Coemgen's petulance at the preoccupation of the bereaved monks (VG)
is in keeping with other traditions of that peppery saint. The
resurrection of Ciaran after three days is another touch in imitation
of the Gospel story: it is, however, also told of Saint Darerca, who
appeared to her nuns three days after her death (CS, 185).
The story before us is thus related in the Life of Coemgen: "At
another time most blessed Coemgenus made his way to visit most holy
Kyaranus the abbot, who founded his settlement Cluayn meic Noys, which
is in the western border of the territory of Meath, on the bank of
the river Synna over against the province of the Connachta. But Saint
Cyaranus on the third day before Saint Coemgenus arrived, passed from
this world to Christ. His body was laid in a church on a bier, till
Saint Coemgenus and other saints should come to bury him. And Saint
Coemgenus coming late to the monastery of Saint Chyaranus, he entered
the church in which was the holy body and commanded all the brethren
to go forth, wishing to spend that night alone beside the sacred body.
And when all the brethren had gone out, Saint Coemgenus carefully
closed the door of the church, and remained there alone till the
following day; but some of the brethren were watching till morning
before the doors of the church. And as Saint Coemgenus prayed there,
the most blessed soul of Saint Chiaranus returned to his body, and he
rose and began to speak in health-giving words to Saint Coemgenus. The
brethren remaining outside heard the voice of each of them clearly.
Saint Kyaranus asked blessed Coemgenus that they should interchange
their vesture, as a sign of everlasting fellowship: and so they did.
On the following day when the door of the church was opened, the
brethren found Saint Coemgenus clad in the vesture of Saint Kyaranus,
and Kyaranus wrapped in the vestments of Saint Coemgenus. The body
of Saint Kyaranus was warm, having a ruddy tinge in the face. Saint
Coemgenus pointed out to the monks of Saint Kyaranus the brotherhood
and fellowship which he and Saint Kyaranus had established for ever
between themselves and their places and their monks; and the brethren
who watched that night bore testimony thereto. When the body of Saint
Kyaranus was honourably committed to the ground, Saint Coemgenus
returned to his own settlement." (VSH, i, 248).
In this story we see as before the explanation of a treaty between
Clonmacnois and Glendaloch.
The _Annals of Clonmacnois_ narrates the story of the death of Ciaran
and the visit of Coemgen, with an interesting additional miracle.
"Dying, he desired his monks that they would bury his body in the
Little Church of Clonmacnois, and stop the door thereof with stones,
and let nobody have access thereunto until his companion Coemgen
had come; which they accordingly did. But Saint Coemgen dwelling at
Glendaloch in Leinster then, it was revealed to him of the death of
his dear and loving companion Saint Ciaran, whereupon he came suddenly
to Clonmacnois: and finding the monks and servants of Saint Ciaran in
their sorrowful and sad dumps after the death of their said lord and
master, he asked them of the cause of their sadness. They were so
heartless for grief as they gave no answer; and at last, fearing he
would grow angry, they told him Saint Ciaran was dead and buried, and
ordered or ordained the place of his burial should be kept without
access until his coming. The stones being taken out of the door, Saint
Coemgen entered, to whom Saint Ciaran appeared: and [they] remained
conversing together for twenty-four hours, as is very confidently
laid down in the Life of Saint Ciaran; and afterwards Saint Coemgen
departed to the place of his own abiding, [and] left Saint Ciaran
buried in the said Little Church of Clonmacnois. But king Diarmait
most of all men grieved for his death, insomuch that he grew deaf, and
could not hear the causes of his subjects, by reason of the heaviness
and troublesomeness of his brains. Saint Colum Cille being then
banished into Scotland, king Diarmait made his repair to him, to the
end [that] he might work some means by miracles for the recovery of
his health and hearing: and withal told Saint Colum Cille how he
assembled all the physicians of Ireland, and that they could not help
him. Then said Saint Colum: 'Mine advice unto you is to make your
repair to Clonmacnois, to the place where your ghostly father and
friend Saint Ciaran is buried: and there to put a little of the earth
of his grave or of himself in your ears, which is the medicine which I
think to be most available to help you.' The king having received the
said instructions of Saint Colum, took his journey immediately to
Clonmacnois; and finding Oenna maccu Laigsi, who was abbot of the
place after Saint Ciaran, absent, he spoke to Lugaid, then parish
priest of Clonmacnois, and told him of Saint Colum's instructions unto
him. Whereupon priest Lugaid and king Diarmait fasted and watched that
night in the Little Church where Saint Ciaran was buried, and the next
morning the priest took the bell that he had, named then the White
Bell,[28] and mingled part of the clay of Saint Ciaran therein with
holy water, and put the same in the king's ears, and immediately the
king had as good hearing as any in the kingdom, and the whole sickness
and troubles of his brains ceased at that instant, which made the king
to say, _Is feartach an ní do ní an clog orainn_, which is as much as
to say in English, 'The bell did do us a miraculous turn.' Which bell
Saint Lugna conveyed with him to the church of Fore, where he remained
afterwards. King Diarmait bestowed great gifts of lands on Clonmacnois
in honour of Saint Ciaran, for the recovery of his health."
The bell, called the _bóbán_ of Coemgen, reappears much later in
history as a relic on which oaths were taken (_Annals of Clonmacnois_,
anno 1139; _Four Masters_, anno 1143). It was doubtless a relic
preserved at Glendaloch, in which the people of Clonmacnois rightly or
wrongly claimed a part-proprietorship. The name is obscure: it means,
according to O'Davoren's Glossary, a calf or little cow: and Plummer
(VSH, i, p. clxxvii) suggests that this name may be an allusion to its
small size. But why "calf"? Is it an allusion to the original use of
the type of bells used for ecclesiastical purposes in Ireland, as
cow-bells?
Angels were seen by Saint Colman to fill the space between heaven and
earth to receive the soul of Pope Gregory (VSH, i, 264).
LI. THE EARTH OF CIARAN'S TOMB DELIVERS COLUM CILLE FROM A WHIRLPOOL
(LA, LB)
This is perhaps an imitation of the tale of the Empress Helena, who,
when returning after her discovery of the True Cross, was delivered
from a storm by casting one of the Nails into the sea. Colum Cille was
saved from the whirlpool of Coire Bhreacain (Corrievreckan, between
Jura and Scarba) on another (?) occasion, by reciting a hymn to Brigit
(LL, 1706).
_The Visit of Colum Cille to Clonmacnois._--This took place during the
rule of Ailithir, the fourth abbot of Clonmacnois (A.D. 589-595). It
is described in Adamnan's _Vita Columbae_, where we read of the honour
paid to the distinguished visitor, and how he was greeted with hymns
and praises, while a canopy was borne over him on his way to the
church, to protect him from inconvenient crowding. A humble boy, a
useless servitor in the monastery, came behind Columba to touch the
hem of his garment: the saint, miraculously apprised of this, caught
him by the neck and held him, despite the protests of the brethren
that he should dismiss this "wretched and noxious boy." Then he bade
the boy stretch forth his tongue, and blessed it, prophesying his
future increase in wisdom and knowledge, and his eminence as a
preacher. The boy was Ernin or Ernoc, the patron saint of Kilmarnock;
and Adamnan had the tale from Failbe, who was standing by as Ernin
himself related the incident to Abbot Segine of Í. Colum Cille also
prophesied the Easter controversy, and told of angelic visitations
that he had had within the precincts of Clonmacnois: but Adamnan says
nothing about the hymn to Ciaran, or the wonder-working clay from his
tomb, although elsewhere in his book the terrors of Corrievreckan
are alluded to. According to a prophecy of Colum Cille narrated in
O'Donnell's Life of that saint, Patrick is to judge the men of Ireland
on the Last Day at Clonmacnois.
_The Hymn of Colum Cille._--This composition has not been preserved
in its entirety. Fragments of it are introduced into the Homiletic
Introduction of VG, which are enough to identify it with a short hymn
to be found in the Irish _Liber Hymnorum_, and published by Bernard
and Atkinson in their edition of that compilation.[29] It is as
follows--
Alto et ineffabile apostolorum coeti
celestis Hierosolimæ sublimioris speculi
sedente tribunalibus solis modo micantibus
Quiaranus sanctus sacerdos insignis nuntius
inaltatus est manibus angelorum celestibus
consummatis felicibus sanctitatum generibus
quem tu Christe apostolum mundo misisti hominem
gloriosum in omnibus nouissimis temporibus
rogamus Deum altissimum per sanctorum memoriam
sancti Patrici episcopi Ciarani prespeteri
Columbæque auxilia nos deffendat egregia
ut per illorum merita possideamus premia
Obviously the third stanza, with its reference to Colum Cille himself,
is a later addition, so that only the first two stanzas belong to the
original hymn. The sixth line, _quem tu Christe_, is quoted in the
section of VG referred to; but the three other excerpts, _lucerna_...,
_custodiantur_..., _propheta_..., do not appear in the text before us:
nor do the surviving stanzas justify the extravagant praise said to have
been heaped on the composition at Clonmacnois--though no doubt a
composition by Colum Cille, had it only the artless simplicity of a
nursery jingle, would have been sure of an appreciative audience.
However, the text seems to indicate something much more elaborate, and
probably the original composition was an acrostic, like Colum Cille's
great _Altus Prosator_.[30] The two authentic stanzas of the _Liber
Hymnorum_ are incorporated in the metrical patchwork at the end of LB.
Another version of the hymn was known to Colgan, and is given by him
in TT, p. 472. Unfortunately he quotes only one couplet--
Quantum Christe O Apostolum mundo misisti hominem
Lucerna huius insulæ lucens lucerna mirabilis
which is evidently corrupt, and (as Colgan seems to regard it as the
opening stanza) must show that the whole text had become disturbed by
the time when Colgan wrote. Indeed, it does not appear that Colgan
knew any more of the hymn than these two lines.