The Little Book of Kildare (eBook)

1

MONASTIC KILDARE

County Kildare has a long and proud monastic tradition, dating back to the fifth century, when St Palladius founded a church at Cillín Cormac near Kilcullen.

ST PALLADIUS

Very little is known about Palladius. He was born in Britain, probably around AD 400. The Palladii were among the noblest families of France and several of them held high rank about this time in the Gallic Church. Their move from Gaul to Britain probably occurred under Julius the Apostate, when there was a Palladius holding prominent rank in the army of Gaul, who, for his fearless profession of the Christian faith, was exiled to Britain. It is reasonable to assume that a descendent of this Palladius – and a member of such a privileged Gallic-British family – would attain the position of Deacon of Rome, would take much interest in the Church in Britain, and, would by his familiarity with the Celtic languages, be a natural choice to undertake the mission of becoming the first bishop of the Irish people.

Palladius became a deacon of the Church. He was already a deacon of St Germanus of Auxerre, but it is more probable that he attained the higher rank of Deacon of Rome. Palladius evidently had significant influence in Rome, as he would soon become a bishop. Prosper’s Chronicle uses the word diaconus [which invariably refers to the deacons of Rome] to denote Palladius, and the Book of Armagh expressly styles Palladius ‘archdeacon of Pope Celestine, bishop of the city of Rome’.

The year AD 431 was a significant one for Palladius, as he was ordained as a bishop by Pope Celestine. Bishop Palladius was sent to the edge of the known world – the island of Ireland. According to Prosper’s Chronicle in AD 431: ‘In the consulship of Bassus and Antiocus [431] Palladius was consecrated by Pope Celestine and sent to the Irish believing in Christ, as their first bishop.’

The Annals of Ulster also state that: ‘To the Irish believing in Christ, Palladius ordained by Pope Celestine, was sent as their first bishop.’

The wording of these sources is significant, as it confirms that there were some Irish Christians who pre-dated St Patrick. Despite the fact that the Romans had never conquered Ireland, there was a flourishing trade between some of the Roman provinces, such as Gaul, and Ireland. Contacts with Britain were even closer, and as early as the fourth century, Britain was a Christian country with an advanced ecclesiastical organisation. Commerce and Christianity probably passed back and forth between Ireland and the continent, and Christianity infiltrated and penetrated slowly. Moreover, the lives of some of the Irish saints, such as Ciarán of Saigir and Declan of Ardmore, indicate that they pre-dated St Patrick. Despite this, some pockets of Christianity were established in Ireland long before the 430s. In AD 431, Palladius and some clerical companions set out for Ireland, in search of one of these pockets of Christianity. They landed in County Wicklow, where Palladius and his followers established two churches, before crossing into County Kildare.

The third church that St Palladius founded was called Cill Fine. The name means ‘the church of the septs’ and this site has been identified as the old burial place of Cillín Cormac, located at Colbinstown, near Kilcullen. The site was significant, as it was a pre-existing cemetery and probably already used for religious ritual. Cillín Cormac was known to be the burial place of Cormac Mac Art, who is reputed to have been high king of Ireland from AD 254 to 277. Legend has it that Cormac died in battle and his body was placed on a cart drawn by two oxen. The king would be buried wherever the oxen stopped – and they stopped at Cillín Cormac. The myth goes that the king’s men had taken his faithful hound away and placed him in a kennel in County Kildare. Different versions of the story place the kennel in Punchestown, on the Hill of Allen and at ‘Cnoc a Dubh’. Anyhow, during the burial, the anxious hound broke free and with a gigantic leap he descended onto the king’s headstone, leaving the imprint of his paw, which can be seen to this day.

Palladius chose this important pagan burial place as the site of his third church, and the symbolism is that of the Christian religion supplanting the older pagan traditions. The very name of the place indicates its Christianisation, as the pagan Cormac now rests in the Christian burial place, the Cillín, or little churchyard. Today, the site contains both pre-Christian and Christian headstones. Among the headstones of interest is an ogham (a type of ancient carved Irish writing) stone, another with a carving of a monk and the aforementioned ‘dog’s paw’ stone marking the grave of Cormac Mac Art.

While Palladius was at work in County Kildare, St Patrick arrived on Irish shores in AD 432. Where Palladius’s mission ran into problems, Patrick’s met with success and he has become recognised as the man who converted Ireland to Christianity and as the patron saint of Ireland. The seventh-century ‘Life of St Patrick’ by Muircu Maccumachthenus in the Book of Armagh actually refers to the failure of Palladius’ mission: ‘Palladius was ordained and sent to convert this land lying under wintry cold, but God hindered him, for no man can receive anything from earth unless it be given to him from heaven; and those fierce and cruel men did not receive his doctrine readily.’

Palladius encountered opposition during his Irish mission, and was never as successful as Patrick. He and Patrick probably overlapped in their missionary work for a while, as (given the fragmented political structure of Celtic Ireland) there is every reason for believing that missionaries could have worked in different parts of the island without contact. According to tradition, Patrick also worked in County Kildare, converting people and performing baptisms such as those at Naas of Oilhill and Illann, the sons of Dubhlang, the King of Leinster. Ironically the success of Patrick as a missionary has meant that much of the groundwork done by Palladius has been forgotten, even in the Kildare region in which he operated. However, as a result of the introduction of Christianity, many monasteries flourished in Ireland, which by the end of the sixth century had entered the monastic golden age, and County Kildare was no exception.

ST BRIGID

One name stands above all others in relation to the establishment of a monastic tradition in Kildare, and unusually it is that of a woman – St Brigid, the patron saint of County Kildare and patroness of Ireland. Brigid built on the groundwork done by Palladius and Patrick and the Brigidine tradition in Kildare established the foundations of later devotion in the county. Not a lot of verifiable facts exist about Brigid’s life and we are dependent on oral tradition and medieval hagiographies for the little information we have. According to folklore, she was born about eight years prior to Patrick’s death in AD 453. Her father was a Celtic chieftain named Dubhtach, who hailed from what is today County Offaly, and her Christian mother, Broicseach, was his concubine, but Dubhtach sold the pregnant Broicseach to a druid from Faughart, County Louth, and this is where Brigid was born. The young Brigid was gentle and kind to all, and many tales are told of her loving and charitable acts for those less fortunate than herself. She was taught Christianity by her mother and eventually the child’s holiness persuaded the druid and all his family to convert to Christianity as well. He granted Brigid and her mother their freedom and they returned to Dubhtach in Offaly, where her generous and charitable actions continued, causing the chief to observe that she would turn him into a pauper with her donations to the poor and needy! He tried to arrange a marriage for Brigid with his kinsman, but the young girl made her opposition to this plan very clear, choosing instead to become a nun and devote her life wholly to God.

At that time many converted Christian Celtic young men were flocking to the newly established monasteries to partake of the monastic life. Large numbers of women also joined convents and Brigid and seven other novices professed their vows at Croghan, County Offaly, c. AD 470, receiving the veil from St Mac Caille. The nuns founded two convents at Ushnagh (County Westmeath) and Elphin (County Roscommon), before going on to establish Brigid’s famous house in County Kildare. Brigid’s new convent was located in the shade of a huge oak tree, so it was known as Cill Dara, the church of the oak tree, and it is from this place that County Kildare got its name.

The new religious community would have lived in small huts, probably constructed from wattle and daub. Wattle was the name given to small saplings, usually of willow or hazel wood, interwoven horizontally around a series of vertical wooden stakes driven into postholes in the ground. Daub was a wet mud used as plaster, which covered the wattle, filled the cracks and kept out the draughts. When the mud dried, it hardened and created a weatherproof wall. The use of this construction method by early Irish monasteries and convents explains why so little remains of them. Typically, ruined ecclesiastical sites today contain stone buildings, but these were introduced at a later stage.

The community of nuns in Kildare included women from all backgrounds and, as their fame spread, a monastery was also founded there. This meant that a bishop was needed...