Two Prophets: St Colmcille & St Moling

I’m still off piste and this week in County Kilkenny. I will eventually return to Cork but there’s more to come on Moling! First stop Inistioge and a well dedicated to St Colmcille.

St Colmcille’s Well, Tobar Cholmcille 

What a very pretty place right on the River Nore. It was all go and there were teams of people with wheelbarrows and plants all working feverishly towards the Tidy Town Challenge. There’s an interesting well here too dedicated to St Colmcille and by a bizarre twist of fate it was actually his Feast Day when I visited (9th June). An open air mass had taken place the evening before and jaunty red chairs were stacked in Hatchery Lane, attesting to crowds.

The well is clearly signed and the steep path leading up to it was a riot of flowers.

What an attractive well nestling under an enormous lime tree, its roots splaying out onto the cobbles.

The well is built against a wall, the well house comprising all sorts of interesting pieces of carved stonework  – fragments from the nearby priory. They probably date from the sixteenth century  and may have originated from the cloister arcade.

One carving of a man is especially interesting as it may depict Peter Rothe, a member of one of the once great merchant families of the area. He may have been responsible for endowing the priory and had a fortified house in the village.

There are two stone fonts, one on the ground and one embedded in the wall. The wall basin was for washing eyes and the one on the ground for cleansing feet. There was said to have been a large wooden sculpture of the saint placed near the well but it was destroyed and thrown into the river in during the upheavals in 1798.

The well is protected by sturdy metal gates painted black, the tips a startling white. White painted lettering above them proclaims the name. Swing the gates open and the water is revealed, low but fresh and clear. A trout is said to reside in the water. Should It ever disappear the well will dry up. Apparently local fishermen ensure the well is stocked though sadly I saw nothing.

I did see the genius loci who had silently joined me and was watching with interest from his lofty position.

Pilgrims were expected to approach the well on their knees, first wading up the main stream that runs through the Combe, the name given to the small glen, and then up the hillside through the bed of the smaller stream. This sounded very similar to the wading of St Moling at St Mullins discussed in the last blog.

A very beautiful and tranquil spot.

Talking of St Moling, the next well was at a place where the saint was said to have arrived before ending up at St Mullins. I drove down so many small roads I really can’t tell you where I was or even which county but the appearance of a tonsure just above the hedgerow was a very welcome sight!

St Moling’s Well, Mullenakill

The tonsure belonged to the saint himself, an elevated lifesize statue gazing out serenely across the complex site below. He sports a neat hipsterish beard, carries a crozier and a mitre (he eventually became Bishop of Ferns) and looks freshly painted.

The statue was erected in 1959 and a plaque explains:

The people of Mullinakill dedicate this statue to St Moling patron of this parish who lived here as a hermit in the 7th centuary (sic). Later founded a monastery at St Mullins and ultimately became Lord Bishop of Ferns. St Moling pray for us.

The site is gated and approached down a steep set of steps into the valley, with magnificent views out into the countryside.

It is a large and complex area incorporating a holy well, a sacred tree, an altar, a cross slab and Stations of the Cross.

The well has been much altered. Today water, a rather measly tickle, comes out from a rather unglamorous pipe, partly covered by a slate slab.

The original well may have been here.

The water is slightly scummy and was considered efficacious for sore throats. A baptismal font lies close by and this was used to wash feet, St Moling having suffered from foot ulcers.(Interesting how the well dedicated to St Colmcille has a similar font and similar cures).

The spring pops up in various places on the site including around the base of the sacred tree.

The ancient tree (variously described as an ash, hazel and an alder, I think it’s an alder), said to have been planted by the saint himself, is not what it was. These photos were taken in 2011 when Ireland’s Holy Wells visited the site and show what an impressive specimen it was with one huge branch snaking off along the ground.

This Is what it looks like today, complete with explanation why it is surrounded by railings.

Following assessment from Professional Tree Inspectors, it is their expert opinion that this tree will not survive and grow into the future unless unless the continuous stripping of fresh growth ceases to occur. Therefore this protective railing has been erected to ensure the tree continues to re-establish itself over the next number of years. While we appreciate it has been a custom going back many generations to take a twig or branch home with you we would strongly ask you not to remove any of the shoots beginning to regrow. (St Moling’s Well Committee).

What is going on here? I’ll let Ireland’s Holy Wells explain:

A strange tradition persists relating to the hazel tree at the well. People gather bits of its fallen bark to bring into their homes as protection against fires. The story goes that a man wanted some firewood during a particularly bitter winter and he felt that the hazel tree offered a good measure of possible heat despite locals telling him he must not harm the hazel tree at the well. Taking his axe, he began to chop away at the tree, but he suddenly saw his own home further down the valley on fire. He stopped chopping at the tree and returned home as fast as he could, but on arriving at his house he found that all was well and there was no fire. Again he returned to the hazel tree at the well and began to chop at the tree and again he saw his house on fire. This time he ignored it and went on chopping the wood he wanted for his fire, but when he returned to his house he found that it had indeed been burned to the ground. (9 September 2011)

I don’t know when the tree was severely pruned but it is obviously still considered potent. Jimmy Conway of the South Kilkenny Historical Society has a little more information about it:

In Irish its name is Tubber-Chrown-Mulleeng or the Well of St.Mulling’s Tree. At the base of the
tree is a rudely built stone bench on which it is said the monks of Jerpoint Abbey used to
celebrate Mass of old on Pattern Days.

I’ve not come across that name anywhere else but the bench still exists behind the tree, festooned with offerings: coins, medals, prayers, rosaries, statues.

When paying the rounds, pilgrims would visit the Stations of the Cross marked by simple white crosses and there is also an altar where Mass is still said on the 20th August. This is interesting as St Moling’s Feast Day is traditionally June 17th. The 20th August is the Feast Day of St Bernard of Clairvaux which was celebrated by the Cistercian house at nearby Jerpoint Abbey who seem to have celebrated Mass at this site too.

Two rather odd stories are told in the Schools’ Folklore Collection associated with the saint. The first one explains how the townland of Mullinakill is fated to always have a simpleton in its midst! The second explains why the saint eventually moved to St Mullins a few miles away.

In the village of Mullinakill there lived a saint named Mullins in a little cave and near it was a blessed well. One year a farmer, named Demsey, gave out to the saint, but he took the saint to be a poor man. The saint listened to him without saying a word. When he had finished the saint said to him, that the place would never be without a simpleton, and the saint’s words came true. In after years, Demsey tried to drain the well, because it was in his land, but failed to do so. Then he tried to use the water. When the people of the parish heard what Demsey was trying to do with the well, they told the parish priest. The priest went to the farmer, but the farmer got vexed and tried to strike the priest. The priest told him that he would want the use of his hand yet. About five years after the farmer was ploughing in the field, and the reins fell from his hand. From that day till his death the man was without the use of his left hand. It was a wonde, said the priest, that he was left the use of his right hand to bless his face, for it was the right hand he had condemned.

The hermit used to bathe his sore feet in the well. And the cattle of a neighbouring farmer drank of the same water. One day the woman, who owned the cattle, saw the saint bathing his feet and scolded him for dirtying the water from which her cattle drank. She ordered him away. It was then that St Moling left Mullinakill and went to abide in Saint Mullins Co Carlow. But the woman soon found, what a great mistake she had made in ordering the holy man away. For her cows, which up to that had given an abundance of milk now scarcely gave any milk at all.

Pilgrimages are still made to Mullinakill every year. A Patron is held there in the month of August. The sick, the lame and cripples are brought to drink the water from the holy well, over which an ash tree is growing. People leave bits of sticks or cloth hanging on the tree. (251/252:0846)

St Moling was considered to be a hermit who seems to have preferred the company of animals to humans. He lived in what is described as a cave but in fact is overhanging rocks making a sort of chamber. The cave still remains and can be found by going back to the main road  and following the sign across two fields.

I’m afraid I didn’t have time to visit the cave so am again indebted for Ireland’s Holy Wells blog and images from 2011. St Moling eventually left his cave, fed up with the pesterings of washerwomen, and followed his destiny to St Mullins.

St Moling was one of the Four Prophets of Ireland, along with St Patrick, St Colmcille and St Baccan. I’ll let this extract from the St John’s Bulletin of June 2011 sum him up:

The fame of few men survives more than a generation without adequate cause. That of
St Moling is still green in the memory of the local people. Nor is it likely to perish as it is
entwined with the religious veneration of the people, who still proclaim his praises. St
Molyng, through the Grace of God, possessed all the apostolic virtues. Great miracles
distinguished his career; for he raised the dead; he cleansed the lepers; he caused
the lame to walk, he cured the blind and all kinds of diseases and infirmities. The Almighty then called him away to crown him with those joys which are boundless and
with those imperishable rewards which are the portion of all his faithful servants.

The location of these wells can be found in the Gazetteer.