Mr. TunibiiU on Saint Bathan. 201 



bitterly. Fintan then asked " whom has he left as his suc- 

 " cesser." " Baithen," they say, " his pupil/' and all ex- 

 claimed "He is worthy!" Columb Crag then asked Fintan 

 what he now meant to do, who replied " If the Lordj will 

 " permit, I will cross the sea to Baithen that holy and wise 

 " man, and will have him for my Abbot." He accordingly 

 went to lona and presented himself to Baithen. " I ought 

 " to thank God for your arrival, my son," said Baithen, "but 

 " know of a truth that our monk you cannot be," Fintan in 

 sadness remarked that perhaps he was unworthy ; " Not that 

 " you are unworthy," said Baithen, "I would willingly retain 

 " you beside me, but I cannot disobey the order of holy Col- 

 " umba, my predecessor, through whom the holy spirit has 

 " prophesied concerning you," and then he tells him how 

 Columba had foretold that he would come from Ireland to 

 lona, but that he was not to be allowed to remain there and 

 become the monk of any Abbot, for that he had been chosen 

 of God to be an Abbot of monks and a leader of souls to the 

 heavenly kingdom. Fintan accordingly, having received the 

 blessing of Baithen, returned to Ireland and became " per 

 " universos Scotorum Ecclesias valde noscibilis."* 



The acts recorded of Baithen, after he became Abbot, in 

 the Acta Sanctorum, are all of them to some extent miracu- 

 lous. We find him curing a monk, Trenanus, of dropsy, and 

 modestly commanding him to tell no one by whom the cure 

 was effected, but prophesying at the same time the period of 

 its return. His cloak having been lent to a monk who was 

 going on a journey, had virtue sufficient to cast out a devil. 

 A dog biting his staff, which had been lent to Lugbeus, 

 dropped dead. Iron weapons blessed by him^ ceased to 

 wound. He himself having been insulted by Beoanus, sent 

 him some milk in a vessel, which being swallowed caused a 

 disease, of which Beoanus died, but happily " in contritione 

 bona."<^ 



The time at last came when Baithen too should die. It was 

 just three years after his succession as Abbot, that he was in 

 the church of lona, before the altar praying to God, when a 

 sleep as of death came upon him; and when the brethren 

 crowding around him were lamenting, Diormit, who had been 

 the faithful servant of Columba, said " Behold, brethren, you 

 " see that there will be no great interval between the two 

 "festivals of your superiors." On these words being uttered 



a Adam i. 2. 



b Similar miracles are attributed to Columba. Adam. ii. 29. 



c Acta S. S. 



