Thursday 17 April 2014

Saint Lughaidh Mac Garbain, April 17

April 17 is the commemoration of a saint with alleged Patrician links, Lughaidh Mac Garbain, as Canon O'Hanlon explains:

St. Lughaidh Mac Garbain, possibly of Teglaisreann, County of Louth.

At this date, a festival is set down, in the Martyrology of Tallagh in honour of Lughaidh Mac Garbain. He is thought, by Colgan, to have been brother to St. Bega, whose feast occurs at the 10th of February. The Bollandists have entered Lugadius filius Garvani, at the 17th of April. They notice, likewise, a particular Lugadius Praesbyter, who is mentioned in the Tripartite Life of St. Patrick, and who is thought, by Colgan, to have been one of those saints, so-called, in the Irish Calendars, at this date. In our account of St. Meallan, the name of that Lugadius occurs, as a companion. He was one of those six students, who, it has been stated, met St. Patrick on his going to Rome. To them, St. Patrick gave a hide, which he had under his side, for twelve years. Of it, they made a satchel, for their books. This custom of keeping books in cases or satchels seems to have been prevalent in the early times. Those circumstances, connected with the foregoing incident, are more fully detailed, in the First Volume of this work. [See the entry for Saint Meallan on January 28, pp. 465-467.]

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