The Catholic bulletin. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1911-1995, 1913-09-20

gatory, where men and women of all
classes of society meet on common
level to purge the soul of all its
naughtiness in an atmosphere of sub
lime piety, is yearly becoming more
popular as rigorous retreat. Its
history, hoary with venerable cen
turtles, reads like romance, as thrill.
ing in it's vicissitudes of fortune as 1t
is pregnant with the spirit of the SUI
pernatural. Lough Derg, County Don
egal, is itself a large expanse of water
concealed from the outer world by an
almost unbroken ridge of mountain
that rises from the shore in gentle
slope to a height in some places OF
1000 feet It's greatest length is six
miles, and it's greatest width four
miles, containing 2,240 statute acres.
There are As islands in the lake. OF
these Bilberry Island is the largest,
and Saints Island second largest. 1t
was on the latter island that ST. Pat
rick founded a monastery, over which
he placed st. Dabheoc as first Prior.
History and tradition both testify to
the existence of a monastery at Tough
Derg. There have been historians
who questioned the authenticity OF
this contention, but those who are
best able to speak on the question
point to the possibility of inaccurate
historical conclusions, and instead
hold that tradition carefully handed
5o1r,x, e~o,,o rro,, GRO fion RI oonoroti0n ic
one of the most reliable sources of
information. This is particularly the
case when the tradition refers to the
name of one who is held in the high
est veneration by a people. In favor,
therefore, of the tradition that st.
Patrick visited Lough Derg, and
founded Retreat on an island in that
lake, st. Patrick's Purgatory stands
the living voice of tradition. Tradi-
ton tells us that ST. Patrick, when
passing from Ballyshannon to- Don
aghmore, retired for time to a rocky
island in a secluded lake called Tough
Derg, and that, having entered dark
cave on the little island, he implored
God to give him glimpse of the fires
of Purgatory, that God was pleased to
hear the voice of His servant, that
Patrick directed that henceforth peni-
tentiaI souls should visit this holy re-
treat, and there implore Almighty God
to cleanse them from their sins and
preserve them from the fires of Pur-
gatory. The same tradition tells us
that from the days of st. Patrick, St.
Patrick's Purgatory, Tough Derg, has
been used as penitential retreat, and
that after the example of the National
Apostle, pious pilgrims kept twenty
four hours vigil in the purgatorial
cave till the cave was closed in 1880.
Since then a vigil in one of the
churches on the island has been sub
stituted The best authorities place
the position of the cave under the
mound on Station Island, now occu-
pied by the Bell Tower 1t seems only
in accordance with the Divine har-
mony and disposition of things that
God should entrust to the great and
holy man who first brought the It'd
ings of great joy to the Gael the es-
adjustment of a retreat destined in
future ages to become the center from
which light and warmth should go
out to every part of the land and to
the lands beyond the seas.
The Origin of the Shrine.
T1,o o~;o;v ond vooonipn of tho
name Tough Derg is interesting. The
original name of the lake was Finloch,
or Fair Loeb. Those of our readers
who have visited Tough Derg in sum-
mer and Toasted their eyes on it's nat
ural beauties, enhanced by the calm
and peace which pervade the whole
place, will admit that our pagan an
cestors named it appropriately. In
Christian times it came to be known
as Loeb Gilre or Deire, the lake of
the cave, or Loeb Dearg, the red lake,
the latter from the legend that at the
request of the people of the neighbor-
hood st. Patrick killed and Redeemed
the water with the blood of fabulous
locality for years. 1t is to be noted
that both names associate st. Patrick
with the lake. Surely there is no
place in all Ireland better adapted
for quiet communion with God. Noun
tains and lake form a natural barrier
betwixt this abode of peace and the
turmoil of the outer world. In the
solitude of Nature the mind turns to
the contemplation of the Unseen, and
so in Lough Derg, with it's marvellous
calm and its traditions of piety, the
heart beats responsive to the MUIR
of the troubled soul Lough
Derg makes break in the continuity
of the procession of busy men and
women. Here man pauses to reflect
on his own mortality. Here, amid the
silence of the pilgrims of the night,
man looks in vain across the wide
expanse of water and the undulating
moorland for human being engaged
in the distracting occupation of the
world.
Like most other Irish monasteries,
the Monastery of Tough Derg was en-
dowed at an early date by neighbor-
ing chieftains with extensive lands.
During the Middle Ages the fame of
st. Patrick's Purgatory spread over
the Continent and attracted many pill
grims, and the subject was one which
had an especial charm for poets and
dramatists. Dante's ''Divina Comedia''