It is certain that Brendan was highly esteemed by all his contemporaries, and when he founded his monastery at Biorra, or Riverstown, as it would be called in English, it soon grew to be a very celebrated institution. The Four Masters, at A.D. 553, tell us that “Brendan of Birr was seen ascending a chariot into the sky this year.” This entry is not intended to signify that he died, but rather that, like St. Paul, he was taken up to heaven for a little, for his death is noticed by the same Four Masters under date of the year A.D. 571, when they tell us that he died on the 29th of September. The real date appears to have been A.D. 573. From a scholastic point of view, the subsequent history of this monastery contains nothing especially interesting.
St. Cronan of Roscrea belonged to the territory and sept of Ely O’Carroll, in which his monastery was situated. He spent much of his youth in Connaught;[381] but afterwards returning home, he founded his first monastic cell at a place called Seanross. This old church, though, perhaps, subsequently modified and restored, is situated within a few paces of Corville House, near Roscrea, the beautiful residence of Count O’Byrne, who carefully preserves the building from injury or profanation. At this period, however, all the low ground around Corville, towards the railway, was the Locha Cre, or Stagnum Cre, so frequently mentioned in the Lives of the Saints of this district. Seanross was a wooded promonotory running into the lake, and it was then so inaccessible and secluded (desertus et avius) that even Cronan resolved to leave it, and establish his monastery for the convenience of his disciples at the Ross of Cre, which was on the highway from Meath to Munster then, as it is now.
Here St. Cronan, who was himself an accomplished scholar, established what was certainly a very famous school, although, unfortunately, we know very little of its history. There is a Life of the saint in the Salamanca MS., but although abounding in miracles, it is very scanty in facts. Here is a specimen of the miracles. On one occasion Cronan requested a certain skilful scribe, named Dimma, to write a copy of the Four Gospels for him. Dimma said he could only afford to give one day’s writing—doubtless he was otherwise engaged. “Very well,” said Cronan, “it will suffice; but begin at once, and continue to write without stopping until sunset.” So Dimma set to work; but, wondrous to relate, the sun’s light shone round him for forty days and forty nights, until the entire manuscript of the Gospels was completed.
We have, there is every reason to believe, still in existence, this wonderful manuscript written by Dimma for St. Cronan; and it was so highly prized in Roscrea that Tatheus O’Carroll, chieftain of Ely, had a beautiful cover or shrine made to enclose the precious volume, about the middle of the twelfth century. The manuscript itself contains an entry, which tells who the writer was, not for the sake of vain glory, but to beg a prayer from every reader for his soul’s welfare, according to the good old Celtic custom.
Finit. Oroit do Dimmu rod scrib pro Deo et benedictione—
That is—“A prayer for Dimma, who wrote it for God, and a blessing.”
And at the end of the Gospel of St. John we read thus:
Finit. Amen ✠ Dimma Macc. Nathi ✠ This Book of Dimma contains “the Four Gospels, with the Latin ritual and prayers for the visitation of the sick. A coloured figure of each of the first three Evangelists precedes his Gospel, and there is a special symbol prefixed to the opening of the Gospel according to St. John. On the fractured final page of the volume, at the termination of St. John’s Gospel, after the words quoted above—‘Dimma Macc Nathi’—there are two imperfect and archaic Irish lines, in which the writer prays that ‘he may not be venomously criticised,’ and that he may attain ‘a mansion in heaven,’ as the reward of his labours.”[382]
This Book of Dimma is at present in the Library of Trinity College, Dublin; but only a small portion of the ornamentation of the beautiful cumdach, or shrine, is now to be had. The shrine and its contents were taken away from Roscrea monastery at the suppression; but were, it is said, found in the year A.D. 1789 by some boys who were hunting for rabbits in the Devil’s Bit Mountain, which is not far from Roscrea. The silver plate of the shrine was, it is supposed, then torn off, and the precious stones that adorned it were also abstracted; but the portion representing the Passion of Christ was left untouched. It afterwards passed from Dr. Harrison of Nenagh, through Dr. Todd, into the Library of Trinity College.
Of Dimma, the scribe, nothing else is known for certain. There were many saints and scholars of the name; but it is supposed that this scribe is identical with Dimanus, whose name is mentioned in connection with that of St. Cronan in the letter addressed to the Irish Prelates in A.D. 634, by Pope John IV., concerning the alleged appearance of Pelagianism in Ireland.