Pilgrimage to Kilcock, County Kildare

Members and friends of the Catholic Heritage Association joined together last Saturday for a Traditional Latin Mass for the repose of the soul of one of our founder members.

Reports of previous Traditional Latin Masses organised by the Association in Kilcock can be found here: 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2015, 2017.

The Patroness of the Parish is St. Coca. You can find out more about her here.

St. Ninian of Scotland began his career in Cloncurry, also in the Parish. You can find out about his connection with Kilcock here.

Buildings of Ireland gives a detailed description of the Church of St. Coca here.

Latin Mass Pilgrimage to Kilcock, Co. Kildare

We are returning to St. Coca's Church, Kilcock, Co. Kildare, on Saturday, 30th June, for a Traditional Latin Mass at 12 noon.

Come and Pray!

Pilgrimage to Honour Saint Brigid of Kildare

For over a decade we have been making an annual pilgrimage to the Parish Church of Saint Brigid of Kildare, Kildare Town. Today we returned to do honour to the Patroness of Ireland.

Bishop Comerford in his Collections Relating to the Dioceses of Kildare and Leighlin, Vol. 2 (1886) under the Parish of Kildare says:

"Ancient Kildare is believed to have stood a little to the west of the present town. From a passage in the Book of Leinster, quoted by O’Curry, (Lectures, p. 487,) it appears that the place was previously named Drumcree, (Druimcriadh, ie. “the Ridge of Clay.”) It received its present appellation “from a goodly, high oak,” under the shadow of which St. Brigid constructed her cell. “When the most glorious virgin, Brigid, returned to her own country,” writes her Biographer, Cogitosus, Bishop of Kildare, in the 10th century, “she was received with great honour and with the great joy of the whole Province, and there a cell was assigned unto her in which this Saint of God led a wonderful life. There she erected a monastery of many virgins, and there, in honour of St. Brigid, a very great city afterwards sprung up which is at this day the Metropolis of the Lagenians. That cell is called in the Scotic, Cill-dara, which sounds in Latin, Cella Quercus, i.e. the cell of the oak. For there was a very high oak tree there which St. Brigid loved much and blessed; of which the trunk still (circa A.D. 980,) remains. No one dares to cut it with a weapon; but he who can break off any part of it with his hands, deems it a great advantage, hoping for the aid of God by means of it; because through the benediction of St. Brigid, many miracles have been performed by that wood. The same name which this cell bore, the city also is named.” (Vita IV. St. Brigidoe, lib. II. c. 3, Tr. Thaum.) St. Brigid established herself at Kildare some time about the year 470, to which period, therefore, the town can trace its foundation.

St. Brigid was born at Faughart, now a village in the Diocese of Armagh, and County of Louth, probably in the year 453. Her father, Dubhtach, and her mother, Brocessa or Brotseach, were both distinguished for their noble descent and their Christian virtues, “Sancta itaque Brigida, quam Deus praescivit ad suam imaginem et praedestinavit, a Christianis, nobilibusque parentibus genita.” (Cogitosus.) The same is repeated in the Prologue to the Vita VI., or metrical Life of the Saint, by Cilien of Iniskeltra. (Tr. Thaum.)

“Dubhtacus ejus erat genitor cognomine dictus,
Clarus homo meritis, clarus et a proavis;
Nobilis atque humilis, mitis, pietate repletus;
Nobilior propria conjuge, prole pia.”

Dubhtach was descended of Eochad, brother of the celebrated Con of the Hundred Battles; and Brotseach was of the noble race of Dal Conchobhair or O’Conor. The parents of the Saint belonged to the district of Leinster; whether her being born at Fauchart was owing to their having a residence there also, or to their having been on a visit there at the time, cannot now be determined. Her biographer, Cogitosus, tells us that she received a good education: - “A sua pueritia bonarum literarum studiis inolevit;” and even in her childhood that extraordinary charity towards the poor, which so distinguished her in after life, manifested itself. Having grown up, she declined various offers of marriage, declaring her purpose of serving God in the Religious Life. In fulfilment of this resolution she had recourse to a holy Bishop named Maccaille, who had a Church at Cruachan-Bri-Eile, in Ifalgia, now the Hill of Croghan, where the site of his Church is still observable, and where his feast was celebrated on the 25th of April. The Bishop being satisfied as to her holy dispositions, received her to Religious Profession, by clothing her with a white mantle and placing a veil of the same colour on her head. Such was the dress of the early Irish nuns, and so it continued for some centuries after the time of St. Brigid :– “Ille, coeleste intuens desiderium, et pudicitiam, et tantam castitatis amorem in tali virgine, pallium album et vestem candidam super ipsius venerabile caput imposuit.” (Cogitosus.) The Profession of the Saint took place about the years 467 or 469. We are not here concerned about the first Communities founded by St. Brigid; the fame of her holiness having spread abroad, the people of her native place sent to invite her to found a Convent amongst them. In compliance with this request, she established herself at Kildare sometime about the year 470. Her first house there was a mere cell; after some time however, the number of those who flocked thither to serve God under her guidance became so great that she had to apply herself to the construction of a monastery of large proportions. This took place, according to Ware, in 480, but other authorities place the date somewhat later. For the details of the wonderful life of this great Servant of God the reader is referred to the Lives of the Irish Saints, by the Rev. J. O’Hanlon, M.R.I.A. The year in which St. Brigid died is uncertain; without entering into the merits of the disputed point, it will be sufficient to state that the weight of authority appears to favour the accuracy of the entry in the Annals of Ulster which assigns it to the year 523, in the 70th year of her age. “A.D. 523, Quies S. Brigidae, an. lxx aetatis suae.” The Annals of Donegal, at Feb. 1st, after tracing her illustrious descent, say, “It was Ultan of Ard-Breccain that collected the (account of the) virtues and miracles of Brigid together, and he commanded his disciple, Brogan to put them into poetry.” The Poem of St. Brogan-Cloen in praise of St. Brigid, here referred to, may be seen—both the original Irish and a Latin translation—in the I. E. Record for February, 1868. It was composed about the year 650, partly in the Monastery of St. Moedhoc, at Clonmore, in the County of Carlow. The Annals of Donegal, still treating of St. Brigid, say of her: –“It was this Brigid that did not take her mind or her attention from the Lord for the space of one hour at any time, but was constantly mentioning Him, and ever constantly thinking of Him, as is evident in her own Life, and also in the Life of St. Brenainn, Bishop of Cluainfearta. She was very hospitable and very charitable to guests and to needy people. She was humble, and attended to the herding of sheep and early rising, as her Life proves, and as Cuimin of Coindaire states in the Poem whose beginning is:– ‘Patrick of the fort of Macha loved,’ &c. Thus he says:–

‘The Blessed Virgin loved
Constant piety, which was not prescribed;
Sheep-herding and early rising,
Hospitality towards men of virtues.’

“She spent indeed 74 years diligently serving the Lord, per¬forming signs and miracles, curing every disease, and sickness in general. The Life of Ciaran of Cluain states, c. 47, that the Order of Brigid was (one) of the eight Orders that were in Erin.” February was called in Irish, “the month of Brigid’s festival;” and Irish writers style her the Mary of Erin, and, on account of her many virtues, assign to her, after the Mother of God, the second place amongst the virgin Saints in heaven. St. Aengus in the Feilire, thus marked her feast:-

“The Calends of February are magnified,
By a galaxy of martyrs of great valour;
Brigid the spotless, of loudest fame,
Chaste head of the nuns of Erin.”

The old Brehon laws prescribe special devotion to St. Brigid, and tribute to her Convent as duties of the Kings of Leinster. Through respect for the Saint, the town and suburbs of Kildare possessed the privilege of Sanctuary:—“Maxima haec civitas et Metropolitana est; in cujus suburbanis, quae sancta certo limite designavit Brigida, nullus carnalis adversarius nec concensus timetur hostium.” (Trias Thaum. 534.) St. Tighernach, Abbot of Clones, and Bishop of Cloghar in succession to St. Maccarten, one of the most illustrious of the Saints of Erin, was baptized at Kildare by St. Conlaeth, St. Brigid acting as Sponsor. A gloss in the Leabhar Breac on the entry in the Feilire of Aengus at the 4th of April, the feast-day of this Saint, quaintly records this event as follows:—“Coirpre, son of Fergus of Leinster, i.e. of Leix, was Tighernach’s father. Or he is of Ui-Bairrchi. Now Coirpre bore him under cover to Kildare. He came into the guest-house. Brigid beheld a watch of angels over the head of the house, and she asked who was there. “One young man is there,” quoth the servant. “Look thou still,” quoth Brigid. Then he looked. “There is, in sooth,” quoth he, “a little babe in the young man’s bosom.” “Good is the babe,” quoth Brigid. Brigid comes into the guest-house, and baptizes the child, and Brigid holds him at his baptism."

He continues:

"Beside the town of Kildare there is a large pond or lough named Loughminane, the formation of which is thus accounted for in a Gloss on the Feilire AEnguis in the Leabhar Breac:- 'Eighteen Bishops came to Brigid from Hui-Brinin Chualand and from Telach-nam-espoc to Loch Lemnachta, beside Kildare on the north. So Brigid asked her cook, to wit, of Blathnait, whether she had food, et dixit illa non. And Brigid had shame, so the angel said that the cows should be milked iterum. And Brigid milked them, and they filled the tubs, and they would have filled all the vessels of Leinster; and the milk came over the vessels and made a lough thereof. Inde Loch Lemnachta dicitur.'"

Cloncurry Friary (Walsh)

The following is from Fr. Thomas Walsh's History of the Irish Hierarchy, published in New York in 1854, chapter xlviii, at p. 480-1:

Cloncurry in the barony of Bteath and Onghterany John Roche founded a Carmelite friary in this place AD 1347 under the invocation of the Virgin Mary having obtained the royal license to do so January 18th thirty fifth of Henry VIII this abbey with ten acres of land in Cloncurry was granted forever in capite to William Dickson at the annual rent of 8d Irish money and again in the 8th of queen Elizabeth this friary with one messuage one cottage twenty eight acres of arable land and seven of pasture adjoining the same was granted to Richard Hayne for the term of twenty one years at the yearly rent of 16s In 1618 Andrew Forrester died seized of this monastery with a church hall and dormitory ten acres of land thereunto belonging all of which were held of the king in capite by military service namely the twentieth part of a knight's fee

Commandery of Tully (Walsh)

 

The Remains of the Commandery of Tully

Known locally as 'The Black Abbey'

 

The following is from Fr. Thomas Walsh's History of the Irish Hierarchy, published in New York in 1854, chapter xlviii, at p. 491: 

 

Tully about a mile south of Kildare. A commandery of knights hospitallers.

AD 1293 Thomas was prior.

AD 1326 a chapter of the order was held here.

AD 1337 Richard de Bran was preceptor. A chapter held here. Four others held.

Sir Henry Harrington and his heirs obtained a grant of its possessions three hundred acres of land at the annual rent of £21 6s 8d. The commandery is now always held by the [Anglican] bishop of Kildare in commendam.

Clane Abbey (Walsh)

The following is from Fr. Thomas Walsh's History of the Irish Hierarchy, published in New York in 1854, chapter xlviii, at p. 479 and following:

The Ruins of Clane Abbey

Clane gives its name to the barony. Saint Ailbe of Emly is said to have presented St. Sinell senior with a cell in which he had lived himself for some time at Clane. Sinell was the son of Kinfinnain and grandson of Imchad of the royal blood of Leinster. It is not known how long Sinell remained at Clane nor is the year of the donation by Ailbe of Emly ascertained. It may have been about the year 500. As Clane was not then a permanent establishment, Sinell moved to Killeigh where he established a monastery which in course of time became very celebrated. St. Sinell, the friend of the great Ailbe, is styled senior to distinguish him from Sinell who was a relative of his and a priest and who lived with him at his monastery of Killeigh. Having lived to a good old ago he died on the 26th of March AD 549.

Franciscan Friary was erected in Clane some time before the year 1266 by, it is said, Gerald Fitzmaurice, lord Offaley.

AD 1546 a provincial chapter was held here.

In the 24th of Henry VIII this abbey was given with its possessions forever to Robert Eustace and John Trevors at the annual rent of 2s 4d.

O'Sullivan relates that Eustace saw, as if in a vision, some one threatening him and foreboding destruction to himself and to his family should he consent to accept of church property. Be this as it may, James Eustace, the son and heir of the viscount Roland, was driven by the English from his patrimony and died in exile. Some Irish peers accepted of grants of property belonging to the church but generally they did not convert it to their own use. The annals of the four Masters in praise of Pierce Butler observe that he did not possess one penny of the property of the church of God by right of Pope or Prince.

In the parliament held AD 1556 the grants of church property made to laics during and after the reign of Henry VIII are confirmed and with the approbation of Pope Paul IV. Fourteen abbots sat in that parliament. Six or seven heads of religious orders are stated to have assented to the act.

Priory of Great Connell (Walsh)

The Last Remains of the Priory of Great Connell

The following is from Fr. Thomas Walsh's History of the Irish Hierarchy, published in New York in 1854, chapter xlviii, at p. 482:

Great Conall, a village on the banks of the Liffey, which gives name to the barony.

AD 1202 This priory was founded under the invocation of the Virgin Mary and St David by Meyler Fitz Henry and was supplied with canons regular from the monastery of Lanthony in Monmouthshire.

AD 1205 King John confirmed the grants of land made by Meyler, whose father was natural son to King Henry I. The father of Meyler came to Ireland with the first adventurers was young and in high esteem for his personal bravery and warlike exploits in subduing the Irish.

AD 1209 Henry was prior.

AD 1340 William was prior.

AD 1380 It was enacted by parliament that no mere Irishman should make his profession in this abbey.

AD 1531 This priory paid proxies to the archbishop of Dublin. The prior of this house was a lord of parliament. Its property was granted to Edward Randolph and in reversion to Sir Edward Butler. In Elizabeth's time it was re-granted to Sir Nicholas White in reversion of sixty one years at the annual rent of £26 19s 5d Irish money. The nave and choir of the church measured two hundred feet in length by twenty five, two gothic or pointed windows have alone resisted the ravages of time. There are some pillars with curious capitals and some of the stalls. On an adjoining hill is a small square house with pediment fronts seemingly a turret belonging to the priory.

Latin Mass for 200th Anniversary of St. Brigid's Church, Milltown, Co. Kildare

We were privileged to be invited to join the celebrations for the 200th Anniversary of St. Brigid's Church, Milltown, Co. Kildare, by organising a Traditional Latin Mass there last Sunday, 9th July, 2017, Fifth Sunday after Pentecost.  The Vestments, Altar Cards and Missal used were those that had been used in that Church for decades and had happily been preserved.  The Rite of Mass was ever ancient, ever new, the Rite that found its home there for 150 of the Church's 200 years.

It was a very special occasion for our own Association too, marking, almost to the day, the 10th Anniversary of Pope Benedict XVI's Apostolic Letter Summorum Pontificum, and the 9th Anniversary of our very first pilgrimage, which started with a Traditional Latin Mass in St. Brigid's after which the intrepid pioneers walked to the nearby Fr. Moore's Well and then across the Curragh of Kildare, St. Brigid's pasture, to Kildare, town of St. Brigid, and finally to her well at Tully.

Many thanks to the people of Milltown for making us so welcome.

To conclude, and courtesy of the Milltown Heritage Center, this picture of St. Brigid's Church c. 1960, showing the beautiful traditional Sanctuary as it was then.

Bicentenary Pilgrimage to Milltown

St. Brigid's Church, Milltown, Co. Kildare, was erected in 1817 "...by Rev. John Lawler, P.P., and the subscriptions of the faithful..." Dr. Comerford tells us in Vol. 2 of his Collections relating to the Dioceses of Kildare and Leighlin under the entry for the Parish of Allen.  On Sunday, 9th July, at 3.30 p.m., there will be a Traditional Latin Mass in St. Brigid's Church to mark that Bicentenary.

St. Brigid of Kildare (Walsh)

The following is from Fr. Thomas Walsh's History of the Irish Hierarchy, published in New York in 1854, chapter xlviii, at p. 483-6:

St Brigid the foundress of Kildare and the patroness of the church of Ireland was descended of an illustrious family of Leinster. Her father Dubhtach was of royal blood being of the race of Eochad, brother to the celebrated Con of the hundred battles. Her mother Brocessa was of the noble house of O Connor in the southern part of the territory of the Bregii between Dublin and Drogheda. Both were Christians according to the most creditable account. The mother of the holy virgin is everywhere spoken of as the wife of Dubhtach and consequently it cannot be admitted that St. Brigid was of illegitimate birth. Her father is represented as a noble and pious man still more noble through his spouse and their holy offspring: Dubhtachus ejus erat genitor cognomine dictus clarus h omo meritis clarus et a proavis Nobilis atque humilis mitis pietate re pletus Nobilior propria conjuge prole pia  Nor could such an assertion be reconciled with the circumstance of the parents having been Christians and strict ones as then were in Ireland nor with the rank of her mother's family. Usher, Ware and others have passed over the narrative of this circumstance as undeserving of notice.

St. Brigid was born at Faughert about two miles north of Dundalk and in a district which was formerly considered a part of Ulster. Various are the surmises regarding the year of her birth but it may with Usher be assigned to the year 453. Adhering to this computation she was twelve years of age or allowing her birth to have occurred in 451, the earliest assigned, she was in the fourteenth year of her life when St. Patrick died AD 465, neither does St. Brigid in the most consistent and authentic account of St. Patrick appear to have been consecrated a virgin nor to have founded a monastery during the lifetime of the apostle. She may have been known to him on account of her singular sanctity conspicuous even in her early life. In the tripartite life of St. Patrick mention is made only once of St. Brigid when it relates that the saint listening to a sermon of St. Patrick's fell asleep and was favored with a vision relative to the then state of the Irish church and its future vicissitudes. St. Patrick desiring her to tell what she saw Brigid informed him that she at first saw a herd of white oxen amidst white crops then spotted ones of various colours after which appeared black and dark coloured oxen these were succeeded by sheep and swine wolves and dogs jarring with each other. The Almighty conceals from the wise and imparts to the little ones in whom there is no guile the secrets of his ways and while the scribes and pharisees and the other enemies of our Redeemer were contriving plans to ensnare the Son of God and put him to death the children of Juda received him in triumph exclaiming Hosanna to the Son of David. In the narrative then of this vision there is nothing repugnant to the councils of God.

Our patroness received a good education and to singular modesty and propriety of manners united an extraordinary degree of charity towards the poor. Instances are related of the interposition of Providence in replenishing the store which she applied to her benevolent purposes. When arrived at a proper age her parents were anxious to have her settled in the married state but she announced her resolve to remain a virgin to which they assented. She then applied to the holy bishop St. Maccailleus who being well assured of her good disposition admitted her into the number of sacred virgins by covering her with a white cloak and placing a white veil over her head. This occurrence is said to have taken place at Usny hill, Westmeath, where probably the holy bishop resided or was engaged in the exercise of his pastoral functions. St. Brigid must have been then in the sixteenth year of her age as that was the earliest at which the ceremony of admission was permitted. We are assured that when kneeling at the foot of the altar during the time of her profession the part on which she knelt being of wood recovered its original freshness and continued green to a very late period. It is also related that seven or eight other virgins assumed the veil with her and that some of them together with their parents besought her to remain with them in their country a wish with which she complied and being named to govern her companions by the bishop she remained for some time in a place which the bishop assigned them in his district supposed to have been about Kilbeggan in Westmeath.

In her new position the fame of her sanctity spread far and near and crowds of young women and widows applied to her for admission into her convent. As it would be inconvenient to assemble so many persons in one place and as the good of the church required that those pious ladies should be established in other districts and of which they might have been natives we find St. Brigid visited other parts of the country Teffia of which St. Mel was bishop having been the first. Erc the bishop of Slane was one of her friends whom she is said to have accompanied to Munster when paying a visit to his relatives as he was of that country. A synod having been held in the plain of Femyn Erc spoke highly of St. Brigid and of the miraculous powers with which she was endowed by the Almighty. Thence she is said to have gone with her female companions to the house of a person with whom she spent a considerable time and who lived near the sea. In those early days of the church of Ireland before the erection of nunneries virgins consecrated to God were wont to live with their friends and relatives and could as often as duty required appear their virtue and sanctity being, as Fleury observes, their cloister.

We next find her in the plain of Cliach in the county of Limerick where she obtained it is said from a chieftain liberty for a man whom he held in chains. From that country she went to the territory of Labrathi Hy Kinsellagh in south Leinster and tarried there for some time having not seen her father for several years she thence proceeded to his residence to pay him a visit and after a short stay set out for Connaught and fixed her residence together with some ladies of her institution in the plain of Magh ai or Hai in the level country of Roscommon. While in this territory she was occupied in forming various establishments for persons of her own sex according to the rule she had drawn up. As the great reputation of St. Brigid and the supernatural gifts with which she was endowed attracted persons from all parts of Ireland to the place of her residence.  The people of Leinster thought that they were best entitled to her services as being of a Leinster family.  They accordingly sent a deputation to the part of Connaught where she then was consisting of several respectable persons and friends of hers to request that she would come and fix her residence among her own people.  She acceded to their wishes and having arrived in that district was received with the greatest joy she was immediately provided with a residence for herself and the pious companions of her journeys and to which was annexed some land as a help towards the maintenance of her establishment this place obtained the name of Kildare there being a large oak tree near her habitation.

St. Brigid and her nuns were poor and frequently alms were brought to her nunnery still whatever she possessed she liberally shared with the poor and it is said that in order to find relief for the destitute she gave in charity some very valuable vestments the bishops used to wear on solemn festivals to strangers and particularly bishops and religious persons she was particularly hospitable her humility was so great that she occasionally tended the cattle on her land. The establishment at Kildare being resorted to from all quarters it became necessary to enlarge the buildings in proportion to the number of her nuns and postulants as well as provide for the spiritual direction and assistance both for the institution itself and its frequent visitors. And knowing that such an advantage could not be efficiently supplied without a bishop she applied and procured the appointment of a holy man to preside over the nascent church of Kildare and the others belonging to her institute. Some privilege of this sort existed in the days of Cogitosus as Kildare was the ecclesiastical metropolis of Leinster. This is perhaps one of the earliest instances of religious being exempted from the jurisdiction of the ordinary or the bishop of the district in which such houses were situated. Conlaeth was the person whom St. Brigid recommended as worthy of being raised to the exalted dignity of bishop. In his transit to the other life St. Conlaeth, bishop of Kildare, preceded the holy foundress, having died on the 3d of May, 519. The nunnery of Kildare was founded about the year 487. St Brigid died on the 1st of February, 525, as St Columbkille is said to have been born four years prior to the death of our national patroness AD 521.

2017 Latin Mass Pilgrimage to Allen

As has become customary, we began our pilgrimage year visiting the Church of the Holy Trinity, Allen, Co. Kildare. You can see reports of previous pilgrimages here and here. The Parish's entry in Dr. Comerford's Collections relating to the Dioceses of Kildare and Leighlin can be found here. It was written before the erection of the present splendid Church.

The Bishops of Kildare and Leighlin in the Early Modern Period

The following is from Fr. Thomas Walsh's History of the Irish Hierarchy, published in New York in 1854, chapter xvii, at p. 149 and following:

Roche Mac Geoghegan was bishop in 1640.

Roche Mac Geoghegan it seems presided over Kildare and Leighlin in 1640.

Edmond O'Dempsey bishop of Leighlin in 1646 signed the manifesto issued at Waterford against those who had assisted in restoring peace to the country. Edmond was a Dominican friar. He was forced to go into exile and died in Finisterra in the kingdom of Gallicia. His brother James O'Dempsey was vicar general of Leighlin in 1646.

Edward Wesley was bishop of Kildare and Leighlin in 1685.

Mark Forestal was bishop in 1701.

Edward Murphy, bishop in 1724.

James Gallagher, bishop in 1747.

John O Keeffe, bishop in 1770. James Keeffe, bishop of Kildare and Leighlin, died 1786.

Richard O'Reilly, bishop of Kildare and Leighlin, or rather coadjutor, was translated to Armagh in 1782.

Daniel Delany, died AD 1814.

Michael Corcoran, bishop in 1819.

James Doyle, bishop of Kildare and Leighlin, was born in New Ross, county Wexford, in 1786. He was sent by his parents to the best schools and having as he grew up manifested a desire to embrace the priesthood he repaired to Portugal where he was trained for the ecclesiastical state. While yet a student in Coimbra, Portugal was invaded by Napoleon and Doctor Doyle and his fellow students enlisted under the banner of the country which they temporarily adopted and were of considerable assistance to the Duke of Wellington in his wars of the Peninsula.

Surrounded by the influences of his college life, the disciples or admirers of Rousseau, D'Alembert and Voltaire, he was well nigh making a wreck of that faith in which he was born and of that morality which is its concomitant but, as he himself admits, when everything conspired to induce him to shake off the sweet yoke of the gospel, the dignity of religion her majesty and grandeur arrested him in his career towards unbelief and filled him with awe and veneration towards her precepts. Everywhere she presided her ardent votaries while a terror to the enemies of revelation glorified and adorned religion when she alone swayed their hearts he read with attention the history of the ancient philosophers as well as lawgivers and discovered that all of them paid homage to religion as the purest emanation of the one supreme and invisible and omnipotent God. He examined the systems of religion prevailing in the east, the koran with attention, the Jewish history and that of Christ his disciples and of his Church with interest, nor did he hesitate to continue attached to the religion of the Redeemer as alone worthy of God and, being a Christian, he could not fail to be a Catholic.

Shortly after the retreat of the French from Portugal and Spain in 1812, Doctor Doyle returned to Ireland and became professor in the Ecclesiastical College in Carlow. In this capacity his acquirements won him the admiration of his fellow professors and his mild manner gained him the esteem of the students. As a preacher he was learned fluent argumentative and persuasive, every one who listened to his discourses should admire religion, its ceremonies and its mysteries. Having spent five years in the college he was at the unanimous request of the clergy of the diocese promoted at the age of thirty two years, by his holiness the Pope, to the bishopric of Kildare and Leighlin. During his episcopacy, his life is delineated by his own pen in the following words: "I am a churchman but I am unacquainted with avarice and I feel no worldly ambition. I am attached to my profession but I love Christianity more than its earthly appendages. I am a Catholic from the fullest conviction but few will accuse me of bigotry. I am an Irishman hating injustice and abhorring with my whole soul the oppression of my country but I desire to heal her sores not to aggravate her evils."

Doctor Doyle appeared on the stage of Irish politics when the people were yet slaves and aliens in their own land unrecognised by the laws of the empire to which they paid all the obligations of subjects. Everything that emanated from his pen carried with it due weight and tended in a great degree to soften the prejudices that were fostered for centuries in Ireland. Towards the dissenters from Catholicity he showed a most tolerant spirit and at one time suggested a junction of Catholics and Protestants, a suggestion which was unwarrantable as it was made on his private authority and which the holy see could not sanction. A canon of St. Peter's church of Rome, having arrived at Carlow with instructions to Doctor Doyle, the prelate at once perceiving his mistake as another Fenelon, archbishop of Cambray, made a noble sacrifice of his own sentiments by the calmest submission to the voice of St. Peter's successor.

Doctor Doyle, in a letter to the Marquis Wellesley, has vindicated the faith of Catholics, which was so long placed under the ban of proscription by England and her rulers: "It was, my lord, the creed of a Charlemagne and of a St. Louis, of an Alfred and an Edward, of the monarchs of the feudal times as well as the emperors of Greece and Rome, it was believed at Venice and at Genoa in Lucca and the Helvetic nations in the days of their freedom and happiness. All the barons of the middle ages, all the free cities of later times, professed the religion we now profess. You well know, my lord, that the charter of British freedom and the common law of England have their origin and source in Catholic times. Who framed the free constitutions of the Spanish Goths? Who preserved science and literature during the long night of the middle ages? Who imported literature from Constantinople and opened for her an asylum at Rome, Florence, Padua, Paris and Oxford? Who polished Europe by art and refined her by legislation? Who discovered a new world and opened a passage to another? Who were the masters of architecture of painting and of music? Were they not almost exclusively the professors of our creed? Were they who created and possessed freedom under every shape and form unfit for her enjoyment? Were men deemed even now the lights of the world and the benefactors of the human race the deluded victims of slavish superstition? But what is there in our creed which renders us unfit for freedom? Is it the doctrine of passive obedience? No, for the obedience we yield to authority is not blind but reasonable. Our religion does not create despotism, it supports every established constitution which is not opposed to the laws of nature. In Poland, it supported an elective monarch, in France an hereditary sovereign, in Spain an absolute or constitutional king, in England, when the houses of York and Lancaster contended, it declared that he who was king de facto was entitled to the obedience of the people. During the reign of the Tudors there was a faithful adherence of the Catholics to their prince under trials the most severe and galling because the constitution required it. The same was exhibited by them to the ungrateful race of Stuart. But, since the expulsion foolishly called an abdication, have they not adopted with the nation at large the doctrine of the revolution that the crown is held in trust for the benefit of the people and that should the monarch violate his compact the subject is freed from the bond of his allegiance? Has there been any form of government ever devised by man to which the religion of Catholics has not been accommodated? Is there any obligation either to a prince or to a constitution which it does not enforce?"

The health of Doctor Doyle visibly declining he was recommended to resign the diocese and travel on the continent with a view of restoring it but he did not choose to adopt the advice. His end approaching and solicitous for the welfare of his flock, he entreated the holy father to provide a coadjutor bishop and the Rev Edward Nolan was elected. Doctor Doyle died the 15th of June, 1834, of consumption. He resigned his spirit with fortitude and calmness and with that hope and confidence which faith alone inspires.

Edward Nolan completed his ecclesiastical studies at Maynooth, was ordained priest by Doctor Doyle in December, 1819, and was consecrated his successor by Daniel Murray, archbishop of Dublin, on the 28th of October, 1834, in the cathedral of Carlow. The intervening years of Doctor Nolan's life were spent in the college of Carlow, where he successively taught moral and natural philosophy, theology, and sacred scriptures. Doctor Nolan died about the close of the year 1837.

Francis Healy who succeeded, was parish priest of Kilcock at the time of his election, was consecrated on the 25th of March, 1838. Still happily presides.

Latin Mass Pilgrimage to Rathangan 2016

Almost seven years after our first pilgrimage to Rathangan, which took place during the Holy Year for Priests (see here) the members and friends of St. Conleth's Catholic Heritage Association returned for a traditional Latin Mass during the Holy Year of Mercy.

The following article was contained in the 1956 Year Book of the Diocese of Kildare and Leighlin: 

Rathangan Builds 
The New Church and Schools are a Credit to Ireland 

 On Sunday, 6th November, 1956, the little town of Rathangan, by the River Spate, with a proud past that can be traced back well over a thousand years, added one more page to an illustrious history of Catholic devotion. For this memorable day witnessed a twin triumphant accomplishment, the laying of the foundation stone of the new Church of the Assumption by his Lordship, Most Rev. Dr. Keogh, Bishop of Kildare and Leighlin, and the blessing and opening of Rathangan's new schools named in honour of Saint Brigid.

Speaking with characteristic sincerity Most Rev. Dr. Keogh paid tribute to the priests, nuns, and faithful to whose devotion and self-sacrifice the new Church and Schools present so lasting a monument. "The people have dona a grand work in building their Church, the laying of the foundation stone of which symbolises that Christ and Christ's teaching should be the foundation stone of our lives."

And so, almost two hundred and fifty years from the year in which the first humble Church of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin was built in Rathangan, and one hundred and forty years from the founding of its successor, St. Patrick's Church, this second Church dedicated to the Assumption of Our Blessed Lady into Heaven is rearing its graceful lines to the sky.

The site upon which the new Church and Schools were destined to stand were donated by the local Order of Mercy nuns. Most Rev. Dr. Keogh visited these sites on Monday, 14th February, 1955. One week later fundamental operations were under way. Building started on May 16th. on the 6th November of 1955, the Feast of all Saints of Eire, "under the invocation also of St. Patrick," the cornerstone was solemnly blessed and laid. Already progress is well in evidence, and it seems a foregone conclusion that this beautifully planned Church will be completed well within the scheduled period of 15 to 18 months.

Designed in the Irish traditional style the Church will cost £60,000 and accommodate a congregation of four figures. One hundred and ninety feet long, sixty feet wide, and fifty two feet high, it will be graced with a belfry rising to an imposing height of one hundred and twelve feet. Its front elevation shows a dignified proportioned piece of architecture with gentle, graceful lines, the whole effect in perfect taste and symmetry.

The Bishops of Kildare in the Late Middle Ages

The following is from Fr. Thomas Walsh's History of the Irish Hierarchy, published in New York in 1854, chapter xvii, at p. 146 and following:

Murechad Mac Flan comorban or successor of St Conleath died AD 985 Moel Martin died in 1028 or 1030 Mselbrigid died in 1042

Fin Mac Gussan Mac Gorman died at Achonry in 1085

Ferdomnach was bishop and resigned in 1096 Maelbrigid O Brolcan bishop of Kildare died in 1097 He was a man of great fame

Aid O Heremon died AD 1100

Ferdomnach according to Ware resumed the see and died in 1101

Mac Dongail died in 1108

Cormac O Cathsuigh called bishop of Leinster on account of the preeminence of Kildare died in the year 1146

O Dubhin died in 1148

Finian Mac Tiarcain O Gorman abbot of Newry succeeded and died at Killeigh in the year 1160 where he was buried He assisted at the council of Kells in 1152

Malachy O Byrn remarkable for his modesty When St Lawrence OToole would have sent him to dispossess a demoniac he declined alleging that he had not virtue enough to cast out a devil This prelate died on the 1st of January 1176

Nehemiah succeeded in 1177 and governed the see of Kildare about eighteen years

Cornelius Mac Gelany rector of Cloncurry and archdeacon of Kildare was elected consecrated in the year 1206 and died in 1222

Ralph of Bristol treasurer of St Patrick's Dublin was consecrated in 1223 Ralph was at great expense in repairing and beautifying his cathedral He died about the beginning of 1232 he wrote the life of St Lawrence O Toole archbishop of Dublin

John De Taunton canon of St Patrick's Dublin succeeded in 1233 sat twenty five years Died about the beginning of summer 1258 and was buried in his own church Simon De Kilkenny was canon of Kildare and elected to the see in 1258 He died at Kildare in the beginning of April 1272 After the decease of this prelate the see was vacant for some time

Nicholas Cusack a Franciscan friar and a native of Meath was de elared bishop of the see by the pope who annulled the elections of Stephen dean of Kildare and William treasurer of that church He succeeded in November 1279 In 1292 he was joined in commission with Thomas St Leger bishop of Meath to collect a disme or tenth granted by the Pope to the king for relief of the holy land The sheriffs of the kingdom were ordered to aid in the collection He died in September 1299 having sat about twenty years and was buried in his own church

Walter le Veel chancellor of Kildare succeeded in 1299 Was consecrated in 1300 in St Patrick's church Dublin He sat upwards of thirty two years He died in November 1332 and is said to have been buried in his own church

Richard Hulot succeeded in 1334 was canon and archdeacon of Kildare He died on the 24th of June 1352 in the 19th year of his consecration

Thomas Gifford chancellor of Kildare was elected by the dean and chapter in 1353 He died on the 25th of September 1365 and was buried at Kildare in the church of St Bridget

Robert de Aketon obtained the see of Kildare in 1366 Was an Augustine hermit Elected in the previous year to the see of Down but the Pope annulled the election He sat in 1367

George is said to have succeeded and to have died in 1401

Henry de Wessenberch a Franciscan friar was promoted in December 1401 by the Pope Boniface IX

Thomas who succeeded died in 1405

John Madock archdeacon of Kildare succeeded and died in 1431

William archdeacon of Kildare succeeded in 1432 by provision of Pope Eugene IV Having governed the see fourteen years he died in April 1446

Geoffry Hereford a Dominican friar was advanced in 1449 to this see by Pope Eugene IV and was consecrated on Easter Sunday He died having sat about fifteen years and was buried in his own church

Richard Lang a man of exemplary gravity and wisdom succeeded in 1464 He was strongly recommended by the dean and chapter of Armagh to Pope Sixtus IV for the see of Armagh but without success He was cited by public edict on the part of the Pope to appear and produce his title to the see of Kildare He died in possession of his see AD 1474 David succeeded and died before he got possession in 1474

James Wall a Franciscan friar and doctor of divinity was promoted on the 5th of April 1475 He died on the 28th of April 1494 and was buried in a church of Franciscans at London He resigned long before his death

William Barret succeeded He must have resigned as he was vicar to the bishop of Clermont France in 1493

Edmund Lane succeeded in 1482 and died about the end of 1522 and was buried in his own church to which he was a benefactor He founded a college at Kildare in which the dean and chapter might live in a collegiate manner He sat in this see upwards of forty years He was entrapped into the mock coronation of Lambert Simnel He afterwards obtained a pardon In 1494 he assisted at a provincial synod held in Christ church by Walter Fitzsimon archbishop of Dublin

Thomas Dillon a native of Meath and an alumnus of Oxford was promoted to this see in 1523 and died in 1531 having presided about eight years

Peter Stole a master of sacred theology was provided by Clement VII on the 15th March 1529

Walter Wellesley a canon regular prior of Conal in the county of Kildare obtained the see in 1531 by provision of Pope Clement VII He died in 1539 and was buried in his own convent King Henry VIII endeavored to advance him to the see of Limerick ten years before this but without avail as the Pope was unwilling

Donald O Beachan a Franciscan friar of the Kildare convent succeeded on the 16th of July 1540 He died in a few days after

On the 15th of November 1541 succeeded by provision of the Pope Thady Reynolds a doctor of the civil and canon law One of Henry VIII's intruders was advanced to the see on the election of bishop Reynolds

Thomas Leverous a native of the county of Kildare and dean of St Patrick's Dublin was appointed by Queen Mary in March 1554 and was confirmed the year following by the Pope's bull. In January 1559 he was deprived by the government for refusing to take the oath of supremacy. After this he obtained a livelihood by teaching school in Limerick. He died at Naas in 1577 in the 80th year of his age.

Pilgrimage to Allen

We started the year well, with a pilgrimage to Allen, Co. Kildare, a spot rich in Catholic heritage.  For us, it is the home place and burial place of one of our founder members - it is a holy and a wholesome thing to remember our debt to deceased members.

At the Hill of Allen we have a traditional residence of Fionn MacCumhail, the son-in-law of King Cormac MacAirt, the greatest of the High Kings of Ireland, who, by a happy inspiration, renounced the Pagan Gods and embraced the One True God, even before the arrival of Saint Patrick.  Sir Samuel Ferguson's poem gives the account:

"Crom Cruach and his sub-gods twelve,"
 Said Cormac "are but carven treene;
 The axe that made them, haft or helve,
 Had worthier of our worship been.

"But He who made the tree to grow,
 And hid in earth the iron-stone,
 And made the man with mind to know
 The axe's use, is God alone."

Anon to priests of Crom was brought —
Where, girded in their service dread,
They minister'd on red Moy Slaught —
Word of the words King Cormac said.

They loosed their curse against the king;
They cursesd him in his flesh and bones;
And daily in their mystic ring
They turn'd the maledictive stones,

Till, where at meat the monarch sate,
Amid the revel and the wine,
He choked upon the food he ate,
At Sletty, southward of the Boyne.

High vaunted then the priestly throng,
And far and wide they noised abroad
With trump and loud liturgic song
The praise of their avenging God.

But ere the voice was wholly spent
That priest and prince should still obey,
To awed attendants o'er him bent
Great Cormac gather'd breath to say, —

"Spread not the beds of Brugh for me
When restless death-bed's use is done:
But bury me at Rossnaree
And face me to the rising sun.

"For all the kings who lie in Brugh
Put trust in gods of wood and stone;
And 'twas at Ross that first I knew
One, Unseen, who is God alone.

"His glory lightens from the east;
His message soon shall reach our shore;
And idol-god, and cursing priest
Shall plague us from Moy Slaught no more."

Dead Cormac on his bier they laid: —
"He reign'd a king for forty years,
And shame it were," his captains said, 
"He lay not with his royal peers."

"His grandsire, Hundred-Battle, sleeps
Serene in Brugh: and, all around,
Dead kings in stone sepulchral keeps
Protect the sacred burial ground.

"What though a dying man should rave
Of changes o'er the eastern sea?
In Brugh of Boyne shall be his grave,
And not in noteless Rossnaree."

Then northward forth they bore the bier,
And down from Sletty side they drew,
With horsemen and with charioteer,
To cross the fords of Boyne to Brugh.

There came a breath of finer air
That touch'd the Boyne with ruffling wings,
It stir'd him in his sedgy lair 
And in his mossy moorland springs.

And as the burial train came down
With dirge and savage dolorous shows,
Across their pathway, broad and brown
The deep, full-hearted river rose;

From bank to bank through all his fords,
'Neath blackening squalls he swell'd and boil'd;
And thrice the wondering gentile lords 
Essay'd to cross, and thrice recoil'd.

Then forth stepp'd grey-hair'd warriors four:
They said, "Through angrier floods than these,
On link'd shields once our king we bore
From Dread-Spear and the hosts of Deece."

"And long as loyal will holds good,
And limbs respond with helpful thews,
Nor flood, nor fiend within the flood,
Shall bar him of his burial dues."

With slanted necks they stoop'd to lift;
They heaved him up to neck and chin;
And, pair and pair, with footsteps swift,
Lock'd arm and shoulder, bore him in.

'Twas brave to see them leave the shore;
to mark the deep'ning surges rise,
And fall subdued in foam before 
The tension of their striding thighs.

'Twas brave, when now a spear-cast out,
Breast-high the battling surges ran;
For weight was great, and limbs were stout,
And loyal man put trust in man.

But ere they reach'd the middle deep,
Nor steadying weight of clay they bore,
Nor strain of sinewy limbs could keep
Their feet beneath the swerving four.

And now they slide, and now they swim,
And now, amid the blackening squall,
Grey locks aloat, with clutching grim,
They plunge around the floating pall.

While, as a youth with practiced spear
Through justling crowds bears off the ring,
Boyne from their shoulders caught the bier
And proudly bore away the king.

At morning, on the grassy marge
Of Rossnaree, the corpse was found,
And shepherds at their early charge
Entomb'd it in the peaceful ground.

A tranquil spot: a hopeful sound
Comes from the ever youthful stream,
And still on daisied mead and mound
The dawn delays with tenderer beam.

Round Cormac Spring renews her buds:
In march perpetual by his side,
Down come the earth-fresh April floods,
And up the sea-fresh salmon glide;

And life and time rejoicing run
From age to age their wonted way;
But still he waits the risen Sun,
For still 'tis only' dawning Day.

Allen was the seat of the Bishops of Kildare in hiding during the Penal Era.  Bishop Comerford in his Collections quotes from a letter of Bishop Doyle of Kildare and Leighlin from 6th July, 1823:

“I am here placed in the centre of an immense bog, which takes its name from a small hill under whose declivity the chapel and house are built, where I now write. What perhaps interests me most in the wide and vast expanse of the Bog of Allen is, that it afforded, for nearly two centuries, a place of refuge to the apostolic men who have gone before me in preaching the faith, and administering the sacraments to a people in every respect worthy of such pastors. The haunts and retreats frequented by the Bishops of Kildare in the times of persecution are still pointed out by aged inhabitants of these marshes with a sort of pride mingled with piety; and they say-‘There he administered Confirmation; here he held an assembly of the clergy; on that hill he ordained some young priests, whom he sent to France to Spain, to Italy; and we remember, or we heard, how he lived in yonder old walls in common with the young priests whom he prepared for the mission. He sometimes left us with a staff in his hand, and being absent months, we feared he would never return; but he always came back, until he closed his days amongst us. Oh! If you saw him; he was like St. Patrick himself.’ What think you, my dear friend, must be my reflections on hearing of the danger, and labours, and virtues of these good men, and what a reproach to my own sloth, and sensuality, and pride! They of whom the world was not worthy, and who went about in fens and morasses, in nakedness, and thirst, and hunger, and watching, and terror, will be witnesses against me for not using to the best advantage the blessings which their merits have obtained from God for their children. Their spirit, indeed, seems to dwell here, and in those remote and uncultivated districts there are found a purity and simplicity of morals truly surprising. From five to six o’ clock this morning the roads and fields were covered with poor people, young and old, healthy and infirm, hurrying to see the Bishop, and assist at his Mass, and hear his instructions. They thought he should be like those saints whom they had seen or heard of to have gone before him”

Allen was the parish where the famous Father Moore ministered towards the end of that Era and was killed in hatred of his Priesthood on 12th March, 1826, aged 47 years, and where his healing ministry continues at the nearby Father Moore's Well to this day.

The first Mass in the present magnificent Church was celebrated on Easter Sunday, 1872.  Despite being one of the gems of Church architecture in the Diocese - recently magnificently restored - it is barely mentioned by Bishop Comerford, the great historian of the Diocese.

Pilgrimage to Allen, Co. Kildare

Religious Houses of Naas (Walsh)

The following is from Fr. Thomas Walsh's History of the Irish Hierarchy, published in New York in 1854, chapter xlviii, at p. 489:

Naas formerly a place of importance as the kings of Leinster resided at Naas. It is a market town and borough.

The baron of Naas founded the priory of canons regular of St. Augustine in the 12th century.

AD 1317 Thomas was prior.

In the reign of Elizabeth it was discovered that part of the possessions of this house was concealed by Edward Misset of Dowdington. Richard Mannering obtained by patent AD 1553 the possessions of this house value yearly 35 18s 2d

The Dominican abbey in the centre of the town was erected by the family of Eustace for this order under the invocation of St. Eustachius, martyr, AD 1355 from whose family they were descended. At the dissolution of monasteries the property of this house was granted to Sir Thomas Luttrell who assigned them to John Travers, knight. A public inn has been erected on the site of this monastery.

The Augustinian abbey of Eremites was founded in the year 1484. Its ruins are still to be seen at the foot of the mount which lies at the farther end of the town. June 6th, twenty sixth of queen Elizabeth, a lease of this abbey for the term of fifty years was granted to Nicholas Aylmer.

Mass for Persecuted Christians in the Middle East

For the second year a Mass for Persecuted Christians in the Middle East was organised by the Catholic Heritage Association in Cill Mhuire, Newbridge, Co. Kildare.

 

 

A Mass for the Persecuted Christians of the Middle East