St. Bernard of Clairvaux's Life of St. Malachy of ArmaghBernard, of Clairvaux, Saint
History
St. Bernard of Clairvaux's Life of St. Malachy of Armagh
Bernard, of Clairvaux, Saint
Malachy, Saint, 1094?-1148
[434] The flight of Niall seems clearly to imply that he was in the
city of Armagh. The natural inference is that "having been driven out"
he was afterwards reinstated. This may have happened while Malachy was
absent on a visitation of Munster, mentioned in _A.F.M._, but
apparently unknown to St. Bernard. The statement of the latter, that
Malachy "remained" in Armagh, ignores it. See further, Additional Note
C, p. 168 f.
[435] The _Book of Armagh_, now in the Library of Trinity College,
Dublin. The manuscript was written at Armagh early in the ninth
century by a scribe named Ferdomnach; but at an early date it came to
be supposed that it was the work of St. Patrick himself. From this
belief, perhaps, arose the name by which it was known for many
centuries, and which can be traced back to the year 936--the Canon of
Patrick. It is strange that it should be called here a "copy of the
Gospels"; for in addition to the complete text of the New Testament it
contains two lives of St. Patrick, his _Confession_ and other
historical documents. But the word _Gospel_ was very loosely used in
Ireland (see _R.I.A._ xxxiii. 327 f.). Misled by this description, de
Backer (n. _ad loc._) identifies the book mentioned by St. Bernard
with the so-called "Gospels of St. Patrick," found in the shrine known
as the Domnach Airgid, about 1830, which have no connexion with Armagh
or St. Patrick (_R.I.A. Trans._ xviii., "Antiquities," pp. 14 ff.;
xxx. 303 ff.; _R.I.A._ xxxiv. 108 ff.). For further information about
the _Book of Armagh_ the reader may consult Gwynn, especially pp.
ci.-cxvi.
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