"The first order of saints was in the time of Patrick; and then they were all bishops, illustrious and holy, and full of the Holy Ghost, four hundred and fifty in number; the founders of churcnes, worshipping the one head, Christ, and following the one leader, Patrick, having the one tonsure, and one liturgy of the Mass, and they kept one Easter, viz., after the vernal equinox, and what was excommunicated by one church was excommunicated by all they did not reject the ministrations and society of women, because, founded on the rock, Christ, they feared not the blast of temptation. This order of saints continued throughout four reigns, that is, from the time of Laoghaire, the son of Niall, who reigned thirty-seven years, and of Oilioll, surnamed Inolt, who reigned thirty years, and of Lugadh, who reigned seven years; and this order of saints continued down to the latter days of Tuathall who was surnamed Moelgarbh, and they all continued holy bishops.

"But the second order of saints was as follows: for in this second order there were few bishops and many priests, in number three hundred, worshipping the one head, the Lord; they had different forms of liturgy and different rules of life, and they celebrated the one Easter on the fourteenth moon. And they made a uniform tonsure, viz., from ear to ear. They also shunned the society and ministrations of women, and they excluded them from their monasteries. This order also lasted for four reigns, that is, from the latter days of Tuathal Moelgarbh, and during the thirty years that Diarmait McKearvaill reigned, and throughout the time of the two grandsons of Muiredach, who reigned for seven years, and throughout the time of Aedh, son of Ainmire, who reigned for thirty years. They received a form of liturgy of the Mass from the holy men of Britain, viz. from St. David and St. Gildas, and from St. Docus. And their names are these, viz.: Finian, Enda, Colman,

Comgall, Aedh, Kieran, Columba, Brendan, Briequinas, Cainnech, Coemgen, Laisrean, Laisre, Lugeus, Barrinde, and many others, who were of the second order of saints.

"The third order of saints was as follows: for they were holy priests and a few bishops, in number one hundred, who dwelt in desert places. They lived on herbs and water and the alms of the faithful, and despised all earthly things, and wholly avoided all murmuring and detraction. They had different rules and different forms of liturgy, and also a different tonsure, for some wore the crown and others the hair, and they had a different Paschal solemnity; for some celebrated it on the fourteenth moon, others on the thirteenth. This order continued throughout four reigns, that is, during the time of Aedh Allain, who reigned only three years, and during the time of Domhnall, who reigned for thirty years, and during the time of Aedh Slaine, and this order continued till that great mortality. These are their names: Petran, bishop; Ultan, bishop; Colman, bishop; Aedan, bishop; Lomnan, bishop; Senach, bishop. All these and many others were bishops. But the priests were these, viz.: Fechin, the priest, Airendan, Faillan, Cummian, Colman, Ernan, Cronan, and many other priests.

"It is to be remarked that the first order was thrice holy; the second order holy in the second degree; and the third order holy.

"The first order glows like the sun with the fervor of charity; the second is pale like the moon; the third shines like the aurora.

"The blessed Patrick, taught by a divine revelation, foreknew these three orders when, in that prophetic vision, he saw all Ireland filled with a glowing fire; then only the mountains seemed to burn, and afterward he saw lights only burning in the valleys."*

"Irish Ecclesiastical Record."

The "Collectanea Sacra" is a quarto volume of four hundred and eighty pages. It is to be desired that a book so valuable and so much sought for should be republished, and thus made accessible to the students of our antiquities, most of whom are at present practically excluded from the use of it.

FATHER HUGH WARD, O. S. F.

A. D. 1635.

St. Mansuetus, Bishop of Tulle.-SS. Fursey, Brigid and Cadroe.-SS. Dympna and Gerebern.-SS. Hilvaris and Oda.-St. Rumold, Archbishop of Dublin. -St. Forannen.

IT was in 1623 that Father Hugh Ward, O. S. F., arrived at the Convent of St. Anthony of Padua, in Louvain. He had many years before embraced the Franciscan Rule at Salamanca, where he pursued his studies of philosophy and theology, and acquired considerable fame for acuteness of mind and depth of research. Father Pontius, a distinguished professor of the order in Rome, publicly eulogized him, in after times, as surpassing the most famous Franciscan professors of that age in scholastic subtlety. Father O'Sheerin gives him no less praise: "Deformed in body, he was endowed with every accomplishment of mind; he was affable in his words, which sparkled with wit and humor; being of holy conversation and spotless life, he was at the same time endowed with brilliant genius, and was profoundly versed in philosophical and theological science.

From Salamanca he proceeded to Paris, as companion to Father Francis de Arraba, confessor of the Queen of France; and there he enjoyed abundant leisure to pursue

his favorite studies, and explore the rich literary treasures of that great capital. It was at this time that the Scottish historian, Dempster, published his famous work on the saints of Scotland, in which he appropriated to his native calendar most of the holy men who adorned our country by their sanctity in the first ages of our faith. It has been said of him that "he was as well inclined to believe a lie as any man in his time, and as well qualified to put it into a pretty dress of poetry." He was, however, a man of extensive reading, and he must be pardoned if, writing in the beginning of the seventeenth century, he assumed, as a matter of course, that in the olden records. the name Scotus and Scotia referred to modern Scotland. His piracy of Irish saints awakened the energy and zeal of our exiled countrymen, and we will have occasion. hereafter to refer to the tracts which were published soon after by David Rothe and others, refuting Dempster's groundless but attractive statements. Ward enlisted

with ardor in this controversy, and thenceforward each hour at his disposal was devoted to explore the records of the past, and to search out new monuments illustrative of the history of the saints of Ireland.

Indeed this study of the antiquities of our country was nothing new in the family of Hugh Ward. He belonged to that branch of the family that gave name to Ballymac-Ward, in Donegal. His ancestors had been for centuries the hereditary bards of the O'Donnells, princes of Tyrconnell, and in poetry and minstrelsy had often borne away the palm from the chief poets of Ireland.

In the "Annals of the Four Masters," in 1541, we find recorded that "MacWard, ollamh to O'Donnell in poetry, a superintendent of schools, and a man not excelled in poetry and other arts, who had founded and maintained a house of general hospitality, died on the 20th of December, after unction and penance." In 1550 it is again. recorded: "MacWard, of Tyrconnell, a learned poet, a