76 
THE ARAN ISLANDS 
April, 1891. 
religious antiquities of Aran, as St. Benan or Benignus, St. 
Kronan, St. Caradoc, wlio was a Briton, St. McLongius, St. 
Eperninus, and others. St. Brendan of Olonfert, the cele¬ 
brated navigator, visited Aran in the course of his famous 
Atlantic voyage, and started thence on his supposed trip of 
discovery to America. 
In fact, Aran became a great school of asceticism and 
sanctitv, and was constantlv resorted to from the Continent 
to study the sacred Scriptures, and to practise the austerities 
of a hermit’s life. An ancient writer states that “ in one 
small cemetery here the bodies of 120 saints repose,” and 
more saints are buried in Aran than are known to anyone 
but God alone ; in fact, that relics as sacred as those which 
Catholics travel abroad to venerate in other countries here lie 
neglected under moss and bramble on our own deserted shores. 
About 1645, when Colgan was editing a history of the life 
of St. Endeus for the “Acta Sanctorum Hibernia,” he 
obtained a MS. compiled by Augustin Magraidan from an 
authority which seems to be as old as the days of Paganism. 
This gives a list of the principal churches in these islands, 
of which there were three in Inislieer, two in Inismaan, and 
thirteen in Ara Mor ; leaving it to be inferred that there were 
others of lesser note. 
No doubt many of these ecclesiastical buildings had fallen 
into decay before the time of Cromwell, but the work of 
destruction was completed by his soldiery in the demolition of 
the great monastery of St. Eany, the stones of which were 
used to strengthen Arkin Castle, a ruin of which I shall 
speak later on. The present provision for the religious neces¬ 
sities of the inhabitants are two churches of the most com¬ 
monplace character, one Roman Catholic and the other 
Protestant. Of the latter there are not more than thirty 
or forty in the three islands, and they are chiefly coastguard- 
men and their families. However, the religious antiquities 
which have until now escaped the effacing fingers of 
time and the ravages of man are of the greatest interest. 
They consist of bullauns, or baptismal stones; open air 
altars , like that of St. Eany ; holy wells, like St. Eany's, 
which never dries and which never contains more than 
4 or 5 inches of water. It is still the custom to put small 
offerings in these wells. I saw various objects so placed in 
the Holv Well near the Church of the Four Beautiful Saints. 
There is no doubt that many of these open air relics were 
formerly objects of reverence in Pagan days, and that in pro¬ 
gress of time this reverence has become invested with 
Christian associations. The other remains are those of 
monasteries and churches. 
(To be continued.) 
