Saint Lapán of Little Island

My research into the Irish saints for this blog normally involves referencing the historic Irish martyrologies which record their feast days. Yet I am becoming increasingly aware of those saints whose feast days are either entirely unrecorded or are uncertain. An enigmatic holy man from Cork, Lapán of Little Island, might be numbered among them. Little Island is situated in the tidal part of the River Lee, roughly half-way between Cork and Cobh. Lapán (Lappan, Loppán, lat. Lappanus) is a name shared by a number of Irish saints. Pádraig Ó Riain feels that it 'probably represents a hypocoristic form of Labhraidh, 'he [who] speaks".' Alas, none of them have spoken clearly to us across the centuries. There are three Lapáns commemorated on the Irish martyrologies, on February 11 we find Lapán, son of Ciarán; on March 26 a Lapán without any further identifier; and at November 3  Lapán of Cluian Aithghin, a place which Ó Riain suggests could be Clonatin in Kilmakilloge parish in Wexford.  Curiously, Ó Riain's Dictionary of Irish Saints makes no mention of the Lapán found on March 26, but Evelyn Bolster, author of a diocesan history of Cork identifies Saint Lapán of Little Island with the saint commemorated on that day. In a footnote to the union of parishes called Glounthane, she writes:

GLOUTHANE is a union embracing the ancient parishes of Caherlag, Little Island* Ballydeloher, Killaspugmullane and Kilquane…..

*Little Island, so called in contradistinction to the Great Island or the Cobh of Cork. Names by which Little Island has appeared in the various records are: Cellescop Lappan (from Saint Lappan whose feast occurs on 26 March); De Insula; Ecclesia Sancta Lappani de Insula Parva; Ecclesia Sancta Lappani de Inysmemele; Sancta Lappani de insula parve als inish vic Neyl. Mac Neill was a chieftain of the Uí Tassaigh who inhabited this district.

E. Bolster, A History of the Diocese of Cork: From the Earliest Times to the Reformation (Irish University Press, 1972), p.282.

I only wish the author had given the grounds on which this identification was made, as the martyrologies do not make reference to the location or to any other identifiers of the saint commemorated on this day. The Martyrology of Tallaght simply lists the name of Lapán on March 26, whilst his name is not found among the entries for the day in the Martyrology of Oengus. Turning to the later calendars of the saints, the twelfth-century Martyrology of Gorman records ‘very holy Loppán’ and the seventeenth-century Martyrology of Donegal notes Lappan as the final name in the list of saints commemorated, again without reference to a place or other information which may have helped us to identify this saint with the bishop of Little Island. 

Earlier diocesan historian, Canon Patrick Power, writing on the parish of Little Island in a 1921 paper noted: 

Three Lappans are enumerated in the Irish Martyrologies, but which, if any, of these is our Lappan of the Island we have nothing to indicate.

Rev. P. Power,  Place-Names and Antiquities of S.E. County Cork. Barony of Barrymore. Part III. Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy. Section C: Archaeology, Celtic Studies, History, Linguistics, Literature, 36, (1921) 164–205 at p. 184. 

 Canon O'Hanlon, in Volume III of his Lives of the Irish Saints also did not make a link between the Saint Lapán of March 26 and the Cork Bishop of Little Island:

ARTICLE V.—St. LAPPAN, OR LAPPANUS. 

A record is found, in the Martyrology of Tallagh, at the 26th of March, regarding a St. Lappan. The Bollandists notice him, at the same date, as Lappanus. Again, Lappan is set down, in the Martyrology of Donegal, as having a festival, at this date, but without any relation to a locality.

It seems, therefore, that Saint Lapán is one of many Irish saints whose memory lives on in the place name of his church, but about whom no historical information has survived. There seems to be nothing in the calendar entries to confirm Bolster's contention that the saint commemorated on March 26 is Lapán of Little Island and her footnote is the only source I have been able to find for this claim. If anyone knows of any further sources I would be most interested to hear of them.

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