enos. This moorland must have rendered access between both places, a matter of some difficulty to our saint. In this favourite retreat, we are told by his biographers, he was in the habit of making three hundred genuflections each day, and of reciting the entire Psalter. This latter office he divided into three separate portions: the first was said within the cell; the second under a spreading tree of large growth, that cast its branches over his rude habitation; and the third he repeated whilst tied by the neck to a stake, with half of his body plunged in a tub of cold water. Besides these extraordinary practices, he was continually employed in singing the praises of God, and in acquiring such an ascendancy over his passions, that to all save himself, Engus seemed to be an angel concealed in human form. Another and a learned authority has stated, that after leaving Clonenagh, St. Engus travelled into Munster, and that he founded the church of Disert Aengusa, at a place situated near Ballingarry, in the present county of Limerick. We are told also that the primitive belfry, or round tower of this church, yet remains. There are good reasons for believing, however, that the latter church must have had its name from some other saint, or person, named Engus; for our saint is known to have settled not far from Clonenagh-in fact, so very near, that the localities Clonenagh and Dysartenos have been confounded by ancient scholiasts on his works." Other circumstances, relating to his acts and incidents of his life, confirm our conclusions, that he lived, for some short time at least, in Dysartenos, a parish so denominated, near the celebrated Rock of Dunamase, and a few miles from Maryborough. The fame of his sanctity diffused itself, to most distant parts of the country. Numbers flocked towards his retreat, to enjoy the pious conversation and exhortations of this holy anchorite, and to derive from his example and instructions those lessons of virtue which he could so well inculcate. Fearing the sugges See Professor Eugene O'Curry's Lectures on the Manuscript Materials of Ancient Irish History. Lect xvii. p. 364. * * * * 2 "All the country about Cluainenach for many miles, was, in the memory of men yet living, a great forest. Desert Engus (though the name be now lost) was some part of this great wood".-Harris' Ware, vol. iii. Writers of Ireland, book i. pp. 51, 52, note D. Harris lived in the earlier part of the last century, when his principal works were published. He intimates, likewise, that the place of his birth was at or near Brittas, where his father, Captain Lieutenant Hopton Harris of the Militia, took part in an engagement, during the Jacobite and Williamite wars in 1691. See Walter Harris' History of the Life and Reign of William the Third, book ix. pp. 316, 317. Hence, we may take it for granted, this writer had a good local knowledge respecting Clonenagh and Disart Enos. But, because he did not advert to the possible identity of the later denomination with Desart Engus, he thought this place where St. Engus resided could not then be identified. tions of vain-glory, and finding it a matter of utter impossibility to enjoy, in his present abode, that perfect seclusion desired, in the practice of his austerities and devotions, Ængus took the resolution of departing in a secret manner, towards some other place of retirement. Before his departure, however, and on the route to his selected retreat, it was his intention to visit the church of Coolbanagher,' for the purpose of offering up prayers to that God, whom he so faithfully served. Whilst engaged in this exercise, a vision of angels appeared to him. These blessed spirits seemed to surround a particular tomb. Celestial songs were heard by him, at the same time, the ravishing harmony of which gave him a foretaste of canticles, entoned by the beatified in heaven. He noted the tomb thus distinguished, and immediately directed his steps to a priest serving the church. Engus made inquiries regarding the name and character of the deceased. He soon learned that the occupant of the tomb in question had been in early life a warrior, who retired from the profession of arms and devoted himself to a life of penance. This soldier of Christ had closed a long life of holy and spiritual warfare, a few days before such event. Engus was still more desirous to learn the practices, devotions, and penitential exercises of the soldier. His curiosity being gratified, he was unable to discover anything very unusual, in these his religious observances, with the exception of a practice he followed each morning and night, which was that of invoking the prayers of all saints, whose names occurred to his memory. From this relation given by the priest, the idea of composing a metrical hymn, in honour of 1 The old church of Coolbanagher yet remains in a ruinous state, and its surrounding graveyard is now used as a place of burial. Tradition assigns to the building an early date of erection. There are two divisions in this church yet visible-most probably the nave and choir. A wall appears to have separated both, but a large pointed doorway afforded a communication. The nave, on the outside, measures thirty-two feet in length by twenty-two feet in breadth. The outside wall of the choir measures twenty-eight feet, in length, by sixteen feet, in breadth. The inside of the building is filled with loose stones and rubbish. A narrow low door, now stopped up with masonry, appears beneath an overshadowing mass of ivy, on the western gable; and a door seems to have been subsequently opened, on the southern side wall, probably, when the former one had been closed. A splayed window opened on either side of the nave. A splayed and ruinous east window formerly lighted the choir, the side walls of which are now nearly level with the ground. These are some descriptive particulars noticed during a visit to the spot, on the 10th of December, 1853. On that occasion, the writer took a pencil sketch of the old church ruins, as they appeared from the south-east side of the building. There are no tombs, at present, in the graveyard or church, but such as bear modern inscriptions. The old building is apparently of very great antiquity. It adjoins the ruins of Coolbanagher Castle, near the great Heath of Maryborough. In Sir Charles Coote's Statistical Survey of the Queen's County, we are simply informed that "at Coolbanagher are the ruins of a church and also of a castle". Chap. xi. § 4. p. 136. all the saints, took possession of his mind. This hymn he intended to repeat to his death, although his sincere humility deterred him from the immediate prosecution of his project. Engus, we are told, judged himself unfitted for such a task, and feared that the praises of the saints might be commemorated in a manner, hardly suited to the dignity and importance of his subject. III.-St. Engus proceeds to the Monastery of Tallagh.—Seeks admission there in guise of a servant.-Manual labour at agricultural operations. His humility and mortifications.—An accident which befel him, and his miraculous cure. At this time St. Molruan presided over a great monastery on Tallagh Hill, in the present county of Dublin. Towards this religious house, our saint proceeded. He appeared at the gate 1 To this incident, allusion has been made by Thomas D'Arcy M'Gee, in that beautiful dirge, composed on the lamented death of his friend Eugene O'Curry: "Let those who love and lose him most, Instead of the buried person being called a “soldier", according to an account found in Professor O'Curry's Lectures on the Manuscript Materials of Ancient Irish History, he is said to have been "a poor old man, who formerly lived at the place. What good did he do? said Aengus. I saw no particular good by him, said the priest, but that his customary practice was to recount and invoke the saints of the world, as far as he could remember them, at his going to bed and getting up, in accordance with the custom of the old devotees. Ah! my God, said Aengus, he who would make a poetical composition in praise of the saints should doubtless have a high reward, when so much has been vouchsafed to the efforts of this old devotee! And Aengus then commenced his poem on the spot. He subsequently continued it gradually, and finished it as we have already seen". Lect. xvii. p. 365. According to the same learned authority, our saint commenced this poem, known as the Festology, at Cuil Bennchair in Offaly, continued it at Cluain Eidhnech, and finished it during his servitude at Tallagh. Ibid. If such be the case, it is probable St. Angus left Dysartenos, and spent some time in his alma mater at Clonenagh, before he proceeded to Tallagh. In this Report of the Census Commissioners of Ireland for the year 1851, part v. vol. i., we find a most valuable annalistic reference to diseases and pestilences in this country from the earliest times to the present. In this able report, which does so much credit to the learning and research of Sir William Wilde, we find various accounts, which serve to furnish a derivation for Tallaght or Tamlacht. The Annals commence with the first recorded pestilence, or Tamh-namely, that which destroyed Parthalon's colony, and which is referred by the Four Masters to A.M. 2820, according to the long chronology of the Septuagint. The entry by those annalists is, "Nine thousand of Parthalon's people died in one week on Sean-Mhagh-Ealta-Edair—namely, five thou of this monastery, and begged admission amongst the members of its religious fraternity, in quality of lay brother, according to Colgan and Harris; although Dr. Lanigan tells us, that such a title was unknown in religious houses before the eleventh century. He studiously concealed both his name and that of the monastery, in which he had hitherto lived; for Engus was well aware, that his fame had already extended to the institute of Tallaght, which was then in its infancy. Wherefore, he assumed a habit, calculated most effectually to disguise his real condition. He concealed the fact of his enrolment in the ecclesiastical order, sand men and four thousand women. Whence is (named) Tamlacht Muintire Parthaloin”—“ the place", adds Dr. Wilde, in his notice of the event, "now called Tallaght, near Dublin; and the tumuli of these early colonists, who died from sudden epidemic, can still be seen upon the hills in its vicinity. This is the first recorded pestilence in Ireland. The Irish word Tamh means an epidemic pestilence; and the term Tamhleacht (the plague monument), which frequently enters into topographical names in Ireland, signifies a place where a number of persons cut off by pestilence were interred together.-See Cormac's Glossary MSS. See also note by O'Donovan in his Translation of the Annals of the Four Masters. This destruction of the colony of Parthalon, which is said to have occurred in 'the old plain of the valley of the flocks', stretching between Ben Edair (Howth) and Tallaght, on which the city of Dublin now stands, is thus mentioned in the Book of Invasions', contained in the Book of Leinster (manuscript, Mr. Curry's translation.) In Sean-Magh-Etair Parthalon became extinct in a thousand men and four thousand women, of one week's mortality', or Tamh. This is the oldest manuscript account of that pestilence that we now possess; and in an ancient bardic poem in the Book of Leinster, it is said: 'Parthalon's people, to the number of nine thousand, died of Tamh in one week'". Other authorities on the same subject are then cited, and among the rest the Chronicon Scotorum MSS., as translated by Mr. Curry, where the following entry occurs:-" In one thousand five hundred and four (400 according to Eochaidh O'Flinn) from Parthalon's arrival in Ireland till the first mortality (Duine bhadh, ie., human mortality) that came in Ireland after the Deluge; that is, the death by pestilence (Tamh) of Parthalon's people, which happened on Monday, in the calends of May, and continued till the Sunday following. It was from that mortality (Duine-bhadh) of Parthalon's people the name of the Taimleachta (the death or mortality place) of the men of Ireland is derived". 1 Colgan says, he applied for admission, "inter conversos". Acta Sanctorum Hiberniae, xi. Marti. Vita S. Engussi, cap. v. p. 581. Harris states that he was received" by the Abbot Mælruan, as a lay brother". Harris' Ware, vol. ii. Writers of Ireland, book i. p. 52. 2 "Harris (Writers at Engus) says that he was received as a lay-brother. Colgan indeed, from whom he took his account of Engus, seems to have thought so; for he represents him as conversus, the term by which a lay brother is usually distinguished from a clerical one. But if this was Colgan's meaning, he was certainly mistaken; for the distinction between clerical and lay monks or brethren, as it is now understood, was not known in Ireland at that period, nor, it seems, any where until the eleventh century. (See Fleury, Discours septieme sur l'Hist. Eccl., and Instit. an Droit Eccl., part i. ch. 25.) In older times some monks, it is true, were raised more or less to the clerical ranks, and the number of such promotions appears to have increased with the course of ages; but there was not as yet any radical distinction of classes in the religious institutions, so as that one of them was perpetually debarred from any ecclesiastical promotion, and destined to toil in the fields and elsewhere as subordinate to the other, and, in fact, as servants of the clerical or higher class”. Ecclesiastical History of Ireland, vol. iii. chap. xx. § x. n. 95, p. 247, 248. and appeared as a serving man, seeking for service. This holy servant of Christ was permitted to prove his vocation for a religious life, by engaging in the most laborious and meanest offices, connected with the monastery. These duties, however, he most cheerfully executed, and he devoted unremitting attention to their most careful performance. He was principally employed at field labour, and in the farm-yard belonging to the monastery; for we are told, that with the sweat of his brow he was found as a reaper of corn during the harvest, that he bore the sheaves on his back to the barn, that he afterwards threshed out the grain, and winnowed chaff therefrom, placing what had been thus prepared in sacks. Like a beast of burden, he carried those sacks on his back, sometimes to the granary, and sometimes to the mill. This mill and a kiln, he had charge of by Melruan's orders. During all these labours, this devout and humble brother found time to raise his heart and thoughts towards heaven. This ark of hidden wisdom considered himself, as only fitted to discharge the mean offices, to which of choice he subjected himself. These daily toils showed his complete selfabnegation, and his contempt for the opinion of worldlings. During his labours this humble monk was scantily clothed. His countenance was often disguised, owing to the combined effects of sweat and dust, which covered his features. But, he had neither the vanity nor inclination to appear well-looking in the presence of his brethren. Nor would he devote any time to the decoration of his person. He allowed the hair on his head to grow long, tangled and uncombed; the chaffy dust and straws of the field and barn, he would not even remove from his clothes. Thus Angus conceived himself, as putting into practical operation the virtues of his monastic profession; for it was only by these means, he could induce worldlings to believe, that he was the most abject and vile of all creatures, having more the appearance of a monster, than of a human being. An extraordinary love of mortification was united with extatic flames of Divine love, in the soul of this great vessel of election; and hence, he merited the title of Kele-De, which he obtained, and which may be rendered, "a lover of God". With an humble spirit, in a mortified body, a light radiated the interior of his soul. Yet this light was destined to escape from the close sanctuary, within which it had hitherto beamed. 1 See, Professor Eugene O'Curry's Lectures on the Manuscript Materials of Ancient Irish History. Lect. xvii. p. 365. The author of this learned work declares, that he saw the ruins of this mill and kiln, in their primitive dimensions, and that only a few years have passed by, since these venerable relics have yielded to "the improving hand of modern progress". 2 "Quae vox latine reddita Deicolam, seu Amadaeum designat". Colgan's Acta Sanctorum Hibernia, xi. Martii. Vita S. Engussii, cap. v. p. 580. |