. Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland. rence made to this ancient and historicspot. This will, I think, help to group together the important records ofthe parish, and show that Durrow continued^ to be an important centreof learning for many years, and that though the light kindled then bySt. Columba may have waxed dim or even flickered for a time, thatstill the lamp of truth which he kindled has never been altogetherquenched, even though it may never have shone so brightly as in its firstand most palmy days. Any account of monastic life in Durrow which did not take notice of
. Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland. rence made to this ancient and historicspot. This will, I think, help to group together the important records ofthe parish, and show that Durrow continued^ to be an important centreof learning for many years, and that though the light kindled then bySt. Columba may have waxed dim or even flickered for a time, thatstill the lamp of truth which he kindled has never been altogetherquenched, even though it may never have shone so brightly as in its firstand most palmy days. Any account of monastic life in Durrow which did not take notice ofits celebrated MSS. would be very incomplete indeed. Concerning oneof them I cannot, I think, do better than quote the words of the lateProfessor Stokes, whose loss I am sure we all feel. Writing about the ^ Cf. Reevess Antiquities of Irish Churches, in which he speaks of Durrow asamongst the earliest and most important, but not most enduring, of St. Columbasfoundations. I suppose he alhides to Durrow afterwards being changed to anAugustinian A 1age of Inteulacei) Ornament j-rom the Euok ue Durrow,?In Trinity College, Dublin. Jour. , vol. ix., pt. l, p. 44. THE TERMON OF DURROW. 45 celebrated epistlo of Cummian, -uritten to the Abbot of I Columkille inthe year 634, he says:— I call it a marvellous composition because of theTastness of its learning. It quotes, besides the Scriptures and Latinauthors, Greek writers like Origen, Cyril, and Pachonius, the head andreformer of Egyptian monasticism, and Daraascius, the last of the cele-brated neo-Platonic philosophers of Athens, who lived about the year600, and who wrote all his works in Greek. Cummian discusses thecalendar of the Macedonians, Hebrews, and Copts, giving us the Hebrew,Greek, and Egyptian names of months and cycles, and tells us that he hadbeen sent as one of a deputation of learned men a few years before toascertain the practice of the Church of Rome with regard to Easter. This long letter (said Pr
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