Saint Assicus of Elphin (Lanigan)

From Lanigan's Ecclesiastical History of Ireland:

"Patrick placed Asicus at Elphin but it does not state whether he was then a bishop or not.  According to the chronology of the Tripartite Asicus would have been fixed at the place about A.D. 437 (see chap. v sction ix) at which time he could not have been a bishop. "fter some words we read in said passage: 'Assicus sanctus episcopus fuit faber acris Patricii.' Here he is called bishop; but  the addition of his having worked in brass for St. Patrick would seem to indicate that his promotion did not take place, at least, until after the foundation of Armagh, when the saint, having a permanent restidence had occasion to employ him.  Next we may suppose, that he was not made bishop of Elphin until after he had ceased to work at Armagh, as he must have resided in his diocese.  The passage referred to above may, I think, be explained in the following manner.  Ascius was placed at Elphin when a priest by St. Patrick not many years after the commencement of his mission; when Armagh was founded he was summoned thither to assist in making utensils for the use of the church; afterwards, but whether before or after the death of the saint cannot be ascertained, he became bishop of Elphin." (Vol. I, 2nd Edition, 1829, Chapt. VII, p. 343)

A wonderful account of St. Assicus can also be round here.

Saint Assicus of Elphin (Archdall)

From Mervyn Archdall's Monasticon Hibernicum:

Of St Asicus who also had a hermitage on Slieve Leagne we have ample information. The Rev. Mathew Kelly in his notices of the "Patron Saints of Ireland" writes of him:- "St Asicus Asaach bishop patron of Elphin. A disciple of St. Patrick who obtained from a Druid the land on which the church of Elphin was founded Asicus was its first bishop. Among the different members of St. Patrick's household to whom provision for all the ecclesiastical wants of the infant church was committed St. Asicus is described as an artificer in brass "faber acris Patricii." In a penitential spirit St. Asicus renounced the govemment of his diocess and retired to the mountains of Sliebh Ling, in the present county of Donegal, from which he could not be persuaded to return. He died in his retreat and was buried in the church of Rathcunga in Tirhugh Donegal. His name is in the Martyrology of Tallaght on the 26th of April. His festival is observed on the following day in the diocess of Elphin."

This notice is not so full as the one given by Colgan who writes:- "The most holy and chaste bishop Asicus when on a certain occasion it was necessary to state a certain fact uttered a falsehood having spoken without sufficient reflection. In consequence of this fault he became so great a penitent that he determined never to be seen in the place where he had given so great a scandal herefore having resigned his see and the government of the monastery in which he lived heretier to the northern parts of Ireland and on a certain mountain in the country of Tir Eoghaine called Sliabh Liag he led a solitary life for seven long years. Meanwhile his monks by their untiring exertions discovered him in that desert and implored him to return to his deserted see and monastery but he refused sternly because he considered himself guilty of a great scandal in telling a falsehood and that he therefore ought not be seen where he had given the scandal. They prevailed however on him to remove to another solitary place where he shortly after slept in the Lord and was buried by his disciples in the country of Serthe at a place called Rathcunga. Not far from this hermitage on the mountain there is in the townland of Rinnakill another holy well which is called the Well of the Female Saints. Local tradition says that a convent of nuns stood here at an early period but not a trace of it can now be seen.

Traditional Latin Mass Pilgrimage to Strokestown

A warm welcome awaited us today in Strokestown, Co. Roscommon, the home place of the late Fr. Flanagan, our first Chaplain, today for a Traditional Latin Mass for the repose of his soul in the Parish Church of the Immaculate Conception, a towering beacon in stone standing guard over the town, on the feast of St. Lawrence of Brindisi.  Our grateful thanks to the Priests and People of Strokestown for their many kindnesses.

Buildings of Ireland has a full description of the Church here.
The online Dictionary of Irish Architects has a note of the Church here.
Reports of previous pilgrimages can be found here (2013) and here (2014)

Latin Mass in Strokestown, Co. Roscommon

We are returning to Strokestown, Co. Roscommon, on Saturday, 21st July, 2018, for a visit to the graveyard followed by a Traditional Latin Mass in the Parish Church of the Immaculate Conception at 2 p.m.

Saint Assicus of Elphin (Lanigan)

From Lanigan's An Ecclesiastical History of Ireland, at chaps. v and vii.

If we are to believe the Tripartite the church of Elphin was founded about this time and the place for it is said to have been given to St. Patrick by a magus called Ono. Over this church was placed Asicus who became a bishop but certainly not as early as the time we are now treating of (84) Bronus, bishop of Caissel irra, West Cashel in Co Sligo, is spoken of also in this part of our saint's history but although a disciple of St. Patrick as was also Asicus or Asacus (85) he did not become a bishop until several years after this period. (86) 

Footnotes
(84) It is impossible in following the history of St Patrick as given in the Lives to determine the true times of the foundation of most of our ancient sees or of the first bishops It becomes therefore necessary to treat of them under a distinct head which will be found lower down
(85) Tirechan's list ap Usher p 951
(86) Bron was bishop in St Brigid's time and died AD 511. 512 Tr Th p. 176

Asacus or as others call him Asicus is one of those whom a very old tradition acknowledges as a bishop in that early period of the Irish church He was placed at Elphin and according to some accounts as bishop (50) by St. Patrick. It is however doubtful whether he was one during the saint's life time. It is related of him that through a penitential spirit he withdrew from his diocese and retired to the mountain Sliebhliag Slieve league in Donegal where after a considerable time he was discovered by his disciples. He could not be prevailed on to return to his see but went with them to a solitary place and when dead was buried at Rath cunga (51) barony of Tyrhughin said county.

Patrick placed Asicus at Elphin. But it does not state whether he was then a bishop or not. According to the chronology of the Tripartite, Asicus would have been fixed at that place about AD 437 (see Chap v sect ix) at which time he could not have been a bishop. After some words we read in said passage "Assicus sanctus episcopus fuit faber acris Patricii" Here he is called bishop but the addition of his having worked in brass for St. Patrick would seem to indicate that his promotion did not take place until after at least the foundation of Armagh, when the saint having a permanent residence had occason to employ him. Next we may suppose that he was not made bishop of Elphin until after he had ceased to work at Armagh, as he must have resided in his diocese. The passage above referred to may, I think, be explained in the following manner. Asicus was placed at Elphin when a priest by St. Patrick, not many years after the commencement of his mission when Armagh was founded, he was summoned thither to assist in making utensils for the use of the church afterwards but whether before or after the death of the saint cannot be ascertained he became bishop of Elphin.   Next to Asacus is mentioned Bitheus concerning whose episcopacy some doubts might be entertained were he not mentioned in quotations from old documents as a bishop and contemporary with Bronus and Asacus who was his uncle (52) This last circumstance is sufficient to show that he did not beeome a bishop until after St Patrick's death for if it is doubtful whether the uncle was one at so early a period we may conclude that the nephew was not. Where his see or church was I cannot rightly discover (53) He is said to have been buried at Rath cunga (54) where his uncle's remains had been deposited.

Footnotes
(51) Tripart L 2 c 40 Archdall makes Rathcunga an abbey founded by St. Patrick and refers to Colgan But neither he nor the Tripartite mentions St. Patrick founder of an abbey there. At most they attribute to him the erection of a church at Rath cunga See Chap vi n But whatever was the religious house in that place it owed its origin at the earliest to the followers of Asicus.
(52) Tripart L 2 c inr Compare with ib c 39 and 43
(53) The Tripartite has L 2 c 52 St Bronius S Biteus de Caissel ira Bronius was certainly bishop of that place but do these words mean that Biteus was also bishop thereof. If so he was not appointed to it until at the earliest AD 512 the year in which Bronius died and accordingly must have been very young when a disciple of St Patrick. Or is there a transposition in the text so as that it should be read St Bronius de Caissel ira S Biteus &c
(54) Tripart L 2 c iii

Clonshanville Abbey (Grose)

From Francis Grose's The Antiquities of Ireland Vol. 2 at 52:

ROSCOMMON 

CLONSHANVILLE ABBEY 

THIS Monastery stands upon the edge of a very extensive bog the country for a great distance round being a flat. In Irish it is named Cluain sean mhil or the retreat of the old Leper. It stands in the Barony of Boyle and seven miles from the Town of that name. A legendary account ascribes the foundation of the Church to St. Patrick, an ideal personage to whom monkish writers resort when they are about to retail fables. It was erected in 1385 by Mac Dermot Roe for Dominicans. The Mac Dermots formerly had large possessions in this and the neighbouring county of Sligo, the representative of which was the late Prince of Coolavin, of whom Young in his Tour in Ireland thus speaks. Another great family in Connaught is Mac Dermot who calls himself Prince of Coolavin, he lives at Coolavin in Sligo and, though he has not above 100l a year, he will not admit his children to sit down in his presence. This was certainly the case with his father and some assured me even with the present Chief, Lord Kingsborough, Mr Ponsonby, Mr O'Hara, Mr Sandford &c. came to see him and his address was curious: "O Hara you are welcome; Sandford, I am glad to see your mother's son (his mother was an O'Brien) as to the rest of ye come in as you can."

The eastern window is entire, the Tower sixty feet high standing upon an arch and has offsets. There are no remains of cloysters. Near the Belfry is a vault the cemetery of the Frenches of French park, on the eastern wall of this vault are their arms and this inscription:

Pray for the Souls 

Of Patrick French Fitz Stephen of Galway

Burgess, who lived in this world eighty six years. 

This Monastery was granted by the Crown to William Taafe, who afterwards sold it to Lord Dillon.

Ardcarne Abbey (Walsh)

From Thomas Walsh's History of the Irish Hierarchy chapter lix, p. 622 ff:

Ardcarne, which was an ancient see is situated in the barony of Boyle. St. Beoadh, son of Olcan, was of royal descent and of a very generous disposition, he has been held in high estimation in the Irish calendars. The death of this sainted bishop occurred on the 8th of March 524. The name is a compound of Beo, animated or lively, and Aidh, Hugh.

AD 1225 died the archdeacon Dionysius O'Mulkyran
AD 1240 Gilla-na-naomh O'Dreain, dean of this abbey, died.

It is not ascertained when the monastery of Ardcarne was erected or who has been the founder. In the thirty fifth of Elizabeth it was discovered by the royal inquisitors that the abbot of Ardcarne was seized of the townland of Clonecalliagh and eight acres of land with the tithes the townland of Clonefinlaghe, two parts of a quarter of land the tithes &c., the lands of Kilfegan and Killgefin with their tithes. The good queen who did not abhor courts of inquisition while they were useful in discovering the property of the Catholic church granted this monastery and its appurtenances to Trinity College, Dublin, and this Protestant college, mainly supported by the spoils of the Catholic church, with true Protestant feeling and liberality, closes its dignities to the Catholic student unless that Catholic sacrifices his religious convictions to the Moloch of Protestant ascendancy.

Pilgrimage to Rome 2017 (6) - Mass for All Saints

To celebrate the Feast of All Saints one couldn't do better than to be in Rome, surrounded by so many of the relics of the Saints, and upon the ground which so many of them have trod... except perhaps to be in the Roman Church dedicated to All the Saints (or almost so), the Pantheon, which was dedicated to Santa Maria ad Martyres. We had visited the Pantheon on Day 1 of our Pilgrimage, on the eve of All Saints, but include the pictures here.

Mass for the Feast of All Saints in the Basilica of Sant'Eustachio in Campo Marzio On the Feast of All Saints itself, we came to the Basilica of Sant'Eustachio, only feet away from the Pantheon, for the celebration of Holy Mass and to explore our Catholic heritage in Rome a little further. Although called Sant'Eustachio in Campo Marzio, it is actually in the Rione or District of Sant'Eustachio. Saint Eustachio himself was one of those brave Roman Soldier converts and martyrs. His symbol, the stag with a cross in its antlers, is to be seen all over the Basilica. He is also one of the Fourteen Holy Helpers, to which there was much devotion in the Middle Ages, and well worth recalling on the Feast of All Saints. The Church was founded, perhaps during the reign of Pope St. Gregory the Great, and is certainly mentioned in the reign of Pope Gregory II as a Diaconia, a Deacon's Church or center for Corporal Works of Mercy, and that work continues today with the poor of the area dining in the loggia of the Church each day. The only obvious remnant of the Medieval structure is the impressive campanile. The interior is decorated in a gentle French baroque style.

Pilgrimage to Rome 2017 (5) - Day 1 concluded

The Church of the Gesù
We concluded the first day of our Pilgrimage with our now customary visit to the Church of the Holy Name, The Gesù.  Having visited the Church of Sant'Ignazio it is only a few minutes walk down through the Piazza del Collegio Romano and down the famous Via della Gatta to the other main Jesuit Church in the City, where St. Ignatius lived in the attached House of the Professed, and where he is buried in the beautiful side Altar that is the focus, each evening at 5.30 p.m., of the ceremony of light and music and Scripture and Prayer, the Macchina barocca.  We made it in good time to enjoy the prayerful atmosphere of the Church in fading autumn light, to pray before the High Altar of the Holy Name, at the Chapel of the Madonna della Strada and the Chapel of the Sacred Heart where the Blessed Sacrament is reserved.  There are many echoes between Sant'Ignazio and the Gesù, particularly in the mirroring of the two main transept Altars, St. Ignatius in the Gospel-side and the arm of St. Francis Xavier in the Epistle-side.  Once again, the nave ceiling is a riot of baroque decoration but, in the case of the Gesù, it is more unconventional.  We are not only seeing the Heavens, as it were, through the frame of an open ceiling, but now the celestial (and infernal!) figures are in three dimensions and falling out of the frame and into our dimension.

After experiencing the Macchina barocca we returned to the Istituto Maria Santissima Bambina for Vespers of the Little Office of the Immaculate Conception and Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament.