ON ST. ECIANUS, OR ECHENUS, BISHOP OF CLUAINFODA IN IRELAND
CIRCA AD 577.
HISTORICAL COMMENTARY.
Ecianus, or Echenus, Bishop of Cluainfoda in Ireland (St.)
G. H.
[1] At Cluainfoda, in the region called Fera-bile, in the southern part of Meath among the Irish, there is said to have been formerly an Episcopal See, over which in the sixth century of Christ St. Ecianus presided, called by others Echenus, Etchenus, or Etchaenius. Whom Henry Fitz-Simon of our Society records in the Catalogue of the principal Saints of Ireland at this February 11, St. Ecianus is venerated on February 11, and in the Supplement to Usuard, Hermann Greven with these words: In Ireland, of Ecianus, Bishop and Confessor. The manuscript Florarium Sanctorum: Of St. Ecianus, Bishop and Confessor. Various Irish Martyrologies also celebrate him, cited by Colgan in the Acts of the Saints of Ireland at this day.
[2] In the earlier Life of St. Brigid, which we published on February 1 from the manuscripts of Saint-Omer born through the patronage of St. Brigid, and others, the following is narrated concerning the birth of St. Echenus in chapter 16, number 103: On a certain night, a certain man was with his wife as a guest with St. Brigid, and he asked her to sign the womb of his wife, that she might have a son; and so she did. And immediately his wife, while he was sleeping with her, conceived; and from this was born Echenus, a distinguished Saint. The same things are read in the fourth Life of St. Brigid, published from the manuscript of Hugh Ward, book 2, chapter 10, number 65. Concerning the parents, brothers, and royal lineage of St. Echenus, Colgan gathers much which is less well known to us. Such also is what he supposes, that this is the Bishop skilled in medicine different from Bishop Ech., skilled in medicine: to whom Bishop Mel brought St. Brigid when she was tormented by a pain in her eyes, as is read in the earlier Life, chapter 4, number 25, which physician Bishop Laurence of Durham in the fifth Life of St. Brigid calls by the name Eth. Colgan, although he publishes this Life from our codex, calls him Echenus, and on this day, Echeus. But how could St. Brigid have been brought to this man, already distinguished in learning and a Bishop, by St. Mel the Bishop, since St. Mel is said, even by Colgan, to have died in the year 487 or the following year, and Echenus was born afterward near the end of that century?
[3] Magnus O'Donnell, Prince of Tirconell, wrote in the Irish language around the year 1520, in a tripartite volume, the Life of St. Columba the Abbot, which Colgan published in abridged form and translated into Latin in fifth place; in which these things are related concerning St. Echenus: The man Columba, truly full of God, renowned in virtues and miracles, judged by all to be worthy of the episcopal dignity, was sent by common counsel of the Bishops of the country to St. Etchenus, Bishop of Cluainfoda, to be ordained Bishop. But by the more secret counsels of Divine Providence, which preferred to reserve so great a man as a restorer and Patriarch of the monastic institute, it came about that, contrary to what was intended, St. Columba was ordained by him not as Bishop but as Priest and Abbot, distinguished in virtues and miracles, and certain miracles preceded that ordination, which abundantly testify to and commend St. Etchenus's remarkable humility in such great dignity, his merit in such great humility, and his outstanding grace in performing miracles by the power of God. For when St. Columba, sent thus by common decree to be ordained Bishop, had arrived near his church and had lingered for a little while under the shade of a certain tree, he inquired of a certain person who came to meet him where St. Etchenus was. To whom that person, answering, said: Behold, the man whom you see in that field laboring at the plough he ploughs the land, is the one you seek. And St. Columba exclaimed with admiration: Must we then expect the laying on of hands from one who puts his hand to the plough?
[4] He then commands the Clerics accompanying him to test by experiment whether the great things reported about St. Etchenus were true. Having heard this, one of the Clerics approached the holy Bishop and asked, for the purpose of testing his virtue, that a copy of the ploughshare with which he was plowing be given to him. The man, full of God, immediately granted this; and at once, with astonishing confidence, casting his thought upon the help of divine mercy, even without a ploughshare, with the oxen pulling the plough, he proceeded in the undertaken work of ploughing without hesitation; and by the wonderful indulgence of God, he cut the earth without a ploughshare into furrows, as before, to the utmost admiration of the onlookers. When this thing, unprecedented in its astonishing novelty, had been reported to St. Columba, he ordered the most approved man to be tested yet further. Therefore the holy Bishop is asked a second time to bestow upon the visiting Clerics the ox that was pulling the plough. Nor does he refuse this; but immediately recurring to the well-known and well-tested assistance of divine goodness and imposing the yoke on a stag summoned from the forest in place of an ox, playfully cooperating, as it were, with him, when he saw a stag leaping from the nearby forest, he commanded it to put its neck to the yoke and pull the plough. The stag immediately carried out the commands, and at the holy man's command, like a tame ox, it drew the yoke. Seeing these things, St. Columba and his companions were dissolved in praises of God and extolled his wonderful indulgence toward his faithful servants. Afterward the holy man, understanding that St. Columba had arrived, ran to him and received him with a kiss of peace and charity, and kindly heard him explain the cause of his journey; and then, he consecrates St. Columba as Priest: as was said, initiated him with the Priestly, not the Episcopal, order. So far O'Donnell. These things are reported more briefly in Colgan's Notes from the Glosses of the Scholiast of St. Aengus on the Festology and from the Martyrology of Dungal; but they are absent in the other Acts of St. Columba written by Adamnan and other authors.
[5] St. Coemgen and St. Berachius came to St. Etchinus the Bishop, whether also St. Berachius? and from him St. Berachius entered into a covenant of confraternity and spiritual friendship. So Colgan testifies here that this is read in the Acts of St. Berachius on February 15, chapter 18, and adds that St. Berachius was ordained Priest by St. Etchenus. These things are not found in his Life on February 15. St. Coemgen is celebrated on June 3.
[6] After these things (Colgan concludes) and many other illustrious deeds, the most holy man, full of days and merits, he dies in the year 577. exchanged this life for the heavenly one in the year of salvation five hundred and seventy-seven, on the third day before the Ides of February, on which his feast day is customarily celebrated solemnly at Cluainfoda in southern Meath. In the Notes he confirms the year of death from the Annals of Dungal.