The Life of St. Declan of Ardmore | Page 5

and had hardly yet had sufficient time
to become absorbed. The whole story of Declan's alleged relations with
Patrick undoubtedly suggests some irregularity in Declan's mission--an
irregularity which was capable of rectification through Patrick and
which de facto was finally so rectified.
(III.) No one in Eastern Munster requires to be told how strong is the
cult of St. Declan throughout Decies and the adjacent territory. It is
hardly too much to say that the Declan tradition in Waterford and Cork
is a spiritual actuality, extraordinary and unique, even in a land which
till recently paid special popular honour to its local saints. In traditional
popular regard Declan in the Decies has ever stood first, foremost, and
pioneer. Carthage, founder of the tribal see, has held and holds in the
imagination of the people only a secondary place. Declan,
whencesoever or whenever he came, is regarded as the spiritual father
to whom the Deisi owe the gift of faith. How far this tradition and the
implied belief in Declan's priority and independent mission are derived
from circulation of the "Life" throughout Munster in the last few
centuries it is difficult to gauge, but the tradition seems to have
flourished as vigorously in the days of Colgan as it does to-day.
Declan's "pattern" at Ardmore continues to be still the most noted
celebration of its kind in Ireland. A few years ago it was participated in
by as many as fourteen thousand people from all parts of Waterford,
Cork, and Tipperary. The scenes and ceremonies have been so
frequently described that it is not necessary to recount them
here--suffice it to say that the devotional practices and, in fact, the
whole celebration is of a purely popular character receiving no
approbation, and but bare toleration, from church or clergy. Even to the
present day Declan's name is borne as their praenomen by hundreds of
Waterford men, and, before introduction of the modern practice of
christening with foolish foreign names, its use was far more common,
as the ancient baptismal registers of Ardmore, Old Parish, and
Clashmore attest. On the other hand Declan's name is associated with
comparatively few places in the Decies. Of these the best known is
Relig Deaglain, a disused graveyard and early church site on the

townland of Drumroe, near Cappoquin. There was also an ancient
church called Killdeglain, near Stradbally.
Against the theory of the pre-Patrician or citra-Patrician mission we
have first the objection, which really has no weight, and which we shall
not stop to discuss, that it is impossible for Christianity at that early
date to have found its way to this distant island, beyond the boundary
of the world. An argument on a different plane is (I.), the undoubtedly
contradictory and inconsistent character of the Life. It is easy however
to exaggerate the importance of this point. Modern critical methods
were undreamed of in the days of our hagiographer, who wrote,
moreover, for edification only in a credulous age. Most of the historical
documents of the period are in a greater or less degree uncritical but
that does not discredit their testimony however much it may confuse
their editors. It can be urged moreover that two mutually incompatible
genealogies of the saint are given. The genealogy given by
MacFirbisigh seems in fact to disagree in almost every possible detail
with the genealogy in 23 M. 50 R.I.A. That however is like an
argument that Declan never existed. It really suggests and almost
postulates the existence of a second Declan whose Acts and those of
our Declan have become mutually confused.
(II.) Absence of Declan's name from the Acts of Patrick is a negative
argument. It is explicable perhaps by the supposed irregularity of
Declan's preaching. Declan was certainly earlier than Mochuda and yet
there is no reference to him in the Life of the latter saint. Ailbhe
however is referred to in the Tripartite Life of Patrick and the cases of
Ailbhe and Declan are "a pari"; the two saints stand or fall together.
(IV.) Motives for invention of the pre-Patrician myth are alleged,
scil.:--to rebut certain claims to jurisdiction, tribute or visitation
advanced by Armagh in after ages. It is hard to see however how
resistance to the claims in question could be better justified on the
theory of a pre-Patrician Declan, who admittedly acknowledged
Patrick's supremacy, than on the admission of a post-Patrician mission.
That in Declan we have to deal with a very early Christian teacher of
the Decies there can be no doubt. If not anterior to Patrick he must have
been the latter's cotemporary. Declan however had failed to convert the
chieftain of his race and for this--reading between the lines of the
"Life"--we seem to hear Patrick blaming him.

The monuments proper of Declan remaining at Ardmore are (a) his