FROM MOUNT MELLERAY TO MOUNT ST. JOSEPH.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XIX, Issue 26, 27 March 1891, Page 27

FROM MOUNT MELLERAY TO MOUNT ST. JOSEPH.

(From the Irish Catholic.)

The Rev. John O'Hanlon, the learned author of the •' Lives of the Irish Saints," when concluding his life of St. Malachy, thus refers to Mount Melleray where those victims of French hatred of Christianity settled down twenty years previous to his allusion to them. " A numerous and fervent community has been congregated under the spiritual direction of saintly abbots, and the blessings of Heaven have descended in abundance, not only on the population of the surrounding neighbourhood, but on pious pilgrimß from the most distant parts of our island who have sought a temporary retreat within those hallowed cloisters, where the distractions and cares of this world rarely intrude, or become altogether unheeded when they are superseded by that wise solicitude which refers to the soul's eternal interests."

The story of Mount Melleray has been told quite recently in the Irish Catholic by Mr. Donal Sullivan, M.P., so nothing could be added to it, and the half century of its edifying existence, together with that of its two first thriving affiliations, namely, Mount St. Bernard, Leicestershire, England, and New Melleray, Dubuque, U.S., America, may be passed over, in order tointrodnce Mount St. Joseph, Roscrea, the third foundation from Mount Melleray, that fruitful mother of saints.

For many years Count Moore, of Mooresfort, Tipperary, wai anxious to found a second house of Trappists in Ireland, and for a long time sought for a proper site for the purpose. Early in 1878, it came to his knowledge that a gentleman's residence, with a demense of about four hundred Irish acres attached, aud situate in the King's County, two miles from Roscrea, was for sale. After inspecting it and consulting with the Lord Abbot of Mount Melleray, who also visited the place, he purchased it, and munificently made it over to the monks of Mount Melleray, who took formal possession on March Ist, 1878, and changed the name it bore for centuries, Mount Heaton into Mount St. Joseph, after the holy foßter-father of our Blessed Lord. At the time it passed into the hands of the monks, the grand old mansion was in a dilapidated condition, and its once beautiful gardens and surroundings bore all the traces of Time's effacing finger. Before showing it as it was in 1878, and as it is to-day, it may interest many to know who were its owners since it passed from the O'Carrol till it became a monastic institution. Tradition has it that it was a residence of the O'Carrol prior to one of Cromwell's officers receiving

it. His name was Heatoo. The ancient name it was known by before be gave it his own was Ballysbeoach. Many are the racy {anecdotes told of this doughty warrior around the firesides in the surrounding localit •. Francis Heaton, presumably grandson of this latter lived there in 1695. In 1731 William Armstrong, of Farney Castle, near Thurles, marritd Mary, third daughter of the above-men-tioned Francis, by his wife Elizabeth, daughter of Robert Curtis, MP, of Inane House. He waa succeeded by hig brother, the Bight Hon. John Armstrong, who, when death drew near, h id all his cattle driven beneath his bedroom window, and caused himself to be b'irne to it that he might take alastlong.lingering look on the truly fairy scene beueath him. He is said to have dolefully exclaimed : " Oh, beef an 1 bacon, and mutton shaking, sweet Mount Heaton must I leave you 1 " Thiegood gentleman was succeeded by his son, William Henry Armstrong (a staunch anti-Unionist), who in 1809 married Bridget, only daughter of Colonel Charles M'Donnell, of Stone Hall, county Clare. In 1816 he retired to the Continent, and, not intending to return to this country he sold some of his Irish estates in the following year. General Taylor must then have purchased it, tor he resided there in 1823, and for several years following, during which time it underwent many improvements which his enormous wealth permitted him to execute. After his death it passed to his spinster sisters, during the minority of his nephew, Taylor Read, Esq. In the meantime the Hutchinson family rented a portion of the property, and came to reside there. Mr. Hutchinson had the management of the whole estate as agent, and won for himself the affection of the poor, who revere his memory to this day. When Mr. Taylor Read attained his majority he fixed his residence in it and married a Miss Walsh, of Kilkenny, a Catholic lady, but died soon after, leaving issue one daughter, Mary. Mrs. Read did not long survive her husband, aod left her orphan child heiress to the property. Miss Read was ordered to the South of France by her medical advisers, and was educated in a convent there. In her absence, a portion of her estate was rented by a Mr. Rhodes, Roscrea, who lived in the house till she came of age in 1878, and, as above related, bad the place sold. She then retired with her aunts, the Misses Walsh, of Kilkenny, to the same convent, where she received her education and died there as a boarder a few years ago. To returnjto the monks. In a few weeks from obtaining possession of the property, a new community was selected from Mount Mellary and sent to occupy Mount St. Joseph, as it shall henceforth be called. Great must have been tbe surprise of the colony from the mom tain when, arriving at the spacious entrance gate, they advanced through rows of forest trees that spanned the avenue, and when rounding a turn they beheld the venerable mansion, grey and time-stained perched on a gentle rise, in the midst of charming sylvan scenery. This old " dial of Bges ' then presented a woebegone appearance, and of all its pristine btauty there lingered scarcely a trace. With *n Elizabethan front, flinked with towers, and a rear in the solid though less preteDtious style of more modern, architecture, it pleaded haughtily for glories gone. The surroundings were truly fairy-like, though shorn of many of their encb^nun^ bowers and shady walks, which combined in times p^at to mak-3 it the fairest spot in North Tipperary or Kmg's Count?. Decay and long neglect had co v e:ed Us gardens with dank weeds, and turned the vineries and conservatory into masses of ruins. The view from the rear wag loiely, indeed, especially when the rays of the setting sun were reflected in the river Brosna, transforming its silver wavelets into a veritable fabeet of molten braes. The out-offices were roofless, aud the stables that used to house the prahcing, champing chaigers were tenantless, ai d open to the four winds of heaven. la this condition was this apot of predilection when the Trappist commuiity took up their abode there early in May, 1878. How to make the mansion suit as a temporary monastery was not difficult considering the simplicity of their lives, ao the rooms on the ground storey served as an oratory, chapter- room, and chapels, in one of wbic^i two Ma-se9 were daily celebrated for the people who frequented it fromthi beginning, The top storey served as dormitory by erecting some five or six couches in each room, according to size. Thus accommodation was provided for all, numbering thirty -two, of whom eigbt were priests. The late Coadjutor Bsbop of Killaloe paid them an early visit, bade them heartily welcome, aud imparted to them and their work his saintly beneiiction. " Unless the Lord build the house they labour in vain who build it," So thoughtthe Trappists when looking round them at Mount St. Joseph, and reflecting that there a monastery was to be erected ; but how seemed a mystery, yet a positive certainty, for the work was Go i's and it w-»s bound to prjspar. Plenty cf building material, blue limestone, lay buried in their farme. Sindpits and limekilns were ready Jyn use, but how to work th.m wai a problem tj bb r3r 3 solved, for luruls %hey had none . l'hey boir >wed sufficient to stock t-ie farm, uni thai, together with various suras ans-ing lrom ihs sale of gross timber ou the place, constituted their whole stock-in-trade and the nucleus, of supply. St. Benedict reminds the Superior th >t he is to seek first the Kingdom of God aad II h justic, an 1 that ail these things shall be added unto him. Moreover, it was n ) small encouragement to remember that in poor, holy Ireland no pious work was left unfinished for want of funds, and also that Monut Mellerey itself was founded

without one shilling piece in the exchequer of the founder. So, confiding in God's goodness, they opened tbe quarries, d rested some stones, and on Ascension Day, May 34th, 1879, tbe first stone of the present new church was laid by the Lord Abbot of Mount Melleray.

Subscription cards were distributed which realised sufficient wherewith to defray some of the building expenses, but to bring the work to completion it was necessary to have recourse to a fresh loan . The works were pushed on rapidly, as the increasing numbers of the faithful who attended Mass on Sundays, and approached the sacra* men is in the hall allocated to that purpose, filled that Bmall concern to overflowing, many — the greater part of the congregation — heard Mass under tbe blue vault of heaven for want of accommodation. During the progress of the work, and immediately that the walls of the church appeared above ground, a local Protestant gentleman expressed his surprise to an acquaintance, a pious Catholic, richer in faith than in worldly goods, how such a gigantic building could be brought to completion by the monks, and received this characteristic reply, worthy of record, : " With my penny, sir, with this man'l penny, this is how we Catholics build our churches." The sacred edifice resembles the old Irish Cistercian churches, being cruciform, and having aisles, and in style severely Gothic. It shall be described further on. Mr. William H. Beard wood, Dublin, was the architect, a gentleman who has devoted much time and attention to this particular branch of his profession.

la 79, '80, and '81, this country was undergoing one of her periodical famines, and cries of distress and applications for relief were heard from all quarters. So it is surprising and totally beyond comprehension that a magnificent church could in these years be raised mainly by the pennies of the poor ; yet it was, and in '81 the shell was finished off and the first public ceremony performed in it September 18th that same year, when the late Dr. Ryan, co-adjutor Bishop of Killaloe, solemnly dedicated Jit to the Lord. Three year§ later it was consecrated, together with five of its twelve handsome altars, by the Most Rev. Dr. O'Callaghao, Bishop of Cork, assisted by Most Rev. Dr. Ryan of Killaloe, and the Abbots of Melleray in France, Mount Melleray in Ireland, of Mount St. Bernard, England, and Qethsemani, Kentucky, U. 8., America. (To he continued).