Laoghaire, son of Niall Naoighiallach, son of Eochaidh Muighmheadhon, son of Muireadhach Tireach, son of Fiacraidh Sraibhthine, of the race of Eireamhon, held the sovereignty of Ireland thirty years; and his mother was Rioghnach; and it was in the fourth year of his reign that Pope Coelestinus sent Patrick to Ireland to plant the Faith, in the year of the Lord 431 and Patrick was sixty-one years of age then. For when he was taken into captivity in the ninth year of the reign of Niall his age was sixteen years, and he lived the remaining eighteen years of the reign of Niall, so that he was thirty-four years at the close
As to Patrick, he came to Ireland a year after Paladius, with twenty-four holy clerics, or, according to Henricus Antisiodorensis in the life of St. Germanus, as we read in the 168th chapter. Patrick brought thirty bishops with him to Ireland. Here are the author's
Moreover, we read in the seanchus that when Patrick was coming to Ireland he brought hither with him as many as he could find of the Scotic race who had received the light of the Faith; and learning and faith and law were maintained in Ireland for four hundred years after the coming of Patrick until the coming hither of the Lochlonnaigh. Besides, silver was struck at Ard Macha and at Cashel at that time. Henricus above says in the 174th chapter that Patrick made an apportionment of Ireland, as to land, people and cattle, and that he set aside a tithe of these for the Church, to wit, a tithe of the people, the land, and the cattle, and made monks of the men and nuns of the women, and built monasteries for them. Thus does the same author speak referring to these people who formed the tithe: He made monks of all the men and nuns of the women, and he built many monasteries and he set apart a tithe of the land and a tithe of the cattle for their maintenance. {Omnes ergo mares monachos, feminas sanctimoniales, efficiens, numerosa monasteria aedificavit, decimamque portionem terrarum ac pecudum eorum sustentationi assignavit.}
The same author also says that as a result of the regulation laid down by Patrick, there was not a nook or corner or desert in Ireland that was not full of pious persons and of saints, so that it came to pass that the name by which Ireland was distinguished among the nations in general was the Island of Saints. Nennius, a British author, in the History of Britain, speaking of Patrick, uses these
- Five and fifty learned bishops
Did the holy man consecrete,
With three hundred young clerics
On whom he conferred orders.
Should anyone be surprised at there being so many bishops together in Ireland in the time of Patrick, let him read what St. Bernard says in the life of Malachias of the custom of Ireland regarding her bishops. Thus does he speak: Bishops are changed and multiplied at the will of the archbishop, so that a single diocese is not content with a single bishop, but they have almost a bishop for each church. {Mutantur et multiplicantur Episcopi pro libitu Metropolitani, ite ut unus episcopatus uno non esset conentus, sed singulae pene ecclesiae singulos haberunt episcopos}
From these words of St. Bernard it is to be inferred that it is not strange that so great a number of bishops as we have mentioned should be in Ireland in the time of Patrick, as the Church was then flourishing. The number of bishops we have above mentioned is the less to be wondered at, since we read in old books that there was a bishop in Ireland for every deanery in the country.Moreover, it is certain from the Irish annals that Patrick made two archbishops in Ireland, to wit, the archbishop of Ard Macha the primate of Ireland, and the archbishop of Cashel; the primate of Ard Macha being over all Ireland and especially over Leath Cuinn, and the archbishop of Cashel directly over Leath Mogha, while the primate had higher authority over him. And the reason of that arrangement was that the supreme sovereignty of Ireland was in the possession of the race of Eireamhon, being in the possession of Laoghaire, son of Niall; and Eoghan and
But as regards another statement made by some writers of the present time that Imleach Iobhair was the seat of an archbishop, it is to be understood in this way: the archbishop and the clergy of Cashel were for a time banished from Cashel in these days, through the oppression of the Lochlonnaigh, when Maoilseachlainn, son of Maolruanaidh, was king of Meath, and Niall Caille king of Ireland, and Olchobhar king of Munster, and while Turgesius the Lochlonnach tyrant was harassing Ireland. For the expulsion of Forannan, primate of Ireland, from Ard Macha by Turgesius, so that he was forced into banishment in Munster, was not a more likely event than that the archbishop of Cashel and his clergy should be driven from Cashel by the Lochlonnaigh, and should betake themselves for refuge to Imleach Iobhair, where there were then woods and bogs and morasses. And there did they spend some of their time while they were subject to the persecution of the Lochlonnaigh.
We find in the annals of Ireland only mention of two archbishops being in Ireland, to wit, the archbishop of Ard Macha and the archbishop of Cashel, down to the time