A Harmony of the Four Lives of Saint Ciaran
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I. The Homiletic Introduction (VG I)
not found in any of the Latin Lives.
=A.= Ciaran was born A.D. 515. The first section of his life, his Childhood and Boyhood, may have covered the first ten or twelve years of his life--say in round numbers 515-530. Fifteen incidents of this period are recorded, which are found in the Lives as under--
LA LB LC VG
II. The origin and birth of Ciaran; the wizard's prophecies 1 1 1 2 III. How Ciaran raised the steed of Oengus from death 2 2 2 3 IV. How Ciaran turned water into honey 3 3 3 4 V. How Ciaran was delivered from a hound 6 9 4 5 VI. How Ciaran and his instructor conversed, though distant from one another 4 - - 6 VII. Ciaran and the fox - - - 7 VIII. How Ciaran spoiled his mother's dye-stuff - - - 8 IX. How Ciaran restored a calf which a wolf had devoured 5 8 5 9 X. How Ciaran was delivered from robbers 7 - 6 10 XI. How Ciaran gave a gift of cattle 8 - - - XII. How Ciaran gave a gift of a plough-coulter 9 - - - XIII. How Ciaran gave a gift of an ox 10 - - - XIV. How Ciaran gave the king's cauldron to beggars and was enslaved 11 - 7 11 XV. How Ciaran reproved his mother 13 - 9 - XVI. The breaking of the carriage-axle 14 - 10 -
The boyhood legend probably consisted originally of the five incidents common to all, II-V, IX. It is noteworthy, however, that LB transfers V, IX, to a position after the second phase of the Life. This is possibly due to a misplaced leaf in the exemplar from which our copies of LB are derived. X-XIII, variants on the theme of XIV, are probably interpolations in LA, and VIII, a valuable fragment of folk-lore, is an interpolation in VG. VI and VII are conflations of two varieties of one incident, as is pointed out in the Annotations. These observations will show how complex is the criticism of the Ciaran tradition.
=B.= The second phase of the life is the Schooling of Ciaran at Clonard; perhaps about 530-535, still using round numbers. This part of the life is most fully told in VG; it is very fragmentary in all the Latin Lives. There are thirteen incidents--
LA LB LC VG
XVII. How Ciaran went with his cow to the school of Findian 15 4 11 12 XVIII. The angels grind for Ciaran 16 - 12 13 XIX. Ciaran and the king's daughter 17 - - 14 XX. How Ciaran healed the lepers - - - 15 XXI. Ciaran and the stag - - - 16 XXII. The story of Ciaran's gospel 18 - - 17 XXIII. The blessing of Ciaran's food 19 - 8 - XXIV. The story of the mill and the bailiff's daughter - 6 - 18 XXV. The story of Cluain - - - 19 XXVI. How Ciaran freed a woman from servitude 20 5 - 21 XXVII. How Ciaran freed another woman from servitude 21 - - 22 XXVIII. Anecdotes of Clonard - - - 20 XXIX. The parting of Ciaran and Findian - - - 23
=C.= The third phase may be called the Wanderings of Ciaran. From Clonard he made his way to the monastery of Ninnedh on the island in
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