USMOBI
284
LX8M0BE
in 1841. Their first two children were taken to
Sydney (450 miles by sea) to be baptized. In 1859
Grafton (then with a population of about 1800) was
incorporated as a borough. There was no resident
priest in any part of the present diocese till 1862,
and the ruggea and sparsely populated North Coast
(as it is called) was visited occasionally from Sydney,
Ipswich (Queensland), and annually from Armidale,
from March, 1854, till 1862.
The first church on the North Coast was opened at South Grafton ou 23 September, 1857, at a cost of £100. Archbishop Folding paid his first visit to these outl>dng parts of his see in 1860, and two years later the first resident priest (Rev. Timothy McCarthy) took up his quarters in the principal town, Grafton, his parochial charge extending — till Tenterfield re- ceived a resident priest in 1866--from Coff's Harbour to the Tweed Heads, and from Tenterfield to Ballina. In 1869 the territory of the present See of Lismore was included in the newly formed Diocese of Armidale. The pioneer religious of the Lismore diocese (the Sisters of Mercy) reached Grafton in 1884. By Brief of 10 May, 1887, Grafton was erected into an episcopal see, and the Right Revr Jeremiah Joseph I)oyle, then in charge of Lismore, was shortly afterwards (28 August, 1887) consecrated its first bishop in St. Mary's cathedral, Sydney. He chose Lismore as his residence (later on, the name of the diocese was changed to Lismore) . In 1878 there were only three Catholic families and a scanty population in Lismore, but, owing to the richness of its soil, the district has since then progressed at a rapid rate. The foundation stone of the new cathedral was laid on Rosary Sunday, 1892, and the edifice was completed in 19(fe. Bishop Doyle died suddenly, 4 June, 1909. Rev. John Carroll, of Moss Vale, Australia, bom at Piltown. Kilkenny, Ireland, 1866, and ordained at The College, Carlow, 1890, was consecrated bishop 4 April, 1910. There were in the Diocese of Lismore, at the close of 1909, 19 parochial districts, 51 churches, 20 secular priests, 104 nuns, 6 boarding schools, and 6 superior day schools for girls, 11 primary parochial scnools, 1907 children receiving Catholic education, and about 19,500 Cathohcs in a total white popula- tion of some 80,000.
MoRAN, Hilary of the Catholic Church in AuHralatia (Sydnov. 8. d.); Sj/dney Freeman's Journal i,&\e9); Australasian Catholic Directory, HenBY W. CleaRY.
Lismore, School op. — As the School of Armagh in the North of Ireland, and that of Clonmacnoise in the centre, so the School of Lismore was the most celc- brate<l in the South of Ireland. It was founded in the year 635 by St. Carthach the Younger, in a most
Eicturesque site, steeply rising from the southern ank of the Blackwater. Its founder had spent nearly forty years of his monastic life in the monjistery of Rahan on the southern borders of ancient Meatn, in what is now King's County. He dearly loved that monastery which he had founded, and which he fondly hope O'Curry — ^who has no doubt of its authenticity — and is beyond doubt one of the most interesting and im- portant documents of the early Irish Church.
But Lismore produced a still more famous saint and scholar, the great St. Cathaldus of Tarentum. His Irish name was Cathal, and it appears he was bom at a place called Rathan, not far from Lismore. Our Irish annals t«ll us nothing of St. Cathaldus, because he went abroad early in life, but the brothers Morini of his adopted home give us many particulars. They tell us he was a native of Hibemia — bom at Rathan in Momonia — that he studied at Lismore, and became bishop of his native territory of Rathan, but that afterwards, inspired by the love of missionary enter- prise, he made his way to Jerusalem, and on his return was, with his companions, wrecked at Tarentum — ^the "beautiful Tarentum" — at the heel of Italy. Its pleasure-loving inhabitants, forgetting the Goa)el preached to them by St. Peter and St. Mark, had be- come practically pagans when Cathaldus and his com- panions were cast upon their shores. Seeing the city given up to vice and sensuality, the Irish prelate preached with great fervour, and wrought many mira- cles, so that the Tarentines gave up their sinful ways, and from that day to this have recognized the Irish Cathaldus as their patron saint, and greatlv venerate his tomb, which was found intact in the old cathedral as far back as the year 1 140, with his name " Cathal- dus Rachan" inscribed upon a cross therein. An- other distinguished scholar of Lismore, and probably its second abbot, was St. Cuanna, most likely the hatf- brother and successor of the founder. He was bom at Kilcoonagh, or Killcooney, a parish near Headford in the County Galway which takes its name from him. No doubt he went to Lismore on account of his close connexion with St. Carthach, and for the same reason was chosen to succeed him in the school of Lismore. Colgan thought that the ancient but now lost " Book of Cuanach", cited in the " Annals of Lister", but not later than a. d. 628, was the work of this St. Cuanna of Kilcooney and Lismore. It is also said that Aldfrid, King of Northumbria, spent some time at the school of Lismore, for he visited most of the famous schools of Erin towards the close of the seventh century, and at that time Lismore was one of the most cde- brat«d. It was a place of pilgrimage also, and many Irish princes gave up the sceptre and returned to Lis- more to end their lives in prayer and penance. There, too, by his own desire, was interred St. Celsus of Armagh, who died at Ardpatrick, but directed that he should be buried in Lismore — but we have sought in vain for any trace of liis monument.
Two interesting memorials of Lismore are fortu- nately still preserved. The first is the crosier of Lis- more, fomicl accidentally in Lismore Castle in the year 1814. The inscription tells us that it was made for Niall Mac Mic Aeducan, Bishop of Lismore, 1090- 1 1 13, by Neclan the artist . This refers to the making of the case or slirine, which enclosed an old oak stick, the original crosier of the founder. Most of the orna- ments are richly gilt, interspersed with others of silver and niello^ and bosses of coloured enamels. The second is the "Book of Lismore" found in the castle at the same time with the crosier, enclosed in a wooden box in a built-up doorway. The castle was built so long ago as 1185 by Prince John. Afterwards the bishops of Lismore came to live there, and no doubt both crosier and book belonged to the bishops and were hidden for security in troublesome times. The Book of Lismore contains a very valuable series of the lives of our Irish saints, written in the finest medieval Irish. It was in 1890 admirably translated into Eng- lish by Dr. Whitley Stokes,
