,
28
See ** Catalogue Actuum Sanctorum quae Ms.
28
See ** Catalogue Actuum Sanctorum quae Ms.
O'Hanlon - Lives of the Irish Saints - v8
Aidani Pridie Kalendas Septembris.
Lindisfarnensis, MS. Bodl. Digby, 175, ff.
12
Published at Louvain, a. d. 1485. See 44, 46, b. veil, small folio, xi. cent. MS. fol. cxx. , cxxi. , cxxii.
Bodl. Sanct. Misc. 491 (1093), ff. 164-173, 13 See the Third Volume of Lippeloo's veil. 4 to xii. , cent. MS. , Bodl. Fairfax, 6 "Vitse Sanctorum. " Vita S. Aidani, at
(3886), ff. 160-162, b. veil, folio, xiv. cent. MS. Harl. , 4843, ff. 180-184, paper folio, xv. cent. De S. Aidano MS. Cott. Tiber. E. I,
ff. 231, b. 233, MS. Bodl. Tanner, 15, veil. folio, dble. col. , xv. cent. De S. Aidano,
August 31st, pp. 656 to 660.
14 See " In Trophseis Ordinis Benedic-
tini," tomus ii.
'5 See "De Probatis Sanctorum Vitis,"
vol. iv. , Augusti xxxi. , pp. 338, 339.
16 See "Britannicarum Ecclesiarum An-
tiquitates," cap. xv. , p. 365, cap. xvii. , pp. 463, 476, 494.
x? SeetheFirstVolumeofthisWork,at the 31st of January, for the Life of St. Maidoc or Aidus, Bishop of Ferns, Art. i.
et MS. Lansd. Episcopo Confessore,
ff. 19b, 21b, veil, folio, xiv. cent.
436,
8
»
Among these are found : Vita S. Aidani, Episcop. Lindisfarnensis,MS. Ccenob. Cam- beronensis in Hannoniae. MS. Bibl. de la Ville de Laon, veil, folio, xii. cent. MS.
Christina? Vatic. 1088.
» In —that copy found in the " Leabhar
Breac" a manuscript in the Royal Irish Academy—is the following stanza. Its English translation has been furnished by
Whitley Stokes, LL. D. :—
18 He writes: absurdly
Kegin.
"Capgravemaketh two of one Aidanus, the one an Abbot, the other a Bishop, and to reconcile the disso- nance, he was first an Abbot, afterwards a bishop, so writeth Bale. Beda delivereth
Semite echm
avoid prolixitie I omit. " Chronicle of Ireland," p. 127.
ti-^uginfc ingjuan jjeboAi
Aodah
1nt>p meocoic molinai
x
9 See"ApologiaproHibernia,"cap. ii. , p. 15, cap. iv. , p. 37, cap. v. , p. 66.
20
See his "Ecclesiastical History of Great Britain," &c, vol. i. , book ii. , cent, vii. , pp. 203 to 215.
21 See "Church History of Brittany," book xv. , chap, iii. , pp. 347 to 350.
32 See " Ilistoirc tome Ecclesiastique,"
viii. , liv. xxxviii. , sect. xviii. ,xix. , pp. 345 to 348, and liv. xxxix. , sect, iii. , p. 430,
3i In Baillet's " Les Vies des Saints,"
la
'•They overspread the end of August, Aedan the pure sun of praised Inis Medcoit (Lindisfame), with Paulinus of the widow. " —"Transactions of the Royal Irish Aca-
demy," Irish Manuscript Series, vol. part i. On the Calendar of Oengus, p. cxxvi.
,0
See ibid. , p. cxxxv. The scholiast ap- pears to doubt whether Inis Medcoit was Inis
paulin napeoboai.
i. ,
tome iii. , at the 31st of August is entered, Cathaig, or the Island in the north-west of St. Aidan, first bishop of Lindisfame, in
the Little Saxons.
"
England, pp. 503 to 505.
24 See "Acta Sanctorum," tomus vi. , Augusti
xxxi. De S. Aidano Episcopo Lindisfarnensi, pp. 688 to 694.
See Anglia.
Capgrave's "Nova Legenda This work records St. Aidanus, Bishop and Confessor, at fob v. , vi. , vii.
singular commendations of h—im, the which to "
August 31. ] LIVES OF THE IRISH SAINTS. 453
Venerable Bede ; and they are contained in a historic commentary of four
sections, comprising thirty-two paragraphs. The reader may find, by Walter Harrises notices of this holy bishop. The Rt. Rev. Bishop Challoner26 has also given the Acts of this Saint. They are chiefly extracted from the works cf
2 28 Venerable Bede. In the writings of Rev. Alban Butler, 7 Rev. Dr. Lanigan,
Dean Henry Hart Milman,29 Bishop Forbes,30 Rev. Hubert McLaughlin,31 Le Comte de Montalembert,32 Michaud,33 Rev. S. Baring-Gould,34 Les Petits Bollandistes,3* and Alfred Webb,36 are biographical memoranda. It was
Colgan's design to have published the Acts of St. Aidan, Bishop, at the 31st August, as would appear from the posthumous list of his Manuscripts. 3?
Notwithstanding the great celebrity acquired by this saint, the, early part of his life is involved in much obscurity. On the ground of his being styled a Scot, some of the North-British writers38 place his nativity in Scotland. Such statements have led several of the French30 and Continental writers astray, in giving the place for his nativity. He was, however, undoubtedly a native of Ireland. This appears to be sufficiently established, from the recorded circumstance of his having belonged to the Irish monastic establish- ment in Iona ; from the fact of his using Irish as his vernacular speech, even on his missions. As being an Irish saint, the Martyrologies of Tallagh, Cashel, and Donegal, the Annals of Roscrea, his Life, as written by Edward Mahew, and nearly all other mediaeval documents, sufficiently attest. It is also clearly to be inferred, from the narrative of Venerable Bede. The learned William Camden makes St. Aidan a native of Ireland. That Ireland had been the country of St, Aidan's nativity is likewise confirmed by the Life of St. Oswald,40 at the 5th of August. 41 If we were inclined to accept the statement of the Scholiast on the "Feilire" of St. ^Engus,the present Aedan was son of Lugar, son to Ernin, son of Cael, son to Aed, son of Art- chorp son of Niacorp. 42 However, this pedigree is short in two of the lineal degrees, from another somewhat similar. 43 That he sprung from the race of Eochaidh Finn Fuath nairt, from whom Brighit descends, has been stated bytheO'Clerys. 44 Ontheauthorityofthe "SanctilogiumGenealogicum,"4*
25 See Harris' Ware, vol. ii. , "Writers of 36 See "Compendium of Irish History,"
Ireland," Book i. , chap, iv. , pp. 30 to 32. p. 3. 26" 37
See Britannia Sancta," part ii. ,' pp. 103 to 108. Also, in a "Memorial of British
Piety," by the same writer, pp. 122, 123.
27 In"LivesoftheFathers,Martyrs,and
other principal Saints," we find set down, St. Aidan, Bishop of Lindisfarne, in vol. viii.
,
28
See ** Catalogue Actuum Sanctorum quae Ms. habentur, ordine Mensium et Dierum. "
38SuchasAdamKing,ThomasDempster, &c.
39 Thus in Michaud, a writer states un.
at the August
"Aidan neau7e eveque Anglais,
31st.
See Ecclesiastical History of Ireland,"
warrantably
siecle, dans une —des iles Hebrides, a l'ouest de
vol. ii. , chap, xv. , sect, xii. , xiii. , xiv. , pp. 416 to 427.
29 See "History of Latin Christianity," vol. ii. , book iv. , chap, iii. , pp. 241, 242.
30 See " Kalendars of Scottish Saints," p.
269.
31 See "Biographical Sketches of Ancient
IrishSaints,"sect,vi. ,pp. 91to103.
32 See "Les Moines d'Occident," tome
iv. , liv. xiii. , chap, i. , ii.
"
PEccosse," &c. Biographie Universelle,
ancienne et moderne," tome i. , p. 263.
4° See Colgan's "Acta Sanctorum
Hiberniae," ix. Januarii, Appendix, cap. ii. , pp. 46, 47.
4I See an account of him, at the same date, in the present volume, Art. ii.
42 See"TransactionsoftheRoyalIrish
Academy," Irish Manuscript Series, vol. i. ,
33 See "
part, i. ; Whitley
On the Calendar of Oengus, by
Universelle, ancienne et moderne," tome i. , pp. 263, 264.
Stokes, LL. D. , It is given in Bishop
cxxxv.
Forbes' Kalen-
Biographie
p.
"
34 See "Lives of the Saints," vol. viii. , August xxxi. , pp. 391 to 399.
43
dars of Scottish Saints," p. 269.
35 See " Vies des tome Saints," x. ,
jour d'Aout, pp. 347, 348.
44 See the 233, 261.
Martyrology of Donegal,'
xxxie
. ,
"
edited by Rev. Drs. Todd and Reeves, pp,
454
LIVES OF THE IRISH SAINTS. [August 31.
Colgan thus draws a line of ancestry :«6 St. Aidanus Alius Lugarii, filii Ernini, filii Coelii, f. Aidi, f. Sanii, filii Arturi Coirb, f. Carbrei Niadh, f. Cor- maci, f. ^ngussii Menn, f. Eochadii Finn, f. Fethlemidii Reachtmar Hiberniae
Regis. Although it has been assumed, that such a genealogy refers to the
present St. Aidan ; yet, Colgan only conjecturally assigns it to a St. Aidan,
venerated on the 27th of this month,*? or to another so named whose feast
occurs on the of 8 St. Aidan has been called the son of 4th September. * Again,
Liber,*9andin realitythere was a religious of good dispositions so named in the monastery of Iona, apparently not long after St. Columba50 had settled there, a. d. ,563. Yet,itisnotatalllikely,thatAidan,*1 whowasthenanadult,could have undertaken the active duties of a missionary sixty or seventy years after- wards. Having laid it down, that Aedan was a native of Ireland, Maihew thought that he was the Aidan,52 son of Libir, who was a monk of Hy, in
Columkille's time, and a religious man of good disposition. Colgan53 was inclined to be of the same opinion, for which however, there is no foundation, except the mere name of Aedan, which was exceedingly common in Ireland. Moreover, it is hard to believe, that a person, who was a monk, and for aught we know, several years before the death of Columkille, would have been able in 635 to undertake the arduous mission of Northumberland. 54 The matter of Aidan being an Irishman by birth is further confirmed, from the circumstance, that the great majority of the Iona monks, with whom he lived, were Irish- men. The Annals of Iona, as they have been preserved for us with great minuteness of detail,55 and especially in the entry of names of persons, furnish conclusive evidence of that fact. He was a bishop at Inis Cathaigh,56
according to the O'Clerys ; but, they do not furnish us witli any authority for such a statement, or better than what has been set down by the unknown and unreliable commentator on the " Feilire " of yEngus, and a reference to Marianus O'Gorman, by Colgan, who mentions St. Aidan, Bishop of Inis- Cathuigh, whose period is not denned, but whose feast has been set down at the 31st of August,5? which coincides with that of St. Aidan, Bishop of Lindisfarne.
;
We learn little more, with certainty, regarding the early part of our saint's life, than the fact, that he was a monk, in the monastery of Iona. 58 He is ranked St. Columba's 59 this can be understood in
among disciples
but, only
the sense, that he belonged to the religious institute of that celebrated
45 Cap. xiv. may be sure that, if Aidan, son of Liber, 46 See "Trias Thaumaturga," Appendix were the same as the bishop, Adamnan
Quarta ad Acta S. Brigidae, cap. 3, p. 613. 47 See the notices already given at that
date, in the present volume, Art. iii.
48 See the Ninth Volume of this work, for
cap. x. , p. 487.
s° See his Life at the 9th of June, in the
Sixth Volume of this work, Art. i.
—would not have omitted this circumstance. "
Dr. Lanigan's "Ecclesiastical History of
Ireland," vol. ii. , chap, xv. , sect, xii. , n. 102.
5S See especially Rev. Dr. Reeves' edition 49 See Colgan's "Trias Thaumaturga," of Adamnan's "Life of St. Columba. " Appendix Quarta ad Acta S. Columbae, Additional Notes, O, Chronicon Hyense,
Aedhan Amlonn, at that date.
s' Neitherisit to necessary consider,
pp. 369 to 413.
s6 Now Scattery Island, in the mouth of
the River Shannon.
S7See "ActaSanctorumHiber- Colgan's
nise," Martii viii. , Appendix ad Vitam S. Senani, cap. iv. , p. 542, rede 538.
s« See Venerable Bede's " Historia Eccle- siastica Gentis Anglorum," lib. iii. , cap. v. , pp. 274, 275.
that among the twenty-seven Aidans inscribed on the Irish Calendars, he had been one of the
number.
53 He is mentioned in Rev. Dr. Reeves'
Adamnan's Vita S. Columbae, lib. iii. , cap. vi. , p. 203, and n. (b), ibid.
59 See Colgan's "Trias Thaumaturga," 53 See " Trias Thaumaturga," Quarta Appendix Quarta ad Acta S. Columbce,
Vita S. Columbae, n. 10, p. 386.
54 On this " subject, Dr. Lanigan adds,
We
cap. x. , p. 487.
*°
Hence we find the names and deaths of
"
Trias Thaumaturga," p. 498, et seq.
61
August 31. ] LIVES OF THE IRISH SAINTS. 455
founder, who, perhaps, had died some years before Aidan was born. It is well known, that the great majority of the Iona monks in those days were from Ireland, and that the abbots and other superiors of that monastery, at least for five or six centuries after the death of St. Columkille, were con-
60
Seghine, government
munity lasted from a. d. 623 to 652. He thus survived his distinguished
disciple one year. In due course of time, Aedan undoubtedly, although not an abbot, was regarded as one of the superiors in the monastery of Hy. This appears, from his having had a place in the council among the elders.
According to the accounts of some of the most ancient and respectable Church Historians, Christianity had been introduced into Britain, during the
some themselves. Eusebius ha* stated among
stantly chosen from among the Irish.
lived for a considerable time in Iona Island, where many of his countrymen were monks, since the time of its foundation. It is certain he was under the rule of the Abbot 61 whose term of over that com-
time of the 62 and Apostles,
by
this as a narrative, which he may have received from the Emperor Constan-
tine63 himself, a part of whose life was spent as Roman Governor in Britain. 6* That the Emperor Tiberias6^ tolerated and even protected the Christians is
66
and, in consequence, Christianity began to spread rapidly and widely in all the Roman Provinces. 6? . Among other
68
people, it is asserted, that the Britons early obtained the gift of Divine
Faith. 60 There appear, also, to be some grounds for believing, that St.
Paul,? after he had visited Spain, brought salvation to the Islands? 1 that lie
2
in the Ocean,? and among these are supposed to be included the. British
related by ancient historians ;
Islands. 73
the abbots and other distinguished men of
Hy as regularly marked in the Irish Annals, as those of the members of any religious
Marco, the Pretorian prefect, caused him to
be suffocated with pillows, A. D. 37, in the
seventy-eighth year of his age. See the
establishment existing in Ireland.
Popular Encyclopedia, or Conversations
See notices of him, a—t the 12th of
62 "
August— the day for his feast in the present
Volume, Art. iv.
Such is the statement of Eusebius, Bishop of Cesarea, who flourished in the third and fourth centuries, and who wrote in Greek, besides his valuable Ecclesiastical History, the well-known work, Ei}<x77e\t/C77 Airddetgis, Latinized " Demonstratio Evan- gelica. " In it, he states, that besides evan- gelizing other countries which he names, in Asia and Europe, that some of the Apostles passed over the Ocean and visited the British Islands. See lib. iii. , cap. vii. ,p. 113. Nor can we believe that such a judicious and learned Church Historian could be deceived in his information; since, from the first cen- tury of the Christian era, the affairs of Britain were noticed by the Roman writers, and traditions regarding them were placed upon record both by Pagans and Christians.
Lindisfarnensis, MS. Bodl. Digby, 175, ff.
12
Published at Louvain, a. d. 1485. See 44, 46, b. veil, small folio, xi. cent. MS. fol. cxx. , cxxi. , cxxii.
Bodl. Sanct. Misc. 491 (1093), ff. 164-173, 13 See the Third Volume of Lippeloo's veil. 4 to xii. , cent. MS. , Bodl. Fairfax, 6 "Vitse Sanctorum. " Vita S. Aidani, at
(3886), ff. 160-162, b. veil, folio, xiv. cent. MS. Harl. , 4843, ff. 180-184, paper folio, xv. cent. De S. Aidano MS. Cott. Tiber. E. I,
ff. 231, b. 233, MS. Bodl. Tanner, 15, veil. folio, dble. col. , xv. cent. De S. Aidano,
August 31st, pp. 656 to 660.
14 See " In Trophseis Ordinis Benedic-
tini," tomus ii.
'5 See "De Probatis Sanctorum Vitis,"
vol. iv. , Augusti xxxi. , pp. 338, 339.
16 See "Britannicarum Ecclesiarum An-
tiquitates," cap. xv. , p. 365, cap. xvii. , pp. 463, 476, 494.
x? SeetheFirstVolumeofthisWork,at the 31st of January, for the Life of St. Maidoc or Aidus, Bishop of Ferns, Art. i.
et MS. Lansd. Episcopo Confessore,
ff. 19b, 21b, veil, folio, xiv. cent.
436,
8
»
Among these are found : Vita S. Aidani, Episcop. Lindisfarnensis,MS. Ccenob. Cam- beronensis in Hannoniae. MS. Bibl. de la Ville de Laon, veil, folio, xii. cent. MS.
Christina? Vatic. 1088.
» In —that copy found in the " Leabhar
Breac" a manuscript in the Royal Irish Academy—is the following stanza. Its English translation has been furnished by
Whitley Stokes, LL. D. :—
18 He writes: absurdly
Kegin.
"Capgravemaketh two of one Aidanus, the one an Abbot, the other a Bishop, and to reconcile the disso- nance, he was first an Abbot, afterwards a bishop, so writeth Bale. Beda delivereth
Semite echm
avoid prolixitie I omit. " Chronicle of Ireland," p. 127.
ti-^uginfc ingjuan jjeboAi
Aodah
1nt>p meocoic molinai
x
9 See"ApologiaproHibernia,"cap. ii. , p. 15, cap. iv. , p. 37, cap. v. , p. 66.
20
See his "Ecclesiastical History of Great Britain," &c, vol. i. , book ii. , cent, vii. , pp. 203 to 215.
21 See "Church History of Brittany," book xv. , chap, iii. , pp. 347 to 350.
32 See " Ilistoirc tome Ecclesiastique,"
viii. , liv. xxxviii. , sect. xviii. ,xix. , pp. 345 to 348, and liv. xxxix. , sect, iii. , p. 430,
3i In Baillet's " Les Vies des Saints,"
la
'•They overspread the end of August, Aedan the pure sun of praised Inis Medcoit (Lindisfame), with Paulinus of the widow. " —"Transactions of the Royal Irish Aca-
demy," Irish Manuscript Series, vol. part i. On the Calendar of Oengus, p. cxxvi.
,0
See ibid. , p. cxxxv. The scholiast ap- pears to doubt whether Inis Medcoit was Inis
paulin napeoboai.
i. ,
tome iii. , at the 31st of August is entered, Cathaig, or the Island in the north-west of St. Aidan, first bishop of Lindisfame, in
the Little Saxons.
"
England, pp. 503 to 505.
24 See "Acta Sanctorum," tomus vi. , Augusti
xxxi. De S. Aidano Episcopo Lindisfarnensi, pp. 688 to 694.
See Anglia.
Capgrave's "Nova Legenda This work records St. Aidanus, Bishop and Confessor, at fob v. , vi. , vii.
singular commendations of h—im, the which to "
August 31. ] LIVES OF THE IRISH SAINTS. 453
Venerable Bede ; and they are contained in a historic commentary of four
sections, comprising thirty-two paragraphs. The reader may find, by Walter Harrises notices of this holy bishop. The Rt. Rev. Bishop Challoner26 has also given the Acts of this Saint. They are chiefly extracted from the works cf
2 28 Venerable Bede. In the writings of Rev. Alban Butler, 7 Rev. Dr. Lanigan,
Dean Henry Hart Milman,29 Bishop Forbes,30 Rev. Hubert McLaughlin,31 Le Comte de Montalembert,32 Michaud,33 Rev. S. Baring-Gould,34 Les Petits Bollandistes,3* and Alfred Webb,36 are biographical memoranda. It was
Colgan's design to have published the Acts of St. Aidan, Bishop, at the 31st August, as would appear from the posthumous list of his Manuscripts. 3?
Notwithstanding the great celebrity acquired by this saint, the, early part of his life is involved in much obscurity. On the ground of his being styled a Scot, some of the North-British writers38 place his nativity in Scotland. Such statements have led several of the French30 and Continental writers astray, in giving the place for his nativity. He was, however, undoubtedly a native of Ireland. This appears to be sufficiently established, from the recorded circumstance of his having belonged to the Irish monastic establish- ment in Iona ; from the fact of his using Irish as his vernacular speech, even on his missions. As being an Irish saint, the Martyrologies of Tallagh, Cashel, and Donegal, the Annals of Roscrea, his Life, as written by Edward Mahew, and nearly all other mediaeval documents, sufficiently attest. It is also clearly to be inferred, from the narrative of Venerable Bede. The learned William Camden makes St. Aidan a native of Ireland. That Ireland had been the country of St, Aidan's nativity is likewise confirmed by the Life of St. Oswald,40 at the 5th of August. 41 If we were inclined to accept the statement of the Scholiast on the "Feilire" of St. ^Engus,the present Aedan was son of Lugar, son to Ernin, son of Cael, son to Aed, son of Art- chorp son of Niacorp. 42 However, this pedigree is short in two of the lineal degrees, from another somewhat similar. 43 That he sprung from the race of Eochaidh Finn Fuath nairt, from whom Brighit descends, has been stated bytheO'Clerys. 44 Ontheauthorityofthe "SanctilogiumGenealogicum,"4*
25 See Harris' Ware, vol. ii. , "Writers of 36 See "Compendium of Irish History,"
Ireland," Book i. , chap, iv. , pp. 30 to 32. p. 3. 26" 37
See Britannia Sancta," part ii. ,' pp. 103 to 108. Also, in a "Memorial of British
Piety," by the same writer, pp. 122, 123.
27 In"LivesoftheFathers,Martyrs,and
other principal Saints," we find set down, St. Aidan, Bishop of Lindisfarne, in vol. viii.
,
28
See ** Catalogue Actuum Sanctorum quae Ms. habentur, ordine Mensium et Dierum. "
38SuchasAdamKing,ThomasDempster, &c.
39 Thus in Michaud, a writer states un.
at the August
"Aidan neau7e eveque Anglais,
31st.
See Ecclesiastical History of Ireland,"
warrantably
siecle, dans une —des iles Hebrides, a l'ouest de
vol. ii. , chap, xv. , sect, xii. , xiii. , xiv. , pp. 416 to 427.
29 See "History of Latin Christianity," vol. ii. , book iv. , chap, iii. , pp. 241, 242.
30 See " Kalendars of Scottish Saints," p.
269.
31 See "Biographical Sketches of Ancient
IrishSaints,"sect,vi. ,pp. 91to103.
32 See "Les Moines d'Occident," tome
iv. , liv. xiii. , chap, i. , ii.
"
PEccosse," &c. Biographie Universelle,
ancienne et moderne," tome i. , p. 263.
4° See Colgan's "Acta Sanctorum
Hiberniae," ix. Januarii, Appendix, cap. ii. , pp. 46, 47.
4I See an account of him, at the same date, in the present volume, Art. ii.
42 See"TransactionsoftheRoyalIrish
Academy," Irish Manuscript Series, vol. i. ,
33 See "
part, i. ; Whitley
On the Calendar of Oengus, by
Universelle, ancienne et moderne," tome i. , pp. 263, 264.
Stokes, LL. D. , It is given in Bishop
cxxxv.
Forbes' Kalen-
Biographie
p.
"
34 See "Lives of the Saints," vol. viii. , August xxxi. , pp. 391 to 399.
43
dars of Scottish Saints," p. 269.
35 See " Vies des tome Saints," x. ,
jour d'Aout, pp. 347, 348.
44 See the 233, 261.
Martyrology of Donegal,'
xxxie
. ,
"
edited by Rev. Drs. Todd and Reeves, pp,
454
LIVES OF THE IRISH SAINTS. [August 31.
Colgan thus draws a line of ancestry :«6 St. Aidanus Alius Lugarii, filii Ernini, filii Coelii, f. Aidi, f. Sanii, filii Arturi Coirb, f. Carbrei Niadh, f. Cor- maci, f. ^ngussii Menn, f. Eochadii Finn, f. Fethlemidii Reachtmar Hiberniae
Regis. Although it has been assumed, that such a genealogy refers to the
present St. Aidan ; yet, Colgan only conjecturally assigns it to a St. Aidan,
venerated on the 27th of this month,*? or to another so named whose feast
occurs on the of 8 St. Aidan has been called the son of 4th September. * Again,
Liber,*9andin realitythere was a religious of good dispositions so named in the monastery of Iona, apparently not long after St. Columba50 had settled there, a. d. ,563. Yet,itisnotatalllikely,thatAidan,*1 whowasthenanadult,could have undertaken the active duties of a missionary sixty or seventy years after- wards. Having laid it down, that Aedan was a native of Ireland, Maihew thought that he was the Aidan,52 son of Libir, who was a monk of Hy, in
Columkille's time, and a religious man of good disposition. Colgan53 was inclined to be of the same opinion, for which however, there is no foundation, except the mere name of Aedan, which was exceedingly common in Ireland. Moreover, it is hard to believe, that a person, who was a monk, and for aught we know, several years before the death of Columkille, would have been able in 635 to undertake the arduous mission of Northumberland. 54 The matter of Aidan being an Irishman by birth is further confirmed, from the circumstance, that the great majority of the Iona monks, with whom he lived, were Irish- men. The Annals of Iona, as they have been preserved for us with great minuteness of detail,55 and especially in the entry of names of persons, furnish conclusive evidence of that fact. He was a bishop at Inis Cathaigh,56
according to the O'Clerys ; but, they do not furnish us witli any authority for such a statement, or better than what has been set down by the unknown and unreliable commentator on the " Feilire " of yEngus, and a reference to Marianus O'Gorman, by Colgan, who mentions St. Aidan, Bishop of Inis- Cathuigh, whose period is not denned, but whose feast has been set down at the 31st of August,5? which coincides with that of St. Aidan, Bishop of Lindisfarne.
;
We learn little more, with certainty, regarding the early part of our saint's life, than the fact, that he was a monk, in the monastery of Iona. 58 He is ranked St. Columba's 59 this can be understood in
among disciples
but, only
the sense, that he belonged to the religious institute of that celebrated
45 Cap. xiv. may be sure that, if Aidan, son of Liber, 46 See "Trias Thaumaturga," Appendix were the same as the bishop, Adamnan
Quarta ad Acta S. Brigidae, cap. 3, p. 613. 47 See the notices already given at that
date, in the present volume, Art. iii.
48 See the Ninth Volume of this work, for
cap. x. , p. 487.
s° See his Life at the 9th of June, in the
Sixth Volume of this work, Art. i.
—would not have omitted this circumstance. "
Dr. Lanigan's "Ecclesiastical History of
Ireland," vol. ii. , chap, xv. , sect, xii. , n. 102.
5S See especially Rev. Dr. Reeves' edition 49 See Colgan's "Trias Thaumaturga," of Adamnan's "Life of St. Columba. " Appendix Quarta ad Acta S. Columbae, Additional Notes, O, Chronicon Hyense,
Aedhan Amlonn, at that date.
s' Neitherisit to necessary consider,
pp. 369 to 413.
s6 Now Scattery Island, in the mouth of
the River Shannon.
S7See "ActaSanctorumHiber- Colgan's
nise," Martii viii. , Appendix ad Vitam S. Senani, cap. iv. , p. 542, rede 538.
s« See Venerable Bede's " Historia Eccle- siastica Gentis Anglorum," lib. iii. , cap. v. , pp. 274, 275.
that among the twenty-seven Aidans inscribed on the Irish Calendars, he had been one of the
number.
53 He is mentioned in Rev. Dr. Reeves'
Adamnan's Vita S. Columbae, lib. iii. , cap. vi. , p. 203, and n. (b), ibid.
59 See Colgan's "Trias Thaumaturga," 53 See " Trias Thaumaturga," Quarta Appendix Quarta ad Acta S. Columbce,
Vita S. Columbae, n. 10, p. 386.
54 On this " subject, Dr. Lanigan adds,
We
cap. x. , p. 487.
*°
Hence we find the names and deaths of
"
Trias Thaumaturga," p. 498, et seq.
61
August 31. ] LIVES OF THE IRISH SAINTS. 455
founder, who, perhaps, had died some years before Aidan was born. It is well known, that the great majority of the Iona monks in those days were from Ireland, and that the abbots and other superiors of that monastery, at least for five or six centuries after the death of St. Columkille, were con-
60
Seghine, government
munity lasted from a. d. 623 to 652. He thus survived his distinguished
disciple one year. In due course of time, Aedan undoubtedly, although not an abbot, was regarded as one of the superiors in the monastery of Hy. This appears, from his having had a place in the council among the elders.
According to the accounts of some of the most ancient and respectable Church Historians, Christianity had been introduced into Britain, during the
some themselves. Eusebius ha* stated among
stantly chosen from among the Irish.
lived for a considerable time in Iona Island, where many of his countrymen were monks, since the time of its foundation. It is certain he was under the rule of the Abbot 61 whose term of over that com-
time of the 62 and Apostles,
by
this as a narrative, which he may have received from the Emperor Constan-
tine63 himself, a part of whose life was spent as Roman Governor in Britain. 6* That the Emperor Tiberias6^ tolerated and even protected the Christians is
66
and, in consequence, Christianity began to spread rapidly and widely in all the Roman Provinces. 6? . Among other
68
people, it is asserted, that the Britons early obtained the gift of Divine
Faith. 60 There appear, also, to be some grounds for believing, that St.
Paul,? after he had visited Spain, brought salvation to the Islands? 1 that lie
2
in the Ocean,? and among these are supposed to be included the. British
related by ancient historians ;
Islands. 73
the abbots and other distinguished men of
Hy as regularly marked in the Irish Annals, as those of the members of any religious
Marco, the Pretorian prefect, caused him to
be suffocated with pillows, A. D. 37, in the
seventy-eighth year of his age. See the
establishment existing in Ireland.
Popular Encyclopedia, or Conversations
See notices of him, a—t the 12th of
62 "
August— the day for his feast in the present
Volume, Art. iv.
Such is the statement of Eusebius, Bishop of Cesarea, who flourished in the third and fourth centuries, and who wrote in Greek, besides his valuable Ecclesiastical History, the well-known work, Ei}<x77e\t/C77 Airddetgis, Latinized " Demonstratio Evan- gelica. " In it, he states, that besides evan- gelizing other countries which he names, in Asia and Europe, that some of the Apostles passed over the Ocean and visited the British Islands. See lib. iii. , cap. vii. ,p. 113. Nor can we believe that such a judicious and learned Church Historian could be deceived in his information; since, from the first cen- tury of the Christian era, the affairs of Britain were noticed by the Roman writers, and traditions regarding them were placed upon record both by Pagans and Christians.
