The Massacre of the Innocents in Irish Sources

The Martyrology of Oengus devotes its entire entry for December 28 to the commemoration of The Massacre of the Innocents by King Herod:

28. Famous is their eternal acclamation,
beyond every loveable band,
which the little children from Bethlehem
sing above to their Father.

to which the scholiast has added a commentary:

28. Famous the lasting acclamation, i.e. famous and lasting is the shout of the children who were killed in Bethlehem by Herod pro Christo.
a loveable band, i.e. they are a dear band propter innocentiam.
who sing above to their Father, i.e. canunt laudes, etc.
A hundred and forty - bright fulfilment - and two thousands of children
were slain in Bethlehem with victory by the ruler, by Herod.
Thirty plains famous, pleasant, all about Bethlehem ;
in every plain were slain a hundred of the pleasant children of the nobles ;
a hundred and forty - sad the doom ! - in Bethlehem alone.

The Massacre of the Innocents is also commemorated in other Irish sources, appearing, for example, in the poems of Blathmac. He records in the first of his poems translated by James Carney:

20. In seeking Christ (pitiful this!) the infants of Bethlehem were slain. It was by Herod (bloodier than any prince!) that they were put to the blue sword.

21. Happy the good gentle infants! They have happiness in an eternal kingdom: Herod, miserable creature, has eternal sorrow and eternal Hell.

James Carney, ed. and trans., The poems of Blathmac, son of Cú Brettan: Together with the Irish Gospel of Thomas and a poem on the Virgin Mary (Dublin, 1964), 9.

Below is the text of another poem, found in the Leabhar Breac, which reflects the raw pain of the bereaved mothers and the sheer horror of the deed:

The Mothers’ Lament at the Slaughter of the Innocents

Then, as she plucked her son from her
breast for the executioner, one of the women said:
‘Why do you tear from me my darling son,
The fruit of my womb?
It was I who bore him, he drank my breast.
My womb carried him about, he sucked my vitals.
He filled my heart:
He was my life, ’tis death to have him taken from me.
My strength has ebbed,
My voice is stopped,
My eyes are blinded.’
Then another woman said:
‘It is my son you take from me.
I did not do the evil,
But kill me — me: don’t kill my son!
My breasts are sapless, my eyes are wet,
My hands shake,
My poor body totters.
My husband has no son,
And I no strength;
My life is worth — death.
Oh, my one son, my God!
His foster-father has lost his hire.
My birthless sicknesses with no requital until Doom.
My breasts are silent,
My heart is wrung.’
Then said another woman:
‘Ye are seeking to kill one; ye are killing many.
Infants ye slay, fathers ye wound; you kill the mothers.
Hell with your deed is full, heaven shut.
Ye have spilt the blood of guiltless innocents.’
And yet another woman said:
‘O Christ, come to me!
With my son take my soul quickly:
O Great Mary, Mother of the Son of God,
What shall I do without my son?
For Thy Son, my spirit and my sense are killed.
I am become a crazy woman for my son.
After the piteous slaughter
My heart’s a clot of blood
From this day
Till Doom comes.’

‘Anecdota from Irish MSS’ (III), ed. Kuno Meyer, The Gaelic Journal 4, no. 38 (May 1891), 90.

A powerful lament, indeed. I close by noting that the Feast of the Holy Innocents is commemorated on the Eastern Orthodox calendar on December 29, one day after the Irish and other Western calendars.

This post originally appeared here.

Saint John the Beloved Disciple and the Early Irish Church

The Martyrology of Oengus devotes its entire entry for December 27 to two of the apostles - Saint John and Saint James. It reads:

D. vi. cal. lanuarii.

27. The sound sleep of John in Ephesus
splendid the bordgal (?)
-with the ordination of James his brother, who is highest.

The scholiast adds:

27. a splendid bordgal, i.e. John's valour (gal) was in Ephesus a splendid valour, i.e. a valour that went out over the border (bord) quasi dixisset Ephesus was full de operibus eius. his brother is highest, i.e. the greater is sollemnitas etc.

I haven't read any specialist commentary on this entry but would imagine that this word bordgal was an archaism which the later scholiast did not himself understand and sought to explain. There is a body of material concerning the beloved disciple preserved in the Irish sources. In an earlier post on the Irish tradition of the Antichrist, I had mentioned an Apocalypse of Saint John as one of the sources for this. In the article by Father Martin McNamara that I looked at then, he mentions that the Liber Flavus Fergusiorum preserves a composite Irish text containing episodes from the Beatha Eoin Bruinne, the Life of John the Beloved Disciple (literally John of the Breast), plus fragments of what seems to be an Apocalypse of John. Saint John received this epithet because he reclined on the the breast of Jesus at the Last Supper (Jn. 13:25). This composite text was translated from Latin into Irish by an Augustinian friar, Uighisdin Mac Raighin, who died in 1405. It has been translated into English in a volume of texts edited by Father McNamara and Dr. Maire Herbert and so below are some extracts from the Apocalyspe and Death of John to mark the feast of the repose of the Beloved Disciple, still commemorated on December 27 in the West, although the Eastern Orthodox celebrate this feast on September 26:

10. Thereafter John said to his disciples: "go and make a burial-place for me in front of the altar. Cast out the earth far away from it, and make it very deep". This was done, and he himself went into it and lay readily down on the ground, and stretched up his two hands towards the Creator, saying:

11. "I thank you, O Creator,
Christ, the mighty Lord,
great Heavenly Father,
gentle soft-spokem brother,
excellent noble teacher,
who gently and lovingly
calls me to your banquet,
who well understands
that I desire to go
to be with you in your kingdom.
You perceive, O divine kinsman,
how my heart has loved
your truth and your word,
loved to contemplate
and look on you totally,
I give you thanks."

15. Now I entrust and hand over your people believing in Christ, who have obtained wisdom, true knowledge and sagacity, and have been blessed and baptized. Take me to you, as you promised me in the company of my brethren, Paul, Peter, Matthew, and Thomas, and the other apostles, so that I may partake of the great feast which you have created from the beginning, and which has no end. Open the divine gates and beautifully-draped windows, and the path which is undarkened by the devil, without opposition, without hostile onset. Send your splendid angelic messenger to cherish and protect [me], for you are the almighty Christ, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, who lives and flourishes for all eternity". And all the people answered: "Amen".

16. Then a great brightness came upon the people for the space of one hour of the day. Such was the extent of the illumination that it could not be looked on. Everyone threw themselves on the ground. Then there came to them a beautiful fragrance, and perfume of angelic incense.

17. Thereafter they raised their heads, and looked at the burial-place. They found nothing there in place of the valiant priest, the eloquent judge, the devout helper, the wise preacher, the splendid confessor, the merciful dispenser of forgiveness, red-cheeked and blue-eyed, namely, John, the beloved apostle.. And thus John parted from the final things of this world.

18. The suffering and afflicted of the nearby district gathered to that place, and they were cured of all their ills.

19. As for the body of John, it is in a beautiful golden tomb, and at the end of each year, the best youth, who is without defilement or sin, is chosen, and he goes to cut John's hair and pare his nails, and when he has completed that task, he partakes of the body and sacrifice of Christ, and he himself ascends to heaven on that day.

Thus John's body remains without putrefaction or corruption. Indeed, it is as if he were in a deep sleep, and it will be thus until Doomsday.

Maire Herbert and M. McNamara, trans., Irish Biblical Apocrypha: Selected Texts in Translation (Edinburgh, 1989), 96-98.

This post originally appeared here.

Irish Devotion to Saint Martin of Tours

November 11 is the feastday of one of the fathers of Gaulish monasticism, Saint Martin of Tours, whose Life by Sulpicius Severus influenced the future writing of hagiography. Martin was a saint much venerated by the early Irish Church. The Martyrology of Oengus pays him a glowing tribute in its entry for November 11:

Saint Martin a noble simile
the mount of gold of the western
world.

while the scholiast adds:

Saint Martin of Tours, of Gaul was he.
Martin a soldier, honour not slight, of Gallia Lugdunensis, a fully-gentle son of the race of the kings, son of Manualt and Abrasin.

noble simile etc., i.e. noble for him is his resemblance to gold propter etc. Martin out of Martin's Tours in the south of Frankland : of the Gauls was he, ut dixit quidam : Martin a soldier, honour without prohibition etc. Gold is he propter etc.

Michael Richter has a chapter on the Irish devotion to Saint Martin in his book 'Ireland and her Neighbours in the Seventh Century'. He takes as a starting point the early 9th-century Book of Armagh, a manuscript containing three distinct groups of material (1) A complete text of the New Testament, (2) A dossier of materials on Saint Patrick and (3) almost the complete body of writings on Saint Martin by Sulpicius Severus.

Contemporaneous with the Book of Armagh was the Martyrology of Tallaght which records a special tribute to Saint Martin among the saints of Europe in its entry for 20 April:

Communis sollemnitas omnium sanctorum et virginum Hiberniae et Britanniae et totius Europae et specialiter in honorem sancti Martini episcopi.

So, it would appear that in the early 9th century, respect for Saint Martin was well-established in Ireland, but as such devotion would not have arisen from a vacuum, Richter is keen to track its history. He finds evidence for Saint Martin in other sources before 800:

1. Jonas of Bobbio's Vita Columbani. Jonas relates that the saint while travelling requested to be allowed to pray at the tomb of St Martin. His companions did not intend to make this possible for him and so it took a miracle to allow Columbanus to pay his respects to Martin. Richter wonders where Columbanus may have acquired this devotion to St Martin. Was it while on his travels in Gaul or did he become acquainted with the works of Sulpicius in Ireland? If the latter, then Bangor would be the obvious place.

2. The Irish palimpsest sacramentary from the mid-7th century contains the text of a mass for St Martin.

3. In the Life of Columba, Adamnan mentions in passing that St Martin was commemorated during Mass at Iona. We cannot be sure, of course, whether Adamnan is reflecting the practice of his own time in the late 7th century or that of St Columba a century earlier. Furthermore, in writing his Life of Columba, Adamnan was clearly influenced by The Life of St Martin by Sulpicius Severus.

Richter then goes on to see just how far back in the history of Irish Christianity this devotion to Saint Martin might go. Traditionally, the earliest Gaulish connection was taken right back to Saint Patrick, who was said to have spent time training and travelling in Gaul, where he encountered the Life of Martin of Tours. Later sources, indeed, even claimed that Patrick's mother was Martin's sister! Richter, like other modern scholars, rejects this and suggests rather that the mission of Palladius to the Irish is a more likely conduit for the earliest transmission of the Martinian tradition. The mission of Palladius is now seen within the wider context of the mission of Germanus of Auxerre to Britain around 429. Thus, this could be the context in which the Life of St Martin was brought from Gaul to Ireland at an early date, and could explain how Columbanus was familiar with it before he ever left Ireland.

Richter concludes:

When taking all the fragments of information from Ireland altogether, textual, liturgical and hagiographical, it may be said that St Martin was a familiar and revered figure in Ireland in the mid-seventh century at the least. This would be easiest explained if the texts which praised him were known widely. The most plausible context for the arrival of the text of Sulpicius Severus remains the Palladian mission.

Michael Richter, Ireland and Her Neighbours in the Seventh Century (Dublin, 1999), 225-230.

This post was first published here.

The Feast of Saint Michael the Archangel in Ireland

On 29 September, Canon O'Hanlon gives a brief account of the feast of Saint Michael the Archangel in Ireland based on the surviving calendar entries for this day:

In the Church from a very remote date, the Festival of this Head of the Angelic Host had been observed with special solemnity. In Ireland, St. Oengus the Culdee has pronounced a distinguished eulogy on him, at the 29th of September, in the "Feilire", thus translated by Dr. Whitley Stokes in the Leabhar Breacc copy:

"At the fight against the multitudinous
Dragon of our Michael stout, victorious, the
soldier whitesided, hostful, will slay
Wrathful Antichrist."

Allusion is made to his fight with the Dragon and Anti-Christ. The Scholiast has comments which state, that Michael was Prince of the Angels, and that as a soldier he was the champion whose name is explained by 'sicut Deus' in Mount Garganus. In recording his feast at this day, Marianus O'Gorman addresses the Archangel Michael as a powerful intercessor:

"May the great Archangel Michael be a buckler to me against devils to protect my soul!"

I was intrigued by these references to Saint Michael and the battle with the Antichrist and went on to do some further reading on the subject. One of the papers I read posed the question:

The tenth and eleventh centuries witnessed an extraordinary increase of interest in the archangel in western Europe. What explains the rapid growth of this cult during the period, especially in the years between 950 and 1050?

The author gives this answer:

1. The militancy of St Michael as a symbol for this turbulent epoch. This development of sacred militancy is unquestionably one of the principal reasons for the popularity of the saint.

2. Another is the increasing prominence given to St Michael as a personal protector of every Christian soul, the angelic cura animarum. Some of this interest stems from the western discovery of the writings of Pseudo-Dionysius in the 9th century, with his attention to the hierarchy of spirits and the function of the archangels as messengers. Yet some of it also arises from the Celtic tradition in which during the Middle Ages St Michael was seen as a soulmate, one responsible for conducting each person after death to Judgment. Out of this tradition would come the image of Michael with his scales weighing the souls at Judgment, an image that would later become so prominent on the western facade of Gothic cathedrals.

3. A third aspect of the increasing importance of the archangel in this period is his apocalyptic role. How do we account for the growing interest in the apocalyptic Michael?...

He then looked specifically at the cult of the Archangel in Ireland:

As in so many other aspects of the Christian life of the early Middle Ages, Ireland seems also to have been a harbinger in its early interest in the cult of the apocalyptic Michael. A good example is found in the occurence of the feast of St Michael in 767. A terrifying thunder storm created a wave of panic in which the Irish, convinced the Last Judgment was about to occur, begged the archangel to intercede for them:

'The fair of the clapping of hands [so called] because terrific and horrible signs appeared at the time, which were like unto the signs of the day of judgment, namely great thunder and lightning, so that it was insufferable to all to hear the one and see the other. Fear and horror seized the men of Ireland, so that their religious seniors ordered them to make two fasts, together with fervent prayer and one meal between them, to protect and save them from a pestilence, precisely at Michaelmas. Hence came the Lamhchomart, which was called the fire from heaven' (Annals of the Kingdom of Ireland by the Four Masters from the Earliest Period to the year 1616, ed. J O'Donovan, Vol I (Dublin 1851), pp 370-73.) The Annals of Ulster list the event under 771.

The presence of Michael in Ireland seems more manifest in a number of ways in the 10th and early 11th centuries. The archangel was depicted with his scales on a high cross at Monasterboice. He also appears in the concluding portion of the great Irish epic of salvation history, the Saltaird, c.988. In this work of over 8,000 lines, which seems to have served as one of the foundations for the later medieval interest in the Fifteen Signs Before Doomsday, Michael will summon all to the Last Judgment:

'The archangel will call a clear call over the clay of every man, upon Adam's strong seed: all the many will arise". (Lines 8229-32 of the Saltair na Rann).

The growing importance of this archangel for the Irish is additionally confirmed by the fact that sometime in the period between 950 and 1044, the most famous site dedicated to him in Ireland had his name attached to it. The jagged peak jutting 700 feet almost straight up out of the Atlantic twenty miles off the south-west Irish coast became, not simply Skellig, but Skellig Michael.

Daniel Callahan, The Cult of St Michael the Archangel and the "Terrors of the Year 1000" in The Apocalyptic Year 1000: Religious Expectation and Social Change, 950-1050 by Richard Allen Landes, Andrew Gow, David C. Van Meter (Oxford Univ Press US, 2003)181-204

From a Sermon on the Assumption Preached at Bobbio

“Celebrating today the Assumption of the Holy Mother Mary, dearest Brethern, it behoves you to rejoice in spirit, in that God has willed for your salvation to raise her from the earthly dwellings to the heavenly mansions. The Mother of Our Lord is assumed today by God, the Creator of all things, to the heavenly kingdom, and she who by her chaste child-bearing brought life to the human race, today ascends to Heaven to pray to God at all times for us. Let it be our prayer, whilst we keep the day of the Assumption, that she may assist us by her merits, and may protect us from the snares of Satan, that so through her we may deserve to attain the joys of Paradise.”

Source: The Queen of Ireland – An Historical Account of Ireland's Devotion to the Blessed Virgin by Mrs Helena Concannon (Dublin, 1938), 41-42.

Bobbio is the Italian monastery founded by the great Irish missionary and patron of Europe Saint Columbanus (feastday November 23). In a footnote to the above extract, Mrs Concannon says that it was discovered among fragments of Irish manuscripts in Turin and has been dated to a period not later than the ninth century. The Bobbio Missal also contains a special Mass for the Feast of the Assumption.

Two Ancient Hymns of the Irish Church on St. Peter

Below are the texts and translations of two hymns in honour of Saint Peter, discovered among the manuscripts at the German monastery of Reichenau and republished by Patrick Francis, Cardinal Moran, in one of his essays on the early Irish Church. Irish missionaries founded a number of monasteries in Germany, which are known collectively as 'Schottenklöster'. The status of Reichenau, an island monastery on Lake Constance, as one of these Schottenklöster is not as clearly-defined as some of the more famous Irish foundations like Ratisbon, associated with the Blessed Marianus Scottus (Muiredach MacRobertaigh). Reichenau's founder was a Saint Pirmin, and scholars are still unable to say with certainty where this saint was born. In an earlier post on my own blog here I reprinted a nineteenth-century paper which argued that he was an Irishman. In a sense though, the nationality of the founder is not the defining factor here, for this monastery clearly had links to the Irish cultural world. One of its most famous sons, Walafrid Strabo, who was not an Irishman, wrote the only surviving account of the martyrdom of Saint Blaitmac of Iona, killed by the Vikings as he defended the relics of Saint Columba. A version of Adamnan's Life of Saint Columba found at Reichenau's Library was of such good quality and completeness that it was the text used by the 17th-century hagiologist Father John Colgan in his Trias Thaumaturga, the lives of the the three patron saints of Ireland. Ermenrich, a ninth-century abbot of Reichenau, wrote glowingly of Ireland's contribution to Christian mission and learning: 'How can we forget Ireland, the island where the sun of faith arose for us, and whence the brilliant rays of so great a light have reached us? Bestowing philosophy on small and great, she fills the Church with her science and her teaching.' What a wonderful testimony to the spiritual legacy of the Irish in Europe!


Two Ancient Hymns of the Irish Church on St. Peter, published by Mone.

We are indebted to the eminent German antiquarian, Mone, for two very ancient hymns of the Irish Church, which he discovered amongst the papers of the old Irish monastery of Reichenau, and which he published, from Irish manuscripts of the 8th and 9th centuries, in his invaluable work entitled " Hymni Latini Medii Aevi”. [Friburg, 1855. Vol. iii. pag. 68.]

The first and most ancient poem is an alphabetical hymn on the apostle Peter, the initials of each strophe presenting successively the whole series of the letters of the alphabet. We now give it to the reader, as printed by Mone, and we unite with it a literal translation, for which we are indebted to the kindness of the Rev. Mr. Potter, Professor of All-Hallows College, Dublin:


1 "Audite fratres fama
Petri pastoris plurima
Baptismatis libamina
Fundit veluti flumina.
Adsiut nobis sublimia
Sancti Petri suffragia.

2 “Bis refulsit ut fulmina
Sana sanctorum agmina
Flentes duxit ex ordine
Gentes divino carmine.

3 "Celebravit egregia
Evangelii praeconia,
Facta prostrata legia
De Satana victoria.

4 “Dudum elegit dominus
Petrum ut optimum oleum,
Ut obitaret dominum
Essetque pastor ovium.

5 “Elaboravit ubique,
Curae datus historiae,
Fundamentum dominicae
Ecclesiae Catholicae.

6 "Facta crucis martyria
Fecit magna prodigia
Sequutus per aetheria
Christiana vestigia.

7 "Gloriosum apostolum
Deus ornavit gloria
Romse urbis qua in
Vivit cum victoria.

8 "Habundabat justitia,
Plenus divina gratia
Expandit retia sparsa
Per mundi spatia.

9 "Judaeorum malivolas
Vitae formavit animas
Missusque capsit plurimas
Evangelii per sagias.

10 "Kasta librorum legimus,
Petri plenos virtutibus,
Moestas divinis fletibus,
Pastoris summi nutibus.

11 "Luxit ut Phoebus saecula,
Christi secutus opera
Binae legis oracula
(A line wanting).

12 "Mirum pastorem piissimum
Flagitare non desino,
Ne demergar cum pessima,
Intercedas pro misero.

13 "Nunc dignare, apostole,
Aperire cum clavibus
Regnum quod olim quaerimus
Nos instantes prae foribus.

14 "Opus delator sublimis,
Te rogamus assidue,
Recordare martyriae
Et auxilium tribue.

15 "Petri precamur veniam,
Si qua mala peregimus,
Resistentes daemonibus
Nunc evalere legimus.

16 "Qui nostri spiritus aerias
Praesta salutis galeas,
Simon Johannis, audias
Nostras preces, ut audias.

17 "Regis regnum apostolorum,
Precor precamine,
Me morantem in limine
Mortis desolve valide.

18 "Salvat horis in munere,
Mundi ferebat famina,
Cui concessa numina,
Relaxare peccamina.

19 "Turbae sanctorum magister,
Ovem errantem eruat,
Negligenter ne pereat,
Adjutorium tribuat.

20 "Uisitando cum trophaeo,
Fidei tectus clipeo,
Cujus vires ut sapio
Fari omnino nequeo.

21 "Xristi martyrum lucifer,
Legis lator altissimi,
Cui daemones pessimi
Obediebant impiissimi.

22 "Ymno dicto de laudibus
Petri, utcunque fecimus,
Nostris virtutum opibus
Propitiatur precibus.

23 "Zona praecincti placidis
Totis vivamus debitis,
Ut fruamur infinitis,
In angelorum editis."


1 "List, Brothers, whilst our hymn of praise,
To Peter's name we humbly raise;
From whose blest hand the waters ran,
Which life restored to fallen man.
May Peter's love our path attend,
And guide us to our happy end.

2 "Bright as the lightning's glowing sheen,
He, twice, 'mid ranks of saints, was seen;
Whilst nations lost in fear and love,
Hear chants divine from realms above.

3 " With fearless tongue he pleads the cause
Of Christ's divine and holy laws;
And all the baffled hosts of hell
His Master's glowing triumph tell.

4 "In years long past, in by-gone time,
As highest prince, to post sublime
Was Peter chosen to succeed,
And Christ's ne'er-failing flock to feed.

5 "Nor clime, nor space, might bound his zeal,
And pages writ his deeds reveal;
On him, the rock so strong, so sure,
Christ's Church shall ever firm endure.

6 "Fixed to the cross, he closed his days,
And wonders dread proclaimed his praise:
To realms above, to die no more,
He soar'd, as Christ had soar'd before.

7 "And, now, in deathless glory crowned,
The earth doth with his praise resound;
And thou, the first, sweet mother Rome,
His see, his battle-field, his home.

8 "Hence, in God's grace, in justice bright,
And led and guided by their light,
Through all the world, from end to end,
Did Peter's care his nets extend.

9 "E'en cruel Jews, from vice and strife,
Were led to walk the path of life;
And, soon, the Gospel's seine might tell
Of countless souls redeemed from hell.

10 "Historic lore proclaims his fame,
And all the glory of his name;
"Whilst at his nod, from sinful eyes
Tears rise, as incense, to the skies.

11 "Like Phoebus shining o'er the world,
Christ's saving standard he unfurl'd,
And, walking in his Master's ways,
Proclaim'd God's laws through all his days.

12 "That I may be this pastor's care,
Shall surely be my constant prayer;
Oh, Peter, pray, lest I be tost
By angry waves, and, wretched, lost.

13 "Oh deign, apostle, pure and meek,
To guide us to the realm we seek;
We stand, we pray, we faint outside,
Oh, ope to us those portals wide.

14 "With never-failing lips we pray,
Thy aid and help, our hope, our stay;
And, mindful of thy own sad throes,
Grant help and comfort in our woes.

15 "Thy pardon, Peter, we implore,
With hearts resolved to sin no more;
With Satan's hosts fierce war to wage,
And, trusting, all our foes engage.

16 "Then, Simon John, oh, list our cry,
And bear us succour from on high;
And on our brows bind helmets bright,
To keep us harmless in the fight.

17 " With humble cry, with humble prayer,
Apostles' Lord, I crave thy care;
That, trembling on death's awful shore,
Nor sin, nor hell, may claim me more.

18 "As every hour the sinner's cry,
Doth rise in sadness to the sky;
His chains unbound—behold him free,
For God's right hand doth work with thee.

19 "Oh, master of the sainted band,
O'er erring sinners keep thy hand;
And, lest our feet should sadly stray,
Oh, guide us in the narrow way.

20 "With faith's bright shield thy flock enshroud,
And glad them with thy trophies proud;
But mortal tongue may never tell
The saving strength we know so well.

21 "Of martyrs bright the brightest name,
God's people, all, thy praise proclaim;
Whilst demons dread thy awful sway,
And trembling fiends thy power obey.

22 "As best we may, to Peter's praise
This humble song we humbly raise;
May he our cry benign attend,
And guide us to our happy end.

23 "With girded loins, with duty done,
With cheerful hearts, till all be won;
May we, when life's stern fight is o'er,
Be crown'd with bliss for evermore.
Amen."

We could not desire a fuller exposition of the prerogatives of St. Peter than is contained in this poem; he is the apostle divinely chosen "to hold the place of Christ and feed his sacred fold;" he is "the foundation of the Christian universal church" (fundamentum Dominica Ecclesiae Catholicae); he is "the master of the choir of saints;" " the prince of the martyrs of Christ; "the legislator of the Most High," and moreover, he is adorned "with the aureola of Rome, in which city he is destined to reign with an ever-enduring triumph."

The second poem is equally explicit; it styles the apostle the key-bearer of the heavenly kingdom, not for a while only, but throughout all time; he is the pontiff of souls, the prince of apostles, the shepherd of all the fold of Christ. We now give it in full, with a literal translation:

1. "Sanctus Petrus, apostolus,
Quondam piscator optimus,
Altum mare cum navibus,
Temptabat remis, retibus.

2. "Qui de profundo gurgitum
Magnam raptor fluctivagam
Jactis nave reticulis
Praedam captabat piscium.

3. “Christum vocantem sequitur
Sponte relictis omnibus
Dignus erat apostolus
Factus piscator hominum

4. "Sancto Petro pro merito
Christus regni coelestium
Claves simul cum gratia
Tradidit in perpetuum.

5. "Animarum pontificem,
Apostolorum principem
Petrum rogamus omnium
Christi pastorem ovium.

6. "Ne mens gravata crimine
Nostra torpescat pectore
Reddamus Christo gloriae
Cantemus in perpetuum.

Amen.

1. "Great Peter, saint, apostle blest,
In fisher's lowly garb once drest,
With ship and oar did brave the deep,
Whilst searching nets the billows sweep.

2. "Full oft where surges wildly play,
Where, heedless, sport the finny prey;
His fish he takes, in seine or weel
Wide spread beneath his trusty keel.

3. "But, lo, he hears the Master's call,
With joyful heart abandons all;
And, office dread, unheard till then,
Is fisher made of ransomed men.

4. "The keys which open the portals blest,
That lead the way to endless rest,
To him Christ gives, with grace to tend
And guide his flock safe to the end.

5. "Great Pontiff of Christ's chosen band,
Apostles round thee humbly stand!
O'er Christ's true flock strict watch still keep,
Still guard His lambs still guard His sheep.

6. "Ne'er may our souls, with crime opprest,
Find rest or peace within our breast;
May we to Christ, glad songs of praise,
In realms of bliss, for ever raise. Amen.

Essays on the The Origin of the Irish Church by the Rev. Dr. Moran (Dublin, 1864), 81-87.

Saint Columba Novena and Litany

To celebrate the feast of Saint Columba (June 9) here is a selection of prayers in his honour from the 1941 edition of Saint Anthony's Treasury. This edition contains many prayers to Irish saints, which have been successively whittled down in later printings. The 1975 edition preserves only the Novena Prayer to Saint Columba but there is a litany and a short prayer in the older printing too.

Novena to St. Columba

O Glorious St. Columba, in remembrance of the love you bore your native land in the golden days, when you declared your spirit would always be with us, we beg of you to intercede for us that we may worthily imitate your virtues, especially your great devotion to the Blessed Sacrament. Turn to Jesus on the altar, and never cease to pray for us until the fire of Divine Love burns brightly and steadfastly in every Irish heart. Obtain for our rulers and for all, the true spirit of charity. Let not your interest in the schools of Ireland be less than it was formerly. Bless the labours of those who work in them that the land you loved so well on earth may become again the "Isle of Saints and Scholars". We invoke your powerful intercession against the dread evils of intemperance and for the preservation of the faith and virtue of the Irish people. Pray for us now and always, that faithfully fulfilling the duties of our state, we may love Jesus and Mary with our whole hearts, and thus prove worthy of your love and protection. Amen.

Litany of St. Columba
(For private recitation only)

Lord, have mercy.
Christ, have mercy.
Lord, have mercy.
Christ, hear us.
Christ, graciously hear us.
Holy Mary, pray for us
Queen of Angels, pray for us
Queen of all Saints, pray for us
St. Columba, greatest of Irish-born Saints, pray for us
St. Columba, most illustrious of Irish Scholars, pray for us
St. Columba, founder of Derry, pray for us
St. Columba, patron of Ireland, pray for us
St. Columba, apostle of Scotland, pray for us
St. Columba, dove of the Church, pray for us
St. Columba, Saint of the Eucharist, pray for us
St. Columba, companion of the Angels, pray for us
St. Columba, mirror of purity, pray for us
St. Columba, model of humility, pray for us
St. Columba, lover of temperance, pray for us
St. Columba, father of the poor, pray for us
St. Columba, protector of the innocent, pray for us
St. Columba, advocate of the oppressed, pray for us
St. Columba, friend of the children, pray for us
St. Columba, guardian of schools, pray for us
St. Columba, shield of our city, pray for us
St Oran, monk of Derry, pray for us
All ye holy Monks of Iona, pray for us
St. Bran, Nephew of St. Columba, pray for us
All ye holy Dead of Derry, pray for us
St. Martin, pray for us
All ye Patrons and Friends of St. Columba, pray for us

V. Pray for us, O dearest St. Columba.
R. That we may love the Sacred Heart of Jesus daily more and more.

Let us Pray

O God, Who didst vouchsafe to unveil to Thy Servant, Columba, the Angels who guard Thy Tabernacle, grant that we, whose privilege it is to pray where he knelt, may, through his intercession, be enabled to lead such lives of purity and holiness as will one day entitle us to behold those same Angels in the mansions of bliss, through Christ our Lord. Amen.

Prayer of St. Columba
(Feast, June 9th)

May the fire of God's love burn brightly and steadfastly in our hearts like the golden light within the sanctuary lamp. (Prayer of St. Columba in the Dubhregles of Derry.)

St. Anthony's Treasury - A Manual of Devotions (Anthonian Press, Dublin, 1941), 278-81.

On The Day of Pentecost

This advent of the Spirit on the apostles was prefigured in the fire that came from heaven on the offerings of righteous Abel, as is testified in Genesis, (the book) of the Law, where it says,'respexit Deus ad Abel et ad munera eius,' when fire of God came from heaven on the offerings of Abel, for they were pleasing to God ; so, too, in the fire that came of yore on the Bush, in prefiguration of the descent of the Spirit on the apostles on this day of Pentecost; again, in the fiery column of old, that led the children of Israel out of the Egyptian captivity to go up into the land of promise, in prefiguration of the Holy Spirit, who summoned the apostolic people from the straits of Jewish persecution in which they were held, to go and preach to everyone in every direction; and He invites the people of the New Testament from the darkness of sins and transgressions to the light of virtuous and goodly deeds; so, too, in the sevenfold candelabrum, that illumined the tabernacle of Moses, in prefiguration and foretoken of the sevenfold Spirit, that illumined the Church of the Seven Orders in this seven-day festival of Pentecost; and in this same manner in many other places the advent of the Holy Spirit was prefigured. It was foretold by the prophets: by David, the son of Jesse, when he said, 'fluminis impetus laetificat ciuitatem Dei' [Ps. xl. 5], concerning that honour of the spiritual grace in which the Church rejoices; by the prophet Joel, son of Phathuel [Salahel], when he said, 'erit in nouissimis diebus, dicit Dominus, effundam de Spiritu meo super omnem carnem' [Acts ii. 17], 'the time will come, saith the Lord, when I will pour out the grace of the Holy Spirit on every holy man of faith in the Church' ; by the Author of every prophecy and of all true knowledge, Jesus Christ Himself, after His resurrection, when He said to His apostles, 'accipietis uirtutem superuenientis Spiritus sancti' [Acts i. 8], ' the grace of the Holy Spirit shall come upon you.'

Haec est historia huius lectionis.

'XII. On the Day of Pentecost', The Passions and the Homilies from Leabhar Breac - Text, Translation and Glossary by Robert Atkinson (Dublin, 1887), 439-40.

An Irish Easter Legend

An Irish Easter Legend.

Being in the north-west of Ireland last summer, on the borders of Sligo and Donegal, I chanced upon a famous Shanachie, or story-teller, an Irish-speaking peasant, who possessed an almost inexhaustible fund of traditional, historical, and legendary lore, and whose manner of relating his stories was so graphic that each scene seemed to pass before his own and his listeners' eyes. Amongst the legends he told was one which is now very rare, being, as far as I am aware, known only to Irish-speaking people, and even to few amongst these, though the sculptured tomb bearing the pictured representation of the story being found in Kilree churchyard, almost in the extreme farthest part of Ireland from Donegal, would seem to show that in olden times the legend was popular throughout Ireland.

The old story represented by “a cock in a pot, crowing," was told me by the Shanachie as follows :

" It was at the time when our Saviour was in the grave, and that the soldiers who were set to watch the tomb were sitting round a fire they had lighted. They had killed a cock and put it in a pot on the fire to boil for their supper; and, as they sat around, they spoke together of the story that was told how He that was in the tomb they were guarding had prophesied that before three days were passed He would rise again from the dead. And one of the men said, in mockery: He will rise as sure as the cock that is in that boiling pot will crow again.'

No sooner were the words spoken than the lid of the pot burst open, the cock flew on to the edge, flapped his wings, sprinkling the soldiers with the boiling water, then crowed three times, and what he said each time was:

' Moc an o-o-o-ye, slaun !
Moc an o-o-o-ye, slaun !'

That is,' Son of the Virgin, Hail!' [Mac an Óige, slán] and ever since that hour this is what the cock crows : this is what we hear him say, and if you listen you, too, can hear the very words :

' Moc an o-o-o-ye, slaun !' '

I spell the sound of the Irish phonetically to try and imitate the peculiar softening of the words as an Irish speaker softens them, the prolonging out of the o-o-o sounding almost precisely like the bird's crow heard from a distance. At least so it has always sounded in my ears since I heard this beautiful legend. M. B.

Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland, Volume 27 (1897), 193-194.

A Miracle of Saint Brigid at the Church of Kildare

To conclude our look at the description of the church of Saint Brigid at Kildare by Cogitosus, here is the account of a miracle which occurred during its rebuilding. For scholar Carol Neuman de Vegvar, this incident may add weight to the argument for the historical authenticity of Cogitosus's account of the church and its dating:

The Vita Sanctae Brigidae describes the monastic church at Kildare as expanded in the seventh century to accommodate the growing community. Cogitosus's phrasing 'on account of the growing number of the faithful of both sexes, a new reality is born in an age-old setting' places this reconstruction in the recent past, and the miracle which follows with the craftsman's dispute over how to fit an old door formerly used by Brigit into a doorway of the new building, has the freshness of immediate personal experience of interviews with witnesses. Indeed, the composition of Cogitosus' Vita may have been part of the same promotion of Kildare as the construction of the new church and the translatio of Brigit and Conleth into its sanctuary. If so, then the new church must be estimated to have been constructed approximately between 640 and 670.

Canon O'Hanlon recounts the details of this miracle in his Lives of the Irish Saints:

A miracle, which occurred in repairing this church, and which, Cogitosus thinks should not be passed over in silence, has been placed on record. When the old door of the left side passage, through which St. Brigid used to enter the church, had been altered, repaired, and placed on its former hinges, by artisans, it could not exactly cover the opening as required. A fourth part of this space appeared exposed, without anything left to fill it ; and, if a fourth more were added and joined to the height of the gate, then it might fill up the entire altitude of this reconstructed and lofty passage. The workmen held a consultation, about making another new and larger door to fill up this entrance, or to prepare a panel for an addition to the old door, so as to make it the required size. A principal artisan among the Irish then spoke :"On this night, we should fervently implore the Lord, before St. Brigid, that before morning she may counsel us what course we ought to pursue, in reference to this matter," After these words, he passed a whole night in prayer, beside St. Brigid's tomb. On the morning he arose. He then found, on forcing and settling the old door on its hinge, the whole passage was filled, so that a single chink was not left uncovered, nor in its height was any, even the least, excess discovered. Thus, it happened, as the whole aperture was filled, that St. Brigid—as was generally believed—had miraculously extended that door in height. Nor did any part appear open, except when the door was moved on entering her church. This miracle, accomplished by Divine omnipotence, was evidently manifested to the eyes of all, who looked upon the door and the passage.

The Church at Kildare - a lost reality?

The description of the church at Kildare by Cogitosus has given rise to some scholarly controversy. In the past it has been suggested that the whole thing is no more than a literary conceit on the part of the hagiographer. In the 1960s, for example, one scholar argued that the description of the church at Kildare was a 'pure figment of the imagination' inspired by a desire to imitate Adamanan's description of the the Anastasis Rotunda in Jerusalem in his work, De Locis Sanctis. I have been reading a recent paper, however, which accepts the historical reality of the church as described by Cogitosus and which seeks to explain it against the backdrop of seventh-century ecclesiastical politics. The author argues that the architectural peculiarities of Kildare can be explained by imitatio Romae, a self-conscious desire on the part of this Irish foundation to ape the features of Roman churches. Here is some of the evidence she offers:

Why does Kildare diverge from the other Irish churches of its day to accommodate a longitudinal barrier down the centre of its nave to separate worshippers by gender, even to the extent of foregoing a western door? The answer may be that Kildare was copying a foreign precedent, not from Africa or Spain as proposed by Radford and Thomas, but rather from Rome. In the Roman ordines, particularly in the seventh-century Ordo I, there are consistent parallelisms of layout and function with the approximately synchronous church at Kildare. In the ordines, the congregation in the nave was separated by sex with the men to the south and the women to the north, as elsewhere in the early church....

...Additional features of Kildare may demonstrate Roman influence. At St Peter's it is unlikely that the faithful used the central doorway ; instead they used lateral doors, two on the north for women and two on the south for men. Kildare with its single gender-specific doorways in the north and south walls of the nave, may provide a scaled-down version of this aspect of St Peter's. The draperies at Kildare were also echoed at Rome as elsewhere in the early church... Whatever the placement and function of the draperies of Kildare's chancel barrier, both the determination to purchase them and Cogitosus's decision to describe them may suggest knowledge of Roman practice and the prestige that costly fabrics could confer.

The evidence suggests that the community of Kildare were aware both of Ordo Romanus I and of specific Roman structures, possibly through pilgrims' reports, and that they were willing and able to modify received ideas to fit the more modest scale and liturgical needs of an Irish monastic church. No particular Roman church is imitated in all particulars, but Roman precedent in general was applied effectively and with probable intent.

Why would Kildare, in reconstructing its monastic church in the mid-seventh century, depart from generalized norms of Irish church construction in order to follow Rome? The answer may lie in contemporary ecclesiastical politics. In the Prologue to his Life of Brigit, Cogitosus claims for Kildare a position of authority in Ireland 'It is the head of almost all the Irish churches with supremacy over all the monasteries of the Irish and its paruchia extends over the whole land of Ireland, reaching from sea to sea'. This is more a statement of ambition than of fact, as Kildare's claims to authority were eventually overpowered by those of Armagh. By the mid-seventh century, if current concensus is accurate in dating the Liber Angeli, Armagh was indentifying itself with Rome in that text in a bid for metropolitan status, a concept in itself profoundly Roman... The deliberate imitatio Romae of its splendid new monastic church, in combination with the claims to ecclesiastical power and advancement of the cult of its founder saint by Cogitosus's Vita, may be the otherwise silenced voice of Kildare in a climate of severe competition and exclusion.. Far from being a figment of scholarly imagination, the Romanitas of the monastic church at Kildare as described by Cogitosus may well be a stratagem in the realpolitik of the internal struggles of the church and the dynastic rivalries of mid-seventh century Ireland.

Carol Neuman de Vegvar, 'Romanitas and Realpolitik in Cogitosus' Description of the Church of St Brigit, Kildare' in Martin Carver (ed.), The Cross Goes North: Processes of Conversion in Northern Europe, AD 300-1300 (Boydell Press, 2006), 153-167.

This post was first published here.

The Tombs of Saints Brigid and Conleth at Kildare

Below is the famous description of the church at Kildare from the Life of Saint Brigid by Cogitosus. In it the hagiographer describes the tombs of Saints Brigid and Conleth, as well as painting a fascinating picture of the church and its practices. Cogitosus was himself most probably a monastic at Kildare and his Life is usually dated to the third quarter of the seventh century.

Neither should one pass over in silence the miracle wrought in the repairing of the church in which the glorious bodies of both - namely Archbishop Conleth and our most flourishing virgin Brigit - are laid on the right and left of the ornate altar and rest in tombs adorned with a refined profusion of gold, silver, gems and precious stones with gold and silver chandaliers hanging from above and different images presenting a variety of carvings and colours. Thus, on account of the growing number of the faithful of both sexes, a new reality is born in an age-old setting, that is a church with its spacious [site] and its awesome height towering upwards. It is adorned with painted pictures and inside there are three chapels which are spacious and divided by board walls under the single roof of the cathedral church. The first of these walls, which is painted with pictures and covered with wall hangings, stretches width-wise in the east part of the church from one wall to the other. In it there are two doors, one at either end, and through the door situated on the right, one enters the sanctuary to the altar where the Archbishop offers the Lord's sacrifice together with his monastic chapter and those appointed to the sacred mysteries. Through the other door, situated on the left side of the aforesaid cross-wall, only the abbess and her nuns and faithful widows enter to partake of the banquet of the body and blood of Jesus Christ. The second of these walls divides the floor of the building into two equal parts and stretches from the west wall to the wall running across the church. This church contains many windows and one finely wrought portal on the right side through which the priests and the faithful of the male sex enter the church, and a second portal on the left side through which the nuns and congregation of women faithful are accustomed to enter. And so, in one vast basilica, a congregation of people of varying status, rank, sex and local origin, with partitions placed between them, prays to the omnipotent Master, differing in status, but one in spirit.

S. Connolly and J-M Picard, 'Cogitosus's Life of Saint Brigit - content and value' in JRSAI, 117, (1987), 25-6.

This post was first published here.

Saint Fine, Abbess of Kildare

This is the first in a series of posts on saints of the Diocese of Kildare and Leighlin from my blog Under the Oak. My site is dedicated to the saints of Ireland and I explore their lives and the spiritual legacy of the early Irish church. I use as a primary source the Lives of the Irish Saints by John, Canon O'Hanlon, supplemented by other sources and more recent scholarship.

O'Hanlon has a very short entry for Fine or Finia, an eighth-century abbess of Kildare, whom the great 17th-century Irish hagiologist, Father John Colgan, believed had reposed on January 9 in the year 800, an event recorded in the Irish Annals:

St. Finia or Fine, Abbess of Kildare. [Eighth Century.]

Because truth and innocence of life distinguish holy virgins, they live without stain before the throne of God. We are informed by Colgan, that Finia, Abbess of Kildare, died on the 9th of January, a.d. 800. The same year is set down for the death of this Fine, in the Annals of the Four Masters.

Although it is not expressly stated, Colgan seems to regard this day as dedicated to her memory.

It seems impossible to discover much else about this particular successor to Saint Brigid as an individual, but Christina Harrington, in her valuable work on the role of women in the Irish church, can place the office of abbess into a context for us:

The sources of material on Irish abbesses are extremely patchy, and the overall quantity of evidence quite slim. The Irish left no guiding or prescriptive texts on this office; there is no surviving correspondence such as is found in Anglo-Saxon England and which proves so illuminating for the abbess’s position there. There is a small but important quantity of legal material in which are found occasional notes concerning abbesses’ rights and privileges; there is a large amount of hagiography containing anecdotes about abbesses; and there are annal entries for abbesses of the most famous houses...

In female saints’ Lives, the characterization of the foundress serves repeatedly to restate the holy ideal not only for the ordinary nun, but also for the abbess, since in Ireland the major female saints were abbesses. As the spiritual heir of the foundress saint, the abbess was supposed to manifest at least in part her patron’s virtues and be in her own lifetime a role model in the religious life. The Lives also offer insights into the practicalities of an abbess’s duties, both to her own nuns and also to the outside world. Thus the foundress formed the prototype for the abbess’s role, both spiritually and practically....

In her community of nuns, the abbess too was the supervisor and governor, domina and mother. In the female Lives, the abbess is the person who is directly responsible for ensuring the monastery’s survival. She decides if the community is to move location. She procures food and beer in times of scarcity, and organizes help in fending off attackers in times of danger. It is she, for example, who asks for charitable help from clerics, monasteries, and other nunneries when her own community runs into difficulty.

Decisions on who joined the familia were within the abbess’s remit: it was she who approved the intake of novices and the adoption of fosterlings and abandoned babies. She was responsible for the maintenance of the moral standard and adherence to the rule. Then there were matters of discipline, and in the Lives the abbess appears as inspector, judge, and setter of punishments.

Like the foundress saint whose heir she was, the abbess had to strive to embody the seemingly contradictory qualities of world-renunciation and temporal dominion. She was to uphold the ascetic tradition whilst at the same time shoring up and even expanding her church’s sphere of control...

One of the abbess’s most important tasks in the continued work of aggrandizing her church was the provision and reception of hospitality, which in early medieval Ireland formed one of the major currencies of social interchange, social cohesion, and assertion of power and status. Failing to provide hospitality to those whose rank warranted it brought dishonour upon the failed host; providing abundantly brought status, and fulfilled economic and/or ecclesiastical obligations...

The ideal abbess was a provider of abundance to all the religious superiors who came to her community. A poem attributed to St Brigit from the tenth or eleventh century, shows her as the giver of hospitality: the feast she provides is one of spiritual nourishment, and her overlord is none less than Christ and the hosts of heaven. Hospitality was a Christian virtue and Brigit its exemplar, just as Monenna was treated as an exemplar of the discipline of fasting.

C. Harrington, Women in a Celtic Church- Ireland 450-1150 (Oxford University Press, 2002), 165-169.

Harrington has much more to say about the office of abbess, and has a particularly interesting analysis of the power that these women were able to wield in both the secular and the ecclesiastical spheres. Irish law did not see women as legally competent and some of the sources upheld the need for all women to have a male 'head'. In theory this would seem to create a problem for Abbesses as the equivalent of male 'heads' of religious communities. Yet the sources also indicate that this was not necessarily so in practice. Harrington sees the accounts of abbesses acting as confessors or soul-friends as especially important to the question of 'headship', although of course an Abbess could not hear confession in the sacramental sense. Indeed, some Abbesses were even prized as soul-friends by men, Saint Samthann of Clonbroney is one famous example. Abbesses like Fine were also drawn from the Irish aristocracy of the day and thus derived some of their authority from their connections to powerful ruling families. In her case this authority was bolstered by the fact that Fine was the heir to a foundress of exceptional sanctity, and it is surely a mark of how important a figure the Abbess of Kildare was felt to be that the Irish Annals continued to record the deaths of the successors of Saint Brigid for centuries after her passing.

This post was originally published here.