(The Nationalist, 2 November 2001)
Malachy O’More was born in Armagh about 1094 and became a disciple of Saint Celsus who was known as “The Peace-Maker” because of his efforts to bring an end to the wars that unsettled the country at the start of the second millennium. Ireland was a tribal society and there was much warfare. In addition, there were attacks by the Vikings.
Malachy became a monk, was ordained priest in 1119 and, in 1123, became abbot of an abandoned monastery at Bangor in Co. Down which he went on to restore. Later he became bishop of Connor in the north-east of the country. Reflecting on his experience there, he said that the people were Christian in name but not in fact. Ireland as the island of saints and scholars was a distant memory.
He became bishop of Armagh in 1134. There he worked for reform. The thrust of his effort was to re-model the Irish Church from the Celtic pattern that it had had since the time of Saint Patrick and to Romanize it along the lines of the Gregorian movement on the Continent. Like every reformer he met with opposition.
At the age of 44 he went to Rome on pilgrimage. On his return journey he called to Clairvaux in France, where he met and became friends with Saint Bernard, the driving force behind the Cistercian Order, who were prominent in the reform movement in the church of their time. He persuaded Bernard to give him Cistercian monks to help with his plans for reforming the church in Ireland. Bernard sent him some, who founded the first Cistercian monastery in Ireland at Mellifont in County Louth.
It was while Malachy was returning from a second visit to Rome that he died on 11 November 1148 at Clairvaux in the presence of Saint Bernard. His last words were, ‘I have believed in God, and all things are possible to one who believes. I have loved God, I have loved you and love will never fail’. He was buried at Clairvaux and Saint Bernard wrote his biography. He was canonized in 1190, the first Irish person to be so honoured.
The “prophecies” of Saint Malachy, extracts from which appear in the press from time to time, usually when there is a papal election, were discovered in Rome 500 years after Malachy’s birth. They were written by a later hand and attributed to Malachy to give them the flavour of authenticity. There are people who believe them, but a grain of salt is more in order.
Malachy’s comment on the diocese of Connor is a reminder that faith is not passed from one generation to the next along with the genes. Every generation has to be converted from the beginning. It is possible for a people to lose the faith – and to discover it again. His life is a reminder, too, that some will always resist change, even if it is a change for the better. Malachy’s memory is honoured in the church on 3 November.