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Tag: Saints of Kilkenny

  • Saint Canice of Kilkenny, October 11

    October 11 is the feast of Saint Canice (Kenneth, Kenny) of Kilkenny, on whose life I have already published a paper from The Irish Ecclesiastical Record, which can be read here. Below is another full account of the life of Saint Canice taken from Father Carrigan’s diocesan history of Ossory:

    St. Canice or Kenny, founder of the Abbey, and patron of the parish, of Aghaboe, was born in the year 515 or 516, in Glengiven, in the region of Cianachta, in the present County of Londonderry. He was descended from the Corco-Dalann or Ui Dalainn, a tribe whose ancestor, Dalann, is traced back to Fergus (King of Ulster a little before the Christian era), son of Ross, son of Rudhraighe. The Corco-Dalann were of little consequence, and their exact location is unknown, except that they dwelt in an island called in the Saint’s Life “Insula Nuligi,” and which is usually identified with Inis-Doimhle or Inis-Uladh, now the Little Island, in the Suir, south-east of Waterford. Lughadh Leithdhearg, our Saint’s father, was a distinguished bard, and from the wandering disposition of men of his class, it is not difficult to conceive how he left the home of his youth, in the sunny south, and settled down in the far north, under the favour and protection of the chief of Cianachta. He was there chosen tutor or foster-father of his chieftain’s son, Geal Breagach (Latine Albus Mendax), who afterwards succeeded to the headship of his tribe. The mother of the Saint was Maul or Mella. She attained an eminent degree of sanctity, and the church of Thompleamoul, otherwise “Capella Sanctae Maulae seu Mellae,” beside Kilkenny city, was dedicated to God under her invocation.

    In early life, St. Canice was employed, in his native place, as a shepherd in charge, probably, of his chieftain’s cattle (“in illo autem loco sanctus puer Kannechus pecora pascebat”); but, being a youth destined by God to promote the glory of His name, he soon abandoned that peaceful calling and placed himself under instruction in some of the schools with which the country then abounded. A curious mistake in reference to his early education, needs to be noticed here.

    Most, if not all, of his biographers state that at a very early age, when only about fourteen years old, he was sent to Britain to be educated, and that he remained there till after his ordination, on attaining his thirtieth year. Such a statement seems, at first sight, improbable, and, on examination, will be found inadmissible. For St. Canice and St. Columbkille were pupils together, at Clonard, under St. Finnian, in 543, when St. Canice was only twenty-seven or twenty-eight years of age; and again, in the early part of 544, the same two saints, either with St. Kieran of Clonmacnoise and St. Comgall of Bangor, were students in the School of Glasnevin under St. Mobhi. Hence, there can be no doubt that the Saint’s education was received in Ireland, and that it was only when St. Mobhi’s School had to be disbanded, owing to the breaking out of a pestilence, of which St. Mobhi himself died, Oct. 12th, 544, that St. Canice, then twenty-eight or twenty-nine years old, left his native land and sought the friendly shores of Britain to perfect himself in sacred knowledge and prepare himself for his ordination to the priesthood.

    “Proceeding to the monastery of Llancarvan, situated in Glamorganshire, on the banks of the Severn, he placed himself under the care of its holy Abbot, St. Cadoc, sumamed the Wise, who at this time enjoyed a wide-spread fame for sanctity and miracles. Among the exercises to which Canice applied himself, under the guidance of this holy Abbot, we find specially mentioned the transcribing of the sacred Scriptures; and it is also commemorated that, though he was remarkable for the practice of all virtues, yet he was particularly endeared to the venerable Cadoc for the promptness of his obedience. One day, we are told, whilst engaged in copying, the monastery bell summoned him to another task. The obedient Canice left half-finished the letter o at which he was engaged, in order to hasten at once to the duties to which obedience called him. ‘ Thenceforward,’ adds the biographer, ‘ the abbot loved Canice exceedingly.’ “

    Having received the holy order of priesthood, on the completion of his thirtieth year, in 545 or 546, he set out for Rome to pay homage to the reigning Pontiff and secure his blessing at the outset of his missionary career.

    On his return, probably about 550, St. Canice went to his native place, where he denounced the superstitions, and exposed the delusions, of the druids. who still lingered in secluded parts of Ireland. The reputation acquired by his first work was increased by subsequent visits to his home during his long life ; for he often passed there in his frequent voyages to Britain, especially to his friend, S. Columbkille. In the house of his sister, Columba, at Airte, near the coast beyond Glengiven, he cured St. Berchan, who afterwards founded the church of Clonsast, in the King’s County. He also converted his foster-brother, Geal Breagach, the chief of Dungiven, who at first ridiculed his admonitions, but, terrified by an extraordinary illness, at length repented, and assisted in founding at Dromachose, in Londonderry, a church, where, for more than a thousand years his spiritual benefactor. St. Canice, was honoured as patron.

    Animated with that wonderful missionary spirit, which characterized so many of his countrymen, the saint is next met with, in 565, in Scotland, whither he had gone to aid St. Columbkille in the conversion of that nation. With St. Comgall he accompanied St. Columbkille, in that year, on the memorable occasion of his first visit to Brude, the pagan King of the Picts.

    During his sojourn in Scotland, St. Canice ” erected an oratory on Tiree Island, and the ruins of an ancient church, still called — Kil-Chainnich, probably mark its site. He also erected cells in the Islands of Ibdon and Eninis (i.e.’, Island of Birds), and his memory was cherished there in after times. He was honoured even in Iona, where a burial ground still retains the name Kill-Chainnech. On the mainland he built for himself a rude hermitage, at the foot of a mountain, in the Drumalban or Grampian range, and we meet at the present day, fully corresponding to this description, towards the east end of Loch Laggan, the remains of an ancient church called Laggan-Kenney, i.e., St. Kenny’s Church at Laggan. He founded also a monastery, in the east end of the province of Fife, not far from where the river Eden pours its waters into the German Ocean. This place was then called Rig-monadh or the Royal Mound ; and when in after times the noble Cathedral of St. Andrew’s was erected on the site thus hallowed by the Irish saint, we find that it continued for centuries to retain its Celtic name of Kilrimount, by which it is designated ji the early charters. In many other places St. Canice seems to have erected cells or oratories. Of Maiden Castle in Fife, Boece writes that in his time the remains of the great enclosed monastery, in which the religious brethren of St. Canice had lived for centuries, could easily be traced. Indeed, so many places retain his name and cherish his memory that Scottish writers have not hesitated to prononnce him, after St. Brigid and St. Columbkille “the favourite Irish Saint in Scotland.”

    His first Irish foundation was in all likelihood, that of Dromachose, otherwise Termonkenny, in his native Cianachta, the abbots of which are referred to as the Coarbs or ” successors of Cainneach in Cianachta.” His next foundation appears to have been at the place, called after him, Kilkenny West, in the County Westmeath. A turbulent King of Meath, Colman Beg MacDiarmaid, slain in the year 571, carried off by violence a nun, sister of St. Hugh MacBric, Bishop of Killair. The Bishop, according to the custom of those times, took up his position near the lake in which his sister was held prisoner on an island, and there fasted against the King, demanding redress of the grievous wrong that had been done her. St. Canice came to his assistance, but the King, hearing of his approach, ordered the boats to be drawn up and all avenues to his castle to be closed. St. Canice coming down in the night, passed over the lake and entered the castle. The King struck with terror at a chariot of fire which he saw moving towards the island, confessed his crime, delivered up the nun to her brother, and made a grant of that island and castle to St. Canice, who dwelt there and established a church. The lake (called Stagnum Rossum in the Latin Life of our Saint), if not that now called Makeegan, is probably one of those in Lough Ree, or the arm of the Shannon to this day included in the parish of Kilkenny West. Some years later, in winter, S. Canice, travelling in Breffny, rested at a cross in Ballaghanea, parish of Lurgan, Cavan, before which he performed the devotion of None. Inquiring whose cross this was, he was informed that it was here Colman Beg Mac Diarmaid had fallen in battle. ‘ I remember,’ said St. Canice, ‘ that I promised him a prayer after his death,’ and turning his face to the cross he prayed with tears, until the snow and the ice melted around him, and he delivered from torments the soul of Colman Beg.”

    The precise date of his great establishment at Aghaboe cannot be determined, but Dr. Lanigan shows that it cannot have been later than 577. According to an Irish Life of St, Finbarr, of Cork, published, with English translation, in the Cork Archaeol. Journal of April, 1893, Aghaboe was first selected, as a religious site, by that Saint, but he afterwards surrendered it to St. Canice, whom also he assisted in founding the original church and enclosing the graveyard there.

    Although reference has been already made to a notable service rendered by our saint to his friend, Colman, King of Ossory, a more extended notice of the same may be given here. Colman came to the throne of Ossory in 582, in succession to his father, Fearadhach. He was one of the Corca Laighdhe or Munster Kings, who long held usurped sway in Ossory, and his reign was disturbed by violent opposition, on the part of the old natives of the territory. On one occasion he was closely besieged in his fortress, probably at Kells, Co. Kilkeimy, by the disaffected Ossorians, under the command of two of their chiefs, Maelgarbh and Maelodhar. St. Canice, in his church at Achadhbo, being made aware of his friend’s plight, set out on foot (nec currum nec equum habens), southwards, to his relief.

    ” A certain woman living in Acuthuch Mebri, beholding Canice weary on his journey, was anxious to assist him with her chariot and horses. This, however, the devil did not want, and he brought on a great darkness which hid the horses and chariot from view. Whereupon Canice raised his hand, and by the light which it gave forth, all the plain was illuminated, and the charioteer found the horses. At the same time the Lord wrought another wonderful miracle, for Canice, being small of stature, and in consequence, unable to mount the chariot, the Lord caused the earth to rise under his feet, and the little mound thus raised by the Lord under the Saint’s feet remains to this very day, in that place, in testimony of the truth [of the miracle.]

    “As Canice proceeds in the chariot through Magh Roighne (per campum regni), he is met by the portly Abbot of Domhnach-mor, in [Magh] Roighne (pinguis princeps Domnich Moir Roigni), a bitter enemy of the King. Addressing the saint, with an air of assumption, he said : ‘ I know that you are hastening to liberate your friend, Colman, but it is to no purpose, for you will find him already slain and his body consumed by fire.’ ‘ The Son of the Virgin knows,’ replied Canice, ‘ that what you imagine is not true, and before you yourself return to your cell (cellam) you shall die.’ And it happened accordingly; for as that portly personage, while seated in his chariot, was passing through the innermost gate of his monastery (suae civitate), the portcullis (valva quae dicitur Domlech) fell down on his head and killed him on the spot. St. Canice, hastening on in his chariot, with all possible speed arrived at King Colman’s castle, which was surrounded by a great multitude [of enemies], and was already given to the flames. Then Canice entered the castle, through the flames, and, by the power of the Lord, unseen, and unknown by all, brought forth the king from his perilous position, through the crowds [of enemies] and their spears. Having led him a long distance from the castle, the saint said to him : “Stay here, and, although you are alone today, you shall not be so tomorrow ; for three men will come to you the first day, three hundred the second, and on the third day you will be again King of all Ossory.’ And it happened accordingly.”

    King Colman was not ungrateful to his benefactor, and, hence, as the Saint’s Life attests, in return for his good offices, bestowed upon him one of his principal residences or duns, (magnum de castellis propter celum Kannecho dedit.)

    St. Canice exerted himself strenuously in withdrawing his countrymen from the barbarous customs handed down by their forefathers. On one occasion, whilst travelling through West Leinster, he found the people assembled, with their King, Cormac Mac Diarmaid, to enjoy the gruesome spectacle of a little boy, named Dolne, being subjected to the torture called Gialcherd. The Gialcherd consisted in casting young children high up in the air and receiving them in their fall on the points of lances held upright. On the Saint’s arrival at the place of meeting, the spears were already fixed upright in the ground in preparation for the ghastly exhibition. He earnestly remonstrated with the King, and besought him to spare the little boy, but in vain ; and savage custom would have had another victim had not Almighty God, at the prayer of the Saint, miraculously saved the child who, when flung on the spears, was neither killed nor injured. However, the terror of the horrible death from which he had been thus preserved, had the effect of distorting his eyes, so that he was called thenceforward Dolne Lebdearc, i.e. Dolne of the crooked eyes. In after life he became famed for his sanctity, and founded a church, (round which grew up a town), called from him Kill-Dolne.

    Desiring to be alone with God as far as possible, St. Canice frequently retired from the society of men, and even from the companionship of his own brethren, and betook himself to some remote solitude for prayer and meditation. One of his retreats, in a wood ” with the angels,” was known only to a little boy who used to recite the Psalms with him; but the monks watching this companion going out at night, were guided by a brilliant light which they saw preceding him, and shining with additional lustre over the spot where the saint was concealed.

    His favourite retreat was the Insula Stagni Cree, Hibemice Inis Locha Cre, now called Monahincha, or the Holy Island, a mile or two beyond the bounds of Ossory, and about the same distance from Roscrea. Here he fasted forty days together; here he transcribed the Gospel, and wrote a Commentary thereon, which was preserved for centuries and was known as the Glas Chainnigh, the Catena or Commentary of St. Canice ; and here, too, he acquired the remarkable eloquence that once elicited the warmest commendations of St. Columbkille, in Iona : ” Who, O Canice,” said Columbkille, after hearing one of the Saint’s sermons, ” gave you this wonderful knowledge of the Scriptures ? ” ” The Son of the Holy Virgin himself,” said Canice, ” Who, when I was in Inis Locha Cre, near Sliabh Sinoir ” [now Slieve Bloom] ” in Ireland came to me, and with Him I read the Gospel, and He Himself taught me its meaning.” It was owing to his eloquence that he was likened, by the old hagiographers, to St. Philip, who was traditionally honoured in the early church as the most eloquent of the Apostles. He was small of stature, as already remarked, and very bald ; and hence, those who opposed themselves to his zeal, but whom his great charity afterwards gained over to God’s service, used to call him, in derision, ” baculatus modlcus ” and ” calvus baculatus,” i,e., the little man, and bald-headed man, of the [pastoral] staff.

    His early biographers make no mention of the Saint’s connection, while living, with any religious establishment on the site now occupied by the Round Tower and Cathedral of St. Canice’s, in Kilkenny city; yet the constant tradition of Upper Ossory leaves little room for doubt that he founded and presided over a monastery there. Aghaboe was. however, his greatest foundation, and here his closing years were mostly spent. Here he could enjoy the society of St. Fintan of Clonenagh, who lived but a few miles away, and of St, Brendan of Birr and St. Mochaemhog or Pulcherius of Liath, three of the most distinguished ornaments of the monastic institute in Ireland, with all of whom he lived in the closest bonds of religious intimacy, and to whom he frequently paid visits, as their Lives attest. With such friends he had, in all the afflictions of life, a foretaste of those heavenly joys to which in the fulness of days he was at length summoned.

    In the year 599 or 600, he breathed his last in his Abbey at Aghaboe. ” As the day of his departure drew nigh,” writes his biographer, ” his whole body became infirm. He would not, however, receive the last rites from any of the monks of his own monastery (familia), saying that God would send another to administer to him the Body of Christ. Then St. Fintan [surnamed Maeldubh, of Clonenagh] came to him by God’s appointment, and receiving the Holy Eucharist at his hands, he departed to the Lord.”

    The following notice of his death appears in the Annals of Tighearnach :

    A.D., 600, “Quies Caindech, Achaigh-Bo-Cainig, qui lxxxiiii etatis suae an. quievit.”

    William Carrigan, The History and Antiquities of the Diocese of Ossory, Vol II, (Dublin, 1905), 26-33.

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  • Saint Canice of Kilkenny, October 11

    October 11 is the feast of the patron saint of Kilkenny, Saint Canice (Kenny, Kenneth). I have just finished reading an interesting paper by Professor Pádraig Ó Riain in which he argues that Saint Canice may actually be Saint Colum Cille (Columba) under another guise. Perhaps I can summarize this thesis in a future post. Below, however, is a paper by a nineteenth-century Irish priest who is untroubled by such considerations and is instead keen to bring us an account of all the traditions which established Saint Canice as a distinct individual, even if, in his connections with the north-west of Ireland and with Scotland, he does indeed echo the great Colum Cille who himself appears in the story:

    Dublin Penny Journal, 1835

    CANICE, ABBOT AND CONFESSOR, PATRON OF THE CITY OF KILKENNY
    As the Feast of St. Kieran of Ossory, the Primogenitus Sanctorum Hiberniae, March the 5th, brings us back to the Praeparatio Evangelica, and the advent of the heavenly spring that gladdened the hearts and homes of Erin, so also, the festival of St. Canice, on the 11th of October, cannot fail to remind us of the first-fruits of that rich golden harvest which was gardened by the celestial husbandman from the virgin soil of the Island of Saints.
    The commencement of the sixth century, 515 or 516, witnessed the birth of St. Canice or Kenny, at Glengiven, “the Valley of the Roe,” in the barony of Keenagh, County Londonderry. His parents were so poor at the time of his birth, that a special interposition of Providence was required in order to afford the new born babe the very means of subsistence. But although destitute of worldly goods, they were rich in virtue, and of superior intelligence. His father, Lughadh Lethdearg, was a member of the bardic class, and held the post of tutor to Gael Bregach, afterwards Prince of Hy-Many. Lughadh Leithdearg appears also to have been a poet of some distinction, and it may have been from him that our saint inherited that rare gift of eloquence, which caused him to be compared by Irish writers to St. Philip, who is supposed to have been the most eloquent of the Apostles.
    In a manuscript catalogue of the Irish saints, which dates from the beginning of the fifteenth century, and is preserved in the College of Salamanca, Meaula or Mealla is mentioned as the mother of St. Canice, and that her principal church is in Kilkenny. Hanmer in his Chronicle relates that in the thirteenth century, a church was erected in Kilkenny under her invocation, over against the east side of the Nore (where St. Maul’s cemetery now lies). The Church of St. Maul, with four marks of silver yearly, was conferred on the Vicars Choral of St. Canice, by Bishop Barry, in 1428.
    At an early age, Canice resolving to devote himself to the study of sacred truths, proceeded to the monastery of Lancarvan in Wales. This school of piety was at that time ruled by the Abbot Cadoc, surnamed the Wise a saint who had himself been trained in the paths of piety by a saint of Irish birth, St. Tathai. At Lancarvan Canice soon distinguished himself by the practice of every virtue, especially by the strict observance of holy obedience. One day whilst engaged in what was to him the delightful occupation of transcribing the Holy Scriptures, the bell of the monastery called him to other duties, and we are told that the obedient novice left the letter, at which he was engaged, half finished, and thenceforward his abbot loved Canice exceedingly.
    After having received the Holy Order of the priesthood, about the year 546, Canice asked and obtained permission to proceed to Rome in order to receive the blessing of Christ’s Vicar on his future missionary labours. At that time Italy was overrun with barbarians, the Goths and their leader, Atilla, and so, the pilgrimage of St. Canice must have been a work of great difficulty. But the special Providence of God preserved him in all the vicissitudes of that perilous journey, the very men who sought his life were converted, and became his devoted disciples, so that he was enabled through their instrumentality to found in the distracted land a monastery, where his own name and those of his compatriots, known as ” the saintly pilgrims from Ireland,” were for ages held in the greatest veneration. On his return to Ireland our saint, wishing to perfect himself still more in the knowledge and practice of virtue, spent some time in the great schools of Clonard, under St. Finnian, and Glasnevin, then governed by St. Mobius. He had for his companions, Columkille, Kieran of Clonmacnoise, Comgall, Brendan, and others of the great saints, who were styled the twelve Apostles of Erin.
    St. Mobius having built a beautiful oratory of oak, of unusually large proportions, a question arose among his disciples as to their wishes regarding it. St. Kieran expressed his wish that it were filled with holy men who, by day and night would chant the praises of God. St. Comgall, wholly intent on penitential exercises, would wish it to be filled with all the pains and burdens which are the lot of men during their pilgrimage on earth, and that all might come to him as his inheritance. St. Columba would like to see it well filled with gold and silver, to be expended in the erection of churches and monasteries, and in the service of the poor. St. Canice, being asked to tell his thoughts, declared that it would be his desire to see the oratory filled with religious books and sacred texts by which men would be imbued with a knowledge of divine truths, and led to the fervent service of their Creator. St. Mobius, hearing their pious wishes, prayed that each of these holy youths would receive from heaven the special gift which he desired. The time came when Canice was called upon to leave his peaceful solitude and the sweet society of his brethren ; when the holy ‘priest and perfect religious was to become himself a founder of churches, and a vessel of election to carry the light of faith to a people sitting in darkness and in the shadow of death. Following the example of his friend St. Columba, Caledonia was selected by him as the country then affording the best prospect of a rich virgin harvest of souls.
    His first success was in rooting out from his native place in Derry the surviving superstitions of Druidism, and the conversion of his foster-brother, the chieftain of Dungiven, who afterwards assisted our saint in founding the great church of Drumachose, in Londonderry. His sister’s son, St. Berchan, also owed his recovery from a mortal illness to the prayers of St. Canice. His name appears in our Irish Calendars as the founder and patron of Consast, in the King’s County. St.Columbkille had already converted the Island of Mull to the faith, and had made repeated missionary excursions to the adjoining mainland. He now meditated an assault on Pictish Paganism in its very centre and stronghold, and took for his companions Canice and Comgall. Imagine the three holy companions setting out on that perilous voyage, seated in their little coracle or ozier boat, covered with hide, which the Celtic nations employed for their navigation. Their destination is the heart of Caledonia, “stern and wild,” which the imagination of our forefathers made the dwelling-place of hunger and of the prince of demons. Their way lies through an archipelago of naked and desert islands, sowed like so many extinct volcanoes, upon the dull and sullen waters, which are sometimes washed by the Atlantic waves, swept by the Atlantic blasts, and broken by rapid currents and dangerous whirlpools. The pale sickly sun of the North only serves to point out the fogs and mists surrounding and surmounting the lofty summits, and abrupt and naked sides of the bare and desolate mountains of that sterile, icy land. After overcoming all the perils of that adventurous voyage, the holy missioners beheld, rising up before them, to the height of fully five hundred feet, the rock fortress of the Pictish King, some two miles west of the River Ness. His name was Brude ; and he is styled by Venerable Bede, ” a most powerful king,” who had vanquished the Scots or Dalradians in many a hard-fought battle-field : and was now enjoying his kingdom in peace, having triumphed over all his enemies. From his eyrie on the rock, this bird of prey beheld with savage eyes Columbkille, ” the dove of the churches,” and his two companions advancing to plant the standard of the cross on his redoubtable stronghold. Burning with indignation at their boldness in presenting themselves unbidden before him, King Brude ordered the gates of the fortress to be closed, and strongly barred against them. But our brave Irish priests had recourse to prayer ; and Comgall, having made the sign of the cross on the outer gates, they immediately fell broken to the ground ; Columba made the sign of the cross on the inner door of the enclosure, with the same effect. When the three saints stood face to face with the enraged King, he drew his sword, swearing by his ancestral gods, that he would avenge the insult offered to him ; but Canice, making the sign of the cross towards him, his hand was instantly withered. And it so remained till Brude believed in God, received Baptism from St. Columba, and the perfect restoration of his daughter to her sight, hearing, and speech, by the intercession of St. Canice. The victory of the cross was complete ; Caledonia became a portion of the vineyard of the Lord, rivalling the soil of her mother, Erin, in the fertility with which, for ages, she produced the fairest flowers and richest fruit of holiness and justice. And Iona became in a higher sense than any earthly Pharos, a spiritual lighthouse, shedding its beams of religion and culture far and wide. It was there Columba fixed his rude retreat :
    ” There the first symbol of his creed unfurled ;
    And spread religion over a darkened world.”
    The amount of co-operation given by St. Canice in the glorious work of evangelizing Scotland may be judged from the number of places that retained his name, and cherished his memory in that country. Amongst these, the most remarkable was the monastery of Rig-Monadh, or the royal mound where the Cathedral of St. Andrew was afterwards erected. The Felire of St. Oengus contains in its notes of St. Canice’s Feast, at 11th October, a reference to this foundation : “Achadhbo is his principal church, and he has a Eecles, i.e., a monastery at Cill-Eigmonaig in Alba.” Scottish writers record that St. Canice was regarded, after St. Brigid and Columba, as ” the favourite Irish saint in Scotland.” He was honoured even in Iona, where a burial-ground still retains the name Kill-Chainnech. And fain would he have remained till death a voluntary exile from his native land, in order to enjoy the heavenly conversation of St. Columba, and of his holy companions, and to help them to secure that golden harvest ; but the saints of Ireland, not willing to be deprived of his example and counsels, sent messengers after him, praying him to return to his own country. They found him “living as a hermit in Britain, and Canice was then brought from his hermitage against his will.” This hermitage, according to Cardinal Moran, is identified with the remains of an ancient church called Laggan-Kenny ; i.e., St. Kenny’s church at Laggan, towards the east end of Loch Laggan, at the foot of a mountain, in the Grampian range.
    The homeward voyage of our saint was signalized by his having miraculously saved from a watery grave the illustrious St. Fintan, of Clonenagh, styled by the old writers the Father of Irish Monks and the Benedict of Ireland. The establishment of the first Irish monastery following the rule of St. Columba and St. Canice, that of Kilkenny West, in the County of Westmeath, was inaugurated by a miracle, related by all our saint’s biographers. A turbulent chieftain of Meath, Colman Beg MacDiarmaid had carried off by violence a nun, sister of St. Aedh, Bishop of Killair, in Meath, and detained her captive in an Island in the centre of an lake. The Bishop took up his position near that part of the lake in which his sister was held prisoner, and there fasted and prayed that the heart of the King might be moved. Nothing, however, appeared to produce any effect on the heart of that wicked king until St. Canice came to the assistance of his episcopal friend. The King, hearing of the saint’s approach, ordered the bolts to be drawn up, and all avenues to his fortress to be closed. Vain precautions! St. Canice passed over the lake, and entered the castle or fort ; and, then, Colman Beg, struck with terror at a chariot of fire, which he saw moving towards the island, confessed his crime, delivered up the nun to her brother, and made a grant of that island to our saint. Some years after St. Canice travelling in Breffny rested at a wayside cross, at Bealach Daithe, in the parish of Lurgan, county Cavan, and performed there the devotion of None. On inquiring whose cross this was, he was informed that it was there Colman Beg MacDiarmaid had fallen in battle. “I remember,” said the saint, ” that I promised that prince a prayer after his death ;” and, turning to the cross, he prayed with fervour and with tears, until it was revealed to him that the soul of Colman was freed from suffering. In the 43rd and 44th chapters of The Life of St. Canice, there is an account of some incidents which occured during a civil war in Ossory, in which Feredach, the son or grandson of a Munster usurper in that territory, was slain, circiter 582, by ” the sons of Connla,” i. e., the true Ossorians. Colman, the son of this Feradach, notwithstanding this opposition, succeeded his father and ruled this territory till his death, in 601. He was the friend and patron of St. Canice, who settled permanently in Ossory during his reign, after the death probably of his former patron, Colman Beg, King of Meath, as the late Father Shearman remarks [Loca Patriciana, No. XL ].
    The reign of Colman MacFeradach was marked by the frequent rebellions of the discontented Ossorians. In one of these tumults, Colman was closely besieged in his fortress which was probably at Kells, which they gave to the flames. St. Canice, in his church at Aghaboe, hearing of this outrage, set out to the relief of his friend ; and passing through Magh Roghni, the great centre plain of Kilkenny, per medium regni, he comes to ” Dominick Moir Roighni,” St. Patrick’s parish, on the southern border of the town, to which subsequently his own name was annexed. The portly abbot of Domnach Moir, Pinguis princeps, whose sympathies were with the Ossorians, his own countrymen, came out from his church, and thus addressed the saint : ” I know that you are hastening to set free your friend, but unavailingly ; as you shall only find his charred and mutilated corpse.” St. Canice replies : ” The Son of the Virgin knows that what you imagine is not true, for before you return to your church, you shall find yourself a corpse.” After this interview the portly abbot returned in his chariot to his city, through another gate near at hand, the name of which was Darnleth. While the abbot was passing through the portal, the swinging gate or door fell on his head, and killed him on the spot.
    In this legend we discover that Domnach Moir, St. Patrick’s, Kilkenny, was at this period a place of some importance, containing an ecclesiastical establishment, surrounded with walls or ” septa,” with gates opening on the various roads diverging from the ” civitas ” or cashel, which was the nucleus of the town or villa which grew up about the Patrician church, the name of which was destined ere long to be merged, and all but lost, in a new designation. St. Canice rescued his friend Colman from the hand of his enemies; dashed through the serried lines of the assailants, under a shower of javelins and arrows, into the burning pile, rescued the King, and when he had brought him to a place of safety, he says : ” Remain here awhile, for although you are alone to-day, you shall not be so to-morrow, for three men shall join you in this place, and afterwards three hundred shall come to you, and on the third day you shall be King over the whole of Ossory.” After this occurred we may suppose what is described by anticipation in cap. 43, that Colman gave many towns (villas) in which St. Canice erected monasteries and churches. The chief ones amongst these were Cill Cainnech, now Kilkenny, and Aghaboe, or Agerboum in the Queen’s County, the lands of which are well known as amongst the richest pastures in Ireland.
    Aghaboe was during his lifetime the sanctuary most closely connected with the name of St. Canice. It was his treasure-house of graces, the favourite school in which through winter frost, through rain and storm, through summer sunshine, generation after generation of his spiritual children lived and prayed, and at last laid them down and died. Bright with dew, and enamelled with the sweetest flowers, the sunny dells, the stately trees, and rich pastures of Aghaboe formed a striking contrast to the desolate grandeur and more ascetic surroundings of Iona and its sister isles. lona and Aghaboe, however, although so distant and so dissimilar, were bound together by the golden link of a very intimate communion of saints. It is related that St. Columba and his monks were on one occasion overtaken by a violent tempest ; every wave threatened instant death. The monks cried out to their abbot to pray to God for protection, but he replied that the holy abbot Canice, alone could save them in this danger. At the very moment St. Canice, in his monastery of Aghaboe, heard by revelation the voice of Columba speaking to his heart. Starting up from the repast of which he was partaking with his religious brethren at the hour of none, he rushed to the church, exclaiming : ” This is no time for food, when Columba’s ship is struggling with the waves.” Having entered the oratory, he prayed for some time in silence with tears. The Lord heard his prayer, the tempest instantly ceased, and the sea became quite calm. St Columba, seeing in spirit Canice hastening to the oratory, cried out, ” Canice, I know that God hath heard thy prayer ; it is well for us that thou hast run with one sandal to the altar” for in his haste Canice had dropped one of his sandals. The prayers of both saints co-operated in this miracle, observes St. Adamnan; an example of the blessings which God grants through the communion of saints. So Columba said to his brethren, ” God has bestowed on Canice the gift of calming every tempest.” And St. Canice was invoked in the early Irish Church as the special patron of the faithful against the storms of the sea. An incident in the life of St. Canice proves the survival of Druidism in parts of Ireland up to his time. Another incident gives an account of a barbarous custom that appears to have been then very prevalent.
    In the life of our saint, it is related that when Canice came to the west of Leinster he found a great assemblage of people with Cormac, the son of Diarmaid, chief of Hy Bairrche. ” Then a little boy, was led forth by the people to a cruel death called Giallcherd. It consisted in this the spears of the military were fixed upright in the ground, and the hostage of those who violated their engagement was seized and flung upon them. The name of this cruel amusement, ” the Gillacherd or foreign art,” betrays its origin. When St. Canice perceived the horrible act which was about to be perpetrated, he prayed to have the boy set free. His entreaties were unheeded, and the innocent youth was pitched high into the air so as to fall back on the spears which were held erect to receive him. Through the prayers of St. Canice, the boy escaped the bristling points, and was saved. Terrified by his extreme danger his eyes became awry, and the name Leabdeare, or crooked eye, was affixed to his name Dolne Dolne Leabdeare. He became a disciple of St. Canice, and afterwards founded a church, around which grew up a town, which was called Killdolne Leabdeare. About fifty years after the death of St. Canice, Cuimin of Connor commemorated it in an Irish verse, of which the following is a translation :
    ” Canice of the mortifications loved
    To be in a bleak woody desert,
    Where there were none to attend on him
    But only the wild deer.”
    As was the case with other Irish saints, there was a legend that the deer became so tame in the saint’s presence that he could, whilst engaged in study, rest his book or manuscript on their antlers.
    The favourite retreat of St. Canice was a solitary spot in a marshy bog called Lough-cree, situated between Roscrea and Borris-in-Ossory. There the saint erected a cell, and thither he loved to retire, in order to enjoy the sweets of silent meditation in the study of Sacred Scriptures. It became, in later times, a favourite resort for pilgrims, and it was popularly known as Monahincha, or “Insula Viventium.” On this island Canice more than once passed the whole time of Lent, keeping a rigorous fast for forty days. There also he completed a beautiful copy of the Latin Gospels, adding a cantena or commentary which was highly prized throughout the Irish Church. This precious manuscript, called Class-Canneche, was still extant in the beginning of the seventeenth century, and is, according to Cardinal Moran, one of those ancient copies of the Gospels now preserved in, the library of Trinity College, Dublin.
    At Aghaboe it was that our venerable abbot spent the evening of his life in prayer and penance, in the government of his monastery, the study of the Sacred Scriptures, and in spiritual conferences with the holy personages by whom he was surrounded. St. Brendan of Birr, St. Mochaomog of Liath (now Leemokeevogue), near Thurles, the holy community of Saigher, and St. Fintan of Clonenagh (Mountrath), resided within easy distance of the last earthly domicile of St. Canice at Aghaboe. The society of such holy men must have been to St. Canice a source of the sweetest consolation, a foretaste of the delights of Paradise. And when, after the labours of spring, the heats of summer, and the toil of that luxuriant harvest, our saint was summoned in this season of autumn, at the advanced age of eighty-four, to meet the Master of the vineyard, it was from the hand of his loved friend and neighbour, the fervent Fintan of the ” Ivy Meadow,” that he received, for the last time, that Bread of Life which was to be to him the seed of a glorious immortality. And so, after imparting his blessing to the assembled brethren, and exhorting them to perseverance in prayer and penance, he passed to his heavenly reward at Aghaboe, on the 11th October, about the year 599.
    MEMORIALS OF ST. CANICE
    The relics of St. Canice, after having escaped the ravages of the Northmen, were enshrined in the church of the monastry of Aghaboe, in 1052. The shrine and relics of our saint were, however, ruthlessly burned, in 1346, by Diarmid MacGillapatrick, Prince of Ossory. Clyn’s graphic notice of this outrage is as follows : “Item, on Friday, the 13th of May, Diarmid MacGillapatrick, the one-eyed, ever noted for treachery and treasons, making light of perjury, and aided by O’Carroll, burned the town of Aghaboe ; and venting his parricidal rage against the cemetery, the church and shrine of that most holy man, St. Canice, the abbot, consumed them, together with the bones and relics, by a most cruel fire.”
    In the National Museum, Kildare-street, is preserved a small ancient bronze, representing in relief the figure of an ecclesiastic, bearing in his left hand a book, and in the right a short episcopal staff or cambutta. St. Canice was of small stature, and was dubbed by his enemies, Parvulus baculatus; that is, ” the little man with the staff.” ” This antique bronze was found in the church-yard of Aghaboe ; it would seem, from the rivet -holes remaining, to have been a portion of the ornamental work of an ancient shrine. Perhaps it is the sole remaining vestige which has survived ‘the most cruel fire ‘ of the one-eyed MacGillapatrick.” The bronze representation or figure is considered by Mr.Westwood and other eminent palaeographists to form one of the three earliest known of the short pastoral staff used by Irish prelates. The grandest surviving monument of our saint is St. Canice’s Cathedral, Kilkenny, which has witnessed so many vicissitudes in Irish history, and whose own history, architecture and antiquities have been so splendidly illustrated by two liberal and learned Protestants, Messrs. Prim and Graves. The Catholic deanery and parochial church of St. Canice, Kilkenny, and the beautiful church of Aghadoe, are also very creditable and well-kept temples, in which the old devotion of Ossory to her patron and protector is preserved and fostered, and his festival kept with great solemnity every year.
    ST. CANICE’S WELL
    The Archives of the Corporation of Kilkenny preserve among their most valuable deeds and charters the original grant made by Bishop Geoffrey, of Ossory, about the year 1244, to the Friars Preachers of the Black Abbey, Kilkenny, of a supply of water from St. Canice’s well for the use of the religious of the monastery. To the stipulation is added, that the circumference of the water-pipe at the well should not be larger than that of the bishop’s ring; and at the end, where it enters the monastery, it should be only of such a size that it could be stopped by a man’s little finger. A facsimile of this interesting concession has been printed by Gilbert in The Irish National MSS. series, vol. ii., n. lxxii. It still retains a considerable portion of the bishop’s seal. A ring of copper is attached to the seal to mark the size of the bishop’s ring.
    The Dominican Bishop Hugh who governed the diocese from 1258 to 1260, granted to his religious brethren of the Black Abbey, the custody of St. Canice’s Holy Well, which was much frequented by pilgrims and by the citizens. Lynch writes that many persons in his day continued to visit it through piety or in search of health ; and he also attests that many miraculous cures were every day effected by using this water and invoking the aid of St. Canice. There is also a beautiful tradition to the effect that any native of the “faire citie” by the Nore who drinks of the waters before leaving home for the foreign land will surely live to return to his native shore.
    ” For it is a tender story, and an old tradition hoary,
    That in battle dread or gory, or upon the ocean’s breast,
    He will ne’er meet death, or never die by cold or burning fever,
    Till the old land, tho’ he leaves her he shall see this is the spell
    Which unto the peasant’s thinking, comes by simply drinking,
    If his faith be all unshrinking, from St. Kenny’s Holy Well.”
    The holy friendship between SS. Canice and Columba is proved and perpetuated in Ossory by the fact of having six old parishes placed under the patronage of St. Columbkille. Scanlan, King of Ossory, in gratitude to St. Columba, for having liberated him from the cruel treatment and imprisonment to which, as a hostage, he was subjected at the hands of Aedh MacAinmire, King of Ireland, fixed an impost of one sgrebal, that is, of three pence, on each hearth of his principality, from Bladma to the sea, which was to be paid every year to the community of St. Columba, at Durrow, in Osraidhe.
    ” My kin and tribes to thee shall pay
    Tho’ numberless they were as grass,
    A sgrebal from each hearth that lies,
    From Bladma’s summit to the sea.”
    St. Columba, on his part, gave his blessing to Scanlan, his descendants and subjects, as we also read in the Ambra :
    ” My blessing rest on Osraidhe’s sons,
    And on her daughter’s sage and bright ;
    My blessing on her soil and sea,
    For Osraidhe’s King obeys my word.”
    N. MURPHY, P.P.
    THE IRISH ECCLESIASTICAL RECORD Volume 15, AUGUST, 1894, 925-938.

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  • Saint Faelan Finn of Kilcolumb, May 5

     

    A County Kilkenny saint is commemorated on May 5. Apart from the recording of his name in the Irish calendars, we know nothing else of Saint Faelan Finn, as Canon O’Hanlon explains:

    ST. FAELAN FINN, OF KILCOLUMB, COUNTY OF KILKENNY.

    The name of St. Feilan, in the Martyrology of Tallagh, at this date, as also in that of Marianus O’Gorman, with the adjunct Finn, “fair” or “white,” has Kill-Colma attached, as if this were his place. The locality has been identified with Killcolumb, barony of Ida, county of Kilkenny. The Bollandists refer to the Martyrology of Tallagh, for the feast of Foelanus Candidus de Kill-Colma, at the 5th of May. He is commemorated, likewise, in the Martyrology of Marianus O’Gorman. It is mentioned in the Martyrology of Donegal, that Faelan Finn, of Cill Cholmai, was venerated on this day.

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