School: An Ráth Mhór (Clochar) (roll number 13742)

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1. The Cistercians at Ráth Mhór (continued)

   

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   taineer" states. "The anxious superior could not conceal from himself the almost desperate situation of the community of Ráth Mhór. The impossibility of maintaining so large a body on so burdened and so small a holding was becoming daily more evident; the profits of the farm or rather the balance of those profits that remained over after the claims of the landlord, the rate collector and the tax-gatherer were satisfied could not suffice for their support unless largely supplemented by the charity of the faithful. But mendicity except as a temporary expedient in great extremities was foreign and even opposed to the spirit of the Order. Moreover he was far too high-minded a man to think of adding to the burden of an already impoverished people whilst any other resource remained."
   The Items to be had from tradition are very few. The monastic rule of silence is probably the reason why the information is so meagre.
   (1) Twenty monks would with the help of local people lift a huge tree and carry it across couple of fields in perfect silence
   (2) Mr. William Hasset's big field consisting of about fourteen acres including the cottages since built on it used be tilled by the monks, every sod of it being turned by spade work.
   (3) The monks were often over about Cathair Bhearnach (in the parish of Ráth Mhór prospecting and examining the mountain. They were probably thinking of establishing themselves there permanently.
   (4) The Sick Priest's Fund in the Kerry diocese is called the Ráth Mhór Fund, because the monks were to use their monastery

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