Introduction

Camino to Cistercian ruins of Ireland

2019

“Blessed are you, pilgrim, if you search the truth and make of your Camino a life and of your life a Camino, after Him who is the Way, the Life, and the Truth.”

A journal of a Cycling Camino of Cistercian Abbey Ruins by a Cistercian Monk (Fr. Aodhán Mc Dunphy) and Paddy Smyth , a House-master, at Cistercian College Roscrea.

                               

    

Stages of our Camino:

1^st Stage - Mount St Josephs Abbey Roscrea  to Holy Cross Abbey, Hore Abbey, and Kilcooley Abbey in Tipperary

2nd Stage - will be in late June to Jerpoint, and Graiguenamanagh in Kilkenny, Tintern Abbey and Dunbrody Abbeys in Wexford and Baltinglass Abbey in Wicklow.

3^rd Stage - (Mid-July) Abbeyknockmoy (Galway), Boyle Abbey(Roscommon),Abbeylara, Abbeyshrule (Longford), Bective Abbey (Co. Meath) and Old Mellifont Abbey (Co. Louth)

The Inspiration for this journey.

Fr.Aodhán: The inspiration for this Camino stems from my visit to the Cistercian abbey of Sobrado near Santiago de Compostella.

I had finished cycling three quarters of the Camino from  Logrono   and was resting in Sobrado Abbey. There I saw a large picture of the genealogical tree of the foundations from Citeaux  and Clairvaux founded in 1098.

What amazed me was the rapidity with which the foundations were made. In just 40 years there were foundations of Cistercians in:

Bohemia: The first Cistercian abbey in Bohemia was founded in Sedlec near Kutná Hora in 1142

England: By 1152, there were 54 Cistercian monasteries in England.

Norway: Munkeby Abbey 1180.

Ireland: Mellifont 1142, Bective 1147, Baltinglass 1148, Abbeydorney 1154

The Cistercian Abbeys in Ireland mushroomed at the same speed as the rest of Western Europe, with over 30 Abbeys throughout Ireland at the Dissolution of the Monasteries. 

Paddy: My first walking Camino, Camino Francés to Santiago de Compestella led me to a living working monastery of Mt. St. Joseph Abbey Roscrea and it was from there too that I cycled the Via Francegina to Rome. On Camino I get the sense of journeying towards “Who am I, Lord?” and “Who are you, Lord”

All pilgrimage, including our bike Camino, has the potential for spiritual and physical renewal.

                                                         

Cistercian Map of Ireland