OMNIUM SANCTORUM HIBERNIAE

Tag: Saints of Dublin

  • Saint Nathi of Cuil Saccaile, August 1

    We open the month of August with the commemoration of Saint Nathi of Cuil Saccaile. As we will see in Canon O’Hanlon’s account from Volume 8 of his Lives of the Irish Saints, it was suggested that this saint’s locality was to be found in County Down, even though other evidence pointed to a Leinster origin for the saint. The Anglican writer, Bishop William Reeves, whilst he included the saint in his work on the Ulster dioceses of Down, Connor and Dromore, was unable to identify the place of Cuil Saccaile. Professor Pádraig Ó Riain, however, in his recent authoritative Dictionary of the Irish Saints identifies this place with Taney (Teach Nathí), formerly Sacoyle, County Dublin. He further suggests that our saint could be identical with Saint Nathi of Achonry whose feast is celebrated on August 9 and that he may also be the same Bishop Nathí who was said to have conferred religious orders on the monastics of Saint Brigid of Kildare. Thus although I have reproduced Canon O’Hanlon’s  account of Saint Nathi below (including his identification of Cuil Saccaile with County Down), I think this is a case where modern scholarship has been able to offer a fresh perspective:

    St. Nathi, of Cuil Saccaile, in Dalaradia, County of Down.

    We find entered, at the 1st of August, in the Martyrology of Tallagh, that veneration was given to Nathi, Chule Sacaille. This place must probably be identified with Cuil Fuitheirbe, in the Dalaradian territory. However, the exact locality is not known. The History of the Saints states in the poem, that there is a Nathi, Bishop, and that he was the son of  Senach, sprung from the race of Mesincorb, of Leinster. With this coincides the statement of Roderick O’Flaherty,  and of another record to be found in the Book of Lecan, where this saint is called Nathias of Cuil-fothribh, in Dalaradia. Although placed by Rev. William Reeves in his local Calendar, the learned antiquary and topographer does not attempt to identify that spot, where he was venerated.  Under the head of Cuil Sacaille—also rendered Cill or Cluian—Duald Mac Firbis enters Nathi, bishop of Cuil Fothairbe, or Fuithirbe, or of Cuil Sacaille, at August 1st. This Nathi’s name appears also in the Martyrology of Donegal  at the same date, as Nathi, Bishop of Cuil Fuitheirbe.
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  • Saint Colman of Lambay Island, June 26

    On June 26 we commemorate another of the many Irish Saints Colman, this one with the interesting epithet ‘of the refectory’. He appears to be associated with an island off the County Dublin coast, I must admit that I had never heard of Lambay Island before and so was interested in this illustrated article on its history here. The author repeats the information given by Canon O’Hanlon below, that Saint Colman was the deacon left in charge of the island monastery by Saint Columcille:

    St. Colman, Son to Roi of the Refectory, and over Lambay Island Church, County Dublin.

    The name of Colman Partraighi appears in the Martyrology of Tallagh, at the 26th of June. This appears to be the St. Colman, son of Roi, belonging to Reachrainn, according to Marianus O’Gorman, who enters him in the Calendar at this date. He is said to have been that deacon, placed by St Columkille, over the church founded by him in Reachrann, now Lambay Island, off the County Dublin coast. He flourished, about the middle of the sixth century. At the same date, in the Martyrology of Donegal, his name occurs as Colman Proinntighe, or of the refectory. In a Manuscript Calendar of Professor Eugene O’Curry, at this same date, he is entered simply, St. Colman.

    Photo Credit: Malahide Historical Society

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  • Saint Santán, June 10

    June 10 sees the recording of the name of an episcopal saint, Santán, in the Irish calendars. The seventeenth-century hagiologist, Father John Colgan, suggested that he may be the man of this name mentioned in the hagiography of Saint Fechin of Fore. Canon O’Hanlon seeks to associate him with Kilnasantan in County Dublin, although by his time the church there was attributed to the patronage of Saint Ann. Professor Pádraig Ó Riain, however, who has made a particular study of the genealogical sources, presents a quite different picture of our saint in his authoritative 2011 Dictionary of Irish Saints. Santán here is depicted as one of the three sons of a British king and an Irish mother, indeed his very name derives from the Irish sanct, itself borrowed from the Welsh sant. Both these terms derive ultimately from the Latin sanctus, saint. The Dictionary also lists a number of other locations possibly associated with our saint including Kirk Santan on the Isle of Man. Interestingly, the Manx also confused the Welsh/Irish Bishop Santán with Saint Ann.  Canon O’Hanlon though appears unaware of these details in his account below:

    St. Sanctan, or Santan, Bishop.

    Veneration was given on this day, 10th of June, to Sanctan or Santan, a bishop, as we find entered in the Martyrologies of Tallagh, and of Donegal. It has been conjectured that the present St. Sanctan may have been identical with a young man, who was rescued from captivity, by St. Fechin, Abbot of Fore. Another conjecture may be quite as correct, viz., that he was connected with Kilnasantan, near Bohernabreena, near the head waters of the River Dodder, county of Dublin. Kilnasantan was granted by Archbishop Comyn—who built and endowed St. Patrick’s Cathedral, Dublin—to the College of St. Patrick, and confirmation of that grant was made by Pope Celestine III., in the year 1191. In 1231, Archbishop Luke, granted this church to St. Patrick’s Cathedral, on demise of Andrew de Menavia, the holder of it as a prebend. In 1306, it was returned as wasted by the O’Tooles, and in 1326, the English sheriff describes it, as belonging to the manor of Tallagh, but “lying within the Irishry,” therefore waste and unprofitable. During the border wars of the middle ages, the exercise of Divine service in it was rendered difficult to the English settlers. In the sixteenth century, it ceased to be a church for worship, a chapel having been erected at a place called by the Irish Templeogue, or “the new church.” The old church of Kilnasantan is now a ruin; but it measured about 18 paces in length by 5 in breadth. Although built at a very early period, and in a sequestered spot,  its walls exhibit no contemptible skill in masonry. Early in this century were rude and broken granite crosses on the piers of its entrance, a large broken font inside the gate, and some tombs of the last century, uniformly and grotesquely sculptured.

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