St. Bernard of Clairvaux's Life of St. Malachy of Armagh Part 20

[624] 2 Cor. xii. 12 (vg.).

[625] Cp. 1 Cor. xv. 10.

[626] Ps. lxxvii. 14.--The following narratives of Malachy's miracles are not in chronological order. They are arranged according to their character. Thus the first four (-- 45, 46) are instances of his power over demons.

[627] Coleraine is said to have been founded by St. Patrick; and it was certainly a religious establishment at least as early as the sixth century (Ad.a.m.nan, i. 50). One of its erenachs died in 1122 (_A.F.M._).

The word "city" implies that the community was still in existence.

[628] Compare the story of St. Gall listening to the conversation of the demon of the mountain and the demon of the waters, told in Stokes's _Celtic Church in Ireland_, p. 145, from the Life of St. Gall in _M.G.H._, Scr. i. 7.

[629] The first of three miracles of healing the insane.

[630] In Lecale, co. Down, near Downpatrick. There St. Patrick made his first convert, and there he died. It is not easy to explain why St. Bernard calls it a "region." See further, p. 113, n. 3.

[631] Ulaid was a district which included the greater part of the present county of Down, and the southern part of Antrim.

[632] For a similar avowal by Jocelin, who wrote in the same century as St. Bernard, and other ill.u.s.trative pa.s.sages, see Ad.a.m.nan, p. 4.

[633] See - 8, and above in this section.

[634] The first of three healings of dumb persons.

[635] Mark vii. 33.

[636] The word "city" implies that there was a religious community at Antrim. That this was the case is proved by the round tower which still remains, and other evidence (Reeves, p. 63). But apparently the _Annals_ do not refer to any monastery or church at that place. See, however, _U.A._ and _A.F.M._ at 1096 for a possible exception.

[637] 1 Tim. vi. 13.

[638] Ps. lii. 8 (vg.).

[639] Ps. xlv. 7.

[640] Cp. Serm. ii. - 8.

[641] Luke vii. 40.

[642] Acts vi. 5.

[643] Printed text, _Conuama_, no MS. variants being recorded in the margin: perhaps a misprint for _Clonuama_. Mabillon has _Duevania_ and K _Duenuania_. A seems to read _Clueuuania_. All these variants point to _Cluain uama_ (the meadow of the cave), the Irish name for Cloyne, which is undoubtedly the place referred to (see next note). The next two miracles are concerned with childbirth. The first of them may have been related to St. Bernard by Marcus, the author of Tundale's Vision (see Friedel and Meyer, _La Vision de Tondale_, p. iv., and above p.

lxv. n. 3).

[644] Nehemiah Moriarty, who died in 1149 (_A.F.M._), being then, it is said, 95 years old (Tundale, p. 5). In Tundale (p. 53 f.) he is one of four bishops who were with St. Patrick in Paradise, the others being Cellach, Malachy and Christian O'Morgair. He is there (pp. 5, 54) called bishop of Cloyne (_Cluanensis_).

[645] Cp. 1 Cor. x. 16.

[646] Luke vi. 17.

[647] Mark vi. 18.

[648] 1 Cor. v. 5; 1 Tim. i. 20.

[649] John viii. 4.

[650] Ps. lviii. 10 (vg.).

[651] Probably Dermot MacMurrough, who became king of Leinster in 1126, and died in 1171. He was driven out of his kingdom in 1166, and then invited the Anglo-Normans to come to his aid. The result was the conquest of Ireland. His character merits the description which St.

Bernard gives of it.

[652] Rom. xvi. 18.

[653] The first of three healings of paralysis.

[654] John iv. 50.

[655] Gen. ii. 21.

[656] Mark viii. 3.

[657] Acts xiii. 11, etc.

[658] Mark vii. 34.

[659] Cp. Acts xii. 9.

[660] Gen. xlv. 26 (vg.).

[661] Acts iii. 8-10.

[662] Mark vi. 49.

[663] This implies that the diocese of Cork had already been founded.

But we cannot be sure that St. Bernard is correct when he says that the clergy and people met to elect a bishop, in view of his inability elsewhere (- 19) to distinguish bishops from abbots. It is at least possible that there was strife between different septs concerning the appointment of a coarb of Barre, founder of the church of Cork.

Malachy may have taken advantage of the strife to nominate a ruler who belonged to no sept in the district and who would allow himself to be consecrated bishop. The vacancy may have been made by the death of Donnell Shalvey, erenach of Cork, in 1140 (_A.F.M._). The word _erenach_ is sometimes used at this period where we might have expected to find _abbot_ (cp. _A.F.M._ 1137, quoted in Additional Note C, p. 167).

[664] 2 Cor. xi. 28.

[665] Evidently Malachy was now papal legate. The date of the incident is therefore not earlier than 1140.

[666] It would seem that it was taken for granted that one of the leading men of a sept would be appointed, according to prevalent custom, exemplified in the case of Armagh. This suggests that the vacant office was that of abbot. There would be nothing surprising in the selection of a "poor man," who was not a local magnate, as diocesan bishop.

[667] Luke xvii. 16, 18.--This was probably Gilla Aedha Ua Muidhin, who attended the Synod of Kells in 1152 as bishop of Cork (Keating, iii. 317), and died in 1172 (_A.U._). Since he attained "a good old age" there is no reason why he should not have been consecrated as early as 1140 or 1141. He had been a monk of Errew in Lough Con, co.

Mayo (_A.T._ 1172), and was therefore "a stranger," _i.e._ not a native of Munster. He is called a "poor man," no doubt, for the same reason as Malachy himself (- 24), because he had embraced the life of voluntary poverty. He had a reputation for piety and learning, for the Annals describe him as "full of the grace of G.o.d" (_A.U._), and "the tower of devotion and wisdom and virginity of Ireland" (_A.T._). And if the tradition is trustworthy that he was abbot of St. John the Evangelist at Cork, founded by Cormac Mac Carthy "for pilgrims from Connaught" (see the charter of Dermot Mac Carthy printed in Gibson's _History of Cork_, ii. 348), and that it received its later name of Gill Abbey from him, we can explain how he came to be near at hand when the election was taking place.

[668] Matt. ix. 20.--In this and the next two sections we have three miracles wrought on women; one at the point of death, another dead, and the third spiritually dead.

[669] See - 14.

[670] Matt. xvi. 28; Mark ix. 1; Luke ix. 27.