SAINTS IN THE CELTIC TRADITION

CELTIC TRADITION

ST LASERIAN APRIL 18

The cathedral of Old Leighlin nestles peacefully among the lush rural farmlands of the Barrow valley in Co. Carlow. A monastic church existed here since the 6th century or earlier, and since the founder is unknown, the monastery is said to have been the work of the mythical Gobán Saer, the ubiquitous craftsman of early Irish folklore. Nor is it clear when Laserian, abbot and bishop, took possession of Old Leighlin (pronounced Loughlin without the ‘Mc’, if you’ll excuse the Irishism). All we know is that it was in the first decades of the 7th century at a time when the churches in Ireland and Britain were convulsed by the Paschal or Easter controversy.

Laserian was born in the Louth area with links to the Down-Antrim coast and Western Scotland. His father was of the Dál Fiatach in Co. Down and his mother, Gemma, was daughter of Aidan McGoran, king of Scottish Dalriada. The name given him at baptism was Laserian, a not uncommon Irish name meaning ‘flame’ which with the addition of the prefix mo easily liquifies into the hypocoristic or endearing Mo-Laserian; Molaise, if you will.

Much of Laserian’s early years were associated with his royal relatives in the rugged territory of Argyll and no doubt he would have played in Dunadd Hill Fort where Fergus Mór from Irish Dalriada had established himself a century or two earlier and from where Laserian’s grandfather now ruled. As a young man Laserian/ Molaise turned his back on the warlord tradition of his people. He scouted out a hermitage further down the Kintyre peninsula and came to settle on what is now Holy Island off the mountainous coastline of Arran, where he found a cave and a well, the very basics for survival. It is to this cave and this well that pilgrims still come seeking meaning.

After a time in the wilderness, Laserian studied first in Iona and later at Rome during the reign of Pope St Gregory the Great (590-604). His Roman days must have opened his eyes to a church wider than the Celtic fringe. We are told that he was ordained in Rome, by St Gregory, and then set out for Ireland where he soon found himself settling in as abbot and bishop of Old Loughlin. The controversy over the dating of Easter was a burning issue in those days, and St Columbanus, then a missionary in Burgundy, bluntly told the French bishops who wanted him to conform to their way that there were far more important church issues than diversity in liturgical practice.

The Paschal controversy became more acute during the 7th century when it tended to change from being a disciplinary matter to one of doctrine. The Irish were not overly enthusiastic about the controversy but a letter from Pope Honorius I in the late 620s spurred Laserian and a few likeminded Irish bishops at the Synod of Magh Léne (Old Leighlin area) to examine the situation more seriously. By the early 630s the Irish, with the exception of the Columban federation of monasteries, conformed to acceptable Continental practice. St Laserian himself died in 639 AD. Iona would fall into line in the early 8th century and Wales held out until 768.

John J. Ó Ríordáin CSsR

Reality

Volume 88. No. 3 April 2022 A Redemptorist Publication ISSN 0034-0960

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