North Atlantic Skyline - - Photographs from the west of Ireland (Galway, Mayo, Clare, Limerick, Roscommon and even Leitrim)

Corcomroe

Are you just sick of this modern world? Has the materialism of the Celtic Tiger just turned you off? Do you yearn for a simpler life? Perhaps a life of quiet contemplation would seem more fulfilling. Surely if Leonard Cohen can become a monk, anyone can (though his version of monasticism seems to involve releasing the odd album, living in California, and plenty of beautiful women). St. Benedict of Nursia gave the life of a monk much thought - not only did he found the order that bears his name (the Benedictines), he also devised the Rule that should be followed by anyone wishing to pursue a monastic life.

If you think the Ten commandments are hard to follow, then the Rule is not good news. Because the Rule is actually the rules - seventy three of them. Benedict didn't leave much to chance. Though Rule 13 "is to love fasting", Rule 36 is" not to be a great eater" - chubby friars need not apply. Life must have been austere under Benedict's gaze: Rule 55 is "Not to love much or boisterous laughter". Rule 77 advises "To make peace with an adversary before the setting of the sun" - Hah, he could have just got married and done that every evening (and then he would know all about rules…). Rule 45 is "to live in dread of hell", which is amazingly prophetic, given that St. Benedict wrote that rule some fifteen hundred years before Mick Hucknall began recording albums.

Benedict's rule set the standard for monastic life for centuries- a standard that was, by and large , ignored. About one thousand years ago, a small band of abbotts decided to go back to basics and set up a monastary which would strictly observe the Rule. They picked Citeaux in Burgundy (a pity since Rule 35 is "Not to be given to wine") and thus, the Cistercians were born. The Cistercians accepted lay brothers and required their members to visit Citeaux at least once a year. In 1145, the first band of Irish Cistercians , trained in France, returned to Ireland to set up Mellifont Abbey in Louth. Forty Cistercian abbeys were founded in the next 130 years. One of those abbeys was Corcomroe, nestled within the stony hills of the Burren in Co. Clare. Their choice of location condemned the monks of Corcomroe to a life of constant poverty - you couldn't grow crops or raise cattle on solid rock. It must have been with a sense of irony that they named the abbey "Sancta Maria de Petra Fertilis, Saint Mary of the Fertile Rock". The upside was that they probably didn't have much problem observing the Rule.

Sarah Poyntz writes an occasional column about the Burren for the Guardian - a couple of weeks ago, she paid a visit to the ruins of the abbey, coincidentally, I paid a visit there myself around the same time. The pics are here.

Posted by Monasette at December 2, 2003 08:34 AM