one can see the beautiful, haunting, peaceful ruins of Clonmacnoise. This monastic settlement was founded in the sixth century by St. Ciaran (Kieran), whose feast is today.
It is so quiet that you can hear the River Shannon gently flowing. St. Enda told St. Kieran to go to the middle of Ireland and build a monastery and center of learning. So he did, quite literally!
Mary Ryan D'Arcy, in her 1974 book, The Saints of Ireland, writes:
"For long centuries, Clonmacnoise was a living monument to Kieran. Kings endowed it, scholars taught at it, saints followed in Kieran's footsteps. At Clonmacnoise, says Father Cotter, there are more saints slumbering than ever made illustrious the pavements of the Coliseum."
Even Ireland's last high kings, Turlough and Roderick O'Connor, are buried here.
The Vikings and Anglo-Normans, however, easily accessing it by the Shannon, attacked the monastery repeatedly, and Mrs. D'Arcy writes:
"Finally, a thousand years after its founding the soldiers of Elizabeth I completed the destruction of Kieran's City. [But] the real treasure, the Faith it had nurtured, remained beyond their reach."
(The author of this blog, at Clonmacnoise) (Photo Credit: Nicole Moynihan)
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