From: rich <
richarra@gmail.com>
December 19th - Saint Samthann of Clonbroney
The Martyrology of Oengus devotes its entire entry for this day to her:
C. xiv. cal. Ianuarii.
19. Blithe unto my soul,
with the vastness of her host,
be the fair pure manna of elemental God,
Samthann of Cl=C3=BAain Br=C3=B3naig !
The later Martyrology of Donegal reads:
19. C. QUARTO DECIMO KAL. JANUARII. 19.
SAMHTHANN, Virgin, of Cluain-Bronaigh, in Cairbre in Tethbha, near
Granard. She was of the race of Fiatach Finn, monarch of Erin. The age
of Christ when she went to heaven was 734.
We are blessed in having a surviving Life of Saint Samthann which
records how, having forsaken her aristocratic husband on their wedding
night to follow the religious life, she came to the monastery of
Clonbroney and was put in charge by its founder, Saint Fuinech. The
following excerpts from the Vita Sanctae Samthannae Virginis have been
taken from Dorothy Africa's translation:
5. At that time the foundress of Clonbroney, the blessed virgin
Fuinech, dreamt that sparks of fire in the likeness of Saint Samthann
came and consumed the whole monastery, and then rose up in a great
flame. She told her dream to the sisters and gave this interpretation:
"Burning with the fire of the Holy Spirit, Samthann will make this
place shimmer by virtue of her merits and in the splendour of
miracles". For that reason, Fuinech sent for Samthann and gave her the community.
Like Saint Brigid of Kildare, with whom she has much in common, many
of Saint Samthann's miracles concern food and in the one recorded
below, she also emerges as a saint with a sense of humour:
6. After she had taken charge, first she wanted to construct an
oratory of trimmed timber, and so she sent for carpenters and other
workmen to bring in timber from forests nearby. One of the carpenters, observing the paucity of the provisions and the number of workers,
thought to himself "Oh, if only we could have forty wheaten loaves
with butter and cheese and milk, for such a quantity of bread suffice
us." Man is not frustrated in his desire for something his soul has
desired. For through the merits of holy Samthann, all he had thought
he saw placed before him. The intimate of Christ, giggling, said "The
thought of your heart is fulfilled is it not?" And he said to her
"Indeed so Mistress, there is neither something in addition, or
anything missing." Then all gave thanks to God and ate their fill.
But, as an Irish saint, it doesn't do to cross her, even at a distance:
16. Once the holy servant of Christ desired to build a large hall for
the work of the sisters, and sent Nathea the prioress with the
craftsmen into the forest of Connacht for pine timber. When they had
searched for three whole days without finding the wood, the weary
group decided on the fourth day to return home. While they slept that
night, the blessed Samthann suddenly appeared in a dream to her
disciple Nathea, saying "Tomorrow morning cut down bog willows at the
root, and you will find enough pine lying there." At daybreak, they
did just so as she instructed, and found the pine they desired. But
the owner of the woods, seeing such a heap of pine, said, "unless you
buy them, you will not get these trees." Nathea said to him "we will
buy them willingly". The following night Samthann appeared in a vision
to that man. She spoke in a threatening voice, saying "What tempts you
fellow, to withold these things offered to God?" Then she struck his
side with a staff, saying "wretch, unless you do penance, know that
you will die very soon." Next morning, that man, stung by penance,
gave them the lumber outright. When word got out, the inhabitants of
the region praised God as manifest in the holy Samthann. They provided
sixty yokes of oxen and conveyed all that wood back to the monastery.
But, of course, the Life balances such accounts of the saint's
displeasure with accounts of her mercy. Below is my very favourite
instance of her clemency, where Saint Samthann deals leniently with a
young whippersnapper who fails to show her the proper respect:
23. Once the community of brothers on the isle of Iona sent some of
their members to the holy Samthann with a boatload of wool. While they
were clearing the level surface (of the sea), the calm of the air
changed suddenly. The waves, raised by the heightening of the winds,
menaced them angrily with death. A lad among them spoke up foolishly,
saying, "Let's throw the granny's wool overboard lest we sink". The
navigator of the ship refused to allow this, and said, "Certainly not,
with the old lady's wool we shall either live or die". With this
remark, such serenity of the sea ensued that the wind disappeared
altogether and they resorted to rowing. Then the same boy piped up
again, "Why can't the granny provide us any wind now?" The navigator
responded, "we believe that God will assist us for the sake of her
merits". At once the wind filled their sails and they capitalized on
this gift for three whole days and nights until they reached the
harbour at Colptha. When they had arrived at the monastery of the
blessed virgin, they saluted her as they entered and kissed her hand.
When the aforesaid lad approached her, the virgin said "Now what was
that you were saying about me at sea when the storm threatened you
with death?" The boy was confounded into silence with shame. She said
to him "Never doubt this, if ever dangers corner you, call upon me
boldly".
The Life ends with a beautiful image of Saint Samthann's journey to
heaven at the end of her earthly life:
26. On the very night in which her spirit returned to heaven, the holy
abbot Lasran, of whom we spoke earlier, awoke and saw two moons, one
of which dipped towards him. He was mindful of his own request, for he
had asked her that when she passed to the celestial realm she would
bend toward him. Recognizing her in the guise of a star, he said,
"Well done, Samthann, faithful servant of God, for now you are ushered
into the rejoicing of the Lord, your spouse." In this fashion she
faded away, climbing into the sky, where eternal life is enjoyed for
ever and ever, Amen.
Dorothy Africa, trans., Life of the Holy Virgin Samthann, in T. Head,
ed., Medieval Hagiography - An Anthology (Routledge, 2001), 97-110.
Saint Quote:
The faith given to me in baptism suggests to me surely: by yourself
you will do nothing, but if you have God as the center of all your
action, then you will reach the goal.
--Blessed Pier Giorgio Frassati
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From Journey of the Mind to God:
Christ is both the way and the door. Christ is the staircase and the
vehicle, like the "throne of mercy over the Ark of the Covenant," and
"the mystery hidden from the ages." A man should turn his full
attention to this throne of mercy, and should gaze at him hanging on
the cross, full of faith, hope, and charity, devoted, full of wonder
and joy, marked by gratitude, and open to praise and jubilation. Then
such a man will make with Christ a "pasch," that is, a passing-over.
Through the branches of the cross he will pass over the Red Sea,
leaving Egypt and entering the desert. There he will taste the hidden
manna, and rest with Christ in the sepulcher, as if he were dead to
things outside. He will experience, as much as is possible for one who
is still living, what was promised to the thief who hung beside
Christ: "Today you will be with me in paradise."
--by Saint Bonaventure
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