Daily prayers in Ordinary Time with USPG: (124) 29 September 2023

Skellig Michael and the Skellig Rocks … both the church and the monastery were dedicated to Saint Michael (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Patrick Comerford

We are in Ordinary Time in the Church Calendar, and this week began with the Sixteenth Sunday after Trinity (Trinity XVI, 24 September 2023).

Two of us are travelling to York later today. But, before the day gets busy, I am taking some time this morning for prayer and reflection.

The Church celebrates Saint Michael and All Angels today (29 September). So my reflections each morning this week and next are taking this format:

1, A reflection on a church named after Saint Michael or his depiction in Church Art;

2, the Gospel reading of the day in the Church of England lectionary;

3, a prayer from the USPG prayer diary.

The ruins of Ballinskelligs Priory, Co Kerry … still a place of prayer and peace for pilgrims and tourists alike (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Skellig Michael and Ballinskelligs Priory:

Legend says that the first inhabitants in Ireland arrived in in the Bay of Ballinskelligs. The myths say that Ireland was uninhabited until a woman named Cessair, accompanied by her father, two men and over 40 women, arrived in a ship that landed at Ballinskelligs Bay in the year 2361 BC.

The legend says Cessair was the granddaughter of Noah, who had no room for her in the Ark when he had finished building it. She built her own three ships and set sail for Ireland, believing it was free from sin.

After surviving a voyage that endured for seven years and that suffered the loss of two ships, Cessair landed in Ballinskelligs and decided to stay. Two of the men died, the third fled, leaving Cessair so heart-broken that she too died soon.

I first became enamoured with Ballinskelligs when I spent the summer of 1966 at Dungeagan as part of an Irish summer school programme that my parents hoped would give me adequate Irish to pass the ‘Inter Cert’ (Junior Certificate) in 1967.

It was a beautiful summer, but I learned less Irish than they probably expected, and I have memories of endless, sun-filled afternoons swimming at the long sandy beach, reading Anne Frank’s Diary and Catcher in the Rye in the sand-dunes, watching the 1966 England v Germany World Cup final on the only television my cousins and I could find – a black and white television in a convent – and maturing as a teenage boy.

I have been back in Ballinskelligs three or four times since, enjoying walks along the long sandy beach, watching the Atlantic waves break against the sand, and walking out to the ruins of the old Augustinian priory, the old graveyard and the ruins of the MacCarthy castle that once guarded the entrance to Ballinskelligs Bay.

It is said the monks of Skellig Michael called Ballinskelligs ‘the nearest thing to heaven’ when they settled in the area, and they made this place a spiritual centre in early Christian Ireland. According to legend, the monks had travelled across Ireland to find ‘a paradise on earth.’

These early Irish monks wished to emulate the sacrifice and the pure withdrawal into a life of faith exemplified by Saint Anthony who went out into the Western Desert in Egypt.

Ireland’s remote and deserted offshore islands offered a parallel experience. The monastic ideal was to demonstrate an intense devotion by acts of self-exile: peregrination pro Dei amore or ‘pilgrimage for the love of God.’

The monastic settlement on Great Skellig is said to have been founded in the sixth century by Saint Fionán, a saint from south Kerry who founded Innisfallen Abbey. The site attracted the support of the members of the local Corcu Duibne dynasty in Kerry, and there the love of God was brought to a new level, for no other Irish monastery was built in such a challenging location.

Saint Finian is said to have founded both the monastic settlement on the Skelligs Islands and a church at Killemlagh in the sixth century. The ruins of two early churches can still be seen near the Skelligs Chocolates factory, a major attraction on the Skelligs Ring, and Saint Finian’s Bay, which offers some of the best views of the Skelligs Rock – although they are often shrouded in clouds and mist at this time of the year.

While the monks settled on the rocks of Skellig Michael, they found a winter home on the mainland in Ballinskelligs.

The first definite reference to monks on the Skelligs dates to the eighth century when the death of ‘Suibhni of Scelig’ is recorded. By the ninth century, the continuity and survival of life on the remote monastery was challenged with the arrival of the Vikings. The flights of steps on three sides of the island, which had provided the monks with landing for their boats in different sea conditions, now gave the invading Vikings the opportunity to attack the monastic site from different sides simultaneously.

The annals record: ‘In 824 AD, Scelec was plundered by the heathens and Étgal was carried off into captivity, and he died of hunger on their hands. There came a fleet from Luimnech [Limerick], in the south of Erinn, they plundered Skellig Michael, and Inishfallen and Disert Donnain and Cluain Mor, and they killed Rudgaile, son of Selbach, the anchorite. It was he whom the angel set loose twice, and the foreigners bound him twice each time.’

It is said that in 993 the Viking Olaf Trygvasson, later to become Olaf I, King of Norway, was intent on a raid of the monastery but instead was baptised a Christian by a Skellig hermit. His son, Olaf II, became the patron saint of Norway.

Increasing hardships, Viking raids and changing climatic conditions all contributed to the eventual decision of the monks to move from their monastic settlements on the Skelligs Rocks to the mainland, settling on an outcrop at the edge of Ballinskelligs Bay.

The Skelligs Rocks and the Abbey at Ballinskelligs shared one abbot, and the move was completed some time between the 11th and 13th century.

The dedication of the monastery to Saint Michael the Archangel appears to have happened some time before 1044, when the death of ‘Aedh of Scelic-Mhichíl’ is recorded. It is probable that this dedication to Saint Michael was celebrated by the building of Saint Michael’s church in the monastery.

The church of Saint Michael is mentioned by Giraldus Cambrensis in the late 12th century. His account of the miraculous supply of Communion wine for daily Mass in Saint Michael’s Church implies that the monastery had a large community at the time.

The Church was being reorganised along diocesan patterns in Ireland in the 12th and 13th centuries. These changes, and harsher winter storms, forced the monks to abandon the island.

By then, the monks on Skellig Michael had adopted the rule of Saint Augustine. Eventually, they left the island and settled on the mainland at Ballinskelligs, where they founded a new abbey. In the early 14th century, the Prior of the Augustinian Abbey at Ballinskelligs was referred to as the Prior de Rupe Michaelis, indicating that the island still formed an important part of the monastery at the time.

The ruins of the later Augustinian Priory date from ca 1210, and include a church, the prior’s house, cloisters and a refectory. A number of buildings, mainly from the 15th century, constitute the priory, including a rectangular church. The church and the other buildings were arranged around a central cloister, which had covered walkways for working and praying. Parts of the cloister and a large domestic hall still survive.

The abbey is one of a number of important spiritual sites dedicated to Saint Michael in this area. For visitors who come to Ballinskelligs as pilgrims or tourists, this remains a place of peace and prayer.

The names of the vicars and rectors of Killemlough are known only from the early or mid-15th century. Eugene O’Sullivan was appointed to the parish ca 1447 even though he had not been ordained. He was eventually forced out of the parish in 1459 because he had still not been ordained.

His successor, Florence O’Sullivan, also had to leave the parish after he was ‘said to have committed simony and to be guilty of fornication.’ Cornelius O’Mulchonere had to obtain a dispensation to be ordained for the parish because he was the illegitimate son of an Augustinian Canon Regular – perhaps a friar from the priory at Ballinskelligs.

In the Church of Ireland, the parish was known as Killemlough and sometimes as Killemlagh or Kyllemleac, and the parish included the offshore island of Puffin Island and the Skelligs Islands.

The Parish of Killemlough was held by the Treasurers of Ardfert from 1615 to 1839. They included William Steere, who became Bishop of Ardfert in 1628, James Bland, who became Dean of Ardfert in 1728, and William Cecil Pery, who became Bishop of Limerick. The Church of Ireland parish was united with Valentia in the 1870s.

Meanwhile, the connection between the monastic settlement on the Skelligs Rocks and the people of Ballinskelligs remained part of romantic memory and folklore.

In the late 1930s, JB Leslie recalled a custom from 60 years earlier known as the ‘Skelligs Lists.’ Doggerel poetry was issued early in Lent naming and pillorying couples who were supposed to be courting but who had not married before Shrove Tuesday.

‘Sometimes those lists were distinctively libellous and perhaps malicious, but were anonymous,’ Leslie notes.

Leslie quotes the phrase ‘send them to Skelligs,’ and suggests ‘that on the island (Skelligs) marriages might be celebrated, perhaps as in Gretna Green.’

‘Or could it have been,’ he asks, ‘that the keeping of Easter and Lent was different in Skelligs and on the mainland, so that marriage could be celebrated there after Shrove Tuesday?’

The monks from Skellig Michael settled at the priory in Ballinskelligs in the 13th century (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

John 1: 47-51 (NRSVA):

47 When Jesus saw Nathanael coming towards him, he said of him, ‘Here is truly an Israelite in whom there is no deceit!’ 48 Nathanael asked him, ‘Where did you come to know me?’ Jesus answered, ‘I saw you under the fig tree before Philip called you.’ 49 Nathanael replied, ‘Rabbi, you are the Son of God! You are the King of Israel!’ 50 Jesus answered, ‘Do you believe because I told you that I saw you under the fig tree? You will see greater things than these.’ 51 And he said to him, ‘Very truly, I tell you, you will see heaven opened and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of Man.’

The ruins of the Augustinian priory, behind the beach at Ballinskelligs (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Prayer:

The theme this week in ‘Pray With the World Church,’ the Prayer Diary of the Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel), is ‘Flinging open the doors.’ This theme was introduced on Sunday by the Revd Anthony Gyu-Yong Shim, Diocese of Daejeon, Korea.

The USPG Prayer Diary today (29 September 2023, Saint Michael and All Angels) invites us to pray:

Almighty God, renew your spirit within us and your churches across the globe.

A lancet window in the old priory buildings in Ballinskelligs (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

The Collect:

Everlasting God,
you have ordained and constituted
the ministries of angels and mortals in a wonderful order:
grant that as your holy angels always serve you in heaven,
so, at your command,
they may help and defend us on earth;
through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.

The Post Communion Prayer:

Lord of heaven,
in this eucharist you have brought us near
to an innumerable company of angels
and to the spirits of the saints made perfect:
as in this food of our earthly pilgrimage
we have shared their fellowship,
so may we come to share their joy in heaven;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.

The monk’s beehive at Saint Michael’s Well, behind the house where I stayed in my teens in Dungeagan in Ballinkselligs (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Yesterday’s Reflection

Continued Tomorrow

Scripture quotations are from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicised Edition copyright © 1989, 1995, National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide. http://nrsvbibles.org

The beach at Ballinkskelligs, close to the monastic settlement founded by the monks from Great Skellig (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Saint Finnian’s Church, Cahersiveen, is now a pizza and wine bar

Saint Finnian’s Church, Cahersiveen, Co Kerry … built in 1863-1864 and now the Oratory Pizza and Wine Bar (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2021)

Patrick Comerford

After visiting Kells Bay House and Gardens, and spending some time at Kells Bay Beach last weekend, two of us continued west along the north loop of the Ring of Kerry, and visited the town of Cahersiveen.

Cahersiveen’s place in church history include the story of Monsignor Hugh O’Flaherty (1898-1963), who is known as the ‘Scarlet Pimpernel of the Vatican,’ for his daring exploits and the rescue of over 4,000 people, including Jews and Allied soldiers, in Nazi-occupied Rome, and the monumental Daniel O'Connell Memorial Church, across the street from the house where he lived in his dying days.

This time, I also wanted to see the former Church of Ireland parish church in Cahersiveen, Saint Finnian’s Church, which has housed the Oratory Pizza and Wine Bar since 2016.

The first Church of Ireland parish church in Cahersiveen stood on Old Merchant Street.

Saint Finnian’s Church was designed by the church architects Welland and Gillespie (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2021)

From early days, the parish was a rectory and vicarage held by the Augustinian Canons of the Monastery of Killaha. The first priests in the parish are recorded in the early 15th century, including William MacGildrome, an Augustinian canon, in 1402, John O’Sullebayn, who died in 1422, and his successor, Maurice O’Sullebayn.

In 1455, the rector, Florence O’Sullivan, was accused of simony and fornication.

The Revd Piers Butler, who was the Rector of Cahersiveen in 1686-1712, was the father of Theobald Butler of Priestown, Co Meath, ancestor of the Butlers of Waterville. Theobald Butler went on trial in Tralee in 1742, accused of killing Edward Segerson, who had tried to attack and plunder a shipwreck and murder the ship’s crew. But Butler was cleared of all charges.

Piers Butler’s successor, Canon Philip Chamberlain, was described by Jonathan Swift as ‘a man of very low parts and understanding with a very high conceit of himself, and pretty mad into the bargain.’

The Revd Richard Orpen died in Bordeaux in 1770 while he was the Rector of Cahersiveen. His successor, the Revd Henry Parish, a Cambridge graduate, first came to Ireland as a chaplain to Charlotte Lady Townshend, the heiress of Tamworth Castle and wife of the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, George Townshend (1724-1807), the 1st Marquess Townshend.

While the Revd Barry Denny was the Rector of Cahersiveen, a new church was built in 1815 with a loan of £540 from the Board of First Fruits, and was later described as ‘a neat plain edifice.’

The tower and spire at the north-west corner of Saint Finnian’s Church (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2021)

This church was replaced half a century later when Denny’s successor, Canon Richard Moore, was the Rector of Cahersiveen. Saint Finnian’s Church was a new church designed by the church architects Welland and Gillespie, with a tower and spire at the north-west angle and a polygonal robing room at the south-east angle.

The church on West Main Street was built in 1863-1864, and the contractor was James Hunter. The site was adjacent to the main road and opposite the avenue that led to the rectory, and the land was bought from a local merchant Thomas Leslie.

The former church is 170 ft long and 100 ft wide and was built of green sandstone. The cornerstones, the spire and the surrounds of the stain glass windows are all made with limestone. The windowsills and roof are made with Valentia Slate.

Inside, the church could hold up to 200 people. This is a Gothic Revival style church, with a four-bay side elevation, a single-bay two-stage projecting entrance tower at the north-west. The tower is built on a square plan with buttresses, a belfry with a limestone ashlar octagonal spire. There is single-bay vestry at the south-east corner.

Looking into Saint Finnian’s Church … inside, the church could hold up to 200 people (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2021)

The parish of Cahersiveen was amalgamated with Valentia in 1923. The last funeral in church was of a local businessman, Harold Blennerhassett, in February 1968.

The last rector while the church was still open was Canon James Leslie Enright, who was also one of my predecessors as Precentor of Limerick. The church closed ca 1972.

Shortly after it closed, the building was bought by the O’Driscoll family and Aine O’Driscoll ran it as a craft shop and the Oratory art gallery in the 1980s and 1990s. The building was reroofed and renovated internally in late 20th century to accommodate its use as gallery.

Emma Louise Benson and Daragh O’Driscoll opened the Oratory in June 2016, and it has since been voted one of the best restaurants in Kerry.

The north porch of Saint Finnian’s Church … the church closed ca 1972 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2021)

The plaques that link two 19th century composers with Lichfield and Dublin

Golden Lane, near Saint Patrick’s Cathedral, Dublin … the composer John Field was born here and later was a pupil of Muzio Clementi (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Patrick Comerford

When I reposted a photograph and a memory from the Hedgehog Vintage Inn in Lichfield two weeks ago (12 March 2021) on the Facebook group ‘You’re probably from Lichfield if …’, it prompted an interesting discussion about Mozart’s friend, the composer Muzio Clementi, who once lived at the house when it was known as Lyncroft House.

Lyncroft House was built in 1797. Muzio Clementi (1752-1832) rented the house from the Earl of Lichfield’s Estate from Lady Day (25 March) 1828 and continued to live there until late Autumn 1831.

Clementi’s son, John Muzio Clementi, later lived in Ireland, and in 1858 built Iveragh Lodge in Waterville, Co Kerry, recently on the market. John Muzio Clementi was a son of Clementi and his third wife Emma (née Gisborne).

Muzio Clementi, who was born Muzio Filippo Vincenzo Francesco Saverio Clementi in Rome, was a composer, pianist, teacher, conductor, music publisher, editor and piano maker. He was brought to England at the age of 14 and was later known as ‘the father of the pianoforte,’ the ‘father of modern piano technique,’ and the ‘father of Romantic pianistic virtuosity.’

The comments on my photographs in Lichfield reminded me that apart from the Kerry connections of his son John, one of Muzio Clementi’s greatest pupils was the Irish composer John Field (1782-1837), best-known as the inventor of the nocturne. Field is also named by Tolstoy in War and Peace, when Countess Rostova calls on the Rostov household musician to play her favourite nocturne.

John Field was born in Golden Lane, Dublin, on 26 July 1782, into a musical family. His father, Robert Field, earned his living by playing the violin in Dublin theatres, and his grandfather, also John Field, was a professional organist.

A plaque on Golden Lane, near Saint Patrick’s Cathedral, commemorates John Field. The Fields were members of the Church of Ireland, and John Field was baptised in Dublin on 30 September 1782. He first studied the piano under his grandfather and later under Tommaso Giordani, by then the organist of the Pro-Cathedral, Dublin. He made his debut in Dublin at the age of nine at a performance that was well-received on 24 March 1792, and he was part of one of Giordani’s Rotunda concerts on 4 April 1792.

The Field family had moved to London by late 1793, and there the young pianist became an apprentice with Muzio Clementi. This may have been arranged by Robert Field through Giordani, who knew Clementi.

As Clementi’s apprentice and pupil, Field gave public performances in London and was soon celebrated. His performance of a Dussek piano concerto around 1795 was praised by Haydn.

Field continued to study with Clementi, and at the same time worked at making and selling his instruments. He also took up violin playing, which he studied under JP Solomon. His first compositions were published by Clementi in 1795. His first historically important work, the Piano Concerto No. 1, H 27, had its premiere in London on 7 February 1799, when he was still only 16.

Field’s first official opus was a set of three piano sonatas published by and dedicated to Clementi in 1801. Field and Clementi left London in 1802 and went to Paris on business. They soon travelled to Vienna, where Field took a brief course in counterpoint under Johann Georg Albrechtsberger and met Beethoven. Field played in October for Beethoven, who praised him highly.

Field and Clementi arrived in Saint Petersburg in early winter 1802. Field was inclined to stay, impressed by the artistic life of the city. Clementi left in June 1803, but not before securing Field a teaching post in Narva and appointing the young man as his deputy, so that Field would receive similarly high fees.

After Clementi left, Field had a busy concert season, eventually performing at the newly-founded Saint Petersburg Philharmonic Society. He also worked there as a sales representative for the Clementi Pianos.

Field began a concert tour of the Baltic cities in 1805, staying in Saint Petersburg during the summer. The following year he gave his first concert in Moscow. Clementi arranged the publication of some of Field’s old works in Russia in late 1806, and sold Field a piano in exchange for music.

Field returned to Moscow in April 1807 and in 1810 he married a former pupil, Adelaide Percheron, a French pianist. Meanwhile, he began publishing newly composed music in 1808-1809, starting with piano variations on Russian folksongs: Air russe varié for piano 4 hands, H 10, and Kamarinskaya for piano, H 22. He returned to Saint Petersburg in 1811, and spent the next decade of his life there, publishing new pieces and producing corrected editions of old ones.

Field fathered an illegitimate son, Leon Charpentier (later Leon Leonov), who was born in 1815 and later became a famous tenor. But Field remained with his wife, and their son Adrien, born in 1819, later became a pianist.

Field declined the position of court pianist when it was offered to him in 1819. But by then his lifestyle and social behaviour had become extravagant

The Hedgehog Vintage Inn in Lichfield … as Lyncroft House, it was the home of the composer Muzio Clementi (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Field and his wife gave a series of concerts in Moscow in 1821, but Adelaide left soon after with their son left Adrien. Field’s concert appearances were fewer and fewer from 1823 on, and by the late 1820s he was suffering from rectal cancer. He left for London, and it would be interesting to know whether he visited Lichfield, where Clementi was living at Lyncroft House since March 1828.

Clementi left Lichfield in Autumn 1831. Meanwhile, Field, who had an operation in London in September 1831, gave concerts in London and in Manchester. He stayed in England for some time, meeting people such as Mendelssohn and Moscheles.

Clementi died on 10 March 1832, and Field was a pallbearer at his funeral in Westminster Abbey on 29 March 1832, along with two other former pupils, Johann Baptist Cramer and Ignaz Moscheles.

Field gave a concert in Paris on Christmas Day 1832, moved on to various European cities, and spent nine months in a Naples hospital in 1834-1835. He then gave three recitals in Vienna before returning to Moscow with his son Adrien. He gave his last concert in March 1836 and died in Moscow on 23 January 1837. He was buried in the Vvedenskoye Cemetery.

Field influenced many major composers, including Frédéric Chopin, Johannes Brahms, Robert Schumann, and Franz Liszt. Chopin would make the piano nocturne famous, and Listz published an edition of the nocturnes based on rare Russian sources that incorporated late revisions by Field.

Field’s students include Prussian pianist and composer Charles Mayer, the Franco-Russian composer Alexandre Dubuque, and the Polish pianist and composer Antoine de Kontski.

As for Clementi’s son John Clementi, he built his house in Waterville, Co Kerry, in 1858. I have been unable to trace his life story after he sold Iveragh Lodge, or whether he ever returned to Lichfield. His brother, the Revd Vincent Clementi (1814-1899), was ordained in the Diocese of Canterbury and later lived in Canada. A nephew, Sir Cecil Clementi Smith (1840-1916), was Governor of Sri Lanka (Ceylon), and later generations of the Clementi family included diplomats, bankers, sculptors and Anglican priests.

Today, Lyncroft House, Muzio Clementi’s former home in Lichfield, is the Hedgehog Vintage Inn. Lichfield Civic Society unveiled commemorative plaque at his Lichfield home in July 2018.

As for the Field family in Dublin, I have sometimes wondered whether there is a family connection with Adelaide Margaret Field (1878-1953), daughter of John E Field, solicitor’s clerk, of 39 Longwood Avenue, South Circular Road, Dublin, and his wife Elizabeth Mary (née Doyle), of 53 Lower Clanbrassil Street. She married Charles William Comerford (1877-1953) in Holy Trinity Church (Church of Ireland), Rathmines, on 9 June 1910, and they lived at No 60 Kenilworth Square before moving to England.

The plaque commemorating Muzio Clementi at the Hedgehog Vintage Inn in Lichfield (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Charles Gray-Stack (1912-1985): a former Dean of Ardfert and Precentor of Limerick

Nantenan Glebe near Askeaton … Charles Gray-Stack lived there in the 1950s (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Patrick Comerford

The death of the Revd Martha Gray-Stack (1935-2021) earlier this week reminded me that her late husband, Dean Charles Gray-Stack (1912-1985), was one of my predecessors as Precentor of Limerick, and long before me had been in ministry in the Rathkeale Group of Parish in the 1940s and 1950s. He was also a well-known contributor to the The Irish Times in the 1950s and 1960s.

When a project looking at my predecessors as Precentors of Limerick was postponed some months ago due to pandemic limits on public events, I thought it might still be interesting to continue looking at past precentors in a number of blog postings.

In earlier postings, I recalled some previous precentors who had been accused of ‘dissolute living’ or being a ‘notorious fornicator’ (Awly O Lonysigh), or who were killed in battle (Thomas Purcell). There were those who became bishops or archbishops: Denis O’Dea (Ossory), Richard Purcell (Ferns) and John Long (Armagh).

There was the tragic story too of Robert Grave, who became Bishop of Ferns while remaining Precentor of Limerick, but – only weeks after his consecration – drowned with all his family in Dublin Bay as they made their way by sea to their new home in Wexford (read more HERE).

In the 17th century, two members of the Gough family were also appointed Precentors of Limerick. In all, three brothers in this family were priests in the Church of Ireland and two were priests in the Church of England, and the Rathkeale branch of the family was the ancestral line of one of Ireland’s most famous generals (read more HERE).

In the mid to late 18th century, two members of the Maunsell family were Precentors of Limerick: Richard Maunsell (1745-1747) and William Thomas Maunsell (1786-1781) (read more HERE).

They were related to Canon John Warburton who was, perhaps, the longest-ever holder of the office, being Precentor of Limerick for 60 years from 1818 until he died to 1878 (red more HERE).

Earlier this week, I looked at Warburton’ successor, Canon Frederic Charles Hamilton, who provides an interesting links with both this group of parishes, with the Mariners’ Church in Dún Laoghaire and the Anglican mission agency SPG, now USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel), of which I am a trustee. (see HERE).

As I move to the end of the 19th and the early 20th century, Hamilton’s successor as Precentor, Francis Meredyth, was a published poet and dramatist, and some of the Precentors of Limerick were also among the last Deans of Ardfert, including Robert Archibald Adderley (1870-1946), who also served in Listowel and Ballybunion (see HERE).

Charles Maurice Gray-Stack was born in Armagh, the son of the Revd William Bagot Stack (1878-1953), a grandson of Charles Maurice Stack (1825-1914), Bishop of Clogher (1886-1902), and a descendant of the Stack family of Stackstown and Crotta, Co Kerry.

The Stacks were a prominent clerical family in the Church of Ireland. The bishop’s father, the Revd Edward Stack, and grandfather, Canon Walter Bagot, were both priests, while his brothers included Canon Thomas Stack (1810-1871) was an SPG missionary in New South Wales before moving to Sydney; and the Revd Richard Stack (1815-1851), curate of Saint Peter’s and known for his work as a ‘slum priest’ in Dublin.

The Revd William Bagot Stack (1878-1953) had worked in British colonial administration in Central Africa and was a lieutenant in the Royal Irish Fusiliers before being ordained deacon in 1907 and priest in 1908. Later in life he was the Rector of Dundalk (1934-1941) and Rector of Inistioge, Co Kilkenny (1941-1946) in the Diocese of Ossory.

He was educated at Campbell College Belfast and Trinity College Dublin (BA, MA), and was ordained deacon in 1937 and priest in 1939. He served his first curacies in Birr (1937-1938) and then in the dioceses of Ferns and Ossory – Ardamine (1938-1940), Kilnehue and Kilpipe (1940-1941) and Inistioge (1941-1944), where his father was the rector.

He then moved to the Diocese of Limerick and Ardfert, and for five years was the diocesan curate in Ardfert and Aghadoe and curate of Killarney (1944-1949). While he was there, he obtained a confirmation of the coat of arms of Bishop Charles Maurice Stack for the bishop’s descendants in 1948.

He moved to the Rathkeale and Nantenan Union of Parishes as curate in 1949, when Maurice Talbot, a future Dean of Limerick, was the rector, and lived for five years at Nantenan Glebe. During his time here, he changed his surname from Stack to Gray-Stack, recalling his maternal grandfather, Dr Robert Gray of Armagh.

He moved to Co Kerry as a parish rector in 1953, first in Kilgobbin (1953-1961), which included Dingle from 1957, and then in Kenmare and Sneem (1961-1985), which included Waterville and Valentia from 1984.

In the cathedral chapter, he was Prebendary of Ballycahane (1962-1963), Precentor of Limerick (1963-1966), and Chancellor of Limerick, Prebendary of Kilpeacon and Dean of Ardfert (1966-1985). Of course, the title of Dean of Ardfert was an honour or sinecure, often offered to the most senior rector in the Diocese of Ardfert: the cathedral in Ardfert had ceased to function for a long time, and the church there closed in the 1940s.

He married Martha Mary Stewart-Clarke from Castledawson in Saint George’s Church, Belfast, in 1959.

Charlie Gray-Stack became a national figure for his regular contributions to The Irish Times and to RTÉ. He was known as a liturgist and for his engagement in social affairs. He was prominent in ecumenical activities, especially the Glenstal and Greenhills ecumenical conferences.

When he died on 25 July 1985, he was still Rector of Kenmare and Dean of Ardfert, and his funeral at Saint Patrick’s Church, Kenmare, was featured on the RTÉ news.

His widow, Martha-Gray Stack, was ordained deacon in 1990 and priest in 1991. She was an NSM curate in Saint Mary’s Cathedral and Saint Michael’s Church, Limerick (1990-1993), Rector of Clara (1993-2000), and the chaplain of Kingston College (2000-2010) in Mitchelstown, Co Cork. She died earlier this week (21 January 2021).

Saint Brendan’s Cathedral, Ardfert, Co Kerry … Charles Gray-Stack was the Dean of Ardfert in 1966-1985 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

‘The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it’

‘In the beginning was the Word’ (John 1: 1) … an old typewriter seen in a restaurant in Limerick (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Patrick Comerford

Sunday 3 January 2021, the Second Sunday of Christmas (Christmas II)

The Parish Eucharist

The Readings: Sirach (Ecclesiasticus) 24: 1-12; Wisdom 10: 15-21; Ephesians 1: 3-14; John 1: 1-9, 10-18.

There is a link to the readings HERE.

‘The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it’ (John 1: 4) … light in the darkness in the courtyard in Marlay Park, Dublin, on New Year’s Eve last Thursday (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2020)

May I speak to you in the name of God, + Father, Son and Holy Spirit, Amen.

The Book of Sirach and the Wisdom of Solomon are unusual choices in the Lectionary for the readings this morning. Too often and too easily they are dismissed as Apocryphal readings, yet they bridge the gap between Jewish Wisdom literature and the ideas that are introduced in Saint John’s Gospel.

The author of Sirach, Jesus ben Sira, understood Wisdom as leading to prosperity, and in his opening words, he declares: ‘All wisdom is from the Lord, and with him it remains for ever’ (Sirach 1: 1).

This morning’s reading opens: ‘Wisdom praises herself, and tells of her glory in the midst of her people’ (Sirach 24: 1). For Jewish writers and thinkers, the created world is God’s, so faith and reason go hand in hand; learning about creation is learning about God; reasoning is done in the context of faith in God; and knowledge of God is seen as leading to wisdom.

The Wisdom of Solomon or the Book of Wisdom was written in Greek, probably in Alexandria in the mid-first century BC, and is part of the Wisdom literature in the Septuagint or Greek Jewish Bible, along with the Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, the Song of Songs (or Song of Solomon), Job and Sirach.

The central theme of this book is ‘Wisdom’ itself. Wisdom (Σοφία, Sophia) is the perfection of knowledge of the righteous as a gift from God, showing herself in action, and Wisdom is with God from all eternity.

In this book, Wisdom, the spirit of God, is personified as Lady Wisdom. This book also tells us that being made in the image of God includes sharing with God in immortality.

Earlier in this chapter, the author says Wisdom has been God’s agent in saving people in the past, and active in saving the people of Israel, through Moses. They are blameless, for they have been chosen and set apart by God (verses 1-14).

Now we are told that Wisdom has delivered a holy and blameless people from their oppressors. Wisdom entered the soul of the ‘servant of the Lord,’ and delivered the people, guiding these people by day and by night, on dry land and through deep waters.

In response to this, even the mute and small children could no longer be silent, but sang out God’s praises.

The Gospel reading this morning brings us back to Saint John’s prologue to the Fourth Gospel.

This is not just a traditional Gospel reading that many of us associate with Christmas morning, but it is a wonderful piece of classical Greek poetry, and it makes so many connections with the Wisdom literature that provides the two other readings this morning.

The Prologue is first and foremost poetry. It is a hymn – a poetic summary – of the whole theology of this Gospel, as well as an introduction to it.

The Fourth Gospel, the Gospel according to Saint John, is one of the great works of literature, and its opening phrase, Ἐν ἀρχῇ ἦν ὁ λόγος, ‘In the beginning was the Word,’ is one of the most dramatic opening lines in literature.

This is such beautiful literature that I have often though that the Greek poetry and drama of Saint John’s Gospel would be a major possibility if I ever thought about researching and writing another thesis in theology.

The Prologue is an introduction to this Gospel as a whole. It tells us that the Logos is God and acts as the mouthpiece (Word) of God ‘made flesh,’ sent to the world in order to be able to intercede for humanity and to forgive human sins.

The Prologue is of central significance to the doctrine of the Incarnation. This Prologue can be compared with Genesis 1, where the same phrase, ‘In the beginning …,’ first occurs along with the emphasis on the difference between the darkness and the light.

‘The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it’ (John 1: 5).

This Prologue is probably one of the most profound passages in the Bible. As simple as its language and phrases are, its description of Christ as the Logos has had a lasting influence on Christian theology.

The prologue prepares the reader for the rest of the Fourth Gospel. Important themes are signalled and Christ’s identity is established at the very outset through the use of Christological titles, divine portents or the manner of his birth.

Saint John’s is the only Gospel to speak of Christ’s pre-existence as the Logos and the only Gospel to include a poetic prologue.

What about Saint John’s use of the term λόγος or Logos (1-2) – most frequently rendered ‘Word’ in modern English translations?

This term is deeply rooted in Old Testament thinking (see Genesis 1, Proverbs 8). The role of the Logos in Saint John’s writings also parallels, in ways, that of personified Wisdom in a number of traditions within Judaism, including Sirach and this morning’s reading. However, Wisdom and the Logos need not be identified with each other, since Wisdom is a creation of God (Sirach 1: 9), while the Logos is pre-existent and Divine.

The Prologue introduces a number of terms throughout Saint John’s Gospel and his letters. They include ‘life,’ ‘light’ (verse 5), ‘believe’ (verse 7), ‘world’ (verse 9), ‘children of God’ (verse 12), and ‘flesh’ and ‘truth’ (verse 14). These concepts are introduced in relationship to the Logos, who is decidedly at the centre of all that is being said.

The single most influential thinker in the 16th century Jewish mysticism, Rabbi Isaac Luria (1534-1572), thought deeply about why evil and suffering exist in the world. In a poetic-like response, he told a story of Creation in which God who is unlimited brings into being a limited, empty space in which Creation can occur.

The Almighty is everywhere, and only by contracting into himself – like a someone inhaling deeply to allow another person to pass by in a narrow corridor – could God create an empty space in which the Creation could occur.

Luria imagines God retracting a part of the Eternal being into the Godhead itself in order to allow such a space to exist, a sort of exile. And so, Creation begins with a Divine exile.

A stream of light then flows from God into the empty space God creates. According to Isaac Luria, God created vessels into which he poured his holy light. These vessels were not strong enough to contain such a powerful force and they shattered. The sparks of divine light were carried down to earth along with the broken shards.

The light of God pours into Creation too, and every time someone does something good, according to Rabbi Luria, we rescue one of those holy sparks and restore it.

The day will come, Luria imagines, when we all do our part, and the entire remaining Divine Light is restored to God’s world. Without access to the Divine Light, evil will be unable to survive and will crumble away to dust.

For Luria, our task, our human endeavour, is the commandment tikkun olam, to repair the world, to reverse the shattering of the vessels, to restore the light of God.

For Luria and his followers, redemption is bound up with creation – to the idea of ‘retracing the path’ to creation and revelation, in order to return to the ‘unity and purity’ of the beginning of the world.

Luria’s key ideas gave voice to the impossible brokenness of the human condition. The pain of the Divine breakage permeates reality. We inherit it; it inhabits us. But redemption – the tikkun olam that will repair the broken world – remains possible.

In the words of Leonard Cohen, ‘there is a crack in everything, that’s how the light gets in.’

In our frailty and our brokenness, we are open to redemption and to the light of the world.

As Saint John tells us in our Christmas message this morning, ‘The true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world’ (John 1: 9).

And so, may all we think, say and do be to the praise, honour and glory of God, + Father, Son and Holy Spirit, Amen.

Saint John the Evangelist is often represented by an eagle … a carving on the pulpit in Saint Michael’s Church, Waterville, Co Kerry (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2020)

John 1: 1-18 (NRSVA):

1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was in the beginning with God. 3 All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being. What has come into being 4 in him was life, and the life was the light of all people. 5 The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it.

6 There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. 7 He came as a witness to testify to the light, so that all might believe through him. 8 He himself was not the light, but he came to testify to the light. 9 The true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world.

10 He was in the world, and the world came into being through him; yet the world did not know him. 11 He came to what was his own, and his own people did not accept him. 12 But to all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God, 13 who were born, not of blood or of the will of the flesh or of the will of man, but of God.

14 And the Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen his glory, the glory as of a father’s only son, full of grace and truth. 15 (John testified to him and cried out, ‘This was he of whom I said, “He who comes after me ranks ahead of me because he was before me”.’ 16 From his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace. 17 The law indeed was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. 18 No one has ever seen God. It is God the only Son, who is close to the Father’s heart, who has made him known.

‘The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it’ (John 1: 4) … the River Lee at night in Cork (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2020)

Liturgical Colour: White (or Gold).

The Penitential Kyries:

Lord God, mighty God,
you are the creator of the world.

Lord, have mercy.
Lord, have mercy.

Lord Jesus, Son of God and Son of Mary,
you are the Prince of Peace.

Christ, have mercy.
Christ, have mercy.

Holy Spirit,
by your power the Word was made flesh
and came to dwell among us.

Lord, have mercy.
Lord, have mercy.

The Collect of the Day:

Almighty God,
in the birth of your Son
you have poured on us the new light of your incarnate Word,
and shown us the fullness of your love:
Help us to walk in this light and dwell in his love
that we may know the fullness of his joy;
who is alive and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.

Introduction to the Peace:

Unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given,
and his name shall be called the Prince of Peace. (Isaiah 9: 6)

The Preface:

You have given Jesus Christ your only Son
to be born of the Virgin Mary,
and through him you have given us power
to become the children of God:

The Post-Communion Prayer:

Light eternal,
you have nourished us in the mystery
of the body and blood of your Son:
By your grace keep us ever faithful to your word,
in the name of Jesus Christ our Lord.

The Blessing:

Christ, who by his incarnation gathered into one
all things earthly and heavenly,
fill you with his joy and peace:

Hymns:

652, Lead us, heavenly Father, lead us (CD 37)
166, Joy to the world, the Lord is come! (CD 166)
425, Jesu thou joy of loving hearts (CD 25)

‘The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it’ (John 1: 4) … evening lights at Knightstown on Valentia Island, Co Kerry (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2020)

Scripture quotations are from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicised Edition copyright © 1989, 1995, National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide. http://nrsvbibles.org

Material from the Book of Common Prayer is copyright © 2004, Representative Body of the Church of Ireland.

Saint John the Evangelist depicted on the Gate at Saint John’s College in Cambridge (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

This sermon was prepared for Sunday 3 January 2021, and was part of a celebration of the Eucharist in Askeaton with limited attendance

The Precentor of Limerick who was in office for 60 years and was a typical Victorian pluralist

The former Saint Patrick’s Cathedral, Ardagh, Co Longford … Bishop Charles Warburton was Dean of Ardagh before moving to Limerick; his son was Precentor of Limerick for 60 years (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2020)

Patrick Comerford

When a project looking at my predecessors as Precentors of Limerick was postponed last month due to the pandemic limits on public events, I thought it might still be interesting to look at past precentors in a number of blog postings.

In recent postings, I recalled some previous precentors who had been accused of ‘dissolute living’ or being a ‘notorious fornicator’ (Awly O Lonysigh), or who were killed in battle (Thomas Purcell). There were those who became bishops or archbishops: Denis O’Dea (Ossory), Richard Purcell (Ferns) and John Long (Armagh).

There was the tragic story too of Robert Grave, who became Bishop of Ferns while remaining Precentor of Limerick, but – only weeks after his consecration – drowned with all his family in Dublin Bay as they made their way by sea to their new home in Wexford (read more HERE).

In the 17th century, two members of the Gough family were also appointed Precentors of Limerick. In all, three brothers in this family were priests in the Church of Ireland and two were priests in the Church of England, and the Rathkeale branch of the family was the ancestral line of one of Ireland’s most famous generals (read more HERE).

In the mid to late 18th century, two members of the Maunsell family were Precentors of Limerick: Richard Maunsell (1745-1747) and William Thomas Maunsell (1786-1781) (read more HERE).

They were related to Canon John Warburton who was, perhaps, the longest-ever holder of the office, being Precentor of Limerick for 60 years from 1818 until he died to 1878. He was still in his 20s when he was appointed precentor, and had already been Precentor of Ardfert, a sinecure in a cathedral that had not functioned as such since the mid-17th century.

But Warburton was a typical Victorian pluralist found so often in the pre-disestablishment, and like his brother and son-in-law probably owed his preferment to the fact that his father was Bishop of Limerick, albeit a bishop with an unusual and colourful background.

John Warburton was a younger son of Charles Mongan-Warburton (1754-1826), Bishop of Limerick and later Bishop of Cloyne, who was born Terence Mongan ca 1754, the third son of Dominic Mongan or Mangon, a blind harpist from Co Tyrone.

Early in life, the future bishop trained to be a Roman Catholic priest in France, and later claimed to hold the degrees of MA and DD. There is no record of his ordination as deacon or priest in France or Ireland, but he later became an Anglican and was accepted then as an ordained priest. At the same time, he changed his given name to Charles, and became a chaplain with the 62nd Regiment of Foot. He left Monkstown in April 1776 as a deputy chaplain with his regiment, which was sent to fight in the American War of Independence.

I can find no record of the name of his first wife, or whether they had any children. In America, he was captured during the fall of Saratoga in October 1777. After his release, he married his second wife, Frances Marston, daughter of Nathaniel Marston and his wife Anna Van Cortland, in New York on 18 February 1779.

He became a chaplain with the 3rd Battalion, New Jersey Loyalists in 1781. He then lived in New York for a time, before returning to Ireland ca 1785, with his second wife and at least three young children.

Back in Ireland, Warburton became Rector of Tullagh (Baltimore) and Creagh (Skibereen), Co Cork, in the Diocese of Ross (1787-1791); Prebendary of Lockeen in Saint Flannan’s Cathedral, Killaloe (1789-1804); Dean of Saint Patrick’s Cathedral, Ardagh (1790-1800); and Rector of Loughgilly, Co Armagh (1791-1806).

He changed his name by royal warrant in 1792, from the ‘Rev Charles Morgan’ (sic; corrected later to Mongan), adopting the surname of Warburton, a name held by ‘his maternal cousin-german Miss Alicia Warburton, Spinster, sister of the late William Warburton, of the City of London, Esq, deceased.’

He went on to become Dean of Clonmacnoise (1800-1806), Precentor of Saint Patrick’s Cathedral, Dublin (1800-1808), and Rector of Laracor, Meath (1804-1806), and was chaplain to the Lord Lieutenant, the Duke of Bedford (1806).

He became Bishop of Limerick and Ardfert in 1806, and was consecrated bishop in Saint Patrick’s Cathedral, Dublin, on 13 July 1806. He later became Bishop of Cloyne on 20 September 1820. Bishop Charles Warburton died in Cloyne, Co Cork, on 9 August 1826, aged 72, and was buried in the family vault in the cathedral.

Charles and Frances were the parents of at least six children, including two sons who followed their father into ordained ministry, and a daughter who married an archdeacon.

Holy Trinity Church, Rathkeale … Canon Charles Warburton was Rector of Rathkeale for over 40 years in 1813-1855 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2020)

The eldest son of Charles and Frances Warburton, Canon Charles Warburton (1780-1855), was born in New York and came to Ireland with his parents in 1785. He was educated at TCD (BA 1803, MA 1807, LL.B. and LL.D. 1826), and was ordained deacon in 1803 and priest in 1804. At first, he was Rector and Vicar of Aglish (Castlebar), Co Mayo (1805-1813), Archdeacon of Tuam (1806-1855), and Rector of Mournabbey, Co Cork (1807).

He became one of my predecessors in Rathkeale when he became Rector of Rathkeale and Kilscannel, Co Limerick (1813-1855). He was also Chancellor of Limerick (1813-1855), Rector of Drishane (Millstreet), Co Cork (1815-1820), then in the Diocese of Ardfert, and Rector of Clonmel (Cobh), Co Cork (1822-1855).

The younger Charles Warburton married Alicia Bunbury-Isaac, and most their children were born in Rathkeale. He died at the Glebe House, Rathkeale, on 12 December 1855, aged 75, and was buried in his family vault at Holy Trinity Church, Rathkeale.

The inscription on the Warburton vault in Rathkeale, reads: ‘Within this vault are interred the mortal remains of the Venerable Charles Warburton LLD Archdeacon of Tuam and Chancellor of Limerick. He died on the 12th day of December 1855 aged 75 having borne a long and suffering illness with exemplary patience and resignation to the Divine Will.’

Charles Warburton’s younger brothers included Canon John Warburton (1786-1878). He was born in Monaghan on 14 July 1786, and was Precentor of Limerick for most of the 19th century (1818-1878).

He was educated at TCD (BA 1807; MA 1817; LL.B. and LL.D. 1826). He was ordained deacon in 1809 and priest in 1810 by his father, Bishop Charles Warburton. Leslie says he was Precentor of Ardfert (1811-1814) and conflates him with John Warburton who was curate of Valentia in 1811 and Rector of Kilmore or Valentia Island (1812-1830).

John Warburton was Precentor of Limerick (1818-1878), Vicar of Loughhill, Co Limerick (1818-1878), Rector of Kill and Lyons, Kildare (1814-1878), a Vicar Choral of Cloyne (1825), a Vicar Choral of Cork (1826), and Rector of Drumcliffe (Ennis), Co Clare, in the Diocese of Killaloe (1829-1871).

He married in Midleton, Co Cork, on 20 March 1822, Henrietta Ann Sandford Palmer, daughter of Sandford Palmer, of Ballynockan Castle, King’s County (Co Offaly), and a descendant of Rowland Davies, Dean of Cork. His father, Bishop Charles Warburton, officiated at their wedding.

They were the parents of six sons and four daughters. Their two eldest sons were born in Dublin (1823) and Cambridge (1824), which shows how John Warburton was not too attentive to being resident in any of his numerous parishes.

Canon John Warburton died at Kill Glebe, near Naas, Co Kildare, on 6 July 1878, aged 95; his wife Henrietta died at Kill Glebe in July 1872.

The tower of Saint Anna’s Church, Millstreet … for almost 60 years the Rectors of Drishane were all members of Bishop Warburton’s family (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

John and Charles Warburton had four sisters, including Charlotte Anne (1789-1841), who married Canon William Wray Maunsell (1782-1860), son of Canon William Maunsell, Chancellor of Limerick. He was Rector of Drishane (Millstreet), Co Cork (1803-1815), Archdeacon of Limerick and Vicar of Saint Michael’s, Limerick (1814-1860), and Precentor of Cloyne (1822-1860). Their children included Canon Robert Augustus Maunsell (1825-1878), Prebend of Donaghmore, Limerick (1857-1863), and chaplain at the British Embassy in Paris.

They were also first cousins of John Charles Mongan (1798-1860), who for 40 years was Rector of Drishane (Millstreet), Co Cork, in 1820-1860. He was ordained deacon by his uncle, Bishop Charles Warburton, in Tralee in 1819 when he was still below the canonical age. He married Elizabeth Wallis of Drishane Castle and their daughter Marianne Charlotte married the Revd Francis Young, curate of Drishane.

But John Charles Mongan too spent little time in his parish: for many years he was ‘a chaplain abroad’ and the Rector of Saint Mary’s, Belize, Honduras, where he died on 24 August 1860.

So, for almost 60 years, from 1803 to 1860, the Rectors of Drishane were all members of Bishop Warburton’s family: his son-in-law Archdeacon William Maunsell in 1803-1815, his son Canon Charles Warburton in 1815-1820, and his nephew John Charles Mongan in 1820-1860.

The ruins of Saint John’s Church, Kilmore, Valentia … who was the John Warburton who was Rector of Valentia (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2020)

Canon John Warburton was Precentor of Ardfert in 1811-1814, and Leslie those who followed him have identified him with the Revd John Warburton, who was the Rector of Kilmore, or Valentia Island (1812-1830).

However, this John Warburton, Rector of Valentia, was born in King’s County (Offaly) ca 1753-1757, the son of another Revd Charles Warburton, Rector of Banagher, who should not be confused with Bishop Charles Warburton.

This John Warburton was educated at TCD (BA 1781), and he was his father’s curate in Banagher before becoming Rector of Kilmore or Valentia Island, Co Kerry, in 1811. Four years later, Saint John’s Church at Kilmore, outside the present Knightstown in Valentia, was built in 1815.

The archives of the Chief Secretary’s Office, now in the National Archives in Dublin, include letters from the Revd John Warburton, Co Kerry, requesting government relief from his debts.

The first letter, dated 19 October 1823, was sent from Valentia Island to Henry Goulburn, Chief Secretary, Dublin Castle, concerning the difficulties in obtaining his tithes, and pointing out that ‘the parish in its present situation will not support me.’

Warburton emphasises his financial distress, refers to his former work as curate to his late father Banagher, and recalls the assistance he gave his father in the management of the free school at Banagher. He details the debt he incurred through the loss of his tithes during the 1798 rebellion, and his subsequent difficulties with creditors, and requests government relief.

The second letter was sent by Warburton from the jail in Tralee, Co Kerry, to Goulburn on 10 December 1823. He refers to his arrest for debt, and renews his application for government relief. He notes that his family ‘must beg & I starve.’

This John Warburton died at Valentia on 7 November 1829 at the age of 72 while he was the Rector of Valentia. A report at the time described him as the Rector of Valentia, Co Kerry, ‘and Precentor of Limerick... a relative of the late Bishop of Clogher... and was collated to his benefices by Dr Warburton when Bishop of Limerick.’ However, not all these details appear to be accurate, and there is much conflation with the other John Warburton, who was then Precentor of Limerick.

The Valentia parish register records his burial on 10 November. However, another source records says he was buried at Dromod, Co Kerry, also on 10 November 1829, and aged 72 years. Dromod is the name for the Church of Ireland parish in Waterville. A new parish church was built there in 1866, and has since been dedicated to Saint Michael and All Angels.

This John Warburton’s widow Anne later emigrated to New South Wales, probably in 1840, and she died at her son’s residence at Pyrmont, near Sydney, on 29 March 1842.

A new parish church was built in Dromod, Waterville in 1866 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2020)

Dromod: https://www.patrickcomerford.com/2020/08/parish-church-in-waterville-looks-out.html

Being prepared, like Saint Michael, to ponder ‘Who is like the Lord God?’

Saint Michael with the whales in a window depicting the story of Saint Brendan in Saint Michael’s Church, Sneem, Co Kerry (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2020)

Patrick Comerford

Tuesday 29 September 2020

Saint Michael and All Angels

11 a.m.: The Festal Eucharist (Holy Communion 2)

Saint Mary’s Church, Askeaton, Co Limerick

Readings: Genesis 28: 10-17; Psalm 103: 19-22; Revelation 12: 7-12; John 1: 47-51.

Skellig Michael seen from Valentia Island (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2020)

May I speak to you in the name of God, + Father, Son and Holy Spirit, Amen.

The name Michael (Hebrew: מִיכָאֵל‎, Mîkhā'ēl; Greek: Μιχαήλ, Mikhaíl) means ‘who is like El (God)?’ It is meant to be a question: ‘Who is like the Lord God?’

The name was said to have been the war-cry of the angels in the battle fought in heaven against Satan and his followers.

There are few references to Saint Michael by name in the Bible (Daniel 10: 13, 21, 12: 1; Jude 9; Revelation 12: 7-9; see also Revelation 20: 1-3). Yet he has inspired great works in our culture, from John Milton’s Paradise Lost to Jacob Epstein’s powerful sculpture at Coventry Cathedral and poems by Philip Larkin and John Betjeman.

In all our imagery, in all our poetry, in stained glass windows throughout these islands, Saint Michael is depicted and seen as crushing or slaying Satan, often Satan as a dragon.

Culturally, today’s feast day of Saint Michael and All Angels has been an important day for the Church: the beginning of terms, the end of the harvest season, the settling of accounts.

As we went picking blackberries around Ballysteen in recent days, I was reminded how, as children in West Waterford, we were told that Michaelmas Day is the last day for picking blackberries. It is a superstition shared across the islands, from Achill to Lichfield, from Wexford to Essex and Cambridge.

This is a day to allow the mind to wander back to childhood memories, and a time for contemplation and unstructured prayers, giving thanks for the beauty of creation. It is a day to think about and to give thanks for beginnings and endings, for starting and finishing, for openings and closings, for memories and even for forgetfulness.

Yet Michael is mentioned by name in the Bible only in the Book of Daniel, the Epistle of Saint Jude and in the Book of Revelation.

After a period of fasting by Daniel, Michael appears as ‘one of the chief princes’ (Daniel 10: 13). Michael contends for Israel and is the ‘great prince, the protector of your (Daniel’s) people’ (Daniel 10: 21, 12: 1).

In the Epistle of Saint Jude (verse 9), Michael contends with the Devil over the body of Moses, a story also found in the Midrash. In the Book of Revelation (Revelation 12: 7-12), we read of the war that ‘broke out in heaven’ between Michael and his angels and the dragon.

In the early Church, Saint Michael is associated with the care of the sick, an angelic healer and heavenly physician associated with medicinal springs, streams and rivers.

In the Middle Ages, he became the patron of warriors, and later the patron of police officers, soldiers, paratroopers, mariners, paramedics, grocers, the Ukraine, the German people, of many cities, including Brussels, Coventry and Kiev. It was only later that he became identified with Marks and Spencer.

Saint Michael was popular in the early Irish monastic tradition, and legends in Co Kerry – as I found out during my travels this summer – associate him with Skellig Michael and with guarding Saint Brendan during his sea voyages.

In the modern world, where angels and archangels are often the stuff of fantasy, science fiction and new-age babble, it is worth reminding ourselves about some Biblical and traditional values associated with Saint Michael and the Angels. Angels are nothing more than – but nothing less than – the messengers of God, the bringers of good news.

Saint Michael’s virtues – standing up for God’s people and their rights, taking a clear stand against manifest evil, firmly opposing oppressive violence and political corruption, while always valuing forbearance and mercy, clemency and justice – are virtues we should always keep before us.

There is no special preface in the Book of Common Prayer for the Eucharist at Michaelmas because in the Preface to the Eucharist we already declare: ‘And so with all your people, with angels and archangels and with all the company of heaven, we proclaim your great and glorious name, for ever praising you and saying ...’

In his poem ‘At the chiming of light upon sleep,’ first drafted on Saint Michael’s Day 1946, the poet Philip Larkin links Michaelmas and a lost paradise with chances and opportunities he failed to take in his youth.

We should always be prepared, like Saint Michael and the angels to ask and to answer the question: ‘Who is like the Lord God?’ and to join the whole company of heaven in proclaiming God’s great and glorious name.

In a world that is increasingly filled with hatred and injustice, in a world witnessing the rise of political populism and right-wing racism, we are called once again to follow Saint Michael’s example, to took stock, even to take the opportunity to believe that things can be ‘on earth as it is in heaven.’

And so, may all we think, say and do be to the praise, honour and glory of God, + Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Amen.

‘You will see heaven opened and the angels of God ascending and descending’ (John 1: 51) … an angel in stucco work on shop façade in Sneem, Co Kerry (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2020)

John 1: 47-51 (NRSVA):

47 When Jesus saw Nathanael coming towards him, he said of him, ‘Here is truly an Israelite in whom there is no deceit!’ 48 Nathanael asked him, ‘Where did you come to know me?’ Jesus answered, ‘I saw you under the fig tree before Philip called you.’ 49 Nathanael replied, ‘Rabbi, you are the Son of God! You are the King of Israel!’ 50 Jesus answered, ‘Do you believe because I told you that I saw you under the fig tree? You will see greater things than these.’ 51 And he said to him, ‘Very truly, I tell you, you will see heaven opened and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of Man.’

An image of Saint Michael vanquishing the devil in stained-glass window in a church in Clonmel, Co Tipperary (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2020)

Liturgical colour: White

Penitence:

Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts;
the whole earth is full of his glory.
Lord, have mercy.
Lord, have mercy.

Woe is me, for I am lost;
I am a person of unclean lips.
Christ, have mercy.
Christ, have mercy.

Your guilt is taken away,
And your sin is forgiven.
Lord, have mercy.
Lord, have mercy.

The Collect of the Day:

Everlasting God,
you have ordained and constituted the ministries
of angels and mortals in a wonderful order:
Grant that as your holy angels always serve you in heaven,
so, at your command,
they may help and defend us on earth;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Introduction to the Peace:

Hear again the song of angels:
Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace. (Luke 2: 14)

The Post-Communion Prayer (Saint Michael):

Lord of heaven,
in this Eucharist you have brought us near
to an innumerable company of angels
and to the spirits of the saints made perfect.
As in this food of our earthly pilgrimage
we have shared their fellowship,
so may we come to share their joy in heaven;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.

The Blessing:

The God of all creation
guard you by his angels,
and grant you the citizenship of heaven:

Saint Michael’s Church, Waterville, Co Kerry (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2020)

Hymns:

346, Angel voices, ever singing (CD 21)
332, Come let us join our cheerful song (CD 20)

Scripture quotations are from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicised Edition copyright © 1989, 1995, National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide. http://nrsvbibles.org

Material from the Book of Common Prayer is copyright © 2004, Representative Body of the Church of Ireland.

Picking blackberries in Ballysteen, near Askeaton, before Saint Michael’s Day (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2020)