The Irish standard. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn. ;) 1886-1920, 1914-03-14
The Irish Priests


tinent of that demoniacal aspect which
followed that golden age. we are COM
PEELED to bow in admiration to the
spirit which dominated it. With the
death Of Constantine. Rome's future
was rolled up like q scroll. For
twelve hundred years she had ruled az
mistress of the world, but the enor-
nifty of her sins was Commensurate
with her existence. With the success.
sion Of the Apostate in the fourth cen
fury, it became plain that Rome would
soon change the ermine for the shroud.
Destruction reigned in the east, con-
fusion Of the direst kind in the west.
Virtue and freedom were memories.
outside the Church. and that greatest
event in profane history was at hand.
not as an accident, but as a neces-
sity. Without the invasion of the bar
barian, Rome could not fall. and fall
she must. The rest of the narrative
is known to every schoolboy. Begin
ming with an Alaric and his horde Of
Visigoths in the early fifth century.
followed by the ferocious Attila, chief
of the Huns, whom Leo the Great.
holding up the Cross, the emblem Of
Christianity, cowed into acquiescence
in his tent, everything bespoke disor-
der. 1t was in four hundred and sew
enty-six that Odacer. the Herculian.
snatched forever the purple of the:
Caesars from the shoulders of Angus
tus, and Rome was no more.
But it is question, on the n.y.
pothesis of no third resource. whether
the corruption of Rome or the chaos Of
barbarism was the more acceptable.
But Providence supplied that third re-
source, for none other than q divinity
might perceive that second invasion
upon barbarism was in the order Of
harmony. That second invasion was
executed by the Irish monks. who SUBJ
stituted the 'Pater-Noster' for the war
cry and the Cross for the sword: who
handed over the pre-ancielt civiliza-
ton of the great Semetic races, and Of
Greece and Babylon and Alexandria.
thus moulding the infancy of the
mighty (Teuton) element which has
since shaped the destiny of the world.
st. Athanasius, cast into exile, propa-
gated the religious order in the west,
which was soon to outshine the east.
as does the sun the moon. and which
after long struggle was to reclaim the
barbaric host into the promised land
OF civilization. We shall see it's sons
later on, at the throne of kings, Of a
Diarmid, a Thiery. a Charlemagne. an
Alfred, an Ohio; we shall see them in
Gregory ILL.,, and Gregory VII, estab-
fishing an empire, to which that Of the
Caesars was but star amid the thou
sands Of the midnight sky.
This unparalleled Transformation
Of the elements of barbarism, into a
human organization Of order and Of
harmony. was the achievement Of
those middle ages. which have been
christened dark by superficial his
torians, who failed to detect the great
principle of preservation and construc-
ton, nourished within monastic walls.
Amid the shadows of an apparent
night of havoc and carnage, they for
got that glorious state Of Irish mon
asticism, which was the interpreta-
ton OF western monasticism at the
time, and whose messages Of light
flashed here and there like lightning
IN the storm. but were prevented from
universal dissemination by external
forces alone. The light was there, but
the darkness did not comprehend it,
nor permit its freedom. The true mid
die ages are the centuries made for
ever memorable by Irish monks and
not Infamous by northern barbarism.
Well might Ireland, instead of a..
crown Of thorns, claim the laurel
wreath of achievement and a high
place among the nations for her work
alone, which at once comprehended
the ennobling of western monasticism.
and, in 1t, the great policy of Cathol-
icism, the amelioration of society.
as whole, by the healthy liberty and
development Of all political, intellec-
tual and inventive departments of hui
man thought.
mo one who has studied the oues-
ton will doubt, that monasticism as
whole. has been one Of the greatest
factors in winning the sons of bar
barism into the fold of the Church.
sons. who like the famous Clovis.
we're once its bitterest enemies. II
this be true, how shall we determine
the debt which the popes owe to Irish
monks, whom, by the extensive field
which they covered in their apostolate.
and by the imperishable character of
their conversations, we may well con-
slider as already intimated the foun-
tain Of western monastic effort. What
portion Of the habitable globe has not
admired that unflinching fidelity Of
the Irish nation to the Cross which tho
Gallo-Roman slave, Patrick, planted
on the shores of the Darling Of the