Saint Sechnall

Secundinus, Sechnall
Sechlann
Monastic ruins in Dunshaughlin today
Church	Domnach Sechnaill, now Dunshaughlin (Co. Meath)
Personal details
Born	Italy?
Died	447/8 ? Ireland
Sainthood
Feast day	27 November
Venerated in	Roman Catholic Church

Saint Secundinus (fl. 5th century), or Sechnall (Modern Irish: Seachnall) as he was known in Irish, was founder and patron saint of Domnach Sechnaill, now Dunshaughlin (Co. Meath), who went down in medieval tradition as a disciple of St Patrick and one of the first bishops of Armagh. Historians have suggested, however, that the connection with St Patrick was a later tradition invented by Armagh historians in favour of their patron saint and that Secundinus is more likely to have been a separate missionary, possibly a companion of Palladius.

Little is known about the saint and his cult. His foundation is Domnach Sechnaill ('Church of Sechnall'), now Dunshaughlin (Co. Meath), not far from Tara, and to judge by the use of the toponymic element domnach (from Latin dominicum), the church is likely to be early. T.M. Charles-Edwards suggests that the site may have belonged originally to the province of Leinster rather than Mide, but that the political geography had changed by the 8th century, when much of southern Brega was divided between different septs of the Síl nÁedo Sláine. By that time, Domnach Sechnaill lay in the kingdom of the Uí Chernaig, close to the royal crannóg seat in Loch nGabor, as did the churches of Trevet and Kilbrew.

Linguistic arguments in favour of the early date of the saint's arrival and his foundation have also been advanced with respect to the saint's name in Latin and Irish. The Late Latin name Secundinus was a common one across Latin-speaking parts of Europe. His name was borrowed into the vernacular as Sechnall, according to a pattern for which David N. Dumville proposes the following stages of development: Secundinus > *Sechundinus > *Sechundīnəs > *Sechundīn > *Sechndən > *Sechnən and finally by the 8/9th century, > *Sechnəl. If correct, this pattern lends further credence to a 5th-century floruit of the saint.

Traditions about the saint are witnessed by variety of sources, including Irish annals, the Félire Óengusso and other martyrologies, the Tripartite Life of St Patrick and a list of the coarbs of St Patrick. Secundinus is also the ascribed author of an early Latin hymn in praise of St Patrick, known as Audite Omnes Amantes ('Hear ye, All lovers') or the Hymn of Secundinus written in trochaic septenarius, the earliest copy of which is found in the late 7th-century Antiphonary of Bangor. The ascription to Secundinus, whether true or false, is commonplace in medieval sources, occurring as early as in the Félire Óengusso, and notably appears in the Irish preface preserved in some manuscript copies of the Hymn. This preface adds some biographical detail, including a legend about Sechnall's quarrel and reconciliation with Patrick leading up to the composition of the hymn. A hagiographical Life was written for the saint, but it comes down to us only in a 17th-century manuscript compilation donated by Irish Jesuit Henry FitzSimon to the Bollandists. The manuscript is found in the Bollandist collection of the Royal Library of Brussels under the shelfmark MS 8957-8.