OMNIUM SANCTORUM HIBERNIAE

Tag: Saints of Limerick

  • Saint Ita: The Forgotten Princess

    January 15 is the feast of Saint Ita of Killeedy. In 2006 County Waterford man, James Dunphy, published a book called  St Ita: the Forgotten
    Princess    .  He brought together a collection of episodes from
    the saint’s Life, the Vita Santae Ytae,
    interspersed with folklore, poems, prayers and photographs from a
    variety of locations identified with the saint. Among the stories Mr Dunphy collected is this one on pages 185-7 concerning the building of
    Gortroe Church, County Cork, from a lady born in 1907 and named in honour of Saint
    Ita:

    Early one morning, Hannah O’Neill, grandmother
    of Ita O’Neill, had a dream, a vision about St. Ita. Many centuries ago,
    their ancestor and his people had lost their lives in a battle in
    Gortroe defending the young Ita from the ‘Mad Prince’. Now, Ita, the
    Warrior Princess, wanted a church and school built on the site of the
    battlefield.

    In the morning before rising, Hannah O’Neill made
    her husband promise he would do all in his power to carry out the
    saint’s wishes and make them known to the people of Clonpriest and the
    surrounding area. Everybody agreed that as a people they should give it
    their best effort. Where was the money to come from, now that times were
    poor? God and St. Ita would provide when the time came, they said. So
    be it.

    ..it was decided they they should go to Lord Ponsonby and
    ask him for a site. He was amenable towards the proposal and not only
    did he provide a site, he donated some money to start the effort going.
    It was suggested that anybody with relations in America should contact
    them and ask them to raise funds for their church too.

    Most had
    relations in Boston, so some of the emigrants went to the Bishop there
    to ask for permission to raise funds. One such emigrant was Sean
    O’Donnacadha from Killbarrymeaden. He came from a parish and townland
    where St Ita was well known and had a job as a foreman in a construction
    company.

    After two years or more, he had a significant amount
    of money raised, but now his troubles began. He had many begging letters
    from churches in Boston and his own county Waterford. His sister and
    her husband told him he should send money home to his mother and orphan
    daughter. He even got threats to hand over the money to some
    undesirables. The honourable man that he was, he refused to bow to any
    of the requests to him and sent the money home with a trustworthy man
    from Gortroe whose father had died.

    When the work began, help
    came from all quarters. All the farmers gave a horse and cart and there
    were several stonemasons among the locals. ..John O’Neill was foreman
    and he devoted all his time to building St. Ita’s church. It was
    finished in 1907, eight years after the Virgin Ita appeared to Hannah
    O’Neill. A beautiful stained glass window which was donated by Hannah
    and her husband John depicts our saint Ita and there is also an
    inspiring picture of St. Ita measuring 6ft by 4ft, which was
    presented by a young girl, Kate O’Neill. It cost the magnificent sum of
    five pounds at that time.

    There is a photograph of this
    painting and it indeed looks most impressive, depicting the saint much
    as Saint Brigid appears in iconography of the period – as an abbess with
    her staff, holding a church in her hand. Nonagenarian Ita O’Neill, born
    in the same year as the church was completed, was looking forward to
    celebrating its centenary and I very much hope that she did.

    What
    struck me about this account was that although these events took place
    in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, they read like
    something straight out of the pages of medieval hagiography. All of the
    classic elements seemed to be there – the sense of place and link to the
    saint, her will revealed through a dream/vision and difficulties in
    fulfilling the saint’s wishes overcome by the fidelity of the humble
    parishioners to the task they had undertaken. I found the sense of
    continuity with the medieval past in this modern narrative quite
    compelling.

    Below are the details of the book from Amazon’s US site:

    Product Description

    St.
    Ita: The Forgotten Princess is the result of inspiration James Dunphy
    received after the death of a dear friend some years ago. In the
    intervening time, he has spent many months in researching the story of
    this unique Saint, who was born a Princess, became a Holy Woman and
    Warrior and who was the cause of the conversion of many to Christianity.
    Her battles with the Druids; her ministry to the people of Munster and
    Leinster in the southern half of Ireland and the story of her own
    spirituality, form the basis of this fascinating story about a woman and
    Saint who is sometimes forgotten in this modern age, but reminders of
    whom appear regularly in churches and placenames around Ireland and in
    the lands where our Missionaries laboured for centuries.

    Time
    and again, Princess Ita, daughter of King Kennfoelad and Queen Necta,
    born on the banks of the River Suir, and with Divine help, proved too
    powerful for the forces of darkness which opposed the introduction of
    Christianity to Ireland.

    The story of St. Ita, her sister
    Eannaigh and her association with her fellow Saints of the time, Declan,
    Brendan, Mochoemog and Finnan is a fascinating one and guarantees that
    St. Ita will never be forgotten in her native place.

    Paperback: 222 pages
    Publisher: Trafford Publishing (January 27, 2006)
    Language: English
    ISBN-10: 1412077788
    ISBN-13: 978-1412077781

     

     

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  • St Ita : Second St Bridget of Ireland

     

    Yesterday I was reflecting on the use of Irish saints as a vehicle to promote a sense of national pride and dignity among Irish immigrant communities. I continue this theme today, the feast of Saint Ita of Kileedy, with another newspaper article aimed at Irish expatriates, this time from the Australian press of the 1920s.  The female writer begins by summarizing the career of Saint Ita but then goes on to make a plea for the heritage she represents to be better-known and for Irish writers to step up and embrace the task. Now there was hardly a dearth of publications on the Irish saints available at home and abroad during the nineteenth century, so I am a little surprised by this. Australia claimed Cardinal Moran as Archbishop of Sydney and he wrote pamphlets on Irish saints for the Australian Catholic Truth Society as well as serious, scholarly volumes on the early Irish Church. Yet I have noticed myself that there appears to be a tailing-off of interest in the Irish saints once the high-point of the Victorian ‘Celtic Revival’ has passed and Irish independence has been achieved. I therefore won’t quibble too much with this lady’s perceptions from 1925 and am delighted that on the other side of the world she didn’t forget Saint Ita:
     
    ST. ITA.


     
    Second St. Bridget of Ireland.
     
    (By Helene Cleary, 320 Brunswick Street, Fitzroy, Vic.).
     
    This wonderful Irish saint was born at Nandesi, in the County of Waterford, and died as early as January 15, 569. She was of royal birth, but earthly royalty counted as naught to her— she left her worldly life, and lived an austere
    and retired life, in a small habitation at the foot of a mountain
    called Luach, in Limerick. Here she founded a monastery which became
    famous. The order she installed and founded was called
    Cluain-cred-hail. She consecrated her virginity to God, and mortified
    herself in every possible way. By these acts of love, and her constant
    attention to God and His divine love, she was gifted with numerous
    graces. She always impressed upon her followers that the greatest aid
    to perfection was to be perpetually recollected in God. Her feast was
    at one time solemnised in the church founded by her at Cluain-cred-hail, in all the territory of Hua-Conail, and at Rosmide, in her native territory, at Nandesi, in County Waterford.
     
    “What
    glorious reading these lives and history of Saints such as St. Ita
    would make, a history for the Irish people and their descendants in Australia
    and America to-be proud of. Yet how little is written, how little
    known, of these wonderful Irish people who have lived through the centuries, and who made the faith in Ireland what it is today. 
     
    It
    is a strange fact, but true, that while Ireland is deluged with
    writings foreign to her thought and her ideals, she has not striven
    to keep pace; by blazoning before the world a wonderful wealth of
    literature founded upon the glories of her saints and of her ruins. We
    have some, yea; but what country possesses the vast wealth of material
    that Ireland has?
     
    Look at the brilliant writers that Oxford and
    Cambridge have given to the English-speaking world. What wonderful
    leaders of thought and action. Catholicism in England owes its existence
    to men like Newman, Chesterton, Manning, and many others too numerous
    to mention. The Church owes them a great debt.
     
    Irishmen are
    naturally gifted as writers. Why do they not write and give to the
    world some of this sainted past?  A brother of the Most Rev. Dr. Phelan
    (Rev. Michael Phelan, S.J.) says:—”Every child should be made
    acquainted with the life of the leading saint, and history of the most
    memorable ruin, in the locality. Those hoary prophets, now so mute,
    would then speak with tongues of fire out of the dim past, telling the
    story of our fathers’ faith and heroic achievements.”
     

     Southern Cross (Adelaide, SA : 1889 – 1954), Friday 23 January 1925, page 20
     

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  • Saint Mochelloc of Kilmalloch, March 26

    Saint Mochelloc of Kilmalloch is commemorated on March 26. As Canon O’Hanlon’s account brings out, this saint’s festival is very well-attested on the Irish and other calendars, albeit at the cost of the saint’s name being somewhat mangled along the way. There seems to be some confusion over the locality in which Mochelloc flourished and it is interesting to learn of a tradition that he died in Rome, he would not be the only early Irish saint to be linked with pilgrimage to the Eternal City. Canon O’Hanlon begins by examining the saint’s genealogy, for as he reminds us ‘ the pedigree of a saint is at least interesting, as that of a monarch’:

    ST. MOCHELLOC, OR CELLOC, PATRON OF KILMALLOCH, COUNTY OF LIMERICK. [SIXTH AND SEVENTH CENTURIES.]

    This saint is called Mottelog, by some writers, but more correctly Celloc, Cellenus, or Kellenus, by others, who derive his name Mochelloc, by which he is best known, from the endearing prefix, “mo,” Anglicised into “my,” being joined with Chelloc. Certain authorities say, that his father was named Oblen, and that he descended from the noble and ancient race of Connor, King of Ireland. However, Colgan is of opinion, that Oblen must have been the name of his grandfather, or great-grandfather. The Martyrologies of Tamlacht and of Marianus O’Gorman, with the Irish Calendar, state, that our saint’s father had been named Tuladhran. So far, have we been enabled to collect illustrations, in reference to this holy man’s genealogy and, the pedigree of a saint is at least interesting, as that of a monarch. The Bollandists have published short Acts of this saint, and following closely the accounts of him, as left us, by Colgan. This pious servant of Christ was a relative to, and contemporary with, Finan, of Kinnetty. Our saint appears to have flourished, about the close of the sixth, and beginning of the seventh, century. He is usually called Mochelloc, of Cathuir-mac-Conchaigh, or Conchaidh,an ancient city near Lismore, in the present county of Waterford… The place of our saint was in the Munster Decies. Archdall declares himself unable to assign the exact location for Cathuir mac-Conchaigh. We are told, by Keating, that this saint was founder of Kilmallock church, and this name is supposed to be a contraction from Kill-mochelloc…It is possible, that as Kilmallock had become a more remarkable place than Cathuir-mac- Conchaigh, or the church of Kill-Odhrain—where likewise he was venerated —the former town might have been a bishopric, or abbey, over which Mochelloc presided. Kill-odhrain was perhaps only another name for Cathuirmac-Conchaigh, and this the Calendar of Cashel indicates. Having attained a very old age, our saint died, at a place called Letha —thought to have been Fiodh-Lethan, near Lismore—on the 26th of March, the day for his festival, after A.D. 639, and before A.D. 656, during the joint reigns of Connall and Kellach. Letha was a name, given by our historians to Latium, or Italy; and, there are writers, according to Maguire, who say, that our saint died, in Rome. Others again tell us, that he departed at Killdachelloc, in Hy Cairpre, of Munster. The festival of this holy man, with that of the two Sinchells, is found in the Festilogy of St. Aengus, at the 26th of March:

    ” In Letha they perished—
    Mochelloc after many days,
    The feast of two ever-living Sinchells,
    Of vast Cill Achad.”

    The name Mochelloc, son of Tulodrain, of Calthir mic Conaich, is inserted, in the Martyrology of Tallagh, at the 26th of March. The Calendar of Cashel, Marianus O’Gorman, and Cathal Maguire, mark his festival, at this same date. In the O’CIery’s Martyrology is found, at this date, as an entry, and within brackets : [Mocheallog, who died in Letavia.—Felire Aonghuis.] The Carthusian Martyrology distinguislies a Mottelog, Abbot and Confessor, from this saint, who is named Mokellock, Bishop and Confessor. There is hardly a doubt, but this is the Motalogus, mentioned at the 26th of March, in the anonymous list, published by O’Sullivan Beare. However, these names only characterize but one and the same person the denomination being somewhat varied by different writers. The Kalendar of Drummond, at the vii. of the April Kalends, or 26th of March, commemorates: In Hibernia, the Holy Confessors, Mochelloc and Sinchele, who, on this day, went to Christ.

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