(7TH CENT.)
[Colgan is the only authority for their insertion; he says that in
Ireland these saints are venerated on Feb. 17th, and Oct. 11th.
These saints are mentioned in the Tripartite Life of S. Patrick, and
in that by Jocelin.]
S. Loman is said to have been the son of Tigridia, sister of S.
Patrick; his brothers Brochan and Mogenoch, were, like him, also
bishops; and his cousins, Mel, Rioch and Mun, (Feb. 6th), sons of his
aunt Darerca, were saints and prelates. S. Loman accompanied S.
Patrick to Ireland, and when they landed at Temora, the great apostle
left Loman in charge of the boat, ordering him to bring it up the
river Boyne to Trim. And when one Fortchern, son of Fethlemid, chief
of Trim, heard the sweet chanting of Loman on his boat, a great
longing came over him to hear the doctrine which exhaled such
sweetness. Therefore he came to him and received instruction out of
the boat, and he sang with him the songs of Zion. Then came the mother
of Fortchern, seeking her son, and she was a Scottish princess, and
she saluted the priest of God reverently, and rejoiced that the Gospel
of Christ was wafted to the shores of Ireland. And Fethlemid came
also, and received instruction, and himself believed, and his whole
house; and they were baptized; and he gave Antrim to the church as a
possession. Then came Patrick and founded there a church, and placed
Loman over it, as chief pastor. Jocelin, the writer of the life of S.
Patrick, states that he used a life of the great apostle of the Irish,
written by S. Loman, his nephew.
Now when Loman was dying, he called to him Fortchern, that he might
consecrate him to be his successor in the See of Antrim, but he would
not, "Lest," said he, "it should be thought that the government of
this diocese was mine by hereditary right, for my father owned it till
he gave it to God." Then Loman recognised this reason as fitting, and
he was succeeded by one named Cathald.
Such is the legend, and a sad confusion of history and fable does it
prove to be. These are Dr. Lanigan's judicious remarks: "The
Tripartite Life makes S. Loman or Luman a nephew of S. Patrick, left
in charge of the boat, and adds that, in consequence of the order of
the saint, he sailed up against the current of the river as far as
Trim. This was too good a story to be slightly passed over by Jocelin,
who, to make it still more marvellous, subjoins that, the sails being
hoisted, he went up, without the assistance of oars, notwithstanding
furious blasts of wind in the direction opposite to its course. He
might as well have said that it had been carried in the air; for the
channel of the Boyne is so unfit for navigation, that it would be
impossible for a boat to proceed as far as Trim, even were both the
current and the winds favourable."[50]
There can be no doubt that Loman lived much later, and that he is no
other than the bishop Loman of Trim, who lived in the 7th century, of
whom nothing authentic is known. Dr. Lanigan carefully traces the
fable of the donation of Antrim, and shows that it is partly blunder,
partly wilful invention. Colgan patched up the Acts of S. Loman from
the stories in the Tripartite Life of S. Patrick, and in Jocelin, who
quotes from the Martyrologum Tamlachtense the following
passage:--"Loman of Trim and his companions, who were (of the list two
only are worth noting) Ossan and Fortchern." "If," says Dr. Lanigan,
"by _sociis suis_ we should understand disciples of Loman, Loman must
be brought to much later times than those of S. Patrick, for Ossan
was, in all appearance, the person of that name whose memory was
revered at Rath-Ossan, near the west gate of Trim, and whose death is
marked at A.D. 686. Some of them are placed by Colgan himself in still
later times. It may be objected that Tirechan, who is supposed to have
lived in the 7th century, speaks of Loman as being in S. Patrick's
days. But if Tirechan lived so early, the account given of Loman is
undoubtedly an interpolation thrust into his work. For no author of
that country would have written certain nonsense therein contained,
such as that prince Fethlemid, a son of king Leogaire, made a grant of
_all_ his territory, property, and family, to Saints Patrick and
Loman, and thus to the Church of Trim. Such fables, relative to
ecclesiastical endowments, did not appear in Ireland until a much
later period."[51]
With regard to Fortchern the same difficulty exists. Notwithstanding
that he is made the son of Fethlemid, prince of Trim, he is spoken of
in the Tripartite Life as blacksmith to S. Patrick; and if he were a
disciple of S. Loman, he must be moved from the 5th to the 7th
century. Anyhow he is not to be confounded with Bishop Fortchern of
Ross, as does the legend; if he was a bishop at all, it was of Trim.