St Flannan is patron of Killaloe (Cill Dalua) diocese which extends over a great distance between Co. Clare and Co. Tipperary, as well as areas of Co. Offaly, Co. Laois, and Co. Limerick. The name Flannan is a diminutive of flann which means ruddy.
The Killaloe monastic connection
The Killaloe monastic diocesan centre was the enterprise of St Lua (554-609) who is considered the founding abbot and bishop. St. Lua was from Ardagh, in Limerick. He studied in Clonard and later in Bangor for the religious life before he was ordained a priest. Lua became more affectionately known as Molua. He later returned home where he founded a some monasteries, as well as his most prominent at Killaloe, a name which means the church of Lua.
St Flannan succeeds St Molua at Killaloe monastery
St Flannan was the son of Turlough, King of Thomond, and also St. Molua’s nephew. Throughout Ireland’s royal history, kings and queens would keep a biographer and an account of family and political life. There is an account given that Flannan studied to “till, sow, harvest, grind, winnow, and bake for the monks.” In his youth Flannan learned theology under scripture scholar Saint Blathmet, before going under the tutelage of his uncle Molua in Killaloe.
Tradition says, that one day at Killaloe, while baking continuously for an period of 36 hours, Flannan’s left hand became transfigured. There was enough light to enable him to continue baking right through the night. The reigning abbot Molua learnt of this incident, and felt it was his opportune time to consider retiring, with the view that Flannan could be the new abbot. The noble people of Thomond were in accord that Flannan should be consecrated. In Rome, he received consecration from Pope John IV (640-2). St. Molua would retire to the monastic centre of Lismore in Waterford and King Turlough who began his reign in 625, would also retired in his old age to Lismore to become a monk.
Flannan as Abbot of Killaloe, enjoyed a golden era when “the fields waved with the richest crops, the sea poured almost on the shore an abundance of large whales and every kind of smaller fish, and the apple trees drooped under the weight of the fruit, woods abounded in acorns and hazel-nuts”. It was a ruddy chef’s dream.
Later in life, Flannan felt his time approaching… So he assembled his closest together, telling them of the importance of observing natural and human justice. Flannan encouraged peace among the people of the provinces. He blessed his relatives and then he passed away.
We celebrate the noble St. Flannan, abbot and chef on the 18th December
St. Finnian (‘Fionáin’ in Irish), was an early monastic saint. He lived from about 470 to 549.
St. Finnian of Clonard is considered the maestro of the Irish saints; notable students include Colmcille of Iona, Ciarán of Clonmacnois and St, Canice (Kenneth). His monastic foundation at Clonard (Cluain Eraird in Irish) was very influential as a centre of theological learning, and from here sprang the twelve Irish disciples; after St. Patrick, they were recognised as the Fathers and Founders of the Irish Church.
Finnian was born at Myshal in Carlow at the foot of Mount Leinster and about 14 minutes drive from Bunclody, in Wexford. Finnian’s father was Finloch of the Rory clann, and his mother was called Telach. While she was pregnant, she had a vivid dream of a bright flying flame that drew very near to her, entering one moment in her mouth, before flying away gloriously, to all the corners of Ireland Ireland, attracting a huge flock of birds that followed. Telach told her husband of the vivid dream, and he predicted that Finnian would become an influential professor and mentor. Finnian grew up to become one of the greatest fathers of the Irish monasticism.
The young Finnian was educated first by Bishop Fortchernn of Trim, a disciple of St. Patrick. From there, the boy proceeded to Wales to grow in virtue and study spirituality under the great saints of Wales; his teachers included great fathers such as St. David, St. Gildas the Wise, and, especially, St. Cadoc. These Welsh saints influenced the Celtic Church in Ireland in that they are said to have given a monastic flavour to the Second Order of the Irish Saints, disciples of Finnian. This form of monasticism resembled some of the traditions of the holy fathers of the Eastern church. Finnian spent thirty years in Wales according to the Salamanca MS. He also studied for awhile in the French monastic centre of St. Martin in Tours in Gaul. Here in France Finnian learned the life of ascetic austerity for spiritual gain.
Then Finnian returned to Ireland, to Aghowle near Shillelagh in County Wicklow, where King Oengus of Leinster gave him a site to build a church. In Irish this place name is Achadh Abhla ; i.e., “Field of the Apple-Tree,”. From there Finnian traversed Ireland, preaching, teaching, and founding churches, as far south as Skellig Michael islands, eight miles off the coast of Co. Kerry. He went north eastwards to Dunmanogue on the river Barrow, in Co. Kildare. He stopped by the town of Kildare, visiting at St Brigid’s monastery. Finnian was esteemed by St. Brigid, who gifted him with a gold ring on his departure.
By the year 520 Finnian arrived at Clonard, (Erard’s Meadow in English). This place was to be his most prominent religious site. He was led to thereby an angel. Clonard is situated on the River Boyne in present day Co. Meath, Ireland’s former royal province. Here Finnian received a large tract of land and built his monastic site, where he entered into a life devoted to study, mortification, and prayer.
Finnian had a strong theological reputation and the Clonard monastery became a centre of Biblical studies, becoming the largest and the most important in Ireland. He became the first abbot and organized life according to the Welsh monastic model. ”The Penitential” compiled by St. Finnian, roots out sin and bad habits while cultivating virtue. Under the influence of Welsh saints and, originally, St. John Cassian in France, Finnian compiled the first known Irish Penitentiary, which later influenced St. Columbanus in his written works. St. Finnian himself slept on the bare earthen floor in his cell without anything for a pillow, to prop his head. One of his disciples recounts that the venerable abbot became emaciated from a prolonged and extreme ascetic life. So much so, his ribs could easily be seen protruding the lining of his tunic. St. Finnian is said to have died in the great plague of 549-550.
The site of the former monastic centre of St. Finnian is located in the grounds of the Church of Ireland at Clonard. He is celebrated on 12th December in the Catholic liturgy.
St. Fergal (or Virgil) was a descendant of Niall of the Nine Hostages. He had mastered mathematics to the point of being considered a Geometer. He was an eight century Irish monk who became abbot of Aghaboe, in Co. Laoise, Ireland. In 743 he sojourned the Continent and became a voluntary exile for love of Jesus on his “Peregrini pro Christo”. Fergal had some companions; Dobda, an Irish Bishop, and Sidonius. In France Fergal met Prince Pippin the Short. The prince took to the learned monk and kept him in his palace for two years. From France Fergal moved to Bavaria where he founded the monastery of Chiemsee at the invitation of Duke Odilo, brother in law to Prince Pippin. As a missionary and an accomplished learner, Fergal stirred some contention with his contemporary missionary, Saint Boniface. Both of these saints evangelised the Germanic people of Bavaria.
The 1st contest between the Irish saint and St. Boniface
St. Boniface had already organized the Bavarian Church. He had created four dioceses in Bavaria. Boniface was a perfectionist, and took no prisoners if the clergy were seen to be unedifying to the faithful. For example, one unlettered priest under Fergal’s care, (out of ignorance) baptised in a Latin formula mixing up the words, translated from ‘’in the name of the Father, and of the Son…’’, to ‘’in the name of the Fatherland, and of the daughter’’. In Latin, the error is not extremely obvious, but Boniface, was scrupulous, declared the baptism invalid, and sought a rebaptism. Fergal was much more down to earth, and understanding of the human error. He saw that the unlearned priest pronounced the formula in error without bad intentions. Fergal sought a verdict on the matter from the Pontiff, who ruled in his favour. Pope Zachary saw that there was no intention to deform the formula, but was due to a simple pronunciation error. The pope wrote to Boniface explaining his decision on I July, 746. No error nor heresy was behind the words pronounced but it being the result of difficulty of proper pronunciation. Boniface submitted, but a frothy relationship developed between him and Fergal.
The 2nd contest…
When the Bishop of Salzburg in Bavaria died, Duke Odilo appointed Fergal to succeed him without recourse to the pope. But Fergal deferred his episcopal consecration, and his friend bishop Dobda looked after the administration for the time being. Boniface however, contested Fergal’s position as uncanonical, but Fergal replied that he held it with the sanction of Pope Zachary. However, the pontiff denied sanctioning this. It seems here that Fergal was misled by Duke Odilo, into believing that the matter had been arranged with the Holy See. Boniface then lodged another complaint as he felt Fergal was turning Duke Odilo against him.
The cosmological contest…
Boniface next complained also that Fergal was a teacher of cosmological heresy. This assumed cosmological heresy was that the earth was flat. The anciently believed flat earth model, was to become reconsidered as a globe. This globe model was already known and accepted by the educated Greeks and Romans. But in the eighth century many analphabetic people still believed the earth was flat. Being a great scholar, Fergal, in his lectures to the monks of St. Peter’s, and in his conversations with his friends, spoke of things that in no way interfered with matters of faith. But it is believed that Fergal may have theorised on another separate human race, and this caused him problems. Pope Zachary wrote to Duke Odilo, requesting him to send Fergal to Rome to be cross examined. Then a war broke out between the Franks and the Bavarians after the death of Duke Odilo in 748. The war ended in the defeat of the Bavarians and probably made the holding of a synod impossible regarding Fergal’s suspected cosmological errors. At any rate, Fergal did give up his speculations in cosmology.
The happy outcome for the Irish missionary
It was meant to be… that At Salzburg, Fergal received episcopal consecration on 15 June, 767. He ruled his diocese with wisdom and energy. He began the erection of a cathedral church, completed in 774 and dedicated to St. Rupert, the Apostle of Bavaria, Fergal took an active part in the ecclesiastical life of Bavaria. He took a lively interest in the preservation of the historical traditions of the Bavarian Church. He gathered the materials for a life of St. Rupert, patron of the diocese of Salzburg.
Fergal died 27th November, 784. At Fergal’s tomb, there is an image of the saint bearing the inscription: ‘’Virgilius templum construxit scemate pulchro’’. He was formerly canonized by Gregory IX in 1233. His feast is celebrated on the 27th of November.
Saint Colman was originally a pagan called Mac Lenine, who was later to convert and become the founder of a monastery. Mac Lenine was of royal descent and he was born around the early 500’s A.D.
Mac Lenine, was brought up as a heathen, and adopted the profession of bard. He became attached to the court of the King of Cashel, in Tipperary. Mac Lenine was musically employed with duties as a historian and poet. His job was to record the deeds of the king, good, bad or indifferent. He registered the genealogies and privileges of noble families, together with the bounds and limits of their lands and territories. Mac Lenine was engaged in such activities for about the forty-eighth year of his life. It was at the request of St. Ita, the Mary of Munster, that St. Brendan, went to meet Mac Lenine, and insist that he become a Christian ” God has called thee to salvation, and thou shalt be as an innocent dove in the sight of God.” The seeds of conversion were sown…
Around 550 A.D. a royal dispute for the throne of Cashel took place between Aodh-dubh and Aodh-caomh. Saint Brendan of Clonfert and Mac Lenine intervened. A compromise was reached in which Aodh-caomh was acknowledged as king of Cashel and the first Christian king of that kingdom. As it happened around the same timeframe, a stolen relics of Saint Ailbe (live rock) of Emly of great value, was discovered by the historian Mac Lenine. From that providential find, and at the behest of St. Brendan, he became a Christian and took the name of Colman.
St. Brendan says that this Colman, son of Lenin, was distinguished amongst the saints by his life and learning. St. Colman was endowed with extraordinary poetic skill, being dubbed by his contemporaries as the “Royal Bard of Munster”. Several of his Irish poems are still extant, notably a metrical panegyric on St. Brendan. A historian type figure, Colgan, attributes to Colman a metrical life of St. Senan.
Colman was granted land in East Cork and with this, he became first Abbot of his newly established monastery at Cloyne in 560 A.D. Colman laboured for more than forty years on his extensive monastic estate. He became bishop and Cloyne became a great centre of ecclesiastical power. This monastic centre was later to be re-established as the seat of the diocese of Cloyne after the synods of Rath Breasail and the synod of Kells. Today the old cathedral is now in the hands of the Church of Ireland, and is in need of repair. The current seat of the Catholic diocese is now based in Cobh, near Cork city.
We conclude now as we think of the many people in Ireland today who like our former Mac Lenine, are well educated, but may lack knowledge of the one true God. We therefore ask Saint Colman to intercede for these poor souls to come to know and revere Jesus as their personal saviour and King. We ask Our lady to direct our steps in finding the lost sheep for the glory of God and the salvation of souls.
We remember St. Colman of Cloyne on the 25th November
The holy Abbot Columban, was a widely known Irish monk in mainland Europe in the early Middle Ages. He is Europe’s missionary Saint, with experience in France, Switzerland and Italy. He coined the phrase ”totius Europae” with relation to Europe’s Christian identity. This phrase he penned in one of his epistles to Pope Gregory the Great around 600 A.D.
Columban was born in 543 A.D, and was home schooled in the liberal arts. He later went to boarding school under the stewardship of Abbot Sinell in Cleenish which is in the old Tyrkennedy country in present day Fermanagh in Ireland’s mid Ulster. Under the abbot, Columban studied scripture, before going on to enter into the monastic life in Bangor under abbot Comgall. Bangor was an ecclesial centre in the north of Ireland, and was known for prayer, study and an ascetic life. It was at Bangor, where Columban was ordained a priest. He would later bring christianity back to mainland Europe, at a time when the Roman empire had collapsed. This was a difficult and dark time in Europe, with pagan worship on the rise.
Columban was to become a missionary while on ”Peregrinatio Pro Christo”. Around the year 590 A.D, he left Bangor with twelve companions, and set out for the Breton coast of France. The Breton coast is present day Brittany or ”Bretagne” where St. Patrick would have grown up. “Bretagne” was the land that was historically known as British Armorica. Patrick was Roman British… but in the present day, Britany is a reclaimed French province. The Roman empire in Patrick’s days still held sway in Western Europe, when he was born in 386 A.D. Now however in 590 A.D. the King of the Franks of Austrasia granted to Columban and the monks some uncultivated land at the old Roman fortress of Annegray which now lay in ruins. Within a few months the monks managed to cultivate the land, and convert the ruins into a hermitage. From Annegray their re-evangelization of Europe began to take root. Living in great austerity, they managed to build up the monastery, attracting pilgrims and those looking to do penitence. They cultivated the land and they cultivated the souls of those seeking spiritual nourishment. They built another monastery nearby at Luxeuil. It became an Irish cultural monastic centre. They also build a monastery at Fontaine.
After about twenty years at Luxeuil, Columban wrote his Columban monastic rule: ”Regula Monachorum”. In another writing called ”De poenitentiarum misura taxanda”, Columban introduced Confession and private penance to France and beyond. This involved a type of tariffed penance, whereby there was a proportion of penance according to the gravity of the sin. Columban practice the Celtic Easter practice in France which became disputed at the Synod at Chalon-sur-Saône in 603. Columban played it down at the Synod, seeking to address more serious ecclesial matters. Columban had already requested support of his practice of the Celtic Easter observation, in his epistles to Pope Gregory the Great.
It was when Columban reprimanded King Theodoric of France for adultery, that he found himself and his monks exiled from France in 610. They were put on a ship destined to cross the English Channel, but the winds kept pushing their ship to the French coast. So the ship sailed up the coast and entered the Rhine river. Columban and his companions ended up near Zurich in Switzerland for quite a number of years. It was at Bregenze where St. Gall and St. Columban parted company after many years on mission together, evangelizing the Alemanni, near Lake Constance. St. Gall was Columban’s right hand man, but preferred to stay in Switzerland instead of continuing on the ”Peregrinatio pro Christo” to Italy.
Having arrived in Italy, Columban and his companions met with a warm welcome at the Lombard Royal Court despite the considerable difficulties in Italy. The Arian heresy was prevalent, and northern Italy was in schism with Rome. At around 613 A.D. the King of the Lombards granted a plot of land in Bobbio, in the Trebbia Valley to Columban, who founded a new monastery and a reputable cultural centre. Here Columban lived out the remainder of his days.
Columban and his monks cultivated the land wherever they went and from there they cultivated the souls of those seeking spiritual nourishment. Thus Columban and his companions saved Europe. He died on 23rd November 615 and he is remembered by the church on this day.
Saint Machar died in 600 AD. (C.E. – Christian Era). He was the son of Fiachna, an Ulster Prince. Machar was baptised by St Colman of Kilmacduagh, and was then given the baptism name of Mochumma, a name which has a sense of endearment about it.
St. Machar is said to have cured seven lepers and to have turned a fierce wild boar into stone. Columba determined that Mochumma should be sent away to do mission in eastern Scotland among the Picts. The ‘’Seanchaí’’, pronounced Shankey, (Ancient Celtic folklore-tellers) relate that St Columba gave Mochumma instructions to search for a place where a river formed the shape of a “crosier” and establish himself there. The site of the present St. Machar’s Cathedral, in Aberdeen, is an uncanny fit to Colum Cille’s instructions. St. Ternan (a disciple of St. Ninian) had already established Christianity in this area in the fifth century, and the further missionary efforts of St. Machar in Aberdeenshire cemented Christianity successfully. St. Machar being Irish, would have founded a monastery, according to the Celtic traditions, and was the abbot, with equal prestige and authority to a bishop. This monastic site would later become the Cathedral site of St. Machar.
Let us fast forwarding into medieval and then also relatively recent history… Shortly after Scotland’s war of independence, the construction and progress of the Cathedral was continued under among others Bishop Alexander Kinnimund (1355-80) and Bishop William Elphinstone (1431-1514). In his lifetime the cathedral was enlarged. The nave and towers on the west, now form the modern church. To the east of the nave, there was a crossing which had one large central tower. There was also a choir to its east and transepts pointing north and south. In 1520 a ceiling of panelled oak bearing 48 heraldic shields was commissioned by Bishop Gavin Dunbar (1518-1532).
Sadly, with the advent of more recent history, General Monck led Cromwell’s troops into Aberdeen in 1654. Looking for material for his fort he removed the stones from the now empty and destroyed bishop’s palace to the east, and from the disused choir space… Enough said!
St. Machar is celebrated in the Scottish liturgical calendar on the 13th November
Much of the material below is taken from Catholicireland.net and supplemented by quoted sources.
A synthetic overview
St Willibrord (AD 658-739) bishop, missionary and patron of the Benelux region. Willibrord, an Anglo Saxon from Northumbria in present day UK, was trained abroad in Ireland and ordained a priest while there. Just like St. Patrick, Ireland left her influence on the the saint to be. From Reverend Willibrord’s priestly ordination in the emerald isle, he was to bring Ireland’s influence to the continent, as one of the first missionaries to the Netherlands and Luxemburg.
His formative years
Willibrord received his Catholic education from a very young age. He had St Wilfrid in Ripon, Yorkshire as his teacher and guide. Now Wilfrid, was a leading light at the Synod of Whitby, A.D. 664, promoting the roman rite over Celtic liturgical traditions. Willibrord was professed at fifteen and in 678 he was sent to Rath Melsigi in Ireland for further studies and formation. Rath Melsigi was an important monastic settlement for the Anglo-Saxons. Historians long thought that Willibrord’s monastery was situated at Mellifont in Co. Louth. But historian, Prof. Dáibhí Ó Cróinín has located Rath Melsigi on the site of Clonmelsh, in Carlow. Ó Cróinín, wrote about Willibrord in 1982 and has published many papers on Rath Melsigi, and Willibrord in a published work ”In Peritia” chapter 3 (1984), pp. 17–49. After twelve years Willibrord was ordained priest in Ireland in 690, and he then immediately returned to England.
Missionary priest
After some time, Willibrord set out for Iona in Scotland, to promote the use of the Roman rite over Celtic traditions. From there, with a band of monks they all went to Frisia which is in present day Netherlands. In Frisia they were well received by Pepin of Herstal, duke and prince of the Franks. Before he began his mission in Frisia, Willibrord went to Rome to obtain approval from Pope Sergius I, for his mission and to procure some relics for the future new churches to be founded. Willibrord’s mission was a success and in 695, with Pepin’s recommendation, he was consecrated in Rome as the archbishop of the Frisians.
A new monastic centre at Echternach
In 701 Willibrord established a new missionary monastery at Echternach in Luxemburg. He did this with the help of some monks from Ireland. This centre became an important library and scriptorium in the Frankish empire. Willibrord died from fatigue in his early eighties at his monastery at Echternach. He became venerated as a saint and pilgrims came to his grave. An annual hop dancing procession takes place in Echternach on Whit Tuesday to honour St. Willibrord. Prof. Dáibhí Ó Cróinín, believes there is a connection (through St. Willibrord) between Irish and Echternach manuscripts and also a connection between the hop dancing procession and Irish dancing. It seems St, Willibrord modified the ”Céile” custom in Ireland at his Benelux pastures.
The church universal celebrates St. Willibrord on the 7th of November. He is particularly mentioned in the Irish liturgical calendar.
The material contained herein is the result of personal investigation and endeavour. We are of the opinion that the material put forward is very reasonably accurate, carefully garnered, digested and distilled for our readers edification. We encourage the reader to look elsewhere for corroborative evidence on the topic.
The Feast of All Irish Saints was instituted in 1921, by Pope Benedict XV. It was already a huge privilege to have twenty five new Irish saints recognised by Rome back in 1902, albeit via an informal procedure. In that year we had increased our existing locally acclaimed saints recognised universally. To explain the procedure for recognition of saints lets take a look at three options…
We have
A) Formally canonised saints
B) Informally canonised saints
C) Pre-congregation canonization
A. Formally canonised saints are when there is a solemn public affair in publicising the recognition of someone as a saint. Examples of formally canonised Irish Saints or saints for Ireland are:
Saint Charles of Mount Argus (Dutch) – 5th January
Nb* Irish monk St. Virgil is also known as St. Fergal; an 8th-century missionary scholar who was formally canonized in 1233 by Pope Gregory IX.
B. Informally canonised saints are when there is a recognition of someone as a saint without the solemn public fan fair. It is a recognition via the process of Cultus Confirmation. Listed below are twenty five saints were recognised in 19 June 1902 by the universal church via the process of Cultus Confirmation:
The process of Cultus Confirmation is also called equipollent (equivalent) canonization, which consists in decreeing an Office and Mass by the pope in honour of the saint, (Benedict XIV, l, c., xliii, no 14). The Congregation for the Causes of Saints (CCS), instituted in 1969, has the competence to consider such an honour. Ordinarily someone whose cultus has been confirmed is considered “Blessed”. In some cases, the decree grants the title as “Saint”.
The rules instituted by Pope Benedict XIV, on the conditions for an equipollent canonization: 1) Existence of an ancient cultus of the person: namely evidence of an immemorial public veneration (cultus ab immemorabili tempore) of the person at least one hundred years before the publication of the decree. 2) Reliable and constant attestation to the virtues or martyrdom of the person by credible historians. 3) Uninterrupted fame of the person as a miracle worker: the claimed saint maintains a reputation for performing miracles that have continued without exception of the centuries. These criteria ensure only claimed saints of authentic merit veneration and canonisation.
C. Pre-congregation canonization are when a saint was proclaimed so by popular devotion and recognised as such by a local bishop. This was of the era before the formal canonisation process we have today begun. This pre-congregation canonisation process is no longer promoted today.
Our national patron Ss Patrick, Brigid, and Colmcille, are also saints by acclamation of local bishops.
What a great privilege that we have twenty officially recognised Irish saints by the Roman pontificate via Cultus Confirmation. We celebrate all Irish Saints day on the 6th November.
St. Malachy was of noble birth whose family surname was Ua Morgair. He was born in Armagh in 1094. His Irish baptism name was Máel-M’áedóc. His father, Mugrón, was ard-fher légind (chief lector or chief scholar) of Armagh. His family was of an ecclesiastical line of Cenél Conaill, a dynasty of Uí Néill. His mother, was most solicitous to train him up in the fear of God.
He received his formation in Armagh from Ímar Ua hÁedacáin, a reform-minded monk. Malachy was very studious, and he far outstripped his fellow-students in learning. He also developed a strong spiritual life and became an ascetic. Malachy was ordained deacon by Ímar c.1118, some years after the reform synod of Rath Breasail in 1111. He was then ordained a priest by the comarba Pátraic (Successor of St. Patrick), by Cellach (Celsus) in 1119. Rev. Cellach was a strong advocate for reform. Under his influence, Malachy advanced his studies in sacred liturgy and theology, down south in Lismore; a predominantly Gaelic diocese, and a pro-reform foundation. He studied for two years under St. Malchus. There also, Malachy came into contact with Máel-Ísu Ua hAinmire, bishop of the small diocese of Waterford, which was a predominantly viking diocese. Máel-Ísu Ua hAimnire was also a strong advocate of reform. He was a Benedictine monk who had studied at Winchester and was well informed on Roman canonical and liturgical practice.
Malachy was thus, destined to reform the Irish ecclesial church. He later became the Abbot of Bangor, in 1123, and became bishop of Down & Connor at age thirty, and then reluctantly became Archbishop of Armagh, in 1132, succeeding Cellach. During his term in possession at Armagh, St. Malachy reformed church discipline, and promoted the Roman Liturgy, in favour of the Celtic traditions. Malachy re-established Christian morals, to the point that he felt able to resign in 1138, with the view to return to the diocese of Down & Connor. He divided two sees of Connor and Down and consecrated another bishop for Connor, reserving for himself the small diocese of Down.
He travelled to Rome in 1139 via York in Great Britain, and Clairvaux in France, visiting St. Bernard. The Clairvaux saint wrote a hagiographical tribute on The Life and Death of Saint Malachy. At Yvree in Piedmont, Malachy restored to health the child of the host with whom he lodged, who was at the point of death. At Rome, the Irish saint sought from Pope Innocent, palliums for the Sees of Armagh and Cashel. He did not succeed in this request, but got a promise of such, and Malachy returned home as legate for Ireland. His role was to oversee church reform. On his return trip, at Clairvaux he was given five monks for the Mellifount abbey to be (1142). St. Malachy travelled back to Ireland through Scotland, and restored king David’s dangerously ill son Henry to perfect health. During Malahy’s period back in Ireland, he travelled across the country in the role of papal legate, promoting church reform and establishing of Augustinian chapters at some of the Irish cathedrals.
Malachy convened in 1148 a synod at Inis Pátraic in Dublin. There a decision was made in principle to seek four pallia – for Armagh, Cashel, Dublin, and Tuam. Malachy undertook a journey to meet Pope Eugenius in France. But he fell ill in Clairvaux dying in the care of St. Bernard, on 2 November of his age fifty-four. Though he passed away, his desire for the pallia and the diocesan organisation he had worked hard to promote, was to be realised at the synod of Kells–Mellifont in 1152.
Malachy was the very first formally canonized Irish Saint. He was canonised by Pope Clement (III), on 6 July, 1199. His feast is celebrated on 3 November.
Print sources: The Last Chieftain of Gaelic Ireland by Pól Uí Súileabháin
This is a story that unfolds, beholds, and must be told!
Dominic Collins was born into an illustrious Catholic family in Youghal, East Cork in 1566. His father and his brother were mayors of the town. His family were the owners of the townland called Labranche. Dominic was brought up piously in the Catholic faith. When he reached manhood, at twenty two years of age, he sailed to France, enlisting in the army of the Duke of Mercoeur. He longed to fight for the Catholic League against the Huguenots in Brittany. He served for five years with distinction and rose through the ranks. His outstanding achievement was the capturing of a strategic castle at Lapena. From this success he was appointed military governor of Lapena.
Dominic proved to be an honest and brave governor. Later when Henry IV of France tried to bribe him with 2,000 ducats to hand back the castle, it was to no avail. Dominic strategically handed the castle to a the Spanish general, Don Juan del Aguila, a loyal supporter of Philip II, Catholic King of Spain. For this Dominc Collins earned a pension, and a trip to Spain to serve the Spanish King.
King Philip II had placed Dominic in the garrison at La Coruña in Galicia near Santiago de Compostella. The Irishman became captain of the marines and served eight years. Although it was a time of peace, he found himself battling a spiritual battle. At La Coruña in 1598, Dominic encountered a Irish Jesuit priest by the name of Thomas White.
Vocation
Father White had come to Spain from Clonmel, founding the Irish College at Salamanca for the formation of Irish priests. He was now the chaplain of the Irish seminary in Spain. Fr. White wrote of his encounter with Dominic, and it is paraphrased like this:
”Dominic was struggling to find satisfaction, peace and joy as a captain of the marines, and felt God calling him to renounce the world and its vanities. He particularly felt called to the Jesuit order of priests”.
Dominic was a late vocationer, and this would make the transition from a comfortable military life to an ascetic religious life rather difficult. He would have to prove himself, and so he did. He joined on December the 8th as a novice in 1598 in Santiago de Compostela in Northern Spain. The novice house at Santiago was struck by a plague. Many members fled for fear of catching a disease. Collins bravely stayed, tending to the sick for two months. A report sent to Rome by his superiors describe the Irishman as man of sound judgment and great physical strength, mature, prudent and sociable. He was also hot-headed and stubborn.
Collins encounters the English foe in 1601
At this point Dominic’s story takes a twist. We need to bear in mind the context to more fully appreciate what happens next… The context of Dominic’s Kinsale visit was this… There was an established divide and conquer strategy of Ireland by the English. An Irish chief by the name of Donal O’Sullivan Beare understood their strategy, and was holding his clan forth at Dunboy Castle in Cork. Meanwhile two Chieftains, Hugh O’Neill and Red Hugh O’Donnell headed to Kinsale in Cork to confront the English army. At the same time, in 1601 King Philip III of Spain sent a Spanish envoy to help the Irish patriots. The Irish Jesuit, Brother Collins sailed with this Spanish envoy. Collins’s ship finally reached Ireland on 1st December 1601 at Castlehaven, not far from Kinsale and not far from Dunboy Castle.
Lord Mountjoy and his English army laid siege to Kinsale. O’Neill, O’Donnell and O’Sullivan Beare, converged on Kinsale. Brother Dominic along with the Spanish soldiers joined with O’Sullivan Beare. But a rash Irish attack at dawn on Christmas Eve, by O’Neill and O’Donnell failed badly, due to a hasty strategy, resulting in a big disadvantage for the Irish army. After a long march during the night the Irish army were lost and disjointed. The English found them stumbling by in confusion. O’Donnell and O’Neill suffered a humiliating defeat, with no possible help from the Spaniards who where stationed elsewhere.
O’Neill and O’Donnell’s armies retreated back to Ulster while O’Sullivan Beare and his army remained at Dunboy Castle on the Beara peninsula. Dominic Collins accompanied O’Sullivan to the safety of Dunboy Castle, overlooking Beare Island. Dunboy castle was the fort that O’Sullivan decided to make a last stand against the foreign invaders of Lord Mountjoy and Sir George Carew, the so called ‘’president of Munster’’. At Dunboy Castle Dominic encountered Fr. Archer, an Irish Jesuit priest, who also had set out from Spain and had then escaped Kinsale.
O’Sullivan’s strategy was effective against the English army, as George Carew struggled to get a foothold in that region. The Irish army were expecting more assistance from Spain. After six months the English army decided to make a landing by sea. On 6th June 1602 Carew with 4,000 English troops made an unexpected landing on a sandy beach from Beare island, just below the castle. It was an unusual calm day by the sea, and it favoured the English. By Carew’s testimony, O’Sullivan’s men put up a brave fight.
On 17th June Dunboy castle was under heavy attack by Carew and the English. Dominic Collins, knowing that Carew wanted to hold to ransom a Jesuit, offered a peace treaty settlement. But Carew was not an honourable Englishman and as soon as a deal was agreed, that it was already torn asunder; Dominic Collins was taking prisoner.
The English resumed heavy artillery attack on the remaining castle ruins and into the crypt. After a bitter siege, with heavy casualties, the castle was blown up as a desperate attempt to take out English leaders. The Irish lost and the O’Sullivan’s retreated to Glengarriff. Dominic Collins, Thomas Taylor, and Turlough Roe MacSwiney were taken for questioning. The rest were swiftly hanged, seventy men and all.
Interrogation
Taylor and MacSwiney were soon after executed. But Dominic Collins, was consider to be a promising prospect for apostacy. Carew felt if he could turn the Jesuit to renounce his Catholic and embrace the fight for the Queen of England, it would be their resounding victory. Dominic was savagely tortured by Carew. He was also promised rich rewards and high ecclesiastical office by Lord Mountjoy for renouncing the Catholic faith. Some family members visited him, to encourage him to save his life and fain a conversion. It was a psychological battle but Dominic Collins rejected all pressures and he happily accepted a martyr’s death.
Dominic was taken by Carew to his hometown of Youghal on 31st October 1602. The Irishman knelt at the foot of the gallows joyfully saying: “Hail, holy cross, so long desired by me!” He then preached to the crowd, urging them to remain faithful to the Holy Roman Church.
Dominic Collins was then left hanging for many hours, the rope eventually snapped and his body collapsed to the ground. As night fell, local Catholics took his remains and buried him reverently in a secret place. Dominc’s Collin has since been venerated as a martyr in Youghal. Many favours and cures were attributed to his intercession. He is remembered on 31st October in the church liturgical calendar for the Cloyne diocese.
Brother Dominic Collins, together with sixteen other Irish martyrs of Ireland, was beatified by Saint John Paul II on 27th September 1992.
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