OMNIUM SANCTORUM HIBERNIAE

ALL THE SAINTS OF IRELAND

  • Saint Ethern of Donoughmore, May 27

    On May 27 the Irish calendars remember a a County Meath bishop, Saint Ethern of Donoughmore. Following the work of the nineteenth-century scholar John O’Donovan, Canon O’Hanlon places the saint’s locality of Domhnach-mór-mic-Laithbhe ‘the great church of the son of Laithbe’ near Slane, a position which is still accepted by the recent authoritative work, A Dictionary of Irish Saints. Professor Ó Riain, however, adds that Saint Ethern was himself the son of Laithbe, alluded to in the place name and that May 27 probably represents an octave day of the May 20 festival of Saint Mac Laithbhe. He also quotes from the Patrician texts in the Book of Armagh that among the churches founded by Saint Patrick in Meath was a great Domhnach ‘for the son of Laithbe’ which may have been Donoughmore. Thus this would place our Bishop Ethern among the earliest of the Irish saints. Canon O’Hanlon brings us the details from the calendars:

    St. Ethian or Ethern, Bishop of Donoughmore Mic-Laithbhe, in Mughdorna.

    In the Martyrology of Tallagh, this saint’s name appears, at the 27th of May, as Ethirn, Bishop of Domhnach mor. On the same authority, the Bollandists enter Ethernus, Episcopus de Domnach-Mor. There was a Mughdhorna-Breagh in Ireland, but its position is not well known. From the church of this saint having been here placed within the territory of Mughdorna, Dr. O’Donovan thinks it highly probable, he must have been connected with Donoughmore, near Slane, and in the county of Meath. The Martyrology of Donegal enters a festival on this day, in honour of Ethern, Bishop, of Domhnach-mór-mic-Laithbhe, in Mughdorna. Under the head of Domhnach-mic-Laithbhe, likewise, Duald Mac Firbis enters Bishop Ethern, for May 27th.

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  • Saint Criumther Cael of Kilmore, May 25

    Among the saints commemorated on the Irish calendars at May 25 is a Saint Criumther Cael, whose memory is preserved in the earliest of the surviving calendars, the Martyrology of Tallaght. There he is associated with a locality called Kilmore, literally ‘large or great church’ which Canon O’Hanlon seeks to place in County Cavan, although as he admits below, he has no firm evidence for doing so, given that Kilmore is too generic a place name:

    St. Criumther Cael, of Kilmore, Probably in the County of Cavan.

    An entry appears, at the 25th of May, in the Martyrology of Tallagh, regarding this saint. There too, he is said to have been connected with Cill moir, which corresponds with the modern Kilmore. The Bollandists, on the same authority, record his name as Crumtherus Coel, sive Presbyter, at this same date. It is probable, that what follows is only a double entry of this feast, viz., Coelius de Killmor. This place was probably Kilmore, the seat of the bishop’s See, in the present county of Cavan; although, this is by no means certain, for many other places in Ireland have received a like name, owing we suppose to the fact of a great church having been erected, in each place so denominated. On this day, likewise, the Martyrology of Donegal mentions the veneration of Cruimther Cael, of Cill-mor.

  • The Seven Daughters of Fergus, May 24

    Canon O’Hanlon has as his fifth article for May 24 an account of a group of Irish holy women denominated by their patronymic, The Seven Daughters of Fergus. In the Martyrology of Tallaght the daughters are associated with the locality of Inis Cealtra, an island monastery in the west of Ireland which produced a couple of better-known saints, its founder Saint Caimin and the scholarly Saint Coelan, a reputed biographer of Saint Brigid. It is interesting to note that the Daughters of Fergus may have enjoyed a cultus in Scotland as the Seven Maidens of Inverey. Canon O’Hanlon’s source, the work on the Scottish calendars by Bishop Forbes, doesn’t seem conclusive and left me wondering if the Chapel of Inverey itself had an independent commemoration of the Seven Maidens at May 24, or if Forbes had simply tried to read across the feast from the Martyrology of Tallaght in an attempt to find an identification for these Scottish saints. His account says:

    SEVEN MAIDENS.  May 24. – In Braemar is the chapel of the Seven Maidens, at Inverey, where the family of Farquharson bury their dead. – (V.D.A. p. 641.)
    In the Martyrology of Tallaght, at this day, we have “Secht ningena Fergusa in Inis Cealtra.” In that of Donegal, “The seven daughters of Fergus of Tigh-ingen-Ferghusa”.

    Alexander Penrose Forbes, D.C.L. Bishop of Brechin, Kalendars of Scottish Saints, (1872), 447. 

    His source, V.D.A., View of the Diocese of Aberdeen , confirms only the dedication of the Braemar chapel to the Seven Maidens and its use as a family burying site by the Farquharson family.  The writer of a paper on the Traces of the Cultus of the Nine Maidens in Scotland, is not entirely convinced of the identification of the Inverey chapel with the Irish maidens commemorated on May 24, and states on page 260 that there is ‘some doubt’ surrounding this claim by Bishop Forbes.

    Bishop Forbes was not the only commentator who attempted to identify these holy women, the 17th-century hagiologist, Father John Colgan, sought to equate them with a group of seven nuns who assisted at the sixth-century Synod of Drum Ceatt. I’m not sure though that his evidence is any more substantial, but at least it is interesting to note that a group of female monastics were recorded as participants at this Synod.

    So, we seem to be faced with a number of conflicting theories about the identity of the Seven Daughters of Fergus:

    1. They are, as the Martyrology of Tallaght claims, associated with the locality of Inis Cealtra, the holy island of County Clare.  I was under the impression though that this was a male foundation.

    2. They are, as Colgan claims, associated with a location called Teach na ninghean, literally ‘the house of the daughters’ and are perhaps to be identified with the seven nuns of Tir-na-Fiachra Aine who took part in the Synod of Drum Ceatt.

    3. They are, as Bishop Forbes claims, the Seven Maidens to whom a chapel in Inverey, Scotland, is dedicated.  This theory would stand up better if the Scottish calendars recorded a feast day for these Seven Maidens on May 24th independently from the Irish. This does not, however, seem to be the case.

    Canon O’Hanlon records:

    The Seven Daughters of Ferghus, of Tigninghin Ferghusa, or of Inis-Cealtra, County of Galway.

    The Martyrology of Tallagh records Secht ningena Fergusa in Inis Cealtra, at the 24th of May. This is now known as Inis-crealtra, an island and parish in the counties of Clare and Galway. The Bollandists also record their festival, for this day. But Colgan seems to connect them with Teach na ninghean, in Connaught. He says, they were perhaps those seven nuns of Tir-na-Fiachra Aine, who assisted at the great Synod in Dromcheat, in the year 580. The extent of Ui Fiachrach Aidhne is shown on the Irish Maps, prefixed to the “Tribes and Customs of Hy-Many, commonly called O’Kelly’s Country “. A festival in honour of the Seven Daughters of Fergus, of Tigh-inghen-Ferghusa, was celebrated on this day, as we read in the Martyrology of Donegal. Under the title of the Seven Maidens, they seem to have been venerated, likewise, in Scotland.

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