OMNIUM SANCTORUM HIBERNIAE

Tag: Saints of Derry

  • Saint Coirpre of Cuil Raithin, November 11

    November 11 is the feast of Saint Coirpre (Cairbre, Carbreus), an early bishop of Cuil-Raithin, now anglicized as Coleraine, County Derry. His memory is recorded in the Martyrology of Donegal on this day:

    11. G. TERTIO IDUS NOVEMBRIS. 11.

    COIRPRE, Bishop, of Cuil-Raithin, son of Decill, son of Nadsluagh, of the race of Irial, son of Conall Cearnach.

    but notices of this saint are also preserved within the hagiography of Saint Patrick, as Father O’Laverty explains in his history of the northern dioceses of Down and Connor:

    The earliest notice we have of Coleraine is in connexion with the missionary visit of St, Patrick. The Tripartite Life of St. Patrick relates, that when the saint arrived in Dal-Araidhe, he found the territory parcelled out among the twelve sons of Caelbadh, a prince who had been King of Uladh, or Ulidia, and of Ireland for one year, and was slain in the year 357. Of the twelve sons three are mentioned in the Life—Saran, Connla, and Nadsluagh.

    Saran’s brother Nadsluagh, was submissive to Patrick; and he was in captivity on Patrick’s arrival. ” You shall have from me,” said he “the site of your regles (monastery).” “Where shall you give it me?” asked Patrick. “On the brink of the Bann, in the west,” said Nadsluagh, “where the boys are burning the ratha (ferns).” “It shall be mine truly,” said Patrick, “a descendant of mine and thine shall be there,” that is Bishop Coirpre, son of Deggel, son of Nadslaugh; it is he that is in Culrathain on the eastern brink of the Bann. Bishop Brugach, who is in Rath-Maighe-Aenaighe (Eaymochy), in Crich-Conaill (Co. Donegal), it was that conferred orders on Bishop Coirpre. Patrick also it was that conferred orders on Bishop Brugach; so that he (Bishop Coirpre) is a descendant of Patrick in this wise.”— Tripartite Life transiated by W. M. Hennessy, Esq., M.R.I. A.

    …Coleraine in Irish Cuil rathain (pronounced Cooil-rawin) takes its name, as O’Brien in his dictionary explains, from the words Cuil rathan—’ ferney corner.’ The Life of St. Patrick, by Tirechan, in the Book of Armagh states :

    “And he proceeded across the river Bann, and he blessed the place in which is the little cell of Cuile Raithin in Eilniu, in which there was a bishop, and he made many other cells in Eilniu, and he made a passage through the river Bush . . . And he returned into the plain Elni, and he built many churches, which the Coindire (the bishops of Connor?) possess.”

    It would seem, therefore, that the country between the Bann and the Bush was named ‘ The Plain of Elniu’, called also Magh Elne, and that the Church of Coleraine in the time of St. Patrick was unimportant, if it existed at all before the time of Bishop Coirpre, or Carbreus, who, as Dr. Reeves, on good authority, supposes, flourished about the year 540, and died about 560. His festival was celebrated on the 11th of November. The entry in the Calendar of Donegal is “Coirpre, Bishop of Cuil-Raithin, son of Decill, son of Nadsluagh, of the race of Irial, son of Conal Cearnach,” and the note given in the Leahhar Breac to the entry in the Calendar of Aengus says—” In the north of Dalaradia is Cul Raithin.”

    Rev. J. O’Laverty, An Historical Account of the Diocese of Down and Connor, Vol IV (Dublin, 1887), 160-161.

    The ‘good authority’ quoted by Bishop Reeves in dating Bishop Coirpe to the sixth century, is the great 17th-century hagiologist, Father John Colgan:

    The genealogy of Carbreus is thus given by Colgan: “Sanctus Carbreus Episcopus de Cuilraithen, filius Degilli, filii Natsluagii, filii Coelbadii, filii Crunnii Badhraoi, &c.” — (Trias Thaum., p. 183, col. 2.) Accordingly the year 540 is generally assigned as that in which he flourished, and 560 has been (at p. 138) given as the year of his death.

    Rev. W. Reeves, Ecclesiastical Antiquities of Down, Connor and Dromore (Dublin, 1847), 247.

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  • Saint Sárán of Lesan, September 21

    September 21 is the feast of Saint Sárán of Lesan. There are 12 saints of this name listed in the Martyrology of Donegal, our saint is distinguished by the use of his patronymic, son of Tighernach. He is associated in that calendar with the placename Lesan in Sliabh Callan, which a note appended to one of the manuscript copies of the Martyrology of Donegal identifies as Lessan, County Derry. He is also associated with a second locality, Cluainda-acra in Cechair. In a chapter dealing with the parish of Clooney, County Clare in his book The History and Topography of the County of Clare, James Frost writes of this place:

    In the Martyrology of Donegal, under the date of the 21st of September, is found the following entry:—“Saran, son of Tighernach, son of Maenach of Lesan, in Sliabh Callann, and of Cluain-da-acra, in Cehair.” O’Curry was of opinion that this Cluain-da-acra might be the Clooney of Corcomroe.[44] The church is much ruined by time. At a little distance is a holy well dedicated to St. Flannan, where rounds are yet made. In a townland of the parish, called Killeighnagh is a small burial-ground, and in another place named Mooghna, is noticed a little grave-yard and well styled Tobar Mooghna, used by persons suffering from sore eyes.

    [44] See his Letter in the Ordnance Survey Papers relating to Clare, in Royal Irish Academy Library, Vol. xiv., B. 23, p. 314.

    Professor Ó Riain, however, in his Dictionary Of Irish Saints locates the Cheachair on the Longford and Leitrim border.

    Canon O’Hanlon has this short account of our saint in Volume IX of his Lives of the Irish Saints:

    St. Saran mac Tiagharnaigh of Lesan, on Mount Callan, and of Cluain da-acra in Cheachair.

    The name, Saran mac Trenaich, is found in the Martyrology of Tallagh, at the 19th of September; and this entry seems referable to the present date. The O’Clerys state, that the present holy man was the son of Tighernach, son of Maenach. At the end of those saints he commemorates at the 21st of September, Marianus O’Gorman celebrates with eulogy this holy man, invoking his intercession and that of others in the following manner: “Saran, the goodley gem, Tigernach’s son, whom I choose: may they fly with me past tribulation to starry heaven as I ask!” The Irish comment on the text runs: Saran mac Tigernaigh meic Maenaigh ó Lesan i Sliabh Callann ocus o Cluain dá acra isin Cechair. Thus rendered into English: Saran, son of Tigernach, son of Maenach, from Lessan in Sliab Callann and Cluain da Acra in the Cechair.

    At this date, we read in the Martyrology of Donegal, that Saran was of Lesan—said to be identical with Lessan, Londonderry County —in the Sliabh Callann, and of Cluainda-acra, in Cechair. There is a repetition, at this date, of his name, paternity and places, in the Irish Ordnance Survey Copy of the O’Clerys’ Irish Calendar. A corresponding account is to be found in a manuscript copy of that Calendar, once in Mr. O’Curry’s possession. The foregoing entry in the Martyrology has been extracted to furnish it.

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  • Saint Columb Crag of Enagh, September 22

     

    September 22 is the feast of a northern saint, Columb Crag of Enagh, near Derry. The Martyrology of Donegal on this date simply records ‘COLUM, Priest, of Enach’ while the Martyrology of Gorman describes him as ‘Colomb, vehement, delightful (?)’. It is only in Adamnán’s Life of Saint Columba, that we get a further glimpse into the character of Columb Crag. There he is depicted as a wise spiritual father who counsels Saint Fintan Munnu. Apart from this episode, nothing else seems to be known of Saint Columb. We will start with the account from O’Hanlon’s Lives of the Irish Saints and conclude with the text from the Life of Saint Columba:

     

    ST. COLUM, OR COLOMB CRAG, PRIEST AT ENACH

    THE present servant of God seems to have been born early in the sixth century. Already has allusion been made to him in the Life of St. Columkille. The parentage of this St. Columb — surnamed Crag—is unknown ; but by Colgan he has been considered identical with a very wise and venerable man, who was the friend of St. Fintan Munnu, in the younger years of the latter, and probably also a spiritual director. However this may be, when Fintan Munnu desired to take a voyage from Derry to Iona, in order to visit St. Columba, he sought the advice of Columb Crag, who then resided at Eanach, and northwards from Derry. By our saint, Fintan was confirmed in that purpose, in the earlier part of June, A.D. 597.

    Soon arrived monks from Derry, who brought news to Eanach from Iona, that the great archimandrite was dead. All who heard this shed tears in abundance. Nevertheless, when informed, that Columbkille had appointed St. Baithan as his successor, Columb Crag asked Fintan what he then desired to do. The latter replied, that he should still persist in his purpose of going to Iona to place himself under the rule of that pious and wise man Baithen as his Abbot.

    The Church of Columb Crag was at Enach, in the northern part of Ireland, at this time, when he was regarded as a venerable old man. As to whether he had been a superior of monks we have no record left. About two miles to the north-east of Derry, this church of Enagh— between the two small Loughs of Eastern and Western Enagh —was situated in the present townland of Templetown… At present, there are no ruins or any traditions about St. Columb Crag, at Templetown. There are few townland denominations more numerous in Ireland than those known as Anna, or Annagh—the modern equivalent for Enach. The compounds of this form are still more numerous. It therefore would not be easy of accomplishment to identify this exact locality, but that Colgan gives us a further clue, by calling the present Saint Columba Cragius, superior of Enagh, or the church of Cluainenaich, near Derry, in Ulster. For this statement, too, he cites the authority of Adamnán. St. Columb Crag survived St. Columbkille, but whether or not he lived into the seventh century is unknown.

    In the Martyrology of Marianus O’Gorman, at the 22nd of September, there is a festival for Colomb, vehement, delightful (?) as the Calendarist pleases to style him; while the scholion observes he was a priest from Enach. According to the Martyrology of Donegal, Colum, Priest of Enach, was venerated at the 22nd of September. In the year 1197, this church of Cluain-i Eanach was plundered by Rostel Pyton, a partisan of John De Courcy and the English of Ulidia, during a predatory excursion.

     

    From Adomnán’s Life of Saint Columba

    [I 2] Of the Abbot St. Fintan mac Tulcháin.

    St. Fintan, by God’s help, kept himself chaste in body and soul from boyhood and devoted himself to the pursuit of godly wisdom, and in due course he came to enjoy renown among all the churches of Ireland. But while he was a young man he had in his heart this wish, to leave Ireland behind him and to join St.Columba in his life of pilgrimage. On fire with this desire, he approached a wise and venerable priest, a man of his own people and a personal friend, called Columb Crag, and asked his advice. Having told him what was in his mind, he got this answer:

    ‘Your desire, I think, is devout and inspired by God. Who can stop you or say you should not sail away to St Columba?’

    That very hour it happened that two of St Columba’s monks arrived, who, when asked about their journey, replied:

    ‘We rowed across from Britain not long ago, and today have come from Derry’.

    ‘And is your holy father Columba in good health?’ asked Columb Crag.

    ‘Truly’ they said, with tears and great sorrow, ‘our patron is in the best of health since only a few days ago he departed to Christ’.

    Hearing this, Fintan and Columb and everyone present looked down at the ground and wept bitterly. In a little while, Fintan continued, asking:

    ‘Whom has he left to succeed him?’

    ‘Baithéne’, they said, his disciple’.

    And all cried out, ‘It is meet and right’.

    Columb said to Fintan:

    ‘What will you do now, Fintan?’

    ‘If the Lord will permit me’, he answered, ‘I shall sail away to Baithéne, who is a holy and wise man. If he will receive me, he shall be my abbot’.

    Then he kissed Columb and took his leave, preparing to sail without delay to Iona.

    Richard Sharpe ed. and trans., The Life of Saint Columba, (Penguin Books, 1991), 212-213.

     

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