OMNIUM SANCTORUM HIBERNIAE

Tag: Martyrdom

  • Saint Donnan of Eigg, April 17

    On April 17 we cross to Scotland for the commemoration of an Irish monk, Saint Donnan, who with fifty-two of his companions met a martyr’s death on the Hebridean island of Eigg. The precise identity of the assailants is unresolved with Picts, Vikings and unspecified ‘sea raiders’ all cropping up at various times. Canon O’Hanlon starts with something of a gazetteer of Scottish churches dedicated to Irish saints but he also brings us the list of names of the martyrs furnished to the Bollandists by an Irish priest at Louvain in the 17th century:

    ST. DONNAN, OF EGA, OR EGG ISLAND, ABBOT, AND FIFTY-TWO OF HIS COMPANIONS, MARTYRS, IN SCOTLAND.
    [SIXTH AND SEVENTH CENTURIES.]

    SOON after St. Columba had founded lona, the zealous Columban monks of his institute established many churches and cells in the Hebrides. In every one of these Islands, the churches and chapels were much more numerous, in former times, than they have been since the Reformation. Except some of those in Lewis and Harris, all the old churches were dedicated to the same patron saints, as those of Argyle, and other parts of Scotland, where the Scoto-Irish settled. Amongthe patrons may be noticed St. Columba, St. Brigid, St. Ciaran, St. Adamnan., St. Patrick, St. Barr, St. Brandan, St. Chattan, St. Martin, St. Caionach or Kenneth, &c. Even in Lewis and Harris, some of the churches were dedicated to Scoto-Irish saints, such as Columba, Brigid, Ciaran, Donan, or Adamnan. Towards the close of the last century, the ruins of twelve churches and chapels were standing, in Harris, besides several others, covered with moss and rubbish, although tradition carefully preserved their names. Their situation was likewise known to the people. In the Island of Taransay, there was a church, called Eaglais Tarain, but tradition was silent regarding it, in the last century. In the ancient Martyrology, there is a St. Tarnanus, called Tarananus, by Fordun, in his Scotichronicon. In the Island of Bemeray, likewise, there is a Cill Aisaim, supposed by Rev. John Macleod, to signify, a cell, or church, dedicated to St. Asaph.

    That charity, which Christ came on earth to establish in the hearts and souls of men, receives no higher encomium, than when for his sake their lives are devoted to their own and to their fellow-mortals’ salvation, especially when those lives are laid down for their friends. Such were the conditions fulfilled, by the devoted Martyrs of Eigg, as their memories are recalled on this day, in the Scoto-Irish settlement among the Hebrides. On the 17th of April, in the Martyrology of Tallagh, we find entered, Donnan, of Egha, with fifty-two of his monks, whose names had been written, in a larger book, which appears to have been that, now known as the “Book of Leinster.” The Bollandists have some notices of these Martyrs, at this same date, with certain doubts expressed, that all their names had been clearly remembered and recorded by posterity, even if we could be assured, that all their names have been written down correctly, from the earliest records. St. Donnan’s name occurs, in the Calendar and Office, found in the Aberdeen Breviary, at the proper day. But, no special allusion to his history can there be discovered. Wherefore, the writer of his memoir, in the “Acta Sanctorum,” is obliged to depend exclusively upon Irish authorities. Especially does he quote the Martyrology of Tallagh, and a transcript, sent from Louvain, by the Irish Father Thomas O’Sheerin, and which he extracted, from an Appendix to that Tract. In Bishop Forbes’ work, as also in that of Rev. S. Baring-Gould there are notices of this holy Abbot, and of his companions.

    The pedigree of St. Donnan, is not recorded; so that, all we can know concerning him must be gleaned, from short notices in our Irish Annals or Calendars. That he was a native of Ireland seems to be pretty generally received; and, probably, his religious profession had been made at lona, under the great Abbot, St. Columkille. Like some of his countrymen, Donnan was induced to settle, with a company of followers, in the western part of Scotland. He desired to make St. Columkille his Anmchara, which means confessor, or soul’s friend; but, the holy Abbot of lona refused that office, for his community. Ega was the name of that Island, in which Donnan lived, after his coming from Erin. Here, it would seem, he planted a large community of religious. In after times, this Island home gave name to a parish, including Egg, Muck and Rum. These are found, among the group of Hebridean Isles. At Eigg, the community did not live unmolested, and Columba had foretold their approaching martyrdom. This, however, did not prevent Donnan with his people taking up their abode on that Island. Three sheep, belonging to a certain rich woman of that region, were kept. Some accounts have it, that she was a queen and, owing to her envy towards the monks, she moved a plot for their destruction. There came sea-robbers on a certain time, to this Island, and while St. Donnan was celebrating the holy Sacrifice of the Mass. He requested of them not to kill him, until he shouldhave the Mass celebrated, and they gave him this respite. Then, St.Donnan, addressing his disciples, said, “Let us retire to the refectory, that the robbers may slaughter us, where we have carnally feasted ; for, we may not die, so long as we remain, where our souls were engaged, in praising the Lord. But, where we refreshed our bodies, let us pay the mortal penalty.” We are told, that these religious were martyred, in the refectory of the monastery, and on the night of Easter Sunday. The Martyrology of Donegal states, that St. Donnan was afterwards beheaded, with fifty-two of his monks. All their names, says the Calendarist, are in a certain old book, among the books of Erin. This particular record is mentioned, as having contained the names of fifty-two monks, who were beheaded along with St.Donnan of Egg. Unquestionably, this belonged to the Book of Leinster; for, in the loose leaves—now in the Franciscan Convent—all of those names are given at length, in the contained copy of the Tallagh Martyrology.

    The malicious woman, to whom we have alluded, had brought a marauding party—possibly of Picts—from the neighbouring coast, to murder the saint and his companions. The following are said to have been the names of these disciples, Aedanus, larloga, Maricus, Congallius, Lonanus, Maclasrius, Joannes, Arnanes, Erninus, Baithinus, Rothanus, Andrelanus, Carellus, Rotanus, Fergussaiuis, Rectarius, Connidius, Endeus, Macloga, Guretius, Junetus, Coranus, Baithanus, Colmanus, Jernludus, Lugadius, Luda, Gruundus, Cucalinus, Cobranus, Conmundus, Cunminus, Balthianus, Senachus, Demanus, Cummenus, Fernlugus, Finanus, Finnchanus, Finnichus, Conanus, Modomma, Cronanus, Kieranus, Colmanus, Navinnus, Remannus, Erninus, Ailchuo, Donnanus. Here, however, we only find fifty different persons’ enumerated. We are also led to infer from the account, that these martyrs were burned to death. Possibly the murderers set fire to that chamber, where those brethren had assembled, slaying each one, as he endeavoured to escape. They are said to have died, on the 17th of April, A.D. 617, according to Tighernach. From this date, and from the evidences already adduced, it seems a great mistake to assert, that the paganism of Ireland and of Scotland had fallen peacefully, before the power of the Christian Faith, almost three centuries before the martyrdom of St. Donnan and of his companions, who suffered “red martyrdom,” in the Island of Eigg, by the hands of the Vikings. The Felire of St. Aengus, commemorates the martyrdom of this saint and of his clergy, at the 17th day of April. The Kalendar of Cashel and that of Maguire record, in like manner, his feast. This day was dedicated, according to the Martyrology of Donegall to honour Donnan, of Ega, Abbot. St. Donnan and his companions, who were martyred with him, are mentioned in the Martyrologies of Drummond, in the Kalendar of the Breviary of Aberdeen, in Adam King’s Kalendar, and in Thomas Dempster’s Menologium Scotorum. This St. Donnan was greatly venerated, in the north and west of Scotland; while various churches were built in his honour, and dedicated to him. The Island of Egg had a church, called Killdonain, and called after the present saint’s name. St. Donnan’s well is shown in Eigg. Until the Reformation, the Crozier of St. Donnan, was kept at the Church of Auchterless. There is a church, at Baldongan, in the county of Dublin. However, it cannot be safely asserted, that it had any connexion, with the present holy martyr, Donnan. The foregoing notices comprise nearly everything known, regarding this religious community of Martyrs.

    Content Copyright © Omnium Sanctorum Hiberniae 2012-2015. All rights reserved.

  • Saint Maimbod, January 23

     

    On January 23 we commemorate Saint Maimbod, an Irish saint martyred in France around the year 900. Canon O’Hanlon reports that in the seventeenth century the Bollandists published an account of this martyr’s Life from a manuscript belonging to a French church and that native hagiologist Father John Colgan also recorded his Acts. These form the sources for Canon O’Hanlon’s own account below, taken from the first volume of his Lives of the Irish Saints:

    …The period of this saint seems to have been about the ninth century. From various accounts we learn, that he was a native and wore the habit or dress of Scotia or Ireland. Of illustrious birth and rank, he was entirely devoted to God’s service from his youth, and distinguished by the exercise of all Christian virtues. Maimbod was remarkable, also, for personal beauty and elegance of form. These advantages of birth, rank, and figure he little valued, rather preferring that his soul should be adorned with the virtues of humility and of self-denial. He considered worldly things as mean and transitory. He knew, that a Christian’s highest ambition should be eternal rewards. At what period of life he resolved on setting out from Ireland has not transpired. Maimbod’s object in leaving his native country appears to have been the acquisition of greater perfection, and a subjection of his will to God’s designs. He likewise desired to visit certain shrines and places, where the relics of saints and martyrs were preserved. During this pilgrimage, he exercised extraordinary mortification and resolution in overcoming temptations. With joy of spirit, he endured cold, hunger, and thirst; and whilst exteriorly he was scantily clothed, interiorly his soul was inflamed with an ever-burning love of the Creator, and a great zeal to promote whatever contributed to His honour and glory. He always denied himself luxuries, and often bodily necessaries. In him, the flesh was always subject to the spirit. It would appear, that Maimbod had been elevated to the clerical state before leaving Ireland, and that he was distinguished for wisdom, holiness, and ecclesiastical learning. He cultivated the love of poverty to such a degree, that whatever he received from others he bestowed upon the poor. When he had nothing to give in the shape of alms, he enriched the souls of many by his expositions of the Divine word, and by exhortations full of consolation and fervour. 

    Having visited many places, renowned for their connection with eminent saints, he came at length to the Burgundian territory, where the relics of many servants of God were enshrined, and among them, several belonging to his own country. The author of St. Maimbod’s Acts, who appears to have been a Frenchman, takes great care to enumerate the many holy martyrs and confessors, who adorned and blessed his country by their labours, virtues, and constant patronage. Among the Irish saints in France are specially named Columbanus, Dichull, Columbin, and Anatolius.

    While in the province of Burgundy, Maimbod became the guest of a certain nobleman, who, aware of his great virtues and the efficacy of his prayers, requested this holy pilgrim to accept something whereby the donor might be remembered in his petitions before God. The saint declared, that as he had an humble trust in the Almighty’s constant favours, he had no need for the goods of this transitory world. But that he might not seem to undervalue the kind intentions of his host, Maimbod consented to accept the present of a pair of gloves. Then, bestowing his benediction on this noble, and on all the members of his family, the holy man resumed his devout pilgrimage.
    Having gone to the Church of St. Peter, Prince of the Apostles, to offer up his prayers, Maimbod came to the village of Dominipetra, eight miles distant from Besancon. At this place some banditti were to be found, dead to every sense of Christian or human feeling, and ready at all times to commit most atrocious crimes. These men were robbers, and lived by waylaying and plundering pilgrims and travellers, who visited this place. Having seen Maimbod wearing his gloves, and supposing from such indication of worldly comfort, that he must be possessed of money, they watched his departure and pursued him beyond the village. They overtook him at a fountain, called Colebrunnia, which, in the Teutonic dialect, means “cold water.” On seeing them approach with menacing aspect, the servant of God saluted them in this manner : “Hail, beloved brethren, the grace of the Lord be with you; declare to me why you approach in such a manner. The mercy of God can assist you in your necessities. To this salutation, and to the charitable aspirations of Maimbod, the robbers replied only by inflicting on him blows and wounds, with swords and clubs, until he fell lifeless on the ground. His soul, however, winged its flight to Heaven. The perpetrators of this barbarous murder, finding nothing about his person worth seizing, were then filled with disappointment and remorse, for the cruel atrocity they had committed.
    The people of that neighbourhood, having found the remains of the holy pilgrim, removed them for sepulture to the Church of St. Peter, where he had so lately offered up prayers. His relics were afterwards rendered famous, owing to many miracles wrought at his tomb. By request of a certain count, named Adzo, after some time, Berengarius, Bishop of Besancon, had the remains of our saint removed to Monbelligard or Montbelliard.
    The ceremony of this translation was performed by the Coadjutor-Bishop of Besancon, named Stephen, and who had been formerly Deacon of St. John the Evangelist’s church, in that city. He was advanced to this dignity, in consequence of Archbishop Berengarius having lost his sight, which, it is said, was miraculously restored, on this occasion. Many miracles were afterwards wrought at the tomb of our saint. Berengarius likewise instituted a festival to his honour, on the 23rd of January, the day of this holy man’s death.
    The name of St. Maimbod was inscribed in the Dyptics of Besancon church, with notices of many other saints, who were held in especial veneration in that archdiocese. This martyrdom of our saint took place, at or before the year 900; since, according to Chifflet, Berengarius lived about this time. Maimbod was also known by the name of Maingol—a common designation, amongst the Scots or ancient Irish. By some martyrologists he is called Maimboldus, and by other writers Maibodus. A distinguished writer amongst the Scots or ancient Irish. observes, that when we read of the Christian benefits obtained by Continental countries through the agency of Scotia and of the Scots in the early ages of our national Church, these must be attributed to Ireland and to Irishmen. For the Island of Saints then many had visited to acquire learning in her schools. From these numbers migrated to diffuse knowledge and the science of the saints through more distant countries.

    Content Copyright © Omnium Sanctorum Hiberniae 2012-2015. All rights reserved.

  • Saint Blathmac of Iona, January 19

    Today we commemorate a 9th-century Irish martyred saint, Blathmac of Iona, who perished at the hands of the Vikings in defence of Saint Columcille’s relics. Author John Marsden sets the martyrdom of Saint Blathmac into its wider historical context:

    ‘The Annals of Ulster at 825 record the year of plague and famine when the Vikings fell on the churches of Downpatrick and Moville with fire and sword.
    A great pestilence in the island of Ireland … a great famine and failure of bread.
    The plundering of Dun-lethglaise by heathens.
    The burning of Magh-Bile with its oratories by heathens, in which a great many were slain.
    While a ‘great many’ monks were slain at Moville, it is another, and more impressively attested, bloodletting which singles out 825 as a year indelibly marked by the red martyrdom. This most infamous of viking atrocities against the Gael is entered with characteristic brevity by the Annals of Ulster at 825.
    Martyrdom of Blathmacc, son of Flann, by heathens in I-Columcille.
    The same event is shrewdly placed in a modern perspective by the historian Barbara Crawford as the point where ‘the Viking traders of recent history books and television series turn into the Viking raiders of yesteryear’.
    Blathmac mac-Flainn was, like Columcille himself, of royal blood and born a prince of a branch of the Ui-Neill. He had been a warrior who had entered the religious life as the abbot of some unidentified monastic community, most probably one enjoying the patronage of his own dynasty in Ireland. Resolving with solemn deliberation to suffer ‘the scars of Christ’, he came from Ireland to join whatever monastic community remained on Iona to assume some form of abbatial authority over the shrine at greatest hazard from the sea-raiders. In so doing he confirms the strange new sanctity which surrounded I-Columcille in the decades following Cellach’s transfer of the chief church of the Columban dominion to Kells. The most holy island of the western sea had passed into the viking age as the Golgotha of the Gael.
    It remained the burial ground where lay the ‘tombs of the kings’ and, more importantly, where Columcille himself awaited resurrection when the sixth age came at last to its end. The exact whereabouts of Columcille’s tomb on Iona had been shrouded in mystery since he was first laid in its earth in 597. Adamnan tells how miraculous meterological intervention secured for his community the privacy of the saint’s interment…
    When the bones of other saints were translated into the reliquaries of gold and silver in the eight century, it has been assumed that the remains of Columcille were similarly enshrined. The annals contain a sequence of entries for the early ninth century noting the voyages of Cellach’s successors, the abbots Diarmait and Indrechtach, carrying the ‘reliquaries’ of Columcille between Kells and Iona. These have been taken to represent the physical remains of the saint regularly ferried between the two churches, but some closer examination of the Irish text of the annals suggests that this might not have been exactly the case. The annalists use two different Irish words in this context, both of which translate as ‘relics’ but each with its own precise meaning. The word martra is used to represent the corporeal remains of a saint, while mionna generally identifies what might be called relics of association. A crozier or a habit worn by the saint, even lesser physical remains such as a fingernail or small bone separated from the body, were mionna,which is the word used by the annals for the relics of Columcille shipped back and forth between Erin and Alba. If those venerated remains encased in gold and silver were not in fact his physical remains, then what remained of the earthly form of the saint would have stayed on Iona. Whether as a temporary or a permanent arrangement, there is indisputable evidence that the enshrined remains of Columcille were on the island when Blathmac suffered his martyrdom defending them from the northmen in 825.
    Whether by reason of his courage, his piety, or, more probably the grisly nature of his martyrdom, Blathmac’s renown spread to the continent with the Irish monks seeking sanctuary overseas in greater numbers as the viking onslaught on Ireland intensified. It must have been one of these peregrini, most probably a surviving eyewitness of the event, who provided Walafrid Strabo, abbot of the Irish monastery at Reichenau in Switzerland, with the wealth of detail which informed his remarkable poetic elegy on the martyrdom of Blathmac. Abbot Walafrid’s hexameter verses, written within twenty-five years of 825, survive as the most detailed contemporary narrative of a viking raid on the western seaboard. His continental viewpoint prompted him to identify Blathmac’s assailants as ‘Danes’ when they were indubitably of Norse origin, but his account has every other hallmark – not least quotations of speech – of a first hand-testimony. It is also a text of great length and laden with pious homilies framed with scriptural quotation, so I have selected only those passages of especially significant relevance here.
    A certain island lies on the shores of the Picts, placed in the wave-tossed brine; it is called Eo, where the saint of the Lord, Columba, rests in the flesh. This island he [Blathmac] sought under his vow to suffer the scars of Christ, for here the frequent hoardes of pagan Danes were wont to come armed with malignant furies.
    Blathmac, forewarned of the approach of sea-raiders, called his monks together to prepare them for the impending martyrdom. Those ready to endure that fate were to stay beside him, but those not yet ready were to take refuge elsewhere in the island. There seem to have been places of safety appointed and accessible by designated pathways for just such an occasion and it is reasonable to assume that some similar arrangement had been used during earlier raids.
    The community, moved by these words, determined to act according to their strength. Some, with a brave heart resolved to face the hand of sacrilege, and rejoiced to have to submit their heads to the raging sword; but others, whose confidence of mind had not yet risen to this, took flight by a path to known places of refuge.
    The golden dawn dispelled the dewy darkness and the glittering sun shone again with glorious orb, when the pious cleric stood before the holy altar, celebrating the holy offices of the mass, himself a victim acceptable to God to be offered up to the thundering sword. The rest of the brethern lay commending their souls with prayers and tears, when behold, the cursed bands rushed raging through the unprotected houses, threatening death to those blessed men and, furious with rage, the rest of the brethern being slain, came to the holy father, demanding he give up the precious metals which enclosed the sacred bones of Saint Columba. But [the monks] had taken the shrine from its place and deposited it in the earth in a hallowed tumulus, or grave, and covered it with sods.
    This was the plunder the Danes desired; but the holy man stood firm with unarmed hand, with a stern determination of mind; taught to stand against foes and to challenge encounter, unaccustomed to yield. He then addressed the barbarians in the following words:

    ‘I know not of the gold you seek, where it may be placed in the ground, and in what recesses it may be hidden; but if it were permitted by Christ for me to know, never would these lips tell it to your ears. Savagely bring your swords, seize their hilts and kill. O God, I commend my humble self to Thy protection’.

    Hereupon the pious victim was cut in pieces with severed limbs, and what the fierce warrior could not compensate with a price, he began to seek out by wounds in the stiffened entrails. Nor is it a wonder, for there always were and always will arise those whom evil rage will excite against the servants of the Lord.
    Thus the abbot Walafrid portrays the martyrdom of a ‘servant of the Lord’ in an account which indicates some greater significance than the summary despatch of a martyr to his crown.
    The Irish calendars of saints record the date of Blathmac’s death as 24th July, which falls into the later raiding season and suggests an attack made by a warband returning to the north after its plundering of Down and Moville. The reiterated references to ‘rage’ in Walafrid’s account would suggest the raiders as berserkr, the blood-frenzied warrior-priests of Odin found throughout the Scandanavian saga sources. If the raiders of 825 were berserkers, then the grisly detail of Blathmac’s martyrdom assumes a greater significance than the casual brutality of the sword, because Walafrid’s account is quite consistent with the saga evidence for the ritual sacrifice to Odin, known across the northlands as the ‘blood-eagle’….
    If such was the fate dealt out to Blathmac mac-Flainn, then the renown accorded his martyrdom might be explained in terms of its fearsome symbolism no less than its savage circumstances. It can only have represented the symbolic sacrifice of the White Christ before the shrine of Columcille to Odin battle-bringer.
    No image from the pages of the insular gospel books is possessed of such ominous aspect as the folio from the Book of Kells portraying Christ at Gethsemane in the form of a Celtic holy man seized by two gnomic warriors. It would have appeared to the sixth age of the world as the foretelling on vellum of the red martyrdom of Blathmac on I-Columcille.
    John Marsden, The Fury of the Northmen – Saints, Shrines and Sea Raiders in the Viking Age AD 793-878, (London, 1996), 87-91.
    Canon O’Hanlon also mentions the two different feasts for Saint Blathmac:
    He appears to have had a double festival: one on this day, and another on the 24th of July. This saint is venerated abroad on the 19th of January. In the Martyrologies of Donegal and Tallagh his feast is set down on the 24th of July. This latter, perhaps, was some translation of his relics.
    Finally, O’Hanlon sees the name of our saint as being especially appropriate:
    We are told that in the Irish language this saint is called Blathmhac. The first syllable of this compound name has an equivocal signification. Blath, when pronounced long, has the literal meaning,” a flower,” and the metaphorical signification, “beautiful” when pronounced short, it is rendered into the English words,”honour” or “fame.” The word Mhac is Anglicized “son.” Truly was this heroic man named.

    Content Copyright © Omnium Sanctorum Hiberniae 2012-2015. All rights reserved.