4. Now when the rudiments of letters had been read [with him] by the
saint aforesaid, he proposed to go to the blessed abbey of Cluayn
Hirard for instruction. And as he wished to fulfil in deed what he had
begun to conceive of in his mind, he asked a cow of his parents for
his sustenance. But when his mother would not grant his petition, the
Heavenly Father, Who loveth those whom He regardeth as a mother her
son, did not tarry to fulfil the desire of his beloved. For a milch
cow, together with her calf, followed him as though she had been
driven after him by her herdsman.
When he had come to the sacred college of Saint Fynnianus, they all
had no small joy at his arrival. But the cow, which had followed him,
was pastured along with her calf, nor did it [the calf] attempt
to touch the udders of its mother without permission. Keranus so
separated and divided its pastures, that the mother would only lick
the calf, and would not offer to suckle it. Now the milk of that cow
was rich in such abundance that, divided daily, it would supply a
sufficiency of provision for twelve men.
But the holy youth Keranus, deeply occupied with the sacred Scripture,
shone in holiness and wisdom among his fellow-students as a brilliant
star among the other stars. For he was filled with the fragrance of
perfect charity, with moral worth, with holiness of life, and with
sweetness of humility, gracious, honourable, and admirable to present
and to absent.