Friday, 9 November 2012
Confessio: A Resource for the Study of Saint Patrick's Writings
Thursday, 8 November 2012
Prayers to Our Patrons: Saint Colum Cille
Below is a selection of prayers in honour of Ireland's tertiary patron, Saint Colum Cille (Columba), taken 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. I would think that these prayers were probably composed in the 19th century, and as the litany invokes the saint as 'shield of our city', probably in Derry itself. There is a fascinating glimpse of what Saint Columcille meant to the Catholics of late nineteenth-century Derry in an 1897 commemorative book preserved by the Internet Archive here. Indeed, the prayers may well have been written for this anniversary. They present a very different view of Saint Columba to that of the modern 'Celtic Christianity' movement, for here he is sited very firmly within Irish Catholicism as a saint of the Eucharist.
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.
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Wednesday, 7 November 2012
Prayers to Our Patrons: Saint Brigid
I felt it my duty while browsing in a charity bookshop to pick up a battered prayerbook, sitting forlornly on the shelves. It turned out to be a 1941 edition of Saint Anthony's Treasury, a volume still in print, although like many classic prayerbooks (the Garden of the Soul comes to mind) it is not what it used to be. The 1941 edition, however, had a comprehensive selection of prayers to Irish saints, which, alas, have been gradually whittled down in successive editions. Below are the prayers in honour of Saint Brigid which I have reproduced exactly as they appear in the book:
1. A prayer composed in 1902 by Cardinal Moran.
2. A prayer whose source is unknown to me.
3. A Novena to Saint Brigid which remains in popular use.
4. A collect.
5. A Litany of St Brigid. The wording is slightly different to that found in the collection of litanies by Benjamin Musser O.F.M which circulates online. The Musser version also concludes with the collect above, whereas the version in St. Anthony's Treasury concludes with two different prayers.
Cardinal Moran's Prayer to St. Brigid
O Glorious St. Brigid, Mother of the Churches of Erin, patroness of our missionary race, wherever their lot may be cast, be thou our guide in the paths of virtue, protect us amid temptation, shield us from danger. Preserve to us the heritage of chastity and temperance; keep ever brightly burning on the altar of our hearts the sacred Fire of Faith, Charity, and Hope, that thus we may emulate the ancient piety of Ireland's children, and the Church of Erin may shine with peerless glory as of old. Thou wert styled by our fathers " The Mary of Erin," secure for us by thy prayers the all-powerful protection of the Blessed Virgin, that we may be numbered here among her most fervent clients, and may hereafter merit a place together with Thee and the countless Saints of Ireland, in the ranks of her triumphant children in Paradise. Amen.
Prayer to St. Brigid
Dear St. Brigid, brilliant star of sanctity in the early days of our Irish faith and love for the omnipotent God Who has never forsaken us, we look up to you now in earnest, hopeful prayer. By your glorious sacrifice of earthly riches, joys and affections obtain for us grace to "seek first the Kingdom of God and His justice" with constant trust in His fatherly care. By your life of laborious charity to the poor, the sick, the many seekers for light and comfort, obtain for us grace to be God's helpers to the utmost of our power during our stay on earth, looking forward, as you did, to our life with Him during eternity. By the sanctified peace of your death-bed, obtain for us that we may receive the fulness of pardon and peace when the hour comes that will summon us to the judgment seat of our just and most merciful Lord. Amen.
Novena to St. Brigid
Foundress of Religious Women in Ireland
(To begin on the 23rd January)
O Glorious St. Brigid, Patroness of Ireland and Mother of the Churches, protect the Irish Church and preserve the true Faith in every Irish heart, at home and abroad. Obtain for us the grace to walk faithfully in the path of Christian perfection during life, and so to secure a holy and happy death, with life everlasting, in thy blessed company, through Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen.
Prayer to St. Brigid
Patroness of Ireland
(Feast, February 1st.)
O God, Who givest us joy by the power of the intercession of Blessed Brigid the Virgin, graciously grant that we may be assisted by her merits by the example of whose chastity we are enlightened. Through Christ our Lord. Amen.
Litany of St. Brigid
(For private recitation only.)
Lord, have mercy.
Christ, have mercy.
Lord, have mercy.
Eternal Father, have mercy on us.
Divine Son, have mercy on us.
Holy Spirit, have mercy on us.
Holy Mary, Virgin of Virgins, Pray for us.
Blessed St. Brigid, Pray for us.
Consecrated spouse of the King of Kings, Pray for us.
Corner-stone of the Monastic Institute in the Island of Saints, Pray for us.
Brigid, Patroness of Ireland, Pray for us.
Model of Irish Virgins, Pray for us.
Mother of Religious, Pray for us.
Pattern of holiness, Pray for us.
Intercessor for the Irish clergy, Pray for us.
Mediatrix for the Irish people, Pray for us.
Protectress of the faith preached by St. Patrick, Pray for us.
Enjoying with him the clear vision of God, Pray for us.
Lamb of God, Who takest away the sins of the world: spare us, O Lord.
Lamb of God, Who takest away the sins of the world: graciously hear us, O Lord.
Lamb of God, Who takest away the sins of the world: have mercy on us.
Let us Pray
O God, the Author of all sanctity, grant that we who inhabit the Island of Saints, may, through the intercession of St. Brigid, walk in their footsteps on earth, and so arrive with them to the possession of Thee in Heaven. Through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
Pour forth on us, we beseech Thee, O Lord, the spirit of Thy wisdom and love, with which Thou hast replenished Thy holy Servant, St. Brigid, that sincerely obeying Thee in all things, we may by a zealous imitation of her virtues, please Thee in faith and works. Through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
St. Anthony's Treasury - A Manual of Devotions (Anthonian Press, Dublin, 12th edition, 1941), 275-278.
Content Copyright © Trias Thaumaturga 2012-2015. All rights reserved.
Content Copyright © Trias Thaumaturga 2012-2015. All rights reserved.
Tuesday, 6 November 2012
Prayers to Our Patrons: Saint Patrick
Below is a prayer to our patron saint taken from a manual of prayers, instructions and meditations originally issued in the nineteenth century for the seminarians of All Hallows College:
A Prayer to Saint Patrick
O great ambassador of God, we praise thy name. Rejoicing we recall how all things worked together unto good for thee and for thy children in the faith. When thou wert young, our fathers did gird thee and lead thee where thou wouldst not; but the Father of all did not suffer thy soul to dwell a captive in the woods and on the mountain. Rather did he convert it to himself and, lifting up thy mind to heavenly desires, vouchsafe thee princely entry into the freedom wherewith Christ has made us free. How incomprehensible are his judgements and how unsearchable his ways! For when thou wert at home again, a free man, he bound thee in the spirit to return to the land of thy captivity, there to expend thy residue of years in the embassy of Christ. Hearkening to the great word, thou didst come, an envoy of Rome, and didst walk once more with those whose dwelling was by the western sea. Wherefore now we give, with thee, unwearied thanks to God. Before thy years were spent, he gave thee to record that a whole people had been reborn to him and confirmed; that priests had been ordained in every place; that the sons and daughters of the Scots had become monks and virgins of Christ. And to that first swift testimony that God is true, succeeding generations have been privileged to attach the great seal of blood. O wondrous mercy of God our Father! O how blessed is the nation that has received fellowship in the sufferings of Christ and known the power of his resurrection! Dear apostle, zealous patron, we are not worthy to be called thy children; but thou art still our father. Behold thy foes make tumult and they that hate thee proudly raise their head. Remember, we beseech thee, how God has bound thee to us in the spirit. Withstand the wrath. Compass our hearts about with truth and that mighty strength, the invocation of the Trinity; be thy merit our strong cry and tears before the great and holy God. Thy children have resisted unto blood, striving against sin; let them not now faint or fail. Inspire them, rather, with zeal for the better gifts. Show them the more excellent way, so that, doing the truth in charity, they, with all the faithful, may grow in grace and persevere to the end in the truth and life, the justice, love and peace of Jesus Christ our King.
V. Pray for us, O glorious Saint Patrick.
R. That we may be made worthy of the promises of Christ.
Let us pray
O God, who didst graciously send the blessed confessor and pontiff Patrick to preach thy glory to the peoples; grant, through his merits and intercession, that what thou dost bid us to do, we may by thy merciful assistance be able to accomplish. Through Christ our Lord. Amen.
Breviary of Piety for Clerics being the Seventh Edition of the All Hallows Manual, revised and enlarged, (Dublin, 1948), 116-117.
Content Copyright © Trias Thaumaturga 2012-2015. All rights reserved.
Content Copyright © Trias Thaumaturga 2012-2015. All rights reserved.
Thursday, 4 October 2012
Lisa M. Bitel, Landscape with Two Saints: A Review
Reviewed by John C. Arnold, SUNY-Fredonia (John.Arnold@fredonia.edu)
In Landscape with two saints, Lisa Bitel presents a nuanced and richly textured analysis of the process of Christianization in late-fifth and early-sixth century France and Ireland. Bitel's adroit use of spatial theory and contemporary trends in human geography as found in the work Henri Lefebvre and Edward Soja informs these comparative case studies of the female saints Genovefa of Paris and Brigit of Kildare, whose contemporaneous ministries, contrary to custom, promoted Christianity through the raising of monumental architecture. [1] The book asserts that these feminine actors consciously modified and refashioned their sacral surroundings to construct a Christian infrastructure due to a "nexus of gender, landscape, and architecture". [2]
Bitel clarifies this nexus with sophisticated analyses of hagiographical discourses and patterns of sacred landscape use. Rather than foreground textual sources and illustrate them with archaeological material, Bitel frames and drives the argument with conclusions drawn from material culture and sacred landscape. She contextualizes her findings with saintly vitae and other contemporary written sources. The pace and scope of Christianization is found, then, not in the flow of abstract mental processes or broad historical forces, but instead in a daily reconfiguration of the familiar patterns of human interaction with the physical environment.
Bitel devotes the first four chapters to a discussion of the career of St. Genovefa, best known for her miraculous salvation of Paris from Hunnish attack in 451. Genovefa subsequently discovered the tomb of St. Denis, the city's first bishop, where she organized and patronized the building of an oratory at the present-day site of the northern Parisian Basilica of St. Denis. Chapter One, "Paris before Genovefa: the Landscape enters History", first conceptualizes the city of Paris not just as a physical and material place of human activity, but also as a gathering of humans, each of whom possessed their own view of the city as derived from status, gender, and passage through its space. Late-antique Parisians discerned their city through four discourses of landscape: administrative, economic, sacral, and historical. These located fifth-century Paris within a web of imperial territorial limits, a center of local markets and regional consumption, a mosaic of churches situated against urban temples and rural shrines, and an architectural palimpsest of "past detritus" with which citizens maintained and renovated the city. Bitel contextualizes these discourses within possibly as good a short history of Roman Paris as can be found in English. She insists that through the long development from the Roman fort of Lutetia to the fifth-century walled city that comprised the Ile-de-la-Cité alone, romanitas persisted. The use of spolia to reconstruct and refashion Paris to meet the changing needs of its population greatly enhanced an abiding "Romanness". This "conservative" political and economic landscape contrasts with the remarkably fluid and shifting religious one discussed in the second chapter, "Sacral Paris". While urban temples and shrines associated with the masculine power structure fell into disuse, more primitive rural spaces connected with feminine deities experienced changing patterns of use occasioned by status and gender, among other determinants. Women shared rural shrines with men, for example, but those who could afford ex-votos more likely resorted to those of wombs and breasts while poor women used none. Christians also renegotiated urban pagan sites when they buried in traditional cemeteries or placed doves or other characteristic markers on traditional tombstones. The growing Christian population within the city, however, increasingly segregated its spaces from those of its pagan neighbors. This required the construction of new churches, cemeteries, and processional spaces. As Chapter Three, "Genovefa's Territory", makes clear, the feminine Parisian saint fit into a pattern of fifth-century male bishops who established and rooted their urban communities through architecture. Bitel bases this chapter in the main on Genovefa's anonymous vita, written roughly 25 years after her death in 502. She excavates from the text three layers to establish the historical Genovefa, the saintly Genovefa situated within local and universal salvation history, and her afterlife as a figure of cult used to establish the bona fidesof the Merovingian dynasty. The woman Genovefa transgressed gender boundaries to appropriate the rural tomb of St. Denis where she acted as a bishop to finance and build a shrine to which she led processions. Her subsequent peregrinations and miraculous performances won public religious authority for Paris over its environs. The spontaneous reverence expressed at the tomb of this remarkable patroness and thaumaturge allowed the Frankish ruler Clovis and his queen Chlothilde to co-opt her emerging cult as a support for the Merovingian dynasty. "Paris after Genovefa" details Chlothilde's construction of the Church of the Holy Apostles on the South Bank at the present site of the Pantheon. Genovefa's burial there along with the bodies of the royal family allowed her to play the saintly "Helena" to Clovis's carefully honed image as the Frankish "Constantine". She remained an important patron of Paris throughout the Middle Ages, retaining enough hold on the popular imagination to be tried by a revolutionary tribunal.
Brigit of Kildare, another woman renowned for her Christianizing efforts through the building of monumental architecture, faced a far more formidable task. She worked in rural Leinster where no tradition of urban civilization or Roman heritage existed. The great challenge of Brigit's ministry was to an implant an infrastructure better suited to Mediterranean, urban culture within a densely sacred, traditional landscape of "mutable surfaces and ancient places". [3] Chapter Five, "Crossings and Conversions", establishes the conditions in which that work occurred. That Brigit labored successfully in Leinster demonstrated that area's proximity to Roman Britain, from which the Irish had received "portable exotica and the Latin words of scripture". [4] The region of Kildare also boasted the hill-fort of Dún Aílinne, of significance since the Neolithic Era. Its likely later ritual use, suggested by a possible wooden ring surrounding a central tower or hall, demonstrated a native Irish tradition of reconfiguring the ancient landscape to accommodate newly emerging practices. Dún Aílinne, however, fit within a built and bounded political and economic landscape associated with kings and male property owners. The mutable sacred landscape of springs, glades, and uninhabited fields carried feminine connotations. While the law prevented outright female ownership of property and enclosed women within demarcated zones, in practice they enjoyed use of land and frequently crossed boundaries for purposes of marriage, pilgrimage, or transhumance. Brigit thus slipped through these gendered interstices to negotiate land donation on which to build a "little Rome". Chapter Six, "Ekphrasis at Kildare", analyzes Cogitosus's renowned vita of Brigit with an eye for his discursive treatment of her church. Whatever the reality of the structure, Cogitosus presented a pilgrim's itinerary for his audience, leading them to an Irish "Rome" where they might venerate the relics of Brigit. Her power and authority stemmed not from the Christian male practices of preaching and conversion, but from co-opting Irish male practices of situating a permanent worship site within a bounded area. In later times, however, the Christian hierarchy subdued Brigit to its power (Chapter Seven, "Brigit Goes to Ground"). Her relics disappeared and her hagiographers carefully submitted her to male domination. They also freed her from the shackles of place, turning her loose into the landscape as a "mistress of the unbuilt environment" and a patron of all Ireland. [5] Not only did this strategy allow Kildare to claim authority over all Irish women's foundations, but it also turned Brigit into an "intermediary between the historic pagan wilderness and the enclosed Christian society". [6] As such, as Chapter Eight ("Relics") claims, Brigit "went to ground" to suffuse the landscape. Her formal veneration dwindled away, finally dispersed with the Dissolution of the Monasteries. Her virtus re-emerged in wells and springs and today even images forth as a mannequin in a phone booth at Liscannor. Brigit's cult ended in nationalism. Similarly, officials of the French Revolution dismissed Genovefa's reverence by casting her relics into the Seine and transmuting her newly built church into the Pantheon. Those reputed remains of hers recovered during the Restoration now repose in the nearby Church of St. Étienne-duMont.
Lisa Bitel has produced an important book that all scholars of hagiology and late-antique Christianity should read. Her sensitivity to the narrative suggested by deliberate human interaction with landscape and the built environment, coupled with her incisive and subtle analysis of hagiography, provides an important model for understanding the process of Christianization. It should become a staple of graduate seminars. Its clear and fluent writing, lack of jargon, and crisply structured organization could recommend it to more advanced undergraduates as well. One could quibble that some conclusions are too broadly stated or perhaps not completely supported by the most recent scholarship. She undercuts her own assertion as to the uniqueness of Genovefa's building project, for example, with her discussion of the anonymous wife of Namatius, bishop of Clermont. Bitel brings this fifth-century episcopa forward as a possible model of imitation for Chlothilde's project of Holy Apostles. That woman constructed a shrine for St. Stephen in a suburban cemetery, replete with mosaics based on historical themes. Her project is remarkably similar to that of Genovefa, although she enjoyed the privileges of her husband's office and status as Genovefa did not. [7] Bitel also firmly dismisses possible Romano-British influences on Brigit's project at Kildare, stating that "British Christians had no exportable ecclesiastical architecture". [8] Her declaration that the British never "built their religion in a Roman monumental vocabulary" is true if the emphasis is placed on "monumental". To say that British Christians had no ecclesiastical architecture reads the sparse archaeological evidence far more strictly than does her principal source, Charles Thomas's classic Christianity in Roman Britain to AD 500 from 1981. David Petts's 2003 publication Christianity in Roman Britain also provides a more sympathetic reading of the evidence, but neither this book nor its recent citations are consulted. [9] The editing is generally good, aside from an occasional word omission. [10] Guy Halsall's "Movers and Shakers: The Barbarians and the Fall of Rome", cited in footnote four of Chapter One, does not appear in the bibliography, nor does the footnote indicate that it is found in Thomas Noble's From Roman Provinces to Medieval Kingdoms, which the bibliography does include.
Such observations, however, hardly detract from a work of such quality and deep learning. Bitel has provided a highly readable and meaningful study of similar saints in a "similar sort of historical moment when change in religious habit made it possible for a woman to express unusual authority visually and materially". [11]
Notes:
1. Bitel cites Edward W. Soja's Postmodern Geographies: the Reassertion of Space in Critical Social Theory (London: Verso, 1989). Henri Lefebvre's The Production of Space (Blackwell, 1991) remains fundamental to these approaches.
2. p. 21.
3. p. 98.
4. p. 104.
5. p. 186.
6. p. 165.
7. pp. 81-82.
8. p. 103.
9. See Charles Thomas, Christianity in Roman Britain to AD 500 (Berkeley, 1981), pp. 143-201 for churches. David Petts, Christianity in Roman Britain (Charleston SC, 2003), pp. 51-86. W. H. C. Frend, however, would agree with Bitel's assessment, as found in his review of Petts, The Journal of ecclesiastical history, vol. 55:2 (2004), p. 351.
10. Line 22 of p. 195 should read as early AS Genovefa's lifetime, for example.
11. p. 138.
Friday, 14 September 2012
Radegundis and Brigit
Radegundis is a saint living under the spell of the Cross. Indeed, the Veneration of the Holy Cross has evoked Radegundis's story throughout fifteen centuries and, for as long as Pange, lingua gloriosi proelium certaminis and Vexilla regis prodeunt, fulget crucis mysterium are sung, it will continue to do so. These two poems were composed by Venantius Fortunatus for Radegundis and her nuns in honour of the Holy Cross venerated by them. In the last stanza of Vexilla regis, in the lines Salue ara, salue uictima de passionis gloria, we find the most succinct summary of Radegundis's career, her 'glory of passion'.The Holy Cross is almost absent from Brigit's Life, as are mortification and asceticism. How are we to form an impression of Brigit's monastery? Was she an abbess? Was she, who is so often sitting in her carriage (in curru sedebat) not subject to stabilitas in congregatione? Do we encounter something Celtic in the fascination with her carriage? Celtic princes on the Continent even took their carriages with them to their graves. Cogitosus's Brigit seems to live in an archaic world, surrounded by animals, 'praising the invisible Creator of everything through his visible creation, the Creator to whom the animals are subject and for whom they live'.
Walter Berschin, 'Radegundis and Brigit' in J. Carey, M. Herbert and P.Ó Riain, eds., Studies in Irish Hagiography, Saints and Scholars (Dublin, 2001), 72-76.
In saying that 'The Holy Cross is almost absent from Brigit's Life, as are mortification and asceticism', the author is, of course, speaking only of the written Life of Cogitosus and not Saint Brigit's actual life. As an Irish monastic, asceticism was very much a part of her life, some of the other sources record, for example, that she practiced the discipline of being immersed overnight in cold water as she prayed. And, she is associated with her very own distinctive cross, which still remains a feature of Irish life to this day. I will leave the last word to an Englishwoman who loved the patroness of Ireland:
Her religious work comes close on the heels of Patrick; she was one of the many who consolidated the structure he had brought into being. And Brigit's more intimate, feminine, touch probably meant a great deal at that time to the infant Celtic Church: if Patrick the British stranger had spread the Faith far and wide over Ireland it remained for Brigit, the Irishwoman, to really take it into the homes of her fellow countrymen and weave it, like the strands of the rush crosses, into the pattern of their lives.
D.D.C. Pochin Mould, Ireland of the Saints (London, 1953), 65.
Content Copyright © Trias Thaumaturga 2012-2015. All rights reserved.
Content Copyright © Trias Thaumaturga 2012-2015. All rights reserved.
Sunday, 5 August 2012
Saint Patrick and Crom Dubh
ST. PATRICK AND CROM DUBH.
PREFACE.
This legend, told by Michael Mac Ruaidhri of Ballycastle, Co. Mayo, is evidently a confused reminiscence of Crom Cruach, the great pagan idol which was overthrown by St. Patrick. [1] Though Crom appears as a man in this story, yet the remark that the people thought he was the lord of light and darkness and of the seasons is evidently due to his once supposed Godhead. The fire, too, which he is said to have kept burning may be the reminiscence of a sacrificial fire.
From a letter written to Sir Samuel Ferguson [2] by the late Brian O'Looney, concerning Mount Callan in the Co. Clare, we see that this legend of Crom was widely circulated.
" Domnach Lunasa or Lammas Sunday," says O'Looney,"the first Sunday of the month of August was the first fruits' day, and a great day on Buaile-na-greine. On Lammas Sunday, called Domnach Crom Dubh, and anglicised Garland Sunday, every householder was supposed to feast his family and household on the first fruits, and the farmer who failed to provide his people with new potatoes, new bacon and white cabbage on that day was called a felemuir gaoithe, or wind farmer; and if a man dug new potatoes before Crom Dubh's day he was considered a needy man..... The assemblage of this day was called comthineol Chruim Dhuibh, or the congregation or gathering of Crom Dubh, and the day is called from him Domnach Chrom Dubh, or Crom Dubh's Sunday, now called Garland Sunday by the English-speaking portion of the people of the surrounding districts. This name is supposed to have been derived from the practise of strewing garlands of flowers on the festive mound [on Mount Callan] on this day, as homage to Crom Dubh hence the name Garland Sunday. Assuredly I saw blossoms and flowers deposited upon it on the first Sunday of August, 1844, and put some upon it myself, as I saw done by those who were with me…
If you ask me who Crom Dubh was, I can only tell you I asked the question myself on the spot. I was told that Crom was a god and that Dubh or Dua meant a sacrifice, which in combination made Crom Dubh, or Crom Dua, that is, Crom's Sacrifice; and this Sunday was set apart for the feast and commemoration of this Crom Dubh, whoever he may have been."
It is interesting to find O'Looney's old-time experiences in Co. Clare so far borne out by this legend from North Mayo.
The name Teideach given to Crom's son, is, as Mr. Lloyd acutely points out, founded upon a misunderstanding of the name of the hole which must have been "poll an t séidte," the puffing or blowing hole. Downpatrick, where these events are supposed to have taken place, is at the extreme northern extremity of Tyrawley, Co. Mayo, and all the other places are in its neighbourhood.
For the leannún sidhe, or fairy sweetheart (often supposed to be the muse of the poets), see O' Kearney's "Feis tighe Chonáin." Oss. Soc. Publ. vol. II., pp. 80-103. For the Irish of this story, see "Lúb na Caillighe," p. 33.
1. See my "Literary History of Ireland," pp. 84-88. Also Stokes’ edition of the "Tripartite Life," p. 92.
2. See the paper read by Sir Samuel before the Royal Irish Academy, April 28, 1873.
THE STORY
Before St. Patrick came to Ireland there lived a chieftain in the Lower Country [1] in Co. Mayo, and his name was Crom Dubh. Crom Dubh lived beside the sea in a place which they now call Dun Patrick, or Downpatrick, and the name which the site of his house is called by is Dún Briste, or Broken fort. My story will tell why it was called Dun Briste. It was well and it was not ill, brother of my heart! Crom Dubh was one of the worst men that could be found, but as he was a chieftain over the people of that country he had everything his own way; and that was the bad way, for he was an evil intentioned, virulent, cynical [2], obstinate man, with desire to be avenged on every one who did not please him. He had two sons, Téideach and Clonnach, and there is a big hollow going in under the road at Gleann Lasaire, and the name of this hollow is Poll a' Teidigh or Téideach's hole, for it got its name from Crom Dubh's son, and the name of this hole is on the mouth of [i.e., used by] English-speaking people, though they do not know the meaning of it. Nobody knows how far this hole is going back under the glen, but it is said by the old Irish speakers that Teideach used to go every day in his little floating curragh into this hole under the glen, and that this is the reason it was called Teideach's Hole. It was well, my dear. To continue the story, Crom Dubh's two sons were worse than himself, and that the leaves them bad enough! Crom Dubh had two hounds of dogs and their names were Coinn Iothair [3] and Saidhthe Suaraighe [4], and if ever there were [wicked] mastiffs these two dogs were they. He had them tied to the two jaws of the door, in order to loose them and set them to attack people according as they might come that way; and, to go further, he had a big fire kindled on the brink of the cliff so that any one who might escape from the hounds he might throw into the fire; and to make a long story short, the fame of Crom Dubh and his two sons, and his two mastiffs, went far and wide, for their evil-doing; and the people were so terrified at his name, not to speak of himself, that they used to hide their faces in their bosoms when they used to hear it mentioned in their ears, and the people were so much afraid of him that if they heard the bark of a dog they would go hiding in the dwellings that they had underground, to take refuge in, to defend themselves from Crom Dubh and his mastiffs. It is said that there was a linnaun shee or a fairy sweetheart [5] walking with Crom Dubh, and giving him knowledge according as he used to require it. In place of his inclining to what was good as he was growing in age, the way he went on was to be growing in badness every day, and the wind was not quicker then he, for he was a nimble as a March hare. When he used to go out about the country he used to send his two sons and his two mastiffs before him, and they announcing to the people according as they proceeded, that Crom Dubh was coming to collect his standing rent, and bidding them to have it ready for him. Crom Dubh used to come after them, and his trickster (?) along with him, and he drawing after him a sort of yoke like a wheelless sliding car, and according as he used to get his standing-rent it used to be thrown into the car, and every one had to pay according to his ability. Anyone who would refuse, he used to be brought next day before Crom Dubh, as he sat beside the fire, and Crom used to pass judgement upon him, and after the judgement the man used to be thrown into the fire. Many a plan and scheme were hatched against Crom Dubh to put him out of the world, but he overcame them all, for he had too much wizardry from the [fairy] sweetheart. Crom Dubh was continuing his evil deeds for many years, and according as the story about him remains living and told from person to person, they say that he was a native of hell in the skin of a biped, and through the horror that the people of the country had for him they would have given all that ever they saw if only Crom Dubh and his company could have been put-an-end-to; but there was no help for them in that, since he and his company had the power, and they had to endure bitter persecution for years, and for many years, and every year it was getting worse; and they without any hope of relief because they had no knowledge of God or Mary or of anything else which concerned heaven. For that reason they could not put trust in any person beyond Crom Dubh, because they thought, bad as he was, that it was he who was giving them the light of the day, the darkness of the night, and the change of seasons. It was well, brother of my heart. During this time St. Patrick was going throughout Ireland, working diligently and baptizing many people. On he went until he came to Fo-choill or Foghill; and at that time and for long afterwards there was nothing but woods that grew in that place, but there is neither branch nor tree there now. However, to pursue the story, St. Patrick began explaining to the Pagans about the light and glory of the heavens. Some of them gave ear to him, but the most of them paid him no attention. After he had taken all those who listened to him to the place which was called the Well of the Branch to baptize them, and when he had them baptized, the people called the well Tobar Phadraig, or Patrick's Well, and that is there ever since. When these Pagans got the seal of Christ on their forehead, and knowledge of the Holy Trinity, they began telling St. Patrick about the doings of Crom Dubh and his evil ways, and they besought him if he had any power from the All-mighty Father to chastise Crom Dubh, rightly or wrongly, or to give him the Christian faith if it were possible. It was well, brother, St. Patrick passed on over through Tráigh Leacan, up Béal Trághadh, down Craobhach, and down under the Logán, the name that was on Crom Dubh's place before St. Patrick came. When St. Patrick reached the Logán, which is near the present Ballycastle, he was within a quarter of a mile of Crom Dubh's house, and at the same time Crom Dubh and Téideach his son were trying a bout of wrestling with one another, while Saidhthe Suaraighe was stretched out on the ground from ear to tail. With the squeezing they were giving one another they never observed St. Patrick making for them until Saidhthe Suaraighe put a howling bark out of her, and with that the pair looked behind them and they saw St. Patrick and his defensive company with him, making for them, and in the twinkling of an eye the two rushed forward, clapping their hands and setting Saidhthe Suaraighe at them and encouraging her. With that Téideach put his fore finger into his mouth and let a whistle calling for Coinn Iotair, for she was at that same time hunting with Clonnach on the top of Glen Lasaire, and Glen Lasaire is nearly two miles from Dun Phadraig, but she was not as long as while you'd be saying De'raisias [Deo Gratias] coming from Glen Lasaire when she heard the sound of the whistle. They urged the two bitches against St. Patrick, and at the same time they did not know what sort of man St. Patrick was or where he came from. The two bitches made for him and coals of fire out of their mouths, and a blue venomous light burning in their eyes, with the dint of venom and wickedness, but just as they were going to seize St. Patrick he cut [marked] a ring round about him with the crozier which he had in his hand, and before the dogs reached the verge of the ring St. Patrick spoke as follows :- A lock on thy claws, a lock on thy tooth, A lock on Coinn Iotair of the fury. A lock on the son and on the daughter of Saidhthe Suaraighe. A lock quickly, quickly on you. Before St. Patrick began to utter these words there was a froth of foam round their mouths, and their hair was standing up as strong as harrow-pins with their fury, but after this as they came nearer to St. Patrick they began to lay down their ears and wag their tails. And when Crom Dubh saw that, he had like to faint, because he knew when they laid down their ears that they would not do any hurt to him they were attacking. The moment they reached St. Patrick they began jumping up upon him and making friendly with him. They licked both his feet from the top of his great toe [6] to the butt of his ankle, and that affection [thus manifesting itself] is amongst dogs from that day to this. St. Patrick began to stroke them with his hand and he went on making towards Crom Dubh, with the dogs walking at his heels. Crom Dubh ran until he came to the fire and he stood up beside the fire, so that he might throw St. Patrick into it when he should come as far as it. But as St. Patrick knew the strength of the fire beforehand he lifted a stone in his hand, signed the sign of the cross on the stone, and flung the stone so as to throw it into the middle of the flames, and on the moment the fire went down to the lowest depths of the ground, in such a way that the hole is there yet to be seen, from that day to this, and it is called Poll na Sean-tuine, the hole of the old fire (?), and when the tide fills, the water comes into the bottom of the hole, and it would draw "deaf cows out of the woods" –the noise that comes out of the hole when the tide is coming in. It was well, company [7] "of the world ; when Crom Dubh saw that the fire had departed out of sight, and that dogs had failed him and given him no help (a thing they had never done before), he himself and Téideach struck out like a blast of March wind until they reached the house, and St. Patrick came after them. They had not far to go, for the fire was near the house. When St. Patrick approached it he began to talk aloud with Crom Dubh, and he did his best to change him to a good state of grace, but it failed him to put the seal of Christ on his forehead, for he would not give any ear to St. Patrick's words. No there was no trick of deviltry, druidism, witchcraft, or black art in his heart, which he did not work for all he was able, trying to gain the victory over St. Patrick, but it was all no use for him, for the words of God were more powerful than the deviltry of the fairy]sweetheart. With the dint of the fury that was on Crom Dubh and on Téideach his son, they began snapping and grinding their teeth, and so outrageous was their fury that St. Patrick gave a blow of his crozier to the cliff under the base of the gable of the house, and he separated that much of the cliff from the cliffs on the mainland, and that is to be seen there to-day just as well as the first day, and that is the cliff that is called Dún Briste or Broken Fort. To pursue the story. All that much of the cliff is a god many yards out in the sea from the cliff on the mainland, so Crom Dubh and his son had to remain there until the midges and the scaldcrows had eaten the flesh off their bones. And that is the death that Crom Dubh got, and that is the second man that midges ate, and our ancient shanachies say that the first man that midges ate was Judas after he had hanged himself; and that is the cause why the bite of the midges is so sharp as it is. To pursue the story still further. When Clonnach saw what had happened to his father he took fright, and he was terrified of St. Patrick, and he began burning the mountain until he had all that side of the land set on fire. So violently did the mountains take fire on each side of him that himself could not escape, and they say that he himself was burned to a lump amongst them. St. Patrick returned back to Fochoill and round through Baile na Pairce, the Town of the Field, and Bein Buidhe, the Yellow Ben, and back to Clochar. The people gather in multitudes from every side doing honourable homage to St. Patrick, and the pride of the world on them that an end had been made of Crom Dubh. There was a well near and handy, and he brought the grate multitude round about the well, and he never left mother's son or man's daughter without setting on their faces the wave of baptism and the seal of Christ on their foreheads. They washed and scoured the walls of the well, and all round about it, and they got forked branches and limbs of trees and bound white and blue ribbons on them, and set them round about the well, and every one of them bowed down on his knees saying their prayers of thankfulness to God, and as an entertainment for St. Patrick on account of his having put an end to the sway of Crom Dubh. After making an end of offering up their prayers every man of them drank three sups of water out of the well, and there is not a year from that out that the people used not to make turus or pilgrimage to the well, on the anniversary of that day; and that day is the last Sunday of the seventh month, and the name the Irish speakers called the month by in that place is the month of Lughnas [August] and the name of the Sunday is Crom Dubh's Sunday, but, the name that the English speakers call the Sunday by, is Garland Sunday. There is never a year from that to this that there does not be a meeting in Cill Chuimin, for that is the place where the well is. They come far and near to make a pilgrimage to the well; and a number of other people go there too, to amuse themselves a drink and spend. And I believe that the most of that rakish lot go there making a mock of the Christian Irish-speakers who are offering up their prayers to their holy patron Patrick, high head of their religion. Cuimin's well is the name of this well, for its name was changed during the time of Saint Cuimin on account of all the miraculous things he did there, and he is buried within a perch of the well in Cill Chuimin. There does be a gathering on the same Sunday at Dún Padraig or Downpatrick at the well which is called Tobar Brighde or Briget's Well beside Cill Brighde, and close to Dún Briste; but, love of my heart, since the English jargon began a short time ago in that place the old Christian custom of the Christians is almost utterly gone off. There now ye have it as I got it, and if ye don't like it add to it your complaints [8].
1. Lower means "northern". It means round the Lagan, Creevagh and Ballycastle.
2. Literally "doggish". The meaning is rather "snarling" or "fierce" than cynical.
3. Pronounced like "Cunn eetir" and means —hound of rage?
4. Pronounced like "sy-ha soory" and means —bitch of wickedness?
5. Linnaun shee, a fairy sweetheart; in Irish spelt "leannán sidhe."
6. Rather "the space between the toes."
7. A variant of "it was well, my dear."
8. Apparently tell it with your complaint added to it.
Legends of Saints & Sinners Collected and Translated from the Irish by Douglas Hyde LL.D. D.LITT. (Dublin and London, 1915), 1-11.
Content Copyright © Trias Thaumaturga 2012-2015. All rights reserved.
Content Copyright © Trias Thaumaturga 2012-2015. All rights reserved.
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