OMNIUM SANCTORUM HIBERNIAE

Tag: Saints of Waterford

  • The Birthplace of Saint Declan

    July 24 is the feastday of Saint Declan (Deglan) of Ardmore, County Waterford. Below is an article on the birthplace of the saint from a 19th-century antiquarian journal which draws on the hagiographical tradition:
    THE BIRTHPLACE OF ST DEGLAN
    BY VERY REV. F. O’BRIEN, P.P., V.G., M.R.I,A.
    The better to understand the subject and object of the paper which I am about to read for you, I beg to call your attention to the Ordnance Map of the County of Waterford. You are aware that the eminent men under whose inspection and supervision that map was compiled and published as the result of their survey of Ireland, were accompanied by and had associated with them during their labours two of the most eminent Irish scholars of their time, namely, Mr. Eugene O’Curry and Mr. John O’Donovan. The ordnance surveyors availed themselves of the services of those learned men for the purpose of discovering the names by which the various places they visited had been popularly known, and the history traditionally attached to them. On that map is marked the townland of Dromroe, between Lismore and Cappoquin, on the road between the railway crossing at Round Hill and Tourin. You will find marked there in that townland a small shrubbery within which is a small plot enclosed by a fence, with a representation of a monument in the corner of it Within the same fence you will find marked by dots upon the map the vestiges of the remains of an oblong structure, covered with grass and brambles. The shrubbery and vestiges of remains are designated on the Ordnance Map “ Graveyard and St. Deglan’s Chapel in ruins.” The grass and brambles having been removed, the lower walls of the oblong structure have come to light, made up of stones piled over each other without mortar. Its dimensions are about fourteen feet long by between six and eight feet wide. From the manner in which the stones are placed in the portion of the walls that remains it is easily conjectured that this ruin belongs to that class of antient ecclesiastical stone buildings, some of which are to’ be met with in a pretty good state of preservation in Ireland at the present day. These are admitted by archaeologists to be the most antient specimens of Christian buildings to be found in Ireland, and in point of antiquity that which is the subject of this paper may claim a place among the first.
    The ruin, as already stated, bore the name of “St. Deglan’s Chapel,” and the land adjoining “graveyard,” when inspections were made and measures were taken for the compilation of the Ordnance Map now more than fifty years ago.
    The least curious and most unconcerned about antient local history visiting this romantic spot, situated, I may truly venture to say, in the loveliest part of Munster, may very naturally ask why was this ruin, which had all but disappeared from the notice as well as from the memory of the neighbouring inhabitants, called “St. Deglan’s Chapel,” and why was the little field surrounding. it, which a short time ago was about being incorporated with the adjoining farm, and from being “God’s Acre ” was to become man’s property, called the “ graveyard,” or, as the people designate it at the present day, religin deaglai. To answer those questions it will be necessary for us to make ourselves acquainted from the most reliable sources within our reach with the history of St. Deglan, who were his ancestors, where was he born, at what time did he live, and why was this ruin called after him “St. Deglan’s Chapel.”
    We learn from the Bollandists, on the authority of Colgan, Ware and Usher, that the ancestors of St. Deglan belonged to a colony who had come from Tara, or rather who had, been expelled from a place there called the Desii, and who had settled- down in the County of Waterford, and had called the place of their new settlement after that from which they had been expelled, the Nan Desii. Their expulsion from Tara took place, according to Smith in his history of the County and City of Waterford, about the year 278. We do not exactly know how soon after the settlement of this colony in the Desii St. Deglan was born, but it is pretty certain some considerable time must have elapsed. Smith also mentions that the part of the country in which they settled extended from the river Suir to the sea, and from Lismore to Creadan Head, comprising, in a manner, all the country at present known as the County of Waterford.
    We are told that St. Deglan’s father’s name was Erc, and that his mother’s name was Dethidin. We are told, too, that Erc, St. Deglan’s father, being invited to the house of a relative called Dobraun or Dobhran, besides many other companions, was accompanied by his wife, Dethidin, and that during this their visit to their relative, Dobhran, Dethidin, the wife of Erc, gave birth to St. Deglan. This particular place in which St. Deglan was born is stated by the Bollandists, on the authority of Colgan, supported by Usher and Ware, to be situated in the southern part, of the Desii. To use the original words of the writers, “In australi plaga N. Desii,” -in the southern part of the Desii. The barony of the Desii, as you are aware, begins a very short distance below or to the south of this spot, so that it is accurately described as being in the Southern part of the barony of the Desii. It is stated, too, on the authority of the same writers, to be situated in the eastern part of the country, which the Scoti, a name by which the antient Irish were then known, called mag sciat, or the Plain of the Shields or Bucklers. To give the original language of the writers, “ In orientali seilicet plaga campi quem scoti vacant mag sciat campum scuti.” Smith states that the country around Lismore was antiently known by this name, and the spot to which I am now calling your attention is in the eastern part of this locality. The Bollandists, moreover, as if, to leave nothing wanting as to accuracy in defining this precise spot, state that it is not far distant from the famous City of St Carthage, called Lismore- “Non longe abest a clara Civitate St, Carthagi quae dicitur Lismor,” and that it is distant from the City of Ardmore, where he was afterwards Bishop, about thirteen thousand paces or thirteen miles. “Et abest ab Civitate de Ardmore ubi postea fuit Episcopus per tredecim millia passuum.”
    We are told that St Coleman, having heard of the birth of the infant, came to the place where he was born and begged of his parents , who were then pagans, to permit him to baptise it and bring the child up a Christian. To this request the parents consented. And we are also told that Dobhran, in whose house, the infant was born, made a present to St. Deglan’s parents of this the place of his birth, and removed themselves to another place.
    Some doubt still exists as to who the St. Colman was who baptized St. Deglan. There were many holy Bishops bearing that name in Ireland, so that it is not easy to determine who amongst them is here designated. Neither Usher, who cites extracts from our Saints’ Acts, nor Colgan throws any light on the subject. It appears to me probable that this Colman was the saint of that name who is still venerated in a parish adjoining that of Ardmore called the Old Parish, or as the people there call it, paraiste an tsean pobuil. There is a townland in this parish called Kilcoleman where the remains of an antient church may be seen, and near it a very old tree and well called tobar colmain, or Colman’s Well. It is generally admitted that there were Christians in Ireland before the coming of Palladius, or St. Deglan, or St. Patrick. St. Prosper, speaking of the mission of Palladius, says—-“ Ad Scotos in Christum Credentes ordinatus a Papa Celestino Palladius primus Episcopus Mittitur.” –To the Scoti or antient Irish believing in Christ, Palladius is ordained by Pope Celestine and is sent as their first Bishop. We may reasonably believe that such Christians lived in the Old Parish before St. Deglan’s time, and that it was for this reason it: got the name which it retains to the present day, Old Parish, or Sean Pobul. We may suppose that an acquaintance and an intimacy existed between this St. Colman and St. Deglan’s family before the birth of St. Deglan, as they were near neighbours- St. Deglan’s family and parents we are told inhabited that portion of the Desii around Ardmore.
    St. Colman after baptising the infant and predicting many wonderful things as to its future, retired to his habitation with much rejoicing. He recommended that this holy infant should be carefully nursed, and that when his seventh year had been attained he should be sent for instruction to a lettered Christian, if such a one could be found. Dobhran, the aforesaid kinsman of the chieftain Erc, the father of our saint, on hearing and witnessing those things, earnestly entreated the infant’s parents to deliver this child to him to be nursed and fostered by him, as he had been born at his residence. The parents willingly assented to Dobhran’s request.
    At the expiration of the seven years of his tutelage a, religious and wise man, named Dymma, as we are told, had lately arrived in Ireland, which was the country of his birth. Having embraced the Christian religion, to the observances of which he addicted himself, this pious servant of God built a cell in this part of the country. To this teacher the boy Deglan was entrusted by his parents and foster-father Dobhran according to St. Colman’s directions. Deglan spent much time under Dymma’s teaching, and Usher tells us that he drained large draughts of learning from various mundane and sacred writings. Through this instruction his understanding, we are told, was rendered acute, and he was distinguished for his eloquence.
    About this time Deglan resolved to go to Rome, as the Acts of his Life state, that he might there be initiated to a knowledge of ecclesiastical discipline, receive Holy Orders, and a mission to preach from the Apostolic See. The Acts of his Life also state that after some time Deglan was ordained priest and consecrated Bishop by the Sovereign Pontiff, and that he remained in Rome for a considerable time after. At length having obtained some books, a rule for his guidance and mission to teach from the Pope, his Benediction, and also the blessing of the high dignataries of the Roman Church, Deglan prepared for his return to Ireland, It is related on the authority of Usher, quoted by the Bollandists, that St. Patrick, the future Apostle and Archbishop of Ireland, being then on his way to Rome, met St. Deglan in the north of Italy on his way from Rome, and that both holy persons saluted each other with the kiss of peace and established a mutual friendship before leaving for their respective destinations.
    There is some diversity of opinion among ecclesiastical writers as to the precise time St. Deglan arrived in Ardmore on his first return from Rome and fixed his See there, for we are assured that he paid several visits to Rome. Usher, quoted by Smith, states that he commenced his preaching among the people of the Desii about the year 402, or thirty years before the arrival of St. Patrick. He states that he instructed the people with much zeal and success, and that many attracted by the fame of his sanctity flocked around him. He built monasteries, churches, and chapels in various places through the country, and amongst others, we are told by the Bollandists, who quote Usher, Ware and Colgan, that he built a chapel on the very spot he was born. The words of the Bollandists are-“ Ipse enim Dobranus nutritus St. Declani obtulit ipsum locum Sancto Deglano in quo natus fuerat, in quo post multum’tempus Sanctus Declanus cum esset pontifex cellam Deo, aedificavit.“–For Dobhran, the foster-father of St. Deglan, presented the very spot to St. Deglan, that is, the spot on which he was born, on which after a considerable time St. Deglan, when he was bishop, built a chapel in honour of Almighty God. I have reserved this quotation in reference to St. Deglan’s Chapel for the last, as marked on the Ordnance Map, to which I beg to call your attention. Relying on the authority of the writers from whom I have quoted, and the historians through whom the memory of the facts I have stated has been handed down to us, I think we can claim for Dromroe the honour of being St. Deglan’s birthplace, and fix on the very spot on which he was born there, and claim for his chapel, the ruins of which only now remain, an antiquity of fourteen or fifteen hundred years.
    Journal of the Waterford & South-East of Ireland Archaeological Society, Volume 1 (1894-5), 39-44.

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  • Saint Aedhan of Lismore, July 19

    On July 19 the Irish calendars record the commemoration of Saint Aedhan,  an abbot of Lismore, County Waterford. We will start with a summary of the history of this famous foundation by a diocesan historian:

    The church and monastery of Lismore, which grew to be one of the renowned centres of ancient Irish learning and piety, owed its foundation to St. Mochuda of the 7th century. Mochuda, otherwise Carthage, was a native of Kerry, and he had been abbot of Rahan in Offaly. It is probable that there had been a Christian church at Lismore previous to the time of Mochuda, for in the Saint’s Life there is an implied reference to such a foundation. Be this as it may, Mochuda, driven out of Rahan, with his muintir, or religious household, migrated southward, and, having crossed the Blackwater at Affane, established himself at Lismore in 630. In deference to Mochuda’s place of birth the saint’s successor in Lismore was, for centuries, a Kerryman. Lismore grew in time to be a great religious city, and a school of sacred sciences, to which pilgrims from all over Ireland and scholars from beyond the seas resorted. The rulers of the great establishment were all, or most of them, bishops, though they are more generally styled abbots by the Annalists. Among the number are several who are listed as Saints by the Irish Martyrologies, scil:

    Aedhan, abbot of Lismore .. . … July 19.

    Rev. Patrick Power, Waterford & Lismore – A Compendious History of the United Dioceses (Cork, 1937), 5-6.

    Canon O’Hanlon’s account of Saint Aedhan in Volume VII of his Lives of the Irish Saints, brings in a few other sources:

    St. Aedhan, Abbot of Lismore, County of Waterford.

    The name of St. Aedhan, Abbot of Lismoir, appears in the Martyrology of Tallagh, at the 19th of July. In the list of Aids or Aedhans given by Colgan, the present holy Abbot is included. In the Irish Calendar, compiled for use of the Irish Ordnance Survey, at xiv. of the August Kalends, there is an entry of this holy man, who is not designated, however, as Abbot. His name also occurs in the Martyrology of Donegal, at this date, as Aedhan of Lis-mor.

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  • Saint Cathaldus of Taranto, May 10

    May 10 is one of the feastdays of an Irish saint whose memory is still very much cherished in Italy, Saint Cathal (Cathaldus) of Taranto. Patrick Montague, author of The Saints and Martyrs of Ireland, records in the preface to his book how he first encountered this Irish saint:

    In early summer of 1944, I arrived in Taranto, Italy, as a Staff Officer of the Eighth Army. The next morning, I was urgently summoned to assist an American soldier who had driven his jeep into the path of a procession of Italians who were celebrating the Feast of their local saint. Since nobody was hurt, the situation was quickly adjusted. I was able to deal with it in Italian, aided by the presence of a local priest. Between us we calmed the excited people and rescued the soldier from his awkward predicament.

    In conversation later, the priest informed me that the Saint was Cathaldo, and it was common knowledge that he was Irish. I wondered at the time whether this unusual fact was so well-known in Ireland. In the years which followed, I have often pondered on the strange anomaly that the memory of Irish exiles like Cathal, or Cathaldo, of Taranto, can inspire public holidays and gatherings of the faithful all over Europe, and receive no more than a brief reference in works of scholarship in Ireland.

    Below is an abridged version of a paper by Father J. F. Hogan from the Irish Ecclesiastical Record, which contains a useful summary of the main points from the mass of traditions surrounding Saint Cathaldus. The article begins with an account of the founding of the city of Taranto but I have omitted this and the concluding paragraphs on its later history in order to concentrate on the details of its patron’s life. Saint Cathal’s story is certainly not a dull one, he is associated with the monastery of Lismore but leaves the scholar’s life for a pilgrimage to the Holy Land and ends up in Taranto following a shipwreck:

    ST. CATHALDUS OF TARANTO

    …A tradition of immemorial standing seems to ascribe the first conversion of Tarentum to St. Peter and his disciple and companion, St. Mark. Seeing that it is held by many writers that St. Peter paid two visits to Rome, during the second of which he suffered martyrdom, it is natural enough to suppose that, on his way to or from the East, he may have passed through Tarentum, and have preached the good tidings of Christianity to its people. However this may be, it is certain that the seeds of Christian life did not take deep root there on its first sowing, and that in the political turmoil which followed the transfer of the seat of Empire to Constantinople, its young shoots were almost completely smothered. In these disturbances Tarentum passed from Romans to Greeks, and from Greeks to Romans. It was handed about to all kinds of freebooters. For a time it was held by Belisarius for Justinian; then it was occupied by Totila and his Goths. These in their turn were expelled by the Imperial arms, and the citadel was held for the empire until the arrival of the Longobardi, whose commander, Romoald (Duke of Beneventum) got possession of the town and province.

    It must be acknowledged that such stormy conditions of life were not very favourable to the spread of Christianity. No wonder, therefore, that little trace should have been found of the Christian settlement that had once been established at Tarentum when St. Cathaldus first appeared within its walls.

    That St. Cathaldus was a native of Ireland, is a fact which cannot be seriously questioned. Indeed it is not denied by anybody worthy of a moment’s notice. It has been the constant tradition of the Church of Tarentum; and in every history of the city or of its apostle that is of Italian origin, there is but one voice as to the country from which St. Cathaldus came. The most valuable biography of the saint which we possess was written in the seventeenth century by an Italian Franciscan named Bartolomeo Moroni. As this work professes to be based on very ancient codices and manuscripts of the Church of Taranto, we must conclude that it contains a good deal that is accurate and trustworthy, whilst a very cursory examination is sufficient to convince us that fable and fiction have entered not a little into its composition. It tells us, at all events, that Cathaldus was a native of Ireland; that he was born at a place called Rachau according to some, at Cathandum according to others; that as a happy augury of his future mission to the half Greek, half Italian city of Taranto, his father’s name was Euchus, and his mother’s Achlena or Athena.

    A good deal of discussion has been indulged in as to the identity of his birthplace. The general opinion seems to be that Rachau was the place from which he took his title as bishop, and that Cathandum was the place of his birth. This Cathandum is supposed to be identified either with ”Ballycahill,” in the Ormond district of North Tipperary, and in the diocese of Killaloe, or with a place of the same name not far from Thurles, in the diocese of Cashel. As for Rachau, it is believed to be intended either for Rahan in the King’s Co., where St. Carthage had his famous monastery, and where he ruled as a bishop before his expulsion by the Hy Niall of Meath, or for one of the numerous places called Rath in the immediate neighbourhood of Lismore; or, finally, as Lanigan thinks probable, the place now called Shanraghan in Southern Tipperary and on the confines of Waterford. It is distinctly stated that the place was, at all events, in the province of Munster, and not far from Lismore. Nothing more precise can be laid down with certainty.

    What does not, however, admit of the slightest doubt, is the fact that St. Cathaldus was surrounded by spiritual and religious influences of a very special kind from his infancy upwards. These influences found in his soul a most sympathetic response, and when they had lifted the thoughts and aspirations of this fair youth above earthly things, he was sent by his parents to the neighbouring school of Lismore. This school, although it had been established only for a very short time, had already acquired widespread fame, and had attracted students from all parts of England and Scotland, and from several continental countries besides.

    What a busy place this famous southern university must have been in the days of its prosperity! When we read the account of it that has come down to us, glorified though it may be, and exaggerated, as no doubt it is, by the imaginations of its admirers, writing, some of them, centuries after its decay, and seeing it chiefly through the scholars and apostles that it produced, we cannot help being struck by the features of resemblance, and yet the strong contrast, it presents with those Grecian cities that, in far-off times, gathered to their academies and their market-places the elite of the world orators, poets, artists, grammarians, philosophers, all who valued culture or knew the price of intellectual superiority. Lismore had no spacious halls, no classic colonnades, no statues, or fountains, or stately temples. Its houses of residence were of the simplest and most primitive description, and its halls were in keeping with these, mere wooden structures, intended only to shut off the elements, but without any claim or pretence to artistic design. And yet Lismore had something more valuable than the attractions of either architecture or luxury. It possessed that which has ever proved the magnet of the philosopher and the theologian truth, namely, and truth illumined by the halo of religion. It sheltered also in its humble halls whatever knowledge remained in a barbarous age of those rules of art that had already shed such lustre on Greece and Rome, or had been fostered in Ireland itself according to principles and a system of native conception. Hence it drew around it a crowd of foreigners Saxons and Britons, Franks and Teutons, Sicambrians and Helvetians, Arvernians and Bohemians:

    “Undique conveniunt proceres quos dulce trahebat
    Discendi studium, major num cognita virtus
    An laudata foret. Celeres vastissima Rheni
    Jam vada Teutonici, jam deseruere Sicambri.
    Mittit ah extreme gelidos Aquilone Boemos
    Albis, et Arverni coeunt, Batavique frequentes,
    Et quicumque colunt alta sub rupe Gebennas.
    Non omnes prospectat Arar, Rhodanique fluenta
    Helvetios; multos desiderat ultima Thule.
    Certatim hi properant, diverse tramite ad urbem
    Lesmoriam, juvenis primes ubi transigit annos.” 1

    1 These lines are taken from a metrical Life of St. Cathaldus, entitled Cathaldiados, which was composed by Bonaventure Moroni, brother of Bartolomeo, the author of the prose Life. See Ussher’s Antiquitates, page 895.

    At Lismore Cathaldus edified his brethren by his extraordinary piety as well as by his great love of study. In due time he passed from the student’s bench to the master’s chair, and whilst he taught in the schools, he was not unmindful of the world’s needs. He raised a church at Lismore to the glory of God and the perpetual memory of His Virgin Mother. Frequent miracles bore testimony at this period to the interior sanctity of the young professor. So great was the admiration of the people for him that one of the princes in the neighbourhood grew jealous of his influence, and denounced him to the King of Munster as a magician, who aimed at subverting established authority and setting up his own in its place. The King accordingly sent his fleet to Lismore, where Cathaldus was taken prisoner and confined in a dungeon until some favourable opportunity should offer to have him conveyed into perpetual exile. The King, however, soon found what a mistake he had committed, and, instead of banishing Cathaldus, he offered him the territory of Rachau, which belonged to Meltridis, the Prince who had denounced him, and who was now overtaken by death in the midst of his intrigues. Cathaldus refused the temporal honours which the King was anxious to confer upon him, and proclaimed that he vowed his life to religion, and sought no other honours. He was, therefore, raised to the episcopate, and constituted the chief spiritual ruler of the extensive territory of the deceased Meltridis, whose tanist rights were made over on the church.

    After Cathaldus had ruled the see of Rachau for some years, he resolved to set out on a pilgrimage to Jerusalem. He committed the care of his diocese to his neighbouring bishops, and set sail, without any retinue, for the Holy Land. It is probable that he was accompanied by his brother, Donatus, who afterwards became Bishop of Lupiae, now Lecce, in Calabria. In due course he reached his destination, and had the supreme happiness of kneeling at the great sepulchre, or as Tasso expresses it: “D’adorar la Gran Tomba e sciorre il voto.”

    With all the love and reverence of a pilgrim he sought out the holy places that had been sanctified by the presence of his Heavenly Master ; and so great was his joy to live in these solitudes, and dwell on the mysteries of man’s salvation, amidst the very scenes in which it had been accomplished, that he earnestly desired and prayed to be relieved of his episcopal burden, and allowed to live and die in the desert in which our Lord had fasted, or in some one of the retreats that had been made sacred for ever by His earthly presence. Whilst engaged in earnest prayer on these thoughts, his soul was invaded by a supernatural light, which made clear to him that Providence had other designs about him. He accordingly started on the journey that Heaven had marked out for him; and, having been shipwrecked in the Gulf of Taranto, he was cast ashore not far from the city of which he was to become the apostle and the bishop. The cave in which he first took refuge is still to be seen in the neighbourhood of Otranto, not far from the point of the Japygian promontory.

    The shipwrecked pilgrim, henceforward an apostle, soon made his way to the eastern gate of Tarentum. At the entrance of the city a blind man was to be seen, asking for assistance from those who passed by. His condition was symbolical of the darkness that prevailed within. Cathaldus addressed him, spoke to him of Christ and of the Blessed Trinity, and, as he found him amenable to Christian teaching, he instructed him in the mysteries of salvation; and whilst he imparted to him the light of grace through the Sacrament of Baptism he restored to him the light of natural vision through that supernatural power that had been vouchsafed to him. This whole circumstance was regarded as a happy omen, and as a symbol of the change to be wrought by the apostle within the city.

    A parallel has sometimes been drawn between the condition of Taranto, when St. Cathaldus first entered its gates, with that of Athens when it was first visited by St. Paul. The parallel holds good in some respects, but not in all. Taranto was, to all intents and purposes, as deeply plunged in paganism as Athens was. There was scarcely a vestige left of the early religious settlement that had been made there by St. Peter and St. Mark, or by whoever had preached the Gospel to its people in early times. Paganism reigned supreme; but, in so far as it constituted a religion at all, it was paganism in its most corrupt and repellent form. The days of Archytas and of Pythagoras were now left far behind. The artistic splendour which had never entirely disappeared from Athens, had long since vanished from Taranto. There was no culture now, but ignorance and barbarism, the result of centuries of war and strife. With minds thus steeped in ignorance, with hearts corrupted by licence and perverted by superstition, the people of this neglected city did not offer a very encouraging prospect to the new missionary who appeared amongst them. His success, nevertheless, was greater than that of St. Paul at the capital of Greece. He won his way to the hearts of the people by his eloquence, his zeal, his power of working miracles; and when the prejudice entertained against his person and speech was once removed, the divine origin of the Gospel that he preached was acknowledged readily enough. We have, unfortunately, but very meager details as to the methods of his apostolate; but we are assured, at all events, that they were so effective as to win over the whole city in a few years. Certain it is that Cathaldus was acknowledged without dispute, during his own lifetime, as Bishop of Tarentum, and that he has ever since been revered as the founder of the Tarentine Church and the patron saint of the converted city.

    It is said that when the saint felt that his death was at hand, he called around him his priests and deacons and the chief men of the city, and earnestly exhorted them to remain faithful to his teaching.

    “I know [he said], that when I am gone dreadful and relentless enemies shall rise up against you, and endeavour, by heretical sophistry, to tear asunder the members of the Catholic Church, and lead astray the flock which I brought together with such pains. Against these enemies of your faith and of the Christian religion, I entreat you to strengthen the minds of the people by your own firmness, ever mindful of my labours and vigils.”

    The remains of the holy Bishop were committed, at his own request, to their native earth in his Cathedral Church. They were enclosed in a marble tomb, portion of which is still preserved. For some time the exact position of this tomb was unknown, but when Archbishop Drogonus of Tarentum was restoring the cathedral, in the eleventh century, the tomb was discovered. It was opened by the Archbishop, and the body of the saint was found well preserved. A golden cross had been attached to the body of the saint at the time of his burial. This also was discovered, and found to bear upon it the name of Cathaldus. The relics of the saint were then encased and preserved in the high altar of the cathedral. During the pontificate of Eugenius III they were transferred to a beautiful silver shrine adorned with gems and precious stones. A silver statue of Cathaldus was also cast, and erected in the church. These and many other memorials of the saint are still to be seen, and are held in great veneration by the people of Taranto.

    The miracles attributed to the saints of the Church are often spoken of with derision by those who regard themselves as the children of light. These, whilst they minister to their own vanity, and fancy that nature has taken them specially into her confidence, revealing her inmost secrets to their ardent gaze, sometimes succeed in deceiving others: but they deceive themselves more than all. Indeed it is almost impossible to conceive how those early saints could have succeeded in winning over to Christianity, in the space of a few years, whole cities and districts that had hitherto been steeped in vice and superstition, without the power of working miracles. When that power is once granted, the explanation of wholesale conversion becomes easy and plain. Something is necessary to strike and astonish the multitude, and when wonder and alarm have become general, half the battle is already gained.

    That St. Cathaldus possessed this power in a high degree, is testified not only in the records of his life, but still more authentically in the wholesale nature of the conversions that he wrought, and the unfading memory he left impressed on the city to which he ministered. The veneration for Cathaldus was not confined to Tarentum alone. It spread far and wide through Italy, Greece, and the Ionian islands. The village of Castello San Cataldo on the Ionian coast, midway between Brindisi and Otranto, perpetuates his name. Chapels dedicated to the saint, or statues erected in his honour, may be seen in many of the neighbouring towns of Calabria. The Cathedral of Taranto itself is, however, his greatest monument…

    J. F. HOGAN

    Irish Ecclesiastical Record, Volume XVII (1896), 403-416.

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