OMNIUM SANCTORUM HIBERNIAE

ALL THE SAINTS OF IRELAND

  • Hildegard of Bingen: Songs for Saint Disibod






    The universal community of the saints was a genuinely felt reality in the lives of Hildegard and her nuns, not only as an example to follow but also as a source of inspiration and a focus of devotion. This was especially true of patron saints of the locality such as Disibod, the seventh-century Irish bishop and hermit who founded a monastery on the summit of the hill that later bore his name. Hildegard spent half her life on the Disibodenberg and must have been highly familiar with its topography. She clearly associated the heights of the mountain with the spiritual nature of the saint to whom she dedicated her verses.











    Antiphon for Saint Disibod

    O mirum admirandum

    O wondrous marvel,
    a hidden form shines forth
    and rises up in glorious stature
    to where the living height
    gives forth mystical truths.
    Therefore, O Disibod, you will rise up at the end,
    as once you were raised,
    by the succouring blossom
    of all the branches of the world.

    Responsory for Saint Disibod

    O viriditas digit dei

    O green vigour of the hand of God,
    in which God has planted a vineyard,
    it shines in the heights
    like a stately column,
    You are glorious in your preparation for God.

    And O mountain on high
    you will never weaken in God’s testing
    but you stand far off like an exile.
    The armoured man does not have the power to seize you.
    You are glorious in your preparation for God.

    Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit.
    You are glorious in your preparation for God.

    Mark Atherton, Hildegard of Bingen: Selected Writings (Penguin Books, 2001), 35-36.

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  • Saint Sarbile of Faughart, September 4

    September 4 sees the commemoration of Saint Sarbile from the Faughart district of County Louth, which some hagiographical traditions claim to be the birthplace of Saint Brigid of Kildare. The Faughart area is also hailed as the birthplace of Saint Monnina of Killeavy. The Irish sources agree that Monnina was not the original name of this holy woman and most record that she was originally called Dareca. This comment on the Leabhar Breac copy of the Feilire of Oengus, however also notes “Moninne of Slieve Gullion, and Sarbile was her name previously. Or Darerca was her name at first…” So it seems there may be some confusion here. In Volume IX of his Lives of the Irish Saints Canon O’Hanlon provides the few details on the life of Saint Sarbile:

    St. Sarbile, Virgin of Fochart, County of Louth.

    As Mary, mentioned in the Gospel, loved to sit at the feet of Jesus, so do holy virgins desire that calm and rest, in which His voice is best heard speaking to their hearts. We find set down in the Martyrology of Tallagh, at the 4th of September, that veneration was given to Sarbile, Virgin of Fochairde, or Fochart, in the old district of Murtheimhne. This is now a level country in the present County of Louth. It extends from the River Boyne to the Mountains of Cuilgne, or Carlingford. The Martyrology of Donegal simply records the name Sarbile, of Fochard, at the same date. This may have been the St. Orbilia, Virgin, whose Acts Colgan had intended to produce at the present day, as we have gathered from the list of his unpublished manuscripts.

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  • Saint Colman of Kilclonfert, September 3

    September 3 is the commemoration of a Saint Colman and a degree of confusion seems to have arisen over the name of his locality, with some sources calling it Druim ferta and others Cluain ferta. The translator of the later Martyrology of Donegal notes that at Druim ‘The word Droma is written as a gloss over Cluain, meaning that we should read Drumfert, not Clonfert, here.’ Canon O’Hanlon suggests that the place is now the parish of Kilclonfert, County Offaly, which was known as King’s County prior to Irish independence. I note that the local Catholic parish church at Kilclonfert is dedicated to Saint Colman, and that there appears to have been a revival of interest in the maintenance of the holy well dedicated to the saint. There is a two-part video online showing the annual clean-up of the well by a local family who reckon this is their hereditary right, the soundtrack wasn’t to my taste but at the end of the second part the people seem to fall quiet as they pray softly and then add some blessed water to the newly-cleaned well, which looks splendid after all their work. Below are the details from the calendars for the feast of Saint Colman, which seem to be the only information Canon O’Hanlon is able to bring:

    St. Colman, of Cluain or Druim Ferta Mughaine, now Kilclonfert, King’s County.

    In the Feilire of St. Aengus, at the 3rd day of September, we have an entry for the feast of Colman of Druim Ferta. A commentator, on that copy contained in the Leabhar Breac, states, that the place is to be identified with Cluain Ferta Mugaine in Offaly. It is at present known as Kilclonfert, a parish in the Barony of Lower Philipstown, and King’s County. Some ruins of the old Church are still visible. Near them may be found the well of St. Colman, but corruptly called St. Cloman’s well…According to the Martyrology of Donegal, veneration was given at the 3rd of September to Colman, of Cluain-Ferta or Druim-Ferta. This place is also called Mughaine, in Ui Failghe, or Offaly, a district in Leinster.

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