OMNIUM SANCTORUM HIBERNIAE

ALL THE SAINTS OF IRELAND

  • Saint Rodaighe of Ghreallaigh Bhunna, December 16

    December 16 is the feast of a County Meath saint, Rodaighe of Ghreallaigh Bhunna. Diocesan historian Father Anthony Cogan remarks of this saint and his locality:

    The ancient name of this place was Ghreallaigh Bhunna, Grellech, and Anglicised Girley. The patron saint is St. Rodaighe, abbreviated Raed, whose festival was celebrated on the 16th of December. In the list of guarantees and sureties given in the Irish Charters in the Book of Kells, on the occasion of the purchase of land near Donaghmore, at Navan from O’Riaman by the priest of Kells and his kinsmen, occur, “and the Erenagh of Grellech (Girley), and the Sech-nabb (i.e. the viceabbot), and the crozier of Reodaidhe”. There was therefore in the early period a monastery at Girley of which St. Raed was abbot. Up to a few years ago his holy well was frequented, in the language of the peasantry, “nine clear days before Christmas”. See the Miscellany of the Irish Archaeological Society, vol. i., p. 135. Martyrology of Donegal at 16th of December.

    The Miscellany records in its notes:
    ” Grellech Now called in Irish Greille, and anglicised Girley by metathesis. It is the name of a parish lying a short distance to the south of Kells.
    Reodaidhe. — This saint is still vividly remembered in the parish of Girley, near Kells, of which he is still regarded as the patron, but his name is now shortened to Raed. In the Irish Calendar of the O’Clerys he is set down as St. Rodaighe of Greallach-buna, at 16th of December, thus:
    “Dec. 16. St. Rodaighe of Greallach-buna, the son of Failbhe, son of Ronan, of the race of Niall of the Nine Hostages.”
    The Editor could learn nothing of the crozier of this saint in the parish of Girley.
    The Miscellany of the Irish Archaeological Society. Vol. 1 (Dublin, 1846), 135.

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  • Saint Flann of Bangor, December 15

    December 15 is the feast of Saint Flann, a seventh/eighth century successor to Saint Comgall as abbot of Bangor. The Martyology of Oengus says that at this date we commemorate ‘the feast of Flann the modest ruler, the abiding successor at Bangor.’ His death in the eighth century is recorded in the Annals  which also link him to Antrim:

    A.D. 722. ” St. Flann, of Aentrebh (Antrim), Abbot of Beannchair, died.”
    One of the most glowing tributes to the monastic foundation over which Saint Flann ruled was written by Saint Bernard of Clairvaux in his Life of Saint Malachy. The quotation below has been taken from the diocesan history of Down and Connor by Father O’Laverty:
    “There had existed in this place, under the founder Comgellus, a most noble institution, inhabited by many thousands of monks, the head of many monasteries, a place truly sanctified and so fruitful in saints, which brought forth fruit so abundantly to God, that one of the sons of that holy congregation, Luanus by name, had himself alone founded one hundred monasteries, which I mention for this reason, that the reader may from this single instance form a conception of the number to which the remainder of the community amounted. In short, so widely had its branches extended through Ireland and Scotland, that these times appear to have been expressly foreshadowed in the verses of David—’ Thou visited the earth, and hast plentifully watered it,’ &c. Nor was it only into the countries I have mentioned, but even into distant lands, that crowds of saints, like an inundation, poured, one of whom, St. Columbanus, penetrating into these our regions of Gaul, built the monastery of Luxieu, and there became a great multitude. So great do they say it was, that the solemnisation of the Divine offices was kept up by companies, who relieved each other in succession, so that not one moment, day or night, was there an intermission of their devotions.”

  • Saint Fionan Caue, December 8

    December 8  is the commemoration of a Saint Fionan. He is remembered in the Martyrology of Donegal as:

    8. F. SEXTO IDUS DECEMBRIS. 8.
    FIONAN CUAE. He may be Fionan, of Druim-habhradh, son of Garbhan, who is of the race of Aenghus, son of Nadfraech, king of Munster.
    and in the Martyrology of Gorman as:
    Finan of Caue, a dear man.
    There are a number of saints who bear this name in the Irish calendars and I hope that with a bit more research it may be possible to find out something more about this particular one.

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