ON SAINT TIGERNACUS, BISHOP IN IRELAND.
AROUND THE YEAR 550.
PrefaceTigernacus, Bishop in Ireland (St.)
BY THE AUTHOR G. H.
[1] In that part where Ulster, the most northerly region of Ireland, borders on the regions of Connacht and Leinster, it has the County of Cavan, and in this Kilmore the Episcopal See, to which is united another See, that of Clogher: which by Ussher is attributed to the County of Tyrone, by others to that of Monaghan. Under it was the monastery of Cluain-eois, constructed by St. Tigernacus, in which he closed his last day. Abbots of Cluain called Comorbans of St. Tigernac, The Abbots of this monastery were called Comorbans of Saint Tigernacus, in the same way as we said the Bishops of Armagh were called Comorbans of Saint Patrick, in the Life of the latter, §2 of the Appendix. Concerning Eochaedius, Comorban of St. Tigernacus, Colgan treats in the sixth Appendix to the Acts of St. Patrick under the year 1030.
[2] We give the Life of the Saint himself from our parchment codex, which once belonged to the College of Salamanca, his Life is given from three MSS. and we have compared it with another MS. codex of Hugh Ward, Irish Franciscan. We also obtained another codex through the care of Henry Fitzimon, in which the proper names are set forth very variously, as the reader will be able to gather from the notes. We add the Hymns from the Ward MS. The author prefaces that he narrates the miracles as they have been handed down from the elders: with hymns. nor do we demand greater credence from the reader. For this Life was written many centuries after the death of St. Tigernachus, when already the title of Archbishop had begun to be usurped by the Bishops of Armagh, as is seen in no. 10; and probably after the rule of the English was established in Ireland.
[3] Name in Martyrologies on the 5th His ancient veneration, which we gather from what has already been said, is confirmed by the MSS. Martyrologies: the Alberghen of the Canons Regular, the Utrecht of St. Jerome, and the Leiden of St. Cecilia in these words: In Scotia (Ireland), of St. Tygernagus, Bishop and Confessor. The MS. of St. Gudula of Brussels has: At Scotia. In the MS. Florarium of the Saints it is read thus: In Scotia, of St. Tigernagus, Bishop and Confessor. In the Martyrology of Cologne printed in the year 1490, Tigernagius is held. and the 4th of April, In the Lübeck one, printed in the same year, "Germagii," the first syllable erroneously cut off by the typesetters. Maurolycus, Felicius, and Ferrarius refer thus: In Scotia of Tigernacus the Bishop. Molanus, Galesinius, Canisius add, "and Confessor." But on the day before the Nones of April is referred in the Tamlacht Martyrology St. Tigernacus, Bishop of Cluain-eois, and by Greven, but the latter adds that according to others his birthday is celebrated on this day.
[4] St. Tigernacus flourished in the sixth century of Christ; who, newly born, by the command of St. Brigid was called in baptism Tigernacus, and by her ordering again later was consecrated Bishop; which we judge was done around the last years of St. Brigid, he flourished in the 6th century. but we have shown before the Acts of St. Patrick, no. 84, that she died in the year of Christ 506 or rather 518. From which it will follow that Machadinus, Bishop of Clogher, whom King Eochachus wished to expel for the sake of his nephew Tigernacus, already also a Bishop, did not die in the year 506, as Ussher writes p. 856, but many years later.
[5] When St. Tigernacus the Bishop, lest he should undertake the See of Clogher, was hiding on a mountain, Duachus or Dubtachus the fifth, Bishop of Armagh, visited him, whom Ussher p. 874 says held the see from the year 498 to the year 514 according to the Annals of Ulster. We, according to what is said before the Acts of St. Patrick, no. 34, believe that Alildus, the predecessor of Dubtachus, was only ordained in the year 512: and these things narrated here can easily be deferred to the year 516. Then St. Tigernacus built the monasteries of Gabalne and Clunes, which we said was called Cluain-eois: and in this he is said to have lived for some time blind, and finally, as Ussher judges in the same p. 856, on the Nones of April in the year 550, to have put off mortality: at which time the name of Scotia was given to the Irish alone: and all the places in the Acts denote Ireland itself. Meanwhile the present-day Scots, on this fifth of April, in the Breviary of Aberdeen celebrate St. Tigernacus, Bishop and Confessor in Scotland, under King Alphinus, in the year 829. But in another Catalogue of the Saints of Scotland the year 823 is noted. Camerarius in the Menology of Scotland hands down that St. Tigernacus, having performed many and great labors for Christ, finally closed his last day around the year 870 in the province of Eskdale. Wilson with the cited tables of the Saints of Ireland and with Molanus, with greater confusion, attributes him to modern Scotland, and asserts that he departed this life around the year 730, and was buried in Scotland. All these things ought either to be said of other Tigernacs, or seem ineptly devised. In the Life of Blessed Amnichadus, a monk enclosed at Fulda, which we gave on January 30, a certain Tigernachus is referred to, but one who lived in the eleventh century of Christ.
LIFE
From three MSS.
Tigernacus, Bishop in Ireland (St.)
BHL Number: 8287
FROM MSS.
CHAPTER I.
Birth, education, captivity, pilgrimage. The dead raised to life.
[1] The venerable Bishop Tigernachus, born of royal descent, was the grandson of King Echachus, a who ruled by b the city of Clogher: concerning whose miracles, as a holy man, we deemed it necessary to relate succinctly something, Descended from grandfather King Echachus, as it has been handed down from the elders. The aforesaid King Echachus, when he had three most beautiful daughters raised in his palace; one of them, c Dearfraych, fell in love with a certain noble man of her father's soldiers; d a Leinsterman by birth, named Corbreus. When she had conceived by him, his father Corbreus; until she gave birth, she hid herself from the sight of men. And when she had borne a son, immediately his father, taking him, hastened with speed to his own country. And when they were entering the city of St. Brigid; immediately Blessed Brigid, by the revelation of the Spirit, understood their coming; and informed her household, saying: "Now honorable guests are coming to us; by command of St. Brigid, whom we ought to receive joyfully." The blessed Virgin herself went to meet them, and embracing the boy in her bosom, caused him to be baptized by Bishop e Conlatheus. To whom the Blessed Virgin, giving a name, said: "Because he is the grandson of many Lords and Kings, he is called Tigernacus: let him be called Tigernach." When this was done, the father took the boy with him to his own country, and there nourished him, diligently educating him.
[2] taken captive to Britain, After these things the holy boy was captured by pirates plundering that country: and is led captive to the King of the Britons. Who, because of the beauty of his comely countenance, and the grace of God shining in him, was so greatly loved that he permitted him to sleep with him in his own bed. But appearing like another bush of Moses, the royal bed seemed often to be burning. Then the Queen said: "The Irish boy is making this fire descend upon us from heaven; wherefore let him be removed from us, and let him lie with our sons in another bed." But when he slept one night between two sons of the King, in the morning both were found dead. The King and Queen, seeing their sons dead, sent to a holy man named f Movennus, asking that he come to them, and indicate what was to be done in this matter. When he had come, he instructed the holy boy he raises to life two sons of the King who were dead: to lie among the dead, and command them to rise with him. Who, immediately obedient to the commands of the holy man, laying his hands on the head of one and the eyes of the other, raised them to life, Christ working in him. Of whom one, in memory of the miracle, with closed eyes; the other indeed with a bald head, remained as long as they lived.
[3] in the monastery of Rosnat he is instructed by St. Movennus Then the blessed boy, restored to liberty, was diligently instructed by the disciplines and admonitions of St. Movennus in the monastery of Rosnat, which by another name is called Alba, and was advanced to the perfect man in knowledge and morals. When one day he was sleeping in the presence of his master, the holy man, looking at him attentively, detected him first breathing forth from his mouth a breath of white color, secondly of red color, thirdly infected with a yellow color. And when he was awakened, he said to him: "Son, what did you see?" Who answered and said: "I dreamed that three rivers flowing from heaven in dreams he is instructed about future things. were poured into my mouth, of which the first was of fresh milk, the second of wine, the third of oil; and after these I saw a man of venerable and white habit standing, who prophesied to me saying: 'In the land of your mother you will found a famous church': which is most certainly proved to have been said of the monastery of Cluain."
[4] He sets out for Rome, After these things, having received the blessing of his master, he went to Rome; and from there carrying away the relics of the holy Apostles Peter and Paul, he hastened to return to his own country, according to what he had been admonished in the aforesaid vision. When, however, the blessed man was journeying, with the holy g Keranus, son of Euchadius, accompanying him, having returned to Tours with St. Keranus, in the winter season; he came to the city of St. Martin: where in a lodging in which nine dead men lay that night, he was received. Then St. Keranus his companion, moved by the immoderate cries of those weeping, said to Blessed Tigernachus: "All this night let us beseech Almighty God, that through his ineffable mercy he may deign to raise these dead to life." And immediately the pious Father, full of the bowels of charity, acquiescing to the petitions of the holy man, poured out pure and devoted prayers for them to the Lord. Who, not suffering the requests of his beloved friend to return to him empty, by prayer he raises nine dead men to life. to the praise and glory of his own name and of his servants, recalled those nine dead to life. Then Tigernachus and Keranus gave their right hands to each other in pledge of fellowship.
[5] When, however, the man of God came to the Irish sea, it happened that then the daughter of the King of Munster, Ethnea by name, brought from Ireland for marriage to the King of the Britons, was being led by the soldiers of the same to the port, Ethnea the Virgin given in marriage to a heathen king in which the man of God was awaiting a favorable wind. She, seeing the blessed man with his disciples in the port, beseeched him, saying: "Holy Father, do not allow me to remain among the infidels;
because I have devoted myself to Christ, whose faith and love I retain with all my mind." Then the blessed man besought the soldiers that they might release the maiden to him. he asks that she be released: But they, scorning to accede to the prayers of the holy man, led her to the King of the Britons. And she that same night, h after she had been placed unwillingly in the same bed with the King, immediately died in it. But the King, marveling at what had happened to him, questioned the soldiers, and suddenly dead, about what they had done on the way; and commanded them to tell him everything truly in order. They, obeying the King's command, related that they had scorned a certain pilgrim cleric asking that the maiden be given to him, and had refused to consent to his petition. To whom the King ordered that they should immediately bring the dead maiden to the holy man without delay. When this was done, and carried back to Ireland the man of God, placing the body of the maiden in a coffin, commanded the sailors to set sail. And when they had raised their sails to the height and had begun to draw a little away from land, meanwhile the man of God prepared himself to celebrate Mass. And when the time came that he should mix water with the wine; after the sacrifice of the Mass by divine command, according to his accustomed custom, a drop of water fell from heaven. After they had arrived by a prosperous voyage at the much-desired port, the man of God turning himself to the maiden, said: "O Ethnea, you have been weighed down by a long sleep. In the name of Jesus Christ arise, and before all of us descend from the ship." She, rising at once, to the admiration of those present, descended from the ship unharmed. he raises her. Who afterwards for the whole time of her life served God devotedly in the chastity of i the inner and outer man.
ANNOTATIONS.
CHAPTER II.
Various monasteries constructed. Miracles. Death.
[6] He recovers a censer which had been lost: We judge that another miracle also should be related, performed by the same man of God. For a censer, which they had left through forgetfulness in the British port from which they had come; they found in the port of Ireland to which they had arrived. a Then they advanced to the monastery of St. Brigid the Virgin by common counsel, he is received by St. Brigid: who received them with great joy and immense honor: and the next day, having heard the miracles which divine power had performed there through the holy man, Blessed Brigid devoutly conceded her place to him and his successors in perpetuity. he converts many: As the fame of the blessed man grew, the people from everywhere flocked to him, and converted to the faith of Christ by his saving admonitions, they were baptized.
[7] Then he came to the land of Munster, in which was an idol, concerning which a demon giving responses was worshipped by men. fierce men The demon announced the coming of the man of God to his own, and naming him a hypocrite and deceiver, persuaded his worshippers to slaughter him. They, promptly obeying the counsels of their prince, prepared themselves to kill the man of God. conspiring for his death, But the man of God, armed with the shield of faith, and taking up the accustomed weapons of devoted prayers, besought Christ, he renders them gentle: that he might mitigate their fury. These being immediately pacified through the mercy of God, he said: "Cease, wretched ones, and allow me, that I may show to you the one whom you worship in his own form." Which having said, impressing the sign of the Cross upon the idol, he compelled the demon to stand before all in his most foul form; and the demon driven from the idol, and forced him to confess his evils. To whom the man of God commanded to go into a certain rock, placed in the sea nearby, where his wails and howlings are often heard. made Christians, he baptizes them. All those idolaters, leaving the cult of demons, confessing the faith of Christ, were baptized by the holy man.
[8] Then returning to his homeland, he asked from the king of the land, named b Fiachrius, a place in which to found a monastery. He did not delay to give what he had asked; and commanded his men to make a deep ditch around the same place. with King Fiachrius helping he builds a monastery: Moreover he gave possessions of fields for the use of the monastery in perpetuity. Finally when the King, compelled by some necessity, himself asked from one of his servants a little hay, which he might put under the sole of his foot in his shoe; having received this, he said to him: "Whence did you get this?" He answered: "From the land which you handed over to the man of God." Then he, with a loud voice in the presence of those standing by, said: "From the fruit of the land which I have offered to God, henceforth I will never use for my own uses or the necessities of my people." But afterwards the devout King earnestly asked the man of God to pour forth prayers to the King of heaven, that he might obtain victory over his enemies, who were going to fight against him the next day. Which the holy Pontiff promised he would do, and fulfilled. and obtains victory for him. For on the following day the enemies, before they could join arms to arms, turned their backs, and very many of them, according to the opinion of the pursuers, were killed and beheaded; but truly, because of the holy man's prayer, only put to flight, not killed. Finally the King and his army, returning home, carried with them the heads of the beheaded according to their estimation; but they recognized them to be not truly the heads of men, but clods of marsh with their long tufts of hay? And this recognized, they glorified the blessed man, by whose prayers the hostile army, injuring no one, injured by none, was turned to flight.
[9] A monastery having been founded there, and religious Brothers left there, he set out to his spiritual mother, who once raised him from the font of baptism, namely Saint Brigid, who was then staying in the monastery of Kildare. by the command of St. Brigid She was admonished by mystical signs and by the revealing Spirit of God that her spiritual son was worthy of the honor of the Episcopal dignity. Therefore calling the bishops together she caused him to be advanced to the summit of the Pontifical Order. he is consecrated Bishop: For in this Brigid herself was privileged by the clergy and people of all Ireland, that whomever she indicated to be ordained was chosen by all. These things being done, the venerable Bishop Tigernachus, with the permission of the Virgin and the Bishops, bent his step to King c Eochodius, namely his maternal grandfather. Who received him with great joy, for he was no little gratified to have such and so great a grandson. And the maternal bowels, upon seeing the son, were filled with ineffable joy. refuses the see of Clogher offered to him by his grandfather the king: But the aforesaid King, overcome by fleshly love, offered him the dignity and see of the holy Bishop Machadinus, namely the monastery of Clogher; and promised to expel the aforesaid Bishop from his territory. Which the man of God, as a true despiser of worldly honor, abhorring, fleeing the king and his relations, immediately departed; he hides on a mountain: and hastened his step to a mountain placed far off, where he remained for a long time in a cell which he had founded there.
[10] The fame of his sanctity and virtues having been spread round about, religious men came together from all sides for the delightful sight and the useful conferences and for imitating the examples of his sanctity. Of whom one was the venerable man d Duachus, the excellent Archbishop of the See of Patrick; whom he received with pious affection and joyful countenance, and with bodily and spiritual refreshment fed according to his powers; he is visited by Duachus Archbishop of Armagh. and for him going on his way the next day he poured out devout prayers to God. But the Archbishop of Armagh, making his journey, on that same day in e Marchuireglas, that is, in a certain field so called, was overtaken by death: which immediately, by the revealing Spirit of God, was made known to the man of God. whom, recognizing him dead on his return by divine means, Who immediately commanded his charioteer to put horses to the chariot: and he entering the chariot, commanded him not to open his eyes without his permission: for he foreknew that angels would accompany him in that journey. Moreover he promised that on that day he himself would guide the reins of the horses: which he did. And so he ascending the chariot, with marvelous speed, by angelic guidance, passed through the long way. Which the charioteer perceiving, the course being guided most swiftly by angels, struck with wondrous amazement, with his head uncovered, contrary to the orders of the Bishop, but not unpunished, looked around; for one of his eyes immediately burst; which the blessed Bishop, making the sign of the cross, immediately healed, and the disobedient charioteer punished, whose sign was depicted in his eye as long as he lived. But when he had come to the lifeless body of the Archbishop, blessing water, he sprinkled it. Then bending to the ground, he humbly besought Almighty God, with blessed water he raises him to life. that to the demonstration of his omnipotence, he would command the soul of his dead servant to return to the body. As soon as he had completed the prayers, he who was already dead, rose unharmed, and said: "Tigernachus on earth, Tigernachus in heaven": that is, on earth in body, in heaven in soul and conduct. After this, having given the kiss of peace to the holy man, and entered into faith in perpetuity, they departed from one another.
[10] Not long after the Angel of the Lord appearing, said to him: "To the farthest ends of the region over which King Tachodrus your grandfather presides, go; there between the West and the South, with God helping, you will found holy places." by angelic admonition he constructs the monastery of Gabalne: Who immediately obeying the angelic commands, began his journey. And when he had come to the promised place, he built there the monastery of Gabalne: where with his holy college he served wonderfully the King of the ages, and shone with the flashings of miracles like the sun: of which we shall say a few. Once seven hostages, already destined for death for the crime of their parents, he asked from King Edus, King Edus, lest he be killed by an enemy, being invoked, he keeps safe: son of Cormac, to be released to him free: whom he released on this condition, namely that he himself should be freed by the man of God from the greater danger which he would incur. Which afterwards was fulfilled. For when enemies suddenly rushed upon him in the very town, and he and his wife most devoutly invoked the name of their holy patron Tigernachus, lest they be killed by the enemy; the divine power protected them so that the enemy did not recognize them, and permitted them to go unhurt. But those hostages the blessed man made clerics, of whom two he advanced to the order of the episcopal office. he averts the Queen's sterility by the sign of the Cross: Also the womb of the wife of the aforesaid king, Barduba, until now closed by the defect of sterility, he sealed with the sign of the saving Cross: she
afterwards bore two sons to the same King, of whom one was named f Fechinus, that is, the father of the Presbyterine people, and the other was Ronanus the Abbot.
[12] He frees a chick snatched by a hawk: On another certain day, the pious Father seeing a hawk snatching a chick of a hen; full of the bowels of charity, commanded it to release the chick to its mother without any injury: and he had scarcely completed his words, and immediately obeying the command of the man of God, it sent the chick back to the hen. Moreover, lest with rash boldness it should presume to repeat this, he commanded it under interdict thus, saying: "You and the birds of your race, from this day henceforth, shall be guardians of the hens of the monastery of Gabalne, not robbers." he averts a danger of drowning: Also having compassion on the necessity of certain of his household, laboring in the neighboring lake Erne, because of the most immense violence of the storm, he besought the Lord; and they, the tempest immediately being calmed, were freed from the jaws of death: and from that day in that same part of the lake, by the virtue of his prayer, no one has been drowned.
[13] Meanwhile the man of God was admonished by divine grace inspiring, that he should commit that monastery to be governed by his beloved Comgall; but that he himself should hasten toward the Eastern region, far off, to a more ample and fertile land, where he might construct a monastery. Which the man of God immediately accomplished, and afterwards founded the monastery of Cluain-eois: where a multitude of holy men and nuns from ancient times faithfully served God. g But in the last thirty years of his life, he founds the monastery of Cluain-eois: struck with blindness of body, not of mind, remaining alone in his secure cell, tasting the sweetness of the contemplative life, blind before his death he led, as it were, an anchoretic life. As the end of this life drew near, a multitude of the heavenly host descending to meet his soul, amid the melody of angels he migrated to heaven received it gently and quietly from the holy body, and led it with sweet melody with them from the pilgrimage of this sojourn to the heavenly homeland, where he enjoys perennial glory, for ever and ever. Amen. h
HYMN AT VESPERS.
The celebrated day of Saint Tygernacus is here, Whom the clergy and people ought to venerate, On which it is fitting for old men with boys to rejoice together, It behooves us today greatly to glory; While we desire through him to be honored elsewhere; For thus we shall merit to be exalted to this.
Alone presses upon each one at the feast of the holy Man The solemn light for all, the feast of its Saint, The solemn light for all, the feast of its Saint, Who opens to the one asking him the gates of heaven, Grants health as to the sick: It is given to one; believe thus to another asking: Let us therefore rejoice at him who so presides.
He kept the temple of his body chastely, Except what was lawful he coveted nothing: And always obeyed the commands of the Lord; He distributed the seed of the spiritual wheat; Teaching the peoples, he loosed their sins; Giving his own to the poor, he gave himself to God.
By the merits and prayers of this man we pray, That we may deserve to be joined to the heavenly with Christ, And may remain in the kingdom with the angels of heaven. Amen.
HYMN AT MATINS.
Tygernacus, with the fire of grace, loving to seek heavenly things, Directed his intention, the Pontiff, to the hope of the homeland. He deserted sweet feasts, repelling the gluttony of the belly, Brought down the flesh to the lowest, much suppressing lust. Approving one knowledge, he despised to learn vain things: Suppressing haughtiness, he had avoided pride; Rejecting all honor, he had fled vain praises: In the height of charity, he had grown beyond others.
Despising transitory deeds, he sought the splendid life: Drawing his mind from the world, he prepared the way for many. Sounding with many miracles, teaching by words and manners, He had made diseases to be healed, bestowing the gift of salvation.
He granted to the blind openly to see, to the lame to walk; And he had raised the dead from the lower regions to life. Let us entreat Christ with all our strength, by the holy Bishop Tighernacus, May blessed glory grant us to enjoy with him. Amen.