Pilgrimage to Loughrea, County Galway

Members and friends of the Catholic Heritage Association returned in pilgrimage to Saint Brendan's Cathedral, Loughrea, the jewel of the Celtic Arts and Crafts revival. A report of the 2017 pilgrimage can be found here. The Mass was offered for the unborn as it was the morning of the vote count for the Referendum on the 8th Amendment to the Irish Constitution.

The Cathedral's website can be found here.

The Buildings of Ireland survey with additional images of the architectural detail can be found here. 

Roaringwater Journal gives a really good detailed view of the art of the Cathedral here.

The Dictionary of Irish Architects gives details of the works of the Cathedral here.

Aidan McRae Thompson's excellent flickr album of the Cathedral can be accessed here.

Wikipedia has a short account of the Cathedral here.

Pilgrimage to Loughrea Cathedral 2017

On 27th May last members of the Catholic Heritage Association and friends from far and near made a pilgrimage to St. Brendan's Cathedral, Loughrea, for a Traditional Latin Mass.  I was very struck by the kind hospitality of the Cathedral team and to the gentle reverence of the Liturgy that we joined.

If you haven't been to Loughrea Cathedral - and one of the best things about the Catholic Heritage Association is that we devoutly go where few have gone before - you really should see this magnificent House of God.  While almost all of our Churches - prayers in stone - are in the language of Greece or Rome or the simple words of poverty a few have tried to recapture something that is distinctly Irish.  St. Brendan's is predominantly gothic, which is an imported style, rather than the hiberno-romanesque that may be considered a native by adoption in the earliest days of stone church building, but by a happy combination of circumstances it contains so much fruit of the late nineteenth century Celtic revival.

The foundation stone of the cathedral was laid on October 10, 1897, and took six years to complete. The basic fabric is to the design of William Byrne. The cathedral features stained glass windows from An Túr Gloine, the famous Irish stained glass studio, including Michael Healy's Saint Simeon, Madonna and Child, Saint Anthony and Saint John, St. Joseph, Christ the King, Our Lady Queen of Heaven, The Ascension and The Last Judgement, a Saint Brigid window by Evie Hone, an Annunciation, Agony in the Garden, Resurrection, Baptism in the Jordan, St. Ita, St. Patrick and Centurion of Great Faith, all by Childe. There is also a statue of the Blessed Virgin Mary by John Hughes, bronze angels by Michael Shortall and metalwork including communion rails, nave lanterns and stands by William Scott and Michael Shortall. The Stations of the Cross are mosaics by Ethel Rhind. The cathedral was very sensitively reordered with almost nothing removed - except the fine Episcopal Throne now reigning in solitary splendor in the porch under the tower.

St. Moena of Clonfert

The following is taken from Fr. Thomas Walsh's History of the Irish Hierarchy at p. 308:

[The See of Clonfert] was founded about the year 550. Some are of opinion that Saint Brendan was the first bishop because Saint Moena is called his successor in the calendar of Cashel but St. Brendan's establishment having become so extensive that a bishop was necessary to ordain missionaries and assist the founder, St. Brendan, in its government, Saint Moena, it seems, was the person who was chosen by Brendan on this occasion and who afterwards founded the see of Clonfert. In its cathedral were seven altars. There is much confusion in the accounts relative to St. Moena it is probable that he was a native of Britanny and came to Ireland with St. Brendan on his return from that country. Moena's death is noted on the 1st of March A.D. 571.

St. Brendan of Clonfert

The following is taken from Fr. Thomas Walsh's History of the Irish Hierarchy at p. 451:

Clonfert in the barony of Longford and near the river Shannon and a bishop's see. Saint Brendan of Clonfert had been according to some authorities a native of Connaught but the more ancient and consistent accounts assure us that he was born in Kerry. His father was Finloga of the distinguished family of Hua Alta. Brendan was born in the year 484 and is said to have received his education under a bishop Ercus. We are also assured that he studied theology under Saint Jarlath of Tuam who was then old and infirm or rather conferred with the bishop of Tuam on those religious subjects he is also said to have attended lectures in the great school of Clonard under Finnian who was then probably as old as Brendan himself.

To atone for the death of a person who had been drowned and to which melancholy event Brendan feared he had involuntarily contributed he is said to have gone to Brittany through the advice of Saint Ita who it seems was a relative of his.  It is said that when he was a year old the bishop Ercus placed him under the care of this celebrated virgin and that he was reared by her during the space of five years. Having paid a visit to Gildas who was then living in that country and advanced in years and who retired to Brittany also between the years 520 and 530, he went to another part of Brittany where he formed a monastery or school at Ailech, the ancient Alectum, and at present St. Malo. It is also added that he erected a church in a place called Heth, somewhere in the same province.

According to some accounts the famous voyages of this saint took place after his arrival in Brittany but according to the Irish authorities they were undertaken from a port in Kerry, Brendan's hill, and had been terminated before his departure from Ireland to that country. With regard to those voyages it can be admitted that Saint Brendan sailed in company with some other persons towards the west in search of some island or country the existence of which had been known. St. Barriutlms and Mernoc, a disciple of his, are said to have been in that country and it is added that the account given of it by Saint Barrinthus induced Brendan to undertake his voyage. In that account it is represented as a western country or island but yet so large that although they traversed it for fifteen days they could not reach the end of it. The direction of Brendan's voyage is said to have been "contra solstitium aestivale" by which is probably meant the north west point, alluding to the setting of the sun in summer. After fifteen days sailing the wind ceased and the navigators though there was wind now and then left the vessel to itself without knowing its course. It could have thus arrived in America and an idea one would suppose existed that there had been a western country far distant from Ireland. Another native of Munster who will be noticed in his proper place set out from his home resolved to undertake a similar voyage in quest of an unknown island. It is said that Saint Brendan laid in provisions for fifty days which proves that his voyage was considered a long one. His voyages are said to have continued for seven years.

Soon after his return from Britanny he founded the monastery of Clonfert. For this monastery and others connected with it, Brendan drew up a particular rule which was observed for many centuries by his successors having been particularly esteemed as an angel is said to have been the dictator of it to Brendan. He presided over three thousand monks partly at Clonfert and in other houses of his institution in different parts of Ireland, all of whom maintained themselves, like St. Paul, by the labor of their own hands.

He established a nunnery at Enachdune over which his sister Briga presided as abbess. Another cell was erected by him in Innisquin an island of Lough Corrib. At a late period of his life he paid a visit to St. Columbkille in one of the western isles of Scotland. St. Brendan died at Enaghdune in his sisters' nunnery on the 16th of May, A.D. 577, and in the 94th year of his age.

From that place his remains were conveyed to Clonfert and there interred. This great saint is usually styled abbot. St. Patrick, when in the south of Ireland, foretold that the great Brendan would be born in West Munster Kerry The church of Ardfert was dedicated under his name.

The foundation of Clonfert

This account is taken from the Lives of the Irish Saints by John Canon O'Hanlon (1821-1905) for 16th May, beginning in Chapter III at p. 450 in my edition.

In the year of grace 561,[82] our present St. Brendan is said to have flourished in Ireland. This is about the period, to which the foundation of Clonfert city has been ascribed,[83] and, while the holy man was in his seventy-seventh year;[84] although, other accounts place it at an earlier date,[85] while the Annals of Inisfallen synchronize it with the very day on which the battle of Culdreimhe had been fought.[86] An angel is said to have directed its foundation.[87] While our saint lived there, a monk, who had left his parents in Britain, and who had travelled with St. Brendan, died. The third day after his departure, the holy old Abbot said to the Bishop, St. Moeneiu: "Place my bacillus over the body of the dead brother." Accordingly, St. Moeneiu set it on the stiff cold corpse, when the monk was restored to life. Afterwards, that brother, filled with faith in our holy Brendan's miraculous power, went safely home to his province in Britain.[88] It was a journey of three days, from Clonfert of St. Brendan, in the province of Connaught, to the monastery of Chiayn-Credal,[89] in that territory of Munster, where his holy nurse St. Ita lived, and whose departure to Heaven now approached. On the night or vigil of our Lord's Nativity, the pious virgin said within herself: "Would that on this very holy morning, I could receive the Body of Christ, from the hand of my venerable foster-son Brendan." Then, rising on the instant, to celebrate the vigil in her monastery, like the holy Abacuch,[90] she was raised by an Angel and brought to the city of St. Brendan, at Clonfert. Knowing in the spirit, what was to occur, the holy superior went out from the porch of his church, to meet St. Ita with the Holy Communion. The Angel placed that fovoured virgin on the ground, where she received the Body of our Lord from the hand of St. Brendan, while offering thanks to God. Giving and receiving mutually a blessing, the virgin of Christ was raised once more by the Angel, and brought to her monastery. Her translation through the air to Clonfert and back to Cluayn-Credal only occupied an hour.[91]

St. Brendan made a journey into the province of Connaught, where a field was presented to him. In after times, and even to the present day, that place has been called Clonfert.[92] Here arose a once celebrated city, because our saint began there the erection of a religious establishment.[93] That former famous city — the head of an episcopal See — has now dwindled away to an inconsiderable village. In our Annals, it is usually called Clonfert of Brendan, to distinguish it from many other places so denominated, in different parts of Ireland.[94] This was a principal one of St. Brendan's erections, and there it was known, in his time, as Clonfert monastery, near the River Shannon. Its foundation has been ascribed to the year 558.[95] Over this Abbey, he was called upon to preside, as superior of a fervent religious community. He is said afterwards to have been a bishop.[96] It has been stated, moreover, that a great educational institute was erected by St. Brendan, at Clonfert.[97]  This college deserves to be ranked in the first place, among the sacred and literary institutions of Ireland. Theology, philosophy, the sciences, and general literature, were taught within its walls. The numbers that resorted to it for education were so great, that in a few years, it became necessary to appoint a bishop, for the purpose of ordaining missionaries, and of serving the churches, which grew up in the adjacent country.

 In legend, too, he is associated with the place. On a certain day, Brendan was at Cluain-ferta, in his church, after preaching and the Mass. This happened fourteen years before his death. He saw a wonderful bird coming in at the window, and after that, it perched on the altar. However, Brenainn was not able to look at it, in consequence of a sun-like radiance that gleamed.