A Voice in the Wilderness
Flick, Ella M. E.
448 A VOICE IN THE WILDERNESS By ELLA M. E. FLICK IT is a striking anomaly, in a world that is pleasuremad, to find those who will not only endure, patiently and joyfully, God-sent...
...After obtaining the appointed sleeping cot in the hospice, shoes are discarded as a first act of penance...
...An ancient-day place of pilgrimage, little advertised and hardly known, still exists in Donegal, northern Ireland...
...In the evening there is Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament...
...Perhaps it requires a nation like Ireland, with centuries of suffering and hardship and pain behind her, really to appreciate it at its true value and worth...
...This holy little island with its strange mode of life is in such striking contrast to the spirit of the times that one marvels at finding such a place in the twentieth century...
...For many they have an appeal as interesting pleasure trips...
...It takes from ten to fifteen minutes, according to the day and the currents and the winds...
...The day following the vigil is a day of weariness, and positive suffering from want of sleep and want of food...
...Approaching the landing stage, one sees a rather barren island with a church at the water's edge and two very plain stone hospices—one for men, and one for women...
...A substantial hospice was opened in 1882, and since then many thousands of pilgrims have visited Lough Derg annually, the season lasting from June 1 to August 15...
...The island itself has never been beautified in any way...
...A girl comes, in thanksgiving for some great favor...
...The church stands in an open space...
...Saint Patrick's connection with the shrine which bears his name is not only a pious legend but a historical fact...
...Strict silence is not observed, nor insisted upon...
...No one invited him to come...
...They did not take up their residence there until 1763, when they built a priory and an oratory dedicated to Saint Mary of the Angels...
...Rich and poor, for the time being, are possessors each of one small cot in one small cell...
...Night prayer is said in common...
...A path close to the water winds back of the little church down past the hospices and completely around the island...
...In the church, confessions are heard at all hours of the day...
...A boy comes, perhaps to determine his vocation...
...The rounds of the Stations of the Cross are made in bare feet...
...If the pilgrim arrives in the early morning, fasting and in time for Mass, he may go to Holy Communion...
...In the beginning of the seventeenth century the Franciscan friars were appointed to look after the spiritual needs of the many pilgrims to the island...
...No doubt we have our retreats...
...This is Saint Patrick's Purgatory, or as it is commonly called, Lough Derg...
...One kneels upon jagged rocks—or, rather, upon rocks that were once jagged but are now more or less rounded out through the constant rubbing of hands and feet and knees...
...Calderon wrote a drama about it...
...There are, in all, eleven islands on this lake—the principal of which are Saints Island and Station Island...
...There is little privacy or seclusion...
...448 A VOICE IN THE WILDERNESS By ELLA M. E. FLICK IT is a striking anomaly, in a world that is pleasuremad, to find those who will not only endure, patiently and joyfully, God-sent suffering, but will even anticipate its coming by voluntarily bringing it on themselves...
...The Stations are trying and wearying, and the round itself is difficult...
...There are rugged stones, water on every side, rocks on which to sit and rest—the sky above, water all around, land beyond, and mountains in the distance to charm the eye, and rest the mind...
...Although there is not much beauty in the islands themselves, the surroundings are extremely beautiful...
...The first night at Lough Derg is spent by the pilgrim at vigil in the church...
...We have our seasons of prayer and penance...
...In 1785, the priory was transferred to the secular clergy, appointed by the Bishop of Clogher...
...The exercises of the day consist of Mass and three rounds of out-door Stations...
...There is no shelter from the rain or the sun, save in the chapels or the hospices...
...We have our pilgrimages also, advertised extensively...
...The legends and fables woven around its foundation are many and venerable...
...but can we not conveniently find some justifying reasons for relaxing the rigor of the law in our regard...
...Nor will anyone bid him stay...
...The entire day is spent out of doors, or in the church...
...Judging by the standards of living so prevalent today, it is clear that many know very little about penance and care even less—that they love not suffering and understand it not at all...
...There are three priests in attendance on the island...
...But among the pilgrims are men and women from New Zealand and Australia— from Canada and the United States...
...Lough Derg, as its name implies, is a little lake of water covering some 2,250 acres, about thirteen miles in circumference, and 450 feet above sea-level...
...The dignity and grandeur of the encompassing hills, the unearthly quietness of Lough Derg, the lapping of the water, the dip of the oars, a whispered word from a fellow-passenger—all help to prepare the spirit of the pilgrim for a visit to an island associated with prayer and penance...
...The second night the pilgrim sleeps in a cot in the hospice...
...The penitent is free to go back to the world, yet is obliged to observe his third day of fast, just as though he had remained on the island...
...At each of these stopping places certain prescribed prayers are recited...
...The sanctuary lands at Lough Derg were known in the middle-ages as Terman Dabheoe—from Saint September 16, 1925 THE COMMONWEAL 449 Dabheoe, who, in the sixth century, presided over the retreat...
...There are neither shaded walks, nor groves, nor trees...
...The rowboats at the waterfront cross every half hour, taking away those who have done their penance, bringing back new pilgrims...
...Subsequently they were called Terman Magrath, from the family of Magrath, who were "coarbs," or stewards of the district about 1290...
...The winds that blow across the island are sometimes cold, even in summer...
...Erasmus refers to it in his works...
...In 1813, Saint Mary's was rebuilt, and in 1870, was replaced by the present Gothic edifice...
...Once installed on the island, and given a place to sleep, the pilgrim applies himself to exercises of prayer and penance...
...This night watch, made after the tedious trip out to the island, often after one full day of travel, is perhaps the most trying part of the whole stay...
...But do they not easily degenerate into a pleasant relaxation—a happy occasion for meeting old friends at least once a year...
...The third morning, after Holy Communion and the completion of three rounds of the Stations, the retreat is over...
...Young men and women, priests, middle-aged mothers and fathers, frail old people who have been coming summer after summer for years...
...Lough Derg is known to have been one of his favorite places of retreat, whither he would retire on occasions for two or three days together and spend his time in most rigorous penance...
...No shoes are worn at any time, even into the church...
...At nine o'clock the pilgrims, whose turn it is to remain on vigil, take their places in the little chapel— the others go to their cots in the hospices...
...For three consecutive days he must observe a rigorous fast, breaking it only in the afternoon by taking bread with black tea, or coffee, or water...
...It was then constituted a priory, dependent, however, on the Abbey of Saints Peter and Paul, in Armagh...
...It is about four or five miles from a small town called Pettigo...
...In the eleventh century the canons-regular of Saint Augustine were given charge of the holy place...
...At Lough Derg, life is primitive at best...
...To get to Saint Patrick's Purgatory it is necessary to cross the lake in a rowboat...
...It is a community life...
...Who comes to Lough Derg...
...Lough Derg presents an interesting study in this day of luxury and pleasure...
...The Irish, strong in faith, come to Lough Derg in great numbers...
...Numerous accounts of foreign pilgrimages to Saint Patrick's Purgatory are chronicled during the thirteenth, fourteenth and fifteenth centuries...
...In 1780, Saint Patrick's church was built...
...It has been mentioned by mediaeval chroniclers...
Vol. 2 • September 1925 • No. 19
