Graves of Irish Exiles

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXXIII, Issue 16, 20 April 1905, Page 5

Graves of Irish Exiles

Scarcely a Cathedral bell is rung on the Continent of Europe (says an exchange) that doe 9 not sound above the remains of some Irisn priest or Bishop. Seldom a flower fades in the cloistered cemeteries along I|he banks of the yelkow Tiber, or the castled. Rhine, that some of its leaves do not touch the lonely grave of some monk or student from the green bauivs of the Shannon or the Liffey. The Names of Irish Students are carved on the flagged floor of many au abibey chapel, and on the walls of many a famous shrine from tihe Tagus to Ihe Garrone. St. Fridolen sleeps in his island city of Seckingen, in the abbey he himself founded for the Benedictines ; the holy remains of St. P'lacre centuries ago were removed from the oratory of Breuil, ar*d may now be fou'rud near the mausoleum of Bossiuet, behind the high altar in the Cathedral of Mcaux ; t/he no"ble martyrs Kilian, Colman, and Totnan are buried in tihe principal chutfeh of Wurtzburg ; St. Fiigidian, lies at rest in the church of ' The Three Holy Levites,' at Lucca, while Cataldus (Cathal) awaits the Resurrection not far from the blue waters 01 the fair bay of Tarant'o. Often the twelve knights of St. Rujpert may be seen kneeling by the tomb of St. Yigilliius, in SalUburg. St. Cafcloc and St. Fricor are interred in the abbey of Oentule^ in the territory of Ponthieu, Pictardy. In the collegiate church of Lems, in the 'diocese of Arras, the body of St. Vulganus is honorqd. Marianus Scotus, the chronographer, was laid to pious rest in the Church of St. Martin, beyond the walls of the city of Metv. St. Tressan calmly reposes at A\enay, in Champagne. In a church guarded by the Fort of St. Andrew, at Salins, the relics of St. Aniatoluus are preserved in a silver shrine.' St. Maimibodtis securely sleeps in the shade of the castle -rock of the valiant city of Montbelliard. The magnificent Cathedral of Mechlin is the tomb and monument of St. Rumold— prince, Bishop, martyr. But to oome to A Later Period of Irish History. How mjany Irish students are laid to rest fprever on the hill of St. Genevieve ! How many of them sleep their long sleep in the Franciscan Convents of Louvain and Salamanca, in the Dominican garden of Madrid, and in the consecrated ground belonging to the Jesiuatis at Lisle, Antwerp, Tournay, St. Omer, Douay, and Pont-a-Mousson. Florence Conroy sleeps near the high altar in the Franciscan Church of St. Anthony of Padua at Lou\ain; Thonnas Stapletoto's ashes are mingled with the dust of Belgium's most gifted sons in the chapel of St. Charles Borromeo ; Luke Wadding has been land near H(mgh O'Neill, an St. Peter's Mount, in Rome. In the Cistercian monastery at Alcala in Spain, William Walsh, from Waterford oh the Suir, lies in peace. The grand-sauled and patriotic Bishop of Ferns, Nicholas French, passed away from life's toil and troubles at Ghent, in Belgium. His venerated body was pi-ously placed at the foot of the grand altar in the parish church of St. Nicholas in that city. A slab .of purest marble, decorated with the Cardinal's hat and armorial bearings, has a beautiful and truthful inscription in honor of his memory. Ambrose Wadding, brother to the famous Luke Wadding, calmly rests at Dillihgem ; Bislhop Edmond O'Dwyer, who governed the See of Limerick, silently lies in the subterranean chapel, dedicated to the Blessed Virgin, beneath the Church of St, James, im the city of Brussels. The pious pilgrim> to Comp/outella will find in the world-renowned temple of St. Jamep, Apostle of Spain, The Holy Remains of two Waterfora" Bishops^— Thomas Strong, of the diocese of Ossory, an>d his nephew, the firm friend of Rinuccini, T. Walsh. The relics of Patrick Fleming and Matthew Hoar, martyred by the cruel followers oi the Elector of Saxony, are treasured in the Franciscan coti\ent of Wotiz, near Prague, in Bohemia. Ward, Col'gan, Lombard, MacCaughwell, Edmund O'Reilly, and the Stanihursts, men whose names will ever live among the names of Ireland's most gifted and patriotic sons, are all in far foreign graves. The wijn'ds of Ireland never chant their miournful dirge around their tombs, the maids of Erin scatter no flowers over tiheir graves, the faithful peasants never pray above their ashe-s. They fell where they have bravely fought "witjh voice &nd pen for the land of their love. They died far away from the isle of their birth, with the great shadow of Ireland's suffering upon their breaking hearts. They sank to rest in the calm of silent convents, and they tranquilly rest either in the dim shades of oldi cathedrals, or in the peaceful aisles of chapels whose silence is never broken except by the prayer of some'pious monk or mm.