“ But in wondrous wise Saint Kiaranus used to sit and read beside the quern-stone, and the quern-stone used to turn swiftly of itself, without the hand of man, and to grind corn before all the folk. For the angels of God were grinding for Saint Kyaranus, unseen of men. And after no long time a certain man of the province of Mumenia, that is, of the people of the Desi, who was called Hiernanus, stirred up by divine favour, came with two most excellent vessels, like unto the vessel of that king, of the same sort and the same use, and gifted them in alms to Saint Kiaranus. ”

“ When the lads went out they saw no one save Beoit and Darerca in the carriage. When the lads mocked the wizard, thus spake he : "The child who is in the womb of the woman," said he, "shall be a great king: as the sun shineth among the stars of heaven, so shall he shine, in signs and wonders that cannot be related, upon the earth."
Thereafter was Saint Ciaran born, in Mag Ai at Raith Cremthainn. He was baptized by deacon Iustus, for it was fitting that the true one should be baptized by a True One. ”

“ And when Saint Kiaranus would place with his own hands a corner-post in the first building of that settlement, a certain wizard said to him: "This hour is not good for beginning; for the sign of this hour is contrary to beginnings of building." Then Saint Kiaranus himself set the post in the corner of the house, saying, "Thou wizard, against thy sign I fix this post in the ground; for I care naught for the art of wizards, but in the name of my Lord, Jesus Christ, do I all my works." For this the wizard and his followers uttered commendation, marvelling at the faith of Saint Ciaran in his God. ”

“ It would be natural that there should be much cross-borrowing, tales told about one saint being adapted to others as well, until they became stock incidents. It would also be nothing more than natural that many elements in the Lives should be survivals from more ancient mythologies, having their roots in pre-Christian beliefs. Nevertheless, none of these writings are devoid of value as pictures of life and manners; and even in descriptions of incredible and pointless miracles precious scraps of folk-lore are often embedded. ”

“ Said Ciaran to Diarmait when they were planting the post, "Warrior, suffer my hand to be over thy hand, and thou shalt be over the men of Ireland in high-kingship." "I permit it," said Diarmait, "only give me a token thereof." "I will," said Ciaran; "though thou art solitary to-day, thou shalt be King of Ireland this time to-morrow." That was verified; for Tuathal Moel-garb King of Ireland was slain that night, and Diarmait took the kingship of Ireland on the morrow, and he bestowed a hundred churches on Ciaran. ”

“ Ciaran left Inis Aingin to Donnan. Donnan said, "Since thou hast a charity towards me, leave me somewhat of thy tokens and of thy treasures." Ciaran leaves him his gospel—that which was recovered from the lake—and his bell, and his bearer Mael Odran. Three years and three months was Ciaran in Inis Aingin.
He came thereafter to Ard Manntain, close to the Shannon. When he saw the beauty of that place, thus he spake: "If we dwell here," said he, "we shall have much of the wealth of the world, and there shall be few souls going to heaven from hence." ”

“ Better was the feast that Ciaran made for his monks when they were sore athirst,35 so that he changed water into wine for them. That it be no story without proof for you," said the elder, "it was myself who divided that wine, and my thumb would go over the edge of the cup into the wine. Come and perceive now the savour of my thumb, which then was dipped into the wine." They came and were all satisfied with the savour of that finger. And they said, "Better," said they, "than any feast was that feast of which the savour remains after a long time on a finger. ”

“ So for these good things, and for many others, is his soul among the folk of heaven. His remains and relics are here with honour and renown, with daily wonders and miracles. And though great is his honour just now in this manner, greater shall be his honour in the holy incorruptible union of his body and his soul in the great assembly of Judgment, when Saint Ciaran shall be judge of the fruit of his labour along with Christ Whom he served. ”

“ The two Ciarans then made a covenant together. "The wealth of the world," said Ciaran son of the wright, "be in great Saigir." "Knowledge and dignity incorruptible be in Cluain maccu Nois," said Ciaran of Saigir. ”

“ There were angels hovering over the leper's grave, and thus Muinis recognised it as the burial-place of a man of God. He deposited the relics which he was bearing back from Rome, for the night, in the hollow elm; but he found in the morning that the tree had closed upon them, and that they could not be recovered. In sorrow for their loss, he related the event to Patrick, and for his comfort he was told that a Son of Life—to wit Ciaran, son of the wright—was destined to come thither, and that he would need the relics. ”

“ There is not one to relate completely what God wrought of signs and wonders for this holy Ciaran; for they are more than can be told or mentioned. For after the coming of Christ in the flesh there was not one born greater in almsgiving and mercy, greater in labour and fasting and prayer, greater in humility and fervour of good-will, greater in courtesy and mildness, greater in care for the Church of God, greater in daily labour and in nightly vigil.
He it is who never put tasty food or heady drink into his body, from the time when he embraced the religious life. ”

“ It would perhaps be too far-fetched to see a hint at a mythological element in the traditions of Ciaran in the signification of his parents' names. Indeed, considering the Tendenz of the Ciaran Lives, it is remarkable that there is no supernormal element in the account of the birth of this particular saint; supernatural [page 108] births are almost a commonplace in Irish saints' lives as a rule.
The saint's own name is regularly spelt with an initial K or Q in the Latin texts, doubtless because Latin c was pronounced as s before e and i in mediaeval Ireland. ”

“ Many of the children of life, apostles and disciples of the Lord, have thenceforward fulfilled with zeal and with piety the counsel that Jesus gave them as to fulfilling charity; as he fulfilled and loved charity especially beyond all virtues, to wit the noble glorious apostle, the father confessor, the spark-flashing, the man through whom the west of the world shone with signs and wonders, with virtues and with good deeds, Sanctus Ciaranus sacerdos et apostolus Dei, the archpresbyter and apostle Saint Ciaran, son of the wright. ”

“ 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. ”

“ Now when the folk of Cluain went to awake him, thus they found him, without life. Sorely did his folk bewail him, and there came the people of the neighbourhood to ask them the cause of their weeping. "Cluain," said they, "went to his bed [page 83] in health, and now he is dead; and Ciaran hath slain him with his word, for that he went not to reap for him." All those people go to Ciaran to intercede with him for the raising again of the dead: "we shall all," said they, "reap for thee, and we shall give our labour and our service to thee and to God for ever, if thou raise the dead for us." ”

“ The text of the Third Latin Life (LC) is contained in the well-known Brussels MS., called Codex Salmaticensis from its former sojourn at Salamanca. It is of the fourteenth century. This was the only continuous authority at the disposal of the compiler of the Bollandist life of our saint; he speaks of it in the most contemptuous terms. The life of Ciaran in this manuscript is a mere fragment, evidently copied from an imperfect exemplar; there seems to have been a chasm in the middle, and there is a lacuna at the end, which the scribe has endeavoured to conceal by adding the words "Finit, Amen." ”

“ Another Life of the saint seems to be referred to in the Martyrology of Donegal; under the 10th May that compilation quotes a certain "Life of Ciaran of Cluain" (i.e. Clonmacnois) as the authority for a statement to the effect that "the order of Comgall [of Bangor, Co. Down] was one of the eight orders that were in Ireland." It would be irrelevant to discuss here the meaning of this statement; its importance for us lies in the fact that the sentence is not found in any of the extant Lives, so that some other text, now unknown, must be in question. ”

“ We read of a saint "fasting upon God" that a king might lose a battle; and in Revue celtique, vol. xiv, p. 28, there is printed a story of a childless couple who fasted with success upon the Devil, that he might send them offspring. Two of the saints—Odran of Letrecha Odrain and Mac Cuillind of Lusk—went and told Ciaran for what they were fasting: Ciaran simply replied, "Bless ye the air before me"—the air through which I must travel in passing heavenwards—"and what ye desire shall be given you." ”

“ A man full of likeness in many ways to Jesus Christ the Head of all things. For this man made wine of water for his folk and his guests in this city, as Jesus made choice wine of water at the feast of Cana of Galilee. This man is called "son of the wright," as Christ is called "Son of the wright" in the Gospel (hic est Filius fabri, that is, of Joseph) . Thirty-three years in the age of this man, as there are thirty-three years in the age of Christ. ”

“ When at another time he was feeding the herds of his parents, as men are wont to do,1 a cow brought forth a calf in his presence. But there came a hound consumed with leanness, seeking to fill his belly with what fell from the body of the mother along with the calf; and moved with compassion he said unto him, "Eat, poor wretch, yonder calf, for great is thy need of it." The hound fulfilled the commands of Keranus, and ate the calf to the bones. As Keranus returned home to the house of his parents with the herds, the cow, recalling the calf to memory, went running about lowing. ”

“ THE IRISH LIFE OF SAINT CIARAN I. THE HOMILETIC INTRODUCTION
1. Omnia quaecumque uultis ut faciant homines uobis, ita et uos faciatis illis, haec est enim lex et prophetae:
"Every good thing that ye wish to be done unto you by men, let it be likewise that ye do to them, for that is Law and Prophecy."
Now He Who prohibiteth every evil, Who proclaimeth every good, Who reconcileth God and man, Jesus Christ Son of the Living God, the Saviour of the whole world, He it is Who spake these words; to teach His apostles and His disciples and the whole Church concerning the covenant1 of charity ”

“ But when Saint Columba was departing thence, he took away with him earth from the sacred grave of Saint Keranus, knowing in the spirit how useful this would be against future perils of the sea. For in the part of the sea which bears towards the monastery of Í, there is a very great danger to those who cross, partly because of the vehemence of the currents, and partly because of the narrowness of the sea; so that ships are whirled round and driven in a circle, and thus are often sunk. ”

“ Thereafter Ciaran went to Aran to hold converse with Enda, and Enda and Ciaran saw one and the same vision—a great fruitful tree beside a river in [page 86] the middle of Ireland, a-sheltering the island of Ireland, and its fruit was going over the sea that was around the island outside, and the birds of the air were coming and taking of the fruit. Ciaran went and told the vision to Enda. Said Enda, "That great tree which thou hast seen is thyself; for thou art great before God and man, and Ireland shall be full of thine honour. ”

“ Then Saint Kyaranus granted Inis Angin with its furniture to Saint Donnanus, and came to a place which is called Ard Mantain, near the river Sinna; but being unwilling to remain in that place, he said: "I will not live in this place: for here shall be great abundance of the things of this life, and earthly joy; and hardly could the souls of my disciples attain to heaven, were I to have dwelt here, for this place belongs to the men of this world."
Thereafter Saint Kiaranus left that place, and came to a place which once was called Typrait, but now is called Cluain meic Nois. ”

“ Even when we read so modern and so universal an author as Shakspere we must for the moment imagine ourselves sixteenth-century Elizabethans; the more we succeed in doing so, the better do we understand what we read. ”

“ In most, if not in all, cases, the incidents recorded in the Lives are to be criticised as genuine traditions, whatever their literal historicity may be; [page 3] few, if any, are conscious inventions or impostures.2
In the Lives of Ciaran there are many conventional incidents of this kind, which reappear in the lives of other saints. In the Annotations in the present edition a few such parallels are quoted; though no attempt is made to give an exhaustive list, the compilation of which would occupy more time and space than its scientific value would warrant. ”

“ The pre-eminent position of Ciaran's mother in the home. The pre-Celtic tribesmen of Ireland, like their Pictish kinsmen in Scotland, were organised on the system of mother-right, in which property and descent and kinship are all traced through the maternal side of the ancestry. Throughout the Lives, Beoit is a cypher: the house and its contents and appurtenances are almost invariably treated as Darerca's property. Matriarchate usually implies exogamy, a man choosing his wife from a sept differing from his own ”

“ XLIV. CIARAN AND THE WINE
36. One day the brethren were sore athirst, while they were reaping in Cluain. They send a messenger to the cleric, that water be brought to them in the field. Then Ciaran said, "If to-day they would [page 92] endure thirst, it would procure great riches of the world for the brethren who would come after them." "Truly," said the brethren, "we prefer to exercise patience, whereby profit will be secured for ourselves, and advantage to the brethren who follow us; rather than to have satisfaction of our thirst to-day." ”

“ That cow was of a dun colour, and was called Odar Ciarain, "Ciaran's Dun." Her fame endures for ever in Ireland, for she used to have the greatest store of milk, such as at this time could not be believed. Her milk was daily divided among the school, and sufficed for many. Her hide in like manner remains to this day honourably in the city of Saint Kiaranus; for through it, by the grace of God, miracles are wrought. This grace greater than all it has, as the holy ancients, the disciples of Saint Kiaranus, have delivered unto us ”