Translation of the Relics of Saint Brigid to Lisbon, January 25

January 25 marks the anniversary of the Translation of the Relics of Saint Brigid, in this case her head, to the Portuguese capital in 1588. Canon O'Hanlon points out that another Portuguese church claimed to be in possession of the head of Saint Brigid three hundred years earlier. You can read his account in full at my other site here.


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Saint Regulus and the Relics of Saint Andrew

November 30 is the feast of Saint Andrew the Apostle and last week I attended a lecture by Scottish historian Michael Turnbull on Saint Andrew and the Emperor Constantine. It was a fascinating account of the links between Constantine's vision of a cross in the sky and the adoption of the saltire as the symbol of Scotland due to the celestial visions of a ninth-century King of the Picts. There is a useful summary of the author's thinking here. There is also an Irish connection in the legends surrounding the coming of the relics of Saint Andrew to Scotland, as I explained in a post first made on my former blog a few years ago:

In a post made for the feastday of Saint Riaghail of Mucinis on 16 October here, it was mentioned that this Irish saint was caught up in the later medieval legend of a Saint Regulus or Rule, said to have brought the the relics of Saint Andrew the Apostle to Scotland.  As November 30 is the feast of Scotland's patron I thought it might be interesting to take a look at this legend, as recorded in Bishop Forbes' work on the Scottish Kalendars:

The Regulus legend, as believed in Scotland, first occurs in the Colbertine MS. in the Bibliotheque Imperiale. There is also a legend, apparently of the early part of the fourteenth century, in the Harleian Collection in the British Museum, and the last form is that given in the Breviary of Aberdeen. With reference to these various forms of the legend, Mr. W. F. Skene has the following remarks :

"In comparing these three editions, it will be convenient to divide the narrative into three distinct statements.

"The first is the removal of the relics of S. Andrew from Patras to Constantinople. The Colbertine account states that St. Andrew, after preaching to the northern nations, the Scythians and Pictones, received in charge the district of Achaia, with the city of Patras, and was there crucified; that his bones remained there till the time of Constantine the Great, and his sons Constantius and Constans, for 270 years, when they were removed to Constantinople, where they remained till the reign of the Emperor Theodosius.

"The account in the MS. of the Priory of S. Andrews states, that in the year 345, Constantius collected a great army to invade Patras, in order to avenge the martyrdom of S. Andrew, and remove his relics; that an angel appeared to the custodiers of the relics, and ordered Regulus, the bishop, with his clergy, to proceed to the sarcophagus which contained his bones, and to take a part of them, consisting of three fingers of the right hand, a part of one of the arms, the part of one of the knees, and one of his teeth, and conceal them, and that the following day Constantius entered the city, and carried off to Rome the shrine containing the rest of his bones; that he then laid waste the Insula Tyberis and Colossia, and took thence the bones of S. Luke and S. Timothy, and carried them along with the relics of S. Andrew to Constantinople.

"The Aberdeen Breviary says that, in the year 360, Regulus flourished at Patras in Achaia, and was custodier of the bones and relics of S. Andrew; that Constantius invaded Patras in order to avenge the martyrdom of S. Andrew; that an angel appeared to him, and desired him to conceal a part of the relics, and that after Constantius had removed the rest of the relics to Constantinople, this angel again appeared to him, and desired him to take the part of the relics he had concealed, and to transport them to the western region of the world, where he should lay the foundation of a church in honour of the apostle. Here the growth of the legend is very apparent. In the oldest edition, we are told of the removal of the relics to Constantinople, without a word of Regulus. In the second, we have the addition of Regulus concealing a part of the relics in obedience to a vision; and in the third, we have a second vision directing him to found a church in the west. This part of the legend, as we find it in the oldest edition, belongs, in fact, to the legend of S. Andrew, where it is stated that, after preaching to the Scythians, he went to Argos, where he also preached, and finally suffered martyrdom at Patras; and that, in the year 337, his body was transferred from Patras to Constantinople with those of S. Luke and S. Timothy, and deposited in the church of the apostles, which had been built some time before by Constantine the Great.

"When I visited Greece in the year 1844, I was desirous of ascertaining whether any traces of this legend still remained at Patras. In the town of Patras I could find no church dedicated to S. Andrew, but I observed a small and very old-looking Greek monastery, about a mile to the west of it, on the shore of the Gulf of Patras, and proceeding there, I found one of the caloyeres or Greek monks, who spoke Italian, and who informed me that the monastery was attached to the adjacent church of S. Andrew built over the place where he had suffered martyrdom. He took me into the church, which was one of the small Byzantine buildings so common in Greece, and showed me the sarcophagus from which, he said, the relics had been removed, and also, at the door of the church, the spot where his cross had been raised, and a well called S. Andrew's Well. I could find, however, no trace of S. Regulus.

"The second part of the legend in the oldest edition represents a Pictish king termed Ungus, son of Urguist, waging war in the Merse, and being surrounded by his enemies. As the king was walking with his seven comites, a bright light shines upon them ; they fall to the earth, and a voice from heaven says, 'Ungus, Ungus, hear me, an apostle of Christ called Andrew, who am sent to defend and guard thee.' He directs him to attack his enemies, and desires him to offer the tenth part of his inheritance in honour of S. Andrew. Ungus obeys, and is victorious.

"In the S. Andrews edition, Ungus's enemy is said to have been Athelstane, king of the Saxons, and his camp at the mouth of the river Tyne. S. Andrew appears to Ungus in a dream, and promises him victory, and tells him that the relics will be brought to his kingdom, and the place to which they are brought is to become honoured and celebrated. The people of the Picts swear to venerate S. Andrew ever after, if they prove victorious. Athelstane is defeated, his head taken off, and carried to a place called Ardchinnichan, or Portus Reginae.

" The Breviary of Aberdeen does not contain this part of the legend.

" The third part of the legend in the oldest narrative represents one of the custodiers of the body of S. Andrew at Constantinople, directed by an angel in a vision to leave his house, and to go to a place whither the angel will direct him. He proceeds prosperously to 'verticem montis regis id est rigmond.' Then the king of the Picts comes with his army, and Regulus, a monk, a stranger from the city of Constantinople, meets him with the relics of S. Andrew at a harbour which is called 'Matha,id est mordurus,' and King Ungus dedicates that place and city to God and S. Andrew 'ut sit caput et mater omnium ecclesiaram quae sunt in regno Pictorum.' It must be remembered here that this is the first appearance of the name of Regulus in the old legend, and that it is evidently the same King Ungus who is referred to in both parts of the story. The S. Andrews edition of the legend relates this part of the story much more circumstantially. According to it, Regulus was warned by the angel to sail with the relics towards the north, and wherever his vessel was wrecked, there to erect a church in honour of S. Andrew. He voyages among the islands of the Greek sea for a year and a half, and wherever he lands he erects an oratory in honour of S. Andrew. At length he lands in 'terra Pictorum ad locum qui Muckros fuerat nuncupatus, nunc autem Kilrymont dictus; and his vessel having been wrecked he erects a cross he had brought from Patras. After remaining there seventeen days or nights, Regulus goes with the relics to Forteviot, and finds there the three sons of King Hungus, viz. Owen, Nectan, and Finguine, who, being anxious as to the life of their father, then on an expedition ' in partibus Argatheliae,' give the tenth part of Forteviot to God and S. Andrew. They then go to a place called 'Moneclatu, qui nunc dicitur Monichi,' and there Finchem, the queen of King Hungus, is delivered of a daughter called Mowren, who was afterwards buried at Kilrymont; and the queen gives the place to God and S. Andrew. They then cross the mountain called Moneth, and reach a place called 'Doldancha, nunc autem dictus Chondrochedalvan,' where they meet King Hungus returning from his expedition, who prostrates himself before the relics, and this place is also given to God and S. Andrew. They return across the Moneth to Monichi, where a church was built in honour of God and the apostle, and thence to Forteviot, where a church is also built. King Hungus then goes with the clergy to Kilrymont, when a great part of that place is given to build churches and oratories, and a large territory is given as parochia. The boundaries of this parochia can still be traced, and consisted of that part of Fife lying to the east of a line drawn from Largs to Nauchton. Within this line was the district called the Boar's Chase, containing the modern parishes of S. Andrews, Cameron, Dairsie, Kemback, Ceres, Denino, and Kingsmuir; and besides this district, the following parishes were included in the parochia,—viz. Crail, Kiagsbams, Anstruther, Abercromby, S. Monance, Kelly, Elie, Newburgh, Largo, Leuchars, Forgan, and Logie-Murdoch.

" It is impossible to doubt that there is a historic basis of some kind for this part of the legend. The circumstantial character of the narrative is of a kind not likely to be invented. The place beyond the Moneth or Grampians, called Chondrochedalvan, is plainly the church of Kindrochet in Braemar, which was dedicated to St. Andrew. Monichi is probably not Monikie in Forfarshire, as that church was in the diocese of Brechin, but a church called Eglis Monichti, now in the parish of Monifieth, which was in the diocese of S. Andrews, and Forteviot was also in the diocese of S. Andrews.

"According to the account in the Breviary, Regulus, after the relics had been removed to Constantinople, takes the portion he had concealed, and sails with them for two years till he arrives 'ad terram Scottorum,' where he lands and enters the 'nemus porcorum,' and there builds a church, and preaches to the neighbouring people far and wide. Hungus, king of the Picts, sees a company of angels hover over the relics of the apostle, and comes with his army to Regulus, who baptizes him with all his servants, and receives a grant of the land, which is set apart to be the chief seat and mother church of Scotland."—(Skene's Notice of the Early Ecclesiastical Settlements at S. Andrews, in Proceedings Soc. Antiq. Scot. vol. iv. pp. 301-307.)

Alexander Penrose Forbes, D.C.L. Bishop of Brechin, Kalendars of Scottish Saints, (1872), 437-440.

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The Tomb and Relics of Saint Columbanus

Below is a short paper by Margaret Stokes on the tomb and relics of Saint Columbanus written in the late 1880s. As we are dealing with scholarship well over a century old I would treat the theories of the origins of the artistic styles offered here with caution, but the description of the relics is most interesting:

Miss MARGARET STOKES, through the Director, communicated a paper on the tombs at Bobio of St. Columbanus and his followers, Attalus, Congal, Cummian, and others, whose names are given by Padre Rossetti in his Catalogue of the followers of Columbanus, but in their Latin forms, the Irish equivalents to which are omitted.

The tomb of Columbanus is a white marble sarcophagus, formerly surmounted by a marble recumbent statue of the saint, the front and sides of which were adorned with bas-reliefs illustrating events in the life of the saint. Among the interesting features in these bas-reliefs should be noted the booksatchell carried by St. Columbanus in the first, and the watervessel presented by Gregory the Great to the saint at the consecration of his monastery in the central compartment. This sarcophagus stands as an altar in the crypt of the old Lombardic church dedicated to the saint at Bobio, while the tombs of those disciples who followed him from Ireland to Italy are ranged in the walls around that of their master.

The sculptures on five of these sarcophagi offer fine examples of the interlaced work described by Canon Browne at the meeting of the Society on February 19th, as found in Italy at this period and before it, even in the time of imperial Rome. Such patterns were spoken of by Miss Margaret Stokes in her paper read upon the same occasion as gradually introduced with Christianity into Ireland, and there engrafted on a still more archaic form of Celtic art. Thus an Irish variety of such pattern sprang into life. The fact that there is no trace of such Irish individuality in the decorations on the tombs of the Irish saints at Bobio, that there is nothing to differentiate these designs from those that prevailed throughout Lombardy in the seventh century, goes far to prove that this style did not come from Ireland into Italy. Whether, on the other hand, it reached the Irish shore borne directly from Lombardy by the passengers to and fro from Bobio to its parent monastery in Bangor, Co. Down, is yet matter for future research.

The next monument described was the marble slab inscribed to the memory of Cummian, bishop in Ireland at the beginning of the eighth century. We learn from the epitaph itself that Liutprand, king of Lombardy from A.D. 720 to 761, had the monument executed of which this slab was the covering, the artists's name, Joannes Magister, being given at the foot. The inscription consists of nineteen lines, twelve of which are laudatory verses in hexameters, the remaining portion being a request for the saint's intercession.

The knife of St. Columbanus, described by Mabillon in 1682, as well as by Fleming, is still preserved in the sacristy of the church. It is of iron, and has a rude horn handle. The wooden cup out of which the saint drank is also preserved, and in the year 1354 it was encircled by a band of silver, with an inscription stating that it had belonged to St. Columbanus. The bell of the saint is another relic, and it is known that on the occasion of the translation of the saint's relics to Pavia this bell was carried through the streets of that city at the head of the procession.

The vessel brought by pope Gregory the Great from Constantinople, and given by him to St. Columbanus at the consecration of his monastery, agrees in form with that which is represented in the bas-relief on the saint's tomb, and is said to have been one of the water vessels used at the wedding feast at Cana in Galilee. A silver bust representing the head of St. Columbanus completes the list of relics connected with this saint, which are still preserved in the sacristy of his church at Bobio.

In the discussion that followed, Professor Browne said he was convinced, after careful examination of Miss Stokes's careful drawings and diagrams, that the Hibernian theory of the Irish origin of interlacing ornament in Italy was now quite dead.

With regard to the date of a remarkable vase preserved at Bobio, and said to have been given to St. Columbanus by St. Gregory, the President thought the vase was quite as early as if not earlier than St. Gregory's time, and probably of Greek origin.

Thanks were ordered to be returned for these Exhibitions and Communications.

Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of London, 2nd ser. Vol XIII, (1889), 270-271.

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The Arrival of Saint Maelruain with the Relics of the Saints at Tallaght, August 10

Canon O'Hanlon has a notice of a wonderful feast of the translation of the relics of the saints by Saint Maelruain of Tallaght at August 10:

The Arrival or St. Maolruain, with the Relics of Virgins and of other Saints, at Tallagh, County of Dublin.

In the Martyrology of Tallagh, we find a festival for this day, as characterized at the head of this paragraph. We learn from the Life of St. Aengus, the Culdee, that he often travelled about, engaged on inquiries, which enabled him to illustrate the Saint-History of Ireland. Doubtless, he failed not to collect some relics of those holy persons, whenever he travelled abroad; and, it is likely, that his distinguished superior and local contemporary, St. Maelruan, who had kindred tastes, made special journeys for similar purposes. One of these returns must have been solemnly commemorated at Tallagh, in the eighth century, and before the death of St. Maelruan, on the 7th July, 792. That commemoration was probably continued annually, on this day, and at that particular place, in recognition of those treasures deposited by the holy founder in the house of his religious community.

This would have been a purely local commemoration specific to this County Dublin monastery, and scholar Westley Follett suggests that it may in fact commemorate the anniversary of its founding:

According to the Annals of the Four Masters Tallaght was founded in 774. The Martyrology of Tallaght appears to commemorate the occasion on 10 August with the notice 'Mael Ruain came to Tallaght with his relics of the saints, martyrs and virgins'. [1]

This feast thus gives us a glimpse into the development of the cult of the saints in eighth-century Ireland as well as the part played by this particular monastery. Tallaght is perhaps most famously associated with the Céile-Dé movement, but also left a lasting hagiological legacy. For this monastery was associated with the production of the earliest surviving Irish calendars of the saints, The Martyrology of Tallaght and the Martyrology of Aengus. The former is essentially a copy of the Hieronymian Martyrology which reached Ireland in the eighth century (possibly via Iona) to which the commemorations of native Irish saints was added. Follett comments:

It should not be overlooked that non-Irish saints were venerated at Tallaght. The Martyrology of Tallaght (edd. Best and Lawlor, 62) commemorates August 10 with the comment, 'Mael Ruain cum suis reliquiis sanctorum martirum et uirginum ad Tamlachtain uenit'. Given the paucity of native martyrs in Ireland, we may presume these were the relics of non-Irish martyrs. [2]

Various sources connected to the monastery of Tallaght give a further glimpse of devotion to the saints. The Preface to the Martyrology of Aengus, which scholars seem to agree used The Martyrology of Tallaght as a source and was written within a generation of the time of Maelruain, records a particular devotion to Saint Michael the Archangel on the part of Maelruain and claims that relics of the archangel were kept at Tallaght:

Now it is that Maelruain who decided that he would not take land in Tamlachtu until Michael (the Archangel), with whom he had a friendship, should take it; and because of that agreement there are in Tamlachtu relics consecrated to Michael. [3]

Follett also quotes two further Tallaght documents which show how devotion to the saints was practiced as part of the monastic day. The first is from The Teaching of Maelruain:

It was their practice that one man should read aloud the Gospel and the Rules and miracles of the saints while their brethern were at their rations or eating their supper, so that their attention should not be occupied with their dinner. [4]

and is confirmed in The Rule of the Céile-Dé:

It is the practice of the Céile-Dé that while they are at dinner one of them reads aloud the Gospel and the Rule and the miracles of the saints, to the end that their minds may be set on God, not on the meal. [5]

Finally, there is a post in the archive on an even earlier Irish saint with an interest in collecting the relics of Ireland's holy men and women, Saint Onchu of Clonmore. The scholiast notes on his feast day record the story of his over-enthusiasm when he insisted on collecting a finger from the still-living Saint Maedoc! As a result, Maedoc prophesied that the relic collector and his collection would never leave Clonmore. And thus the Connaght man Onchu, likened in the list of parallel saints to Saint Ambrose, came to be buried at the County Carlow monastery of Saint Maedoc.


References

[1] Céli Dé in Ireland: monastic writing and identity in the early Middle Ages (Boydell, 2006), 173.

[2] op.cit., 210, footnote 246.

[3] W. Stokes, ed. and trans., The Martyrology of Oengus the Culdee (London, 1905), 12-13.

[4] Follett, op.cit., 180.

[5] Ibid.

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A Seminar on the Shrine of Saint Manchan

24 January is the feast of Saint Manchan of Lemanaghan, a saint whose memory still flourishes today and whose name is most famously associated with the splendid shine preserved for veneration at the parish church in Boher, County Offaly. Below is an account of a 2003 Irish Studies Seminar held at Columbia University when Professor Karen Overbey spoke on the topic of Saint Manchan's shrine. She helps to place this relic into an historical context, particularly interesting is the political dimension and the relationship between the monastery of Lemanghan and its much more famous neighbour at Clonmacnoise.

Speaker: Professor Karen Overbey
Title: “Holy Ground: Politics, Patronage, and Iconography of St Manchan’s Shrine”

Prof. Overbey presented a talk with slides. St Manchan’s Shrine, which is kept in the parish church in Boher, Co. Offaly, very near to the site of St Manchan’s medieval monastry at Lemanaghan, is the largest surviving Irish reliquary—the richly decorated, containers for the remains of a saint. Holy relics, and even their reliquaries, were the prized possessions of medieval monasteries; the presence of the saint guaranteed the sanctity of the monastic space, and allowed a connection between the earthly inhabitants and the world of the divine.

Many of the shrines features mark it as exceptional. Professor Overbey noted, however, that the oddities of the shrine—its size, its form, its decoration, its figures—rather than spurring exploration, has spurred categorization. Prof. Overbey suggested that through a re-evaluation of the literary, folkloric, political and geographic contexts, St Manchan’s shrine would become less “bewildering.”

St Manchan’s shrine was clearly intended to be carried and displayed—at each junction of base and leg there is a stout brass ring through which a pole could be slid, allowing the shrine to be hoisted and carried. St Manchan’s shrine is approximately five times larger than the tomb-shaped shrines, and its display, on the shoulders of four monks presumably in a procession—would have been public and communal. The small tomb-shaped shrines in contrast were designed to be carried individually, and perhaps somewhat privately or protectively, as on a journey.

St Manchan himself was a founder of monastry approximately twelve miles east of the community of Clonmacnois; the site was called Lemanaghan. Despite its small size, Lemanaghan appears to have had a close relationship with the nearby prominent monastery of Clonmacnois. While the story does not survive in any medieval hagiography, a legend, recorded in the early twentieth century by a local historian, suggests a folkloric “sibling rivalry” between Sts Ciaran (the founder of Clonmacnois) and Manchan, in the tale of a dispute about the boundaries of the respective territories. This may well have some historical basis. In the early eleventh century, King Maelsechnaill donated several more parcels of land in the parish of Lemanaghan to the community of St. Ciaran, specifically as a payment for rights of royal burial in the Clonmacnois graveyard. Seen in this context, the form of St Manchan’s shrine takes on a new possible resonance, which may help to explain the differences from the earlier tradition of tomb-shaped reliquaries. Instead of a fixed burial site located in a bounded graveyard or at the side of a church, St Manchan’s tomb was moveable. It could travel around the boundaries not only of the church, but of the territory, allowing an extension of the sacred and protected space of the monastic graveyard. Prof. Overbey suggested that the burial space of St Manchan’s Shrine functioned to dilate the boundary of the Clonmacnois graveyard, extending the sacred space to the edges of Clonmacnois’s territory.

Prof. Overbey also suggested that the form of St Manchan’s Shrine, coupled with its historical context, imply a strategic political function for the reliquary. In its fusion of divine protection and political expansion, St Manchan’s Shrine proclaims that it was the destiny of Ua Conchobair, Clonmacnois’ patron in the twelfth century, to occupy the province of Meath forever, and that the saint and the king would be dual guardians of the territory and its people.

The Annals of the Four Masters tells us that, in 1166, “The shrine of Manchan…was covered by Ruaidhri Ua Conchobair, a prime contender for high-kingship of the whole island. Ruaidhri’s bid for military and political dominance in Ireland was contested. So it wouldn’t be unusual for Ruaidhri to become an ecclesiastical patron, enchancing his position with grants and gold. We might therefore view the figures on St Manchan’s shrine as having not religious, but military significance. The figures might represent a particularly valuable type of warrior: one with experience, prowess, and identifiable status. Yet, these warriors are not poised to strike. This symbolic troop may function as a kind of visual reminder, or even visual surrogate, of a military exchange of vassals and soldiers between Ruaidhri and his Connacht and Breffney rivals. St Manchan’s shrine is both the site and visualization of the political contract that allowed these rivals to join forces under the protection and assurance of St Manchan, their co-patron. Prof. Overbey answered questions from the floor. A sampling follows.

Q: What are the figures wearing around their necks?
A: They don’t have anything on their necks. That’s actually the nail pole. Those rings were used for carrying the shrine.

Q: How is Jesus depicted? Is Jesus depicted as a warrior?
A: He wears similar clothing: he wears a loin cloth but he has insized ribs.

Q: Was the touching of relics and bones common?
A: It appears that early on they were readily touchable, but they regularly get stolen and traded. For instance, St Manchan’s is sealed. This starts happening in the tenth century. Viewing crystals appear in the fourteenth century.

Q: Is there a change in making reliquaries after the arrival of the Normans?
A: Unfortunately, we don’t have enough evidence to say. There does appear to be subtle changes in the representation of saints. There are only three or four examples of post-Norman shrines.

Q: Is the bone house in Clare identified?
A: No, I actually had to go and track it down in the Burren.

Q: You say that these figures are mature warriors but they’re not dressed for battle and they’re shirtless. Might they not just be peasants?
A: I guess I’d want to know why they have axes and sticks. This depiction of beard tugging is a common attribute of warriors. It might be just enough to indicate that they are warriors.

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Saint Manchan: His Church and Shrine

Below is a paper from the Irish Ecclesiastical Record on Saint Manchan and his Shrine, it does not present the saint's life in so readily-accessible a form as last year's entry  from Canon O'Hanlon, but there are some interesting points nonetheless. I was particularly intrigued by the reference to the claim that the Apostle James had come to Ireland and written his canonical epistle here. I have explored this theme a bit further in this post. I was also interested to see the author suggest that Saint Manchan may be the author of the "Wonders of the Scripture," a text once attributed to Saint Augustine but now acknowledged to be of Irish authorship. I hope to post something about this text and its author the 'Irish Augustine' in the future too. 

ST. MANCHAN: HIS CHURCH AND SHRINE.

ABOUT three miles north-east of Ferbane, King's County, skirting the main road to Clara, may be seen the site of the once celebrated monastic establishment founded about the middle of the seventh century, by St. Manchan, of Liath. Standing on a low swell, an armlet of well-reclaimed bog, it gently rises above the extensive moors with which it is almost surrounded. Here, in the midst of scenery of a character altogether desolate and lonely, but poetic and sublime, are to be found what remains of the Church and house of Manchan. Both repose beneath the shadow of one of the "Seven Fair Castles" of MacCoghlan of Delvin Eathra, and within sight of St. Columb's famous Durrow, and the now celebrated Intermediate College conducted by the Jesuits at Tullabeg. Lemanaghan was originally subject to the jurisdiction of Clonmacnoise, having come out from that great centre of religion, science and art, as a monastic foundation.

Like so many others of our once famous abbeys, it had its origin in royal munificence, as the following passage taken from the Annals of the Four Masters will clearly show:

"A.D. 645, the battle of Carn Conaill (probably Ballyconnell, in the vicinity of Gort, Co. Galway), was gained by Dermot, King of Ireland, over Guiare, King of Connaught, in which the two Cuans were killed - viz., Cuan, the son of Enda, King of Munster; and Cuan, the son of Connell, Chief of Hy-Figente; and also Talmnack, Chief of Hy-Liathin. Guaire was routed from the field. On marching to the battle King Dermot passed through Clonmacnoise, and the congregation of St. Kieran prayed to God for his success, and through their prayers he returned safe.

" After the King's return he granted Tuaim-n-Eirc, i.e., Liath Manchan, with its divisions of land, i.e. (all the lands included under that name), as an Altar Sod or Altar land, to God and St. Kieran, and he pronounced three maledictions on any future King of Meath if any of his people should take (with violence), even so much as a drink of water there."

MacGeoghegan, in his translations of the Annals of Clonmacnoise, gives much the same account: "The battle of Carne-Connell, in the Feast of Penticost, was given by Dermot MacHugh Slane, and going to meet his enemies went to Clonvicknoise to make his devotion to St. Queran, was met by the abbots, prelates, and clergy of Clonvicknoise in procession, where they prayed God and St. Queran to give him victory over his enemies, which God granted at their requests, for they had victory, and slew Cuan, King of Minister, and Cuan, King of Feiginty, and so giving the foyle to his enemies, returned to Clonvicknoise again to congratulate the clergy by whose intercession he gained the victory, and bestowed on them for ever Foyminercke, with the appurtenances, now called Lyavanchan, in honour of God and St. Queran, to be held free, without any charge in the world, in so much that the King of Meath might not thenceforth challenge a draught of water thereout by way of any charge."

It was thus Clonmacnoise obtained the ownership of that place, a spot afterwards celebrated through its connection with him who established thereon a monastery. The personal fame and greatness of its founder and patron was the occasion of acquiring for it a new name viz., Liath Manchan a name by which not alone the group of monastic ruins, but the entire parish is called and known even to this day.

The founder and patron of this old monastic establishment was Manchan. Considerable uncertainty, however, surrounds his identification, for there were several saints of that name. In the Irish calendars, records are to be found of twelve distinct festivals set apart to honour saints called Manchan. Just as there have been many saints called Ronan and Lasera, so, too, there have been several Manchans. Of these the more celebrated were Manchan, Abbot and Bishop of Tomgraney, County Clare; Manchan, of Dysart Gallen, Queen's County, who was called the wise Irishman. The remains of his church and monastery are still to be seen in a sequestered and romantic valley, surrounded by scenery of a character charmingly picturesque and lovely. But Manchan, of Liath Manchan, was the greatest of them all. Ware states that amongst the alleged works of Richard Fitzralph, Archbishop of Armagh, was a Vita Sancti Manchani.

It is even said that Ussher had it in his hand, but Dr. Todd and others searched for it in Ussher's Library and failed to find it. Some say it is in the Bodleian Library, Oxford. If so I hope yet to read it. Meanwhile, I shall set down now what appears to be certain from present available sources regarding Manchan of Leinanagh.

The Annals of Clonmacnoise state "it was erroneously affirmed that Manchan was a Welshman, and came to this country with St. Patrick." It seems good then to set down his pedigree to disprove their allegations. Manchan was the son of Failve, who was the son of Augine, who was son of Bogany, who was son of Connell Galban, the ancestor of O'Donnell, as is confidently laid down among the genealogies of the saints of Ireland. It is, moreover, certain that he was a very learned man, at least in the Scriptures and Theology, for he was called the Jerome of Ireland, being "very like unto him in habits of life and learning. He wrote a book entitled the "Wonders of the Scripture," which is still extant in the third vol. of St. Augustine's works, and is falsely ascribed to him. Several writers assert that James, the Son of Zebedee, propagated the Gospel in Spain and the western countries, and came to Ireland and wrote his canonical epistle there. Manchan denied all that, and held that the epistle was written by James, Son of Alphoeus, and that neither of the Apostles of the name of James ever left their own country. "He slew James with the sword, and set the people to seize Peter also." (Acts xii.)

Besides he was a poet of a very high order, having composed that charming poem -

" Would that, O Son of the living God!

O eternal, ancient King!"&c., &c.

O'Flaherty quotes another poem of Manchan's, beginning with the words, "Since Idols were expelled."

It appears to be beyond all doubt that he was very highly venerated in his time for learning as well as sanctity, for Tigernach, the earliest of our annalists, having recorded his death as Bishop and Abbot, speaks of him as one of the most eminent persons who fell victims to that great mortality which, sparing neither sinner nor saint, prevailed in Ireland about the year 661.

It is thus recorded in the Annals of Clonmacnoise " A.D. 661, Enos of Ulster and St. Manchan of Leith, together with many other princes, bishops and abbots, died of the said pestilence." It was called the Buidhe Connail, or yellow plague. The Four Masters record his death at the year 664, but they are generally three, and sometimes five years later than the Annals of Clonmacnoise.

Archdall, after placing the death of St. Manchan, the patron of Lemanaghan, under the year 661, adds, under the year 694: "We find another St. Manchan of Leth, who lived after this year." For this he refers to Colgan, Acta, S.S.,p. 382, but the year 694 there is only a misprint for 664, which is the date of the Four Masters, from whom Colgan translated the passage. Petrie thinks Archdall’s mind was a blunt one.

In the year 1838 Mr. Petrie visited Lemanaghan, and he tells us in the record of his visit that he sketched the original church and oratory of St. Manchan, and found it to be only twenty-four feet in length, and fifteen in width. He added that "it presents to the antiquary an interesting characteristic specimen of the architecture of the seventh century." The parish church still remains, and is situate in the village of Lemanaghan, and in tolerably good preservation. It is of much larger size and of later age, as is observable from its ornamented doorway, which exhibits unmistakable features of the architecture of the eleventh or twelfth century.

Not far distant are three holy wells, to which the blind, lame, and persons afflicted with other chronic diseases come on the anniversary of the patron saint's death, the 24th January.

A togher or paved causeway leads to one of these wells, and extends further on by several yards, until it reaches the low swell on which is to be seen the cell which St. Manchan built for his mother. The antiquarian will be much interested on reaching this spot. This road, which resembles in many respects that leading from the Seven Churches to the Church of the Nuns, or Dervogail’s restored Church, is paved with large flag-stones. At the end of it you come upon an old Cyclopean building, surrounded by an ancient Mur, or wall of earth, faced with stonework.

The enclosure is rectangular and measures fifty yards by thirty-six.

About the centre of this enclosure stands a rectangular cell of extreme antiquity, measuring about eighteen by ten feet, the walls being over three feet in width or thickness. The doorway is squareheaded. The lintel passes through the entire thickness of the wall. There is no sign of any mode of hanging or fastening a door the sides are inclined, and there is no window in the sides of the building. This is the cell which tradition states Manchan built for his mother, St. Mella.

How appalling was not the rigor and severity of sanctity in those days! Ivy now mantles this curious cell, and the enclosure or Cashel is planted with trees.

But the most interesting object of all connected with this celebrated monastic foundation is the shrine of St. Manchan. Scrinium Sancti Manchani, the Annalists declare to have been called, opus pulcherrimum quod fecit opifex in Hibernia.

This venerable shrine certainly holds a conspicuous place amongst Irish ecclesiastical antiquities. Being a monument of very high antiquity, it cannot fail to awaken at all times a lively interest amongst antiquarians, affording, as it does, an illustration of a class of objects formerly numerous, but now very rare. " It was covered by Roderick O'Conor, and an embroidering of gold was carried over it by him in as good a style as a relic was ever covered in Ireland." - Four Masters.

There is, and always was, an intimate connexion between shrines, reliques, pilgrimages, and processions. The shrine containing a relique was at first a plain chest of wood. Gradually it became the subject of more or less ornament in proportion to the veneration attached to the object it contained. Shrines originally portable, thus became in course of time large and stately structures, and were set up in churches for the veneration of the faithful. The origin of shrines is traceable to a very remote period. The Israelites, for example, when they were departing from Egypt, took with them the bones of Joseph (according to his own direction) and kept them during their many years' journeyings into the promised land. When the dead man was restored to life on. touching the bones of the Prophet Elisha, when diseases departed and evil spirits went out of them, to whom handkerchiefs and aprons that had touched the body of St. Paul were applied ; the foundation was laid for that veneration which found one mode of expression in the decoration of the shrine. The veneration amongst Christians for reliques and shrines began in the Apostolic times. St. Ignatius, who was a disciple of St. John the Evangelist, and who is believed to have been the child that our Lord took in his arms, was martyred at Rome, A.D. 107, and his bones were afterwards collected and placed in a napkin, and carried to Antioch, and preserved as an inestimable treasure left to the Church. Likewise, after the martyrdom of St. Polycarp, Bishop of Smyrna, who is commended in the "Revelations," and who was a disciple of St. John, the Christians who were present at his death, A.D. 147, took up his bones more precious than the richest jewels and tryed above gold," and deposited them where it was fitting, and probably in some secure depository until they could be honorably enclosed in a shrine.

In Ireland, the use of shrines is contemporaneous with the introduction of Christianity. So great has been the veneration in which our ancestors held them, that in spite of the wars and revolutions of so many centuries, a few well authenticated examples are still to be seen amongst us. And there are many places in Ireland which have been called Skryne or Skreen, owing to the bones of some saint having been deposited there in a shrine. The shrine of St. Colomba, per varios casus per tot discrimina rerum - the chief object for so long a time of the roving and murderous northmen's search was brought from Iona to Ireland for safety. Walafridas Strabus thus writes of it: -

" Ad sanctum venere patrem pretiosa metalla

Reddere cogentes queis sancti sancta Colombae

Ossa jacent, quam quippe suis de sedibus, arcam

Tollentes tumulo terra posuere cavato

Cespite sub denso gnari jam pestis iniquae

Hanc praedam cupiere Dani."

In England, Durham and Canterbury possessed the most celebrated shrines, viz., those of St. Cuthbert, the Venerable Bede, and Thomas a Becket.

By the order of Henry VIII. both were despoiled, when that of Cuthbert, an Irish saint, was broken open, the Commissioners, to their amazement, observed the body of the saint entire and uncorrupt, arrayed in his pontifical vestments. Dismayed, they stopped short, until they learned the king's pleasure. When it was known, the body was buried beneath the place where the shrine had been.

Scott, following the popular traditions regarding the concealment of St. Cuthbert's reliques in some part of Durham, wrote the following: -

"Where his cathedral huge and vast

Looks down upon the Wear,

There deep in Durham's Gothic shade,

His relics are in secret laid;

But none may know the place,

Save of his holiest servants three,

Deep sworn to solemn secrecy,

Who share that wondrous grace."

In England, nearly all the shrines were broken and plundered at the time of the Reformation. Those of Edward the Confessor, and of St. Werburgh, remain, and are preserved at Westminster Abbey and Chester.

In Ireland, the destruction was not so complete, owing to the tenacity with which its ever faithful Catholics clung to their faith. Its shrines, reliques, and consecrated objects, they guarded as the apple of their eye. It is honorable to our national character to have preserved, in spite of the strongest temptations, with such becoming fidelity, those sacred deposits, and over so many generations after they had lost their other possessions. But to return to the shrine of St. Manchan. It is preserved in the Chapel of Boher, near to the Prospect Station, on the Great Southern and Western Railway to Athlone. It was formerly kept in a small thatched building used as a Chapel in the penal times. Local traditions state that the Chapel was burned, but the shrine was miraculously saved from the fire. It was afterwards cared by Mr. Mooney, of Doon, who finally placed it in the hands of its natural and best guardian and protector, the Parish Priest for the time being, where it now rests.

Like Colomba's shrine, it has travelled much, but under different circumstances and from different causes. It has been at two of the great Exhibitions in Dublin. It was at one of the great London Exhibitions, and it was at one of the great Exhibitions of Paris, held during the reign of Napoleon III., who sent a gold medal to the then Bishop of Ardagh, Dr. Kilduff, of happy memory, in consideration for the loan of so valuable a relic. The following is the inscription on the medal :

EMPEREUR NAPOLEON III.

Exposition Universelle

De MDCCCLXVII. A Paris

Rev. EVEQUE KILDUFF

Histoire du travail pour services rendus.

In the lapse of time it has lost some of its original ornaments, but a fair idea of what it was in its perfect state may be gathered from the fac-simile (No. 1857) by Dr. Carte, to be seen in the Gold Room of the Royal Irish Academy. In this fac-simile the deficient parts have been restored from those which remain. In form this very valuable relic (four hundred pounds sterling were offered for it, but they would not sell it for money) resembles that generally belonging to the ancient Ciborium, and usually represented by the top of the stone crosses. Some think the form of this ancient shrine was adopted in imitation of the high pitched stone roofs which covered the ancient cells of the Saints in whose memory and honor they were made. Its material is of yew, and artistically covered with brass-work, inlaying of ivory and enamelling. On each of its two sides are crosses formed in the centre, and extremities by five large cups or paterae. Underneath are to be seen figures in bass-relief, formed of brass also and separate from each other. The figures of one side have been lost altogether, but eleven still remain on the other. There are fifty-two figures missing, which filled in the other six compartments.

The vacant places in the wood of the shrine proclaim their absence. Mr. Graves, in his beautiful essay on this shrine, illustrated by striking and excellent photographs, which are so valuable in connexion with such a subject, observes that he heard on undoubted authority, the servant-maid of one of its conservators, set to work to clean it, and succeeded in scouring off most of its gilding. It reminds one of the fate of the CONG IRISH MANUSCRIPTS, IN VELLUM, SPLENDIDLY ILLUMINATED. One of the figures, however, is in the Petrie Collection of the Royal Irish Academy in the same room with the Crozier of the Clonmacnoise Abbots and the Chalice of Ardagh, objects of much interest to the antiquarian. There is also at present another of these missing figures in possession of his Lordship, Dr. Woodlock, the venerated Bishop of Ardagh.

A learned writer on this subject thus briefly describes this shrine: "The Shrine of St. Manchan is a wooden chest of cruciform figure that is of a wedge resting on its base with the edge uppermost. The two principal sides which slope upwards after the manner of a double reading desk, overlap both the base and the triangular ends or gables." But any description of this Shrine, minus photographic views, can convey only an imperfect notion of its beauty. There is one figure, that of a warrior helmeted and wearing the philibeg or kilt, which deserves a passing notice, for it, together with the other figures, illustrates not only the state of the fine arts in Ireland before the arrival of the English, but, moreover, proves that the use of the kilt was not confined to the Scottish Highlanders, but was common amongst the Irish.

Petrie tells us in his Book on the Round Towers, that before the irruptions of the Danes in the eighth and ninth centuries there were few distinguished Churches in Ireland without costly shrines containing the relics of their founders.

Cogitosus speaks of the two shrines of Kildare and their costly materials. There were, moreover, the shrines of Sts. Bridgid and Ciaran, and Ronan and Comgall, and a host of others. There were the decorations of St. Bridgid's Church, of which Cogitosus tells, and the frescoes at St. Cormac's Chapel, on the Rock of Cashel, not yet wholly destroyed; there were the illuminations of the religious books in which the painter's skill was best known.

There was that copy of the Four Gospels seen by Cambrensis, and so much praised even by him.

There were those beautiful works of art and many others well calculated to excite admiration. But the Annalists say pulcherrimum opus quod fecit opifex in Hibernia fuit Scrinium Sancti Manchani. Surely the words of the great skeptical poet Byron, apply here with double force :

“Even the faintest relics of a shrine

Of any worship wake some thoughts divine."

The following extract from Petrie will, I hope, appropriately conclude my observations regarding this shrine:

"This reliquary, sadly mutilated as it is, still preserves enough of its original characteristic features to enable us to form a correct idea of its primeval, costly and elaborate beauty, and to become intimately acquainted with what may be regarded as the linal development of that phase of Celtic art-ornamentation in Ireland, which has excited such a deep interest throughout Europe in our own time.

"And in this shattered, mutilated shrine we behold an impressive illustration of the final extinction of that graceful imaginative art, as well as that of the Monarchy, which had seen its birth and fostered its development."

Throughout this essay I have assumed that the word Moethail which occurs in the " Annals of the Four Masters," is one of the errors of transcription, or guesses to supply an obliteration, in the Annals of Clonmacnoise, from which they copied the reference to this shrine. Moreover, many writers suppose St. Manchan of Mohil, and St. Manchan of Lemanaghan, to be the same person, and thus he is styled the patron of Seven Churches, and invoked in the Tallaght Martyrology in the following words:

"Sanctum Manchan cum ejus centum et viginta fratribus invoco,

per Dominum nostrum Jesum Christum, &c."

From what I have written, the following conclusions may be drawn: 1st, Manchan was a practical man, in that he was the builder or promoter and patron of Seven Churches; 2nd, he was a poet; 3rd, having been the most learned man of his day in the Sacred Scriptures, he was therefore a distinguished theologian; 4th, he was a saint. This is a union of qualities rarely found in the same person.

J. MONAHAN.

Irish Ecclesiastical Record Volume VII, (1886), 203-213.

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The Tully Lough Cross

Below is an article on the Tully Lough Cross, an 8th- or 9th-century Irish treasure recovered from a lake in County Roscommon. I first posted this at my former blog in 2010 and the original link no longer works.

Recovered Celtic Treasure

Rescued from its watery resting place, the Tully Lough Cross was recently put on display alongside other key exhibits in the National Museum; Eamonn P Kelly discusses the stylistic and historic significance of this find.

The Tully Lough Cross is an Irish altar cross of the 8th or 9th century (Fig 1). Constructed of metal sheets on a wooden core, it is a rare example of a metal-encased cross of the period and the only relatively intact Irish example, although what may be components for similar Irish crosses of the period have been found elsewhere in Ireland, England and in Viking graves in Western Norway. It is similar in form to the later Cross of Cong, which dates to the 12th century and which also has Co. Roscommon connections through its maker Mael Isu UaEchan, Abbott of Clooncraft. The only contemporary intact cross of comparable form is the 8th-century Anglo-Saxon example preserved at Bischofshofen in Austria, while the fragmentary remains of a bossed metal and wood cross of the 8th century from Dumfriesshire, Scotland, is in the National Museum of Scotland.

Tully Lough Cross the cross arms are cusped and decorated with bosses and panels, some of them openwork; the ornament is characteristic of Insular art of the late 8th-early 9th centuries (All photos courtesy of the National Museum)

In July 1986 a diver found the Tully Lough Cross in controversial circumstances on the bed of Tully Lough, Co. Roscommon, close to the edge of a small crannóg (an artificial island dwelling). One of the finders was subsequently prosecuted for failing to report the find and the court heard evidence of an attempt to sell the cross to the Getty Museum California, for $1.75 million. When the cross came into the possession of the National Museum of Ireland in 1990 it was in a fragmented state and examination showed that components were missing. Impact damage had also been sustained, probably before the cross came to be deposited in the lake. Underwater investigation of the find place, conducted in 1998, indicated that the cross was in a damaged condition when it came to rest on the lakebed, although it has also been established that the finders lost a few undecorated components subsequent to discovery.

Upper shaft of the Tully Lough Cross showing details of the decoration, including a human figure between two animals, an openwork interlace panel and a bosse with spiral decoration

The cross has been conserved and restored by National Museum conservators and placed on display in the Treasury in Kildare Street alongside other major national treasures such as the Tara Brooch and Ardagh Chalice. Unlike the Cross of Cong, another great treasure in the National Museum, the Tully Lough Cross does not appear to have been designed to hold a relic. Both crosses have similar outlines, with cusped arms, suggesting that the basic form was current over hundreds of years. In the case of the Tully Lough Cross a wooden (oak) upright and crosspiece were joined in the middle using a simple halving joint, secured by an iron nail. The cross arms are cusped and a number of cast and gilt bronze bosses and flat mounts are attached to the front and back, contrasted by plain tinned-bronze backing sheets. The decorative elements on the front are more ornate than those on the back. Three panels bear simple interlace patterns while two others depict a human figure between two gaping animals - perhaps an image of Daniel in the Lion’s Den - or that of Christ between two beasts, an important icon in the Early Middle Ages. The human figures are closely similar and each wears a kilt-like garment that extends below the knees. However the eyes of the uppermost figure are represented as open while those on the lower example are closed. The metal components of the cross are held in place with nails, tubular binding strips and cast animal-headed fittings. Amber studs are employed for decorative purposes on the bosses.

Openwork panel from the upper shaft of the Tully Lough Cross:the symbolism of the figure may be Christ or Daniel in the Lion’s Den

Whereas the decoration on the Cross of Cong owes much to the Hiberno-Scandinavian version of the so-called Urnes art style, much of the art style employed on the Tully Lough Cross is known as Ultimate La Tène. Pyramidal and circular bosses bear chip-carved decoration including egg and dart mouldings, opposed eagle-like birds, spirals that end in bird heads or in clubbed terminals, simple interlace as well as punched lentoids, dots and dot and circle motifs. On the cusped panels on the front, raised cast triskeles occur in a complicated pattern of inscribed intermeshed S-scrolls, trumpet patterns and peltas. It is possible that the cross was made in a local workshop, which may also have produced the book shrine found in Lough Kinale, Co. Longford.

Cross of Cong made at the behest of Turlough O’ Connor, High King of Ireland, it is a cusped cross, decorated with animal interlace panels

The book shrine cover is decorated with a bossed cross with cusped arms and a number of aspects of the decoration and workmanship are closely comparable. Amber studs occur on the bosses. Animal heads that project from medallions placed on the sides and ends of the book shrine are the same animal that is represented on the mouldings placed at the joints of the tubular bindings on the cross. Originally there were sixteen of which twelve survive. Cast in the form of a long-snouted beast with two upright rounded ears, the cheeks are crosshatched with two spiral nostrils at the end of the snout.

The same animal is represented on other items of contemporary metalwork such as the Cavan brooch and the St-Germain shrine mounts but it also occurs on later objects such as St. Manchan’s shrine and the Cross of Cong. The human figure between two beasts motif can be compared with a similar figure represented on an unprovenanced 9th-century gilt silver bell shrine in the National Museum collection (reg. no. 1920:37). It also occurs on stone high crosses such as the South Cross at Ahenny, Co. Tipperary, and part of the importance of the Tully Lough Cross lies in the fact that it demonstrates conclusively the long-held view that many of the Irish high crosses were modelled on metal crosses. Bosses are a common feature on the high crosses and much of the decoration appears to be based on metalwork prototypes. The central pyramidal boss on the front of the Tully Lough Cross has a panel of opposed birds that are very similar in style and treatment to two panels of opposed animals represented on the above-mentioned bell shrine, while there are also comparable animals represented on the back of a large silver brooch of the 9th century from Killamery, Co. Kilkenny.

Trapezoidal panel on the pyramidal centrepiece mount showing two three- strand spirals that end in bird-heads

The Tully Lough Cross may have been associated with the church of Kilmore, an important Patrician foundation sited close to Tully Lough. During the middle ages the Ó Mochain family were keepers of what might have been another important altar cross, named after St Atrachta who had north Roscommon associations. The monumental scale and lavish decoration suggests that the Tully Lough Cross was paraded on important religious and ceremonial occasions. Whether it was lost accidentally or thrown deliberately into the lake is impossible to say, but the discovery in Viking graves of possible components from similar crosses may provide a pointer. The most complete of the related finds from Ireland is the Antrim Cross in the Hunt Museum, Limerick. Drawings of similar crosses occur on contemporary gospel books such as the Canterbury Codex Aureus, and the decorative style of the Tully Lough Cross is also to be found on the manuscripts.

Eamonn P Kelly is the Keeper of Irish Antiquities in the National Museum of Ireland where he has been associated prominently with efforts to recover looted antiquities. His publications include Early Celtic Art in Ireland; Sheela-na-gigs Origins and Functions. He is a contributor to the recent book Treasures of the National Museum of Ireland: Irish Antiquities.

Originally Published Here: Irish Arts Review, Volume 20, Number 3