Jarlath belonged to the race known as the Conmaicne. They are so called because their common ancestor was Conmac, son of the celebrated Fergus Mac Roy, so famous during the heroic period of Irish history. The descendants of Conmac were lords of a considerable territory in the province of Connaught, and gave their name to several well-known districts. In North Connaught they were known as the Conmaicne of Moyrein in Leitrim and Cavan, with Fenagh as their ecclesiastical city, and St. Caillin as their patron saint. In West Connaught they were divided into three families or branches—the Conmaicne Mara, of the Sea, who have given their name to the modern Connemara; the Conmaicne Cuil-Tola, who occupied the present barony of Kilmaine in the County Mayo, and the Conmaicne Chineal-Dubhain, who dwelt around Dunmore in the County Galway. Tuam is in the barony of Dunmore, or at least on its borders, and so we may assume that Jarlath belonged to the Conmaicne of Dunmore, for the Irish saints generally founded their churches in their own tribe-land. His father’s name was Loga (or Lugha), “of the race of Conmac, son of Fergus, son of Ross, son of Rudhraighe from whom the Clanna Rudhraighe are called, and Mongfinn, daughter of Ciardubhan, of the Cinel Cinnenn was his mother.”[398]
St. Benen or Benignus, as we have already seen, was, before he became Coadjutor to St. Patrick in Armagh, assigned by that saint to be in an especial manner the apostle of Conmaicne. Hence he founded the Church of Kilbannon which still bears his name, a little to the north-west of Tuam, in the very heart of their territory. But he did more. He undertook himself to train up two young clerics to be future bishops of Conmaicne, when he should be called away by death or by other duties. These two young men were Jarlath of the Western Conmaicne, and Caillin of the Conmaicne of Moyrein. We are told in his Life that he not only educated these young men in all knowledge human and divine, but also promoted them to Holy Orders, and founded and consecrated churches for them, so that they might continue his work without interruption.
St. Benignus died in A.D. 468,[399] and hence we must assume that Jarlath was then at least twenty-five years of age, and was probably something more. The first church of St. Jarlath was founded at Cluainfois (Cloonfush), about two miles to the west of Tuam. There is still, as I myself can testify, a vivid tradition at Cluainfois of conferences held there between the three saints—Benen, Jarlath, and Caillin. The old round tower of Kilbannon can be distinctly seen from Cluainfois, a little to the north, and whether the conferences were held there or at Cluainfois, there could be no difficulty in the saints frequently meeting, and holding converse on those weighty questions in scripture and theology, which they loved to discuss together. The tradition is that they were generally held at Cluainfois, and the name itself implies as much—it is according to Colgan the ‘Meadow of Retreat,’ as we should say, or ‘Locus commorationis,’ as Colgan calls it. This is still more probable, if with some writers we place the death of Benen in A.D. 476, ten years later than the date assigned in the Annals of Ulster.[400]
The place still deserves its ancient name. It is indeed a Meadow of Retreat. The old churchyard which alone marks at present the site of the ancient College of Cluainfois, stands on the southern slope of a rich and wide grazing farm, now tenanted by sheep and heifers alone. The old causeway to the church can still be traced, though much overgrown with grass. A solitary ash-tree rises over the narrow homes of the dead; but there is no trace of the ancient church, except a portion of its foundations, now remaining. Like most of the sites of our ancient monasteries, the spot was admirably chosen on the southern slope of fertile swelling fields, overlooking a wide prospect to the south and west, with the Clare river quietly stealing through the low-lying meadows to the south, and showing here and there reaches of its waters gleaming in the sunlight. One thing at least our monks of old greatly loved, and that was water. They loved it in all its various forms—whether it was the great sea, or the quiet lake, or the murmuring stream—they never built a monastery except close to water in one way or another. This love for natural beauty seems to have disappeared in modern times. It must be said, however, that in old times the monks had sites of their own choice; but in our times we must be thankful if we can get any site at all to build upon. We venture to think, however, it would be almost better to wait, than to erect a noble building in some unsightly hole, or swampy flat, where noisome vapours too often infect the atmosphere, and the glorious vision of nature’s beauties is as completely cut off as if the inmates dwelt in a jail.
Jarlath’s College of Cluainfois soon became very celebrated, and attracted, especially towards the close of the fifth century, scholars from the most distant parts of Ireland. Two especially, as Colgan remarks, became even more eminent than their master. One was St. Brendan of Ardfert and Clonfert, the other was St. Colman of Cloyne.
We are told that Brendan, burning with a love of the Holy Scriptures, and ardently desiring to see with his own eyes the virtuous example of the sainted fathers of the young churches of Ireland, asked permission of his master St. Erc, and of his foster-mother St. Ita, to leave his native mountains in Kerry and travel through Ireland. First of all he came to St. Jarlath’s School at Cluainfois, for he had heard much of the fame of that great and holy master. On his way it seems he met Colman, son of Senin, and induced him to give up his worldly life, and devote himself to the service of God. With this view the latter accompanied Brendan on his journey to Western Connaught. St. Jarlath received them kindly, and we are told that they remained with him a considerable time drinking in deep draughts at this fountain of sacred knowledge. But Brendan, though still very young, probably not more than twenty years of age, had already made great progress in virtue, and was highly favoured by God. In the spirit of prophecy which he possessed, he told St. Jarlath that Cluainfois was not destined by God to be the place of his resurrection. He was to move a little further eastward, and he was to remain at the place where the wheel of his car would break on the journey. “Remain there,” said Brendan, “and build your oratory, for God wills that there shall be the place of your resurrection, and many shall arise in glory in the same place along with you.” The holy old man obeyed this manifestation of the Divine will; the chariot wheel was broken at the place now called Tuam da guallan, and there the saint built his church on the site of the old Cathedral of Tuam, which has for so many centuries become the metropolitan Church of Connaught. At the same time St. Jarlath said to Brendan, “O holy youth, it is you should be master, and I the pupil—but go now with God’s blessing elsewhere.” And so Brendan with the blessing of God and St. Jarlath left Cluainfois, and shortly after, having returned to his native Kerry, was ordained a priest by his first master, the holy Bishop Erc, before he died. If this was St. Erc of Slaine, who died in A.D. 512, St. Brendan must have been at the School of Cluainfois some time between A.D. 504 and that date.
It is difficult to ascertain the exact date of St. Jarlath’s death. As he was a disciple of St. Benignus he cannot have been born after A.D. 460. He seems to have been an aged man when Brendan was at Cluainfois—certainly not less than sixty years of age. He is ranked, however, amongst the saints of the Second Order; and hence it is assumed that he must have lived until A.D. 540, when he would be about ninety years of age. It is well known, however, that in those days these holy men, leading active and abstemious lives, frequently lived on in the enjoyment of all their faculties to a very great age—even beyond a hundred years. It is eating and drinking too much that shortens life, rather than eating and drinking too little. St. Jarlath especially was remarkable for the extreme asceticism of his life. Prayer and sacred study were his chief food; his diet was so meagre that he seemed to have no body. He was fond of meditation and watching and the scholiast in the Felire of Ængus tells us that he made three hundred genuflections by day and three hundred every night, so that his whole life was one continued prayer.
A Prophecy concerning his successors in the See of Tuam, written in Irish, has been attributed to St. Jarlath. Nothing is known of its existence at present; but it seems to have been extant when Colgan wrote. Its authenticity, however, is very doubtful; and it appears to belong to a class of documents composed many centuries later than the alleged time, but which, to lend them authority, are falsely attributed to the famous saints of the early Irish Church.
The relics of St. Jarlath were for a long time preserved in Tuam with great reverence. A special church, close to the Cathedral, was built for the scrinium, or shrine, containing the precious treasures, hence called Tempull na Scrin; but at present there is, we believe, no trace of the church, or of the shrine itself to be found anywhere. Both the Church of the Shrine and St. Jarlath’s ancient Cathedral were built on the site of the present Protestant Cathedral of Tuam. The new and beautiful Catholic Cathedral occupies a fine site at some distance on the other side of the highway.
After the death of St. Jarlath we hear scarcely anything of Tuam for nearly five hundred years. For the first two hundred and fifty years no reference whatsoever is made to the City of St. Jarlath; but in A.D. 776 the Four Masters record the death of “Nuada O’Bolcan, abbot of Tuaim Daolann.”[401] The true date is, however, A.D. 781; and it is strange that the Annals of Ulster record in the same year the death of Ferdomnach of Tuaim da Ghualann, without any epithet designating his office. No reference, however, is made to either as bishop.