Tuesday 4 November 2014

Saint Tigernach of Doire-Mella, November 4

November 4 is the feastday of Saint Tigernach of Doire-Melle. The Martyrology of Donegal records:

4. G. PRIDIE NONAS NOVEMBRIS. 4.

TIGHERNACH, of Doire-Melle. Mella was the name of his mother, and she was the mother also of Cainnech the priest.

We met the mother of Saint Tigernach on the commemoration of her feastday when Canon O'Hanlon recorded:

Some account of this holy woman is given by Colgan and by the Bollandists. St. Mella flourished, about the middle of the eighth century, in the northern parts of the Connaught province. This, has been inferred, from the circumstance of her son St. Tighernach's death, having been recorded, at A.D. 805. The devout matron, by God's holy decree, was the happy mother of two sons, whose names are found on record, in the pages of our Irish Martyrologies. These are named respectively, St. Cannech, a Priest, and St. Tigernach, an Abbot. Having been deprived of her husband, by death, she afterwards formed the resolution of embracing a religious life. St. Tigernach erected a religious house, near Lough Melve,—now known as Lough Melvin,—in the county of Leitrim, and within the diocese of Killmore. He left this establishment, in favour of his mother; and, he then retired to another monastery, named Kill-Acaidh, or "the church of the field," the situation of which is unknown.

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