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The cult of St Finnian of Clonard from the eighth to the eleventh century

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 July 2016

Kathleen Hughes
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Extract

St Finnian of Clonard died, according to the Annals of Ulster, in 549. With the possible exception of the sixth, seventh and eighth century annal entries and of the Catalogus Sanctorum all the evidence for a study of his work dates from or after the ninth century. It is however possible to say with reasonable assurance what traditions of his life were accepted about three hundred years after his death, and to trace the development of his cult from the late eighth century onwards.

St Finnian's Irish Life gives the most primitive account now extant of his career. All manuscripts go back ultimately to the same original, which was compiled by a Leinsterman writing in Leinster, almost certainly a monk of one of Finnian's foundations, possibly Clonard, who drew on both oral and written traditions for his material. The Life is an unsophisticated collection of miracle stories, combined with extravagant claims concerning the spiritual power and prestige of the saint, and giving full particulars, including a considerable amount of accurate information on local topography, of the churches which Finnian is reputed to have founded.

Type
Research Article
Information
Irish Historical Studies , Volume 9 , Issue 33 , March 1954 , pp. 13 - 27
Copyright
Copyright © Irish Historical Studies Publications Ltd 1954

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References

1 Haddan and Stubbs, Councils, ii. 292-4. This text may date from the eighth century, but its precise historical value is doubtful.

2 ’ rogenair Finnen ibhus i Laighnib ‘, Lives of the Saints from the Book of Lismore, ed. Stokes, Whitley (Oxford, 1890), 11. 2747–8.Google Scholar (This work will be abbreviated Lismore.)

3 ’ atfiadhat ind eo laig ˥ na scribenna ‘, Lismore, 2643.

4 Together with Patrick and Jesus Christ he will judge the men of Ireland at Doomsday (Lismore 2778-81). Special privileges are attached to burial in his cemetery (ibid., 2634-9). The phrase ‘ rómorad ainm Dé ˥ Finnéin ‘ and other similar hagiographical common-places occur repeatedly throughout the Life.

5 The evidence for these conclusions is cited in my article on ‘ The historical value of the Lives of S. Finnian of Clonard ‘, to appear in E.H.R..

6 There are two recensions of the Latin Life : (i) Brussels Bibl. Roy. 7672-4, ff. 83r-86v, ed. De Smedt, J. and De Backer, C., in Acta Sanctorum Hiberntae ex codice Salmanticensi, cols 189—210 (Edinburgh, London, 1888)Google Scholar; (ii) Bodl. Rawl. B485, ff. 54-58 and Rawl. B505, ff. 156V-160V, and later copies of one or other of these Rawl. MSS. This second recension is unpublished.

7 Lismore, 2754-8.

8 One of the three holy women of Uí Loscain, Rawl. B502, 121a17-8.

9 The genealogies all trace his paternal ancestry to Rudraighe of Ulster, or to Celtchar mac Uithecair or some other of Rudraighe's descendants.

10 Identification first made by O'Donovan, John, O.S. letters, Wicklow (1839).Google Scholar

11 I am indebted to Mr Liam Price for drawing my attention to the site and the local tradition.

12 Lismore, 2767-8.

13 … co ndebert an t-aingel fris …” Bid he cena inadh do comdhala riat mhanchuibh il-lo bratha” : conudh desin ita Sliabh Condala .i. sliab comdhala Finnein ria manchaib il-lo bratha.’ Lismore, 2601-3.

14 Codex Salmanticensis, col. 196.

15 Lismore, 2604-5.

16 Walsh, P., ‘ Place-names in the Vita Finniani ‘, in Z.C.P.x. 73-7 (1915).Google Scholar.

17 Walsh in Z.C.P.x. 76-7.Google Scholar

18 Ó Briain, F., ‘ The hagiography of Leinster ‘ in Féil-sgríbhinn Eóin Mhic Néill, p. 463.Google Scholar

19 Walsh, ‘ Leinster States and Kings ‘ in I.E.R.,series 3, liii. 54 (1939).

20 A.U., i. 210, A.F.M., i. 344-6. For the reliability of the annals at this date see O'Rahilly, T. F., Early Irish history and mythology, P. 253 (Dublin, 1946);Google Scholar MacNeill, E., Ériu, vii. 40, 73–90 (1914).Google Scholar

21 Féil-sgríbhinn Eóin Mhic Néill, p. 454.

22 Evidence from the genealogies will be more easily available after the publication of Professor 'Brien's, M. A. forthcoming book. I am indebted to Professor O'Brien for information on Faelán and Gertidhe as family names.Google Scholar

23 Professor O'Brien is aware of five examples of this name in the genealogies of the Lagin, one from Eoganacht and one from Ciannacht (all southern families), and one from Meath. On the other hand Loarn, the name of an abbot who died in 765, is also very rare, and the few examples known to Professor O'Brien are from the north.

24 'Rahilly, , Early Irish history, pp. 166-7, 488-9.Google Scholar

25 A.U., i. 242. ‘ Imairecc i Cluain irairdd itir Donnchad ˥ muintir Cluana irairdd.'

26 A.U., i. 244. ‘ Com<m>otatio martirum Uiniani Cluana Iraird.’ For the meaning of commotatio see Ó Briain, Féil-sgríbhinn Eóin Mhic Néill, p. 457.

27 A.F.M., i. 436-40.

28 A.U., i. 334, A.F.M., i. 450.

29 A.U.,i. 336.

30 Chron. Scot., p. 138.

31 A.U., i. 360, 368, 380-2.

32 Chron. Scot., pp. 184, 196.

33 Trip, life, ed. Mulchrone, p. 49. Speaking of Cell Huallech : ’ Fordosrala muinter Cluana macc Nóis. Coro coímchloiset iarom fri muintír Cluana Iraird ar Chill Lothair i mBregaib ˥ ar Chluain Alad Deirg tiar ‘. Killoolagh is twelve miles from Clonard.

34 Chron. Scot., p. 210. For the territory of the Uí-Macc-Uais see O'Rahilly, Early Irish history, pp. 223, 226.

35 A.U., i. 536. Chron. Scot, pp. 252-4.

36 A.F.M., ii. 792, Ann. Inisf., ed. S. Mac Airt, p. 188. Cf. P. Walsh, I.E.R., series 5, lvii. 167 (1941).

37 See Genealogiae regum et sanctorum Hiberniae, ed. Walsh, P. (Dublin, 1918), pp. 54–5,Google Scholar and the Naemsenchus Náemh nÉrenn, ed. Grosjean, P., in Ir. texts, iii. 50-1.Google Scholar

38 The earliest entry is A.U. at 804 (a marginal entry not in the original hand in T.C.D., MS H 1. 8, f. 36r) : ‘ Tabhairt cheannannsa cen chath do choluim chille cheolach ‘. At 807 is : ‘ Constructio novae civitatis Columbae cille hi Ceninnus ‘. See also 814.

39 A.U., i. 50. Cf. Lismore, 2762-4 ‘… atbath Finnén i Cluain Iraird darcenn popuil na nGaeidhel, arna heplitis uili don Buidhi Chonnaill.’ See a parallel story, Cain Eimíne Bàin, Irish text ed. Bergin, O, J., Best, R. I., Meyer, K., O'Keeffe, J. G. in Anecdota from Irish manuscripts, i. 40-5; translated C. Plummer,Ériu, iv- 39–46 (1910).Google Scholar

40 The reading of the Brussels MS Lismore gives a hundred and forty.

41 Cf. A. Anscombe, ‘ The great ages assigned to certain Irish saints ‘, Ériu, v. 1-6 (1911)-.

42 Cf. L.L., 365g56. Finman cluana iraird mac hui tellduibh..

43 A .U., give the following obits: Finnian moccu Telduibh, 549; Senach, bishop, 589; Diarmait, third abbot, 615; Colman moccu Telduibh and Ossene Fota, abbots, 654. In the martyrologies Finnian is commemorated at 12 Dec, Senach at 21 Aug., Colman at 8 Feb.

44 Plummer, Vitae SS Hib. i. 190-2, Bethada náem nÉrenn, i. 301-6; Betha Colmáin Maic Lúacháin, ed. Meyer, K. (Dublin, 1911), p. 94.Google Scholar

45 A .U., i 500, ?580; A.F.M., ii. 728, 792; cf. A.Inisf., ed. Mac Airt, S., p. 188.Google Scholar

46 O'Rahilly, Early Irish history, pp. 165-7.

47 Above, p. 14, n. 5.

48 L.L., 338 h 36, 39; cf. Rawl. B502, 145 d 5, 7.

49 Lismore, 2696-2704.

50 Lismore, 2174-8.

51 Lismore, 2510-6. In the unpublished Rawl. Life the bird flies with flock of birds ‘ de partibus Laginii ad fines Midie ‘.

52 A.U., i. 244. Cf. Lismore,2775-7.

53 Warner, G. F., The Stowe missal, ii. 16 (H.B.S., xxxi, xxxii, 1906, 1915)Google Scholar Cf. the calendar in the Carlsruhe Bede, where appears at 12 Dec. Uinniaui Cluano larirdd (Stokes, W. and Strachan, J., Thesaurus Palaeo-hibernicus, ii. 283).Google Scholar

55 Lismore,2643-5.

56 Hist, eccles., iii. 27.

57 M. Esposito, in Studies, i. 673 (1912; Hermathena, xiv-xxv).

58 E. MacNeill, in Studies, xx. 460 (1931).

59 G. Murphy, in Studies, xx. 87-102 (1931). See also Jackson, K., Early Celtic nature poetry (Cambridge, 1935), pp. 93–109.Google Scholar

60 Ed. Stokes, W., in Rev. Celt. xiv. 33-4 (1893).Google Scholar

61 Kenney, Sources, p. 434.

62 Unless the reference of Adamnan's Vita Columbae, iii. 5, is to Finnian of Clonard. The Latin Life of Finnian borrows this incident, Codex Salmanticensis, cols. 208-9, but Columcille does not appear by name in Finnian's Irish Life.

63 Lismore, 2640-2. The reading of the Brussels MS is given above.

64 Kenney, Sources, p. 379.

65 Cf. the extravagant fear of women evident in the late Life of Magnenn : ‘ ocus nír shill ar mnái riam ina hagaidh ar ecla in diabail comaidechta do fhaicsin do’ (O'Grady, S. H., Silva Gadelica, i. 37 (London, 1802)). 326.Google Scholar

66 A.U., i. 326.

67 A.U., i. 382.

68 Obit 932, ‘scriba optimus.’ A.U., i. 452.

69 A.F.M., ii. 644.

70 A.U.,i. 120, for obit. Fél. Oeng., p. 262, Féil Huí Gormáin, p. 248 for glosses.

71 Grosjean, P., Anal. Holland., I xvi. 334 (1948).Google Scholar

72 In a fifteenth century MS of Fél. Oeng. and in a MS of Fell. Huí Gormain transcribed c. 1630. The Aireran Sapiens commemorated at II Aug. is referred to in Fél. Tallaght, and in the glosses of Fél Oeng. and Fél. Huí Gormáin as an abbot of Tallaght. The following works are attributed to Aileran : Interpretatio mystica progenitorum Jesu Christi (Esposito, M., Studies, ii. 499–500 (1913));Google Scholar Kanon Evangeliorum ( de Bruyne, D., Revue Bénédictine, xxix. 339-40 (1912));Google Scholar accounts of the miracles of Patrick (Trip, life, ed. Mulchrone, lines 637, 3059), Brigit (Acta SS. Feb., i. 141. Cf. Esposito, Hermathena, no. xxiv- 120-65 (1935) )), and Féchíne of Fore (Plummer, Vitae SS Hib., ii. 80; i. lxvii). A Rhetorica Ailerani was preserved in the twelfth century at St Florian ( Czerny, A., Die Bibliothek des Chofherrnstiftes S. Florian, p. 235)Google Scholar.

73 Flower, R., The Irish tradition (Oxford, 1947), pp. 38–40 Google Scholar, traces a number of ninth century Irish MSS to a group of scholars educated in Leinster, most probably at Kildare.

74 Plummer, , Vitae SS Hib., i. 206, Lismore, 4142-58.Google Scholar The shortage of pre-ninth century evidence affects almost all branches of Irish history, and makes it necessary to use later sources when discussing the earlier period.

75 I am indebted to Father Paul Grosjean, s.j., and to Professor Hussey, J. M. for their criticisms of this paper. Father Grosjean first suggested to me the possibility that Finnian was originally the founder of a Leinster paruchia, and that his work may have been interrupted by his death.Google Scholar

75 I am indebted to Father Paul Grosjean, s.j., and to Professor J. M. Hussey for their criticisms of this paper. Father Grosjean first suggested to me the possibility that Finnian was originally the founder of a Leinster paruchia, and that his work may have been interrupted by his death.