ON ST. CAIDEUS OR CAIDOCUS, CONFESSOR, IN IRELAND,
PERHAPS IN THE 6TH CENTURY.
SYLLOGE.
Caideus or Caidocus, confessor, in Ireland. (S.)
BY V. D. B.
Sole §. The memory of St. Caideus in the Martyrology of Donegal; cult in Ulster; church and town; bell and staff. Another St. Caideus, bishop of Iona.
In these our Acts of the saints there was celebrated at the 24th day of January Acta SS., vol. II of January, p. 602 and following. St. Sophias or Cadocus; [Distinguished from several of the same name, St. Caideus or Caidocus has become known from the Calendar of Donegal.] who, son of Bl. Gundleus, a Welsh king, and of Gladusa, master of St. Illtud, a frequent visitor of holy places, and finally, made bishop of Benevento, fell a martyr by the blow of a lance; of whom another Life, plainly different from that of Bolland and better, yet sprinkled with fables, was published not many years ago by the learned man W. J. Rees, an Anglican minister in Wales Lives of Cambro-British Saints, p. 22 and following.. At the 30th day of May, moreover, there was spoken in the same place Acta SS., vol. VII of May, p. 262 and 263. of St. Caidocus, an Irishman by nation; who, having attempted the preaching of the Christian faith in Ponthieu, assailed by the rustics and saved by St. Richarius who met him, then found rest and burial in the monastery of Centula. Rice Rees, another Anglican minister, reckons among the saints of Wales a St. Cado or Cataw, son of Geraint, to whom however no churches are dedicated in Wales Essay on the Welsh Saints, p. 232.: then a St. Cadog, son of Brychan, buried in Gaul, and known in Cornwall by the name of Cadoc; whence he seems the same as Rheidiog Ibid., p. 142.: and thirdly St. Cattwg, abbot of Llancarfan, grandson or great-grandson of Brychan Ibid., at the page cited., who is the same as the son of St. Gundleus [Compare Lanigan, Ecclesiastical history of Ireland, vol. I, p. 489 and following.]. In the Irish Martyrology of Donegal of O'Clery, which the most learned men Todd and Reeves very recently brought to light from the Brussels manuscript codex with an English version, more recent hands have inserted the name of St. Caideus in four places, and in a fifth among the miscellaneous memorabilia at the end of the volume. Namely at the 25th day of October one reads in the margin Calendar of the Saints of Ireland, p. 283.: "Festival of Caideus (Fail Caoide), abbot, patron of … chaidh"; and again after other saints: "Caideus or Caidocus (Latin form), of Domhnach Caoide, at the foot of Dannaid." In the manuscript index of the same Martyrology, moreover, at the word Caoide these things are read, except that I have made them Latin from Irish: "Caoide, abbot, of Domhnach Caoide, in Tir-Eoghain, diocese of Derry, 25th of October, the 8th before the Kalends of November, Caidinus in Latin. There is his church, and the bell and staff are kept. See Caeti at the 24th of October. For whom Marianus has Caete, that is Caoide, correctly." In the same index at the word Caete there come also these things: "Caette, that is Caoide, at the foot of Dionaid in Tir Eoghan." And finally in the added memorabilia: "Domhnach Caoide, commonly the parish of St. Cadinus. Tempal-Ui-Buidhe in the territory of O'Cathain, whose festival …"
[2] [The forms of his name and his cult in the parish of Ulster which received its name from him are explained.] Hence it is plain that Caideus or Caidocus and Caidinus or Cadinus are in Latin the same name as in Irish Caoide, Caeti, Caeti, Caete and Caette. And indeed an, en or in and oc and og are forms of diminutives: so that Caidoc and Caidin in Irish is Caidulus in Latin. Now out of veneration the Irish love to refer to the names of saints by diminutives; which is also common to other nations, for instance the German or Flemish Compare Acta SS., vol. VII of October, p. 1102.; indeed the Irish frequently prefix mo, that is my; and sometimes they adorn names with the prefix mo and at the same time with the diminutive form oc or in: as will appear below in St. Mernoc, that is Mo-Ern-Oc Compare Reeves, Life of St Columba, p. 26.. Similarly the same man is now called Enan, now Enoc; Aodhan, Aodhoc and Maodhoc Colgan, Acta SS. Hiberniae, p. 162.; and Caideus, Cadocus and Mochatocus Colgan, Trias thaumaturga, p. 185.. Now Donaghedy or Donagheady, which is designated by those notices, lies in the northern angle of the county of Tyrone, and borders on the county of Londonderry; from which city it is not far distant: so that it belongs to a region well known to the northern Franciscans Todd and Reeves, Calendar of the Saints of Ireland, p. 285., of whom O'Clery was one. Carlisle Topographical dictionary of Ireland, under Donagheady. and Lewis Topographical dictionary of Ireland, under Donagheady. relate nothing that pertains with certainty to the cult of St. Caideus. Nevertheless in the very name of this town the name of St. Caideus lies hidden. Domhnach namely, which word the Irish formed from the Latin Dominicum and by which they are accustomed to designate the Lord's day, signifies also there a church or temple O'Brien, Focalóir Gaoidhilge-Sax-Bhéaria, p. 192.; that this was called dominicum in the first centuries by Latin Christians escapes no one, as by the Greeks κυριακον: which latter probably penetrated through the Goths into all the nations of Germanic stock and to the Poles themselves and the Wends. Hence Domhnach Caoide, which passed over into Domnachcaoide, Domnachaoide, Domnachaede and Donaghedy, is nothing other than the Church of St. Caideus; hence we have read above in the index of the Martyrology of Donegal that a church of St. Caideus existed there.
[3] His bell and staff kept in the place of relics. That the holy man was venerated in it on the 28th day of October is related by Colgan Acta SS. Hiberniae, p. 162.; but by an error, if I am not mistaken, of the typesetter; for my part his name does not occur to me at this day in any Irish fasti. But that his bell and staff were kept there, these are as it were the insignia of Irish abbots, even when they lived solitary; as now the keys of superiors in some monasteries, especially of virgins. These bells were often of iron and square, and were carried and shaken by hand, more rarely hung in towers or on walls; and they were called Clocc or Clog; and by these the brethren were called together, if there were any; but if there were none, the holy abbots seem nevertheless to have rung them at the beginning of their prayers: what else would solitaries have had? Monks carried staffs from the beginning, sometimes as a support while praying, sometimes as arms against animals in the midst of solitude, always as a sign of fighting against demons. The name of these is Cambuta, and corruptly among the Irish Cambata, and also Cambo. The bells and cambutae of the Irish saints were everywhere kept in the place of relics and held in the highest reverence; so that oaths taken by the touch of them were most sacred. But this slight argument is so immense that it seems it should not be handled on the occasion of an almost unknown saint.
[4] [St. Caeti, who is also Ceti, Caideus and Caidinus, bishop of Iona, plainly distinct.] In the index of the Martyrology of Donegal, as we have understood above, the reader is warned that St. Caeti the bishop is to be seen at the 24th day of October. And indeed at that day we read Todd and Reeves, Calendar of the Saints of Ireland, p. 283.: "Caeti the bishop. The Cain Adamnain determined that Ceti the bishop was one of the saints whose
letters formatae * should avail that all captivity and servitude be turned away from women"; and it is likely that it is of him that this treats. Now the Cain Adamnain, or Law of Adamnan, or Tribute of Adamnan, are the canons of the synod of Tara, celebrated in the year 697; to which this name was given, both because St. Adamnan, biographer of St. Columba, was the author of its assembling, and because there the privilege of collecting a certain sum of money was given to that most holy abbot and his successors. From the Rath-both or Raphoe exemplar these laws were copied by Michael O'Clery, compiler of the Martyrology of Donegal; which copy is kept in the Royal Library of Brussels, num. 2324 Compare Reeves, Life of St Columba, p. L and LI.. Now Coeddi, bishop of Hy or Iona, according to the Annals of Ulster, died in the year 711, and in the preceding year according to the Four Masters: which time of death agrees well with the time of the celebrated synod of St. Adamnan Todd and Reeves, Calendar, p. 282. Compare Colgan, Trias thaumaturga, p. 499.; so that it can be admitted that the bishop Ceti is the same as Coeddi, bishop of Iona. Whether he is the same as he who is venerated on the 24th day of October is more obscure. Colgan affirms it Trias thaum., at the page cited., who reckons him among the illustrious monks of Iona and calls him in Latin Caideus and Caidinus; indeed in the second part of the third historical index of the Acts of the Saints he makes him bishop of Iona in the Hebrides; that is, sent from the island of Iona into the Hebrides. I have nothing to oppose; subjoining only this one thing, that he is openly distinct from St. Caideus or Caidocus the abbot; whom alone we have thought to rescue from oblivion. I omit the Mochatoci, although it is the same name as Caideus.
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