READINGS IN IRISH HISTORY

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XLIV, Issue 1, 4 January 1917, Page 11

READINGS IN IRISH HISTORY

By ' Shanachie.'

ST. EUDA OF ARAN (Concluded). Euda founded his first monastery at Killeany, close to the present village of the same name, and the fame of his austere sanctity soon spread throughout all Erin, and attracted religions men from all parts of the country. Amongst the first who came to visit Euda's island sanctuary was the celebrated St. Brendan, the Navigator, as he is called. Thither, too, came Finnian of Clonard, himself the ' tutor of the Saints of Erin for Euda seems to have been the senior of all these saints of the Second Order, and he was loved and reverenced by them all as a father. Glonard was a great college; but Aran of St. Euda was the greatest sanctuary and nursery of holiness throughout all the land of Erin. Thither came, even from the farthest north, another venerable sage, Finnian of . Moville, one of the teachers of the great Columcille. And thither, too, came Columcille himself, a scion of- the royal race of Niall the Great, the ardent high-souled prince of Tirconnell, who had not yet quite schooled; his fiery spirit to the patient endurance of injustice or insult. Therefore he came in his currach with the scholar's" belt and book-satchel to learn wisdom in this romantic school of the sea. Here he took his turn at grinding the corn, and herding the sheep; he studied the Scriptures and learned from Euda's lips the virtues of a true monk, as practised by the saints and Fathers of the desert, and as daily exhibited in the godly life and conversation of Euda himself, and of the holy companions who shared his studies and his labors. Most reluctantly he left the sacred isle, and we know from a poem which he has left how dearly he loved Aran, and how bitterly he sorrowed in his soul when ' the Son of God ' called him away from that beloved island to other scenes and other labors. ' Farewell to Aran Isle ; farewell! I steer for Hy—my heart is sore; The breakers burst, the billows swell, 'Twixt Aran Isle and Alba's shore.' He calls it Aran, ' Sun of the West,' another Pilgrim's Rome, under whose pure earth he would as soon be buried, as nigh to the graves of St. Peter and St, x .Paul. - ... . \ With St. Columcille at Aran was also the mild-eyed Ciaran, 'the carpenter's son,' and the best beloved of all the disciples of Euda, and when Ciaran was called away by God to found his own great monastery in the . green meadows by the Shannon's side, we are told that Euda and his monks came with him down to the sea shore, whilst their eyes were moist and their hearts were sorrow-laden. Then the young and gentle Ciaran, whose own career was destined to be so "bright and so brief, knelt down on the white sand and begged his holy Father's blessing, while the tears rolled clown his cheeks. It was too much for the holy old. man to bear; in the pathetic language of Scripture he lifted" up his voice and wept aloud—'Oh! my Brethren,' he said, why should I not weep This day our island has lost its choicest flower and the strength of religious observance.' So Ciaran got his Abbot's blessing, and \

■sring his currach, sailed away for the mainland ; but ■ sailed away;for thejmainland';but : •;■ often ; turned his streaming eyes to look back on - Aran, the home of his heart, and on the little cells ;; where his brethren dwelt,, and the oratory of ? his be- > loved father, Euda, and the billowy cliffs of the holy island now fast fading from his view. [;'■■ ;' : '■-.'',;- There is hardly a single 'one/of the great saints of y.~: the. Second Order who did not spend some time in Aran. It was, as we have said, the. novitiate of their religious ■[ ■. life. • St. Jarlath of Tuam, St. -Carthage the Elder ; of Lismore, the two St. Kevins of Glendalough, and others. There is no other part of Ireland so interest- ,' ing as these Aran Islands, not only from their past history, but also from the great number of Christian remains that are still to be found on these shores. Nowhere else do we find so many and so various specimens of early Christian architecture. Euda divided Aran Morinto two parts. One-half he assigned to his own ?: monastery at Kill e any ;/the other or western half he assigned to such of his disciples as chose to erect per- . . manent religious houses in the island.' This, however, - seems to have been a later arrangement, for at first it is said that he had 150 disciples under his own care ; but when the establishment grew to be thus large in ':. numbers, he divided the whole island into ten parts —- each having its own religious house, and its own superior, while he himself retained a general superintendence over them all. The existing remains prove conclusively that there must have been several distinct establishments on the island, for we find separate groups of ruins at Killeany, at Killronan, at Kilmurvey, and further west at ' the seven churches.' (Dr. Ilealy.) ■ Such was St. Euda of Aran and his monks. - .' Their lives were full of sunny hope and true happiness. That desert island was a paradise for those children of God; its arid rocks were to them as a garden of •'delights; the sunlight on its summer seas was a picture for them of heavenly joys; and the roar of its wintry billows reminded them of the power and the -wrath of God. So they passed their blameless lives living only for God, and waiting not in fear, but in hope, for the happy hour when their Heavenly Father would call them home. Their bodies were laid to rest beside the walls of the little churches—their graves may still be seen stretched side by side, and who can doubt that their sinless souls went up to God in heaven?'