Subj : =?UTF-8?Q?21_March_=E2=80=93_St_Enda_of_Aran?= To : All From : rich Date : Sat Mar 20 2021 10:16:33 From: rich 21 March =E2=80=93 St Enda of Aran =C2 (c 450 =E2=80=93 c 530) Priest, Monk, Abbot of Aran =E2=80=9CPatriarch of Irish Monasticism=E2=80= =9D=C2 and Aran is known as =E2=80=9CAran of the Saints=E2=80=9D =E2=80=93 also known as = =C3=89anna, Edna, =C3=89inne, Endeus, Enna =E2=80=93 born in Meath, Ireland and died in c 530 of natural causes. Enda was a warrior-king of Oriel in Ulster, converted by his sister, Saint Fanchea, an abbess. About 484 he established the first Irish Monastery at Killeaney on Aran Mor. Most of the great Irish saints had some connection with Aran. According to the Martyrdom of Oengus, Enda was an Irish prince, son of Conall Derg of Oriel (Ergall) in Ulster. Legend has it that when his father died, he succeeded him as king and went off to fight his enemies. The soldier Enda, was converted by his sister, Saint Fanchea, an abbess. He visited St Fanchea of Rossory (died c 585), who tried to persuade him to lay down his arms. He agreed, if only she would give him a young girl in the convent for a wife. He renounced his dreams of conquest and decided to marry. The girl she promised turned out to have just died and Fanchea forced him to view the girl's corpse, to teach him that he, too, would face death and judgment. Faced with the reality of death and by his sister's persuasion, End= a decided to study for the priesthood and studied first at St Ailbe's monastery at Emly. Fanchea sent him to Rosnat, a great centre of Monasticism. There he took Monastic vows and was Ordained. In this way, St Fanchea succeeded in turning her brother not only from violence but even from marriage. He left Ireland for several years, during which time he became a Monk and was ordained as a Priest. Upon his return to Ireland, he petitioned his King Aengus of Munster =E2=80= =93 who was married to another of Enda's sisters =E2=80=93 to grant him= land for a Monastic settlement on the Aran Islands, a beautiful but austere location near Galway Bay off Ireland's west coast. During its early years, Enda's island mission had around 150 monks.= As the community grew, he divided up the territory between his disciples, who founded their own Monasteries to accommodate the large number of vocations. Enda did not found a religious order in the modern sense but he did hold a position of authority and leadership over the Monastic settlements of Aran =E2=80=93 which became known as =E2=80=9CAran = of the Saints,=E2=80=9D renowned for the monks' strict rule of life and pa= ssionate love for God. Enda's monks imitated the asceticism and simplicity of the earliest Egyptian desert hermits. He established the Monastery of Enda, which is regarded as the first Irish Monastery, at Killeany on Inism=C3=B3r. He also established a Monastery in the Boyne valley and several others across the island and along with St Finnian of Clonard is known as the Father of Irish monasticism. At Killeaney, the monks lived a hard life of manual labour, prayer, fasting and study of the Scriptures. The monks of Aran lived alone in their stone cells, slept on the ground, ate together in silence and survived by farming and fishing. St Enda=E2=80= =99s monastic rule, like those of St Basil in the Greek East and St Benedict in the Latin West, set aside many hours for prayer and the study of scripture. Enda divided the island into two parts, one half assigned to the Monastery of Killeany, and the western half to such of his disciples as chose =E2=80=9Cto erect permanent religious houses on the island.=E2=80= =9D Later he divided the island into 8 parts, in each of which he built a =E2=80=9Cplace= of refuge=E2=80=9D. The life of Enda and his monks was frugal and austere. The day was divided into fixed periods for prayer, labour and sacred study. Each community had its own church and its village of stone cells, in which they slept either on the bare ground or on a bundle of straw covered with a rug but always in the clothes worn by day. They assembled for their daily devotions in the church or oratory of the saint under whose immediate care they were placed. The monks took their meals in silence in a common refectory, from a common kitchen, having no fires in their stone cells, however cold the weather or wild the seas. They invariably carried out the monastic rule of procuring their own food and clothing by the labour of their hands. Some fished around the islands, others cultivated patches of oats or barley in sheltered spots between the rocks. Others ground grain or kneaded the meal into bread and baked it for the use of the brethren. They spun and wove their own garments from the undyed wool of their own sheep. They could grow no fruit in these storm-swept islands, they drank neither wine nor mead and they had no flesh meat, except perhaps a little for the sick. During his own lifetime, Enda's Monastic settlement on the Aran islands became an important pilgrimage destination, as well as a centre for the evangelisation of surrounding areas. At least two dozen Canonised Saints had some association with =E2=80=9CAran of the Saints.=E2= =80=9D Enda's Monastery flourished until Viking times but much of the ston= e was ransacked by Cromwell's men in the 1650s for fortifications, so only scattered ruins remain. Most survive as coastal ruined towers. Cattle, goats, and horses now huddle and shiver in the storm under many of the ruins of old walls where once men lived and prayed. These structures were the chosen home of a group of poor and devoted men under Saint Enda. He taught them to love the hard rock, the dripping cave and the barren earth swept by the western gales. They were =E2=80=9CMe= n of the Caves=E2=80=9D and =E2=80=9Calso Men of the Cross.=E2=80=9D St Enda himself died in old age around the year 530. An early chronicler of his life declared that it would =E2=80=9Cnever be known until the day of judgment, the number of saints whose bodies lie in the soil of Aran,=E2=80=9D on account of the onetime-warrior's response to G= od's surprising call. His remains are buried at Tighlagheany, Inishmore, Ireland. During his own lifetime, Enda's monastic settlement on the Aran islands became an important pilgrimage destination, as well as a centre for the evangelisation of surrounding areas. At least two dozen canonised individuals had some association with =E2=80=9CAran of the Saints= =E2=80=9D. Among these were Saint Brendan the Navigator (c 484=E2=80=93c 577) https://anastpaul.com/2019/05/16/saint-of-the-day-16-may-st-brendan-the-nav= igator-c-484-c-577/, who was blessed for his voyage there, St Jarlath of Tuam, St Finnian of Clonard (470=E2=80=93549) https://anastpaul.com/2019/12/12/saint-of-the-day-12-december-saint-finnian= -of-clonard-470-549-tutor-of-the-saints-of-ireland/ and Saint Columban (543-615) https://anastpaul.com/2018/11/23/saint-of-the-day-23-november-st-columban-5= 43-615/ who called it the =E2=80=9CSun of the West. Aran became a miniature Mount Athos, with a dozen Monasteries scattered over the island, the most famous, Killeany, where Enda himself lived. https://anastpaul.com/2020/03/21/ Saint Quote: Idleness begets a life of discontent. It develops self-love, which is the cause of all our miseries, and renders us unworthy to receive the favors of divine love. -- St. Ignatius Loyola Bible Quote: He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her. (John = 8:7) <><><><> Whoever will come after Me, let him deny himself.=C2 (Matthew 16:24) "Do not weary thyself in vain; for thou wilt never succeed in possessing true spiritual sweetness and satisfaction. unless thou first deny all thy desires" --St. John of the Cross The Abbot Ellem as we read in the Lives of the Fathers, saw a honeycomb hanging from a rock and some fruit that had fallen from a tree, but he abstained from them. He then fell into a sleep, from which he was wakened by an angel, when he found himself by the side of a fountain surrounded by the freshest herbs, some of which he ate, and declared that he had never before tasted so great a delicacy. (Taken from the book "A Year with the Saints". March - Mortification) --- NewsGate v1.0 gamma 2 * Origin: News Gate @ Net396 -Huntsville, AL - USA (1:396/4) .