ON ST. LUGADIUS, DISCIPLE OF ST. PATRICK, IN IRELAND,
IN THE SIXTH CENTURY. Commentary
Lugadius, disciple of St. Patrick, in Ireland. (S.)
C. D. S.
Lugadius, commonly Lughadh or Lugaeth, of which name the synonymous forms are said to be Lugil, St. Lugadius is recorded in the sacred calendars of Ireland Laeghaire, Lehair and Lothair Shearman, Loca Patriciana, p. 79, note 3., and likewise Lua, Luoc, Luoch, Molua, Moluoc, Moloch Forbes, Kalendars of Scottish Saints, p. 409., is announced at the 2nd day of November in the martyrology of Marianus Gorman with the bare word Lugaeth, to which the scholiast added this: mac oenghusa o dhruim inescl Brussels Cod. 5100 – 5104, fol. 186., i.e., son of Oenghus, of Druim Inesclann. Thence in the Martyrology of Donegal At the 2nd day of Nov. in these words, which we render from Irish into Latin: Lughadius, son of Aengus, son of Nadfraich, son of Corc, son of Lughadius. This Aengus was king of Munster. It was he whose foot Patrick pierced with his staff while he baptized and blessed him, as the Life of Patrick testifies. (Born) of Druim-Inesclainn in Ulster, between Droichead-atha and Traigh-bhaile of Dun-Dealgan. Of the same saint there is mention in the Latin Tripartite Life of St. Patrick Part II, ch. 12.: (Patrick) also built a church, afterwards celebrated, which is called Druim-Inissclain, in the region of Delbna: in which also there are two of his disciples, namely Da-luanus of Croebheach and Lugadius, born of Aengus son of Natfraich, king of Munster Colgan, Trias Thaum., p. 131.; which passage is lacking in the Irish codex translated by the distinguished G. Hennessy In M. F. Cusack, St Patrick, p. 397..
[2] and he is reported to be the son of King Aengus, Celebrated is the history of Aengus, from whom our Lugadius is said to have been begotten, baptized by St. Patrick and in his very baptism providing an example of heroic patience. The Latin Tripartite Life of St. Patrick reports the matter thus Part III, ch. 30.: While King Aengus was being dipped in the sacred water, his wonderful fortitude of mind and piety toward God shone forth: which was approved also by God with a notable subsequent sign and gained him an immortal name. For when the king was being regenerated in the sacred font, his foot was pierced by the point of the staff on which Patrick was leaning; and he gave no indication of the wound received or the pain felt, until the sacred ministry had been completed. When it was finished, and the staff had been noticed sticking in the foot, Patrick asked why he had not indicated earlier the wound and piercing of the foot. The king answered that he had thought and accepted that injury as part of the sacred ceremonies. And the saint added: "You will bear back from God the reward of so great a patience and devotion: for no successor of yours, whether of your seed or of that of your brother Oilill, will perish in that seat by a bloody death until the consummation of the world; nor will he obtain the name and rights of king, until he shall be crowned and consecrated by my successor." Whence with great blessing and by a singular prerogative of that royal family it came about that seventeen kings of the seed of the aforesaid brothers, namely Aengus and Oilill, tonsured as monks (or, as it is in Hennessy, ordained by the staff), reigned from the time of Patrick up to the time of Kenngegan, king of Cashel Trias Thaum., p. 155. Cf. Hennessy in Cusack, p. 466..
[3] who is said to have had 24 sons and as many daughters. God also blessed this pious king, as Colgan says Act. SS. Hib., p. 169, On St. Natalis, ch. 2., not only with a numerous and holy posterity, but also with a great number of sons. For in the genealogies of the kings of Munster King Aengus is said to have had twenty-four children, and twelve of them to have been entered in the roll of the saints Ibid., p. 174.. And in the Psalter of Cashel one reads: Aengus son of Naitfraich begot twenty-four sons and twenty-four daughters, and he offered to God and St. Patrick twelve sons and twelve daughters: who are all celebrated as saints Ibid.. That so great a number of children was attributed to Aengus came about, Lanigan not improbably judges Eccl. Hist. of Ireland, vol. I, p. 400., from the fact that, since on the one hand the memory of that Aengus, king of Munster, was held in great veneration, and on the other many men of the same name occurred in the genealogies, their descendants longed to trace their origin to that king and to invent for themselves a kinship illustrious in nobility and holiness. Or one may also rightly suppose that many descendants of Aengus, even more remote ones, were called his sons by a custom known and very frequent among the Irish. An example of this custom may be brought from the very listing of the sons of Aengus. For St. Colman, called from his mother Macdarene, that is, son of Darenia, is expressly placed among the sons of Aengus in the Genealogical Sanctilogium, ch. 34 Cited in Colgan, Act. SS. Hib., p. 174., while in the Martyrology of Tallaght at the 31st day of July the same Colman son of Darenia with Natalis, Jernoc, Papan and Follomon are called sons of Natfraich, who was the father of King Aengus. Moreover besides that Colman in the Genealogical Menology, where surely the word son is to be taken in the strict sense, the sons of Aengus are indicated as our Lugadius Ibid., p. 173, no. 6., Eochod, Felimid, Cronan, Oilill (or Aillil), Bressal, Foilan or Faelan Ibid., nos. 5, 9.. If to these you add those four whom we mentioned a little above as celebrated with Colman at the 31st day of July under the name of sons of Natfraich, you now have twelve holy sons of Aengus, king of Munster. Moreover as a son of the same Aengus, but perhaps not in so proper a sense, Carthach is praised in the martyrologies of Gorman and of Donegal at the 5th day of March. And also in the same martyrologies and also in that of Tallaght the daughters of Aengus are indicated as celebrated with a common festival at the 23rd day of February, yet it is not signified more distinctly that this Aengus was king of Munster or son of Natfraich.
[4] By paternal family The paternal family of St. Lugadius is shown by the following genealogical scheme, excerpted from the fuller genealogy of the stock of Oilill Olum, king of Munster, published by Donovan Battle of Magh-Rath, p. 341. and Shearman Loca Patriciana, table 4, p. 54.:
OILILL OLUM, K. M., d. in the year of Chr. 234 [Annals of the Four Masters, at this year. But according to O'Flaherty (Ogygia, p. 152), the year 260.].
EOGHAN MOR, d. in the year 195 [Four Masters, at this year. But according to the genealogical tables, the year 250.].
FIACHA MAELLETHAN K. M., d. in the year 260 Geneal. table..
OILILL FLANBEC, K. M.
LUGADH.
CONALL CORC.
NATFRAICH, K. M.,
AENGHUS K. M., d. in the year 489 Four Masters, at this year..
ST. LUGADIUS.
[5] and famous by maternal family, Aengus had as wife Eithne Huathach, daughter of Crimthann, son of Cinnselach, king of Leinster [Fifth Life of St. Brigid, bk. II, ch. 11 (Tr. Thaum., p. 551); Life of St. Kieran, ch. 19 (Act. SS. Hib., p. 460); Chronicon Scotorum, at the year 487.], whose genealogy is shown thus by the genealogical table of Cathair Mor or Catharius the Great, king of Leinster and of all Ireland In Shearman, Loc. Patric., table 10, p. 180.:
CATHAIR MOR, K. I., d. in the year 122 Four Masters at this year..
FIACH BAICHEDA.
BRESAL BELACH.
LABRADH.
EOCHU CINNSELACH.
ENNA CINSELACH, king of Leinster, d. in the year 444 Geneal. table..
CRIMTHAN, king of Leinster, d. in the year 483 Four Masters, ed. O'Donovan, vol. I, p. 150, note d. Cf. ibid. at the year 465..
EITHNE, wife of Aengus, d. in the year 489 Four Masters at this year. Cf. ibid., note n..
[6] it is uncertain over which monastery he presided Druim-Inissclain, where Patrick built a church afterwards celebrated Cf. above, no. 1 at the end., is judged to be that place
by Lanigan Eccl. hist. of Ireland, vol. I, p. 441 and vol. III, p. 52, note 145. which is now called Drumshallon, in County Louth. Of the same opinion was Archdall, who in his Monasticon Hibernicum makes Lugadius the first abbot of Drumshallon, but with no other indication, as it seems, besides the testimony of the Tripartite Life of St. Patrick cited above, where indeed Patrick is reported to have founded a church, but not a monastery, at Druim-Inissclain, and Lugadius not to have been established as abbot, but to be there, that is, to rest Cf. Lanigan, vol. I, p. 444, notes 48, 49.. But O'Donovan Four Masters, vol. I, p. 394, note y. asserts that that place is a village in the same county near Castle-Bellingham, which today is called by its inhabitants Druminisklin, and by the English Drumiskin.
[7] and in what year he died. The death of Lugadius the cited Archdall ties to the year 515 or 516, but again led, as it seems, by this sole argument, that his father and mother died in the year 489, or according to other sources, in the year 487; from which year, if one computes thirty years, a space usually assigned by historical writers as a kind of mean to the individual generations of any stock, he will arrive at about that year 515. — And these are the things pertaining to the history of Lugadius that could be found in ancient and more recent writers.