Links between Ireland and Belgium were forged during the great missionary endeavours of the early medieval Irish church when Irish saints such as Saint Foillan, Ultan and Fursey made their mark. Later the scholars in exile in the Irish College at Louvain recovered and preserved the Lives of those Irish saints who had laboured in Europe and in many cases reintroduced them to their countrymen. These links were recalled during the First World War when a particular appeal was made to Ireland to come to the aid of ‘gallant little Belgium’ and fight for the rights of small nations. The Irish also made a contribution to the poetry associated with the Great War, and in the two poems below Katharine Tynan (1861-1931) invokes the saints of Ireland for aid and protection. In the first poem, she contrasts a peaceful idyllic scene in Ireland, where people sleep soundly under the watchful presence of the Irish saints, with the scene of devastation in war-ravaged Belgium, where the saints seem to be silent. In the second poem a mother commends her ‘little son’ (probably a big strapping lad!) to the protection of the Irish saints and the heavenly hosts. I would like to dedicate this post to my own great-uncle James, who died aged 19 in 1915 and is one of many who has no known grave, but is remembered only as a name on the Menin Gate Memorial.

THE WATCHERS

THE cottages all lie asleep;
The sheep and lambs are folded in
Winged sentinels the vale will keep
Until the hours of life begin.

The children with their prayers all said
Sleep until cockcrow shall awake
The gardens in their gold and red
And robins in the bush and brake.

The fields of harvest golden-white,
The fields of pasture rich and green,
Sleep on nor fear the kindly night,
The watching mountains set between.

The river sings its sleepy song,
Nought stirs the wakeful owl beside:
Our peace is builded sure and strong
No evil beast can creep inside.

St Patrick and St Brigid hold
The vale its little houses all,
While men-at-arms in white and gold
Glide swiftly by the outer wall.

St Brendan and St Kevin pluck
The robes of God that He may hear–
And Colum: “Keep the Irish flock
So that no shame or sin come near.”

What news of Belgian folk to-day?
How fare the village and the town?
O Belgium’s all on fire they say,
And all her towers are toppling down.

What are her angels doing then,
And are the Belgian saints asleep,
That in this night of dule and pain
The Belgians mourn, the Belgians weep?

Katharine Tynan, Flower of Youth:Poems in War Time, (London, 1917), 18-19.

In the second poem, A Woman Commends Her Little Son, an Irish mother calls on a host of heavenly protectors to look out for her boy:

A WOMAN COMMENDS HER LITTLE SON

To the aid of my little son
I call all the magnalities —
Archangel, Dominion,
Powers and Principalities.

Mary without a stain,
Joseph that was her spouse,
All God’s women and men,
Out of His glorious House.

The Twelve Apostles by him:
Matthew and Mark and John,
Luke, the Evangelists nigh him,
So he fight not alone.

Patrick, Columcille, Bride —
The Saints of the Irish nation;
Keiran, Kevin beside,
In the death and the desolation.

Listen, ye soldier saints,
Sebastian, Ignatius, Joan,
Be by his side; if he faints,
Strengthen my little son.

In the Side of Christ I lay him,
In the Wound that the spear made;
In the pierced Hands I stay him,
So I am not afraid.

On the knees of the Blessed Mary
And in the fold of her arm,
Refuge and sanctuary
Where he shall take no harm.

To the Wound in the Heart of Christ,
To the Trinity Three in One,
To the Blood spilled out, unpriced,
For love of my little son.

Katharine Tynan, Herb o’ Grace: Poems in War-Time. (London, 1918), 49-50.

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November is the month which opens with the feast of All Saints but which also includes the feast of All the Saints of Ireland on the sixth. In the article below, published in Australia in 1950, the anonymous author poses a very good question – why is Ireland, the ‘island of saints and scholars’, so poorly represented in the universal calendar of the Church? Modern scholars reckon that we have roughly two thousand Irish saints from the early medieval period, i.e. from the fifth to the twelfth centuries. At this time sainthood was very much a local affair, with local bishops acclaiming as saints those holy men and women whose sanctity had been acknowledged by their contemporaries. It was only in the twelfth century that the practice of declaring saints became the prerogative of the Pope alone. The official process of canonisation has developed over the centuries since, although we had a distinct reminder of former times in the shouts of Santo subito during the funeral of Pope St John Paul II. But the fact remains that we have only four officially-canonized saints from this island of saints and scholars. At the time this piece was written there were two saints – Malachy and Laurence and two beati – Oliver Plunkett and  Thaddeus MacCarthy. The cause of Blessed Oliver Plunkett was resumed in 1951, something I have written about here, but it was not until 1975 that he was finally canonized. In 2007 he was joined by Dutch-born Saint Charles of Mount Argus, who came to Ireland in 1857 and ministered as a member of the Passionist community in Dublin until his death in 1893. According to the biography of the new saint at the Vatican website here, his religious superior wrote that “The people have already declared him a saint.”
Certainly his cause proceeded at a pace not seen since the days of Saint Malachy:

The cause of his Beatification and Canonization was introduced on 13 November 1935, and on 16 October 1988, His Holiness John Paul II proceeded with the beatification of the one whom everyone called the saint of Mount Argus.

The writer of this 1950 article makes some interesting observations but ultimately does not offer any explanation for the paradoxical situation that he identified – the conspicuous absence of the Irish on the Universal Calendar of the Church. The writer ends by celebrating Saint Columbanus who was also making headlines in 1950 thanks to the French Foreign Minister, Robert Schuman, one of the founding fathers of the European Union:

 The “island of saints and scholars” was in a curious position

In the Universal Calendar of the Church one great Catholic race is conspicuous by its absence — the Irish. The Calendar knows no nationality or colour barriers. Greeks, Jews, Italians and Spaniards abound thereon; the English sit down with the Egyptians, the French file in with the Germans and there is a place for St. Rose of Lima, who was a Peruvian.

The ‘island of saints and scholars,’ however, is in a paradoxical situation.

Despite 1500 years of remarkably virile Christianity, for 200 of which Ireland was the centre of monastic and missionary activity within the Church, no saint of Irish origin has received international recognition.

Researchers are more or less agreed that St. Patrick was a Welshman of Roman stock, and, at best, Irish by adoption.

But there are indications that this strange situation will be remedied.

There are some who hope that the remedy will come soon; perhaps before the end of the Holy Year the name of the first native Irish saint may be inscribed in the Church calendar.

Inclusion in the Universal Calendar of the Church means that the saint’s feast is inserted into both the missal and the breviary, and is celebrated on a fixed date throughout the world.

Though Ireland has what must be the longest litany of uncanonised saints of any country, only four Irishmen have been formally elevated to the altar by the Holy See.

These are St. Malachy, Bishop of Down and Connor, who died A.D. 1148, and was canonised before the close of the century; St. Lawrence OToole, Archbishop of Dublin at the time of the Norman invasion of Ireland; Blessed Thaddeus MacCarthy, Bishop of Cork, who died on pilgrimage to Rome in 1492; and Blessed Oliver Plunket, Archbishop of Armagh, who was hanged and quartered, at Tyburn in the time of Charles II.

Because of his famous prophecies regarding the Popes, St. Malachy is the most famous of the four.

While in Rome, he is said to have received a strange vision of the future, wherein was unfolded before him the long list of Pontiffs who are to rule the Church to the end of time. The signs he has given to indicate individual Popes have been remarkably verified, especially in recent times.

St. Malachy  also foretold Ireland’s subjection ‘for a week of centuries’ to England, her final success in attaining freedom, and that Ireland would be instrumental in winning back her former enemy to the Faith. All four were Bishops, and all died outside of Ireland. St. Lawrence was canonised at the request of the Bishops of France. Blessed Thaddeus was beatified at the request of the Bishops of Northern Italy, and blessed Oliver was beatified at the request of the Irish Bishops less than a generation ago. The list ends abruptly here.

In a recent address at an international celebration in honour of St. Columban, held in Luxeuil, France, under the patronage of the French President, Foreign Minister Schuman described the saint as ‘the greatest European of his generation.’ The congress was attended by Church and State dignitaries from six European countries and the United States.

Because of his mighty part in the curbing and leading the barbaric invaders of the Roman Empire to the Christian fold, St. Columban has been ‘God’s Fighting Irishman.’ He clashed with kings and princes in his many fights for the poor and defenceless.

Driven from France after many fruitful years of mission work, he continued to establish monasteries in Germany, Switzerland and North Italy, where he died after the Faith had been planted among the Lombards and the heresy of Arianism had been overthrown.

The revival of all Christian knowledge and culture in many parts of France, Germany and Italy is due to the labours and zeal of St. Columban is the verdict given by Pope Plus XI on the work of this Irish saint.

To the French, he is one of the great realities of French history, ranking with St. Louis, St. Joan of Arc and St. Vincent de Paul.

To the Irish, he is the model missionary. For western Europeans, he is becoming the patron of international co-operation and resistance to the forces of Red barbarism.

In China, Japan, Korea, Burma and the Philippines, where missionary priests and Sisters of the Society of St. Columban are labouring, he is the object of popular personal devotion.

An Irish missionary Bishop in China looks on him as the patron of hopeless cases, and has his prayers answered in near miraculous ways.

Four seminaries In the United States, six religious houses and an unknown number of churches are named in his honour.

Catholics everywhere, who received the Sacrament of Penance, owe a debt to St. Columban for popularising the practice of private Confession. Before his time, public confession of sin was the general custom.

The “island of saints and scholars” was in a curious position (1950, October 5). Catholic Weekly (Sydney, NSW : 1942 – 1954), p. 1 (Magazine Section). Retrieved January 26, 2024, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article146735321

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