SAINT DONNANUS AND 52 COMPANIONS, MARTYRS - 17 APRIL

 

ALL SAINTS CELEBRATED IN APRIL

Saints celebrated on the 17th of April

Prayer to the Angels and the Saints

Heavenly Father, in praising Your Angels and Saints we praise Your glory, for by honouring them we honour You, their Creator. Their splendour shows us Your greatness, which infinitely surpasses that of all creation.

In Your loving providence, You saw fit to send Your Angels to watch over us. Grant that we may always be under their protection and one day enjoy their company in heaven.

Heavenly Father, You are glorified in Your Saints, for their glory is the crowning of Your gifts. You provide an example for us by their lives on earth, You give us their friendship by our communion with them, You grant us strength and protection through their prayer for the Church, and You spur us on to victory over evil and the prize of eternal glory by this great company of witnesses.

Grant that we who aspire to take part in their joy may be filled with the Spirit that blessed their lives, so that, after sharing their faith on earth, we may also experience their peace in heaven. Amen.

SAINT DONNANUS AND 52 COMPANIONS, MARTYRS 

Saint Donnanus came with 52 disciples from Ireland to the Scottish island of Egga, but was killed there together with them at the instigation of a rich woman who was hostile to him. 

Around the year 600, during Holy Mass, he was attacked by hired killers and murdered. Amazingly, he managed to complete the Holy Mass. In our source the names of the disciples of our saint are listed by name. But since these names seem to have been a later addition, we did not consider it necessary to list them individually here. They can be found in the hagiographies of the Bollandists.

(Information from Stadler's Complete Encyclopedia of Saints, 1858)

THE ISLAND OF EGGA 

Eigg (Eige) is one of the Small Isles in the Scottish Inner Hebrides. It lies to the south of the Isle of Skye and to the north of the Ardnamurchan peninsula. Eigg is 9 kilometres (5½ miles) long from north to south, and 5 km (3 mi) east to west. With an area of 12 sq mi (31 km²), it is the second-largest of the Small Isles after Rum.

The Irish missionary activity which brought Columba to Iona also brought Donnan to Eigg, where he attempted to establish a monastery, at Kildonnan. According to traditional legends, a Pictish queen sent agents to Eigg to kill him, which they did on the eve of Easter, in 617. Traditionally, Donnan had a large number of companions with him, whom he requested were killed first. Thee monastic community continued (or new monks were sent) after Donnan's death, under the authority of Iona.

By the following century, the monastery was significant enough for the death of its superior, Oan, to be mentioned in the Annals of Ulster. The monastery was located within an oval enclosure, surrounded by a ditch, housing a rectangular chapel in the centre, and a handful of smaller buildings either side.

(Information and photograph from

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eigg)