, 5 See
'
Thus translated into English by Dr.
'
Thus translated into English by Dr.
O'Hanlon - Lives of the Irish Saints - v9
They are M the men " mentioned in the inscription who fed with heavenly bread " the dwellers by the Glan.
"8 Twelve years after the death of Disibod, the com-
5 See " The Rhine from its Source to the Sea," translated from the German, by G. C.
8 At the beginning of this century, under the ruins of the church, there was found a
T.
London, 1888, 4to.
stone —an
bearing inscription
commencing
in
verses,
Bartley, M. P. , chap, xx. , pp. 206, 207.
elegiac
6
These are shown in their present state, on the annexed illustration, copied from an engraving of the scene, drawn and engraved onwood,byGregorGrey.
fessoris celebrari vi. idus Septembris in suburbanis Magontiacensis ecclesise. "
" Hac Disibodi corpus tumulatur in urna : Propius hie extans ara dicata Deo Servat, ad seterni spent Judicis, ossa
virorum
Qui pavere sacris Glanicolas dapibus," &c, &c.
7 Thus " Natale Sancti Disibothi con- :
nothing
i96 LIVESOFTHEIRISHSAINTS. [September8.
munity numbered fifty monks. After his departure, the memory of his life
and works wrought so powerfully, and for so long, that gentle and simple emulated each other to the extent of their powers in endowing the cloisters
of Disibodenberg with whole villages and farms, lands, forest rights, teinds, ground rents, and the like. It became, in course of time, far the wealthiest and best endowed religious establishment in the Rhineland country. The memory of Disibod and his companions has remained in quite a peculiar way, sweet and sacred, for more than iooo years in the valleys of the Nahe and the Glan. The day of his death—8th September, when he is said to have died at the age of eighty-one—is kept still as a holy day throughout that whole district.
Article II. —St. Fintan or Fionntan, of Ard-Caoin. At the 8th day or Nones of September, a festival is entered in the Martyrology of
2
1 to honour St. Fintann of Airdcain. There is a parish of Ardkecn, in the diocese and County of Down \ and its church was formerly styled the Church of Holy Mary of Ardkene,3 In addition to the Ardkeen already mentioned, there is another place bearing the same name in the parish of Kilmeena,4 barony of Burrishoole, and County of Mayo. Burrishoole Monastery, now in ruins, near Burrishoole lake, is a very picturesque object. There is an engraving and a description of it in Mr. and Mrs. Hall's M Ire- land : its Scenery, Character, &c," vol. iii. , pp. 389, 390. There is -likewise a townland so called, in the parish of Droom, barony of Eliogarty, and in the north Riding of Tipperary County. 5 Colgan also notices this saint, his
6
place, and his feast, but without throwing much light on his history. John
Capgrave notes this saint as a Bishop and Confessor, at the fifth of the
Tallagh,
Ides. ? In the of 8 at this same date, the Martyrology Donegal,
September
name is merely entered as Fionntain of Ardcaoin.
Article III. —St. Ferghus, the Pict. The Martyrology of Tallagh
records, that at the 8th of September, veneration was given to Ferghus Cruithneach,' or the Pict. We may refer to the notices of St. Fergus, pre- served in the Breviary of Aberdeen, in illustration of the witness sometimes borne to the traditionary accounts, by facts otherwise well established. According to the Breviary of Aberdeen, Fergus came on a mission, with
other clerics, from Ireland, to Alba.
—*
He settled near Strageath. 2 He and
6
Article ii.
" Acta Sanctorum xvii. Hiberni*,"
See
p. xxxiii. In that copy, found in the Book Februarii, Appendix, cap. i , p. 355.
Edited by Rev. Dr. Kelly,
of Leinster, at this same date, we have pnean Airvocam.
2 See more concerning its history, in Rev. William Reeves' " Ecclesiastical Antiquities of Down, Connorand Dromore," n. (n). p. 21.
3 Ardkeen and its Islands, in the Barony
7 See M Nova Legenda Anglice," fol. cxlviii. , cxlix.
8 Edited by Drs. Todd and Reeves, pp. 238, 239. A similar entry is found in the copy of the Calendar among the Irish Ordnance Survey Records, " Common Place Book," F. , p. 76.
Article ml—' Edited by Rev. Dr.
Kelly, p. xxxiii. In the copy of this Mar-
tyrology, found in the Book of Leinster, we read, £eP5ur Cmichnech.
2
At this place, in the present parish of Upper Straihearn, in central Perthshire, there was a Roman road and camp, on the left bank of the Earn. See Francis H.
of Upper Ards, is shown on the
"
Ordnance
of
Townland for the Maps
County
Survey
Down," sheets 17, 18, 24, 25.
4 It is described on the " Ordnance Survey
Townland Maps for the County of Mayo," sheets 76, 77, 87, 88.
s See "General Alphabetical Index to the Townlands and Towns, Parishes and Baronies of Ireland," p. 26.
September 8. ] LIVES OF THE IRISH SAINTS. 197
his friends erected three churches in that district. Fergus afterwards went to Caithness, where he preached to the heathens. After a time, he crossed from Caithness to the opposite country of Buchan. 3 There he founded a church,atLungley. Lastly,hecametoGlammis,wherehemadeanother ecclesiastical settlement. This, at present, is a parish, in the southern part of the Strathmore and Sidlaw districts of Forfarshire. Glammis burn rises in the hill of Auchterhouse, at the extreme southern boundary, and traverses the whole length of Glen-Ogilvie. It cuts its way through the central hilly ridge, and joins the Dean river on the demesne of Glammis Castle, thus intersecting the parish over nearly six miles of its length, and cutting it lengthwise into two not very unequal parts. * In that place, he departed this Life. At Glammis, the memory of St. Fergus was held in such reverence, all through the middle ages, that his relics came to be coveted by the neigh- bouring people. One of the Abbots over Scone carried off the saint's head, and placed it in his church, for the veneration of the faithful. * We find, that the three neighbouring churches of Strageath, Blackford, and Dolpatrick, in Perthshire, were all dedicated to St. Patrick. This devotion, we might well expect, in the acts of a missionary, fresh from Ireland. The church of Wick, in Caithness, the church of Lungley, in Buchan, and the church of Glammis, all own St. Fergus as their patron. The festival of St. Fergus is
6
recorded" in the Martyrology of Donegal at this date.
Article IV. —St. Maelecasni or Maeloisne. The heroic saints of the Church have ever been foremost to vindicate the rights of oppressed men and women. These latter especially, as the weaker sex, should ever engage the Christian chivalry of men to assert their true dignity, and to free them
1
from every degrading law. -The Martyrology of Tallagh has a festival for a
St. Maelecasni, at this date. The Law of Adamnan states, that Maelcoisne was one of the sureties whom Adamnan found to free the women from every
slaveryandbondagethatwasonthem. BesidesthepresentSt. Maelecaisni, there is a Maelcoisne, at the 15th of October, and a Maelcoisne of Ros- Brennaibh, at the 28th of December. It is not known, however, which of all
these the Law speaks of, in reference to this matter. According to the 2
Martyrology of Donegal, also, veneration was given at the 8th of September, to Maelcoisne.
Article V. —St. Cruimther Catha, son of Aengus, of Cluain Eossain. Upontheheadsofmany,thisholypriestmusthavepouredthe cleansing waters of baptism, and afterwards he must have grounded them
well in sound doctrine and holiness.
Groome's " Ordnance Gazetteer of Scot- land," vol. v. , p. 90.
At the 8th of September, a festival is
treasurer of King James IV. , which shows, that, in October, 1503, that monarch made an " offerand of 13 shillings to Sanct. Fergus' heide in Scone. "
3 A district of Aberdeenshire, extending
along the coast, from the Ythan, nearly to
the Deveron, a distance of about 40 miles.
The reader will find a good account of this districtintheThirdVolumeof"Prize "Cruithneach,i—. e. ,thePict. "
Essays of the Highland Society. "
4 See "The Topographical, Statistical,
and Historical Gazetteer of Scotland," vol. i. ,
pp. 619 to 621.
s The removal of the saint's head to Scone
is proved by an entry, in the accounts of the
'
Article iv. Edited by Rev. Dr.
Kelly, p. xxxiii. In that copy, contained
in the Book of Leinster, the entry is niaeli-
CAipi.
3 Edited by Drs. Todd and Reeves, pp.
240, 241.
6 Edited by Drs. Todd and Reeves, pp. 238, 239. A note by O'Donovan says,
i 9 8 LIVES OF THE IRISH SAINTS. [September 8.
1
found entered in the Martyrology of Tallagh, in honour of Cruimther Catha,
son of Aengus, of Cluain Eorainne. Nothing further seems to be known
him. The of 2 which has a like feast for this Martyrology Donegal,
regarding
day, yet denominates his locality Cluain Eossain.
Article VI. —Feast of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary. In the ancient Irish Church, the Festival of the Birth of our Divine Lord's Mother was celebrated on the eighth day of September, as we learn from the
1 On this there is a short comment. 2 About the
this feast was appointed by Pope Servius. In various parts of Ireland, this festival was celebrated formerly with very special devotion, as parishes, churches and chapels had been dedicated to the Blessed Virgin Mary, and this was a favoured festival day. The patrons or patterns that until of Lite were yearly celebrated very conclusively attest it. In Kilnenor parish,3 County of Wexford, there is a holy well, at which a patron was formerly held on the 8th of September. *> According to a pious tradition, a concert of angels is said to have been heard in the air to solemnize the Nativity or
Birthday of the Blessed Virgin Mary. s
Article VII. —Festival of St. Timothy and Three Hundred Martyrs. In the Irish Church at this date was a commemoration of St. Timothy, and Three Hundred Martyrs, as stated in the Feilire of
Feilire of
Aengus.
year 695,
1 It seems that allusion is made to the festival of St.
likely Timothy,
Aengus.
who with St. Faustus suffered Martyrdom at Antioch ; but, under what cir-
cumstances, or at what particular time, cannot be discovered. Their festival, however, falls on the 8th of September, and the Bollandists2 find it noted in various ancient calendars. To these, Maurolycus adds three other Martyrs, Amphion, Severus and Severianus. 3 The other ancient Martyrologies quoted have no mention of the Three Hundred Martyrs alluded to in the Feilire.
ArticleVIII. —TheSonorSonsofTalarg. ThepublishedMartyr- of 1 atthis hasafestivaltohonourMac orthe
Talaraigh,
popAichmencap put)," translated, "i. e. ,
Mary's nativity is commemorated here. " Ibid. , p, cxliii.
3 It is in the Barony of Gorey, and de- scribed on the " Ordnance Survey Town- land Maps for the County of Wexford," sheets I, 2, 3.
4 See the County of Wexford Letters, vol. LO. S. R.
i2mo, 1888. — Article vii.
ology Tallagh, day,
Article v. —' Edited by Rev. Dr. Kelly,
p. xxxiii. In the Book of Leinster copy we
read Cpumchip Cacha mac Oengur'-A 1
CluAin eopamne.
2 Edited by Drs. Todd and Reeves, pp.
—
238, 239. — Article vi.
From that copy contained in the " Leabhar—Breac," we find the follow-
ing
Irish stanza
:
£op4icrimeric4p muipe
mcmardyoAi popcepcpic La CiAmt)Ai lapfecAib
Co. ccc. 41b mapcip.
i.
, 5 See
'
Thus translated into English by Dr. Whitley Stokes:—"Mary is commemorated (to-day); they are not dead on a scanty meal : with
after — and three Timothy (the world's) ways
hundred martyrs. " "Transactions of the
Royal Irish Academy. " Irish Manuscript Series, vol. i. , part i. On the Calendar of
Aengus, by Whitley Stokes, LL. D. , pp. cxxxvi. , cxxxvii.
3 The scholiast adds " gem muipe : . 1.
Royal Irish Academy. " Irish Manuscript Series, vol. i. , part i. On the Calendar of
Aengus, pp. cxxxvi. , cxxxvii.
2
See "Acta Sanctorum," tomus iii. , Septembris viii. De SS. Timotheo et
ex
Fausto, MM. , Antiochioe, Martyrologiis,
pp. 255, 256.
3 The Bollandists think these names to have
been incorrectly taken from the list of martyrs, who suffered on this day at Alex- andria in Egypt.
Article viii. —' Edited by Rev. Dr.
"
The Calendar of the Prayer-Book Illustrated," p. 86. London and Oxford,
See " Transactions of the
September 9. ] LIVES OF THE IRISH SAINTS. 199
Son of Talaraigh. Who Talaraigh or his unnamed son had been, or when and where they lived, seems to be unknown. Differently do we find an entry in the Martyrology of Donegal,' that the Sons of Talarg had a festival cele- bratedintheirhonour,atthe8thofSeptember. Whetheroneormorethan one brother had been venerated also appears to admit of question ; but, wt are inclined to accept the authority of the more ancient calendar.
&intb 2B^p of September.
ARTICLE I. —ST. KIERAIN, CIARAN OR KYRAN, ABBOT OF CLONMACNOISE.
[SIXTH CENTURY. ]
CHAPTER I.
INTRODUCTION—MATERIALS FOR THE ACTS OF ST. KIERAIN—PROPHECIES REGARDING HIS BIRTH—HIS FAMILY AND PEDIGREE—PLACE AND TIME OF HIS BIRTH—HIS BAPTISM BY ST. JUSTUS—HE STUDIES UNDER ST. FINIAN, ABBOT OF CLONARD.
celebrated archimandrite of the Irish Church has left behind him
THIS
a national because it was founded on a
of
tending to the edification of his disciples, and to the increase of piety among
the faithful. " made Being
in a short he fulfilled a long time. "1 space,
fame,
variety
holy enterprises,
perfect
This should teach us, that length of years is not always the condition attaching
to a well-spent life ; but God regards all great acts of virtue practised in the briefest run of time, and multiplies His rewards for them, until they are finally crowned. Even the more pleasing man's soul is to the Almighty, we ought to regard that as a favour in being drawn away to rest, which worldlings are slow to understand, and unwise enough not to weigh in their consideration. Such a happy soul is removed from cares and iniquities, while the mercy of God is thus manifested by His special graces to the saint, and by His true respect or real favours for the elect. 2 Life soon ended, and a career, unsullied by the vagaries and vices of a careless disposition, render the saint's early death the best increase of his anticipated heir-loom in a life beyond the grave.
Long before any regular Lives of St. Kieran had been composed, popularity and tradition ascribed to him many wonderful miracles; but these, for the most part, are so extravagant and incredible, that all should not be received as authentic. Several bardic compositions were in circulation, likewise, and with a licence peculiar to these, the true facts of St. Kieran's biography have been stained and obscured. They obtained too wide a circulation, and unfortunately the strange taste of the middle ages too often seized upon the marvellous and imaginary rather than on the prosaic and authentic accounts of history and biography. Various Manuscript Lives of this Saint Kieran are extant j yet, are they very unreliable materials for authentic narrative. In the
Felire of St. ^ngus, our saint is commemorated at this date, and to that copy of it contained in the " Leabhar Breac " are additions in the shape of notes,
all in the Irish characters and language. 3
Kelly, p. xxxiii. Also in the Book of
Several of St. Kieran's Manuscript Article I. —' Wisdom iv. , 13.
Leinster
3 Edited
we find mac Drs. Todd and
2 Ibid. ,
3 See "Transactions of the Royal Irish
240, 241.
Academy," Irish Manuscript Series, vol. i. ,
copy by
CaIaj\<m5. Reeves, pp.
14, 15.
LIVES OF THE IRISH SAINTS.
[September 9.
Lives are preserved in the Royal Irish Academy/ Among the Halliday collection of manuscripts there is a copy of St. Kieran's Life, and a translation into English, by J. O'Beirne Crowe. * There is an Irish Life of St. Ciarain ofClonmacnoise6intheBookofLismore. ? Oflate,amongtheotherIrish
8
is the panegyric on Betha Chiarain Guana meic Nois, edited with a Preface,
anEnglishTranslat—ion,Notes,andIndices,byWhitleyStokes,D. C. L. In
—ct rendered from the Irish text into
the published tra original equivalent
English lettering there are eighteen closely printed pages ;9 the English
10
This Life, contained in the Book of Lismore, has been copied from a still more ancient manuscript. " The Book of Lismore had been compiled from the lost Book of Monasterboice, and from other manuscripts, in the latter half of the fifteenth century, for
Finghin Mac Carthaigh Riabhach, and his wife, Catherine, daughter to Thomas, Eighth Earl of Desmond. Hence, it is sometimes and more
Texts containing Lives of Irish Saints, published from this manuscript,
translation is comprised within nineteen pages.
called the Book of ia It had been MacCarthy Reagh.
preserved
in
properly
Timoleague Abbey,
it was conveyed to Lismore Castle, where it long remained concealed, and at
in the
beginning
of the seventeenth
century.
1 *
Afterwards,
length it was there accidentally found, in 18 14, by some workmen engaged in repairing the castle. It was found lying, along with an antique crozier, in a wooden box, taken from a walled-up passage. The manuscript had suffered
much from damp, while the back, front, and top margin was theji gnawed in several places by rats or mice. It is now the property of the Duke of Devonshire. The reputed Codex Kilkenniensis I4 has a Life of St. Kyaranus
part i. On the Calendar of Oengus. By Life of Ciaran of Cluain is in the great illus-
Whitley Stokes, LL. D. , pp. cxxxvii. and cxliii. , cxliv.
4 Among them are the following : In the collection of Messrs. Hodges and Smith, there is a small 4to paper MS. , No. 12, in the K. I. A. ; it contains a Life of St. Kieran. The viii. vol. of O'Longan MSS. , in the R. I. A. , contains The Life of St. Ciaran of
trious book, wbich Donogh Ban O'Flinn has
lately brought from Lismore, after having coaxed it out of the hands of the Heretics,
and that by his own superior dexterity, and with the help of God ; and he has it in Cork,
at this time, 181 5. " See pp. 35, 36. This
Manuscript was written by Michael Oge
O'Longan, between the years i8ioand 1822.
8"
In the Anecdota Oxoniensia," Lives
of•Saints from the Book of Lismore. Ox- ford, at the Clarendon Press, 1890, 4to.
9 From p. 117 to p. 134.
10 11
In the same vol. there is an ancient prose Legend of St. Ciaran of Cluain Mac Nois and of Cairbre
Crom, pp. 93, 94. The first volume of the
some curious topographical references, pp. 378 to 385.
Clonmacnois, p. 171.
O'Longan Manuscripts in the Royal Irish
Academy contains a curious Legend of St.
Ciaran of Clonmacnois, and two of his
clerics. It is entitled eaccrvA leifcin, or was not answerable for the meaningless The Adventures of Leithin, and it contains
5
This
translation is
dated, August 12th,
12 on It is written in double columns
197 leaves of vellum, 15^ inches by ieV% inches. On an average, 40 lines are on each column. very legendary. However, it is curious, The initial letters, with which some of the owing to allusions that serve to elucidate pieces commence, have the Celtic interlace- some old customs. It appears to have been ment. In it, the handwriting of three diffe-
1865.
6 This is a panegyric or sermon, but it is
a discourse prepared for delivery on occasion of St. Ciaran's festival, and apparently pro- nounced at Clonmacnoise.
7 Among the O'Longan MSS. , vol. vi. , in the Royal Irish Academy, there are some few notices regarding the birth and death of several of the old Irish saints, taken from Keating, with a note to this effect
:
rent scribes can be distinguished : one of these was a Friar named O'Buagachain, while another calls himself Aonghus O'Cal- laid.
"3 On the 20th of June, 1629, Michael O Clary, one of the Four Masters, used it in that religious house.
" The
14 In Archbishop Marsh's Library, Dublin.
From p. 262 to p. 280.
This is stated in the transcriber's note, at the Colophon, where he asserts, that he
words to be found in it, but they were owiug to the injured or faded condition of that copy from which he had traced it.
September 9. ] LIVES OF THE IRISH SAINTS. 201
of Clonmacnois. 1 * His Acts as found there are probably copied from a still
moreancientsource. ALifeofSt. KieranwascompiledbyAugustinMagraidin,
fromtwoolderones. 16 Owingtoanimperfectdescription,itisnotpossibleto
state, without a close investigation, whether the Manuscript Acts of St. Kieran,
,l
and the
Bruxelles,'? have reference to the present saint, or to another bearing his name. * 8 In the University City of Oxford are two copies of this saint's Acts. '? They appear to be taken from the same source. 20 It was Colgan's intention, to have issued the Acts of St. Kieranus, Abbot, at the 9th of September. This we find from the
Vita S. Kierani Cluana, in the
S. Kierani Confessio," to be found in the Burgundian Library at
in the Franciscan
Dublin. 22
We that other Acts learn,
and, he frequently alludes
posthumous u
list of his 1 as also from the Manuscripts,*
Convent,
of Saint Kieran were extant in Colgan's time ;
preserved
Vitae Sanctorum," ex Cod. Inisensi, yet
3
to them 3 with satisfaction, promising to publish such compilation, as might
serve for a biography. This promise, however, has not been hitherto
fulfilled. In the Bollandist Collection "Acta Sanctorum,"2* Father Con-
2
stantine Suyskens gives a Historic Commentary s on St. Kyran or Queran,
Abbot of Clonmacnoise, in Meath province, Ireland.
The Bollandists had
a Life of this saint, in their 26 and collection,
some
anonymous
writer. 2?
by
In it, scarcely anything was to be found except prodigies, and these partly
borrowed from other Lives, with some original matter, but related in such a
silly manner,. that those accounts deserved little credence from the learned,
unless receiving confirmation from a more skilled and erudite author than
28
Life, cited by Sirin 20 or O'Sheeran, and said to have been compiled by our
the writer.
This latter Manuscript may have been identical with an Irish
«s At fol, 145 to 148.
16
As stated, by Father Papebroke, in his Fourth Commentary on the Acts of St. En- deus, at the 2lst of March.
17 In the Catalogue they are classed vol. iv. , Nos. 2324-2340, fol. 86, 69.
25 Contained in six sections and sixty-nine paragraphs.
26
Noticed in the Old Bollandist Catalogue, and marked Salamancan Manuscript, P. , MS. 11.
27In"ActaSanctorum,"tomusi. , Feb-
ruarii vi. , sect, iii. , num. 19, in his Historic
foolishly and negligently written. See p.
5 See " The Rhine from its Source to the Sea," translated from the German, by G. C.
8 At the beginning of this century, under the ruins of the church, there was found a
T.
London, 1888, 4to.
stone —an
bearing inscription
commencing
in
verses,
Bartley, M. P. , chap, xx. , pp. 206, 207.
elegiac
6
These are shown in their present state, on the annexed illustration, copied from an engraving of the scene, drawn and engraved onwood,byGregorGrey.
fessoris celebrari vi. idus Septembris in suburbanis Magontiacensis ecclesise. "
" Hac Disibodi corpus tumulatur in urna : Propius hie extans ara dicata Deo Servat, ad seterni spent Judicis, ossa
virorum
Qui pavere sacris Glanicolas dapibus," &c, &c.
7 Thus " Natale Sancti Disibothi con- :
nothing
i96 LIVESOFTHEIRISHSAINTS. [September8.
munity numbered fifty monks. After his departure, the memory of his life
and works wrought so powerfully, and for so long, that gentle and simple emulated each other to the extent of their powers in endowing the cloisters
of Disibodenberg with whole villages and farms, lands, forest rights, teinds, ground rents, and the like. It became, in course of time, far the wealthiest and best endowed religious establishment in the Rhineland country. The memory of Disibod and his companions has remained in quite a peculiar way, sweet and sacred, for more than iooo years in the valleys of the Nahe and the Glan. The day of his death—8th September, when he is said to have died at the age of eighty-one—is kept still as a holy day throughout that whole district.
Article II. —St. Fintan or Fionntan, of Ard-Caoin. At the 8th day or Nones of September, a festival is entered in the Martyrology of
2
1 to honour St. Fintann of Airdcain. There is a parish of Ardkecn, in the diocese and County of Down \ and its church was formerly styled the Church of Holy Mary of Ardkene,3 In addition to the Ardkeen already mentioned, there is another place bearing the same name in the parish of Kilmeena,4 barony of Burrishoole, and County of Mayo. Burrishoole Monastery, now in ruins, near Burrishoole lake, is a very picturesque object. There is an engraving and a description of it in Mr. and Mrs. Hall's M Ire- land : its Scenery, Character, &c," vol. iii. , pp. 389, 390. There is -likewise a townland so called, in the parish of Droom, barony of Eliogarty, and in the north Riding of Tipperary County. 5 Colgan also notices this saint, his
6
place, and his feast, but without throwing much light on his history. John
Capgrave notes this saint as a Bishop and Confessor, at the fifth of the
Tallagh,
Ides. ? In the of 8 at this same date, the Martyrology Donegal,
September
name is merely entered as Fionntain of Ardcaoin.
Article III. —St. Ferghus, the Pict. The Martyrology of Tallagh
records, that at the 8th of September, veneration was given to Ferghus Cruithneach,' or the Pict. We may refer to the notices of St. Fergus, pre- served in the Breviary of Aberdeen, in illustration of the witness sometimes borne to the traditionary accounts, by facts otherwise well established. According to the Breviary of Aberdeen, Fergus came on a mission, with
other clerics, from Ireland, to Alba.
—*
He settled near Strageath. 2 He and
6
Article ii.
" Acta Sanctorum xvii. Hiberni*,"
See
p. xxxiii. In that copy, found in the Book Februarii, Appendix, cap. i , p. 355.
Edited by Rev. Dr. Kelly,
of Leinster, at this same date, we have pnean Airvocam.
2 See more concerning its history, in Rev. William Reeves' " Ecclesiastical Antiquities of Down, Connorand Dromore," n. (n). p. 21.
3 Ardkeen and its Islands, in the Barony
7 See M Nova Legenda Anglice," fol. cxlviii. , cxlix.
8 Edited by Drs. Todd and Reeves, pp. 238, 239. A similar entry is found in the copy of the Calendar among the Irish Ordnance Survey Records, " Common Place Book," F. , p. 76.
Article ml—' Edited by Rev. Dr.
Kelly, p. xxxiii. In the copy of this Mar-
tyrology, found in the Book of Leinster, we read, £eP5ur Cmichnech.
2
At this place, in the present parish of Upper Straihearn, in central Perthshire, there was a Roman road and camp, on the left bank of the Earn. See Francis H.
of Upper Ards, is shown on the
"
Ordnance
of
Townland for the Maps
County
Survey
Down," sheets 17, 18, 24, 25.
4 It is described on the " Ordnance Survey
Townland Maps for the County of Mayo," sheets 76, 77, 87, 88.
s See "General Alphabetical Index to the Townlands and Towns, Parishes and Baronies of Ireland," p. 26.
September 8. ] LIVES OF THE IRISH SAINTS. 197
his friends erected three churches in that district. Fergus afterwards went to Caithness, where he preached to the heathens. After a time, he crossed from Caithness to the opposite country of Buchan. 3 There he founded a church,atLungley. Lastly,hecametoGlammis,wherehemadeanother ecclesiastical settlement. This, at present, is a parish, in the southern part of the Strathmore and Sidlaw districts of Forfarshire. Glammis burn rises in the hill of Auchterhouse, at the extreme southern boundary, and traverses the whole length of Glen-Ogilvie. It cuts its way through the central hilly ridge, and joins the Dean river on the demesne of Glammis Castle, thus intersecting the parish over nearly six miles of its length, and cutting it lengthwise into two not very unequal parts. * In that place, he departed this Life. At Glammis, the memory of St. Fergus was held in such reverence, all through the middle ages, that his relics came to be coveted by the neigh- bouring people. One of the Abbots over Scone carried off the saint's head, and placed it in his church, for the veneration of the faithful. * We find, that the three neighbouring churches of Strageath, Blackford, and Dolpatrick, in Perthshire, were all dedicated to St. Patrick. This devotion, we might well expect, in the acts of a missionary, fresh from Ireland. The church of Wick, in Caithness, the church of Lungley, in Buchan, and the church of Glammis, all own St. Fergus as their patron. The festival of St. Fergus is
6
recorded" in the Martyrology of Donegal at this date.
Article IV. —St. Maelecasni or Maeloisne. The heroic saints of the Church have ever been foremost to vindicate the rights of oppressed men and women. These latter especially, as the weaker sex, should ever engage the Christian chivalry of men to assert their true dignity, and to free them
1
from every degrading law. -The Martyrology of Tallagh has a festival for a
St. Maelecasni, at this date. The Law of Adamnan states, that Maelcoisne was one of the sureties whom Adamnan found to free the women from every
slaveryandbondagethatwasonthem. BesidesthepresentSt. Maelecaisni, there is a Maelcoisne, at the 15th of October, and a Maelcoisne of Ros- Brennaibh, at the 28th of December. It is not known, however, which of all
these the Law speaks of, in reference to this matter. According to the 2
Martyrology of Donegal, also, veneration was given at the 8th of September, to Maelcoisne.
Article V. —St. Cruimther Catha, son of Aengus, of Cluain Eossain. Upontheheadsofmany,thisholypriestmusthavepouredthe cleansing waters of baptism, and afterwards he must have grounded them
well in sound doctrine and holiness.
Groome's " Ordnance Gazetteer of Scot- land," vol. v. , p. 90.
At the 8th of September, a festival is
treasurer of King James IV. , which shows, that, in October, 1503, that monarch made an " offerand of 13 shillings to Sanct. Fergus' heide in Scone. "
3 A district of Aberdeenshire, extending
along the coast, from the Ythan, nearly to
the Deveron, a distance of about 40 miles.
The reader will find a good account of this districtintheThirdVolumeof"Prize "Cruithneach,i—. e. ,thePict. "
Essays of the Highland Society. "
4 See "The Topographical, Statistical,
and Historical Gazetteer of Scotland," vol. i. ,
pp. 619 to 621.
s The removal of the saint's head to Scone
is proved by an entry, in the accounts of the
'
Article iv. Edited by Rev. Dr.
Kelly, p. xxxiii. In that copy, contained
in the Book of Leinster, the entry is niaeli-
CAipi.
3 Edited by Drs. Todd and Reeves, pp.
240, 241.
6 Edited by Drs. Todd and Reeves, pp. 238, 239. A note by O'Donovan says,
i 9 8 LIVES OF THE IRISH SAINTS. [September 8.
1
found entered in the Martyrology of Tallagh, in honour of Cruimther Catha,
son of Aengus, of Cluain Eorainne. Nothing further seems to be known
him. The of 2 which has a like feast for this Martyrology Donegal,
regarding
day, yet denominates his locality Cluain Eossain.
Article VI. —Feast of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary. In the ancient Irish Church, the Festival of the Birth of our Divine Lord's Mother was celebrated on the eighth day of September, as we learn from the
1 On this there is a short comment. 2 About the
this feast was appointed by Pope Servius. In various parts of Ireland, this festival was celebrated formerly with very special devotion, as parishes, churches and chapels had been dedicated to the Blessed Virgin Mary, and this was a favoured festival day. The patrons or patterns that until of Lite were yearly celebrated very conclusively attest it. In Kilnenor parish,3 County of Wexford, there is a holy well, at which a patron was formerly held on the 8th of September. *> According to a pious tradition, a concert of angels is said to have been heard in the air to solemnize the Nativity or
Birthday of the Blessed Virgin Mary. s
Article VII. —Festival of St. Timothy and Three Hundred Martyrs. In the Irish Church at this date was a commemoration of St. Timothy, and Three Hundred Martyrs, as stated in the Feilire of
Feilire of
Aengus.
year 695,
1 It seems that allusion is made to the festival of St.
likely Timothy,
Aengus.
who with St. Faustus suffered Martyrdom at Antioch ; but, under what cir-
cumstances, or at what particular time, cannot be discovered. Their festival, however, falls on the 8th of September, and the Bollandists2 find it noted in various ancient calendars. To these, Maurolycus adds three other Martyrs, Amphion, Severus and Severianus. 3 The other ancient Martyrologies quoted have no mention of the Three Hundred Martyrs alluded to in the Feilire.
ArticleVIII. —TheSonorSonsofTalarg. ThepublishedMartyr- of 1 atthis hasafestivaltohonourMac orthe
Talaraigh,
popAichmencap put)," translated, "i. e. ,
Mary's nativity is commemorated here. " Ibid. , p, cxliii.
3 It is in the Barony of Gorey, and de- scribed on the " Ordnance Survey Town- land Maps for the County of Wexford," sheets I, 2, 3.
4 See the County of Wexford Letters, vol. LO. S. R.
i2mo, 1888. — Article vii.
ology Tallagh, day,
Article v. —' Edited by Rev. Dr. Kelly,
p. xxxiii. In the Book of Leinster copy we
read Cpumchip Cacha mac Oengur'-A 1
CluAin eopamne.
2 Edited by Drs. Todd and Reeves, pp.
—
238, 239. — Article vi.
From that copy contained in the " Leabhar—Breac," we find the follow-
ing
Irish stanza
:
£op4icrimeric4p muipe
mcmardyoAi popcepcpic La CiAmt)Ai lapfecAib
Co. ccc. 41b mapcip.
i.
, 5 See
'
Thus translated into English by Dr. Whitley Stokes:—"Mary is commemorated (to-day); they are not dead on a scanty meal : with
after — and three Timothy (the world's) ways
hundred martyrs. " "Transactions of the
Royal Irish Academy. " Irish Manuscript Series, vol. i. , part i. On the Calendar of
Aengus, by Whitley Stokes, LL. D. , pp. cxxxvi. , cxxxvii.
3 The scholiast adds " gem muipe : . 1.
Royal Irish Academy. " Irish Manuscript Series, vol. i. , part i. On the Calendar of
Aengus, pp. cxxxvi. , cxxxvii.
2
See "Acta Sanctorum," tomus iii. , Septembris viii. De SS. Timotheo et
ex
Fausto, MM. , Antiochioe, Martyrologiis,
pp. 255, 256.
3 The Bollandists think these names to have
been incorrectly taken from the list of martyrs, who suffered on this day at Alex- andria in Egypt.
Article viii. —' Edited by Rev. Dr.
"
The Calendar of the Prayer-Book Illustrated," p. 86. London and Oxford,
See " Transactions of the
September 9. ] LIVES OF THE IRISH SAINTS. 199
Son of Talaraigh. Who Talaraigh or his unnamed son had been, or when and where they lived, seems to be unknown. Differently do we find an entry in the Martyrology of Donegal,' that the Sons of Talarg had a festival cele- bratedintheirhonour,atthe8thofSeptember. Whetheroneormorethan one brother had been venerated also appears to admit of question ; but, wt are inclined to accept the authority of the more ancient calendar.
&intb 2B^p of September.
ARTICLE I. —ST. KIERAIN, CIARAN OR KYRAN, ABBOT OF CLONMACNOISE.
[SIXTH CENTURY. ]
CHAPTER I.
INTRODUCTION—MATERIALS FOR THE ACTS OF ST. KIERAIN—PROPHECIES REGARDING HIS BIRTH—HIS FAMILY AND PEDIGREE—PLACE AND TIME OF HIS BIRTH—HIS BAPTISM BY ST. JUSTUS—HE STUDIES UNDER ST. FINIAN, ABBOT OF CLONARD.
celebrated archimandrite of the Irish Church has left behind him
THIS
a national because it was founded on a
of
tending to the edification of his disciples, and to the increase of piety among
the faithful. " made Being
in a short he fulfilled a long time. "1 space,
fame,
variety
holy enterprises,
perfect
This should teach us, that length of years is not always the condition attaching
to a well-spent life ; but God regards all great acts of virtue practised in the briefest run of time, and multiplies His rewards for them, until they are finally crowned. Even the more pleasing man's soul is to the Almighty, we ought to regard that as a favour in being drawn away to rest, which worldlings are slow to understand, and unwise enough not to weigh in their consideration. Such a happy soul is removed from cares and iniquities, while the mercy of God is thus manifested by His special graces to the saint, and by His true respect or real favours for the elect. 2 Life soon ended, and a career, unsullied by the vagaries and vices of a careless disposition, render the saint's early death the best increase of his anticipated heir-loom in a life beyond the grave.
Long before any regular Lives of St. Kieran had been composed, popularity and tradition ascribed to him many wonderful miracles; but these, for the most part, are so extravagant and incredible, that all should not be received as authentic. Several bardic compositions were in circulation, likewise, and with a licence peculiar to these, the true facts of St. Kieran's biography have been stained and obscured. They obtained too wide a circulation, and unfortunately the strange taste of the middle ages too often seized upon the marvellous and imaginary rather than on the prosaic and authentic accounts of history and biography. Various Manuscript Lives of this Saint Kieran are extant j yet, are they very unreliable materials for authentic narrative. In the
Felire of St. ^ngus, our saint is commemorated at this date, and to that copy of it contained in the " Leabhar Breac " are additions in the shape of notes,
all in the Irish characters and language. 3
Kelly, p. xxxiii. Also in the Book of
Several of St. Kieran's Manuscript Article I. —' Wisdom iv. , 13.
Leinster
3 Edited
we find mac Drs. Todd and
2 Ibid. ,
3 See "Transactions of the Royal Irish
240, 241.
Academy," Irish Manuscript Series, vol. i. ,
copy by
CaIaj\<m5. Reeves, pp.
14, 15.
LIVES OF THE IRISH SAINTS.
[September 9.
Lives are preserved in the Royal Irish Academy/ Among the Halliday collection of manuscripts there is a copy of St. Kieran's Life, and a translation into English, by J. O'Beirne Crowe. * There is an Irish Life of St. Ciarain ofClonmacnoise6intheBookofLismore. ? Oflate,amongtheotherIrish
8
is the panegyric on Betha Chiarain Guana meic Nois, edited with a Preface,
anEnglishTranslat—ion,Notes,andIndices,byWhitleyStokes,D. C. L. In
—ct rendered from the Irish text into
the published tra original equivalent
English lettering there are eighteen closely printed pages ;9 the English
10
This Life, contained in the Book of Lismore, has been copied from a still more ancient manuscript. " The Book of Lismore had been compiled from the lost Book of Monasterboice, and from other manuscripts, in the latter half of the fifteenth century, for
Finghin Mac Carthaigh Riabhach, and his wife, Catherine, daughter to Thomas, Eighth Earl of Desmond. Hence, it is sometimes and more
Texts containing Lives of Irish Saints, published from this manuscript,
translation is comprised within nineteen pages.
called the Book of ia It had been MacCarthy Reagh.
preserved
in
properly
Timoleague Abbey,
it was conveyed to Lismore Castle, where it long remained concealed, and at
in the
beginning
of the seventeenth
century.
1 *
Afterwards,
length it was there accidentally found, in 18 14, by some workmen engaged in repairing the castle. It was found lying, along with an antique crozier, in a wooden box, taken from a walled-up passage. The manuscript had suffered
much from damp, while the back, front, and top margin was theji gnawed in several places by rats or mice. It is now the property of the Duke of Devonshire. The reputed Codex Kilkenniensis I4 has a Life of St. Kyaranus
part i. On the Calendar of Oengus. By Life of Ciaran of Cluain is in the great illus-
Whitley Stokes, LL. D. , pp. cxxxvii. and cxliii. , cxliv.
4 Among them are the following : In the collection of Messrs. Hodges and Smith, there is a small 4to paper MS. , No. 12, in the K. I. A. ; it contains a Life of St. Kieran. The viii. vol. of O'Longan MSS. , in the R. I. A. , contains The Life of St. Ciaran of
trious book, wbich Donogh Ban O'Flinn has
lately brought from Lismore, after having coaxed it out of the hands of the Heretics,
and that by his own superior dexterity, and with the help of God ; and he has it in Cork,
at this time, 181 5. " See pp. 35, 36. This
Manuscript was written by Michael Oge
O'Longan, between the years i8ioand 1822.
8"
In the Anecdota Oxoniensia," Lives
of•Saints from the Book of Lismore. Ox- ford, at the Clarendon Press, 1890, 4to.
9 From p. 117 to p. 134.
10 11
In the same vol. there is an ancient prose Legend of St. Ciaran of Cluain Mac Nois and of Cairbre
Crom, pp. 93, 94. The first volume of the
some curious topographical references, pp. 378 to 385.
Clonmacnois, p. 171.
O'Longan Manuscripts in the Royal Irish
Academy contains a curious Legend of St.
Ciaran of Clonmacnois, and two of his
clerics. It is entitled eaccrvA leifcin, or was not answerable for the meaningless The Adventures of Leithin, and it contains
5
This
translation is
dated, August 12th,
12 on It is written in double columns
197 leaves of vellum, 15^ inches by ieV% inches. On an average, 40 lines are on each column. very legendary. However, it is curious, The initial letters, with which some of the owing to allusions that serve to elucidate pieces commence, have the Celtic interlace- some old customs. It appears to have been ment. In it, the handwriting of three diffe-
1865.
6 This is a panegyric or sermon, but it is
a discourse prepared for delivery on occasion of St. Ciaran's festival, and apparently pro- nounced at Clonmacnoise.
7 Among the O'Longan MSS. , vol. vi. , in the Royal Irish Academy, there are some few notices regarding the birth and death of several of the old Irish saints, taken from Keating, with a note to this effect
:
rent scribes can be distinguished : one of these was a Friar named O'Buagachain, while another calls himself Aonghus O'Cal- laid.
"3 On the 20th of June, 1629, Michael O Clary, one of the Four Masters, used it in that religious house.
" The
14 In Archbishop Marsh's Library, Dublin.
From p. 262 to p. 280.
This is stated in the transcriber's note, at the Colophon, where he asserts, that he
words to be found in it, but they were owiug to the injured or faded condition of that copy from which he had traced it.
September 9. ] LIVES OF THE IRISH SAINTS. 201
of Clonmacnois. 1 * His Acts as found there are probably copied from a still
moreancientsource. ALifeofSt. KieranwascompiledbyAugustinMagraidin,
fromtwoolderones. 16 Owingtoanimperfectdescription,itisnotpossibleto
state, without a close investigation, whether the Manuscript Acts of St. Kieran,
,l
and the
Bruxelles,'? have reference to the present saint, or to another bearing his name. * 8 In the University City of Oxford are two copies of this saint's Acts. '? They appear to be taken from the same source. 20 It was Colgan's intention, to have issued the Acts of St. Kieranus, Abbot, at the 9th of September. This we find from the
Vita S. Kierani Cluana, in the
S. Kierani Confessio," to be found in the Burgundian Library at
in the Franciscan
Dublin. 22
We that other Acts learn,
and, he frequently alludes
posthumous u
list of his 1 as also from the Manuscripts,*
Convent,
of Saint Kieran were extant in Colgan's time ;
preserved
Vitae Sanctorum," ex Cod. Inisensi, yet
3
to them 3 with satisfaction, promising to publish such compilation, as might
serve for a biography. This promise, however, has not been hitherto
fulfilled. In the Bollandist Collection "Acta Sanctorum,"2* Father Con-
2
stantine Suyskens gives a Historic Commentary s on St. Kyran or Queran,
Abbot of Clonmacnoise, in Meath province, Ireland.
The Bollandists had
a Life of this saint, in their 26 and collection,
some
anonymous
writer. 2?
by
In it, scarcely anything was to be found except prodigies, and these partly
borrowed from other Lives, with some original matter, but related in such a
silly manner,. that those accounts deserved little credence from the learned,
unless receiving confirmation from a more skilled and erudite author than
28
Life, cited by Sirin 20 or O'Sheeran, and said to have been compiled by our
the writer.
This latter Manuscript may have been identical with an Irish
«s At fol, 145 to 148.
16
As stated, by Father Papebroke, in his Fourth Commentary on the Acts of St. En- deus, at the 2lst of March.
17 In the Catalogue they are classed vol. iv. , Nos. 2324-2340, fol. 86, 69.
25 Contained in six sections and sixty-nine paragraphs.
26
Noticed in the Old Bollandist Catalogue, and marked Salamancan Manuscript, P. , MS. 11.
27In"ActaSanctorum,"tomusi. , Feb-
ruarii vi. , sect, iii. , num. 19, in his Historic
foolishly and negligently written. See p.
