November 6 is the Feast of All the Saints of Ireland and below is a reflection from Father William P. Treacy (1850–1906) on the legacy of those Irish saints who carried the Gospel outside these shores. Father Treacy was a native of Tipperary who was ordained at Louvain and subsequently ministered in the United States, a background which perhaps explains his affinity for those Irishmen who studied and laboured abroad. In the excerpt below from his 1889 work Irish Scholars of the Penal Days, he reflects the mainstream Victorian romantic approach to the early medieval Irish church and its saints, as he recalls a lost Golden Age when the Faith was pure and laments those ‘mists and clouds’ which prevent this ‘angelic vision of Ireland’s beauty’ from being appreciated properly today. This blog will, le cuidiú Dé, continue to honour the saints of Ireland and I wish everyone the blessings of their feast!

…Our noble hagiologists watched with streaming eyes the holy missionaries
marching out from Ireland in glorious succession to bring light, and
peace, and joy, and life to the peoples who sat in the darkness of error
and in the shadow of death. They saw St Arden preaching to the
Northumbrians in England; they saw St Colman among the Northern Saxons;
they beheld St. Arbogart seated and ruling in the Episcopal Chair of
Strasbourg. Sts. Maildulphus, Cuthbert, Killian, Virgilius, Finden and
Columba rose up before their entranced vision, and they blessed and
glorified the land that bore such flowers. They deeply felt the truth of
the words of St Adelnus to Elfride, “that Ireland is no less stored
with learned men than are the heavens with glittering stars.” With
Egiwold, they agreed “that Ireland, though fruitful in soil, is much
more celebrated for saints.” With Henry of Huntingdon they knew “that
the Almighty enriched Ireland with several blessings, and appointed a
multitude of saints for its defence.” They delighted in old, holy
Ireland. Ireland of the Cell, and the Church, and the Monastery, and the
Convent, and the Well, and the Celtic Cross, claimed the deep devotion
of their hearts. No wonder that the names of our hagiologists are loved
and cherished by every true child of Ireland. Would that we could
inherit some of their love for our forefathers in the Faith! I can think
of few blessings greater than the grace of devotion to the dear
servants of God. To love the saints who prayed, and watched, and fasted,
and bled, and died to transmit the Faith pure and bright to us ought to
be our great aim. Sons of Ireland, do you always remember that the
chief and lasting glory of your country is Christian? Do you always
remember that the brightest halos that shine upon your country are those
that surround the heads of your saints? Alas! I fear not. To many the
angelic vision of Ireland’s beauty during the days when St Columb
preached in Scotland; when Columban taught in France; when St Clement
spoke in Germany; when St Buan bore the light into Iceland; when St
Killian prayed in Franconia, and St Buiwan in the Orcades, when St
Gallus stood amid the snows of Switzerland, and St Brendan shone upon
the Fortunate Isles, is covered with mists and clouds…..

Rev. William P. Treacy, Irish Scholars of
the Penal Days: Glimpses of their Labours on the Continent of Europe (New
York, 1889), 67-68.

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