OMNIUM SANCTORUM HIBERNIAE

Tag: Irish Saints

  • Saint Earnán of Tigh-Earnain, January 17

    Along with the entry for Saint Ultán of Cúl Corra on the Irish calendars at January 17 we find Saint Earnán (Earnain, Eirnín) of Tigh-Earnain, another obscure saint. There are 13 saints of this name on the twelfth-century List of Homonymous Saints, Father Colgan in the seventeenth century knew of 18 and there are 25 listed by Canon O’Hanlon from the martyrologies. In his Dictionary of Irish Saints  Padraig Ó Riain has observed that the majority of saints who bear this name have some sort of relationship to Saint Colum Cille. Canon O’Hanlon, in Volume I of The Lives of the Irish Saints, ends his account of Saint Earnán of Tigh-Earnain by noting Father Colgan’s suggestion that he may have been a disciple of Iona’s founder. There are indeed a number of holy men called Earnán found in the hagiography of Saint Colum Cille, including one said to be his uncle, but none specifically identified with the Saint Earnán of Tigh-Earnain, commemorated on January 17.  Canon O’Hanlon was also confused by a reference to the name of Hernind (Herninn) in the Martyrology of Tallaght, but its later editors solved the ‘Ernain and Hernind’ conundrum by noting:

     ‘Ernán from Tech Ernáin’ – Herninn is evidently a misreading of Ernain written above the line in the exemplar, and here inserted out of place’.

    (R.I. Best and H.J.Lawlor, eds, The Martyrology of Tallaght from the Book of Leinster and MS. 5100-4 in the Royal Library, Brussels, (London, 1931), 9).

    So, there never was a Saint Herninn sharing the honours with Saint Earnán. Although Canon O’Hanlon casts around for possible locations for Tigh-Ernain, overall this saint’s precise identity and location remain problematic. Below is the account of Saint Earnán of Tigh-Earnain taken from the January volume of The Lives of the Irish Saints:

    Article III. St. Ernain, of Tigh-Ernain.

    It is mentioned in the Martyrology of Tallagh that veneration was given to Ernain and Hernind of Tigh -Ulltain follows on the17th of January. Whether one or both of those saints be set down, to represent the following holy person is uncertain. In the Martyrology of Donegal an Ernain, of Tigh-Ernain, is recorded as having a festival on this day. Tigh may have been only a contraction for Tigh-Ernain.There is a Tigh-Airindan, i.e., ‘the house of Airindan or Farannan’. This place is so called at the present day; yet it has sometimes been Anglicised Tifarnan, or more usually Tyfarnham. It is the name of a townland, and of a parish, in the barony of Corkaree, and in the county of Westmeath. Perhaps this local denomination might be equivalent to Tigh-Ernain. But the Rev. A. Cogan has identified this saint’s place with the present Teghernain, and he has it in the county of Meath. With some doubt of identity expressed, Colgan states this Ernan, whom he calls Mernoc, likewise, may have been one of St. Columkille’s disciples.

    Rev. John O’Hanlon, Lives of the Irish Saints, Volume I, (Dublin, 1875?), p.297.

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  • Saint Ultán of Cúl Corra, January 17


    January 17 is the feast of Saint Ultán of Cúl Corra, one of the many Irish saints about whom not much information has survived. There are at least half a dozen saints of this name found on the twelfth-century List of Homonymous Saints, seventeenth-century hagiologist, Father John Colgan, said he knew of twenty. We have both a place and a patronymic assoicated with this particular Saint     Ultán. The Martyrology of Donegal records ‘ULTAN, son of Etechdach of Cuilcorra’ as its lead entry for the saints of the day. Canon O’Hanlon, as we shall see below, wondered if this saint may have been associated with the old church of Coolkerry in his native County Laois, but Father Colgan seems to have thought he belonged in Kera in County Mayo. In 2017 modern scholar Dr Elva Johnston posted on her social media account that ‘Lough Derravarragh is more often associated with the legend of the Children of Lir than with the local saint, Ultán of Cúl Corra’, which would place the saint in County Westmeath. Nothing more seems to have been recorded of Saint Ultán of Cúl Corra or of the period in which he flourished. Canon O’Hanlon in Volume I of his Lives of the Irish Saints mentions a reference to the Life of Saint Declan, but the Ultán who appears there as a close disciple of Declan of Ardmore is not identified as Saint Ultán of Cúl Corra:

    Article II. St. Ultan, Son of Etechdach of Cuilcorra. 
     
    Owing to her admirable constitution, all in the Church is strong, because in her everything is divine and everything is in unity. As each part is divine, the bond also is divine, and the connection of parts is such, that each part acts with the force of a whole. The very life of one among her saints reveals this happy unison and strength. We read in the Martyrology of Donegal on this day about Ultan, a son to Etechdach of Cuilcorra. For further particulars regarding this saint, we are referred to the life of St. Declan, by a commentator, in the table, which has been placed after the text of this Martyrology. In the published Martyrology of Tallagh this saint’s name is omitted, or wrongly inserted. Marianus O’Gorman informs us, likewise, that St. Ultan, the son of Etectac, was venerated in Cuilchorra, at this date. This church is placed in that part of Connaught, known as Kera, according to Colgan, and there too St. Patrick is said to have erected a church. However we cannot at all be certain that such was the exact place, with which St. Ultan’s religious ministrations had been connected. 
     
    There is an old church of Coolkerry, in a parish of that name, within the barony of Clarmallagh and in the Queen’s County. Measured from the interior, it is about 48 feet in length, by 20 in breadth, while the walls are nearly four feet in thickness. However, only an old gable, and quite a featureless one, stands in an imperfect shape, as several stones have been removed from its top and sides. Its limestone walls are covered with yellow lichens. Grass-covered side walls, with one end wall, or faint traces of it, over the foundations are visible. This church stands on a mound, near the road bridge, which crosses the River Erkina a considerable stream flowing beneath it. Several moss and lichen-covered rude head-stones are in the graveyard, which has long been used for purposes of burial. In an adjoining rich pasture field, and quite near the old church, there are very curious earth-mounds; and here the inhabitants say were and are the foundations of ancient religious erections. What is denominated a Monument Bush, and of large growth, may be seen at the entrance from the road to the graveyard, which is unenclosed. The bush was a fine flowering hawthorn, at a time when the writer visited this spot. Unbaptized infants were interred beneath the bush, and a pile of loose stones surrounded its gnarled trunk. It may be worthy of investigation, to find if this place could have been identical with the Cuilcorra and its St. Ultan here recorded.

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  • "Saint Patrick Arriving on Runway Five"

    The Catholic News Agency recently reported that the tradition of blessing the fleet of Irish national air carrier, Aer Lingus, is alive and well thanks to the appointment of a new airport chaplain. Their report can be found here. Below is an earlier report from 1953, published in  the Australian press, which lists the litany of Irish saints to whom the individual aircraft were dedicated. I was especially pleased to see two female saints among them. Sadly, the almost perfect safety record which existed at the time this article was published ended on March 24, 1968 when Aer Lingus Flight 712, “Saint Phelim”, crashed off the coast of County Wexford, close to the Tuskar Rock Lighthouse, killing all sixty-one souls on board. In such a changing world it is heartening to see the tradition of naming aircraft after Irish saints survive and long may it continue!

    LITANY OF IRISH SAINTS MAKES UP EIRE’S AIR FLEET

    “St. Patrick arriving on runway five from Dublin.”

    The announcement came in rich brogue but it was no blarney. Up the runway, as sleek as you please, taxied St. Patrick himself, the pride of the Aer Lingus fleet.

    There’s a whole litany of Irish saints in the Aer Lingus fleet. Besides St. Patrick, other planes are named for St. Brigid, St. Columcille, St. Malachy, St. Aiden, St. Albert, St. Finnan, St. Colman, St. Laurence O’Toole, St. Brendan, St. Enda, St. Finbar, St. Ita, St. Senan, and St. Flannan.

    Fittingly enough, many of these saints were intrepid travellers, carrying on apostolic labors in many parts of Europe.

    Founded in 1936, with every plane in its fleet named for a saint, is it any wonder that Aer Lingus holds the world safety record in the airway realm? The good patrons of this airway system must be cocking a watchful eye on their ships. As one of the Aer Lingus men remarked: “It’s only right to mark the planes which soar through the heavens after the good ones above.”

    The name of the patron saint stands out in foot-high lettering—in green paint, of course—on the nose of the plane. More comforting, perhaps, to the air traveller is the strategically located placard bearing the saint’s name over the more mundane signs warning, “Fasten safety belt” or “No smoking.” This patron saint, of course, is invoked hopefully and anxiously.

    Since the first airship, with dedication to an Irish saint, was both blessed and launched 17 years ago, Aer Lingus has won all kinds of air safety awards. Only one casualty has been recorded in the Irish airline history.

    Aer Lingus plans to purchase new planes to replace the Douglas C-47’s next year as business is on the increase. The planes will be of a different make, but not the guiding patrons.

    Southern Cross, Friday 7 August 1953, page 12.

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