Blessed Mother With Baby Jesus Holding the Chalice
Fabricated 381 years agone, the MacSwiney Chalice was used in the days of the Penal Laws in Ireland when the Catholic religion was outlawed and priests were hunted men.
Every St. Patrick's Day brings dorsum the happy memories of when I was a seminarian of the Archdiocese of New York. In celebration of our local church's patronal feast we would always be given the day off from class then we could travel to Manhattan to serve the key's Mass at St. Patrick'due south Cathedral before watching the famous parade up fifth Avenue.
Each yr nosotros would bring with usa our seminary's prized possession for the fundamental to use as he celebrated Mass. Information technology was the famed "MacSwiney Chalice."
This is non a chalice of pure golden with diamonds and jewels but something far more simple, yet remarkably special. It was made in 1640 and used in the days of the Penal Laws in Ireland when the Catholic faith was outlawed and priests were hunted men.
New York'southward celebration of St. Patrick's Solar day is the largest in the world. The urban center'southward mayor and Taoiseach (prime government minister) of Republic of ireland are always present among other prominent figures and celebrities. Thousands line the parade route. The media is out in full forcefulness.
Amid such fanfare, yet, the legacy of the solar day's namesake is all as well often disregarded. The celebrations that plow into drunken carousal certainly get a direct contradiction of it.
The use of the MacSwiney Chalice at the middle of information technology all is an especially important symbol, then, to help remind all present of the centrality of the Catholic Faith to Irish heritage. Patrick brought the Gospel of Christ to the Irish gaelic people and until these secular modern times, the Catholic Religion has always been their nigh prized possession, even in the midst of the fiercest persecutions.
The MacSwiney Chalice comes from the nigh heroic period in the history of the Irish Church. Since the reign of King Henry VIII, Catholic Republic of ireland stood in the shadows of a great Protestant power in neighboring United kingdom. The Irish gaelic were dehumanized as their rights, land and food were all taken from them. The one matter the British were never able take from them, however, was their cherished Catholic Organized religion — though they certainly did endeavour. Plenty of churches, schools and seminaries were destroyed, merely not the Faith. The Masses where the MacSwiney Beaker was used were offered in subconscious away places like homes, barns and fields. The priests and the people who worshipped God with this sacred vessel were willing to risk their lives for the graces of the Holy Eucharist. The chalice is designed to be taken autonomously into three pieces for easy concealment so it could be hidden in pockets or a saddlebag; a fitting symbol of the persevering religion of the Irish gaelic people in those days which is St. Patrick'southward greatest legacy.
The worst of the persecutions began under Oliver Cromwell who rose to ability equally the eventual victor of an English language civil state of war known as the Wars of the Three Kingdoms.
Cromwell apace turned his attention to the rebellious Irish gaelic Confederates who took up arms seeking an finish to anti-Cosmic discrimination, the restoration of land confiscated past English settlers in the different planation pushes, and greater Irish self-governance. Leading the armies of the Parliament of England, Cromwell invaded Ireland in 1649. He occupied the whole country within three years and began enacting harsh penal laws confronting the Irish Catholics. Thousands were put to decease.
Cromwell declared that the Catholics of Ireland could either go "to Hell or Connacht." In his Act of Settlement in 1652, he spelled out exactly what he meant. Unless i could prove "constant good affection" for the English Parliament, they couldn't keep their estates. About all Catholic landowners were forced off their land and were moved west of the River Shannon to the province of Connacht. Catholics about disappeared as a belongings-owning class in Ireland eastward of the Shannon.
The practice of the Catholic Faith was outlawed. Upon taking command Cromwell gave priests twenty days to become out of Republic of ireland. Many dared to stay, putting their lives in peril then they could administer the sacraments to the faithful. These "clandestine" priests would visit the sick by nighttime and celebrate Mass just before dawn in hiding places such equally upon "Mass rocks" out in remote fields with scouts on lookout for soldiers. If the priest were ever caught, and hundreds were, he would be tortured and executed. Ane priest described the conditions in 1656:
"We live, for the most office, in the mountains and forests. … Catholics flock to united states, whom we refresh by the Give-and-take of God and consolation of the sacraments. … In spite of all the precautions used to exercise our evangelical ministry in hugger-mugger, the Cromwelians oft detect it; and then the wild animal was never hunted with more fury, nor tracked with more pertinacity, through the mountains, forest and bogs, than the priest!"
With Cromwell's death in 1658 and the restoration of the monarchy nether Charles Ii, there was a short-lived period of relief for the beleaguered Catholics of Republic of ireland that came to an abrupt cease when new Penal Laws were enacted in 1695 past the entirely Protestant Irish Parliament. Farther Penal Laws would be passed in the 18th century all aimed at stamping out the Catholic Faith and so the Irish could be more loyal and trustworthy subjects of the Crown.
In that location were fines and imprisonment for participation in Catholic worship and astringent penalties, which included death for priests. Catholics were barred from voting, belongings public office, owning land and didactics their faith to their children. By 1778 Catholics would ain a meager five% of Irish land.
After continual Irish resistance with greater advocacy for abode-rule and further concessions, the Penal Laws were well-nigh completely nullified by relief and emancipation acts which came in 1791 and 1832. The very last vestiges of the Penal Laws were finally expunged only in 1920 on the eve of Irish independence.
The inscription on the base of operations of the MacSwiney Beaker reads: "ORATE PRO ANIMA D: DANIELIS SWYNE SACERDOTIS LISMORESIS DIAECESIS QUI ME FIERI FECITA 1640, Pray for the soul of Mister Daniel Swyne, priest of the Diocese of Lismore, who had me made in the year 1640." It would be kept in the MacSwiney family for the next 268 years and was used by various priests of the family. With our heed's eye nosotros can picture the stirring epitome of these brave priests providing the graces of the Mass in hidden away barns and fields to the poorest and nearly deprived members of Christ the Good Shepherd's flock.
The get-go inheritor of the chalice was Owen MacSwiney the Bishop of Kilmore, who was the concluding bishop left in Ireland at the time of Cromwell'due south purge. He was the simply bishop in Ireland from the end of 1661 until October or Nov 1662 and from 1654 until October 1659. He was unable to go out the country for safety on account of his old age and infirmity. He died in 1669.
Another notable inheritor of the chalice was Begetter Patrick MacSwiney (1791-1865), who became dean of the Irish gaelic College in Paris, one of many seminaries founded in continental Europe to train Irish priests during the suppression of Catholic schooling in Ireland. In turn, he willed it to his nephew, Father Denis MacSwiney (1824-1906) who was working back in Republic of ireland every bit the Vicar General of the Diocese of Cork and Ross. In 1896 Father Denis sent the chalice to the side by side generation of family priests who had immigrated to America.
Among these emigres were four brothers who all became priests. They were the cousins of Father Denis. Their names are inscribed upon the chalice: "MACSWEENY FRATRES SACREDOTES NEO EBORACENSES A.D. 1862-1908 R.R. DD PATRICIUS, EDUARDUS, JOANNES ET FRANCISCUS, MacSweeny Brothers, Priests of New York, Right Reverend Doctors of Divinity Patrick, Edwin, John and Francis." Male parent Patrick set sail for America in 1848 at the historic period of 11 with his father, O'Callaghan MacSwiney, on the Famine Transport named Swatara. In 1850, the mother Honoria Harnett MacSweeny sailed to New York with the balance of the family unit on the Brig Garland.
In 1908 the chalice finally left the care of the MacSwiney family when information technology was donated to St. Joseph's Seminary in Yonkers. The letter of the alphabet of conveyance, which is kept in the aforementioned box as the chalice, reads:
"Calix Filiorum Suibhanei. This was kept for two hundred sixty eight years in the family of the priests whose names are on information technology, and was deposited in the museum of the Keen Seminary in New York past Rev. Edward McSweeny (or Mac Swiney), on the feast of Saint Bartholomew 1908. It was made in 1640 for the priest named in the fable, and is small and plain, tho lastly — suitable for easy railroad vehicle and concealment in those days of blood. Information technology was regilt and and so reconsecrated by Archbishop Corrigan ('59 Mount Saint Mary'due south,) and used by him at the induction of St. Brigid's Church, Manhattan, New York City, in 1898, the pastor of the church being the Rt. Rev. Patrick Francis McSweeny, senior of the McSweeny brother-priests."
The Eucharistic faith of these brave Irish gaelic priests and faithful during the days of the Penal Laws is simply about incommunicable to explain to those who do not believe. Sadly, even for many Catholics today, the notion of the Blest Sacrament every bit the Bread of Life has been lost. For the true disciple of Jesus, though, the Sacrament of the Eucharist is simply every bit much a necessity for the sustenance of the soul as daily bread is for the torso.
In reference to his coming Passion, Our Lord Jesus asks: "Are you lot able to drink the chalice that I am to drink?"(Matthew 20:22). Those brave souls risking their lives to nourish Mass where the MacSwiney Chalice was used during "those days of claret" gave a firm "yes" to this all of import question. Through the intercession of St. Patrick, may we be able to say the same for ourselves.
Source: https://www.ncregister.com/blog/macswiney-chalice
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