Seachnaill
Encyclopedia
Saint Secundinus or Sechnall (Modern Irish: Seachnall) as he was known in Irish, was founder and patron saint of Domnach Sechnaill, now Dunshaughlin
(Co. Meath), who went down in medieval tradition as a disciple of St Patrick and one of the first bishops of Armagh. Historians have suggested, however, that the connection with St Patrick was a later tradition invented by Armagh historians in favour of their patron saint and that Secundinus is more likely to have been a separate missionary, possibly a companion of Palladius
.
, and to judge by the use of the toponymic element domnach (from Latin dominicum), the church is likely to be early. T.M. Charles-Edwards suggests that the site may have belonged originally to the province of Leinster rather than Mide, but that the political geography had changed by the 8th century, when much of southern Brega was divided between different septs of the Síl nÁedo Sláine
. By that time, Domnach Sechnaill lay in the kingdom of the Uí Chernaig, close to the royal crannóg seat in Loch nGabor
, as did the churches of Trevet and Kilbrew.
Linguistic arguments in favour of the early date of the saint's arrival and his foundation have also been advanced with respect to the saint's name in Latin and Irish. The Late Latin
name Secundinus was a common one across Latin-speaking parts of Europe. His name was borrowed into the vernacular as Sechnall, according to a pattern for which David N. Dumville proposes the following stages of development: Secundinus > *Sechundinus > *Sechundīnəs > *Sechundīn > *Sechndən > *Sechnən and finally by the 8/9th century, > *Sechnəl. If correct, this pattern lends further credence to a 5th-century floruit of the saint.
Traditions about the saint are witnessed by variety of sources, including Irish annals
, the Félire Óengusso and other martyrologies, the Tripartite Life of St Patrick and a list of the coarbs of St Patrick. Secundinus is also the ascribed author of an early Latin hymn in praise of St Patrick, known as Audite Omnes Amantes ('Hear ye, All lovers') or the Hymn of Secundinus written in trochaic septenarius
, the earliest copy of which is found in the late 7th-century Antiphonary of Bangor
. The ascription to Secundinus, whether true or false, is commonplace in medieval sources, occurring as early as in the Félire Óengusso, and notably appears in the Irish preface preserved in some manuscript copies of the Hymn. This preface adds some biographical detail, including a legend about Sechnall's quarrel and reconciliation with Patrick leading up to the composition of the hymn. A hagiographical Life was written for the saint, but it comes down to us only in a 17th-century manuscript compilation donated by Irish Jesuit Henry FitzSimon
to the Bollandist
s. The manuscript is found in the Bollandist collection of the Royal Library of Brussels under the shelfmark MS 8957-8.
and Iserninus
arrived in Ireland to the aid of St Patrick. Muirchú
also tells of the involvement of Auxilius and Iserninus, both possibly from Auxerre, but does not name Secundinus.
Later tradition, which is of uncertain provenance, appears to suggest that Secundinus and Auxilius were of Italian origin. Details to this effect are first given in the Irish preface to the Hymn of Secundinus as found in some manuscript versions of the Liber Hymnorum. It states that Secundinus was a son of Restitutus and St Patrick's sister Dar Ercae
; in the Chronicon Scotorum the latter is named Culmana. The preface cites a stanza by Armagh scholar Eochaid ua Flannacain
(d. 1005) to assert that Restitutus belonged to the Lombards of Letha, a place-name which referred to Gaul but was sometimes confused with Latium
. In the stanza, Sechnall receives the paternal family name moccu Baird. Although the presence of Lombards in Italy would be an anachronism, Thomas F. O'Rahilly
considers it possible that Secundinus — and perhaps Auxilius, too — came from northern Italy. Like the saint's own name, Restitutus was a popular Late Latin name in Christian Europe, but in this case there is no way of telling whether Patrician historians were using genuine information or filling in gaps in the saint's genealogical dossier.
Some scholars have suggested that Secundinus preceded Saint Patrick in Ireland. In his lecture The Two Patricks, O'Rahilly argues that Secundinus, possibly a native of northern Italy (see above), was one of three bishops who arrived in Ireland in 439 to assist Palladius
, whose mission had begun in 431 and who was known in Ireland as Patricius (leading to confusion with the later Saint Patrick
). In 441 Palladius was recalled to Rome to be examined by the newly elected Pope Leo I
, leaving Secundinus in charge of the Church in Ireland. He became known as the first Christian bishop to die on Irish soil.
Dumville allows for the possibility that Secundinus participated in the Palladian mission, but is more hesitant.
The development of Patrician legend also saw Secundinus becoming gradually more involved in the process whereby the see of Armagh received the relics of Saints Peter and Paul. St Patrick, according to his Tripartite Life, entrusted his see to Secundinus when he went to Rome to obtain the relics, while the preface to the Hymn tells that Patrick had sent him off to obtain them in person.
Secundinus is said to have died in 447 or 448, aged 75.
Despite the evidence for a medieval Life, there is little in the sources to suggest that Sechnall was the subject of a flourishing cult during much of the Middle Ages. His feast-day is 27 November.
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Dunshaughlin
-History:It is named after Saint Seachnall, who established a church there in the 5th century.Máel Seachlainn was ancestor to the principal family of Brega, Ó Maoilsheachlainn, is descended...
(Co. Meath), who went down in medieval tradition as a disciple of St Patrick and one of the first bishops of Armagh. Historians have suggested, however, that the connection with St Patrick was a later tradition invented by Armagh historians in favour of their patron saint and that Secundinus is more likely to have been a separate missionary, possibly a companion of Palladius
Palladius
Palladius was the first Bishop of the Christians of Ireland, preceding Saint Patrick. The Roman Catholic Church and the Anglican Communion consider Palladius a saint.-Armorica:...
.
Background and sources
Little is known about the saint and his cult. His foundation is Domnach Sechnaill ('Church of Sechnall'), now Dunshaughlin (Co. Meath), not far from TaraHill of Tara
The Hill of Tara , located near the River Boyne, is an archaeological complex that runs between Navan and Dunshaughlin in County Meath, Leinster, Ireland...
, and to judge by the use of the toponymic element domnach (from Latin dominicum), the church is likely to be early. T.M. Charles-Edwards suggests that the site may have belonged originally to the province of Leinster rather than Mide, but that the political geography had changed by the 8th century, when much of southern Brega was divided between different septs of the Síl nÁedo Sláine
Síl nÁedo Sláine
Síl nÁedo Sláine is the name of the descendants of Áed Sláine , son of Diarmait mac Cerbaill. Part of the Southern Uí Néill—they were the kings of Brega—they claimed descent from Niall Noígiallach and his son Conall Cremthainne....
. By that time, Domnach Sechnaill lay in the kingdom of the Uí Chernaig, close to the royal crannóg seat in Loch nGabor
Loch Gabhair
Loch Gabhair meaning "Lake of the Goats" is a townland in the parish of Ratoath, Ireland. It is located between the villages of Ratoath and Dunshaughlin in County Meath, Ireland....
, as did the churches of Trevet and Kilbrew.
Linguistic arguments in favour of the early date of the saint's arrival and his foundation have also been advanced with respect to the saint's name in Latin and Irish. The Late Latin
Late Latin
Late Latin is the scholarly name for the written Latin of Late Antiquity. The English dictionary definition of Late Latin dates this period from the 3rd to the 6th centuries AD extending in Spain to the 7th. This somewhat ambiguously defined period fits between Classical Latin and Medieval Latin...
name Secundinus was a common one across Latin-speaking parts of Europe. His name was borrowed into the vernacular as Sechnall, according to a pattern for which David N. Dumville proposes the following stages of development: Secundinus > *Sechundinus > *Sechundīnəs > *Sechundīn > *Sechndən > *Sechnən and finally by the 8/9th century, > *Sechnəl. If correct, this pattern lends further credence to a 5th-century floruit of the saint.
Traditions about the saint are witnessed by variety of sources, including Irish annals
Irish annals
A number of Irish annals were compiled up to and shortly after the end of Gaelic Ireland in the 17th century.Annals were originally a means by which monks determined the yearly chronology of feast days...
, the Félire Óengusso and other martyrologies, the Tripartite Life of St Patrick and a list of the coarbs of St Patrick. Secundinus is also the ascribed author of an early Latin hymn in praise of St Patrick, known as Audite Omnes Amantes ('Hear ye, All lovers') or the Hymn of Secundinus written in trochaic septenarius
Trochaic septenarius
In ancient Greek and Latin literature, the trochaic septenarius is one of two major forms of poetic metre based on the trochee as its dominant rhythmic unit, the other being trochaic octonarius. It is used in drama and less often in poetry....
, the earliest copy of which is found in the late 7th-century Antiphonary of Bangor
Antiphonary of Bangor
The Antiphonary of Bangor is an ancient Latin manuscript, supposed to have been originally written at Bangor Abbey in modern day Northern Ireland....
. The ascription to Secundinus, whether true or false, is commonplace in medieval sources, occurring as early as in the Félire Óengusso, and notably appears in the Irish preface preserved in some manuscript copies of the Hymn. This preface adds some biographical detail, including a legend about Sechnall's quarrel and reconciliation with Patrick leading up to the composition of the hymn. A hagiographical Life was written for the saint, but it comes down to us only in a 17th-century manuscript compilation donated by Irish Jesuit Henry FitzSimon
Henry Fitzsimon
Henry Fitzsimon was an Irish Jesuit controversialist.-Life:He was educated a Protestant at Oxford , 1583-1587...
to the Bollandist
Bollandist
The Bollandists are an association of scholars, philologists, and historians who since the early seventeenth century have studied hagiography and the cult of the saints in Christianity. Their most important publication has been the Acta Sanctorum...
s. The manuscript is found in the Bollandist collection of the Royal Library of Brussels under the shelfmark MS 8957-8.
Life
The Irish annals report that in 439, bishops Secundinus, AuxiliusAuxilius of Ireland
Saint Auxilius, or Usaille, was an early Christian missionary of Ireland who is associated with Saint Patrick, Saint Seachnaill , and Saint Iserninus in establishing Christianity in the south of that island....
and Iserninus
Iserninus
Saint Iserninus was an early Christian missionary of Ireland who is associated with Saint Patrick and Saint Auxilius in establishing Christianity in the south of that island....
arrived in Ireland to the aid of St Patrick. Muirchú
Muirchú
Public Armed Ship Muirchú was a ship in the Irish Naval Service. She was the former Royal Navy ship HMY Helga and was involved in shelling Liberty Hall in Dublin from the River Liffey with her pair of 12 pounder naval guns during the Easter Rising of 1916.Helga was purchased by the Irish Free State...
also tells of the involvement of Auxilius and Iserninus, both possibly from Auxerre, but does not name Secundinus.
Later tradition, which is of uncertain provenance, appears to suggest that Secundinus and Auxilius were of Italian origin. Details to this effect are first given in the Irish preface to the Hymn of Secundinus as found in some manuscript versions of the Liber Hymnorum. It states that Secundinus was a son of Restitutus and St Patrick's sister Dar Ercae
Darerca of Ireland
Saint Darerca of Ireland was a sister of Saint Patrick.Much obscurity is attached to her history, and it is not easy to disentangle the facts of her history from the network of legend which medieval writers interwove with her acts...
; in the Chronicon Scotorum the latter is named Culmana. The preface cites a stanza by Armagh scholar Eochaid ua Flannacain
Eochaid ua Flannacáin
Eochaid ua Flannacáin, Irish cleric and poet, 935-1004.-Life:Eochaid was the author of more than twenty surviving quasi-historical, genealogical and topographical poems, many of which were incorporated into Lebor Gabala Erenn. He was a member of Clann Sinaich, an eccleiastical family of Armagh. At...
(d. 1005) to assert that Restitutus belonged to the Lombards of Letha, a place-name which referred to Gaul but was sometimes confused with Latium
Latium
Lazio is one of the 20 administrative regions of Italy, situated in the central peninsular section of the country. With about 5.7 million residents and a GDP of more than 170 billion euros, Lazio is the third most populated and the second richest region of Italy...
. In the stanza, Sechnall receives the paternal family name moccu Baird. Although the presence of Lombards in Italy would be an anachronism, Thomas F. O'Rahilly
T. F. O'Rahilly
Thomas Francis O'Rahilly was an Irish scholar of the Celtic languages, particularly in the fields of Historical linguistics and Irish dialects. He was a member of the Royal Irish Academy.-Biography:He was born in Listowel, County Kerry, Ireland...
considers it possible that Secundinus — and perhaps Auxilius, too — came from northern Italy. Like the saint's own name, Restitutus was a popular Late Latin name in Christian Europe, but in this case there is no way of telling whether Patrician historians were using genuine information or filling in gaps in the saint's genealogical dossier.
Some scholars have suggested that Secundinus preceded Saint Patrick in Ireland. In his lecture The Two Patricks, O'Rahilly argues that Secundinus, possibly a native of northern Italy (see above), was one of three bishops who arrived in Ireland in 439 to assist Palladius
Palladius
Palladius was the first Bishop of the Christians of Ireland, preceding Saint Patrick. The Roman Catholic Church and the Anglican Communion consider Palladius a saint.-Armorica:...
, whose mission had begun in 431 and who was known in Ireland as Patricius (leading to confusion with the later Saint Patrick
Saint Patrick
Saint Patrick was a Romano-Briton and Christian missionary, who is the most generally recognized patron saint of Ireland or the Apostle of Ireland, although Brigid of Kildare and Colmcille are also formally patron saints....
). In 441 Palladius was recalled to Rome to be examined by the newly elected Pope Leo I
Pope Leo I
Pope Leo I was pope from September 29, 440 to his death.He was an Italian aristocrat, and is the first pope of the Catholic Church to have been called "the Great". He is perhaps best known for having met Attila the Hun in 452, persuading him to turn back from his invasion of Italy...
, leaving Secundinus in charge of the Church in Ireland. He became known as the first Christian bishop to die on Irish soil.
Dumville allows for the possibility that Secundinus participated in the Palladian mission, but is more hesitant.
The development of Patrician legend also saw Secundinus becoming gradually more involved in the process whereby the see of Armagh received the relics of Saints Peter and Paul. St Patrick, according to his Tripartite Life, entrusted his see to Secundinus when he went to Rome to obtain the relics, while the preface to the Hymn tells that Patrick had sent him off to obtain them in person.
Secundinus is said to have died in 447 or 448, aged 75.
Commemoration
The saint's name was familiar enough in Mide to give rise to a number of derivative personal names, notably Máel Sechnaill (attested since the 9th century) and later also Gilla Sechnaill.Despite the evidence for a medieval Life, there is little in the sources to suggest that Sechnall was the subject of a flourishing cult during much of the Middle Ages. His feast-day is 27 November.
Primary sources
- Irish annals:
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- Tripartite Life of St Patrick, ed.
- Life of Secundinus, from Brussels, Royal Library, MS 8957-8, ff. 25r-27v, ed.
- Hymn of Secundinus or Audite omnes (amantes):
- ed.
- ed.
- ed. and tr.
- Irish preface to the Hymn of Secundinus in the Leabhar BreacLeabhar BreacLeabhar Breac is an Irish language publisher based in Indreabhán in the County Galway Gaeltacht of Cois Fharraige.Specialising in fiction, and named after the 15th century manuscript Leabhar Breac, the publishing house was founded in 1995 by Darach Ó Scolaí and Caomhán Ó Scolaí...
, ed. ; tr. - List of the coarbs of St Patrick, ed.