On another occasion Fintan was sojourning at the monastery of Achad-Finglass, most likely founded by himself at Idrone, in the County Carlow. The old church of Agha, about four miles east of Old Leighlin, probably marks the site of this monastery. A holy bishop, called Brandubh, of the Hy-Kinsellagh, came to ask permission of the saint to be allowed to end his days at Clonenagh. The saint readily consented, but advised the bishop rather to remain where they then were, and where the rule was not so strict, and would not be so severe as at Clonenagh. The bishop followed Fintan’s counsel, but induced him to promise that in case Fintan died first, he would soon come to meet him, and bring his soul to heaven. Fintan promised, and kept his word; for three weeks after his own death, he came with seven spirits, clothed in white, to bring to heaven the holy soul of the venerable bishop. May not this Agha monastery be that religious house founded by Columba and his three disciples in the territory of the men of Leinster before they came to Clonenagh?
“No one,” says the writer of his Life, “can describe the charity, meekness, humility, patience, abstinence, watchings, and other virtues of this blessed man.” He constantly watched over his community with the most tender and devoted care. He was always ready to succour the afflicted, and to protect the oppressed; his was a name which good men loved, and bad men feared throughout all the territory of Leinster. Towards the close of his life he chose one of his own monks, named Fintan Maeldubh, as his successor, and ‘placed him in his chair.’ Then calling all the members of the community around him, he raised his hands to heaven, and solemnly gave them his blessing. After which he received the “Sacrifice,” and went to sleep in the Lord. He died on the 17th February, about the year A.D. 592, some time before the death of St. Columba in A.D. 597.
A young man from Leix went to Iona, and when there asked St. Columba’s advice as to the choice of a spiritual director, when he should return home. Columba recommended Fintan as the best and holiest director he knew. We are told, however, that shortly after this young man’s return to Ireland, Fintan was called to his reward; which shows that he must have died at Clonenagh before St. Columba died at Iona. He was buried at Clonenagh; but there is now no trace of his tomb.
St. Fintan has been called by many old writers the Father of the Irish Monks, and he has been likened in his manner of life to St. Benedict, the great founder of western monasticism—at least on the Continent of Europe. He was not, indeed, the oldest, nor even the most celebrated of the Second Order of Irish Saints, who devoted themselves to the monastic life. But he founded his monastery when very young; his own life was extremely ascetic; and he had amongst his novices and disciples several of the most celebrated founders of religious houses in Ireland. In this way it came to pass that as Finnian of Clonard was the tutor of the Saints of Ireland, so Fintan came to be described as the Father of the Irish Monks. And as Clonard was looked upon as a great school, so Clonenagh, like Aran, came to be regarded during the life of its holy founder as a kind of noviciate for the training of monks, many of whom went to Bangor, and elsewhere; and thus diffused through Erin his discipline and his spirit.
The most remarkable scholar of Clonenagh was St. Ængus, the Culdee.
II.—St. Ængus.
Ængus was a student at Clonenagh during the prelacy of the Abbot Melaithgen or Melaithgenius.
The materials for a Life of St. Ængus are very scanty. We have no original Life, and only two documents that tell us anything about him—the Scholiast’s Introduction to his writings, and a poem in praise of the saint, written by a namesake, apparently not very long after his death. From these two sources we gather the following facts:—
Through his father, Oengoba, son of Oblen, he derived his descent from Coelbach, King of Ireland, who belonged to the royal race of the Dalaradians of Ulster. He was probably born in the neighbourhood of Clonenagh, about the middle of the eighth century. From his earliest youth he seems to have been trained to sanctity and learning in the monastic school of Clonenagh, which, as we have seen, was then ruled by the learned and pious Melaithgen. Under this holy master the young Ængus made very great progress. He not only became, as his writings prove, an accomplished scholar, but also a model of every virtue. He seems to have been devoted to ascetical practices even from his earliest youth; and he loved to spend most of his time in prayer and solitude. Hence he came to be called by excellence the Culdee, that is, the Ceile De, or servant of God. He was probably the first to whom this appellation was given, as a kind of surname in recognition of his great sanctity and self-denial. Afterwards the name was given to other ascetic solitaries, who, though not a religious order in the proper sense of the word, still formed communities of anchorites living apart, but yet frequently meeting in the same church for devotional purposes, and recognising a common superior to whom they were duly obedient. Later on numbers of the secular clergy formed themselves into somewhat similar communities, and came to be known by the same name. They were in reality, however, what is known as Canons secular, that is a body of secular clergy, living apart, but subject to a common rule, which was generally the rule of St. Augustine.
The Ceile De of the earlier period divided his time between prayer, manual labour, and literary employment, if he were a man of learning and ability. He was never a burden to others, for he and his brethren contrived to procure from their little farms not only their own scant and meagre fare, but also the means of hospitable entertainment for the poor and the stranger.