Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 11.djvu/375

 OSSORT

343

OSSORY

the Suir, on the east by the Barrow, on the west by sail (1118) the limits of the diocese were permanently

Tipperary and King's County, and on the north by fixed substantially as they have since remained. At

Queen's County. It has an area of 600,000 acres, the same time the see was transferred from Seir-Kieran

and corresponds geographically with the ancient King- to Aghaboe (see Canice, S.^int), but at the end of the

dom. of Ossory, whose first king, Aengus Osrithe, twelfth century it was transferred to Kilkenny, where

flourished in the second century of the Christian era. it has since remained. It is probable that St. Canice

His successors extended their boundaries to in- clude part of Tipperary. In the fifth century the neighbouring tribe of the Deisi, aided by the Corca- Laighde, conquered South Ossory, and for over a century the Corca-Laigh- de chiefs ruled in place of the dispossessed Ossory chiefs. Early in the sev- enth century the ancient chiefs recovered much of their lost possessions, the foreigners were overcome, and the descendants of Aengus ruled once more. One of the greatest was Carroll, prominent in the ninth century and distin- guished in the Danish wars.

Ossory had been Chris- tianized long before this. St. Kieran, its apostle, now the patron of the diocese.

Ul

i

-1— ^

1

1

i

m

m

St. M,\ry's Cathedral, Kilkenny

was born about the fourth century at a place now known as St. Kieran's Strand, near Cape Clear, and was probably converted to the Faith by foreign trad- ers. According to the tradition, he went to Rome and was there ordained priest and bishop. Having met St. Patrick, St. Kieran received from him a bell with the charge to return to Ireland and found a monastery on the spot where the bell should first sound. When the saint had passed beyond Os- sory, and was de- scending the western slopes of Slieve Bloom, the bell at length sounded; and here St. K ieran estab- hshed tlie monastery of Seir-Kieran, thi centre from whu li Ossory was evang( 1- ized. St. Patrick also visited Ossory and preached and founded churches there. There is some difficulty in accept- ing the story of St. Kieran having preached before St. Patrick, since the

founded a monastery at Kilkenny, and not unlikely that the beginnings of a town soon appeared there, to become more important when the bishops changed from Aghaboe. Kilkenny also became the residence of Marshall, Earl of Pem- broke, Strongbow's heir and descendant, by whom Kilkenny Castle was built. Before the fourteenth century Marshall's in- heritance passed to the Butlers, and under them Kilkenny became great. It was made up of an Irish and an English town, each with a charter, and each, until ISOO, returning two members to the Irish Par- liament. The united towns were incorporated by a charter from Elizabeth, and by a further charter from James I, as a free city,

former is said to have flourished in the sixth century. It is, however, certain that St. Kieran laboured in Ossory. In the centuries following the newly-con- verted kingdom was ruled from Seir-Kieran by the abbots. They had other monasteries subject to them.

with a mayor. The city still returns a member to the Imperial Parliament. The Butlers, ennobled as Earls and Dukes of Ormonde, have always interested them- selves in its welfare. These powerful nobles were sometimes charged with the government of Ireland; not infrequently Kilkenny was the residence of the viceroy and saw a Parliament sitting within its walls, and there the Statute of Kilkenny was passed (13G7). The Or- mondes were always favourable to Anglo- Norman develop- ment at Kilkenny, and after the begin- ning of the thirteenth century no Irisliman was appointed to the See of Ossory. In the reign of Bishop Hugh De Rous (1202 -15J the cathedral of St. Canice was built. Two subsequent bishops, De Mapil- ton (1251-60) and Thomas Barry (1427-60), filled the oflice of treasurer of Ireland, while another, Richard De

of Ossorj'. Co. Kilkenny, Iri

Northalis (1387-95), acted as the King's ambassa- dor abroad. At the Reformation, though the Earls of Ormonde were among the first to conform, Ossory clung to the Faith; and when John Bale was appointed bishop by Edward VI, and endeavoured to Protestant-

and probably other bishops, and perhaps were not ize the people, he was roughly handled and driven

always bishops themselves, though at Seir-Kieran, as from Kilkenny, leaving Ossory in peace. The peace

at lona, there was always a bishop. Their jurisdiction ended with the death of Mary, and in Elizabeth's

was tribal rather than territorial, and hence the dio- reign the see was vacant for seventeen years. From

cese was enlarged or contracted as the fortunes of the 1602 to 1618 Ossory was again without a bishop, and

Ossory chiefs rose or fell. At the synod of Rathbrea- when Dr. Rothe was appointed (1620) there waa not a