Saint Patrick's Cathedral, Dublin

“ Patrick, and the building of his church—Gregory of Scotland, with his adherents, attended worship here.
The present edifice, the seat of the Bishop of Dublin, was begun by Archbishop Comyn in 1190. It was doubled in its capacity by Archbishop Minot, who held the See in 1370, repairs on the old cathedral, and the extension, being necessitated by a fire which destroyed a large portion of the building in 1362. The edifice is of dark or blackish stone. It is irregular in outline, being cruciform in plan, with nave, choir, transepts, lady-chapel and porch. ”

“ Patrick's neighborhood—which is not more than a five minutes' walk away—are probably the oldest settled parts of the city; a low population having taken possession still retain their foothold, as they do about the great churches at Cork and Limerick.
There are many interesting facts shown on the ancient records of this cathedral. In 1434 the mayor and some distinguished citizens of Dublin did penance, by walking barefoot through the streets to the cathedral, for having committed manslaughter ”

“ Tuam is an ancient, and once a metropolitan, see. The present cathedral is a modern lack-lustre structure, built since 1861.
Of all Ireland’s cathedrals, Downpatrick alone has a truly imposing and commanding situation, albeit its dimensions are not grand, nor is it a very ornate or even a splendid structure. Its graveyard professes to be the{132} burial-place of St. Patrick; the simple boulder is there, at any rate, which marks the spot confidently claimed as being that where the bones of the saint rest. ”

“ St Patrick is said to have founded here the first church in Man, and a small chapel, dedicated to him, appears to date from the 8th or 10th century. There is a round tower, also of very early date, resembling in certain particulars the round towers of Ireland. The ruined cathedral of St German has a transitional Norman choir, with a very early crypt beneath, a nave with an early English triplet at the west end, transepts, and a low and massive central tower still standing. ”

“ Patrick died, it is commemorated as a high festival in the catholic church; and it is celebrated to his honour in that country, with every demonstration of affection for his memory as the apostle and patron saint of Ireland, that a warm-hearted, enthusiastic, joyous people, can possibly express. An eye-witness represents to the editor of the Every-Day Book that St. Patrick’s day in Dublin is a scene of festivity and mirth unequalled by any thing observable in this country. From the highest to the lowest, all hearts seem inspired by the saint’s beneficence. ”

“ SEMPLE, GEORGE (1700?–1782?) , Irish architect, son of a builder's labourer, was born in Dublin about 1700. His earliest known work is the steeple (103 feet in height) of St. Patrick's Cathedral, Dublin, which he designed and erected in 1749. ”

“ At last the king concedes to him the hill; and on the summit of it Saint Patrick finds a little white fawn asleep. The men of Erin would have slain that fawn; but the Saint carries it on his shoulder, and restores it to its dam. Where the fawn lay, he places the altar of his cathedral. ”

“ The explanation may be that it would have been infra dignitatem for the pope himself to ordain a priest save to the title of one of the Roman churches, and that his subsequent consecration to the see of Dublin was held to vacate the dignity which had been conferred for a special purpose.
It would be beyond the scope of the present study to follow John Cumin through the thirty years of his further career as archbishop and statesman in Ireland. One point only in his ecclesiastical policy claims our attention. His enduring monument is the cathedral church of St Patrick. ”

“ If the man were of good faith, steadfast in belief, he should see the strong pains of those who have sinned in this world, but should not suffer himself, and finally, he should behold the joy that lasts for aye in paradise. Then Jesus withdrew his gracious countenance and left Patrick there alone.
When the saint awoke he found God's tokens, and, taking them in his hand, he knelt to thank Jesus Christ for revealing to him how he might turn the Irish folk to amendment. On that spot, without delay, he had a fair abbey built, in the name of God and of our Lady. The abbey had no equal anywhere ”

“ But its full capacity is eighteen thousand, and it is eleventh in point of size among the cathedrals of the world. Considering St. Patrick's in its artistic aspect Miss Henderson, in "A Loiterer in New York," has said: "Renwick considered it his chief work; and the cathedral holds high rank as an example of the decorated, or geometric, style of Gothic architecture that prevailed in Europe in the thirteenth century, and of which the cathedrals of Rheims, Cologne, and Amiens are typical.... ”

“ We soon reach Nenagh on the Dublin road, and the graceful church spire at once attracts our attention. We can scarce forbear an exclamation of surprise as we come into full view of the splendid structure, just from the builder’s hand. It is truly a poem in gray stone, as fine an example of gothic architecture as we have seen in the Kingdom—proof that the spirit of the old cathedral builders lingers still, at least in Ireland. A young man approaches us as we stand in the churchyard and informs us that the church has just been completed at a cost of fifty thousand pounds. ”

“ The Royal Irish Constabulary, who are to be seen in the neighbourhood of Phœnix Park (and all over the country besides) , are, physically, a magnificent body of men, with as good, if not a considerably better training than “Tommy Atkins” himself.
It is a curious present-day fact that Dublin, as the capital of a Catholic country, not only possesses no Catholic cathedral, but has two Protestant churches known as cathedrals.
Anti-Catholic writers have long found fault with, and traced certain of Ireland’s interior troubles to, the number and power of the Catholic places of worship. ”

“ Patrick’s Cathedral, p. 207unfinished, but destined to be the most elaborate church edifice in America. The block above the Cathedral is occupied by the Male Orphan Asylum of the same church, next door to which is the mansion of Madame Restelle, one of the most noted abortionists of New York. On the northwest corner of Fifty-third street is the new St. Thomas’ Church (Episcopal) , a fine edifice, and owned by one of the wealthiest congregations in the city. Between Fifty-fourth and Fifty-fifth streets, and on the same side of the street, is St. ”

“ A church of whose choir it has been said by one so competent to compare the cathedrals of his native land as M. Louis Gonse, that it is “one of the fairest bits of Gothic architecture in France,” surely can hold its own among more brilliant companions.
Two Romanesque edifices stood in succession on the site, not to speak of the Merovingian and Carolingian cathedrals here. Évreux is the Evora of Gallo-Roman times when it was ranked with Rouen and Tours. St. Patrick came hither in 432 for his consecration as bishop before his apostolate to Ireland. ”

“ The native Kings of Ulster had their residence here before the coming of Christianity. The town was known anciently to Ptolemy, who called it Dunum.
The religious foundation of the place dates from 432 to 440, when St. Patrick established the see and the Abbey of Saul of the Canons Regular, who was superceded in 1183, a few years after the town was taken by John de Courcy, by the Benedictines.
The cathedral of to-day is a rehabilitation of an ancient ecclesiastical building, though to all appearances it is a comparatively modern work and is often credited as such. ”

“ The sees of Ardagh, Clogher, Emly, and Elphin were founded during the life-time of St. Patrick, and fifteen others of lesser note before the close of the century. {830} The cathedral of Kildare, second only in extent and magnificence to that of Armagh, was built about the year 490, and belonged jointly to the diocesan and the nunnery of St. Brigid. It is described as having been divided by a partition beyond the sanctuary; the bishop and clergy entering the church by a door on the north, and the abbess and her community by a door on the south side. ”

“ Patrick’s Cathedral at Armagh, the Seat of Cardinal Logue, the Roman Catholic Primate of Ireland
Cardinal Logue resides in a modest mansion in the rear of the cathedral, between the synod house and the theological seminary. Many a parish priest in Ireland and America lives in greater style. His manner of life illustrates the simplicity of his character and tastes. His lack of ostentation is one of his most charming traits. ”

“ Patrick’s at Dublin. Kilkenny, which next approaches it, falls considerably short of it in size; while St. Patrick itself takes a very low rank indeed as compared with England’s noble minsters.
The cruciform plan, with two westerly towers and a huge central spire,—the typical English type,—never fully developed in Ireland. It is stated, indeed, that no such example{127} exists in any church edifice in Ireland, though of cruciform churches with a central tower alone there are examples at Armagh, Dublin (Christchurch) , Cashel, Kildare, Kilkenny, and Killaloe. ”

“ We heard the town clock in the distance striking midnight, and as the last stroke died away the bells of St. Patrick's Cathedral pealed out, and down the deserted street came the chant through the open doors proclaiming God's promise of "Peace on earth, good will to men." ”

“ At Caen we live with the Conqueror and Matilda in their penitential abbey-churches, full of thought and purpose, the architecture of hieratic pre-eminence which Normandy passed on to England. At Coutances, the cathedral walls record the Tancreds, so the people say; close by was the eyrie of that eagle brood who set up kingdoms in Italy and the Orient. At Rouen we mutter with the crowd in the market place that a grievous shame it is to burn a saint as a witch, and in reaction, soon we are to rear monuments whose every line is jubilant freedom. ”

“ GRAVE dean of St. Patrick's, how comes it to pass,
That you, who know musick no more than an ass;
That you, who so lately were writing of Drapiers,
Should lend your cathedral to players and scrapers? ”

“ Saint-Martin, burned in 1562; the Pro-cathedral of Saint-Jacques; and, finally, Notre-Dame, the present episcopal church, a heavy structure in the Italian style of the XVIII century. Large and light and bare, the nudeness of the interior is uncouth, and the stiff exterior, decorated with statues, impresses one as pleasantly as clothes upon crossed bean-poles. It is artificial and mannered; the last of the City Cathedrals of Languedoc and the least. If the notorious vices of the XVIII century were as bad as its style of ecclesiastical architecture, they must have been indeed monstrous. ”

“ And he first presided over the renowned Monastery of Luxovia, in Gaul, and then over that of Bobi, beyond the Alps, wherein, having shone with many miracles, he now resteth in peace. Thus is the prophecy of Saint Patrick seen to be fulfilled. But of the antiquity of the church of Beannchor needless is it to speak further here, inasmuch as it is most amply described in the acts of those holy saints, Comhgallus, who was the first abbot of that place, and Malachia, the bishop, who was the legate in Hibernia of the apostolic chair. ”

“ A certain powerful man had endowed with lands and possessions a church that he was about to build on his own estate; the which to govern, Saint Patrick would have appointed one among his disciples who was able unto the gaining of souls. But the man refused, saying that in his own family he had a priest whom he willed to place over his own church. Then the saint, deeming it unworthy to contend for such a matter, departed from the man. And he on the morrow brought unto the saint his son, desiring that he might be consecrated unto the bishopric of that church. ”

“ Patrick's Cathedral is a pile which looms above Melbourne, the first object starting into sight as we approach the city from any quarter; a structure massive, isolated and grand, like the communion it represents. ”

“ And hence it is that the life of the most glorious priest Patrick, the patron and apostle of Ireland, so illustrious in signs and miracles, being frequently written by illiterate persons, through the confusion and obscurity of the style, is by most people neither liked nor understood, but is held in weariness and contempt. Charity therefore urging us, we will endeavor, by reducing them to order, to collect what are confused, when collected to compose them into a volume, and, when composed, to season them, if not with all the excellence of our language, at least with some of its elegance. ”

“ Gift excelling all other gifts! And with these most holy honors the saint being returned unto Hibernia, fortified therewith this metropolitan church of Ardmachia (unto the salvation of souls and the safety of the whole nation) , and reposited them in a chest behind the great altar. And in that church even from the time of Saint Patrick the custom obtained that on the days of the Passover and of the Pentecost these relics should be thereout produced, and venerated in the presence of the people. ”