O’Keeffe (ed.), Ériu 2 (1905) — translated from the Irish. [Variant readings in the editor’s apparatus are omitted for readability; sections missing from the extracted text are noted.]

THE EPISTLE OF JESUS HERE!

¹ The beginning of the epistle of the Saviour, our Lord Jesus Christ, concerning the Sunday, which he wrote with his own hand in the presence of the men of heaven, and which was laid upon the altar of Peter the apostle in Rome of Latium, for the keeping holy of the Sunday at all times. When this epistle was brought from heaven, all the earth trembled from the rising of the sun to its setting, so that the stones and the trees of the earth leaped on high — for dread of the Creator and for gladness at the presence of the angels who came with the epistle; and so great was the crashing that it opened up the place where the body of Peter the apostle then lay in Rome. When the abbot of Rome was at mass he saw the epistle upon the altar.

² This is what was found therein, namely, the forbidding of men to transgress the Sunday. For every plague and every torment that has come into the world has come through the transgression of the Sunday.

³ There are beasts in certain eastern regions given to men, and it is in vengeance for the Sunday they were sent. “Locusts” is their name. Iron is their hair, and they have fiery eyes. They go into the cornfields so that they burn the tops of the wheat until they fall to the ground, and then they gather round about that fruit, so that they carry the grain of the wheat on their spines to their dwellings.

⁴ There are also locusts — other names for them. They have wings of iron, and they stretch their wings against every thing they meet. Then they go into the wheat-fields until they burn the blades so that they fall upon the ground. That also is in vengeance for the Sunday upon men.

⁵ This is what the heavenly Father enjoined in the epistle: mercy upon the poor and the feeble and the pilgrims. The tears that they shed in pitying them — it is thus they are wise in the bosom of the Creator himself. It is he that will avenge the evil done to them.

⁶ This is the manner in which the keeping holy of the Sunday is enjoined from heaven: from vespers on Saturday until terce on Monday.

⁷ Christ, the Son of the living God, suffered cross and martyrdom for the sake of the human race, and rose from the dead on Sunday. Were it for that alone, the Sunday ought to be kept holy; and it is thereon he will come to judge the living and the dead. It is a witness for every one of what is in store. Thereon judgement is dealt straight to every man according to the greatness and the littleness of his guilt.

⁸ “He who shall not keep the Sunday,” says the heavenly Father, “in his own territories, his soul shall not reach heaven, and he shall not be welcomed by me in the kingdom of heaven, nor by the archangels or the apostles.”

⁹ “Whatever horse is ridden on the Sunday, it is a horse of fire that is beneath its rider in hell. Whatever ox and whatever slave and whatever bondmaid on whom a false yoke is laid on the Sunday — let their eyes shed tears of blood to God, for God has set them free on that day.” For not even men are punished in hell there.

[Sections 10–14 are missing from the extracted text.]

¹⁵ For on Sunday was seen the first light on the first day on which the world came into being. On Sunday God made heaven and earth in the beginning, and the beauty of form and the light of angels — on the same Sunday. On Sunday God commanded Noah’s ark to rest upon the mountain of Armenia after its escape from the billows of the flood. On Sunday the rainbow of heaven appeared after the flood, in token of the freeing of the seed of Adam, for he promised them that his wrath would not come so long as it should be seen. On Sunday the children of Israel went on dry feet through the Red Sea. On Sunday God granted the heavenly sustenance to the children of Israel, the shining manna on which they were for forty years in the wilderness. On Sunday the conception of the Son of the almighty Father in the womb of the Virgin Mary without stain of man, but by grace and inspiration of the Holy Spirit. On Sunday his birth from the Virgin without loss of virginity, before birth or in birth or after birth. On Sunday the adoration of the Son by the three druids [Magi] with the three gifts they brought in offering: gold and frankincense and myrrh. On Sunday the baptism of the Son by John the Baptist in the stream of Jordan. On Sunday Christ blessed the five loaves and the two fishes so that five thousand were fed, and twelve baskets of fragments were had. On Sunday the transfiguration of the Godhead and manhood of the Son of God on Mount Tabor, whereof the five were witnesses: Peter, John, James of the earthly ones, Moses from the dead, Elijah from the saints. On Sunday his riding upon the tied donkey for which they spread palm before him.

[Sections 16–21 are missing from the extracted text.]

Narrative. When the time drew near for the taking up of the shrine, the angel appeared in a vision to the priest who ministered at the altar.

²² This was the vision: as the church and the laity were keeping the triduan, when Saturday night had come after the celebration of the eve-office, the cleric slept, and saw the great light upon him in the house, and saw the cleric [the angel] with a chasuble full white about him, and he could not look upon his face, and a crozier in his hand pointed towards him, and a writing about the chasuble; and he said to him: “It is for you it was brought, and Conall son of Coelmain — it is he that shall give it to you.” Thereafter the cleric prostrated himself on his two knees before the angel, and the angel said to him: “Rise up, and seek the epistle of the Sunday in the shrine, and read it out to the men of the world, and every thing wherewith you can keep holy the Sunday shall be kept holy by you. If you do it not before the end of a month, your body shall be stretched dead in the graveyard.”

²³ These are the fines for transgressing the Sunday: an ounce of silver upon every man who shall go on a journey thereon, and his clothing to be burned and forfeiture of his eric [weregild]. Half an ounce upon a man at large who goes thereon, and his clothing to be burned. Whoever shall ride a horse on Sunday, forfeiture of his horse and of his clothing. Grinding in a mill on Sunday after the lesser canonical hours — if it be a layman’s mill, an ounce of silver for it and five seds [measures] in addition thereto. But if it be a church mill, it is a full cumal for grinding therein on Sunday. Every broo [hand-mill] that grinds on Sunday — its breaking, and half an ounce of silver upon the man or the woman that grinds it. If it be a man-servant or a maid-servant that grinds it, burning of their clothing and their expulsion from the household.

²⁴ Whoever owns the mill or the quern, his is the responsibility for keeping it. A third part of the fines upon him if it be not kept. A curach [boat] that is taken upon the sea on Sunday —

[Sections 25–27 are missing from the extracted text.]

— if it be anyone that cannot find means to pay or to restore, and he breaks the bond of the law and goes on Sunday, everyone that sees him shall pronounce a curse upon him and he shall not be rescued or avenged; no, his life on earth shall be shortened, and his soul shall not reach heaven for transgressing the Sunday.

²⁸ Whatever day upon which falls the great Christmas or the Christmas of the Stars [Epiphany], it is as a Sunday, and no work shall be done thereon. On the conscience of every man to whom God has given sense and reason, though others violate the Law of the Sunday, let not their fellows take them as an evil example. For it is upon himself that his pain falls, and it is for himself that his reward shall endure.

²⁹ Flax that is dipped in water between two lands on Sunday — burning thereof or forfeiture to the guardians of the law, and an ounce of silver upon every man that bears it, and burning of the basket and of the sods and of the clothing. Five seds for violating the guarantor or the cross on Sunday in proceeding to the law of Sunday. Three half-ounces for carrying anything in it.

³⁰ A colpach [yearling beast] or the price thereof is an ounce for the law of Sunday in that case.

³¹ Buffoons and smiths and satirists — they shall not go therein; what would be given to them on the festival shall be given on Monday.

³² Lawful disturbances on Sunday: fleeing before heathens, or warning of raid or hosting. Going in obedience to a summons, save that none shall go back until the Sunday is complete. Visiting a man in orders for the sake of communion, save that baptism shall not be sought unless it be for one likely to die before morning.