Insula Sanctorum et Doctorum Part 21

St. Finnian composed a Rule for his monks, and a penitential code, which latter is still extant, and of much interest to antiquarians, as it is, perhaps, the earliest expression of the discipline of the primitive Irish Church on this important subject. These penitential canons are fifty-three in number, and several of them are rather rigorous, at least according to our relaxed modern notions. In those days men were more in earnest in the work of saving their souls, and punished with voluntary severity any grave neglect of this great duty. A penance of seven years was imposed for perjury, with the additional penalty of setting free a bondsman or bondswoman. This goes to show that slavery had not yet been abolished in Ireland; but that the Church took every opportunity of promoting its abolition, not indeed by violence or injustice, but by the gentler method of persuasion and mercy. These penitential canons have been published by Wa.s.serschleben at Halle in 1851, from ma.n.u.scripts in the libraries of St.

Gall, Paris, and Vienna. There is also extant in MSS. an interesting romantic dialogue said to have taken place between Tuan Mac Cairill and Finnian of Moville. In all probability, however, it is a composition of a much later date, and the dialogue, though highly interesting, is purely imaginary. There is a copy of this romantic tale in the book known as _Leabhar na h-Uidhre_, an ancient work said to have been originally written at Clonmacnoise, in the lifetime of its founder, St. Ciaran.

St. Finnian died in A.D. 589, according to the _Annals of Ulster_, at a very great age. In those days, when men led temperate and active lives, free from care, and always rejoicing in G.o.d, it was no unusual thing to live to the age of one hundred, or even one hundred and twenty, like St.

Patrick and St. Kevin of Glendaloch. This date, too, goes to show that Finnian of Moville was identical with St. Frigidian of Lucca in Italy, for the death of the latter is a.s.signed to A.D. 588 by Ugh.e.l.li in his _Italia Sacra_.[207]

His death was much lamented, for his fame was great throughout all the land; and all our martyrologists bear testimony to his merits. Maria.n.u.s O'Gorman calls him "Finnian with heart devout;" and another writer exclaims, "O blessed school (of Maghbile) the resting place of Finnian; how blessed that one saint should be the tutor of his fellow saints." His festival is celebrated on the 10th of September, the day after the festival of his contemporary, St. Ciaran of Clonmacnoise, and his blessed relics rest amid many miracles within that old Church of Moville, under the shadow of its ancient yews, forgotten by men, but watched over by the angels of G.o.d.

There is an ancient poem in the _Saltair na Rann_ on the patron Saints of the various Irish clans. In the opening stanza Finnian is described as the patron of Ulidia--the Ulidians, it is said, all stand behind his back, that is, under his protection. Here it is in poetry:--

"Of Erin all is Patrick judge On Macha's Royal Hill; They bless his name with loud acclaim, Our King by G.o.d's high will.

"The Clanna Neil a sheltering oak Have found in Columcille, And Uladh's sons are strong behind Great Finnian of Moville."

St. Finnian was, it seems, a bishop, and his successors in Moville for some two hundred years are spoken of as bishops; but from A.D. 731 they are merely described as abbots, and seem to have lost their episcopal jurisdiction. Still the School of Moville then and long after continued to flourish, although it appears to have been eclipsed by the brighter flame of Bangor, its younger neighbour to the north.

In A.D. 730 flourished Colman, son of Murchu, Abbot of Moville, who is regarded as the author of a Latin hymn of singular beauty preserved in the famous work known as the _Liber Hymnorum_ now in Trinity College, Dublin.

"Colman, son of Murchu," is described as the author of the hymn, and hence Dr. Todd very justly regards him as identical with the Abbot of Moville.

The following is an English translation made for the learned Father O'Laverty, author of the _History of the Diocese of Down and Connor_, by the late lamented Denis Florence McCarthy, a poet whose own pure heart could well interpret the soaring aspirations of a saintly soul:--

THE HYMN OF ST. COLMAN, SON OF MURCHU, IN PRAISE OF ST. MICHAEL THE ARCHANGEL.

"No wild bird rising from the wave, no omen from the land or sea, Oh Blessed Trinity, shall shake my fixed trust in thee.

No name to G.o.d, or demon given, no synonym of sin or shame, Shall make me cease to supplicate the Archangel Michael's name, That he, by G.o.d the leader led, may meet my soul that awful day When from this body and this life it trembling takes its way.

Lest the demoniac power of him, who is at once the foot of pride And prince of darkness, force it then from the true path aside.

May Michael the Archangel turn that hour which else were dark and sad To one, when angels will rejoice and all the just be glad.

Him I beseech that he avert from me the fiend's malignant face, And lead me to the realm of rest in G.o.d's own dwelling place.

May holy Michael day and night, he knowing well my need, be nigh, To place me in the fellowship of the good saints on high; May holy Michael, an approved a.s.sistant when all else may fail, Plead for me, sinner that I am, in thought and act so frail, May holy Michael in his strength my parting soul from harm defend, Till circled by the myriad saints in heaven its flight doth end; For me may holy Gabriel pray--for me may holy Raphael plead-- For me may all the angelic choirs for ever intercede.

May the great King's eternal halls receive me freed from stain and sin, That I the joys of Paradise may share with Christ therein.

Glory for aye be given to G.o.d--for aye to Father and to Son-- For aye unto the Holy Ghost with them in council one.

V. "May the most holy St. Michael The prince of angels defend us, Whom to conduct our souls heavenward G.o.d from the highest doth send us."

The School of Moville during the subsequent centuries of disaster not only maintained its existence but produced one of the most distinguished of the mediaeval historians, the celebrated Maria.n.u.s Scotus, the chronicler, to be carefully distinguished from his namesake and contemporary, Maria.n.u.s Scotus, a poet, theologian and commentator of Sacred Scripture, to whom we hope to refer on another occasion.

II.--MARIa.n.u.s SCOTUS.

Maria.n.u.s Scotus, the Chronicler, was born, as he himself tells us, in the year A.D. 1028; but we know nothing of his family, or the place of his birth. Maria.n.u.s is the smooth, latinized form of Maelbridge, the servant of St. Brigid, a favourite pre-nomen in ancient Ireland. He tells us, too, in his chronicle, that when he had on one occasion committed a slight fault, his preceptor Tighernagh Boirceach reminded him, how the abbot of Iniscaltra, an island in Lough Derg, had expelled a holy man from the Island and commanded him to leave Ireland for giving a little food to the brethren without permission. This shows that Tighernach Boirceach, Abbot of Moville for several years before his death in A.D. 1061, must have been the spiritual guide who reprimanded Maria.n.u.s for his fault; whence we infer that Maria.n.u.s spent his youth in the School of Moville. In A.D. 1056 he tells us--"I, Maria.n.u.s, left my native country this year, having become a pilgrim for the kingdom of G.o.d." He came to Cologne and there entered the Monastery of St. Martin, at that time ruled by Irish abbots and containing a community of Irish monks. Two years later he went to Fulda, and "all unworthy as I am, I Maria.n.u.s, was ordained priest with Sigfrid, Abbot of Fulda, nigh to the body of the blessed Martyr Kilian of Wurtzburg"--his countryman who had been like himself a pilgrim and died for Christ in a foreign land. There he became a recluse, shut up in his little cell for ten long years, given wholly to prayer, penance, and study. Every day during these ten years he offered the Holy Sacrifice over the tomb of his countryman, Anmchaidh, the same who was driven from Inniscaltra as a penance for his fault, and who died in A.D. 1043 in the odour of sanct.i.ty. From Fulda in A.D. 1069, he, the "wretched Maria.n.u.s,"

was, as he tells us, transferred by order of the Abbot of Fulda and the Bishop of Mayence to that city, and there again, as he tells us in his sweet humility, he became once more a hermit for his sins. His learning, especially in history and chronology, was very extensive, and so by order of his superiors he wrote a Chronicle in Three Books, which is one of the most valuable memorials of mediaeval learning that have come down to our times. The first two books are mainly devoted to questions of chronology in which the writer exhibits vast learning and great ingenuity. He labours especially to refute the commonly a.s.signed date of our Saviour's birth as fixed by the Dionysian computation, which he affirms is twenty-two years behind the proper date. For this, though he is not followed by modern chronologists, he certainly won the applause of his mediaeval contemporaries. Unfortunately these two books have not yet been published; but the "Third Book" has been published by the learned Waitz in the fifth volume of _Pertz's Historical Monuments of Germany_. It has been since republished in _Migne's Latin Patrology_, volume 147, where it can be more readily consulted by Irish scholars. The work extends from the birth of Christ to the year A.D. 1081; the following year A.D. 1082 the writer ended a life full of good works, glorious for G.o.d, and for his country. He sleeps, like many another Irish saint, far away from the green hills of Ireland; but he sleeps well with kindred dust in the monastery of St.

Martin of Mayence, and posterity has honoured, with the name of "the Blessed," Maria.n.u.s Scotus, the latest glory of the School of Moville.

CHAPTER XII.

THE SCHOOL OF CLONMACNOISE.

"Quomodo sedet sola civitas plena populo."

--_Jeremias._

I.--ST. CIARAN OF CLONMACNOISE.

How solitary now she sits by the great river that once thronged City! Her gates are broken, and her streets are silent. Yet in olden time she was a queen, and the children of many lands came to do her homage. She was the nursing mother of our saints, and the teacher of our highest learning for a long six hundred years. The most ancient and the most accurate of the Annals of Erin were written in her halls; the most learned 'Doctors of the Scots' lectured in her cla.s.srooms; the sweetest of our old Gaedhlic poems were composed by her professors; the n.o.blest youth of France and England crowded her halls, and bore the renown of her holiness and learning to foreign lands. Even still her churches, her crosses, and her tombstones furnish the best and most characteristic specimens of our ancient Celtic art in sculpture and in architecture. View it as you may, Clonmacnoise was the greatest of our schools in the past, as it is the most interesting of our ruins in the present.

How well St. Ciaran chose the site of his monastic city in those turbulent and lawless days. It reposed in the bosom of a gra.s.sy lawn of fertile meadow land on the eastern bank of the Shannon, about ten miles south of Athlone. Just at this point the majestic river takes a wide semi-circular sweep first to the east and then to the south; presently it widens and deepens into calm repose under the shelter of that gra.s.sy ridge, which Ciaran chose as the site of his monastery. A vast expanse of bog lies beyond the river; and in the time of St. Ciaran the country all round about was an impa.s.sable mora.s.s to the east, south, and north of the verdant oasis on which he built his little church. So it became necessary to construct a causeway through the bog from the monastery somewhat on the line of the present road to Athlone. At this day the aspect of the place is very desolate and lonely. There is nothing to distract the attention of the stranger save the gray ruins, the sweep of the full-bosomed river stealing silently onwards like time in its flight, and vast flocks of plover and curlew that are now settled on the meadows, and a moment after are circling in flying clouds around us. The report of a gun had startled both them and us. It was like a voice in the regions of the dead.

[Ill.u.s.tration: MAP OF CLONMACNOISE OR THE SEVEN CHURCHES.]

St. Ciaran, the founder of Clonmacnoise, is usually called Ciaran Mac In Tsair, that is, the Son of the Carpenter, and sometimes Ciaran the Younger, to distinguish him from St. Ciaran of Saigher, the patron of the diocese of Ossory. His father, Beoit, son of Olcan, though a carpenter by trade, came of high descent. His mother, Darerca, was a daughter of the race that gave its name to the county Kerry. Beoit lived at Larne, in Antrim, but being greatly hara.s.sed by the exactions of Ainmire, king of the district, he migrated to the province of Connaught, and settled at a place called Rath Crimthann, near Fuerty, in the county Roscommon. He was, it seems, unmarried at the time, and there took to himself a wife from the daughters of the Ciarraighe, who about the same time had migrated from Irluachair, in Kerry, and had settled along the western bank of the Suck in that very district.[208] They were a holy couple, and trained up a holy family, for they had no less than five sons and three daughters, who were great servants of G.o.d.

Ciaran was baptized by the deacon Justus at Fuerty (_Fidharta_), in the year A.D. 512, which we take to be the date of the saint's birth.[209] He received his early education from the same holy man, and in his turn was not too proud to tend the herds of his tutor at Fuerty, especially during the absence of the holy deacon. We are told, too, that while tending the cattle he was also much given to study and prayer.

It is probable that young Ciaran went directly from home to the great School of Clonard, of which we have already spoken. While he was there, he gave himself up with great zeal to the study of holy Scripture under the direction of the wise and learned Finnian. He made the acquaintance, too, of nearly all the great and holy men who about this period lived in blessed brotherhood at Clonard, and were afterwards known as the Twelve Apostles of Erin. He was much beloved both by his master, who called him the "gentle youth," and by his companions, whom he was ever anxious to oblige. Books were then very scarce, and on one occasion when St.

Ninnidius of Lough Erne was vainly searching for a copy of the Gospels, Ciaran gave him his own copy, saying that we should do to others as we would have others do to us--the text which he was studying in St. Matthew at the moment.

Ciaran once made a present of corn to his master and the brotherhood, which sufficed for their wants during forty days--it was said, too, this blessed food given by Ciaran had virtue to heal the sick, who partook of it, and a portion of it was reserved for that purpose. Finnian in return blessed his generous and holy pupil, and foretold that his Church in the coming years would be fruitful "of n.o.bility and wisdom;" that it would have much glory and much land; and that half Ireland would one day be subject to his rule. When the master was absent, Ciaran was deputed to take his place, which shows the high opinion then entertained by Finnian of his learning and holiness. One day Finnian saw in vision two golden moons in the firmament of Erin; one he said was Columcille, to illumine the North with the l.u.s.tre of his virtues and high descent; the other was Ciaran, who would shine over central Erin, with the mild radiance of charity and meekness.

At length the time came for Ciaran to leave Clonard. Both masters and scholars were sorry to part with the gentle youth. Finnian even offered to resign the master's chair in his favour; but Ciaran wisely declined the great honour, for he was too young and inexperienced for that office.

Columcille was then at Clonard about the year A.D. 537 or 538, and was greatly attached to Ciaran; he composed regretful stanzas at his departure, and afterwards followed him all the way to Aran:--

"The n.o.ble youth that goeth westward, And leaves us mourning here-- Ah! gentle, loving, tender-hearted Is Ciaran Mac In Tsair."

We have in a previous chapter referred to Ciaran's sojourn in Aran with St. Enda. On his departure from the blessed isles Ciaran told the venerable Enda that he saw in a vision a large fruitful tree planted in the midst of Erin, and its boughs sheltered all the land. Its fair fruit was borne over land and sea, and all the birds of the air came and eat thereof. "That tree is thyself," said Enda; "all Erin shall be filled with thy name, and sheltered by the grace that will be in thee, and many men from all parts will be fed by thy prayers and thy fastings. Go, then, in G.o.d's name, and found thy Church on the Shannon's banks in the centre of the island."

After leaving Aran, Ciaran paid a short visit to St. Senan of Scattery Island, in the Lower Shannon, and was much edified by the example and conversation of that holy man. He then went north in obedience to the word of Enda and at first founded a church at a place called Isell Ciaran, where he remained only a short time. He then founded another oratory on Inis Ainghin, now called Hare Island, in Lough Ree, a beautifully wooded islet about two miles north of Athlone, where a ruined church may still be seen that was built on the site of Ciaran's more ancient oratory.

It was an admirable site for a monastery; far enough from the sh.o.r.e for security, but near enough for convenience, and situated just at the point where the wide and beautiful lake contracts its waters into the stately stream that flows beneath the historic arches of the bridge at Athlone.

For three years and three months only Ciaran remained at Hare Island. This would fix his arrival there in A.D. 540 if, as we shall see, he died in A.D. 544 at the age of thirty-three years. Going further south by the bank of the river to a place that would be nearer to the centre of the island, he stopped at the spot then called Ard Mantain, which in his opinion was too fertile and too beautiful to be chosen as the abode of fasting saints.

"We might," he said, "have here much of the world's riches, but the souls going to heaven from it would be few." So he journeyed on still further to the south through what was then a desolate expanse of fens and brakes, until he came to Ard Tiprait, the Height of the Spring. "Here," he said to his companions, "let us remain, for many souls will ascend to heaven from this spot."[210] It was on the 10th of the Kalends of February that Ciaran took up his abode at Clonmacnoise with eight companions; and it was on the 10th of the Moon, and a Sat.u.r.day. This is very specific information, and evidently authentic. It shows that the writer of Ciaran's life knew what he was saying, and was not afraid of being contradicted. These dates prove that the foundation of Clonmacnoise took place on Sat.u.r.day, the 23rd of January, in the year A.D. 544.[211] It was finished on the 9th of May following; and the same ancient and accurate life tells us the circ.u.mstances of this most remarkable event--the founding of the greatest school and the greatest monastery in Ireland.

When Ciaran was planting the first post to mark out the site of the Cathair of Clonmacnoise, Diarmaid Mac Cearbhaill, who happened to be present with a few of his companions, helped the saint with his own hands to fix the post in the earth. "Though your companions to-day are few,"

said Ciaran, "to-morrow thou shalt be High King of Erin." This prophecy, like many others, helped to fulfil itself. One of Diarmaid's companions, Maelmor,[212] his foster brother, overheard the saint's word; and knowing that he was a man of G.o.d, he resolved to help in carrying it out. King Tuathal Maelgarbh, great grandson of Niall the Great, had set a price on Diarmaid's head, or rather on his heart, if brought to him in person; so Diarmaid was forced to hide himself and live in the deserts and bogs around Clonmacnoise. There he met the saint, and not only aided him to build his monastery, as stated above, but in reverence to the saint he placed his own hand beneath that of Ciaran in fixing the first pole. Now, Maelmor hearing the prediction, with Diarmaid's reluctant consent, took his fleet black horse, and a whelp's heart besprinkled with blood on the point of his spear, and rode post haste to a place called Greallach Eillte in Meath, where the king with his n.o.bles happened to be at the time.

Seeing the stranger riding post to the king with the b.l.o.o.d.y heart on his spear, all made way for him, for they, like the king himself, thought it was the heart of Diarmaid, which he was going to present to the king. But instead of Diarmaid's heart, Maelmor gave the monarch a fatal thrust with his spear, which killed him on the spot. Maelmor was immediately set upon by the royal guards and hewn to pieces. But his purpose was achieved--Diarmaid MacCearbhaill was the nearest heir to the throne, and was immediately proclaimed king without opposition. During his reign he was, as might be expected, a great patron and benefactor of Clonmacnoise, and although there is good reason to believe that he still kept Druids[213] and soothsayers in his palace, he gave that monastery large grants of land, and subjected to its authority no less than one hundred of the small churches in its neighbourhood. Such was the origin of the Diocese of Clonmacnoise, which after many vicissitudes is now united to that of Ardagh.[214]

St. Ciaran lived only four months after founding his monastery and little church--the Eclais Beg--on the banks of the Shannon. The same accurate writer of his life states with great precision that his death came upon him in the thirty-third year of his age, on the fifth of the Ides (the 9th) of September, on a Sat.u.r.day, the fifteenth day of the moon. These data mark the year A.D. 544 (not 549), as the year of the saint's death.

It was also the year in which King Diarmaid ascended the throne, and which brought with it a great plague that proved fatal to many of the saints of Erin, as well as to Ciaran himself.

The death of Ciaran was very touching. "Take me out a little," he said, "from the cell into the open air." Then looking up to the blue sky, he said--"Narrow indeed is the way which leads to heaven." "Not for you, father, will it be narrow," said one of his monks who was standing nigh.

"It is not said in the Gospel that it will be easy for me or for any one,"

said Ciaran; "even the blessed Paul and David were afraid." He would not allow the stone pillow to be removed in order to give more ease to his head. He had kept it during life, and he would rest on it in death--"Blessed are they," he observed, "who persevere unto the end." The brethren now saw G.o.d's angels hovering in the air around them awaiting the moment of Ciaran's departure. He grew weaker, so they brought him in again to Eclais Beg. It was fitting he should die there; it was the scene of his prayers and tears. The skin on which he used to sleep in his little cell was stretched on the ground, and he was laid upon it. The end was now at hand. He gave his last blessing to the brethren, and asked them to close the church, and leave him alone with his soul's friend, St. Kevin of Glendaloch, whom he had known and loved at Clonard. Kevin blessed holy water according to the Church's rite, and sprinkled the little oratory, and the couch of the dying saint. Then he gave Ciaran the holy Communion and blessed him once more ere he died. Ciaran loved the holy Kevin much; G.o.d had sent him to his bedside at the prayer of Ciaran himself--and as a pledge of his love the dying saint gave to Kevin his bell--the symbol in those days of monastic rule--and bidding him a tender farewell, he gave up his pure and gentle soul to G.o.d.

He was, indeed, a wonderful man--that St. Ciaran. He died very young; it was at the sacred age of thirty-three, as all our Annals tell. In four months--from February to May--he built his convent; for four months more he ruled his community; and then he was called to his reward; yet that community grew to be the greatest and most learned of all the land.

All our martyrologies a.s.sign the festival of St. Ciaran to the 9th of September; and the day has been celebrated from that hour to the present.

St. aengus says that it is a solemnity that "fills territories and impels fast-going ships" on sea and river--hurrying to celebrate the glorious festival of Ciaran of Cluain.