OMNIUM SANCTORUM HIBERNIAE

ALL THE SAINTS OF IRELAND

  • Saint Patrick's Day

    Research for this blog has led me to read a great deal of amateur poetry published in the popular religious press of the Victorian era. Whilst much of it is of no great literary merit, I am nevertheless interested in the sentiments expressed as they indicate attitudes towards the Irish saints held at the time. What struck me about the offering below, published in the American monthly The Pilgrim of Our Lady of Martyrs in 1899, was that although the poem is entitled Saint Patrick’s Day, our national patron is curiously not the main protagonist. Instead the author, known only as M. L. M., starts off by praising the Irish saints collectively and the fame they have brought to the insula sanctorum. I am not sure where the number 500 for the saints has originated, since that can be multiplied by three, but I like how s/he then goes on to see the innumerable Irish  martyrs and confessors clustering around them.  The final verse reminds us this piece was written in the days of the national revival as the poet addresses Ireland itself as a ‘brave motherland’ and asks the Irish saints to hasten the dawning of freedom: 

    ST. PATRICK’S DAY.

    HAIL, Saints of Ireland, peerless band!
    A brighter crown than that which gleams
    Upon St. Patrick’s brow.
    Five hundred names are flashing there
    Of heroes, faith-renowned;
    Thro’ them thy fame, O Isle of Saints,
    Has circled earth around.

    But who may count those other lights
    That cluster round each star —
    The Martyrs and Confessors brave
    Through centuries of war?
    Unknown to earth their humble names;
    But well do angels know,
    And chant them in the strains that blend
    Their Church with ours below.

    Mother of many nations! Thou
    To God hast brought them forth;
    No King, or Caesar’s patronage,
    Has helped that second birth.
    The Irish priest worked in the strength
    Born of St. Patrick’s sod —
    His title held from Rome, his wealth,
    A boundless trust in God.

    Like Mary in rude Bethlehem,
    Thy glory is unseen;
    Like Mary, too, on Calvary,
    Thy tears have made thee Queen.
    Brave Mother-land, full long thou’st borne
    The Cross, with patient pain!
    O Saints of Erin, speed from God
    The dawn of Freedom’s reign!

    M. L. M.

    The Pilgrim Of Our Lady Of Martyrs Vol. XV, 1899, 114

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  • Saint Gerald: Legends of a Great Saint of County Mayo

    March 13 is the feast of Saint Gerald of Mayo, an English saint who came to Ireland as a result of the controversy surrounding the dating of Easter. I have previously posted about the circumstances in which he came to be at Mayo of the Saxons here. Below is a 1928 newspaper account of Saint Gerald which looks at his career in Ireland drawing on the fourteenth-century Life of the saint produced by the Augustinian canons who were his later successors at Mayo Abbey. It begins in a rather disjointed way with an account of a powerful local druid being vanquished. Perhaps this is just a legend added for a bit of extra local colour as one assumes the champions of paganism had been seen off long before the time of Saint Gerald, who is not mentioned directly in the tale. Author P. L. O’Madden is correct to point out in his postscript that some of the events contained within the Life of Saint Gerald cannot be reconciled with other historical sources. Today, almost a century after he was writing, the difference between hagiography and history has been clearly established. That said, however, there are some enjoyable hagiographical tropes here as Saint Gerald parts the sea, performs healings, participates in a royal synod with Saint Fechin of Fore and tackles the spectre of the dreaded buidhe Conaill plague which took the lives of so many of the Irish saints, including that of Saint Fechin himself. I particularly enjoyed the description of how Saint Gerald’s monastic cowl grew large enough to encompass all of the people who sought his help, cowls were often listed among the most powerful relics of monastic saints as they were something the saint had actually worn next to his own body: 

    SAINT GERALD

    Legends of a Great Saint of County Mayo

    By P. L. O’Madden

     In that district there dwelt at that time a famous druid who had many disciples. He had his abode nigh to the monastery of the saints, claiming a hereditary right in the place, known to this day as Druid Hill.

    The disciples of the man of God, with great fervour of spirit, impelled therein, made a large fire. The druid on seeing the smoke, said to his disciples “I know by my magical powers that that fire now burning will never be extinguished if it be not put out at once”; and going forth he donned his armour and mounted his charger to extinguish the fire forthwith.

    But it was the will of God that his horse’s feet remained immoveably fixed in the ground, and the druid himself became glued to his horse so that he was unable to move. The amazed magician seeing the Divine Goodnews prevail over his magical arts, thus addressed his followers:

    “Hearken to me, my friends, and know that the prayers of these men of God have conquered my druidic arts, therefore I implore ye to petition those Christians to release me from this dreadful torment, and I promise that myself and my posterity shall be their servants henceforth forever. Having thus avowed, both himself and his horse are miraculously released, but there remain to this day the indelible traces in the rock.

     St. Gerald divided his disciples into three groups: one party to be deputed to England to collect the necessary requirements for the labouring brotherhood; a second group to be employed in building a wall to enclose the monastery establishment, and after that to build a church and monastery; a third division he assigned to sing the Divine Office, and to pray for the Christian people.

    With such regulations inspired by Heaven, under the zealous pastor the flock of Christ advanced daily in fervour and virtue. 

    When all had been accomplished there came a party of robbers, numbering nine, and seized some oxen from the monastery lands. When St Gerald heard this he had them pursued, and discovered them in a certain island wherein they were accustomed to hide their booty, God, who dried up the Red Sea for his servant Moses, caused the water to disappear so as to open a passage for his servant.

    The robbers, on witnessing this miracle, prostrated themselves before the servant of God, repented of their crime, and avowed themselves to him and his successors forever.

    At that time two kings reigned jointly in Ireland, namely Diarmaid and Blathmac, and they issued an edict that the people – clergy and laity- should assemble at Tara,  for there was then a great famine in the land. The population had become so great that there was not sufficient to feed them all. It was ordered that all, clergy and laity should fast and pray that God might remove by a pestilence some of the people so that the rest might be able to live. And when they assembled, and a difference of opinion manifested itself them, they elected the two illustrious abbots, St. Gerald and St. Fechin, to arbitrate on the matter at issue. But even the saints could not agree. St. Gerald maintained that it was not just to ask God to remove some of the people by a plague, for he is all powerful and able to feed the many out of a small supply, as he did the Israelites in the desert with manna, and the  five thousand with five loaves and a few fishes. St. Fechin, however, maintained the justice of the petition, for the famine was occasioned by  the surplus population; and when the popular party prevailed in seeking pestilence, behold an angel of the Lord appeared to a certain holy man saying: “Why do you not seek food from the source of all bounty. He will not refuse you, for it is not more difficult for God to multiply food than men. But, because, contrary to his will, you seek the death of the lower order of people, by a just dispensation of Heaven the elder will die.” And so it befell. For the anger of God was made manifest, in that the two reigning kings and also the kings of Ulster and Munster with many others died of the plague  called in Irish “Buidh Conaill” so many died of this pestilence that there scarcely remained a third of the population.

    Afterwards St. Gerald came in a district called Corran, where he found a vast number of inhabitants stricken with the plague. The famous chief Etran was stricken also. Seeing the holy man St. Gerald in their midst, the people hastened to him, firmly believing he had power to free them from the dread visitation. They cried out to the man of God, saying: “Have pity on us and heal us of our infirmities, which press so heavily on us; we shall surely perish unless you come to our assistance.” And the holy man bade the chief Etran hasten with his son and came under his cowl. At the same time the people also hastened to do likewise. But the modest dimensions of the garment were not sufficient to cover them all, but so great was the efficacy of the saint’s prayers that the cowl (or cloak) grew large enough to cover the multitude, and all were cured of their infirmities.

    Afterwards St. Gerald went forth in the monastery of Eltheria. He learned there of the death of his beloved sister Sigretia, who, together with a hundred nuns of the convent and fifty of his disciples, had perished in the plague. He went forth to Mayo, accompanied by his disciple, and there the saint remained to the end in the love of God and his neighbour. The holy abbot, Adamnan, having made the visitation of all Ireland, came at length to St. Gerald at Mayo to enjoy the sweet society of his friend.

    Not long afterwards St Gerald, having performed countless miracles, and founded many monasteries, rested at peace at Mayo Abbey, on the 13th day of March (tertio idea Martii) A.D. 732.

    P.S. – The Chronology of these legends of St. Gerald is very confused. It is to be remembered that these records were not written down for many centuries – some five or six at all events – afterwards. And while many of the traditions herein related are corroborated by the ‘Irish Annals’ it is impossible to reconcile others with  the known facts of Irish history.

    Catholic Advocate, Thursday 23 February 1928, page 42.


     

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  • Saint Bríg of Annaghdown: Ireland's Saint Scholastica

    February 10 is the feast of Saint Scholastica, twin sister of Saint Benedict, the father of western monasticism.  The pair enjoyed what modern scholar Jane Tibbetts Schulenburg has described as ‘perhaps one of the most famous examples of affection and love within the saintly sibling relationship’. I have always enjoyed how the Irish priest, Father Jerome Fahy, in an article on the Diocese of Annaghdown which you can read at the blog here, likened their relationship to that of the Irish saints Brendan and Bríg, describing them as ‘the Benedict and Scholastica of Ireland’. Unfortunately, whilst Saint Scholastica has her own day defined on the calendars of the saints, her Irish counterpart does not. There are over a dozen Irish female saints who share the name Bríg (Briga, Brígh), most of whom are untraceable. Canon O’Hanlon suggested in his entry for Saint Bríg of Coirpre on January 7 that she may be Brendan’s sister, but provided no supporting evidence. The place name Coirpre (Cairbre, modern Carbury) occurs in a number of different localities in Ireland. However, the Life of Saint Brendan clearly associates his sister with the County Galway monastery of Annaghdown, yet no feast for Bríg of Annaghdown is to be found on the calendars. Like other Irish female saints who have no written Life of their own, what we know of Bríg is drawn from the Life of her famous brother, just as our knowledge of Scholastica is founded on the Dialogues of Pope Saint Gregory the Great, who dedicated Book II of his four-volume collection on the lives and miracles of Italian saints to Saint Benedict. The Lives tell us that Saint Scholastica was the abbess of Plumbariola, just a few miles away from her brother’s foundation at Monte Cassino, whilst Bríga was at the convent of Annaghdown, County Galway, where the local church to this day remains dedicated to Saint Brendan. Scholastica seems to have visited her saintly sibling on an annual basis, the leadership of a monastic familia taking precedence over biological family ties for those dedicated to the religious life. As Jane Tibbetts Schulenburg points out:

    It was only with the realization of impending death that some of these male siblings finally felt free to see their sisters and express the affection which they had withheld for ascetic purposes during their lifetime. A primary focus of many of the vitae is on the saint’s final hours and deathbed scene: this was an especially important moment to be shared with one’s closest relatives and friends. Therefore, sisters and brothers often assumed a crucial role in the events surrounding the death of their saintly siblings: they were designated to carry out special instructions for burial; they remembered each other in prayers…; they frequently expressed a final wish that they be buried together, and promised each other that they would meet again in the celestial realm.

    Jane Tibbetts Schulenburg, Forgetful of Their Sex: Female Sanctity and Society, ca. 500–1100 (University of Chicago Press, 1998), 297.

    The author also points out a further trope found in a number of the vitae – the foreknowledge of a sibling’s death or a description of their arrival in heaven. This is the case with Saint Benedict and his sister, described below by Pope Saint Gregory the Great who first establishes the background to the death of Saint Scholastica. I noted here that, unusually for hagiography, it is the woman, Scholastica, who seems to meet with the writer’s approval rather than the  subject of the Life, Saint Benedict:

    CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE: Of a Miracle Wrought by his Sister, Scholastica.

    ….I must tell you how there was one thing which the venerable father Benedict would have liked to do, but he could not.

    His sister, named Scholastica, was dedicated from her infancy to our Lord. Once a year she came to visit her brother. The man of God went to her not far from the gate of his monastery, at a place that belonged to the Abbey. It was there he would entertain her. Once upon a time she came to visit according to her custom, and her venerable brother with his monks went there to meet her.

    They spent the whole day in the praises of God and spiritual talk, and when it was almost night, they dined together. As they were yet sitting at the table, talking of devout matters, it began to get dark. The holy Nun, his sister, entreated him to stay there all night that they might spend it in discoursing of the joys of heaven. By no persuasion, however, would he agree to that, saying that he might not by any means stay all night outside of his Abbey.

    At that time, the sky was so clear that no cloud was to be seen. The Nun, hearing this denial of her brother, joined her hands together, laid them on the table, bowed her head on her hands, and prayed to almighty God.

    Lifting her head from the table, there fell suddenly such a tempest of
    lightning and thundering, and such abundance of rain, that neither venerable Benedict, nor his monks that were with him, could put their heads out of doors. The holy Nun, having rested her head on her hands, poured forth such a flood of tears on the table, that she transformed the clear air to a watery sky.

    After the end of her devotions, that storm of rain followed; her prayer and the rain so met together, that as she lifted up her head from the table, the thunder began.  So it was that in one and the very same instant that she lifted up her head, she brought down the rain.

    The man of God, seeing that he could not, in the midst of such thunder and lightning and great abundance of rain return to his Abbey, began to be heavy and to complain to his sister, saying: “God forgive you, what have you done?” She answered him, “I desired you to stay, and you would not hear me; I have desired it of our good Lord, and he has granted my petition. Therefore if you can now depart, in God’s name return to your monastery, and leave me here alone.”

    But the good father, not being able to leave, tarried there against his will where before he would not have stayed willingly. By that means, they watched all night and with spiritual and heavenly talk mutually comforted one another.

    Therefore, by this we see, as I said before, that he would have had one thing, but he could not effect it.  For if we know the venerable man’s mind, there is no question but that he would have had the same fair weather to have continued as it was when he left his monastery.  He found, however, that a miracle prevented his desire. A miracle that, by the power of almighty God, a woman’s prayers had wrought.

    Is it not a thing to be marveled at, that a woman, who for a long time had not seen her brother, might do more in that instance than he could? She realized, according to the saying of St. John, “God is charity” [1 John 4:8]. Therefore, as is right, she who loved more, did more.

    This proves to be the last encounter between the siblings as the next chapter describes Saint Benedict’s vision of his sister’s death and his determination that they would remain united:

    CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR: How Benedict Saw the Soul of his Sister Ascend into Heavenly Glory.

    GREGORY: The next day the venerable woman returned to her nunnery, and the man of God to his abbey. Three days later, standing in his cell, and lifting up his eyes to heaven, he beheld the soul of his sister (which was departed from her body) ascend into heaven in the likeness of a dove.

    Rejoicing much to see her great glory, with hymns and praise he gave thanks to almighty God, and imparted the news of her death to his monks.  He sent them presently to bring her corpse to his Abbey, to have it buried in that grave which he had provided for himself. By this means it fell out that, as their souls were always one in God while they lived, so their bodies continued together after their death.

    Gregory the Great (c. 540-604), Dialogues, Book II (Life and Miracles of St. Benedict).

    Sadly, the accounts of the Irish Benedict and Scholastica are not quite so detailed. In the Betha Brendain, the Irish Life of Saint Brendan, we first meet Saint Bríg when the young Brendan is studying with his foster father Bishop Erc and the hagiographer leaves us in no doubt about the strong bond of love between the siblings:

    (12) Brig, daughter of Findlug, his sister, was with him there, and great was his love for her, for he saw the attendance of angels above her.

    Having established this affectionate relationship between the siblings in childhood, it is at the end of his life that we encounter Saint Bríg once again:

    (206) Brendan after this went to visit his sister Brig at the fort of Aed son of Eochaid, which is now called Enach Duin. So then, after traversing sea and land, after raising dead men, healing lepers, blind, deaf, lame, and all kinds of sick folk, after founding many cells, and monasteries, and holy churches, after appointing abbots and masters, after blessing cataracts and estuaries, after consecrating districts and tribes, after putting down crimes and sins, after great perils by sea and land, after expelling demons and vices, after pre-eminence in pilgrimage and (ascetic) devotion, after performance of mighty works and miracles too numerous to mention, St. Brendan drew near to the day of his death.

    (207) Then said Brendan to the brethren after Mass on the Sunday, and after receiving the body of Christ and His blood: ‘God,’ said he, is calling me to the eternal kingdom; and my body must be taken to Clonfert, for there will be attendance of angels there, and there will be my resurrection…..

    (208) When he had finished saying all this, he blessed the brethren and his sister Brig, and when he reached the threshold of the church, he said: ‘In manus tuas, Domine,’ etc, Then he sent forth his spirit….

    C. Plummer, ed. and trans., Bethada Náem nÉrenn – Lives of Irish Saints, Vol. II (Oxford, 1922), 46; 91.

    It is at Annaghdown then, his beloved sister present among the monastic brethren that Saint Brendan’s earthly life ends. I noted too how the hagiographer specifically named Saint Bríg as a recipient of her brother’s final blessing, thus putting her, along with Saint Scholastica, into the category of Sorores Sanctae identified by Tibbetts Schulenburg.

    Deus, qui beátae Vírginis tuæ Scholásticæ ánimam ad ostendéndam [innocéntiæ viam in colúmbæ spécie cælum penetráre fecísti: da nobis eius méritis et précibus ita innocénter vivere; ut ad ætérna mereámur gáudia perveníre. Per Dóminum.]

    Let us pray: O God, Who, to show the innocence of her life, didst cause the soul of Thy blessed Virgin Scholastica to ascend to Heaven in the form of a dove: grant, we beseech Thee, by her merits and prayers, that we may live so innocently, as to deserve to arrive at eternal joys. Through Jesus Christ, Thine only-begotten Son, Our Lord, Who with Thee and the Holy Ghost liveth and reigneth, God, for ever and ever.

    R. Amen.

    Collect for the Feast of Saint Scholastica, February 10.

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