OMNIUM SANCTORUM HIBERNIAE

Tag: Groups of saints

  • The Daughters of Carpre, August 15

    The earliest of the Irish calendars commemorates a group of holy women known collectively as the daughters of Carpre on August 15. How many sisters this group comprised is not recorded, indeed apart from a notice in The Martyrology of Tallaght appended to the name of the male saint Saran, also commemorated on this day, nothing more is known of them as Canon O’Hanlon explains:
    Feast of Carpre’s Daughters.
    In addition to the Festival and veneration observed at this date, as we read in the published Martyrology of Tallaght, for Firdacrioch et St. Saran, the Daughters of Carpre are likewise commemorated. In that copy, contained in the Book of Leinster, they are also noticed, at the 15th of August. Further light we cannot obtain, regarding these holy women, who are not mentioned at this date, in the Martyrology of Donegal.
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  • Saint Ossin and Fifty Monks of Tengaidh, July 19

     

    At July 19 the Irish calendars commemorate a saint Ossin and fifty monks, but as Canon O’Hanlon explains, we can uncover nothing else about them. The number fifty in this context commonly occurs in relation to monks, it is one of the Christian sacred numbers and also one of the traditional Irish divisions of the psalter, known as ‘the three fifties’.

    ST. OSSIN OR OISSEINE, AND FIFTY MONKS, OF TENGAIDH.

    At the 19th of July, the Martyrology of Tallagh registers a festival to honour Ossin o Thergaidh ocus Coeca Manach imbi. From such an entry, we should be inclined to suppose, that Ossin must have been an Abbot, and that he presided over a community of fifty monks, at a place set down as Thergaidh, but more correctly Tengaidh, as given in the O’Clerys’ Calendar. It is difficult to know where this place had been situated. Nor can we find, among the townland names of Ireland, any near approach to it in spelling or in pronunciation…

    At the 19th of July, in the Martyrology of Donegal, we find recorded Oisseine, and fifty monks, of Tengaidh. In the Irish Calendar, which belonged to the Irish Ordnance Survey, there is an entry of this Oseine, at the xiv. of the August Kalends, which corresponds with the present date. We cannot find any other records, to afford satisfactory information regarding St. Oissene and his fifty monks of Tengaidh.

     

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  • The Daughters of Feradhach, March 23

    The early Irish calendars record one of their interesting but frustratingly obscure groups of saints at March 23, with notices of The Daughters of Feradhach. Canon O’Hanlon tells us that on the calendar of Saint Oengus only one daughter is noted, I wonder if this is reflected in all of the manuscript sources? He also tells us that one of the group may be Saint Kentigerna, this holy lady ended her days in Scotland as a hermitess, her son Saint Fillan is one of Scotland’s well-known saints.

    The Daughter or Daughters of Feradhach.
    In the “Feilire” of St. Aengus, the daughter of Feradhach is commemorated on the 23rd of March; while the Martyrology of Tallagh registers Inghena Feradaigh, or “the daughters of Feradach.” One of these most probably was St. Kentigerna, whose Acts have already appeared, at the 7th of January. A festival, in honour of the Daughter of Feradhach, was celebrated on this day, as we read from the Martyrology of Donegal. The Filiae Feradachi are noticed, merely, at this date, by the Bollandists.


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