Seachnaill
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| Saint Seachnaill | |
|---|---|
| Born | ~372, Italy? |
| Died | November 27, 457, Ireland |
| Venerated in | Roman Catholic Church |
| Feast | |
 Saints Portal |
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Saint Seachnaill (Sechnall, Secundinus) (ca. 372 - November 27, 457) is an Irish saint. He is considered the founder of Dunshaughlin (Domnach Seachnaill) and was a contemporary of Saint Patrick.
According to the Catholic Encyclopedia, he was the son of Restitutus, a Lombard, and Liamain, sister of St. Patrick. He was one of nine brothers, eight of whom became bishops in Ireland. His early life and training are obscure, but he appears to have studied in Gaul, and to have accompanied St. Patrick to Ireland in 432.
The first documentary evidence we have is an entry in the Irish Annals recording the arrival of St. Sechnall and his brother St. Auxilius "to help St. Patrick".
In 433 he was appointed by St. Patrick as first Bishop of Dunshaughlin, and served as assistant to the Bishop of Armagh from 434 until his death. At the commencement of his episcopal rule, the local fair (aonach) was accustomed to be held in the church enclosure, and as the people ignored the saint's denunciation as to holding a fair on hallowed ground, we read that "the earth opened and swallowed up thirteen horses, chariots and drivers, while the remainder fled". He died after an episcopate of fourteen years.
More recent scholarship has suggested that Secundinus preceded Saint Patrick in Ireland. According to Thomas F. O'Rahilly's lecture The Two Patricks, Secundinus was probably a native of northern Italy. He was one of three bishops who arrived in Ireland in 439 to assist Palladius, whose mission had begun in 431 and who was known in Ireland as Patricius (leading to confusion with the later Saint Patrick). Secundinus's two associates were Auxilius and Iserninus. In 441 Palladius was recalled to Rome to be examined by the newly elected Pope Leo I, leaving Secundinus in charge of the Church in Ireland. Secundinus died in 447 or 448; he was the first Christian bishop to die on Irish soil. Domnach Seachnaill, or Dunshaughlin in County Meath, is named for him.
[edit] External links
- Sechnall at the Catholic Encyclopedia
[edit] References
- O'Rahilly, Thomas F. (1942). The Two Patricks: A Lecture on the History of Christianity in Fifth-Century Ireland. Dublin: Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies.
This article incorporates text from the public-domain Catholic Encyclopedia of 1913.
