OMNIUM SANCTORUM HIBERNIAE

Tag: Irish Saints

  • Saint Laidgen of Clonfert-molua, January 12

    The commemoration of Saint Laidgen is noted on all of the major Irish calendars at January 12. Saint Laidgen or Laidcenn was a monastic associated with the foundation of St Lua or Molua at what is now the parish of Kyle or Clonfertmulloe, County Laois. Canon  O’Hanlon summarizes the account of his life from Colgan’s “Acta Sanctorum Hiberniae,” xii. Januarii. Vita S. Laidgenni, pp. 57, 58:

    ‘This saint was son to a man named Baithus Bannaigh, or Buadhach, which means Baithus the Victorious. Laidgen thus belonged to a very respectable parentage. Yet, we are told, he abandoned the riches and honours of this world, to become a monk in Clonfert Molua Monastery. This must have been soon after its foundation. Here, under the direction of its abbot, St. Lactan, the disciple became distinguished for all the virtues of his state ; and in order to forget worldly allurements, St. Laidgen’s thoughts were continually occupied with enjoyable meditations on eternal life. He was exercised in all the humble practices of penance. He spent many years in performing his usual monastic observances, and in the cultivation of extraordinary virtues, which were the admiration of his fellow religious. He wrought many miracles. It seems possible—but by no means certain—that this holy man may have been under the direction of the illustrious founder, who died in the year 605.’

    However, as O’Hanlon goes on to hint, this saint must have been more than just a simple monk:

    ‘ The memory of St. Laidgen was celebrated at Clonfert Molloe with a devotion second only to that entertained towards the founder of this house. Our saint died on the 12th of day of January in the year 660. He was buried in Clonfert Molua. That this saint was notable amongst most distinguished holy men in his time may be collected from the circumstance of his being named in the Festilogy of St. Oengus, written before or soon after the year 800 ; for in this no saint is mentioned who was not considered to hold a high rank in the Irish Church, and whose memory was not honoured by a special festival. The following Irish stanza and its English translation were supplied by Professor O’Looney, from the Laebhar-Breac copy, R.I.A., fol. 79:

               E. ii. id.
               The great martyrdom of Muscenti
               With his numerous gentle clerics
               Christ hath the secret of his deserts
               Laidcend, son of Bath Baidach.

     The name of this saint is written Laidcenn mac Baith Banaigh, in the Martyrology of Tallagh, at the 12th of January. The Calendars of Cashel, and of Marianus O’Gorman attest the same festival. The “Kalendarium Drummondiense” observes that on the 12th of January the holy confessor Ladchend ascended to the stars. In the Martyrology of Donegal, we find recorded on this day Laidhgenn, son of Baeth, of Cluain-fearta-Mulloe, or Clonfert Molua. There his burial place is said to have been. All our hagiologists and annalistic writers commemorate this saint. Besides this saint Laidgen, there were three other saints bearing the same name, and recorded in our Annals. These were, a St. Laidgen, venerated on the 20th of May; a St. Laidgen, commemorated on the 23rd of October; and a third St. Laidgen, son to Bochra, who, with his brothers, St. Cannech and St. Accobran, had been honoured at a place called Achadh-raithin, in the country of the Decias, on the 28th of November.

    In addition to his commemoration in the various Martyrologies, our saint’s death is also noted in various Irish Annals:

    The “Annals of Clonmacnoise,” of Roscrea, of All Saints’ Island, and of Ulster, place his demise at the year 660. At this same year his death is thus recorded by the Annals of the Four Masters, “St. Laidhgeann, son of Baeth, of Cluainfearta-Molua, died on the I2th of January.”—O’Donovan’s edition, vol. i., pp. 270, 271.

    Finally, Canon O’Hanlon also helpfully lists some of the other saints associated with the monastery of Clonfert-molua in a footnote:

    ‘Many holy persons are venerated in that place, such as Luanus, at the 4th of August ; St. Lactan, his disciple and successor, at the 19th of March; Saints Chrittanus, Lonanus, and Mellanus, sons to Dareus, at the 7th of February; Soergalus, Moenachus Finginus, with other saints and celebrated abbots. Of none, however, with the exception of our saint, is it remarked that their tomb is there to be seen.’

    So, it appears that Saint Laigden of Clonfert-Molua must indeed have been more than just a simple monastic for his memory to be so recorded and revered. I thank God that we are able to continue to remember him more than 1300 years after his death.

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  • Saints Ethnea and Fidelmia, January 11

    M.F. Cusack, The Life of St. Patrick (1871)

    Saints Ethnea and Fidelmia (Ethna and Fidelma) are sisters who feature in one of the most beautiful stories from the hagiography of Saint Patrick. The pair boast an impressive aristocratic pedigree, being the daughters of King Laoighaire and grand-daughters of Niall of the Nine Hostages. Their story is set against the backdrop of the struggle between Christianity and paganism as Saint Patrick comes to Croghan, the royal residence of the kings of Connaught. There he encounters these daughters of King Laoighaire. We can let Saint Patrick’s biographer, Tirechan, take up the story:

    Afterwards, then, before sunrise, holy Patrick came to the well that is called Clebach on the eastern slopes of Cruachu. They sat down beside the well, and suddenly there appeared two daughters of King Loiguire, Ethne the fair and Fedelm the red. These had come, as is the women’s custom, to wash in the morning. They found the holy gathering of bishops with Patrick by the well, and they had no idea where they were from or what was their nature or their people or their homeland; but they thought that maybe they were men of the si or the gods of the earth or phantoms.

    The girls said to them: “Are you really there? Where have you come from?”

    Patrick replied to them:”It would be better for you to confess faith in our true God than to ask questions about our origin.”

    The first girl asked: “Who is God and where is God, and whose God is he, and where is his house? Has your God sons and daughters, gold and silver? Is he alive forever? Is he beautiful? Have many people fostered his son? Are his daughters dear and beautiful to the men of this world? Is he in heaven or on earth, in the sea, on mountains, in valleys? Give us some idea of him: how may he be seen, how loved; how may he be found – is he found in youth or in old age?”

    In reply, Patrick, filled with the Holy Spirit, said: “Our God is the God of all people, the God of heaven and earth, of the seas and the rivers, the God of the sun and the moon and of all the stars, the God of the high mountains and of the deep valleys. He is God above heaven and in heaven and under heaven, and has as his dwelling place heaven and earth and the sea and all that are in them. His life is in all things; he makes all things live; he governs all things; he supports all things. He kindles the light of the sun; he builds the light and the manifestations of the night, he makes wells in arid land and dry islands in the sea, and he sets the stars in place to serve the major lights. He has a son who is coeternal with him and of like nature. The Son is not younger than the Father nor the Father than the Son; and the Holy Spirit breathes in them. The Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit are not separate. Truly, now, since you are daughters of an earthly king, I wish that you will believe and I wish to wed you to the king of heaven.”

    And the girls said, as if with one voice and from one heart: “Teach us most diligently how we may believe in the heavenly king, so that we may see him face to face. Direct us, and we will do whatever you say.”

    And Patrick said: “Do you believe that you cast off the sin of your father and mother through baptism?”

    They replied: “We believe.”

    “Do you believe in penance after sin?”

    “We believe.”

    “Do you believe in life after death?” “Do you believe in the resurrection on the Day of Judgment?”

    “We believe.”

    “Do you believe in the unity of the Church?”

    “We believe.”

    And they were baptized, and a white veil placed on their heads. They demanded to see the face of Christ, to which the saint said: “Unless you taste death, and unless you receive the sacrament you can’t see the face of Christ.”

    They replied: “Give us the sacrament, so that it will be possible for us to see the Son, our bridegroom.”

    They received God’s eucharist and slept in death. Their friends laid them both in one bed, covered with their clothes, and raised a lament and a great keen.

    The druid Caplit, who had fostered one of them, came and wept. Patrick preached to him, and he believed, and the hair of his head was shorn. And his brother Mael came and said: “My brother believed in Patrick, but I don’t. I will convert him back again to heathenism”.

    And he spoke harsh words to Patrick and to Mathonus. But Patrick preached to him and converted him to God’s penance. The hair of his head was shorn. Its style had been that of the druids – “airbacc giunnae“, as it is called. From this comes the most famous of Irish sayings, “Calvus [‘bald ‘, i.e. ‘Mael’] and Caplit: the same difference” – they believed in God.

    When the days of keening the kings’ daughter came to an end they buried them beside the well of Clebach and made a round ditch in the fashion of a ferta. That was the custom of the heathen Irish. But we call it relic, that is, the remains of the girls.

    And the ferta was granted in perpetuity to Patrick and his heirs after him, along with the bones of the holy girls. He built an earthen church in that place.

    (translation from Liam de Paor, Saint Patrick’s World, 163-165).

    Canon O’Hanlon admits that the evidence for the numbering of Ethnea and Fidelmia among the saints of Ireland on 11th January, owed more to the 17th-century hagiologist Father John Colgan than to the Irish calendars. A Saint Feidelmai is listed on the Martryology of Tallaght on January 11, as was noted by Colgan, who also noted the presence of a Saint Ethnea on the 28th February. Thus, as O’Hanlon confesses:

    ‘The only reason Colgan had for placing the festival of both holy virgins at this day was the circumstance of a St. Fedelmia first occurring in our calendars, and a want of knowing that day to which their Acts could more appropriately be assigned.’

    Whether either of these saints listed on the calendars can be identified with the daughters of Laoighaire is open to question. But as Canon O’Hanlon points out, Colgan has good reason for his making sure these ‘heroic virgins’ occupy their place:

    ‘First, all the Acts of St. Patrick concur in recording their admirable innocence of life, their miraculous conversion, and their no less miraculous passage to the society of their Spouse, Jesus Christ. Secondly, the fact of a church having been erected to their memory, at the place where they died, manifests the affectionate reverence entertained for them by St. Patrick himself. Thirdly, the transmission of their relics, from the first place of their deposition to the Metropolitan See of Armagh, indicates still more the respect in which those noble virgins were held, long after their departure, and which seems corroborative of their having been in the odour of sanctity. ‘

    Who could disagree? The beauty and pathos of the story of the conversion of these royal sisters at the well and of the wonderful confession of faith which their questions elicited from Saint Patrick, make them indeed worthy.

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  • Saint Diarmaid of Inis-Clothrann, January 10

    The feast of Saint Diarmaid of Inis-Clothrann is commemorated on the Irish calendars at January 10.


    The Martyrology of Donegal records:
    10. C. QUARTO IDUS JANUARII 10.
    DIARMAID, Bishop, of Inis-Clothrann, in Loch-Ribh. He is of the race of Fiachra, son of Eochaidh Muighmheadhoin. Dedi, daughter of Trena, son of Dubhthach h-Ua Lughair, was his mother, and this Dubhthach was chief poet to Laoghaire, son of Mall, who was monarch of Ireland, at the coming of Patrick into Ireland, and he showed honour and great veneration to Patrick, and believed in him, as appears from Patrick’s Life, and Patrick blessed him. It was Diarmaid that composed the Cealtair Dichill in verse, in which he invoked a countless number of the apostles and saints of the world, and of the saints of Ireland, as a protection and shelter for himself, just as Colum composed the hard poem called the Luirech or Sgiathluirech of Colum-Cille, which begins: “The shield of God as a protection upon me,” &c. “They shall protect me against every danger,” was the beginning of what Diarmaid composed.
    and the Feilire of Saint Oengus:
    C. iiii. id. I pray a fervent prayer
    That they go not into the bad place [hell]
    Milid the chaste comely helmet
    Diarmait of Inis Clothrand.
    Canon O’Hanlon informs us further that:

    ‘Diermaid of Innsi-Clothrand, without any other designation, occurs in the Martyrology of Tallagh, at the 10th of January. Also at the 10th of January, the “Kalendarium Drummondiense” notes the passage of St. Diermait, confessor, to the Lord, in Ireland. Besides, under the head of Inis Clothrann, for the 10th of January, Duald Mac Firbis enters Diarmaid, bishop, from Inis-Clothrann, in Loch Ribh, who sprung from the race of Dathy, King of Erin ; and from Dedi, daughter to Trian, son of Dubhthach ua Lughair, chief bard of Erinn’.

    So, the 10th of January is well established as the feastday for this saint, even if the year of his death is not recorded. O’Hanlon believes he flourished in the sixth century and goes on to tell us first of his pedigree and then of his life:

    ‘In various Irish calendars and records we are furnished with the pedigree of this celebrated saint. He is called in Irish, Naoimh Dhiarmuit, which signifies Diermit “the Just,” or “the Holy.” He is said to have been son to Lugna, and to have followed seventh in descent from Dathy, King of Ireland, who was killed about the year 427. This holy Diarmait belonged to the Hy-Fiachrach family, who inhabited a considerable part of the Connaught province. According to Oengus the Culdee, and Maguire, his mother was named Dediva, but following another account, in the Calendar of Cashel, her name was Editua,of the Kiennacht country. She is said to have been of noble race and the mother of many saints. She was a grand-daughter to Dubtach O’Lugair, arch-poet, who so courteously received St. Patrick, when he preached in the royal palace of King Leogaire at Tara. In his early youth, St. Diermit made great progress, both in learning and sanctity. After the usual course of ecclesiastical studies, having first become a monk, he was afterwards ordained priest. The duties of this office he discharged with great zeal, fervour, and fidelity. He became a spiritual director and teacher, it is said, to St. Kieran of Clonmacnoise, and he was also a friend to St. Senan, Abbot of Iniseathy. Besides the exalted opinion entertained of him by many distinguished ecclesiastics, the laity conceived a most extraordinary veneration for his character. That surname, by which he was distinguished, served to indicate the depth and sincerity of this feeling. According to Colgan, he composed a sort of metrical psaltery. In this the names of the principal holy persons are invoked, including those of fifty two Irish saints. This work was written in very ancient and very elegant metre. Some of those celebrities mentioned, however, appear to have lived after St. Diermait’s time, in the opinion of Colgan. Such names he supposes to have been interpolations of a later period. The names, St. Malruan and St. Adamman alone, are instanced, as examples of additions by another and a more recent writer.

    St. Diarmaid sought a retreat on Inis-Clotran Island, placed within Lough Ree, and here, surrounded by the spreading waters of the Shannon, he erected a monastery. It afterwards became famous, on account of many persons, distinguished for their learning and piety, who were found within its enclosure. After St. Diermit, there flourished and reposed at Inis Clothran, St. Senach, abbot of this place, A.D. 719, whose feast occurs on the 20th of April; St. Eochodius, abbot, A.D. 780 ; St. Curoius, abbot, and a most learned doctor, A.D. 869; Aldus O’Finn, bishop, A.D. 1136; Nehemus O’Dunin, a man of letters, a poet and an excellent historian, who died on the 17th of December, A.D. 1160. (Besides these, others are mentioned in the “Annals of Clonmacnoise” and in those of All Saints’ Island. See also Dr. O’ Donovan’s” Annals of the Four Masters,” vol. i., pp.318, 319, 386, 387, 514, 515; and vol. ii., pp. 1052, 1053, 1 136, 1 137). St. Diermit was abbot over the community here, and which he had collected around him. Whilst on this island, we may suppose, without giving much credence to fabulous accounts, regarding the manner in which their transmissions up and down the Shannon were made, that frequent interchanges of friendship took place between the holy abbots of Inis Clotran and Iniscathy.’

    The abbot of Iniscathy was Saint Senan and Saint Diarmaid is indeed mentioned in the various Lives of St Senan. I found an example of the ‘fabulous transmissions up and down the Shannon’ between the two in the Life of St Senan from the Book of Lismore, which also features a holy woman named Brigit:

    2399. Brigit, daughter of Cii Cathrach, of the Hui Maic Tail, a Virginal holy maiden, set up in a church on Cluain Infide, on the brink of the Shannon. She had a chasuble as alms for Senan, and she had no messenger, so she made a little basket of rods of holly, and she put moss to it, and placed the chasuble in it, and put her … to ask for the Sacrifice, and then she set the basket on the Shannon, and said (to the river) : ‘ Thou hast leave to bear that with thee to Inis Cathaig.’

    On the day, then, that the chasuble came to Inis Cathaig, Senan said to his deacon : ‘ If thou findest aught on the strand, thou hast leave to bring it hither.’

    The deacon went and found the basket on the strand, and carries it to Senan. Senan takes out the chasuble and puts it upon him. Thereafter two stones of salt are put into the same basket, and the box containing the Sacrifice is (also) put in, and the basket is set upon the same water, and Senan said to it : ‘ Thou hast leave to carry this to Cluain Infide and display the box and the one piece of salt to Brigit, and thou take the other piece of salt to Inis Clothrann to Diarmait.’

    When the basket reached Cluain Infide, Brigit went to it and takes thereout the box and one of the two pieces of salt. The stream of the Shannon then swept away the basket (containing the other piece of salt) and left it in Inis Clothrann with Diarmait. So after that Brigit and Diarmait gave thanks to God and to Senan.

    Canon O’Hanlon also gives some examples of the continuing popular devotion to Saint Diarmaid. First, there is a curious incident recorded in a letter by John O’Donovan of Ordnance Survey fame:

    ‘The present situation of Inis-Clothran—now called Inchcleraun—is admirably distinguished with its antique remains on the Ordnance Survey Townland Maps for the County of Longford. The inhabitants of Cashel parish, in this district, call it the Seven Church Island,” and consider it to have been the most important of those various islands on Lough Ree. The people about the shores have a very special veneration for St. Diermait, who is said to have blessed all the islands in the lake, except one, to which an Irish name is given. This signifies in English” the forgotten island.” Popular traditions abound, in connexion with the ruins of a church, Templedermot, named after our saint, and the “clogas” or square belfry of Dermot, for the desecration of which, a remarkable punishment befel the Quaker who resided on Inchcleraun. The boatman, who rowed Mr. O’Donovan over to this island, declared, that about six weeks previously he and two others saw plainly and distinctly in the noon-day, a tall and stately figure walk along the waves from Inchcleraun with a measured step, until this apparition disappeared in the dim distance, near Athlone. The boatman and his companions believed the phantom to be St. Diermait, or some other early saint, connected with the island, and who had come to visit his old habitation on earth. (See John O’Donovan’s letter, dated Longford. May 22nd, 1837. “Letters and Extracts Containing Information Relative to the Antiquities of the County of Longford, collected during the progress of the Ordnance Survey in 1837,” pp. 54, 56.)’

    The impious Quaker was not the only person to have fallen foul of our saint. A note appended to the Table of Saints in the Martyrology of Donegal records beside the name of Saint Diarmaid:

    On Loch Ribh in Cuircne, and no woman or young female child can touch his Relig (sepulchral church). And a Saxon heretic woman, who violated it, cried out and died immediately. Inis Diarmada is the name of the island, with many Religs and monasteries.

    O’Hanlon points to a second incident involving Saxon heretics and the holy things of Saint Diarmaid:

    A beautiful ivory statue of St. Diermit, for a long time, had been preserved on the island. In order to save it from the Vandalism of Protestant Reformers, it was buried in the earth. Afterwards, it was removed, by the brother of a regular priest. He wrote an account concerning this discovery to the Irish hagiologist, Father John Colgan. The name of this person has not been given, lest, as Colgan asserts, the Iconoclasts might be enabled to discover St. Diermit’s image, and subject it to their usual process of destruction. (See Colgan’s ”Acta Sanctorum Hiberniae,” X. Januarii. Vita S. Diermitii, cap. vi and n. 18, p. 52. ) It may be asked, is this curious and artistic relic of olden times yet in existence ?

    That would indeed be interesting to know.

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