XV. HOW CIARAN REPROVED HIS MOTHER

13. On another day when Saint Kiaranus had come from the fields to

his home, men came meeting him. To them he said, "Whence have ye now

come?" They said, "We come now from the house of Beoedus the wright."

Said he to them, "Have ye gotten there fitting refreshment for

Christ's sake?" They said, "Nay; but we found there a hard woman who

would not for hospitality give us so much as a drink." When Saint

Kyaranus heard this, he blessed them, and came swiftly to his house,

and entering the house he found no one therein, for its inmates were

busied with their work out of doors. Then blessed Kyaranus, moved with

zeal for God, scattered all the food which he found in the house of

his parents; for[2] the milk he poured on the ground, the butter he

mixed with the sheep's dung, the bread he cast to the dogs, so that it

should be of service to no man. For he was showing that whatsoever was

not given to guests for Christ's name should rightly be devoted by

men to loss, lest such food should be eaten. After a little space his

mother came, and seeing her house thus turned upside-down, she felt

moved to raise an outcry; for she marvelled greatly at what had

befallen her house. When Saint Kiaranus had set forth the reason, she

became calm, and promised amendment; and many of those who heard were

rendered charitable.

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