OMNIUM SANCTORUM HIBERNIAE

ALL THE SAINTS OF IRELAND

  • The Birth and Baptism of Saint Mogue

    BIRTH AND BAPTISM OF ST. MOGUE.

    Saint Killian, on a day of the days missed his oxen which he pastured at Fenagh in Cavan, and set off in quest of them. He came up with them on the edge of Templeport lake, standing without a stir, and looking steadfastly at the island which lay in the middle of the sheet of water. The ferryman’s house was near the spot, and he asked the wife if anything remarkable had happened in the island during the night. She said that a strange woman had got herself ferried across to it, and had been delivered of a fine man child. Moreover the bedpost which she had grasped in her pains had sent roots into the ground; and from its top had sprung branches in full leaf and flower, and gone through the roof. “Where’s your husband and the boat?” said the saint. “At the farther side of the lake,” said she. “Bring out something, on which you may go across to the island for the infant, that I may baptise him.” “There is nothing on which I could sit or stand but the hearthstone, and sure that would not do.” “Well, try it.” “But sure I couldn’t lift it.” “Make the attempt.” She did so, and the flag was no heavier than a thin dry board. The saint placed it on the water, bade the woman get on it, and spread out her shawl to catch the breeze. She obeyed, and had a delightful sail to the island.

    There she received the child from Eithne its mother, brought it to the saint, and he baptised it by the name of Mogue. The woman then re-conveyed it to the island to its mother, and in time he became a priest, spent some time with St. David in Wales, and during the later years of his life governed the Bishopric of Ferns in Wexford. The miraculous hearthstone afterwards conveyed many a corpse to its place of interment in the island.

    Patrick Kennedy, The Fireside Stories of Ireland, (Dublin, 1870), 127-128.

    Note: For a full account of the life of Saint Mogue see a paper by Bishop P.F. Moran here.

    Content Copyright © Omnium Sanctorum Hiberniae 2012-2018. All rights reserved.

  • Saint Columbanus and The First Christmas Tree

    Henry van Dyke, The First Christmas Tree (1897)

    I was somewhat amused to find the following article from a 1913 Australian newspaper attributing the origins of the Christmas tree to our own Saint Columbanus and his missionary labours among the Germanic peoples of early seventh-century Europe. Now I have certainly heard that the Christmas tree was introduced to these islands from Germany, but in the nineteenth century by Queen Victoria’s husband, Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha. The writer below, however, confidently asserts that ‘careful research’ disproves a Germanic origin for the Christmas tree and that its origin is traced to an Irishman – Saint Columbanus. That may come as news to the English who claim that their own great missionary saint among the Germanic tribes, Saint Boniface, holds the honours. I have to admit that it comes as news to me too,  I doubt very much that any individual can claim to be the originator of the Christmas tree or that its origins can be traced in an unbroken line back to pre-Christian practices. I suspect Saint Columbanus might just say ‘Bah, humbug!’.

    THE CHRISTMAS TREE

    ITS ORIGINS TRACED TO THE IRISH SAINT COLUMBANUS

    Familiar us is the Christmas tree to us, and as dearly-beloved as it is to the people of the civilised world, it is surprising how very few there are who know of its origin, or its introduction into the celebration of the most beautiful and impressive festival of the year, legends there are in plenty, but few of them seem founded upon a basis of fact. Most of them, have been handed down – with the customary “warping from the original story”- from generation to generation. The use of the fir tree in the celebration of Christmas is usually believed to have originated in Germany. Careful research proves this to have been a fallacy. As are so many of the ancient customs and institutions, its origin as a Christmas adjunct is traced to an Irishman.

    It was Saint Columbanus, who engaged in converting the pagans of Germany and Switzerland to Christianity, found them so firmly impressed with the sacredness of trees -especially the fir- that he conceived the idea of endowing them with an illustrative Christian meaning. To these people, the tree was an object of worship from which no amount of reasoning would convert them, and because of this, Saint Columbanus and his fellow missionaries found it an especially favourable symbol for their use.
    As far back as the seventh century the fir tree, because of its evergreen verdure, was known in Christmas [Christian?] writings and pictures as a symbol of eternal life, while a legend, dating from the same period, represents an old man bearing a lighted tree, who entered every home at Christmas time and granted a single wish to each of the inmates.  The evolution of this beneficent old personage with his beautiful fir into our own Santa Claus and his gift-laden tree is easily traced.
    THE CHRISTMAS TREE. (1913, December 24). Northern Star (Lismore, NSW: 1876 – 1954), p. 10. Retrieved December 20, 2017, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article72348547

    Content Copyright © Omnium Sanctorum Hiberniae 2012-2017. All rights reserved.

  • Saint Adamnan of Iona and the Genealogy of Christ

    St Matthew from the Book of Durrow
    J.O. Westwood (1868)

    As we approach the feast of Christmas we will be hearing the genealogy of Christ among the readings for the season. This is an aspect of the scriptures which scholar Thomas O’Loughlin has discussed in his book ‘Journeys on the Edges – The Celtic Tradition’ (part of the Traditions of Christian Spirituality series). In the excerpt below, he examines how the great abbot of Iona and biographer of St Colum Cille, Adomnan, would, unlike people today, have found this type of information compelling and of genuine interest:

    ‘Today when we hear scriptural passages in the liturgy, either about the tribal wars in Kings or any of the descriptions of tombs in which a patriarch was buried – or worse when we hear any of the genealogical passages – we may become exasperated that ‘such stuff’ is greeted as the Word of God. But to Adomnan these were among the parts of the Scriptures that spoke most directly to him and his people. He knew tribal warfare at first hand – it was endemic in his society and he expended much effort in trying to mitigate its suffering. And, just as the scriptural writers assumed that God took sides in this so that ‘his people’ either triumphed or were punished for their sins by defeat, he assumed that God could take sides and manifest his will in these matters. Conscious that he was Irish and a member of a family that could be related to a common ancestor, all the genealogical material in Scripture was inherently interesting to Adomnan. He knew himself as a member of the Cenel Conaill – the ruling family in the northern part of Ireland – which was also the family of Columba and the five other abbots before him, and we can still construct his family tree! His own culture shared many of the values of those who originally compiled that material, and just as biblical writers created genealogies to forge alliances between groups, so Adomnan looked to those lists of ancestors to find his people’s relationships to the rest of humanity. By tracing an ancestry back to the Flood the Irish became part of the whole history of God’s providence, and then it was simply a matter of location that they were among the last peoples to hear the gospel.’

    (Thomas O’Loughlin, Journeys on the Edges (London, 2000), 52-53.

    Content Copyright © Omnium Sanctorum Hiberniae 2012-2017. All rights reserved.