But if Ireland gave saints and martyrs to foreign lands, her charity was in some measure repaid in kind.  True, she needed not the evangelic labours of other missionaries, for the gospel-seed had taken deep root, and borne a rich harvest on her happy shores; still, as the prayers of saints are the very life and joy of the Church, she could not choose but rejoice in the hundreds of pure and saintly souls who gathered round her altars at home, who crowded her monasteries, or listened devoutly to the teachers of her distinguished schools.  In the Litany of Aengus the Culdee[187] we find hundreds of foreign saints invoked, each grouped according to their nation.  “The oldest tract, or collection of the pedigrees of the saints of Erinn,” says Professor O’Curry, “of which we have now any recognizable copy remaining, is that which is ascribed to Aengus Ceile De, commonly called Aengus the Culdee.  The genuineness of this composition is admitted by all writers of modern times, Protestant and Catholic, by Usher and Ware as well as by Colgan.”

Aengus wrote about the year 798.  He was descended from the illustrious chieftains of Dalriada, and completed his education in the Monastery of Cluain Eidhneach, in the present Queen’s county.  The remains of a church he founded at Disert Aengusa, near Ballingarry, in the county of Limerick, may still be seen.

The Monastery of Tamhlacht (Tallaght), near Dublin, was founded in the year 769, by St. Maelruain, on a site offered “to God, to Michael the Archangel, and to Maelruain,” by Donnach, the pious and illustrious King of Leinster.  St. Aengus presented himself at this monastery as a poor man seeking for service, and was employed for some time in charge of the mill or kiln, the ruins of which have but lately yielded to “the improving hand of modern progress.”  Here he remained hidden for many years, until, by some happy accident, his humility and his learning were at once discovered.

Aengus composed his “Festology” in the reign of Hugh Oirdnidhe (the Legislator), who was Monarch of Ireland from the year 793 to the year 817.  Hugh commenced his reign by attaching the province of Leinster, and then marched to the confines of Meath.  The Archbishop of Armagh and all his clergy were commanded to attend this expedition, for such had hitherto been the custom.  The ecclesiastics, however, protested against the summons, and complained to the king of the injustice and inconsistency of demanding their presence on such occasions.  Hugh referred the matter to Fothadh, his poet and adviser.  The learning and piety of the bard were well known; and a decision favourable to the clergy was the result.  This decision was given in a short poem of four quatrains which is preserved in the preface to the “Martyrology” of Aengus.  The following is a literal translation:—­

    “The Church of the living God,
    Touch her not, nor waste;
    Let her rights be reserved,
    As best ever they were.