ON ST. ERNACH, VIRGIN, NUN, DISCIPLE OF ST. PATRICK, IN IRELAND,
ABOUT THE MIDDLE OF THE FIFTH CENTURY.
HISTORICAL COMMENTARY.
Ernacuag, nun in Ireland. (S.)
BY R. D. B.
§ Sole. The cult, birth, office, fall and correction of St. Ernach.
In the Calendar of the Saints of Ireland which William Reeves composed [Ecclesiastical Antiquities of Down, Connor and Dromore, page 380. Compare page 300.], at the 8th day of January we read: St. Ernach, virgin, St. Eargneath, virgin, of Dun-da-en; and at the 30th day of October: St. Ernachuag, of Dun-da-en and together St. Herenat, virgin, of Dun-da-en. This statement he borrowed from the native Martyrology of Donegal written in Irish, or of Michael O'Clery [The Martyrology of Donegal. Compare Royal Library of Brussels, manuscripts 4639 and 5095.], published by himself and James Todd. For there on the 8th day of January occurs: Eargnat, virgin of Dun-da-en in Dalriada, and on the 30th of October: Hercnat, virgin in Dun-da-en in the Forest of Dalriada. Likewise in the Martyrology which is called of Blessed Oengus, composed about the year 900, at the 8th day of January [Whitley Stokes, On the Calendar of Oengus, page XXVII, in Transactions of the Royal Irish Academy, Irish manuscripts, volume I, part I, edition of 1880.] is celebrated Ercnat hua[g] an orbba, otherwise Ercnait uag an orba: which signifies: Ercnat, virgin, the inheritance, or, if we follow the venerable John O'Hanlon: Ercnat, chosen for the heavenly inheritance [In O'Hanlon, Lives of the Irish Saints, volume I, p. 125. Compare Brussels Manuscript Codex 5100, folio 96 verso.]. There at the 30th day of October: Hernach huag ardage, otherwise Ernach uag ardaige, or Ernach, virgin, lofty pillar Whitley Stokes, work cited, page CLII. Brussels Codex 5100, folio 110 recto.. Where the words appear separated, Ernach uag, Ernach virgin, from which William Reeves fused one name. Ernachuag, says the same, is annotated thus in the Festilogium of Oengus: Son of Jairn is his name, and at Dun-da-en in the forest of Dalaradia he is commemorated. In very truth, in the edition of the Festilogium which recently appeared at Dublin, this little gloss is attached to the word Ernach Whitley Stokes, work cited, page CLXI.: Ernach, that is, Mac Iairnd is his name; but it did not suitably fit the quatrain; and he is in Dun Daen in the forest of Dal Araide. So you would rightly say that the gloss falls not on Ernach the virgin, but on another Ernach, who indeed was omitted in the Festilogium of Oengus. Certainly some Ernach is cited in the Menology of Donegal at the 30th day of October Todd and Reeves, Martyrology of Donegal, page 289.: Colman, abbot … Hercnat, virgin, of Dun-da-en … Dochonna. Feidhlimidh of Domhnach. Ernach, Son of Echin. In the Drummond Martyrology, very ancient, made public by Alexander Forbes, Anglican bishop of Brechin, at the 30th day of October: In Ireland the birthday … of the holy virgin Ernach Kalendars of Scottish Saints, page 27., and at the 8th day of January: Likewise in Ireland Ercnat, holy virgin, and Necten in Britain on the same day passed to Christ Ibid., page 1..
[2] venerated on the 8th day of January and the 30th of October, Although St. Eargnat is commemorated at the 8th day of January and St. Hercnat at the 30th day of October in the Martyrology of Donegal, yet William Reeves entered both in his Calendar at the 30th day of October, thinking for manifest reasons that they are one and the same holy virgin. In which matter Colgan lit the way for him Acta Sanctorum Hiberniae, volume I, page 42.. The venerable John O'Hanlon Lives of the Irish Saints, volume I, page 125. thinks that the holy virgin's birthday was celebrated on the 8th day of January, but the translation on the 30th day of October, and that opinion is confirmed by the fact that, from what is cited above, in the Drummond Calendar the saint is said to have passed to Christ on the 8th. That the honours of Saints were paid to her in the church of Cluain-da-en or Dun-da-en, otherwise Duneane, a parish of the diocese of Connor Reeves, Ecclesiastical Antiquities, pages 86, 300., writes Colgan Acta Sanctorum Hiberniae, page 42.. This chief praise Tamhlacht, a town of Ulster, had at the lake Echach Peagh, because the blessed woman was buried there. For what cause she was graced with special cult at Dun-da-en I do not find. I suspect that the Irish supposed, since St. Patrick is said at some time to have had his residence there, that St. Ernach, as a disciple of the holy bishop, stayed in the same place. From what has been said it is also clear that her name was written in various ways, Ernach, Ergnata, Eargnat, Ercnat, Hercnat, Hernat, Herenat.
[3] born of a noble family, Colgan judges Colgan, Trias thaumaturga, pages 24, 73, 124. that the holy virgin flourished about the year 460; and this, following the Lives of St. Patrick and of his disciple St. Benignus, he infers from the fact that St. Benignus, who was seven years old when St. Patrick came to Ireland in the year 431 [Lives of the Irish Saints, volume I, page 125. Compare Reeves, Ecclesiastical Antiquities, page 300.], began to be loved by her in the flower of adolescence, but when he was already a priest. Colgan's opinion seems sufficiently probable, since Benignus at that time was about thirty-five years old, and priests in that age, as it seems, were not usually ordained before the thirtieth year of their age. From the same sources, and especially from the Life of St. Benignus, which exists in the Irish idiom in a manuscript codex of the Royal Library of Brussels, Colgan learned that the father of Blessed Ernach was Darius, surnamed Derga, son of Finchadius, son of Eugene, son of Niellan. Colgan adds: This Niellan seems to be the one who gave a name to the region of Hy-Niellaim near Armagh and to the family of the same name, once flourishing in the same region. And unless my opinion deceives me, Niellan was son of Fedhlim, son of Fiachra Cassan, son of Colla surnamed Dachrioch: of whom in the genealogical Menology, chapter 9. It pleases the venerable John O'Hanlon that the family as well as the territory which are called Hy-Niellain near Armagh received their name from that Niellan.
[4] she was a disciple of St. Patrick. St. Ernach was one of the virgins who, receiving the sacred veil from St. Patrick, the apostle of Ireland, vowed perpetual chastity to God. And as she shone with her virtues in the Church of God, she was held worthy by St. Patrick to wash and repair the sacred vestments.
Indeed from a certain note which O'Curry says pertains to the Festilogium of Oengus, we learn that Ercnat, a virgin nun, was the cook and dressmaker of St. Columb Cille, and that her church is Cille [sic] Choca in Cairbre ua Ciardha now Carbury in County Kildare. Ercnat was her true name, which signifies Embroideress: since Ercadh in the old Gaelic idiom was the same as what is now delineating and painting with the needle. For this virgin herself embroidered, cut and sewed garments for St. Columb Cille and his disciples [O'Curry, Manners and customs of the ancient Irish, volume III, page 123, cited in Whitley Stokes, page CCLVII.]. For the discharge of the same office likewise there were chosen by the holy man St. Lupita, sister of St. Patrick, and Cruintheresia, daughter of a king of Britain Colgan, Acta Sanctorum Hiberniae, page 41.. Nuns of this kind do not however seem to have been deaconesses, as they are described by Pinius Acta Sanctorum, volume I of September, preliminary Tract, page 1 and following., Cabassut Notitia Conciliorum, page 25, Lyon edition, 1690., Pelliccia Christianae Ecclesiae politia, volume I, book I, page 64 and following., Mannhart Antiquitates christianae, page 106., Coleman Lyman Coleman, The antiquities of the Christian Church, chapter III, page 54. and several others; but to have shown some appearance of these. A lesser likeness they have with the lay sisters of the Premonstratensian and Cistercian Orders: whose task it was to wash the garments of canons or monks and the like, and in turn to be nourished and refreshed by them with spiritual food [Compare above, the Commentary on Blessed Ricwera, page 52; Acta Sanctorum, volume XII of October, page 391.], and who however were not employed in any special way in tending the things of divine worship. St. Ernach duly performed her office for some time, undertaking every labour that the sacred liturgy might be carried out becomingly and splendidly, yet never happier than when it was granted her to be present at the most holy sacrifice of the Mass, and at the divine offices solemnly sung.
[5] She loved St. Benignus with a dishonourable love; But that delight which she perceived from the divine praises came not far from doing her the greatest harm. For Jocelin, a Cistercian monk of the twelfth century, in the Life of St. Patrick (a work which Papebroch would have wished collected with greater choice and prudence Acta Sanctorum, volume II of March, page 521.), writes: The venerable Benignus, among the other endowments of gifts with which divine grace had enriched him, was strong in a certain prerogative of a voice sweet-sounding in song; so that he commonly pierced the ears and hearts of his hearers with compunction. But since a virtue or gift conferred by God is wont to be to many the odour of life unto life, to some the odour of death unto death; from the melody of his voice the tempter supplied the occasion of sinning. For a certain nun, Ernachuag, while she delighted over the honey-sweet singing of Benignus, often perceived by the ears, was inflamed with inward desire to the criminal sin, to be committed with that man of God himself, ignorant of this fire. So the fomentations of foul fancies being applied, her concupiscence, burning and fetid, so blazed up and grew that the flame of pernicious love could hardly be contained in her breast. And because on account of the discipline of St. Patrick the girl could not obtain a secret conversation with Benignus, from the difficulty of access and of speech with him she was burned with greater fire. So instructed by feminine cunning, feigning a very grave infirmity she lay down on a bed of pain, imploring with weeping counsel for her soul, and that the saving viaticum of holy Communion be given her by St. Benignus: for he was then a priest in rank, held in great veneration, who also adorned the priestly office with sacred acts. St. Patrick, the Holy Spirit revealing it, was not ignorant of the trouble with which that nun was labouring. So summoning his disciple, namely Benignus, he instructed him to visit the sick woman, and to minister to her what was suitable to the salvation of her soul. He, complying with his spiritual Father, having asked and received his blessing, entered the house of the woman lying sick, and making the sign of the Cross (as it was the custom of Patrick everywhere when entering any house), he put to flight all the snares of the hidden enemy, envious of the salvation or quiet of men. A wonderful thing shone forth and splendid, and, though unusual, yet most useful. Raising her eyes the girl saw the stature of Benignus who had entered to be very terrible, and his face flaming, lighting up that dwelling and herself inside and out, and St. Patrick overshadowing his head with his hands. From that hour therefore to the end of her life, she felt the venereal fire extinguished in her flesh, as if she bore a body of wood or stone, not of flesh. Thereafter that nun loved St. Benignus with a holy and sincere love, and she confessed that by his merits, through St. Patrick, she had been snatched from the fire of gehenna. Let each one then see what he thinks about this sign, because each one, according to the Apostle, abounds in his own sense: but I wonder more, and value more the miracle here done for the quickening and invigorating of a soul than the raising of someone dead in the flesh. Thus far Jocelin, who in writing the Acts of St. Patrick had in hand four Lives, now lost, of the same apostle of Ireland, composed by his disciples SS. Benignus, Mel the bishop, Loman and Patrick the younger. Jocelin's book, though not perfect in all respects, Papebroch inserted in the Bollandist Acta Sanctorum, leaving aside other Lives of St. Patrick.
[6] but she was corrected by a miracle. Two other biographers of St. Patrick also handed down to posterity the imprudence of St. Ernach, with this difference however interposed, that by them that woman is said to have loved St. Benignus with excessive love, and thence to have fallen sick and died, whereas on the contrary Jocelin reports that she only feigned sickness. The first of those historians seems to be St. Evin, who, as Papebroch says Ibid., page 520., took up some from older Latin ones, thence transcribing now paragraphs, now periods, and rendering them into Irish, and adding in the same tongue the rest which he himself knew from elsewhere and judged to be added. This writer, after he has sketched St. Benignus in nearly the same language as Jocelin, subjoins: For when St. Patrick was at Armagh, a certain virgin, daughter of a chief man in that region, namely Darius, son of Finchadius, who gave Armagh to St. Patrick; enticed by the wondrous sweetness of the singing of St. Benignus, began with the sweetness of melody to admit another delight, as harmful to virginal modesty as to life. For flames gradually growing supplied such strength to the silent fire that, as it could not be extinguished by the waters of fulfilling the desired wish, it took from the virgin first all the strength of the body, and afterwards almost life itself. When St. Benignus learned this, he disclosed the matter to St. Patrick, and the cause, as it had happened; in the lamentable case he implored and begged his help and aid. St. Patrick, hearing these things, blessed water, and ordered St. Benignus to sprinkle the body of the virgin with it; and when he had done this, that holy virgin, says that ancient author, rose up at once alive, and afterwards loved him spiritually. This is Ergnata, daughter of Darius, who rests in Tamhlacht. The matter is narrated in the same way, but less at length, by another biographer, whom Colgan Trias thaumaturga, page 162 and following., Papebroch objecting Ibid., page 44., suspects was St. Eleran. These are his words Acta Sanctorum of March, volume II, page 250.: At that time the daughter of Daire loved a disciple of the holy man, by name Benignus, with excessive love: and thence she fell sick, and died. Benignus, receiving blessed water from the saint (Patrick), went to the place in which the girl was dead, and sprinkling her with the water, she at once rose up unharmed: and afterwards she loved him spiritually. This is the holy Ercnata, daughter of Daire, who is in Tamlachta-bo Trias, page 46.. But I think faith is to be given to Jocelin rather than to the two other writers. For he, although he used the Life of St. Patrick ascribed to St. Evin Acta Sanctorum, volume II of March, page 578., yet preferred to follow other writers, as beyond doubt more truthful in this matter, in reporting the fall of St. Ernach. The same may be said of her death and return to life. Which kind of miracle is not so rare in the Acts of the Saints, as Benedict XIV has discussed [De beatificatione et canonizatione, etc., book IV, part I, chapter XXI, number 5.], briefly drawing together the commentaries of theologians on dead men called back to life by divine aid. Nor do any more things concerning Blessed Ernach occur to us to explain.