OMNIUM SANCTORUM HIBERNIAE

ALL THE SAINTS OF IRELAND

  • Saint Mochta of Inis-Mochta, March 26

    March 26 is the feast day of a 9th/10th-century County Meath saint, Mochta of Inis-Mochta. Canon O’Hanlon starts off by telling us that he is not to be confused with Saint Mochta of Louth, an earlier and much better-known figure whose feast is celebrated on August 19. I have followed up on one of O’Hanlon’s references, to the work of diocesan historian Dean Anthony Cogan, who reproduced the references to Inis-Mochta from the Irish Annals. These give the impression that the island monastery must have been a foundation of some substance as both Viking and native invaders found it worth attacking. There is a particularly vivid description at the year 939 of the Vikings coming across the frozen lake to plunder the monastery on the ice. Our saint’s death was noted some seventeen years earlier, but ‘the miracles of God and the patron saint’ are credited with preserving the island from being destroyed by fire in the year 1138. I will begin with the account of Saint Mochta by Canon O’Hanlon, taken from Volume III of his Lives of the Irish Saints and then proceed to the notes by Dean Cogan:

    St. Mochta, of Inis Mochta, now Inishmouthy, or Inishmot, County of Meath. [Ninth and Tenth Centuries]

    Different from another celebrated saint of this name, and connected with Louth, is the present holy man. The Bollandists have a notice of him. We find, on this day recorded, in the Martyrology of Donegal, the name Mochta of Inis-Mochta. This locality has been identified with Inishmouthy, county of Meath, by William M. Hennessy. It is also called Inishmot, now a parish, in the barony of Lower Slane. The ruins of Inis-Mochta church are still to be seen, on a romantic spot of ground, containing about two acres. A solitary wall only remains, at the present time; and, latterly, the graveyard has been neglected for interments. This locality was formerly an island. At present, the site is surrounded by low, marshy ground, which is frequently covered with water, during the winter season. The name of this place maybe rendered, in English, “the Island of Mochta.” His festival was celebrated here, on the 26th of March. This saint appears to have flourished, in the early part of the tenth century. The death of Mochta of the Island, son to Cearnachan, priest of Armagh, is recorded at A.D. 922. There can hardly be a doubt, but that he is identical with the present saint.
    ————————————————————–
    Inishmot, or Inis-Mochta, i.e., the Island of St. Mochta. A religious house stood here, dedicated to St. Mochta, whose festival was celebrated on the 26th of March. The Four Masters have the following notices of this place:

    “922. Mochta of the Island, son of Cearnachan, Priest of Armagh, died.

    “939. Unusual frost, so that the rivers and lakes were passible; and the foreigners (Danes) plundered Inis-Mochta on the ice.

    “1025. An army was led by Flavertach O’Neill, and Maelseachlainn, into Meath, and they obtained hostages, and entered Inis-Mochta upon the ice, and plundered the island, then in the possession of the foreigners (Danes).

    “1138. Under this year the Four Masters describe a war between the O’Conors of Connaught, the O’Ruarks of Breffny, and the O’Carrols of Orgial, on the one side, and the Leinstermen, the Meathmen, and the Danes, on the other. After reporting some military evolutions the annalists proceed:

    “After this the Meathmen, Leinstermen, and the foreigners, proceeded to Inis-Mochta to plunder it, and a countless number of them went on rafts, and by swimming, on the lake, to reach the island; and a party of them did reach the island. The people of the island afterwards came to them in vessels, and numbers of them (the aggressors) were drowned and slain by them; and the party who were on the island fled from thence, not having been able to burn the island, through the miracles of God and the patron saint.”

    “1150. A royal journey by Murtogh O’Loghlan, with the chieftans of the North of Ireland, to Inis-Mochta, to meet O’Carroll and O’Ruark. The hostages of Connaught were brought him to that place without a hosting, through the blessing of Patrick, the successor of Patrick, and his clergy. He divided Meath on this occasion into three parts, between O’Connor, O’Ruark, and O’Carroll; and they banished Murrogh O’Melaghlann from Meath, through the curse of the successor of Patrick and his clergy.”

    Dr. O’Donovan justly remarks: “The ruins of the church of Inis-Mochta are still to be seen on a spot of ground containing about two acres, which was formerly an island, and is now surrounded by low, marshy ground, which is always flooded in winter.”

    Rev. A. Cogan, The Diocese of Meath: ancient and modern, Volume III (Dublin, 1870), 549-550.

       

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

  • 'Give your assent, Mary; you shall bear a beautiful son': The Feast of the Annunciation in Irish Sources

    As today is the Feast of the Annunciation, I republish a 2010 essay from my former blog where I examine some of the Irish sources which record it:

    Pictorial Lives of the Saints (1878)

    Today is the Feast of the Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin Mary. I have been trying to gather together some of the Irish sources for this feast and turned first to the Martyrologies to see if the date of March 25 was that observed in the earliest Irish calendars. The entry for March 25 in the Martyrology of Oengus is an interesting one as it links this feast to not only the crucifixion of Christ but also to the martyrdom of the apostle James. Canon O’Hanlon supplies a translation from the Leabhar Breac copy of the Felire Oengusso:

    “The Crucifixion and Conception
    Of Jesus Christ, it is meet
    On one feast with piety [to celebrate them]
    With the passion of James”.

    and comments:

    The Incarnation and Crucifixion of Our Lord Jesus Christ, and the Martyrdom of the Apostle St. James. In the “Feilire” of St. Oengus, we find the foregoing festivals noted, as having been celebrated, on this day, in the ancient Irish Church. The feast of Christ’s Incarnation is now usually called that of the Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin Mary. There seems to have been a very generally received tradition, likewise, that the Crucifixion of Our Divine Saviour occurred on this day. Besides, the Martyrdom of St. James, the Apostle, who was beheaded by Herod, about the Feast of the Pasch, is celebrated in many ancient Martyrologies. Sometimes, the present Apostle is called “Frater Domini”, and sometimes, “Frater S. Joannis Evangelistae.” [1]

    A more recent commentator, Father Peter O’Dwyer, looks at the Martyrology of Tallaght, which he describes as ‘ the immediate source of the Felire Oengusso’ and records its entry for today:

    Dominus noster Jesus Christus crucifixus est et conceptus et mundud factus est …. Et conceptio Mariae. (Our Lord Jesus Christ was crucified and conceived and the world was made … and the conception of Mary.)

    Father O’Dwyer also notes that the Crucifixion and the Annunciation are linked in the Stowe Missal. In a footnote he adds:

    The tradition concerning the coincidence of the two dates is recorded by St. Augustine PL, 42, Cols. 893-94 and is found in the Martyrologium Hieronymianum on 25 March which is described as the anniversary of both events, the Annunciation and the Crucifixion. [2]

    Thus it would seem that this double commemoration is not something unique to the early Irish Church.

    Mrs Helena Concannon, who examined the history of Marian devotion in Ireland some fifty years before Father O’Dwyer, has an account of a sermon preached at the great Columban foundation of Bobbio:

    A Bobbio sermon on the Annunciation has some beautiful passages. One reproduces a favourite Bobbio motif: the contrast between Mother Mary and Mother Eve:

    “Satan by the serpent spoke to Eve, and through her and her hearing, brought death to the world. God by the angel uttered the word to Mary and poured out life on the whole world”.

    And then it goes on: “Holy Mary was made the heavenly ladder, because God through her descended to the earth that, through her, mankind may deserve to ascend to the heavens. When the angel said Ave, he offered to her the heavenly salutation. When he said ‘full of grace’ he showed forth that now the wrath of condemnation was wholly set aside, and that the grace of full blessing was restored”. [3]

    The Annunciation is also praised in Irish poetry. Scholar Andrew Breeze has published a number of articles on this feast. In one he looks at the theme of the Mother of God being the daughter of her Son. This motif, he suggests, is earlier than the one alluded to in the Bobbio sermon where the Ave of the angel reverses the sorrow brought by Eva ‘Eve’ to the world. Breeze locates the origins of the daughter of her Son motif in North Africa, and thus one automatically thinks of the writings of Saint Augustine as the most likely source for its dissemination into Ireland. Breeze, however suggests that it may have come directly from Spain, where the eleventh Council of Toledo in 675 declared Christ to have been both father and son to the Virgin Mary. It was a theme which had clearly reached the monastic poet Cú Chuimne of Iona (d. 747), for it is reflected in his Hiberno-Latin composition Cantemus in omni die (Let us sing every day) in praise of the Blessed Virgin. Stanza Eight as translated by Breeze reads:

    Maria, mater miranda,
    patrem suum edidit,
    Per quem aqua late lotus
    totus mundus credidit.

    Mary, wondrous mother,
    bore her own father,
    through whom the whole world,
    washed in water, believed. [4]

    He then goes on to an interesting discussion of how this theme might have reached Cú Chuimne, which centres around the fact that Cú Chuimne was linked to a group of scholars at the monastery of Lismore, County Waterford. Lismore had a monastic library rich in Spanish texts, including those of the Council of Toledo. Further proof that this Council’s texts were known soon after 675 in Ireland is shown by their quotation in the Hiberno-Latin scriptural commentary De Ordine Creaturarum, which  was written before 700.

    The Iona link with this motif is maintained in an 11th-century poem attributed to Saint Columbcille, stanza eight of which reads, in the translation of Father Paul Walsh:

    O victorious one, O founder,
    O multitudinous, O strong one,
    Pray with us to Powerful Christ,
    The Father and thy Son. [5]

    I close though with my personal favourite among the Irish poems, that of Blathmac, son of Cú Brettan:

    151. Well did there come a stout messenger from God, the Father, to woo you! Well did you assume a modest sober countenance at the words of Gabriel!

    152. ‘God be with you, Mary, full of grace’, said Gabriel (wondrous countenance!) – You are wholly blessed and the fruit of your holy womb’.

    153. ‘The Lord has sent me on a journey’ said Gabriel, ‘concerning a message: that you will be the mother of Christ’ – fair tidings! – ‘a son that will save your race’.

    154. ‘I declare that I know not man in the matter of cohabitation, holy bright one; true chaste virginity of body, this have I offered to God, the Father’.

    155. Said Gabriel: ‘Give your assent, Mary; you shall bear a beautiful son; let Jesus be his name, he will be the saviour of the world.’

    156. Then you conceived (clear telling!) on the eight of the calends of April; and you bore a son of whom I vaunt on the eight of the calends of January.

    157. How well that you conceived Christ (victorious flame!) without marring of true virginity by the power of the Holy Spirit, a son that has caused great riches to us! [6]

    References

    [1] Rev. John O’Hanlon, Lives of the Irish Saints, Vol. III, (Dublin, 1875), 952.

    [2] Peter O’Dwyer, O.Carm., Mary: a history of devotion in Ireland (Dublin, 1988), 58-59.

    [3] Mrs H. Concannon, The Queen of Ireland – An Historical Account of Ireland’s Devotion to the Blessed Virgin (Dublin, 1938), 42-43.

    [4] Andrew Breeze, ‘The Annunciation I: Mary, Daughter of her Son’ in The Mary of the Celts (Leominster, 2008), 1-3.

    [5] Rev. Paul Walsh, ‘An Irish Hymn to the Blessed Virgin’, Irish Ecclesiastical Record, Vol. XXIX., 172-178.

    [6] James Carney, ed. and trans., The Poems of Blathmac Son of Cú Brettan – Together with the Irish Gospel of Thomas and a Poem on the Virgin Mary (Dublin, 1964).

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

  • Saint Lughaidh of Clonleigh, March 24

    March 24 is the commemoration of a County Donegal saint, Lughaidh of Clonleigh. The calendars also record his patronymic and the locality associated with him. Canon O’Hanlon, in his account below, also notes that Saint Lughaidh may also have been related to Saint Colum Cille:

    St. Lughaidh, son of Eochaidh, of Cluain-laogh, now Clonleigh, County of Donegal.

    [Sixth Century.]

    A holy man is recorded, in the Martyrology of Tallagh, at the 24th of March, as Lughaidh, mac Eachach. He is classed, among the disciples of St. Columkille.  The Bollandists pass him over, with a few brief remarks. We are told, that Lugaid Mocu-Theimne, or “the son of Teimne,” was the son of Eochaid, son of Ulan, son to Eogan, son to Niall of the Nine Hostages, as his paternal pedigree has been traced, in the Genealogies of the Irish Saints. He was a relation of St. Columba, and his companion, when the latter first set out on his voyage to the shores of Britain. As we are informed, by the Martyrology of Tallagh, this saint belonged to Cluain Laigh. This place is at present called Clonleigh, meaning the “pasturage,”  “lawn,” or “insulated meadow of the calves.” This parish is situated, on the western bank of the River Foyle, about two miles northward from Lifford, in the barony of Raphoe, and in the county of Donegal, formerly Tyrconnell. There was a monastery of considerable importance, in this place. Marianus O’Gorman and Cathal Maguire have this holy man, in their respective Calendars. On this day is entered, likewise, in the Martyrology of Donegal, Lughaidh, son to Eochaidh, of Cluain-laogh.
    Content Copyright © Omnium Sanctorum Hiberniae 2012-2015. All rights reserved.