First chan the monas tery of Candida Casa, or Whithern, in Galloway. habit, must be abandoned as irreconcilable with the chronology of St. Patrick's life, and as introduced at a later period into his acts, as we shall afterwards see. That, however, which connects Ninian of Whithern with Martin is more trustworthy. He undoubtedly went to Rome during the lifetime of Martin, where, according to Bede, he was trained in the faith and mysteries of religion. He is said, on his return, to have visited that saint at Tours, and obtained from him masons for the purpose of building a church after the Roman manner, which, says Bede, was called Candida Casa, and dedicated to St. Martin. This monastery, under the name of the 'Magnum nel through Monasterium,' or monastery of Rosnat, became known as a great seminary of secular and religious instruction. In the legend of St. Cairnech we find it mentioned as 'the house of Martain,' and as 'the monastery of Cairnech.' He was the son of Sarran, king of the Britons, by Bobona, daughter of Loarn son of Erc, who had another daughter, Erca, mother of Murcertach, afterwards king of Ireland. As Murcertach is said in the legend to have been at that time with the king of Britain learning military science, the events there narrated must be placed before the date of the great battle of Ocha in 478, which was fought by Lughaidh, who then became king of Ireland, and by Murcertach mac Erca, and established the throne of Ireland in the line of the northern Hy Niall. The legend adds that Cairnech went to Erin before him, and became the first bishop of the clan Niall and of Teamhar, or Tara, and he was the first martyr and the first monk of Erin, and the first Brehon of the men of Erin also.' 10 In this legend the introduction of monachism into Ireland is attributed to Cairnech, who had been bishop and abbot of the monastery or house of Martin, or in other words, of Candida Casa; and we find soon after several of the saints, mentioned as belonging to this second order, resorting thither for the purpose of being instructed and 10 Chron. Picts and Scots, p. 55. trained in the monastic life. We learn from the acts of Tighernac of Clones and of Eugenius of Ardstraw, who were both natives of Leinster, but connected with Ulster families on the mother's side, that, with a number of others of both sexes, they had been carried off when boys by pirates and brought to Britain, where they were sent by the king, at the queen's intercession, to a holy man, called in the Life of Tighernac, 'Monennus,' and in that of Eugenius, ‘Nennio, called also Mancennus' and 'Manchenius,' and trained by him in his monastery of Rosnat, which is also called alba, or 'white.'" When set at liberty and enabled to return to their own country, they both received episcopal orders; and Tighernac founded the monastery of Galloon in Lough Erne, and afterwards that of Cluain-eois or Clones in Monaghan; while Eugenius founded Ardstrath, now Ardstraw, near Derry. In the Acts of S. Enda of Aran, too, we are told that, when a youth, he was sent by his sister to Britain, to the monastery of Rosnat, where he became the humble disciple of Mancenus, the 'magister' of that monastery.12 He afterwards founded in one of the Aran islands, on the west coast of Ireland, a monastery containing one hundred and fifty monks, of which he was the presbyter-abbot. Saint Monenna too sends one of her family, named Brignat, to the British island, to the monastery of Rosnat, in order that she might be trained in the rules of monastic life, after which she returns to Ireland.13 Again we are told in the Acts of St. 11 Deinde beatus puer libertati restitutus S. Monenni disciplinis et monitis in Rosnatensi monasterio quod alio nomine Alba vocatur.-In Vit. S. Tighernac, Colgan, A.SS. p. 438. Quos duos viros sanctus ac sapiens Nennio, qui Mancennus dicitur, de Rosnacensi monasterio . . . Post aliquot vero annos Eugenius atque Tyghernachus cum præfati Manchenii fratrum jussione et ac oratione ad Hiberniam navi- 13 Inter alias Dei famulas quædam Dei virgo, nomine Brignat cum sancta virgine cohabitasse traditur : hujus enim futuræ sanctitatis indicia considerans, eam in Britanniam insulam de Rostnatensi mon Finnian or Finbarr, of ' Maghbile,' or Moyville, that he went as a boy to St. Caelan, abbot of Noendrum, who placed him under the care of a most holy bishop called Nennio, who had come in a ship with some of his people to the harbour of the monastery; and by him he was taken to his own monastery, termed the 'Magnum Monasterium,' and there trained for several years in the rules and institutions of monastic life.1 In another Life, in which he is identified with St. Fridean of Lucca, his master's name is called Mugentius, and his monastery 'Candida.' 15 Finally, in the preface to the Hymn or Prayer of Mugint, we are told that 'Mugint made this hymn in Futerna. The cause was this:-Finnen of Maghbile went to Mugint for instruction, and Rioc, and Talmach, and several others with him.' 16 Finnian, having received episcopal orders, afterwards founded the monastery of Magh Bile or Moyville, in the county of Down. There can be little question that the monastery of Rosnat, called also 'Alba' and 'Candida' and 'Futerna,' and known as the 'Magnum Monasterium,' could have been no other than the monastery of Candida Casa, known to the Angles as Whithern, of which 'Futerna' is the Irish equivalent. The future bishops and abbots who were trained there were all more or less connected with Ulster; the monasteries founded by them were in the north of Ireland; and Finnian, the latest of them, was of the race of Dal Fiatach, occupying the districts of Down and part of Antrim, separated by the Irish Channel from Galloway. They would naturally resort to the great school of monastic life established there by Ninian in honour of St. Martin of Tours, to be trained in the rules. Whether Mancenus, or Manchenius, and Mugint were the same person, or the latter the successor of the former, it is difficult to say. Both appear to have borne the name of Nennio; but this appellation may have been applied to the abbots of Candida Casa as the successors of the founder Ninian. The former name of Manchenius is obviously the Irish name Manchan; and he is probably celebrated in the Litany of Angus the Culdee, when he invokes thrice fifty disciples, with Manchan the master.' 17 channel Bretagne While this monastic life, which Ireland thus received from Second Saint Ninian's monastery in Galloway, affected mainly the through north of Ireland, the second great channel through which and Wales. monachism reached Ireland exercised a powerful and allpervading influence on her central and southern districts. In the year 394 Tours was made the capital or civil metropolis of the province of Lugdunensis Tertia, and became a metropolitan city. Her ecclesiastical jurisdiction extended over the provinces now called Bretagne, Maine, and Anjou, with a part of Touraine; and Saint Martin became the metropolitan bishop. The monachism introduced into Gaul and fostered by him spread at once into Bretagne, where the monasteries of Landouart and Landevenech were founded; 18 and from thence it passed into Wales. In the Catalogue of the Saints we are told that those of the second or monastic order 'received a mass from bishop David, and Gillas and Docus, the Britons.' Bishop David is of course the celebrated Saint David who founded the church of Cillemuine, or Menevia, now St. David's. Gillas is no other than the historian Gildas; 19 and by Docus is meant Saint Cadoc, who 17 Tri cocait descipul la Manchan magister, hos omnes invoco. 18 Dupuy, Histoire de Saint Martin, pp. 215, 217. Haddan and Stubbs' Councils, vol. ii. pp. 86, 87, 91. VOL. II. 19 Gildas the historian is said in his Life to have gone to Ireland in the reign of King Anmericus or Ainmire, qui et ipse misit ad beatum Gildam, rogans ut ad se veniret; promittens se ipsius doc D The school of Clonard. founded the great monastery of Nantgarvan, or Llancarvan, in South Wales, where Gildas was also associated with him. From these three eminent fathers of the monastic church of Wales the monastic institution also passed into Ireland through Finnian of Clonard. Finnian was of the race in Ireland termed Cruithnigh, or Picts; and we are told in his Acts, that after having been instructed in his youth by Fortchern of Trim and Caiman of Dairinis, an island in the bay of Wexford, he, in his thirtieth year, crossed the Irish Channel to the city of Kilmuine, where he found the three holy men, David and Cathmael 20 and Gildas, and became their disciple. After remaining thirty years in Britain, partly in the monastery of St. David and partly in other monasteries in Wales, he returned to Ireland followed by several of the ' religious' Britons, 'to gather together a people acceptable to the Lord.' He eventually founded the great monastery of CluainErard, or Clonard, in Meath, which is said to have contained no fewer than three thousand monks, and which became a great training school in the monastic life, whence proceeded the most eminent founders of the Irish monasteries.21 In an Irish Life of Finnian quoted by Dr. Todd in his Life of Saint Patrick, we are told, that after this a desire seized Finnian to go to Rome when he had completed his education. But an angel of God came to him, and said unto him, 'What would be given to thee at Rome shall be given to thee here. Arise and renew sound doctrine and trinis in omnibus obediturum, si Columbanus, who was alive and qui contra canones ordinantur, id est, quæstu: simoniacos et Giltas auctor pestes scripsistis.'-Ep. ad S. Greg. Pap. Migne, Patrologia, vol. 37, col. 262. Cathmael was the baptismal name of Cadoc of Nantgarvan. See Vita S. Cadoci in Lives of CambroBritish Saints, pp. 25-27. 21 Vita S. Finniani, apud Colgan, A.SS., p. 393. |