Mass rock

Sandhill Mass Rock site near Dunfanaghy, County Donegal

Mass Rock on Achill Island, County Mayo

A Mass rock (Irish: Carraig an Aifrinn) was a rock used as an altar by the mid-17th century Catholic Church in Ireland as a location for secret and illegal gatherings of faithful attending the Mass offered by outlawed priests. Similar altars, known as Mass stones, were used by the similarly illegal and underground Catholic Church in Scotland, membership in which was similarly criminalised following the Scottish Reformation in the mid-16th century.

In Ireland, during the religious persecution of the Catholic Church in Ireland that began under Henry VIII and ended only with Catholic Emancipation in 1829, the Irish people, according to Marcus Tanner, clung to the Mass, "crossed themselves when they passed Protestant ministers on the road, had to be dragged into Protestant churches and put cotton wool in their ears rather than listen to Protestant sermons". ^[1] Isolated locations were sought to hold religious ceremonies, as observing the Catholic Mass was a matter of difficulty and danger at the time as a result of the Reformation in Ireland, Cromwell's campaign against the Irish, and the Penal Laws of 1695. Bishops were banished and priests had to register to preach under the 1704 Registration Act. Priest hunters were employed to arrest Catholic priests and nonjuring Vicars of the Scottish Episcopal Church under an Act of 1709.

Scotland

The entrance to Cathedral Cave upon the isle of Eigg, with An Sgùrr in the background.

In Scotland, Mass stones were used by the illegal and underground Catholic Church in Scotland, membership in which had been criminalised following the Scottish Reformation in 1560 and which remained unlawful until Catholic Emancipation in 1829. The locations of many former Mass stones and thatched Mass houses, for example, were established by the research of Dom Odo Blundell of Fort Augustus Abbey and published in his two volume book The Catholic Highlands of Scotland.

On the isle of Eigg, in the Inner Hebrides of Scotland, which was described in 1698 as almost entirely Roman Catholic, ^[2] the laity secretly and illegally attended Mass at a Mass stone inside a large high-roofed coastal cave, which can only be accessed during low tide and which is still known as the "cave of worship" (Scottish Gaelic : Uamh Chràbhaichd; in English Cathedral Cave). ^{[3] [4]}

Due to the "arbitrary and malicious violence" that Hanoverian Redcoats inflicted, the aftermath of the 1746 Battle of Culloden is still referred to in the Highlands and Islands as Bliadhna nan Creach ("The Year of the Pillaging"). ^[5] Throughout this year, posses of Redcoats scoured the Scottish Highlands and Islands, both burning down Mass houses and their Episcopalian equivalents, and arresting Catholic priests en masse. It was common practice for the Redcoats to threaten to burn down all Catholic homesteads and confiscate all locally owned cattle and sheep unless any local priests were either given up or surrendered themselves. ^{[6] [7]}

St. Ninian's Church was built in 1755 as a strictly illegal "Mass house" at Enzie, Moray.

Legacy

Due to the missionary work of Gaelic-speaking Calvinist Elders and to the use of corporal punishment by Lairds against Catholics that has caused Protestantism to be sarcastically dubbed in some other regions the "Religion of the Yellow Stick" (Scottish Gaelic : Creideamh a' bhata-bhuidhe), much of the Highland population defected after Culloden to Presbyterianism. According to Marcus Tanner, "The Highlands, outside tiny Catholic enclaves like in South Uist and Barra, took on the contours they have since preserved - a region marked by a strong tradition of sabbatarianism and a puritanical distaste for instrumental music and dancing, which have only recently regained popular acceptance". ^[8]

The local oral tradition preserved the former locations of Mass stones and Mass houses in at least some regions. For example, according to the autobiography dictated to John Lorne Campbell by South Uist seanchaidh and crofter Angus Beag MacLellan (1869–1966), while working as a hired hand on Robert Menzies' farm near Aberfeldy, Perthshire in the 1880s, MacLellan learned that a Mass stone had stood in the Menzies' farm field since the days when Catholic priests were outlawed in Scotland. A nearby high cross, Menzies added, marked the site of an important college of learning dating from the days of the Celtic Church. Menzies explained that, even though the local population had long since switched to Presbyterianism, former Catholic religious sites were still locally viewed with superstitious awe and were never tampered with. Menzies explained that the term for Mass stones, in the Perthshire dialect, was (Scottish Gaelic : Clachan Ìobairt, lit. "Offering Stones"). ^[9]

Particularly since the 1878 Restoration of the Scottish Catholic hierarchy, the martyrology of the Catholic Church in Scotland during more than three hundred years of religious persecution continues to be investigated.^{[ citation needed ]}

In 1976, Fr. John Ogilvie, who had been arrested while illegally saying Mass at Glasgow and hanged for refusing to take the Oath of Supremacy at Glasgow Cross on 10 March 1615, was canonized as a saint and a martyr by Pope Paul VI. ^{[10] [11]} Although Ogilvie remains the only one of the Scottish Catholic Martyrs under the Post-Reformation religious persecution to be canonized, his fellow martyrs Fr. George Douglas, William Gibson, and Fr. John Ingram have been beatified.^{[ relevant? ]}

Father Alexander Cameron, the younger brother to the 20th Chief of Clan Cameron and outlawed Jesuit priest who served at the secret Mass houses in Lochaber and Strathglass, ^{[12] [13]} may soon be joining their company.^{[ original research? ]} Fr. Cameron, who later served as a military chaplain to the Jacobite Army, was arrested by priest hunters at Morar following the Battle of Culloden in 1746. He died due to inhumane treatment while being held by the Royal Navy without trial aboard a prison hulk anchored in the River Thames. ^{[14] [15]} During the 21st century, the Knights of St. Columba at the University of Glasgow launched a campaign to canonize Fr. Cameron, "with the hope that he will become a great saint for Scotland and that our nation will merit from his intercession". ^{[16] [ better source needed ]} They have erected a small petition book at their altar of St. Joseph in the University Catholic Chapel, Turnbull Hall. It is one of the necessary prerequisites for Canonisation that there is a cult of devotion to the saint. ^{[16] [ better source needed ][ relevant? ]}

Ireland

Use and records

In some instances in Ireland, stones were taken from a church ruin, and relocated to a rural area, with a simple cross carved on its top.^{[ citation needed ]}

Because the observation of Catholic ceremonies at Mass rocks was illegal, such services were not regularly scheduled and parishioners would be obliged to spread the word of them covertly. According to some sources, which were believed by Irish traditional musicians Seamus Ennis and Seosamh Ó hÉanaí, such communication could occur through two coded sets of Irish language lyrics to the Sean Nós song An raibh tú ag an gCarraig . ^{[17] [18]} Other sources question this association. ^{[17] [19]}

According to Irish historian and folklorist ( seanchaí ), Seumas MacManus, "Throughout these dreadful centuries, too, the hunted priest -- who in his youth had been smuggled to the Continent of Europe to receive his training -- tended to the tended the flame of faith. He lurked like a thief among the hills. On Sundays and Feast Days he celebrated Mass at a rock, on a remote mountainside, while the congregation knelt on the heather of the hillside, under the open heavens. While he said Mass, faithful sentries watched from all the nearby hilltops, to give timely warning of the approaching priest-hunter and his guard of British soldiers. But sometimes the troops came on them unawares, and the Mass Rock was bespattered with his blood, -- and men, women, and children caught in the crime of worshipping God among the rocks, were frequently slaughtered on the mountainside." ^[20]

For example, the Mass rock near Kinvara, County Galway, is known in Connaught Irish as Poll na gCeann ("chasm of the heads") and is said to have been the location of a massacre by the soldiers of Oliver Cromwell's New Model Army. Historian Tony Nugent states that, "According to local tradition, there was a college nearby and some of the student monks were killed there by Cromwellian soldiers while attending Mass and their heads were thrown into a nearby chasm". ^[21]

During the Stuart Restoration, Catholic worship generally moved to thatched "Mass houses". Writing in 1668, Janvin de Rochefort commented, "Even in Dublin more than twenty houses where Mass is secretly said, and in about a thousand places, subterranean vaults and retired spots in the woods". ^[22]

Catholic worship, however, was soon to return to the Mass rocks due to the Exclusion Crisis and the anti-Catholic show trials masterminded by Lord Shaftesbury and Titus Oates.

According to a book on the history and folklore of Mass rocks by Tony Nugent, a Catholic priest named Fr. Mac Aidghalle was murdered c. 1681 while saying Mass at a mass rock still known in Ulster Irish as Cloch na hAltorach that stands atop Slieve Gullion, County Armagh. The perpetrators were a company of redcoats under the command of a priest hunter named Turner. Redmond O'Hanlon, the outlawed but de facto Chief of the Name of Clan O'Hanlon and leading local rapparee, is said in local oral tradition to have avenged the murdered priest and in so doing to have "sealed his own fate". ^[23]

The persecution and use of the Mass rocks escalated further following the 1688 overthrow of the House of Stuart, and the passing of the Penal Laws.

Later use

After the successful 1780-1829 fight for Catholic Emancipation and, for example, the 1851 Synod of Thurles, the use of Mass rocks in Ireland declined. ^[24]

Partial data on Mass rock sites is maintained by the Archaeological Survey of Ireland (for pre-1700 sites), ^{[25] [26]} and, to a lesser extent, the National Inventory of Architectural Heritage (for post-1700 sites). ^[27] Some of the Mass rock places may also have been used for patterns.

In later years, the practice of open-air Masses was limited to rural areas in Ireland, and special occasions such as pattern days and Christmas.^{[ citation needed ]} However, in the wake of the Coronavirus pandemic and the restrictions placed on indoor gatherings to address the COVID-19 pandemic in Ireland, Aid to the Church in Need (ACN) Ireland launched an initiative to celebrate Mass at some Mass rocks. ^[28]

Folklore

"February 3, 1828

...There is a lonely path near Uisce Dun and Móinteán na Cisi which is called the Mass Boreen. The name comes from the time when the Catholic Church was persecuted in Ireland, and Mass had to be said in woods and on moors, on wattled places in bogs, and in caves. But as the proverb says, It is better to look forward with one eye than to look backwards with two..." ^[29]

—  Cín Lae Amhlaoibh by Amhlaoibh Ó Súilleabháin (1780 – 1838). Translated by Tomás de Bhaldraithe

According to a book of history and folklore associated with Mass rocks by Tony Nugent, "There is a common story associated with quite a few which relates how the priest was shot or killed at the moment of Transubstantiation. There is a common belief that at this point in the Mass the priest cannot stop for any reason. There are various stories of Protestant neighbours hiding or helping priests. There are stories of miracles, the story of the widow's hunger, happening at these sites, stories of cures and indeed a whole fabric of folklore which if lost would be a cultural tragedy". ^[30]

What was reputedly the last killing of a Catholic priest at a Mass rock allegedly took place at Inse an tSagairt, near Bonane, County Kerry, c.1829. According to the local oral tradition, described in other sources as a "strong folk belief", a local criminal gang, consisting of a woman and five men, conspired to kill a priest and split the £45 bounty among themselves. After capturing the priest, Fr. John O'Neill, during Mass, beheading him at a house near Kenmare, and bringing his severed head to Cork city, the six conspirators learned that Catholic Emancipation had just been signed into law and that no reward would be given. In frustration, the perpetrators reputedly threw Fr. O'Neill's severed head into the River Lee. ^{[31] [32] [33]}

Parallels in other faiths

During the same era in mainland Britain, Puritans, Presbyterians, Quakers, Anabaptists, and other non-Conformists held similarly outlawed Conventicles in defiance of the Royal Supremacy and then of the Protectorate of England under Oliver Cromwell, although they were not religious ceremonies.

For the Lutheran minority during the Counter-Reformation in the Austrian Empire, a similar stone in Paternion was dubbed the hundskirche .

See also

• Irish Catholic Martyrs
• Mass rocks in Clontibret
• Mass rock (Portglenone)

References

Sources

• Nugent, Tony (2013). Were You at the Rock? The History of Mass Rocks in Ireland. Liffey Press. ISBN   9781908308474.
• Tanner, Marcus (2004). The Last of the Celts. Yale University Press. ISBN   9780300115352.

Notes

1. Tanner 2004, pp. 227–228.
2. John Lorne Campbell, "Canna; The Story of a Hebridean Island," Oxford University Press, 1984, pp. 91-92.
3. Massacre and Cathedral Caves, Walk Highlands.
4. Walk: Eigg caves – massacres & masses
5. Michael Newton (2001), We're Indians Sure Enough: The Legacy of the Scottish Highlanders in the United States, Saorsa Media. Page 32.
6. MacWilliam, A. S. (1973). A Highland mission: Strathglass, 1671-1777. IR xxiv. pp. 75–102.
7. Charles MacDonald (2011), Moidart: Among the Clanranalds, Birlinn Limited, pp. 176-180.
8. Tanner 2004, p. 34.
9. Angus MacLellan (1997), The Furrow Behind Me, Birlinn Limited. Pages 25–26, 42–43, 196–198.
10. Solenne canonizzazione in San Pietro del beato Giovanni Ogilvie vatican.va, article in Italian
11. "Irondequoit Catholic Communities – – John Ogilvie". 11 October 2008. Archived from the original on 11 October 2008. Retrieved 14 May 2017.
12. MacWilliam, A. S. (1973). A Highland mission: Strathglass, 1671-1777. Innes Review xxiv. pp. 75–102.
13. Rev. John Farquharson, Priest of Strathglass, by Colin Chisholm, The Celtic Magazine , Volume 7 1882, pp. 141-146.
14. Charles MacDonald (2011), Moidart: Among the Clanranalds, Birlinn Press. Pages 176-177.
15. Thomas Wynne (2011), The Forgotten Cameron of the '45: The Life and Times of Alexander Cameron, S.J., Print Smith, Fort William, Scotland. Pages 57-94.
16. "Knights of St. Columba Council No. 1 – Glasgow University" . Retrieved 24 March 2020– via Facebook.
17. "An Raibh tú ar an gCarraig?". joeheaney.org. Archived from the original on 14 December 2013. Retrieved 23 September 2021.
18. Nugent 2013, p. 3-4.
19. Shields, H. (2009). Narrative Singing in Ireland: Lays, Ballads, Come-All-Yes and Other Songs. Irish Academic Press. p. 83. ISBN   9780716524625.
20. Seamus MacManus (1921), The Story of the Irish Race, Barnes & Noble. pp. 462-463.
21. Nugent 2013, p. 149.
22. Nugent 2013, p. 143.
23. Nugent 2013, pp. 80–81.
24. Tanner 2004, p. 82: "the Synod of Thurles in 1851 [..] was a clericalist manifesto, aimed at stamping out any lingering, semi-pagan remnants [..] Now that Catholics no longer had to [..] resort to open-air 'mass rocks', the church reformers wanted religious activity returned to church buildings [..replacing..] trips to holy wells and [..] shrines, which degenerated into carnivals after nightfall".
25. Denis Power (1992). Archaeological Inventory of County Cork, Volume 3: Mid Cork, 1997, Duchas The Heritage Society. ISBN   0-7076-4933-1
26. "Historic Environment Viewer". National Monuments Service. Retrieved 27 March 2020. [Filter dataset "National Monuments Service" and Type "Mass-rock", "Mass-rock (current location)", and/or "Penal Mass station"]
27. "Buildings Search: Mass rock". Buildings of Ireland. National Inventory of Architectural Heritage. Retrieved 27 March 2020.
28. "How 'Mass rocks' are renewing the faith in Ireland". thetablet.co.uk. The Tablet (The International Catholic News Weekly). Retrieved 22 September 2021.
29. O'Sullivan, Humphrey; De Bhaldraithe, Tomás (1979). The Diary of Humphrey O'Sullivan, 1827-1837: A Translation of Cín Lae Amhlaoibh. pp. 44–45.
30. Nugent 2013, p. 258.
31. "History of Bonane - Inse an t-Sagairt". Bonane Heritage Park. Retrieved 18 May 2023.
32. Nugent 2013, pp. 152–154.
33. Inse an tSagairt, Holy Wells of Cork & Kerry, 10th November 2017.