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  • Saint Muiredach of Killala, August 12

     

    August 12 is the feast of Saint Muiredach (Muireadhach, Muredach) of Killala. Genealogical sources describe him as son of Eachaidh of the Cenél Lóegaire of Meath, a great-grandson of Lóegaire, King of Tara, after whom the tribal grouping was named. Despite his standing as diocesan patron of Killala, the Connacht diocese which takes in parts of the modern counties Mayo and Sligo, surprisingly little information has survived on Killala’s founder. The ninth-century Tripartite Life  depicts Saint Patrick as having founded Cell Alaid (Killala) where he left ‘a high-ranking person of his household, that is Bishop Muiredach’ in charge. However, the seventh-century Collectanea of Tírechán, presents another church, ‘the Great Church by the Wood of Foclut’ as the area’s chief foundation. The saint of this Great Church (Domnach Mór), Mucnoe, seems to have been eclipsed by Muiredach to the point where his name is not found on the calendars of the saints. Yet for all that Saint Muiredach remains an elusive figure. Along with two female Mayo saints, Deirbhile and Géidh, he is said to have been among those who met with Saint Colum Cille at  the Synod of Ballysadare in County Sligo in 575. This, plus the fact that his famous royal ancestor Lóegaire was also supposed to be alive during the Patrician mission, suggests that Muiredach was a sixth century saint, who could not have been placed in charge of Killala by Saint Patrick as the Tripartite Life  claims. The only other tradition connected with Saint Muiredach is that he gave his name to the island of Inishmurray (Inis Muireadheach) off the Sligo coast and may perhaps have been a hermit there. It is worth noting, however, that despite lending his name to the island, it was a Saint Molaisse who was the focus of devotion. Even more interestingly, Saint Muiredach shares his August 12 feast day with Saint Molaisse of Inishmurray, something I will need to research further. In his account of the saint below, Canon O’Hanlon lets us see that that earlier writers were aware of both the chronological contradictions and the general paucity of sources for the life of Saint Muiredach:

    ARTICLE I.—ST. MUREDACH, FIRST BISHOP AND PATRON OF KILLALA DIOCESE.

    [PROBABLY IN THE SIXTH CENTURY.]

    CHAPTER I.
    INTRODUCTION—PERIOD OF ST. MUREDACH—HIS FAMILY AND DESCENT—HIS RECORDED PRESENCE AT EASDARA OR BALLYSODARE—HE BLESSES THE PORT OF KILLALA.

    WHEN giving an account of our great Apostle’s progress through the province of Connaught, the author of St. Patrick’s Tripartite Life tells us, that on coming to a pleasant spot, where the River Muadius, or Moy empties into the ocean, the saint built a noble church, called Kill-Aladh, now Killala. It stood on the south bank of the Moy River. Over this church, he placed one of his disciples, named Muredach, as its first bishop. As he had been consecrated by St. Patrick, according to the account, this present holy man should have flourished during the fifth century. However, such statement has been contradicted. In a few meagre notices respecting our saint, by the Rev. Alban Butler, he follows what Harris had already written.

    In his journey towards Connaught, about A.D. 434, St. Patrick is thought to have continued there for the ensuing seven years, namely to A.D. 441. Therefore, it is supposed, the erection of Killala church may safely be referred to some one of those intermediate years. It has been advanced, that St. Muredach, the first bishop of Killala, had not been born at such an early period, and that he did not flourish until the sixth century. Moreover,
    his recorded pedigree refutes the supposition of his having been contemporaneous with St. Patrick. The generally accurate historian, Rev. Dr. Lanigan, states it to be an error, that St. Muredach’s appointment over the See of Killala should be ascribed to the earlier time. He was rather contemporaneous with St. Columkille, who flourished during the sixth century. The holy Muredach is stated to have been son of Eochaid, son to Alild, son of Guaire, son to Lugid, son of Laoighaire, son to Niall of the Nine Hostages, &c., according to the Sanctilogium Genealogicum, which thus weaves his pedigree. Wherefore, in tracing his descent from Leogaire, King of Ireland, Muredach appears the sixth in generation. Such a place in order may well synchronize with the middle and close of the sixth century.

    He is spoken of as being one of those persons, assembled at Easdara or Ballysodare, in Sligo County, for the purpose of paying respect to the Apostle of the Picts. This was on the occasion of St. Columba being at that place, soon after the dissolution of a celebrated assembly held at Drumceat. Already, an account of the synod convened at Easdara has been given, in connexion with the Acts of St. Farannan; and among the notables named, as assisting thereat, is Muredach of Killala, in Tyr Amhalgaidh. Therefore it would seem, that towards the close of St. Columba’s life, our saint had been bishop there, and that he had the honour and pleasure of greeting the great Apostle of Caledonia.

    However, we have no reliable account, regarding the exact period of St. Muredach’s promotion, nor is there any statement to fix those years, during which he ruled over the See of Killala. Nevertheless, we read in the Life of St. Corbmac, that St. Patrick, St. Brigid, St. Columkille, St. Cannech, and St. Muredach, bishop, had blessed the port of Killala. It does not seem probable, that Muredach should have been placed so low down in the list of these names, had he been contemporaneous with St. Patrick.

    CHAPTER II.

    SITUATION OF KILLALA—THE NATALIS AND COMMEMORATIONS OF ST. MUREDACH— THE PERIOD OF HIS DEATH UNRECORDED—BRIEF HISTORIC NOTES REGARDING THE SEE OF KILLALA—CONCLUSION. 

    THE town of Killala is situated on the River Muad or Moy, in Mayo County, and it lies very near to the Atlantic Ocean. Our ancient annalists sometimes called the prelates over this See the Bishops of Tirawley. They were likewise called Bishops of O’Fiacra-mui, or Hy-Fiachrach, on the River Moy, from a territory distinguished by that name. This is said to have extended along the river in question. This territory was distinct from another, in the province of Connaught, and southwards in the County of Galway. The latter was known as O’Fiacra-Aidne.

    As the Natalis of a saint is understood to coincide with the day of his death, the 12th of August apparently commemorates the anniversary of St. Muredach’s demise, as of his festival; but, we cannot find any date or year to determine the period for his existence. St. Muredach’s Natalis was celebrated in Killala Church and See, on the 12th of August, according to the Tallaght Martyrology. At this date, according to Marianus O’Gorman, the feast of St. Muredach is celebrated in the diocese and church of Killala. The continuator of Aengus also notes his festival at this day. In the Irish Calendar belonging to the Irish Ordnance Survey, on the day before the August Ides—12th of the month—there is a festival to honour Muireadhach, Bishop of Cille Haladh.

    After the rule of St. Muredach over the See of Killala, the names of only two or three bishops can be found, as his. successors, before the Anglo- Norman Invasion of Ireland. After that period, we find the church of Killala
    —or as it is usually written Cill-Alaidh—had its special canon-choristers and herenachs. The “Annals of Loch Cé” contain entries of their deaths. The engraved arms of this See—prefixed to the account of its bishops in Harris’ Ware—are: bearing sapphire, a crozier in pale, topaz, suppressed in the fess point by a Bible expanded, and with clasps proper.  In Killala diocese, this saint’s memory is recorded and honoured with the celebration of a First-Class festival and an octave. An indulgence commences also on the day already named, and it continues during that octave.

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  • Irish Monasteries in Germany: Honau

     

    Below is a paper by Father J.F. Hogan on the Irish monastery at Honau, one of a series on Irish Monasteries in Germany published by the Irish Ecclesiastical Record in the late nineteenth century.  The contribution made by the medieval Irish to continental European culture and Christian civilization was rediscovered during the Irish  cultural revival of the nineteenth century.  County Clare native Father John Francis Hogan (1858–1918), who had studied at the University of Freiburg, was well placed to bring the particular legacy of the Schottenklöster to the attention of an Irish audience. Honau is perhaps one of the lesser-known Irish monasteries in Germany which seems to have ended up a few centuries later under the Canons Regular of Old St. Peter’s in Strasburg, where Father Hogan tells us its Irish abbots were venerated as saints. I note that the Irish abbot Beatus of Honau had become entangled with the ‘Apostle of Switzerland’ of the same name. We Irish can of course claim the honour of that title for Saint Gall, disciple of Saint Columbanus:

    IRISH MONASTERIES IN GERMANY

     HONAU

    HONAU or Hohenaugia is an island in the Rhine, not far from Strasburg in which a monastery was established  in the year 724. The site of the monastery was granted  by the Ethicos, Dukes of Alsace. Adalbert, who is sometimes, though incorrectly, mentioned as its founder,  richly endowed it. It was further enriched by grants and  privileges from the sons of Adalbert, Luitfrid and Eberhard. The importance of the establishment can be judged from the  charters granted to it at various times which are happily preserved by Mabillon. One of these charters, drawn up by the Abbot Beatus, is signed by eight Irish bishops. It makes over and bequeaths to the monastery and to the  ‘pauperes et peregrinos gentis Scottorum’ not only the  buildings, lands, chattels, and appurtenances of Honau itself, but also the right and title to eight churches that had been  erected in different parts of the German Empire by the zeal  of those ‘Pilgrim fathers.’

    The first abbot of the monastery was Benedict, also  called Tubanus. He dedicated his establishment to St.  Michael the Archangel. Unfortunately, we know nothing  about his personal history beyond the fact that he was a  Scot, and the first abbot of this ‘Schottenklöster.’ He  was succeeded as abbot by Dubanus, Dubanus by Thomas, Thomas by Stephen, Stephen by Beatus. Beatus was the most remarkable of the Abbots of Honau. According to  the learned German historian, Friederich, he is the same who evangelized a good part of Switzerland, founded the monastery of Beromünster, near Lucerne, of Yberg in the  Canton of Schweitz, and built up several other establishments in Unterwalden and over the Brünig in the Bernese Oberland, where his name is still commemorated in the famous Beatenhohle, and in the town of St. Beatenberg, over the Lake of Thun.

    Most valuable privileges were granted to Honau by various princes; but the most remarkable of them was the charter of Charlemagne, which confirmed to the monastery all donations previously made ‘by kings or queens or other servants of God’ and exempted it from tolls and several other imposts then in force amongst the people. It furthermore declares that these pilgrim monks are not to be molested or interfered with in any way, and that all these lands and possessions are to belong to them and to their countrymen, to the exclusion of all others: ‘an interesting record’ as Dr. Todd remarks, ‘of the high esteem and favour in which  the Irish of the Continent were held at that time by the greatest monarch of the west.

    But the most important document that has come down to us in connection with the history of this institution, is the charter, or, rather, the will of the Abbot Beatus. This document, besides the intrinsic value of its contents, is attested and authenticated by the signatures of the abbot (in the first place), and of eight bishops whose names, as Zeuss has shown clearly indicate their nationality. The signatures are: —

    Signum Beati Abbatis, qui hanc chartam fieri rogavit.

    Signum Comgani Episcopi.

    Signum Echoch Episcopi.

    Signum Suathar Episcopi.

    Signum Mancunigib Episcopi.

    Signum Caincomrihc Episcopi.

    Signum Doilgusso Episcopi.

    Signum Erdomnach Episcopi.

    Signum Hemeni Episcopi.

    Dr. Todd endeavoured to make capital out of these signatures, in favour of his contention that there was no such thing as diocesan jurisdiction in Ireland before the twelfth century, and no canonical restriction whatever to the consecration of bishops. According to him the abbot who was not a bishop at all, simply consecrated whomsoever he pleased; and the bishops thus consecrated looked up to the abbot, as the head of a sept, according to the Brehon code, looked up to a chieftain. This theory was developed and formally put forward by Dr. Todd in his Life of St. Patrick. No doubt the early organization of the Celtic Church outside the monasteries is involved in great obscurity. This arises evidently from the fact that the records have perished. Those of the monasteries alone have come down to us, and they deal naturally with the organization of monastic rather than of secular life. The great, and indeed, predominating, part which the monasteries played in the religious life of Ireland may be readily conceded; yet Mgr. Gargan, now happily ruling as President of Maynooth College, had little difficulty in showing that the bishops who lived and laboured in the monasteries, under the rule of the abbot, were merely ‘Chorepiscoi ‘ subject to the external jurisdiction of the  ordinaries who ruled and governed then as they do now. There is no proof worth the least consideration that such bishops were consecrated by one who was merely an abbot, but not a bishop. The case mentioned by Wasserschleben of Gregory of Utrecht, is by no means clearly established.

    This learned German shows, moreover, in his own work, that the privilege of having resident bishops in the monasteries, ready at any moment to administer the Sacraments of Confirmation and Orders, was derived directly from the Holy See, and was much availed of in countries far distant from the seat of authority, at a time when direct communication with Rome was difficult and uncertain. As an instance he quotes the privilege granted by Pope Adrian I. to the monastery of St. Denis in France, in the year 771.

    The fact that eight different churches are mentioned as having been erected by the monks in different localities in Germany would, on this principle, readily account for the eight bishops who signed the charter. One of these churches was in the city of Mayence, one at Hawenback, one at Bubenheim, one at Bodesheim, one at Bochenn, one at Lognau, one at Hurmusa, and one at what is called Sylvia in Marchlichio.

    Grandidier, and after him Rettberg, mention a monastery of Luttenbach to which Abbot Beatus sent eighteen Irish monks, and which subsequently became a flourishing establishment. In some of the Codices of the Charter of Beatus, Luttenbach is mentioned as merely another name for ‘Silvia in Marchlichio’.  All these churches founded from Honau were situated according to some in the Palatinate of the Rhine. Others identify Beronia with Beromünster, in the diocese of Constance and find traces of a monastery of Lautenbach in the ancient diocese of Basle. This has led them to the conclusion that Abbot Beatus of Hohenau is the same who is venerated as the Apostle of Switzerland. The dates, however, will scarcely admit such an inference. The question is discussed at great length by Lutolf, the Swiss historian, who regards the Swiss Beatus as an Irishman, no doubt, but advances solid evidence to show that he could not have been the same as Beatus of Honau.

    The successor of Beatus as abbot was Egidanus. He was probably the last of the abbots of Honau; in the reign of Charles the Gross the whole establishment was transferred to Rheinau, and afterwards to the Canons Regular of Old St. Peter’s in Strasburg, where the Irish abbots of Honau were venerated as saints. It was a canon of this establishment, named Jean le Labourer,  who communicated to Mabillon the important documents relating to the history of Honau, which have been preserved in the Annals of the Benedictine Order.

    J. F. HOGAN.

    The Irish Ecclesiastical Record, Volume IV, (1898), 265-269.

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  • A Week on the Isles of Arran

    

    

    March  21 is the feast  of Saint Enda of Aran, one of the founding fathers of Irish monasticism.  His island home became more accessible during the Victorian era with the provision of a bi-weekly steamer service from Galway.  Last year I posted the moving account of episcopal visitor Bishop George Conroy of Ardagh, published after his sudden death in 1877. It is available on the blog here. Twenty years later a female traveller, Laura Grey, boarded the ‘well-appointed steamer’ at Galway and arrived three hours later on Aran of the Saints. I first encountered Laura Grey in connection with my blog on the Irish martyrs, as The Irish Rosary periodical had published one of her papers on Dominican martyr of Cashel, Father Richard Barry. That paper can be read here. I am very keen to find out more about this lady, she clearly had a link to the Dominican order (was she perhaps a tertiary?) and I wondered if ‘Laura Grey’ was a pseudonym. She would seem to have been a lady of some means too as four years before her excursion to Aran she had published an account of her visit to the Dominican Abbey of Our Lady of Thanks at Youghal, which is available to read at my other site here. She begins her article on Aran with a description of the island and its inhabitants. It’s interesting from a social history point of view in that first she describes how the modern world is encroaching on Aran and secondly she testifies to the developing tourist industry, describing how ‘the visitor can engage neat apartments in one or two cottages on the large island. The tariff is most moderate and the food excellent’. Fascinating though this is, I have chosen to omit the first part of the paper in order to concentrate on what Laura Grey has to tell us about Saint Enda and  his saintly students. The volume is available, however,  from the Internet Archive where the paper may be read in full:
    

    A WEEK ON THE ISLES OF ARRAN, COUNTY GALWAY, IRELAND. 
    

    Laura Grey.
    

    

    Midway, where the Atlantic Ocean lashes on one side the coast of Clare, and on the other the rocky headlands of Connemara, the Isles of Arran lie. Arranmore, or the great island; Innismaan, or the middle island, and Innishere, or the eastern or southern island. Although all three islands bristle with Christian and pagan antiquities, the tourist will naturally turn towards Arranmore, the largest of the group, and ask its past history…
    

    But the writer must hasten on to contemplate these islands in the fifth century, when St. Enda first landed and steered his currach into Killeaney Bay, where he lived, labored, and died, leaving behind him a school of anchorites that earned for Arran the Celtic epithet, “Arran-na-Naomh,” Arran of the Saints.
    

    ISLES OF ARRAN.
    

    

    St. Enda (pronounced Enna), the patron of Arran, came of royal Irish blood, being the son of Conall Derg, king of Oriel. His father’s territory extended from Lough Erne in Fermanagh, to the sea at Dundalk. Conall Derg beame a convert to the Christian faith preached by St. Patrick, and during the saint’s lifetime renounced his kingdom and became a recluse.
    

    His son, Enda, succeeded to the crown, and like most youths of the time, indulged in the rough pastimes of his father’s court. He went hawking and hunting, and making warlike raids on the neighboring chieftains who invaded his domains.
    

    He had two sisters, one named Darenia, married to AEngus, king of Munster, whom St. Patrick baptized, and another named Fanchea, who at an early age left her home to join a religious Community near the present town of Enniskillen, in the County Fermanagh.
    

    On one occasion, Enda set forth with his clansmen to chastise a refractory chief, and passed by his sister’s oratory en route. Looking over the low stone wall which bordered the enclosure, he beheld Fanchea and her novices at prayer. One of them was a most beautiful maiden, and Enda secretly longed to carry her off to be his wife. He bided his opportunity, and when the heat of the battle was over, he retraced his steps towards his sister’s retreat, and demanded the maiden in marriage.
    

    Fanchea forbade him to approach near her, saying his hands were stained with human blood, and he was unworthy to enter the sacred enclosure. Enda in defence, urged that it was his duty to defend himself against the inroads of his enemies, and concluded in these words:
    

    “I have not killed any man with my own hands, nor yet have
    
I sinned with women.”
    

    Fanchea, perceiving it became useless to bandy words with her
    
warrior-brother, called the maiden aside, and addressed her
    
thus:
    

    “My sister, a choice is given you to-day. Wilt thou love the Spouse whom I love, or rather a carnal spouse?”
    

    “ I will always love thy Spouse,” replied the maiden.
    

    Fanchea told her to lie down on her couch, and cast a veil over her face. Then calling Enda into the cell, she removed the veil, and brother and sister saw the girl was dead.
    

    Enda burst into lamentations, whilst Fanchea stood by and spoke to him of the shortness of life and the certainty of death. Her words bore fruit. The prince rose from his knees, swept aside his tears, and vowed he would renounce his kingdom, and become a recluse.
    

    Before embracing his new vocation he built a high rampart of earth round his sister’s cloister, to prevent outsiders from invading her privacy, and then he set forth to save his own soul, and those of others. The remains of this rampart may still be traced.
    

    After divers rambles through his native land, Britain, and even Rome, Enda returned to Ireland, and sought for some remote spot where he might live and die.
    

    His brother-in-law, Aengus, hearing of his desire, offered him the Isles of Arran, over which he ruled as king. Enda gladly accepted, and in the year 484 crossed over from Garomna island on the Galway coast, and cast his lot on the rugged shores which were to be the scene of his many triumphs and labors. Into Killeaney Bay, since called after him ( Kill, a church, Enny of Enda), he steered his currach.
    

    By the wild waves he takes his last rest under a leac, or flag, which is usually covered by the shifting sand. One hundred and twenty-seven saints sleep around him in the same churchyard, guarding the oratory of their spiritual father, who dwelt “in his prison of hard, narrow stone ” for more than sixty years. Tradition points to a curious rock on the sea-shore, and tells us that St. Enda’s currach was turned into stone on his landing. The miracle foreshadowed to the saint that his boat had taken her last voyage, and that he was destined never to quit the isles of Arran.
    

    And so it came to pass, for although the islands were frequently visited by Irish saints, the founder of Arran remained true to his home in the ocean. Early in St. Enda’s history, we find St. Brendan, the navigator, visiting Arran previous to his departure on the Western Main to discover America.
    

    St. Finian of Clonard, next passed the way, and paused to take counsel from the saintly hermit whose fame for sanctity was rapidly lighting up the West.
    

    Even the great Columbcill “ of the fiery soul,” heard of Enda, and hastened to join the ranks of his disciples.
    

    He ground the corn and herded the sheep, unconscious of the bloody field of Cuil-Dreimhe which was to be expiated by him in after years by a lifetime of penance on Iona.
    

    At St. Enda’s command he left Arran, lamenting over his departure in the words which Aubrey de Vere has translated from Irish Odes
    

    “Farewell to Arran Isle;
    
farewell  I steer for Hy— my heart is sore;
    
The breakers burst, the billows swell,
    
Twixt Arran Isle and Alba’s shore.”
    

    During St. Columbcille’s sojourn in Arran, St. Ciaran, “ the carpenter’s son,” visited the islands. For three years he lived amongst the anchorites, built his church, blessed the sparkling well which bears his name, and finally set sail for Clonmacnoise on the banks of the Shannon, where he was to found his monastery. Amongst its many ancient churches, Arran holds none quainter or more devotional than St. Ciaran’s.
    

    Overhanging the bay, which still retains the saint’s name, the four roofless walls stand. The altar is there at which he celebrated Mass, and his narrow cell, which communicated with the church through a window overlooking the altar. Window, church, and cell are intact, and attract the devotion of the Catholic, and the curiosity of the tourist.
    

    One morning our saint came to St. Enda, and related to him a dream which he had dreamt the night before. He beheld a gigantic oak tree which overshadowed a broad plain, and touched the ground with its numerous branches. Panting for a reply, the youthful Ciaran watched the tears gather in the eyes of the aged Enda, and a gloomy foreboding seized him that his hour of departure from Arran was nigh. After a moment of silent prayer, St. Enda read the dream. He told his companion that the oak symbolized himself (St. Ciaran), whose name would cover the plains by the Shannon with glory, like the overweighted oak-tree which was bowed to the ground with its load of foliage. “ Thou must leave Arran, my son,” pursued the patriarch.  Into yonder creek thou shalt steer thy currach, and God will direct thy footsteps into the interior of the country, where a winding river flows. There shalt thy name draw many souls into God’s vineyard, and the shadow of thy virtues will overcast the plains, like the oak thou hast seen in thy dream.”
    

    Waving his hand towards the Connemara coast opposite Arran, St. Enda pointed out the bay now called Kilkerran, and Ciaran knew he should make ready to cross the strait which separated him from the mainland. St. Enda and his anchorites congregated on the shore to bid him farewell, and we are told that the Founder of Arran laid his hand on the bowed head of Ciaran, and blessed him and the monasteries he should build. It was to be the last meeting on earth of the two saints — the aged and the young.
    

    St. Ciaran’s career was destined to be brief and glorious, and he was to precede St. Enda to the tomb by many years. He was aged twenty-seven at the time he left Arran, and six years ahead would find him dying of the pestilence at Clonmacnoise, with St. Kevin of Glendalough holding before his fading sight the Holy Viaticum.
    

    St. Kevin and St. Ciaran had met at Arran, and cemented a friendship which never died out. A brother of the first-named saint, also named Keevin , is buried on the middle island of Arran.
    

    Most of the Irish saints visited the islands at some period of their lives. St. Carthagh of Lismore, St. Yarlath of Tuam, and a host of others could be named had we space to prolong our researches into the Christian past of Arran. The three islands bristle with remains of their saintly footsteps.
    

    The church of the “four beautiful saints’ may be quoted, where four flat slabs marked the graves of four hermits, who lived a life of common prayer, officiated at the same adjacent little church, and were laid side by side when they died.
    

    Kilronan, the chief village on Arran Mor, derives its name from St. Ronan, whose grave is still shown. He was a disciple of St. Enda’s, but nothing more is known of him.
    

    About forty years ago the tomb of another saint was discovered, named Brecan. His little church formerly stood surrounded by six other churches, which earned for the group the title of the “ Seven Churches.” Only one of the seven remains, Tempull a Phuill, to tell where the others flourished.
    

    We find another disciple of St. Enda’s, St. Colman McDuagh, utilizing an old fort of the Firbolgs, and converting the deserted stronghold into cells for his Community. Round about the pagan fort a cluster of other churches grew up, and the place is known under the name of Kilmurvey.
    

    Close to the seashore, between the village of Kilronan and the church of the four beauties, tradition points to a cluster of ruins said to have been once the abode of religious women who lived under St. Enda’s direction. A female saint, whose name the writer forgets, is buried on the middle island.
    

    St. Enda’s days, and those of his followers, were filled with prayer and manual labor. The hours fled by, diversified by prayer, tilling the ground, and the study of the Scriptures.
    

    Each Community had its own church, where the brethren assembled for public devotions, and each Brother took his meals in the common refectory, and cooked them in the common kitchen. They lived like the first Christians, having all things equally divided. Thus their peaceful lives sped on, undisturbed by any noise from without, except the wild roar of the Atlantic Ocean.
    

    St. Enda himself never tasted meat, though he allowed his disciples to kill a sheep on great festival days for themselves and their visitors. Each monk slept in bee-hive cell, or cloghaun, and wore the same garments during the hours of repose, as he had done in the daytime. The pallet was of straw, or the bare ground, and a rug was the covering by night.
    

    The Community sowed the arid soil with wheat, rye, and oats, or fished round the coast to secure their frugal meals. In this manner they supported themselves by the sweat of their brows. When the crops had been gathered into the rude barns, they were ground by a quern, or kneaded into meal and baked for general consumption.
    

    St. Enda divided the islands into ten portions, and placed a superior over each Community, who was bound in his turn to acknowledge the Saint of Arran as superior.
    

    At stated times, St. Enda made a visitation of his insular territory, and saw that his rule of life was enforced in its primitive vigor.
    

    He died at the advanced age of one hundred years, in the year 540. He was buried in his oratory close to the sea, called after his grave, Teglach Enda, meaning tomb of Enda. From his last resting-place the present village of Killeaney takes its name, being derived from the Irish words Kill Enda, Church of Enda.
    

    Part II. of our sketch of the Arran isles has come to a close. Dr. Healy, the present Catholic Bishop of Clonfert, in his admirable work on “Ireland’s Ancient Schools and Scholars,’’ pays a well-earned tribute to Arran, and the saints who dwelt there.
    

    A perusal of his book induced the present writer to take ship from Galway in the August of 1896, and visit these far Western islands. She trusts others may follow her example, and if this sketch of Arran stimulates them to do so, she has had her reward.
    

    THE ROSARY MAGAZINE, Volume 11, August, 1897, 147-155.
    

    

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