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 EILEENNT

640

EILLALA

Rome undertaken by St. Ivilian and his assistants. His missionary labours through Eastern Franconia and his martyrdom are, however, accepted without question by everyone. Although Ivilian's work was not continued after his death, St. Boniface on his arrival in Thuringia found at least evidence of his predeces- sor's influence. The relics of the three martyrs, after wonderful cures had brought renown to their burial place, were transferred in 743 by Saint Burchard, first Bishop of Wiirzburg, to t he Church of Our Lady, where they were temporarily interred. Later, when Bur- chard had obtained Pope Zachary's permission for their public veneration, they were solemnly trans- ' ferred — probably on 8 July, 752 — to the newly fin- ished Cathedral of the Saviour. Still later they were buried in St. Kilian's vault in the new cathedral erected on the spot where tradition affirms the martyr- dom to have taken place. The New Testament belong- ing to St. Kilian was preserved among the treasures of Wiirzburg Cathedral until 1803, and since then has been in the univer- sity hbrary. Kilian is the patron saint of the diocese, and his feast is cele- brated in Wiirz- burg on 8 July with great solemnity.

The chief source of information is the older and shorter " Passio " (which begins " Fuit vir vitse venerabilis Killena nomine"), formerly considered to date from the tenth or ninth cen- tury. Emmerich (after the example of the " Histoire litteraire de la France", IV, Paris, 1738, p. 86), and Hefner (see below) on very good grounds now connect the appearance of this chronicle with the solemn trans- lation of the relics in 752, which raises its historic value beyond the reach of attack. The later and more volumi- nous " Passio " is an amphfied and embellished version of the earlier one and cannot be relied upon when the ac- counts differ. Both have been published by H. Canisius, " Antiquoe lectiones", IV, pt. ii (Ingolstadt, 1603), pp. 625^7; by Mabillon, "Acta Sanctorum O.S.B.", II (Paris, 1669), p. 991-3; in the " Acta Sanctorum " for 8 July (see below), and finally, with a collection of later sources and with the office of St. Kilian of the Wiirz- burg Church, by Emmerich (see below).

Acta SS., II, July (Paris and Rome, 1867), 599-619; EcK- HART, Commentarii de rebus Ftoucue orientalis, I (Wiirzburg, 1729), 270-83, 451 sqq.; Gropp, Lebensbeschreibung des hi. Kiliani urul (lessen Gesellen (Wiirzburg, 1738); Stamminger, Franconia sancta, I (Wiirzburg, 1881), 58-133; Emmerich, Der heilige Kilian, liegionarbischof u. Martyrer (Wiirzburg, 1896); GoFFERT, St. Kilianus-BUchlein (."WiirzhuTg, 1877; 2nd ed., 1902); Bellesheim, Gesch. der kath. Kirche in Irland, 1 (Mainz, 1890), 168-71; Schrodl in Kirchenlex.. s. v.; O'Han- LON, Livesofthe Irish Saints.YIl (Dublin, s.d.), 122-43; Moore in Diet. Nat. Biog., a. v. Cilian. The authenticity of the older I (.'Ird and 4th ed.), 386 sq.; Riezler, Die Vita Kiliani in Neues Archiv der GeseUschaft fiir alter e deulsche Geschichtskunde, XXVIII (1903), 232-4. In opposition to the views put for- ward in these works, the authenticity of the document is up- held in Hfivph, Thif Li-hen des hi. Burchard in Archiv des
 * ' Passio" is combated by: Hauck, Kirchengesch. Deuischlands,

historic' I ■ ■ I "" I'nirrfrfinken u. Aschaffenburn^'Xhy —

publislM I I (Wiirzburg, 1904), pp. 33, .57; cf. also

Hagi„ii'', '■ ' ./ I.r,:il„rirhlfurdiejahre 1904-1906 (Kemp- ten anil Alui.i. 1., l.ms), 110.

Friedrich Lauchert. Kilkenny. See Ossorv, Diocese op.

Eillala, Diocese of (Alladensis). It is one of the five suffragan sees of the ecclesiastical Province of Tuam, and comprises the north-western part of the County May o with the Barony of Tireragh in the County Sligo. In all there are 22 parishes, some of which, bordering on the Atlantic Ocean, consist mostly of wild moorland, sparsely inhabited. Lewis's Topo- graphical Dictionary sets down the length of the diocese as 45 miles, the breadth 21 miles, and the estimated superficies as 314,300 acres — of which 43,100 are in the County Sligo, and 271,200 in the County Mayo. In the census returns for the year 1901 the Catholic population is given as 61,876, and the non-Catholic as 3576. The foimdation of the diocese dates from the time of St. Patrick, who placed his disciple St. Muredach over the church called in Irish Cell Alaid. In a well that still flows close to the town, beside the sea, Patrick baptized in a single day 12,000 converts, and on the same occasion, in presence of the crowds, raised to life a dead woman whom he also bap- tized. Muredach is describetl as an old man of Patrick's family, and was appointed to the Church of Killala as early as 442 or 443. His feast-day- is 12 August. It is probable that he re- signed his see after a few years, and re- tired to end his life in the lonely island in Donegal Bay which haseversince borne his name, Innismurray. It was at Killala that Patrick baptized the two maidens whom he met in childhood at Fo- cluth Wood by the western sea, anfl whose voices in visions of the night had often pathetically called him to come once more and dwell amongst them. He did come, and he baptized them, and built them a church where they spent the rest of their days as holy nuns in the service of God.

Little or nothing is known of the successors of Muredach in Killala down to the twelfth century. Of the sainted Bishop Cellach, for example, we learn merely that he came of royal blood, flourished in the sixth century, and was foully murdered at the insti- gation of his foster-brother. His name is mentioned in all the Irish martyrologies. Beyond doubt, how- ever, the most illustrious of them all belongs to mod- ern times. With pardonable pride the people of Ivillala still, and will ever, recall the fact that John McHale, Archbishop of Tuam, was a child of their diocese, and, if we may so speak, served hi.s appren- ticeship as bishop amongst them. He was born at Tubbernavine, at the foot of Mount Nephin, 6 March, 1791; became Coadjutor Bishop of Killala in 1825, bishop in 1834, and later in the same year was trans- ferred to Tuam, where for nearly half a century he exercised a more potent influence on the civil and ecclesiastical history of Ireland than perhaps any of his contemporaries, with the single exception of O'Connell. He died 7 November, ISSl. and is buried in the .sanctuary of the Tuam cathedral. After him came Doctor Finan, a Dominican priest of remarkable piety and attainments, but rather unfit, owing to his continental training, to direct the affairs of an Irish diocese. On his resignation in the year 1838, a parish priest of the Archdiocese of Tuam, Rev. Thomas

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