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.
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.
January 11 is the traditional date when we commemorate two female saints known from Patrician hagiography: Saints Eithne and Fidelma. As I explained in a previous post here, the origins of this feast day can be traced to the seventeenth-century hagiologist, Father John Colgan, who speculated that the otherwise unidentified Saint Fidelma (Feidhealm) whose name is found in the Martyrology of Tallaght on January 11, was Feidhealm Ruadh, sister of Eithne and daughter of King Laoghaire. Father Colgan further assigned February 26, when an otherwise obscure Eithne’s name occurs on the Martyrology of Tallaght as the feast day of Fidelma’s sister. Both sisters share their names with a number of other Irish women saints. But despite the uncertainties surrounding their feast days, there is no denying the beauty of their story as recorded by Saint Patrick’s biographer Tírechan and summarized below in a 1928 newspaper article. I was hoping that ‘Irish Saints in Miniature’ might have been a regular series but this was the only article I could trace. It did however, include another female saint, Cinnia, who shares her feast day with Saint Brigid of Kildare and so I will hold over that account until February 1:
IRISH SAINTS IN MINIATURE.
SS. EITHNE AND FIDELMA, VlRGlNS. — .January 11.
The story of their short lives is set down in the Book of Armagh and in the Tripartite Life of St. Patrick.
In the year 433, St.. Patrick journeyed to Cruachan. Early next day, with his clerics, he came to the well of Clebach, not far from Rath Cruachan. Dressed in long robes with tonsured heads and sandalled feet, they sat down by the well to chant the Divine Office, just as the sun was rising over the distant hills of Leitiim. Through the meadows came two young maidens remarkable for their extraordinary beauty. The elder of the two was of fair complexion and had golden hair: the other was of ruddier features crowned with auburn hair. They were Eithne “the Fair’ and Fidelma “the Red Rose” — the daughters of Laoghaire, High King of Erin. They came attended by their maids and by the Druids, Caplait and Mael. the fosterers of the Princesses. Seeing the clerics, dressed in strange garments and speaking strange words, they were lost in wonder. They knew not who these might be — fairy men or gods, of the earth, perhaps? Eithne the Fair spoke to St. Patrick: “Who is your God? Where is He? Is He beautiful? Is He ever-loving? Is He to be found? How is He to he loved? Shall we find Him in youth or in old age? Tell us this knowledge of God.”
Whereupon Patrick instructed them and they believed and he baptised them. He blessed a white veil — not the veil of the rite of baptism but the white veil of their virginity which they had consecrated to God — and placed it upon their heads. Then they asked to see the face of Christ. But the Saint said: “You cannot see the face of Christ except you taste of death and receive the Sacrifice before death. You must first with the mouth of your heart and of your body devoutly receive the Flesh and Blood of your Spouse. Thus being quickened with the Living Food and having tasted of death, you may pass into the starry bride-chamber.” The children made answer: “Give us the Sacrifice that we. may see our Spouse, the Son of God.” .So by the well-side St. Patrick offered up the Holy Sacrifice and Eithne and Fidelma received the Eucharist of God. It was their First Communion Day and they fell asleep in death.
Later on— it may have been in the lifetime of St. Patrick — the holy relics of Eithne and Fidelma were translated to Armagh.
IRISH SAINTS IN MINIATURE. (1928, February 18).The Age (Brisbane, Qld. : 1892 – 1929), p. 20. Retrieved from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article291811672
OMNIUM SANCTORUM HIBERNIAE 