ON SAINT KELLACH
BISHOP IN IRELAND.
ABOUT THE YEAR 600
PrefaceKellach, Bishop, in Ireland (St.)
G. H.
[1] John Colgan in the Acts of the Saints of Ireland, on the third day of February brings forth the Life of St. Colman commonly Macduach, and in the Appendix chapter 2 collects the Saints sprung from the family of St. Colman or the house of the Hy-Fiachii, Cult on the 1st of May. and designates their natal days from the Martyrologies Tamlactensian, Dungallensian, of Marianus Gorman, of Cathald Maguir and of St. Aengus: where among other Saints this Bishop, of whom we now treat, is brought forth in these words. St. Kellach the Bishop, son of Eugenius Belus, son of Kellan, son of Alild Molt, son of David, son of Fiachrius etc. 1st of May. He is referred to in the Tamlactensian Martyrology Cellanus Hua Fiachrach. The same Colgan in chapter 1 of the said Appendix, explains this generation in these words: The aforesaid Fiachrius had two sons, of royal lineage. David King of Ireland, and Amalgadius King of Connaught. David indeed from King of Connaught, immediately succeeding his uncle Nellus the Great in the monarchy, administered the whole of Ireland twenty-three years, and after him Alildus, similarly made Monarch from King of Connaught, twenty years. Thus Colgan: which agree well enough with the beginning of the Life of St. Kellach.
[2] But at what time St. Kellach flourished can be established from the death of Eugenius his father, who wounded in a battle with the Ultonians is said to have lived only some days. There are named in the Life as warlike Leaders of the Ultonians Fergusius and Domnaldus, sprung from Muchertacus son of Erca. The time of his life James Ussher in the Antiquities of the British Churches page 947 from the Ultonian Annals brings forth the royal succession, where at the year 565 these things are read: Fergusius and Donaldus sons of Murcheartachus, grandsons of Erca, reigned one year. But how many years before the cited battle of these with Eugenius the father of St. Kellach happened, seems able to be gathered from the Life of St. Kieran Abbot of Cluain, to be elucidated on the 9th of September: under which Abbot, at the time of the said battle and the death of Eugenius the father, St. Kellach lived a monk. The mentioned Ussher in the Chronological Index asserts, that Kieran in the year 548 built the monastery of Clon or Cluan-mac-nois in Meath in the year next before his death: and at the year 549 he notes, that Kieran, only 33 years old, died in his city of Clon.
[3] But on occasion of the Life of St. Endeus, Master of St. Kieran, published by us on the 21st of March, we observed certain things more fully
to be examined on the 9th of September; namely that it is said by others, that Kieran was twenty-nine years of age, when he founded the said monastery of Cluain, and so ruled it four years, if he lived only thirty-three years, and not rather seventy-three years, which will be determined in its time. Further in the Cluain monastery of St. Kieran the Priest St. Kellach was ordained and then Bishop of Alad: which See, as an Episcopal See in the extreme region of Northern Connaught, Tiramalgadia, across the river Muadius, Colgan indicates on the 15th of February note 21 to the Life of St. Forannan commonly Kill-Alaid. But I judge the dignity long since taken away from it, since in the Catalogues of Bishoprics it nowhere appears: he himself moreover says there that according to the Irish Martyrologies on the 1st of September St. Muredach is venerated as Bishop of the place. the place of the See The monastery Eiscreach, in which St. Kellach was buried, and is said to be honored with the cult of the Saints, inquiring where it is, we learned from the Irish Minorites who dwell at Louvain, that it is in the County of Galway, which is as it were the navel of all Connaught, on the river Succa. This river indeed the maps of Speed do not name, as neither very many others described by him: yet at one, which rising from a small lake there near Kilhoran flows itself into the Galway gulf by a short course, I find noted B, that is, the Barony of Cragh, where I would believe that monastery to have been.
[4] We doubt concerning the time of the death or martyrdom inflicted on St. Kellach; namely how he was slain at the instigation of Guarius son of Colman. For if it can be believed of Colgan, and of his death. in the Notes to the earlier Life of St. Fechin published by him on the 20th of January num. 11, Guarius, son of Colman, King of Connaught, according to the Irish Annals died in the year 662, namely one or another year before the death of St. Fechin: and by him on account of singular liberality he is so often praised, that it is said in the manner of a proverb that someone is more liberal than Guarius himself. What then, is so long a life to be given to St. Kellach, that he died beyond the six-hundredth year; and the said Guarius plainly a young man procured his slaying, and then lived until the year 662? It has always been difficult for us to reduce the Irish antiquities to a solid chronology, and that on account of the defect of coeval authors.
[5] The Life of St. Kellach, which we here give, was submitted to us by the Reverend Father Thomas Sirin, jubilate Lecturer of Theology in the Louvain convent of the Irish province, The Life translated from an Irish MS. which he asserted to have been received from the Irish MS. Codex of Dundoigre and translated into Latin. In this what is said of the stags, of their own accord offering their work for the conveyance of the slain body, it is not our mind either to confirm or wholly to reprove. We are wont to read many things equally or more strange in the Acts of the Irish Saints, written for the most part with greater zeal of catching admiration than of obtaining faith. But what concerning the deed of King Muredach, who, for the avenging of his companions slain by a marsh beast, entered the lake, and at length returned with the head of the same slain by him, and his cult. and thence obtained the glorious surname that he was called Conghelt; since they are received, not from the traditions of the elders concerning the Saint himself, but from poetic fictions of royal deeds, and make nothing at all to our purpose, we have thought they could be passed over; lest to the Reader, about to be nauseated by such things, we should gratuitously bring annoyance, by relating that which could be passed over, the integrity of the history, whatsoever pertaining to the Saint, being safe.
LIFE
Translated into Latin from an Irish MS.
Kellach, Bishop, in Ireland (St.)
FROM AN IRISH MS.
[1] Eugenius surnamed Bel, son of Kellach, but grandson of Alild Molt, who twenty years; Eugenius Belus King of Connaught, but great-grandson of Dathius or David, who twenty-three years held the monarchy of Ireland; raised to the throne of Connaught, as he was a man strenuous, spirited, desirous of glory, and skilled in the conduct of affairs, with vigilant care, with happy success also, and great gladness of his own, applied himself to defending his kingdom; for the most part, within about thirty-six years which he survived, the troops hostilely incursing from the neighboring provinces, now providently restraining from devastation, now routing with a more glorious victory, sometimes also breaking forth into their own borders, and compensating the losses inflicted through them with equal damages and spoils. While thus, fortune not deceitful, but Divine disposition seconding his endeavors, he persisted; there arose between him, and the descendants of Conall and Eugenius sons of Niall the Great, and the other grandees of Ulster a great division and offense of minds; advanced at length so far, that these, a copious army being enrolled everywhere, broke into Connaught, him dying of a wound, the Leaders of the war being Fergusius and Domnaldus, sprung from Murchertacus son of Erca. To these advancing as far as the a Muadus river, laying all waste, Eugenius ran to meet with the forces of the Connaughtmen, and a sharp conflict on both sides being entered a little after, Eugenius at length grievously wounded, by the work of his own carried away from the place of battle upon military javelins and lances, arranged crosswise in the form of a hurdle, by the opinion of some survived only three days, of others seven days.
[2] In the meantime, the Nobles of Connaught frequently visiting him, and greatly lamenting his fall, and the calamity of the country which they feared would follow thence, when they perceived him about soon to depart from life, his son Kellach succeeds treated with much consultation among themselves and with him, especially those who were of the O-Fiachrian family, whom they should substitute as King in his place. To whom he: I see your affairs placed in great peril: there survive to me indeed two sons, Kellach and Muredach; the one more advanced in age, but he is already a monk, and an alumnus of St. Kieran of Cluain: the other on account of tender age immature for taking the kingdom, then a monk of Cluain and unfit in the present danger. You, if you acquiesce in my counsel, will go to Kieran, and will earnestly ask, that in so great a crisis of our affairs Kellach by his good leave may take the kingdom. When he had so urged this, and a little after had died; chosen men of the Nobles went to Cluain or b Cluainmacnois; where received most kindly by Kieran, yet not heard according to their wish, they passed two nights in the lodging appointed for them. But on the last night when Kellach had visited them, assailing him with many persuasions, they at length so bent him, that with them on the next day, the Prelate's leave not obtained, he departed. Kieran much offended by that departure of his alumnus, Evil, he said, has Kellach chosen, and therefore he will incur a curse, and at length will fall by the point of arms; and I wish that by the providence of the Deity he so die, and have a like end whoever is a deserter of religious discipline.
[3] Further Kellach, so led away by his own, is inaugurated King of Hi-Fiachria. And when he had borne that office for some time, about to bend to concord the Leader of the Hi-Fiachrians of Aidhne, but led by repentance, he withdraws into a forest: dissenting from him, he went accompanied by very many; and a public assembly being held they struck a treaty mutually, Kellach indeed candidly, the other (as the event made plain) feignedly and craftily. For Kellach being led into his fortification under the appearance of benevolence and honor, as many of his followers as he could seize, he slew; but Kellach himself, with thrice nine of his own, flight being secretly undertaken, he withdrew from the sword and death. Hereupon Kellach, as if by vexation now more capable of discipline; the severe imprecation of St. Kieran against him being recalled to memory, shuddered with vehement dread; and began to loathe, to turn away from the loftiness of the dominion undertaken; and to revolve with himself with what maturity, and in what manner it should be deserted. Then better counsels, which the most clement Saviour infused into him, he embraced with his whole heart, broke at once all the retaining bonds, and forthwith withdrew himself into the secret retreat of a certain pathless forest, where like another Peter he wept bitterly, with the sharpest contrition of heart condemning, execrating, and avenging on himself, that he had deserted the institute of a holier life for the sake of friends, had offended the dread Deity, and had stirred up against himself the fearful curse of the holy Prelate Kieran.
[4] In which exercise a whole year being holily passed, with those thrice nine, with whom he had lately escaped the peril of bodily life, he went to Cluain. But struck with the conscience of his former offense and reverence for Kieran, nor daring to enter the city, he halted near it; until certain of his former fellow-monks fell upon him: who receiving him with dutiful salutation and the kiss of peace, with bland charity led him in, and caused him to be ministered to with such care as was fitting, received at Cluain by the Abbot, his arrival not disclosed to the holy Abbot until the next day. Which when it had grown, those who were eminent in that most holy company of monks, present to the most holy Father Kieran the younger son returned from the region of unlikeness, who was dead and revived, had perished and was found; with sedulous intercession asking, that he would deign the penitent with clemency and pardon; and Kellach himself prostrate on the ground earnestly beseeches the same. To these things the most benign Prelate, then more glad of the alumnus's return, than before more sad of the rash departure; receiving him placidly, Would, he said, O son, that I had not struck you straying with a curse; but that, although irrevocable by me, will yet detract nothing from your reward and glory with God; only persist in the first calling and profit; bearing actively the light burden and sweet yoke of Christ, than whose charity nothing is more pleasant, than whose service nothing is more salutary, nothing in however great pomp or pleasure of Kings more glorious.
[5] Kellach therefore by Kieran's both prompt placation, and speech sweeter than honey and the honeycomb, raised to a fuller confidence of obtaining salvation, and by the grace of the holy Spirit poured over him corroborated in the good purpose; the band of secular followers being sent back to his own brother Muredach, then a youth, and dwelling with his foster-father the Leader of Lugnia c, and ordered henceforth to adhere to him; he lives holily: he resumed the interrupted web of religious life with new spirit, new ardor, and with such success applied himself to advance it, that, found to have surpassed many in erudition, very many in religious observance and signal piety, he was a love to all and especially to Kieran himself, whose nod he followed in all things. Wherefore he was promoted to the Sacerdotal grade, and a little after, the suffrages of the Clergy meeting in him, was consecrated Bishop of the Church and diocese of Alad. Placed in that summit of dignity, he is ordained Priest then Bishop of Alad. although he sedulously discharged the solicitude of the Church betrothed to him, yet the greatest part of his time he passed at intervals in his Cluain monastery: the fruitful cares of Martha, and the more pleasant leisures of Mary, with skillful discretion alternating; and adapting himself to discharging each more holily than the other. But the temporal revenues he piously expended, affording many solaces to the needy and to the followers of liberal studies, who frequent flowed together to him, drawn by the fame of his sanctity and liberality diffused through Ireland.
[6] he visits his diocese But on a certain occasion the holy Bishop, wishing for the reason of his office to visit his diocese, Killmora near the Muadus river, accompanied by a good troop of Clergy was making his way, and took his journey near Durlus, where then it happened that Guarius son of Colman, with his son Narus, and Nemedius son of Fercogha, and a great crowd of friends, drew out a delay. But Nemedius when he had found out that the holy Prelate had passed near the place; Undutifully, he said to Guarius,
and less amicably has Bishop Kellach, as if having turned away from us, passed us by. It matters not, said Guarius, that he passed by: for I will send those who in my name should invite him, that hither he may come, about to deign us with his address. There was sent at once one of Guarius's dear ones, who when he had come to Kellach now resting from the completed journey. Grievously, he said, does Guarius take it, that you have prolonged your journey, he unvisited, and therefore he asks that even now you come to him. To these things the Bishop: Because the Sabbath has now declined into evening, it is fixed for me not to depart hence until the past Lord's day, which is to all a holy vacation, invited to Guarius he does not turn back: and moreover to be celebrated by us with divine offices, and the sacred solemnities of Masses: at which Guarius, because he is near, will be able to be present, and on that occasion treat with me here what he will. But if he stays away, I will gladly go to him on the second weekday. The returning messenger reports to Guarius, not what the holy Prelate alleged, but what a depraved mind and envy suggested: namely that Kellach in every way denied to come, nor was benevolent toward him. Then Guarius, stirred with anger and indignation, Go, he said, to him again, and proclaim, that unless he soon undertakes departure from these borders, the Church, in which he stays, is to be burned around him and his this very night.
[7] That one goes away, nor announces anything milder to the Bishop; who nonetheless, the help of God being invoked, persisted in the place until the dawn of the day of the moon, on which he moved to the village of Loch-con, where he also passed the following night. Thence further advancing to the pool by name d Claon-loch, while meditatively he beholds the island Etgair situated in that lake (for so it is called), driven out by the same he dwells on the island Etgair he sees above it in the air a great frequency of good Angels. Allured by which vision, he crossed with his own into the island; and a sedulous inquiry being made, when he had found, that there was no sacred place there, nor had ever existed any monument or memory of any Saint; judging that by that apparition of the Heavenly ones he was invited to apply himself there to a solitary life, he determined not to bring back his foot thence. Which counsel those who from the Ecclesiastical order accompanied him, first derided, then in vain attempted to dissuade.
[8] They return therefore, as the Saint had commanded, each to the Church of his charge; only four younger Clergy remaining with the Bishop, with 4 Clergy companions: Moelcronius, Moeldalvanus, Moelsenachus, and Mac-Deoradius, or son of Deoradius, his foster-brothers. They passed therefore in that desert the whole Lent which was at hand intent on Divine offices and other sacred exercises; meanwhile from those lurking-places the fame of the holy Prelate bursting forth more brilliantly into all the borders of Ireland, who set the rigors of the hermitage before the honor of the Pontifical summit.
[9] But St. Kellach's brother Muredach frequently visited him in that hermitage, accommodating himself to his instructions and counsels. he instructs his brother Muredach, with the offense of Guarius: Which Guarius son of Colman when he had understood, began with a more hostile mind to be borne against the holy Prelate; by whose instigation and industry he feared greatly that Muredach, the royal offspring, and conspicuous for much goodness, would strive to take the kingdom of Connaught. Nevertheless the prince and inclined to piety could be bent to conceive benevolence toward the most holy Prelate, had not the worst counselors stood in the way, Narus his son, and the above-mentioned Nemedius; who day and night bringing false and feigned accusations, urged with him, that he should take Kellach out of the way. From which so atrocious and sacrilegious a deed when they had found that Guarius shrank, a most wicked consultation being entered among themselves of killing Kellach with a poisoned draught, they at length obtained, that for the sake of being reconciled he should be invited to a solemn banquet to be set out on his account.
[10] Messengers therefore being sent asked Kellach to be present on the appointed day; which when he had refused, alleging that he had now embraced another norm and method of living which it was not fitting to interrupt with worldly consolation; from whom the Clergy companions are received at a banquet, they, as they had received in their commands, insisted, that at least he would deign to bid his Clergy companions be present, in whose presence Guarius would both delight, and would commit to their discretion to be reported what he wished to communicate to them. To these things the holy Bishop, I, he said, neither bid nor forbid them to be present: let them themselves do what God shall suggest. The companions therefore permitted to use their own discretion, having set out with the messengers to Durlus where Guarius was, are received with great honor and great gladness. And after royal feasts being led into a private dining-room, and placed around Guarius on the right and left, from the more excellent drink which was in the citadel it is plied abundantly: and the symposium being protracted for some time, it came to seductive discourses and machinating counsels, by which the improvident guests from the hermitage are urged with great instance to extinguishing Kellach, the price of the work being designated and covenanted to them, if they should do this, the whole f Tir-Amalgadia, adorned with numerous herds of horses and oxen, and with brides, whom they themselves should choose out of the whole number of maidens.
[11] By the desire and hope of those things (alas!) the poor wretches blinded, and induced to the slaying of St. Kellach they approach: and forgetful who they lately were, the impious and manifoldly sacrilegious compact confirmed by their consent, sleep secure; and on the next day sober and fasting ratify it. Then armed with arms fit for executing the deed, fortified under the Clerical garb; they seek again the hermitage, no longer hermits, but sworn robbers and sacrilegious homicides; and the little boat which they had left there found at the margin of the pool Claon-loch, they cross to the island; and there meet the holy Prelate, then intent on reciting the Psalter. To whom he, until he completed the begun prayers, answered nothing. But afterward beholding them, and judging from the motions of the eyes and the change of countenances, what they had conceived in their minds, Another, he said, O youths, countenance you brought hence, another you bring, which betrays you turned away from me, and covenanted with Guarius to bring death upon me. Come to yourselves, sons, and the most wicked counsel which you have embraced, and most damnable to yourselves, cast away quickly; about to obtain a more sublime reward, than that which Guarius promised, by acquiescing in me. To these things they indeed confessed the conspiracy, but refused to desist from executing it, alleging this only, that no defense could be found for them in Ireland against the force and power of Guarius, if they should leap back from the compact.
[12] And so hardened in evil, they assailed the holy servant of God likewise, drag him to the shore of the island, led away into the Forest carry him to the mainland, and thence lead him away to the inner parts of the neighboring forest to be killed: he meanwhile dissuading them from pursuing the malignity, and promising them, if only they desist, a safe refuge either at Cluain, or, if they prefer, with the Kings of Ireland. Who at length seeing himself to have sung to the deaf and senseless, asks that at least they abstain from killing him until the next day. Which grudgingly granting, they shut him in an oak: him, night coming on, into the trunk of a vast oak, hollowed out to the likeness of a cage, they thrust; and they themselves keep watch at the door, lest by any event he should slip away. But when, the night verging to its end, a heavy sleep had oppressed them, Kellach perceiving it, the frequent thought of taking flight assailed; which shaking off, A certain kind, he said to himself, of incredulity or distrust I reckon it to wish to escape the judgment of God, and to try to decline the death destined to me by him, the holy Father Kieran prophesying it; and so it is better that here I await it constant and tranquil, than that (as might perhaps happen) in flight, which long to be continued, my strength failing from hunger and weariness, I cannot match, I should die as it were timorous. He remained therefore in the place, intent on sacred meditations until twilight. But then lest the light of the rising dawn should bring upon him any dread, beyond which he obtained no respite of death, he closed the cage: but soon repenting of that thing, and reprehending his own pusillanimity, he opened it.
[13] A little after, when the harbingers of the dawning morning, the birds of the woods, poured forth tuneful sounds, the Man of God, constant in singing the praise of God recalling to memory what on the night of the preceding fourth weekday he had dreamed, namely that, fiercely assailed by four mastiffs, direly torn, and dragged through a fernbrake, he had rushed into a wooded chasm, whence it did not succeed to emerge; understanding that to have been not so much a dream, as a presage of the slaughter imminent to him; began himself also tunefully to praise the Creator in his creatures in the vernacular speech in this sense. May I ardently love the Maker, and the Giver of you to us, O dear to me white dawn, victorious, pleasant daughter of light, kindred of the pleasant sun, by which the pages of volumes are made legible, by which the gables of houses, and the highest ridges of mountains, and the glad spaces of the country become visible. Then having prophesied the circumstances of his slaughter, and among these that his body and blood would be tasted by beasts and birds, they cruelly slay him, the sacrilegious assailants lead him out of the trunk-prison, and strike him most savagely, the first indeed Mac-Deoradius, the Saint's own cousin, then Moeldalvanus his cousin, then Moelsenachus son of a certain just man, finally Moelcronius who had experienced his inmost love toward himself and manifold liberality. The most holy and kindred Prelate being slain in this manner, the monstrous and nefarious disciples returning to Guarius, were kindly and cheerfully received.
[14] But to the body of the holy man, which they left unburied, flocks of rapacious beasts and birds, The body exposed to beasts as he himself foretold would be, came together: of which as many as tasted his flesh or blood, immediately by divine power and the merits of the holy Prelate perished. But on the very day on which this truculent tragedy had been performed, by his brother Muredach, Prince Muredach, about to see his brother Kellach according to custom, on whom as on a father, master, counselor, and spiritual director he wholly depended, crossed into the island of Conen: where when, he not at all found, he had recalled to memory, that the disciples of Kellach had lately before lodged with Guarius; thence he suspected, that he had been slain both by the persuasion of Guarius, and the work of those. Wherefore he goes out of the island at once, and moving with his own, to seek through the pathless places of woods and the recesses of valleys the holy Prelate, took his journey between the two pools Loch-Con and Loch-Cuilinn.
[15] So at length he came to the oak, in whose cavity Kellach had passed the night: and while they look round on all sides, they see close at hand the lifeless body of the most holy Prelate, it is found: stretched on the ground without honor, sprinkled with its own gore, and here and there modestly bitten and eaten by beasts and birds. That bitter and dire spectacle struck deeply their hearts with the most bitter grief, and stirred up an undulating mourning, especially in Muredach, who by a vernacular dirge transmitted his bereavement and grief with the praises of Kellach to posterity. Further the inconvenience itself increased the grief, not only of celebrating the funeral with worthy honor, but also of conveying it from the pathless thickets to the sacred church. Yet in what manner they could, they carried it to be buried at Dunmora, which is now called Turlach. But the inhabitants of the place, struck with fear of Guarius, not permitting it to be buried there, they carried it thence to Lis-callain. But those who dwelt at the Church of Kill-callain, likewise fearing Guarius, did not permit the sacred funeral to be deposited with them. Which Muredach indeed grudgingly took, but remitting it to God to be avenged, withdrew not far elsewhere. When behold; he himself and his own beholding it, fire falling from above
that church was burned up, never thereafter restored.
[16] A little delay then followed, when behold another very wondrous thing happened. by stags divinely sent he is carried to Eiscreach; For to that group of noble men, who laboriously and inconveniently were conveying the precious funeral of the blessed Martyr, two stags, no mortal leading or driving, came tamely, laden with a convenient bier; who penetrating even to the sacred body, by their very delay there and the letting down of the bier to the ground, sufficiently indicated, that they were sent by God, that they might carry it to a fitting place of burial. Wherefore those men, greatly exhilarated, and wondering at so great a care of the Deity about the dust of his servant, compose the sacred pledge in a coffin, and there he is buried, and permit it to be carried by the stags. Who when they had advanced to the place, called Eiscreach, halting at the door of the monastery there encountered, deposited the sacred burden; and the bells of the temple, none drawing them, sounded. Therefore those who were in the church or monastery being gathered together, when it was found whose funeral had been brought and honored with divine prodigies, with prompt devotion with psalmody and fitting rites they honorably buried it, a multitude of holy Angels by their own presence augmenting the solemnity not a little.
[17] the stags remaining at the tomb. Further the aforementioned stags remained in that place thenceforth, and served the inhabitants by plowing and other labors, just as domestic beasts of burden, by day; but in the evening loosed from the yoke, they went to the sepulcher of the most holy Prelate, and as it were with the affection of venerators licking it with the tongue, provoked men to a tenderer veneration and cult of him. And this was the end of the mortal life, the troubles, and the martyrdom of St. Kellach, by which he came to the everlasting possession of the blessed life, by the grace of God and our Saviour Jesus Christ, to whom with the Father and the Holy Spirit be honor and glory, unto the ages of ages. Amen.