Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 8.djvu/718

 EILDARE

638

SILDARB

Ballyadams and Stradhally to Morett. Here he built a church and then turning north re-crossed the Barrow south of Ratliangan, and going by Lully- niore, Allen, and Kilcock, he returned to Tara. These events occurred about the year 448. Later on St. Patrick made a second journey into Leinster, and coming to Rathvilly in County Carlow he bap- tized King Crimthan, his wife Mel, and his son and heir, Dathi. He translated Iserninus (Fith) from Kilcutlen to Aghade. At Donaghmore in Ui Ceinn- sealaigh he met his old friend Dubtach, the chief bard of Erin, who alone amongst King Laoghaire's hosts had stood up to salute him at Tara. He was accompanied by Fiacc, his gifted pupil and successor- apparent. Patrick, being in need of a suitable can- didate for the episcopacy, consecrated Fiacc on Dubtach's recommendation, and placed him at Domnach Fiacc, midway between Clonmore and Aghold. Years afterwards he transferred him to Sletty, blessing his church there, and making his see quasi-metropolitan. This pre-eminence afterwards passed to Ferns, then to Kildare, and later on to Dublin. The fame of Fiacc's virtues and miracles followed him from Domnach Fiacc, bringing crowds of pilgrims to Sletty, and soon a large monastery grew up of which he was the first abbot. St. Fiacc practised extraordinary austerities even in his old age, spending each Lent in the cave of Drum Coblai (the doon of Clopookl, so that the fame of his sanctity still survives in the district. He died in 510. in the next century the See of Sletty was transferred to Leighlin, which means either "the half glen" or "the white plain".

St. Laserian (also called Molaise) was the first bishop and patron saint of Leighlin, b. 566; d. IS April, 6.39. He was the son of Cairel de Blitha, a Ulidian noble, and Gemma, daughter of a Scottish king. Part of his youth was spent in Scotland. On his return home he refused the chieftainship of his clan, went into retirement, and ultimately set out for Rome, where he studied for fourteen years and was ordained by Gregory the Great. Returiiing to Leighlin he entered the great monastery which St. Gobban had established, and soon found himself its abbot, St. Gobban having retired in his favour and gone into Ossory. This establishment soon became famous, and contained as many as 1500 monks. St. Laserian took the leading part in settling the Easter controversy. In the Synod of Magh-lene he success- fully defended the Roman computation, and was sent by the council as delegate to Rome. There, in 6.33, he was consecrated first Bishop of Leighlin by Honorius I. On his return from the centre of Catholic unity Laserian pleaded the cause of the Roman practice so powerfully at another synod in Leighlin that the controversy was practically en<led for the greater part of the country. The list of his successors, sometimes called abbots and sometimes bishops, is practically complete. The cathedral of Leighlin was built about the middle of the twelfth century in the plainest Gothic, to replace the original church of wood. It was plundered several times both by the Danes and by the native chieftains, and the great religious establishments of Sletty and Killeshin shared the same fate. In the reign of Henry VIII it was seized by the Reformers, was made a Protestant church, and has continued as such ever since. The sufferings of the Catholics were so intense during the persecutions which raged over Ireland for more than two centuries, that to- wards the end but a remnant of the clergy reniained. What the number of the clergy was in these dioceses before the Reformation, we cannot say for certain; but from the ecclesiastical ruins we have the means of forming a fair estimate. Over these dioceses, at the present day, there lie scattered the mouldering ruins of 240 churches and CH religious houses, liearing

mute but eloquent testimony to the persecutions borne by the (.'atholics, and to the numbers of the clergy who suffered banishment or death. Nor were these convents small or unimportant; there were many large monasteries of the rliffercnt religious or- ders, including the four great Cistercian Abbeys of Abbcyleix, Baltinglass, Duiske, and Monasterevan. The alibey church of Duiske, Graignamanagh, is one of the few abbey churches at present in possession of their rightful owners, and actually devoted to the service of the old religion. There were eight round towers in these dioceses, two of which are still en- tire, Kildare and Timahoe. The earthen rampart of the Pale can be traced for a mile between Clane and Clongowes College.

Abbey and Shrine of St. Brigid. — Before the time of St. Laserian of Leighlin, St. Conleth and St. Brigid were the patron saints of Kildare. The latter was a native of the district, though born at Faughart, near Dundalk. In 487 she received the rehgious habit from St. Macaille, Bishop of Croghan in Offaly, and coming to Kildare formed a community of the pious virgins who flocked around her. Her first house was a humble cell under a large oak, which gave Kildare its name — CiU-dara, the cell of the oak. The fame of her sanctity attracted such a concourse of pilgrims to Kildare that a city soon sprang up which included a religious community of men. To meet the spiritual wants of the new city St. Brigid requested tlie ap- pointment of a bishop. Great deferenee \s:is paid to her wishes, and, as she had recommended St. Con- leth, he was consecrated the first Bishop of Kildare about 490. He had been leading the life of a recluse at Old Council near Newbridge, was a skilful artificer in gold and silver; and the ancient crosier in the mu- .seum of the Royal Academy is believed to be the work of his hands. It is said that as bi.shop he made a jour- ney to Rome, and returned with vestments for his church at Kildare, in which latter place he died, 3 Ma.V, 519. A fire was kept l)urning day unci night at Kil- dare by St. Brigid for the use of pilgrims and travel- lers, and for the same purpose, as well as in memory of the saint, it was continued till the total suppression of the religious houses at the Reformation. The fire- hou.se was a cell or vault twenty feet square, and its ruins existed till 1792. The first church of Kildare was probably of wood, and, being designed for two communities of different sexes, the nave was ilivided by a partition or screen. For an account of tlu^ church and its relics see Brigid, Saint. Kildare with its church was plundered and burned frequently. Some- times it suffered from the Danes, sometimes from the native chieftains, and sometimes by accident. Its records give about twenty-five catastrophes of the kind. At the Reformation the cathedral was seized by the Protestants, and a portion of it was used for a church. The rest of the building became a ruin, and so remained till 1875-96, when it was completely re- stored by private contributions, and is now the Prot- estant cathedral.

Bisli(ij)s of Kildare. — The bishops of Kildare were frecjuontly called abbot-bishops and bishops of Lein- ster down to the Synod of Kells. The record of suc- cession is practically complete down to the union of the two dioceses. For the episcopal lists see, besides Gams and Eubel, Brady, "Episcopal Succession in England, Scotland, and Ireland" (Hume, 1877). Dr. Leverous (1497-1577) was consecrated Bishop of Kil- dare in 1555, and early in Elizabeth's reign, when the bishops of Ireland were summoned before the Lord Deputy to take the oath of supremacy, the Bishop of Kildare peremptorily refused, and being asked the reason of his refusal replied: "All ecclesiastical au- thority is from Christ, Who has never conferred it on a woman, even His blessed mother. How then can it I)e sworn that in future ages God would confer it on a woman?" He added: "The Apostle has commanded