OMNIUM SANCTORUM HIBERNIAE

Tag: Saints of the Eleventh Century

  • The Blessed Mughron O'Morgair, October 5

    October 5 is the commemoration of a man dubbed The Blessed Mughron O’Morgair (Mugh Róin, Mungron) by Canon O’Hanlon in the incomplete Volume X of his Lives of the Irish Saints. O’Morgair is a name I associate with Maolmhaodhog O’Morgair, better known as Saint Malachy of Armagh, Ireland’s first officially canonized saint. Canon O’Hanlon explains that Mughron is Saint Malachy’s father, although some earlier writers were reluctant to accept this degree of kinship, perhaps due to his association with a monastic establishment. Modern research, however, has shown that not every holder of a monastic office was a monk who had taken vows. All that seems to be known of the Blessed Mughron, thanks to the handsome notices of his obit in the Irish annals, is that he was a leading scholar of the school of Armagh. Under the year 1102, the Annals of Ulster record: 

    Mughron Ua Morghair, arch lector of Ard-Macha and of all the west of Europe, felicitously finished his life (namely, in Mungarit) before many witnesses, on [Sunday] the 3rd of the Nones [5th] of October.

     and the translator offers this comment on the place of his death: 

    In Mungarit. — From this it can be inferred that he had gone on pilgrimage to the monastery of Mungret (Co. Limerick), to prepare for death.

    Rev. B. MacCarthy, ed. and trans., Annals of Ulster, (Dublin, 1893) fn 6, p70.

    The Annals of the Four Masters concurs: 

    Mughron Ua Morgair, chief lector of Ard-Macha, and of all the west of Europe, died on the third of the Nones of October, at Mungairit, in Munster.

    Lector is one of the translations used for the Irish term fer léiginn, literally ‘man of reading’, an office recorded in the annals from the ninth through to the twelfth centuries. Thus I think we may infer that Mughron O’Morgair had a reputation as an important scholar.

    Canon O’Hanlon has this to say of him in his third article of the day at October 5:

    ARTICLE III.—THE BLESSED MUNGRON OR MUGRON O’MORGAIR, PROFESSOR AT ARMAGH. [Eleventh and Twelfth Centuries.]

    This saint flourished, about the close of the eleventh and beginning of the twelfth century. By St. Bernard, he is said to have been of illustrious descent, and to have possessed considerable power and influence. We have not any authentic particulars, referring to the year of his birth, nor to the race from which he sprung. However, it is probable he was born before or about the middle of the eleventh century. Instead of O’Morgair, as the Chronicum Scotorum and Four Masters write his name, the Annals of Ulster and Innisfallen have O’Mungair. In the opinion of the Rev. Dr. Lanigan the parentes of St. Bernard do not mean father and mother, but, according to the acceptation quite usual in the middle ages, relatives or kinsfolk, such as parens in French and parenti in Italian. Mungron O’Morgair would seem to have been only a layman, as he had been married. He was father of two remarkable saints, namely, Malachy O’Morgair, afterwards Archbishop of Armagh, and Christian O’Morgair, afterwards Bishop of Clogher. As the former of these sons had been born at Armagh, in 1094 or 1095, it is probable, the father was then and for some years afterwards, an inhabitant of that antient city. Colgan observes, that Mugron was a relative of St. Malachy, who is usually said to have been of the very antient noble family of the O’Morgairs, now called O’Dogherty. But from what has been stated by our Annalists, it must follow, that Mugron was more nearly connected than as a mere relative. In writing about St. Malachy, the Rev. Dr. Lanigan remarks, that St. Bernard makes no mention of his father, and thence it may be justly inferred that he died, when Malachy was very young. At that time, the future Archbishop of Armagh could only have been about seven years old. The Irish Annals designate Mungron O’Morgair as a chief lecturer, not only in the school at Armagh, but in all Western Europe.  Tradition holds that from the time of St. Patrick, a school had been established in his primatial city. The Annals of Innisfallen call Mungron O’Morgair Professor of Literature, while those of Ulster do not mark over what department he presided. However, it was owing to his advice and persuasion, St. Malachy was promoted to the holy order of Deaconship. Colgan makes him a Professor of Theology, as if there were no other professors than theological ones;  however, that opinion is sufficiently probable. No doubt, it would have been a very rare case in most parts of Europe, during the times we are now treating of, to find a layman professor in any school, and when kings, princes and nobles generally could neither read nor write. But the Irish princes and nobles did not sink into this neglect of learning, and some of their most learned men were persons of illustrious birth. It is, therefore, not singular that Mungron O’Morgair, although of high and powerful connections, was a professor. For, as the Irish nobility respected and cultivated literature more or less, so such of them as were duly qualified were not ashamed to teach it. Although the Right Rev. Dr. Reeves holds, that the Abbey of SS. Peter and Paul in Armagh had been founded there in the twelfth century;  yet it seems more probable it had been built at a much earlier period. During many centuries, a convent of Canons Regular of the Order of St. Augustine flourished in that city, and its abbots were distinguished for their sanctity and learning. In the year 1126, it was repaired, and the church annexed to it was rebuilt by Imar O’Hoedegan. In its school the Blessed Mungron laboured and taught. Towards the close of his life, the learned professor, Mughron O’Morgair, seems to have lived at Mungret, near Limerick, where his career on earth closed. His death is assigned to A.D. 1098, in the Chronicum Scotorum. We are told that he died in Mungret Abbey, county of Limerick, on the third of the Nones, or 5th day of October, A.D. 1102. In the presence of many witnesses, he happily departed this life. Such, also, is the date assigned for his departure in the Annals of Ulster. However, in the Index Chronologicus of Ussher, at the year 1103,  his death is recorded.

    Ulster priest, Father James O’Laverty, in his diocesan history of Down and Connor has no difficulty in accepting that the Blessed Mugron was the father of Saint Malachy. His account also tells us of Gillachrist O’ Morgair, Bishop of Clogher, brother of Saint Malachy, who has his own place on the Irish calendars at June 12:

    St. Malachy, whose name in the language of his country was Maolmhaodhog O’Morgair (or according to others O’Mungair), was born in the year 1094, probably in the city of Armagh. St. Bernard tells us that “his parents were by birth and power great, such as the world calls great.” According to the Annals of Innisfallen, his father was Mughron O’Morgair + whose death is recorded by the Annals of the Four Masters at the year 1102:-” Mughron O’Morgair, chief lector of Armagh and of all the west of Europe, died on the 3rd of the Nones of October, at Mungairit in Munster, (Mungret, Co. Limerick).” The family of O’Morgair are, according to Colgan, at present represented by the O’Doghertys of the County of Donegal. St. Malachy’s mother, who, as St. Bernard says, was more distinguished by the gifts of mind than even by birth, belonged to the family which possessed the lands of Bangor under the abbots of that monastery. It may be surmised that Bangor, though at that period it had lost its greatness, still had some class of a high school, to which was attracted from Tyrconnell, either as a student or a professor, Mughron O’Morgair, who there married a daughter of the great local family, but afterwards removed to Armagh, where he became “chief lector,” and where his children were born. ++  His wife bore to Mughron at least three children, two sons and a daughter. The baptismal names given to the sons indicate the piety of the parents. On their elder son they conferred the name Giolla Criost (Servant of Christ), which has been latinized into Christianus. Their younger son they placed under the patronage of St. Maodhog, or Moge, who was the first Bishop of Ferns, by naming him Maolmhaodhog. The adjective Maol in the ecclesiastical acceptation of the word signifies tonsured; and prefixed to Maodhog, it denotes one tonsured, i.e. devoted to the patronage of that saint. The name Maolmhaodhog, though presenting to a reader accustomed only to the English language a very formidable appearance, is pronounced Meelweeoge, and is latinized into Malachias whence it assumes the form more familiar to us of Malachy. Both the sons of Mughron O’Morgair are honoured by the Church as saints. Giolla-Christ or Christian, became Bishop of Clogher, and is described by St. Bernard, as “a good man full of grace and virtue, second to his brother in fame, but possibly not inferior to him in sanctity of life and zeal for righteousness.” The Four Masters, in recording his death at the year 1138, say:— “Gillachrist Ua Morgair, Bishop of Cloghar, a paragon in wisdom and piety, a brilliant lamp that enlightened the laity and clergy by preaching and good deeds; a faithful and diligent servant of the church in general, died and was interred in the Church of Peter and Paul at Ard-Macha.” The Calendar of Donegal enters his festival at the 12th of June:”Criostian, i.e. Gillachrist Ua Morgair, brother of Maelmaedhog, i.e. Malachias, who is of the Cinel-Conail,” which seems to confirm the statement of Colgan, that the O’Morgairs are at present represented by the O’Doghertys. St. Bernard testifies that their countrymen styled St. Malachy and his brother the two pillars of their church.

    + Colgan thinks that Mungron O’Morgair is a relative of St. Malachy, but O’Flaherty, in a MS. note to Colgan’s work, refers to Tighernach’s Annals and the Chronicon Scotorum, which asserts that he was the saint’s father. The entry in the latter is :— “Mugron O’Morgair, lector of Ard-Macha quievit i.e. the father of Maelmaedhog and Gillachrist.” Some are induced to suppose, with Colgan, that Malachy’s father was a chief, because St. Bernard says “His parents were by birth and power great,” The word parentes was, however, commonly used at that period to express relatives or kinsfolk.

    ++ The late Mr. Hanna, of Downpatrick, in a letter to Father O’Hanlon, author of the learned and popular Life of St. Malachy, says speaking of the saint’s birth-place-“I cannot think it was Armagh, for if so why would St. Bernard say he was bred there and not born there also? It is quite evident his mother belonged to the Ards of the County Down, and to some tribe in the neighbourhood of Bangor.”;

    Rev. James O’Laverty, An Historical Account of the Diocese of Down and Connor, Ancient and Modern, Vol. V (Dublin, 1887), 50-52.

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  • Saint Colman of Stockerau, October 13

    October 13 is the feast day of an 11th-century Irish saint, Colman (Coloman) of Stockerau. I have previously published a paper on his life here, but below is the entry for the saint from Father John Lanigan’s Ecclesiastical History of Ireland. Father Lanigan applies his customary sceptical approach to the sources and like many of the Irish writers on the saints doesn’t disguise his irritation at the Scottish calendarist Thomas Dempster’s clumsy attempt to claim this saint as a Scot, rather than an Irishman. Dempster chose to ignore the reality that in the early Middle Ages Ireland was referred to as ‘Scotia’ and claimed everyone described in continental sources as a ‘Scot’ as a native of his own country:

    Various distinguished Irishmen still continued to visit foreign countries. Colman, or as usually called by continental writers, Coloman, who is styled patron of Austria, (1) left Ireland early in the eleventh century, (2) together with some other persons, for the purpose of a pious visit to Jerusalem. (3) He arrived A.D.1022 in the eastern part of Norica, now Lower Austria. Its inhabitants were then at variance with the neighbouring nations of Bohemians, Moravians, &etc. On Colman’s stopping at the small town of Stockerau he was seized as a spy sent by the enemies of Austria, and thrown into prison. On the next day he was strictly examined, but although he told the plain truth, would not be believed. He was then most cruelly tortured, and at length, on his persisting in declaring his innocence, was hung from an old tree together with two robbers. While his body remained suspended from his gibbet, it continued sound and entire; and it is said that his hair and nails continued to grow. The hay or twig rope, by which his head was fastened, and even the old tree, are stated to have bloomed and revived. These extraordinary phenomena excited great attention, which was ranch enhanced by the circumstance of blood flowing from his body on occasion of a part of his flesh having been cut off for the purpose of being used in effecting a certain cure. It was now concluded, that Colman was a truly holy man, and that he had been unjustly put to death. Accordingly he was honored as a martyr, and his body was taken down and deposited with great pomp in the churchyard of Stockerau. Several miracles are said to have attested his sanctity, and Henry, marquis of Austria, was so moved by them, that he had the body removed to his residence Medlicum, alias Medlica, or Mellica, now Melck. (4) On its removal it was found entire, and was placed in St. Peter’s church of that town on the 7th of October A. D, 1015, three years after Colman had been murdered. A Benedictine monastery was soon established there in honour of this saint, which has become very famous and still exists in great splendor. Erchinfrid, who has written the Acts of Colman, (5) was the third abbot of this monastery. He relates, in addition to what has been hitherto stated, several miracles wrought after his death, which it would be too tedious to repeat. He constantly calls him a Scotus, by which appellation, although he does not make mention of Ireland, or name the land of his birth, it may, considering that the Irish were then universally called Scoti, and that they were greatly in the habit of going abroad on pilgrimages, be fairly presumed that Colman was an Irishman. Erchinfrid has nothing about his having been of royal parentage, as some later writers have announced. (6) The name of this saint as a martyr is in the Roman martyrology at 13 October.

    (1) Colgan (A.A. SS. p. 105.) calls him apostle of Austria; but there is no reason for giving this title; for, besides Austria having been a Christian country before the arrival of Colman it does not appear that he preached there, or that he had even time to do so. Nor do I find, that Colman was an ecclesiastic. The title given to him by German writers is that of patron of Austria. The most detailed account of him is that by the abbot Erchinfrid, who was contemporary with him, or very nearly so, and which has been published by Lambecius, Commentariorum de Bibliotheca Caesar. Vindohon. Lib, ii. cap. 8. Colman is treated of also by Ditmar and other chroniclers, by Baronius, Annal &c. at A, 1012, and other writers.

    (2) According to Erchinfrid’s account Colman’s departure from his own country must have been only a short time before his death, which occured in 1012. Colgan says, (ib. p. 107.) that he had left Ireland before the close of the tenth century. I wish he had told us, where this information is to be found.

    (3) Baronius was mistaken in saying that Colman had been often at Jerusalem. But he had not seen the narrative of Erchinfrid.

    (4) Mabillon says (Annal, Ben. ad A, 1017.) that Colman’s body was buried at Melck, which he calls Mezelikim, by order of the then emperor. This is a mistake, grounded on authority inferior to that of Erchinfrid, who positively states, that Henry, marquis of Austria, was the prince, by whose order that was done. He was also wrong in assigning Colman’s death to said year 1017.

    (5) See above Not. I. The miraculous circumstances relative to Colman’s remains are attested also by Ditmar, who was bishop of Mersburg and a contemporary of his, as he died in 1019.

    (6) Surius has at 13 October an ode written in honour of St. Colman by John Stabius, historiographer of the emperor Maximilian I. It begins thus:

    Austriae sanctus canitur patronus,
    Fulgidum sidus radians ab Areto,
    Scoticae gentis Colomannus acer
    Regia proles.

    Ille dum sanctam Solymorum urbem
    Transiit dulcem patriam relinquens,
    Regios fastus, trabeam, coronam,
    Sceptraque tempsit.

    Propter et Christum peregrinus exul
    Factus in terris alienis ultro
    Caelicam pura meditatus aulam
    Mente fideque.

    Then, comes an account of Colman’s transactions much in the manner as related by Erchinfrid; for instance,

    Austriae terras agitabat amens
    Tunc furor: fortes Moravos, Bohemos,
    Pannones bello simul implicabat
    Inferus hostis.

    Ergo dum sanctum hospitio recepit
    Oppidum nostro Stockheran vocatum
    Patrio ritu, &c.

    It was, I dare say, on the authority of this ode that Baronius said that Colman was of a royal family. Dempster, wishing to make Colman, a Scotch prince, fabricated a story of his having been a son of Malcolm I. king of Scotland. To that shameless liar it is sufficient to oppose the silence of Buchanan, who, although he makes mention of more than one son of Malcolm, has nothing about this celebrated St. Colman. Harris, (Writers at Colman of Lindisfarne) remarking on Dempster’s assumption, fell, as indeed some others had before him, into a strange mistake, confounding Colman of Austria with the one of Lindisfarne. He did not know that the former was killed in 1012, whereas the latter lived in the seventh century.

    Rev. J. Lanigan, An ecclesiastical history of Ireland, from the first introduction of Christianity among the Irish, to the beginning of the thirteenth century, Volume III, (Dublin, 1829), 440-441.

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  • Saint Colman of Stockerau, October 13

    October 13 is the feastday of an Irish saint who met a particularly sad fate in early eleventh-century Austria. Below is a paper from the Irish Ecclesiastical Record by Father J.F. Hogan on the life of Saint Colman (Coloman) in which he describes the circumstances which led this Irishman to be adopted as a patron of the Austrian people. I particularly enjoyed the description of the saint by the Viennese chronicler who said ‘God sent us from Ireland, which is situated at the extreme end of the world a saint who was to be the intercessor and advocate of our whole nation, and who would teach us by his example to despise all earthly things, and seek only those which lead to heaven.’ The idea of Ireland as being at the extreme end of the world is a concept to which Saint Patrick himself would have related. Finally, let’s also spare a thought for Saint Gothalmus, the faithful servant of Saint Colman, who shared both his master’s journey and his fate. May they continue to intercede for Austria and its people and for this island ‘at the extreme end of the world’.
    ST. COLMAN, PATRON OF LOWER AUSTRIA
    The story of St. Colman is very different from that of most other Irish saints whose names are still venerated in distant countries. He was not an apostle in any ordinary sense of the word. He was not sent nor did he go to preach the Gospel, nor to convert the heathen. He may, indeed, have had in his mind some ultimate aim of the kind, but it had not yet matured nor assumed definite shape when he was overtaken by the fate of the martyr. Neither was it his immediate intention to settle in any of the monasteries founded by his countrymen in the centre of Europe, nor to devote himself to teaching, nor to study, nor to the pious exercises of religious life. It is, we believe, more than probable that he would in due course have become a monk, a teacher, and a preacher ; but his most pressing purpose at the time of his death was to wend his way to the Holy Land, to visit Nazareth, Bethlehem, Caphernaum, Jerusalem ; to follow the footsteps of the Master through Samaria and Galilee ; to venerate the earth on which He had walked in the flesh, where He was born, where He lived, and where He died ; to meditate on Jordan’s banks and on the Mountain of Beatitudes; to assuage his spiritual thirst at the fountain of Siloe and at Cedron’s holy brook; and, above all, to fill his soul with memories of the Garden of Olives, of the Way of the Cross, and of Mount Calvary.
    This was the motive which urged Colman to leave his country, and in obedience to which he one day found himself in a strange land, unknown, unfriended, and unable to make himself understood. It is also remarkable that, notwithstanding that he was an utter stranger to the people who afterwards adopted him as their patron and protector, from the very first he took possession of their hearts, and retained his hold upon them, only with increasing power, through many changing centuries. It is really wonderful how his fame spread from the wood near the little town of Stockerau, where he was tortured and hanged, all over the province of Austria proper, away through Styria, Istria, and Carniola, through Hungary, Bohemia, Bavaria, and Poland. Kings and princes were called by his name at baptism; churches and chapels were dedicated in his honour. Coloman, King of Hungary, the nephew of St. Ladislas, and one of the immediate successors of St. Stephen the Great, promoted the fame of his holy patron wherever his influence extended. Rudolph IV. of Hapsburg was equally devoted to his memory. This most peaceful and mildest of saints had always a great attraction for soldiers. One of them, a brave Austrian knight, who served under the Emperor Ferdinand III., lies buried near the tomb of his patron, in the great Benedictine Abbey of Molck, on the banks of the Danube; and on the marble sarcophagus erected over his grave appears the inscription:
    HEUS VIATOR!
    HUC OCULOS, HUC MENTEM MODICUM REFER.
    EX VEXILLO FIDELITATEM, EX LEONE VIGILANTIAM PENSA.
    FIDELIS FUI
    DEO, CAESARI, AMICIS
    USQUE AD ARAS.
    VIGILAVI DONEC OBDORMIREM IN MORTE.
    ET QUOD SOMNUS ESSET SUAVIOR,
    HANC UMBRAM QUAESIVI
    TUTELARIS MEI SANCTI COLOMANNI.
    St. Colman’s Irish nationality is universally and gratefully recognised in Austria. The standard work on The Life and Miracles of the saint is that of Father Gotfreid Deppisch, which was published in Vienna, by the University Press, in 1743. This learned writer was a Benedictine monk of the Abbey of Moelck, on the Danube, and his work on St. Colman is dedicated to the illustrious Adrian, abbot of the monastery, and “Rector Magnificus” of the University of Vienna. He took great pains to find out all that was known about the honoured patron of his country. He came specially from Vienna to the Franciscan Convent of St. Antony of Padua, at Louvain, in order to consult the Annals of the Four Masters, the works of Ussher, Stanihurst, and Ware, but especially some manuscript materials that had been left by Father John Colgan and Father Hugh Ward concerning the origin and descent of St. Colman. He was hospitably received by Father Antony McCarthy, then guardian of the convent, who made all the researches the learned Benedictine required, and submitted them to him. The result could not be more satisfactory. The author takes much trouble to place St. Colman’s Irish origin beyond all doubt; and he devotes several pages to refute the Scotch pretension that the saint was a son of King Malcolm III. and of St. Margaret of Scotland.
    ” We must now [he writes] bring forward proofs that cannot be contradicted to show that the native land of our glorious patron is no other than the kingdom of Ireland, and that he was born and bred an Irishman. The oldest and the strongest is to be found in that ancient chronicle of the Austrian Margraves of Babenberg, which a learned priest, named Aloldus of Bechlarn, composed in the year 1063, and which the illustrious Father Jerome Hanthaler, annalist of the Monastery of Lilienfeld, accidentally discovered, about three years ago, in the library of Maria-Zell, in Austria, to the great honour and profit of historical studies in our country. The next is that of Thomas Ebendorfer von Haselbach, a canon of the Cathedral of Vienna, teacher of Holy Scriptures, and celebrated Austrian historian, who lived in the time of the Emperors Albert and Frederick III. This learned author, amongst other valuable works, has left us a long and beautiful eulogium of St. Colman, in which he tells us that ‘God sent us from Ireland, which is situated at the extreme end of the world, a saint who was to be the intercessor and advocate of our whole nation, and who would teach us by his example to despise all earthly things, and seek only those which lead to heaven.’
    The author further quotes several passages from chronicles and annals kept in different parts of Germany, many of which are to be found collected by Father Jerome Fez, the famous librarian of Moelck, and editor of two of the most valuable collections of historical documents ever published in Europe. It would, indeed, be a mere waste of time and space to dwell further on a matter which is universally admitted.
    St. Colman seems to have belonged to some distinguished family in Ireland, and was, possibly, as Ward suggested, son of Malachy, high king of Ireland, who lived towards the end of the tenth century. The only reference made to St. Colman in any of the older Irish books is that found in the Calendar of Donegal, in which we read: ” Colman ailithir in Austria mac Maoilscheachluinn mor mac Dohmnuill.” “Colman the pilgrim in Austria, son of Maolsechlainn Mor, son of Dohmnall.” He was accompanied by a servant, Gothalmus, on his pilgrimage to Jerusalem ; and is usually spoken of as having made great worldly sacrifices in order to devote himself entirely to the service of God. The pilgrim’s road to Jerusalem, in these days, lay through Austria, Hungary, and Turkey ; and as it happened the throne of the Holy Roman Empire was then occupied by the pious Henry II. and his saintly queen, Cunigunde. St. Stephen was king of Hungary, and the province of Austria was governed by the wise and prudent Margrave, Henry of Bahenberg. Great political troubles disturbed all these countries at the time we write about ; for the Austrians were beginning to assume that supremacy over their neighbours which they vindicated under several chiefs of the young Bahenberg dynasty, and have maintained to the present day under the time-honoured aegis of the Hapsburgs.
    When St. Colman arrived in the midst of their province, in the year 1014, it was overrun by soldiers from Hungary, Bohemia, and Poland. The minds of the people were greatly excited ; and when they found a stranger amongst them, ignorant of their language, and hurrying on from one village to another, they came to the conclusion that he was a foreign spy, seeking information and an opportunity to betray them to their enemies. It was in vain that the poor pilgrim protested his innocence, kissed his crucifix, and pointed towards the east. What was regarded by them as hypocrisy only enraged them the more. A cruel and infuriated mob laid hold of him in the village of Stockerau, and led him out to a neighbouring wood, where they bound him hand and foot, and hung him from a gibbet, erected specially for the purpose. Nor were they satisfied with the cruel death which they decreed to the servant of God. They had recourse to other refinements of barbarism, which even at this distance are enough to make one shudder. They scourged him with whips before his execution ; they applied burning irons to his body while he was struggling for life ; and they tore and lacerated his flesh till he had scarcely the human shape. The author of the hymn which was sung in his honour in the Middle Ages accurately describes the nature of his torture :
    “Scilices, ignita ova,
    Flagra tibi, vulnera
    Imprimebant, nec non nova
    Tormentorum genera.
    Carnes tuas vellicabant
    Forcipe ferrarrii ;
    Ossa tua lacerabant
    Serra carpentarii.”
    When the evil work was done, its authors hurried off to some kindred task, and so little thought did they bestow on the poor victim they left hanging in the wood that their crime seems to have passed without any special notice ; for it was only a few years afterwards that some of the inhabitants of Stockerau were startled at the sight which they beheld at the spot where the saint had suffered. There was the gibbet still ; but fresh leaves had grown from the dry wood, and flowers that gave forth a fragrant perfume had blossomed from the beam. There was still the body of the saint hanging in the air : but it was whole and uncorrupted.
    ” Mire fragrans, indestructus
    Permanens biennio.”
    The birds of the air had respected the temple of so pure a soul. The hair and beard had grown down over the pilgrim’s frock, and a smile of heavenly peace and forgiveness seemed to light up the countenance of the victim. The people were struck with amazement when they witnessed the spectacle. They began to fear that the vengeance of God would overtake them and punish them for the crime that was perpetrated in their midst. The clergy were at once informed of the prodigy, and the remains of the saint were reverently taken away and placed in the church of Stockerau, where wonderful miracles testified to the sanctity of the murdered pilgrim.
    An account of all these strange occurrences soon reached the ears of Henry, Margrave of Austria, who was greatly struck by all he heard, and proceeded to make a careful investigation into the whole history. When he was satisfied of the undoubtedly genuine nature of all the events narrated, he called together the bishops and clergy of the country, and had the body of St. Colman transferred to the important town of Moelck, where he himself resided. There, in the Church of the Benedictine Abbey, it remains to this day, surrounded by the veneration and love of a whole country. A short time after the remains of the saint were transferred to Moelck, the King of Hungary took possession of them, and carried them away for awhile, but they were duly recovered by the people of Austria. Poppo, Bishop of Treves, arranged the first transfer; but Providence evidently destined the saint to be the patron and protector of Austria. A rich mausoleum in Corinthian style is erected over the shrine of the saint. “Justus ut palma florebit ” is written near its summit, and “Sepulchrum Sancti Colomanni Martyris,” indicates the contents of the shrine. Here pilgrimages still come from all parts of Austria, and the glories of the saint are heard in the strong German tongue.
    Churches were dedicated to him at Stockerau, Moelck, Laab, Aggstein, Vienna, Abenthull, Eysgarn, Aichabrunn, St. Veit, Steyer, Lebenan, Berlach, and many other places. A stone that was marked with the blood of the saint was brought by Rudolf IV. to Vienna, where it may still be seen in one of the walls of the Cathedral of St. Stephan. This same illustrious duke had an elaborate cross manufactured, in which he had large relics of St. Colman encased, and surrounded by the relics of other saints. This precious memorial of princely faith is still to be seen in the treasury of Moelck, with an inscription bearing testimony to the motives and object of the donor.
    The learned Johannes Stabius, biographer of the Emperor Maximilian I., wrote an elegant poem in praise of the saint, commencing with the lines:
    “Austriae Sanctus canitur patronus,
    Fulgidum sidus radians ab alto,
    Scoticae gentis Colomanus acer
    Regia proles.”
    It is curious, that although St. Colman could not be said to have been put to death in odium fidei, yet, on account of the violent character of his execution, he is generally regarded as a martyr. Not only do all the early writers of Austria itself, but also the learned Baronius, and several Popes speak of him as a martyr. His, however, is not the only case in which custom has sanctioned a title which technically belongs by right only to those who give their lives for Christ as witnesses to the truth.
    Several Popes conferred rich indulgences on all who would visit with the proper dispositions, the shrine of the great national patron. Those granted by Innocent IV., Honorius IV., Boniface VIII., Clement VI., Boniface IX., Benedict XIV., and by a great number of bishops, archbishops, and the Patriarch of Constantinople, are enumerated by Father Deppisch, in the admirable work on St. Colman, to which we have already made frequent allusion. It is but right to add that Gothalmus, the faithful companion and servant of Colman, who shared with his master the hardships of the journey and his cruel death, shares likewise in his glory; for he, too, is honoured as a saint, and his memory is faithfully cherished, and can never be dissociated from that of his master. Father Deppisch gives a full description of the solemnities that were celebrated in his time at Moelck and in other Austrian churches, in honour of St. Colman. We understand that they have lost nothing of their impressiveness and popularity in later times, and that they are always attended by some representative of the royal Hapsburgs, who regard St. Colman as one of the most faithful protectors of their own interests, and of those of their people.
    J. F. HOGAN.
    THE IRISH ECCLESIASTICAL RECORD Volume 15, AUGUST, 1894, 673-682.

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