OMNIUM SANCTORUM HIBERNIAE

Tag: Irish Saints

  • 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.

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  • 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.”

  • Saint Cuan, October 15

    Among the saints commemorated on the Irish calendars on October 15, is a saint Cuan. Although the 12th-century Martyrology of Gorman simply names the saint, the later Martyrology of Donegal identifies him with the Cuan mentioned in the hagiography of Saint Moling, when that saint went to plead for the remission of the tribute paid by the men of Leinster to the King of Tara:
    15. A. IDIBUS OCTOBRIS. 15.

    CUAN. I think this is the Cuan, of Cluain-mór, who went along with Moling to request the remission of the Borumha. Thus Moling himself speaks in the history called the Borumha :

    “Dear the three who faced the difficulty,
    Who will go with me for my welfare,
    Dubhthach, Dubhan, who conceals sorrow,
    And Cuan of Cluain-mor.”

    I think that the Cluain-mor, of which he speaks, is Cluainmor-Maedhog, in Leinster.

    If the commentator is correct, this would place Saint Cuan at the monastery of Cluainmór-Maedhog, anglicized as Clonmore Mogue, County Carlow. It was associated with some well-known saints including Saint Fionnán Lobhair and Saint Onchu. The latter assembled a collection of saints’ relics which remained at the site. The monastery thus attracted pilgrims but sadly also attracted the attention of the Vikings who attacked Clonmore on Christmas night in the year 836. The deaths of the abbots of Clonmore and records of attacks on the monastery ranging from the eighth to the eleventh centuries can be found in the Irish annals.

    The most recent authoritative work on the Irish saints, Pádraig Ó Riain’s 2011 A Dictionary of Irish Saints, however, makes no mention of the Moling/Cluain Mór connection but instead lists Cuán of Ahascragh, County Galway at October 15. The saint is known from the genealogical sources, one of which assigns the nickname caoin, ‘pleasant’ to him. The death of our pleasant holy man is also recorded at the year 770 in one set of Irish annals. Finally, the Ordnance Survey letters of the 19th century record the date of a local commemoration of the saint as October 15 under the anglicized name of ‘Cavan’.

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