Corpus of Electronic Texts Edition
The Life of Saint Finan (Author: [unknown])

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THE LIFE OF SAINT FINAN

The MS from which this life is edited is a fragment, now in the possession of F. A. MacCollum, Esq., the Honorary Secretary of the London branch of the Gaelic League, to whose kindness I am indebted for its loan, and for permission to prepare it for publication.

In the faint hope that the rest of the book to which the MS. originally belonged may some time be found, the following description is given that it may be identified. The fragment consists of eight leaves, obviously a single section or folio. There is no pagination, but the verso of the last leaf displays the catchword of the page that originally followed. The paper is coarse, without watermark, and of a lightish brown colour: the pages measure 9 1/2 inches by 6 inches. The writing is small, but very neat and clear; the ink is now of a dark brown colour; contractions are limited to the most ordinary. There are 22 lines in the majority of the pages: the lines and margins are ruled with pencil.

The contents of the MS. are twofold:
I. pp. 1–13. Beatha Naomh Fionáin Locha Laoi.
p. 14 is blank.
II. pp. 15–16. Fragment of the Betha Brenainn as contained in the Book of Lismore, in a different handwriting.
I. The life of Finan is similar in type to documents of the same class, being simply a collection of miracles strung together with very little connection between them. The present text has all the appearance of being a copy of an abstract of a larger

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biography: the general style of the diction, and the survival of a few obsolete forms such as fa (paragraph 5), dobhear (paragraph 13) suggest the latter half of the seventeenth century as possibly the period to which to assign the preparation of the text in its present form. That it is an abstract is indicated by the absence of interspersed verses, possibly also by the absence of homiletic matter, and by the confused form in which some of the incidents are preserved: such as that in paragraph 11. Obviously in the original version the dumbness of the boy so suddenly introduced was transferred to the recalcitrant counsellor, as was Naaman's leprosy to Gehaiz. The abrupt introduction of the penitent robbers (paragraph 2), and of Nechtan points in the same direction.

The occurrence of such forms as uaibhrig, déinig, and several others, sufficiently attest the Munster origin of the present transcript: and what its owner knows of its previous history connects it with the same province. On the other hand we have áran twice at the end of paragraph 1; this (if not a mere blunder) has a distinctly northern sound.

The Text opens with the miraculous birth of Finan. This story has however been refined into a dream, and modified by the influence of legends of superhuman birth caused by swallowing (as in the Étáin and other myths). The tale of Finan's birth was originally much more savage, and is preserved in a quatrain cited by the Lebor Brecc glossator of the Félire Oengussa (see Félire Oengussa ed. Stokes p. lxxiii). We do not find mention in the present text of the name of Finan's mother (Becnat) or of the deformity that gave Finan the nickname Camm. The following is a catalogue of the subsequent incidents of the life, with such parallels as I have come across in other texts.

Paragraph 1. Healing by Becnat's saliva: no doubt suggested by John IX, 6.
Becnat miraculously divides food: obviously suggested by cognate Gospel miracles.
Becnat preserved from the rain: similar tale of Finan, paragraph 14.
Separation of Cows and Calves: a stock miracle of saints at the commencement of their career. Cf. the Lismore lives of Brigit and Senán and Mo Chua.
Finan's staff bent by the fire to a crozier.
Delay of death till the Sacrament be prepared.

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Miraculous fire of grace: cf. the Lismore Brigid and Senán.
Paragraph 2. Parting of Finan and Brendan.
The cursing of the ungrateful kernes. Apparently the tale at line 477 of the Lismore Patrick (ed. Stokes) is a worn-down version of a similar story.
Paragraph 3. The miraculous moving of the canoe: a curious incident; I have not come across anything exactly similar. But see the notes, post.
Paragraph 4. Lonán saves Finan from highwaymen: the same tale is told in the life of Ciaran of Saighir, but the result was not so satisfactory for Lonán as in the present case.
Restoration of the one calf of Finan's host: a similar miracle in the Lismore Brigit and Findian. Horse given miraculously instead of injured horse.1 Paragraph 5. Tree moved out of way.
Soft bog crossed safely.
Paragraph 6. Paralysed boy healed.
Well formed by blow from crozier: also in the Lismore Senán.
Paragraphs. 6, 7. Nechtan2 invades Corkaguiney; his degradation and repentance: no doubt a reminiscence of the story of Nebuchadnezzar.
Paragraph 8. Miraculous power of walking bestowed.
Paragraph 11. Price of ransom of land obtained miraculously.
Finan's crops preserved from rain: as were Brigit's; cf. Lismore life.
Paragraph 10. Murderers' hands stayed.
Paragraph 11. Transference of dumbness to an opponent of Finan.
Paragraph 12. Lame man healed; the miraculous trews.
Paragraph 13. Horse healed.
King's son struck dumb for opposing Finan.
Monk healed.
Paragraph 14. Finan preserved from rain.
Paragraph 15. Muichealloch's calf restored by the wolf: this tale has

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come to us in a confused form, but an essentially similar story is told in the Lismore Patrick. Smith empowered to lift red hot iron.
Paragraph 16. Fish taken from meadow.
Finan's apotheosis deferred till a child he healed: I have come across nothing comparable with this graceful little incident.

My object in preparing this edition has been to reproduce faithfully what the manuscript before me said, rather than to produce a standard text of the 'Life'. Lack of leisure compels me to leave to others the work of seeking out and collating any other copies of the text that may exist.3 I have therefore abstained from emendation, even in the case of obvious errors, except in one or two places which are clearly marked. A life of Finan on vellum was in the possession of O'Reilly the lexicographer. I have found six quotations from it in his Dictionary: these shew that the text was older and much fuller than that before us:
do chonncatar an tech fa dhoighir (end of paragraph 1).
go ro bris feártás carbaid na hinghne (not in the present text: but this probably belongs to the life of Finnchua, cf. Lismore, ed. Stokes 3001).
feargaither iadsum fris an manach. (?)
ro shír cobhair ar Dhia. (?)
Aroile aimsir do cuaidh Fionan go Caisel mar a raibhe rí Mumhan .i. Failbhe Flann da iarraigh ar an rí anfhorlann cíosa baoi fora cineadh do leigean gan tabhach (beginning of paragraph 11).
agas iar ttoigheacht an laoigh ro imthigh an faolchu (a variant of the tale in paragraph 15).
The text contains two words not in O'R.: cám (paragraph 1) and cloidhbruth (paragraph 6).

II. The Brendan fragment presents some points of interest. As will be seen from the appended collation with Dr. Stokes' edition, it is transcribed from the Lismore text, literally preserving the errors, omissions, and for the most part the exact

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contractions of that MS.: the variants tend to shew that the scribe of the MS. before us had only a hazy idea of the meaning of what he was writing. We must I think assume an intermediate exemplar between the Book of Lismore and the present MS., for several reasons. (I) We do not know when the Book of Lismore was hidden, but it was certainly before c. 1800, which is probably the approximate date of the present MS.; it was not found till 1814, which is later than I should be inclined to date the MS. The latter was therefore written at a time when the Book of Lismore was not available. (II) It will be noticed that the scribe commences in the middle of a sentence. I can explain this only by supposing that the assumed intermediate copy was damaged, and that the scribe left the preceding page blank in the hope that some day he might come across a more perfect copy from which to supply the missing matter.

The hand in which the Brendan is written is larger and rounder than the Finan.