MELLIFONT CONTINUES TO FLOURISH UNDER SUCCESSIVE EMINENT SUPERIORS.
"This is no common spot of earth,
No place for idle words or mirth;
Here streamed the taper's mystic light;
Here flashed the waving censers bright;
Awhile the Church's ancient song
Lingered the stately aisles along,
And high mysterious words were said
Which brought to men the living Bread."
(_W. Chatterton Dix._)
After the consecration of their church the monks settled down to their
ordinary quiet way. The erection of the monastic buildings had hitherto
kept them occupied; now that these were completed, they devoted their
attention to the improvement of their farms, which they tilled with their
own hands, and to the embellishment of their immediate surroundings. Even
at this early period of her history, Mellifont was a hive of industry
where all the trades flourished and many important arts were encouraged.
At that time hired labour was sparingly employed by the monks; for they
themselves bore a share in the work of the artisans as well as in the
ordinary drudgery of tillage. Labour placed all on a footing of equality
whilst it gave vigour to the body by healthy exercise in the open air.
Perhaps, this healthy exercise was one of the secrets of the longevity for
which the monks were remarkable. Regularity of life continued for years
contributes to a state of health which dispenses with physicians. Wherever
monks settled down they immediately erected mills for grinding corn, for
preparing and finishing the fabrics of which their garments were made,
etc. St. Benedict enjoined on his monks the necessity of practising all
the trades and arts within the walls of the monastery, so that they need
never leave their enclosure for the purpose, or under the pretext, of
having their work done by externs.
Eleven years passed without Mellifont receiving any notice from our native
chroniclers, and then at the year 1168, it is recorded, that Prince Donogh
O'Carroll, the Founder, died and was buried in the church there. Ware
tells us that his tomb and those of other remarkable personages had been
in the church. As it was an almost general custom in Ireland, that the
Founders of religious houses were interred on the north, or Gospel side of
the High Altar, so it may be justly inferred that he was buried within the
chancel, and that the recess on the north side is where his monument was
erected. Thus, King Charles O'Connor's tomb occupies the same place in
Knockmoy Abbey, Co. Galway, of which he was Founder. So, too, in Corcomroe
Abbey, Co. Clare, the tomb of Conor O'Brien, King of Thomond, grandson of
the Founder of that abbey, is still to be seen in a niche in the wall on
the north side of the High Altar. No doubt they were buried under the
pavement. The ancient Statutes of the Order permitted kings and bishops to
be buried in the churches, but assigned no particular part as proper to
them.
In 1170, a monk named Auliv, who had been expelled[7] from Mellifont,
instigated Manus, the King of Ulster, to commit an "unknown and attrocious
crime," as the _Annals of the Four Masters_ call it; that is, to banish
the monks whom St. Malachy brought to Saul, Co. Down, and to deprive them
of everything they were possessed of. Instances of wicked men deceitfully
entering monasteries, at that time and at other periods of monastic
history, are given, but invariably the guilty party is severely censured,
and it is related that his fellow-monks rid themselves of him. St. Bernard
himself was deceived by his secretary, Nicholas, who afterwards left the
Order. "He went out from us," said the Saint, "but he did not belong to
us."
The Order was spreading rapidly in Ireland, and the filiations from
Mellifont in their turn sent out new filiations, till most of the
picturesque valleys in this country sheltered and nurtured thriving
establishments; so much so, that O'Daly tells us "there were twenty-five
grand Cistercian abbeys in Ireland at the Invasion." But then a new era
dawned on this unhappy nation, and might usurped the place of right, cruel
unending strife and fierce jealousies were imported into the country, and
it became one vast battle-field. Ireland would have assimilated the two
contending races, but their amalgamation would have been detrimental to
English interests in this kingdom, and hence by statute, by bribe, by all
means available, the representatives of that Crown only too successfully
kept the feuds alive. Fain would they have made the Church an instrument
for the furtherance of these ulterior purposes, but, whilst she stood firm
as an integral part of Peter's Rock, neither English bribes nor English
wiles could subjugate her. True, Englishmen were appointed to the richest
benefices within the Pale to which the English kings had the right of
presentation, and these strove, with as much zeal as the knight or baron,
to extend the boundaries of the shire-lands. But the Irish prelates, by
their disinterestedness, and their personal and episcopal virtues, saved
the Church from the degradation that imperilled her. We shall see the
result of this policy as we proceed.
Judging, by analogy, from the progress of society in other countries, and
from the relative number of monasteries founded in them and in Ireland
before the Invasion, it may be conjectured that the monastic system in all
its branches would have produced in this country the same fruits in
agriculture, in learning, and in the arts, as are attributed to it in the
history of other nations; and, in a special manner, it would have helped,
by the unity of government enforced in Religious Orders, to bind together
the discordant elements of society. Quite different, however, was it in
Ireland; for the sphere of action of each monastery was cramped, and
confined within a certain radius, beyond which its influences were not
felt, nor regarded otherwise than in a hostile spirit, or at best as an
object of suspicion.
In 1172, the Abbot of Mellifont was sent to Rome on an embassy by King
Roderic O'Connor. We are not told its nature.
In 1177, Charles O'Buacalla, then Abbot of this monastery, was elected
Bishop of Emly, where he died within a month after his consecration. In
1182, King Henry II. granted to the Abbot and community of Mellifont a
confirmation of their possessions, and three years later, King John, at
that time styled Lord of Ireland, renewed the confirmation while he was
residing at Castleknock, during his brief visit to this country, in 1185,
the thirty-second year of his father's reign. A copy of the Charter may be
seen in the Miscellany of the Archaeological Society, Vol. I., page 158.
The original, which is one of the earliest of the Anglo-Irish documents
that have come down to us, is preserved in Trinity College, Dublin. By
this Charter King John confirmed to the monks of Mellifont the "donation
and concession" which his father made to them. By it he confirmed to the
monks "the site and ambit of the abbey, with all its appurtenances,
namely, the grange of Kulibudi (not on the Ordnance map), and Munigatinn
(Monkenewtown), with its appurtenances, the granges of Mell and Drogheda
(in Irish Droichet-atha, that is, bridge of the ford) and their
appurtenances, and Rathmolan (Rathmullen) and Finnaur (Femor), with their
appurtenances, the grange of Teachlenni (Stalleen), and the grange of
Rossnarrigh (Rossnaree), with their appurtenances, the townland of Culen
(Cullen) and its appurtenances, the grange of Cnogva (Knowth), the grange
of Kelkalma (not known now), with their appurtenances, Tuelacnacornari
(not known), and Callan (Collon), with their appurtenances, and the grange
of Finna (____) with its appurtenances." He also confirms the grants of
two carucates of land made to the monks by Hugh de Lacy, viz., of Croghan
and Ballybregan (?), and also one carucate of land given by Robert of
Flanders, called Crevoda, now Creewood, two miles west of Mellifont.
[Illustration: SOUTH WALL OF LECTORIUM. _From Photo by W. Lawrence,
Dublin._]
In 1186, St. Christian O'Connarchy, or Connery, who had been the first
Abbot of Mellifont and afterwards Bishop of Lismore and Legate of the
Holy See, died, and was buried at O'Dorney, Co. Kerry, a monastery of his
Order, which was founded in 1154, from Manister-Nenay. He had resigned all
his dignities six years before, in order the better to prepare himself for
a happy death. He was enrolled in the Calendar of the Saints of the
Cistercian Order, and his festival was kept in England in pre-Reformation
times, on the 18th March. In the eulogy of him in the Cistercian Menology
it is said, "that he was remarkable for his sanctity and wonderful
miracles, and that next to St. Malachy, he was regarded by the Irish
nation as one of its principal patrons," even down to the time that that
was written, A.D. 1630. An Irish gentleman who visited Italy in 1858,
wrote from Venice to a friend, that he had seen amongst the fresco
paintings which covered the wall of the beautiful church of Chiaravalla,
the first Cistercian monastery founded in Italy, a painting of St.
Malachy; also one entitled, "_S. Christianus Archieps. in Hibernia
Cisterciensis_"--"St. Christian, a Cistercian monk, and Archbishop in
Ireland." The error in ranking him as Archbishop probably arose from his
having succeeded St. Malachy as Legate. It was in his Legatine capacity
that he presided at several Synods, chiefly the memorable one convened by
King Henry at Cashel, in 1172.
About the same time, there died at Mellifont, a holy monk named Malchus,
who is said to have been St. Christian's brother and successor in the
abbatial office, as has been related above. Ussher, quoting St. Bernard,
positively asserts that he was St. Christian's brother. And Sequin, who,
in 1580, compiled a Catalogue of the Saints of the Cistercian Order,
mentions Malchus in that honoured roll, and styles him "a true contemner
of the world, a great lover of God, and a pattern and model of all
virtues to the whole Order." He says, "he was one of St. Malachy's
disciples in whose footsteps he faithfully followed, and that he was
renowned for his sanctity and learning, as well as for the many miracles
he wrought." His feast was kept on the 28th of June.
In 1189, Rudolph, or Ralph Feltham, Abbot of Furness, died and was buried
here. And in the same year, died Murrogh O'Carroll, cousin of the Founder,
near whom he was interred.
In 1190, Pope Clement III. issued a Bull addressed to the General Chapter
of the Cistercian Order, dated July 6th of that year, enrolling St.
Malachy in the Calendar of Saints, and appointing the 3rd of November for
his festival.
At that same General Chapter, it was decreed that the Irish Abbots be
dispensed from attending the General Chapter annually, and it was decided
that they should be present every third year; and a few years later, the
Abbot of Mellifont was charged to select three of their number who should
repair thither every year.
In 1193, Dervorgilla died at the monastery of Mellifont. The _Annals of
the Four Masters_ and other Annals simply relate the fact of her having
died there in the 85th year of her age, without alluding to the place of
her sepulture.
In that year, also, portions of the Relics of St. Malachy were brought to
Mellifont and were distributed to the other houses of the Order in
Ireland. Several of our Annals say that the Saint's body was brought over
from Clairvaux, but that is obviously a mistake; for until the French
Revolution, the bodies of St. Malachy and St. Bernard occupied two
magnificent altar-tombs of red marble within the chancel, at Clairvaux. A
charter, dated 1273, is still extant, whereby Robert Bruce, the rival of
John Baliol for the Scottish Crown, conveys his land of Osticroft to the
Abbot of Clairvaux for the maintenance of a lamp before St. Malachy's tomb
in that church. And the General Chapter of the Order held in 1323, when
raising the Saint's festival to a higher rank, expressly mentioned that
his body "rested" at Clairvaux. Meglinger, a German Cistercian monk, who
visited Clairvaux in 1667, and wrote a description of that famous abbey as
he beheld it, says that he was shown the heads of Saints Malachy and
Bernard, which were preserved in silver cases. He also mentions the superb
altar-tombs of the two Saints. Later on, the two celebrated Benedictine
monks, Dom Martene and Dom Durand, when in quest of MSS., called at
Clairvaux, and were shown the tombs and heads of the Saints. It is
scarcely necessary to remark that this respect and veneration were
entertained for the tombs only because they contained the bodies of the
holy men.
In 1194, Abbot Moelisa, who then governed Mellifont, was made Bishop of
Clogher.