HYMNUS ALPHABETICUS. S. SECUNDINO EPISCOPO, ADSCRIPTUS IN LAUDEM S. PATRICII, TUM VIVENTIS. 1. Audite omnes amantes Deum sancta merita The foregoing hymn was composed by Seachnall, properly Seanchall, or Secundinus (Seanchal, pro. Shayunchull, is the Irish for Secundinus Secundus, and Felix, “happy”), in honour of St. Patrick. This Seanchall, with two other eminent saints, came to Ireland from the Continent, A.D. 439. His father's name was Restitutus; however, being a Latin name, it needs not be concluded that he was a Roman, though he might be. For, if Secundinus was himself called, in Irish, Seachnall, it would not imply that he was an Irishman. The ecclesiastics of all countries, in early times, and other personages, in connexion with Rome, either took or got Roman names. Any person accustomed to history, especially Roman history, admits this. Dr. Lanigan has shown, that Darerca was not his mother, nor Patrick's sister. His reasoning on this head is very clear and cogent. Restitutus was a Longobard. The exact territory of the Longobardi has been disputed. We cannot enter that question, as space will not allow us to do so. Tacitus, in his "Annals," book ii. chap. 4, talks of them as a German tribe. Cellarius, in his "Ancient Geography," places them east of the Elbe and north of the Spree, in Germany. Lempriére makes them the same as the Lombards, who settled in Italy, at the close of the sixth century. Dr. Alexander Adam, in his "Summary of Ancient Geography," denies this. But we find, on good authority, that the "Lingones," who lived south of the Marne, towards Langres, joined a nation of the southern Germans, the Bardæi, crossed the Alps, and made a settlement in Italy. Hence it happened that Roman names and customs were not strange to persons living east of the Alps: Seachnall was born A.D. 374, and died A.D. 449, in the seventy-fifth year of his age, being only nine years on the mission in Ireland. He was a bishop of eminent piety, prudence, and learning. According to the learned Dr. Lanigan's computation, which THE ALPHABETIC HYMN OF ST. SECUNDINUS, TO THE PRAISE OF ST. PATRICK, WHILST HE YET LIVED. 1. All you who love God, hear the holy merits How for his good deeds he is compared with angels, after due consideration, we have adopted, he was born thirteen years before St. Patrick, whose birth the accomplished Doctor has fixed A.D. 387, and death A.D. 465: thus making him seventy-eight years old when he departed this life. It is a very rare thing to find a nephew thirteen years older than an uncle, yet Seanchall is represented as being a nephew of St. Patrick. But, from the clear and convincing arguments laid down by Lanigan, we are satisfied that the Irish Apostle had no relatives in Ireland, and that he called holy women and nuns sisters, just as is the custom in our own days. For, if he had so many near relatives, what sense can be found in certain passages in his "Confessions," expressive of his ardent desire to pay a visit to his friends in Britany. Moreover, we are confirmed in our opinion by a passage in his letter to Coroticus. In it he says, "He was constrained by the Spirit to be separated from his kindred." Besides, in giving an account of his painful captivity, it is manifest that a man of his piety would have exhibited some anxiety about his sisters, and would have mentioned them. His omission in thar respect is an argument that he had no sisters in Ireland. Again, the number of bishops set down as the children of his sisters, renders the story difficult of belief and very improbable. Whoever would read more on this subject is referred to the first volume of Lanigan, who rejects also the account, handed down by some writers, alleging a dispute between St. Patrick and Secundinus. We shall not, therefore, give it. The real motive that induced St. Seanchall to compose the hymn was a divine impulse. It was an inspiration that such an act would be pleasing to God, who rejoices in the praises of men that have been sanctified by their good works, which were operated through Jesus Christ. Seanchall, who was Bishop of Dunshaughlin, in Meath, and who, for 2. Beati Christi custodit mandata in omnibus; some time, discharged vicariate duties for St. Patrick, whilst he visited distant parts of Ireland-not Rome, as some assert-asked our Apostle's permission to write a hymn in honour of a bishop who was yet alive. St. Patrick answered, if he had made up his mind to perform such a duty, that he had need to make his will, as his dissolution was nigh, and that he, of all the bishops then in Ireland, would die first. Wherefore he, without delay, wrote the hymn, and, according to Patrick's prediction, his pure soul, having left the body, mounted up to heaven to possess the unfading crown of glory, for which he so zealously fought the good fight. His remains were interred in the Church of Dunshaughlin, and the many miracles wrought at his tomb are an evidence that Heaven had anticipated Rome in numbering him amongst the saints. When the reader refers to the time of St. Seanchall's death, which was given above, he can easily learn the time the hymn was composed. An insinuation was thrown out by the Rev. Villanueva, a Spanish writer of 1835, that it was the first hymn composed in Ireland. Had the Rev. historian stated that it was the "first Christian Latin hymn," we might understand him. His not having so qualified his language was paying too bad a compliment to an island that surpassed every other country on the globe for the number of its poets, the beauty of their diction, their Attic brevity, their Smyrnian sublimity, and their Roman grace. We have a list of the bardic galaxy that adorned the Irish horizon up to and after St. Patrick's days. But this is not the place to enter upon such a question. At the same time, we feel bound to reject, with just indignation, the imputation-that we were an illiterate nation of savages before Christianity. We could demonstrate as plainly as any proposition in Euclid, that our ancestors, the descendants of the great Milesius, retained the deposit of learning that was brought to them from the University of Scythia. It is likely that Latin literature was on the decline, as it was even in Rome in the fourth century. But the Irish language, in all its graces and beauty, flourished in its native garden. In it our Pagan bards wrote and sang the glorious deeds of the noble Milesians. Through its medium was Astronomy, and the other sciences, taught before Christianity. Dubhtagh, and his pupil, Fiech, were distinguished poets when Patrick came to Ireland. We are not aware of any positive proof that Latin was not taught here before Patrick. It is true he introduced the Roman characters. 2. Blessed Christ's commands in all things he keeps ; And the Saint, whose wonderful example they follow, nify. The hymn having been finished, the author asked St. Patrick's leave to read it for him. Our Saint replied, "that he would willingly hear the Lord praised in the works of His servants, or what He has wrought through them." Secundinus, apprehending that he might incur the displeasure of Patrick, who disliked human praise, omitted the first stanza in which our Saint's name occurred, and he began at the second. Having proceeded on until he came to the words-" Maximus in regno cœlorum," St. Patrick interrupted him by saying, "how can it be said of a man, that he is the greatest in the kingdom of Heaven?". Seachnall replied "the superlative degree is used for the positive." The classical scholar is well aware that such a practice is very usual with Latin writers. When the reading of the hymn had ended, Secundinus hinted, that it was indited in honour of St. Patrick himself, from whom he expected a fixed reward. Patrick, though despising human applause, yet not wishing to censure the devout zeal of his disciple, answered: "that Seanchall might expect from the clemency of his Saviour the reward-that whoever morning and evening would devoutly recite the hymn, would obtain a happy death and the reward of glory." St. Evin adds, that Patrick announced: "that the person reciting the hymn would obtain a happy death, if he were penitent and contrite."-See "Tripartite Life of St. Patrick," b. iii. cap. 91. St. Evin and others have written largely on the wonderful efficacy of the hymn.-See Probas L., iii. cap. 33; also the authors of the Lives of Saints Kevin, cap. 23, 48; of Colman, cap. 25; of Cannoc, cap. 43. Jocelyn says, that the Irish were in the habit of reciting it, and that they experienced its extraordinary efficacy, that many reciting this hymn passed unobserved through the enemy's ranks, though thirsting for their blood. Colgan, in his "Life of St. Aidan," bishop of Ferns, treats of it at much length. Lanigan writes in high terms of it, and alludes to an addition to it, which he saw in Colgan, and which we have given. The hymn was written in Latin, but in the Irish characters. We have copied it from the work of Rev. Joachim Villanueva, who, with permission, dedicated his book on Irish matters, to the late sainted Archbishop Murray. It was contained in the "Antiphonarium Benchorense." This most valuable work belonged to the monastery of Bangor, in the county 3. Constans in Dei timore et fide immobilis, of Down, Ireland. It is now in the Ambrosian library of Milan, whither it was removed from the monastery of Bobio, in the Appenines. It may be found in "Muratori's Anecdota Ambrosiana,"-Tom. iv. Patavii 1713. He thought the manuscript a thousand years old. Dr. Lanigan says, that it was much older; he does so, resting on evidences founded on certain facts. In the lists of books presented to the monastery of Bobio, by Dungal, in the ninth century, the Antiphonarium is not mentioned. St. Columbanus, the founder of the Italian monastery, was a monk of Bangor. Hence Lanigan inferred, from a letter of his, and from other circumstances, that the document was in Bobio, in the end of the seventh century. A copy of it with scholia and a gloss, is in the "Speckled Book."-Royal Irish Academy, Dublin. We regret we cannot insert the scholia, though we fear some of them are not genuine. The hymn, taken from the manuscript, was published by Colgan, A.D. 1647; also by Ware, 1656, who calls it " Alphabetical," for this reason, that the stanzas begin with the letters of the alphabet in regular order, A, B, C, &c. This order is plain in Ware's edition, which, at the tenth stanza, has "Kastam," though "Castam" is given by Colgan. There are some variations in these editions. We may say they are of no consequence, being only literal not verbal-and not all at affecting the sense. These vary a little from Muratori's edition, but not materially. The latter has the addition of Colgan. Lanigan, who is rather hypercritical, but thoroughly sound, seems well pleased with the integrity, authenticity, and veracity of the hymn. It is to be kept in mind, that it was simply an imitation of "Laudate Dominum Omnes gentes," being drawn up to praise God, in praising his faithful servant, Patrick, through whom millions of Pagans were gained to Christ. This, and this alone, was its object, though it affords a grand model for a holy life, and gives a clear idea of perfect Christian discipline. We have read much of Church history and of missionary labours and their results, and we have arrived at the conclusion, |