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
One of the most beautiful and interesting of the old churches in Aran Mor
is that which is called in Irish, Tempull-na-Cheathair-Aluinn, the Church
of the Four Beauties; that is, according to O'Queely, of St. Fursey, St.
Brendan of Birr, St. Conall, and St. Berchan. It is, says Petrie, a small
but beautiful edifice of cut stone, and was lighted by three small
round-headed windows, so placed as to illuminate the altar, two being in
the side wall, and one in the east gable over the altar. In Petrie's time
this broken window was over-arched with ivy, woodbine, and thorny
brambles. The late restorations by the Board of Works have removed these
tangled growths, and revealed the little church in something of its
primitive beauty. The simple stone altar is still standing at which the
four beautiful saints officiated, and a small chamber, 6 feet long by 3
feet 10 inches in breadth, can still be seen within the wall on the west
side. It may have been used as a sacristy, or, perhaps, as the
dwelling-place of a recluse. There are cloghauns close at hand, which
were, doubtless, the cells of the four saints. Most interesting of all are
the four graves lately revealed, stretched side by side, within a small
enclosure under the wall of the church. It is truly a touching sight,
which few can see unmoved, when they think of the simple and holy lives of
these four beautiful saints; how they lived and loved together; how calmly
and how sweetly they rest under the shadow of those holy walls, where they
worshipped God; and how tenderly their memory is still cherished by
islanders after a lapse of more than twelve hundred years. Close at hand
is the holy well, whose crystal waters were their only drink; and near it
a large cloghaun about 20 feet in length, which seems to have been the
refectory, where they took their frugal meals together.
O'Queely's conjecture as to their identity is highly improbable, for the
four saints whom he names could not have lived together, and certainly
were not buried together in Aran Mor; whereas everything connected with
the Four Beauties would seem to show that they lived together around this
little church, and are buried without doubt in the four graves, that are
still to be seen side by side within their own enclosure. Such, too, is
the continuous living tradition of the islanders. There was, doubtless,
another group of churches at Kilronan, but all traces of them have
disappeared. About a mile north-west of Kilronan are the ruins of
Monasterkieran; close at hand is St. Kieran's Well, and the little harbour
itself is still known as St. Kieran's Bay; which show that the gentle
saint of Clonmacnoise founded a monastery in the holy island before he
finally left its rugged shores.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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