Insula Sanctorum et Doctorum Part 41

The work known as the _Dublin Annals of Innisfallen_ is a translation in Trinity College Library, which Theophilus O'Flanagan testifies[364] that he made into English "about nineteen years ago, from a copy perfected under the direction of Dr. O'Brien, Bishop of Cloyne and Ross, from the original in the Bodleian Library." Dr. O'Brien's scribe was, according to O'Flanagan, a priest of the name of Conroy, who was well versed in the Irish language.

There is another copy in the Royal Irish Academy in Irish and English, beginning with A.D. 250, and coming down to A.D. 1320. It is on paper, and contains 320 folios. During the later years it deals chiefly with the affairs of Munster. At A.D. 1010 we find the following entry:--"Maelsuthain, son of O'Carroll, King of the Eoghanacht of Locha Lein, and _the Primate of Ireland_, died in Aghadoe." In the Irish it is 'Priomfaidh Eirion,' which appears to mean, 'chief sage of Ireland.' More than half this volume deals with the period from A.D. 1170 to 1320, and it contains many interesting entries during that time. The chronology is, however, very defective.

Poetry, it seems, was cultivated in Innisfallen as well as history--for we are told that in A.D. 1197 Gilla Patrick O'Huihair went to his rest. He was archdeacon of the island--which shows that there was a considerable community there at the time--and superior of the convent. He also founded many religious houses, to which he gave books, vestments, and other necessaries. He was, moreover, the Annalist tells us, 'a celebrated poet;'

and was held in the highest estimation for his chast.i.ty, piety, wisdom, and universal charity. We have also another entry, A.D. 1208, which gives us a beautiful picture of a reverend priest of 'Cloonuama,'[365] who died in this abbey, where he pa.s.sed the evening of a life chequered by misfortune in penitence and prayer, and was buried in the cemetery of the Abbey of Innisfallen.

There is one significant entry a few years earlier--"anno 1180, this abbey of Inisfallen being ever esteemed a paradise and a secure sanctuary, the treasure and the most valuable effects of the whole country were deposited in the hands of its clergy; notwithstanding which we find the abbey was plundered in this year by Maolduin, son of Daniel O'Donoghue. Many of the clergy were slain--even in their cemetery--by the MacCarthys. But G.o.d soon punished this act of impiety and sacrilege, by bringing many of its authors to an untimely end."

During the eleventh century the O'Donoghoes of Lough Lein rose to great power and influence--one of them became king of Cashel, and several of them are described as royal heirs of Cashel. It was an O'Donoghue who restored the cathedral church of Aghadoe in the twelfth century--he was slain in A.D. 1166. In all probability this Maolduin, son of Daniel, was in feud with his own family, who were always the protectors of the monks of Innisfallen, and he called in the MacCarthys to help him in plundering this venerable shrine. It is satisfactory to know that vengeance soon overtook the despoilers of this paradise, as the chronicler aptly describes it.

Yes, Innisfallen is, in truth, an earthly paradise. The island contains about twelve acres; but this small area is dowered with every charm that can gratify the senses. The surface, fringed with evergreen bowers, is gently undulating, and covered with a carpet of green, so pure and so soft, that the eye loves to linger on its hues. There are miniature creeks, where the wavelets die in gentle ripples; there are giant elms and h.o.a.ry ash trees, that have lived for centuries; the holly and the arbutus are not shrubs, but forest trees, and their bright green leaves, with blossoms of purest white, or berries of deepest red, gleam through the heavy-laden boughs. Then there are the manifold a.s.sociations of religion, and history, and poetry, and romance, called up before the mental vision by the aspect of the ruined churches on this queen of islands. You have, besides, the mingled melodies of whispering leaves, and singing birds, and murmuring waters, filling the ear, and inviting the listener to contemplation and repose. Of old, the tinkling of bells was heard from these ruined cloisters, and the gray Franciscan habit was seen stealing along the sh.o.r.es of Muckross, and the cathedral chimes of Aghadoe were borne over the waters to the students' ears. Now they are all gone--no lectures within these silent roofless walls; no midnight vigils of the gray friars in Muckross; no bishop's throne in Aghadoe. Yet young Killarney rivals these ivy-grown haunts of ancient learning and holiness in all things save one--the unapproachable beauty of the sites chosen by the monks of old. Their successors live nigh to scenes of beauty; but they have so placed themselves that they can never see them. They seem to prefer naked walls and flat fields to the glorious vision of nature's unapproachable beauties, which she has poured out with lavish hand, by mountain, stream, and woodland all around this peerless Lake of Learning.[366]

CHAPTER XXI.

THE SCHOOLS OF Th.o.m.oND.

"Though Garryowen has gone to wreck, We'll win her olden glories back; The night long, starless, cold and black, We'll light with song and story."

I.--THE SCHOOL OF MUNGRET.

The first reference[367] we find made to Mungret is in the _Tripart.i.te Life of St. Patrick_. When the saint had come into the territory of Hy-Fidhgente, which included that portion of the modern County Limerick west of the river Maigue, with a small portion of the barony of Coshma east of that river, Lomman, the king of the district, made a feast for Patrick on the summit of Mullagh Cae, to the south of Carn Feradaig. This hill still bears its ancient name, and the gifted poet[368] from whom we have already so often borrowed beautiful thoughts, describes its situation:--

"That pleasant hill ascends Westward of Ara girt by rivers twain, Maigue, lily-lighted, and the 'Morning Star'

Once Samhair named, that eastward through the woods Winding, upon its rapids earliest meets The morn, and flings it far o'er mead and plain."[369]

Now Lomman, son of Mac Eire, and Mantan, a deacon of Patrick's household, had prepared a feast for the saint and his people on the summit of this green hill, when it chanced that a band of itinerant jugglers came upon the scene, and meeting Patrick first, asked him for some food. The laws of hospitality were always imperative in Celtic Ireland, and accordingly Patrick told them to go to Lomman and Mantan, and that they would supply their wants. No one had yet tasted of the banquet, not even Patrick himself; and hence, when the jugglers applied for food, they were rather rudely repulsed by Lomman and the deacon, who told them in effect that strollers like them were not the persons to bless the meat and partake of it first.

They meant no harm, but still Patrick's request was not complied with, and his honour was compromised, when hospitality was refused even to the jugglers. So Patrick said:--

"To the boy who cometh from the north (Limerick) To him the victory has been given."

And forthwith a youth named Nessan appeared coming up the hill-side with his mother, and she being the stronger was carrying a cooked ram on her shoulders for the king's feast. Then the saint asked the boy to give him the wether, that he might give it to the jugglers, and thus save his honour by complying with the laws of hospitality. The boy at once gladly gave the ram to Patrick; but his mother grumbled a little when she saw its destination.

Patrick, however, resolved to teach them all, that obedience and charity are the first of Christian virtues. Therefore, he said to Lomman, his host, that none of his race should ever be king, or crown-prince, or bishop; and to Deacon Mantan, he said that his cloister would not be lofty, and that it would be the dwelling of a rabble, and that sheep and swine would tread on his remains--but to Nessan he said: "Thou wilt be mighty of race":--

"Thou that didst the hungry feed, The poor of Christ that know not yet His name, And helping them that cried to me for help, Mine honour cherish, like a palm one day, Shall rise thy greatness."

Nessan's mother, too, was punished for her grumbling. She was not to be buried in her son's church of Mungret, but beyond the cloister wall to the west, where its sweet-toned bell could not be heard. Then Patrick ordained Nessan a deacon, and founded a church for him, that is, Mungret, near Limerick.

On one occasion Nessan went to visit St. Ailbe of Emly, that he might inquire from that saint if it were right for a monk to receive or to refuse the offerings of the faithful. When Nessan arrived it was the hour of None, and the community were chanting the office in the church. Nessan, however, declined to go into the guest-house until he should see Ailbe and put his question. Now Ailbe continued in prayer from the hour of None until Tierce on the following day; and no one went into him except the guest-master.

At length he gave his answer to the patient deacon--"Go," said he, "and tell Nessan this verse in the Scottish tongue:

"Danae Dee nis frithcoirthi, Selba forri [forru] niscorthi; Acht toberthar, ragabae, Sech ni muide, ni chele."

That is:--

Gifts of G.o.d are not to be refused, [But] possession is not to be retained of them [Literally: possession is not to be put upon them]

If they are offered, you shall accept them, But you shall not boast [of], you shall not conceal [them].[370]

The festival of Nessan is given in the Calendar of aengus as the 25th of July. "It is of him," says the _Martyrology of Donegal_, "Cuimin of Condeire gave his testimony in showing that he never told a lie out of his mouth." Thus he says:--

"Nessan, the holy deacon, loves Angelic pure devotion; Never came outside his teeth What was untrue or guileful."

And the same authority likens him to Laurentius the Deacon in his habits and life.[371] Colgan says that Nessan died in A.D. 551; but even granting that he was a mere boy when St. Patrick was in Munster it is difficult to suppose he could have lived so long.

The fame of Mungret School is, however, due much more to St. Munchin, or Manchin, surnamed the Wise, than to Deacon Nessan, although unfortunately little can be ascertained with certainty about his history. He was of the Dalca.s.sian race, being son of Sedna, and grandson of Cas, who was seventh in descent from Cormac Cas, son of Ollioll Olum, the great father of the race. His uncle Blod was king of the Dalgais of Th.o.m.ond, during the early years of St. Patrick's mission in Ireland. According to some writers, St.

Manchan or Munchin, of Limerick, was identical with Manchan the Master, who is mentioned in the _Life of St. Patrick_. There were, however, several saints who bore that name; and it seems highly improbable that 'Master' Manchan of the _Tripart.i.te_ was the founder of St. Munchin's.

O'Curry says that this latter saint was _daltha_, or foster-son, and pupil of St. Mac Creiche of Ennistymon in Clare, who flourished towards the end of the fifth century; for he was the friend and contemporary of St. Ailbe of Emly. We a.s.sume, therefore, that Manchin, the founder of Cill-Munchin, now known as St. Munchin's, flourished in the first half of the sixth century. It is said that he succeeded Nessan as Abbot of Mungret, and that under him and his successors, this monastic school attained great fame during the sixth and seventh centuries.

The fame of Mungret, however, seems to be princ.i.p.ally founded on local tradition, for we can find no satisfactory evidence to prove its celebrity in any of our ancient doc.u.ments. It is said that there were no less than six churches in Mungret, and no less than 1,500 monks (not to speak of the boys at school) within its cloisters. Of these one-third were preachers, or as we should now say, went about giving missions; one-third were constantly engaged in celebrating the divine office; and the remaining third were employed in teaching in the schools, or labouring for the community.[372] It is strange that no trace of these ancient buildings now remains, with the exception of the walls of one not very ancient church, which is 41 feet long, by 23 feet in breadth. The door-way in the west gable has a flat lintel with sloping jambs--its most characteristic feature. The round arches of the remaining opes rather show that this church belongs to the ninth or tenth century, than to the time of St.

Munchin.[373] It is probable that St. Munchin presided for many years at Mungret; and then in his old age retired from community life, and built himself a cell and oratory in the neighbourhood, which was afterwards known as Cill-Munchin, and became the nucleus of the present city of Limerick. Thus it was that he came to be recognised as the patron of the city and diocese of Limerick; and, as such, his church is said to have been the cathedral church of the city down to the building of St. Mary's by Donald O'Brien, who died in A.D. 1194.

It is very doubtful if there was any See in Limerick before the Danish colony became Christian, and got a bishop of their own. The only sc.r.a.p of evidence in favour of a line of earlier prelates in St. Munchin's that we could find, is the statement in the prose _Life of St. Senan_, that "Deron, Bishop of Limerick," was present at the obsequies of St. Senan in Scattery Island. But, as Lanigan remarks, this Life is of the post-Norman period, and cannot be accepted as an unquestionable authority.

The subsequent history of Mungret may be briefly summed up. The death of Ailill, Abbot of Mungret, is noticed by the Four Masters in A.D. 760, which shows that there was a succession of abbots in that great school.

But evil days were now in store for Mungret. Situated close to the great highway of the Shannon, it was one of the first places that felt the fury of the Danes, and suffered most from their constant presence in the great estuary of Luimnech. We are told that it was burned and plundered by these 'gentiles' in A.D. 834, like most of the great monasteries on the southern coasts and estuaries. Shortly afterwards the Danes took permanent possession of the estuary of the Shannon; and although defeated by the native tribes at Shanid and elsewhere, still, owing to their possession of the sea, and the constant arrival of fresh hordes, they were able to maintain themselves at Limerick, where they established strong forts on the King's Island, which they held against all comers down to the time of Brian Boru. They were, indeed, the real founders of the city of Limerick, and their choice of that site, so suitable at once for commerce and defence, shows how keenly alive their chiefs were to the advantages to be derived from a good natural position. Of course whilst the Danes held the lower Shannon and all its islands, Mungret could not flourish. At best they could only live there on sufferance, and were constantly exposed to pillage and murder.

Still Mungret was not obliterated. Cormac Mac Cullinan by his will, which he made before he set out for the fatal field of Ballaghmoon, bequeathed, amongst other charitable bequests to other churches, three ounces of gold, an embroidered vest, and his blessing to Mungret; so that it is not improbable the great king-bishop, so learned in the Scotic tongue, as the Four Masters tell us, had himself been a student of Mungret.[374] In A.D.

909, Maelcaisil, Abbot of Mungret, died; and although the school was burned in A.D. 934, we read of Abbot Muirgheas, whose death is noticed in A.D. 993, by the Four Masters. They also record the death of "Rebachan, son of Dunchadh, Archdeacon of Mungret," or as they write it Mungarid, in the next year; so that it was still a place of importance, having an abbot, an archdeacon, and an airchinneach also, for Constans, who held that office, died in A.D. 1033. It was burned in A.D. 1080; and was no sooner rebuilt than it was once more destroyed by a native prince, Domhnall Mac Lochlann, 'King of Ireland,' in A.D. 1088. On this occasion the King of Ireland harried the coasts and the churches of Th.o.m.ond quite as cruelly as ever the foreigners had done.

Yet, phnix-like, it rose once more from its ruins, for we are told that in A.D. 1102, "Moran O'Moore (Mughron O'Morgair), chief lector of Armagh, and of all the west of Europe, died on the third of the nones of October at Mungret in Munster." Though the Irish princes of the North and South were as usual at deadly feud, Mungret gave a hospitable home and an honourable grave to the great professor from Armagh, who was the father of St. Malachy--one of the greatest of our Celtic saints. The last entry in the Four Masters is the shameful record that Mungret was plundered in A.D.

1107 by Mortogh O'Brian. Can it be that this Mortogh, who thus impiously plundered the shrine of his kindred at Mungret, is the same Mortogh who gave Cashel to the Church, and carried the arms of Th.o.m.ond in triumph from Luimnech to Lough Foyle? Thenceforward Mungret, as a school, disappears from our Annals--almost, but not quite, up to the present hour.

'The learning of the Mungret women' is proverbial about Limerick; and the proverb had its origin in this way.[375] A controversy arose between Mungret and some other monastic school of the South, as to which was the more learned community; and it was agreed by both parties that their best scholars should meet at Mungret on a certain day, and exhibit their learning in a public disputation. Now as the time drew nigh the Mungret scholars feared they would be worsted in the disputation, and so they had recourse to stratagem. A number of them dressed themselves as women, and going to the place, where a stream crossed the highway near Mungret by which the visitors were to approach, they began to wash clothes. The strangers coming up put some questions to the ladies in the vernacular, but the ladies replied in excellent Latin, and even some, it is said, in Greek. The visitors were filled with astonishment, and asked them how they learned the ancient languages. "Oh," they said, "every one about Mungret speaks Latin and Greek; that is nothing at all--'mere crumbs from the monks' table'--would you like to talk philosophy and theology with us?"

When the strangers saw that even the women were so learned they knew they would have no chance at all if they met the monks; so they decamped right off, leaving the victory to the 'wise women of Mungret.'

Mungret is finely situated on a gently rising sweep of fertile land, close to Lord Emly's beautiful demesne at Tervoe, about three miles to the south-west of Limerick. It commands a grand view of several reaches of the Shannon, with the pine clad hills of Clare rising in the distance beyond the river. Once more, too, bands of students roam through its meadows; and in statelier halls than St. Nessan built the languages and philosophy of Greece and Rome are taught to eager disciples. There is once more a great college at Mungret; once more its students come from afar to seek sanct.i.ty and learning under the shadow of the ancient Church of St. Nessan. The Jesuits have there established, since 1884, a College and an Apostolic School, both of which have achieved wonderful success during the brief period of their existence. May St. Nessan, and all the saints of Mungret, help them to revive the ancient glories of their own monastic school, and to send to foreign lands missionaries of the Celtic race, as zealous and as learned as the men who in olden days carried the faith and fame of Erin from the Shannon's banks through so many distant lands, even to the utmost sh.o.r.es of Calabria.

II.--THE SCHOOL OF INISCALTRA.

Another celebrated nursery of ancient sanct.i.ty and learning flourished in the island of Iniscaltra, especially during the seventh and eighth centuries. This beautiful island is situated in the south-western angle of Lough Derg, where that great expansion of the Shannon runs in towards the village of Scariff, between the Counties of Galway and Clare. It is elliptical in shape, and contains 45 statute acres of exceedingly fertile land, so that 100 per annum has been frequently paid for the grazing of the island. It belongs to the county Galway, but ecclesiastically the island is a portion of the parish of the same name, in the diocese of Killaloe. The gaze of every stranger is at once arrested by the stately round tower, which rises up in lonely grandeur from this green speck in the placid bosom of the lake, marking the spot where the saints of old sought communion with G.o.d, and spent their lives in prayer, and fasting, and sacred study. No one now dwells on this lonely and beautiful island; and indeed it would be a profanation to erect a building for the common-place purposes of every-day life on its sacred soil. Better--far better--to leave its tower, its graveyards, and its ruined churches to be the lone and silent memorials of the vanished past, than to mar their holy memories by a.s.sociation with anything that would be commonplace or trivial.

Mention is first made of this island in A.D. 548, when, as the _Four Masters_ and the _Annals of Ulster_ record, "Colum of Inis-cealtra died"

of the Crom Chonaill, or Yellow Plague, which then for the first time, but not for the last, depopulated these countries, and carried off amongst others many of the most distinguished saints and scholars of ancient Erin.

The _Four Masters_ record in this same year, and probably from the same cause, the death of St. Ciaran of Clonmacnoise, St. Tighernach of Clones, St. Finnian of Clonard, the tutor of the saints of Ireland, St. Colum of Inis-cealtra, and also of St. MacTail of Old Kilcullen, of Sincheall of Druimfada, now Killeigh, in King's County, of St. Odhran of Latteragh, on the eastern slopes of Keeper Hill, and of St. Colum, son of Ninnidh, called also Colum Mac Hy-Crimthainn, the celebrated founder of Terrygla.s.s.

It is highly probable that the two Colums here mentioned, Colum of Inis-cealtra, and Colum Mac Hy-Crimthainn, were really one and the same person; but the transcriber finding Colum in one place, called 'Colum of Iniscaltra,' and in another place 'Colum of Terrygla.s.s'--Tir-da-glas--thought they were different persons, and recorded them as such.

The _Life of St. Columba_ of Terrygla.s.s, recently published in the _Salamanca MS._, shows how this error may have arisen. This St. Columba was of Lagenian origin, for his patronymic, Mac Hy-Crimthainn, is derived from an ancestor, who was King of Leinster five generations before. His father, Ninnidh, seems to have been born not far from Clonenagh, in Queen's County, for in his youth we are told that the saint learned his psalms and hymns from a holy old man named Colman Cule, who lived in that neighbourhood, and founded the Church of Cluain Cain. This has been identified with great probability as Clonkeen, near Clonenagh, in the Queen's County. Columba afterwards studied under the celebrated Finnian of Clonard, and he, with his greater namesake, Columba of Iona, is reckoned amongst the Twelve Apostles of Erin, who studied together at that great school. When he was sufficiently trained in all spiritual knowledge at Clonard, we are told that he resolved to go to Rome, and bring home with him some of the relics of St. Peter and St. Paul. On his return he came to St. Martin's monastery at Tours, where he was privileged to obtain the staff and chrismal of that saint, which he carried home with him to Erin.

He also visited England during this return journey, and preached with some success to the still unconverted Saxons. Returning home to Leinster his brother Cairbre offered him a place called Echargabul, on which to build a church and monastery; but he preferred to leave in that place one of his disciples called Cronan, who was a foreigner. Afterwards, with his disciples, he remained a year at Clonenagh,[376] and then crossing Slieve Bloom he came to Hy-Many of the Connaughtmen, and founded a church, where he had a flock of 700 souls, at a place called Tir Snama, which seems to have been not far from Lough Derg; for we are told that shortly afterwards he founded other churches near the lake, called Aurraith Tophiloc and Tuam Bonden, where he dwelt for some time.

Then an angel appearing to him bade him go to the island Keltra--since called Iniscaltra. At that time a certain old man dwelt on the island, called Maccrihe; but the angel told him to leave the island to St.

Columba, which he willingly did.