November 14th - St. Lawrence O'Toole.
1128-1180
Lorcan O'Toole, whose name has been anglicized Laurence, was born near
Castledermot, County Kildare. His father, Maurice, was a Leinster
chieftain
who
in the course of time was reduced to a subordinate position by the
encroachments
of a rival great family, the MacMurroughs. The moment came when Maurice
O'Toole
was compelled to hand over to the MacMurroughs his youngest son, Laurence,
aged
ten, as hostage for his loyalty.
At first the boy was kept in the MacMurroughs' stronghold and treated like
a
member of the family. But when Maurice O'Toole again became suspect of
what
the
MacMurroughs called treachery, Laurence was taken far away and imprisoned
in
a
herdsman's hut 'in a desert, stony place,' where he was given barely
enough
food
to keep him alive. Two years passed before his father's overtures to
relieve
him
were successful. The abbot of Glendalough was appointed mediator between
the
two
families and allowed to take the boy into sanctuary. When at last Maurice
O'Toole arrived in Glendalough for Laurence, he announced somewhat
****tentously
that he intended one of his four sons to enter religion and that he would
draw
lots to decide which of them it should be. At this, Laurence burst out
laughing,
for he had long been sure of his religious vocation. No lots had to be
drawn.
He remained in Glendalough and eventually became its abbot. When he was
thirty-two, he was forced to leave this retreat on his appointment as
archbishop
of Dublin, the first native-born Irishman ever to fill that see. His
elevation
marked the end of Scandinavian domination in Dublin.
At a period when a precarious peace was being patched up between the
MacMurroughs and the O'Tooles, Laurence's sister was given in marriage to
Dermot
MacMurrough. This classical villain of history treated her badly and later
eloped with Dervorgilla, wife of Tiernan O'Rourke, prince of Breffni, an
event
commonly accepted as prelude to the Anglo-Norman invasion. Laurence was
thus
deeply implicated in the national disaster. He was at the storm centre of
the
conflict. When Dermot MacMurrough died, his daughter, Eva (who was
Laurence
O'Toole's niece), was married to Richard, earl of Pembroke, called
'Strongbow,'
the leader of the invasion from England. The archbishop remained in Dublin
through two sieges and a famine. During the first siege, he was actually
negotiating peace terms with the Normans outside the gates, when some of
the
soldiers treacherously broke into the city and ran amok among the
civilians.
Ever the father of his people, Laurence had to rush from the peace talks
to
save
the citizens from being massacred.
In all the subsequent vicissitudes of the Anglo-Norman invasion, Laurence
kept
steadfastly on the side of the Irish. He went twice to King Henry II as
ambassador of peace. On his second mission in 1180, Henry refused to see
him
in
England, and Laurence followed the king to his court at Bures, near
Bayeux,
in
Normandy. The weeks of strain and travel told heavily on the archbishop,
and
by
the time he reached the abbey of St. Victor at Eu, he was mortally ill.
Someone
suggested that he should make his will, and he answered: 'God knows, I
have
not
a penny under the sun to leave anyone.' The plight of his people in Dublin
troubled his deathbed and his last words revealed his thoughts: 'Alas, you
poor,
foolish people, what will you do now? Who will take care of you in your
trouble?
Who will help you?'
He was an ascetic. Even when archbishop, he continued to live in community
as a
canon regular of Arrouaise. He wore a hair ****rt, never ate meat, and
fasted
every Friday on bread and water. But when he thought it his duty to
entertain,
nothing customary was lacking from his table, and he drank water colored
to
look
like wine so as not to spoil the feast. To have had to leave Glendalough
remained ever a personal sorrow. Every Lent he returned to that lovely
valley to
make a forty days' retreat in St. Kevin's cave on a precipice of Lugduff
mountain over the Upper Lake. He was thus the medieval link with the
Celtic
saints.
It was Ireland's good fortune that St. Laurence O'Toole died abroad. His
life
was written shortly afterwards by a contem****ary in Normandy, and thus his
record was saved from the later upheavals in which so many precious Irish
do***ents were lost. Fitting honor, too, was paid to his memory: a French
sea****t was called after him and a great Gothic church dedicated to him in
Eu.
Most significant of all, he was canonized only forty-five years after his
death.
One may safely assume that this would not have happened had he died in his
own
war-riven country.
Saint Quote:
But He who raised Him up from the dead will raise up us also, if we do His
will,
and walk in His commandments, and love what He loved, keeping ourselves
from
all
unrighteousness, covetousness, love of money, evil speaking, falsewitness;
'not
rendering evil for evil, or railing for railing, or blow for blow, or
cursing
for cursing, but being mindful of what the Lord said in His teaching:
Judge
not,
that ye be not judged; forgive, and it shall be forgiven unto you; be
merciful,
that ye may obtain mercy; with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured
to
you
again; and once more, Blessed are the poor, and those that are persecuted
for
righteousness' sake, for theirs is the kingdom of God.
-St Polycarp (A.D. 135),
Bible Quote
39 And all these being approved by the testimony of faith, received not
the
promise; 40 God providing some better thing for us, that they should not
be
perfected without us. (Hebrews 11:39-40)
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-Deus, qui nos patrem et matrem honorare-
From the Roman Missal, opening prayer (collect) for Mass for the Dead
DEUS, qui nos patrem et matrem
honorare praecepisti: miserere
clementer animabus patris et matris
meae eorumque peccata dimitte (vel
animae patris mei eiusque peccata
dimitte, vel animae matris meae
eiusque peccata dimitte): meque eos
(vel meque eum, vel meque eam) in
aeternae claritatis gaudio fac videre.
Per Christum Dominum nostrum. Amen.
-O God, Who Hast Commanded us to Honor our Father and Mother-
O God, who hast commanded us to honor
our father and mother: in Thy mercy have pity
on the souls of my father and mother (or the
soul of my father, or the soul of my mother)
and forgive them their tresp***** (or forgive
him his tresp*****, or forgive her her
tresp*****); and make me to see them (or
him, or her) again in the joy of everlasting brightness. Amen.
From the Raccolta #599 (S. P. Ap. Sept. 12, 1935), from the Roman Missal
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