Saint Óengus of Tallaght

Óengus mac Óengobann, better known as Saint Óengus of Tallaght or Óengus the Culdee, was an Irish bishop, reformer and writer, who flourished in the first quarter of the 9th century and is held to be the author of the Félire Óengusso ("Martyrology of Óengus") and possibly the Martyrology of Tallaght. Little of Óengus's life and career is reliably attested. The most important sources include internal evidence from the Félire, a later Middle Irish preface to that work, a biographic poem beginning Aíbind suide sund amne ("Delightful to sit here thus") and the entry for his feast-day inserted into the Martyrology of Tallaght. Óengus was known as a son of Óengoba and grandson of Oíblén, who is mentioned in a later genealogy as belonging to the Dál nAraidi, a ruling kindred in the north-east of Ireland. A late account prefaced to the Martyrology asserts that Óengus was born in Clúain Édnech/Eidnech (Clonenagh, Spahill, County Laois, Ireland), not far from the present town of Mountrath, and brought up at the monastic school founded there by Fintan of Clonenagh, where also his body was buried. The claim may be spurious since the Félire itself accords no such importance to the monastic foundation or its patron saint Fintan. Óengus describes himself as a cleric in the Félire, using the more humble appellation of "pauper" (pauperán and deidblén in Old Irish). He was an important member of the community founded by Máel Ruain at Tallaght (now in South Dublin), in the borderlands of Leinster. Máel Ruain is described as his mentor (aite, also "foster father"). Óengus is first described as a bishop in a list of saints inserted into the Martyrology of Tallaght. The literary effort most commonly attributed to Óengus is the Old Irish work known as Félire Óengusso ("Martyrology of Óengus"), which is the earliest metrical martyrology — a register of saints and their feast days – to have been written in the vernacular.