OMNIUM SANCTORUM HIBERNIAE

ALL THE SAINTS OF IRELAND

  • Saint Fanchea of Ross Oirthir, January 1

    We begin the month of January with a female saint, Fanchea of Ross Oirthir, sister to Enda (Endeus) of Aran. Canon O’Hanlon’s account of her below illustrates one of the strengths of his Lives of the Irish Saints, for he has relied on the account of the great 17th-century Irish hagiologist, Father John Colgan, a work I would have found it difficult to otherwise access. It seems that Colgan himself lamented that no Life of Saint Fanchea had survived and he was thus forced to use the Life of her more famous brother as a primary source. The Life of Saint Enda appears to credit Fanchea with having played a crucial role in both the conversion of her brother and in his decision to pursue the monastic life. She is portrayed as having acted as a counsellor in spiritual matters and he as having heeded her advice. There is a particularly interesting account of both having been pilgrims in Rome and of some Latin visitors coming to Ireland.

    I have taken some liberties with O’Hanlon’s text, omitting a few sections, but the original is available through the Internet Archive if you wish to read it in its complete form. There are some disturbing hagiographical devices to be found in the account of Saint Fanchea, one at the beginning concerning the brutal way in which Fanchea brings Enda to his senses over the body of his dead fiancee, and another at the end concerning the unholy rivalry between the peoples of Leinster and Meath over Saint Fanchea’s remains. Both are stock in trade as far as medieval hagiography is concerned, but seem somewhat grotesque to the reader of today. Canon O’Hanlon, however, ends his account, as he often does, with one of his charmingly pious homiletics.

    ST. FANCHEA, VIRGIN, ABBESS OF ROSS OIRTHER, OR ROSSORY, COUNTY OF FERMANAGH, AND OF KILLANY, COUNTY OF LOUTH.

    …This saint’s name is found variedly written Fanchea, Fuinchea, Fainc, Fuinche, and Funchea. Four other holy virgins bearing this name are inscribed on our Irish Calendars. To the present St. Fanchea’s name, the denomination Garbh, is also found affixed. She was daughter to Conall Dearg, prince of Oriel territory, in the Ulster province; while her mother was Briga, or Aibfinn, daughter to Anmiry, of the Dalaradian race. St. Fanchea was born at a place called Rathmore, in the vicinity of Clogher. She was sister to the celebrated St. Endeus, Abbot of Aran, as also to Saints Lochina, Carecha, and Darenia. When our saint grew up, she was distinguished for extraordinary beauty; but remarkable virtues rendered her still more admirable.

    Aengus, son of Natfraich, King of Munster, is said to have desired Fanchea’s hand in marriage. Notwithstanding all his pressing entreaties, however, and rejecting those earthly dignities to which she might be advanced by yielding to his suit, the holy virgin’s mind was intent on a life of celibacy, and on those rewards promised by Christ to his spouses. Even she was obliged to resist parental importunities in refusing this offer of a matrimonial alliance. In order to divert Angus from his solicitations, she had sufficient address, while declining his advances towards herself, to direct his attentions towards her sister Darenia. To her he was afterwards united in marriage. Darenia was the mother, or, according to another account, the aunt and nurse of St. Colman, who was Abbot and Bishop at Daremore or Derrymore Monastery.

    In the list of holy virgins, who received the veil from St. Patrick, St Fanchea is numbered by Colgan; this statement, however, seems to rest on no good authority. Her reputation for piety was so great that several ladies of royal birth were numbered among her disciples, and placed under her rule. Having entirely consecrated herself to God, Fainche, in her own person, furnished a bright example of self-denial and sanctity. Many others of her sex, desiring to walk in the way she had marked out, renounced the pleasures of this world, for happy enjoyments in the next. She built a nunnery, at a place called Ross Oirthir, on the borders of Lough Erne, and within the present county of Fermanagh. It appears to have been within the patrimonial territory of Oriel.

    …This holy virgin exercised a great and holy influence over her brother, St. Endeus. Some discredit has been thrown on his Acts, which are regarded as abounding in fables. Yet those acts are the chief authority we can discover to furnish us with particulars regarding St. Fanchea. From Endeus’ life we learn how in a great measure she contributed to effect his conversion, and move him to a change of life. On the death of his father, Conall, St. Endeus succeeded in the chieftainship over his principality, and with the unanimous acclaim of his own people. The young prince preserved himself free from all corrupting influences of rank and station; but, on a certain occasion, being urged by some clansmen to march against his enemies, Endeus gave a sort of unwilling assent to their intreaties. However, the young chief did not allow his mind to be filled with malice or revenge against his adversaries. One hostile to Endeus having been killed by his soldiers, these returned towards their own country. As they approached St. Fanchea’s house the band sang a triumphant song in praise of their recent victory. Hearing the approaching sounds, St. Fanchea said to her community, “Know you, my sisters, this dreadful vociferation is not pleasing to Christ?” Then recognising the vocal tones of their chieftain, Endeus, among his followers, by some Divine intimation, Fanchea cried out, “He is a son of Heaven’s kingdom, whose voice is so particularly distinguished.” She knew her brother’s heart, with all its defects, to be chivalrous and pure. Wherefore, standing at the gate of her nunnery, Fanchea said to the chief, “Do not approach near us, for thou art contaminated with the blood of a man who is slain.” Endeus replied,”I am innocent of this murdered man’s blood; and, as yet, I am free not only from homicide but even from carnal sins.” The virgin then said, “O wretched man, why do you provoke the Lord to anger? And why do you plunge your soul into the depths of sin by your various crimes?” Endeus answered, “I hold the inheritance of my father, and therefore I am justified in fighting against my enemies.” His sister replied, that their father, whose sins were his own, was then enduring punishment for them in another world.

    Endeus afterwards requested his sister to give him a certain noble maiden placed under her care for his wife. He promised in the future to follow those religious admonitions he had thus received. The holy virgin said she should soon give a response to his petition. Immediately going to the place where the aforesaid maiden lived, Fanchea said to her, “A choice is now given: dost thou desire to love the Spouse whom I love, or a carnal one?” The girl replied,”I will love Him whom you love.” Fanchea said to her, “Come with me into this chamber that here you may rest a while.” The maiden complied, and placing herself upon a bed she soon expired. Her pure soul fled to the guardianship of her chosen and heavenly Spouse. Having put a veil over the face of this deceased young lady, St. Fanchea returned to Endeus. She then conducted her brother to the chamber of the dead. Uncovering the departed maiden’s features, Fanchea exclaimed, “Look now upon the face of her whom thou hast desired.” Endeus, struck with horror, cried out, “It is at present sadly pale and ghastly.” “And so shall your features hereafter be,” replied the virgin. Then Fanchea spoke to him regarding the pains of Hell, and dwelt also on the joys of Heaven, until the young man burst into tears. Having heard these discourses of his holy sister, despising the vanities of this world, Endeus took the habit of a monk and received the tonsure. Thus he embraced the clerical profession, and became eventually one of the most distinguished among the saints of Ireland.

    The companions of Endeus, hearing about his conversion, endeavoured with some manifestations of violence to excite his feelings, and to withdraw their chieftain from a fulfilment of his purpose. It is said that St. Fanchea offered up her prayers, and she made the sign of the cross against this unjust attempt. The clansmen’s feet then became fastened to the ground. On that spot they remained like so many immovable statues. A fine moral lesson is then envolved by the legend-writer. It seemed those men, who were so much attached to earthly pursuits should even in this manner, although unwillingly, adhere to earth. As misfortune often produces a better frame of mind, entering upon a consideration of their state, the culprits promised to do penance when released from bondage. Thus, what the Lord said to the Apostles when he sent them to preach,”Whatsoever you shall bind upon earth, shall be bound also in heaven, and whatsoever you shall loose upon earth, shall be loosed also in heaven,” seemed to have been fulfilled in the person of this apostolic virgin. Hereupon the newly-converted chief began to fulfil by works what he had conceived in mind.

    With his own hands Endeus commenced digging earth around the nunnery. This habitation he fenced in with deep trenches. He rooted up thistles and other noxious weeds likewise, and with all the care of an experienced husbandman. Having bestowed the necessary amount of labour on this nunnery, the servant of Christ went to a place afterwards called Killaine, now known as Killany, in the county of Louth. There he intended to found a house for a religious congregation of men. Here also he became oeconomus, or steward, over artificers who were engaged upon his buildings, and he furnished the workmen with all necessary supplies. From the context of his acts it would seem that a nunnery for Fanchea, or a branch establishment for her religious, was established here; and it appears even probable that the holy sister of Endeus resided at Kill-aine for some considerable time previous to her death.

    We are told, while he lived at Kill-aine, certain robbers, enemies to Endeus and his country-people, from a district called Crimthann, passed with their booty near the monastery. Pursuing these robbers, the clansmen of Endeus had there overtaken them. When about to attack the spoilers at this place, feeling an irresistible desire to succour his friends, their former chieftain seized one of those wooden poles which were used in building his monastery. That Endeus intended to employ as a weapon. But St. Fanchea then said to her brother,”O Endeus, place your hand upon your head, and recollect you have taken the crown of Christ.” On obeying this command Endeus immediately felt he had assumed the clerical tonsure. Withdrawing his hand the holy monk remained in his cell, and at peace with all mankind. He who once puts his hand to the plough and afterwards looks behind is not fit for God’s kingdom.

    The virgin Fanchea afterwards counselled her brother to leave his native country and kindred, lest perchance he might again be tempted by any worldly considerations to forsake that path in which he trod. She wished him to visit Britain, and to enter Rosnat Monastery, that he might become an humble disciple of Mansenus, who presided over that house. Having listened attentively to her advice, Endeus asked how long he should remain there, when Fanchea told him to continue until she should have received a good report regarding the manner in which his time had been spent. Wishing to fulfil his sister’s desire, St. Endeus passed over the sea, and came to the aforesaid monastery. There he remained under the discipline of its abbot, Mansenus. When he had made sufficient progress in learning and in the science of a religious life, he took another sea-voyage on his way to Rome. Here Endeus disposed himself for the reception of Holy Orders. After a diligent study of examples left by the saints, it pleased Almighty God to invest him with the priestly dignity. Carefully considering the duties of his new profession, he deemed it incumbent to show others the way towards heaven. Therefore, having collected some disciples, he erected a monastery. This was called Latinum; but the place where it was situated appears to baffle further enquiry.

    After some time had elapsed, certain pilgrims came from Rome to Ireland, where they visited St. Fanchea’s cell. The virgin held some conference with them. Among other religious acquaintances those strangers mentioned the name of Endeus, who was a native of Ireland, and whose reputation for sanctity had been much extolled by all who knew him. They told her where the monastery over which he presided stood. On hearing this account St. Fanchea knew St. Endeus was her brother. She then resolved to pay him a visit, in company with three other virgins. The abbess ordered these to take none of their effects along with them; but one of her companions disobeyed this mandate and brought a brazen vessel, which she conceived would be of use in washing their hands during this journey. A strange and incredible legend is then related to account for the detection and reproof of such disobedience. A prosperous voyage is said to have conducted those adventurous females to the wished for port in Britain. Further they journeyed, perhaps, but our accounts fail us in reference to this matter.

    The Almighty, who reveals wonderful secrets to his friends, was pleased to enlighten Endeus regarding the approaching visit of those religious females from Ireland. His brethren were directed to prepare all things necessary for their expected arrival. While the monks were thus engaged, the holy virgins appeared at their monastery gate. St. Fanchea preferred a request to see her brother; but she was told she might have her choice of two alternatives—either to receive his greetings without seeing him, or to see him without receiving his salutations. The virgin said she preferred the choice of conversation without the permission of seeing him, thus conceiving she should derive more advantage from her visit. Endeus then had a tent erected in the grounds of his monastery. Being veiled from her sight, the abbot entered into conversation with his sister. Fanchea advised that as God had gifted him with talents, he ought to exercise these among the people of his native land, and thus enhance doubly their value. Hereupon Endeus replied, “When a year shall have elapsed after your return to Ireland, I hope the Almighty may permit me to follow you.” Fanchea then said to her brother, “When you come to Ireland do not enter the land of your nativity at first, but rather seek out a certain island called Aran,” which is situated off the Irish western coast. The interesting group of Aran islands lies at the entrance to Galway Bay, and out in the Atlantic Ocean.

    Having thus advised her brother, she received his benediction, and afterwards she appears to have passed over into Ireland with her virgins. Under the guidance of angels, they escaped all sea dangers, and landed safely in their native country. It would appear, however, St. Fanchea did not long survive her arrival in Ireland. As a further favour, she obtained from heaven that her soul might be permitted to escape from the prison of the body. She wished it to ascend with the celestial attendants of her voyage to that kingdom, where virgins “follow the lamb whithersoever he goeth.” From the obscurity of that narrative, contained in St. Endeus’ Life, it is not possible to discover whether our saint lived to reach her native shore, or whether she died during her last sea voyage. Her religious sisters greatly lamented her decease.

    A contention arose between people belonging to the provinces of Meath and Leinster for possession of this holy virgin’s body. What claim the Leinster people had to her remains does not appear, unless her death took place among them. This quarrel was appeased in a miraculous manner. Fanchea’s remains seemed to rest on a vehicle borne by two oxen. These animals are said to have preceded the people of Leinster, bearing the supposed body of this holy virgin towards a cell, which was called Barrigh, in Magh-Lifife. There the Leinster people deposited what they had conceived to be St. Fanchea’s body but the people of Meath in like manner saw oxen preceding them and bearing the real body of St. Fanchea, while the companions of her voyage were present at this funeral procession. Having arrived at the nunnery, commonly called Kill-aine, the remains of our holy virgin were there deposited to await the day of final resurrection. This most pure virgin, the spouse of her Heavenly Bridegroom, is thought to have departed to her long-desired and beatific rest on the feast of our Lord’s Circumcision. This day her natalis is kept, according to our Irish Martyrologies. It seems probable, however, that her feast had been more solemnly observed on a different day. Some held this opinion for various reasons. St. Fanchea lived in the fifth and died, it is thought, about the commencement of the sixth century. Long ago has this noble virgin, drawing life from the fountain of Divine love while on earth, passed away from its unrealities to perennial enjoyment with the blessed in heaven.

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

  • Every Saint- A Prayer for the End of the Year

    This beautiful prayer to all the saints asking for their intercession and protection, forms the epilogue to the Martyrology of Gorman and provides a fitting close to the year: 

    Epilogue.
    I. Let every saint who hath been, who shall be, in the greentopped mournful world, let all the dear and gracious host forgive me.
    5. The noble, beloved army—little of their sea is this number—to protect me from battle, from bane, (and) from demons.
    9. In their hosts, in their hundreds, let them ask for me pardon, repentance before death, and protection of me from every hardship.
    13. May they guard me from the Devil, for he is always doing evil—the noble sages with knowledge, every saint who hath been, who shall be!
    Every saint.
    The End.

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

  • O'Hanlon's Lives of the Irish Saints

    Starting in January I will begin posting on the lives of individual Irish saints and as a chief source will be using the nine-volume collection, The Lives of the Irish Saints, by the Reverend John O’Hanlon (1821-1905). Since I first began researching the lives of our native holy men and women some years ago, I have become very fond of Canon O’Hanlon and my admiration for what he achieved continues to grow. Below is an obituary to this wonderful Irish priest published as a foreword to one of his historical works not concerned with the Irish saints. In it we can see how Canon O’Hanlon’s life encompassed the great cultural and religious revival of nineteenth-century Ireland, indeed his work is described here as having taken on ‘the character of a national monument’. In truth though, I would have to dissent from the description of his style as ‘lucid and simple’. On the contrary, his Victorian, wordy style can often be impenetrable for a modern reader and the work as a whole suffers from a lack of editing. That said, however, given the size of the task he undertook and the circumstances under which he was working, I can only marvel at the scale of the achievement. After a while, one gets used to his style and I personally enjoy the period charm of his pious homiletics and the travelogues which often accompany the accounts of the saints, particularly those saints about whom not a great deal is known. Scholarship has naturally moved on since the Canon was writing, but as a scholar he is scrupulous about citing his sources and often uses specialized sources which would otherwise be difficult for the general reader to track down. It is sad that only nine complete volumes of The Lives of the Irish Saints were published, a partial volume for October was issued, the rest remain in unpublished manuscript form. A good modern introduction to the way Canon O’Hanlon worked can be found here, but below, we see what one of his contemporaries, Father Thomas J. Shahan of the Catholic University of America, had to say of the man and his work:

    John O’Hanlon was born April 30, 1821, at
    Stradbally, in Queens County, Ireland. He received his early training in local
    and neighboring schools, and was sent at the age of seventeen to Carlow
    College. Four years later his studies were interrupted by the resolution to
    accompany some relatives to the New     World. He landed at Quebec in 1842, but after a
    sojourn of some months went on to St. Louis. He soon entered (1843) the
    Ecclesiastical Seminary of that diocese, and was ordained to the priesthood by
    Archbishop Kendrick in 1847. For five or six years he devoted himself to the
    duties of his calling, arduous enough at that period of rapid national growth
    and economic expansion. But failing health turned his thoughts again to the land
    of his fathers, and in 1853 he returned to Dublin, where he was made curate at
    the Church of Saints Michael and John, a post that he occupied until 1880, when
    he was promoted to the parish of Sandymount. In 1885 he was made a Canon of the
    Dublin Cathedral by Archbishop Walsh. In 1897 he celebrated the Golden Jubilee
    of his priesthood. His death occurred on May 15, 1905, at the advanced age of
    eighty-four. He is buried in Glasnevin Cemetery, Dublin.
    Canon O’Hanlon is remembered by his faithful
    flock as a devoted priest, to whom the beauty and glory of the house of God,
    the parish schools and property, the industrial schools of the neighborhood,
    were especially dear. Amid his learned occupations he never neglected the work
    of his sacred ministry, nor the care of the poor, sick and lowly. As an
    Irishman, he was one of the foremost patriotic figures of the nineteenth
    century. He had heard O’Connell, as a boy of fifteen, in 1836, on the Great
    Heath at Maryborough, and was present at the banquet then given at Stradbally
    to the Liberator. He loved to recall the political ballads of that decade
    apropos of Sir Henry Parnell and his “History of the Penal Laws,” and
    the melodious folk-tunes of the pre-famine period, many of which to his great
    regret, he lived to see perish from the popular memory. His love of Moore’s
    Melodies was well-known to all his friends. He was also a great admirer of the
    “Young Ireland” poetry, and at his death was engaged on an edition of
    the fugitive writings of the patriot-poet, John Keegan. He was an active member
    of the committee on the centenary celebration in honor of O’Connell, and as
    secretary of the O’Connell Memorial Committee drew up the valuable report of
    its proceedings from 1862 to 1882. To him is owing in no small measure the splendid
    Dublin monument to O’Connell, the masterpiece of Foley’s art, and one of the
    finest monumental sculptures in Europe. He was also active in the creation of
    memorials to the poets Thomas Moore and Denis Florence McCarthy. His
    earnestness in the work of the Gaelic League is well known, likewise his
    intelligent devotion to the historical monuments of Ireland, the manuscripts,
    records, books, and curious remains that still enshrine no little of the
    glorious past of the beloved island. He was for forty years an active and
    painstaking member of the Kilkenny Archaeological Society, to which he had been
    elected on the proposition of such an Irish antiquarian as Bishop Graves.
    Within the limits of his sacred calling he seems to have omitted no endeavor to
    serve his native country as a scholar, a poet, and a man of action.
    The catalogue of Canon O’Hanlon’s literary labors
    is a long one, and covers a period of more than fifty years of incessant study,
    research, and publication. He was a man of adamantine endurance, and though by
    his departure the Church of the United States surely lost a pen of great power,
    the larger world of ecclesiastical learning was proportionately the gainer. It
    may be stated at once that he never ceased to love the great Republic, whose
    institutions and spirit he thoroughly understood and admired, as the work here
    offered to the reader will make clear. Among his published writings is a volume
    of reminiscences entitled, “Life and Scenery in Missouri” (Dublin, 1890).
    In 1897 he crossed the ocean to take part in the Golden Episcopal Jubilee of
    Archbishop Kendrick, who fifty years earlier had raised him to the dignity of
    priesthood. It would seem that Canon O’Hanlon became an historian out of the
    fulness of his conviction that the Christian history of Ireland is one of the
    noblest chapters of all theology. His first work was an “Abridgment of
    Irish History from the Final Subjection of Ireland to the Present Time”
    (Boston, 1849), written with the view, no doubt, of fixing on the mind of the
    young     Irish emigrant the great religious lesson of his
    forefathers’ patient endurance and fidelity. It was followed by “The Irish
    Emigrant’s Guide to the United States” (Boston, 1851), long a very popular
    work among the unfortunate Irish wanderers in a new land. During the years of
    his American ministry he contributed frequently to literary magazines and
    newspapers, and was known, before he left us, as an ecclesiastical scholar and
    an antiquarian of promise. It will be admitted that, given the duties of the
    parochial service in the United States and the scarcity of good libraries of
    Irish lore, these first zealous efforts deserve special commendation. He was
    soon, however, to find himself in a centre where opportunity, talent and energy
    might combine to make of him, if not an historical genius, at least one of the
    most useful writers who have yet appeared on the soil of Ireland. Shortly after
    his return he began his career as the hagiologist of Ireland, and at the same
    time complimented his adopted city with a little volume entitled, “A Short
    Life of St. Lawrence O’Toole”(Dublin, 1857). A good judge says of it that
    “it dispelled the cloud of ignorance respecting the life of St. Lawrence,
    which had been created by the wanton misrepresentation of hostile, careless and
    faithless chroniclers, successfully refuted the false views which had been
    propagated by political or religious malevolence and set the character of the
    illustrious subject of his work in a true light before the public.” In a sense
    this judgment is applicable to all the good Canon’s later writings. Two years
    later he brought out a “Life of St. Malachy O’Morgair” (Dublin,
    1859), that had originally been undertaken in the Boston Pilot (1853). Then
    followed at various intervals other lives of famous ancient saints of Ireland:
    St. Dympna (Dublin, 1863); St. Aengus, the Culdee (ibid., 1868); St. David
    (ibid., 1869); St. Grellan (ibid., 1881). One of his most useful books is his
    “Catechism of Irish History from the earliest times to the death of
    O’Connell” (Dublin, 1864).
    This gifted priest was not only an excellent
    historian, but also a graceful poet, who knew how to clothe in pleasing metre
    the thousand and one traditions that everywhere cling to the soil of Ireland.
    In 1870 he published, under the nom de plume of Lageniensis (the man of Leix),
    a volume of poetry entitled, “Legend Lays of Ireland,” in which old
    and familiar fairy legends of his people were treated with much success. In the
    same year he published a prose volume of popular traditions, “Irish Folk-Lore,”
    which embraces “a vast amount of antiquarian and historical information
    connected with various periods of the national annals.” The grave of the
    famous O’Carolan, the last of the Irish harpers, was visited by him in 1881,
    and suggested to him a new volume of verse, “The Buried Lady: A Legend of
    Kilronan.” In 1893 he made a collection of all his metrical writings,
    under the title, “Poetical Works of Lageniensis,” and dedicated the
    same to the Countess of Aberdeen, as a tribute to her genuine love for the
    Irish people. Another volume on “Irish Local Legends” appeared in
    1895, and placed him among the most successful collectors of the rare and
    curious antique lore that has been so long drifting down the ages in Ireland,
    but that is now on the wane, and will perhaps not survive many more
    generations. In the meantime he brought the nation more deeply in his debt by
    new editions of two important works, Monck-Mason’s “Essay on the Antiquity
    and Constitution of Parliaments in Ireland” (Dublin, 1891), and William
    Molyneaux’s “The Case of Ireland’s Being Bound by Acts of Parliament in
    England Stated” (Dublin, 1893). The latter work, originally published in
    1698, had been burned by the common hangman, and only one edition had since
    then seen the light. The tireless pen of this scholarly antiquarian seemed,
    indeed, never to rest. He compiled a “Catechism of Greek Grammar” and
    “Devotions for Confession and Holy Communion,” almost as a rest from
    his many heavier labors. During his last illness he was still busied with a history
    of the antiquities of his native Leix (Queens County), on which, in his
    intervals of leisure, he had spent considerable research. He reminds us,
    indeed, of Saint Columba and Saint Bede, both of whom died almost in the act of
    dictating to their brother scribes. It seems incredible that amid so many
    enterprises he found time to compose the work that is here presented to our readers.
    It will always possess an added interest from the fact that the original text
    perished in the fire that had consumed his publishers’ premises in 1898.
    Nothing daunted, he sat down to the task a second time, rewrote the entire
    work, and published it as a large quarto (Dublin, 1903).
    We have yet, however, to mention the great work
    on which his fame will forever rest, “The Lives of the Irish Saints.”
    As early as 1857 he announced his resolution to compose a series of lives of
    the Saints of Ireland in twelve volumes, following the order of the calendar.
    It was to be for Irish history what Alban Butler’s “Lives of the
    Saints” had long been for general ecclesiastical history, a vast and final
    work of reference and edification. The Jesuit Henry Fitzsimon, the priest
    Thomas Messingham, above all the Franciscans Patrick Fleming, Luke Wadding,
    Hugh Ward and John Colgan, had all toiled variously and with great success, in
    the first half of the seventeenth century, at a great compilation that was
    eventually to be known as the “Acta Sanctorum Hiberniae” or the
    “Lives of the Saints of Ireland.” In the sad and dreary period that
    followed the “thorough” work of Oliver Cromwell the Irish clergy
    found no longer heart or occasion to take up a task so congenial to their
    temper and the character of their nation. It was reserved for the modest and
    laborious curate of Saints Michael and John to bend his shoulders to a work
    that might well challenge the organized efforts of a community of writers. In
    1872 he issued the prospectus of his enterprise, as a subscription work, and
    promised to bring it out monthly in parts of sixty-four pages each, profusely
    illustrated. He kept his promise, and finished the herculean undertaking shortly
    before his death. It includes the lives of about 3,500 saints of Ireland, some
    of them dealt with briefly, but many at very great length. The nine volumes
    before us number over six thousand large octavo pages, and the remaining parts,
    when they issue from the press as volumes, will probably raise this figure to
    eight thousand pages or more. It is a very unique performance in the department
    of hagiology, whether we consider the unbroken ardor of fifty years’ toil, the
    faithful execution of a perilous promise, the uniform excellence of the work,
    or the admitted need and value of a history of Irish sanctity that shall
    correspond to our modern methods and attainments in the province of history.
    That he succeeded in endowing his native land with a monument that any Catholic
    people would forever cherish is allowed by all who are familiar with the field
    of labor, among others by the Bollandists, to whose scholarly company he must henceforth
    be accredited as an associate, at least in learning, faith, spirit, and good
    work. These volumes include the result of infinite research in all the
    departments of Irish history, for the Saints of Ireland, since St. Patrick, are
    its true heroes, its representatives, and the flower of its thought and action.
    In so old a land the identification of place and personal names is no slight
    task. A chief source of information is the collection of ancient maps and
    manuscripts belonging to the Irish Ordnance Survey Department in Dublin.     Canon O’Hanlon had an intimate acquaintance with
    all this material; he was likewise master of the contents of the rich public
    libraries of his native city and of other cites, as well as of valuable private
    collections of books on the topography and antiquities of Ireland. In the
    course of his labors he was encouraged and often helped by such scholars as Dr.
    John O’Donovan, Professor Eugene O’Curry, Dr. Todd, and other Irish
    antiquarians of the first rank. The beautiful font of Irish type occasionally
    used in his “Lives of the Irish Saints” was originally designed by Dr.
    Petrie for the Catholic University of Ireland.
    The work of Canon O’Hanlon took on the character
    of a national monument. And as it progressed the learned world in general
    applauded the rare erudition, good judgment and moderation, skilful order and
    sense of proportion, grasp of environment and unflagging regularity of industry
    which he brought to the execution of this imperishable Hall of Fame, in which
    each of the model national worthies has his appropriate niche or pedestal. It
    has been truly said that the future ecclesiastical historian of Ireland — whoever
    he may be — must forever feel indebted to the good priest, whose labors for
    half a century have resulted in placing at his disposal an inexhaustible fund
    of well-digested and reliable information, not only concerning the personal
    history of the Irish Saints, but also about the social, political, literary and
    aesthetic life of Ireland during the period of her native independence and
    brilliancy. Archbishop Walsh, in commending the proposal to erect a suitable
    memorial to the deceased scholar, took occasion to state that in the erudite
    volumes of the “Lives of the Irish Saints,” compiled with zeal and
    diligence in the spare moments of a busy missionary life. Canon O’Hanlon had
    “preserved for the instruction and edification of future generations all
    that has been handed down to us of the lives and labors of the recorded saints
    of our Irish Church.”
    As a writer Canon O’Hanlon was habitually
    painstaking and accurate. His information, when possible, was gathered at first
    hand, and the habit of composition enabled him to set it forth with good order
    and proportion. His style is lucid and simple, a good specimen of the historical
    narrative, and his diction always select and dignified. He seizes with ease on
    the salient and distinctive traits of a personality or a situation, and thereby
    relieves the reader of that vagueness and complexity that sometimes diminishes
    the satisfaction afforded by otherwise good histories. His spirit was ever
    aflame with the love of his native religion and his native land. Yet nothing
    gladdened him more through a long life than the consciousness that he was
    working, not alone for those who dwelt within the “four seas of Ireland,”
    but also for that greater Ireland-over-sea, to whose children and whose
    children’s children he would forever speak as a trustworthy herald of
    long-forgotten ages of glorious endeavor that might otherwise, perhaps, perish
    only too easily from the minds and the hearts of Irishmen in the United States
    of America, Canada, Southern Africa, United States of Australia, India and
    other parts of the world. May he rest in peace! 
    Very Rev. Thomas J. Shahan, Introduction and Memoir of the Author in Very Rev. John Canon O’Hanlon, M.R.I.A.  Irish American History of the United States, Volume I, (New York, 1907).


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