Mr. Turnbull on Saint Bathan. 199 



refused to cure, but sent him to Ireland for the benefit of 

 the prayers of the saints there. After a long time, however, 

 the maniac returned, and Baithen commiserating him oifered 

 a sacrifice to God in the church before the brethren, and then 

 cast out the devil through the same eruption on the patient's 

 chin by which he had entered him.^ It was soon after he 

 succeeded Columba that, while sitting at dinner, he saw a 

 horrible devil looking in through the window, and immediately 

 he made the sign of the cross towards the brethren, and the 

 devil, like smoke, vanished away. Being enquired at why 

 he had made the sign of the cross, he told them that the devil 

 had been looking in at the window, to discover whether any 

 of them neglected to ask a blessing from God before his food, 

 or to return thanks after it, but that on being observed, he 

 was overcome by the sign of the cross and "ut vapor evanuit."^ 



From the island of Tiree Baithen made occasional visits to 

 lona, and it may well be imagined that in the frail coracle 

 of those days, a voyage along that coast, exposed as it is to 

 the swell of the broad Atlantic, was attended with much 

 danger. Columba, however, by supernatural power, some- 

 times so ruled the winds as to make them favourable for the 

 voyages of his disciples, in the same day giving Baithen one 

 wind and Columbanus another, as each required for his par- 

 ticular voyage. *= It was not, however, danger from the ele- 

 ments alone that the heroic saint was called on to meet. " A 

 " huge sea monster," said Columba to Baithen as he was em- 

 barking on one of these voyages, "rose from the sea last night, 

 " and may meet you to-day between lona and Tiree." Bai- 

 then replied "I and the beast are both in the hands of God." 

 *' Go in peace," said the holy man, " thy faith will protect thee 

 " from this danger." He sailed accordingly, but in the voyage 

 saw the dreadful monster. He alone of all in the boat being 

 without fear, raised both his hands and blessed the creature, 

 upon which it sunk under the waves and was seen no more,'^ 



At length the time came that Columba should die. The 

 account given of his death by Adamnan is most touchingly 

 beautiful, but is too long to be quoted here. He had long 

 looked to Baithen as his successor, and in a poem which he 

 wrote only six days before his death, and which is called 

 " Columba's Intoxication," that is, prophetic inspiration, he 

 frequently mentions Baithen. The first line of it is — 



a Acta S. S. 



b Acta S S. 



c Adam. ii. 15. 



d Adam. i. 19. Colgan cap. xix. 



