Insula Sanctorum et Doctorum; Or, Ireland's Ancient Schools and Scholars

by John Healy

At length it pleased Providence to uncover this shining light, so that it might be seen by men. A truant scholar of the monastery, who was either unable or neglected to learn his lesson, fearing to present himself before the abbot in class, took refuge in the barn where Ængus was working. He sympathised with the poor boy, bade him lie down in the straw, and rest himself, and that all would be well. The boy did so, and soon fell fast asleep in the barn. When he awoke refreshed, Ængus asked him to repeat the lesson; he obeyed, and partly, no doubt, by the instructions, and partly by the kind encouragement of the good monk, he completely succeeded in mastering his lesson. Ængus then told him go to the school, but to say nothing of what happened in the barn. The boy went to his class, and astonished his master by having his lesson perfectly—which seems to have been in his case quite an unusual occurrence. The abbot, suspecting something, made inquiries, and insisted on learning the whole truth. Then the boy confessed what took place in the barn, and how the lay-brother had gone over his lesson with him. The truth at once flashed upon the mind of Maelruain; he had probably heard of the disappearance of Ængus from Dysart Enos, and now felt certain that the hard-working lay-brother was no other than the great scholar of Clonenagh. So he went at once to the barn, and embracing Ængus most tenderly, reproached him for so long concealing himself from the community. Ængus humbly asked pardon of the abbot, which, of course, had been already granted, and was at once received into his most intimate friendship—a friendship that endured until Maelruain’s death.

The abbot now resolved to utilize, for God’s glory, the great learning and talents of the distinguished scholar, whom Providence had bestowed on the community of Tallaght. Ængus, on his part, was most anxious to co-operate with Maelruain; and so these two holy men set about the composition of those works which have contributed so much to the glory of God, and of the ancient Church of Ireland.

The Martyrology of Tallaght was probably their first work: and is supposed to have been the joint production of Ængus and Maelruain. If so, it must have been written before the year A.D. 792, when Maelruain died. It is described by O’Curry as a catalogue in prose of the saints of Erin, and their festival days, with brief notices in some instances of their fathers and of the churches which they founded. It is considered to be the oldest of our Irish Martyrologies; and according to Michael O’Clery—no mean authority—it furnished the materials for the great poem called the Felire, or Festology of the Saints, which Ængus subsequently composed. Nor is it difficult to explain O’Curry’s objection to this hypothesis—namely, that it contains the names of several saints who lived longer than Ængus himself—as, for instance, of Blathmac, who was martyred in Hy by the Danes in A.D. 823, and Felimy MacCriffan (Crimhthainn) King of Munster, who died in A.D. 825—for these names may have been added by a later hand, or by the first copyist. The oldest copy of this Martyrology is found in the Book of Leinster, but Brother Michael O’Clery made a more complete copy, which is now in the Burgundian Library at Brussels. It was borrowed from the Belgian Government in 1849, and copied for Dr. Todd by the late lamented Eugene O’Curry. The same text was translated and published, with notes, by Dr. Mathew Kelly, of Maynooth, in 1847.

The most celebrated, however, and by far the most valuable of the writings of Ængus is his Felire, or Festology of the Saints. He conceived the idea of this work from the vision of Angels which he saw in the old Church of Coolbanagher, over the grave of the poor soldier, who used to invoke the saints of God. Doubtless, as an aid to the memory, it is written in verse, and in what O’Curry pronounces to be the best and purest style of our language—the Gaedhlic of the eighth century. The same authority declares that it is the oldest and the most important of all our Martyrologies. One of the best copies is that contained in the famous compilation called the Leabhar Breac, or Great Book of Duniry, in the county Galway. In the preface or introduction to the work there is a short notice of the writer, and of the time, place, and purport of his composition.

The time of its composition was during the reign of the monarch Aedh Oirnidhe, who reigned from A.D. 793 to 817, so that though planned during the abbacy of Maelruain, it was not written until after his death. It appeared probably about the year A.D. 800, with the approbation of one of the greatest scholars of the time, “Fothadh of the Canon.”

O’Curry conjectures that at this period Ængus had left Tallaght and returned to his first cell at Disert-beagh, near Clonenagh. Aedh, the King, just at this time made an incursion into Leinster, and pitched his camp not far from Monasterevan, in the Queen’s County. It seems that up to this period the clergy were compelled to follow the native princes in battle, and even sometimes took an active part in the conflict. This, however, was altogether against the Canon Law; and on the present occasion Conmach, the Primate-Archbishop of Armagh, and his clergy protested against the practice, and appealed to the king to allow them to return home and confine themselves to the discharge of their spiritual functions. The king took this remonstrance in good part, and as they were encamped in Leix, offered to refer their complaint to the decision of Fothadh, his own poet, tutor, and adviser. Fothadh thus appealed to, gave his decision in favour of the clerics and against the king, and being a poet gave it in rhyme. His decision thus given, exempting the clergy from military service, was known as the Canon, and he himself came to be called Fothadh-na-Canoine.

Fothadh showed the stanzas in which he expressed his decision to Ængus, who entirely approved of it both as to matter and form. Ængus on the same occasion showed his own poem on the Saints of Erin to Fothadh, for he was fully sensible of the great importance of securing for his own work the approbation of the royal Bard. That approval was warmly and generously given, accompanied with a strong recommendation to the faithful generally to use the poem in their public and private devotions.

The Felire is divided into three parts: the first part is introductory to the body of the work, and consists of five quatrains, invoking in very beautiful language the gift of heavenly wisdom from the King of the White Sun, that the poet may, with a pure heart, fitly celebrate the praises of the royal hosts of the great and good all-righteous King. He then alludes to the consolation which he himself found in celebrating the praises of the saints. He describes the various torments which the soldiers of Jesus suffered, and which they endured with joyful heroism. Now they enjoy their reward for ever with Mary’s Son; while their bodies here below are enshrined in bright gold. Herod and Pilate are then contrasted with Christ, Nero with Peter and Paul, Pilate’s queen with the Virgin Mary. Earthly power and glory are fleeting in comparison with the love of ‘Mary’s Son,’ and earthly princes are less than the lowly soldiers of Jesus. Tara has perished, but Armagh is still crowded with the sons of wisdom. King Laeghaire’s glory is gone, but Patrick’s name still lives and will live for ever.

The body of the work contains 365 quatrains, in which the writer celebrates on every day the praises not only of our principal Irish saints, but also commemorates several saints of the Universal Church. The text is interlined with a very ancient gloss and commentary, as well as with notes fixing the sites of the churches of several of the saints referred to. This gloss and the accompanying notes, whilst adding much to the difficulty of editing the work itself, render it an invaluable aquisition to the historian and archæologist.

In the third part the author recapitulates his poem, explains its construction and arrangement, directs the faithful how to use it, and apologises for the fact that of necessity he could only introduce the chiefs and princes of the saints into his poem. Yet he spared no pains to make it as complete as possible, consulting for the foreign saints, Ambrose, Jerome, and Eusebius; and for the Irish saints, he not only consulted “the countless hosts of the illuminated books of Erin,” but he himself travelled throughout the entire country visiting their churches and collecting the local traditions regarding them. Lest, however, any might be jealous for being omitted, he invokes them in this third part under certain general heads—patriarchs, prophets, virgins, martyrs, etc., etc.—so that not a single one of the heavenly host at home or abroad can complain of the want of some reference to his or her memory. It is not too much to say that the Felire of Ængus is on the whole the most valuable of the Irish ecclesiastical treatises that have happily been preserved down to our own times.