202 Mr. TurnbuU oti Saint Bathati. 



Baithen aroused from his deep sleep said " If I have found 

 " grace in the eyes of God, and have up to this day finished 

 " a perfect course in his sight, I trust in him that I shall not 

 " die till the festival day of my senior, which is still six days 

 ** distant."* It was as he said. He had found the grace he 

 sought ; he lived the six days and died, aged 66, on the 9th 

 of June, in the year 600, the same day of the month as Col- 

 umba and three years after him. Hence, St. Columba's and 

 St. Baithen's festival days are the same. This is referred to 

 in an ancient poem preserved in M.S. at Brussels — 



" Columcille, — beautiful his aspect 

 And his comrade Baithene ; 

 Their Festivals perpetually without change 

 Upon the same day of the week (month). 

 They were as one, — behold this interval ; 

 Four years — it not untrue — 

 Baithene was later on earth 

 Colum was the first in Paradise." b 



and again in another poem — 



" They went into the eternal kingdom 

 Into eternal life of brightest splendour ; 

 Baethine the noble the angelical 

 Columcille the resplendent." c 



There is some doubt as to the exact year in which Baithen 

 died, but 600 is the most probable. Tighernac dates it in 

 598, the Ulster annals in 597, and taking his biith as in 536 

 and adding his age 66 as given by Tighernac, we get 602 

 as the year of his death. Dr. Reeves has a very learned and 

 ingenious discussion on the date of the death of Columba, in 

 which he seems to prove with tolerable certainty that he died 

 in 597. The authorities differ as to the length of time that 

 Baithen survived him. Four years is mentioned in the Brus- 

 sels M.S. poem above quoted, and one is mentioned in Baitan 

 Mor's life of Columba, quoted by O'^Donnell and also by 

 Ussher,'^ but the weight of testimony is three years, so that 

 the most probable year of Baithen's death is 600. 



So lived our saint and so he died. There is no mention of 

 the place in which he was buried, but we may hope that his 

 ashes rest in peace in the lone grave-yard of lona. 



Pointed, quaint, and often plaintive as the writings are 

 from which the foregoing compilation has been made, yet 

 while professing to detail actual occurrences, they invest events 

 and persons with such an atmosphere of legend and supersti- 



a Acta S. S. 



b Reeves's Adam. p. 309. 



c Book of Abits of C. C. Reeves's Adam., p. 182, note. 



d Ussheri prim., p. 701. 



