Insula Sanctorum et Doctorum Part 38

When the Irish bishop saw this beautiful city thus given over to pleasure and to vice, like St. Paul at Athens, his spirit was moved within him, and in burning language he implored the inhabitants to return to the service of the G.o.d whom they had forgotten. He performed also many striking miracles in the sight of all the people, healing the sick, and even it is said, raising the dead to life. It happened at this time that there was no bishop in the city; so the Tarentines besought the Irish saint to become their bishop, and promised to obey his commands, and follow all his counsels. Reluctantly he consented, in the hope that he might thus be able to win them back to the service of G.o.d. His efforts were crowned with complete success. Once more Tarentum became a christian city in reality as well as in name; and Cathaldus was venerated as the second apostle and patron saint of the city.

Cathaldus spent some years in his new see; then feeling his end approaching, the saint once more exhorted the people and the clergy, in language of the most tender affection, to be true to the profession and practice of the Christian faith. He died, shortly after, in his city of Tarentum, towards the close of the seventh century, on the eighth day of March, which is his festival day. The holy remains, by which many miracles were wrought, were buried in a marble tomb, which up to this day is preserved in the sacristy of the Cathedral of Tarentum. For a long period the ident.i.ty and position of the tomb were unknown, until the time of the Archbishop Drogonus, by whose orders the old cathedral was restored. The workmen in excavating the old walls came upon the marble tomb; and the Archbishop having been sent for, caused the tomb to be opened, when the sacred relics were discovered, with a golden cross on which the name of Cathaldus was inscribed. So Archbishop Drogonus, full of joy, caused the holy relics to be translated, and the tomb itself to be rebuilt close to the high altar of the new Cathedral Church, where they are preserved with great honour down to the present day. In the year A.D. 1150, Archbishop Giraldus caused the holy relics to be enclosed in a silver shrine, richly adorned with gold and jewels. A large silver statue of the saint was also erected in the church, and a portion of the skull was placed within the figure. The feast of the Invention of the saint's Relics is celebrated on the eighth day of May, and the Translation is kept on the tenth of the same month. Both these festivals, as well as the Natalis of the saint on the eighth of March, are celebrated with much pomp by the Tarentines even to the present day. The silver-gilt cross found within the tomb is hung around the neck of the silver statue of the saint, and on the cross may still be seen, engraved in characters quite legible and distinct--CATHALDUS RACHAU, which identify so conclusively the prelate of Lismore and Tarentum with the sacred relics that were discovered by Archbishop Drogonus.

Certain writings have been attributed to Cathaldus by Colgan, and others; but it is difficult to regard them as genuine.

There is a short treatise, given by Colgan, containing an account alleged to be taken from the Records of the Church and City of Tarentum, of the princ.i.p.al miracles of the saint. It is a very striking enumeration of most wonderful cures effected through the intercession of the saint, and bears intrinsic evidence of authenticity--at least such is Colgan's opinion.

There is also extant a prophecy attributed to the saint, which he uttered shortly before his death, and which was by his order, if not by his own hand, inscribed in certain leaden tablets, and hidden within a column in the Church of St. Peter without the eastern walls of the city. It is said that in the year A.D. 1492, the saint appeared to a certain deacon of Tarentum, by name Raphael Crurera, and commanded him to tell the Archbishop that he would find in the said church the figure of a boy painted on the column with the hand pointing out the spot where the leaves of the leaden record containing the prophecy would be found. The Archbishop sought the place indicated, and found the two sheets of lead inscribed with the prophecy. But the whole thing looks very like a forgery concocted for political purposes.

III.--OTHER SCHOLARS OF LISMORE--ST. CUANNA.

It does not appear that St. Cathaldus was ever Abbot or Bishop of Lismore, although he was certainly a student of that great seminary. St. Carthach appears to have been succeeded in the government of Lismore by St. Cuanna, who is said to have been his uterine brother. As Cuanna, or at least one who bore that name, was also the author of an ancient book of Annals, he is worthy of special mention in this place. Colgan is of opinion that St.

Cuanna, the Abbot of Lismore, is the same as that Cuanna, who has given his name to Kilc.o.o.ney, near Headfort, on the sh.o.r.es of Lough Corrib; and he thinks it highly probable that he was also the original author of the _Book of Cuanach_, cited in the _Annals of Ulster_. It is not quoted after A.D. 628; and we know that St. Cuanna of Lismore died about A.D. 650, so that this fact of itself lends some probability to Colgan's view. The facts of his history, however, will clearly show that Cuanna of Lismore was the founder of Kilc.o.o.ney, near Lough Corrib.

St. Cuanna of Kilc.o.o.ney was born near the eastern sh.o.r.e of that lake, for he is described as founding a church in his native district.[335] His mother, Findmaith, was a near relation of St. Brendan, and appears to have been also the mother of St. Fursey, and of St. Eany, who also founded churches on the Corrib sh.o.r.e. In that case Findmaith was the second wife of Fintan of Ard-fintan, near Headfort, who is said to have been a nephew of St. Brendan. We know that both St. Brendan and St. Carthach belonged originally to the same district in the west of Kerry, and that both were sprung from Fergus Mac Roy. We know also that many of the tribesmen both of Carthach and Brendan migrated to West Connaught about this period, and that the father of Fursey was amongst them. It may be that his wife afterwards got married to another Kerry chieftain, and this would explain how Carthach and Cuanna were uterine brothers, although one was born at Tralee and the other near Lough Corrib.

About A.D. 590 Cuanna went to the school of St. Carthach, at Rahan, where he remained many years. Then he was sent about A.D. 620 to found a monastery "in the delightful land of the Ui-Eachach, in the south of the woody Inisfail." Afterwards, however, he returned home to Lough Corrib and founded Kilc.o.o.ney. The "Fragment of his Life," in the _Salamanca MS._ then tells how he was carried off into Connemara, but G.o.d's angels took charge of him, and brought him over the lake in safety, floating on a flat stone, to his own side of the lake. Then it was he resolved to found his Church of Kilc.o.o.ney, or Kilc.o.o.nagh, of which the remains are still to be seen in the old churchyard not far from Headfort. There is also the stump of a round tower close at hand, which shows the ancient importance of the place.

Great numbers of saints and monks from all parts of Ireland were soon attracted to Kilc.o.o.ney by the fame of its learned and holy founder. In fact we are told that on one occasion no less than 1,746 of these holy men a.s.sembled in conference in a beautiful meadow near the church, and there entered into a league of holy friendship with each other--surely a beautiful spectacle before angels and men in that rude and barbarous age.

It seems that it was after the death of his brother, St. Carthach, in A.D.

636 or 637, that Cuanna was called to preside at Lismore. The kin of the founders always got a preference when rulers were elected for these ancient monasteries, and his near kinship with Carthach was, together with his virtues and merits, the main reason of this election. It is certain, however, that he was Abbot of Lismore, for two of our ancient calendars describe him as such, and in the notes to the _Felire_ of aengus he is similarly described. He died about the year A.D. 650.

The School of Lismore continued to flourish under him and his successors, attaining, it seems, the zenith of its celebrity towards the opening years of the eighth century under St. Colman O'Leathain.

St. Colman O'Leathain flourished as Abbot and Bishop of Lismore from A.D.

698, or A.D. 699 to 702; and during this brief period he became very celebrated. He was the son of Finbarr, of the race of Hy-Beogna, the hereditary princes of Ibh Liathain--a district extending from Cork to Youghal, and nearly corresponding with the modern barony of Imokelly. He was a pupil of Lismore during the inc.u.mbency of St. Hierlog, or Jarnlach, as we find it in the _Ulster Annals_, the same as the Hierologus of Colgan.[336] Lismore had now become so celebrated that the Irish princes, tired of the world, began to seek peace and penance in its sacred shades.

The first of these princes, of whom we read, was Theodoric, or Turlogh, King of Th.o.m.ond, of the celebrated Dalca.s.sian line. His father Cathal died in A.D. 624, so that this prince must have ruled over his native territory for many years. He is celebrated, too, as the father of St. Flannan, the founder of the See of Killaloe. Theodoric came secretly to St. Colman, and flinging off his royal robes, and renouncing his crown, placed himself amongst the humblest disciples of that saint. Though now an old man, he would not consent to be idle, but insisted on earning his bread with the labour of his hands, like the monks around him. The road to the monastery from the low ground was steep and uneven, so Theodoric, whose strong arms so often wielded the sword of Th.o.m.ond in battle, got his sledge and hammer, and spent his time breaking stones to repair the road. With such zeal did he work that the streams of perspiration poured down from his body to the ground, and it is said a sick man was healed by washing in these waters of holy and penitential toil. With Colman's permission he returned to his kingdom to protect it from its enemies, whom he seems to have crushed as easily as he did the stones, and he then returned again to die in Lismore.

St. Colman O'Leathain is sometimes called Mocholmoc, but as Colgan points out, it is really the same name--Colman and Colmoc being both diminutives of Colum, with the term of endearment prefixed in one case--mo-Cholmoc, which is the same as 'my dear little Colman.' This great saint died on the 22nd of January, A.D. 702, and was interred at Lismore.

It has been said that Aldfrid, King of Northumbria, was a student at Lismore before he was called to the throne after the death of his brother, Ecgfrid, in A.D. 685. This statement is, however, merely a conjecture. We know, indeed, from the express statement of William of Malmesbury that Aldfrid spent his youth in Ireland, that he was trained in all the learning of our Irish schools, and that when he was called to the throne of Northumbria, he gave both sympathy and effective a.s.sistance to the Irish prelates and monks of the North in opposition to Wilfrid and his a.s.sociates. It is unlikely, however, that he remained at any one monastic school during all the years of his enforced sojourn in Ireland. Armagh would be one of the nearest to a Northumbrian exile; and being the seat of the primacy, as well as a celebrated school, it would naturally attract him first. If he then came south he certainty would visit Clonmacnoise, and remain some time in its halls. The great fame of Lismore in the middle of the seventh century would doubtless attract him also; and he certainly would not leave unvisited the new monastery founded about this very time by his own countrymen in the plains of Mayo. And if we are to accept the authenticity of the old Irish poem attributed to Aldfrid, this is precisely what did happen. He went throughout the entire country from school to school, spending some time in each of them; and he testifies that he was treated everywhere with generous hospitality, and experienced at the hands of all his teachers and entertainers a kindly Irish welcome.

This poem has been translated by Clarence Mangan, and the spirit of the original has been admirably preserved in the translation.

"I found in Innisfail the fair, In Ireland while in exile there, Women of worth, both grave and gay men, Many clerics and many laymen.

I travelled its fruitful provinces round, And in every one of the five I found, Alike in church and in palace hall, Abundant apparel and food for all."

Then he tells how he found 'in Armagh the splendid meekness, wisdom, and prudence blended'; how he found kings and queens and poets in Munster; in Connaught he found riches, hospitality, vigour and fame; in Ulster, 'from hill to glen, he met hardy warriors and resolute men'; and so on throughout all the land.

During his residence in Ireland Aldfrid acquired much knowledge, and a great love of learning and learned men. He was an intimate friend of Ad.a.m.nan, the celebrated Abbot of Iona, and probably spent some time in that monastery also. Another distinguished scholar, Aldhelm, Abbot of Malmesbury, dedicated to Aldfrid a poetical epistle in Latin on Metres and the Rules of Prosody, which shows that the king must have been competent to appreciate such a work. Aldhelm, in this Epistle, congratulates the king on his good fortune in having been educated in Ireland; and he knew well what the Irish scholars were, for his own master, Maildulf, was an Irishman. Aldhelm afterwards studied in Canterbury under Theodore and Adrian; and though trained by an Irishman, in one of his letters he shows himself a little jealous[337] of the greater fame and popularity which the Irish schools at this period enjoyed both at home and abroad.

Maildulf[338] taught a school at Malmesbury, and from him it takes its name; but after his death it was placed in the hands of Englishmen.

IV.--SUBSEQUENT HISTORY OF LISMORE.

We cannot narrate at length the subsequent history of the monastery and School of Lismore. We find a regular succession of Bishop-abbots down to the advent of the Danes. But the position of Lismore on a great river not far from the sea rendered it especially exposed to their ravages; and hence, like our other great monastic schools, we find that it was repeatedly pillaged and burned during the ninth and tenth centuries. Nor was the plundering and burning altogether the work of the Danes.

As usual the native princes followed their example; and so we are told that in A.D. 978 the Ossorians plundered and burned both the town and abbey. Yet the school and monastery survived the ravages both of the Danes and natives, and were held in great veneration by the wisest and best men in Erin. Cormac Mac Cullinan, the King-bishop, loved Lismore, although he was not educated there, and in his will left a bequest of a gold and silver chalice, and a suit of silk vestments to the monastery.

We read in Archdall that there was at Lismore, as at Armagh and many other princ.i.p.al churches, a hermitage, where one or more anchorites dwelt enclosed in their cells, after the fashion of the primitive Egyptian saints in the Desert. St. Carthach himself had set the example at Lismore; and it seems it was regularly followed, for a small endowment in land was provided for the maintenance of these anchorites at Lismore. The death of one of the most celebrated is noticed A.D. 1040:--"Corcran Cleireach, anchorite, the head of the West of Europe for piety and wisdom, died at Lis-mor." (F.M.). Another authority tells us that such was his learning and integrity that every dispute throughout the kingdom was confidently referred to his arbitration. It was for this reason also that during the interregnum that succeeded the death of Maelsechlainn II. in A.D. 1022, he, with Cuan O'Lochain, were chosen to guide the provisional government then established, as it would seem, with the consent of both the North and the South.

During the subsequent century--a period of much turmoil and bloodshed, when there was no recognised High King of Tara, who was able to keep the provincial kings in check, many of the southern princes retired to Lismore to end their days in peace and penance. Amongst these was the brave and generous Murtogh (Muircheartach) O'Brien, the grandson of Brian Boru, whom the Four Masters themselves describe "as King of Ireland, and the prop of the glory and magnificence of the West of the world." He died after the victory of penance at Lismore, but was buried at Killaloe. In A.D. 1127 Turlough O'Conor, the bravest and most capable of his name, forced Cormac Mac Carthy, King of Desmond, to go on pilgrimage to Lismore, and put on the habit of a monk. But Cormac soon flung it off again, and once more met Turlough in the field, but unsuccessfully; for we are told that there was a great fight at 'sea' (on Lough Derg) between the fleets of the Connaughtmen and of the men of Munster, and that the former gained the victory and harried the territory of Munster.

Another noteworthy event in connection with Lismore is recorded in A.D.

1129. It is the death and burial at Lismore in this year of the good St.

Celsus, after St. Malachy, the greatest man of his age. He laboured with the most constant and self-denying zeal to reform the gross abuses prevalent in the Irish Church, and to stay the fratricidal hands of the native princes, whose whole career was at this time one sad record of violence and slaughter. His life, say the _Annals_, was "a life of fasting, prayer, and ma.s.s-celebration; and after unction and good penance he resigned his spirit to heaven at Ard Patrick," in the co. Limerick. He was buried at Lismore, by his own desire, and was waked, as was fitting, with psalms, hymns, and canticles, and buried with all honour in the tomb of the bishops, on Thursday, the 4th of April, having died on the previous Monday.

So Lismore was still held in great honour, and owned large possessions for the education of the clergy and the maintenance of the poor down to the advent of the Anglo-Normans. Then in A.D. 1173 we have the significant entry that Strongbow, after wasting the territory of the Desii, "extorted a large sum from the bishop to prevent the church from being burnt," but in the following year his son completed his father's work, "and plundered Lismore;" and four years later, in A.D. 1178, we are told that the town was again plundered, and set on fire by the English forces. Whatever still remained was wholly destroyed a few years after, in A.D. 1207, when the town and all its churches were entirely consumed. Shortly afterwards, this ancient See was united to the Danish bishopric of Waterford, and the lamp of learning in its schools was extinguished for ever.

Lismore is beautifully situated on the steep southern bank of the Blackwater, overlooking the picturesque valley of this n.o.ble river, which here teems with natural beauties. In this respect Innes declares that Lismore cannot be surpa.s.sed. "The Blackwater, both above and below the bridge, which leads into the town, flows through one of the most verdant of valleys. The banks bounding this valley are in some places thickly, in other places lightly, shaded with wood. Nothing can surpa.s.s in richness and beauty the view from the bridge, when at evening the deep woods, and the grey castle, and the still river are left in the shade, while the sun streaming up the valley gilds all the softer slopes and swells that lie opposite." (_Journey_, 1834.)

Nothing, in truth, is wanting that can lend beauty and interest to this scene, which nature has so richly dowered with all her charms. And then the grand old castle, towering over the river, recalls to the mind of the beholder all those a.s.sociations that cling like the ivy to its grey historic walls.

Of the twenty churches once in Lismore not a vestige remains. The existing Protestant cathedral was rebuilt by the Earl of Cork in A.D. 1663; but his workmen destroyed every trace of the ancient church, which is alluded to as the cathedral, or great stone church of Lismore, so early as A.D. 1052.

Five inscribed stones are preserved in the present cathedral. They are fragments of ancient tombstones, with the peculiar Celtic crosses, and lettered in very ancient types of the Celtic alphabet.[339] One asks a blessing for the soul of Colgen, who, according to the _Annals of Inisfallen_, was an eminent ecclesiastic, who died in Lismore in A.D. 850.

The words are--BENDACHT FOR ANMAIN COLGEN. Another is simply inscribed--SUIBNE M CONHUIDIR--Suibne, son of Conhuidir, an anchorite and abbot of Lismore, who went to his rest in A.D. 854. Another still more interesting inscription asks a prayer for Cormac, a priest--OR DO CORMAC P. The letter P stands apparently for the Latin word _presbyter_, _i.e._, _priest_. He seems to have been "Cormac, son of Cuilcanan, Bishop of Lismore, and Lord of the Desii of Mumhan, who was killed by his own family, A.D. 918"--a different person from the King-bishop of Cashel, who was slain in A.D. 907. The other two merely ask a blessing for the soul of MARTAN, and a prayer for DONNCHAD, who seems to have been the person bearing that name who was a.s.sa.s.sinated within the very walls of the old cathedral in A.D. 1034.

THE CROZIER OF LISMORE was discovered in 1814 in a tower of Lismore Castle, belonging now to the Duke of Devonshire--hence it is sometimes improperly called the Devonshire Crozier. It was made, as the inscription on it records, for Niall Mac Mic Aeducan, who was Bishop of Lismore from A.D. 1090 to 1113. The artist was Nectan--also a Celtic name--and the Crozier itself is one of the most beautiful specimens of Celtic art of this character that have been yet discovered. "It measures three feet four inches in length, and consists of a case of bronze of a pale colour, which enshrines an old oak stick--perhaps the original staff of the founder of Lismore. Most of the ornaments are richly gilt, interspersed with others of silver and niello, and bosses of coloured enamels. The crook of the staff is bordered with a row of grotesque animals like lizards or dragons, one of which has eyes of lapis lazuli."[340] The staff seems to have been divided into compartments, which were filled in with filigree work. It is most likely this beautiful work of art was made at the monastery, and that Nectan, the artificer, was a member of the brotherhood of Lismore. The inscription is as usual in Irish, and runs thus:--OR DO NIAL MAC MEICC AEDUCAN LASAN DERNAD IN GRESSA + OR DO NECTAIN CERD DORIGNE IN GRESSA--Pray for Niall, son of MacAeducan, for whom this work was made; pray for Nectan, who made this work of art.

THE BOOK OF LISMORE was found in 1814, together with the Crozier of Lismore, in a wooden box, which was enclosed within the wall of a built-up doorway in the Castle of Lismore. Both evidently belonged to the bishops of Lismore, for the castle was the ancient episcopal palace, and the box was built into the doorway for security on some occasion when the castle was being besieged by enemies, who might be disposed to appropriate these venerable relics. This castle was originally built by Prince John, in A.D.

1185; and at first was garrisoned for the Crown. It was, however, soon destroyed by the natives; but was rebuilt by the king, and became the residence of the bishops of Lismore down to the time of Miler MacGrath, who added the see of Lismore to his other ecclesiastical preferments.

Afterwards, the castle sustained several sieges during the troubles that followed A.D. 1641, when it was held at different times for the Crown or for the Parliament: and it was, doubtless, during one of these sieges that both the Crozier and Book of Lismore were concealed. When discovered it had suffered much from damp, and the edges, O'Curry tells us, seem to have been partially gnawed by rats or mice. It was, however, still tolerably legible, but was, unfortunately, lent by the Duke of Devonshire's agent to a Cork _sheanachie_, named O'Flynn, that it might be transcribed; and O'Curry alleges that several folios, and in some places entire sections of the MS., were deliberately cut out by those who had the temporary custody of the book. In 1839 O'Curry made a copy on paper of all that remained for the Royal Irish Academy; but that inst.i.tution vainly sought to obtain the missing portions.

It is said that these excised parts were purchased, no doubt, in good faith, by a Mr. Hewitt, who lived near Cork, and they may, perhaps, be still secured and re-bound with the original MS.

This original was a vellum MS. said to be 900 years old. It consists princ.i.p.ally of copies of the lives of certain Irish saints--of Patrick, Brigid, Columcille, Senan, Finnian of Clonard, and Finnchu of Brigobhan, near Cork--"all," says O'Curry, "written in Gaelic of great purity and antiquity."[341] There are also several historical and romantic tracts, and bardic accounts of several ancient battles. One treatise--a dialogue between St. Patrick and the Fenian warriors, Caoilte MacRonan and Oisin--is, says the same learned authority, especially valuable for the topographical information it contains.[342]

CHAPTER XX.

THE SCHOOLS OF DESMOND.

"I found in Munster, unfettered of any, Kings and queens, and poets a-many; Poets well skilled in music and measure, Prosperous doings, mirth and pleasure."

--_King Aldfrid's Poem._

I.--THE SCHOOL OF CORK--ST. FINBARR.

Munster was always celebrated for cla.s.sical studies. Even within the memory of living men it attracted 'poor scholars' from every part of Ireland; and they were received, as they were in the days of Bede and King Aldfrid, with kindly welcome and generous hospitality. In spite of the confiscations and penal laws of three hundred years, the old Celtic love of learning was still cherished in Munster, and the doors were never closed against the homeless scholar, or bard, or sheanachie. As in the days of Bede, "they willingly received them all, and took care to supply them with food, and also to furnish them with books to read, and their teaching gratis."[343] Of the Desmond schools the most celebrated, though not, perhaps, the earliest, was the School of Cork founded by St. Finbarr.

The name of the city itself is derived from _Corcagh_, which signifies a marshy place; and at the time St. Finbarr founded his church there, and for centuries afterwards, it certainly well deserved the name. Especially when the mountain floods came down the valley of the river Lee the whole right bank of the stream was converted into a vast lake called Loch Eirce or Loch Irce.[344] This valley extends from west to east, and is enclosed on either side by bold and fertile hills, now crowned with groves and villas which render Cork one of the most picturesque cities of the empire. The river Lee itself rises in the wild and barren mountain range which separates Cork from Kerry, and after a course of more than fifty miles, flows into the sea below the city. The river before reaching the city, divides itself into two main branches, which afterwards re-unite, thus forming an island of considerable extent, on which the city proper was originally built, and strongly fortified by walls and towers.

The Lee may be said to take its rise in the mountain lake of Gougane Barra, which is merely a natural reservoir that collects the streams flowing down the sides of these wild mountains. The name simply means 'Barra's Lone Retreat,'[345] because, as we shall presently see, the saint dwelt for some time on an island in the lake.

The facts of St. Finbarr's history are narrated in two Latin Lives which have been published by Mr. Caulfield of Cork College.[346] His baptismal name was Lochan; but as the boy grew up with beautiful fair hair he was called Find-barr; and sometimes Barra, Barre, Bairre, or Barry. He was sprung from the Hy-Briuin Ratha, who dwelt about Lough Corrib in the County Galway. His father, Amergin, being the fruit of unlawful love, left his native territory and came to the territory of Hy-Liathain in the County Cork, where his skill as an artificer secured him the patronage of the local dynast, who appears to have dwelt at Achad Duirbchon in Muskerry. This dynast is described also as _righ_ of Rathend.