The several Sts. Crónán, AKA Mochua, are Dian Cécht, god of healing. Saviour against plagues and injury, patron of the "Plain of Herbs", slayer of serpents, and god of the Healing Well.

This issue started out more apologetic - I wasn't 100% on whether I was correct to interpret Crónán as Dian Cécht, because I only had one "key" detail to connect the two, and it had been undermined somewhat by subsequent work. Thankfully, I made another discovery during the drafting, which makes me once again confident of the identification.

Don't expect bombastic "Divine Healer" vibes from this Saint, over and above the background-noise of "Saint". Sadly, whatever might have been present that we don't already know about Dian Cécht's healing prowess is just.. washed out by the genre. However, there are still a few tidbits to be found that might be interesting toward how we understand this God.

So, let's see what we've got.

The Irish God of Healing

First things first - Dian Cécht. If you're not familiar with him, he's generally agreed to be the Irish god of healing - "leech-craft". This is pretty cool, because most European mythologies don't seem to have such a senior god in charge of such a socially valuable craft. Most of his appearances are in the "Caith Maigh Tuired" (EN: "Battle of Moytura"), telling of the war between the Tuatha Dé and the Fomoire and the Coming of Lugh. To summarise:

• During the terrible reign of Bres, the Tuatha Dé start pining for the old days under Nuada. But he can't be king since he has lost an arm. Dian Cécht, working with the gods of craft, gives Nuada a prosthetic arm of Silver that can do whatever a normal arm might (hence: Nuada Airgeadlámh - Silverarm). His son Miach, also a consummate healer-god, outdoes his father by restoring Nuada's arm fully.
• For this, Dian Cécht kills Miach - often interpreted as an act of jealousy, but the texts don't actually say so.
• Miach's grave yields 365 healing herbs, which his sister Airmed catalogues according to their usage; but Dian Cécht scatters her work. He nevertheless indicates that Airmed "will remain", as if to say that she alone will remember the powers of these special Miach-herbs.
• Later in the story after the outbreak of war with the Fomoire, Dian Cécht chants over the healing Well of Sláine to restore the fallen Tuatha Dé at the end of each day, along with three of his children: Octriuil, Airmed.. and Miach.
• It is stated in several recorded versions of the Dindshenchas that Dian Cécht gets the herbs for this amazing well from "Lusmaigh" (EN: "Herb Plain").
• Dian Cécht's Well is so unbalancing in the war that the Fomoire (following a suggestion from "Octriuilach" - a betrayal by DC's son? This is never explored!) fill-in and bury the well with rocks.

Dian Cécht cameos in the Wooing of Étaín when he heals the eye of Midir. Curiously, Étaín is the name of one of Dian Cécht's daughters.

His other significant appearance is in the story of the Mórrígan's cursed child, Meichi. Born sickly, Dian Cécht determines that his heart contains three serpentine monsters, and that if they are left to grow they will devour the animals and cattle of Ireland and destroy the land (read: the world). Mórrígan is distracted away while Dian Cécht kills Meichi, burns the serpents, and throws the ashes into the Barrow, which boils. In some variants, it seems that Meichi himself is the serpent, and the whole story may be related to a cluster of international tales connecting to Serpent-slaying to free symbolic "cattle" or "waters".

Aside from this, we have the mention of Dian Cécht in several healing charms from manuscript sources, which is pretty cool.

In terms of his family, in some sources he's a son of the Dagda. He has several children who form part of his own drama and can be interpreted as expressions of his "God of Health" domain: Miach, Airmed, and Octriuil. He has other children who are their Own Thing, though: "Étaín", a poet who might be an aspect of Brighid (as explored in her issue) and whose son Coirpre deals the final blow to Bres' Kingship; and Cían, whose saintly parallels and theological role I've explored previously. This also makes Dian Cécht Lugh's paternal grandfather.

International Parallels..

Dian Cécht is modelled by Taliesin's Map as belonging to the same group as the Hindu deity "Brihaspati" and his mirror-image "Shukra" - a pair of deities who are both "Divine Preceptors" or teachers of the gods (1). This group also includes, per the linked article, Óðinn and Apollo; who are both primarily the same god-type as Fionn/Fiachra/Rudra, but appear to comprise also the smaller archetype of what Dian Cécht represents.

Based on his myth of slaying Meichi, Dian Cécht can also be directly linked to Apollo, who also takes part in a dragon-slaying myth and is associated with healing.

This cluster of gods appears, like Dian Cécht, to often have a son who is also a healer, maybe a too-good healer who must be curtailed. They are associated with chants including (but not only) healing chants. And, they often have a scene where they must slay a serpent, of sorts, to protect the world or light or cattle.

They're also usually associated with magical incantation, and perhaps represent the godly form of the sacred singer at religious rites. The incantations may have practical purposes including healing, preaching, teaching, and exhortation during warfare.

This deity has a surprisingly broad footprint, then, as a warrior who's also much more cerebral: a Teacher, a High Priest, a Magical Chanter, a Healer. Or, as I like to sum it: "Teacher, Preacher, Leecher".

But Dian Cécht's Mostly Just a Healer..

Subsequent to that article, TM presented a theory that Cathbad of the Ulster Cycle (CW: Mythic rape) also represents this Brihaspati god-type: perhaps, as with Brihaspati and Shukra, representing a "split" archetype, where the superlative healing "leecher" part only went one way, and most of the "teacher, preacher" bits went the other. Cathbad, after all, is the consummate Druid, including using his magic in battle, but he's also the teacher of the youths of Emain Macha.

Broadly, I agree with this framing. It lines up with the other religions insofar as it follows the pattern of no religion having a singular exemplar for this god. Apollo and Óðinn are composite-gods, "favourites" of their respective pantheon that have accreted god-archetypes to themselves. Shukra and Brihaspati are split from apparently the same source. And Cathbad and Dian Cécht may represent the divided archetype in the Irish case, too.

What if Everyone Were The Same

Now here's where the big problem comes in, for me. If I'm looking for a character who:

• Performs miraculous healing
• Is associated with one or more wells
• Brings the dead back to life
• Might be a great teacher
• Is a preacher or priest archetype
• Possibly fights a monster

..that's very hard to distinguish from the background noise of Saintly Hagiography. They're all healers and revivers, for starters: I literally don't know of a saint in the Irish matter who hasn't revived the dead at least once. They're also all superlative priests, naturally. They're not all great teachers, but it seems like the hagiography sometimes turned the children or subjects of gods into students, so there is a surfeit of "great teacher" saints, too.

This is the primary problem with seeking Cathbad or Dian Cécht among the Saints. They're all "teacher, preacher, leecher" characters. It's part and parcel of what a "saint" was.

OK, but Dian Cécht was a Father..

..so we ought to be able to inspect characters who might be his kids, yes! Well, most of them seem to be aspects of his own "Leech" archetype, and that role is obscure, as noted.

However, Dian Cécht does have one child whose own story we already know: Cían. And Cían has his own distinct traits that stand out from the Saint-noise.

Indeed, I've written up an issue about the Cian-saints "Coemgen of Glendalough" and "Mochoemóg" already. Of the two, Coemgen stands out: He has a foster-son named Fáelán who I've already explored as a "Childhood Lugh", and he has a father-figure named Crónán, or Mochua.

This connection is what lead me to Crónán-as-Dian-Cécht. I was anxious that the connection to Coemgen wouldn't be enough, having noted that Mochoemóg has a different father (a Divine Smith), and that internationally the Cian-type god doesn't apparently have a very consistent parentage (whereas the Cian-type's fatherhood of the Lugh-type is pretty consistent).

But, collecting the broader picture from the several Crónáns who have Vitae, I think the picture has cemented somewhat. Let's see what we have.

Crónán of Balla - The Watery Healer

This is the Crónán who's celebrated on March 30th. He begins life as a lame shephard boy, who's "discovered" by Comgall of Bangor and trained in Ulster. After an indistict dispute with local nobility, his teacher asks him to leave. He asks Comgall if he can have anything to help him set up his own place, and Comgall (snarkily?) said that maybe he could take the well - so he did just that. The Well floated into the sky and began following Crónán as a magic cloud, and wherever the well would re-establish itself would be his site of foundation.

He has a wanderly phase with a few followers and a floating cloud of well-essence, and he provides or cuts a few wells for other Saints magically along the way. Then, one day, the cloud isn't there in the morning, and his followers find the well has appeared on the ground. So he names the place after the well and sets up shop there.

Is this.. the "God-Affiliated Animal Shows The God-Saint Their Site" myth, but with a Well as the Animal? I think it is - which is kinda appropriate for a Dian Cécht, don't you think? Potentially, you could read the well as being a full objectification of Ness, wife of Cathbad and mother of Mochoemóg; transformed from a Pericosmic Water-Mother into literally just a well. Maybe.

Against the background of usual Saintly-healings, Crónán of Balla stands out somewhat for stopping an epidemic of the Yellow Plague (Féichín's doing!) among his client people. He draws the plague into his Crozier, which becomes known as the "Yellow Crozier". There are other saints who are able to grapple with the Yellow Plague, notably the Brighid of Munster, Gobnait (and being able to keep-up with Brighid is always a win, really). But, it's uncommon, and even Féichín succumbed to his own plague.

A slight curiosity here is that Crónán of Balla sometimes draws sicknesses into his paraphernalia, which isn't the norm for Saintly Healing. He draws the plague into his bachall or Crozier, and he draws gangrene from someone into his bell (2).

He has a myth of magically separating Lambs from Ewes, which is odd - I'd have skipped it, but he was also a shepherd as a child, so.. maybe sheep are a thing for Crónán? Unclear.

Finally, Crónán of Balla has two myths where an infertile woman comes to him, and is given or takes something watery from him, and immediately conceives. Not "later on"; the wording is clear about it being an immediate miracle. One conceives a son (she consumes a tear of his), the other conceives a son and daughter (he gives her sprigs of watercress).

When Ness conceives Conchobhar, one version of the myth has Cathbad handing back a drink she had given him and forcing her to drink it instead - it's from the drink that she conceives. Interestingly close to the Crónán pattern here, perhaps indicating a connection between Dian Cécht and Cathbad.

Crónán of Cluan Dolcáin - Cían's Daddy

This is the Crónán who 'baptises' Coemgen of Glendalough in the latter's life. There's not much else on this saint - he's in the right place to be a pseudo-father to the Cían saint, who otherwise has parents with suspiciously "stock" Lugaid-ish names.

Crónán of Timahoe - Patron of the Vandalised Well

"Timahoe" actually comes from "Tigh Mochua" - the house/home of Crónán (Mochua being a hypocoristic form of Crónán). This Saint doesn't seem to have a surviving Life, but there is a healing well that gets filled in by malefactors, only to burst forth again on the other side of the road.

The "actual" Well of Slaine is believed to be in Sligo, traditionally situated at Heapstown Cairn. But, no harm in regionalising the legend of the maliciously-filled-in well, if indeed that's what this is. However, Holy Wells moving due to being disrespected isn't unique to Crónán; so it might be nothing.

Crónán of Roscrea - The Lord of Speech?

So, this Crónán might be dull but for one detail. I mean, sure, he does a lot of stock saintly things, like multiplying food and curing people of things, etcetera. He interacts with the sorts of people we expect - Mochoemóg, Mobhí, several Colmáns..

He has a "battles a water monster" myth, but it's not close enough to the expected prototype to get excited about. Actually, it's kind of funny, a real "fail" moment..

He's later visited by the King, and cures his son "Muanach" who's deaf and dumb. This one jumped out to me - remember the name "Maon", childhood name of Labraidh Loinseach before he speaks for the first time? The one that was similar to St. Patrick's name "Maun"? Also, remember how Fáeláns are sometimes mute? It seems as if inability to speak is a recurring trait of Lughs or Lugaids, and it's starting to look like the name-cluster Muan/Maon/Maun could associate with them, too. Does this suggest that Dian Cécht treated his grandson Lugh for inability to speak?

Brihaspati is sometimes known as Vācaspati - master of Speech (Vāc). Dian Cécht being a giver of speech to the Cosmic Lugaid would line up surprisingly well, and having him cure his grandson would be an in-world drama echoing this idea. Note that Vāc (AKA Saraswati) lines up well with Eithne/Boann in Irish mythology, and Eithne/Boann in turn might be duplicated in Ness.. consort of Cathbad (among others). So it may be that Dian Cécht, like Brihaspati, might have power over speech because he proxies for his consort, who perhaps personifies speech. Indeed, she might even be also his mother (as Danu or Morrigu, wife of Dian Cécht's father), making him an emanation of hers expressing this aspect of herself.

Patron of the Plain of Herbs

But there's something else that stands out about Crónán of Roscrea's life; he first sets up at "Lusmagh" - the same "Plain of Herbs" associated with Dian Cécht! Indeed, this Lusmagh is better known today to be associated with Crónán of Balla, suggesting that two Crónáns stayed there, not just one!

For me, this was a big relief. With my renewed uncertainty surrounding the parentage of Coemgen, I needed something particular to Crónán, and I felt that this was it. Combined with the general "vibes" of the Crónáns, the associations with healing plague, speech, wells, etc., this is a keystone detail.

The Fitness of a Name: Crooner

Crónán means "drone" or "croon" or "purr" - it's onomatopoeic. Dian Cécht is also known as "Canta" or "Cainte", which could well connect to the role in sacred speech ("Caint" being speak/speech in modern Irish). Dian Cécht chants, and he's associated with verbal charms for healing. He might also be associated with restoring speech, as surmised above. Having a name associated with sacred chanting or speech, whether Cainte or Crónán, is a treat.

In Crónán of Balla's life, a few mentions and comparisons are made of bees, but it's possible these were simply inspired by his name rather than implying an original relationship to Bees. On the other hand, pre-Christian Irish people would probably have made the same associations with the name.

All in all, it looks like yet another "Saint" name that could well have been an original name for the god.

So.. is Crónán also Cathbad?

I lean towards "not quite". I think the Irish religion understood that Dian Cécht and Cathbad come of a shared essence, because my leading candidate for the "teacher preacher" archetype is "Colmán", and that saint is a close associate of Crónán. Some Colmán lives even seem to indicate an understanding of partial identity between the Colmáns and Crónáns.

Yet, the identity is just enough removed to suggest that, like Brihaspati and Shukra, the two sides of the archetype were nevertheless viewed as distinct. The whole thing of Crónán impregnating women with water is suspiciously Cathbad-like, but otherwise the "flavour" isn't quite there.

I'm not 100% on Colmán-as-Cathbad, either, so we'll see whether I still view things this way by the time it comes to their first issue.

In Sum, Crónán:

• Is associated unusually with Wells
• Heals people in ways unusual for a saint
• Is father-figure to a Cían saint
• Has a well that gets filled-in maliciously
• Is associated with the plain of Lusmagh: Dian Cécht's place
• Might be associated with speech
• Might be associated with healing by water, perhaps expressing the nature of Ness - his cosmic-waters consort.
• Might exhibit a pattern of cross-over between Dian Cécht and Cathbad, which may or may not bear out with the closely aligned saint-cluster "Colmán".

Wrap-Up: Names, Places, Life, Things

Crónán isn't a given-name I know of, but it's possible it is connected to the familial names "Cronin" or "Cronan", otherwise usually understood as colour-names.

Lusmagh is probably the best place to get herbs, considering the patronage of the site. Timahoe or "Teach Mo Chua" is of course named for him. Balla and Roscrea and Clondalkin are also associated with Saints Crónán. The most famously associated site is, of course, Heapstone Cairn in Sligo.

As to animals.. one of the Crónáns does get some fish given to him by a seal once, but that might have been one of his descendants helping out: Rónán maybe? It's possible that the "Crónán" of bees lead to conflation of him with bees in one Crónán's life, but it's also possible he was always associated with them for the same reason, and because Bees are sacred, and healing, and light-bringing. Also.. maybe sheep?

Internationally, TM and others speculate that this god-type is associated with Wolves. If that's so, there's no evidence of it in the saint's life, though Cían in some myths is given as "mac Cinnfhealad", a name often translated as "son of Wolf's Head", as if to say that "Cinnfhealad" is another name for Dian Cécht. For my part I think "Cinnfhealad" instead might be a name of a precosmic deity, possibly a part of the Lugaid-stratum, but I haven't pinned the name down specifically yet.

Herbs of course fall within Dian Cécht's domain, though Miach and Airmed might be more immediate as gods of Herbs: Miach as embodying herbs themselves, and Airmed for the secret knowledge of their use.

Footnotes

1. The Taliesin's Map article cited here links, right away, to a far-right agitator, which is deeply ew. Fortunately, you don't need to read the linked article at all: I didn't. He otherwise cites respectable and trustworthy sources, and the reasoning seems sound. NB also: since that article, TM's views on some of the cited myths have developed. I believe he interprets many of them as Rudra myths now rather than Brihaspati myths.
2. Recall: In hagiography, croziers seem to come from spears or swords, though they can also just be staves. Bells meanwhile can be musical instruments or vessels such as cups or chalices.

Bibliography

• Stokes, Whitley (1891) "The Second Battle of Moytura", Revue Celtique 12, Available at Celt
• Stokes, Whitley (1890) "Lives of saints, from the Book of Lismore". Available at Archive

Coming Up

6th Apr: A smaller issue on Brychan/Broccán, an unusual instance of the "Absolute", Breoghan, as an actual person. 15th Apr: Ruadhán of Lorrha, apparently the Irish Prometheus. 23rd Apr: Ibar mac Lugna, a mysterious pre-Patrick character, possibly representing the earliest terrestrial Fionn-type. 1st May: Cellach of Killala & his brother Muiredach: Our first "Divine Twins" issue.

Patterns in Celtic Comparativism, #10: The Project of Euhemerisation

I may as well give a few thoughts to what the hell is even going on here. I'm sharing identifications of what seems to be a parallel-tradition of the Irish gods, re-rendered as Saints. This tradition disavows the gods, presenting only their Christianised forms, yet it also has clear overlaps, duplications, and parallels that permit alignments to be made.

Meanwhile, over there we've got this more faithfully-preserved tradition in stories like the Caith Maigh Tuired, the Ulster and Fenian cycles, and some of the Cycle of Kings.

They seem to have only partially-overlapping naming conventions; in one tradition, Dian Cécht, in the other, Crónán. Except, sometimes Brighid is just Brigit, or Áed is just Áed.

I do think these were parallel and contemporary efforts, but directed to different ends. My theory is that the goal of the Hagiographical and Annalistic traditions was to falsify a pseudohistory that could be used to undermine local tradition, without having to actually ban local customs. So, people could keep having their fairs and pilgrimages to sacred sites as before, but now a priest could scoff at people treating the patron as a "god" and declare that they were a flesh-and-blood person, indeed a Christian saint! They've even got annals and documented stories to prove it!

This would not have worked at first. But it doesn't have to work at first: you just have to undermine the tradition until the people who remember it confidently die off. Then, the kids will all grow up hearing the priest's story contrasted with that of the local seanchaí and.. well, over time, the high-status priests' word is going to win out. It did, in fact.

The other tradition, I think, was genuinely one of love. And we're fortunate to have it - I think we can credit the Bardic orders for keeping the oral tradition alive in spite of the Church, and we can credit whichever Abbots were open-minded enough to let scribes work on the pre-Christian material and write it down. But, it seems to me that there was an editorial process there; a dialogue between preserver and redactor that lead to naming conventions remaining divergent enough that the two traditions wouldn't blend too much. This suggests that knowledge of the "con" lingered for a while within the cloisters, at least (and almost certainly among the Bardic Orders).

This is all speculation, of course. For a little extra speculation, let me suggest another possible bit: That many of the Saint names might have been suffix-epithets of the God-names from the more faithful tradition. That is, I have a feeling that Cían might have been known by the (possibly regional) epithet "Cian Caoimh" ("Gentle Cian"), and the Saint took just the epithet and became "Coemgen" ("Gentle One" or "Gentle Birth").

That's not always true - I believe that "Cíarán" is just a diminutive of "Cíar", the name of the god that gives Kerry its name. It's not clear to me that there is another consistent name for this god to which "Cíar" would have been simply an epithet. Whereas, "Lugaid" often appears to be just an epithet applied to people with originally different names, and might have been more of an epithet than a true name, originally.

Viewing the names as epithets may help explain how we have a special "South Munster" Brighid named "Gobnait", while seemingly the same character is known as "Lassair" not even that far away. Perhaps originally they were "Brighid Ghobnaite" or "Brighid Lassaire", reflecting regionally focused "lenses" on the near-pluripotency of the great goddess Brighid. Now, we know them as Saints.