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 ROSS

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ROSS

Thomaf^ O'Herlihv a,ssisto(l at the Council of Trent, and ruled from 1562 till his death on 11 March. 1580. It was not until 15S1 that Queen Elizabeth ventured to appoint a Protestant prelate under whom, in 1.584, the Sees of Cork and Cloyne were annexed to Ross However, in the Catholic arranpieinent Ross continued independent, and Owen MacEgan died a confessor in January. 1602-3. In 1625 the bishop (de Torres) w:is a Spaniard, who ruled his diocese through a vicar-general. In 1647 the nave and tower of the cathedral were levelled by the Puritans; and the bishop (MacEgan) was basely hanged by Lord Hroghill. on 10 April. 16.50. At length, in 1693. Bi.^hop Sleyne of Cork was given Ross in oommcndam, and the see continued under his suc- cessors till 1748. when it was united to Cloyne, under Bishop O'Brien. From 1748 Ross was ad- ministered by the Bishops of Cloyne, but it regained its autonomy under Bishop Crotty, and in 1857

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Bishop O'Hea was consecrated to Ross. During the episcopate of Dr. O'Hea (the Catholic popula- tion was then 65,000) the episcopal see was trans- ferred to Skibbereen, and the diocese was materially improved under his fostering care. His successor, Wilham Fitzgerald (1877-97) also laboured zeal- ously. The present bishop, the Most Rev. Denis Kelly, was bom near Nenagh, Co. Tipperary, in 1852, and was educated at Ennis and Paris. He was appointed president of the Killaloe Diocesan College in 1890, and was consecrated 9 May, 1897. Bishop Kelly has acted on several Royal commissions, and has recently (1911) been named one of the two commis.sioners for the projected Home Rule finance. In 1901 the Catholic population was 46,694, and there were eleven parishes — two of which were mensal — served by 28 priests. The latest returns give the Dumber of churches as 22, and there are three Con- vents of Mercy, respectively, at Skibbereen, Clona- kilty, and Ros.scarbery. There is no chapter, but there are two vicars forane.

CaUriAar of Papal ReaUlers (9 vols., London, 189.3-1911); Brady, Rec'irdn of Cork, Cloyne, and Rons (Dublin, 1864); Idem, EpUcMpal .Succenxion (Rome, 1876); Archdall, MoiiaKliron Hibernieum CDublin, 187.3); Smith, Cork (new cd., Cork, 1893); Irith Calholic Directory (1911).

W. H. Grattan-Flood.

Robs, School of, now called Ross-Carbery, but formerly Ross-Aililhir from the large number of monks and students who flocked to its halls from all over P^urope, was founded by St. Fachtna, who is generally rf-Karded as the same who founded the Diocese of Kil- fenora, for the fea.st in both cases is kept on 14 August; and in both the saint's descent is traced to the princely race of Corca Laighde. Fachtna was bom at a place called Tulachtcano, and died at the

early age of forty-six, in what year we cannot say, but probably late in the sixth century, and is buried in his own cathedral church at Ross. Like many other great Irish saints, he received his first lessons in piety from St. Ita of Killeedy, the Brigid of Mun- ster, from whose care he passed, according to some writers, to St. Finnbar's seminary at Loch Eirce, near Cork. He founded the monastery Molana, on the little island of Dririnis in the Blackwater, not far from the town of Youghal. Returning to his native territory, he set about a more important foundation on a rocky promontory situated in the midst of woods and green fields between two lovely bays. This was the monastic School of Ro.ss, called in the "Life of St. Mochoemoc", magnum studium scholarium, for it quickly became famous for its study of Sacred Scripture, and the attention given to all the branches of a liberal education. One of the assistant teachers was St. Brendan the Navigator, whom Fachtna had known and loved as a companion when under the care of St. Ita. An old flocunient quoted by U.sher represents Brendan as being at Ross in 540. While engaged in teaching here, St. Fachtna was stricken with total blindness. On appealing to God in his distress, he was directed by an angel to make apjilication to Nessa, the sister of St. Ita, who was about to b(>come the mother of St. Mochoemoc. Fachtna did as he was directed and his sight was miraculously restored. Fachtna, it is generally thought by the best authorities, re- ceived episcopal orders, and became the first Bishop of Ross. He is sometimes called Facundus, in al- lusion to his eloquence, to which, as well as to his sanctity, unmistakable testimony is borne by St. Cuimin of Connor. Cuimin describes him as "the generous and steadfast, who loved to address as- sembled crowds and never spoke aught that was base and displeasing to God".

His immediate successor in the School of Ross was St. Conall. and we read al.so of a St. Finchad. a former schoolmate at Loch Eirce. Both were probably tribes- men of his own, for we are told that he was succeeded by twenty-seven bisho])s of his own tribe, whose names unfortunately have not been preserved. Under sev- eral ninth-century dates we find in the Four Masters reference to the abbots of the School of Ross; and under date 840 we are told that the institution was ravaged by the Danes. Once only in the two centuries that followed is there mention of a bishop, Neachtan MacNeachtain whose death is set down under date 1085. In all other references to Ross the word nir- chinnect is used, as if showing that tlie govormnent of the school had fallen into the hands of hiyiiieii, who nodoubt employed ecclesiastics to iM-rfonn thcsjjirilual duties and functions. Nevertheless the School must have continued to flourish, for we read under date 866 — according to the "Chronicon Scotorum", 868 — of the death of Feargus who is described as a cele- brated scribe and anchorite of Ross-Ailithir. But more remarkable evidence still of the extent and variety of the literary work done at Ross is furnished by the geographical poem in the Iri.sh language still extant, compo.sed by MacCosse or Ferlegind, a lecturer at this school, and used no doubt as a text-book in the different clas.se8. When we take into ac(!ount the period at which MacCosse lived, his geographical treati.se may fairly be thought one of the most accu- rate and interesting of its kind that has ever yet been written. Of the later history of the School we have but few details, but mention of the native spoiler is not missing in them. In 1127, according to the "Chronicon Scotorum", one Toirdhealbach O Conor sailed to Ross-Ailithir, and laid waste the land of Desmond. He was followed by the Anglo-Normans under P'itzStephen, who towanls the do.se of the; cen- tury completed the devastation. All record of this ancient seat of learning is then lost.