3 10 Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy. 



engaged in study when, during the night, he sent his messenger to Colmnba, 

 and he expected to find Colnmba in the church occupied in the same way. So 

 wlien St. Daig was in St. Comgall's monastery at Baugor, he read and worked 

 in his smithy by day and wrote at night, and, as a result, not only copied the 

 Gospels, but also made a beautiful case in which to keep them.' St. Senan 

 also read, if he did not write, by night ; and the only miracle recorded in 

 that connexion is that he used a single candle for a whole week.' When 

 St. Columba of Terryglass read after sundown, no miracle was worked till, by 

 some accident, the lamps went out, and could not be re-lighted.' Thus we 

 omit the miracle by which the tale is made more attractive, and there 

 remains the commonplace statement that Columba worked day and night at 

 his books, as other industrious students were in the habit of doing. ISTo one 

 will question its probability. 



Then, as to the other miracle, the blinding of the messenger by the crane, 

 and the restoration of his sight by Finnian. That is not as common a miracle 

 as the blazing hand. But we find it in ihe Life of St. Ciarain,'' and in 

 another Life, to which I .shall refer immediately. It is, of course, not 

 historical. But there is certainly no improbability in the supposition that 

 St. Columba, the lover of animals,' should have a pet crane, as other Irishmen 

 had,* or that the messenger should spy through a hole in the door ; nor does 

 it appear very unlikely that, without the bidding of its master, the crane 

 sliould have jiecked at his eye. 



Before passing on it may be well to quote two passages from other 

 Lives which very closely resemble that upon which we are engaged. 

 The first is from the Acta Sancti Columbae de Tyre da Glass in the 

 Codex Salmanticensis.' 



Alia autem nocte cuin in ilia scola .sanctus iste Columba filius Crimthani solus esset in 

 sua cellula ad lucernas legens, defeceiunt ei lucerne, ante tempus congruum ; nee erat 

 oleum in domu in quo lucerne tingerentur. Tunc sanctus Columba eleuans manum suam 

 dextram, digiti eius quasi lucerne ardebant. In ilia hora unus ex discipulis eius uenit 

 occulte ex alia doniu, scire uolens quid sanctus Columba in sua ageret celUila. Et intro- 

 spiciens per foramen uidit ilium aperto libro legentem et 'V digitos manus ardentes lucide 

 supra librum. Et non una nocte tantum hoc mirabile de ipso apparuit. 



Between ihis passage and O'Donnell thero is evidently a close relation. 

 Either the legend of St. Columba of Terryglass borrowed from the legend of 



' Acta S. Dagaei, 6 (Cod. Sal., 894). 



- Stokes, p. 206 f . 



■'Acta S. Columbae de Tyre da Glass, I.e. 



* Stokes, p. 270. 



' Adamnan, i. 48 ; iii. 23 (Reeves, p. 231). 



" "Ancient Laws of Ireland," vol. iv (ed. A. G. Richey, London, 1879), p. 120. 



• Cod. Sal., col. 447. 



