Chapter L: The Visit of Coemgen (la, Vg)

Coemgen's petulance at the preoccupation of the bereaved monks (VG) is in keeping with other traditions of that peppery saint. The resurrection of Ciaran after three days is another touch in imitation of the Gospel story: it is, however, also told of Saint Darerca, who appeared to her nuns three days after her death (CS, 185).

The story before us is thus related in the Life of Coemgen: "At another time most blessed Coemgenus made his way to visit most holy Kyaranus the abbot, who founded his settlement Cluayn meic Noys, which is in the western border of the territory of Meath, on the bank of the river Synna over against the province of the Connachta. But Saint Cyaranus on the third day before Saint Coemgenus arrived, passed from this world to Christ. His body was laid in a church on a bier, till Saint Coemgenus and other saints should come to bury him. And Saint Coemgenus coming late to the monastery of Saint Chyaranus, he entered the church in which was the holy body and commanded all the brethren to go forth, wishing to spend that night alone beside the sacred body. And when all the brethren had gone out, Saint Coemgenus carefully closed the door of the church, and remained there alone till the following day; but some of the brethren were watching till morning before the doors of the church. And as Saint Coemgenus prayed there, the most blessed soul of Saint Chiaranus returned to his body, and he rose and began to speak in health-giving words to Saint Coemgenus. The brethren remaining outside heard the voice of each of them clearly. Saint Kyaranus asked blessed Coemgenus that they should interchange their vesture, as a sign of everlasting fellowship: and so they did. On the following day when the door of the church was opened, the brethren found Saint Coemgenus clad in the vesture of Saint Kyaranus, and Kyaranus wrapped in the vestments of Saint Coemgenus. The body of Saint Kyaranus was warm, having a ruddy tinge in the face. Saint Coemgenus pointed out to the monks of Saint Kyaranus the brotherhood and fellowship which he and Saint Kyaranus had established for ever between themselves and their places and their monks; and the brethren who watched that night bore testimony thereto. When the body of Saint Kyaranus was honourably committed to the ground, Saint Coemgenus returned to his own settlement." (VSH, i, 248).

In this story we see as before the explanation of a treaty between Clonmacnois and Glendaloch.

The _Annals of Clonmacnois_ narrates the story of the death of Ciaran and the visit of Coemgen, with an interesting additional miracle. "Dying, he desired his monks that they would bury his body in the Little Church of Clonmacnois, and stop the door thereof with stones, and let nobody have access thereunto until his companion Coemgen had come; which they accordingly did. But Saint Coemgen dwelling at Glendaloch in Leinster then, it was revealed to him of the death of his dear and loving companion Saint Ciaran, whereupon he came suddenly to Clonmacnois: and finding the monks and servants of Saint Ciaran in their sorrowful and sad dumps after the death of their said lord and master, he asked them of the cause of their sadness. They were so heartless for grief as they gave no answer; and at last, fearing he would grow angry, they told him Saint Ciaran was dead and buried, and ordered or ordained the place of his burial should be kept without access until his coming. The stones being taken out of the door, Saint Coemgen entered, to whom Saint Ciaran appeared: and [they] remained conversing together for twenty-four hours, as is very confidently laid down in the Life of Saint Ciaran; and afterwards Saint Coemgen departed to the place of his own abiding, [and] left Saint Ciaran buried in the said Little Church of Clonmacnois. But king Diarmait most of all men grieved for his death, insomuch that he grew deaf, and could not hear the causes of his subjects, by reason of the heaviness and troublesomeness of his brains. Saint Colum Cille being then banished into Scotland, king Diarmait made his repair to him, to the end [that] he might work some means by miracles for the recovery of his health and hearing: and withal told Saint Colum Cille how he assembled all the physicians of Ireland, and that they could not help him. Then said Saint Colum: 'Mine advice unto you is to make your repair to Clonmacnois, to the place where your ghostly father and friend Saint Ciaran is buried: and there to put a little of the earth of his grave or of himself in your ears, which is the medicine which I think to be most available to help you.' The king having received the said instructions of Saint Colum, took his journey immediately to Clonmacnois; and finding Oenna maccu Laigsi, who was abbot of the place after Saint Ciaran, absent, he spoke to Lugaid, then parish priest of Clonmacnois, and told him of Saint Colum's instructions unto him. Whereupon priest Lugaid and king Diarmait fasted and watched that night in the Little Church where Saint Ciaran was buried, and the next morning the priest took the bell that he had, named then the White Bell,[28] and mingled part of the clay of Saint Ciaran therein with holy water, and put the same in the king's ears, and immediately the king had as good hearing as any in the kingdom, and the whole sickness and troubles of his brains ceased at that instant, which made the king to say, _Is feartach an ní do ní an clog orainn_, which is as much as to say in English, 'The bell did do us a miraculous turn.' Which bell Saint Lugna conveyed with him to the church of Fore, where he remained afterwards. King Diarmait bestowed great gifts of lands on Clonmacnois in honour of Saint Ciaran, for the recovery of his health."

The bell, called the _bóbán_ of Coemgen, reappears much later in history as a relic on which oaths were taken (_Annals of Clonmacnois_, anno 1139; _Four Masters_, anno 1143). It was doubtless a relic preserved at Glendaloch, in which the people of Clonmacnois rightly or wrongly claimed a part-proprietorship. The name is obscure: it means, according to O'Davoren's Glossary, a calf or little cow: and Plummer (VSH, i, p. clxxvii) suggests that this name may be an allusion to its small size. But why "calf"? Is it an allusion to the original use of the type of bells used for ecclesiastical purposes in Ireland, as cow-bells?

Angels were seen by Saint Colman to fill the space between heaven and earth to receive the soul of Pope Gregory (VSH, i, 264).