OMNIUM SANCTORUM HIBERNIAE

ALL THE SAINTS OF IRELAND

  • Saint Molaisse of Kilmolash, January 17

    January 17th is the feast of Saint Molaisse of Kilmolash, County Waterford. Like the other male saints with whom he shares his feast day, Ultán, Earnán and Clairnech, his name is also one shared by a number of saints. There are at least forty other saints called Molaisse found on the twelfth-century List of Homonymous Saints and thus trying to distinguish one from another is not an easy task. The most well-known bearers of this name are the patrons of Leighlin and Devenish and it is likely that some of the other saints Molaisse are doubles of this better-known duo. John O’Donovan, who was in the district of Kilmolash in June 1841 as part of his work for the Ordnance Survey, said of the parish ‘[Its name] is in Irish Cill Molaise, which signifies the church of St Molash, the celebrated saint of Devenish on Lough Erne’. It appears, therefore, that he believed Molaisse of Kilmolash to be the same person as Molaisse of Devenish. O’Donovan also recorded of the holy well that ‘Stations are still performed here but on no particular day, St Molaise’s being now forgotten’ (OS Letters, Waterford, p.133, 136).

    Since not much can be confidently stated, Canon O’Hanlon takes refuge in poetry in the entry for Saint Molaisse in Volume I of his Lives of the Irish Saints:

    Article VI. St. Molaisse, of Cill-Molaisi, now Kilmolash, County of Waterford.

    A festival in honor of Molaisse, of Cill-Molaisse, is entered in the Martyrology of Tallagh, at the 17th of January. From the following notice, this place should be sought for in the Decies of Munster; for on this day, Molaisi, of Cill-Molaisi, in Deisi-Mumhan, is recorded in the Martyrology of Donegal. We find the exact place, in the present denomination of Kilmolash parish, partly in the barony of Decies-within-Drum, but chiefly in that of Decies-without-Drum, in the county of Waterford. The ruins of religious edifices may yet be seen within this parish, and on a townland bearing a like name. Although the time when this present saint flourished has escaped detection, yet of his place the truant imagination depicts in the times of old

    ” various goodly-visaged men and youths resorting there,
    Some by the flood-side lonely walked; and other some were seen
    Who rapt apart in silent thought paced each his several green;
    And stretched in dell and dark ravine, were some that lay supine,
    And some in posture prone that lay, and conn’d the written line.”

    [“Congal” by Sir Samuel Ferguson, Book i, lines 18-22.]

    Rev. John O’Hanlon, Lives of the Irish Saints, Volume I (Dublin, 1875?), p.299.

    Diocese historian, Canon Patrick Power, mentioned a holy well less than a mile from Kilmolash but attributed its dedication to Saint Colum Cille, whilst noting that a well which once adjoined the church was now lost:

    Proceeding along the bank of the Finisk in a south-easterly direction for about a mile, we come to Kilmolash Bridge, adjoining which stand the ruins of a very ancient church, known as Kilmolash Church. It stands in the centre of an enclosed graveyard, on a higher level than the road, which passes within a few yards of it, and its evident antiquity adds considerably to the interest of the locality, which is extremely picturesque. The townland is situated in the electoral division of Whitechurch, and it is also a parish in the Dungarvan Union. I have been informed by several old people of the place that a holy well exists in a field adjoining the church, but that it was covered in many years ago, and now no trace of it can be found.

    It is stated by the Bollandists that the Danes plundered Kilmolash.
    As it is recorded that in the years 912, 913, and 915 Dungarvan and Lismore were plundered by these marauders, in fact that the greatest part of Munster was wasted by them and the booty taken to Waterford, in all probability Kilmolash suffered from them on their march from Dungarvan to Lismore.

    About half-a-mile distant from Kilmolash Church may be seen the Holy Well of St. Columbkille. It is situated in Curraghroche Wood, in a very secluded spot, and surrounded by fine specimens of oak trees. The people of the district hold this well in great veneration, and sick and afflicted people are often brought there in the pious belief that the great saintwill restore them to health. When and under what circumstances St. Columbkille visited this locality I have no record to show, but perhaps some of the many readers of the Journal may be able to point out.

    Rev. P. Power, ‘Ancient Ruined Churches of Co. Waterford’, Journal of the Waterford & South-East of Ireland Archaeological Society, (1894-95), Volume 1, 155-56.

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  • Saint Earnán of Tigh-Earnain, January 17

    Along with the entry for Saint Ultán of Cúl Corra on the Irish calendars at January 17 we find Saint Earnán (Earnain, Eirnín) of Tigh-Earnain, another obscure saint. There are 13 saints of this name on the twelfth-century List of Homonymous Saints, Father Colgan in the seventeenth century knew of 18 and there are 25 listed by Canon O’Hanlon from the martyrologies. In his Dictionary of Irish Saints  Padraig Ó Riain has observed that the majority of saints who bear this name have some sort of relationship to Saint Colum Cille. Canon O’Hanlon, in Volume I of The Lives of the Irish Saints, ends his account of Saint Earnán of Tigh-Earnain by noting Father Colgan’s suggestion that he may have been a disciple of Iona’s founder. There are indeed a number of holy men called Earnán found in the hagiography of Saint Colum Cille, including one said to be his uncle, but none specifically identified with the Saint Earnán of Tigh-Earnain, commemorated on January 17.  Canon O’Hanlon was also confused by a reference to the name of Hernind (Herninn) in the Martyrology of Tallaght, but its later editors solved the ‘Ernain and Hernind’ conundrum by noting:

     ‘Ernán from Tech Ernáin’ – Herninn is evidently a misreading of Ernain written above the line in the exemplar, and here inserted out of place’.

    (R.I. Best and H.J.Lawlor, eds, The Martyrology of Tallaght from the Book of Leinster and MS. 5100-4 in the Royal Library, Brussels, (London, 1931), 9).

    So, there never was a Saint Herninn sharing the honours with Saint Earnán. Although Canon O’Hanlon casts around for possible locations for Tigh-Ernain, overall this saint’s precise identity and location remain problematic. Below is the account of Saint Earnán of Tigh-Earnain taken from the January volume of The Lives of the Irish Saints:

    Article III. St. Ernain, of Tigh-Ernain.

    It is mentioned in the Martyrology of Tallagh that veneration was given to Ernain and Hernind of Tigh -Ulltain follows on the17th of January. Whether one or both of those saints be set down, to represent the following holy person is uncertain. In the Martyrology of Donegal an Ernain, of Tigh-Ernain, is recorded as having a festival on this day. Tigh may have been only a contraction for Tigh-Ernain.There is a Tigh-Airindan, i.e., ‘the house of Airindan or Farannan’. This place is so called at the present day; yet it has sometimes been Anglicised Tifarnan, or more usually Tyfarnham. It is the name of a townland, and of a parish, in the barony of Corkaree, and in the county of Westmeath. Perhaps this local denomination might be equivalent to Tigh-Ernain. But the Rev. A. Cogan has identified this saint’s place with the present Teghernain, and he has it in the county of Meath. With some doubt of identity expressed, Colgan states this Ernan, whom he calls Mernoc, likewise, may have been one of St. Columkille’s disciples.

    Rev. John O’Hanlon, Lives of the Irish Saints, Volume I, (Dublin, 1875?), p.297.

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  • Saint Ultán of Cúl Corra, January 17


    January 17 is the feast of Saint Ultán of Cúl Corra, one of the many Irish saints about whom not much information has survived. There are at least half a dozen saints of this name found on the twelfth-century List of Homonymous Saints, seventeenth-century hagiologist, Father John Colgan, said he knew of twenty. We have both a place and a patronymic assoicated with this particular Saint     Ultán. The Martyrology of Donegal records ‘ULTAN, son of Etechdach of Cuilcorra’ as its lead entry for the saints of the day. Canon O’Hanlon, as we shall see below, wondered if this saint may have been associated with the old church of Coolkerry in his native County Laois, but Father Colgan seems to have thought he belonged in Kera in County Mayo. In 2017 modern scholar Dr Elva Johnston posted on her social media account that ‘Lough Derravarragh is more often associated with the legend of the Children of Lir than with the local saint, Ultán of Cúl Corra’, which would place the saint in County Westmeath. Nothing more seems to have been recorded of Saint Ultán of Cúl Corra or of the period in which he flourished. Canon O’Hanlon in Volume I of his Lives of the Irish Saints mentions a reference to the Life of Saint Declan, but the Ultán who appears there as a close disciple of Declan of Ardmore is not identified as Saint Ultán of Cúl Corra:

    Article II. St. Ultan, Son of Etechdach of Cuilcorra. 
     
    Owing to her admirable constitution, all in the Church is strong, because in her everything is divine and everything is in unity. As each part is divine, the bond also is divine, and the connection of parts is such, that each part acts with the force of a whole. The very life of one among her saints reveals this happy unison and strength. We read in the Martyrology of Donegal on this day about Ultan, a son to Etechdach of Cuilcorra. For further particulars regarding this saint, we are referred to the life of St. Declan, by a commentator, in the table, which has been placed after the text of this Martyrology. In the published Martyrology of Tallagh this saint’s name is omitted, or wrongly inserted. Marianus O’Gorman informs us, likewise, that St. Ultan, the son of Etectac, was venerated in Cuilchorra, at this date. This church is placed in that part of Connaught, known as Kera, according to Colgan, and there too St. Patrick is said to have erected a church. However we cannot at all be certain that such was the exact place, with which St. Ultan’s religious ministrations had been connected. 
     
    There is an old church of Coolkerry, in a parish of that name, within the barony of Clarmallagh and in the Queen’s County. Measured from the interior, it is about 48 feet in length, by 20 in breadth, while the walls are nearly four feet in thickness. However, only an old gable, and quite a featureless one, stands in an imperfect shape, as several stones have been removed from its top and sides. Its limestone walls are covered with yellow lichens. Grass-covered side walls, with one end wall, or faint traces of it, over the foundations are visible. This church stands on a mound, near the road bridge, which crosses the River Erkina a considerable stream flowing beneath it. Several moss and lichen-covered rude head-stones are in the graveyard, which has long been used for purposes of burial. In an adjoining rich pasture field, and quite near the old church, there are very curious earth-mounds; and here the inhabitants say were and are the foundations of ancient religious erections. What is denominated a Monument Bush, and of large growth, may be seen at the entrance from the road to the graveyard, which is unenclosed. The bush was a fine flowering hawthorn, at a time when the writer visited this spot. Unbaptized infants were interred beneath the bush, and a pile of loose stones surrounded its gnarled trunk. It may be worthy of investigation, to find if this place could have been identical with the Cuilcorra and its St. Ultan here recorded.

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