Contents
Rev. Alban Butler (1711–73). Volume VIII: August. The Lives of the Saints. 1866.
August 23
St. Eugenius, Bishop in Ireland
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| THE FIRST establishment of the see of Derry 1 was at a place called Ardfrath, on the river Derg, 2 of which this saint was the first bishop. He was an excellent and assiduous preacher, and is said to have been of the royal blood of the kings of Leinster. He died on this day in 618, and was buried in his own church-yard, over whose sepulchre a chapel was afterwards built. Other writers place his death in 570. See Usher, Ind. Chron. ad an. 570, and Ware’s Bishops, p. 286. | 1 |
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| Note 1. Derry is called in the old Roman Provincial, Darrich, and by ancient writers, Doire Chalgaich; i. e. the Oak grove of Calgaich; from whence Adamnan, translating the name into Latin, calls it Roboretum Calgachi. It is also called Doire Choluim-chille, or Columbkill’s oak-grove, from the monastery of that saint planted there. It has now the name of Londonderry, from a colony of Londoners settled there in the reign of James I. [back] |
| Note 2. Derg is a river rising out of a lake of the same name, in the barony of Tirhugh and county of Donegal. Loughderg is remarkable for St. Patrick’s Purgatory. [back] |
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