OMNIUM SANCTORUM HIBERNIAE

ALL THE SAINTS OF IRELAND

  • Saint Trea of Ardtrea, August 3

    August 3 is the feast of a female saint, Trea, who has given her name to the district of Ardtrea in County Derry. She is one of those named as having received the veil from the hands of Saint Patrick himself, and in her case, the veil was delivered by an angel. Most of the accounts of Saint Trea which circulate online describe her as an anchoress or recluse, Canon O’Hanlon, however, speculates that she was most likely the head of a religious community. He also mentions that she had a second feast day on July 8:

    ST. TREA, VIRGIN, OF ARDTREA, COUNTY OF LONDONDERRY [FIFTH CENTURY.]

    This pious maiden flourished after the time, when St. Patrick commenced his great mission in the north of Ireland. We have seen already, that a St. Trega or Trea, Virgin, was venerated at Ardtrea, on a different day from the present. A question may arise, as to whether there had been a double festival instituted to honour the same saint. However, on the 8th of July, there is record of a feast for St. Trega, virgin and patroness of Ardtrea Parish, near Lough Neagh. We find, however, that St. Trea inghen Chairthind, or “the daughter of Carthenn,” is recorded in the published Martyrology of Tallagh, at the 3rd of August without stating the locality to which she belonged.

    When blessed Patrick had entered the northern parts of the Ulster province, he met with opposition from a dynast in the region of Hy Tuirtre. He had journeyed by Fersait Tuama, until he rested at a very beautiful locality called Finnabhuir. The place formerly called Fersait Tuama, is now known as Toome, near where the River Bann escapes from Lough Neagh and enters Lough Beg, at the division line between the present Counties of Londonderry and of Antrim. The beautiful district alluded to as Finnabhuir had the wide-spreading Lough Neagh on the east and Slieve Gullin a high ridge of mountain, on the west side. It so happened, that two brothers, one named Carthenn the Elder or “major,” and the other known as Carthenn, the younger or “minor,” had lived in this district. The former a wicked man and addicted to the errors of Paganism had banished his younger brother from that place, in which he exercised complete control. From this district he wished, likewise, that St. Patrick should be ejected. The holy man, like the Apostles, when persecuted in one city left for another, and shaking the dust from of his feet against the tyrannical dynast, predicted that he should fall from power, and serve, with his posterity, under the future rule of the younger Carthenn. He, on the contrary, was virtuous, kindly, and disposed to receive the doctrine of Christ, so that St. Patrick baptized himself, his wife and family. After this time, Carthenn’s wife, Mugania, appears to have given birth to a daughter, destined to a life of grace from St. Patrick’s prophecy regarding her. She was named Trea or Treha at the baptismal font; but, it is not stated, that she had been baptized by St. Patrick.

    Through her father, she descended from the race of Colla Uais, monarch of Erinn. From what has been already stated, it should seem, that she was born about the middle of the fifth century. That she grew up in grace and in the practice of all virtues, is generally conceded. She is classed, among the many holy virgins St. Patrick veiled, during the progress of his great missionary career. In accordance with his prediction, when St. Trea began to grow up into girlhood, she felt a strong desire to chose the Son of God for her future spouse. The Apostle had already declared, that she should be a woman of great innocence of life, and that her vesture and dowry should come to her with the veil received at his hands. Therefore, when she sought the illustrious saint for this purpose, and stood before him, an angel was seen descending from Heaven, and placing a veil on her head. It completely covered her eyes. St. Patrick then attempted to lift it, so that she might the better see, but the holy virgin exclaimed, “O pious father, why cannot the veil remain as it has been placed, in its right position?” Wherefore, the holy man replied, “It can very properly thus remain, and its mode of being worn shall be pleasing to your spouse.” As if the cenobite’s veil were glued to the noble lady’s face, the writer of the Tripartite Life and Jocelyn remark most poetically and approvingly, that it covered her dovelike eyes and her soft cheeks, through the whole remaining term of her life. Thus were her eyes and ears remarkably guarded, lest, through such entrances, any dangerous occasion of sin might bring death to her immortal soul.

    We have no further account of the place where she dwelt in the religious state; but, it is most likely within her ancestral territory, and on the height, which now takes its name from her. This Ardtrea was situated near Lough Neagh and Lough Beg. …In what particular condition St. Trea lived here has not been specified ; but, it is probable enough, she was head of a religious community. Nor does the date of her departure from life appear in our annals. In the Martyrology of Donegal, at this same day, we find her name entered as Trea, Virgin, daughter to Cairthenn, of Ard Trea. Whether the 3rd of August, or the 8th of July, be the commemoration for her death, has not been recorded.

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  • Saint Comgan the Culdee, August 2

    At August 2, the earliest of the Irish calendars of the saints, the Martyrology of Tallaght, records the commemoration of a holy man, Comgan, to whose name the epithet ‘céle Dé’ is appended. Unfortunately, this is the only information we have on this saint and inevitably, he is not the only Irish holy man to bear this name. There was a ninth-century anchorite of Tallaght and daltae of the Céle Dé leader Maelruain called Comgán Fota, but whether he is to be identified with the saint commemorated today is unclear. In his entry for the day, Canon O’Hanlon, as he often does when there is not much to say on an individual saint, bamboozles us with all sorts of information on others of the same name only to tell us at the last minute that none of them are likely to be be our man:

    ST. COMGAN, OR COMHDHAN, THE CULDEE.

    We have often before alluded to that pious fraternity of men, who were so numerous in Ireland during the early ages of her Church, and who served God with such fidelity, as to deserve their distinguishing appellation. One of these occurs, at the present date, in our Irish Calendars. Veneration was given to Comgan the Culdee, at the 2nd of August, as we find entered in the Martyrology of Tallagh. As we have no indication regarding the place where he dwelt, and as the designation of Culdee is too general to afford a clue to his identity, so conjecture has been employed, but in vain, to discover anything appertaining to his place in our ecclesiastical history. The Bollandists have some remarks on St. Comgan, at this date; but, having some doubts, that he had been distinct from a Congan Abbot, venerated on the 13th October, they refer for further consideration of him to that date. They state what Colgan thought, regarding the saint of this name, venerated on the 27th of February and that he is not likely to have been that Comgan, to whom allusion must now be made. According to ancient accounts, one Degill had married Cumene, the sister of St. Columkille, and they had six holy sons; namely, Comgan, Mernoc or Ernan, Moelchuo, Mirilis, Moeldubh, and Teldubh. Other writers add to these Laisren and Bran; but, indeed, the old authorities are very confusing and contradictory, so far as can be judged from what Colgan has collected regarding them. In the Tract on the Mothers of the Irish Saints, Cuman, the sister of St. Columba, is mentioned as having been mother of the two sons of Degill, i.e. Mernoc and Caisene; while another ancient Tract calls her Cuimne, mother of the sons, Meic Decuil, and who are named respectively Mernoc, Cascene, Meldal and Bran, who was buried in Dairu Calchaich, and these were cousins to St. Columkille. About the Comgan, stated to have been the nephew of St. Columba, we do not meet with any further record regarding him. Neither can we be assured, that he is to be found classed among the Irish saints, although there are Comgans or Comdhans so enumerated. However, this may possibly be the St. Comgan, son of Degill and a nephew of Columkille, by his sister Cumenia. Nor do we even know on what authority, this Comgan has been placed among the disciples of his celebrated uncle. In the Martyrology of Donegal, at the 2nd day of August, there is a notice of St. Comhdhain’s festival. More than this it should be useless for us to state.

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  • Saint Pellegrino delle Alpi di Garfagnana, August 1

    The month of August opens with the feast day of an enigmatic Irish hermit, known only as ‘Pellegrino’ (pilgrim) who pursued the eremitical life in Italy. Fra Anselmo Tommasini has summarized his story (and what a story!) as follows:

    Pellegrino, ‘Pilgrim’ was born in Scotia, the son of a king named Romanus, who had already been converted to Christianity; in the full vigour of youth, he renounced his right of succession to the throne, distributed his substance to the poor, and set off incognito for Palestine; after making the round of the holy places, he remained for forty years in the desert where Our Lord kept his long fast, and then betook himself to preach at the court of the Sultan. There he was scourged, loaded with chains, and thrown into prison; miraculously set free, he suffered ordeal by fire and emerged unscathed. A prompting from Heaven then directed his course towards Italy; he was thrown into the sea by a ruffianly crew during a storm, but with great presence of mind converted his cloak into a raft, his stick into a mast, his wallet into a sail and seven days later floated into Ascona. He then visited the tombs of the Apostles in Rome and St. Nicholas in Bari, and the shrine of St Michael in the Gargano. Another heavenly prompting then came to him and, under the guidance of a star, he went up into the wildest district of the Apennines and settled in a wood which he afterwards called Romanesca.

    After twelve years of terrifying ordeals he succeeded in clearing the wood of evil spirits and retired to live in a cave on a diet of herbs and dew with only the wild beasts of the neighbourhood for company. After living this life for a number of years ‘Pilgrim’ quitted his cavern to discover in a place called ‘Thermae salonis’ a stately age-old tree with a hollow trunk. He clambered in and made his home there for the next seven years. Finally at the age of ninety-seven years, nine months and twenty-three days he departed this life.

    A certain Peter, who lived with his wife Adelgrada in a village in the neighbouring country of Frignano, had a revelation of the death of the holy anchorite. Husband and wife, with the assistance of an angel, climbed the mountain together, came upon the body, learned the history of the saint from a parchment held fast in his hand, and gave the saint an honourable burial. The news of the precious discovery spread on both sides of the Apennines and Tuscans and Lombards together climbed the hill to possess themselves of the remains. A riot would have broken out had not the bishops present suggested that the body should be placed upon a cart, the cart yoked to a pair of wild oxen, one Tuscan the other Lombard, and the oxen allowed to go as their fancy dictated. The suggestion was greeted with applause and forthwith carried into effect. The oxen departed so quietly as to give the impression that they were tame and came to a halt on the border between Tuscany and Lombardy, more precisely at ‘Thermae Salonis’. The building of a basilica in honour of the saint was forthwith taken in hand, and the canonisation and translation took place simultaneously with the dedication of the basilica on 1st August, 643. God immediately began to perform countless miracles through ‘Pilgrim’s’ intercession, and such was the affluence of the faithful that a hospice had to be erected for their accommodation near the church. The first persons to render assistance to those who undertook the pious journey were Peter and Adelgrada. The feast has been fixed ever since on 1st August.

    Fra Anselmo Tommasini, O.F.M., Irish Saints in Italy , translated J.F. Scanlan, (London, 1937), 346-7.

    Well, I said it was a good story, didn’t I? Perhaps too good a story? Fra Anselmo says that the only manuscript source is a 15th-century codex, although the earliest certain record of San Pellegrino and his church is dated 1110. I noted certain stock hagiographical devices which I’ve seen before, the fight between rival districts for the saint’s body having to be settled by oxen, for example, occurs in a number of Irish saints’ lives including that of Saint Patrick. The pious couple who have a vision of the saint’s solitary death and go to provide for the proper burial of the remains is another. I was struck too by the obvious scriptural allusions to the forty year fast in the desert and the use of the sacred numbers seven for the sea journey and twelve in the battle with the demons of the woods. There was a glaring anachronism in the supposed visit to the tomb of Saint Nicholas at Bari; since the relics of Saint Nicholas were not taken to Italy until the year 1087 it is hard to see how an Irish pilgrim could have visited them centuries earlier. Saint Nicholas is only a part of the eastern flavour to Pellegrino’s tale, I love the image of an Irishman going to preach at the court of the Sultan but since the story places Pellegrino’s death sometime before 643, which itself is just about a decade after the death of Islam’s founder, the timescale seems a little tight. It’s not totally outrageous though to link an Irish traveller with the Holy Land, Saint Adamnán published the account of a Gaulish monk’s visit in the late seventh century in his treatise De locis sanctis (On the Holy Places). The interest in pilgrimage to the tombs of the Apostles in Rome is certainly plausible plus there was a distinct devotion to the Archangel Michael in Ireland too. I do wonder, therefore, if under all the layers of later medieval embroidery, there is a real Irish peregrinus in there, one whose native name may have caused the Italians to throw up their hands in despair when they tried to pronounce it and so they just remembered him as ‘pilgrim’. His extreme ascetic life certainly fits the bill, as does his wandering impulse. As it stands though, the legend summarized by Fra Anselmo seems to bear out the rule that any piece of hagiography tells us more about the times in which it was written than it does about the times of its subject.

    The legend records that God quickly began to work miracles through the intercession of the holy pilgrim and in a charming piece written by an English Catholic priest blogger here, Father Nicholas Schofield records a modern miracle of his own. He was returning with friends from a visit to the mountain-top shrine of San Pellegrino. The drive was a rather frightening one and it was only when they reached the foot of the mountain that the party discovered that the brakes of the car had failed. Had this happened earlier, they would have been in real danger and as a thanksgiving to San Pellegrino, Father Schofield made available an account of the saint’s life on his blog. The account, based on various Italian guidebooks the priest bought at the shrine, is essentially the same as the story above, but do check it out as the post is illustrated with photographs and takes the story further than I have done here.

    I think I shall enjoy a glass of San Pellegrino mineral water today and toast the holy pilgrim, being an Irish ascetic living on herbs and dew he wouldn’t approve of anything stronger!

     

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