XXVI. HOW CIARAN FREED A WOMAN FROM SERVITUDE

5. One day he made his way to a king, Tuathlus by name, to intercede

for the liberation of a certain bond-maid. When he besought the king

fervently for her, and _he_ rejected the prayers of the servant of God

as though they were ravings, he thought out a new method of liberating

her, and determined that he himself should serve the king in her

place. Now when he was coming to the house in which the girl was

grinding, the doors which were shut opened to him. Entering, he showed

himself a second Bishop Paulinus to her. Without delay the king

freed her, and further presented his vesture to the servant of God.

Receiving this, he forthwith distributed it to the poor.

XXIV. THE STORY OF THE MILL AND THE BAILIFF'S DAUGHTER _(abstract

only)_

6. It fell out one night that the eminent doctor Finnianus sent him

with grain of wheat to the mill. Now a certain kingling who lived

near, learning that one of the disciples of the man of God had come

thither, sent him flesh and ale by a servant. When they had presented

the gift of such a man, he answered, "That it may be common," said he,

"to the brethren, cast it all on the surface of the mill." When the

messenger had done this, it was all turned into wheat. When he heard

this, the king gave him the steading in which he was dwelling, with

all his goods, in perpetuity: but Keranus made it over to his master,

for a monastery was afterwards erected there. But the bread made

of that grain tasted to the brethren like flesh and ale, and so it

refreshed them.

The Latin & Irish Lives of Ciaran Translations Of Christian Literature. Series V. Lives Of The Celtic Saints · 第 59 / 184 题