Saints celebrated on the 14th of May
Prayer to the Angels and the Saints
Heavenly Father, in praising Your Angels and Saints we praise Your glory, for by honouring them we honour You, their Creator. Their splendour shows us Your greatness, which infinitely surpasses that of all creation.
In Your loving providence, You saw fit to send Your Angels to watch over us. Grant that we may always be under their protection and one day enjoy their company in heaven.
Heavenly Father, You are glorified in Your Saints, for their glory is the crowning of Your gifts. You provide an example for us by their lives on earth, You give us their friendship by our communion with them, You grant us strength and protection through their prayer for the Church, and You spur us on to victory over evil and the prize of eternal glory by this great company of witnesses.
Grant that we who aspire to take part in their joy may be filled with the Spirit that blessed their lives, so that, after sharing their faith on earth, we may also experience their peace in heaven. Amen.
ST CARTHACH THE YOUNGER, BISHOP OF LISMORE
This eminent director of souls in the narrow paths of Christian perfection, was a native of Munster in Ireland. The famous monastery of Raithin or Ratheny in Westmeath was founded by him.
HIS MONASTIC RULE
He drew up a particular monastic rule, which is said to be still extant in very old Irish; but it was afterwards incorporated into that of the regular canons of St Augustine, when the abbey of Raithin adopted that institute, which, though it has been since mitigated, in the eleventh and twelfth centuries, seems to have been scarcely less austere than that of La Trappe at present.
THEY CONFINED THEMSELVES TO FEED ON VEGETABLES
St Carthagh (Carthach) is said to have under his direction above eight hundred and sixty monks, who confined themselves to feed on vegetables, which they raised and cultivated with their own hands.
THE KING DROVE THEM OUT
In 631, or, according to the annals of Inisfallen, in 636, he was driven out of Raithin, which he had then governed forty years, by king Blathmac, and retired to the territory of Nandesi, or Desies, in Munster.
LISMORE
Here, upon the banks of a river, he laid the foundation of a great monastery and school, which flourished exceedingly for many ages. The place before his coming thither was called Magh-Sgiath; it then took the name of Dunsginne, and afterwards Lismore, which name it has ever since retained.
St Carthagh founded here the episcopal see of Lismore, which was united to that of Waterford by Pope Urban V in 1363, at the request of King Edward III, this latter having only been founded in 1096.
THE HOLY CITY
The city of Lismore, from the reputation of the sanctity and miracles of St Carthagh, its first bishop, was esteemed in succeeding ages a holy city, which appellation its great school and monastery continued to maintain.
Half of this city was an asylum into which no woman ever dared to enter, it being full of cells and holy monasteries. Thither holy men flocked from all parts of Ireland, many also from Britain, being desirous to remove from thence to Christ.
St Carthagh left an eminent share of his spirit to his disciples and successors, but died himself soon after he had erected his cathedral, on the 14th of May, in 637 or 638. He was buried in his own church at Lismore.
NOTE:
Dun signifies a fort, or place seated on an eminence, and again a flight; which seems to allude to the flight of the saint to this place, and to the name then given it; for it was before called Magh-sgiath, or the field of the shield. Lismore denotes a great house; Lis, or Lios, in the old Irish signifying a house, or village, and mor, great.
(From Fr Butler's Lives of the Saints)
Saint Carthach (Carthagh) is also known as Mo Chutu mac Fínaill, also known as Mochuda, Mochudu, or Carthach the Younger. He died May 14, 637, 638, or 639). St Carthach the Elder, on the other hand, died in A.D. 540. His feast day is March 5. He was an Irish bishop who was the successor of St Kieran Saigir, Ossory.]
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