Insula Sanctorum et Doctorum; Or, Ireland's Ancient Schools and ScholarsHealy, John
History
Insula Sanctorum et Doctorum; Or, Ireland's Ancient Schools and Scholars
Healy, John
Education -- Ireland -- History
Their bodies were laid to rest beside the walls of
the little churches--their graves may still be seen stretched side by
side, and who can doubt that their sinless souls went up to God in heaven?
V.--ANCIENT CHURCHES IN ARAN.
Colgan has fortunately preserved for us a description of the old churches
of Aran, written about the year A.D. 1645, by the learned and accomplished
Malachy O'Queely, Archbishop of Tuam. It is very doubtful if O'Queely's
list, even in his own time, was quite accurate; with its help, however,
and such information as we were able to collect from the traditions of the
people, as well as from other sources, we shall give as full a list of the
existing remains as we can at present obtain.
In the townland of Killeany, O'Queely enumerates the following
churches:--(1) Killeany itself, that is, Kill-Enda, pronounced
Killeany--for Enda is pronounced Enna by the islanders. It was the parish
church, he tells us, and gave its name to the village, which is close at
hand. (2) There is the oratory of St. Enda, a much smaller building, close
to the sea shore, in which the saint himself was buried. It is called
Teglach-Enda, which probably means the tumulus, or grave-mound of Enda.
(3) There was another church called Tempull Mic Longa, doubtless founded
by the saint, whose name it bears, but of whom nothing further is known.
O'Queely says it was near the parish church, but the place cannot at
present be identified with certainty. (4) Tempull Mic Canonn, of which,
says O'Queely, nothing more is known. (5) Another church called Tempull
Benain, which gives rise to a very interesting question as to whether it
was dedicated to St. Benignus or founded by that saint. St. Benignus, the
elder, was dead before St. Enda first arrived in Aran; so it is more
likely this church was founded by 'Benen, brother of Cethech,' who was
also a disciple of St. Patrick. This Tempull Benain is one of the most
interesting ruins in the island, and is a very beautiful example of our
primitive stone oratories. (6) Another church was dedicated to the
Blessed Virgin, as was indeed usually the case in our great monastic
enclosures. (7) Then there was another church called Mainister
Connachtach--the Connaughtman's monastery--which O'Queely holds to have
been distinct from (8) Kill-na-manach, the latter being founded by, or
dedicated to, St. Caradoc--a British 'monk,' who is probably the same as
the celebrated St. Cadoc, the founder of Llancarvan in Wales.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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