A Book Remembering

In the 8^th century a monk from Clonenagh visited nearby Coolbanagher in Laois and was inspired to write a ‘hugely influential book’ that scholars still draw on today. Who was he  and why did he write the book?

His name was Oengus and as he passed the graveyard in Coolbanagher, ‘He saw a grave there, and all between heaven and the ground over the grave was full of angels. So he asked the priest of the church, “Who has been buried in yonder grave?”

“A wretched old man who was in the place," says the priest. “What thing at all used he to do?” says Oengus. “He recounted the saints of the world,” says the priest, “such of them as he remembered, on lying down and getting up each day.”

“O God of heaven,” said Oengus, “whosoever should compose in poetry a song of praise for the saints, surely great would be his guerdon (reward) thereafter, since yon grace came upon that man.”’

I wonder if this translation of  ‘Old Irish’ came via Hollywood but in any case Oengus began his Martyrology there. It the earliest register of Irish saints with comments on them written in verse and in Irish.  Much of what we know of that ‘Old Irish’ and of Ireland of the time comes from it.

Today copies are stored in the Royal Irish Academy in Dublin and the Bodleian Library in Oxford.

Oengus described himself as a mendicant and ’one of God's poor’. He became a monk at Clonenagh where the ‘Celi De’ reform movement was calling for a return to the simplicity and high standards of previous generations. The Vikings had begun ferocious attacks on monasteries and some believed it was God’s punishment for a Church and society that had lost its way. Oengus’ solution was to recall the personal example of the early pioneers who had inspired enthusiasm for Christianity in Ireland.      

Coolbanagher itself was probably never an impressive place and when I visited there I could find no reminder of Oengus among its lonely ruins.

No angels hovered over the graveyard but I felt I should write something to ensure Oengus at least would not be forgotten. Will I earn a ‘guerdon’ for that?