OMNIUM SANCTORUM HIBERNIAE

Tag: Irish Saints

  • Saint Bití of Inis Cumscraigh, July 29

    A County Down monastic saint, Bití (Bitus, Bite) of Inis Cumscraigh, is commemorated on the Irish calendars on July 29. Inis Cumscraigh is today known as Inch, which as the name suggests was once an island on the River Quoile but is now on land close to the town of Downpatrick.  It boasts some very impressive and extensive Cistercian monastic ruins. Inch Abbey was founded in the 1180s by the self-styled ‘Prince of Ulster’, John de Courcy, following his conquest of the area. It was a daughter-house of the Cistercian foundation at Furness in Lancashire, from whom de Courcy commissioned the hagiographer Jocelyn to write a Life of Saint Patrick. I have written about de Courcy, Jocelyn and Saint Patrick in a post at my blog dedicated to the Irish patrons here. But today’s native Irish saint pre-dates both the Normans and the Cistercians. In a 1977 paper archaeologist Dr Ann Hamlin, drawing on the evidence from the Irish calendars and Annals,  provided a useful sketch of the history of the pre-Norman monastery at Inch:

    An earlier name for the island was Inis Cumhscraigh, and it was the site of a pre-Norman monastery. ‘MoBíu of Inis Cúscraid’ is listed at 22 July in the main text of the Martyrology of Oengus, and the entry is glossed ‘i.e. beside Dún dá lethglas’, whilst in the Martyrology of Tallaght ‘Dobí of Inis Causcraid’ appears at 29 July. The Martyrology of Oengus was written between 797 and 805 and the Martyrology of Tallaght  a little earlier, so these references provide firm evidence for a pre-Viking church on the island. Several annal entries refer to the site in the eleventh and twelfth centuries. In 1001 ‘Sitric, son of Amhlaeibh, set out on a predatory excursion into Ulidia, in his ships, and he plundered Cill-Cleithe [Kilclief] and Inis-Cumhscraigh, and carried off many prisoners from both (Annals of the Four Masters, also Annals of Tigernach). The Annals of Ulster record the death of ‘Ocan Ua Cormacain, herenagh of Inis Cumscraigh’ in 1061, and in 1149 Inis-Cumscraidh was plundered together with other churches in the area (AFM). The erenagh of Insecumscray was among the witnesses to the foundation charter of Newry abbey in about 1153. These references collectively suggest that a church and perhaps some form of monastic life did continue on the island into the twelfth century.

    Ann Hamlin, A Recently Discovered Enclosure at Inch Abbey, County Down, Ulster Journal of Archaeology Third Series, Vol. 40 (1977), 85-86.

    Saint Bití is the second saint named in connection with this monastery with a feast falling just seven days (and thus within the octave) of that of Saint MoBíu commemorated on July 22. Canon O’Hanlon, in his entry for July 29 in Volume VII of his Lives of the Irish Saints feels that they are probably the same person:

    Festival of St. Bitus or Bite, of Inis Cumscraigh, now Inch, or Inniscumhscray, Strangford Lough, County of Down. 

    According to the Martyrology of Tallagh, veneration was given, at the 29th of July, to Bitus or Bite, of Innsi Caumscridh. This holy man is called Bute, or perhaps Byte, by Marianus O’Gorman. That island or rather peninsula is beautifully situated in Strangford Lough, and nearly opposite to Downpatrick, county of Down. Some interesting ruins are yet seen in this place. An abbey or a monastery stood here – as has been already observed – before the erection of one, which has been founded by the Anglo-Norman warrior, John de Courcey. When the present saint flourished has not been ascertained. In the Martyrology of Donegal, we find an entry of Bite of Inis Cumhscraigh, at the 29th of July. We are inclined to think, that the present holy man is not distinct from the Abbot so called, and who is celebrated on the 22nd day of this month, where an account of him has been already given.

    Canon O’Hanlon’s account of Saint MoBíu can be read at the blog here.

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  • Saint Davog of Lough Derg, July 24

    July 24 is one of the three feast days assigned to Saint Davog (Dabheoc) of Lough Derg, County Donegal, home to the medieval pilgrimage site of Saint Patrick’s Purgatory. As this day falls within the pilgrimage season it is the one on which the memory of this early saint is marked on the island itself. As you can see from the photograph above (taken on my last visit) Saint Davog gives his name to one of the boats which ferries pilgrims to the island. You can also see the beautiful marble statue of the saint in the basilica and hear the current Prior recite a prayer to Saint Davog by clicking on this link. I have already posted a full account of Saint Davog on his January 1 feast day here, but below we have a reminder of his career from Irish Anglican writer St. John Drelincourt Seymour (1880-1950), who penned a number of interesting historical studies including Saint Patrick’s Purgatory: a Medieval Pilgrimage in Ireland:

    At one time Station Island was known as St. Dabheoc’s Island, from which the cave and surrounding district took the name of Termon-Dabheoc. This saint, whose name sometimes appears under such forms as Beoc and Mobheoc, following a recognised method of treating Irish saints’ names, and is latinized Dabeocus, Abogus, Arvogus, and perhaps Beanus, is held to be the patron saint of Lough Derg. Three festivals were annually held in his honour viz., January 1st, July 24th, and December 16th. In the Martyrology of Tallaght occurs the following allusion to him:

    “Aedh, Lochagerg, alias Daibheog.”

    Lochagerg, or Loch Gerg, being other forms of Lough Derg. St. Cummian of Connor, in his poem on the characteristic virtues of Irish Saints, credits him with performing the following austerities, which were also practised by other persons eminent for sanctity in Ireland and the East:

    “Mobheoc the gifted, loved,
    According to the synod of the learned,
    That often in bowing his head
    He plunged it under water.”
    His memory is still perpetuated in the townland-denomination of Seeavoc on the southern extremity of the lake. This name means “St. Dabheoc’s Seat,” and this curious structure may still be seen in the vicinity, though it is not now reckoned as on the above townland.

    It is certain that at some remote date a saint named Dabheoc lived at Lough Derg, and was very probably the original founder of the monastery there. Beyond this all is mere conjecture. There exists some uncertainty as to whether there were not two saints of the same name connected with the spot, the one a Welshman, son of a king named Brecan, who ruled over a district now represented by Brecknock, the other an Irishman, descended from Dichu, St. Patrick’s convert. But that an important Celtic monastery flourished here at an early date is made certain by the irrefragable arguments of stone. On Saints’ Island are the remains of an ancient oratory and cemetery, while the large lis, or circular earthen enclosure there, probably marks the site of the original monastic establishment. On Station Island are the remains of the “penal beds,” which so great an authority as Wakeman, after a careful examination, considered to be the ruins of what were originally bee-hive oratories, probably of the ninth century, of which examples are to be found along the west coast of Ireland. It seems probable that the two islands were held as one by the Celtic monks, forming together the monastery of Lough Derg. Add to the above the remains of carved stones, inscribed monuments, and fragments of crosses, and some small conception may be formed of its erstwhile importance.

    But, as unfortunately happens so often in Ireland, the mists settle down very speedily, and the history of the site is blotted out. Under the year 721 the Four Masters record the death of Cillene of Lough Derg, who was probably an inmate, or perhaps abbot, of the establishment. It is quite probable that at some unrecorded date the monastery was wiped out by the Danish invaders in their terrible forays.
    Rev. St. John D. Seymour, Saint Patrick’s Purgatory: a Medieval Pilgrimage in Ireland (Dundalk, n.d. 1918?) 11-13.

     

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  • The Larks of Glendalough

     

    June 3 is the feast of Saint Kevin of Glendalough, a saint in whom there has been a revival of interest in recent decades thanks to his status as a poster boy for ‘Celtic Christianity’. This movement claims that our native saints were especially in tune with the natural environment and as a result enjoyed a special relationship with the animal creation. And no anthology of ‘Celtic Christianity’ is complete without a reference to one of the most famous episodes from Saint Kevin’s hagiography – the sheltering of a nesting bird in his outstretched, praying hands until her young have fledged. It is a theme which has also inspired poets (including the late Seamus Heaney), and below is a 1905 example, The Larks of Glendalough, by Thomas Walsh. It is striking that Walsh has chosen the lark here for most retellings of this tale, which originated in the History and Topography of Ireland by the twelfth-century chronicler, Gerald of Wales, identify the avian as a blackbird. I am left wondering therefore if Walsh has conflated the story of the blackbird which nests in Saint Kevin’s palm with another legend of Glendalough which seeks to explain why the song of the lark is never heard over the site. This lark legend is bound up with the construction of the Seven Churches of Glendalough and here it is as told to a mid-nineteenth-century traveller to Ireland by his guide, a Mr. Winder:

    Among the portentous events that my friend Mr. Winder told me was this,— that for 1,300 years the skylark had never been heard to warble over the lake, because St. Kevin prayed that it might never have the power to do so; and the reason was, that the men who were building the city where the Seven Churches stand had made a vow to commence their work each day as soon as the lark rose, and not to leave off till the sun had set. They kept their vow, and were in consequence so worn out with fatigue, that many of them died; when St. Kevin, out of compassion, offered up his prayers that no lark should henceforth rise into the air — the prayer was granted, and ‘the plague was stayed.’ All this is firmly believed. Subsequent to this, a man, who was driving me in a jaunting-car, told me that it was as true as we were sitting in the car that the skylark was never heard to warble over the lake for 1,300 years, though it was heard commonly outside the Seven Churches, at the distance of a few hundred yards. I asked him, if he did not think that skylarks preferred warbling over cornfields rather than over lakes?”

              The tourist’s illustrated hand-book for Ireland, (London, 1854), 42. 

    The lark legend thus seems quite distinct from that of Saint Kevin and the Blackbird. I have not been able to find out any more about our poet Thomas Walsh but, whether or not he has confused his Glendalough bird legends here, his poem at least has the merit of depicting Saint Kevin as someone engaged in the monastic life. Indeed, Walsh seems to be describing Saint Kevin using the ancient prayer posture known as crois-fhigill, cross-vigil, where the arms are outspread in imitation of Christ’s position on the cross. Overall, although it is typical of the sentimental verse published in the popular religious press of this time, I find The Larks of Glendalough charming:
     
    The Larks of Glendalough
    By Thomas Walsh

    All night the gentle saint had prayed,
    And, heedless of the thrush and dove,
    His radiant spirit still delayed
    To hear the seraph choirs above.

    So still he knelt — his arms outspread,
    His head thrown backward from his breast —
    A lark across the casement sped,
    And in his fingers built its nest.

    The angel music from his soul
    Receded with the flood of day;
    Through Glendalough the sunlight stole
    And brushed the mists and dews away.

    ’Twas then the saint beheld the bird
    Serenely nesting in his hand,
    And murmured, “Ah, if thou hadst heard
    The matins in that seraph land!”

    Then, soft again he turned to pray;
    Nor moved his arm at even close
    Or matin call from day to day
    Until their nestling voices rose.

    And when his loving task was done,
    Above his cell he heard them cry: —
    “O Kevin, Kevin! Gentle one !
    We bear to heaven thy soul’s reply!”

    The Rosary Magazine, Volume 26, (January-June 1905), 18.

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