Ciaran of Clonmacnois
A.D. 545
Feast Day: September 9

Many of the stories of the Celtic saints begin with a noble lineage. The saint is highlighted as a member of a royal family, though perhaps such kings and princes are little more than tribal  chieftains. Or the saint may be the illegitimate issue of some noble family. Ciaran of Clonmacnoise is a notable exception. Though a lineage is given, it is the lineage of craftsmen leading to his father, a carpenter. While his  mothers lineage is perhaps more notable, it is carried back but one generation, to his grandfather, Glas, a noted bard.

 The tales of Ciaran in his youth are typical of Celtic hagiography. There is a fox who carries his writing tablet back and forth from Ciarans teacher, F., while Ciaran tends the cattle. However,  the fox is tempted back to its wild nature and steals the book to chew on the leather strap. While enjoying its ill-gotten gain a group of hunters come upon it and the fox flees for its life, finally taking refuge under Ciarans  robe. The author of the Book of the Saints of Lismore uses the episode to point out how many who have benefited from the ministry of Christians still turn and rend and persecute Christians until some disaster drives them into  the forgiving arms of the Body of Christ.

 In joining Finian of Clonards school as one of the twelve apostles of Ireland (in company with such notables as Brendan of Clonfort and ColumCille) Ciaran is accompanied by a stag who carries  Ciarans psalter in his antlers. One morning when Ciaran jumps up abruptly as the bell for communal prayer is being rung, the stag takes alarm and runs out into a rainy day, the psalter still resting in its antlers. The stag is  gone in the rain for that day and the night following, but upon its return the still open psalter is undamaged by the rain.

 The theme of the strong bond between the Celtic saints and the created order, represented by so many of the stories of friendship between saints and beasts, is most clearly illustrated by Ciarans  dun cow. When leaving home to begin his studies, Ciaran asks his mother to allow him to take their cow with him in order to provide milk for the school. His mother refuses, but Ciaran goes out and blesses the cow who then  follows him docilely as he travels. The cow miraculously provides sufficient milk for the whole monastic community. After its death, Ciaran keeps the cows hide, which remarkable relic has the property that if any dying person  is laid upon the hide that person will escape the fires of eternal punishment.

 Ciarans relationship with his mother is a testy one. This is illustrated not only by the episode of the familys dun cow, but by another story of a sort of miraculous petulancy. Ciaran became  resentful at being run out of the house because it is considered ill-luck to have a male in the house while dying cloth. Ciaran curses the dye so that at first a grey stripe would appear in every cloth. After his mother  beseeches him to remove the curse he does so, only to turn it into a bleach. Finally she asks him to bless the dye (intended to be blue) and he does it so effectively that not only does it turn the cloth a wonderful blue but  that all that is touched by the cloth dogs, cats, trees  becomes blue as well.

 Fortunately Ciarans fame is not due to such miracles. He also had a wonderful gift of friendship and counted among such friends not only his classmates but such luminaries as Kevin of  Glendalough. This gifts greatest evidence is most apparent in the fate of the last community Ciaran founded before his early death. Ciaran had studied for some time with Enda. During that time he and Enda had shared a common  dream or vision. In that dream a great fruitful tree [stood] beside a stream in the middle of Ireland; and it protected the island of Ireland, and its fruit went forth over the sea that surrounded the island, and birds of the  world came to carry off somewhat of its fruit. When Ciaran and Enda came together, Enda interpreted the vision: The great tree which thou beholdest is thou thyself, for thou art great in the eyes of God and men, and all Ireland  will be full of thy honour. This island will be protected under the shadow of thy favour, and multitudes will be satisfied with the grace of thy fasting and thy prayer. Go then with Gods word to a bank of a stream, and there  found a church.

 That church was indeed on the banks of the Shannon, at a point where the geography of the Island had created natural road from east to west across Ireland. Clon maccu nois (Clonmacnoise) was as  near to the center of the island as no matter. Most interesting, however, was Clonmacnoise ascent to prestige as one of the great universities of early Ireland, a place where folk came from all over Ireland and the barbarian  courts of post-Roman Europe to gain wisdom and learning. What makes it interesting is that Ciaran died less than a year after founding Clonmacnoise at the age of thirty-three. His capacity for friendship and encouragement had  created this community. And the force of his personality along with the loyalty of his friendships insured that, though dying so soon after its founding, it would be for ever associated with Ciaran, the son of the carpenter.
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¹ p. 273 The Lives of the Saints from the Book of Lismore. Translated by Whitley Stokes.