Baring-Gould’s sources: Irish Martyrologies. Authority:—A fragment of the Life by Augustine MacCrodin, published by Colgan, written about 1390. The following account of the home of S. Enda, and sketch of his life, is taken from the Bishop of Ardagh's charming "Visit to Aran-more," Brown and Nolan, Dublin, 1870.
S. Enda, whose name in Irish is written Einne and Ende, and in Latin, Endeus and Anna, was born in Louth about the middle of the fifth century, and was the only son of Conall, king of Oriel, whose territories included the modern counties of Louth, Monaghan, Armagh, and Fermanagh. Three of his sisters, Fanchea, Lochinia, and Carecha, were nuns, and Darenia, the fourth sister, was wife of Engus, king of Cashel, whose death is placed by the Four Masters in the year 489. On the death of his father, the youthful Enda was chosen to succeed him as head of the men of Oriel. The warlike spirit of the times took strong hold of the young prince's heart, and we find him at an early period of his life captivated by the love of glory, and eager to show by his military prowess that he was worthy of the royal race from which he had sprung, and of the throne which he filled. His holy sister, Fanchea, was incessant in her exertions to win for God her brother's heart, which, with all its defects, she knew to be chivalrous and pure. For a time her words of warning and entreaty remained without result; but the season of grace came soon. Enda had asked from his sister in marriage one of the royal maidens who were receiving their education in the convent which she ruled. Fanchea communicated his request to the maiden: "Make thou thy choice, whether wilt thou love Him whom I love, or this earthly bridegroom?" "Whom thou lovest," was the girl's sweet reply, "Him also will I love." She died soon after, and gave her soul to God, the Spouse whom she had chosen.
"The holy virgin," says the ancient life, covered the face of the dead girl with a veil, and going again to Enda, said to him: "Young man, come and see the maiden whom thou lovest." Then Enda with the virgin entered the chamber where was the dead girl, and the holy virgin uncovering the face of the lifeless maiden, said to him: "Now look upon the face of her whom thou didst love." And Enda cried out: "Alas! she is fair no longer, but ghastly white." "So also shalt thy face be," replied the holy virgin. And then S. Fanchea discoursed to him of the pains of hell, and of the joys of heaven, until the young man's tears began to flow. O! the wondrous mercy of God in the conversion of this man to the true faith! for even as He changed the haughty Saul into the humble Paul, so out of this worldly prince did he make a spiritual and a holy teacher and pastor of His people. For having heard the words of the holy virgin, despising the vanities of the world, he took the monk's habit and tonsure [shaving part of the head as a sign of entering the clergy or monastic life], and what the tonsure signified, he fulfilled by his actions.
After having founded a monastery in his native place, S. Enda is said to have proceeded to Rosnat or Abba, in Britain, where he remained for some time under the spiritual direction of S. Mansenus or Manchan. Thence, according to the above-mentioned life, he went to Rome, where "attentively studying the examples of the saints, and preparing himself in everything for the order of priesthood, having at length been ordained priest, he was pleasing to the most high God." He built a monastery called Lætinum or the Place of Joy ; and rightly so called, adds the life, "because therein the command of loving God and our neighbour was most faithfully carried out."
Returning to Ireland, he landed at Drogheda, and built several churches on either side of the river Boyne. He then proceeded southwards to visit his brother-in-law, Engus, king of Munster, from whom he asked the island of Aran, that he might dwell thereon. The king was first unwilling to comply with his request; not because he was ungenerous, but because he had learned from S. Patrick [apostle of Ireland (5th century)] "not to offer to the Lord his God any lands save such as were good and fertile, and easy of access." But S. Enda declared that Aran was to be the place of his resurrection; and at length the king made an offering of the island "to God and to S. Enda," asking in return the blessing of the saint.
Having thus obtained possession of what he rightly deemed a place of singular retirement, and well suited for the rigours of a penitential life, S. Enda returned to his brethren, and conducted them in safety to the island, which was then inhabited by Pagans from the adjacent coast of Clare. He divided the island into ten parts, and built thereon ten monasteries, each under the rule of its proper superior. He chose a place for his own residence on the eastern coast, and there erected a monastery, the name and site of which is preserved to this day in the little village of Kil-eany (Kill-Enda), about a mile from Kilronan. One half of the island was assigned to this monastery.
Then began the blessed days, when the sweet odour of penance ascended to heaven from the angelic band of monks, who, under the severe rule of S. Enda, made Aran a burning light of sanctity for centuries in Western Europe. "The virginal saint from Aran Island," as Marianus O'Gorman styles S. Enda, was to them a model of all the virtues of the religious life, but, above all, he excelled in the exercise of penitential mortifications. S. Cuimin of Connor tells us that:—
"Aran," says Froude, "is no better than a wild rock. It is strewed over with the ruins, which may still be seen, of the old hermitages; and at their best they could have been but such places as sheep would huddle under in a storm, and shiver in the cold and wet which would pierce through the chinks of the walls.... Yes; there on that wet soil, with that dripping roof above them, was the chosen home of these poor men. Through winter frost, through rain and storm, through summer sunshine, generation after generation of them, there they lived and prayed, and at last lay down and died."
These miracles of penance were the first and immediate results of S. Enda's work in Aran.
It was in his life that these holy men had daily before them the personal realization of all they were striving after; he taught them to cherish the flinty dungeon and the dripping cave for love of the hard manger and the harder cross; he bade them dwell amid the discomforts and dreariness of their island home, because in the tabernacles of sinners the blessed majesty of God was daily outraged by the crimes of men. We cannot, indeed, describe the details of his life, for they have been hidden from human view, as it is becoming that such secrets of the Heavenly King should be hidden. But there yet survives the voice of one of those who lived with him in Aran, and in the ideal of an abbot which S. Carthage sets before us, we undoubtedly find re-produced the traits which distinguished the abbot of Aran-more, from whom S. Carthage first learned to serve God in the religious life. S. Enda was his first model of the "patience, humility, prayer, fast, and cheerful abstinence; of the steadiness, modesty, calmness that are due from a leader of religious men, whose office it is to teach in all truth, unity, forgiveness, purity, rectitude in all that is moral; whose chief works are the constant preaching of the Gospel for the instruction of all persons, and the sacrifice of the Body of the great Lord upon the holy altar."
The fame of S. Enda's austere holiness, and of the angelical life which so many were leading in Aran under his guidance, soon spread far and wide throughout the land. Soon, the Galway fishermen, whom S. Enda had blessed, found day after day their corachs crowded with strangers—religious men, of meek eye and gentle face—seeking to cross over to the island. And thus Aran gradually came to be, as the writer of the life of S. Kieran of Clonmacnoise describes it, the home of a multitude of holy men, and the sanctuary where repose the relics [the bodily remains of a saint, or objects they used, kept with honor] of countless saints, whose names are known only to the Almighty God. "Great indeed is that island," exclaims another ancient writer, "and it is the land of the saints, for no one, save God alone, knows how many holy men lie buried therein."
But, although it is not possible to learn the names of all the saints who were formed to holiness by S. Enda in Aran, the ancient records have preserved the names of a few at least out of that blessed multitude. The history of these men is the history of S. Enda's work on Aran. First among S. Enda's disciples must be ranked S. Kieran, the founder of Clonmacnoise, who came to Aran in his youth, and for seven years lived faithfully in the service of God, under the direction of S. Enda. "During these seven years," says the ancient life of our saint, "Kieran so diligently discharged the duties of grinding the corn, that grain in quantity sufficient to make a heap never was found in the granary of the island." Upon these humble labours the light of the future greatness of the founder of Clonmacnoise was allowed to shine in visions calling him elsewhere, but he could not bring himself to sever the happy ties that bound him to his abbot. He still longed to be under his guidance, and when recommending himself to the prayers of his brethren, he said to S. Enda, in the presence of all, "O father, take me and my charge under thy protection, that all my disciples may be thine likewise." "Not so," answered Enda, "for it is not the will of God that you should all live under my care in this scanty island." And when they had thus spoken, a cross was set up in the place, in sign of the brotherhood they had contracted between themselves, and those who were to come after them; and they said: "whosoever in after times shall break the loving bond of this our brotherhood, shall not have share in our love on earth, nor in our company in heaven."
The love which S. Enda bore towards his holy pupil, for his many and wonderful virtues, made their parting singularly painful to them both. For a time the holy abbot felt as if the angels of God were leaving Aran with Kieran, and he could find no relief for his anguish but in prayer. The sternness of religious discipline had not crushed but chastened the tenderness of an affectionate disposition in S. Enda. The entire community of the island shared the sorrow that had come on their venerable abbot. When the moment of departure was at hand, and the boat that was to bear him from Aran was spreading its sails to the breeze, Kieran came slowly down to the shore, walking between S. Enda and S. Finnian, and followed by the entire brotherhood. His tears flowed fast as he moved along, and those who accompanied him mingled their tears with his. Peter de Blois, when leaving the abbey of Croyland to return to his own country, stayed his steps seven times to look back and contemplate once again the place where he had been so happy; so, too, did Kieran's gaze linger with tenderness upon the dark hills of Aran and on the oratories where he had learned to love God, and to feel how good and joyous a thing it is to dwell with brethren whose hearts are at one with each other in God. And when the shore was reached, again he knelt to ask his father's blessing, and, entering the boat, was carried away from the Aran that he was never to see again. The monastic group stayed for a while on the rocks to follow with longing eyes the bark that was bearing from them him they loved; and when at length, bending their steps homewards, they had gone some distance from the shore, S. Enda's tears once more began to flow. "O my brethren," cried he, "good reason have I to weep, for this day has our island lost the flower and strength of religious observance." What was loss to Aran, however, was gain to Clonmacnoise, and through Clonmacnoise to the entire Irish Church.
Next among the saints of Aran comes S. Brendan. S. Finnian of Moville (March 18th) is also mentioned in the ancient life of our saint as one of S. Enda's disciples at Aran. The Irish life of S. Columbkille makes mention of the sojourn of that great saint on Aran. The deep love of S. Columba [Irish abbot of Iona (d. 597), apostle of Scotland] for Aran, the sorrow with which he quitted its shores for Iona, are expressed in a poem, written by him on his departure.
The ancient life of S. Enda also reckons among the inhabitants of Aran S. Finnian the elder, the founder of the great school of Clonard; S. Jarlath, the founder of the see of Tuam [a bishop’s “see” is his diocese, named from his seat (Latin sedes)]; S. Mac Creiche, of the race of the men of Corcomroe, who were in possession of Aran when S. Enda first went thither. The Martyrology of Donegal makes mention of S. Guigneus; the Martyrology of Ængus adds S. Papeus, S. Kevin of Glendaloch, S. Carthage of Lismore, S. Lonan Kerr, S. Nechanus, and S. Libeus, brother of S. Enda. In the midst of this holy brotherhood S. Enda died in 540 or 542.
The sight of Aran peopled by this host of saints forcibly recalls to mind that other island, where, in an age of wild and fierce passions, the arts of peace, religious learning, and the highest Christian virtues, found a sanctuary. At the beginning of the sixth century, Aran may, with truth, be styled the Lerins of the Northern seas. True, its bare flags and cold grey landscape contrast sadly with "the gushing streams, the green meadows, the luxuriant wealth of vines, the fair valleys, and the fragrant scents which," according to S. Eucherius, "made Lerins the paradise of those who dwelt thereon." However, its very wildness did but make it richer in those attractions so well described by S. Ambrose [bishop of Milan (d. 397)], which made the outlying islands so dear to the religious men of that time. They loved those islands, "which, as a necklace of perils, God has set upon the bosom of the sea, and in which those who would fly from the irregular pleasures of the world, may find a refuge wherein to practise austerity and save themselves from the snares of this life. In it these faithful and pious men find incentives to devotion. The mysterious sound of the billows calls for the answering sound of sacred psalmody; and the peaceful voices of holy men, mingled with the gentle murmur of the waves breaking softly on the shore rise in unison to the heavens."
On a summer's day in the year 1870, says the Bishop of Ardagh, we set sail to visit the remote Aran, which the virtues of S. Enda had changed from a Pagan isle into Aran of the Saints. And as the faint breeze bore us slowly over the waters that lay almost motionless in the summer calm, we gazed with admiration upon a scene which was but little changed since S. Enda and his pilgrim band had first looked upon it. Before us there lay stretched out the same expanse of sea, fringed on one side by the dark plains of Iar-Connaught, along which the eye travelled from the white cliffs of Barna to where the Connemara mountains, in soft blue masses, stood out in fantastic clusters against the sky. On the other side ran the Clare coastline, now retreating before the deep sea-inlets, and now breasting the Atlantic with bold promontories like that of gloomy Black-Head, or with gigantic cliffs like those of Mohir. And as the day closed, and we watched the evening breeze steal out from land, crisping the water into wavelets that rippled against the vessel's side; and as we saw the golden glory of the sunset flush with indescribable loveliness, earth, and sea, and sky, we thought how often in bygone days, the view of Aran rising, as we then saw it, out of the sunlit waves, had brought joy to the pilgrim who was journeying to find rest upon its rocky shore.
The Aran isles are three in number, named respectively, Inishmore (the large island), Inishmain (the middle island), and Inisheen (the eastern island). The eastern island is the smallest of the three, and is about two-and-a-half miles long; the middle island is three miles long; the largest is about nine miles in length, and twenty-four in circumference.
Our chief interest was naturally centred in the group of buildings which exist at Killeany, and consist of the church of S. Benignus, the church of S. Enda, the round tower of S. Enda, and the stone houses in its immediate vicinity. Our readers will have remarked that the first six churches named in Dr. Keely's list, all stood near each other, and to the north of the present village of Killeany. Out of six churches which existed here as late as 1645, four have almost entirely disappeared. They were demolished by unholy hands for the sake of materials to build the castle of Arkin.
The church known as Teglach Enda, wherein S. Enda was laid, still exists on the shore; it is in good preservation, and is a fine specimen of the single church without chancel. It is twenty-four feet in length and fourteen in breadth. All the walls now standing are by no means of an equal antiquity. The eastern gable and part of the northern side wall are the only parts belonging to S. Enda's time, the remainder of the building being the work of a later period. Around the church spreads the cemetery, now almost completely covered up by the sands, in which the body of S. Enda, and those of one hundred and fifty other saints, are interred.
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.