St. Féchín (Festus) - Patron Saint of Omey Island

St. Fechin (anglicized Festus)

Feast Day: January 20

Patron of Fore Abbey, Cong Abbey, Omey Island, Ardoilén

Died: 665

Féchín is said to have been born in Bile, probably Billa, in what is now the parish of Collooney (Kilvarnet), County Sligo). The medieval Lives [of the Saints] calls his mother Lassair, identified in the Irish text as a member of a royal Munster line. The Lives tell us that Féchín received his monastic training from St Nath Í of Achonry and later moved on to Clonmacnoise

Ruins of the church founded by St. Feichin on Omey Island

Foundations - The first monastic houses said to have been founded by Féchín are those on the islands of Omey and Ardoilén, both off the coast of Galway, which fell under the protection of the king of Connacht, Guaire Aidne mac Colmáin. His principal foundation was Fobur, now Fore, Co. Westmeath.

Death - According to the Annals of the Four Masters, Féchín died on 14 February in the year 664 [665], during the plague which struck the island at the time. His feast-day is celebrated in Ireland on the 20th of January. A story about Féchín and the plague is found both in the Latin Life of St Gerald of Mayo and in the notes to the hymn Sén Dé (by Colmán of the moccuClúasaig) in the Liber Hymnorum. It relates that the joint high-kings Diarmait Ruanaid and Blathmac appealed to Féchín and other churchmen, asking them to inflict a terrible plague on the lower classes of society and so decrease their number. Féchín was one of the churchmen to answer their request and to perish in the event, whereas Gerald kept aloof and survived. 

Féchín (Festus); diminutive of fiach, a raven

 

St. Féchín s Well - This well is about two feet in diameter with a wall round it. Stations are performed at it on the anniversary of St. Festus about the middle of January on which day a pattern (an outdoor assembly with religious practices, traders’ stalls, etc. celebrated on the feast day of patron saint) was held.

A Chorographical Description of West Or H-Iar Connaught: Written A.D. 1684 (1846)

The island of Imay or Omey (called also in old writings Imaith and Ummabut the meaning of the word does not appear) is situated on the western coast of Iar-Connaught and gives name to the parish of Omey. This parish is bounded north by that of Ballinakill, east by Ballinakill and the parish of Moyrus, south by Moyrus and the parish of Ballindoon, and west by the Atlantic ocean. The island of Omey is mentioned at an early period of our ecclesiastical history. The account of the erection of the monastery founded there by St. Fechin in the seventh century, and referred to, ante, note, p. 11 2, is here translated from the Latin of Colgan, as follows :

“On a certain night, the holy man being in the monastery of Easdara [Ballysadare in the present county of Sligo], was by an angel admonished in his sleep, that it was the divine will that he should go to a certain island of the ocean, which is called Imaidh[Omey] situated in the western district of Connaught. St Fechin obeys the admonitions of the angel, and, with the intention of gaining many souls to Christ, and increasing the monastic institute, he, accompanied by some disciples, sought the island just mentioned, where he proposed to dwell and build a church. But the inhabitants, by the suggestion of the Devil, endeavoured by all means to exclude him; whence, at night, they, several times, cast into the sea the spades, axes, iron tools, and other instruments which his monks used in the work of building; but as often as they were thus cast, so often, being cast back on shore, they were found by the monks in the morning. But when the man of God and his monks, thus meeting with the opposition of the people, persisted in continual labours, watchings and fasts, and the people, hardened in malice, denied them all nourishment, at length two of the brethren perished, being exhausted through want. But St. Fechin, having poured forth for his servants a prayer to the Lord, in complying with whose will those who were thus exhausted had perished, merited that they should be recalled to life. And when the rumours of the occurrence had reached the ears of the king, Guarius the son of Colman, he took care that sufficient nourishment in meat and drink should be brought to St. Fechin. He added also his royal phial, which even to this day is called Cruach Fechin. Afterwards, all the islanders, being converted to Christ, were baptized by St. Fechin, and they consigned themselves and their island to the use and service of St. Fechin and his successors. The man of God founded another monastery in a neighbouring island which was formerly called Inis-iarthuir [but] at present Ardoilen”

A Chorographical Description of West Or H-Iar Connaught: Written A.D. 1684 (1846)

Author: Roderic O'Flaherty

Publisher: For the Irish Archaeological Society - 1846

From the collections of:Harvard University Collection:Americana

Notes: This edition was published by Kenny's Bookshops and Art Galleries, High Street, Galway, Ireland, 1978, pp. 279-280

http://tinyurl.com/p5vr8gz

Contributed by Maria Montoro Edwards
Posted by Mary Lydon Simonsen