OMNIUM SANCTORUM HIBERNIAE

Tag: Irish Saints

  • Saint Ita: The Forgotten Princess

    January 15 is the feast of Saint Ita of Killeedy. In 2006 County Waterford man, James Dunphy, published a book called  St Ita: the Forgotten
    Princess    .  He brought together a collection of episodes from
    the saint’s Life, the Vita Santae Ytae,
    interspersed with folklore, poems, prayers and photographs from a
    variety of locations identified with the saint. Among the stories Mr Dunphy collected is this one on pages 185-7 concerning the building of
    Gortroe Church, County Cork, from a lady born in 1907 and named in honour of Saint
    Ita:

    Early one morning, Hannah O’Neill, grandmother
    of Ita O’Neill, had a dream, a vision about St. Ita. Many centuries ago,
    their ancestor and his people had lost their lives in a battle in
    Gortroe defending the young Ita from the ‘Mad Prince’. Now, Ita, the
    Warrior Princess, wanted a church and school built on the site of the
    battlefield.

    In the morning before rising, Hannah O’Neill made
    her husband promise he would do all in his power to carry out the
    saint’s wishes and make them known to the people of Clonpriest and the
    surrounding area. Everybody agreed that as a people they should give it
    their best effort. Where was the money to come from, now that times were
    poor? God and St. Ita would provide when the time came, they said. So
    be it.

    ..it was decided they they should go to Lord Ponsonby and
    ask him for a site. He was amenable towards the proposal and not only
    did he provide a site, he donated some money to start the effort going.
    It was suggested that anybody with relations in America should contact
    them and ask them to raise funds for their church too.

    Most had
    relations in Boston, so some of the emigrants went to the Bishop there
    to ask for permission to raise funds. One such emigrant was Sean
    O’Donnacadha from Killbarrymeaden. He came from a parish and townland
    where St Ita was well known and had a job as a foreman in a construction
    company.

    After two years or more, he had a significant amount
    of money raised, but now his troubles began. He had many begging letters
    from churches in Boston and his own county Waterford. His sister and
    her husband told him he should send money home to his mother and orphan
    daughter. He even got threats to hand over the money to some
    undesirables. The honourable man that he was, he refused to bow to any
    of the requests to him and sent the money home with a trustworthy man
    from Gortroe whose father had died.

    When the work began, help
    came from all quarters. All the farmers gave a horse and cart and there
    were several stonemasons among the locals. ..John O’Neill was foreman
    and he devoted all his time to building St. Ita’s church. It was
    finished in 1907, eight years after the Virgin Ita appeared to Hannah
    O’Neill. A beautiful stained glass window which was donated by Hannah
    and her husband John depicts our saint Ita and there is also an
    inspiring picture of St. Ita measuring 6ft by 4ft, which was
    presented by a young girl, Kate O’Neill. It cost the magnificent sum of
    five pounds at that time.

    There is a photograph of this
    painting and it indeed looks most impressive, depicting the saint much
    as Saint Brigid appears in iconography of the period – as an abbess with
    her staff, holding a church in her hand. Nonagenarian Ita O’Neill, born
    in the same year as the church was completed, was looking forward to
    celebrating its centenary and I very much hope that she did.

    What
    struck me about this account was that although these events took place
    in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, they read like
    something straight out of the pages of medieval hagiography. All of the
    classic elements seemed to be there – the sense of place and link to the
    saint, her will revealed through a dream/vision and difficulties in
    fulfilling the saint’s wishes overcome by the fidelity of the humble
    parishioners to the task they had undertaken. I found the sense of
    continuity with the medieval past in this modern narrative quite
    compelling.

    Below are the details of the book from Amazon’s US site:

    Product Description

    St.
    Ita: The Forgotten Princess is the result of inspiration James Dunphy
    received after the death of a dear friend some years ago. In the
    intervening time, he has spent many months in researching the story of
    this unique Saint, who was born a Princess, became a Holy Woman and
    Warrior and who was the cause of the conversion of many to Christianity.
    Her battles with the Druids; her ministry to the people of Munster and
    Leinster in the southern half of Ireland and the story of her own
    spirituality, form the basis of this fascinating story about a woman and
    Saint who is sometimes forgotten in this modern age, but reminders of
    whom appear regularly in churches and placenames around Ireland and in
    the lands where our Missionaries laboured for centuries.

    Time
    and again, Princess Ita, daughter of King Kennfoelad and Queen Necta,
    born on the banks of the River Suir, and with Divine help, proved too
    powerful for the forces of darkness which opposed the introduction of
    Christianity to Ireland.

    The story of St. Ita, her sister
    Eannaigh and her association with her fellow Saints of the time, Declan,
    Brendan, Mochoemog and Finnan is a fascinating one and guarantees that
    St. Ita will never be forgotten in her native place.

    Paperback: 222 pages
    Publisher: Trafford Publishing (January 27, 2006)
    Language: English
    ISBN-10: 1412077788
    ISBN-13: 978-1412077781

     

     

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  • Saint Tuilelaith of Kildare

    On January 10 Canon O’Hanlon brings us an an account of a ninth-century abbess of Kildare. The name of Saint Tuillelaith is recorded in the Irish annals rather than in the calendars.  Her memory was preserved in the works of  the seventeenth-century Franciscan hagiologists, Fathers John Colgan and Michael O’Clery.  The latter, in association with a team of other Donegal Franciscans, produced The Annals of the Four Masters, recording the history of Ireland from earliest times up to their own day. It simply records: 

    The Age of Christ, 882 

    …Tuilelaith,  daughter  of  Uarghalach, Abbess  of  Cill-dara,  died on the 10th of  January… 

    Father Colgan undertook the mammoth task of researching and writing the Acta Sanctorum Hiberniae, but sadly only lived to produce the volumes for the first three months of the year.

     As the name of this successor to Saint Brigid is the only information we have about her, Canon O’Hanlon piously muses on the vocation of Abbess Tuilelaith in Article IV for this day in Volume I of his Lives of the Irish Saints:

    Article IV. St. Tulelacia, or Tuillelaith, Abbess of Kildare. 
     [Ninth Century]
     
    This holy superioress is called the daughter of Huargalach. Her tender soul eagerly imbibed heavenly doctrine, and was wonderfully affected with the things of God. After a time, when she had grown up, she dedicated herself to Him, and took delight in nothing else but in thinking, speaking, or hearing of her Heavenly Spouse, and entertaining herself with His Divine love. She was Abbess of Kildare; and, according to Colgan, she died on the 10th of January, A.D. 882. This date also agrees with one in the Annals of the Four Masters, where she is called Tuilelaith, daughter of Uarghalach. True virtue breathed around her an atmosphere of holiness which all her subjects felt. It seemed something marvellous to meet with one so pure-minded, and so unsuspecting of evil in a world of corruption.

    Content Copyright © Omnium Sanctorum Hiberniae 2012-2023. All rights reserved.

  • Saint Joseph of Tallaght, January 5

    January 5 is the feast of an Irish Saint Joseph, a County Dublin saint associated with the monastery of Tallaght. The calendars record that he was a bishop, but alas, nothing else. Canon O’Hanlon in his account of Saint Joseph focuses for the most part on the monastery at Tallaght and the annual commemoration of its founder Saint Maelruain.  He ends by noting another episcopal bearer of the name Joseph whose death is recorded in the annals in the ninth century:

    Article IV. St. Joseph, Bishop of Tallagh, County of Dublin.

    Many old scenes of monastic life in Ireland are yet venerable and still endeared to popular recollection. Within the walled and enclosed graveyard of Tallagh, where, on a gentle eminence, stands the present Protestant church, the tall tower of a more ancient religious edifice may be seen. This formed the west entrance and porch to the more ancient church, the very foundations of which are now quite obliterated; although early in the present century the building itself had been used for Protestant services. The tower contains in the second story a bell; but above it are opes, in which probably a peal of three small bells had been formerly placed. It is connected by a covered passage with the Protestant church, the vestry of which is the under-part of this old tower. Not far from the site of the obliterated church, and on the southern side of the cemetery, is shown the pedestal of an old stone cross, bedded in the earth, and at the head of a high grave are the arms of an old granite cross, which at one time surmounted the plinth. The intermediate shaft seems to have been broken, nor are its fragments discoverable. Here, it is said, St. Melruan, the patron of Tallagh, lies interred. Every year, on the 7th of July, at Tallagh, and from time immemorial, the inhabitants have been accustomed to walk from the adjoining village in procession, bearing a long pole, crowned with natural flowers, to the site of St. Melruan’s grave. The standard-bearer carries what is locally called “the garland”, seven times in a walking circuit around the grave: then all the processionists return to the village, after prayers have been said at the spot. The pole is carefully set aside, until required for floral decoration the following year. This custom is probably but the remnant of an ancient processional and solemn religious service in memory of St. Melruan. The site of his grave is held to be sacred, and no person is allowed to be interred there. The people are accustomed to measure their family places of interment, as being so many feet or so many yards from the grave of Tallagh’s holy patron.

    Few other antique monuments are now to be seen, although there is a tradition, that very ancient Irish inscriptions had been read on tombs and crosses there during the last century. These have all disappeared, but many are probably buried in the soil beneath.

    This day the published Martyrology of Tallagh registers a festival in honor of Joseph, Bishop of Tamlachtan. In addition to this entry of the calendar, having its origin at his own locality, we read in the Martyrology of Donegal,  that Joseph, Bishop of Tamlacht-Maelruain, set down on this day, was venerated among our national saints. This name was no unusual one, in the early period of our Christian history. It is pleasing to discover, that the chaste spouse of the Immaculate Blessed Virgin Mary gave name to this holy man.

    Under the heading of Tamlacht, Duald Mac Firbis enters the present Joseph, Bishop of Tamlacht Maolruain, for January the 5th. In the Irish Ordnance Survey Extracts for Dublin County his name occurs.

    Another distinguished ecclesiastic of this name is found in our Annals. Under the head of Claun-uais, Duald Mac Firbis and the Four Masters enter Joseph of Ros-mor, who was an eminent bishop and scribe of Cluain-uais. He died in 839. He presided over other churches.

    Content Copyright © Omnium Sanctorum Hiberniae 2012-2023. All rights reserved.