ON ST. KIARA, VIRGIN, IN MUNSTER IN IRELAND,
PERHAPS IN THE YEAR 680.
PRELIMINARY COMMENTARY.
The cult of St. Kiara certain; her deeds uncertain; it seems established, however, that the monastery of Kilcrea was founded by her.
Kiara, virgin, in Munster in Ireland. (S.)
St. Kiara, praised by the martyrologists, especially the Irish, St. Aengus the Culdee, in the Irish Metrical Festology, which excels with very great authority in establishing a cult, announces the feast of St. Kiara, daughter of Diubrea, on the 5th day of January. But in the non-metrical Martyrology the same Saint is recorded on two days, namely the 5th of January and the 16th of October. The Martyrology of Tallaght, the Cashel Calendar, and Charles Maguire, who is also called the Augmented Aengus, name her on both days. But Blessed Marianus Gorman records this Saint on the day
of the 5th of January only. These things from Colgan Acta SS. Hiberniae, p. 15; which, collated by us with the Irish copies kept in the royal Burgundian library at Brussels, and with other writings granted to our museum by the canons regular of Tongerlo, we have found to be faithful. Moreover on the said days the name of this Saint meets us in the Calendar of Tallaght and in the Martyrology of Donegal: in which latter she is called Keara of Muigh-ascad (the sought plain). In Irish, however, her name is written Ciar, Cera, Cere, Ceara; and it is commonly observed that C among the Irish sounds as K. But whether, in that she is sometimes written also Caila and Piala, this is a fault or a synonymy of the name, let others determine. Besides, Bucelin gives a brief Life of St. Kiara in the Benedictine Menology at the 5th day of January. The Britannia Sancta Part II, p. 205 and another English Martyrology A memorial of ancient British piety, p. 145 at the 16th of October bring forward nothing else than the name Cyra, and the place of ancient cult, Killchrea. Chastelain at the 16th of October calls her in French Kere, in Latin Kiara, and celebrates her as Virgin and abbess in Momonia (Munster) in Ireland.
[2] and to be distinguished from three of the same name, This Saint is to be distinguished from three others, who are celebrated on the 5th of February, the 8th of February and the 9th of September. The first is said by Colgan Acta SS. Hiberniae, p. 16 to be venerated at Raith; and St. Aengus announces her: Of Cæra of Raith-Mentich, or of Raith-Mentichensis; the second the same martyrologist announces, contrary to his custom, adding to the name Kera that of Holy Virgin. The third, maintained by Colgan, I do not find in the writings which I have at hand at present. Chastelain indeed brings forward among the saints of no fixed day a certain St. Kera, Virgin, abbess in Munster, who died in the month of January. But I do not doubt that she is the same who is venerated on the 5th of January and the 16th of October. On the said days of February and September, however, our predecessors noted no Kiara, Cera, Cyra, etc., not even among those passed over; and similarly Colgan at the 5th and 8th days of February was silent about these Saints: nor are we pleased to attempt this labyrinth in vain.
[3] she obtained a cult at Killchrea. Concerning the place in which St. Kiara obtained a cult, many speak: Colgan Ibid., p. 16, note 6 affirms that this place was formerly called Kill-Chere, today Kill-Chreidham, or, as the common people speak, Killchream; and he determines its situation in the diocese and county of Cork; in which matter Lanigan does not dissent from him Ecclesiastical History of Ireland, vol. III, chapter 18, who teaches that this village lies a few leagues south-west of Cork. Both derive the name of the place from the Cell of Kiara, which the Irish call Kill-Chere: that a nunnery existed there, at any rate, Colgan and Lanigan agree; and to them is added Gough, the editor of Camden's Britannia Vol. III, p. 506, following as authors Archdall in the Monasticon Hibernicum and Smith in the History of Cork. And since Blessed Marianus Gorman and Charles Maguire on the one hand determine that the body of St. Kiara is in the church of Maghascad (the Martyrology of Donegal has Muigh-ascad), and on the other hand the Cashel Calendar and others, as Colgan witnesses Acta SS. Hiberniae, p. 15, note 13, relate at the 16th of October that these sacred pledges are kept in the church of Kilcrea, Colgan doubts, or rather suspects, that the names Maghascad and Killchrea or Killcrea belong to the same place. But care must be taken lest likewise the ruins of the cell or monastery of St. Kiara be confused (unless, however, Colgan betrays an error when he relates Ibid., p. 14, no. 1 that the stone monuments, as if living, speak the name of St. Kiara) with the ruined walls of the convent of the Friars Minor, which Colgan Acta SS. Hiberniae, p. 14, note 6, Gough Camden's Britannia, vol. III, p. 506, Ware Antiquities of Ireland, chapter 26, p. 199, Wadding Annales Minorum, vol. XIII, p. 378, Alemand Histoire monastique d'Irlande, p. 254 record, and which is related to have been founded at Kilcrea in the year 1465, or 1468, or 1470, or even 1478, by Cormac MacCarthy, prince of Desmond, who was entombed there in the middle of the choir with many leading men of the county of Cork; which thing was the reason why at the time of the Reformation, the religious men being expelled, the convent itself was not destroyed. Nevertheless I gather that now only ruins survive, both from Gough, who describes them at greater length, and from the annotations which two learned men from Ireland, through the care of our Fr. Francis Murphy, collected for us chiefly from the most recent work on Cork and its neighbourhood of the distinguished Mr. John Windele Notices of Cork and its vicinity. Cork, 1839. We indeed regret that, since that monastery of Franciscans does not pertain to St. Kiara even from afar, it is not permitted us to pursue at greater length its fortunes, most worthy of all memory, and to wander with the reader through its wonderful ruins.
[4] Her Life, written by Colgan, is compiled from untrustworthy writings, Now, since a step must be made to the Lives of St. Kiara, we must at once disclose that none is found; unless that is to be called a Life which Colgan compiled from the Martyrologies or Festologies cited by him and from the Acts of SS. Brendan and Munnu Acta SS. Hiberniae at the 5th of January, p. 14 and following, and another much briefer, which Lanigan, correcting Colgan, published [Ecclesiastical History of Ireland, vol. III, chapter 18, §12]. But we shall retrace the footsteps of our predecessors, who sometimes, when they had nothing better at hand, published Acts of the Saints written by Colgan, with their own animadversions added. The sources from which Colgan drew have already been indicated; on these and on the Life itself it pleases me to set forth some annotations in this place, the other, briefer ones being reserved for the end. First, Henschen at the 16th day of May Acta SS. at the 16th of May, p. 602 rejected as apocryphal two Lives of St. Brendan which he had; preferring to gather everything which he narrates of that Saint from the Lives of other Saints. I judge that the two Lives which Henschen had are those which are found in the Salamanca codex Fol. 69 and 189, transferred from the Bollandian museum of Antwerp to the royal Burgundian library at Brussels; and truly they are altogether crammed with wonderful narratives exceeding every measure, especially the former, in which the famous history of the voyage is read. But nothing in these is related of St. Kiara; whence it follows that Colgan used another Life of St. Brendan: which diversity of Lives almost proves that the things which are narrated of St. Kiara from the Life of St. Brendan are of a more recent age. As regards the other source, namely the Life of St. Fintan or Munnu, of whom we shall have to treat at the 21st of October, Lanigan mistrusts it even on account only of the things which have been adduced from it here and there by Colgan Ecclesiastical History of Ireland, vol. II, chapter 15, note 78. At no. 7 the discussion will return to the Life of St. Fintan.
[5] and makes St. Kiara too long-lived. What the reader will wish to note in the second place is that, if the Life of St. Kiara written by Colgan can stand on other grounds, it is necessary that this Saint lived, as the author confesses, at least 120 or 130 years [Colgan, place cited, and Lanigan, Ecclesiastical History of Ireland, vol. III, chapter 18, note 159]. For according to the chronology of Henschen Acta SS. at the 16th of May, p. 600, no. 2, approved by Lanigan Place cited, St. Brendan died about the year 577. But Colgan relates from the Irish Annals Ibid. that Saint Kiara died in the year 679, or, as Lanigan corrects Eccl. Hist., vol. III, chapter 18, note 155, in the year 680. And lest the reader be frightened by this longevity, Colgan refers him to the notes, without doubt most learned, but nevertheless savouring of foolish credulity, added to the Life of St. Kieran of Saighir, whom the biographer, as Colgan approves Acta SS. Hiberniae, p. 466, note 42, relates to have lived three hundred years. Certainly, if such things are believed, St. Kiara's age will have been moderate.
[6] Lanigan corrected Colgan, himself perhaps too easy. Lest he stumble against such fables, Lanigan entered on another way. He explodes, namely, Colgan for making St. Kiara contemporary with St. Brendan, and for determining that she first inhabited the monastery of Killchrea, then the monastery of Tech-Telle, afterwards to return to the monastery of Killchrea and to meet her last day there; indeed he also notes Vol. III, chapter 18, note 159 the origin of the errors of Colgan, who reckoned that this our Kiara had dealings with St. Brendan; on which matter he observes that two Muskerrys are confused by Colgan: one Muscraighe Fhire, today Lower Ormond in Tipperary, where St. Brendan is in fact related to have been; the other Muscraighe Mitine, today Muskerry in the county of Cork, where Killchrea is situated. Which confusion took place the more easily because both Muskerrys are found in Munster. Wherefore, after he admitted that St. Kiara was born in Muscraighe Mitine, the same more recent annalist proceeds roughly thus: This Kiara is supposed to have been the same as St. Chier, who with five other virgins went to St. Fintan Munnu, dwelling in Heli (today Ely O'Carroll), to obtain for herself a place suitable for establishing a nunnery. St. Fintan is said to have ceded to St. Kiara the place which he himself occupied, and which was afterwards called Tech-Telle. No sufficient reason occurs to me for denying that St. Kiara lived there for some time; but it is very doubtful whether she obtained this place from St. Fintan, and whether he himself ever stayed there; (indeed elsewhere Vol. II, chapter 15, note 78 he shows it to be far more probable that St. Fintan presided over no other monastery than Teach-Munnu, today Taghmon in Wexford). How long, these are his other words, St. Kiara remained in Heli, nothing informs us. Further, returning thence to her native country, she founded a monastery called from her name Killchree, now Kilcrea. Thus Lanigan.
[7] whether St. Kiara founded the monastery is inquired. Nor have I at hand a firm argument for overthrowing such an assertion; but that what is gratuitously asserted may likewise be gratuitously denied everyone will readily grant. For although in the mentioned Salamanca manuscript codex, in which all the most wonderful things are read, there are found two Lives of St. Fintan, in the former of which a discourse about St. Kiara is held in almost the same words as in the fragment which Colgan cites, but somewhat longer, and in the latter the same thing is narrated somewhat more briefly, the prediction concerning St. Tellius being omitted; and although it is clear thence that at least three different Lives of St. Fintan exist, in which
the things mentioned are presented, nevertheless that series of witnesses is utterly vain. For what credence is to be given to fabricators who copy, amplify and abridge one another? Who taught us that it is a question here of our Kiara and not of another? What are all those goings and returnings, translations of monasteries, etc.? Wherefore, setting aside that monastery of Tech-Telle, we can believe this one thing, that the monastery of Killchrea was founded by St. Kiara; which one must be persuaded of both on account of the name received from her, and because it is asserted by all that a cult was offered her at Killchrea; the rest Colgan will not give us to drink. But of the time at which this foundation of the monastery took place nothing certain is handed down; Lanigan teaches Vol. III, chapter 18, note 159 that it is referred by Harris to the sixth century, and by Archdall to before the year 576: to which chronology, for the reasons explained at no. 5, I would gladly add half a century. Harris and Archdall without doubt followed Colgan as guide; whose little work I now present to the reader, that he himself may be able to pass judgment on all these things.
LIFE OF ST. KIARA, OR CERA, BY COLGAN.
Kiara, virgin, in Munster in Ireland. (S.)
St. Kiara, daughter of Dubreus, There shone in that region of southern Ireland which is called Muscraigia a a certain Virgin, illustrious in lineage but more illustrious in virtues, named Cera b or Cyra: whose Acts, indeed, although the injury of time either now suppresses or long ago destroyed them, yet it could not destroy the splendour of her holy and celebrated name, to which noble writers testify and stone monuments speak as if living. She had as father Dubreus c, sprung from the stock of Conaire d, king of Ireland, the fruitful mother of very many both Saints and kings in both Scotias.
[2] is said to have lived in the time of St. Brendan, And after the fame of the sanctity and miracles of this most Holy Virgin had been spread far and wide, and the odour of her good name drew many disciples to her, assiduous imitators of her virtues, she built in her aforesaid native region of Muscraigia a monastery of virgins called Killchere from the name of the foundress herself, over which, with the highest reputation of sanctity and the working of wonders, she presided over the sacred company of virgins at the time when the great Brendan, after his wonderful voyage through the Ocean for the space of seven years, was shining with signs and mighty works in Ireland e.
[3] at whose indication she extinguished a fire. Among her other wonderful works one is recorded profitable to her country and glorious to the Virgin herself; by which, with a wonderful dart of prayer, she utterly extinguished a certain kind of pestilent fire, destructive both to the land of her country, which it was consuming with an inextinguishable force of burning, and to men, whom it was killing with its pestiferous stench. The author of the Life of St. Brendan narrates the deed in these words: In the region f, he says, of Muscraighe Fhire in the province of Munster, a fire arose from the earth, having a most foul stench. And men began to extinguish the fire with water, but could in no way do it. And St. Brendan, coming there, seeing the earth burning with flames rising high, said to the men: O wretched men, do you see the infernal fire from the earth? When the men asked him, he said to them: Keep a fast of three days, and I will pray to God for you. And after the fast he said to them: Go to the Holy Virgin of God Ciara: for God has given her this power, that she may extinguish that fire by her prayer. And as the most Holy Virgin Cera prayed to God against that fire, at once the fire was extinguished from the roots, and never appeared there again.
[4] Her companions are increased; As the signs and mighty works of this illustrious Virgin thus grew from day to day, and as the company of holy virgins who sought to live under her mastership also grew, the most holy mother herself, desiring to multiply the company of the brides of Christ, went with some virgins to the borders of Heli, to a place sought from Saint Munna, a man most well known for his wonderful charity and for the glory of contempt of the world; where she could more conveniently instruct and train the brides of Christ in the institute of virginity dedicated to God; and she received there from him the place named Tech-Telle, which he himself had built there before, as is narrated in his Life, chapter 10, in these words:
[5] she goes to St. Munna; When Blessed Munna had dwelt five years in the region of Heli, there came to him a certain virgin named Chier g, with five other virgins, and the minister of guests went to greet her and receive her into the guest-house. To whom the handmaid of God said: Go to the servant of Christ, our senior, and say to him: Let him give me a place where I can serve God with my daughters. And the man of God, hearing this, said to his own: Brethren, our resurrection is not here, therefore let us leave this place of ours and our labour to the virgins of God, and you shall take nothing with you except the necessaries for the way, and the office books, and the chrismals, and the daily garments, and of animals only two oxen in a wagon. When now the handmaid of God had asked a blessing from him, he answered her: Let the blessing be upon this place; and it shall be blessed before God and men; but yet this place shall not be named in your name. She said: In whose name, then, shall it be named? Blessed Munna said: That man who today made three jubilations in the field of Miodhluachra shall possess this place: he is Telli, son of Segen, who shall afterwards come to this place, and it shall be named in his name.
[6] she dies in the year 680. After, then, the handmaid of Christ had stayed some time with her pupils in the church of Telgh-Telle, and, according to what has just been said, had understood that that place was reserved not for herself or her own, but for Saint Tellius by the decree of divine providence, at length she returned to her native country, and, after many years of life passed in the rigour of an unblemished institute, full of years and merits, in the year of salvation 679 h, exchanging this mortal life for the heavenly, she flew to the embraces of the heavenly bridegroom, and her body was honourably laid in the church of Maghascad: and by the pious devotion of the people her feast has been wont to be kept twice in the year: on the fifth day of January, which is the day of her passing and of her birthday in heaven, and on the 16th of October, which is believed to be that of her translation i.