About the year A.D. 1700, a priest named Father Denis O’Mahony took up his residence in this lonely retreat, and, it is said, caused its “seven chapels” to be restored. These so called chapels were the cells already referred to, which surround the cloister. He was buried in the little graveyard on the mainland close to the causeway, where the rude forefathers of the hamlet sleep. And Smith tells us that the following inscription was placed over his tomb—“Hoc sibi et successoribus in eadem vocatione monumentum imposuit Dominus Doctor Dionysius O’Mahony, presbyter licet indignus, A.D. 1700.” There is, we believe, no trace of a stone bearing this inscription to be seen at present on this spot. The tendency of the Church in our days seems to be altogether in favour of the cenobitic life; this was one of the few cases in which the ancient love for the eremitic life has again appeared in our Irish Church. At present we have neither hermits, nor recluses, as of old. Is it that the spirit of ancient asceticism has departed? Or is it that charity has grown cold? To be quite alone with God is a dangerous and difficult state of life; but it is after all the state of the very highest perfection known to theology.
It was probably after spending some time in his hermitage at Gougane Barra that St. Finbarr came, as is stated in his Life, to the lake, which in Irish is called Loch Eirce. Close to the shore of this lake he built a monastery, to which as to the home of wisdom, and the nursery of all Christian virtues, crowds of zealous disciples flocked together from all quarters in such numbers and inspired with such zeal for holiness, that the solitude around became filled with cells of monks, and thus grew into a great city. From the school which Finbarr established there, a vast number of men, conspicuous for sanctity and learning, went forth, amongst whom especially worthy of note were St. Eulangius or Eulogius—who it seems had some share in training Finbarr himself—St. Colman of Doire Dhunchon, St. Baithin, St. Nessan, St. Garbhan, St. Talmach, St. Finchad of Ross Ailithir, St. Lucerus, St. Cumanus, St. Lochin of Achadh Airaird, St. Carinus, St. Fintan of Ros-Coerach, and several other saints, whose names and churches are mentioned in the Irish Life of Finbarr.
The site of Finbarr’s primitive church and monastery was that now occupied by the Protestant Cathedral of St. Finbarr on the south-west of the city, but all traces of the primitive buildings have entirely disappeared. An ancient round tower stood in the south-west corner of the churchyard, which has also completely disappeared. But as the round towers were generally built some ten or twelve paces from the great western entrance of the church, which they protected, the site of the ancient cathedral can be ascertained with sufficient accuracy.
In the Pacata Hibernia there is a very interesting map of Cork, which shows the city and its environs, as they were about the year A.D. 1600. It has been reproduced by Mr. John George M‘Carthy, in a pamphlet of great value, which he published in 1869, and which gives a lively sketch of the history of Cork, both ancient and modern. The city proper is shown on the island with its walls and towers, and its two principal streets—the Main Street and Castle Street—intersecting each other at right angles. Outside the city walls, it is all a marsh, and in the south-west corner, close to the southern bank of the stream, is shown “ye Cathedrale Church of Old Corcke,” which marks the site of St. Finbarr’s primitive abbey.
It is stated in the ancient Life of Finbarr that, like many others of the Irish saints of his time, he went on a pilgrimage to Rome—to the threshold of the Apostles. On his way back from Rome he paid a visit to St. David, the celebrated Bishop of Menevia, and thence we are told he returned to Cork. This would seem to imply that the monastery of Cork was founded before St. Barry’s departure from Rome. Gerald Barry in his Life of St. David refers to this visit paid to that saint by his namesake of Cork, whom, however, he calls ‘Barrocus,’ and as usual he indulges largely in the supernatural, in his account of the visit.
It was, he says, the custom in those times for the Irish to go on pilgrimage to Rome in order to venerate the shrines of the Apostles. Amongst others a certain Barry (Barrocus) from the territory of Cork went to Rome; and returning from his pilgrimage he called to see St. David, which was also customary with those good men from Ireland, when going to or returning from Rome. Barry having paid his respects to the Welsh saint, was anxious to return home to his own country and flock; but the winds were contrary, and he could not cross the Channel. Now the Bishop, St. David, had a horse for his own use, and Barry, full of faith, asked and obtained the use of this horse to carry him home to Cork; and he rode the animal straight over the sea to the west. On his way St. Barry met Brendan mounted on a whale, and going to see St. David also. They saluted each other, and with mutual good wishes went each his own way, and arrived safe—one in Cork and the other at St. David’s. Barry then told his monks all that had happened; so they praised God, and made a small metal statue of horse and man, adorned with gold and silver, “which is preserved to this day,” says Giraldus, “in the Church of St. Finbarr at Cork, and is held in great reverence on account of the signs and miracles which have been wrought through its instrumentality.”[348]
The Bollandists reject this story as an interpolation in the Life of St. David; but Gerald Barry dearly loved a story of this kind, no matter how extravagant. We may add that St. Brendan of Clonfert, to whom the reference is made, was dead before Finbarr could have been more than twelve years of age.
St. Finbarr ruled the monastery and church of Cork for a period of seventeen years before he died. Hence the monastic school had time to grow up under his own holy and prudent management; and thus, as his Life says, Cork from a solitude became a city. We are not to understand a city in the modern sense, with stone houses, bridges, and regular streets. There was no city of this kind in those days in Ireland. The ‘city’ consisted of the cathedral church, probably of stone, and afterwards protected by its round tower, the monastery with its group of buildings, the scattered cells or bothies of such students as crowded to hear the lectures in the schools, or in the green meadows by the river’s side, and doubtless also the dwellings of the tradesmen and other work-people connected with the monastery. The Danes afterwards seem to have established a permanent colony at Cork, as they did in Dublin, and raised buildings of a more enduring and imposing character, but the monastic city was there before them, and was the real nucleus of the present beautiful city by the pleasant waters of the River Lee.
St. Finbarr died, not in his own monastery of Lough Eirce, but at Cloyne, some fifteen miles distant on the other side of the bay. It seems he went there on a pilgrimage, doubtless preparing for the end, which he felt was close at hand, for we are told that he died at the Cross of Cloyne, which was in the church of that monastery. But his loving disciples would not let his remains repose there—holy ground though it was always believed to be. They were enclosed in a silver shrine, and carried to his own monastery, on the banks of the beautiful river, where he dwelt so long. According to another account the holy remains were at once carried to Cork, and buried in his own cathedral church, beneath a monumental cross, which marked the spot. Afterwards the tomb was opened, and the sacred relics enclosed in a silver shrine, which was preserved with great veneration near the high altar; and this is the more probable account. But in later days nothing in Ireland was safe from sacrilegious hands, and we are informed in the Annals of Innisfallen that A.D. 1089, a fleet, with Dermot O’Brien, devastated Cork, and carried away the relics of Barre from the church of Cill-na-Clerich.
The character of this great saint is thus given in one of the Irish Lives, published by Mr. Caulfield in 1864: “His humility, his piety, his charity, his abstinence, his prayers by day and night, won for him many great privileges; for he was god-like, and pure of heart and mind like Abraham, mild and well-doing like Moses; a psalmist like David; wise like Solomon; firm in the faith like Peter; devoted to the truth like Paul the Apostle; full of the Holy Spirit like John the Baptist. He was a lion in (spiritual) strength, and an orchard full of apples of sweetness. When the time of his death arrived, after erecting churches and monasteries to God, and appointing over them bishops, priests, and other grades, and baptizing and blessing districts and people, Barre went to Cill-na-Cluana (Cloyne), and with him went Fiana, at the desire of Cormac and Baoithen, where they consecrated two churches. Then he said, ‘It is time for me to quit this prison of my body, and go to the Heavenly King, who is now calling me to Himself.’ And then Barre was confessed, and received the Holy Sacrament from the hand of Fiana, and his soul went to heaven at the Cross which is in the middle of the church of Cloyne; and there came bishops, priests, monks, and other disciples, when his death was announced, to honour him. And they took his body to Cork, the place of his resurrection, honouring him with psalms and hymns and spiritual songs; and the Angels bore his soul with great joy to heaven to the company of the patriarchs, prophets, apostles, and disciples of Jesus Christ, and of the Holy Trinity, the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.”