_Martyrologium Dungallense, seu Calendarium Sanctorum Hiberniae._
_Collegit et digessit_ Fr. Michael O’Clery, Ord. Fr. Min. Strictioris
Observantiae. Permissu et facultate Superiorum. 1630.
_The Martyrology of Donegal: a Calendar of the Saints of Ireland_,
translated from the original Irish by the late John O’Donovan, LL.D.,
M.R.I.A., Professor of Celtic Literature in the Queen’s College, Belfast.
Edited, with the Irish text, by James Henthorn Todd, D.D., M.R.I.A.,
F.S.A., Senior Fellow of Trinity College, Dublin; and by William Reeves,
D.D., M.R.I.A., Vicar of Lusk, etc. Dublin: printed for the Archaeological
Society. Thom, 1864, lv.-566 pp.
_The Martyrology of Donegal_ was completed on the 19th of April, 1630, in
the Franciscan convent of Donegal. The compilers were Brother Michael
O’Clery, a lay brother of that convent, with three associates who with him
are so well known by the name of “The Four Masters”. Colgan (_Acta
Sanctorum Hiberniae_, tom. 1, p. 5 a.) thus speaks of it: “Martyrologium
quod Dungallense vocamus, nostris diebus ex diversis tum Martyrologiis,
tum annalibus patriis collectum est, partim operâ Authorum qui Annales
communes, de quibus infra, compilarunt in Conventu Dungallensi; partim
opera Patrum ejusdem Conventus qui sanctos, qui extra patriam vixerunt et
de quibus hystorici exteri scripserunt, addiderant”. The Donegal copy of
1630 was a more complete transcript of a first copy, made by Michael
O’Clery in the preceding year at Douay. Both copies are now extant in the
Burgundian Library at Brussels, but circumstances have not permitted Dr.
Todd to get the first copy also transcribed. Both copies are autographs of
Michael O’Clery.
The first to discover the mine of Irish MSS. in Brussels was Mr. L.
Waldron, M.P., who, in 1844, at the request of Professor O’Curry, examined
the library there. By the influence of Lord Clarendon, then
lord-lieutenant of Ireland, with the government, Dr. Todd procured from
the Belgian government, in 1848, the loan of several MSS. of the greatest
importance, with the permission to have them transcribed. One of these was
the autograph MS. of the _Martyrology of Donegal_, prepared for the press
by the author, with the approbations of his ecclesiastical superiors. A
copy of it was executed by the late Professor O’Curry with the skill and
beauty of his unequalled penmanship; and this copy was collated with the
original, whilst it was still in Dr. Todd’s possession. From O’Curry’s
copy Dr. Reeves made another for his own use, and from this he made a
third transcript for the printers, and the translator, Dr. O’Donovan. This
translation was the last labour of Dr. O’Donovan’s life.
The contents of the volume are distributed as follows: An introduction
(ix.-xxiv.) by Dr. Todd is followed by an appendix (xxiv.-xlix.)
containing “a number of memoranda, references to authorities, and
miscellaneous notes, which have been written by the author, and others,
through whose hands the MS. has passed, on the fly-leaves at the beginning
and end of each volume”. Many of them are of great interest. Then come the
_Testimonia et Approbationes_ (xlix.-lv.) of Flann Mac Egan, Conner
McBrody, Dr. Malachy O’Cadhla, Archbishop of Tuam; Dr. Boetius Mac Egan,
Bishop of Elphin; Dr. Thomas Fleming, Archbishop of Dublin; and Dr. Roth
Mac Geoghegan, Bishop of Kildare. The _Martyrology_ proper follows (1-351)
with the Irish text on one page and Dr. O’Donovan’s translation on the
other. The notes appended are but few, and serve merely to explain
obscurities in the text, to settle the reading, or to correct some obvious
mistake. For almost all the notes we are indebted to Dr. Todd himself. A
table of the _Martyrology_, compiled by the author, and translated by Dr.
Todd, occupies from page 354 to page 479, and is followed by three
indexes, compiled by Dr. Reeves, one of persons (485-528), another of
places (529-553), and a third of matters (544-566). These indexes, says
Dr. Todd, “possess a topographical and historical interest quite
independent of their connection with the present work, and are in
themselves a most important practical help to the study of Irish history”.
What is the value of this work? What position does it occupy among Irish
Ecclesiastical documents? It cannot be regarded as an _original_
authority. “It is confessedly a compilation, and of comparatively recent
date, having been completed, as we have seen, in the early part of the
seventeenth century. But it is a compilation made by a scholar peculiarly
well fitted for the task, who had access to all the original documents
then extant in the Irish language, the matter of which he has transferred
either in whole or in part into the present work, quoting in almost every
instance the sources from which he drew his information” (Introd., p.
xiii.). The bare enumeration of these sources will serve to show the value
of the book. I. _The Metrical Calendar, or Festilogium of Aengus Ceile
De_, commonly called the _Felire of Aengus_. Its author was a monk of
Tallaght, near Dublin, in the days when Saint Maolruain was abbot, about
the beginning of the ninth century. Dr. Kelly of Maynooth has published a
translation of a portion of this _Metrical Calendar_ in his _Calendar of
Irish Saints_. II. The _Martyrology of Tallaght_. This is a transcript of
a very ancient martyrology containing the names of the saints and martyrs
of the entire Church, with the Irish saints added under each day. It was
composed at the close of the ninth or very early in the tenth century. The
Brussels MS. is an abstract of the ancient copy at Saint Isidore’s at
Rome, but it contains the Irish saints alone, omitting altogether the
general martyrology. It was from a transcript of the Belgian MS. that Dr.
Kelly published in 1857 the calendar alluded to above. III. The _Calendar
of Cashel_, which is not now known to exist. According to Colgan, its
author flourished about the year 1030. IV. The _Martyrology of Maolmuire_
(or _Marianus_) _O’Gorman_, written in Irish verse, in the times of
Gelasius, Archbishop of Armagh, about 1167. Its author was abbot of Knock,
near Louth, and the work is taken from the _Felire of Tallaght_, and is
not confined to Irish saints. V. _The Book of Hymns_, a portion of which
has already been published by the Irish Archaeological and Celtic Society,
and of which a second portion is in the press, under the care of Dr. Todd.
VI. Poems, such as the _Poem of St. Cuimin of Condeire (Connor)_, of the
middle of the seventh century, published by Dr. Kelly, with a translation
by Professor O’Curry; the _Naoimhseanchus_, attributed by Colgan to
Selbach of the tenth century; the _Poem of St. Moling of Ferns_ (A.D.
675-695), and several minor poems. VII. Several of the great collections
or _Bibliothecae_, of which he names expressly the _Book of Lecan_, the
_Leabhar na Huidre_, and the _Book of Lismore_. VIII. The lives of saints
in Irish and Latin. Of these he quotes no less than thirty-one. From this
list it will be seen that almost all the literature of the early Irish
Church has helped to enrich the pages of the _Martyrology of Donegal_. And
since _norma orandi legem statuit credendi_, we could scarcely find a
nobler monument of the faith and practice of our forefathers. The Church
that places on her list of saints, bishops, and priests, and abbots, and
consecrated virgins, and hermits, possesses in that very calendar a mark
deep and broad enough to distinguish her from all the sects that belong to
modern Protestantism.