OMNIUM SANCTORUM HIBERNIAE

Tag: Irish Ecclesiastical Record

  • Saint Lucius of Coire, December 3

    December 3 is the commemoration of a saintly king whose story has fascinated me since I first read about it on Father Ambrose’s celt-saints list. This is the story of Lucius, an early king of Britain, who is credited with being a missionary to an area of Switzerland later associated with the Irish saint Fridolin. Scholars suspect that some sort of confusion has arisen here and caused a British [Welsh] king who requested a missionary effort to his own land to be conflated with a missionary who laboured in Switzerland and was martyred there. Below is the text of a paper on Saint Lucius and his sister Saint Emerita, who is commemorated on the day after her brother. It appeared in the Irish Ecclesiastical Record of 1895 and gives a good account of the devotion which these early martyrs still inspired in the region at the end of the nineteenth century, especially as the author was able to access the Coire Breviary and read the Lessons for the saints’ feasts. 
    COIRE AND ITS APOSTLE
    COIRE, Chur, or Quera for by all these names it is known, according as its title is French, German, or Romanesque will always have a special interest for Catholics of the British Isles, on account of its connection with St. Lucius, and St. Fridolin. From the former, a British prince, this part of Switzerland received her faith in the earliest ages of Christianity; whilst the latter, an illustrious Irish Abbot, revived the faith and spread monasticism in the sixth century. From a visit paid in1879, and also in the May of this present year, and from sundry information derived therefrom, the writer hopes to awaken some interest in this ancient capital of Rhoetia, the modern Canton of the Grisons.
    This town, of about eight thousand inhabitants, almost equally divided between Catholics and Lutherans, is situated on the slope of the Mittenburg, a lofty and well-wooded mountain. The latter dwell in the lower part, and are split up into two sects ; each have a separate Church ; and, from a onversation with a priest of the cathedral, they seem to have lost all prestige, to have no bishop, and, in fact, are destitute of that dignity which a State Church enjoys in Protestant countries. Nevertheless, they appear to live on good terms with their Catholic neighbours. On the other and, the true Church seems to hold the ascendancy, as well from a topographical as from a religious point of view. The highest part of the city is known as the “Episcopal Quarter,” and here in the “Hof,” or square, stands the quaint old cathedral, flanked on one side by the residences of the bishop and clergy, and on the other, by the handsome day-schools for boys and girls of the parish. In the centre of the square (which is strictly a spacious triangle) is a large stone cistern, with a finely-carved pillar in the centre, having four statues of saints in the niches, with water constantly flowing from four spouts. The whole is an interesting piece of mediaeval Gothic work. This square is entered from the lower town, through what may be called the apex of the triangle, by the steep tunnelled passage of an old gate-way, the rooms over being known as the “Ampthor,” or the “Canons’ Tavern.” A gloomy tower of great antiquity adjoins the Episcopal Palace, and is said to be partly of Roman construction, and to mark the site of the martyrdom of St. Lucius. It is called the Marzol (martiola), and is used [as an archive office and muniment room. An ecclesiastical seminary stands higher up the mountain, overlooking the cathedral, and near at hand is the large Cantonal School for Higher Education. Here boys of thirteen to eighteen years, from the town and adjacent country, are taught music, drawing, languages, &c. They are conspicuous as they stroll along the streets, or woodland paths, in their handsome uniform of dark blue, and silver buttons; and though all are polite in manner, the Catholic students always raise their caps to a priest.
    In the centre of the town is the Rhoetian Museum, full of curiosities and paintings, interesting to Switzers, the chief being a wonderful work on oak-panels of Holbein’s “Dance of Death.” When we consider the treasures kept here, and the library of twenty-five thousand volumes, as also the sacred shrines of silver and copper in the cathedral sacristy, it will be seen that this quaint little city is well worth a visit of the antiquarian. The following account, however poor and scanty in detail, of the connection between Coire and Great Britain, as shown in her ecclesiastical history, can hardly fail to interest the Catholic reader.
    Every 3rd of December, the capital of the Grisons keeps high festival “in honour of her Apostle and Patron, the “solemnity,” as it is styled in their Calendar, of St. Lucius, king and martyr. Through the kindness of one of the clergy, I obtained the Proper Lessons from the Breviary of the diocese of Coire, Breviarium Curense, to aid me in writing this article. These Lessons, along with the scattered fragments gathered from other sources are the only matter at hand for this purpose.
    In that most authentic record, the Roman Martyrology, there occurs for December 3rd, the following : “At Coire (Curiae), in Germany (!) St. Lucius, king of the Britons, who, first of those kings, received the faith of Christ, in the time of Pope Eleutherius.” Likewise, in the British Martyrology, for the same date, occurs this notice: “At Coire, or Chur, in the land of the Grisons, the festivity of St. Lucius, said to have been a British prince, who, through the zeal of the glory of God and the conversion and salvation of souls, going abroad, preached the faith of Christ among the” Switzers and Grisons; where he was made Bishop of Coire, and at length ended his days by martyrdom. His feast is solemnly kept with an octave, in the diocese of Coire, where there is, not far from the city, an ancient monastery which bears his name.” December 4th, “At Coire, the festivity of St. Emerita, virgin and martyr, sister to St. Lucius.”
    The interesting question now arises as to who is this St. Lucius, and is he the same as the Leurwg Vawr, or “Great Light” (Latinized into Lucius), who sent to Pope Eleutherius for an Apostle to convert his subjects. It is a most pleasing discovery, that from such scanty accounts as we possess of the primaeval Christianity of Western Europe, there seems no doubt but that he is one and the same saint. Thus, a spiritual relationship is established between our country and the Grisons Canton, which through many vicissitudes and the throes of the Reformation has clung to the faith, and yet preserves with honour the bones of her Apostle in the cathedral of Coire.
    Before turning to the Proper Lessons of the Coire Breviary for the feast of St. Lucius, let us notice the Third Lesson of the English Supplement to the Breviary, for St. Eleutherius, May 29th: ” He (the saint) received, by ambassadors, letters from Lucius, King of the Britons, asking for ministers of the Divine Word, to whom he despatched Fugatius and Damianus, priests of the Roman Church. The king and his whole family, as well as nearly all his subjects, were by them regenerated in the holy laver of baptism.” This fact is also mentioned in the Roman Martyrology for May 26th.
    The oldest Welsh records, such as the Book of Llandaff, give the names of four missionaries sent from Rome – Dyfan, Ffagan, Medwy, and Elvan; and it is certain that churches dedicated to these saints formerly existed near Llandaff. It is stated in this book, that Leurwg erected the first church at Llandaff. which was the first in the island of Britain, and he bestowed the freedom of the country and nation upon those who were of the faith of Christ.” Hence it was that Llandaff naturally laid claim to the Archiepiscopal dignity, being styled, in this book, the “foundation of Leurwg ap Coel” (i.e., Lucius, son of Cole). The evidence of the British Martyrology is interesting on these points of our early history:
    ” Jan. 2. At London, the commemoration of the holy Confessors, Elvan and Medwyne, who (according to divers historians and ancient records) being sent to Rome by King Lucius to the holy Pope Eleutherius, to desire missionaries from thence, who might receive him and his people into the Church of Christ, returned home so well instructed in the Christian faith, as to become both eminent teachers and great saints. Elvan is said to have been the second Bishop of London, and to have converted many of the Druids to the faith of Christ.”
    ” Jan. 3. At Avallonia, now Glastenbury, the commemoration of the Apostolic Missionaries, Fagan and Dwywan, or Deruvian, honoured by the ancient Britons among their primitive saints. They are called by the Lessons of theRoman Breviary, May 26, Fugatius and Damianus : and are there said to have been sent by St. Eleutherius, the Pope, for the conversion of the Britons, which they happily effected. The antiquities of Glastenbury further inform us that they, in their progress through Britain, visited the solitude of Avallonia, and found there the old church, supposed to have been built by St. Joseph of Arimathea and that they there appointed twelve of their disciples to lead a monastical, or eremitical life in the neighbourhood of that holy church; which number of twelve, they say, was kept up by succession till the days of St. Patrick.”
    A pleasing coincidence occurred to the writer when visiting Coire in last May. Having recited the Proper Lessons of the English Breviary of St. Eleutherius, above alluded to as making mention of St. Lucius, he was anxious to identify the latter saint with the patron of the city. The priest he consulted in the matter straightway handed to him the Proper Lessons from the Coire Breviary, which solved the difficulty, and which are now presented to the reader. On this same day, May 29th, the Feast of St. Augustine, our Apostle, was being kept in the Cathedral, and it seemed another link between England and Switzerland, when, at High Mass, were chanted the words of the Collect: “Concede, ut, ipso interveniente, errantium corda ad veritatis tuae redeant unitatem, et nos in tua simus voluntate Concordes.”
    ” Dec. 3. In Solemnitate S. Lucii, Eeg. Ep. et M. Basilicao Cathedralis, ac Diocesis Curiensis gloriosissimi Patroni primarii, Duplex I. cl. cum octava.”
    “Lucius, King of the Britons, son of Coillus Justus, for a long while abandoned to the superstitions of the Gentiles, became acquainted with the wonderful works of the Christians, and, pondering carefully over the integrity of their lives, he determined to embrace that religion, to which he had never shown any dislike. Nevertheless, because he discovered that they appeared to be objects of hatred to other nations, and especially the Romans, and that they were subjected to every kind of suffering, insult, and torment, he judged it better to put off his conversion to another time. Afterwards, however, he learned that several Romans of high standing, and, among others, men of senatorial rank, had embraced the Christian faith, and that the Emperor himself, Marcus Antoninus, was of a milder disposition towards the Christians, by whose prayers a victory had been gained.
    Without any further delay, ambassadors were sent to Eleutherius, the Roman Pontiff, to say that he wished to be admitted within the ranks of the Christians. In order to gratify his devout behests, the Pope sent Damianus and Fugatianus into Britain, who instructed and baptized the king.”
    “Lucius, now filled with heavenly zeal, began to despise the things of. this world, and having abdicated his throne, he wandered over large tracts of country, in order to spread the Christian faith. Coming to Rhoetia, he reached a town called Augusta-Vindelicorum, and there converted a leading man, named Patritius, along with his entire family, and many of the citizens. On this occasion, the first temple was built to the true God, which place, by a change of name, is said to be now the town of St. Gall. But the hatred and envy of wicked men were now excited, and he was beaten, stoned, and finally cast into a well, whence he was drawn out by pious hands in a half dead condition.
    “He now departed to Alpine Rhoetia, where he took up his abode in a rocky cave, where a throng of persons came to him, on account of a fountain (which exists to this day), sovereign for diseases, but especially those of the eyes. Thus, by word and example, he brought almost the whole of Rhoetia under the yoke of Christ ; and being made bishop of that nation, he ruled for a long period, glorious for his virtues and miracles, until he was seized by the pagans and stoned to death. He received the crown of martyrdom on the 3rd day of December, about the year 182, in the tower called the Martiola (Marzol), at Coire, which is now the episcopal see.”
    This Coillus, or Cole, is, doubtless, the British Prince, who founded the ancient town of Colchester (Coili-castra), which was in our earliest times a bishopric. In Butler’s Lives of the Saints, May 26th, it is stated that the Bishop of Colchester was present along with two other British bishops at the Council of Aries, A.D. 314.
    The Gospel used for the feast of St. Lucius is that of the “Good Shepherd,” the same as is used for St. Thomas of Canterbury.
    We here give the Lessons for the feast of St. Emerita, virgin and martyr, whose feast is kept as a “greater double,” on the 4th of December, as being connected with the history of her brother :
    “The virgin Emerita, sister of St. Lucius, King of Britain, having been taught by him the Christian doctrine, and baptized by the legate of St. Eleutherius, wished to copy her brother in the practice of her faith and of every Christian virtue. Wherefore she demolished the idols and their temples ; she built churches and provided them with all things necessary : she gave all her goods to the poor. Having brought many into the fold of Christ ; and spurning an earthly kingdom, in order to follow after the things that are of God, she determined, in spite of all obstacles, to go abroad after her brother. Thus, having made every careful provision for the kingdom and its needs, Emerita, despising all earthly riches and pleasures for love of Jesus Christ, took up the pilgrim’s staff, and, with a pious retinue of men and women, set out in search of her holy brother. Wandering through many lands, she at length found him at that very spot which is now Coire, preaching in his mountain cave, and expounding the rudiments of the faith to the people. When she had made herself known to Lucius, and had given him her reasons for coming thither, they both gave thanks to God, and both spent a long time together in holy prayers and canticles of praise.
    “Emerita, having both by word and example, confirmed the preaching of St. Lucius, was at length accused by certain Pagans of being a Christian. When these could by neither entreaties nor threats prevail upon her to abjure the Christian faith, she was put to many tortures, and at last burnt to death at the town of Trimonte. Thus did she finish her martyrdom; and the faithful, hearing of it, took the bones and ashes of the holy martyr, and placed them in a fair linen cloth. On the spot where her relics were interred, there afterwards arose a Church in honour of the Holy Virgin Mary, St. Andrew the Apostle, and of St. Emerita, Virgin and Martyr.”
    The rocky cavern, here alluded to, is in a wood on the Mittenberg, above the town, and is a favourite place of pilgrimage for the devout visitor to Coire. At certain times, too, it is thronged by the natives, who come here for spiritual exercises, and it can be easily reached in about half an hour by any of the climbing paths that lead to it through the forest glade. The beetling cliff shelters a small chapel dedicated to St. Lucius, in which there is a handsomely adorned altar, used occasionally for Mass. This marks the hollow spot, where, as in another ” Sagro Specu” of Subiaco, our royal saint prayed and instructed, and shone as a veritable “light to the Gentiles,” a “Leurwg Vawr” to the Pagans of Rhoetia. Near this small chapel is a block of stone, with a basin-like cavity, where tradition says he administered the holy rites of baptism. From this spot is a magnificent view, and one that will never be forgotten. It embraces the open valley of the Rhine, in the direction of Thusis, with the mighty Calanda and the Pizokel, right and left respectively, whilst at the foot of the mountain, immediately below this cave of the St. Luzikapelle lies snugly ensconced the city of Coire. In this net-work of walks, which extend up the mountain side of the Mittenberg, the geologist and the botanist will find much to delight and interest them. Amongst other curious flowers, we noticed a strange kind of black columbine.
    The Cathedral of Coire is a quaint and irregular edifice, the nave and chancel being evidently built at separate times, since their arches do not coincide. The choir is reached by a double flight of nine well-worn steps, and contains some finely-carved stalls for the canons, and a very old high altar,over which is a splendid triptych of oak-carving, richly coloured. Here are painted groups of saints, and various mysteries of the Passion. The work is alto-relievo, and was carved in 1492, by Russ of Lucerne, being painted by Wahlgemuth, of Nuremberg. It is said by competent judges to be ” among the sweetest and most beautiful creations of fifteenth century art” (Burkhard). In the nave, just below the choir, and between the two flights of steps, is a second altar, used for popular devotions, the high altar being used for the daily Canonical High Mass at 7, and Vespers at 2 p.m.
    In the sacristy are some valuable treasures. The chief of these are the shrines, containing the bones of St. Lucius and St. Emerita; two splendid large silver busts, adorned with jewels, of these two saints ; a silver cross, and some old vestments. But not the least interesting remains are two copper shrines of the seventh or eighth centuries, undoubtedly of Celtic design and origin. They are covered on all sides with that well-known interlacing ribbon pattern, of the most elegant design, and would vie with any similar shrine in the museum of Irish antiquities in Dublin. They evidently point to the time when St. Fridolin and his monks dwelt in these parts.
    WILFRID DALLOW.
    Irish Ecclesiastical Record, Volume 16 (1895), 1099-1106.

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  • Ancient Irish Schools

    This article, published in the Irish Ecclesiastical Record in 1885, lays out the view of Ireland as an island of saints and scholars which kept the flame of learning burning during the Dark Ages. It is a thesis that has had a more recent outing in Thomas Cahill’s popular book How the Irish Saved Civilization, but is one from which modern scholarship has moved away. There is currently much debate on just how dark the Dark Ages really were and on how exceptional Ireland really was. Although this article reflects the romantic view of scholar saints, artistic Celts and sighing oaks, it nevertheless contains some worthwhile information. 

    The Irish Ecclesiastical Record was founded in 1865 and in its early years published many articles on Irish saints and the early Irish church. I intend to make a selection of these available through the blog, but to access the footnotes, please consult the original volumes at the Internet Archive.
    ANCIENT IRISH SCHOOLS.
    AT the beginning of the sixth century the dying civilizations of Greece and Rome had almost entirely disappeared. The Goth had glutted his ire. Barbarian horses neighed among the urns of the Caesars; barbarian kings, with few exceptions, reigned from the ruins of Carthage to the walls of China; barbarian soldiers plundered the villas by the Rhine and Garonne, and laid waste the rich provinces watered by the Po and Adige. The hum of industry had ceased, the busy cities were mute, the lamp of the scholar burned no longer. Man, Cardinal Newman tells us, ceased from the earth and his works with him. In such a sad dark time the Irish schools arose and became centres of light.
    ” While the vigour of Christianity in Italy, Gaul and Spain was exhausted,” says Green, “in a bare struggle for life, Ireland, which remained unscourged by invaders drew from its conversion an energy such as it has never known since. Christianity had been received there with a burst of popular enthusiasm, and letters and arts sprung up rapidly in its train. The science and biblical knowledge which fled from the continent took refuge in famous schools which made Durrow and Armagh the universities of the West.” ” As early as the sixth century,” says Hallam, “a little glimmer of light was perceptible in the Irish monasteries, and in the next when France and Italy had sunk in deeper ignorance they stood not quite where national prejudice has sometimes placed them, but certainly in a very respectable position.” And Montalembert says “that from the fifth to the eighth century Ireland became one of the principal centres of Christianity in the world, and not only of Christian holiness and virtue, but also of knowledge, literature, and that intellectual life with which the new faith was about to endow Europe.”
    According to Gorres the church had migrated to Ireland to take up her winter quarters there, and lavished all her blessings on the people who gave her so hospitable a reception. He tells us moreover that monasteries and schools sprang up on every side the monasteries remarkable for their austere piety and the schools for their cultivation of science. ” When we look into the ecclesiastical life of this people,” continues the distinguished German, ” we are almost tempted to believe that some potent spirit had transplanted over the sea the cells of the valley of the Nile with all their hermits, its monasteries with all their inmates, and had settled them down in the Western Isle.” Even Froude admits that ” the religion of the Irish Celt burned like a star in Western Europe.” And the following are the words of one of our most distinguished antiquarians, Sir James Ware. ” It is evident from ancient writers of undeniable credit that there were formerly in Ireland several eminent schools, or as we now call them universities, to which the Irish and Britons, and at length the Gauls and Saxons flocked as to marts of good literature.”
    The Irish Schools were very numerous. According to Ware, 164 monasteries of note were built during the fifth, sixth and seventh centuries, and all the larger monasteries had schools attached to them. There were also many secular schools. It is uncertain when the secular schools were first established. Some say they were in existence seven centuries before Ireland bowed to the cross. Towards the close of the third century the monarch Cormac founded three colleges at Tara. After the Synod of Dromceata, the monarch Hugh also established schools for the education of the bards.
    The most famous of the monastic schools were Armagh and Bangor in Ulster ; Clonard, Clonmacnoise and Durrow in Leinster ; Lismore, Mungret and Ross in Munster ; and in Connaught the schools of Arran, Mayo and Clonfert.
    About the year 455, or according to Usher, ten years later, St. Patrick founded on the hill of the golden-haired Macha the Monastery and School of Armagh. And Archdall says that Armagh continued for many ages one of the most celebrated ecclesiastical foundations in the world.
    Bangor was founded by St. Comgall in 558. St. Bernard speaks of it as a place truly holy, and says that the schools of those educated there so filled both Ireland and Scotland that the verses of David seem to have predicted those very times; viz., ”Thou hast visited the earth and hast plentifully watered it, Thou hast many ways enriched it.”
    In 527 Clonard was founded by St. Finnian on the left bank of the Boyne ; Durrow in 549 by St. Columba among the oaks of King’s County, and on the eastern bank of the Shannon, about seven miles from Athlone, St. Kieran founded Clonmacnoise in 548. Speaking of Clonard, Sir William Wilde says : “From this sanctuary and abode of wisdom undoubtedly sprang much of the learning both of Britain and the continent.” Bede calls Durrow a noble monastery ; and Eugene O’Curry says that Clonmacnoise continued to be the seat of learning and sanctity, the retreat of devotion and solitude for a thousand years after the founder’s time. To this day its ornamental crosses and foreign inscriptions and ruins hoary with age proclaim ” In chronicles of clay and stone, how true, how deep, Was Eire’s fame.” 
    Lismore, founded in 633 by St. Carthage, was the best known of the Munster schools. In the opinion of Dr. Lanigan this school was for a very long time equal at least to any other in Ireland. Ware quaintly remarks that there great numbers made profession of true philosophy.
    Early in the sixth century Mungret was founded by St. Nessan ; and about the middle of the same century St. Fachnan founded Ross. According to the Psalter of Cashel Mungret had within its walls six churches, and 15,000 monks, 500 lecturers, 500 psalmists, and 500 employed in spiritual exercises.
    The ancient writers speak most favour ably “of the school of Clonfert, founded by St. Brendan about the year 558. A 100 years later the Abbot Colman founded a monastery and school in Mayo. The school of Arran was founded by St. Enda in 480.
    There were also many other eminent schools: the school of Kildare called the Stranger’s Home ; ivy-wreathed Clonenagh called the Gallic school; the schools of Birr and Old Leighlen, to which students from the Danube and Loire flocked ; Moville, Taghmon and wildly picturesque Glendalough, where the Celt heard explained in his native tongue the Ptolemaic system and the Alexandrine cycle. There was a school on an island in Lough Erne, and a school on an island in Lough Derg ; schools on the islands of Innisfallen and Inniscatthy. The city of Cork has grown round Finnbarr’s school, amid the town of Roscrea round the school of St. Cronan. There were schools in the midst of quaking marshes, in the heart of far extending oak woods, and by the margin of many a lake.
    Five hundred students, and sometimes three times that number, attended a flourishing school. In an ancient life of St. Comgall we are told that 3,000 attended the school of Bangor; in the life of St. Brendan the same is said of Clonfert. ” And if we may venture to give credit to Florence Carty,” says Ware, ” who reports it out of some manuscript in Oxford, to which I am a stranger, the roll of the students of the University of Armagh at one and the same time formerly exceeded 7,000. At first sight such numbers appear incredible. However, we should remember that the younger monks attended the lectures and are called students ; also that a distinguished professor drew round him all the youth of his clan, and many of the men under forty. Moreover many foreigners came to our schools. Aldhelm says that the English went to Ireland ” numerous as bees.” Bede tells us that many nobles and gentry from among the Anglo-Saxons came to the Irish schools for the sake of divine study, or to lead stricter lives. “All of them,” he says, “the Scots most freely admitted supplied them gratis with daily sustenance, with books, with masters.” In the metrical life of Cataldus, by Bonaventure Moroni, multitudes are described as coming from the most distant parts of Europe to the school of Lismore. Petrie proves from monumental inscriptions, from the lives of the early saints, and from the Litany of Aengus, that foreigners from England, France, Italy, and even Egypt, flocked to Ireland in the fifth and sixth centuries. Willibrord studied there for twelve years, Agilbert, afterwards Bishop of Paris, for a considerable time. Merovingian princes and Northumbrian kings came to be instructed by Irish teachers.
    Indeed for three centuries Ireland was the light of the West. She filled the empty years with her schools, her missionaries, her men of letters. But evil times came. The Runic rhyme broke the peace of her cloisters. The Saga’s chant was heard in her schools. Her emblems of piety were broken and her manuscripts destroyed by the grim worshippers of Odin.
    The Danes first landed in Ireland in 797. They plundered Armagh in 831, and in 838 Turgesius expelled the religious and scholars. In 869 Amlave burned the schools and churches. The schools were again plundered 890, 919, 931 and 941. And the history of Armagh, with little change, is the history of the other schools. During the 9th, 10th, and llth centuries, they were several times plundered. During the reigns of Malachy and Brian some were rebuilt, and it looked as if the bright days of the Eierans,the Carthages and the Colombas were to return. But the Normans came, and the growing light faded. Many of the old schools indeed lived on. Towards the close of the 13th century Franciscan and Dominican schools were also opened in some of the cities and large towns. And in 1320 Archbishop de Bicknore published a document for the establishment of a university. The university was established and annexed to St. Patrick’s Cathedral. However, for want of sufficient funds, it slowly declined. Hence, in 1475, the four mendicant orders addressed a memorial to Pope Sixtus IV. for authority to establish another university. The different schools, and perhaps the two universities, struggled on till the Reformation, but strangers came to our schools no more, and the Irish student sighed in vain for the wisdom of the days of old.
    Our knowledge of the literary course pursued in our ancient schools is rather meagre. We are told that St. Finian taught scripture for seven years ; that St. Gaul studied grammar and poetry; that St. Camin collated parts of the Vulgate with the Hebrew version of the Scriptures. In his letter on the Paschal controversy St. Cummian shows a thorough knowledge of the various cycles for the computation of Easter. ” I enquired diligently,” he says, “what were the sentiments of the Hebrews, Greeks, Latins, and Egyptians, concerning the time of observing Easter.” Tighernach of Clonmacnoise, quotes Eusebius, Orosius, Africanus, Bede, Josephus, St. Jerome, and many other historic writers. He also collates the Hebrew text with the Septuagint version of the Scriptures. Aldhelm was taught Latin, Greek, and Hebrew, in the school of Mailduff; and Cadroe, theology, philosophy, the Sacred Scriptures, oratory, astronomy, and the natural sciences, in the University of Armagh. Speaking of Dunstan, Dr. Moran says, “that the details which have been handed down to us regarding his studies at Glastonbury, gives us some idea of the literary course pursued in the Irish monasteries at the period. He was first of all instructed in the Scriptures and writings of the Fathers of the Church. The ancient poets and historians next engaged his attention. But he showed a special taste for arithmetic, geometry, astronomy, and music.” Mr. Lecky says that the knowledge of Greek had been kept up in the Irish monasteries some time after it had disappeared from the other seminaries of Europe. It is almost certain, too, that Virgil and parts of Ovid and Horace were read in the same monasteries when they were unknown elsewhere. Perhaps the oldest manuscript of Horace in existence is one at present in the library of Berne, written in Celtic characters with notes in the Irish language.
    Jowett, Westwood, Wyatt, Waagen, and Keller, admit that the art of illumination attained a wonderful perfection in our ancient schools. Jowett tells us in the Art Journal ” that the early Irish designs exhibit a great inventive power, a stricter adherence to sound principles of art, and a more masterly execution than those of any other contemporaneous people.” Westwood, who gives in his series of Bible illustrations eight specimens of illustrated Irish manuscripts, says that, “the copy of the Gospels traditionally asserted to have belonged to St. Columba, is unquestionably the most elaborately executed manuscript of early art now in existence.” Matthew Arnold acknowledges that in this art the Celt has done just enough to show his delicacy of taste ; and a writer in a recent number of Longman’s Magazine, believes that purely Irish decoration is, take it altogether, the most elegant and ingenious style of decoration which the world has ever seen.
    But to form a just estimate of the great work of the Irish schools, we should follow Irishmen to other countries. According to White, Ireland sent into Germany 115 missionaries, 45 into France, 44 into England, 36 into Belgium, 25 into Scotland, 13 into Italy. Their sound went out into all lands, and their words to the ends of the world. Their osier cells were among the marshes of Holland, and by the waters of Constance. Their images were over the altars of Leige, Ratisbon, and Lecca. They lectured in the schools of Paris, Pavia, and Verona. Their manuscripts are precious relics in the libraries of Louvain and St. Isidore, Wurzburg and Milan, Cambray and Carlsruhe. More than five centuries before the birth of Dante, an Irish saint related the visions in which we have in its chrysalis form the Florentine’s immortal poem; eight hundred years before Copernicus published his great work on Astronomy, an Irish saint held, that the earth was a sphere; two hundred and fifty years before Leo placed the imperial crown upon the head of Charlemagne, an Irish saint consecrated Aidan king. The influence of Irish saints was felt from Fingal’s cave to the vineyards of Italy. The memory of Fridolin is still a power by the windings of the Rhine, the daughters of Tarentum kneel before the shrine of Cataldus. Glasgow has sprung up round the cell of Kentigern ; Wurzburg round Killian’s grave. Edinburgh owes its name to St. Enda, and a canton of Switzerland to St. Gall ; Malmesbury and St. Beeves to Mailduli and Bega. The names of Irish saints are read on Norwegian Runes, and on Pictish tombstones in lonely highland glens. Their names consecrate the hills of Cambria and the crumbling ruins of Cornwall, and cleave to solitary rock and windswept promontory
    ” Where the Northern Ocean in vast whirls
    Boils round the naked melancholy isles
    Of farthest Thule; and the Atlantic surge
    Pours in among the stormy Hebrides.”
    And abroad as at home, the cell of the Irish saint became a centre of learning. In his Celtic Scotland, Skene tells us that wherever Columba or his companions planted a monastery, there was kindled, not only the warmth of the new faith, but some light of knowledge contained in the Scriptures and other books which the Columbian monks spent much of their time in transcribing. In his highly interesting work The Making of England, Green relates how Irish teachers gathered round these scholars in the midst of solitary woodlands and desolate fens. With Ealdhelm, Mailduf’s pupil, he says, “began the whole literature of the south.” And speaking of Bede, he says, “the tradition of the elder Irish teachers still lingered to direct the young scholar into that path of scriptural interpretation to which he chiefly owed his fame.
    In the introduction to the life of Marianus Scotus by the Bollandists, we are told that the holy men who went from Scotia to France and Germany, built monasteries as places of retirement for themselves, and schools of learning and discipline for their fellow-workers. Speaking of Columbanus, Montalembert says, that “his bold genius by turns startled the Franks, the Burgundians, and the Lombards.” Moore, too, speaking of him, has the following: “The writings of this eminent man that have come down to us display an extensive and varied acquaintance, not merely with ecclesiastical, but with classical literature. From a passage in his letter to Boniface, it appears that he was acquainted both with the Greek and Hebrew languages, and when it is recollected that he did not leave Ireland till he was nearly fifty years of age, and that his life was afterwards one of constant activity and adventure, the conclusion is obvious, that all this knowledge of elegant literature must have been acquired in the schools of his own country.” On the epistle of St. Livin (another Irishman) to St. Floribert, Dollinger remarks, “This epistle and his epitaph on St. Bavo are perhaps the best poetical specimens of the time, and awaken within us an idea of the high state of mental cultivation which then existed in Ireland.”
    Virgilius, Dungal and Scotus Erigena, were beyond doubt the most remarkable scholars of their age. Lecky speaks of Virgilius as one of the few who in the eighth century cultivated profane sciences. Dungal is praised by Muratori for his classic grace of style and for his great knowledge of Scripture and literature. Erigena is described by Hallam as one of the two extraordinary men who in the dark ages stood out from the crowd in literature and politics. The three were Irishmen, and educated in the schools of their native isle.
    Indeed the more we study our ancient annals, and the lives of our early saints, the more we study Bede and the chroniclers of the 9th, 10th and 11th centuries, the brighter grows the vision of our former greatness. The past gives up its dead. We see wooded hillside and winding glen crowded with cell and church; we see Celt and stranger gathered round a venerable teacher under the shade of sighing oaks; we see multitudes leaving their country
    ” To serve as model for the mighty world
    And be the fair beginning of a time.”
    we truly understand the full meaning of the proud title, “Insula Sanctorum et Doctorum.”
    TIMOTHY LEE.
    Irish Ecclesiastical Record, 3rd series, Vol. 6 (1885), 249-257.

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