OMNIUM SANCTORUM HIBERNIAE

Tag: Saints of Wicklow

  • Saint Cróine, January 27

    January 27 is the feastday of an early female saint, Cróine, one of many Irish saints to have been recorded on the Irish calendars, but who has left no Vita to give further details of her life. As Canon O’Hanlon explains, there is even no certainty as to the locality in which she may have flourished, the Martyrology of Tallaght identifying her with Inuse Lochacrone which may suggest a County Sligo location, and the 19th-century scholar John O’Donovan placing her at Kilcroney, County Wicklow. The latest work on the Irish saints, Pádraig Ó Riain’s 2011 Dictionary of Irish Saints, places her instead at the County Carlow location of Ardnehue (Ceall Inghean nAodha) and sees her as one of three daughters of Aodh. Ó Riain acknowledges the confusion of this holy lady with others of the same name, including Cróine of Inis Cróine, who may be one of a number of possible doubles.

    St. Croine, Virgin, of Kill-Crony, in the County of Wicklow, or at Inishcrone, County of Sligo.

    A festival in honour of Croni of Inuse Lochacrone is entered in the Martyrology of Tallagh, at the 27th of January. The locality named is possibly identical with the present Inishcrone, near the River Moy, in Tireragh barony, county of Sligo. A strong castle of Eiscir-Abhann, stood here. Inishcrone town, with the ruined church and graveyard, is in the parish of Kilglass, and near the rocky shore, at Killala Bay. Again, there was a Cill-Cruain, now Kilcrone, an old church, giving name to a townland and parish in the barony of Ballymoe, in the county of Galway. We find that Croine, virgin, of Cill Croine, is recorded, likewise, in the Martyrology of Donegal, on this day. She is of the race of Máine, son of Niall. Her place has been identified with Kill-crony, in the county of Wicklow, and as giving no name to a modern parochial district, it may have been denominated from the establishment of a cell or nunnery here, by the present saint, while possibly clerical ministrations had been supplied by the religious community or pastor, living at Kilmacanoge, in remote times. More we cannot glean regarding this holy woman yet, we may conjecture, she must have flourished at a very early period.

    Content Copyright © Omnium Sanctorum Hiberniae 2012-2015. All rights reserved.

  • Saint Baoithin of Ennisboyne, May 22

    May 22 is the feastday of a County Wicklow saint, Baoithin of Ennisboyne. The account below has been edited from that of Canon O’Hanlon in Volume V of his Lives of the Irish Saints:

    St. Baoithin, of Ennisboyne, County of Wicklow.
    [Seventh Century.]

    In the “Feilire” of St. Aengus, on the 22nd of May, the festival and name of Baethine Mac Findach are specially commemorated. The following is Dr. Whitley Stokes’ English translation:—”Ronan (the) Fair’s soul went to starry heaven, with the man bright, prolific, Baethine mac Findach.”— This holy man lived, it is said, in the seventh century. The name Baithin mic Finnach occurs, also, in the Martyrology of Tallagh, at the 22nd of May. On the same authority, and on that of Colgan, the Bollandists notice Baithinus, son of Finnachus. According to the Martyrology of Donegal, Baoithin, son to Finnach, of Inis Baithin, in the east of Leinster, had veneration given him, on this day. By race, he was a Leinsterman; but, his father Findach is stated to have been a robber, in a commentary on that copy of St. Aengus’ “Feilire,” which is to be found in the “Leabhar Breac”. However, as the account given is quite improbable and legendary, we may dismiss it, and the other circumstances referring to our saint’s birth, which are beneath notice. We are told, elsewhere, that he descended from the race of Laoighsech Ceannmor, son to Conall Cearnach. Trea, daughter of Ronan, son to Colman, son of Cairpre, and a daughter to the King of Leinster, was his mother; while, the Scholiast on the “Feilire,” in the “Leabhar Breac,” calls her Cred, daughter of Ronan, King of Leinster, and in Dal Messincorb, moreover, he afterwards lived. This latter narrative seems to intimate, that Boethine had been born in or near Inis Boethine, and there, too, he probably spent his religious days, in retirement from all worldly concerns. This place, now known as Ennisboyne, sometimes called Ennisboheen, or Dunganstown, seems to have derived its denomination from him. This is now a parish, situated in the barony of Arklow, and county of Wicklow…

    Content Copyright © Omnium Sanctorum Hiberniae 2012-2015. All rights reserved.

  • Saint Cellach of Glendalough, October 7

    On October 7 the Martyrology of Oengus notices 

    ‘the feast of Cellach the keen with a fair, melodious following’. 

    The scholiasts’ notes add:

    7. of Cellach, i.e. in Hui Máil is deacon Cellach, in Disert Cellaig to the south-east of Glendalough he is. Cellach the Saxon from Glendalough.

    He was not English, but he came from the English to the Irish, because he was Irish.

    Thomas O’Loughlin has contributed an entry on the various saints who bear the name of Cellach to the Encyclopaedia of Celtic Culture and says of our saint:

    Cellach is also the name of a little-known saint mentioned in various martyrologies, whose feast-day is 7 October. The Litany of the Irish Saints I calls him a ‘Saxon and archdeacon’, while the annotations to the Martyrology of Tallaght says that he was a priest who although ‘not an Englishman came to Ireland from England’. The annotator to the Félire Oengusso says that he was a deacon, ‘the Saxon of Glendalough’, who lived in Dísert Cellaig (southeast of Glendalough/Gleann Dá Loch).

    J.T. Koch (ed.), Celtic Culture – A Historical Encyclopaedia, Volume I (ABC-CLIO, 2006), 362.

    Content Copyright © Omnium Sanctorum Hiberniae 2012-2015. All rights reserved.