OMNIUM SANCTORUM HIBERNIAE

Tag: Irish saints in Scotland

  • Saint Machar, November 12

    November 12 is the feast of one of the many Irish saints for whom a Scottish career is also claimed -Saint Machar. Below is an account of him from the work of Dom Michael Barrett:

    NOVEMBER 12 St. Machar or Mocumma, Bishop, 6th century.

    THIS saint was the son of Fiachna, an Irish
    chieftain, and was baptised by St. Colman. In
    his youth he became a disciple of the great St. Columba, and when that saint went to Scotland,
    Machar accompanied him, together with eleven
    other disciples. After some years he was
    made a bishop, and was sent by St. Columba
    with twelve companions to preach to the pagan
    Picts of Strathdon, in the north-east of Scotland. It is said that his holy master commanded him to found a church in the spot
    where he should find a river forming by its
    windings the shape of a bishop’s pastoral staff.
    Such a configuration he found in the river Don,
    at the spot now known as Old Aberdeen.
    Here he accordingly fixed his seat, and the
    cathedral that rose from the humble beginnings
    of a church instituted by Machar now bears
    his name.

    Besides the old Cathedral of Aberdeen,
    there are in the same county two parishes,
    formerly joined in one, which are known as
    New and Old Machar, respectively. At Kildrummie, in Aberdeenshire, is a place called
    (after the saint) ” Macker’s Haugh.” There
    is St. Machar’s Well, near the cathedral, at
    Old Aberdeen; the water used always to be
    taken for baptismal purposes to the cathedral.  At Corgarff, in Strathdon, is another spring
    known as Tobar Mhachar (the well of St.
    Machar); miracles were formerly obtained
    there. Of this spring the legend is related of a
    priest, in time of famine, drawing from it three
    fine salmon which lasted him for food till
    supplies came from other quarters.

    St. Machar’s feast was restored to Scotland
    by Pope Leo XIII in 1898.

    Dom Michael Barrett, O.S.B., A Calendar of Scottish Saints (2nd. revised ed., Fort Augustus, 1919), 163-164.

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  • Saint Fintan Munna of Taghmon, October 21

    October 21 is the feast of Saint Fintan better known as Saint Munna. Munna is an important figure who features in a number of well-known episodes from the lives of the Irish saints.  He also played a significant role in the Paschal Dating Controversy. All the sources suggest that he was quite a fiery character who was not to be crossed lightly. For a comprehensive account of his life please follow this link to a paper by Dr Edward Cullerton which was published in the Taghmon Historical Society Journal. Below is an account from Dom Michael Barrett’s work,  A Calendar of Scottish Saints, for our saint was also venerated in Scotland:

    OCTOBER 

    21 St. Mund or Fintan-Munnu, Abbot, A.D. 635, 
    HE was born in Ireland, and was a contemporary of St. Columba. He bears the character of being the most austere of all the Irish saints, and suffered grievously from bodily in firmities with the greatest resignation. Crossing over to Scotland, he dwelt for a time upon an island of Loch Leven, still called after him by the title of Eileanmunde. A more important foundation was afterwards made by this saint at Kilmun, north of the Firth of Clyde, in Argyllshire. An old burial ground still marks the site of the monastery founded by St. Mund; the hills and wooded glens which surround the spot make up a scene of striking beauty. A small bay in the vicinity is called ” Holy Loch”. It is a matter of dispute whether the title came from its proximity to St. Mund’s foundation or from a shipload of earth from the Holy Land, destined to form part of the foundation of a church in Glasgow, and reputed to have been sunk in a storm near that spot. It is said that St. Mund made application to Baithen, St. Columba’s successor at Iona, to be received as a monk of that monastery, but that Baithen advised the saint to return to Ireland and found a monastery there. The holy abbot gave this advice on account of a prophecy of St. Columba, who had foreseen St. Mund’s desire, and had declared that God willed that saint to become abbot over others and not the disciple of Baithen. It was owing to this advice that St. Mund returned to his native land and founded Teach-Mun (Tagmon) in Wexford, which became famous under his rule. Mediaeval documents mention the saint’s pastoral staff as preserved in Argyllshire; its hereditary custodian held a small croft at Kilmun; it may have been in honour of this saint that a fair was held at that place for eight days during April as alluded to in records of 1490. No trace of the above relic now remains. In Ireland this saint is known as St. Fintan-Munnu; but Mundus or Mund is the title which appears in Scottish records.
    Dom Michael Barrett, O.S.B., A Calendar of Scottish Saints (2nd. revised ed., Fort Augustus, 1919), 151-152.
     

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  • 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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