No More Learning

32 It is called, cobAr*pAcr\Aic, or the Well of Patrick.
33 Mr. O'Conoralsoremarks "Thename :
of a townland in Killmacowen parish, which
is pronounced in Irish cj\oc tiA nur\r»<x, and in the Down Survey is spelt Knocknahin and Knocknahir, seems to me to retain the ir\rvA ofCuil-irra. "
34 See her Life in the Second Volume of this work, at February 1, Art. i.
Letter, dated Sligo, September 4th, 1836, pp. 63, 64.
The two first Lives of St. Brigid omit it
"Trias Thaumaturga," Septima Vita S. Patricii, pars ii. , cap. xcvii. , p—. 142.
24 Such is the I—rish text rendered in Latin Sylvae Iorrae as given, when treat- ing about Bishop Bron, in Rev. Charles
"
Rerum Hibernicarum Scripto- res," tomus iii. Quatuor Magistrorum An-
nates Hibernici," p. 139.
25 See County of Sligo Letters, formerly
belonging to the Ordnance Survey Office, Phcenix Park, one vol. Mr. O'Conor's
26 "
work.
lx. , p. 559. Also, Quinta Vita S. Brigidse, 27 The accompanying illustration, drawn cap. l. , p. 579.
35 See Colgan's "Trias Thaumaturga,"Tertia Vita S. Brigidse, cap. xxxix. , xl. , lxxxv. , pp. Genealogies, Tribes and Customs of Hy- 531, 532. Quarta Vita S. Brigidse, lib. i. , Fiachrach," p. 470, and Map of the same cap. xlii. , p. 549, and lib. ii. , cap. lviii. , lix. ,
See O'Donovan's Translation of
onthespotbyjWilliamF. Wakeman,wasby him transferred to the wood, engraved by
Mrs. Millard.
28
"Killaspoigbrone Parish is called in Irish —cill-edr-p<si5br>oin, Cella Episcopi Broni. " "Letters containing Information relative to the Antiquities of the County Sligo, col- lected during the Progress of the Ordnance Survey, in the year 1836," one volume. Mr.
36It maybeanimitationofasomewhat similar anecdote, concerning St. Buccius or Briction, Bishop of Tours, the immediate successor of St. Martin. See St. Gregory of Tours " Historia Francorum," lib. ii. , cap. i.
37 The Rev. Dr. Lanigan remarks, that this narrative is placed before the appoint- ment of Natfroich, as companion to St.
O'Conor's Letter, dated Sligo, September Brigid ; and hence, if such a circumstance
4th, 1836, p. 60.
"» As written by the Four Masters.
30 Killmacowen is called, ciLl mic eoin
(eo$Ain), in Irish, i. e. , Cella filii Eugenii.
occurred, in the presence of St. Patrick, St. Brigid must have been very young at the time.
38 See Rev. Dr. Lanigan's "Ecclesiastical
244 LIVES OF THE IRISH SAINTS. [June 8.
altogether, although relating several of her miracles less remarkable, and worthy of being recorded. 38 A ruined little church still remains on the very spot, where St. Bron officiated ; but, it cannot be the structure erected in the time of St. Patrick, for the style of masonry proves, that it belongs to a very much later period. 3? In the beginning of this century, a village adjacent to the old church was gradually engulfed by the blowing sands, and its inhabi- tants, as a consequence, were compelled to remove. 40
1
Our saint died on the 8th day of the month of June,* in the beginning of
the sixth century. In the Irish Calendar,43 at the vi. of the Ides of June, cor-
respondingwithJune8th,thissaintiscommemorated. 43 Onthe8thofJune,
the O'Clerys 44 record the festival of Bron, Bishop of Caiseal Irrae, in Ui
Faichrach-Muaidhe. Again, under the head of Caisiol Iorra, Duald Mac
Firbis,45 records Bron, bishop of Caisiol-Iorra, in Hy Fiachrach of the Moy.
These authorities also have his death, at a. d. 511, which agrees with the
chronology, in the Annals of the Four Masters. 40 This year 4? is usually
regarded as that, in which he died. Our saint appears to have been interred
at Cassel-Irra. 48 The people of Killaspugbrone do not at present know the
Patron Saint or Patron Day of this Parish, the latter observance having been
discontinued long since. St. Biteus 4° of Caissel-ira is supposed 5° to have
become bishop there after a. d. 512, the year succeeding that in which
Bronius died ; and, accordingly, he must have been very young, when he was
a of St. Patrick. * 1 He is said to have been buried at We disciple Rathcunga.
are not able to add, any additional particulars to elucidate the episcopacy of the present St. Bron ; nor do we find that special Acts remain, to make his biography more complete.
Article II. —St. Luathrfnna, or Luaithrenn, Virgin, of Kill Luathrenn, or Killurin, County of Sligo. Notwithstanding the obscurity in which this pious virgin's Acts are veiled, we may feel assured, that she undertook no work, on which she could not invoke the Lord's bless-
ing, and that she was diligent in public and private devotions. The simple 1
entry Luaitrind, Achaidh Coraind, occurs i—n the Martyrology of Tallagh, at the—8thofJune. TheAbbotSt. Corbmac whoflourishedinthesixthcen-
tury predicted the future sanctity of this virgin, according to an account,
contained in his as 3 To this we have elsewhere Life, published by Colgan.
alluded. 3 This pious woman descended from the race of Corbmac Gaileng,
History of Ireland," vol. i. , chap, viii. , sect. xi. , n. 139, p. 413.
39 See Dr. P. W. Joyce's "Origin and History of Irish Names of Places," part i. , chap, v. , p. 79.
Academy," Irish Manuscript Series, vol. i. , part i. , pp. 92, 93.
46 See Rev. Dr. O'Conor's edition, tomus
iii. , p. 139.
*7 See Dr. O'Donovan's "Annals of the
40 See
Major
Wood-Martin's "
History
of
Four vol. Masters,"
"Trias Thaumaturga," Septima Vita S. Patricii, pars ii. , cap. xxxv. , p. 134, Hence, we may infer, that he lies buried there.
book
41 See Rev. Dr. Charles O'Conor's " Re- our saint " est in Caissel-Irra. " Colgan's
note
rum Hibernicarum Scriptores," tomus iii. ,
Quatuor Magistorum Annales Hibernici,
Life of St. Patrick of says
Sligo," &c,
i. , chap,
i. ,
p. 9,
3.
Tripartite
p. 139-
4a " *9
a
CCivea sc ,. «
p. 136. — Article ii.
There we
find, Opon efp. CAipiob — o
Ipjv&e inuib £i4cp46 muAToe ano 'Ooiri
511. "
43 See the Ordnance Survey Office Copy
of " Common Place Book F," now in the
Royal Irish Academy, p. 52.
44 See Drs. Todd's and Reeves' edition
His feast has been
to the 22nd
*-,pf the Martyrology of Donegal," pp. 148, • V
Edited by Rev. Dr. a See "Acta Sanctorum Hibernia,"
Proceedings
of the
Royal
Irish
48 The
assigned,
of July and to the 30th of September.
i. ,pp. 166, i67. ,andn. (g).
5° By Rev. Dr. Lanigan in his " Ecclesi- astical History of Ireland," vol. i.
$* See Colgan's "Trias Thaumaturga," Septima Vita S. Patricii, pars ii. , cap. Iii. ,
Kelly, p. xxvi.
June 8. ] LIVES OF THE IRISH SAINTS. 245 son to Tadhg, son of Cian, son to Oilioll Oluim, according to the compiler of
"
the O'Clerys' Calendar. This also agrees with a statement of the
Sanctilo-
giumGenealogicum. " ThisvirginissaidtohavebeenthedaughterofCol- man, son to Falbe, son of Fennflatha, son to Daleus, son of Drona, son to
Sualius,
son of
Fiden,
son to— son of Fidheurius,
4 from whom the
son to
Artcherb, Fidchorb,
in Con-
Corb,
Lugha
territory
of
Lugnia,
son to
son of
naught, has been named. In the Life of St. Corbmac, our holy virgin is called daughter of Falbe. But she was rather his granddaughter, as would appear from the foregoing genealogy. 5 Her Acts seem to have perished, if they had ever been recorded; nor has her period been ascertained. The festival of this virgin was kept, on the 8th of June, in the Church of Kill Luathrenn,6 situated withinthatterritoryofConnaught,commonlycalledCorann. Traditionthus accountsforitsname. Agentleandskilfulharper,namedCorann,received this territory as a free gift, on account of his musical and astrological accom- plishments. 7 The topographical tract, which is known as the Duinseanchus, hasalegendaryaccountofthisdistrict. Itwouldseem,thepresentKilluran, must be sought for, in the old territory of Corann. According to Dr. O'Donovan,8 this is now the name of a barony, in the county of Sligo. Within the same county, and in the adjoining barony of Leyny, lies the parish of
Killoran.
There can hardly be a doubt, but that its denomination has been
derived from the present St. Luaithrenn, and probably to her it was specially dedicated. However, there is an old church of this parish in ruins, but the
patron is not remembered.
It stood in the townland of Killoran North,
To a the surface of this is large extent, parish
and near a
boggy and mountainous ;
the soil has been
but, owing to drainage, within the present century,
13
Lough
10 so called. 11
considerably improved.
Donegal,'3 we find, that on this day was venerated, Luaithrenn, Virgin, of Cill Luaithrenn,inCoraunofConnacht. ShefaithfullyservedGod,andHedid not fail to bestow on her an eternal recompense.
Article III,—Reputed Feast of St. Syra, or Syria, Virgin, at Meaux, or Troyes, France. [Supposed to have lived in the Seventh Cen- tury. '] It is believed, that some confusion exists, by intermingling the com-
memorations, and by confounding two distinct saints, bearing respectively the namesofSyraandSyria,atthisday. Thesameerrorsprevailedinthenarra- tive of her career, so that it becomes exceedingly difficult to ascertain the genuineness of statements made by writers, when referring to her. Accord- ing to some accounts, St. Syra was matron at Troyes, in the fourth or fifth
xxvi. Martii, Vita S. Corbmaci, cap. xv,, p. 753.
'See Lewis' "Topographical Dictionary of Ireland," vol. ii. , p. 152.
I0 There is a brief reference to only very
this place, by Thomas O 'Conor, who guesses,
that should be rendered CilX Killoran,
orCellaOdrani. See" of 0-6r\<iiri, County
Sligo Letters," vol. i. Letter of Thomas O'Conor, dated 21 Great Charles-street, Dublin, October loth, 1836, p. 387.
xt Its position may be seen on sheet 25 of "Ordnance Survey Townland Maps for the County of Sligo. " The parish of Killoran is on sheets 19, 25, 26, 32.
I2 See "Parliamentary Gazetteer of Ire- land," vol. ii. , p. 484.
"Edited by Drs. Todd anl Reeves, pp. 148, 149.
3 See our Life of St. of December.
at the Corbmac, 13th
4 He was son of Corbmac
Corbmac Galensdus,
according
logies of the Irish Saints, chap, xxxvi. "
5 See Colgan's Acta Sanctorum Hiber-
nix," Vita S. Corbmaci, xxvi. Martii, n. 32,
p. 756.
6
According to Marianus O'Gorman and others.
» See
"
Legend Lays of Ireland," by
Lageniensis, No. xx. A Legend of Slieve
Donard, n. 6, p. 127.
8
vol. n.
i. , (b), p. 311.
See "Annals of the Four Masters,"
or to the Genea-
Gaileng
According
to the of Martyrology
84^
LIVES OF THE IRISH SAINTS. [June 8.
1
century. Suchastatementshouldconflictwiththenotionofherbeingiden-
tical with St. Syra, a virgin, and a sister to St. Fiacre. Wherefore, the Bollan-
dists them • distinguished
and,
while
they
consider St. to have lived at Syria
an earlier and to have been the saint venerated at 2 period, Troyes, they
believe St. Syra was venerated at Meaux, but not on this day. 3 The Manu- scripts of Colgan are referred to by Rev. Alban Butler,* for some notices of thissaint. Atpresent,wecannotdiscoverfromthepublishedListofhisManu- scripts, that St. Syra's Acts are preserved. Failing these, we are obliged to give such accounts, as have come under our notice. The Bollandists s have published the Acts 6 of St. Syra or Syria, of Troyes, in France, at the 8th of June. They refer to the Acts of St. Sabinien, Martyr,? to show that she was a. matron, who received her sight at his tomb, having been blind for many years. They remark, however, that although St. Syra, who was sister to St. Fiacre in French Champeigne, has her festival inserted in the Breviary of Aberdeen, in the Scottish Menologies of Dempster and of Camerarius, as also in Arturus, at the 8th of June ; her festival is properly referable to the 23rd of October, while they distinguish her from a St. Syria, venerated in the territory of Troyes, at this date. 8 The Petits Bollandistes ° have drawn their
10
accounts of Sainte Syre, Virgin, from local French narratives, June. She is regarded, as having been a native of Ireland.
at the 8th of
to have been St. Fiacre's "
and if so she was of
St. Syra is said 12
sister,
distinguished family.
1 * and of the royal family of Scotland, 15 and that her father took great care to have her brought up virtuously and imbued with sentiments of Christian piety. From a very tender age, she manifested the results of such training. It is stated, that St. Conon, Bishop of Lodore, was selected to be her teacher ; while to knowledge and prudence, he joined wisdom and piety. From her earliest years, Syra conceived an ardent love for our Lord Jesus Christ, and she passed several hours on her knees, in fervent prayer. She therefore resolved to have no other spouse but Him alone, and she rejected those offers of mar- riage, preferred by many highly distinguished suitors. The Legend of her
Acts declares, that to resist their solicitations, she obtained through prayer the favour to her of becoming blind. However, she had some internal revela-
Another account has that she was it,'3
daughter
to
Eugene IV. ,
Article iii. —x See Rev. S. Baring-
"
Lives of the Saints," vol. vi. , June 8, p. 77.
a If so, many of the following remarks have no reference to our Irish saint.
" His feast occurs, on the 30th of
August.
" Father John Mabillon calls him " Fiac-
rius nobilis Scottus, Fefrus ohm appellatus," in " Annales Ordinis S. Benedicti," tomus i. ,
lib. xii. , sect, vi. , p. 344. There, we find no mention of his sister.
13 That of Thomas Dempster, in " Histo-
ria Ecclesiastica Gentis Scotorum," tomus
ii. . lib. xvii. , num. 1037, p. 577.
M Boetius and Buchanan incorrectly call
the son of King Aidan, Eugenius Quartus, while a learned Irish writer, Matthew Kennedy, Doctor of Laws. Master of the High Court of Chancery, and Judge of the Admiralty of all Ireland to King James II. , observes, that he has been confounded with Eocha-Buidhe, as "JSocia signifies the same with Echodius, Ethodius, Ecliadius, and Achaius, but has no relation to the word
Gould's
3 Menard, in his Benedictine
Martyrology, thinks they are not to be distinguished.
4 See " Lives of the Fathers, Martyrs and other principal Saints," vol. vi. , June viii.
5 See "Acta Sanctorum," tomus ii. , Junii
viii. De S. Syra vel Syria, in Territorio
Trecensi in Gallia, pp. 62 to 66.
6
In eighteen paragraphs.
7 The Bollandists treat of him, at the 29th
of January, the day of his feast.
See ibid. Among the pretermitted saints, p. 53.
9 See "Vies des Saints," tome vi. , viiie Jour de Juin, pp. 529 to 531.
10
de l'Histoire de la Champagne," l'Abbe Etffmms. " Eocha-Buidhe died A. D. 629,
Such is FAbbe Boitel's "l,es Beautes
" La Vie d'une Sainte
jour de FAnnee " and " Ancien Propre de Troyes. "
to See " A Chronolo- Tigernac.
Chapin's
pour Chaque
according
gical, Genealogical and Historical Disserta-
tion of the Royal Family of the Stuarts,"
June 8. ] LIVES OF THE IRISH SAINTS.
247
16 She was resolved to imitate her brother's example, by leaving her friends and native country. Owing to this detachment from the fondest earthly ties, she hoped the better to arrive at Christian perfection. Syra selected some female com- panions to accompany her. She then left her native country, and she resolved on seeking her brother in France. Aided by her guardian Angel, she suc- ceeded in finding the place of his retreat. The holy man received St. Syra and her associates joyfully, while he exhorted them to the practice of all virtues, and especially to guard that of virginity. St. Syra addressed herself to St. Faro, Bishop of Meaux, 1 ? patron and protector of her brother. He had estab- lished various religious houses in his diocese, during the somewhat extended period of his episcopacy. The holy prelate recommended her to his sister
tion,
that in France she should be restored to the use of her
sight.
18 who was Abbess in Brie, or from the Celtic word, which it Brige,
St.
is said
Abbess is also called Burgundofara, while from her this celebrated founda- tion received the denomination Faremoutier, as also an adjoining forest. 20 The virtues of this holy woman are celebrated by the illustrious Bossuet, as also those of her holy brother, in a style of eloquence peculiar to that great writer and orator. 21 St. Syra became a perfect pattern of humility, charity,
Fara, signifies
" a
bridge. "
1 ?
It was otherwise called
Jouarre.
This
holy
under such a directress. 22 At Martyr St. Savinien 2* had been held in great veneration.
2* the
But hostile incur-
meekness and
devotion,
Troyes,
holy
sions had caused such disorders and ravages in the place, that the exact site of his tomb was then unknown. Through his merits, St. Fiacre had an inspira- tion, that his sister should recover her sight, while to her in like manner was revealed the spot where the body of St. Savinien lay. There, prostrating her- self, she poured forth her soul in prayer, and her face bedewed with tears, she would not rise from the ground until her petition was heard. She was restored miraculously to theuse of vision. Then, to manifest her gratitude to the holy Martyr, she formed a resolution of there fixing her abode. She caused a cell and a chapel to be built, so that her gratitude should remain lasting and tangible. There she spent whole days and nights in prayer, while some of those virgins, who accompanied her from Scotia, shared in her pious exer-
&c. , pp. 177, 178, Paris, 8vo, 1705.
*6 See Les Petits Bollandistes " Vies des Saints," tome vi. , viiie Jour de Juin, pp. S29> 53°-
1 He departed this life on the 28th of Oc-
Langue Celtique," tome ii.
20 He has been " Saltus Bri- Latinized,
'5 it is Again,
that she was
ter to David, King of Scotland and of Mar- garet his Queen. Besides her brother St.
stated,
daugh-
Fiacre is
son, according to a statement given as a
fable, by Chifflet. See the Bollandists'
"ActaSanctorum,"tomusii. ,Juniiviii. De consolation,parcequ'ilm'apprendraesde- S. Syra, vel Syria, in Territorio Trecensi in
Gallia. Appendix Critica, num. 13, p. 65.
absurdly
said to have been their
tober—the date for his festival—a. d.
672,
" CEuvres Completes," tome vii. , col. 634, l'Abbe Migne's edition,
22 See Rev. Alban Butler's " Lives of the Fathers, Martyrs and other principal Saints,"
having governed the Church of Meaux for
forty-six years. See Dom. Toussaints Du vol. vi. , June viii.
*3 On the left bank of the Seine, the capital
of Aube Department, containing a splendid
Her chief feast is held on the 6th of De-
cember. She departed this life on the 3rd "Gazetteer of the World," vol.