Monastery of St. Declan, Ardmore, Co. Waterford, Ireland
The sky was blue, the clouds puffy, the wind invigorating, and we could hear the gulls crying and the waves crashing. Where we stood, St. Declan and his monks once prayed.
Here's what my 1915 Footprints of Ireland's Saints No. 16: St. Declan, St. Ailbe, St. Onchu says:
"The headlands of Ireland, those bleak and desolate promontories, which at so many intervals project along the circuit of its iron-bound coast, were, in the first ages of Irish Christianity, almost one and all connected with the lives of our early saints. On many of them are still found vestiges of their oratories and rude settlements, while others in their names preserve the memories of those servants of God, whose footprints blessed their rocky brows, and whose traditions are still fondly preserved in the folk lore of the people. Lonely and desolate as many of those scenes are, yet when we visit them we can hardly fail to realize their fitness to become the abodes of those holy souls with whose lives and labors, prayers and austerities they were henceforth to be associated.
"One of the most interesting of those sacred hermitages -- standing by the lone tempestuous sea -- is that of Ardmore Head, on the coast of Waterford."
How beautiful it is that we can still see where these holy "footprints blessed their rocky brows" - from the fifth century! In the United States, we are impressed by a house built in the 18th century.
Seeing true antiquity helps us remember that we are part of a long line of the Faith - one that began long before our existence and will continue after we are gone. It is our position in this long chain to pass on what we've been given, to be a strong link in that chain.
See the ancient carvings in one of the remaining walls at this remarkable site?
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