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Tag: Irish Ecclesiastical Record

  • Saint Fiacc of Sletty, October 12

    October 12 is the feast day of a saint said to have been one of Saint Patrick’s early converts, Fiacc, patron of Sletty in County Laois. In Patrician hagiography Fiacc is depicted as a sensitive and educated pagan bard, who, despite a royal command that Saint Patrick and his followers should not be made welcome at the court of Tara, has both the spiritual vision and the courage to stand in respectful greeting to Ireland’s national apostle.  Fiacc went on to live a long life of service to the Irish church and is credited with being the author of the first metrical Life of Saint Patrick. This claim is not upheld by modern scholarship but I have previously published a translation of the text at my other site here. Below is a paper from the Irish Ecclesiastical Record of 1921, which draws together many of the traditions surrounding this fifth-century holy man:

    A BARDIC-SAINT OF IRELAND
    BY J. B. CULLEN
    THE valley of the Barrow, which extends through a considerable portion of southern Leinster, has not received as much notice as it deserves in descriptions of the natural attractions and associations of the water-ways of Ireland. Nevertheless, events and scenes and memories connected with the best and greatest epochs of our country’s past have left their traces along the course of this classic river, from its source in the Slievebloom Mountains till it enters the sea at Waterford Harbour. In ages long gone by, when south-eastern Ireland was almost entirely a forest-land and roads were few, this waterway was mainly the medium of communication between those tribal divisions now forming the counties of Kildare, Carlow, Wexford, and Waterford. Neither does the Barrow lack certain elements of the picturesque that make it fall but little short of the beautiful, for many stretches of its scenery, especially between Carlow and the Meeting of the three Sisters, where it enters the Atlantic, compare favourably with those of the better-known rivers of Ireland. Nor yet is the spell of history wanting, since Sage and Saint, Gael and Dane, Norman and Puritan, the conqueror and the vanquished, have lived and left many a mark on its border-lands, and supplied many a pictured page to the gladsome and, too often, sadsome annals of our country.
    In the early days of Christianity in Ireland, as with most of the rivers of the country, certain districts adjacent to the course of the Barrow were chosen by missionaries and scholar-monks for sites whereon to erect little churches or found monastic schools, that afterwards gave rise to the towns which now flourish along its banks. In the history of the poet-saint and scribe who founded the ancient monastery of Sletty we are interested in the following pages.
    St. Fiacc of Sletty was a contemporary of St. Patrick, and, moreover, played an important part in the opening scene of the great Apostle’s mission at the court of Tara, in the memorable Eastertide of 433. Afterwards the threads of his life-story were for a time closely interwoven with events narrated in the accounts of the labours and miracles of our National Patron. Most of us are acquainted with the oft-told incident that occurred on the first appearance of St. Patrick and his followers at the court of King Laoghaire. Previous to the arrival of the Saint a royal command was given that none of the assembly should rise to do honour to the mysterious band of strangers. However, a few of the courtiers present were so impressed by the venerable appearance of the leader of the procession that they could not restrain their feelings of emotion, and failed to obey the orders of the pagan monarch. The first who rose, as is recorded, was Dubhthach, ‘chief bard and brehon of Erin,’ whose example was followed by Fiacc his pupil, who is described in the records of the event as ‘ the young poet.’ The latter was not only the favourite pupil of the royal bard, but was, moreover, his nephew and foster-son. Dubhthach has ever since been immortalized in song and story as the ‘ first convert of Erin.’ It is more than probable that his nephew received the gift of Faith at the same time. Fiacc, it is told, was then sixteen years of age so that he must have been born about the year A.D. 415.
    The conversion of the ‘chief bard of Erin ‘ was undoubtedly the first victory achieved by St. Patrick over paganism in Ireland. How important and far-reaching was the acceptance of Christianity by a personage of such exalted rank, and by one whose profession was highly esteemed in those days, we shall explain later on.
    St. Fiacc was of noble lineage, being descended (in the sixth or seventh generation) from the celebrated Cathair Mor, who was King of Leinster and Ard-righ at the end of the second century. The chiefs of the clan MacMorrogh (now called Kavanagh) trace their descent from the same illustrious ancestor. We may note, in passing, that St. Moling, one of the immediate successors of St. Aidan, Patron of the See of Ferns, belonged to the same race. His monastery beside the Barrow continued to be the burial-place of the Kavanaghs down to less than a century ago. This Saint was honoured as the protector and patron of the chieftainage through the history of a thousand years.
    But to return. The father of St. Fiacc is styled Mac Dara, who was Prince of Hy-Barrech, whilst his mother was sister of Dubhthach, royal bard of Tara. The bards in both ancient and Christian Ireland were held in a degree of respect perhaps greater than that bestowed on any other class of society. Their services in the way of literature and poetry were almost the sole means by which the chronicles and history of the country were preserved, and genealogies recorded. The deeds of valour attributed to chieftains and renowned warriors were enshrined by them in metrical compositions and thus easily committed to memory by the people. Their lesser poems and songs were wedded to the melodies of their harps and were the origin of ‘ the wild native strains ‘ that have floated down through ‘the waves of Time,’ and are echoed in the national music of Ireland to-day. Like the orders of the Druids and Brehons, the ancient minstrels were prepared for their noble profession by a long course of study, and thus they gained the esteem they attained in popular estimation. From all these circumstances we can easily understand how the acceptance of Christianity by Dubhthach, as royal minstrel of Tara, came to be an event of almost more importance than would have been the conversion of the High- King himself. His example was followed by numbers of the courtiers, who soon afterwards received baptism at the hands of St. Patrick.
    Fiacc, the subject of our memoir, apparently, for a great part of his life was never separated from his venerated kinsman. When the latter retired from the court of Tara and went to reside in his native place (the present North Wexford) his nephew accompanied him. In this locality, we may remark, a grant of land was bestowed upon him by the King of Hy-Kinsellagh, which lay on the coast not far from the present town of Gorey now called Cahore Point. Here Dubhthach spent his declining years. St. Patrick, in his progress through Leinster, on his way to Ossory, converted and baptized King Crimthan, at Rathvilly, Co. Carlow, about the year 450. On this occasion he altered his direct route by going a little out of the beaten track, in order to visit his ‘first convert’ at his seaside home in North Hy-Kinsellagh. During his brief stay in this territory he founded the little church of Donoughmore, close by Dubhthach’s residence, the remains of which may still be traced on the seashore, now half-covered by sand. This is said to be the only personal foundation of St. Patrick within the confines of the present County Wexford. It is also recorded that during his visit he asked Dubhthach to recommend some worthy man, of good family and of virtuous life, whom he might train for the priesthood and eventually, if suitable, consecrate a bishop and place him ‘over the Leinster-men.’ His learned and gifted nephew, Fiacc, at once occurred, to the venerable bard’s mind, as one possessing the necessary qualifications in regard to family and education if he would consent to enter the ecclesiastical state. Fiacc shortly afterwards came upon the scene and, being questioned on the subject under consideration, he at first hesitated, but when, as an alternative, Dubhthach, aged as he was, offered himself for the position St. Patrick was so anxious to fill, the young man was so impressed by the act of self-sacrifice on the part of his kinsman that he consented to take the latter’s place. There and then the Apostle imposed the sacred tonsure on Fiacc removing from his brow the wealth of flowing hair which, in those times, was the typical mark of noble birth among the Irish. On the departure of St. Patrick from Donoughmore, Fiacc accompanied him, and at once entered on his ecclesiastical studies. His highly-trained mind and the gift of perfect memory he had acquired as a poet by profession made easy to him many of those difficulties experienced by other students. With such aptitude did he master various subjects that it is said within fifteen days he learned the formula and ceremonies for the celebration of Holy Mass and dispensing of the Sacraments.
    After his ordination, and when he entered upon his missionary career, the first church associated with his name was erected by him between Clonmore and Aghold, on the borders of Carlow and Wicklow. It was here St. Patrick imposed the ‘grade of a bishop’ upon our Saint, and as recorded, left seven monks from his own followers who formed the first community of St. Fiacc. Here, for some years, Fiacc led a most holy life, till he was admonished by an angel that ‘ the place of his resurrection was not to be there’, but at ‘ the west side of the Barrow,’ at a spot which would be indicated to him by certain signs. He was told to proceed along the river’s course, and at a place where he would meet a boar there to build his ‘refectory’ (i.e., guest house), and at a little distance off he would meet a hind, and there would be the site of his church. The holy man felt greatly troubled and sad at heart at the thoughts of leaving the scenes of his first mission. He felt unwilling, even at the call of God, to part from his community and beloved flock, and so far determined not to go without the sanction of St. Patrick. Accordingly he sent a messenger to his apostolic master to seek his advice. The Saint, who at once realized the natural feelings of Fiacc, sent back word that he would come to visit his friend and assuage his sorrow. On St. Patrick’s arrival, speaking words of consolation, he volunteered to accompany Fiacc on his journey to the district where he was admonished by the Divine Will to spend the future of his life. Bidding farewell to his religious brethren and faithful people, Fiacc then set out for his destination accompanied by St. Patrick.
    When the travellers were coming to the close of their journey and had reached ‘the west side of the Barrow,’ they gave themselves up to earnest prayer, awaiting the signs that were to reveal to Fiacc the place of his settlement and of his final rest on earth. They had not proceeded far along the river-side when the indications foretold in the heavenly message were verified. The place, predestined to become sacred in after time, was situated about a mile and a half (N.N.W.) from the present town of Carlow, close to the range of hills known as the Slievemargy Mountains. The two saints, giving thanks to Almighty God, took possession of the spot by erecting a rude cross, the sign of man’s redemption, and lighting a fire, symbolic of ‘ the light of Faith.’ This was the simple ceremony observed by the Irish monks wherever they went forth, in after centuries, as, we are told, ‘to preach the Gospel to nations still held in the bondage of paganism, and seated in the valley of death.’
    We must remember that, in the organization of the missions of the early saints, the founding of a church generally meant also the founding of a Christian settlement or monastery. From this we may assume that Fiacc was joined by some members of his former community, whose number was later on increased by the accession of converts and pious souls who, in those days of first fervour, were desirous of embracing the monastic life. Ireland was then, and continued to be for centuries afterwards, in a tribal state. Each chieftain was independent of his neighbour, and although a central authority was supposed to exist in the personality of the Ard-righ or High-King, the title was little more than nominal. He was by no means ‘ monarch of all he surveyed.’ In St. Patrick’s missionary system he adapted the organization of his Church to the political condition of the country. The jurisdiction of bishops was tribal rather than territorial. Dioceses, in the modern sense, did not exist, nor were they defined for six or seven centuries afterwards. Every clan had its own episcopal ruler who was, in most cases, chosen from the family of the local chieftain, and as we read in the lives of many Irish saints, the bishop, on his death-bed, very often handed the insignia of his sacred office to one of his disciples, which was considered tantamount to nominating his successor. Thus it most frequently happened that the episcopal office was retained for successive generations by some relative of the chieftain of the respective clans. Descendants of the race of Cathair Mor (to which St. Fiacc belonged) had, for many centuries, been rulers of the the petty kingdom of Hy-Kinsellagh. The office was not hereditary, in the present sense, since, according to the law of Tanistry, the people could chose any member or relative of the ruling family, on the personal merits of the candidate whether as a warrior, statesman, or as one gifted with superior wisdom, or other attributes calculated to command the respect and obedience of his subjects. Members of the same family that of Mac Morrogh held the sovereignty of Hy-Kinsellagh down to the Anglo-Norman Invasion, the ill-starred Dermod Mac Morrogh being the last independent representative of the kingship This territory included in its area the whole of the present County Wexford, a considerable part of Wicklow, the southern extremities of Carlow, and the sub-principalities of Forth and Idrone.
    The Christian settlements, or monasteries, of early times were formed, to a great extent, on the model of the secular clans by which they were surrounded. Most, if not all, the inmates of the monasteries were connected by clanship, and on this account, whenever tribal wars arose (which were frequent), they could count on the protection of the local chieftain. This digression in the current of our narrative is made in order to explain what probably was one of the reasons that prompted St. Patrick to appoint Fiacc ‘Ard-espog,’ or High Bishop ‘over the Leinster-men.’ Some writers state that St. Fiacc was invested with spiritual jurisdiction similar to that exercised by the Metropolitan Bishops of our day. But we must remember that archbishops, dioceses, parishes, or even counties were unknown for centuries after the period of which we write. It was, in fact, at the Synod of Rathbreasil (near Mountrath), in A.D. 1118, that episcopal sees were first mapped out or attempted to be defined. The boundaries of parishes were not arranged for long afterwards and many of them only came into existence after the Protestant Reformation. The right of patronage or appointment of ecclesiastics to what we call parish churches was usually vested in the representatives of a founder’s family or in the person of the local chief or magnate, subject to episcopal approval.
    St. Fiacc was the first canonically appointed Bishop of the territory of Hy-Kinsellagh. Its rulers were usually styled Kings of Leinster, perhaps from the fact that this petty kingdom was the largest of the tribal divisions of the province, and its chieftains and people the most powerful of the Leinster septs. So, likewise, we may assume, its Bishops were given a title of pre-eminence (ard-espog) in this important territory.
    St. Fiacc administered the sacred functions of the office imposed upon him by the National Apostle for a long term of years, and is said to have seen ‘three twenties ‘ of his community at Sletty laid to rest before he died. Some seven miles from his monastery there is an isolated cave, in the mountain-side, called Drum Coblai, which faint tradition points out as being the retreat of a saint. This was the place of solitude and prayer whither the holy abbot was wont to retire during Lent and other penitential seasons of recollection. At Easter time, we are told, he used to return to Sletty in order to celebrate with his monks the glorious festival of the Resurrection of Our Lord. In his old age our Saint suffered from an ailment in his limbs, which sorely impeded his extensive journeys of episcopal administration. Hearing of this, it is related, St. Patrick sent him a chariot and horses from distant Armagh. In his humility Fiacc was unwilling to avail of the thoughtful gift, until he was admonished by a heavenly messenger to do so. Then the aged Bishop reluctantly consented. As the weight of years increased and the infirmities of old age became more trying, Fiacc like St. Paul longed ‘to be dissolved and be with Christ.’ At length the sighed-for summons came. He entered into the reward of the Just, October 12, about the year 510 his age having then exceeded ninety years. He was laid to rest within the church of Sletty, whose foundations had been traced for him, in times long gone, by his life-long friend and beloved master, St. Patrick. There, beside the murmuring waters of Barrow, the Bardic- Saint and first Bishop of Hy-Kinsellagh awaits the ‘Judgment’s trumpet call.’ His dearest belongings in life were a bell, a reliquary, a crozier, and a book-satchel, given him, at his consecration, by the Apostle of Ireland. These were, as customary in the early times, bequeathed to his successor.
    Referring to the literary labours of St. Fiacc, his Life of St. Patrick is pronounced by Professor O’Curry and other competent authorities to be the most important document connected with the history of the Early Irish Church. The author having been a bard by profession very naturally wrote in metre. It consists of thirty-four verses written in the language of the ancient bards of Ireland. ‘It bears,’ says O’Curry, ‘ internal evidence of a high degree of perfection in the language at the time it was composed; it is unquestionably in all respects a genuine native production, quite untinctured with Latin or with any other contemporary style of idiom.’ The original MS. is preserved in the Library of Trinity College, Dublin. The biography, written by one who was so intimately acquainted with the missionary work and the personality of the Apostle of the Irish race, must be regarded as one of the most precious literary treasures belonging to ‘Erin’s Golden Age.’
    J. B. CULLEN.
    The Irish Ecclesiastical Record, Volume XVIII, (1921), 506-514.

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  • Saint Canice of Kilkenny, October 11

    October 11 is the feast of the patron saint of Kilkenny, Saint Canice (Kenny, Kenneth). I have just finished reading an interesting paper by Professor Pádraig Ó Riain in which he argues that Saint Canice may actually be Saint Colum Cille (Columba) under another guise. Perhaps I can summarize this thesis in a future post. Below, however, is a paper by a nineteenth-century Irish priest who is untroubled by such considerations and is instead keen to bring us an account of all the traditions which established Saint Canice as a distinct individual, even if, in his connections with the north-west of Ireland and with Scotland, he does indeed echo the great Colum Cille who himself appears in the story:

    Dublin Penny Journal, 1835

    CANICE, ABBOT AND CONFESSOR, PATRON OF THE CITY OF KILKENNY
    As the Feast of St. Kieran of Ossory, the Primogenitus Sanctorum Hiberniae, March the 5th, brings us back to the Praeparatio Evangelica, and the advent of the heavenly spring that gladdened the hearts and homes of Erin, so also, the festival of St. Canice, on the 11th of October, cannot fail to remind us of the first-fruits of that rich golden harvest which was gardened by the celestial husbandman from the virgin soil of the Island of Saints.
    The commencement of the sixth century, 515 or 516, witnessed the birth of St. Canice or Kenny, at Glengiven, “the Valley of the Roe,” in the barony of Keenagh, County Londonderry. His parents were so poor at the time of his birth, that a special interposition of Providence was required in order to afford the new born babe the very means of subsistence. But although destitute of worldly goods, they were rich in virtue, and of superior intelligence. His father, Lughadh Lethdearg, was a member of the bardic class, and held the post of tutor to Gael Bregach, afterwards Prince of Hy-Many. Lughadh Leithdearg appears also to have been a poet of some distinction, and it may have been from him that our saint inherited that rare gift of eloquence, which caused him to be compared by Irish writers to St. Philip, who is supposed to have been the most eloquent of the Apostles.
    In a manuscript catalogue of the Irish saints, which dates from the beginning of the fifteenth century, and is preserved in the College of Salamanca, Meaula or Mealla is mentioned as the mother of St. Canice, and that her principal church is in Kilkenny. Hanmer in his Chronicle relates that in the thirteenth century, a church was erected in Kilkenny under her invocation, over against the east side of the Nore (where St. Maul’s cemetery now lies). The Church of St. Maul, with four marks of silver yearly, was conferred on the Vicars Choral of St. Canice, by Bishop Barry, in 1428.
    At an early age, Canice resolving to devote himself to the study of sacred truths, proceeded to the monastery of Lancarvan in Wales. This school of piety was at that time ruled by the Abbot Cadoc, surnamed the Wise a saint who had himself been trained in the paths of piety by a saint of Irish birth, St. Tathai. At Lancarvan Canice soon distinguished himself by the practice of every virtue, especially by the strict observance of holy obedience. One day whilst engaged in what was to him the delightful occupation of transcribing the Holy Scriptures, the bell of the monastery called him to other duties, and we are told that the obedient novice left the letter, at which he was engaged, half finished, and thenceforward his abbot loved Canice exceedingly.
    After having received the Holy Order of the priesthood, about the year 546, Canice asked and obtained permission to proceed to Rome in order to receive the blessing of Christ’s Vicar on his future missionary labours. At that time Italy was overrun with barbarians, the Goths and their leader, Atilla, and so, the pilgrimage of St. Canice must have been a work of great difficulty. But the special Providence of God preserved him in all the vicissitudes of that perilous journey, the very men who sought his life were converted, and became his devoted disciples, so that he was enabled through their instrumentality to found in the distracted land a monastery, where his own name and those of his compatriots, known as ” the saintly pilgrims from Ireland,” were for ages held in the greatest veneration. On his return to Ireland our saint, wishing to perfect himself still more in the knowledge and practice of virtue, spent some time in the great schools of Clonard, under St. Finnian, and Glasnevin, then governed by St. Mobius. He had for his companions, Columkille, Kieran of Clonmacnoise, Comgall, Brendan, and others of the great saints, who were styled the twelve Apostles of Erin.
    St. Mobius having built a beautiful oratory of oak, of unusually large proportions, a question arose among his disciples as to their wishes regarding it. St. Kieran expressed his wish that it were filled with holy men who, by day and night would chant the praises of God. St. Comgall, wholly intent on penitential exercises, would wish it to be filled with all the pains and burdens which are the lot of men during their pilgrimage on earth, and that all might come to him as his inheritance. St. Columba would like to see it well filled with gold and silver, to be expended in the erection of churches and monasteries, and in the service of the poor. St. Canice, being asked to tell his thoughts, declared that it would be his desire to see the oratory filled with religious books and sacred texts by which men would be imbued with a knowledge of divine truths, and led to the fervent service of their Creator. St. Mobius, hearing their pious wishes, prayed that each of these holy youths would receive from heaven the special gift which he desired. The time came when Canice was called upon to leave his peaceful solitude and the sweet society of his brethren ; when the holy ‘priest and perfect religious was to become himself a founder of churches, and a vessel of election to carry the light of faith to a people sitting in darkness and in the shadow of death. Following the example of his friend St. Columba, Caledonia was selected by him as the country then affording the best prospect of a rich virgin harvest of souls.
    His first success was in rooting out from his native place in Derry the surviving superstitions of Druidism, and the conversion of his foster-brother, the chieftain of Dungiven, who afterwards assisted our saint in founding the great church of Drumachose, in Londonderry. His sister’s son, St. Berchan, also owed his recovery from a mortal illness to the prayers of St. Canice. His name appears in our Irish Calendars as the founder and patron of Consast, in the King’s County. St.Columbkille had already converted the Island of Mull to the faith, and had made repeated missionary excursions to the adjoining mainland. He now meditated an assault on Pictish Paganism in its very centre and stronghold, and took for his companions Canice and Comgall. Imagine the three holy companions setting out on that perilous voyage, seated in their little coracle or ozier boat, covered with hide, which the Celtic nations employed for their navigation. Their destination is the heart of Caledonia, “stern and wild,” which the imagination of our forefathers made the dwelling-place of hunger and of the prince of demons. Their way lies through an archipelago of naked and desert islands, sowed like so many extinct volcanoes, upon the dull and sullen waters, which are sometimes washed by the Atlantic waves, swept by the Atlantic blasts, and broken by rapid currents and dangerous whirlpools. The pale sickly sun of the North only serves to point out the fogs and mists surrounding and surmounting the lofty summits, and abrupt and naked sides of the bare and desolate mountains of that sterile, icy land. After overcoming all the perils of that adventurous voyage, the holy missioners beheld, rising up before them, to the height of fully five hundred feet, the rock fortress of the Pictish King, some two miles west of the River Ness. His name was Brude ; and he is styled by Venerable Bede, ” a most powerful king,” who had vanquished the Scots or Dalradians in many a hard-fought battle-field : and was now enjoying his kingdom in peace, having triumphed over all his enemies. From his eyrie on the rock, this bird of prey beheld with savage eyes Columbkille, ” the dove of the churches,” and his two companions advancing to plant the standard of the cross on his redoubtable stronghold. Burning with indignation at their boldness in presenting themselves unbidden before him, King Brude ordered the gates of the fortress to be closed, and strongly barred against them. But our brave Irish priests had recourse to prayer ; and Comgall, having made the sign of the cross on the outer gates, they immediately fell broken to the ground ; Columba made the sign of the cross on the inner door of the enclosure, with the same effect. When the three saints stood face to face with the enraged King, he drew his sword, swearing by his ancestral gods, that he would avenge the insult offered to him ; but Canice, making the sign of the cross towards him, his hand was instantly withered. And it so remained till Brude believed in God, received Baptism from St. Columba, and the perfect restoration of his daughter to her sight, hearing, and speech, by the intercession of St. Canice. The victory of the cross was complete ; Caledonia became a portion of the vineyard of the Lord, rivalling the soil of her mother, Erin, in the fertility with which, for ages, she produced the fairest flowers and richest fruit of holiness and justice. And Iona became in a higher sense than any earthly Pharos, a spiritual lighthouse, shedding its beams of religion and culture far and wide. It was there Columba fixed his rude retreat :
    ” There the first symbol of his creed unfurled ;
    And spread religion over a darkened world.”
    The amount of co-operation given by St. Canice in the glorious work of evangelizing Scotland may be judged from the number of places that retained his name, and cherished his memory in that country. Amongst these, the most remarkable was the monastery of Rig-Monadh, or the royal mound where the Cathedral of St. Andrew was afterwards erected. The Felire of St. Oengus contains in its notes of St. Canice’s Feast, at 11th October, a reference to this foundation : “Achadhbo is his principal church, and he has a Eecles, i.e., a monastery at Cill-Eigmonaig in Alba.” Scottish writers record that St. Canice was regarded, after St. Brigid and Columba, as ” the favourite Irish saint in Scotland.” He was honoured even in Iona, where a burial-ground still retains the name Kill-Chainnech. And fain would he have remained till death a voluntary exile from his native land, in order to enjoy the heavenly conversation of St. Columba, and of his holy companions, and to help them to secure that golden harvest ; but the saints of Ireland, not willing to be deprived of his example and counsels, sent messengers after him, praying him to return to his own country. They found him “living as a hermit in Britain, and Canice was then brought from his hermitage against his will.” This hermitage, according to Cardinal Moran, is identified with the remains of an ancient church called Laggan-Kenny ; i.e., St. Kenny’s church at Laggan, towards the east end of Loch Laggan, at the foot of a mountain, in the Grampian range.
    The homeward voyage of our saint was signalized by his having miraculously saved from a watery grave the illustrious St. Fintan, of Clonenagh, styled by the old writers the Father of Irish Monks and the Benedict of Ireland. The establishment of the first Irish monastery following the rule of St. Columba and St. Canice, that of Kilkenny West, in the County of Westmeath, was inaugurated by a miracle, related by all our saint’s biographers. A turbulent chieftain of Meath, Colman Beg MacDiarmaid had carried off by violence a nun, sister of St. Aedh, Bishop of Killair, in Meath, and detained her captive in an Island in the centre of an lake. The Bishop took up his position near that part of the lake in which his sister was held prisoner, and there fasted and prayed that the heart of the King might be moved. Nothing, however, appeared to produce any effect on the heart of that wicked king until St. Canice came to the assistance of his episcopal friend. The King, hearing of the saint’s approach, ordered the bolts to be drawn up, and all avenues to his fortress to be closed. Vain precautions! St. Canice passed over the lake, and entered the castle or fort ; and, then, Colman Beg, struck with terror at a chariot of fire, which he saw moving towards the island, confessed his crime, delivered up the nun to her brother, and made a grant of that island to our saint. Some years after St. Canice travelling in Breffny rested at a wayside cross, at Bealach Daithe, in the parish of Lurgan, county Cavan, and performed there the devotion of None. On inquiring whose cross this was, he was informed that it was there Colman Beg MacDiarmaid had fallen in battle. “I remember,” said the saint, ” that I promised that prince a prayer after his death ;” and, turning to the cross, he prayed with fervour and with tears, until it was revealed to him that the soul of Colman was freed from suffering. In the 43rd and 44th chapters of The Life of St. Canice, there is an account of some incidents which occured during a civil war in Ossory, in which Feredach, the son or grandson of a Munster usurper in that territory, was slain, circiter 582, by ” the sons of Connla,” i. e., the true Ossorians. Colman, the son of this Feradach, notwithstanding this opposition, succeeded his father and ruled this territory till his death, in 601. He was the friend and patron of St. Canice, who settled permanently in Ossory during his reign, after the death probably of his former patron, Colman Beg, King of Meath, as the late Father Shearman remarks [Loca Patriciana, No. XL ].
    The reign of Colman MacFeradach was marked by the frequent rebellions of the discontented Ossorians. In one of these tumults, Colman was closely besieged in his fortress which was probably at Kells, which they gave to the flames. St. Canice, in his church at Aghaboe, hearing of this outrage, set out to the relief of his friend ; and passing through Magh Roghni, the great centre plain of Kilkenny, per medium regni, he comes to ” Dominick Moir Roighni,” St. Patrick’s parish, on the southern border of the town, to which subsequently his own name was annexed. The portly abbot of Domnach Moir, Pinguis princeps, whose sympathies were with the Ossorians, his own countrymen, came out from his church, and thus addressed the saint : ” I know that you are hastening to set free your friend, but unavailingly ; as you shall only find his charred and mutilated corpse.” St. Canice replies : ” The Son of the Virgin knows that what you imagine is not true, for before you return to your church, you shall find yourself a corpse.” After this interview the portly abbot returned in his chariot to his city, through another gate near at hand, the name of which was Darnleth. While the abbot was passing through the portal, the swinging gate or door fell on his head, and killed him on the spot.
    In this legend we discover that Domnach Moir, St. Patrick’s, Kilkenny, was at this period a place of some importance, containing an ecclesiastical establishment, surrounded with walls or ” septa,” with gates opening on the various roads diverging from the ” civitas ” or cashel, which was the nucleus of the town or villa which grew up about the Patrician church, the name of which was destined ere long to be merged, and all but lost, in a new designation. St. Canice rescued his friend Colman from the hand of his enemies; dashed through the serried lines of the assailants, under a shower of javelins and arrows, into the burning pile, rescued the King, and when he had brought him to a place of safety, he says : ” Remain here awhile, for although you are alone to-day, you shall not be so to-morrow, for three men shall join you in this place, and afterwards three hundred shall come to you, and on the third day you shall be King over the whole of Ossory.” After this occurred we may suppose what is described by anticipation in cap. 43, that Colman gave many towns (villas) in which St. Canice erected monasteries and churches. The chief ones amongst these were Cill Cainnech, now Kilkenny, and Aghaboe, or Agerboum in the Queen’s County, the lands of which are well known as amongst the richest pastures in Ireland.
    Aghaboe was during his lifetime the sanctuary most closely connected with the name of St. Canice. It was his treasure-house of graces, the favourite school in which through winter frost, through rain and storm, through summer sunshine, generation after generation of his spiritual children lived and prayed, and at last laid them down and died. Bright with dew, and enamelled with the sweetest flowers, the sunny dells, the stately trees, and rich pastures of Aghaboe formed a striking contrast to the desolate grandeur and more ascetic surroundings of Iona and its sister isles. lona and Aghaboe, however, although so distant and so dissimilar, were bound together by the golden link of a very intimate communion of saints. It is related that St. Columba and his monks were on one occasion overtaken by a violent tempest ; every wave threatened instant death. The monks cried out to their abbot to pray to God for protection, but he replied that the holy abbot Canice, alone could save them in this danger. At the very moment St. Canice, in his monastery of Aghaboe, heard by revelation the voice of Columba speaking to his heart. Starting up from the repast of which he was partaking with his religious brethren at the hour of none, he rushed to the church, exclaiming : ” This is no time for food, when Columba’s ship is struggling with the waves.” Having entered the oratory, he prayed for some time in silence with tears. The Lord heard his prayer, the tempest instantly ceased, and the sea became quite calm. St Columba, seeing in spirit Canice hastening to the oratory, cried out, ” Canice, I know that God hath heard thy prayer ; it is well for us that thou hast run with one sandal to the altar” for in his haste Canice had dropped one of his sandals. The prayers of both saints co-operated in this miracle, observes St. Adamnan; an example of the blessings which God grants through the communion of saints. So Columba said to his brethren, ” God has bestowed on Canice the gift of calming every tempest.” And St. Canice was invoked in the early Irish Church as the special patron of the faithful against the storms of the sea. An incident in the life of St. Canice proves the survival of Druidism in parts of Ireland up to his time. Another incident gives an account of a barbarous custom that appears to have been then very prevalent.
    In the life of our saint, it is related that when Canice came to the west of Leinster he found a great assemblage of people with Cormac, the son of Diarmaid, chief of Hy Bairrche. ” Then a little boy, was led forth by the people to a cruel death called Giallcherd. It consisted in this the spears of the military were fixed upright in the ground, and the hostage of those who violated their engagement was seized and flung upon them. The name of this cruel amusement, ” the Gillacherd or foreign art,” betrays its origin. When St. Canice perceived the horrible act which was about to be perpetrated, he prayed to have the boy set free. His entreaties were unheeded, and the innocent youth was pitched high into the air so as to fall back on the spears which were held erect to receive him. Through the prayers of St. Canice, the boy escaped the bristling points, and was saved. Terrified by his extreme danger his eyes became awry, and the name Leabdeare, or crooked eye, was affixed to his name Dolne Dolne Leabdeare. He became a disciple of St. Canice, and afterwards founded a church, around which grew up a town, which was called Killdolne Leabdeare. About fifty years after the death of St. Canice, Cuimin of Connor commemorated it in an Irish verse, of which the following is a translation :
    ” Canice of the mortifications loved
    To be in a bleak woody desert,
    Where there were none to attend on him
    But only the wild deer.”
    As was the case with other Irish saints, there was a legend that the deer became so tame in the saint’s presence that he could, whilst engaged in study, rest his book or manuscript on their antlers.
    The favourite retreat of St. Canice was a solitary spot in a marshy bog called Lough-cree, situated between Roscrea and Borris-in-Ossory. There the saint erected a cell, and thither he loved to retire, in order to enjoy the sweets of silent meditation in the study of Sacred Scriptures. It became, in later times, a favourite resort for pilgrims, and it was popularly known as Monahincha, or “Insula Viventium.” On this island Canice more than once passed the whole time of Lent, keeping a rigorous fast for forty days. There also he completed a beautiful copy of the Latin Gospels, adding a cantena or commentary which was highly prized throughout the Irish Church. This precious manuscript, called Class-Canneche, was still extant in the beginning of the seventeenth century, and is, according to Cardinal Moran, one of those ancient copies of the Gospels now preserved in, the library of Trinity College, Dublin.
    At Aghaboe it was that our venerable abbot spent the evening of his life in prayer and penance, in the government of his monastery, the study of the Sacred Scriptures, and in spiritual conferences with the holy personages by whom he was surrounded. St. Brendan of Birr, St. Mochaomog of Liath (now Leemokeevogue), near Thurles, the holy community of Saigher, and St. Fintan of Clonenagh (Mountrath), resided within easy distance of the last earthly domicile of St. Canice at Aghaboe. The society of such holy men must have been to St. Canice a source of the sweetest consolation, a foretaste of the delights of Paradise. And when, after the labours of spring, the heats of summer, and the toil of that luxuriant harvest, our saint was summoned in this season of autumn, at the advanced age of eighty-four, to meet the Master of the vineyard, it was from the hand of his loved friend and neighbour, the fervent Fintan of the ” Ivy Meadow,” that he received, for the last time, that Bread of Life which was to be to him the seed of a glorious immortality. And so, after imparting his blessing to the assembled brethren, and exhorting them to perseverance in prayer and penance, he passed to his heavenly reward at Aghaboe, on the 11th October, about the year 599.
    MEMORIALS OF ST. CANICE
    The relics of St. Canice, after having escaped the ravages of the Northmen, were enshrined in the church of the monastry of Aghaboe, in 1052. The shrine and relics of our saint were, however, ruthlessly burned, in 1346, by Diarmid MacGillapatrick, Prince of Ossory. Clyn’s graphic notice of this outrage is as follows : “Item, on Friday, the 13th of May, Diarmid MacGillapatrick, the one-eyed, ever noted for treachery and treasons, making light of perjury, and aided by O’Carroll, burned the town of Aghaboe ; and venting his parricidal rage against the cemetery, the church and shrine of that most holy man, St. Canice, the abbot, consumed them, together with the bones and relics, by a most cruel fire.”
    In the National Museum, Kildare-street, is preserved a small ancient bronze, representing in relief the figure of an ecclesiastic, bearing in his left hand a book, and in the right a short episcopal staff or cambutta. St. Canice was of small stature, and was dubbed by his enemies, Parvulus baculatus; that is, ” the little man with the staff.” ” This antique bronze was found in the church-yard of Aghaboe ; it would seem, from the rivet -holes remaining, to have been a portion of the ornamental work of an ancient shrine. Perhaps it is the sole remaining vestige which has survived ‘the most cruel fire ‘ of the one-eyed MacGillapatrick.” The bronze representation or figure is considered by Mr.Westwood and other eminent palaeographists to form one of the three earliest known of the short pastoral staff used by Irish prelates. The grandest surviving monument of our saint is St. Canice’s Cathedral, Kilkenny, which has witnessed so many vicissitudes in Irish history, and whose own history, architecture and antiquities have been so splendidly illustrated by two liberal and learned Protestants, Messrs. Prim and Graves. The Catholic deanery and parochial church of St. Canice, Kilkenny, and the beautiful church of Aghadoe, are also very creditable and well-kept temples, in which the old devotion of Ossory to her patron and protector is preserved and fostered, and his festival kept with great solemnity every year.
    ST. CANICE’S WELL
    The Archives of the Corporation of Kilkenny preserve among their most valuable deeds and charters the original grant made by Bishop Geoffrey, of Ossory, about the year 1244, to the Friars Preachers of the Black Abbey, Kilkenny, of a supply of water from St. Canice’s well for the use of the religious of the monastery. To the stipulation is added, that the circumference of the water-pipe at the well should not be larger than that of the bishop’s ring; and at the end, where it enters the monastery, it should be only of such a size that it could be stopped by a man’s little finger. A facsimile of this interesting concession has been printed by Gilbert in The Irish National MSS. series, vol. ii., n. lxxii. It still retains a considerable portion of the bishop’s seal. A ring of copper is attached to the seal to mark the size of the bishop’s ring.
    The Dominican Bishop Hugh who governed the diocese from 1258 to 1260, granted to his religious brethren of the Black Abbey, the custody of St. Canice’s Holy Well, which was much frequented by pilgrims and by the citizens. Lynch writes that many persons in his day continued to visit it through piety or in search of health ; and he also attests that many miraculous cures were every day effected by using this water and invoking the aid of St. Canice. There is also a beautiful tradition to the effect that any native of the “faire citie” by the Nore who drinks of the waters before leaving home for the foreign land will surely live to return to his native shore.
    ” For it is a tender story, and an old tradition hoary,
    That in battle dread or gory, or upon the ocean’s breast,
    He will ne’er meet death, or never die by cold or burning fever,
    Till the old land, tho’ he leaves her he shall see this is the spell
    Which unto the peasant’s thinking, comes by simply drinking,
    If his faith be all unshrinking, from St. Kenny’s Holy Well.”
    The holy friendship between SS. Canice and Columba is proved and perpetuated in Ossory by the fact of having six old parishes placed under the patronage of St. Columbkille. Scanlan, King of Ossory, in gratitude to St. Columba, for having liberated him from the cruel treatment and imprisonment to which, as a hostage, he was subjected at the hands of Aedh MacAinmire, King of Ireland, fixed an impost of one sgrebal, that is, of three pence, on each hearth of his principality, from Bladma to the sea, which was to be paid every year to the community of St. Columba, at Durrow, in Osraidhe.
    ” My kin and tribes to thee shall pay
    Tho’ numberless they were as grass,
    A sgrebal from each hearth that lies,
    From Bladma’s summit to the sea.”
    St. Columba, on his part, gave his blessing to Scanlan, his descendants and subjects, as we also read in the Ambra :
    ” My blessing rest on Osraidhe’s sons,
    And on her daughter’s sage and bright ;
    My blessing on her soil and sea,
    For Osraidhe’s King obeys my word.”
    N. MURPHY, P.P.
    THE IRISH ECCLESIASTICAL RECORD Volume 15, AUGUST, 1894, 925-938.

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  • Sen Patrick, August 24

     

    24 August opens up an historical mystery that has long fascinated scholars of Ireland’s saints: the problem of ‘the other Patrick’. For on this date is commemorated Sen Patrick, also known as Old Patrick or Patrick Senior, whose relationship to the apostle of Ireland commemorated on March 17 is a conundrum still unresolved. In the paper below, Irish Ecclesiastical Record contributor, Father Sylvester Malone, reviews the evidence from the sources for clues to the identity of the elusive Sen Patrick. Not that the writer is in any doubt himself, long before he has concluded his arguments he has already plumped for Sen Patrick as being Saint Patrick’s predecessor, Palladius. As Father Malone was writing in the 1890s he has a basic trust in the historicity of the original sources (something modern scholars do not share), but his paper still provides a good starting point and a useful summary of the sources.
    SEN (OLD) PATRICK, WHO WAS HE?
    IN some sciences it has passed into an axiom “that entities should not be multiplied without necessity,” and it were well to apply the axiom to the domain of history. Nothing should be admitted for fact without fair evidence, especially if the proposed fact be far-reaching in its consequences or revolutionary of well-established views of history. Now, of such a character is the existence or identity of Sen Patrick. He is generally admitted to have been a contemporary of our national saint and his fellow-labourer on the Irish mission. But though Sen Patrick figures almost as prominently as our great St. Patrick in the opening chapters of Irish Church history, to our mind he is, as represented by most Patrician biographers, no better than a myth. The violence offered to the human system from the introduction of a foreign body is no less real than what is suffered from facts being grouped around a mythical personage: and if the identity of Sen Patrick has not been yet established, then indeed there has been an unnatural displacement of facts, and then at the very outset there has been initiated a slovenly and uncritical method of dealing with the evidences of history.
    1. The Calendar of Cashel commemorates Patrick Senior under the 24th of August, and adds that while some said he was buried in Ros-dela, in the region of Magh-lacha, others, with more truth, state he was buried in Glastonbury, and that his relics are preserved in the shrine of Patrick Senior in Armagh. [Here we see the reluctance to admit any person to be older than our national saint.]
    2. The ancient Irish scholiast states that “our national apostle promised Patrick Senior that both of them would ascend together to heaven. Hence some say that the soul of St. Patrick awaited the death of Patrick Senior from the 17th of March to the end of August. Some state that Patrick Senior was buried in Ros-dela, while others, with more truth, state that he was buried in Glastonbury.”
    3. The Calendar of Saints, written by Aengus the Culdee, while commemorating the saints under the 24th of August, states that “old Patrick was the champion of battle, and the lovable tutor to our sage.” A glossarist of the fifteenth century adds that he was buried in Glastonbury.
    4. The Annals of the Four Masters state, under the year 457, that old Patrick “breathed forth his soul.” The Annals of Ulster make the same remark; but a copy of the Annals of Connaught, quoted by Ussher, states that he died in the year 453. The Chronicon Scotorum assigns his death to 454. The Book of Lecan, in its list of St. Patrick’s household, gives old Patrick as ” the head of all his wise seniors”. Some ancient authorities suggest that the death of Patrick happened in the year 461 or 465, from which it is inferred there was reference to old Patrick; for our Irish annalists assign generally the death of our national saint to the year 493.
    5. I may remark that the sixth life of St. Patrick, written in the twelfth century, makes mention of a Patrick, nephew of our national saint, who on the death of his alleged uncle left Ireland, and was buried in Glastonbury. Later historians have called him Junior Patrick, in reference to his supposed uncle, our national apostle.
    6. While Irish annals and calendars recognise the existence of old Patrick, the primatial list of bishops ranks him amongst its metropolitans, and define the length of time during which he occupied the see. Let us glance at the first bishops of Armagh:
    The Psalter of Cashel gives:
    Patritius.
    Secundinus (sat.) vi, or xvi.
    Patrick Senior, x. years.
    Yellow Book of Lecan.
    Patritius . . . xxii.
    Sechnall . . . xiii.
    Sen Patrick . . x.
    Book of Leinster gives:
    Patrick, lxiiii. years from his coming to Erin till his death.
    Sechnall, xiii,
    Sen Patrick, ii.
    We have now noticed the principal events on which the theories about Sen Patrick have been grounded; but before reviewing these I may at once say that Sen Patrick, to my mind, is none other than Palladius, who preceded, about a year, our national apostle on the Irish mission.
    7. Dr. Lanigan maintains that Sen Patrick was no other than our national saint, and that there was only one Patrick in the early Irish Church; but the Book of Armagh and other documents clearly establish that Palladius also was called Patrick, and it is no less certain, notwithstanding the opposite opinion of Dr. Lanigan, that the term Old was applied to a Patrick, not for his absolute, but relative age. The opinion then of Dr. Lanigan is groundless.
    8. The Bollandists suggest (vol. ii., March; vol. iv., Sep.) that a Patrick was called Sen, that is, Patrick Sen, as being the son of Sen, brother to our great saint. Nothing could be more unnatural than this view. Every Irish writer has associated Sen Patrick with only one person, and made Sen only a qualitative adjective. The idea of a nephew having been with our apostle in Ireland till his death, cannot be entertained. The learned Bollandists, relying on the primatial list of bishops, state that Sen Patrick was successor to his uncle. The only objection raised by Dr. Todd against this statement is, that he was only coadjutor to the great St. Patrick. The Confession leads to the belief that our saint after entering on the Irish mission never after saw his country or relatives.
    9. Another theory, advocated by Petrie and Dr. Moran, states that Sen Patrick came from Wales; that he cooperated with our national apostle in the conversion of Ireland; that at the close of his life he returned to Wales; and that a portion of his relics are in Armagh and Glastonbury. Dr. Moran added that Sen Patrick’s “place is well defined in Celtic records.” Why, the case is quite otherwise. The venerable Speckled Book gives him no place at all in the list of primates. And if we turn to the essays of Dr. Moran, we see that he there makes Sen Patrick not a Welshman, but an Irishman and a pagan, who in Glastonbury instructed our national saint, and in consequence was rewarded with the gift of faith. For these assertions there is not a tittle of evidence. Dr. Moran concludes the article in the Dublin Review by stating there were four Patricks in the first age of the Irish Church, each having a fixed place in history; but it is clear to my mind there was only one Patrick.
    10. Nothing can be more unsettled than the position assigned to Sen Patrick by modern historians, because, as understood by them, he did not exist. They copied self-contradictory annalists. Now, the primatial succession starts either with the episcopate of our apostle or the foundation of Armagh: if with the former, the lists should include Palladius, Ireland’s first bishop; if with the latter, how can Secundinus be included, as he is represented by Irish annalists to have sat during six, thirteen, or sixteen years, and to have died in the year 448, though the see was not founded till the year 455. Moreover, the Psalter of Cashel makes Sen Patrick third in succession to the great St. Patrick, with Secundinus as intermediary (see sec. 6): the Yellow Book of Lecan does the same, with this difference, that it allows Secundinus to intervene between Sen Patrick and the great St. Patrick during thirteen years, rather six or sixteen, as stated by the Psalter; and the Book of Leinster allows only two years to the episcopate of Sen Patrick, while the other lists gave variously to it ten and thirteen years. The Book of Leinster, in grouping some remarkable events under several reigns, states that Secundinus and Sen Patrick died during the reign of King Laogaire, 428-463, but gives the death of “Patrick, bishop of the Irish” under the reign of Lugaid, 438-503; yet its list of bishops gives not a Patrick for many years after the death of Sen Patrick. In sober truth, the references to Sen Patrick in Irish annals were only an undigested reproduction of the baseless legends found in Norman chronicles.
    The first mention of Sen Patrick in Irish annals does not appear earlier than the tenth century ; but long before that time the monks of Glastonbury claimed the honour of his having been abbot of the monastery. The monastic chronicles state that St. Patrick after converting Ireland retired to Glastonbury in the year 433; or, according to others, 449; that he was sent in the year 425, in the sixty-third year of his age, to Ireland by Pope Celestine; that after spending eight years in Ireland he retired to Glastonbury, which he governed as abbot for thirty-nine years ; and that he died in the year 472, in the one hundred and eleventh year of his age.
    All these statements in reference to our national saint are discredited either by the Book of Armagh or the Confession. In point of fact, the connection of our saint after consecration with Glastonbury has no better foundation than either the vision of one monk, the dream of another, or some false document purporting to be written by St. Patrick himself. Even William of Malmesbury, who stood up for the Antiquities of Glastonbury, mentions with doubt the burial of St. Patrick there; but states that he was consecrated by Pope Celestine and educated by Germanus of Auxerre. The consecration by Pope Celestine, mentioned by the Glastonbury writers could be attributed to Palladius, called for some time Patrick, but not to our national saint. The older Patrick is said to have been sent so early as the year 425, whereas our national saint did not come to Ireland till 432. He died in Saul, county Down, whereas Palladius died after landing in Wales and leaving Ireland, on his way to Rome. Glastonbury chronicles state that St. Patrick was a pupil of St. Germanus, and converted Ireland after labouring there several years; this was true of our national saint, but not of Palladius; for the Book of Armagh states that the Irish mission of Palladius was a failure; that his stay in Ireland was brief; that his death was immediately after landing in Wales, and that he patronized Germanus. The legendary chronicles state that Patrick left after him in Glastonbury an autobiographical notice, and that he was a Briton. Our national saint was, indeed, a Welsh Briton, and wrote his Confession not in Glastonbury, but in Ireland.
    The Annals of Connaught, under the year 453, register the death of Old Patrick, bishop of Glastonbury. Furthermore, Ralph of Chester, writing of the Patrick who was said to have been buried in Glastonbury, states that he was commemorated on the 24th August as one who, finding the Irish people rebellious, turned his back on them, and retiring to Glastonbury, died there on the 24th of August. Now, we must infer that the Patrick of Glastonbury was the Sen Patrick commemorated in Irish calendars on the 24th of August (see secs. 1, 2); and that Sen Patrick, mentioned in the Polychronicon of Ralph as having found the Irish rebellious, having abandoned them, and as having returned to Glastonbury, is no other than Palladius, is made evident by the Book of Armagh. For it states, in reference to the bad reception which the Irish gave to Palladius, as follows : “Neither did these fierce and savage men receive his doctrine readily, nor did he himself wish to spend time in a land not his own, but he returned to him who sent him.”
    Here, then, we have Irish martyrologies and the Book of Armagh identifying the Patrick of the Saxon chronicles with Sen Patrick, or Palladius.
    11. Lives of the Irish saints, compiled in the eleventh century, contain a notice of Sen Patrick, from which we may infer that he was no other than Palladius. The lives, full of anachronisms, state that Saints Dechan, Ailbe, Ibar, and Ciaran, were contemporaneous bishops in Ireland before St. Patrick, and that Palladius preceded him by many years. Palladius is represented as having baptized St. Ailbe on the confines of Munster and- Leinster ; and turning to the life of St. Alban, nephew of Bishop Ibar, we learn that the birth of the saint was foretold by Patrick, ” chief father of Ireland;” and that while this Patrick was in the south of Leinster, St. Ibar, St. Alban, and Sen Patrick encountered a monster of the deep in Wexford bay. Now as this district is admitted to have been the scene of Palladius’ labours, and as he and Sen Patrick are represented as contemporaries a long time before our national saint, we may infer that Sen Patrick was the Palladius mentioned in the life of St. Ailbe. The anachronisms that disfigure the lives have perplexed historians. Thus Declan, Ailbe, Ibar, and Ciaran, are falsely stated to have preceded our national saint; thus Palladius in the Life of St. Ailbe, is represented as contemporary with Conchobar Mc Nessa in the first century ; though, according to the Book of Armagh, he scarcely by a year preceded our national saint on the Irish mission, yet the Irish lives separate them by an interval of four hundred years ; and though they make Sen Patrick contemporary with Palladius, and nominally distinct from him, they would have him succeed our national saint in the fifth century. Such anachronisms in uncritical biographies that were not collated with each other or the Book of Armagh are matter for regret ; but it is matter for wonder that these anachronisms escaped the notice of the learned Bollandists. For Papebroke and Stilting (A. A. SS. For March and September) suggest that what was said of St. Patrick in the life of St. Ailbe, may not refer to the great St. Patrick, but to Sen Patrick, his successor. But how could the great St. Patrick be referred to, as he lived four hundred years after the events commemorated in the life? The oversight of the Bollandists arose probably from not knowing that Palladius was called Patrick, and from not adverting that Mc Nessa, the represented contemporary of Palladius, lived in the first century.
    12. The inconsistent notices of Sen Patrick in the lives may be traced principally to the Glastonbury legends; and as the monks claimed St. Patrick as inmate and abbot after his supposed departure from the Irish mission, so Scottish writers claimed him as an apostolic missionary in Scotland. The Glastonbury claims were advanced in the eight century. Irish chronicles of the tenth and eleventh centuries adopted the notices of Sen Patrick’s death in the obits of Glastonbury, while the annals of Connaught and Ulster in the fifteenth century, and those of the Four Masters in the seventeenth were coloured by the Scottish theories. There was neither truth nor consistency in either Scottish or English legends. Some English legends stated that Old Patrick lived in Glastonbury for thirty-nine years, having come there in the year 433; while others made him come there in the year 449. The Scottish theories were no less inconsistent. Some maintained with Spotiswoode, that Palladium evangelized Scotland during twenty-three years, while others extended his labours there to thirty years. Hence we find, on the supposition that Palladius came to Ireland in the year 431, that the Irish chronicles variously date the death of Sen Patrick to the years 454, 459, and 461. The Scottish theories, stimulated probably by the earlier claims of Glastonbury, were mainly built on the statement of the very unreliable scholiast that Palladius, having left Ireland, founded a church in Fordum.
    The confusion in the Glastonbury legends differs from the Irish chronicles in this, that the former attribute the acts of the two Patricks to one person, while the latter preposterously make the first, or old Patrick, succeed the second Patrick. But even amid this obscurity gleams of truth flash out in the succession of bishops given in the Book of Leinster; only two years are given to Sen Patrick or Palladius. He came to Ireland in 431, and died in 432. In course of time he was so much forgotten that the later notices of him in the Book of Armagh state that the place and nature of his death were unknown. Towards the close of the twelfth century it appears to have been nearly forgotten that Palladius was called Patrick for some centuries; and in course of time our national saint so filled the public mind in connection with the conversion of Ireland, as to shut out the idea of any missionary previous to him.
    But it may be objected that there is mention in the lives of several Patricks, a “source of much embarrassment” to our modern historians ; these are (a) Sen Patrick, (b) Patrick of Nola, (c) Patrick of Auvergne, (d) the three Patricks mentioned in the Tripartite, and (e) Patrick Junior. Patrick Senior (a), mentioned in the hymn of Fiacc, was Palladius; Patrick of Nola (b), commemorated by Farracius on the Eve or first vespers of the 17th March, is no other than our national saint, who was ordained in Nola. (c) The same may be said of Patrick of Auvergne, commemorated in the Roman martyrology on the 16th of March, to the great surprise of Baronius, as there had been no Patrick among the bishops of Clarmont: our national apostle had studied on the borders of Auvergne, and was there consecrated by the abbot-bishop Amatus. (d) The three other Patricks mentioned in the Tripartite, whom our saint met at Lerins, were probably Saints Honoratus, Maximus, and Hilary of Aries, three abbots there in succession.
    (d) The three Patricks appear to be taken by the Tripartite as of consular rank; but such a meaning is misleading. If the Patricks (laii Patricii) were Christian names, then the writer was in error, as our apostle was not then called Patrick, unless by the figure prolepsis he anticipated the future name of the saint. The writer was also in error if he employed the Patricius as a name of honour; and it is most likely he did so employ it; for in page 123 (Tr. Thaum.) he states that our national saint received at consecration from Pope Celestine a name, Patricius, which at that time was expressive of honour and excellence. The mention of the three Patricks, then, was expressive of their patrician rank, and not of their Christian names.
    (e) It is admitted that Palladius, an arch-deacon or deacon of the Roman Church, was sent by Pope Celestine to Ireland. He was called by the Irish the first Patrick. The Irish scholiast, in giving the relatives of our national saint (Tr. Thaum., p. 4), states that Sannanus, the deacon, was his brother. He was his spiritual brother ; for Sen, the deacon, mentioned by the scholiast was Sen Patrick, or Palladius.
    In turning from the scholiast of the tenth century to the sixth life by Joceline in the twelfth (Tr. Thaum.,p. 106), we are informed, that our national saint had a dear son Patrick (spiritually), who was son of San, and who, after the death of his uncle, returned to Britain, died there, and was buried in Glastonbury. Now, on this statement, Ussher remarks (Primordia, p. 823) that Sannanus, the deacon, was father to Patrick Junior; and Colgan winds up the story (Appendix v., p. 225) by expressing a hope that he was born before San, his father, became a deacon. Here we see the Patricks almost inextricably involved, and the spiritual inconsistently confounded with carnal relationship. For Palladius, who has been properly described by Irish annalists as a “foster father or tutor” to our national saint, is made by-and-bye to sink to the level of a carnal brother, rises again to the higher spiritual level, but as a dependent or coadjutor to our apostle; and, having become a Patrick junior, nephew to the great Patrick, finally disappears in a grave at Glastonbury. And all this has been chronicled and faithfully copied as grave matter for history!
    On broad historical lines, by a rather circuitous road, we have been led to the identification of Sen Patrick; but we might, through an easy and short cut, have arrived at the conclusion by a reference to the May number of the I. E. RECORD. It has been there proved clearly that only two persons were called Patrick, down to the eleventh century in the Irish Church. One of these was our national saint, the other was Palladius. Our national saint was always contradistinguished from Sen Patrick; not so with Palladius; and therefore, Palladius, as being the elder workman in the Irish vineyard, must have been he who, not inaptly, was called Sen Patrick.
    SYLVESTER MALONE,
    Irish Ecclesiastical Record, Vol 12 (1891), 800-809.Content Copyright © Omnium Sanctorum Hiberniae 2012-2015. All rights reserved.