A Brief History of Sixth-Century Irish Monasticism

The Baptism of the King of Cashel by Patrick

By James Barry, 1800 

www.johngrenham.com/blog/2016/11/21/painted-history/

St. Patrick

With the return of St. Patrick as bishop to Ireland in AD 433, Christianity began the process of spreading, driving out the pagan druid cults and blossoming in the Emerald Isle. One of the most beautiful and ancient of the blossoms of Christianity was Irish monasticism. Although St. Finnian of Clonard is traditionally held to be the founder of Irish monasticism, there exist in St. Patrick’s writings various hints of monasticism before St. Finnian’s birth. As St. Patrick writes in his Confessions: “now…the sons and daughters of the kings of the Irish are seen to be monks and virgins of Christ” (St. Patrick).

Musther, Rev. John. “Irish Monasticism.” Early Christian Sites in Ireland: Database. 2008-2014. Web. <earlychristianireland.net/Specials/Irish%20Monasticism/.>  

St. Patrick. "The Confession of St. Patrick." Catholic Planet - Roman Catholic Theology, <www.catholicplanet.com/ebooks/Confession-of-St-Patrick.pdf.>

“Site of St. Finnian’s Monastic School Clonard, County Meath, Ireland”

By J. Demetrescu, 2009

www.saintsandstones.net/saints-clonard-2009a.htm

St. Finnian & the School of Clonard

St. Finnian was born in Myshall, County Carlow, Ireland in AD 470. After studying in Wales for an extended length of time, he returned to his homeland and began work as a missionary, starting churches and monastic communities wherever he went.  In the sixth century the most famous of these was the School of Clonard, situated on the flowing Boyne just on the border between North and South Ireland. St. Finnian began the monastery as a simple hut and church which only he inhabited; however, followers soon began to join him in his ascetic life. It has been said that three-thousand people at a time were taught under the blue sky in the fields surrounding the monastery by St. Finnian and his monks.  After St. Finnian’s death around AD 552 the monastery continued in its holy and famed efforts on behalf of the Irish people until it was destroyed by the Danes in the eleventh century.

Healy, John. "School of Clonard." The Catholic Encyclopedia. Vol. 4. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1908. 7 Mar. 2018 <http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/04064a.htm>.

Lapa, Dmitry. "Venerable Finnian, Abbot of Clonard." OrthoChristian.Com, 29 Dec. 2013, <orthochristian.com/67125.html.> Accessed 7 Mar. 2018.

“Temple Ciaran (Burial Site of St. Ciaran), Clonmacnoise Monastic Site, County Offaly, Ireland”

By J. Demetrescu, 2005

www.saintsandstones.net/saints-clonmacnoise-templeciaran1.htm

St. Ciaran & the Abbey & School of Clonmacnoise

St. Ciaran was born in AD 512 at Fuerty, County Roscommon, Ireland. In a fascinating semi-biographical account of St. Ciaran, it is recorded that he was a student of St. Finnian at the School of Clonard: “Now after those things Ciaran thought it time to go a-schooling to Findian [St. Finnian]…to learn wisdom” (Anonymous). An interesting tale contained in this work reveals a prophecy made by St. Finnian in regards to his holy pupil, St. Ciaran.  One day a student called Ninned came to St. Finnian after searching fruitlessly for a copy of the Gospels. St. Finnian sent him to St. Ciaran, who was reading the Gospel of Matthew: “‘Mercy on us,’ said Ciaran, ‘for that do I read this, and this is what the text saith to me, that everything that I would that men should do to me, I should do to all. Take thou the book’” (Anonymous). Later, when asked about his newly acquired Gospel, Ninned recounted how St. Ciaran had given it to him: “‘Let ‘Ciaran Half-Matthew’ be his name,” said one of the school. ‘Nay,’ said Findian [St. Finnian], ‘but Ciaran Half-Ireland; for his shall be half of Ireland, and ours the other half.’ As Finnian said—

Holy Ciaran zealously

under Findian studying pored;

Half his book he left unread

half of Ireland his reward’” (Anonymous).

St. Ciaran left the School of Clonard and for three years traveled and began monasteries until he came to the beautiful Shannon region where he exclaimed to his companions: “Here then we will stay, for many souls will go to heaven hence, and there will be a visit from God and from men forever on this place” (Healy).  Thus the famous Abbey and School of Clonmacnoise was founded by St. Ciaran. Within months, the holy saint died of the plague on September 9, 544. The monastery school, however, thrived and students came from Europe in order to learn wisdom at Clonmacnoise and many great men were educated there. Although Clonmacnoise struggled during the period of the seventh to tenth centuries with plague, fires, Danes and warring Chieftains, by the twelfth century it was once again a thriving community. Clonmacnoise developed into the most famous monastery-city in Ireland, priding itself, in addition to its scholarly successes, with great works stone and metal art. The monastery also wrote and compiled ‘The Annals of Clonmacnoise’ which retold the history of Ireland from the prehistoric times until 1408. However, the once great monastery ceased to be in existence during the sixteenth century and only the ruins of St. Ciaran’s great Abbey exist today.     

St. Ciaran of Clonmacnoise

Icon, Unknown

orthochristian.com/73745.html

Healy, John. "Abbey and School of Clonmacnoise." The Catholic Encyclopedia. Vol. 4. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1908. 7 Mar. 2018 <http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/04065a.htm>.

Lapa, Dmitry. "Commemorated September 9/22. Saint Ciaran, Abbot of Clonmacnoise in Ireland / OrthoChristian.Com." OrthoChristian.Com, orthochristian.com/73745.html.

"The Latin & Irish Lives of Ciaran by Anonymous: The Irish Life of Saint Ciaran." Trans. R.A. Stewart-MacAlister. The Literature Network: Online Classic Literature, Poems, and Quotes. Essays & Summaries,  <www.online-literature.com/anonymous/ciaran/5/.>

St. Comgall

Icon, Unknown

www.catholic.org/saints/saint.php?saint_id=2710

St. Comgall & the Monastery of Bangor

As a student at Clonard School under the tutorage of St. Finnian, and later at Clonmacnoise studying under St. Ciaran, St. Comgall was originally a soldier before entering religious life.  He was born around AD 515 in present day County Antrim. St. Comgall was ordained a priest and proceeded to spread Christianity and begin monasteries, the most famous one being that of the monastery of Bangor in County Down, which he founded around AD 552. Although advocating and living a severely ascetic lifestyle of strict prayer and fasting, St. Comgall had many followers and Bangor became the greatest of the monastic schools in the province of Ulster. Upon the death of St. Comgall in AD 601, thousands of monks looked upon him as their spiritual father.  Alas, as with the School of Clonard, Bangor (easily accessible to the sea) was pillaged by the Danes who massacred nine-hundred monks and desecrated the relics of St. Comgall. The monastery deteriorated until the twelfth century when it was rebuilt; it was subsequently passed from the Franciscan to the Augustinian Orders to King James I of Scotland, its last abbot dying at the time of the French Revolution.   

D'Alton, Edward. "Bangor Abbey." The Catholic Encyclopedia. Vol. 2. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1907. 7 Mar. 2018 <http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/02250a.htm>.

MacCaffrey, James. "St. Comgall." The Catholic Encyclopedia. Vol. 4. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1908. 7 Mar. 2018 <http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/04152c.htm>.

St. Columba’s Farewell to the White Horse

Alice Boyd, 1825-1897

www.christies.com/lotfinder/Lot/alice-boyd-1825-1897-st-columbas-farewell-5456943-details.aspx

St. Columba & the School of Iona

St. Columba, perhaps the most famous of the Irish abbots, was born on December 7, 521 in Garten, County Donegal, Ireland, of the clan O’Donnell. He studied under St. Finnian and later joined his monastery at Clonard. He was also close friends with St. Ciaran and St. Comgall. He founded several monasteries in Ireland and, on a pilgrimage to Tours, he took the gospels from the crypt of St. Martin and brought them to Scotland, where he exiled himself in AD 563 for penance. He and his brothers settled at Iona on the feast of Pentecost in 563 and he set about converting the local inhabitants and advancing his community. St. Columba also contributed largely to the inscribing of the Book of Kells.  From his Monastery of Iona he governed various communities in Ireland and Caledonia until he died on June 8, 597. The Monastery of Iona thrived until the attacks of the Danes during the ninth century. The ancient Irish/Scottish monastery came to an end at the turn of the thirteenth century and a Benedictine Order was in place and constructed a great church. The sixteenth-century Reformation took its toll, however and the Iona was abandoned. The restoration of Iona from the nineteenth through the twentieth centuries took place, however, and today Iona Abbey exists as a historic Protestant Church and tourist site.

Healy, John. "Abbey and School of Clonmacnoise." The Catholic Encyclopedia. Vol. 4. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1908. 7 Mar. 2018 <http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/04065a.htm>.

---"School of Iona." The Catholic Encyclopedia. Vol. 8. New York: Robert Appleton Company,1910. 7 Mar. 2018 <http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/08090a.htm>.

Ross, David. "Iona Abbey, History & Photos | Historic Scotland Guide." Britain Express, www.britainexpress.com/attractions.htm?attraction=975.