20 CORNISH DEDICATIONS. 



quently difficult to Tinderstand liow he can have spent twenty- 

 years out of his native land. He may have Lean aged thirty 

 when he was baptized, but he was certainly younger by many 

 years when he left Ireland. 



Whither he went we do not know, for all the story of his 

 expedition to Rome and ordination by Pope Celestine must be 

 dismissed as unhistorical. Probably he visited Cornwall whither 

 apparently, many Ossorians had fled when Aengus devastated 

 Magh Peimhin, and after expelling the Ossorians gave up their 

 land to the Deisi. 



Dr. Lanigan puts S. Kieran at a later date, because in the 

 Life of S. Finnian, of Clonard, Kieran is spoken of as his 

 pupil. But this must have been his namesake of Clonmacnois, 

 whom the Martyrologist of Donegal tells us was Pinian's pupil, 

 and the same writer does not include Kieran, of Saighir, among 

 them. Pinnian died in 548. 



Probably Kieran returned to Ireland in 474, and he then at 

 once went to King Aengus Mac Nadfraich to settle some terms 

 with him, by which he might be allowed to start a monastic 

 institution for the advantage of the Ossorians. The moment 

 was not propitious. A son of Ere Mac Duach, one of his own 

 kinsmen, had maliciously killed a horse belonging to S. Patrick, 

 whilst the saint was visiting Aengus. The king, not sorry for 

 an excuse to deal sharply with one of the family of the expelled 

 Clan, obtained his arrest, and declared his intention of putting 

 him to death. Kieran interceded for his kinsman, and undertook 

 to pay the eric or legal fine for the horse ; when, however, he 

 endeavoured to raise the money he found a difficulty in so doing. 

 He was happily succoured by accident. Aengus caught a chill 

 that settled in his eyes, producing acute inflammation. He at 

 once concluded that Kieran had ''ill- wished" him, and in a panic 

 sent for him, made peace, released the man who had killed the 

 horse, and remitted the fine. 



Soon after his return to Ireland, Kieran would seem to have 

 revisited Cliar Island, where he had been born, and there 

 founded a church, of which the ruins remain, the site having 

 been granted to him by the chieftain of his mother's family. A 

 sculptured cross and an ancient j)illar- stone remain near the 

 strand called to this day Strath-Ciaran. 



