Saint Landelin of Alsace, September 21

September 21 sees the commemoration of an Irish hermit and martyr, Landelin, or Landelinus in Latin. Roísín Ní Mheara describes what is known of his life and of how his memory has been kept alive for over a millenium in the area of Europe in which he flourished:

In Murbach we are in reach of the famous Alsatian wine route bordering the Rhine. There one should look out for Rouffach, a small town where, on the gentle slope of its vineyards large letters proclaim: CLOS ST LANDELIN.

The choicest of Alsatian wines are produced here in Rouffach, and stopping to savour them we honour both saint and proprietor who is proud to greet a guest from Landelin's homeland. Studying his wine-card we read in French: 'Saint Landelin, an Irish prince, came to preach the Gospel. Around the year 640 he suffered the death of martyrdom. In the eighth century the bishop of Strasbourg donated to the 'Monks of Landelin' stocks cultivated on the best wine-growing slopes of Alsace, since titled 'Saint Landelin's Vineyard'.

Landolin the Martyr and his cult

A leap over the Rgine back into the Ortenau (Breisgau) will take the curious to the haunts of this Landelin (Landolino; in the oldest form Lendlin). It is a way taken since time immemorial by the inhabitants of Rufach (Rouffach) and other Alsatian parishes to Ettenheimmunster. There they take part in a long procession, headed with a silver bust reliquary carried on a bier, and an old Landelinus-Litanei is sung while they trace the grounds of the abbatial domain, long since disappeared. Riders also make the round, carrying a banner and a relic of the saint, and their horses are blessed on the green beside the holy well. The beautiful and imposing church of St. Landelin adjoins the well's sanctuary. Built in 1688  and enlarged again in the eighteenth century to serve the never abating concourse of visitors, it superseded former pilgrim churches built on the spot where the saint was martyred. The new altar, erected by the abbot of Ettenheimmunster, carried an inscription in golden letters - S Landelinus Scotiae Regis Filius, followed by a Latin hymn of praise with an explicative second verse that runs:

Quinque fontes semper manant
Landelini meritis
Aegros, caecos, claudos sanant
Sors magna est inclytis

Five sources always flowing

are Landelin's merit

healing the sick, blind and lame

famed among nobility.

Today the high altar of St. Landelin's has an oil painting of the 'glorification' of its patron, while a side-altar shows him in a wooden statue as a young man. Only in the baroque period did this youthful image appear; older ones portray Landelin as a mature, bearded man, often crowned in princely robes. On the ceiling his legend is told in seventeen frescoes, the first two of which, starting to the right of the west entrance show the saint's departure from Ireland.

It seems that the cult of St. Landelin set in straight after his death at the hands of a local huntsman, infuriated by the conduct of his hounds, which refused to chase deer in the vicinity but became meek and docile when nearing the hermit's cell. The huntsman had the backing of his pagan lord, Gisico, who considered Landelin a sorcerer.

There in the glade, where Landelin lay outstretched in his blood, spring water gushed forth from under the severed head and at each limb's extremity. The five sources (some legends say there were four) soon formed a basin, to which the natives resorted, and bathing, found healing there for many ills.

Anchorites, settling in the neighbourhood, were gathered together in the early eighth century by the bishop of Strassburg to form a colony and provide for the increasing number of pilgrims to the spot. Out of this the first cella monachorum grew, with time, the impressive resort we find there now.

It was Etto (Eddo), the succeeding bishop of Strassburg in the eighth century, who caused another monastery to be erected a little further up the valley for thirty Benedictines. Etto was deeply impressed by the miracles at the well, over which he had a new sanctuary built. His interest may reflect Irish sympathies for, before becoming bishop of Strassburg, he was abbot of Reichenau, in direct succession to Pirmin.

Etto's monastery, built in honour of Landelin, was given the name of its founder - Monachium divi Ettonis - and became 'Ettenheim-Munster'. Incorporating the pilgrim church of St Landelin's, it cherished the saint's memory through more than a thousand troubled years.

Nothing remains but a monastery wall of this once great seat of learning, a centre of theology and music, which radiated into the Rhine valley and influenced its spiritual and cultural life for centuries. The percussions caused by the French Revolution and the Secularization of 1803 saw its library scattered, its archives in ashes, its monks finally dispersed and the huge complex razed to the ground after having served as a a factory. This all has left us with a great void, concerning Ettenheimmunster's early history and also that of its Irish patron saint.

Of the few items salvaged from the abbey after confiscation in 1803 the most precious was the bust reliquary of Landeling, made in 1506 as a recipient for the saint's skull. It was taken to the pilgrim church of St. Landelin, acting from then on as the parish church, and is kept in the sacristy. It is exposed on special occasions. That it was saved goes to the credit of an undaunted parish priest, pouring condemnation on the heads of those involved in transporting the bust on a cart to the smelting foundry. To eschew the fires of hell they unloaded it, dropping it into a ditch.

The reliquary, a prime work of art of the late Gothic period, portrays the bust of St. Landelin in chased silver. Bejewelled and embossed, it contains the saint's skull, and has, inserted on the chest, a figuration of the martyrdom, whereby circles around the outstretched limbs and severed head demonstrate the pools of rising water. Scenes from the life of the saint surround the base of the reliquary, and these are especially interesting for they follow early legends that were recorded from oral tradition. Here the true peregrinus confronts us, with satchel and staff. This is what we are told:

Crossing the Rhine, into the wilds of the Alemanni, Landelin makes his first stop at the house of a certain Edulf, where the village of Altdorf now stands, at the foot of the northern Black Forest range. Here he wanders off up the valley of the Undiz to where it is joined by the Luttenbach, a little stream - today Lautenbach - and builds himself a hut in the forest glade. Animals befriend him, especially deer, who brings him food. There fate overtakes him.

Full of misgivings, Edulf's wife and three daughters set out from Altdorf to search for Landelin, accompanied by a guide. One of the daughters is blind, and when they come across the body of the murdered hermit, she is left behind weeping, while the others go for help. She touches her eyes with fingers stained from Landelin's blood, and her eyesight is restored. Returning with the intention of bringing their friend's corpse back and over the Rhine to receive a Christian burial, which could not be afforded on the right side of the river, Edulf's family are convinced by the miraculous cure of the hermit's sanctity. They carry his remains down the valley, to a place where, having put the load down for a rest, they find it impossible to raise it again. Even a team of oxen brought there with a cart, cannot move the corpse. This, it is decided, is a sign from heaven that Landelin wished to be buried there, and that they proceed to do. They stick the hermit's staff into the grave to mark the spot. It sprouts green leaves and eventually grows into a huge oak tree.

The church that was built there, where first anchorites had their hermitage, is the Munchweier parish church of today. There under the mensa of the altar is the tomb with Landelin's relics. The centre of the cult, however, has always been the site of his martyrdom and the wellhouse with the holy sources.

Since Landelin's Irish origin is today questioned for no other reason than his name 'sounds Frankish', it would be gratifying to find in the genealogies of Ireland a (F)lann, born around 600, who went abroad on a pilgrimage of no return.

Roísín Ní Mheara, Early Irish Saints in Europe - Their Sites and their Stories (Seanchas Ard Mhacha, 2001), 123-127.

Saint Aedhan, son of Oissin, September 20

Another saint identified by his patronym is commemorated on September 20, as Canon O'Hanlon records:

St. Aedhan, Son of Oissin.

St. Aidus, Son of Ossin, was held in reverence on this day, as Colgan states on the authority of our Irish Menologists. The name of Aedhan, Son of Oissin, was venerated at the 20th of September, and is found in the Martyrologies of Marianus O'Gorman and of Donegal. Again, in the copy of this latter Calendar, belonging to the Irish Ordnance Survey Records, we find him mentioned at the XII. of the October Kalends or September 20th.

From the Calendars

The Martyrology of Gorman records Mogaid, Aedan álimm - Aedan whom I beseech, whilst the Martyrology of Donegal simply lists AEDHAN, son of Oissin, as does the Irish Ordnance Survey calendar.

Saint Mac Oigi, the Priest, September 19

Among the saints remembered on the Irish calendars on September 19, is a priest known only by his patronym, as Canon O'Hanlon explains:

St. Mac Oigi, Priest.

The particular name of this saint does not appear to have been preserved, for he is only called "the son of Oig." In the published Martyrology of Tallagh, we read, that veneration was given at this date to Mac Oigi. The contracted word Sac. follows this announcement, and from its usual form of application, we may infer he was a Priest. In the manuscript copy of the Book of Leinster, in like manner, he was distinguished as Mac Cuigi, a Priest.

Saint Enna of Emlaghfad, September 18

September 18 is the commemoration of Saint Enna (Endeus, Enda), abbot of the monastery of Emlaghfad, County Sligo. In the Life of Saint Colum Cille by the 16th-century Donegal chieftain Manus O'Donell, it was said that this monastery was a Columban foundation. Bishop William Reeves, in the introduction to his translation of the Life of Columba by Adamnan, records the following note of the locality:

22. EMLAGHFAD. Imleach fada, "the long marsh." Here, according to O' Donnell, St. Columba founded a church on the west side of a hill called Tulach-segra [now Tully in Toomour] in the district of Corann, appointing Enna, son of Nuadhan, its first minister. It is now a parish church in the diocese of Achonry, and county of Sligo.

Canon O'Hanlon in his account below of Saint Enna notes that his predecessor, Father John Lanigan, who was writing in the 1820s, believed that our saint was the same individual as Enda, son of Nuadan, who was listed as belonging to the second order of Irish saints. The translator of the Martyrology of Gorman, Whitley Stokes, accepted this identification in his listing of the three orders of saints as commemorated in O'Gorman's calendar. I have previously posted Stokes' list here. One thing that surprises me, in view of the claimed link between Saint Enna's monastery and Saint Colum Cille, is that Saint Enna does not appear on the Martyrology of Donegal for this day. The 12th-century Martyrology of Marianus O'Gorman appears to be the only calendar which records his feast.

ST. ENDEUS, ABBOT OF EMLAGHFAD, COUNTY OF SLIGO.

[SIXTH CENTURY.]

FRUITS, which show the brightest colouring on the rind, are not always the most ripe and wholesome. They have attractions only for the incautious and unwise. Yet those, who have attained a bad eminence are very often honoured on earth, when God's holiest ones are almost unknown or neglected. Our chief purpose in this collection is to rescue from almost utter oblivion memorials that can still be found regarding those who have rendered good service to Religion in the glorious past ages.

St. Endeus or Enna was probably born about the middle of the sixth century, being son to Nuadan. We have few notices left regarding him. However, as Dr. Lanigan remarks, nothing occurs to prevent us from supposing him to have been that Endeus alluded to, in the Second Class of Irish Saints. He is thought to have been a disciple of St. Columkille, the great Apostle of Caledonia. St Columba founded a monastery at a place called Imleachfoda. Over this, he placed St. Enna, as its first minister. The former residence of Endeus is now called Emlaghfad, in Sligo County. This ancient town lies six miles south of Sligo, and one from Ballymote. It is now a parish church, in the diocese of Achonry; and Prince O'Donnell, the Biographer of St. Columkille, tells us, that the subject of his Memoir erected a Church there, on the west side of a hill, called Tulach-sugra. At present it is known as Tully, in Toomour, within the barony of Corann.

The year of St. Endeus' or Enna's death is unknown. The festival of this saint has been referred to the 18th of September, by Marianus O'Gorman. This was probably the Natalis, or day of his death. However, we do not find his festival in the Martyrologies of Tallagh or of Donegal at that date.

Saint Brogan-Cloen of Rostuirc, September 17

September 17 is, according to some sources, the feastday of Saint Brogan-Cloen, Abbot of Rostuirc. He is the second of the authors who composed a hymn to Saint Brigid to be commemorated this month, the first being Saint Ultan of Ardbraccan whose feast is celebrated on September 4. A translation of the hymn of Saint Brogan-Cloen can be found at my other blog, Trias Thaumaturga, here.  The account of his life below has been taken from O'Hanlon's Lives of the Irish Saints:

St. Brogan Cloen, Abbot of Rostuirc, in Ossory. [Seventh Century.]

Although by some, the present saint has been identified with a St. Brogan, of Maethail-Bhrogain in Waterford , or Brocan the Scribe commemorated in the Feilire of Oengus at the 8th of July yet is he to be distinguished, as the author of an Irish Poem, in which are celebrated the life and virtues of the great St. Brigid. It is possible the attribute of being a scribe, with the accidental synonym applying to both, may have produced such an impression. The Bollandists, apparently calling his cultus in question, still introduce their notices of Broganus, at the 17th of September. This saint is also called Bercan, Brechan, Brecan and Brocan. In Latin, his name is usually written Berchanus, Broganus or Broccanus.

On this day, in the Feilire of St. Oengus, there is a festival for Bracan or Broccan, of Ruiss or Roiss Tuircc. In a scholion appended, this place is indicated as being in Mag Raigne in Ossory; and, by the commentator, he is said to have been connected with Cluain Imorchuir, for which a mysterious derivation is given. We find, at the 17th of September, this entry, “Broecan Rois tuiric," in the Martyrology of Tallagh. According to the Calendar of Cashel and Marianus O'Gorman, he is venerated on this same day. St. Brogan Cloen was born, it has been supposed, about the close of the sixth or beginning of the seventh century.

At the request of St. Ultan of Ardbraccan, Brogan composed the Life and Acts of St. Brigid in an Irish poem. In it, her sanctity and miracles are recorded. The place where this tract was written is said to have been either at Slieve-Bloom or at the Cluainmore of St. Maidoc. These accounts are gleaned from an anonymous writer or scholiast in a short preface; and Colgan places this Irish poem, with a literal Latin translation, foremost among his six Lives of St. Brigid. He assigns its authorship to A.D. 526, but this is manifestly too early a date for its composition, as it ranges back to a year long previous to St. Brogan's birth. The " Chronicum Scotorum " places the death of Ultan Mac Ui Conchobhair on the second of the Nones of September in the year 653. However, as the Annals of the Four Masters give Ultan's age to be one hundred and eighty years, when he died on the 4th of September, 656; Colgan argues, that he may have been living A.D. 526, to assist St. Brogan Cloen in the composition of that Hymn in praise of St. Brigid. St. Brogan is named as abbot of Rostuirc, at the year 525, by Archdall, who rests his statement on the authority of Colgan. That early date, however, cannot be allowed. It is said by an old scholiast, that St. Ultan of Ardbraccan collected the Acts of St. Brigid for St. Brogan Cloen. The same scholiast informs us, that our Saint's poem, on St. Brigid's virtues and miracles, had been composed in the time of King Leogaire's son Lughadh, Monarch of Ireland, and when Alild, son to Dulaing, was King of Leinster. But Colgan justly thinks this poem in question could not have been written in King Lugad's time, as the latter died over twenty years before the rest of St. Brigid, an allusion to which latter event is contained in a concluding stanza of that hymn. The death of Lugad also occurred before Alild obtained the government of Leinster. Ailild died in the year 526, and in the twentieth year of his reign, according to the three different catalogues of the Leinster Kings. Colgan supposes it nearer the truth to maintain, that Brogan's Hymn was composed, in the time of Muircheartach, King of Ireland, who was contemporary with the aforesaid Alild of Leinster. Hence he imagines, this poem was written, about the year 525. It was most probably composed in the seventh century, as Sir James Ware reckons Brogan amongst the writers of that period ; although his editor, Harris, adopts Colgan's opinion.

The poem in honour of St. Bridget contains fifty-three stanzas. In it the author celebrates the virtues and powerful intercession of the Holy Virgin, and manifests his own tender devotion towards her. He also indicates, that a certain measure of reward should be vouchsaved to those, who read or hear it recited. According to O'Reilly, there are Manuscript copies of this Hymn extant, in Trinity College Library, Dublin. After Colgan's time, this poem was again published in 1792, by Mr. Richard Plunkett, of the County of Meath. It was accompanied by a rendering in modern Irish. In a small brochure intituled "A Bouquet for St Bride," the Very Rev. Nicholas Murphy, P.P., has introduced the following Prayer of St. Brogan : " I will pray to Holy Bride, with the Saints of Kildare ; that she may stand between me and judgment ; that my soul may not perish : the nun that roamed the Curragh, is my shield against sharp arrows; except Mary who can compare with my Bride; two holy virgins are above; my guardians may they be, Holy Mary and my Bride on whose intercession all my happiness may depend."

St. Broghan again informs us that :

"Brigid never loved the world, and her thoughts were ever in heaven. She was kind-hearted and charitable, and had no care but for God alone, and God worked more wonders through her than through any other Irish saint. She showed the same love to all, to the servants as well as to her spiritual daughters, to beggars, and to the sick."

We are indebted to the poet-priest of Ossory, St. Broghan of Kilbrahan, for some of the most edifying traits in the life of St. Brigid of Erin, as well as for the fervour of the diocesan devotion to the first and most illustrious Irish Nun. Brogan wrote another Poem, according to Roderick O'Flaherty. Yet, in another part of his work, O'Reilly seems to attribute this composition to Giolla na naomh O'Dunn, chief bard to the King of Leinster, and who died in 1160. We are told, in St. Abban's Life, that on a certain occasion, some swine belonging to him were stolen by a nephew of this saint. Directing his course towards Ossory, to recover the property of his monastery, Abban paid a visit to Berchan as he is there called. Our saint accompanied him to the presence of his nephew. Brogan entreated him to restore the stolen property. But that abandoned wretch made an attempt, to take away St. Abban's life, and in the very act struck down his uncle. Again, attempting a stroke at Abban, his hand became paralysed. Our saint was restored, and his wounds were healed by Abban; while the wicked nephew, feeling remorse for his act, restored those animals he had taken. After this, both the saints established a bond of friendship between themselves and their respective communities. In this federation, on other occasions, they included Saints Brandan, Moling, Flannan, Munna, and others. Our saint is also said to have been venerated at a monastery, called Cluainnimurchuir, according to the Salamancan MS. of St. Abban's Life, formerly in Colgan's possession. Edward O'Reilly incorrectly places his death, as occurring in the year 526. However, the exact year of our saint's death is not known ; but, its day seems to have been the 17th of September, on which his memory was afterwards revered.