuries following Saint Kevin’s death Glendalough became an important centre of pilgrimage, his Latin Life claiming that it was one of the four main pilgrimage sites in Ireland. His monastery found a place in a Litany of Irish saints preserved in the twelfth-century Book of Leinster and published in the 1925 collection Irish Litanies also translated by the Rev. Charles Plummer. Litany I invokes ‘Forty saints in Glen da Loch with Coemgen, noble priest’. In our own times Saint Kevin has become something of a poster boy for the ‘Celtic Christianity’ movement which attributes to our native holy men and women a special relationship with nature and the animal creation. Whilst I do not share this movement’s interpretation of our native saints, nevertheless the animal stories associated with Saint Kevin are perhaps specially appropriate, since they too owe their origins to the Desert Fathers. I have looked at a couple of the legends involving birds and the founder of Glendalough here.  Finally, since there is no translation of the Vita Sancti Coemgeni available, I have posted some selections from Canon O’Hanlon’s reading of it here.  This is how he describes the ending of Saint Kevin’s Life:

    When St. Kevin had consoled his monks and imparted his benediction, his thoughts were solely devoted to preparation for his departure from that place, so endeared to him by religious associations; and, he now turned his mind, on the abiding home he sought for in Heaven. He then received Christ’s most Sacred Body and Blood, from the hands of St. Mocherog. His monks stood around, in tears and lamentations, when their venerable superior breathed his last. Having lived, in this world, according to common report, for the extraordinary and lengthened period of one hundred and twenty years, he departed to join choirs of Angels and Archangels, in the Heavenly Jerusalem. The Third of June Nones is the date assigned for his death; and on the 3rd of June, accordingly, his festival is celebrated.
    Rev J. O’Hanlon, Lives of the Irish Saints, Vol. VI (Dublin, 1875),  p.71.

    Note: This post, first published in 2024, replaces the former blog entry on Saint Kevin from 2014.

    Content Copyright © Omnium Sanctorum Hiberniae 2012-2024. All rights reserved.

  • Saint Colman of Oughaval, May 15

    May 15 is the feast of Saint Colmán of Oughaval in County Laois.  I have previously published a short account of this holy man by diocesan historian Bishop Michal Comerford here, but below is the entry from Volume 5 of Canon O’Hanlon’s Lives of the Irish Saints. Canon O’Hanlon was born in Stradbally,  County Laois, the same parish in which Oughaval is situated and of which Saint Colmán is the patron. In his account of the local saintly hero Canon O’Hanlon makes a couple of basic points to bear in mind: First, that our knowledge of this saint is derived from his appearance in the Lives of two other Irish saints – Colum Cille and Fintan of Clonenagh; secondly, that his name Colmán also appears in some sources as Columbanus, which is not surprising since both are derived from the name Colum.  He also discusses the various ways in which the place name Oughaval is rendered and shows his customary irritation at the attempts of the later Scottish martyrologist, David Camerarius, to ignore the reality that in early medieval Europe Scotia was the name applied to Ireland and that ‘Scottish’ saints were actually Irishmen. One of the most interesting sections of Canon O’Hanlon’s account is when he quotes Adomnán’s Vita Columbae concerning the death of Colmán of Oughaval and the addition of a prayer composed on the spot by Saint Colum Cille to the existing commemoration of Saint Martin of Tours in the liturgy.  Canon O’Hanlon concludes by noting that Saint Colmán died on May 15, that would be the date of his own death in the year 1905. I am very grateful to blog reader Seán for sending me the photograph above of the commemorative plaque at Stradbally in honour of Canon O’Hanlon’s many achievements:

    Article IV. — St. Colman, or St. Columban, Mac Ua Laoighse, of Oughaval, Queen’s County. [Sixth Century.]

    His relations with the great Abbot of Iona, St. Columkille, and with St. Fintan, Abbot of Clonenagh, have given special celebrity to the present holy man. In the Martyrology of Tallagh, the name of Colman Mac h Laighsi, is simply inserted, at the 15th of May, or at the Ides of this same month. From the foregoing record, the Bollandists have given insertion to his feast, at the same date, in their collection, calling him Colmanus, filius Hua-Laigsi, seu Mac-ua-Laigse. He belonged to the race of Laoighsigh Ceannmoir, son of Conall Cearnach, a celebrated Ultonian hero, living in the first century. His pedigree occurs, in the Genealogies of Irish Saints; and, it serves to show, how Colman derived the tribe-name Mac Ua Loighse. According to this authority, he was son to Lugna, son of Eugene, son to Guaire, the son of Ere, son to Bracan, son of Lugad Eaighsech, son to Laigisius Cenn-mor, son of Conall Kearnach, who belonged to the noble Roderician family. This pedigree is evidently defective, however, in several generations as nine degrees are quite insufficient to fill five centuries. His kinsman, Oennu Ua Laighse, who died about the same time, is thirteen generations removed from Conall Cearnach. Besides the name of Colman, he is known by that of Columbanus — an exchange of names often occurring in the Lives of our Irish Saints, and applying to the same individual. Thus, we find Colman-Eala – called Colmanellus Colman, or Columbanus; again, the Colman Mor of Irish history, is also called Columbanus; while, the Colman of Bede is called Columbanus, in the Annals of Ulster, at A.D. 667, 675, and in those of Tighernach, at A.D. 676. In the Life of St. Fintan, Abbot of Clonenagh, whose Acts have been already published, at the 17th of February, we are told, that this religious youth, who is there called Columbanus, was a native of Leix, in the Leinster province. For the sake of making a pilgrimage, and of engaging in prayer, this Columbanus directed his course to the island of Iona, in order to visit St. Columba. Here, he remained for some time, and he lived with this latter holy Abbot. When Colman wished to return again to his own country, he asked Columba, how he should live there, not being able to confess his sins to the holy Abbot. St. Columba said, “Go to that pious man, whom I see standing among the Angels and before the tribunal of Christ, on each Sunday night.” The holy youth asked, who and what sort of man he was. St. Columba answered, “There is a certain saintly and handsome man, in your part of the country, whose complexion is florid, whose eyes are brightly sparkling, and whose white locks of hair are thinly scattered on his head.” The young man then said, “I know of no man answering to this description, in my country, except St. Fintan.” Then St. Columba joyfully said to him: “He it is, my son, whom I see before the tribunal of Christ, as I have already told you. Go to him, for he is a good shepherd of Christ’s flock, and he shall bring many souls with him to the kingdom of God.” St. Colman or Columbanus — as he is here called — having received permission to revisit Ireland, and having the benediction of St. Columba, afterwards set out for his own country. Coming to St. Fintan, Columban told him all that the saintly Abbot of Iona had said. The holy old man, Fintan, hearing these words, blushed deeply, so that his face seemed as if on fire. He told the young man to be careful and not to relate these circumstances to any other person, at least, during his own lifetime. This condition imposed a great restraint on Colman; for, St. Fintan, shortly after their interview, departed this life.

    From the foregoing account, we may infer, that St. Colman, after his return from Iona, was still a young man, who had probably learned the rudiments of monastic discipline, under that great master of a spiritual life, St. Columkille. The date regarding St. Fintan’s death is questioned. Colgan says, he died long before the close of the sixth century, and allows him to have flourished in the year 560; while Dr. Lanigan maintains it as probable, that he reached the age of about seventy, thus departing towards the year 595, or two years before the death of St. Columkille, in 597. It seems evident, that St. Colman must have commenced the foundation of a religious establishment, at Oughaval, shortly before or after the death of St. Fintan; unless we admit Dr. Lanigan’s other conjecture. This historian thinks it more probable, the bishop Columbanus, mentioned in St. Fintan’s Life, was a different person from the Leinster bishop, Columbanus Mac-loigse. He admits, however, that the term juvenus may be applied to a person near thirty years of age, and that Colman or Columbanus might have became a bishop, soon after the death of St. Fintan. Again, he may have died not long afterwards; that is to say, before the death of St. Columkille, Abbot of Iona. Our saint is called a Leinster Bishop, by Cumineus, and by Adamnan; and not a Bishop of Lagena, in Lagenia, as Mabillon misapprehends. Nor must we confound him with another visitor of St. Columba, and who was named Columbanus, son of Beognai. The present holy man was surnamed Mocu-Loigse, owing to his having been descended from the family of a prince, named Laigis. From him was derived the name of Leix, a large district of Leinster. There, St. Columban was bishop, and at place, called Tulach-mac-Comguile. A certain Columbanus is mentioned, with others, who made Scotland famous, for their holy lives, good example, and solid learning. This was sufficient to cause David Camerarius, to enrol him a Saint and Bishop, in his Menology, as the Bollandists remark, when setting a Feast for him, at this day. It seems probable, he may have been confounded, with the present holy man; however, on this matter, we cannot presume to offer any safe opinion. Unwilling to admit an Irish name, Dempster perverts Lageniensis into Longinensis; while he states, that the place was unknown, and that the day for St. Columbanus adtus was uncertain, being known only to God. The Scottish writer in question has treated Columbanus’ Acts and memory, in his familiar style of fiction and of imagination. Colgan takes him severely to task, for his misstatements, regarding that saint, and then he proceeds to examine and to produce reasons, for the information of his readers, that so they may be enabled to judge for themselves, concerning the amount of credit due to such falsehoods. No insuperable difficulty exists, in resolving that religious young man, named Columbanus from the province of Leinster, as mentioned in the Acts of St. Fintan, into Columbanus bishop in Leinster, as found in Adamnan’s Life of St. Columba. The recollection, that Leix is given, as the common country, and Columkille, as a contemporary, with the person named in either record, prevents us doubting much the identity of one and the same Columbanus. He was yet a comparatively young man, not much — if at all — exceeding thirty years of age. Admitting the supposition, it is therefore probable, that soon after Columban or Colman returned from Iona, he selected Nuachcongbail, as a site for his church. Shortly afterwards, it is probable, he was constituted a chorepiscopus or a rural bishop. The exact site for this place of settlement was at Ougheval, a townland within the parish of Stradbally, in the eastern part of the Queen’s County. That church was built, also, within the ancient territory of Leix, and in the province of Leinster. The old graveyard in which Colman’s church once stood, is even yet, a favourite place for interment. Oughaval is universally pronounced Ochval — but written Oakvale — in the neighbourhood. It is quite possible, that some portions of St. Columban’s old church remain there; but, if so, only the foundations can lay claim, to very remote antiquity. An extraordinary pile of rubble-stone building, intended to represent an old ruined church or a monastery, now occupies the site of a medieval structure, which served for parochial services, down to the seventeenth century. It was erected by Pole Cosby, Esq., about the beginning of the last century, to serve for a family place of interment. A crypt is beneath; and, it rests on a rock-foundation. The subsoil of this cemetery is naturally a dry mould, covering a fine limestone formation. The coffins of the dead are long preserved from total decay, while the decomposition of corpses proceeds rather slowly. On the west side of this churchyard, few corpses are interred, except those of unbaptized infants. A low wall, surmounting a deep and almost circular fosse, once surrounded the graveyard; but, this has been completely obliterated, within the past few years. The burial-ground itself was considerably elevated, above the level of adjoining fields. It is possible, St. Colman combined the episcopal with the abbatial functions, at Oughaval; but, regarding this matter, we have no certain record. 

    It is most probable, that he did not attain an advanced age, as he died before St. Columkille, and previous to the close of the sixth century. In Adamnan’s Life of the great Abbot of Iona, he gives an account, regarding that vision of blessed Angels, who had conducted the soul of the holy bishop Columban Mocu Loigse to Heaven. There, it is stated, that on the morning of a certain day, while the monks of Iona were putting on their shoes, to engage in various labours of the monastery, St. Columkille had resolved, that it should be observed as a holiday, and that preparations should be made, for offering up the “Clean Oblation.” That holy Abbot likewise ordered some addition to their breakfast, as on a Sunday. “And, to-day,” said he, “however unworthy I may be, it behoves me to celebrate the mysteries of the Holy Eucharist, through veneration for the spirit of Him, who hath ascended beyond the starry vault of Heaven into Paradise, during the past night, being borne thither among holy choirs of Angels. In obedience to orders received from the saint, his monks spent the day as one of rest; and, having prepared everything for a celebration of the Divine Mysteries, with white vestments, as if it were a solemn festival, they proceeded with their Abbot to the church. But, it happened, that while the usual prayer had been chaunted, during the  progress of the holy offices, and in a measured strain, St. Martin’s name was commemorated. On a sudden the holy Abbot called to his choristers, and said: “To-day you should sing for the holy bishop Columbanus,” when they had come to the aforesaid name of St. Martin. The nature of this commemoration we learn, from an ancient Liturgy, and from a form prescribed by St. Aurelianus;, for the church of Arles. According to the Rev. Dr. Reeves, St. Columba seems to have composed on the spot a proper Preface for the occasion and thus, in virtue of his abbatial authority, to have instituted a festival for the church of Hy, in commemoration of the bishop’s death. St. Martin was held in special veneration, by the Irish; and, therefore, we are not surprised at finding his name on the Missal, then used at Iona. And, after a short interval, certain persons that came from Leinster province to Iona brought an account, how the bishop had died on that very same night, when his departure had been revealed to the holy Abbot. The foregoing account is amplified, from the ancient Life of St. Columkille, attributed to Cummian. He also calls our saint, Episcopus Lagenensis. Then all the monks understood, that Columbanus, a bishop in Leinster and a dear friend of St. Columkille, had departed to the Lord. We think it probable, the present St. Colman or Columban died, early on the morning of the 15th of May. There can be no doubt, that in former times, this holy man was greatly venerated. The festival of Colman Mac Ua Laigse, or Columbanus Mcocu Laigse, is placed at the 15th of May, by Marianus O’Gorman, and by Charles Maguire. In the Martyrology of Donegal, at this same day, he is commemorated, as Colman, son of Ua Laoighse, of Tulach-mic-Comghaill, in Druimne Togha, i.e., Nua Congbail, in Laoighis of Leinster. There he led a holy life, and passed away to taste the waters of eternal life.

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  • Feast of the Translation of the Relics of Saint Laurence O'Toole, May 10

    On May 10 Canon O’Hanlon concludes his entries for the day with this short notice:

     Article XIV. Translation of the Relics of St. Laurence O’Toole, Archbishop of Dublin.

    The anniversary for the translation of St. Laurence O’Toole’s relics is observed, with great solemnity, at Eu, in Normandy. The translation itself, which took place, on the 10th of May, A.D. 1226, will be found treated at much greater length, in the Life of St. Laurence O’Toole, at the 14th of November. The present feast was celebrated, with an office of Nine Lessons.

    Sadly, the November volume of Lives of the Irish Saints remained unpublished at the time of O’Hanlon’s death on May 15, 1905, but fortunately his Life of St. Laurence O’Toole had been issued as a separate publication in 1877. We can therefore enjoy Canon O’Hanlon’s detailed account of the translation of the relics of Dublin’s archbishop  on May 10, 1226. Saint Laurence died in Normandy on November 14, 1180 whilst on his final diplomatic mission and so it was in continental Europe, where so many Irish saints of the earlier medieval period had laboured, that he was laid to rest. Hagiographers record that the deaths of saints are accompanied by signs and wonders, and in the case of Saint Laurence:

    On the night of the departure of our saint, it is related, that many persons observed a wonderful brightness surrounding the abbey of Eu, and to so great a degree of brilliancy, they were at first of opinion that either the monastery or some other house in its vicinity was in flames. And at the same time, a citizen of Dublin, named Innocent, whilst in the cathedral church of the Holy Trinity, saw in a vision during sleep, a most wonderful portent. For, on a sudden, the high altar seemed to fall down and immediately disappear. On the following day,  he related this vision in public to the citizens of Dublin, solemnly asserting, that their holy archbishop must have departed from amongst the living; an event which was exactly verified, on the arrival of the messengers who brought the account of his death.**Surius De Probatis Sanctorum Vitis, vol.vi. p. 339; Messingham’s Florilegium Insulæ Sanctorum, p. 387; Vita S.Laurentii, cap. xxxiv.

    Canon O’Hanlon takes up the story of the translation of the relics of Saint Laurence, using a manuscript source preserved in Marsh’s Library in Dublin:

    The body of the holy man having remained deposited for the space of five years and five months,* in the place where it had been committed to the earth, some persons who were afflicted with fever having prayed over the tomb, felt confident that they should be restored to health through the intercession of the saint, who had wrought so many miracles and who had effected so many cures during his life. About the same time, the old church in which the body of the saint lay, having become quite ruinous, it had been resolved to remove the walls, so that the grave of the saint would thenceforth be disturbed by the ravages of the beasts of the field and the fowls of the air. A heavenly-inspired design was then conceived, of removing the body of the saint under these circumstances

    *Then it was discovered, that the body was preserved in the coffin, not only free from corruption, but that it even emitted an agreeable odour. The flesh and hair were found to have been preserved, and the joints of the thighs, legs, and arms were flexible, as if moved by a person in the full enjoyment of life. It is even said, that blood was found in the veins of the inanimate body, MS. Etat des Reliques de St. Laurent d’Eu. p. 3.

    It was exhumed, and placed before the altar of St. Leodagarius, on the xv. of the kalends of May (April 17th), and on the feria quinta, or Thursday, of the year 1186. The abbot, monks, and numbers of other persons were in attendance at the time. Thenceforward the Omnipotent was pleased to work so many and such great miracles through his holy servant, that, as the MS. expresses it, the fame of his sanctity diffused itself throughout the entire country, like a broken alabaster vase of precious ointment. Many infirm persons, who came from villages and places remote, obtained favours through the intercession of the saint. Through his prayers the blind were restored to the use of vision, the deaf to the faculty of hearing, and the dumb to the exercise of speech. Lepers were cleansed, the weak recovered strength, paralytics and demoniacs were restored to the use of reason, and safety was accorded to those in danger. Health was imparted to the infirm, and even life to those whose souls had departed from their bodies. A partial account of these miracles was committed to writing, with a view to procure his canonization.

    Whilst the memory of our saint was rendered illustrious by the performance of so many and such great miracles, the faithful were led to believe that by obtaining a decree for his canonization, the glory and triumphs of the Church of God would be more diffused, as a light placed upon a candelabrum would the more widely extend its rays. Wherefore, the Church of Eu sent messengers to the sovereign pontiffs, Popes Celestine III. and Innocent III. of happy memory, to whom they brought many letters, bearing testimony to the sanctity and virtues of the holy confessor. In these it was prayed that the decree of his canonization might be pronounced by the authority of the apostolic see. The examination consequent on the number of letters received, caused some procrastination, during which many despaired of the early enrolment of Laurence amongst the number of the beatified. But, the various miracles and virtues manifested by God through his servant, and the increasing devotion of the people towards his memory, would not admit of an indefinite postponement. Whence it happened, that in the ninth year of the pontificate of Honorius III., the venerable Abbot Guido, [ the seventh Abbot of Eu] as the representative of the people of Eu, resolved to remove the difficulties, labours, and expenses of the investigation, so long undecided, and the happy issue of which was earnestly expected by the faithful. He exerted all his energies, and laboured with the most anxious solicitude, to effect the object of his mission. It would be impossible to relate all the varied particulars of the labours endured and the journeys made by the venerable abbot, or the solicitude he felt throughout the whole proceedings. However, he succeeded in obtaining the decree for our saint’s canonization…

    ….This happy event being accomplished, the Abbot Guido, bearing with him the letters and bulls, which were enclosed in a silk covering, arrived at Eu, on the feast of the conversion of St. Paul, and was joyfully and publicly received by the citizens of the place. The whole city was in a delirium of joy, and gave thanks and praises to God; for the inhabitants expected the continued manifestation of those miracles which had already distinguished their holy patron, from the additional circumstance of his having been enrolled amongst the company of the blessed in heaven. All the people began frequently and devoutly to invoke his intercession, that they might obtain the favourable issue of their several petitions, and be relieved under their various necessities. The Lord was pleased to work many signs and miracles through his servant, some of which are subjoined by the author of our saint’s life, and which are here substantially reproduced. The venerable Archbishop Theobald, who then ruled over the metropolitan see of Rouen, having arrived at Eu, to the great joy of its inhabitants, a day within the octave of the former translation of the holy confessor’s remains was fixed for the renewed and solemn transference of his relics. With great honour and solemnity, it had been resolved to remove the body to a more conspicuous and elevated position in the church. Wherefore, the time appointed being arrived, the tomb was approached with lights borne by the attendants, and it was intended to remove the remains with as little disturbance as possible. The Abbot Guido and his community of monks at Eu were present, as also the prior of the canons of St. Victor of Paris, and his attendant canon, with two canons who were sent by Theobald, archbishop of Rouen. In a private manner, the remains were removed from the earth to a shrine prepared for them, and being reposed in a covering of silk, they were placed in a leather case. The right arm, the head of the holy confessor, and a few other particles of his sacred remains, were reserved from this inclosure. In the year of our Lord 1226, on the vi. of the ides, or 10th day of May, at the dawn of a Sunday morning, a great number of ecclesiastics and secular persons were in attendance. Amongst others, Theobald, archbishop of Rouen, and Galfrid, bishop of Amiens, were present. The remains were removed with great honour and reverence, at an early hour in the morning.* About the third hour of the day of this festival, an immense multitude of persons of every rank, sex, and age, attended from all parts of the surrounding country. The church and streets were literally blocked up to such a degree, during the time of the public procession, that even with the aid of barons and soldiers who preceded the sacred relics, it was found a matter of great difficulty to gain access to the church. A suitable discourse having been pronounced, the shrine in which the sacred body was placed, with the shrines containing the head and arm of the saint, were borne in a public manner through the streets, the devout faithful pressing from all sides to witness these imposing ceremonies, and to manifest their devotion towards their holy patron. Then the sacred relics were brought to the church, and placed within the sanctuary; and from this time forward many and great miracles were constantly wrought through the intercession of St. Laurence. The author of our saint’s life, in the MS. preserved in Marsh’s Library, says that he would satisfy the curiosity of his readers by recounting only a few of the many miracles wrought for the edification of the faithful. These relations, he says, were drawn from the written records of the inquisitions taken on the authority of sworn witnesses, and are given by him, if not in the precise words, at least in that order in which they were presented for the audience of the Sovereign Pontiff and the College of Cardinals.

    *I find additional particulars regarding this translation, in the following account, taken from another source. In the year 1226, the body of St. Laurence was exhumed by the abbot Guy, in the presence of all the religious, the abbot of St. Victor of Paris, then at Eu, two nobles and two canons of Rouen, who had been sent by the archbishop and chapter of the latter city. The body, however, was not found in the same perfect state of preservation, as it had appeared to those who opened the coffin, forty years before, but the remains exhaled an agreeable odour, which gave the greatest possible delight and satisfaction to all those who were present. The head which was yet covered with hair, and the right arm were then removed and placed in separate reliquaries. The other remains were deposited in their resting place, after having been enveloped in fine linen, until the day appointed for the public and solemn translation of the relics. The 10th day of May, 1226, having arrived, Thibaut, archbishop of Rouen, Godfrey, bishop of Amiens, the abbot Guy, the prior of St. Victor and other ecclesiastics entered the vault where the remains of the saint reposed. Matins were then sung, before the remains were removed. The coffin or old shrine bearing the relics was then solemnly borne in procession to the church, on an ornamented bier. On the opening of the shrine, the remains were exposed for the veneration of the people, and afterwards deposited in a new shrine that had been prepared for their reception. The head and right arm of the saint were also exposed. In fine, the shrine having been closed and sealed, it was carried processionally through the city. All the inhabitants wept tears of joy on witnessing these ceremonies, and in reflecting that their city had been enriched by such a treasure. On the return of the processionists, the shrine was placed on a large table covered with rich tapestry, and it rested within the choir, before the great altar of the church. A white canopy covered the shrine. The people were enabled to satisfy their devotion during the Mass which was then sung, and towards its close, the archiepiscopal blessing was imparted to them. The annual celebration of this festival of the translation of our saint’s relics continues to the present time in the city of Eu, and a numerous concourse of the citizens and people of the surrounding districts always assist at the solemnity.-MS, Etat des Reliques de St. Laurent d’Eu, pp. 4, 5.

    After the solemn translation of our saint’s relics in 1226, they were placed within the choir of the church of Notre-Dame at Eu, and were preserved as the richest treasures of the church and city, until the end of the last century, when the French Revolution took place. The sacred remains, in detatched portions, were enclosed within four different reliquaries. The first case contained the cranium or upper part of the head, which was affixed to an artificial bust, but placed in its natural position. The head was crowned with a mitre, and seemed to incline in the attitude of salutation and benediction, when carried in solemn procession. There is a picture in the chapel of St. Laurence O’Toole at Eu, which is placed under the organ, and which represents the ancient bust, which was encased in a shrine of massive silver, given by the canons regular of St. Laurence, towards the year 1650. In the latter shrine it was placed by Monsignore François de Harley, archbishop of Rouen, it having been contained before that time within a round reliquary of wood, ornamented with silver and gilding, and which rested on four pedestals. The second case enclosed the right arm of the saint, and was shaped in conformation with the relic it contained. It is not known with certainty, that this relic is preserved; but it is said, that amongst the old furniture of the church there is an arm contained in wood, which is gilt and hollowed within; this covering, it is supposed, most probably contained the precious remains of our saint. The third case enclosed another bone of St. Laurence, which probably formed the upper part of the right arm already mentioned. This relic was placed in a chrystal vase, and was enclosed in a box of silver, which is also richly gilt. Finally, the fourth case or shrine contained the whole body of the saint, with the exception of the parts already mentioned, and some small portions which were given to several religious houses, and among others, to the abbey of St. Victor of Paris. The Jesuit fathers, Briard and Edmond Massé, when setting out on their American mission, carried with them some of the bones of St. Laurence O’Toole, and a portion of his garments; and they are said to have performed miracles, the dead being even raised to life when touched by these relics. The last named reliquary is of wood, richly covered with plates of gold and silver, and studded with precious stones.

    In course of time, the feast of the translation of the holy confessor’s relics became a great solemnity at the abbey of Eu, which, by degrees, took the name of the venerable guest that had formerly visited it. However, the abbey reverted to its original title of Notre-Dame, whilst the parish in which it stands is named, La paroisse de Saint Laurent, in honour of the saint, who is the special patron of Eu. At the present day, the people of this city celebrate the festivals of St. Laurence O’Toole and of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin with equal solemnity. The body of the holy confessor, reposing in its rich shrine, was placed upon four columns of red marble. The ravages of the Huguenots of Dieppe, in 1562, most probably destroyed these sacred objects of art; for, at the period of the French revolution, they no longer existed. In the archives of the department, and in an inventory of the abbey made by the Prior Campanon, in 1790, it is said, that the shrine of St. Laurence was placed behind the high altar, and protected by a balcony of iron. The head of the saint was kept in a shrine of wood of a dark colour, and the two arms were in wood, covered with some plates of silver.

    For a long time, a relic of St. Laurence, was preserved in the abbey of Eu: this was the chalice with which the blessed archbishop had been accustomed to celebrate the divine mysteries. For some centuries after his death, those afflicted patients who made a pilgrimage to his tomb, were in the habit of drinking from it. In 1408, this relic was stolen, but shortly afterwards recovered. A second time, however, it was taken away by the Huguenots of Dieppe, in the month of July, 1562, and afterwards was not restored.

    Rev. John O’Hanlon, The Life of St. Laurence O’Toole, Archbishop of Dublin and Delegate Apostolic of the Holy See, for the Kingdom of Ireland, (Dublin, 1877).

    Finally, I might add that Canon O’Hanlon dedicated his Life of St. Laurence O’Toole to the then Archbishop of Dublin, Paul Cullen, D.D. An anonymous reviewer of a novena to Saint Laurence described how the Irish prelate was left in no doubt about the strength of the devotion to Saint Laurence in Normandy:

    Cardinal Cullen, who filled the double office which the patron-saint of Dublin filled in his day -Archbishop of Dublin and Apostolic Delegate –  made a pilgrimage once to his predecessor’s shrine at Eu, in Normandy. The Archbishop of Rouen expressed his willingness to transfer the relics of St. Laurence to Dublin; but he added, “when your Grace comes to translate them from Eu, you will require at least two regiments of infantry, a few squadrons of cavalry, and a small park of artillery; for my good people have such a veneration for your saint, who is the protector of their city, that they will only yield up his relics to superior force.”

    The Irish Monthly, Volume 8, No. 89 (November 1880), p. 628.

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