Haddan & Stubbs, Councils II.2 (1878) — translated from the Latin; editorial apparatus summarised.

¹ Anonymous [c. A.D. 750]. Here begins the Catalogue of the Saints of Ireland according to their various periods.

² The First Order of Catholic Saints was in the time of Patrick. And then they were all bishops, famous and holy and full of the Holy Spirit, 350 in number, founders of churches. They had one Head, Christ, and one leader, Patrick; one mass, one celebration, one tonsure from ear to ear they suffered. They kept one Easter, the fourteenth moon after the vernal equinox; and what was excommunicated by one church, all excommunicated. They did not repel the ministries and societies of women, because, founded upon the rock of Christ, they feared not the wind of temptation. This Order of Saints endured through four reigns, that is, for the time of Laeghaire, and of Ailill Molt, and of Lugaid son of Laeghaire, and of Tuathal [Maelgarbh]. All these bishops sprang from the Romans and the Franks and the Britons and the Scots.

³ The Second Order was of Catholic presbyters. For in this Order there were few bishops and many presbyters, 300 in number. They had one Head, our Lord; they celebrated various masses and had various rules: one Easter, the fourteenth moon after the equinox; one tonsure from ear to ear. They refused the ministry of women, separating them from the monasteries. This Order endured still through four reigns; that is, from the last years of Tuathal, and through the whole reign of King Diarmait, and of the two grandsons of Muiredach, and of Aed son of Ainmire. They received the mass from David the bishop and Gildas and Docco the Britons; whose names are these: the two Finnians, the two Brendans, Jarlaithe of Tuam, Comgall, Coemgen, Ciaran, Columba, Cainnech, Eugenius Mac Laisre, Lugeus, Ludeus, Moditeus, Cormac, Colman, Nesan, Laisrean, Barrindeus, Coemann, Ceran, Coman, [Endeus, Aedan, Byrchin], and many others.

⁴ The Third Order of Saints was of this kind. They were holy presbyters, and a few bishops, a hundred in number; who lived in desert places, and lived on herbs and water and the alms [of the faithful], shunned their own property, and had various rules and masses, and a various tonsure (for some had the crown tonsure, others the hair unshorn), and a various Paschal solemnity (for some kept the Resurrection on the fourteenth moon or the sixteenth, with hard strivings). These lived through four reigns; that is, of Aed Allain (who reigned only three years for an evil purpose), and of Domnall, and of the sons of Maolcobha and of Aed Slaine — mingled times; and they endured even to that great mortality. These are their names: Petran the bishop, Ultan the bishop, Colman the bishop, Murgheus the bishop, Aedan the bishop, Loman the bishop, Senach the bishop — these are the bishops — and many others. Now these are the presbyters: Fechin the presbyter, Airendan, Failan, Coman, Cummian, Colman, Ernan, Cronan; and very many other presbyters.

⁵ Note, that the first Order was most holy; the second, holy of holies [in another reading, holier]; the third, holy. The first glows like the sun in the fervour of brightness; the second pales like the moon; the third shines like the dawn. These three Orders the blessed Patrick, taught by a heavenly oracle, understood; when in that prophetic vision he saw all Ireland filled with the flame of fire, afterwards only the mountains burning, and last of all he saw lamps burning in the valleys.

[Editorial notes, Haddan & Stubbs: printed by Ussher from two MSS.; another form printed by Fleming (Collect. pp. 430-431), whose variant readings are marked F; a copy exists in the Codex Salmanticensis, fol. 78b, probably among Fleming’s authorities. Conjecturally attributed to Tirechan, but in any case not later than the middle of the eighth century. The chronology: Period I — Laeghaire Mac Neill (428-463), Oilioll Molt (463-483), Lugaidh Mac Laeghaire (483-508), Muirchertach Mac Erca (513-533), Tuathal Maelgarbh (533-544). Period II — Diarmait (544-565), Domhnall and Fergus (565-6), Baetan and Eochaidh (566-8), Ainmire (568-571), Baetan (571-2), Aodh Mac Ainmirech (572-599). Period III — Aodh Slaine and Colman Rimidh (599-605), Aodh Uariodhnach (605-612), Maolcobha (612-615), Suibhne Meann (615-628), Domhnall (628-642), Cellach and Conall Cael (642-658), Blathmac and Diarmait (658-665).]

It appears by this document that Roman ecclesiastics were among St Patrick’s company; although the language of the hymns of St Sechnall and of St Fiacc, and of St Patrick’s own Confessio, and the silence of Prosper, besides chronological difficulties, disprove on purely historical grounds the supposed mission of St Patrick himself from Rome, which first appears in the scholia on St Fiacc’s hymn.

[The file concludes with H&S’s editorial chronology for Period the Second: A.D. 440 probable date of Patrick’s mission to Ireland — described by himself as “Hiberione constitutus Episcopus” [a bishop set in Ireland] and by a contemporary as “Episcopus Scotorum” [bishop of the Scots], then as “Archapostolus Scotorum” [chief apostle of the Scots], and in later times as “Abbot of all Ireland” (Flann of Monasterboice, ob. 1066) and “Airdeaspuc, Ceann Priomhaid, Ardapstol Ereann” — Archbishop, First Primate, and chief Apostle of Ireland. A.D. 445 alleged foundation of Armagh. A.D. 448 death of St Sechnall (Secundinus) of Dunshaughlin, “the first bishop to go under the soil of Ireland” (V. S. Declan). After 448, St Fiacc made bishop of Sletty. A.D. 460 death of Auxilius; 468, of Benignus; 469, of Isserninus. c. 480 nunnery founded at Kildare by St Brigid. A.D. 493 “Patrick, chief apostle of the Scots, rested.” A.D. 500 death of St Ibar. A.D. 523-7 death of St Brigid. A.D. 530 Clonard founded by St Finnian. A.D. 534-7 “Dormitatio Moctai” (of Louth), disciple of Patrick.]