Holy Cross Abbey on the River Suir

View from 1841

The ruined interior, 1841

The Holy Cross Abbey (Mainistir na Croise Naofa) in Tipperary is a restored Cistercian monastery in Holycross near Thurles, County Tipperary, Ireland, situated on the River Suir. It takes its name from a relic of the True Cross or Holy rood. The fragment of that Holy rood was brought to Ireland by the Plantagenet Queen, Isabella of Angoulême^[1], around 1233. She was the widow of King John and bestowed the relic on the original Cistercian Monastery in Thurles, which she then rebuilt, and which was thenceforth thereby named Holy Cross Abbey.

With time, Holy Cross Abbey and the sacred relic of the True Cross became a place of great medieval pilgrimage, and with the Reformation, also a rallying-point for the dispossessed and victims of religious persecution. As a symbol and inspiration for the defence of the Catholic faith, resistance and the struggle for freedom, it also drew a complaint by Sir Henry Sidney, Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, to Queen Elizabeth I in 1567.

The Annals of the Kingdom of Ireland recount that in 1601, Prince Hugh Roe O'Donnell, on his way to the Battle of Kinsale, true to his family arms and Constantinian motto (In Hoc Signo Vinces) and in anticipation of the battle to come at Kinsale, visited and venerated a relic of the True Cross (Holy rood) on the Feast of St. Andrew, on November 30, 1601 at Holy Cross Abbey. At that period it was a rallying point for the defence of religious freedom and for Irish sovereignty. From there he sent an expedition to Ardfert, to win a quick victory and successfully recover the territory of his ally, Fitzmaurice, Lord of Kerry, who had lost it and his 9-year old son, to Sir Charles Wilmot. It was the last victory before the defeat at Kinsale^[2]

The Holy Rood relic was last exposed for public veneration in 1632, and following the Cromwellian war, Holy Cross Abbey fell into ruins. Local people used the roofless ruins as a burial place after 1740. It became a scheduled national monument in 1880, "to be preserved and not used as a place of worship".

Special legislation in the Dáil on its 50th anniversary, 21 January 1969, enabled Holy Cross Abbey to be restored as a place of Catholic worship, exceptionally for a national monument. The Sacristan of St. Peter's Basilica in the Vatican provided an authenticated relic of the Holy Cross, and the emblem of the Jerusalem Cross, or Crusader Cross, has been restored for the Abbey.^[3]

Two crosses were stolen, including the cross containing the relics of the true cross, in a raid on the Abbey on 11 October 2011. A portable angle grinder, hammer and screwdriver were used by the masked raiders to remove the relics that gave the village and the Abbey its name.^[4] In January 2012, the relics of the true cross were reported to have been retrieved.^[5]

Gallery[link]

See also[link]

• List of abbeys and priories in Ireland (County Tipperary)

References[link]

External links[link]

• Holycross Abbey website

Coordinates: 52°38′23″N 07°52′00″W / 52.63972°N 7.8666667°W / 52.63972; -7.8666667

Holy Cross or Saint Cross may refer to:

• Christian cross, a frequently used religious symbol of Christianity
• True Cross, supposed remnants of the actual cross upon which Jesus was crucified
• Feast of the Cross, a commemoration most often celebrated on September 14

Holy Cross may also refer to:

Educational institutions[link]

• College of the Holy Cross, Worcester, Massachusetts, United States
  • Holy Cross Crusaders, the athletic teams representing the College
• Holy Cross School (disambiguation)
• Holy Cross College (disambiguation)
• Hellenic College and Holy Cross Greek Orthodox School of Theology in Brookline, Massachusetts, United States

Churches[link]

• Holy Cross Church (disambiguation)

Communities by the name of Order of the Holy Cross[link]

Order of the Holy Cross refers to several institutions by that name:

• Canons Regular of the Order of the Holy Cross (OSC), alias the Crosiers, a Catholic religious order founded in 1211 at Clairlieu near Huy, Belgium
• Canons Regular of the Holy Cross of Coimbra (ORC), a Catholic religious order founded in Portugal in 1131 and refounded in 1977
• Order of the Holy Cross (OHC), an Anglican Benedictine community based in New York state in the United States
• Patriarchal Order of the Holy Cross of Jerusalem, a knightly order conferred by the Melkite Greek Catholic Church
• Patriarchal Order of the Holy Cross of Jerusalem of Belgium
• Patriarchal Order of the Holy Cross of Jerusalem (Province of the United States)

Catholic religious orders[link]

• The Congregation of Holy Cross, Roman Catholic religious community of priests and brothers—Educators and Missionaries
• The Marianites of Holy Cross of Le Mans, France and New Orleans, Louisiana, United States
• The Sisters of the Holy Cross of Notre Dame, Indiana, United States
• The Sisters of Holy Cross of Montreal, Canada and Manchester, New Hampshire, United States
• The Priestly Society of the Holy Cross which is a Roman Catholic association of Opus Dei priests
• The Heiligenkreuz Abbey or Holy Cross monastery in Austria
• Holy Cross Abbey in Tipperary, Ireland
• Holy Cross Abbey, Virginia, United States

Anglican religious orders[link]

• The Community of the Holy Cross, a Benedictine community of nuns in England
• The Society of the Holy Cross, a religious society for priests in the Anglican Communion
• The Society of the Holy Cross (Korea) (SHC), an order of women religious within the Anglican Church of Korea
• The Order of the Holy Cross (OHC), an Anglican Benedictine community based in New York state in the United States
• The Sisters of the Holy Cross (Melanesia), a former Anglican order of sisters who converted to Roman Catholicism in 1950

Eastern Orthodox associations[link]

• The Monastery of the Cross in Jerusalem

Geography[link]

United States

• Holy Cross, Alaska
• Holy Cross, Iowa
• Holy Cross, New Orleans, Louisiana
• Holy Cross Township, Clay County, Minnesota
• Holy Cross Cemetery (disambiguation), numerous cemeteries
• Mount of the Holy Cross, a mountain in Colorado

Ireland

• Holycross, County Limerick, Ireland

Poland

• The Świętokrzyskie Mountains (Holy Cross Mountains) in central Poland
• Świętokrzyskie Voivodeship (Holy Cross Voivodeship), a province of central Poland

Other[link]

• The Holy Cross dispute surrounding Holy Cross Primary School in Ardoyne, Belfast in 2001 and 2002

See also[link]

• Holyrood (disambiguation)
• Sainte-Croix (disambiguation)
• Santa Cruz (disambiguation)
• St Cross (disambiguation)
• Hospet Church

This disambiguation page lists articles associated with the same title. If an internal link led you here, you may wish to change the link to point directly to the intended article.

Masanobu Fukuoka, originator of the natural farming method

Natural farming is an ecological farming approach established by Masanobu Fukuoka (1913–2008), a Japanese farmer and philosopher who described his agricultural philosophy as shizen nōhō (自然農法^?) in Japanese.^[1] It is also referred to as "the Fukuoka Method", "the natural way of farming" or "do-nothing farming". The title refers not to lack of labor, but to the avoidance of manufactured inputs and equipment. Natural farming can also be described as ecological farming and is related to organic farming, sustainable agriculture, agroforestry, ecoagriculture and permaculture but should be distinguished from biodynamic agriculture.

The system exploits the complexity of living organisms that shape each particular ecosystem. Fukuoka saw farming not just as a means of producing food but as an aesthetic or spiritual approach to life,^[2] the ultimate goal of which was, "the cultivation and perfection of human beings".^[3] He suggested that farmers could benefit from closely observing local conditions.^[4] Natural farming is a closed system, one that demands no inputs and mimics nature.^[5]

Fukuoka's ideas challenged conventions that are core to modern agro-industries, instead promoting an environmental approach.^[6] Natural farming also differs from conventional organic farming^[7], which Fukuoka considered to be another modern technique that disturbs nature.^[8]

Fukuoka claimed that his approach prevents water pollution, biodiversity loss and soil erosion while still providing ample amounts of food.^[9]

Principles[link]

Fukuoka distilled natural farming into five principles:^[10]

1. No tillage
2. No fertilizer
3. No pesticides (or herbicides)
4. No weeding
5. No pruning

Though many of his plant varieties and practices relate specifically to Japan, and even to local conditions in subtropical western Shikoku, his philosophy and the governing principles of his farming systems have been applied from Africa to the temperate northern hemisphere. In India, natural farming is often referred to as "Rishi Kheti".^[11][12]

Principally, natural farming minimises human labour and adopts, as closely as practical, nature's production of foods such as rice, barley, daikon or citrus in biodiverse agricultural ecosystems. Without plowing, seeds germinate well on the surface if site conditions meet the needs of the seeds planted there. Fukuoka used the presence of spiders in his fields as a key performance indicator of sustainability.^{[citation needed]}}

The ground always remains covered by weeds, white clover, alfalfa, herbaceous legumes, and sometimes deliberately sown herbaceous plants. Ground cover is present along with grain, vegetable crops and orchards. Chickens run free in orchards and ducks and carp populate rice fields.^[13]

Periodically ground layer plants including weeds may be cut and left on the surface, returning their nutrients to the soil, while suppressing weed growth. This also facilitates the sowing of more seeds in the same area.^[why?]

For summer rice and winter barley grain crops, ground cover enhances nitrogen fixation. Straw from the previous crop mulches the topsoil. Each grain crop is sown before the previous one is harvested by broadcasting the seed among the standing crop. The result is a denser crop of smaller but highly productive and stronger plants.

Fukuoka's practice and philosophy emphasised small scale operation and challenged the need for mechanised farming techniques for high productivity, efficiency and economies of scale. While his family's farm was larger than the Japanese average, he used one field of grain crops as a small-scale example of his system.

Climax ecosystems[link]

Ladybirds consume aphids and are considered beneficial by natural farmers that apply biological control.

In ecology, climax ecosystems are mature ecosystems that have reached a high degree of stability, productivity and diversity (see old-growth forest). Natural farmers attempt to mimic those virtues, thus creating a comparable ecosystem, and employ such advanced techniques as intercropping, companion planting and integrated pest management.^{[citation needed]}

No-till[link]

This section needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (February 2012)

Natural farming recognizes soils as a fundamental natural asset. Ancient soils possess physical and chemical attributes which render them capable of generating and supporting life abundance. It can be argued that tilling actually degrades the delicate balance of a climax soil in the following ways:

1. Tilling may destroy crucial physical characteristics of a soil such as water suction, its ability to send moisture upwards, even during dry spells. The effect is due to pressure differences between soil areas. For more on this subject see water potential. Furthermore, tilling most certainly destroys soil horizons and hence disrupts the established flow of nutrients.

2. Tilling over-pumps oxygen to local soil residents, such as bacteria and fungi. As a result, the chemistry of the soil changes. Biological decomposition accelerates and the microbiota mass increases at the expense of other organic matter, adversely affecting most plants, including trees and vegetables. It is well-known to gardeners and farmers that for plants to thrive, a certain quantity of organic matter (around 5%) must be present in the soil.

3. Tilling uproots all the plants in the area, turning their roots into food for bacteria and fungi. This damages their ability to aerate the soil. Living roots drill millions of tiny holes in the soil and thus provide oxygen. They also create room for beneficial insects and annelids (the phylum of worms). Some types of roots contribute directly to soil fertility by funding a mutualistic relationship with certain kinds of bacteria (most famously the rhizobium) that can fix nitrogen.

Nature farming[link]

Another Japanese farmer and philosopher Mokichi Okada, conceived of a "no fertilizer" farming system in the 1930s which predated Fukuoka. Okada used the same Japanese characters,^[14] which are generally translated in English as "nature farming". Agriculture researcher Hu-lian Xu claiming that "nature farming" is the correct literal translation of the Japanese term.^[14]

See also[link]

	Sustainable development portal
	Systems science portal
	Ecology portal

References[link]