OMNIUM SANCTORUM HIBERNIAE

ALL THE SAINTS OF IRELAND

  • Saint Comman, Son of Diomma, July 15

    On July 15 the Irish calendars record the memory of a holy man, Comman, son of Diomma, but as Canon O’Hanlon explains below, he is one of the many Irish saints about whose life no other details have survived:

    St. Comman, Son of Diomma, or Dimmai.
    The lonely hills and solitudes of our Island were once peopled with devoted men, who were engaged incelebrating the praises of God, although it is now difficult to know where the exact dwelling places of many had been. In the Martyrology of Tallagh, at the 15th of July, there is an entry of Comman Mac Dimmai. We find registered the name Comman, son of Diomma, in the Martyrology of Donegal, at the same date, but no further particulars are given.

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

  • Saint Id of Aghade, July 14

     

    A saint associated with Saint Patrick is commemorated on July 14. Canon O’Hanlon rounds up the traditions and calendar entries concerning the feast of Saint Id (Idus) and the locality in which he flourished:

    St. Id, Bishop of Ath-Fhadhat, now Ahade or Aghade, County of Carlow.

    [Said to have lived in the Fifth Century.]

    If what is generally accepted in relation to this holy man be correct, he must have flourished at a very early period in the Irish Church. The present saint, called Id or Idus, is said to have been one of St. Patrick’s disciples, and to have been invoked in the old Irish metrical prayer, which bears the name of St. Moling. The reference to Colgan’s Manuscripts is relied on for the foregoing statement. Unless the name can be resolved into Aed or Aedus, we do not find any such person in the published Acts of St. Patrick. The Martyrology of Donegal registers a festival to honour Id, Bishop of Ath Fhadhat, in Leinster, at the 14th of July. That place to which he belonged is said to be situated in the barony of Forth, and it gives name to the present parish of Aghade, in the county of Carlow. However, if the traditional accounts regarding it, as found in the romantic literature of ancient Erinn, be founded on anything approaching truth, the denomination of his place ought rather be called Ahade. There can hardly be a question, but that the original name of Ahade was Ath Fadat, or Fadat’s Ford. There is a legendary Dindscanchas or nomenclature history of its situation, in the Book of Leinster, the substance of which is given by Professor Eugene O’Curry. [The story goes, that Etan Cend Derg or of the Red Head, with his household, fought Liath of Doire Leith, with his son Fadad and his two daughters Doe and Caichne, at Loch Lurcan, for the right of fishing in the Barrow. Liath was killed in this battle. Some time, afterwards, Fadad, the son of Liath, with his two sisters, Doe and Caichne, mustered their friends, and another battle was fought in the same place. There, on the banks of the Slaney, Fadad was killed. In commemoration of this event, the place was afterwards called Ath Fadad or the Fort of Fadad, a name which it retains to the present day, under the slightly Anglicized form of Ahade.]

    The Protestant church of the union of Ballon and Aghade stands on the site of one much older, and the foundations have been utilized for the erection of the more modern building, which is said to have been so old, that the date and cost of its erection are unascertainable. The church is prettily situated, on a gently elevated ground, and in the midst of a highly cultivated district. A rivulet running close to the churchyard adds greatly to the beauty of this tranquil scene. Some interesting tombs and their inscriptions are to be found there. It has been stated, that about the middle of the twelfth century, by Dermod Mac Murchad, King of Leinster, a nunnery had been here founded, for nuns of the order of St. Augustine, but it was then attached to the nunnery of St. Mary de Hogges, in the city of Dublin. There is now no remembrance of the nunnery in this locality. A blessed well—but without a name—is there, while other antiquities exist, and numerous human remains have been turned up, between Ahade and the town of Tullow.

    Under the head of Ath Fadat, Duald Mac Firbis enters the name Id, bishop of Ath-Fadat, in Leinster, for this day. At the 14th of July, St. Idus, Bishop of Ath-Fada, in Leinster, is set down by Rev. Alban Butler. In the “Circle of the Seasons,” at this same date, he is simply called a bishop in Leinster. Little of a reliable character can be gleaned regarding him.

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

  • Saint Mosiloc of Cloonatten, July 13

    At July 13, Canon O’Hanlon has a notice for a County Wexford saint whose name appears on all of the calendars, but of whose life we otherwise have very few details. In the account below of Saint Mosiloc, I have transferred some of the original footnotes citing the calendar entries plus remarks by the Irish Ordnance Survey scholars, John O’Donovan and W. M. Hennessy, on the locality associated with the saint, into the text. There is a website dealing with the study of Wexford placenames here. Finally, please note that the Martyrology of Aengus records the saint at the 13th of July and not June as printed on page 224 of Volume 7 of The Lives of the Irish Saints:

    St. Mosiloc or Mothiolog, of Cloonatten, Parish of Kilmichael Oge, County of Wexford.

    The name of this holy man, as Siloc, is entered in the “Feilire” of St. Aengus, at the 13th of June. There he receives a high encomium. In the “Leabhar Breac” copy we have the following stanza, translated into English by Whitley Stokes, LL.D. :—

    “Sweet the name with splendour
    of Evangelus the sainted,
    with my Siloc of the kings,
    he went into the noble realm of peace.”

    In a commentary added, he is styled and identified as “my Siloc, i.e., of Cell Mo-siloc in Ui-Degad, in Ui-Cennseliag.” Hence, it should seem, that Siloc was simply his name, and it is entered Silog in the Calendar of Cashel. Veneration was given to Mosiloc Cluana Daethcain, at the 13th of July, as appears in the Martyrology of Tallagh. In Rev. Dr. Kelly’s edition of the Martyrology of Tallagh, this place is identified with Clonkeen, Queen’s County. His name and place are elsewhere differently entered. At this same date, we find in the Martyrology of Donegal, Mothiolog, of Cill Mothiolog, in Ui-Ceinnsealaigh, or Mothiolog, of Cluain Aithghin. This place is Cloonatten, in the parish of Kilmichael Oge, in the barony of Gorey, and county of Wexford. A note by O’Donovan says, “Mothiolog now corrupted to Kilmichaelog,” I find another note appended by William M. Hennessy to this ancient denomination, “Kilmokiloge or Kilmichaeloge, near Gorey, County Waterford,”(? Wexford). There is a curious old church in that locality. In the Kalendar of Drummond the feast of this saint is inserted, at the present date. Thus: “13 iii. Idus. In Hibernia Sancti Confessoris Mosiloc.”—Bishop Forbes’ “Kalendars of Scottish Saints”, p. 18. There is an entry of Mosilocus, at the 13th of July, in the work of the Bollandists. Father O’Sheerin supplied them with the notice inserted.

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