OMNIUM SANCTORUM HIBERNIAE

Tag: Hagiologists

  • An Irishman and Scholar

    Below is an article which was first published in 2009 at my previous site and which I originally sourced here. In it Father Pat Conlon, OFM, pays tribute to another Irish Franciscan, the great seventeenth-century hagiologist, Father John Colgan. The article provides a very useful introduction to the work of Father Colgan and the other Irish priests whose work preserved so many of the lives and traditions of the Irish saints:


    FR PAT CONLAN, OFM, honours Fr John Colgan the Franciscan who died 350 years ago this year.

    It was just after Easter 1652. Fr John Colgan took a deep breath before opening the letter. He recognised the seal on the back as that of Fr Pedro Manero, Franciscan Minister General. The Irish friar took a moment to scan the Latin text. Then he smiled as he realised that it was one more load lifted from his back. It had started two years back when the Irish Provincial and his Definitory had appointed Fr John as Commissary of the Irish Franciscan colleges in Leuven, Prague and Wielun. He was 58 years old and in poor health. Also his Guardian in Leuven, Fr Bonaventure Meehan, was opposed to the appointment. Fr John had written saying that there was no way that he could travel from Flanders to Poland and the far end of the Empire. At last the Minister General had acknowledged reality and withdrew the appointment. Fr John returned to his desk, covered with neatly written sheets of paper. He was resolved to continue his research on the Saints of Ireland. Nearly twenty years before, on 8th November 1635, Fr Hugh Ward had died in the college. Fr John had just returned from his years as a lecturer in several Franciscan colleges of the German Province of Cologne.

    Another Fr Hugh, Hugh MacCaughwell, had received John into the Franciscans at Leuven on 26th April 1620. It has taken him twenty-two years to find his way into following Saint Francis. Born at Pierstown near Carndonagh in the heart of Inishowen, he had grown up during a time of war. The area had not been disturbed when O’Donnell and O’Neill rose against the English. He could recall the anxiety among the locals when the English garrisoned Derry in 1600. That same garrison had played their part in the devastation of Inishowen in 1608 when Sir Caher O’Doherty had rebelled against English rule. John was then in his teens. The events had turned his mind towards study on the continent. He had studied for the priesthood, been ordained in 1618 and qualified as a lecturer before finally deciding to become a Franciscan. He had lectured at Saint Anthony’s College, Leuven, before continuing his career in the colleges in the Rhineland.

    Fr Hugh MacCaughwell had introduced Fr John to the great Franciscan theologian, John Duns Scotus, and persuaded him to base his lectures on the teachings of Scotus. Fr Hugh had been called to Rome in 1623 and died there only three months after his consecration as Archbishop of Armagh in 1626. Fr John had kept in contact with Leuven and knew that Fr Hugh Ward had taken over. He and John were from Donegal, born only a year apart and found their way to Saint Anthony’s College after ordination elsewhere. Both shared the vision, developing in the College, of showing the intellectuals that Ireland deserved its place among the cultures and traditions of Europe. One way of doing this was by putting together a proper history of Ireland, both civil and ecclesiastical. A group of Jesuits were working in Antwerp on the lives of saints. Led by Jean Bolland, they had a system of editing older lives and publishing them in Latin according to the chronology found in the liturgical calendar of the Church.

    Scholarship in a Time of War

    Fr Hugh Ward gathered a team in Leuven and encouraged friars to check libraries for texts during their travels. He sent Br Mícheál Ó Cléirigh back to Ireland in search of manuscripts. Slowly the material accumulated at Saint Anthony’s. Ward was busy as Guardian of the college in 1626-29 and as a lecturer. He suffered from ill health from 1630 and made a special effort to give a eulogy on the great friend of the friars, Isabella, Princess of the Belgians, on 1st December 1633. Fr John’s return from Germany filled the slot made vacant by the sick lecturer. The Dutch took the opportunity of the death of Isabella to strike for complete independence from Spain. Both Dutch and French armies invaded Flanders, captured Tienen and laid siege to Leuven on 24th June 1635. The Irish Regiment of Preston was one of the four defending the town and were mainly responsible for the successful defence of the town. The friars were chaplains to the regiment and shared in the honours given to their countrymen. The main Spanish army raised the siege on 3rd July. The stress of the siege did nothing for the health of Fr Hugh Ward and he died on 8th November 1635. The Guardian, Fr Louis Dillon, invited Fr John to take charge of the project to publish the lives of the Irish saints.

    Fr John was in regular contact with Jean Bolland in Antwerp and adopted the same plan — publish Latin editions of lives of the saints as found in old manuscripts in the order of the liturgical calendar. He got a worthy assistant, Fr Brendan O’Connor, who went in 1638 to research libraries in France, Italy, England and Ireland. Br Mícheál Ó Cléirigh had returned from Ireland in 1637 with more manuscripts and the text of his proposed history of Ireland or the Annals of the Kingdom of Ireland. Fr John continued his work on the Irish saints. At the same time he sought funding for fresh publications by the team at Saint Anthony’s. Br Mícheál died in 1643 and was buried in the cloister of the college. Fr John mediated on his achievements and in 1645 came up with the title of the Annals of the Four Masters for Br Mícheál’s major work.

    Books Published

    The manuscripts were piling up in Leuven but funds for publication were drying up. War in Europe, civil war in England and the insurrection in Ireland made benefactors think twice about spending. Fr John put his name to a solemn appeal by the Guardian, Vicar and lecturers for funds to print the lives of the Irish saints “to the great good and glory of our Church and Catholic countrymen.” Hugh O’Reilly, Archbishop of Armagh, wrote from Kilkenny in December 1642 authorising the friars to use part of the funds belonging to Armagh and lodged in Saint Anthony’s in Leuven to publish some of the books prepared by Fr John. Work pushed ahead and the first volume containing the lives of the Irish saints for January, February and March (Acta Sanctorum Hiberniae) was published in Leuven in 1645. The Bollandists had published the first volume of their Acta Sanctorum covering the month of January in 1643. The Franciscan Archbishop of Dublin, Thomas Fleming, provided the means to publish the next volume, Triadis thaumaturgae (the three miracle workers, Patrick, Brigid and Columba), in Leuven 1647. The third volume containing the lives of the Irish saints for April, May and June was ready for the printer in 1649. The war situation was now critical and the work remained unpublished. Even the Bollandists were having financial problems. The second volume of their Acta Sanctorum with the lives for February did not appear until 1658.

    The arrival of Cromwell in Ireland and the resulting persecution brought a flood of friars seeking refuge in Leuven. Even the grants to keep the college going were insufficient for the larger community. Despite his health and the lack of funds Fr John struggled on. He returned to his original interest in Scotus. A stupid English Franciscan, Angelus Mason, had claimed that Scotus was English. Our Irish friar published a small volume on the fatherland, life, theology and value of Scotus (Tractatus de Joannis Scoti Doctoris Subtilis …) in Antwerp in 1655. It made it clear that the Subtle Doctor, to give him his medieval title, was Irish. We now know that he was born in Scotland.

    Unfinished Work

    Fr John died in Saint Anthony’s College on 15th January 1658, just three hundred and fifty years ago. Fr Thomas Sheerin took responsibility for publications in the college. The late Fr John’s cabinets were loaded with material ready for the printer. In addition to his work on the Irish saints and that of the Four Masters on Irish history, Fr John had begun to write on the Irish in other parts of Europe. One volume covered the general mission of the Irish outside of Ireland with a list of saints (852 pages of manuscript). The next dealt with England, Brittany, the rest of France and Belgium (1088 pages). Another covered Lotharingia, Burgundy, Germany on both banks of the Rhine and Italy (920 pages). But time had moved on. Despite the best efforts of Fr Thomas, the tremendous work of Fr John Colgan remained unpublished until the Irish resurgence of the twentieth century.


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

  • The Legends of the Saints

    I have finally got a chance to read the classic textbook on the hagiographer’s art – The Legends of the Saints – in the reissued edition of the Four Courts Press. Below is their description of this seminal work:
    The Legends of the Saints
    Hippolyte Delehaye; with a new introduction by Thomas O’Loughlin
    Legends of the saints, facts about the saints. All too often these two are thought to be, or presented as being, the same thing. From the earliest times the stories of the saints have been a mixture of fact, pious fabrication and myth. Dr Delehaye showed how to strip off this facade with the tools of the impartial and stringently honest historian. Not that he underestimated the power and value of legend: ‘There is no question of our waging war on legends. It would be a senseless thing to do … the work of legend can be numbered amongst the great unconscious natural forces … As such one cannot ignore it. Only do not mistake it for history.’ Delehaye’s work was first published in 1905, when it was acclaimed as a classic study. But besides being a true work of scholarship, it is a book full of wit and humanity and a delight to read for sheer enjoyment.
    For almost a century Delehaye’s Les Légendes Hagiographiques has been the standard introductory textbook for anyone doing work which used Saints’ Lives. However, for more than thirty years it has been out of print. This is a reprint of the 1962 English edition, with a new introduction and bibliography of recent materials by Dr T. O’Loughlin (University of Wales, Lampeter).
    In his introduction O’Loughlin isolates four points which made this book revolutionary in its day, something that now Father Delehaye’s methodology has become standard we may tend to forget:
    First, that hagiography constitutes a distinct literary genre with its own rules and dynamics, and that within this category of texts there were specific textual units that repeatedly appear. In short, the vita is a narrative game where certain commonplaces are to be expected and which vary only in details between one life and another….
    A second notion central to The Legends is that whatever a vita tells us, it tells us more about the time of its composition – its theology, spirituality, politics – than of the time of the saint, and more about the mind of the hagiographer than of the mind of the saint. Again this seems so obvious as to be not worth stating… but at the time it was a revolutionary idea that took many years to really sink in. For example, it was not until 1962 that anyone in Ireland was prepared to apply this maxim of research to the legends of St Patrick. When it was applied it rendered a century of argument, all trying to link or unlink bits of the legends to the fifth-century Roman bishop, obsolete overnight…
    A third concept Delehaye repeatedly brought before the student was to ask why and for what reason did the hagiographer take up his pen? This notion of authorial intent is central to the historian working with texts. We understand a text to the extent that we understand the questions it answers and the points its author wants to make… we should not forget that this approach is recent and these are questions that troubled few before Delahaye’s time.
    Lastly, Delehaye repeatedly pointed out that the legend develops through the continuity of cultus. It is the repetition of story, the celebration of liturgy, and the pattern around tombs and other shrines that leads to the development of the hagiographical myth. And this cultic recollection is one of the most powerful forces in the development of the religious world that produces vitae with all their wonders.
    That is not to say, of course, that Delehaye’s work does not show its own age. O’Loughlin also points out that:
    the work was conceived in the age of ‘historical laws’… So Delahaye unhesitatingly spoke of ‘the law’ that explains that change, this growth, the adoption of that myth, or this sequence of miracles… Today we have far less trust that in the humanities we can understand our subjects in this way. We may see patterns, we many see phenomena repeatedly, and experienced observers may be able to guess outcomes, or explain what has happened over time, with a moment’s acquaintance; but this is not a deduction from a general law.
    Another, somewhat irritating, aspect of the work, but common at the time, is the assumption of a radical divide between the the world of the ‘scientific’ observer and the people observed. Thus we find references to ‘the popular imagination’, ‘the psychology of the crowd’, and ‘the brain of the multitude’. ‘It’ is the creator and bearer of superstition, false ideas and confusions; while the scholars are preserved immune from such things.
    O’Loughlin finds this model an inadequate one and laments that scholars are perhaps less immune than Father Delehaye imagined.
    I will close with another quote, this time from the man himself, in the preface to the third edition of his book. Delehaye recalled how one of his earliest copies was received:
    One of my first copies of The Legends of the Saints had a reception I was far from expecting. The friend who had recieved the complimentary copy informed me that he would put it in his library, but that he would never read it. “What do you expect?”, he said, “I love the legends of the saints, and I do not want anything to spoil my pleasure in them”.
    I think this perhaps illustrates the tension between reading the lives of the saints as a scholar and reading them as a believer. Yet, Delehaye was quick to reassure:
    All the learned societies can join together and proclaim that St Lawrence could not have been tortured in the way that is said; but till the end of the world the gridiron will be the only recognized emblem of that famous Roman deacon.
    Quite.

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

  • The Annals of the Four Masters

    A tribute to the seventeenth-century Irish clerical scholars who laboured to preserve the religious heritage of Ireland in a changing world. I first posted this in 2009 at my former blog and cannot now locate a working link to the original at the Irish Franciscan website.

    FR PAT CONLAN, OFM, tells of the origin of the famous ‘Annals of the Four Masters’.
    The name of Saint Anthony’s College in Louvain is immediately associated with Irish history. Two Irish friars, Hugh Ward and Patrick Fleming, met in Paris in 1623 and discussed working on past events in Ireland. Ward headed for Louvain where he had been appointed a lecturer. He was promoted to Guardian in 1625. This enabled him to gather the resources needed for research and publication on Irish history. Given the events of the Reformation, he was particularly interested in matters relating to the Church and the lives of Irish saints. Hugh Ward went to meet his Maker in 1635. Fr John Colgan took over leadership of the Louvain School. He had joined the Order in Louvain in 1620 and lectured for a while in Germany before returning to Louvain by 1634. He had done some research on Irish documents in Germany. It was natural that he took up the challenge of writing the lives of the Irish saints. The Bollandists were a group of researchers based near Brussels who were systematically publishing the lives of the saints. Following their example, Colgan planned to publish lives of the Irish saints in Latin in the chronological order found in the liturgical calendar. The first volume of the Acta Sanctorum Hiberniae [The doings of the Saints of Ireland], covering the months of January, February and March, was published in 1645. The next volume, Triadis thaumaturgae [The Three Miracle- workers], with the lives of Saints Patrick, Brigid and Columba, appeared in 1647. The third volume for April, May and June, was ready in 1649 but, due to the changed situation in Ireland, no patron could be found to finance its publication. Colgan’s health also failed and he died in 1658. The Louvain School died with him.
    A Son of Donegal
    Br Micheál Ó Cléirigh was a member of the community in Louvain and an acknowledged expert on Irish history when Hugh Ward arrived. Ward knew that someone would have to undertake research in Ireland. He sent Br Micheál there in 1626. His family was from Clare but had migrated to South Donegal. He was one of four sons of Donnchadh Ó Cléirigh and Honora Ultach probably living near Kilbarron west of Ballyshannon. His brother, Maolmhuire, was born around 1589 and received the name Bernardine when he joined the Franciscans at Louvain in 1616. He later returned to minister in Donegal and was Guardian of the friary there for much of the time that Br Michael was in the community. His young brother, Tadhg an tSléibhe, received the name Micheál when he joined the friars, also at Louvain, soon after his brother’s ordination in 1619. The Ó Cléirighs were traditional chroniclers and historians. Br Micheál had received some training in Irish learning even before he joined the Franciscans. Fleming and Ward knew of his understanding and knowledge before Micheál Ó Cléirigh was sent back to Ireland in 1626. His life in Ireland followed the same pattern every year. He spent winter with the Donegal friars at the banks of the river Drowes. As the days lengthened he set off through different parts of Ireland working on manuscripts. He returned to Drowes later in the year to edit and annotate what he had transcribed.
    Br Micheál worked in Dublin, Drogheda and Kildare during the summer and autumn of 1627. He transcribed the rules of Columcille, Ailbe and Comgall as well as working on the Martyrology of Tallagh and possibly the Book of Leinster. In 1628 he began in the Midlands around Athlone and Multyfarnham before heading to Dublin and thence into Carlow, Kilkenny and Cashel. Among the books he used were the Cogadh Gael is Gall, a book describing the wars between the Irish and the Normans, and the Book of the Dun Cow. In 1629 it was the turn of Cork, including Timoleague, Limerick, where the Provincial Chapter took place, and Clonmel before making his way back north. He stopped for a while at Kilnalahan near Loughrea. He worked on the Book of Lismore, the Leabhar Breac and lives of Saint Finbar. 1630-33 was given over to writing in Donegal, at Killinure north of Athlone and at Lisgoole near Enniskillen. He spent the summer of 1634 around Ennis. Then it was a matter of finishing various writings and heading back to Louvain.
    The Four Masters
    Br Micheál gathered a team of laymen around him. They became known as the Four Masters after a commentary of 1241 on the Franciscan Rule known as the Expositio Quatuor Magistrorum [Commentary of the Four Masters]. In addition to Br Micheál, the others were Fearfeasa Ó Maolchonaire, a poet and historian from Roscommon, Cúcoigcríche (Peregrine) Ó Dubhgennáin of Leitrim and Cúcoigcríche Ó Cléirigh, a distant cousin. Two others helped for shorter periods, Conaire Ó Cléirigh and Muiris Ó Maolchonaire.
    During the winter of 1629-30, Br Micheál compiled Félire na naomh nEireannach [Calendar of the Saints of Ireland], otherwise The Martyrology of Donegal, at Drowes. The Four Masters came together for the first time in the autumn of 1630 to compile the Réim ríoghraidhe na hÉireann agus senchas a naomh [Stories of the kings and saints of Ireland] at Killinure near Athlone. They were working at the friary of Lisgoole on the banks of Upper Lough Erne in the autumn of 1631.
    The masters had returned to Drowes by 22nd January 1632 when they officially began work on Annála ríoghachta Éireann, the Annals of the Four Masters. It was a history of Ireland from the earliest possible date going year by year. It incorporated parts of many annals that have since been lost. Today it allows researchers to reconstruct parts of these lost works. The work took over four and a half years. It was finished on 10th August 1636.
    A Complete History
    This complete history of Ireland from its recorded beginnings required the approval of experts. Br Micheál approached two such people, Flann Mac Aedhagain at Baile Mac Aedhagain in North Tipperary and Conor Mac Brody at Cill Chaoide in North Mayo. Br Micheál then went to the Catholic authorities: Bishop Malachy O’Queely of Tuam, Bishop Boetius Mac Egan, OFM, of Elphin, Bishop Ross Mageoghegan, OP, of Kildare and Bishop Thomas Fleming, OFM, of Dublin. Finally, two censors appointed by the Irish Franciscan Provincial examined the book in Carrickfergus in July 1637 and gave their approval. Br Micheál then set off for Louvain with his priceless manuscript. It appears that he died there in the summer of 1643. Several of his manuscripts remained unpublished until researchers discovered them during the nineteenth century. The noted antiquarian John O’Donovan published the Annals in 1851. It was a work of beauty with a lovely Irish type. Unfortunately it was not a critical edition in the modern sense. We now know, for example, that some of the years are slightly out. A full critical edition has yet to appear.

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