Before they departed, these bishops deemed it expedient to apologise and explain :-" You see," said they, "that bullock you killed for us had been suckled on milk, and ate grass only, so that its flesh was actually milk and vegetables in a condensed form. But we felt conscientious scruples about those biscuits, for they were full of weevils." Aidan was too good and courteous a man to make answer to this quibble.1 Aidan is said to have visited S. Fintan Munu and found most of the brethren there very ill. S. Fintan invited Aidan to perform a miracle and cure them. According to the legend, Aidan did this, but on the next day they were all as bad as they had been before, and the legend writer explains this by saying that Fintan thought it more wholesome for their souls to be ill, and so begged Aidan to let them all once more be sick. The fact would seem to be that Aidan attempted a miracle and failed.2 Aidan is said to have been associated with S. Ruadhan of Lothra in the cursing of Tara and of King Diarmid, son of Fergus Cearbhall, in 554, but this is chronologically impossible, as Aidan was not then in Ireland; the Aidan who lent his voice and presence to that unholy conjuration must have been Aedh Mac Bricc, who died in 588. There is no mention of the conjuration in the Life of S. Aidan, but that is not the main objection, as the scandal of the iniquitous proceeding would have deterred a panegyrist from inserting it. Aidan survived S. Ita, who died in 570, and S. Columcill, who died in 579. He was summoned by his old master, David, to visit him before his death, and gladly went when called. We may associate him with Brandubh, of the Hy Cinnselach, who was king of Leinster, and a liberal contributor to the endowment of Ferns and other foundations of the Saint. 3 Camuscaech, son of Aedh Mac Ainmire, king of Ireland, made a raid into Leinster, with the object of carrying off Brandubh's wife. He crossed the River Rye, and Brandubh, taken by surprise, was obliged to fly. However, he secretly surrounded the wooden house in which was Camuscaech and set it on fire. Camuscaech hastily disguised himself as a bard, and, climbing to the ridge piece by the smoke hole, managed to escape, but was pursued and caught, and his head cut off. 1 Gloss on the Felire of Oengus. 2 Vitæ SS. Hib., Cod. Sal., coll. 474-5. 3 The account of these events is given in the historical treatise, Borumha Laighean. See O'Hanlon, Irish Saints, i, pp. 547-8; and Keating's History of Ireland, ed. O'Connor, 1841, ii, p. 68; O'Donovan, Annals of the Four Masters King Aedh, to avenge the death of his son, but under the pretext of coming to exact the Boromha tribute from the Leinster men, crossed the Rye, and marched at the head of a large force against Brandubh. The King of Leinster called S. Aidan to his assistance, to curse his enemy, and the Battle of Dunbolg was fought in 598. In it the Irish head king was slain, and his army completely routed. Soon after this victory, the men of Leinster revolted against Brandubh, and fought the king in a battle at Camcluain, and Saran Soebhdhearc, who had headed the rebels, slew Brandubh in 601. After that, Saran endeavoured to make his peace with S. Aidan, who cursed him that his right hand might rot off to the stump. Saran was frightened, and begged Aidan to impose on him a penance. Aidan bade him go to the tomb of Brandubh, whose body had been removed to Ferns, and pray there for forgiveness. According to the legend, a voice issued from the tomb, "You brute, Saran, you are forgiven." But he lost his hand all the same. Probably he had received a wound in the wrist in the battle, and this gangrened.1 A pretty story of S. Aidan is told. He was riding one day in his chariot, and the clerical charioteer, looking over his shoulder, said to him :-" I wonder who will be bishop after you?" Now some boys were about, playing at being soldiers, and the chariot was on a way barred by a gate. "Who will succeed me?" said the prelate, "why the boy who has the courtesy to leave his play, and open for us. Then a lad, seeing that the aged bishop was going along the road that was barred, ran forward and flung the gate open for him. Aidan asked his name, and the boy said that he was called Cronan, and then begged that he might be taken into the school at Ferns. To which Aidan replied, "Follow me." 2 The boy was afterwards known as Mochua Luachra, who is identified with Dachua, bishop of Ferns, after the second Aidan, and died 652. The story was clearly made ex post facto. It was remembered that this Dachua had opened the gate to Aidan, and at the same time had asked to be taken as his disciple, and then it was fabled that Aidan had foretold his elevation. On another occasion Aidan noticed how clever with his fingers a lad named Gobban was, and he took the child's hand in his and blessed it. Gobban became a famous architect. He afterwards built churches for S. Molling and S. Abban.3 " 1 Cod. Sal., col. 482. O Sarane, brute, ignoscitur tibi quod fecisti." CambroBritish Saints, pp. 246-7. 2 Cod. Sal., col. 477. Cambro-British Saints, pp. 245-6. 3 See on him O'Curry, Manners and Customs of the Ancient Irish, London, 873, iii, pp. 34-6, 39-42, 44-5. Once S. Aidan was stooping by the riverside washing his hands. Some men looking on discussed the question whether the Saint ever lost his temper. We will soon put that to the proof," said one of them, and, giving the old man a thrust, sent him headlong into the water. Aidan quietly got out and made no reprimand, whereupon the man who had thus behaved, ashamed of himself, apologised for his practical joke.1 S. Aidan died on January 31, on which day he is commemorated in all the Irish Martyrologies, but he does not seem to have had any place in the Welsh Calendars.2 John of Tynemouth, however, asserts that in his time the feast of S. Aidan was observed at S. David's. The Annals of Boyle state that he died in 600, but Colgan regarded 633 as the right date. This is the date given, as already observed, by the Four Masters, and in the Annals of Tighernach. In those of Ulster the two dates are given, 625 and 656, the latter date belonging to his successor and namesake. When we come to examine into the chronology of the Life of S. Aidan, we have to lay aside the story of his having been a boy hostage to Ainmire (568-71). This belongs to the second Aidan. association with Guaire Aidhne (662) is impossible. So also his It is not possible to reconcile his chronology with the dates of Gildas = Aneurin, his reputed father. Gildas retired from the world in 520 according to our computation, and although Celtic bishops and abbots. did sometimes possess wives, it is not probable that Gildas had one after 520. But Aidan died in or about 625. We are therefore inclined to correct the Welsh genealogies into making Aidan grandson in the place of son of Aneurin-Gildas. Aidan crossed into Ireland, if summoned by Gildas, in 565, but he must then have been very young, and we should propose the date 570. He does not come into contact with Irish princes till associated with Aedh, son of Ainmire, between 572 and 599. He was on familiar terms with Brandubh, king of Leinster, till the death of that king in 601. He was intimate with S. Fintan Munu, who died in 634, and his "soul-friend," Molua of Clonfert, died in 591. The year 625 is therefore somewhere about the date of Aidan's death. On one point in the history of Aidan it is well to pause, before leaving him. In his Life it is asserted that King Brandubh, in a Synod of clergy and laity, decreed that the Archbishopric of all Leinster should be for ever in the See and Chair of S. Aidan, that is to say at Ferns, and that the Saint should be at once consecrated Archbishop. 1 Acta SS. Hibern., Cod. Sal., col. 584. 2 Nicolas Roscarrock gives him on this day under the name of Modoack. But such a thing as a division of Ireland into metropolitan Sees did not exist at that time, and as Dr. Todd has pointed out, the author, if he wrote in Latin, or the translator, if the original were in Irish, rendered the word ard-epscop by the seemingly equivalent archiepiscopus. But the Irish word implies no more than that he was made a chief bishop in honour, and not that jurisdiction was conveyed with it. An ard-file is an eminent poet, an ard-anchoire an exalted anchorite.1 In Ireland Moedoc is contracted into Mogue, and in English Aedh is always rendered Hugh. The shrine of S. Mogue is in the Museum of the Royal Irish Academy and is called the Breac Moedoc. S. Aidan's Well is in the townland and parish of Clongeen, in Wexford County. In Pembrokeshire he is the patron, not only of Llawhaden (Llanaedan) but also, as Madog, of the churches of Nolton, Haroldston West, and Solva S. Aidan under Whitchurch. For churches dedicated elsewhere to him under the name Madog see under S. Madog ab Gildas. Ffynnon Fadog, S. Madog's Well, is on the way from S. David's to Porth Mawr and Ty Gwyn. It is an unfailing gush of cold water. The farm of Trefeithan, near S. David's, perhaps bears his name and is Tref-Aedan. He is sometimes given 2 as patron of Llanidan in Anglesey, with wake on September 30, but this is a mistake. In Cornwall the only church that perhaps commemorates him, altered into Hugh, is Quethiock, and it is remarkable that there the feast is observed on November 2, which in the Irish Calendars is the day of another Aidan who is thought to have had a church in Monaghan, but of whom nothing is known. At Quethiock was formerly a holy well in the wall of the church; at the "restoration" of the building it was filled up and built over, but it is hoped will shortly be reopened. Under the name of Maidoc, he had a chapel at S. Issey, and Smithick, the old name for Falmouth, is supposed to be derived from a chapel to S. Mithic or Maidoc. In art, the Saint should be represented as a bishop carrying a hive of bees. J. W. Wolf has dealt with the mythological elements in the legendary life of S. Aidan in " Irische u. Schottische Heiligenleben ", in Zeitschrift für Deutsche Mythologie, Göttingen, i (1853), PP. 344-58. 1 Todd, Life of S. Patrick, pp. 14-18. S. AIDAN of Mavurn, Bishop, Confessor AIDAN who was a disciple of S. Dyfrig or Dubricius 1 cannot possibly have been the Aidan or Maidoc, Bishop of Ferns, of the foregoing notice. He was with Dyfrig at Hentland, and afterwards was consecrated bishop. King Cinuin, son of Pepiau, made a donation to him of Mavurn in the Dore valley.2 When the Church of Llandaff obtained possession of all the churches of Dyfrig and his disciples, it got hold of Mavurn, and when the compiler of the 14th century additions to the Book of Llan Dâv drew up his conjectural list of the bishops of that see, he assumed that Aidan had been one of them, and successor to Uvelviu.3 This Aidan, with his name taking the form of Maidoc, may have been associated with Catwg in the quarrel and reconciliation with King Arthur recorded in the Vita S. Cadoci. Catwg had given refuge to a certain Ligessauc, son of Eliman, surnamed Lauhir, who had killed three of Arthur's men. Catwg retained him in Gwynllywg for seven years before Arthur discovered where he was concealed. Then Arthur was highly incensed, as this was exceeding the time limit allowed for sanctuary, and Catwg had to send a deputation to Arthur to settle terms for the man. The deputation was composed of S. David, S. Teilo, S. Dochu, Cynidr and Maidoc. It proceeded to the banks of the Usk, and Arthur held communications with the commissioners by shouting across the river. At last it was promised that Catwg should pay to the king a blood fine of three of the best quality of ox for each man slain, but this was rejected, and it was decided that Catwg should pay one hundred cows. When this number had been collected and driven to the bank, Arthur refused to receive them, unless they were all of one quality of colour, the fore part red, and white behind. Catwg found it impossible to comply. The story goes on to say that Arthur despatched Cai and Bedwyr into the mud of the Usk to meet the men of Catwg in the middle of the stream, as he sulkily consented finally to receive the cattle. According to the legend, when the cows were passed over into the possession of Arthur, they were transformed into bundles of fern. This probably means no more than that he accepted ferncoloured cattle. Then Arthur granted to Catwg the right of sanctuary for seven years, seven months and seven days.1 1 Vita S. Dubricii in the Book of Llan Dáv, p. 80. 2 Book of Llan Dâv, p. 162. 4 Cambro-British Saints, pp. 48-9. 3 Ibid., pp. 303, 311. |