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Mass rock

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Sandhill Mass Rock site near Dunfanaghy, County Donegal

A Mass rock (Irish: Carraig an Aifrinn) was a rock used as an altar by the Catholic Church in Ireland, during the 17th and 18th centuries, as a location for secret and illegal gatherings of faithful attending the Mass offered by outlawed priests. Similar altars, known as Mass stones, were used by the similarly illegal and underground Catholic Church in Scotland, membership in which was similarly criminalised following the Scottish Reformation in the mid-16th century.

During the religious persecution of the Catholic Church in Ireland isolated locations were sought to hold religious ceremonies, as observing the Catholic Mass was a matter of difficulty and danger at the time as a result of the Reformation in Ireland, Cromwell's campaign against the Irish, and the Penal Laws of 1695. Bishops were banished and priests had to register to preach under the 1704 Registration Act. Priest hunters were employed to arrest Catholic priests and nonjuring Vicars of the Scottish Episcopal Church under an Act of 1709.

Scotland

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The entrance to Cathedral Cave upon the isle of Eigg, with An Sgùrr in the background.

In Scotland, Mass stones were used by the illegal and underground Catholic Church in Scotland, membership in which had been criminalised by the Scottish Reformation Parliament in 1560 and which remained unlawful until Catholic Emancipation in 1829.

On the isle of Eigg, in the Inner Hebrides of Scotland, which was described in 1698 as almost entirely Roman Catholic,[1] the laity secretly and illegally attended Mass at a Mass stone inside a large high-roofed coastal cave, which could only be accessed during low tide and which is still known as the "cave of worship" (Scottish Gaelic: Uamh Chràbhaichd; in English Cathedral Cave).[2][3]

Between 1735 and 1744, Glen Cannich was the home and base of operations for three outlawed Roman Catholic priests of the Society of Jesus; Frs. Charles and John Farquharson and future martyr Fr. Alexander Cameron.[4] According to Colin Chisholm of Lietry and Dom Odo Blundell of Fort Augustus Abbey, the three priests' residence and secret Mass house was inside a cave known as (Scottish Gaelic: Glaic na h'eirbhe[5][6] lit. "the hollow of the hard-life"),[7][8] which was located underneath the cliff of a big boulder at Brae of Craskie, near Beauly in Glen Cannich.[9][10] According to Monsignor Thomas Wynne, "It was in the nature of a summer shieling, a command center for monitoring the traditional activities of cattle reivers; as such it combined a civilising role with the building up of a Catholic mission outside Cameron territory in a way which must have reassured Lochiel on both counts".[11] This secret cave dwelling commanded a wide view of the surrounding landscape, which allowed the three Jesuits to keep watch for priest hunters or redcoats coming to arrest them.[12]

The cave at Brae of Craskie remained the centre of the Catholic mission in Lochaber and Strathglass at the time, where Fr. Cameron and the two brothers secretly ministered to the local Catholics and,[13] whenever possible, they secretly visited the covert "Mass houses" at Fasnakyle, Crochail, Strathfarrar,[14] and at Balanahaun.[15] According to Strathglass historian Flora Forbes, "a Catholic chapel at this time anywhere throughout the Highlands was usually a barn-like structure, with no windows and a mud floor."[16]

When it was not possible for the three priests to safely leave Glen Cannich, their parishioners would come to the cave for Mass, the sacraments, and, especially, for the illegal Catholic baptisms of their children. A bullaun, or natural cup stone, known as (Scottish Gaelic: Clach a Bhaistidh,[17] lit. "the stone of the baptism")[18] was used as a baptismal font.[19]

Due to the "arbitrary and malicious violence" that Hanoverian Redcoats inflicted, the aftermath of the 1746 Battle of Culloden is still referred to in the Highlands and Islands as Bliadhna nan Creach ("The Year of the Pillaging").[20] Throughout this year, posses of Redcoats scoured the Scottish Highlands and Islands, both burning down Mass houses and their Episcopalian equivalents, and arresting Catholic priests en masse.[21][22]

St. Ninian's Church was built in 1755 as a strictly illegal "Mass house" at Enzie, Moray.

Legacy

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Due to the missionary work of Gaelic-speaking Calvinist elders and to the use of corporal punishment by Lairds against Catholics that has caused Protestantism to be sarcastically dubbed in some other regions the "Religion of the Yellow Stick" (Scottish Gaelic: Creideamh a' bhata-bhuidhe), much of the Highland population defected after Culloden to Presbyterianism. According to Marcus Tanner, "[the] Highlands, outside tiny Catholic enclaves like in South Uist and Barra, took on the contours they have since preserved - a region marked by a strong tradition of sabbatarianism".[23]

The local oral tradition preserved the former locations of Mass stones and Mass houses in at least some regions. For example, according to the autobiography dictated to John Lorne Campbell by South Uist seanchaidh and crofter Angus Beag MacLellan (1869–1966), while working as a hired hand on Robert Menzies' farm near Aberfeldy, Perthshire in the 1880s, MacLellan learned that a Mass stone had stood in the Menzies' farm field. A nearby high cross, Menzies added, marked the site of an important college of learning dating from the days of the Celtic Church. Menzies explained that, even though the local population had long since switched to Presbyterianism, former Catholic religious sites were still locally viewed with superstitious awe and were never tampered with. Menzies explained that the term for Mass stones, in the Perthshire dialect, was Clachan Ìobairt, lit. "offering stones".[24] Following Catholic Emancipation in 1829, the Catholic population of Aberfeldy was served by priests visiting from Strathtay, who would offer the Tridentine Mass at the site now known as Tigh an Tuir. Since it was first built as a tin tabernacle paid for by the Marquess of Bute in 1884, Our Lady of Mercy Catholic Church has stood at the same location and has been part of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Dunkeld.[25]

Marian grotto and Christian pilgrimage shrine dedicated to Our Lady of the Highlands on the grounds of Immaculate Conception Church at Stratherrick, near Whitebridge, Inverness-shire.

At the Christian pilgrimage shrine to 'Our Lady of the Highlands', within the grounds of Immaculate Conception Roman Catholic Church near Loch Ness, a new outdoor Mass stone was consecrated by Bishop Hugh Gilbert of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Aberdeen in March 2017.[26]

Ireland

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Use and records

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Mass Rock on Achill Island, County Mayo

In Ireland, Mass rocks were in use from at least the mid-17th century.[27] Tony Nugent, in a book about the history and folklore of Mass rocks, traces their use even earlier, to the 1536 Act of Supremacy and the 1540 Suppression of the Monasteries by Henry VIII. Particularly following the latter, stones were taken the ruins of Pre-Reformation churches or monasteries, and relocated to more isolated areas, often with a simple cross carved on their tops, to continue being used for religious purposes. In addition, "megalithic tombs, ring-forts, stone circles, druidic altars, and wells - these monuments to a once proud race - were to be recycled by a persecuted people in order that they could practice their religion in secret".[28]

Nugent also states that, "until the passing of the Catholic Emancipation Act in 1829",[28] the observation of Catholic ceremonies at Mass rocks was illegal and services were not regularly scheduled. Parishioners would therefore spread word of services at Mass rocks covertly. According to some sources, which were believed by Irish traditional musicians Seamus Ennis and Seosamh Ó hÉanaí, such communication could occur through two coded sets of Irish language lyrics to the Sean Nós song An raibh tú ag an gCarraig.[29][30] Other sources question this association.[29][31]

According to Irish historian and folklorist (seanchaí), Seumas MacManus, "Throughout these dreadful centuries, too, the hunted priest -- who in his youth had been smuggled to the Continent of Europe to receive his training -- tended to the tended the flame of faith. He lurked like a thief among the hills. On Sundays and Feast Days he celebrated Mass at a rock, on a remote mountainside, while the congregation knelt on the heather of the hillside, under the open heavens. While he said Mass, faithful sentries watched from all the nearby hilltops, to give timely warning of the approaching priest-hunter and his guard of British soldiers. But sometimes the troops came on them unawares, and the Mass Rock was bespattered with his blood, -- and men, women, and children caught in the crime of worshipping God among the rocks, were frequently slaughtered on the mountainside."[32]

For example, the Mass rock near Kinvara, County Galway, is known in Connaught Irish as Poll na gCeann ("chasm of the heads") and is said to have been the location of a massacre by the soldiers of Oliver Cromwell's New Model Army. Historian Tony Nugent states that, "According to local tradition, there was a college nearby and some of the student monks were killed there by Cromwellian soldiers while attending Mass and their heads were thrown into a nearby chasm".[33]

During the Stuart Restoration, Catholic worship generally moved to thatched "Mass houses" (Irish: Cábán an Aifrinn, lit. ‘Mass Cabin’). Writing in 1668, Janvin de Rochefort commented, "Even in Dublin more than twenty houses where Mass is secretly said, and in about a thousand places, subterranean vaults and retired spots in the woods".[34]

Catholic worship, however, was soon to return to the Mass rocks due to the Exclusion Crisis and the anti-Catholic show trials masterminded by Lord Shaftesbury and Titus Oates.

According to a book on the history and folklore of Mass rocks by Tony Nugent, a Catholic priest named Fr. Mac Aidghalle was murdered c. 1681 while saying Mass at a mass rock still known in Ulster Irish as Cloch na hAltorach that stands atop Slieve Gullion, County Armagh. The perpetrators were a company of redcoats under the command of a priest hunter named Turner. Redmond O'Hanlon, the outlawed but de facto Chief of the Name of Clan O'Hanlon and leading local rapparee, is said in local oral tradition to have avenged the murdered priest and in so doing to have "sealed his own fate".[35]

The persecution and use of the Mass rocks escalated further following the 1688 overthrow of the House of Stuart, and the passing of the Penal Laws.

While being interviewed by Tadhg Ó Murchú of the Irish Folklore Commission, Peig Minihane-O'Driscoll of Ardgroom, of the Beara Peninsula in County Cork said that the local Mass rock, known in Munster Irish as Clochán a' tSagairt was located at a cairn to the south. Minihane-O'Driscoll also stated that her husband had been born before Catholic Emancipation and that her in-laws had twice carried their baby son up into the Slieve Miskish Mountains, seeking to secretly make contact and request the baptism of their son from one of the two outlawed priest known to be in hiding locally, one near Ballycrovane Wood and another near Castletownbere.[36]

Later use

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After the successful 1780-1829 fight for Catholic Emancipation and, for example, the 1851 Synod of Thurles, the use of Mass rocks in Ireland declined.[37] They continued to be used as places of worship in some regions, however, where "poverty and bigotry, rather than persecution, dictated their use".[28]

Partial data on Mass rock sites is maintained by the Archaeological Survey of Ireland (for pre-1700 sites),[38][39] and, to a lesser extent, the National Inventory of Architectural Heritage (for post-1700 sites).[40] Some of the Mass rock places may also have been used for patterns.[citation needed]

In 2020, because of the restrictions on indoor gatherings during the COVID-19 pandemic in Ireland, there were proposals to hold services at some Mass rocks.[27][41]

Folklore

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"February 3, 1828

...There is a lonely path near Uisce Dun and Móinteán na Cisi which is called the Mass Boreen. The name comes from the time when the Catholic Church was persecuted in Ireland, and Mass had to be said in woods and on moors, on wattled places in bogs, and in caves. But as the proverb says, It is better to look forward with one eye than to look backwards with two..."[42]

— Cín Lae Amhlaoibh by Amhlaoibh Ó Súilleabháin (1780 – 1838). Translated by Tomás de Bhaldraithe

According to a book of history and folklore associated with Mass rocks by Tony Nugent, "There is a common story associated with quite a few which relates how the priest was shot or killed at the moment of Transubstantiation. There is a common belief that at this point in the Mass the priest cannot stop for any reason. There are various stories of Protestant neighbours hiding or helping priests. There are stories of miracles, the story of the widow's hunger, happening at these sites, stories of cures and indeed a whole fabric of folklore which if lost would be a cultural tragedy".[43]

Though the name of Fr. John O'Neill does not appear on the 1992 list of Catholic priests known to have served locally,[44] a local oral tradition alleges that he was the last Catholic priest killed at a Mass rock, at Inse an tSagairt, near Bonane, County Kerry, c.1829. The local "folk belief" suggests that a criminal gang, based in Glengarriff and consisting of a woman and five men, conspired to kill the priest and split a £45 bounty among themselves. According to the story, after capturing Fr. O'Neill, beheading him, and bringing his severed head to Cork city, the six conspirators learned that Catholic Emancipation had just been signed into law and that no reward would be given. The perpetrators then allegedly threw O'Neill's severed head into the River Lee in frustration. Other versions of the story hold that O'Neill's clerk was also taken prisoner and brought to Dromore Castle, but later managed to escape by being carried to safety by the "two mastiff bloodhounds" that were sent to pursue him.[45][46][47][48][49] The site at Inse an tSagairt was also associated with the reputed miraculous cure of the mother of Fr. Eugene Daly.[50] Both Fr. O'Neill's martyrdom and the cure of Mrs. Daly have been commemorated in locally composed poetry.[51] A hiking path was later built to the site in 1981, by Coillte, at the insistence of Fr. Daly (who died in 2001).[52][53] Inse an tSagairt is still sometimes used for open air commemorative Masses and there is a plaque next to the altar which names Fr. John O'Neill.[45][47][48][49] Other Mass rock locations in the same area were an Alhóir, near the summit of Mount Esker, An Seana-Shéipeil at Garrymore, and Faill-a Shéipéil at Gearha.[54]

Parallels in other faiths

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During the same era in mainland Britain, Puritans, Presbyterians, Quakers, Anabaptists, and other non-Conformists held similarly outlawed conventicles in defiance of the Royal Supremacy and then of the Protectorate of England under Oliver Cromwell, although they were not religious ceremonies.

For the Lutheran minority during the Counter-Reformation in the Austrian Empire, a similar stone in Paternion was dubbed the hundskirche.

See also

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References

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Sources

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  • Nugent, Tony (2013). Were You at the Rock? The History of Mass Rocks in Ireland. Liffey Press. ISBN 9781908308474.
  • Tanner, Marcus (2004). The Last of the Celts. Yale University Press. ISBN 9780300115352.
  • Shine, Fr. John (1992), Bonane: A Centenary Celebration, Naas: Leinster Leader, OCLC 26722213

Notes

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  1. ^ John Lorne Campbell, "Canna; The Story of a Hebridean Island," Oxford University Press, 1984, pp. 91-92.
  2. ^ Massacre and Cathedral Caves, Walk Highlands.
  3. ^ Walk: Eigg caves – massacres & masses
  4. ^ MacWilliam, A. S. (1973). A Highland mission: Strathglass, 1671-1777. Innes Review xxiv. pp. 75–102.
  5. ^ Odo Blundell (1909), The Catholic Highlands of Scotland, Volume I, London, page 203.
  6. ^ "Rev. John Farquharson, Priest of Strathglass", by Colin Chisholm, The Celtic Magazine, Volume 7, 1882, pp. 141-146.
  7. ^ Malcolm MacLennan (2001), Gaelic Dictionary/Faclair Gàidhlig, Mercat and Acair. Page 182.
  8. ^ Collected by Fr. Allan MacDonald (1958, 1972, 1991), Gaelic Words from South Uist and Eriskay – Edited, Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies. Second edition with supplement, published by the Oxford University Press. p. 113.
  9. ^ Odo Blundell (1909), The Catholic Highlands of Scotland, London, page 203.
  10. ^ "Rev. John Farquharson, Priest of Strathglass", by Colin Chisholm, The Celtic Magazine, Volume 7, 1882, pp. 141-146.
  11. ^ Wynne, Thomas (30 August 2010). "The Conversion of Alexander Cameron". The Innes Review. 45 (2): 178–187. doi:10.3366/inr.1994.45.2.178. Retrieved 24 March 2020.
  12. ^ Thomas Wynne (2011), The Forgotten Cameron of the '45: The Life and Times of Alexander Cameron, S.J., Print Smith, Fort William, Scotland. Pages 50-51.
  13. ^ Rev. John Farquharson, Priest of Strathglass, by Colin Chisholm, The Celtic Magazine, Volume 7, 1882, pp. 141-146.
  14. ^ Christianity in Strathglass, From the Website for St. Mary's Roman Catholic Church, Beauly.
  15. ^ "Rev. John Farquharson, Priest of Strathglass", by Colin Chisholm, The Celtic Magazine, Volume 7, 1882, pp. 142-143.
  16. ^ The Part Played by the People of Strathglass in the Survival and Revival of the Faith in the Highlands by Flora Forbes (written for the 150th Anniversary of St Mary's Church in Eskadale, in 1977).
  17. ^ "Rev. John Farquharson, Priest of Strathglass", by Colin Chisholm, The Celtic Magazine, Volume 7, 1882, pp. 143-144.
  18. ^ Malcolm MacLennan (2001), Gaelic Dictionary/Faclair Gàidhlig, Mercat and Acair. Pages 27, 85.
  19. ^ "Rev. John Farquharson, Priest of Strathglass", by Colin Chisholm, The Celtic Magazine, Volume 7, 1882, pp. 143-144.
  20. ^ Michael Newton (2001), We're Indians Sure Enough: The Legacy of the Scottish Highlanders in the United States, Saorsa Media. Page 32.
  21. ^ MacWilliam, A. S. (1973). A Highland mission: Strathglass, 1671-1777. IR xxiv. pp. 75–102.
  22. ^ Charles MacDonald (2011), Moidart: Among the Clanranalds, Birlinn Limited, pp. 176-180.
  23. ^ Tanner 2004, p. 34.
  24. ^ Angus MacLellan (1997), The Furrow Behind Me, Birlinn Limited. Pages 25–26, 42–43, 196–198.
  25. ^ Our Lady of Mercy Roman Catholic Church, Breadalbane Heritage Society.
  26. ^ "Bishop Hugh Gilbert at a special dedication Mass, to Bless the New Outdoor Altar at The Shrine of The Immaculate Conception". St Mary's Inverness. Retrieved 12 March 2018.
  27. ^ a b "Mass rocks proposal could revive 17th century tradition". Connaught Telegraph. 23 May 2020. Retrieved 10 May 2024. A Mass rock (Carraig an Aifrinn) was a rock used as an altar in mid-17th century Ireland as a location for Catholic Mass
  28. ^ a b c Nugent 2013, p. 5.
  29. ^ a b "An Raibh tú ar an gCarraig?". joeheaney.org. Archived from the original on 14 December 2013. Retrieved 23 September 2021.
  30. ^ Nugent 2013, p. 3-4.
  31. ^ Shields, H. (2009). Narrative Singing in Ireland: Lays, Ballads, Come-All-Yes and Other Songs. Irish Academic Press. p. 83. ISBN 9780716524625.
  32. ^ Seamus MacManus (1921), The Story of the Irish Race, Barnes & Noble. pp. 462-463.
  33. ^ Nugent 2013, p. 149.
  34. ^ Nugent 2013, p. 143.
  35. ^ Nugent 2013, pp. 80–81.
  36. ^ Verling, Martin, ed. (2003). Beara Woman Talking: The Lore of Peig Minihane. Folklore from the Beara Peninsula. Cork: Mercier Press. pp. 40–45.
  37. ^ Tanner 2004, p. 82: "the Synod of Thurles in 1851 [..] was a clericalist manifesto, aimed at stamping out any lingering, semi-pagan remnants [..] Now that Catholics no longer had to [..] resort to open-air 'mass rocks', the church reformers wanted religious activity returned to church buildings [..replacing..] trips to holy wells and [..] shrines, which degenerated into carnivals after nightfall".
  38. ^ Denis Power (1992). Archaeological Inventory of County Cork, Volume 3: Mid Cork, 1997, Duchas The Heritage Society. ISBN 0-7076-4933-1
  39. ^ "Historic Environment Viewer". National Monuments Service. Retrieved 27 March 2020. [Filter dataset "National Monuments Service" and Type "Mass-rock", "Mass-rock (current location)", and/or "Penal Mass station"]
  40. ^ "Buildings Search: Mass rock". Buildings of Ireland. National Inventory of Architectural Heritage. Retrieved 27 March 2020.
  41. ^ "How 'Mass rocks' are renewing the faith in Ireland". thetablet.co.uk. The Tablet (The International Catholic News Weekly). Retrieved 22 September 2021.
  42. ^ O'Sullivan, Humphrey; De Bhaldraithe, Tomás (1979). The Diary of Humphrey O'Sullivan, 1827-1837: A Translation of Cín Lae Amhlaoibh. pp. 44–45.
  43. ^ Nugent 2013, p. 258.
  44. ^ Shine 1992, pp. 68–70.
  45. ^ a b Nugent 2013, pp. 152–154.
  46. ^ Shine 1992, p. 19.
  47. ^ a b "History of Bonane - Inse an t-Sagairt". Bonane Heritage Park. Retrieved 18 May 2023.
  48. ^ a b "Inse an tSagairt". holywellscorkandkerry.com. Holy Wells of Cork & Kerry. 10 November 2017.
  49. ^ a b "The Mass Rock at Inse an tSagairt". bonanekenmare.ie.
  50. ^ Shine 1992, pp. 19–21, 86.
  51. ^ Shine 1992, pp. 110–113.
  52. ^ "St. Feaghna's Church". bonanekenmare.ie. Retrieved 26 May 2024. Rev Eugene Daly [..] passed away in January 2001. Fr Daly had a great love for the Mass Rock at Inse an tSagairt [..] He was instrumental in negotiating with the forestry service to open it to the public
  53. ^ Shine 1992, pp. 86.
  54. ^ Shine 1992, pp. 19–21.
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