The Anchorite of Fore Abbey

"Ware, in the 5th section of the 35th chapter of his Antiquities, observes, that the Irish hermits were called Inclusi, because they shut themselves up in their cells and hermitages;
yet their confinement was not so strict, but by dispensation they might leave them, except that of St. Fechin's, in Foure, or Baille-leabar, i.e. the City of Books, a description of which is contained in the lines underneath:
Quae capit a Iibris nomen, celebrata perenni
Fama, Ires jactat villa forea dotes.-.
Hic stat sacra domus, glauca constructa palude,
Hic monstrat patulos. Anarchoreta lares,
Vertitur hic nullo pellenti flumine rota,
Quae tria sunt longa concelebranda die.

The anachoretical cell of Foure, the oratory of which is the burial place of the earl of Westmeath, was inhabited longer than any of the others in Ireland; for, in 1616, died there the Rev. Patrick Beglin, whose monumental inscription we here subjoin:
En ego Patricias Beglin sacra incola Eremi
Hoc fapidurn tumulo condor humorque cavo,
Rupe sub aeria, monumento et sede Sacrata,
Intemerata adyto, tum sine labe domo,
Quisquis is est ergo qui cernit busta viator
Dicat Eremicolae spiritus astra petat.

After the death of Mr. Beglin, the Rev. Mr. Daly became anchoret at Foure; and after he died, the Rev. Patrick Clonan; after him the Rev. Mr. John Nugent, who was succeeded by the Rev. Mr. Charles Fagan; and in 1719, the Rev. Mr. George Fleming resigned the parish of Castletown-Delvin, which for many years he served, and retired to the eremetical cell of Foure, where, in three or four years after, he died; since which time, there has not been an anchoret there, nor do we know any other cells of this nature in Ireland, except Lismore and Kilkenny. In the registry of Octavian de Palatio, archbishop of Armagh, there is mention made of an Observantine Franciscan, who, having lost his sight, was, on the 10th of July, 1508, admitted by the archbishop to lead the life of an anchoret, near the cathedral of Cashel, where he had built himself a cell in the wall; and the archbishop granted forty days' indulgence to those who should give aid in finishing it. Ware also informs us, that the rules for regulating the anchoret's lives to have been extant in a manuscript, formerly belonging to St. Thomas's abbey in Dublin, to which is annexed an epistle of one Robert, a priest, to Hugh, an anchoret, written about the reign of Henry the II."
(Patrick Lynch, The Life of Saint Patrick (Baltimore, 1854), p.157-158.)

Click to expand...

scolairebocht said:

This is a video on the Anchorite's Cell at Fore Abbey Co. Westmeath. An Anchorite took a special vow, to remain for the rest of his life enclosed in these small cells, awaiting his death.


Fr Patrick Beglin was easily the most famous of the Anchorites of Fore, and incidentally he is said to have come from the South East corner of Co. Westmeath, where there still are Beglins and still involved in the Church. At the time of Beglin, that is the last decades of the 16th and the early decades of the 17th century, it was owned by the Ussher family but rented out to the Nugents, of Donore I think, who I believe protected the anchorite:

In any case he was certainly not the last anchorite, after him you had:


There are a number of Anchorite cells in Ireland, one is attached to St Canice's Cathedral in Kilkenny for example, and at least one in the environs of Dublin described here, St Doulagh's of Balgriffin:


Why we seem to have only one continuing to function at the time of the Reformation and Counter Reformation is hard to say. Also its origin could be either from the time of St Fechin, this old Irish saint, like many others of his era, was noted for being a kind of hermit or anchorite, or it could have been created by the de Lacys when they built the nearby Benedictine Monastery c.1180, similar to one at a monastery of theirs in Wales.

Incidentally Westmeath also has another unique Catholic institution in that respect, because it also has the only monastery in Ireland which continued to function as a Catholic one all throughout the Reformation and Counter Reformation. This is the Franciscan convent of Multyfarnham, burned down and sacked many times by the English government but always built back again there or nearby and hence survived to this day.

In any case here is a description of the Anchorite in Fore from 1682:

Click to expand...

scolairebocht said:

Thats the saints name, St Fechin, although you would really not pronounce the c and h.

Click to expand...

"This water is exceedingly clear and sweet, and comes as they relate by a subterranean passage from Lough Lene under the great rock and there discharges.
The saying of the people of Fore:
An abbey in a bog
A mill without a stream
An anchorite in a rock.
...
The last Anchorite who lived here was George Fleming, he is three years dead, since which time the place has gone entirely to decay.
...
They have a strange aversion to Protestants (being all Roman Catholics) and withal assured me that no of that profession could ever thrive here. A large house near the Westgate, which was built on purpose to introduce the making of linen by Protestant persons was quickly deserted, and demolished, as I suppose by the wicked neighbours they has to deal with. It has the character of being inhabited at present by the greatest reprobates in the kingdom and I was afterwards informed that I has a happy deliverance that no quarrel happened, wherein they generally bring in a stranger for the cause of it."
(Isaac Butler, Itinerary of Journeys through the Counties Dublin, Meath and Louth, 1744, Original Mss in Armagh Public Library, p.96-98.)

Click to expand...