Manchán of Min Droichit

Manchán of Min Droichit (aka Manchéne, Manchianus; died c. 652) was an Irish scholar and Abbot.

Biography

Manchán was an Irish scholar and abbot of Min Droichit, now Mendrohid, in the barony of Upper Ossory, County Offaly. His name is also attached to Disert Gallen, Co. Laois.^[1]

Manchán twice makes his appearance in Latin sources as a scholar whose authority still mattered after his death. First, he is probably the Manchianus, called pater and sapiens, who is named by an anonymous Irishman in his preface to the De mirabilibus sacrae scripturae ('On the miraculous things in sacred scripture'), written in 655 and so shortly after Manchán's death.^[1][2] The author, who uses the nom de plume Augustine and is for this reason known today as the Irish Pseudo-Augustine, appears to have been a pupil of Manchán as well as of one Eusebius.^[2]

Second, Manchán may be the 'M., doctor noster' who is cited in a Hiberno-Latin commentary on the Catholic Epistles for his exegetical views on the Epistle of James. This anonymous work is uniquely preserved in a manuscript now held at Karlsruhe (Germany), but once in the possession of Reichenau Abbey. The glosses also cite a number of 7th-century Irish scholars, including Laidcenn mac Buith Bannaig, Breccanus, Banbán and Bercanus mac Áed, who are known to have been associated with Cumméne Fota (Cummianus).^[1][2]

Irish annals record the abbot's death in 652. The Manchín commemorated on 2 January in Irish martyrologies is probably him.^[1] The same date is also picked for his contemporary Mainchín of Luimnech, whose festival is otherwise recorded on 29 December.

See also

• Caolánn
• Cumméne Fota
• Blessed Marianus Scotus
• John Whitehead (theologian)

Notes

1. Breen, "Manchán, Manchianus, Manchíne"
2. Ó Cróinín, Early medieval Ireland, pp. 187-8.

References

• Breen, Aidan (2010). "Manchán, Manchianus, Manchíne". Dictionary of Irish Biography. Cambridge University Press. Accessed 6-2-2010.
• Ó Cróinín, Dáibhí (1995). Early Medieval Ireland: 400–1200. London: Longman. ISBN 0-582-01565-0.
• Óengus of Tallaght (1905). Stokes, Whitley, ed. The Martyrology of Oengus the Culdee. Henry Bradshaw Society 29. London.

Further reading

• Breen, Aidan (1984). "Some seventh-century Hiberno-Latin texts and their relationships". Peritia 3: 204–214.
• McNally, E., ed. (1973). Scriptores Hiberniae Minores. Corpus Christianorum Series Latina 108 B. Edition of the Irish commentary on the Catholic Epistles.
• Pseudo-Augustine, De mirabilibus sacrae Scripturae, ed. J. P. Migne, Patrologia Latina 35: 2149–200 (2152 and 2176).