Saint Nicholas Orthodox Church

Bulletin - 3/7/10  

ORTHODOX  IRELAND

By Vladimir De Beer

Part IV

Irish Saints: Saint Bridget

The best-loved Irish female saint, St Bridget, lived in the late 5th and early 6th centuries. Her veneration would become so popular that it rivaled that of St Patrick until the eighth century, when Armagh achieved pre-eminence among the Churches in Ireland. She founded her monastery in an oak grove at Kildare (‘church of the oak grove' in Gaelic), where a sacred fire would be kept perpetually alight for nearly a thousand years after her death. It was a mixed monastery for men and women, headed by an abbot and abbess respectively. Such was the saint's stature that the diocese of Kildare during her lifetime was known as ‘a see at once episcopal and virginal'. Bridget passed into eternity around the year 525. Her feast is celebrated on 1/14 February, one day before the Feast of the Meeting of the Lord.

Irish Saints: Saint Enda

Another pioneer of Irish monasticism was St Enda, who was educated at Whithorn in Scotland. On his return to Ireland, he established monasteries in the Boyne Valley, and around 484 he moved to the far west in order to found a monastery on Inishmore in the Aran Islands. Here he received later saints such as Cieran and Brendan for instruction and advice. Enda reposed on Inishmore in 530. Feast day: 21 March/April 3.

Irish Saints: Saint Fridolin

One of the earliest Irish missionaries to the Continent was St Fridolin (Fridolt). At first he was a bishop, who around 500 went via Scotland to Aquitania in Gaul. There Fridolin founded a monastery at Poitiers and converted the bishop and people from Arianism to the Orthodox belief in the Trinity. From Poitiers he went under royal protection to the Vosges and founded the monastery of St Avold. Further monasteries were founded by Fridolin at Chur in Rhaetia and Säckingen in Germany. Everywhere he converted the heathens to the Christian Faith. He is venerated as the Enlightener of the Upper Rhine, his feast day being 6/19 March.

Irish Saints: Saint Finian

A Leinsterman, St Finian was destined to become one of the great developers of Irish monasticism. He was born late in the 5th century and went to live in monasticism in Wales. Upon his return to Ireland he founded two monasteries, and then around 520 the famous one in Clonard. At Clonard, over the following centuries, thousands of monks would read the Scriptures, the Church Fathers and live monasticism before setting out on their missionary journeys. Finian also drew up the first Irish penitentiary, thereby influencing St Columban in his better-known one. He reposed during an attack of the yellow plague in Ireland in 549. Feast day: 12/25 December.

Irish Saints: Saint Brendan

 

Around 489 a man was born near Tralee on the south-western coast of Ireland who would become famous as St Brendan the Voyager. He established a number of monasteries, of which the one at Clonfert (founded in 559) became the most known. After receiving advice from St Ita of Limerick and St Enda of Inishmore, he set sail in the Atlantic with a number of companions. For seven years they sailed the ocean to the west of their homeland, revisiting the same islands each year for the main feasts of the Church. There is a possibility that Brendan and his companions ventured as far as the North and Central American coast. He reposed around 575. Feast day: 16/29 May.

Irish Saints: Saint Ciaran

St Ciaran (Kieran) was born in the western province of Connaught and educated like so many other monks at Clonard. He went to live at St Enda's monastery at Inishmore, where he stayed for seven years and was ordained a priest. From the Aran Islands he went to Lough Ree, where he founded his own monastery on an island. After another seven years Ciaran founded his most famous monastery at Clonmacnoise on the west bank of the River Shannon, in 548. In the following year, at the age of only 33, Ciaran succumbed to the plague that also claimed the life of St Finian. By the 8th century Clonmacnoise had become perhaps the largest monastery in Ireland, possessing a school, writing room, and numerous churches. It was also famed for its large number of high crosses, most of which were destroyed by the Vikings. As if this was not enough, the Clonmacnoise Cathedral was looted and desecrated by Protestants in 1552. St Ciaran's feast day is on 9/22 September.

Irish Saints: Saint Ita

Together with St Brigid the most popular woman saint of Ireland is St Ita, who lived some 50 years later. She established her monastery near Limerick, where many of the Irish saints would come to be taught by her. This included St Brendan the Voyager, who was told by Ita that God loved three things: a pure heart, a simple life, and generous charity. She reposed around 570. In Alcuin's poem on the saints of Ireland, Ita is described as ‘the foster mother of all the saints of Ireland.' Feast day: 15/28 January.

Irish Saints: Saint Kenneth

St Kenneth (Canice) was born around 516 in Ulster, and was educated first at Clonard and later in Wales. In 562 he went to Scotland and founded a monastery on the island now known as Inch Kenneth, to the north of Iona. From there he undertook missionary journeys to the Picts in Scotland, including the Outer Hebrides. Later Kenneth also founded a monastery at Aghaboe (now Kilkenny, which means ‘church of Kenneth' in Gaelic) in Ireland, where he gained renown as a scribe. His work includes commentaries on the Four Gospels, known as the Chain of Canice. He was a close friend of St Columcille, and several incidents of what we now call 'telepathic' communication between them have been recorded. He reposed around 600. Feast day: 11/24 October.

Irish Saints: Saint Comgall

After studying under Fintan of Cluain-Edrech, St Comgall became a hermit on the shores of Lough Erne in the west of Ireland. This period of asceticism and contemplation prepared him for his major task of founding the monastery at Bangor, on the coast to the east of Belfast, in 559. There he instituted a harsh regime that would nonetheless over the next centuries be followed by around 30,000 monks. Bangor would become one of Ireland's most prestigious monasteries, from where St Columban and St Gall set out on their great missionary journey to the Continent, and from where St Moluag went to Scotland to found the monastery on Lismore Island. According to tradition Comgall visited St Columcille on Iona, and accompanied him on his journey to the Pictish king. Comgall reposed as abbot of Bangor around the year 599. Feast day: 11/24 May.                                             

To Be Continued

. . . . . . . . . News  From  All  The  Ends  Of  The Earth . . . . . . . .

Amsterdam, Netherlands: Hundreds of Dutch homosexuals have walked out of a Mass in protest at a traditional Christian practice of denying communion to practicing homosexuals. On this occasion, the church, in 's-Hertogenbosch, had already decided not to serve communion, so the protesters left, shouting and singing. The dispute began earlier this month when a priest in a nearby town refused communion to an openly gay man. The Netherlands was the first country to introduce gay marriage in 2001. Most Dutch people do not see sickness in homosexuality, but the Gospel teaches that homosexual activity is sinful. This dispute began during Dutch pre-lenten celebrations earlier in February, when the man chosen to be carnival prince in nearby Reusel was refused communion because of his open homosexuality. The refusal offended many in the local community. The Sint-Jan church in the city of 's-Hertogenbosch, also known as Den Bosch, was prepared for the protest and so decided not to give out Holy Communion during Sunday Mass. Several hundred demonstrators, dressed in pink wigs and clothes, left the church in protest. The man at the centre of the row has said he just wants equal treatment - if he is regarded as a sinner, he wants the priest to refuse communion to all other sinners too. The poor man failed to understand that communion is given to the repentant sinners, not those parade their sin.

Former ‘bishop’ Margot Kässmann