Baring-Gould’s sources: Roman Martyrology. Canonized by Honorius IIL in 1226. Authority: — A Life written by a Canon of Eu shortly after his death, in Lorcan OTuathal, or, as he is generally called, Laurence O’Toole, was the youngest son of Muriartach (Murtough) OTuathal, prince of Imaly in the present county of Wicklow. His mother was of the equally great family of the Hy-Brins. Lorcan remained with his parents till he was about ten years old, when he was given as a hostage by his father to Dermot MacMurrough, king of Leinster. He was a brutal prince. In 1135, to please one of his followers, he took the abbess of Kildare from her convent and delivered her over to his pleasure. The people of Kildare rose to rescue her, but without success, for a hundred and fifty of them were killed by Dermot’s soldiers. He put out the eyes of Muirkertach, 1 The date of the synod is generally fixed at 519, so as to allow of Dubricius bring present at it. But the only authority for the two synods of Llandewi-Brefi is Rhyddmarch, and he admits that all records were lost. Some penitential canons passed at it have, however, been preserved, and come to us from Brittany. See Stubbs ind Had dan, “Councils and Eccl. Doc." L p. xx6-x8. 5. Laurence O' Toole.
…chief of Wicklow, and seventeen other lords. Murtough O’Toole heard that Dermot was treating his son badly, that he had sent him to a barren bog, and given him insufficient food. He seized on twelve of Dermot’s soldiers and threatened to put them to death if his son were not restored to him. Dermot, alarmed at the menace, transferred Laurence to the care of the bishop of Glendalough. The bishop kept him twelve days, and then delivered him up to his father. Murtough took Laurence with him and went to Glendalough, and asked the bishop to determine, by casting of lots, which of his sons should be devoted to the ecclesiastical estate. Laurence laughed, and asked what was the use of casting lots when he was willing to become a clerk. His father gladly permitted him to remain with the bishop of Glendalough and receive training for the priesthood. He was then aged twelve. Murtough OToole was afterwards put to death by Dermot.
When Laurence was twenty-five, he was elected abbot of the monastery of Glendalough. He was profuse in his alms, and the riches of the abbey were not sufficient to satisfy his ambition to give, and the readiness of the poor to receive. After having been abbot four years, the bishop of Glendalough died, and the office was offered to Laurence, who, however, refused it Some years later, Gregory, archbishop of Dublin, died, and then Laurence was forced to accept thearchiepiscopal see. Laurence devoted himself to the care of his diocese, and was strict in requiring the church offices to be regularly and punctually celebrated. He lived a selfdenying life, taking only bread and water on Fridays, and wearing a hair-shirt next his skin. From thirty to sixty poor were fed daily by his bounty. Whenever he was able, he retired to Glendalough, to enjoy the repose of meditation and prayer.
The cruelties and violence of Dermot MacMurrough, king of Leinster, led to his being driven from the country by a league of princes and chiefs under Roderic O’Connor, the head king of Ireland. Dermot fled to Henry II. of England for assistance. At the commencement of his reign Henry had obtained from Pope Adrian IV. a bull granting him the right " to enter the island of Ireland, to subject the people to obedience of laws, to eradicate the seeds of vice, and also to make every house pay the annual tribute of one penny to the blessed Peter.” England was ambitious, Rome was impecunious, and the plunder of Ireland was at once to satisfy English ambition and to replenish the empty coffers of Rome. Henry was, however, just then much too occupied with his own affairs to attempt the invasion of Ireland. The bull had been granted in 1155. It was in 1168 that Dermot fled from Ireland to Bristol, and invoked the aid of Henry to recover his kingdom, little conscious of the deed of gift, whereby his kingdom and those of his enemies had been made over by the Pope to the crown of England. Henry received Dermot “ into the bosom of his grace and benevolence,” and invited his nobles to undertake an expedition to Ireland to redress the wrongs of Dermot, and enrich themselves. For some time Dermot failed in his efforts to obtain assistance. After some fruitless negotiations with the needy and lawless adventurers who thronged the port of Bristol, he applied to Richard Strongbow, Earl of Pembroke. Strongbow agreed to assist him on condition that he should receive the hand of Eva, daughter of Dermot, and should succeed him on the throne of Leinster. Strongbow was accompanied by Maurice Fitzgerald and Robert Fitzstephen, sons of Nesta, mistress of Henry I., and now wife of Gerald, Lord Carew, governor of Pembroke. We need not follow the history of the invasion. Strongbow and his bride passed to church in Waterford over the bleeding bodies of the dying and the dead, who had been massacred by the savage soldiers the S. Laurence O' Toole.
day before. Then he marched against Dublin. The inhabitants commissioned their archbishop, S. Laurence O’Toole, to make terms with Dermot. While the discussion was pending, the English broke into the city and commenced a merciless butchery of its inhabitants. When the archbishop returned, he heard cries of misery, and groans of agony in all quarters, and it was not without difficulty that he succeeded in arresting their wanton slaughter. Dermot MacMurrough died at Ferns in 1.171, of a painful disorder. Strongbow at once proclaimed himself king of Leinster, by right of his wife Eva. All appeared to promise well for the object of his ambition, when he received a sudden summons from Henry to return to England. He disregarded the command, and sending an apology and explanations to the king, remained in Ireland. S. Laurence, probably not aware of the papal grant of Ireland, and that he was opposing the will of the Vicar of Christ, endeavoured to unite the national chiefs and rally the national army against the invaders. His words appeared to have some effect Strongbow threw himself into Dublin; but he soon found himself landlocked by an army, and enclosed at sea by a fleet Roderic O’Connor commanded the national forces. S. Laurence O’Toole was in his camp, and strove to animate the men by his exhortations and example. The Irish army contented themselves with a blockade, and the besieged were soon reduced to extremities from want of food. Strongbow offered terms of capitulation through the archbishop. While these negotiations were in progress, Strongbow suddenly burst out of Dublin. The Irish army was totally unprepared for this sortie; they fled in panic, and Roderic, who was bathing in the Liffey, escaped with difficulty. In October, 1171, Henry II. landed in Ireland, with five hundred knights and four thousand men-at-arms, to take to himself the kingdom granted him by the Holy See, and reap the result of the victories of the Earl of Pembroke. The Irish princes, unable to resist him, submitted without a blow, and took oaths of allegiance.
In 1175, Laurence was at Windsor on affairs concerning his Church, and witnessed the agreement between Roderic O’Connor and King Henry. At the same time Henry exercised the first act of his authority in appointing the Irish bishops, by naming to the vacant see of Waterford [a bishop’s “see” is his diocese, named from his seat (Latin sedes)], one Augustine, an Irishman, whom he sent to the archbishop of Cashel for consecration. Laurence went on to Canterbury, and was there nearly killed by a madman, who ran upon him with a club and beat him on the head whilst he was saying mass. Laurence was able to finish mass, though his head bled, and he was almost stunned. The lunatic would have been hanged, had not S. Laurence interceded for his life.
Strongbow died at Dublin, in June, 1176. It was of the highest political importance that his death should not be known till some one was present to occupy his place. His sister, Basilia, accordingly wrote to her husband, Raymond Le Gros, at Limerick: “ Know you, my dear lord, that the great tooth in my jaw, which was wont to ache so much, is now fallen out; wherefore if you have any love or regard for me, or for yourself, you will not delay to hasten hither with all speed.” Raymond understood her meaning, hasted to Dublin, and then announced the death of Strongbow. The dead earl was buried by S. Laurence in the cathedral of Christ Church at Dublin. In 1179, S. Laurence O’Toole and five other Irish bishops, were at the third Lateran [St. John Lateran, the pope’s cathedral in Rome] Council at Rome. On their way through England they were obliged to take oaths that they would not act in any way prejudicial to the king or his kingdom. The Pope treated S. Laurence with great kindness, and gave him a bull, in which he confirmed the rights of the see of Dublin, S. Laurence O' Toole. 333 and its jurisdiction over the suffragan [a bishop under the authority of an archbishop] sees of Glendalough, Kildare, Ferns, Leighlin, and Ossory. He also appointed him his legate [an official representative sent by the pope] throughout Ireland.
On his return to Ireland S. Laurence applied himself with fervour, not only to the care of his diocese and province, but likewise to the duties of his apostolic legation. He sent in one year a hundred and forty ecclesiastics convicted of immorality to Rome, to obtain absolution there, so that their cases must have been of extreme grossness, as all ordinary crimes could have been absolved by him. These were scandals of a new kind in Ireland, introduced by the Norman clergy, who flocked over to receive the good benefices in Ireland. “ Such,” says Dr. Lanigan, “ were the missionaries, who, according to the wish of Adrian IV., were to establish pure religion and sound ecclesiastical discipline in Ireland.” 1 S. Laurence continued his unbounded charities, and during a famine which lasted for three years, gave daily alms to five hundred poor persons, besides supplying some three hundred more with clothes and other necessaries. In 1180 he went to England to settle a dispute between Roderic O’Connor and Henry II. But Henry refused to see him. He therefore passed over into Normandy, waiting an opportunity for smoothing the wrath of the king. He fell ill almost directly, and died at Eu, crying in Irish, “ O foolish, senseless people ! what are you now to do ? who will cure your misfortunes ? who will heal you ? ” Relics in the parish church at Eu.