March 16–St. Abbán, Abbot

 

Andreas F. Borchert, New Ross Church of St. Mary and St. Michael Nave West End Relief of Saint Abban 2012 09 04, CC 4.0.

When we think of March saints we usually think of St. Patrick, whose feast day is March 17. Nonetheless, the Martyrology of Donegal lists 1000 saints of Ireland. Today’s saint was also an Irish saint who founded a monastery in Ireland. Three versions of the Life of St. Abbán show a lot of variation and confusion about him. However, according to the Martyrology, St. Abbán had great devotion to God as a child and he worked saintly miracles, such as when his maternal uncle, a bishop, took him to Rome, he was said to have power over “men, monsters, and supernatural phenomena” and “special authority over rivers and seas.” He died about A.D 520.

This sounds like a lot of Irish exaggeration, except that scholars have studied and documented his life and impact throughout Ireland. So what makes a person a saint? As stated in this column before, men, women, and children are saints because of their holiness. They dedicate themselves to knowing, loving, and serving God so they may give greater glory to God and bring others closer to him. St. Abbán was thus such a man.

St. Abbán was one of the many abbots, abbesses, and monks that helped Christianize Ireland. Irish Christianity was primarily monastic with the spread of “networks of monastic ‘city-states’ throughout Ireland that served as centers of learning for religious men and women.” Irish monasticism was influential in re-Christianizing northern Europe after the fall of the Roman empire in the West.

The impact of Irish Catholicism is worthwhile. Many of us can remember the Irish priests who taught us as children and established parishes in our dioceses. We are grateful for the Irish Catholics like St. Abbán, who, by their holiness, spread the Good News of Jesus Christ. St. Abbán, pray for us.

February 1--St. Brigid of Ireland, Abbess

Ireland is blessed with not one, not two, but three patron saints: St. Patrick and St. Columba, and today’s saint, Saint Brigid. Much of what we know about her comes from legend and folklore. She was the daughter of a Christian slave mother, Brocca, who was baptized by St. Patrick, and a chieftain of Leinster, Dubthach in the 5th century, dying in A.D. 525. As slaves, she and her mother were sold to a druid. She then returned to her father’s household and gave away his belongings as acts of charity. He took her to the king of Leinster, who was Christian, to sell her. As Dubthach spoke to the king, St. Brigid gave his sword to a beggar. The king convinced her father to free her because of her holiness. She eventually became the founder and abbess of a convent in Ireland at Kildare, as well as a men’s monastery, having authority over both and being considered the chief authority of all convents in Ireland.

St. Brigid is not only patroness of Ireland, but also patroness of children whose parents are not married, dairy workers (for her work as a youth), and scholars. She is called Mary of the Gaels, meaning Our Lady of the Irish. St. Brigid is portrayed with a reed cross, which she used to convert a man to Christianity on his deathbed, or an abbot’s crozier, for her ministry as abbess of Kildare.

St. Brigid is a blessing to us for her strength, her faith, her tenacity, her spirit, and her love of God. She is a gift to the Irish and through them to the United States, which benefitted greatly from the influx of Irish immigrants in the 19th century. St. Brigid of Ireland, pray for us.

March 17--St. Patrick, Bishop

March 17—St. Patrick, Bishop

 

St. Patrick’s influence is amazing.  This saintly bishop who converted Ireland in the fifth century also influenced the Catholic Church in America and Europe.  St. Patrick was abducted by raiders and taken to Ireland as a slave.  After six years he escaped, went to the continent and was ordained priest and eventually bishop to be a missionary.  While in Ireland he preached the Gospel, endured suffering and hardship, ordained priests, and more.  There are many legends that have grown up around him, including casting snakes out of Ireland.  This probably refers to the symbolism of snakes for the devil, and thus casting them out symbolizes casting out the devil.

However, St. Patrick’s influence is felt far beyond the shores of a small island in the North Atlantic.  The Irish Catholics went out as missionaries to Scotland, England, and the European continent, bringing private confession as a new way for forgiveness of sins.  They also reestablished Catholicism in the areas that were overrun by pagans after the fall of the Roman Empire.  In America, too, we have been greatly influenced by the Irish.  When the Irish came over in the mid-19^th century, there were limited opportunities for their advancement in a Protestant country.  Their faith became a source of consolation and also of evangelization. 

The Irish Catholics of America became dominant in the clergy well into the 20^th century.  Venerable Fr. Michael J. McGivney founded the Knights of Columbus, now 1.8 million strong.  Servant of God Fr. Edward J. Flanagan founded Boys Town here in Omaha.  Without St. Patrick these men and many others may not have been around to continue to do God’s will and spread God’s word.