OMNIUM SANCTORUM HIBERNIAE

ALL THE SAINTS OF IRELAND

  • The King made Obeisance to his Apostles on Thursday

    The King through his pure mind
    made obeisance to his apostles on Thursday,
    in bright glory,
    before the great Pasch of the resurrection.
    Saltair na Rann

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  • Spy Wednesday – Woe to Judas Iscariot

    108. Woe to Judas Iscariot whose intention is to betray the Lord.
    Selling Christ! – an evil bargain this for the thirty silver pieces.
    109.
    Evil were the propensities of that man – he had striven after an evil
    judgment; even a strong enduring board of red gold were a poor price for
    Christ, son of God.
    110. What he got for the act of his evil
    tongue was unlucky; no good came of the silver that he had contracted
    for against the fair body of Christ.
    111. The throat upon which
    came the treachery – soon did it suffer the noose; the belly with
    swellings about him – all its intestines burst forth.
    112. It
    would have been better for him had he diligently made a pious and severe
    repentance; it would not have been a matter for wonder if, after his
    betrayal, powerful Christ had forgiven.
    113. He both despaired and
    died; he did not approach the forgiving one. Black hosts of devils
    brought him to Hell to harsh Satan.

    James Carney,
    ed. and trans., The Poems of Blathmac Son of Cú Brettan, together with
    the Irish Gospel of Thomas and a Poem on the Virgin Mary (London 1964).

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  • An Irish Quatrain to be Sung while Washing the Hands

    Medieval medicine relied much on prayers and charms which straddle the dividing line between religion and magic. This Irish quatrain, translated by the great German Celticist Kuno Meyer, is addressed to Christ and comes with its own rubrics, instructing the user to recite it in water while washing the hands. Might it thus may be more efficacious in our present trials than singing Happy Birthday?

    (Brussels MS. 5100-4)

     
    Macan Máire ingeine
dom snádhsdh ar gach ngalar
ar in tessaigh bhíos hi ccind
ar gach ngábudh i ttalamh
 
A gabhail ind-uisce occ indmat do lámh ⁊ dobeiri mót' aigidh 
    ⁊ mót' mhullach ⁊ not-aincenn ar cech n-olc.

    Dear son of Mary the maid,
    Save me from every trouble
    From the heat that is in the head,
    From every danger on earth.

    [To
    be sung in water when washing thy hands; put them about thy face and
    about thy crown, and it will save thee from every evil.]

    Kuno Meyer, ed, and trans. Irish Quatrains, in Zeitschrift für celtische Philologie 1 (1897), 456.

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