The Latin & Irish Lives of Ciaran by Anonymous (recommended reading txt) 📖

crops, there came merchants with wine of the Gauls to Saint Kiaranus, and they filled a huge vessel, the solitana of the brethren, from that wine, which Saint Kiaranus gave to his brethren with his benediction.


XLIX. THE DEATH OF CIARAN

35. Our most holy patron Kiaranus lived but for one year in his settlement of Cluain. When he knew that the day of his death was approaching, he prophesied, deploring the subsequent evils that would come to pass in his place after him; and he said that their life would be short. Then the brethren said unto him, "What then shall we do in the time of those evils? Shall we abide here beside thy relics, or shall we go to other places?" To them Saint Kiaranus said, "Haste ye to other quiet places, and leave my relics here like the dry bones of a stag on a mountain. For it is better for you to be with my spirit in heaven than beside my bones on earth, and stumbling withal."

Saint Kiaranus used greatly to crucify his body, and we write here an example of this. He ever had a stone pillow beneath his head, which till to-day remains in the monastery of Saint Kiaranus, and is reverenced by every one. Moreover, when he was growing weak, he would not have the stone removed from him, but commanded it to be placed to his shoulders, that he should have affliction even to the end, for the sake of an everlasting reward in heaven.

Now when the hour of his departure was approaching, he commanded that he should be carried outside, out of the house; and looking up into heaven, he said, "Hard is that way,[6] and this needs must be." To him the brethren said, "We know that nothing is difficult for thee, father; but we unhappy ones must greatly fear this hour."

And being carried back into the house, he raised his hand and blessed his people and clerks; and having received the Lord's Sacrifice, on the fifth of the ides of September he gave up the ghost, in the thirty-third year of his age. And lo, angels filled the way between heaven and earth, rejoicing to meet Saint Kiaranus.


L. THE VISIT OF COEMGEN

36. And on the third night after the death of Saint Kiaranus, the most holy abbot Coemhgenus came from the province of the Lagenians to the burial of Saint Kiaranus; and Saint Kiaranus spake with Saint Coemhgenus and they exchanged their vesture, and they made a perpetual brotherhood between themselves and their followers. This is related faithfully and at length in the Life of Coemhgenus himself.


LI. THE EARTH OF CIARAN'S TOMB DELIVERS COLUM CILLE FROM A WHIRLPOOL

37. Saint Columba, on hearing of the death of Saint Kiaranus, said, "Blessed be God, Who hath called to Himself most holy Kiaranus from this life in his youth. For had he lived to old age, there would have been envy of many against him, for he would have had a firm hold on the parish of all Ireland."

Saint Columba made a hymn to Saint Kiaranus; and when he set it forth in the settlement of Cluain, the successor of Saint Kiaranus said unto him, "Shining and worthy of praise is this hymn; what reward then, father, shall be rendered unto thee?" Saint Columba answered: "Give me my hands full of the earth of the grave of your holy father Kiaranus; for I wish for and desire that, more than for pure gold and precious gems." And Saint Columba receiving earth from the grave of Saint Kiaranus, made his way to his own island of Hya.

When Saint Columba was voyaging on the sea, there arose a storm in the sea, and the ship was thrust towards the whirlpool which is in the Scotic tongue called Cori Bracayn, in which is a sea-whirlpool most dangerous, wherein if ships enter they come not out. And the whirlpool beginning to draw the ship towards itself, blessed Columba cast part of the earth of Saint Kiaranus into the sea. Most wondrous to relate, immediately the storm of the air, the movement of the waves, and the swirl of the whirlpool all ceased, till the ship had long escaped from it. Then Saint Columba, giving thanks to God, said to his followers, "Ye see, brethren, how much favour hath the earth of most blessed Kiaranus brought us."


LIII. A PANEGYRIC OF CIARAN

38. Most blessed Kiaranus living among men passed a life as of an angel, for the grace of the Holy Spirit burned in his face before the eyes of men. Who could expound his earthly converse? For he was young in age and in body, yet a most holy senior in mind and in manners, in humility, in gentleness, in charity, in daily labours, in nightly vigils, and in other divine works.

For now liveth he in rest without labour, in age without senility, in health without sorrow, in joy without grief, in peace without a foe, in wealth without poverty, in endless day without night, in the eternal kingdom without end, before the throne of Christ, Who with the Father and the Holy Spirit liveth and reigneth unto ages of ages. Amen.

Here endeth the life of Saint Ciaran, Abbot of Cluain meic Nois.


[Footnote 1: The inconsistencies in the spelling of the various proper names in this translation follow those in the original documents.]

[Footnote 2: The MS. reads lac iam... effudit . For iam we should probably read enim . A similar correction is made in § 38.]

[Footnote 3: Ipsa insula semper ab Hybernia habitatur. The sense of this passage is not clear: it may be corrupt.]

[Footnote 4: Lit.: "the shadow of the aid of thy dutifulness."]

[Footnote 5: This sentence reads very awkwardly, owing to the incorporation of two originally interlined glosses. Reference to the MS. enables us to isolate these. The sentence there runs thus: "Si ergo in isto loco mansissem non Ysseal .i. imus esset id est non paruus sed altus .i. magnus et honorabilis." Here id est occurs three times, once in full, and twice represented by the common contraction .i., which is universally used in MSS. of Irish origin for the introduction of a gloss. If we write the sentence as below, we shall see the significance of the different ways in which the expression is written, and by expunging the glosses can make the sentence less clumsy and more intelligible

.i. imus -"Si ... mansissem, non Ysseal esset, id est non paruus; sed
.i. magnus et honorabilis altus."]

[Footnote 6: Correcting the vita of the MS. to via , in conformity with VG.]

* * * * *


THE SECOND LATIN LIFE OF SAINT CIARAN


II. THE ORIGIN AND BIRTH OF CIARAN

1. A glorious man; and an abbot in life most holy, Queranus, was born of a father Boecius, of a mother Darercha. This man drew his origin from the northern part of Ireland, that is, he was of the Aradenses by race. Now he was so illuminated by divine grace from his boyhood, that it was clearly apparent of what manner he was destined to be. For he was as a burning lamp in extraordinary charity, so as to show not only the warmth of a pious heart and devotion in relieving the necessity of men, but also an unwearied sympathy for the needs of irrational animals. And because such a lamp should not be hidden under a bushel, so from his boyhood he began to sparkle with the marvels of miracles.


III. HOW CIARAN RAISED THE STEED OF OENGUS FROM DEATH

2. For when the horse of the son of the king of that territory perished with a sudden death, and the young man was much grieved at its fall, there appeared to him in dreams a man of venerable and shining countenance, who forbade him to be grieved for the death of the horse, saying unto him, "Call," said he, "the holy boy Keranus, and let him pour water into the mouth of thy horse, and sprinkle its forehead, and it shall revive. And thou shalt endow him with due reward for its resurrection."

When the king's son had wakened from sleep, he sent for the boy Keranus that he should come to him; who, when he made his presence known, and heard the dream throughout, according to what the angel taught him, sprinkled the horse with holy water and raised it from death. When this great miracle was seen, the king of that territory made over to Saint Keranus a fertile and spacious field in honour of Omnipotent God, in Whose Name his horse was resurrected.


IV. HOW CIARAN TURNED WATER INTO HONEY

3. Moreover it fell out on a certain day that the mother of Keranus himself found fault with him, for that he did not bring wild honey such as the other boys were wont to carry to their parents. When the beloved of God and men heard this, he raised his thoughts to the Boy who was subject to His parents, and blessed water, brought from a neighbouring spring, in His Name who is able to draw honey from the rock, and oil from the hardest stone; and presently that water is changed, with the help of God, into the sweetest honey, and so it is brought to his mother. This honey his parents sent to Saint Dermicius the deacon, surnamed Iustus, who baptized him.


XVII. HOW CIARAN WENT WITH HIS COW TO THE SCHOOL OF FINDIAN

4. Now when the rudiments of letters had been read [with him] by the saint aforesaid, he proposed to go to the blessed abbey of Cluayn Hirard for instruction. And as he wished to fulfil in deed what he had begun to conceive of in his mind, he asked a cow of his parents for his sustenance. But when his mother would not grant his petition, the Heavenly Father, Who loveth those whom He regardeth as a mother her son, did not tarry to fulfil the desire of his beloved. For a milch cow, together with her calf, followed him as though she had been driven after him by her herdsman.

When he had come to the sacred college of Saint Fynnianus, they all had no small joy at his arrival. But the cow, which had followed him, was pastured along with her calf, nor did it [the calf] attempt to touch the udders of its mother without permission. Keranus so separated and divided its pastures, that the mother would only lick the calf, and would not offer to suckle it. Now the milk of that cow was rich in such abundance that, divided daily, it would supply a sufficiency of provision for twelve men.

But the holy youth Keranus, deeply occupied with the sacred Scripture, shone in holiness and wisdom among his fellow-students as a brilliant star among the other stars. For he was filled with the fragrance of perfect charity, with moral worth, with holiness of life, and with sweetness of humility, gracious, honourable, and admirable to present and to absent.


XXVI. HOW CIARAN FREED A WOMAN FROM SERVITUDE

5. One day he made his way to a