Tuesday 17 June 2014

Saint Enolichus, June 17 - a case of mistaken identity?

At June 17, Canon O'Hanlon has an entry for the reputed feast of a Saint Enolichus, only to conclude that the 15th-century hagiologist Florarius had mis-spelt the name of Saint Moling, whose feast is the major Irish commemoration on this date. I thought this a useful illustration of just how difficult a task the hagiologists had in compiling the calendars of the saints. If Canon O'Hanlon is right about Enolichus being a misrepresentation of Molingus, then not only did later continental hagiologists repeat this mistake but so also did the 17th-century Irishmen, Father Fitzsimons and Philip O'Sullevan Beare:

Reputed Feast of a St. Enolichus.

In a Manuscript Florarius is set down the feast of St. Enolich, Confessor in Hibernia, at the 17th of June. Nothing more regarding him—under such a suppositious name —seems to have transpired; but, as we have already shown, in the First Article at this date, Enolichus was only a mispelling of Molingus' name, as found in the printed copy of Usuard. Wherefore, in Greven's additions to Usuard, the foregoing account is given, and it has been copied, by succeeding writers. Canisius and Ferrarius have similar entries. At the 17th of June, Father Henry Fitzsimons, and the anonymous Calendar, published by O'Sullevan Beare, set down a feast for St. Enolichus. The Bollandists enter his assumed festival, also, at the same date.

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