Monthly Archives: October 2023

Posted in Irish church history

Blessed Dominic Collins; another Corkonian hero – 31st October

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Dominic Collins was born into an illustrious Catholic family in Youghal, East Cork in 1566.  His father and his brother were mayors of the town. His family were the owners of the townland called Labranche. Dominic was brought up piously in the Catholic faith. When he reached manhood, at twenty two years of age, he sailed to France, enlisting in the army of the Duke of Mercoeur. He longed to fight for the Catholic League against the Huguenots in Brittany.  He served for five years with distinction and rose through the ranks. His outstanding achievement was the capturing of a strategic castle at Lapena. From this success he was appointed military governor of Lapena.

Dominic proved to be an honest and brave governor.  Later when Henry IV of France tried to bribe him with 2,000 ducats to hand back the castle, it was to no avail.  Dominic strategically handed the castle to a the Spanish general, Don Juan del Aguila, a loyal supporter of Philip II, Catholic King of Spain. For this Dominc Collins earned a pension, and a trip to Spain to serve King Phillip II.

King Philip II had placed him in the garrison at La Coruña in Galicia near Santiago de Compostella. Dominic became captain of the marines and served eight years. Although it was a time of peace, he found himself battling a spiritual battle. At La Coruña in 1598, Dominic encountered a Irish Jesuit priest by the name of Thomas White.

Vocation

Father White had come to Spain from Clonmel, founding the Irish College at Salamanca for the formation of Irish priests.  He was now the chaplain of the Irish seminary in Spain. Fr. White wrote of his encounter with Dominic, and it is paraphrased like this:

”Dominic was struggling to find satisfaction, peace and joy as a captain of the marines, and felt God calling him to renounce the world and its vanities. He particularly felt called to the Jesuit order of priests”.

Dominic was a late vocationer, and this would make the transition from a comfortable military life to a ascetic religious life rather difficult. Dominic would have to prove himself, and so he did. He joined on December the 8th as a novice in 1598 in Santiago de Compostela in Northern Spain. The novice house at Santiago was struck by a plague. Many members fled for fear of catching a disease. Collins bravely stayed, tending to the sick for two months. A report sent to Rome by his superiors describe the Irishman as man of sound judgment and great physical strength, mature, prudent and sociable. He was also hot-headed and stubborn.

Collins encounters the English foe in 1601

The context of his Kinsale visit was this… There was the divide and conquer strategy of Ireland by the English. An Irish chief by the name of Donal O’Sullivan Beare was holding the forth at Dunboy Castle in Cork. Chieftains Hugh O’Neill and Red Hugh O’Donnell headed to Kinsale in Cork to confront the English army. At the same time, in 1601 King Philip III of Spain sent a Spanish envoy to help the Irish patriots. Irish Jesuit, Brother Collins sailed with this Spanish envoy. Collins’s ship finally reached Ireland on 1st December 1601 at Castlehaven, not far from Kinsale.

Lord Mountjoy and his English army laid siege to Kinsale. O’Neill, O’Donnell and O’Sullivan Beare, converged on Kinsale.  Brother Dominic along with the Spanish soldiers joined with O’Sullivan Beare.  An Irish attack at dawn on Christmas Eve, by O’Neill and O’Donnell failed badly, due to a hasty approach, which resulted in a big disadvantage for the Irish army. They suffered a humiliating defeat, with no possible help from the Spaniards who where stationed elsewhere.

O’Neill and O’Donnell’s armies retreated back to Ulster while O’Sullivan Beare and his army retreated to the Beara peninsula. Dominic Collins accompanied O’Sullivan to Bearhaven, to the safety of Dunboy Castle, overlooking Beare Island. Dunboy castle was the fort that O’Sullivan decided to make a last stand against the foreign invaders of Lord Mountjoy and Sir George Carew, the ‘’president of Munster’’. At Dunboy Castle Dominic encountered Fr. Archer, an Irish Jesuit priest, who also had set out from Spain and had then escaped Kinsale.

O’Sullivan’s strategy was effective against the English army, as George Carew struggled to get a foothold in that region. The Irish army were expecting more assistance from Spain. After six months the English army decided to make a landing by sea. On 6th June 1602 Carew with 4,000 English troops made an unexpected landing on a sandy beach just below the castle.  It was an unusual calm day by the sea, and it favoured the English. By Carew’s testimony, O’Sullivan’s men put up a brave fight.

On 17th June Dunboy castle was under heavy attack by the English. Dominic Collins, knowing that Carew wanted to hold to ransom a Jesuit, offered a peace treaty settlement. But Carew was not an honourable Englishman and as soon as they deal was agreed, that it was already torn asunder. Dominic Collins was taking prisoner.  

The English resumed heavy artillery attack on the remaining ruins and into the crypt.  After a bitter siege, with heavy casualties, the castle was blown up as a desperate attempt to take out English leaders. The Irish lost and the O’Sullivan’s retreated to the glen. Dominic Collins, Thomas Taylor, and Turlough Roe MacSwiney were taken for questioning. The rest were swiftly hanged, seventy men and all.

Interrogation

Taylor and MacSwiney were soon after executed. But Dominic Collins, was consider to be a promising prospect for apostacy. Carew felt if he could turn the Jesuit to renounce his Catholic and embrace the fight for the Queen of England, it would be their resounding victory.  Dominic was savagely tortured by Carew. He was also promised rich rewards and high ecclesiastical office by Lord Mountjoy for renouncing the Catholic faith. Some family members visited him, to encourage him to save his life and fain a conversion. It was a psychological battle but Dominic Collins rejected all pressures and he happily accepted a martyr’s death.

Dominic was taken by Carew to his hometown of Youghal on 31st October 1602. The Irishman knelt at the foot of the gallows joyfully saying: “Hail, holy cross, so long desired by me!” He then preached to the crowd, urging them to remain faithful to the Holy Roman Church.

Dominic Collins was then left hanging for many hours, the rope eventually snapped and his body collapsed to the ground. As night fell, local Catholics took his remains and buried him reverently in a secret place. Dominc’s Collin has since been venerated as a martyr in Youghal. Many favours and cures were attributed to his intercession. He is remembered on 31st October in the church liturgical calendar for the Cloyne diocese.

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Posted in Irish church history

St. Otteran (Odhran) one of the original monks of Iona – 27th October

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Otteran was of royal Irish lineage and was a kinsman of St. Columba of Tír Conaill (Donegal) in the 5th century. Columba founded the monastery on Iona in Western Scotland, and he had brought with him many monks. Otteran was an abbot in Meath, which was the royal Irish province. In those days there were five proud provinces of Ireland. Otteran can very well have visited Iona before Columba, before the mission there had properly begun. Columba was of the royal family descendent of the Dál Riada. The island of Iona would have been part of the Irish Dál Riada kingdom. Columba founded a very influential monastic settlement on this island. It would have been reasonably central via the sea to its borders which included north eastern Ireland & parts of western Scotland. The Dalriada colony stretched from western Scotland known as Argyll today, and extended over the Irish sea into Antrim and Down Patrick. In Iona, began the beginning of that wonderful manuscript the Book of Kells. With the invasion of the vikings, as described in “An Leabhar Breac” this book project had to be moved to Kells in Ireland for completion.

For sure Otteran was present with Columba and the monks on Iona. The oldest remaining church on Iona is named after St. Otteran located by his tomb, called Reilig Odhráin. He worked in Iona evangelising the people of Scotland. An Irish Calendar from 800 A.D. written by Oengus the Culdee testifies his death. Otteran or Oran (Irish Odhran, = `the pale faced one’) is mentioned to be the first monk who died on the missionary island.

Otterran is ‘’Titular Guardian’’ of Viking ancestors’ ashes

Otteran was the first Christian to be buried in the old pagan cemetery on Iona. The vikings had long carried their deceased leaders to be buried there.  Iona is also the place of repose for over fifty kings and a handful of princes.  The norsemen chose Otteran (the viking pronunciation), with the titular guardian of their ancestors’ ashes, and patron of Waterford city in 1096.

The Irish Martyrologies tell us that saint Otteran is honoured on October 27th as a monk of Hy, a kinsman of St. Columba. Otteran’s died in 548 AD and his tomb is greatly revered in Iona. He is recognised as a saint through the process of Cultus confirmation (equipollent canonization) since 1902 by Pope Leo XIII

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Blessed Thaddeus McCarthy, the bishop bedevilled by misfortunes – 25th October

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Thaddeus McCarthy was a bishop twice over, yet he never got the opportunity to properly govern his entrusted flock. Thaddeus was born into Irish nobility at Innishannon, Cork in 1455. He studied in France, and later served in a tribunal in Rome. He was appointed a bishop at only 27, an age that required a special dispensation from the pope. Unfortunately, this appointment proved a big blunder, as the diocese still had its former bishop, whom was presumed dead. Bishop McCarthy travelled back to Ireland with his official papal appointment papers, only to find bishop O’Driscoll still alive and governing the diocese. This did not go down well for either men. There was already bad blood between the McCarthy and the O’Driscoll families, and the existing bishop O’Driscoll took great offence to McCarthy’s claim as bishop. It was a big disappointment for Thaddeus McCarthy, and an embarrassment for Rome. O’Driscoll accused McCarthy of being an imposter, and Rome recognised a mistake had been made. McCarthy’s appointment was rescinded.

After eight years in limbo, and personal suffering which included later excommunication, Pope Innocent VIII finally brought McCarthy back to the fold. He gave McCarthy a second appointment as Bishop, this time of the diocese of Cloyne, in Cork. Justice having been finally secured, McCarthy travelled back to his new diocese, only to discover that an imposter by the name of Fitzgerald had usurped his office. McCarthy tried to take possession of his cathedral, but was impeded by armed men who barred the entrance. McCarthy had to walk from town to town in his diocese, with proof of papal papers declaring him the real bishop. His own family wanted to help with arms, but Thaddeus refused their offer, as it seemed absurd to take up his seat through the use of violence. This caused a rift between him and the his own family.

McCarthy went back to Rome. This time he secured authorization for military support, as he sought to take possession of his diocese. However, on his homecoming to Ireland, he travelled as a pilgrim disguised as a pauper. The Bishop McCarthy was now 37 years old, and worn out from years of fighting to do what God had called him to do, and serve the diocese. Thaddeus died a pilgrim near Turin and was to be buried in a pauper’s grave, save for a supernatural act. A light emanated from his dead body… The local bishop was called, and he testified that he had dreamed of a bishop ascending into heaven. On examination of the body, they discovered his bishop’s ring. The result was that they buried him in the cathedral of Ivrea, near Turin.  Many miracles have been associated with him ever since.

Blessed Thaddeus McCarthy never governed his diocese, nor ordained any priest. However, he did give his life for God, and is today known as the “White Martyr of Munster”, as he ultimately won him a pauper’s death crowned with glory. He is the model for those who may be discouraged by lack of success. It’s better to be faithful than to be successful. He has a recognised status of being Blessed by way of Cultus Confirmation; 26 August 1895 by Pope Leo XIII.

Bishop Thaddeus McCarthy died on 25th October in 1492.  

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An Irish Monk who became a Saint in Switzerland: St. Gall – 16th October

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St. Columbanus was the most outstanding Irish missionary monk in Europe, during the era of the declining roman empire, when the Barbarians began to make incursions into the former roman territory. Columbanus left the monastery at Bangor, County Down, with twelve other monks, of whom St. Gall is the most notable. Columbanus and Gall share good fortunes and bad for twenty years. Gall was a type of right hand man in the missionary expedition, having the unique ability to communicate in a German dialect, enabling him to communicate with German speaking nobles and Barbarians.

During one of their early missions in France, they found themselves being expelled from the territory and put onboard a rowing ship at Nantes, but the ship was blown back to land again, and so they travelled north east and journeyed up the Rhine against the current. They passed to the river Aare and onto the shores of Lake Zurich.

It was at Zurich that Gall gained notoriety. Having witnessed idolatry by a Germanic tribe to Woden, one of the Norse gods. Woden is known as a deity of war, of human wisdom, and of poetry; influencing Anglo-Saxon culture as well as that of the Vikings. Gall not only preached against such idolatry, but set fire to the temple, and threw sacrificial material into the lake. For that reason there was a plan to murder Gall. The team of Irish monks had to flee and they made for Lake Constance, where they then journeyed more until they encountered a priest at Arbon, by the name of Fr. Willimar. This hospitable priest gave counsel as to where the Irish group could settle. They then found themselves, heading across the lake at Bregenz in Austria, on the fertile mountainside plains. There they encountered more Germanic barbarians offering worship to false gods. Again, St. Gall did the same as before; preaching against idolatry, and smashing the statues of the temple. All the idolatrous imagery were thrown to the bottom of the sea. The temple was a former Christian church. The Barbarians were not happy. Reprisal was on the cards, but Gall won many converts, and St. Columbanus rededicated the Christian church, with holy water, holy oils and holy relics, before celebrating mass there.

St. Gall was a good fisherman and mender of nets, providing well for the community. A reprisal came to fruition, as the barbarians hoodwinked Gunzo the local Duke to expel the Irish monks for interfering with fishing and gaming rights. Two other of the Irish monks, were looking for a lost cow, were assassinated, and so the monks had to once again take flight.

At this point Gall and Columbanus part company, under difficult circumstances. Gall felt unfit and sick and would not continue with Columbanus. He therefore gave the strict command that Gall would not celebrate Mass while Columbanus lived. It was a painful obedience. Gall returned to Fr. Willimar at Arbon, and recovered his health. He was given a suitable hermitage on fertile land. He built there a chapel in honour of the Blessed virgin Mary.

Later the local clergy in that region unanimously chose St. Gall to be the succeeding Bishop of Constance, under the promotional influence of Gunzo the local duke. It was the Duke’s way of returning a big favour, as Gall healed his daughter, Fridaburga. The episcopal offer was declined, as Gall could not celebrate under obedience the Holy Mass, and he was not a native to the land. Gall proposed a native deacon who served him well, and reverend John was elected as bishop.

Within a few short years, St. Gaul had a premonition of St. Columbanus’ death at Bobbio in the north of Italy. Columbanus had already regretted his former heated discussion on the parting of Gall with his prohibition of celebrating the Holy Mass. He therefore had sent some monks from his death bed with his staff to gift to St. Gall. Because of the premonition, Gall had already celebrated Mass for the repose of the soul of late Columbanus, just three years after they parted Bregenz.

The hermitage of St. Gall grew into a monastery with the passing of time, then a city, and then a diocese, and finally the Canton of St. Gallen. Today the monastic library boasts a collection of mediaeval Irish manuscripts. The Irish monk who left Bangor so many years before, became St. Gall of Switzerland. His memory is celebrated on the 16th of October. St. Gall died in 630 A.D.

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St. Canice; the ascetic Irish Saint – 11th October

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Canice, also known as Cainnech or Kenneth in Scotland is one of the greatest Irish ascetics and most venerated saints in Ireland after St. Patrick and St. Brigid. He was ascetic in the sence that he live as a hermit in solitude on islands doing penance. He is patron of Kilkenny, as sometimes he is referred simply as Kenny. Canice was a man of great eloquence and learning, he wrote a commentary on the Gospels, known for centuries as ‘’Glas-Chainnigh’’, or the “Chain of St. Canice”. He established monasteries in Ireland and Scotland.

Canice was born in 515 or 516, at Glengiven, in present day Co. Derry and died at Aghaboe, in Laoise in 600. He was descended from Ui-Dalainn, a Waterford tribe (at Inis-Doimhle on the Suir). The father was a bard who settled at Glengiven with his mother Maul in Cinachta under its chief. The early years of Canice were spent tending to the chieftain’s flocks. God then called Canice to pastor His faithful elect. Soon Canice became a disciple of St. Finnian of Clonard and studied at his monastery, a centre of ascetics. Later Canice lived at Glasnevin Monastery near present day north Dublin city where he became friends with the great ascetics Sts. Ciaran and Comgal under the tuition of St. Mobhi.

When a plague broke out in Ireland the saint moved for a while to Wales where he stayed at Llancarvan Monastery under St. Cadoc. There he continued his religious formation and in c. 545 he was ordained priest. Canice went to Rome for a blessing from the reigning pontiff. He then returned to Ireland and established an important monastery at ‘’Aghaboe’’ in County Laois. ‘’Aghaboe” means “the little field of a cow.” Under St. Canice, Aghaboe became the chief monastery and spiritual centre of Ossory. After 562 St. Canice moved to Scotland, where he is known as St. Kenneth. There he built a great monastery on Inchkenneth (“Kenneth’s Isle”) to the north of Iona in Argyl and Bute. He made the monastery of Inchkenneth his mission centre. St. Kenneth became a friend of St. Columba of Iona, and together they travelled through the country, preaching and baptizing Picts. Columbia and Kenneth visited King Brude of the Picts and performed successful missionary work. St. Kenneth’s name is recalled in the ruins of an ancient church, Kil-Chainnech on Tiree Island.

The saint liked to live as a hermit on small islands. He loved to communicate with nature and animals. Thus, once he ordered mice to go away when they nibbled his shoes; on another occasion he rebuked birds for making a loud noise on a Sunday – and they instantly obeyed their master. A deer solicitously held the saint’s personal copy of the Bible on its horns while he was reading it. That was clever use of his time, doing spiritual reading while in transit. We could take a leaf of out his book, and perhaps while in transit we could read a spiritual book, or listen to a spiritual lecture while driving from A to B.

St. Canice died at the monastery of Aghaboe in the 600. He is celebrated in Ireland on the 11th October, as well as being celebrated in Scotland and Wales.

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Lead kindly light: Henry Newman – 9th October

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Cardinal Henry Newman spent his life in search the light of Truth.

Born in the City of London, 21 February, 1801, the eldest of six children. His religious training, was a modified form of Calvinism, which he received at his mother’s knees. Calvinism is where you believe you are predestined to heaven because you are already blessed with material riches. Henry Newman would read the bible as a kid. At fifteen he underwent a type of “conversion”, based on an idea of God as a ”notion”. He became ordained an Anglican priest in 1824, and was appointed curate of St. Clement’s, Oxford. And here his religious views in which he had been brought up began to disappoint him. Then began a formation period in his new priestly life; a search for the light of truth. In this new formative period, Newman derived new principles and his old Calvinist philosophy dropped away. At the age of 25, Newman said he had met God, not “as a notion, but as a person”.

On his quest to find the light of truth

Newman’s travelled by the Mediterranean sea to the coasts of North Africa, Italy, Western Greece, and Sicily (December, 1832-July, 1833). It was a romantic episode, with many new novelties. In Rome he met a Catholic called  Wiseman at the English College. The eternal city, made a strong impression on him, for Newman found answers he longed for at the bosom of the Catholic church. 

The voyage from Rome to Oxford

During his voyage from the Mediterranean he wrote the tender verses, “Lead, Kindly Light”, which became a very popular English hymn. Newman wrote the hymn amid the stormy seas. Returning to Oxford, he found he was increasingly far from Anglicanism. Henry Newman began studying the Fathers of the Church, common to all denominations, and gathered around him a group of scholars who questioned themselves on important topics such as respect for the tradition of the first centuries. Newman began the “Tracts for the Times”. He produced a type of pamphlet tract, and his controversy really set in at ”Tract 90″. Newman’s position he personally called the “Via Media“. The Anglican Church, he maintained, lay at an equal distance from Rome (Catholicism) and Geneva (Calvinism). The Anglican church he believed was Catholic in origin and doctrine. Tract 90 distinguished the Thirty-Nine Articles (against the corruption of Rome), from the doctrines of Trent. A furious protestant agitation broke out in consequence (Feb., 1841), Newman was denounced as a traitor at Oxford. He lost many long time friends of his protestant faith.

In 1843 he made his decision, he retracted in a local newspaper his formerly severe language towards Rome. He began to see the light of truth, and in September of the same year he resigned as an Anglican priest. Two years later he asked to be admitted to the Catholic Church. Then, after completing his theological studies in Rome, he was ordained a Catholic priest in 1847.

New fruits from the light of truth.

In 1850 Henry founded the Dublin University, and built a special half Byzantine half Roman church in Dublin. His Catholicity shone brightly in Ireland. Newman produced a new translation of the Bible into English. He also founded an Oratory in Oxford dedicated to St Philip Neri, in whose Congregation he had been ordained a priest. We too, even if we are already Catholic, can endeavour to discover the light of truth emanating from the Catholic faith. God may prune us from our old ways of life to make us more fruitful with the rays of truth shining in our hearts.

We ask Our Lady to be our light and guide to the fullness of truth, away from the storm and into the harbour of heavenly happiness.

In 1879, Pope Leo XIII created him a Cardinal. John Henry Newman died at the Birmingham Oratory on 11 August 1890. He was canonised in 2019, and his memory is celebrated on the 9th of October.

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A beatified Dublin priest?? A man of retreats and spiritual works?? Well I never…. – 3rd October

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Bl. Columba Marmion was a Dubliner, born on 1 April 1858. His Irish father was William Marmion and his French mother was Herminie Cordier. Blessed Columba Marmion’s original name was Joseph Aloysius. He became a seminarian at Clonliffe College, Drumcondra in 1874, and completed his studies in Rome where he was ordained on 16 June 1881.

He paid a visit in 1881 to Belgium on his return to Ireland, and was enamoured with the liturgical ambience of the Abbey of Maredsous. In Ireland his Bishop appointed him curate of Dundrum parish, and then professor at the major seminary in Clonliffe (1882-86). He was chaplain at the nearby convent of Redemptorist nuns and at a women’s prison in Drumcondra and Phibsborough.

With the Bishop’s permission set out to become a monk. He returned to the Abbey of Maredsous and was received by Abbot Placidus Wolter in 1886. His novitiate year was difficult, due to linguistical, cultural and regimental challenges. However, Blessed Columba was there to learn obedience, and to be moulded by a a life of prayer.

He first mission, with a small team of monks was to found the Abbey of Mont César in Louvain. It was a huge challenge for him, that required sacrifice. He became the Prior and served as spiritual director and professor to the monks studying philosophy or theology. He also preached retreats in Belgium and the UK, and gave spiritual direction to the Carmelite nuns.

Dom Columba Marmion was elected the third Abbot of Maredsous on 28 September 1909. He was abbot of more than 100 monks, and together they ran a humanities college, a trade school and tended to a farm. His main concern however was giving spiritual retreats. He helped Anglican monks of Caldey (off the coast of south Wales), to convert to Catholicism. During the Great War, Blessed Columba sent many monks to Ireland to complete their studies in a more peaceful environment.  This decision coupled with other more difficult ones led to many anxieties in the community, between diverse nationalities who found themselves sometimes close to the frontier of war… far from a tranquil place.

Blessed Columba has written a trilogy spiritual works including: Christ the Life of the Soul (1917), Christ in His Mysteries (1919) and Christ the Ideal of the Monk (1922). One of his more notable clients was Queen Elisabeth of Belgium. His spiritual works were influential in the twentieth century and they are still studied in the present time by religious around the world.

We too can benefit from these spiritual writings; where people are brought to God, and God is brought to people. We too can go on retreats to nourish our souls. We too can seek out a spiritual director to steer on the path to greater perfection in our lives. Sure we have plenty of Dublin priests in this parish!

Blessed Columba Marmion passed away during a flu epidemic on 30 January 1923. He was beatified in Rome on the 3rd September 2000. The liturgical day of memory in his name is on the 3rd October.

Nb* much of the material found here (though not all), has been sourced from the Vatican Website by a sermon given by St. John Paul Magno.

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