OMNIUM SANCTORUM HIBERNIAE

ALL THE SAINTS OF IRELAND

  • Saint Curifin the Pious, July 20

    There is another obscure saint commemorated on July 20, about whom we know frustratingly little. Canon O’Hanlon summarizes the evidence from the Irish calendars for the feast of Saint Curifin the pious:

    St. Curifin or Cuirbin, the Pious, in Hy-Fidhgeinte, County of Limerick.
    This saint seems to have lived before or during the ninth century, as he is named by our earliest Calendarist. In the Feilire of St. Oengus, at the 20th of July, there is a festival set down for “pious Curufin.” In an Irish commentary postfixed to this proper name, we find the following remark, as translated into English “in Ui-Fidgente in Munster is Curufin.” In the Martyrology of Tallagh, at this date, the simple entry Curifin occurs. The O’Clerys connect this holy man, with the territory of Hy-Fidhgeinte, which derived its denomination from the descendants of Fiacha Fidgeinte, son to Daire Cearb, who was the son of Oilill Flannbeg, King of Munster, in the latter part of the third century. It comprised the barony of Coshma, and all that portion of the present Limerick County, which lies to the west of the River Maigne. Thus, we are told, in an old document, that the country of the Hy-Fidgeinnte extended from Luachair Bruin to Bruree, and from Bruree to Buais. A festival is inserted in the Martyrology of Donegal, at the 20th of July, in honour of Cuirbin, the Pious, in Ui Fidhgeinte, in Munster. It is likely, this saint is identical with one entered Cruibin, at this same date, in the Introduction to that work.

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  • Saint Ossin and Fifty Monks of Tengaidh, July 19

     

    At July 19 the Irish calendars commemorate a saint Ossin and fifty monks, but as Canon O’Hanlon explains, we can uncover nothing else about them. The number fifty in this context commonly occurs in relation to monks, it is one of the Christian sacred numbers and also one of the traditional Irish divisions of the psalter, known as ‘the three fifties’.

    ST. OSSIN OR OISSEINE, AND FIFTY MONKS, OF TENGAIDH.

    At the 19th of July, the Martyrology of Tallagh registers a festival to honour Ossin o Thergaidh ocus Coeca Manach imbi. From such an entry, we should be inclined to suppose, that Ossin must have been an Abbot, and that he presided over a community of fifty monks, at a place set down as Thergaidh, but more correctly Tengaidh, as given in the O’Clerys’ Calendar. It is difficult to know where this place had been situated. Nor can we find, among the townland names of Ireland, any near approach to it in spelling or in pronunciation…

    At the 19th of July, in the Martyrology of Donegal, we find recorded Oisseine, and fifty monks, of Tengaidh. In the Irish Calendar, which belonged to the Irish Ordnance Survey, there is an entry of this Oseine, at the xiv. of the August Kalends, which corresponds with the present date. We cannot find any other records, to afford satisfactory information regarding St. Oissene and his fifty monks of Tengaidh.

     

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  • Saint Cobhthach, Abbot of Kildare, July 18

    July 18 is the feastday of a ninth-century Abbot of Kildare whom the Irish Annals describe as ‘a wise man and learned doctor’. Below is Canon O’Hanlon’s entry for Saint Cobhthach of Kildare:St. Cobhthach, Abbot of Kildare. [Ninth Century.]

    We are informed by Colgan, that a St. Cobhthach, son of Muiredach, was an Abbot at Kildare, and that he was a man of singular wisdom. He appears to have been venerated, on the 18th of July. In an ancient Irish Poem, his merits have been extolled. It is quoted in the Annals of the Four Masters, and it has thus been translated into English:—

    “Cobhthach of the Cuirreach of races, intended King of Liphthe of tunics,
    Alas! for the great son of Muireadhach.
    Ah grief! the descendant of the comely fair Ceallach.
    Chief of scholastic Leinster, a perfect, comely, prudent sage,
    A brilliant shining star was Cobhthach, the successor of Connladh.”

    How long he ruled there is not recorded, but he probably succeeded Ceallach, son of Ailell, Abbot of Cill-dara, and the Abbot of Iona, who died in Pictland, A.D. 863, or 865.

    The death of the present holy Abbot Cobhthach has been assigned to the year 868, or 869.

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