38. Most blessed Kiaranus living among men passed a life as of an
angel, for the grace of the Holy Spirit burned in his face before the
eyes of men. Who could expound his earthly converse? For he was young
in age and in body, yet a most holy senior in mind and in manners,
in humility, in gentleness, in charity, in daily labours, in nightly
vigils, and in other divine works.
For now liveth he in rest without labour, in age without senility, in
health without sorrow, in joy without grief, in peace without a foe,
in wealth without poverty, in endless day without night, in the
eternal kingdom without end, before the throne of Christ, Who with
the Father and the Holy Spirit liveth and reigneth unto ages of ages.
Amen.
_Here endeth the life of Saint Ciaran, Abbot of Cluain meic Nois._
[Footnote 1: The inconsistencies in the spelling of the various proper
names in this translation follow those in the original documents.]
[Footnote 2: The MS. reads _lac iam... effudit_. For _iam_ we should
probably read _enim_. A similar correction is made in § 38.]
[Footnote 3: _Ipsa insula semper ab Hybernia habitatur._ The sense of
this passage is not clear: it may be corrupt.]
[Footnote 4: Lit.: "the shadow of the aid of thy dutifulness."]
[Footnote 5: This sentence reads very awkwardly, owing to the
incorporation of two originally interlined glosses. Reference to the
MS. enables us to isolate these. The sentence there runs thus: "Si
ergo in isto loco mansissem non Ysseal .i. imus esset id est non
paruus sed altus .i. magnus et honorabilis." Here _id est_ occurs
three times, once in full, and twice represented by the common
contraction .i., which is universally used in MSS. of Irish origin for
the introduction of a gloss. If we write the sentence as below,
we shall see the significance of the different ways in which the
expression is written, and by expunging the glosses can make the
sentence less clumsy and more intelligible
_.i. imus_
--"Si ... mansissem, non Ysseal esset, id est non paruus; sed
_.i. magnus et honorabilis_ altus."]
[Footnote 6: Correcting the _vita_ of the MS. to _via_, in conformity
with VG.]
* * * * *