OMNIUM SANCTORUM HIBERNIAE

Tag: Irish Saints

  • Saint Brecan of Ardbraccan, December 6

    December 6 is the commemoration of a County Meath holy man, Saint Brecan of Ardbraccan. He seems to have been equated in some of the sources with a Saint Brecan of the Aran Islands and indeed there are at least ten saints who share the name.  Whether the Meath saint is the same individual as the Galway saint remains non-proven to me. The Aran saint’s feast day is on May 1, but Brecan, ‘Bishop of Ardbraccan’ is commemorated in the Martyrology of Donegal at December 6, as Meath diocesan historian, Father Anthony Cogan explains:

    THE Abbey of Ardbraccan, “Breacan, or Brecan’s height or hill”, was founded by St. Brecan, in the sixth or very early in the seventh century. St. Brecan was the son of Eochaidh Balldearg, prince of Thomond, and grandson of Carthen Finn, first Christian ruler of that territory. After having governed Ardbraccan for some time, he proceeded to the west of Ireland, and founded, on the great island of Arran, in the bay of Galway, the Church of Templebraccan, where he fixed his residence. He is said to have written some prophecies regarding the future wars of Ireland and the coming of the English. The exact year of his death is unknown, but it was probably in the sixth century. He was interred in his own church of Templebraccan, where his festival was celebrated on the 1st of May. In the Martyrology of Donegal he is called Bishop of Ardbraccan, and his festival is marked at December the 6th. The Martyrology of Tallaght commemorates him at May 1st. His tomb on which was an Irish inscription was discovered some years ago:

    “This monumental stone”, says Dr. Petrie, ” was discovered about forty years ago within a circular enclosure known as St. Brecan’s tomb, at a depth of about six feet from the surface, on the occasion of its being first opened to receive the body of a distinguished and popular Roman Catholic ecclesiastic, of the County of Galway, who made a dying request to be buried in this grave. Under the stone within the sepulchre there was also found, on this occasion, a small water-worn stone of black calp or limestone. . . . On the upper side is carved a plain cross, and around this, in a circle, the following simple inscription (Anglicised): ‘A Prayer for Brecan the pilgrim’”.

    This venerable relic is at present in Dr. Petrie’s possession. Ware makes St. Brecan flourish about 650. Dr. Petrie says he died early in the sixth century.

    Rev. A. Cogan, The Diocese of Meath Ancient and Modern. Vol. I. (Dublin and London, 1862), 50-51.

  • Saint Colman of Cloyne, November 24

    November 24 is the feastday of a Cork poet-saint, Colman of Cloyne. I have previously posted Archdall’s account of the saint and his locality here. Below is another account of the life of Saint Colman and the locality of Cloyne, this time from Mary Frances Cusack, the ‘Nun of Kenmare’:

    According to the Annals of the Four Masters, St. Colman died in the year 600 (i.e., 601 of our present computation), and the 24th of November is the day on which his festival is marked in all the ancient calendars, and on which it is still observed in the diocese of Cloyne. Our patron of Cloyne must not be confounded with another St. Colman, who was honoured on the same day. Both these saints are thus commemorated by St. Aengus, in his Felire, at the 24th of November:

    “With Cianan of Daimliac,
    A beautiful ear of our wheat,
    Mac Lenine, the most excellent,
    With Colman of Dubh-Chuillenn.”

    The Martyrology of Donegal preserves the following quatrain from the ancient poem Naomhsheanchus, on the Saints of Ireland:

    “Colman, son of Lenin, the full.
    And Mothemneag, son of Corban,
    Were of the race of two brothers—
    Oilioll Oluim, and Lughaidh.”

    —O’Curry’s MSS. Annal. Inisfal.

    The old Latin Life of St. Brendan passes the following eulogy on St. Colman:—”This Colman, the son of Lenin, was for learning and a holy life chief among the saints. He founded the church of Cloyne, which is at this day a cathedral, and famous throughout the province of Munster.”

    Cloyne was situated in the territory of Ui-Lethain, and in that sub-division which was called Ui-Mocaille, a name that is still retained in the barony of Imokilly. It is distant nineteen miles from Cork, and “is seated in the heart of a rich and highly cultivated country, being embosomed in gently rising hills. It does credit to the choice of the ancient fathers who here took up their abode in very remote times.”— Brash, Journal of Kilkenny, Arch. Society. (New Series, ii. 253.)

    To distinguish this See from other churches of the same name —of which there were several scattered throughout Ireland— it was sometimes called by the name Cluain-mor, i.e., “The Great Cloyne,” but more generally Cluain-uamha, that is ” Cloyne of the Caves.” There are some very deep and interesting caves close by the old Cathedral. It is probable St Colman or some of his religious lived in them in olden times; and it is the popular tradition that many of the clergy and people found a safe retreat there when the country was engaged by the Danes…

    …. Cloyne, according to an ancient MS., was the favourite place of burial for the ” best bloods of Ireland,” on account of the sanctity of the founder of the See. That it was so venerated we find from the will of Cormac Mac Cullenan, who desired to be buried here.

    In the “Book of Rights,” page 87, Cluain-uamha is mentioned as one of the royal residences of the kings of Cashel, and subsequently is added: —

    “Of the rights of Cashel, in its power
    Are Bruree, and the great Muilchead,
    Seanchua the beautiful, Rosraeda the bright,
    And to it belongs the noble fort of Cluain-uamha.”

    M. F Cusack, A History of the City and County of Cork (Dublin and Cork, 1875), 516-521.

  • 'Lasair, woman-saint beloved'

    November 13 is the feast of Saint Lasair, an obscure female saint, despite the fact that she is one of a literal handful of Irish holy women to have a written Life still extant.  Lasair’s Life, however, is not quite in the same league as Cogitosus’s Life of Saint Brigid, as it was compiled in the seventeenth century. It may well be, however, that in 1670 David O’Duigenan had access to an earlier medieval text on which to draw.  Lucius Gwynn made a translation of the Beatha Lasrach which was published in the Royal Irish Academy’s journal, Ériu, in 1911. Below is a tribute to the saint paid by her only brother. The Life of Lasair depicts our saint as one of the six daughters of Ronán, and as far as her brother Cobthach is concerned, she outshines her siblings:

    Good were my six sisters,
    fair, generous, vigilant,
    Adhbhann, Esnad, Fuinche bright,
    Lasair, Damhnad and Derbhile.

    She is the best of those six women Lasair,
    with greatness of boasting,
    woman-saint who kept herself (a virgin),
    never has been found her equal for sanctity.

    Noble miracles wrought she
    in the church above Ard Locha.
    She took the priest out of imprisonment,
    and saved the child from misery.

    Jesus and all the saints
    be with me and Mary lovingly,
    and Damhnad of many miracles,
    and Lasair woman-saint beloved.

    Lucius Gwynn, ed and trans, The Life of St. Lasair, Ériu, Vol. 5 (1911), 83, 85.

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