Cistercians in Aghamonister and Abbeymahon

The first Cistercian abbey was founded in 1098 at Citeaux in Burgandy in eastern France.  This soon had a daughter house at Clairvaux, 1115, where the first abbot was St. Bernard.  St Malachy, Archbishop of Armagh, visited Bernard and they became great friends.  This led to the foundation of the Cistercian abbey at Mellifont, Co. Louth in 1142.  Mellifont had a daughter house in Baltinglass, Co Wicklow.   This in turn led to the foundation of the monastery of Sancta Maria de Fonte Vivo or Blessed Mary of the Living Well at Aghamonister in 1172 by Diarmaid McCathy, King of Desmond.  A century later around 1278 the monks moved to the neighbouring townland of Cregane where the monastery acquired the name of Abbeymahon.  

The Cistercians valued manual labour highly, reclaimed land and developed agriculture.  Remains of iron production have been discovered recently during excavations at Aghamonister.   A fragment of pottery from Bordeaux was also found.  These monks lived the gospel by the Cross, the Book and the Plough. 

Their motto was laborare est orare, “to work is to pray”.  Abbeymahon was suppressed in 1540 during the reign of Henry VIII and its lands acquired by the crown.   The ruins of this abbey can still be seen today.