Journal

ST. MALACHY

03 November 2010

ST. MALACHY
FEASTDAY 3rd NOV

Two things, says St. Bernard, made Malachy a saint, perfect meekness (which is always founded in sincere profound humility) and a lively faith: by the first, he was dead to himself; by the second, his soul was closely united to God in the exercises of assiduous prayer and contemplation.  It is only by the same means we can become saints.  How perfectly Malachy was dead to himself, appeared by his holding the metropolitical dignity so long as it was attended with extraordinary dangers and tribulations, and by his quitting it as soon as he could enjoy it in peace: how entirely he was dead to the world, he showed by his love of sufferings and poverty, and by the state of voluntary privations and self-denial, in which he lived in the midst of prosperity, being always poor to himself, and rich to the poor, as he is styled by St. Bernard.  In him this father draws the true character of a good pastor, when he tells us, that self-love and the world were crucified in his heart, and that he joined the closest interior solitude with the most diligent application to all the exterior functions of his ministry.  He seemed to live wholly to himself, yet so devoted to the service of his neighbour as if he lived wholly for them.  So perfectly did neither charity withdraw him from the strictest watchfulness over himself, nor the care of his own soul hinder him in any thing from attending to the service of others.  If you saw him amidst the cares and functions of his pastoral charge, you would say he was born for others, not for himself.  Yet if you considered him in his retirement, or observed his constant recollection you would think that he lived only to God and himself.

The lives of the fathers, martyrs, and other principal saints by Alban Butler (p.64)

CHRONOLOGY
1094   Born in Armagh
1114   Disciple of Ivor
1118   Deacon
1119   Priest
1120   Vicar General of Armagh
1122   Lismore Monastery for training and study
1124   Elected Bishop of Down and Connor
1127   Back in Lismore
1128   Established a monastery in Kerry
1129   Archbishop of Armagh
1134   Started his ministry as Archbishop
1137   Resigned in Armagh and retired to Down to lead a monastic life.
1140   Pilgrimage to Rome to ask for the pallium for the Archbishops of Armagh and Cashel
1142   Cistercians to Mellifont
1148   Set out on second pilgrimage to Rome
1148   Died in Clairvaux
1190   Canonised

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