95 
that is, Castellum Aidi, ‘‘Aedh’s Fort.’ Mention is made of this 
church in the Four Masters at 771, 788, 1382, and, at 857, it is ex- 
pressly called Rath-Aodha-mic-Bric. Another church was Cill-air in 
Moy-assuil, now the barony of Rathconrath, also in Westmeath, where 
was shown within the churchyard, in Colgan’s time,* the stone on which 
the saint was believed to have been born. The remains of an oratory 
founded by him are also shown on the top of Sheve-League, a high 
mountain, 1964 feet above the sea, in the barony of Banagh, in the south- 
west of Donegal, where he is traditionally called Bishop Hugh Breaky, 
and near which is his holy well, where stations were annually held on 
his festival until a couple of generations past. He also founded a church 
called Eanach Midhbreuin, in his mother’s native territory of Muscry 
Their, now the baronies of Ormond, in the county of Tipperary. 
His life is a curious legendary tale, from which I shall content 
myself with citing one passage, as it serves as the key to the sentiments 
contained in his foreign hymn :— 
“ Homo quidam qui patiebatur magnum dolorem in capite, venit ad 
sanctum Aedum dicens; O sancte Dei affligor valde dolore capitis, et ora 
pro me. Cui ait Pontifex; Nullo modo poterit a te dolor iste exire, 
nisi in me superveniet: sed premium magnum habebis, si patienter 
sustinueris. Ille respondit, Domine, dolor supra vires. 8. Aedus ait; 
Dolor capitis tui, o homo, veniat in caput meum. Et illico dolor de- 
scendit in caput Pontificis, et homo ille sanus exivit gratiasagens. Sus- 
cepit igitur sanctus Christi famulus dolorem alterius in se ipsum, ut per 
Christum proximum adjuvaret, et ut pro Christo martyrium toleraret. 
Et multi postea invocato nomine S. Ardi d dolore capitis sanantur, sicut 
in hac re probatum est.” + 
I was so struck with the coincidence between these remote ves- 
tiges of ancient times, that I wrote to Mone, in the middle of the year 
before last, asking for information on some matters of interest. In his 
reply, dated July 24, he writes :—‘‘ The literary exertions of the Irish 
for language, history, and sciences, existing in their manuscripts, are 
partly known, and Zeuss has appreciated them in his ‘ Grammatica Cel- 
tica.’ But there is still a great deal of interesting fragments, written 
in Irish and Latin, which deserve a careful attention. You were pleased 
with the ancient Latin hymn on 8. Aidus: I have since found an Irish 
hymn on him,*t of the eighth century also, in fifty-two verses, which com- 
mences with these words :— 
Ged oll FM anoud nane 
ded pom Fn! fuilced Fele 
Inoell delgnaid1 apch6emem 
Oiompnaib poenenn pede. 
* Colgan, Acta Sanctorum., p. 422, 6. n. 5. 
+ Vit. c. xvi; Colg., Act. SS., p. 420 a, ‘‘patronum capite dolentium.”—Marg., 
ibid. 
{ It is possible, however, that the “‘ Aedh” of this hymn may be another of the nu- 
merous saints of the name who occur in the Irish Calendar. The question cannot be 
‘decided until the whole poem is examined. 
