ON BLESSED AENGUSSIUS KELEDEUS, ABBOT AND BISHOP IN IRELAND.
AROUND THE YEAR 824.
PrefaceAengussius Keledeus, Abbot and Bishop in Ireland (Saint)
Aengussius, surnamed Keledeus from his outstanding piety toward God, is honored with the title of Abbot by his ancient commentator: but as Bishop by the Martyrologies, both that of Marian Gorman and the Tallaght Martyrology itself: augmented, namely, by the addition of certain more recent Saints after the death of its author, that is, of Aengussius himself. Colgan not undeservedly calls him a hagiographer, for he wrote various small works concerning the Saints of Ireland: of which the chief, and of greater authority for our purpose, is his metrical Festilogy; in which we persuade ourselves that all the chief Saints, and those to whom some particular cult was offered, have been recorded: since in the other small works and Irish Martyrologies the appellation of Saint seems to have been accepted more broadly than the usage, not only of the present day but also of ancient times, bore throughout the rest of the Church. And so a place must be given to him among the Saints, both because he holds it in the Irish Martyrologies, and because to his outstanding zeal for honoring the Saints he added those exercises of extraordinary virtues, especially of humility, and is said to have been illustrious for those miracles, which persuade us that such a man, in a nation by no means strict in establishing the cult of its own Saints, obtained after death those honors which are now permitted only to Saints canonized by the Church. And since the very ancient Irish hymn which exists concerning him has not yet been rendered into Latin, the reader will be content to see the Life written by Colgan; until that Hymn, together with the promised Festilogy itself, shall at some time be made public.
LIFE
Collected from ancient records by John Colgan.
Aengussius Keledeus, Abbot and Bishop in Ireland (Saint)
CHAPTER I
The illustrious deeds of Saint Aengussius.
[1] There flourished in Ireland, as the eighth century was declining to its end, Aengussius, of noble birth, a man distinguished by the ancient nobility of his lineage and the splendor of his virtues, called in the native tongue Aengus, in Latin Aeneas and Aengussius, who by his holy works and writings acquired for himself an eternal memory and nobly ennobled his country. Aengussius's father was Aengavanus, his grandfather Hoblenius, born of Fidhrao, descended from the royal blood of the Dal-Araidhe in Ulster, and tracing the line of his descent through grandfathers and great-grandfathers, men of princely rank, to Coelbadius, the last king of Ireland from his family. From his very boyhood he emulated the better gifts, and first a monk at Cluain-eidnech, and enrolled his name in the service of Christ, having professed as a monk in the noble monastery of Cluain-eidnech in the region of Leinster called Hifalgria: where he made outstanding progress in the study of both virtues and letters under the holy Abbot Mal-athgenius, who was taken from the living around the year seven hundred and sixty-seven: by which he at length acquired for himself so great a name for holiness and learning that he had no one in his age on his native soil who was his equal in the praise of every kind of erudition, and no one who was superior in the reputation of holiness. For although the complete acts, undoubtedly once extant and most worthy of the light, have not come to our knowledge; yet a certain other ancient writer, a contemporary, as far as we can gather, and namesake the life collected from ancient sources. (for he indicates that his name is Aengussius), who described his praises in ancient verse; and another old author, who prefixed a preface or argument to his works; left for posterity such testimonies of his virtues and miracles and such encomiums of his learning, as abundantly demonstrate that he was a man remarkable, more than imitable, for his rare contempt both of himself and of the world; moreover illuminated by the grace of heavenly visions; endowed with extraordinary zeal and the gift of singular wisdom; and also famous for signs and virtues.
[2] From an early age devoted to the utmost austerity, he repressed the inclinations of his own flesh with constant mortifications. Renowned for his devotion to rare austerity, Not far from the monastery of Cluain-eidnech he cultivated a hermitage, called from his name Disert Aengus, that is, the Desert of Aengussius: where he was so intent upon divine praises and constant struggles with the flesh and Satan that he chanted the entire Psalter every day and performed three hundred genuflections among his other divine prayers and pious exercises. He divided the Psalter into three sections of fifty, of which the first he recited in the oratory, the second outdoors beside a tall tree adjacent to the oratory, and the third immersed in a tub of ice-cold water, with a rope or net girded about his neck and tied to a stake. And when his holiness had begun to be published abroad by these and other arduous exercises of the heavenly life, and fleeing secretly to Tallaght, and to be on the lips of all with admiration and praise; that outstanding despiser of popular acclaim and of the world conceived a plan by which, unknown to the world, he might avoid the acclamations of the people and every wind of vain glory. Hearing, namely, that the name of the holy Abbot Moelruain was at that time most widely celebrated among the Irish for the rigor of monastic life and the extraordinary holiness of his life, he undertook a journey to the monastery of Tallaght, three miles from the city of Dublin, where Saint Moelruain, an outstanding restorer of regular discipline and promoter of piety, most holily governed a great community of monks.
[3] While he was undertaking the planned journey, he turned aside on the way to the Church of Buil-bennchuir in the region of Hifalgria; by an angelic vision where, around the tomb of a certain recently deceased person, he beheld an immense multitude of Angels extending to the heavens and singing divine melody and celestial canticles; he asked the Priest in charge of the place who or what manner of person was the one who lay buried in that recent tomb. The Priest answered that he was a certain Lay Convert, who, having become a soldier of Christ from a soldier of the world, persevering in penance and praiseworthy conduct, had shortly before made an end of his penitential life. And when he inquired further what his works had been and to what exercises he had been devoted; he answered that besides the customary exercises of penitents, he had observed nothing else notable in his works, except that he had the custom, when composing himself for rest, of invoking by name all the Saints whose memory occurred to him, that they might be propitious intercessors for him: roused to the daily invocation of the Saints, which custom he repeated both in the evening and in the morning every day. Hearing these things, the man of God reflected within himself what great reward would be given to the one who, having composed a panegyric in their praise, should implore the help and intercession of the chief Saints of the Church on each day: and he afterward carried out his thought in deed, as will be said shortly.
[4] Meanwhile, pursuing the journey he had undertaken and disguising his identity, received at Tallaght among the Lay Converts, he came to Saint Moelruain: and from him, concealing his name, otherwise known by reputation, and his clerical training, he sought and obtained admission among the Lay Converts in the monastery. The veteran soldier of Christ, therefore, was assigned as though a raw recruit, for the sake of probation, to whatever meaner and harder works of the monastery: which duties he discharged willingly and diligently. He was applied first to the harder and more menial labors of the barn and granary: which this rare despiser of the world and persecutor of himself carried out for the space of seven years, so that this chosen servant of God, this repository of hidden wisdom, and this supreme contemplator of heavenly things amid rustic labors, a most laborious seemed fit for nothing other than performing the duties of a lowly slave. Now he reaped the ripe harvest in the sweat of his brow, now he carried the collected sheaves on his back and brought them to the barn, now he beat out the grain from the blunted ears with a threshing flail: the expressed grain he then separated from the chaff by winnowing, purified the separated grain by grinding, and carried the purified grain, enclosed in sacks, like a donkey, today to the granary, tomorrow to the mill, on his back. In all these labors, half-naked, and most rigorous life he leads. sweating, covered with filth and ashes, with no regard for bodily care or outward appearance, he persevered to such a degree that from his unkempt and flowing locks (with which he chiefly covered his limbs, bristling from prolonged squalor), he would not sooner shake off or trouble to extricate the grains and chaff entangled therein, than that they would either fall off by themselves or (which was sometimes observed to happen) seem to germinate, having now grown into his flesh: the holy man reckoning it an illustrious proof of the monastic life that he was truly honored according to his merits when he was regarded by all not as a vile and abject little man, but as a horrible and shaggy monster.
[5] The flame of divine love, which burned within him, drove the most wise man to wonderful exercises of austerity; a flame which he well knew burns more happily and shines more gloriously in mortified flesh and a humbled spirit. And hence he rightly obtained that surname by which he is commonly called Kele-De: which word, rendered into Latin, designates a Worshipper of God or Beloved of God. he restores his own severed arm: Nor did the Lord, for whose love such great proofs of humility and self-abnegation were being made, permit them to pass without evident testimonies of approval. For on one occasion, while this holy man was cutting wood in a nearby forest for the use of the monastery, it happened by accident that, while he wished to cut a branch from a trunk, he inadvertently struck not the branch, which he held with his left hand to be cut, but his own arm with the blow of the axe, and severed it cleanly from the rest of the body. A doubly wonderful miracle follows. The birds of that forest, previously familiar, as it appears, with a man of angelic innocence and purity, as if pitying and groaning at his unexpected calamity, came running; with shrill and loud cries they indicated their compassion and grief as best they could. But the holy man, casting his thought without hesitation upon the marvelous and most merciful Creator and Restorer of every creature, with his other hand fitted the severed arm to its place, and immediately found it fully reunited and restored, as if it had never been torn away: and he dissolved into praises of the wondrous Creator and Restorer of all things.
[6] he obtains infused knowledge for another: There occurred also in the same place another incident and a subsequent prodigy, which placed that lamp, still set under a bushel, upon a candlestick, and left the extraordinary virtue which he had so laboriously sought to conceal revealed to all. There was among the disciples of Moelruain a certain boy who, because he had either neglected or been unable to learn the daily lesson prescribed by his teacher, fearing the punishment of his strict master, ran away and hid himself in the granary where Saint Aengussius was engaged in manual labor. The holy man asked him the reason for his withdrawal or flight: when the boy explained it as it was, the man of God gently consoled him and bade him approach and indulge briefly in sleep in his bosom. The boy complied: and afterward the Saint, waking him from sleep, bade him recite the prescribed lesson. He obeyed, and faithfully recited the lesson; and added that he seemed to himself to be now fully instructed in all things that could be proposed by the master for learning. The holy man charged the boy to attend school regularly and to reveal to no one what the bounty of divine goodness had deigned to work concerning him. Attending school, therefore, he was found not only to have mastered his own lesson perfectly, but also to be illuminated by the rare gift of infused knowledge. When Saint Moelruain, wondering exceedingly, noticed this, he asked the boy to narrate what had happened to him, and what was the cause of so great a change and illumination. And when the boy tried for some time to conceal the circumstances of the event as it had occurred, compelled by the master's threats, he narrated the entire sequence of events.
[7] and thence known to Saint Moelruain At these things, exceedingly astonished, and for some time hesitating in admiration, Saint Moelruain, divinely enlightened, at last exclaimed, saying: "Behold, the son of promise and the vessel of election is Aengussius, whom we have held so long in the place of a slave and as a keeper of the granary!" And since he was wearing only one shoe, he did not delay so long as to put on the other; but immediately rising, he ran to the granary, and rushing into the embrace of Aengussius, he said: "O elect of God, how have you so deceived us? How have you imposed upon us? Was it not more consonant with justice and equity that we humble and insignificant ones should serve your venerable paternity, than that you, a great and chosen servant of Christ, should serve our smallness and abjection?" And when the man of God, thus discovered, could say nothing out of shame and confusion, Saint Moelruain added another thing by which he was still more confounded. For in his presence he prostrated himself, falling on his knees, he seems to have succeeded him with the title of Abbot and Bishop. and humbly begged pardon for his error. After this he led him, blushing and reluctant, with him to the monastery, and thereafter held him in the highest veneration and respect: and having struck a bond of spiritual friendship with him, he thenceforth cultivated the closest friendship. Although Saint Aengussius, as we have already seen, strove with the utmost effort to flee all the honors of the world; yet the constant companions of virtue followed the fugitive. For it is read that he both
was the Father and Abbot of many monks, and was moreover elevated to the summit of episcopal dignity. He seems to have exercised the office of Abbot in the monastery of Cluain-eidnech or at least in the monastery of Disert-Aengus: and although the authors of the Martyrologies, who call him Bishop, do not specify of which See he was the Bishop, I believe that he held that dignity in the same place where he also discharged the office of Abbot.
CHAPTER II
Various writings composed by Saint Aengussius.
[8] This most holy man wrote various small works, by which he illuminated his country no less than by his merits and virtues, he wrote a metrical Festilogy and left his name far and wide famous among posterity, whom he well deserved. Among these, the most well-known and always held in the highest esteem among his countrymen is that Martyrology, or, as he himself calls it, Festilogy, written in ancient verse of the native language, which contains for each day only some of the chief Saints, or, as he himself says, some Princes of the Saints. The reason for so great brevity was that he intended it as a form of daily prayer, and was accustomed himself to recite it on each day, in imitation of the holy man whom we mentioned above. For if he had included all the Saints in it, it would have been impossible for him, together with the entire Psalter and the other daily exercises already mentioned, to recite the entire Festilogy on each day. Afterward some ancient commentator added glosses to this Festilogy; in which he sometimes briefly reports some memorable virtues, and sometimes the fuller deeds of the same Saints.
[9] But lest the holy man should seem to wrong other Saints whom he had omitted in the aforementioned metrical Festilogy, or to cast doubt upon their holiness, after he had compiled it together with Saint Moelruain with the assistance of Saint Moelruain, he compiled in prose another Martyrology, far more copious and embracing more Saints of every nation and age than any other we have ever seen produced. For in it he first reviews in a long series the names of the Saints of other nations for each day: and then separately appends the names of the Saints of Ireland, so that from this one may rightly conjecture that the first part, containing innumerable Saints omitted in the Roman Martyrology and others, is that Martyrology of Jerome or Eusebius, often praised by many ancient writers and long desired by modern ones; or at least compiled from the same. For Aengussius in the second preface or appendix of his metrical Festilogy cites both the Martyrology of Eusebius and of Jerome. And in the two copies of this Martyrology, both of them mutilated, which still survive, only the bare names of the Saints are usually read.
[10] We have, however, thought it should be cited under the name of the Tallaght Martyrology, moved by four arguments. First, the Tallaght Martyrology: because it was compiled in the monastery of Tallaght, in which these two holy men (as we have seen above) dwelt together. Second, because it could not be continually cited under both names without tedium and even confusion (since we cite more frequently another Martyrology of Aengussius composed by him alone). Third, because we believe it was called by the same name by ancient writers: for Marian Gorman (who lived more than five hundred years ago), in the preface to his own Martyrology, writes that Saint Aengussius compiled his metrical Festilogy from the Tallaght Martyrology previously composed; from which he drew very few, and to which he refers the reader: and we judge that Tallaght Martyrology to be none other than the present one; since this was, as we said, compiled at Tallaght, and no other Martyrology exists today which is called the Tallaght Martyrology, or could have existed which could with better right be called Tallaght. Fourth, because this Martyrology contains the birthdays of the Saints Moelruain and Aengussius themselves, and of several other Saints who lived in the same century with them, and who are established to have died after them: this addition, however, we believe was made by some monk of Tallaght who lived toward the end of the ninth century and seems to have died at the beginning of the tenth. For he mentions the holy Corpre, Bishop of Cluain, who died in the year eight hundred and ninety-four: but not Saint Cormac, King and Bishop, who died in the year ninety-three, nor any Saint who is established to have lived after the ninth century.
[11] But the claim of some that not only this Martyrology compiled in prose, but also the other metrical one, of which we spoke first, namely after the death of Moelruain; was composed by Saint Aengussius at Tallaght while he was managing the care of the granary under Saint Moelruain; is refuted by us with three arguments. First, because in it he records the birthday of Saint Moelruain (whom he calls the bright sun of Ireland) as celebrated on the seventh of July: therefore he did not write it while living under Saint Moelruain, but after his death. Second, because Saint Aengussius writes in the first prologue of his Festilogy that Dunchad, son of Domnald, King of Ireland, had already died when he himself composed or completed that work: but Dunchad, according to our Annals and other historians, died in the year seven hundred and ninety-two, and Saint Moelruain in seven hundred and eighty-seven. The work, therefore, was composed, or at least completed, after the death of Saint Moelruain. Third, because the very Scholiast of Aengussius's Festilogy, who was the first to assert that this work was composed at Tallaght in the time of Saint Moelruain, also reports that the same work was completed and published in the year in which Aed the Sixth, surnamed Oidnidhe, King of Ireland, undertook an expedition toward the borders of Leinster, with Archbishop Commachus of Armagh, and presents it to Blessed Fothadius Blessed Fothadius, and many other leaders of the Clergy and people accompanying the King on that expedition.
[12] For he reports that then this Festilogy was first presented by Saint Aengussius to Blessed Fothadius, a man most famous among the Irish in his time for the highest reputation of holiness and learning, and that Fothadius also presented to Saint Aengussius another small work, which he had written at the same time to the same King for the defense and immunity of the Clergy; and by which he merited that the Clergy, whom by a certain abusive custom the Kings were accustomed to drag to military expeditions, to the great prejudice of ecclesiastical immunity, should henceforth be freed from such a yoke. Our Annals, moreover, refer that expedition and the exemption of the Clergy to the year seven hundred and ninety-nine. in the year 792 From all this, therefore, it follows that this metrical Martyrology was first completed and published after the death of Saint Moelruain. It is different with that other work of Saint Aengussius which we call the Tallaght Martyrology; for that, although it was later augmented by someone who lived in the following century with the addition of certain Saints, was composed by Aengussius, with Saint Moelruain living and cooperating, before the year seven hundred and eighty-seven, in which the domestic Annals report that Saint Moelruain died, as is gathered from the title prefixed to the work, which is as follows: "Here begins the Martyrology of Aengussius, son of Ua-Oblenius, and of Moelruanius." Whence Marian Gorman, in the preface to his Martyrology, rightly observed that Saint Aengussius drew the Saints listed in his metrical Festilogy from the Tallaght Martyrology previously composed.
[13] likewise various booklets about the Saints Nor was it only by the Martyrologies already mentioned that Saint Aengussius deserved well of his country and the Church of God, but also by many other excellent small works, still extant and most worthy of publication, which by the favor of divine grace will shortly be given to the public. For he wrote five booklets about the Saints of Ireland, most abundant witnesses and evidence of the innumerable multitude of Saints of that kingdom and of the name of the Island of Saints most justly imposed upon it. 1. Of Saints of various Orders The first booklet in three chapters lists Saints of various orders or classes. First, Bishops numbering about three hundred and forty-five; second, Priests and Abbots, two hundred and ninety-nine; third, Deacons, seventy-eight, distinguished for the praise of holiness. The second booklet, called Of Homonyms, embraces Saints who share the same name among themselves, divided into two parts; the first part in fifty chapters lists male homonymous Saints, 2. Of Homonymous Saints and the second in twelve chapters lists sixty-two female homonymous Saints. And this book (which almost surpasses belief), although it contains diverse names of Saints, lists in all eight hundred and fifty-five Saints, of whom none is without several other homonyms listed therein.
[14] 3. Of the Children of Saints The third is called Of Children or Sons, divided into three classes: the first class contains several holy sons born from the same parent, the second contains only sons of their parent, each of whom, with his proper name suppressed, was customarily called nothing other than the son of such-and-such a specified parent; the third contains several daughters born of the same parent and famous for the reputation of holiness. And although the number of Saints treated in this booklet is uncertain, the names of ninety-four parents who begot one or more Saints are expressed, with some others omitted which cannot be read because of the excessive age of the worn codex. 4. On the maternal genealogy of Saints The fourth booklet contains the maternal genealogy of approximately two hundred and ten Saints of Ireland: which is an indication that the paternal genealogy of the Saints had been previously composed either by the same or by some earlier author. The fifth booklet is of litanies, 5. of litanies in which, in a long series in the manner of daily prayers, certain companies of Saints are invoked, who were joined together either by common discipleship under the same master, or by association for the sake of propagating the faith among nations under the same leader, or by burial in the same monastery, or by communion of the Church, or by some other similar title. all of which together And hence some thousands of Saints are invoked under such titles.
[15] The work composed from the aforementioned small works is entitled in certain ancient parchments of the country, in the native tongue, Saltuir-na-rann: which word, rendered into Latin, denotes now a Metrical Psalter, now a Multipartite Psalter. And in both senses, the various works of Saint Aengussius could rightly be so inscribed. as well as the same author's metrical history of the Old Testament For besides the works already mentioned, this most devout man wrote in a metrical and elegant style the history of the Old Testament; which, referring all the works of God finally to the praise of the Creator, and kindling the mind of the reader and reciter to His praise and love, he so formed into the shape of a prayer and distributed into parts, that it could most aptly in both senses be called Saltuir-na-rann; to be called a Metrical or Multipartite Psalter as indeed it was customarily named and entitled in one or both senses. Another work also, composed from the five small works already mentioned and succinctly reduced into the form of a prayer, as if invoking the Saints themselves, could rightly, on account of the various parts into which it is divided, be inscribed in the latter sense as a Multipartite Psalter: and that it was so inscribed and composed by Saint Aengussius, both authority attests and reason persuades.
[16] The authority is that of an ancient parchment codex, from which the booklet of homonyms, copied out, by authority was recently sent to us from the homeland, with this inscription: "The Homonymous Saints of Ireland from the Saltuir-na-rann, that is (as I interpret it) from the Multipartite Psalter; which Aengussius Keledeus composed." Reason also recommends
that Aengussius is the author of this compiled work: for no Saint is reviewed in any part of it who did not die before the times of Aengussius, and is proven by reason or at least flourished in the same period as he himself, as we have demonstrated from a careful collation of the entire work with our Annals and other domestic monuments. For the Annals and other domestic monuments treat of no Saint reviewed in these booklets who is established to have lived after the year eight hundred, except only Saint Tigernach of Doire, founder of the monastery of Meath, whom they report to have died in the year eight hundred and five: at which time we have no reason to doubt that Saint Aengussius was still alive. For although they report that Saint Moelditrib died in the year eight hundred and forty, it is nevertheless uncertain whether he is the one mentioned in the aforementioned work, booklet two, chapter forty.
[17] From what has been said thus far, it is established that this most illustrious man deserved exceedingly well of his country and of posterity, for whom he preserved the memory of so many innumerable Saints, otherwise perhaps largely destined to perish, and that he is therefore most worthy of eternal remembrance; and that, called to the rewards of eternal happiness, he departed after the beginning of the ninth century. And although we do not find that the year of his death was recorded, nevertheless from the fact that his feast day is celebrated on March 11, and that he died on a Friday according to the other Aengussius, who adds that he lies buried in the monastery of Cluain-eidnech, we may conjecture that he died in the year 819, 824, or 830: since in those years March 11 fell on a Friday.