OMNIUM SANCTORUM HIBERNIAE

ALL THE SAINTS OF IRELAND

  • Saint Seanan of Laithrech-Briuin, September 2

     

    September 2 is the feastday of a County Kildare saint, Seanan of Laithrech-Briuin. Canon O’Hanlon begins his account with a lament that he is one of the many Irish saints of whom we know little:

    ST. SEANAN, OF LAITHRECH-BRIUIN, NOW LARAGHBRINE, COUNTY OF KILDARE.

    [SIXTH CENTURY.]

    WE have frequently to lament the loss of records, which might preserve the particular virtues and actions of individuals for the edification and emulation of all true Christians. As noticeable throughout all the previous volumes of this work, with the most earnest desire to render its several articles, more complete, documentary or traditional materials are not accessible, to rescue from obscurity the earthly career of so many among the children of light. Merely to learn their names—sometimes also those of their old places—and to know that they had lived, are all that can now be ascertained.

    According to the Feilire-Aenguis, the Feast of St. Senan was celebrated in Lathrach Briuin, or Laraghbrine, in Ui-Foelain, on the 2nd of September. In conjunction with two other holy persons, Molotha and Theodota, the saint is praised for his noble qualities, and for their reward through Christ. The commentator identifies the present saint as connected with a well-known place. According to the Calendar of the O’Clerys, he belonged to the race of Eochaidh, son of Muireadh, who descended from the seed of Heremon. We are told, likewise, that Deidi, daughter to Trian, son of Dubhthach, was his mother. The pedigree of St. Senan of Laraghbrine is contained in the “Sanctilogic Genealogy.” There he is called the son of Fintan, son to Strened, son of Glinder, son to Core, son of Conned, son to Aengus, son of Fieg, son to Mail, son of Carthage, & etc. His genealogy is then carried back to Heremon for fifty generations, or for about 1600 years. Marianus O’Gorman has noted this saint, in his Martyrology, at the present date. St. Senan must have flourished in the sixth century, and been a contemporary of the great St. Columbkille, for he is named as one of those ecclesiastics who attended the great Synod, held at Dromcreat in 580. On the 2nd of September, a festival is entered in the Martyrology of Donegal, to honour Seanan, of Laithrech Briuin, in the territory of Hy-Faelain. This place is also written Lathrach-Briuin. At present it is known as Laraghbrine, or Laraghbryan, where there is an old church and a cemetery, near Maynooth, in the Barony of North Salt, and County of Kildare.

    The mediaeval church ruins of Laraghbrien are to be seen embowered with stately lime trees, and within a squarely-formed grave-yard, surrounded by a quadrangular wall. A gravel walk runs parallel with the walls on the interior. The church ruins measure 87 feet in length, exteriorly: they are 19 feet, 8 inches, in breadth. The walls are nearly 3 feet in thickness. There is a square tower, 13 feet by 15 feet, on the outside ; and, it is entered by a low, arched door-way from the interior. Several square-headed opes are inside of it, and a ruined spiral stairway occupies one angle. This leads to a broken part of the wall, and showing that it ran much higher. There is a large breach in either side wall. Some ruined windows remain. Two of them have elegantly dressed heading and side stones, and in these formerly were iron bars. The building materials are of excellent limestone and mortar. There was a door in the north side-wall, parallel with the road from Maynooth to Kilcock. Circularly-arched door-ways and windows splayed are still to be seen in the walls. Traces of plaster are inside and outside the building, showing that it had been used for purposes of worship, and at no very remote date.

     

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  • Saint Sceallan of Armagh, September 1

    We begin the month of September with a notice by Canon O’Hanlon of the intriguingly-named Saint Sceallan the Leper. I think that the term ‘leprosy’ was used in the Irish sources to cover a variety of skin diseases, as Joyce’s Social History of Ancient Ireland explains:

    Some cutaneous disease, very virulent and infectious, known by names–such as lobor, clam, and trosc–that indicate a belief that it was leprosy, existed in Ireland from a very early date: but experts of our day doubt if it was true leprosy. Whatever it was, it would seem to have been a well-recognised disease in the fifth century; and after that time our literature, especially the Lives of the Saints, abounds with notices of the disease.

    Our saint was presumably one of its sufferers and as his name is not found in the earlier Martyrology of Tallaght, Canon O’Hanlon suggests he may have lived during the ninth or tenth century:

    St. Sceallan, the Leper, of Armagh, County of Armagh.


    On this day, the feast of St. Sceallan occurs in some of our native Martyrologies. His memory is recorded in the Calendar of Marianus O’Gorman. Also, we find entered in the Martyrology of Donegal, that veneration was given to Sceallan, the Leper, of Ard-Macha, or Armagh. The Irish Calendar, belonging to the Ordnance Survey Records, has a similar entry. By the Bollandists, his festival is noticed, at the 1st of September. This holy man seems to have borne patiently the loathsome disease, once so common in Ireland, and from which his appellation was derived. When he lived does not seem to be known, but it was probably in the ninth or tenth century. The name of Sceallan, the Leper, of Armagh, is not found in the Martyrology of Tallagh, contained in the Book of Leinster.

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  • Saint Sessan of Ath-omna, August 31

    We bring the month of August to a close with the feast of a saint who Canon O’Hanlon seeks to place in Portumna, County Galway. Actual details of the life of Saint Sessan are thin on the ground and the entry in the Lives of the Irish Saints instead concentrates on a later Dominican foundation at Portumna. I have omitted these details to concentrate on what Canon O’Hanlon can tell us of the saint:

    St. Senan, Sessan, or Sessen, of Ath-omna, possibly Portumna, County of Galway.

    A feast for St. Senan of Atha-omna occurs in the published Martyrology of Tallagh, on this day, as also in that copy to be found in the Book of Leinster. Ath-Omna means the “Ford of the Oak;” and it may have been the ancient denomination of Port-Omna, now Portumna, on the River Shannon, in the Barony of Longford and County of Galway. It is within the parish of Lickmolassy. The place is of great antiquity, and a town is said to have been there for many centuries before Ireland became subject to the control of the sister kingdom. It is probable there had been a religious establishment at Portumna previous to the arrival of the Anglo-Normans in Ireland. It was a place of no small importance in former times, as being the principal pass whereby the people of Minister and Connaught communicated with each other…The present Saint probably lived at an early period of the Christian Church in Ireland. He is classed among the disciples of holy Patrick, the Irish Apostle. Although called Seseneus, his right name is Sessenus. His feast is set down, at this date, and he is called Sesan by Marianus O’Gorman. It is thought, by Colgan, that he may not have been a different person from St. Sezin, Bishop and Abbot, as also Patron of the Church and Parish of Guic Sezni, Leon, in Brittany. We fail, however, to find the evidence, which might warrant such a supposition. The name Sessan, of Ath-omna, is registered in the Martyrology of Donegal, at the 31st of August. This is all known concerning him.

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