OMNIUM SANCTORUM HIBERNIAE

ALL THE SAINTS OF IRELAND

  • Saint Manchan of Mohill, February 14

    Today some of the Irish calendars commemorate a Saint Manchan of Mohill, County Leitrim, but not much more is known of the saint. The Martyrology of Oengus does not mention him and the Martyrology of Donegal entry simply records his name and location:
    14. C. SEXTO DECIMO KAL. MARTII.
    14.MAINCHEIN, of Moethail.
    The translator adds a footnote that companions of the saint are also mentioned in some of the manuscripts of other Martyrologies:
    Moethail. The more recent hand adds, “Cum sociis” Mart. Tumi. But the Brussels MS. of the Mart Taml. reads “Cum sociis suis.” (T.)
    Due to the lack of further information and the existence of a number of saints with the name of Manchan, some confusion has arisen as to the exact identity of the saint associated with Mohill. The 16th-century Archbishop Ussher claimed to have a Life of this Saint Manchan written by Richard Fitz-Ralph, Archbishop of Armagh (1347-60). It depicted Saint Manchan as having charge of seven churches and as having been the founder of the monastery of Canons Regular of Saint Augustine at Mohill. He was said to have converted many people in different localities to Christ. However, as the order of Canons Regular were a product of the 12th-century reform of the Irish Church, Fitz-Ralph is reflecting the realities of the later medieval period, rather than that of a supposedly 7th-century Saint Manchan. Canon O’Hanlon records in a footnote that when John O’Donovan attempted to trace Ussher’s copy of the Fitz-Ralph Life, it could not be found. Ussher himself seems to have concluded that Saint Manchan of Mohill was identical with Manchan of Menodroichit, whose feastday is commemorated on 2nd January and whose death is recorded in the Annals of Ulster at 652. Father John Colgan, however, did not share this opinion, as he was unable to prove that Manchan of Mohill, County Leitrim had also been abbot of Menodroichit, County Laois. He remained convinced that Saint Manchan of Mohill was a separate individual and that the references to ‘his companions’ in the calendars were to the seven churches for which he was responsible.A reference in the Annals of the Four Masters led Canon O’Hanlon to speculate that perhaps Saint Manchan of Mohill may be Saint Manchan of Lemanaghan whose feast day is celebrated on 24th January. The Annals record:AD 1166: The shrine of Manchan, of Maethail, was covered by Ruaidhri Ua Conchobhair, and an embroidering of gold was carried over it by him, in as good a style as a relic was ever covered in Ireland.O’Hanlon wondered if this was a reference to the famous shrine of Lemanaghan, although again he could not explain the link to two different localities and to two separate feast days, if Manchan of Mohill is the same person as Manchan of Lemanaghan.

    There is also a reference to Saint Manchan of Mohill in the Annals of Tigernach recording an even earlier date for the repose of our saint:

    538AD: Manchan Maethla cecídit  Manchan of Mohill dies.

    and finally, O’Hanlon records that ‘At Inisnag, diocese of Ossory, St. Manchan, whose feast occurs on the 14th of February, was venerated as a patron’.

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  • Saint Modomnoc, February 13

     

    Saint Modomnoc (Domnoc, Dominic,) commemorated on February 13, was a student of the monastic life under the patron of Wales, Saint David of Menevia. Most of the information recorded about Saint Modomnoc comes from the Life of Saint David. He does, however, also appear on the Irish calendars. The Martyrology of Oengus records:

    B. Idibus Febr.

    13. In a little boat, from the east, over the pure-coloured sea, my Domnoc brought vigorous cry! the gifted race of Ireland’s bees.

    and the Martyrology of Donegal:

    13. B. IDIBUS FEBRUARII. 13.

    MODHOMHNOG, of Tioprat Fachtna, in the [south] west of Osraighe. He was of the race of Eoghan, son of Niall.

    The curious reference in the Martyrology of Oengus to the ‘race of bees’ is explained by a story in the Life of Saint David:

    43. After that the aforesaid Modomnoc had devoted himself for a long lapse of years to the humility of obedience, his virtuous merits increasing, he sought the island of Ireland. The whole multitude of bees followed the ship which he had entered and settled with him in the ship, where he had sat down, on the ship’s prow. For as he attended on the bees’ quarters, he paid heed with the rest of the work of the brotherhood to the hives in rearing the young of the swarms, whereby he might procure some luxuries of sweeter food for those in need. He, loath to defraud the fraternal community, returned, re-appearing in the presence of the holy father, and attended by the swarm of bees, which flew to their own quarters. David blessed him for his humility. Then bidding farewell to the father and brethren, and being saluted, he went away, but again the bees follow him. And it so happened that, whenever he started forth, they also followed. Again, a third time, he sailed for a while, and it happened as before. The swarms followed him, and he returned to David thrice. On the third occasion holy David dismissed Modomnoc to sail with the bees, and he blessed them, saying, ” May the land to which ye hasten abound with your offspring. Never may your progeny be wanting in it. Our monastery will be deserted for ever by you. Never shall your offspring grow up in it.” That this has continued till now we have learnt by experience, for we find swarms imported into the monastery of this father, but they, remaining there a little while, gradually cease. Ireland, however, wherein never could bees exist till that time, is enriched with abundance of honey. And so by the blessing of the holy father they have multiplied in the island of Ireland, since it is agreed that they could by no means exist there at first, for if you should cast Irish earth or stone in the midst of bees, they would shun it greatly, being scattered and flying away.

    This story of Saint Modomnoc being responsible for the introduction of bees to Ireland is one which seems to have captured the imagination of various writers at different times. The 3rd-century author, Gaius Julius Solinus, appears to be the source of the idea that Ireland and its very earth were inimical to bees:

    ‘There is no snake there; few birds; no bee; so that if any one should scatter dust or pebbles brought from thence among the hives [in other countries] the bees would desert their combs’.

    This tale was still being told at the time of the 17th-century hagiologist Father John Colgan, who would have none of it. For him the story that Ireland had no bees before Saint Modomnoc introduced them was easily refuted:

    ‘for Bede states, in his Ecclesiastical History, lib.1, c.i, that ‘the island was rich in milk and honey..’ … But that bees and honey had existed in Ireland before this Dominic was born, is evident from the irrefragable testimony of the rule of St Albeus [Ailbe] in which (No. 37) we read:- ‘When they [the monks] sit down at table, let their be brought herbs or roots washed with water, in clean baskets, also apples, beer and honey from the hive, the breadth of an inch, i.e. so much of honey-combs’.

    Colgan sought a more rational explanation:

    ‘Therefore, against the authority of St. Aengus and others who assert positively that St. Dominicus [Modomnoc] was the first who brought bees into Ireland, it is to be remarked that this should be understood only of a certain species of bees; for there are in Ireland domestic or hive bees, and wild bees, and bees of different kinds and colours. St Dominic appears to have introduced the first hive bees into Ireland, from whose seed the domestic bees have been disseminated in that country.’

    quoted in John O’Donovan, ‘Pre-Christian Notices of Ireland’ in Ulster Journal of Archaeology, Vol. 8 (1860), 250.
    Wade-Evans, the translator of the Life of Saint David, speculates that the Welsh saint’s dismissal of the bees may be explained by his opposition to the brewing of mead for monastic consumption.
    Whatever the truth, Saint Modomnoc after his return to Ireland settled at Tiprad-Fachtna in County Kilkenney. He is also associated with a church called Lan Beachaire, ‘the Church of the Bee-Keeper,’ now Bremore, near Dublin. Canon O’Hanlon summarizes the evidence for his festival.
    ‘At Tibberaghny, his feast was chiefly celebrated, and of that place, he appears to have been the chief patron. His natalis, or departure from this life, is celebrated on the 13th day of February, according to Maguire and other writers. Another festival is kept in his honour, however, on the 18th day of May, according to the same authorities. The year of his death is not known; but, he flourished, about the middle of the sixth century.

    At the 13th of February, St. Oengus, in his Feilire, commemorates not only St. Modomnoc, but also the account of his having introduced bees into Ireland. The Calendar of Cashel, the Martyrology of Tallaght, Marianus O’Gorman, Cathal Maguire, and the Martyrology of Donegal, agree. In the Circle of the Seasons, he is commemorated, as a bishop and confessor. In Scotland, his memorial was kept. At the Ides, or 13th of February, the festival of St. Modomnoc, confessor in Hibernia, is set down in the Kalendar of Drummond. This is also stated to be the date for his departure to Christ.’

    The Life of Saint David also records that thanks to a miracle of the Welsh master, his pupil Modomnoc was saved from a premature departure to Christ:

    41. Modomnoc by name, was excavating a road with the brethren on the steep near the confines of the monastery, whereby an easier access might be made for wayfarers to convey their burdens of necessities. He said to one of those who were working, “Why dost thou work so lazily and so slowly?” The man, stirred by the spirit of anger against him who said the words, lifted up the iron which he held in his hand, to wit, a two-edged axe, and attempted to strike him on the head. The holy father, David, saw this from a distance, and raised his hand towards them, making the sign of the cross; and so the hand of him striking was withered.

     

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  • Saint Fethgna of Armagh, February 12

     

    On February 12 we commemorate a 9th-century Archbishop of Armagh, Saint Fethgna. The bishop is listed as the 39th in the list of ‘coarbs’ or successors of Patrick:

    39. Fethgna xxii. i.e. of the vigils, son of Nechtan of the Clann Eclidagh.

    H.J. Lawlor and R.I. Best, eds, The Ancient List of the Coarbs of Patrick in PRIA Vol. 35 (1919), Section C, no. 9, 326.

    The Martyrology of Donegal records:

    12. A. PRIDIE IDUS FEBRUARII. 12.

    FETHGNA, successor of Patrick, head of the religion of the Gaoidhil, A.D. 872.

    and a note in the table of the saints appended to the calendar adds:

    Fethgna, successor of Patrick (Mansuetus . . .12 Feb.)

    Canon O’Hanlon comments that the Latin word mansuetus ‘is probably inserted to signify, that he was of a meek disposition.’

    If this is so, his meek disposition would surely have been tested by finding himself as leader of the flock at a time when the Viking raids on Ireland had intensified. Armagh was not spared. Bishop Fethgna succeeded Diarmaid O’Tighearnaigh as Archbishop of Armagh, in 852. Just a few years earlier, the Annals of Ulster record the fate of one of the Abbots of Armagh:

    845. Forinnan, abbot of A., was taken prisoner by Gentiles in Cluain comarda with his reliquaries and his community, and carried off by the ships of Limerick.

    and five years later ‘Armagh was devastated by the foreigners’.

    The Annals then record that a serious sack of Armagh was carried out in 867 during Saint Fethgna’s episcopacy by Amhlach or Amlaf, the Norwegian:

    Ardmacha was plundered and burned with its oratories by Amhlach. Ten hundred was the number there cut off, both by wounding and suffocation, besides all the property and wealth which they found there was carried off by them.

    If the theory advanced by the nineteenth-century writer W. F. Skene is correct, Saint Fethgna was aided in his efforts to rebuild Armagh by the Welsh church of Llancarvan. Skene suggested that a reference to Saint Fethgna appears in a Welsh manuscript known as the Welsh or Cambridge Juvencus. On the last page of this manuscript, are fifty lines of Latin hexameter, of which the words ‘dignissime Fethgna” can alone be distinguished. He believed that this could be our saint and a potential link between the Welsh and Irish churches was strengthened for him by this entry in the Brut y Tywysogion of Caradoc of Llancarvan:

    883 “And the same year Cydivor Abbot of Llanveithin (or Llancarvan) died a wise and learned man and of great piety. He sent six learned men of his abbey to Ireland to instruct the Irish.”

    Skene adds ‘Surely they were sent in consequence of the destruction of the seats of learning in Ireland by the Danes, and thus may some learned Welshmen have been brought in contact with the Bishops of Armagh.’

    W.F. Skene, Archaeologia Cambrensis, Vol 10, (1864), 153-4.

    Whatever the truth of this theory, there are some other mentions of Bishop Fethgna in the Irish Annals. In the Annals of Ulster he is listed as an attendee at an important gathering:

    859. A royal assembly at Rath Aedha mic Bric . . . including Fethgna, coarb of Patrick.

    The same Annals record his death:

    874 Fethgna episcopus heres Patricii et caput religionis totius Hiberniae in pridie nonas Octobris in pace quieuit.

    O’Hanlon could not explain why, if the Annals are correct in placing the death of Saint Fethgna on October 6th, the calendars commemorate his feast on February 12.

     

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