St. Colman's Day
24th November 2024
Today the Diocese of Cloyne celebrates the feast of its founder and patron, St. Colman. Historians tell us that Colman was born in Emly in 530 A. D. West Cork is also mentioned as a possible place of his birth. He was educated as a file, a poet, and became the Royal Bard at the court of the King of Munster in Cashel. His poems are among the earliest examples of written Irish.
In mid-life, under the influence of St. Brendan, he answered a call to priesthood. He made his way southward to Cloyne, where he laid his most important foundation on lands given to him by the King of Munster. That foundation was the beginning of the Diocese of Cloyne. Bishop Colman died in Cloyne on 24th November about the year 600 A. D. and there he was buried.
Cloyne developed into a great mother church and diocesan see. The Diocese gradually grew to its present extent and, until the penal times, included some of south Co. Limerick. Cloyne was a household name long before it gave us Christy Ring.
On one occasion the late Bishop John Ahern was visiting Cloyne National School. He asked the pupils to name the famous bishop who once lived in Cloyne. One bright pupil answered: “Bishop Berkeley”, much to the amusement of Bishop Ahern and to the embarrassment of the teacher.
Photo taken in St. Colman's Cathedral, Cobh The cult of St. Colman spread far and wide. Churches dedicated to the saint were built in different parts of the diocese and beyond. There is a Kilcolman in Kerry, in Limerick and in Waterford. Four of our existing churches are dedicated to St. Colman: three in East Cork: The Cathedral Church in Cobh, and the churches in Cloyne and Ballintotis; there is another near the western border, in Macroom.
Kilmaclenine, in Ballyclough, means the Church of the Son of Léinín. Our attention was focused on the importance of Kilmaclenine about thirty years ago when the late Fr. Con Donovan, Parish Priest of Ballyclough, and his parishioners erected a monument there in honour of St. Colman, Son of Léinín. On a personal note, I have been Canon of Kilmaclenine for the past forty-two years. Although I have never expected or received a stipend from that fertile land in north Cork, Fr. Con did ask me for a contribution to the cost of the monument because of my association with the title. Behind me here in the Sanctuary is a choir-stall bearing the beautifully carved name Kilmaclenine. Presumably this stall, with its comfortable arm-rests, was reserved for the Canon of Kilmaclenine whenever the Cathedral Chapter would assemble for prayer.
We celebrate the legacy of St. Colman. That legacy is a legacy of faith that gives us standards by which to live. It is a legacy that has lasted for more than fourteen hundred years. Our faith has come down to us through the generations from St. Colman’s time in spite of dungeon, fire and sword. The faith has spread from Cloyne throughout the world. From the dark ages to the present day countless missionaries – priests, religious and lay – have gone forth peregrinantes pro Christo, pilgrims for Christ. Many of our people have left home and Diocese and country and sailed from Cobh harbour down below us into the unknown, cherishing the treasure they carried within them and spreading the good news wherever they settled.
We can count our blessings with grateful hearts: our faith gives each one of us a personal relationship with Jesus Christ, the Son of God; we have companions on our faith journey, with whom we share the Bread of Life in the assembly that we call Church; we are a eucharistic people – we give constant thanks to the Lord our God as we make our way forward happily together to life beyond the grave. Like St. Patrick before him and like his contemporaries, St. Ciarán, St. Columbanus, St. Brendan, and St. Columkille, St. Colman has left a precious legacy to millions of people. For all that we express our thanks to God this day.
Over the last hundred years there have been great changes in our Diocese and in our country. The practice of the faith was almost one hundred per cent when I was growing up. Meanwhile secularism has become more and more rampant. Some people do not acknowledge their need of Church or God. Some children come to school without knowing a single prayer. Pope St. John Paul II pleaded in Limerick that our homes would be, or would begin again to be, homes of daily family prayer. Faith and prayer go hand in hand. If faith is not handed on, the baton is dropped, the relay is broken, the faith is lost. We live in a world that tries to get rid of all that is sacred, of all that gives meaning to life.
And how the numbers responding to religious vocations have fallen! When five of us were ordained for the Diocese in 1955, three of us were surplus to requirements and Bishop Roche sent us to England, as was customary in those years. The Parish Priest of my native parish, Fr. Nath Smyth, had spent the first twelve years of his priestly ministry in the Arch-diocese of Liverpool. In 1955 there were thirty-two priests in Mitchelstown Deanery, including six in St. Colman’s College. Now there are ten, and with all due respect, some of those ten are, as we say, moving on. Seventy years ago about one hundred and thirty priests would assemble in St.Colman’s College for the annual retreat. One had to be a student of St. Colman’s College in order to be accepted for the Diocese. At that time – and for long before then – the College provided clerical students not alone for Cloyne but also for missionary societies and religious congregations. Past pupils of St. Colman’s College, mirroring the work of St. Colman, together with the missionary sisters, preached the Word of God and established schools, colleges, hospitals and churches wherever they went.
As we look around the Diocese, the ruins of churches and monasteries, the Mass rocks and the holy wells are evidence of the faith and devotion of our ancestors down through the centuries since St. Colman laid his foundation in Cloyne. And if we look closely at our parishes, there are many positives to encourage us. The Diocese is vibrant, faith is in action in numerous ways. Our religious sisters still contribute enormously with their prayer-life and self-sacrificing ministries. We now have able and dedicated deacons, who generously share the burden. Teachers and parents co-operate in preparing children for the sacraments. People of all ages volunteer their time and talents in various roles: St. Vincent de Paul Society; Parish Councils; financial teams; lectors; ministers of the Eucharist; pre and post marriage courses; choirs; Eucharistic Adoration, which attracts people across parish and diocesan boundaries; St. Joseph’s Young Priests Society; bereavement support groups; Trócaire; prayer groups; Koinonia; Youth 2000; faith formation courses, e.g., Alpha, Sycamore and Seek; lectio divina; bible and catechism study groups; ecumenical gatherings; Marian Movement of Priests; Pioneers; Mission to the Homeless; Food Connect and much more. Inspiration from the Holy Spirit is both vertical and horizontal as groups and individuals are deeply involved in the spiritual and corporal works of mercy. New structures are being introduced to facilitate prayer and listening and discussion as we tread our synodal pathway and endeavour to discern how best to promote Christ’s kingdom of truth and life, of holiness and grace, of justice, of love and of peace.
New parishioners, immigrants from places as far apart as Poland, Sri Lanka, Kerala, Nigeria and South Africa enrich all by the witness of their lives and the practice of their faith. Last Friday I was celebrating morning Mass in Macroom when a man collapsed. Six nurses from Kerala rushed to his aid and looked after him until the ambulance crew arrived.
The late Cardinal D’Alton told us in Maynooth that we would be serving a grateful people. How right he was! I know I speak for my brother priests in saying that we are greatly privileged to serve such wonderful, supportive, encouraging, grateful parishioners.
As bishop, priests and people of a Diocese with a noble and sacred tradition, inherited from St. Colman, we approach the Jubilee Year of Hope peregrinantes in spem, pilgrims of hope. Pope Francis encourages us to “fan the flame of hope that has been given us” and to look to the future “with an open spirit, a trusting heart and far-sighted vision”. Like Julian of Norwich, let us have absolute confidence in God’s loving care and trust that “all shall be well, and all shall be well, and all manner of things shall be well”.
