St. Ultan of Ardbraccan, also known as Ultan the scribe was an Irish saint and Abbot-Bishop of

Ardbraccan Ardbraccan ( ga, Ard Breacáin) is an ancient place of Christian worship in County Meath, Ireland. It is the location of the former residence of the Roman Catholic, then, after the Reformation, the Church of Ireland Bishop of Meath. It is approx ...

during the 7th century. He died c. 657David Hugh Farmer ''The

Oxford Dictionary of Saints The ''Oxford Dictionary of Saints'' by David Hugh Farmer is a concise reference compilation of information on more than 1300 saints and contains over 1700 entries. It is published by Oxford University Press Oxford University Press (OUP) is ...

'' (5th rev. ed.) (

Oxford University Press Oxford University Press (OUP) is the university press of the University of Oxford. It is the largest university press in the world, and its printing history dates back to the 1480s. Having been officially granted the legal right to print books ...

, 2011
Ultan
and his

feast day The calendar of saints is the traditional Christian method of organizing a liturgical year by associating each day with one or more saints and referring to the day as the feast day or feast of said saint. The word "feast" in this context d ...

is celebrated on 4 September.

Life

Tradition has said he was an uncle of St Brigit of Kildare; however, this is not chronologically possible. He collected a life of her for his pupil, St. Broccán Clóen of Rostuirc, in

Ossory Osraige (Old Irish) or Osraighe (Classical Irish), Osraí (Modern Irish), anglicized as Ossory, was a medieval Irish kingdom comprising what is now County Kilkenny and western County Laois, corresponding to the Diocese of Ossory. The home of ...

. The

Irish Annals A number of Irish annals, of which the earliest was the Chronicle of Ireland, were compiled up to and shortly after the end of the 17th century. Annals were originally a means by which monks determined the yearly chronology of feast days. Over t ...

describe St. Ultan as of the royal race of O'Connor. Ultan was a disciple and kinsman of St. Declan, who made him bishop of Ardbraccan.MacCormack, Katherine. ''The Book of Saint Ultan'', Candle Press, Dublin, 1920
/ref> He succeeded St. Breccan as Abbot- Bishop of Ardbraccan about the year 570.Grattan-Flood, William. "St. Ultan of Ardbraccan." The Catholic Encyclopedia. Vol. 15. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1912. 24 Jul. 2013
/ref> Ultan founded a school, educating and feeding its poor students, and was noted for his work in collecting the writings of

Saint Brigid Saint Brigid of Kildare or Brigid of Ireland ( ga, Naomh Bríd; la, Brigida; 525) is the patroness saint (or 'mother saint') of Ireland, and one of its three national saints along with Patrick and Columba. According to medieval Irish hagiogra ...

and

illuminating Lighting or illumination is the deliberate use of light to achieve practical or aesthetic effects. Lighting includes the use of both artificial light sources like lamps and light fixtures, as well as natural illumination by capturing daylig ...

them. One of his students was

Tírechán Tírechán was a 7th-century Irish bishop from north Connacht, specifically the Killala Bay area, in what is now County Mayo. Background Based on a knowledge of Irish customs of the times, historian Terry O’Hagan has concluded that Tírechá ...

. He was also known for his beautiful

hymn A hymn is a type of song, and partially synonymous with devotional song, specifically written for the purpose of adoration or prayer, and typically addressed to a deity or deities, or to a prominent figure or personification. The word ''hymn'' ...

s. His

Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...

hymn, commencing "Christus in nostra insula", is incorporated in the Solesmes Chant books. In the '' Félire Óengusso'', he is mentioned as "the great sinless prince in whom the little ones are flourishing: the children play greatly round Ultan of Ardbraccan." The annotation explains that the Yellow Plague attacked adults more than children and described the piteous scenes of human suffering witnessed during its continuance. Everywhere through the country numbers of little children, whose mothers and fathers had been carried off, were left helpless and starving. Ultan collected all the orphan babes he could find, and brought them to his

monastery A monastery is a building or complex of buildings comprising the domestic quarters and workplaces of monastics, monks or nuns, whether living in communities or alone (hermits). A monastery generally includes a place reserved for prayer which ...

. In one of the accounts, we are told that he often had as many as 150. He is said to have invented a method of feeding his young charges by "procuring a number of cows' teats, which he filled with milk". Having preached the

Gospel Gospel originally meant the Christian message ("the gospel"), but in the 2nd century it came to be used also for the books in which the message was set out. In this sense a gospel can be defined as a loose-knit, episodic narrative of the words an ...

in Ardbraccan, he went to the

Aran Islands The Aran Islands ( ; gle, Oileáin Árann, ) or The Arans (''na hÁrainneacha'' ) are a group of three islands at the mouth of Galway Bay, off the west coast of Republic of Ireland, Ireland, with a total area around . They constitute the histo ...

after a short stay in

County Meath County Meath (; gle, Contae na Mí or simply ) is a county in the Eastern and Midland Region of Ireland, within the province of Leinster. It is bordered by Dublin to the southeast, Louth to the northeast, Kildare to the south, Offaly to the sou ...

."History of Ardbraccan", Navan and District Historical Society
/ref> Ultan ended his days on one of the Aran Islands, where his tomb slab was discovered. He died on 4 September. The

Annals of Clonmacnoise The ''Annals of Clonmacnoise'' ( ga, Annála Chluain Mhic Nóis) are an early 17th-century Early Modern English translation of a lost Irish chronicle, which covered events in Ireland from prehistory to 1408. The work is sometimes known as ''Mag ...

placed St. Ultan's death in the year 653. He may also have been a bishop of the Desi of Meath. Much mention of him is made in the

Martyrology A martyrology is a catalogue or list of martyrs and other saints and beati arranged in the calendar order of their anniversaries or feasts. Local martyrologies record exclusively the custom of a particular Church. Local lists were enriched by na ...

of Aengus. He is also connected with

Killanny The parish of Killanny ({{irish place name, Cill Éanna) lies in both County Louth and Monaghan and is part of the Diocese of Clogher. It is named after Saint Enda of Aran, known by the diminutive Éanna. The civil parish consists of 31 townl ...

and

Louth Louth may refer to: Australia *Hundred of Louth, a cadastral unit in South Australia * Louth, New South Wales, a town * Louth Bay, a bay in South Australia **Louth Bay, South Australia, a town and locality Canada * Louth, Ontario Ireland * Cou ...

both in County Louth. Ultan's Holy Well was originally within the

Celtic Celtic, Celtics or Keltic may refer to: Language and ethnicity *pertaining to Celts, a collection of Indo-European peoples in Europe and Anatolia **Celts (modern) *Celtic languages **Proto-Celtic language * Celtic music *Celtic nations Sports Fo ...

Monastery A monastery is a building or complex of buildings comprising the domestic quarters and workplaces of monastics, monks or nuns, whether living in communities or alone (hermits). A monastery generally includes a place reserved for prayer which ...

, and later within the Anglo Norman bishop's grounds.

Patronage

He is now regarded as the

Patron Saint A patron saint, patroness saint, patron hallow or heavenly protector is a saint who in Catholicism, Anglicanism, or Eastern Orthodoxy is regarded as the heavenly advocate of a nation, place, craft, activity, class, clan, family, or perso ...

paediatrician Pediatrics ( also spelled ''paediatrics'' or ''pædiatrics'') is the branch of medicine that involves the medical care of infants, children, adolescents, and young adults. In the United Kingdom, paediatrics covers many of their youth until the ...

s, a well known children's hospital and a special school in Navan being named after him.Canon Ellison, "Ardbraccan Anecdotes", Navan and District Historical Society
/ref>

Legacy

The

church Church may refer to: Religion * Church (building), a building for Christian religious activities * Church (congregation), a local congregation of a Christian denomination * Church service, a formalized period of Christian communal worship * C ...

at Upper

Killinkere , native_name_lang = ga , settlement_type = , image_skyline = , imagesize = , image_alt = , image_caption = , pushpin_map = Ireland , pushpin_label_position = , pushpin_map_alt = Location of Killinkere within the Republic of Irelan ...

takes its name from St. Ultan, a well-known patron of children, whose

abbey An abbey is a type of monastery used by members of a religious order under the governance of an abbot or abbess. Abbeys provide a complex of buildings and land for religious activities, work, and housing of Christian monks and nuns. The conce ...

was established at

between Kells and

Navan Navan ( ; , meaning "the Cave") is the county town of County Meath, Republic of Ireland, Ireland. In 2016, it had a population of 30,173, making it the List of urban areas in the Republic of Ireland by population, tenth largest settlement in ...

in the 6th century. He is reputed to have travelled to Killinkere and founded the first Christian church in the area. The establishment of Saint Ultan's Children's Hospital was the result of the activity of a group of female doctors and activists, including

Madeleine ffrench-Mullen Madeleine ffrench-Mullen (30 December 1880 – 26 May 1944) was an Irish revolutionary and labour activist who took part in the Easter Rising in Dublin in 1916. Ffrench-Mullen was a member of the radical nationalist women's organisation . In 1 ...

and

Kathleen Lynn Kathleen Florence Lynn (28 January 1874 – 14 September 1955) was an Irish Sinn Féin politician, activist and medical doctor. Lynn was so greatly affected by the poverty and disease among the poor in the west of Ireland that, at 16, she decid ...

, who were deeply concerned at the high level of infant mortality in

Dublin Dublin (; , or ) is the capital and largest city of Republic of Ireland, Ireland. On a bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster, bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, a part of th ...

, and the rise of infant syphilis in the wake of the

First World War World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

. The hospital opened at 37 Charlemont Street on Ascension Thursday, 29 May 1919. The name of the hospital came from the seventh century Saint Ultan of Ardbraccan, bishop of Meath, who had looked after the children of Meath during an outbreak of ''yellow plague''. St. Ultan's closed in 1984 and merged with the National Children's Hospital.

References

Sources

*Farmer, D.H. (1979). ''The Oxford dictionary of saints.'' Oxford: Clarendon Press.

External links

*
MacCormack, Katherine. ''The Book of Saint Ultan'', Candle Press, Dublin, 1920
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ultan Of Ardbraccan 7th-century Irish bishops 7th-century Irish writers 7th-century Christian saints 657 deaths Year of birth unknown Medieval saints of Meath 7th-century Latin writers Irish scholars and academics