OMNIUM SANCTORUM HIBERNIAE

ALL THE SAINTS OF IRELAND

  • Saint Colman of Lismore, January 22

    On January 22 the Irish calendars commemorate one of Ireland’s many Saints Colman, this one a teacher of the monastic school at Lismore, County Waterford. The calendars seem to agree that today was the date of the saint’s repose, but also seem to record a possible second feast on July 25. Canon O’Hanlon gives this account of his life:

    St. Colman, Bishop and Abbot of Lismore. 

    [Seventh and Eighth Centuries.] 

    The present saint, called also Choimoc, to which we sometimes find prefixed the endearing expletive “Mo,” was son to Finnbar. He was a member of the Hua Beogna race, that ruled over Ith-Liathain territory, in the county of Cork. This region skirted the sea-coast, between Youghall and the principal city of that county, and bearing the same name. Here St. Colman was born, some time in the earlier part of the seventh century. Whilst our saint was yet a young man, he took the monastic habit in the celebrated Lismore Monastery. There he was distinguished for all those virtues of which he made profession. At this time, and long previous, Lismore, delightfully situated on the Blackwater, was a celebrated asylum of sanctity and learning. It was famous on this account, not only throughout Ireland, but even in Britain, and more distant countries on the Continent.’” An innumerable body of monks or scholars filled its cloisters and schools; while many holy prelates, abbots, and religious received their education and early training, as also laics, under the rectors and masters of this old university city. In the ancient litany of St. Oengus are likewise invoked eight hundred monks, who settled in Lismore with Mochuda, every third of them a favoured servant of God.

    St. Hierlog or Jarlug ruled over the see and Monastery of Lismore, during the years of our saint’s sojourn here, and he died on the 16th day of January, 698. St. Colman was immediately appointed his successor, both in the bishopric and in the abbey. During the time of his government, desirous of acquiring the knowledge that maketh wise unto salvation, with the learning which was destined to procure them distinction in other walks of life, many eager disciples flocked to Lismore, from all parts of the country. Among other distinguished personages, was the Dalcassian Prince Theodoric or Turlough, King of Thomond. He was held in the greatest esteem by our saint, who predicted what should take place with regard to him and his posterity. On all matters of moment, the abbot was consulted by this illustrious, but humble disciple. Whilst our saint presided over Lismore, the state of its schools was most flourishing; and the discipline of its religious establishment was maintained in the most healthful vigour. Its school is said to have attained a higher degree of reputation than any other in Ireland. Besides numerous holy men, who sought a refuge from the world in this retreat for wisdom and sanctity, and who lived in seclusion and penance within its monastery, many others were called forth from its enclosure, to adorn stations of dignity and importance in the Irish Church. Thus, our saint was the spiritual father of many monks, and an instructor of many prelates. These exhibited in their lives and actions the excellence of that discipline and training, to which they had been subjected.

    At an advanced age, full of virtues and merits, our saint was called away to receive the reward of his labours, but after a short episcopate, and term of abbatial rule, lasting only four years. He died in the year of our Lord 702, on the 22nd day of January. The Martyrology of Tallagh registers him, and under the designation of Mocholmoc, Loismoir, mic h. Beona. The Festilogy of St. Oengus has a similar record. The following extract and its English translation have been furnished by Professor O’Looney :—

    a. xi. kl. The death of Comghall’s daughter
    Colman son of Ua Beona
    Varilius without ostentation
    Felix who made the melodious journey.

    The Calendar of Cashel coincides; but Colgan has incorrectly stated, it gives our saint another festival, which is assigned to the 25th of July. The Calendar of Cashel says: “S. Colmanus filius Hua Beogna in Lismora Mochuddoe.” But the same Calendar of Cashel places a festival afterwards at the 25th of July, in this manner:

    “25 Julii S. Mocholmocus, seu Colmanus O Liathain et S. Silanus duo Comorbani seu successores S. Mochuddoe Lismorensis.”

    Colgan supposes this day last-named, to have been a festival relating to our saint’s translation, or to some other commemoration.

    In the Martyrology of Donegal, we find entered on the 22nd day of January, Colman, i.e., Mocholmog of Les-mdir, son of Ua-Bheonna. Marianus O’Gorman has a like statement – “S. Colmanus seu Mocholmocus Lismorensis filius nepotis Beonnae.” His festival was celebrated on this day, at Lismore.

    Archbishop John Healy in his book on the monastic schools of Ireland writes that the School of Lismore seems to have attained, ‘the zenith of its celebrity towards the opening years of the eighth century under St. Colman O’Leathain’. He goes on to give a little more detail of the saint’s dealings with his royal pupil, Theodoric:

    Theodoric came secretly to St. Colman, and flinging off his royal robes, and renouncing his crown, placed himself amongst the humblest disciples of that saint. Though now an old man, he would not consent to be idle, but insisted on earning his bread with the labour of his hands, like the monks around him. The road to the monastery from the low ground was steep and uneven, so Theodoric, whose strong arms so often wielded the sword of Thomond in battle, got his sledge and hammer, and spent his time breaking stones to repair the road. With such zeal did he work that the streams of perspiration poured down from his body to the ground, and it is said a sick man was healed by washing in these waters of holy and penitential toil. With Colman’s permission he returned to his kingdom to protect it from its enemies, whom he seems to have crushed as easily as he did the stones, and he then returned again to die in Lismore. 

    St. Colman O’Leathain is sometimes called Mocholmoc, but as Colgan points out, it is really the same name — Colman and Colmoc being both diminutives of Colum, with the term of endearment prefixed in one case — mo-Cholmoc, which is the same as ‘my dear little Colman.’ This great saint died on the 22nd of January, A.D. 702, and was interred at Lismore.

    Insula Doctorum et Sanctorum or Ireland’s Ancient Schools and Scholars (6th edition, Dublin, 1912), 467-8.

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  • Saint Briga of Kilbride, January 21

    Today we commemorate Saint Briga who is a namesake of Saint Brigid and may possibly be one of her contemporaries. Canon O’Hanlon admits that the evidence for both the exact feast day of this saint and for her identity are rather shaky and his account only serves to illustrate some of the difficulties involved in researching the lives of the Irish saints. The attribution of January 21 as the feast day of Saint Briga of Kilbride is made in the twelfth-century Calendar of Cashel, a source which was available to the seventeenth-century hagiologist, Father John Colgan, but which is now lost:

     

    Saint Briga or Brigid of Kilbride, in the Diocese of Lismore , County of Waterford and of Kilbride or Brideschurch, County Kildare. [Possibly in the Fifth or Sixth Century.]

    A saint called Briga, the daughter of Congall, is thought to have been “sinchrona” with her great namesake, the renowned Abbess of Kildare. In the Calendar of Cashel, at the 21st of January, she is called St. Brigid of Killbrige, in Lismore diocese. In the Third and Fifth Lives of St. Brigid of Kildare this present holy virgin is called Briga. According to the latter of these authorities, she is said to have lived in the Leinster province, and to have been mother, or superioress, over a monastery and its nuns, who were servants of Christ. From such accounts, Colgan says it is possible she may have been that virgin whose memory was venerated in the Liffy plain, which lies near Kildare.
    On the 9th of March, a St. Brigid is venerated, according to the Martyrologies of Tallagh and of Marianus O’Gorman, and she may have been a contemporary with the great St. Brigid, Abbess of Kildare. But Colgan thinks it more probable that the virgin visited at Kilbride was identical with St. Brigid, or Briga, venerated at this day, according to the Calendar of Cashel. From the circumstance recorded of St. Briga having invited the illustrious Abbess of Kildare to her home, she appears to have lived on terms of intimacy with this latter, who wrought one of her many miracles here. This is found related in the acts of St. Brigid, the great patroness of Ireland. Yet, a difficulty is presented, where an account is given of certain transactions occurring in the plain of Theba, or Theabtha, and when it is stated, her friend the holy virgin Briga lived also in that district. For there, as we are told, St. Brigid was asked to visit another pious virgin, called Briga, and at the house of this latter. The Abbess of Kildare accepted such invitation at the time, as she had on similar occasions ; and when arrived at the house, she was received with great joy and honour. According to the usual custom of treating guests, her feet were washed; and the water having been removed, it was afterwards applied by a nun, whose feet had long been crippled with gout. Having washed them with this water, the infirm sister’s feet were healed, and almost before they could be wiped.

    Saint Brigid afterwards spent a considerable time there, and in conference with the nuns, while treating on various spiritual topics. But the arch-tempter from the beginning, who envied the innocence of our first parents in the garden of Paradise, found means to enter St. Briga’s establishment, at a time, too, when the hostess and her illustrious guest were seated at table. His presence was first revealed to St. Brigid, who fixed her eyes steadily on him for a time. Then communicating what she had seen to her entertainer, and signing the eyes of the latter with a sign of the cross, Briga beheld a deformed monster. The holy Abbess of Kildare commanded him to speak, and to make known the purport of his unwelcome visit. The Devil replied: “O holy virgin, I cannot avoid speaking, nor can I disobey your orders, as you observe God’s precepts and are affable to the poor and lowly.” He then avowed a desire to cause the spiritual death of a nun, who had yielded to his temptations. He even told the name of this nun to the holy abbess, when the latter, charitably calling her, and signing her eyes with a sign of the cross, desired her to behold the monster. The nun was terrified at this sight, and shedding abundance of tears, promised to be more circumspect for the future. Brigid felt great compassion for this penitent, and banished the demon from their presence. Thus, on occasion of her visit, St. Brigid procured the corporal restoration of one, and the spiritual liberation of another, belonging to that sisterhood. Supposing the foregoing transactions to have occurred at Kilbride, or Brideschurch, in the county Kildare, it follows that the present St. Briga—if we have rightly assigned her festival to this date—must have been a special favourite and companion of the illustrious abbess, whose “magnalia,” in the earlier period of the Irish church, have been so wonderfully extolled by her biographers.

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  • Saint Fechin of Fore, January 20

    January 20 sees the commemoration of a great ascetic, ‘the Anthony of Ireland’, Saint Fechin of Fore. I have abridged the following account of his life from a 19th-century parish priest of Collooney, Archdeacon Terence O’Rorke, whose work demonstrates much local knowledge of and pride in the saint. The book is available online through the Internet Archive and the chapter on Saint Fechin is well worth reading in full.

    Saint Fechin was, probably, the most active and influential of the Irish saints of the seventh century. He is the first priest that is named in the Third Order of Irish saints, on the famous Catalogue published by Ussher in the Brittanicarum Ecclesiarum Antiquitates. The order of the names is :
    “Fechin, presbyter ; Airendan, Failan, Coman, Commian, Colman, Ernan, Cronan ; and very many others, presbyters.”
    Unlike his master, Nathy, who has never found a biographer, Fechin has had his life written by several persons. Colgan gives three lives of the saint; one composed by Augustine Magraidin, who was a Canon Regular of the island of All Saints, in the Shannon, and died there the “Wednesday next after All Saints, in 1405”; another in twenty-seven Latin hexameters, translated and abridged for the Acta SS. Hib. from seventy- four metrical Irish districts ; and a third, compiled by Colgan himself, who tells us that he made the compilation from four different lives of the saint, viz. : that by Magraidan, the metrical life, and two others in Irish, one of which he supposes to be a translation of a Latin original, composed in the time of Saint Aidan, a contemporary of Fechin. This last he is inclined to ascribe to Saint Aileran, the author of a life of Saint Patrick, and a life of Saint Bridget. We are told in Magraidan’s life, which is the first life given by Colgan, that Aileran the Wise recorded the miracles of Saint Fechin in the island of Imay. It does not appear from this announcement whether Aileran composed a detailed life of our saint or not ; but whichever Aileran’s work was a full life or a mere report of the saint’s doings in Imay we have, in either case, proof of the great respect in which Fechin was held ; for the biographer of Saints Patrick and Bridget would hardly devote his pen to the proceedings of Saint Fechin, if these proceedings did not partake of the importance and dignity of those that the writer had already described.
    Considering, then, the circumstances under which the Second Life [ Magraidin’s composition goes commonly by the name of the First Life, or Prima Vita; while Colgan’ s composition is called the Second Life, or Secunda Vita] was drawn up, it ought to be the most valuable of all the records that we have of Saint Fechin. As Colgan had materials to draw on that are no longer available, and was, from special knowledge of Irish history and hagiology, singularly qualified to make proper use of these materials, his conclusions regarding the saint should be more trustworthy than those of any other biographer…
    “This compilation (Second Life),” says Father O’Hanlon,”proceeded from three different lives of Fechin, which were composed in Irish. One of these had been taken from a much older codex, written, it is said, in the time of Saint Aidan, who was a contemporary of Saint Fechin, and over 900 years before Colgan wrote. This was a codex of Immaigh, in Connaught, where our saint lived. The second very old life wanted both the beginning and the end, although otherwise very trustworthy. The third was very old, likewise, and written in seventy-four elegant metrical distichs, recounting a great number of the saint’s miracles. The three codices were found to be over prolix for separate publication, so that Colgan thought it better to collate and abridge their contents, which substantially he has published.” If, then, Colgan, instead of “collating and abridging” the lives that he had before him, and giving their substance in the Second Life, had published them separately, exactly as they were written, these lives would be found to precede in date the composition of Magraidin, and to have, in a greater degree than that work, that element of authenticity which they now seem to lack. Bearing this consideration in mind, it is clear that the Second Life has the strongest claims on our deference to what it asserts respecting the career of the saint.
    It is the almost unanimous opinion of those who have written on Saint Fechin, that he was born in Billa, a village in the County of Sligo, barony of Leyney, and parish of Ballysadare. The spot on which he is said to have first seen the light is, at present, and has been from time immemorial, a place of pilgrimage under the name of Leaba-Fechin, (Fechin’s bed). In this spot there is a large stone, on which are impressions looking like indented hand marks ; and the legend is : that these marks were made by his mother as she grasped the objects near her in the agonizing travail that accompanied the birth of so great a saint. Between this stone and another close by there is a hollow in which men suffering from pain in the back lie down, invoking Fechin,”who was born there,” in the fond hope of being thus cured of their infirmity through his intercession. Over these stones was erected (it is said by the saint himself) a church, which was called the Church of Saint Fechin, the walls of which were standing about seventy years ago, the foundations being still to be seen.
    In the next place, the numerous memorials of the saint that meet one at every step in the neighbourhood, prove it to have been his native place. Adjoining the ruins of the church is a piece of land called Parc-Ehin Fechin’s Park, where the saint is said, when a little boy, to have tended cattle for his parents, an occupation that was not counted demeaning in any one in those primitive times. In Parc-Ehin may still be seen the stone on which he is reported, even in Magraidin’s life, to have performed a singular miracle. Wishing to tie up an animal some say a cow, some a calf, and others a wolf and having within reach no stake to which the tying could be attached, the saint ran the hand through a large stone, and, passing a cord through the hole he had made, thus accomplished his object. A few hundred yards to the north of Parc-Ehin, in the townland of Kilnemonogh, is” Fechin’s Well”; half a mile or so to the south is another ” Fechin’s “Well,” as also a ” Fechin’s Bridge” ; the strand of Ballysadare and Streamstown was called ” Fechin’s Strand” ; and throughout the parish are several other objects associated with the saint’s name.
    As it is reported of several other Irish saints, so it also said of Fechin – that his birth and sanctity were predicted. Saint Columba, passing through the valley of Fore in Westmeath was pressed by the owner of the place to found a church there, but excused himself by saying, that the honour was reserved for a great saint named Fechin, who was soon to be born. Stellanus, the proprietor of the valley, saw it once filled with beautifulbirds, having in their midst a column of fire that towered up to heaven, and learned from an angel that the vision prefigured Fechin and his fervent monks. A similar vision is said to have been vouchsafed to a man named Cruemus, who is commonly supposed to be Crumther-Nathy, and who saw in spirit the valley swarming with doves, one of which was of great size and striking beauty, the large bird representing Fechin, and the others the members of his community.
    It is certain that Fechin followed Saint Nathy to Achonry, as soon as that establishment was opened, and acquired there much of the learning and sanctity for which he afterwards became so famous.
    Fechin’s first care, on becoming a priest, was to furnish the territory of Leyney with churches. Ballysadare was our saint’s first foundation, after building which, the zealous priest erected religious establishments in Billa, Kilnemonogh, Drumrath, Kilgarvan, and Ecclasroog or Edarguidhe… But the most famous of the saint’s foundations, and the one in which the holy man habitually resided in later life, was that of Fore, in Westmeath.
    A mill that Fechin erected under the Benn of Fore, to grind grain for his community, was held in almost as much respect as the church. And there is little wonder in this, when we recollect the miraculous way in which the mill is alleged to have been first erected, and, next, supplied with water. As to the erection, Giraldus Cambrensis writes :” There is a mill at Fore, which St. Fechin made most miraculously with his own hands in the side of a certain rock ;” and in regard to the water supply we read in the Life of Saint Mochua, as it is given by the Bollandists under the 1st of January, that ” Mochua came to Fore, a town of Meath, in which Fechin had erected a mill at the foot of a mountain, without having any water near ; and as nothing was now wanting but the water, the mill being finished in other respects, the two saints set out for Lough Lene, which was two miles away. Arrived at the lake, Mochua makes a hole with the point of a staff in the bank that lay next to the mill ; Fechin and the priests that accompanied him did the same ; and, on the moment, the water passing in a wonderful manner under ground through the mountain, dashed out not far from the mill, and, falling on the wheel with great force, set the mill a-going.”…
    It was at the monastery of Ballysadare, during one of his visits that the saint conceived the design of converting the inhabitants of certain islands in the West of Ireland, as it was from the same monastery he started to engage in that great undertaking…
    Fraternal charity, mortification, and the spirit of prayer shone out among the saint’s virtues ; and of these fraternal charity was, perhaps, the most conspicuous. This great virtue Fechin practised under all its forms : ministering to the sick, redeeming prisoners, and feeding the hungry.
    No sores or diseases were so loathsome as to repel the man of God. On a visit to Ballysadare he cured a sick person whose illness was so disgusting that the monks themselves had a horror of it, and forhad the man in consequence to come near the monastery; but this miserable person, hearing of Fechin’s presence, came before the saint, who, far from repelling or treating him like the monks as an outcast, received him with open arms, consoled him, and restored him to health and happiness.
    Fechin’s mortifications or austerities were prodigious. The Irish saints learned to practise mortification from Saint Patrick, who fasted always on bread and water, and prayed 100 times a day, and as many times a night, in the midst of frost, and snow, and rain. It would be hard to find another saint so animated with the spirit of our national apostle as Fechin. To say nothing of the holy man’s fasts and prayers, and other rigorous observances during the day, he is said to have divided the night into three parts, passing the first part in chaunting psalms and hymns ; the second he spent in solitary meditation under a palm tree that grew near the monastery ; and in order to keep away sleep and crucify the flesh, the fervent servant of God bound one of his feet to the tree with an iron fetter, and placed hard by a vessel of water, supporting, meantime, against the breast with his hands a large stone, which, if sleep was allowed for a moment, would fall down into the vessel and splash him with the water, thus punishing negligence or indulgence. And the third part of the night Fechin devoted to vocal prayer, standing all the time deep in cold water. Even while asleep he practised mortification; for, as an old poem on the characteristics of the Irish saints tells us:
    “Fechin the generous of Fobhar loved,
    It was no hypocritical devotion,
    To place his fleshless rib
    Upon a hard bed without clothes.”
    With such a life Fechin had nothing to fear at its close. When that close came, A.D. 664, the saint could hardly be less than 80 years of age, having been a priest and founded churches during the lifetime of St. Nathy, who is supposed to have died about the year 615. Eighty years, so full of perfection as to cause his life to be taken for a series of miracles, filled the man of God with that hope which “confounded not.” After “finishing his course,” like St. Paul, as well as keeping the faith himself and spreading it abroad among those destitute of it, like the same saint, it only remained for Fechin to receive the crown due to his many merits, as anchorite, as abbot, and as apostle.