CHAPTER XVIII.

THE SCHOOL OF GLENDALOUGH.

"By that lake, whose gloomy shore Skylark never warbles o'er, Where the cliff hangs high and steep, Young St. Kevin stole to sleep." --_Moore._

I.--ST. KEVIN.

Glendalough--the Valley of the Two Lakes--is, for a religious and cultivated mind, one of the most interesting spots in Ireland. Nature has made it wild and beautiful; religion has hallowed its scenery with the holiest associations; the genius of song has lit up its dark lakes and mountains with all the radiance of romance. It is one of those places the very sight of which raises the mind from mean and sordid thoughts to the contemplation of what is beautiful and good.

This will be felt all the more by those who are acquainted with the holy and self-denying life of the founder of Glendalough. His career is peculiarly interesting and attractive; for he was a man of the most amiable disposition, and yet of the most austere virtue; a lover of nature and a teacher of men, with the emotional soul of a poet, and a conscience of angelic purity. We are told that the wild birds loved to alight on his shoulders, and that the savage beasts fawned at his feet. He felt himself most at home in the midst of the wild majestic scenery of his mountain valley, where he loved to commune with Nature and with Nature's God. We are told in his Life that his eyes and ears were always open to the sights and sounds around him--that the birds made sweet music in his ears--that the toil of his austere life was lightened by listening to the gentle murmurs of the wind through the leaves of the trees around his cell.

Kevin--in Irish Coemghen, or the Fair-begotten--came of the royal stock of Leinster both on his father's and mother's side. His father, Coemlug, was seventh in descent from Messincorb, the common ancestor of the Dal Messincorb, who himself was son of Cucorb, a king of Leinster in the beginning of the second century. Coemell, his mother, was the daughter of Cennandan, a chief of the Dal Cormac, so called from Cormac Caech, who was a brother of that Messincorb already alluded to.

Coemghen was born A.D. 498, for we are told that he was one hundred and twenty years old when he died A.D. 618. The place of his birth is not given in his Life; but it was somewhere in the county Wicklow, the south-eastern corner of which, around Rathdrum, seems to have been the patrimony of his family. It was a family of saints; for Kevin had two brothers and two sisters, whose names are in the Calendar. One of the brothers was Caemhan of Ard-Chaemhain, near Wexford; the other was Mocuemin, or Nathchaemh, the cousin and successor of St. Columba of Terryglass, in Lower Ormond. The sisters were St. Coeltigerna, mother of St. Dagan of Inver Daoile, in Wicklow, and Melda, the mother of the younger St. Abban, who was born about the year A.D. 520. Then, again, Coemghen's paternal uncle was St. Eugenius, Bishop of Ardstraw, the principal patron saint of the diocese of Derry.

The family, too, seems to have been remarkable for personal beauty as well as for sanctity of life--all its members, male and female, being described in their very names as 'beautiful' or 'fair-begotten.' Young Coemghen of Glendalough grew up to be a youth of remarkable beauty, so that his good looks became a source of great danger and temptation to the boy, as we shall presently see.

The child was baptized by a priest called Cronan, not by an Angel, as has been sometimes foolishly said. It is stated, however, in the saint's Life in the _Salamanca MS._, that an Angel under the appearance of a beautiful boy, met the child when it was being carried to the font, and blessed the infant--a fact which is not at all improbable.

At the early age of seven the child was placed under the care of St. Petroc, a learned and holy man who came from Cornwall, and hence is called a Briton in the _Life of St. Kevin_. Petroc came to Ireland in A.D. 492 and devoted himself to the study of Sacred Scripture, as well as to the instruction and edification of his neighbours in Wicklow, both by word and example. He afterwards returned to his own country, where he continued the same course of saintly life. His monastic school in Cornwall became a great centre of learning and holiness, and was known as Petroc-Stowe, which afterwards came to be corrupted into Padstow--its present name.

Under the care of this venerable master young Coemghen remained for twelve years, until A.D. 512, when he was transferred to the guidance of his uncle, St. Eugenius, afterwards founder and bishop of Ardstraw. He had studied some years in Britain in the great monastery of Rosnat which by some writers is placed in Wales, but by others, with much more probability, is identified with Whithern in Galloway. Eugenius, after his return to his own country, in conjunction with St. Lochan and St. Enna, founded a monastic school at a place called Kilnamanagh, in his native territory of Cualann. There is a townland called Kilnamanagh in the parish of Glenealy, north-east of Rathdrum, in Wicklow; and it was here, doubtless, that Coemghen lived under the care of these three saints, making, we are told, daily progress in virtue and learning.

St. Eugenius, though he had studied in the schools of Britain, was probably not much older than his nephew. He was now, it seems, desirous to preach the Gospel in the native territory of his mother, who came from the North of Ireland, and he was anxious to appoint young Coemghen to succeed him at Kilnamanagh. Thereupon Coemghen, fearing to be raised to this post of honour and responsibility, fled from his uncle's monastery to the desert of Glendalough, and hid himself in the remotest recesses of that wild mountain valley.

There was it seems another reason, too, which has been much distorted by poetic licence, that induced him to fly from his native district. The genuine story is told in his Life, and is very different from the popular and poetic account. Coemghen was a very handsome youth, and his good looks won the affection of a beautiful girl of his own age, whose sorrow was great to find her love not only unrequited, but unnoticed. On one occasion she even followed the gracious boy, when he went with his brothers to the woods, and finding him alone exerted all her blandishments to win his heart. The young saint, tormented instead of softened by her proffered caresses, which he had tried in vain to repel, resolved to give her a lesson for the future. He had flung himself half-naked into a brake full of nettles, and now gathering a handful, he scourged the girl with the burning nettles on her face and arms. "The fire without," says the author of the saint's Life, "extinguished the fire within." Her heart was touched with the grace of penance. She humbly asked Coemghen's pardon for all she had done to tempt him, and besought him to pray to God in her behalf. Such prayers could not but be heard; and so we are told that she became a sincere convert, consecrating her virginity to God, and faithfully following all the years of her life the counsels and spiritual guidance of St. Coemghen. To scourge the fair Kathleen with nettles for the good of her soul is a very different thing from flinging her into the lake.

Before Kevin retired to the recesses of Glendalough, he was ordained priest by Bishop Lugaidh, or Lugidus. Some persons think it was by his advice that Coemghen sought that lonely retreat.

In order to understand the subsequent events in the life of St. Coemghen, or, as we may now call him, St. Kevin, it is necessary to have some idea of the topography of Glendalough.

The valley is something more than two miles long, and about three quarters in average breadth. It runs from east to west, slightly trending towards the north at its western extremity. Towards the east it gradually opens into the valley of the Avonmore; but on the other three sides it is completely enclosed by lofty and precipitous mountains. To the south, or left hand, looking westward, are the mountains of Derrybawn and Lugduff, the latter especially rising in steep and gloomy grandeur, like a great wall, from the floor of the valley. On the north or right hand are the two mountains of Brockagh and Comaderry--neither so bold nor so steep as Lugduff; Comaderry, however, rises to the height of 2,296 feet, while Lugduff is only 2,140 above the level of the sea.

There are two lakes in this dark valley, one called the Upper, or western lake, which is the larger and gloomier sheet of water lying under the gigantic shadow of Lugduff, whose cliffs rise sheer from the water to the height of 1,000 feet. The Lower, or eastern lakelet, is smaller and brighter in its aspect, and leaves a foot passage on either side between its shores and the mountains to the north and south. At the extreme western end of the valley a mountain torrent dashes down a steep ravine into the lake, forming a fine cascade, which may be seen from the eastern shore of the lake. There is another mountain stream that rushes down between Lugduff and Derrybawn on the south, forming a grand waterfall called Pollanass, escaping from which its waters enter the Upper Lake at its south-eastern extremity. Fed by these two streams and numerous rivulets, the Upper Lake sends out its surplus waters down the valley in a considerable stream called here the Glenealo River, which rushes eastward over the broken ground until it takes rest for a while in the Lower Lake. Emerging thence, and still flowing eastward for half a mile, it unites with another stream called the Glendasan River, which flows down the back of Comaderry mountain. For about a quarter of a mile before uniting, these two streams flow almost parallel through the valley, and then suddenly bending towards each other, send their united waters still eastward to join the Avonmore at Larah, towards the eastern extremity of the Valley of Glendalough. The delta, formed in the valley by the Glenealo and Glendasan rivers, was the site of the 'City' of Glendalough, and there still the principal ruins are to be found.

When Kevin fled from Kilnamanagh and its dangers, he penetrated to the very heart of this wilderness, and took up his abode in its most inaccessible retreats. The writer of his Life gives a most accurate description of the spot which he chose for his place of abode. "It was a valley closed in with lofty and precipitous mountains, and in the western part of this valley towards the south he found a lake enclosed between two mountains."[322] On the shores of this lake he lived for seven years the life of a solitary, without fire, without a roof, and almost without human food. "On the northern shore his dwelling was in a hollow tree; but on the southern shore of the lake he dwelt in a very narrow cave, to which there was no access except by a boat, for a perpendicular rock of immense height overhangs it from above." This is St. Kevin's Bed on the face of Lugduff, overhanging the southern shore of the Upper Lake, whose deep waters wash the base of the rock 30 feet beneath. Even from the lake the path is steep and difficult, but not dangerous. Very few, however, have the steadiness and courage to descend to the cave from the overhanging cliffs above.

The cave itself is only about four feet square, and not high enough to stand upright in. But there is a smaller hollow within where the saint might lay his head and snatch his few hours of brief repose. It was a dizzy height, and a hard bed; but we cannot judge of the saints of God by our own worldly and selfish standard. And for one who loved God and His glorious works, as St. Kevin did, there were never wanting, by day or night, sights and sounds to fill his mind with manifold ideas of the wondrous attributes of the great Author of all. The majesty of these dark mountains, the changing glories of these lakes and streams, the voices of the falling waters, the roaring of the storms through the wintry hills, Arturus and the Bear rising over the lofty crest of Comaderry and for ever silently sweeping round the changeless pole, the morning sun flooding the dark valley with light--a pale reflection of the splendour around the Great White Throne--these were the sights that met his eyes, and the voices that spoke in his ears during the days and nights that he spent on the rocky floor of his narrow cell. He spoke to no man, but he communed with God and Nature--his body was on the naked rock, but his soul was in heaven. It was during these years that the birds and beasts came to know and to love the gentle saint, who lived as Adam did in Paradise. He had made for himself a hut of boughs on the northern shore of the lake, where he spent much of his time, and we are told that the birds used to come and alight on his hands and shoulders, and sing for him their sweetest songs; and that the trees were like Æolian harps whose melody lightened the toilsome routine of his life. As for his food, "no man knows on what he lived during these years, for he himself never revealed it to anyone."

But now it pleased God to make known the virtues of his servant to his fellow men. A shepherd discovered the saint's retreat, and told far and wide of the holy man who had led for so long the life of an angel in the desert. Crowds of persons made their way to the heart of the mountains, and St. Kevin could no longer be alone. It was revealed to him that he was destined to be the father of many monks, and he submitted to the will of Providence.

Still he was at first unwilling to go far from his beloved cave in Lugduff. So they built him a cell--a circular bee-hive hut of stones--close to the southern shore of the lake; and near at hand his disciples also built him an oratory on a rock projecting from the base of Lugduff into the lake, hence called _Tempull-na-Skellig_. This was the "clara cella quae Desertum Coemghini appellatur."[323] But that beautiful and celebrated oratory is now, like the saint's cell, almost a heap of ruins--the sight-seers are even worse than the Danes, and fifty years of tourists in the mountain valley have caused more ruin to these venerable monuments than centuries of civil strife. Not far from _Tempull-na-Skellig_, and on the same southern shore of the Upper Lake, there is another ruined church and church-yard, known in the guide books as _Rifearta_ Church; that is, the 'royal cemetery' (_righ-fearta_) of the O'Toole kings. They were not the original rulers of this district; but after the Norman Conquest they retired from the plains of Kildare before the invaders, and held these valleys and mountains as a stronghold of freedom against the 'strangers.'

But this place became too small for the multitude of the saint's disciples, who now dwelt around his little church--it was inconveniently situated, too, and very difficult of access. So God's Angel appeared to Kevin, and commanded him to go and build his monastery at the eastern shore of the smaller lake, about half a mile further down the valley.

"If it was God's will," said Kevin, "I should prefer to remain until my death near this place, where I have laboured in His service." "Nay," said the Angel, "if you dwell where I say, many thousands of happy souls will have their resurrection there, and go with you to the heavenly kingdom." Then the Angel led the saint, after he had spent four years at Lugduff, to the eastward of the smaller lake, and marked out the site of his church and monastery; and "there he built that celebrated monastery of the Valley of the Two Lakes, which was the mother house of many others."

And there, too, he lived as of old in the practice of the most rigid austerity. "He was clothed in the coarsest garments; his bed was the bare ground; he broke his fast at evening on a meal of herbs and water; he kept constant and prayerful vigils often in the open air; and so he lived a long time in the monastery, as he used to live in the desert, until at the earnest entreaty of many holy men he consented at last to live like his monks in the ordinary monastic way." It is evident that the saint was most reluctant to give up those habits of extreme asceticism which he had adopted in the desert; and he only yielded in deference to the entreaties of other venerable men who feared to lose so precious a life.

It is not to be wondered at that large crowds of disciples came to the monastery of this great servant of God, and were anxious to place themselves under his guidance, so that Glendalough became a seminary of saints and scholars, who went forth from its halls to found other monasteries, and rule other churches. In fact, it became quite a 'city' in the desert, whose citizens were "cives sanctorum et domestici Dei," clothed with human nature, but living like the household of God in heaven.

At this period Kevin must have been still a comparatively young man, certainly not exceeding forty years of age. For all these events are narrated in his life as if happening before he left Glendalough to pay a visit to the holy abbots, Columba, Comgall, and Canice, who met the saint of Glendalough at the celebrated hill of Uisnech (now Usney) in Westmeath. This visit is represented as having taken place only a few days after the death of St. Ciaran at Clonmacnois, which happened in A.D. 544, so that the large monastery of Glendalough was probably founded about A.D. 540, when the saint was 42 years of age. The hill of Uisnech was from time immemorial a celebrated place of meeting, being situated in the centre of Ireland, and, though belonging to Meath, it was considered neutral ground, with the privilege of sanctuary during these meetings. It is probable these holy abbots, Columba of Kells and Durrow, Comgall of Bangor, Canice of Aghaboe, were met together for the transaction of some weighty matters arising from the accession of the new king of Tara, Diarmaid Mac Cearbhaill, and they invited to their meeting the already famous abbot of the great Leinster monastery. In the Life of Kevin it is said that he went to establish, or confirm, a league of brotherly friendship with these saints; and so much was he respected that Columba stood up at his approach, and remained standing until he arrived. And when the ruder multitude (plebs) censured the great Columba for acting thus in deference to an unknown stranger, Columba warmly replied:--"Foolish men! why should not I stand at the approach of that servant of God, in whose honour God's Angels in heaven will yet rise from their thrones?"

After his return to Glendalough he presided over that great monastery and school for 60 years more, leading still the same heavenly life, training others by word and example to walk in the paths of holiness, and confirming his teaching by the performance of many miracles. But as was well said by one of his disciples, his own life was the greatest miracle of all. Special mention is made of two of his favourite disciples--St. Berach, who himself afterwards founded a great monastery at Cluaincairpthe, since called Tarmonbarry, on the banks of the Shannon, and Mochoroy, a Briton, who was for many years a loving disciple of the saint and founder of the Church of Delgany. He enjoyed the great privilege of giving the Viaticum to Kevin, when the holy old man was about to be called away to his reward. St. Kevin died on the 3rd of June, A.D. 618, at the great age of 120 years, and was buried by his sorrowing children in his own church at Glendalough.

The memory of St. Kevin is greatly revered, not only in Wicklow but in all parts of Ireland; and he seems to hold a place in popular affection next after the great patron saints of Ireland, Patrick, Bridget, and Columcille.

Some writings have been attributed to the saint, amongst others a Life of St. Patrick, but without sufficient evidence. He was certainly the author of a very celebrated monastic Rule, which unhappily is no longer extant. It would be invaluable as exhibiting the special bent of his mind in the formation of the religious character. It was in this that his great influence made itself felt during the long years of his life. It was by this means he stamped his own character on the minds of his disciples, and made Glendalough famous during subsequent centuries as a nursery of holy and learned men. His monastery was for the East of Ireland for many ages what Aran of St. Enda was for the West--a great school of asceticism, a novitiate for the training of the young saints and clergy of Erin in virtue even more than in knowledge. It was also his noble ambition to elevate the standard of ecclesiastical knowledge, and make the cloister not only the home of all virtue, but an asylum of the liberal arts. This was all the more necessary in a turbulent and semi-barbarous age, when the strong hand made its own laws. In this respect the seclusion of Glendalough, as well as the sanctity of its founder and of its holy places, rendered it a most secure asylum down to the advent of the Danes, and even after their departure down to the time of the Anglo-Normans.

II.--RUINS AT GLENDALOUGH.

The existing ruins in the ancient city of Glendalough may, as we have observed, be divided into two groups--those at the shore of the Upper Lake, to which we have already referred, and those at the junction of the two rivers and east of the Lower Lake, which constitute the city proper. This group of buildings was enclosed by a _caiseal_, or strong stone wall, which not only served the purposes of defence, but also marked the limits of the _clausura_, or enclosed space, which females were not allowed to enter, nor the monks to leave without permission. Within this enclosure are the ruins of the following buildings:--(1) the cathedral; (2) the round tower; (3) _Cro Coemghin_, or St. Kevin's kitchen; (4) the Church of the Blessed Virgin.

The wall of the cashel has now almost entirely disappeared; but the magnificent gateway by which it was entered, after crossing the bridge of the Glendasan river, still remains. "This gateway was very nearly a square, being sixteen feet between the side walls and sixteen feet six between the perforated or arched walls."[324] It was built of mica slate--the stone of the district--except the arches and pilasters, which are built of large chiselled blocks of granite. The two arches are of equal height--five feet to the chord and ten to the soffit. A tower arose originally over this double arch, but it has now quite disappeared. There can be no doubt that the gateway tower and cashel were coeval with the completed monastery, and date from the beginning of the seventh century.

The nave of the great church or cathedral, and the round tower are, in Petrie's opinion, coeval, and also belong to the early part of the seventh century. He bases his opinion mainly on the character of the masonry, which in the tower is perfectly similar to that of the round tower of Kilmacduagh. There is historical evidence that the great Church of Kilmacduagh was built by Guaire Aidhne, about the year A.D. 610. The masonry of this church is so similar to that of the tower at Kilmacduagh that they must be regarded as of contemporaneous construction. The magnificent tower of Glendalough is still 110 feet high; with its conical cap it would have been originally 132 feet high. The door-way is at present ten feet from the ground, and is perfectly similar in construction to the door-ways of the ancient churches in the valley--in this, that they are all constructed of chiselled blocks of granite, while the walls are built of the rubble masonry with the stones of the district. The door-way is five feet seven inches high, two feet wide at the sill, and one foot ten inches at the arch, which is cut out of the stone--a feature characteristic of our earliest churches. The nave of the great church which is of the same date (the chancel is in the later ornamented style), and of perfectly similar masonry, was 55 feet in length by 37 in breadth; the chancel seem to have been a later addition.

The building called St. Kevin's Kitchen, with its belfry tower and high pitched stone roof, is perhaps the most interesting building at Glendalough, and was, there is no longer reason to doubt, like Columcille's House at Kells, the oratory and dormitory of the saint. It is evident, upon close examination, that the chancel and sacristy annexed to it, as well as the belfry, were later additions. It was originally a simple oblong 30 feet long and a little more than 22 feet wide; the side walls are 11 feet in height, whilst its height to the ridge of the roof is 31 feet. The lower apartment was an oratory arched with stone, the high pitch of the stone roof leaving space for the croft, or upper chamber, which was at once the cell and sleeping apartment of the saint himself--the oratory beneath was what would now be called a private oratory. The belfry is a small round tower, with conical cap, at the western end of the building.

"Our Lady's Church" is situated a little to the west of these buildings already described, which are in close proximity to each other. It is said to have been the first church built by the saint, eastward of the smaller lake; and its architecture confirms this tradition. The door-way is of singular beauty, and of the most primitive type. It is figured in Petrie's great work, and exhibits all the characteristic features of the earliest doorways. The architrave, however, is ornamented with a plain double moulding; and a cross, saltier-wise, is carved on the soffit of the lintel. St. Kevin himself was buried within this ancient church, which he had dedicated to the Blessed Virgin Mary.[325] His grave was shown in the last century, but it seems that it is now covered over with rubbish from the falling walls. This is also called the Ivy Church, for its walls are festooned with that charitable creeper which flings so much beauty around decay.

This group of buildings was all erected during the lifetime of the saint, or shortly after his death. There were, however, two other edifices further down the valley to the east, of a more ornamental character and of later date.

'Trinity Church' is about a furlong eastward of the 'City' proper, standing alone close to the road on the left from Larah to those buildings which we have just described. It has, or rather had, a chancel with a very beautiful semicircular chancel arch, and also a round tower, which Petrie thinks was built so late as the thirteenth century when the valley of the saints had become "a nest of robbers and murderers." Still further to the east near Larah bridge, and about a mile from the 'City,' was the Priory of St. Saviour, or as it is sometimes called, the Monastery. It is now almost a heap of ruins; portions, however, of the pilasters supporting the chancel arch still remain. The nave of this church was 42 feet long by 26 in breadth; the monastic buildings seem to have been annexed to the north side of the church, but cannot now be traced. Its most interesting feature, however, was the elaborate carving in low-relief on the bases and capitals of the piers (at one side only) that supported the chancel arch. The character of the ornamentation would seem to point to the end of the eleventh, or the beginning of the twelfth century, as the probable date of this once beautiful building. The little oratory within the cathedral cemetery, called the "Priest's House," which has now completely disappeared, but of which drawings are preserved, also belonged to the Romanesque period. It was called the 'Priests' House,' according to Petrie, because it was reserved for the burial place of the Roman Catholic clergy of the surrounding districts.

Within the cemetery, which surrounds the cathedral and is much overcrowded with graves, was the famous yew tree, said to have been planted by St. Kevin himself; but it has now entirely disappeared. It is said that some of its branches were lopped off to make furniture, and that the ancient tree then gradually withered and decayed.

In close proximity to St. Kevin's Kitchen there were anciently several other buildings, all traces of which have now quite disappeared. Mention is made of Cro-Chiarain or St. Ciaran's House, and also of the church of the "Two Sinchells"--Regles an da Sinchell--the patron saints of Killeigh in the King's County. These saints were friends and contemporaries of St. Kevin, and probably resided for a while in the 'Houses' which they or their disciples had constructed in the holy valley. The remains of numerous ancient crosses and tombstones have been discovered during the recent restorations, and are now better cared for than they were heretofore.

III.--ST. MOLING.

Many celebrated scholars were trained in Glendalough from the time of St. Kevin to St. Laurence O'Toole. The See of Glendalough, too, occupied a highly honourable position amongst the bishoprics of Leinster, sometimes claiming the place of honour next to Kildare itself. Yet there is no evidence that St. Kevin himself was raised to the episcopal dignity; and we may fairly assume that if he were a bishop the fact would not have been passed over in silence by the writers of his Life. But the fame of the monastery and schools became so great during the life of the holy founder, that his successor and nephew, St. Molibba, was consecrated bishop, and probably during the lifetime of St. Kevin himself. The subsequent prelates are styled sometimes 'bishops,' and sometimes 'abbots' of Glendalough; and in one instance, at least, that of the abbot Cormac, who died in A.D. 925, the same person is styled bishop and abbot.

It was during the abbacy of Molibba that the school of Glendalough produced a distinguished pupil, whose name is well known in Leinster, that is, St. Moling, the patron and founder of St. Mullins.

St. Moling was one of the most celebrated of the holy and learned men who were trained in Glendalough during the lifetime, or shortly after the death of the founder. His name is still preserved in the parish and barony of St. Mullins, on the left bank of the Barrow, in the extreme south-west of the county Carlow. Moling's first name was Daircell or Taircell. He came of the royal race of Cathaoir Mor, a celebrated king of Leinster in the third century of the Christian era. His father's name was Faolain, whence he is sometimes called Mac Faolain, and his mother Eamhnat, is said to have been a Kerry woman. Though sprung from the Ui Deagha, on the left bank of the Barrow, he was probably born in his mother's country; and hence he is sometimes called Moling Luachra, from the mountain district in Kerry, where he was either born or fostered amongst the friends of his mother. The date of his birth is not known; but as he died in A.D. 697, it was probably some time in the early part of the same century.

Few particulars of his early life are preserved, except certain miraculous stories, which we need not refer to here. It is expressly stated, however, that he spent some time in the monastery of Glendalough, which was not very far from Hy-Kinsellagh, and was then the most celebrated establishment in Leinster. As St. Kevin died about A.D. 618, young Moling cannot have seen much of that great saint, if indeed he ever had an opportunity of meeting him at all. But the spirit of Kevin was there--his Rule and his discipline flourished in Glendalough; and hence in any case we may regard St. Moling as his disciple. It was most probably at Glendalough that the young saint acquired that great knowledge of the Sacred Scriptures which he afterwards manifested, as well as those exalted virtues which bore such lasting fruit on the banks of the Barrow.

The place where he founded his cell and monastery was then called Achadh Cainidh; but the name was soon changed into _Teach Moling_--the House of Moling--since corrupted into St. Mullins. He chose for his home a beautiful spot on a gentle eminence overlooking the noble river, which at this point mingles its waters with the rising tide between the green meadows and rich groves that crown its swelling banks. A small stream here joins the Barrow, and Moling built his monastery on the high ground, between the junction of the river and the stream. His own cell he built lower down, close to the river, for he loved to be alone with God as much as possible, although he frequently visited his monastery, and allowed his monks to confer with himself whenever it was necessary.

He had, too, that love of useful labour which pre-eminently marked the great Benedictine Order. Laborare est orare. To labour is to pray--when the labour is sanctified by its motive and its object. Moling wished to grind the corn for his monks, and for this purpose, with his own hands, he dug a mill-race from the stream already referred to, in such a way as to convey the water more than a hundred yards from the river, even through high ground, in order to get a fall for the water to turn the mill-wheel near his monastery. He kept a curragh, too, on the river, near his own cell, and was always ready to ferry strangers across the broad river, who came to pray and do penance at the monastery. During all this time his food was herbs and water; and according to some accounts--probably in imitation of St. Kevin--he lived a long time within a hollow tree.

His austerities and his virtues soon attracted around Moling a great number of disciples, so that a large community was formed under his guidance and direction. The ruins of four ancient churches are still to be seen on the slope of the hill overlooking the Barrow and the streamlet, some of which were certainly built in his time. It is said, too, that a portion of the mill-stone of Moling's mill was found in the stream, and that the mill-race which he dug out can still be clearly traced.

St. Aidan, called also Mo-Eadan, which has been shortened into Moedog and Moque, the celebrated Bishop of Ferns, died A.D. 632. It is said that he wished St. Moling to be his successor, and that the princes and clergy of Leinster invited Moling to become the Bishop of Ferns. Reluctantly the saint complied with their wishes--for he loved Teach Moling much--and preferred to spend his life there in solitude, attending only to himself and the direction of the chosen souls, who placed themselves under his direction. But God willed it otherwise; and Moling became, at least for some years, Bishop, or High-bishop of Ferns--for at this period a certain kind of precedence was claimed for Ferns over the other bishoprics of Leinster. It is by no means certain, however, that Moling became Bishop of Ferns in immediate succession to Aidan in A.D. 632. If so he must have afterwards resigned his See, which is highly probable, and thus made room for other bishops of Ferns, whose names are mentioned in connection with that See during the seventh century, and during the lifetime of Moling himself. It cannot, therefore, be determined whether he became Bishop of Ferns in A.D. 632 or 691--the former is, however, the more probable date.

Moling procured for his tribesmen one signal temporal advantage--the remission of the celebrated cow-tribute, called the Borumha, which was levied by the King of Tara in Leinster every three years. It was an oppressive tax, originally inflicted for a great crime committed by the King of Leinster in A.D. 106, and was productive of much bloodshed, and mutual hatred between the men of Leinster and the Hy-Niall. Now King Finnachta the Festive had already twice exacted the tribute, and was coming to levy it a third time. The Lagenians resolved to fight rather than to pay; but first of all it was deemed expedient to get St. Moling to use his great influence in their behalf to have the tribute remitted. The saint succeeded beyond their expectations, although, it is said, he made use of an equivocation to effect his purpose. Failing to get a promise of the absolute remission of the tribute, he asked the king to grant him a stay of execution until _luan_. The king promised to grant this stay. Now _luan_ means Monday; and so the king understood it, but it also means the Judgment Day, in which sense Moling understood[326] it, and insisted on the fulfilment of the promise in that sense. The king feared the saint, and moreover was unwilling to be deemed a pledge-breaker, so he was constrained to remit the tribute for ever. The remission, however, was a most unpopular act with his own northern subjects; and it is not unlikely that the story of the equivocation was invented by the king's friends, who wished to please the saint, and yet to throw the odium of this unpopular measure on one who was much better able to bear it than Finnachta. Even the wise Adamnan is represented as counselling his royal master to assert the legal claims of the great Hy-Niall race to which he himself belonged; and he is said to have blamed the king for yielding so weakly to the Leinster saint. The remission was made about the year A.D. 693; and the cow-tax was never levied in Leinster afterwards.

St. Moling is said to have been a great scholar, and a great writer. More ancient Irish poems, several of which are still extant, have been ascribed to St. Moling than to any other of our Irish saints,[327] with the exception, perhaps, of Columcille. Some of these have reference to that Borromean Tribute of which we have already spoken; others purporting to be prophetical, give a list of the kings of Erin, their battles, victories, and death. In consequence of these and several other prophetical poems, St. Moling has been set down as one of the four great prophets of Erin. The others are St. Patrick, St. Columcille, and St. Berchan of Clonsast. One of Moling's prophecies foretells the coming of the Anglo-Normans to Ireland, and the 'conquest' of the country by Henry II. Some of these poems are manifest forgeries written after the event. They were ascribed to St. Moling, because he was pre-eminently a holy man, who enjoyed in his own time the reputation of a prophet amongst all the people.

Keating had in his possession a work which he calls the _Yellow Book of St. Moling_, but which has since been unfortunately lost. Hence we know nothing of it beyond the name. It was probably begun by St. Moling and afterwards continued by his monastic successors as an authentic record of local and national events, like the _Annals of Tighernach_, or the _Chronicon Scotorum_ at Clonmacnoise. Colgan observes that St. Moling had a great devotion for St. Kevin, and constantly invokes that saint in his poems and prophecies. He was probably privileged to see during his boyhood the venerable Kevin at Glendalough, and must have been greatly impressed by that saintly master. St. Moling died towards the close of the seventh century.

Notwithstanding its remoteness, the Danes frequently ravaged Glendalough during the ninth century; and again repeated their ravages during the tenth and following century. There could be no peace for the monks of St. Kevin whilst the fleets of foreigners were on the Boyne, the Liffey, and even at the mouth of the Bray River--if it be the _Inner-na-mbarc_ referred to by the Four Masters in A.D. 836, as O'Donovan conjectures. Still the sanctuary retained at least to some extent its ancient fame even during these troubled times, for Cormac Mac Cullinnan before his death in A.D. 907, bequeathed to Glendalough an ounce of gold and an ounce of silver, as an offering to secure the prayers of the community. It contained 'learned men' and 'anchorites,' as we know, during this century, for the death of one of them is recorded by the Four Masters in A.D. 953 (_recte_ 954); and the death of several other anchorites is noticed by the Masters in this same century. They were probably the same as the _inclusi_ of whom we read later on--each of them living in his own little cell, or 'kitchen,' which was at once his house and his oratory. One of them was also what was called 'Head of the Rule' at Glendalough, and died in A.D. 965. The death of a lector or reader in theology is also noticed the previous year; both bore the surname of O'Manchan, and were probably members of the same family.

But it was not the Danes alone who wasted the abbey-lands and destroyed the sacred edifices. Native Irishmen now followed their bad example both at Glendalough and elsewhere. In A.D. 983, "the three sons of Cearbhall, son of Lorcan, plundered the termon, or abbey-lands of Coemghen; but the three were killed before night through the miracles of God and Coemghen." No one can regret their fate; it was an example and a warning greatly needed in those rude and lawless days. Five times during the next thirty years St. Kevin's sacred city was plundered and destroyed by the Danes;[328] yet it was still a venerated and much frequented shrine during the whole of the eleventh and twelfth centuries. In A.D. 1095 died the Brehon O'Manchan, Comarb of St. Kevin, and a most celebrated judge. He was doubtless a member of the same distinguished family, which had already given many abbots and anchorites to Glendalough.

Noble ladies, too, we find, used to go on the pilgrimage to Glendalough; for in A.D. 1098, Dearbhforgaill, daughter of Tadhg Mac Gillaphadraig, and mother of Murtogh and Tadgh O'Brian, died in pilgrimage at Glendalough. The same year Mac Maras Cairbreach, a noble priest and learned senior, died in the sacred vale; but whether on his pilgrimage or in his own monastery is not stated. In A.D. 1127, the abbot Gilla Comghall O'Toole was slain by the men of Fertuathal; he was doubtless a member of the same family as the illustrious Laurence O'Toole, the greatest glory of Glendalough after its founder, of whom we must give a more particular account, for he was the last canonized of the countless saints of ancient Erin.

The Four Masters in A.D. 1085 record the death of "Gilla na-Naomh Laighen (the Leinster-man), noble bishop of Gleann-da-locha, and afterwards head of the monks of Würzburg." The celebrated monastery of Würzburg in Germany, called in Latin Herbipolis, was founded by St. Killian. There is still preserved in the library of its university a famous MS. called the _Codex Paulinus_, or _Codex of the Epistles of St. Paul_ in Latin, with copious glosses, both marginal and interlinear, in the Irish language, which were largely made use of by Zeuss, in the composition of his _Grammatica Celtica_. This MS. is hardly of the time of St. Killian himself. Zeuss thinks it was written either by Marianus Scotus, or more probably brought from Ireland by one of the learned pilgrims, who crowded the Scoto-German monasteries at that time. He makes special reference to Gilla na-Naomh, Bishop of Glendaloch; and it may be that he was the writer of this Codex, which still proves to the learned world how carefully the Scriptures were studied in our Irish schools, and how the Irish language was cultivated by our native scholars during the 'darkest' of the Middle Ages.