Odranus

CONCERNING ST. ODRANUS, MARTYR, CHARIOTEER OF ST. PATRICK, IN IRELAND.

FIFTH CENTURY.

Odranus, Martyr, charioteer of St. Patrick, in Ireland (St.)

By G. H.

[1] The author of the Tripartite Life of St. Patrick, book 3, chapter 98, as found in Colgan, writes: "Among the other gifts of grace with which God, the fountain and author of all prudence and providence, endowed him (St. Patrick), He blessed him with so great a grace of discretion and felicity in the conduct of affairs that he scarcely ever entrusted the care of souls, the governance of a Church, or any other sacred office to anyone who was not conspicuous for sanctity and afterward enrolled in the catalogue of Saints. And this remains manifestly true of his ministers and domestic officials." Among these is then mentioned "St. Odranus of Desert-Odhrain in Hifalgia, charioteer." Colgan relates that this place was in Leinster, where he suffered martyrdom and where his sacred relics are held in veneration, in his notes to the third Life of St. Patrick, no. 49, and under February 19, on which day he publishes the Acts collected by himself. He asserts that Odranus is inscribed in the Irish Martyrologies of Tamlaght, Dungallen, and Marianus Gorman, and is called St. Odranus of Tir-Oenach. According to some, however, his sacred commemoration is observed on May 8 and October 27, for which latter day he adduces these words from the Martyrology of Suben in Bavaria: "October 27. In Ireland, St. Odranus the Martyr, disciple of the great preacher Patrick." Under the same day, St. Oranus, Bishop and Confessor, is inscribed in the manuscript Florarium and in the supplement of Hermann Greven. But Colgan records that St. Odranus the Bishop is celebrated on July 8 in the Irish calendar, whereas Fitzimon records him on September 27 in the Calendar of Saints of Ireland, but citing the Carthusian Martyrology, which is that of Hermann Greven, who places him not on September 27 but on October 27. Another is an Abbot or Priest, a companion of St. Columba, and he is celebrated in the Irish calendar on October 27; Ferrarius and Dempster appear to have conflated this Priest and our Martyr, the charioteer, into one and the same person under the same October 27. Ferrarius in his General Catalogue writes: "In Ireland, St. Odranus, Priest and Martyr." Dempster in his Menology of Scotland, which Ferrarius cites, adds: "Who followed St. Patrick from Scotland, and was killed by Irish idolaters for Christ." The same writes at length in book 14 of his Ecclesiastical History of Scotland, chapter 986, and in his customary fashion makes him an ecclesiastical writer and notes that his relics are preserved at Glasgow. But leaving aside what pertains to Oranus or Odranus the Bishop or Priest, we present what is read concerning St. Odranus the charioteer of St. Patrick in the latter's Acts.

[2] The Life of St. Patrick which survives, drawn from the ancient membranes of Biburg by Stephen Vitus of our Society, records among the miracles of St. Patrick the following: "St. Patrick encountered a most wicked man named Foilge, from whom the other Foilgi descended, who slew the charioteer of Patrick before his eyes in his chariot. And immediately in that same month Foilge died, and his soul was carried to hell; and the devil entered into his body and dwelt in it, as if a living man among men. But after a long time, Patrick came to the house of Foilge; and having sat before the door, he asked one of his servants, saying, 'Where is Foilge?' The servant answered, 'I just left him in his house.' And Patrick said, 'Call him to me.' But when the servant entered the house, he found the dry bones of Foilge in his dwelling, and returning with sadness, he reported this to Patrick. And Patrick said: 'From the time that Foilge slew my charioteer before my eyes, he was cast into hell, and the devil came to make sport with his body, so that not only would his soul be tortured in hell, but his body also would be filled with a demon.'" Thus far the passage.

[3] Other authors reveal the cause of the martyrdom more clearly, among them Eleranus the Wise, or whoever was the author of the Life of St. Patrick published from the manuscript of Aulne in Belgium, in which chapter 77, as found in Colgan, reads as follows: "There was a certain nobleman named Falge, who repeatedly declared with threats that wherever he might find the blessed man, he would kill him without any hesitation. He was, namely, incited by anger because the Blessed Patrick had destroyed and reduced to nothing the idol that he worshiped as God. It could not remain hidden from certain members of St. Patrick's household that Falge was threatening to kill St. Patrick; but this was not revealed to the Saint. On a certain day, when the Blessed Patrick wished to pass along the road near the castle of that man, his charioteer said to the blessed man: 'For many days I have been your charioteer; today, be mine.' He said this because he knew that the tyrant had resolved to kill the blessed man. The Blessed Patrick therefore, as his charioteer entreated, descended from the chariot and took the role of charioteer. But Odranus his charioteer sat in the chariot. Then that tyrant Falge came and ran through Odranus with the spear he was holding. For he supposed that St. Patrick was sitting in the chariot. But that tyrant, struck by divine vengeance, fell immediately before the sight of the Saint; and his wretched soul was led by demons to the regions of hell. The Blessed Odranus migrated to the Lord with the crown of martyrdom, having, according to the Apostolic precept, laid down his life for his brother."

[4] The monk Jocelin, in his Life of St. Patrick, describes the same story and numbers Odranus among the Martyrs, and reports that his soul was seen being carried to heaven by angels, in these words: "In the borders of Leinster there was a certain idolater, a man of Belial, named Foilge the Red, an incomparable adversary of the name of Christ according to his ability. He frequently sought opportunity to lay his nefarious hands upon Patrick, the anointed of the Lord, because the latter was grievous to him, not only to see but even to hear of. For he was goaded by longstanding hatred toward the man of God, because he had destroyed the idol of Cenneroythi mentioned above, to whose detestable worship he had been especially devoted. But when that most wicked man was unable to fulfill his desire in action, on a certain day he fell upon St. Patrick's charioteer, named Odranus, who was sitting in the chariot, and slew him before his eyes, so that by the sting of sharper grief over the death of the one killed, his heart might be tormented. The Saint, wounded in heart, hurled the dart of a curse upon that son of hell. Pierced by such a weapon, that man on the very same day drove a chariot in place of his own. He did this so that, sitting in the chief place, he might lay down his life for Patrick, lest, with such a lamp extinguished, the people of Ireland should again walk in darkness. The Saint beheld his soul being carried to heaven by angels and receiving a place among the Martyrs. But the ancient enemy, entering the habitation of the dead body, exhibited him to men as if risen from the dead; and that deceitful and phantasmal Foilge, as if returned to his own home and household, dwelt in his own house. Some days later, St. Patrick, passing near that house, summoned one of the household to himself and asked where Foilge was. When the man responded that the man was at home, the Saint is reported to have said with certainty: 'The soul of Foilge, from the moment he unjustly killed my charioteer — the Lord judging and justly avenging my cause — immediately departed from his body and was buried in hell. Satan, however, has occupied his cadaver for the deception and seduction of men by his entrance, remaining in it until now as in a vessel of his own.' At length the holy man forbade Satan to remain any longer in that vessel, lest men be mocked further by so abominable a phantasm. Immediately, at the command of the man of God, the seductive spirit abandoned the earthen domicile; and the body, teeming with worms, struck horror and revulsion into those who saw it; and, that it might be removed from the eyes of all, it was consigned to hasty burial. Nor should it be greatly wondered at if the demon manifested himself in the visible form of his accustomed instrument, since Foilge himself had merited this and the Lord permitted it, whose judgments are a great deep; rather let him be feared who can destroy both body and soul in hell."

[5] Finally, the same history is told at length in the Tripartite Life of St. Patrick, translated from the Irish language into Latin by Colgan. The tyrant, called by Jocelin above Foilge the Red, is here called Failge Berraide; but on the other hand, Foilge Ros, who appears to be the Red (Hibernice Rohe, Saxonice Ros), is said to have loved and honored St. Patrick. The event is narrated as follows in part 3, no. 56: "After these miracles, the holy man bade farewell and again blessed the people of Munster, and betook himself to the region of Leinster that is called Hi-Failge. Two powerful men then held the chieftainship of that region; one was called Failge Berraide, the other Failge Ros, who bore toward the Saint of God far different dispositions. For the former pursued him with implacable hatred, while the latter pursued him with love and honor. For Failge Berraide, from the day on which St. Patrick destroyed the idol called Crom-Cruach, which that man of Belial worshiped with supreme devotion as a deity, pursued the man of God with hatred and resolved to remove him. This malicious design came to the ears of Patrick's disciples, and especially of St. Odranus, who served as charioteer to the man of God. Whence, when they were passing through the region in which that tyrant held sway, fearing for the life of the holy Bishop, and lest, should so great a lamp be extinguished, all Ireland would suffer irreparable loss, he resolved to expose himself to mortal danger on his behalf. By a holy ruse, deceiving his Father, he obtained by his entreaties that on that day he himself should sit in the chief place of the chariot, as if fatigued — which the holy Bishop, unaware of his intention, gladly granted. When they were thus proceeding, the aforesaid satellite of Satan, Falgius, encountering them and rushing upon St. Odranus — whom he believed to be Patrick — ran him through with a spear. And when St. Patrick, perceiving this, wished to pronounce a sentence of malediction upon the tyrant, and had begun the words of his imprecation thus: 'Let a curse descend...,' St. Odranus, a true example of charity, forestalled the continuation of the sentence, most piously interceding and striving to avert it from his enemy and killer, humbly asking and praying that it should descend not upon Falgius or his seed, but upon a certain tall tree of a nearby mountain called Brig-damn. Although the holy Father assented to his pious request, the wretch nevertheless paid the just penalty of his perpetrated sacrilege by a present and sudden death, and his seed and chieftainship soon perished at the evil root. Patrick, however, blessed the progeny of Failge Ros, which holds the chieftainship of that region to this day."

[6] Thus far the authors of the Life of St. Patrick concerning the martyrdom of St. Odranus and the divine vengeance taken upon the tyrant Folge or Falge, and concerning his lifeless body being seen for a time to be animated by a demon inhabiting it. In what manner a demon may sometimes be permitted to do this, Martin Delrio teaches in book 2 of his Disquisitions on Magic, chapter 29, where he narrates in section 2 a similar story that occurred at Dalhem in Lorraine in the year 1581, in which a murdered boy was, for an entire year, exhibited as if alive by a demon dwelling in his body, and then the cadaver was suddenly abandoned.