The choice laid before the monks is curious, and hardly consonant
with the usual spirit of abjuring the world; it may be aetiological,
designed to explain, and perhaps to excuse, the opulence and temporal
importance of Clonmacnois at the time when it was written. A similar
but not identical story appears in the life of Munnu (VSH, ii, 227).
It is quite obvious that the story as we have it is a conflation of
two versions of the anecdote. In the one version the wine was brought
by Frankish merchants and acquired by purchase; in the other it was
provided by miracle. The composite story appears in LA and VG; LB
knows the miraculous version only.
That Frankish merchants should have sailed up the Shannon and
delivered a cargo of wine at a settlement in the heart of Ireland in
the middle of the sixth century, is no mere extravagance. The subject
of ancient Irish trade has been very fully investigated by the late
Prof. Zimmer, and he has brought a large number of facts together
which show that such an episode is a quite credible fragment of
history.[25]
The second version, though LB calls it _miraculum insolitum_, is one
of the commonplaces of hagiography. Water was turned to wine by a host
of saints, such as Colum Cille (LL, 839), Fursa (CS, 111), Findian
(CS, 205), Lugaid (CS, 283), Aed (CS, 339), and others needless to
specify. Fintan (CS, 404), and Munnu (CS, 503), blessed a cup in such
wise that one of their followers, while appearing, in self-abnegation,
to drink nothing but water for thirty years, was in reality enjoying
the best wine! Saint Brynach drew wine from a brook and fishes from
its stones (_Cambro-British Saints_, pp. 12, 298), Brigit (LL, 1241)
and Colman Elo (CS, 441) turned water into ale; the former (LL, 1368)
as well as Lugaid (CS, 269, 280) and Fintan (CS, 404) turned water
into milk.
I have not found any exact parallel to the incident of the scented
thumb.
There is a cognate tale in the Life of Colman, in which monks, thirsty
with labour, expressed a doubt as to the reality of the heavenly
reward, whereupon their eyes were opened to see a vision of the joys
of the after-life (VSH, i, 265).
The _Tendenz_ of the biographies of Ciaran is clearly marked in the
hint at a parallel between the last supper of Ciaran and the Last
Passover of Our Lord.