OMNIUM SANCTORUM HIBERNIAE

ALL THE SAINTS OF IRELAND

  • Saint Cathaldus of Taranto, May 10

    May 10 is the feast of an interesting Irish saint whose memory is still cherished today in Italy – Saint Cathaldus of Taranto. I have previously published Father J.F. Hogan’s account of his life which is available here, but below is a brief reminder of the career of Saint Cathaldus taken from the children’s column of an American Catholic magazine:

    Our Future Men and Women.

    Irish Saints in Italy.

    Uncle Jack wonders if his Future Men and Women know, as well as they ought to, that the traces of Irish saints are found in many parts of the European continent. In Italy, particularly from the foot of the Appenines down to the island of Sicily, the footprints of the saints of Ireland are clear to all. St. Cataldo, for instance, who founded the see of Taranto, and whose feast is celebrated on May 10-his name does not sound like an Irish name, yet he was an Irish saint, Cataldo or Cataldus being the Latin form of Cahal which was the saint’s name in Ireland. P. L. Connellan, writing from Italy, says: In Taranto, on the tenth of May, the feast of this Irish saint is held with great ceremony. The people come in from the surrounding country in their holiday attire, while the fishermen are conspicuous in the crowds. They regard him as the great Sailor-Bishop, whom their ancestors asked, as the popular tradition has it, for abundance in their fisheries, and since that time the mor piccolo, or little sea, has been a source of life to them. And they say that the saint dropped a ring into the sea, and no one could find it again, but in the place where it fell the salt water became fresh and clear. And whoever goes in a boat even now out into the Mar Grande, or larger gulf, will find a circle of fresh water over a yard in diameter, of a clear azure color, and everyone may drink of it and quench his thirst. The Tarentines call this circle of fresh water the Ring of San Cataldo. In Supino, on the way to Naples, a tiny town stuck on the side of the mountain, the same Irish saint is held in veneration by the people. Hia name is also given to a city on the Adriatic coast on the heel of the bootshaped peninsula of Italy. At Adassa, outside of Sorrento, you meet with a chapel, richly adorned, dedicated under his name. One of the most exquisite twelfth century Romanesque churches in Palermo—now abandoned and maintained as a national monument—also bears his name. So that around the South of Italy his memory is prominent, not only in the places already mentioned, but in so many other towns, that the list of them alone would fill many pages. He is perhaps even more known in this district than his fellow-countryman, San Frediano, is in Lucca and the many towns which surround that Tuscan city.

    The Sacred Heart Review, Number 1, 22 June 1912 
    Content Copyright © Omnium Sanctorum Hiberniae 2012-2016. All rights reserved.

  • How Saint Odhrán saved Saint Patrick's Life

    February 19 is the feast of Saint Odhrán (Odran, Odhran, Oran) whom tradition records as the faithful chariot driver to Saint Patrick. The vignette below recounts how he was faithful to his saintly master until the end:

    ST. PATRICK, APOSTLE OF IRELAND.— HOW ST ODRAN SAVED THE SAINT’S LIFE.

    St. Patrick, the Apostle of Ireland, was taken captive in his youth by King Niall, in one of his raids into Gaul. He served seven years in bondage as a swineherd, with Milcho, a chief who lived in the County Antrim. Having escaped to Gaul, he had a vision in which he heard the voice of the Irish crying out: “We entreat thee, holy youth, to come and walk still among us”. Patrick was deeply affected by this vision, and he was subsequently commissioned, to his great joy, by Pope Celestine, to bear the faith of Christ to the pagan Irish. His mission was miraculously successful. He won the entire nation to the doctrines of Christ without a drop of blood having been shed through persecution, a fact unexampled in the history of Christianity.

    But there was one martyr during his mission. A certain idolater named Failge, a great adversary of Christ, resolved to kill the saint, who had destroyed the idols to which he was bound. Odran, Patrick’s driver or charioteer, having discovered the danger, requested his master to change places with him in the chariot, pretending that he was greatly fatigued. The saint, always happy to exercise his humility, gladly acquiesced. Ere long they arrived at the spot where the assassin lay in ambush, and as they were passing, the wretch rushed forward, and mistaking the driver for the servant, pierced Odran with a spear. The saint now understood Odran’s motive, and his grief was great over his pious and devoted disciple. The vengeance of God fell on the murderer, for he died on the same day. St. Odran is ”the only Irish martyr on record that suffered in Ireland by the hands of an Irishman.”

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

  • 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.