OMNIUM SANCTORUM HIBERNIAE

Tag: Female Saints

  • The Seven Daughters of Fergus, May 24

    Canon O’Hanlon has as his fifth article for May 24 an account of a group of Irish holy women denominated by their patronymic, The Seven Daughters of Fergus. In the Martyrology of Tallaght the daughters are associated with the locality of Inis Cealtra, an island monastery in the west of Ireland which produced a couple of better-known saints, its founder Saint Caimin and the scholarly Saint Coelan, a reputed biographer of Saint Brigid. It is interesting to note that the Daughters of Fergus may have enjoyed a cultus in Scotland as the Seven Maidens of Inverey. Canon O’Hanlon’s source, the work on the Scottish calendars by Bishop Forbes, doesn’t seem conclusive and left me wondering if the Chapel of Inverey itself had an independent commemoration of the Seven Maidens at May 24, or if Forbes had simply tried to read across the feast from the Martyrology of Tallaght in an attempt to find an identification for these Scottish saints. His account says:

    SEVEN MAIDENS.  May 24. – In Braemar is the chapel of the Seven Maidens, at Inverey, where the family of Farquharson bury their dead. – (V.D.A. p. 641.)
    In the Martyrology of Tallaght, at this day, we have “Secht ningena Fergusa in Inis Cealtra.” In that of Donegal, “The seven daughters of Fergus of Tigh-ingen-Ferghusa”.

    Alexander Penrose Forbes, D.C.L. Bishop of Brechin, Kalendars of Scottish Saints, (1872), 447. 

    His source, V.D.A., View of the Diocese of Aberdeen , confirms only the dedication of the Braemar chapel to the Seven Maidens and its use as a family burying site by the Farquharson family.  The writer of a paper on the Traces of the Cultus of the Nine Maidens in Scotland, is not entirely convinced of the identification of the Inverey chapel with the Irish maidens commemorated on May 24, and states on page 260 that there is ‘some doubt’ surrounding this claim by Bishop Forbes.

    Bishop Forbes was not the only commentator who attempted to identify these holy women, the 17th-century hagiologist, Father John Colgan, sought to equate them with a group of seven nuns who assisted at the sixth-century Synod of Drum Ceatt. I’m not sure though that his evidence is any more substantial, but at least it is interesting to note that a group of female monastics were recorded as participants at this Synod.

    So, we seem to be faced with a number of conflicting theories about the identity of the Seven Daughters of Fergus:

    1. They are, as the Martyrology of Tallaght claims, associated with the locality of Inis Cealtra, the holy island of County Clare.  I was under the impression though that this was a male foundation.

    2. They are, as Colgan claims, associated with a location called Teach na ninghean, literally ‘the house of the daughters’ and are perhaps to be identified with the seven nuns of Tir-na-Fiachra Aine who took part in the Synod of Drum Ceatt.

    3. They are, as Bishop Forbes claims, the Seven Maidens to whom a chapel in Inverey, Scotland, is dedicated.  This theory would stand up better if the Scottish calendars recorded a feast day for these Seven Maidens on May 24th independently from the Irish. This does not, however, seem to be the case.

    Canon O’Hanlon records:

    The Seven Daughters of Ferghus, of Tigninghin Ferghusa, or of Inis-Cealtra, County of Galway.

    The Martyrology of Tallagh records Secht ningena Fergusa in Inis Cealtra, at the 24th of May. This is now known as Inis-crealtra, an island and parish in the counties of Clare and Galway. The Bollandists also record their festival, for this day. But Colgan seems to connect them with Teach na ninghean, in Connaught. He says, they were perhaps those seven nuns of Tir-na-Fiachra Aine, who assisted at the great Synod in Dromcheat, in the year 580. The extent of Ui Fiachrach Aidhne is shown on the Irish Maps, prefixed to the “Tribes and Customs of Hy-Many, commonly called O’Kelly’s Country “. A festival in honour of the Seven Daughters of Fergus, of Tigh-inghen-Ferghusa, was celebrated on this day, as we read in the Martyrology of Donegal. Under the title of the Seven Maidens, they seem to have been venerated, likewise, in Scotland.

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  • Saint Brigid, Daughter of Diomman, May 21

    May 21 sees the commemoration of a Saint Brigid, described as the daughter of Diomman. Alas, it is not possible to discover any further details of her life or of when and where she flourished, as Canon O’Hanlon explains:

    St. Brigid, daughter of Dima, or Diomman.

    At the 21st of May, the Martyrology of Tallagh has a Brighit inghen Dimmain. The Martyrologies of Marianus O’Gorman and of Charles Maguire place her festival at this date. The Bollandists also notice Brigid, daughter of Dimanus, at the 21st of May. We have not been able to discover any documentary evidence, which might tend to throw light on that locality, with which she had been formerly connected, or where, after death, she had been specially commemorated. On this day, Brighit, daughter of Diomman, had veneration given her, as we read, likewise, in the Martyrology of Donegal.

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  • Saint Richella, May 19

    On May 19, one of the earliest surviving Irish calendars, the Martyrology of Tallaght, records the name of an Irish female saint, Ríceall, latinized as Richella. Canon O’Hanlon discusses three saints of this name, one of whom tradition says was a sister to Saint Patrick. It proves impossible, however, for him to definitively identify the saint Richella commemorated on this day. More recently, Pádraig Ó Riain in his 2011 Dictionary of Irish Saints, confirms that there are three holy ladies of similar name, whose root is the word rí, king, all of whom are difficult to disentangle. Canon O’Hanlon in his entry for the saint below lays out the evidence from the seventeeenth-century hagiologist, Father John Colgan:

    ST. RICHELLA, VIRGIN.

    In the Martyrology of Tallagh published and unpublished —we find this saint’s festival set down, on the 19th of May. Marianus O’Gorman and Charles Maguire mention this holy virgin, likewise, in their Calendars, and at the same date. According to the accounts of ancient writers, St. Patrick had a sister bearing the name. But, as there were two other Richellas, in our list of Irish Saints, it may be difficult to determine the virgin, whose festival is this day commemorated. One of these was St. Richelia, the daughter of Attractus, and of King Leagaire’s race. Her descent will be found, in the “Menelogium Genealogicum,” cap. 3. The other was Richella, or, according to others, Richenna, called also Reynach, or Regnacia. She was daughter to Fintan, and sister to St. Finnian of Clonard, as may be seen in a Life of the latter, published by Colgan. Her Life will be found, at the 18th of December.

    There was a certain church or monastic establishment, in the territory of Lugne, within the Connaught province, and there a St. Richella is said to have lived. Kill-Richille, in the diocese of Clonfert, was probably connected with the residence of a saint bearing this name; yet, it is not easy to determine that particular Richella—if indeed she was one among the three mentioned—who had been venerated in either of those places. In a list of St. Patrick’s five sisters, the name Cinnenus is substituted for Richella, by Ussher; and Colgan found, likewise, in an old fragmentary vellum Life of St. Patrick, the name of a fifth sister to the Irish Apostle, as Cinnenus, and not Richella. But, as the form of the name Cinnenus is not applicable to a female, Colgan thinks we ought rather read, Cinne noem, signifying St. Cinna. Now, it would seem, that Richinne has the signification regia Cinne; wherefore, Colgan argues, it is possible, the doubtful word may be properly resolved into Richinne or Richella. The same researchful hagiologist tells us, he could not discover, whether or not Richella became a mother. It might come within the range of possibility, also, that Barbanus, or Banbanus, of Mag-slecht, and a kinsman of St. Patrick, had been her son; although, Colgan did not know, whether this relationship had been through a brother or sister, or in what collateral line. This, however, is only a very groundless conjecture; and, also, any attempt to represent our saint as a sister to the illustrious St. Patrick must prove equally futile. In the Irish Tripartite Life of St. Patrick, it may be observed, the saint left by him, over the church at Domhnach-Maighe-Slecht, is called Mabran Barbarus. The Bollandists notice the feast of Richella, an Irish virgin, at the 19th of May. Little is known, however, regarding her place in our ecclesiastical history.

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