Barrus or Finbarr

ON ST. BARRUS OR FINBARR, BISHOP OF CORK IN IRELAND,

AND PERHAPS ANOTHER BISHOP OF CAITHNESS IN SCOTLAND,

The seventh and perhaps the eleventh century.

HISTORICAL-CRITICAL COMMENTARY

Barrus or Finbarr, bishop of Cork in Ireland. (S.)

Another bishop of Caithness in Scotland.

BY C. S.

§ I. The variety of the name, its etymology, and its announcement in the Martyrologies: an account of the bishopric of Cork, and the cult of its first bishop.

[ ] Various is the name of this Saint and of those of the same name; for by some he is called Barrus, by others Barreus, Barrea, Barra, This name variously written, Barius, Findbarrus and Finbarrus, most commonly however by the first and last name. In his Lives to be mentioned below, but of little credit with me, he is said to have been called Loanus or Luanus before, but afterward named Finbarrus on account of his comely head of hair. John Colgan, an Irish Minorite, in the Acts of the Saints of Ireland at the day XVIII of March, in the Preface to the Life of St. Fridianus or Frigidianus, bishop of Lucca, writes thus about the etymology of this name: "The Irish word Finnia and Finnen signifies the same as WHITE, SHINING, and metaphorically fair; and the word Finnbharr the same as WHITE or FAIR CROWN OF THE HEAD, or WHITE or FAIR HEAD OF HAIR." Bernard Mede agrees, likewise a Minorite, unless I am mistaken an Irishman, who in the Annotations to a certain manuscript Life judges that it must properly be written Fyn-Barrus; since that compound word sounds "White crown of the head" to the Irish.

[2] Dissenting somewhat from these, Sir James Ware, knight, and in some more recent Martyrologies in the Antiquities of Ireland, chapter 9, says that Barrus was the Saint's proper name, but Fin a surname. Receive his words: "To the proper names of the ancient Irish were added surnames, either from a deed done, or from a quality of mind, or from color, or from some mark or defect of body, or from chance, or ironically. Thus … St. Barrus was called Finbarrus, or Barrus the white." In a certain manuscript Life of the same Saint, or rather a Sermon, he is also called Maculinus, for what cause I do not know. Further, that varying name occurs in the more recent Martyrologies (for it is unknown to the older ones) at different days. David Camerarius, in book 3 on the Piety of the Scots, says thus at the day VI of June: "On this same day, St. Fimbarus, bishop and confessor." Then at the XXIX of September: "St. Barrus or Finlarrus (read Finbarrus), confessor and first bishop of Caithness." In the manuscript Collection of Sirin, praised by us in the Prætermissi at the day IV of July, is read: "Finbarrus, abbot of Juis-Doimhle."

[3] Various also is the announcement in Philip Ferrari's General Catalogue of the Saints, inserted at various days, may pertain who in

the Saints who are not in the Roman Martyrology. At the day XXII of August he has it thus: "In Scotland, of St. Barrea, bishop"; and he praises in the notes the Scottish Menology and Canisius's Martyrology; but I have not found it on that day either in Dempster's or in Camerarius's Menologies, or in the German Martyrology commonly called Canisius's, published at Dillingen in the years 1577 and 1599. The same Ferrari at the day X of September again says: "In Ireland, of St. Findbarr, bishop," from the Martyrology, as he says, of Suben and from the Catalogue of the Saints of Ireland. Finally at the day XXV of the same month of September, from the Scottish Calendar and Breviary, he has it thus: "In Caithness, of St. Barrus, bishop." He adds however in the Notes that he is also called Findbarnus (perhaps he meant to say Findbarrus). Thomas Dempster in the Scottish Menology at the day XXIII of August has: "Of Barrea, bishop and confessor"; at the XXIV of September: "In Scotland, of Barrea, bishop and confessor"; and at last at the XXV of the same month: "In Caithness, of Barrus, or Findbarr, a bishop most holy on every side, who also made Ireland illustrious by his preaching."

[4] to several Saints, of whom today those of Cork and But on the contrary in the German Martyrology of both editions praised above only Barrea occurs, namely at the day XXV of September, where it is to be read in German thus: "Likewise in Ireland, of the holy bishop and confessor Barrea." Greven had gone before, who in Sollier among the Usuardine auctaria says at the same day: "In Ireland, of Barrea, bishop and confessor." Castellanus followed, announcing him more distinctly in these words, but in French: "In Ireland, St. Barrius, bishop of Cork under the metropolis of Cashel in Munster." But in the margin he notes that this Saint, whom he had called in French Fimbar, is named in Latin Barrius. About the day our manuscript Florarium of the Saints also agrees, which has it thus: "Likewise of the blessed bishops and confessors Barre Barcianus, and Gerard, who was of the Order of Minors." What these words mean, however, I do not see. Of Gerard of the Order of Minors consult, if you please, the Prætermissi on this day: but since he was not a bishop, the author of the Florarium must be said to have believed Barra and Barcianus two different bishops. But who that Barcianus is, I do not know.

[5] of Caithness are venerated. An account is given In our Work at the aforesaid days St. Barrus or Finbarr occurs in the Prætermissi, and it was there at last promised that it should be examined on this day the XXV whether one or several Saints of that name must be distinguished. Let us therefore do this here, so far as the darkness of Irish and Scottish affairs of that time permits — a darkness which the zeal of both nations for claiming Saints for their own country has made yet thicker. Now at the present day two holy bishops named Barrus or Finbarr have obtained sacred cult: namely he of Cork in Ireland and he of Caithness in Scotland. Let us begin with the former of these. The county of Cork, called by the English the Countie of Corck, is a tract of Ireland in southern Munster, which province is called by them Mounster. The head of the county is the city of Cork, which the Irish call Corcah, but the English Corcke. This sits on the river Sauranus or Saverenus, which, flowing thence toward the south, after some miles falls into the Irish Sea.

[6] William Camden, in his Description of Ireland, page 739, mentions it thus: of the city of Cork, whose first bishop "On the other bank from Kinsale (of the river Bandon) lies Kerry-wherry, lately a little territory of the earl of Desmond, beside which flows the river which is the Davrona to Ptolemy, to Giraldus Cambrensis, with a single letter changed, the Sauranus and Saverenus, which, poured forth in the mountains of Muskerry, flows past that chief city of the county (of Cork), distinguished with episcopal dignity (to which the see of Cloyne is joined), which is Corcagia to Giraldus, Corcke to the English, and Korcach to the natives, enclosed by an almost oval circuit of walls, surrounded and divided by the river, and passable only by bridges, and consisting as it were of one straight street, which is joined by a bridge and extended, yet a frequented and celebrated mart." Of this see, which was afterward made suffragan to the archbishopric of Cashel in the county of Tipperary in Munster, the first is believed to have been St. Barrus or Finbarr, of whom we now treat.

[7] His ancient cult is proved by the little Litany-book, or book of Litanies, St. Barrus, anciently venerated, had a church sacred to him there composed by Bl. Ængus, on Colgan's testimony in the Acts of the Saints of Ireland, volume 1, page 630, where he recites from it the following: "Seventeen holy bishops with seven hundred servants of God, who lie with the blessed Barrius and St. Nessan at Cork, whose names are written in the heavens — all these I invoke for help." The Life of this Bl. Ængus was given in our Work at the day XI of March, and his death was there set down about the year of Christ 824; and so Barrius was already invoked among the Blessed at least in the 9th century. That in the 12th century also there was at Cork a cathedral church of St. Barrus we learn from a letter of Innocent III, Roman Pontiff, in the collection of his Letters by Étienne Baluze, volume 1, book 2, page 352, in which the praised Pontiff, confirming in perpetuity the possessions to the bishop "of Corcaien" (that is, of Cork) and to his successors canonically to be substituted, expressly speaks of the cathedral church of St. Barrus, and mentions "the lands of St. Barrus in Uturp … and the land of St. Barrus in Ciarrigi, in Ispich," etc.

[8] This letter is dated "on the II of the Ides of April, in the II Indiction, and an ecclesiastical Office, in the year of the Lord's Incarnation MCXCIX, but in the II year of the Pontificate of the lord Pope Innocent III"; all which chronological notes are right. Sir James Ware, in the Commentary on the Prelates of Ireland, page 207, suspects that the bishop of Cork to whom that same letter was given was Reginald, perhaps surnamed O-Selbaic. However that be, Bernard Mede, a Minorite and, as I think, an Irishman, in a letter sent from Cork on the XIX day of April in the year 1624 to his brother doctor Gerard Mede, and laid up with us at this day, teaches that St. Barrus was venerated in his aforesaid church with an ecclesiastical Office, while the Catholic cause stood in Ireland. With the same letter he transmitted also the Life of St. Fimbarr, which he testifies was copied by himself "word for word, as it is contained in the common Legend, or in his Office, once wont to be performed at Cork in the cathedral church." This Office has nine Lessons, all proper, but stitched together out of fables, as we shall say below.

[9] The prayer also, composed from the same Lessons, is prescribed thus: "O God, who didst choose thy glorious servant Fynbarrus from his mother's womb, and, with angels ministering, didst exalt him with the pontifical mitre, but sprinkled with fables. grant, we beseech thee, that we who are dragged down to the depths by weighing vices may, by his interceding merits, be exalted to the summits of virtues. Through our Lord," etc. In the same Office St. Fynbarrus is said indeed to have departed this life in the monastery of Cloyne, but to have been translated thence to Cork and deposited in a silver case. But although this may be true, yet I shall not easily believe it on the credit alone of that writer, who among other little fables about the obsequies did not blush to assert: "But the sun of that day (on which the Saint's obsequies were celebrated) so prolonged its space that for fifteen days it utterly refused to set"; that is, did not set. These are trifles, worthy neither of refutation, nor have I mentioned that Office for any other cause than to prove the holy Bishop's ancient cult among his own people of Cork.

[10] A more recent Mass is reviewed Not however within the bounds of Cork or of its bishopric is the veneration of St. Barrus confined. There are extant in our Museum the proper Masses of the patron and tutelary Saints of France and Ireland, published by command of Pope Clement XII and printed with Paris types in the year 1734, which Charles Gaspard Guillaume de Vintimille, archbishop of Paris, permitted to be publicly chanted also in his diocese, and Luke, archbishop of Dublin and primate of Ireland, likewise permitted to be solemnly recited in his by all priests. Among these, I say, at the day XXV of September is read a Mass on the feast of St. Barius, bishop and confessor, general patron of the church and diocese of Cork. But this, although wholly proper, savors of none of those fables with which we said the Office of Cork was stuffed; and therefore it pleases me to review it here.

[11] about him, granted to be recited also in other places. Introit. "I obtained mercy, that in me Christ Jesus might show forth all patience, for the information of them that shall believe in him unto life everlasting. Psalm. Bless the Lord, O my soul: O Lord my God, thou art exceedingly great. Glory," etc. "I obtained mercy."

Prayer. "May the unction of thy Spirit teach us, we beseech thee, O Lord, whose ineffable power the blessed pontiff Barius sweetly felt and strongly defended, that what he showed by thy inspiring must be believed and done, we may by thy working hold fast in our manners and doctrine. Through our Lord," etc.

There follows the reading of the Epistle of blessed Paul the apostle to the Ephesians, chapter 1, from verse 2 to 10.

Gradual. "O Lord, thy knowledge is become wonderful from me: it is strengthened, and I shall not be able to reach it. ℣. I will praise thee, for thou art fearfully magnified. Wonderful are thy works, and my soul knoweth right well. Alleluia, alleluia. ℣. I have received a ministry from the Lord Jesus, to testify the Gospel of God."

The Gospel is read from Matthew, chapter 5, from verse 14 to 20.

[12] Offertory. "He was known in his words to be faithful, because he saw the God of light: he called upon the almighty Lord in fighting the enemies that stood about on every side, in the oblation of the unviolated Lamb."

Secret. "As the blessed pontiff Barius drew heavenly strength from the oblation of the unviolated Lamb to destroy all knowledge falsely so called, so do thou, almighty God, deign to strengthen us who are about to offer this most holy Victim, that we may briskly overcome whatever things might hinder our salvation. Through our Lord," etc.

Communion. "They who received his word were persevering in the doctrine of the Apostles, and in the communication of the breaking of bread and in prayers."

Postcommunion. "Grant us, O Lord, in simplicity of heart to receive the saving fruits from the breaking of the angelic Bread, with whose sweetness the blessed pontiff Barius, being abundantly satisfied, faithfully renewed with his fellow-priests and levites the first-born spirit of the newborn Church. Through our Lord," etc. From what has been said thus far the cult of St. Barius, Barrus or Finbarr, bishop of Cork in Ireland, is placed beyond all doubt. I proceed therefore to his deeds.

§ II. His Lives fabulous, and not to be published: a few deeds known from elsewhere: the age in which he flourished, his monastery and disciples.

[ ] His Lives, What we are often compelled to say of the Saints of Ireland has place here too, namely that his deeds are wrapped in such inept fables that what in them is true cannot be discerned nor produce sure belief. I have already noted above that I have his Life in manuscript, copied at Cork from the Cork Lectionary or Office by Bernard Mede, whose beginning

is: "There was a certain king in Ireland, Tegernacus by name, who had a maidservant exceedingly beautiful; from whom an edict went forth through all his dominion, that no one should presume to deflower the aforesaid virgin," etc. What I think of this Life I have already said in nos. 8 and 9; nor does it please me to review its several inepitudes, much less to print the whole of it. Nevertheless, lest this censure of mine should perhaps seem to anyone passed gratuitously, I shall run through only the chief heads of the matters. The aforesaid maidservant, being got with child secretly and against the king's will by a certain soldier, is together with him handed over to be burned with fire; but amid lightnings and rain-storms the fire harms them not at all. The Infant himself too, in his mother's womb, reproaches the king's cruelty with clear voice, and so obtains life for himself and his parents.

[14] After this, coming forth into the light, he greets the king with words, of which we have three copies, and demands his parents' freedom; which being obtained, he kept silence like other children, until he came to the usual age. As a boy he is handed over to three religious men to be imbued with letters, and by them, on account of his beautiful head of hair, is called Fynbarrus, whereas he had hitherto been called Lochanus. Various miracles being wrought, he sets out for Scotland; where among innumerable prodigies he also, by fire sent from the heavens at his prayers, reduced a horrible serpent to ashes, and burned up the valley which it had occupied, and therefore was presented by the Scots with a city and a great parish. When he had set out for Rome, St. Pope Gregory, wishing to ordain him bishop, is divinely forbidden, and foretells that he must be consecrated by Christ the Lord Himself. He returns therefore into Ireland, and founds the city of Cork, where he is ordained bishop by Christ, a fountain of oil meanwhile gushing from the earth.

[15] Likewise at another time, when Christ appeared again with angels, are stitched together out of fables, at the prayers of Ealongus he is lifted into the air and sent back to earth, his right hand, which Christ had grasped, so glittering that he had thereafter to cover it with a sleeve, lest its brightness should strike down those who looked upon it. He dies at last in the monastery of Cloyne, where, while his obsequies are being celebrated by the Irish Saints, the sun for fifteen days does not set. You have here a compendium of the chief matters which are narrated in that Life, and which are of such a kind as to deserve no credit at all. Hence I do not at all wonder that the Mede praised above writes that that Life, when it had been carried to France to be published in print, was not published because of the marvelousness of the matters, which nothing but tradition supports by any authority. Another Life we have from the manuscript of the Reverend Father Hugh Ware, an Irish Minorite, whose beginning is: "The most holy and elect and most worthy pontiff of God, Barreus, sprang from the nation of the Connacians, namely from the people which is called Ybrium Ratha."

[16] and unworthy of the press. The author of this sets down first some things about the Saint's stock, which he makes yet more shameful; then he reviews the same fables everywhere, with some circumstances changed here and there; so that I judge this Life too unworthy of the press. There is with us also a third manuscript Life, in the Collection of Henry Fitzsimon, priest of the Society of Jesus, of which we have also another copy, received I know not whence. In both copies St. Barrus is called Maculinus, and the beginning is such: "Recalling the venerable memory of this most holy day, on which the glorious pontiff of Christ Maculinus, having laid down the burden of the flesh, passed over to eternal joys." For the rest this is nothing but a sermon composed in his honor from the above-said or a like Life, and stuffed with other inepitudes too, and therefore not to be published. John Colgan, in the Acts of the Saints of Ireland, in various places promised some Life of that same Saint to be given at the day XXV of September, which I gather to be different from ours from the things which he from time to time praises out of it. But he did not carry his Work down to that day.

[17] He seems to have been a disciple of St. Comgall of Bangor, It remains for me therefore only to inquire what among so many fables can be admitted about St. Barrus, and whether anything occurs about him in other Lives of better mark. I begin from the time at which he must be believed to have flourished. All the Lives of St. Barrus agree that he lived at the time when St. Gregory, namely the first of that name, presided over the universal Church of Christ, which he governed from the year 590 of the Christian era to 604. Let us see therefore whether toward that time any bishop of Cork of that name is elsewhere read to have flourished. In the Life of St. Mochoemoc or Pulcherius, abbot of Liathmore in Ireland, written by an anonymous contemporary and published by us at the day XIII of March, a certain holy Finnbharrus is reckoned as that Saint's fellow-disciple in the monastery of Bangor under the abbot St. Comgall, and is said to have been sent out by him from that same monastery among others, that he might raise a monastery elsewhere and preside over it when raised. I subjoin the biographer's words from the cited volume 2, page 283, no. 15.

[18] and by him ordered to found another monastery, "The holy father Comgall said to blessed Pulcherius: 'Son, thou must be a father of others, and build a place of God where He Himself shall grant it thee.' And these fathers were sent together with their disciples by St. Comgall, to nourish the servants of Christ in different places throughout Ireland, that is, St. Pulcherius, and the most blessed Lachtean, who founded the excellent monastery of Achadhur … St. Molua, son of Cocheus, and St. Finnbharrus, and St. Luctichernus. All these were found approved in Christ Jesus." Papebroch, who illustrated that Life in the same place, rightly judged in the Annotations that this St. Finnbharrus is no other than he who afterward governed the church of Cork as bishop; because the reckoning of time fits him excellently, nor is any other of that name produced of whom these things may rather be believed to have been said. That St. Comgall founded the monastery of Bangor in the year of Christ 551, and departed from the living in the year 601, Henschen teaches in the Commentarius prævius to his Life illustrated at the day X of May. Easily therefore could St. Finnbharrus, or our Barrus, have lived in the monastery of Bangor after the middle of the 6th century, and then in the time of St. Gregory the Great been set over the church of Cork.

[19] and to preside over it. His memory in the Lives of St. Ita Rightly also do the times of the other Saints agree, with whom he is said to have lived in the same monastery of Bangor. St. Mochoemoc's death Papebroch at the cited place first set about the middle of the 7th century; but afterward in his own copy he substituted in the margin, in his own hand: "Perhaps DCIII or DCV." St. Lachtean, otherwise Lactinus, abbot of Achadhur, then of Clonfert in Ireland, is said to have died in the year of Christ 622, in our Work at the day XIX of March. Of St. Molua, or Lugid or Luan, likewise abbot of Clonfert, we have treated at the day IV of August, where his blessed death was referred to the year of Christ 602. Both also are said in their Lives to have been St. Comgall's disciples in the monastery of Bangor. St. Luctichernus, finally, or Luchtigernus, has been reported by us among the Prætermissi at the day XXVIII of April, where he is said to have been abbot of Inis-Tomen in Thomond in Ireland, and it is noted that he is treated of in the Life of St. Ida or Ita, virgin, given at the XV of January, in which it is read that he often came to her. Now this virgin flourished in the 6th century: Colgan in the Acts of the Saints of Ireland at the day just cited bound that Saint's death to the year of Christ 569. The times therefore of all these agree so well with the age of St. Barrus of Cork that what we recited above about St. Finnbharrus from the Life of St. Mochoemoc may excellently be understood of him.

[20] In the same sixth and seventh centuries flourished St. Lasrean or Molassius, abbot of Leighlin in Ireland, and of St. Lasrean. who died, as is believed, in the year 640, in whose Life, illustrated at the day XVIII of April by Papebroch, express mention is made of St. Barrus of Cork in the words which I subjoin. "And so very many holy men flocked to him (St. Lasrean), kindled with the desire of speaking with him and of joining right hands of fellowship. On this occasion it happened that the blessed pontiff of Cork, Barrus, being about to set out for Rome, first went to him. And when, being received cheerfully, he had made a stay of three days with him, and Lasrean was detaining him for some while on the way as he departed, a covenant of perpetual friendship being confirmed between them, St. Barrus said: 'I should greatly rejoice to leave here some memorial of our compact.' Lasrean answered: 'Ask, and God will give it thee.' 'Nay, do thou ask,' he said, 'since it is we who have come to thee.'

[21] "Lasrean therefore prays; and although it was then springtime, A miracle in a hazel behold, a hazel arose suddenly from the earth, adorned with filberts, from which the cross set beside it obtained the name Krocuill in Irish, that is, the Cross of the hazel." Thus far that Life, which the praised Papebroch pronounced to have been compiled after the 11th century from older Irish manuscripts by a certain Englishman, and not everywhere of sufficiently sure credit, especially in the prodigies attending St. Lasrean's infancy. What, however, is here narrated about St. Barrus he did not reject; nor does anything stand in the way of believing that that Saint's coming to Lasrean truly happened. Further, that prodigy in the hazel is in the above-mentioned Lives of St. Barrus ascribed to him, and is said to have been done on a far different occasion. The Office of Cork has it thus: "The aforesaid king Fattaez (whose son the Saint is there narrated then to have given sight, his daughter speech, and his dead wife life), sitting with Fynbarrus under the shade of a certain hazel at a time now of spring, asked him to do some new miracle.

[22] "Presently at his prayer the hazel brought forth ripe fruit, variously narrated: other inventions appointed for the autumn season. For the tree, not yet in flower, is shaken, and fills the laps of the bystanders: which miracle being made public, the king conferred a part of his land on Fynbarrus." Whatever be the case about this prodigy, for which I am unwilling to answer, it is reported with more likely circumstances by St. Lasrean's biographer than by the fable-teller of Cork. Of St. Barreus, abbot of Cork, the writer of the Life of St. Senan, bishop and abbot of Iniscathy, likewise in Ireland, also makes mention, which Life you have illustrated in our Work in volume 1 of March at the day VIII, where on page 772, nos. 20 and 21, St. Barreus is said, while Senan was alive, to have presided over the monks at Cork. But since St. Senan died in the year 544, Papebroch notes in the same place that that prelacy of St. Barreus is there set prematurely, namely at a time when he had either not yet come out of adolescence, or perhaps had not even been born.

[23] about him In the same volume of March at the day 1 Henschen illustrated the Acts of St. David, bishop of Menevia in Wales, in which in chapter 3 is narrated the coming to the praised holy bishop of a certain Barrus, an Irish abbot returned from Rome. Colgan thinks this the same

as our man of Cork, and has agreeing with him the author of the Life which we mentioned in the second place in no. 15, and in which the following is to be read: "At another time, after he (St. Barrus) had visited the thresholds of the Apostles, on his return to his own he turned aside to St. David, that he might possess his blessing as an inheritance. And when he stayed for a time with that same St. David, fearing that danger threatened his disciples through his absence, he asked of St. David the horse on which he was wont to ride, that he might the more swiftly accomplish his journey. Which being granted, and the blessing obtained, he mounted the horse, and so confidently over the sea came even to Ireland. And the aforesaid horse he kept with him in the service of the brethren; but in memory of the miracle his disciples made a horse of bronze, which to this day remains at Cork."

[24] are rejected: The same little fable, with another circumstance added besides, is read in the aforesaid Acts of St. David, which Henschen reported there only in the Annotations at the letter d, as having been wrongly inserted in them, both because that narration was too fabulous, and because the age of St. Barrus of Cork by no means agreed with the age of David, whose death he there set down in the year of Christ 544. This discrepancy of the two ages James Ussher also acknowledged in the Antiquities of the British churches, where, when he had first on page 953 recorded the aforesaid coming of St. Barrus of Cork to St. David from the Life of the latter written by Giraldus Cambrensis in the 12th or 13th century, he then in the chronological Index there, page 1159, at the year of Christ 630 says thus: "Barrus (also called Barrocus and Find-barrus, but by his parents Lochanus) was famous among the people of Cork … He is said to have been trained in Leinster by Mac-curbius, a disciple of Pope Gregory, coming from Rome. And if this be true, it will not easily have to be conceded to Giraldus Cambrensis that he was σύγχρονον with David of Menevia."

[25] others left of uncertain credit. As regards Mac-curbius, he in the Life of our Saint mentioned in the second place in no. 15 is also said to have come from Rome from Pope St. Gregory, and to have been at one time St. Barrus's master. In the earlier Life, or in the Office of Cork, Torporius is read for Mac-curbius, about whom the following is there found: "Fynbarrus went to bishop Torporeus, Pope Gregory's most beloved disciple, and from him learned the Gospel and Paul." Yet who that Mac-curbius or Torporeus was I have not hitherto been able to make out from elsewhere. But to return to St. Barrus, about the time in which he flourished James Ware also thinks with us, in the Commentary on the Prelates of Ireland, published at Dublin in the year 1665, in which on page 206 he began the series of the bishops of Cork thus: "St. Barrus, otherwise Finbarrus, or Barrus the White, called also formerly Lochanus, born in Connaught, was the first bishop of Cork.

[26] The Saint flourished in the 6th and 7th centuries, "He founded the cathedral church there at the beginning of the 7th century, and when he had sat XVII years, or according to others only VII years, he died at Cloyne, which is distant about XV miles from Cork, on the VII of the Calends of October, with his friends standing about, by a peaceful death. In what year he died is not altogether certain. His body, afterward carried to Cork, was there honorably buried in his own church, and his bones, I know not how long afterward, put into a silver casket." Exactly the same things has Francis Porter in the Compendium of the Ecclesiastical Annals of Ireland, where he adopted Ware's words. Further, from what has been said thus far it seems certain that some holy Barrus, Barrius or Finbarr held the bishopric of Cork in Ireland, who by the common consent also of the other Lives and writers flourished in the 6th and 7th centuries, and who at the beginning of the 8th or 9th century was invoked by Bl. Ængus among the Saints laid to rest at Cork, and of whose cathedral church of Cork Innocent III, Roman Pontiff, expressly made mention in his letter of the year 1199. For which reason I have not hesitated to refer his death to the 7th century; but in what year of that century it happened I have nowhere been able to discover.

[27] The Saint's deeds I prefer to pass over in silence rather than to review them from such fabulous Lives perhaps ordained bishop by St. Pope Gregory. as I have said we have. Yet because inventions are not usually put together in such a way that some true things are not mixed with them here and there, it is not repugnant to the truth that he went to Rome for religion's sake: for that it was customary for the Irish to make pilgrimage to the thresholds of the holy Apostles is certain from the Lives of the Saints of that island. And on that occasion he could, toward the end of the 6th century or the beginning of the 7th, have been ordained bishop by St. Gregory, and, sent back into his fatherland, have set his see at Cork. But we believe this was done after he had, being sent out from the school of St. Comgall of Bangor with the monks over whom he himself was to preside, raised his monastery at Cork and governed it some years. Colgan, at the day XVII of March under St. Nessan, priest, patron of Cork, from a Life of St. Barrus which we do not have, recited the following about his monastery and disciples, eminent in number and in sanctity.

[28] "After this St. Barrius came to the lake which in Scottish is called Loch-eirc; He is said to have had a monastery at the lake Loch-eirc, beside which he built a monastery, to which, as to a dwelling-place of wisdom and a shrine of all Christian virtues, disciples flocked in troops from every side, in so great a number and zeal of holiness that by the multitude of monks and cells they turned that wilderness as it were into an ample city. For from that school which he set up there there came forth countless men conspicuous for holiness of life and praise of learning." Then he reviews twenty-one of his disciples, all Saints, whom I pass over, both because I do not know of what age or mark that Life is, and because I have learned by experience that in the Lives of the Irish the title of Saint is ascribed to many too liberally, and disciples and contemporaries are wrongly attributed to various persons. "All these" (Colgan goes on in the same place) "and many others who came forth from that most celebrated school, both by their sanctity and by the merits of their virtues built for themselves various cells in various places, and consecrated themselves and all their places to St. Barrius, their father and master, and to his successors."

[29] The praised Minorite in the same place names among the aforesaid disciples a certain St. Nessan, and in it many disciples and observes that three of that name are reviewed by Bl. Ængus: one a bishop, another a priest and abbot of Cork, and finally a third a deacon. Of these he judges the second to have been St. Barrus's disciple, and to be venerated on the day XVII of March. Yet he treated of him in few words at the said day, because, as he says, his deeds are the more obscure on account of those of the same name, and he had no Life of him. For the same cause he was in our Work reported only among the Prætermissi. On the contrary James Ware, in the Commentary on the Prelates of Ireland, page 206, makes St. Nessan, Barrus's disciple, brought up in the school beside the lake Logh-eirc, his successor in the bishopric of Cork, and adds that his memory is celebrated at Cork on the aforecited day of March. However these things stand, this is doubtless the same Nessan whom Bl. Ængus, reported in no. 7, invoked among the Saints resting at Cork, and whom Pope Innocent III in the letter praised in the same number also called a Saint, reckoning the church of St. Nessan among the possessions of the bishopric of Cork.

[30] illustrious for sanctity and learning: another monastery of his Of the same St. Barrus's disciples Ussher too makes mention in the chronological Index at the year of Christ 660 thus: "Ten disciples of Barrus of Cork were famous in Ireland; among whom Colman, son of Leninus, the first bishop of Cloyne." About Colman the praised Ware agrees, page 215. But he is said to have died on the IV day of November, where this can be examined. Colgan, under St. Talmach at the day XIV of March, places that school at the lake Loch-eirc or Loch-erce in the southern and maritime part of Munster, nor do I find more about it. This seems to have been different from that monastery of which Ware makes mention in the Antiquities of Ireland, page 196, thus: "Near Cork, the monastery of St. Barrus, otherwise Finbarr. Cormac, king of Desmond, built it for Canons Regular of the Order of St. Augustine about the year MCXXXIV in honor of St. John the Baptist. And it is (unless I am mistaken) that monastery of Ibrach built by King Cormac, of which St. Bernard speaks in the Life of Malachy. His son Dermot (who succeeded Cormac) enriched it with possessions about the year MCLXXIII.

[31] near Cork, "This monastery for many years, the former name being antiquated, is called the Monastery of the cave of St. Finbarr, and commonly Gille Abbey, namely from Gil-Æda, an abbot of great name there and afterward bishop of Cork, who died in the year of the Lord MCLXXIII." In the same Ware, in the Commentary on the Prelates of Ireland, page 207, he is called Gilla-Æda O-Mugin, and is likewise said to have been abbot of the monastery of the Cave of St. Finbarr near Cork; but there he is noted as having died one year earlier; and it is added: "From him the monastery there of Canons Regular of the Order of St. Augustine of the Cave of St. Finbarr, commonly called Gille-Abbey, keeps its name." So he; from whom partly dissenting, Louis Augustin Alemand, in the Monastic History of Ireland, published in French at Paris in the year 1690, page 54 and following, prefers to believe that that monastery near Cork was first raised by our St. Barrus himself, and is altogether different from that of Ibrach, which he judges to have been named rather from St. Ibar — who had a notable monastery in the island of Beg-eri — than from St. Barrus.

[32] afterward called by another name. As regards our purpose, to me too it appears more likely that the monastery of Cork was raised by St. Barrus and perhaps also dedicated to St. John the Baptist; but afterward restored by King Cormac and handed over to Canons Regular. This, I say, appears to me more likely, because it is established from elsewhere that St. Barrus was bishop and abbot of Cork; nor is any other reason produced why that monastery should have been called of the Cave of St. Barrus. More about this holy Prelate I have not, for that the Letter on the ceremonies of Baptism, which Francis Porter in the Compendium of the Ecclesiastical Annals of Ireland doubtfully ascribed to him, is not his, we shall show in no. 49.

§ III. Conjectures about St. Barrus or Fymberrus, venerated in the dioceses of Caithness and Aberdeen in Scotland: little Works attributed to him.

[ ] In Caithness, a province and bishopric of Scotland We have seen above in §1 that a certain holy Barrus, Barrea or Finbarr, bishop of Caithness in present-day Scotland, is announced on this same day and on others in some Martyrologies. Caithness, among the inhabitants Caithnes, is a tract of Scotland on the farthest coast, where toward the north and the Orkneys it is bounded by the Pictish firth. William Camden in his description of Scotland has this about it: "Higher up (above Sutherland) lies Caithness, commonly Catness, facing the German sea, and bent with a numerous circuit of shores, in which in Ptolemy's age the Catini,

but wrongly in the copies the Carini, were; among whom that same Ptolemy places the river Ila, which today seems to be the Wifle. To its inhabitants the greatest revenue comes from pasturing cattle and from fishing. The chief castle is called Girnego (now it is called Castle Sinclair), in which the earls of Caithness mostly reside. The episcopal see is at Dornoch, otherwise an obscure little village, where King James IV also set the seat of the sheriff of Caithness, or at Wick, as circumstances required."

[34] That its bounds were once ampler may be seen in Blaeu, volume 6 of the Geography, page 126, in the description of Sutherland a certain St. Barrus had an ancient church published from the manuscript of Robert Gordon, from which I transfer hither some things pertaining to our purpose: "The bishopric of Caithness (without doubt) first had this title from the Catti, for this diocese includes in its compass not only Caithness, but also Sutherland, Strathnaver, and Assynt, all which were known by the one name of the Catti. The bishopric therefore rather enjoyed the title of the whole Catti country, than of that part and promontory of Caithness. Nay, the cathedral church with the houses of the canons and the episcopal see still stands not in Caithness but at Dornoch, a town of Sutherland. Thus in the course of time this province of the Catti, the ancient name being set aside and antiquated, began to be called by the title of Sutherland." Thus he there of the ancient extent of the province of the Catti; after which, many things being interposed, the following is subjoined about the same bishopric and the cult of St. Barrus.

[35] "The chief town of this province (Sutherland) is Dornoch, and cult, as also an Office conspicuous for the citadel of the earls of Sutherland and for the cathedral church sacred to the holy Virgin. The founder of this church was Gilbert, bishop of Caithness; therefore it is marked with his name … The parish church of this town, sacred to St. Barrus, was long ago demolished at the beginning of what they call the reformation. But by the fairs of St. Barrus, St. Gilbert, St. Bernard and St. Margaret (to which a huge multitude of men flocks yearly from the northern regions of Scotland) this town is celebrated enough." In the new description also of the same province in the praised Blaeu, page 129, the same things are to be read about the cathedral church in the town of Dornoch, and it is said that only the ruined walls of the parish church of St. Barrus, which we said was destroyed by those innovators, survive. Of the fairs named from that same Saint mention is likewise made there. That his cult flourished also in the diocese of Aberdeen, and perhaps flourishes even today among the Catholics, we have from the Breviary of that diocese, published in print at Edinburgh in the year of Christ 1509, a manuscript copy of which is with us, and in which at this day the XXV of September an Office of St. Barrus or Fymberrus is read as prescribed.

[36] in the Breviary of Aberdeen, in which These things indeed leave no doubt of the sacred ecclesiastical veneration of some St. Barrus through the provinces of Caithness and Aberdeen in present-day Scotland; but who that St. Barrus is, is not so well ascertained. The Aberdeen Office just praised has nine Lessons, of which the first three and the last three are proper to St. Fymberrus, the remaining three in the middle to St. Firminus, bishop and martyr. Its history is of the same bran as the Office of Cork, from which seem to be drawn what is narrated in the first five Lessons about the Saint's birth and his prodigious speech in his mother's womb. After these, the rest being omitted, the last Lesson has it thus: "When the little Infant was born, I say, being regenerated * in the water of Baptism, the name Fymberrus is given him, who, afterward instructed in the letters of the Gospel, sets out for Rome, where a little after he was appointed a prelate by Gregory the most holy father. Then, returning to Scotland, he persuaded very many to keep the faith of Christ; under whose tutelage too the most reverend father Columba long served in the order of levites, by whose grace it happened that very many miracles were wrought."

[37] that Saint is partly confounded with him of Cork, The Aberdeen Office therefore differs from that of Cork and from the other Lives of St. Barrus, first in that, as it is much briefer, so it is woven of fewer fables. Secondly, in that it says St. Fymberrus was born not in Ireland but in Scotland; unless perhaps by Scotland it designates, after the manner of the ancients, Ireland; which however is less likely, since the author of the Breviary seems rather to have wished to indicate present-day Scotland, in which Aberdeen is situated. Thirdly, in that it means that the same Saint was not only ordained by St. Pope Gregory, but even appointed bishop in Italy. Fourthly and finally, in that it declares that the same, returning from his Italian bishopric into Scotland, preached, and had St. Columba among his disciples. From all these it follows that St. Barrus or Fymberrus, whom the Scots venerate, is by them held partly the same as him of Cork, partly different. For they indeed make him the very same, when they record the same prodigies — or more truly inventions — about his birth as the people of Cork, and when they refer him to St. Gregory's Pontificate, and when they venerate him yearly on the same day as the people of Cork do theirs, and with the same proper Prayer (for this too is the same in both places).

[38] and partly distinguished from him. But on the contrary they distinguish him from him of Cork by his birth in present-day Scotland, by his bishopric first in Italy, then in Caithness in Scotland, and by St. Columba's training under his discipline, all which cannot fall upon St. Barrus of Cork. Besides this, it does not appear on what occasion so notable a cult of St. Barrus, bishop of Cork in northern Ireland, should have been received among the people of Caithness on the southern coast of Scotland and observed so long. Certainly the parish church of Dornoch or Dunrodun dedicated to him, and the fairs wont to be celebrated under his name, seem to be referred rather to a native Saint than to a foreign one. But what the Caithness Office records about his Italian bishopric and about St. Columba being trained by him has been taken from the Lives of St. Findbarr of Moville and of St. Frigidianus, bishop of Lucca in Italy, to whom these things pertain, and whom the author of the Office confounded with his own Saint, as we shall show below. Let us see therefore what can more probably be settled in this darkness about St. Barrus or Fymberrus, whom the people of Caithness venerate as their first bishop.

[39] Hector Boece, in book 12 of the History of the Scots, ascribes the foundation of the bishopric of Caithness to Malcolm, king of Scotland, in these words: Malcolm, king of Scotland, "Malcolm, always urged on by his wife Margaret, never sufficiently praised by any panegyrics, that piety might the more easily flow out upon all the people, set himself with the utmost care to restore that which was chief, and had been for the greatest part lost through negligence, and to advance it with great additions. Before these times there had been four bishops of Scotland (that is, bishoprics), of St. Andrews and of Mortlach, which even then stood in their vigor; and two other bishoprics, of Whithorn and of Glasgow, which, having then collapsed, had almost perished from the time of Kentigern and Ninian. These first he restored, men eminent in virtue and erudition being chosen from all Scotland; and he added two others to them, of Moray and of Caithness, over which, as over the former, he set most notable men, and enclosed them within their own bounds." Presently he subjoins that from these a rich fruit at once began to be gathered in the church of Scotland.

[40] John Leslie, bishop of Ross, agrees, in book 6 on the Affairs of the Scots, at the persuasion of his wife St. Margaret, saying thus under Malcolm III: "Then for the first time Moray and Caithness, on Malcolm's initiative, had new bishops; and the remaining four, namely those of St. Andrews, Mortlach, Whithorn and Glasgow, being adorned with various benefices and privileges, were rendered by him much ampler and richer. Over which he took care that men eminent in virtue and erudition, chosen from all Scotland, should be set." George Conn adds, in book 1 on the Twofold State of Religion among the Scots, where he says: "Two episcopal sees were founded by Malcolm, one in Moray, the other in Caithness." I add also George Buchanan, who in book 17 of Scottish Affairs writes: "The king (Malcolm III), whom he himself calls Micolumbus, added to the four earlier bishoprics … those of Moray and of Caithness, men being sought out who were learned and pious, as those times went." Finally others also agree, whom there is no need to report here.

[41] This Malcolm, king of the Scots, had as wife St. Margaret, founded the bishopric of Caithness, by whose exceptional virtues he was wholesomely captivated, laid aside his former ferocity of mind, and is narrated to have done many things justly and piously by her counsel, in the Life of that holy queen written by Theodoric, monk of Durham, her confessor, and illustrated in our Work at the X of June, on which she is venerated. That biographer indeed records many things about the care which she, her husband the king consenting, bestowed upon establishing ecclesiastical discipline through the whole kingdom; but of the bishoprics then erected he makes no mention. Papebroch nevertheless suspected in the Annotations to chapter 2 that in one of the councils which, at Margaret's instance, the same biographer testifies were then frequently held, the said erection of bishoprics was accomplished with the Roman Pontiff's approval; which is altogether likely. For the rest, the marriage of that same Saint with Malcolm Papebroch there fixed at the year of Christ 1070, but the death of both at the year 1093, between which accordingly the beginnings of the bishopric of Caithness must be set.

[42] Further, who was first set over that bishopric by whom St. Barrus, the first bishop, the writers alleged above do not teach. But John Spottiswoode, the heterodox archbishop of St. Andrews in Scotland, in book 2 of the History of the Church of Scotland, page 110, indicates him thus in English words: "This bishopric (of Caithness) was founded by Malcolm III about the year MLXVI (rather, a little later, from what has been said above), over which he set a certain Darrus, whom he greatly loved. This man lived long and in great esteem, and after his death was venerated as a Saint." That by Darrus here Barrus is designated, the affinity of the name and the cult asserted persuade. Certainly Thomas Dempster names the same Barrus, in book 3 of the Ecclesiastical History of the Scots, where, agreeing about Malcolm's time, he says this: "St. Barrus, or Fimbarrus, bishop of Caithness, acceptable to King Malcolm III for the sanctity of his life, as Turgot has reported in his Life … He was famous in the year MLXXIX. He is venerated with churches and altars erected in many places of the kingdom, on the day XXV of September." For these things he praises the Scottish Breviary, and adds: "More certain Acts have perished." But in the Scottish or Aberdeen Breviary, besides the cult of St. Fimberrus, nothing of the sort, nay rather the contrary, is to be read, as is established from what was said above.

[43] is said by some then to have been made there; Yet with Spottiswoode's and Dempster's assertions agrees the title which in our copy of the praised Aberdeen Breviary is read prefixed to the Office of St. Fymberrus at the day XXV of September in this manner: "The Life of St. Fymberrus or Barrus, first bishop and confessor of Caithness, under King Malcolm III, in the year MLXXIX, September XXV." He therefore may deservedly seem to be that St. Barrus, Fymberrus or Finbarr venerated in Scotland, to whom the author of the said Breviary partly adapted the Acts of the Saints of the same name, Barrus of Cork and another of Moville, and Frigidianus of Lucca, bishops. Certainly on this reckoning it is plain

whence that notable cult of St. Barrus grew strong in Caithness, and to him will deservedly be referred in part the praise with which the authors cited in no. 39 and the following briefly recorded the bishops set by Malcolm over the new sees of Moray and Caithness. Yet I should not dare to assert this so certainly that a scruple does not remain with me, lest from the cult which was paid to St. Barrus as bishop of Caithness Dempster took it into his head that he was the first bishop of the see of Caithness, which it was established from elsewhere had been erected by Malcolm III; and that Dempster, having perhaps read that Darrus was made by that same king the first bishop of Caithness, for the same cause and at the same time for the affinity of the name, pronounced that he was honored among the Saints. But nothing stands in the way of some bishop having lived in Caithness long before Malcolm, although the bishopric was there only afterward stably founded.

[44] which opinion, although likely enough, By a like reasoning he could have been led who copied out the Aberdeen Breviary for us; unless perhaps he followed one or the other of these, and they one another. I said, "who copied out the Aberdeen Breviary for us"; for I do not judge that the aforesaid title is read in the printed Breviary, both because that is unusual in Breviaries, and because in the Lessons themselves no mention at all is made of Malcolm; but on the contrary the Saint is in them referred to far other times, namely to St. Gregory's Pontificate. Let us return to Dempster. He praises Turgot in his Life, namely Malcolm's (for this Life, not St. Barrus's, Dempster himself reviews among his little Works); and if this be true, it cannot be doubted that St. Barrus flourished under Malcolm, to whom Turgot was very familiar. That there was by him some Life of that same St. Margaret and of Malcolm written in the vernacular, Hector Boece teaches in book 12 of the History of the Scots, writing thus: "Being made bishop of St. Andrews (Turgot) wrote the Life of St. Margaret and of King Malcolm, in the vernacular tongue indeed, but with no less elegance than piety and truth, as one who was most familiar with them while they lived."

[45] is nevertheless not altogether certain, nor supported by ancient testimony. Again in the same book he says: "But with how great piety toward God, and how holily among men Malcolm and his wife lived, and with how great industry they endeavored to amend the manners of men, he will easily understand who shall take care to read Turgot's book on the life of Malcolm and St. Margaret." So he; but that this Life was in his own time sought in vain Papebroch noted in the Commentarius prævius to the Acts of that same holy queen, §1. Nor does Dempster himself indicate otherwise than obscurely that he had seen it, when in book 18 of the Ecclesiastical History of the Scots, under Turgot, enumerating his little Works, he indeed records "the Life of King Malcolm, 1 book; the Life of the holy queen Margaret, 1 book"; but only on Boece's credit, subjoining: "Boece is witness of both." Although even so he praises Boece ill, who says that not two, but one single Life of both together was written by Turgot. Dempster therefore did not see that little Work of Turgot which he so confidently praises, saying: "St. Barrus or Fymbarrus, bishop of Caithness, acceptable to King Malcolm III for the sanctity of his life, as Turgot reported in his Life."

[46] Turgot's testimony being removed, those things about St. Barrus's bishopric of Caithness and his age rest only on those more recent writers, Another's assertions opposed to this, so far at least as I know, whose authority is not of such weight with me as to make me certain. Yet I shall gladly lay aside that doubt if anyone shall find the often-mentioned little Work of Turgot, and in it Dempster's assertions. From this opinion Nicholas Wemyss, a Scot, priest of the Society of Jesus, departs far, in the manuscript booklet which, at our Sollier's demand, he composed on the Undoubted Saints of Scotland and transmitted to him. He would have St. Fimbarrus referred altogether to the 6th century, and speaks of him thus: "He brought back the Catini and Cornavii into the fold of Christ; and consequently he is deservedly named the Apostle of those peoples. He fixed his see at Dornoch in Sutherland, or the southern land of the Catini. His monastery under Malcolm III was raised to a bishopric: this is the origin of the error among more recent writers. The cathedral church of Dornoch was sacred to St. Fimbarrus, where his sacred remains were venerated by the faithful until the total extirpation of the holy faith in those coasts. He must be diligently distinguished from the Fimbarrus of the Irish."

[47] Thus far he, alleging no witness of what he says, no document for it, but they are reported unproved. no reason. Nay more, what he says of the cathedral church of Dornoch or Dunrodun being sacred to St. Barrus is contrary to what was said in no. 35, where the parish church indeed is said to have been dedicated to him, but the cathedral, built by bishop Gilbert, to the holy Virgin. Of this holy Gilbert, bishop of Caithness, who died toward the middle of the 13th century, we have treated in our Work at the day 1 of April, and it was there also said from the Aberdeen Breviary that he rests in the church of Caithness built by his own hands. Yet perhaps before this St. Gilbert's times the church of St. Barrus was the cathedral, and after the new one had been founded by Gilbert was made only parochial. However it be, I cannot believe Wemyss, who asserts all these things without witness and argument, and I incline rather to that opinion which sets St. Barrus as the first bishop of Caithness under Malcolm III, king of the Scots; although I do not think this certain either, for the reasons which I alleged above.

[48] Dempster in book 2 of the Ecclesiastical History of the Scots places St. Barrus among the writers, Little Works ascribed to him by Dempster, and reviews the following as his little Works: "The Synod of his church, 1 book. Letters to various persons, 1 book. An Exposition of the Psalter, 1 book. A Collection of the sacred canons, 1 book. A letter on the ceremonies of baptism. Which Henry Canisius wrongly published under the name of Alcuin the Scot; whereas that it is St. Barrus's Work the very name prefixed in the royal Library testifies, and the care of a pious man who restored the perishing memory of the most holy Prelate, these titles of his Works having long since been communicated to me." Further, Dempster's readiness in patching together fables for the glory of his own nation is better known than that his assertions can be admitted without another surety. As regards the letter on the ceremonies of Baptism, Jacques Sirmond, in volume 2 of the collection of his various Works, reprinted at Venice in the year 1728, column 679, in the annotations to the book of Theodulf, bishop of Orléans, on the Order of Baptism, really shows that it is wrongly attributed to Alcuin; but at the same time observes that it is rather Amalarius's, bishop of Trier. With Sirmond agree the writers of the Literary History of France, volume 4, page 240, under Alcuin.

[49] which Porter wrongly interpreted of him of Cork. Whatever name the codex praised by Dempster bears, it is certain that this Letter, even on Dempster's own opinion, cannot be St. Barrus's, bishop of Caithness. For it was written to Charlemagne, that is, more than two centuries before Barrus's birth, who on Dempster's opinion flourished in the year MLXXIX. There is no need to add more. By the same labor is refuted Francis Porter, who in the Compendium of the Ecclesiastical Annals of Ireland, page 197, doubtfully ascribed it to St. Barrus of Cork, saying: "His is the Letter attributed to Alcuin, on the Ceremonies of Baptism, if we believe Dempster." But Porter here erred twice: first, in that he praised Dempster, who speaks of him of Caithness, for him of Cork; secondly, in that he wished to attribute a letter written, as we have said, to Charlemagne to St. Barrus of Cork, whom he himself had affirmed in the same place to have founded that see at the beginning of the 7th century, and to have died after a tenure of seventeen, or only seven, years.

*. rather "regenerato"

§ IV. Neither St. Barrus nor Finbarr was the master of St. Columba: he of Caithness must be distinguished from him of Moville and him of Clonard.

[ ] St. Findbarr, Finian The Aberdeen Breviary, in the preceding §, no. 36, reckons among the disciples or levites of St. Barrus or Fymberrus, whom the Scots venerate today, St. Columba, namely he who was afterward abbot of Iona in the island of Iona, whose Acts our Baert illustrated at the day IX of June. In his Life, by St. Adamnan, published there, there is really a famous mention of St. Findbarr the bishop and St. Columba's master. On page 199, no. 2, this is to be read: "Likewise at another time, that same blessed man (St. Columba), a young deacon, dwelling in Ireland with Findbarr the holy bishop, when wine that was necessary for the most sacred mysteries was lacking, by the power of prayer turned pure water into true wine." In the same Life, book 2, chapter 1, no. 41, the praised biographer, calling the Saint now Findbarr, now Finian, sets forth the same miracle a little more at length in these words: "At another time, when the venerable man was dwelling in Scotia with the holy bishop Findbarr, while still a young man learning the wisdom of sacred Scripture, on a certain solemn day wine for the sacrificial mystery was by some chance not to be found at all.

[51] or Finnio "And when he heard the ministers of the altar complaining among themselves of the lack of it, he goes to the fountain, having taken a pitcher, that as a deacon he might draw spring water for the mysteries of the sacred Eucharist: for in those days he was serving in the degree of the diaconate. And so the blessed man faithfully blessed the watery element which he had drawn from the spring, invoking the name of Jesus Christ, who in Cana of Galilee turned water into wine; by whose working in this miracle also the lower, that is, the watery nature, was turned by the hands of that praiseworthy man into the more pleasing, namely the vinous species. And so the holy man, returning from the fountain and entering the church, sets down beside the altar the pitcher having such liquor within it; and to the ministers he says: 'You have wine, which the Lord Jesus has sent for the performing of His mysteries.' Which being known, the holy bishop with his ministers renders exceeding thanks to God: but the holy youth ascribed this not to himself, but to St. Finian the bishop."

[52] Finally, in the same Life, page 228, no. 85, of the same man, a bishop in Ireland but under the name of Finnio, Adamnan again makes mention thus: "At another time the holy man (Columba), a young man, went to the venerable bishop Finnio, namely his own master, an old man; and when he had seen St. Finnio approaching him, he saw likewise an angel of the Lord as his companion on the journey, and, as is handed down to us by those who knew, he intimated it to certain brethren standing by, saying: 'Behold, now you may see holy Columba coming, who has deserved to have a heaven-dwelling angel as companion of his going.'" That this Finnio, Finian and Findbarr are one and the same holy bishop is clear from Adamnan's own narration: for everywhere he calls him the holy Bishop and St. Columba's master. This same we have from the shorter Life of that same St. Columba, published in the same place, page 185 and following, whose author (perhaps Cumineus

Albus), in no. 2, narrating the same things about the angel beheld and the water turned into wine, in both places names him not Findbarr but Fennianus.

[53] There agrees also the other Life of St. Columba, published by John Colgan in the Wonder-working Triad of Ireland, page 325 and following, and St. Columba's master, in which to our purpose is read: "Therefore he (St. Columba) went to the bishop Finnian, the most brilliant light of wisdom, to learn the mysteries of the Scriptures." Then he subjoins what we have reported from others about the angel and the water changed into wine. But whence that diversity of the name could have arisen Colgan teaches at the XVIII of March in the Preface to the Life of St. Fridianus or Frigidianus, from which we have already given something in this very Commentary, no. 1. "Among the Irish … in their native idiom by a threefold expression he is called now Finnia, now Finnen or Finden, now Finnbar; and hence in Latin Finnio, Finnianus or Findianus, and Finnbarrus … But because the Irish word Finnia and Finnen signifies the same as WHITE, SHINING, and metaphorically FAIR; and the word Finnbharr the same as WHITE or FAIR CROWN OF THE HEAD, or WHITE or FAIR HEAD OF HAIR; hence either from the comeliness of his body's form he began to be called Finnia, Finnen or Finden, that is, Fair or Shining; and from the color of his hair Finnbharr, that is, Fair, White or Golden head of hair, or White or Fair crown of the head." Whence the etymology of these words is almost the same.

[54] Nor does it make for doubling Finbarr that St. Adamnan in no. 50 makes him a bishop now in Ireland, could have been now in Scotia; for Ireland in the 7th century, in which Adamnan flourished, went under the name of Scotia. Add that in both places the same miracle about the wine is narrated, which Adamnan, touched lightly in the first place, then, where he was treating of miracles of set purpose, set forth a little more fully. Nor ought the shorter Life of St. Columba praised above to detain us, when in it he is said to have wrought that miracle with Fennianus in Britain: for that passage is certainly faulty, as our Baert observed there in the Annotations to chapter 1, letter c. Further, there is no doubt that the author of the Aberdeen Breviary had regard to the aforesaid when in no. 36 he says of his own St. Fymberrus: "Under whose tutelage too the most reverend father Columba long served in the order of levites, by whose grace it happened that very many miracles were wrought." Hence it must be inquired who that Findbarr or Finnian was of whom Adamnan speaks.

[55] bishop of Moville Colgan, in the annotations to the fifth Life of St. Columba, no. 42, asserts that two SS. Finians were that Saint's masters: one bishop of Cluain-eraird in Meath; the other likewise bishop of Magbile in Ulster, provinces of Ireland. Of him of Moville there is mention in the Life of St. Comgall, abbot of Bangor, published by us in volume 2 of May at the day X in the second place, in which the biographer in no. 26 has this: "There came once to St. Comgall's monastery a man of venerable life, St. Finbarr the bishop, who lies amid many miracles in his own city of Machbile; and father Comgall rejoiced with his brethren at the coming of so great and such a guest." Presently he subjoins that milk was divinely supplied for the sake of that same holy bishop. Then in the same place, no. 28, St. Comgall is said to have learned of his death also from heaven. "On a certain night," says the biographer, "when the brethren had gathered at the church, St. Comgall said to them: 'Let us pray, dearest ones, for the soul of our father Finnbarr the bishop, which is now being carried to heaven by angels'; and on the morrow it was found to be as the holy and most pious father Comgall had foretold."

[56] who flourished a little after the middle of the 6th century, Henschen, in the Commentarius prævius to that Life, which Ussher in the Antiquities of the British churches praised as sincere, and which he likewise acknowledged, fixed the foundation of the monastery of Bangor at the year of Christ 551. Hence we learn that St. Findbarr certainly lived also a little after the middle of the 6th century, since he is here said to have visited St. Comgall at the monastery of Bangor. The Life of St. Finian of Cluain-eraird Colgan gave at the day XXIII of February, and there in the Appendix, chapter 4, noted that his death is referred by the Four Masters in the Annals to the year 548; but by Ware and Ussher from the Annals of Inisfallen to the year 552. But he himself there preferred to prolong his life at least to the year 563, because he interpreted of him what we reported in no. 52 about a certain bishop Finnio, and after which in Adamnan is added: "In those same days the holy man (Columba) with twelve fellow-soldier disciples sailed across to Britain." And this voyage both he and Baert in the Commentary bound to the aforesaid year.

[57] or Finian of Clonard; not he of Caithness; But now the miracle of the water turned into wine which we reviewed in no. 50 and the following, St. Columba is said to have wrought with him of Moville, in the fifth Life of that same Columba, which Colgan abridged into Latin from the Irish one written by Manus O'Donnell. Colgan himself however, at the day XXIII of February in the Appendix to the Life of St. Finian of Cluain-eraird, thinks that this same thing was done with the latter. But then in the Appendix to the Life of St. Fridianus or Frigidianus at the XVIII of March he confesses it doubtful with which of those two masters — if indeed he had those two — St. Columba did it; neither of them can be the same as the holy Bishop of Cork, or as him who is venerated in Scotland as bishop of Caithness. The reason is manifest from the age of them all. That St. Barrus or Finbarr of Cork was ordained bishop by St. Pope Gregory, and therefore at the end of the 6th century or the beginning of the 7th, we have seen from the common opinion in §2. To the same Pontiff the author of the Aberdeen Breviary ascribes the consecration of St. Fymberrus of Caithness, but others more probably refer it to the 11th century, as we showed in §3.

[58] But our Baert in the Commentarius prævius to the fuller Life of St. Columba, §3, proves that he was born in the year 520 or 521, who with him of Moville and died in the year 597. He could not therefore, while he was still a young deacon, have dwelt with either of those as bishop; but with some other who about that same middle of the 6th century held a bishopric somewhere in Ireland. No more can St. Finbarr of Caithness's bishopric held in Italy be admitted, before he returned into Scotland, as is read in the same Aberdeen Breviary: whence that false opinion arose must now be set forth. St. Gregory in book 3 of the Dialogues, chapter 9, mentions St. Frigdianus, bishop of Lucca in Tuscany, whom he calls a man of wondrous virtue, and whom he writes to have restrained the harmful floodings of the Serchio, that same river being wonderfully led into a new bed which he himself had marked out with a hoe. Some have made him the same as the holy bishop of Moville praised above, among whom Colgan, illustrating his deeds at the day XVIII of March, says that he is called Fridianus, Frigdianus and Frigidianus by a word corrupted by the Italians, whereas he had been called Finian or Finbarr.

[59] The memory of this St. Frigdianus of Lucca is marked twice in the Roman Martyrology; and St. Frigdianus of Lucca in the Aberdeen Breviary first at the day XVIII of March, where is read: "At Lucca in Tuscany, the birthday of St. Frigdianus, bishop, illustrious for the power of miracles; whose festival is chiefly kept on the fourteenth of the Kalends of December, when his body was translated." Then at the said day XVIII of November: "At Lucca in Tuscany, the translation of St. Frigdianus, bishop and confessor." On account of that festival my elders deferred his Acts to the cited day of November. Laid up for that day we have them already illustrated by our Papebroch, who shows in the Commentarius prævius that that holy bishop of Lucca is wrongly confounded with him of Moville. To this error the author of the Aberdeen Breviary added another, when he believed him of Lucca, so confounded with him of Moville, to be the same as him of Caithness, that is, as him who is venerated in Scotland as bishop of Caithness.

[60] Hence I judge it came about that he made St. Columba, whom he had read to have been the disciple of him of Moville, the deacon of him of Caithness, and said that he of Caithness was appointed bishop in Italy by St. Gregory the Great, was wrongly confounded: of him of Moville because that holy Pontiff mentions St. Frigdianus, bishop of Lucca in Tuscany, in such a way that he may seem to have lived about that Saint's times. Further, Colgan in the Appendix to the Lives of St. Frigdianus, chapter 2, writes that Finian of Moville is announced in some Martyrologies. Namely at the day 2 of February in the Tallaght one in this manner: "Of St. Finian, bishop of Magbile, or of Finian of Cluain-eraird"; in Maguire: "St. Finnio, bishop of Magbile"; and in the Donegal Martyrology: "Findio, bishop of Magbile." On the same testimony of Colgan, his memory recurs at the day X of September. In the Tallaght Martyrology: "Finnio, son of Hua Fiatach"; that is, he says, of the stock of the Dalfiatachii, from which St. Finian descended. In the Donegal Martyrology: "Finian, bishop of Magbile." In the Cashel Calendar: "Finian Fionn of Magbile." But the other announcements which he besides subjoins in the same place at the day XVIII of March and XVIII of November pertain to St. Frigdianus of Lucca.

[61] it will be possible to treat on 18 November, of him of Clonard on 12 December. From these gather that St. Finian of Moville had a cult on the day 2 of February, or rather the X of September: but to my elders he was unknown in the first place; and on the latter mention was made of him in the Prætermissi, further examination being deferred to the day XVIII of November, on which St. Frigdianus is venerated, and on which accordingly he will have to be treated more at large than Papebroch treated him in the Acts of that same St. Frigdianus to be published there, whom, as we have said, he proved must be distinguished from him of Moville. Finally, as regards St. Finian of Cluain-eraird or Clonard, of whom we have also made mention above, his mutilated Life, received from us, Colgan published at the XXIII of February, on which he is venerated and has a Mass among the Propers of the Saints of Ireland published in the year 1734. With us, among the Prætermissi at the said day, he is called bishop of Meath, because Clonard and other lesser sees coalesced into the one bishopric of Meath; but his Acts were there remitted to the XII of December, both because on that day he is inscribed in several Martyrologies, and because only that mutilated Life was extant in our Museum, and Colgan had promised that he would give another at the said day of December; which nevertheless, forestalled by death, as I judge, he did not perform.