Showing posts with label Under the Oak. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Under the Oak. Show all posts

Sunday, March 22, 2015

Remember Marcella




When looking for well researched and illustrated posts on Irish saints, particularly the three primary saints of Ireland, Columba, Patrick, and Brigid, you could do a lot worse than to turn to Marcella, who describes herself thus:

"I am an Irishwoman interested in the lives of our native saints. I am not a professional scholar in this field but attempt to keep up with the work of those who are. I am particularly interested in the many obscure Irish saints whose names fill the pages of our Martyrologies."

Once the force behind Under the Oak, Marcella now maintains Trias Thaumaturga and Omnium Sanctorum Hiberniae. To get a sense of her interest in Brigid, have a look at the posts about her in February 2012:
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Saturday, May 04, 2013

Saint Conleth of Kildare, May 3



The redoubtable Marcella, once of Under the Oak, now of Omnium Sanctorum Hiberniae and Trias Thaumaturga, reminds us that 3 May is the feast day of Brigit's first bishop, Saint Conleth of Kildare. She has drawn together various notes about him on Omnium Sanctorum Hiberniae:

On May 3 we celebrate the feast of Saint Conleth, first Bishop of Kildare. The following account of his life has been distilled from Canon O'Hanlon's Lives of the Irish Saints, Volume 5, pages 69-95.  A post on the description by Cogitosus of the tombs of Saint Brigid and Saint Conleth at Kildare can be found at my other blog Trias Thaumaturga here.   

ST. CONLETH, OR CONLAID, BISHOP AND PATRON OF KILDARE DIOCESE. [FIFTH AND SIXTH CENTURIES.]
     

To read the full posting, click here.

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Monday, December 17, 2012

Moving Out from Under the Oak (& Brigida Thaumaturga)


A very interesting blog on Irish saints has recently been deleted: Under the Oak, by Brigit, "an Irishwoman interested in the history of the early Irish church and the lives of our native saints". It is not findable by the Internet Archive Way Back Machine. It is gone.

Brigid has begun two new blogs, where some of the old material will be revised and represented, and new material will arrive as well. The new blogs are: Omnium Sanctorum Hiberniae, where she will "carry on blogging about the Irish saints", and Trias Thaumaturga, "dedicated to the three patron saints of Ireland. There you will find most of the posts on Saint Patrick, Saint Brigid and Saint Colum Cille which were published" at Under the Oak.

Shortly before the deletion, I happened to do a search of the site and kept a few of her Brigit posts open in a tab to eventually share with you. Here is a little of what she had there: (Note: if you read the comment section below you'll see that the Brigit posts have been largely reposted. The link on the title of the article will take you to its position on the new site.)



A 17th-Century View of Saint Brigid: Brigida Thaumaturga

Brigida Thaumaturga, Brigid the Wonderworker, is the title of a 17th-century treatise on Saint Brigid written by David Rothe, Bishop of Ossory (1568-1650) and published in Paris in 1620. The full title is Brigida Thaumaturga sive Dissertatio partim encomiastica in laudem ipsius sanctae, partim archaica, ex sacra et antiqua historia ecclesiastica, partim etiam parenetica ad alumnos Collegiorum, in qua elucidatur prodigium ligni aridi reviriscantis ex attractu B. Brigidae Virginis, et symbolico sensu accommodatur ad antiquam quod intercesserat commercium inter Galliam et Hiberniam in rebus sacris, literariis, et civilibus, habita in Collegio Hibernorum Parisiense, Kalendis Februarii, die festo ejusdem sanctae. Parisiis apud Sebastianum Cramois sub ciconiis, via Jacobaea. M.D.C.XX.', Brigid the wonder-worker; or a dissertation partly laudatory, in praise of the Saint, partly archaeological drawn from sacred and from ecclesiastical history, and partly also hortatory, addressed to the students of the (Irish) Colleges. In it the miracle of the wood growing green again at the touch of the Virgin Brigid is explained; and symbolically applied to the ancient inter-course between France and Ireland, in things sacred, literary and civil. Delivered in the Irish College in Paris on February I, Feast of the Saint. Published by Sebastian Cramois, under the Sign of the Storks. Rue Saint-Jacques, 1620.' Now, that's what I call a title! Jason Harris of the Centre for Neo-Latin Studies, University College Cork, has made an online edition of the Latin text available here. I don't know of any English translation, but the 1911 paper below, written by Father Patrick Boyle (1849-1933), offers a summary of its contents and a biography of its author. Note that the title contains a reference to the miracle of the wood growing green again at Saint Brigid's touch, this miracle is noted in one of the lessons for the saint's office in the Roman Breviary as well in the Sarum-rite office. Also worth looking out for in the paper is the hymn which Bishop Rothe wrote in praise of Saint Brigid when her intercession delivered him from shipwreck. I have transferred the translation of this from the footnotes into the main text beneath the Latin original. It is most interesting to read of this 17th-century view of Saint Brigid, one which appears to be grounded in hagiographical tradition, for the Bishop sees his patroness as the wonderworking head of Irish nuns, distinguished for her faith and charity, a figure far removed from the goddess, social worker or environmental activist of our own times.


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Wednesday, October 14, 2009

Cross-Posting: Under the Oak - A Mystery Saint Brigid at the End of September

Another fascinating Brigit blog posting from Under the Oak.

Wednesday, 30 September 2009

A Mystery Saint Brigid at the End of September

The very last day of September sees the commemoration on the Irish calendars of a Saint Brigid, who is otherwise left unidentified. O'Hanlon identifies the two main candidates who may claim to be commemorated on this day. The first is a holy woman mentioned in the Life of Saint Senan (feastday 8th March) and the second an unknown female saint associated with a holy well and church at Kilbreedy (literally 'Brigid's church') in County Laois (or Queen's County as it was called in O'Hanlon's time). I am not sure that he really proves either case convincingly, but this mystery Saint Brigid is a good example of the large number of Irish saints who are recorded in our martyrologies without any further clues to their identity.

St. Brigid, of Cluainfidhe, or perhaps of Kilbreedy, Queen's County.

In the published Martyrology of Tallagh, the feast of St. Brigitta is thus simply recorded, at the 30th of September. In the Book of Leinster copy, at this day, there is a similar entry. Without any further designation, Brigit is entered in the Feilire of Marianus O'Gorman, at this day. In the Martyrology of Charles Maguire, as in the Martyrologies of Tallagh and of Marianus O'Gorman, the feast of a St. Brigid is entered at the 30th of September.

Among the holy women, who are recorded as having flourished in the Irish church, there is a St. Brigid, who was daughter to Conchraid, and she belonged to the family of Mactail. Colgan says, this family seems to have been derived, from the Kings of Munster, having issued from the race of Oengus, King over that province. From this line, St. Mactail the Bishop was descended. Or perhaps, the family of Mactail was derived from the O'Brien sept. Cassius, surnamed Tallins, had several sons, among whom were Blodius, Cassius, Sedneus, and Delbatius. Hence it happens, that some one of these, or of their posterity—especially Blodius' children, who inherited the chieftainship—might be considered as belonging to the family of Mactail. The word itself signifies son of Tallius. If Colgan's conjecture be correct, those circumstances connected with the family and place of her residence point out St. Brigid, who is venerated on the 30th of September, as the one mentioned in St. Senan's Second Life. From it we are able to procure the following account of her. We are told there, how St. Brigid, a holy virgin, had established herself in a cell, on the banks of the river Shannon, and at a place, called Clain in fidi, or Cluainfidhe. Whilst there, she had prepared a cloak or chasuble for St. Senan, which she desired sent to him, but had not the necessary means for transport. However, she covered the vestment with hay, and having placed it, with some letters, in an osier basket, which floated out on the river, the result was committed to a providential issue. The letters were directed to St. Senan, and contained a request, that he would send the Most Holy Sacrament to her. By a miracle of Divine Providence, and without any human direction, the basket floated out into the bed of the Shannon, which at this point was very wide; and, at length it landed on the Island shore, near the church of St. Senan. This circumstance, being revealed to the holy man, he called one of his disciples, who was a Deacon. He was desired to bring the basket, which lay on the shore, to the monastery. Having fulfilled such orders, Senan took the vestment and letters contained in the basket. He then placed therein, as we are told, two portions of salt and a pixis containing the Sacred Host. He next ordered, in the name of God, to whom every creature owes obedience, that the basket should return by the same way it had come, and restore to St. Brigid one of the lumps of salt and the pixis it contained ; and that it should bear the other portion of salt, to St. Diermit, who dwelt in the monastery of Inis-clothrand. According to St. Senan's mandate, the basket returned to St. Brigid. She took out therefrom the pixis, and one of the salt portions. Before she had time to remove the other, the basket was carried off by motion of the water; and it sailed, by a direct course, against the river's current until it arrived at Inisclothrand. Having understood what had occurred through a Divine revelation, St. Diermit went forth, and brought the basket to his monastery with much joy. He gave thanks to God, for the wonder wrought through his holy servant, St. Senan.

Of the thirteen saints bearing this name, as mentioned by our Irish Martyrologists, Colgan supposed the circumstance already related can only apply to that St. Brigid, who was venerated on the 30th of September. However, in the Third and Fourth Lives of St. Brigid, such anecdote was transferred to her, with this variation, that the basket or box was entrusted to the ocean, and had to pass over a very great round and extent of sea. Such a transaction—in which there is nothing improbable—was transformed into a marvellous story, which has probably helped to give rise to the opinion, that Senan was established at Inniscatthy before the death of St. Brigid.

A St. Brighit, or Bride, seems to have been venerated in the Parish of Bordwell, Queen's County. There had been a pattern at a Bride's Well, not far from the old church and castle of Kilbreedy, and it was held between the close of harvest and the month of November. Of this I was assured by an old man— in 1870 considerably over 80 years of age— but he could not recollect the exact day on which the pattern had been kept. No other saint bearing the name of Brigid seems so likely to correspond with her to whom allusion has been here made. The old church of Kilbreedy lies about a mile from Rathdowney. Measured outside the old walls, it is 50 feet in length, by 24 feet in breadth. The walls of limestone are nearly four feet in thickness, and were well built, but only the lower portions now remain. The church and grave-yard are evidently very ancient ; but both have been enclosed by a modern and well-built wall, with an iron-gate set up for entrance. Many graves and magnificent hawthorn trees are within the grave-yard enclosure. The remarkable fort of Middlemount rises to a considerable elevation, at some little distance, and on the opposite side of the high road. Concentric and diminishing circular fosses surround it, and ascend to the terminating irregular cone.

The festival of Brighit is set down, without further clue for identification, in the Martyrology of Donegal, at the 30th day of September.
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Saturday, September 19, 2009

Under the Oak: A Blogger Named Brigit

St. Bridget by Ó Dubáin

A very special blog exists out there. It's called Under the Oak.

Under the Oak has at time of writing no less than 45 posts tagged St. Bridget, among a total of 306 posts altogether, yet the blog was started only nine months ago - to the day, in fact, on 19 January 2009.

The blogger, who calls herself only Brigit, is diligent and apparently tireless. There is surely a lifetime's worth of information to explore already on her site.

This was her first posting:

Monday, 19 January 2009

Under the Oak

Welcome to Under the Oak, a blog dedicated to the saints of Ireland and especially to our national patroness, Saint Brigid of Kildare. It was under the oak at Kildare that tradition claims Saint Brigid founded her famous monastery - a house of hospitality, learning and prayer. It was also under the oak, the oak of Mamre, that the Righteous Patriarch Abraham provided hospitality for the three heavenly visitors.

I hope, please God, to make available materials relating to the lives of the Irish saints - hagiographies, prayers, hymns - and to the early Irish church in general.

May we all be under the protection of the Most Holy Trinity and under the mantle of Brigid!


I leave you to explore this smith's treasury of information. As a teaser, I will give you the list of her tags, an impressive collection, indeed!

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