OMNIUM SANCTORUM HIBERNIAE

Tag: Saints of Longford

  • Saint Baodán of Mostrim, January 24

    Although his name comes first in the entries for native saints in the Martyrology of Tallaght at January 24, Saint Baodán (Batan, Buatan), is an obscure figure. Canon O’Hanlon’s account below seeks, unconvincingly it seems to me, to establish some Patrician credentials for him. Professor Ó Riain records in his Dictionary of Irish Saints that the name of the saint’s locality, corrupted in the later calendars, was to be found in County Longford:

    St. Batan or Buatan of Methuis Truim or Eathais-Cruimm. 

    We read, in the Martyrology of Tallaght,  that veneration was paid to Batan Methais Truim on the 24th of January. But there may have been some mistake in the foregoing entry: it differs materially from that of Buatan, of Eathais-Cruimm, as recorded in the Martyrology of Donegal, on this day. There are many legends referring to St. Patrick in Jocelyn’s life of him, and which seem to be strung together with little regard even to chronological order. It is probable, the followiiig has been intended to refer to the apostolic man’s first visit to the western province :—St. Patrick, being about to pass the Shannon, a deep and rapid river, that runs between Meath and Connaught, could not get a boat to ferry him over. He prayed, therefore, to God for help. The earth, it is stated, arose so high in the river, that it afforded a dry passage to the saint and to all his company. This may be accounted for, however, by his selecting a place for passage that was fordable. The saint thought- it expedient for the advancement of religion to build a church on the banks of the Shannon, and where his charioteer was buried. It afterwards belonged to Armagh, says Jocelyn. But the Tripartite Life relates more fully, that this see claimed jurisdiction over the church, called Lill-Buadhmaoil, after one of St. Patrick’s servants, named Buadmael, who died and was buried in that place, also near the River Shannon. He is enumerated among the disciples of St. Benignus. Nor could Colgan find anything more about him, only that in reference to a supposed saint, bearing this name, he throws out a loose conjecture.

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  • Saints Failbe of Cell Eó, June 30

    June 30 is the commemoration of Saint Failbe who is associated in the calendars with the locality of Cell or Cill-Eó. He may or may not be linked to another saint from the same place, Caelán. The Martyrology of Gorman lists ‘holy Failbe and Coelán’ with the note ‘Failbe and Caelán in Cell Eó’.  The two are similarly linked in the later Martyrology of Donegal but in the earlier Martyrology of Tallaght they are listed separately as ‘Coelan Dachoe’ and ‘Falbe of Chill Eó’ i.e. ‘from Cell Éo’.  Canon O’Hanlon deals with them separately in Volume VI of his Lives of the Irish Saints and places Cell-Eó, which the place names glossary in the Martyrology of Gorman translates as ‘the church of the yews’, in County Longford:

    St. Failbe of Cill-eo, County of Longford.

    The published Martyrology of Donegal seems to place this saint, together with St. Caolan, at Cill-eo, for the 30th of June. However, the Irish Calendar,  belonging to the Royal Irish Academy, has a different entry, as we shall see, when treating about St. Caolan. Of this saint, it remarks, that he was of the Clan Ruighre, and that his place was Cill-eo, in the County of Longford.

     

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  • The Life of the Holy Virgin Samthann

    December 19 is the feast of Saint Samthann of Clonbroney and last year’s post on her life can be found here. The Life of Samthann is known mainly from an early 14th-century manuscript, Rawlinson B.485. Richard Sharpe, who has studied the various collections of Irish saints’ Lives argues that the ‘Oxford group’ in which the Life of Samthann is included may have originated in the Longford/Westmeath region. Saint Samthann’s monastery of Clonbroney was in County Longford, so this may explain why her Life forms part of that collection. Unusually among the monastic saints, Samthann was not the founder of her community and I looked at the circumstances in which the leadership of Clonbroney was passed to her in last year’s post. Furthermore, the Life does not include an account of her birth and early years, as one usually finds in other saints’ Lives. Dorothy Africa, who has published a translation of the Life of Saint Samthann, comments on some of the text’s other unusual features, the first of which we will now turn to:

    Except for the omission of an account of her early life, the Life of St. Samthann follows the general pattern of Irish saint’s Lives. It has, however several distinctive features worthy of comment. Few saints Lives display such an opening sequence as this one, with the protagonist entering her own life sound asleep and hurtling within a few sentences into full dramatic action. It is common, however, in the Lives of women saints for the saint to struggle heroically to avoid a marriage forced upon her by parents and kin. Fosterage was a common practice in Ireland for children of both sexes. Usually a woman’s own family, not her foster father, would make arrangements for her marriage, but if they were distant, as appears to be the case here, responsibility might pass to a fosterer.

    Dorothy Africa, trans., Life of the Holy Virgin Samthann, in T. Head, ed., Medieval Hagiography – An Anthology (Routledge, 2001), 99.

    So, here is that dramatic beginning to the Life of Saint Samthann, taken from a translation made by two Irish priests, Fathers Diamuid O’Laoghaire and Peter O’Dwyer:

    Samthann’s father’s name was Diamramus, and her mother’s Columba. As she matured her foster-father, Cridan, king of the Ui Coirpri, gave her in marriage to a nobleman. Before the marriage solemnities were celebrated, the nobleman saw at midnight something like a ray of the sun extended through the roof of the house onto the bed in which Samthann was sleeping with the king’s two daughters. Amazed by the unusual vision of light at such an hour, he rose immediately and, advancing toward his spouse’s bed, found that her face was illumined by that ray. He was very happy that he was gifted with a spouse who was surrounded by heavenly light.

    The following night, when the solemnities had been celebrated, both were entering the marriage bed, as is customary, when her husband said to her, “Undress yourself so that we may become one”. But she replies, “I ask you to wait until all who are in this house are asleep.” Her husband agreed. After a short time tiredness overcame him. Then Samthann gave herself to prayer, knocking at the doors of divine mercy so that God might keep her virginity unblemished. And God heard her prayer, for about midnight that town in which they lived seemed to outsiders to be on fire. A flame of extraordinary magnitude was seen ascending from the mouth of the holy virgin to the roof of the house. A mighty cry was raised outside in the town and those who were asleep within were awakened. Together, they hastened to extinguish the fire.

    In the meantime the holy virgin Samthann hid herself in a cluster of ferns nearby. The fire vanished immediately without doing any damage to the town. When morning came, her foster-father, the king, set out to look for her. When he found her, she said to the king, “Was your town burned last night?” The king replied, “No.” She said, “I thank God that it was not burned.” Then she spoke to the king again, “Why did you wish to give this poor servant of the Almighty God to any spouse without her consent?” The king replied, “All right, I will not give you to a man, but let you be the judge.” Samthann said, “This is not my decision: as of now you give me as a spouse to God and not to man.” Then the king said, “We offer you to God, the spouse whom you choose.” Then she, with her husband’s permission, entered the monastery of the virgin Cognat where she remained for a time.

    ‘Samthann of Clonbroney” in E.C.Sellner, Wisdom of the Celtic Saints (Indiana, 1993), 194-5.

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