In 19 June 1902 the universal church recognised 25 Irish saints via the process of Cultus Confirmation.
The process of Cultus Confirmation is also called equipollent (equivalent) canonization, which consists in decreeing an Office and Mass by the pope in honour of the saint, (Benedict XIV, l, c., xliii, no 14). The Congregation for the Causes of Saints (CCS), instituted in 1969, has the competence to consider such an honour. Ordinarily someone whose cultus has been confirmed is considered “Blessed”. In some cases, the decree grants the title as “Saint”.
The rules instituted by Pope Benedict XIV, on the conditions for an equipollent canonization: 1) Existence of an ancient cultus of the person: namely evidence of an immemorial public veneration (cultus ab immemorabili tempore) of the person at least one hundred years before the publication of the decree. 2) Reliable and constant attestation to the virtues or martyrdom of the person by credible historians. 3) Uninterrupted fame of the person as a miracle worker: the claimed saint maintains a reputation for performing miracles that have continued without exception of the centuries. These criteria ensure only claimed saints of authentic merit veneration and canonisation.
THE birthplace of this famous martyr was the small village of Lycadoon, in the diocese of Limerick, three miles from the city. There his parents obtained a respectable living by tilling land and rearing cattle, and were well known and much esteemed among their neighbors both in town and country whether rich or poor, and even by the chief men of that province, and more especially by James Fitzgerald, Earl of Desmond. His father’s name was William Hurley; he was owner of the estate of Lycadoon,
Founded in 1460 by Donald Kavanagh. The site is now occupied by the National Bank He was Treasurer-at-War, and Lord Justice with Loftus, Archbishop of Dublin, from 1582 to 1584. He is buried in St Patrick’s Dublin. His descendant, the Earl of Portsmouth, still holds the lands of the monastery that were confiscated.
and he also filled the office of steward or manager of the said Earl’s lands. This nobleman’s fame and power extended over the whole of the province and even throughout the entire kingdom of Ireland, though now fortune has changed and all that power has fallen away. His mother was Honor O’Brien, descended from that illustrious and most famous family of the O’Briens, Earls of Thomond, who were Kings of Munster long before Ireland was invaded. Dermot O’Hurley would himself attach little or no importance to the glory of his noble lineage.
He received a liberal education owing to the care and generosity of his parents; and after some years passed in the study of theology and canon law in the famous University of Louvain, he obtained the degree of Doctor in both faculties. Later he taught these sciences in Louvain, in Rheims, and Lille. Afterwards, having advanced in the practice of piety and devotion, the Apostolic See thought him a fit person to be appointed to rule over the Catholic of his native country. The schism as at this time raging in Ireland.
Wherefore, having been appointed Archbishop of Cashel by Gregory MIL,’ he set out on his journey to Ireland. But there was a difficulty in obtaining a passage, owing to the great dangers that Catholic merchants and sailors ran at the hands of the heretics in those times of trouble and confusion. He waited for a while in Brittany, watching for an opportunity.
‘ September 111’, 1581. There is a Latin poem on his consecration in Spic. Ossor., i.80
At length he found a bound Drogheda vessel in the harbour of Corosic. He went to the owner, and bargained with in for a passage to Ireland. There were in the port at this time other ecclesiastics from the same country who also wished to return; amongst them Nielan, Abbot of Newry, of the Cistercian Order, made earnest application for a passage.
And that all may know the great dangers which are every day run by our missionaries when going to their native country to pour out their sweat, and even their blood if necessary, for Christ and His Church, we must understand that the endless difficulties in obtaining honest and faithful men to whom the poor passengers can entrust their lives. For if either the merchant or the captain of the ship, or the common sailors, (who very often belong to other nations, Welsh, English, or Scotch people), are imbued with new errors, a rare thing in a true Irishman, the poor priest runs great risks, and especially if he is an ecclesiastic of a high position or of great learning, or even if he is merely suspected of belonging to the ecclesiastical state, as lately happened to two regulars of the Institute of the Capuchins, whose harmless manner of life and virtues are known and publicly spoken of by all not altogether strangers to the Catholic faith. These two, by their unforeseen escape from the hands of their pursuers, give others good reason for putting their trust in the divine mercy, which never abandons those who rely on it, nay, even protects with uplifted arm those who are in danger lest they may fall, or withdraws them from the risk that they may not be affrighted, and everywhere guards and strengthens them, that they may confess the name of God, when necessary, before the kings and princes of this world.
But we speak of the great and also of the manifold dangers which those, even unawares, must encounter who resolve to promote the salvation of their neighbours in Ireland. I say there is danger when they put themselves in the power of the sailors, that after embarking the ship may be wrecked, owing to treachery, the desire to betray them, or the fear of incurring any loss. There is danger on the shores of that Catholic land and elsewhere, that their landing may be notified beforehand by the spies and informers of which sea-ports are sometimes full. There is danger, too, that the guards and governors of the towns where they land may seize them and cast them into prison. There is danger on the broad ocean that they may fall in with heretical pirates, as hurtful as the Syrtes or Charybdis, by whom they may be put to death through hatred of the Catholic faith.
We see thus, the many dangers which our archbishop had of necessity to encounter when returning to this country, like a sheep going voluntarily to the slaughter. Dermot had already handed over to a certain Wexford merchant the rescript and the other documents, which showed the exalted office for which he was selected and the portion of Christ’s flock committed to his care. He was sent, ordained, and instituted by the Apostolic See, and therefore could say in all truth: ‘We have been chosen by the Lord and the Holy One of Israel, our King. He wished to send over these holy objects by the hands of others by a different way, that he might make the voyage with more safety, and that the merchants who gave him a passage might be secure from harm too.
In truth, the risks run by merchants who give passages to such persons are very great. The captain of the ship R.H., felt the truth of this. It appears that no one can enter the country, leave it, or dwell in it, without incurring danger. The Wexford merchant, who had charge of his papers, fell in with pirates; by these he was robbed, and ill-treated to such an extent that he was grateful for being left alive.
The Archbishop, having got a passage on the Drogheda ship, entrusted himself to the divine keeping, and after a fair voyage, landed at the island of Skerries. Soon after he set out for Drogheda, and while staying at an inn, there arose a discussion on religion in his presence. On such occasions he could hardly refrain from exerting his zeal and making use of his learning. A heretic who was seated by him, Walter Baal by name, which designates at once a son of the devil and a son of Belial, taking offence thereat, burst forth into insults, and very soon after rushed off to Dublin, and gave information about Dermot, filling the minds of the Lords Justices with suspicion. The departure of this treacherous guest made the Archbishop suspect his wicked purpose, and a worthy citizen confirmed his suspicion, for he secretly warned his companion and guide of the danger, that they might make haste and leave the town. This same Dillon soon after paid the penalty of his kindly office of guide by a long imprisonment, and it was with difficulty, and solely through the influence of his elder brother,” who was then a Privy Councillor, and held the office of Chief Justice of the Exchequer, that he escaped the penalty of death.
The archbishop Dermot followed his advice, and set off for the town of Slane, where that famous man, Thomas Fleming, Baron of Slane, then resided. There they were conducted into a secret room by desire of that pious heroine, Catherine Preston, the Baron’s wife. Here they remained in seclusion for some days, for they did not at all wish to be seen in public, whether at table, or meeting or conversing with anyone whom they did not know, until the plot laid by the traitor, Walter Baal, should be baffled and the report that he had spread abroad should cease.
(Sir Lucas Dillon. Queen Elizabeth used to call him her faithful Lucas, and rewarded him well for his services. He is buried at Newtown, near Trim. See Archdall’s Peerage, iv.155)
When they thought they had escaped from him, they began to act with more freedom, to sit at table at the usual meals, to enter into conversation with those whom they met, to join the family circle, and they were not afraid to be seen or to speak with any guests that came the way. It so happened, whether by accident or on purpose, that Robert Dillon,’ one of the Privy Council and Chief Justice of the Common Pleas, came to the house. While they were seated at table, the conversation turned on some important topic which gave rise to a warm discussion, and in the middle of the dispute some words which showed his learning fell from the Archbishop’s lips; these made the cunning Chief Justice, though he had a squint in one of his eyes, and was totally blinded by worldly ambition, mark the man carefully, and ask who he was, where he had come from, and much more, all of which he treasured up in the depths of his soul until an occasion should offer of putting it before the chief Governors and the Council. He mentioned the facts, and at the same time suggested a plan for bringing the Archbishop from his place of concealment to answer for himself before the Council of Kingdom ; if he had fled from the place, he said his suspicions were not lessened by the flight, but rather strengthened, and in that case the Baron himself should be called before the Council to answer for him, or should bring him to them. As a fact, he had fled. The Baron was brought before the judges, and bitterly rebuked for having admitted into his house a wicked man, a rascal, a traitor, a disturber of the public peace; for having allowed him to sit at his table, and for having kept and supported within the walls of his house one who was a canker of the state. He should be mulcted in a heavy fine and long imprisonment, or he should bring to them the Archbishop, wheresoever he had concealed
himself. The Baron, frightened by these threats and in a state of great terror, immediately went off in search of him. This man, wholly taken up by the cares of this world, and lukewarm even then in his faith, and not at all earnest in his zeal for religion, though he could not save himself and his property in any other way, especially as his persecutors displayed such fierceness and threatened him with the severest torments.
Wallop’s colleague, Loftus, did not thirst for the blood of the innocent man to such an extent ; he was rather inclined to mercy and moderation, for by nature he was more gentle, as became the Chancellor of the kingdom, who had to decide what was right and just; but the other, who shared the government with him, was a disciple of Mars, and trained up in the arts of Bellona rather than in those of Pallas, blood-thirsty and fierce, and could not be appeased or satisfied unless blood was shed. An ill-founded suspicion haunted his mind in reference to Dermot, that he had a knowledge of, or took part in, a process which had been carried on shortly before at Rome or Madrid against a nephew or other relative of his, who had been accused by his countrymen of reviling the Catholic religion, and had been handed over by them to the tribunal of the Holy Inquisition to be punished or censured. It was said commonly that the decision in the case fixed a barb in his soul, which he thought could not be removed, or the wound inflicted by it healed, in any other way than by the executioner blunting it or covering it with blood in the body of the martyr. As the judges knew this well, they warned the Baron to make a careful search, and to bring Dermot to them if he wished to save himself.
(Sander says Nicholas. Baron of Slane, had been imprisoned several times for the faith. De Visib. Mon., p. 672)
(Then Protestant Archbishop of Dublin. See Moran’s Archbishops of Dublin, p.108. He and Wallop were Lords Justices then.)
The Baron of Slane, who thought more of his own safety than of that of his friend the Archbishop, set off in pursuit of the flying lamb, I do not say like a wolf or a hound, but rather as an active hunter. He overtook him’ at Carrick, on his return from a pilgrimage to the Saving Wood of the Cross, which he had vowed some time before, when he was in danger of shipwreck, to make as soon as he landed, and in very civil language suggested to accompany him to Dublin, that he might appear before the Lord Justices, prove his innocence, and make it evident to everyone that he had come to Ireland in a truly ecclesiastical spirit and through zeal to preach the Gospel.
What was the pious Bishop to do? He was not concerned about the risk to his own life, and he wished to save the Baron. Thomas Butler, of pious memory, the famous Earl of Ormonde3 was then at Carrick. He loved Dermot, and revered his virtues and exalted office. He ordered food and other necessaries of life to be supplied from his own house to Dermot clandestinely; some even say that he was privately called in by the Earl to give the sacrament of confirmation to his son James, born a short time before, who died at an early age in England.
The unsuccessful rising of the southern nobles was crushed just at this time. The Earl of Desmond, now that his forces were few in number and his strength much impaired, was looking for a hiding-place, for there alone could be hope for any security.
The Archbishop travelled with the baron the different stages of the road to Dublin. But while the Baron stayed at the public inns or was sumptuously entertained by his friends, the Archbishop’s halting-place was the public jail, for this was thought likely to hold him more securely. It happened that one night during the journey he was confined in the prison at Kilkenny.
When the Archbishop reached Dublin, he was brought into the presence of the Lords Justices, and examined in great detail by the Council. Though he was accused of many crimes wrongfully, which were neither proved against him nor true, he showed he was free from all guilt. Adam Loftus, the Chancellor, dealt with him in a kindly manner, and by setting before him many temptations, tried to persuade him to conform, as they call it, and to accommodate himself to the customs of the present time. Henry Wallop addressed him in a savage manner, and reviled him in abusive language with many insults and threats, and his inveterate hatred against the orthodox creed could not be appeased otherwise than by the murder of this victim, whom he marked out by his looks and in his thoughts for slaughter.
Though he was examined at different times, yet not the slightest proof could be given of the charges made against him. He thus could not be convicted by open trial. Since Dermot O’Hurley was also not subject to English law, and he could not be proved guilty by judicial process in his native country, a new system of trial was devised against him, that there might be no means of escape from the fangs of the cruel executioner. They resolved to have the peaceful Bishop put to death by military law. But first the archbishop should be subjected to torture, so that even if no confession of crime could be wrested from him, he should be forced by the intensity of his sufferings to abandon the Catholic faith. But the cruel tyrant was disappointed in the case of Dermot. The fire of the love of Christ could not be overcome by torture.
Fortunately a certain noble and learned man, a citizen of Dublin, we can learn from eyewitnesses what he writes as he describes them in detail. The Archbishop of Cashel met with a far more painful death indeed the blood-thirsty cruelty of Calvinism may be seen from this one act of barbarism.
(Stanihurst, Brevis Prmunitio, p.29)
‘’ The executioners placed the Archbishop’s feet and legs in boots filled with oil, they fastened his feet in stocks, and they put fire under them.’ The oil, heated by the flames, penetrated the soles, legs, and other parts, torturing them in an intolerable way, so that pieces of the skin dropped from the flesh, portions of the flesh from the bared bones. He who was presiding over this torture, not being used to such strange cruelty, rushed hurriedly out of the room, that he might not look further at such savage conduct or hear the cries of the innocent Archbishop. The Calvinistic executioners wished to gratify their minds for a while with these strange cruelties, but they did not mean to be satiated thereby, for after an interval of a few days they hurried the Prelate, who had been racked and was almost expiring from the continued tortures, and had no thought then that he should be put to death so suddenly, to a field not far from Dublin Castle, at the break of day, lest the citizens should crowd to witness such cruelty, and there they hanged the innocent man from the gallows with a halter roughly made of twigs, that his sufferings might be all the greater. Whilst they were gratifying their innate love of cruelty, the blessed Bishop taken to the heavenly fountain of eternal life, is victorious though conquered, though he was slain he lives, triumphing for ever over the cruelty of the Calvinists’’.
In the cries of the Archbishop of which I speak there was only the pious outbursts of a Christian soul which felt the bitterness of its tortures. For he was a man of sorrow, and acquainted with infirmity, and from the sole of his foot to the crown of his head he was in torture. Not only his feet and legs were penetrated by the hot oil and salt, not only did the skin and flesh fall from the joints, not only were the muscles and nerves, the veins and arteries, saturated with the fiery mixture, not only were the limbs and sinews and bones pierced by this fierce fluid, but his whole body was devoured by the heat, and at the same time bathed in a cold sweat.
(O’Sullevan says he was tortured in this way for an hour. Hist. Cath., p. 125)
With a loud voice he used to cry out: ‘Jesus, Son of David, have mercy upon me.’ These words he uttered aloud he repeated and pronounced sweetly, ‘Son of David, have mercy on me’; and the raising of his voice with the elevation of mind was joined with the sweet harmony of his virtues. The victim was stronger than his tormentors, and that loving faith, that purity of religion, that brightness of the orthodox light, could not be extinguished or dimmed by the penetrating salt or the burning oil.
He seemed to be exhausted by the extent of his sufferings while he was fastened to the stocks; he was speechless and senseless; he lay on the ground dumb and almost lifeless; he could not move his eyes or tongue. his hands or feet, or any member of his body. He who was superintending the execution began to feel uneasy, and to dread that while ordered only to inflict torture and apply the fire, not to kill, he had exceeded his orders and brought about the Archbishop’s death. In great alarm, to avoid the guilt of killing him by the torture, he wrapped him up in linen and laid him on a bed of down, and poured a few drops of cordial into his mouth, to see whether there remained any feeling still in his tortured body, or the breath of life could be recalled. The following morning, as he had recovered a little, a drink of aromatic extracts was given to him, that he might be strengthened to endure new torments; and when he swallowed some of it from the spoon, his tormentors showed relief.
Our martyr was visited in prison by Charles MacMorris, a priest of the Society of Jesus, then in Dublin. He had a knowledge of medicine and surgery, and in return for cures effected on some noblemen, he had been released from prison, into which he was cast on account of his faith. By him the Archbishop was supplied with medicines and food, and at the end of a fortnight he was restored somewhat so as to be able to sit up, and even to limp about a little.’ His enemies tried to make him waver in the faith. High positions, even one of the chief offices of the kingdom, were offered to him if he would resign the office of Archbishop which he held, renounce the primacy of Rome, and acknowledge the Queen’s supremacy, both secular and ecclesiastical. Among others sent to question and tempt him was Thomas Johns,2 now Chancellor of this kingdom. But he remained firm as a rock, though the waves roared around him. His only sister, too, Honora O’Hurley, was directed and instructed to offer him a new temptation. And she earnestly besought him to yield. But, with a fierce look, he bade her kneel down before him, and humbly ask pardon for so great a crime against God, one injurious to her own soul, and odious and humiliating to her brother.
These Governors were soon about to resign their office, to be succeeded by Sir John Perrott, who had just come to Dublin. Before he entered on his office, word was brought to them that the Earl of Ormonde was coming in all haste to Dublin to welcome the new Viceroy and interpose on Dermot’s behalf. But the ferocity of Wallop could not be appeased or satiated except by the death of this innocent man. Wherefore, as Perrott was about to receive the sword of office on Trinity Sunday, and as their authority ceased when he entered on office, lest their successor might turn out to be too gentle towards the innocent man, on the preceding Friday, and at early dawn, as we have already said, he was put on a hurdle and taken out by the garden gate to the place where he was hanged, Wallop himself leading the way, as the report goes, with three or four of his guards. There he was hanged with a with; tough, flexible branch of willow, used for binding, or basketry. While they hanged him the archbishop prayed to God and forgave his tormentors from his heart.
He was taken out of the Castle without any noise, that there might be no disturbance in the city. The Catholics who were imprisoned there, seeing what was taking place, cried aloud that an innocent man was going to be put to death. The holy martyr was hanged in a green’ near the city. After he had breathed forth his blessed soul, his body was buried by the heretics in the spot where he was executed. William Fitzsirnon placed it in a wooden coffin and removed it to a place of safety. Saint Stephen’s Green, as an old tradition says. The Green was then outside the city. The spot where he was put to death was, very probably, where Fitzwilliam Street crosses Baggot Street. This was the place where executions took place up to a comparatively late date.
Towards evening it was buried in the ruinous chapel of St. Kevin, which is close by.’ Many miracles are said to have been wrought at this tomb, and in consequence the old church has been restored, and a road has been opened up for the people who frequent the place in great numbers, and are wont to commend themselves to the intercession and prayers of the holy martyr.
There is confirmation of the first part of Rothe’s narrative in a letter written from Paris by two Irish priests, in the interval between the first time O’Hurley was put to the torture and his death, to Cardinal De Como, Cardinal Protector of Ireland, written by Fr. William Nugent and Fr. Barnaby Geoghan”
Some Protestant writers denied the O’Hurley incident of torture. They have written their propaganda.
Nb* much of the material contained here is distilled from the Book, Pilgrims and Prophets by Edmund Cullinan, with some artistic licence employed.
St. Patrick (385-461 A.D.) is the patron of Ireland sent by mandate from Pope Celestine I (422-432 A.D.) to convert the Irish. Yet somehow, Ireland developed a monastic model of Christianisation, with her own Celtic Easter calendar instead of the usual Roman system established in Europe… How can this be, if much of the rest of Europe under the same Catholic church used a diocesan model under the Roman Easter Calendar?
Well lets go back in time! St. Patrick, after his capture and life of slavery in Ireland, returns to the Britons in the territory where he grew up; lets call his birth place Minor Britain, distinct from Great Britain. Back home again, Patrick then feels called to come back to the Irish in a dream. So in order to respond generously, he decides to follow his vocation and become a priest with a view of going to Rome to seek permission for an apostolic mandate to Ireland. He first travels south to the Lérins Island in Province in the south of France. There he becomes a monk for fourteen years under the abbot of St. Germanus of Auxerre. It was St. Germanus who send Patrick on to Rome.
Lérins island is key to understanding Ireland’s monastic and Celtic Easter tradition. The monastery of Lérins was established by St. Honoratus (350-430). His rule was chiefly borrowed from that of St. Pachomius from Egypt (290-348 A.D.), who is the founding father of cenobitic monasticism. It is also at Lérins where we find a strong Johannine apostolic influence. The Johannine tradition spreads via the sea trading links among the Greek speaking communities along the Mediterranean coasts, in places like Marseille, Nice and Lyons. St. Irenaeus (130-202 A.D.) came from Smyrna to become bishop of Lyons. He was a disciple of St. Polycarp (69-155 A.D.) who was a disciple of St. John the Apostle. Now Lyons is about 300km from Marseille on the French coast, and the coastal town of Marseille to Lérins island is about 175km. St. Honoratus received his early formation at Marseille.
St. Honoratus is thus soaked up in monasticism and the Johannine apostolic influence, which is adopted by St. Patrick in his formation at Lérins. For the Easter Calender it means that the calculus for the Celtic Easter was determined by the Julian Calender, while the Roman church held to the Gregorian which we have today. The Celtic Easter calculated aligning more with the Jewish Passover.
It was first of all, St. Molaise of Leighlin, then St. Eunan, and finally St. Malachy whom broke from the Celtic Easter traditions and they brought the Irish Catholics into full conformity with the Roman Catholic customs, They made use of the Gregorian calendar for calculating the Easter dates, which fell on the first Vernal Moon after 21st of March as established by the Council of Nicea.
First of all… Fr. John Sullivan “Santo Subito!”. For if there is anyone in Ireland that meets the criteria for canonisation, it is Fr. Sullivan. All other potentials, be they Frank Duff, Fr. Peyton or Fr. Willie Doyle maybe worthy causes, but Fr. John Sullivan has attested miracles on tap! What more do we need. Lets look at his story.
John Sullivan was born into a wealthy Protestant family in 1861 at Eccles Street, Dublin 8. His mother Elizabeth was a Catholic from Cork, and his father Edward was a protestant. The norm in those times for mixed marriages was to have the boys follow their father’s religion while the girls followed their mother’s. Thus John was baptised in the Church of Ireland parish of St. George on Temple Street. The family moved to Fitzwilliam Place, where they were to remain. Edward became Lord Chancellor and the family lived very comfortably.
In 1872, John went to Portora Royal School, Enniskillen. His name is inscribed on the Royal Scholars Honours Board in Steele Hall. After Portora, he went to Trinity College, Dublin, where he was awarded the Gold Medal in the study of Classics in 1885.
At the same time, John stopped attending church after the sudden death of his father. He lived comfortably from his inheritance, and was a likeable character. He was filled with out doors activities from cycling to mountaineering. He made important friends and was considered wise in judgement even in political circles. The women saw in him an elegible bacholar.
Nobody suspected his strong interior religious inclinations. He had a great love for the story of the conversion of St. Augustine. He had a growing like for the Catholic faith, that while hidden from public, did reveal itself from time to time while away in Kerry. He took an interest in Butlers lives of the Saints. In December 1896, at the age of 35, John was recieved into the Catholic Church in Farm Street, London. On learning this, his family were shell shocked, as they had no idea of his spiritual inclinations. For all intensive puroposes, John was a good ole boy, and a model protestant. Among the protestant community, there were mixed views, from anger to acceptance.
John’s life was to change as he became more active in his faith, doing good works and becoming more penetential. He volunteered some time to hospital and hospice visits, and helping the religious sisters at the convents. He was not shy of doing domestic work. John worked hard, even into the night.
In 1900 John entered the Jesuit novitiate in Tullabeg, Co. Offaly. His novitiate, lasted two years when he then took his first vows before going to St. Mary’s Hall, Stonyhurst College, England for further studies. He took his mothers crucifix as his vow crucifix, and this was be used as part of his healing ministry. In 1904 John Sullivan returned to Ireland, and went to Milltown Park for further studies. By 1907 Joh was ordained a priest. Shortly afterwards, he paid a visit to the Royal Hospital for Incurables, at Donnybrook. John gave many patients his blessing. He was visited a female patient, suffering from lupus in the head. She was already selected to be placed in a mental hospital. He prayed with the female patient for a good while. The next day her mind was completely restored of her mental health.
John was soon afterwards appointed to the staff in Clongowes Wood College, Co. Kildare, and it was here he was to spend the bulk of the rest of his life. The school marked a new chapter in his life.
He was not knowing for his teaching ability, but rather for his clever sensitivity when students were not engaging in educational activity. He was considered a good sport, by students who recognised their narrow escapes from trouble. He would remind them on moments where they had a close brush up with a stern teacher, that they should use their wit to do something useful and good, instead of engaging in useless mischief. Such timely advice gave the students a sense of shame, with a chance to remedy themselves. Fr. Sullivan was an ascetic priest, He would sleep on the floor, deny himself a full sleep, ate simple food, put stones in his boots, he prayed often.
He often attended the sick around Clongowes college, by foot or bicycle. He would visit hospitals, and send letters of consolation. He often heard confessions by the church near Clongowes. People came a great distant to confess their sins. People trusted in the power of his intercessory prayers, and many cure have been attributed to him.
An extraordinary case is recorded whereby a religious sister who suffered a serious accident resulting the need for amputation. A letter was sent to Fr. Sullivan, explaining her grave condition, and about a fever and delirium which had taken hold. The post the next morning at Clongowes, and Fr. John cycled twenty miles to the hospital that afternoon. He sought for the patient’s room and gave himself to prayer by her bedside. After a some lenght, the nun’s restless tossing quietened, and the delirium ceased.
Fr Sullivan’s was gifted with prescience. One example, was of a daughter of a local family situated near Clongowes. Her father was at an advanced aged and had been sick for some time, but nothing that seemed life threatening. Fr Sullivan called over to the family unexpectedly surprising them when he asked to see the ailing father privately in his room, presumably for confession. The family would hear Fr. Sullivan parting words saying, ‘My good man, you will be with God tonight.’ The father died peacefully very soon after.
Fr Sullivan was rector of Rathfarnham Castle from 1919. It was a place of eupllementary studies for Jesuits attending college. This era of Fr. John’s life was politically fraught, as Ireland wrestled its freedom from British Rule. Rathfarnham castle would through no fault of his own, be raided by the Black & Tans. It was while at Rathfarnham, Fr. John could meet his siblings regularly.
As the new independent Ireland emerged, Fr. John returned to Clongowes as a member of the teaching staff with the task of forming new leaders for the country. Kevin O’Higgins was one such student who later as a political leader, he was assassinated in 1927, sending shock waves around the country.
In 1928, a nephew of the assassinated general Michael Collins, by the same name, required the prayers of Fr. Sullivan. The infant Michael, suffered infantile paralysis, with his leg bent as he suffered intense pain. Young Michael’s mother, Mrs Collins, received a postcard from Fr Sullivan stating that he visited her child Michael who was by now going home and well. The nun at the hospital had taken the infant out of bed, and to her astonishment he kicked his leg while bathing him, as he appeared now quite normal. His trouble never recurred.
Another well attested ‘cures’ happned over the Christmas of 1932, just before Fr. Sullivan died. A young married woman suffered from vomiting. She could not retain food and became emaciated. Her condition beame grave, and she received anointing of the sick prior to Christmas. By the 22nd December, she was losing consciousness when Fr. Sullivan was brought in to pray for her. The young woman seemed reluctant for any spiritual consolation. After Fr. Sullivan’s prayers, she regained some strength. On Christmas Eve, she managed to eat and retain her food. By Christmas day she was eating turkey and ham. Her doctor could not believe it, as she completely recovered.
Edmund was born on June 1st 1762 into a wealthy family and was raised in Callan, Kilkenny. As a Catholic, he attended a commercial academy in Kilkenny after attending secret hedge schooling. It was the practice to have wealthy Catholics to receive such schooling in the penal times. Afterwards, in 1779 Edmund began his apprenticeship as a merchant under his uncle, Michael Rice in Waterford city. They would supply goods bound for the New World in north America. In his late twenties, his entrepreneurial skills brought him financial success. The scene seemed set for a comfortable life, as he settled down to start a family.
In 1785 Edmund married Mary Elliot. But after just three years of marriage, Mary died after giving birth to her disabled daughter, also called Mary. Edmund’s world was turned upside down, and his life was to take a radical direction after much personal reflection. From this crisis, Edmund discovered a special vocation; to provide dignity to the poor through education. It was the start of the seed for the foundation of the Christian brothers.
Realising the effects that poverty and deprivation had on the young people of Waterford, Edmuns sold off his business interests and started a school for poor boys in a converted stable. It happened in 1802, and Edmund was joined by Thomas Grosvener and Patrick Finn, as the three began to live a form of community life in rooms over the Stable School in New Street.
Edmund desired a fully-fledged Religious Congregation, the Christian Brothers to be. It would be governed by traditional vows and recognised by the Holy See in Rome. In June 1802 he funded and began building a monastery in a working-class district in Waterford City. The building, was large and comprised living accommodation and a school. The school at Mount Sion was to accommodate a high student to teacher rate proportion. One Christian Brother taught a class of almost one hundred students while older boy acted as ‘monitors’, examining the homework and helping with catechism. The school boys were taught reading, writing, arithmetic and religion. The more senior pupils studied bookkeeping, geography and navigation. All the students received special preparation for first Holy Communion and Confirmation.
At Mount Sion Edmund built a school bakery and tailor’s shop. His poor students were hungry, so the bake house provided them with a meal giving them the energy to do their school work. The students suffered from the cold, due to scanty clothing. Tailors were employed to make uniforms for the boys.
All of Edmund’s educational activities were illegal in the eyes of the ‘authorities’ in Ireland at the time. But Edmund’s concern was for the poor, and he identified education as the key to survival. Most Irish Catholics were effectively cut off from education and consequently cut off from social and political progress. By founding schools and teaching congregations, Edmund Rice became a social liberator for the poor Catholics.
In the words of eyewitnesses Edmund’s devotion to the Blessed Sacrament was intense. He received Holy Communion very frequently. When he founded his congregation he encouraged the Brothers to assist at Mass daily. It was at prayer before the Blessed Sacrament that Edmund got the courage and confidence in God to face all difficulties.
1838 Edmund Rice retired as Superior General of his now established Christian Brother Order. He was 76 years of age and suffering from painful arthritis. Edmund spent the last two years confined to his room. In his lucid moments he loved to read the Bible and prayer remained central to his life. Edmund died on Thursday, 29th August 1844. He was buried at Mount Sion in the heart of Waterford city.
The church venerates Blessed Edmund Rice on the 5th of May
St Gobnait lived in the 6th century and she is mentioned in the Life of St Abbán. There are two extant versions of St. Abbán’s Life 1) Vita Sancti Abbani and 2) Betha Abáin). Now in the area of Muscraige, Abbán, a male saint built his foundation, then called ‘Huisneach’, presently called Ballyvourney (Baile Bhuirne = Town of the Beloved). St. Abbán then surrendered his Huisneach monastery to the virgin St Gobnait.
St Gobnait is referred to in the Martyrology of Tallaght, and the Book of Leinster as well as the Martyrology of Gorman. The Martyrology of Oengus mentions Gobnat from Muscraige Mitaine, as a sharp-beaked nun. The calendar of Cashel, makes references to her as being a nun of aristocratic lineage. Patterns are held in her honour on her feast day in Kerry. The term “pattern” (deriving from “patron”) refers to rituals of devotion.
Gobnait’s story
This female saint was kind and generous with the poor to a fault; at a very young age, she took meat from her father’s table to give to the needy. Her father strongly objected to such practices. One day he figured he caught Gobnait in the act of subtly spiriting away food in a basket. He demanded to know what she was carrying. Her hand was forced, but when she opened her basket, her father found it full of flowers instead of the expected meat. It was one of those miracles, lucky for the young Gobnait.
Tradition holds that Gobnait sought refuge on the Aran islands, away from some family feuding in Co. Clare. She travelled to the island of Inis Oírr, the smallest Island. Today it is host a small ruin church called Kilgobnet (Cill Ghobnait = Gobnait’s Church). On Inis Oírr, an angel appeared to Gobnait and instructed her to leave for the mainland. She would find her resting place when she would find nine white deer grazing at the place of her resurrection. Gobnait travelled south of the country and leaving her mark throughout Munster. Her name and appellations abound in the form of Deborah (Hebrew for bees), Derivla, Abigail and Abby.
St. Gobnait stopped in Co. Waterford for example. In the parish of Kilgobnet. Here we can find a medieval church dedicated to her and a holy well formerly called Tobergobnet. St. Gobnait later made her way to West Muskerry in Co. Cork looking for the white deer. She found three white deer near Clondrohid, and six deer in the townland of Killeen. Alas in God’s time, she found the nine white deer together, as prophesised by the angel. They were grazing in Ballyvourney. St. Gobnet settled in a place along the River Sullane, a tributary river that begins in the rock of the Derrynasaggart (oak of the priest) mountains.
Traditions abounds about St. Gobnet and her nuns at Ballyvourney. For example, an imposter tried to build a castle in the glen to lay claim to the valley. Gobnet resisted him, by throwing a stone ball at his construction site knocking down the rising walls. The ball returned to Gobnet like a boomerang; eventually the imposter tired of his wily schemes, went away empty handed; the miraculous stone ball is still venerated at Ballyvourney.
We have another anecdote of a robber who came to herd away all the Ballyvourney people’s cattle. Now St. Gobnet was an experienced bee-keeper and she set her bees on the robber who fled for his life empty handed. Each of Gobnait’s bee turned into an armed soldier in defence of the vulnerable cattle. From such traditions, St. Gobnet is represented in art as a bee keeper, or beachaire in Irish. Honey and beeswax were co-natural goods to the native Irish during St Gobnait’s epoch. The Beeswax came in handy for candle making for the church. Honey is sweet and used in the making of mead, a popular Celtic drink. Honey also has healing properties and St Gobnait used honey for this reason. Raw honey, for example has antibacterial properties and promotes wound healing.
Another anecdote on the saint is that she held back the plague spreading into the district, by her prayers and by drawing a line in the valley; the local inhabitants did not have problems with the plague as a result. If illness did surface, Gobnait proved a good nurse. One of her nuns was unwell and Mother Gobnait took her to a quiet corner of the glen to recuperate. Gobnait prayed that no noise or disturbance would upset the nun. To this day Ballyvourney is a very tranquil place even when the country is beset by storms and thunder…
Today, a short distance south of the village of Ballyvourney is an early medieval ecclesiastical site featuring a late medieval parish church (Teampall Ghobnatan), surrounded by an enclosed graveyard (Reilg Ghobnatan) believed to mark St Gobnait’s final resting place. Across the road from the graveyard is a stone-built circular hut structure approximately 10m in diameter. It is called St Gobnait’s House or St Gobnait’s Kitchen.
Her house was excavated in 1951 by MJ O’Kelly, Professor of Archaeology at University College Cork. The excavation also revealed numerous iron-smelting and metal-working pits, crucibles and large amounts of charcoal and slag waste from the iron smelting. Gobnait is the patron saint of ironworkers. Her name combines the pet name Gobba, which derives from “gobha” or “gabha” meaning “smith”, and the feminine suffix -nait/-naid.
St Gobnait’s medieval wooden statue
Significantly, a 13th or 14th-century wooden statue of the saint is presently kept in Ballyvourney. A rare artefact, made of oak, it is 690mm tall, which is about the height of your kitchen chair. It is hollowed out from behind, a common feature of medieval wooden statues. The face is now featureless. Her left arm is folded across her chest and her right hand is by her side. The wooden statue is safely stored in the Catholic parish church in Ballyvourney and is put on display twice a year: 11 February and Palm Sunday.
We celebrate St. Gobnait’s feast day on 11th February
It is a challenge to pin point accuracy on this saint. Authorities on Irish ecclesiastical history generally agree, that the patron saint of Limerick is Munchin, son of Sedna. It seems his parentage connects him by birth, with the district of Luiminech, which is Limerick today in its anglicised form. St. Munchin belonged to the royalty of North Munster. He was regarded as a tutelary saint of the Thomond O’Briens. But there are conflicting expositions on Munchin’s lineage… So, if we leave the parental lineage out, we can get a semblance of concrete truth on who St. Munchin became, without fully grasping who he originally was.
St. Munchin (meaning little monk) is considered bishop and founder the see of Limerick with his Cathedral, named after him. St. Munchin prophesised about Limerick saying, ‘’ the stranger [the danes] would flourish and the native [the Gaels] would perish.’’ Limerick came to prominence after the Danes landed there around the early 800s. Limerick having a reputed bishop so early as the 7th century, is anecdotal evidence that it was a place of importance.
Munchin is attributed with founding a church called Cill Mainchín on Inis Sibhton. It was at this island foundation, that Limerick as a city would eventually grow and expand from. He also founded a church on the island of Fidh-Inis, on the large estuary where the river Fergus meets the river Shannon. St. Munchin is believed to have been involved with another monastery at Mungret. This monastery may have been first founded by St. Patrick, and St. Nessan may have been the first Abbot there. But St. Munchin in the due course would likely have replaced St. Nessan, becoming the succeeding Abbot. This Mungret monastery at one time, contained 1,500 monks according to local tradition. According to another tradition, little Kilrush is said to have been built by Rose, a sister of St. Munchin. Again, the Church of Killeely, in a parish of the same name, was dedicated to Lelia, also considered to have been a sister to St. Munchin.
In the catalogue of Irish Saints, published by O’Sullivan Beare, our Limerick Saint is set down as Munchinus, with his feast day on the 1st of January. The martyrologies of Oengus, Tallaght and Gorman all mention Munchin, who is also described as “the Wise”, and they place his feast day on the 2nd of January.
The church in Ireland celebrates St. Munchin on the 3rd of January.
St. Lawrence was Archbishop of Dublin during the incursion of Ireland by King Henry II. The Irish saint is highly honoured in Normandy, France, where he died in exile…
Laurence O’Toole was born in 1128 at Castle-Dermot, Co. Kildare. His father Maurice O’Toole, was King of Hy Murray. He lent his ten-year-old son and princes, as a token of security to the King of Leinster, Dermot McMurrough. This Leinster king treated poor Lawrence badly. He put the young prince in chains in a place of isolation, with cold comforts. Prince Lawrence found himself an oppressed pauper which lasted two years. The young hostage prince was eventually released after two years by the cruel Leinster King. Soon enough though, the same cruel Dermot McMurrough, gave King Henry II a foothold on Ireland.
For now, Lawrence found himself safe in waiting at St. Kevin’s monastery of Glendalough, with a view to be collected by his father and King Maurice. While still waiting at Glendalough, the young prince soon fell in love with the monastic life and developed a life of prayer. His two-year previous experience as a hostage, helped him to see that wealth and power were not the end all and be all. Lawrence felt a closeness to the benevolent God at Glendalough. So, he requested his father’s permission to remain there, to become a monk, and King Maurice O’Toole consented. Lawrence progressed well in religious life and by the age of twenty-five, he became the Abbot of Glendalough. As superior, he encouraged the monks in deeper learning. Charity for the poor was to be their breastplate. During a local famine for example, Laurence sold some treasures to provide relief for the hungry.
Appointment as Archbishop of Dublin.
Soon after the synod of Kells of 1152, Laurence was appointed in 1162 as the Archbishop of Dublin. One of his first task was to encourage the laity in the practice of the faith, and to become true disciples of Jesus. He brought in monks to Dublin from France, and they lived in the Holy Trinity Church, which was later renamed Christchurch Cathedral after it fell into protestant hands. This missionary effort by the most rev. Lawrence, helped many people to come back to the Sacraments. He continued in his care for the poor, as well as homeless children. He took them into his house, and they shared meals at his table. The most rev. Lawrence was a man of prayer, and when he got an opportunity, he loved to go to Glendalough and retreat at a lakeside hermitage which could be reached only by boat.
The Archbishop of Dublin, participated at the Third Lateran Council in Rome in 1179, with some other Irish bishops. The Pope, Alexander III, was aware that Ireland had been undergoing political upheaval with destabilizing effects. He was aware that the quality of the practice of the Catholic faith had deteriorated. The pope therefore gave Laurence the task of reforming and improving the Church in Ireland.
Suing for peace
The Normans landed in Ireland in 1169, thanks in no small part to the cruel King Dermot McMurrough. By 1170, King Henry II’s under lord, Strongbow besieged Dublin. Laurence became a peace envy, and he met Strongbow looking to establish a settlement. During the peace talks however, the Normans continued their besiege of the city. There was looting and killing of citizens. Thanks to Laurence’s efforts the lives of many were saved.
The Archbishop of Canterbury Thomas Becket was already murdered under the reign of Henry II in 1170. As archbishop, St. Lawrence would visit England in his endeavour to promote peace. In 1175 he became one of the signatories of the Treaty of Windsor, between England’s King Henry II and Ireland’s High King, Roderic O’Connor. But a few years after Windsor, another dispute erupted between the Henry II and the Irish Kings. In the spring of 1180, Laurence took the mantle of peace envoy again, returning to England. King, Henry II, had by now little time for bishops. Henry II wanted rid of the Irish archbishop and ordered him in exile to Britany, France.
Death in exile of an Irish archbishop
In the same year, Laurence became gravely ill and on 14th November 1180, at the age of 52, he died at Eu in Normandy at a monastery there. Laurence was later formerly canonized a saint in 1225. He is remembered in the liturgical calendar in Ireland on the 14th November.
The Martyrology of Donegal, refers to Bishop Colman Mac Duagh of the diocese of Cill Mic Duach in Connaught. Colman was of the Fiachra race, and the son of Eochaid Muidhmheadoin. Our Fiachra saint was a man of immense virtues and miracles.
His story is like a drama which unfolds, beholds, and must be told.
In the 6th century, a woman called Rhinagh was at an advanced stage of pregnancy. A king of Connaught developed a jealous hatred of Rhinagh after hearing a prophecy of authority, about her soon to be born son, the St. Colman to be. According to a prophecy, Rhinagh’s son was destined to surpass in greatness, all within the Fiachra clan dynasty. This king also called Colman, was father of prince Guaire, and relative of the child to be born. The King wished the child to be done away with… Now fearing the hostile jealous king, Rhinagh fled in a panic in an attempt save her unborn child. The jealous king pursued her, and his minions took her, and put a heavy stone tied around her neck. They then cast her into the deep depths of the river Kiltartan… However, the mother to be, was preserved from drowning, by some miracle.
Rhinagh gave birth to her son in secret at a place called Corker near Gort, in County Galway. Her boy was born with a thousand blessings which time has brought to ripeness. The concerned mother placed her baby under a shelter of an ash tree, and waited irritably for someone who might baptise her new born child. It happened that two aged pilgrim religious men past by, seeing the anxious mother. One was blind, the other was lame. They both could not procure any water to administer baptism, so they called out for Divine assistance. Suddenly a fountain spring gushed forth from beneath the shelter of the ash tree. The two religious were able to baptise the child and name him Colman at Corker, at the Holy Well which now bears his name. Then having washed themselves in the well spring waters of the two religious men were cured of blindness and infirmity. These indebted monks, recognising the greatness of the child, intreated the mother to commend Colman to their care, for his protection and education. Under the distressing circumstances of being a fugitive, Rhinagh was only too happy to entrust her son into their care. She recognised that Colman would be kept from harm from a hostile and jealous king. The child lived a life largely unknown for many years from this point. We can see that it somewhat reflects that of the child Jesus who fled to Egypt, and later lived in Nazareth a private life until his public ministry began.
Colman reappears later in the maturity of life on ”Inis Mór”, also known as the island of the Saints – “Ara-na-Naomh.” St. Enda was the abbot there and his foundation had a reputation for piety that rivalled St. Colmcille’s foundation at Iona. Two churches on the island are ascribed to St. Colman, both by “history and tradition according to Dr. Kelly. The austere and solitude life on Aranmore, practiced by the holy disciples of St Enda, was not sufficient for the generous soul of Colman. So by the end of the sixth century, he left the island, to spearhead a new religious foundation of greater solitude and austerity.
We must appreciate that Ireland was very much a forested country in this era, and St. Colman Mac Duagh pursued isolation to be found in the Burren forests. The global weather was much more Mediterranean like in what can only be described as another world. At the Burren forests, Colman found the perfect seclusion to be alone with God. Here he lived the desert life like that of John the Baptist. He was resolved to practice penance and contemplation in complete solitude and retirement of his hermitage.
A historian Colgan narrates that St Colman retired to Burren forests, accompanied by a religious attendant, while king Colman was still at large. It was therefore a grave matter to conceal the place of his hermitage. Colman constructed a small oratory at the foot of the cliff of Ceanaille. Tradition tells of a cave used for his hermitage with a fountain of water that provided him with drink. Colman ate wild herbs of the forest, and he wore skins of the wild deer as raiment. His fasts, prayers and vigils, were frequent.
In the solitude, Colman was often absorbed in ecstasy of the most abundant spiritual consolations. He also suffered moments of aridity though, when God seemed to have forsaken him. The historian Keating narrated that Colman settled into the desert wilderness for the sake of increased devotion. His only creature comforts were the religious company of his attendant, a rooster, a mouse, and a fly. The Rooster gave him notice of the time of night prayer by his crowing. The mouse, kept him from sleeping above five hours a day; for any relaxing or dosing off on his ascetic life, that mouse would come along and scratch Colman’s ear until he was perfectly re-awakened. The fly was like his reading attendant, having the sense to crawl along the lines of his spiritual readings; and if the Saint had tired eyes, the fly would stop awhile, marking the first letter of the following sentence, directing Colman back to where he finished reading.
Colman lived in his Burren hermitage for seven years in complete isolation and unknown… The time came however when he would leave the solitude, as he was made a bishop of his people. Prince Guaire succeeded the throne of Connaught, as King Colman and Guaire’s older brother passed away. Guaire of the Hy Fiachra clan proved to be a good Godly King, and a great friend to Colman; for they were kinsmen. There family friendship proved to be a powerful combination.
King Guaire, with patient effort and divine help, discovered the Burren hermitage. The sanctity of the place, made a big impression on him. It was King Guaire would soon urge Colman to accept the episcopal charge of the territory of Aidhne. Colgan, narrates this episode, taking details from the Menology of Aengus, thus paraphrased:
It happened that St. Colman, on Easter morning, recited his prayers and celebrated the Holy Mass. Expecting a feast, he asked his attendant if there was anything special to eat for the great feast of the Risen Lord. The attendant had only been able to procure some small wild fowl and some herbs. Colman saw his attend pining for something worthy of a feast. So the saint left this famished attendant in the hands of God. Colman prayed that if it be the divine will, God would send heaven’s servants to supply a feast and strengthen his attendant’s faith.
King Guaire meanwhile was hosting a royal banquet at his palace some great distance away at Durlus. When all the notable people present were ready to partake, something mysterious happened. Before sitting down to the feast, King Guaire gave an impressive speech. “Oh, would it pleased Heaven that this banquet were set before some true servants of God who require it; as for us, we might easily be provided with another.” Well no sooner had he uttered such words, the dishes were raised from the tables and removed, as if by invisible hands. The banquet guests and attendants were dumb struck. The king marvelled, ordering his guards, to follow the dishes, to determine if possible their new destination. All the King’s men followed the dishes in hot pursuit. They were then followed by a crowd of passing witnesses. The dishes finally arrived at Colman’s Burren hermitage, and were arranged in the open space in the woodland. Colman and his attendant exclaimed, ” O father, behold the reward of thy patience! Let us thankfully partake of the food sent us by our good God.” Colman, first investigated where such dishes had come from, and an angel recounted that the feast was sent in answer to his prayers, and through the generosity of the king. Suddenly His Majesty, King Guaire with his subjects and the gathered crowd of witnesses arrived on the scene.
All were in astonishment at discovering the secluded hermitage and the banquet laid before Colman and his attendant, who were on the point of feasting on the bountiful providence of the Lord. Before the crowds could join them, Colman desired that his starving attendant could enjoy the delights set before him there and then without any further waiting. The king’s men and the crowd were momentarily unable to advance to their place at the banquet. The limestone ledges bear, to this day, the footprints of the crowds whose feet sank and anchored into the stone ground. Colgan, narrates this phenomenon in folklore which happened at a place called ” Bohir na Maes,” which is Irish for the road of the Dishes.
The holy character of the Burren hermitage won for Colman, much public acclaim among his clansmen. His fame for austerity and miracles became well known among the Fiachra race. What is more Colman was one of their own, from the noblest of the tribes of Hy Fiachrach. King Guaire, urgently requested St. Colman to found a monastery, and be accept an episcopal charge of the territory of his kinsman. With the monastery built, the abbot was elected by an apostolic mandate to the dignity of bishop. Colman exercised episcopal jurisdiction, coextensive with the territory of his race. It extended over the territory of Aidhne, the patrimony of the southern Hy Fiachrach, becoming the boundaries of the diocese of Kilmacduagh. The site of Colman’s monastery and cathedral was miraculously pointed out to him.
Colgan narrates; “his cincture fell on a certain place, not far from his former cell, and there he built his monastery, which, from his name, is commonly called Kilmacduagh.” The location had the qualities of solitude and was dangerous for the public to reach. It became a refuge to many desperately fleeing from one problem or other. The date of the foundations of this monastery at Kilmacduagh is given as A.D. 610.
Bishop Colman would often reminisce over the solitude he once enjoyed, and wished to have it all back to be able to enjoy the divine communion which he often had with God. He found himself as bishop, despising the praises and admiration of all. Bishop Colman lived out the remainder of his days in the secluded little valley of Oughtmama in the Burren. The rugged mountains rise steeply round this valley, completely hiding it from the public access.
Colman gave up his soul to his Maker on the 29th of October A.D. 632, in the pontificate of Honorius I. The festival of St. Colman Mac Duagh has been observed in the diocese of Kilmacduagh from time immemorial on the 29th of October.
We also gleaned information from Omni Sanctorum Hiberniae indicated by [… ]
[Ciarán of Clonmacnoise is listed as one of the 12 Apostles of Ireland. He is monastic founder of Clonmacnoise of the sixth century] He was baptised and catechised by deacon Diarmiad, and received formation by St. Finnian, before he was ordained priest at the monastery of St. Enda. [Ciarán went on to establish some monasteries in Ireland, and his Clonmacnoise foundation of great centre for Christian learning in the Celtic world, second only to the famed Iona foundation in Scotland.]
Ciaran of Clonmacnoise was founder of an outstanding influential monastery; the monastic university of Clonmacnoise along the river Shannon, near Athlone. We have much to glean from ‘’The Lives of the Saints’’ which is a series of homilies composed for the festivals of our holy men and women. The aim of the sermons was to edify the congregations by presenting the virtues of their subjects, and, of their thaumaturgic powers. The ‘’Lives of the Saints’’ consists of disconnected anecdotes, describing events that gave occasion for a miraculous display.
The holy abbot St. Ciarán descended from the people of the Latronens, from old kingdom of Midhe, (meath & Westmeath). His father Beonnadus, was a wood worker, making carts for animals to draw forward. Ciarán’s mother Derercha, begat five sons, of whom all were ordained to the presbytery. She had three daughters, two of whom were holy virgins and one became a holy widow. Beonnadus travelled from the coasts of the kingdom of Midhe, into the territories of the Conactha (Connaught. There in the plain of Aei in the stronghold called Raith Crimthain, Beonnadus begot Ciarán. A Wizard of the king Crimthan (Griffen) of Aei, prophesied about the child saying: “The son who is in the womb of the wife of [Beonnadus] shall be [held] in honour before God and before men; as the sun shineth in heaven so shall he himself by his holiness shine in Ireland.” Ciarán was baptized and was reared by his parents in the plains of Aei, and the grace of God was manifest in him.
One day as a very young boy, Ciarán’s mother gave out to him, explaining that the other boys bring honey to their parents every day, from the fields where honey is found, while Ciarán returns with no honey at all. The holy boy Ciarán, went quickly to a spring close by, and filled a vessel with water, then he blessed it, and honey of the best was found in that vessel, which he gave to his mother. The holy deacon Diarmaid upon learning of this, he gave thanks to Christ, and prayed for the boy.
Young Ciarán was a shepherd and often read the Psalms with Diarmaid, though the were a long distance from each other. Ciarán was shepherding in the southern region of Aei, while Diarmaid was teaching from his cell in the northern region of Aei. His words were heard far across the plain, while the boy would read, sitting upon a rock in the field. This same rock is reverenced to day, as the Cross of Christ, that is now placed upon the rock. Their communications from such great distance was a miracle, because no one else heard their discourse, though they could hear themselves clearly.
One day sa small band of thieves came by, and found Ciarán shepherding alone, while reading. The brigands considered to kill him and to plunder his flock. But they were suddenly smitten with blindness, and paralysed, to the point of repentance. They then begged Ciarán to deliver their sight. Ciarán upon seeing their repentant hearts, prayed over them, and their sight returned. The reformed robbers were grateful and proclaimed their story to many.
Another time a pauper came begging for a cow from Ciarán, and begged of him. Ciarán then asked of his mother permission to give a cow to the pauper. But his mother would not have any of it. Ciarán hatched a plan, and on the QT, he gave the pauper a good cow with her calf. But the calf itself was cared for by two cows, so Ciarán gave the pauper the second cow to add to the bargain. The folk seeing Ciarán’s generosity to the poor man, in turn gave Ciarán four cows in alms giving. His mother was scolding him, when Ciarán placated her with the gift of four cows, to which she fell in awe of her son.
One day Ciarán’s father brought home a treasured royal vessel from the court of King Furbithus, for safe keeping. However, Ciarán gave the treasured vessel to a pauper who begged in Christ’s name, as he was destitute. Upon learning of this, the king’s ire was inflamed, and Ciarán would have to serve time for justice’ sake. He was held a slave servant in captivity, at the King’s court. Ciarán’s job was to turn the millstone every day to make flour. But Ciarán was a book worm and would sit by and read, while the millstone, rotated swiftly without human aid to grind corn. For God sent his angels to do the grind work for Ciarán. At around the same time, and by further Divine intervention, a Déise man called Hiernanus of the province of Mumenia (Munster), came to Ciarán and gifted two most excellent vessels, both on a par with the former treasured royal vessel of the king. With the miracle of the millstone and the Déise gifts, the King accepted the ransom and freed Ciarán from servitude. Ciarán then blessed Hiernanus and the Déise tribe for helping him be free again.
As Ciarán grew older, he desired to leave home and go to the school of St. Finnian. Ciarán wished to learn from the Scriptures, with other students there. Ciarán asked his father and mother for the use of a cow to take with him for daily sustenance of milk. His mother was alarmed and denied him, reasoning, “Others who are in that school have no kine.” Not withstanding, Ciarán received the blessing to take leave for the school and the boy set out on his way. Passing by his parent’s cattle, Ciarán blessed a cow, and in Jesus name, he commanded such cow to follow him. The cow duly followed him and her calf followed her. Ciarán and the kine marched to Cluayn Irayrd (Clonard), in the region bordering the Laginenses and Ui Neill.
Ciarán ensured by use of his rod so that the calf would not drink away the store of milk in the cow’s udder. That cow, later called Odar Ciarán, “Ciaran’s Dun” became famous, for the great quantity of milk which could hardly be believed. The large quantity was sufficient for the school. The cow’s hide became venerated in the monastic city of Clonmacnoise; for through it, many miracles were produced. It was so venerated and it was revealed by divine inspiration, that any man who passes away lying upon this hide, shall possess eternal life with Christ.
While at St. finnian’s school, when Ciarán was by himself in his cell, he came to table to take food. He began with a blessing, saying, “Benedicite.” But no one answered “Dominus,” so he got up from the table, without tasting anything that day. He did the same thing the next day, and again no one answered so he rose from the table without food. After fasting for three days, he came to table and prayed, “Benedicite”; and a whispered voice fell from Heaven saying, “The Lord bless thee, weary Ciarán; now is thy prayer matured, since a lone blessing is sufficient to eat. Ciarán gave thanks, ate his bread on the third day.
Ciarán read the gospel of Matthew with Fr. Finnian, in the presence of other students. And coming to the text where is written “All things whatsoever ye would that men should do unto you, so do ye unto them,” Ciarán stopped reading and said to Finnian, “Father, enough for me is this half of this book which I have read;.. verily this one sentence is enough for me to learn.” In this way he was nick named, ‘Leth-Matha’ (Half-Matthew) by the students.” Fr. Finnian added to his new name, as ‘Leth n-Eirenn’ (Half-Ireland). This was a prophecy on the size of his parish, extending through the middle of Ireland.” His school mates were envious of Ciarán over this prophecy.
From St. Finnian’s school, Ciarán went to island of Ara (Inis Mór of the Aran islands), in the west of Ireland. There he rendered service to Abbot Enda. At that time Ciarán saw a marvellous vision of a great and fruitful tree along the river Synna (Shannon) in the middle of Ireland. The tree’s shadow protected Ireland on each side; and its branches flowed into the estuary and beyond. The next day Ciarán related the vision to St. Enda, who forthwith interpreted… paraphrased thus: ”Such fruitful tree witnessed by you, I have also seen too. You are that tree, and you shall be great before God and man. You will be honoured in Ireland, and your shadow of duty and grace shall protect Ireland from demons, plagues, and perils. Your fruit shall be for a profit to many far and wide”. Later Ciarán was consecrated priest and afterwards, at the command of St. Enda, Ciarán returned to the mainland.
[Ciarán lead the life of a perfect priest. He practised the rule of a priest’s life received from his formation at Aran. A contemporary student, St. Carthage, narrated: “the patience, humility, prayer, fast, and (Ciarán’s) cheerful abstinence’’]
One day Ciarán while travelling, he met a pauper along the way. The poor man begged of Ciarán something in alms. The beggar received his only cloak, thus depriving his body of necessary cover. Ciarán journeyed to the island of Cathi (Scattery Island) around the estuary to the Atlantic ocean, at Luimnech (Limerick) between the regions of Kiarraighe and Corco Baiscind. On this island lived St. Senan. While Ciarán approached that Scattery island, Senan sensed interiorly that Ciarán was without comfort in clothing. Senan sent a boat to collect Ciarán, to carry him to the island, with the view of giving Ciarán a new coat in person. It was a welcome act of charity, and Ciarán remained for some days with St. Senan, before he continued his journey.
Ciarán then set out to his visit his brethren Luchenn and Odran, who lived in a cell called Yseal, (the lowest place). Luchenn, the elder, was the abbot, and Odran was prior. One time while there Ciarán was reading in a field on a sunny day, He saw some weary guests entering their guest-house and he went to show hospitality, while forgetting his book, leaving it outdoors, exposed to the elements. His diligence to the weary guest, made him completely forget the book and that night, there was a downpour of rain, but by Divine favour, the opened book remained perfectly dry, even though the ground around was wet. Ciarán and his brethren praised Jesus for the miracle when they found it again.
Ciarán upon departing his brethren, gave a blessing, and taking his books on his shoulders, he went on his way. Ciarán had gone a little distance from the place, when he stumbled upon a gentle stag waiting for him. Ciarán placed his book-satchels on the stag, and followed him. [the stag held his books in it’s antlers while Ciarán read] The stag arrived at Loch Rii (Lough Ree – King’s lake) in east Connaught, and he stopped near Inis Angin, an island in that lake. Ciarán understood by this sign of the stag stopping, that the Lord wanted him to go to that island, and so it happened. The stag went on his merry way.
While at Inis Angin, a community grew. One day it happened that The gospel-book of Ciarán fell into the lake by the careless hand of one of the monks. It was certain that the gospel was lost for good. But one summer’s day, a small number of cows entered the lake looking to refresh themselves from the heat. Afterwards the cows returned to the land, but the binding of a leather book-satchel got tangles in the cow’s hoof, and so the gospel-book inside book-satchel was dragged back to dry land. This gospel-book was found in perfect condition, without dampness nor any moisture. It was well preserved and Ciarán and his followers rejoiced over this miracle.
Later, there came a man called Donnan from the tribe of Corco Baiscind from Mumonia (Munster). He came to Ciarán looking for a place wherein to sojourn, as a servant of Christ. Ciarán permitted Donnan to stay at Inis Angin, as Ciarán felt called to found a new monastery elsewhere. Ciarán left Inis Angin, and settled at Typrait, now called Cluain meic Nois (Clonmacnoise – Meadow of the Sons of Nós). Here Ciarán proclaimed: “Here will I live: for many souls shall go forth in this place to the kingdom of God, and in this place shall be my resurrection.”
The great monastery of Clonmacnoise was founded, and Ciarán’s parish was extensive. Thus St. Finnian’s prophecy and St. Edna’s interpretation of the vision came to pass. The noble river of the Shannon flowed along the verdant plains, and by it’s banks, there was that stately tree laden with leaves and fruits, and covering the land with it’s shade. The monastic site was home to that lush tree with its branches shading Ireland. St. Ciarán as founder became renowned over Ireland. [He became the perfect Abbot.]
At clonmacnois, Ciarán was gifted with an excellent cloak. He was mindful to send it to St. Senan, on the island of Cathi on the Shannon estuary. It was a difficult task to send, as the sea was rough, and the political climate required a lot of pragmatic communications. So from the banks of the Shannon river, at Clonmacnoise, in the centre of Ireland, Ciarán placed the cloak on the river, and it floated along as far as the island of Cathi. The cloak remained dry for the entire duration, arriving safely into the hands of St. Senan who filled with the gift of prophecy sensed its coming. He was filled with thanksgiving as his monks delivered the cloak. It was held in honour, as though it were a sacred diadem.
Ciarán lived only one year at his new monastic site of Clonmacnoise. He recognised his life was slipping away. Now when his final hour approached, Ciarán commanded to be carried outside of the house. He gazed up to heaven, and raising his hand and he blessed his brethren and flock. Ciarán received the Lord’s Sacrifice, and at age thirty three, he gave up his soul. He is buried in Clonmacnoise awaiting his resurrection of his body on the last day. Within the monastic grounds, Kings from the O’Neill tribe were also buried along with St. Ciarán and the monks.
[St. Ciarán died in September in the 540s] He is remember on the 9th September by the Irish Church
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