The Intermountain Catholic. (Salt Lake City [Utah] ;) 1899-1920, 1900-06-09
man 81 God i'm Donegal.
Life Of the Irish Priest Portrayed by SeunaS MacManus
Most Important Man in the NeighbOrhOOd


The clergyman is here interpreted
Roman Catholic priest, for clergymen
of other denominations COf whom l
shall deal further DOWN are very rare
in our mountains, and their fiocks eX-
ceedingly small.
The priest is by far the most impor-
tant man in our neighborhOod. The
autocrat of all the Russias is far from
being vouchsafed the dutiful obedi-
erhe paid the priest, and no prince or
potentate ever got 1.-THE of the whole
souled love that is lavished on the
darling priest, or, as we call him, the
Sagart arun.
Some years ago, in the throes of the
land war, the constitutional authorities
were shocked when the world famous
Father MacFadden of Gweedore an
nounced for their edifcation at a pub
lie demonstration: Il am the law in
Gweedore." Yet, though they harried
him and prosecuted him and imDris-
oned him, they. to their bitterness,
learnt at a sore price that he had only
given utterance to a cold fact. The
forces cf the crown when they came
to arrest him We're held at bay for
long weeks by his poor unarmed flock,
till, when blood had been split, he dis
banded the standing army that his
followers had constituted for his de-
Tense and voluntarily gave himself up
So, in every mountain parish, the
priests word is more truly the law
than the enactments of the British par
lament And because of this sneerers
who know not the conditions of things,
and know not the sentiments and feel
ings and the proper relations OF
priest and people, say that we are
priest ridden. They say SO because they
know not, and do not seek to know,
that the extraordinary obedience and
respect paid to the priests word is
founded not in the remotest manner
upon servility or fear (for our people
never have been serVile or afraid), but
upon fond. filial love and implicit
faith which our mountain priests, by
their priestly and fatherly qualities.
have worthily engendered in the hearts
Of those who have never in vain looked
to them for sympathy, for help, for
guidance and for protection.
For the true sagart when he takes
charge of a mountain parish, takes
upon his shoulders and upon his heart
a great load. The sickness, the trou-
bles, the sorrows and griefs of every
household, of every child, in his do
main are his personal sorrows, and
their little joys are his joys. Not mere
ly for the souls, but for the bodies of
weighs him down. He can not, could
not, shirk his traditional duty which
is truly to father his flock in all things
to brave any tyTant who would OPP
press them or unjust one who would
wrong them, to fight for them, to SUI
fer for them, to lay down his life for
them, if need be.
Banin, in his lovely ballad, "Sagart
Arun,' s(sawgarth aroon) gives
~ e he 4,,r1n
the peasant for his priest:
Loyal and brave to you,
Sagart arun
Yet be no slave to you,
Sagart arun.
Nor out OF fear to you
Stand up so near to you,
Sagart arun.
Who. in the winters night,
Sagart arun-
When the cold blast did bite,
Sagart arun-
Come to my cabin door,
And on the earthen floor
Knelt by me, sick and poor,
Sagart arun?
Who, on the marriage day,
Sagart arun,
Made my poor cabin gay,
Sagart arun?
Who did both laugh and sing,
Making our glad hearts ring,
At the poor christening,
sagart arun?
Och, you and only you,
Sagart arun!
For this | was true to you,
Sagart arun:
In love they'll never shake
Who for ould Ireland sake
A true stand and part did take,
Sag2rt arun!
The Roman Catholic clergy nowadays
receive their education at Maynooth
college. near Dublin. 1t was estab-
lished 100 years ago, and before that
time the boy who felt q priestiy voca-
ton went to France, Belgium or Spain
for his education. In the penal days,
when educating his son for priest
would mean confiscatiOn of father $
property, the bold young fellow, after
getting a smattering Of Latin at home
bv stealth from the outlaWed hedge
schoolmaster, was carried aboard
smuggling smack, which rode in some
forgotten bay, at dead of night, and
thus borne to the continent. In
snuggler. also. and under cover of
night, like thief, he stole into Ireland
again. when he had been ordained, and.
disguised as a layman, tried to minis
ter in private to an awed and hunger
ing flock.
Except in the case of our mountain
priests, the Maynooth man of today
is not the same type of homely sagart
that his continental schooled predeces-
Sor was.
Our parishes perhaps average ten
miles square, and contain, say 5000
souls; for whom there are two chapels
and three priests. Some parishes are
twenty miles long and even longer;
and, as every one appreciates the duty
of regular attendance at mass, six,
seven and eight miles of moor noun
tain and road is a common distance
for men and women of 20 to walk to
chapel on Sunday, in sun and in storm,
rain. hail or snow. Topcoats are al
most unknown with us, and the women
who carry umbrellas are rare. But
our people give little concern to
drenching and little care to a cough.
In one case with which l was quite
familiar these poor people, after
tramping weary miles to mass and ar
irving drenched with rain or snow or
reeking with perspiratiGn, knelt down
upon the grass field, bareheaded under
a scorching sun or Al pitiless storm and
heard mass read by the priest under
the protection of matched and open
shed. This kind Of mass shed is known
as a seaman and is the last link that
binds us to the days when no chapel
was allowed in the land, and the priest
gathered the flock in hollow of the
ing party has not been preached to the
war department. and it is not expected
that such a step will be taken, save as