Thomas Olden

“ Just before his death, speaking in Irish, he lamented the sad state of his countrymen now about to lose their pastor. 'Ah, foolish and senseless people,' he said, 'what are you now to do? Who will cure your misfortunes? Who will heal you?' He was buried in the church of Notre-Dame at Eu, where a side-chapel bore his name, and his relics were afterwards placed over the high altar in a silver shrine, some of them being afterwards sent to Christ Church, Dublin. In 1226 he was canonised by Honorius III, being the first Irishman who lived and worked in Ireland who received papal canonisation. ”

“ Coemgen would not suffer him to enter the precinct of his sacred city. He was compelled to halt on the summit of the mountain on the south, where he received the saint's answer, 'A king by human right ought to fight for the country committed to his charge, if he cannot otherwise defend it.' This was enough for the warrior king. He met the forces of the king of Ireland and his northern allies at Dunbolg, now Dunboyke, near Hollywood, in the county of Wicklow, where he utterly defeated them, and slew and beheaded King Aedh. ”

“ The king, jealous of the saint's power, had given orders that when he presented himself next at Tara no one should rise from his seat to do him honour. The next day was Easter day, and it was also a great feast with Laogaire and his court. In the midst of their festivity, ‘the doors being shut as in our Lord's case,’ St. Patrick with five of his companions appeared among them. None rose up at his approach but Dubthach, who had with him a youthful poet named Fiacc, afterwards a bishop. The saint upon this bestowed his blessing on Dubthach, who was the first to believe in God on that day. ”

“ On Torrdelbach's return to Killaloe by direction of St. Colman he refused Flannan's entreaties to resume his kingdom, and died on his way back to Lismore.
Flannan, disappointed by the lukewarmness of his hearers, set sail for the Isle of Man. There nine men of horrid aspect demanded of him nine black rams. When he hesitated about complying, they threatened to ‘defame him as long as they lived.’ Flannan used to ‘sing his psalter in cold rivers,’ and fearing that he might be called on to desert his religious life and become king, he besought his Creator to send him some disfiguring blemish. ”

“ After some time, finding she was about to become a mother, she fled by night from her sister's house to her native place. Here, on the bleak upland of Lougher, she encountered a snowstorm, and worn out and exhausted gave birth to a child. She was tempted to strangle the babe, when a dove sent from heaven flapped its wings in the mother's face, and prevented her from accomplishing her purpose. ”

“ COLCHU, Saint (d. 792) , of the family of Ua Dunechda, was ferleighinn or prelector, that is in modern style head-master, of the famous school of Clonmacnoise. He is termed in the ' Annals ' ' chief scribe and master of the Scots ' (Irish) , the office of scribe being so honourable in those days that the title was frequently added to enhance the celebrity of an abbot or bishop ; and from the specimens which have come down to us, such as the 'Book of Kells,' many of them appear to have been artists of no mean skill. ”

“ Conchobar of South Bregia, was the bondmaid and concubine of Dubhthach. Dr. Lanigan will not hear of this, but the whole early history of Brigit, as told in the Irish life, rests on this fact. It may be observed that in this (as in other cases) there is a notable difference between the story told by Colgan and Lanigan from the Latin lives and the story given in the Irish life. In the former Brigit is a highly educated young lady of noble birth, whose acts are in accordance with the ecclesiastical and social usages of the seventeenth or eighteenth century. ”

“ DISIBOD, Saint (594?–674) , bishop, was the son of one of the lesser chieftains in Ireland. In his boyhood, a warlike ruler having subjugated the neighbouring chieftains, his parents removed for safety to a distant part of the territory, ‘near a river flowing from the sea.’ Here they placed the boy in charge of some religious men to be instructed in ‘letters and other liberal arts.’ When arrived at the age of thirty he was ordained, and shortly after, as it would seem, the bishop of the place died, and an assembly of the people of all ranks was held, according to custom, to elect a successor. ”

“ On coming in sight of the enemies' camp the Munster men 'flinch from the fight in horror of the Clanna Neill,' but stirred by the warning of Finnchu that not a homestead would be left to them if they did not fight, they gained the victory. Cairbre Cromm was then made king of Munster, but being dissatisfied with his appearance, as 'his skin was scabrous,' he besought Finnchu to bestow a goodly form on him, and the saint 'obtained from God his choice of form for him.' His shape and colour were then changed, so that he was afterwards Cairbre the Fair. ”

“ The systematic misstatements in the early 'lives' respecting the date of his mission were clearly introduced in order to give greater importance to Patrick's position. When the Irish came in contact with Augustine of Canterbury and his clergy, in the beginning of the seventh century, they seem to have felt that the learning and culture of those men who came from the capital of the world with the prestige of a papal mission threw into the shade their humble and unlearned saint. ”

“ In the ancient compilation known as the ‘Senchus Mor,’ among the rights of the church as against the people, besides tithes and first-fruits, were ‘firstlings,’ which are explained to mean not only animals, but ‘every first birth of every human couple, and every male child which opens the womb of his mother being a lawful spouse.’ Cellach having thus become king of Hy Fiachrach soon wearied of his new dignity, and could not banish from his memory the curse of St. Ciaran. His followers advised him to return to Clonmacnois. ”

“ The ‘Letter’ was occasioned by the introduction of the cycle of 532 years, and the rules for calculating Easter connected with it, in lieu of the cycle of eighty-four years previously in use in Ireland. Cumine had adopted the new method, but before doing so says he studied the question anxiously for a whole year, first entering into ‘the sanctuary of God,’ as he terms the holy scriptures, and consulting the commentaries of Origen and Jerome, then applying himself to ecclesiastical history and the various cycles and Paschal systems of Jews, Greeks, Latins, and Egyptians. ”

“ St. Bernard of Clairvaux, in his ‘Life of Maelmogue or Malachy, Primate of Armagh’ (1134–7) , refers in severe terms to the usage ‘whereby the holy see [Armagh] came to be obtained by hereditary succession,’ and adds, ‘there had already been before the time of Celsus (d. 1129) eight individuals who were married and without orders, yet men of education.’ One of these must have been Dubhdalethe, but St. Bernard was in error in viewing the influence of the hereditary principle at Armagh as unusual. ”

“ O'Loughlin, who had been Dermod's ally, was killed in the battle of Litterluin in 1166, whereupon Roderick O'Connor his enemy became king of Ireland, and Dermod, anticipating an attack, burnt his town of Ferns. Soon after another of Dermod's enemies, O'Ruark, marched against him, defeated him, burnt the castle of Ferns, and ‘banished him over sea.’ This took place, according to the ‘Four Masters,’ in 1166, and as this was fourteen years after the carrying off of Dervorgill it is evident that there is little direct connection between the two events. ”

“ Though a bishop in his own country, he never after his expulsion celebrated the eucharist ‘after the order appointed for bishops, but according to the usage of poor presbyters.’ He still, however, according to the custom in such cases, acted as a bishop in his own monastery, being, according to Dr. Todd, an episcopus regionarius, or abbot-bishop, without jurisdiction out of his abbacy. He frequently wished to appoint a head over the community, but the monks strenuously objected, and would have none while he lived. ”

“ This prince received him kindly, and bound his seven successors to pay three cows annually to Corbmac and those who should come after him; but Aidan, son of Colman, who had a monastery near, fearing lest the interests of his church should suffer, remonstrated with him, and advised that he as a stranger should return to his own country, and seek for lands there. King Diermid tried to make peace, but Corbmac determined to return to his friends, the sons of Amalgaid, and devoted himself to the office of peacemaker, endeavouring to establish good feeling between them and the race of Cian. ”

“ About this time Fachtna, an aged chieftain of Muscraidhe Breogain, now the barony of Clanwilliam, in county of Tipperary, whose son and daughter Finn Barr had cured, and whose wife he was said to have brought to life, made a grant to him of Rath Mhartir in perpetuity. Here there is an important difference between the Irish and Latin lives, the latter giving Fiachna as the name of the chieftain, whom Ussher, appearing to have known only the Latin life, identifies with the king of West Munster. But the Irish life evidently gives the correct account. ”

“ His desire to visit Rome was perhaps not unconnected with his love of art, for he is described as 'Brigid's brazier,' or, according to the 'Calendar ' of Œngus, her 'chief artist.' The word denotes a worker in gold, silver, or other metal, a maker of those bells, croziers, and shrines of which so many still exist. The only specimen of his art remaining is the crozier of St. Finbarr of Termonbarry in Connaught, now in the museum of the Royal Irish Academy in Dublin. ”

“ We may take the evidence of St. Bernard on this point as decisive. He was the friend and biographer of Malachy, archbishop of Armagh, and must have had the best information. His account is that the remains of St. Patrick were at Armagh in his time, i.e. the twelfth century; and there is evidence that they were there long before that date. His grave was termed by Latin writers Lipsana Patricii, i.e. the tomb of Patrick, and by the Irish Ferta, 'the tomb,' a name afterwards given to the Fort of Macha, in which it was situated. ”

“ Here, after ten years' wandering, he resolved to settle with his three friends, and forming a separate place of abode for himself he led the life of a hermit, subsisting on roots and herbs. His dress was the same as that he wore when leaving Ireland, of coarse material, and his food scarcely sufficient to sustain life. ”

“ DAIRCELL or TAIRCELL, otherwise Molling (d. 696) (Annals of Four Masters) , saint and bishop, was the son of Faelan, a descendant of Cathaeir Mor, who was king of Leinster and monarch of Ireland A.D. 358. In the Latin life published by the Bollandists few particulars are given, but the Irish life in the royal library of Brussels has the following account of his parentage. Faelan was a brugaidh, or farmer, at Luachair, now Slieve Lougher, a wild upland district near Castle Island in Kerry. ”

“ But the synod of Rathbreasail (at Mountrath in Queen's County) was an ecclesiastical assembly at which no layman of importance was present, and the president of which was Gillebert, the other names mentioned being Ceallach or Celsus, the primate, and Maelisa mac Ainmire, termed by Keating ‘noble bishop of Cashel,’ but in the ‘Annals of the Four Masters’ bishop of Waterford. There were therefore present the bishops of two Danish cities with Celsus, a favourer of the new ideas, who thus combined to revolutionise the constitution of the Irish church. ”

“ GILLE or GILLEBERT (fl. 1105–1145) , bishop of Limerick, termed by Keating Giolla Easbog, was consecrated in Ireland, but it is uncertain whether he was an Irishman or a Dane, Limerick being then a Danish city. If he were abbot of Bangor, as Lanigan thought, he would probably have been an Irishman, but Keating, to whom Lanigan refers, does not say so. He had travelled abroad, and became acquainted with Anselm at Rouen. ”

“ CUMINE AILBHE or FINN (657?–669?) , seventh abbot of Hy, was son of Ernan, son of Fiachna, of the race of Conall Gulban. The term ‘ailbhe’ is explained as albus, or fair, in the ‘Annals of Ulster,’ and more fully in an ancient poem quoted in Reeves's ‘Adamnan,’ where he is referred to as ‘Cumine of fair hair.’ Cathal Maguir, cited by Colgan, notices him as ‘Cumineus, abbot of Hy, son of Dunertach. ”

“ DONATUS, Saint (fl. 829–876) , bishop of Fiesole, was an Irishman of noble birth. In consequence of the outrages of ‘bands of violent men,’ probably the Danes, he made up his mind to go abroad as a pilgrim. Arrived on the continent he wandered about visiting the basilica of the apostles and other sacred places. At this time the church of Fæsulæ, now Fiesole, had been attacked and plundered by the Normans, and was without a bishop. The people had assembled in the church, praying that a bishop might be sent to them, when the steps of Donatus were divinely guided to Fiesole. ”

“ These anachronisms show that little value can be attributed to the details of the life. His fame was probably due to the later prosperity of his monastery. Ussher quotes from the ‘Book of Ballymote’ a statement that there were a hundred Saxon saints at Mayo in the time of Adamnan, St. Gerald's successor, and the Litany of Oengus in the ‘Book of Leinster’ has an invocation of ‘3,300 saints with Gerald the bishop, and with the fifty saints of Leyney in Connaught, who are [buried] at Mayo of the Saxons.’ Local names and traditions also attest the reality of this English mission. ”