OMNIUM SANCTORUM HIBERNIAE

ALL THE SAINTS OF IRELAND

  • This illustrious saint was a man of work, prayer and penance…





    This illustrious Saint was a man of work, and prayer, and penance. To his last breath he ceased not to teach his people. His daily devotions were countless. It is related that he made the sign of the cross many hundred times a day. He slept little, and a stone was his pillow. He travelled on foot in his visitations till the weight of years made a carriage necessary. He accepted no gifts for himself, ever deeming it more blessed to give than to receive.


    His simple dress was a white monastic habit, made from the wool of the sheep ; and his bearing, speech, and countenance were but the outward expression of his kind heart and great, beautiful soul. Force and simplicity marked his discourses. He was a perfect master of the Irish, French, and Latin languages, and had some knowledge of Greek. 


    He consecrated three hundred and fifty bishops, erected seven hundred churches, ordained five thousand priests, and raised thirty-three persons from the dead. But it is in vain that we try to sum up the labors of the Saint by the rules of arithmetic. The wear and tear of over fourteen hundred years have tested the work of St. Patrick: and in spite of all the changes of time, and the malice of men and demons, it stands to-day greater than ever — a monument to his immortal glory. 


    Read the rest here.


    Beannachtaí na Féile Pádraig oraibh!


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  • Saint Brigid, March 14

    March 14 is the feast of a Saint Brigid, around whose precise identity much confusion reigns. Canon O’Hanlon’s source is Bishop Forbes’ Scottish Kalendars and so we can turn directly to this account:

    BRIGIDA II. V, March 14.—

    A Scotch S. Brigida’s relics were preserved in Abernethy. It is probable that there were two saints of this name. —(See Ussher, Works, edition Elrington, vol. vi 256, 257, 451.) A Brigida is said, in the Irish Life of S. Cuthbert, to have been brought from Ireland, and educated by S. Columba with S. Cuthbert at Dunkeld.—(Libellus de Nativitate S. Cuthberti, c. xxi.) The Brigida of Abernethy is associated with the nine Maidens. See Mazota. [1]

    O’Hanlon reproduces this information but ends by saying that ‘Most likely, the present St. Brigida, or Brigid, was an Irish saint.’ He does not, however, have any supporting evidence to offer nor does he address the Scottish links in the sources.

    Miss Agnes Dunbar in her work on women saints also mentions the Scottish Brigid of Abernethy:

    The Aberdeen Breviary, in the story of St. Mazotta, says that St. Brigid of Abernethy was cousin of Graverdus, king of the Picts, who during his wars with the Britons was admonished by supernatural means to send to Ireland for Brigid, and follow her advice. She came with St. Mazota and eight holy virgins, and settled at Abernethy, and there built a church, where the king was baptized. [2]

    and the Dunkeld Brigid:

    St. Brigid March 14. An Irish virgin, brought up at Dunkeld with St. Cuthbert, by St. Columba. Bishop Forbes, Scot. Cal [3]

    There may be a third possiblity, that Brigid of Abernethy is a manifestation of the cult of Saint Brigid of Kildare in Scotland. It is interesting that the Aberdeen Breviary mentions that the Pictish King ‘sent to Ireland for Brigid’ and Abernethy seems to have enlisted not only Ireland’s patroness but also our patron in its foundation story:

    Special notice has here been taken of St Bridget’s connection with the church of Abernethy, in as much as the Aberdeen Breviary links the story of St Mazota with that of the Abbess of Kildare, thereby removing Mazota to a date earlier than her own. The narrative in the Breviary is thus given by Bishop Forbes: “Graverdus, son of Domath, the distinguished king of the Picts, and cousin of S. Brigida, while fighting against the Britons, is supernaturally warned to send for her to Hibernia and to obey her precepts. S. Brigida obeyed the summons, and with nine holy virgins came from Hibernia to Scotia, and settled at Abirnethy close to the Taye on the south, in which places he erected a basilica in honour of Almighty God and the Virgin Mary, in which the king with all his family was baptized. Mazota was the most remarkable of these virgins, and she followed in all things the steps of Brigida. The king of the Picts promised that the church should be dedicated by S. Patrick, at that time dwelling in Scotia, and there Mazota with the other virgins continued to serve God, till they all died and were buried. No tongue can tell the miracles that God in Heaven caused to take place by her agency.” We may remark in passing that an interesting reminiscence of St Bride’s Nine Maidens was to be met with till recent times in Sanquhar parish, Dumfriesshire, where “it was customary to resort on May-day to St Bride’s Well, where each maiden presented nine smooth white stones as an offering to the Saint, which correspond in number with St Bride’s nine virgin attendants.” [4]

    Interesting too in this regard is the fact that Saint Darlugdacha, the immediate successor to Saint Brigid at Kildare, is also part of the foundation legend of Abernethy:

    Thomas Innes says, “The death of Brigid was soon after followed by that of Darlugtach Virgin, her disciple : the same who came over to Britain in the time of Nectan, the third king of the Picts, and conversed with him on the first foundation of the ancient church of Abernethy. Her feast is celebrated February the first.”—(Innes, Civ. and Eccl. Hist, of Scotland, p. 128: Spalding Club. See Irish Nennius, p. 163) [5]

    So, in summary we can say that there is a record of the commemoration of a Saint Brigid in Scottish sources on March 14 with two possible identities proposed (1) Brigid of Abernethy and (2) Brigid of Dunkeld. I doubt though that we will ever be able to say with any confidence who exactly the Saint Brigid commemorated on March 14 actually was.

    [1] Alexander Penrose Forbes, D.C.L. Bishop of Brechin, Kalendars of Scottish Saints, (1872), 291-2.

    [2] A dictionary of saintly women (Volume 1) (London, 1904), 135-6.

    [3] ibid.

    [4] J.M.Mackinley, ‘Traces of the Cultus of the Nine Maidens in Scotland’ in Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, Volume 40 (1906), 259.

    [5] Forbes, op.cit., 321.

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  • St. Indreachtach O'Finachtain, March 12

    On March 12 Canon O’Hanlon brings the details of a ninth-century abbot of Iona who may also have been a martyr. The final reference to William of Malmesbury would seem to make our saint the same Saint Indreachtach commemorated on February 5:

    St. Indreachtach or Innrechtach O’Finachtain, Abbot of Iona, Scotland, and Martyr.

    [Ninth Century.]

    We learn, from the Annals of Innisfallen, that the surname of this holy man was Ua Finachta or Ua Finachtain. Idreachtach O’Finachtain is called Coarb of Columbkille, and from this it has been inferred, he was abbot over Londonderry Monastery, in the olden time. However, this title he obtained, because he was the twenty-first Abbot of Hy, and he held office A.D. 849, in which year he went to Ireland, with St. Columba’s relics. As the date of his predecessor’s death is not recorded, although we know, that Diarmait, the twentieth abbot, visited Ireland, on a similar errand; it cannot be known, when St. Innrechtach began his rule, over the Iona monks. He was regarded as an eminent sage. On the 12th of March, A.D. 852, he suffered martyrdom, among the Saxons, according to the Annals of the Four Masters. He was on his way to Rome. According to the Annals of Ulster, the date for his departure to Christ is A.D. 853, while the Rev. Dr. Reeves places it, at A.D. 854. A legend, by William of Malmesbury, misdates his martyrdom, by one hundred and sixty-five years, and places it near Glastonbury.

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