ON SS. NASADIUS AND COMPANIONS: NASADIUS, BEOANUS, BISHOP, AND MELLANUS, IN COUNTY DOWN IN IRELAND,
AT AN UNCERTAIN TIME.
COLLECTION.
Nasadius, bishop and confessor, in County Down in Ireland. (S.)
Beoanus, bishop and confessor, in County Down in Ireland. (S.)
Mellanus, confessor in County Down in Ireland. (S.)
BY V. D. B.
§ single. Of several saints named Beoan and Mellan, and of the site of the church of Tamlachta-Humail or Tamlachta-Menand in Ulster.
In the Irish Martyrology of Tallaght there is read at this day Matt. Kelly, Calendar of Irish Saints, p. XXXVIII.: Nasadi, Beoani and Mellain, three saints from Britain, and they are in one church in h. [The memorial of the saints Nasadius, Beoanus and Mellanus in the Irish martyrologies at the 26th day of October.] Echad Uladh i Tamlachtainhumail ic Loch Briccrenn; which place Colgan thus turns Acta SS. Hiberniæ, p. 90, n. 19.: The feast of the saints Nassadius, Beoanus and Meldanus: three saints from Britain and in one church, namely in Tamlachtaumhail, in the region of Iveagh in Ulster next to the lake of Bricreann; and in that of Donegal, as my late colleague Fr. Antoine Tinnebroek once turned it, you have this: Beoan, bishop, and Mellan of Tamlacta-menaind at the lake of Bricrend in Ubechach-Uladh. St. Aengus praises the same at this day in the metrical Irish Martyrology, from which the Rev. Mr. William Reeves, excellently skilled in elucidating the deeds of the saints of Ireland, though he follows a foreign worship, sent me some memorials turned into English. St. Aengus indeed is content to give testimony of their praises in two verses; but in the annotations these things are added there partly in Irish, partly in Latin, taken from the prose martyrologies: Three saints of the Britons are in one church, namely in Tamlacht-Menand at the lake of Bricrend in Ui Echach of Ulster. Add to these finally that in the Irish Martyrology of Cashel also their names are found at this day, as Colgan is witness Ibid., place cited.. Hence it is certain that these three saints were Britons by nation; that St. Beoan shone with the episcopal dignity; and that all of them were buried and particularly venerated in one church of Ulster; which things must be kept carefully before the eyes that we may distinguish them from those of the same name. But first the places there designated, signified by more than one form of words, must be inquired into more accurately.
[2] [Where Tamlachta-humail or Tamlachta-menand at the lake of Bricrend in Ubechach-Uladh, the place of burial of those three saints, is to be sought.] In the first place it is not to be doubted that Uladh, which is found everywhere, is Ulster , which among the four provinces into which the whole of Ireland has been divided from before human memory, inclines most to the north and has Armagh as metropolis; or, if it is preferred, part of County Down . For sometimes Uladh was enclosed within narrower bounds, so that it was almost contained in the limits of this county. Colgan explains this matter most aptly to our purpose. The whole province, he says [John Colgan, Trias thaumaturga, p. 109, n. 31. Cf. Vallancey's Collectanea de rebus Hibernicis, The ancient topography of Ireland by W. Beauford, vol. III, pp. 424 and 425.], which today is called Ulster, was by the ancient writers in the native speech called now Ulta, now Ulaidh, and in Latin Ultonia, Ulidia, or more rightly Uladia; but after first the Dal Fiatach, afterwards the stock of Colla, and then the sons of Niall invaded the same province with a powerful hand and reduced it for the greater part to their power, the ancient inhabitants being driven back to narrower bounds; that region of the same province, which today is almost enclosed by the limits of County Down, began in the course of time to be called Ulidia and its inhabitants Ulidians. And indeed h. Echad, Ui-Echach, Ubechia, Ivechia, four forms of the same name Ibh-Each Cf. the Map of ancient Ireland of William Beauford, in Vallancey. (by which is signified the region near Lake Each, now Lough-Neagh), is represented by the present district of Iveagh in County Down, which is divided into upper and lower, in the common terms Lower Iveagh and Upper Iveagh. Archdall Monasticum Hibernicum, p. 129. and with him Carlisle Topographical dictionnary of Ireland, under Tamlachta Umhail. would have it that the church of Tamlacta-umhail or humail was situated in the barony of Upper Iveagh; but since at the same time they admit that they do not know in what place of this region, their testimony is perhaps not to be made so much of. That it was placed at the lake of Bricreann, also Bricrenn or Bricrend, is established from the words of the martyrologists recited; but what that lake is no one so far seems to have found. Which matter becomes more difficult day by day, since, the waters having run off or having been exhausted by art, lakes are gradually changed into
fields; so that in the old maps of Blaeu many more lakes are indicated in County Down than in more recent ones. I do not know whether the Irish will derive any light from the very name of the church, which is written Tamlachtain-humail, Tamlachta-humail, Tamlachta-menaind and Tamlacht-menand. Tamlacht, which is also written Tavelagh, Tauelagh, Tamlact and Taimlacht Sam. Lewis, Topogr. dictionary of Ireland, under Tallaght., signifies a cemetery; humail, in Latin umalia, is turned by William Beauford In Vallancey, Collectanea, vol. III, p. 425. as if it came from hy mal gae and were the same as a district near a great sea; and the very name of the lake Bricreann, rather Bri-grian, seems to signify near the bottom of the sea; so that, if those things are right, Tamlachta in humail seems to have been situated in the parish of Kilmegan, since part of the bay of Dundrum there runs into the land. But these things are so uncertain that it would perhaps be better to have said this one thing, that that church was established in one or other barony of Iveagh. For the rest, enough has been said by which two of those three saints (for Nasadius does not seem to have anyone of the same name, unless that name is the same as Nessan, borne by many saints of Ireland, as Colgan shows Acta SS. Hiberniæ, p. 629.) may be distinguished from those of the same name.
[3] Very many saints named Beoan or Bean are recorded and distinguished; Now since SS. Beoan and Mellan are here joined and the same names occur together in the Lives of St. Fursey, which our predecessors edited at the 6th day of January, the most celebrated Irish hagiographer judged Ibid., p. 21, number 1, and p. 90, number 19, and p. 271, number 1. that they are the same as ours; but those who lived with St. Fursey originated from Ireland, and not from Britain, nor were their bodies preserved in Ui Echach of Ulster, but at Péronne in Gaul, as Henschen long ago observed in the Life of St. Medan or Meldan of Péronne Acta SS. vol. II of February, p. 67.. Our same St. Bean is to be distinguished from St. Bean, son of Nessan, venerated in Feigh-Cullen in Kildare, as is read at the 8th day of August in the Martyrology of Tallaght; for not only is the day of veneration or burial wholly different, but also, what is of greater weight, the place. Nor can he be confused with St. Bean of further Ulster, of whom Giraldus Cambrensis proclaims these wonders [Tractatus de miraculis Hiberniæ, in Messingham, Florilegium insulæ sanctorum, p. 426; Topographia Hiberniæ, dist. II, ch. 40, in Camden, Anglica, Normannica etc. scripta, p. 730. Frankfurt, 1603.]: In the further part of Ulster there are certain mountains in which cranes and storks and various birds nest abundantly in their season on account of the refuge and peace shown there by the inhabitants not only to men, but also to cattle and birds, out of reverence, namely, for St. Bean, whose place it adorns. This saint, in a wonderful and unheard-of manner, protects not only the birds, but also the eggs of his birds. For if, to take the eggs, you put forth your hand, you see immediately chicks wrinkled and red and as if already hatched in the same hour. But if you draw back your hand with the will to do so, you see again, whether miraculously or by illusion, against the course of nature, the chicks either converted or reverted into eggs. Let two approach, an inspector and a robber; the latter will see chicks, the former eggs. From which fable it appears that in the 12th century another St. Bean was held in the highest veneration by the people (for from nowhere else does that singular kind of fiction arise); but since Giraldus refers this saint in express words to further Ulster; and ours lay in hither Ulster (for County Down lies to the east and is nearer to Wales or England), we are forced to distinguish between these also. Colgan judges Acta SS. Hiberniæ, p. 503, n. 46. that St. Bean of further Ulster is the same as the one who is read to have been the cousin of St. Cadroe, in the 10th century abbot of Metz in Lorraine, illustrated at the 6th day of March by the Irish hagiographer and by our predecessors; but, as has been shown there by our men Acta SS., vol. I of March, p. 476., this conjecture rests on no foundation except the likeness of names, and it is not even established that Bean, the kinsman of St. Cadroe, was ever reckoned among the saints; much less that he enjoyed, two centuries after his death, so great a veneration as we have stated from Giraldus. There is recorded also in the seventh Life of St. Patrick among the disciples of this blessed man a Beoan Trias thaumaturga, p. 156, ch. 32., whom Colgan judges Ibid., p. 186, n. 62. to be the same as St. Bean, arising from the stock of Lugaid Mac Con, formerly very powerful in southern Munster, whom the genealogical Sanctilogium mentions and who is the same as St. Beodus of Ard-charnia, who is venerated on the 8th day of March; but this opinion is improbable: for the names do not seem to agree; and indeed, when the Irish hagiographer himself comes to this day, he has omitted to call him a disciple of St. Patrick Acta SS. Hiberniæ, pp. 562 and 563.: add that it is not established that the disciple of St. Patrick was ever honoured with ecclesiastical cult. Another St. Beoan, brother of SS. Assan, also called Massan, Cassan and Richell, virgin, I find in the Irish poem on the saints of Cinel Laeghaire, a small part of which from the book of Ballymote the most learned James Henthorn Todd has not long ago edited The irish version of the Historia Britonum of Nennius, p. CXVI.; but again nothing persuades us that he is the same as our St. Beoan. Besides those I have so far touched on, there come others of the same name at the 3rd, 16th and 23rd days of December; of the second of whom I have touched on something in the collection on St. Bean, bishop of Mortlach in Scotland, which you have here at this day. But these three are to be omitted in this place, since they will be spoken of in their time, and surely better than now, when many Irish hagiographical books have not yet been published, which are now gradually coming to light with wonderful accuracy and learning.
[4] likewise several saints named Mellan. Several saints named Mellan or Meldan also are recorded among the heavenly ones of Ireland. There comes first St. Mellan or Meldan, confessor of St. Fursey, who seems to be announced in the Irish calendars at the 16th day of January and the 7th of February and who was illustrated by our Henschen at this latter day in our Acts. There is added St. Mellan, son of Darius, who with his brothers and quite many other saints was buried in the monastery of St. Luan, which is called Cluain-ferta-Mo-lua, and is said to have been venerated on the 7th day of February Colgan, Acta SS. Hiberniæ, p. 58, n. 8.. Third is St. Meldan or Mellan of Kill-rois, whose memory is said by Colgan Ibid., p. 271, n. 1. to have been celebrated on the 28th day of January; fourth St. Mellan of Cluain-aoi or of Cluana-hi, inscribed in the Martyrology of Tallaght at the 19th day of March M. Kelly, Calendar of irish saints, p. XIX.; fifth St. Mellan, bishop of Cluain-chremha, and disciple of St. Patrick, who received his place of rest in the region of Delbhnaassuil [Colgan, Vitæ SS. Hiberniæ, p. 780, ch. 2; Trias thaumaturga, p. 86, ch. 93; p. 113, n. 104; p. 130, ch. 9; p. 266, col. 1.] and whom Colgan would have inscribed in the martyrologies on the days 28 January and 26 October Ibid., places cited.; yet by a manifest error, since the one venerated on this day was buried in Tamlachta-humail. To these add Meldan, bishop, uncle of St. Cuthbert, about whom Colgan has disputed somewhat Vitæ SS., p. 679, ch. 5; p. 691, nn. 7 and 8., having nothing certain to bring forward, yet judging that he is the same as the one who in the Irish martyrologies at the 7th day of February is called St. Meldan of the island of the sons of Hua Coinn in Lake Oirbsen in the region of Hi-Oirbsen in western Connacht. What I may add concerning St. Nasadius I do not have: for the things in the old Glossary on the Festilogium or metrical Calendar of St. Aengus, which not long ago the distinguished W. S. prepared for the press at Dublin and published at London Three irish glossaries, p. 137., pertain to the meaning of his name (it is established from elsewhere that Nasad has the force of celebrated, noble); namely that Nassad or Nasad is the old form of Gnathugud: whether the learned Irish philologists will grant this I vehemently doubt. From them moreover more and better things about those three saints may be awaited.
Annotata* Ulster
* Down