Cavan’s Holy Saints of Old

There are plenty of churches and schools names after saints throughout Cavan but do you know their stories? Jonathan Smyth looks at some in his latest Times Past column...

The Holy Saints of old were admired for their tacit acceptance of hardships they suffered in life which in turn were offered up to God in prayer. Self-denial and abstinence from the enjoyment of material comforts was key to their existence. When I was at school, I was fascinated by stories of such holy people, who embraced the rugged landscape, and the awkwardness of adversity, whether living on a cliff edge, as a hermit, or travelling over the continents, setting up new monasteries where worldly comforts were strictly renounced. Humility and endurance such as this, gave their lives meaning and purpose in their service to God.

Thirty years ago, on a summer’s evening in 1993, I was crossing a field on the farm with a heavy bag of calf meal balanced across the back of my shoulders and, as I walked, the clouds opened, and torrential rain began to fall. It was an unmerciful downpour and, as I stepped through a muddy gap, one of my boots came off in the quagmire and with a quick swing I had to bring the bag round to the front and hold it under one arm while balancing on one leg as I aimed my foot for the trapped welly. In that moment of discomfort, totally drenched in the rain, I understood what the saints of old must have felt in the absence of comfort.

Cavan Saints

Delving deep into the territory of Breifne’s ancient past, to a time when Celtic tradition gave way to Christianity, there emerged new leaders whose sanctity of living would one day lead to the bestowal of the term sainthood upon them. That portion of Breifne now known as Co Cavan produced many such a saint, and amongst them are St Mogue, St Felim, St Cillian, St Dallan and St Bricin. In this week’s column, we will be looking at St Mogue and St Bricin.

One of the county’s most enduring holy and historical figures is St Mogue who was born on the island of Inis Breacmhaigh, on Port Lake, Temple Port, in about 555 AD. His name was Aedh and he became known as Mo Aedh Óg, which meant ‘my young Aedh’, which probably was a term of endearment given to him by his mother. As time went on, Aedh became simply known as Mogue when the words were said together all at once. Outside of his home in Cavan he is better known as Aidan. St Mogue’s early education reputedly took place at Fenagh, in Co Leitrim, where he was taught under the guidance of St Cailin.

St Mogue’s missionary work brought him overseas to Wales, where Portmadoc, Tremadoc and Carnarvon are named after him. Eventually, Mogue returned home to Ireland and founded a monastery at Ferns, Co Wexford and, having finished his good work at Ferns, it is said that he returned to Cavan and may have settled for a time at Drumlane, Belturbet. But, yet again, he took up the missionary call and went to Rossinever, which is along the shoreline of Lough Melvin in Leitrim where he founded a new church.

In April 1912, a lady from Corlough, who survived the sinking of the Titanic, said it was down to St Mogue’s Clay that she made it to safety. To this day the clay from St Mogue’s Island is highly valued for having properties believed to offer protection to the person who possesses it. The lady on the Titanic had brought the sacred clay in her handbag and, like that lady, people still carry the clay to protect them against accidents. In many a house, the clay is kept to protect against fire and the effects of dangerous weather on the home.

Another link to the saint that survives is St Mogue’s font, which was made from part of a large stone that was supposed to be able to float on Port Lake and was used in ancient days to carry the dead out to the island for burial. But somehow, the stone broke and a part of it was used to make the font. This font was later removed from the island and brought to Kildoagh church in about 1840.

St Mogue’s day is on January 31, and annually on that day, pilgrims do the St Mogue station. Fr Dan Gallogly when he wrote about this day in the ecclesiastical calendar, explained that ‘the station consists of a visit to the Blessed Sacrament, Stations of the Cross and prayers to St Mogue’. He added that holy water from the font at Kildoagh was brought home by the people ‘as St Mogue’s Holy Water’.

St Bricin

In bygone times, St Bricin of Tomregan (modern day Ballyconnell) had the reputation of being a great surgeon and, when the warrior chief Caen Faeladh got himself into a bit of a scrape in the Battle of Moira, Co Down, in 637 AD, his wounds were such that he needed a surgeon to help and so they sent him to St Bricin, Abbott of Tomregan. Eugene O’Curry’s Lectures on the ‘Manuscript Materials of Ancient Irish History’ records that ‘Caen Faeladh the Learned’ was sent to be cured by Bricin when his skull was fractured. To save Caen Faeladh’s life, Bricin carried out a procedure known as trepanning whereby a hole was drilled into the warrior’s skull to release fluid.

Heavenly Choir

Another time, it was said that ‘one Easter Sunday night, after having kept the great fast of Lent’, St Bricin was seated in his room having forgotten all about the ‘accustomed devotions’ he was supposed to perform in his church. To his utter surprise, he suddenly heard angels from ‘Heaven’ loudly celebrating the ‘happy festival in the church’ and he began praying to the Lord to ‘afford him an opportunity of conversing about the Heavenly Host with one of the Angels’.

St Bricin was permitted to see the ‘Heavenly Host’ celebrate the ‘festival of the Resurrection around the altar of the Lord in Heaven’ and his curiosity prompted him to ask the angel about the ‘number and names’ of the Sons of Life, or holy people who would after his time, continue to adorn the ‘Church of God forever in Erin’.

However, the angel did not bring happy news to St Bricin’s eager ears and announced to him that in the future a great ‘foreign persecution’ was to befall the churches and ‘alluded’ to a Danish invasion.

It is better sometimes not to know what the future may or may not hold.

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