OMNIUM SANCTORUM HIBERNIAE

Tag: Poems

  • Oentú Maelruain – The Unity of Maelruain

    July 7 is the feast of of Saint Maelruain, and there is a list of his particular disciples preserved in a poem known as the Oentú Maelruain (The Unity of Maelruain) in the Book of Leinster:

    “Maelruain, Maeltuile, glorious in deed,
    Maelanfiad of Dairinis,
    The three Flands, Maeldithrub zealous,
    Dimman, Dalbach, Feidlimid.

    Diarmuid, Eochaid, sublime the tale,
    And Oengus Ua Oibleim,
    The folk of that unity all
    (Are) round Maelruain, round Maeltuile.”

    Father Peter O’Dwyer, who has made a particular study of the Céile-Dé as a reform movement, says that ‘an Oentú or union was a close relationship between communities or particular persons’. There are 12 names on the list, in addition to Maelruain’s own, and Father O’Dwyer suggests that this is based on the ‘grouping of Christ and the 12 apostles.’ He goes on to try and put a little meat on the bones of these characters:

    ‘Maeltuile is the second name on the list. The fact that the latter has a dísert situated in County Westmeath is significant. Kenney rightly points out that both dísert and anchorite are part of this reform.

    Maelanfaidh, Abbot of Darinis, lived more than a century before Maelruain and is included probably because the latter had special reverence for him.

    Flann mac Fairchellaig (+825), Abbot of Lismore, Emly and Cork, is contemporaneous with the reform movement.

    Flann mac Duibthuinne is most likely the Flann mac Duibhchonna who appears in the Tallght documents and, in common with his namesake, hails from Daire na bhFlann which probably owes its change of name to them.

    The next Flannan may be from Cill Áird, County Clare (+778). Or he may be a Flann connected with Daire na bhFlann if we follow the second version of the Oentú in the Book of Leinster.

    We know a good deal about the next member, Maeldíthruib, since he lived in the Tallaght Community for a period under the direction of the master and later returned to Terryglass. He was a young, enthusiastic and eager questioner who had great respect for his ‘hero’. He wished to have access to all the sacred writings which had come to Ireland, to serve in the most perfect community. These wishes are a good summary of the central idea of the movement. He died, anchorite and suí (wise man) of Terryglass in 840.

    Dimman was an anchorite in Ara (Limerick/Tipperary) who died in 811 (Annals of Ulster, 810).

    Dalbach, who died c.800, belonged to Cúl Collainge, near Castlelyons, County Cork.

    The next member of the ‘unity’ is a rather strange character, Feidlimid mac Crimthann, born in 770, who became King of Cashel in 820. His marauding exploits, which include the burning of monasteries, set him apart from the other members and made him a rather unlikely model, though Professor F.J.Byrne classes him as ‘a powerful champion of the Céile-Dé’.

    Diarmait, the founder of Dísert Diarmata (Castledermot, County Kildare) in 812, was probably very deeply motivated by the reform. The monastic school, with its scriptural crosses, and the possibility that he was the scribe of the Milan glosses, suggest that it was an important centre of scriptural studies and Christian art.

    The last name in the ‘unity’ is Oengus, a very gifted man. A considerable number of his writings still survive. It is quite probable that he received his early training in Cluain Eidnech in County Laois. He came to Tallaght to benefit from Maelruain’s direction. He had a dísert near the river Nore in County Kilkenny. The story [in the Martyrology of Oengus) tells us that on his way to Tallaght he stopped at Cúl Beannchair, County Laois, where he got the idea of writing a martyrology. Having arrived at Tallaght, he concealed his identity and was given heavy work in the kiln. Finding one of Maelruain’s pupils who could not not learn his lesson, he helped the boy to such an extent that Maelruain found out who he was and chided him for concealing himself. Oengus had great respect for the master as we see in his writings. Some time later he returned to Cluain Eidnech where he died on March 11, possibly 830.

    These names point to a Munster origin. With the advent of Maelruain the reform found a firm base in Tallaght and influenced Finglas. He attracted disciples from other parts of Tipperary, Laois, Cork and Westmeath and it spread to Kildare, Clonmacnoise, Iona and Loch Cré, near Roscrea. Louth and Clonfert are also quoted in the documents. The culdees found their longest duration in Clonmacnoise, Terryglass and Armagh.

    Peter O’Dwyer, Towards a History of Irish Spirituality (Columba, Dublin, 1995), 45-6.

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  • Star of the world, Catherine, helper of the Greeks

    November 25 is the feastday of a saint much-loved in the East – Catherine of Alexandria. In common with other eastern martyrs, like Saints George and Margaret of Antioch, her cult flourished in the medieval West and accounts of her martyrdom appear in a number of European versions, including a fifteenth-century Irish one. I was particularly pleased whilst visiting the National Museum in Dublin to see on one of the reliquaries a figure of Saint Catherine, complete with her wheel, in the company of our native saints. They also join her in the medieval Irish poem, Réalta an chruinne Caitir Fhíona. Below is a  translation by Father Lambert McKenna, published as part of a series on bardic poetry in the Irish Jesuit periodical, Studies. I think it is a beautiful tribute to the great martyr and I love its presentation of our native saints as exemplars of the same holy virginity that Saint Catherine embodied.

    1. Star of the world, Catherine, helper of the Greeks; she succours most of the races of every province there against death.

    2. Catherine curly-haired maid, branch of victory; face as the bloom of fresh apple-tree; bright brow.

    3. Bright brow has she, daughter of the King of the Greeks, who never accepted suitor; in the hue of her cheeks is the sheen and colour of the berry.

    4. The berry’s colour and summer sunshine is in her ruddy cheek; many the curl bending from its stem in her coifed hair.

    5. In the shape of Catherine’s round eyes no Grecian woman surpassed her; round eye that gazed on no young warrior; lips deep-red and white.

    6. Face as apple-blossom; bosom as swan; maid inviolate; down is not whiter than her gleaming white hand; grey eye in fair cheek.

    7. No maiden do I see like her in charm but I entreat her; may Mary’s Son hide away my folly.

    8. Brighid of Éire and Alba, Virgin of the Isles, she is the soft white bloom of virgins, ….

    9. Athrachta succour of the Luighnigh; great her zeal; she is the fair-footed virgin of the Búill; waxen candle.

    10. Bright gentle Ciarán, Colum Cille – gentle the company! – Pádraig, Martain, Mongan, Manann, Comann, Coireall.

    11. The Trinity, great Mary and Michael, the host of the sun, (and) eleven thousand virgins of the Búill, flower of fair maids.

    Notes


    9. Athracta of Cell Sáile in Críoch Conaill; but she is here connected with Luighne, Co. Sligo.

    10. Mongan, Martyr Oeng., Sept. 3; Manann, Martyr Don., Feb. 23; Caireall, ibid, June 13; several saints named Comman occur in the Martyrologies.

    Lambert McKenna, ed. and trans., ‘Some Irish Bardic Poems XV. St. Catherine of Alexandria’ in Studies: An Irish Quarterly Review, Vol. 19, No. 75 (Sep., 1930), pp. 439-440.

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

  • The Legend of Saint Mochaoi of Oendruim

    The Legend of Saint Mochaoi of Oendruim

    by Seamus O Cuisin

    ST MOCHAOI was born about 420 A.D.; founded the abbey of Oendruim (pronounced Endrim; i.e.,”the single ridge”), on the beautiful island bearing that name, about 450; and died in the year 496 or 497. For several centuries the abbey, in which education and monasticism were combined, occupied a prominent position, and from it emanated a number of subsequent founders of similar institutions. Between 974 and 1178 history is silent in regard to it; but it is certain that, from its position on Loch Cuan (Strangford), which was infested by Danish marauders, it came in for a large share of their devastating attentions. From its affiliation, in 1178, with an English religious establishment, it seems to have fallen into a condition of decay; and in 1450 it is simply noted as a parish church in the charge of the Bishop of Down.

    The island of Oendruim or, as it is now called, Mahee, from Inis Mochaoi, in memory of its patron saint and founder is situated most picturesquely on Strangford Lough, about seven miles from Comber, and is approachable on foot or car by a fine modern causeway, which crosses an intervening island. On the shore end of the island may be seen many remains of the stone buildings which superseded the original wooden structures in the history of this venerable, romantic, but popularly-neglected shrine. These remains include the stump of a round tower; traces of extensive foundations, once partially laid bare by the late Bishop Reeves, and now almost entirely hidden from sight again; the site of the harbour, where anchored “ships” from Britain; evidences of a God’s-acre, hallowed by long time and association ; and a fairly complete castle of a later period. The circuit of the island can be made on foot leisurely in a couple of hours, and the walk affords a view of the extensive waters of the once Dane-infested lough, the distant hoary walls of Greyabbey, the haunts of Saint Patrick, the scene of the death of Ollamh Fodhla, and the daring and unscrupulous deeds of De Courcy, and many other places of interest.

    Baile Draigin (Ballydrain) about half-way between Comber and Mahee Island is so called from baile, a place, and Draigin, a blackthorn tree; and the reader will observe the connection between this place and the story. No trace of a church, however, has yet been discovered at Ballydrain.

    Rudraide (pronounced Rury) is the modern Dundrum Bay.

    The idea contained in the following verses has been variously rendered by several eminent authors. The incident in which it is here embodied may, however, be fairly claimed as the oldest version the original in fact.

    Quoth good Saint Mochaoi of Oendruim:
    “I will build for Christ my master
    Here a church, and here defend Him
    And His cause from all disaster.”
    Seven score youths cut beam and wattle;
    Seven score hands unseared in battle
    Their unstinted aid did lend him,
    Fast and ever faster.

    But though arm, and voice loud-ringing,
    To a test of toil defied him,
    Right and left the wattles flinging,
    Not a tongue could dare deride him;
    For, before them all, he stood
    Finished, waiting. Not a rood
    From the spot a bird was singing
    In a thorn beside him.

    Sang no bird in ancient story
    Half so sweet or loud a strain:
    Seaward to the loch of Rudraide,
    Landward then, and back again
    Swelled the song, and trilled and trembled
    O’er the toiling youths assembled,
    Rang around ‘mid summer glory
    There at Baile-draigin.

    Far more beautiful the bird was
    Than the bright-plumed bird of bliss,
    And the Abbot’s feeling stirred was
    To its deepest depths, I wis ;
    ‘Til, as from the fiery splendour
    Moses saw, in accents tender
    Spake the bird, and lo! the word was:
    “Goodly work is this.”

    “True,” quoth Saint Mochaoi of Oendruim,
    ” ‘Tis required by Christ my master
    Here to build, and here defend Him
    And His cause from all disaster :
    But my blood mounts high with weening
    Of this gracious word the meaning.”
    Nearer then the bird did tend him,
    Fast and ever faster.

    “I shall answer. I descended
    From mine angel soul’s compeers,
    From my home serene and splendid
    To this haunt of toil and tears;
    Came to cheer thee with a note
    From an angel’s silvern throat.”
    Then he sang three songs: each, ended,
    Made a hundred years.

    There, through days that dawned and darkened,
    With his wattles by his side,
    Stood the island Saint, and hearkened
    To that silvery-flowing tide ;
    Stood entranced, and ever wonder’d
    ‘Til had circled thrice a hundred
    Years, o’er fields life-lade or stark, and
    Cuan’s waters wide.

    Then, when came the final number,
    Ceased the angel-bird its strain,
    And, unheld by ills that cumber
    Mortals, sought the heavenly plain.
    Then the Saint, in mute amaze,
    Round him turned an anxious gaze,
    And from that far land of slumber
    Came to earth again.

    There his load, ‘mid weed and flower,
    Lay beside him all unbroken,
    ‘Til, with thrice augmented power,
    From his holy dream awoken,
    Up he bore it to his shoulder,
    Broad, and not a hand’s-breadth older.
    Scarce, thought he, had passed an hour
    Since the bird had spoken.

    Toward his island church he bore it.
    Lo! an oratory gleaming,
    And ” To Saint Mochaoi “writ o’er it.
    “Now,” quoth he, “in truth I’m dreaming.
    Say, good monk, at whose consistory
    Shall I solve this mighty mystery,
    And to form of fact restore it
    From this shadowy seeming?”

    So he spake to one who faced him
    With a look of mild surprise,
    One who swiftly brought and placed him
    ‘Neath the Abbot’s searching eyes.
    Leave him there. Not mine to rhyme of
    Deeds that filled the later time of
    Him who, fain though years would waste him,
    Ages not nor dies.

    Ends the wondrous old-time story
    Of the bird’s long, lethal strain,
    Sung through summers hot and hoary,
    Winters white on mount and main ;
    And the monks, to mark the mission
    Of the bird so says tradition
    Built a church to God’s great glory
    There at Baile-draigin.

    Ulster Journal of Archaeology,  Vol 10 (1904), 100-103.

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