Judging Latin Book by "Coptic" Cover

JUDGING LATIN BOOK BY ‘COPTIC’ COVER
by PEADAR LAIGHLÉIS

Ex Aegypto vocavi filium meum (Matt 2, 15, cf Num 23, 22)

Treasure from the Bog: Uncovering the Mysteries of the Fadden More Psalter. RTÉ/National Museum of Ireland. 52 Minutes

ONE OF THE most remarkable discoveries of the past decade was the Psalter uncovered in the bogin Fadden More, North Tipperary in July 2006. The Psalter is dated from approximately 800 and is one of the very few books of its age preserved with its original binding intact. The conservation of the manuscript is largely down to the painstaking labour over a few years of John Gillis of Trinity College, Dublin. The television film under review was very interesting and showed the identification and the preservation of the psalter in an entertaining manner. From this point of view, it is well worth a viewing. The contributions of the various scholars are enlightening, though I wonder why Thomas Cahill, author of the feel-good book How the Irish Saved Civilisation was chosen as an interviewee.

It was necessary for the programme to contextualise the discovery in the Irish Church of the day. Though I would have differences in emphases with some of the scholars who spoke, there was nothing misleading presented in the course of the show by any of the academics or Museum archaeologists interviewed. I would have more problems with the type of conclusion drawn by the producer voiced by the narrator.
The first papyrus
To come to the point, the attention focussed on one very important feature. When the bulk of the work was done, it was discovered that the inside of the binding was the first discovery in Ireland of papyrus. This was not to be expected given the climate in Ireland. Egypt’s dry climate is ideal for papyrus; this is found less commonly and in poor condition on the continent; and in Ireland, it was never found at all until this one case. In the course of his conservation work, Mr Gillis visited San Gallen to view similar manuscripts. Following the confirmation that the cover of the psalter did indeed contain papyrus, he went to the Coptic museum in Egypt to examine their book-binding practices, which were remarkably similar. Which prompted the deduction that definite proof connected the early Irish Church with the Coptic Church of Egypt.
 

First we need to be careful about the noun Copt.  It is derived from the Arabic qubt, which is based on the Greek word for Egyptian, Αἰγύτιοι. The Copts are ethnic Egyptians where as most Egyptian Moslems are Arabs in origin. In time this came to have a particular denominational meaning. The Coptic Church is monophysite: it holds that Christ has one nature. There is some diversion as to whether this means that Christ was solely divine or whether by nature was a fusion between the divine and the human, but essentially it believes Christ has no separate human nature. It is noteworthy that the Director of the National Museum, Dr Patrick Wallace was much more nuanced in his approach and spoke of the “monastic church of Egypt”. Though the monophysite position was defined by the Council of Chalcedon in 450 and debated long before that, it took centuries to take shape and it was some time before it was a unanimous position among Egyptian Christians. Likewise, RTÉ uses the term “Roman Catholicism” to refer to a denomination which has never described itself as Roman Catholic. Initially the Church used the designation “Great Church” and after the Great Schism, the western Church referred to itself as Latin Christendom. The term Roman Catholic seems to have been invented by Anglican theologians to designate the Catholic Church as it became after the reformation.  So the application of either term in the context of either Ireland or Egypt in the early ninth century can be misleading.
Desert Fathers
Even without the trace of the papyrus in the manuscript, we can say that there was an Egyptian influence on the early Irish church. The early Church in Egypt left a mark on all Christianity, or at least on any Christian denomination with a role for monasticism. This would exclude most of the Protestant world, but from the High Church wings of the Anglican and Lutheran communions through to the Assyrian Church of the East, there is a plethora of churches in which monasticism has a central importance.  This has been the case since St Anthony of Egypt became the first monk in the third century, following the example of St Paul of Thebes, who was the first acknowledged hermit. Both men were venerated in Ireland, appearing in literature, on high crosses and in many other contexts which marks their special significance. There is no doubt that the spirituality of the Desert Fathers made a deep impression on the Irish Church, which developed as a strongly monastic church to an extent that it took until the 12th century to set up an universally accepted diocesan structure, paving the way for the episcopal church we are acustomed to now. In this way, one appreciates the claims of Eastern Orthodox and Oriental Orthodox (i.e. Churches which reject the Council of Chalcedon on various grounds, and who are not in communion with Constantinople nor Moscow; nor necessarily with each other) that the early Irish church was one of them more than similar assertions from Anglicans or Presbyterians.

Of course the development of the Irish Church, and the Egyptian influence on it, was a lot more complex. Firstly, geographical and political factors played a part. In the absence of towns, Ireland was more suited to the development monasteries associated with the tribal federations who ruled Ireland. The Desert Fathers provided a tremendous inspiration in the absence of a cult of martyrs. But the most important source of this influence was not directly from Egypt, but through the Church in Gaul. Gaul was a centre of Greek and Alexandrian influence up to and after the evangelisation of Ireland and figures such as St Martin of Tours bowed to the example of Ss Paul and Anthony. The life of St Martin by Sulpicius Severus was as widely read as the life of St Anthony by St Athanasius. St Patrick was considered the nephew of St Martin, as he was also believed to be St Mel’s uncle. To understand this, we have to understand the importance of the nephew in Irish ideology, specifically the “sister’s son”. Cú Chulainn was the son of Conchobair MacNessa’s sister, as many of the heroes had this relationship with the kings they served, so the poetry of Bláthmac, an eighth century monk, explains the incarnation in terms of Christ being the “sister’s son” of all mankind, the nephew of Man.  The early Irish monks did not literally believe St Martin was St Patrick’s uncle, but rather used the relationship to stress the spiritual descent of the first patron. In other words, that Irish Christianity was derived from Gaul.
Egyptian influence in perspective
This is not to deny the Egyptian influence, but rather to put it in perspective. As Gaul suffered the barbarian assaults (already evident in St Patrick’s lifetime), Gaul became less important and the Irish Church developed a life of its own which would gradually spread through the whole of Europe. It continued to take inspiration from Egypt and elsewhere, Syria and Armenia included. But this appeal was not unique to Ireland. St Anthony was venerated across Europe at the time. St Augustine, mentions both Ss Paul and Anthony in his Confessions and very much imitates them in his monastic legacy. Many centuries after the decline of the Coptic Church, the Russian monastic pioneers imitated the desert spirituality in Russia’s vast wilderness. Though Ireland had no desert, the old Irish dísert came to mean a retreat away from population. But we would get a wrong impression to think this was unique to Ireland, even n the Latin West.

The Egyptian church found other ways of expanding its influence. First of all, Egyptians who accepted the hypostatic union had to go elsewhere. Secondly, Egypt’s monasteries became the prey of multiple attacks from pre-Islamic Arab raiders from the fourth century on. Finally, the Islamicised Arabs supplanted Egyptian autonomy and very soon, the Copts were a minority in their own country. All this meant that there was a steady stream of refugees from Egypt and some of these found there way to Ireland.
Oriental influences
The appearance of a Coptic cover on an Irish psalter is nothing which should cause surprise. The blue pigmentation in other manuscripts is lapis lazuli, which is imported from the Middle East. No one suggests a strong Persian influence in Irish Christianity though. The more important point is that the Fadden More Psalter, like the Book of Kells and the Book of Durrow, is written in Latin, as are all texts of the canonical scripture or liturgical importance, together with a great deal of sacred and secular literature in contemporary Ireland. One could argue about the knowledge of Greek in Ireland of the time. There is no doubt that it was known and that it was probably more widely known here than elsewhere in the West, but it never assumed anything near like the importance that Latin had. In this context, it is harder to make a strong case for a particularly close link between Ireland and the Churches of the East, exclusive of any relationship with our sister Churches in the West.

Nevertheless, the programme made one important point. Christianity was established in the Middle East and in its early centuries was divided over three continents. As such it was far from a uniform body, which meant that a church in the far West such as Ireland could absorb oriental influences in addition to the Latin and Gallican stamp that was left on the church. But the programme makers were unable to bring the consequences of this home. In the first place, building so much around the fall of Rome in 476, when the eastern Christian world would say that the Roman Empire continued to exist until 1453, was very much in keeping with the western view of history.  It is interesting nonetheless that everyone accepts the decline of Rome in secular terms from the late fifth century and few correlate this to the increasing importance of the Roman Church through the same period. Secondly, though the programme stated the Coptic Church is thriving, it did not acknowledge the difficulties faced by Copts in their home country right up to the recent martyrdoms in Libya nor the even worse situation of Christians of ancient churches in other Islamic countries. A Christianity which flourished while our own ancestors worshipped idols was to disintegrate due to internal dissension and external persecution over many centuries. It is certain that these churches, particularly that of Egypt, left a mark on the Irish Church among other churches. But it would be a mistake to assume that this was a pre-eminent influence above all others. That is what the programme tries to do.

The Brandsma Review, Issue 136, January-February 2015

Father Standun's Obsession

FATHER STANDÚN'S OBSESSION

by JOHN HENEGHAN

SOBAL SAOL. By Pádraig Standún.  Cló Iar-Chonnachta.  224pp.  €12.00

IN this novel we see more of the constant occupation of Pádraig Standún with sexual mores.  This time we are dealing with a separated couple in the Gaeltacht.  Máirtín Mac Cormaic, a writer for a soap opera, is constantly under pressure to find new themes for Béal an Chuain; if he fails he will lose his job.  Justine, his separated wife also features.  The only thing they agree on is their love for their son Cian.

The contemporary life of the Gaeltacht is contrasted with the lifestyle in times gone by, now on its last legs.  We see further evidence of Standún's obsession with the sexual theme in the description of both Máirtín - who has a one-night stand with Sinéad after a night's binge drinking - and Justine's weekend trip to Cork with James McGill.  To say the least this recurring theme is not edifying.  It is ironic that it should come from a celibate male priest who should uphold the teaching of the Church.

The pub is used as a social instrument to give a glimpse into the lives of the characters.  These are not developed, however, and function solely to perpetuate the main theme of the novel.  Máirtín manages to pick up some themes for the soap opera by buying a senile old man some drink.

The teaching of the Church is challenged, with Máirtín's mother Bríd committing suicide because of her fear of ending up in a nursing home.  So the current lifestyle in the Gaeltacht is contrasted with the old-fashioned values now only left among some old people - and evern this ebbs away with Bríd's suicide

The whole work is another variation of the writer's usual tune.

The Brandsma Review, Issue 84, May-June 2006.

Rev Pádraig Standún is a priest in good standing of the Archdiocese of Tuam.  He has written several novels in the Irish language about life in the Connemara Gaeltacht.

An Insular Look at Irish Catholicism

AN INSULAR LOOK AT IRISH CATHOLICISM

by PEADAR LAIGHLÉIS

IRISH AND CATHOLIC? Towards an understanding of identity.  Edited by Louise Fuller, John Littleton and Éamon Maher.  The Columba Press, Dublin, 2006.  256pp

A CAMEL could be a horse designed by a committee.  One would think that 16 academics might do better on the topic of Irish Catholic identity.

The phrase "Irish Catholic" rolls off the tongue easily, but neither word follows from the other.  As the universal faith, Catholicism does not mix with any particular ethnicity.  It is the very contrary of what Judaism is to the Jews or the Armenian Apostolic Church is to Armenians.  Nevertheless, Catholicism has left its mark on a great many nations, regions and peoples globally - of which Ireland is one.

This is why I find this book puzzling.  Why is France the only other model of a Catholic nation/culture with which Ireland is compared? It is probably true that most Irish Catholics, if asked to name a number of Catholic countries, would mention France, Spain, Portugal, Italy or Poland.  Though Ireland has much in common with each of these, they are not the best comparisons.  Four have long histories as sovereign Catholic states, whose Catholic communities have had to learn to live with major anti-Catholic influence since the 19th century.  The fifth was so big that none of its occupiers tried to impose another faith upon it and its 45 years of communist persecution did not come near what its neighbours suffered.
Netherlands and Quebec
The better models are less obvious.  For example, the Netherlands.  The Dutch Church was a minority that withstood centuries of persecution, to be one of the most religious societies in Europe, producing more missionaries in absolute terms than any other country.  The Dutch Church collapsed in the 1960s.  Outside Europe, Quebec was a similar example - an oasis of Catholicism in North America until the "Quiet Revolution" of the 1960s.  This saw Quebec go from being one of the most Catholic cultures on earth to being one of the most secular.

Where is the contrast?  Irish Catholicism, like Dutch and Quebecois Catholicism, is a case of a persecuted people who collectively and successfully resist that persecution.  But the resistance is based on a strong community effort - and when people collectively fail, that is it.  It will be interesting, maybe terrifying, to see how Lithuania copes with western secularisation.  Further removed are Bavaria and Slovakia, where Catholicism was a strong badge of regional identity in the face of oppression (Prussia and the Czech lands respectively), but this was not sustained for such a long time in either case.

That is personal opinion - the contributors don't deal in such analysis.  So their response to the particular crisis in Irish Catholicism, or the relationship between Ireland or the Irish and Catholicism is made in isolation.  Ireland is not even properly defined.  It appears to me that most contributors use it to mean the territory of the independent Irish state, ignoring the Catholics in the North, for whom the identity as Irish Catholics is a lot more important than south of the border.
Mother and Child Scheme
In respect of the Catholics in the South, there are many question marks.  I would ask the next commentator who refers to the Mother and Child Scheme two questions:

• Why was this piece of legislation passed without substantial amendment in the administration immediately following the First Inter-party Government? (Yes, I mean the Fianna Fáil administration led by Éamon de Valera).
• Why do commentators, particularly liberal churchmen, never mention that Noel Browne had a theological advisor - Rev. Professor P. Francis Cremin?

I could add more. For example, one of the reasons de Valera lost power in 1948 was the manner in which Fianna Fáil handled the striking national teachers.  This group normally voted Fianna Fáil.  In the course of the dispute, the government ignored entreaties by John Charles McQuaid.

Similarly, the 1937 Bunreacht an hÉireann is presented as an unequivocally Catholic document.  It is nothing of the sort.  Essentially it is the application of Anglo-American constitutional tradition to Ireland.  It does contain some very theological-sounding language in its human rights clauses.  But there are secular schools of natural law which use similar language.  The American Declaration of Independence, Constitution and Bill of Rights, all of which had a huge influence on de Valera's republican movement, often used the same sort of language.

Landmark Supreme Court cases draw on American precedents in constitutional cases - not on Apostolic Signatura judgements.  Right now, the United States Supreme Court, with its Catholic majority, probably takes more from Thomism and the Irish Supreme Court probably looks more to the Enlightenment.  The Constitution in each country is what their respective Supreme Court says it is.  I officer this as a criticism of the view that the constitution is ipso facto a Catholic document.
Example to other countries
The Constitution is a deocument in which we ought to take a great deal of pride.  It is the oldest constitution in use in any state in which the human rights articles are part of the original document.  In 1949, Adenauer looked to the Irish Constitution as one of the models for the German Federal Constitution.  At roughly the same time, Nehru used it as an important model for the Constitution of India.  Somehow, I think this needs to be pointed out.

If the contributors do not see the constitution in context, neither do they see other facets of Irish and/or Catholic life in context.  More than a few contributors refer to the problems of sexual and physical abuse by priests and religious.  I deny neither that this is a major problem nor that the response of dioceses and religious congregations has been inadequate to say the least.

However, if one were to do a vox pop on the streets of major Irish cities, I would bet that many people perceive paedophilia as exclusively a problem of Catholic clergy and religious.  In fact the rate of offence is pretty consistent across all religious denominations, and offence by clergy (including rabbis, imams, bonzes, etc) is but a small percentage of the total.  This is something opinion makers should point out.

I suppose the most fatuous remark in the book comes from Dr Colum Kenny:

It is my belief that there is little evidence that the media in general was ever hostile to the Catholic Church in Ireland.  (p.98)

I cannot accept this - though I would agree with Dr Kenny's thesis that the media cannot be primarily blamed for the current crisis in the Catholic Church in Ireland.  When Mrs Margaret Heckler was stepping down as United States ambassador to Ireland in January 1989, she singled out the manner in which the Irish media dealt with the Church for special mention.  Others have repeated this: Damien Kiberd, former editor of The Sunday Business Post; and Dr Desmond Fennell come to mind.  Father Brian McKevitt OP has concerned himself with this problem for more than 20 years.

There were two Opinion pieces in The Irish Times about the Drogheda Mass [ie. Mass on Easter Sunday 2006 in the Augustinian Church in Drogheda, where the principal celebrant, Rev Iggy O'Donovan OSA invited the local Anglican rector to concelebrate with him and his two confreres] by another contributor to this book, Patsy McGarry - one after the Mass itself and then again after the apology [Fathers Iggy O'Donovan, Noel Hession and Richard Good were required by the Augustinian provincial to apologise to Cardinal Brady, in whose diocese the Mass took place, for their public breach of canon law in doing so].  This sort of partisan approach is seen across the whole media.  Views of people such as David Quinn are the exception which proves the rule.  Mr McGarry's own contribution essentially makes the point that the Catholic Church was nice and liberal until the Famine, but that then it became overly prudish and controlling.
Political correctness
What academics do to appear sophisticated is too predictable.  So when Eugene O'Brien deals with Father Ted and deconstuction, he seems to derive pleasure in repeating a four-letter word.  The comedy was discussed in this Review by Joe McCarroll, who pointed out it is was little more than a rehash of the drunken Irishman and the idiotic Irishman, but that they put on clerical collars to make it more politically correct.

There is nothing new about satirising clergy.  Even Dermot Morgan had an earlier clerical persona, Father Brian Trendy.  Some of us remember the insufferable Leave it to Mrs O'Brien, in which the central character was a priest's housekeeper.  The parish priest there was played by Pat Daly, who himself featured in Hall's Pictorial Weekly as Canon Romulus O'Dowd.

Long before the advent of electronic media, priests featured in jokes and folktales.  Not all were complimentary and some even had teeth.  But the extent to which these academics would rely on folklorists and/or anthropologists to demonstrate the evolution of Father Ted.... I would have thought deconstructionists would have an interest in this.

In relation to literary criticism, what the contributors are determined to see in a collection of second-rate writers, I am not sure.  It is true that good points are made by three of the analysed writers - John Broderick is noted as having hated the new Mass; Brian Moore wrote a novel, Catholics, about a monastery off the south-west coast continuing to use the old Mass, but the novel is a vehicle to express the disappointment of Ireland's Massgoers at the liturgical changes.  This would be a very interesting point to examine: in particular why, in spite of so much discontent, no formal traditional movement emerged in Ireland until much later.

Patsy McGarry makes a very fair point, which needs development, that the changes shook the older generations' faith.  They continued to practice out of cultural habit, but the younger people detected a shock.  I believe this was true, and I am waiting for some analysis of the monies spent on re-ordering of churches in the face of widespread objection - in spite of the fact that the Second Vatican Council provided no mandate for such changes.  I think this, rather than Humanae Vitae, ate into religious practice.  It is true that reaction to Humanae Vitae kicked in later, but not immediately.

This brings me to a third author in the survey - Dermot Bolger.  There is no doubt that Dermot Bolger is a liberal who broadly accepts the sexual revolution as a good thing.  But he also loves to shock.  In his earlier writings, he attacked Catholic icons.  Now, he uses religion to make his secular audiences uncomfortable.  But he does raise questions about the present direction of Irish society.  The only other contributor who raises this question is Father Patrick Claffey SVD.  Father Claffey gives a reminiscence of his formative years in Co Roscommon prior to joining the Divine Word Missionaries and leaving Ireland, then his experience on return.  Father Claffey gives no nostalgic account of the past, but does give a critical view of the present.
Missed opportunities
This book is filled with missed opportunities.  It is easy, and even popular, to dismiss the past.  It is a lot more important to criticise the present.  The contributors fail to do this.  They fail to address the question of Catholic identity in general and the world-wide crisis of identity  among Latin-rite Catholics.  This is because they approach Irish Catholicism in isolation.

Though it is true that the concept of Irish identity which was popular between independence and the outbreak of the Northern Ireland conflict was very narrow and even flawed, the contributors fail to criticise the absence of a common view of Irish identity ever since, or how patriotism devolved into following the triumph (or otherwise) of international sports contestants.

Northern Ireland need not exist for all the attention it gets in this volume.  And if you thought the book was directed at an educated readership, Father John Littleton gives a translation of all the Latin terms he quotes in his article.

One of the contributors adapts a line from Frank McGuinness's play Innocence, about the artist Caravaggio: "I have looked on God and found him lacking".  To paraphrase both, I read the book...and found it lacking.

The Brandsma Review, Issue 84, May-June 2006.

I have added notes in square brackets to explain the significance of the Drogheda Mass referred to above which was current when this article appeared.

Oliver Plunkett: A Saint Betrayed by his own

OLIVER PLUNKETT: A SAINT BETRAYED BY HIS OWN

by PEADAR LAIGHLÉIS

In proprio venit et sui eum non receperunt-St John, 1, 11

SEÁN Ó RIORDÁIN'S poem Fill Arís contains one memorable line: Dún do intinn ar a tharla ó bhualadh Chath Cionn tSáile (Close your mind to what happened since the defeat at Kinsale).  The Battle of Kinsale in 1602 marks the beginning of the end of the Gaelic Order in Ireland.  Gaeldom, at least in Ireland, was necessarily Catholic.  When Gregory XIII introduced the calendar reform in 1582, this was accepted throughout Catholic Europe, including the courts of the O'Neill and the O'Donnell.  So as Mountjoy's troops fought the Battle of Kinsale in December 1601 under the old style which England would continue to use until 1752, the more advanced Gaelic Irish and their Spanish allies engaged them in January 1602.  The fact that the Julian date of 1601 is impressed upon our minds indicates the extent of the Protestant victory.

In 1607, the Ulster princes left Gaelic Ireland leaderless.  From then on, most initiative would fall to the Sean Gall or Old English, the descendant of the Anglo- and Cambro-Norman who maintained Catholicism and as a result were only now coming to terms with the Irish identity.  These Hiberno-Normans were adept at the law and parliamentary procedure and used both quite well until they found themselves outwitted by Lord Deputy Thomas Wentworth.  However, Wentworth was deposed in 1641 due to a temporary coincidence between Irish Catholic and Presbyterian interest which suited an increasingly assertive English Parliament for the time being.  After Wentworth, things got worse.

Confederation of Kilkenny

The Gaels could not bear it and proceeded with the 1641 Rebellion, unfortunately missing their objective of taking Dublin Castle.  This was followed in 1642 by the inaugural meeting of the Confederate Catholics of Ireland, better known as the Confederation of Kilkenny.  The Catholic Confederacy was the most incredible gathering of Irish clergy and laity in modern Irish history.  It sat as a parliament, raised an army and even chartered a university in Limerick.  One could dream about the possibilities, but Gael and Norman clashed with each other and no one took the bigger picture of the civil wars raging in England and Scotland into account.  When Charles I was executed in 1649, the Confederacy was doomed.

In 1646, the original papal envoy  Father Scarampi left Ireland to make way for the incoming Nuncio, Archbishop Rinuccini.  This was shortly after the great victory of Owen Roe O'Neill at Benburb and Ireland was full of hope.  Scarampi took a number of young men with him to study for the priesthood in Rome.  One of these was Oliver Plunkett.

Oliver Plunkett was born in Meath in 1625.  He came from an old Norman family and many of his relatives were titled nobility, both Catholic and Protestant in persuasion. One of the 19th century Anglican Archbishops of Dublin was a relative, as was George Noble Count Plunkett, the first Foreign Minister and his better known son, the executed rebel Commandant Joseph Mary Plunkett. This was in the future.  The young man was tutored by his cousin, a Cistercian priest named Patrick Plunkett who held the title Abbot of St Mary's (Dublin) and who subsequently served a as Bishop of Clonmacnois and then Bishop of Meath.  At the age of 16, the student was judged to be ready to attend seminary in Rome.
Cromwellian Settlement
The Protestant ascendancy set up Trinity College in 1591 to provide for the education of young men of promise.  The Catholic recusants found the Counter-Reformation seminaries a lot more sympathetic and within a century, several Irish colleges sprung up on the continent.  Oliver Plunkett went to the Irish College in Rome, studying in the Roman Jesuit College, in Propaganda College and in the Sapienza.  His ability was recognised, and he spent most of his early priesthood teaching theology in Propaganda, while holding the office of a consultant on Ireland to the Roman Curia.  Ireland was going  through one of the worse periods in her history.  Cromwell laid waste to the country in his brief military campaign and his generals continued this.  The Cromwellian Settlement, colloquially summarised in the phrase "to hell or to Connaught" saw Catholic ownership of the land fall from 60% to about 20%.  For all that, the settlement was not nearly  as thorough as the Ulster Plantation of 1609.

Cromwell died in 1658 and the Commonwealth fell in 1660, but the restoration of Charles II was not to signal the return to the status quo ante.  In the words of Jonathan Swift:

Those who cut off the father's head, forced the son to fly for his life, and overturned  the whole ancient frame of government...gained by their rebellion what the Catholics lost by their loyalty.

There was to be no significant alteration in Ireland to what it had been under the Commonwealth.

In 1669, Oliver Plunkett was appointed to the vacant primacy.  He returned to Ireland on March 17, 1670 following a clandestine consecration to the episcopacy in Ghent.  The firs duty he had in Ireland was pastoral and over the next four years, he confirmed nearly 50,000 people of all ages - some as old as 60, and often in the open air.  He turned to the topic of education.  At a time when the Protestant establishment was all-powerful and no Catholic order was more despised than the Society of Jesus, he succeeded in establishing a Jesuit college in Drogheda.  Drogheda, notwithstanding the Cromwellian slaughter on 11 September 1649, was the second largest city in Ireland at the time.  Within a few months the school had an enrollment of  150, forty of whom were sons of Protestant gentlemen.  The school lasted a few years until its closure and destruction.

Though it was over a century after the Council of Trent, intermittent persecution in Ireland delayed the effective implementation of the Council decrees.  Archbishop Plunkett found this problem when he came to Ireland and set about correcting it.  This was his undoing.  Laxity in clerical discipline was subject to exaggeration, but nevertheless the conduct of some Irish priests left a lot to be desired.  Secondly, there was an age-old dispute between regular and secular clergy which made church government difficult.  Finally, a dispute arose between Dublin and Armagh in relation to the primacy.
Guerrilla warfare
Disciplinary problems within the Church took place in the background of one grave pastoral problem.  Many of the dispossessed Irish gentry took to the continent to join any of several armies.  Some stayed at home and conducted a campaign of guerrilla warfare against the British administration and those who now occupied their lands.  These Rapparees or Tories varied considerably between those who acted from the highest patriotic motives to those who degenerated into simple highwaymen.  However, they uniformly made the lot of the common people worse and present the Irish hierarchy with a problem.

Synod after synod condemned them, but Oliver Plunkett negotiated with the Tories in an effort to resolve the impasse.  Many priests working in the Armagh Archdiocese denounced the Primate for colluding with the authorities while the Archbishop of Dublin, Peter Talbot accused him of drawing too close to the felons.  The Primate had considerable success with his talks - many Tories left the country to join continental armies - but when a notable Rapparee, Patrick Fleming was killed by government agents in 1677 while travelling under Oliver Plunkett's safe conduct, many criticisms were made.

Oliver Plunkett sough to implement the Council of Trent reforms in Ireland.  A century of intermittent religious persecution made this difficult.  A proportion of the clergy led scandalous lives and the Primate went far beyond his diocese.  The Vicar Apostolic of Derry, Terence O'Kelly, was a notable offender, and he successfully used the civil processes to frustrate any attempt to bring him to book through the Praemunire clause.  Here, Archbishop Plunkett used his political skills to outmaneuver the wily prelate. At the same time, several priests - diocesan and religious - were censured for grave deficiencies in their ministry and personal lives.  This made the Primate many enemies.

The relationship between the members of religious orders and the diocesan clergy had been very difficult from the days of St Patrick and this was something Oliver Plunkett did his best to address.  However, there was a dispute between the friars of the Franciscan and Dominican Orders.  The Franciscans argued the Dominicans should not be invited into the Armagh Archdiocese.  The Primate disagreed and extended the invitation, earning him the enmity of the very powerful Franciscan order.

The contemporary Archbishop of Dublin, Peter Talbot, came from a noble family associated with Malahide Castle (his brother, Richard, was later Duke of Tyrconnell and would serve as James II's viceroy).  Archbishop Talbot was aware of the growing importance of Dublin in Ireland and proposed that the Archbishop of Dublin should be primate.  Archbishop Plunkett answered with a tract defending Armagh's position.  Talbot responded to this and both tracts were published on the continent.  This was the beginning of a long-standing dispute between the two metropolitans.
The Popish Plot
If we focus on the internal politics of Irish Catholicism in the 1670s, we should not forget that the overall position of the Church in Ireland was precarious to say the least.  Just how delicate the situation was became apparent when Titus Oates hatched the infamous "Popish Plot".  Oates was a former Anglican minister with a history of trouble-making who had briefly studied in the English Jesuit colleges oin Valladolid and St Omer.  In 1678, he hurled wild allegations against Catholics in Britain and Ireland.  Nothing might have happened had not certain prominent anti-Catholics chosen to use this material.

The Popish Plot unleashed a new persecution against Catholics with saw Archbishops Plunkett and Talbot thrown into prison, with many others.  At this point the two were reconciled as Oliver Plunkett defied the guards to administer the last sacraments to Peter Talbot, as he died a martyr's death.

The Successor of St Patrick was to follow.  It was alleged that Oliver Plunkett had plotted to bring a French fleet into Carlingford Lough with an army of 15,000 men as part of the general conspiracy to overthrow Charles II.  A trial in Dundalk collapsed as a Protestant jury refused to convict the archbishop, so he was brought to London.
Clemency refused
There is one point which must be commented upon in Oliver Plunkett's trial.  Four of the prosecution witnesses were priests active in the Armagh archdiocese, two of whom were Franciscans.  It is a mystery how the Primate did not challenge his accusers, but long incarceration seriously damaged his health.  Following the trial and conviction, it was said he was already dead before he might have suffered from the more brutal elements of execution by hanging, drawing and quartering.

The action of priests against the Primate is a testament of how unwilling many Catholics were to accept the Tridentine reform, particularly priests.  There is a contemporary satire, Comhairle Commissarius na Cléire, which is believed to mock Oliver Plunkett and his work (and the author is believed to have been a priest).  Also there were many demands for clemency which Charles II refused to heed, one coming from the Earl of Essex who originally arrested him.  Charles told Essex he would have done more good by testifying at his trial.

Oliver Plunkett was executed on 11 July 1681 and was canonised by Blessed Paul VI on 10 December 1975.  His shrine at St Peter's Church, Drogheda, Co Louth attracts a steady stream of visitors.  His life and work continue to have revelance to our own day.

The Brandsma Review, Issue 86, September-October 2006

 

A Personal Reflection on Translating the Mass

A PERSONAL REFLECTION ON TRANSLATING THE MASS

by PEADAR LAIGHLÉIS

IN 1981, I went to Coláiste na bhFiann for the first time.  This was not in the Gaeltacht, but rather was an Irish-medium summer boarding school operated along modified military regulations.   Though it was not a Catholic institution, Catholic students had to attend daily Mass and rosary in Irish and to know all the Mass responses and mysteries of the rosary in Irish.

I quickly realised that there were differences between the Mass in Irish and in English.  As a 12 year old, I reasoned English was a major international language and Irish was a minority language even on its own turf, so the universal Church would ensure that English was correct, but Irish would probably fall under the radar.

One factor did strike me.  I read Scripture as a schoolboy.  Among my favourite Gospel stories was the healing of the centurion's servant (Matt. 8, 5-13).  I never made any connexion between this and "Lord, I am not worthy to receive you, but only say the word and I shall be healed", but the correct Irish, A Thiarna, ní fiú mé go dtiocfá faoi mo dhíon, ach abairse an focal agus leigheasfar m'anam, automatically brought this into my mind.  Even non-goidelophones will probably identify m'anam with anima mea.

I learned Latin in school, but it was a very long time before I attended any Latin liturgy.  However, after school (1986-88), I spent two years in an Augustinian community where a Polish novice announced that the English rendering of the Mass was a poor translation.  Our confreres didn't see the issue, but I took a vinyl recording of a Mozart Mass which gave parallel texts of the ordinary form in Latin and several other languages in its sleeve cover.  I looked at English and French and could see that the French was closer to the Latin than the English and, as far as I could see, this was the case with Spanish and Italian.  My memory of Mass in Irish confirmed that I was mistaken as to which language gave a better translation.
Closer to the Latin
Two years later (1989), I went to Germany for the first time and began to learn German.  I lived in the cathedral parish in Stuttgart and attended Mass there several times a week (work permitting).  I saw that the German Mass was also much closer to the Latin proto-Mass than the English.  I returned to studies in Maynooth where I made the acquaintance of a retired New York businessman, originally from Clones, who had studied for the Pallottine society in Thurles 50 years before.  He frequently made the point that the English translation of the Mass was very poor. This man, now deceased, made many friends among the student body and was very generous towards the college's deacons.  I don't believe I was the only one who heard this argument.

From 1990 to 1991, I was publicity office of Maynooth Students' Uinon and my principal duty was the production of a student journal.  I followed the principle that this magazine was for all Maynooth students rather than just a few vocal, radicalised and promiscuous lay students in the Arts Faculty.  This meant having a religious affairs column.  The English translation of the Mass was one of the first targets in a moderately conservative opinion piece.  This can be seen in St Pat's Chat, Volume 3, No.1 in the John Paul II Library in Maynooth.  This was over 20 years before the emergence of the new English translation.

Over the next decade I became acquainted with the late Proinsias Ó Fionnagáin SJ, a Monaghan-born linguist and historian.  An tAthair Ó Fionnagáin told us that he studied the draft of the English Mass following its publication in 1971 and then wrote to his provincial to tell him that he was prepared to say Mass according to the 1969 Missal in Latin, in French and in Irish, but he was not prepared to do so in English as the translation departed too far from the Latin original.
Ambiguous phrase
At the same time, I did some work on assisting the translation of the Divine Liturgy of St John Chrysostom into Irish under the direction of the late Archimandrite Serge Keleher (for reference rather than liturgical use, though the Irish has been used from time to time).  Mgr Keleher insisted that the translation be as literal as possible in regard to the Greek and Old Church Slavonic typical editions.  Translations into English, French, German and Italian were looked at, but none was followed as a model.  The archimandrite's view of the English version of the Roman Mass was that it was a model of how not to do things.

Versions of the Mass in other languages are often far form perfect, but English has been particularly egregious in its departure from Latin.  This has been accentuated by the use of English rather than Latin as a template for new translations in mission territory.  But other versions have their problems.  For example, German renders pro multis as für alle, which is the same as the inaccurate English "for all"; für viele* would be correct.  The committee who drew up the Irish translation of the Mass wished to use ar son chách, which is "for all".  (Father Benedict** used ar son na sluaighte-"for  the hosts"-in the Latin-Irish missal in use before the liturgical changes.  This is ambiguous.***)

At the time the draft Irish missal was in circulation, the then Archbishop of Tuam, Mgr Joseph Cunnane announced he would not permit this version of the Mass to be said in his diocese.  Tuam has the largest Gaeltacht of any Irish diocese and Archbishop Cunnane held a masters of arts in Irish as well as an earned doctorate in divinity****.  The compromise formula was ar son an chine dhaonna which literally is an ambiguous "for the human race", which seems to follow the French pour la multitude.  French is the only major European language which does not translate pro multis as "for all".  One suspects it is more than a coincidence that several translation committees made the same deviation from the Latin.
Impoverished version
After four decades of discussion, the new missal in English is ready and is being rolled out in a piecemeal manner, which varies considerably from diocese to diocese.  In Meath, this has been more progressive than in Armagh or Dublin.  In Meath, one could remark on the similarity between the English and the German Masses at a very early stage.  The translation goes beyond mere accuracy.  The language of the new missal is more sacral and formal than previously.  It has also evoked the anger of an ageing generation of clerics who seem to think nobody wanted this.  I wrote this piece to illustrate how that has never been my experience.l

Anglophones are not renowned for learning other languages, but the monoglot nature of the opposition to the new translation astounds me, especially in a country where there are two vernacular languages, one of which is more faithful than the other to the ordinary form Latin Mass.  A cursory comparison between the Confiteor or Gloria in English with that in Latin or another language will show not only how inaccurate, but also how impoverished the current English version is.  It has been pointed out that the arguments against the new translation have been very patronising towards the majority of the faithful.  However the main issue seems to be the alleged exclusivity of the language.
Inclusive Turkish
This is a case of déjà vu.  Similar arguments were brought out in relation to the tardy English translation of the Catechism of the Catholic Church nearly 20 years ago.  But the arguments regarding exclusivity/inclusivity are themselves products of a monoglot mentality.  Most other languages have a marked tendency towards so-called exclusivity.  German is particularly "bad".  I am informed Turkish on the other hand is a model inclusive language.  How many people would entertain the argument (which no doubt has been made from time to time) that women in Turkey are in a better position that women in Germany or Austria?  The females among Germany's large Turkish community certainly have not said much about this.

In our own country, one of the most prestigious positions in the Irish public service is that of Chairman of the Revenue Commissioners.  The current Chairman is a woman and there are no deafening cries to call her "chairperson".  I also recall informal situations where females addressed mixed audiences as "guys" or "lads" with no objection, but although "men" was accepted formally in the same sense into the late twentieth century, this is no longer the case.  My own view is that this should not be an issue and the translators might have considered there was little point in allowing an argument to develop.

For all that, there are problems with the new English translation.  It is not one of the glories of the English language.  The proclamations "The Word of the Lord", "The Gospel of the Lord" and "The Mystery of Faith", though common for a long time in the United States, grate on this writer's ears, as the announcement seems to have little connexion with anything.  The flow of the words is not as natural as in the case of Irish or German.

The previous translation was hardly beautiful either, though I suspect that the older translators were more familiar with English literature, especially English poetry, than those who worked on the current version.  The trouble is that the original translators let the English-speaking world down badly.  Much was lost and  in an era where Catholics were allegedly being persuaded to turn more toward Scripture, many of the biblical allusions in the Mass were contorted beyond recognition-even the Anglican communion service was closer to the Latin than the English Mass.  One hopes this is now addressed.
Protestant experience
However, one must understand that it is not at all easy to render the Mass in the vernacular, especially in a language so widely spoken as English.  The more liturgically-focused Protestant denominations have plenty of experience of these problems.  Our experience shows that revising something temporary is not easy and one still hears people using the responses introduced in superseded translations.  It will take a long time to get used to this one.
FOOTNOTES
* This is the translation given in the Schott Missal.  Father Anselm Schott was a Benedictine monk who compiled the most popular German-Latin missal in use prior to the liturgical changes.  Pope Benedict traces his interest in liturgy to receiving his first Schott missal as a young boy.
** Father Benedict of the Mother of God OCD who compiled the Latin-Irish missal in 1958 for Irish-speaking Catholics.
***  The Divine Liturgy of St John Chrysostom in Irish, a translation from Greek and Old Church Slavonic, uses ar son móráin, "for many".  This is the most accurate Irish version.  I have not seen any eastern Catholic liturgy of any linguistic origin using any formula other than "for many".
**** I am indebted to John Heneghan for this information.  He has done postgraduate research into the contribution of priests working in Maynooth to the Irish language, which includes the translation into Irish of the Missale Romanum and the Bible.  This was carried out in the years following the Second Vatican Council and merits an academic paper in its own right.  John was also able to tell me that the editor of the Bible translation, Rev Professor Pádraig Ó Fiannachta was dismissive of the Jerusalem Bible as a translation model.  This is typically used for readings at Mass in English in Ireland and Britain.

The Brandsma Review, Issue 117, November-December 2011.

An Bíobla Naofa: The First Catholic Bible in Irish

AN BÍOBLA NAOFA: THE FIRST CATHOLIC BIBLE IN IRISH
By JOHN HENEGHAN

ACOMMITTEE WAS established in 1945 to make an Irish version of the New Testament available. Seán Ó Floinn, Éamonn Kissane and Donnchadh Ó Floinn were on that committee. Donnchadh Ó Floinn was responsible for the translation through the 1950s particularly Mark 1-8. Pádraig Ó Fiannachta and Tómas Ó Fiaich guided Luke through the printing stage. Pádraig Ó Fiannachta, Colmán Ó Huallacháin OFM and Tómas Ó Fiaich were appointed to the Committee in 1966.

John was published in Irisleabhar Má Nuad in 1962 and most of the other books were published under the imprint of An Sagart. The basic Hebrew version was used to make the books available. The Jerome Biblical Commentary, and Peakes’ International Commentary were used as these were books with expert knowledge on the bible and they assisted the research that the scholars were undertaking.

Pádraig Ó Fiannachta hadn’t much regard for the English version of the Jerusalem Bible and he didn’t use the King James version either.

The only influence of Bedell (the older Protestant translation of the Bible into Irish) was to be found in the translation work of Joseph Duffy (later Bishop of Clogher). Padraig Ó Fiannachta made sure that each translator was assisted by a bible scholar with an L.S.S. as a basic qualification.
The Advisors
Pádraig Ó Nualláin OCSO: Tobit, Ecclesiastes, the Minor Prophets except Obadiah. He also did Hebrews.
Father Colmcille OCSO: The Psalms.  Máirtín Mac Conmara MSC wrote the forward to these.
Seán de hÍde SJ: Song of Songs.
Gearóid Ó Meachair: Forward to the Prophets.
Brendan Devlin: Isaiah.
Joseph Duffy: Ezechiel
Aibhistín Valkenburg OP: Jeremiah with the forward dedicated to Bedel.
Seán Mac Cárthaigh: Acts of the Apostles and Pauline letters except Hebrews.
Tomás Mac Aodha: 1-3 John.
Pádraig Ó Fiannachta translated : Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, Joshua, Judges, Ruth, 1-2 Samuel, 1-2 Kings, 1-2 Chronicles, Ezra, Nehemiah, Esther, Job, Proverbs, Sirach, and Mark cc. 9-16, John, James, 1-2 Peter, Jude, Apocalypse.
Seán Ó Caoinleáin advised Pádraig Ó Fiannachta with the Catholic Letters.

It was Caoimhín Ó Condúin C.M., who was an advisor to Padraig Ó Fiananchta to validate his own work. He was an advisor for Pentateuch, John and the Apocalypse. He had Father Dónall Ó Conchúir for the historical books as well as the information that is in the prefaces to the for the Wisdom books except the Psalms. Ó Fiannachta was also responsible for the Irish language in the General Introduction. He translated some of the introductions too because not everyone had good Irish.

He made an effort to ensure that the language was standardised and consistent throughout the work that started with the De Bhaldraithe Dictionary and reached its climax in 1977 with the Ó Dómhnaill Dictionary. Pádraig Ó Fiannachta was in correspondence with Muiris Ó Droighneáin about the standardisation also on a regular basis.
The other Advisors
Donald Ó Conchúir.
Sean Ó Caoinleáin.
Wilfrid Harrington OP.
Some other scholars were invited to make recommendations to the text as amendments:
Seán Mac Riabhaigh.
Pádraig Ó Nualláin OCSO.
Liam Leader.
Morgan Ó Curráin MSC.
Maolmhuire Ó Fiaich CSSp.

By 1977 there was an Irish version of each book published. Pádraig Ó Fiannachta got a grant from an Irish American Cultural Organisation through Cardinal Ó Fiaich to supply a single volume of the books. He promised do this within three years, he got two copies of each text as a heap of foolscap pages and he attached the text in the middle of the pages, he corrected them, he standardised them with help from other scholars, Muiris Ó Droighneáin particularly.  Then he prepared the text for the printer and went to the printer with IR£14,000 with paper which was bought from Clondalkin Paper Mills that were about to close but that were kept open for a extra few days.

There is a huge tea box in the Museum in Maynooth in which is the copy prepared for the printer and the various proof readings are there. The Bible was printed, bound ready within three years—27 months to be precise. Cardinal Ó Fiaich praised Padraig Ó Fiannachta’s work highly in the preface. It was accepted by the Church of Ireland as an authentic text and Archbishop Caird launched the second edition. A pocket edition was published after that and then it was published on CD-Rom in 1998. Pádraig Ó Fiannachta gave a chance to each of the scholars to read their work in proof format before submitting the final proofed version. He also dealt with the main business selling and commercial business arising from the bible
The Methodology and Analysis
As Pádraig Ó Fiannachta was the main worker on the translation, St John’s Gospel will be examined in detail, as he translated this himself. I chose this method as I don’t have Greek or Hebrew and as I am not a biblical scholar. Pádraig Ó Fiannachta himself recommended the Revised Standard Version (RSV) to me.

Ó Fiannachta adhers to the official standard for the most part; it is a style that is compact and precise that can be seen in it:

Thug Eoin freagra orthu. Déanaim féin baiste le huisce ar seisean ‘ach tá duine in bhur measc nach aithnid daoibh’ an té atá ag teacht i mo dhiaidh, nach fiú mé iall a chuaráin a scaoileadh (John 1: 26-27, An Bíobla Naofa, p. 1075).

The same style is adhered to throughout:

Tá an uair ag teacht—tá sí ann cheana nuair a chluinfidh na mairbh glór Mhac Dé agus iad seo a chluinfidh mairfidh siad. (John 5: 25, ibid. p. 1080)

If Ó Fiananchta’s version is compared to the RSV, some similariites and differences can be seen between them. In the English version the same concise style can be seen, but, as it was published in 1952, the English is somewhat archaic. In addition there are more notes at the foot of the pages in the English one, illustrating where the same stories can be found in the other Gospel stories. An example in critical thinking in biblical research is that of the woman accused of committing adultery which is found in the Irish Bible but is not found except as a footnote in the RSV:
John Eight

They went each to his own house, but Jesus went to the Mount of Olives. Early in the morning he came again to the Temple. The Scribes and the Pharisees brought a woman who had been caught in adultery and placing her in the midst they said to him…(John 7: 53-8: 4, RSV)

This was done in the light of the most recent research because the Church at the time wished to deemphasise the merciful Jesus in return to the original scriptural sense—the mercy of God was stressed in the 19th Devotional Revolution in reaction to the Jansenist heresy which all but omitted it. The Irish Bible was published as is known after the Second Vatican Council. In general, the Ó Fiannachta style follows the normal custom of bibles. It must be remembered that Pádraig Ó Fiannachta based his translation on the basic Hebrew version and also on the Greek version. It is an excellent effort and the talents of the translator must be praised.

John Heneghan (also Seán Ó hÉanacháin) has higher degrees in Modern Irish and extensive experience in second and third level Irish language education.  He lectures in the Training College of An Garda Síochána (the Irish national police academy) and also works for the force as a certified legal translator.

The Brandsma Review, Issue 128, September-October 2013

A Meditation on Aidan, Bede and the Saints of Northumbria

A MEDITATION ON AIDAN, BEDE AND THE SAINTS OF NORTHUMBRIA
By HIBERNICUS

For I am very much God’s debtor, who gave me such grace that many people were reborn in God through me and afterwards confirmed, and that clerics were ordained for them everywhere, for a people just coming to the faith, whom the Lord took from the utmost parts of the earth, as He once had promised through His prophets…Hence, how did it come to pass… that those who never had a knowledge of God, but until now always worshiped idols and things impure, have now been made a people of the Lord, and are called sons of God, that the sons and daughters of the kings… are seen to be monks and virgins of Christ?—Confession of St Patrick

FOR SOME YEARS I have been a regular visitor to the North-East of England, especially Sunderland; and grew interested in its early saints, Irish and English, whose story is recorded by St Bede the Venerable. As an amateur of no special expertise I offer some thoughts on what their story–particularly the lives of the early Irish missionary St Aidan and of Bede himself–tell us today.

Bede (672-735) was a monk of the twin monastery of Wearmouth-Jarrow (on the Rivers Wear and Tyne). In his Ecclesiastical History of England, completed c.731, he describes the history of the Faith in England, with particular reference to the conversion of his own people, whom we call the Anglo-Saxons. During the collapse of the Roman Empire these arrived in England, driving the native British (the Welsh) westward.  Bede is hostile to the Welsh for a variety of reasons including their failure (unlike the Irish) to evangelise the Saxons; he claimed they wished their conquerors to go to Hell. (I have met people with a similar mind-set in the present day.) Of the many stories he preserves, I tell only a few.  The Saxons were divided into many small kingdoms whose ruling dynasties and their war bands fought wars of mutual extermination. Over time, larger kingdoms emerged; in the early seventh century the Kingdom of Northumbria (northern England and much of the Scots Lowlands) was disputed between two dynasties; one, in the north, associated with the great fortress of Bamburgh where a seam of hard rock jutting into the sea forms a natural stronghold, one in the south very loosely associated with the old Roman settlement of York.

In 563 St Columba founded the monastery of Iona in the Western Isles of Scotland, and after his death in 597 his kinsmen supplied the abbots; from 623-652 Segene was abbot and collected traditions incorporated in the life of Columba written by a later abbot, St Adamnan. In 597 Pope St Gregory the Great sent missionaries to Kent, led by Augustine, the first Archbishop of Canterbury (then the capital of the kingdom of Kent, whose king Augustine converted).  Missionary activity extended (with some setbacks) to the neighbouring kingdoms. In the 620s Northumbria was ruled by Edwin of the southern dynasty (the sons of his ousted northern predecessor fled to the Scots, and were baptised in Iona). Edwin married a daughter of the Christian king of Kent, who came accompanied by Bishop Paulinus; in 627, after some hesitation, Edwin was baptised. Bede depicts the king and his courtiers debating whether to accept baptism, and presents a nobleman comparing human life to a bird flying out of the dark and storm into a lighted dwelling and then flying out none knew where, and suggesting that if the new religion offered knowledge and hope it should be accepted. Quite recently I read a review of a film depicting and implicitly justifying euthanasia for the senile, in which a character suffers delusions that a bird has entered the house; the reviewer noted an odd echo in this new pagan despair of Bede’s story of hope.
Many apostasised
In 634 Edwin was killed in battle with a Welsh king Cadwalla and the pagan Saxon ruler of Mercia (the English midlands), Penda. The evangelisation sponsored by Edwin proved superficial, and many converts apostasised; Paulinus and the surviving members of Edwin’s family fled to Kent, and a bloody struggle ended in 634 with the defeat of Cadwalla by the northern exile, Oswald. Oswald attributed his victory to St Columba, and appealed to Segene for missionaries.

St Aidan was the bishop who led these missionaries.  For reasons we shall see, Bede’s knowledge of him is fragmentary and coloured by his own agenda; but Bede emphasises Aidan’s humility, simplicity of life, and concern for the material and spiritual needs of the poor. He settled at Lindisfarne, an island connected to the mainland by a tidal causeway, its proximity to Bamburgh (across a bay) emphasised his royal sponsorship.  At times Aidan retired to a hermitage on the rocky Farne islands off Bamburgh, where his prayers were said to preserve the royal stronghold. Before Aidan learned Anglo-Saxon Oswald sometimes translated his spoken sermons (a forceful hint to the audience; a story about St Cuthbert later in Bede’s History suggests many ordinary people resented the new religion imposed onthem). Aidan did not, however, simply rely on royal favour. His monks were more like friars or missionary priests of later centuries, travelling the countryside from their base at Lindisfarne, than contemplatives. Aidan travelled on foot, so that he could speak with the ordinary people, rather than on horseback as noblemen did (when St Cuthbert, a later bishop of Lindisfarne, from being a warrior became a monk, it is emphasised that he gave up his horse). Bede emphasises his fasting and humility, his urging Oswald to be generous to the poor, his use of church funds to ransom slaves (many later ordained). Like St Patrick (of whom Bede was unaware) Aidan sponsored women’s religious communities (the first in England) under Hilda, a kinswoman of Edwin. Oswald was a warrior king (Bede’s account of his sanctity includes hints of a more ruthless side); in 642 he died in battle with King Penda (and was venerated as a martyr). His kingdom re-divided. His brother Oswy succeeded in the north; in the south Oswin, a kinsman of Edwin, became king. According to Bede, Oswin was on particularly good terms with Aidan and presented him with a particularly fine horse, which Aidan gave to a poor man. When they next met, Oswin protested, and Aidan asked whether he valued the son of a mare more highly than the son of God.  Oswin spent some time gazing thoughtfully into the fire; then publicly prostrated himself before Aidan, declaring that he would never again value the son of a mare above a son of God. Blessed Frederick Ozanam singled out this story as symbolising the effect of Christianity on the barbarian peoples; but this underplays the continuing violence of Anglo-Saxon politics. For Bede also describes how as bishop dined with the king, one of Aidan’s priests asked in Irish (which Oswin and his men did not understand) why Aidan was sad after Oswin had honoured him. Aidan replied (also in Irish) that he never saw a humble king before and feared Oswin was too good for this wicked world.
War to rescue mankind
In 651 Oswy attacked Oswin. Oswin’s outnumbered army dispersed; Oswin hid but was betrayed by a trusted follower and put to death on 19 August. (The Anglo-Saxons saw Jesus as a king waging war to rescue mankind and the Apostles as a sworn warband, who should die rather than abandon their leader; Bede’s account of Oswin’s fate echoes this.)  Oswy’s wife, a kinswoman of Oswin, persuaded him to found a monastery to expiate Oswin’s death; Bede’s mentor Abbot Ceolfrith began his monastic career there, and may have been Bede’s source.  Because Bede recorded Oswin’s justice and humility, the king was venerated as a saint; until the Reformation his shrine was at Tynemouth, and beside its ruins is a small brick Catholic church dedicated to Our Lady and St Oswin.  Twelve days after Oswin’s death, Aidan died after a long illness, in a tent beside the wooden church near Bamburgh. The spot is marked by a small shrine and stained-glass window in the present church (now Anglican) where pilgrims leave seashells and bits of paper with prayers.

It was said that as a young man watching sheep on the Melrose hills, Cuthbert saw Aidan’s soul ascending to heaven and this determined him to become a monk. This may symbolise how Aidan’s example influenced others.

The figure of this dog who is the angel’s messenger and companion should not be taken lightly… it signifies the Church’s teachers… So the dog ran ahead because the teacher first preaches salvation, and then the Lord as Illuminator cleanses the hearts (St Bede the Venerable, Commentary on the Book of Tobias).

Synod of Whitby
The Northumbrian church underwent many changes between the death of Aidan and the completion of Bede’s History. The greatest concerned differences between Irish and Roman usages, particularly concerning the calculation of the date of Easter. St Columbanus, working on the Continent at the beginning of the seventh century, encountered difficulties because of this discrepancy; in the 630s much of southern Ireland adopted the Roman usage. The leading opponent of this change, who denounced its proponents as heretics, was Segene, the abbot who sent Aidan to Northumbria.

Oswy’s queen, a daughter of Edwin brought up in Kent, followed the Roman usage. Those influenced by her circle included a young monk of Lindisfarne called Wilfrid, who travelled to Kent and then to Gaul and Rome. Observing the Gaulish bishops, who lived in great state, pontificated in great and beautiful churches and wielded considerable power and influence, Wilfrid decided this was more befitting to the glory of the Gospel.

After Oswy crushed the pagan king Penda in 655 the question of which usage should prevail caused political as well as religious tensions. In 664 a synod was held at Whitby, the monastery of Abbess Hilda, to decide the matter. Hilda, Cuthbert and others supported Bishop Colman of Lindisfarne in arguing for the usage of Iona; Wilfrid argued for the Roman observance. Oswy ruled in favour of Rome–because of the primacy of Peter, according to Bede, but political considerations were also involved. Colman, with those Irish and English monks who would not accept the decision, divided the relics of Aidan with those who remained (including Cuthbert) and left Lindisfarne for Iona and then Mayo, where they founded two monasteries. Wilfrid was later nominated bishop of Paulinus’ see at York. Bede had no doubt that the decision of Whitby was correct, but his account of the debate (imaginative rather than literal) allows Colman some cogent arguments and presents Wilfrid as more willing to concede the good faith of Columba and his followers than seems plausible (a biographer states Wilfrid called them heretics, whereas Bede emphasises that Aidan held the same faith as followers of the Roman observance). When describing the final departure of Colman and his monks Bede emphasises the austerity of their lives and their simple wooden dwellings.

The long and stormy career of St Wilfrid, involving many quarrels, exiles, travels to Rome and reinstatements, can only be touched on here. He was a bishop of a type which recurs in church history (there are prominent examples in nineteenth and twentieth century Ireland), more Roman than the Romans, confident of his own authority and righteousness, a great builder of stone churches in Hexham and other places, an amasser of wealth (used to influence kings to assist the church’s work; Wilfrid was personally austere). Wilfrid asserted justice as he saw it even against kings who previously supported him; in one of his exiles he conducted successful missionary work among the South Saxons and assisted them during famine; in his last years he worked with Irish churchmen to send English missionaries to the German pagans. During the great Irish Famine of 1845-49, when the Catholic bishop in York, John Briggs, divested himself of most of his possessions to help the Irish, a priest in Connaught wrote that he had shown himself the true successor of St Wilfrid.
The influence of Rome
Roman influence appears at its most attractive in Benedict Biscop, founder of the monastery of Wearmouth-Jarrow dedicated to SS Peter and Paul.  As a young nobleman Biscop accompanied Wilfrid on his first visit to Rome; as abbot of a monastery founded with a land grant obtained from the king, he returned several times. Biscop brought from Rome a wide range of books, making Wearmouth-Jarrow the greatest library and centre of biblical learning in northern Europe; its scriptorium for the production of biblical and other texts were far-famed. Biscop brought craftsmen who embellished the new stone monastic church with biblical paintings and stained glass (the first manufactured in Northumbria); a cantor from St Peter’s in Rome taught liturgical chant.  His works recall the “devotional revolution” of the nineteenth century in Ireland—the enthusiasm over new and ornate churches replacing smaller and nondescript houses of worship, and the propagation of colourful and intense continental devotions. Bede praises Biscop as one of those who give up earthly possessions to receive the kingdom of God, and a wife and family to foster spiritual children including Bede himself. In the nineteenth century St Benedict’s Catholic church was built to the north of the River Wear in Sunderland, a short distance from the Anglican church which incorporates the few remains of the Wearmouth monastery; for a long time it was served by Redemptorists (many Irish) and I attended it several times before realising that the St Benedict to whom it is dedicated is Biscop.
Ornament of Jarrow
The brightest ornament of Wearmouth-Jarrow was Bede himself. He was born on tenanted land owned by the monastery, and at the age of seven (when a warrior would begin his apprenticeship) was sent to the monastery where he spent the remainder of his life, latterly as deacon and priest; he saw himself as dedicated to God from infancy like the prophet Samuel. Bede is remembered as a historian, but he was above all an expounder of the Bible, writing commentaries on most of its books (several of which had not previously been systematically expounded).  These profoundly influenced later mediaeval commentary, and through English scholars at the court of Charlemagne (late seventh and early eighth centuries) passed into the main tradition of Biblical commentary and the Church’s Office; almost twelve centuries after Bede’s death, Pope Francis took his motto from Bede’s remarks on the calling of St Matthew, incorporated in the Office of that apostle. To the scholars of Charlemagne’s time, the age which had produced a Bede, whose last days had been recorded by a disciple in one of the classic descriptions of a holy Christian death, was truly a golden age.

Bede did not think he inhabited a golden age.  Apart from the endemic warfare of Anglo-Saxon England, the great works of the scriptorium could only be sustained from the labours of tenant farmers, and Bede was deeply concerned that the church should not lose sight of its responsibility to evangelise the people. Some think he himself was the son of tenant farmers, others that he was of noble birth, perhaps a kinsman of Benedict Biscop. Bede supported the efforts of successive abbots (some related to Biscop) to keep the abbacy from becoming a perquisite of the founder’s family. Believing monks should be like Melchisedec with no recorded earthly kindred, Bede did not record his own ancestry. Bede was concerned that the splendour of churches could be bought by laxity (he records a terrifying story of a skilled metalworker employed by an abbey which tolerated his vices because of his skill, who when taken ill cried out that he had seen hell and died in despair to the horror of all) and at the expense of evangelisation (he thought more, hence poorer, bishops, were needed for pastoral effectiveness). Worse still, since land grants to noblemen were generally resumed by the king at their deaths, whereas monastic land was held in perpetuity and exempt from tax, some noble families established bogus monasteries in which a few nominal monks, presided over by a supposed abbot, acted as frontmen for the real owners, thus scandalising religion and weakening the kingdom.
Ezra as model
In his last years Bede took as role-model Ezra the scribe who preached renewed observance to a people who had forgotten the law of the Lord. He reminded them of the missionaries who evangelised the English; he recalled the injunctions of Pope Gregory the Great in his works on the priesthood and his injunctions to Augustine’s missionaries; and Bede held up for imitation, in implicit contrast to contemporary misplaced opulence, the ascetic simplicity of the missionaries inspired by Columba. (Shortly before Bede wrote, Iona accepted Roman usage through a variety of influences, including contact with Northumbria; Bede saw this as a divine reward for Irish evangelisation of the English. Bede probably met Adamnan, who visited Wearmouth-Jarrow twice when Bede was a monk; Adamnan wrote an account of the physical lay-out of the Holy Land after meeting a Gaulish bishop who had visited it, and Bede later rewrote the book for the use of students of the Scriptures.) Bede visited Lindisfarne, still a centre of varied influences and pre-eminent for the cult of St Cuthbert, who after serving as abbot and later being called back from his hermitage to become a bishop, finally returned to Aidan’s former hermitage on the Farne Islands and died there in 687. The discovery some years later that Cuthbert’s body remained incorrupt (possibly through desiccation in dry sandy soil) cemented his cult, and he became the pre-eminent saint of the North of England. Bede wrote two versions of the Life of Cuthbert (adapting a pre-existing text) who is one of several great exemplars of the ideal churchman held up for imitation in Bede’s History; but behind Cuthbert Bede discerned another exemplar, Aidan. Since Cuthbert accepted the decision of Whitby, whereas Aidan died in the Columban usage, Aidan’s memory had been underplayed and the information available to Bede was fragmentary. His
account of Aidan is not just conventional history but resembles a modern brief for canonisation, intended to show how despite his liturgical practices Aidan exemplified the pastoral virtues needed in Bede’s own day.

Without Bede’s history Oswald, Cuthbert and Wilfrid might be remembered; Aidan and others would be mere names, or forgotten. Through Bede their memory spread across Latin Christendom (including Ireland; surviving Irish accounts of Aidan’s mission derive from Bede, with embellishments).  In the long, dark history of the relations between our two islands, the evangelisation of Northumbria and the interaction of its Irish and English saints is one of the brighter spots. The saints were remembered in the later Middle Ages, often in contexts combining devotion and brutal political power; they were remembered in the era of the Reformation, where Catholic controversialists emphasised Bede’s account of Pope Gregory as evangeliser of the English and the links with Rome renewed by Wilfrid and his disciples, while Protestants claimed Aidan and Columba as upholders of a purer Gospel. (Visitors to their shrines will also find copies of Orthodox icons, since they lived before the Schism.) The comfort many Christians outside the sheepfold have drawn from the Northumbrian saints is another fruit of their mission and Bede’s labours.
Work of Irish navvies
The recusant Catholics of Northumbria, when they had not enough priests of their own, preferred to look to the Continent rather than to Ireland, but from the early nineteenth century, as Irish immigrant labourers were drawn to the growing region whose mining industry was the technological seedbed for the invention and development of the railways, Irish missionaries accompanied them. The present cathedral of the diocese of Hexham and Newcastle, designed by Pugin, stands near Newcastle Central Station; it was built by Irish navvies, and its inner walls are decorated with the names of saints–on one side, reformation-era martyrs; on the other, the Northumbrian saints (Colman as well as Wilfrid). In the cathedral crypt is buried William Riddell, of a recusant family, Catholic bishop in Newcastle in 1847 when he died of typhoid caught while ministering to famine Irish.

In the 1830s, near the great iron bridge at Sunderland (the present bridge’s motto Spera in Deo once gave me hope at a dark time) an Irish priest built St Mary’s Church to serve the Irish who laboured in the docks and mines. It was consecrated by Bishop Briggs, encountered earlier in this narrative; beside it, where a multi-story car-park now stands, Irish Christian Brothers opened one of their first schools outside Ireland–certainly the first with a majority of non-Catholic pupils, whose parents thought any education better than none. The Irish dimension remained in later decades; there are many Irish names on the war memorial; St Patrick accompanies St Cuthbert and other English saints on the reredos; from the late 1930s to the early 1970s the parish priest was Canon O’Donoghue from Clonakilty in West Cork, who I suspect is responsible for the windows showing SS Martin de Porres and Maria Goretti, Thomas More and John Fisher. In the postindustrial city centre its congregation now come from further afield.

The story of the Catholic Irish on Tyne and Wear, with its hardships and struggles for self-betterment, should not be sentimentalised, just as the history of our own popular Catholicism, which has declined in recent decades as theirs has also declined, should not be sentimentalised. Both here and there many were flawed and some were worse. But those who in earlier life knew Catholics of an older generation and those who have studied accounts of earlier generations (even with all the limitations and selectivity of such accounts) know that some among them, and some of those who ministered to them displayed intense faith and love, and were often ill-rewarded (at least in this life) often by those who should have known better. It is the task of the Catholic present-day historian to seek in these remains (with due regard for truth, and confronting rather than wishing away what was truly false and wicked) exemplars for our own day, as Bede did for his time.
Not to be lost in darkness
It can make no difference to saints in heaven whether they are remembered on earth or not, and many saints will never be known there; but it can make a great difference to us. Through Bede’s labours, Aidan and the other saints preach still, teaching in how many different times and places the living Word shows those tempted to despair that when the bird flies from the hall it is not lost in darkness.

Lindisfarne was abandoned in the early ninth century because of Viking raids (recently depicted in a TV drama series from the Vikings’ viewpoint rather as football hooligans might regard their own rampages, with the monks seen as cowardly wimps). The monastic community settled in Durham, on an easily defended height surrounded on three sides by the River Wear. St Cuthbert is buried in the cathedral, with the skull of Oswald and other miscellaneous bones (some possibly of Aidan). The alleged relics of Bede are in the Galilee chapel (so called because when the cathedral was Catholic, eucharistic processions re-entered the cathedral through it, it was said that Jesus went before the disciples into Galilee). Over his grave a recent Anglican dean placed a quotation from one of Bede’s commentaries on the Gospel:

Christ is the morning star who when the night of this world is past brings to his saints the promise of the light of life and opens everlasting day.

This essay is dedicated to my great-uncle, once a monk of the Cistercian Order and afterwards a secular priest of the Archdiocese of Cardiff, who taught me to love the Extraordinary Form of the Mass; to his sister, a Loreto nun in Cheshire, North Wales and elsewhere in Britain, who gave her life to teaching the children of the poor and instructing converts; and to their brother, a faithful priest of the diocese of Ferns who spent ten years on the New Zealand missions. Pray for them and for all who followed faithfully in the footsteps of St Patrick, St Colmcille and St Aidan, so that through their intercession the flame of faith may re-illuminate our country.—Hibernicus

Hibernicus is a professional historian who has worked in a number of universities and higher institutes in Ireland.

The Brandsma Review, Issue 131, March-April 2014