Kieran among saints of the
Benedictine
Order.
O'Hanlon - Lives of the Irish Saints - v9
Ciarain ofClonmacnoise6intheBookofLismore.
?
Oflate,amongtheotherIrish
8
is the panegyric on Betha Chiarain Guana meic Nois, edited with a Preface,
anEnglishTranslat—ion,Notes,andIndices,byWhitleyStokes,D. C. L. In
—ct rendered from the Irish text into
the published tra original equivalent
English lettering there are eighteen closely printed pages ;9 the English
10
This Life, contained in the Book of Lismore, has been copied from a still more ancient manuscript. " The Book of Lismore had been compiled from the lost Book of Monasterboice, and from other manuscripts, in the latter half of the fifteenth century, for
Finghin Mac Carthaigh Riabhach, and his wife, Catherine, daughter to Thomas, Eighth Earl of Desmond. Hence, it is sometimes and more
Texts containing Lives of Irish Saints, published from this manuscript,
translation is comprised within nineteen pages.
called the Book of ia It had been MacCarthy Reagh.
preserved
in
properly
Timoleague Abbey,
it was conveyed to Lismore Castle, where it long remained concealed, and at
in the
beginning
of the seventeenth
century.
1 *
Afterwards,
length it was there accidentally found, in 18 14, by some workmen engaged in repairing the castle. It was found lying, along with an antique crozier, in a wooden box, taken from a walled-up passage. The manuscript had suffered
much from damp, while the back, front, and top margin was theji gnawed in several places by rats or mice. It is now the property of the Duke of Devonshire. The reputed Codex Kilkenniensis I4 has a Life of St. Kyaranus
part i. On the Calendar of Oengus. By Life of Ciaran of Cluain is in the great illus-
Whitley Stokes, LL. D. , pp. cxxxvii. and cxliii. , cxliv.
4 Among them are the following : In the collection of Messrs. Hodges and Smith, there is a small 4to paper MS. , No. 12, in the K. I. A. ; it contains a Life of St. Kieran. The viii. vol. of O'Longan MSS. , in the R. I. A. , contains The Life of St. Ciaran of
trious book, wbich Donogh Ban O'Flinn has
lately brought from Lismore, after having coaxed it out of the hands of the Heretics,
and that by his own superior dexterity, and with the help of God ; and he has it in Cork,
at this time, 181 5. " See pp. 35, 36. This
Manuscript was written by Michael Oge
O'Longan, between the years i8ioand 1822.
8"
In the Anecdota Oxoniensia," Lives
of•Saints from the Book of Lismore. Ox- ford, at the Clarendon Press, 1890, 4to.
9 From p. 117 to p. 134.
10 11
In the same vol. there is an ancient prose Legend of St. Ciaran of Cluain Mac Nois and of Cairbre
Crom, pp. 93, 94. The first volume of the
some curious topographical references, pp. 378 to 385.
Clonmacnois, p. 171.
O'Longan Manuscripts in the Royal Irish
Academy contains a curious Legend of St.
Ciaran of Clonmacnois, and two of his
clerics. It is entitled eaccrvA leifcin, or was not answerable for the meaningless The Adventures of Leithin, and it contains
5
This
translation is
dated, August 12th,
12 on It is written in double columns
197 leaves of vellum, 15^ inches by ieV% inches. On an average, 40 lines are on each column. very legendary. However, it is curious, The initial letters, with which some of the owing to allusions that serve to elucidate pieces commence, have the Celtic interlace- some old customs. It appears to have been ment. In it, the handwriting of three diffe-
1865.
6 This is a panegyric or sermon, but it is
a discourse prepared for delivery on occasion of St. Ciaran's festival, and apparently pro- nounced at Clonmacnoise.
7 Among the O'Longan MSS. , vol. vi. , in the Royal Irish Academy, there are some few notices regarding the birth and death of several of the old Irish saints, taken from Keating, with a note to this effect
:
rent scribes can be distinguished : one of these was a Friar named O'Buagachain, while another calls himself Aonghus O'Cal- laid.
"3 On the 20th of June, 1629, Michael O Clary, one of the Four Masters, used it in that religious house.
" The
14 In Archbishop Marsh's Library, Dublin.
From p. 262 to p. 280.
This is stated in the transcriber's note, at the Colophon, where he asserts, that he
words to be found in it, but they were owiug to the injured or faded condition of that copy from which he had traced it.
September 9. ] LIVES OF THE IRISH SAINTS. 201
of Clonmacnois. 1 * His Acts as found there are probably copied from a still
moreancientsource. ALifeofSt. KieranwascompiledbyAugustinMagraidin,
fromtwoolderones. 16 Owingtoanimperfectdescription,itisnotpossibleto
state, without a close investigation, whether the Manuscript Acts of St. Kieran,
,l
and the
Bruxelles,'? have reference to the present saint, or to another bearing his name. * 8 In the University City of Oxford are two copies of this saint's Acts. '? They appear to be taken from the same source. 20 It was Colgan's intention, to have issued the Acts of St. Kieranus, Abbot, at the 9th of September. This we find from the
Vita S. Kierani Cluana, in the
S. Kierani Confessio," to be found in the Burgundian Library at
in the Franciscan
Dublin. 22
We that other Acts learn,
and, he frequently alludes
posthumous u
list of his 1 as also from the Manuscripts,*
Convent,
of Saint Kieran were extant in Colgan's time ;
preserved
Vitae Sanctorum," ex Cod. Inisensi, yet
3
to them 3 with satisfaction, promising to publish such compilation, as might
serve for a biography. This promise, however, has not been hitherto
fulfilled. In the Bollandist Collection "Acta Sanctorum,"2* Father Con-
2
stantine Suyskens gives a Historic Commentary s on St. Kyran or Queran,
Abbot of Clonmacnoise, in Meath province, Ireland.
The Bollandists had
a Life of this saint, in their 26 and collection,
some
anonymous
writer. 2?
by
In it, scarcely anything was to be found except prodigies, and these partly
borrowed from other Lives, with some original matter, but related in such a
silly manner,. that those accounts deserved little credence from the learned,
unless receiving confirmation from a more skilled and erudite author than
28
Life, cited by Sirin 20 or O'Sheeran, and said to have been compiled by our
the writer.
This latter Manuscript may have been identical with an Irish
«s At fol, 145 to 148.
16
As stated, by Father Papebroke, in his Fourth Commentary on the Acts of St. En- deus, at the 2lst of March.
17 In the Catalogue they are classed vol. iv. , Nos. 2324-2340, fol. 86, 69.
25 Contained in six sections and sixty-nine paragraphs.
26
Noticed in the Old Bollandist Catalogue, and marked Salamancan Manuscript, P. , MS. 11.
27In"ActaSanctorum,"tomusi. , Feb-
ruarii vi. , sect, iii. , num. 19, in his Historic
foolishly and negligently written. See p. publication.
18
There is an Irish Life of St. Kieranus
Cluanensis, in the Royal Burgundiun Li-
brary of Brussels. It was transcribed, in
the Franciscan convent, Athlone, by Brother
Michael O'Clery, from the Book of Aodh 780. Suyskens considered it not worth Og Ua Dalachain of Les Cluaine in Meath,
vol. xi. (4190-4200), fol. 149a.
'9 In MSS. :—Vita S. Kiarani seu Querani
28
That his life differed from one, possessed
by the Bollandists, appears in passages, cited Junioris primi Abbatis Clonmacnoisensis. by Colgan and Ussher. Such extracts are
MS. Bodl. Rawl. B. 505, pp. 81-86, veil,
fol. xiv. cent. MS. Bodl. Rawl. B. 485,
not found in the Bollandist copy.
29 In these words: " De S. Kierano
t0
fol. 167, veil. 4 xiv. cent.
Cluanensi Abbate et instituta ab ipso
—"
matre Darercha, ortus fuit. " Ardmacano,
20
simus Abbas Queranus ex patre Boetio fidem Acta ipsius MS. quae cum aliis
Incipit.
monastica socictate plenissimam exhibcnt —Thomas habentur in illo codice ab
Duffus Hardy's
"
Descriptive Catalogue of
ipsius sancti viri antiquis discipulis accepta, in quibus legitur S. Finnianus, sancti viri magister, propter institute ab ipso Con-
gregations amplitudinem Leath Nereann, id est. dimidium Hiberniae nomen imposuisse. "
Vir gloriosus et vita sanctis-
Materials Relating to the History of Great
Britain and Ireland," vol. i. , part i. , p. 126.
21
See . " Catalogus Actuum Sanctorum
quae MS. habentur, Ordine Mensium et
Dierum. "
—
R. P. F. Patricii
Flemingi
Hiberni
22
23 Both in the "Acta Sanctorum Hiber-
"
niae" and in
24 See tomus iii. , Septembris ix. , De S. Hiberni Abbatis," &c. Dissertatio de
At pp. 104 to in.
Ordinis Fratrum Minorum Strictioris obser-
vantioe olim Sacrae Theologise Lectoris,
Trias Thaumaturga. "
"Collectanea Sacra seu S. Columbani
Kierano seu Querano Abbate Cluain-mic- Noisensi in Media Hibernian Provincia, pp. 37o to 383.
Monastica S. Columbani Luxoviensis et Bobiensis Abbatis Professione, Art. iii. , sect, ii. , num. 84, p. 433.
Commentary on the Holy Mel, Melcho, Munis, and Rioch, Bolandus tells us, it was
202 LIVES OF THE IRISH SAINTS.
[September 9.
saint's disciples. However, the want of a copy prevented Suyskens from investigating this matter at length. The Bollandist editor regrets not being able to find any old Life of this saint, which should be found worthy of presentation to a studious reader. But for want of ancient satisfactory Acts
relating to St. Kieran, Father Suyskens was obliged to compile his Life from various other sources. Especially was he obliged to make, reference to the Lives of other Irish Saints, which were extant. Thus did he collect such scattered notices together, and combine them in a narrative, referring to this Abbot of Clonmacnoise and to his time. ? The first dissertation treats on various evidences regarding this saint, as drawn from the Martyrologies and other writings. John Wilson ** has a notice concerning our saint, who was
2
descended, as he tells us, from a noble family? in the Scottish Kingdom,
where this holy Queran, abbot and confessor, had been buried. In a subse-
quent edition 33 of his Martyrology, and treating the same subject, we are informed, that St. Queran 34 first became monk, and afterwards abbot over St. Columba's monastery, in Ireland, and that his holy life and miracles have been greatly lauded by posterity. 35 Wion,3° Menard,37 and Bucelinus 38 rank St.
Kieran among saints of the Benedictine Order. However, both in his Acts and in the Annals of this Order, Mabillon takes no notice regarding the present saint. In the Rev. Alban Butler's " Lives of the Fathers, Martyrs and other principal Saints," at the 9th of September^ there are some brief notices regarding St. Kiaran, Abbot.
Long before Kieran entered the world, his birth had been predicted by St. Patrick,* thegreatApostleofIreland,whothendweltonthetopofthe mountain, Cruachan Aighle,41 where he was engaged in heavenly contem-
2
plation. Moreover, St. Patrick told his disciple, St. Munis,* that where
relics had been found at Clonmacnoise, this place should remain for a holy man, named Kieran, the son of a smith, according to the decrees of Divine Providence ; that our saint should be born after thirty years ; that there he
30 The writer adds: "At priusquam id
agam, lectorem duo universim monitum
velim ; primum est, quod Hibernorum Sanctorum Acta passim dubiat sint fidei, et a Scriptoribus minime accuratis ac setate longe posterioribus conscripta. Alterum est, quod in iisdem frequens occurrat rerum similimarum narratio, quas variis Sanctis adscribunt ; ita ut nescias, cui tuto adscribi
In the Martyrologium Anglicanum," published in 1 608.
33 We may wonder why our saint should
be represented as belonging to a noble family, when in various other accounts con- cerning him, he is called a " son of the carpenter," or artificer.
33 Published in 1640.
u He died, it is there incorrectly re- corded, about the year of Christ, 650, and he was buried In Scotia.
correct to say, that this latter died A. i>. 650. These conclusions must be established, on the slightest examination of this subject.
37 In Martyrologium Benedictinum. "
38 In " Menologium Benedictinum. "
39 See vol. ix.
40 See his Life, at the 17th of March, in
the Third Volume of this work, Art. i.
possint. "
31 "
Papebroke tells us, that in the year 453,
35 It cannot be admitted, that he was a
Benedictine monk, or still less could he have
been a disciple to St. Columba, or an Abbot,
in the same monastery. The first assertion sixty-six or to forty-six years. This alto- is hazarded without the least foundation, gether conflicts with the chronology of and the second is altogether removed from
truth ; because St. Columba survived St. Kieran more than fifty years, and it is not
Archbishop Ussher.
42 Venerated at the 6th of February, and
36 In"LignumVitse. " "
41
or thereabouts, St. Patrick spent his Lent of forty fasting days on Mount Cruachan Aichle, and predicted that St. Kieran would become the founder of Clonmacnoise. Whether we agree with a statement made in some old acts, quoted by Colgan, and to which allusion has been made, that our saint should be born thirty years after that date, or as another Life of Kieran has it, fifty years afterwards, we must set down these respective periods to a. d. , 483 and 503. To reconcile either date, as the" year of his birih, with the year of his death in 549, should give our saint a life extending to
at the 18th of December.
September 9. ] LIVES OF THE IRISH SAINTS. 203
should erect a church ; and that he should be celebrated throughout HiberniaandAlbania. ** Thispredictionwasdulyaccomplishedincourse of time. 44 An account, somewhat different from the foregoing,4* informs us, that his birth had been predicted by the Apostle of Ireland, and fifty years before the accomplishment of such event. There is likewise mention
respecting a certain magician's prophecy, and immediately before our saint's 'birth ; but, this narrative appears to have been borrowed from the Acts of
St. fancy.
46 Abbot of and it is coloured to the writer's
48
evidently prophesied regarding
tonished at such occurrences, axes and other
implements were procured to cut down that tree. However, little progress was made at the labour. It was then resolved to refer this whole matter to St. Patrick, and his pronouncement is above recorded.
Trias Thaumaturga Sexta Vita S. Patricii, cap. cxiii. p. 91. See also Septima Vita or Tripartita S. Patricii, Pars, ii. , cap. xxv. p.
132, ibid. Likewise, "Acta Sanctorum Hibernise," vi. Februarii, Acta S. Munis, cap. ix. , p. 266.
«S In the apocryphal Acts of St. Kiarain.
46 See his Acts at the 10th of May, in the FifthVolumeofthiswork,Art. i.
4? As the Bollandist editor remarks.
Dr. Whitley Stokes' Lives of Saints from the Book of Lismore, pp. 118, 264.
53 See, Usuard, Baronius and others.
54 In Colgan's "Acta Sanctorum Hiber- nian," Vita S. Munis Episcopi, p. 266, and Vita S. Aidi, p. 420. Also, in "Trias Thaumaturya," Vita S. Patricii, p. 136, and Vita S. Columbae, p. 392, &c.
ss In the Acts of St. Finnian, at the 23rd of February, p. 395, and in the Life of St. Senan, at p. 610, recte 520.
s6 In Vita S. Endei, p. 708.
57 In Aleninus, carm. 246.
s8 See his Life, at the 5th of March, in
44 Joceline adds to this account
enim locus ille inter Midiam et Connactiam in quo sita est civitas Cluanensis, in qua
"
habetur hodie sedes episcopalis. " "
Bangor,
according
abound in fable. 47 Moreover, as we are
of Brandub or Brenainn, on Ard Abla. 52
The name of this saint has been variously written by different
authors. Some him Ciarain and others, Kieranus 4 whilst style Queranus ;53 ;*
Kyeranus. ss Keranus s6 and Cheranus 5? are likewise names applied to him. The reasons for this variation are adduced by Colgan, in his Acts of St.
Kieran, Abbot of Saigir and Bishop. s8 Suyskens adheres to Colgan's usual mode of spelling our saint's name, viz. , Kieranus. Among more recent writers, Castellan and the author of the Parisian Martyrology, call this saint Kiaranus. There are many saints bearing the name Ciarain or Kiarain in our Irish Calendars. 59
Comgall,
These statements
him, when she beheld the flame and the angel fifty years before Ciardn. 49 Bee Mac D6 S° also prophesied of him, when he said: "There, O son of the wright, in thy beautiful chasuble, with thy choirs, with thy melodies, with thy chariots, with thy songs. " Again, it is stated, that St. Columkille 51 prophesied of him to Aed, son
told,
St.
Brigid
« The matter is thus related. When St.
Munis returned from Rome, and had been
overtaken by night at the present site of
Clonmacnoise, he was astonished to behold
a vision of angels, hovering around the spot,
where St. Patrick had formerly buried a
leper's body. Munia had deposited a
casket, containing certain relics, in the
hollow of an adjoining tree. When morning
dawned, the substance and bark of that tree
were found to have grown around the
precious deposit, so as entirely to conceal
it. Then Munis said: "There is some
man of God here interred, for there I be-
hold a service rendered by Angels. " As- covered. See the Anecdota Oxoniensia. "
:
" Est
48 See her Life, in the Second Volume of this work, at the 1st of February, Art, i.
49 This is stated in that sermon on our saint,
contained in the Book of Lismore, and the
prophecy was—in the place whereon Brigid's
—sstood we
crosse may presume
atClonmac- noise on that particular feast-day of its
delivery.
s° He is venerated as a saint, on the 12th
of October.
*' See the Life of St. Columkille, at the
9th of June, in the Sixth Volume of this work, Art. i.
52 Where this place was has not been dis- "
the third volume of this work, Art. i.
59 an" Father Sirin or O'Sheet states,
Che-
ranos seu—Kieranos viginti-sex,ejusdem stirpis u
multos. " Sancti Rumoldi Martyris In-
clyti,"&c. DissertatioHistorica,&c,sect. 10, num. 21, p. 198.
204 LIVESOFTHEIRISHSAINTS. [September9.
Beoaidh was the name of his father, who was a carpenter, according to ancient accounts. 60 Darerca was his mother's name. She was daughter of
son to Glas,6' the
Irluachair. 6* The unknown author of Kieran's Acts calls his father Beord or
Boeo. 6* That he descended from the race of Core, son to Fergus, son of
Ross,sontoRudhraighe,isthegeneralaccount. Weareinformed,byColgan, that our saint's father was called Beoanus or Beoadus. 6* He is represented^ as having been an artificer or a smith. 66 He is said, likewise, to have been of noble and religious descent, although a . chariot-maker, while the mother of Kieran is called Darerca. 6? Whatever may be thought about the nobility of St. Kieran's descent, nearly all accounts left us agree in considering his
son to
Earcan, Buachall,
poet
of the 62 of Ciarraighe,
father as a mechanic. 68 Yet, the commentator on the " Feilire" of
calls our saint the son of Nos. However, Colgan states, that his parents belonged to the race of Roderick 7° in Ultonia. St. Kiaran had four brothers,
holy
were the three sisters. ?
2
Deacon, Lughbet, Pata, and Raithbeo
" Est hie sanctus Kieranus abbas de
fabri, ut con- appellatur,
Trias Thaumaturga," p. 402, and n. 75, p. 451.
LL. D. , n. p. cxliii.
7° Or Mor, from the line of Rudhraighe
Ir, son of Mileadh. The princes who occu- pied Emania, the Ultonian seat of royalty,
at an
family,
early date, had been engrafted into the Clanna Rudraighe, and had attained con- siderable power at A. D. 332, when it shared their fortunes in the joint limitations of their circumscribed territory of Uladh. See Rev.
"
60 As we are informed, our saint was called
Kyeranus filius artificis," or Kieran son of
writer,
Cluain-muc-nois, qui agnomine patronimico
the artificer, which is also
" Mac-
id
stat ex ejus vita exhibenda ad ix. Septem-
sisters -J1 viz. , Cronan the Deacon, Donnan the
and three
Luachall the Priest, and Odhran the Priest ;
an-tsair," in the Acts of St. Finian of Clo-
nard.
bris. " See
"
61
Contrary to his own pedigree, which is
identical with that in the text, the Life in
the Book of Lismore states incorrectly, that
Glas was Darerca's grandfather.
6*
See u Transactions of the Royal Irish Academy. " Irish Manuscript Series, vol. i. , part i. On the Calendar of Aengus, by Whitley Stokes,
Glasraige was the particular spot in that territory to which she belonged.
63 See the " of Martyrology Donegal,"
edited by Rev. Drs. Todd and Reeves, pp.
ries back is the following
Beoit, son to Olchan, son of Dichu, son to Core, son of Cuindiu, son of Cuinnid, son to Fiac, son of Maelcatrach, son to Laise, son of Lairne, son to Cuiltre, son of Gluinech, son to Coirpre, son of Lug, son of Meidle, son of Dub, son of Lugna, son to Feidlimid, son of Eochu, son to Bresal, son of Degha, son of Reo-soirche, son to Tigernmas, son of Follach, son of Eithrial, son to Irial the prophet, son of Eremon, son to Mil of Spain.
° 5 The genealogy of St. Ciaran of Cluain-
,k
macnois is contained in the Leabhar
240, 241.
64 The parental genealogy of our saint
— as unders—tood at Clonmacnoise many centu-
Clanna Rudhraighe descent. The Dal Fiatach
Breac," at page 16, col. I, line 26. 66" '
See Acta Sanctorum Iliberniae, xv.
Januarii. Vita S. Itae, n. 15.
67 In that Life of our saint contained in
the Book of Lismore, we are told, that this
was the manner of their
courtship :
" When
daughter,
piolis widow. These are the graveyards in
Beoit went to visit his brothers, who dwelt
in the district of CeneM Fiacha, and when lie
saw the girl Darerca before them, he asked
her relations and her parents to give her to
him, and sooth she was given to him. "
6H
Thus, when allusion is made to our
saint, in the Fifth Life of St. Columba, at
lib. i. , cap.
8
is the panegyric on Betha Chiarain Guana meic Nois, edited with a Preface,
anEnglishTranslat—ion,Notes,andIndices,byWhitleyStokes,D. C. L. In
—ct rendered from the Irish text into
the published tra original equivalent
English lettering there are eighteen closely printed pages ;9 the English
10
This Life, contained in the Book of Lismore, has been copied from a still more ancient manuscript. " The Book of Lismore had been compiled from the lost Book of Monasterboice, and from other manuscripts, in the latter half of the fifteenth century, for
Finghin Mac Carthaigh Riabhach, and his wife, Catherine, daughter to Thomas, Eighth Earl of Desmond. Hence, it is sometimes and more
Texts containing Lives of Irish Saints, published from this manuscript,
translation is comprised within nineteen pages.
called the Book of ia It had been MacCarthy Reagh.
preserved
in
properly
Timoleague Abbey,
it was conveyed to Lismore Castle, where it long remained concealed, and at
in the
beginning
of the seventeenth
century.
1 *
Afterwards,
length it was there accidentally found, in 18 14, by some workmen engaged in repairing the castle. It was found lying, along with an antique crozier, in a wooden box, taken from a walled-up passage. The manuscript had suffered
much from damp, while the back, front, and top margin was theji gnawed in several places by rats or mice. It is now the property of the Duke of Devonshire. The reputed Codex Kilkenniensis I4 has a Life of St. Kyaranus
part i. On the Calendar of Oengus. By Life of Ciaran of Cluain is in the great illus-
Whitley Stokes, LL. D. , pp. cxxxvii. and cxliii. , cxliv.
4 Among them are the following : In the collection of Messrs. Hodges and Smith, there is a small 4to paper MS. , No. 12, in the K. I. A. ; it contains a Life of St. Kieran. The viii. vol. of O'Longan MSS. , in the R. I. A. , contains The Life of St. Ciaran of
trious book, wbich Donogh Ban O'Flinn has
lately brought from Lismore, after having coaxed it out of the hands of the Heretics,
and that by his own superior dexterity, and with the help of God ; and he has it in Cork,
at this time, 181 5. " See pp. 35, 36. This
Manuscript was written by Michael Oge
O'Longan, between the years i8ioand 1822.
8"
In the Anecdota Oxoniensia," Lives
of•Saints from the Book of Lismore. Ox- ford, at the Clarendon Press, 1890, 4to.
9 From p. 117 to p. 134.
10 11
In the same vol. there is an ancient prose Legend of St. Ciaran of Cluain Mac Nois and of Cairbre
Crom, pp. 93, 94. The first volume of the
some curious topographical references, pp. 378 to 385.
Clonmacnois, p. 171.
O'Longan Manuscripts in the Royal Irish
Academy contains a curious Legend of St.
Ciaran of Clonmacnois, and two of his
clerics. It is entitled eaccrvA leifcin, or was not answerable for the meaningless The Adventures of Leithin, and it contains
5
This
translation is
dated, August 12th,
12 on It is written in double columns
197 leaves of vellum, 15^ inches by ieV% inches. On an average, 40 lines are on each column. very legendary. However, it is curious, The initial letters, with which some of the owing to allusions that serve to elucidate pieces commence, have the Celtic interlace- some old customs. It appears to have been ment. In it, the handwriting of three diffe-
1865.
6 This is a panegyric or sermon, but it is
a discourse prepared for delivery on occasion of St. Ciaran's festival, and apparently pro- nounced at Clonmacnoise.
7 Among the O'Longan MSS. , vol. vi. , in the Royal Irish Academy, there are some few notices regarding the birth and death of several of the old Irish saints, taken from Keating, with a note to this effect
:
rent scribes can be distinguished : one of these was a Friar named O'Buagachain, while another calls himself Aonghus O'Cal- laid.
"3 On the 20th of June, 1629, Michael O Clary, one of the Four Masters, used it in that religious house.
" The
14 In Archbishop Marsh's Library, Dublin.
From p. 262 to p. 280.
This is stated in the transcriber's note, at the Colophon, where he asserts, that he
words to be found in it, but they were owiug to the injured or faded condition of that copy from which he had traced it.
September 9. ] LIVES OF THE IRISH SAINTS. 201
of Clonmacnois. 1 * His Acts as found there are probably copied from a still
moreancientsource. ALifeofSt. KieranwascompiledbyAugustinMagraidin,
fromtwoolderones. 16 Owingtoanimperfectdescription,itisnotpossibleto
state, without a close investigation, whether the Manuscript Acts of St. Kieran,
,l
and the
Bruxelles,'? have reference to the present saint, or to another bearing his name. * 8 In the University City of Oxford are two copies of this saint's Acts. '? They appear to be taken from the same source. 20 It was Colgan's intention, to have issued the Acts of St. Kieranus, Abbot, at the 9th of September. This we find from the
Vita S. Kierani Cluana, in the
S. Kierani Confessio," to be found in the Burgundian Library at
in the Franciscan
Dublin. 22
We that other Acts learn,
and, he frequently alludes
posthumous u
list of his 1 as also from the Manuscripts,*
Convent,
of Saint Kieran were extant in Colgan's time ;
preserved
Vitae Sanctorum," ex Cod. Inisensi, yet
3
to them 3 with satisfaction, promising to publish such compilation, as might
serve for a biography. This promise, however, has not been hitherto
fulfilled. In the Bollandist Collection "Acta Sanctorum,"2* Father Con-
2
stantine Suyskens gives a Historic Commentary s on St. Kyran or Queran,
Abbot of Clonmacnoise, in Meath province, Ireland.
The Bollandists had
a Life of this saint, in their 26 and collection,
some
anonymous
writer. 2?
by
In it, scarcely anything was to be found except prodigies, and these partly
borrowed from other Lives, with some original matter, but related in such a
silly manner,. that those accounts deserved little credence from the learned,
unless receiving confirmation from a more skilled and erudite author than
28
Life, cited by Sirin 20 or O'Sheeran, and said to have been compiled by our
the writer.
This latter Manuscript may have been identical with an Irish
«s At fol, 145 to 148.
16
As stated, by Father Papebroke, in his Fourth Commentary on the Acts of St. En- deus, at the 2lst of March.
17 In the Catalogue they are classed vol. iv. , Nos. 2324-2340, fol. 86, 69.
25 Contained in six sections and sixty-nine paragraphs.
26
Noticed in the Old Bollandist Catalogue, and marked Salamancan Manuscript, P. , MS. 11.
27In"ActaSanctorum,"tomusi. , Feb-
ruarii vi. , sect, iii. , num. 19, in his Historic
foolishly and negligently written. See p. publication.
18
There is an Irish Life of St. Kieranus
Cluanensis, in the Royal Burgundiun Li-
brary of Brussels. It was transcribed, in
the Franciscan convent, Athlone, by Brother
Michael O'Clery, from the Book of Aodh 780. Suyskens considered it not worth Og Ua Dalachain of Les Cluaine in Meath,
vol. xi. (4190-4200), fol. 149a.
'9 In MSS. :—Vita S. Kiarani seu Querani
28
That his life differed from one, possessed
by the Bollandists, appears in passages, cited Junioris primi Abbatis Clonmacnoisensis. by Colgan and Ussher. Such extracts are
MS. Bodl. Rawl. B. 505, pp. 81-86, veil,
fol. xiv. cent. MS. Bodl. Rawl. B. 485,
not found in the Bollandist copy.
29 In these words: " De S. Kierano
t0
fol. 167, veil. 4 xiv. cent.
Cluanensi Abbate et instituta ab ipso
—"
matre Darercha, ortus fuit. " Ardmacano,
20
simus Abbas Queranus ex patre Boetio fidem Acta ipsius MS. quae cum aliis
Incipit.
monastica socictate plenissimam exhibcnt —Thomas habentur in illo codice ab
Duffus Hardy's
"
Descriptive Catalogue of
ipsius sancti viri antiquis discipulis accepta, in quibus legitur S. Finnianus, sancti viri magister, propter institute ab ipso Con-
gregations amplitudinem Leath Nereann, id est. dimidium Hiberniae nomen imposuisse. "
Vir gloriosus et vita sanctis-
Materials Relating to the History of Great
Britain and Ireland," vol. i. , part i. , p. 126.
21
See . " Catalogus Actuum Sanctorum
quae MS. habentur, Ordine Mensium et
Dierum. "
—
R. P. F. Patricii
Flemingi
Hiberni
22
23 Both in the "Acta Sanctorum Hiber-
"
niae" and in
24 See tomus iii. , Septembris ix. , De S. Hiberni Abbatis," &c. Dissertatio de
At pp. 104 to in.
Ordinis Fratrum Minorum Strictioris obser-
vantioe olim Sacrae Theologise Lectoris,
Trias Thaumaturga. "
"Collectanea Sacra seu S. Columbani
Kierano seu Querano Abbate Cluain-mic- Noisensi in Media Hibernian Provincia, pp. 37o to 383.
Monastica S. Columbani Luxoviensis et Bobiensis Abbatis Professione, Art. iii. , sect, ii. , num. 84, p. 433.
Commentary on the Holy Mel, Melcho, Munis, and Rioch, Bolandus tells us, it was
202 LIVES OF THE IRISH SAINTS.
[September 9.
saint's disciples. However, the want of a copy prevented Suyskens from investigating this matter at length. The Bollandist editor regrets not being able to find any old Life of this saint, which should be found worthy of presentation to a studious reader. But for want of ancient satisfactory Acts
relating to St. Kieran, Father Suyskens was obliged to compile his Life from various other sources. Especially was he obliged to make, reference to the Lives of other Irish Saints, which were extant. Thus did he collect such scattered notices together, and combine them in a narrative, referring to this Abbot of Clonmacnoise and to his time. ? The first dissertation treats on various evidences regarding this saint, as drawn from the Martyrologies and other writings. John Wilson ** has a notice concerning our saint, who was
2
descended, as he tells us, from a noble family? in the Scottish Kingdom,
where this holy Queran, abbot and confessor, had been buried. In a subse-
quent edition 33 of his Martyrology, and treating the same subject, we are informed, that St. Queran 34 first became monk, and afterwards abbot over St. Columba's monastery, in Ireland, and that his holy life and miracles have been greatly lauded by posterity. 35 Wion,3° Menard,37 and Bucelinus 38 rank St.
Kieran among saints of the Benedictine Order. However, both in his Acts and in the Annals of this Order, Mabillon takes no notice regarding the present saint. In the Rev. Alban Butler's " Lives of the Fathers, Martyrs and other principal Saints," at the 9th of September^ there are some brief notices regarding St. Kiaran, Abbot.
Long before Kieran entered the world, his birth had been predicted by St. Patrick,* thegreatApostleofIreland,whothendweltonthetopofthe mountain, Cruachan Aighle,41 where he was engaged in heavenly contem-
2
plation. Moreover, St. Patrick told his disciple, St. Munis,* that where
relics had been found at Clonmacnoise, this place should remain for a holy man, named Kieran, the son of a smith, according to the decrees of Divine Providence ; that our saint should be born after thirty years ; that there he
30 The writer adds: "At priusquam id
agam, lectorem duo universim monitum
velim ; primum est, quod Hibernorum Sanctorum Acta passim dubiat sint fidei, et a Scriptoribus minime accuratis ac setate longe posterioribus conscripta. Alterum est, quod in iisdem frequens occurrat rerum similimarum narratio, quas variis Sanctis adscribunt ; ita ut nescias, cui tuto adscribi
In the Martyrologium Anglicanum," published in 1 608.
33 We may wonder why our saint should
be represented as belonging to a noble family, when in various other accounts con- cerning him, he is called a " son of the carpenter," or artificer.
33 Published in 1640.
u He died, it is there incorrectly re- corded, about the year of Christ, 650, and he was buried In Scotia.
correct to say, that this latter died A. i>. 650. These conclusions must be established, on the slightest examination of this subject.
37 In Martyrologium Benedictinum. "
38 In " Menologium Benedictinum. "
39 See vol. ix.
40 See his Life, at the 17th of March, in
the Third Volume of this work, Art. i.
possint. "
31 "
Papebroke tells us, that in the year 453,
35 It cannot be admitted, that he was a
Benedictine monk, or still less could he have
been a disciple to St. Columba, or an Abbot,
in the same monastery. The first assertion sixty-six or to forty-six years. This alto- is hazarded without the least foundation, gether conflicts with the chronology of and the second is altogether removed from
truth ; because St. Columba survived St. Kieran more than fifty years, and it is not
Archbishop Ussher.
42 Venerated at the 6th of February, and
36 In"LignumVitse. " "
41
or thereabouts, St. Patrick spent his Lent of forty fasting days on Mount Cruachan Aichle, and predicted that St. Kieran would become the founder of Clonmacnoise. Whether we agree with a statement made in some old acts, quoted by Colgan, and to which allusion has been made, that our saint should be born thirty years after that date, or as another Life of Kieran has it, fifty years afterwards, we must set down these respective periods to a. d. , 483 and 503. To reconcile either date, as the" year of his birih, with the year of his death in 549, should give our saint a life extending to
at the 18th of December.
September 9. ] LIVES OF THE IRISH SAINTS. 203
should erect a church ; and that he should be celebrated throughout HiberniaandAlbania. ** Thispredictionwasdulyaccomplishedincourse of time. 44 An account, somewhat different from the foregoing,4* informs us, that his birth had been predicted by the Apostle of Ireland, and fifty years before the accomplishment of such event. There is likewise mention
respecting a certain magician's prophecy, and immediately before our saint's 'birth ; but, this narrative appears to have been borrowed from the Acts of
St. fancy.
46 Abbot of and it is coloured to the writer's
48
evidently prophesied regarding
tonished at such occurrences, axes and other
implements were procured to cut down that tree. However, little progress was made at the labour. It was then resolved to refer this whole matter to St. Patrick, and his pronouncement is above recorded.
Trias Thaumaturga Sexta Vita S. Patricii, cap. cxiii. p. 91. See also Septima Vita or Tripartita S. Patricii, Pars, ii. , cap. xxv. p.
132, ibid. Likewise, "Acta Sanctorum Hibernise," vi. Februarii, Acta S. Munis, cap. ix. , p. 266.
«S In the apocryphal Acts of St. Kiarain.
46 See his Acts at the 10th of May, in the FifthVolumeofthiswork,Art. i.
4? As the Bollandist editor remarks.
Dr. Whitley Stokes' Lives of Saints from the Book of Lismore, pp. 118, 264.
53 See, Usuard, Baronius and others.
54 In Colgan's "Acta Sanctorum Hiber- nian," Vita S. Munis Episcopi, p. 266, and Vita S. Aidi, p. 420. Also, in "Trias Thaumaturya," Vita S. Patricii, p. 136, and Vita S. Columbae, p. 392, &c.
ss In the Acts of St. Finnian, at the 23rd of February, p. 395, and in the Life of St. Senan, at p. 610, recte 520.
s6 In Vita S. Endei, p. 708.
57 In Aleninus, carm. 246.
s8 See his Life, at the 5th of March, in
44 Joceline adds to this account
enim locus ille inter Midiam et Connactiam in quo sita est civitas Cluanensis, in qua
"
habetur hodie sedes episcopalis. " "
Bangor,
according
abound in fable. 47 Moreover, as we are
of Brandub or Brenainn, on Ard Abla. 52
The name of this saint has been variously written by different
authors. Some him Ciarain and others, Kieranus 4 whilst style Queranus ;53 ;*
Kyeranus. ss Keranus s6 and Cheranus 5? are likewise names applied to him. The reasons for this variation are adduced by Colgan, in his Acts of St.
Kieran, Abbot of Saigir and Bishop. s8 Suyskens adheres to Colgan's usual mode of spelling our saint's name, viz. , Kieranus. Among more recent writers, Castellan and the author of the Parisian Martyrology, call this saint Kiaranus. There are many saints bearing the name Ciarain or Kiarain in our Irish Calendars. 59
Comgall,
These statements
him, when she beheld the flame and the angel fifty years before Ciardn. 49 Bee Mac D6 S° also prophesied of him, when he said: "There, O son of the wright, in thy beautiful chasuble, with thy choirs, with thy melodies, with thy chariots, with thy songs. " Again, it is stated, that St. Columkille 51 prophesied of him to Aed, son
told,
St.
Brigid
« The matter is thus related. When St.
Munis returned from Rome, and had been
overtaken by night at the present site of
Clonmacnoise, he was astonished to behold
a vision of angels, hovering around the spot,
where St. Patrick had formerly buried a
leper's body. Munia had deposited a
casket, containing certain relics, in the
hollow of an adjoining tree. When morning
dawned, the substance and bark of that tree
were found to have grown around the
precious deposit, so as entirely to conceal
it. Then Munis said: "There is some
man of God here interred, for there I be-
hold a service rendered by Angels. " As- covered. See the Anecdota Oxoniensia. "
:
" Est
48 See her Life, in the Second Volume of this work, at the 1st of February, Art, i.
49 This is stated in that sermon on our saint,
contained in the Book of Lismore, and the
prophecy was—in the place whereon Brigid's
—sstood we
crosse may presume
atClonmac- noise on that particular feast-day of its
delivery.
s° He is venerated as a saint, on the 12th
of October.
*' See the Life of St. Columkille, at the
9th of June, in the Sixth Volume of this work, Art. i.
52 Where this place was has not been dis- "
the third volume of this work, Art. i.
59 an" Father Sirin or O'Sheet states,
Che-
ranos seu—Kieranos viginti-sex,ejusdem stirpis u
multos. " Sancti Rumoldi Martyris In-
clyti,"&c. DissertatioHistorica,&c,sect. 10, num. 21, p. 198.
204 LIVESOFTHEIRISHSAINTS. [September9.
Beoaidh was the name of his father, who was a carpenter, according to ancient accounts. 60 Darerca was his mother's name. She was daughter of
son to Glas,6' the
Irluachair. 6* The unknown author of Kieran's Acts calls his father Beord or
Boeo. 6* That he descended from the race of Core, son to Fergus, son of
Ross,sontoRudhraighe,isthegeneralaccount. Weareinformed,byColgan, that our saint's father was called Beoanus or Beoadus. 6* He is represented^ as having been an artificer or a smith. 66 He is said, likewise, to have been of noble and religious descent, although a . chariot-maker, while the mother of Kieran is called Darerca. 6? Whatever may be thought about the nobility of St. Kieran's descent, nearly all accounts left us agree in considering his
son to
Earcan, Buachall,
poet
of the 62 of Ciarraighe,
father as a mechanic. 68 Yet, the commentator on the " Feilire" of
calls our saint the son of Nos. However, Colgan states, that his parents belonged to the race of Roderick 7° in Ultonia. St. Kiaran had four brothers,
holy
were the three sisters. ?
2
Deacon, Lughbet, Pata, and Raithbeo
" Est hie sanctus Kieranus abbas de
fabri, ut con- appellatur,
Trias Thaumaturga," p. 402, and n. 75, p. 451.
LL. D. , n. p. cxliii.
7° Or Mor, from the line of Rudhraighe
Ir, son of Mileadh. The princes who occu- pied Emania, the Ultonian seat of royalty,
at an
family,
early date, had been engrafted into the Clanna Rudraighe, and had attained con- siderable power at A. D. 332, when it shared their fortunes in the joint limitations of their circumscribed territory of Uladh. See Rev.
"
60 As we are informed, our saint was called
Kyeranus filius artificis," or Kieran son of
writer,
Cluain-muc-nois, qui agnomine patronimico
the artificer, which is also
" Mac-
id
stat ex ejus vita exhibenda ad ix. Septem-
sisters -J1 viz. , Cronan the Deacon, Donnan the
and three
Luachall the Priest, and Odhran the Priest ;
an-tsair," in the Acts of St. Finian of Clo-
nard.
bris. " See
"
61
Contrary to his own pedigree, which is
identical with that in the text, the Life in
the Book of Lismore states incorrectly, that
Glas was Darerca's grandfather.
6*
See u Transactions of the Royal Irish Academy. " Irish Manuscript Series, vol. i. , part i. On the Calendar of Aengus, by Whitley Stokes,
Glasraige was the particular spot in that territory to which she belonged.
63 See the " of Martyrology Donegal,"
edited by Rev. Drs. Todd and Reeves, pp.
ries back is the following
Beoit, son to Olchan, son of Dichu, son to Core, son of Cuindiu, son of Cuinnid, son to Fiac, son of Maelcatrach, son to Laise, son of Lairne, son to Cuiltre, son of Gluinech, son to Coirpre, son of Lug, son of Meidle, son of Dub, son of Lugna, son to Feidlimid, son of Eochu, son to Bresal, son of Degha, son of Reo-soirche, son to Tigernmas, son of Follach, son of Eithrial, son to Irial the prophet, son of Eremon, son to Mil of Spain.
° 5 The genealogy of St. Ciaran of Cluain-
,k
macnois is contained in the Leabhar
240, 241.
64 The parental genealogy of our saint
— as unders—tood at Clonmacnoise many centu-
Clanna Rudhraighe descent. The Dal Fiatach
Breac," at page 16, col. I, line 26. 66" '
See Acta Sanctorum Iliberniae, xv.
Januarii. Vita S. Itae, n. 15.
67 In that Life of our saint contained in
the Book of Lismore, we are told, that this
was the manner of their
courtship :
" When
daughter,
piolis widow. These are the graveyards in
Beoit went to visit his brothers, who dwelt
in the district of CeneM Fiacha, and when lie
saw the girl Darerca before them, he asked
her relations and her parents to give her to
him, and sooth she was given to him. "
6H
Thus, when allusion is made to our
saint, in the Fifth Life of St. Columba, at
lib. i. , cap.
