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Tag: Saints of Armagh

  • Saint Maelbrighde of Armagh, February 22

     

    The Irish calendars commemorate on February 22 a ninth/tenth-century saint, Maelbrighde (Moel-Brigid), who held the see of Armagh during some rather turbulent times. The calendars and annals list him as not merely a successor to Saint Patrick at Armagh, but also a successor to Saints Columcille and Adamnan. The Martyrology of Donegal reads:22. D. OCTAVO KAL. MARTII. 22.

    Maelbrighde, son of Dornan, successor of Patrick and of Colum Cille ; a man full of the grace of God, and a vessel of the wisdom and knowledge of his time. He was of the race of Conall Gulban, son of Niall. Saerlaith, daughter of Coulebaith, son of Baothghel, was his mother. A.D. 925.

    Canon O’Hanlon takes up the life of Saint Maelbrighde:

    This distinguished saint was son to Tornan, who was descended lineally, and the twelfth in generation, from Conall Gulban. He was thus of the same royal stock as St. Columkille himself. The mother of Moel-Brigid was Soerlathia, daughter to Culebaith, and she was also of noble birth. The name given to him signifies “the servant of Brigid,” or “the tonsured of Brigid,” or ” the consecrated to Brigid,” or “the Brigidian.”

    Our saint soon became greatly distinguished, for his virtues and learning. In consequence of an opinion entertained, respecting his varied merits and accomplishments,he was appointed comorban or successor of St. Adamnan, most probably as Abbot over Raphoe. He was elevated, also, to abbatial dignity —probably at a later period— over the church of St. Columba, at Derry, according to Colgan.

    …After enjoying those dignities, our saint was elevated to the Primatial See of Armagh. On account of his great zeal for religion, and the exercise of eminent wisdom and virtue, he obtained a name and repute for being, ” Head of Religion in Ireland, and of the greater part of Europe.” There is a difference of opinion, among our Irish Annalists and modern writers, regarding the order of succession, in Armagh See, as, also, with regard to the names of its incumbents. Maelcoba Mac Crunnvail, Abbot of Armagh, is said to have died, at an advanced age, A.D. 885, or 887. It is thought our saint, as his immediate successor, then promoted to the coarbship.

    During the time of this Archbishop’s administration, a great riot took place in Armagh Cathedral Church, between the Hy Nialls of Kinel-Eogain or Tyrone, and the people of Ulidia or East Ulster. Flaithbheartach, son to Murehadh, was chief over the former faction, and Atteidh, son to Luighne, chieftains over the latter. This riot, which occurred, about Whitsuntide, in the year 889, was appeased by the Archbishop’s influence and exertions. This prelate induced both parties to abstain from violence, and to make due reparation to Almighty God, whom they offended, and to atone for the violation of St. Patrick’s law. He is said to have been a man remarkable for his inflexible justice. From the Ulidians, Moel-Brigid obtained hostages and an offering of thirty times seven cumhals to the church; while, four Ulidians, the chief instigators of this riot, after being proved guilty were hung. In like manner, the Kinel Eogain rioters repaired those outrages committed by them, and as many more of these were hung. An act of violence is recorded, as having taken place in Armagh, during this Archbishop’s administration. In the year 907, the privileges of the Cathedral of Armagh were violated by Kernach Mac-Dulgen, by dragging a captive out of the church, who had taken sanctuary there, and by drowning him in Loch-Kirr, west of the city. But, this violation was retaliated on Kernach, by Neall Glundub, then King of Ulster, and afterwards of Ireland, who drowned him in the same lough. Several serious disasters and disturbances occurred in Armagh, during the term of our saint’s incumbency. We read, that the Archbishop took a journey towards Munster, A.D.  908, to procure the liberation of a strange Briton, who being a pilgrim in the country, had been unjustly detained there as a captive. Respecting the result of Moel-Brigid’s mission, we are not informed. While he sat in this See, Armagh was three times taken and plundered by the Danes, namely, in 890, 893, and 919; and, it was once set on fire in the year 914. According to the most reliable accounts, Moel-Brigid ruled over Armagh Metropolitan See for a duration of forty years; so yet, the Calendar of Cashel gives him only twenty-nine years of rule. He departed this life, at a good old age, on the 22nd of February.

    The Annals of the Four Masters recorded the death of Saint Maelbrighde thus:

    A.D. 925 : “St. Maelbrighde, son of Tornan, successor of Patrick, Colum Cille, and Adamnan, head of the piety of all Ireland, and of the greater part of Europe, died, at a good old age, on the 22nd of February, in commemoration of whose death it was said :

    On the eighth of the calends of noble March,
    Maelbrighde, most gifted of the brave Gaedhil [died]
    Since the Divine Son of God was born
    Upon the earthly world in carnal shape,
    Five years and twenty, nine hundred,
    To the death of Maelbrighde in evil hour.
    It was not a year without events;
    Premature the death of the Abbot of Ard-Macha,
    Maelbrighde, head of Europe.”

     

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  • Saint Fethgna of Armagh, February 12

     

    On February 12 we commemorate a 9th-century Archbishop of Armagh, Saint Fethgna. The bishop is listed as the 39th in the list of ‘coarbs’ or successors of Patrick:

    39. Fethgna xxii. i.e. of the vigils, son of Nechtan of the Clann Eclidagh.

    H.J. Lawlor and R.I. Best, eds, The Ancient List of the Coarbs of Patrick in PRIA Vol. 35 (1919), Section C, no. 9, 326.

    The Martyrology of Donegal records:

    12. A. PRIDIE IDUS FEBRUARII. 12.

    FETHGNA, successor of Patrick, head of the religion of the Gaoidhil, A.D. 872.

    and a note in the table of the saints appended to the calendar adds:

    Fethgna, successor of Patrick (Mansuetus . . .12 Feb.)

    Canon O’Hanlon comments that the Latin word mansuetus ‘is probably inserted to signify, that he was of a meek disposition.’

    If this is so, his meek disposition would surely have been tested by finding himself as leader of the flock at a time when the Viking raids on Ireland had intensified. Armagh was not spared. Bishop Fethgna succeeded Diarmaid O’Tighearnaigh as Archbishop of Armagh, in 852. Just a few years earlier, the Annals of Ulster record the fate of one of the Abbots of Armagh:

    845. Forinnan, abbot of A., was taken prisoner by Gentiles in Cluain comarda with his reliquaries and his community, and carried off by the ships of Limerick.

    and five years later ‘Armagh was devastated by the foreigners’.

    The Annals then record that a serious sack of Armagh was carried out in 867 during Saint Fethgna’s episcopacy by Amhlach or Amlaf, the Norwegian:

    Ardmacha was plundered and burned with its oratories by Amhlach. Ten hundred was the number there cut off, both by wounding and suffocation, besides all the property and wealth which they found there was carried off by them.

    If the theory advanced by the nineteenth-century writer W. F. Skene is correct, Saint Fethgna was aided in his efforts to rebuild Armagh by the Welsh church of Llancarvan. Skene suggested that a reference to Saint Fethgna appears in a Welsh manuscript known as the Welsh or Cambridge Juvencus. On the last page of this manuscript, are fifty lines of Latin hexameter, of which the words ‘dignissime Fethgna” can alone be distinguished. He believed that this could be our saint and a potential link between the Welsh and Irish churches was strengthened for him by this entry in the Brut y Tywysogion of Caradoc of Llancarvan:

    883 “And the same year Cydivor Abbot of Llanveithin (or Llancarvan) died a wise and learned man and of great piety. He sent six learned men of his abbey to Ireland to instruct the Irish.”

    Skene adds ‘Surely they were sent in consequence of the destruction of the seats of learning in Ireland by the Danes, and thus may some learned Welshmen have been brought in contact with the Bishops of Armagh.’

    W.F. Skene, Archaeologia Cambrensis, Vol 10, (1864), 153-4.

    Whatever the truth of this theory, there are some other mentions of Bishop Fethgna in the Irish Annals. In the Annals of Ulster he is listed as an attendee at an important gathering:

    859. A royal assembly at Rath Aedha mic Bric . . . including Fethgna, coarb of Patrick.

    The same Annals record his death:

    874 Fethgna episcopus heres Patricii et caput religionis totius Hiberniae in pridie nonas Octobris in pace quieuit.

    O’Hanlon could not explain why, if the Annals are correct in placing the death of Saint Fethgna on October 6th, the calendars commemorate his feast on February 12.

     

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  • Saint Ailill of Armagh, January 13

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    On January 13 we commemorate the memory of Saint Ailill, an early Archbishop of Armagh. Canon O’Hanlon’s account of the saint is rather heavy-going and indeed, he sounds somewhat weary by the final paragraph. The problem is that the sources appear to suggest that our saint may have had a previous association with the monastery of Moville, County Down. Other writers, particularly Father John Lanigan who wrote about the Irish saints in the 1820s, were convinced that Ailill of Armagh and Ailill of Moville were two distinct individuals. Furthermore, it appeared that if the Archbishop of Armagh was the same person as the monastic of Moville, then there was also the tradition that Ailill had been married to deal with. A final source of confusion was that Saint Ailill’s successor bore the same name and this is why our saint is referred to as Saint Ailill I in the Lives of the Irish Saints. Actually, his name is rendered in various forms in Canon O’Hanlon’s account, including Ailild, Alild as well as Ailill:

    St Ailild
    I., Archbishop of Armagh. [Fifth
    and Sixth Centuries.]

    At the
    13th     day of January, Colgan has
    drawn up some accounts
    regarding this
    holy prelate, from the Acts
    of St. Patrick, and from
    other sources, while he
    has added some comments of his own
    to solve difficulties which
    are presented.     Before St.
    Patrick’s arrival in
    Ireland, about
    A.D. 432, a chieftain named Trichem lived in an eastern
    part of     Ulster. This
    assertion is
    capable of proof, from the
    circumstance of
    Dichuo, son to
    this Trichem, having bestowed
    on St. Patrick the site for
    Saul Monastery. Besides this, it
    is     known that Magbile, Killchlethe, Down, and Neddrum,
    where the     sons of
    this Trichem had their possessions,
    are     all situated in the eastern and maritime parts
    of Ulster.

    Trichem, or as the name is
    Latinized, Trichemius,
    was the descendant of a respectable ancestral pagan line;
    but he was likewise the parent of children no less
    distinguished in
    the early history of
    our     Irish Church. This chieftain
    is stated to have been a
    scion of the noble
    Dalfiatacian family, from which race
    were derived many kings, not
    only of     the Ultonian
    province, but even some
    who had been monarchs over Ireland. St. Ailild
    was the son of Trichem,
    son     to Fieg, son of Imchad,
    son     to Breassal, son of Sinchad, son to Fiatach, surnamed Finn. We find
    the holy archbishop, in after
    time, classed among
    the disciples of St. Patrick
     and if he deserve
    such a distinction, it must
    have been at
    rather a late period of
    the Apostle’s     life,
    and while Ailild himself was very young.

    It has
    been very positively asserted, that our saint
    was not Trichem’s son, and Dr.
    Lanigan considers him to have
    been a different person from Ailill of
    Magbile, with whom,
    it is said, he was confounded. The only
    grounds on which the former
    opinion     seems formed are,
    that Dichuo, the elder brother of Ailill, must have had
    a settled family, and have been at least forty years of age in
    the year 433, when he
    had been converted by
    St. Patrick. Hence, as argued,
    it could not have been probable he had a     brother capable of assuming
    episcopal functions in
    the year 513.

    Although Trichem had not the
    happiness of
    embracing the
    Christian     faith, yet,
    through God’s holy providence, he was the father of
    a numerous and saintly offspring. He
    became the parent of six sons,
    who were not only distinguished
    for being among the first
    fruits of St. Patrick’s apostolic labours
    and preaching, owing to their reception of the baptismal and regenerating sacrament, but,
    moreover, they acquired a reputation for being enrolled among
    the early saints of Ireland’s Church. They are thus named, according
    to the order of their respective
    births, viz., Rius, or Rossius, Dichuo, Durthact, Eugenius, Niell, and Alill. In
    the Life of St.
    Patrick we are told, that
    Dichuo was not alone the first
    of his family, but of his
    whole nation, who embraced the Christian faith, when
    our great Apostle’s mission commenced.
    This example was
    afterwards followed
    by members of his
    household. The
    elder brother, Rossius, at
    first resisted the grace of conversion; and
    he even sought to interpose every obstacle
    to the success     of
    St. Patrick’s mission. But his
    obstinacy and
    infidelity were
    finally overcome.

    Soon afterwards,
    having received the sacraments of the Church,
    he happily departed this life. The four
    younger brothers to these converts, already
    named, moved by the example
    of their seniors, and by miracles, manifested at the
    time of their conversion, were not left
    without those graces which enabled them to receive
    the     light of Faith. They choose
    also that better part,
    by aspiring to the attainment
    of     practices which
    render faith perfect. They
    were favoured from above with those
    Divine inspirations, which induced them to
    exercise virtues
    becoming the
    saints of Christ. Our martyrologists
    state that,
    whilst Dichuo had been venerated at Saul, St. Durthact
    was honoured
    at Nendrum, St Eugenius and
    St. Niell at Kil-cleith, and St.
    Ailild, at Maghile. This latter place
    is now known as Moville, situated in the barony
    of Ards, county
    of Down.

    St. Ailild,
    it has been remarked, is thought to
    have obtained the graces of all the
    sacraments. For,     not only did he receive those
    graces which are common to
    all Christians, but, moreover, Holy Orders
    and Matrimony, which are
    distinctive ones,
    usually constituting     a line
    of demarcation existing between clergy and laity.
    It has even been stated, that after St. Ailild had been married,
    he became the father of
    Carbre.     This latter
    in time was parent to the celebrated St.
    Finnian, Abbot
    of Magbile.

    After his
    wife’s     death, most
    probably, Ailild
    abandoned all
    secular cares by
    devoting himself entirely
    to     God’s holy service.  When speaking
    about this
    saint, Harris remarks, that he was
    a married man
    at the time of his conversion. In
    order     to account for a married man taking Holy
    Orders, this writer states,
    that Colgan tells us, he
    put away his wife first.
    Now Harris has shamefully
    perverted     the meaning
    of Colgan, in
    reference to
    this subject. The Irish
    hagiologist is
    misrepresented and
    made to say, that Ailill put
    away his wife before taking Holy Orders. Now Colgan’s
    statement     is, that the wife was dead,
    before he became a clergyman.  Harris then goes on to show,
    that the Irish clergy were
    not bound to celibacy in
    those times; but
    Dr.     Lanigan takes him to task
    and roundly asserts, that in the whole history
    of the ancient     Irish Church,
    there is no instance of
    any bishop having been exempt
    from the law of celibacy.

    In addition
    to what has been urged with so much force,
    it may be stated, in reply
    to what Harris has advanced, when trying to
    support his false position, that, as
    in the present instance, it is extremely
    probable     some priests
    of the
    early Irish Church
    had     been married previous to their ordination. Yet, in this case,
    either their     wives died before they assumed
    orders, or they had
    consented to
    a voluntary separation
    from their husbands, so that
    these might enter upon
    a religious state. To persons
    thus circumstanced, the canon in
    question had
    reference;
    and, as at the present
    time, we are able to furnish many instances
    for illustration, especially as regard married converts to the
    Catholic religion,
    so at a period when St.
    Patrick commenced his mission in Ireland, it might have been deemed
    expedient to
    recruit     the clerical
    ranks from persons who had
    been previously married, and who felt
    disposed to comply with
    established ecclesiastical
    discipline,     before their
    reception of
    the higher orders.

    From the
    circumstance of this
    saint,     as named
    in our Irish Menologies, having been venerated at Magbile, it
    has been assumed, by Colgan, that
    he might
    have been abbot     over that
    place.     This grave author,
    however, would not undertake to assert,
    whether from having
    been abbot there,
    St. Ailild had been assumed to Armagh’s
    archiepiscopal see,
    or whether having ruled over
    this latter church, he laid
    down the honours and responsibilities
    of     pontifical
    dignity, to seek
    repose     in Magbile
    Monastery.

    From all
    evidence adduced
    by Colgan, we might feel
    unable to arrive at any other
    conclusion,     than that
    Ailild     resided tor
    some time in Maghbile
    Monastery, as
    a simple monk.
    It is likely enough, that he received
    Holy Orders,
    and was afterwards promoted to Armagh see,
    without having previously or subsequently
    exercised the function of an abbot. But
    so far as the chronology
    of his     episcopacy is
    concerned, no
    abbey of Maghbile was in existence, until after his death. Perhaps he
    was     venerated there
    after having been called away
    from life. On the death
    of Duach or Dubtach I.,
    which took     place in
    the year 512
    St. Alild I. was appointed
    to succeed, as Archbishop of Armagh
    and Primate of Ireland. Our
    saint sustained the honours of this exalted station
    for a continuance of thirteen
    years. During this period, his merits and virtues were found fully equal
    to that great trust reposed
    in his keeping.
    Full of years     and of
    virtues, he
    passed     out of this
    life, on the 13th day of January, in the
    year of     salvation, 525.

    He was
    succeeded     in the
    Archiepiscopal See of
    Armagh, by St. Ailild  II.
    – and from the concurrent
    circumstances of both distinguished
    persons bearing
    the same name, claiming the same family
    origin, and
    coming in an immediate order as regards succession in the
    same see, they have been incorrectly confounded. But the distinction
    of days, months and years, having reference to
    their     departure from
    this life, will tend to correct
    such an error. Our
    annalists and
    hagiologists assign the second
    Ailild’s death
    to the 1st day of July,
    A.D.     535.

    As already
    observed, those     dates referring
    to     the decease of St. Alild I.,
    are altogether different.
    The Natalis of Alild I.
    is held on the Ides
    or 13th of January,
    and that of Ailild II., on
    the 1st of July. For
    these statements,
    we may cite as authorities,
    the Martyrology of Tallagh, Marianus O’Gorman, the
    Commentator on St.
    Aengus, and the Irish Martyrology
    of Donegal.

    Despite a positive assertion of the learned and researchful Colgan, who appears
    to have had ample materials before him on which he might ground an opinion,
    a learned Irish
    historian presumes
    to question the statement, that
    Ailild I, Archbishop of Armagh,
    was the identical person, named Alild of Magbile. The
    latter writer asserts, that
    in     Colgan’s acts
    of our saint, which he
    designates a
    strange and an incoherent medley,
    the Irish hagiologist has
    confounded into
    one person two saints, who ought to
    have been regarded
    as distinct
    in identity,     and as
    living at different periods.
    While allowing Alild of
    Magbile to have been one of Prince
    Trichem’s     sons, and
    a grandfather to St. Finnian
    of Magbile,     Dr. Lanigan
    considers this
    St. Alild to have been
    always a layman. From
    confounding the
    latter with St. Alild, Archbishop
    of Armagh, this historian asserts an impression
    was thence derived that the metropolitan prelate had been
    married before his ordination. Again Dr.
    Lanigan maintains, that Alild, Archbishop of Armagh, was not
    nearly connected with Dichuo, St.
    Patrick’s early
    convert,     while the
    prelate     in question was a
    native of Clanbrassil, this being
    a     district, far distant
    from Lecale, in which Dichuo’s family resided. This writer will
    not allow there
    is any foundation for
    a statement, that Alild, Archbishop of Armagh, or
    even Dichuo,
    came from a princely extraction.
    But the argument he principally urges, to sustain his opinion, is the assumption
    of Dichuo having had a
    settled family in the year
    432, when in all probability
    he could not have been less than forty years
    of age,     and consequently
    the improbability of
    his having had a brother
    capable     of discharging
    episcopal duties in
    513.     The objections of Dr. Lanigan are sufficiently
    plausible and
    pertinent, but
    not     entirely convincing nor unanswerable,
    especially when
    weighed with received accounts regarding
    our saint. According to his usual
    theory of computation, this
    historian says, Ailill
    I. died about, or in the
    year 526,  after having
    governed Armagh
    See nearly thirteen years. The same writer supposes, that Ailill I., dying so
    early in the
    year as the 13th of January, it is very
    probable, his
    incumbency did not last
    fully     thirteen years, although
    having     its commencement in 513.
    In the body of his
    text, to which the above observation
    is appended, the learned
    Doctor tells us, that the first Alild died
    on the 13th of January,
    A.D. 526, after an incumbency
    of thirteen years.

    No doubt
    much remains to be discovered
    regarding     the Life of St.
    Alilid I., under these peculiar circumstances; and probably,
    at some future time, certain
    involutions of facts
    now presented may receive adequate solution. For the
    present, therefore,
    too much unwarranted assertion or mere speculation might be
    risked, were the writer of this notice
    to enter     upon further
    details     concerning him, and
    the contemporary events of his
    period.


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