Saint Eugene (Patron of the Diocese)
Died circa AD 550
Unlike St Colm Cille who had the benefit of successors like St Eunan to write his biography, St Eugene's story is recorded only in a Life (vita) preserved "in a very late, abridged version which has not much historical interest," according to James F Kennedy. He has suffered more than most since he has had to undergo a change of name in the course of time. Although now known as Eugene (from the Greek meaning "well-born"), his proper name is of course Eoghan, meaning "born under [the protection of] the yew tree". Early literature draws attention to the importance of trees at places of assembly, like the black oak at Black Hill in the parish of Kilcronaghan. The bile or sacred tree gives its name to Moville. Oville near Dungiven refers to a sacred yew, as does Altinure - there are two words for "yew" in Irish 'eo" and "iur". The yew was believed to be the oldest tree. Its wood was hard and hard to work, used for war and peace, for domestic vessels and door posts, for spears and shields. It had to be treated with care because its berries are toxic. The name Eoghan then already had a religious significance in pagan Ireland.
According to his Vita, Eoghan was born the son of Cainneach and Muindeacha. His mother is said to have been of the Mugdorna of south-east Ulster. These people seem to have had some contact with the Laighin (who gave their name to Leinster), to whom his father Cainneach belonged, originating in the Wicklow-Kildare area. Since this is the area where Christianity first reached Ireland it may well be that Eoghan's father's family had been Christian for some time.
The Vita tells us that Eoghan was one of a large number of young people, including also St Tiarnach of Clones, captured by pirates and borne off the Britain. There he became a student at Candida Casa (Whithorn in Galloway) founded by St Ninian (Ninian's dates are most uncertain). The act of piracy is probably a literary conceit, the result of St Patrick having made abduction fashionable, but there seems no reason to doubt his education at Whithorn at St Ninian's school. Other students of Ninian or his school, it is said, were Enda of Aran, Finnian of Moville and, of course, Tiarnach of Clones (also a native of Leinster). Pirates intervene again and bear Eoghan and Tiarnach, now joined by Cairbre of Coleraine, to Armorica where they are put to milling corn - until their prayer is answered and God sends angels to turn the quernstone so that they can continue their reading. The "king of the Gauls" sent them back to Whithorn when he learnt of this. It is possible that students were caught up in the aftermath of the Anglo-Saxon invasions which led to that southward migration of Britons which changed the name of Armorica to Brittany. Two kidnappings seem too good to be true, however.
Eoghan returned to Ireland to what was then the north of Leinster and founded a monastery at Cill na Manach in Cualann, now Kilnamanagh, near Tallaght, Dublin. He remained there according to the Vita, for fifteen years and trained "not a few bishops and very many priests", including his nephew Caoimhín, St Kevin of Glendalough (d.c.618). When he decided to leave he gave consolation to his distressed monks by telling them that he would remain in such close touch that he would hear them in Ardstraw not merely as they chanted but even in their whispered confessions, which lends a whole new dimension to auricular confession.
His foundation was in the kingdom of Uí Fiachrach Ard Sratha to whom no doubt he came as a missionary and perhaps as a voluntary exile for ChriSt The Uí Fiachrach were part of that group of related kindreds who established themselves in central and south Ulster, from the Moyola and the Faughan of Monaghan and Louth. For obvious reasons most religious leaders founded their churches near the seat of political power, even if these places have since lost their importance. While there was a monastic house at Ardstraw, tradition is always clear that Eoghan was a bishop. The Vita makes it clear that he retained a close relationship with Tiarnach of Clones and Cairbre of Coleraine. This may merely mean that the three religious houses later maintained a close relationship, the better to resist the aggrandisement of Armagh - which was to lay claim to the churches of the Faughan valley - but there seems no reason to doubt that they were friends.
The Vita is in the main a collection of miracle stories. While going through a forest called Craoibheach ("branchy") he sang fifty psalms and when his attendant answered "Amen" at the end of the Lord's Prayer the trees all around also answered "Amen". One day when Eoghan was absent the monk in charge of the cellar went out of the monastery and became involved in alluring conversation with a young woman. Eoghan became aware of this although he was some distance away and made the sign of the cross. The monk thought he could hear Eoghan's voice saying the verse beginning: "Introibo in domum tuum, Domine," and he hastened into the monastery. He and Tiarnach were accustomed to visit a convent at Ros Cay in terra Metheorum where the abbess was called Mosseta (?). The only convent in the area as far as is known was at Urney in the district along the Finn called Magh Iotha which may well be the terra Metheorum. Ros Cay awaits identification. There they raised from the dead the nuns' faithful minister (servant?).
Eoghan refused to consecrate a spear for the cruel king Amhlaí (whom the spear pierced subsequently), and was able to find a stolen ram which bleated clearly when he called it by name Bethanus (?) The name obviously made more sense to the ram than it does to us.
Once when "a certain town" refused him hospitality he spent the night in fasting and prayer, said that the lands around the town would be henceforth infertile "which is true to this day", except for Caithne and his wife Brigh, who gave him a meal of meat, pork and a full jug of beer, whose reward was to be food in plenty - until a fool complained about the quantity and all was loSt Having been a captive himself he came to the aid of one hundred people besieged in a town called Leacach (? - from leac a "flagstone") by "pirates". He passed unseen through the besiegers, baptised all those in the town and led them, again unseen, through the ranks of their enemies.
He provided a copy of the gospels asked for by Cairbre which was delivered to Coleraine by angels when left on the alter at Ardstraw. This presumably means that Ardstraw regarded Coleraine as part of its paruchia, and may mean that Ardstraw had its own scribal school. Eoghan was also said to have foretold the coming of Colm Cille in a verse which would indicate he was perhaps a better bishop than a poet. It is obviously a composition of much later date, written after Ardstraw had come within the ambit of Derry.
As his final illness progressed he called the monks together, was anointed and received viaticum. As two choirs of the brothers sang psalms, he died, says the Vita, full of years and merit. The only suggested date for his death is around 550.
Reputation
St Patrick is said to have ordained Mac Earca as bishop for the Uí Fiachrach Ard Sratha, with the result that later writers claimed that Eoghan was the son of Bishop Earc. The Patrician connection is now seen as evidence of Armagh's claim to supremacy. Ard Sratha formed an alliance with Clones and Coleraine, but eventually is found to be part of the paruchia of Colm Cille, linked to Drumcliff in 923. No doubt this resulted from the decline in importance of the Uí Fiachrach and the rise of Cineal Eoghain to power from their original base in Inis Eoghain at Aileach and Derry. The few clerics of early Ardstraw whose names have survived seem to belong to the ruling house, including St Coibhdeánach d.706.
When territorial diocese were established as part of the Twelfth Century Reform of the Irish Church, Ardstraw was proposed as seat of a diocese whose boundary with the diocese of Connor was to be at Benevenagh and with a diocese to be called Derry or Raphoe at Carn Glas between Raphoe and Castlefin. For political reasons the system agreed upon was in fact different - divisions within the area to be ruled from Ardstraw, and the wish of the Cineál Eoghain King Domhnall Mac Ardgháir Mac Lochlainn to secure an expanded kingdom covering what is now county Derry and North Antrim, and a Donegal Kingdom ruled by his son. This would seem to be part of the reason for the transfer of the seat of the bishopric from Ardstraw to Maghera. The claim by Clogher in the thirteenth century that Giolla an Choimdhe (Gelasius) O Cearbhalláin, bishop of Derry, had taken west Tyrone by force from the diocese of Clogher seems to result from an internal feud within Cineál Eoghain and to reflect a time when diocesan boundaries were somewhat fluid.
One of the marks of the importance of Ardstraw is the number of times in the Annals that it is attacked or burnt. Such attacks were often a rough and ready form of tax gathering or a way of asserting superiority - the Normans even found their way there in 1197. Raids were carried out only on places where the pickings were well worth the effort. The bridge at Ardstraw was a favoured place for negotiations between local lords in conflict and the agreements reached were sealed in the church there. The importance of Ardstraw is reflected in the extent of the townlands set aside for the support of the church and the clergy after parishes were formed in the thirteenth century. In the Middle Ages the efficacy of having oneself as close as possible to one's patron saint was emphasised. Ardstraw was recognised as the place of burial of the local princely families like O Gormlaigh, and ecclesiastical families like O Farannáin, and poetic families like Mac Con Mí. Amongst them lies buried Tarlach Luineach O Néill d. 1595, descendant of the kings of Ulster, the immediate predecessor as earl of Tyrone of Aodh Mor, Hugh the great Earl, who with Hugh rua O'Donnell, earl of Tirconnell, led the Nine Years War, although Tarlach Luineach's own sons eventually found themselves on the opposing side, joining Docwra in Derry.
Ardstraw then came to occupy an important place in Ulster's ecclesiastical life and the name of its founder retained its prominence when the founders of similar churches were forgotten. While Colm Cille is always seen as monk and abbot, Eoghan is always called "bishop" to the extent that there is a medieval Christian name Giolla Easpaig Eoghain or "devotee of bishop Owen." [Due to reverence for such saints, Gaelic practice in Scotland and in Ireland was that the person was called not directly by the saint's name but with giolla or maol ("tonsured") added to it to indicate devotion]. Gaelic names were unlike the names common within the Roman Empire, and so, by contact with the continental church, they were latinised, sometimes by translation, sometimes by choosing a name that looked more or less similar to the original. And so we come back to Eugene, not perhaps the most fortunate example of the craft.
Rev Kieran Devlin PP.
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