There was a patron saint, noble, distinguished, steadfast, devout, well disposed, pure, abstinent, prayerful, radiant, blessed, whose name was Coemgen. He came of the noble and distinguished royal blood of the Dal Meisenchorb, son of Cucorb, son of Mug Corb, son of Conchubar Abrat-ruad (Red-brow), son of Finnfile, son of Rus Ruad (the Red), son of Fergus Fairrge (of the Sea), son of Nuada Necht, son of Setna Sithbac (of the long elbows), son of Lugaid Lethfinn (White-side), son of Bresal Brec (the Speckled), &c.
And it is this Coemgen who is the patron saint of115 Glendalough in Leinster, in the sorrel-plain of Coemgen. And it was (one sign) of the sanctity of Coemgen that his mother at the time of his birth did not notice any heartburn or pain or sickness from it. After his birth women were sent with him to visit St. Cronan for his baptism, and after the women had set out with the child to go to Cronan, an angel revealed himself to them, and bade them notify Cronan that he was to be named Coemgen. And when he came116 a into the presence of Cronan, he took the child in his arms and baptized him, and gave him the name of Coemgen, in accordance with the angel's command, and explained to the women that this was an appropriate name for him by the will and ordinance of God, as Solomon the Monk says, who was Coemgen's disciple, by whom this life was written:
And the same author says that twelve angels who came from heaven revealed themselves to Cronan as he was baptizing Coemgen,Stave.
- 1] This is the name which God fashioned in heaven,
2] Which shall cleave to the child;
3] Consider, O women of fair attendance,
4] That this is his baptismal name, Coemgen.
Stave
- 1] 'Twelve angels, as was fitting,
2] God sent from on high in his honour;
3] And a taper with pure flame
4] Was in the hand of each angel.
Now after the baptism the women take Coemgen with them to the fort in which he was born, and the fort is called Raith an Tobair ghil (the Fort of the white fountain), and there he was nurtured for seven years. Moreover, it is to be reckoned as a marvel, that while he was at his mother's breasts, he would only suck them once on Fridays and other fast-days, and that at evening. It is also marvellous, that on the fort in which he was born no snow would lie, but would melt at once.
After he had spent seven years, he was sent to a convent of monks to be taught, and instructed in manners, and he spent a considerable period of time among them, until he was of age to be a priest; and after receiving ecclesiastical orders, he meditated {MS page 148} in his mind to forsake the world and the society of men, and to lead a solitary eremitic life on the desert ocean, or on some very retired cliff, so that the world might have no share in any of his motions.
As he was setting out, an angel came to aid him, by whom he was guided to the crags which are on the western side of the two loughs which are in Glendalough; where he had no food but the nuts of the wood, and the herbs of the earth, and fair water for drink, and for bed, only a pillow of stone under his head, and a flag-stone under him, and a flag-stone at each side of him, and there was not even a booth117 over him; and further, his clothes were the skins of wild animals; and he would often go to the crag and to the cave called Coemgen's bed, and he would pray long and fervently to God.
And he would return thence by the wood called Gael Faithe to the north of the lough; and he would be a long time in the lough up to his waist reciting his hours, sometimes by day, sometimes by night; and he spent seven years in this manner in solitude (far) from the society of men, as Solomon says118:
Stave.
- 1] Seven years in tangled deserts
2] Was he in gentle sort
3] Dwelling beside his people
4] Without food in Gael Faithe.
After he had been a long time on this wise, it happened that he went, as he was wont, into the lough, at the end of a snowy
It happened about this time that a hundred-cow farmer120 in Leinster near the glen in which Coemgen was, came from Meath on a grazing tour; and the name of the farmer was Dima son of Fergna. And as Patrick prophesied long before the birth of Coemgen that a saint like to himself should come who would be the patron of121 Glendalough, so God granted that it should be this Dima who discovered him, after he had been concealing himself from men, as we said above.
And this is the way in which he was discovered. A herd of Dima's cows was grazing in the wood in which Coemgen was concealing himself; and one of the cows found her way to the hollow in which the saint was being comforted by the angel, and the cow kept licking his feet all the day, and at evening when she returned home with the rest of the cows, as much milk was milked from her as was got from half the herd. And as often as the herd went into that wood, the same cow would go and lick Coemgen's feet, and after coming home in the evening, would yield a like quantity of milk.
When Dima and all his company remarked this, great wonder and astonishment possessed him and all the rest122; and he told the herdsman to observe the cow on the morrow, and {MS page 150} follow her closely, so that he might know in what part of the wood was the excellent pasture which caused the cow to yield such abundant milk.
As to the herdsman, he drove the cows on the morrow to the wood where Coemgen was, and followed the cow straight till the cow reached the hollow where St. Coemgen was, with the herds man immediately behind. And when he came into Coemgen's presence, he found him weak and feeble, without power to walk or move, his bodily force being crushed123 through the extent of his asceticism and of the mortification124 of his body by fasting and prayer, and lying on bare flag-stones with no booth or shelter over him.
And when he saw the herdsman, he started, and begged him as a special boon not to reveal to any one in the world that he was in that hollow. I cannot do that, said the herdsman, since thou hast been discovered by me, and this cow of Dima's has been
- 1] ‘After the cow of Dima’, said the herdsman,
2] ‘(Has been) going backwards and forwards to thee in the glen,’
3] ‘To conceal thee is not in my power,’
4] ‘Now that thou hast been seen clearly by me.’
After the herdsman had returned to the presence of Dima, he tried to conceal the saint; and Dima was angry at that, and ordered the herdsman to be bound in hard bondage, till he told him how he discovered Coemgen in the hollow of a tree. And when Dima heard this, great joy possessed him, and he told his children to make a litter, and (said) that they would go to meet the saint, and that they would believe on him;
and that this was he of whom Finn had prophesied long before, that he would be the patron of126 that place. So the litter was got ready by them, and they set or.t, Dima and his children, and went through the wood carrying the litter; and the herdsman guided them to the hollow where the saint was. And in asmuch as the road was rough and thick,127 Dima begged Coemgen to pray to God to make level a passage through the wood; and Coemgen prayed earnestly (lit. became sharp in his prayer) to God begging that He would make level a passage before them, that the children of Dima might be able to carry him to the glen, where he was minded to build a church and a place of residence for himself. And the wood bent on either side, so that an easy practicable pass was made through it; and thereupon Dima and his children carried Coemgen with them in the litter. {MS page 152} And in this way the angel bent the wood in front of the litter, and the wood rose again in its natural fashion behind the saint, and so they came to the bed of the glen where the church of Coemgen stands to-day.
Two miracles befell two of Dima's children at this time. One of them, called Dima the younger, refused to carry the litter, for he said he would not leave his hunting to carry Coemgen's litter; and he had not gone far, after bidding farewell to his father and brothers, when the hounds that were with him were seized with madness,128 leaped upon him, killed him, and devoured him. The other miracle was as follows: Another son of Dima, named Cellach, went under the litter, and believed Coemgen; and after he had started to go through the wood bearing the litter, he fell under it, and his soul suddenly departed from him. Dima and his children were startled at this, and
When, however, Coemgen saw that, he prayed earnestly to God, entreating Him to restore Cellach to life; and he was heard by God, and Cellach was brought from death to life. And Cellach gave himself to Coemgen through this miracle, and he begged his father and brothers to give in the same way service and honour to Coemgen while they lived; and they undertook to do so. ‘Glory to God,’ said Coemgen, ‘for that He has sent you, who are strangers from Meath, to attend and minister to me, and I give my blessing to thee and to thy children, O Dima,’ said he.
{MS page 153}Coemgen was accustomed all his life through the severity of his asceticism to spend every Lent in a wattled pen,129 and a grey flag-stone under him as a bed, and his only food was the music of the angels; and he would spend a fortnight and a month thus. And one Lent when he was acting in this way, a blackbird came from the wood to his pen, and hopped on his palm as he lay on the flag-stone with his hand stretched out; and he kept his hand in that position, so that the blackbird built its nest in it, and hatched its brood.
The angel came after this to visit Coemgen, and bade him leave the penance in which he was, and return to the society of men once more. Coemgen said that the pain of his hand being under the blackbird till she hatched her clutch was little compared with the pain which his Lord suffered for his sake; as Solomon says in this stave telling of the words of Coemgen:
Stave.
- 1] Alas! a pain greater than the requital
2] My hand like a log under the blackbird;
3] The blood of His hands, of His side, of His feet
4] The King of heaven shed for my sake.
However the angel bade Coemgen go out of the pen, and revealed to him that God had promised to him that he should run no risk of danger of the judgement or130 doom; and with reference to this Solomon speaks the following stave:
Stave.
- 1] God gave power to Coemgen
2] Such as he gave not to every saint in the world,
3] In the doom to be strong in the assemblies
4] Where the children of Adam will be trembling.
{MS page 154} Coemgen went on131 pilgrimage to Rome. He received consideration and honour from the Pope, and he also received authority for the establishment of a pilgrimage in Glendalough in perpetuity, and that the indulgence and profit should be the same to any one who should make seven pilgrimages to Glendalough as to one who should
Stave
- 1] Great is the pilgrimage of Coemgen,
2] If men should perform it aright;
3] To go seven times to their fair is the same
4] As to go once to Rome.
Now when Coemgen came back from Rome, he brought some of the earth of the church of Rome with him, and sprinkled it in his own church and in his cemeteries; for it pertained to the holiness of Coemgen after [conferring (rights of) pilgrimage on Glendalough,] that a great number of pilgrims should be visiting his church out of every quarter of Erin; so that this is one of the four chief pilgrimages of Erin henceforth; to wit, the Cave of Patrick in Ulster, Croagh Patrick in Connaught, Inis na m-Beo (the Isle of the Living) in Munster, and Glendalough in Leinster, where is Coemgen's church.
And it is obligatory on every one who goes on pilgrimage there to abstain from all fighting, process of law, and quarrelling, theft and rapine therein. As Solomon says in this stave:
Whoever shall violate the numerous privileges of his church, lo, here below according to Solomon are the evils which shall befall him in the other world: {MS page 155}Stave
- 1] No fight may be dared in his fair,
2] Nor process of law, or claim,
3] Nor quarrelling, theft nor rapine;
4] But going and coming in security.
- 1] To whoever should violate the fair,
2] Coemgen left no weak force
3] Hell and shortness of life,
4] And to be in danger all his days.
He left further three advantages to the man who should maintain the privileges of his church, viz. health, (long) life, and a penitent death. And not alone through outraging the rights of his church [would the aforesaid ills befall] but through outraging the rights of God and of the Church; and not only the actual perpetrator of the misdeed would incur requital therefor, but the chief or lord who incites the criminal to commit the crime, or who gives him pro tection or shelter; as Coemgen himself says in this stave:
Stave
- 1] Whatever wrong was done,
2] Is being done, or shall be done,
3] Vengeance for it falls unerringly
4] On the might of him by whom it is done.
Coemgen left four evil consequences on the horde that ravages
One day when Coemgen's tutor was about to say Mass, he told Coemgen (who was then a young lad) to go and fetch fire to light the Mass-candle. Give me a vessel in which to bring the embers, said Coemgen. When his tutor heard this he became angry, and told him to bring the fire in the corner of his mantle. [Coemgen did so, and] when the monk saw the red embers (being brought) to him in the mantle, without a single thread of the mantle catching fire: {MS page 156} ‘Tis true, O Coemgen,’ said the monk, ‘the grace of the Holy Spirit abides upon thee; and I am not worthy that thou should st be waiting and attending on me any longer; but it would be more fitting for me to be waiting and attending on thee.’ It resulted from this miracle that the name of God and of Coemgen was magnified on that occasion, &c.
One day as Coemgen went to herd his own sheep, a great throng of poor people met him, and they in a fair way to be starved for want of food. They asked alms of the good man for love of God. Coemgen answered them regretfully, and said that he had at that time no food with him there in the desert; and thereupon the beggars desired to bid him farewell; however, Coemgen retained them, 132 and killed seven wethers from his flock, and133 regaled the beggars, and they departed fully satisfied. On the morrow, when Coemgen went to visit his flock, he found the wethers in full tale among the herd, without a single one of them missing, so that the name of God, &c., and he was freed from the shame which possessed him, when the poor of God came to ask a boon of him, and he had nothing in his hand at the time wherewith to content them, &c.
There was a convent of monks in Cell Iffin (or Eithfin); and an otter (the one by whom Coemgen's psalter was fished up from the lough) used to bring a salmon every day to the convent there. One day when {MS page 157} Cellach son of Dima saw the otter coming with the salmon in its mouth, he judged that the skin of the otter would be profitable to the monks, and therefore he desired to kill the otter. Thereupon the otter dropped the salmon that was in its mouth, and dived into the river, and never showed itself to the monks thenceforth.
Now in consequence of this there came scarcity of food upon the monks, so that it was necessary for them to separate. And when Coemgen saw this, he prayed earnestly to God to reveal to him whence it came that the otter had forsaken the convent. And God
One day some musicians with their harps came to Cell Eithfin, where Coemgen had {MS page 158} a convent of monks, and asked an alms of food of the monks. The convent had no food (at the time), and great shame possessed Coemgen and the convent on that account.
But it so happened that a little seed (corn) remained over of the convent's provisions, but it was not a sufficiency either for the strangers or for the convent. This is what seemed good to Coemgen with the help of the convent to free them from the voice of this reproach, to send some of the monks to dig a plot of ground in which this small quantity of seed which they had might be sown, so that the produce of this seed might serve as refection in the evening for the strangers and Coemgen himself, [and for all the monks. And Coemgen] and the rest of the monks were persistently soothing (?) the musicians, trying to pacify them affably and courteously, but to no purpose.
The players began to demand food forcibly, and there was none there. Therefore they took their leave against Coemgen's wish, and reproached [and reviled] the convent. And Coemgen being angry at the shame (put on him), prayed [God] that the harps which they had, might be turned into stones. {MS page 159} Thereupon as they were beginning to cross the stream which flows to the south of the church, their harps were made into stones, and fell into the stream, and they are on the little stone-heap there under the feet of all (who pass) thenceforth. And as to the seed that was sown by Coemgen the morning of the same day in Cell Eithfin, it was from the produce which came thereof at evening, that the monks were fed that same night, as Solomon says in this stave:
Stave
- 1] The seed that was sown in the morning
2] At Cell Eithfin, divine was the grace,
3] From it without withering at night
4] Were fed the elders in turn.
It occurred to the king of Ui Faelain to send a son who had been born to him to Coemgen to be baptized; and he sent word to him to keep the boy with him to be fostered. And the reason why he sent him to him was because every son that had been previously born to him had been destroyed by the bright people or fairy courts.
As to Coemgen and the infant: — there were neither cows nor boolies in the glen at that time, so that it was a great problem with Coemgen how he should find sustenance and milk to nourish the infant withal; and this caused him anxiety. However, as he looked behind him, he saw a doe in milk, and a little fawn following her; and when Coemgen saw this he prayed God earnestly to tame the doe, so that it might come and yield its milk to the infant. And thereupon the doe came to the place, and went gently to Coemgen and forthwith dropped milk onto a hollow stone both for the infant and for her own fawn. So that this is the definite name of the place where the stone is, Innis Eilte (i.e. the doe's milking stead) thence forward. In this way the doe came every day to drop her milk on the hollow stone, so that sufficient for the infant's nourishment was obtained every day.
However, one day when the doe came to graze in the wood, a wolf came out of a hollow of the rock and killed the doe's fawn and devoured it. When he (Coemgen) saw this, he ordered the wolf to go gently to the doe in place of the fawn; {MS page 161} and the wolf did this habitually. Thereupon the doe would drop her milk on the stone to feed the infant as she formerly did for her fawn, though there was only a wolf standing at her breast. Thus were they habitually, and in this way the child was nurtured, and afterwards became a disciple of Coemgen. So the name of God, &c.
One day when two women were coming on a pilgrimage to Coemgen's church, robbers met them at the pass, stripped them, and beheaded them. When the news came to Coemgen, he went quickly to see the women, and put their heads on their trunks, so that they were restored to life by him. ‘O Coemgen,’ said the women, ‘thou hast healed us, and we give ourselves to thee as long as we shall live.’ Coemgen took the women with him, and made devout black nuns of them; and they remained in the convent of regular women which was near the church of Coemgen; and they spent their lives devoutly, exemplarily, abstinently, prayerfully all their days. So that it came of the bringing to life again of these women that the name, &c.
{MS page 162}One day when Coemgen the ascetic was near his church,
Upon this the clerk began to retrace his steps, and Coemgen with him, till they reached the body. At this very moment wolves were on the other side preparing to devour the body, and when they saw Coemgen they fled back, and Coemgen came (and stood) over the body, and prayed God earnestly to revive the dead man; whereupon the soul came into the body, and he was healed of the injury. When the clerk who had committed the murder saw this great miracle, he was seized with remorse for the crime which he had committed, and he commended himself {MS page 163} to Coemgen, and went under his protection.
Coemgen accepted him, and took him and the clerk whom he had restored to life with him to his own church, (where they remained) leading their lives rigorously and devoutly. And after a certain time Coemgen admitted them to the order of monks, so that they spent the rest of their days under (monastic) rule till their death, so that the name of God, &c.
It is a further miracle of Coemgen's that garlic, and meadow-sorrel, and many other herbs which are good for food, would remain fresh and green all the year round in the desert where he was, withdrawing himself from the society of men on the west side of the rock in Glendalough, as a remembrance that he had had to rely on them himself for sustenance.
One day some hunters were hunting a wild boar, and when the hunters had put up the wild boar, they loosed their dogs in pursuit of it. And as soon as the boar perceived the dogs near him, he set off down ths slope of the glen to (seek) the protection of Coemgen, with the dogs in pursuit. Coemgen undertook {MS page 164} the protection of the boar, and commanded the dogs to stop from (following) him; whereupon the feet of the dogs clave to the ground, so that they could not move from the spot in any direction.
Shortly after this the hunters came into Coemgen's presence, and on seeing their dogs fastened to the ground, and the boar under Coemgen's protection, astonishment of mind and marvellous great wonder possessed them at this miracle, and they humbly and penitently besought Coemgen to release their dogs, and promised him that they would never again
One day Coemgen sent Cellach son of Dima (who was a monk of his) to the pass at the north-west side of the glen, thinking that he might find some people bringing an alms of food to the monks, who were working in the church.
When he reached the pass some women met him, carrying soft or milk cheeses in the corners of their mantles. {MS page 165} The clerk asked if it was soft cheeses that they were carrying? They answered that it was not, but webs or balls of thread. Thereupon Coemgen appeared, and when he perceived that the women were concealing the cheeses, he entreated God that the cheeses might be turned into stones in the presence of all, and God caused the cheeses to be turned forthwith into stones for all to see; and they are to be seen to this day at the aforesaid pass. And it resulted from this deed that the name of God, &c.
And Coemgen was all his life long like this, working miracles, till he died at an advanced age after a hundred and twenty- nine years; and Suibne Menn son of Fiachna, son of Feradach, son of Muiredach, son of Eogan, son of Niall of the nine hostages, was king of Erin at the time, and it was at the beginning of Suibne's reign that Coemgen died.
Coemgen, son of Coemlug, son of Coemfid, son of Corb, son of Fergus Laegderg (Red-calf), son of Fothad, son of Eochaid Lamderg (Red-hand), son of Mesincorb, son of Cucorb, {MS page 166} son of Mogh Corb, son of Concobar Abratruad (Red-brow), son of Finnfile, son of Rus Ruad (the Red), son of Fergus Finn (the White), son of Nuadu Necht, son of Setna Sithbac (Long-elbow), son of Lugaid Lethfinn (White side), son of Bresal Brec (the Speckled), &c.