Saints of Ireland

[Faísca]

St. Brendan

Saint Brendan, (484 (?) - 577 (?)) called the "Navigator," is one of the early Irish monastic saints whose legends have overshadowed their history. He was born in Ciarraight Luachra, near Tralee in County Kerry, Ireland, in 484 CE; he died at Enachduin, (now Annaghdown), in 577, aged 93. He was baptized at Tubrid, near Ardfert, by Bishop Erc. For five years he was educated under Saint Ita, "the Brigid of Munster", and he completed his studies under Erc, who ordained him priest in 512. Between the years 512 and 530 St. Brendan built monastic cells at Ardfert, and at Shanakeel or Baalynevinoorach, at the foot of Brandon Hill. It was from here that he set out on his famous seven years voyage for the Land of Delight. The old Irish Calendars assigned a special feast for the Egressio familiae S. Brendani, on 22 March; and St Aengus the Culdee, in his Litany composed at the close of the eighth century, invokes "the sixty who accompanied St. Brendan in his quest for the Land of Promise".

St Brendan is chiefly renowned for the semi-legendary Voyage of St Brendan, in which he is said to have set out onto the Atlantic Ocean with sixty pilgrims, searching for the Garden of Eden. If it happened, this would have occurred in around 530, before his travel to the island of Britain. On his trip, Brendan is supposed to have seen a blessed island covered with vegetation; convinced that he had seen Paradise, he returned to Ireland. He also encountered a sea monster, an adventure he shared with his contemporary St Columba. It is possible that Brendan may have encountered the Shetland Islands on his journey, perhaps being their first historical coloniser, as the Orkney Islands were recolonised by Christian missionaries about this time. The Orkneys had been heard of and commonly known to the monks but Shetlands were not, representing the next step outwards from the British Isles. Christopher Columbus may have relied on the legends told of St Brendan as part of his argument that it was indeed possible to travel to Asia by crossing the Atlantic. Some propose St Brendan as one of the ancient visitors to the Americas.

Naturally, the story of the seven years voyage was carried about, and soon crowds of pilgrims and students flocked to Ardfert. Thus, in a few years, many religious houses were formed-- at Gallerus, Kilmalchedor, Brandon Hill, and the Blasquet Islands-- in order to meet the wants of those who came for spiritual guidance to St. Brendan.

Later, he travelled in the British Isles and visited Wales and the holy island of Iona; returning to Ireland, he founded a bishopric at Annaghdown, where he spent the rest of his days. He was recognised as a saint by the Irish church, and his feast day is May 16. Having established the bishopric of Ardfert, Brendan proceeded to Thomond, and founded a monastery at Inis-da-druim (now Coney Island), in the present parish of Killadysert, County Clare, about the year 550. He then journeyed to Wales, and thence to Iona, for his is said to have left traces of his apostolic zeal at Kil-brandon ' (near Oban) and Kil-brennan Sound. After a three years' mission in Britain he returned to Ireland, and did more proselytizing in various parts of Leinster, especially at Dysart (Co. Kilkenny), Killiney (Tubberboe), and Brandon Hill. He founded the bishopric of Annaghdown and established churches at Inchiquin, County Galway, and at Inishglora, County Mayo.

His most celebrated foundation was Clonfert, in 557, over which he appointed St. Moinenn as Prior and Head Master. Brendan was interred in Clonfert, and his feast is kept on 16 May.

The cream liqueur Saint Brendan's is named after him. Brandania is a Canarian group of Celtic-music players. Their name hints to the Canary Islands as St Brendans Island.

[Faísca]

St. Brigid of Ireland

Saint Brigid of Ireland (Bridget, Bridgit, Brigit, Bride) (451- 525) was born at Faughart near Dundalk, County Louth, Ireland. Legend states that her parents were Dubhthach, pagan Scottish king of Leinster, and Brocca, a Christian Pictish slave who had been baptized by Saint Patrick.

According to this legend, Brigid was named after one of the most powerful goddesses of the Pagan religion that Dubhthach practiced. Brigid, the goddess of Fire, whose manifestations were song and poetry, which the Irish considered the flame of knowledge. Brigid supposedly became a vestal virgin in service to the Goddess Brigid (although the Irish had no such office or practice), and eventually high priestess at the Kil Dara (the temple of the oak), a pagan sanctuary built from the wood of a tree sacred to the Druids. In 468, she followed St. Mel of Armagh to Meath and converted to Christianity.

Another version of her life states that upon reaching maturity, she vexed her father by being overly generous to the poor and needy with his milk, butter, and flour. Finally, she gave away his jewel-encrusted sword to a leper. At this point, it was decided that her disposition was best suited for a nun and she was sent to a convent. The legend does not preserve when or how her hitherto pagan father became amenable to such acts.

Around 470, she converted the pagan sanctuary of Kildare (Cill-Dara) into a Christian double monastery (nuns and monks) or had a double monastary built on unused ground at Kildare, depending upon the particular story consulted. She founded a school of art at Kildare, where the Book of Kildare, a famous illuminated manuscript, was created. She died at Kildare on February 1 and is buried at Downpatrick with St. Columcille and St. Patrick, with whom she is the patron of Ireland. Similar to the association between St Patrick and the shamrock, a tiny cross made of rushes was linked with St Brigid.

Legend has it that, when she was consecrated to the rank of Abbess, St. Mel was drunk and inadvertantly read the consecration for a Bishop and that this could not be rescinded, under any circumstances. Of course, such an error could have easily been remedied had it actually occurred, as the ordination would have been considered illegitimate from the start. It should be noted that, while there is no record of St. Brigid acting in the Liturgical capacity of a Bishop, she and her successor Abbesses at Kildare had administrative authority equal to that of a Bishop until the Synod of Kells in 1152

St. Brigid's feast day is February 1.

[Faísca]

St. Columba

Saint Columba (7 December 521 - 9 June 597) (also known as Saint Columcille, meaning "Dove of the church") was an Irish missionary who helped re-introduce Christianity to Scotland and the north of England.

He was born to Fedhlimidh and Eithne of the Ui Neill clan in Gartan, near Lough Gartan, Donegal. On his father's side he was great-great-grandson of Niall of the Nine Hostages, an Irish king of the fourth century. He became a monk and soon rose in the church hierarchy to the rank of priest. Tradition asserts that, sometime around 560, he became involved in a copyright wrangle with Saint Finnian over a psalter. The dispute eventually led to the pitched Battle of Cul Dremhe in 561, during which many men were killed. (Columba's copy of the psalter has been traditionally associated with the Cathach of St. Columba.) As penance for these deaths, Columba was ordered to make the same number of new converts as had been killed. In 563 he founded a monastery on the island of Iona off the west coast of Scotland which became the centre of his evangelising mission to Scotland. There are many stories of miracles which he performed during his mission to convert the Picts.

Columba is also the source of the first known reference to the Loch Ness Monster. According to the story, in 565 he came across a group of Picts who were burying a man killed by the monster, and brought the man back to life. In another version, he is said to have saved the man while the man was being attacked, driving away the monster with the sign of the cross.

St Columba's feast day is June 9 and with Saint Patrick, March 17, and St. Brigid, February 1, is one of the three patron saints of Ireland.

He is frequently confused with Saint Columbanus, who was a disciple of Columba.

[Faísca]

St. Columbanus

Saint Columbanus (543 - 21 November 615; also Saint Columban), was an Irish missionary notable for founding a number of monasteries.

Born at West Leinster, Ireland, he went to the European continent around 590.

Columbanus founded several monasteries in the Frankish kingdom, most notably Luxeuil in 590, spreading among the Franks a Celtic monastic rule and Celtic penitential practices for those repenting of sins. Private confession to a priest was emphasized in this practice, followed by penances levied by the priest in reparation for the sin.

Because of political difficulties with bishops and Merovingian kings, including difficulties over the date for the celebration of Easter, Columbanus moved south into Italy in about 612, where, with the help of the Lombard King Agilulf and Queen Theodelinda, he established his final and most important monastery at Bobbio (between Milan and Genoa), and died there in 615. (This monastery is in part the model for the great monastery in Umberto Eco's novel The Name of the Rose.)

Saint Columban was a disciple of Saint Columba, of whom the two are often confused.

[Faísca]

St. Patrick

Saint Patrick (died March 17, 462 or 492/493) is the patron saint of Ireland. He was born somewhere along the west coast of Britain in the little settlement or village of Bannavem of Taburnia (vico banavem taburniae in his Confession), which has never been securely identified. It was probably on a coast in the south of England (sites suggested include Dumbarton and Somerset), for pagan raiders captured Patrick with "many thousands of people" and sold them as slaves in Ireland.

His father was Calpornius, a deacon, son of Potitus, a priest in the era before celibacy was ordained for priests, who was Romano-British. A questionable old tradition makes his mother from the upper-class Gaulish family of Martin of Tours, though Patrick makes no such prideful claim. According to his Confessio, at the age of about sixteen Patrick was captured and taken to Ireland as a slave to a Druidic chieftan named Milchu in Dalriada, County Antrim (though Fochill in County Mayo is the more likely setting).

Although he came from a Christian family, he was not particularly religious before his capture. However, his enslavement markedly strengthened his faith. He escaped at the age of twenty-two and returned to Britain, reuniting with his parents and later becoming one of the first Christian proselytizers in Ireland, being preceded by such men as Palladius (died 457?/461?).

Britain at this time was undergoing turmoil following the withdrawal of Roman troops in 407 and Roman central authority in 410. Having been under the Roman cloak for over 350 years, the Romano-British were having to look after themselves. Populations were on the move on the European continent, and the recently converted Christian Britain was being colonised by pagan Anglo-Saxons.

He arrived in Ireland to start his mission in either 432 or 462 AD; there was and continues to be much controversey concerning the date of the inception of his misson. His first converted patron was Dichu, who made a gift of a large sabhall (barn) for a church sanctuary. This first sanctuary dedicated by St Patrick became in later years his chosen retreat. A monastery and church were erected there, and there Patrick died; the site, Saul County Down, retains the name Sabhall (pronounced "Saul").

The story of the annual vernal fire that was to be lit by the High King at Tara, when all the fires were extinguished, to be renewed from the sacred fire from Tara, and of Patrick's rival, miraculously inextinguishable Christian bonfire on the hill of Slane at the opposite end of the valley, is famous among his many exploits. The season was associated with Easter (compare the British season of Eostre) by the Christian chroniclers who followed Patrick's own account in his Confessio.

He was one of the earliest writers to advocate the abolition of slavery.

Patrick was not the first Christian missionary to Ireland, as men such as Secundus and Palladius were active in the south of the island long before him. However, tradition accords him the most impact, and his missions do seem to have been concentrated in the provinces of Ulster and Connaught which had never received Christians before.

Mythology credits him with banishing snakes from the island, though others suggest that for climatic reasons post-glacial Ireland never actually had snakes; one suggestion is that "snakes" referred to the serpent symbolism of the Druids of that time and place, as shown for instance on coins minted in Gaul (see Carnutes), or that it could have referred to heretical beliefs such as Pelagianism, symbolized as "serpents".

Legend also credits Patrick with teaching the Irish about the concept of the Trinity by showing people the shamrock, a three-leaved clover, using it to highlight the Christian dogma of 'three divine persons in the one god' (as opposed to the Arian heresy that was popular in Patrick's time).

It is unknown on what date he was born but it would have been at the beginning of the 5th century. He died in 491 AD according to the latest reconstruction of the old Irish annals (http://www.cs.tcd.ie/Dan.McCarthy/c...nnals-chron.htm). It is believed that March 17 was his death date (according to the Encyclopedia Britannica) and it is the date popularly associated with him as his feast, known as St. Patrick's Day).

[Scáthach]

St Patrick is a bit of a disappointment due to Tirechán and Muirchú's meddling.

[Milesian]

Originally Posted by Scáthach

St Patrick is a bit of a disappointment due to Tirechán and Muirchú's meddling.

You disagree with their accounts?

"Patrick is presented as an irascible, argumentative egotist who cursed and struck people dead when they offended him"

Now, you couldn't really ask for a better Patron Saint than that, surely

[Napo]

St. Patrick was my Confirmation name.

[Scáthach]

Originally Posted by Milesian

You disagree with their accounts?



Now, you couldn't really ask for a better Patron Saint than that, surely

I absolutely don't disagree, infact I base my opinions of Pat directly on both works. Their hagiography was such that their account of Patrick was formed irrespective of truth and fact at times merely to promote their own agenda.
I see you arguing with these facts though for some reason,so i have my essay ready

[Vitor]

My mother family is Patrick (Patricio),

Where and why ths name I don't know!
And I really don't want to know!

[Milesian]

Originally Posted by Scáthach

I absolutely don't disagree, infact I base my opinions of Pat directly on both works. Their hagiography was such that their account of Patrick was formed irrespective of truth and fact at times merely to promote their own agenda.

I see. Well as I know bugger all about them or their works, please educate me

I see you arguing with these facts though for some reason,so i have my essay ready

Only you could take a simple question and consider it an argument, mo chara

[Scáthach]

Only becuase it's you, and religion. Oh my!
I shall email it to you in a while, await the enlightenment!