CORNISH DEDICATIONS, 405 



return for this donation Fiachra required the saint to curse liis 

 enemies and assure him victory in all his warlike undertakings. 

 Tighernach cheerfully complied, and he accompanied the king on 

 his raids. But he was successful in mitigating one of the 

 barhai-ous customs of the time. After a battle, it was the wont 

 of the victor to cut off the heads of all the enemies who had 

 fallen, and bring them to his camjj, where they were piled and 

 counted. By the advice of S. Tighernach, Fiachra was induced 

 to order his "braves" to cut sods of turf in corresponding 

 numbers with the corpses on the held, and stack and count them, 

 and to leave the dead unmutilated. One day Fiachra sent his 

 gillie to get him grass wherewith to line his shoes, and the lad 

 rijjped away some from off Tighernach's land. When the king 

 heai'd this, he refused the grass, lest the saint should be angry 

 and reproach him with having taken it. and thereby establislied 

 a claim to take grass as he wanted it from the territory of the 

 saint. 



Presently Tighernach departed for Kildare, there to visit his 

 foster-mother, S. Biidget, who forthwith gave orders that he 

 should he consecrated bishop.* When he left, he went on to 

 visit his grandfather. King Eochach, in Fermanagh. The old 

 king at once turned out the bishop of Clogher, whose name was 

 Maenchatin, so as to put his grandson into his seat. This high- 

 handed conduct did not comport with Tighernach's \iews, and 

 he refused to remain at Clogher, and went to a solitary spot. 

 Clones, in Monaghan. But owing to his apj)ointment to Clogher, 

 he was called " the man of two districts." 



One peculiarity of Tighernach is noted. For the admixture 

 with the wine in the Eucharist, he would use no otlier water than 

 dew or rain. 



He died in 548, whilst the Yellow Death was raging in 

 Ireland, but we are expressly told that he did not die of the 

 plague. 



The Life of S. Tighernach in the Codex Salamanticiensis is 

 fragmentary. It is a tissue of extravagant fables, l)ut a thread 

 of historical fact can be traced running through the embroidery. 



• " Convocatis episcopis euiu ad pontificalis ordinis apicem provehi fecit. In 

 hoc enim a clero et a populo totiiis Hibernise erat ipsa beata Krigida priviligiata ut 

 qnemcumque ipsa ordinandum judicandum ordinaret, ab omnibus eligeretur." 



