Chapter LI: The Earth of Ciaran's Tomb Delivers Colum Cille From a Whirlpool

(LA, LB)

This is perhaps an imitation of the tale of the Empress Helena, who, when returning after her discovery of the True Cross, was delivered from a storm by casting one of the Nails into the sea. Colum Cille was saved from the whirlpool of Coire Bhreacain (Corrievreckan, between Jura and Scarba) on another (?) occasion, by reciting a hymn to Brigit (LL, 1706).

_The Visit of Colum Cille to Clonmacnois._--This took place during the rule of Ailithir, the fourth abbot of Clonmacnois (A.D. 589-595). It is described in Adamnan's _Vita Columbae_, where we read of the honour paid to the distinguished visitor, and how he was greeted with hymns and praises, while a canopy was borne over him on his way to the church, to protect him from inconvenient crowding. A humble boy, a useless servitor in the monastery, came behind Columba to touch the hem of his garment: the saint, miraculously apprised of this, caught him by the neck and held him, despite the protests of the brethren that he should dismiss this "wretched and noxious boy." Then he bade the boy stretch forth his tongue, and blessed it, prophesying his future increase in wisdom and knowledge, and his eminence as a preacher. The boy was Ernin or Ernoc, the patron saint of Kilmarnock; and Adamnan had the tale from Failbe, who was standing by as Ernin himself related the incident to Abbot Segine of Í. Colum Cille also prophesied the Easter controversy, and told of angelic visitations that he had had within the precincts of Clonmacnois: but Adamnan says nothing about the hymn to Ciaran, or the wonder-working clay from his tomb, although elsewhere in his book the terrors of Corrievreckan are alluded to. According to a prophecy of Colum Cille narrated in O'Donnell's Life of that saint, Patrick is to judge the men of Ireland on the Last Day at Clonmacnois.

_The Hymn of Colum Cille._--This composition has not been preserved in its entirety. Fragments of it are introduced into the Homiletic Introduction of VG, which are enough to identify it with a short hymn to be found in the Irish _Liber Hymnorum_, and published by Bernard and Atkinson in their edition of that compilation.[29] It is as follows--

Alto et ineffabile apostolorum coeti
celestis Hierosolimæ sublimioris speculi
sedente tribunalibus solis modo micantibus
Quiaranus sanctus sacerdos insignis nuntius

inaltatus est manibus angelorum celestibus
consummatis felicibus sanctitatum generibus
quem tu Christe apostolum mundo misisti hominem
gloriosum in omnibus nouissimis temporibus

rogamus Deum altissimum per sanctorum memoriam
sancti Patrici episcopi Ciarani prespeteri
Columbæque auxilia nos deffendat egregia
ut per illorum merita possideamus premia

Obviously the third stanza, with its reference to Colum Cille himself, is a later addition, so that only the first two stanzas belong to the original hymn. The sixth line, _quem tu Christe_, is quoted in the section of VG referred to; but the three other excerpts, _lucerna_..., _custodiantur_..., _propheta_..., do not appear in the text before us: nor do the surviving stanzas justify the extravagant praise said to have been heaped on the composition at Clonmacnois--though no doubt a composition by Colum Cille, had it only the artless simplicity of a nursery jingle, would have been sure of an appreciative audience. However, the text seems to indicate something much more elaborate, and probably the original composition was an acrostic, like Colum Cille's great _Altus Prosator_.[30] The two authentic stanzas of the _Liber Hymnorum_ are incorporated in the metrical patchwork at the end of LB.

Another version of the hymn was known to Colgan, and is given by him in TT, p. 472. Unfortunately he quotes only one couplet--

Quantum Christe O Apostolum mundo misisti hominem
Lucerna huius insulæ lucens lucerna mirabilis

which is evidently corrupt, and (as Colgan seems to regard it as the opening stanza) must show that the whole text had become disturbed by the time when Colgan wrote. Indeed, it does not appear that Colgan knew any more of the hymn than these two lines.