ON ST. KIERAN AND ST. CARTHACHUS HIS DISCIPLE, BISHOPS AND ABBOTS OF SAIGIR IN THE PROVINCE OF OSSORY IN IRELAND,
AROUND THE YEAR 520.
Preliminary Commentary.
Kieran, Bishop and Abbot of Saigir in Ireland (St.)
Carthachus, Bishop and Abbot of Saigir in Ireland (St.)
BHL Number: 4659
§ I The see and age of St. Kieran.
[1] The region lying between the Bladina mountains and the river Nore, at different times annexed now to Munster, now to Leinster, occupies such a central position in all of Ireland In Upper Ossory, that, dividing the northern Irish from the southern, it is nevertheless itself a part of the southern, more distant from the northern than from the southern shore, within the fifty-fourth and fifty-fifth degrees of latitude, the tenth and eleventh of longitude. Camden calls this Upper Ossory in distinction from the other, Lower Ossory, which goes by the name of the County of Kilkenny, and the title of the Bishopric of Ossory, or of Canicia, subject to the Archbishop of Dublin; while the episcopal title of the other Ossory is Roscrea, under the Archbishop of Cashel. North of the city of Roscrea stand two illustrious monasteries: Birr on one side and Saigir on the other; the former famous for the holiness of the great Brendan; the monastery and city of Saigir, the latter also enjoying episcopal dignity, until the See was transferred to Roscrea. For this reason our Dublin Codex ends the Life of St. Kieran thus: "Here ends the Life of Blessed Kieran, Bishop of Saigir, near Roscrea, three miles distant, and formerly the Church of Ossory."
[2] The beginnings of this Church, in the Life of St. Kieran cited by Ussher on page 791, produced by Colgan from the Kilkenny codex in the first place, are read to have been as follows: "And then he was sent to Ireland, his native land" (St. Kieran, that is, having been consecrated Bishop at Rome), "and St. Patrick, Archbishop of all Ireland, met him on the way in Italy. And seeing each other, the Saints of God rejoiced." from the prediction of St. Patrick, "At that time St. Patrick was not yet a Bishop, but was afterwards ordained Archbishop by Pope Celestine and sent to preach in Ireland; to whom, although other Saints were already in Ireland, the Lord reserved the mastership and the entire Archbishopric of Ireland, because through no one before St. Patrick did the Kings or Chiefs of Ireland believe in God. And St. Patrick said to St. Kieran: Go to Ireland before me, and go to the fountain in the middle of Ireland, on the border of the Southern and Northern Irish, which is called Fuaran, and establish a monastery there, for there your honor and your resurrection shall be. To whom St. Kieran said: The place where that fountain stands is unknown to me. St. Patrick answered him: Dearest brother, you shall go in safety, and the Lord will be with you; and take this cymbal as a companion of your journey, which will be mute until you reach the aforesaid fountain; and when you arrive there, the cymbal will then give a clear sound and ring sweetly; and after thirty years I will come to you in that place." And kissing and blessing each other, the servants of God, St. Kieran directed his journey to Ireland, while Blessed Patrick remained in Italy.
[3] "From that day the cymbal of St. Kieran was mute, without any sound, until he came to the fountain Fuaran, as St. Patrick had foretold." founded by St. Kieran: Coming into Ireland, the Lord directed him to the fountain Fuaran; and there immediately the cymbal of the man of God cried out in an open, clear voice — which cymbal is called the Bell of Kieran, and is held in great honor in the city and throughout the entire province of St. Kieran. For it is carried through the regions for the adjurations of the Chiefs, for the defense of the poor, and for the collection of the tributes of the monastery of St. Kieran. That cymbal, moreover, was made in the presence of St. Germanus the Bishop, the teacher of St. Patrick. The fountain itself, as was said above, lies on the border of the provinces of Ireland, but nevertheless in the southern region and territory of Munster, namely in the tribe called Éile. And the blessed Bishop Kieran began to dwell there like a hermit, for the surrounding desert was broad and thick with forests; and he began his cell of cheap material, and from that a monastery, and afterwards a city grew, by the gift of God, through the grace of St. Kieran; all of which are called by one name, Saigir. whose now obscure traces remain. Commonly, Ussher says, it is called Sier-keran, and today it is reckoned as part of Leinster, and John Clyn of Kilkenny mentions it in his Annals for the year 1284 thus: "Lord Geoffrey of St. Leger, Bishop of Ossory, acquired by duel the manor of Seirkeran." From which (unless his conjecture deceives Ussher), it follows that St. Kieran's Saigir, which the Normans ascending the Boyne had ravaged along with the monastery of Birr in the year 841, and the Munstermen had plundered in 952 (as Colgan attests in chapter 4 of his Appendix to this Life), had fallen, either by those or by subsequent calamities, into the humble state of a single manor or estate — which (if the earlier narrative deserved belief) ought to be considered the first and most ancient of all the churches of Ireland.
[4] For not only in those Lives of St. Kieran that exist is he called Kieran said to have been the first to preach in Ireland, the firstborn of the Saints of Ireland, or, as Cathald Maguir puts it, the Primate; but the very Collect that used to be sung about him was begun by the Irish thus: "O God, who sent Blessed Kieran, your Confessor and Bishop, to the island of Ireland before other Saints." For when the practice of the Christian religion was flourishing anew under the fresh English dominion during the course of the twelfth century, with many ancient monasteries handed over to Benedictines, Cistercians, and Canons Regular brought from England, and many new ones also being erected for them, they began earnestly, though with more diligence than judgment, to compile the deeds of the Saints, which hitherto had lain hidden either among the uncertain traditions of the natives or under the obscurity of the Irish language; from what kind of Acts should this be believed? following the example of Jocelin, whose work on the Patrician Acts had been received everywhere with wonderful applause. But many of them did so unhappily that the very things by which they believed they would arouse admiration provoked laughter in the ignorant and most just indignation in the learned, obscuring most of the Acts with monstrous inventions that would in no way agree either with each other, or with the nature of things themselves and the reckoning of the times.
[5] We shall bring forward a specimen of these on the seventeenth of this month in the Preliminary Commentary on the Patrician Acts, and there we shall fully show that it is a pure fable, which the Irish boast of, about the preaching and episcopate of SS. Albeus, Declan, Ybar, and Kieran before Patrick; and we shall declare whence it arose. For now it suffices to touch upon St. Kieran as much as is needed to explain his age. Let us suppose, then (as the Kilkenny codex Acts have), that he was thirty years old, the prodigious old age of the same, then studied at Rome for twenty years, and after that preached for another thirty years before Patrick came to Ireland in the year 432: it would be necessary to say that he was born around the year of Christ 352. Then, following the calculation of Colgan, who shows that the same Kieran survived until the year 530, we would have not indeed a man of three hundred years (as the Acts make him), but still one of nearly two hundred years. And Colgan accepts this, and (so that certain persons, less versed in histories than inclined to censure, may cease, he says, to take too much notice of what is read about the longevity of this or other Saints) he gathers from sacred and profane literature examples of wonderful old age:
of which it is enough to have said in general that few of them either pertain to the matter or are probable; none that make credible the age that the Acts assign.
[6] Colgan could at his own discretion collect authors of whatever kind, from whom he might try to prove that there were some people at some time who either surpassed the common old age of men by many years, or were believed to have surpassed it; not at all confirmed by our testimony, but he could not demonstrate that we should believe this was common to all the earliest Saints of Ireland; nor should he have adduced us as witnesses of his opinion, as though, on the thirteenth of January, presenting the Acts of St. Kentigern from Capgrave, we accept that he died at one hundred and eighty-five years of age — since in the Prolegomena to those Acts, number 7, we said so expressly that that age seemed to us paradoxical in itself, and we showed it to be at variance with chronological calculations. But having admitted, as he himself nonetheless admits, that an error crept into the Acts of St. Kieran where he is read to have lived nearly three hundred years, it clashes with chronology, why should I correct that error by looking to two hundred years rather than to one hundred? Because, you will say, Kieran is read to have been the first to preach in Ireland. But it is read in Acts of similar quality that Albeus as a boy, one of the predecessors of Patrick as heralds of the faith, was baptized by Palladius — who, however, did not reach Ireland before the year 429. St. Declan is read to have been dipped in the saving water by Bishop Colman in Ireland, and the island, while he was still a boy, to have been inhabited by various Saints; so that, according to these same Acts that are objected to us, the title of Firstborn of the Irish cannot be preserved for Kieran, who is made younger than Palladius, Colman, and many others by carnal generation, and posterior to Albeus and Declan by spiritual generation, since these are said to have been baptized as infants in Ireland, while he is said to have been baptized at Rome as a young man of thirty.
[7] and by the authority of better writers: But why did Aengus, in his metrical festilogy, composed, as Colgan asserts, eight hundred years ago, pass over that title, content to have called him "Populous," that is, the Father of a great community of monks? Evidently, that fable had not yet been invented. Indeed, from the author of the Tripartite Life of Patrick, number 92, it seemed to be established that St. Kieran was one of those clerics whom Patrick met on the same journey as they set out for Rome for the sake of studies; and to some he gave a hide for making a book-bag from it, which he said he had used in Ireland for twelve years. But to Kieran, who asked where he would afterwards fix his seat, he both named the place and predicted that after thirty years he would meet him there. From this it follows that that meeting of Kieran and Patrick in Italy did not happen before the year 446; indeed, with his own author. and that Kieran was then a young man, when Patrick had passed his sixty-eighth year of age. This is most solidly confirmed from the very fable we are opposing, which strangles itself. For Patrick is said to have given Kieran a cymbal, by whose miraculous sound he might recognize the place divinely prepared for him; which cymbal had been made in the presence of St. Germanus the Bishop, the teacher of St. Patrick. But Germanus neither became a Bishop nor could have been Patrick's teacher before the year 418, as we shall show in its proper place. Patrick, moreover, after he attached himself to St. Germanus, did not come to Italy before the year 430 of that century.
[8] But what would have come into Kieran's mind to consult Patrick, who had no knowledge of Ireland, about where in Ireland he should choose the site for his hermitage? and with reason. How does it make sense that, consecrated Bishop for bringing the Irish to the faith, he would pursue a hermit's life and solitude among them? But if we make Kieran a young cleric, and Patrick an elderly Bishop, and Ireland full of Bishops, monks, and hermits when Kieran returned with him, both things work out beautifully; nor is there anything to fear from an excessively long and unbelievable old age. For if around the middle of the sixth century Kieran was near his twentieth year of age, nothing prevents him from having become, in extreme old age, a hearer of St. Finian, who began to teach at the beginning of the seventh century, and from having given the Irish an example of rare humility. Likewise, nothing prevents him from having been aided in his need by the younger St. Kieran, not yet then the Abbot of Clonmacnoise, but called by that name by anticipation in the Acts, and himself a disciple of the same Finian; nor would he have exceeded his hundredth year in living.
§ II The return of St. Kieran: Study of Scripture under St. Finian: Death in his homeland.
[9] The Acts say that Kieran spent twenty years at Rome. Although we do not trust this number greatly, St. Kieran returns to Ireland around the year 466, and far fewer years might have sufficed for acquiring an excellent education, we do not wish to reject it without any compelling necessity; and none compels, since it suffices if Kieran returned to his homeland while Patrick was still living, and we shall show that Patrick did not depart this life until the year 476. Yet the Acts of St. Kennan, which Ussher cites for the year 450 and we shall bring forward on November 24, would barely leave more than ten years for Kieran studying at Rome, in our calculation — if it is rightly said there that Kieran interceded before King Laoghaire for Kinian and pleaded against the death to which, along with other hostages, that boy had been condemned because of the perfidy of his parents; for Laoghaire died, as they say, in the year 468. But the name Laoghaire crept into this place instead of Lugaid, who survived his parent by twenty-five years, as the same Acts indicate, when they make the mother of the said Kinian the granddaughter of Eugenius the Prince, who was the brother of the aforesaid Laoghaire.
[10] The greater difficulty is to find thirty years between the meeting of SS. Patrick and Kieran in Italy, which we have placed at the year 446 of the fifth century, or 460 or sooner, and the time when the same men revisited each other in Ireland; which would have had to be, in our view, the very year in which St. Patrick died, when he was nearly a centenarian — at which age I would scarcely believe he was in Ossory. This scruple will be abundantly removed by what we are going to observe in the dissertation of the Preliminary Commentary, in order to show that the number of 30 or 60 years in Patrician prophecies is most fallacious, since one or the other of those numbers is assigned to almost all of them, which is sufficiently absurd in itself and is usually found to conflict with correct chronology. Accordingly, one may subtract some years from this number, and is visited by St. Patrick. and say that the Saints met after about twenty-three years; or even far fewer, if one prefers to believe that Kieran returned to his homeland either before Albeus and Declan, or at the same time as them, under the pontificate of St. Hilary in the year 462, after twelve or fifteen years of studies. That he returned with the degree of Bishop, since the Acts say so and no reason stands against it, I see no reason to deny. After his return, he led the eremitic life for a time in the place we described; until, attracted by the fame of his extraordinary holiness, the people of Ossory began to flock to him from every side; and under his guidance, first a large cenobium, then a city of no small importance, was established at Saigir, to which Patrick could have come as promised after the ninetieth year of Kieran's age; or he could also have fulfilled his prophecy much earlier, if Kieran is said to have returned to his homeland sooner.
[11] The Acts of Kieran that exist in Colgan from the Kilkenny codex, in agreement with what is read in the Acts of St. Finian published by the same Colgan on February 23, narrate the following concerning his extreme old age. It is said that old and decrepit he studied under St. Finian: "This St. Kieran was very humble in all things, and greatly loved to hear and learn divine Scripture, even to a decrepit age. For it is reported of him that he himself, along with the other Saints of Ireland of that time, went to the holy man Finian, the most wise Abbot of the monastery of Clonard, in his old age, and read in the divine Scriptures in his holy school. Hence the Most Blessed Kieran is called an alumnus of St. Finian, like the other Saints of Ireland. For although he himself was a wise and blessed old Bishop, he deigned to learn under the guidance of another, on account of his humility and love of wisdom." If these things are true, Kieran could truly say, with the Poet: Γηράσκω ἀεὶ πολλὰ διδασκόμενος — "I grow old always learning much each day." But that they are true, which can be true, as to the substance of the matter, no chronological reason forbids; for, as we shall see on December 12, Finian, born around the year 450, was sent to Tours in his thirtieth year (as his Office says). He then studied for some years in Gaul, and returning, stayed eight years with St. David, later Bishop of Menevia, as is in the Acts; for we do not know whence Ussher drew that he spent thirty years in Britain, and even if we knew it, we would not believe it to be true.
[12] We therefore place the return of Finian to his homeland not many years after 490, the year in which Ussher considers him to have first left Ireland, if you say Finian began to teach around the year 500, gratuitously supposing that Fortchernus, Bishop of Roscrea, to whom Finian had been brought for baptism about 30 years before, was the same as the Bishop of Athrumia — which we preferred to follow on February 17, rather than, without the matters of Ireland having been fully discussed, call it into doubt. But now we quite believe it to be false; and even if it were true, it would not necessarily imply the year of the beginning of the pilgrimage that Ussher assigns, as we shall show elsewhere. For now it suffices if Finian returned before the end of the fifth century and began to admit disciples for instruction at the beginning of the sixth century; before he was Abbot of Clonerard. for thus both Kierans could have heard him teaching, though not in the cenobium of Clonard; for Finian first received possession of this from his disciple, the younger Kieran, only when the latter, having become an Abbot conspicuous for holiness and authority — if not at Clonmacnoise, then at least at his own cenobium of Angin — had prospered so much through the liberality of princes that from what he had in abundance he could repay such ample lands to his master as a kind of gift in return. If this was not done until after the death of King Tuathal, when Dermot was already reigning, around the year 540, when Finian was already a nonagenarian, it could not, however, have been done much sooner, unless we wish to say, contrary to Ussher's opinion and the testimonies he adduces, that it was by the liberality of Kieran of Saigir, not of Kieran of Clonmacnoise, that those lands were given to Finian. But since he survived until the year 565, as is evident from the Acts of St. Columba, having surpassed his hundredth year by more than a decade, nothing compels us to contradict a received opinion supported by some authority.
[13] The year in which Kieran of Saigir died is not defined by any Annals of the Irish, as they usually do for other Saints;
nor is there anyone who says his relics rest in any of his churches, said to have died in Britain, except for a certain Irish Life of lesser note; for this reason Colgan grants to the Cornish that St. Kieran may have his burial among them, with the name slightly changed to Piran. Under this name, the Acts of this Kieran, in a simpler style and perhaps older, are related by John Tinmouth, and from him Capgrave, with this beginning: "But Blessed Piran, who by some is called Keramus, in Cornwall, where he rests, is called Piran." In the course of the narrative, he relates the prophecy of Patrick in this manner: "Hasten before me, beloved son, and on a hill beside the river Waran in the middle of the Island, build a place for yourself; for it pleases God and he has foreseen that in that place the honor of your holiness shall be proclaimed. But finally, coming to Britain and serving God until the end of your life, you shall await the common resurrection and the blessedness of eternal life."
[14] He then concludes: "Having at last summoned his sons, whom he had begotten for God, and the people, he says: 'My brothers and dearest sons, I must by divine disposition depart from Ireland on a pilgrimage and go to Cornwall, and await the end of my life there. I cannot resist the will of God. I admonish you, brothers, to build up this place in good works and examples.' Capgrave says: 'There shall also come mortality and wars; churches shall be destroyed and deserted, and truth shall be turned to iniquity; faith shall not shine with good works; Pastors shall attend more to themselves than to their sheep, feeding themselves more than the flock. I ask you, brothers, pray to God that my journey be not dark, and that after death I may not find the Lord angry, but mild and placable and easy and joyful, when I appear before his face.' After these and other things spoken at greater length, sailing to Cornwall, he made himself a dwelling and showed many miracles in honor of God among the people. At last, when seized by illness he grew weak, he summoned the Brothers, instructed them with many discourses on the kingdom of God, ordered a tomb prepared, and descending into the pit on the third day before the Nones of March, with great brightness his soul penetrated the heavens. He rests, moreover, in Cornwall above the Severn Sea, fifteen miles from Petrokstow and twenty-five from Mousehole."
[15] Camden agrees with these things on page 140, describing the same stretch from the port of St. Itha to Padstow, others think the same and make him the same as St. Piran: when he says: "Nor does the whole road have anything of ancient note except the chapel of St. Piran, placed in the sand, which Irish Saint also rests here." And lest there be any doubt whom he means, alluding to the Acts as they are in Capgrave, he adds: "whose sanctity an idle writer's imagination attributed to his infancy, that he fed ten Kings of Ireland and their armies with his three cows for eight days." Similarly, Richard Whitford in his English additions to Usuard: "In Cornwall, the feast of St. Piran, also called Kieran, who was born of noble parents in Ireland in the time of St. Patrick, a man famous for the excellence of his perfect life, the multitude of miracles, and angelic visions; and he lived with a wonderful length of life without any infirmity."
[16] I do not think, however, that one can stand firmly on these; which does not seem sufficiently secure. for just as the Irish were ready, if they heard any one of their own named in Britain and known to have given his name to some place through the deposit of his body, to say he was the same as some Saint of the same name known to themselves; so the Britons too, having no Acts of those whom, from the ancient tradition of their ancestors, they venerated as Saints for their merited holiness, most often borrowed them from the Irish. And so they confused persons most different in time; and who can guarantee that this did not happen here too? Certainly there is a greater affinity between Kieran and Piran than between the same Kieran and St. Sezni, patron of the parish of Guic-sezni in Brittany; yet to this very Sezni, these same Acts that we shall present — the whole of Kieran's Acts from beginning to end — are found applied in the legendaries of that Church, which Albert le Grand translated into French, and from him Colgan rendered back into Latin for March 6. It is surprising that Colgan did not notice that the very same Acts, but under different names, were given by him twice with only a single leaf's separation. Nor is it perhaps without significance that in the first edition of the Anglican Martyrology, Wilson said that Piran was venerated at Padstow on May 2; although afterwards, in the latest edition, following the Acts however attributed to Piran and the Irish Calendars, persuaded that this Cornish hermit and the founder of Saigir were the same person, he placed the memorial of St. Piran the Confessor on the fifth of March — although the one died in Britain and the other in Ireland. For the Acts from the Kilkenny manuscript suppose this, which, with no mention made of any migration, conclude with this clause: "When he was already weakened by old age and pain, knowing the day of his death, he summoned his people to himself and, blessing them, commanded them to keep the divine precepts. And having received the divine sacrifice, among the choirs of the Saints, on the third day before the Nones of March, he sent forth his happy spirit in the peace of Christ."
§ III The cult and Acts of SS. Kieran and Carthachus.
[17] His cult among the Irish: Besides the Irish Hagiologies, all of which record the cult of St. Kieran of Saigir for this day, and the more recent English ones, the excellent manuscript codex of Altaemps, containing Usuard augmented with the Patrons of the British Isles, has St. Kyrianus on this very day, with the name somewhat corrupted by copyists — written in the same way in the manuscript Florarium Sanctorum. And the Martyrology of Usuard printed at Cologne in 1490, previously augmented by Hermann Greve and reprinted in the year 1521, has Keranus, Bishop and Confessor in Ireland. I would say that his cult was not confined to Ireland alone, if it were permissible to believe anything from Dempster; for he writes thus in number 774 of his Ecclesiastical History of the Scottish Nation: whether also among the Scots? "St. Kieran, a most holy Bishop, for the most part inhabited the western isles of Scotland, and at last, having completed a long course of virtues, he consummated his martyrdom by being slain by robbers. Nor do any more of his Acts survive, and his writings have likewise perished. He flourished in the year 665. He is venerated on March 5, according to the Dunblane Breviary. In the region of Kintyre his memory is famous; for there a lake is frequented by his habitation and miracles, Loch-Kill-Keran, that is, the lake of Kieran's cell." I would say, as I was going to, that some of his disciples, following the footsteps of St. Columba, erected a chapel in his name in Scoto-Britain; but since Dempster adds things about martyrdom and the place of habitation that cannot in any way apply to our subject, a better and more truthful author must be awaited, so that we may establish that someone of the same name truly lived in Scotland, different from the former, who left his name to the place and to whom such a eulogy would apply. Meanwhile, we marvel at how writings are said to have perished of which no indication is brought forward that they ever existed.
[18] eulogy from Cathald Maguir: The Calendar of Cashel records the genealogy of St. Kieran; but Cathald Maguir, in his additions to the Festilogy of Aengus, puts forward a very different one on the side of both parents, which he then rejects, and embraces the former as more probable, after weaving a lengthy eulogy, of which we here wish to append a part from Colgan: "Kieran prophesied concerning St. Conall and St. Fachtnan of Ros-ailithir, saying: A son shall be born at Tulachteann who will be joined to us in a faithful bond of friendship; and after him Conall shall rule many monks and monasteries. He also predicted that the family of Ethersceolan would continuously hold dominion and principate in their region; and that the Prince of Corca-laigde would have public power to administer justice and exact fines in his province, provided he embrace the faith of Christ and cultivate his patronage. Kieran was the Primate of the Saints of Ireland. He was also a man very rich in the possession of cattle. His cattle house had ten gates and ten individual enclosures; in each there were ten calves, and each ten calves were nursed by ten cows. Of their fruit and dairy products Kieran tasted nothing so long as he lived, but distributed everything among the poor and needy of Christ. He also had fifty yoked horses for the plow and agriculture; nor did he eat a single loaf of bread from their fruit in all his life. His daily food, which he took only in the evening, was one morsel of barley bread with a relish of raw herbs and a draught from a cold spring. His clothing was of deerskins, miracles written by Carnechus. which he covered over with a damp blanket worn over them. When he rested a little, a stone served him in place of a pillow. Carnechus, surnamed Moel, is the one who wrote down the wonders of Kieran in admirable and elegant verse; and his work is still preserved at Saigir; and whoever reads it, let him commend the soul of Carnechus the writer to God."
[19] The above-named St. Fachtnan is recorded by the Calendar of Cashel on August 14, and he is said to have had his monastery in western Munster. From what source were the Acts published? Concerning that Conall, his successor, I find nothing so far. Someone might suspect that this is one of the four Saints from whom one of the churches on the Aran Islands takes its name — Tempul an cheatuir Aluinn, that is, "of the four handsome ones," who are (as Colgan says in the Appendix to the Life of St. Enda, March 21, chapter 7) Saints Fursey, Brendan of Birr, Conall, and Birchan, whose bodies are said to be buried in the same tomb in the cemetery of the same church. If someone were to bring forward the Irish poem of Carnechus, we would perhaps have something more solid and ancient about the aforesaid Saints. Perhaps, I say; for if Maguir drew his eulogy from Carnechus, no more sincere truth can be had from it than from the Acts, since the same or similar errors are found in both the eulogy and the Acts. Since we cannot have the Acts in the form we would wish, we have given what we judged to be better from our Salamancan codex, which appears indeed to have been abridged from a fuller list of miracles found elsewhere, but is evident from the very antiquity of the codex to have been composed more than four hundred years ago. Colgan published other, more extensive Acts from the Kilkenny manuscript, which, when compared with those of Capgrave, will be found to agree more closely as to the substance of the matter and to have been drawn from the same sources; but greatly altered by rhetorical ornament and amplification and the insertion of antiquarian glosses — on account of which they seemed to us to be of lesser authority.
[20] whether the Kilkenny MS. is by a contemporary author, Nor are we moved by the fact that the author, speaking of Kieran visiting St. Cochea, uses these words: "But it is hidden from us how he went or returned, because he indicated this to no one of our community" — from which Colgan believes he was a disciple and contemporary of the Saint. For such formulas, taken over from ancient authors, we shall often see in the Patrician Acts, while these more recent compilers transcribed entire paragraphs from them. For who does not see that the one who by an evident falsehood
says that Kieran lived for nearly three hundred years; and speaking as of a thing long past and far beyond living memory, says: "It is reported of him that he himself, along with the other Saints of Ireland of that time, went to St. Finian... in his old age and read in the divine Scriptures in his holy school"; fabulous in more than one place? who, I say, does not see that he who says these things is by no means a writer of the same age? For such a writer, even if he could have been mistaken in ordering the times of his early childhood, could not have erred so enormously about the age of his master, nor spoken so ambiguously about a matter so close to himself; indeed, he could not have written things so contrary to the truth about the arrival in Ireland before Patrick.
[21] To these add the fable with which the said author concludes his composition (for I pass over those with which he begins): "Thirty holy Bishops," he says, "whom St. Kieran himself had ordained, by the providence of God departed with him in one night, according to his will, to the kingdom of Christ, where they enjoy the vision of the Most Holy Trinity, to whom be honor and glory for ever and ever. Amen." I boldly call it a fable; for divine providence will never permit — certainly it is never known to have permitted — that, with all Pastors removed at the same moment of time, any region should remain bereft. What? In the diocese of Saigir, or of Upper Ossory — beyond which Kieran's jurisdiction should by no means be extended — there are scarcely now as many parishes as there are Bishops here said to have been consecrated by Kieran; nor is there any foundation for attributing to the same Saint the right and power of a Metropolitan. Aengus, in his Litaneutic work, reduces this number with these words: 15 disciples of Kieran who died together with him. "The fifteen who departed with St. Kieran of Saigir through Jesus Christ, I invoke in my aid." But he so reduces it that, with the title of Bishops omitted (which would be entirely monstrous here), he seems to have written, from purer and more ancient Acts, about the same number of Kieran's monastic disciples, and to have been able to write truthfully.
[22] Thus, on the eleventh of January, from St. Gregory's book 1 of the Dialogues, chapter 8, we related how eight Brothers at Sappentonia were summoned to the heavenly homeland together with their Abbot St. Anastasius. We recall having read elsewhere of many others who died together by a singular favor of God; but these were monks who, should they be sought in the Martyrologies? whether they died together or individually in the course of a longer time, the public welfare would not suffer. Colgan confesses that not even fifteen birthdays of Irish Saints on this day are exhibited by any Martyrology; but I think that these who died with Kieran never had public veneration, nor ought they to have been named individually, since nothing but the death they shared with their holy Master rendered them venerable as individuals of singular holiness; and therefore it is vain to seek them in the Hagiologies. Meanwhile, it is enough to have observed how little faith the author of the Kilkenny manuscript deserves in those things he adds beyond Capgrave, and how rightly he is judged not to have been a disciple of the Saint, as is claimed.
[23] The cult of St. Carthachus, Of St. Carthachus or Kartagus, whom Kieran is read to have designated as his successor in the Irish Life, we find no proper Acts on this day; but the common cult with his Master was given to him on this fifth day by the Irish, as Colgan attests from the native Hagiologies; and first of all, in Aengus the following is read in the Festilogy: "A man celebrated for having gone to lands beyond the sea, Carthachus, royal and Roman." He says royal because, as the Acts of his master have it, he was the nephew of Aengus, King of Munster; or, as the Calendar of Cashel, Gorman, and Maguir have it, his son. He says Roman, just as in the Patrician Acts others are often so called, because he had gone on pilgrimage to Rome. and churches: The Martyrology of Tamlacht also: "St. Kieran of Saigir and St. Carthachus on one day; and Carthachus of Druim Ferdhaimh was the son of Aengus." And this Church is, according to Marianus Gorman, in Carbria Hua Kiarrdha, which the author of the Calendar of Cashel calls that of Meath. Another church, moreover, dedicated to the same, is in Inis-vachtuir on Lough Silenn (which to Mercator and Sped on maps is Lough-sylon), according to the same authors; and also a third at Lismore, called Inis-Carthaich, which it is credible was dedicated to the memory of the master by the younger St. Mochuda or Carthachus, who was eventually consecrated Bishop of Lismore; for it is not credible that the elder lived so long as to be able to follow his disciple there and consecrate the place by his habitation.
[24] his humility, How great an estimation of him prevailed with his excellent master, and at the same time how profound was that master's own humility, we learn from the Acts of St. Mochuda, to be published on May 14: "But one day, after St. Mochuda received the Priesthood, the holy elder Carthachus, his instructor, went with him to the aforesaid Chief in the place called Feorann, beside the shore of the Leamhna, from whom the Chiefs of Kierry take their name. And Bishop Carthachus said to the Chief: 'This is, my Lord Chief, my excellent son, whom I received from you; he reads well and has learned well in various scriptures, and has received the sacerdotal degree from me, and the grace of God appears in him through many wonders.' Then the Chief said to the Bishop: 'What will be given to you as a reward?' The Bishop replied: 'I wish that you offer yourself, with your descendants after you, forever to this young servant of Christ.' The Chief at first refused to do this because of the youthful age of St. Mochuda. Then the Bishop bowed down and bent his knees before St. Mochuda, saying to him: 'Behold, I offer myself and my Church with my parish to the Lord and to you, my son, forever.' Seeing this, the Chief threw himself at the feet of St. Mochuda and offered his body and soul, together with his offspring after him, to God and to St. Mochuda forever."
[25] and his constant habit of psalm-singing. Also worthy of note is the most devout custom of the same St. Carthachus of singing psalms, even while on a journey; which possessed such outward grace as well that it drew St. Mochuda, still a boy, to follow him. "For on a certain day, when the holy elder Bishop Carthachus was passing through the forests of the river Maine, the holy man Mochuda was pasturing pigs, and the Bishop was singing psalms alternately with his companions along the way. When St. Mochuda heard their psalmody, inspired by the Holy Spirit, he left his flock and followed the Bishop all the way to the monastery called Thuaim. And when the Bishop sat down with his companions in the guesthouse, but Blessed Mochuda was sitting outside under the roof, without the Bishop and the inhabitants of the house knowing it; that night the Chief Moeltuili was amazed that Blessed Mochuda had not come to him, not knowing what had happened to him; and he sent messengers through the region to search for the boy, and one of them found St. Mochuda sitting under the roof, and rebuked him with many words and led him unwillingly to the Chief. And the Chief questioned him, saying: 'Why, my son, did you not come last night?' The holy boy answered him: 'I did not come to you, my Lord, because I was delighted by the divine song that I heard from the holy Clerics, and I have never heard anything like this song; St. Mochuda, or Carthachus the Younger, instructed by the same: and they sang it unceasingly along the way and in the house until the time of sleeping; and the Bishop alone sang long into the night after all the others. O that I were with them, my Lord Chief, to learn that song!' Then the Chief sent for the Bishop to come to him at once." And below: "And afterwards the holy Bishop Carthachus, having been summoned, came to the Chief; and the Chief commended to him the young boy Mochuda, to read and learn with him. And the Bishop received him joyfully, knowing him to be full of the Holy Spirit; and St. Mochuda remained under the discipline of St. Carthachus the Bishop until he received the Sacerdotal degree from him."
[26] his death, Concerning the age of St. Carthachus, Colgan notes that he seems to have lived after the year 540, and he proves this from the Life of Carthachus the Younger, in which the latter is read to have been educated by this elder from childhood, then ordained Priest, and shortly after to have come to St. Comgall in the monastery of Bangor, which was then in operation — a monastery which he himself is going to show was founded around the middle of the sixth century, on May 10. But what if that Life of Carthachus the Younger, like almost all the others, was compiled after the arrival of the English in Ireland, and, with the times confused, the author believed that the younger Carthachus had come to that monastery because he came to St. Comgall, who later founded that monastery? Just as, both elsewhere commonly and in these Acts of Kieran of Saigir, Kieran of Clonmacnoise is said to come from his Clonmacnoise monastery to this Kieran and to return there — when it is most probable that the Saigir Kieran was dead before that monastery and city was founded. For such errors very easily creep in for those writing after so great an interval of time, not to be deferred long beyond the year 540. and are most deserving of pardon. Whatever may be the case, then, about whether the elder Carthachus lived until that year, I say that his life can with difficulty be extended beyond the said terminus except by a very few years; because, since the death of King Aengus, who was either father or grandfather to Carthachus, is said to belong to the year 489, and some notable time before that Carthachus seems to have become a disciple of St. Kieran, he would have been born at least around the year 450 or 460, and so in the year 540 of the following century he would have been at or near ninety or eighty — which should be considered a full and great old age for a man, even an Irishman.
THE LIFE
From our MS. codex, formerly of the Irish College of the Society of Jesus at Salamanca.
Kieran, Bishop and Abbot of Saigir in Ireland (St.)
Carthachus, Bishop and Abbot of Saigir in Ireland (St.)
BHL Number: 4658
From MS. Salamancan.
CHAPTER I.
The childhood, pilgrimage, and return of St. Kieran. Miracles wrought on the occasion of an impure sacrilegious man.
[1] The lineage of St. Kieran, The Blessed Bishop Kieran, firstborn of the Irish, of the Ossory nation by birth, descended from his father Lugne and his mother Lidania, his mother Lidania, and was begotten in Munster. Now his mother, before she carried this sacred burden in her womb, it happened that she dreamed that a certain star entered her mouth. The woman was troubled, and the brilliance foreshadowed to his mother in a dream: wondering what this might be or what it might portend for the future; and what she could not understand by herself, she asked of the wise men. They answered her, saying: "You shall conceive and bear a son, whose name, like a divine sign given from heaven, shall not be blotted out forever." And behold, the truth follows the shadow; for the woman conceived and at last bore a little child, in whom it pleased God to dwell. The boy, therefore, chosen by God and
beloved by men, his holy childhood. is nurtured, filled with virtues, and like a sun rising upon the world, he puts to flight with the rays of his examples the darkness of minds; and as much as holiness sits in his mind, so much does chastity reign in his flesh. Whence all who knew him marveled at the old man's spirit in a small boy, the manly virtue in a youth, and the angelic wisdom in a human breast. And no wonder, for the eternal God sanctified his tabernacle, that he might dwell among men; and because he was to him a vessel of election, to bear his name among the nations and those living in a pagan manner; for his entire nation was then pagan.
[2] When this boy was staying in the house of his parents, and saw a hawk seizing a little bird, he frees a bird captured by a hawk. moved by pity, he devoutly prayed to God to remove that prey from its talons and restore it. The Lord heard the prayer of his beloved. For immediately the predator returned and restored the captured bird in the presence of the man of God; which the son of the pious father allowed to fly freely through the air. For many more years Kieran, still a catechumen yet innocent in hands and pure of heart, persevered as a resident of Ireland. he sets out for Rome, But hearing the famous name of the Apostolic See, that it was the head of the world and the summit of the Catholic faith, he desired to hasten there, like a hart to springs of water. And when he fulfilled his desire by reaching Rome and most devoutly asked to be washed in the font of baptism, he obtained what he desired. He remained there for twenty years as a studious reader and a diligent collector of divine volumes.
[3] he is consecrated Bishop: Since, therefore, in the judgment of those who assessed rightly, he was seen to abound in virtues and shine with miracles, he was summoned before the Pope to be raised to the episcopal dignity. Having been made a Bishop, he was ordered to return to his homeland, as if to a barren land not yet experienced with the seed of the Gospel, in order to root out the brambles of sin and sow the grain of good works and faith. He arrived there with a prosperous journey, and, forewarned by divine direction, having returned, he founds Saigir: dwelt in the place called Saigir. The eternal Householder, seeing that the harvest was great and the laborers few, did not allow the lamp to be covered under a bushel any longer. To those dwelling in the regions of the shadow of death, a light arose for them. Without delay, both sexes and every age flocked to him from far and near, and hearing his sound doctrine, they became firm Catholics; and the pagan error was dispelled, and the Catholic faith was strengthened; and she who was formerly called barren bore many children of life. Over all of them he himself, as teacher and guide, father and bishop, presided in holiness and righteousness before God.
[4] he also builds a monastery for his mother, His mother Lidania too, blessed by her son who communicated the fruit of life to men, gathered for herself a company of women in a certain cell apart from his monastery, all of whom, imitating the life of the Saints, preserved the purity of both the inner and outer person. One of these was a noble and very beautiful young woman named Brunecha, whom a certain petty king, from which a Virgin is seized, Dimma by name, seized by force and claimed as his wife for some days. The holy Kieran, detesting the enormity of so great a crime and desiring to apply a remedy, went to the house of the sacrilegious man to seek the girl from him. When he demanded on God's behalf that he restore his prey, the man, brought to a reprobate mind, answered mockingly: "If you make me wake from sleep tomorrow morning by the voice of a cuckoo, you shall have your disciple back." He said this because it was then winter. That night, although snow was falling over all the land, the snow did not touch the lodging of Kieran at all. the impure robber restores her, moved by a miracle; When dawn recalled the day, behold, a cuckoo cried out on the rooftop of a certain house; and when the petty king was awakened from sleep by this, fear and dread fell upon him at the greatness of the miracle. Long hesitating whether to release her or not (for fear pressed him, but love held him back), at last, compelled by fear of the impending wrath, he conceded her — but sluggishly and fearfully.
[5] When the man of God was returning with the girl to the monastery, the girl confessed that she was with child. Then the man of God, led by the zeal of justice, he attempts to seize her again. not wishing the serpent's seed to be animated, impressed the sign of the cross on her womb and caused it to be voided. After these things it happened that the same petty king, forgetful of his salvation and tormented by love for the girl, came again to the cell of the Virgins to seize her. But by the will of God, who foreknows all things, it happened that a messenger preceded him to warn the girl of his approach. When the girl was greatly disturbed by the arrival of the wicked king, her heart was shaken and she expired. he finds her dead. And he came shortly after, but found her lifeless. Seeing that the girl's life had been cut short by death, he blazed with anger and promised to inflict whatever harm he could on the man of God. When the father's heart was moved over the untimely death of the girl, hastening to the customary refuge of prayer, he assailed the Thunderer with prayers, that he who had created her soul from nothing by his power might cause it to return to its former body's governance by his mercy. When the prayer was finished, the girl who had been dead before resumed the life of her former vigor.
[6] After these things, when the aforesaid petty king was returning home with excessive indignation, and then his house seized by fire, he found his town with all its goods utterly consumed by fire. In one of the houses, the king's beloved son had been left sleeping. His nurse, despairing of his life, cried out, saying: "Into the hands of St. Kieran I commend you, my child." O great miracle, recalling to memory the deliverance of the three youths! For behold, that house in which the boy sleeps is reduced to ashes, but by the name of Kieran the boy is kept unharmed by the fire. in which his little son is preserved unharmed by the invocation of Kieran. Moreover, the father, observing this happening through the invocation of the name of the man of God Kieran, hastened to offer this son and another son of his to the man of God. And he, as one more inclined to mercy than to condemnation, accepted the willing sacrifice. And the King said: "Since, O pious father, you have cast behind your back all my sins, therefore I offer you my perpetual service, and that of my posterity." Saying these things, with the peace and blessing of the man of God, he departed.
Notese Capgrave reads 15.
CHAPTER II.
Dealings with the Kings of Munster.
[7] Baptized by King Aengus, Meanwhile, as the course of time progressed, Blessed Patrick, ordained Archbishop by Pope Celestine, was sent to Ireland armed with Apostolic authority. And while he was traveling through the land, preaching, baptizing, and conferring health on various ailments, he came to the region of the Munstermen and baptized Aengus, King of the land. After this, it happened by chance that a horse necessary for the service of St. Patrick was killed by a certain man of the Ossory nation. When the guilty man was convicted of the deed, he was led bound before the King to be punished with due penalty. a certain man condemned to death, Therefore St. Kieran was asked by his relatives to approach the King and obtain a remission of the penalty. The pious father acquiesced to the prayers of the supplicants and hastened to the King to seek the release of the prisoner; and where prayers did not avail, a price was able to obtain it. He offered gold to the King for the release of the prisoner Kieran redeems him with apparent gold, and obtained his freedom. The Saint departed, but the gold, unlawfully acquired, was immediately reduced to nothing before the King.
The King, judging himself as if mocked by Kieran, sends after him to return and pay true gold.
[8] When the man of God returned, he was sharply rebuked and censured by the King for the illusory gold; but the God of St. Kieran did not permit the blasphemy to go unavenged: for immediately, falling to the ground, the King was deprived of the light of his eyes. and restores sight to the King himself: Then St. Kieran was earnestly asked by his disciple named Carthachus, who was the nephew of that King, to pardon the ignorant and restore his sight. Moved by the prayers of his holy disciple, the pious master remitted the offense and restored the lost light. Another King of Munster also, named Ailill, one day reviled the man of God with insulting words; but because he had sinned against the Saint with a slanderous tongue, he was tormented for seven days, deprived of the use of speech. likewise speech to another Prince. When, however, his infirmities were multiplied, he afterwards hastened to seek pardon, which when he humbly requested, he mercifully obtained.
[9] He, among other gifts bestowed on him by God, was endowed with the spirit of prophecy and foretold many future things as if they were present with the greatest certainty. For on one of the autumn days, in autumn he orders berries to be covered, seeing a certain bramble bush bearing very beautiful blackberries, he wrapped it with a clean linen cloth and thus preserved it under careful guard. Now the King of the Ossorians, Concraidh by name, a powerful and famous man, ordered a great banquet prepared for the Princes and chief men of the land; to which banquet the aforesaid King Aengus was invited with his wife, named Ethnea Vachach. a remedy to serve the impure desires of the Queen: Queen Ethnea, considering the outstanding beauty of Concraidh, was wounded by the dart of disordered love, and confessed that the remedy for her wound was to be found in Concraidh; but he, not wishing to violate the royal marriage bed, refused what was brazenly requested. Because she perceived herself spurned by the one she loved, she pretended to be ill, saying that she could not be cured unless by eating blackberries, and unless she obtained that taste, she confessed that death was near. Now it was the month of April, and blackberries were not usually found at that time.
[10] Having heard the woman's desires, although disordered, Concraidh himself, who had invited the King and his wife, being greatly anxious about these things, turned himself entirely to the patronage of St. Kieran, and asked him to satisfy the woman's desire in return for his perpetual service. The man of God, moved by the prayers of the supplicant, delivered then he predicts her death and her husband's to her. the blackberries preserved from autumn by divine providence; and when she had received that wonderful fruit as a precious gift, she brought it to the Queen, and tasting them, with the pain of conceived love put to flight, she soon recovered her health. The Queen, not unmindful of the benefit received, came to the venerable Father, and humbly confessed her deceit and grief. To whom the man of God said prophetically: "You should rather grieve about your own untimely death and that of your husband, than about the unchaste love of another man's husband. For the days will come when Illandus, King of the Northern Leinstermen, will wage fierce battles against your husband Aengus and his people, where, with great slaughter of the Munstermen, you yourself together with your husband will be destroyed." Kieran said these things, and they came to pass as he said.
[11] He prevents a conflict between the Kings of Tara and Cashel, At another time it happened that the King of Tara and the King of Munster, about to engage in battle near the city of Saigir of St. Kieran, pitched their camps before the day of battle. To them came the sower of peace and settler of seditions, asking for the things that belong to peace and dissuading from discord; but his prayers were regarded as foolish talk in the eyes of the proud Kings. When they had scorned the servant of God and thirsted for each other's blood, God, hearing the prayer of his servant, looked upon them and dispersed the nations from their attempt thus: by the interposition of forest and river, for suddenly the nearby forest, torn up by its roots, stood in the way and was strewn across the roads; and the current of the intervening river swelled over its banks, so that the density of the trees and the immensity of the water denied an encounter to those who wished to fight. And then the current of the river gladdened the righteous and terrified the enemies, who turned their backs to each other. and refreshes the entire army with meager provisions. As the rest hastened to their own territories, the King of Munster pitched his camp at Kieran's; whom the wondrous man, together with his army, sufficiently fed from one cow and a pig, by the power of him who fed five thousand men from five loaves; many fragments here, as there, remained; and all who were present gave praise to God and extolled his Saint with due honor.
[12] At another time, when a certain Count of the land was pursuing a certain troop of robbers, robbers apprehended who, when they despaired of escaping from the hands of their pursuers, fled to the patronage of St. Kieran, whose fame was then celebrated in the land, and cried out that they would be his servants henceforth if he would deign to snatch them from the jaws of death, saying together:
"Bring aid to us, O Father Kieran, in our wretchedness."
they obtain the salvation of both body and soul by invoking him. And behold, suddenly the Father of mercies and God of all consolation, in honor of his Saint, sent a pillar of fire which prevented the pursuers and protected the fugitives. Not unmindful of the benefit received, these men hastened to the man of God to offer thanks, and prostrating themselves at his knees, they narrated all the things that had happened; and putting on the new man according to Christ, and professing a monastic vow and life, they utterly renounced the pomps of Satan. another is more severely punished. Another robber, similar in name to those mentioned but dissimilar in fortune, stole a cow from this Saint's cattle herd; but it did not go unpunished for him. For immediately he was drowned in a certain river and lost both the cow and his life; for the cow returned to his cattle, but the man went to hell.
NotesCHAPTER III.
The lapse and penance of St. Carthachus; and the pious death of St. Kieran.
[13] St. Kieran prevents the sin of St. Carthachus with a sacred virgin: Carthachus, the disciple of St. Kieran, assailed by a grievous temptation, fell in love with one of the Virgins of St. Lidania, and came with her to the place of perpetrating the crime with mutual intent. The holy Bishop learned this by the revelation of the Spirit of God and was provoked to anger, because his son and daughter had provoked him. But he who provides a way out in temptation was present, and sending down a flame of fire from above, separated them; this struck the virgin with irrecoverable blindness, and she returned home and did penance. The young man, touched with sorrow of heart, humbly confessed his fault to the man of God, who imposed upon him the penance of going on a pilgrimage.
[14] After a long time, the holy elder Kieran with one companion entered a certain river by night to pray; and he returns to him after penance is completed and when they had remained for a long time praying in the very cold water, the Brother revealed to the pious Father that he was being overcome by the waters. He immediately blessed the waters in the name of him who brought forth rivers from the rock, and at once they lost their quality of cold and became tepid. And when the Brother was refreshed in both body and soul by the novelty of the miracle, St. Kieran said to him: "Dear brother" (for that was his name), the pious father prepares a meal. "put your hand underneath and seize the fish that swims beneath you, and bring it for the use of my dear disciple Carthachus, whose arrival tomorrow will fill me with joy." Then Germanus, obedient at the word, put his hand into the water and drew out a large fish; and on the following day Carthachus arrived, and his presence brought great joy to the head of the household.
[15] St. Kieran of Clonmacnoise There was a certain petty king in the land, named Furbicius, very wealthy, who entrusted his treasure to be more diligently guarded by the hands of St. Kieran, Abbot of Clonmacnoise. When the faithful servant Kieran distributed the treasure to the uses of the poor, and the King perceived this and ordered Abbot Kieran to be brought before him in chains, he mockingly insulted Kieran, saying: "Good Abbot, if you wish to be freed from chains, bring me seven cows,
without horns, red of body, bound for having distributed his lord's goods to the poor, white of head. But if you cannot find these, you will suffer penalties for the dispersed treasures." To whom the man of God, acting with confidence in the Lord, said: "All things are possible to one who believes perfectly, because nothing is impossible with God, in whom he believes; and because every creature by its natural course obeys its Creator, I believe, with him providing who is powerful enough to make children of Abraham from stones (not so that I may escape your chains, which are meritorious for me, but so that I may show the magnificence of my God), I can find such cows as you desire."
[16] And when he was thus allowed to go free, though on condition that he should swear to return, he goes to seek the ransom demanded of him he hastened to the holy elder Kieran, so that what he had firmly promised he might more easily obtain. At that time two most holy men, received at Saigir: the two Brendans, were present there. He set forth the reason for his journey before the holy men and requested a remedy against the avarice of the King. But when they arrived at the hour of bodily refreshment, the steward hastened to the elder Kieran, assuring him that he had nothing worthy for the repast of such men, and placed before him what he had — a small amount of pork fat. Then the man of God, trusting in the goodness of the Lord, blessed it and thus distributed it to those reclining at table. miraculously refreshed, Wonderfully, those pork meats were turned, like a second manna, into the desired sweetness and into the flavor of the foods with which each one reclining most liked to be nourished. Moreover, he blessed the water placed in the cups of the Brothers, and they firmly attest that it was turned into the sweetness of wine. Among them, however, there was a certain man who was a convert by habit but perverse in mind, who refused this food as unclean, knowing it to be from pork fat. To whom the holy elder said, not by way of vengeance but of prophecy: "Be assured that you will put off this habit and eat meat during Lent, and at the same time, with your head cut off, you will enter hell." The Saint asserted these things prophetically, and not one iota or one tittle of what he said failed to come true.
[17] On the following day the men of God, the two Kierans [and having established a compact of fellowship with the Brendans and this Saint, by his prayers he obtains his wish.] and the two Brendans, entered into a covenant of perpetual brotherhood among themselves; and the younger St. Kieran, bidding farewell to the Brothers, departed in peace. And as was customary, the elder St. Kieran accompanied him a little way, and both prayed to the Almighty for the cows promised to the King. When the prayer was finished, behold, seven cows, red of body and white of head, appeared, just as the King himself had desired; which Father Abbot Kieran brought to the tyrant and then departed to his own place. When he had departed, the miraculously created cows were nowhere to be seen. The virtues of St. Kieran, He, shining with these and many other miracles, always kept with him seven household companions: for humility was his lover, discretion his stewardess, generosity his servant, chastity his wife, faith his support, hope his strengthener, and perfect charity his empress. Whence those words of Isaiah may fittingly be expounded of him: Isaiah 49:6 "Behold," says the Lord, "I have given you as a light to the nations, that you may be my salvation to the end of the earth."
[18] Kieran lived in this life, poor in the world but rich toward God, and happy death. the standard of the law, the ark of justice, the teacher of the young, the guide of the old, and universally an imitable spectacle for all, for nearly three hundred years. And at last, in a ripe old age, he blessed his people, saying: "O God, command your strength to these and to all whom you have wrought in us." He also procured from Almighty God that God would bless whoever should celebrate the day of his birthday. Finally, on the third day before the Nones of March, the Lord led him into the wine cellar of his inheritance and planted him on the mountain of his inheritance, namely in the heavenly Jerusalem, which is our mother. Come then, Brothers, appoint a solemn day of the most holy Kieran, and let the voice of praise resound in the tabernacles of the just, for the right hand of the Lord has shown its power in this man, which Jesus Christ, through the merits of his servant Kieran, may deign to work in us in the present, so that with him as guide we may deserve to enter the hall of eternal inheritance. Amen.
Notes* read "one hundred"
APPENDIX
Other miracles from the Kilkenny MS. as found in Colgan.
Kieran, Bishop and Abbot of Saigir in Ireland (St.)
Carthachus, Bishop and Abbot of Saigir in Ireland (St.)
BHL Number: 4657
From MS. Salamancan.
[19] On a certain day, the Steward of the monastery of St. Kieran came to him saying: He provides for the monastery's needs with a double miracle. "Lord, we have no pigs, and we must buy them." To whom the Saint said: "The Lord, who has given us other necessities, will also give us pigs." And on the following day a magnificent sow was seen, with twelve piglets with her, sent by the Lord according to the word of the man of God, and from their offspring many herds of swine grew there.
Again, on another day, his Steward said to St. Kieran: "We have no sheep now, Father, and we must buy them." The holy man answered him: "He who gave us the pigs will also give us sheep." And the Steward, going outside the gate of the enclosure, saw twenty-seven white sheep there, likewise sent by the Lord, grazing on the grass; and they likewise multiplied there into flocks.
[20] A certain powerful man named Fintan brought with him his dead son, named Laoghaire, he restores a dead man to life. to St. Kieran, asking that in the name of Christ he raise him up. The holy man, trusting in Christ, approached him and, raising him from death, returned him alive to his father; who lived long afterwards, and he offered to St. Kieran the estate called Rath-ferta with its fields.
[21] The most blessed Bishop Kieran sent oxen to St. Cochea, his nurse, without anyone driving them; he submits oxen to the plow for St. Cochea. and they went straight to the holy woman of God; and she knew that her distinguished alumnus, St. Kieran, had sent them to her for the purpose of plowing. The distance is very great between the city of St. Kieran at Saigir and the monastery of St. Cochea, which is called Ross-Bennchoir, and is situated near the western sea of Ireland. And the oxen plowed each year at St. Cochea's, and when the plowing season was over, they returned to St. Kieran each year.
[22] St. Kieran was accustomed on the night of the Nativity of the Lord, after his people in his monastery of Saigir had received the sacrifice from his hand, to go to the monastery of St. Cochea, the aforesaid Ross-Beannchoir, he miraculously ministers the Eucharist to her across very great stretches of land, so that he might offer the Body of Christ on that most holy night before Blessed Cochea; and after the holy woman of God, together with others, had received the Lord's communion from his hand, on the same night before dawn he would come to his monastery of Saigir, situated in the middle of Ireland. But it is hidden from us how he went or returned, because he indicated this to no one of our community. But we know that God, who caused Habakkuk to be led from Judea to Chaldea and brought back in a short space of a day, did whatever and however he wished with his servant.
[23] A certain great stone, which is now called the Rock of St. Cochea, on which rock she frequently prayed to the Lord, stands among the waves on the seashore not far from the place of St. Cochea. Once St. Kieran himself entered the sea on that rock and happily returned to his place upon it. For it is written: "God is wonderful in his Saints."
[24] A certain boy, who was called Cichridius of Clon, once came to the monastery of Saigir, a boy who extinguished the sacred fire and stayed there for some days with the holy Bishop Kieran. And the holy elder Bishop Kieran decreed that the consecrated Easter fire in his monastery should not be extinguished throughout the year. But at the instigation of the devil, this boy Crichidh extinguished that fire in the monastery. Then the holy elder Bishop Kieran said to the Brothers: "Behold, our consecrated fire has been extinguished of its own accord by the accursed boy Crichidius, as he always causes harm. The fire will not be in this place until Easter,
unless the Lord sends it. That boy Crichidh, however, who extinguished the fire, he predicts he will be punished with death. will be killed tomorrow." And the next day that boy was killed in the field by wolves and lay dead. When the holy Abbot Kieran the Younger, to whom that boy belonged, saw this, he came to the monastery of the holy elder Kieran of Saigir, and there he was received with honor by the holy Bishop Kieran; but in the monastery there was no fire at that time, because the consecrated fire was used to light the fire throughout the whole place each day. And the holy Bishop promised that there would be no other fire there until Easter, unless the Lord sent them fire. And the guests were cold on that snowy day. Seeing this, the holy elder Bishop Kieran arose and spread out his hands in prayer to God; a ball of fire immediately fell from above into his bosom, and having obtained another fire from heaven, which the holy Bishop first carried in his cloak to the guests. And when the guests had been warmed, supper was set before them at table; and when they sat down at table, the holy Abbot Kieran the Younger said before all: "I will not eat in this place until my boy, who was killed here, comes alive to me." To whom the elder Kieran the Bishop said: "We know that you came for this reason, and for our sakes the Lord will give him life. Eat; for behold, your boy is hastening here." Then quickly the boy came and ate with the Brothers. Then the cry of all was raised in praise of God, he returns the boy alive to his master magnifying his Saints. Afterwards the younger St. Kieran the Abbot, with his resuscitated boy, having received the blessing of the holy elder Kieran the Senior, returned to his own place.
[24] At another time, one of the Brothers, named Baythenus, carelessly extinguished the fire in the morning, and greatly grieving about it, sought pardon. On that very day, St. Ruadhan, Abbot of Lothra, came to visit St. Kieran; another extinguished fire, but in the monastery of Saigir there was no fire with which to warm the guests or prepare a feast for them. Knowing this, the holy Bishop Kieran blessed a certain stone that was before him, and immediately the stone burned with flames of fire; and the man of God took the burning stone in his hands and restores spilled milk by miracle. and thus carried it all the way to St. Ruadhan. When Ruadhan and his companions saw this, they were greatly edified in God and rejoiced. The aforesaid Baythenus also carelessly spilled a vessel full of milk upon the ground. But the holy elder Kieran blessed that vessel with the holy sign, and there before all it was filled with excellent unknown milk. Then that Brother who had spilled it, and the other Brothers, fearing their most holy master, were confirmed in the love of God.
[25] Two blood brothers from the land of Muscraigia Thire wished to be pilgrims in another Province, that is, in the region of Connacht near Tulach-ruaidh. They were named Medran and Odhran; and their estate was called Lettir. He receives St. Medran as a disciple: When they came to Saigir, that is, to St. Kieran, Medran wished to remain there; but his brother Odhran said to him: "This is not what you promised me, Brother." And he said to St. Kieran: "Do not, Father, keep my brother here." St. Kieran answered him: "May Almighty God judge between you whether he should remain here or go with you. Let him hold a candle in his hand now as a test; and if it is lit by the breath of his mouth, he should stay here; but if not, let him go with you." And he immediately lit the candle by his breath and remained there with St. Kieran until his death in great holiness. And St. Kieran said to Blessed Odhran: "Listen to me, Brother Odhran; I tell you in truth, even if you travel through the four quarters of the world, you will nevertheless die in your estate of Lettir. Therefore return and stay there, because from your name that estate will be named forever." he predicts to his brother Odhran death in his own monastery. And so it has come to pass. For St. Odhran, according to the word of St. Kieran, returned to the aforesaid place, and there he built a famous monastery. And he himself was a man of great virtue and holiness, and after many miracles which are read of him during his life, as Abbot of that place he happily departed to the kingdom of heaven. And as was foretold, that place is called by his name, Lettir Odhrain.
[26] A certain matron named Eathylla, falling carelessly to the ground, he raises a woman dead for three days: with her body broken, died. Blessed Kieran raised her after three days; and that matron offered to St. Kieran the village called, from her name, Saltus Eathyllae, and she with her family gave thanks to God. likewise one after 7 days. A certain Steward of the King of the Munstermen, named Keandfoylius, killed Cronan, a friend of St. Kieran, whom the most holy elder Kieran raised after seven days in the name of Christ.
[27] King Aengus of Munster himself had excellent harpists who sweetly sang the deeds of heroes before him in verse, accompanying with the harp. These men, once walking in the tribe called Muscrya Thire, the concealed death of 7 harpists which is in the region of Munster, were killed by their enemies, and their bodies were hidden in a certain pool in the desert (because a firm peace prevailed in Munster under the reign of Aengus); and their harps were hung on a certain tree above the bank of the pool. King Aengus was saddened, not knowing what had happened to them. And knowing St. Kieran to be full of the spirit of prophecy, he came to him to learn what had befallen his harpists; for having become a Christian, he did not wish to consult magicians or soothsayers. And St. Kieran said to the King: "Your harpists, my Lord King, have been secretly killed, and their bodies have been hidden in a pool, he reveals it. and their harps are hanging from a tree overhanging the pool." The holy man, asked by the King, came with him to the pool and fasted there for one day. When the fast was completed, the water in the dried-up pool did not appear, and seeing the bodies at the bottom of the dry mud, St. Kieran reached them in the presence of the King and all the people; praying in the power of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, he immediately raised them as from a deep sleep. and after a month restores them to life: They were seven in number and for an entire month they had been killed and submerged beneath the water. Rising immediately, they took their harps and sang sweet songs before the crowds, before the King and the Bishop. The pool in which they were submerged is empty from that day to this, without water; but it is still called by the name of a pool, loch-na-emitireadh, which in Latin means "the pool of the harpists." Then, having received the blessing of the King and the people, St. Kieran returned to his city.
[28] A certain Steward of the aforesaid King of Munster, traveling with his companions in the same region called Ossory, likewise many others slain by enemies saw the pigs of a certain holy man and ordered his soldiers to kill one of them. And when they began to roast the pig there in the forest, their enemies rushed upon them and killed that Steward and twenty soldiers with him, on the bank of the stream Brosnach. And when this was reported to St. Kieran, the aforesaid Carthachus, that is, the alumnus of St. Kieran and the nephew of King Aengus himself, along with the others, advised him to go to bring back the bodies, lest they be devoured by beasts. And seeing the few vehicles for carrying so many bodies, St. Kieran said in a loud voice before all who were there, addressing the slain: "In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, arise, you who were killed, and come with me." At this voice, that Steward and his twenty companions immediately rose up in health, and with them rose the pig which they had killed; and it returned to its holy master, who was called Ecianus. The men who had been raised from the dead all lived as monks with St. Kieran in a religious manner until their death.
[29] The most blessed Kieran, from his youth until his death, incredibly went without soft clothing, meats, intoxicating drinks, sleep, and other carnal delights. He himself converted his own nation, that is, Ossory, and very many others from the error of paganism to the faith of Christ. And he himself was already frequented by constant visitations of Angels and renowned signs. he elicits a healing spring. He ordained an innumerable multitude of Bishops, Priests, and other grades of the ecclesiastical orders. This our holy Patron Kieran, in a certain place, requested a spring, which an Angel of the Lord pointed out to him, and many diseases are still healed through the water of that spring by the grace of the man of God; and it is called the spring of Kieran.
Notesin the western part of Leinster, and on the island of Inis-baithin near Kilmantain in eastern Leinster; since the time and place are favorable; for he flourished, says Colgan, around the year 550.