OMNIUM SANCTORUM HIBERNIAE

Tag: Irish Saints

  • The Scholars of Clonard: A poem of Sedulius Scottus

    Below is the translation of a poem on the Scholars of Clonard attributed to the prolific ninth-century Irish poet, Sedulius Scottus. Sedulius made his career abroad in the courts of continental Europe, but like all good Irishmen, he never forgot where he came from. In this poem he pays tribute to the tradition of learning established at the monastic school of Clonard and to three of its scholars in particular – Vinnau/Finnian the sixth-century founder, Ailerán the Wise, a seventh-century scholar and Fergus, a scholar of the ninth century who also features in some of the author’s other poems.

    Look on the marble columns surpassing the stars,
    which the sand of the saint-bearing land supports here
    happy, famous Ailerán, Vinnau, Fergus,
    shining lights made by gift-carrying God.
    O He sent a great present of Scotia [i.e.Ireland],
    rich relics which Pictonia [i.e. Poitiers] wishes to be its own,
    whence comes Titan and where night established the stars
    and where midday is hot with blazing hours
    [i.e. the east and the west and the south].

    David Howlett, ed. and trans., The Celtic Latin Tradition of Biblical Style (Dublin, 1995), 129.

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  • Saint Banbán, December 3

    At December 3 both the Martyrology of Gorman and the Martyrology of Donegal record the name of ‘Banbán, Bishop’. This is an interesting and ancient Irish name whose most well-known saintly bearer is Banbán, Bishop of Leighlin. This saint has a feast on November 26 which raises the possibility that today’s commemoration could be the octave day of the Leighlin bishop rather than the feast of a different individual who happens to share the name. There are two further commemorations of Saint Banbán in the Irish calendars, both in the month of May. This saint is described as ‘Banbán the Wise’, but in his Dictionary of Irish Saints, Pádraig Ó Riain argues that the May and the November feast days probably all relate to the same saint. Interestingly, the May dates fall on the first and the ninth of the month, which again means that we are dealing with an octave day.  Ó Riain does not discuss the December 3 feast, but is it just a coincidence that it too can be read as an octave day for the feast of the Bishop of Leighlin?

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  • Saint Nuadha of Clones, December 2

    December 2 is the feast of a holy man bearing the ancient name of Nuadha who is associated with the monastery of Clones, County Monaghan. The most famous of the saints of Clones is the founder Saint Tighernach, presumably, Nuadha was one of his successors. The passing of Nuadha is recorded in the Irish Annals at the middle of the eighth century and his feast day noted in some of the Irish calendars. The Annals of Ulster record the year 750 as the date of Nuadha’s death, the Annals of the Four Masters give the year 746. The seventeenth-century Martyrology of Donegal records this entry at December 2 :

    2. G. QUARTO NONAS DECEMBRIS. 2.

    NUADHA, son of Dubhsleibhe, Abbot, of Cluain-eois. 

    The age of Christ when he went to heaven was 750.

    The twelfth-century Martyrology of Gorman notes in its appendices:

    Nuadu, abb. of Clones, Dec. 2 (acc. Nuadait). Ob. 750 (746, FM.).


    Cluain Eoais (‘meadow of Eos’) Ap. 4, gl. i. Dec. 2, gl. 2, = Cluain Auis, AU. 777, now Clones, co. Monaghan.

    The name of Saint Nuadha does not appear in the earlier Martyrology of Oengus.

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