Irish Litany

Unique Research – Special Studies – Original Deep Digging

Remembering the Saints of Munster by Chris Watson

An Irish Prayer Book copied by Dáibhí de Barra

Constant J. Mews, Chris Watson & Julia S. Kühns

On 12 May 1863, Dr John Barry D.D. (1816-71) offered the recently opened State Library of Victoria its first manuscript book, an Irish language prayer book (SLV MSB 260, Irish Manuscripts, MS 10595), copied in 1833. He also donated two early printed books, a rare copy of the Sermones de sanctis, attributed to Conrad de Brundelsheim (d. 1321), published at Deventer by Richardus Paffraet in 1477, and Augustine’s Homiliae de tempore, Lyon: Sebast. Honoratum, 1563. Dr Barry was a scholar of some distinction, having obtained his doctorate while studying under Dr Paul Cullen at the Irish College in Rome, and subsequently becoming professor of rhetoric at Maynooth. He had come out to Australia from Ireland in 1856 at the invitation of Archbishop James Alipius Goold (1812-76), to serve as Administrator of St Francis’s Church, Melbourne (1857-59) and then President of St Patrick’s College for boys in East Melbourne. On Christmas Day 1861, Barry fled the country, accruing unpaid debts at S Patrick’s College, but then in March 1862 returned to Melbourne from Ceylon, to face the Insolvency Court and accusations by Bishop Goold of malpractice. After continuing difficulties, he returned to Ireland in July 1863, after making this gift to the State Library. The Irish prayer book that he donated is now digitally accessible as part of digitised collection of manuscripts, Irish Script on Screen. An Irish language listing of its contents by Pádraig Ó Macháin is also available online. A particular detail, however, not picked up in this listing, relates to its litany of saints. While printed litanies tend to follow a standardised form, manuscript versions of a litany of the saints have always provided the opportunity for any community to articulate its identity in a much more local way. This particular litany is both distinctly Franciscan and closely linked to the region of Cork in the ancient kingdom of Munster. The prayer book itself provides a treasured memory in Melbourne to the ancient practice of copying books by hand and thus of preserving the Irish language in the face of sustained official opposition, well into the nineteenth century.

This prayer book was brought to public attention by Val Noone in his important monograph, published in 2012, about the presence of Irish culture in Victoria. He pointed out the significance of having a manuscript copied by Dáibhí de Barra (1758-1851), an author and poet, who devoted much of his long life to defending the Irish language at a very difficult time in its history. An introductory note reports that de Barra transcribed it in 1833 for his nephew, also called Dáibhí. Noone observed the coincidence. Whether this nephew can be identified with or related to a David Barry, born in 1810 in Mallow (just north of Cork), who came out to Melbourne in 1838 is not certain. Noone’s observation of their common geographical origins is telling. Dr John Barry was himself a native of Watergrasshill, some eleven miles north-east of Cork. Dáibhí de Barra, of Bunasdó (Woodstock, Dungourney, Co. Cork), who spent most of his life in the district of Carrigtwohill, just ten miles east of Cork, may well have been a relative. We cannot be certain, however, exactly how he acquired the manuscript. While Dr John Barry was not related to Redmond Barry, also a native of Cork, they shared a surname that derived from the name of Barry Island, and thus from the patron saint of Cork, namely Finnbar or Barry (Fionnbharr or Bairre/Barra, to use Irish spelling). They also shared a common background in the city of Cork (also the home town of Archbishop Goold). Given that Cork was the departure point for so many Irish migrants to Victoria, it is not surprising that the name of Barry should be well represented in the Melbourne region. What is perhaps less well-known is the significance of the particular treasure that Fr John Barry should seek to offer to the State Library.

The Irish saints in the prayer book

The exemplar from which Dáibhí de Barra copied this manuscript is not known. It has been suggested that it could be one of the items referred to by a contemporary of de Barra in 1817: ‘I understand he has translated some English prayer books into Irish.’ Yet the particular features of its litany of saints (copied on pp. 121-27 of the Melbourne prayer book), suggests that it preserves a distinctly Irish (more specifically Munster) selection of saints. Traditionally the litany of saints is divided into four sections: the first invoking the apostles, the second the martyrs, the third bishops and confessors, as well as doctors of the Church, while the fourth identifies holy women. It is recited as part of the liturgy of the Easter vigil, when the assistance is invoked of a long list of saints of the Church over the blessing of the font. In the medieval period and subsequently, religious orders would add their own favourite saints to a litany. What is distinctive about this litany, however, is the way that immediately following a list of the apostles (on p. 123) it gives the names of four Irish saints: Padraig, Barra, Eolain, and Mochoda – namely St Patrick, St Finbarr (Fionnbharr), St Olan and St Mochuda (also known as St Carthage). While it was standard in any Irish litany of the saints to identify Patrick as first apostle to the Irish, the fact that his name is followed by that of three other Munster saints, as all having the rank of apostle, deserves attention. Finbarr was revered above all in Cork, as its founding bishop from the late sixth century (c. 550-623), with his feast day falling on 25 September. The mention of Eolain (St Olan or Eolang of Aghabulloge) in the litany is remarkable because his cult was so rare. Revered on 5 September only at Cork and Aghabulloge, twenty miles west of Cork, in the barony of East Muskerry, Eolang is known mainly through the Life of St Finbarr, as that saint’s father-confessor, with a feast day of 5 September. No Life of the saint was ever written, which leads to the suggestion that the litany is very likely to derive from Cork, near where it was copied. Mochuda, also known as Carthage and a native of Kerry, was remembered in Ireland above all at Lismore (Co. Waterford) on 14 May, as another of the great saints of Munster. The question is whether Dáibhi de Barra himself elevated those saints to the status of apostle in the litany, or whether he was simply transcribing an existing manuscript. No comparable litany is known giving these saints this honour.

The linking of Finbarr and Patrick as two apostles of Ireland in the litany suggests a conscious desire to assert the identity of Cork, in the ancient kingdom of Munster, as of comparable status to Armagh in the north of Ireland, the traditional focus of the cult of Patrick. The notion that Patrick, Brigid and Colum Cille (Columba) were three so-called ‘national’ saints of Ireland can be traced back the versified martyrology of Oengus in the early ninth century. In the late twelfth century, the bishop of Downpatrick miraculously ‘discovered’ the physical remains of Brigit and Columba lying alongside those of Patrick, solemnly reinterring them in the presence of the papal legate. Yet none of these three saints were from the kingdom of Munster in southern Ireland. Patrick was associated with Armagh, Brigid with Kildare in the kingdom of Leinster, Columba (an abbot, and not a bishop), with Iona. As part of the radical restructuring of the Irish church implemented at Ráith Bressail in 1111, a separate southern province of Cashel was established, supplemented at Kells in 1152 by the creation of two further archdioceses at Tuam and Dublin. The primacy of Armagh over all Ireland was subtly reinforced by the ‘rediscovery’ of the relics of Patrick, Brigit and Columba. While bringing together these three saints was a skilful way of bringing together their distinct regional identities, the fact that none were from Munster helps explain why the memory of Finbarr, as founding bishop of Cork, was so important in the twelfth century. Finbarr (Fionnbharr) or Barra was remembered in Cork as having died c. 620, the written account of his Life may reflect a twelfth-century desire to assert his authority, in a way that could match that of Patrick in Armagh. That a saint’s litany should place the name of Finnbarr immediately after that of Patrick as having the rank of apostle, followed by that of his sixth-century father-confessor, Eolang, was to make powerful statement about the importance of the saints of Munster.

The mention of Mochoda as fourth in this list of Irish saints of the rank of apostle is particularly intriguing because this saint, also known through his baptismal name of Carthach (or Carthage, deriving from its Latin form of Carthagus), was remembered above all at Lismore (Co. Waterford), in the eastern part of the kingdom of Munster. The story is told in the Vita Carthagi (Life of St Carthage), of how Carthach, born in Kerry, was for forty years abbot of a monastery at Rahan (Co. Offaly) in Meath, where he became particularly famous for looking after lepers, but was eventually forced by other abbots, in collusion with local rulers, to re-settle his community (probably around 632) at Lismore. The Munster connections of Carthach/Mochuda were viewed with suspicion by in Meath. While a near complete Latin version of this Vita is known only through a single medieval collection of saints’ lives (preserved through three copies made in the late medieval/early modern period), a slightly fuller form of its text was translated into Irish in the early modern period. While one copy survives from the seventeenth century, seven others were produced in or around the region of Cork between 1740 and 1820, itself significant testimony to the way ancient traditions were preserved by the copying of manuscripts, long after the invention of print. This Irish translation of the Vita Carthagi is textually important because it contains certain phrases not found in the Latin version, which may have been preserved in the Cork region. There was a similar interest in copying the Irish Life of Finbarr well into the nineteenth century. The litany preserved in the prayer book copied by Dáibhí de Barra reflects the same fascination with Irish saints. By including Mochoda on the rank of the apostles, alongside Patrick, Finbarr and Eolain, the litany was asserting an important memory about the saints of Munster. Whereas printed litanies invariably transmit a standardised version of the liturgical text, manuscript litanies in the medieval period invariably reflect local identity. The fact that this particular prayer book was copied in 1833, reveals the continuing presence of reverence for local saints into the nineteenth century. The litany provided a way of combining respect for the saints of the universal Church with those that reflect the identity not just of Ireland (namely St Patrick), but those much more closely associated with a local region, in this case the ancient kingdom of Munster.

The Franciscan inspiration of the prayer book

Also of interest are the distinctly Franciscan saints included in the litany. Thus we see included on p. 124 among the confessors and doctors, St Bonaventure, St Didachus (St Didacus of Alcalá d. 1463, Latin: Sanctus Didacus Complutensis, also known as Saint Diego) and Anthony (of Padua). Among the women saints are included St Margaret (of Cortona?) and St Clare, companion to St Francis in the thirteenth century. A question might be raised about the invocation: ‘A naomh Domhnall, maille read chohtachuibh martíreach dórd St Próinsiais’, which can best be translated, we argue, as: ‘Saint Daniel with your company of the martyrs from the order of St Francis.’ It seems unlikely that this could be an allusion to one of the many Irish Franciscans, executed in the late sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Donal (also known as Denis) O’Neylan, cruelly martyred at Youghal on 28 March 1580 (reportedly hung upside down with weights by his cord from the town gate, before being executed) was one of many Irish martyrs put forward for canonization in the early twentieth century, of just seventeen of whom (including four Franciscans) would be officially beatified on 22 September 1992. Much more probable is that the invocation recalls an early Franciscan saint, known as Daniel (Domhnall in Irish), martyred in north Africa on 10 September 1227, but not officially canonized until 1516. The entry provides clear confirmation that Dáibhí de Barra had copied this litany from a Franciscan source.

Historically, the Franciscans were always particularly strong in the southern part of Ireland. In the early seventeenth century, the greatest concentration of Franciscan houses was in the Counties of Cork (nine), Waterford (five), Limerick (four) and Clare (six). While the precise origin of the prayer book copied by Dáibhí de Barra (who lived just ten miles east of Cork) is uncertain, the particular combination of saints mentioned in its litany suggests that it derives from a Franciscan prayer book in the Cork region. While there was no Franciscan house at Lismore, there was one at Waterford, as also at Youghal, thought to be the site of the first Franciscan foundation in Ireland, before 1230, but it was abandoned in the seventeenth century. The most important Franciscan house in Munster in the early nineteenth century was at Cork, founded before 1230 by Dermot McCarthy (whose family was long associated with the friary) and the site of the first Franciscan provincial chapter in Ireland, in 1244. While the Cork friary was officially transferred to lay ownership in 1541, its Franciscans must still have preserved their manuscripts in 1629, when the great Franciscan scholar, Micheál Ó Clérigh copied accounts of both Finbarr (Barra) and Mochuda, as well as other Munster saints, at Cork. This was despite the fact that much of the original Franciscan priory (although not the church) had been pulled down. While there was a brief period of no Franciscans being recorded in Cork after Cromwell’s capture of the city in 1649, a small community had resurfaced by 1672. While they would have been living in hiding during these years, they remained in and around the city, moving to their present site in Broad Lane by 1759. By the late eighteenth century, under the guidance of Fr Lawrence Callanan (1739-1818), the friar started to become a significant presence in the city, with a new church being built in 1829. When Dáibhí de Barra copied that prayer book in 1833, the Franciscans were at the forefront of preserving Irish catholic culture in the region of Cork.

Of particular importance for demonstrating the role of Franciscans in preserving this memory is the library at Cork. An inventory compiled there in 1822 reports that it contained 2,698 volumes on a wide range of subjects. It reportedly also contained a large number of pamphlets and manuscripts, having also inherited (according to Canice Mooney) ‘the paltry remains of the libraries of extinct neighbouring friaries like Kilcrea, Buttevant and Youghal.’ The scale of the loss of Irish medieval manuscripts in the seventeenth century can be glimpsed by reflecting on the vast scale of the Franciscan library at Youghal in the later medieval period, now almost entirely lost. The copying of the prayer book by Dáibhí de Barra in 1833 may reflect the survival of a small fragment of the Franciscan library surviving at Cork, in the same way as copies of the Irish language Life of Mochuda (Carthach), copied in the Cork region between 1750 and 1820.

One other possibility can be canvassed. The Franciscan convent at Buttevant (Co. Cork), on the main road from Cork to Limerick, had been founded in 1251 by his namesake, Dáibhí de Barra, whose tomb was preserved in its church, the convent was patronised by the de Barra family for many centuries, but its community was very small and what survived from its library was taken to Cork. There were still a few Franciscans connected to Buttevant in the early nineteeth century. Yet while there might have been a remote family link between by the scribe of the Melbourne prayer book and the thirteenth-century founder of Buttevant, it was not a place which Michéal Ó Clérigh visited in the early seventeenth century. Our prayer book seems more likely to derive from an exemplar preserved at Cork, where both Finbarr and Eolang were held in honour. Dáibhí could have been copying a translation made from Latin by Franciscans in the eighteenth century, who devoted themselves to producing devotional literature in Irish. The use of the Irish Mochoda (normally spelled as Mochuda in Irish manuscripts) rather than the Latin baptismal name Carthagus suggests it derives from a spoken Irish language source. In 1806, the first secretary of the Gaelic Society, founded in 1806, was Denis Taafe, himself a former Franciscan. The prayer book copied by Dáibhí de Barra, in particular its litany of the saints, gives vivid expression to the way the great achievement of these Franciscan scholars in the seventeenth and eighteenth century would be taken over by a new generation of scribes, from outside the Franciscan Order.

Further insight into the Irish litany can be gained by comparing it to both the standard litany authorised by the Roman Church in the thirteenth century (and still in use in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries) and the Franciscan missal. Exemplars provided by the Franciscan library of St Paschal’s library, Box Hill, illustrate the standard version of the litany which includes the names of St Francis and Dominic among confessors and doctors of the Church, but provides no later saint. By contrast, a Franciscan Missal from 1929 includes most (though not all) of the Franciscan saints included in the Irish prayer book, as well as many others added by the Order to their official litany in the centuries after the Council of Trent. Thus the litany in the Irish prayer book includes both Bonaventure (canonized in 1482 and not made a doctor of the Church until 1588) and St Didacus of Alcalá d. 1463, as well as St Anthony [of Padua], St Margaret [of Cortona?], but not those subsequently added to the Franciscan litany in the seventeenth century or later. The list of holy women in the Irish litany has been briefly extended with two thirteenth-century female Franciscan saints, namely Margaret (of Cortona) and Clare, but has none of the extra Franciscans added in the printed litany. The logical inference of these omissions is that the litany preserved in the Irish translation derives from a version established in or soon after the sixteenth century, as it includes the Franciscan feast of St Daniel and his martyred companions, not established until 1516. The litany does not include any Franciscan saints added in the seventeenth century. The prayer book copied by Dáibhí de Barra is a witness not just to the survival of an officially suppressed vernacular Irish religious culture during the Penal Period, but to the role of Franciscans in preserving memories of Munster saints from the seventh century.

The Regensburg Fragment: Remembering North Munster saints in Germany

There is no doubt that the destruction of medieval manuscripts in Ireland was unusually savage, compared with any other part of Europe. There seems to have been a deliberate policy by English forces in the late sixteenth and seventeenth centuries to wipe out historic records of Irish culture. Scholarly churchmen with an interest in preserving records of Irish history, like Archbishop James Ussher, were rare in the seventeenth century. Many Old and Middle Irish texts survive only because of the efforts of learned Franciscan scribes in the early seventeenth century, like Micheál Ó Cléirigh, to send to the continent transcriptions of ancient manuscripts before they disappeared for ever. This practice of migrants from Ireland preserving memories of saints from their local region is one can that stretched back many centuries.

Our knowledge of many early Irish saints as well as of early Irish liturgy owes much to the effort of monks who settled in religious houses on the continent between the seventh and seventeenth centuries. Only a handful of early medieval Irish litanies are known to survive, often through records made in the twelfth century or later. In recent years a single leaf of such a manuscript, copied in the twelfth century in Regensburg (where there important communities of Irish monks and nuns), has been acquired through private sale by University College Cork. It provides a rare glimpse of precisely the same process as we see in the Irish prayer book in Melbourne, of the standard list of Roman saints being extended with the names of local figures particularly relevant to that community. In this case, the Irish saints are placed not immediately after the apostles and Stephen, the protomartyr, as in the Irish prayer book, but after the list of Roman martyrs, confessors and doctors of the Church, and then various early German bishops of Regensburg. Patrick is then identified as the first of eighteen male Irish saints, followed by Brendan, Columba, and Finian. Carthage is identified by his official Latin baptismal name (Karthage) rather than by his Irish name, Mochuda, after the little known Cridan and before Flannane. After the last saint (Lacteanus) in this section, there follow various later saints, mostly early medieval, including two other Irishmen, Columbanus and Gallus. The sequence of these names seems to be crudely chronological. Of the nineteen female saints, headed by Mary Magdalen and including Scholastica (sister of St Benedict), only one is distinctively Irish, namely Brigid, fifteenth on the list. She is followed by Gertude, a seventh-century saint from Nivelles (Flanders) with a strong Irish following and the unknown Sindrudis. Pádraig Ó Riain has observed that many of the saints reflect a north Munster, south Clare and Limerick provenance, quite possibly reflecting the association of the Regensburg Schottenkloster with North Munster. The saints in this version of the litany, like those in the Irish prayer book, identify the particular lineage of saints remembered in its liturgy.

Conclusion

The particular combination of saints included in the Irish language prayer book, copied not far outside Cork by Dáibhí de Barra in 1833, derives from a Franciscan version of the litany, which accorded particular attention, not just to Patrick, but to two saints local to Cork, namely Finbarr and Olan, as well as to Mochuda (also known as St Carthage), particularly revered in Lismore, but certainly also known in Cork. It provides a fascinating insight not just into the continuity of Irish scribal practice into the nineteenth century, but its capacity to preserve local identity in a way that is simply not possible with the printed prayer book. Printed missals impose a standardised liturgy that cannot articulate local identity. The Irish litany reflects a canon of Irish and Franciscan saints as it might have been established by the seventeenth century. More research is needed into the Irish texts preserved in this prayer book, bequeathed to the State Library of Victoria by Dr John Barry in 1863, to determine both the precise origin of its many prayers as well as to identify original texts, such as the autograph poem copied by Dáibhí de Barra on pp. 230-35 of the manuscript. In any case, the manuscript deserves to be added to the list of his known writings provided by Ó Conchúir. Dáibhí de Barra wrote poems and owned or copied a number of Irish manuscripts now in the possession of the National Library of Ireland. More attention also deserves to be given to the large number of surviving Irish language prayer books, still being copied by hand in 1870—in particular those from the region of Cork. This may help resolve the question whether Dáibhí de Barra himself elevated those four saints to privileged status or whether he was following an established tradition. The litanies to Irish saints within such prayer books easily pass unnoticed. Yet they transmit very distinct memories of a particular region of Ireland, witnessing centuries of persecution, that deserve our attention. The litany attests to the role of Franciscans in recalling ancient traditions of the kingdom of Munster, going back to the seventh century. In this case, these memories of the saints were recorded by a scribe dedicated to the preservation of Irish culture and taken to Melbourne in the mid nineteenth century. The prayer book provides a precious witness to the memory of an ancient culture.

Appendix I: The Contents of the Irish Prayer book in SLV, MS 15015

This description supplements an on-line description of the contents, in Irish, by Pádraig Ó Macháin. The flyleaf (p. vii) is inscribed: “This is the prayer book that Daibidh do Barradh wrote for the son of his brother, namely Daibhidh son of Seaghain do Barradh from Bunasdó for his use and his service in the year eighteen hundred and thirty three. Glory be to God.”
p. 1 Morning prayers. Begins: Descend O Holy Spirit to be near us &… Includes ‘Petition to the Guardian Angels’.
p. 12. Evening prayers. Begins: Descend O Holy Spirit to be near us &… as in Morning prayers. Includes ‘Prayers for the dead’.
p. 17. Morning breastplate. Begins: O Lord most sweet Jesus Christ, only son of God the Father almighty.
p. 22. Prayers before confession. Begins: The first prayer in preparation for the sacrament of confession, O Creator of heaven and earth. Includes ‘Another prayer’, ‘prayer’, ‘The most suitable prayer in Confession’.
p. 34. Prayers after confession. Begins: Oh! God of mercy and compassion. Includes ‘Prayer’.
p. 41. Prayers before receiving the sacrament. Begins: We adore thee and praise thee Jesus Christ. Includes ‘Prayer’.
p. 46. Prayers after receiving the sacrament. Begins: Thanks to you, father Holy God almighty. Includes ‘Petition after Communion’.
p. 54. The conclusion. Begins: O God grant a turning to each and every believer who is troubled.
p. 56. Prayers for going to Mass. Begins: O, Lord, in the greatness of thy mercy I will go to thy house and I will acknowledge thy name. Includes: [Prayers for different parts of the Mass]

—-
p. 99. The seven penitential psalms. Begins ‘The Antiphon’ Lord, be not mindful of our offences. The first Psalm, the second Psalm, the third Psalm, the fourth Psalm, the fifth Psalm, the sixth Psalm, the seventh Psalm.

p. 121. Litany of the Saints. Begins: Lord have mercy on us. Includes ‘The 69th Psalm’. ‘The Prayers’.
p. 140. Devotional prayers to our Lord Jesus Christ for the Catholic reader. Begins: Whatever person who would say piously the prayers which follow, in honour of the holy passion of our lord Jesus Christ, and in honour of his blessed mother, before a crucifix, and who would follow the same devotion eh day, let him have hope of grace. Includes ‘Speak here of the things you request, or think upon those things which you have.’
p. 150. Author of the tree of the cross, and glorious king, we desire to return unto your path with a heart of hope for protection. 1st stanza. Amen.
p. 151. Litany of Jesus. Begins: Lord have mercy on us.
p. 158. Litany of Mary. Begins: We place ourselves under thy protection, O holy mother of God.
p.; 163. Praise to the gentle high son, loving, gentle/ who purchased every herd with loss and pain and forgave with love all of his enemies. Alleluia
p. 164. Psalter of Jesus. Begins: There is no other name given under heaven among men by which we must be saved [RSV] Acts IV [12]/ Holy persons now have three kinds of psalter for their use. Includes ‘The first part… ; the second petition…[etc. up to 15th]
p. 205. The Rosary of Mary. Includes. (a) The Joyful Mysteries ….
(b) The 5 Sorrowful Mysteries …
(c) The 5 Glorious Mysteries …
p. 230. Poem for Mary. Written by Dáibhí. Mary, loving mother of the one almighty God. 16 stanzas. ‘Amen’. Followed by stanza praying for mercy for the scribe (namely Daibhidh do Barra). Jesus redeem us through the agony of the crown of thorns.
p. 236. Table of contents. ‘The Summary’

Appendix II: The Litany of the Saints
This transcription and translation only relates to the litany of the saints, without the subsequent general prayers (including Psalm 69) that conclude the litany. In the English translation, saints included in both the Irish missal and in the Franciscan litany, but not found in the standard Roman version of the litany are given in bold. Those found only in the Irish missal, but do not occur either in the Roman or the printed Franciscan missal (of 1929) are give in italics.
In Dáibhí de Barra’s manuscript the Litany has a running title at the top of every page: liodáin na (verso pages) naomh (recto pages). The bottom of each page has first letter of the first word on the following page – a common scribal practice. In addition, written horizontally along the right-hand margin of every page is the invocation guigh oruinn (‘pray for us’). On p. 127 this is replaced by saor sinn a thiarna, ‘Deliver us, O Lord’
In the transcription below all expansions of abbreviations, suspensions strokes, superscript letters and contractions have been given in italics; the punctum has been consistently expanded to h.

[p. 121]
Liodáin na naomh.

A thiarna déin trócaire oruinn,
A chríost déin trócaire oruinn,
A chríos éist linn,
A chríost tabhair toradh air ár ngúidhe,
A athair naomhtha déin trócaire oruinn,
A mhic dhé fuasgaltoír an domhuin. D.t.o. [?]
A sbrid naomh ndhia déin trócaire oruinn,
A thrínóid naomhtha a dhia. Déin trócaire or[ui]nn.
A naomh mháthair dé,
A naomh Ógh,
A naomh Mhuire.
[p. 122]
A naomh Mhíthchíl.
A naomh Gabriel.
A naomh Raphel.
A uile naoimh aingiol et árd aingiol,
A uile naoimh órda na sbridídhe mbeannuighthe.
A uile naoimh pátríarc et fáighe.
A naomh Peadair.
A naomh Pól.
A naomh Aindrías.
A naomh Séamus.
A naomh Eóin.
A naomh Pilib
A naomh Tomás.
[p. 123]
A naomh Séamus.
A naomh Pharthaloin.
A naomh Matíu.
A naomh Siemon.
A naomh Taidhg.
A naomh Matias.
A naomh Bárnabí.
A naomh Lúcás.
A naomh Marcus.
A naomh Stiaphan.
A naomh Padruig
A naomh Barra.
A naomh Eoluinn.
A naomh Mochoda.
[p. 124]
A uile naoimh deasghabhala an tíarna,
A uile naoimh Eagna.
A naomh Labhrás.
A naomh Mhincent.
A naomh Fabían et Sebastin.
A naomh Eóin et Phóil.
A naomh Cosmas et Dáim[e]an.
A naomh Gorbhas et Prótas.
A naomh Domhnall, maille read chomtachuibh
martíreach d’ord St Próinsiais.
A uile naoimh martíreach
A naomh Silbhester.
A naomh Gregóir.
A naomh Ambrós.
[p. 125]
A naomh Augustus.
A naomh Diarmuid.
A naomh Mártan
A naomh Niocalás.
A naomh Benabhentura.
A uile naoimh easbuig et confhesúidhe.
A uile naoimh dornúidhe,
A naomh Antóin,
A naomh Bennet,
A naomh Bernard,
A naomh Cholum Cille,
A naomh Dominic,
A naomh Próinséis
A naomh Diadhachus.
A naomh Antoin.
A uile naoimh sagart et déacona.
[p. 126]
A uile naoimh Manacha,
A naomh Magdalín,
A naomh Agatha.
A naomh Bríghid,
A naomh Lusia,
A naomh Agnes.
A naomh Catarína.
A naomh Marghréad.
A naomh Anastás
A naomh Clára.
A uile naoimh ógh et baintreabhach,
A uile naoimh déinig eadrughéidhe air mo shon.
Bítrócaireach ornn, coighil dúinn a thiarna,
bítrócaireach ornn et éist lium go gradsuil a thíarna,
[p. 127]
ón uile olc,
ón uile pheaca,
o tfeirg féin,
tre t’eiseighe féin,
o bás obann an-aibig,
o chealgaibh an diabhail,
o fheirg, o fhuath et o gach uile olc,
o sbrid na druise,
o thréintidh et o dhoininn,
o bhás suthain neamh ollamhaighthe.
tread thriall chughainn,
tréad gheineamhuint,
tréad bhaisde, et naomh throsga,
tréad Chreis et pháis.

Translation
[p. 121]
Litany of the saints

Lord have mercy on us
Christ have mercy on us
Christ hear us
Christ grant us our prayer
Holy Father have mercy on us
Son of God, redeemer of the world, have mercy on us
Holy Spirit of God, have mercy on us
Holy Trinity, God, have mercy on us *
Holy mother of God
Holy Virgin
Holy Mary
[p. 122]
Saint Michael
Saint Gabriel
Saint Raphael
All the holy angels and archangels
All the holy orders of blessed spirits
All the holy patriarchs and prophets
Saint Peter
Saint Paul
Saint Andrew
Saint James
Saint John
Saint Philip
Saint Thomas
[p. 123]
Saint James
Saint Bartholomew
Saint Matthew
Saint Simon
Saint Jude
Saint Matthias
Saint Barnabas
Saint Luke
Saint Mark
Saint Stephen
Saint Patrick
Saint Barra
Saint Eolain
Saint Mochoda
[p. 124]
All the saints ascended to the Lord
All the wise saints **
Saint Lawrence
Saint Vincent
Saints Fabian and Sebastian
Saints John and Paul
Saints Cosmas and Damian
Saints Gervasius and Protasius
Saint Donal with your company of the martyrs from the order of St. Francis **
All the holy martyrs
Saint Gregory
Saint Ambrose
[p. 125]
Saint Augustine
Saint Jerome
Saint Martin
St. Nicholas
St. Bonaventure [not Roman missal but in Franciscan missal and Irish]
All the holy bishops and confessors
All the holy doctors
Saint Anthony
Saint Benedict
Saint Bernard
Saint Colum Cille
Saint Dominic
Saint Francis
Saint Didachus
Saint Anthony [of Padua]
All the holy priests and deacons
[p. 126]
All the holy monks
Saint Magdalen
Saint Agatha
Saint Brigid
Saint Lucy
Saint Agnes
Saint Catherine
Saint Margaret [of Cortona?]
Saint Clare All holy virgins and widows
All holy persons, intercede on my behalf *
Be merciful to us, save us O Lord * [Large capital B at start of line]
be merciful to us and listen to us graciously O Lord
[p. 127]
[At right edge of page: Deliver us, O Lord *]
from all evil
from all sin
from your own anger
through your own being *
from sudden unprepared death *
from the guiles of the devil
from anger, from hatred, and from each and every evil
from the spirit of lust
from lightning and from storm *
from everlasting death without … **
through thy coming
through thy conception ??**
through thy baptism and holy fasting
through thy cross and passion.

Endnotes

1 We are indebted to the assistance to several people in the writing of this paper, including Des Cowley, Shane Carmody, and Kevin Molloy at the SLV, and Miriam O’Donovan and Colin Ryan on Irish language matters.
2 Catalogue of Donations to the Public Library of Victoria 1856-1872, Melbourne: Massina, 1873, p. 12: ‘An Ancient Manuscript in Erse’. While the prayer book and 1477 incunable carry the date 12 May 1863, the Augustine copy has a date of 1 July 1863. The Sermones de Sanctis of Conrad of Brundelsheim (a Cistercian monk, also known as Soccus) once belonged to the Carthusian monastery of Dülmen, in Germany; Albert Broadbent Foxcroft, Catalogue of Fifteenth Century Books and Fragments in the Public Library of Victoria, Melbourne : Trustees of the Public Library, Museums and National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, 1936, p. 122.
3 On Barry, see the biography compiled by James Murtagh, as part of a series of biographical entries initiated by T.J. Linane, ‘From Abel to Zundolovich. A roll-call of nineteenth-century priests’ published in Footprints. Bulletin of the Melbourne Catholic Historical Commission 1/3 (July, 1971), 14-27, esp. 19. It reports that he was a nephew of the famous litterateur, ‘Fr Prout’ (Rev. Francis Mahoney), and that there are letters and documents relating to Fr Barry in the Commission Archves. Barry was at Maynooth 1838-44; Patrick Hamell, Maynooth Students and Ordinations, Birr: P. J. Hamell, 1982, p. 28. It also reports that Barry went to Rome in 1863, and subsequently attended the First Vatican Council,
4 D. F. Bourke, A History of the Catholic Church in Victoria, Catholic Church, Melbourne, 1988, pp. 68-9. Michael Head and Gerard Healy, More than a school: a history of St Patrick’s College East Melbourne 1854-1968 (Richmond, VIC: Eldon Hogan Trust and Jesuit Publications, 1999), p. 23 reports that he was farewelled at a dinner attended by more than 70 lay people), and Frances O’Kane, A Path is Set: the Catholic Church in the Port Philiip District and Victoria 1839-1862 (Melbourne: Melbourne University Press, 1976), pp. 142-6. See also Margaret M. Pawsey, The Demon of Discord: Tensions in the Catholic Church in Victoria 1852-1864 (Melbourne: Melbourne University Press, 1982), 65-86 (Ch. 4: ‘The Barry Scandal’). There is also an account of Barry’s career in T. J. Linane, ‘From Abel to Zundolovich’, Footprints 1/3 (July 1971)
5 The manuscript and its description can be accessed at http://www.isos.dias.ie by selecting Collections. Australia, State Library of Victoria, MS 10595.
6 Val Noone, Hidden Ireland in Victoria, Ballarat: Ballarat Heritage Services, 2012, pp. 37-38. The manuscript had also been noted by Greg Byrnes, ‘Irish manuscripts in Australia: a partial shelf-list’, in Richard Davis, Jennifer Livett, Anne-Maree Whitaker and Peter Moore (eds), Irish-Australian Studies: Papers delivered at the Eighth Irish-Australian Conference, Hobart July 1995, Sydney: Crossing Press, 1996) , pp. 432-436, at 433.
7 On this copyist and author, see Breandán Ó Conchúir, Scríobhiathe Chorcaí 1700-1850, Baile Átha Cliath [Dublin]: An Clóchomhar Tta Dundalgon Press, 1982, pp. 8-13.
8 See Diaruid Ó Murchadha, Family Names of County Cork (Dublin: Glendale Press, 1985), p. 23 ; we are grateful to Prof. Pádraig Ó Riain for this detail.
9 Ó Conchúir records this observation in a note to Scríobhiathe Chorcaí, p. 251, n. 78.
10 Pádraig Ó Riain, A Dictionary of Irish Saints [DIS], Dublin: Four Courts Press, 2011, pp. 332-34.
11Ó Riain, DIS, pp. 297-98.
12 Ó Riain, DIS, pp. 470-73.
13 Félire óengusso céli dé. The Martyrology of Oengus the Culdee, ed. Whitley Stokes, Dublin: Institute for Advanced Studies, 1984 [1905], p. 277.
14 Gerald of Wales, The First Version of the Topography of Ireland, trans. John J. O’Meara, Dundalk: Dundalgan Press, 1951, pp. 89-90.
15 On this process, see Marie Therese Flanagan, The Transformation of the Irish Church in the Twelfth Century, Woodbridge: Boydell Press, 2010, pp. 34-35.
16 See the important edition, translation and commentary on the medieval Life of this saint by Pádraig Ó Riain, Beatha Bharra : Saint Finbarr of Cork. The Complete Life (London: Irish Texts Society, 1994).
17 O Riain, DIS, pp. 470-473.
18 Constant J. Mews ‘The Flight of Carthach (Mochuda) from Rahan to Lismore: lineage and identity in early medieval Ireland’, Early Medieval Europe 21/1 (2013), pp. 1-26.
19 The Latin text was edited by Charles Plummer, Vita Sancti Carthagi [VCar], in Vitae Sanctorum Hiberniae [VSH], ed. C. Plummer, 2 vols, Oxford, 1910; repr. Dublin: Four Courts Press, 1997, I, pp. 52–99. Donna Thornton describes the Irish versions in detail in the introduction to her editions and translations of all four surviving versions of VCar (two in Latin, two in Irish) in ‘The Lives of St Carthage of Lismore’, PhD thesis, University of Cork (2002), esp. p. 318. One of these was printed with an English language translation by Patrick Power, Life of St Declan of Ardmore (ed. from Ms in the Bibliothèque royale, Brussels), and Life of St Mochuda of Lismore (ed. from Ms in the Library of Royal Irish Academy) [LM], Irish Texts Society 16, London, 1914, repr. Dublin, 1995, pp. 74–147.
20 Ó Riain, DIS, p. 332.
21 This group included four Irish Franciscans: John Kearney, 1619–11 March 1653; the Bishop of Down & Connor Conor O’Devaney, c.1532–1 February 1612; the Bishop of Mayo Patrick O’Healy, c.1543–13 August 1579; and his companion Conn O’Rourke, c.1549–13 August 1579. We are indebted to Fr Ignatius Fennessy ofm, Librarian of the Franciscan Library at Killiney, Ireland, for this information about various possible Franciscans who were martyred. He advises that six Franciscans are mentioned with the name Domhnall (Donnel, Donal), including Donal O’Neylan, in the cause for the canonization of Archbishop Richard Creagh (1523-86) and other martyrs between 1572 and 1655. On the process of memorializing Franciscan martyrs in this period, see Alan Ford, ‘Martyrdom, History and Memory in Early Modern Ireland’, in History and Memory in Modern Ireland, ed. Ian McBride, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2001, pp. 64-65.There is a full list, including those whose names have been put forward for both beatification and canonization at
http://newsaints.faithweb.com/martyrs/Ireland01.htm http://newsaints.faithweb.com/martyrs/Ireland02.htm.
22 The account of the Passio sanctorum fratrum, Danielis etc. is edited in Analecta Franciscana III (Quuaracchi: Collegium S. Bonaventurae, 1897), pp. 613-616; see Marion Habig, The Franciscan Book of Saints, ed. by Marion Habig ofm (Chicago: Franciscan Herald Press, 1979), pp. 760-62.
23 Raymond Gillespie, ‘The Irish Franciscans 1600-1700’, in Edel Bhreathnach, Joseph MacMahon OFM and John McCafferty (eds), The Irish Franciscans 1534-1990, Dublin: Four Courts Press, 2009, pp. 45-76, at p. 46.
24 The Youghal library catalogue demonstrates the size of its library prior to the Reformation. It is edited by Colman N. O Clabaigh within his volume, From Reform to Reformation : the Franciscans in Ireland, 1400-1534, Dublin: Four Courts Press, 2000, pp. 158-180.
25 Patrick Conlan, Franciscan Ireland, Gigginstown, Mullingar: The Lilliput Press, 1988, pp. 115-16, 145-46.
26 He copied Irish Lives of Barra, Cranait, Molaga, Finan, Ailbe, Abban, Mochuda and Fursa from a vellum book belonging to Domnhall Ó Duinnin and written by members of his family; see Paul Walsh ‘The travels of ‘Michéal of Cléirigh’, in Micheál Ó Cléirigh, his Associates and St Anthony’s College Louvain, ed. Nollaig Ó Muraíle, Dublin: Four Courts Press, 2008, pp. 134-145, esp. 135 and 142.
27 See in particular, Canice Mooney, ‘The Story of the Franciscan Friary of Cork 1229-1900’,in Franciscan Cork: Souvenir of St. Francis Church, Cork , ed. Jerome O’Callaghan, Cork: Franciscan Fathers, 1953, pp. 5-27 and The Friars of Broad Lane: The Story of a Franciscan Friary in Cork, 1229-1977, Cork: Tower Books, 1977, esp. pp. 32-33.
28 Mooney, The Friars of Broad Lane, pp. 48-49, 54-55.
29 Ibid., p. 67. This catalogue has been edited by Ignatius Fennessy, ‘Books in the Franciscan Friary, Cork in the Days of the French Revolution and Jansenism’, Collectanea Hibernica 46-47 (2004/2005), pp. 16-71.
30 The Youghal library catalogue is edited by Colman N. Ó Clabaigh within his volume, From Reform to Reformation : the Franciscans in Ireland, 1400-1534, Dublin: Four Courts Press, 2000, pp. 158-80.
31 See above n. 17.
32 Gearóid de Barra, ‘Buttevant: A North Cork Foundation’, in Franciscan Cork. Souvenir of St. Francis Church, Cork, ed. Jerome O’Callaghan, Cork: Franciscan Fathers, 1953, pp. 54-57.
33 Joseph MacMahon, ‘The Silent Century, 1698-1829’, in The Irish Franciscans, pp. 77-101, esp. pp. 99-100.
34 Ibid., p. 100.
35 Pontificale Romanum Summorum pontificum, Mechelin: Dessaix, 189, and the Liber usualis missae et officii, Rome-Tournai: Desclée, 1904.
36 Cantuale Romano-Seraphicum editio altera, Paris-Tournai-Rome: Desclée, 1929,
37 The Franciscan missal adds reference to various Franciscan martyrs: Sancte Petre, Accursi, Adiute, Otho, Daniel, Angele, Samuel, Domne, Leo, Hugoline, Nicolae, Petre-Baptista ceterique Martyres Iaponenses, Sancti Nicolae ceterique Martyres Gorcomienses [of Gorcum, Netherlands, in 1572]; after St Francis, the Franciscan litany adds: Sancte Pater noster Francisce, Antoni de Padua, Bernardine, Ioannes a Capistrano, Iacobe de Marchia, Petre de Alcantara, Francisce Solane, Petre Regalate; the Franciscan litany adds St Louis (of Toulouse) to the list of confessors and bishops. After St Anthony [of Padua] the Franciscan missal adds: Paschalis, Benedicte, Pacifice, Ioannes-Ioseph, Leonarde, Felix, Ioseph a Leonissa, Seraphine, Laurenti a Brundusio, Ioseph a Cupertineo, Ferdinande, Ludovice, Ivo, Ezeari, Roche, Conrade, Ioannes-Maria.
38 Franciscan missal: Agatha, Lucy, Agnes, Cecilia, Catherine, Clare, Agnes of Assisi, Catherine of Bologna, Coleta, Veronica, Rosa de Viterbo, Hyacintha, Maria Francisca, Angela, Anastasia, Elisabeth of Hungary, Elisabeth of Portugal, Margaret of Cortona, Birgitta.
39 Donnchadh Ó Corráin, ‘What happened Ireland’s medieval manuscripts?’, Peritia 22-23 (2011-2012) 191-223.
40 On their efforts, see Bernadette Cunningham, The World of Geoffrey Keating: History, Myth and Religion in Seventeenth-Century Ireland, Dublin: Four Courts Press, 2000 and The Annals of the Four masters: Irish History, Kingship and Society in the Early Seventeenth Century, Dublin: Four Courts Press, 2010.
41 Many were edited by Charles Plummer, Irish Litanies: Text and Translation, Woodbridge, Suffolk: Boydell Press for the Henry Bradshaw Society, 1992 (first published 1925).
42 The first half of the litany, on one side of the Regensburg Fragment, is illustrated within the blog http://breochloch.webs.com/apps/blog/entries/show/1967626-regensburg-manuscript-reveals-irish-history, accessed 1 September 2013. I am indebted to Marie-Therese Flanagan for signally this fragment to me, and sharing an image of the other side of that leaf, now preserved at University College Cork, Special Collections.
43 Dagmar Ó Riain-Raedel & Pádraig Ó Riain, ‘Irish Saints in a Regensburg Litany’, in E. Purcell et al., ed., Clerics, Kings and Vikings: Essays on Medieval Ireland, Dublin: Four Courts Press, forthcoming. We are indebted to the authors for sharing an advance copy of this important study.
44 Scríobhiathe Chorcaí, pp. 8-9.
45 National Library of Ireland, G 627 contains compilation by David Barry, Cork, 1828, of religious tracts and other items, with some poems, including some by the compiler. Other items in their possession include: MS G 347 (Keating’s Forus Feasa ar Éirinn; Torruidhocht Cheallacháin Chailaill, c. 1740) MS G 393 (a collection of Munster poetry, including many items by Dáibhí de Barra and Pádraig Cundún, copied in 1863); MS G 399 (Religious prose and miscellaneous verse, including some by Dáibhí de Barra, copied by Tadhg Ua Briain, 1829); MS G 410 (Miscellaneous Munster poetry, mainly verses by Dáibhí de Barra, transcribed by a namesake, 1865); MS G 871 (Miscellaneous verse in Irish, including some items by Dáibhí de Barra, copied by Tomás Ó Conchubhair, Cork, 1862); MS G 874 Dáibhí de Barra’s Pairliament na bhFigheadóirí. (c. 1790).
46 There are for example Irish language prayer books in University College Cork Library, Archive: Ms. T. xxix (Séan Ó Dreada, 1824); T. xxviii (Donachadh Ó Suilobhain (1787); Gaelic Ms. 78; T. lxxiv (Muiris Conchubhair (1769); T. xx (William Ó Hógáin, 1821); T. lxxiii. There are litanies in two 19th-century Franciscan MSS, now at University College Dublin, A54 (from Cork) and A55 (from Waterford), described in Catalogue of Irish Manuscripts in the Franciscan Library Killiney, ed. Myles Dillon, Canice Mooney ofm
and Pádraig de Brun, Dublin: Institute for Advanced Studies, 1969, pp. 124-6. In Dublin, Royal Irish Academy, Cork related prayer books include MSS: 23.A.7 belonging to Micheál Ó Longáin Óg (late 18th or early 19th century ; 23 A. 5 (221) belonging to Padruig Ó Híethr (1793).; 23 I. 27 (414) Litanies and prayers in Irish.

47 Ag so leabhar úrnaighthe do /sgribh Daibhidh do Barradh do / mhac a dhearbhráthar, iodhoin / Daibhidh mac Seaghain do / Barradh a mBunasdó, / chum a úsáide agus / a sheribhise, an / sa bhliaghain / mile ocht ccéad / agus tri / bliaghna / air / tri / ad / Glóire do Dhia.

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