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Ó Riain, P., ed. Four Irish Martyrologies: Drummond, Turin,
Cashel, York. London: 2002.
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Mey: The Register of John Mey, Archbishop of Armagh,
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See alsoAnnals and Chronicles; Charters
and Chartularies; Ecclesiastical Organization;
Hagiography and Martyrologies
RELIGIOUS ORDERS
Early Developments
Early Irish monasteries were largely unaffected by
Benedictine monasticism, although Irish foundations
on the continent played a key role in transmitting the
Benedictine rule. In the ninth century the liturgical
practices of the Céle Démovement showed some slight
Benedictine influences, and the appointment of a num-
ber of Irish Benedictine monks from English monas-
teries as bishops of the Norse-Irish sees of Dublin,
Waterford, and Limerick in the eleventh and twelfth
centuries brought Ireland into contact with monastic
reformers in England. A Benedictine priory at Dublin
existed from approximately 1085 to 1096.
In 1076, Muiredach Mac Robartaig (d. 1088), an
Irish pilgrim and anchorite, settled in Regensburg in
Germany and in 1090 his disciples established the
Benedictine monastery of St. James. This became the
mother house of an Irish Benedictine congregation
(Schottenklöster) in German-speaking lands that num-
bered ten monasteries at its peak. The congregation
established two priories in approximately 1134 at
Cashel and Roscarbery for recruitment and fundraising
purposes. The congregation went into decline in the
fourteenth and fifteenth centuries and in 1515 the
house at Regensburg was taken over by Scottish
monks.
The increasing number of Irish pilgrims to Rome
in the eleventh century led to the establishment of a
Benedictine monastery, Holy Trinity of the Scots, on
the Celian Hill.New Orders and the Twelfth
Century Reform
The orders most favored by the twelfth-century
reformers of the Irish church were the Augustinian
canons and Canonesses and the Cistercian monks. The
Canons combined monastic observance with pastoral
work and over 120 foundations were established by
the mid-thirteenth century. Houses belonging to the
congregations of Arrouaise and St. Victor were the
most numerous, but contacts between the Irish houses
and the Orders’ central authorities were poor. The Pre-
monstratensian canons founded approximately six
abbeys and five smaller houses in Ireland between
1182 and 1260.
The early progress of the Cistercian monks in Ireland
can be traced in great detail from the writings of St.
Bernard and Irish references in the order’s general stat-
utes. In 1139, while en route to Rome, St. Malachy
(Máel Máedóic) visited the Cistercian monastery atFore Abbey, Co. Westmeath. © Department of the Environment,
Heritage and Local Government, Dublin.