OMNIUM SANCTORUM HIBERNIAE

Tag: Saints of Louth

  • Saint Buite of Monasterboice, December 7

    The monastic site at Monasterboice, County Louth is most famous today as the home of the Cross of Muiredach, one of the finest examples of a High cross to be found in Ireland. Less well-known perhaps is the founder of the monastery, Saint Buite, who flourished in the sixth century. His feast on December 7 is well attested in the Irish calendars. The Martyrology of Oengus records for this day:

    7. With the passion of Polycarp
    with his noble, streamy train,
    the bright feast of victorious Buite,
    from treasurous Monaster(boice).

     to which the later scholiast has added some notes attempting an etymology for the saint’s name:

    of Buite, from Manistir in Mag Breg. Buite, i.e. living. Or bute, i.e. fire as is said in the proverb bot fo Bregaib ‘fire throughout Bregia,’ whence is now said butelach, i.e. where there has been a great fire.- Or bute quasi bete, from beatus. Beatus autem dicitur quasi bene auctus, for fair was his aggrandizement, a star manifesting his conception, as happened at the manifestation of Christ. Or bute quasi beo De, for unto God (Dia) he was alive (beo), as hath been written’ ‘they which live shall not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto Him which died for them and rose again,’ doing in this world, not their own will, but His who suffered for them. 

    Bute son of Bronach, son of Balar, son of Cass, son of Nia, son of Airmedach, son of Fergus, son of Isinchan, son of Fiacc.

    The Martyrology of Donegal follows the attempts to explain the derivation of the saint’s name, but adds that in the list of parallel saints Buite is likened to the Venerable Bede:

    7. E. SEPTIMO IDUS DECEMBRIS. 7. 

    BUITE, i.e., Boetius, Bishop of the Monastery. It was in the year of our Lord 520 that he died, i.e., the day on which Colum Cille was born, as stated in the Life of Buite himself. Buite, son of Bronach of Mainister-Buithe, was of the race of Connla, son of Tadhg, son of Cian, son of Oilioll Oluim. A very ancient old-vellum-book, mentioned at Brighit, 1st of February, states that Buite, son of Bronach, and Beda the Wise, had a resemblance to each other in habits and life. 

    “The bright festival of Buite the Victorious” 

    Buite that is, he is called Beo or Buite, which signifies ‘fire’ ut in proverbio dicitur, & etc. Bot fo breghaibh, (Fire under liars), unde dicitur hodie ‘Butelach’, i.e., ubi fit magnus ignis. Buite, however, is quasi Beti ab eo, quod est beatus. Beatus autem dicitur, quasi bene auctus vel aptus for it was a great increase of honour to him that a star manifested his birth, as it manifested the birth of Christ. Or Buite, quasi Beode, because God was life to him : sicut scriptum est, “Qui vivunt jam non sibi vivant sed ei qui pro ipsis mortuus est, et resurrexit; non suam seculi in hoc mundo voluntatem [facientes], sed ejus qui pro ipsis passus est.”

    So there is much to discover about ‘Buite the fair and vigorous’ as the Martyrology of Marianus O’Gorman calls him. He has thus joined the long list of saints about whom I need to undertake more research. In the meantime though, here is a short introduction to his life from an early guide book to the area:

    MONASTERBOICE

     Home of Ireland’s Crosses

    The story of Monasterboice dates back to the sixth century, but like so many other settlements of that period, the facts available regarding its construction and inhabitants are few. It is known, however, that the monastery was founded by an ecclesiastic named Buite, a descendant of one of the chieftains of Munster.


    He lived until the year 520 A.D. so it is considered more than likely that he, at some stage of his youth, came into direct contact with St. Patrick. He travelled extensively through Italy, Germany and England before beginning work on the Monasterboice monastery on his return to Ireland.

    In the course of his travels throughout Ireland Buite is said to have cured many people, sometimes in the strangest ways. Once, a blind man, carrying a cripple, pleaded with Buite to cure them of their infirmities and were told to anoint themselves in the water through which his carriage had passed. They did so and were cured.

    On another occasion while hastening to save the life of a captive of the High King he found the river Boyne, which he had to cross, swollen in flood. But when he struck the water with his staff a passage was cleared for him and, like another Moses, he crossed safely.

    To his dismay he found the prisoner had already been beheaded. But, Buite proceeded to replace the head and restore the man to life. Legend has it that thereafter the restored man spent the remainder of his days tending the monastic garden at Monasterboice.

    Many other stories are told of his works which resulted in cures for people and animals. But, perhaps the strangest of all was the manner in which Buite is reputed to have died. Walking one day in the monastery cemetery he was filled with a desire for death and he is said to have ascended a ladder provided by angels.

    The other monks watched in amazement, but Buite returned with a disc of glass in front of his face which enabled him to see without being seen. He remained with his monks for several more months and before he died foretold of the coming of St. Colmcille, who it is thought, was born on the same day.

    K. MacGowan, The Boyne Valley (Dublin, n.d.), 23-4.

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  • Saint Sillán of Imleach Cassain, September 11

    Saint Sillán, commemorated on September 11 on the Irish Calendars, has a strange legend attached to his name preserved in the scholiast notes on the Martyrology of Oengus. I have appended this to Canon O’Hanlon’s entry below on the life and locality of Saint Sillán, whom the calendars associate with both counties Donegal and Louth:

    St. Sillán or Siollan, of Imleach Cassain, in Cuailgne, or of Imleach-caoin, in Tir-Aedha.

    This holy man lived at an early period. He is commemorated in the “Feilire” of St. Aengus, at the 11th of September, and with praise. However, the scholiast has added a foolish and incredible legend in reference to him. A festival is also recorded in the Martyrology of Tallagh, at the 11th of September in honour of Sillán in Imlig Cassain, of Cuailgni. The district of Cuailge — now Cooley— was a mountainous tract in the north of Louth County. Although now in the Leinster province, it once formed a part of Uladh. Imleach Cassain’s modern equivalent must be sought for in some townland denomination not far from Carlingford Lough or Dundalk Bay. By Marianus O’Gorman, the festival of Sillán has been set down at the 11th of September. At the same date, in the Martyrology of Donegal, his name also appears, as Siollan, of Imleach Cassain, in Cuailgni; or of Imlach-caoin,in Tir Aedha, and, he is said to have been interred or honoured, at Inis Cameda, in Loch Eirne. Tir Aedha is now commensurate with the barony of Tirhugh, in the southern part of Donegal County, and there Imleach-caoin was situated, state the O’Clerys. The ancient name of Inish Coimeda may not at present be easily discovered, among the many modern designations that are applied to the numerous islands, which dot the surface of the beautiful Lough Erne. Veneration for this saint prevailed in Scotland, and his name is registered in the Kalendarium Drummondiense, at the iii. of the September Ides, corresponding with the 11th of the month.

     

    From the Martyrology of Oengus:

    B. iii. idus Septembris.

    Paiss Prothi Iacinthi,
    ba co nimbud galair,
    Sillán salm cech lobair
    i nImbliuch cain canair.

    11. The passion of Protus and Hyacinthus:
    it was with abundance of sorrow.
    Sillán, the psalm of every sick man,
    is sung in fair Imbliuch (Cassain).

    Notes

    Sillán, i.e. from Imbliuch Cassain in Cualnge. salm, i.e. oratio, of every feeble one, i.e. every one who used to be in sore sickness: for this was the wish of them all, to see the hair of Sillán’s eyebrow so that they might die swiftly, for this was the peculiarity of that hair, every one who would see it in the morning died at once. Now Sillán happened (to come) to Lethglenn, and Molaisse comes early in the morning round the graveyard. Sillán of the Hair happens to meet him. “This hair,” says Molaisse, “shall not be killing every one,” plucking it out perforce. Then Molaisse, after seeing the hair, dies at once, and hence Sillán dictus est (Sillán of the Hair).

  • Saint Mochta of Louth, August 19

     

    Below is an account of Saint Mochta of Louth, whose feast is commemorated on August 19, by Patrick Francis, Cardinal Moran (1830-1911). There are many legends attached to the figure of Saint Mochta, as he is reputed to be a disciple of Saint Patrick, but his real historical importance lies in the confession of faith which he wrote to Pope Leo the Great to assure Rome of his orthodoxy. I have not been able to locate an English translation of this important text, but Cardinal Moran reprinted the Latin original as an appendix in his book Essays on the Origins, Doctrines and Discipline of the Early Irish Church, from which this account of its author has also been taken:

    St. Mochta of Louth, whose name was anciently written Macteus,* was a disciple of St. Patrick, and his death is assigned to the year 534, by Tighernach, the Annals of the Four Masters, and the Annals of Ulster. His name is commemorated in our martyrologies on the 24th of March, and the 19th of August.

    Oengus adds to his name the epithets of faithful and devout the great good leader; and Marianus O’Gorman styles him “the lamp of Louth the father of an illustrious family.” The gloss on Oengus adds, that he was bishop of Louth, and cites the following curious poem:

    “Poverty abode not
    With the family of Mochta in his fort of Louth;
    Three hundred bishops and one hundred priests were there with him.
    Eighty psalm-singing noble youths
    Were his household: royal is the enumeration:
    Without ploughing without reaping without drying of corn,
    They laboured not, save at learning only.”

    Amongst our many ancient saints, he was remarkable for his longevity and abstinence, both which traits are thus alluded to by St. Cuimin of Connor, in his poem on the characteristic virtues of the Irish saints:

    “Mochta of Lugh-magh (Louth), loved
    By law and by rule,
    That no dainty food should enter his body
    For the space of one hundred years.”

    The life of this saint records that, guided by an angelic admonition, he proceeded to Rome, and there applied himself to the study of sacred literature; and it further commemorates the offering of a ceraculum or writing-tablet, which he made to the then ruling pontiff. When he visited Rome, the memory of the heretic Celestius was still familiar to the faithful of that city, and the well-known words of St. Jerome were fresh in their ears: “Satan, though silent himself, barks through a huge and corpulent mountain dog, who can do more damage with his claws, than even with his teeth; for he is by descent of the Scotic nation, which is adjoining Britain, and like another Cerberus, according to the fables of the poets, must be struck down with a spiritual club, that thus he may be silent for ever with his master Pluto.”

    Some seem to have feared that Mochta might, perhaps, be infected with a similar contagion, and for this reason he was compelled to vindicate the sincerity of his faith, by presenting, about the year 460, to the great St. Leo, a profession of his belief, of which a copy, written about the year 700, was discovered by Muratori amongst the precious manuscripts of the once famous Irish monastery of Bobbio, and was published in his Anecdota Ambrosiana.

    St. Mochta, in this formula of faith, dwells almost exclusively on the doctrine of the blessed Trinity and on the Apostles’ Creed; indeed it presents a striking similarity with the creed recited by St. Patrick in his Confession, whilst scarcely a hint is given regarding any of those heresies which disturbed the Churches of Britain and the continent. Of his own Church, he says: “we are as yet only in the way to truth” (nos adhuc infenestra id est, in via lucis); and of himself he adds: “why do people interrogate me whence I come ? I am a pilgrim” (ut quid quaeritur patria mea? Peregrinus ego sum); and subsequently he thus briefly but beautifully tells us what was his opinion as to the special prerogative of Rome:

    “If, for the fault of one individual, the inhabitants of the whole country are to be deemed accursed, let that most blessed disciple, too, be condemned, I mean Rome itself, from which hitherto not only one but two, or three, or even more heresies have gone forth ; and, nevertheless, none of them could get hold of, or contaminate the Chair of Peter, that is to say the see of faith.”

    * The Irish a being pronounced like the diphthong au or o, was one of the chief causes of the discrepancy in registering the name of this saint. In some manuscripts of Adamnan, he is styled Mauctaneus, Afaveteus, and Mauctem. The Vita S. Dagei calls him Afoccheus, and subsequently Mochteus. Jocelyn, in his life of St. Patrick, gives his name as Moccheus; and with continental writers, he is commonly known by the name Macceus. Tighernach thus records his death, in 534 : “Dormitatio Moctai discipuli Patricii, xvi. kalend. Septembr. Sic ipse scripsit in epistola sua; Mocteus peccator presbiter Sancti Patricii discipulus in Domino salutem.” This same entry is given in the Annals of Ulster ; but he is said to have signed his own name Macutenus. See Reeves’ Adamnan, page 6, seqq. ; Colgan Acta SS. page 729, seqq.; Martyr, of Christ Church, I. A. S., 1844, page Lxix.; Todd, St Patrick, page 39, seqq.; Ware, de Script Hib. lib ii. cap. 1.

    Essays on the Origins, Doctrines and Discipline of the Early Irish Church by the Rev Dr Moran, (Dublin 1864), 92-4.

     

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