Celtic and Old English Saints 14 May =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= * St. Carthage the Younger * St. Dyfan =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
St. Carthage (Carthach, Mochuda) the Younger, Abbot ---------------------------------------------------------------- Born at Castlemaine, Kerry, Ireland; died near Lismore, Ireland, on May 14, c. 637. This is another saint that is often known by a name of endearment, as Simon Bar Jonas was, and still is, called Peter. Carthage was born in Kerry, the son of a chieftain called Fingen and his wife Maeve. His biographers say that while he was tending his father's swine, a party of monks went by singing psalms and the boy was so entranced that he followed them to their monastery and spent the night outside so he might hear the singing. His father's servants found him the next day and took him back to his home, but when Fingen heard the reason for his son's desertion, he sent him to the abbey, asking that he might be admitted to the community. He became a disciple of the abbot Saint Carthach the Elder (f.d. March 5) who ordained him and so Carthage the Younger was known by his baptismal name which was Chud or Cuddy to which the abbot added the prefix of affection Mo so making Mochuda. About 590, he became a hermit at Kiltlaugh and then at Bangor under Saint Comgall (f.d. May 11). After visiting several monasteries, Carthage settled for a time at Rahan in Offaly in 595 where he ruled over 800 monks, attracted by his learning and spiritual power. It was at Rahan that the trial of strength took place between him and a local wizard, or druid, in which Mochuda caused an apple tree to produce leaves in the depth of winter, then to blossom and bear fruit.. Two British monks tried to drown him because they felt it was time for the monastery to have a new abbot. He also was probably a bishop at Fircall. Carthage wrote a rule in metrical verse, a later version of which still exists. [See "The Celtic Monk: Rules and Writings of Early Irish Monks" trans.by Uinseann O'Maidin OCR; Cistercian Studies Series No. 162, Cistercian Pub., Kalamazoo, 1996.] After 40 years, the foundation provoked the jealousy of monasteries on adjacent lands, and Carthage and his monks were driven away by Blathmac, a local ruler, at Easter in 630, together with a collection of lepers for whom they were caring. After refusing a site offered them by the King of Cashel, they came to the River Blackwater and built another monastery there, which was to become as famous as Lismore. There is a story that when the saint was building the abbey, a woman asked what he was doing, and he replied in Irish that he was building a little "lios", the word for enclosure. The woman answered "nil se uos beag ach liosnor", "not a little enclosure but a big one", and that is how it came to be known as Lismore. Carthage survived long enough to give his monks a firm foundation to what was to become one of the most famous of all Irish monastic schools. One of its students was Saint Cathal (f.d. May 10), who was elected bishop of Taranto, Italy, during his return from the Holy Land. Saint Carthage was exceptionally strict about the holding of property; at Rathan he would not allow the community to have horses or oxen to help in the tillage. Nevertheless, the Lismore Crosier is a treasured item of Irish art--now residing in the National Museum at Dublin. The saint retired to a cave near Lismore where he spent the last eighteen months of his life as a hermit, but when he died in 637, he was buried in the abbey church at Lismore. At Rahan there are remains of three churches, one of which serves as the Church of Ireland parish church. At Lismore there were once twenty churches, but only a few fragments remain. The Church of Ireland Cathedral may stand on the site of the monastery (Bowen, Flanagan, Neeson, Attwater, Benedictines, Carthage, Delaney, Montague). Troparion of St Carthage the Younger tone 6 Taking the name of thy spiritual father at baptism, O holy Carthage/ thou didst exchange a royal, but pagan, heritage for the monastic life./ As in this world thou didst care for those/ who suffered in their bodies the corruption of leprosy,/ now, we implore thee, intercede with Christ our God / that He will cleanse our leprous souls and save us. Another Life of Saint Carthage: http://novels.mobi/create/out_mobi/pg/1/0/9/3/10937/10937/4.php St. Carthage, whose name is given as Mochuda, was born of a good family, in what is now County Kerry, Ireland, about the year 555. The forthcoming birth of Mochuda was revealed to St Comhghall by an angel: "There will be conceived a child in the western part of Erin, and Carthach will be his baptismal name and he will be beloved of God and men - in heaven and on earth. He will come to you seeking direction as to a proposed pilgrimage to Rome - but you must not permit the journey for the Lord has assigned him to you; but let him remain with you a whole year." All this came to pass, as foretold. In similar manner the future Mochuda was foretold to St Brendan by an angel who declared: "There will come to you a wonder-working brother who will be the patron of you and your kindred for ever; the region of Ciarraighe [Kerry] will be divided between you and him, and Carthach will be his name; to multitudes his advent will be cause for joy and he will gain multitudes for heaven. His first city will be Rahan in the region of Fircheall, territory of Meath and central plain of Ireland; this will become a place revered of men, and revered and famous will be his second city and church, Lios mor [Lismore], which shall possess lordship and great pre-eminence." Mochuda spent his youth as a swineherd near Castlemaine. One day he heard the bishop and his clerics pass by, chanting psalms as they went along. The Spirit of God touched his heart and leaving his pigs Mochuda followed the procession as far as the monastery, where Mochuda concealed himself. The king, who had taken Mochuda under his wing, sent messengers to seek the youth, and one of these found him sitting, in the shadow of the doorway of the bishop's house. The messenger took Mochuda with him back to the king, who questioned him: "My child, why have you stayed away in this manner?" Mochuda replied, "Sire, I have stayed away through attraction of the holy chant of the bishop and clergy; I have never heard anything so beautiful as this; the clerics sang as they went along the whole way before me; they sang until they arrived at their house, and thenceforth they sang till they went to sleep. The bishop however remained by himself far into the night praying when the others had retired. And I wish, O king, that I might learn their psalms and ritual." The king arranged for Mochuda to be taken into the Bishop's care where he stayed and became a monk in a neighbouring monastery under the guidance of St. Carthage the Elder, subsequently receiving holy orders. In 580 he determined to lead a hermit's life, and he built a cell at Kiltallagh, where his fame soon attracted pilgrims. After a few years the jealousy of two neighbouring bishops forced him to quit his hermitage, and he proceeded on a visit to Bangor, where he spent a year. On the advice of St. Comgall he returned to Kerry and founded churches at Kilcarragh and Kilfeighney. He then visited Waterford, Clonfert-molua (Kyle), and Lynally, whence, on the recommendation of St. Colman Elo, he settled at Rahan, near Tullamore, in the present King's County. St. Carthage founded his monastery of Rahan about 590, and soon had hundreds of disciples. He was consecrated Abbot-Bishop of the Fercal district, and composed a rule for his monks, an Irish metrical poem of 580 lines, divided into nine separate sections -- one of the most interesting literary relics of the early Irish Church. He himself was a great prophet and numerous miracles are also recorded to him, raising the dead as his Master had before him and parting the waters of a treacherous river so his people could pass through to his final resting place Liosmor (Lismore). This story will illustrate that he may be invoked by mothers for a safe delivery. "There came to Mochuda on another occasion with her husband, a woman named Brigh whose hand lay withered and useless by her side: she besought the saint to cure her hand. Moreover she was pregnant at the time. Mochuda held out an apple in his hand to her as he had done before to Flandnait, the daughter of Cuana, saying - "Alleluia, put forth your nerveless hand to take this apple." She did as she was told and took the apple from his hand and was cured; moreover as she tasted the fruit parturition came on - without pain or inconvenience, after which [the couple] returned to their home rejoicing." As is to be expected Saint Carthage was to receive rejection and persecution as His Master had. Blathmaic, a Meathian prince, at the instigation of the neighbouring monks, ordered St. Carthage to leave Rahan. This expulsion of the saint and eight hundred of his community took place at Eastertide, in 635. Journeying by Saigher, Roscrea, Cashel, and Ardfinnan, St. Carthage at length came to the banks of the River Blackwater, where he was given a foundation by the Prince of the Decies, and thus sprang up the episcopal city of Lios-mor, now Lismore, County Waterford. Great as the fame of Rahan was, it was completely eclipsed by Lismore, although St. Carthage lived less than two years at his new foundation. He spent the last eighteen months of his life in contemplation and prayer, in a cave near the present St. Carthage's Well. When at the point of death, he summoned his monks and gave them his farewell exhortation and blessing. Fortified by the Body of Christ he died on the 14th of May, 637. Short as his stay was in Lismore, he left an ineffaceable impression of his labours in a famous abbey, cathedral, and infant university, but more so in the shining example of his transcendent virtue, purity, and an austere and blameless life. St. Dyfan (Deruvianus, Damian), Martyr (Roman Martyrology has 26 May) ---------------------------------------------------------------- 2nd century. Dyfan is said to have been one of the missionaries sent to the Britons by Pope Saint Eleutherius (f.d. May 26) at the request of King Saint Lucius (f.d. December 3). His church of Merthyr Dyfan shows the popular tradition that he ended his days on earth in martyrdom (Benedictines). Sources: ======== Attwater, D. (1983). The Penguin Dictionary of Saints, NY: Penguin Books. Benedictine Monks of St. Augustine Abbey, Ramsgate. (1947). The Book of Saints. NY: Macmillan. Bowen, Paul. When We Were One: A Yearbook of the Saints of the British Isles Complied from Ancient Calendars. Delaney, J. J. (1983). Pocket Dictionary of Saints, NY: Doubleday Image. Flanagan, L.A. (1990) Chronicle of Irish Saints. The Blackstaff Press, Belfast. Montague, H. P. (1981). The Saints and Martyrs of Ireland. Guildford: Billing & Sons. Neeson, E. (1967). Book of Irish Saints. Cork: Mercer Press. For All the Saints: http://www.saintpatrickdc.org/ss/ss-index.htm Icons of Celtic Saints for the church or the prayer corner at home: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/celt-saints/message/1306 These Lives are archived at: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/celt-saints ¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤
