CORNISH DEDICATIONS. 147 



On one occasion when wandering over the hogs and hills, S. 

 Maignenn lost his way ; night and rain came on, and no house 

 was in sight. So he planted his staff in the earth, and he and 

 his disciples attached their cloaks to it, and spread them out, and 

 all huddled underneath this extemporised tent, and spent in it a 

 most miserable niglit. 



He, like most other Irish saints, maintainded a leper. His 

 leper was a woman, and for her support he gave her a cow. A 

 robber stole the cow. Thereupon Maignenn and his clergy excom- 

 municated the thief with bell and book. Maignenn sf) soundly 

 cursed the man, that some of his clergy interposed, and entreated 

 the Saint to at least allow the wretch a nook in heaven, however 

 much he might afflict him with cramps and pains on earth. But 

 Maignenn was inexorable, "Eather." said he, " so great is my 

 indignation, that I seek to rouse God's anger to increase the 

 everlasting torment of the man hereafter." Then he burst forth 

 into maledictions against such as should violate his privileges 

 of sanctuary. " I curse them that they may lose the sight of 

 their eyes, that they may die violent deaths, and that the gates of 

 the Heavenly City may be shut in their faces." 



Maignenn is also credited with having uttered a prophecy, 

 which it is the conviction of many has been fulfilled. " A time 

 will come when girls shall be pert or tart of tongue ; when there 

 will be grumbling and discontent among the lower classes, when 

 there will be lack of revenues to elders, when chui'ches will be 

 slackly attended, and when woman shall exercise wiles." 



Maignenn is said to have studiously shunned the society and 

 favours of kings, and to have interposed when he heard of war 

 breaking out. He had a faculty of discerning the spirit of man, 

 after he had been three hours in his company, and deciding 

 whether he was a sincerely good man or a hypocrite. 



He could give good advice. One day he said : — " Of all the 

 absurd things I ever saw was an old fellow haranguing his sons 

 on virtue, when the rogue himself had never exercised the least 

 self-restraint." He was himself unmarried, and was strongly 

 opposed to clerical marriage, and said some hard things, and 

 even extravagant things thereon. Being such a rambler himself, 

 he was able to give good advice relative to pilgrimages. He 



