David's, consequently near where lived his aunt, S. Non. This foundation cannot, however, have taken place till much later. Before long Ailbe felt a desire to prosecute his studies abroad, and to visit Rome. His adventures on the continent form a tissue of fable and absurdity, and it is doubtful whether any historic truth underlies this part of the story, which was thrust into his "Life" for a set purpose, as we shall presently see. According to the legend he studied the Scriptures under a Bishop Hilary at Rome.1 The Bollandists suppose that this was Pope Hilary (461-8). But Bishop Hilary is not represented in the story as pope, for Clement is spoken of as being the then ruling pontiff, and there was no such Bishop of Rome after Clemens Romanus who died circa 100 and Clement II (1046-7). According to the story, Ailbe sought consecration as bishop from Clement, but the Pope refused to put his hand between heaven and so sacred and gifted an individual as Ailbe, who was accordingly consecrated by angels. All that can be gathered from this is that he did not receive episcopal consecration from the Roman Church but in some monastic establishment. The story was, however, invented for a purpose. 2 In the eleventh or twelfth century, the kings of Munster and Connaught were desirous of having archbishops in the south of Ireland, that their bishops might not be subject to Armagh, the archbishop of which was generally a clansman of the Northern O'Neils. They accordingly set up an agitation among the clergy of the south, to claim to have archbishops of their own. In order to support this claim, the story was fabricated that the south of Ireland had been evangelised at least thirty years before the arrival of S. Patrick, and that by the instrumentality of bishops consecrated at Rome. For this purpose also the lives of the four bishops, who were supposed to have preceded Patrick, viz. Ailbe, Ciaran, Ibar, and Declan were interpolated, with the result that havoc was made of their chronology. The interpolator of the Acts of S. Ailbe thought he would do better for his hero than have him obtain commission from the Pope; he made him receive that direct from heaven. On his way back to Ireland from Rome, Ailbe founded a religious colony, where not stated, and preached to the Gentiles and converted many. He did more; he struck a rock, and thence issued four rivers which watered the whole province. In 1 "Albeus Romam perrexit ibique apud Hylarium episcopum divinam didiscit scripturam" (Vitæ SS. Hib., col. 240). According to the legend he meets with lions in the woods as he is on his way to Rome; and Bishop Hilary set Ailbe to be his swineherd for three years. 2 Todd, S. Patrick, pp. 220-1. the monastery there founded he left the sons of Guill. Dr. Todd supposes that it was to Gauls that Ailbe preached, and that he filled his religious houses with their sons. But the meaning does not seem to be this. Immediately after making this foundation he went, says the author of the Life, to Dol and visited S. Samson; and his monastery was near where was a great river. There is a gross anachronism in making Ailbe visit S. Samson at Dol, for that Saint was not there till about 546.1 But the writer seems to have had an idea of whereabouts his hero did spend some time. The sons of Guill (Meic Guill)2 were probably German, Gibrian, Tressan, Helan, Abran, and others who visited S. Remigius at Rheims, about 509." We are disposed to think that the visit of Ailbe to the Continent did not take place as early as represented in the Life, but rather at this period. 3 As these Saints have left their traces along the Rance and the upper waters of the Vilaine, we may suppose that Ailbe's settlement was in these parts. We have evidence of a colony of Irish saints in these parts in the fact of churches there with Irish dedications. Next we have Ailbe in Menevia. Entering a church, he found the priest unable to proceed with the Sacrifice, a sudden dumbness had fallen on him. Ailbe pointed out the cause. A woman in the congregation bore in her womb one who was to become a great bishop, in fact, S. David; and it was unbecoming that a priest should celebrate in the presence of a bishop. 5 The same story is told in the Life of S. David by Rhygyfarch, and the priest there is said to have been Gildas, as also in the Life of Gildas by Caradoc of Llancarfan. 6 As Patrick is said to have prophesied the birth of S. David thirty years previously, when on his way to his great mission in Ireland, we see at once an anachronism in making Ailbe a pre-Patrician Apostle of Ireland. Ailbe remained in Menevia till David was born, his cousin if we accept the Welsh genealogies, and it was he who baptised and fostered him. He now returned to Ireland, and, instead of landing in Water 1 "Deinde venit Albeus ad civitatem Dolomoris (Dol-mor) in extremis finibus Lethe (Letavia = Llydaw). Vita SS. Hib., col. 244. 2 O'Gorman, Martyr. July 30. 3 See above under S. Achebran. 4 "Ideo non potes offere quia hec mulier habet in utero episcopum ; hic est David Cilli Muni. Sacerdos enim coram episcopo non debet, nisi illo jubente, celebrare." Vita SS. Hib., col. 245. 5 Lives of Cambro-British Saints, p. 120. 6 Ed. Prof. Hugh Williams for the Cymmrodorion Society, p. 400. 7 SS. Hib., col. 245. In the Vita S. David he is called Heluus. Vita ford, as would seem most convenient for one shipping from Menevia, he left his boat in the north among the Dál-Riadans, where he placed one of his disciples, Colman, at Kil-roiad, now probably Kil-root in Antrim. The Dál-Riadan King, Fintan Finn, had recently been engaged in war against the men of Connaught, who had captured his castle and three sons. On the arrival of Ailbe in his land the King at once sought him and entreated him to accompany his host to battle and show his power by cursing the enemy, after the usual Druidic method. Ailbe consented, and success attended the King, who nearly exterminated the men of Connaught,1 and recovered his wife and sons. Ailbe now visited S. Brigid at Kildare (d. 525), and was well received by her. Thence he went south to Munster, where he sought Aengus Mac Nadfraich, the king, at Cashel. Here it was that he is reported to have met S. Patrick, and that the altercation took place between Patrick on one side and SS. Ibar, Ailbe and Ciaran on the other, who were unwilling to recognise his supremacy over all Ireland. In the end some agreement was come to, and it was settled that Ailbe should be bishop over Munster, with his seat at Imlach Jubhair or Emly. Archbishop Ussher supposes that this meeting took place in 449, but it is more than doubtful if it ever took place. The whole story of the controversy and the settlement seems to have been an invention foisted into the Life, in connexion with the claims made by the bishops of southern Ireland to obtain archiepiscopal jurisdiction for Cashel, in opposition to Armagh.2 Ailbe appears to have enjoyed the favour of Aengus Mac Nadfraich to such an extent, that when Endeus desired to settle in Aran, he sought Ailbe's intercession with the King to grant the island to him. Aengus was, however, loath to make the grant till he had seen the island; but when he had done so, and perceived what a bare inhospitable rock it was, he consented, and made over Aran to Endeus. As Aengus fell in the battle of Ochla in 489, this must have occurred somewhere about 480. The intercession of Ailbe is the more noticeable, because Enda was brother-in-law to Aengus, whose first wife, Darerca, was Ailbe's sister. Enda died very aged about 540. Another who sought a site for a monastery from Ailbe was Sincheall, son of Cennfionnan, of a renowned Leinster family. Ailbe had formed a settlement at Cluain-Damh on the banks of the Liffey, and this he abandoned to Sincheall, who however later moved to Cill-achadhdroma-fota, now Killeigh in King's County. Sincheall died in 548, according to Duald Mac Firbis, the Annals of the Four Masters, and 1 Gentes Connactorum delevit." Cod. Sal., col. 247. 2 Haddan and Stubbs, ii, p. 290. those of Ulster, so that here again we have a means of fixing approximately the period at which Ailbe lived. Ciannan, bishop of Duleek, is named as a disciple of Ailbe, and he, according to the Ulster Annals, those of Inisfallen, and those of the Four Masters, died in 489. Colgan however doubts if his death can have taken place at so early a date.1 Other disciples were S. Colman of Dromore and S. Nessan of Mungret. The date of Colman's death is not known, but from his Acts it is apparent that he was contemporary with Diarmid Cearbhal, king of Ireland, who died in 538. Nessan died in 551, according to the Annals of the Four Masters, but in 561 according to those of Clon macnoise. Ailbe baptised that extraordinary Saint, Findchua of Bri-gobann, and received as fee for so doing seven golden pennies,2 and this took place while Eochaid was king of Connaught, and Aengus Mac Nadfraich was king of Munster, an anachronism, as Eochaid was king about 550, sixty years after the death of Aengus. On one occasion Ailbe visited a religious community of women at Accadh-Ceroth, and found them in sore trouble. They had been given a boy to foster named Cummine, son of Echelach. But he did not do justice to his bringing up. He had associated with himself some wild bloods, and had taken a vow on him called dibherc,3 which would appear to have been like that of the Thugs, to murder right and left. 4 At the instigation of the pious virgins, Ailbe sought the young man out, and induced him to abandon the life to which he had vowed himself. Another disciple of Ailbe was Aengus Maccridh of Mochta, who lived through the Yellow Plague of 547-50. He was consulted by S. Scethe 5 of Ardskeagh, in the county of Cork. The story was told that she was short of oxen for ploughing, whereupon Ailbe sent her a pair of stags, and these served her for many years. At last, wearied with bearing the yoke, they went of their own accord to Emly to beg the Saint to release them. A more probable story is one that she begged of him a copyist to transcribe for her the Four Gospels, and with this request he cheerfully com 1 Trias Thaum., p. 217. 2 Book of Lismore, Oxford, 1890, p. 232. 3 Dibhirceach, diligent, violent. ▲ "Votum pessimum vovit, scilicet dibherc . . . exivit Cummine cum suis sociis, et jugulaverunt homines." Cod. Sal., col. 251. 5 In the Vitæ SS. Hib., Cod. Sal., her name is given as Squiatha. She is commemorated on January 1. plied. He had also the visitation of another house of pious women; the names of two of these, Bithe and Barrach, are given. Ailbe was dissatisfied with the liturgy in use, and sent two disciples, one, Lugaid, was probably the son of Aengus Mac Nadfraich, to Rome to obtain a better copy. He also drew up a monastic Rule. He frequently visited Ossory, and received a grant of lands from Scanlan Mor, its king, who died in 604, but is held to have begun his reign in 574. If this be true, it throws the date of Ailbe very late in the sixth century, and this is for other reasons impossible to allow. We are informed that, weary with the duties of his office, Ailbe meditated flight to the Isle of Thule. This is Iceland, and it is certain that Irish hermits did occupy the Westmann Islands off the south coast before the arrival of the Norse colonists in 870, as Irish bells and other ecclesiastical relics were discovered there by the new settlers.1 When, however, Aengus Mac Nadfraich heard of Ailbe's intention, he gave orders that all the harbours should be watched to prevent the departure of the bishop. The seat of Ailbe's bishopric and principal monastery was Emly, beside a lake that at one time covered two hundred acres, but has now been drained away, and the bottom turned into pasture. The land around is fertile, and the place is in the county Tipperary, near the River Glason. Till Cashel rose into importance it was of some consideration. Now it has sunk to a village. The Acta Sancti Ailbei end :-"No one could well relate the humility and the meekness of S. Ailbe, his charity and pitifulness, his patience and long-suffering, his fastings and abstinence, his assiduous prayer and nightly vigils. He fulfilled all the commandments of Christ. On account of these good works S. Ailbe passed away to join in choirs of the angels singing their sweet songs, even to Jesus Christ, our Lord, to whom be honour and glory through the ages. Amen." 2 The Annals of Ulster and Inisfallen give 526 (527) as the date of Ailbe's death, but the former repeats the entry under the years 533 and 541. The latter is the date given by the Four Masters. The Chronicon Scottorum has the Rest of Ailbe of Imlech Ibhair at the date 531. The date 541 is that of the death of another Ailbe, of Sencua. S. Declan, the Apostle of the Nan-Decies, is represented as an intimate friend of SS. Ailbe and Ibar. Yet Declan must have been junior, for he made a close compact of friendship with S. David, who had been baptised by Ailbe. Declan was half-brother to Colman and Eochaid, 1 Landnáma-bok in Islendinga-Sögur, Copenhagen, 1842, i, pp. 23-4. 2 Vitæ SS. Hib., Cod. Sal., col. 260. |