Above : Picture Of Saint Finan

They had, also, a great love of nature, and, as Dr. Eealy notes, a very keen perception of the grandeur and beauty of God’s universe. ” The voice of the storm and the strength of the sea, the majesty of lofty mountains and the glory of summer woods, spoke to their hearts even more eloquently than the voice of the preacher, or the writing on their parchments.” They loved all the beauties of the natural world about them which manifested the glory of the Creator of all things, and they learned to know the invisible things of God from the visible things that He had made. They chose positions of great natural beauty as the sites for their churches and monasteries. Sometimes individual saints chose remote or in¬accessible places where they could live in uninterrupted communion with God and Nature, and built their oratories on uninhabited islands off the coast, or in lakes. St. Domangart had his cell on the summit of Slieve Donard, and St. Brandon lived for a time on the summit of Mount Brandon. St. Finan had his hermitage on an island in Lough Lee in Kerry, and St. Finbarr’s first foundation was at lone Gongane Barra. St. Finan founded a monastery on the Skelligs, and Aran Mor was known as ‘Aran of the Saints.’

Akin to their love of nature- was their love of birds and animals. St. Patrick was in this, as in so many other respects their exemplar. The Irish life of the Saint tells that as he was going with Daire to mark out the site of his church at Armagh, they came upon a doe and her fawn lying beneath a tree. The startled doe fled away, and the king’s attendants were about to kill the fawn, but St. Patrick interfered and saved it. Taking it gently upon his shoulders he bore it away, and the little animal’s mother followed the Saint to a place of refuge. Tradition tells us that the squirrels and doves nestled in the hands of St. Columbanus and that the birds used to come to St.Kevin and alight on his shoulders to sing him their sweetest songs. St. Columcille had a pet crane, which followed him on his walks about the monastery, and another story tells of how a wounded bird from Ireland was carried by the tempest to Iona; and of how the Saint cared and tended it, and set it free to return homewards when the storm had abated. St. Brendan had a pet crow, and St. Column had a tame flock ot ducks that came and went at his call. There is a beautiful legend that St. Ciaran of Saighir formed his first community of animals. On the margin of an ancient manuscript from the monastery of St. Gall there were found verses which an Irish monk composed in praise of the song of a blackbird which had interrupted him in his task of glossing.

Below: Picture Of Monastery That Build By Saint Ciaran