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
In this great difficulty Fintan bethought himself of his uncle, St.
Brendan, just then established in Inchiquin; and to him he fled for
refuge. The saint received his kinsman kindly, and as he and his wife were
in danger of their lives, he allowed them to lodge for the time in the
hospice of Inchiquin. There within a few days the unhappy Gelges gave
birth to a boy, the future Fursey, the renowned saint of Ireland, and
England, and France. He was baptized by St. Brendan, and we are told that
so long as Brendan lived[190] he instructed the youth in all knowledge,
sacred and profane, and that the work was afterwards continued by his
disciple, St. Meldan, of Inchiquin. It is no wonder that Brendan,
remembering his own youth spent under the care of St. Ita and St. Erc, now
in his turn sought to give to this princely boy the same tender care, and
the same religious training which he had himself received. We can even
trace the vivid imagination of Brendan himself in the wonderful visions of
Fursey; and that same restless longing, _peregrinari pro Christo_, to
preach Christ in strange lands, which caused Brendan to sail the Atlantic
seas, caused Fursey to preach at first in Ireland, then in England, and
afterwards in France.
It is said in his life that Fursey founded a monastery of his own in the
Island of Rathmat, or Ramath, in Lough Corrib. This island cannot now be
identified, but on the shore of Lough Corrib, not far from Inchiquin, is
the old church and parish of Killursa, which bears his name, and of which
Fursey was undoubtedly the founder and the patron.
There is also a place near Inchiquin on the mainland called
Ard-fintain--Fintan's Height--near Headfort, which still gives its name to
the townland; and there are traces of an ancient rath in the place.[191]
It seems almost certain that Fintan, leaving Inchiquin, took up his
residence with his wife at Ard-fintain, that there his children, St. Ultan
and St. Foillan, brothers of St. Fursey, were born, and like him, were
educated on the neighbouring island of Inchiquin by the good monks of St.
Brendan. It is likely, too, though not mentioned in Fursey's Life, that
the brothers were sent, when they grew up, to the great School of
Clonfert, which had been founded by their grand uncle, and which was still
governed by their own kinsmen.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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