Mass for St. Joseph's Day in Graignamanagh

At 2 p.m. on Saturday, 19th March, the feast of St. Joseph, Mass in the Gregorian Rite took place in Duiske Abbey, Graignamanagh. The third volume of Bishop Comerford's Collections Relating to the Dioceses of Kildare and Leighlin (1886) includes:

"The town and parish of Graig-na-managh derive their name from the celebrated Cistercian Abbey, called De Valle Salvatoris, which formerly flourished here, and of the noble church of which a large portion still remains. The name signifies the "Grange of the Monks," and indicates what constituted the grange of the first foundation. In ancient records it is styled the Abbey of Duiske, and was so called because it was build upon the confluence of the streams Duiske, i.e., the Blackwater, with the Barrow. The original monastery was founded on lands granted for that purpose by Dermod O'Ryan, Prince of Idrone, which grant was confirmed by Dermod MacMurrough, King of Leinster. The foundation charter is still extant among the Ormonde archives. Mr. Gilbert has reproduced it in fac-simile, from whose work the text is here copied... It does not appear as if the pious intentions of the chief of Idrone were immediately carried into effect. The next information we have in connection with the monastery is that William Mariscall, Earl of Pembroke, introduced a colony of Cistercian monks from the Abbey of Stanley, in Wiltshire, about the year 1202. They settled first at Loughmeran, near Kilkenny; then they removed to Athernott (Annamult), and finally they established themselves at Duiske about A.D. 1212. The charter of this new foundation is also preserved amongst the Ormonde archives..."



"Though the Abbey was suppressed, Abbots continued to be appointed. In a Note of the names of preestes, semynaries, fryers, etc., in the Citie of Kilkennie circa 1618, appears the Item: "Melchier Ragged, a franciscan (sic) fryer, keepeth usually with his father, Richard of ye said citie, Alderman, and is reputed as Lo; Abbot of the Monastery of Dawiske, within the county of Kilkennie," And in the Spicilegium Ossoriense, Vol. II., p. 281, there is a letter addressed to Propaganda by the Rev. John Magher, dated Kilkenny, 27th August, 1686, which commences:- "Ego Joannes Macharius Abbas S. Mariae de Valle Salvatoris, vulgo de Duisque, ord. Cisterciensis in Hibernia in Comitatu Kilkeniensi," &tc. In this letter Father Magher refers to his appointment as Abbot of Duiske, by Bull of Pope Innocent XI. He also relates how, on his landing at Cork, he was seized by the enemies of the Catholic faith and detained a prisoner and in chains, for two years."



"The Abbey Church was a building of great extent. It has a fine octagonal tower, which fell in 1744, similar to one that stood at Tristernagh, County Westmeath. this tower, according to the Rev. G. Hansbow, was one of the most beautiful ecclesiastical structures in the kingdom. Three of the four great arches that supported it, fell at the same time, and also the fine groined roof of the chancel.

"'Graig now appeared,' writes Trotter in his Walks through Ireland, 1812, 'and has the air of a Welsh village. An ancient castle stands in mournful solitude at some distance. The whole population here, and in the surrounding country, is Catholic. Graig contains about 2,000 inhabitants... The celebrated Abbey of Graignamanagh now struck our view. I cannot describe how nobly venerable it looked. The aisle and arches afford beautiful specimens of the Gothic. The windows we thought remarkably handsome. They Abbey was well enclosed, and good gates at different entrances. A very ancient tomb is to be seen near the entrance of the Abbey. The figure of a man in armour is seen on it, and is said to be Lord Galway's. He is reputed, I know not why, to have been a son of Queen Elizabeth's. We discovered a very small chapel built and connected with this Venerable Abbey. A holy gloom seemed to pervade it. Crimson curtains nearly shut out the glare of day. We observed a few respectable people crossing the grand and deserted aisles of the great building, and enter this chapel to perform their devotions. Never was a place more suited for the solemnity and tranquillity of religious worship. they stayed a short time and retired. I left my companions, and rested half-an-hour in a seat on the gallery. It is a melancholy, yet sweet moment, when the soul is thus abstracted from the world. And the melancholy is pleasing; for in such solitude we converse with the Deity, and repose all our cares and anxieties in His eternal breast.' The aisles have disappeared, but the portions still remaining are very extensive. The ruin has been roofed in, and now forms the Parish Church of Graig, being, with the Black Abbey, Kilkenny, probably the only ancient Catholic Churches throughout Ireland that have been restored to the worship of the old faith."



"The circumstances under which the restoration took place, as related by the old inhabitants, are curious. It appears that the west end of the nave was roofed and prepared to serve as a Protestant Church (though never used as such), at the commencement of the present century; the windows having been glazed, it was found next morning that they had been broken by the jackdaws, who thus, as tenants in possession, resented the invasion of their prescriptive rights - again the glass was replaced, and again and again the aggrieved birds repeated their work of demolition. This was reported to Lord Clifden, who replied that the birds appeared to be the ministers of divine justice; that the Church had been built by Catholics, and for Catholic purposes; and, consequently, that it should be restored to the rightful owners. Lord Dover, in 1809, granted a lease for ever of the chapel and Abbey ruins to the Parish Priest and people of Graig, at a nominal rent of 10s, which has never been demanded. The present Lord Clifden is about to add to the holding the plot outside the western end of the church, in the Main Street. The walls of the chancel and transepts were pronounced secure, and remain; the walls of the nave were found to be ruinous, some of the arches having fallen. These were taken down and rebuilt, but, unfortunately, not in line with the walls of the west end of the nave; the consequence of which is that this portion of the old building, with its beautifully carved windows, cannot now be incorporated with the Church."

St. Oliver Plunkett - Traditional Feast

When Pope Benedict XV beatified Archbishop Oliver Plunkett ninety years ago on 22nd May, 1920, the struggle for Irish Independence was at its height. He suffered a martyrs death at Tyburn, London, condemned by unjust judges upon perjured evidence, the victim of the anti-Catholic Titus Oates Plot, on 11th July, 1681.

The mission of St. Oliver to Ireland took place in the shadow of the fall of the Catholic Confederacy a generation before, which was largely due to divisions among the Catholics between the Gaelic Irish and Anglo-Irish. St. Oliver's Anglo-Irish background was at once of great assistance and a hinderance to his mission. The fall of the Confederacy was followed by the murderous and anti-Catholic rampage of Cromwell and his forces throughout Ireland during the years 1649-'53. The reign of Charles II promised much but gave little in the way of relief for Catholics.

St. Oliver was appointed to the See of Armagh on 9th July, 1669, and was consecrated at Ghent on 30th November the same year. He landed in Ireland on 7th March the following year. In 1678, the so-called 'Popish Plot' conspiracy broke out under the pervert, renegade and defrocked perjurer Oates.

Dr. Plunkett had to undergo two trials. Even an English Protestant jury would not convict him - on the first occasion. At the second trial, however, the result was not in doubt. Lord Chief Justice Pemberton, who Lord Brougham in his Lives of the Chief Justices of England branded as betraying the cause of justice and bringing disgrace on the English Bar, replied to the protests of Dr. Plunkett thus: "Look you Mr Plunkett, do not waste your time by talking about these things as it leaves less time for your defence,” adding “the bottom of your treason, which is treason of the highest order, was the setting up of your false religion and there is nothing more displeasing to God than it.” The jury returned within fifteen minutes with a guilty verdict. Archbishop Plunkett replied: “Deo Gratias.”

In March of that year, King Charles II granted to William Penn territory that would later become Pennsylvania. Blessed Innocent XI, who would later support William of Orange's usurpation of the English Throne, was Pope. Also in 1681, John Dryden published the first part of Absalom and Achitophel. In that poem, he described Oates thus: "Sunk were his eyes, his voice was harsh and loud, Sure signs he neither choleric was nor proud: His long chin proved his wit, his saint-like grace, A church vermilion and a Moses' face."

It was on 11th July, 1681, that Archbishop Plunkett was led to the scaffold at Tyburn "for promoting the Roman faith," and died the last of 264 martyrs for the Faith to have spilled their blood in England since 1534.

A mere four years later, the Catholic convert James II ascended the English Throne but was to be ousted by his Protestant daughter Mary and her husband William of Orange in 1688 at the birth of a Catholic heir, the future James III. The last of the martyrs may have fallen but the persecution of Catholics was to continue.

In a letter of 15th December, 1673, Archbishop Plunkett wrote: "I count myself fortunate now and again to obtain a little barley bread, and the house where Bishop Brenan [of Waterford] and I are is made of straw and is roofed in such a way that from the bed we can see the stars and at the head of the bed every small shower of rain refreshes us; but we would rather die of hunger and cold than abandon our flocks."

The traditional hymn to St. Oliver Plunkett runs as follows:

1.
Come glorious Martyr, rise,
Into the golden skies,
Beyond the sun!
Wide, wide your portals fling,
Ye martyr hosts, O sing,
To greet his entering,
"Well hast thou done."

2.
Never reproach he made,
Like to his Lord betrayed,
By his own kind.
Sharing his Master's blame,
Gladly he bore the shame,
While the false charge they frame,
"Guilty," they find.

3.
As coach of state he hails,
Hurdle of shame, and trails,
All the rough way,
Through London streets he goes,
Heedless of lesser woes,
Tyburn holds greater throes,
Ready that day.

4.
Blood-stained the path he trod,
Leading him on to God,
Counting no cost.
"Now for my Faith I die,"
Said he in glad reply;
"Oh, for my God I sigh,
All fear is lost."

5.
"Lord in thy hands," he prays,
"My soul forever stays,
Strengthen thou me.
Welcome, O rope and knife"
All those who made this strife,
I now forgive, my life,
Offer to thee."

6.
Hail then, great Martyr, hail!
In death thou didst prevail!
Winning renown!
Blow the full trumpets, blow!
Wider yon portals throw!
Martyr, triumphant go,
Where waits thy crown!

St. Oliver Plunkett, pray for us!

Vienna 1683

Today, the feast of the Most Holy Name of Mary, marks the day, a mere three and a quarter centuries ago, when Christendom breathed a collective sigh of relief at the victory of the Holy League before the gates of Vienna. With this victory, the Holy League had finally halted the second Islamic pincer to enslave Europe.



The first pincer had swept across the whole of Christian North Africa in little more than a generation, from about 632. From North Africa, they advanced steadily into Europe through Iberia. The victory of Charles Martel at Poitiers in 732 checked the Arab advance but it was not until 1492 that Arab forces were finally expelled under the Catholic Monarchs of the Spains.

The second line of advance was contemporary with the first. It swept away the Christian powers of the Near East as it had swept away Christian North Africa and swept them away, never, it seems, to return. For some time, the Crusades checked the relentless tide. However, in 1453, while the Arabs still held parts of Iberia, the Ottoman Turks, already masters of Asia Minor, had captured Constantinople, the capital of the Christian East. Throughout the Mediterranean, nowhere was entirely safe from raids by one Islamic group or another.

With the fall of Constantinople, the Ottomans advanced seadily into the heart of Europe from the East, just as the Arabs had done from the South centuries earlier. Would they succeed now where their co-religionists had failed before? Christian cities fell like dominoes: Belgrade in 1521; Rhodes in 1522; and Buda(pest) in 1526 for the first time. Vienna was beseiged by the Turks in 1526. The Turk would be defeated again at Malta in 1565 and Lepanto in 1571 but Vienna remained a front-line City for more than a century. This is the scene as the Battle for Vienna commences in 1683. In truth, it was a battle for the future of Europe and the survival of Christendom.

The city was invested on 14th July, 1683. Graf von Starhemberg, the Governor of the city, refused to capitulate, which was a wise move, given the wholesale slaughter of the citzens of Perchtoldsdorf when they had surrendered a few days earlier.



Imperial forces under Charles V, Duke of Lorraine, were successfully harrying the forward guard of the beseiging Turks when Jan III Sobieski, elective King of Poland, responded to the appeals from Pope and Emperor to lend his aid to the beleagured Christian forces in Austria. He set out for Vienna in August, his forces marching behind the banner of the Blessed Virgin. Passing by the Sanctuary of Our Lady in Czestochowa, they implored Our Lady's help and blessing. Writing to the bishops of Poland, Pope Pius XII recalled the supplications of Sobieski to Mary at the Sanctuary:

"To the same Heavenly Queen, on Clear Mountain, the illustrious John Sobieski, whose eminent valour freed Christianity from the attacks of its old enemies, confided himself." [Cum iam lustri abeat, 1951]

The Polish army crossed the Danube on 6th September. The massed forces of the Holy League, under the flag of the Crown of Our Lady, identical to that used today for the European Union, assembled on the Kahlenberg Heights above Vienna. A key figure at this point was Friar Mark d'Aviano, confessor to Emperor Leopold I. He preached passionately to the men of the Holy League in his capacity as Papal Legate, ensuring that the Holy League remained united and persevered to victory. After Mass early on the morning of 12th September, 1683, the forces of the Holy League swept down upon the foe. In the aftermath of the victory, the Holy League swept the Turks before them out of Hungary, regaining Buda(pest) in 1686.

In 1513, Pope Julius II had granted a local indult to celebrate the feast of the Most Holy Name of Mary to the diocese of Cuenta in Spain. It was assigned a proper Office. With the reform of the Breviary undertaken by Pope St. Pius V, the feast was abolished, only to be reinstituted by his successor, Pope Sixtus V. The feast spread to the Archdiocese of Toledo by 1622 and, eventually, to all of Spain and to the Kingdom of Naples.

In thanksgiving for the victory, Blessed Innocent XI extended the feast of the Most Holy Name of Mary to the Universal Church, it then being celebrated upon the Sunday after the 8th of September, the feast of Our Lady's Nativity. Pope St. Pius X, by a decree of 8th July, 1908, fixed the feast upon the day of the victory itself.

Blessed be the Most Holy Name of Mary!