dedicated to the glory of God and St. Patrick, and behind it, in a much
more modest mansion, is the residence of Cardinal Logue, Roman Catholic
Archbishop of Armagh, Primate of Ireland and a member of the sacred
college of Rome. Thus in the same little town we have two cathedrals of
St. Patrick, two archbishops of Armagh, and two primates of the Holy
Catholic church, both claiming ecclesiastical authority inherited from
St. Patrick, founder of the Christian church in Ireland, and first
archbishop of Armagh, through one hundred and fourteen generations of
archbishops who have lived and prayed and reigned in this picturesque
little place.
In several cities there are two archbishops or bishops, one Roman
Catholic and one of the Church of Ireland, and the duplication is often
the cause of embarrassment and confusion. If you are seeking or even
mentioning one of them it is necessary to make yourself clear by giving
the name of the church or the name of the man as well as the title. I
once addressed a letter to "His Grace, the Archbishop of Dublin," and it
was returned to me from the post office for more definite address. The
post-office authorities would not take the risk of delivering it to the
wrong man.
Archbishop Alexander and Cardinal Logue are the best of friends and see
each other frequently, co-operating in works of charity and movements of
public interest with cordiality and mutual esteem. When I was in Armagh
Cardinal Logue had recently returned from a visit to America, where he
went to assist in the celebration of the anniversary of the founding of
the diocese of New York. He was enthusiastic about his reception and
what he saw and did in the United States. He is a man of great dignity,
ability, and usefulness, but with all has a keen sense of humor and a
jolly disposition.
The town of Armagh is surrounded by scenes of transcendent historic and
ecclesiastical interest. On a lovely hillside is a holy spring where St.
Patrick baptized his first converts. A little farther away is a large
artificial mound, about eleven acres in extent, covered with aged
hawthorn trees, where stood the royal palace of Ulster, and it was
occupied for a century after the arrival of St. Patrick. Within the
grounds of the Protestant archbishop are the remains of a Franciscan
monastery and a well beside which St. Bridget lived for several years.
Eastward of the town, upon the hills, was located the ancient Catholic
University of Armagh founded by St. Patrick in the year 455, where as
many as seven thousand students gathered for instruction in literature,
the arts, and theology, and until the Reformation it was one of the
greatest schools of Europe.
Emania, now called the "Navan Fort," the residence of the kings of
Ulster, was founded by Queen Macha of the Golden Hair, whose legend is
most interesting. It was founded about 300 B.C. It was a royal residence
for six hundred years or more. It was then destroyed by the three
Collas, and has remained a waste ever since. St. Patrick came nearly a
century after its destruction. The petty king, Daire, who gave a site to
St. Patrick, was probably king of Oriel, or possibly of one of the
tribes which composed the kingdom of Oriel, or Oirgialla. Professor
Bury, in his "Life of St. Patrick" says:
"King Daire ... dwelt in the neighborhood of the ancient fortress of
Emania, which his own ancestors had destroyed a hundred years agone,
when they had come from the south to wrest the place from the Ulidians
[Ulidia is Ulster] and sack the palace of its lords. The conquerors did
not set up their abode in the stronghold of the old kings of Ulster;
they burned the timber buildings and left the place desolate."
Patrick's first foundation was not on the hill where the old cathedral
now stands. He asked that site of Daire, but the latter refused, and
gave him a site at the foot of the hill instead. The original church of
St. Patrick is believed to have stood somewhere about the spot whereon
the branch Bank of Ireland now stands in Armagh. Bury says of the
original structures of Patrick:
"The simple houses which were needed for a small society of monks were
built, and there is a record, which appears to be ancient and credible,
concerning these primitive buildings. A circular space was marked out
one hundred and forty feet in diameter, and inclosed by a rampart of
earth. Within this were erected, doubtless of wood, a 'great house' to
be the dwelling of the monks, a kitchen, and a small oratory."
Ultimately, King Daire gave Patrick the hill he coveted, then called
Drum-saileach, the "ridge of the willows." The story is quaintly
interesting. Daire brought to Patrick a bronze cooking-pot, as a mark of
respect. Patrick merely said in Latin, "Gratias agamus" ("I thank
thee"). This sounded, in the unlearned ears of the king, like
"gratzacham." Daire was annoyed that the pot should be received with no
greater sign of satisfaction. So, when he reached home, he sent
servants to bring back the cooking-pot, as something which the monk was
not able to appreciate. When they came back with the pot, Daire asked
what Patrick said, and was told "Gratzacham." "What," said Daire,
"'gratzacham' when it was given, and 'gratzacham' when it was taken
away! It is a good word, and for his 'gratzacham' he shall have his
cooking-pot." Then he went himself with the pot to Patrick, and said,
"Keep thy cooking-pot, for thou art a steadfast and unchangeful man."
And he gave Patrick, besides, the hill on which the old cathedral
stands.
The name Armagh is derived from that of Macha of the Golden Hair. It is
"Ard-Macha," that is, "Macha's Height." The legend is that she was
buried on the hill where the cathedral stands, and that it was named for
her in consequence. But some seven hundred years passed before Patrick
obtained the hill; its name had been changed to "Drum-saileach"; but
Patrick seems to have revived the old name. A spurious derivation is
given by some--"Ardmagh," the high plain; but there is no "high plain"
there, and the "Four Masters" give it Ard-Macha.
Naturally, the object of supreme interest at Armagh is the ancient
Cathedral of St. Patrick, the cradle of the Christian church in Ireland.
The present building, however, dates back only to the seventeenth
century, although portions of the walls were built as long ago as 830,
when "the great stone church of Armagh" is described in detail in the
"Annals of Armagh," one of the oldest of human records. The church was
partly destroyed by fire in 1268 and rebuilt. In 1367 it was restored
again. During the rebellion in the reign of Queen Elizabeth it was used
as a fortress by Shane O'Neill and burned by him. In 1613 it was
thoroughly rebuilt, and in 1834 was restored to its present condition by
Lord George Beresford, the wealthy archbishop of that date.
Although it has often been asserted that St. Patrick is buried in
Armagh, no such claim is made here, and the authorities of both the
Irish and the Roman Catholic churches accept the tomb at Downpatrick as
genuine. But the old cathedral is the burial place of several other of
the early saints, and somewhere under the tiling on the north side of
the high altar lies the moldering dust of Brian Boru, the greatest of
all the Irish kings, whose bleeding body was brought there after the
battle of Clontarf in 1014, in obedience to his dying request. There is
no trace of his tomb, which was destroyed centuries ago. All of the
tombs within the church are comparatively modern. The oldest epitaph in
the churchyard dates back to 1620, and most of the graves contain the
dust of archbishops who have presided over this diocese. In the east and
west aisles, in the center of the cathedral, are two beautiful
sarcophagi of white Italian marble, carved by an eminent artist with
effigies of two Beresfords, John George and Marcus Servais Beresford,
father and son, who were successive archbishops of Armagh. The principal
windows contain artistic memorials to their wives, Lady Catherine and
Lady Anne Beresford.
After the Reformation the few Roman Catholic residents of Armagh who
remained true to the church of Rome worshiped in "the old chapel," as it
is called, a humble structure erected in the seventeenth century to mark
the site of the house where St. Malachi was born in 1094. And when the
primatial see was revived at Armagh by the pope that old church was made
the cathedral of Ireland. In 1835 Archbishop Crolly undertook to raise
funds for a more appropriate building, and obtained two acres of land on
the other side of town, adjoining Sandy Hill Cemetery, which is the
oldest Christian burial place in the United Kingdom. His successors have
since obtained seven acres more, and hope ultimately to secure a larger
area. In 1840 Mr. Duff, a native architect, prepared plans for a
cathedral of massive proportions, and the corner stone was laid on St.
Patrick's day of that year. A building committee of laymen was formed
and priests were sent through the length and breadth of the land, and,
indeed, throughout the world, to collect funds. Generous gifts came from
the United States, from Canada, from Australia, and from every other
country where Irish emigrants have gone, and a great bazaar was held in
1865 at which $35,000 was raised. The exterior was not completed until
1873, when the finishing touches were added to the spires, and on the
24th of August the temple was dedicated, as the inscription over the
entrance reads, "To the One God, Omnipotent Three in Person, under the
invocation of St. Patrick, Apostle of Ireland." Dr. M'Gettigan was
archbishop then, and he lived until 1887, when he was succeeded by
Michael Logue, who had been chosen as his coadjutor by the parish
priests of Armagh.
Cardinal Logue was born in County Donegal in 1840, graduated from
Maynooth College and was ordained in 1866. For several years he was
professor of theology and belles lettres in the Irish College at Paris.
In 1876 he was made dean of Maynooth and professor of dogmatic and moral
theology. The following year, at the age of thirty-nine, he was
consecrated Bishop of Raphoe and for eight years labored among the
people of his native county with great energy and usefulness until he
came to Armagh. In January, 1893, he was elevated to the college of
cardinals, a dignity never before attained even by the greatest of the
long line of one hundred and fourteen primates since St. Patrick that
have presided over this see.
Immediately after going to Armagh in 1887 to assist his venerable
predecessor, Cardinal Logue began to raise funds to complete the
interior of the cathedral, which was then undecorated and fitted with
temporary altars and seats. His appeals to Irish patriotism were
responded to with great generosity, and in 1899 he organized the
National Cathedral Bazaar, as it was called, which continued for two
years and resulted in raising $150,000 to complete the cathedral, so
that on July 24, 1904, the building was again solemnly dedicated with a
great pageant and impressive ceremonies at which his Holiness, the Pope,
was represented by his Eminence, Cardinal Bishop Vincente Vanuetelli.
[Illustration: ST. PATRICK'S CATHEDRAL AT ARMAGH, THE SEAT OF CARDINAL
LOGUE, THE ROMAN CATHOLIC PRIMATE OF IRELAND]
Cardinal Logue resides in a modest mansion in the rear of the cathedral,
between the synod house and the theological seminary. Many a parish
priest in Ireland and America lives in greater style. His manner of life
illustrates the simplicity of his character and tastes. His lack of
ostentation is one of his most charming traits.
It seems very remarkable that St. Patrick, St. Bridget, and St. Columba,
the three saints most venerated by Ireland, should be buried in the same
grave in an obscure little churchyard at the village of Downpatrick,
about twenty miles south of Belfast. There is nothing in the way of
documentary evidence to prove that the bodies of St. Bridget and St.
Columba were placed in St. Patrick's tomb, but the fact is stated in the
earliest histories of the church in Ireland, and is frequently referred
to by writers in the tenth century and later. And the claims of
Downpatrick to this great honor are not seriously disputed.
The "Annals of the Four Masters" refer to the death of St. Bridget in
525 as follows: "On February first, St. Bridget died and was interred at
Dun [Down] in the same tomb with St. Patrick, with great honor and
veneration."
St. Patrick died in the year 465 at the Monastery of Saul, which he had
founded at Downpatrick. It was his wish to be buried at Armagh, then, as
now, the ecclesiastical headquarters of Ireland, and during the twelve
days given up to mourning and funeral ceremonies a controversy arose
between the monks of Armagh and those of Downpatrick, who claimed the
body and insisted upon its burial in their cloisters. A wise old friar
suggested that the decision be left to heaven, and after saying mass the
coffin was placed upon a wagon and two young oxen were taken from the
field and yoked for the first time. It was agreed that they should be
started along the road to Armagh, and that wherever they stopped the
grave of St. Patrick should be made. The oxen commenced their journey
and the rival bodies of monks retired to their cloisters to pray.
The "Book of Armagh," written in the year 802, and now in the library of
Trinity College, Dublin, duly relates that, after proceeding for two
miles down the road slowly, the oxen turned from the main thoroughfare
and rested at Dundalethglass, the site of the present Cathedral of Down.
The monks from Armagh submitted to the will of heaven, and there the
sacred dust was laid. Shortly after this, about 495, a church was built
upon the site now occupied by the present edifice. It was rebuilt in the
twelfth century, a considerable portion of the original walls being
retained and several interior arches. And those walls and arches remain
to-day. It is therefore the oldest structure in Ireland and is entitled
to the veneration it receives. It stands in a grove upon the summit of a
hill, a plain, dignified pile of perfect proportions, with a square
tower and four spires--in no way imposing, but beautiful in its
simplicity.
[Illustration: DOWN CATHEDRAL, DOWNPATRICK, WHERE ST. PATRICK LIVED, AND
IN THE CHURCHYARD OF WHICH HE WAS BURIED]
The interior of the church is said to be precisely as it was originally
built, there having been no change in the arrangement. And most of the
columns which sustain the arches and several of the arches were a part
of the original building. The "Annals of Ulster" give the names of the
abbots who had charge of the monastery that was built in connection with
the church, as far back as the year 583, although there are several wide
gaps in the records of the eighth, ninth, and thirteenth centuries. The
abbey was plundered and partially destroyed on no less than eight
occasions, between the years 824 and 1111, and the "Annals of Ulster"
give the particulars of each invasion. In 1177 Sir John de Courcy, the
most powerful and able lieutenant of Strongbow, who assumed authority
over the kingdom of Ulster, made Downpatrick his principal residence and
erected there a strong castle, the greater portion of which remained
until about half a century ago. At his time the church and the monastery
were occupied by Augustinian monks, who were driven out by De Courcy and
replaced by Benedictines from the Abbey of Chester, England, and the
church was rededicated in honor of St. Patrick, having previously borne
the name of the Holy Trinity. And De Courcy gave the abbey a liberal
endowment. He also erected a Celtic cross, which is believed to be the
same that was recently recovered in fragments, carefully mended and
placed in the churchyard. Among the endowments of the Downpatrick abbey
were four of the principal ferries across the rivers of Ulster,
forty-seven "town lands," which probably correspond to our townships,
and every tenth animal upon the farms of Ulster. Of the extensive
monastic building erected by De Courcy's generosity not a trace remains
except the foundations, and these are covered with the accumulated
débris of four centuries. The inhabitants of Downpatrick and all the
country around have used the ruin as a quarry for building material.
Nearly all of the old houses in the village are made of materials from
that source.
The monastery was plundered and burned by Edward Bruce, brother of
Robert Bruce, the Scottish chieftain, who caused himself to be
proclaimed King of Ireland in 1315. It was rebuilt and burned again in
1512. Lord Grey, who was sent over by King Henry VIII. to quiet Ireland,
profaned and destroyed it, as he did everything else in this section, in
his attempts to exterminate the O'Neills. Lord Grey was executed in the
Tower of London in 1541. The fourth charge in the indictment against him
was that "He rased St. Patrick's, his church, in the old ancient citie
of Ulster and burnt the monument of Patricke, Brided and Colme, who are
said to have been there intoombed. That without onie warrant from the
King or Councill he profaned the Church of St. Patrick in Downe, turning
it into a stable after plucked it down and ship the notable ring of Bels
that did hang in the steeple, meaning to have sent them to England, had
not God of His Justice prevented his iniquitie by sinking the vessels
and passengers wherein the said bells should have been conveied."
The "Annals of Ulster," under date of 1538, record that "the monastery
of Downe was burned and the relics of Patrick, Columcille Briget and the
image of Catherine were carried off."
The oldest inscription in the church is on a tombstone erected to the
memory of Edward, Lord Cromwell and Baron Oakham, no relative of Oliver
Cromwell, but a great-grandson of Thomas Cromwell, the famous minister
of Henry VIII., who, after the pacification of the country obtained
possession of the Downpatrick estates, which continued in his family
until 1832, when they were purchased by David Kerr, and in 1874 sold to
the late Lord Dunleath, who now owns the largest part of the surrounding
country.
At the time of the Reformation, the monks of Downpatrick refused to
subscribe to the new ordinances and were driven out of the monastery.
The history of Downpatrick is quite vague from that time until affairs
quieted down, but from 1662 the records are complete.
Rev. John Wesley visited Downpatrick in 1778, and in his diary he
describes the ruins of the Abbey of Saul as "far the largest building I
have ever seen in the kingdom. Adjoining it is one of the most beautiful
groves which I have ever beheld with my eyes. It covers the sloping side
of the hill and has vistas cut through it every way. There is a most
lovely plain very near to the venerable ruins of the cathedral." Wesley
visited Downpatrick on four different occasions between 1778 and 1785,
and during each visit preached in the grove he describes, using as a
pulpit the pedestal upon which a statue of St. Patrick formerly stood.
Perhaps the most celebrated resident of Downpatrick was Rev. Jeremy
Taylor, who, while bishop of this diocese, wrote his famous book, "Holy
Living and Holy Dying."
Nothing but the irregular surface of the ground upon a hill about two
miles from Downpatrick marks the site of the ancient Monastery of Saul,
which from the time it was founded by St. Patrick in 432 was for several
centuries one of the most celebrated and influential educational
institutions in the world. Like the monastery at Armagh, only twenty
miles away, which was also founded by St. Patrick about the same time,
it was attended annually by thousands of students from England,
Scotland, France, Spain, and other countries of the continent to hear
and absorb the learning of the Augustinian and afterward the Benedictine
monks. Unfortunately, however, no records remain of the institutions
farther than an occasional reference in the "Annals of Ulster."
The sanctity of the place, however, is recognized by Christians of every
race and sect, although the grave of St. Patrick--and of two other
saints--which is a hundred feet from the entrance to the old cathedral
church, is marked only by an enormous granite bowlder, almost as nature
made it, bearing no inscription except the word "Patric" in celtic
letters beneath a celtic cross chiseled on the surface of the stone. It
is a most appropriate monument in its simple dignity, and one that you
might imagine that St. Patrick would have preferred rather than a lofty
and ornate tower. It is rather curious, however, that no movement has
ever been started to erect an imposing memorial here; there is no
evidence that any monument of size ever marked the grave, although the
three most venerated saints in the Irish calendar lie here together. A
distich, said to have been written by Sir John de Courcy in 1185, says:
"Hi tres Duno tumulo tumulantur in uno;
Brigidam, Patricius atque Colomba Pius";
which is liberally translated as follows:
"Three Saints in Down, one grave do fill;
Saints Patrick, Bridget and Columbkill."
Downpatrick is visited annually by thousands of pilgrims. The town is
practically supported by them, and the tomb has to be guarded against
vandalism, particularly on Sundays, Good Friday, Easter, and other
religious holidays. Relic hunters have carried away tons of earth from
about the grave, which they dig up with their fingers or trowels or
sticks and consign to bottles, boxes, or baskets. As soon as the
cavities become too large, the custodian hauls a cart of soil from the
nearest field and fills them up.
It is asserted in the guide book that St. Patrick was never canonized by
the pope, and that he is recognized as a saint only by the Irish people.
This is a singular assertion. The Roman Catholic prayer book used in
Ireland mentions March 17, the feast of St. Patrick, as one of the holy
days upon which there is strict obligation to attend mass and to
refrain from all unnecessary labor.
According to the best authorities, St. Patrick was born at Nemthur (the
Holy Tower), now known as Dumbarton, Scotland, in the year 387, and his
father, Palpurn, was a magistrate in the service of the Romans. When he
was sixteen, in the year 403, Patrick was taken captive and sold as a
slave. A rich man named Milcho brought him to Ireland and employed him
to herd sheep and swine in County Antrim. At the end of six years of
slavery he escaped, returned to his home and family and then went to a
monastic school at Tours, France. After receiving his education and
being ordained he went to Rome, where he was blessed by Pope Celestine
and commissioned to go to Ireland as a missionary. He landed at the
mouth of a little stream called the Slaney, only about two miles from
Saul, and settled at Downpatrick, where the chief gave him the use of a
sabhall or barn for divine service, and upon that site was erected the
famous monastery which took its name, Saul, from the barn. He remained
there for several years, teaching and training disciples, and then
visited every part of the island, preaching the gospel to the kings and
chiefs as well as to the poor half-civilized habitants of the mountains.
He founded many churches and monasteries in different places and finally
settled down at Armagh as Bishop of Ireland in 457, where he remained
for eight years. In March, 465, when he was seventy-eight years old,
while paying a visit to the monastery of Saul, the scene of his first
ministrations in Ireland, he was seized with a fatal illness and
breathed his last. The news of his death was the signal for universal
mourning in Ireland, and thousands of the clergy and laity came from the
remotest districts to pay their last tributes of love and respect to the
greatest of missionaries.
[Illustration: THE VILLAGE OF DOWNPATRICK]
St. Bridget, who ranks next to St. Patrick in the veneration of the
Irish, was the daughter of a nobleman, and was born at Fochard, a
village near Armagh, in the year 453. Her great beauty and her father's
wealth and position caused her to be sought in marriage by several of
the princes of Ireland, but early in life she became a convert to the
new religion, consecrated herself to its service, and retired to a
forest near Kildare, about twenty miles from Dublin. She built herself a
cell in the trunk of a great oak, around which grew a great religious
community. She died Feb. 1, 525, at the age of seventy-two years. For
many years the nuns of Kildare kept a light burning constantly in her
memory. "The bright light that shone in Kildare's holy flame" was
suppressed, however, by the Archbishop of Dublin for fear it would be
interpreted as a pagan practice.