Produced by Ted Garvin, Lesley Halamek and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net TRANSLATIONS OF CHRISTIAN LITERATURE. SERIES V LIVES OF THE CELTIC SAINTS THE LATIN & IRISH LIVES OF CIARAN By R.A. STEWART-MACALISTER * * * * * SOCIETY FOR PROMOTING CHRISTIAN KNOWLEDGE. London The Macmillan Company. New York 1921 CONTENTS INTRODUCTION A HARMONY OF THE FOUR LIVES OF ST CIARAN THE FIRST LATIN LIFE OF ST CIARAN THE SECOND LATIN LIFE OF ST CIARAN THE THIRD LATIN LIFE OF ST CIARAN THE IRISH LIFE OF ST CIARAN ANNOTATIONS TO THE FOREGOING LIVES THE LATIN TEXT OF THE SECOND LIFE INDEX THE LATIN AND IRISH LIVES OF CIARAN INTRODUCTION Of all the saints of Ireland, whose names are recorded in the native Martyrologies, probably there were none who made so deep an impression upon the minds of their fellow-countrymen as did Ciaran[1] of Clonmacnois. He stands, perhaps, second only to Brigit of Kildare in this respect; for Patrick was a foreigner, and Colum Cille accomplished his work and exercised his influence outside the shores of Ireland. Doubtless much of the importance of Ciaran is reflected back from the outstanding importance of his great foundation--the monastic university, as it is fair to call it, of _Cluain maccu Nois_ (in an English setting spelt "Clonmacnois"), on the shore of the Shannon. But this cannot be the whole explanation of the esteem in which he was held; it must be at least partly due to the memory of his own character and personality. Such a conclusion is indicated if we examine critically the _Lives_ of this saint, translations of which are given in the present volume, and compare them with the lives of other Irish saints. In studying all these documents we must bear in mind that none of them are, in any modern sense of the word, biographies. A biography, in the proper definition of the term, gives an ordered account of the life of its subject, with dates, and endeavours to trace the influences which shaped his character and his career, and the manner in which he himself influenced his surroundings. The so-called lives of saints are properly to be regarded as _homilies_. They were composed to be read to assemblies of the Faithful, as sermons for the festivals of the saints with whom they deal; and their purpose was to edify the hearers by presenting catalogues of the virtues of their subjects, and, especially, of their thaumaturgic powers. Thus they do not possess the unity of ordered and well-designed biographies; they consist of disconnected anecdotes, describing how this event or that gave occasion for a miraculous display.