Tuesday 18 June 2013

Saint Colman, Son of Mici, June 18


At June 18 the earliest of the Irish calendars, the late eighth/early ninth-century Martyrology of Tallaght, records yet another of Ireland's Saints Colman. This one is distinguished by his patronymic, but otherwise there are no further details recorded. Canon O'Hanlon's short account is largely taken up with the difficulties of later commentators, but as we have seen, the numbering of Colman, son of Mici among the saints of Ireland does not depend on these later sources. Yet given that all the Martyrology of Tallaght recorded was the name Colman mac Micii, we can understand some degree of confusion centuries later:

St. Colman, Son of Mici.

According to the Martyrologies of Tallagh and of Donegal, a festival in honour of Colman, son to Mici, was celebrated at the 18th of June. After the entry, in a Table appended to this latter work, the authority of Florus is quoted. However, in a note on this passage, it is stated, there is no St. Colman found in the Martyrology of Florus. Probably, Floratius is intended, for we find in Father Henry Fitzsimon's list the name thus entered "Colmanus, Abbas, 18, Junii, Flor. - 19 Secundum Mart." In the anonymous Calendar, published by O'Sullevan Beare, at this date, a St. Colmanus is entered.  The Bollandists notice this saint, at the 18th of June, but remark, that among the many holy men bearing his name, they were unable to distinguish him. Greven had prefixed the word "in Hibernia', when setting forth the feast, in his Calendar.

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