OMNIUM SANCTORUM HIBERNIAE

ALL THE SAINTS OF IRELAND

  • Saint Ernach of Duneane, October 30

    There is a considerable amount of confusion surrounding the identity of the saint commemorated at the County Antrim locality of Duneane on October 30. For although the calendars record the name of a male saint Ernach at this date, they also record a female Hercnat or Ergnata on the same day. This female saint has a second feast at January 8. The diocesan historian, Father James O’Laverty, attempts to sort out the confusion, although he ends by introducing yet another saint into the mix: 

    Colgan (Acta. S.S. 8 Jan.) says, “St. Ergnata flourished
    about the year of Christ, 460, and our Hagiologists relate,
    that her festival was celebrated in the Church of Cluainda-en
    (the meadow of the two birds), in the district called
    Fiodhbhaidh (Feevagh), and in the Church of Tamhlact-bo,
    both on the 8th of January, and on the 31st (recte 30th), of
    October.” Colgan adds in a note that Cluain-da-en is a
    parochial church on the banks of Lough Neagh. Two
    transcripts of the Calendar of Aengus, read at the 30th of
    October, where it commemorates St. Ernach — “Ernach a
    virgin (uag) a high pillar,” but the oldest transcript which
    Whitley Stokes gives, reads, “Ernach, a youth (oc), a high
    pillar.” It is obvious that there were two saints, one a
    virgin, the daughter of the prince, who gave Armagh to St.
    Patrick; she was named Ergnata, or Eargnath, or Herenat,
    and was honoured on the 8th of January, with a festival in
    the Church of Tamlachtbo, in the parish of Eglish, Armagh. While there was another saint called by nearly
    the same name, though a man, who was honoured by a
    festival in the Church of Duneane, which was held on the
    30th of October. In process of time, the hagiologists confounded the two on account of the similarity of names.
    Thus the Calendar of Donegal has, at the 8th of January, “Eargnat, Virgin of Dun-da-en, in Dalaraidhe,” and
    again at the 30th of October, it has

    “Hercnat, Virgin of Dun-da-en, in Fiodhbhadh (Feevagh),
    of Dalaraidh.”

    The note on the Festology of Aengus, in the L. Breac,
    sets the matter at rest.

    Ernach-i-MacTairnd, &c., Ernach, i.e. son of Tairnd, is his
    name, but it fitted not the quatrain; and in Dun-da-en, in
    Fidbaid (Feevagh), of Dalaraidhe, is he”.  Dun-da-en, the old form of the name Duneane, signifies
    “the fort of the two birds,” in allusion to some old legend
    a version of which is given below. Feevagh is still the name of
    district adjoining Duneane. St. Ernach, whose festival was
    held on the 30th of October, in Duneane, seems to be the
    same St. Ernin, whose festival was held on the 31st of May, in Cranfield. 

    Rev. James O’Laverty, An Historical Account of the Diocese of Down and Connor, Ancient and Modern, Vol. III (Dublin, 1884), 333-334.

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  • Saint Abbán of Moyarney, October 27

    One of the saints, commemorated on October 27 in the Martyrology of Oengus as ‘Abbán an abbot fair and train-having’, presents us with something of a mystery as to his identity. One problem is that as the scholiasts’ notes make clear, the lifespan of this saint was said to have exceeded three hundred years:

    27. Abbán, great-grandson of Cormac, i.e. from Cell Abbain in Hui Muiredaig and from Mag Ernaidi in Húi Cennselaig, i.e. in Húi Buidi; and a great-grandson of Cormac is he himself; and this is the feast of his nativity.

    Abbán, son of Laignech, son of Cainnech, son of Imchad, son of Cormac, son of Cucorp.

    Seventeen pure-shaped years, in addition to the number three-hundred, the age of Abbán, shapely lord, while he was in the body.

    This plus the extraordinary number of churches which claim Abbán as founder, has led many writers to speculate that there must have been more than one saint of this name, even though the sources try to present a single individual, Abban of Kilabban, a nephew of Saint Ibar, whose feast is commemorated on March 16. Writer Eoin Neeson attempts to clarify the matter:

    ABBAN of Moyarney, County Wexford. An abbot who has been confused with Abban of Killabbban in Laois and whose feast-day is on March 16. They may have been the same individual, but there is no certainty either way. Tradition would suggest that there were two Abbans, while holding that there was only one; but if so he must have been singularly long-lived for he died in 630, yet is reputed to have preached before the coming of Patrick (432). It is probable that there were two Abbans, to-day’s being the latter. He was of royal blood and, indeed, was imprisoned by his father because he chose the Church rather than the local kingship. He is invoked against shipwreck.

    Eoin Neeson, The Book of Irish Saints (Cork, 1967), 190.

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  • Saint Caidin of Domhnach Caoide, October 25

    The feast of Saint Caidin is recorded in some of the Irish Martyrologies for 25 October. The table in the Martyrology of Donegal lists:

    Caoide, abbot, of Domhnach-Caoide, in Tir Eoghain, diocese of Derry, 25 Oct. (8 Cal. Nov.); Cadinus in Latin. His church, his bell, and his staff are preserved.

    The actual entry reads:

    25. D. OCTAVO KAL. NOVEMBRIS. 25.

    [The festival of CAOIDE, Abbot, patron of …. chaidh.]

    to which the notes add:

    The blank in the text ought to be filled by the word Domhnach. (R.)

    The locality of Domhnach Caoide, or Downaghede as it was anglicized, is mentioned in a later medieval record of the Diocese of Derry. The editor of these records, Bishop Reeves, quoted Colgan, who mentions the 28th October, rather than the 25th in connection with this saint. He also introduces something of a red herring in identifying Caidin with a Saint Cadoc, a missionary to the Morini in France:

    Downaghgede. — Domnach Caoide, Dominica Caidini. ” S. Caidinus Confessor colitur in ecclesia de Domhnach Caoide, dioacesis Derensis in Ultonia, 28 Octobris.” — (Act. SS., p. 162 &.) Colgan observes that, the termination oc being a diminutive, Caidan or Caidin and Caidoc are the same. Caidocus al’ Caidinus was a companion of St. Columbanus, and the apostle of the Morini. The herenagh paid 40s. per an. to the bishop Inq. The ruins of the old church of Donaghedy are in the townland Bunowen, a little N. E. of the present church (Ord. Surv., s.3.)

    Rev. W. Reeves (ed), Acts of Archbishop Colton in his metropolitan visitation in the diocese of Derry, A.D. MCCCXCVII (Dublin, 1850), 73.

    This suggested link to a Saint Cadoc, missionary to the Morini, whom Colgan conveniently placed for commemoration on the same day as the better-known Saint Cadoc of Wales (January 24), is not the only source of confusion surrounding the precise identity of Caidin of Domhnach Caoide or of his feastday. For the Irish Martyrologies also list a saint of the same name on the previous day, October 24. This Caidin, however, is clearly identified as having been a bishop of Iona (or Hy). The Martyrology of Donegal records:

    24. C. NONO KAL. NOVEMBRIS.

    CAETI, Bishop. The Cain Adamnain states that Ceti, the bishop, was one of the saints who were security to free the women from every kind of captivity and slavery ; and it is likely that it is of him he speaks.

    to which the Notes add:

    Ceti, the bishop. The Annals of Ulster, at 711, and the Four Masters, at 710, record the death of Coeddi, bishop of Ia, or Iona. This date tallies very well with the supposed period at which the synod of Adanman was held. Colgan latinizes the name Caidimis. See Trias Thaum., p. 499 a, and Actt. SS. p. 162 6, note 2. Caideus, which occurs at the following day, is the same name. The blank in the text ought to be filled by the word Domhnach. (R.)

    The death of this bishop is also noted by Father Lanigan in his Ecclesiastical History of Ireland:

    St. Caide or Caidin, who was bishop at Hy, died in 711 and his name is in the calendars at 24 October.

    Rev. J. Lanigan, The Ecclesiastical History of Ireland, Vol 3., (2nd edn., Dublin, 1829), 153.

    The Martyrology of Marianus O’Gorman, incidentally, lists only Coeddi, a bishop, on 24 October and has no entry for another saint of the same name on the following day.

    So it would appear that there is some degree of confusion surrounding our Saint Caidin. It is of course possible that we are dealing with one individual here. Saint Caidin could have been both a monastic at a foundation of his own in Ireland and then later acted as a bishop on Iona. On the other hand, it would seem equally plausible that there could be two saints of the same name, one an abbot in the diocese of Derry, the other a bishop of Iona. The Iona Caidin of October 24 is clearly identified as having died in the early eighth-century, but it may be significant that the other Caidin of October 25 is associated with the placename ‘Domhnach Caoide’. The prefix Domhnach is associated with the very earliest church foundations in Ireland, and indeed in The Tripartite Life of Patrick there is a Domhnach Cati listed as one of the seven churches of Saint Patrick at the Faughan River. Thus if we are dealing with two individual saints called Caidin, the one commemorated on October 25 who left his ‘church, bell and staff’ may be a very early saint indeed, and thus distinct from his later namesake of Iona.

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