On an Ancient Ms. Life of St. Caillin of Fenagh, and on His Shrine

On an Ancient Ms. Life of St. Caillin of Fenagh, and on His ShrineAuthor(s): Denis MurphySource: Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy (1889-1901), Vol. 1 (1889 - 1891), pp. 441-445Published by: Royal Irish AcademyStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/20503857 .

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[ 441 ]

XXXVIII.

ON AN ANCIENT MS. LIFE OF ST. CAILLIN OF FENAGH,

AND ON HIS SHRINE. BY TEE REV. DENIS MURPHY,

S. I. [Read JUNE 28, 1886.]

Two antique objects have lately come into my hands, by way of loan,

through the kindness of their respective owners, the Archbishop of

Cashel and the Bishop of Ardagh, which may be of some interest to

the Members of the Academy. Both have reference to St. Caillin, the patron of the Clan O'Rourke, as Columkille was of the O'Donnells and Moling of the MacMorroughs, who were in ancient times chiefs

of Breffney, the modern counties of Cavan andl Leitrim, for O'Dugan tells us that " hereditary to the O'Rourke is that kingdom." Caillin's

church and monastery are still standing, in part at least, at Fenagh, which is about three miles to the south-west of Ballynamore in Cavan.

Our Saint's genealogy is given in this book up to Rary, the grand

father of Fergus Mac Roy, who lived about the beginning of the

Christian era. We are told, moreover, that " Finnlan, by whom he

was fostered, commanded him to go to Rome to learn wisdom and knowledge there," a command which, no doubt, was readily obeyed, since one of the most common practices of our ancient saints was " peregrinari pro Christo."

The 2tartyrology of Doneyal says of him, that " he was the son of

Niatach, and bishop of IFiadnacha of Magh Rein. He was of the race of Cormac, son of Fergus, son of Ross, son of Rudraighe. Deidi, daughter of Tren, son of IDubhtach Mac Ua Lughair, was his mother.

Maedhog of Ferns was a school-pupil of Caillin. He was an atte nuated pious man; he was a virgin, he was chaste. He was a burning fire to burn the persecutors of God and of the Church. He was a sea

without ebbing in signs and miracles." His feast-day is November 13th. None of our hagiographers have come down so far in the year as that: neither Colgan, the Bollandists, nor the Rev. S. O'Hanlon. They might be able to give us a life written critically. It is almost a

RJlA. PROc., SER. Ill., VoL. I. 2 I



442 Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy.

misnomer to call the contents of this Ms. a life. It is rather a list of the lands, privileges, honours, and rights of sanctuary attachiing to

Fenagh, with an occasional allusion to St. Ciaillin. The MS. which I have the pleasure of submitting to the Academy

for inspection to-day would seem to be a copy of a more ancient Life, which the scribe -who wrote the copy calls " the Old Book of Fenagh," and he says " there was only poetry in it" UiJfortunately it is im

perfect. The last folio is marked 48, and that it never had more we learn from a note at the end of folio 48 b by the scribe:

" Finit of all we have found of the Old Book of Caillin."

It has at present only 41. The only other ancient copy now in exist ence, so far as we know, that of the British Museum, is also imperfect; and thouigh one supplements the other to a certain extent, yet the full text cannot be had even from both jointly. Which of the two is the

more ancient, can be determined with certainty only by the inspection of both. The editor of the Life of St. Caillin thinks the British Mfu seum copy only a transcript of this. Mr. Hennessy thinks it two centuries at least older.

The Life says "I it was Tadhg that caused Maurice O'Mulchonry to put this book in a narrative form throulgh the extent of his learning and through the excess of his devotion to Caillin." This was Tadlhg O'Roddy, who came of a family that were hereditary comarbs of the church and monastery of Fenagh. ie lived in the beginning of the sixteenth century, and was abbot of Fenagh. The precise date of the Ms. is 1516. The Life says of him that " he was a man of wisdom and knowledge, of learning and jurisprudence, a reader of the Scotic, a

man who composes Seghda and oglachas, and who observes the pri vileg,es anid prohibitions of the place in which he is, to wit, that he should keep a house of general hospitality and not deny the face of a

man, but be lilke an immovable rock in humanity for ever'"-just such a man, I should think, as would make a scribe undertake an(d complete witlh a good will any task that wouldl be set to him.

I may add that this Life has been published with a transjation by the late Mr. D. H. Kelly, copiously annotated by Mr. Hennessy.

Mr. Kelly seems to have spared no expense in its preparation for the press and in all that regards the printing. Would thlat others who can do so itmaitated his example, and by so doing rendered accessible to students of Irish, both at home anid abroad, some of the vast treasures

which are stored in this library and elsewhere, and of necessity out of



MURPHY-Ancient MS. L4e of St. Caillini of Penagh. 443

the reach of such as cannot come here to study. It is almost ungene

rous to find fault even in the smallest way with such a valuable contri

bution to Irish literature. But I do not think it would have been

amiss to have retained the initial capital letter for its own sake, as also

for the peculiarity of Irish medieval Latinity of which it is a specimen. A few words on the second object exhibited: this is the shrine

of Caillin. In the enumeration of the shrines made by Miss Stokes in

her very valuable work on Irish Inscriptions, iI. 159, no mention is

made of this one. O'Curry has fallen into a strange mistake in refe

rence to it. Having spoken at length of the well-known shrines, the

Domnach Airgid and the Cathach, he makes mention of " several other

shrines and reliquaries still remaining." "4The chief of them," he says, "C are that of St. Mlanchan, that of St. Maeclog, which beloniged

to the O'Ruarcs of Breffney, but was lately in the possession of His

Grace the Most Rev. Dr. Slattery, late Archbishop of Cashel; and the

beautiful shrine of St. Caillin, now or lately in the hands of Dr.

Petrie." Much cannot be said of it perhaps as a work of art. It has but

little of the characteristics of Irislh ornamenitation. The style of a

good part of it is rather a debased Gothic. At the top is a figure of

Christ crucified. The four panels into which the upper surface is

divided contain each three figures, the whole representing no doubt the twelve Apostles, though they are without any distinctive emblems, each panel being nothing more thanl an exact facsimile of the others.

A narrow band acts as a kinad of frame for each of these panels, on

which there is a very rich and varied style of ornamentation consist

ing partly of figures and partly of interlaced scroll-work. This, the

lettering, and the bosses on the corner clamps, are in niello work of a very superior kind. Stones, mostly cornelian and spar, are placed at intervals immediately outside these bands; and in the centre a piece of spar much larger and higher than the rest. Round the edge there is an ornament, running from a stem endling in a six-leaved flower, a thing

wholly foreign to ancient Irish art. On the back we have the usual plate with incised crosses, such as we see in the Cathach and other shrines in the Museum. Here, too, we have that strange irregularity both in the position and outline of each of the crosses as well in the

pattern of the whole plate. Round the edge of the upper and lower surface there is an Irish

inscription in capital letters, partly Gothic, partly Irish; those on the

upper edge being less than half the size of the lower. It begins at

the left hand of the figure below, runs round the edge of that surface, 2 I 2



444 Proceedings of the Royal 1iish Academy.

and is continued at the back. The letters face inwards. It reads thus:

ORAID: DON MFIR : DO: CVMDAIGH: AN: MINNSA : CAIL

LIN: ADHON : BRIAN: MAC: EOGAIN

RVAIRC : AGVS : MARGREITE: INGIN N

HBRIAN : AGVS : DOBI: AOIS: AN

TIGEARNA : AN : TAN

SOIN SE : BLIANA

DEC : AR :XX :AR: M :AR

CCCCC AIBS: A MARIA which may be translated thus:

"Pray for the man who covered the shrine of Caillin, that is, Brian, son of Owen Ruarek, and for Margaret, daughter of O'3rian. And the year of our Lord then was mCCCCCXxxvI. A Hail Mary for

their souls."

The plates, both upper and lower and the sides, are made in sepa

rate pieces, the whole being fastened very securely by means of solid clamps, which are themselves fixed on with long brass nails; the inside is lined with oak. From the way in which this has been shaped and hollowed out, it is evidlent that it was used to hold a book or relics, or perhaps both. As a fact, we find in the Life of Caillin that " he

brought with him numerous remains and relics when coming from Rome, to increase the honour, respect, and right of sanctuary of his fair church of Fenagh of Magh Rein. The relics which Caillin brought with him from Rome were the relics of the eleven Apostles, and the relics of Martin, and of Lawrence, and of Stephen the Martyr. These are the relics which he subsequently ordered to be covered and enclosed in a shrine." Possibly it is in reference to these relics of the

Apostles that the figures mentioned above have been placed on this shrine.

If it ever contained the Life of St. Caillin, it must have been

the ancient one of which that now exhibited is a copy. This, though

written some ten years before the shrine was made, could not by any possibility fit in it. Neither could the copy in the British Museum, for I have had it measured. It is 91 inches in length by 64 in width.



TupRPHY-AUcWeJt MS. Life qf St. Callin q/ Fenugh. 445

This would allow it to fit in the box if there were no wood inside; but it is evident that the wood was part and parcel of the original

shrine, which was much too small for either of the copies. I may remark here that most of the shrines now in existence were made for keeping books. However, there is one att least, the Fiacal Padruig, which was made for relics; and St. Manchan's shrine still contains a portion of his bones.

The clate of the inscription will easily dletermine which of thte

O'Rourkes got the slhrinie made. In Arelbdall's Peerage, ir. 24, we find that Margaret, eldlest daughter of Turlogh Donn O'Brien, wlho

was inaugurated King of Thomonid in 1498, married Brian, Chief of

the O'Rourkes. Frequent mention is made of this Owen in the A4nnals of the Pour 2Jasters. For instance, in 1536: Brian, son of Owen who

was son of Tiernan O'louirke, was styled The O'Rourke; and in 1540: "the Castle of Leitrim," pr obably Dromahaire Castle still standing, " was erectedl by O'Rourke, Brian, the son of Oven, while a great war

was waged against him on every side; and his own son andl a party of

the men of Breffney were at war with him. He finished the Castle in a slort tim-ie, andl destroyedl a great portion of Moylurg on his oppo nents." And in 1545 "a great war was between O'Rouire (Brian

Ballagh, the son of Owen) and his own brother by his mother's side, namely Teige, son of Cathal Oge O'Connor, lord of Sligo." His death is recorded in the year 1562: " O'Rourke (Brian Ballalghl, son of Owen), the senior of Sil iFearguia, and of tlle race of Aedh Finn, a man whose supporters, fosterers, adherents, andl tributaries extendlecl from the Caladlh in the territory of Hymany to the fertile, salmon full Drowes, the boundary of tlhe farfamed province of Ulster, and from Granard in Teffila, to the strand of Eothuile in Tireragh of the Moy, who had the best collection of poems, and who, of all his tribe, had bestowed the

greatest nlumber of presenits for poetical culogies, died in consequence of a fall; and his son Hugh Gallda was installed in his place."

The Four Alasters make no mention of his wife's death. Archdall, in his Xonasticon, says sho foiunded the monastery of Crevelea on the

western side of Lough Gill, opposite the O'Rourkes' castle of Droma haire. This has been the burial-place of the O'Rtourke family ever since.

I will only add that I am not without a hope of obtaining these two pieces of antiquity, if not as gifts for the library and museum of the Academy, at least as deposits, not, I trust, to be soon revoked.

P. S.-Since the above was written the ms. has been acquired by purchase for the Library of the Academy, and is now kept there.



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On an Ancient Ms. Life of St. Caillin of Fenagh, and on His Shrine