OMNIUM SANCTORUM HIBERNIAE

Tag: Irish Saints

  • Saint Cairpre Crom of Clonmacnoise, March 6

     

    On March 6 the Irish calendars commemorate a 9th-century successor to Saint Ciarán at Clonmacnoise, Cairpre Crom. Described as a bishop, he features in a curious piece of apocryphal literature in which by his prayers and those of his community he rescues the soul of an Irish king’s son from purgatory. Canon O’Hanlon in Volume III of his Lives of the Irish Saints cites the evidence for the saint’s feast day on the various calendars and recounts the story of Cairpre Crom and the suffering soul of Maelsechlainn:

    Article III. — St. Cairpre or Corpre Crom, Bishop of Clonmacnoise, King’s County. [Ninth Century.]  

    The days of this holy man were cast, in a dangerous period; for, the Danish and Norwegian invasions were then rife, over many districts, in Ireland. Yet, the heirship of sanctity did not depart from our island, and the present bishop was renowned, in his time. From various sources, Colgan and the Bollandists have legendary Acts of this St. Corpre, at the 6th of March, on which day we find him noted, as Carpre cruim [no Cruinn], in the Martyrology of Tallagh. The designation Crom, meaning “crooked,” or “curved,” had probably some relation to a personal deformity. Bishop Challoner commemorates him, at this date. So Marianus O’Gorman and Cathal Maguire, likewise, record his feast. We find entered, on this day, in the Martyrology of Donegal, Cairpre Crom, who was son of Feradhach, son to Lughaidh, son of Dalian, son to Bresal, son of Maine Mor, from whom descend the Ui Maine, of the race of Colla da chroich.

    This saint belonged to the posterity of Heremon. It is probable, he was born, in the earlier part of the ninth century, and that he belonged to the community, at Clonmacnoise. He succeeded to the Blessed Moeldarius, or Maelodhar, Bishop of this place, who died in the year 886. Cairpre Crom is styled. Bishop of Cluain-mic Nois, and head of the religion of the greater part of Erinn, in his time. Hence, we may infer the great eminence, as an ecclesiastic, he attained.

    The legend of Coirpre Crom, Bishop of Clonmacnoise, who died A.D. 899, and of Melaghlan or Malachy, Monarch of Ireland, who died A.D. 860, is contained in the Leabhar Breac, which belongs to the Royal Irish Academy. In the O’Longan Manuscripts, R.I.A., Dublin, there is an ancient prose legend, regarding St. Ciarain of Cluain Mac Nois and Cairbre Crom. This is likewise contained in Scholia, affixed to the Festilogy of St. Aengus. From this, Colgan infers the Acts of St. Carpre were formerly extant, and that this fragment may be deemed an excerpt, which the O’Clerys have thus abridged. It is stated, that to Corpre was shown the spirit of Maelsechlainn, son of Maelruanaidh, King of Erinn, according to an old legend. To their account, the O’Clerys append the following observation: A.D. 1022, on the 4th of the Nones of September,  Maelsechlainn died. On a certain day, when Cairpre was praying alone in his church, after vespers, he saw a coal-black figure, coming towards him, so that it stood in his presence. The bishop asked who he was when the apparition answered, that it was Maelsechlainn, son of Maelruanaidh, and he told him every kind of pain which he was suffering in Purgatory, with other particulars, besides the cause why himself and. his spiritual director had been thus punished. Then we are told, that the bishop undertook to make intercession for the king; and, he ordered certain priests to pray for the priest, to bring him from pains. The bishop announced, that he should himself pray for the king. They did so, respectively, and to the end of the half year. As Cairpre was at prayer, towards the end of that period, he saw the king coming towards him, and half-speckled; when, he returned thanks to the bishop, for what had been done for him. The king then implored him to do the same, until the end of another half-year. The clerics obeyed this request, while they fasted and prayed fervently, giving frequent alms, to the end of another half-year. Then the king came in a bright form towards Cairpre, and returned thanks to the holy bishop, for what he had done. The monarch told him, that he should go to heaven, on that day, and that the priest should enter it on the next day. Cairpre asked why the king should go before the priest. The king said, it was owing to the excellence of the bishop’s prayers, and to the superiority of his over the priests’ intercession. This was in allusion to twelve priests, who were at Chiain Mic Nois, at that time. Then, the king, giving thanks to and blessing the bishop, ascended into heaven, in his presence.

    Among other things related, in the year 894, St. Cairbre Crom, with a Synod of Seniors, assisted at a convocation, held at Inis-Aingin, now Hare Island, in Lough Ree, on the River Shannon. At this time, the place itself was invaded, by the people of Connaught. A man was mortally wounded there, and the shrine of Ciaran was profaned. This bishop died A.D. 899, according to the “Annals of the Four Masters.” An eloquent and a distinguished bishop of the Church, alluding to the words of a venerated and learned ecclesiastic, has remarked, when we hear of those marvellous things, concerning miracles and visions, the Catholic does not believe, that he is bound to accept them all, since those reported miracles have to be examined, upon the very same laws of evidence, by which any other facts are examined. Thus, in the legend of the present holy prelate, an old tradition is here set down, but solely as a curious illustration of our Irish mediaeval folk-lore implored.

    Note: This post was first published in 2013 but has been revised in 2022.

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  • Saint Fintan's Road: A Legend of Clonenagh

     

    February 17 is the feast of Saint Fintan of Clonenagh. I have previously brought Canon O’Hanlon’s account of the miracles attributed to this great monastic saint here.  Below is another of his contributions on Saint Fintan, this time wearing his other hat as ‘Lageniensis’, the poet. For the Canon was not just a hagiologist but also a folklorist, illustrator and poet. The Irish saints were the subjects of many amateur versifiers in the Victorian popular religious press, but Canon O’Hanlon’s poems were issued in a collection printed by James Duffy and Company in Dublin in 1893. In it he combined all of his interests as the poems are not only inspired by the local folklore of his native County Laois but all of them are copiously annotated with references to saints, placenames and topography etc. 

    St. Fintan’s Road, a Legend of Clonenagh

    The night-clouds were dark, holy Fintan returning,
    Dun, dreary and dismal the prospect before,
    As feebly he journeyed, foot-sore;
    No bright lunar orb in the starless sky burning,
    Soft yielding each step that morass scarce bore,
    For quagmires had sprinkled it o’er.
     
    “Dear grey abbey-walls,” said the saint while approaching,
    “Oh, when shall I find your delightful repose,
    On the fertile and grass-bearing knowes;
    The tempest howls over on wild moss encroaching,
    Tall pines of the wilderness bend as it blows,
    And the danger more fearfully grows.
     
    Pious peasants relate, how that tempest then ceasing
    Unveiled the bright moon, from a covert of shade,
    In all her true glories arrayed,
    When a clear shining star, through the liquid air chasing,
    Led on to his churches a road newly made,
    And in calm were the soughing winds laid.
     
    Even yet, at the lone hour of midnight returning,
    Swains tread on with joy, o’er that causeway secure,
    For their patron will safety insure;
    Nor fear they if midnight be shadowed in mourning,
    While telling their prayers, devoutly and pure,
    To Fintan, the saint of that moor.
     
    ‘St. Fintan’s Road, a Legend of Clonenagh’ in The Poetical Works of Lageniensis (Dublin, 1893), 252-255.

     

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  • Saint Dabheoc of Lough Derg, January 1

    January 1 is the feast of Saint Dabheoc of Lough Derg, a holy man who illustrates many of the difficulties involved in the study of the early medieval Irish saints. First, his name is rendered in a number of different ways in Irish and Latin and thence in English transliteration- Dabheoc, Dobheóg, Davog, Beoc, Mobheoc, Beotius and Abeogus- to name but a few, plus he is credited with three different feast days on various Irish calendars. Secondly, although some of the genealogical sources establish his lineage within the tribe of the Dál bhFiatach of east Ulster, others muddy the waters by suggesting that he was the son of a Saxon princess Díona and her royal consort Brachan, king of the Britons. And it might be said that Saint Dabheoc also illustrates how the cult of a saint does not always remain static but can wax and wane over the centuries. For despite being ‘ranked among the chief saints of Ireland’ by Cuimin of Connor who praised ‘Mobeog, the gifted’ in his hymn in praise of the Irish saints, modern scholar Pádraig Ó Riain feels that as Lough Derg developed into the site of Saint Patrick’s Purgatory in the twelfth century, the earlier Saint Dabheoc began to be overshadowed. The island containing his church, for example, once called Oileán Dobheóg, is now known as Saints Island, just as the parish once called Tearmann Dobheóg, is now called Templecarn. His name continues to live on though in the townland of Seeavoc (Suidhe Dabheog), location of a natural stone feature known as Saint Dabheoc’s Seat, which borders the southern side of Lough Derg. The Annals of Ulster record two separate instances of Saint Dabheoc’s postmortem miraculous powers when the saint revenged himself upon those who despoiled his church. The first is from the year 1070, the second from the year 1196:

    [1070]

    The Termon of [St.] Dabeoc was pillaged by Ruaidri Ua Canannain. And God and Dabeoc avenged before the completion of the year.

    [1196]

    Ua Curin, the son of Bloscadh, pillaged the Termon of [St.] Dabeocc and he himself was killed therefor, with stark slaughter of his people, before the end of a month, through miracle of Dabeocc.

    Rev. B. Mac Carthy, ed. and trans., The Annals of Ulster, Vol. II (Dublin, 1893), 23, 225.

    In a letter dated November 1, 1835, John O’Donovan of the Ordnance Survey recorded his reflections on Saint Dabheoc drawing on the work of the great seventeenth-century Donegal hagiologist, Father John Colgan:

    Colgan, who had more materials before him than any man, who wrote since his time, was able to collect the following facts only about the history of this place; speaking of Daveog, the patron, he says:

    He is called Dabeocus in general, and often Beoanus in Latin. He is the patron of a very celebrated church in a certain lake in Ulster, called Loch-Gerg, in which is that celebrated Purgatory of St. Patrick, whence either the lake itself, or the place in which it lies, is called Gleann Gerc, where in the adjacent territory St. Dabeocus is held in the greatest veneration to the present day, and his festivity is observed three days in every year, according to our Festilogies, viz., on the 1st of January, 24th of July, and 16th of December. So Marian Gorman, Cathal Maguire and the Martyrologies of Tallaght and Donegal. But the Calendar of Cashel places his festival day only on the 16th of December. It is stated in the beginning of the Irish Life that he had foretold several things about the holiness and virtues of St. Columb many years before the latter was born, from which it follows that he flourished in the time of St. Patrick. He is ranked among the chief saints of Ireland by Coimin of Cumber in his book written concerning them. Colgan traces the pedigree of St. Dabheoc to Dichu, St. Patrick’s first convert, from which he infers that he was of the race of the Dalfiatachs and that his country lay about Lecale, in Down.

    Michael Herity, ed. Ordnance Survey Letters Donegal- Letters Containing Information Relative to the Antiquities of the County of Donegal Collected During the Progress of the Ordnance Survey in 1835 (Four Masters Press, Dublin, 2000), 122-123.

    Canon O’Hanlon included an article on Saint Dabheoc, divided into two chapters, in the first volume of his Lives of the Irish Saints. In the first chapter he goes into a great deal of detail about his reputed British ancestry so I have chosen to omit this here and move to the second part which musters the  evidence from the calendars and other sources:

    ARTICLE II.—ST. BEOC, BEOG, MOBHEOC, BEANUS, DABEOC, OR DABHEOC, ABBOT AT LOUGH DERG, TEMPLECARN PARISH, COUNTY OF DONEGAL.

    [FIFTH OR SIXTH CENTURY.]

    In the “Martyrology of Tallagh” we find this insertion: Aedh, Lochagerg, alias Daibheog. We may take it for granted that this saint lived probably about the close of the fifth or the beginning of the sixth century. It is likely he came over from Wales; whether alone or with some of his family does not appear. Probably he landed at first on the eastern or south-eastern coast of Ireland. Thence he travelled northwards, and he appears to have taken possession of a lonely island, which was situated within a lake of some extent among the wilds of Donegal. Afterwards, it became very famous as a place for pilgrimages. While the Saxons extended their conquests over the Britons, here the saint appears to have found a quiet retreat.

    In a wild and romantic district of Templecarn parish, within the barony of Tirhugh, and county of Donegal, the pilgrim or tourist will find the spreading waters of renowned Lough Derg, with its three separate islands. The largest of these was known as the Island of St. Dabeoc. Probably it was so called because there he had been the first founder of a religious establishment. However, Dabeoc had always been regarded as the patron of this place. There, also, three festivals were annually held in his honour, namely, on the 1st of January, on the 24th of July, and on the 16th of December. His name is Latinized Dabeocus, and he is frequently called Beanus.

    A very interesting account of the Island of St. Dabeoc, in Lough Derg, — or the Red Lake — by some writers called Logh-gerg —is given by Sir James Ware. To this an engraving is appended. Here we are presented with a map of this small island, having the Caverna Purgatorii marked upon it. This is centrally situated, while surrounded by a church, houses, and circles or stations dedicated to various saints.  One of the circles is called “Lectus vel Circulus S.Abogi.” By mistake or misprint this latter word must have been intended for Dabhogi or Dabheog.

     At a very early date, this saint lived on the island; but for what term of life does not seem to have been ascertained. Few notices of the place occur  in our ancient annals. We read, in the “Martyrology of Donegal”, that Dabheog belonged to Lough Geirg or Loch-gerc, in Ulster. At the eastern extremity of that lake were to be found Patrick’s Purgatory’s and Dabheog’s Island. Also a monastery of St. Augustine’s Order, in which there were canons, stood at the western extremity of this same lake. It is said to have derived its origin from our saint, and to have been dedicated to the holy Apostles St. Peter and St. Paul. It seems likely that the austere manner of life practised by St. Dabeoc on his island, gave rise to the frequent pilgrimages for penitential exercises at a later time. According to St. Cummin of Connor, in the following translation from his Irish poem on the characteristic virtues of the Irish Saints:

    “Mobeog, the gifted, loved,
    According to the Synod of the learned,
    That often in bowing his head,
    He plunged it under water.”

    Whether or not St. Patrick had any acquaintance with St. Dabeoc can hardly be discovered. But, we are told, while the latter, with his clerics, lived on the island, and when his vigils had been protracted to a late hour one night, a wonderful brightness appeared towards the northern part of the horizon. The clerics asked their master what it portended. “In that direction, whence you have seen the brilliant illumination,” said Dabeog, “the Lord himself, at a future time, shall light a shining lamp, which, by its brightness, must miraculously glorify the Church of Christ. This shall be Columba, the son of Feidlimid, son of Fergus, and whose mother will be Ethnea. For learning he shall be distinguished; in body and soul he shall be chaste; and he shall possess the gifts of prophecy.

    It is stated —but on very insufficient authority— that St. Dabeoc made his religious house subject to the great Abbey of Armagh. On the island, too, there was a fine chapel, and convenient houses for the monks, the remains of which were to be seen before the last century, according to local tradition. St. Dabeoc is reputed to have been there, and the subsequent stories about this island on Lough Derg are fiill of traditional and historic interest.

    The possessions of the original monastery probably gave rise to the denomiaation of Tearmon Dabheog, which lay on both sides and near “Grey, holy Derg of the lake.”

    The Magraths were the hereditary termoners or custodians of the church lands, known as the Termon of St. Daveog, at Lough Derg. Their ruined castle of Termon Magtath, or Termon, as it is more usually called, is popularly believed to have been built by Malmurry, or Myler Magrath. It is situated at the northern extremity of Lough Erne, about half a mile west of the pleasant little town Pettigoe, in the county of Donegal. Like most edifices of the kind, erected in the sixteenth century, it consisted of a strong and massive keep, with circular towers at two of its angles, and encompassed by outworks. The scenery in the immediate vicinity of the castle is very beautiful. With the plantations of Templecarn glebe, and with those of Waterfoot, the lake shores are most delightfully fringed. Thus part we, at present, from the patient, if not discriminating, ordeal of investigation into the present saint’s historical range so remote from our own. Yet, no period or age has sped without exerting some tangible influences on the state of society we inherit. The very aspect of holiness lingers still around the scenes where the saints loved to dwell.

    I will return to Saint Dabheoc on his secondary feast of July 24, the date on which it is currently celebrated at the sanctuary of Lough Derg itself.

     

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