OMNIUM SANCTORUM HIBERNIAE

ALL THE SAINTS OF IRELAND

  • Saints Hewald the Dark and Hewald the Fair, October 3

    October 3 is the commemoration of two of the Saxon saints who came to study in Ireland, the brothers Hewald, one of dark colouring and the other of fair. They joined in the great missionary endeavour to convert their continental kinsmen and met a martyr’s death. The summary of their lives below, taken from Father Richard Stanton’s Menology of England and Wales, ends with the translation of the relics of the Saints Hewald to Cologne, alas I seem to remember reading somewhere that their shrine disappeared in 1945:

    THE THIRD DAY.
    At Cologne and elsewhere, the commemoration of the two Brothers HEWALD, Martyrs and Priests, who died at the hands of the pagans, to whom they came to preach the Gospel of Christ.

    These two brothers were priests and Englishmen by birth, though they had lived long in Ireland as voluntary exiles, in order to their spiritual profit. They were known as the Black and White Hewald, from the difference in their hair, but no other names are given to them. They were both distinguished for their piety, but the elder is said to have been more learned in the Sacred Writings. These holy priests were attracted by the example of St. Willibrord and his companions, and, urged by a like zeal for souls, set off to preach the Gospel to the Old Saxons on the Continent. They took up their station at some place in Westphalia, and were kindly received in the house of a farmer, and immediately sent a message to ask for an audience of the lord of the district. While they were expecting an answer, they were constant in their prayers and psalmody, and daily offered the Holy Sacrifice on the portable altar, which they had brought with them. This led the inhabitants of the place to suspect that they had come to teach a new religion, and, fearing lest they should be favourably received by their ruler, they at once fell upon them and put them to death. The White Hewald was killed with the blow of a sword, but the other brother was reserved for many torments. The bodies of the Martyrs were then thrown into the Rhine. The murderers soon paid the penalty of their misdeed, as their lord was greatly displeased with their barbarous act, and ordered them all to be put to death.

    Miraculous events showed how precious was the death of the two brothers in the sight of God. One of them appeared in a vision to an English monk of the name of Tilman, settled in the neighbouring country, and told him to seek their bodies where a light from heaven should point out the spot. This he accordingly did, and buried the sacred remains with great reverence. Shortly afterwards the great Pepin ordered them to be translated to the city of Cologne, when they were placed in the Church of St. Cuniberht.

    R. Stanton, A Menology of England and Wales (London, 1892), 473-4.

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  • Four Tipperary Saints – Forthcoming Title from Four Courts Press

    Four Tipperary Saints

    The lives of Colum of Terryglass, Cronán of Roscrea, Mochaomhóg of Leigh and Ruadhán of Lorrha

    Translated into English by Pádraig Ó Riain

    When St Patrick was leaving Munster via the Little Brosna river, close to Tipperary’s northern boundary, he is said to have given a blessing to the province’s people, its men, women and children. Much of this blessing must have lingered over north Tipperary, because no fewer than four of its saints were made the subjects of written Lives, Ruadhán and Colum from the neighbouring parishes of Lorrha and Terryglass, Crónán of Roscrea, and Mochaomhóg of Leigh in Twomileborris. The Lives written for these saints in Latin, translated here for the first time into English, contain much that is of interest, not only to Tipperary people, but to all who wish to know more about the history of early Irish Christianity. Written many centuries after the golden age of the saints, these texts tell us a great deal about the fortunes of their churches, and about the aims and associations of the communities devoted to them. Pádraig Ó Riain, in this new translation, gives access to these four Lives to a brand new audience.


    Pádraig Ó Riain is Professor Emeritus of Early and Medieval Irish at University College Cork, and the previous holder of Visiting Professorships at Bochum and Freiburg in Germany and at Aberystwyth in Wales. He is a former holder of the Parnell Fellowship at Magdalen College, Cambridge, and was the first Irish scholar to be awarded the Humboldt Prize. A former President of the Irish Texts Society and a former Member of Council of the Royal Irish Academy, Professor Ó Riain is the author of numerous publications on Irish hagiography, placenames, personal names, and textual transmission. He is the author of the best-selling A dictionary of Irish Saints (2011).

    Paperback
    160pp; ills. November 2014
    ISBN:
    978-1-84682-550-7
    Catalogue Price: €19.95
    Web Price: €17.95

  • Saint Fidarle of Rahan, October 1

    October 1 is the feastday of Saint Fidarle (Fidairle, Fiodhairle, Fidharleus), an eighth-century abbot of the County Offaly monastery of Rahan. Rahan is the modern spelling of this placename, past variants include Rathen and Raithin. The Irish Raithean translates as ‘a ferny place’ and the locality was also known in the Irish Annals as Raithin Uí Suanaigh meaning ‘the Ferny Land of the O’Swanys’. The O’Swany family were the hereditary successors to St Carthage at the monastery of Rahan from the eighth century onwards. Our saint is a member of this family as the Martyrology of Tallaght, the earliest surviving Irish calendar, makes clear in its recording of his name at this day:

    Fidairle húa Suanaig ‘descendant of Súanach.’

    The later Martyrology of Marianus O’Gorman notes not only his family but also that of his monastery:

    Fidarle descendant of Suanach, (and) abbot of Rathen.

    The 17th-century Martyrology of Donegal adds the recording of the date of Saint Fidarle’s repose in the Annals of Ulster:

    1. A. KALENDIS OCTOBRIS. 1.

    FIODHAIRLE, Ua Suanaigh, Abbot of Raithin. The age of Christ when he went to heaven was 762.

    Although no further information on Saint Fidarle as an individual seems to have survived, if you are interested in learning more about the monastery he once governed there is a comprehensive report by the Heritage Service of Offaly County Council available online here. It is richly illustrated with maps, drawings and photographs of the site and brings together the major historical sources in its appendices.

    Content Copyright © Omnium Sanctorum Hiberniae 2012-2015. All rights reserved.