(ABOUT A.D. 824.)
[Irish Martyrology. Authority:--Colgan.]
Angus, surnamed Kel-Dhu, a man of great love and fervour in the service
of God, was born in Ireland in the eighth century, of the race of the
Dalrhidians, kings of Ulster. In his youth, renouncing the pomp and
vanities of the world and all earthly pretensions, he chose Christ
for his inheritance, and entered religion in the famous monastery of
Cluain-Edneach, in East Meath, under the holy abbot Malathgen. There
he became such a proficient in virtue and learning that he was thought
to excel all others in Ireland. He is said to have sung a hundred and
fifty psalms every day, fifty of which he recited standing up to his
neck in water, in winter and summer; and three hundred times a day he
adored God on his bended knees. Finding that his sanctity attracted
attention, he privately withdrew from his monastery, and disguising
himself, took refuge in that of Tamlacht, three miles from Dublin,
where he was received as an outside novice by the abbot Moelruan, and
for seven years was given the meanest drudgery of the monastery. At
length his great merit was discovered, and his name having been found
out, the abbot apologised to him for having set him such degrading
tasks, and brought him into the brotherhood. S. Angus became afterwards
abbot of Desert-Aenguis and Cluain-Edneach, where he was raised to the
office of bishop, the abbots in the ancient Irish Church being very
generally bishops as well, but without territorial jurisdiction.
S. Angus is regarded as one of the most famous writers of Ireland. He
composed a metrical martyrology, and five books of lives of the saints
of Ireland, together with other treatises.