, Iniscathy), an important monastic saint of County Clare. I have previously posted an account of his life by Redemptorist Father Albert Barry
, in July, 1860. I was interested to see the anonymous author tell us that in entitling his article 'The Legend of Iniscathy' he was 'using the word
“legend” in its primitive and strict sense of one of those
chronicles of the lives of saints read (legenda) in former
times at matins, and in the monastic refectories'. He draws heavily on the hagiography of Saint Senan whilst attempting to offer an explanation for its supernatural elements in order to make it more palatable for the rational Victorian reader. The nature of hagiography was not fully understood at this time, especially that the writers of
of the saints were not writing history. The account finishes with an overview of the later history of Iniscathy from the
and a description of the scenery and ruins, accessible to the visitor by the daily steamer service. For tourism as we know it today also has its roots in the Victorian era:
THE LEGEND OF INISCATHY.
For a century or more after the introduction of Christianity into Ireland, the social state of this country
presents itself to us under an aspect singularly curious
and interesting. In many a nook and corner paganism
still lingered; for, either it was hard to eradicate it out
of some coarse-grained natures; or like those more
subtile and philosophic principles which lay buried under
the farrago of Greek and Roman mythology, it was not
sufficiently absurd to vanish in every case at the first
dawn of truth; or, it was associated with so many
proud traditions of the Celtic race, that some clung to
it still for the sake of the warriors of old, who knew
no better way. On the other hand, we all know how
rapid, and, as it were, spontaneous, was the growth of
Christianity in this island; how quickly it developed
the religious feelings of the people ; how abundant were
its fruits in this Irish soil; how glorious and refulgent
was the lustre with which the light of faith shone out
in the face of Europe from this ultimate limit of the
then known world! The utmost perfection of the
gospel was carried into practice by thousands of the
people; monastic institutes of the most rigid rules
sprung into existence throughout the length and breadth
of the land; and monastic schools in which knowledge,
in its most simple beauty, and such as never was heard
of in the groves of Academus, was taught by the shorn-headed and the mortified. All this was not the slow
work of time, but the immediate result of St. Patrick’s
preaching; so that it would seem that the great heart
of the Irish race was opened all at once to the doctrines which he taught, and as if the holiest effects
which these doctrines were ever to have on this side of
heaven were there and then to be attained. Yet, as
we have said, side by side with these wonderful things,
the ancient superstition of the druids still survived ;
though it had sunk into such profound obscurity, and
its records become so obliterated from our political annals, that we should scarcely be aware of its protracted
continuance, were it not for those most important
sources of our history—the acts of the primitive Irish
saints—some of which bear internal evidence of having
been written when paganism still held its ground in Ireland, or at least record directly the traditions of that
period. Hence, in the manners of that remote age we
find lights and shadows strangely contrasted, and, as
similar qualities are wont to do in physical nature, producing the wildest and most picturesque effects. Let
the following narrative, which we glean from some of
those venerable documents just alluded to, serve as an
example:—
In that part of north Munster, anciently called Corcabaiscin, which, washed on the south by the river
Shannon, extended from the estuary of the Fergus
westward to the ocean, and was bounded on the north
by the territory of Corcomroe in the north of the present
county of Clare, there lived at the time to which we
have been referring, a Christian couple named Ercan
end Comgalla. It is just possible that the former was
old enough to have been one of the multitude who
crossed the Shannon in their currachs from Corcabaiscin,
when St. Patrick was preaching on the opposite shore
in Hy Figeinte, and when, after receiving baptism at
the hands of that apostle, they entreated him in vain
to visit their country, but only succeeded in obtaining
his blessing on it from the summit of Mullagh Findine,
now the well-known hill of Knoc Patrick, near Foynes.
If Ercan were among the number on that occasion he
heard some prophetic words in which he was deeply interested, but of which he could then little anticipate
the purport.
Ercan and Comgalla, who resided at Magh-lagha
or Mullagha, at no great distance from the present
port of Kilrush, had a son named Senan, who, from his
earliest years, gave earnest of that wonderful sanctity
for which he afterwards became celebrated. Many
marvellous circumstances are related of him from his boyhood; but although the accounts which we have of these
and many similar things rest upon authorities of an
antiquity long anterior to the age of historical criticism,
we would argue rashly if we submitted them to the same
standard with common-place occurrences, and forgot
that they refer to a period at which all the necessity of
vindicating the truth of religion by the manifestation of
miraculous power still existed, and when the holiness
known to have been attained by some favoured individuals was in itself, compared with our present experience, a thing of supernatural character.
Senan’s father, like the other leading persons who
then inhabited that district, belonged to the distinguished race of Conary the Second, monarch of Ireland
in the second century, whose son, Cairbre Baschain (the
brother of that Cairbre Riada who founded the illustrious tribe of Dalriada of Antrim and Scotland gave his
name to the territory: but Ercan was only a subject, and
was compelled to send his son to the hostings of his chief.
This was sorely against the inclinations of the youthful
Senan, whose tastes were far from being military. On one
occasion he was obliged to accompany the chief in an
expedition into the neighbouring territory of Corcomroe; but instead of joining in the work of pillage,
which he knew to be unjust, he concealed himself under
a stack of wheat, where he fell asleep, and was discovered by some of the enemy after his own party had
retired. According to another account, it was after the
total rout and slaughter of the men of Corcabaiscin, on
this occasion, that young Senan in his flight sought
shelter under the corn; but be that as it may, the attention of the foe was attracted to his place of retreat by
a lambent flame, which seemed to them to envelop the
stack without consuming it. They then discovered the
sleeping youth, who at once acknowledged that he belonged to the hostile party; but his ingenuous manner,
as well as the wonderful circumstance just mentioned,
convinced the men that he was some friend of heaven,
and rude and enraged though they were, they allowed
him to go in peace.
Sometime after this, Senan was driving cattle home
from the west, and after a long journey had reached,
late in the evening, the shore of a large creek, which
he could have passed at low water, but over which the
tide then flowed. He applied for a night’s resting-place
for himself and his cattle, at the only habitation within
sight; but the master was absent, and the servants refused any hospitality, so that, late as it was, Senan
drove his cattle to the sea-shore to await the ebbing of
the tide. Unexpectedly, however, he found the sands
dry, and having crossed in safety with his herd to the
opposite side, he looked back and saw the waves again
rolling over the vast tract of sand on which he had
walked. He also saw in the distance an enemy approaching the inhospitable dwelling of Dunmaghair,
where he had asked in vain for lodging, and despoil it
before his eyes. This fresh testimony of heaven’s intervention in his favour appeared to him irresistible. He
resolved henceforth to renounce the world, and planting
his spear in the earth, he attached a stick to it in the
form of a cross, and kneeling before the sacred emblem,
offered the remainder of his life to God, and implored
the divine blessing on his resolution. Accordingly,
having delivered the cattle to his parents, he left his
home, and repaired to a certain holy abbot named Cassidan, a native of Kerrycuirke, (the present barony of
Kerricurrihy, between the mouth of Cork harbour and
Kinsale) but who appears to have then resided in a
western part of Corcabaiscin called Iorras. Senan
having received the monastic habit from Cassidan, prosecuted his studies, in the next place, in the great
school of St. Naal, or Natalis, who is said to have been
a son of the king Aengus, whom St. Patrick baptised
at Cashel, and from whom it is probable that Killenaule,
in Tipperary, took its name.
One of Senan’s duties at the Monastery of St. Natalis,
was to take charge of the mill in which the corn for
the use of the monks was ground. He was in the
habit of watching all night alone, and some pagan rob-
bers in the neighbourhood becoming aware of this fact,
thought they had a good opportunity to attack and
plunder the mill, and to slay the solitary monk if he
made any resistance. Accordingly they came one night
to carry out their design, but on looking through a
chink in the door, they observed two young men inside ;
one being our monk, who was engaged in study, and
the other a stranger, who occupied himself in the work
of the mill. The robbers hesitated whether they should
break in while these two persons were watching ; and
one of them having suggested that the stranger had, no
doubt, come to grind corn for himself, they resolved to
tarry until he departed. All night long they watched,
but finding in the morning that Senan was alone, they
rightly concluded that the mysterious stranger was a
being not of this world; they were thereupon converted,
and at Senan’s intercession were admitted into the monastery, where they became, in process of time, most exemplary religious. Many other marvels are related of
Senan during his sojourn with the abbot Natalis; but
at length, in obedience to the command of that holy
man, who saw that he was destined for something
greater than a simple monk, he travelled for the pur-
pose of preparing himself to undertake a more important charge. In his peregrinations he visited Rome and
Tours, and on his way home spent some time in Britain
with the celebrated St. David of Menavia, between
whom and him an intimate friendship sprung up. From
the fact that St. David presented him with a staff, or
crosier, it may be conjectured that Senan had already
been consecrated bishop. On arriving in Ireland he
landed at Ardnemeth, now the Great Island, near Cork,
and proceeding thence, after a short stay, he erected
his first church at Iniscarra, on the river Lee, a few
miles west of Cork. While he was here a ship arrived
bearing fifty Roman monks, or, at least, fifty religious
from some Roman province, who came to Ireland to
follow a more rigid discipline, and to study the Scriptures; for even thus early the fame of Ireland for
sanctity and learning became so wide spread, that
religious men and students had already begun to flock
to her shores from distant countries. These fifty foreigners were divided into five bands of ten each, and
distributed among as many religious establishments;
one band proceeding to the monastery of St. Finnian,
another to that of St. Brendan, a third to that of St.
Barry, a fourth to that of St. Kieran, while Senan himself kindly received the fifth under his own care. At
Iniscarra Senan was persecuted by the local chieftain,
named Lugad, who insisted upon unjust exactions to
which Senan refused to submit; but the dispute having
been arranged through the interference of two young
noblemen of the chieftain’s followers, who took up the
cause’ of the religious, Senan, leaving some of his disciples at that place, proceeded to carry out the work of
his mission elsewhere. He founded monasteries in succession in the islands of Inisluinghe; Inismor, supposed
by some to be Deer-Island, at the mouth of the Fergus;
Iniskeeragh, which Colgan says was in Ibrickan; Inisconla, in the Fergus, and finally, in Iniscathy,
or as it is now generally called, Scattery Island, lying
near the mouth of the Shannon, in view of his own
native Mullagha. Traces of those old foundations are
to be found in most of these places, but in Iniscathy
we have several of these venerable remains in a most
perfect state of preservation.
According to the old legend, there was no human
habitation on Iniscathy until Senan fixed his abode
there; a horrible monster—possibly one of the great
antediluvian reptiles, as has been suggested in relation
to these traditionary monsters of Irish story—having
up to that time rendered the island uninhabitable; but
as soon as the holy man had expelled the monster by his
prayers, the toparch of Hy-Figeinte, claimed the island
as his right, and ordered the monks to be ejected from it.
This toparch, by name Mactail, was still a pagan, and a
cruel tyrant, as his actions would show. He commanded two brothers of Senan’s to carry his unjust
orders into execution, but one of these men who attempted to drag Senan by force from the island, having
died by the judgment of heaven, and the other being stricken with horror for the service imposed upon him, Mactail next employed his Druid to execute his orders,
and finally came himself, raging with great fury, and
blasphemously declaring that he cared no more for
Senan and his God, than he did for a shorn sheep. In
effect, the following day, while Mactail was still intent
on his cruel purpose, his horses took fright at a shorn
sheep, which rushed under their feet, and the chariot
being overturned, the miserable tyrant was killed upon
the spot.
St. Brendan, the famous navigator, and founder of
Clonfert, and St. Kieran, the illustrious founder of Clonmacnoise, visited Senan in Iniscathy. He was their
senior in years, and they chose him as their guide in the
road of sanctity. Itis related of Kieran, that when
coming to the island he met a mendicant, to whom he
gave his religious habit, having no other alms to offer,
and thus proceeded almost naked himself to the shore.
Senan, prophetically aware of the circumstance, sent
some of his disciples with a broken curragh, the only
boat in the island, to convey Kieran from the mainland,
while he himself proceeded to the shore to await his
visitor with a new tunic or habit, to replace the one
which had been so charitably surrendered. While St.
Kieran remained at Iniscathy, he filled the office of
providore for strangers.
It is related that at another time a holy virgin named
Brigid, of the Dalcassian tribe, and who presided over
a community of nuns in Inis-fidhe, or the woody island,
now Feenish, at the mouth of the Fergus, prepared a
vestment for Senan, and that having no means of conveying it to him, she packed it up in some hay, and
placing it in a wicker basket, entrusted it to the returning tide, by which it was deposited on the shore of Iniscathy, and thus it came safely to the hands of the holy
abbot, for whom it was intended.
The rule which Senan framed, excluding women from
the island of Iniscathy, and the rigid strictness with
which he enforced it, as in the case of St. Cannera, have
been made familiar to the world by Moore and other
poets. This latter circumstance is thus related in the
old authority before us:—St Cannera or Kinnera, a
most devout virgin, and handmaid of Christ, born in the
territory of Bantry, in the southern extremity of Ireland, and related to the mother of St. Senan, had a
vision in which she imagined that she saw flames ascend
towards heaven from all the churches or monasteries of
Ireland, but that one of these columns of heavenly fire
was higher than all the rest, and this she understood to
proceed from the monastery of St. Senan on Iniscathy.
She felt that her own end was approaching, and desiring to die in so sacred a place, she set out in search of
her kinsman’s monastery. One version represents her
as conveyed to the island by an angel, and another as
walking upon the water; but this miracle notwithstanding, Senan met her on the shore, and prohibited her
from entering the island, having first requested her to go
to the house of his mother, her own relative, on the mainland. St. Cannera earnestly entreated permission to remain
on Iniscathy. She argued that Christ died for women
as well as men, and that neither He nor His disciples
rejected the society of women; but Senan opposed to all
her arguments the rigid rule which he had judged suitable for the austere discipline of his community, and rejected her prayer. She then said that all she required
was to receive the Holy Communion on the island, and
to obtain a spot of earth upon its shore, in which her
remains might be deposited after death. The former
of these petitions it was impossible for Senan to refuse,
but as soon as the Holy Sacrament was administered to
her she expired, and then her second wish was also accomplished: for a grave was dug about high-water mark,
and her body was committed to the venerated earth;
and although the place is now washed by the tide, the
grave of St. Cannera has not been effaced, but is pointed
out traditionally to the present day.
After a life spent in prayer and the practice of the
most severe austerity, St. Senan felt his death approaching. While he was returning from a visit to his old
master Cassidan, he turned aside to the Church of
Killeochaille, not identified, where he had founded
a convent of nuns, and expired there on the 1st of March.
The following day his remains were removed to Iniscathy, whither the bishops, abbots, and others of the
clergy came from Limerick and the surrounding country,
as did also many of the neighbouring chieftains and
leading men; and his obsequies were continued until
the 8th, on which day his festival occurs in the Irish
calendar. From that time, as St. Patrick prophetically
told on the height of Findine, he has been venerated as
a patron in the country lying at both sides of the Lower
Shannon, but particularly in that part of the county of
Limerick anciently called Hy-Conail-Gavra (the modern
baronies of Upper and Lower Conilloe), of which he is
the joint patron, with the holy virgin St. Ita, of Kileedy.
Such is a brief outline of what we have here
designated “The Legend of Iniscathy,” using the word
“legend” in its primitive and strict sense of one of those
chronicles of the lives of saints read (legenda) in former
times at matins, and in the monastic refectories, and
which generally terminated with a “protest,” intimating
that every thing mentioned therein of a supernatural
character, and which had not been duly investigated
and approved of by the Church, was to be received only
on the credit of the historical authority on which it
rested—a rule which is perfectly well understood by Catholics about all such narratives. We need only say
that the acts of St. Senan, which were translated from
the Irish into Latin by Colgan, and which we have followed, were evidently written while Iniscathy was still
a bishop’s see, that is, sometime before the year 1188,
or about seven hundred years ago, but how much
older they are—and we know they are some hundred
years more—it would be difficult now to determine.
As to the precise date of the events recorded of St.
Senan, we only know that he died about the year
544. St. Odran, his relative, succeeded him as bishop
and abbot, and in after times we sometimes find his
comharbs or successors styled bishops, and sometimes
only abbots. The name of Iniscathy frequently occurs
in the Irish Annals. Thus we find that in 792 Olcovar,
son of Flann, the airchennach or herenach, that is, the
lay administrator of Iniscathy, died. In 816 the island
was plundered by the Danes, who massacred the clergy,
and defaced the monument of St. Senan. In 861
Aidan, abbot of Iniscathy, died; in 942 died the war-like Flahertach, who had been first Abbot of Iniscathy,
then minister to Cormac MacCuileanain, the bishop-king
of Cashel, whom he urged into the unfortunate war
which ended in Cormac’s death at the battle of Ballaghmoon, in 903; and finally, who, after many years spent
in penance in Iniscathy, became himself king of Munster. In 963 the abbot Gevenagh, son of Cathal, died;
in 972 Iniscathy was plundered by Magnus, son of
Aralt (Harold) and the Lagmanns, a tribe of Danes
from the Inse Gall, or Western Isles of Scotland; and
as Imhar (Ivor), lord of the foreigners of Luimneach
(Limerick), ‘was on this occasion carried off from the
island in violation of (the sanctuary of) Senan;” it has
been conjectured that the aforesaid Ivor was at that
time a Christian, while the Danes from the Hebrides
were still pagans. In 975 the great Brian, son of Kennedy, recovered Iniscathy from the Northmen, on whom
he inflicted signal vengeance on the occasion. He
landed on the island with a chosen force of his Dalcassians, vanquished Imhar and his sons, Amlave and
Dubhgenn, and slew eight hundred of the enemy,
whose bones whitened the surface of the island for
centuries after; still the Irish Annals mention this
attack upon the Danes by the future victor of Clontarf
as a violation of the holy island. In 994 Colla, abbot
and wise-man or doctor of Iniscathy, died; in 1050
O’Scula, the herenach of the island, died; in 1081
the death of St. Senan’s comharba, O’Bric, is recorded:
in 1119 the Annals say that “Dermot O’Leanna, successor of Senan of Iniscathy, a paragon of penance,
died; in 1179 Iniscathy was devastated by William
Hoel, an English knight; and in 1188 is recorded the
death of the last bishop of the island, Hugh O’Beachan;
about which latter year it is supposed that Iniscathy was
united to the see of Limerick; or, as Usher thought,
was divided between the sees of Limerick, Killaloe, and Ardfert. Its name is mentioned on a few
subsequent occasions; and by Queen Elizabeth the
island was granted in 1583 to the corporation of Limerick, whose property it still continues to be. We believe that the Catholic bishop of Limerick still continues
to appoint one of the curates at Kilrush in right of his
jurisdiction over the neighbouring island of Iniscathy.
If we had no more than the general assurance that
so many beautiful and most ancient traditions were associated with a particular locality, it would still be interesting to trace out the details by the aid of conjecture,
and every circumstance helping, even remotely, to identify the scenes would be deemed valuable; but here we
are not left in that kind of uncertainty, Thanks to the
religious respect with which the relics of our ecclesiastical antiquity are generally regarded by the rural population, and the little spirit of innovation which was
abroad in those times when such respect could have
afforded no safety against destruction, vast numbers of
primitive Christian remains are still preserved in most
parts of Ireland, and in few places, within so small a
compass, are they so numerous, perfect, or interesting
as in Iniscathy. Here we still have in admirable preservation the ancient Cathedral, which must have been
already venerable for its antiquity seven hundred years
ago, when Iniscathy ceased to be a bishop’s see. We
are perfectly justified in presuming that within these
walls the abbot Flahertach presided at the sacred functions in the beginning of the tenth century. The beautifully sculptured key-stone of the east window, representing a mitred head, said to be that of St. Senan
himself, exhibits marks of injury that were probably
inflicted by the heathen Vikings so long ago as the
year 816. The low, square, massive doorway in the
west gable belongs to the seventh or eighth century,
and was only recently discovered and reopened, having
been closed many centuries ago, when an entrance in
the pointed style was made in the southern side-wall,
near the same end; and in the wall near the aforesaid
ancient square door-way an inscribed stone has been
discovered which may have belonged to a still more
ancient edifice. This church, though perfectly simple,
was grand and beautiful in its proportions for the age and
place to which it belonged, and the remains of most of
the other seven churches which the island contained,
are still in a more or less perfect state of preservation.
The most interesting of these to the pilgrim is the small
building, known as St. Senan’s bed or grave; for it was
within its narrow precinct, according to tradition, that
the ashes of the holy man were deposited. Near this
building a very ancient tomb-stone has been lately uncovered, having a curious incised cross in the early
Irish interlaced style, and an Irish inscription which,
Professor Curry translates:—"A prayer for Moenach
the tutor of Moghron,”—but who either of these ancient
personages was it would be vain now to inquire. There
can indeed be no doubt that several of the remains on
the island date even from the sixth century, when
St. Senan himself was still alive.
Rising majestically from the principal group of ruins,
stands the round-tower, one of the finest in Ireland,
with its cone-shaped cap still perfect. It stands due
west of the old cathedral, the distance from the primitive square doorway of which to the cyclopean doorway
of the tower is seventy-eight feet. One of the peculiarities of the round-tower is that its entrance was on
a level with the ground, and not at some elevation
above it, as was generally the case in those singular
monastic strongholds. The tower, which is 117 feet in
height, was at some distant period rent by lightning
throughout a great part of its length, and would probably have, ere this, fallen a prey to the elements but
for a Catholic curate of Kilrush, the Rev. Mr. Moran,
if we rightly recollect, who raised a subscription for
the purpose, and caused the rent to be repaired
some years since. At the eastern extremity of the
island is the lower part of a castle, the walls being still
high enough to afford a habitation to a poor boat-man and his family; and near this some large masses
of masonry below high-water mark indicate the site of one
of the seven churches; the sea, having at this, and several
other points, encroached considerably on the soil of the
island, the arable surface of which at present is about a
hundred acres. The blessed well, which supplies the
islanders abundantly with fresh water, and which is
said to owe its origin miraculously to St. Senan, is near
the round tower, and at the head of the steps which lead
down to it is a very rude and ancient cross, the carving
on which is nearly effaced.
The most elevated part of the island is that called
Ard-na-n-Aingel, or the Angel’s Height, where it was
said that St. Senan, conveyed by an angel, first set foot
on Iniscathy. This point is occupied by a group of
greatly dilapidated ruins, and the view from it is on
all sides magnificent. In the west the horizon of the
Atlantic is visible between the steep headland of Kilkedrane point beyond Carrigaholt, on the right, and the
high coast of Kerry on the left; while between, and all
round, is spread the majestic bosom of the mighty
Shannon, along which the eye ranges for several miles
to the east, taking in St. Patrick’s Hill in the remote
distance. But the most picturesque view is that of the
Kerry coast, with the fine ruins of Carrigafoyle Castle
and Lislaghtin Abbey close to the water’s edge. The
ancient territory of the O’Conor-Kerry, Iraghticonor,
lies before us; and the outline is finely varied by the
Hill of Knockanure, which separates us from Ballybunnian on the S.W., and by the distant heights of the
ancient Slieve Luachra in the S.E. All about lie
scenes which invite the artist’s pencil, or the study of
the antiquary, or the veneration of the pilgrim; nor are
these scenes difficult of access, for the steamers which
now ply daily between Limerick, or Foynes and Kilrush
pier, close at hand, afford every facility to the tourist on
the Lower Shannon. Our object for the present, however,
was only to direct attention to St. Senan’s ancient island,
with its wonderful story and its venerable remains.
The Legend of Iniscathy, Duffy's Hibernian Magazine, Vol 1, Issue 1, (July, 1860), 36-40.
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