OMNIUM SANCTORUM HIBERNIAE

Tag: Groups of saints

  • The Children of Senchán, June 23

    I have always been interested in the collective commemorations of groups of saints found in the Irish calendars. There are two such groups remembered at June 23, the Daughters of Moinan, a post on whom can be read here, and The Children of Senchán. Often these groups incorporate the sacred number seven and today’s actually comprises fourteen individuals.  I wish it were possible to find out more about them and of their Scottish connection. Canon O’Hanlon brings only the the barest details:

    Article III.—The Children of Senchan.
    In the Martyrology of Donegal, a festival intended to honour the children of Senchan is set down, at the 23rd of June. Among the saints of Scotland, we find enumerated the fourteen sons of Senchan or Clann Senchan, for this same date.

    Article IV.—The Children of Senan.
    We read in the Martyrology of Donegal,  that the children of Senan were venerated, at the 23rd of June. We think, however, that this is only another form for a previous entry.

    The same double entry for ‘Senchán’s children and Senán’s’ is found in the Martyrology of Gorman, but their names are not found at all in the earlier martyrologies of Oengus and Tallaght.

    The Calendars edited by the Scottish Bishop Alexander Forbes also list Senchán’s clan:

    SENCHANIUS, the Fourteen Sons of June 23.—These are probably the Clann Senchain who are commemorated in the Mart. Donegal at 23d June. A curious ” Description of the Island of Sanda,” by Father Edmund MacCana, makes mention of the sepulchre of the fourteen sons of Senchanius in that island. It is printed with observations by Dr. Reeves in the Proc. Roy. Irish Acad., vol. viii. p. 132.

    Father McCana was an Irish Franciscan who visited the island of Sanda, which lies a few miles off the Mull of Kintyre, in the early seventeenth century.  The text published by Bishop William Reeves is written in Latin and includes these details of the twice seven sons of Senchán:

    Corpora bis septem, tota veneranda per orbem, 

    Senchanii natum Sanda beata tenet.
     Doctorum divumque parens, Hibernia quondam . 
    Quos genuit sanctos, Scotia terra tegit …..
    The paper is available through the Internet Archive here. If your Latin is as rusty as mine you may find it more useful to consult the reprint in the appendix to a 2010 paper on the island, as it includes a translation, here:
    ‘Fourteen bodies, throughout the world revered,
    Of Senchanius born blessed Sanda holds.
    Ireland, the mother of divine teachers, once
    Begat the saints whom Scotland’s soil covers….
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  • The Church at Killiney

    March 6 is the commemoration of a group of County Dublin holy women, the Daughters of Leinin. Canon O’Hanlon’s account of them can be found here but below is another nineteenth century account, this time of the church that still bears their name at Killiney. It was one of the places visited on a field trip of the 1890s to sites in the greater Dublin area. I have reproduced the accompanying figural illustrations from the Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland. It would be interesting to know what more recent archaeological opinion has to say of the dating of the church and the claimed Syrian parallels for the engraved crosses found at this and other Irish sites.

    KILLINEY.

    The name of this place, originally written Cill-Ingen, or Cill-ingen-leinin, as explained by Dr. Joyce, refers to certain daughters of Lenin, five in number. Though the father is said to have been a person of high position, and even of royal descent, we know nothing further of him, nor of his daughters, except that the latter are recorded to rank amongst the saintly women of Ireland. They appear to have flourished some time in the seventh century of our era. Whether the older portion of the existing ruin belongs to their time, or is of their foundation, it is not necessary here to discuss; but Petrie, in his great work on the “Ancient Architecture of Ireland,” pronounced his opinion that it must be assigned to the sixth or seventh century. At any rate the church belongs to two distinct and widely separated periods, and, in an examination of the ruin as it stands, the student of Irish ecclesiastical architecture will find an interesting and highly instructive study (see fig. 3, p. 409). The original building, except wanting a roof, is still almost entire. It consists of nave and chancel connected by a semicircular arch, truly Roman in character, though the jambs of course incline in Celtic style (see fig. 1, p. 409). The extreme dimensions of the church upon the interior are 85 feet; the nave measures but 12 feet 8 inches, and the chancel 9 feet 6 inches, in breadth.

    In our Journal, Part 2, vol. ii., Fifth Series, Second Quarter, 1892, will be found a description in detail of all the features of this venerable Cill, but a notice of its characteristic doorway may very fittingly be here reproduced: – It occupies a position in the centre of the west gable, is flat-headed, a splendid example of its class, measuring 6 feet 1 inch in height, by 2 feet in breadth, at the top, and 2 feet 4 inches at the base. In one respect this doorway is very remarkable, presenting, as it does, what Bishop Graves would style a “Greek cross,” carved in relief upon the under side of its lintel (see fig. 4, p. 409). Only one other instance of the kind, as far as I know, can be pointed to, although at Fore, in the county Westmeath, Inismurray, county Sligo, and elsewhere, the sacred emblem may be seen sculptured over the opening on the exterior of the wall. A cross of the St. Andrew type occurs on the nether side of the lintel of Our Lady’s Church, Glendalough, a structure, which there is reason to believe was erected by St. Kevin, himself, and in which, according to tradition, he was buried. In  Comte Melchior de Vogue’s exquisitely illustrated work on the “Architecture of Central Syria ” (a copy of which may be seen in our National Library) will be found engravings of a considerable number of crosses which occur carved over the doorways or on the friezes of churches and monastic buildings of that country. These crosses are wonderfully like those which we find similarly placed upon portions of several of our earlier, if not earliest, Irish churches.

    A comparatively modern addition on the northern side of the nave, which appears to have been erected as a kind of aisle, is connected with the ancient church by several openings broken through the north side wall. It will be well to compare its architectural features with those of the original structure. (See fig. 3, p. 409.)

    So much for Killiney Church; but before leaving, visitors should search for the rude and very ancient stone font (see fig. 5, p. 409), which probably still remains, though I could not find it when examing the ruins on a recent occasion.

    Not many years ago, the time-stained teampull or cill under notice was approached from the main road by a rude “boreen” on the left-hand side of which stood a hoary thorn tree, which must have been several centuries old ; beside it was a carn, station, or altar, like those one sometimes meets with in the south or west. Both were considered by ancient people of the neighbourhood as very sacred. Alas! they have totally disappeared before the march of “improvements” as has also the original “Mur” or well-marked earthen rath by which the venerable cemetery was environed. Instead of this we find a hideous stone wall, built in the style usually adopted by the taste and feeling of Poor Law Guardians, who, all over the country, are destroying every trace of the picturesque which remained with our ancient parish churches.

    NOTE ADDED IN THE PRESS.

    Happily the font of Killiney Church has been found, and may be seen within the nave of that venerable cill.

    JRSAI VOL. VI. FIFTH SERIES (VOL. XXVI. CONSECUTIVE SERIES), 1896, 409-411; 418.

  • Saint Muadhnat of Caille, January 6

    Among the saints commemorated on the Irish calendars on January 6 is a County Sligo holy woman, Muadhnat of Caille. As Canon O’Hanlon explains below, she is one of three saintly siblings, the Daughters of Nadfraich:

    St. Muadhnat, Virgin, of Caille, Drumcliffe, County Sligo.

    [Sixth Century.]

    In numerous instances, we find it was customary in the Irish Church to venerate, on the same day, saints of a particular family, community, or place. Nor is it probable, that all such persons could have died on that particular festival. It rather appears to have been a matter of convenience, thus to classify and unite them, for various good reasons. The present holy woman, and the other two virgins, who follow in order, are said to have been the daughters of Naidfraic, and sisters to St. Molaissius, Abbot of Devenish. The Martyrologies of Tallagh and of Marianus O’Gorman, as also a Commentator on St. Aengus, place the festivals of those pious sisters at the 6th of January. They were venerated at a place called Enac-ard. We find that Caille is said to have been the name of St. Muadhnat’s habitation. It seems to have been situated in Cairbre, and near Drum-cliabh. This was probably her natal place. It is now known as Drumcliffe, a parish in the barony of Lower Carbery, and county of Sligo.  It lies near the sea-shore, a little to the north of Sligo, and it is situated within the diocese of Elphin. A portion of its round tower here remains, as a proof of its ancient consequence. St. Columkille is said to have been the first founder of a religious establishment, at this place. From the sixth century, Drumcliffe had its abbatial succession, and the herenachy of the Church became limited in the eleventh century to the family of O’Beollain or O’Boland. To St. Columkille is attributed the poetic sentiment of attachment to this spot :—

    Beloved to my heart also in the West—
    Drumcliffe at Culcinne’s strand.

    Its situation is one of great attractiveness to the tourist, and yet in a district but little frequented.

    The present Protestant church stands on the site of an ancient religious establishment; while many relics of the past are observable throughout the parish. We are told that a religious house had been founded here by a St. Fintan, a disciple of St. Columba, at a place called Cailleavinde. This was probably the Caille, where St. Muadhnat’s Convent stood.

    St. Muadhnat is mentioned in the Martyrology of Donegal, as having had a festival on this day. She lived in the sixth century. In the table appended, she is also called Muaghneat, i.e., Mo-Aignes. In the published Martyrology of Tallagh, we find a notice at the 6th of January, Ingen Natfraich, in Enach-airdd. There is probably a mistake for Ingena, the plural form, and which relates to the festival of Natfraich’s daughters. Likewise, incorrectly joined, there is an entry together with St. Diarmaid, whose feast occurs this same day.