Wednesday 30 January 2013

Saint Enan of Rosmore, January 30

At January 30 the Irish Calendars commemorate Enan, son of Gemman, in Rosmore, County Wexford. His name appears in the earlier Martyrologies of Tallagh and of Oengus. The entry in the latter reads:

B. iii. kl. Fifty and one hundred martyrs
Who ennobled the door of martyrdom
He fasted with a number of the old mercenaries
Enan of bright Ros Rind.

In notes appended to this entry, however, he appears as:

Enan son of Gemman in Ross mor in Hui Dega in Hui Cennselaig.
The same as my-Menoc of Glenn Faidli in Hui Garrchon.

The later Martyrology of Gorman simply records the name of Enan but the Martyrology of Donegal has a fuller entry:

30. B. TERTIO KAL. FEBRUARII. 30.

ENAN, son of Gemman, at Ros-mor, in Ui-Deagha, in Ui-Ceinnsealaigh.

The translator adds a note that after this entry:

Here the more recent hand adds, “This is the Enan who wrote the lives of the saints.”

The table appended to the Martyrology of Donegal contains a query:

Enan, son of Gemman, of Ros-mor [in Luighne], 30 Jan

[Is he the writer of the Life of Brigid, &etc., and of the Book of Kilkenny? and it seems likely to be so, though he is called Eminus in Jocelin, not Ennanus.]

So, the possibility is there that Enan, son of Gemman, was something of a hagiographer himself and may even have written a Life of Saint Brigid. There is some confusion introduced as to where exactly the territory was in which he flourished. Ros-mor in Ui-Ceinnsealaigh has been identified as Rossmore, County Wexford, but the writer of the table in the Martyrology of Donegal has added Luighne. The earlier note in the Feilire Oengusa that Enan may be the same as my-Menoc of Glenn Faidli, suggests that he could be Saint Mohemog of Glenely, County Wicklow.

The Scottish Drummond Kalendar records, that on this day, iii. of the February Kalends, St. Enan, Confessor, passed away to Heaven, in Ireland.

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