OMNIUM SANCTORUM HIBERNIAE

Tag: Saints of Meath

  • Saint Maelaithghen of Tech Maeilaithghin, June 6

    Canon O’Hanlon brings details of another early, obscure saint at June 6 and notes that Saint Maelaithghen is recorded not only in the earliest of the Irish calendars, but also in the Scottish Kalendar of Drummond. A later note in the Martyrology of Oengus provides a location for our saint and so I have transferred a translation of this from O’Hanlon’s footnotes into the main text:

    St. Maelaithghen of Tech Maeilaithghin, Probably in Cairpre Ua-Ciardha, now Barony of Carbury, and County of Kildare, or in Meath.

    The Martyrology of Tallagh merely registers the name Maelathgean, at the 6th of June. That Moelaithgen lived at an early period is proved, from the fact of his feast having been inserted in the Feilire of St. Aengus, at this date. The commentator has a note, to identify his locality. [The Irish note is thus translated, by Whitley Stokes, LL.D: “i.e. of Tech Moelaithgin in Cairpre Hua-Ciardai. Or in Mag Locha in the west of Bregia”.] According to the Martyrology of Donegal, on this day was venerated Maelaithghen, said to have been of Tigh Maelaithghen, in Cairbre-Ua-Ciardha, or in Maghlacha, in the west of Bregia. This territory extended from the River Liffey to the River Boyne, and it took in a great part of the present county of Meath. The place of this saint must be sought for, within the ancient territory of Cairbre-Ui-Chiardha. This now forms the barony of Carbury, in the north-western part of the present county of Kildare. In Scotland, this Natalis of the Holy Confessor Maelaithchen was commemorated, on the 6th of June, as noticed in the Kalendar of Drummond.

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  • Saints Niadh and Berchan, June 5

    Canon O’Hanlon brings a brief account of two early but obscure saints commemorated on June 5:  Niadh and Berchan of Cluain Aodh Aithmeth. His authority is a manuscript calendar belonging to the 19th-century scholar, Professor Eugene O’Curry. He further draws on the 17th-century hagiologist, Father John Colgan’s Trias Thaumaturga, in locating our saints’ territory in County Meath according to a reference in the Tripartite Life of Saint Patrick (book 2, chapter 10):

    Saints Niadh and Berchan of Cluain Aodh Aithmeth, in Luighne.

    The 5th of June is dedicated to the memory of St. Niadh and of St. Berchan. Both were connected with Cluain Aodh Aithmeth, in Luighne. The Luaighni of Teamhair were a people in Meath, and the position of their district seems determined, by a passage in one of St. Patrick’s Lives. The Church of Domhnach-mor-Muighe Echenach is placed within the territory. It lay upon the banks of the Boyne. The identification of a modern designation for the ancient Cluain Aedha Aithmet proves a more difficult matter, for the topographer and historian.

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  • Saint Maelodhrain of Slane, May 31

    We close the month of May with the commemoration of a saint associated with the important County Meath foundation of Slane. Saint Maelodhrain was presumably a successor to the monastery’s founder, Saint Erc, but Canon O’Hanlon is unable to establish when his tenure as abbot was. Indeed, there is so little information, apart from the recording of Saint Maelodhrain’s commemoration at this date in the Martyrology of Tallaght, that the account from Volume VI of the Lives of the Irish Saints is mostly taken up with a history of the site. Of particular interest is the tradition that the seventh-century Merovingian prince Dagobert was educated at Slane. Professor Jean-Michel Picard has written about the Irish exile of this royal figure so perhaps I shall explore this episode at a later date:

    St. Maelodhrain, of Slane, County of Meath.

    At the 31st of May, the Martyrology of Tallagh  records an entry, regarding Moelodran of Slaan. The Bollandists  have as a festival, at this date, Moeldranus Slanensis, and following the same authority. This place —deriving its name from Slanius a former monarch of Ireland —was situated near the River Boyne, and in the County of Meath. It is now known as Slane, where it is said St. Herc, or St. Erc, became its first bishop, in the time of St. Patrick, by whom he had been consecrated. To St. Erc is attributed the foundation of a hermitage near the beautiful Hill of Slane, over the winding and picturesque course of the Boyne River. It is situated to the south of the town, and it is said, but incorrectly, that Regular Canons of St. Austin were here established. It was celebrated during the early ages of Christianity, and according to tradition, Dagobert, King of Austrasia, was here educated. Slane was frequently pillaged, by the Northmen. The Franciscans seem to have occupied the hermitage of St. Erc during the middle ages. The hermitage  lies within the Marquis of Conyngham’s Demesne, on the northern bank of the river, and immediately below the castle, embosomed within the dark shadows, in a grove of ancient yews. Considerable portions of this picturesque building still exist. Near the site of his original church are the ruins of a fine old Franciscan monastery, founded A.D. 1512, erected by Christopher Fleming, Lord of Slane, and by his wife, on behalf of two Franciscan Friars, who then dwelt in St. Erc’s hermitage, and for the order to which they belonged. This Priory was suppressed, in the 38th year of King Henry VIII., and it was re-granted to the Flemings, whose possessions were forfeited to the crown, after the Insurrection of 1641. On this day, a festival to honour Maelodhrain, of Slane, was celebrated, as we read in the Martyrology of Donegal. With his parentage and period, we are not acquainted.

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