OMNIUM SANCTORUM HIBERNIAE

Tag: Irish Saints

  • The Twelve Apostles of Ireland


    St Finnian imparts his blessing to the twelve apostles of Ireland. Photo credit: Andreas F. Borchert, Wikipedia.




    The ‘Twelve Apostles of Ireland’ is a collective title given in Irish hagiography to a group of Irish saints who were all said to have been students at the monastic school of Clonard, under the tutelage of Saint Finnian. A list of the Twelve is preserved in various sources, for the reputation of Saint Finnian as ‘tutor of the saints of Ireland ‘ was firmly established and hagiographers sought to portray their subjects as having been numbered among his pupils.  The individuals listed among the Twelve can vary from one place to another, this, for example is the list given in the scholiast notes to the Martyrology of Oengus:


    Ireland’s Twelve Apostles: Two Finnians, two chaste Columbs, Ciaran, Cainnech, fair Comgall, two Brennains, Ruadan with beauty, Ninnid, Mo-bi, son of Natfrech, i.e. Molaise.

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    One immediate objection that can be raised is that
    the list actually adds up to a baker’s dozen, but presumably this is because
    the master, Finnian of Clonard,     is numbered here along with his disciples.  A
    striking feature of the list is that there are three homonymous groups. Finnian of Moville     joins his namesake of Clonard, the two chaste Columbs comprise one of the most famous holders of the
    name, Colum Cille (Columba) of Iona and the perhaps less well-known Colum of Terryglass, whilst the two Brennains are Brendan of Birr and his more famous namesake, Brendan, the Navigator, of Clonfert.     Although the Martyrology of Oengus does not record
    it here, other versions also name two Ciarans, with the elder Ciaran of Saighir joining the younger Ciaran of Clonmacnoise.     Those named singly also present a mix of the
    relatively well-known with the relatively obscure, among the former would
    certainly be Cainnech (Kenneth) of Kilkenny and Comgall of Bangor, with Ruadan of Lorrha and Mobi of Glasnevin possibly a little less well-known, and the two Fermanagh lakeland saints Ninnid of Inismacsaint and Molaise of Devenish, perhaps the most obscure of the twelve, at least as far as the modern reader is concerned. 


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    The noting of this list occurs at the Feast of the Dispersion of the Apostles on July 15, a context which suggests that the writers were quite deliberately echoing the sacred
    number of Our Lord’s disciples. In the early 1860s one Irish writer, Father
    Anthony Cogan, quoted the seventeenth-century clerical writer John Lynch who presented
    this motif as something distinctive to Irish missions:

    Those holy
    emigrations of the Irish were distinguished by a peculiarity never, or but very
    seldom, found among other nations. As soon as it became known that any eminent
    monk had resolved to undertake one of those sacred expeditions, twelve men of
    the same order placed themselves under his command, and were selected to
    accompany him; a custom probably introduced by St. Patrick, who had been ably
    supported by twelve chosen associates in converting the Irish from the darkness
    of paganism to the light of the true faith. St. Rioch, nephew to St. Patrick,
    and walking in his footsteps, was attended in his sacred missions to foreign
    tribes and regions by twelve colleagues of his own order; and when St. Rupert,
    who had been baptized by a nephew of St. Patrick, apostle of Ireland, departed
    to draw down the fertilising dews of true religion on pagan Bavaria,
    twelve faithful companions shared the perils and labours of his journey and
    mission. St. Finnian, bishop of Clonard, selected twelve from the thronged
    college of his disciples, to devote them in a special manner to establish and
    animate the principles of the Christian religion among the Irish, and hence
    they were styled by posterity the twelve apostles of Ireland. St. Columba was
    accompanied in his apostolic mission to Albany by twelve monks. Twelve followed
    St. Finbar in his pilgrimage beyond the seas, and twelve St. Maidoc, bishop of
    Ferns, in one of his foreign missions. St. Colman Fin was never seen without
    his college of twelve disciples. When the ceaseless irruptions of foreign
    enemies, or the negligence of the bishops, had well nigh extinguished the
    virtue of religion in Gaul, and left nothing but the Christian Faith when the
    medicine of penance and the love of mortification were found nowhere, or but with
    a few, ‘then’, says Jonas, ‘St. Columbanus descended on Gaul, supported by
    twelve associates, to arouse her from her torpor, and enlighten her sons with
    the beams of the most exalted piety. Twelve disciples followed St. Eloquius
    from Ireland to illumine the Belgians with the rays of faith; twelve
    accompanied St. Willibrod from Ireland to Germany; the pilgrimage and labours
    of St. Farrannan in Belgium were shared by twelve faithful brothers of the
    cowl; and the same number were fellow-exiles with St. Macallan. Perhaps the
    reason why the Irish clung with such invincible attachment to this custom, was
    the number of the apostles chosen by our Saviour, and the same number of
    disciples appointed by the Apostolic See to accompany Palladius to Ireland.

     Rev. A. Cogan,
    The Diocese of Meath: ancient and modern, Volume 1 (Dublin, 1862), xlv.


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     Writers of Dean
    Cogan’s generation were inclined to treat hagiography uncritically and in his
    treatment of the Twelve Apostles of Ireland, another nineteenth-century writer,
    Archbishop John Healy, presented a  similarly romantic picture of Saint
    Finnian’s famous pupils. His list omits Saint Comgall in favour of Saint Senan of Iniscathy and Finnian of Moville gives way to the elder
    Ciaran, known as the ‘firstborn of the saints of Ireland’, whose own hagiography claimed him as one of the pre-Patrician saints, thus making him a very
    mature student indeed:

    To Clonard came
    all the men who were afterwards famous as “The Twelve Apostles of
    Erin.” Thither came the venerable Ciaran of Saigher, a companion of St.
    Patrick, to bow his hoary head in reverence to the wisdom of the younger sage;
    and that other Ciaran, the Son of the Carpenter, who in after years founded the
    famous monastic school of Clonmacnoise in the fair meadows by the Shannon’s
    shore. Thither, too, came Brendan of Birr, “the prophet,” as he was
    called, and his still more famous namesake, Brendan of Clonfert, St. Ita’s
    foster son, the daring navigator, who first tried to cross the Atlantic to preach
    the Gospel, and revealed to Europe the mysteries of the far off Western Isles.
    There, too, was young Columba, who learned at the feet of Finnian those lessons
    of wisdom and discipline that he carried with him to Iona, which in its turn
    became for many centuries a torch to irradiate the spiritual gloom of Picts,
    and Scots, and Saxons. And there was that other Columba of Tir-da- glass, and
    Mobhi-Clairenach of Glasnevin, and Rodan, the founder of Lorrha near Lough
    Derg, and Lasserian, the son of Nadfraech, and Canice of Aghaboe, and Senanus
    from Inniscathy, and Ninnidh the Pious from the far off shores of Lough Erne.
    It is said, too, that St. Enda of the Aran Islands and Sinellus of Cleenish,
    and many other distinguished saints spent some time at Clonard, but they are
    not, like those mentioned above, reckoned amongst “the Twelve Apostles of
    Erin.”          

    Insula Sanctorum et Doctorum or
    Ireland’s Ancient Schools and Scholars     by the Most Rev. John Healy (6th edition, Dublin, 1912),
    201.


    I hope to be able to return to Ireland’s Twelve Apostles in future posts as I have done some research into the hagiographical accounts of the schooldays of Clonard’s saintly past pupils in order to better understand this theme. 



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  • A Few of the Most Eminent of the Irish Saints

    Books written for children are among my favourite sources for the lives of the saints. I was recently having a look at an early twentieth-century school textbook ‘A Child’s History of Ireland’, and saw that the author, P.W. Joyce, included a list of what he termed ‘a few of the most eminent of the Irish saints’. I am always interested when reading any source to note which saints are under discussion, since the cult of the saints is not a static thing and interest in individual saints tends to wax and wane over the centuries. In Joyce’s list, which is a footnote to a longer entry for each of the three Irish patrons, he begins by numbering some of the great monastic founders, then moves on to a representative selection of Irish saints who flourished in Europe and finishes with the ninth-century scholar John Scotus Erigena. It is worth noting that in addition to Saint Brigid, he includes another two women in the list, Saints Ita and Dympna:

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    Besides Patrick, Brigit, and Columkille, the
    following are a few of the most eminent of the Irish saints:
    St. Ailbe of Emly in Limerick, who was ordained
    bishop of Cashel by St. Patrick: he was ecclesiastical head of Munster.
    St. Enna or Endeus of Aran in Galway Bay; died
    about 542. This island was afterwards called Ara-na-Naemh [naive], Aran of the
    saints, from the number of holy men who lived in it.
    St. Finnen of Clonard, the founder of the great
    school there: called “The Tutor of the Saints of Ireland”: died 549.
    St. Ciaran [Kieran] of Clonmacnoise, which became
    one of the greatest of all the Irish monasteries: died 549.
    St. Ciaran or Kieran, the patron of Ossory: born
    in the island of Cape Clear; but his father belonged to Ossory: died about 550.
    St. Ita, Ida, or Mida, virgin saint, of Killeedy
    in Limerick; often called the Brigit of Munster: died 569.
    St. Brendan of Clonfert in Galway, or
    “Brendan the Navigator”: born in Kerry: died 577.
    St. Senan of Scattery Island in the Shannon: died
    about 560.
    St. Comgall, the founder of the celebrated scbool
    of Bangor in Down, which rivalled Clonard: died 602.
    St. Kevin, the founder of Glendalough in Wicklow:
    died 618.
    St. Carrthach or Mochuda of Lisrnore, where he
    founded one of Ireland’s greatest schools: died 637.
    St. Adamnan the biographer of St. Columkille;
    ninth abbot of Iona: born in Donegal: died 703.
    Among the vast number of Irish men and women who
    became illustrious on the Continent, the following may be named : —
    St. Fursa of Peronne and his brothers Foillan and
    Ultan; Fursa died about 650 (see page 17).
    St. Dympna or Domnat of Gheel, virgin martyr, to
    whom the great sanatorium for lunatics at Gheel in Belgium is dedicated:
    daughter of an Irish pagan king: martyred, seventh century.
    St. Columbanus of Bobbio in Italy, a pupil of
    Bangor, founded the two monasteries of Luxeuil and Fontaines: expelled from
    Burgundy for denouncing the vices of king Theodoric; preached successfully to
    the Gauls; wrote learned letters: finally settled at Bobbio, where he died,
    615.
    St. Gall, a disciple of Columbanus, patron of St.
    Gall (in Switzerland) which was named from him.
    St. Fridolin the Traveller of Seckingen on the
    Rhine: died in the beginning of the sixth century.
    St. Kilian the apostle of Franconia: martyred
    689.
    St. Cataldus bishop of Tarentum, from the school
    of Lismore, where he was a professor: seventh century.
    Virgil or Virgilius bishop of Salzburg, called
    Virgil the Geometer, from his eminence in science: taught, probably for the
    first time, the rotundity of the earth: died 785.
    Clement and Albinus, placed by Charlemagne at the
    head of two great seminaries.
    John Scotus Erigena, celebrated for his knowledge
    of Greek: the most distinguished scholar of his time in Europe: taught philosophy
    with great distinction in Paris: died about 870.
    P.W.Joyce, A Child’s History of Ireland (Dublin and London, 1910), 81-84.


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  • An Eighteenth-Century List of Irish Saints, M-V

    Concluding the eighteenth-century list of Irish saints with extant written Lives. Inevitably, the largest entry is for Saint Patrick complete with the traditional chronology of 432-492 for his mission. We are also confidently informed that our national apostle ‘retired in 465’! The writer, a former Anglican Bishop of Carlisle, starts off with Saint Manchan of Mohill. He indulges in some antiquarian speculation that this saint shares the root of his name with the Manichees of the Old Testament, however, modern scholarship thinks it more likely that the name derives from a purely native root. Nicolson’s claim that the saint founded an order of regular canons is also inaccurate, as the Augustinian canons were first documented in Ireland in the twelfth century.


    Manchanus, founder of the monastery of regular canons at Mohil in the county of Leitrim, died in the year 652. His life is supposed to have been written by Richard, Archbishop of Ardmagh. The Ulster annals call him Manchenus; and others Manichaeus: Whereupon it is observed that the heretic Manichees and Menahem, (2 Kings xv. 14.) King of Israel have their names from the same original word, signifying The Comforter. Nazarenus begs of his Megaletor, to enquire among his learned acquaintance of the Irish college at Louvain, who is Manchanus, a writer who shines much in the margin of his famous four gospels; concerning whom, says he, though there be many of this name, I have my own conjectures. Having just learned what this fanciful writer thought of Marianus, Columbanus &c. I imagined that he was of opinion that Manchanus must have been a fervent or lover of the isle of Man: But his learned friend, and mine, Mr. Wanley, lately informed me, that he only guessed that Manchanus was a corruption of Monanchanus, and that the man whose praises are in his four gospels, was a canon regular of Monaghan. The reader will judge, whether Archbishop Usher’s conjectures, or Mr. Toland’s are the more probable.

    Mocoemog, Abbot of Liath, died the thirteenth day of March, 656. His life begins, Beatissimus Abbos Mocoemog. This mentions, as one of the several of that name who were his contemporaries, one Bishop Colman, who resided in the monastery called Diar-mor, or the Great Wood, in the province of Munster.

    Mochua of noble descent in Conaught, died the twenty-fourth of December, in the year 638. His life begins, Clarus genere vir erat, nomine Mochua.

    Modwen or Moninna, two saints were of this name. One died the sixth of July, 518. The other lived about the year 640. The lives of both are jumbled into one by Conchubran, who lived before the end of the twelfth century. Sir James Ware had this transcribed out of the Cotton library; which, with another of the same, is still extant in that of the D. of Chandois: Where we have also an old hymn to St. Modwen. Conchubran, in her life says, she built her monastery of boards, Tabulis dedolatis, because the Scots or Irish had not then any (maceria’s) stone buildings. He likewise acquaints us, that she lived at the same time with St. Patrick; and founded one nunnery of 150 virgins, whereof she was Abbess, at Fochard, and another at Chellsleve. We have another Manuscript copy of the life of St. Modwen in the Bodleyan library; which is written in the old French language.

    Moling, the second Bishop or Archbishop of Fernes, died the seventeenth day of June, in the year 697. The writer of his life says he wrote prophecies, in Irish verse, of the battles and deaths of the Kings of Ireland down to the end of time. His life begins, De Australi Lageniensium Plagaa, quae dicitur Kenfelach.

    Munnu: In his life, mentioned already in Fintan, junior, we have an account of a remarkable judgment on the king’s son, who reviled him in the synod of Leighlin; wherein he seems to have presided.

    St. Patrick, first Bishop of Armagh, and the great apostle of Ireland, came hither in the year 432, retired in 465, and died the seventeenth of March, in the year 492. Innumerable are the authors who have been ambitious of the honour of writing the life of this mighty saint; of which Colganus, from his large collection of all that he met with in his Trias Thaumaturga already mentioned, may justly be reckoned the chief. Multitudes of anonymous writers of this life remain still in the libraries of England and Ireland; few whereof were, in all likelihood, known to Colganus. Of these Archbishop Usher had, besides an ancient one in Irish, two more in Latin:whereof the one begins Patricius qui vocatur et Succet. The other Gloriosus Confessor Patricius. To these may be added 1. Vita, Miracula, et Purgatorium, S. Patricii. 2. Liber de poenis Purgatorij, S. Patricij, ubi de ejus vita et Miraculis. 3. Vita S. Patricij anonyma, in Bibliotheca Bodleyana. 4. Vita septima S. Patricij, a long one in three parts, in Colganus, &c. This is cited as anonymous, and of our own growth, by Archbishop Usher. 5. S. Patricij Nativitas, Parentes, et Patria. The like abstract of the life and miracles of this saint as long since given in eight short chapters, by Nennius, whose faith, in these matters, seems to have been of a larger size than Mr. O’Flaherty’s. The last mentioned gentleman quotes his last will published in Irish verse; wherein he foretells of his own resurrection at Rath Keltair, or Down-Patrick; and likewise propheices that St. Bridget should outlive him thirty years.  The office used at the celebration of his obit is published amongst others of the like kind. There is also an old confession ascribed to St. Patrick, which discourses of Ireland by the name of Scotia; and allows him to have had a deacon for his father; that his grandfather was a priest; and that he was brought captive into Ireland before he was full sixteen years old. His pretended letter, charter or indulgence to the monks at Glastonbury; wherein he is made to give an account of his having finished his work in Ireland in the year 425, &c. is abundantly exposed, as a forgery, by Dr. Stillingfleet. 5. Vita S. Patricij, Archiepiscopi et Confessoris, Primatis totius Hiberniae et Doctoris ejusdem Gentis, in the Cottonian library. 7. Archbishop Usher quotes another Manuscript life, written by an Irishman, which says that the forementioned resurrection, would be at Dunlege-Glaisse: Upon which a later English hand gives this note, Quod nos dicimus in nostra lingua Glastingabyri. Others have subscribed their names to their respective lives of this saint: As 1. St. Benignus, who was St. Patrick’s own scholar, and immediate successor; whose book is part Latin and part Irish. 2. Kinnan, Bishop of Damleag or Duleg. What or where this prelate’s performance is, I know not. 3. St. Evin or Eyvin, Abbot of Ross-Mac-Greom about the beginning of the seventh century; to whom Joceline owns himself to be obliged. 4. Tirechan, whose two books, still extant in manuscript, bear in their title, that Bishop Tirechan wrote them from the mouth or book of his master, Bishop Ultan.  This is an elder writer than Luman. 5. Colman Vaniach, scribe of Armagh, who died in the year 725.  6. Kiaran of Belaigduin who died in the year 770. 7. Two of the oldest books of St. Patrick’s life were written by Probus an Irishman, about the year 920, as Colganus guesses. They are falsely ascribed to Bede; and printed in the third tome of his works. 8. St Mael, or Mel the Briton, nephew to St. Patrick, by his sister Darerca, first bishop of Ardagh, wrote a book of the virtues and miracles of St. Patrick, then living. Mael died the sixth of February, in the year 487. 9. Luman, a Briton also, and nephew to St. Patrick, by his siater Tigridia, first Bishop of Trim, wrote the acts of his uncle. 10. A third nephew, called Patrick, composed also his life; and, after, his uncle’s death, died at Glastonbury. All that is said of these three last is on the authority of Joceline. 11. Mr. O’Flaherty gives this note on another ancient writer of this life Scholiostes ille in vitam S. Patricij, a Fiedo, S. Patricij discipulo, et primo Lageniae Archiespiscopo, Metro Hibernico conscriptam super his verbis, &c. For which Colganus is cited.  Bishop Usher quotes several passages out of the life written by this Fiecus Slebhtiensis. In the life written by Probus, he is called Pheg; and said to be a boy instructed in poetry by his master, Dubtac, an eminent bard; who was one of St. Patrick’s first converts. 12. Joceline of Funress wrote it at large. This has been printed by several of the collectors. Whether the author was monk of Fourness in Lancashire, or of Fourness in Meath, is uncertain; but very sure we are, from his own testimony, that he wrote this life at the request of Thomas, Archbishop of Armagh, Malachy the third, Bishop of Down, and John Courcy, Prince of Ulster. Bede wrote also this saint’s life, and called his book Beati Patricij primi Praedicatoris et Episcopi totius Britanniae Vita et Actus. This by way of reprisal on the Irish, who challenge St Cuthbert; though Bede allows St. Patrick, which is more than they say of him, to be an Irishman born. He says that this apostle’s christian name was Magonius or Mannus; and that he took the name of Patrick, as all other writers of his life agree, on his being consecrated bishop. This was not written by Bede; who never mentions St. Patrick in his ecclesiastical history. 14. Archbishop Usher himself had once thoughts of collecting all treatises, truly or falsely, fathered on St. Patrick, and publishing them under the title of Magno Patricio adscripta Opuscula. Mr Camden had told him that he somewhere met with his epistles to the monks of Glastonbury. 15. Of St. Patrick, as well as Joseph of Arimathea &c. much may be seen in that large volume, De Antiquitate vetustae Ecclesiae B. Mariae Glastoniae, written by John, a monk of that church; who continues William of Malmsbury’s account down to the year 1400. 16. Guil. Thyraeus, or Dr. Terry, wrote a panegyric on St. Patrick; which is sited and despised by Archbishop Usher.

    Ruadan, died April the fifteenth, 584. His life begins Sanctus Ruadanus de Nobilis Parentibus. This life tells us that he was one of St. Finian’s scholars, at Cluainiharaid.

    Samthan, Abbess of Clonbrone, died the nineteenth day of December, 739. Her life begins Sancta et venerabilis virgo. 

    Senan, Bishop of Iniscatty, died the first of March, 544, the same day with St. David, patron of Wales. His life was written by St. Colman, Bishop of Cloyne. Another anonymous begins Senanus de Nobilibus, Paentibus, &c. Instead of this, Colganus has only given is an old monkish rhyme, or Latin hymn; which has little or nothing of his history in it.

    Tathey, Martyr. His life is in John of Tinmouth.

    Tigernach, Bishop of Cluanacois, now Clones, in the county of Monaghan, died April the fifth, 550.  His life begins, Venerabilis Praesul Tigernacus, Regali ex progenie Natus, Nepos Echahci Regis.

    Virgilius, the apostle and first Bishop of Carinthia, had his life written by a scholar of Everhard, Bishop of Salsburg; which is published by Canisius. It begins, Beatissimus Virgilius in Hibernia insula de Nobili ortus Prosapia….About the year 748, he fell under the censure of Pope Zachary, for asserting the doctrine of Antipodes.

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