Jan 22 Colman of Lismore d. 702

Thom and Jack
Good morning, I love you

[101211, 0932] after reading the news & record then online perusing the Times and Post and WSJ, I figured a quick entry with the brief bioblog on Colman would bring a quick end to my avoiding the lesson plan I have to finish for tomorrow. Alas, the best laid plans….

Angelsandsaints gives us only 20 words on Colman of Lismore. So, I googled him. I got 1100 words at Brigid-undertheoak.blogspot.com. I recommend you peruse her work about Irish saints. Or go directly to her primary source: John O’Hanlon’s Lives of the Irish Saints.


January 23

Colman of Lismore d. 702

Abbot bishop of the monastery of Lismore, Ireland. He succeeded St. Hierlug in 698. So. There you have it. The life of a saint in 14 words. How many words will it take to tell your story? When you walk around a hospital, there are some people with wads of keys. Some have to carry their keys on a metal ring hooked to their belt. People with the keys to the kingdom are important. It would seem that the more keys the more important. Not so, not so! The person who can get around the hospital with only one key not only demonstrates the talents of his keymaster but is the most important person in the place. Until, of course, he gets a visit from the man who gets around the hospital, into every nook and cranny, without any keys. Will your life story be told without any words?

And then, we have:
Brigid-undertheoak.blogspot.com

Colman, a teacher of the monastic school at Lismore.

Colman was the son of Finnbar. I’ve always loved that name. Finbar! You gotta say it outloud to get the full effect. A big, burly man. With a full fu man chu mustasche. A barrel chested man with a booming voice. Finnbar!

Colman, son of Finnbar, was born the child of a Ri of the county Cork in Youghall. We start the tale of every man with his lineage. His paternity. His clan. His hometown – in your cases we’d add where you were baptized.

Colman entered the monastery of Linsmore as a young man. The son of a Ri went to a celebrated monastery, of course. According to O’Hanlon, Colman was distinguished for all those virtues of which he made profession. For which virtues are you known. Which virtues have you professed? Which virtues have you taken to heart to make your own; to remake yourself?

Lismore was a celebrated isle of sanctity and learning. I suggest to you that the two are inseparable. To tear them apart, especially for high school students, is a high risk disservice to the children.

Lismore offered the world a home for many holy prelates, abbots, and religious to receive their education and training. A unified blessing of the holy and the profane. This university city, a holy place, welcomed the laity as well to study under the rectors and masters. St Oengus wrote that there were over 800 monks there under Colman’s tutelage.

St Hierlog was the abbot-bishop under whom Colman offered his first vows. He succeeded the holy abbot in January 698. To the extent that Hierlog was a holy magnet for people of faith who wanted to learn, Colman was moreso. From all parts of the country people came to acquire the knowledge that makes wise unto salvation, with the learning which was destined to procure them distinction in other walks of life.

To whom do you go for learning? It’s important the who and the where. The leader and the peers. Understand Linsmore under Colman and you will have formidable criteria for selecting your places of study.

In O’Hanlon’s words: “Its school is said to have attained a higher degree of reputation than any other in Ireland. Besides numerous holy men, who sought a refuge from the world in this retreat for wisdom and sanctity, and who lived in seclusion and penance within its monastery, many others were called forth from its enclosure, to adorn stations of dignity and importance in the Irish Church.” A Catholic Harvard of seventh and eighth century Ireland – only moreso. How are you transforming your education into the kind of personal product that Colman mentored at Linsmore?

Colman was the spiritual father of many monks and an instructor of many prelates. These exhibited in their lives and actions the excellence of that discipline and training, to which they had been subjected.

Not only are we students but also teachers. We teach by our presence. We affect those around us. What kind of spiritual father are you? What impact are you having on those into whose lives you intrude? More important, when you hold yourself out to be a teacher, and people come to you to learn, how do you offer sanctity and wisdom and knowledge? Yes, in that order. What’s most important should always come first.

I love you
Dad
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