Saint Óengus of Tallaght
The eleventh of March in the Orthodox Church is the feast day of Saint Óengus of Tallaght, one of the foremost Irish hagiographers and the author of the Félire Óengusso, i.e. the Martyrology of Óengus. He is also known as Saint Óengus the Culdee – derived from the Irish Céili Dé meaning ‘servant of God’. The monastic communities founded according to the rule he established at Tallaght called themselves by this title.
There actually aren’t many external sources available for the life of Saint Óengus [also known as Angus or Ængus], apart from the Martyrology itself, and later interpolations to that work. It appears that Óengus was born in County Laois somewhere on the upper River Nore in southcentral Ireland, somewhere around the year 750. His father is listed as Óengoba. He entered Clonenagh Monastery under Saint Fintan when he was still in his teen years, and quickly gained a reputation for both holiness and cleverness. He spent several years in Clonenagh before seeking to serve God instead in the eremitical life.
He moved off to a nearby place, Dísert Beagh, about a mile distant from Clonenagh, but did not stay long there, as this place was too liable to be disturbed by other students and pilgrims from Clonenagh. He moved off eight miles to a place called Dísert Óengussa (‘the hermitage of Óengus’), and lived alone. He built a little cell and oratory, and undertook a rigorous discipline of prayer and fasting. He prostrated himself three hundred times a day, and would take to reading the Psalter daily. He would say fifty Psalms in his cell, fifty under a tree outside, and fifty submerged up to his waist in cold water. This should be a familiar discipline to those who read the Lives of Cyndeyrn, Dewi, Pedrog, Cóemgen or Neot.
Clonenagh Monastery
His fame for his holy way of life grew, and even his Dísert became a source of pilgrimage. He was visited by many who sought healing or help with their problems. He was happy to help those who came to him, but he still deeply desired a life of solitary prayer. He left his Dísert and took to the roads as an itinerant missionary. By ways and turns, he came to the monastery of Máel Ruain in Tallaght. He entered that monastery as a lay-brother, hoping by this means to obscure himself among the brethren and attain to the solitude that he sought. He participated in the hard communal life of the Céili Dé, and prayed and fasted together with the other monks. He was given – and took gladly – the most menial of tasks at the monastery, and in particular looking after the livestock at the stables.
Seven years after his entrance to Tallaght, Saint Máel Ruain was made aware of Óengus’s presence in the following way. A student of the abbey, a young boy, came to the monastery stables in tears – for he had not learnt his lessons properly and he feared that the master of the novices at Tallaght would chastise and beat him for indolence or stupidity. Saint Óengus comforted the boy and allowed him to stay the night in the stables, singing him to sleep. In the morning, the saint helped the boy with his lessons, and the pupil went back to Tallaght and was able to recite it perfectly, backwards and forwards.
The pupil told his fellows what had happened, and soon it became known that Óengus was willing to help the students with their studies. Soon word reached the ear of Abbot Máel Ruain, who came in person to the stables to see this silent benefactor of his novices. Once the abbot saw him in person he recognised in Óengus the famed hermit who had gone missing from Clonenagh. Máel Ruain and Óengus became close friends and collaborators: not only did Máel Ruain see to it that Óengus was ordained a priest, but they also worked together on the Félire which brought Óengus his great fame.
For himself, Óengus sought no fame, but always effaced himself. He was convinced that he was among the most wretched of sinners. He grew his hair and beard out, and dressed in rags, such that he would appear as a wild man and not attract the attention of men for outward beauty. He never considered himself to be above manual labour even when Máel Ruain discovered who he really was. He spent his days tending the stables, drawing water and chopping wood. One of the wonders he wrought was that he cut off his own hand while chopping wood one day. The birds in the forest all took flight and made a great outcry for the pain of the holy man, but Óengus made no noise. He took the hand that had fallen away from him and attached it again to his arm with a prayer. The bone and sinew and flesh and skin of Óengus’s hand knitted back together at once, and he was able to use the hand as normal afterwards.
After the blessed repose of Máel Ruain in 792, Óengus returned to Clonenagh and was named as the replacement abbot for his former master, Máel Aithgen, who had reposed some years before. Around this time, too, he was consecrated as a bishop – though abbots of monasteries and bishops enjoyed equal dignity in the Celtic church at this time and the titles were often used interchangeably. As he was nearing his own end, he retired to Dísert Beagh, the place where he had first drawn off from the commerce of men. There he reposed in the Lord on the eleventh of March, 824. Even though today little remains of either Clonenagh or his hermitages, the Félire still stands as a testimony to the holiness of Óengus. Holy father Óengus, humble hermit who sang the praises of saints, pray unto Christ God that our souls may be saved!
Beginning of the Félire Óengusso
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