(UNCERTAIN.)
[Irish Martyrologies. He is not to be confounded with S. Domangart,
the brother of S. Domnoch, or Modomnoc (Feb. 13th.) Giraldus
Cambrensis calls him Dominick. Usher, thinking this S. Dominick was
the same as Dominick of Ossory mentioned elsewhere by Giraldus, and
not acquainted with the history of S. Domangart, fell into the mistake
of making the mountain Slieve Slainge, called afterwards Slieve
Donart, to be Grenore point, in Wexford. Ware followed Usher. Archdall
calls the saint S. Domangard of Ossory, whereas the saint of Ossory
was Domnoc, or Modomnoc, and not Domangart at all, and makes the
promontory Carnsore.]
S. Domangart is said to have been the son of Euchodius, king of
Ulster, in the latter part of the 5th century, and during a part of
the 6th. In the Tripartite Life of S. Patrick he is represented as a
bigoted heathen and a persecutor. His two daughters having embraced
Christianity made a vow of perpetual virginity, and their father,
highly incensed, ordered them to be cast into the sea. Therefore S.
Patrick cursed him and his seed for ever, excepting, however, his
unborn son, at the petition of the queen, who was with child. The
son born to him after this was Domangart, and his birth is placed
a short time before the foundation of Armagh, and it is added that
he afterwards became a disciple of the apostle. But, as Dr. Lanigan
has proved in his "Irish Ecclesiastical History," S. Patrick did not
survive the foundation of Armagh more than about ten years. How
then could Domangart have been his disciple? Then we are given to
understand, that Domangart was not born till after his father's death,
which the Four Masters assign to A.D. 503 (504.) This sets aside the
whole story; for S. Patrick was dead many years before this date.
Jocelin, who follows the Tripartite as to Euchodius, Domangart, &c.,
omits what is said of the latter having been a disciple of S. Patrick.
There is a fable concerning S. Domangart having been raised from the
dead at Rome by S. Patrick, according to which he would have lived in
the 5th cent. Such contradictory stories show what little reliance can
be placed in the accounts of the saint. All that we can be certain of
is that he founded a monastery on the promontory of Slieve Slainge,
where in Colgan's time stood two churches dedicated to him.