OMNIUM SANCTORUM HIBERNIAE

Tag: Feasts

  • A Feast of Saint Philip the Apostle on the Irish Calendars

    W.S.Sparrow, The Apostles in Art (1906).

    Although our Irish calendars are primarily a source for the feast days of our native saints, they also commemorate saints of the universal Church. Some of the feasts recorded in the earliest Irish calendars are interesting, there was for example a commemoration of the feast of the Transfiguration, not at August 6 but at July 26 and there were even fixed dates assigned to moveable feasts, with March 27 being noted as the feast of the Resurrection. There are also commemorations of saints and apostles at dates different to those to which we are now accustomed. Saint Mary Magdalene, for example, had a feast at March 28 and Saint Symeon at October 8. On April 22 we have another of these historical curiosities with a feast of Saint Philip the Apostle being recorded in the two earliest Irish calendars, as Canon O’Hanlon explains below. In his day the feast of Saint Philip was celebrated on May 1 but has since been moved to May 3, the Orthodox commemoration is on November 14:

    Feast of Saint Philip, the Apostle.

    In the Feilire of St. Aengus at the 22nd of April, the commemoration of the Apostle, St. Philip is announced. In the Martyrology of Tallagh, a similar commemoration is found. The festival of this great Apostle is more generally assigned, however, to the 1st of May, when with the other Apostle St. James, the Less, the Church celebrates a feast, in their honour.

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  • God's Fine Disciple: An Irish View of Saint John the Apostle

    “Disciple of the Lord,
    ever-angelic John,
    a goodly, handsome-haired man,
    with bright blue eyes,
    red-cheeked and fair of face,
    with gleaming teeth and dark brows,
    red-lipped, white-throated,
    skilful and dextrous,
    with supple lithe fingers,
    fair-sided, light-footed,
    noble, slender and serene,
    distinguished,
    bright with holiness,
    friend of Christians,
    expeller of the dark devil,
    God’s fine disciple”

    ‘Episodes from the Life of John, the Beloved Disciple’ in Maire Herbert and M. McNamara, trans., Irish Biblical Apocrypha: Selected Texts in Translation (Edinburgh, 1989), 92.

    On December 27 the Irish calendars record what the Martyrology of Gorman describes as ‘The chief feast of John the Apostle’. I have already written about the Irish tradition concerning the apostle John in a post which can be found here. In it you will find some other selections from the Irish apocryphal writings on the Apostle John, writings which draw on common sources but which reflect distinctive Irish embellishments of the text. They are preserved in a 15th-century manuscript, the Liber Flavus Fergusiorum.

    Content Copyright © Omnium Sanctorum Hiberniae 2012-2016. All rights reserved.

  • 'Archangel of the Archangels'

    Now the reason why the Archangel Michael is called the Chief is the following: When God made the world he appointed a determinate chief to all creatures separately; viz., Lucifer for the demons; the sun for the stars; Mount Sion for the mountains; the river Jordan among rivers; the vine among trees; the dove among birds; the lion among beasts; the leviathan among fishes; Christ over mankind. Thus at that time the Archangel Michael was appointed in the chief place and supremacy over the angels of heaven; it is he who announces in the presence of God the intercessions which the saints make with Him; he is the archangel of the archangels; the star above stars; the brilliant fire: it is he who weeps and laments over the souls that are in hell; for when the folk of hell see the countenance of St. Michael the Archangel, they say: “O Michael, thou art our chief; thou art our king; thou labourest ever in our behalf.” Then Michael makes them this reply: “I beseech the Lord for ever for the souls of mankind.”

    Homily XXVII ‘On the Archangel Michael’ in R. Atkinson, ed. and trans., The Passions and Homilies from Leabhar Breac, (Dublin, 1887) 456-457.