One of the most significant of the early Irish saints, Saint Enda of Aran was a warrior who was converted by his sister, the abbess Saint Fanchea. Born in 484 or thereabouts, he established Ireland’s first monastery on the Aran Islands.
VIEWING A CORPSE
He was the son of a leading Ulster warlord. When his father died he had to fight his clan enemies, but his sister pacified him, on condition she find him a wife. His fiancee died before he could get married. To teach him about death and judgment, Fanchea forced her brother to view the girl’s corpse.
Enda at this point decided to study for the priesthood, heading to south-western Scotland, where he took vows, returning to found a monastery at Innish.
A GRUELLING LIFE
Enda and his monks were inspired by the asceticism of the Egyptian desert hermits. The religious lived hard, gruelling lives of labour, fasting and prayer, and they had no fires in their stone cells. Enda lived on the island until his death as an old man, around 530. The monastery survived the Vikings, but alas, not the Cromwellites. It was ransacked in the 1650s.
This article was published in the Catholic Herald magazine, paper edition, March 20, 2015
PRAYER:
Grant, we beseech you, almighty God, that the venerable feast of Saint Enda may increase our devotion and promote our salvation. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, for ever and ever. Amen.
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