The Lives of the Saints, Volume 03 (of 16): MarchBaring-Gould, S. (Sabine)
Religion
The Lives of the Saints, Volume 03 (of 16): March
Baring-Gould, S. (Sabine)
Christian saints
On the hill side, are S. Enda's well, and altar; the latter surmounted
by a rude cross. S. Enda's well, and indeed all the other wells we saw
in the island, are carefully protected by the Araners; the scarcity of
water rendering the possession of a well almost as precious to them
as it was to the Eastern shepherds in the days of Rebecca. At a short
distance to the left of the well, stands the remnant of the round tower
of S. Enda. Once its height was worthy of the cluster of sacred temples
which stood within the circle traversed by the shadow it projected in
the changing hours; but now it is little more than thirteen feet high.
An aged man who joined our group, told us that in S. Enda's time the
mass was not commenced in any of the churches of the island, until the
bell from S. Enda's tower announced that S. Enda himself had taken his
place at the altar in his own church.
With the permission of the excellent priest who has charge of the
island, we resolved, on the last morning of our stay on Aran, to
celebrate mass in the ruined church of Teglach-Enda, where in the year
540 or 542, S. Enda was interred. The morning was bright and clear, and
the rigid outlines of the rocks were softened by the touch of the early
sunshine. The inhabitants of Killeany, exulting in the tidings that
the Holy Sacrifice was once again to be offered to God near the shrine
of their sainted patron, accompanied or followed us to the venerable
ruins. The men, young and old, were clothed in decent black, or in
white garments of home-made stuff, with sandals of undressed leather,
like those of the peasants of the Abruzzi, laced round their feet; the
women were attired in gay scarlet gowns and blue bodices, and all wore
a look of remarkable neatness and comfort. The small roofless church
was soon filled to overflowing with a decorous and devout congregation.
We can never forget the scene of that morning: the pure bright sand,
covering the graves of unknown and unnumbered saints as with a robe of
silver tissue; the delicate green foliage of the wild plants; on one
side, the swelling hill crowned with the church of S. Benignus, and
on the other the blue sea, that almost bathed the foundations of the
venerable sanctuary itself; the soft balmy air that hardly stirred the
ferns on the old walls; and the fresh, happy, solemn calm that reigned
over all.
The temporary altar was set up under the east window, on the site
where of old the altar stood; and there, in the midst of the loving
and simple faithful, within the walls which had been consecrated some
twelve hundred years before, over the very spot of earth where so many
of the saints of Ireland lay awaiting their resurrection to glory, the
solemn rite of the Christian Sacrifice was performed, and once more, as
in the days of which S. Columba wrote, the angels of God came down to
worship the Divine Victim in the Churches of Aran.
S. BENEDICT, AB.
(A.D. 543.)
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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