(Vol. vii., p. 552.)
Dr. Lanigan, in his learned Ecclesiastical History of Ireland (vol. i. p. 368.), states that the so-called Patrick's Purgatory is situated at Lough Derg (Donegal). It is never mentioned in any of the lives of the apostle, nor heard of till the eleventh century, the period at which the canons regular of St. Augustine first appeared, for it was to persons of that order, as the story goes, that St. Patrick confided the care of that cavern of wonders. Now there were no such persons in the island in which it is situated, nor in that of St. Davoc [Dabeoc?] in the same lake, until about the beginning of the twelfth century. This purgatory, or purging place, of Lough Derg, was set up against another Patrick's purgatory, viz. that of Croagh Patrick, mentioned by Jocelyn, which, however ill-founded the vulgar opinion concerning it, was less objectionable. Some writers have said that it got the name of Patrick's Purgatory from an Abbot Patrick, that lived in the ninth century; but neither were there canons regular of St. Augustine at that time, nor were such abridged modes of atoning to the Almighty for the sins of a whole life then thought of. It was demolished in the year 1497, by order of the Pope, although it has since been in some manner restored.
The original Patrick's Purgatory then, it would appear, was at Croagh Patrick, in Mayo, near Westport; speaking of the pilgrimages made to which, the monk Jocelyn (in his Life of St. Patrick, written A.D. 1180, cap. 172.) says that—
"Some of those who spent a night there stated that they had been subjected to most fearful torments, which had the effect, as they supposed, of purging them from their sins, for which reason also certain of them gave to that place the name of St. Patrick's Purgatory."
By the authority of the Lords Justices who governed Ireland in 1633, previously to the appointment of Wentworth, Lough Derg Purgatory was once more suppressed; but the sort of piety then fostered among the members of the Roman communion in Ireland could ill afford to resign without a struggle what was to them a source of so much consolation. High influence was, therefore, called into action to procure the reversal of the sentence; and the Roman Catholic Queen of Charles I. was induced to address to the Lord Deputy of Ireland a letter in which she requested that he would be pleased "to allow, that the devotions which the people of that country have ever been wont to pay to a St. Patrick's place there, may not be abolished." The Lord Deputy declined acceding to this request, and said in his reply, "I fear, at this time, when some men's zeal hath run them already, not only beyond their wits, but almost forth of their allegiance too, it might furnish them with something to say in prejudice and scandal to his majesty's government, which, for the present indeed, is by all means to be avoided." And adds, "your Majesty might do passing well to let this devotion rest awhile." After this second suppression, the devotion has a second time been "in some manner restored;" and multitudes throng to the place on the faith of a false tradition, so long since exposed and exploded by their own authorities. Three hundred and fifty years ago, the Pope, the representative of the Bishop of Clogher, and the head of the Franciscans in Donegal, combined their efforts to put down the scandalous fabrication; but yet it remains to this day an object of cherished religious veneration—an object of confidence and faith, on which many a poor soul casts itself to find consolation and repose. And those multitudes of pilgrims, year after year, assemble there, no influence which they look to for guidance forbidding them, to do homage to the vain delusion.
D. W. S. P. will find farther information on this subject in The Catholic Layman for April last: Curry, Dublin.
William Blood.
Wicklow.