OMNIUM SANCTORUM HIBERNIAE

Tag: Irish Saints

  • '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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  • Saint Fintan Munna of Taghmon, October 21

    October 21 is the feast of Saint Fintan better known as Saint Munna. Munna is an important figure who features in a number of well-known episodes from the lives of the Irish saints.  He also played a significant role in the Paschal Dating Controversy. All the sources suggest that he was quite a fiery character who was not to be crossed lightly. There is a 2015 account of Saint Munna by scholar Gilbert Markus written for the Kilmartin Museum Trust available online here. Below is an older account of the saint from another Scottish author which summarizes the main points of his career:

    21 St. Mund or Fintan-Munnu, Abbot, A.D. 635, 
    HE was born in Ireland, and was a contemporary of St. Columba. He bears the character of being the most austere of all the Irish saints, and suffered grievously from bodily infirmities with the greatest resignation. Crossing over to Scotland, he dwelt for a time upon an island of Loch Leven, still called after him by the title of Eileanmunde. A more important foundation was afterwards made by this saint at Kilmun, north of the Firth of Clyde, in Argyllshire. An old burial ground still marks the site of the monastery founded by St. Mund; the hills and wooded glens which surround the spot make up a scene of striking beauty. A small bay in the vicinity is called ” Holy Loch”. It is a matter of dispute whether the title came from its proximity to St. Mund’s foundation or from a shipload of earth from the Holy Land, destined to form part of the foundation of a church in Glasgow, and reputed to have been sunk in a storm near that spot. It is said that St. Mund made application to Baithen, St. Columba’s successor at Iona, to be received as a monk of that monastery, but that Baithen advised the saint to return to Ireland and found a monastery there. The holy abbot gave this advice on account of a prophecy of St. Columba, who had foreseen St. Mund’s desire, and had declared that God willed that saint to become abbot over others and not the disciple of Baithen. It was owing to this advice that St. Mund returned to his native land and founded Teach-Mun (Tagmon) in Wexford, which became famous under his rule. Mediaeval documents mention the saint’s pastoral staff as preserved in Argyllshire; its hereditary custodian held a small croft at Kilmun; it may have been in honour of this saint that a fair was held at that place for eight days during April as alluded to in records of 1490. No trace of the above relic now remains. In Ireland this saint is known as St. Fintan-Munnu; but Mundus or Mund is the title which appears in Scottish records.
    Dom Michael Barrett, O.S.B., A Calendar of Scottish Saints (2nd. revised ed., Fort Augustus, 1919), 151-152.

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  • The Left Hand of Ultan

    The Scholiasts’ notes to the Martyrology of Oengus record some interesting traditions about Saint Ultan, a holy man with a reputation for being particularly kind to children, whose feast is commemorated on September 4. One is his invention of a feeding bottle to nourish his young charges, the other is the story of his cursing of a foreign invasion fleet. The two are linked, because it is whilst being engaged in feeding his fosterlings with his right hand, he is forced to use his left to turn back the fleet, a matter of regret to the Irish ever since…..

    Ultan quasi altan ‘razor,’ for his keenness and sharpness in, miracles and marvels. He used to be called ‘the cleric of the children,’ for after the (plague called) Buide Connaill every babe without maintenance was brought to Ultan, so that often fifty, or a hundred-and-fifty, of them were with him at the same time, and he himself used to feed them, i.e. the children of the women whom the Buide Connaill had killed. This is what Ultan used to do, to cut off the cows’ teats . . . and pour milk into them, and the babes a-playing around him.

    Thus then he used to wend, with his gospel on his back, (hanging) without any strap to it!

    At that time Diarmait son of Cerball was king of Ireland. There happened (to come) a vast seafleet (of foreigners), which filled most of Erin’s estuaries. Great fear affects Diarmait, and then he said: 

    ” Yon ‘cleric of the children,’ who wends with his gospel on his back and no strap to it, in him let us put our trust that the plague may be taken from us.” So envoys are sent from Diarmait to Ultan. Then was Ultan feeding the children when the messengers arrived, and they tell him their errands.

     “That is a shame,” says Ultan, ” that ye did not leave me alone till my right hand was free. My hand that is free, i.e. the left hand, I will raise it against these ships. But if it were my right hand no foreigner would ever invade Ireland.” So that hence is (the proverb) “Ultan’s left hand against the evil!”

    Thus F: Then was Ultan feeding certain children, with a bit of porridge in his lips and some of it on his finger, when the king’s gillie arrived. Ultan spake not to the gillie, but uplifted his left hand.

     Then the gillie repaired to the king and told this to him, and the king understood that the cleric had raised his left hand in order to expel the fleet. Wherefore from that time to this is (the proverb) ‘Ultan’s left hand against every evil.’

    The feeding of his fosterlings by Ultan he wrecked, destroyed, stranded thrice fifty ships with his left hand. Had it been the right hand that noble Ultan raised against them from us hence no foreigner would ever have come here or there into the land of Erin.

    Moninne sang:
    Not from a blow on anyone’s face are all the clerics red: ’tis a little thing that whitens the visage of Ultan great-grandson of Conchobar.

    ‘Tis great labour to strive for the height in the valley : to strive for perfection with the Son of God, this is what would make the cheeks white.


    Ultan was elected into the abbacy of Mochta in Louth, and before him Fursa had been put thereout. 

    Isn’t this picture of the saint with his gospel on his back, miraculously hanging without a strap, feeding destitute children and having others romping around him a wonderful image? A hospital for babies in Dublin was dedicated to Saint Ultan, and in 1920 a book of poems and pictures was issued in its support. It is a most charming volume, and I have taken the picture of Saint Ultan above from it. You can read The Book of Saint Ultan online here.

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