OMNIUM SANCTORUM HIBERNIAE

Tag: Irish Saints

  • Saint Buite of Monasterboice, December 7

    The monastic site at Monasterboice, County Louth is most famous today as the home of the Cross of Muiredach, one of the finest examples of a High cross to be found in Ireland. Less well-known perhaps is the founder of the monastery, Saint Buite, who flourished in the sixth century. His feast on December 7 is well attested in the Irish calendars. The Martyrology of Oengus records for this day:

    7. With the passion of Polycarp
    with his noble, streamy train,
    the bright feast of victorious Buite,
    from treasurous Monaster(boice).

     to which the later scholiast has added some notes attempting an etymology for the saint’s name:

    of Buite, from Manistir in Mag Breg. Buite, i.e. living. Or bute, i.e. fire as is said in the proverb bot fo Bregaib ‘fire throughout Bregia,’ whence is now said butelach, i.e. where there has been a great fire.- Or bute quasi bete, from beatus. Beatus autem dicitur quasi bene auctus, for fair was his aggrandizement, a star manifesting his conception, as happened at the manifestation of Christ. Or bute quasi beo De, for unto God (Dia) he was alive (beo), as hath been written’ ‘they which live shall not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto Him which died for them and rose again,’ doing in this world, not their own will, but His who suffered for them. 

    Bute son of Bronach, son of Balar, son of Cass, son of Nia, son of Airmedach, son of Fergus, son of Isinchan, son of Fiacc.

    The Martyrology of Donegal follows the attempts to explain the derivation of the saint’s name, but adds that in the list of parallel saints Buite is likened to the Venerable Bede:

    7. E. SEPTIMO IDUS DECEMBRIS. 7. 

    BUITE, i.e., Boetius, Bishop of the Monastery. It was in the year of our Lord 520 that he died, i.e., the day on which Colum Cille was born, as stated in the Life of Buite himself. Buite, son of Bronach of Mainister-Buithe, was of the race of Connla, son of Tadhg, son of Cian, son of Oilioll Oluim. A very ancient old-vellum-book, mentioned at Brighit, 1st of February, states that Buite, son of Bronach, and Beda the Wise, had a resemblance to each other in habits and life. 

    “The bright festival of Buite the Victorious” 

    Buite that is, he is called Beo or Buite, which signifies ‘fire’ ut in proverbio dicitur, & etc. Bot fo breghaibh, (Fire under liars), unde dicitur hodie ‘Butelach’, i.e., ubi fit magnus ignis. Buite, however, is quasi Beti ab eo, quod est beatus. Beatus autem dicitur, quasi bene auctus vel aptus for it was a great increase of honour to him that a star manifested his birth, as it manifested the birth of Christ. Or Buite, quasi Beode, because God was life to him : sicut scriptum est, “Qui vivunt jam non sibi vivant sed ei qui pro ipsis mortuus est, et resurrexit; non suam seculi in hoc mundo voluntatem [facientes], sed ejus qui pro ipsis passus est.”

    So there is much to discover about ‘Buite the fair and vigorous’ as the Martyrology of Marianus O’Gorman calls him. He has thus joined the long list of saints about whom I need to undertake more research. In the meantime though, here is a short introduction to his life from an early guide book to the area:

    MONASTERBOICE

     Home of Ireland’s Crosses

    The story of Monasterboice dates back to the sixth century, but like so many other settlements of that period, the facts available regarding its construction and inhabitants are few. It is known, however, that the monastery was founded by an ecclesiastic named Buite, a descendant of one of the chieftains of Munster.


    He lived until the year 520 A.D. so it is considered more than likely that he, at some stage of his youth, came into direct contact with St. Patrick. He travelled extensively through Italy, Germany and England before beginning work on the Monasterboice monastery on his return to Ireland.

    In the course of his travels throughout Ireland Buite is said to have cured many people, sometimes in the strangest ways. Once, a blind man, carrying a cripple, pleaded with Buite to cure them of their infirmities and were told to anoint themselves in the water through which his carriage had passed. They did so and were cured.

    On another occasion while hastening to save the life of a captive of the High King he found the river Boyne, which he had to cross, swollen in flood. But when he struck the water with his staff a passage was cleared for him and, like another Moses, he crossed safely.

    To his dismay he found the prisoner had already been beheaded. But, Buite proceeded to replace the head and restore the man to life. Legend has it that thereafter the restored man spent the remainder of his days tending the monastic garden at Monasterboice.

    Many other stories are told of his works which resulted in cures for people and animals. But, perhaps the strangest of all was the manner in which Buite is reputed to have died. Walking one day in the monastery cemetery he was filled with a desire for death and he is said to have ascended a ladder provided by angels.

    The other monks watched in amazement, but Buite returned with a disc of glass in front of his face which enabled him to see without being seen. He remained with his monks for several more months and before he died foretold of the coming of St. Colmcille, who it is thought, was born on the same day.

    K. MacGowan, The Boyne Valley (Dublin, n.d.), 23-4.

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  • Saint Gobban of Old Leighlin, December 6

    The exact feast day and identity of the Saint Gobban commemorated on December 6 is the subject of some confusion and debate. The Martyrology of Oengus records:

    6. The feast of Gobban, shout of thousands!
    with a train of great martyrdom,
    the angelic rampart,
    the virginal
    abbot, lucid descendant of Lan.

    Notes
    6. of Gobban i.e. of Cell Lamraide in Hui Cathrenn in the west of Ossory, i.e. a thousand monks it had, as experts say.

    angelic wall, i.e. angels founded the wall of his church for him.

    Lane, i.e. an old tribe, which was once in the south of Ireland, and of them was Gobban.

    Is this holy abbot the founder of the monastery at Old Leighlin? The problem is that there are a number of saintly Gobbans listed in the Irish calendars, including one ‘Goibhenn, of Tigh Scuithin’, who is commemorated on 23 May. He too has been identified with the founder of Old Leighlin. In the notes he contributed to the revision of the classic work on Irish monastic foundations, the Monasticon Hibernicum, Bishop Moran (following the authority of Colgan) accepts, however, that the Saint Gobban commemorated on December 6 is the founder of the monastery at Old Leighlin:

    St. Gobban was the founder of the monastery of Leighlin. There are several saints of that name in the Irish Calendars, but Colgan judged that most probably our saint was the “St. Gobban of Kill-Lamraidhe, in the west of Ossory,” who is honoured on the 6th of December: “Hunc Gobanum existimo fuisse ilium celebrem mille monachorum patrem qui postea Ecclesiam de Kill-Lamhraighe rexit” (Acta SS. p. 750). The “Martyrology of Donegal” styles him ” Gobban Fionne, of Kill-Lamhraidhe, in Ui-Cathrenn, in the west of Ossory. . . A thousand monks was the number of his convent, and it is at Clonenagh his relics are preserved. He was of the race of Eoghan Mor, son of Oilioll Olum” (p. 327). St. Laserian having visited the monastery about the year 600, St. Gobban, struck with his many virtues, placed it entirely under his charge, and went himself to found another religious house at Kill-Lamhraige, in a western district of Ossory.

    Monasticon Hibernicum or A Short Account of the Ancient Monasteries of Ireland in Irish Ecclesiastical Record, Vol 6 (1869), 198-99.

    This identification was also accepted by Father Comerford in his 1886 history of the dioceses of Kildare and Leighlin:

    Annals of Clonenagh

    A.D. 639. St. Gobban, who founded the monastery of Old Leighlin, and afterwards resigned it to St. Laserian, retiring in 632 to Killamery in Ossory, died this year and was interred at Clonenagh. His feast was observed on the 6th of December.

    “Gobban’s feast, a shout of thousands, with a train of great martyrdom, angelic wall, abbot of virginity, lucid descendant of Lane.” (Feil. Aeng.)

    The Gloss in Leab. Br. and entry in Mart. Donegal state that “in Clonenagh are Gobban’s relics.”

    Rev M Comerford” Collections relating to the Dioceses of Kildare and Leighlin” Vol. 3(1886) 

    The sources relating to Saint Gobban preserve the tradition that after founding an important monastery at Old Leighlin, he later committed it to the care of Saint Laisren (Molaise, feastday April 18) and retired to another foundation in Ossory. The Life of Saint Laisren, as preserved in the Salamanca MS, describes how this transfer of leadership took place:

    (S.8 continued.) The holy abbot Gobanus and his followers served God there. When he heard of the arrival of the man of God [Laisren] he went to meet him and after greeting him led him reverently to the monastery. As they came to the door of the monastery, a certain woman then carrying the body of her son who had been beheaded by robbers, earnestly begged St Lasrianus in the name of God that he might restore her son to life. His feelings of pity were stirred by the lamentations of the mother and he turned to his usual help of prayer, and having placed the head beside its body he restored the dead man to life and gave him back to his mother. Then blessed Gobanus made a treaty of spiritual brotherhood with him, giving him the place and everything in it and setting up a monastery for himself in another place.

    Colum Kenny, Molaise – Abbot of Leighlin and Hermit of Holy Island, (Morrigan Press, 1998), 47-48.

    So, we cannot say with complete confidence that the saint commemorated on December 6 is the founder of the monastery of Old Leighlin, but the Martyrology of Oengus makes it clear that it regarded ‘the virginal abbot, lucid descendant of Lan’ as an important monastic figure.

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

  • Saint Colman of Kilroot, October 16

    Photo credit: Kilroot Power Station for J4388

    October 16 is the feast of a northern saint, Colman of Kill-Ruaidh, now known as Kilroot, County Antrim. Natives of this part of the world today associate Kilroot with the power station which can be seen across Belfast Lough, so the locality continues to shed light, albeit of a type unknown to its saintly patron. The account below has been taken from the revised edition of Archdall’s Monasticon Hibernicum, with notes contributed by Bishop (later Cardinal) P.F. Moran, which was serialized in the Irish Ecclesiastical Record:

    Kill-Ruaidh, called in mediaeval records, Kilroigh, Kilruaigh, Kilroe, and Kilrothe, gave name to the present parish of Kilroot. The “Felire of Oengus” mentions St. Colman in connection with this church on the 16th of October:

    “Colman of Kill-Ruaidh,” and the “Gloss” adds : “Colman, bishop, son of Cathbadh, of Kill-Ruaidh, on the bank of Loch-Laig, in Ulidia” and the “Martyrology of Donegal” also writes, on the same day: “Colman, bishop of Kill-Ruaidh, in Dal-Araidhe, on the brink of Loch Laoigh, in Uladh.” Lough-Laoigh was not Lough-Neagh, as Archdall supposes, but the modern Belfast Lough. Close upon its Antrim coast, in the townland Kilroot) is a churchyard of the same name, which still retains some traces of the ancient church. From the “Life of St. Mac Nisse” we learn that St. Colman was still a boy whilst this saint was bishop of Connor. He is there called “Colmanus Episcopus, qui Ecclesiam nomine Kellruaid fundavit” (Ada SS. Bolland, Sept. I, 665); and the learned Franciscan, Ward, adds the note: “S. Colmanus fuit Episcopus Kill-Ruadhensis, quae nunc obsoleta sedes est in Aradeorum regione (i.f., Dalaradia) ad oram stagni Juvenci vulgo Loch-Laodh in Ultonia ubi ejus festum tamquam patroni colitur xvi. Octobris.” The “Annals of the Four Masters” and the “Annals of Ulster” record, at 1122, that Connor Mac Lochlin, with an army from Tyrone, laid waste “Kill-Ruaidh, in Ulster,” and carried away great spoil.
    From the “Life of St. Ailbhe, of Emly” we glean a few interesting particulars regarding the first foundation of this ancient church. It is stated there that, “St. Ailbhe, like an industrious bee with its load of honey, returned from Rome, under the Divine guidance, to his native Ireland. And when he arrived at the sea he blessed it, and, with a breathless calm, he and his whole company crossed its waters in a frail ship uninjured, and landed on the north coast of Ireland. And there, at Ailbhe’s order, one of his disciples called Colman, founded a church named Cill-ruaidh. And whereas the spot was unprovided with fresh water, St. Ailbhe blessed a stone, in the name of God omnipotent, and forthwith there gushed from it a stream of water. Then said St. Colman to Ailbhe, “The water is scanty;” to whom Ailbhe replied: “Though the water is scanty, it will never fail; but will be a running stream as long as the world lasts.” Therefore the name of the stream is called Buanan Cylle Ruayd, i.e, the “Unfailing Stream of Kill-ruaidh.” (Codex Kilken. Marsh’s Libr. fol 136, b). The Irish Franciscan, Father MacCana, visited the spot about 1640, and closed his “Itinerary” with the following note regarding it: “Not far from Carrickfergus, on the east, is the church of Kill-ruaidh, which the English call Killread. In all times it was celebrated, and, even in my time, and that of my forefathers, it was always one of the residences of the bishops of Connor. The church was endowed in former ages with very ample possessions, and, even in my day, it was provided with no mean appurtenances. Of this place mention is made in the ‘Life of St. Albeus.”