Insula Sanctorum et Doctorum; Or, Ireland's Ancient Schools and Scholars

by John Healy

The sequel is told by Bede:—“Colman, the Irish Bishop, departed from Britain, and took with him all the Irish (Scoti) that he had assembled in the Island of Lindisfarne, and also about thirty of the English nation, who had been instructed in the monastic life, and leaving some brothers in his church of Lindisfarne, he repaired first to the Island of Hii, whence he had been first sent to preach the Word of God to the English nation. Afterwards he retired to a small island, which is to the west of Ireland, and at some distance from its coast, called, in the language of the Irish (Scoti), Inisbofinde, that is, the Island of the White Cow. Arriving there he built a monastery, and placed in it the monks he had brought with him of both nations; who, not agreeing among themselves, by reason that the Scots—that is the Irish—in the summer season, when the harvest was to be brought in, leaving the monastery, wandered about through places with which they were acquainted, yet wished to get a share of what the English monks had provided for their common table. Colman sought to put an end to these dissensions; and, travelling about, at length found a place in Ireland fit to build a monastery, which, in the language of the Scots, is called Mageo” (Mayo.)[386]

Such is the brief, but most interesting, account which the Father of English History gives of the founding of the two monasteries of Inisboffin and Mayo; and it is confirmed in all points by our native Annalists. But there are some few additional particulars to be noted.

When Colman and his monks were leaving Lindisfarne, their hearts were sore at the thought of leaving behind them the relics of their sainted father Aidan, who had founded that church and monastery. Yet they did not wish to carry away all the holy relics, and so they adopted a middle course. They opened the grave which was outside their wooden church, in the little green churchyard, where they had so often walked and prayed. With reverent hands and streaming eyes they took a part of the sacred relics to carry home with them to their native Ireland; the rest, for greater security, they re-interred in the sacristy for those who were to come after them.

Then the band of exiles set out on their journey home. But first, as in duty bound, Colman and his monks resolved to visit Iona, the parent house, which had sent them to preach the Gospel in Northumbria. Bede does not tell us how long they remained there; and it is not easy to fix the period from the dates given in our own Annals. Colman left Lindisfarne A.D. 664; and the Chronicon Scotorum,[387] and the first entry in the Annals of Ulster[388] tell us that in the same year he came to Inisbofinde. In that case the visit to Iona could only have been a passing one. But the weight of authority goes to show that this voyage of Colman did not take place until A.D. 667 or 668.[389] In the Ulster Annals, Hennessy renders the contraction—“cum reliquis scorum,” as if it were—cum reliquiis sanctorum—“with the relics of saints,” which they undoubtedly had with them; but in the Annals of the Four Masters it is rendered with “the other saints;” and in the Chronicon, “with the other Irish monks”—as if it were, cum reliquis scotorum. There is, however, no difference in meaning, because Colman brought both with him to Mayo—his Irish monks, and the relics of his sainted father Aidan, if not, also of Columba, and some other saints of Iona.

And there, says Bede, in Inisbofinde he founded his monastery; and, as the Irish Annals say, there he also built his church.

It is a bare and desolate island exposed to all the fury of the Atlantic storms; but the monks of old thought little of comfort so long as they could be alone with God—and who was to disturb them on the naked shores of this barren island? It is probable that at this time the island was uninhabited; and we know, from the Life of St. Flannan of Killaloe, that the people of these western coasts were still half pagan. The more need then of apostolic men to instruct them in Christian doctrine.

The island took its ancient name from a wild tale of a certain white heifer that dwelt in an enchanted lake in the island, whence it was seen to emerge from time to time to graze on its shores. The lake is there still, and, if one may credit the islanders, the White Cow is there too, in spite of St. Colman and all his monks. The island is about six miles due west of Renvyle Point, in the Joyce country, and contains 2,312 statute acres, most of which, however, is quite naked and barren. At one time the population amounted to fifteen hundred souls, who lived very much on the produce of their stormy seas; but at present, we believe, it has fallen to about two-thirds of that number.

Inisboffin still contains several interesting memorials of St. Colman. The ruins of his ancient church are yet to be seen in the townland of Knock. There is also a holy well to the south-west of St. Colman’s oratory, which is called Tobar Flannain, and takes its name from the patron saint of Killaloe, who spent a considerable time on the island, and was much venerated there. In the townland of Middle Quarter dwelt another recluse, who appears to have been a disciple of St. Colman; the site of his ‘House’ is still pointed out, and called in Irish—Aittighe Guarim—the place of Guarim’s House. The celebrated Grace O’Malley, better known as Grana Weale, had a castle on the island, which has almost quite disappeared—but the place is still called Dun-Graine. In Cromwell’s time the island was fortified, and became a kind of penal colony, in which many horrible atrocities were committed on the helpless Irish. The remnant who survived were crowded into ships, like African slaves, and transported to Barbadoes. Those who did not perish during the voyage soon succumbed beneath the broiling sun of the West Indian plantations. The islanders still remember, with a shudder, those terrible times.

It seems, however, that the Celts and Saxons did not get on amicably together even in St. Colman’s time. The saints themselves will sometimes disagree; and, according to Bede, the Irish monks were much in fault. During the summer months, when the grain was to be sown, and reaped, and harvested, they wandered about in the neighbourhood—“through places with which they were acquainted”—coshering, in fact, upon their friends, and very likely pocketing such alms as they could get. But when the winter came, they returned to the monastery to eat what they had not sown nor helped to reap. It was too bad; and if it be true, and not the recital of some Anglo-Saxon returned to Yarrow from Connemara, one cannot blame the Saxon monks for objecting to such a state of things.

So Colman resolved to put the Saxon monks in a monastery by themselves, and make the Irishmen work for their living. He travelled about far and near to find a suitable place on the mainland for a monastery. At length he succeeded. He bought a small parcel of land from the ‘earl’ to whom it belonged—this is Bede’s way of saying it—and got more, it seems, on condition that the monks residing there should pray to the Lord for him who let them have the place. “Then Colman, building the monastery with the help of the earl and all his neighbours, placed the English there, leaving the Scots in the aforesaid island. That monastery is to this day (A.D. 730) possessed by English inhabitants; being the same, that growing up from a small beginning, to be very large, is generally called Mageo (Magh eo); and as all things have long since been brought under a better method, it contains an exemplary society of monks, who are gathered there from the province of the English, and live by the labour of their hands, after the example of the venerable fathers, under a rule and canonical abbot, in much continency and singleness of life.” The English monks were anxious, in fact, to get Home Rule, even in Ireland; and were, it seems, much the better of getting it. We shall presently return to the history of this monastery of Mayo.