Colmcille’s great Collon history
THE Cistercians returned to Collon in 1938, and indeed one Monk survives from the small Community that re-settled in Mellifont in that year.
But the link between Mellifont and the Cisterians has existed for an awful lot longer, over eight centuries in fact, as we learn from the excellent publication, “The Story of Mellifont” written by Fr. Colmcille O.C.S.O.
Fr. Colmcille penned his self documented and much praised work in 1958, and is presently engaged on a new Study of the Cistercian houses in Ireland. He arrived at Mellifont in the 1940’s, and now in his 75th year he makes little of the vast research.
From his history of Mellifont we learn that the Abbot and monks of the present day are the juridical successors of the abbot and Monks who first came to the Mattock in 1142, and who consecrated their church in 1157.
Mellifont Abbey was the first monastery of the Cistercian Order in Ireland, and the foundation was made from the Abbey of Clairvaux in France, at the instigation of St. Malachy, who on visiting Clairvaux had been impressed by the work of the great St. Bernard and the Cistercians.
By 1165 the number of Cisterian abbeys in Ireland had risen to 12, and the coming of the Anglo-Norman invasion in 1170 gave the order a new impetus, with the number of houses rising to 43, nine springing directly from Mellifont.
Rev. Fr. Colmcille, a native of Clonmel, Co. Tipperary, is 54 years in the Cistercians and is in Mellifont Abbey since 1946. A keen photographer, he does most of the photographs for illustrations in his books. Amongst his writings are “The Story of Mellifont” which was published by M. H. Gill & Son Ltd., Dublin, in 1958 and at present he is working on a new book “Studies in Irish Cistercian History”.
Fr. Colmcille has also done translations of parts of the Roman Breviary into Irish and has already completed Urnaithe na Maidine (Trath Saor na Bliana), Urnaithe Treathnona (Trath Saor na Bliana), Urnai na hOiche and Night Prayer.
Farming may not be as demanding on the time of the monks as years ago, but this hasn’t prevented them from devoting their time and considerable energy and enthusiasm to other skills. Printing, with an expert service, is but one of the avences that the monks have developed, and with the recruitment of some young blood in recent years, they have resumed vegetable growing, especially tomato plants which are sold throughout the country.
That new blood is a welcome infusion into Mellifont because for many years, indeed from 1970 until recently, few young men came forward to offer their lives to the service of God in the Order. Now there are four novices at Collon, and such is the enthusiasm at this new intake that a new noviciate, planned for some considerable time, is now being built, the foundations installed only last week.