42 THE president's address. 



there were none. The organization was entirely distinct from 

 the territorial system of the Roman imperial world, but it was 

 in full accord with the institutions and genius of the Celtic 

 people. The time was one of establishing vital points over a 

 large surface, points from which religion and culture might 

 radiate, and obviously the more that were established the 

 greater the prospect of success in the ensuing age, which would 

 be one of development from these centres and building up on 

 these foundations. 



There is yet another point to which I must direct your 

 attention, the name of Saint applied to each of the heads of 

 the ecclesiastical tribes. 



A saint — naomh — to a Celt was not one who was canonised, 

 for the canonising of saints was a thing entirely unknown at 

 the time. The naomh was the head of the ecclesiastical settle- 

 ments, the nemed. None of the Cornish saints have been 

 canonised, none of the Welsh save St. David, (for political 

 reasons,) in 1120, and possibly Caradoc, who died in 1124, and 

 it is said, was canonised by the Pope, at the solicitation of 

 Griraldus Cambrensis. None of the early Irish saints have 

 been canonised, though some, as Palladius, Patrick, and Bridget, 

 have been taken into the Roman Calendar. 



Canonization is a regulating of the early custom of in- 

 troducing names of the blessed dead into the diptychs from 

 which the celebrant read, when he prayed for the living and 

 commemorated the dead, at the altar. Originally each priest 

 decided whom he would pray for, or commemorate. Then 

 the Bishops took on them to decide what names were to be read. 

 Next the Metropolitans claimed to determine this. A furious 

 controversy was waged over the recitation of the name of St. 

 John Chrysostom in the diptychs, as also over that of Acacius. 

 That some order should be introduced was advisable. St. 

 Martin of Tours found that his people had elevated into a 

 martyr, a highway robber, who had been executed for his crimes, 

 and were invoking him, and recording miraculous cures wrought 

 by his relics. Guibert of Nogent tells us of a case that came 

 under his own notice of a drunken man who was drowned, and 

 was at once, by popular acclamation, declared to be a saint. 



