Cinnia

ON ST. CINNIA, OR KINNIA, VIRGIN, IN IRELAND.

FIFTH CENTURY.

Cinnia, or Kinnia, Virgin, in Ireland (St.)

I. B.

[1] Among the very many women who were stirred by the preaching of St. Patrick in Ireland to dedicate their virginity to Christ, the immortal Bridegroom, was Kinnia or Cinnia; for the letter c placed before the vowels e and i among the Irish has the same sound as k among us and ch among the Italians. The feast day of St. Kinnia. John Colgan records that she was customarily honored with heavenly rites on the Kalends of February, and cites Martyrologies and other writers. She was born of an illustrious family, her father being Eochadius or Euchadius, her family whom Colgan writes was King of Oriel and held the city of Clogher, which is now within the county of Tyrone. her homeland By Oriel we understand here to mean the southern district of Ulster, in which the county of Louth, or Loutha, is still called Iriel or Uriel by the Irish. Colgan enumerates elsewhere many Saints descended from Carbreus, or Corbrer, the brother of St. Cinnia; concerning which Carbreus and another brother, Bressalius, you will find the vision of St. Brigid below in the metrical Life, chapter 10, number 69. What is known about her has been committed to writing by Jocelin of Furness, Her Life. an ancient author, in chapters 79 and 80 of his Life of St. Patrick, composed about five hundred years ago. The author of the Tripartite work on the Life of St. Patrick has similar material in part 3, numbers 7 and 8, where the father of the holy virgin is called Echodius, Eochadius, or Euchadius. Colgan says she lived

around the year of Christ 480 or 482, which is evident from the era of St. Patrick, although whether she survived him and by how many years is uncertain. Mention of her is made, though only her father's name is expressed, in the third Life of St. Patrick as found in Colgan, number 65. Colgan considers that St. Hinna, or Hymna, a virgin to whom St. Brigid is said to have sent gold (which she had previously rejected) across the waves, in the first Life, chapter 17, number 105, and in the fourth Life, book 2, chapter 11, number 69, is this same St. Kinnia, since the letters K and H are closely related in form.

LIFE FROM JOCELIN.

Cinnia, or Kinnia, Virgin, in Ireland (St.)

By Jocelin.

[1] St. Patrick came into the region of Niall, in which a King named Echu held principality, having a daughter named Cinnia, whom he dearly loved and whom in due course he thought fit to give in marriage. The girl set aside her father's plan Spurning marriage, she dedicates herself to Christ and obeyed the exhortation of Patrick to earn the hundredfold fruit of virginity; and, loathing carnal marriage, she resolved in her heart to offer and preserve herself undefiled to the heavenly Bridegroom. The father, seeing in his daughter the pillar of her mind standing unmoved in the keeping of virginal chastity, summoned the Saint to him and said: "I had deliberated and resolved to extend my lineage through the begetting of grandchildren from the body of my daughter born to me, for the strengthening of my kingdom and for my consolation; but the succession has been cut off, and my hope has been frustrated in this matter through you. If, therefore, for the loss of so great a line of descent, you promise me the kingdom of heaven, St. Patrick promises her father eternal life so that he will not oppose her and do not compel me, unwilling as I am, to undergo baptism, my daughter shall serve her Maker according to the form of your exhortation. Otherwise I shall not be deprived of my desire, but your preaching will be frustrated in its effect." The Saint, trusting in the Lord, committed the whole matter to His disposition, and simply promised the King what he asked.

[2] The girl, having been veiled and consecrated by the Saint, serving the Lord in virginity and the other exercises of virtue, She becomes a nun; she shines with miracles. led many by her example into the service of God, and shone with miracles both in this life and after death. The Saint had commended her to the care of the holy virgin Cethuberis, who was the first of all Irishwomen to receive the veil from St. Patrick; to this same woman, who was also placed in charge of the monastery called Druimduchan -- filled with a great multitude of virgins serving Christ -- the Saint himself wrote an exhortatory letter. In this monastery St. Cinnia lived out her days and rested in the Lord with many companies of virgins.

[3] After some space of time had elapsed, King Echu fell upon a bed of pain, and when, as the illness grew worse, he perceived the day of his death approaching, his father dies without baptism he dispatched a messenger to summon St. Patrick to him. He further strictly forbade his own people to bury his body before the arrival of the holy Bishop, because Patrick himself had promised him the kingdom of heaven, and especially because he desired to receive the saving bath of baptism from him. Saying these things, he expired; and his body, according to his command, lay unburied for the space of one day and one night, awaiting Patrick. St. Patrick, being at the monastery of Saball, which was two days' journey from the place where the dead man lay, recognized the King's death in spirit, Patrick learns of it by divine revelation and before the messenger sent by the King could reach him, he set out on the journey toward the house of the deceased. The Saint of God was present at last, and he grieved over the King's death, especially because he had departed from the body without receiving baptism. The Saint prayed to the Lord He raises him by his prayers and freed him from the bonds of a twofold death; for since he had died without the sacrament of regeneration, having immediately restored him to life, he instructed him in the rules of faith, and once instructed, baptized him. After the King was baptized, Patrick ordered him to narrate before the people, for their edification and for the commendation of his own preaching, what he had more fully learned about the punishments of the reprobate and the joys of the elect. And when he related many wondrous things about those matters, among other things he said that he had seen in the heavenly homeland the place promised to him by Patrick, he baptizes him and that because he had not yet been baptized, he could not enter there, and that thus, at the prayer of the Saint and by divine command, he had put on his body again. The Saint asked him whether he would prefer to live longer in this world or to proceed immediately to the place prepared for him. Preferring to die. The resurrected King replied that he regarded the dominion, riches, and delights of the whole world as the most empty smoke in comparison with the heavenly joys which he had tested with the eyes of faith. "But I ask," he said, "that I may be released from this body of death and led as quickly as possible from this prison, He is fortified with the Eucharist. because I most ardently desire to be dissolved and to be with Christ." Having said these things, he received the Eucharist as viaticum, and thus, sleeping in the Lord, he departed to the place of immortality.

a Niall, or Nealus, or Neyl, is said to have been a most powerful King of Ireland, from whom the most noble family of the O'Neills, most illustrious for their zeal in defending the Catholic faith, traces its lineage. Colgan denies that the territory over which Euchadius ruled belonged to the O'Neills in the time of St. Patrick, but rather when Jocelin was writing. For Tir-oen, which means "the Land of Eugene," belongs to the O'Neills; and in it is Clogher, or Cloghar, an episcopal city, which Colgan asserts belonged to Euchadius.

b "To Corbmac," says the author of the Tripartite, part 3, chapter 7, "grandson of Niall the Great, King of Ireland, through his son Corbreus."

c The same Jocelin, cited by us in note c to chapter 9 of the first Life of St. Brigid, elsewhere calls her Ethembria, where he says: "Holy Ethembria was also present, who had been the first of all nuns in Ireland to be consecrated in virginity by St. Patrick." Colgan says the name should be Cectumbria. The author of the Tripartite calls her Cetamaria.

d The author of the Tripartite: Drom-dubhain. Colgan prefers Druim-dubhain, and says it is a church near Clogher in Ulster, in which, besides those two holy virgins, seven holy bishops are said to rest. Concerning the two virgins, the author of the Tripartite says: "In which place both virgins are."

e The Tripartite: Saballi near Down; about which city we shall speak at greater length in connection with the Life of St. Brigid.

f Before the space of twenty-four hours, as is said in the Tripartite work.

g Having ordered all who were present to go out, as is found in the same place.

h The same adds: "and still reign for fifteen years."