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The Death of Saint Laurence O'Toole
"...Having embarked from England, St Laurence landed on the coast of Normandy, at a creek which at the present time derives its name "St. Laurent' from him. Shortly afterwards he was seized with the...
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Saints Marinus and Anianus, November 15
At August 16 I noted that Canon O'Hanlon had found evidence from the manuscripts of the Irish Franciscan seventeenth-century hagiologist, Father John Colgan, that he intended to write about two...
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Saint Medhbh of Ardachadh, November 22
November 22 is the feast of Saint Caecilia, the martyr now regarded as the patroness of music and honoured throughout the universal Church. Indeed the Martyrology of Oengus devotes its entire entry for...
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Saint Noe, November 25
In previous years I have written about Irish devotion to Saint Catherine of Alexandria, as November 25 is her feast day. It is time now to take a long overdue look at some of our native saints who...
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Saint Ailerán on the Genealogy of Christ
December 29 is the feast of Saint Ailerán, one of the foremost scholars associated with the monastery of Clonard, County Meath. Sadly, in the year 665 he was one of the victims of the Buidhe Chonaill...
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Saint Dabheoc of Lough Derg, January 1
January 1 is the feast of Saint Dabheoc of Lough Derg, a holy man who illustrates many of the difficulties involved in the study of the early medieval Irish saints. First, his name is rendered in a...
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Saint Amphitina, January 2
In the first volume of his Lives of the Irish Saints Canon O'Hanlon closes his list of those commemorated on January 2 with this notice of yet another enigmatic female saint: Article VI. St....
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Irish Missionaries
January 18 is the feast of Saint Dicuil (Deicola), a companion of Saint Columbanus and founder of the monastery of Lure. He is but one of the many Irish missionaries who laboured in Europe and is one...
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A Papal Tribute to a Learned Irishman
February 9 is the commemoration of the eleventh-century Irish monastic scribe Marianus Scotus, Muiredhach Mac Robartaigh, a Donegal manwho pursued his vocation at the Irish monastery of Ratisbon in...
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Saint Fintan's Road: A Legend of Clonenagh
February 17 is the feast of Saint Fintan of Clonenagh. I have previously brought Canon O'Hanlon's account of the miracles attributed to this great monastic saint here. Below is another of his...
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Saint Cairpre Crom of Clonmacnoise, March 6
On March 6 the Irish calendars commemorate a 9th-century successor to Saint Ciarán at Clonmacnoise, Cairpre Crom. Described as a bishop, he features in a curious piece of apocryphal literature in which...
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Saint Mettán of Túaim Átha, March 7
On March 7 the Irish calendars record the name of Saint Mettán, yet another of Ireland's enigmatic female saints. As Canon O'Hanlon explains in Volume III of his Lives of the Irish Saints it is not...
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The Legend of Iniscathy
March 8 is the feast of Saint Senan (Seanán) of Scattery Island (Inis Cathaigh, Iniscathy), an important monastic saint of County Clare. I have previously posted an account of his life by Redemptorist...
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How to Learn Irish
To mark the annual Seachtain na Gaeilge celebration of our national language and culture below is a rather extraordinary article on the subject of how to learn Irish. Published in early 1858 in the...
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A Famous Irish School and its Founder
March 21 is the feast of the great monastic founder and teacher, Saint Enda of Aran. An account of his life by Father Albert Barry can be found on the blog here. Below is an account by another...
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The Saints and Animals
The theme of 'saints and beasts' is a common one in hagiography where the interaction between holy men and women and the animal creation form some of the best-known and well-loved episodes in the Lives...
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Saint Banbán the Wise, May 9
May 9 is the feast of Saint Banbán, whom the calendars dub 'the Wise' (Latin, sapiens). He is one of a number of saints who share this ancient name, as the online version of the nineteenth-century...
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Saint Connachtach of Iona, May 10
May 10 is the feast of Saint Connachtach, an 8th/9th century abbot of Iona. This successor to Saint Colum Cille enjoyed a particular reputation as a scriba selectissimus, a scribe most choice, but the...
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The Miracles and Monastic Life of Saint Carthage
The Story of St Carthage (1937)May 14 is the feast of Saint Carthage (Mochuda) of Lismore, subject of a previous post here. Canon O'Hanlon's account of this saint includes many of the miracles...
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Saint Dymphna: 'Lode-star of the Lost Ones'
Saint Dympna - or Davnet of Ireland may belong to legend or mythology; Saint Dympna of Gheel to a holy tradition: Saint-Dympna-of-Today belongs to us all. She is part, as it were, of our national...
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