Being prepared, like Saint Michael, to ponder ‘Who is like the Lord God?’

Saint Michael with the whales in a window depicting the story of Saint Brendan in Saint Michael’s Church, Sneem, Co Kerry (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2020)

Patrick Comerford

Tuesday 29 September 2020

Saint Michael and All Angels

11 a.m.: The Festal Eucharist (Holy Communion 2)

Saint Mary’s Church, Askeaton, Co Limerick

Readings: Genesis 28: 10-17; Psalm 103: 19-22; Revelation 12: 7-12; John 1: 47-51.

Skellig Michael seen from Valentia Island (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2020)

May I speak to you in the name of God, + Father, Son and Holy Spirit, Amen.

The name Michael (Hebrew: מִיכָאֵל‎, Mîkhā'ēl; Greek: Μιχαήλ, Mikhaíl) means ‘who is like El (God)?’ It is meant to be a question: ‘Who is like the Lord God?’

The name was said to have been the war-cry of the angels in the battle fought in heaven against Satan and his followers.

There are few references to Saint Michael by name in the Bible (Daniel 10: 13, 21, 12: 1; Jude 9; Revelation 12: 7-9; see also Revelation 20: 1-3). Yet he has inspired great works in our culture, from John Milton’s Paradise Lost to Jacob Epstein’s powerful sculpture at Coventry Cathedral and poems by Philip Larkin and John Betjeman.

In all our imagery, in all our poetry, in stained glass windows throughout these islands, Saint Michael is depicted and seen as crushing or slaying Satan, often Satan as a dragon.

Culturally, today’s feast day of Saint Michael and All Angels has been an important day for the Church: the beginning of terms, the end of the harvest season, the settling of accounts.

As we went picking blackberries around Ballysteen in recent days, I was reminded how, as children in West Waterford, we were told that Michaelmas Day is the last day for picking blackberries. It is a superstition shared across the islands, from Achill to Lichfield, from Wexford to Essex and Cambridge.

This is a day to allow the mind to wander back to childhood memories, and a time for contemplation and unstructured prayers, giving thanks for the beauty of creation. It is a day to think about and to give thanks for beginnings and endings, for starting and finishing, for openings and closings, for memories and even for forgetfulness.

Yet Michael is mentioned by name in the Bible only in the Book of Daniel, the Epistle of Saint Jude and in the Book of Revelation.

After a period of fasting by Daniel, Michael appears as ‘one of the chief princes’ (Daniel 10: 13). Michael contends for Israel and is the ‘great prince, the protector of your (Daniel’s) people’ (Daniel 10: 21, 12: 1).

In the Epistle of Saint Jude (verse 9), Michael contends with the Devil over the body of Moses, a story also found in the Midrash. In the Book of Revelation (Revelation 12: 7-12), we read of the war that ‘broke out in heaven’ between Michael and his angels and the dragon.

In the early Church, Saint Michael is associated with the care of the sick, an angelic healer and heavenly physician associated with medicinal springs, streams and rivers.

In the Middle Ages, he became the patron of warriors, and later the patron of police officers, soldiers, paratroopers, mariners, paramedics, grocers, the Ukraine, the German people, of many cities, including Brussels, Coventry and Kiev. It was only later that he became identified with Marks and Spencer.

Saint Michael was popular in the early Irish monastic tradition, and legends in Co Kerry – as I found out during my travels this summer – associate him with Skellig Michael and with guarding Saint Brendan during his sea voyages.

In the modern world, where angels and archangels are often the stuff of fantasy, science fiction and new-age babble, it is worth reminding ourselves about some Biblical and traditional values associated with Saint Michael and the Angels. Angels are nothing more than – but nothing less than – the messengers of God, the bringers of good news.

Saint Michael’s virtues – standing up for God’s people and their rights, taking a clear stand against manifest evil, firmly opposing oppressive violence and political corruption, while always valuing forbearance and mercy, clemency and justice – are virtues we should always keep before us.

There is no special preface in the Book of Common Prayer for the Eucharist at Michaelmas because in the Preface to the Eucharist we already declare: ‘And so with all your people, with angels and archangels and with all the company of heaven, we proclaim your great and glorious name, for ever praising you and saying ...’

In his poem ‘At the chiming of light upon sleep,’ first drafted on Saint Michael’s Day 1946, the poet Philip Larkin links Michaelmas and a lost paradise with chances and opportunities he failed to take in his youth.

We should always be prepared, like Saint Michael and the angels to ask and to answer the question: ‘Who is like the Lord God?’ and to join the whole company of heaven in proclaiming God’s great and glorious name.

In a world that is increasingly filled with hatred and injustice, in a world witnessing the rise of political populism and right-wing racism, we are called once again to follow Saint Michael’s example, to took stock, even to take the opportunity to believe that things can be ‘on earth as it is in heaven.’

And so, may all we think, say and do be to the praise, honour and glory of God, + Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Amen.

‘You will see heaven opened and the angels of God ascending and descending’ (John 1: 51) … an angel in stucco work on shop façade in Sneem, Co Kerry (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2020)

John 1: 47-51 (NRSVA):

47 When Jesus saw Nathanael coming towards him, he said of him, ‘Here is truly an Israelite in whom there is no deceit!’ 48 Nathanael asked him, ‘Where did you come to know me?’ Jesus answered, ‘I saw you under the fig tree before Philip called you.’ 49 Nathanael replied, ‘Rabbi, you are the Son of God! You are the King of Israel!’ 50 Jesus answered, ‘Do you believe because I told you that I saw you under the fig tree? You will see greater things than these.’ 51 And he said to him, ‘Very truly, I tell you, you will see heaven opened and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of Man.’

An image of Saint Michael vanquishing the devil in stained-glass window in a church in Clonmel, Co Tipperary (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2020)

Liturgical colour: White

Penitence:

Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts;
the whole earth is full of his glory.
Lord, have mercy.
Lord, have mercy.

Woe is me, for I am lost;
I am a person of unclean lips.
Christ, have mercy.
Christ, have mercy.

Your guilt is taken away,
And your sin is forgiven.
Lord, have mercy.
Lord, have mercy.

The Collect of the Day:

Everlasting God,
you have ordained and constituted the ministries
of angels and mortals in a wonderful order:
Grant that as your holy angels always serve you in heaven,
so, at your command,
they may help and defend us on earth;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Introduction to the Peace:

Hear again the song of angels:
Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace. (Luke 2: 14)

The Post-Communion Prayer (Saint Michael):

Lord of heaven,
in this Eucharist you have brought us near
to an innumerable company of angels
and to the spirits of the saints made perfect.
As in this food of our earthly pilgrimage
we have shared their fellowship,
so may we come to share their joy in heaven;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.

The Blessing:

The God of all creation
guard you by his angels,
and grant you the citizenship of heaven:

Saint Michael’s Church, Waterville, Co Kerry (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2020)

Hymns:

346, Angel voices, ever singing (CD 21)
332, Come let us join our cheerful song (CD 20)

Scripture quotations are from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicised Edition copyright © 1989, 1995, National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide. http://nrsvbibles.org

Material from the Book of Common Prayer is copyright © 2004, Representative Body of the Church of Ireland.

Picking blackberries in Ballysteen, near Askeaton, before Saint Michael’s Day (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2020)

Two Gothic Revival parish churches in Buttevant, Co Cork

Saint Mary’s Roman Catholic parish church, the dominant building on the streets of Buttevant, Co Cork, was designed by Charles Cotterel (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2020)

Patrick Comerford

Following my visit to Liscarroll and Liscarroll Castle at the end of last week, I continued on to the neighbouring town of Buttevant in north Co Cork.

Buttevant has a lengthy and interesting religious heritage. The old Gaelic name for the town, Cill na Mullach, means ‘Church on the Hillcocks’ or ‘Church on the Summits’ and was rendered in Latin as Ecclesia Tumulorum.

The survival of this Irish name indicates a church heritage in Buttevant that long predates the arrivals of the de Barry family and the Anglo-Normans at the turn of the 12th and 13th centuries.

Several other Irish placenames have been assigned to Buttevant by successive officials, including Cill na mBeallach, Cill na Mollach, and, more recently, Cill na Mallach, which might signify ‘the Church of the Curse,’ leading to confusion with nearby Killmallock in Co Limerick.

It was natural that I should visit the main ecclesiastical sites in Buttevant, including Saint Mary’s Roman Catholic parish church, Saint John’s Church of Ireland parish church, and the ruins of the Franciscan and Augustinian friaries.

Saint Mary’s Church stands within the site of the mediaeval Franciscan friary (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2020)

One of the principal architectural features on the Main Street in Buttevant is Saint Mary’s Roman Catholic parish church. The foundation stone for this church was laid just two years after Catholic Emancipation in 1829. The Church was built with locally sourced fine limestone and took five years to complete.

The site, adjoining the ruins of the mediaeval Franciscan friary, was donated to the parish by Lord Doneraile, and the Board of Works provided a grant of £600. Saint Mary’s was designed by the Cork architect Charles Cotterel in the Gothic Perpendicular style, similar in style to Saint John’s, the neighbouring Church of Ireland parish church which was built in 1826.

Charles Cotterel – whose name is also spelt Cottrell and Cotterell – was working as an architect in Cork from the 1820s until the 1860s. He may have been the son of Edward Francis Cottrell, architect of Hanover Street, Cork.

He is listed as a builder or architect at Wandesford Bridge in Pigot’s Directory (1824) and as an architect in the Cork Constitution (1831), and in directories in 1842-1843, 1846 and 1863. His other works include a design for a steeple for Christ Church, Cork, and he was the architect of the Franciscan Church in Grattan Street, Cork (1830).

Saint Mary’s Church, Buttevant, was built and completed in two distinct phases between 1824 and 1864 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2020)

Saint Mary’s is the dominant building on the streets of Buttevant, standing in an interesting position between two terraces of houses and shops. Cotterel’s design makes full use of the site and incorporates a mediaeval watch tower from the Franciscan friary, at the east side.

Previously, Buttevant’s penal church was in Mill Lane, near the Mill. During a visit in 1828, Bishop Collins said, ‘the chapel was almost a ruin.’

Saint Mary’s was built and completed in two distinct phases between 1824 and 1864, and Father Cornelius Buckley was a driving force in this project.

Father Cornelius Buckley was a driving force in building Saint Mary’s Church, Buttevant (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2020)

It was difficult to find a suitable site for the church. Canon law did not permit a church site without freehold status to be consecrated as holy ground or to build a church on it. John Anderson had owned the manor of Buttevant and his bankruptcy caused confusion regarding the ownership and ancient rights of the property.

However, by 1831, Lord Doneraile had bought the Manor of Buttevant and donated the site for a new church.

The site included the ruins of the Franciscan friary with its graveyard to the north of the friary, in what had been its cloister, as well as the ruins of a Desmond tower and the vacant lots on the Main Street between two existing terraces.

Inside Saint Mary’s Church, Buttevant (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2020)

A building committee was formed in 1829 to raise funds for the project. The initial estimate of £3,000 underestimated the scale of the project and merely built the walls and roof. The foundation stone was laid in 1831, the building was completed by Christmas 1835 and the church was consecrated on 6 October 1836.

The fundraising efforts continued, including a celebrity sermon by the temperance campaigner Father Theobald Mathew in December 1842.

But the Great Famine (1845-1849) intervened and the project stopped for several years.

The chancel window in Saint Mary’s Church, Buttevant (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2020)

A second building committee was formed to complete the church. Richard Brash was contracted in June 1855 to complete the interior of Saint Mary’s. This included building the sacristy and completing the interior by laying out the chancel, installing the ceiling and providing tracery and glass for three of the main windows.

Other additions included two side altars, 12 gothic seats and removing the bell from the new tower to the old one. The committee also enclosed the church grounds.

Due to the constraints of the site, the church is aligned on a north-south axis rather than the traditional east-west liturgical axis.

Saint Mary’s has a three-stage bell tower (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2020)

Saint Mary’s has a three-bay nave, a three-stage bell tower to street, west elevation, a 15th-century tower to the east elevation and a gable-fronted sacristy addition at the west elevation.

The features include the clock on the west tower, pointed arch windows with chamfered surrounds, sills, hood-mouldings and stained glass. There is panelled tracery in the windows in the transepts and the south gable, double-light windows in the nave, lancet arch windows in the tower, timber louvers blind windows, pointed windows, pointed arch chamfered door openings with carved timber panelled doors, and a Tudor arch door opening.

The Tudor arch door at Saint Mary’s Church, Buttevant (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2020)

There are decorative floor tiles, a limestone threshold, a marble altar, altar rail and steps, and a mosaic floor, and a ribbed depressed Tudor arch ceiling with gold-leaf render decoration.

The retention of original features such as the carved timber panelled doors, the stained-glass windows and the intricate stonework, add character and charm to this building and to the town.

Saint John’s Church, beside Buttevant Castle, stands on the site of two earlier churches – one dedicated to Saint Brigid and the other to the Virgin Mary (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2020)

The earlier and now-closed Church of Ireland parish church, Saint John’s Church, is at the south end of the town, just off the Main Street and close to Buttevant Castle.

Saint John’s was built in 1826 and was designed in the Gothic Perpendicular style by the Limerick-based architect James Pain (1779-1877) and his brother George Richard Pain (1793-1838), who was based in Cork.

The church stands on a site that has been of religious significance in Buttevant for centuries, with the ruins of not one but two previous churches on the site – one dedicated to Saint Brigid and the other to the Virgin Mary.

Saint John’s Church was built in 1826 on the site of an older church, Saint Mary’s, that was built ca 1698.

Saint John’s was built at a time when John Anderson (1747-1820) and his son, James Caleb Anderson (1792-1861), were responsible for the increased wealth and redevelopment of Buttevant.

Saint John’s cost £1,476 18s to build and was financed by local contributions and a loan from the Board of First Fruits.

In his Topographical Dictionary (1837), Samuel Lewis describes Saint John’s: ‘The church is a handsome structure in the later English style, with a square embattled tower surmounted by a finely proportioned spire: it is situated near the river and within the castle demesne, and was built in 1826, near the site of an ancient church, of which there are still some remains, and on the site of another of more recent date …’

Saint John’s Church was built in 1826 in the Gothic Perpendicular style, designed by the brothers James Pain and George Richard Pain (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2020)

Saint John’s became the church for the larger Buttevant Union, and Bregoge, Kilbroney and Cahirduggan had joined the Buttevant Union in 1820. Several families from Doneraile, including Viscount Doneraile, the Revd F Crofts and James Grove White, joined the Buttevant community following an argument with their rector in Doneraile, the Revd H Somerville.

The south-facing window depicting the Sermon on the Mount is said to be the work of Stephen Adams Junior, whose father was a renowned stained-glass artist and designer and co-founder of the School of Arts and Crafts at Glasgow. The window is dedicated to those ‘who formerly worshipped in this Church,’ and contains a section of the window from Rheims Cathedral that was destroyed during World War I.

Saint John’s Church also has an early 18th century hatchment that was have originally in the now demolished church in Kilbolane, near Milford. The Kilbolane Hatchment has been identified it as the impaled arms of the Very Revd Jonathan Bruce and his wife, Mary (Prytherick). Bruce was curate of Kilbolane from 1708 to 1729, and also Dean of Kilfenora. Mary Bruce, for whom the hatchment was made, died in 1731.

Saint John’s continued in use until it was partially closed in 1980. It is now under the care of the Friends of Saint John’s who maintain it and use it for community events.

Saint John’s Church is under the care of the Friends of Saint John’s (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2020)

How the Tierney brothers from Rathkeale became part of Regency court life

Liscarroll Castle, Co Cork … passed briefly in the 19th century with the Perceval estates to the Tierney family from Rathkeale, Co Limerick (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2020)

Patrick Comerford

The fortunes of the Perceval family and the Tierney family became entwined in the Regency period, and following last Friday’s visit to Liscarroll Castle I came across the story of how the vast Perceval estates in north Cork almost passed to the Tierney family who had more humble origins in Rathkeale, Co Limerick.

On the death of George III, on 29 January 1820, the heir to the throne, the Prince Regent, lay seriously ill and his doctors had little hope of his recovery. On the evening of 2 February, his condition suddenly became critical and he was attended by a young doctor from Rathkeale, Matthew Tierney (1776-1845), who had arrived in London from Brighton. George IV recovered and Dr Tierney was credited with saving his life.

Matthew Tierney and his brother Edward (1780–1856) were the sons of John Tierney of Ballyscanlan, near Rathkeale, Co Limerick, a small farmer and weaver, and his wife Mary, daughter of James Gleeson. Matthew was born on 24 November 1776 and Edward was born in June 1780.

As boys, they received a modest education at a local hedge school, and Matthew was apprenticed to a local pharmacist in Rathkeale.

He left for London, swearing never to return to Rathkeale, and found a position as a pharmacist’s assistant. There he attended evening classes at Guy’s Hospital and at Saint Thomas’s Hospital, Southwark studying under Dr Saunders and Dr Babington.

Matthew Tierney became a great friend of Dr Edward Jenner, who had pioneered the vaccine against smallpox. Through Jenner’s influence, Tierney was admitted to study medicine at Glasgow University.

Tierney graduated in medicine in Glasgow in 1802, having selected cowpock as his inaugural essay. In the summer of 1802 he set up his own medical practice in Brighton, where he contributed materially to the formation of a vaccine institution in that town – the first that was established outside London – and he was admitted a Licentiate of the College of Physicians in 1806.

At Brighton, Tierney was introduced by his patron, Frederick Berkeley, 5th Earl of Berkeley, to the Prince Regent and future King George IV, who soon appointed him physician to his household in Brighton. He was appointed physician extraordinary to the Prince of Wales in 1809, and in 1816 he became physician in ordinary to the Prince Regent.

While Tierney was in practise in Brighton, he was credited with saving the life of the Prince Regent. His fame spread, his practice grew, he was much in favour at court, and he was made a baronet on 3 October 1818, with the title of Sir Matthew Tierney and with the designation ‘of Brighthelmstone and of Dover Street.’

Following the accession of King George IV, he was gazetted physician in ordinary to the king, and he continued in the same office with King William IV, who in 1831 made him a knight commander of the Royal Guelphic Order of Hanover.

Meanwhile, Sir Matthew had no sons to succeed to the title of baronet he had received in 1818. He was made a baronet yet again on 5 May 1834, with the same designation but with a provision this time that the title could be inherited by his brother and his brother’s descendants.

Tierney published his Observations on Variola Vaccina, or Cow Pock in 1840.

He died at his residence on the Pavilion Parade, Brighton, on 28 October 1845 and was buried in his family vault at Saint Nicholas’s Rest Garden.

Meanwhile, his brother Edward Tierney, who was born in Limerick in June 1780, was apprenticed to a solicitor in Limerick, was admitted to King’s Inns in 1798, and and was called to the bar ca 1806. When his mother died on 2 February 1809, he was living at 2 Catherine Street, Limerick.

He practised as a solicitor in Dublin and kept in touch with his brother in England.

Sir Matthew Tierney married Harriet Mary Jones, daughter of Henry Jones of Bloomsbury Square, London, in 1808 and in 1812 Edward married her sister, Anna Maria Jones, in Saint George’s Church, Hanover Square, London. By then, Edward Tierney was living in a large house at 48 Thomas Street, Limerick. Each bride had a fortune of more than £20,000.

Sir Matthew’s influence with the King procured for his brother, Edward, the appointment of Crown Solicitor for Ulster with a salary of £10,000 a year. Edward visited his brother on several occasions and in court circles in London and Brighton he was introduced to Bridget Wynn, daughter of Glyn Wynn and Countess of Egmont, the beautiful wife of John Perceval, 4th Earl of Egmont.

When Edward Tierney’s first son was born, Lady Egmont and her son Henry were his sponsors, and he was named Perceval Tierney. Lord Egmont appointed Edward Tierney as his agent at his Irish estates in 1823, including Liscarroll Castle and thousands of acres around Churchtown, Kanturk and Buttevant in north Cork.

Tierney was an able manager and he transformed the estate with great improvements.

John, 4th Earl of Egmont died on 31 December 1835 and was succeeded by his only son, Henry, who was godfather to Edward Tierney’s first son. Henry Perceval (1796-1841), 5th Earl of Egmont, was known for his drunkenness and loose living. He had no heir and when he died in 1841, he left all his estates in England and Ireland to his agent, Edward Tierney, while the family titles passed to his distant cousin, George Perceval (1794-1874), 3rd Lord Arden, who became 6th Earl of Egmont without receiving one penny from his ancestral estates.

Sir Edward Tierney succeeded to his brother’s second title in 1845, and died on 4 June 1856 at the age of 76. The title of baronet passed to his son, Sir Matthew Edward Tierney (1818-1860), as third baronet, but he left his estates to his son-in-law, the Revd Sir Lionel Darell (1817-1883).

The sixth earl went to court against Darrell to recover the estates in a remarkable case before the Summer Assizes at Cork in 1863. After four days, the case was settled. Egmont recovered Liscarroll Castle and his and his ancestral estates, but Darell was awarded £125,000 and costs.

Egmont died on 2 August 1874 and was succeeded by his nephew, Charles George Perceval (1845-1897), 7th Earl of Egmont, who sold the Perceval estates in Co Cork, totalling 62,500 acres, to the tenants under the Ashbourne Land Act in 1895.

Sir Matthew Tierney (1776-1845) and his brother Sir Edward Tierney (1780–1856) were born in Rathkeale, Co Limerick (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)