Saint Declan of Ardmore, bishop. July 24.
Birth and youth.
Declan was born at the end of the 6th century, and it is with San Ailbe de Emly (September 12), San Ciaran de Saiguir (March 5th) y San Ibar de Beggeri (April 23rd) one of the holy bishops prior to the arrival of St. Patrick (March 17) to Ireland, and who were his opponents.
His parents were Erc and Deitsin, descendants of Eochaid Finn, who would also be a relative of the great Saint Bridget of Kildare (February 1st). He was baptized and was educated by San Colman (October 16) from an early age to be trained in the following of Christ. Colman himself had converted his parents to the faith of Christ. Very young he retired to a hermitage at Magh Sceithi, not far from Lismore. There he lived in solitude and prayer, and also converted not a few to Christianity. When Declan reached youth he went to Gaul and to Rome, where he was ordained priest and bishop for missions in Ireland.
Of a bell that was not a bell.
While in Rome, while he was singing mass, a black bell that God had sent him entered through a window. She perched on the altar before him, and Declan greeted her jubilantly, hoping to work wonders with her. Back in Ireland, embarking in French Brittany, he forgot her on a rock by the sea. But the rock broke loose and she swam the bell to Ireland, and so lightly that she overtook the ship. Declan promised to erect a church on the spot where the miraculous bell landed. And so it was, they landed at Ardmore (“sheep hill”), where the rock and the bell had come. He built a church where numerous portents occurred.
This bell is called in the chronicles “duibhin Declain”, that is, “Declan’s small black object”. But in reality, what Declan has transcended as his is a small black slab about two inches on each side, with an engraved cross, which historians admit as a piece of an ancient altar stone from the 5th-6th centuries. , probably carried by the missionaries to celebrate mass. It would have been about eight inches, but the centuries and devotion were ripping it to pieces. The error that the later legend says that the heavenly gift was a bell must be found in Latin. From the 11th century, the word “symbolum” (sign, cross) was erroneously copied as “Cymbalum” (bell), and like a bell it passed into legend and iconography. And these, it is known, make law.
Apostle and miracle worker.
Already established with his hermitage and monastery, legend has it that he tried to convert Oengus, king of Munster, but said king died in 489, nearly a century before Declan’s birth. Another legend says that a nobleman from Comeragh wanted to make fun of him, giving him a dog to eat, telling him it was lamb, but when the saint had the cooked animal in front of him, he made the sign of the cross and the dog revived and sped away. In his old age, Declan visited his hometown, where he established a monastic community, where he left his disciple Abbot. San Ultan de Ardbraccan (4th of September). To this monastery he gave a beautiful copy of the Gospels, elaborately illuminated, which was said to have miraculous powers against demons and the most dangerous diseases. If he was carried in procession, the epidemics of people or animals ceased.
According to an ancient tradition he is buried in his church at Ardmore, where he died on July 24 of an uncertain year, always well into the seventh century. Pilgrims still flock to the ruins of the monastery, where there is a small church dedicated to his memory and his tomb is believed to be hidden.
Fuentes:
-“Dictionary of National Biographies”. Volume XIV. LESLIE STEPHEN. London, 1888.
-“Lives of Irish Saints”. JOHN CANON O’HANLON.
On July 24, it is also celebrated Saint Christna la Admirable, mystical.
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