OMNIUM SANCTORUM HIBERNIAE

ALL THE SAINTS OF IRELAND

  • Some Miracles of Saint Brigid

    At my blog dedicated to the Three Wonderworking Patrons of Ireland I have been looking at some of the wonders worked by Saint Brigid where bishops are mentioned. The opening episode is particularly interesting as its shows her unafraid to speak her mind in the presence of senior male clerics:

    Brigid is credited with an epigrammatic mode of speech and a certain imperiousness of manner, even with bishops. Once a bishop, with some companions, came to  her convent to deliver a sermon. They had come a long journey and greeted her with the news that they were hungry.“So are we hungry—for instruction,” she answered. “Go into church and speak first, and then you shall eat.”

    Other miracles offer more standard hagiographical fare. The miraculous provision of plenty is one of the most common tropes found in the lives of medieval saints. These miracles testify to the faith of the saints, to their trust in God’s providence and to their status as God’s favoured servants. Saint Brigid’s reputation in hagiography is one of generosity, as the following episode recounted by Alice Curtayne testifies:

    Once seven bishops together went to visit her, and they have gone down into fame as the Seven Bishops of Cabinteely. Do you suppose that Brigid was disturbed by this invasion of the episcopacy? It would not appear so. She sent one sister to the cows that had already been milked twice that day; and another sister to a larder that was as deplenished as Mother Hubbard’s; and another sister to an ale-vat that was drained dry. Yet the bishops feasted adequately, for food was a commodity Brigid never failed to find for her guests.

     The monastic virtue of hospitality is also on display in this miracle involving Bishop Bron of Killaspugbrone, County Sligo. 

    There is a charming story told of one Bishop Bron, who, journeying to Brigid with some companions, lost his way. Finding themselves stranded in a wilderness at nightfall, they were forced to sleep in the open. Then all were comforted by the same dream. They thought (as they drowsed in exhausted and chill discomfort) that through the darkness and wild weather they beheld the lights of Brigid’s settlement and that, stumbling to it, they saw her come smiling to the cashel gates to lavish upon them the hospitality for which she was famous. First the feet of the footsore guests were washed and then, installed in repose, warmth, security, they were given good food in that delightful atmosphere of solicitude that was peculiarly Brigid’s. So restful was this dream, the pilgrims suffered not in the least from their night’s exposure. They were even refreshed, and with daylight they hopefully resumed their trudge. And lo! at a turn of the road, their hearts soared to see the familiar figure in white driving towards them. Brigid, having been supernaturally warned, had come out to rescue them from their plight.

     Bishop Bron featured in another miracle involving Saint Brigid, which Alice Curtayne does not recount in her book, but which you can find on the blog here.  

    Alice Curtayne ends her chapter on Brigid and the Bishops with this tribute: 

    Brigid’s achievements and power, when contrasted with her total lack of training, stand out most singularly. In this display of creative genius, she had plainly divine gifts.The bishops did not wait for a decree of canonisation to acclaim what was so manifest to all men. But when it was discovered that she possessed, too, a genuine discernment of souls, people began to flock to her from all sides. Not the bishops only, but all the great in the land, pagans and Christians, and the humble, too, sought her out.

    Alice Curtayne, St. Brigid of Ireland (Dublin, 1933). 

    https://triasthaumaturga.blogspot.com/2026/02/brigid-and-bishops-ii.html

  • Saint Brigid and Alice Curtayne

    This is a reminder that at my other blog Trias Thaumaurga I am making a series of daily posts in honour of the feast of Saint Brigid, to run until the Octave Day. This year I am looking at the work of Irish writer Alice Curtayne (1901-1981) who has some very interesting observations to offer. I introduced the series here and new posts will be available each day.

  • Irish Saints in Miniature: Saint Cinnia, February 1

    February 1 is the feast day of Saint Brigid of Kildare, secondary patron of Ireland and the most well-known and well-loved of all our female saints. She shares her day, however, with a number of other lesser-known holy ladies, one of whom is Saint Cinnia (Cinne, Cionna), a 1928 account of whom I came across whilst browsing the Australian newspaper archives. Newspapers there syndicated articles likely to be of interest to the Irish expatriate community and I have been struck by how many relatively obscure saints they included. Cinnia was part of a feature on ‘Irish Saints in Miniature’ along with the sisters Eithne and Fidelma and like them is claimed to be one of Saint Patrick’s early converts. It is clear that the writer of this account has drawn on the hagiography of Saint Patrick and in his 2011 Dictionary of Irish Saints Pádraig Ó Riain acknowledges the Tripartite Life as the source of the stories about Saint Cinnia, her father and her monastic teacher, Cathuberis (Ceachtamair) . He confirms too her association with Druim Dubháin, County Monaghan. The saint is also documented on the Irish calendars of the saints. At February 1 the name of Saint Cinnia is found on the Martyrology of Tallaght, and on the Martyrology of Gorman where she is described as Cinne chaemhfind,’ dear-white Cinne’, as well as on the Martyrology of Donegal. The newspaper account reads:

    ST. CINNIA, VIRGIN. — February 1. St. Cinnia was the daughter of Eochod, chieftain of Oirgliialla (in Ulster). “Whilst still in the darkness of paganism, her father wished her to espouse Cormac, a descendant of the great Neill, King of Ireland; but some holy instinct urged her to refuse her consent. She was destined for a nobler spouse. When St. Patrick first arrived in her father’s territory (near Clogher), he came upon Cinnia in the forest. He spoke to her, instructed her in the faith and exhorted her to deserve the reward of virginity. Like SS. Eithne and Fidelma, she is. said to have’ been baptised by St. Patrick and to have received at his. hands the veil of virginity.

    The Apostle then commended Cinnia. to the care of the holy virgin Cathuberis, who first of all women had received the veil from his hands. She was then ruling over a large community of nuns in the convent at Druimdubh (near Clogher). Here Cinnia prayed unceasingly for the conversion of her father; but he died without receiving the light of Faith. St. Patrick raised him to life, instructed him and gave him holy Baptism. Then to Eochod ha gave a choice:

    . . .Yet awful more than beauteous.
    “Rule o’er earth,
    Rule without end, were naught to that great hymn
    Heard hut a single moment. I would die,”
    Then Patrick, on him gazing, answered : “Die!”
    And died the king once more.

    — Aubrey de Vere.

    In 482, St. Cinnia died. With St. Brigid of Fiesole and St. Darlua of Kildare, the favourite disciple of St. Brigid, St. Cinnia’s Feast day falls on that of the greatest of the Virgin Saints of Ireland— St. Brigid of Kildare.— “The Golden Hour.”

    IRISH SAINTS IN MINIATURE. The Age (Brisbane, (1928, February 18). p. 20.