Chapter XLIV: Ciaran and the Wine

34. On a certain day when the brethren of Saint Kiaranus were at work in the harvest, enduring thirst from the heat of the sun, they sent word that cold water should be brought to them. Saint Kiaranus answered them by a messenger, "Choose ye, my brethren, whether ye will drink to quench your thirst for necessity, or will endure in thirst till the evening, that through your labour to-day in thirst and in sweat there may be abundance for the brethren who are to be in this place hereafter; and you yourselves will not fail of reward from God in heaven." The brethren answered, "We choose that there be a sufficiency for our successors, and we to have the reward of our patience and of our thirst in heaven." So the brethren worked that day athirst, rejoicing, though the sun was hot.

But when evening was come, the brethren returned home, and Saint Kiaranus wished to satisfy them, and to refresh them charitably. And trusting in the Lord, he blessed a great vessel full of water; and immediately under his hands wine of most excellent quality appeared in the vessel. And bringing drinking-cups, he commanded the brethren to refresh their bodies well, with sobriety, rendering thanks to Christ for his gifts.

This is the Last Supper of Saint Ciaran with his brethren in his life, he himself ministering unto them; for he lived thereafter but few days. And that supper was most generous, excelling all the suppers that were made in the monastery of Saint Kiaranus, as is proved thus--

For after a long time, when Saint Columba with his followers had come to Ireland from the island of Hia, a great feast was prepared for them in the monastery of Saint Kiaranus in his settlement of Cluain; and when they had come to the religious house of Saint Kiaranus, they were received with great joy and love, and were refreshed most bounteously with that repast; and the fame of that supper went over the whole settlement and its suburbs, far and wide.

When, in the house of the holy elders, who had a little cell apart in the monastery of Saint Kiaranus, certain persons said in ignorance that never in that place had such a feast been made, nor would be in the future, one, who had been a boy when Saint Kiaranus lived there, answered: "Ye know not whereat ye wonder: for the feast which Saint Kiaranus our patron made, of water turned to wine, for his brethren athirst after harvesting, was far better than this feast. And that ye may know this, and may believe that it is true, come and perceive the odour of my finger with which I drew of that wine for the brethren. For my thumb touched the liquor through the mouth of the cup in which the wine was drawn; and lo, even yet its odour remains thereupon." Then they all drew near, and being sated with the pleasant and sweet odour of that holy elder, they cried aloud saying, "Truly much better was that feast whose odour remains on a finger most sweet for so long a time." And they blessed Saint Kiaranus, giving praises to God.

And in those days, in which the brethren of Saint Kiaranus were sowing their crops, there came merchants with wine of the Gauls to Saint Kiaranus, and they filled a huge vessel, the _solitana_ of the brethren, from that wine, which Saint Kiaranus gave to his brethren with his benediction.