ON ST. LASRIANUS THE CONFESSOR, IN IRELAND,
ABOUT THE YEAR DCL.
SYLLOGE.
Lasrianus, confessor, in Ireland. (S.)
BY V. D. B.
Sole §. The family of St. Lasrianus. His most holy life in the monastery of Rahan under St. Carthage and on the island of Pioch under St. Domangen. His death in Ulster.
At the 18th day of April our predecessors treated in this our work of St. Lasrean
(or, with the particle Mo, my, prefixed for the sake of honour, St. Lasrianus, inscribed on this day in the Irish Martyrologies, Molaisse), abbot of Leighlin in Ireland, then bishop and apostolic legate, who became illustrious by his virtues in the 7th century; but at the 16th day of September they omitted a Lasrianus, inscribed in the Martyrology of Tallaght with no other indication; in which at the 26th of December there also occurs another Lasrianus, with the title of abbot added. There are also several other SS. Lasrianus or Molaisse, whom no one could easily distinguish; Colgan however affirms that there were at least eleven in all. Among these there comes on this day in the Martyrology of Tallaght Lasrianus son of Nasc; and in that of Donegal: Lasrenus, son of Nascan, of Ard-mac-Nasca beside the lake Lochlaigh in Ulster: of whom I do not doubt that he was once honoured with ecclesiastical cult, seeing that St. Aengus splendidly speaks of his festival (Feil) on the present day; where he also names him the Great, and praises him because he knew or savoured Christ; in the annotations at the same place, moreover, he is called Laisren, son of Nasc, of Ard-mic-Nascai or of the hill of the sons of Nasc at the lake Loch-Laig in Ulster; which the Donegal martyrologist seems to have copied. And these things seem to suffice by which that St. Lasrianus may be distinguished from others and judged to merit a place in our work. Further, although Lanigan objects Ecclesiastical history of Ireland, vol. II, page 363., he seems (for the conformity both of time and of names urges it) to have been a disciple of St. Carthage, who is also Mochuda, bishop and abbot of Lismore in Ireland; whose double Acts our Henschenius published at the day on which he is venerated, the 14th of May.
[2] [He was among the first disciples of St. Carthage in the monastery of Rahan, to which innumerable others then came;] In the latter of these one reads the following Acta SS., vol. III of May, page 382.: "St. Mochuda or Carthach had twelve very humble disciples in his monastery of Raithin, namely Mochua, son of Mellan, who himself was made the first monk in the monastery of Raithin; Mochemoc, son of Vart; and the three sons of Nascan, whose names are Gobban, and Straphan and Lasceran; and Molua and Lughayr; and Mochoemhog, son of Cuath; and Aedan and Fiachna; and Mochoemhog, afterwards a bishop; and Fynlughie: and all these were incredibly obedient. And St. Carthage, wishing to lighten their burden, before his death established cells for them, that they might have some solace in old age, on account of their excessive obedience in their youth: and he prophesied many good things concerning them." "But when," I excerpt these things from the earlier Life Ibid., page 377, n. 11., "St. Carthage had obtained the honour of the episcopal dignity, such a multitude of good men flowed together to him that unless divine bounty had sufficiently ministered to them the necessaries, they could scarcely have dwelt together by reason of their numerousness. For excepting the little ones and men of a more relaxed life, who ministered to the holy true servants of God in their necessities, the number of the holy monks was eight hundred and forty-seven; all of whom, following the examples of one pastor, served God with one mind. Their labour indeed (for they not only laboured with their hands, but according to the old institute they cultivated the fields and procured their food by other most grievous works) was a hard servitude; but the flame of charity lessened the force of this labour, so that his burden did not seem grave to any of them. Their monastery, moreover, was established on the bounds of Meath, in the people of Ferkel, in the place which is called Rathin: in which by the labour of their hands they procured food for themselves and the poor"; which people or lesser district is now called Fircall; and Rathin is Rahan, Rahen or Raghan in the barony of Ballycowan, in King's county; not however Rathyne in the barony of Fertullagh in the county of Westmeath, as, after Archdall Monasticum Hibernicum, page 727. and Alemand Histoire monastique d'Irlande, page 358., Lanigan Eccles. history of Ireland, vol. II, page 353, n. 186., Carlisle Topog. Dict. of Ireland, under Rathyne. and others would have it.
[3] [He was then sent by him to the island of Puinc; where, a new monastery having been founded, he lived under St. Domangen the bishop, who had selected him among the other monks of Rahan; he went on finally into Ulster, where he met his day.] From there St. Carthage sometimes passed to other places according to the custom of the monks and especially the bishops of Ireland. "Coming, then, into the kingdom of Munster," as the author of the later Life relates Ibid., page 383, n. 27., "the king of the region of Kiarraigh Chuyrthe, Cathal son of Aed, with his friends, asked the holy bishop Carthage to heal him in the name of Christ; and, the saint of God praying for the king, he healed him; and his eyes and ears became well. Then the king offered to the Lord and St. Carthage for ever his citadel, that is Hylea Cnharch, and Rosbeargh, and Rosmor, and the island Pioch" (now Inis Pict, Inis Puinc or Inis Pick, near Inisharkan or Inishirkan in the barony of Carbery, in the county of Cork, in Munster), "placed in the strait of Cogam. In that place, that is Rosbeargh, the saint of God placed certain brothers, that they might build a cell there for the Lord, which place is sufficiently famous. On the island of Pioch, however, St. Carthage himself began to build and stayed there a whole year. After the end of the year he brought up three of the aforesaid disciples, that is the three sons of Nascan, Gobban the bishop, and Straphan the presbyter and Bl. Lasceran, and the most holy bishop Domangen to keep them: because he had ordained them in the presence of St. Carthage the bishop in the monastery of Raithin, and he left twelve brothers with them there, and afterwards the holy father Mochuda or Carthage returned to his city of Raithin. In that island there is now a most blessed place, and religious men have always been there." These things must have been done before the year 630 or 632, in which St. Carthage was expelled from the monastery of Rahan Compare Lanigan, Eccl. hist. of Ireland, vol. II, p. 354, n. 192.; indeed several years before and probably before the year 620, as Lanigan judges Ibid., p. 358., since Cathal or Cathaldus, king of Munster and author of these donations, is related in the Annals of Ireland to have met his day in that year In Colgan, Act. SS. Hib., p. 631, col. 2.. St. Lasrianus does not seem to have spent the remaining time of his life there, but to have gone from Munster, which looks to the south of Ireland, to the northern parts, namely into Ulster, and to have lived there on a hill to which he communicated his name, namely Ard-mic-nasca, that is Hill of the son of Nasc.
[4] Ard-mic-Nasca, where he died, is the present Holywood. That place was situated at the lake Loch-Laig; which name Colgan Ibid., at the page cited, n. 7 found written in his books Loch Laodh or Loch Luodh. Where these places were situated was found by the most diligent William Reeves Life of St. Columba, p. 214 and 281. in the manuscript Itinerary of Fr. Mac Cana, which is kept in the Royal Library of Brussels: "Between Commer (Comber)," he says, "and the estuary of Loch Laodh, which washes Carrickfergus and Belfast, there is a church sacred to St. Columba." Whence it follows that the bay of Loch Laodh is now called Belfast Lough; and that one must depart from Archdall, who judged that the lake Lough Neagh was indicated. That the place Ard-mic-Nascai is the same as where now Holywood is seen, on the right bank of the same estuary above the road by which one goes from Belfast to Bangor, follows from the following words of the same Mac Cana, which I have copied from the codex itself: "Not far from here to the east there stands distant a monastery of the third order of St. Francis, erected by the munificence of the same Niall O'Neill, prince of Tren-congal, endowed conveniently enough with lands. In Irish it is called the monastery of Aird-Macnissi, in Latin the Hill of St. Macnissius; it is situated on the bank of the lake Laodh, opposite Carrickfergus to the south. All those sacred places which I have recalled, from Commor to this monastery of the third order, are in Upper Clan-boia, or Greater Ards. For there are two Ards in that tract; the greater, which is Upper Clannaboia; … the lesser comprises five miles in length; the greater many miles and rather ample and delightful territories … The Lake of the calf, or Loch-loadh in Irish, flows between and divides each Clannboia." Where it is to be noted that these things were written at the beginning of the 17th century; that therefore at that time the memory of St. Lasrianus still existed, but that he was known by the name of St. Macnissius in place of Mac-Nascai. These same things were published, turned into English and illustrated with a most learned commentary, by the often-cited William Reeves in the Ulster Journal of Archaeology; from which I draw this one thing, that already before the 13th century that place was called Holy Wood; which seems to have proceeded only from the veneration of St. Lasrianus.
[5] St. Lasrianus seems to be the same as Laistranus, of whom the Ven. Bede speaks. Colgan believed Acta SS. Hiberniae, page 17. that this is the same as Laistranus, to whom with other abbots and bishops was inscribed the letter of the Roman clergy, given to the Irish in the year 640, on the right order of celebrating Easter and on avoiding the Pelagian heresy. Lanigan admitted the same opinion without doubting Ecclesiast. hist. of Ireland, vol. II, page 414.; and William Reeves Irish itinerary of father Edmund Mac Cana, page 13. also approved it with his vote. In very truth in all the editions that I have seen of the Ecclesiastical History of the Venerable Bede, where this letter is read in book II, chapter 19, Laistranus occurs, not Laisreanus or Lasrianus; but, as Lasrianus is a common name among the Irish, so Laistranus is unheard of; which accordingly must have been written faultily. And that conjecture pleases so much the more because St. Lasrianus was certainly a man of outstanding authority, seeing that he is named the Great by St. Aengus. Colgan judged that he flourished down to about the year 650 Acta SS. Hiberniae, page 17.: this opinion too pleases.