No More Learning

Many centuries have passed since holy men first lived, prayed, and studied at
Tallagh;andalthoughtimehaswroughtmanychangesforits records,thepresent age witnesses asuccession of religious men, and a learned band of ecclesiastical scholars there, serving to maintain its former glories. The Catholic prelates of Dublin formerly made it a place for repose and retreat. Their fine man- sion has been levelled, and hardly a vestige of it now remains. However, at the present time, the Dominican fathers 36 have their convent and their novi- ciate, on its site ; and, as of old, it is still a house for monastic seclusion and discipline, as also a school for imparting instruction to those youthful aspi- rants, who desire the perfect state, and who have resolved to perpetuate in the present age the blessings of bye-gone centuries. The very graves 3 ? there are
28
See Ordnance Survey Volume of festival. To these we have already alluded,
""
Extracts for the County of Dublin, p.
131, now preserved in the Library of the Royal Irish Academy.
in the First Volume of this work, at January 5th, Art. iv.
35 Probably owing to their mode of pro- nouncing this saint's name, the people sup- posed St. Maelruan was a female, and they show an object called her griddle and her
29 Edited by Rey. Dr. Kelly, p. xxviii.
His feast is also, at this date, in the Martyr-
ology of Christ Church, Dublin, edited by
John Clarke Crosthwaite, A. M. , and Rev. cake, in the churchyard. This information
Dr. James Henthorn Todd, p. 134.
30 Edited by Drs. Todd and Reeves, pp.
the writer has received from W. D. Hand- cock, Esq. , in a letter, headed 52 Dame- street, Dublin, 26th of November, 1874.
36 In connexion with their and in a order,
work of this nature, it may not be well to
188, 189.
31 Thus at Nonae
!
Hiber- niam Natale Sancti Confessoris Maelruain cujus V—ita Virtutibus et Miraculis plena re-
Julise, "Apud
omit allusion to a distinguished and truly fulsit. " Bishop Forbes' Kalendars of learned member, who has bequeathed to
"
Scottish Saints," p. 17.
3a The original word in the Leabhar Breac
them and to Ireland a record of undoubted historical value. We mean the " Hibernia
copy is ocAleAchc,
"
his own tomb," as dis-
Dominicana," and its
Father Thomas De
also Bishop of Ossory, towards the middle of the last century. Coloniae Agrippinse, a. d.
1762, et seq. , 4to.
3? Among these is to be seen that of the
eloquent and admired preacher of the Domi- nican Order, whose career is so minutely
and elaborately compiled, in the interesting " Life of the Very Rev. Thomas N. Burke,
O. P. , by William J. Fitz- Patrick, F. S. A. ,
— from the CAmhleAchc or " tinguished plague
"
"Supplementum," by
tomb
antithesis and play upon the word, as the ingenious and critically learned Irish scholar,
Very Rev. Bartholomew M'Carthy, D. D. , has pointed out me.
33
See "Transactions of the Royal Irish
an elegant and imaginative poetic
Academy," Irish Manuscript Series, vol. i. , part i. On the Calendar of Oengus. By
Whitley Stokes, LL. D. , p. xx.
34 Certain
practised, on the yearly recurrence of the
&c. Two volum—es.
religious
London, 1885,
celebrations
were
8vo. These were a great and
Article ii.
*
on the
of 28 and it July,
The Martyrology of
Burgo, O. P. ,
who was
i io LIVES OF THE IRISH SAINTS. [J uly 7.
notforgotten,andwithareverentcuriositytheyareoftenvisited. Thatfinearchi- tectural group of buildings, which now adorns Tallaght, also forms an admir- able exemplar of the ecclesiastical renaissance, which has been so energetically achieved, while secular enterprise has been so restricted and oppressed, under the peculiar political and social conditions that obstruct the happiness andprosperityof Ireland.
Article II. —St. Willibald, First Bishop and Patron of Aich-
stadt, Germany. \_Eighth Century. '] Although we have a very genuine Life—and even written by a contemporary and a relative—of this saint, yet, it is to be regretted, that no definite statement in it conveys an idea of where Willibaldwasborn,orconcerninghisdescentandrace. Thisisallthemore remarkable, that his parents are never named in it, although frequent occasions occur for referring to them. Considerable doubt attaches, therefore, to the present holy bishop's place of nativity. While some writers consider him to have belonged to the people called Suevi x others make him a Scot or a
; Hibernian,andothersanEnglishman. ThemostancientwriterofhisActs,2
a nun, as also a relation and a contemporary of his own, does not record the countryofhisbirth;3 althoughfromtheallusionmadetohisearlyeducation and family we might be inclined to consider him an Englishman. It is to be observed, that the nun of Heidenheim, who wrote his Acts, belonged to the community of his sister St. Walburge, and she had the relation of his travels and much of his life from the mouth of St. Willibald himself, to whom personallyshewaswellknown. TheBollandist,*FatherJohnBaptistSoller, whohaseditedtheseActs,tooreadilyadoptsthisconclusion;5 forwhich,it seems to us, there is no positive proof. An old anonymous writer, whose Acts 6 of this saint had previously appeared in Canisius' collection, sets Willibald down, however, as derived from the nation of the Angles. 7 Notwithstanding, that well-known mediaeval German writer, John of Trittenham, tells us, that
of
warlike nation of their Germany;
was a Scot 8 and a brother to St. by birth,
first
Walpurgis, or Walburge,' a virgin and abbess of Heidenheim. Other old Lives of St. Willibald are said to have been written by Reginald, bishop of
Willibald,
bishop
Aichstadt,
territory extending from the Rhine to the Elbe, ac-
5 He writes: " Scotumaut Siquis Suevum,
Ilibernum fingere voluerit Sanctum nostrum,
is a me non et ncc his responsum expect ;
cording
to Strabo's " lib. vii. Geographia,"
A very interesting account of their manners,
diutius immoranduin video, cum pridem e—x- Commentarius Prsevius, sect, i. , par. 3.
customs and power is given by Ciesar, in tra oninen controversial! ) posita sint. "
his work, De Bello Gallico, lib. iv. , cap. i. ,
ii. , iii.
2
These are given by the Bollandist*, in four chapters, with notes, and in forty-five paragraphs, including three of Praefacio Sanctimonialis. —
3 He—r biography one of great interest and
* See the Acts of this holy bishop, very
"
Acta Sanctorum," tomus ii. , Julii vii. De S. Willibaldo Episcopo Eys- tadii in Germania, pp. 485 to 519. These are prefixed by a Previous Commentary, in
eight sections and sixty-five paragraphs, written by Father John Baptist Soller.
6
The Bollandi»ts have them as Vita
fully given in the
* He was the thirty-ninth in succession, and he ruled from A. n. 1306 to 132 2.
9 See an account of her, in Rev. Albaii Butler's "Lives of the Fathers, Martyrs, and other principal Saints," vol. vii. ,
July vii.
J0
AccordingtoCanisius,hewastheeleventh bishop in succession. He lived A. D. 1322.
:
Hodceporicon,
Vna seu
in eighteen paragraphs, and written by Bishop Philip.
value is intituled
auctore virgine consanguinea Sanctimoninli Heidenheimensi, ex editione Canisii correcta ex variis lect. Gretseri.
Altera. Auctore Anonymo per antiquo. Fx editione Canisii. This is in three chapters,
containing nineteen paragraphs, with notes. It is followed in their work with Miracula,
7 He writes thus, " de genere Anglorum . . . . oriundus," cap. i. , sect. I.
July 7. ]
LIVES OF THE IRISH SAINTS. m
12 of Aichstadt. 1 ' errors. The Acts of this saint have received illustration from Surius, 1 * Father
10
one Adalbert," and
the
The latter, although a laboured and an extended treatise, abounds in historic
Aichstadt,
by
by
bishop Philip,
Dean
and Les Petits Bollandistes. 1'
16 1? Rev. Alban 8 Bishop Challenor, Butler,'
Were we to adopt the accounts of English
John Mabillon/s
Cressy,
writers, this holy man was born in the kingdom of the West Saxons, near the
place where Southampton now stands, and it is said his father was the holy
king, St. Richard. 20 However, it is not at all certain, that his father 2I had
been of Wessex—as some writers have stated—but on the 22 King contrary,
he belonged apparently to a grade less elevated in society. Moreover, it does notappearcertain,thateventhen—ameofhisfatherisknown. 23 Accordingto oneaccounthismotherwasBonna saidtohavebeenasistertoSt. Boniface; it is needless to observe, however,- that such a statement rests on no good
2
authority. 24 His birth has been referred —to about a. d. 704, s by various
Soller who
this saint's Acts states, that it ought to be placed about a. d. 700.
writers j
—Father
however, John Baptist
the of analyzes chronology
26
another holy and an older brother, named Winibald,2? and a sister, St. Wal-
28 Their relative
ancient writers of their Acts. 20
Boniface, 30 the illustrious Apostle of Germany ; but, there are good reasons for doubting such statement. So various have been the entries of this holy man's name in old records, that it has been questioned if they refer to one and the
same person. Thus, he is styled, Wilibaldus, Wilbaldus, Bilibaldus, Bilbaldus, 1
bert, Abbot of who flourished Heidenheim,
in the time of Pope Eugenius III. , who reigned from A. D. 1 145 to a. d. 1153, more than three hundred and fifty years after the death of St. Willibald.
burga.
places
as to have been the most seniority stated, by
11 He a brief notice, only gives
regarding Saints Willibald, Wunebald and Walburgis, in reference to the monastery of Heidenheim. Nor is this always in accord with what had
been stated by the nun of that place.
12 The strictures of those two latter writers
These are stated to have been cousins of St.
Williboldus, and Willeboldus p while its probable derivation has engaged
23 In that most genuine Life of St. Willi- are to be found in Gretser's work, De bald by his relative the nun, his father is not
Ecclesia Eystettensis Divis Tutelaribus, printed at Ingoldstadt, A. D. 1617.
"
13 See John of Tottenham's Scriptorum Ecclesiasticorum," fol. Hi. , &c.
14 See "De Probatis Sanctorum Vitis," tomus iv. , Julii vii.
15 In "Annates Ordinis S. Benedicti," tomus ii. , lib. xx. , xxi. , xxii. , xxiii. , xxiv. , xxv. 16 See " The Church History of Brittany,"
book xxiv. , chap, xvii. , pp. 642 to 644.
17 See "Britannia Sancta," part ii. , pp.
18 to 21.
18 "
See Lives of the Fathers, Martyrs and
other principal Saints," vol. vii. , July vii.
19 See "Vies des Saints," tome viii. ,
viie Jour de Juillet, pp. 102, 103, and n. I.
20 See Rev.
Alban Butler's " Lives of the
Fathers, Martyrs and other principal Saints,"
vol. vii. , July vii.
noted at all for his rank, while he is only praised for his virtues. The feast of St. Richard has been referred to the 7th of Feb- ruary.
24 See Dean " Church of Cressy's History
Brittany," book xxiv. , chap, xvii. , p. 642.
25 See Rev. Alban Butler's " Lives of the
Fathers, Martyrs and other principal Saints," vol. vii. , July vii.
25
See "Acta Sanctorum," tomus ii. , Julii vii. De S. Willibaldo Episcopo Eystadii in Germania Commentarius Praevius, sect, iv. , num. 29, pp. 491, 492.
27 His feast is celebrated, on the 18th of December.
38 Her festival is set down, at the 25th of
February.
29 This has been shown, by Father John
Baptist Soller, S. J. , in his Preliminary ob- servations to the Acts of St. Willibald. See
sect, iii. , num. 28, p. 491.
30 See his Life already given, in the Six—th
Volume of this work, at the 5th of June the date for his chief festival, Art. i.
31 On these various denominations, Gret- ser has some critical observations, in which he refutes the opinion of Aventinus and others, regarding this matter, cap. ii.
21
Indeed, it is only the writer of the
Second Life of St. Willibald, and rather
modern writers, that call his father Richard.
See Mabillon's "Annates Ordinis S. Bene-
dicti," tomus ii. , lib. xx. , sect, xliii. ,
p. 61.
22
The first, who appears to consider his father was a king, seems to have been Adel-
Catalogus
He had
ii2 LIVES OF THE IRISH SAINTS.
[July 7.
the attention of 3a after all, none of the had etymologists. Perhaps, foregoing
been the original name of the saint j and this is more likely to have been the case, it we can consider him of Scottish origin. We know, likewise, that Irish
names have generally been changed into others, by people among whom our emi- grantstotheContinentresided. Whenonlythreeyearsold,Willibaldhadbeen
attacked with a grievous illness, whereby his limbs became contracted,33 and it was feared by his parents that he was about to die. It so happened, accord- ing to a usage common in those days, that a large cross had been erected in a public place near their house. Thither the faithful were accustomed to repair,andtoprefertheirseveralrequeststoHeaven. TheparentsofWilli- bald accordingly went to the place, when human remedies seemed to fail, and there they offered their prayers with great fervour. They vowed, that should their son be restored to them, that they would dedicate him to God in the religious state, and that when at age they would allow him to take the
clerical tonsure. The result was, that he was immediately restored to health. 34 As the boy grewin years, he manifested the gifts of grace and of wisdom, so that when five years old,35 his parents, to secure their pious desires, resolved to place their son under the guidance of the Abbot Egbald, who then ruled over the monastery of Waltheim. 36 For this purpose, he was entrusted to the care of a venerable and faithful man, called Theodredus,37 and who is also named Thealoretus. 38 However, as the boy was so young, a chapter meeting of the monks was called by the Abbot, when all agreed, that he might safely admit the child to be an inmate of their house. Nor was their confidence in him misplaced, for soon Willibald began to manifest that spirit of earnestness and of industry, which soon made him a proficient in the study of sacred letters in every department of literature, while he began also to learn the psalms of David. The holy youth progressed each day in piety and wisdom, so that
he was regarded as one of the most exact in the performance of all monastic exercises. By all of the monks he was held in the greatest esteem. At the age of seventeen, his father had conceived a great desire to make a pilgrim- age to the Holy Land, while his two sons, Saints Winibald and Willibald, re-
solved on accompanying him. Accordingly, about the year 720,39 721, or 1
722,4° all three set out from Hamble-Haven^ and they landed on the coast
2
of Normandy, at the banks of a river called Sigona,4 and near a city called
Rotum,43otherwiseRothomagus. 44 Afterrestingthereforatime,theypro-
32 Father John Baptist Soller states, that while he does not accept Gretser's German derivation of it, from wald, "a wood ;" he thinks that of Philip Bishop of Aichstadt better, viz. , the German word will, having a like signification in English, and bald,
38 This is the name given to him, in the shorter Life of our saint, which was written by Reginald.
39 According to the Bollandist computa- tion. —
4°
According to some writers, Winibald the elder brother—was then only nineteen years of age, and Willibald only seventeen. See Bishop Challenor's "Britannia Sancta," part ii. , p. 19.
41 The River Hamble has its source, about one half mile from the town of Bishop's Waltham, and it passes through the piece
found out his
original
rendered in Latin " vo- prompte
"prompt,"
lens," or "prompta voluntas. " All this is
very fanciful, however, and if it proves any- thing it should be, that we have not yet
name.
33 See Dean Cressy's " Church History ol
Brittany," book xxiv. , chap, xvii. , p. 643.
34 See Bishop Challenor's " Britannia of water called Waltham Pond, thence flow-
Sancta," part ii. , p. 19. ing into the Southampton Water, north of 35 See Rev. Alban Butler's "Lives of the the Isle of Wight. See S. Lewis' "Topogra-
Fathers, Martyrs and other principal Saints," phical Dictionary of England," vol. iv. ,
vol. vii. , Julyvii.
30 In Hampshire.
37 Thus is he called by the nun, who wrote St. Willibald's Life, nr, published by theBollandists. Mabillotl calls him Theo- dore.
p. 450.
*' Also known as Sequana, or the Seine. 43 Also called Rotuma and Rotumum. See
De Chesne's " Historic Francorum," tomus ii. Chronicon de Gentis Normannorum, pp. 24 and 525.
July 7/
LIVES OF THE IRISH SAINTS.
"3
ceeded on their journey through the vast territory of Gaul, for they had resolved to visit Rome on their way and the tombs of the Apostles. After-
wards, they entered Italy, and travelled onwards through its provinces to the
of Lucca. 4 5 Their father fell sick in that and breathed his last city,
when
city
he was buried in the church of St. Frigidian or Frigdian. He is said to have
s
died there, a. d. 721,4 or about the year 722. 47 His two sons afterwards
crossed the Apennines on their way to Rome, where they visited the shrines
of the Apostles, and remained there from the Natalis of St. Martin to the
solemnity of Easter, engaged in various devout pilgrimages to the holy sanc-
tuaries of the martyrs and saints. Here, too, they assumed the monastic
habit/
8
During the summer, they were attacked with an intermittent fever,
which greatly prostrated them, but from which they recovered. Having
satisfied their devotion in the Eternal City, they next resolved on a pilgrim-
age to the Holy Land. 49 Their adventures on the way, and the various places
visited by them, are among the most interesting and authentic tours of the
middle ages ; while their record throws most curious and considerable light
on the state of religious and of pagan society there, and on the topography of Palestine. 50 At Gaza, Willibald lost his sight, and he continued blind for
about two months ; but, upon his returning to Jerusalem, and there enter-
into the church of the
whole years 52 were spent by them in Palestine ; when they resolved on returningtoEurope. ThebrothersreturnedbywayofConstantinople,a. d.
Rouen, capital Department of Seine-Inferieure, and situated on the right bank of the River Seine. For
Trinacria by the ancients—owing to its trian-
4s
Republic, and afterwards of a Duchy ; but now included in Tuscany. It is surrounded with a fortified wall, having a circuit of three miles. Its ramparts are planted with tree*, which have a pleasing effect from a dis- tance.
46 Such is the Bollandist calculation. In the " Lives of the English Saints," there is a Life of St. Richard, by J. H. N. (Cardinal Newman), and his death is placed in the autumn of 722. See vol. Hi. , p. 11.
47 See Rev. Alban Butler's " Lives of the Fathers, Martyrs and—other principal Saints,"
Formerly the capital of an independent
to which
48 See Father John Mabillon's " Annales
A town of in
voro, and seated on the left bank of the River Volturno.
59 Now Teano, in the same district.
60
vol. ii. , Februaryvii. has been assigned.
his feast 58
day Naples,
the Terra di La-
Ordinis S. Benedicti," tomus ii. , sect, xliii. , p. 61.
lib. xx. ,
49 The Bollandist Father Soller
they left Rome for Palestine, a. d. 722.
that
mountain one of the of the spurs
steep Apennines
50 It is rendered still more interesting. from the notes of Mabillon and those of
of kingdom Naples,
Basnage, in his edition of Canisius' tiones Antiquae. "
51 See Bishop Challenor's Sancta," part ii. , p. 20.
52 The chronotaxis of these is
years given
by Father John Baptist Soller, S. J.
Holy Cross,
his was restored to him. s 1 Seven sight
ing
they
Capua/ afterwards Tyana,59 and finally the celebrated Monastery of St.
and afterwards
visited
5 4 a d.
729. They
went also to
727,53
cuse 55 and to Catana,s° and thence to Calabria. s? Then, St. Willibald visited
8
Benedict on Monte Cassino. 60
description, see "Gazetteer of the World," vol. xi. , pp. 334, 335.
44 Nowthe of city
ofthe
53 were there about the Easter Fes- They
tival.
54 This large and fertile Island was called
states,
—and within the former
St. Benedict had founded his establishment on the ruins of an ancient temple of Apollo, in the year 529. This monastery has had a varied and an interesting history, from that date to our own times.
61 This holy man ruled there as Abbot for
"
Lec- " Britannia
Sicily,
Syra-
There, Petronax 01 was Abbot, and only a
—and it is Italy, by a narrow strait.
gular form
only separated
from
55 This city was founded by one Archiar, a Corinthian, 500 yearsbefore the birth of Christ. It afterwards became the head of the Grecian
colonies in Italy and Sicily. At a period long subsequent, it fell under the power of the Romans, and it was regarded as the capital of the Sicilian province.
56 A city at the foot of Mount JEtna. , and
which was almost ruined by an earthquake
in the year 1693.
57 Also called Magna Gracia, the most
southern part of the former kingdom of Naples.
— on the summit of this Originally
and he the 30th of April, a. d. 750.
this
life, on
thirty-two years,
departed
;
114 LIVESOFTHEIRISHSAINTS. [July 7.
62
Our saint is claimed, as belonging to the Benedictine order, which rule Willibald is said to have embraced, on the summit of that high mountain, after he had been absent ten years from his native country, and seven years since he had left Rome. 63 There his conversation and example gave instruction and edification to that
community. Thefirstyearofhisarrivalthere,hewasappointedsacristanof thechurch,andthesecondhebecamedeaninthemonastery. Afterwards, for four years he was porter or guest-master to the great monastery on Monte
6* andforanotherfour hewasportertoanothermonasteryina Casino; years,
few monks were under his charge, in the year 72Q.
Benedictine Monastery of Monte Cassino.
valley at the foot ofthe mountain, and which stood near the River Raphito.
This latter office required a rooted habit of virtue, which should suffer no
abatement, owing to external occupations and frequent commerce with secu-
;
it was also one of — trust and 65 —other visitors great importance. Among
lars
to Monte Casino, a priest doubtless a Benedictine monk
from Spain, and he asked permission from the Abbot Petronax to visit Rome, while he urged St. Willibald to accompany him. This permission having been obtained, they first sought there the church of St. Peter, and St. Willi- bald had a special interview with the Sovereign Pontiff. Then he related, at
the Pope's request, his various adventures in the Holy Land, while his con- versation charmed the universal Father of the Faithful, who listened with the greatest possible interest and edification to the narrative. The illustrious St.
62
That assigned for St. Willibald's arrival at Monte Cassino, by the Bollandist Father Soller.
63 See Mabillon's "Annates Ordinis S. Benedicti," tomusii. , lib. xx. , sect, xliv.