Côté nord de l'autel funéraire de John
et Catherine McGrathin, nef de la St. Carthage's Cathedral. Lismore, 1543,
de droite à gauche :Sain Carthage,
Sainte Catherine et Saint Patrick
Saint Carthach le jeune
ermite et évêque
irlandais (✝ 638)
Carthach le jeune,
ermite et évêque irlandais connu sous les noms de Carthage, Cuda ou Mochuda. Il
était gardien de porcs puis fut ordonné prêtre et devint ermite vers 590 à
Liltulagh puis à Bangor sous Saint Comgall. Il fonda ensuite un monastère de plusieurs
centaines de moines et écrivit une règle en vers qui existe encore. On croit
qu'il a été évêque de Fircall jusqu'à ce que lui et ses moines soient expulsés
par le seigneur local. Il fonda un autre monastère à Lismore et vécut non loin
de là dans une grotte sur les rives de la Blackwater.
À Lismore en Irlande, l’an 638, saint Carthag ou Mochuda, qui fut
abbé de plus de huit cents moines et fonda le siège épiscopal de Lismore.
Martyrologe
romain
SAINT
CARTHAG (CARTHACH, MOCHUDA) LE JEUNE, ABBÉ ÉVÊQUE DE LINSMORE ET CONFESSEUR (+
637)
Carthag le Jeune ou Mochuda, fils de Fingen, naquit vers 555; il fut élevé par
Carthag l'Ancien. En 580, il bâtit une cellule à Kiltallagh en vue d'y mener la
vie d'un Ermite, passa une année à Bangor. Plus tard, sur l'avis de Saint
Colman, il fonda le Monastère de Rathin pour lequel il aurait rédigé une règle
monastique. Ce monastère devint une grande école de piété et de science, où les
disciples vinrent nombreux tant de Bretagne que d'Irlande.
Après une quarantaine d'années, c'est-à-dire vers 636, Carthage qui gouvernait
alors plus de huit cents Moines, fut obligé de quitter Rathin : alors il alla
fonder le siège épiscopal de Linsmore dont il est regardé comme le premier
Evêque; il y établit en même temps une grande école qui y fut longtemps
prospère. Carthag naquit au Ciel le 14 mai, en 637 ou 638, peu de temps après
avoir achevé sa cathédrale. Celle-ci fut placée sous son vocable et la ville
elle-même fut appelée Lismore Mochuda.
ou
Né à Castlemaine, Kerry, Irlande; endormi près de Lismore, Irlande, le 14 Mai
vers 637. Voici un autre Saint qui est souvent connu par un surnom affectif, comme
Simon Bar Jonas était et est toujours appelé Pierre.
Carthag naquit dans le Kerry, fils d'un chef appelé Fingen et de son épouse
Maeve. Ses biographes disent que pendant qu'il surveillait le troupeau de porcs
de son père, un groupe de Moines passa, chantant des Psaumes, et le garçon fut
si ravi qu'il les suivit jusqu'à leur monastère, où il passa la nuit au dehors
à les écouter chanter. Les serviteurs de son père le retrouvèrent le lendemain
et le ramenèrent à la maison, mais quand Fingen entendit le motif de la fugue
de son fils, il l'envoya à l'Abbaye, demandant qu'il puisse être admis dans la
communauté. Il devint disciple de l'Abbé Saint Carthag l'Ancien, qui l'ordonna;
c'est ainsi que Carthag le Jeune devint connu par son nom de Baptême, qui était
Chud ou Cuddy, auquel l'Abbé ajouta le préfix affectif Mo, en faisant Mochuda.
Vers 590, il devint Ermite à Kiltlaugh puis partit à Bangor sous Saint Comgall.
Après avoir visité différents monastères, Carthag s'installa quelques temps à
Rahan en Offaly en 595, où il dirigea cents Moines, attirant par ses
enseignements et sa puissance spirituelle. C'est à Rahan qu'un combat de
puissance eu lieu, entre lui et un sorcier local, ou druide, combat au cours
duquel Mochuda fit pousser des feuilles sur un pommier au coeur de l'hiver,
puis le fit fleurir et donner des fruits.
Deux Moines anglais tentèrent de le faire partir, pensant qu'il était temps que
le monastère ait un nouvel Abbé. Il fut aussi probablement Evêque de Fircall.
Carthag écrivit une règle en versets métriques, dont une version tardive existe
encore.
Après quarante ans, la fondation provoqua la jalousie dans des monastères sur
des terres adjacentes, et Carthag et ses Moines furent chassés à Pâque en 630,
ensemble avec un groupe de lépreux dont ils s'occupaient, par Blathmac, un chef
local. Après avoir refusé un site que leur offrait le roi de Cashel, ils
parvinrent à la rivière Blackwater et y construisirent un nouveau monastère,
qui devait devenir aussi célèbre, Lismore. On rapporte le récit suivant :
pendant que le Saint était occupé à construire l'abbaye, une femme lui demanda
ce qu'il faisait, et il répondit en irlandais qu'il était occupé à construire
une petite "Lios", le terme pour "clôture". La femme
répondit "nil se uos beag ach liosnor", "pas une petite clôture,
mais une grande", et c'est ainsi que cela sera connu comme Lismore.
Carthag survivra suffisamment longtemps pour donner à ses moines une ferme
tradition, à ce qui devrait devenir une des plus célèbres de toutes les écoles
monastiques irlandaises. Un de ses disciple sera Saint Cathal, qui sera élu
Evêque de Taranto, Italie, à son retour de Terre Sainte.
Saint Carthag fut exceptionnellement strict concernant la propriété; à Rathan,
il ne permit pas à la communauté de disposer de chevaux ou de bovins pour aider
aux labours.
Le Saint se retira dans une caverne près de Lismore où il vécut les derniers 18
mois de sa vie en Ermite, mais à sa naissance au Ciel en 637, il fut enterré
dans l'église de l'Abbaye à Lismore. A Rahan il y reste trois églises, dont une
est devenue une paroisse de l'Eglise d'Irlande. A Lismore, il y eut jusque
vingt églises, mais il n'en reste plus que quelques vestiges. La cathédrale de
l'Eglise d'Irlande se trouve probablement sur l'emplacement du monastère.
Tropaire de Saint Carthag le Jeune ton 6
Prenant le nom de ton père spirituel au Baptême, Ô Saint Carthag/
tu échangeas un héritage royal mais païen pour la vie monastique./
Comme en ce monde tu pris soin de ceux/
qui souffraient en leurs corps de la corruption de la lèpre,/
à présent, nous t'implorons, intercède auprès du Christ notre Dieu /
qu'Il lave nos âmes lépreuses et nous sauve.
Carthage the Younger,
Abbot (AC)
(also known as Carthach, Mochuda)
Born at Castlemaine, Kerry, Ireland; died near Lismore, Ireland, on May 14, c.
637; cultus confirmed in 1903. This swineherd was probably named Cuda. He
became a disciple of Saint Carthach the Elder who ordained him and from whom he
took his name. About 590, he became a hermit at Kiltlaugh and then at Bangor
under Saint Comgall.
After visiting several
monasteries, Carthage settled for a time at Rahan in Offaly, and then in 595 he
founded a monastery there and ruled over 800 monks, two of whom were Britons
who tried to drown him because they felt it was time for the monastery to have
a new abbot. Carthage wrote a rule in metrical verse, a later version of which
still exists. He also was probably a bishop at Fircall.
After 40 years, the
foundation provoked the jealousy of monasteries on adjacent lands, and Carthage
and his monks were driven away by Blathmac, a local ruler. He led his monks to
the banks of the Blackwater and founded a new monastery at Lismore, where he
survived long enough to give his monks a firm foundation to what was to become
one of the most famous of all Irish monastic schools. One of its students was
Saint Cathal, who was elected bishop of Taranto, Italy, during his return from
the Holy Land.
Saint Carthage was
exceptionally strict about the holding of property; at Rathan he would not
allow the community to have horses or oxen to help in the tillage.
Nevertheless, the Lismore Crozier is a treasured item of Irish art--now
residing in the National Museum at Dublin. The saint retired to a cave near
Lismore where he spent his last years as a hermit (Attwater, Benedictines,
Carthage, Delaney, Montague).
May
14
St. Carthagh, or Mochudu, Bishop of
Lismore
THIS 1 eminent director of souls in the narrow paths of Christian perfection,
was a native of Munster in Ireland. The famous monastery of Raithin or Ratheny
in Westmeath was founded by him. He drew up a particular monastic rule, which
is said to be still extant in very old Irish; but it was afterwards
incorporated into that of the regular canons of St. Austin, when the abbey of
Raithin adopted that institute, which, though it has been since mitigated, in
the eleventh and twelfth centuries, seems to have been scarcely less austere
than that of La Trappe at present. St. Carthagh is said to have under his
direction above eight hundred and sixty monks, who confined themselves to feed
on vegetables, which they raised and cultivated with their own hands. In 631,
or, according to the annals of Inisfallen, in 636, he was driven out of
Raithin, which he had then governed forty years, by king Blathmac, and retired
to the territory of Nandesi, or Desies, in Munster. Here, upon the banks of a
river, 2 he laid the foundation of a great monastery and school, which
flourished exceedingly for many ages. The place before his coming thither was
called Magh-Sgiath; it then took the name of Dunsginne, and afterwards Lismore,
which name it has ever since retained. 3 St. Carthagh founded here the episcopal see of Lismore, which was
united to that of Waterford by Pope Urban V. in 1363, at the request of King
Edward III., this latter having only been founded in 1096. The city of Lismore,
from the reputation of the sanctity and miracles of St. Carthagh, its first
bishop, was esteemed in succeeding ages a holy city, which appellation its
great school and monastery continued to maintain. Half of this city was an
asylum into which no woman ever dared to enter, it being full of cells and holy
monasteries. Thither holy men flocked from all parts of Ireland, many also from
Britain, being desirous to remove from thence to Christ. St. Carthagh left an
eminent share of his spirit to his disciples and successors, but died himself
soon after he had erected his cathedral, on the 14th of May, in 637 or 638. He
was buried in his own church at Lismore. See Colgan in MSS. ad 14 Maij; Ware,
t. 1, pp. 547, 548, 549; Usher, Primord. Brit. Eccl. p. 910; Allemaigne,
Monast. Hibern. introd. et p. 43; Annals of Inisfall. ad an. 637.
Note 1. This St. Carthagh is called the younger, to distinguish him from
St. Carthagh the elder, who succeeded St. Kiaran Saigir in
Ossory. [back]
Note 2. This river was called Nem; afterwards Abhan-mor, i. e.
Great-river; and now has the name of Black-water. [back]
Note 3. Dun
signifies a fort, or place seated on an eminence, and sgein a flight;
which seems to allude to the flight of the saint to this place, and to the name
then given it; for it was before called Magh-sgiath, or the field of the
shield. Lismore denotes a great house; Lis, or Lios, in
the old Irish signifying a house, or village, and mor, great. [back]
Rev. Alban
Butler (1711–73). Volume V: May. The Lives of the Saints. 1866.
St. Carthage
St. Carthage, whose name is
also given as Mochuda, was born
of a good family, in what is now County Kerry,
Ireland, about the year 555. He spent his youth as a
swineherd near Castlemaine, and
became a monk in a neighbouring monastery under the guidance of St. Carthage
the Elder, subsequently
receiving priest's orders.
In 580 he determined to lead a hermit's life,
and he built a cell at Kiltallagh, where his fame soon attracted pilgrims. After a few years the jealousy
of two neighbouring bishops forced him to quit his hermitage,
and he proceeded on a visit to Bangor,
where he spent a year. On the advice of St. Comgall he returned to Kerry
and founded churches at
Kilcarragh and Kilfeighney. He then visited Waterford,
Clonfert-molua (Kyle), and Lynally, whence, on the recommendation of St. Colman Elo, he settled at Rahan,
near Tullamore, in the present
King's County.
St. Carthage founded
his monastery of Rahan
about 590, and soon had hundred of disciples.
He was consecrated Abbot-Bishop of the Fercal
district, and composed a rule for his monks, an Irish metrical poem of 580 lines, divided into nine
separate sections — one of the most interesting literary
relics of the early Irish Church.
Numerous miracles are also recorded to him. At
length, Blathmaic, a Meathian prince, instigated by the
neighbouring monks, ordered St. Carthage to
leave Rahan. This expulsion of
the saint and eight hundred of his community took place
at Eastertide of the year 635. Journeying
by Saigher, Roscrea, Cashel, and Ardfinnan, St.
Carthage at length came to the banks of the River Blackwater, where he was
given a foundation by the Prince
of the Decies, and thus sprang
up the episcopal city of Lios-mor, or Lismore,
County Waterford.
Great as was the
fame of Rahan, it was completely
eclipsed by that of Lisemore, although St. Carthage lived less than
two years at his new foundation.
He spent the last eighteen months of his life in contemplation
and prayer, in a cave near the present St.
Carthage's Well. When at the point of death, he summoned his monks and gave them his farewell exhortation and blessing.
Fortified by the Body of Christ
he died on the 14th of May, 637, on which day his feast is celebrated as first Bishop
and Patron of Lismore. Short as was St. Carthage's stay in
Lismore, he left an ineffaceable impress of his
labours in a famous abbey, cathedral, and infant university, but more so in the shining example of an
austere and blameless life. Purity
was his transcendent virtue, and
to guard it he practised the severest penances.
On this account St. Cuimin of Connor thus writes of him in an Irish quatrain:
Admirable every page of his history.
Before his time there was no one who shed
Half so many tears as he shed.
Usher
had two manuscript copies of the Irish life of
St. Carthage; and in 1634 Philip O'Sullivan Beare sent a Latin
translation to Father John Bollandus, S.J. The "Vita Secunda" is the
one usually quoted. In 1891 the present writer discovered the site of the Relig Mochuda in which St. Carthage was buried.
Sources
Acta SS. 14 May (III); Colgan, Acta Sanctorum Hiberniae (Louvain, 1645);
Lanigan, Eccles. Hist. of Ireland (Dublin, 1829), II; Baring-Gould, Lives of
the Saints (London, 1874), V; O'Hanlon, Lives of the Irish Saints (Dublin,
1889), V; Grattan Flood, St. Carthage (Waterford, 1898); Healy, Insula
Sanctorum et Doctorum (Dublin, 1902); Power, Place-Names of the Decies
(Waterford, 1907); Hyde, Literary History of Ireland (London, 1901).
Grattan-Flood, William. "St. Carthage." The Catholic
Encyclopedia. Vol. 3. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1908. 14 May 2016
<http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/03384c.htm>.
Transcription. This
article was transcribed for New Advent by William D. Neville.
Ecclesiastical approbation. Nihil Obstat. November 1, 1908. Remy Lafort, S.T.D., Censor. Imprimatur.
+John Cardinal Farley, Archbishop of New York.
Saint Carthage the Younger
Also known as
- Carthage of Lismore
- Carthage of Mochuda
- Cartaco….
- Carthach….
- Carthagus….
- Mo Chutu mac Fínaill
- Mochuda….
Profile
Swineherd near Castlemaine, Ireland. Monk. Spiritual student of Saint
Carthage the Elder. Priest. Hermit at Kiltallagh, Ireland in 580. He attracted would-be students, founded the monastery
in Raithean in County Offaly, Ireland c.590, and served as its abbot.
Abbot–Bishop of the Fercal district. He composed a rule for his monks. Wrote a metrical poem of 580 lines. Exiled from Raithean in 635 with 800 of his brother monks. With them he established a monastery
which later became the famous school of Lismore.
Born
