Macniscius

ON ST. MACNISCIUS, BISHOP OF CONNOR IN ULSTER, A PROVINCE OF IRELAND, A PROVINCE OF IRELAND,

About the year DXIV.

PRELIMINARY COMMENTARY.

The Saint's cult, his distinction from those of like name, the place and time of his bishopric, the year of his death, and his Acts.

Macniscius, bishop of Connor in Ulster, a province of Ireland (St.)

BY J. V.

The proper Masses of the patron and titular Saints of France and Ireland, The Saint's ecclesiastical cult, from the Mass published by order of Clement XII and made public at Paris in the year 1734 by Nicholas Antony O'Kenny, apostolic protonotary, on the 3rd of September, on the feast of St. Macniscius, bishop and confessor, general patron of the church and diocese of Connor, exhibit the following Mass: Introit. I have thought upon the days of old, and I have had in mind the years of eternity: and I have meditated in the night with my own heart, and I was exercised, and I swept my spirit. Psalm. With my voice I cried to the Lord, with my voice to God, and he gave heed to me. Glory be to the Father, etc. I have thought, etc. Collect. May we be helped, O Lord, by the merits of St. Macniscius, your confessor and bishop; that, as we proclaim you wonderful in him, so we may glory that you have been merciful toward us. Through our Lord, etc. The lesson of the epistle of blessed Paul the Apostle to the Hebrews: Brethren. There were made many priests, etc., to the end of the chapter. Gradual. Blessed is the man that fears the Lord: he delights exceedingly in his commandments. ℣. His seed shall be mighty upon earth; the generation of the righteous shall be blessed. Alleluia, alleluia. ℣. Glory and riches are in his house, and his justice remains for ever and ever. ✠ The continuation of the holy Gospel according to Matthew: A certain man going into a far country, etc. Creed.

[2] Offertory. I will meditate on your commandments, which I have loved exceedingly: proper, his announcement in the Martyrologies and I lifted up my hands to your commandments, which I loved. Secret. May blessed Macniscius, the great priest, render our sacrifice, O Lord, acceptable in the eyes of your majesty — he who, while he lived, offered himself to you a holy and pleasing victim. Through our Lord, etc. Communion. The just shall rejoice in the Lord, and shall hope in him: and all the upright of heart shall be praised. Postcommunion. Refreshed with life-giving food, we give you thanks, O Lord, and ask that what we have received unto the glory of your holy bishop Macniscius may, by his prayers, be to us a help against the assaults of our enemies. Through our Lord, etc. These things prove abundantly and more than enough the public and solemn veneration of this holy Bishop. Castellan announces him in his universal Martyrology on the 3rd of September: In Ulster, a province of Ireland, St. Magnissius, bishop of Connor. In his Supplement, p. 705, he has more correctly: Macniseus, that is, son of Nisa, which was his mother's name. Colgan in the Trias thaumaturga, p. 182, n. 194, says: Of this truly wonderful saint (Macnessius) treat the Martyrology of Tallaght, Marianus Gorman, Maguire, Ængus, and the Martyrology of Donegal, at the 20th of January and the 3rd of October; but in the Acts of the Saints of Ireland, p. 741, from the Genealogical Sanctilogy and the Martyrologies reviewed and others, he thus records him: St. Macnessius, who is also Coemanus, son of Fabricius, son of Fiegus, son of Mailus, etc… He is venerated at Connor, where he was bishop, on the 3rd of September.

[3] and in the catalogues of the Saints. To the same day he is assigned in certain MS. catalogues of the Saints of Ireland, which we have in the bundle ✠ MS. 167. But I wonder that he was passed over by our Henry Fitzsimon the Irishman, who reviews others less celebrated, as also by Fr. Hugh Ward of the Order of Minors in his catalogue of the Saints of Ireland, which he sent to Rosweyde in the year 1627. Nevertheless in a MS. paper, which seems to have been transmitted by the said Ward to Rosweyde or to Bolland, I have found the following: On St. Mac-knessius. From the same compilation (concerning which vol. VI of June, p. 118, may be seen) at the third of September. St. Maccnessius, bishop of Conder, who was first called Æneas and afterward Kæmhanus (which sounds Caëvanus), surnamed Breac, which is spotted. His spirit ascended into heaven in the year of the Lord DCXIV. There is extant a parish church dedicated to his name in upper Ossory among the Leinstermen at the foot of Mount Bladhma, in the diocese of Ossory, commonly Anachtrym Chœvain Bhricc. St. Colman, whom he by a miracle delivered from death, was bishop of Kill-ruadh, which is now an obsolete see situated in the region of the Aradii, on the shore of the lake of the bullock, commonly Loch-Laodh, in Ulster, where his feast is kept as of its patron on the 16th of October. So far that paper, which we shall examine below.

[4] With the abbot Macniseus or others Another St. Macniseus occurs, abbot of Clonmacnoise in Ireland, in Castellan, in his Additions and Corrections at the 13th of July, p. 968, who might at least have been recorded on that day among the Pretermitted in vol. III of July. Colgan in the Trias, p. 373, n. 28, hands down that he died on the 13th of June in the year of Christ 589, in the seventeenth year of his rule; nay, in the twentieth, if what he had premised in the Acts of the Saints of Ireland, p. 72, be true, that he was the immediate successor of St. Æneas, second abbot of Clonmacnoise, who died on the 20th of January 569. This man, moreover, is by some called Oena, by others Ængus (in Latin Æneas) or Ængussius, on Colgan's testimony in the same place; and he was added by Bolland to the Pretermitted at the 20th of January, vol. 11, p. 1138. But although the bishop of Connor is called Macniseus and Macnissius, and Ængus or Æneas, and Ængussius, yet he seems sufficiently distinguished from those namesakes both in place and in time: for these were abbots of Cluain-muc-nois, which is a town of western Meath on the bank of the river Shannon: in which was formerly the most celebrated monastery of Clonmacnoise, founded by St. Kieran, and, even to this day, an episcopal see, says Colgan, n. 18. On the contrary, that the bishopric of Clonmacnoise was from the year 1568 united and annexed to that of Meath, Ware testifies in his Commentary on the Bishops of Ireland p. 95. But Macniscius, who is venerated today, according to Colgan, p. 190, died on the 3rd of November 513, that is, 3 years before St. Kieran was born; and he was the first bishop of Coneria or Conertum, a little town of Ulster in the county of Down on Lough Cone toward the north, which has now been reduced to a village, on the testimony of Baudrand and of the new geographical Lexicon which came out at Venice in the year 1738. But it is distant more than 80 Irish miles from Clonmacnoise, which Baudrand, and after him the enlarged Dictionary of Moréri under the word Cluan, wrongly place in the province of Ulster near the river Shannon; whereas it is part of King's County in Leinster, situated as it were in the very navel or middle of Ireland, says the cited Ware, and it is clear from the maps. Add that the Senus or Shannon rises in Connaught, and does not even wash Ulster.

[5] Our Saint, as we saw at n. 2, is also called Coemanus by Colgan; he cannot be confounded with those of like name: who elsewhere, namely in the Trias, p. 177, n. 88, on occasion of Coeman the deacon, mentions several saints of that name: But for the sake of avoiding confusion he says it must be observed that the Irish names Coemhan, Coemhoc, and Mochoemoc are synonymous, and that he who is now Coemhan is sometimes called Mochoemoc. Then he enumerates various ones, of whom the fourth is Coemanus, who is also Macnessius, bishop of Connor, 3 Sept.; the fifth Coemanus, surnamed Breac, as it stands in the Irish. Abbot of Ros-each in Meath, who according to the Annals of Clonmacnoise died in the year DCXIV on the 14th day of September, on which his birthday is celebrated according to St. Ængus, etc., as Note 15 on the Life of St. Fechin, p. 140, has it. The sixth, Coemanus of Enach-truim, brother of St. Coemgen, on the 3rd of November: on which same day, perhaps wrongly, he said in the preceding number that St. Macniscius died. In his earlier volume, p. 192, he relates from Ussher that St. Coeman, abbot of the monastery of Enach-truim, which is situated in upper Ossory at the roots of Mount Bladhma, flourished in the year 550, whereas our Saint's successor Lugadius had already died from the year 537. From these it is clear how unskillfully those three are confounded above at n. 3, and accordingly how much trust is to be placed in that compilation from which such things are brought forward. What is added concerning the cult of St. Colman, bishop of Kill-ruadh, will be able to be examined at the 16th of October, when perhaps more light will shine forth. Meanwhile we do not venture to assert whether this Colman, St. Macniscius' disciple according to the Life, n. 6, and Colman, bishop of Kill-ruaid, first the disciple of Ailbe and afterward of St. Patrick, in Colgan's Trias, p. 269, were the same or different: for the Irish have so many Colmans that they themselves scarcely know how to distinguish them sufficiently. Hear Colgan at the 18th of February in his Notes on St. Colman the bishop: Colmans, distinct in their feasts and birthdays, are numbered in our domestic martyrologies and other histories to more than one hundred and thirty. The things said in this and the preceding number seem to show a manifest distinction of our Saint from those of like name. Now we must treat of his bishopric.

[6] he founds a bishopric at Coneria in the county of Down The place was assigned at n. 4, namely Coneria or Conertum in the county of Down, on Lough Cone; which I added lest anyone be deceived by the enlarged Dictionary of Moréri, which wrongly confounds the town Conor or Connor in the county of Antrim with Coneria: for the former is distant from the latter a good 16 Irish miles, and Connor even in today's maps is named a bish sea, that is, an episcopal see; but Coneria was united to the bishopric of Down from the year 1442, on Ware's testimony, p. 62, and is now almost obliterated: whence also it is omitted in certain maps. But although Ware calls this bishopric that of Connor, yet that he treats not of Connoria in the county of Antrim but of Coneria or Connereth in that of Down is clear even from this, that among its bishops he numbers St. Malachy, who from being abbot of the monastery of Bangor was made bishop of the neighboring city of Conneret (Connereth), on the testimony of St. Bernard in the Life of St. Malachy, chs. 6, 7 and 8. Francis Porter of the Order of Minors, in his Compendium of the ecclesiastical annals of Ireland, p. 49, calls that most celebrated monastery Bangor, and says that it is situated on the bay of Knockfergus or the Fergussian bay: farther inland, on the lake (Cone) is the episcopal see called of Connor, over which formerly presided St. Malachy the bishop, in about the thirtieth year of his age, in the year of Christ 1124 according to Ware, having been consecrated to that church, long widowed of a pastor, by Celsus, archbishop of Armagh. But of that saint more hereafter at the 3rd of November.

[7] he founds it; how long he ruled that church and lived is unknown. That the beginnings of the bishopric of Connor or Connerth are owed to St. Macniscius, the cited Ware teaches, and after him Porter, p. 173, in these words: Ængus Macnisius was the first bishop and founder of this church. He, drawing his surname from his mother by an unusual custom, was commonly called St. Mac-Nisa or Mac-nisius without any addition. But his father's name was Fobrec , as we understand both from the Annals of Tigernach and from the ancient scholiast of the Ængusian martyrology at the 3rd day of September. He departed this life a venerable old man on the 3rd of September in the year of the Lord DVII, or according to others DXIV. But according to Castellan, long after, namely in the seventh century, or at least about DLXXXIX, to which he draws back the Saint's death in his Supplement, p. 705. But by this postponement he seems to confound him with Macniseus the abbot (whom nevertheless at p. 968 he asserts to be probably different from St. Macniseus, bishop of Connor); for that abbot died in the year 589, not about DC, as Castellan will have it. In precisely what year our Saint was ordained, we do not know: but that he held the see in the fifth century is clear from Ware, p. 52, where it is stated that St. Cailan, a contemporary of St. Macnisius, bishop of Connor, but later in his bishopric, from being abbot of Nendrum was made bishop of the church of Down toward the end of the fifth century after Christ's birth. For the rest, he was still among the living in the year 510: for St. Comgall, concerning whom the day before he was born … he prophesied, was more probably brought into the light in that year, since, as his Acts in vol. 11 of May, p. 583, have it, he was ordained deacon by Macniscius' successor Lugid or bishop Lugadius, who died in the year 537. How long the Saint survived after Comgall's birth is not clear. Colgan, who in the Trias assigns 90 years of life to Comgall and says he was born in 511, above at n. 4 assigns Macniscius' death to the year 513; others in Ware to 514, about which year his death seems able to be fixed, until more certain things are brought forward. As regards his age, he departed this life, on Ware's testimony above, a venerable old man; but in what year of his life the cited writer does not determine, nor can we determine it. If what is intimated in the Life, n. 1, be true, that he was newly born when initiated by baptism by St. Patrick, the apostle of the Irish, whose landing in Leinster in the year 432 Papebroch recorded in vol. 11 of March, p. 523, this one thing may be gathered thence, that the Saint was not born before that year. For the rest, concerning his successors in the see of Connor Ware subjoins at p. 62 that a very slight memory of them survives down to the coming of the English into Ireland, which the same author in ch. 24 of his Antiquities of Ireland, p. 123, writes happened in the year 1169.

[8] In Colgan, in the seventh Life of St. Patrick, p. 146, ch. 129, an insipid fable about the Saint is narrated in this manner: A fable fabricated about him; To Patrick, while he was staying in those same parts (of Dalriada), there befell another mishap no less pitiable, but also more shameful. For Mac-nessius, afterward bishop of Condor or Connor, while he was being brought up in piety and in good learning under Patrick, without his master's knowledge entangled himself first in incautious and then gradually in suspect associations with the other sex; until, having at first excellently ordered his life, he was accused of having foully stained himself by unlawful contacts and at last by a pitiable fall with the sister or niece of that holy bishop himself. That fall, being brought to Patrick's ears, so exasperated the most holy master, and so sharpened his mind and his avenging wrath against his disciple, that he at once prayed and severely imprecated that that hand which had separated that living member of the highest hope from the rest of the holy body of his fellowship by its acts and by foul contacts should be cut off from the rest of the body in public vengeance for so great a scandal. And behold, a marvelous thing! Mac-nessius' hand, straightway cut off, falls to the ground, and, in perpetual memory of the wonderful thing and of the just vengeance, is buried and laid away in the place which is thence called Carn-lamha, that is, the mound of the hand. But Mac-nessius, made holier by his fall, presently restored by an excellent penance the life which he had so foully stained with that shameful mark, and by many signs and virtues afterward rendered it wonderful with a most attested sanctity, and most holily ended it.* Of his sanctity no one can doubt; but who would believe that a man maimed of one hand was consecrated priest and afterward bishop?

[9] The anonymous writer of St. Macniscius' Life records nothing of his fall, Acts of doubtful credit, whence they are to be published. although otherwise he has not spared fables; such as occur in many Irish writers, who narrate prodigies more astounding than true, or who ascribe to several, composed now in one way and now in another, what was once done by a single Saint — rather, as I think, out of unskilled simplicity than out of a will to deceive. Take a specimen or two of them. At n. 3, among the wondrous relics carried off by the Saint from Palestine, he reckons one of the cups of the great altar of Jerusalem. Then he attributes to Macniscius the prediction concerning St. Colmanell, which Jocelin in the Life of the latter, vol. 11 of March, p. 560, testifies to be St. Patrick's. Other things will be noted below. The Saint's Life we have in MS., comprised in 13 chapters: it was taken from an ancient Codex, likewise in MS., formerly of the Irish College of Salamanca of the Society of Jesus, now of our Museum, marked P MS. XI. Those Acts, such as they are, since more certain ones are not to be found, it has seemed good to publish from the said Codex, lest the curious reader should want anything. They bear a title of this sort: The third of the Nones of September. Here begins the Life of holy Macnissus the bishop; and this colophon: Here ends the Life of St. Engulus, who is also called Macnessius; but concerning his death they express nothing except the day. For the rest, the name both of the Saint and of the church over which he presided is found written in various ways: we have called the latter Connor, and the former Macniscius, as the proper Mass has it.

in Latin Fabricius*

omit ie*

LIFE

by an uncertain author From our Salamanca MS. Codex.

Macniscius, bishop of Connor in Ulster, a province of Ireland (St.)

BHL Number: 5125

BY AN UNCERTAIN AUTHOR.

[He is baptized by St. Patrick, and delivered to bishop Bolcanus to be instructed;] Today, most beloved brethren, blessed Engus ^a, who is commonly called the son of Macnissa, because his mother was called Mess ^b; having laid aside the flesh, he merited to ascend the kingdoms of heaven. Whom the venerable holy Patrick, apostle of the Irish, long before he was born foresaw would be born full of grace ^c, and baptized him in a living spring already risen from the veins of the earth; and he gave him to bishop Bolcanus ^d to be nourished and taught. The boy grew, and his miracles grew also: of which I relate one, passing over the rest.

[2] [by his prayers he restores his nurse's withered hand: St. Patrick foretells his bishopric to him,] On a certain day he was sent as keeper to the calves; sleep pressed upon him: the calves rose up to their mothers' udders. Which, because it displeased his nurse, namely the bishop's mother, she struck him; but not with impunity: for the hand which struck the innocent boy straightway lost its strength. But the bishop bade his foster-son pray for her: he did so, and she was healed. By this and by signs of this kind the fame of the new Soldier of Christ is spread abroad. But who was more apt than he in learning the elements of the science of letters? When on a time Patrick was making a journey in the land of the Aradii ^e, he said with a prophetic spirit to that same Bolcanus, who met him with the aforesaid boy ^f: You and your successors shall always be under the lordship of this companion of yours and of his successors.* And this the apostolic man foretold concerning the bishopric to which he was afterward advanced.

[3] ordained by whom he goes to Rome and to Jerusalem; thence with various relics But when the time of boyhood had thereafter been completed, it came into his mind that he should fly, like an industrious bee, to the gardens — that is, to the religion and wisdom flourishing throughout Ireland: which also he carried into effect. And being made a perfect man, and ordained by blessed Patrick bishop of his own nation, he went to the thresholds of the Apostles; he visited Jerusalem also and the other holy places of the land of promise; and, devout prayers having been poured forth to God in all these places, carrying away somewhat of the stone of the sepulchre, of the hairs of holy Mary, of the bones of holy Thomas the apostle, of the garments of the Apostles, and one of the cups of the great altar of Jerusalem, he returned to Rome: he entered the apostolic court, where in great honor he remained some days.

[4] He returns to Rome: where he is heaped with gifts and heals a leper, Many bishops also, as they say, priests, and deacons, with the Roman clergy assisting, he ordained in one day: on which the poverty of Ireland was relieved through the precious gifts of the chief men of the Roman people; for not a few vessels of gold and of silver and of bronze were given to him on that day. And in those very days he cleansed a certain leper by the power of his prayer. And so, the memorials of the Saints having been visited, and the prayer and blessing of the supreme Pontiff received, he returned to his country with great gifts. Which brought incredible gladness not only to his own nation, but also to the other peoples round about.

[5] From churches, towns, villages, woods and mountains they run to meet him, [Returned to his country he founds a monastery, preaches, and is famed for miracles;] and with all exultation he is received. There is none who hides himself from him but the evil man: for the terror of him is upon those who do evil. The seed of the divine word is sown everywhere: from heaven the trumpet thunders; churches are founded. The monastery of Connor ^g is built, in which even to this day ^h the episcopal see is held: the blessed Bishop shines with miracles, is inebriated with prophecy, is illumined with divine revelations. Let us first subjoin a few things about the miracles.

Note how he healed a blind man and a leper. On a time two men, of whom one was blind and the other a leper, came to him that they might receive health: and when they had first been washed in a living spring, he gave to the one sight, and to the other a clean skin, by the power of his prayer.

[6] Note how he delivered a boy from death. Of a certain wicked man [He miraculously delivers the boy St. Colman from death by his prayers: those who did not receive the Saint are punished.] who had killed his father, wishing to deliver the little son, seized by that man's friends and appointed to death, and not being able, he asked a respite, that the boy should not be killed before he himself reached the heap of stones which stood at a distance; and this he obtained. And when he had reached that place and was praying there, the aforesaid boy, thrown up into the air that he might be caught upon the points of spears, was straightway snatched away by angels, and set down in the holy Bishop's bosom free from every hurt: whom afterward he nourished, and diligently taught in the divine Scriptures and in the institutions of religion. He is bishop Colman, who founded the church named Kell-ruaid ⁱ.

A certain town, where an alms sought by the Man of God was not given him, was straightway burned up by divine vengeance.

[7] Note how he made an aged old woman bear a child, and a river leave its own place. He obtains a son for an old woman, and bids a river flow in a new channel,

A certain woman, deprived fifteen years before of childbearing by reason of her age, he made by the power of prayer to bear a son. To the river named Curi ^k, flowing past his monastery which in Latin is called desertum [l], he commanded — lest the sound of it passing so near should trouble the sick of the place — to run by a farther course: and it forthwith did as it was bidden. These few things we have said about the miracles: let us now speak of his prophecy and revelations.

[8] When on a time the father of the great abbot Comgall, Setna by name, with his wife called Brig, He foretells St. Comgall's birth and the coming of guests, was making a journey seated in a chariot, seeing the oft-mentioned Bishop going on foot, he said to the woman: O woman, come down, that the bishop may mount the chariot. Hearing this, the Bishop said: Do not trouble her; for she shall bear a king who shall reign over many ^m. And this he said concerning holy Comgall.

Likewise on a certain day, gladdened with exceeding joy, he said unexpectedly to the monks laboring with him: Brethren, let us cease from this work, and to the monastery let us return; for it behooves that meanwhile there be prepared the things that are necessary for the holy guests who are now setting out upon their journey and will come hither this week. This he said concerning holy Brigid ⁿ, who visited him upon useful business.

[9] When on a time he was the companion of the journey of blessed Patrick and holy Brigid as they went toward Munster ^o, and was passing the place [he sees angels ascending and descending: a prophecy about St. Colman, and his reverence toward the sacred books.] in which the monastery named Lann-ela [p] was afterward founded, the others going on before, he alone remained behind. Perceiving this, holy Patrick sent for him, and asked him, when he came, the reason of his lingering. To whom the Man of God said: Above the place in which I stood I saw the heavens opened, and the angels of God descending and ascending [q]. Holy Patrick said: It behooves us therefore to leave religious men there to serve God. But he said: Holy father, if it please you, it shall not be so. For a son who, sixty years from today being past, shall be born of my kindred, whose name shall be Colman Ela, shall there found a famous monastery. And the outcome of the matter proved the whole of this to be as it was revealed to the Man of God.

Nor do I think it should be passed over, that the blessed Man, while he journeyed, carried the text of the Gospel, held by no fastenings, upon shoulders bowed out of reverence for it.

By these and suchlike * illustrious merits our venerable Patron shone upon earth, to the praise of him who with the Father and the Holy Spirit lives and reigns unto ages of ages. Amen.

l. In Irish, Disert.

p. That monastery is situated in Meath, where St. Colman or Colmanell is venerated on 26 September, as Colgan testifies in his earlier volume, p. 741. In the Trias, p. 183, he says that Lan or Lann denotes among the Britons the same as a holy place.

q. Jocelin in the Life of St. Patrick, ch. 96, in our vol. 11 of March, p. 560, narrates that a nearly similar vision was granted to St. Benignus, which Patrick himself expounded of St. Colmanell without any determination of time. I strongly suspect that that vision was fabulously transferred to St. Macniscius, with the addition of a prediction to be fulfilled after sixty years. Hear Colgan in the Trias, p. 113, on the cited Jocelin: It is doubtful whether by Colmanell there is here understood St. Colman surnamed Ela, who is everywhere called Colmanell, or rather St. Colman, bishop of Druim-mor: since both flourished at the same time in that region of Ulster which is here called Dalnardia and more correctly Dal-aradia. For both were disciples of St. Macnissius, bishop of the church of Connor. Nay rather, neither of them saw our Saint; for the bishop of Dromore, on Ussher's testimony, was born in the year 516, and Colmanell in the year 550 or 554, since he died on 26 September 610, in the 56th or 60th year of his age, as Colgan hands down at p. 374 here, and in his earlier volume, p. 832.

perhaps hujusmodi*

hujusmodi*