November 6 is the Feast of All the Saints of Ireland and below is a tribute from the ‘Irish Bollandist’ himself, dear old Canon O’Hanlon, whose monumental efforts are such an inspiration to anyone who seeks to know and honour them. This paragraph would have marked the conclusion to his Lives of the Irish Saints, but he died before the December volume could be published. It has, however, been published in an anthology of O’Hanlon’s writings issued in 2005 to commemorate the centenary of his death:

Our enumerated saints are known and commemorated by thousands, as we have shown in the course of the preceding pages; but festivals of many additional ones, whose memories and public invocation had been once preserved, no doubt face passed away from human thought, with the destruction of ancient ecclesiastical records. Their very names have been long since buried in oblivion. Although the virtues and merits of various holy persons have been crowned with distinction among admiring clients; and owing to the religious heroism of their examples and lives, still are there other sanctified Christians, who lived apparently unknown, and who died unhonoured among their fellow mortals, yet, whose names are written in the Book of Life. The Irish saints, in many instances, prayed that multitudes should arise with them from their burial places, where their own remains had been deposited, for the day of the final Resurrection. We cannot hesitate to assert that such prayers will be heard. Therefore, the faithful departed had first reason for desiring to repose in the old grave-yards that have received the relics of their former Saints, and the dust of their deceased ancestors. On the day of General Judgement, may we devoutly hope a vast number, that no man could count, shall be found from ‘the Island of Saints’, with the elect of all nations and tribes, without ceasing to proclaim ‘Benediction and glory, and wisdom and thanksgiving, honour and power, and strength to our God, for ever and ever. Amen.’

P. Ó Machain and Tony Delaney, Like Sun Gone Down: Selections from the Writings of John, Canon O’Hanlon, ( Galmoy Press, 2005), 191-192.

As the feast also marks the anniversary of this blog I would like to thank all those who read and support it. Orate pro nobis omnes Sancti Hiberniae!

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