Celtic Saints for September 9

[Celtic Daily]

St. Ciaran of Clonmacnoise, St. Bettelin of Croyland, St. Osmanna of
Brieuc, St. Wilfrida of
Wilton, St. Wulfhilda of Barking
St. Ciaran of Clonmacnoise, Abbot (Ciaran the Younger, Cluain Mocca
Nois, also known as Kieran, Kyran, Ceran, Queran)
--------------------------------------------------------------- Born in
Connacht, Ireland, c. 516; died at Clonmacnoise, c. 556. Saint Ciaran is
one of the "12 Apostles of Ireland." Born into a Meath family of
pre-Celtic descent, Saint Ciaran was the son of the carpenter Beoit. As
a boy he left home with a dun cow for company in order to be trained for
the monastic life in Saint Finnian's monastery at Clonard. At Clonard he
taught the daughter of the king of Cuala because he was considered the
most learned monk in the abbey. About 534, he migrated to Inishmore in
the Aran Islands, where he spent seven years learning from Saint Enda
and was ordained priest. He left after having a vision that Enda
interpreted for him. Ciaran travelled slowly eastward, first Scattery
Island where he learned from Saint Senan, then to Isel in the centre of
Ireland. He was forced to leave here because of his excessive charity
and moved on to Inis Aingin (Hare Island). He left there with eight
companions and eventually settled at Clonmacnoise on the Shannon River
south of Athlone in the West Meath, where he built Clonmacnoise
monastery. He gave his monks an extremely austere rule, known as the Law
of Kieran. The saint is said to have lived only seven months after
founding the great school of Clonmacnoise, dying at the age of 34.
Clonmacnoise may have been one of the most famous in Ireland, attracting
students from throughout the country. The monastery survived many
invasions and raids until 1552, and there are still many notable ruins
remaining from its early days. Although Ciaran's shrine was plundered
several times during the medieval period, the Clonmacnoise crozier
remains in the National Museum in Dublin. Various legends, some
outlandish, are told of Ciaran. One relates that a fox's whelp would
carry his lessons to Ciaran's master until it was old enough to eat the
satchel containing the saint's writings. Another says that the other
Irish saints were so jealous of him that they fasted and prayed that he
might die young--hardly to be given any credit. (Attwater, Benedictines,
Delaney, Farmer, Macalister, Montague). The following stories derive
from the Vitae Sanctorum Hiberniae as translated by Plummer, which
includes the moving account of his death: "The abbot Ciaran "was like a
burning lamp, of charity so rare that not only did the fervour and
devotion of his pitiful heart go out to the relieving of the hunger of
men, but he showed himself tireless in caring for the dumb beasts in
their necessity. . . ." Ciaran left Saint Senan to live for a time with
his brethren Luchen, abbot, and Odran, prior, at Isel Monastery, where
he was appointed almoner. One day "Ciaran was reading out of doors in
the graveyard in the sun, when he suddenly spied some weary travellers
going into the guest house; and hurriedly getting up, he forgot his
book, and it lay open out of doors until the morrow. "Meantime, as he
busied himself settling his guests in their quarters and bathing their
feet and eagerly tending them, the night fell. In that same night there
fell great rains; but by God's will the open book was found dry and
sound; not a drop of rain had fallen upon it, and all the ground round
about it was damp. For which Saint Ciaran and his brethren gave Christ
praise. . . . "One day, when Saint Ciaran was working in the field,
there came to him a poor man asking for alms. At that very hour a
chariot with two horses had been brought in offering to Saint Ciaran by
a certain lord, the son of Crimthann, King of Connaught; and these
horses and chariot gave Ciaran to this poor man. "Now Saint Ciaran's
brothers could not endure the vastness of his charity, for every day he
divided their substance among the poor, and so they said to him,
'Brother, depart from us; for we cannot live in the same place with thee
and feed and keep our brethren for God, because of thy unbounded
lavishness.' To whom Saint Ciaran made reply: 'If I had remained in this
place, it would not have been Isel (that is, the low-lying): not low but
high, but great and honourable.' "And with that Saint Ciaran blessed
his brothers, and taking his wallet with his books on his shoulder, he
set out from thence. And when he had gone a little way from the place,
there met him on the path a stag, awaiting him in all gentleness; and
Saint Ciaran set his wallet on his back, and wherever the stag went, the
blessed Ciaran followed him. And the stag came to Lough Ree, which is in
the east of Connaught, and stood over against Hare Island, which is in
the lake. "Then Saint Ciaran knew that God had called him to that
island; and blessing the stag, he sent him away, and went to that island
and dwelt there. And the fame of his holiness spread abroad, and from
far and near good men came together to him, and Saint Ciaran made them
his monks. . . . "And one day as they rowed across, Saint Ciaran's
gospel which a brother was holding carelessly fell into the lake, and
for a great while it lay under the waters and was not found. But one
summer day the cows came into the lake, to cool themselves in the water
from the great heat of the sun; and when they were coming out from it,
the leather wallet in which the Gospel had been put had caught about the
foot of one of the cows, and so the cow dragged the wallet with her back
to dry land; and inside the sodden leather the book of the Gospel was
found, clean and dry and shining white, with no trace of damp, as if it
had been hidden in a library. For which Saint Ciaran rejoiced, and his
brethren with him. . . .
"And after these things came a man of Munster . . . Donnan by name, to
Saint Ciaran dwelling on Hare Island. And to him one day Saint Ciaran
said, 'What seek you, my father, in these parts?' And Saint Donnan
replied, 'Master, I seek a place to abide in, where I may serve Christ
in exile.' "Then said Saint Ciaran, 'Abide, father, in this place; for
I shall go to some other; I know that this is not the place of my
resurrection.' Then Saint Ciaran gave Hare Island with his household
goods to Saint Donnan, and came to a place called Ard Mantain on the
River Shannon; but he would not dwell in that place, and said, 'I will
not to dwell in this place, for here there will be a great plenty of the
things of this world, and worldly delight; and heard would it be for the
souls of my disciples to go to heaven, if I should live here, for the
place belongs to the men of this world.' "And thereafter Saint Ciaran
left that place and came to the place which was called of old Ard
Tiprat, but is now called Clonmacnoise. And coming to the place he said:
'Here shall I dwell; for many souls shall go forth from this place to
the Kingdom of God; and in this place shall my resurrection be.' So
there the blessed Ciaran lived with his disciples, and began to found a
great monastery there; and many found all sides came to him, and his
parish spread about him far; and the name of Saint Ciaran was famous
throughout all Ireland. And a famous and holy city rose in that place to
the honour of Saint Ciaran, and its name was Clonmacnoise . . . and in
it whether they be kings or princes, the chiefs of the sons of Niall and
of Connaught are buried beside Saint Ciaran there. . . . "So for one
year did our most holy patron Saint Ciaran dwell in his city of
Clonmacnoise. And when he knew that the day of his death was drawing
nigh, he prophesied, weeping, of the future evils that would fall after
his day upon that place; and said that their life would be a poor thing.
Then said the brethren: 'Father, what shall we do in the day of these
calamities? Shall we abide here beside thy relics? Or shall we seek
another place?' "To whom Saint Ciaran said: 'Haste ye to some other
place of peace, and leave my relics as it might be the dry bones of a
stag on the mountain. Better for you that your life should be with my
spirit in heaven, than that ye should abide dishonoured beside my bones
upon earth.' "And when the hour of his departing drew nigh he bade them
carry him out of doors from the house, and gazing up at the sky said,
'Steep is that road; and it must needs be.' The brethren said to him,
'Father, we know that nothing is hard for thee: but for us feeble folk,
there is sore dread in this hour.' "And again brought back into the
house he lifted up his hand and blessed his people and his clergy, and
having received the sacrifice of the Lord, on the ninth day of September
he gave up the ghost, in the thirty-third year of his age" (Plummer).
Troparion of St Kieran tone 8 "From childhood thy Life was resplendent
with miracles, O Father Kieran,/ showing forth thy boundless love for
God by loving and caring for His creation, both men and animals./
Leaving thy carpenter father, thou didst seek training in the ascetic
life from Ireland's spiritual giants/ before founding the great
monastery of Clonmacnois,/ from whence the Lord, in His great mercy,
called thee to Himself in thy thirty third year./ Wherefore, O Righteous
one, intercede with Christ our God that we too may be found worthy of
His mercy. A Slideshow of Clonmacnoise
Http://www.nantyglo.com/tourism/clonmac.htm Archaeology in Ireland:
Investigations of the Celtic High Cross in Clonmacnois (County Offaly,
Ireland) http://www2.hawaii.edu/~mcarson/clonmacnois.html Clonmacnoice
- Ireland's Ancient Monastic Settlement dates back to the 6th. century.
http://homepage.tinet.ie/~mcmullins/clonmacnoise.htm
************************************************************ Through the
prayers of St Ciaran and all the Saints of Ireland, Christ our God, have
mercy on us and save us!
************************************************************ St.
Bettelin of Croyland, Hermit ------------------------------------------
(also known as Beccelin, Bertelin, Berthelm, Bertram, Bethlin, Bethelm)
8th century. Saint Bettelin, a disciple of Saint Guthlac, was a hermit
who practised the most austere penances and lived a life of continual
prayer in the forest near Stafford, England. He received counsel from
his master on his deathbed and was present at his burial. After the
death of Guthlac, Bettelin and his companions continued to live at
Croyland under Kenulphus, its first abbot. There are unreliable legends
about Bettelin, including a later one that he had to overcome temptation
to cut Guthlac's throat while shaving him. They also say that Bettelin
was the son of a local ruler who fell in love with a princess during a
visit to Ireland. On their return to England, she died a terrible death.
He left her in the forest when she was overcome by labour pains, while
he had gone in search of a midwife. During his absence she was torn to
pieces by ravenous wolves. Thereafter, Bettelin became a hermit. Another
legends relates that Saint Bettelin left his hermitage to drive off
invaders with the help of an angel, before returning to his cell to die.
Some of his relics may have been translated to Stafford before the
plunder and burning of Croyland by the Danes. He is the patron of
Stafford, in which his relics were kept with great veneration
(Benedictines, Delaney, Farmer, Husenbeth). St. Osmanna (Argariarga)
of Brieuc, Virgin
----------------------------------------------------------- Died c. 650.
Saint Osmanna was descended from an illustrious Irish family. She
migrated to Brittany in northern France to live as a consecrated virgin
and served God with fervour in solitude until her death near Saint
Brieuc. Until the Reformation, her relics were enshrined in a chapel
under her patronage in the abbatial church of Saint Denys near Paris;
but some of them were dispersed by the Calvinists in 1567 (Benedictines,
Husenbeth). St. Wilfrida of Wilton, Abbess (also known as Wulfritha,
Wulfthryth) ------------------------------------------------- Died c.
988. Saint Wilfrida was a novice at the convent of Wilton when she
caught the eye of the King Saint Edgar the Peaceful, who had been
rejected by her cousin, Saint Wulfhilda. She became his concubine and
bore his daughter, Saint Edith of Wilton, out of wedlock. Shortly after
Edith's birth, she returned to Wilton with her child. There she took the
veil at the hands of Saint Ethelwold. As a nun, and later as abbess,
Wilfrida did penance and made ample amends for the irregularity of her
liaison with Edgar (Benedictines, Farmer). St. Wulfhilda of Barking,
Abbess -------------------------------------------- Died c. 980-1000;
other feasts include that of her translation on September 2, c. 1030
(with the relics of Saints Hildelith and Ethelburga), as well as on
March 7 and September 23 at Barking. Saint Wulfhilda was raised in the
abbey of Wilton. When she was a novice, King Saint Edgar sought her hand
in marriage, but she had a vocation that was irrevocable. Her aunt,
Abbess Wenfleda of Wherwell, invited the young novice to become her
successor, but it was just a ploy to lure her from Wilton. When she
arrived at Wherwell, she found the king waiting for her and her aunt
willing to allow him to seduce her. Wulfhilda escaped through the drains
despite the chaperons inside and the guards outside the convent. The
king pursued her back to Wilton and caught her in the cloister, but she
escaped his grasp and took refuge in the sanctuary among the altars and
relics. Thereafter Edgar renounced his claim on her and took her cousin
Saint Wilfrida as his mistress instead. Wulfhilda went on to found and
serve as the first abbess of the convent of Horton in Dorsetshire. Later
she was appointed abbess of the convent of Barking, which had been
restored by King Edgar and endowed with several churches in Wessex
towns. During this period she was credited with several miracles,
including the multiplication of drinks when King Edgar, Saint Ethelwold,
and a naval officer from Sandwich visited the abbey. After Edgar's
death, his widowed queen, Elfrida (Aelfthryth), conspired with some of
Wulfhilda's nuns, to drive her out of Barking. She retired to Horton for
the next 20 years until she was recalled to Barking by King Ethelred.
For the last seven years of her life, Wulfhilda served as abbess of both
Horton and Barking. Goscelin wrote her "vita" within 60 years of her
death. (Benedictines, Farmer).

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