Celtic and Old English Saints 29 January =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= * St. Gildas the Wise * St. Dallan Forghaill * St. Blath of Kildare * St. Triphina of Brittany * St. Voloc of Scotland =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
St. Gildas the Wise (Badonicus), Abbot Bishop ------------------------------------------------------- Born c. 520; died c. 570 (some scholars believe he may have died as early as 554). Gildas may have been born in the lower valley of Clydeside in Scotland. He is often called "Badonicus" because he was born in the year the Britons defeated the Saxons at Bath. . His father was of the ruling family of a small kingdom on the borders of Northumbria with its capital at Dumbarton but he was sent from the banks of the Clyde to the monastery of Llaniltut or Llantwit. in southern Wales, where he was trained by Saint Illtyd (f.d. November 6) together with Saint Samson (f.d. July 28) and Saint Paul Aurelian (f.d. March 12), though he was much younger. Well-known Irish monks, including Saint Finnian (f.d. December 12), became his disciples. He made a pilgrimage to Ireland to consult with his contemporary saints of that land and wrote letters to far-off monasteries. He seems to have had considerable influence on the development of the Irish church. When Gildas graduated from Llantwit he went to Ireland to continue his studies, moving from one monastic centre to another. Possibly he was ordained priest in Ireland and went back to the North of Britain, teaching and preaching in the land of his nativity. The fame of his successful ministry made Ainmeric, a King in Ireland, invite him back to restore the discipline and ordered Liturgy in the monasteries and he taught for a time in the School of Armagh. On returning to Britain, he assisted S. Cadoc at Llancarven and accompanied him when he went to Brittany, or Armorica as it was called at that time. Gildas also went on pilgrimage to Rome and there is a story that he visited Cadoc on the way. He brought with him a leather pouch and when he opened it he produced a bell, shaped like a square cap. The bell was made of beaten metal, a mixture of silver and copper, and had a very sweet tone so that Cadoc desired it for the monastery he was building at that time. Gildas however told him that it was destined for St Peter's at Rome but when he presented it to the Pope on his arrival in the Holy City, the bell gave no sound at all. On his way back he called on Cadoc again and gave him the bell which now sounded as sweet as ever. From this incident Gildas learnt that his labours should be among his own people. He is best remembered in Britain for his history of the church in that land from the departure of the Romans to the invasion of the Saxons. It was probably written at Glastonbury about 540 and is entitled "De Excidio et Conquestu Britanniae," The Ruin of Britain, which he says came upon the British through the decadence of their rulers and clergy. The work laid bare and severely criticised the lives of Britain's rulers and clerics, blaming their moral laxity for the triumph of the Anglo-Saxon invaders. Although the fierceness of its rhetorical invectives has been criticised the wide scriptural scholarship that it reveals is uncontested. It also shows that he was knowledgeable about Virgil and Ignatius (f.d. October 17). This work was cited by Saint Bede (f.d. May 25). He is considered to be the first English historian. He lived as a hermit for some time on Flatholm Island in the Bristol Channel, where he copied a missal for Saint Cadoc (f.d. September 25) and may have written "De excidio". Gildas , upon returning from his pilgrimage to Rome, founded a monastery on an island near Rhuys (Rhuis or Morbihan) in Brittany, which became the centre of his veneration. Though he lived for a time on a tiny island in Morbihan Bay, he gathered disciples around him and does not seem to have cut himself off entirely from the world; he did travel to other places in Brittany. The "De excidio", which very influential in the early Middle Ages, may not have been written entirely by Gildas. Some of it may have been added shortly after his time. The work serves as an example of the classical and early Christian literature that was then available in England. Gilda's writings were used by Wulfstan (f.d. January 19), archbishop of York, in the 11th century in his "Sermon of the Wolf" to the English people during the disordered reign of Ethelred the Unready. He did spend some time as a hermit on the island of Flatholm in the Bristol Channel but he eventually moved to Brittany where he founded a monastery at a place which bears his name St Gildas-de-Rhuys which according to Peter Abelard who was later abbot there was not a very salubrious spot. His tomb is behind the altar in the present church and there are relics in the Sacristy. Some early Irish martyrologies commemorate his feast as does the Leofric Missal (c. 1050) and Anglo-Saxon calendars of the 9th through 11th centuries (Attwater, Benedictines, Bentley, Gill, Farmer, Walsh, White). He is portrayed in art with a bell near him (White). Troparion of St Gildas the Wise tone 8 Truly thou art surnamed 'The Wise', 0 righteous Gildas,/ for in thy monastic solitude thou didst use thy God-given gift of words for His greater glory./ Teach us to despise nothing, that all our talents, however small, may be employed in God's service, for the salvation of our souls. Kontakion of St Gildas the Wise tone 2 As one learned in the art of writing/ 0 wise Gildas,/ thou didst not hide thy talent, but brought it forth to glorify thy Creator./ Singing praise to thee, we pray for grace to follow thee in offering everything to God for His glory alone. Medieval Sourcebook The Works of Gildas: http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/basis/gildas-full.html St. Dallan Forghaill (of Cluain Dallain), Martyr ------------------------------------------------------- Born in Connaught, Ireland; died 598. Dallan, a kinsman of Saint Aidan of Ferns (f.d. January 31) and a renowned scholar in his own right. The intensity of his study strained his eyes to the point where he became blind. In 575, Dallan was the Chief Bard of Ireland, a position second only to the king in honour. When the king of Ireland, Aedh MacAinmire, called upon the Assembly of Drumceat to abolish the bardic guild and its privileges, Saint Columba (f.d. June 9) successfully argued that the bards were necessary to preserve the history of the nation and that it would be prudent to punish abusive bards rather than destroy the order. In recognition of Columba's defence of the bards, Saint Dallan wrote a panegyric, "Amra Choluim Kille" or "Eulogy of Columba". To account for its obscure and intentionally difficult language, legend tells us that in his humility Columba would only permit it to be written if it were incomprehensible to the Irish. Saint Dallan also wrote the 'Eulogy of Senan". Today's saint reorganised and reformed the Bardic Order and initiated a strictly supervised school system for it that encouraged the cultivation of the Gaelic language and preservation of its literature. The order itself was active until 1738 when Turlough O'Carolan, the last of the great Irish bards and composer of the tune of the "Star Spangled Banner," died. Until that time, the bards participated in every major Irish celebration. He is venerated as a martyr because he was murdered at Inis-coel (Inniskeel) by pirates who broke into the monastery (Benedictines, D'Arcy, Healy, Kenney, Montague, Montalembert, Muirhead). St. Blath (Flora) of Kildare, Virgin ------------------------------------------------------- Died 523. Saint Blath was the lay-sister who served as cook at Saint Brigid's convent in Kildare. She earned a reputation for sanctity, and of her cooking it is said that bread and bacon at Brigid's table were better than a banquet elsewhere (Benedictines, D'Arcy). St. Triphina of Brittany, Widow ------------------------------------------------------- 6th century, feast may be July 5. Saint Triphina was the mother of the infant-martyr Saint Tremorus (f.d. November 7). She passed the later years of her life in a convent in Brittany (Benedictines). St. Voloc (Walloch) of Scotland, Bishop ------------------------------------------------------- Died c. 724. Saint Voloc was an Irish missionary bishop who laboured in Scotland (Benedictines). The higher reaches of the Don valley have been inhabited since Bronze Age times as far west as Corgarff. Lower down, an offshoot of the Don, the waters of the Buchat, have created a fine and fertile glen to the north of the ancient holy mountain of Strathdon - Ben Newe. Saint Walloch was a celtic missionary whose principal church was at Logie-in-Mar amongst the pictish settlements of what became known as Cro-mar. Far to the north of Glenbuchat we see a solitary glimpse of the presence of the Celtic church at Kilvalauche, somewhere in the forest of Badeneoin (NJ 333190), which is mentioned in a charter of 1507.1 This name can hardly mean anything else than the church of St Walloch. From the same document we learn that Culbalauche, St Walloch's retreat, was in the neighbourhood. Prior to 1473 the Chapel of Glenbuchat was a dependancy of Logie-Mar, the link with St Walloch thus being given the strongest argument conceivable in its favour. Incidentally, confirmation seems to be obtained from a statement 2 that St Walloch, in addition to his other church foundations, at Dunmeth in Glass and at Balvenie, had a church site in Strathdon. We have no trustworthy guidance as to the date of St Walloch's labours. The Aberdeen Breviary places him in the fifth century, while Camerarius fixes his death in the year 733. In the Breviary we are given an interesting account of St Walloch's mode of life, coupled with a highly unflattering picture of the folk he strove to convert:- "He preferred a poor little house, woven together of reeds and wattles, to a royal palace. In this he led a life of poverty and humility, on all sides shunning the dignities of the world, that he might achieve to himself a higher reward in heaven. But the race whom he preferred to convert to the faith of Christ, and whom actually by his preaching and exhortation he did convert, no one would hesitate to describe as fierce, untamed, void of decency of manners and virtue, and incapable of easily listening to the word of truth, and their conversation was rather that of the brutes that perish than of men." St Walloch is said to have been among the last of the missionaries to be sent to the north-east from St Ninian's centre at Whithorn (Candida Cassa). Though familiarly called "Walloch the foreigner", his origin and nationality are actually unknown. At his foundation at Logie-in-Mar there stands, at the gate and just outside the churchyard, a rough monolith about 5' 6" tall, known as Walloch's Stone. "Walloch's Fair" was a popular event in the district and was held on his Feast Day - 29th January. One source 3 gives us a very different history saying that the saint whose name appears in a corrupted form as Wolok, latinised Volocus, is believed to be Faelchu, 13th abbot of Hy (Iona) from 716 till 724. He sprang from the race of Conall Gulban, the ancestor of the famous lineage of Cenel Conaill and several of the saints of Ireland including St Columba himself. Born in 664, Faelchu was seventy-three when, on Saturday, 29th August, he was called to the chair once occupied by St Columba. Indeed, it has been thought that Fedlimid, 14th abbot of Hy (722-?), was an assistant abbot appointed to take care of business because of Faelchu's great age. Walla Kirk (Walloch's Church), as the church of Dunmeth in Glass was called, stood in its burying-ground on the bank of the Deveron, but is now represented only by some mounds. It was held in superstitious regard even in post-reformation times for in 1648 the ministers of Strathbogie "ordanit to censure all superstitione at Wallak Kirk". About a hundred yards east of the church once flowed St Wallach's Well. On its margin lay a stone with a hollow in it, into which pins were dropped by health-seekers as offerings to the saint. As the result of agricultural improvements the spring has been drained, and the water gushes out further down the bank, where the stone now lies unheeded. In the neighbourhood of the graveyard, where a foot-bridge spans the Deveron, is Wallach Pot, a pool in the river said to be about fourteen feet deep. Fully a quarter of a mile further along the river bank is a long, trough-like hollow in the rock, known a St Wallach's Bath. Sickly children used to be dipped in its water. Pieces of their clothing and also coins were thrown into the bath as offerings. If there is any truth in the tradition that St Wallach's Hermitage stood on a neighbouring mound, he must, it is to be presumed, have arrived a number of years before he became abbot of Hy. 1. Registrum Magni Sigilli, 1424-1513, No. 3159. 2. David Camerarius, De Scotorum Fortitudine (1631) p.94 3. Mackinlay, Ancient Church Dedications in Scotland, (1914) p. 143 Sources: ======== Attwater, D. (1983). The Penguin Dictionary of Saints, 2nd edition, revised and updated by Catherine Rachel John. New York: Penguin Books. Benedictine Monks of St. Augustine Abbey, Ramsgate. (1947). The Book of Saints. NY: Macmillan. Bentley, J. (1986). A Calendar of Saints: The Lives of the Principal Saints of the Christian Year. NY: Facts on File. Farmer, D. H. (1997). The Oxford Dictionary of Saints. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Healy, J. (1902). Ireland's Ancient Schools and Scholars. Dublin: Sealy, Bryers and Walker. Kenney, J. F. (1929). Sources for Early hHstory of Ireland, vol. 1, Ecclesiastical. New York: Columbia University Press. Montague, H. P. (1981). The Saints and Martyrs of Ireland. Guildford: Billing & Sons. Montalembert. (1863). Monks of the West. Paris. Muirhead, L. R. (ed.). (1962). Benn Blue Guide to Ireland. London: Ernest Benn Limited. Walsh, M. (ed.). (1985). Butler's Lives of the Saints. San Francisco: Harper & Row. White, K. E. (1992). Guide to the Saints, NY: Ivy Books. For All the Saints: http://www.saintpatrickdc.org/ss/ss-index.htm An Alphabetical Index of the Saints of the West http://www.orthodoxengland.btinternet.co.uk/saintsa.htm These Lives are archived at: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/celt-saints ¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤
