Life of St. Declan of Ardmore and Life of St. Mochuda of Lismore — John Shaqi
Life of St. Declan of Ardmore and Life of St. Mochuda of Lismore
Religion
Life of St. Declan of Ardmore and Life of St. Mochuda of Lismore
Carthach, Saint, Bishop of Lismore, active 570-637 -- Legends; Declan, Saint, Bishop of Ardmore, active 6th century -- Legends
Rule, as Patrick's quasi-monasticism, nearly two centuries previously,
had been influenced by Pachomius and St. Basil, through Lerins. The
real peculiarity in Ireland was that when the community-missionary-
system was no longer necessary it was not abandoned as in other lands
but was rather developed and emphasised.
II.--ST. DECLAN.
"If thou hast the right, O Erin,
to a champion of battle to aid thee
thou hast the head of a hundred
thousand, Declan of Ardmore."
(Martyrology of Oengus).
Five miles or less to the east of Youghal Harbour, on the southern
Irish coast, a short, rocky and rather elevated promontory juts, with a
south-easterly trend, into the ocean. Maps and admiralty charts call it
Ram Head, but the real name is Ceann-a-Rama and popularly it is often
styled Ardmore Head. The material of this inhospitable coast is a hard
metamorphic schist which bids defiance to time and weather. Landwards
the shore curves in clay cliffs to the north-east, leaving, between it
and the iron headland beyond, a shallow exposed bay wherein many a proud
ship has met her doom. Nestling at the north side of the headland and
sheltered by the latter from Atlantic storms stands one of the most
remarkable groups of ancient ecclesiastical remains in Ireland--all that
has survived of St. Declan's holy city of Ardmore. This embraces a
beautiful and perfect round tower, a singularly interesting ruined church
commonly called the cathedral, the ruins of a second church beside a holy
well, a primitive oratory, a couple of ogham inscribed pillar stones,
&c., &c.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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