Ultan of Ardbraccan

Saint Ultan of Ardbraccan (died around 650, according to some sources 653 or 657), also called Ultan the Scribe, was an Irish monk and abbot-⁠bishop of Ardbraccan in Ireland in the seventh century. He is commemorated on 4 September. Our sources call him a saint of the Roman Catholic Church and show no Orthodox canonization; he is an Irish saint of the undivided Church, venerated chiefly in Ireland.

Life

According to tradition he was an uncle of Saint Brigid of Kildare, but chronologically this is not possible; the Russian source says he was her maternal uncle. He collected a life of her for his pupil Broccan Clóen of Ossory. The Irish annals describe him as of the royal race of O'Connor. He was a disciple and kinsman of Saint Declan, who made him bishop at Ardbraccan, and he succeeded Saint Breccan as abbot-⁠bishop around 570.

He founded a school, where he fed and taught poor students, and was noted for the work of collecting and illuminating the writings of Saint Brigid. One of his students was Tírechán. He was also known for his beautiful hymns; a Latin hymn of his is incorporated in the Solesmes chant books.

Protector of children

In the Félire Óengusso he is mentioned as "the great sinless prince in whom the little ones flourish: the children play greatly round Ultan of Ardbraccan". The commentary explains that the Yellow Plague struck adults more than children and left many children in the land orphaned, helpless and starving. Ultan gathered all the orphans he could find and brought them to his monastery; according to one account he often had as many as a hundred and fifty. He is said to have devised a way of feeding them with cows' teats filled with milk.

His end and veneration

After preaching the Gospel at Ardbraccan he went to the Aran Islands, after a short stay in Meath, and died on one of them, where his tomb slab was found, on 4 September, sometime in the 650s. The Annals of Clonmacnoise place his death in 653; our record gives 655. He is said to have possibly been also bishop of the Desi of Meath. He is also connected with Killanny and Louth, in County Louth. His holy well was first within the Celtic monastery and later within the grounds of the Anglo-⁠Norman bishops.

He is regarded as patron of paediatricians; a well-⁠known children's hospital and a special school in Navan bear his name. The church at Upper Killinkere takes its name from him. Saint Ultan's Children's Hospital in Dublin was born of the labour of a group of women doctors and activists, among them Madeleine ffrench-⁠Mullen and Kathleen Lynn, concerned by infant mortality in the city; it opened in 1919 and closed in 1984.