Saint Ailbe
or Elvis
St Ailbe's Church in Emly
Born5th Century
Died528
Venerated inRoman Catholic Church
Eastern Orthodox Church
CanonizedPre-Congregation
Feast12 September[2]
PatronageMunster,[3] the Archdiocese of Cashel and Emly, wolves

Saint Ailbe (Irish: [ˈalʲəvʲə]; Latin: Albeus, Alibeus), usually known in English as St Elvis (British/Welsh), Eilfyw or Eilfw,[4] was regarded as the chief 'pre-Patrician' saint of Ireland (although his death was recorded in the early 6th-century). He was a bishop and later saint.[5][6]

Little that can be regarded as reliable is known about Ailbe: in Irish sources from the 8th century he is regarded as the first bishop, and later patron saint of Emly in Munster. Later Welsh sources (from the 11th c.) associate him with Saint David whom he was credited with baptizing and very late sources (16th c.) even give him a local Welsh genealogy making him an Ancient Briton.

Saint Ailbe is venerated as one of the four great patrons of Ireland. His feast day is 12 September. He is the patron saint of the Archdiocese of Cashel and Emly.[7]

Sources

The life of Ailbe is included in the Vitae Sanctorum Hiberniae (VSH), a Latin collection of medieval Irish saints' lives compiled in the 14th century. There are three major manuscript versions of the VSH: the Dublin, Oxford, and Salamanca. Charles Plummer compiled an edition of the VSH based on the two surviving Dublin manuscripts in 1910.[8]

Professor William W. Heist of the University of Michigan compiled an edition of the single Salamanca manuscript in 1965[9] Oxford professor Richard Sharpe suggests that the Salamanca manuscript is the closest to the original text from which all three versions derive. Sharpe's analysis of the Irish name-forms in the Codex Salamanticensis showed similarities between it and the Life of Saint Brigid, a verifiably 7th-century text, leading him to posit that nine (and possibly ten) of the lives were written much earlier, c. 750–850.[10]

He further proposed that this earlier Life of Ailbe in the Codex Salmanticensis was originally composed to further the cause of the Eóganacht Church of Emly. The Law of Ailbe (784) was issued, possibly in response to the Law of Patrick.[11]

The later lives of the Dublin collection go further and make Ailbe the principal 'pre-Patrican' Saint of Ireland (the others are Ciarán of Saighir, Declan of Ardmore, Abbán of Moyarney and Ibar of Beggerin or Beggery Island)[12] The Dublin Life of Ailbe asserts that Munster was entrusted to him by Saint Patrick, while to similar effect, Ailbe is called a "second Patrick and patron of Munster" (secundus Patricius et patronus Mumenie) in the Life of Saint Declán of Ardmore.[13]

Further material is provided by the lives of related saints such as Patrick. All include numerous miraculous events and obvious inconsistencies and anachronisms.[14] In fact the earliest mention of the name Ailbeus would seem to be in Tirechan's late 7th century Life of Saint Patrick[15] although this seems to be about a different 'Ailbe', a priest associated with the Ui Aillello, in Connaught, latterly known as 'Saint Ailbe of Sencua (Shancoe in County Sligo)'. Other early mentions of Ailbe are in the 8th century Navigatio Brendani ("Voyage of Saint Brendan")[16] and in the Martyrology of Tallaght and Martyrology of Oengus from the early years of the 9th century.[17]

St Elvis, Pembrokeshire today

Legendary life

In a legend that goes back to the Vita, or 'Saint's Life', Ailbhe's father fled King Cronan before the child's birth and his mother's servants—ordered by the king to put the baby to death—instead placed him on a rock in the wilderness where he was found and nursed by a she-wolf.[18] Long afterwards, when Ailbe was bishop, an old she-wolf being pursued by a hunting party ran to the bishop and laid her head upon his breast. Ailbe protected the wolf and thereafter fed her and her cubs every day from his hall.[5] Ailbe was discovered in the forest by visiting Britons: these British foster parents were said to have planned to leave him in Ireland when they returned home but were constantly and miraculously unable to make the passage until they consented to take him with them.[19] They then took Ailbe with them when they returned to Wales (Vita Albei 2).

A tradition also going back to the earliest Vita (Vita Albei 9) held that he went to Rome and was ordained as a bishop by Saint Hilary who was then pope. Upon being ordained in Rome, he was said to have fed the people of the city for three days before returning home.[19] At the end of his life, a supernatural ship came and he boarded to learn the secret of his death. Returning from the faerie world, he went back to Emly to die and be buried.[19]

The earliest Vita states that Saint Ailbe was baptised by Palladius (Vita Albei 2), something that might be compatible with the tradition that made him a 'pre-Patrician' evangelizer of Ireland (since Palladius was recorded as having been sent to Ireland in 431, most likely before Patrick's time). The year of his death – 528 - that is recorded in the 'Annals of Innisfallen' (compiled at Emly probably in 1092),[20] is not, however, compatible with a 'pre-Patrician' career. It may well be, though, a reflection of the fact that many such obits (records of the date of death) of Irish saints were retrospectively added to the annals.

Ailbhe was said to have founded the monastery and diocese of Emly (Irish: Imlech[21]), which became very important in Munster. He was said to have been responsible for King Aengus's donation of island lands for Saint Enda's monastery.[22] He is also associated with the 6th-century foundation of Clane Friary, in modern County Kildare.

Connections with Wales

The Life of Saint David, written by Rhigyfarch in the late 11th century,[23] states that Ailbe baptized Saint David,[24][25] the patron saint of Wales. In Welsh traditions, he then fostered the boy[1] while serving as bishop of Menevia (present-day St David's) before leaving on a mission to convert southern Ireland. He was also regarded as the founder of Llanailfyw or St Elvis in Pembrokeshire,[14][26]

Late Welsh sources[27] give him a British ancestry. Thus the 16th c. Achau’r Saint records "Eilvyw a Dirdan Saint Breudan" (variant : "Breudain") while a 16thc. Manuscript of Bonedd y Saint records "Ailvyw vab Dirdan". This would make him a descendant of Guorthemir (Modern Welsh: Gwerthefyr; English: Vortimer the Blessed), and a cousin of saints David, Cybi, and Sadyrnin.[1]

Possible pre-Christian origins

Professor Pádraig Ó Riain suggests the cult of Saint Ailbe may have pre-Christian origins.[28] The name Ailbe figures quite extensively in a context of Irish folk tale, with its likely origins mainly in pre-Christian pagan mythology. For instance Ailbe was the name of the 'divine hound' in "The Tale of Mac Da Thó's Pig"[29] associated with the Mag Ailbe or 'plain of Ailbe',[30] where stood a Lia Ailbe, or 'stone of Ailbe'. The 'divine hound' Ailbe defended Leinster, the chief centre of which was Aillen, whose female eponym, Aillen, owned a marvellous lap dog Ailbe, according to the 'Metrical Dindsenchas'.To these 'canine' associations, one might compare the tradition which identified Ailbe's father as ‘Ol-chu’ (‘Olcnais’ in Vita Albei 1), 'great-hound', as well as the (likely related) story of the infant Ailbe being cared for by a she-wolf.

An ‘Ailbe Grúadbrecc’, meanwhile, was the daughter of Cormac mac Airt (premier mythical Irish king) and a wife (as her sister Gráinne) of Finn (= literally, 'white') or Fionn mac Cumhaill in the Tochmarc Ailbe,[31] Echtrae Cormaic maic Airt[32] and "The Burning of Finn's House".[33] Ailbe was also the name of several of Finn's fianna (comrades in his band), and their women in Acallam na Senórach[34] and Duanaire Finn. An Ailbe was also daughter of Mider, son of the Dagda.[35]

The name "Ailbe"

The name Ailbe was explained in the Vita Albei as a derivative of ail 'a rock' and beo, 'living'. In the words of Baring Gould and Fisher[36] this is "a very doubtful etymology". It is clearly related to the story of his being exposed behind a rock after his birth, before being cared for by a wolf (Vita Albei 2)[37] and looks very much like a folk-etymology. Nevertheless, we can note a sporadic association of Ailbe (as a saint or mythological figure) with ' rocks' (Irish ail). The Lia Ailbe (stone of Ailbe) on the Magh Ailbe (plain of Ailbe) may be in origin tautological, while a Sliabh Ailbe was associated with a legendary figure Ailbe in Duanaire Finn.[38] The Inbher Ailbhine mentioned in Tirechan's Vita Patricii (Tirechan 5.2)[39] may contain ail, 'a rock', according to Watson.[40] It is at a "marvellous stone altar ( = prominent rock with religious associations ) on the mountain of the Ui Ailello" where Patrick was said to have installed the second St Ailbe (of Sencua) - probably at the old site of the church of Shancoe, County Sligo, where a large rock overlooks a well:.[41] This might all be best explained by a typical process of sound assimilation of ail 'a rock' to the name ail-be.

The root albho- 'white, bright' as in Latin albus, 'white' appears to figure in the names of various deities or semi-deities, or names with likely mythological associations, hence the Mons Albanus. Albula as an old name for the Tiber and the legendary Alba Longa in Latium; the Germanic deities Albiahenae[42] the semi-divine prophetess, Albruna mentioned by Tacitus (Vulgar Latin Aurinia: Germania 8) or the spiritual or demonic beings from the Germanic world, which are represented in modern English by the word, 'elf';[43] the Alphito which was recorded as the name of an 'ogress' or 'nursery bugbear' and might well have been appropriate to an earlier strata of Greek gods;[44] and possibly the ‘R̥bhus’ of Indian mythology and the Rhig Veda.[45] This root may also be found in the names of Celtic deities such as Albarinus, Albocelo[46] (if they do not contain Latin Albus) and possibly the deity Albius recorded in a single inscription from Aignay-le Duc,.[47]

However the root albho- 'white, bright' does not figure in Irish or in fact in any of the extant Celtic languages. It may figure in the Celtic language of ancient Gaul (as in the names above) but there it may, in fact, have been borrowed from the ancient Ligurian language (the root is very common in place names from ancient Liguria). There does, however, appear the root albi(i̭)o-, 'world' in the Brittonic Celtic languages: as seen for instance in Wesh elfydd, 'world, land'. In fact, this root has convincingly been argued to be related to the root albho- 'white, bright'[48] and it certainly appears in the Gaulish divine name albio-rix ("king of the world", parallel to Dumno-rix and Bitu-rix of similar meaning) .[49] However it does not appear in Irish, with one sole exception: the Irish name for 'Britain', that is the Irish version of the name Albion found in ancient sources as the oldest recorded name for Britain. This appears in Irish as Albe-, Alpe- and Albu, Alpu. There is, however, no obvious explanation for this name to appear in the form ailbe and the root albi(i̭)o- would not take that form in Irish, according to the way that language normally developed. The i, in the ai of Ailbe, is not a full vowel but represents an audible 'glide' before a palatalised l.[50] This palatalised l, with i-glide is not found in Irish Albu, 'Britain'.

All of this renders the precise form of the name Ailbe, in Irish, arguably, somewhat mysterious.

Legacy

St Ailbe's Cross in Emly.

In Emly, there is a Catholic church dedicated to St Ailbe which dates to the late nineteenth century. An ancient and weathered Celtic cross in its churchyard is known as "St Ailbe's Cross". The early nineteenth-century church of St Ailbe is now used as the village hall. A ninth-century monastic rule, written in Old Irish, bears his name.[51][52]

Although St Elvis in Wales is now in ruins,[53] there is still a shrine to the parish's namesake at 51°52′12.7″N 5°10′43.2″W / 51.870194°N 5.178667°W / 51.870194; -5.178667, which bears an inscription concerning his name and connection to St David.[54]

See also

References

  1. 1 2 3 "Saint Elvis" in Terry Breverton's Wales: A Historical Companion, pp. 164 f. Amberley Publishing (Stroud), 2009.
  2. ↑ Also formerly and in some locations 13 September and 27 February.[1]
  3. ↑ Challoner, Richard. A Memorial of Ancient British Piety: or, a British Martyrology, p. 127. W. Needham, 1761. Accessed 14 March 2013.
  4. ↑ Plummer, Charles (1968) [1910]. Vitae Sanctorum Hiberniae [Lives of the Saints of Ireland] (2nd ed.). Oxford: Clarendon. p. 46 ff., vol. 1.
  5. 1 2 Thurston, Herbert (1907). "St. Ailbe". The Catholic Encyclopedia. New York City: Robert Appleton Company (print); New Advent (web). Retrieved 25 August 2008.
  6. ↑ Smith, William; Wace, Henry (1880). A Dictionary of Christian Biography. London: John Murray. p. 82.
  7. 1 2 "History", Emly Parish.
  8. ↑ Plummer, Charles (1968) [1910]. Vitae Sanctorum Hiberniae. Lives of the Saints of Ireland. Vol. II (2nd ed.). Oxford: Clarendon. pp. xxviii–xxxi, 46–64.
  9. ↑ Heist, W. W., ed. (1965). Vitae Sanctorum Hiberniae, ex codice olim Salmanticensi nunc Bruxellensi. (Lives of the Saints of Ireland, from the Salamanca manuscript now of Brussels). Subsidia Hagiographica 28. Brussels: Société des Bollandistes.; trans. in De Paor, Liam (1993) "Saint Patrick's World", Dublin: Four Courts Press
  10. ↑ Sharpe, Richard (1991). Medieval Irish saints' lives: an introduction to Vitae sanctorum Hiberniae. Oxford: Clarendon. ISBN 9780198215820.
  11. ↑ p.19 in Ó Riain-Raedel, Dagmar (1998). "The Question of the 'Pre-Patrician' Saints of Munster" in "Early Medieval Munster. Archaeology, History and Society", ed. M.A. Monk and J. Sheehan. Cork. pp. 17–22.
  12. ↑ Sharpe op.cit., pp. 115-116.
  13. ↑ Ó Riain-Raedel, op.cit. p. 19.
  14. 1 2 Baring-Gould, Sabine & al. The Lives of the British Saints: The Saints of Wales and Cornwall and Such Irish Saints as Have Dedications in Britain, Vol. I, pp. 128 ff. Honourable Society of Cymmrodorion (London), 1911.
  15. ↑ ch. 6.4 and ch. 18 in Bieler, Ludwig (1979) "Patrician Texts from the Book of Armagh", Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies.
  16. ↑ ch.12 in Selmer, Carl (1959) Navigatio Sancti Brendani Abbatis, ed., Notre Dame, Indiana; http://markjberry.blogs.com/StBrendan.pdf trans Denis O'Donohughe 1893.
  17. ↑ Stokes, Whitley (1905). Félire Oengusso Céli Dé: The Martyrology of Oengus the Culdee, Henry Bradshaw Society Publications, vol. 29. London; Henry Bradshaw Society ; "The Martyrology of Tallaght from the Book of Leinster and MS. 5100–4 in the Royal Library", ed. Richard Irvine Best and Hugh Jackson Lawlor, Brussels 1931; trans Matthew Kelly, Dublin 1857
  18. ↑ Ballingarry. "Slieveardagh Parish History"
  19. 1 2 3 Answers.com. "Ailbhe".
  20. ↑ Seán Mac Airt, ed. & trans, "The Annals of Inisfallen", Dublin 1944 ('The Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies' 1951, reprinted 1988)
  21. ↑ The diocese's full name in Gaelic is Imleach Iubhair, the "Border of the Lake of the Yew Trees", a reminder of the pre-Christian history of Emly.[7]
  22. ↑ Archdiocese of Cashel and Emly
  23. ↑ Wade-Evans, A.W. (1913) Rhigyfarch's Life of Saint David, ed. and trans., University of Wales Press, and (1944) Vitae Sanctorum Britanniae, ed. and trans, Cardiff, UWP. (pp. 150-172, 364-387 in new edition, ed. Scott Lloyd, Welsh Academic Press Cardiff, 2013); Sharpe, Richard and Davies, John Reuben, ed. (2007) "Vita S. David" in Evans, J Wyn and Wooding, Jonathan M, ed. "St David of Wales, Cult, Church and Nation", Boydell Press, Woodbridge
  24. ↑ Toke, Leslie (1908). "Catholic Encyclopedia: St David". Archived from the original on 21 April 2009. Retrieved 26 May 2009.
  25. ↑ BBC. "Saint David".
  26. ↑ "GENUKI: St Elvis".
  27. ↑ p.67 (no.92), p.70 (no. 35) in Bartrum, P.C.(1966): Early Welsh Genealogical Tracts, Cardiff: UWP.
  28. ↑ Padraig O'Riain, s.v. Ailbe in "Dictionary of Irish Biography", Royal Irish Academy, Cambridge University Press
  29. ↑ trans. in Cross, T.P. and Slover, C.H. (1936) "Ancient Irish Tales", New York; pp. 68-76 in Koch, John T and Carey, John ed. 2003 "The Celtic Heroic Age", Celtic Studies Publications: Aberystwyth
  30. ↑ note 84 in Kenney J.F. (1929) "Sources for the Early History of Ireland: Vol 1, Ecclesiastical", Columbia (reprinted New York 1966)
  31. ↑ p. 276 in O’Rahilly, T,F. (1946) "Early Irish History and Mythology", Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies.; p. 151 in J.F.Campbell, Leabhair na Feinne (German trans. in 'Zeitschrift Celtische Philologie' 13)
  32. ↑ in Cross, op.cit. pp. 503-7
  33. ↑ in 'Eriu', 1904
  34. ↑ in Dooley, Anne and Roe, Harry (1999) "Tales of the Elders of Ireland", Oxford University Press
  35. ↑ Dooley, op.cit. p.15
  36. ↑ Baring-Gould and Fisher (1907), "The Lives of the British Saints" Vol I, p. 130
  37. ↑ Heist op.cit. 167-81; trans. De Paor op.cit pp. 227-43
  38. ↑ II, 95, xlii in MacNeill, Eoin and Murphy, Gerard (1908-54) Duanaire Finn, 3 vols, Irish Texts Society 7, 28, 43.
  39. ↑ Bieler op.cit p. 127
  40. ↑ p. 469, note 1 in Watson, W.J. (1926) "The Celtic Place Names of Scotland", Edinburgh/London.
  41. ↑ p. 608 in MacNeill, Maire (1962) "The Festival of Lughnasa", Oxford University Press.
  42. ↑ §223 in Whatmough, Joshua (1970) The Dialects of Ancient Gaul, Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press; I,79 in Holder, A. (1896-1907) "Alt-Celtischer Sprachschatz", 3 vols, Leipzig: Teubner; p. 523 in De Vries, Jan (1956-7) "Altgermanische Religions-geschichte", Berlin; 1, III, C, 1 in Beck, Noémie (2009) Goddesses in Celtic Religion- Cult and Mythology: A Comparative Study of Ancient Ireland, Britain and Gaul, Université Lumière Lyon 2
  43. ↑ De Vries, op.cit § 170, 184, cf. 214; pp. 54-5, 176-4 in Hall, Alaric (2007). Elves in Anglo-Saxon England: Matters of Belief, Health, Gender and Identity. Boydell Press
  44. ↑ p. 67 in Chantraine, P (1983) "Dictionnaire Étymologique de la Langue Grecque", Paris: Klincksiek; p. 29 in Pokorny, Julius (1959) "Indogermanisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch", 2vols, Berne and Munich: Francke; 22.g, 2, 52.7 in Graves, Robert (1955) The Greek Myths, 2 vols, Penguin and (1948) pp 67, 366, 434 in "The White Goddess", London: Faber & Faber
  45. ↑ De Vries op.cit: II, p.258, note 2; pp. 131-4 in Macdonnel, A.A. (1897) "Vedic Mythology", Strassburg.; Haudre Haudry, Jean (1987) "Les Rbhus et les Alfes", Bulletin d’etudes Indiennes 5, pp.159-219
  46. ↑ p. 303 Evans, Ellis 1(967) Gaulish Personal Names, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Whatmough op.cit: §82; Holder op.cit: p.86
  47. ↑ Lajoye, Patrice & Crombet, Pierre, (2016) "Encyclopédie de l'Arbre Celtique" s.v Albius, retrieved 25 August 2016.  ; Beck op.cit: 4, III, B, 1) c)
  48. ↑ Meid, Wolfgang (1990) "Uber Albion, elfydd, Albiorix, und andere Indikatoren eine keltischen Weltbildes" in M.J. Ball, J, Fife, E, Poppe and J.Rowland, ed. Celtic Linguistics: Readings in the Brythonic Languages, Festschrift for T. Arwyn Watkins, Amsterdam/ Philadelphia.
  49. ↑ Evansop.cit: 243–9, 301-3; Holder op.cit: I, 85; J Vendries, Revue Celtique 45, p.122; p. 248 in Rivet, A.L.F. and Smith, C. (1979) "The Place Names of Roman Britain", London: Batsford.; p. 109 in Hamp, Eric (1989) "Welsh elfydd and albio-" in Bulletin for the Board of Celtic Studies 36, pp. 109-10.; Whatmough op.cit:§ 7,8, 82
  50. ↑ pp. 55-7, §86 in Thurneysen, Rudolf (1946) "A Grammar of Old Irish", Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies
  51. ↑ Duffy, Patrick. "St. Ailbe of Emly", CaholicIreland.net
  52. ↑ O Neill, J., 'The Rule of Ailbe of Emly', Ériu (1907), pp. 92-115
  53. ↑ The Modern Antiquarian. "St Elvis".
  54. ↑ Kelsall, Dennis & Jan (2005). Walking in Pembrokeshire. Cicerone Press. p. 61. ISBN 9781849650885.

Sources

  • Webb, Alfred (1878). "Ailbe, Saint" . A Compendium of Irish Biography. Dublin: M. H. Gill & son.
  • de Paor, Liam (trans.) (1993). Saint Patrick's World: The Christian Culture of Ireland's Apostolic Age. Dublin: Four Courts Press.
  • Gougaud, Louis (1932). Christianity in Celtic Lands.
  • Ó Riain, Pádraig (ed. and trans.) (2017). Beatha Ailbhe: The Life of Saint Ailbhe of Cashel and Emly. London: Irish Texts Society.
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