ON SAINT LASREANUS OR MOLASSIUS,
ABBOT OF LEIGHLIN IN IRELAND,
AFTERWARDS BISHOP AND APOSTOLIC LEGATE.
YEAR 640.
PrefaceLasreanus or Molassius, Abbot of Leighlin in Ireland, afterwards Bishop and Apostolic Legate (Saint)
By D. P.
Much did Aedan, the glorious King of the Scots in
Britain, owe to the Irish, that, after the unhappy
slaughter of his father Gebran, a fugitive from the paternal
invaders of his uncles, they received him and his mother and cherished them
for forty and more years, and at last
restored him to his paternal kingdom through Saint Columba: From a daughter of Aedan King of the Scots who, him whom he himself
by divine admonition had crowned King on the island of Iona, in the year of Christ
578 did not fear to bring to Kynnatill, with the hope
of receiving the kingdom from him, and the effect followed within two years,
as Hector Boethius narrates in Scottish history
book 9. Nor less beneficial was Columba, though absent,
felt by the same King Aedan, when aided by his prayers he brought
back one and another notable victory over the Saxons,
in 590 and 591, Lasreanus born in Ireland; he himself knowing the same in spirit
and signifying it to those standing by, as Adamnan narrates in the Life of Saint Columba.
Yet more than Aedan had received from the Irish,
he returned to them through his daughter Gemma, who, born to him
in Ireland while in exile, and betrothed to a prince in Ulidia,
there bore Saint Lasreanus, or as others with diminutive name
call him, Molassius, afterwards famous in holiness as Abbot
in the monastery of Leighlin in the middle of Leinster; on the occasion of which
monastery, upon the nearby river Barrow, there arose a large city of the same
name, distinguished by episcopal title, commonly called Leighlin.
[2] Inscribed in the Calendars The name of this Saint is referred in the Irish Martyrologies,
on the day he also died, the 14th day before the Kalends of May.
And in the Tallaght Manuscript, most ancient of all, in these words:
"Lasrenus, that is Molassius, Abbot of Leighlin."
Among foreigners on the same day is added to the Martyrology of Usuard,
printed at Lübeck and Cologne in 1490, the memory
of Saint Lacerianus Bishop and Confessor. In another
Cologne edition of 1521, after the aforementioned Lacerianus
Bishop and Confessor, again (with the interposition
of Peter the Deacon and Confessor) is placed, also by outsiders. "in Ireland
the natal day of Lafrianus Abbot and Confessor." Which it is certain
is to be understood of one and the same. Into the same error
the author of the Manuscript Florarium fell, who first refers the name
of Lafrianus the Abbot, without place added; then he doubled the error
when he wrote: "In England of Lasserianus Bishop
and Confessor." Henry Fitzsimon in the Catalog of the principal
Saints of Ireland, in the earlier Alphabetic indeed
names Lafrianus the Abbot, to be venerated on April 18;
in the latter, arranged by months, he writes Lasrianus.
Canisius in the later edition of his German Martyrology
also has the same with the title of Abbot and Confessor,
under the name of Lafrianus, as to be venerated in Ireland, or, as
others say, in Spain. He had perhaps read somewhere Iberia,
made from Ibernia by the omission of one letter.
[3] Life from a Manuscript, A Life by an uncertain author, and probably an Englishman, was
written after the 11th century, since already the name of Scotland was everywhere applied to that part
of Britain, where the Scots, having crossed from Ireland
there many centuries before, conquering the Picts, had established a new kingdom.
This we have in our Salamanca Manuscript,
but mutilated in the latter part: Henry Fitzsimon exhibited
to us from his own manuscripts the same, with style a little changed
and adorned and somewhat interpolated. The former
entire perhaps the Irish Franciscans of Louvain have
and will give: we here choose the latter context, which differs nothing
or little in substance. That Life seems to have been compiled from older Irish
Manuscripts: it is certainly almost of the same kind as the others,
almost entirely in miracles, confused in histories, in faith
not everywhere secure: which above all should be understood of prodigies accompanying
the infancy, which the same are narrated of almost all.
It therefore requires no small correction, which our annotations will give.
[4] Led into Scotland about the age of twelve, after the year 580. To arrange the order of the Life, we have need, as a foundation,
to place the reign of Aedan, which being established, his son as a boy
Gemma his mother led into Albania: whence after a delay of five or
seven years, advanced to a more mature age, he returned
to Ireland and embraced the monastic institute under Saint
Fintan surnamed Munnu, formerly a disciple of Saint Columba in the Iona monastery.
Bede relates in book 1 chapter 34 how, moved by the advances
of Aethelfrid King of the Northumbrians, Aedan,
King of the Scots who inhabit Britain, came against him
with a huge and strong army; but conquered he fled
with a few in the year of the Incarnation of the Lord 603. Thereafter,
as Fordun asserts in the Scoti-chronicon with Ussher,
mourning continually, he afflicted himself with such griefs, that in the second
year after his flight, almost reaching the limit of eighty years,
he died at Kintyre, namely in the year
605 of the Christian era. From this year if you ascend upward through
full 24 years, as many as the Scottish Poet of the 11th century
assigns to his reign (than whom the Albanian Scots have no more certain
monument, as we have seen in the Patrician Appendix number 29),
you will arrive at the year 580, in which Kynetill, predecessor of Aedan,
is written by the aforementioned Fordun to have died, and Aedan was in the
56th year of his age, already then by his daughter Gemma grandfather
of Lasreanus.
[5] He went to Rome about 598, That he was a youth of 12 or 14 years
when he was led to his grandfather in Albania, we probably think,
and thus was born about the year 566, when
Fintan, whom he later had as master, was already a monk
on the island of Iona, having set out there immediately after Saint
Columba's departure from Ireland, to be reckoned about the year 563.
How long Lasreanus lived under his discipline,
the Life does not express, nor likewise how long he inhabited the desert,
before he first set out for Rome: where, dear to Saint
Gregory the Pope, after a four-year stay (the Manuscript wrongly has fourteen
years) he was sent back by him for the sake of evangelizing,
ordained there Deacon and Priest,
having already passed the 33rd year of his age, and fit for the Apostolic
office, and for the rule of souls; of whom nevertheless
we believe the number was chiefly increased, when Saint Goban
yielded the place of Leighlin to him, namely about the year
614 or even later.
[6] sent back by the same on account of the question about Easter, Afterwards a serious controversy began to be moved among the Irish
about Easter, on the occasion of which Lasreanus went to Rome again,
together with others deputed for this by the Clergy: but
not, as the Manuscript has, did he go at the inducement of King Aedan or of Saint Columba
(for those had long since died, and indeed Columba
almost a decade before Aedan), but the principal author of sending this legation
was Cumineus, the Iona Abbot
referred by Colgan among the Saints on February 24. This appears
from the letter which he wrote to the Iona monks on this matter,
excusing himself to them, that against their opinion
he held the Roman Easter. For, when the matter had been
examined maturely, he had obtained that a Synod be convoked in Magh Lene;
but when the decree had been made there, that they should celebrate Easter with the universal Church
in the following year, a certain person intervened (we suspect
Saint Fintan is indicated, most zealous for the tradition of the Irish),
it seemed best to the elders that the matter be referred to the head
of cities. "We therefore sent," he says, "those whom we knew to be
wise and humble, and having a prosperous journey in the will
of God, and to the city of Rome some of them coming,
in the third year they came to us... and before
the Sacred Things they testified to us, that
in one lodging with a Greek and a Hebrew, a Scythian and
an Egyptian, [he saw in the year 630 by all uniformly celebrated against the custom of the Irish,] in the church of Saint Peter at the same Easter (in
which we were a whole month apart) they were; and
throughout the whole world this Easter is celebrated."
[7] This year is indicated as 631, when the others celebrated their
Easter on March 24, the Irish and certain Britons,
adhering more pertinaciously to their Quartodeciman Cycle as received
from Saint Columba, kept it on April 21.
With the Legates returning the same year or the next, the Leighlin
Synod was celebrated, with Saint Lasreanus certainly presiding,
in the meantime at Rome by order of Pope Honorius having been ordained Bishop, and
with the title of Apostolic Legate sent back; and made Bishop and Apostolic Legate for this in the Leighlin Synod, he labors. as these
Acts of his Life expressly have, and the very place
persuades, to which the called Fathers assembled. But with Saint Fintan
opposing, and appealing to the experiment of miracles; when Saint
Lasreanus on one side indeed revered the holiness of his master,
but on the other did not think that in a clear matter of certain authority
God should be appealed to through miracles; Saint Fintan concluded:
"Therefore let each do as he believes, and
it seems right to himself." In the year 635, therefore, as Bede says,
Honorius wrote to the Prelates of Ireland, "exhorting
them not to consider their small number, established in the extreme ends of the earth,
more wise than the ancient and modern Churches of Christ,
which were throughout the world";
by which it was effected that, with the Northerners remaining in their
error, those who dwelled in the Southern parts of the island
began to observe Easter by the canonical rite. In the preceding year Saint
Fintan had died, according to what from his Irish Annals
Colgan notes, having reached a decrepit age of about ninety years.
Nor did Lasreanus long survive him, he seems to have died in the year 640 during the Paschal feasts. but in the year 639
himself also met death, as from similar Annals Ussher relates
p. 938, meaning the Ulster or Senatensian Annals,
concerning which Annals elsewhere with him or with Colgan
I seem to have read, that they precede the years of the common era
by one year, so that the death of Saint Lasreanus or at least his burial,
assignable to the year 640, would have happened on the third day of Easter,
April 16 celebrated among the Leinstermen, according to the Canons
so fervently and laboriously fought for by him, that from the accidental
circumstance of the festive time something might be added
to his glory.
LIFE
From a Manuscript of Henry Fitzsimon S. J.
Lasreanus or Molassius, Abbot of Leighlin in Ireland, afterwards Bishop and Apostolic Legate (Saint)
BHL Number: 4727, 4726
FROM A MANUSCRIPT.
CHAPTER I.
The Saint's childhood and adolescence illustrated with miracles, the kingdom refused.
[1] Born of royal lineage, Among the citizens of the heavenly Jerusalem, whom
the Maker of all things placed on the throne of his glory,
Lasreanus, a glorious star, by most worthy merits of virtues,
obtained the seat of outstanding excellence: who was
born in the West. For indeed he sprang from a royal
seed, from a father of Ulidia; a his mother,
by merits of virtues and by name Gemma, was daughter of Aedan
How great a grace the Giver of graces anticipated
the merits of his life, the very beginnings
of his nativity attest. For as he was brought forth,
the midwife, and at his very birth wondrously glorified, who before had sorrowfully
known herself barren, admonished by divine inspiration,
signed her own womb with his hand, and afterwards felt herself
made joyfully fruitful.
[2] Not long after, a certain blind man d from his nativity,
with the same water with which the little infant had been bathed,
washed his face by chance, and in that very washing received
the light of his eyes, by the grateful gift of heavenly grace. He grows up in Scotland, Afterwards
to his native e land, namely Albania,
the mother crossed the sea with the boy: where f for four years
nourished, he shone with several prodigies of signs.
For it happened there that his nurse was wounded in the hand
by the venomous bite of a serpent: who quickly running to
the boy, impressed the sign of the holy Cross upon her hand
by touching it with the boy's hand; and suddenly the whole
envenomed swelling so vanished, that in her no trace of injury
remained.
[3] The Reverend Pontiff g Blaan, his
uncle, where his maternal uncle visiting him hearing through the account of many that he was
wholly shining with grace, set out to him for the sake of seeing him:
and when he was received with exultation by his guardians,
one of his horses was carried off by theft.
When this was reported to him, as if h in jest
he said: "It behooves the boy whom we visit, either to restore
ours, or to confer another upon us." And behold, not
long after, the thief was there, with a loud running bringing back
the same horse; marvelously recovers the lost horse, and with trembling voice crying for protection
and help from the boy Lasreanus, to the Bishop questioning
the cause, he said: "The King's soldiers are pursuing me i":
but those who were there going out, saw no one pursuing
him. The Prelate therefore understanding that this was being done
divinely for the glory of the boy, joyful over the power of the miracle,
praised the Lord, and with his horse returned
to the place of his lodging.
[4] After this, the mother admonished by an Angelic precept through a vision,
led the boy back to Ireland, and to the holy
Abbot k Munnu delivered him to be taught: brought back to Ireland and entrusted to Saint Munnu, by whose
doctrine as much as by his morals more fully instructed, in wisdom,
age, and grace with God and men he daily
profited. For when in the same cell a mill had been made,
for which in summer time the flowing waters failed,
at the command of his master, who perceived the grace of divine virtue
abounding in the boy, going out of the monastery,
he elicits water by miracle, he dug a sod with his staff beside the course of the water
which used to flow to the mill: and suddenly such
an abundance of waters burst out there, that it abundantly
sufficed, so that the Brothers serving God in the same monastery
joyfully said to one another: "The stream of the river
gladdens the city of God."
[5] He restrains plunderers: Afterwards it being announced in that same place that an
incursion of sea plunderers was coming, the youth Lasreanus,
at divine suggestion of clemency, who in the liberation of his country
was disposing to give glory to God, for this was devoutly passing the night
in vigils and prayers in the monastery. When the pirates,
therefore, at dawn entered the land, the field
around the monastery appeared full of armed soldiers; l
and turning their backs, throwing down their arms, they rejoiced
to flee by ship. Certain travelers also were despoiled
by robbers; but the robbers soon divided against themselves
fell slain by each other, and thus the despoiled
received the spoils of the robbers with their own, and
giving thanks to the servant of God proceeded on their journey.
[6] When therefore the sacred fame of Lasreanus was shining far and wide,
lest the King be chosen from the Ulidians, and he had spent his boyhood years nevertheless not boyishly,
there the whole people (as was owed him by hereditary right)
affectionately demanded him for themselves as King. But the noble youth,
eager for the service of him whose kingdom is eternal, refused
the fleeting. On this occasion leaving his native soil,
he entered a certain island of the sea, he chooses the solitary life. situated between Britain and
Albania: where m by the merit of holy
conversation, lovable to the Lord, and appearing venerable
to the inhabitants of the whole region, he completed many miracles
of his holiness.
NOTES.
CHAPTER II.
Returning from Rome to Ireland the Saint acquires the monastery of Leighlin, and shines in it with miracles.
[7] Set out to Rome, Afterwards, when he had already dwelt there a longer time,
desiring to be founded by learning of a more perfect knowledge,
he set out to the city of the Apostolic See;
and there for fourteen a years making his stay,
with Blessed Pope Gregory expounding, the volumes of both
Testaments and the ecclesiastical institutions with attentive ear
he received, and committed to faithful memory. Seeing,
however, the holy Pontiff the divine grace more brightly shining
in him, conferring on him the Order of Deaconship, and Priest ordained,
in a short time afterwards promoted him to the grade of the Priesthood,
and so, exalted in sacred Orders, for the sake of evangelizing
he directed him to the word of God throughout Ireland:
and as a sign of affection conferred upon him the text of the Gospels,
and permitted him to depart with blessing.
[8] As the holy man then took his way toward Ireland,
there joined itself to him a numerous multitude of illustrious men, Angles, b Britons,
and Scots, desiring to be formed by the example of his conversation.
And when he had come to Ireland, He returns to Ireland: and was traversing the regions of the same by preaching;
by divine bidding it happened that he came to a monastery of holy assembly,
situated in the same place where now the city of Leighlin is constituted:
whose Abbot, by name c Goban, celebrated and famous for the
holiness of life, came to meet him, and received him greeted with reverence.
[9] He raises up a man killed, As they were coming to the gate of the monastery, behold
a certain woman carrying in her arms the body with the head of her son, then beheaded by robbers,
earnestly besought Lasreanus in the name of God, that he restore her son to her by giving him life.
O praiseworthy faith of the woman, rewarded more praiseworthily by a prior unheard-of and afterwards unused miracle!
When, with the head applied to the body, Lasreanus poured forth a prayer,
the youth rose up from his funeral made whole. d In memory of which miracle
there remains in that same place a Cross fixed in the earth, called in Irish
Kroken, that is, Cross of the head.
[10] He receives Leighlin from Saint Goban, Lasreanus therefore being venerably received there in all things,
the holy Abbot struck an eternal covenant with him,
and having given the monastery to him, founded a cell elsewhere for himself and his men.
He therefore exercises the work committed to him, celebrated everywhere, shining everywhere.
Outwardly the Christ-worshiping people spring up, watered by the rain of his sacred preaching,
and inwardly grace increases; and there was there a number of servants of God,
imitating the footprints of so great a master, and he gathers 1500 disciples, of one thousand
five hundred, whose rigor of life and power of virtues
so suffused the parts of all Ireland with sweet fragrance,
that in the odor of their ointments running they merited to enter
the garden of eternal delights.
[11] According to the prophecy of Saint Patrick, The predictions of the divine seers were therefore fulfilled,
having been proclaimed long before concerning him.
For when the blessed Bishop Patrick, bearing the office
of disseminating the word of God, was making his way through the path of the valley of Leighlin;
and standing in the opposite direction across the river e
Barrow, directed his gaze toward the monastery of Leighlin,
he saw a very great multitude of Angels
being thickened in that same place; and to the religious men standing by him
he said: "After f fifty years yet from now a certain faithful
servant of God, a stranger, shall dwell there, by name
Lasreanus, whose number of holy disciples shall be as great
as that of the Angels whom you see." O happy
college, and of Saint Cainech, whose virtues to be foreshadowed an army
of the heavenly host appeared. Saint
Cainech g also said to certain Virgins, who had set out to him
that they might commit themselves to his pastoral care: "There is to come,"
he said, "one who shall be both your Father and father of very many,
namely Saint Lasreanus."
[12] Visited by Saint Barr, Therefore very many holy men flowed together to him,
inflamed with the desire of speaking with him and of joining right hands in fellowship.
On this occasion it happened that the blessed Pontiff of Cork h,
Barr, about to set out for Rome, came to him first; who, being received cheerfully,
stayed three days with him; and when he was departing Lasrianus
delayed somewhat by the way; he makes a hazel tree bear fruit in spring,
the covenant of perpetual friendship being confirmed between them,
Saint Barr said: "I should rejoice greatly to leave here some memory of our pact."
Lasreanus answered: "Ask, and God will give it to you"; "No, you ask," he said,
"since we have come to you." Lasreanus therefore prays,
and it being then spring time, behold a hazel tree sprang up suddenly from the earth,
adorned with hazelnuts; from which also a Cross placed beside it,
in Irish Krocuill, that is, Cross of the hazel, has received its name.
[13] Those cursing him the earth swallows Such a grace of divine favor is said to have flourished there,
that whoever came to him to seek a remedy for his pain,
went away consoled; nor did any dare, even with a slight hiss of detraction,
to touch him, who did not without delay bewail the punishment
of common damage. Whence three certain men, who boasted themselves
in poetic science, came to him to receive something;
and if he gave nothing, by agreement they determined to assail
him with biting words. When they came to him,
Lasreanus said: "Not to these and such men do I serve,
but God and his poor." i They, frustrated in their petition,
going away, began to disparage him; and
perished at once by the same death as Dathan and Abiron.
But his grandfather, namely King Aedan of Albania, experienced the grace
of his benefits among others. For when he had been expelled from the kingdom,
and fled to Ireland, and had taken refuge with the man of God k
Lasreanus, his horse was weary to death from excessive running and labor.
Lasreanus therefore poured out a prayer to God, and immediately
raised up the dead horse.
NOTES.
CHAPTER III.
The Saint, set out for Rome again, is ordained Bishop and Legate: and illustrated by new miracles, he dies in Ireland.
[14] Afterwards at the request of Blessed Columba a and the aforesaid King and the Saints
of Northern Ireland, Again set out for Rome,
with holy men namely, going to the Apostolic See,
around the Alps he met a certain anxious and groaning man,
and to him questioning the cause of his sadness, he
answered: "Having twenty dependents to support,
my sustenance comes from the plow alone, which today has been broken,
nor do I have the means to repair it." b
This holy man therefore ordered a wooden plowshare to be made for him immediately,
and blessing what was made said: he makes a wooden plowshare take the place of an iron one
"This," he said, "until I return, if it be the will of God, use." And having set out for Rome,
a year and a half he stayed there, and
meanwhile the plowshare always lasted. And there was made for the father of the family
so great abundance of harvest, as in a fertile soil
the best husbandman could acquire.
[15] The supreme Pontiff c consecrated him while staying at Rome
as a Bishop, and committed to him, returning, the office of legation in
Ireland. But by how much greater an honor he seemed exalted, he is ordained Bishop and Legate: by so much
humbling himself in all things, he thought less of himself.
But since according to the Savior's saying, a city cannot be hidden
set upon a mountain, the more humbly he bore himself,
the more did the Lord glorify him with the light
of miracles. Matt. 5:14 He sends a disciple across the sea on a stone: When therefore he had returned to Ireland,
and landed near Dublin, recalling to memory
that the Gospel had been left by him in the place in
which he had boarded the ship, he commanded Saint d Mochomet
to return for it in his place. Who obeying at once; "Since,"
he said, "you willingly undertake the mandate, so that your obedience
may be an example to many, you shall be carried over the sea on a stone."
Therefore the disciple sat upon the stone shown to him, and
the rock fulfilling the service of a ship, he crossed the seas,
and bringing back the Gospel returned, which Lasreanus finally
gave to him.
[16] Moreover the illustrious man, discharging the office of his legation through Ireland,
He heals the King's cancerous foot, confirmed the grace of the authority granted him
by following signs. e The cancerous foot of Faelan King of Leinster
he restored to health by the power of his prayer;
and he freed a certain demoniac woman, the demon being expelled. He predicts the punishment of another rapacious man,
It happened once that Cothin the King violated the right of a certain monk by plundering;
and when he was reported to Saint Lasreanus for this,
when for several days he delayed to satisfy,
the man of God prophesied in Irish verse about the King's imminent vengeance,
and on the following night the King breathed out his spirit.
To these: when once he came to the court of Faelan King of Leinster,
he makes water denied him vanish. it happened that a servant sent by the King to the spring,
to the servant of God asking a drink of water, refused.
And when the servant came to the King, the King found nothing in the vessel,
nor did the returned messenger find any water in the spring,
nor from that day could he find any.
[17] A huge tree, sought by many, There was in Leinster a certain immense yew tree,
suitable for no ecclesiastical works: because since
the holy men of all Ireland wished singly to obtain
it for building a church from it; such
was their reverence of fraternal charity,
that no one dared to cut down for himself the tree
which he knew was embraced by another's wish. Lest however
so noble a tree should seem to have grown up in vain,
they established that each one coming to it with his
disciples, should perform a fast with prayers to God;
so that it should fall for the vow of him whose life
the Lord might judge more worthy. But with each fasting
at that tree, individual roots of it were moved,
and with Lasreanus and his men fasting, it fell.
But with the others doubting whether all of it should yield
to Lasreanus, because with them fasting the motion of the roots
seemed to have prepared its fall, He claims it for himself by miracle; the holy
Pontiff and King, then Cranmal f, chose as judge,
who indicated: Two stags caught by hunting, let
a plank of the tree be placed upon them, and wherever
they should go, let it all be carried. So it was done, and
God directing, the stags brought the plank imposed on them to the monastery
of Leighlin, and the rest of the tree was brought there.
And by another miracle he builds an oratory from it. And when to make an oratory there the architect was being sought,
a certain shepherd said: "Would that I were a craftsman,
for I would compose it without payment." And Lasreanus answered:
"Easily can God instruct you, if it please his
goodness." And taking his hands and blessing them,
he rendered him instructed in that art; who also built
the oratory excellently. Which oratory as Lasreanus
was to dedicate, over it the citizens of Jerusalem
sang on the night of the dedication; whose most sweet
melody of concert sounded afar to the ears of many.
[18] Blessed Lasreanus therefore, by these and others, which we cannot
narrate, manifestly shown by God as a temple of the Holy Spirit
he dies piously. about to receive the rewards of his merits,
on the 14th day before the Kalends of May was called to the dwelling
of eternal light: where surrounded by the glory of divine brightness,
to all who piously venerate him he confidently implores the clemency of the Savior,
Jesus Christ our Lord, to whom with the Father and the Holy
Spirit is honor and glory forever and ever. Amen.