Saint Patrick’s – Dublin’s Ancient Cathedral
18 Feb 1939The offer of a last resting place for the late Mr. W. B. Yeats in St. Patrick’s Cathedral, Dublin, has drawn public attention to that ancient edifice, and, this being- so, a brief historical sketch of a church that has close associations with St. Patrick cannot fail to be interesting. The cathedral was built on the site of a church dedicated, at a very early period, to St. Patrick, who in 448 converted to the Christian faith Alphin Mac Bochaid, King of Dublin, and his subjects, who were baptised at a fountain called, after the National Apostle, St. Patrick’s Well, near the place where the cathedral now stands. The prevailing architectural character of the exterior is that of the early pointed style, with occasional innovations, not sufficiently numerous to render the edifice incongruous. INTERIOR AND MEASUREMENTS OF THE BUILDING. The interior is divided into a nave, with side aisles and south transept, comprising: the chapter house, choir; it has lateral side aisles, and St. Mary’s Chapel to the eastward of the choir and chancel. The building measures 308 feet ‘ from the west gate to the east wall of St. Mary’s Chapel—once known as the Chapel of the Blessed Virgin Mary; the breadth of the nave is 67 feet, and that of the transept 157! the height of the square tower is 120 feet, and of the-spire a further 101 feet. It may be mentioned that a large statue of St. Patrick was discovered in clearing away some of the ruins when the church was being restored, and it was placed at the northern wall of the nave. An English writer, referring to St. Patrick’s, says:—”This edifice, although, inferior in grandeur and dimension to many of the cathedral structures of England, Is an extensive, commanding, and an interesting fabric.” The history of St. Patrick’s Is, of course, linked up with that of Ireland as a whole; but there- are many episodes peculiar to this Metropolitan cathedral.
VISIT OF SCOTTISH JONG.
It is related, for instance, that in-890 Gregory, King of Scotland, in an expedition to Ireland, made a solemn profession to perform his devotions in the church; that in a Bull of Pope Alexander IV in 1179, the church Is particularly named, and that It was then “insulated by two streams of the Poddle River.”
In 1100; from being a parish church, it was erected by Archbishop Comyn into a “Sacred College,” and consecrated by him and the Papal _Legate, Mgr. O’Heney, commissioned by Pope Celestine m, -with great , pomp and ceremony in the following year; and in 1219 Archbishop Comyn established. the Deanery and Chapter.
The remains of two Anglo-Norman Archbishops were deposited in the Chapel oi the Blessed Virgin Mary in the Cathedral towards the end of the thirteenth century; they were -the, brothers Fullce de Saunford and his brother, John,, and to the last named the English King, the first of tjie Edwards, gave lands called wastes in Connacht, for which he was to pay into the Treasury in Dublin £34 per annum. ECHO OF THE CRUSADES. There is an echo of the Crusades in the statement that in 1921 Pope Nicholas TV wrote to the Bishop of Meath and the Dean of St. Patrick’s, directing them to collect the tithes of the ecclesiastical revenues which had been granted for six years. to King Edward towards his expedition to the Holy Land. English monarchs claimed monetary assistance from St. Patrick’s as early as the fourteenth century. For instance, it is recorded that in 1306 the prebendaries of the cathedral were revalued for the purpose of being taxed one-tenth for service of the State; and that in 1322 the Dean and Chapter were “commanded to levy two years’ tenths of all ecclesiastical beneficiaries, as imposed for the service of the King.’.’ Education occupied the attention of the ecclesiastical authorities in those far-off days, as history records, that in 1311 Archbishop Lech procured a Bull from Clement V, confirming his establishment of a University within, the cathedral
REPRESENTATION IN THE LEGISLATURE. The Church was represented In those days in the legislature, as the Dean and Chapter of St. Patrick’s were summoned in 1315 to attend a Parliamentary assembly in Dublin, which is described as “the greatest that, for rank and quality, had ever met in Ireland.” The spire of the church was destroyed in a tempest in 1316, and in the same year the edifice was set on fire by the Mayor and Commons of the City of Dublin ” on account of the advance of Edward Brace, whose army then lay at Castleknock,” and it is added that some robbers, in the confusion, “despoiled the edifice of Its treasures and ornaments.” In 1362 St.” Patrick’s was burned down, ” by the negligence of the sexton.” Nothing of note occurred until the so called “Reformation”; in 1559, the first year of the reign of “Good Queen Bess,” English Bibles (of the revised version, o course) were placed in St. Patrick’s, and also in Christ Church, hot far away. WILLIAM OF ORANGE. In 1690 William of Orange attended divine service In the cathedral and returned thanks for his victory at the battle of the Boyne. Coming down to the last century, it may be noted that St. Patrick’s was renovated in 1865 by Sir Benjamin Lee Guinness, then head of the famous porter firm, at a cost of £150,000, and some years later a ” flying buttress ” of the building collapsed; killing several children who were playing close by. Such, in brief outline, is the story of St. Patrick’s, which has been linked with the story of Ireland through so many centturies
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