(A.D. 622.)
[Irish Martyrologies. Authority:--A fragmentary life published by the
Bollandists, based on tradition.]
The legend of this saint comes under the same category as so many of
the other Irish legends. It exists only in fragments, and was written
several hundreds of years after the death of S. Lactean, from oral
tradition. It shall be given without any attempt at sifting truth from
fable, as a specimen of these Irish biographies.
An angel appeared to S. Molua (d. about 608), monk of Banchor, in
Ireland, when he was wondering who would become his pupil, and
announced to him that after the lapse of fifteen years a child would
be born, who would become his disciple. And for those fifteen years
Molua did not laugh, being instant in expectation. Now there was a man
in Munster named Torphur, who had a wife named Senecha, and she was
with child. And before the child was born, her breasts filled with
milk. An old man, named Mohemath, passed by, and he was blind. Then
Senecha struck his eyes with her milk, and his eyes opened, and he saw
so plain that the city of Rome, bathed in clear light, was visible
instantly to his so long darkened orbs.
Now when Lactean was born, Mohemath was near at hand. And the place
was without water. So Mohemath took the finger of the new-born babe,
and with it signed a cross on the earth. Then instantly a fountain
burst forth, and therein Lactean was baptized. And when Lactean was a
month old, he was taken to S. Alpheus, to be rebaptized, but when he
saw the child full of the grace of God, he knew that he had already
been bathed in the laver of regeneration, and, therefore, he refused
to repeat the sacrament. Also there was in that country a grain, which
acted on whomsoever ate thereof as an emetic, but the infant Lactean
was fed thereon, and was none the worse, for indeed nothing injured
him. Now a grievous murrain broke out amongst the cattle of his father,
and they died. But there was a white cow with a red face, on whose milk
Lactean was nourished, and this cow died. Then the child was carried
in his mother's arms to the dead cow, and it recovered, and her milk
was distributed amongst the other cows, and they recovered of their
disorder.
Now when Lactean was aged fifteen, the angel Muriel, who was
commissioned to be his guardian, led him to Banchor, and S. Comgal gave
him to be the pupil and companion of S. Molua, who instructed him in
letters and the reading of the Divine Scriptures.
Afterwards Lactean went to S. Mochuda, and as he drew nigh, he sent and
asked Mochuda for milk. Then Mochuda filled a vessel with pure water,
and signed it, and it became milk, but Lactean took it, and signed it
again, and it was reconverted into water. Afterwards Lactean founded
the abbey of Clonfert, and he died in the odour of sanctity.
It is evident that his name was the occasion of so many milky legends
attaching themselves to it.[66]
[66] Baine is the common Irish for milk, but there is a Welsh word,
probably adopted from the Latin, Llæth, which means milk.
Colgan has confounded this S. Lactean with another of the same name,
a contemporary of S. Senan of Iniscatthy, from whom the church of
Lis-lachtin, in Kerry, took its name, and who died about the year 560.
The S. Lactean of Clonfert belonged to the house of Corpre Muse, of
Muskerry, Cork, and was a friend of S. Mochoemog (Pulcherius), abbot of
Achadur (Aghour), in Kilkenny.