OMNIUM SANCTORUM HIBERNIAE

Tag: Saints of Galway

  • Saint Balin of Tech-Saxon, September 3

    September 3 is the feast of an English saint who came to Ireland with Saint Colman of Lindisfarne following the decision of the Synod of Whitby to adopt the Roman dating of Easter. Saint Balin or Balloin is said to have been a brother of Saint Gerald of Mayo, as Canon O’Hanlon explains:

    St. Balin or Balloin, of Tech-Saxon.

    The present holy man was a brother to St. Gerald, or Garalt, whose life has been given, at the 13th of March. The Martyrologies of Marianus O’Gorman, of Cathal Maguire, and of Donegal, record the festival of St. Balan or Balloin, at the 3rd of September. It is stated, that he came from England to Ireland, with his brothers, Gerald, Berikert and Hubritan, after the middle of the seventh century. He lived at a place, called Tech-Saxan, or the House of the Saxons, most probably because it had been founded or occupied by himself, or by his brothers, or by some of his countrymen, who accompanied him from England. This place is said to have been in Athenry Parish, in the Diocese of Tuam, and County of Galway. Castellan places this St. Balo in the province of Connaught, and his feast at the present day, as noted by the Bollandists.

  • Saint Colman, Son of Aingen, July 14

    Another name to add to our list of Irish saints called Colman – Colman, Son of Aingen, commemorated on July 14. Canon O’Hanlon seems to have been aware only of the evidence from the Irish calendars, but Pádraig Ó Riain in his A Dictionary of Irish Saints has accessed genealogical sources to add some welcome extra details. These associate this Colmán, along with his two brothers Cúrnán and Mac Reithe, with Killeroran, County Galway. The trio were also remembered in the church of Ceall Mac nAinghin(e) in Ballymoe. But Canon O’Hanlon’s account below, taken from Volume VII of his Lives of the Irish Saints, refers only to the Irish calendars:

    St. Colman, Son of Aingen.

    In the Martyrology of Tallagh, the name of Colman Mac Andgein appears, at the 14th of July. The patronymic furnishes little clue to his family or descent, much less to his locality. He probably lived in or before the eighth century. In the Martyrology of Donegal,we have entered, likewise, Colman, the son of Aingen. On the authority of Father O’Sheerin, the Bollandists have inserted his festival at the present date.
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  • Saint Riaghail of Muicinis, October 16

    The Irish Calendars commemorate Saint Riaghail of Muicinis on October 16, a saint who may also have been honoured in Scotland. There he was later confounded with an eastern saint said to have brought the relics of the apostle Andrew to Scotland. The Monasticon Hibernicum has this to say of Saint Riaghail and his locality:

    Mucinis, Regulus, who was living in the time of the great St. Columb, was abbot of Mucinis, in Lough-Derg, bordering the County of Galway; his festival is held here on 16th of October.

    to which Bishop Moran has added:

    The name of St. Regulus, in Irish Riaghail, is entered in the Martyrology of Donegal, on the 16th of October: — “Riaghail, Abbot of Muicinis, in Loch Deirgdheire.” He is also commemorated in the Felire of Aengus with the strophe: — “Riaghail, gifted was his career.” His Acts are inserted in the Breviary of Aberdeen and he is especially honoured in St Andrew’s, in Scotland, on March 30th and October the 17th.

    Rt. Rev. P.F. Moran, ed.,M.Archdall, Monasticon Hibernicum, Volume II, (Dublin, 1876), 223.

    I was left unsure if our Irish saint is the same as the saint venerated in Scotland and turned to Bishop Forbes’ work on the Scottish calendars to see what evidence he could muster:

    REGULUS or RULE. March 30 and October 17.—The commemoration of the Scotch S. Regulus occurs in the Breviary of Aberdeen on March 30, the same day as that of “S. Regulus or Rieul, who, having converted the country of Senlis to the faith, about the same time that S. Dionysius preached in France, was made first bishop of Senlis, and died in peace in the midst of his flock.”—(Alban Butler ad diem, on the authority of the Bollandists and Tillemont.) So Usuardus, “Apud castrum Silvanectensium, depositio Sancti Reguli episcopi et confessoris.”—(Ed. Seller, p. 180.) Another day, the 17th of October, is also kept in his honour: Quoniam in quadragesima de eo non fuerit servitium, omnia sicut in alio festo, sed differtur in crastinum (Brev. Aberd. pars estiv. fol. cxxviii.); and it is remarkable that the 16th of October is the day of S. Riaghail, abbot of Muicinis, in Lough Derg on the Shannon (Mart. Donegal). He is commemorated in the Felire of Aengus at October 16th as

    Riaguil raith arremsin.
    [Riagail gifted was his career.]

    which is glossed by
    i. Riagail Muicindsi fa Loch derc.
    [i.e. Riaghail of Muicinis in Loch Derg.]

    The Breviary of Aberdeen says that he is specially honoured in S. Andrews and its diocese. The Martyrology of Aberdeen associates him with the church of Kylrewni…

    Alexander Penrose Forbes, D.C.L. Bishop of Brechin, Kalendars of Scottish Saints, (1872), 436-437.

    Thus it would appear that it is the close coincidence of the feast days of the Irish saint and of the Scot  which suggests they are the same person. The Irish Bishop Moran, however, presents a plausible case for the presence of our Saint Riaghail in Scotland in another of his works. After establishing that the original name for St Andrew’s was Kilrigmond, he says:

    The first mention which we find of Kilrigmond points it out as a monastery of Irish religious, and, among other saints, the patron of Kilkenny, St. Canice, pursued there a life of holy seclusion for some  time. Even St. Regulus himself is found to have been one of those Irish saints, and his name is none other than the Irish Riaghail. He was a contemporary of St. Canice, and famed in our early church as abbot of Muicinish, in Lough Derg, on the Shannon, and, like many of our saints, it is probable that he made North Britain the theatre of his missionary zeal, and closed his days at Kil-Rigmond. It was only in the year 736 that the Pictish monarch, in gratitude to God for a great victory which he had achieved, erected there a church in honour of his patron, St. Andrew, which he enriched with vast possessions, and which in the course of time became the royal and primatial church of the whole kingdom. At the time that St. Andrew’s was thus founded, Kil-Rigmond had the Irishman, Tuathal, for its abbot, whose demise is recorded in the Annals of Tighernach under the year 747.

    Right Rev. P.F. Moran, Irish Saints in Great Britain (Dublin, 1879), 200.

    Note: For more on the legend of Saint Regulus see here.