OMNIUM SANCTORUM HIBERNIAE

Tag: Saints of Antrim

  • Saint Colmán Muilinn of Derrykeighan, January 1

     

    We start the new year with a feast of one of the many Irish saints Colmán to be found on the calendars. Colmán Muillin, Colmán of the mill, is an early saint from County Antrim whom genealogical sources claim was a grandson of Mílchú or Míleac, the man who held Saint Patrick in slavery. The calendar entry in the Martyrology of Donegal tells us that it was in a mill that he used to make obeisance to his brethern and thus acquired his name. Pádraig Ó Riain’s Dictionary of Irish Saints tells us that Colmán Muillin was also reputed to have been part of ‘a marauding group of laymen’ whose leader was none too pleased when he opted to follow Saint Colmán Éala of Lynally instead. Below is Canon O’Hanlon’s account of the saint taken from Volume I of his Lives of the Irish Saints:

    Article IV. St. Colman Muilinn, of Derrykeighan, County of Antrim. [Fifth or Sixth Century.]

     From various accounts, it would appear, the Church of Derrykeighan must have been one of the oldest foundations in Ireland. Its first administrator is stated to have been brother to St. Mochay, who died towards the close of the fifth century. The name of this place seems to have been derived from doire ‘an oak wood’ and from chaochain, a proper name, and also meaning, “purblind.” Foundations of the original church remain in the old churchyard. Upon them stand the roofless walls of an old building.

    Colman Muilinn is simply entered in the “Martyrology of Tallagh” on this day. He belonged to a place known as Derrykeighan, in the county of Antrim, and within the diocese of Connor. Further particulars concerning him we read in the “Martyrology of Donegal.” There it is stated that Colman Muilinn, of Doire-Chaechain, belonged to Dal-Riada, in Ulster. Bronach, daughter of Milchu, son to Buan, is said to have been his mother. We are informed, likewise, that it was in a mill St. Colman used to make obeisance to the brethren. No clue to the date of his death can be found in our Annals.

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  • Saint Ernach of Duneane, October 30

    There is a considerable amount of confusion surrounding the identity of the saint commemorated at the County Antrim locality of Duneane on October 30. For although the calendars record the name of a male saint Ernach at this date, they also record a female Hercnat or Ergnata on the same day. This female saint has a second feast at January 8. The diocesan historian, Father James O’Laverty, attempts to sort out the confusion, although he ends by introducing yet another saint into the mix: 

    Colgan (Acta. S.S. 8 Jan.) says, “St. Ergnata flourished
    about the year of Christ, 460, and our Hagiologists relate,
    that her festival was celebrated in the Church of Cluainda-en
    (the meadow of the two birds), in the district called
    Fiodhbhaidh (Feevagh), and in the Church of Tamhlact-bo,
    both on the 8th of January, and on the 31st (recte 30th), of
    October.” Colgan adds in a note that Cluain-da-en is a
    parochial church on the banks of Lough Neagh. Two
    transcripts of the Calendar of Aengus, read at the 30th of
    October, where it commemorates St. Ernach — “Ernach a
    virgin (uag) a high pillar,” but the oldest transcript which
    Whitley Stokes gives, reads, “Ernach, a youth (oc), a high
    pillar.” It is obvious that there were two saints, one a
    virgin, the daughter of the prince, who gave Armagh to St.
    Patrick; she was named Ergnata, or Eargnath, or Herenat,
    and was honoured on the 8th of January, with a festival in
    the Church of Tamlachtbo, in the parish of Eglish, Armagh. While there was another saint called by nearly
    the same name, though a man, who was honoured by a
    festival in the Church of Duneane, which was held on the
    30th of October. In process of time, the hagiologists confounded the two on account of the similarity of names.
    Thus the Calendar of Donegal has, at the 8th of January, “Eargnat, Virgin of Dun-da-en, in Dalaraidhe,” and
    again at the 30th of October, it has

    “Hercnat, Virgin of Dun-da-en, in Fiodhbhadh (Feevagh),
    of Dalaraidh.”

    The note on the Festology of Aengus, in the L. Breac,
    sets the matter at rest.

    Ernach-i-MacTairnd, &c., Ernach, i.e. son of Tairnd, is his
    name, but it fitted not the quatrain; and in Dun-da-en, in
    Fidbaid (Feevagh), of Dalaraidhe, is he”.  Dun-da-en, the old form of the name Duneane, signifies
    “the fort of the two birds,” in allusion to some old legend
    a version of which is given below. Feevagh is still the name of
    district adjoining Duneane. St. Ernach, whose festival was
    held on the 30th of October, in Duneane, seems to be the
    same St. Ernin, whose festival was held on the 31st of May, in Cranfield. 

    Rev. James O’Laverty, An Historical Account of the Diocese of Down and Connor, Ancient and Modern, Vol. III (Dublin, 1884), 333-334.

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  • Saint Colum of Culbrim, November 8

    On November 8 the Irish calendars record the feast of Saint Colum, associated with the locality of Cúil Bríuin. The Martyrology of Gorman records ‘Colomb son of Aed the Bent’ and the notes add ‘of Cúil Damáin, i.e. of Cúil Bríuin’. In the absence of a November volume by Canon O’Hanlon I turned to Pádraig Ó Riain’s Dictionary of Irish Saints to see if there was any further information available on this saint. There his locality is identified as modern Culbrim, within the parish of Ballymoney, County Antrim. He is mentioned in the twelfth-century List of Homonymous Saints and assigned two distinct feast days – November 8 and December 11.  Saint Colum was remembered at Cúil Bhrióin, which seems to be also known as Cúil Damháin, on both of these days.

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