ON ST. AIDAN, ABBOT IN IRELAND,
IN THE SIXTH CENTURY. Commentary
Aidan, abbot, in Ireland. (S.)
C. D. S.
In the Life of St. Mochta Ch. 3 (Colgan, Act. SS. Hib., p. 729). mention is made of a certain Aedan, St. Aidan, in the monastery built by St. Mochta in Ulster, one of the saint's disciples, whom, having forgotten him on departing from Rome, he is said to have ordered to sit on a branch of a tree and commit himself to the sea; and carried across by that wonderful kind of vessel he is reported to have landed in Ireland before his master. The Life continues from there Ch. 4.: Finally Mochta began to build in the forests of the Methei a monastery, which is called the Great Cell or Lismhor (rather Kill-mor, as Colgan writes, reciting the same text, in the note to be cited presently). On this latter place, then, Colgan notes Op. cit., p. 731, note 5.: The region of the Methei, commonly called Hua-Meth, is of the diocese of Armagh in Ulster and in it today is seen the aforesaid church called Kill-mor, that is, the Great Cell. And more distinctly in another place Trias Th., p. 184, note 16.: The region called Hua-Meith, today O'Meith, is in the eastern part of Ulster, hence called Airthear, that is, Eastern; and the part of it nearer the sea Hua-Meith-mara, that is, maritime Hua-Methia, and the part more remote from the sea in comparison with the former Hua-Meith-tire, that is, Hua-Methia of the land or mainland, because it lies on the mainland of Ulster, here Tripartite Life of St. Patrick, part III, ch. 9 (Tr. Th., p. 150). and by other early writers it is called. That name Hua-Meith, that is, of the descendants of Meith, it seems to have obtained from the descendants of Muredach, surnamed Meith, that is, the Fat, son of Imchad, son of Colla-da-Chrioch, of whom the Genealogical Sanctilogium ch. 13, who widely ruled in that tract in the time of Patrick and afterwards.
[2] which is also called Cill-mor-Aedhain, seems to have presided Ui-Meith-Tire was also called by another name Ui-Meith-Macha O'Donovan, Book of rights, p. 148, note a., because it was nearer the city of Armagh. And that this same district is to be placed in the present county and barony of Monaghan, and not, as O'Flaherty, Harris and also O'Clery supposed [In his index to the Martyrology of Donegal at the name Cruimther Calb (ed. Todd and Reeves, p. 397).], in County Armagh and the barony of Orior-O'Hanlon, John O'Donovan shows Book of rights, loc. cit. by this argument. First, namely, the Tripartite Life of St. Patrick Part III, ch. 9 (Trias Thaum., p. 150). reports that the saint, coming to the region of Hua-Meith-tire, which is a small region of Eastern Ulster, there raised a church in a place called Teag-talain (today Tehallan). Moreover in the Martyrology of Donegal at the 26th day of January there is marked Cruimther Calbh, of Tulach Carpait (today Tullycarbet) in Ui-Meith-Macha. Add the announcement of St. Aidan in the same martyrology Cf. following no., where also Cill-mor-Aedhain is said to be situated in the same region. Now Tehallan, Tullycorbet and Killmore are found in the county and barony of Monaghan. So far O'Donovan; with whom Will. Reeves agrees Mart. Dungall., p. 397, note.. Nor is there anything we should set against the opinion of such men.
[3] and to be the same who is reported as son of Aengus. And so one must also agree with Colgan, who judges Act. SS. Hib., p. 731, note 4. that that Aidan, the disciple of St. Mochta, is the same as our son of Aengus, whom Marianus Gorman, the Martyrology of Donegal and others commemorate in the church of Kill-mor Aedhain in the region of Huadmeth or of the Methei on the 2nd day of November. For in this region St. Mochta built the first church in Ireland, called Kill mor, as is held in his Life, ch. 4 Cited above, no. 1.; over which it is surely very credible that Aidan was placed. And the announcement at the 2nd day of November in the Martyrology of Donegal to which Colgan alludes (taken from Gorman) is framed in these words: Aidan, son of Aengus, of Cill-mor-Aedhain in Ui-Meith-Macha; and it is noted in the same place that the scholiast of Marianus added at the last word Macha as if a variant reading Menna. — But besides this our saint more than twenty of the same or a similar name (Aedhan, Aed, Moedoc, etc.) are commemorated on various days in the same Martyrology.
[4] He flourished at the beginning of the sixth century. Moreover it is further gathered from this at what time St. Aidan lived, since that St. Mochta was contemporary with St. Patrick, the most celebrated apostle of Ireland, is testified both by the Life of Mochta himself Ch. 8 (Colgan, Act. SS. Hib., p. 729). and by the Life of St. Patrick Col. 564F [Sixth Life, by Jocelin, ch. 134 (Trias Thaum., p. 94); Seventh or Tripartite Life, Part III, ch. 67 (ibid., p. 162).]. And in this last it is indicated that St. Mochta approached Patrick when he had already reached old age. Whence finally it can now safely be affirmed that St. Aidan flourished at the beginning of the sixth century.