_Malachy's pity for his deceased sister. He restores the Monastery of
Bangor. His first Miracles._
11. (6). Meanwhile Malachy's sister, whom we mentioned before,[271]
died: and we must not pass over the visions which he saw about her. For
the saint indeed abhorred her carnal life, and with such intensity that
he vowed he would never see her alive in the flesh. But now that her
flesh was destroyed his vow was also destroyed, and he began to see in
spirit her whom in the body he would not see. One night he heard in a
dream the voice of one saying to him that his sister was standing
outside in the court, and that for thirty entire days she had tasted
nothing; and when he awoke he soon understood the sort of food for want
of which she was pining away. And when he had diligently considered the
number of days which he had heard, he discovered that it went back to
the time when he had ceased to offer the _living bread from heaven_[272]
for her. Then, since he hated not the soul of his sister but her sin, he
began again the good practice which he had abandoned. And not in vain.
Not long after she was seen by him to have come to the threshold of the
church, but to be not yet able to enter; she appeared also in dark
raiment. And when he persevered, taking care that on no single day she
should be disappointed of the accustomed gift, he saw her a second time
in whitish raiment, admitted indeed within the church, but not allowed
to approach the altar. At last she was seen, a third time, gathered in
the company of the white-robed, and _in bright clothing_.[273] You see,
reader, how much _the effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man
availeth_.[274] Truly _the kingdom of heaven suffereth violence and the
violent take it by force_.[275] Does not the prayer of Malachy seem to
you to have played the part as it were of a housebreaker to the heavenly
gates, when a sinful woman obtained by the weapons of a brother what was
denied to her own merits? This _violence_, good Jesus, Thou who
_sufferest_ dost exercise, strong and merciful _to save_,[276] _showing_
mercy and _strength with thine arm_,[277] and preserving it in thy
sacrament for _the saints which are in the earth_,[278] _unto the end of
the world_.[279] Truly this sacrament is strong to _consume_ sins,[280]
to defeat opposing powers, to bring into heaven those who are returning
from the earth.
12. (7). The Lord, indeed, was so preparing His beloved Malachy in the
district of Lismore for the glory of His name. But those who had sent
him,[281] tolerating his absence no longer, recalled him by letters.
When he was restored to his people,[282] now better instructed in all
that was necessary, behold _a work prepared_ and kept by _God_[283] for
Malachy. A rich and powerful man, who held the place of Bangor and its
possessions, by inspiration of God immediately placed in his hand all
that he had and himself as well.[284] And he was his mother's
brother.[285] But kinship of spirit was of more value to Malachy than
kinship of the flesh. The actual place also of Bangor, from which he
received his name,[286] the prince[287] made over to him, that there he
might build, or rather rebuild, a monastery. For indeed there had been
formerly a very celebrated one under the first father, Comgall,[288]
which produced many thousands of monks, and was the head of many
monasteries. A truly holy place it was and prolific of saints, _bringing
forth_ most abundant _fruit to God_,[289] so that one of the sons of
that holy community, Lugaid[290] by name, is said to have been the
founder--himself alone--of a hundred monasteries. I mention this in
order that the reader may infer from this one instance what an immense
number of others there were. In fine, to such an extent did its shoots
fill Ireland and Scotland[291] that those verses of David seem to have
sung beforehand especially of these times, _Thou visitest the earth and
blessest it; thou makest it very plenteous. The river of God is full of
water: thou preparest their corn, for so thou providest for the earth,
blessing its rivers, multiplying its shoots. With its drops of rain
shall it rejoice while it germinates_;[292] and in like manner the
verses that follow. Nor was it only into the regions just mentioned, but
also into foreign lands that those swarms of saints poured forth as
though a _flood had risen_;[293] of whom one, St. Columbanus, came up to
our Gallican parts, and built the monastery of Luxovium, and was _made
there a great people_.[294] So great a people was it, they say, that
the choirs succeeding one another in turn, the solemnities of the divine
offices went on continuously, so that not a moment day or night was
empty of praises.[295]
13. (8) Enough has been said about the ancient glory of the monastery of
Bangor. This, long ago destroyed by pirates,[296] Malachy eagerly
cherished on account of its remarkable and long-standing prestige, as
though he were about to _replant a paradise_,[297] and because _many
bodies of the saints slept_ there.[298] For, not to speak of those which
were _buried in peace_,[299] it is said that nine hundred persons were
slain together in one day by pirates.[300] Vast, indeed, were the
possessions of that place;[301] but Malachy, content with the holy place
alone, resigned all the possessions and lands to another. For indeed
from the time when the monastery was destroyed there was always someone
to hold it with its possessions. For they were both appointed by
election and were even called abbots, preserving in name but not in fact
what had once been.[302] And though many urged him not to alienate the
possessions, but to retain the whole together for himself, this lover of
poverty did not consent, but caused one to be elected, according to
custom, to hold them; the place, as we have said, being retained for
Malachy and his followers. And perhaps, as afterwards appeared,[303] he
would have been wiser to have kept it all; only he looked more to
humility than to peace.
14. So, then, by the command of Father Imar, taking with him about ten
brethren, he came to the place and began to build. And there, one day,
when he himself was cutting with an axe, by chance one of the workmen,
while he was brandishing the axe in the air, carelessly got into the
place at which the blow was aimed, and it fell on his spine with as much
force as Malachy could strike. He fell, and all ran to him supposing
that he had received a death-wound or was dead. And indeed his tunic was
_rent from the top to the bottom_,[304] but the man himself was found
unhurt, the skin so very slightly grazed that scarcely a trace appeared
on the surface. The man whom the axe had laid low, stood unharmed while
the bystanders beheld him with amazement. Hence they became more eager,
and were found readier for the work. And _this was the beginning of the
miracles_[305] of Malachy. Moreover the oratory was finished in a few
days, made of smoothed planks indeed, but closely and strongly fastened
together--a Scotic work,[306] not devoid of beauty.[307] And
thenceforward God was served in it as in the ancient days; that is,
with similar devotion, though not with like numbers. Malachy presided
over that place for some time,[308] by the ordinance of Father
Imar,[309] being at once the ruler and the rule of the brethren. They
read in his life how they should behave themselves, and he was their
leader _in righteousness and holiness before God_;[310] save that
besides the things appointed for the whole community he did many things
of an exceptional kind, in which he still more was the leader of all,
and none of the others was able to follow him to such difficult
practices.
At that time and place a certain man was sick, and the devil stood by
him and suggested in plain speech that he should never heed the
admonitions of Malachy, but if he should enter his house, he should
attack and kill him with a knife. And when this became known, those who
ministered to him, the sick man himself informing them, brought word to
Malachy and warned him. But he, seizing his accustomed weapons of
prayer, boldly attacked his enemy, and put to flight both disease and
demon. _But the_ man's _name was Malchus_.[311] He is brother according
to the flesh of our Christian, abbot of Mellifont.[312] For both are
still alive, now brothers yet more, in spirit.[313] For when he was
delivered, immediately he was not ungrateful, but in the same place,
having _turned[314] to the Lord_,[315] he changed both his habit and his
mind. And the brethren knew that the evil one was envious of their
prosperity; and they were edified and made more careful henceforth.
15. (9). At the same place he healed a cleric, named Michael, who was
suffering from dysentery and despaired of, by sending him something from
his table. A second time, when the same person was smitten with a very
grave disorder, he cured him both in body and mind. And from that moment
_he clave to_ God[316] and to Malachy His servant, fearing _lest a worse
thing should come unto him_,[317] if once more he should be found
ungrateful for so great a benefit and miracle. And at present, as we
have heard, he presides over a monastery in the parts of Scotland; and
this was the latest of all Malachy's foundations.[318] Through such
deeds of Malachy both his reputation and his community increased daily,
and his name became great both within and without the monastery, though
not greater than the fact. For indeed he dwelt[319] there even after he
was made bishop, for the place was near the city.[320]
FOOTNOTES:
[271] See § 6. Malachy's sister is here said to have died while he was
at Lismore; but whether during his earlier or later visit to that
place cannot be determined.
[272] John vi. 51.
[273] Acts x. 30.
[274] Jas. v. 16.
[275] Matt. xi. 12.
[276] Cp. Isa. lxiii. 1.
[277] Luke i. 51.
[278] Ps. xvi. 3.
[279] Matt. xxviii. 20.
[280] Ps vii. 9 (vg.).
[281] Cellach and Imar (§ 8).
[282] That is to Armagh. But see p. 36, n. 5.
[283] Eph. ii. 10 (vg.).
[284] This person was apparently the coarb of Comgall, the founder of
Bangor. It would seem that he had been but a short time in office, for
Oengus O'Gorman, coarb of Comgall, died at Lismore in 1123 (_A.U._),
probably during Malachy's sojourn there. It is not impossible that the
unnamed coarb, mentioned in the text, was Murtough O'Hanratty, who
died at Armagh in 1131 (_A.F.M._). The statement that he gave
"himself" to Malachy seems to mean that he placed himself under his
rule in the new community.
[285] If the identification suggested in the preceding note is
correct, Malachy's mother belonged to the family of O'Hanratty, which
in the eleventh and twelfth centuries held the chieftaincy of Ui Méith
Macha or Ui Méith Tíre, now the barony of Monaghan, in the county of
the same name.
[286] _Cognominabatur._ This verb occurs seventeen times in the
Vulgate, and almost always indicates a new or alternative name. In the
present passage it certainly applies, not to Malachy's baptismal name,
but to its Latin equivalent, Malachias, which he probably assumed when
he became abbot of Bangor, or bishop of Down. The remark that he
received it from Bangor is to be explained thus. A legend, which has a
place in Jocelin's _Life of St. Patrick_ (§ 98) and is therefore at
least as old as the twelfth century, relates that Patrick, viewing the
valley in which the monastery of Comgall was afterwards constructed,
perceived that it was "filled with a multitude of the heavenly host."
From this story, no doubt, came the name "Valley of Angels (_Vallis
Angelorum_)," by which it was known in the early seventeenth century,
and probably long before (Reeves, p. 199). If this name, or the legend
on which it was based, was known to Malachy it is quite conceivable
that on account of his connexion with Bangor, he adopted, as the Latin
alternative of Máel Máedóc, a name which is only the Hebrew for _my
angel_ with a Latin termination. That St. Bernard was aware of the
significance of the name, and liked to dwell upon it, is clear from
Sermon ii. § 5. It may be added that the legend just mentioned is
connected with a folk-etymology of the word Bangor (_Bennchor_) which
explained it as "white choir." For the true etymology see Kuno Meyer,
"Zur Keltischen Wortkunde," § 66 (_Preuss. Akad. Sitz._, 1913).
[287] _Princeps._ This word does not necessarily imply that the donor
of Bangor was a secular chieftain. St. Bernard is somewhat arbitrary
in his use of such titles; and _princeps_ occurs very frequently in
_A.U._ up to the tenth century as an equivalent of _abbot_.
[288] Comgall, who was a Pict of Dál Araide (Adamnan, i. 49), was born
at Magheramorne, near Larne, co. Antrim (Reeves, p. 269), between 516
and 520. He founded the monastery of Bangor when he was about forty
years old, probably in 559, and presided over it till his death in 602
(_A.U._). According to his Latin Life (§ 13, Plummer, ii. 7), so great
a number of monks came to him there that there was not room for them;
"he therefore founded very many cells and many monasteries, not only
in the district of Ulaid, but throughout the other provinces of
Ireland." There were as many as 3000 monks under his rule. On the last
leaf of an ancient service book of the monastery, known as the
Antiphonary of Bangor (Facsimile edition by F. E. Warren, 1893, vol.
ii. p. 33), there is a hymn which gives a complete list of the
abbots--fifteen in number--from Comgall to Cronan (+691), in whose
period of office it was written. The site of St. Comgall's monastery
is beside the Rectory of the parish of Bangor, co. Down, about
half-a-mile from Bangor Bay, near the entrance to Belfast Lough.
[289] Rom. vii. 4.
[290] _Luanus._ This is probably Lugaid, or Molua, the founder of
Lismore in Scotland, who died in 592 (_A.U._) and is commemorated on
June 25 (Oengus, Gorman). He was a Pict and of the same tribe as St.
Comgall, both being descended from Fiacha Araide (_L.B._ 15 c, e); and
in later times was the patron saint of the diocese of Argyll (Adamnan,
p. 371). He may be the Bishop Lugidus who ordained St. Comgall, and
afterwards restrained him from leaving Ireland (Plummer, i. p. lix.;
ii. pp. 6, 7). But there is no evidence, apart from the statement of
St. Bernard, that either this bishop or Lugaid of Lismore was a member
of the community at Bangor. There is a Life of Lugaid of Lismore in
the Breviary of Aberdeen (Prop. Sanct. pro temp, aest. ff. 5 _v._ 7;
summarized in Forbes, _Kalendars of Scottish Saints_, p. 410). His
principal foundation after Lismore was Rosemarkie in Ross. Mr. A. B.
Scott (_Pictish Nation_, 1918, p. 347 f.) mentions also Mortlach
(Banffshire) and Clova (Aberdeenshire); and Bishop Forbes (_l.c._)
adds other sites with which his name is connected.
[291] St. Comgall himself is said to have been minded in his earlier
days to go on pilgrimage to "Britain," and to have been dissuaded
therefrom by Lugaid (Latin Life, § 13, Plummer, ii. 7). Seven years
after the foundation of Bangor he went to Britain to visit "certain
saints" (_ibid._ § 22, p. 11). It was probably on this occasion that
he spent some time on the island of Hinba (Eilean-na-naomh?) in the
company of SS. Columba, Canice and others (Adamnan, iii. 17). It was
somewhat later, apparently, that St. Columba went with some companions
on a mission to Brude, king of the Picts (_ibid._ ii. 35); and we need
not question the statement that Comgall and Canice were among those
who went with him, though there is reason to doubt that Comgall was
the leader of the band, as his Life implies (§ 51, p. 18), and though
the _Life of St. Canice_, which frequently refers to his visit, or
visits, to Scotland (§§ 17, 19, 21, 23, Plummer, i. 158), never
mentions the incident. It is probable, therefore, that the founder of
Bangor took part in the evangelization of Scotland; but the memory of
very few monasteries founded by him in that country, besides the
community in the island of Tiree (_Life_, § 22, p. 11; see Scott, _op.
cit._ p. 239), has been preserved to later ages. Mr. Scott credits
members of the community of Bangor with the foundation of Paisley,
Kingarth and Applecross (_ibid._ p. 337 ff.). See also previous note.
[292] Ps. lxv. 9, 10 (vg., inexact quotation).
[293] Luke vi. 48.
[294] Gen. xii. 2.--St. Columbanus was the greatest of the Irish
missionaries on the Continent of Europe. Born in Leinster, according
to Bruno Krusch (_Ionae Vitae Sanctorum_, p. 22) in 530, or as others
hold in 543, he entered the community of Bangor not long after its
foundation, and after spending "many cycles of years" there, he sailed
for France about 590. His principal monasteries were Luxeuil
(Luxovium) in the department of Haute Saône, and Bobbio in Lombardy.
At the latter place he died, November 23, 615. His Life was written by
Jonas, about 640. It was critically edited by Krusch in _M.G.H._
(Script. rerum Merovingic., vol. iv. 1-152) and subsequently as a
separate volume (_Ionae Vitae Sanctorum Columbani, Vedastis,
Iohannis_, 1905). The story of his labours has been told by G. T.
Stokes in his _Celtic Church in Ireland_, Lect. vii., and by many
other modern writers. See also the collection of documents in Patrick
Fleming's _Collectanea_ (Lovanii, 1667). Luxeuil is about eighty miles
from Clairvaux, and less than seventy from St. Bernard's early home at
Dijon. Fifty years after the death of St. Columbanus it adopted the
rule of St. Benedict. It was a well-known establishment in St.
Bernard's day, though by that time its glory had declined. It was
suppressed in 1789 (M. Stokes, _Three Months in the Forests of
France_, p. 67).
[295] The Acoemetae, founded about the middle of the fifth century,
were the first to practise the _laus perennis_, from which they
derived their name (_Dict. of Christian Antiquities_, s.v.). It was
adopted in the early years of the following century at the monastery
of St. Maurice in the Valois, from which it spread to many other
religious establishments (_AA.SS._, Nov., i. 548 ff.).
[296] _A.U._ 823 (_recte_ 824): "The plundering of Bangor in the Ards
by Foreigners [_i.e._ Norsemen], and the spoiling of its oratory; and
the relics of Comgall were shaken out of their shrine." _A.I._ add,
"and its learned men and bishops were slain with the sword."
[297] Gen. ii. 8.
[298] Matt. xxvii. 52.
[299] Ecclus. xliv. 14.
[300] This obviously exaggerated statement may refer to the event
mentioned in note 2, or to a later occasion (958), when "Tanaidhe, son
of Odhar, coarb of Bangor, was killed by Foreigners" (_A.U._).
[301] "Even at the Dissolution [1539] it was found to be possessed of
the temporalities and spiritualities of thirty-four townlands,
together with the tithes of nine rectories or chapels" (Reeves, p.
94). The lands included the entire parish of Bangor, together with
part of the adjoining parish of Holywood, and eight outlying townlands
(Archdall, ed. Moran, i. 235).
[302] This remark is interesting as showing that the title "abbot of
Bangor" was in use in the twelfth century. The last person to whom it
is given in the _A.U._ is Indrechtach, who died in 906. From that time
onwards "coarb of Comgall" (or in one instance, "coarb of Bangor") is
substituted for it. St. Bernard is supported by the Annals when he
asserts that so-called abbots were elected down to Malachy's time.
_A.U._ preserve the names of twenty abbots or coarbs between 824 and
1123. But St. Bernard leaves the impression that the religious
community of Bangor ceased to exist on its destruction by the Norse
pirates, and that subsequently the "abbots" merely held the lands that
had belonged to it, and exercised no spiritual discipline. There are
good reasons, however, for the contrary opinion. Thus Abbot Moengal,
who died in 871, was a "pilgrim." Abbot Moenach (died 921) was "the
head of the learning of the island of Ireland." Ceile, coarb of
Comgall, went on pilgrimage to Rome in 928, and died there in 929: he
was a scribe and anchoret, apostolic doctor of all Ireland, and (if
_C.S._ can be trusted) a bishop. Dubhinnsi, bishop of Bangor, died in
953. Finally, Diarmait Ua Maeltelcha, coarb of Comgall, whom _C.S._
calls a bishop, died in 1016. It was probably not till after that
date, as Reeves (p. 154) assures us, that the monastery began to
decline.
[303] See §§ 61, 62.
[304] Matt. xxvii. 51.
[305] John ii. 11.
[306] "Scotic" is obviously to be understood here in its earlier
meaning as equivalent to "Irish." From this departure from his
ordinary usage (see p. 20, note 1) we may infer that St. Bernard is
quoting the words of his authority. The habit of constructing churches
of wood prevailed in early times among the Celtic and Saxon tribes in
the British Isles, the introduction of stone building for such
purposes being due to Roman influence (Plummer, _Bede_, ii. 101). The
older custom lingered longer in Ireland than elsewhere; and by the
time of Bede it had come to be regarded as characteristically Irish,
though wooden churches must still have been numerous in England (Bede,
_H.E._, iii. 25). In a document of much later date, the Life of the
Irish Saint Monenna (quoted in Adamnan, p. 177 f.), we read of "a
church constructed of smoothed planks according to the custom of the
Scottish races"; and the writer adds that "the Scots are not in the
habit of building walls, or causing them to be built." Petrie (pp.
138-151) maintained that stone churches were not unusual in early
Ireland; but he admits (pp. 341-344) that one type of church--the
oratory (in Irish _dairtheach_, _i.e._ house of oak)--was very rarely
constructed of stone. The only two passages which he cites (p. 345) as
mentioning stone oratories (he says he might have produced others) are
not to his purpose. The first is a notice in _A.U._ 788, of a man
being killed at the door of a "stone oratory": but another, and
apparently better, reading substitutes _lapide_ for _lapidei_, thus
altering the entry to a statement that the man was killed "by a stone
at the door of the oratory." The second is Colgan's rendering
(_Trias_, p. 162) of a sentence in _Trip._ iii. 74, p. 232, in which
there is in reality no mention of any ecclesiastical edifice. So far
as I am aware, there is no indisputable reference in Irish literature
to a stone oratory earlier than the one mentioned below, § 61.
[307] Cp. the quatrain of Rummun on an oratory which was in course of
construction at Rathen (_Otia Merseiana_, ii. 79):
"O my Lord! what shall I do About these great materials? When will
these ten hundred planks Be a structure of compact beauty?"
[308] Evidently until he became bishop. The next sentence implies that
the time spent at Bangor was of considerable length, as does also the
remark at the end of § 15. St. Bernard, however, seems to have been
mistaken in supposing that Malachy resigned the abbacy on his
consecration. See p. 36, note 5; p. 40, note 1; p. 80, note 1; p. 104,
note 3; p. 112, note 5; p. 113, note 1.
[309] Cp. p. 11, note 1.
[310] Luke i. 75.
[311] John xviii. 10.
[312] For Christian and Mellifont Abbey, see § 39. This Malchus is
mentioned again in § 52.
[313] This is not a mere conventional phrase. In a passionate outburst
of grief St. Bernard says of his brother Gerard, who had recently
died, "He was my brother by blood, yet more my brother in religion"
(_Cant._ xxvi. 4).
[314] _Conversus._ Cp. p. 14, note 1. The meaning is that after his
recovery Malchus entered the community of Bangor.
[315] Acts ix. 35.
[316] 2 Kings xviii. 6.
[317] John v. 14.
[318] The abbey founded by Malachy at Soulseat. See § 68.
[319] _Demorabatur_, literally, _lingered_, or _tarried_. The fact
seems to be that Bangor was Malachy's headquarters for the rest of his
life, except the ten years which intervened between his expulsion from
it (§ 18), and his resignation of the see of Armagh (§ 31). See p. 33,
note 1. St. Bernard was apparently puzzled by the fact that Malachy
continued to live at Bangor after his consecration, instead of going
to the see-city; and he makes a not very satisfactory apology for it.
[320] The city is evidently Connor; but it is not near Bangor. The
two places are twenty-five miles apart, and Belfast Lough lies between
them. In Malachy's day they were in different tribal territories.