Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Carthach (d.580?)
CARTHACH, Saint, the elder (d. 580?), appears in the ‘Felire’ of Œngus the Culdee (10th cent.) with the epithets of royal and Roman attached to his name (ed. Stokes, p. lv). This is generally interpreted to mean that he was of royal ancestry, and had travelled to Rome [cf. Cainnech, Saint]. From the ‘Vita Kierani’ (Bollandist A. SS., March, v. 395) we gather that he was the grandson of Angus, king of Munster, who would seem to be the king whose death is recorded in the ‘Four Masters’ under the year 489. Colgan, however, noting that he was the brother of St. Cuanna, quotes from an old genealogy to show that he was the great-grandson of Neill of the Nine Hostages (A. SS., 249–51), who died about the year 405 (but cf. the Leabhar Breac notes to Angus, p. lx).
In the ‘Vita Kierani’ St. Carthach appears, before the death of St. Patrick, as one of St. Ciaran of Saighir's young disciples (p. 395); but there are some difficulties in the way of accepting this statement in its entirety (Dict. of Christ. Biog. i. 410). We read that Carthach became engaged in an intrigue with a certain nun, in punishment for which offence St. Ciaran enjoined on him the penance of foreign travel. On his return he seems to have joined St. Ciaran once more, and is said to have been appointed his successor at Saighir, perhaps about the year 550 (ib. i. 544). It may have been a few years later than this that he found his namesake, the younger Carthach, on the banks of the Mang (? Mainne) in Kerry, and ordained him priest. From the latter saint's life (A. SS., 14 May, 379), we learn that it was the habit of St. Carthach to traverse his diocese singing the Psalms, in alternation with his accompanying priests. Dr. Lanigan would date the first friendship of the two Carthachs about the year 577, assigning 580 as an approximate date for the elder Carthach's death. It is evident, however, that this is hardly consistent with the admission that he was already one of St. Ciaran's disciples before 490. St. Carthach's principal church was at Saighir in King's County, where he succeeded St. Ciaran. To this the authors of the ‘Acta Sanctorum’ add (from the ‘Martyrology of Tamlacht’) a church at Druim Ferdhaimh, a place which, according to the same authority, Marianus O'Gorman located at Carbery in Kildare. A third church was at Inis Vachtair on Lough Silenn (Leabhar Breac, ap. Stokes's ‘Angus,’ p. lx), and perhaps a fourth at Inis Carthach, near Lismore (A. SS., 393). The ‘Dictionary of Christian Biography’ adds a fifth at Tir-Boghaine (Banagh Barony) in Tyrconnell (i. 411); and Mr. Shearman a sixth dedication at Cill Carthach, now Kiltcar in Donegal (Loca Patriciana, p. 298; for other churches in Ossory possibly founded by this saint, Kilmocar, Kilmogar, and Stamcarty, see the same writer). St. Carthach is said to have been the father of St. Molua (Leabhar Breac). There seems to be an unvarying tradition that makes him the tutor of St. Carthach the younger; but as regards the details of his life there can be no absolute certainty. [See remarks on St. Cainnech.] His day is 5 March.
[Bolland. Acta Sanctorum, 5 March, 389–399, and 14 May; Colgan's Acta Sanctorum, 250, and in Vita Kierani, 458–66; Stokes's Calendar of Œngus the Culdee; Lanigan's Ecclesiastical History of Ireland, ii. 98, 152, &c.; Shearman's Loca Patriciana; Dictionary of Christian Biography, i.]