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  • Irish Monasteries in Germany: Cologne

    As July 18 is the feast of the Irish Abbot, Minnborinus of Cologne, below is a paper by Father J.F. Hogan on the Irish monastery in that city, published at the end of the 19th century. Father Hogan produced a series of such papers and was something of a pioneer in the research of these foundations. It is interesting to note that devotion to Saint Brigid of Kildare was introduced to the city by these monks and that their monastery was dedicated to Saint Martin of Tours, a saint much-beloved in Ireland.

    IRISH MONASTERIES IN GERMANY

    COLOGNE

    COLOGNE was nothing more than a small collection of huts and sheds when Germanicus pitched his tent on the site which the city now occupies in the early years of the Christian era. It was there that his daughter, Agrippina, was born, amidst the noise of arms and the chatter of legions. This princess, who afterwards became so famous and so unfortunate as the mother of Nero, took a life-long interest in the place of her birth. She sent a colony of Roman nobles to found a settlement there; and the place was called Colonia Agrippina, to commemorate the circumstances of its foundation. Only the noblest patricians were allowed to take part in the enterprise; and to this fact the hereditary pride of the modern magnats of Cologne is duly traced. Those noble Romans undoubtedly marked with the impress of their genius and their taste the institutions and the buildings of their city. Colonia soon became the stronghold of the empire in the North of Europe. She was to the barbarians of Germany and Gaul the image and the eye of the mother city. The patricians of Rome and princes of the empire came in crowds to visit the new capital, to enjoy its baths, its palaces, its theatres, and its brilliant society. Vitellius was there when he was called to the throne, and Trajan assumed the royal purple within its walls.

    Soon, however, on the break up of the mighty power which had ruled the world for close on a thousand years, a new order succeeded to the old. In Germany, as elsewhere, the change was preceded, accompanied, and followed by revolts, conspiracies, and foul deeds of every kind. When Clovis was crowned at Cologne, in 508, as King of the Franks of Austrasia, turmoil and confusion seemed to reign supreme. Nor did Clovis succeed in suppressing the outbursts of vice and crime that surrounded him on all sides. For upwards of a hundred years the superstitions of paganism, which had taken so strong a hold of the Teutonic nature, dominated the native tribes, and drove them to the most monstrous excesses of barbarism and cruelty. It was only towards the end of the seventh century that Christianity began to take root and flourish at Cologne.

    No doubt Christian blood had been shed in the city as early as the end of the third century, when the martyrs of the Theban legion were, according to tradition, massacred there. It was there, too, that St. Ursula and her companions gained their crown of martyrdom, in the fifth century. No doubt the line of bishops of Cologne extends back as far as St. Maternus, a converted soldier, who preached the Gospel to the Ubii about A.D. 350 ; but under him and several of his successors the great mass of the population clung on to paganism.

    No genuinely organized effort was made to introduce Christianity amongst them till the year 690, when the Irish monk, Tilmo, built a chapel in an Island on the Rhine, close by the city, and began to preach the good tidings of the Gospel to the pagans around him. St. Egbert of England had made some attempt to convert them on the occasion of his mission to the Frisians, but his efforts bore no fruit, and he was compelled to return to Hy. A similar fate was reserved for his countryman, Wigbert, who had spent several years in close retirement in Ireland in preparation for his mission. He too returned, disappointed and disheartened, to make up, by the austerities of his life and the examples of his virtues, for the failure of his missionary career. St. Egbert, however, urged others to attempt the task in which he confessed that he himself had failed ; and a full band of twelve monks, with Willibrord and Suidbert at their head, were directed towards the territory of the Frisians and of the pagan tribes that dwelt on their confines. Of these adventurous messengers, Tilmo, an Irishman, was one ; and in the division of territory mapped out to the labourers, Cologne and its people fell to his lot.

    That Tilmo was a native of Ireland seems quite certain. The constant tradition of Cologne is to that effect. The oldest chronicles of the monastery of St. Martin speak of him as a native of Scotia, and tell us that he was at first a soldier, then a monk, and finally a preacher of the Gospel on the banks of the Rhine. Almost all the missionaries of this region were educated either in Ireland or in Hy; but when they went abroad to preach the Gospel they usually marked the institutions which they founded with the seal of their nationality. Hence it was that the establishment of Tilmo soon attracted other Irishmen, who immediately grouped themselves around him, and took up the work which he had initiated.

    The following lines of an old poet simply hand down the tradition of centuries:

    Agrippae dulces salvete Napaeae,
    Dique Deaeque omnes quorum sub nomine terras
    Liquimus Hybernas, atque has intravimus oras;
    Has sedes servate Scotis, hie sistere terris,
    Exiliique vagos liceat finire labores.

    In the course of a few years Tilmo was joined by several other Irishmen, whose nationality is universally admitted,amongst them saints Wiro, Plechelmus and Otger. With their assistance a monastery, was established and dedicated to St. Martin of Tours, a saint whose renown was in all the churches in those days, and whose memory was specially venerated in Ireland as well as in France.

    The Irish monastery of St. Martin was, therefore, the first Christian establishment regularly founded in the city of Cologne. From this rich granary the seed of Christian faith was distributed and scattered broadcast over the land, taking such deep root that it lasts to-day, and flourishes in one of the fairest gardens of which the Church can boast.

    In the course of some years these Irish monks were joined by natives, and one of these, named Wicterp, made such progress under the Scoti, that he one day became Abbot of the monastery, and afterwards Bishop of Ratisbon. To this position his noble origin and powerful connection naturally helped him in a feudal age. The missionaries took advantage of his kinship with Plectrude, the wife of Pepin of Heristal, to secure the favour of princes and people. Wicterp was succeeded in turn as abbot by Alpho, Herbod, Aldegar, Patrick, Blasius, Heynian, Bartholf, Gottfried, Martin, Adolf, Benedict, Dithard, and Berthold. That some of these were native Teutons and some Scoti is quite certain. That some of these bear German names is no proof that they were not Irish, as many of the Irish missionaries modified their names to suit the tongue of the people to whom they ministered. Beatus, Virgilius, Fridolinus do not sound very Irish, yet all admit their nationality. German Protestant historians have no doubt about the Irish nationality of Clement the Heretic; yet Clement does not sound particularly Hibernian.

    During the eventful period that intervened between 690 and 975, in which the above-named abbots lived and ruled, their monastery passed through many vicissitudes. Twice it was levelled to the ground by merciless invaders first, by the Saxons, and then by the Normans. In the year 972, Bruno, Archbishop of Cologne, brought Berthold, one of the monks of Lorsch or Lauresham, to govern St. Martin’s. Gero, his successor, conferred many privileges on the monastery; but Warinus, whose curious history is one of the romances of the annals of Cologne, and who succeeded Gero, restored the monastery to Irish monks, and confided its government to the Irish abbot Mimborinus. Warinus also signalized his term of office by building, in the neighbourhood of the monastery, a chapel, in honour of St. Brigid of Kildare, which afterwards became, and long remained a parish church in the city of Cologne.

    On the death of Mimborinus, in 987, one of the monks, named Kilian, was appointed to succeed him. He is described as a very religious man; and, we are told, that the Archbishop, Evergerus, with the consent of the Emperor Otho III., presented to him, for the use of his monastery and pilgrim monks, several farms, with the fishing of the Rhine attached; three churches, several manses, vineyards, and exemption from some of the taxes in the city and in the empire. He also got charge of the monastery of St. Pantaleon, in the city, as well as of St. Martin’s. It is evident there must have been Irish monks in the former as well as in the latter of these monasteries.

    The most remarkable of the line of abbots of St. Martin’s was, however, Helias, whom the ancient annals of Cologne unanimously designate as St. Helias. He had come originally from the monastery of Monaghan in Ireland. He led a most austere life, Trithemius tells, and was on that account an object of hatred to wicked men, who feared his reproof. On the other hand, he was the bosom friend and counsellor of St. Heribert, Archbishop of Cologne, whose biographer, Landberth, tells us that when this illustrious prelate felt his end approach, he sent for his beloved Helias, who prepared him for death, and administered to him the Sacrament of Extreme Unction, and all the final consolations of the Church.

    On the death of Heribert, however, the new Archbishop, Pilgrinus, conceived an inveterate dislike for the Irish monks, and for Helias in particular, to such an extent, indeed, that he threatened to expel them from Cologne on his return from his pastoral visits through his diocese. He reckoned, however, without St. Helias, who prayed that if God was for the Irish monks Pilgrinus might never return to Cologne. Whether this be a legend or a fact, certain it is that Pilgrinus never did return. He died, as Marianus Scotus informs us, at the town of Neomagus, in 1035. Helias was honoured with the confidence of his successor, Herrmann, and ruled his two monasteries, St. Martin and St. Pantaleon’s, with the greatest success. He was remarkable, however, for uncommon strictness in the enforcement of discipline. A French monk of St. Pantaleon having written, without permission, a neat copy of the Missal for the use of the community, Helias burned it, lest others should presume to act without previous licence. He died in the odour of sanctity, and was buried in the chapel of St. Benedict, with the epitaph:

    Haec tumuli fossa conduntur Praesulis ossa
    Heliae miri mirificique viri.

    It is stated by many writers that Helias was a skilled musician, and that he was the first to bring the Roman chant to Cologne, Mabillon goes so far even as to suggest that he is the ‘Stranger and Pilgrim’ to whom Berno of Reichanau dedicated his work on The Laws of Symphony and Tone, a work well known in the history of music. If Cologne was thus indebted in the eleventh century for the Roman chant and for musical education to an Irishman from Monaghan, who had studied in Rome, it must be admitted that she is now paying back the debt, with interest, to Ireland, after a lapse of over eight hundred years.

    The learned historian of the diocese of Cologne, J. H. Kessel, published, in the year 1863, a most interesting volume containing all the ancient documents bearing on the history of St. Martin’s monastery. In the introduction to this work he bears eloquent testimony to the heroic labours of the Irish missionaries not only in Cologne, but all over Europe. He takes good care, in speaking of these Scottish monks, to make it clear that in ancient times ‘ Scotia ‘ was not the name of modern Scotland. Amongst the earliest apostles of Germany, he says, the Irish hold the first place. He gives a short account of the introduction of Christianity into Ireland, of its rapid conquest of the whole people, of its fruitful development, and of the great number of monastic schools that arose all over the country, and became what he truly calls the fountainheads of many streams that flowed over this favoured land, and fertilized the soil of regions which the vanity of superstition had hitherto rendered barren and worthless.

    Whilst this noble race of the ‘ Scoti ‘ [he continues] was enjoying the heavenly light of Gospel truth, and was bearing such fruits of virtue and good works as ever reward the labours of those who live according to its standard, Germany lay buried in the darkest and densest of superstitions. She had not even any hope of better fortune, either as to the preparation for a future life or the conception of any duty towards a Supreme Being. Nor can we be surprised at the fact, for traces of the superstition which we find to have existed at Cologne, in the sixth century, prove to us how crass and vile were the pagan ideas and customs that then existed in our city. To rescue the Germans from such darkness the Almighty seems to have chosen the ‘Scoti,’ who, yielding with joy to His divine will, proceeded to make new conquests for the kingdom of Christ. As Mabillon, in his Annals of the Benedictines, remarks, the Scoti conferred four benefits on the German people 1. The faith which gives salvation. 2. The erection of bishoprics. 3. The introduction of arts and letters. 4. The knowledge of agriculture. Those who wish to realize the full extent to which we are indebted to the Scoti for these blessings have only to read the work of the learned Spittler, which is worthy of the closest attention.

    These missionaries feared neither the dangers of sea nor of land. Armed with the cross alone they preached Christ crucified to kings and peoples. They gave their lives for the salvation of our forefathers who had not yet been born anew through the waters of Baptism. What bitter trials they sustained, what giant labours they performed, what adversaries they faced and obstacles they overcame, the learned Abbot Martinus Gerbert and Lumper, the historian, have fully told us, giving to each of these Scottish missionaries his share in the gifts of preaching or in the advancement of Christian virtue, of civilization, and of letters. It is, therefore, not wonderful that these Scots gained such authority, and won the favour of all good men to such an extent, that the vicissitudes of centuries could neither subvert nor undermine the veneration in which they were held. All this is mainly to be ascribed to the fact that they not only brought to the Germans the treasure of divine truth, but all the civilizing institutions of the Christian religion schools, hospitals, asylums, shelters for the poor, and all similar retreats. In the year 844, several of these institutions having been allowed to fall into decay, either by the negligence of the bishops or the vicissitudes of the times, a decree was passed, at the Council of Meaux, held in that year, ordering hospitals and such foundations to be restored, ‘ such as they had been instituted by the Scots of old.’ Every province of Germany proclaims this race as its benefactor. Austria celebrates St. Column, St. Virgilius, St. Modestus, and others. To whom but to the ancient Scots was due the famous ‘Schottenkloster ‘ of Vienna? Salsburg, Ratisbon , and all Bavaria honour St. Virgilius as their apostle. Similar honour is paid, in different regions, to SS. Alto, Marianus, and Macarius. To whom but to these same monks was due the famous monastery of St. James at Ratisbon? Burgundy, Alsace, Helvetia, Suevia, with one voice proclaim the glory of Columbanus, Gall, Fridolin, Arbogast, Florentius, Trudpert, who first preached the true religion amongst them. Who were the founders of the monasteries of St. Thomas at Strasburg, and of St. Nicholas at Memmingen, but these same Scots? Franconia and the Buchonian forest honour as their apostles St. Kilian and St. Pirmin. . . and those Scottish monasteries of St. Aegidius and St. James, which in olden times flourished at Nuremburg and at Würzburg, to whom are they to be ascribed but to the holy monks of ancient Scotia? The land between the Rhine and the Moselle rejoiced in the labours of Wendelin and Disibod. . . . The old and famous monastery of St. James, at Mayence, was founded, according to the best writers, by these same Scots. The Saxons and the tribes of Northern Germany are indebted to them to an extent which may be judged by the fact that the first ten bishops who occupied the see of Verden belonged to that race.

    The immediate successor of St. Helias, as abbot of St. Martin’s, was Mariolus or Molanus, who, according to Florence of Worcester, died in 1061. He is described by the poet -chronicler, Oliver Legipont, as –

    Vir niveo candore micans et Pallade clarus.

    Five other names complete the roll of Irish abbots of St. Martin’s they are: Felan, Wolfhard, Hezelin, Isaac, and Arnold. Of the last-named, who died in 1103, the chronicler tells us –

    Ultimus ille fuit praesul de gente Scotorum.

    This was the period of decay in Irish monastic life at home owing to the Danish wars and other domestic causes. The monasteries abroad shared in the downfall of the establishments that had given them birth, and soon fell into the hands of the stranger.

    The abbey of St. Martin, at Cologne, did not disappear, however, with its Irish monks. On the contrary, it continued to be one of the most important centres of civilization and learning in Germany. Nobles, and even princes became its mitred abbots. Many of its monks were heard in the halls of the University of Cologne by the side of Albertus Magnus, Thomas Aquinas, and Duns Scotus. Its library was frequented by scholars from all parts of Europe. But though it survived the storms of a thousand years, it succumbed to the French Revolution. By a decree of the 9th of June, 1802, it was declared national property. The goods of the monastery were seized, and the church was handed over to the pastor of St. Brigid’s, to serve henceforth as a parish church. On the 3rd of July, 1803, the last abbot of St. Martin’s celebrated his first Mass as parish priest of St. Martin’s. The church, however, still remains a splendid memorial of the old foundations of the ‘Scoti.’ Around it cling the most sacred traditions. To the modern people of Cologne it recalls the most cherished memories of the Christian faith.

    J. F. HOGAN.

    Irish Ecclesiastical Record, 4th series, Vol. 3 (1898), 526-535

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  • Saint Paternus of Paderborn, April 10

     

    April 10 is the commemoration of an eleventh-century hermit saint, Paternus of Paderborn. The story of this heroic holy man, who lost his life in a fire which he himself had foretold,  is bound up with that of the Irish chronicler hermit Marianus Scotus who visited the cell which the blessed Paternus had occupied and saw the famous relic of the sleeping mat which had miraculously survived the flames. In his account below Canon O’Hanlon is keen to claim Paternus as an Irishman, as was the 17th-century hagiologist, Father John Colgan, who records him as a Scot. In the early Middle Ages Ireland was known as Scotia and its natives described as Scotti in the writings of continental commentators. Later the term was applied exclusively to Scotland and much to the chagrin of the Irish the monasteries in Germany founded by Irishmen, the Schottenklöster, were appropriated by the Scots. In relating the story of Paternus, Canon O’Hanlon also depicts his death as a testimony to holy obedience, for having prophesied the fire, the prophet refuses to break his hermit’s rule and perishes:

    St. Paternus, Recluse and Martyr, at Paderborn, in Lower Saxony.           
    [Eleventh Century]

    In the remarkable self-imolation of this faithful servant of Christ, we must admire his observance of what he deemed to be a duty, and adore the inscrutable ways, whereby Divine Providence regulates the life of man. At the 10th of April, Colgan’s list discloses the present saint’s name.  It would seem, our national hagiologist had his Acts ready for publication, because being an Irish Scot, and celebrated by his countryman, the Blessed Marianus Scotus, the Chronographer, his glorious death caused him to be greatly reverenced in Germany. This St. Paternus is called a Scot,  and he is noticed in the Bollandists’ colIection, where the circumstances related of him are set forth, in seven paragraphs.  From all we may reasonably infer, this celebrated recluse was born in Ireland, and probably, about the commencement of the eleventh century. Whether he became a recluse in his own country, or not, is hardly known; however, he seems to have left it, for the Continent, in order to adopt a course of life, attended with perfect self-denial, and practices of the greatest austerity. He travelled to Paderborn, in Germany, where a bishopric had been established, by the Emperor Charlemagne, about the close of the eighth century while its cathedral was consecrated by Pope Leo III  in person, during the year 796. Here, too, Charlemagne and other Emperors sometimes resided, and held diets of the Empire. Its Bishop became suffragan to the Archbishop of Mentz, a sovereign of the country, and a Prince of the Empire, while he ruled with extensive privileges. The name of this city is said to have been derived, from pader, “a rivulet,” which rises just under the high altar of the cathedral, and from born, “a spring.” In the beginning of the eleventh century, walls were built about this city. At the time of our saint’s arrival, there were two distinct monasteries in it; one belonging to the bishop of the place, and, probably, it was occupied, by a community of Cathedral Canons, while the other was in possession of a congregation of monks, to which Paternus belonged.

    In this very solitary place of abode, the Blessed Paternus lived for many years, quite retired from any commerce with the world. A year before his death, in a spirit of prophecy, he foretold a great fire, which should consume the city, where he dwelt, because of the sins of its people. This occurred in the year 1058. In it, he also perished; for, with the spirit of a martyr, Paternus refused safety, by a strict observance of his rule of life. As a demonstration of his sanctity, the mat on which he slept escaped the flames; and, it was afterwards held in great veneration, by the citizens of Paderborn. After his death, his sepulchre was illustrated by miracles, as Marianus Scotus relates.  The latter pious Irishman had set out from Cologne, on Monday after the Octave of Easter, A.D. 1059, with a view of becoming an inclusus, at Fulda. He resolved to visit Paderborn, on the way;  and, he tells us, that then, in the very cell, where Blessed Patern lived, he prayed on that same mat, which had escaped the flames. By the constant tradition and piety of the people of Paderborn, St. Paternus had been regarded from times remote, as one of the tutelary patrons of their city.  His name is recorded, by many writers and calendarists; such as, by Trithemius, Wion, Dorgan, Menard, Bucelin, Ferarius, Wilson, Camerarius, Dempster, and Simon Martin. Yet, the knowledge of Patern’s place of sepulcher had passed away from the memory of the people, nor were his miracles distinctly remembered, in the latter times.  Citing Arnold Wion, Dempster notices the present saint, in his Calendar, at this date, and as belonging to Scotland. In terms of high commendation, St. Peter Damien, a contemporary, mentions this saint, in that apologetical Epistle he wrote, and (which referred to resigning the Episcopal office. His reflections are chiefly on the subject of Patern’s devotion to duty, and on his leaving to the disposition of Divine Providence his own life, while a great public calamity was impending.

    The result of his trust, as the holy Cardinal observes, should cause us to fear, rather than question, the judgments of God. While it can scarcely be doubtful, that a prophet, who had a knowledge of the approaching destruction of a burning city, should have no revelation regarding his own death; the human mind may well cease to wonder, at the depths and mystery of the Almighty’s terrible punishments inflicted on men, and in which so holy a servant paid the forfeit of his life, while so many were guilty of crimes, not expiated by a true change of heart.



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  • Blessed Marianus Scotus of Ratisbon, February 9

    February 9 is the feast of the blessed Marianus Scotus of Ratisbon. It may not be immediately apparent but behind this Latin name is an 11th-century Donegal man, Muiredhach Mac Robartaigh, a monastic scholar and scribe. Below is a paper which was read to the Royal Irish Academy in 1862 by the learned Anglican bishop, William Reeves. In his paper Dr Reeves describes the life and work of Marianus and explains the rather arbitrary Latinizations of Irish names which has led to some confusion between our saint and another 11th-century Marianus Scotus, the chronicler. I have omitted some of the author’s discussion of the manuscript of the Epistles of Saint Paul as it was too difficult to accurately reproduce the Latin and Irish texts. 

    Rev. Dr. Reeves read a paper—
    ON MARIANUS SCOTTUS, OF RATISBON.
    It is worthy of observation, that our native annals, which are so full and minute in recording the names of ecclesiastics who became distinguished at home, utterly ignore the existence of those who went abroad. The memory of St. Gall, St. Columbanus, and St. Cataldus are engraved on the map of Continental Europe; St. Fiacra is stereotyped in the language of France; St. Fridolin is blazoned on the banners and arms of Glarus; St. Coloman, an Irish monarch’s son, is patron saint of Lower Austria; Franconia glories in the Irish Kilian: yet not one of these worthies finds a place in the Annals of Tighernach, of Ulster, or the Four Masters. For this silence of the annalists there are two ways of accounting. In the first place, the early tide of missionary emigration from Ireland was entirely eastwards, and for centuries there was little or no reflux. The pilgrims found in central Europe abundant occupation for the residue of their lives, and there established a home for themselves, either in the martyr’s grave or in the hearts of the people. In this manner, having abandoned their native country in early life, ere they had made a name, and all intercourse with it being at an end, they were soon forgotten.
    In the second place, the nature of our annals demanded such silence, and thus what at first might be judged a defect becomes an internal testimony of their truth. They admitted nothing on hearsay. I do not, indeed, mean to assert that Tighernach, Cathal Maguire, or the O’Clerys were not copyists, or that they witnessed all which they record. But this I say, that each successive compiler transferred and embodied the matter of various collateral and well-authenticated originals, in which generations of scribes had in the great monasteries noted down, as in a day-book, particular events as they occurred; which records were preserved on the spot where they were written. We can easily draw the picture of an enterprising and diligent scribe, starting from his monastery with his leathern wallet on his back, to take a circuit of the kindred institutions of his province, in order to make an authentic compilation from original entries, for the benefit of his own institution, either with a view to increase its literary stores, or repair the damage done by that minister of oblivion—fire. In such compilations the names or acts of those who had abandoned their country were not likely to find a place. And, even in the middle ages, when the diffusion of Christianity, with its attendant civilization, brought round a closer connexion and increased intercourse between the pilgrims and their brethren at home, the old principle continued to operate, and the annals ran on, not as records of the Irish, but of Ireland; so much so that, among all the Irish foundations on the Continent, and all their exclusive congregations, I can discover but three names that have found their way into our domestic records, and these, of individuals who were high in office and celebrity before their departure.
    At 784 the Four Masters record the death of ” Ferghil, the Geometer, Abbot of Achadhbo, in Germany, in the 13th year of his episcopate.” This was the celebrated Virgilius, who became Bishop of Salzburg. The Annals of Ulster, at 788, simply say: —Feirgil abb Acaidboo moritur.
    At 1042 the Annals of Ulster and Four Masters relate that “Ailell, of Mucnomh, Superior of the Irish monks in Colonia, died.”
    Lastly, at 1085, according to the Four Masters, ” Gilla-na-naemh-Laighen, illustrious Bishop of Glenndaloch, and afterwards Superior of the monks in Wurzburg, died on the 7th of April.”
    High in honour abroad, though forgotten at home, were the two Mariani, each of whom bore the designation of Scotus, and who, on account of the identity of their assumed names, have by many distinguished writers been treated of as but an individual. Their real names, however, were different, and though nearly contemporary, and natives of the same province, their labours lay in different fields, and their literary remains vary in their character. Marianus Scotus the Chronicler was born in 1028, and educated under Tighernach Boirceach, of Moville. In 1056 he withdrew to Cologne; in 1058 he removed to Fulda; in 1069 he retired to Mentz; and in 1082 he died. His Chronicle is his great monument, but it has long been well known to the learned of Europe; and Florence of Worcester, one of England’s worthies, is glad to make the Irishman’s work the basis of his compilation. Marianus’ autograph, with his assumed name, containing also a memorandum of his native, name, Maelbrigde, has been edited in Pertz’s Monnmenta by G. Waitz from a Vatican MS. formerly belonging to St. Martin’s of Mayence. With this Marianus we have nothing further to do.
    The other Marianus Scotus, whose own name was Muiredhach Mac Robartaigh, was a native of Tir Conaill, the modern county of Donegal. He left Ireland in 1067, that is, eleven years after the Chronicler. A memoir of him and his successors, composed by an Irish monk of Ratisbon, and carefully edited by John Bollandus, in the second volume, for February, of the Acta Sanctorum, from a manuscript preserved in the Carthusian monastery of Gaming, in Lower Austria, furnishes the following particulars concerning the history of this good man:—
    “Marianus was a native of the north of Ireland, and remarkable as well for the beauty of his countenance as the strength of his body. In his youth he was carefully instructed by his parents in sacred and secular literature, with a view to his entering the clerical office. In process of time he assumed the monastic habit, but seemingly without entering any regular order; and, taking two companions, called John and Candidus, he set out from home, having as his ultimate object a pilgrimage to Rome. Arriving, on their way, at Bamberg, they were kindly received, and, after a year’s sojourn, were admitted to the order of St. Benedict in the monastery of Michelsberg. But, being unacquainted with the language of the country, they preferred retirement, and a small cell at the foot of the hill was assigned them for their use. After a short stay, they received the license of their Superior to proceed on their way; arriving at Ratisbon, they met a friendly reception at the nunnery of the Upper Monastery (Obermunster), where Marianus was employed by the Abbess Emma, in the transcription of some books. From this he removed to the Lower Monastery (Niedermunster), where a cell was assigned to himself and his companions, in which he diligently continued his occupation of writing, his companions preparing the membranes for his use. After some time he was minded to resume his original journey; but a countryman called Muircertach, who was then living as a recluse at the Obermunster, urged him to submit to the Divine guidance the determining whether he should proceed on his way, or settle for life at Ratisbon. He passed the night in Muircertach’s cell; and in the hours of darkness it was intimated to him that, where on the next day he should first behold the rising sun, he should remain and fix his abode. Starting before day, he entered St. Peter’s Church, outside the walls, to implore the Divine blessing on his journey. But scarcely had he come forth, when he beheld the sun stealing above the horizon. “Here then, said he, “I shall rest, and here shall be my resurrection.” His determination was hailed with joy by the whole population. The Abbess granted him this Church of St. Peter, commonly known as “Weich-Sanct-Peter, with an adjacent plot, where, in 1076, a citizen called Bethselinus (Bezelin) built for the Irish, at his own cost, a little monastery, which the Emperor Henry IV. soon after took under his protection, at the solicitation of the Abbess Hazecha. The fame of Marianus, and the news of his prosperity, presently reached Ireland, and numbers of his kindred were induced to come out, and enter his society. The early connexions of the monastery were chiefly with Ulster, his own native province, and the six Abbots who succeeded him were all from the north. The seventh was a southern. From Weich-Sanct-Peter, another Irish monastery, called St. James’s of Ratisbon, took its rise in 1090. Marianus’ original companions, however, did not continue with him, for John went to Gottweich, in Lower Austria, where he became a recluse under Bishop Altmann. Clemens proceeded on a pilgrimage to Jerusalem, where he ended his days. Of Marianus himself, nothing more is recorded in this memoir, except his great skill and industry as a scribe. ” Such,” says the memoir, ” was the grace of writing which Divine Providence bestowed on the blessed Marianus, that he wrote many and lengthy volumes, with a rapid pen, both in the Upper and Lower Monasteries. For, to speak the truth, without any colouring of language, among all the acts which Divine Providence deigned to perform through this same man, I deem this most worthy of praise and admiration, that the holy man wrote from beginning to end, with his own hand, the Old and New Testament, with explanatory comments on the same books, and that, not once or twice, but over and over again, with a view to the eternal reward; all the while clad in sorry garb, living on slender diet, attended and aided by his brethren, both in the Upper and Lower Monasteries, who prepared the membranes for his use. Besides, he also wrote many smaller books and Manual Psalters, for distressed widows, and poor clerics of the same city, towards the health of his soul, without any prospect of earthly gain. Furthermore, through the mercy of God, many congregations of the Monastic Order, which, in faith and charity, and imitation of the blessed Marianus, are derived from the aforesaid Ireland, and inhabit Bavaria and Franconia, are sustained by the writings of the blessed Marianus.”
    He died on the 9th of February, 1088.
    Aventinus, the Bavarian annalist, styles him, “Poeta et Theologus insignis, nullique suo seculo secundus,” and thus describes one of Marianus’ compilations:—
    “Extant Reginoburgii in inferiori Monasterio, Divini Davidis Hymni, cum commentariis in membranis scripti, opus Mariani. Ejus prafationem, ut fides fiat, subtexo de verbo ad verbum: Anno dominicae incarnationis, Mlxxiv, Hainrico juvene Imp., Machtylda Abbatissa S. Maria, et S. Herhardi Abbateam regente, decern novalis Cycli xi. anno Indict, xii. Marianus Scotus, septimo peregrinationis suae anno collegit modicas istas undas, de profundo sanctorum Patrum pelago, scilicet Hieronymi, Augustini, Cassiodori, Arnobii, et de opusculis S. Gregorii: et pro suae animae salute, in honorem salvatoris Domini nostri Jesu Christi, et ejus genitricis, semperque Virginis Mariae, et S. Herhardi confessoris, scripsit, et in unum librum perstrinxit. Prolixas enim et salubres Catholicorum Patrum expositiones non omnes avido cordis amore petunt. Multi sunt etiam, qui etsi tales legere vel habere vellent, tamen minori censu, vel intellectu, vel aliqua causa existente occupati, illas invenire et legere non possunt. Nunquam tribuatur ad transcribendum extra Monasterium, nisi pro eo congruum relinquatur vadimonium. Georgii feriis coepit, Mathaei et Hemerami finivit.”
    2. Liber Mariani genere Scoti, excerptus de Evangelistarum voluminibus sive doctoribus.
    3. The third manuscript of our countryman, Marianus, is the most interesting, not only on account of the beauty of its execution, but also as supplying the Irish name of the writer; for I may here observe that the use of Latin forms to represent Irish names is very arbitrary; thus, Malachias stands for Maelmaedhog, as in the case of Malachy O’Morgair; for Maeliosa, as in the case of Maeliosa, bishop of Down (1152): Gelasius represents several compounds of Gilla, as Gillamacliag, Gilladomhnaill; so also Marianus represents Maelbrigde, as in the case of Marianus, the Chronist; Muiredhach, as in the case of the present Marianus ; and Maelmuire, as in the case of Marian Gorman, the Martyrologist.
    The existence of this manuscript has been known to the literary public since 1679, when Lambecius’ catalogue of the Imperial Library of Vienna was finished. Prom it Cave, Harris, Oudin, Lanigan, and Zcuas have drawn information. And, in later times, Denis, in his catalogue of the MSS. in that collection, has given fuller and more interesting details. But it requires an Irish eye to discern, and Irish wit to unfold, the essential points and beauties of our exquisite MSS.; and both of these qualifications are possessed in an eminent degree by our former associate, Mr. Charles P. Mac Donnell, who, during a residence in Vienna, spent some time in the examination of Marianus’ principal manuscript, and kindly intrusted me with the carriage of the following communication:—
    ” Among the literary treasures stored in the Imperial Library at Vienna, there is an autograph (unedited) manuscript of our illustrious and venerable fellow-countryman, Marianus Scotus, the Chronographer, being a copy of the Epistles of St. Paul, with an interlinear gloss, apparently an original production of Marianus himself, and a copious marginal commentary, consisting of extracts from the Fathers and theological writers popular in his day—a commentary which attests the patristic learning and research of that truly eminent man. Harris, in his edition of ‘Ware’s Writers of Ireland,’ notices this Codex; as does also Lanigan in his ‘Ecclesiastical History of Ireland,’ both referring to the authority of Lambecius. Lanigan says that those notes of Marianus, ‘ although well worthy of the light, have not, as far as I know, been as yet published’—a statement in which he merely follows Lambecius, whose words, in reference to this MS. are, that it contains: ‘ Omnes Epistolae Sancti Pauli Apostoli, celeberrimi Chronographi Mariani Scoti, monachi Fuldensis, propria manu, anno 1079, exaratae, et ab eodem annotationibus marginalibus et interlinearibus, hactenus quidem nondum editis, editu tamen dignissimis, illustratae: in quarum fine haec ipsius legitur subscriptio: Explicit Epistola ad Hebroeos, habens versus Dccc. In honore Individuae Trinitatis, Marianus Scottus scripsit hunc librum suis fratribus peregrinis. Anima ejus requiescat in pace, propter Deum devote dicite Amen. xvi. Kal. Junii hodie feria vi. anno Domini MLXXVIII.’ “
    The learned and laborious Denis, one of those highly cultivated and gifted men whom the dispersion of the old society of the Jesuits threw upon the world, and who, in these circumstances, was made chief librarian in Vienna in the latter part of the last century, has given a more detailed analysis of this valuable manuscript. In this notice I shall mainly follow his guidance, taking care, however, to give the extracts exactly as they stand in the manuscript itself. The MS. is a large quarto, consisting of 160 folia of vellum; the text in a fine clear hand of the eleventh century, in letters of moderate size; the gloss, both lineal and marginal, being written in small, delicate characters, but evidently by the same pen. Fol. 136 is written only on one side; ff. 146 and 154 were cut away to one-half their original size, after having been written, as is manifest from some of the letters on the remaining halves being partly cut away.
    The Codex contains all the Epistles of Saint Paul, strictly according to the text of the Vulgate, and in the same order in which they now stand in our Bibles, except that, between those to the Colossians and to the Thessalonians, the apocryphal Epistle to the Laodiceans is introduced, with this marginal observation, however: ” Laodicensium epistola ab alio sub nomine pauli putatur edita.” With the exception of the last-mentioned, which is left uncommented, the Epistles are all accompanied with an interlinear gloss, and are elucidated by ample marginal quotations from the following Fathers and theological writers: St Gregory, St. Jerome, St. Augustine, Fulgentius, Origen, Cassian, Haimon, Leo, and Alcuin; and also from the Liber Pastoralis, Petrus Diaconus, Ambrosiaster (now rejected in tom.ii., ed. Maur. Paris, Append, p. 21), and Pelagius (whose Commentarii in Paulinas may be seen, tom. xi., Opp. S. Hieronymi, edit. Vallars. col. 835). As far as the Epistle to the Colossians, the prevailing extracts are from St. Gregory; and from that to the end the most frequent are from the false Ambrosius. Denis suggests that improved readings of the text of the Fathers might be, perhaps, obtained by a collation of their works as printed, with the passages quoted from their writings in this MS., which exhibit in many instances considerable variations from the usually accepted readings…. [please refer to the original volume for further details of this MS]…The last folio concludes with in the gloss, the Christian and family name of the illustrious chronographer, written with his own hand in his mother tongue—Muiredach mac Robartaig.
    The family of Mac Robhartaigh were the hereditary guardians of the venerable Cathach of St. Columbkill, and, as such, herenachs in Tyrconnell, and vassals of the O’Donells, the ancient princely rulers of that region. As guardians of that reliquary, they are mentioned in the “Annals of the Four Masters.” In 1497 one of the events of a battle at the pass of Ballaghboy, between the O’Donells and the Mac Dermots, which proved disastrous to the former, is thus recorded: —
    Translated by our learned fellow-countryman, O’Donovan: —
    The Cathach of Columbkille was also taken from them, and Magroarty, the keeper of it, was slain.
    Two years after this battle the Cathach was restored to the O’Donells (ad an. 1499); and in 1567 the same annalists chronicle a battle between the O’Neills and O’Donells at Farsetmore, a low-water ford near Letterkenny, in which, amongst those that fell, was—Rendered in O’Donovan’s translation—
    ” Magroarty, who had the custody of the Cathach of St. Columbkille.”
    Almost contemporary with this Marianus was Donnall Mac Robartaigh, St. Columba’s successor at Kells, whose name is engraved on the silver case of the Cathach, and whose death is recorded by the Four Masters at 1098. By them he is called O’Robhartaigh; but this interchange of Mac and O’ is common in early records. Dermot O’Robhartaigh, Abbot of Durrow, died in 1190. Ballymagroarty, in the parish of Drumhome, county of Donegal, is so called from Baile-mecc-Robhartaich, being originally the possession of Mac Robhartach, keeper of the Cathach; and Ballymagrorty, in the parish of Templemore or Deny, has the same origin. In 1609, the Inquisition of Donegal finds the “Island of Torro [Tory], whereof O’Rohertye is both herenagh and corbe.” Among the general pardons in the same year, various members of the clan are mentioned under the forms McRuertie, Magroertie, Mcgroertie, Magrertee, and Roertie. At the present time the name has been moulded into O’Rafferty, Rafferty, and Mc Grotty.
    Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy, Volume 7 (1862), 290-301.

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