St. Carthach lived at Rahan for nearly forty years,[331] and at Lismore, certainly not more than two years; yet his name is generally connected with the latter, and hardly ever with the former monastery. Perhaps it was because the men of Meath treated the saint so badly after his long and laborious career at Rahan. Indeed, it is quite evident, that it was jealousy—jealousy which the Hy-Niall monks, probably of Durrow, near Rahan, felt at the success of St. Carthach—that prompted them to expel the saint and his scholars from the dear old convent, where he had lived so long. There are few things less creditable to the Southern Hy-Niall, both princes and priests, than their conduct on this occasion. It is manifest that Carthach by his piety and learning had gathered around him a great monastic school at Rahan. For not to speak of boys and servants, the Life in the Salamanca MS., tells us that he had gathered round him some 847 monks, who supported themselves and succoured the poor by the labour of their own hands, and with their holy founder served God together—unanimiter—with one mind and in one spirit. “Their toil,” says the Life, “was severe, but the fire of charity lightened the burden of this labour, so that to none of them did it seem heavy” (Vita I., sect. 15). It is said, too, that Carthach himself was raised to the episcopal dignity in Rahan.
Now, the ‘native clerics,’ says the Life, of the Hy-Niall race, were jealous of this success, and instigated by Satan, they resolved to drive the southern monk from their territories. The Kerryman, of course, though a saint, was, no doubt, annoyed by these proceedings of the men of Meath. It was indeed hard to be borne, for his was a holy, a useful, and an inoffensive life. He had spent forty years amongst them. His soul clung to the place, because he fondly believed, as it was the scene of his labours, so also it would be the place of his resurrection. He had built for himself and his monks a very beautiful church, the ruins of which are still to be seen. He had established a famous school, and crowds of young men had placed themselves under his direction, and were, doubtless, tenderly attached to their master. He was near the monasteries, too, of some of his dearest friends, who dwelt around Slieve Bloom. And now they were going to drive him from his home, and his monks, and his friends, at an age too when the strength of his arm was weakened, and the vigour of his mind diminished.
It was a wanton and a cruel eviction, for which Prince Blathmac, son of Aedh Slaine, seems to have been primarily responsible. The Annalists denounce this expulsion; but they seem afraid to mention openly the authors of the crime. The Ulster Annals (A.D. 635), call it the ‘effugatio’ of Carthach from Rahan, which is not merely a flight but an expulsion. The Four Masters say that he was ‘banished’ from Rahan, and date it as taking place in A.D. 631; but both the Chronicon Scotorum and the Annals of Ulster give A.D. 635, at Easter, which is in all probability the true date.
The Life of St. Carthach, however, assigns the real motive for thus evicting the saint. The clergy of the district moved by jealousy at the success of Carthach, resolved to expel the ‘stranger’ from their province; and Blathmac, then ruler of that territory, was persuaded to carry out this wicked purpose. Can it be that the Columbian monks of Durrow were envious at seeing the fame of their own establishment eclipsed by the greater renown of Rahan? It is not at all unlikely, although it is not expressly stated; for the Life attributes it simply “to some of the native clergy of that province.” Elsewhere it is said that the expulsion of Carthach is one of the three evil things for which certain ‘saints’ of Erin were responsible—the other two being the shortening of St. Ciaran’s life, and the banishment of Columcille to Iona. We entirely sympathise with this traditional sentiment. If any of the ‘saints’ were responsible for driving away the venerable old man from his monastery at Rahan, they must have done penance for the deed before they could deserve the name. It was a cruel and an evil deed; and although Providence brought much good from the evil by the foundation of Lismore, there is some reason to fear that it broke the old man’s heart, and brought down his grey hairs in sorrow to the grave.
When the edict went forth that Carthach and his monks were to be driven from Rahan, we are told that he departed reluctantly. “Leave this city with your monks,” said the chiefs of Meath, “and seek a settlement in some other country.”[332] “I wish to end my days here,” said Carthach, “for I have served God many years in this place, and now my end is nigh. Therefore, I will not depart, except I am compelled, lest men think me inconstant of purpose. I am ashamed to become a wanderer in my old age.” After some hesitation the men of Meath plucked up an ignoble courage; and it is said that Blathmac himself took the hand of the saint, and led him forth from his monastery.
The poor old man was not equal to long journeys; and so slowly and regretfully he travelled southward, having turned his back for ever on the jealous and ungrateful men of Meath.
The first night he stopped with St. Barrind (or Barrindeus) of Drumcullen, in the barony of Eglish. The name is still retained as that of an old parish church, about four miles north-east of Parsonstown. Drumcullen is about three miles east of Eglish old church at the foot of the mountain. It cannot be more than ten miles from Rahan, and thus marks the extent of the first day’s journey.
But the saint was now in his native Munster, and could proceed with greater leisure and more security. The second night he rested in the famous old monastery of St. Ciaran of Saigher. This was one of the cradles of Christianity in Ireland. If we may accept the statement in the Life of St. Ciaran, he was directed by God’s Angel to go to a well in the middle of Ireland, and found his church at the place where his bell would ring of itself. The saint obeyed, and travelled onward until he came to the place now called Bell Hill, near the fountain Huaran. There his bell tolled, and close at hand he founded his church, at Saigher, now called Seir Ciaran, which is not more than two miles south of Drumcullen, under the western shadow of the mountain. There was every reason why St. Carthach the Younger should rest at Seir Ciaran. His old master, St. Carthach the Elder, to whom he owed so much, had been once bishop of that ancient See, in succession to Ciaran himself. It was about the year A.D. 540, before Carthach the Younger was born, for it appears that it was after leaving Seir Ciaran, about A.D. 560, that Carthach the Elder came to his native Kerry, and there met with his younger disciple of the same name.
There was reason why Carthach should love that old monastery, under the shadow of the morning sun when rising over Slieve Bloom, where his beloved master had spent so many years, and where the first-born of the Celtic Saints of Erin had gone to his rest.
It was a short stage from Seir Ciaran to Roscrea—some seven or eight miles; but Roscrea had become even then, in A.D. 635, so famous a retreat for saintly men, that it could not be passed by without a visit. There was no town of Roscrea there at the time; all the low-lying lands were constantly flooded, and formed the Stagnum Cre frequently mentioned in the Lives of the Saints of that district. The Ros, or wooded promontory, on which St. Cronan founded his monastery, rose up from these flooded lowlands. At first he established himself at Seanros, a wooded hill in Corville Demesne, where his church is still to be seen; but afterwards, about the year A.D. 606, he founded a second monastery on the Ros of Lough Cre, the site of which is now occupied by the Catholic Church of the town of Roscrea. It is probable that he was dead before the visit of St. Carthach; but all the same, his monastery and his spirit were there on the great Munster highway.