ON ST. DECLAN, BISHOP,
OF ARDMORE IN IRELAND.
6th Century.
PRELIMINARY COMMENTARY.
The Saint's cult; the place and time of his life; the Acts.
Declan, bishop [and] confessor, of Ardmore in Ireland (St.)
BY THE AUTHOR P. B.
Ireland gave to the Church two Declans — or, as it was formerly wont to be called, Scotia; each a Saint, each an apostle; but the one younger, a deacon, the companion of St. Virgil, bishop of Salzburg, St. Declan the bishop and by him sent to Freising; where he also died toward the end of the eighth century, and still, together with St. Marinus the bishop, is illustrious for miracles, and is venerated on the Kalends of December, by the testimony of our Rader in Holy Bavaria, volume 2, page 113: but the other about three centuries more ancient, and the bishop of his own countrymen — the Deisi, I mean — whom he had brought to the acknowledgment of the truth; whom, on this day — on which he is also said in the Acts, number 79, to have departed this life — the Irish celebrate, as relate our Henry Fitzsimon in the Catalogue of the chief Saints of Ireland, first published at Douai in the year 1615, then revised and enlarged at Liège in the year 1619; and John Colgan, both elsewhere more often, and especially in the Thaumaturgous Triad, or the second volume of the Saints of Ireland, page 613; and this from the Irish Martyrologies; the texts of which, however, he does not there cite, except that of one Sanctilogium, which he calls the Genealogical, reserving the rest for the Acts to be given on July 24, to which he refers the reader — who hitherto in vain desires the Acts promised beyond March. Since therefore I knew that those Martyrologies were kept at Louvain in the convent of the Irish Friars Minor, I sought thence by letter a support for establishing the cult of St. Declan, to which the Reverend Father Francis Friell, of the same Order and convent, most courteously replied in these words:
[2] The Martyrology of Donegal (concerning whose value and worth read Colgan, volume 1, he is celebrated on this day among the Irish, page 5), on July 24 has the following: Declan, bishop and confessor of Ardmore; who, returning from Rome, is said to have ended his life in the province of the Tyrol. Through forgetfulness he left a certain bell, sent to him from heaven, on a certain rock situated on the shore where he had landed. But afterward
that same rock miraculously accompanied a certain ship, in which were carried the urn and the relics of St. Declan into Ireland, with this prophecy: namely, that wherever the said rock should come to rest, there a church was to be built in honor of St. Declan. The said church stands in the barony of Desmond in Munster. Thus far the Martyrology: to which Friell adds, It is to be noted, he says, that these things are written in a character not so ancient; yet that they were transcribed from most ancient monuments, the archbishops of Ireland show, approving the said Martyrology. However it be, this eulogy does not seem to be preferred to our Acts, which affirm otherwise about the place of [his] death, at number 79. Moreover, I am much mistaken if the miracle here narrated was not, by the fault of a failing memory, fabricated by someone who had once drowsily read or heard the things which are narrated about that rock, and the bell or cymbal, and the church of St. Declan, in the Acts below, from number 29. But let us proceed with Friell to another Martyrology of better note: Likewise on the same day, he says, St. Aengus (who wrote a Martyrology in Irish meter toward the end of the 8th century, according to Ware and Colgan, in the same place, page 4), in a very ancient verse composed in the Irish style, has the following, at least as to the sense (for the letters are scarcely legible to moderns on account of the antiquity of the manuscript): O Ireland, great and unspeakable riches accrue to thee from the patronage of St. Declan! This testimony indeed seems to me in this matter of no small weight: yet another also is added: Marianus, on the same day, sets down only the name and the title of Saint, bishop, and confessor. This blessed Marianus flourished in the 12th century, as the cited Colgan asserts.
[3] But besides these domestic testimonies of his public veneration, whose sanctity, commonly acknowledged, we find no others external (if you except one, and that a most recent one, of Castellanus, who, I know not why, refers this Saint's birthday to July 25), however much we have searched through all our Martyrologies. But even if these were lacking, that we might not nevertheless in this place pass over Declan, the Acts themselves would sufficiently persuade [us] — both those of our Saint himself, and others which have made mention of him as of a Saint, as do the Acts of St. Ciaran in Colgan, volume 1, page 459, number 9, and of St. Ailbe in the same, volume 2, page 251. For these Acts, although they are sprinkled with not a few fables, and are not so ancient as Colgan believed them, yet that they are ancient enough to demonstrate that the opinion of his sanctity was received and established commonly among the Irish from time immemorial before the decrees of Pope Urban VIII, we cannot deny; since they are cited as noble instruments of Irish antiquity not only by Colgan here and there, but also by Ussher in the Origins of the British Churches, chapter 16, and by Ware in the Commentary on the prelates of Ireland, where he treats of the bishops of Emly, page 174.
[4] Nay, whoever in the end, and of whatever age or credibility, you shall determine this our author to have been, it can certainly never be believed that in Ireland he invented those things in which, unless he had written the truth, he would know that he would be at once refuted even by the lowest common folk. their ancient monuments attest it. When therefore you read, number 11, The stone upon which St. Declan was born is today (namely, when this Life was being written) called the Rock of Declan; and number 15, The place in which St. Declan was born was formerly called the Court of Dobran, but now is called the Court of Declan; likewise when, at numbers 32 and 36, Ardmore is called the city of St. Declan; and what is had at number 57, Then St. Declan blessed a certain stone there (in the plain of Femhin, toward the southern region in Munster), which from that day to this is called the Stone of St. Declan; and number 58, And there (at Temoria in eastern Meath) St. Declan built a monastery of canons on land given to him, which is named from the name of St. Declan; and number 70, A heap of stones was gathered in that place, with a cross, as a sign of the miracle, which is called … the Heap of St. Declan; and when it is said of the cell which St. Declan had built for himself not far from Ardmore, that it is called the Little Desert of St. Declan: when you read these things, I say, you cannot doubt that such names truly then belonged to those places, as names given of old and commonly used down to that time. There was, therefore, a tradition both ancient and commonly received, not only that that Declan, from whom these places had received their name, existed of old, but also that he was held for a Saint by all. The same argument can be formed from what he narrates at the end of the Life; namely, that St. Declan was buried in his own city of Ardmore … where great signs and miracles are always done through him, etc.
[5] The place of his episcopate and of his burial. Now Ardmore, or Ardmor Deaglain (as it is called in Irish from the name of our Saint, by the testimony of Ussher, Origins of the British Churches, chapter 17, page 867), was formerly a little city; but now it is a village of Ireland in Munster, and in the county of Waterford; and it has a harbor, set between Dungarvan and Youghal, yet somewhat nearer to the latter than to the former. There is adjoined to it a little territory, which the family of the Deisi is said, in the Acts below, to have once occupied by arms; whence also it is now called the viscount's district of Decies. The beginnings of Ardmore are owed to the monastery which St. Declan is believed first to have founded there, as one may learn from the Acts, number 37. The author of the Monastic History of Ireland, published at Paris in the year 1690, page 54, judges that it was a monastery of Canons Regular of St. Augustine; but he has nothing wherewith to confirm this opinion of his. Colgan treats of it in the Acts of the Saints of Ireland, volume 1, page 608; but he dared to add nothing to what is handed down in the Acts now to be given. And so that monastery seems rather to have followed a peculiar institution of St. Declan. But whether it afterward devolved to canons regular, or, like many other houses among the Irish, degenerated into a parish, or how long it lasted, is uncertain; yet it appears more probable that it perished long ago, since nothing about it became known either to Ware in the Irish Antiquities, or to anyone else that I know of, except what our Acts have handed down. Moreover, our Saint placed an episcopal see at Ardmore, as you have in the Acts, number 30, and elsewhere. It was thereafter annexed to the bishopric of Lismore, from which it is distant only twelve miles, as Ussher, cited a little before, gives assurance for his own time. When that happened, I have found nowhere. Certainly in the year of Christ 1152 the bishopric of Ardmore was no longer known, as you will gather from Ware, Irish Antiquities, chapter 16.
[6] Concerning the time in which our Saint is to be believed to have lived, The time when he was born is uncertain: this one thing seems certain to me, that nothing is more uncertain than it: for I know no more ancient monuments, however ancient, which have made mention of him, than those three which Colgan and Ussher used for weaving his chronology; namely the Acts themselves of St. Declan, which we shall subjoin; then the Life of St. Ailbe; and finally the Acts of St. Ciaran, cited above in Colgan: but in all these the times are so insipidly distributed that I cannot sufficiently marvel that learned men could give heed to them, and thus bring back the birth of our Saint to the times of the emperor Constantius, or to about the middle of the fourth century, and his episcopate to the year of Christ 402 — namely thirty years before St. Patrick was sent into Ireland by Pope Celestine. You may consult Ussher, Origins of the British Churches, chapter 16. I do not indeed deny that these things are rightly affirmed according to those authors; but I say that, according to the same, this is no less rightly denied; and that consequently they are unworthy that the learned should follow them in chronological reckonings. You will find the matter demonstrated by an example below, in the annotations to chapter 4 of our Acts, letter c.
[7] But behold another notable instance from the same chapter. St. Declan, returning from his Roman journey, number 28, he died in the sixth century. visited St. David, then already bishop of Menevia St. David's; and so after the year of Christ 516, in which St. David was first raised to the mitre, as we showed on March 1, on which he is venerated: I deny therefore that Declan was born in the year 347, according to our author; unless you would have him so inept that he feigned an old man of about a hundred and seventy years to go to Rome. And indeed I would not deny that he is so inept; but from that very fact I contend that his chronological arrangement is utterly to be rejected. For what would you trust in it to a man who, after St. David, bishop of Menevia, had been visited by Declan, and the episcopal see of Ardmore had been established, and the other things which are narrated in the fourth chapter and the beginning of the fifth, could subjoin at number 39: Meanwhile the most glorious archbishop Patrick, sent by Pope Celestine, came into Ireland, and what follows? Truly, he who places the coming of St. Patrick — which we taught, on March 17, happened under Pope Celestine in the year of Christ 432 — after the episcopate of St. David, that is, after the year of Christ, at the least, five hundred and sixteen, betrays so supine an ignorance of the times that he does not even deserve to be here refuted at greater length. One may consult what was said to this point by our predecessors in the Acts of St. Patrick on March 17, of St. Ciaran on the 5th of the same month, and of St. Ibar on April 3. For me it is enough to refer the death of St. Declan to the sixth century, to which they our predecessors thought that of his contemporaries, SS. Ciaran and Ibar, was also to be referred, Colgan not opposing, volume 1, page 608, where he fixed his death after the year of Christ 548 or even 557; although he was not unaware that, according to his own chronology, the life of our Saint would thus have to be prolonged to about two whole centuries; wherein he does not have me for one who assents.
[8] Furthermore, from what has been said it is plain that we are far from believing the author of our Acts to be as ancient The Acts are not of an author nearly contemporary with the Saint, as Colgan believed, volume 2, page 250, where he reckons that he wrote about a thousand years ago; or volume 1, page 608, where he asserts that he was perhaps contemporary with St. Ultan (who is said to have been a disciple of St. Declan and appointed by him his successor in the prefecture of the monastery of Ardmore). For who would believe that anachronisms so enormous could have escaped the pen of one who, by living and writing, had reached those very times in which he errs so greatly? The things had at number 72, I believe, impelled the learned Colgan to think so: And that same Ultan, after the death of the most holy Declan, became the second abbot and a wondrous father of many miracles, whose life, illustrious with miracles,
SHINES FORTH: for this word seems to signify that Ultan was still living when this author was writing: likewise those words which are read at number 77: And thence it is reported to us by his (St. Declan's) ancient disciples that a great host was customarily in his company. But in neither place is anything proved: for to the first it can be answered that it is frequent enough among historians to narrate as present the things which are past: then that "Life" is often taken for the history of a life; in which, if many miracles are described, it can be said to shine with miracles even a thousand years and more after the Saint lived. To the second it seems it must be said that by the narration of St. Declan's disciples is here understood something delivered, not by mouth in person and in words by them to our author, but handed down in writing to posterity; so that the sense is: It is reported to us by his ancient disciples in old writings, which they once consigned to us, and which still survive when we are composing these new Acts of his, that, etc. By which reasoning, indeed, it is plain that nothing can be hammered out of that text whereby we might attain any notion of the age of this interpolator. Nor indeed ought this to seem rashly said by me; since our author himself confesses that he used more ancient writings, at number 28: The common folk say, he says, that St. Declan visited Rome many times; but in OLD WRITINGS we do not find that he did so more than three times.
[9] but [of an author some centuries younger,] Yet let these things not be so said as to abrogate all antiquity to this writer: for I will easily allow him to be held ancient, provided only that he be removed by some centuries from the times of St. Declan, which he wholly did not know: nor indeed do I see, up to that point, anything that could be solidly objected either to Colgan or to his associates, whom in the preface of his work he deservedly praises, or to Ussher or Ware: inasmuch as they, since all were men most versed in Irish antiquities, and who read these Acts written in manuscript in very ancient codices, seem to demand at least by a certain right of their own that what they themselves judged ancient ought also to be held as such by the rest, until either no reason can be brought forward, or a graver authority to the contrary; which authority we do not deny that we lack, so as to prove this writer to be younger even than the tenth century; whatever Papebroch may have thought otherwise, deceived by a faulty copy of our Acts, as will be said below in the annotations to chapter 6, letter c. Nay rather, to vindicate for our biographer as much antiquity as we can, it seems to contribute not a little that most of the monasteries, churches, and the rest, of which he treats as of things commonly known and still subsisting, are known neither to Colgan, nor to Ware, nor to others whom I have seen, except from these Acts of St. Declan alone, which they cite.
[10] and sprinkled with fables; What our predecessors thought of these Acts, and with how prodigious fables they judged them stuffed, they signified in more than one place, but especially where St. Patrick was treated of, on March 17, page 581. I am mistaken if anyone who is willing to peruse them entire will be able to determine otherwise. And the genealogy which is woven through the whole first chapter, not even Ware, in the Irish Antiquities, chapter 4, judged worthy of mention, since concerning the kings of Ireland, there and elsewhere variously enumerated, he pronounced thus: As for what pertains to the predecessors of Loegaire, I certainly of set purpose passed them over; because most of the things which are handed down about them (to say what I think) are either fables, or wondrously mixed with fables and anachronisms. You may read [it]; and believe, if you can (for there is no leisure here to weigh the several things by their own weights): read, I say, what is narrated from number 4 to 6 about Aeneas Aengus; what is narrated at number 10 about the sanctity of Declan in the womb of his heathen mother, and the circumstances of his nativity; what at numbers 20, 21, and 22 about Lunan, son of the king of the Romans, and the wondrous cymbal or little bell; what at numbers 29, 30, and 31 about the rock swimming through the sea like a ship. Certainly the Venerable Bede, easily the chief man in the history of Britain, was ignorant in his time of a prodigy of this kind, when he wrote those words on the Gospel of Mark which the whole Church recites yearly in the Office of St. Gregory Thaumaturgus on November 17. Why should I mention other things? At numbers 34 and 35, 63, 73, how astounding are the things narrated, how little probable, if you consider them ever so little! Knowingly I pass over more; yet I cannot but refer the reader to number 71, that is, to the sailors turned into great rocks, which are on the shore of the sea not far from land, and stand higher than the sea. Believe [it], O posterity.
[11] These and similar things put it into my mind more than once, nor yet are they on that account to be here omitted. that I should suppress these Acts of St. Declan; which, however, I did not thereupon judge should be done, first indeed because they avail at least to prove the once-public opinion of his sanctity in Ireland: then because they are in some way ancient in the judgment of those who have written not without praise about Irish antiquities: finally because some desire of one day inspecting them was already long ago excited by Ware and Ussher, who drew from them not a few fragments, but especially by Colgan, who moreover promised them entire, as they were, and illustrated: whence it is permitted to conjecture that the manuscript copies of this Life throughout Ireland were not very rare. We received it long ago from the Reverend Fathers, the Irish Minorites of the convent of Louvain, where it is even now preserved, written out in Irish letters, as that Brother Michael Clery took it from a most ancient codex, by the testimony of Friell praised above — Clery, of whom there is a notable eulogy in Colgan, in the preface of the first volume on the Saints of Ireland. But since our copy had both many errors and several lacunae, we took care that it be collated at Rome with another entire exemplar, which was in the college of St. Isidore, while Francis Harold was living there — already then illustrious for his writings and merits, and himself an Irishman; who faithfully, by himself, restored to us these Acts, corrected and supplied from his own exemplar, in the year 1679, such as we now publish them.
LIFE
From the Louvain manuscript, collated with the manuscript of the Roman College of St. Isidore.
Declan, bishop [and] confessor, of Ardmore in Ireland (St.)
BHL Number: 2116
FROM A MANUSCRIPT.
CHAPTER I.
The genealogy of St. Declan.
The kings of Ireland from the times of SS. Peter and Paul the Apostles The most blessed bishop Declan sprang from the most noble race of the kings of Ireland, who through many courses of times held the kingdom of all Ireland in the city of Temoria a; as will appear from his following genealogy. There was a most powerful king, who enlarged the borders of his empire, by the name of Equitius Fedhlech b: he begot three sons, one of whom, Lecharius c, begot Luguidh Sriubhnearg d, who had three rosy circles like belts on his body from birth, and was comely in appearance, strong in strength, and, from infancy, most renowned for handling arduous affairs. He took up the helm of the ancestral kingdom in that year in which Caius Caesar e was slain, and after he had reigned twenty-six years in Temoria, he was slain by the nation of the Leinstermen in that year in which Peter the Apostle and Paul the doctor of the nations were delivered to death by Nero f; and he himself had a son, by the name of Crimthann Niadh Nair g, who reigned only ten years, and died.
[2] are enumerated, But he left a son by the name of Feradach Finnfechtnach h, who reigned thirty years in Temoria. He begot Fiachu Finnfoladh i, and reigned thirteen years, and was slain in Temoria: but he begot a son, Tuathal Teachtmar k, who obtained various regions in great power, and reigned in Temoria twenty-three years: at last he was slain by the nation of the Ulstermen l, yet he begot a son, Feidhlimidh Reachtmar m, who established great laws in his kingdom, and reigned nine years, and begot three sons — that is, Conn Cheadcha, Eochaidh Fionn, [and] Fiachu Suighde n. The elder-born o reigned twenty years [p], whose fame of goodness, peace, and fertility is worthy of eternal memory. He was slain by the leader of the Ulstermen, Tiberius Cyrech [q], in the plain of Coba. His name reigns perpetually in Temoria. Equitius Candidus [r], the second-born, went on to the province of the Leinstermen, where his descendants always dwell in various places, from among whom are counts and powerful men, who are numbered among the Leinstermen.
[3] from whom the forebears of St. Declan drew their lineage. Fiachu Suighde, the third son of the aforesaid Feidhlimidh, dwelt in the region around Temoria, but died without the kingdom of Ireland, having three excellent sons, Rossa, Aengus, [and] Eoghan [*], who were warlike and most skilled in military discipline; and above the rest Aengus [was] a hero of intolerable wrath and remarkable fortitude. When now Cormac, son of Art, son of Conn of the Hundred Battles [s], had taken up the ancestral kingdom, there was a certain noble and powerful man who was an enemy of the king; the king wishing [t] to enter into peace with him, he never would, unless king Cormac should give him Aengus, or the aforesaid Aeneas, with his brothers, as a defender of the safety of his body. At first the king was unwilling to do this; but afterward he granted [it]; and, receiving that Aeneas with his brothers for [his] defense, he himself came to the king and made concord with him: but after some days Cenllach, the son of king Cormac, seized that noble man without the leave of his father, namely the king, and put out his eyes.
[4] Hearing this, Aeneas was filled with excessive fury of wrath, about whom fabulous [things] and forthwith ran to Temoria, where that son was with his father the king, before all his own [men], none being willing to accompany him; and, the concourse of many armed men being seen, and the very great man before them going to Temoria, the king ordered the gates of the fortifications to be made fast, saying: Truly it is Aeneas before his brothers, wishing to avenge upon us his duty of defense. This word being heard from the king, the hearts of all grew faint, recognizing [u] and fearing his most audacious fortitude. And Aeneas, seeing the gates of the fortifications closed against him, roused with fury, in his strength and swiftness lightly raised himself into the air, and stood above the height of the outermost fortification; and leaped across from fortification to fortification, until he was in the midst of Temoria with his arms, and entered the palace in which the king was, seeking Cenllach, his son, that he might slay him without delay.
[5] But he, all fleeing hither and thither, deeds are narrated. stood before his father the king, wishing to defend himself and him, and the count of the city of Temoria, a brave man; and he too, wishing to defend the king, came and stood between the king
and his son. But Ængus reckoned their onset as nothing; for brandishing his own poisoned lance against them, he fixed it in the breast of Ceallach [x], the son of the king, and through him it passed out into the breast of the aforesaid count, and through his back it reached the eye of King Cormac. And the son of the king and that count at once fell to the earth upon the lance; and, had they not fallen upon the lance, it would have gone yet further, entering through the head of the king along with them. And thus Ængus with a single blow slew Ceallach the king's son and the count of Themoria, and destroyed the eye of King Cormac. And again he set upon the king, wishing to cut his throat; but the king, as he came on, adjured him by the gods and by his kinship, that he might spare him; for they at that time were heathens, worshiping the gods, nay rather idols, according to their own will. And so Ængus, seeing the king's son dead together with the illustrious count, began to let his fury subside, and, moved by kinship, spared the king, and returned from Themoria with a great triumph.
[6] Thereafter Cormac was now king of Ireland, The same men are driven out of Meath, where the kings of Ireland resided, who reigned forty-two years. But grieving over his son and his great count and over the loss of his ruined eye, he gathered no small throngs of soldiers; and he began to drive Ængus with his brothers out of his own borders, out of the region of Themoria, which is called Na nDesi [y], and not only from there, but also from all the northern borders: for he feared them greatly, because the kingdom was by right destined to come to them, and belonged to them, as it did to himself. But they, according to their nobility, resisted bravely and spiritedly for some time, and joined seven battles among themselves, in which Ængus with his brothers wrought great slaughter; but at last they themselves were overcome with great fury, to the loss of their soldiers. Whereupon they afterward, unable to resist the great royal columns in the various regions of Ireland, left their homeland, the region of Meath, and came into the provinces of the Leinstermen, and thence after a year they arrived at Munster; but the people of Ossory, which is the western tract of the Leinstermen next to Munster [z], did them an injury in their passing.
[7] They occupy the confines of Munster and Leinster, And coming to Oilill Oluim [*], king of Munster, who had a beautiful wife, royal and most excellent according to the goodness of nature, namely Soidhb, daughter of Cuinn cedchathui [aa] their great-uncle, he gave them fitting honor, and granted that they might acquire for themselves by arms a region on the border of Munster; or, if they wished, that they might contend against the Connachta [bb], or against the Leinstermen, or against their own homeland region, Meath, for a portion of Munster and a portion of a foreign region: for they were unwilling to accept another region from him, except such as they might seize by their swords in some border-tract as a token of liberality. And they chose to make war against the people of Ossory, who without cause had done them injury. On that very border of Munster and Leinster, around the river Suir [cc], they contended, by four battles joined, for a great and truly excellent region—two against the Leinstermen, that is, against the people of Ossory, and two against the Munstermen; in which Ængus proved intolerable.
[8] the natives being expelled; They routed the people of Ossory from the midst of the plain of Femhyn eastward as far as the stream Cinnan, which is now the boundary of the Leinstermen and the Munstermen in that tract, dividing the land of Na nDesi and Osruighe [*]: and from the midst of the aforesaid plain they destroyed by a strong hand the inhabitants of the region which was once called Tyrfene, but now Firmuighe, as far as the little plain in which stands the city of Brighdband: and the inhabitants of the region of Liuthuin, from the river which was once called Nemh, but now Obhann Mhor, as far as the stream Kille Cobhtuig, which is now on the border of Na nDesi and Traliathuin, they expelled after a battle powerfully won over them there. And after those four battles they took possession of a great and fruitful region of land and water, namely from the north to the south by the stream Luase as far as the sea, and from the west to the east from the above-mentioned place, that is, Cill Cobhtuig, as far as the strait which now divides the Leinstermen and the Munstermen, between that very people of Na nDesi and the people of Firgulrun. And those three brothers, namely Ross, Eogan, and Ængus, divided that region among themselves in three parts with great concord—the plains, the mountains, and the forests. From their names the land is still named [dd].
[9] which region is called even now the region of the Desi. Their descendants also, by the ancient name near Themoria "Na nDesii," the leaders of the people of Na nDesi, of the seed of Locan, son of Fiuchuidh, son of Fedlimidh Reacht mair, continued through the age, from whom was born Carbric Rigreudh, powerful leader of Na nDesi, who begot Conru Cathbhudhach: and he was called Cathbhudhach, because in wars he was a triumphant conqueror; Conru begot Cranu Comb Readhach, who was not equal in his judgments; from whom was born Mesfore; he begot Mosgrui, from whom was born Moscorp, who begot Ardcorp, from whom a second Eogan was born, from whom Briun, from whom Niut, from whom Luaghiudh, from whom Trer, who begot Erc [ee], the father of Saint Declan. These are the leaders of the people of Na nDesii, from the time when they themselves came from Themoria down to the birth of Saint Declan.
ANNOTATIONS.
CHAPTER II.
The saint's birth, upbringing, disciples.
Erc, leader of Na nDesii, the father of Saint Declan, came, summoned with many, to the house of his kinsman The saint's prodigious birth: who was called Dobran, that is, Dobhran, and his wife, by name Dethein, Deiefthion or Dechiden a (that is, "Care"), together with him. The time of bringing forth arrived: for she was pregnant, having Declan in her womb; and she gave birth at once without difficulty, because of the sanctity of the infant hidden in the womb. But the mother, wishing to rise up during the birth, brought forth the elegant little infant, whose head by chance fell before her upon a great stone: and, behold, signs and miracles by the grace of God already appeared with the Saint from his mother's womb; even as it is written by the prophet: From the womb I have sanctified thee, and I have given thee for a prophet unto the nations—the prophet now inspired by God, the most blessed Declan, appeared among the nations, who, as you are to hear, converted the inhabitants of many places from heathendom to Christ. The crown of the head of the most tender Infant, therefore, falling upon the stone of Saint Declan, as was said before, made in that hardest stone a hollow pit shaped according to the form of the head, and did no harm to the head.
[11] Seeing this miracle, those who were there marveled greatly at the Boy. for at his birth it renders the stone soft and healing; At that time now Ireland was given over to heathendom; and in that time individual Christians could rarely be found, nor could they be there without persecution. And the stone upon which Saint Declan was born is today called the Rock of Declan; which is now outside in the courtyard, and by the water which stands upon it from the rain in the imprint of the head of St. Declan, through his sanctity and by the working of divine grace, diseases and pains are firmly driven away.
[12] Indeed, on the night of the birth of the most holy Declan another great miracle appeared there: but he is honored by a fiery globe and angelic harmony: for a fiery globe, blazing to many neighbors dwelling near that place, appeared from the summit of the house in which Saint Declan had been born, and stretching itself upward as far as heaven; and angels were seen going up and down around that globe, and singing psalms with harmonious voices, after the likeness of the ladder which appeared in a dream to the holy patriarch Jacob. Those who saw and heard these things rejoiced over the mystery shown to them; but those heathen peoples did not know that Almighty God was making much of the Saint from his birth, who was there and then born on earth to be presently His servant.
[13] While men were relating these things in the sight of a certain Christian he is baptized by St. Colman, whose name was Colman b, who was a religious and holy presbyter, and afterward became an illustrious bishop, he came with great joy, filled with the spirit of prophecy, to the place in which the holy infant Declan had been born, and preached to his parents concerning the faith of Christ, who before them showed His grace in His Son, and prophesied concerning the glory and honor of their Son before God, and foretold the course of his future life in this world. They, at the prompting of God believing the holy priest Colman, handed over to him their Son, that he might baptize him. Then Saint Colman baptized the most holy little infant, imposing on him the name Declan.
[14] foretelling his future sanctity and works. And after the baptism he said prophetically before those then present, to the Boy: "Thou verily, my Son, nay my Lord, shalt be lofty and honored before God and men in heaven and on earth, and the fame of thy sanctity and charity and goodness shall fill through all the four quarters of Ireland, and thou shalt convert the nations of Na nDesii from the error of the devil to the way of Christ, and forthwith I shall have fellowship with thee; and I commend myself to thy sanctity." After such things now said and done, the blessed Colman withdrew to his own place with great joy, charging that the holy Infant be diligently nursed, and in his seventh year handed over to learn his letters, if a lettered Christian could be found. And great cheerfulness appeared in the countenance of the holy little Infant in the presence of his baptizer; and all those present perceived that he inwardly rejoiced in spirit.
[15] The Boy is handed over to Dobran to be reared, Dobran, hearing and seeing all these things, the aforesaid kinsman of Erc the Leader, the father of Saint Declan, earnestly asked the parents of Saint Declan to hand him over to him to be nursed; in whose village Saint Declan had been born. And Saint Declan was handed over to him, that he might nurse him. The place in which Saint Declan was born was formerly called the Courtyard of Dobran; but now it is called the Courtyard of Declan. For Dobran himself, the nurse of Saint Declan, offered that very place to Saint Declan; and he moved his stronghold to another place, in which after a long time Saint Declan, when he was pontiff, built a cell to God; and that place is in the southern tract of Na nDesii, that is, on the east of the plain which the Scots c call Magh Sceithi [*], that is, "field of the shield," from which the famous city of Saint Carthach d, which is called Lismore, is not far distant. And for seven years Saint Declan was nursed with great diligence at the house of the aforesaid Dobran, his father's kinsman, whom the holy Boy greatly loved.
[16] and after seven years given to be instructed by Saint Dymma, In which years, that is, during the infancy of the holy boy Declan, God showed great miracles through him: in which years also the holy Boy himself, by the grace of Christ inspiring him marvelously, abstained from all the unlawful rites of heathendom, like a religious and practiced Christian. When, therefore, the seven years of his age were completed, Saint Declan was handed over by his parents to learn his letters, and by his nurses, as the blessed Colman had charged, to Saint Dymma e (who was a religious and wise man, and approved in the faith of Christ, who at the prompting of God had lately at that time come to Ireland, whence he himself was native, having become a faithful Christian, and had built a cell in that region for the learning of letters)—to this man the holy boy Declan was handed over, and another boy named Carbre, son of Colum, who afterward was a holy and venerable bishop, was together with Saint Declan handed over to Saint Dymma to learn: and both of them studied diligently under him.
[17] and profits so greatly that he too gathers disciples. Seven men f who dwelt in that field of the Shield had seen the aforesaid globe, which appeared from heaven on the night of Saint Declan's birth, together with the rest; but they were endowed by the grace of God beyond others with the spirit of prophecy; and these seven came together to Saint Declan; and receiving him as their lord and master, they preached before all that he would be their future bishop, and said prophetically: "The day will now come, O son Declan, servant of the great God, on which we shall offer ourselves and our places to thee." And so it came to pass: for they, believing in God, received baptism in the name of the Holy Trinity, and became most holy men, and built seven famous little cells to God around the aforesaid field of the Shield. Indeed, at the house of the aforesaid Saint Dymma the most blessed Declan studied for a long time, and drained the sweet cups of the various Scriptures g, and became subtle and eloquent in them. Many now, knowing the nobility of Saint Declan, and seeing and hearing his sanctity, religiousness, and charity in all things, came to him, and of their own accord placed their necks under the yoke of his discipline.
ANNOTATIONS.
CHAPTER III.
His journey to Rome, episcopal consecration, return to Ireland, conversion of the Desi, the erection there of churches and a monastery.
Then it came into the mind of Saint Declan to go to Rome, that he might there learn the ecclesiastical customs, He seeks Rome with several disciples; and receive the grades, and have license to preach from the Apostolic See, and bring back order and rules according to the Roman institution; and he himself, taking certain disciples in his company, sailed across, and journeyed to Rome, and remained there many days. At the same time Saint Ailbe a was at Rome for many years in the discipleship of Saint Hilary the bishop b, by whose command and request Ailbe was ordained bishop by the blessed Pope; and when Saint Declan came to Rome with his disciples, he rejoiced with great gladness at his arrival, and made known his nobility and sanctity to the Roman people, and the most blessed Declan found great honor and love among the Roman people and clergy, who understood his goodness.
[19] where, consecrated bishop, he is sent into Ireland, For Saint Declan was fair in form, humble in noble bearing and in gait, sweet in speech, great in counsel, vigorous in discourse, burning with charity, cheerful in conversation, generous in gifts, holy in life, frequent
and renowned in prodigies and miracles: and after many days Saint Declan was, at the urging of many, ordained bishop by the Lord Pope: and afterward, books and rules having been handed over to him, he was sent to his own homeland, namely to Ireland, that he might preach in it: and, license and blessing having been received from the Lord [*] and the people of the Roman church, the holy bishop Declan began to set out on his journey to Ireland.
[20] and setting out, he meets St. Patrick going to Rome. And many from Rome followed the holy bishop Declan, wishing to live under him in pilgrimage; among whom came a son of the king of the Romans, Lunan c by name, whom Saint Declan greatly loved. And Saint Declan and Saint Patrick, who was afterward sent by Pope Celestine to preach to the Irish, and himself was made archbishop of all Ireland, came to meet one another in Italy; and greeting one another, they peaceably made a fellowship between themselves, and in the kiss of peace Saint Declan came to Ireland; but Saint Patrick went on to Rome.
[21] As he offers sacrifice, he receives from heaven a black bell, To the most blessed pontiff Declan, as he was offering in a certain church on the way, there was sent to him by God from heaven a little black bell; and it came to him through the church window, and stood upon the altar before him: which Saint Declan, receiving with joy, gave thanks to Christ; and by such a gift the holy Man was strengthened against the barbarous ferocity of the heathens: and he handed it over to the aforesaid Lunan, son of the king of the Romans, that he might carry and guard it; which bell the Scots call Duibhin Declain, giving it its name from its blackness and ascribing it to Saint Declan. Through which holy bell from that day down to today many signs by the grace of God have been done through the sanctity of its possessor: and it remains in honor in the city of Saint Declan d.
[22] and by ringing which he obtains a ship, in which he crosses over to Britain, Thereupon the holy Pontiff with his disciples could not sail across the sea Ycht e, which divides Gaul and Britain; because the mariners demanded of him an excessive fare. Seeing this, the holy Man took the aforesaid bell in his hand, and ringing it, prayed to Christ the Almighty God to help him: and at once by divine leading they saw an empty ship, without man or sail, coming to him from wave to wave. And Saint Declan said to his companions: "Let us enter, in the name of Christ, into that ship; and He who has led it to us will make it carry us peacefully, swimming across the sea." At the word now of the Saint, entering the ship, that very ship at once by the will of God turned back into the deep, and began to run the furrows of the sea, and with all tranquillity, with swift course, arrived by swimming at the harbor of Britain. When the holy prelate Declan disembarked with his companions at the harbor, that ship returned whence it had come.
[23] Knowing and seeing such a miracle, they magnified Christ the Son of God in His Saints. thence into Ireland; where he preached, with others, before St. Patrick, Then was fulfilled the Davidic sentence, which says: God is wonderful in His Saints. Afterward Saint Declan, having the prudence of the serpent with the modesty of the dove, arrived in Ireland; and began to scatter through it the seed of life. For he himself, like a sagacious bee, was full, to the honor of honey at his dwelling-place, of the sweet marrow of the Scriptures. Four most holy bishops with their disciples were in Ireland before Saint Patrick f, preaching in it and converting very many to Christ, namely Ailbe, Declan, Ibar, and Kiaran: and these drew many to Christ with the evangelical net; but nevertheless Saint Patrick converted the greater and more powerful men of Ireland to the faith, and he therefore holds the supreme archbishopric of Ireland throughout its circuit.
[24] Saint Ailbe and Declan, and Saint Ibar, had made a great brotherhood and fellowship among themselves and their posterity, until the end of the world, on earth and in heaven, among the people of the Desi, loving one another: but especially St. Declan and St. Ailbe loved one another with an exceeding brotherly love; so that they wished always to be together, unless necessity of separation were urged by their disciples. And the holy prelate Declan came to his own people, Na nDesii; and began to preach to them the faith of the most holy Trinity, and to baptize them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and to convert them from the devil to Christ Himself, the Almighty God; and he established many places to God, in which he appointed certain of his disciples to remain, to serve Christ, and to imbue the heathens with the Christian faith, and to recall them from the worship of the devil to the Gospel of Christ.
[25] At one time Saint Declan visited the place where he founds churches and a monastery. in which he himself had been born, and remained there forty days; and established in it a cell h of men of religious conversation. Then there came to Saint Declan the seven aforesaid men i, living piously and holily around the field of the Shield, who in his boyhood had prophesied concerning him, and offered themselves with their cells and all their goods, as we said before. These are the names of those seven men, that is: Mochellog k, Bean, Colman, Lachnin, Mothey, Findlach, and Caminan, who afterward lived most religiously under the care of Saint Declan, through whom many signs were done by God.
ANNOTATIONS.
CHAPTER IV.
The conversion of the Munstermen to the faith; the Saint's journeys to Rome; his return through Britain; the site of his episcopate indicated to him by a miracle, and enlarged by other miracles, and rendered fruitful.
The saint preaches the faith to the Munstermen. The most blessed father Declan wished to preach to Ængus, son of Noadfrigh a, king of the Munstermen, who reigned in the city of Cashel b; and he journeyed to him at that city. And Saint Declan had two uterine brothers, that is, sons of his mother, and not of his father, who had been born to that very Ængus c, king of Cashel. Those sons now were called Colman d and Equitius [*]. Colman indeed, by divine grace inspiring him, went of his own accord to Saint Ailbe the bishop, and was baptized, and received the ecclesiastical habit from him, and remained with him studying diligently; and he became a holy and marvelous man. But Equitius remained a layman, awaiting the kingdom after his father. This same Equitius now asked his father the king that he might give honor to his brother Declan; and the king gave honor to Saint Declan, and did not prohibit him from preaching, and the discourse, religion, and precept of the Saint pleased him; but nevertheless he did not believe him, nor receive baptism from him.
[27] Why he could not convert their king, his stepfather. And it is reported by some that the reason the king would not be baptized by Saint Declan was that Saint Declan was of the people of Na nDesii, which people and the king's people, that is, the Eoganacht, from which the kings of Munster sometimes arise, were always enemies; and he was unwilling to have a patron from that people; and it was not from a cause of unbelief, as is shown in this matter: for the king himself, hearing that Saint Patrick the archbishop was coming to him (who had been born of the people of Britain, with whom the king had neither envy nor hatred), not only believed him, but went out from his city to meet him with joy; and immediately believing, he was baptized by him. But Saint Declan, after the counsels of salvation sown there, returned to his own nation, which believed him, and baptized all in it except the leader with certain of his attendants, who daily promised that they wished to believe and be baptized, but, the devil again persuading them, from day to day refused.
[28] The common people say that Saint Declan visited Rome many times; Returning from Rome, he visits St. David the bishop; but in the old writings we do not find more than three times; of which, returning on one occasion, he came to the holy bishop of the Britons, by name David e, dwelling in his city Cellmhuny f, which is on the shore of the sea that divides Ireland and Britain, and was received there with honor; and Saint Declan remained there, at the request of Saint David, in all charity forty days, himself celebrating Mass daily. The two pontiffs, namely Declan and David, established between themselves and their own forever a fellowship in the name of Christ. And after forty days, license and blessing having been received from the most holy bishop David and his brethren, in the kiss of peace the most blessed father Declan with his companions boarded a ship, and began to sail to Ireland.
[29] And the aforesaid bell of Saint Declan, which had been cast to him by God from heaven through the window upon the altar, whence he sails to Ireland, having lost his bell, was then in his company, after the usual manner, still in the keeping of that Lunan, to whom it had first been entrusted to guard; but on that day Lunan gave his bell to one of the company, that is, to the son of Theste, that he might carry it with him into the ship. But he, coming into
the shore, set it upon a rock, being occupied with another matter, thinking that afterward he would remember and take it with him from there into the ship: but he forgot it there still, until the ship under sail, by the driving of a strong wind, was taking the middle of the deep. When now the holy pontiff Declan heard that his dear bell, given him by the gift of God, had been left behind on the shore, he grieved greatly in his heart over it; and likewise all who were with him. And the holy Man, looking up to heaven, prayed silently to Christ. When now the not-long prayer was finished, he said to his saddened disciples: "Lay aside, my sons, your sadness: for God, the giver of it, can bring it to us marvelously by a voyage."
[30] O how beautifully did the creature then obey the Creator against its most heavy nature, which, carried through the sea together with the rock, which He gave to it in creation! For that rock, which is truly great, of the hardest kind of stones, by the divine command entered the sea, and lightly swam with swift course most straight after the ship, under its bell; and after a short interval the men of God who were in the ship, seeing this, marveled at the marvelous thing done before them by the divine will; and they were filled with the love of Christ and the honor of their Master. Then, moreover, the most holy man, Declan, filled with the spirit of prophecy, said to them: "Steer the ship straight in the track after the rock: for in whatever place it takes harbor, there near it will be my city, in which the seat of my episcopate shall remain; and I shall pass over in it to Christ, and from its soil shall be my resurrection."
[31] it marks out for the Saint the site of his episcopate, and of his death, For the stone at once goes before the ship, and preceded it by a small space, and the rock went only at such pace as the ship could follow it; and the rock directed its course toward Ireland, and along its southern side at a moderate interval from the land it sailed from mouth to mouth; and the ship was directed after it, as the holy Man had commanded; and that rock, arriving at a certain island in the southern tract of the region of the Desi [*], took a harbor walled by the sea on its shore; likewise the ship arrived in the same place, as Saint Declan had ordered: and the holy Man, disembarking there onto the land, gave thanks to God for the place of his resurrection.
[32] namely the territory of the Desi, where now Ardmore is; In that island there is a famous hill, from which the island is named by the tillers of that land, that is, Ardua Goerach, which sounds in Latin "the Height of Sheep": for the sheep of the wife of the leader of that region were in pastures on that island, and after their pasturing were accustomed to lie on that hill. And a certain one of his disciples, seeing from that hill the island surrounded by the sea, said to Saint Declan: "How will this little height be able to support your people?" Saint Declan said to him: "By no means, my son, shall it be called a little height, but a great height." And so always the city of Saint Declan, which is placed in that spot, is called by the Scots Ardmor, that is, "the great Height." After this the holy pontiff Declan went to the leader of Na nDesi, and asked of him that island, and the leader at once gave that island to the holy Pontiff: and the holy bishop Declan, trusting, came to the Courtyard of Breasoil, where there were ships to carry him to that island; but it much displeased the inhabitants of that place that Saint Declan wished to dwell on that island, and they hid their boats for the purpose of harming the Saint, that he might not be able to enter that island.
[33] but when the disciples complained of the inconveniences of the place, Then the disciples of Saint Declan said to him: "Father, frequently, when you come hither and thither, they will suffer this necessity of sailing, but more frequently after your voyage to heaven; therefore we beseech you with heart and mouth, that you either abandon that island, or ask the Father in the name of the Son, through the unity of the Holy Spirit (even as the very Son of God said: If you ask the Father anything in my name, He will give it to you), that this strait may be thrust from its place into the deep, and its place become level land before your city: for that place cannot be well or easily inhabited because of that strait; and therefore there cannot be a city there; nay, scarcely even a cell." The holy Man answered them, saying: "How can I abandon a place foreordained to me by God, that I may die and be buried in it? But as for what you say concerning the difficulty of dwelling, I know it, and you, and truly more so God; but concerning the moving of that strait against the will of God I am unwilling to ask; but nevertheless at your bidding I will pour out prayers to the Lord; and what pleases God my Creator, He will do of His own accord."
[34] And when the holy Man rose from prayer, the disciples said to him: Declan removes the sea further off by his staff and prayers, "Father, take your staff, and after the likeness of the Mosaic rod strike the water of the strait, and afterward, as you said, let God do what He wills." And the disciples prayed to God together with their holy Patron (for they too were holy and approved men), and, the staff being given into the hand of the holy pontiff Declan, he himself struck the water in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, signing it with the sign of the holy cross of Christ; and at once the great strait began, by the divine will, to flee back from its place into the deep before the Saint of God, like a torrent from the bosom of a mountain, and scarcely could the swift sea-beasts follow the waters by swimming, and many fishes, on the shore deserted by their accustomed waters, rolled themselves in the mire. But the servant of Christ, namely the holy pontiff Declan, holding the staff in his hand, followed the waters, and his disciples followed him; but there was a great tumult and noise in the sea from the beasts and from the waters.
[35] But when the holy pontiff Declan had reached the place and draws forth three springs from the earth, where now is the boundary of land and sea, a pious boy who followed the footsteps of Saint Declan, by name Manchin, fearing with horror the sea-animals fleeing with the strait and creeping on the shore, which opened all their over-hollow mouths, said to Saint Declan: "O holy Father, you have driven the sea enough from its place: for we fear its beasts." And at his voice at once the sea stood still in that very place and withdrew no further. Seeing this, the holy pontiff Declan was much displeased with him; and gave him a gentle slap upon his nose, saying: "It was not I who drove it out, but my God who by His great power drove out that water, and would drive it much further off, had you not said what you said." And three drops of blood fell from his nose to the earth in three places: and the Saint, seeing this, blessed his forehead: and at once the blood ceased, and beneath the feet of the Man of God three little clear fountains of sweet water rose up from the three places in which the three drops of blood had fallen, which remain there to this day: and rarely, but sometimes, in the appearance of blood, yet after a long time, they appear as a sign of the miracle.
[36] The space of that expelled strait, in which there is a mile in breadth, which thereafter became there most fertile. but a long way in length, throughout the circuit of the island is excellent and fruitful land in hay and tillage, which lies under the city of Saint Declan. Then, according to the sentence of the Psalmist, the dry land without water appeared after the departure of the expelled waters: and that staff, which was in the hand of Saint Declan after the strait, is from that day to today called in the Scottish tongue Feartach Declain, "the Wonderful Staff of Declan"; because many Wonders are wrought at all times for the sanctity of the most blessed Declan by that very staff, of which we shall see another miracle below in another place.
ANNOTATIONS.
CHAPTER V.
The various monasteries of St. Declan; the beginnings of the city of Ardmore; the concord of SS. Kiaran, Ibar, Ailbe, and Declan with St. Patrick.
Thereupon the holy pontiff Declan with his disciples, rejoicing over the expulsion of the sea-strait, The Saint founds a monastery; whence the beginnings of Ardmore: by which deed his name was spread abroad through all the regions of Ireland, began to build a great monastery on the western side of the little stream which flowed down from the middle tract of that island into the expelled strait, but now goes into the sea after the strait. And in the same place, around the little stream, a small city grew up in honor of Saint Declan, which in the Irish tongue is called Ardmor. And how this is said in Latin, the name has been plainly noted beforehand a. When the fame of the most blessed and most holy pontiff
Declan's sanctity had been heard, very many throngs from the various regions of Ireland came to him, and gave themselves over in body and soul to Christ under the yoke of the rule of the most holy Declan.
[38] And the holy father Declan built many monasteries and cells throughout the whole region of the Desi; nay, he also erects many other convents throughout Ireland. and not only in that region, but in other parts of Scotia he established places to God. Many thousands now of the habit b, of both sexes, in those very many places under the care and rule of the most holy patron Declan lived a most happy life. Certain ones indeed of his disciples he himself made bishops, and appointed them in some of the aforesaid places for the sake of sowing Christianity. The piety, gentleness, and equity between one person and another of the most holy pontiff Declan appeared to all such that his disciples would rather be in his presence than live by themselves as masters in other places.
[39] Meanwhile the most glorious archbishop Patrick, St. Patrick, sent into Ireland, sent by Pope Celestine, came into Ireland, and God humbled to his teaching the hearts of the greater men of Ireland, and, as we said before, the aforesaid king of Munster, that is, Ængus, son of Neodfruoich [*], came to meet him; and with great glory he led with him the holy archbishop Patrick into his city Cashel: and Saint Patrick baptized and blessed him with his people and city. When the most blessed bishop Patrick heard that the leader of the region of the Desi was still a heathen, daily deferring to believe Saint Declan, he came to preach to him the word of God. The aforesaid four bishops, who were in Ireland before Saint Patrick, sent from Rome, as was he also, namely Ailbe, Declan, Kiaran, and Ibar, did not have one will with Saint Patrick, but a different one: nevertheless in the end they made concord with him.
[40] For Kiaran gave all subjection, and concord, and mastery to Saint Patrick, the four bishops disagree at first; then they submit themselves, both in his presence and in his absence: but Ailbe, seeing the greater men of Ireland flocking after Patrick, came to Saint Patrick in the city of Cashel, and received him there with all humility as his master before King Ængus; which before he had not had in mind. Those bishops had before appointed this Ailbe as their master, and therefore he himself came before them to Saint Patrick, lest they should contradict him on their own behalf. But Ibar by no reason wished to consent to Saint Patrick, nor to be subject to him: for he was unwilling to have a patron of Ireland of another people: but Patrick had been born of the people of the Britons, but was reared in Ireland, having been taken captive in his boyhood: and Ibar and Patrick made great conflicts between themselves at first; but afterward, at the persuasion of an angel, they made peace and concord and brotherhood between themselves.
[41] But Declan was unwilling to contradict Saint Patrick, among whom St. Declan, admonished by an angel, because he had before made brotherhood with him in Italy: nor indeed did he think to be his subject, because he himself had the Apostolic dignity c; but he was at last so admonished by an angel, that he should come to him to do his will: for an angel of the Lord came to Saint Declan, saying to him: "Go now more quickly to Saint Patrick, and prevent him from cursing your people and your land: for he is fasting this night in the place which is called Hynneon, which is in the middle of the plain of Femhyn in the northern tract of the Desi [*], against the leader of your people: and if he shall curse your people, it will be cursed for an age."
[42] by this means reconciles the Desi with St. Patrick; Then Saint Declan with all haste, at the bidding of the angel, went that night to the aforesaid place Hynneon, which is in the middle of the plain of Femhyn in the northern tract of the Desi, through the mountain Gua, that is, Sliabhgua, across the river Suir, and in the morning arrived at Saint Patrick. Saint Patrick now, with his people, seeing Saint Declan, was himself received honorably by Saint Patrick and his people; and Saint Declan humbled himself to Saint Patrick, and asked him not to curse the people of the Desi, nor the region; and promised to give him his obedience: and Saint Patrick said to him: "Because you are anxious for them, nay rather I will bless them."
[43] yet not their obstinate leader; Then Saint Declan went to the leader of the Desi dwelling nearby with his army, who had refused to believe him, and had ill-treated Saint Patrick; and asked him with great entreaties to come to Saint Patrick to believe and be baptized; but he in no way, and by no reason, consented, and, angry with the Saints of God, said that he would not release [it]—except for the sake of the brothers and kinsmen of Saint Declan, because they were few with him. This leader was called Leban, who remained in his unbelief [*]. Seeing him remain in the diabolical persuasion, and fearing lest on his account Saint Patrick should curse his people, Saint Declan, turning to the assembly of the Desi, said: "Separate yourselves from that malefactor, lest you be cursed by reason of his unbelief—you whom I have blessed through the sacred wave of baptism; and come all after me, that Saint Patrick, sent to you by God, may bless you together with me, whom we have chosen as arch-patron of all Ireland: for I, of my paternal nation, ought to be your leader, as is he also."
[44] from whom therefore he draws away his people, At this voice all the assembly of the Desi, except their unbelieving leader with certain of his own servants, followed Saint Declan. And Saint Declan said to Saint Patrick: "Behold, the people of the Desi have left their unbelieving leader, and, with me as though with their leader, come to you, father, subject to you, ready always to honor you: and they seek your blessing, because they received baptism from us." Then Saint Patrick with his disciples diligently blessed the people, and not only the men, but also the woods, lands, and waters. And the princes and powerful men of the Desi said to the holy bishops: "Who now is our leader?" Saint Declan answered them: "I am now your leader; and whom I shall choose to preside, Saint Patrick will bless; and he will be your leader."
[45] another leader being chosen in his place, whom St. Patrick blesses. Then Saint Declan chose a certain young man, by name Ferdinand [], son of Cormac, of the royal race of the Desi, that is, of the kindred and stock of Saint Declan: and set him in the midst, that he might be their leader; and it pleased all. Then the young man was blessed by the Saints of God, and by all was ordained leader. This leader Ferdinand [], son of Cormac, pleased many bishops; and after his blessing Saint Patrick said: "This young man is fair of face, and bold in warfare; and riches will be in his kingdom, and thus will the leaders of the Desi be for an age." Which prophecy always befalls them. Then Saint Declan, and the leader Ferdinand [*], and the people of the Desi, offered many lands there nearby in the plain of Femhyn to Saint Patrick (whence his successors have great service) and a place not far from the river Suir in the same plain. And there is a most clear fountain, which is called the fountain of Saint Patrick, which Saint Patrick greatly loved. After this Saint Patrick, with great giving of thanks, returned from the region of the Desi to the city of Cashel to King Ængus, and Saint Declan went out with him.
ANNOTATIONS.
CHAPTER VI.
The miracle of St. Patrick; the privileges of the archbishopric of Munster and of the episcopate of St. Declan; the religion of the Desi confirmed; the miracles of St. Declan in the Munster plague.
A certain miracle, which was done in the above-mentioned assembly, we have now begun to narrate to your dignity. St. Patrick heals the wound of St. Declan by the sign of the cross, As Saint Declan was walking there incautiously, in haste between his people and Saint Patrick, in some place his foot was much cut by a certain iron; and, pouring out blood abundantly, he began to limp. Seeing this, the holy bishops, that is, Ailbe, the beloved friend and companion of Saint Declan, and Seachnall a, the disciple of Saint Patrick (of whom it is reported that he was the first bishop to go beneath the soil of Ireland), who was a very wise and holy man, were much displeased, and made it known to Saint Patrick. Hearing this, Saint Patrick was displeased in like manner, saying: "Heal, O Lord, the foot of Thy faithful servant, who labors much for Thee with the talents delivered to him." And Saint Patrick, seeing the foot of Saint Declan, signed it with the holy sign [*], and, looking up to heaven, prayed: and at once the blood ceased to flow, and the wound began to draw together its lips, and, the skin being received, a scar appeared. And Saint Declan, rising up strong, without soreness of the foot, they gave thanks to God for him. And the crowd raised a shout in praise of God and of His servants.
[47] Dwelling together in the city of Cashel, Saint Patrick, The institution of the archbishopric of Munster, and the episcopate of the Desi, Saint Ailbe, and Saint Declan, with many holy disciples, at the house of King Ængus, established many things concerning the laws of ecclesiastical government and Christian vigor, and for the further propagation of the Christian faith. And Saint Patrick and King Æneas with all his people ordained the archbishopric of Munster in the city and in the seat of Saint Ailbe b, who was then ordained by them archbishop for an age: and for Saint Declan they appointed the bounds which he had converted from heathendom to the faith, that is, the Desi, that they should be in the parish of his episcopate, which is great and famous; and that the Irish in other places should serve Saint Patrick; so that the people of the Desi should render all obedience under God to Saint Declan their patron.
[48] [whose prelates are called by St. Patrick "second Patricks" among their own people.] Whence Saint Patrick, arch-pontiff and patron of all Ireland, sang to them the following verse in the Scottish tongue, as though a certain oracle, having the force of law; which verse the household of Saint Ailbe and the household of Saint Declan were unwilling to have translated into Latin on their behalf, either rhythmically or metrically c; but for the sake of gaining greater authority for it, we shall set it forth in the midst, for its dignity, in the proper and genuine idiom in which it was pronounced and composed by Saint Patrick.
Thus, therefore, is that verse set down in Scottish:
Ailbhe umha Padruigh Muomhan mo guchruth: Declan Padruig na nDesi, na Desi ag Declan go bruth [d].
In which it was decreed that Ailbe should be a second Patrick and patron of Munster; and that Declan should be a second Patrick and patron of the Desi: and that the Desi should be his diocese until the end of the age. Afterward the holy bishops, blessing King Ængus, went forth to their own places in the kiss of peace, with spiritual joy, to sow the divine work.
[49] The Catholic religion is confirmed among the Desi through laws. Meeting together also, the holy pontiff Declan and that young man Feargall, or Ferdinand, leader of the Desi, in the aforesaid place Hynneoin, with the army and the whole people of the Desi, they confirmed the laws of Christianity in his realm; but that deposed leader Leban, denier of the Christian name, was expelled by all, and himself came to nothing; even as it is written of the enemies of God: Their memory has perished with a noise. Then it was decreed by Saint Declan, and by the leader Feargall, and by the powerful men of the Desi, that in that place Hynneoin the leaders of the Desi should thenceforth be ordained—in which place the leader Feargall was ordained by the Saints. And it is reported by the ancients that in the same place the leaders of that people were formerly, in heathendom, established.
[50] Seven hostages carried off by the plague in Munster, At the same time a dire plague came into Munster; but it was more venomous in the city of Cashel than in other places: which first made men yellow, and afterward killed them. And there were seven noble hostages with King Ængus in custody in a certain castle, placed on the western side of the city of Cashel, which is called in Scottish Magh na nearglann, that is, "the Courtyard of the Spears." Now one night those seven hostages died of the aforesaid disease: and when the king had heard of their death, he was greatly saddened: for they were sons of the more powerful leaders of the extremities of his realm; and he feared to bring scandal upon his realm. And the king ordered his men to conceal their death. But on the following day the holy pontiff Declan arrived at the city of Cashel, wishing to speak with King Ængus.
[51] The king, hearing that Declan was coming to him, rejoiced, St. Declan, being asked by the king, and called him at once to himself, and said to him before his friends: "We ask you, holy Bishop, servant of the living God, that, even as in the name of Christ we believed you through your preaching, you would raise our seven hostages, who last night died of that deadly plague, from death; for we fear the scandal of our realm from their parents: for they now will say that their sons were slain through our fault; and this truly shames us." The holy pontiff Declan answered, saying: "O dear king, it is not of human infirmity to raise flesh extinguished by death; but such a work belongs to the divine power alone: but because you have adjured us, we will go, in the name of Christ, where their bodies are, and we will pray for them to the Lord; and what seems good to Him, let Him do."
[52] Then Saint Declan, with suitable men of his disciples, by holy water and prayer recalls them to life; the king's ministers leading him, went full of faith to the place where the blue and yellow corpses of the dead were laid; and the king followed the footsteps of the Bishop, who goes before the bodies of the dead. Entering the place in which the dead lay, the Man of God sprinkled them with holy water, and, praying fervently and briefly, said before those present: "Lord Jesus Christ, only-begotten Son of the living God, for the glory of Thy name raise these dead; that these neophytes may through our ministry be confirmed in Thy faith." Afterward the holy Pontiff, knowing in spirit that their life was granted him by the Lord, said to them, then beginning to move their eyelids: "In the name of Jesus Christ the savior of all, rise up to us, and, blessing God, give thanks." At this voice they at once rose from death, greeting all; and the holy pontiff Declan assigned them to King Ængus, son of Nadhaoith, before the people, alive and sound.
[53] When this rare and greatest miracle was seen, the name of Christ was glorified by all, and drives the plague from the whole realm; and the sanctity of His servant was published throughout the world and the regions of Ireland. Then King Ængus, rejoicing, offered that castle, that is, the Courtyard of the Spears, with the field near it round about, to Saint Declan forever. Thereupon the citizens of the city of Cashel humbly asked Saint Declan to bless the city to drive out that plague, and to ask Christ for the very many sick who were held by that plague. The holy Man, seeing their faith, prayed to Christ for these, and with the sign of the holy cross blessed the air through the four quarters. Then swiftly appeared what the Lord said to His disciples as He ascended to heaven, that is: They shall lay hands upon the sick, and they shall recover. For after the signing by the hand of Saint Declan, in that very hour those who were suffering the plague were released, not only in that city, but wherever in the province the plague had been; and, being sound, they rose up to their own people.
[54] Then that plague was altogether expelled from the whole region, to which benefit the royal munificence responded excellently. and at this all rejoiced, even more than at the resurrection of the dead. Seeing and hearing this, the king first gave, and appointed forever from all the kings of Cashel, a great tribute to Saint Declan and his successors, and delivered the liberty of his city and parish before many witnesses of the nobles of Munster. And afterward the glorious pontiff Declan, blessing King Ængus with his city and people, returned to his own region.
ANNOTATIONS.
CHAPTER VII.
The Saint's knowledge of hidden things, the penalties of those denying him lodging, the various monasteries founded by him, the obedience of a stag.
A cooked dog is set before the Saint at table in place of a ram; At one time Saint Declan was received in lodging in the southern tract of the plain of Femhyn, in the house of a certain heathen man. That man was called Dercan, and was rich: and, wishing to mock the Christians, he ordered his servants secretly to kill a dog, and to hide its head and feet in the earth, and to cook its flesh well, and afterward to deliver it to the disciples of Saint Declan to eat: and he charged that that dog be fat, and that they should coax them blandly to eat this flesh, as though it were mutton. And when that flesh was set upon the table with loaves before the other viands, the holy bishop Declan was sleeping a little at his side; and when he was awakened to bless the meal, he looked at the table in silence, and when his disciples said to him: "Bless, Father, our meal"; he said to them: "I see truly a minister of the devil about that flesh." And when he questioned the ministers what that flesh was, and how it was killed; they say to him: "Our master ordered that we kill for you a fat ram; and so we did."
[56] Then the holy Bishop said before all: "Christ, and when he had, by God's prompting, disclosed it, he converts his host; my Lord, show me why I see a minister of the devil at the table; and prevent Thy servants from eating the unlawful." Then, by the will of God, the holy Man saw a dog's claw amid the pieces of flesh (for the ministers, not knowing, cooked the fourth foot of the flesh, which they thought to have hidden in the earth): and Saint Declan said: "This is not the claw of a sheep, but of a dog." Seeing this, the ministers, running, announced it to their master Dercan. Hearing such a thing, he came at once to Saint Declan; and, believing, offered himself with his seed and his village to Saint Declan forever; and was baptized with his own, and rejoiced, and asked of Saint Declan that he would bless some place in his land, that [*] it might always be named by his name.
[57] Then Saint Declan blessed a certain stone there; and on his ground builds a convent; which from that day to today is called the Stone of Saint Declan. And Saint Declan said: "If the leader, or the people of the Desi, going to war against enemies, or to avenge their injury upon another people, shall go around that stone, they will return unconquered, and will have victory over their enemies." And so it is always fulfilled: but the wicked of that people, who are not worthy to have victory, wish through pride to go around this stone, and therefore lose the victory. That village was then called Teach Dercain, but now is called Coninga from that canine claw. There the holy men Conan Mochoba, Ultan son of Erc, and the son of Laisre a, came together to Saint Declan and offered themselves to God under the mastery and rule of Saint Declan. In that village of Dercan, that is, Coninga, he founded a monastery,
and appointed those aforesaid saints, with others, in that place: but Saint Ultan alone [*] he afterward removed.
[58] Thereafter the holy Bishop went to the region of Bregia [], to his ancient homeland, and another near Themoria, where he leaves a codex of the Gospel; and found great honor with the king of Themoria and the princes of the region of Bregia []: for in the region of Bregia [*] Themoria is. And from there Saint Declan drew the origin of his stock: and they loved him by reason of original kinship. And Saint Declan built there a monastery in a field given to him, a monastery of canons b, which is named from the name of Saint Declan, and he left there a famous Gospel-book which he had with him in his company. That Gospel now was held in that place with great honor, and miracles were wrought through it. Afterward, blessing that place, he returned to Munster.
[59] likewise another near Ossory, after the terrible penalties of lodging refused, Afterward Saint Declan, walking in the region of Ossory, turned aside to a certain castle, that he might rest there that night: but they, by diabolical prompting, not only did not receive him in lodging, but even drove him out under arms with insult. But the Saint with his own prayed to the Lord that there might befall them what the sacred Scripture says: Vengeance is Mine, and I will repay: for the inhabitants of that region, sixty in number, died that night, except two men and ten women, to whom what the others did to the Saint of God was displeasing. Those men and women came humbly the next day to Saint Declan, and told him of the miserable death of them, which he himself had foreknown; and they, doing penance, offered him their place in a field and with other gifts []. And there, when the dead had been buried, he founded a famous monastery, which is called the Cell of Columb the Red []; and he made a pious and holy man of his disciples, sprung from the eastern tract of the Leinstermen, that is … who is called Columb the Red [*]. From his name that monastery is named. And Saint Declan, blessing that place, withdrew to the land of the Desi.
[60] which penalties others also undergo for a like inhumanity toward the Saint. On another day the holy Pontiff came late with his own to the aforesaid place, that is, the Courtyard of Bressaill; and the inhabitants of that place did not permit the holy Man to enter into their castle. And they had hidden their boats beforehand, that the Saint might not be able to cross over to his island: for they hated the Saint of God without cause: but Almighty God then, as the Prophet says, on account of the sanctity of His Servant asking Him, and of Saint Declan suffering injury, turned the sea into dry land. Of this indeed you have heard: the Man of God, remaining that night in a certain deserted stable in the street, could not even find fire from them. Then it was justly avenged upon them by God: for they, unwilling to give fire mercifully to the servants of God, had fire come upon them from God around the sea, and were all burned up together with the castle: and it is to this day a desert under a curse, even as it is written: Thou hast destroyed their cities.
[61] A stag carries the Saint, and afterward is sent back free into the woods. On a certain day also, as Saint Declan the bishop was making his journey on the mountain Gua, in the region of the Desi, the horse of his chariot became lame there, and could not walk. Then Saint Declan, seeing a herd of stags on the mountain in the distance, ordered one of his servants to lead a strong stag from that herd in a halter to him, and to set it in the place of the horse. Then he, going, did not doubt to find the stag tame, as the Man of God had foretold, and that herd most gently awaited him, until he chose the strongest stag from it: which stag all day long strongly and fitly drew the chariot under the Man of God, until they had reached the plain of Femhyn. And on reaching the lodging, Saint Declan ordered that stag to return to its own; and at the words of the Man of God, before all, it returned on its way. That man now, who had led the stag from the mountain to Saint Declan, was called Dormanagh; whom Saint Declan blessed, and delivered to him the town of Maghgubra in the northern part of the Desi, over against the region of Eoghanacht: where his descendants to this day dwell, honorable, in the service of Saint Declan.
ANNOTATIONS.
CHAPTER VIII.
Various miracles of St. Declan; the visitation of St. Ailbe.
On another day, as Saint Declan was walking with a great crowd, as was his custom, one of the brothers by chance fell on the way; A certain man, binding up a broken leg and invoking the Saint, heals it, and his leg was broken into two parts: which seeing, Saint Declan ordered that one of them should bind that man's leg, lest through too great an effusion of blood he should die. And all, out of horror at the fracture, had excused themselves. Then one of the crowd, by name Dualach, boldly and cheerfully approached him, saying: "I, in the name of Christ and of our patron Declan, will be the physician of this foot." This he said in jest; but nevertheless he prudently bound the foot, blessing it before all in the name of God and of Saint Declan: and at once, better and better, that brother fared, and after a short interval, the wound drawing itself together, the brother was made wholly sound, feeling no pain: and when he ordered himself to be unbound, a scar was found on his foot, the bones being knit together with flesh and skin: and all, with him, giving thanks to God and to Saint Declan, Saint Declan said to that man Dualach, who had bound the foot of the aforesaid brother:
[63] "You promised that you would be the physician of that foot in the name of Christ and mine, [and thereafter he, with his posterity, is endowed with a singular knowledge of healing.] and Christ, when you obediently bound him, gave him health by His power: therefore you shall from this hour be an honest physician; and your descendants after you until the end of the age shall be honest and venerable physicians: and if they shall, in the name of Christ and mine a, sign and assign any sick person, unless they have an evil intention in excessive fee, or in hatred of a man, the grace of God will aid it through their medicine." And there are always descendants of his, according to the word of that Bishop, at all times, and not only men, but also women of that kindred, experienced in the art of medicine, and that whole kindred serves the successors of Saint Declan.
[64] As the holy bishop Declan was making his journey in the western tract of the plain of Femhyn about the streams of the river Suir, St. Declan baptizes St. Kiaran there met him men having a little infant, and carrying it to a certain presbyter, that he might baptize it: and the holy Bishop, seeing the company, said to them, filled with the spirit of prophecy: "Wait here: I will baptize this holy infant." Those men marveled at the infant being named by the bishop Sabe; because neither they nor any of the servants had indicated to him the reason of their journey: and when they said to him that they could find there neither salt nor a vessel for baptizing, the holy Bishop said: "We have a broad and long vessel, that is, this river; but salt will be given us by the power of Christ. This holy infant now will be marvelous before God and men, and through him many miracles will be wrought by God." And they were far from the villages, on the shore of the aforesaid river Suir, in a place which is called Herend.
[65] not without a miracle and a prophecy. And the holy pontiff Declan, taking earth in his palm, sprinkled it with his saliva; and, praying in his mind, blessed it with the holy sign. At once that earth, in the hand of God's Servant, before all, became salted and clear, the crowd marveling at the grace of Christ and blessing Him in their Bishop. Saint Declan the prelate baptized that infant there, and gave him the name Kiaran: and the holy Bishop said to them after the baptism: "Nurse this spiritual son diligently, and at a fit time deliver him to Catholic men to be taught: for he himself will be a famous column in the Church of Christ." This Kiaran now is the son of Heodach, who in venerable old age, after many miracles done in the name of Christ, and holy places established to God, passed to heaven, and lies in his famous monastery, which is called Tibrada b, that is, "fountains"; and it is in the diocese of Saint Declan in the western tract of the Desi, that is, in the district of the descendants of Haythi, between the famous mountains Cua and Crost.
[66] A woman the earth swallows, because she had stolen from the Saint. The wife of a certain bailiff came with her service to the monastery of Saint Declan: but she herself, not far from the city, took by stealth from the tribute of the holy Pontiff a great little-cloak c, wishing unjustly to bestow it on others: but the earth swallowed her before travelers, avenging by the divine will the injury which she then and before had done to the goods of the monastery of the holy Bishop. And the earth, devouring her, cast forth the little-cloak from her bosom; and at once it appeared before all as a stone; and the holy Bishop, seeing all these things in his spirit, related them to his brethren in the monastery. But those men, greatly fearing, took the stone made from the little-cloak, running to Saint Declan; and told all what they had seen come to pass. Then thereupon the name of Saint Declan was much magnified by all; fearing him as much absent as present. And that stone for all time in the cemetery of Saint Declan in his city Ardmore, as a sign
of that miracle, was kept made from the little-cloak in an exalted place.
[67] A barren woman, the Saint being invoked, bears twins. A certain rich man, Fintan by name, was without offspring; because his wife was barren, almost until the age of an old woman. He came with his wife to St. Declan; and, promising to give alms and do pious works, they asked him to request offspring for them from God. They now affirmed that they would have offspring, if Saint Declan should ask God for them. Then the Saint, blessing them, said to them: "Fulfill what you promise; and now by the gift of God you will have offspring." They with joy and blessing, after the holy Bishop's promise, returned with their own to their home. On that following night Fintan, sleeping with his wife, conceived, and she bore two sons, who were called Eoch and Fiacha. And they with their descendants bound themselves under tribute to Saint Declan until the end of the age.
[68] The blessed Ailbe, archbishop of the Munstermen, knowing St. Ailbe, foreknowing his death, visits St. Declan, that his death was near, said to his own: "I, brethren, wish to visit and see my most beloved companion and fellow-servant in Christ, bishop Declan, before I die." Then he directed his journey to Saint Declan. And an angel came to Saint Declan, and told him that the holy old man, his friend Ailbe, was coming to him. Knowing this from the angel of God, the holy pontiff Declan ordered his own to prepare what was necessary for the holy guests; and he himself went out from his city to meet Saint Ailbe as far as the place which is called Druim Luchtri. And when Saint Ailbe came, he was there received honorably by Saint Declan and his people; and Saint Ailbe remained with Saint Declan fourteen days, in all charity and giving themselves to the divine ministries, exulting in the holy gladness of spiritual joys.
[69] After these days the holy old man Ailbe returned to his city, by whom he is honorably received, and escorted. whose name is called Imleach, which is situated in the plain of Munster; and Saint Declan came, and no small crowd with him together with Saint Ailbe, as far as the aforesaid place, that is, Druim Luchrii: and Saint Ailbe bade him return to his city: and the holy old men Ailbe and Declan, knowing that they would not see one another again in this world, from that very hour shed tears abundantly in great love, and confirmed the ancient brotherhood between themselves and their own, and obtained their pious petitions from Christ. Afterward Saint Ailbe, blessing the city, and the people, and the clergy of Saint Declan, and himself receiving like holy covenants from Saint Declan, in the kiss of peace and holy sadness and in the true love of God and of neighbor for Christ, the most holy pontiffs Saint Ailbe and Declan with their own parted from there to their own places.
ANNOTATIONS.
CHAPTER IX.
The remaining miracles of the Saint, and his happy death.
[The Saint extinguishes a fire with his staff, being a whole mile distant from it.] At one time the castle of the leader of the Desi, who was called Canicus, was set on fire with a great flame, and began to burn fiercely. Then the most holy old man Declan was going to that castle; and, seeing it, the holy Old man was displeased at that conflagration: and taking his wonderful staff, of which we made mention in the miracle of the sea driven back, in his hand, he threw it from that very place at the Castle. And the staff flew through the air on divine wings, and fell in the midst of the castle at the boundary of the flames; and the fire remained not through spaces of hours, nor even through moments of an hour; but at once was wholly extinguished, half the castle being burned: for it is agreed that a full mile is between that place, in which Saint Declan threw the staff from his hand, and the castle; in which there is a very tall wood, which is called the Grove of Cuirt. Seeing this, the leader Canicus with all the rest marveled at the miracle in all respects, and, giving thanks to God, of his own accord fulfilled the will of Saint Declan. And not far from the river Suir, on the southern side, in a place which is called the Fixed Hill, that castle is; but the place from which the holy Pontiff threw the staff is next to the ford of that river, over against the monastery of the most holy virgins, the daughters of that same Canicus, which is called the Field of the Pool. And a heap of stones was gathered in that place with a cross as a sign of the miracle, which is called Vlu, that is, the Heap of Saint Declan.
[71] Pagan robbers, drowned, are turned into rocks, There came at one time a fleet across the sea, and directed its course to the monastery of Saint Declan, wishing to plunder that place, both men and substance: for they were heathens. And all ran together to Saint Declan the old bishop, that he might seek the aid of Christ against the pagans arriving. But Saint Declan, knowing the felicity and goodness, and the charity of the sanctity, of his aforesaid disciple Ultan, ordered him, praying to God, to sign the fleet against the pagans: for that Ultan was very charitable toward the poor and little ones of Christ. And without delay, at the word of the most holy master Declan, that holy brother Ultan, being then occupied with his right hand, signed with his left against the fleet; and at once the sea swallowed all those ships as though sacks full of lead. But again the submerged bodies of the sailors, emerging and driving to the shore, were turned into great rocks, which are on the edge of the sea not far from the land, and stand higher than the sea.
[72] by the prayer of SS. Declan and Ultan. All the Christians, seeing such things with joy and faith, were filled with the Holy Trinity, and magnified the Saint of God, their preacher and bishop, through whom they saw these and more signs. Concerning this miracle there was a pious contention between the holy bishop Declan and his disciple Ultan: for the disciple ascribed it wholly to the Master; but the Master to the disciple. And still the Scots, seeing and hearing of a peril, say: "The left hand of Ultan against it." Through these words the grace of God has much appeared. And this same Ultan, after the death of Saint Declan, was a second abbot and marvelous father [*] of many miracles, whose famous life shines with miracles.
[73] The most blessed Patrick, archbishop of the Scots, An envoy of St. Patrick to St. Declan, drowned in the waters, sent one of his disciples with a legation to the holy old bishop Declan; but he, coming to the southern tract of the Desi, was drowned in a certain stream, which is called Luch. Hearing of his death, the holy bishop Declan was much displeased, and was saddened, saying: "Truly I grieve in heart, because a disciple of a most holy man, sent to me, in my region has been overtaken by an unfitting death, and cannot carry back our message to his holy master. Therefore quickly place me in a chariot to perform his obsequies; that our holy father, his master Patrick, may hear of our care toward him." And from the city of Saint Declan to that river, in which the disciple of Saint Patrick was drowned, it is agreed there are two miles.
[74] Now he, placed on a bier, was being carried by his own, through him he is restored to life, that he might be buried near Saint Declan: and the holy Pontiff, meeting him with his own, ordered them to set the corpse down upon the ground. All thought that the holy Bishop wished to sing there the Office of the dead for him. And approaching the bier, he uncovered the veil from the face of the dead man, and, seeing it swollen and blue, as is the manner of the drowned, shed tears, and prayed silently, the crowd not hearing what the Old man was saying; and after a short space he said before all: "In the name of the most holy Trinity and undivided unity of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, whose yoke, sweet and light, I bear, rise up to us, because Christ has granted me your life." At this voice of the most holy prelate Declan, he withdrew from the bier, blessing the holy Old man and all the rest: and Saint Declan, laying hold of him, raised him up and kissed him, and his disciples after him. And that brother was still infirm of body, like a man convalescing from illness: then, growing strong and recovering his strength, he went with Saint Declan to his city, and remained with him some days in unfeigned charity.
[75] And concerning this miracle great joy arose in the city; Patrick, when he learned of it, marveling and praising. and the name of Christ and the sanctity of His Servant was glorified far and wide throughout those regions. That disciple of Saint Patrick also was called Ballinus; who, very glad, returned from Saint Declan to Saint Patrick his master, telling many the things which had befallen him. And when the glorious archbishop Patrick heard those famous and great testimonies concerning Saint Declan before all, he set forth his merits, and afterward offered praise and glory to the Bishop.
[76] After this wonderful and unusual deed, we set an end to the miracles of the holy Pontiff's life, The author passes over many other things. omitting very many; that through the few things which we have written, others may be known. For how many blind he enlightened, how many lepers he cleansed, how many lame and maimed he cured, how many deaf he made to hear, how many various sicknesses in different places the most blessed pontiff of Christ, Declan, sowing among the heathen the word of life, healed—on account of the multitude of them and the weariness of writing, or lest the reader or the hearers should be led into tedium concerning one person, we will pass over.
[77] The Saint, foreknowing his death, is carried to Ardmore; Therefore Saint Declan, the holy old man, and Patrick, knowing that the time of his reward was near, there was called to him the holy prelate, the son of Liach a, who was his beloved foster-son, whose monastery is near the strait of Imleagh, over against the region of the men of Gabeneides [*], in the east of the Desi, that he might receive the body and blood of Jesus Christ from his hands at the departure of his soul. And he indicated the day of his departure to the elders, and ordered himself to be carried into his city, that there he might pass over to Christ: for he was
in his famous little cell, which he himself built for himself, which is between the hill and the sea in a narrow place, secretly upon the shore of the sea, through which a clear little stream flows from the hill into the sea, and beautiful trees surround it, which is called the Little Desert of Saint Declan: from which to the city it is agreed there is a scant mile. Thither Saint Declan the pontiff would flee to be free for God alone in vigils and fasts and prayers: but he could scarcely remain there for a little time; because his disciples and the throngs of believers, and the poor of Christ, and pilgrims, always followed him. For he himself was generous, pious, and clement; and hence it is reported to us by his ancient disciples that a great army was habitually in his company. And he greatly loved his aforesaid little cell, in which at least for a short time he might contemplatively be free for God; and he always had religious men in that place.
[78] where, having exhorted his own, The glorious pontiff Declan also, coming, infirm in bodily strength, but full of faith, hope, and charity [*], into his city, with the clergy and people gathered, preached the divine precepts, admonished them to live well among themselves after his death and to obey his successors, and themselves to follow his footsteps in charity. And he declared that, if they did so, his city would firmly be kept always by the grace of God. When these things were heard, the cry of the people and clergy arose in great weeping, knowing that their holy Patron wished to pass over to Christ. And the holy Father piously consoled them. Then he was carried up to his hut, sorrow being sown throughout the city by the fear of the absence of their holy Bishop.
[79] and fortified with the sacred Viaticum, he died on the 24th of July. Then, the aforesaid prelate Liach coming, our holy bishop and preacher Declan received the body and blood of our Lord Christ, the living God, surrounded by the choir of his holy disciples mourning. Then, blessing them in the kiss of peace, the holy old patron Declan—the shrines and idols destroyed, the heathens converted to the faith, very many peoples acquired for Christ, churches established to God, ecclesiastical orders consecrated—most holily and most happily, in venerable old age, amid the choirs of the angels, on the 9th of the Kalends of August, passed over to God. Whose sacred little body, after the solemnities of vigils and Masses, the signs and prodigies through him having been seen, a synod of Saints being gathered from all sides, and the peoples of the Desi coming together to him their preacher, was buried with due honor in his city Ardmore, in the Levitiana b, which he himself by angelic command marked out: where great signs and miracles are always wrought through him, our Lord Jesus Christ granting it, to whom is honor, glory, and power with God the Father in the unity of the Holy Spirit for ages of ages. Amen.