OMNIUM SANCTORUM HIBERNIAE

Tag: Irish Saints

  • Muirgen The Mermaid Saint, January 27

    The entry in the Martyrology of Donegal at January 27 must rank as one of the strangest notices ever recorded of a holy woman:
    27. F. SEXTO KAL. FEBRUARII. 27
    MUIRGHEIN : i.e., a woman who was in the sea, whom the Books call Liban, daughter of Eochaidh, son of Muireadh ; she was about three hundred years under the sea, till the time of the saints, when Beoan the saint took her in a net, so that she was baptized, after having told her history and her adventures.
    The earlier calendar of Saint Oengus also records Muirgen on 27th January:
    F. vi. kl. My God loved Muirgen,
    A miraculous triumphant being ;
    They achieved bright victories in presence of kings
    Agna and Conx, virgins.
    and the holy virgin, Murgeilt, is commemorated at the vi. of the February Kalends, i.e. the 27th of January, in the Scottish Kalendar of Drummond.
    She also features in the Annals of the Four Masters:
    The Age of Christ, 558.
    In this year was taken the Mermaid, i.e. Liban, the daughter of Eochaidhn, son of Murieadh, on the strand of Ollarba, in the net of Beoan, son of Inli, the fisherman of Comghall of Beannchair.
    A footnote adds ‘Her capture as a mermaid is set down in the Annals of Ulster under the year 571: “Hic anno capta est in Muirgheilt”
    The legend of Muirgen is found in the Lebor na h-Uidri or Book of the Dun Cow. It tells the story of how the woman Liban was transformed into the saint Muirgen and establishes the setting as the north-eastern part of Ireland around what is now Larne, County Antrim:
    This Liban was the daughter of Eochaidh, from whom Loch Eathach, or Lough Neagh, was named, and who was drowned in its eruption [A. D. 90], together with all his children, except his daughter Liban, and his sons Conaing and Curnan. Liban, was preserved from the waters of Lough n-Eachach for a full year, in her grianan, [palace] under the lake. After this, at her own desire, she was changed into a salmon, and continued to traverse the seas till the time of St. Comhgall of Bangor. It happened that St. Comhgall dispatched Beoan, son of Innli, of Teach-Dabeoc, to Rome, on a message to Pope Gregory [Pope, A. D. 599-604], to receive order and rule. When the crew of Beoan’s currach were at sea, they heard the celebration of angels beneath the boat. Liban, thereupon, addressed them, and stated that she had been 300 years under the sea, adding that she would proceed westward and meet Beoan, that day twelvemonths, at Inbher-Ollarbha [Larne], whither the saints of Dalaradia, with Comhgall, were to resort. Beoan, on his return, related what had occurred, and, at the stated time, the nets were set, and Liban was caught in the net of Fergus of Miliuc; upon which she was brought to land, and crowds came to witness the sight, among whom was the Chief of Ui Conaing. The right to her being disputed by Comhgall, in whose territory,-and Fergus, in whose net,-and Beoan, in promise to whom,-she was taken, they prayed for a heavenly decision; and the next day two wild oxen came down from Carn-Airend; and on their being yoked to the chariot, on which she was placed, they bore her to Teach-Dabeoc, where she was baptized by Comhgall, with the name Muirgen i.e. Born of the sea, or Muirgeilt i.e. traverser of the sea. Another name for her was Fuinchi.
    Commenting on the presence of this ‘wild legend’ in the Annals, Irish Anglican Bishop, William Reeves, sought for a rational explanation:
    A seal, or or some such tenant of the sea, may have been caught in the nets of Comgall’s fisherman, and, as a “sancta Liban [Liban ‘maris mulier’]” flourished about the year 580 “sub magisterio S. Comgalli”, the following generation may have converted the seal into a liban, and St. Liban into a muirgelt (mermaid).
    Reeves also adds the interesting detail that belief in mermaids persisted in the County Antrim area in his own time:
    Nay, it is not twenty years since, in this age of light, a large company travelled all the way from Belfast to this neighbourhood, to see a mermaid which was reported to have been taken in Island Magee!
    This is presumably the same incident referred to here:
    In the same area [where Liban was captured] the Belfast Commercial reported the stranding of a mermaid in 1814 at Portmuck in Islandmagee, where hundreds of people flocked to see her. In his excellent book, The Fishermen of Dunseverick, James McQuilken recounts the sighting of a mermaid by the crew of one of Dunseverick’s fishing boats, while returning from their fishing grounds off Rathlin. One spring morning in the 1880s she was spotted on the rocks at Keardy’s Port. On landing the crew walked quickly to the rock, but she had disappeared. The cynical, of course, may blame the local seal population as the source of these apparitions.
    Canon O’Hanlon, while saying with a considerable degree of understatement that ‘we must receive only with great diffidence the various bardic accounts regarding Muirgen’, nevertheless, supplies a fitting ending to the story:
    ‘The romantic tale of her adventures concludes with a statement, that after her capture, the clerics gave her a choice to be baptized and go to heaven within an hour, or to wait three hundred years on earth, on condition of her afterwards attaining happiness. She chose to die that very hour. She seems to have been buried at Teach Dabeoc, on Lough Derg, in the county of Donegal. Miracles and wonders were there wrought through her. There, too, as God ordained for her in heaven, like every holy virgin, she was held in honour and reverence’.
    So, thus ends the curious tale of Muirgen, the mermaid who became a saint. Perhaps stories like this demonstrate a wish to literally baptize elements of Ireland’s pagan culture. It certainly is not the only example. O’Hanlon draws a parallel between Liban swimming the seas for 300 years until Saint Comghall arrives on the scene and the legend of Fionnuala, the daughter of Lir, who spent centuries in the form of a swan until the coming of Christianity set her free. Yet perhaps there was also a real holy woman called Muirgeilt, as the Drummond Kalendar says, whose story somehow became entwined with this legendary daughter of Lough Neagh.

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  • Saint Calbh of Tulach Carpait, January 26

    Some of the Irish calendars at January 26 commemorate St. Calb, or Calbh, of Tulach Carpait, now Tully-Corbet, County Monaghan. However, there are no other details given of this saint, apart from the locality in which he flourished. The entry in the Martyrology of Donegal reads:

    26. E. SEPTIMO KAL. FEBRUARII. 26.
    CRUIMTHER CALBH, of Tulach Carpait, in Ui-Meith-Macha.
    ERNIN, Bishop.
    Canon O’Hanlon reports that in addition:

    This saint is entered in the published Martyrology of Tallagh, at the 26th of January, under the designation of Bishop Calb, of Thilaigh Cairpat in Menna Tiri, in h. Meith. In the Franciscan copy of the Tallagh Martyrology, after the entry of thirteen foreign saints, the name of Bishop Calb first occurs, at this date. Likewise, under the head of Tulagh Carbuid, Duald Mac Firbis enters, Bishop Calbh, from Tulach-Carbaid, in Menna-tire, in Ui Meith, at January the 26th. This is all that seems to be known regarding him.

    Nothing else is known either of the Bishop Ernin, recorded with the name of Saint Calbh in the Martrology of Donegal. His name also appears in the Martyrology of Tallagh for today, but with no other details.
    The Feilire Oengusa does not record the name of any Irish saint for today, but does commemorate one of the great eastern martyrs of the church – Saint Polycarp. O’Hanlon quotes the translation of Professor O’Looney:—
    e. uii. kl. They are a powerful torch
    For the king to whom they came
    The host who were killed after privation
    With the passion of Polycarp.

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  • Saint Manchan of Lemanaghan, January 24

    At January 24 the Irish calendars commemorate Saint Manchan of Lemanaghan, County Offaly. Devotion to this seventh-century saint is kept very much alive by the existence of a wonderful tent-shaped shrine, which, unusually, is not an exhibit in the National Museum but rather a living part of parish life in a church in Boher. The Shrine of Saint Manchan seems to have led a rather exciting life of its own in the nineteenth century, travelling to exhibitions at home and abroad. It has continued to live dangerously in our own times as it was stolen from the church in the summer of 2012, but was thankfully recovered the next day.  Canon O’Hanlon’s account of Saint Manchan’s life quickly lets us know that some confusion has arisen in the past about the exact identity of this saint in relation to others of the same name:

    ‘REGARDING this holy abbot, few biographical incidents have been preserved. Five noted saints bear the name of Manchan. The years of their respective deaths and other circumstances prove them to have been distinct individuals. Besides these five, there are additional Manchens found in the Irish Calendar, under various forms of spelling, and who, from certain notices connected, must be regarded as different persons. This fact, their recorded diversity of race, family, place, and festival, seems sufficiently to establish. St. Oengus, the Culdee, enumerates eight Manchans; seven of these are distinguished by the addition to their names of various places. To this number, the names of five others, distinct, so far as localities are concerned, have been added by Colgan. This account would seem to make the number distinguished by names of places greater than what has been elsewhere set down in his text. Nevertheless, irregularities have existed in confounding the transactions of some Manchans with the acts of others, who are homonymous’.
    O’Hanlon goes on to list the various saints of this name in his footnotes:
    The Five Noted Saint Manchans
    1. St.Manchain Abbot of Menadrochit (Mundrehid, in the barony of Upper Ossory, Queen’s County), who died in the year 652.
    2. St. Manchan, of Leth (Lemanaghan, King’s County), who died in the year 664.
    3. St. Manchin, of Lethglenn (Leighlin, county Carlow), who died in the year 725.
    4. St. Manchin, Abbot of Tuaim-grene (Tomgrany, County Clare), who departed in the year 735.
    5. St. Manchen, Bishop of Lethglenn (Leighlin, county Carlow), whose death occurred in the year 863.
    The Eight Manchans of Saint Oengus the Culdee
    These are — Manchan, of Leth; Manchan, of Moethail; Manchan, of Achad tairbh; Manchan, of Eascair; Manchan, of Kill-aird; Manchan, of Kilmanach; Manchan, son of Erc; and Manchan, of Ardtrichim.
    The Five Additional Manchans of Colgan
    St. Manchan, of Disert Chuilinn ; St.Munchen, of Lismore ; St. Manchen, of Tuain-Grene ; and two Manchens, of Leithglenn.
    O’Hanlon also helpfully collects entries for today’s feast of Saint Manchan from various calendars:
    The Martyrology of Donegal records for this day:
    24.C. NONO KAL. FEBRUARII. 24.
    MANCHAN, of Liath, son of Indagli. Mella was the name of his mother, and his two sisters were Grealla and Greillseach. There is a church called Liath-Manchain, or Leth-Manchain, in Dealbhna-Mhec-Cochlain. His relics are at the same place in a shrine, which is beautifully covered with boards on the inside, and with bronze outside them, and very beautifully carved. It was Manchan of Liath that composed the charming poem, i.e. :
    “Would that, O Son of the living God!
    O eternal ancient King ! &etc”
    We find Manchan of Liath-Manchain, of the race of Maelcroich, son of Rudhraighe ; and Manchan, son of Failbhe, of the race of Conall Gulban, son of Niall ; and Manchan of Liath, son of Indagh, who is this one.
    A very old vellum book, in which are found the Martyrology of Tamhlacht-Maoilruain and the saints of the same name, and an account of many of the mothers of the saints, &c., states, that Manchan of Liath, in habits and life, was like unto Hieronimus, who was very learned.
    The Martyrology of Tallagh assigns the festival of St. Manchan to the 24th of January, corresponding with ix. of the Kalends of February:
    Manchan leith mac in Dagdae
    The Kalendar of Drummond also calls him a most wise man, when setting down his festival at this same date:
    In Hibernia natale Sancti Manchani viri sapientissimi
    Under the head of Cill Mainchin, Duald Mac Firbis records Bishop Manchan, or Mainchin, in Cill Manchan.
    We have no means left for ascertaining whether St. Manchan had been the first founder of a monastery at Leth, now Lemanaghan, but it seems not improbable. We read that after Cam Conaill battle, in which Diarmaid, son of Aedh Slaine, gained a victory over Guaire, a.d. 642, —or, according to other accounts, a.d. 648 —the conqueror, on returning, granted Tuaimn Eirc,’ i.e., Liath-Manchain, with its sub-divisions of land, as “altar-sod” to God and to St. Kieran. The term ‘altar sod’ means literally ‘land on the altar’, i.e., church land. He also pronounced three maledictions on that king, whose people should take even a drink of water there, and ordered his burial-place to be at Clonmacnois. In consequence of this donation of Tuaim n Eirc to Clonmacnois Monastery, it seems probable, some monks of that house were established there, and that these formed a cell or dependent branch. Over these monks St. Manchan may have been their first abbot or prior.
    Such an opinion appears the more probable, from the circumstance, that the death of our saint occurred at no very remote period from the foundation of his monastery. The name Liath-Manchain, now Lemanaghan, signifies “Manchan’s grey land,” according to Dr. O’Donovan. There is a church, called Liath-Manchain, or Leth-Manchain, in Deaibh-na-Mhec Cochlain, and here he was venerated. The old church of Lemanaghan had been situated in the middle of a bog, about the year 1615. At that time its position rendered it nearly inaccessible, although such is not the case at present. St. Manchan’s well, bearing the name of Tobar-Manchain, existed in Liath-Manchan townland, in the year 1838. We are informed by Mr. O’Donovan that in the Book of Fenagh it is stated that St. Manchan had been an intimate friend of St. Caillin. Manchan is said to have been the executor of his will and his successor in the abbacy of Fenagh. Liath is compounded with the denomination of various places in Ireland, but it is easy to determine the locality of the present saint, which was Liath-Manchain, now known as Kilmanaghan, a parish, partly in the barony of Clonlonan, county of Westmeath, but chiefly in that of Kilcoursey, King’s County. The old church was uprooted, and a Protestant church, now deserted, was erected on its site.St. Manchan died in 661, according to the Annals of Clonmacnoise, or in the year 664, according to the Annals of the Four Masters. He was one of many who had been carried off by that great plague, known as the Buidhe Connail. He appears to have died on the 24th of January, on which day his feast was annually celebrated in Lemanaghan. A shrine, supposed to have contained the relics of this saint, was long kept on the altar at the place of his deposition…
    …It would seem, that long after the time of its founder a monastery continued at Lemanaghan. One of its abbots departed this life, after the beginning of the thirteenth century. Afterwards the monastic establishment disappeared, and it became converted into a vicarage, with a parish church. It seems to have been a dependency on the Priory of Gailinn, now Gillen, an old church giving name to a parish, in the barony of Garrycastle, and in the northern part of the King’s County. The site of St. Manchan’s former monastery looks desolate, and it is now little frequented by visitors.

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