Here begins a Prologue, in the form of an Epistle, to the Life of S. Kentigern, Bishop and Confessor.

Prologue. #

¹ To his most reverend lord and dearest father Jocelinus, an anointed bishop of the Lord Jesus Christ, Jocelinus, the least of the poor ones of Christ, wishes, with the feeling and reality of a son’s love and obedience, the salvation of body and soul in our Saviour.

² Since the fame of your name, the loftiness of your office, the even balance of your judgment, your life which is darkened by no shadow of evil report, and your long-tried religion give me sufficient reason for believing, on diligent consideration, that you are the ornament of the House of the Lord over which you preside, I have deemed it fitting to offer you the first-fruits of my gatherings, which are redolent of the glory and beauty both of yourself and of your church. For I have wandered through the streets and lanes of the city, according to your command, seeking the recorded life of S. Kentigern whom your soul loves; in whose chair the grace of the Divine condescension, by the adoption of sons, by ecclesiastical election, and by the succession of the ministry, has caused your sanctity to preside. And so I sought diligently for a life of him, if perhaps such might be found, composed with greater authority, with more evident truth, and with a more cultivated style than that which your church uses; because, as it seems to most men, it is stained throughout by an uncultivated diction, discoloured and obscured by an inelegant style, and, what any wise man would abhor beyond all these things, something contrary to sound doctrine and to the Catholic faith very evidently appears at the very beginning of the narrative. But I have found another little volume, written in the Scotic dialect, filled from end to end with solecisms, but containing at greater length the life and acts of the holy bishop. I confess that I grieved and took it ill that the life of so precious a bishop, glorious with signs and wonders, most distinguished by virtues and doctrine, should be tainted by anything perverse or opposed to the faith in its narrative, or again made exceedingly obscure by barbarous language; and so I determined to put together, by way of restoration, the matter collected out of either book, and, so far as I might, and by your command, to season what had been composed in a barbarous way with Roman salt. I deem it absurd that so precious a treasure should be swathed in vile wrappings, and therefore I have endeavoured to clothe it, if not in gold tissue and silk, at least in clean linen. I have endeavoured so to pour the life-giving wine from the old vessel into the new that, drawn out in proportion to the scanty capacity of the vessel, it may be desirable to the simple, not useless to those who are further advanced, and no object of contempt to those who are richly endowed with sense. If then the merits and prayers of the holy bishop aid me, and the favour of the Inspirer from on high smiles upon me, I shall so temper the style that the work I have undertaken will neither be obscure, by creeping in the dark through too lowly language, nor, on the other hand, by aiming on high, swell with pompous words beyond what it ought, lest I should seem to have planted a grove in the temple of the Lord, which He has forbidden. Therefore the whole study of this work, the entire fruit of this my labour, I have deemed meet to consecrate to your name and to submit to your approval. If, however, anything is put forth which is inelegant or insipid, let it be seasoned with the salt of your discretion; if anything sounds in it scarcely consonant with truth, which I do not think there is, let it be shaped and squared by the rule of your judgment. If nothing is found failing in either of these respects, let it be supported by your testimony and confirmed by your authority. And in all these things, if anything proceeding from my pen comes to light otherwise than becomes the subject, let it be imputed to the unskilfulness of my incapacity. If anything is produced worthy of being read, let it be ascribed to your eminence. But I have nowhere been able to find a description of the Translation of this saint, nor of the miracles performed after his death, which, however, were not recorded, perhaps because they escaped the memory of those who were present, or were multiplied beyond enumeration, and which have thus been omitted so that the mass of facts collected might not breed weariness in feeble readers. May your sanctity ever live and flourish in the Lord.

Here ends the Prologue.

Here begins the Life of S. Kentigern, Bishop and Confessor.

Chapter One. #

¹ The beginning of the record of the glorious life of the most famous Kentigern, very dear to God and man, a Nazarite of our Nazarene Jesus Christ, is consecrated by that Divine oracle in which the Lord, anticipating the holy prophet Jeremiah with the blessings of His graciousness, announces that he shall be a chosen vessel sanctified to the office of the ministry, in such praise as this: “Before I formed you in the belly I knew you, and before you came forth out of the womb I sanctified you, and I ordained you a prophet to the nations.” Truly, blessed Kentigern, known to God before he was born into the world, bedewed with the grace of election before he came forth from his mother’s womb, was made great by miracles from the beginning, before he became great either in bodily form or in his merits. For the Holy of holies began to make him shine forth in the sunlight of virtue from his very origin when sanctified in the womb, and when yet more fully to be sanctified, while enclosed in his mother’s breast, so that He might prove that the special gift of the Holy Spirit is not constrained by the chain of original sin. This man, I say, famous for his race and beauty, and distinguished in many ways by signs, prodigies, and portents, the Redeemer of the nations decreed to destine as a prophet, indeed, as a teacher and head ruler to many nations. And so this most holy one, although he drew his original stock from a royal stem, came forth as a rose from the thorn, as an aromatic tree from filthy ground; for his mother was the daughter of a certain king, most Pagan in his creed, who ruled in the northern parts of Britannia. But when the sound of the announcement of the Christian faith went forth into the land of that region, and the words of saintly preachers advanced into those northern regions from which all evil used to proceed, she heard with her ears those things that were to be heard: how the Brightness of the Eternal Light, the Sun of Righteousness, rising by the star of virginity, illuminated the world with the rays of His knowledge and love, and declared salvation to those who were near and to those who were afar off, leading His own into the entire fulness of the truth more efficaciously by the argument of evident signs. Straightway her heart was hot within her, and in her meditation that fire was kindled which the Lord sent on earth and earnestly willed should be kindled; and her soul, thirsting to come to the recognition of the truth, conceived the engrafted word which could save her soul from eternal death. Though she was not yet washed in the waters of saving baptism, she was running in the way of God’s commandments with an active and open heart. She occupied herself continually in frequent almsgiving, in devout prayers, in learning and exercising herself in the discipline of the faith of the church, so far as she might for fear of her Pagan father. Yet with a special devotion among these things, she admired the fruitful purity of the Virgin Mother; in admiring it she venerated it, in venerating and loving it she sought to imitate it, and with a certain presumptuous boldness of female audacity she willed to be like her in conception and birth, for which she sedulously laboured to entreat the Lord.

² After some time had passed, she was found with child, and her soul magnified the Lord, simply believing, as she did, that her desire had been accomplished. Now that which was born in her was from the embrace of a man, but by whom, or when, or in what manner she conceived, as she often asserted while binding herself by an oath, she had no consciousness. But although she was ignorant of the secret, or it had escaped her memory, the truth of the affair should by no means perish in the mind of a discreet person, nor should any scruple arise from it; for, that we may for the present bury in silence what is found in poetic songs, or what we find inserted in histories which are not canonical, when we turn to the sacred volumes we read in the Book of Genesis that the daughters of Lot not merely furtively secured for themselves the embraces of their father, but actually both conceived by him when he was inebriated and entirely ignorant of what he was doing. It is certain, moreover, that many who have drunk the potion of oblivion, which physicians call Letargion, have slept and never felt it when they suffered the cutting and sometimes the burning of their limbs, and even the scraping of their vitals, and after awaking from the sleep were ignorant of what was done to them. We have also known of maiden chastity stormed by the sleight of hand of soothsayers, where the deflowered one never knew who had ruined her. It may be that something of this kind happened to the girl, by the secret judgment of God, so that she might not feel the mingling of the sexes and so, when impregnated, might think herself undefiled.

³ We by no means think it was purposeless that this should have been mentioned, since the stupid and foolish people who live in the diocese of S. Kentigern go so far as to assert that he was conceived and born of a virgin. But why should we linger over these things? Surely it is both absurd and irrelevant to investigate any longer who was the sower or how the seed was ploughed in or sown, when, the Lord giving the increase, the earth brought forth good and rich fruit — the fruit, I say, of this land, which has received blessing from the Lord, whereby many generations are blessed by Him and receive from Him the fruit of eternal salvation.

⁴ Meanwhile the woman went about, and her swelling womb began to show all onlookers the sign of her conception. And now the pallor of her countenance, the swelling of the veins of her throat, and the milk bursting from her breasts announced that her delivery was at hand. And when this had been instilled into the ears of the king her father, and he had proved the truth of the matter by a more certain examination through sight and touch, he began most earnestly to try to learn from her, now urging her by her fears, now coaxing her with blandishments, who had brought her to the condition in which she was. But she declared with an oath, in the name of Christ, that she was innocent of all intercourse with man. On hearing this the king was moved to greater rage, both because of the name of Christ which sounded in his ears and because he could not discover the violator of his daughter. Whereupon he swore, and steadily purposed to keep his righteous judgment, and determined not to swerve from the law handed down from his ancestors in such cases, for the love or the life of his daughter.

Chapter Two: Of the Law established in those days among the Cambrian people concerning Girls who committed Fornication. #

¹ There was a law among that barbarous people, promulgated from remote antiquity, that a girl committing fornication in her father’s house and found with child was to be cast down from the summit of a high mountain, and he who sinned with her was to be beheaded. So among the ancient Saxons, almost up to modern times, the law remained in force that every virgin willingly deflowered in her father’s house should be buried alive without any remission, and her lover hanged over her sepulchre. What shall we say to these things, or what can we conjecture concerning them? If such a zeal for chastity burns in the heathen, who are ignorant of the Divine law, solely for decency’s sake and for the observance of the traditions of their fathers, what shall the Christian do, who is bound to the preservation of chastity by that Divine law? For if the joy of heaven is promised as the reward of its observance, so, on the other hand, eternal punishment is now prepared for its violation. See, in these days both sexes and every condition are plunged in every slough of carnal sin, almost with a ready will and without restraint, because they do it with impunity. And not only is the vile commonalty polluted by this contagion, but even those who are maintained by ecclesiastical benefices, and who betake themselves to the Divine offices, are so much the more impure as they deem themselves more happy. For now the hammerer of the whole earth, the very spirit of Fornication, has passed over them. They who exhibit in outward form the appearance of sanctity, but deny its power, are known by their impure lives to lie to God by their works, paying allegiance to the present world in their sacred habit and tonsure. Truly they must fear what God threatens by His prophet, saying, “He who has done iniquity in the land of the saints shall not look upon the glory of the Lord.” For now — what is to be bewailed with every flood of tears — that sin of sins, than which nothing more detestable can be conceived, on account of which the sulphurous flame, a heavenly judgment, destroyed the guilty in the five cities, is committed with impunity. Nor can there easily be found one who can chide the perpetrator. For if anyone, however rarely, may be discovered whom the zeal of the Lord’s house consumes, who burns with the love of righteousness and decency so that he should seem to censure such monstrous crimes, straightway he is resisted to his face as a sycophant and condemned by all as guilty of detraction. His mouth is stopped as of one speaking wickedly, and his tongue is decreed to be tied up.

² And why is this? Plainly, because the body of leviathan, as it is written, is shut up with scales: “One is so near to another that no air can come between them” — because the criminous and guilty ones, who are the children of the devil, are mutually protected by others implicated in the same vice, so that the arrow of correction cannot penetrate them. Truly, as I think, this takes place as a proof of their irretrievable damnation: that such men, given over to a reprobate mind, neither receive nor will accept the rod of correction. And the multitude, stained with the same vice, does not improve them by punishment, seeing that the many, as well as they themselves, burn individually as if cast into a furnace.

³ But what shall we say of those on whom the duty is enjoined of binding and loosing, of opening and shutting, who are placed upon a candlestick so that in the House of God they may shine by word and example? Do not the greater part nowadays exhibit smoke rather than flame, stench rather than brightness? Are they not dumb dogs that cannot, indeed, that will not, bark? When they see manners worse than beastly, they dare not check them, especially since they themselves are confirmed in these habits — indeed, in truth, are more wicked. For as with the people, so with the priest; as is the subject, so is the prelate; indeed, they who are first in dignity are first in iniquity, and they who excel in office are deepest in vice. What the Scripture mystically says of such is to be feared for them: “And if so much as a beast touched the mountain, it was to be stoned.” The beast touches the mountain when anyone of beastly life mounts the chair of prelacy and applies an impure hand to purifying sacrifices. Yet such a one is ordered to be stoned, for it is evidently taught to us in the opinions of the holy Fathers that he should be subjected to a severe and grave condemnation. That I have said this by way of digression will, I beg, be burdensome to no one. The zeal of this Pagan man, who did not spare his own daughter but for the fault of simple fornication handed her over to so terrible a punishment, should cause great shame to the worshippers of Christ in planting and propagating modesty.

Chapter Three: How the Divine mercy saved the Mother of S. Kentigern from the Precipice and from Shipwreck. #

¹ Accordingly, by the king’s command, the girl was led to the top of a very high hill called Dunpelder, so that, cast down from there, she might be broken limb from limb or dashed to pieces. But she, groaning heavily and looking up to heaven, said in complaining words, “Justly do I suffer this, for I have done very foolishly in wishing to be made equal to the most holy, most serene source of salvation, the parent who brought forth her Father. But I beg you,” she said, “O Mary, blessed among women, pardon the iniquity of your handmaid, for I have done very foolishly. O mother of mercy, show the light of your loving-kindness towards me, and free me from the plague which surrounds me. I beg you, O Lady, that as He, the flower of the angelic mountains, without injury to your snow-white purity, deigned to become in you the lowly and fertile valley of all virtues, the lily of our valleys, and out of you, the most firm mountain of the faith, deigned to become the stone hewn without hands, which became a great mountain and filled the whole earth; so deliver me, your handmaid, though not yet washed in the sacred font, yet firmly believing in your Son and resting under the shadow of your wings, from the precipice before me, that the blessed name of your Son may be for ever magnified in the sight of these people. Moreover, I promise the fruit which I bear in my womb to your Son and to you, as a special possession, to be your servant all the days of his life.”

² When she had prayed in this manner with devout heart and mouth, the servants of the king hurled her from the top of the mountain as she invoked Christ and His mother with frequent urgency. A wonderful thing occurred, unheard of from ancient times. When she fell she was not bruised, because the Lord supported her with His hand, and therefore she sustained no injury; since, as it seemed to her, like a bird borne on feathers, she came down with an easy descent to the ground, lest she should dash her foot against a stone. Thanksgiving and the voice of praise sound forth from the mouths of many who saw these wonderful works of God. The holy and terrible name of Christ is magnified. The innocent one is judged to be not only free from all further punishment but in every way to be held in veneration. But on the other hand, the idolaters and adversaries of the Christian faith imputed this not to Divine virtue but to magical arts, and with one voice proclaimed her a witch and a sorceress. Therefore there was a division among the people concerning her. Some said, “She is a good woman, and innocent.” Others said, “No, but by her conjuring she deceives the people, changes their countenance, and deludes their senses.”

³ The crowd therefore confused itself in a whirl of words, but the sacrilegious multitude, prevailing, urged the king, who was entirely devoted to idolatry, to dictate a new sentence on his daughter. At length, by the common verdict of the society of the ungodly and of the adversaries of the name of Christ, it was decreed that the poor little pregnant woman, placed alone in a boat, should be exposed to the sea. In order therefore that the sentence thus determined should be carried into effect, the king’s servants embarked and took her far out to sea, and, committing her to fortune alone in a very little boat of hides made after the fashion of the Scotti, without any oar, rowed back to the shore. They related to the king and to the people, who were awaiting the issue of the event, what they had done. But they said, mocking, “She calls herself the handmaid of Christ and professes to have the protection of His power; let us see whether her words are true. She trusts in Christ; let Him deliver her, if He is able, from the hand of death and from the peril of the sea.”

⁴ But the girl, destitute of all human help, committed herself to Him alone who created the sea and the dry land, devoutly praying Him who had saved her before from the precipice to protect her from the shipwreck which threatened her. Wonderful to relate, though nothing is impossible with the Lord, that little vessel in which the pregnant girl was detained ploughed the watery breakers and eddies of the waves towards the opposite shore more quickly than if it had been propelled by a wind filling the sail or by the effort of many oarsmen. For He who preserved unhurt amid the ocean-currents Jonah the prophet, borne within the vast belly of the whale; who by His right hand held up blessed Peter when he walked upon the waves so that he should not be drowned; and who saved from the depths of the sea his fellow-apostle Paul, who three times suffered shipwreck — He brought the girl safe to the haven of refuge, for the sake of the child whom she bore in her womb, whom He predestined to be an excellent captain of His ship; that is, a teacher and good ruler of His Church.

Chapter Four: Of the Birth of S. Kentigern, and his Education by S. Servanus. #

¹ The girl landed on the sand at a place called Culenros, where at that time S. Servanus was living and teaching sacred literature to many boys who were to be trained for the Divine service. When she had landed on the shore, the pains of approaching childbirth seized her. Raising her eyes, she saw at a distance, although in the darkness, the signs of the ashes of a fire near the shore, which perhaps some shepherds or fishermen had left there. She crawled to the place and, as best she could, kindled a fire for herself. But when the dawn, the herald of the Divine light, began to brighten, the time was accomplished for her to bring forth. And she brought forth a son, the preacher and herald of the true Light.

² Now at the same hour, while S. Servanus, intent upon prayer after mass in the morning, was drawing in his breath in the delight of Divine contemplation, he heard the companies of the angels chanting their mellifluous praises on high; and rejoicing along with their lauds, he and his disciples, exulting in spirit, strove to sacrifice to the Lord the victims of jubilation by singing, “We praise you, O Lord.” When the clerics, astonished at the novelty of the affair, demanded what had happened, he told them the whole matter in order, and the hymn-singing of the angels, sedulously exhorting them to offer the calves of their lips to the Lord. But there were in the neighbourhood shepherds keeping watch over the flocks. And they, going forth in the early day-spring, saw a fire lighted close at hand, and coming in haste found the young woman with her childbirth completed, and the child wrapped in rags and lying in the open air. Moved by pity, they took care of them, increasing the fire and supplying food and procuring other necessaries; and bringing them in as suitable a way as they could, and presenting them to S. Servanus, they related the matter from the beginning.

³ On hearing this and seeing the little boy, the mouth of the blessed old man was filled with spiritual laughter and his heart with joy. And so in the language of his country he exclaimed, “Mochohe, Mochohe,” which in Latin means “Care mi, Care mi,” adding, “Blessed are you who have come in the name of the Lord.” He therefore took them to himself and nourished and educated them as if they were his own pledges. After certain days had passed he dipped them in the waters of regeneration and restoration, and anointed them with the sacred chrism, calling the mother Taneu and the child Kyentyern, which by interpretation is “The Chief Lord”. That this new name, which the mouth of S. Servanus bestowed on him, was not received in vain shall be clearly set forth in what follows. And so the man of God educated the child of God, like another Samuel committed to him and assigned by God. But the child grew and was comforted, and the grace of God was in him. But when the age of intelligence and the acceptable time for learning arrived, he handed him over to be trained in letters, and spent much labour and care that he might profit in these things. Nor was he disappointed in his desire in this respect, seeing that the boy, in learning and retaining, well and richly responded to his training, “like a tree planted by the water side, which brings forth its fruit in due season”. The boy advanced, under the unction of good hope and holy disposition, in the discipline of learning as well as in the exercise of the sacred virtues. For there were bestowed upon him by the Father of Lights, from whom descends every good and perfect gift, a docile heart, a genius sharp at understanding, a memory tenacious in recollecting, and a tongue persuasive in bringing forward what he willed; a high, sweet, harmonious, and indefatigable voice for singing the Divine praises. All these gifts of grace were gilded by a worthy life, and therefore beyond all his companions he was precious and amiable in the eyes of the holy old man. And so he was accustomed to call him in the language of his country “Munghu”, which in Latin means “Karissimus Amicus”, and by this name even until the present time the common people frequently call him, and invoke him in their necessities.

Chapter Five: Of the little Bird that was killed, and then restored to life by Kentigern. #

¹ The fellow-pupils of S. Kentigern, seeing that he was loved beyond the rest by their master and spiritual father, hated him, and were unable either in public or in private to say anything peaceable to him. Hence in many ways they intrigued against him, abused him, envied him, and backbit him. But the Lord’s boy ever had the eye of his heart fixed upon the Lord, and, mourning more for them than for himself, cared little for all the unjust machinations of men. Now a little bird, which on account of the colour of its body is called the redbreast, by the will of the Heavenly Father, without whose permission not even a sparrow falls to the ground, was accustomed to receive its daily food from the hand of the servant of God, Servanus, and by such a custom being established it showed itself tame and domesticated to him. Sometimes it even perched upon his head, or face, or shoulder, or bosom; sometimes it was with him when he read or prayed, and by the flapping of its wings, or by the sound of its inarticulate voice, or by some little gesture, it showed the love it had for him; so that sometimes the face of the man of God, shadowing forth the motion of the bird, was clothed in joy, as he wondered at the great power of God in the little creature, to whom the dumb speak and the irrational things are known to have reason. And because that bird often approached and departed at the command and will of the man of God, it excited incredulity and hardness of heart in his disciples and convicted them of disobedience. And this will not seem strange to anyone, seeing that the Lord by the voice of a mute animal under the yoke reproved the madness of the prophet, and Solomon, the wisest of men, sent the sluggard to the ant so that by considering her labour and industry he might cast away his torpor and sloth. Moreover, a certain saint and sage invited his religious to consider the work of bees, so that in their little bodies they might learn the beautiful discipline of service. And perhaps it will seem wonderful to some that a man so holy and perfect should take delight in the play and gesture of a little bird. But such should know that perfect men ought sometimes to have their rigours mitigated by something of this kind, so that they who mentally approach God should sometimes descend to our level; just as the bow ought occasionally to be unbent, lest it be found nerveless and useless at the needful time, from too long tension, in the discharge of the arrow. Even birds, in passing through the air, are sometimes able to rise with extended wings and sometimes, closing them, to descend towards earth.

² Therefore on a certain day, when the saint entered his oratory to offer up to God the frankincense of prayer, the boys, availing themselves of the absence of the master, began to indulge in play with the same little bird; and while they handled it among them and sought to snatch it from each other, it was destroyed in their hands and its head was torn from its body. On this, play became sorrow, and already in imagination they saw the blows of the rods which are accustomed to be the greatest torment of boys. Having taken counsel among themselves, they laid the blame on the boy Kentigern, who had kept himself entirely apart from the affair, and they showed him the dead bird and threw it away from themselves before the old man arrived. But he took the death of the bird very ill and threatened an extremely severe vengeance on its destroyer. The boys therefore rejoiced, thinking that they had escaped and had turned onto Kentigern the punishment due to them, and diminished the grace of friendship which Servanus had until then entertained for him.

³ When Kentigern, the most pure child, learnt this, taking the bird in his hands and putting the head upon the body, he signed it with the sign of the cross, and lifting up holy hands in prayer to the Lord, he said, “Lord Jesus Christ, in whose hands is the breath of every rational and irrational creature, give back to this bird the breath of life, that Your blessed name may be glorified for ever.” These words the saint spoke in prayer, and straightway the bird revived, and not only rose in the air in safety with untrammelled flight, but also in its usual way flew forth with joy to meet the holy old man as he returned from the church. On seeing this prodigy the heart of the old man rejoiced in the Lord, and his soul magnified the Lord’s boy in the Lord, and the Lord who alone does marvellous things and was working in the boy. By this remarkable sign, therefore, the Lord marked out, indeed in a way presignified as His own, Kentigern, and announced him beforehand, whom in after times, in manifold ways, He made still more distinguished by wonders.

Chapter Six: Of the Fire extinguished through envy by the Companions of S. Kentigern, and by his Breath brought down from Heaven upon a little branch of Hazel. #

¹ It was the rule of S. Servanus that each of the boys whom he trained and instructed should, during the lapse of a week, carefully attend to arranging the lamps in the church while the Divine office was being celebrated there by day and by night, and for this purpose, when the others had gone to sleep, should attend to the fire, lest any neglect from default of light should happen to the Divine service. It happened that S. Kentigern, in the order of his course, was appointed to this service, and, while he was doing it diligently and in order, his rivals — inflamed with the torches of envy, indeed blinded, as it is the peculiarity of perverse men to envy the advance of their betters, to persecute, to pervert, and to diminish the good which in themselves they have not, nor will to have, nor can have — on a certain solemn night secretly extinguished all the fire within the habitations of the monastery and the places in its neighbourhood. Then, as if ignorant and innocent, they sought their beds, and when about cockcrow, as was his custom at the sacred vigils, S. Kentigern arose, as custom required that he should attend to the lights, and sought for fire everywhere round about and did not find it.

² At length, having found out the wickedness of his rivals, he determined in his mind to give place to envy, and began to leave the monastery. But when he had come to the hedge which surrounded that habitation, returning to himself, he stood still and armed his soul to endure perils from false brethren and to bear the persecution of the perverse. Then, going back to the house, he laid hold of and drew out a bough of a growing hazel which had come up beside the hedge and, enkindled by faith, begged the Father of Lights to lighten his darkness by the pouring in of new light, and in a new way to prepare for himself a lantern by which he might clothe with healthful confusion those enemies of his who persecuted him. Lifting therefore a pure hand, he signed the bough with the sign of the cross, and, blessing it in the name of the holy and undivided Trinity, breathed upon it. A wonderful and remarkable thing followed! Straightway fire, coming forth from heaven, seized the bough, as if the boy had exhaled flame for breath; it sent forth fire vomiting rays, and banished all the surrounding darkness; and so in His light seeing light, he walked into the House of God. God therefore sent forth His light, and led him and brought him to the monastery, even to His holy hill and to His dwelling. And so he went to the altar of God, who gave joy to his youth by so clear a sign, and kindled the lamps of the church so that the Divine office might be celebrated and finished in due season. Therefore the Lord was his light and his salvation, so that he might no longer fear any of his rivals, because He gave sentence for him and defended his cause against those unjust, envious, and deceitful youths, so that their malice might no more prevail against him.

³ All were astonished, seeing this great vision, when that torch burnt without injury to itself, as when in olden time the bush which appeared to Moses seemed to be burnt and yet was not consumed. For it was one and the same Lord who worked the selfsame wonder in the bush and in the twig of hazel; for the Same who destined Moses as a lawgiver for the people of the Hebrews, that he might lead them out of the bondage of Egypt, deigned to destine Kentigern as a preacher of the Christian law to many nations, that he might rescue them from the power of the devil. In the end that torch was extinguished from heaven when the lamps of the church had been lighted, and everyone wondered more and more, seeing these great things of God. For that hazel from which the little branch was taken received a blessing from S. Kentigern, and afterwards began to grow into a wood. If from that grove of hazel, as the country folk say, even the greenest branch is taken, even at the present day it catches fire like the driest material at the touch of fire, which in a manner laps it up, and, influenced by a little breath through the merit of the saint, sheds abroad from itself a fiery haze. And truly it was right that a miracle of this nature should continue, indeed perpetuate itself, in his case who, although in the verdure of the springtime of life the delight of the flesh was vigorous, was yet inwardly strong, and all the glory of the world, like the grass of the field, entirely withered because the Spirit of the Lord blew upon it, and the Word of God, for ever abiding, consecrated to Himself by His enlightening that hallowed soul and undefiled body, and the fire of the Holy Spirit burnt him up as a whole burnt-offering, accepted as an odour of a sweet savour.

Chapter Seven: Of the Cook raised from the Dead by the Prayers of S. Kentigern. #

¹ S. Servanus had a certain man deputed to the office of the kitchen who was very necessary for him and for those who dwelt with him, in that he was well qualified and active in that duty and carefully attended to this frequent ministry. It happened that, seized with a sharp illness, he lay upon his bed, and the disease increasing and running its course, he yielded up the vital spirit. Sorrow filled the heart of the aged man for his death, and all the crowd of his disciples and all his family lamented for him, because it was not easy to find another like him for such a service. Fulfilling a natural duty, they consigned his native dust to the womb of the mother of all, and sustained no small loss on account of his decease. On the day after the burial, all the disciples and servants, both those friendly and those jealous, came to S. Servanus, earnestly begging him that he should by his prayer summon his Munghu, and compel him by his virtue of obedience, so far as to endeavour to raise his cook from the dead. For the envious ones asserted that the Egyptian magicians, by their enchantments, had shown forth signs from heaven, and, on the testimony of John in the Apocalypse, that the disciples of Antichrist would send down fire from heaven, and that many wizards had in the eyes of all done what seemed wondrous by their occult arts, but that none of the human race could bring back to the breath of life one who was really dead, unless he was a man perfect in holiness.

² They persisted, in season and out of season, urging him by persuasive words to test his sanctity by such a work as this, and that his merit would be proclaimed for ever if he recalled to life one dead and buried. The holy old man, at first hesitating to presume to enjoin so unusual a work on the young man, at length, overcome and constrained by their wicked importunity, reasoned with the Lord’s young man on the matter with bland words and entreaties, but found him reluctant, asserting that he had not the merit for this. Then S. Servanus adjured him by the holy and terrible name of God that at least he should try what he could do in such a matter, and this he commanded in the force of holy obedience. The young man then, fearing that adjuration, and thinking that obedience was better and more pleasing to God than all sacrifices, went to the tomb where the cook had been buried the day before, and caused the earth with which he was covered to be dug up and cast out. Falling down therefore alone on the ground, with his face plentifully bedewed with tears, he said, “O Lord Jesus Christ, who are the life and the resurrection of Your own who faithfully believe in You, who kill and make alive, who bring down to the grave and bring up, to whom life and death are servants, who raised Lazarus when he had been four days dead, raise again this dead man, that Your holy name may be blessed and glorified above all things for ever.”

³ An exceedingly astonishing thing followed! While S. Kentigern poured forth copious prayers, the dead man lying in the dust straightway rose again from the tomb and came forth, though bound in grave-clothes, from the sepulchral home. He truly arose from the dead as the other arose from prayer, and along with him, and a large company following him, he proceeded safe and active first of all to the church to return thanks to God; then, by the command of Kentigern, he went back to his accustomed duty of cooking, all wondering at the miracle and praising the Lord. He, in truth, who was raised from the dead declared in after times what he had seen of the punishment of the wicked and the joys of the righteous; and he converted many from evil to good, while he strengthened in their holy purpose many who were endeavouring to advance from good to better. On being urged by many, he likewise unfolded the manner of his resuscitation. He asserted that he had been reft from things human with unspeakable pain, carried before the tribunal of the terrible Judge, and that there he had seen very many on receiving their sentence plunged into hell, others destined to purgatorial places, some elevated to celestial joys above the heavens. And when, trembling, he was awaiting his own sentence, he heard that he was the man for whom Kentigern, beloved of the Lord, was praying, and he was ordered by a being streaming with light to be restored to the body and brought back to his former life and health; and he was sedulously warned by him who conducted him that for the future he should lead a stricter life. And in truth, the selfsame cook, assuming holy religion in act and habit, and profiting and advancing from strength to strength, lived seven years longer, and then yielding to fate he was buried in a noble sarcophagus; and there was also engraved on the lid of the tomb how he had been raised from the dead by S. Kentigern, so that by all who saw it or were to see it in time to come, the Lord, wonderful in His saint, might be magnified.

Chapter Eight: How S. Kentigern departed secretly from S. Servanus, and what kind of Miracle was worked at his departure. #

¹ When the sanctity of S. Kentigern shone forth, illustrated by such remarkable signs, and the sweet savour of his virtues shed far and wide an odour of life, his rivals drew in an odour of death from these life-giving scents, and that very holy opinion of him, which afforded matter of edification to many, was in their case an incentive towards sowing the seed of greater hatred against the saint of God. The boy, prudent in the Lord, knew that the measure of their malice against himself was filled up, and that the inveterate envy that had entered into their bowels and marrow could not be appeased in their unquiet hearts. Nor did he deem it safe to continue longer beside the crowd of venomous serpents, lest perhaps he might suffer the loss of inward sweetness. He also weighed the air of popular favour, serenely breathing upon him and from every side crying, “Well done! Well done!” He forthwith proposed to himself to leave the place, so that he might in humility forsake the company of those who hated and envied him, and also prudently avoid vainglory. Upon this, after applying himself to the most earnest prayer, he turned to the Angel of good counsel, entreating Him that His good Spirit might lead him in the right way, so that he might not chance to run, or to have run, in vain. The Lord therefore inclined His ear to the prayers of His servant, revealing to him by the Spirit that the holy intention which had rested in his mind would be well-pleasing in the eyes of the Lord.

² He therefore retreated secretly from the place, having the Lord of truth as his guide and protector in every place. Journeying, he arrived at the Frisicum Litus, where the river, by name Mallena, overpassing its banks when the tide flows in, took away all hope of crossing. But the kind and mighty Lord, who divided the Red Sea into heaps and led the people of Israel through the same dryshod under the guidance of Moses, and again turned back to its source the perpetual flowing of Jordan so that the children of Israel might enter with dry footsteps the land of promise under Joshua; and who, at the prayer of Elias and Eliseus his disciple, divided the same river of Jordan that they might pass dryshod — He Himself now with the same mighty hand and stretched-out arm divided the river Mallena, so that Kentigern, beloved of God and of man, might cross on dry ground. Then the tide flowing back in a very wonderful way, and, if I may so say, being as it were afraid, the waters both of the sea and of the river stood as walls on his right hand and on his left. After that, crossing a little arm of the sea near a bridge which by the inhabitants is called the Pons Servani, on looking back to the bank he saw that the waters which had stood as in a heap before now flowed back and filled the channel of the Mallena; indeed, they were overflowing the bridge itself and denying a passage to anyone.

³ And behold, S. Servanus, supporting his aged limbs with a staff, having followed in pursuit of the fugitive, stood above the bank, and beckoning with his hand he cried out lamenting, “Alas, my dearest son! Light of my eyes! Staff of my old age! And so do you desert me? And so do you leave me? Call to mind the days that are past, and remember the years that are gone by; how I took you up when you came forth from your mother’s womb, nourished you, taught you, trained you even to this hour. Do not despise me, nor neglect my grey hairs, but return, that in no long time you may close my eyes.” Kentigern, moved by these words of the aged man, melting into tears replied, “You see, my father, that what is done is according to the Divine will. We neither ought nor can we alter the counsel of the Most High, or fail to obey His will. Besides, there is this sea, which between us as a great gulf is fixed, so that they who would pass from here to you cannot, neither can they pass to us who would come from there. I beg you, therefore, have me excused.” Then said the old man, “I beg you, that by your intercession, as you have just done, you would make solid again the liquid, divide the ground and make it bare, so that at least I, crossing, might reach you dryshod. With a willing mind I will become son instead of father to you, disciple instead of teacher, pupil instead of guide, so that to the evening of my days I may be your own companion.” Then again Kentigern, weeping copiously, replied, “Return, I beg you, my father, to your own people, that in your holy presence they may be trained in sacred doctrine, guided by your example, and restrained by your discipline. May the Rewarder of all reward you for all the benefits which you have done for me; and since you have fought the good fight, even now finished your course, and maintained the faith living and fruitful, henceforth there is laid up for you a crown of righteousness which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will render to you in the next world. But I, destined to the work of the ministry, will go forth to that which He sent me, who separated me from my mother’s womb and called me by His grace.”

⁴ Having said this, and having mutually blessed each other, they were divided the one from the other and never looked in each other’s face again in this world. For Servanus, returning home, awaited in a good old age the day of his call, and thus growing old in good days, and being gathered to the holy fathers, he rested in the Lord, and, like a good labourer in the vineyard, at even-tide received the penny of eternal reward from his Lord. And what sort of a man, and how great he was, and in what virtues he shone, a little book written of his Life will exhibit more clearly to those who read it. Now the place by which S. Kentigern crossed became after that entirely impassable. For that bridge, always after that covered by the waves of the sea, afforded to no one any longer a means of transit. Even the Mallena altered the force of its current from the proper place, and from that day to this turned back the channel into the river Ledon. So that forthwith the rivers which till then had been separate from each other now became mingled and united.

Chapter Nine: Of the Sick Man who desired, and sought in prayer, and obtained from the Lord, that before his death he should see S. Kentigern; and who tasted death in his presence, and obtained burial by his foresight. #

¹ There was a man of venerable life, Fregus by name, tormented by much and long sickness. He lived in a town called Kernach, detained upon the bed of pain, sound in holy conversation, strong in faith, intent upon heaven. This man, just and full of holy fear, when the south wind was blowing over his garden so that the odours of its breeze might reach him, felt in his breast a sweetness which proceeded from the opinion he had of the sanctity of S. Kentigern. From this, as there burnt in him the desire, and both heart and eye thirsted, one would have thought that the wish of the holy old man Symeon, which he had to see the Lord, was renewed. For Symeon, with panting heart, desired with the eye of the flesh to see the salvation of God, Christ the Lord; and Fregus, with firm faith, unmeasured desires, and frequent prayers, begged of the Lord that he might see Kentigern, the servant of the Lord Christ. Christ heard the desire of both, and the ear of God, hearing the desire of their hearts, fulfilled it. The desire and joy of Symeon was fulfilled on the day that Christ was presented in the Temple for his salvation. Fregus, for his consolation, saw and rejoiced in seeing Kentigern on the day that he parted from S. Servanus. For Fregus had received a promise from the Holy Ghost that he should not see death till he had seen Kentigern, the Nazarite of the Lord.

² And when Kentigern had come to the habitation of the holy sick man and knocked at the door, the sick man from within, warned by a Divine oracle, exclaimed, saying, “Open the gates, for the Lord is with us. The herald of my salvation, promised me by God and long expected by me, is manifested today.” And when he had seen him he rejoiced in spirit, and having given thanks he blessed the Lord and said, “Lord, now let Your servant depart in peace, according to Your word, for my eyes have seen Your consolation, which You have prepared before the face of many people, a light to reveal the true Light that lights every man that comes into this world, and to declare the glory of eternal life to the people of these and many nations.” And turning to him he said again, “Dispose of my house and my life today, and tomorrow attend to my burial, as it pleases Your providence, the Lord inspiring you.” Then, by the advice of holy Kentigern, he dispersed abroad and gave to the poor all the worldly substance he possessed, and after making a pure confession he was anointed with the oil of remission and purified with the sacrament of the life-giving Body and Blood of the Lord; and then he commended his spirit into the hands of the Lord, and with eyes and hands lifted up to heaven he expired during the words of prayer. Next day S. Kentigern yoked two untamed bulls to a new cart, in which he placed the body from which the spirit had departed, and having prayed in the name of the Lord he enjoined upon the brute beasts to carry the burden placed upon them to the place which the Lord had provided for it. And in truth the bulls, in no way restive and in nothing disobeying the voice of Kentigern, without any tripping or fall came by a straight road, along where there was no path, as far as Cathures, which is now called Glasgu, along with Kentigern and many others accompanying; and then, with all gentleness, with the burden of the sacred earth laid on them — a beauteous sight — they halted near a certain cemetery which had been long before consecrated by S. Ninian.

³ Truly, with no less a miracle, in no different way, and with no unequal power, was this waggon directed to the appointed place by Him who in old time, when Dagon was cast down and broken, brought the ark of the covenant — which had been taken by the Philistines and placed on a new waggon — from Ekron to Bethshemesh, drawn by milk-cows that had never borne the yoke. Therefore the saint took the holy body down from the waggon in the same place, and after celebrating his obsequies buried him in that cemetery, in which no other man had yet lain. This was the first burial in that place, where afterwards very many bodies were buried in peace. The greatest reverence was paid to the tomb of the man of God; nor did any rash fool dare to trample or pass over it without vengeance, for within the revolution of a year many who trod on it or neglected to pay it honour were struck down with grievous misfortune; some were even punished by death. That tomb is to the present time encircled by a delightful density of overshadowing trees, in witness of the sanctity and the reverence due to him who is buried there.

Chapter Ten: Of the Two Brothers, one of whom perished by the judgment of God, while the other, with all his family, was counted worthy to be blessed by the Lord for many generations. #

¹ When the man of God, Fregus, had been buried, S. Kentigern, as was enjoined on him by God through revelation, dwelt in the same place with two brothers who inhabited the place before his arrival, and framing his life in much sanctity went on with great virtues to perfection. One of those with whom he lived was called Telleyr, the other Anguen. But Anguen received God’s saint as an angel of the Lord, and loved him with his whole heart, and obeyed his commands with all reverence and veneration, and submitted himself to all his requirements — and not in vain. For the servant of the Lord blessed him in the name of the Lord, and, succoured by that blessing of graciousness, not only he but all his posterity received a blessing from the Lord and mercy from the God of his salvation, seeming to procure it by a sort of hereditary right. For the Lord magnified them in the sight of kings and made their name great, like the names of those who were great upon the earth, so that not only by abundance of substance but by the culture of the Christian religion they increased and extended themselves in such a way that it was justly said of them, “This is the seed which the Lord has blessed by the merit and prayers of His servant Kentigern.”

² But the other, by name Telleyr, was very hostile to him, secretly detracting from his religion, misinterpreting all his actions, often openly withstanding him, insulting and injuring him. Either by diminishing the good he did or by perverting it, he obscured everything by a sinister interpretation. But the servant of God had, by continual use, accustomed himself with blessed Job to be the brother of dragons and the companion of ostriches, and like Ezekiel to dwell with scorpions; in patience he possessed his soul, and was peaceful with him who hated peace. But when he spoke of the things that concerned peace, Telleyr, perverse and ungrateful that he was, only made himself ready for battle. But God, the Lord of vengeance, the patient Rewarder, suffered not the injury done to His servant to go long unrequited. For on a certain day, after many reproaches by which he had made sad the soul of that righteous one, he went forth to his work. And because he was very strong, he placed upon his shoulders a weighty beam, exceeding the measure of his strength, rejoicing and thinking that he had acquired the reputation that in bearing burdens he was stronger than the asses. But when he had gone a little way he tripped upon a stone and fell, so that, crushed by his burden, he gave up the ghost, expressing what Solomon says, “Woe to him that goes alone; for he shall have no one to raise him when he falls”; and again, “He has fallen once for all, who is always doing evil.”

³ Kentigern, hearing that his adversary had fallen, lamented him deeply, and procured for him a place of interment; in this imitating holy David, the king of the Hebrews, who bewailed the death of his persecutor Saul and mourned for him with a great mourning. But because, according to Solomon, when the fool perishes the wise man will be wiser, we have in the fall of this man a sufficient proof that we ought not to offend the servants and friends of God, or dare to inflict on them molestation, grievances, or injury. For the Elect are the Temple of the Lord, and the Holy Spirit dwells in them. They are therefore the more to be deferred to, and men should abstain from injuring them, inasmuch as He who dwells in them is most powerful in vindicating their wrongs and just in rendering justice to those who suffer injuries.

Chapter Eleven: Of the Election of S. Kentigern, and his Consecration as Bishop. #

¹ And when S. Kentigern, living in that same place, became fertile in the abundance of many miraculous gifts, it pleased Him who had separated him from his mother’s womb not to leave him under a bushel, but rather to place him on a candlestick, so that by making his righteousness clear as the light and his just dealing as the noonday he might give light to all that were in the house of the Lord. Therefore, by Divine prompting, the king and clergy of the Cambrian region, with the other Christians, although they were few in number, came together, and after taking into consideration what was to be done to restore the good estate of the Church, which was well-near destroyed, they with one consent approached S. Kentigern and elected him, in spite of his many remonstrances and strong resistance, to be the shepherd and bishop of their souls. He objected to their election of him that he was not fit on account of his youth; they alleged the gravity of his manners and the affluence of his knowledge and wisdom. He declared that he could not with easy mind endure the diminution of his inward peace and holy contemplation; they alleged, on the other hand, that it was healthful to break in on the sabbath of the life of speculation for the salvation of many souls. In the end, he judged himself insufficient for the honour which was in truth a burden, but the unanimous voice of all proclaimed that his sufficiency had been proclaimed by God Himself through many indications of signs and wonders. Invoking therefore a prosperous rule, blessing him in the name of the Holy Trinity, and committing him to the Holy Ghost, the Sanctifier and Distributor of all the orders, offices, and dignities in the Church, they enthroned him; and having called one bishop from Ireland, after the manner of the Britons and Scots of that period, they caused him to be consecrated bishop.

² A custom had grown up in Britannia, in the consecration of bishops, only to anoint their heads by pouring on them the sacred chrism with invocation of the Holy Spirit, and benediction and laying on of hands; which rite these ignorant persons alleged they had received as an institution of the Divine law and an apostolic tradition, whereas the sacred canons ordain that no bishop shall be consecrated without three bishops at least: to wit, one to act as consecrator, who shall say over him who is to be consecrated the sacramental benedictions and prayers for each of the episcopal ornaments, and two others who shall lay on hands along with him, shall be as witnesses, and shall hold the text of the Gospels supported on his neck. Yet although the consecration to which the Britons were accustomed is scantly consonant with the sacred canons, still it is agreed that it does not destroy the power and efficiency of the Divine mystery or of the episcopal ministration. But because those islanders, as placed beyond the civilised world, on account of the attacks of the Pagans made upon them, were ignorant of the canons, the judgment of the Church, condescending to them, admits excuse for that reason; but in such times as these it would never permit such a rite as this to be used by anyone without grave censure.

³ But S. Kentigern, although he was consecrated after this fashion, took pains to correct it in every way possible, as we shall state hereafter. He established his cathedral seat in a town called Glesgu, which is interpreted “The Dear Family”, and is now called Glasgu, where he united to himself a famous and God-beloved family of servants of God, who practised continence and who lived after the fashion of the primitive church under the apostles, without private property, in holy discipline and Divine service.

⁴ Moreover, the diocese of that episcopate was extended according to the limits of the Cambrian kingdom, which kingdom reached from sea to sea, like the rampart once built by the Emperor Severus. This rampart afterwards, by the assistance and counsel of the Roman Legion, in order to keep off the incursions of the Picts, gave way to a wall built in the same place, eight feet in breadth and twelve feet in height; it reaches as far as the Flumen Fordense, and by division separates Scotia from Anglia. Now this Cambrian region over which S. Kentigern presided as bishop had once on a time, with all Britannia, accepted the Christian faith in the time of Pope Eleutherius, when Lucius was king; but in consequence of the Pagans from time to time infesting the island and asserting dominion in it, the islanders, lapsing into apostasy, had cast away the faith which they had received. Many were not yet baptised. Many were stained by the contagion of manifold heresy. Many, in name only Christians, were plunged in the slough of vice of all sorts; the greatest part of them had been taught by the ministry of men who were unskilled and ignorant of the law of God. Thus all the provincials required the counsel of a good pastor and the healing of a good governor. Therefore God, the disposer and dispenser of all good things, provided, promoted, and proposed S. Kentigern as the remedy for all their diseases, the support of their lives, and their example.

Chapter Twelve: How S. Kentigern conducted himself as Bishop; how he lived and how he taught; and how he behaved both openly and in private. #

¹ Blessed Kentigern, having taken possession of his government, as he excelled others in dignity so he sought to exceed them in sanctity. And as he was higher in rank, so he studied to appear more excellent than others in the ordinance of holy virtues and manners. For he deemed it unworthy for himself to crawl upon the ground, or to lie in the depths, who was bound by a Divine command to go up upon the mountain to bring good tidings to Zion. And truly it is unbecoming in him to live in an abject manner who from his office must announce high things; and so the saint of God, after accepting the episcopal dignity, sought to exercise greater humility and austerity than previously in his food, his dress, in watchings, in his hard couches, and in the mortification of his body. And that I may in brief describe his whole life from the time of his ordination, which took place in the twenty-fifth year of his age, until the extreme term of his life, which lasted the space of one hundred and sixty years: when he broke his fast after three days, or more often after four days, he revived rather than recruited his body by tasting the cheapest and lightest foods, such as bread and milk, and cheese and butter and condiments; and even that, lest the animal frame should entirely fail by the way of this mortality — indeed rather, to speak more to the purpose, that by mortifying his members which are upon the earth, by the crucifixion of a continual cross, he might by slaying offer himself a living sacrifice, holy and well-pleasing to God. He abstained entirely from flesh and from blood, and from wine, and from all that could inebriate, like one, indeed, like a chief among the Nazarites. If, however, at any time it happened that he was on a journey or dining with the king, he tempered the accustomed rigour of his abstinence. Afterwards, when he returned home, punishing in himself that which he regarded as a gross crime, he increased his abstinence.

Chapter Thirteen: Of the Dress of S. Kentigern. #

¹ He used the roughest hair-cloth next the skin, then a garment of leather made of the skin of goats, then a cowl like a fisherman’s bound on him, above which, clothed in a white alb, he always wore a stole over his shoulders. He bore a pastoral staff, not rounded and gilded and gemmed, as may be seen nowadays, but of simple wood and merely bent. He had in his hand the Manual-book, always ready to exercise his ministry whenever necessity or reason demanded. And so by the whiteness of his dress he expressed the purity of his inner life and avoided vainglory.

Chapter Fourteen: Of the Bed of S. Kentigern, and his Vigils, and his Bath in Cold Water. #

¹ What shall I say of his bed? I hesitate whether to call it a bed or a tomb. He lay in a stone hollowed like a monument, having for his head a stone in place of a pillow, like another Jacob. Truly he was a staunch combatant against the flesh, the world, and the devil. Throwing in a few ashes and taking off his sackcloth, he shook off his drowsiness, tasting rather than taking sleep. And to express myself more clearly, in a certain similitude of a snatch of sleep he buried himself along with Christ. When he had taken a moderate portion of sleep he arose in the night, at the beginning of his vigils, and poured forth his soul like water in the sight of the Lord his God. And so with psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, celebrating the Lord’s night-watches, he exulted in God his Saviour and was joyful in Him until the second cock-crowing; then, entering upon a fiercer conflict with that great and malignant dragon that, according to the prophet, lies in the midst of his rivers, he used to strip himself of his clothes and, naked, following a naked Christ, making himself naked and bare, he plunged into the rapid and cold water. Then, truly, as the hart desires the water brooks, so his soul desired and thirsted for God, the living water; and there, in cold and nakedness, with his eyes and hands lifted up to heaven, he chanted right through the whole Psalter. Thereby made like one of the flock that are ever shorn, which came out from the washing to Mount Gilead, emerging from the water like a dove bathed in milk — indeed, rather as a Nazarite, whiter than snow, brighter than milk, ruddier than ancient ivory, fairer than sapphire — he sat himself down to dry his limbs on the brow of a hill called Gulath, by the waterside, near his own home. So having dried his body and resumed his clothes, as if preparing his going forth in the dawn, he exhibited himself as an example to his followers. And this custom of bathing neither the fire of the glittering lightning, nor hail, nor snow, nor the spirit of storms ever interrupted, unless a journey necessarily undertaken or the severest sickness prevented it; yet even then did he redeem the work by some other divine and spiritual exercise. And so by the continued use of this saving water, as of a new Jordan, his flesh was restored like the flesh of a little child; because the law of sin which wars in the less honourable members was so weakened, and the fire of concupiscence so mortified and extinguished, that no corruption of the rebellious flesh, either waking or even sleeping, ever polluted or defiled the lily of his snow-white modesty. Nor did he ever even feel its simple motions rage or move within him, for by the grace of Christ co-operating with him, his flesh, with its passions stilled, continued in an almost childlike pure innocence; and truly that holy one grew up before the Lord like an unfading lily, so that once on a time he simply declared to his disciples that the sight or touch of a most beautiful girl had no more effect upon him than the hardest flint.

Chapter Fifteen: Of the way in which the Man of God spoke. #

¹ In speaking, however, he was able to control his spirit, and he learned to set a watch before his mouth and to keep the door of his lips, so that he might guide his words with discretion. Nor did any one of his words fall lightly to the ground, nor was the word he spoke given to the winds, nor did it return to him in vain. And so he spoke in weight, number, and measure, as the necessary occasion demanded; for his speech was flavoured with salt, suited to every age and sex, for honey and milk were under his tongue, and his cellars were filled with spiritual wine, from which the babe in Christ drank milk from his lips, the more advanced honey, and the perfect man wine, each to his soul’s health. In judging and condemning, or in chiding, he did not keep by him various measures, nor did he respect the person of man, but he studied the cause and with the greatest discretion measured forth the degree of ecclesiastical discipline, according to the name of the fault, in due time and place. Yet the saint preached more by his silence than many doctors and rulers do by loud speaking; for his appearance, countenance, gait, and the gesture of his whole body openly taught discipline, and by certain signs, bursting forth like water, indicated openly the purity of the inner man which lurked there. It is unnecessary to commit to writing his munificence, which spent itself wholly on almsdeeds and works of mercy, for all the substance which the Divine largess had bestowed upon him was the common treasury of the poor.

Chapter Sixteen: With what grace he was counted worthy to be adorned, while celebrating the Sacred Mysteries of the Mass. #

¹ But although in the preceding and in similar holy exercises he showed himself as a man, and sometimes as above man, it was in celebrating the holy mysteries of the Mass that, in a manner putting off the man and withdrawing himself from earthly things, he put on something like a Divine character, wholly above the human. For while with his hands lifted in the form of a cross he said “Sursum Corda”, he lifted his own to the Lord as he exhorted others; so from that golden censer of his most pure heart, filled with coals, burning with virtue and kindled with delight in God, like the brightest and sweetest-savoured incense, his prayer, rising to the clouds, penetrating the heavens, and plunging into the light to which no man can approach, was set forth in the presence of God; so that the Most High Himself deigned by evident signs to manifest to the eyes of mortals that He had accepted it as an oblation, an odour of a sweet savour, well-pleasing to Himself. For very often, as he handled the Divine Sacraments, a snow-white dove, having as it were a golden beak, was seen to light upon his head and with the transparent fluttering of its wings, like a ray of the sun, to overshadow him and what was laid upon the altar. Frequently also, when he stood sacrificing at holy altars, a luminous cloud overshadowed his head; and occasionally, at the time when the Son was being immolated to the Father, he seemed not to stand there himself, but a fiery pillar, by whose brightness the sight of onlookers was blinded. But it was not given to all to know and to see this ministry, but to those only to whom it was granted by the Father of Lights.

² Once upon a time, while the Lord’s priest was celebrating the mysteries, a sweet-smelling cloud filled the whole house where many were hearing the sacred mysteries of the Lord; for the odour, exceeding all perfumes, overwhelmed all who were there with exceeding delight, and gave full health to many who were afflicted with various diseases. Truly, while I record these things, sorrow fills my heart as I see the priesthood defiled in so many ways today. While in the meantime I am silent about those who simoniacally come to sacrifice, or with Judas sell the Lord’s Body — since indeed some offer it for a price — I speak of those who, bound by crimes and dissolved in vices and polluted in body and soul, dare to touch and to contaminate with their impure hands the Sacrifice of Purification. Alas, in how many priests today is the stench of foulness rather than the odour of spiritual sweetness observed! O how many more does the dark whirlwind lay hold of and blind than the shining cloud overshadows! Woe, woe, I say, to many today, for whom the sulphurous flame rather than the surrounding column of fire awaits! But now I return to myself and to others like me, who in any way are discharging the office of their priesthood, and for whom, instead of a snow-white dove at the time of the sacrifice, flies sufficiently tormenting come up out of the river of Egypt — that is, the unclean, vain, useless thoughts which rush into the memory from the imagination of this perishing world. Therefore fearfulness and trembling come upon me; for by the witness of Solomon, dead flies cause the ointment to give forth an evil scent, since minds occupied with thoughts of this kind have little experience of what nature is the joy of that inward sweetness which proceeds from the visitation of the Holy Ghost.

Chapter Seventeen: How holy Kentigern withdrew during the whole of Lent into more secret places in the Desert, and returned to his own Church before Maundy Thursday, and sometimes before Palm Sunday. #

¹ The man of God maintained this manner of life here described till an extreme old age, almost all the year round, except during Lent; for in those days he was accustomed, beyond his ordinary way, to walk in a certain newness of life. Emulating the fervour of certain of the holy fathers — indeed, rather following the footsteps of Elias and John the Baptist, and of the Saviour Himself — he retired to desert places every Lent, and so by withdrawing himself in flight from the sight of the sons of men, and remaining in a solitude of body and soul, he dwelt with himself. There, more freely giving himself up to the contemplation of God, he rested under the shadow of the Face of the Almighty, safe from the disturbance of man, from the strife of tongues and worldly converse. Therefore, sitting solitary, he lifted himself above himself, and often abiding in the caverns of the earth, and standing in the entering in of his cave and praying, after the great and strong wind and the earthquake he heard the still small whisper of thin air breathing upon him, bathing him in and filling him with unspeakable sweetness. And so he went about the streets of the heavenly Jerusalem, seeking for himself Him whom his soul loved, and offering for himself in his heart a sacrifice of jubilation; he mortified his most holy members which were upon the earth. Offering himself a living victim, holy and well-pleasing to the Lord, he afflicted his most innocent body by a continual martyrdom as a sweet savour. With what and what sort of food he sustained his life on those days he revealed to none, or at least to few, and to these by his episcopal authority he ordered beforehand that they should never reveal the mystery to mortal man.

² Yet once he spoke, and two of his disciples heard a word not to be recalled, once only, simply uttered from his lips. “I knew,” said he, “a certain man who during Lent sustained life on the roots of herbs only, and sometimes, the Lord giving him strength, he passed the whole of that time without the support of earthly food.” Neither of them doubted that he spoke this of himself; but the man of God suppressed his name to avoid vainglory, which he everywhere sought to shun. At length, for a long time before Maundy Thursday, and after that on the Saturday before Palm Sunday, he returned to his home and to his people to fulfil his episcopal office, and he was received by them all as an angel of peace and light. And so he was used to pass that week with his disciples; and on Maundy Thursday, after the composition of the holy chrism and oil, he washed with his own hands the feet of a multitude of poor men first, and then of lepers, bathing them with his tears, wiping them with his hair, comforting them with many kisses, and afterwards he waited upon the people diligently at table. Then, sitting for their consolation with the reconciled penitents at a banquet, he consoled himself and them with spiritual and bodily refreshment. Thereafter, from that hour till after the celebration of Mass on Easter Day, he always remained fasting. Truly, on Good Friday he crucified himself with the Crucified One with incredible torture, and with scourging, nakedness, and frequent genuflection, scarcely ever sitting down, he passed the day and the night, bearing about in his body the marks of the Lord Jesus with great affliction of body and soul.

³ But on the Holy Saturday, as if dead to the world, burying in a double tomb — the true Abraham, the Ancient of Days along with himself — and entering the sepulchre in the abundance of inward contemplation, he rested from all the tumult of this stormy world, except that he appeared to celebrate the Office of the day. Then, renewed in the spirit of his mind, he awaited, with the sweet spices of holy virtues so diligently prepared, the most sacred day of the Lord’s resurrection. In a way rising again with Christ, he feasted on the Flesh of the Immaculate Lamb in the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth. And on the day which the Lord had made a day of joy in earth and heaven, he rejoiced with all spiritual joy and feasted with the brethren and a great multitude of the poor. This he also was said to do at the other great festivals. If, however, from urgent necessity it happened — which, however, seldom actually occurred — that he had to dine with seculars, tasting a little of the food placed before him he filled the guests with spiritual dainties, and repressing the vain conversation which is apt to prevail at feasts, he concealed his own abstinence under the veil of sacred exhortation.

Chapter Eighteen: What a bright Countenance he had, and what he thought and said about Hypocrites. #

¹ Holy Kentigern in the form of his body is said to have been of middle stature, rather inclining to tallness; and it is asserted that he was of robust strength, capable to a considerable extent of enduring great fatigue in the labours both of body and soul. He was beautiful to look upon and graceful in form. Having a countenance full of grace and reverence, dove-like eyes, and cheeks like the turtle-dove, he attracted the hearts of all who saw him. His outward cheerfulness was the sign and most faithful interpreter of that inward peace which flooded all things with a certain contentment of holy joy and exultation which the Lord bestowed upon him.

² For himself fleeing from hypocrisy in this or that habit and gesture, he carefully taught his followers to avoid it, and showing by example that hypocrites were the most loathsome class of men, he instructed them in such words as these: “Beware, dearest ones,” said he to his disciples, “of the vice of hypocrisy, which in a way is the renunciation of faith, the abandonment of hope, the emptying of charity, the suppurating ulcer of chastity, the blinding of truth; it is the poison of sobriety, the fetter of righteousness, the little fox of obedience, the short cloak of patience, and, to speak briefly, it is the moth of religion, the extermination of virtues, the lurking-place of vices, the asylum of all iniquity, the habitation of crimes. That hypocrisy is the source of all evils the Lord teaches where He says that the hypocrisy of the Pharisees is leaven. For as the leaven placed in the food makes it light, inflated, and acid, so hypocrisy makes the heart where it reigns empty of religion, inflated and elated with the false praises of men, and sharp, bitter, and sour against the truth of conscience, against the holy, the righteous, and those who seek purity and holiness. And truly, dearest ones, if all sin itself and by itself is single, hypocrisy alone in itself is double — indeed, manifold. For the hypocrite, in his natural colours, seeks to blind Him who sees all things, and while turning away his eyes from himself he overshadows his vices in the sight of men under the image of a false sanctity. And although other impious, sinful, and criminal men are the members of Antichrist, hypocrites are singularly and specially his followers and forerunners, as the single-hearted, the lovers and followers of truth and purity, are the members and disciples of Jesus Christ. For Antichrist himself, as it is written, shall sit in the temple of God, as if he were God, and by lying wonders show himself that he is God. For the very angel of Satan also transforms himself into an angel of light, and therefore it is not to be wondered at that his special servant and member should transform himself into a minister of righteousness, seeing that he is himself a very synagogue of Satan. Believe me in what I say to you in the truth: that the anger of God never rages more fiercely in the Church than when He makes a hypocrite reign in it on account of the sins of the people. Moreover, in the Apocalypse the persecution is described as more destructive in the pale horse than in the preceding ones, because in truth the Church is much more injured by hypocrisy, which is figured by the pale horse, than in the time of open persecution, whereby the faithful and unfaithful, the just and the unjust, are made manifest, and a multitude of the martyrs receive their crown. Yet evidently hypocrites, by their gestures and by the ways of the outer man, indicate to those who watch closely and judge all things by the light of the Spirit of what kind they are. For while they walk after the manner of the turtle-dove, contracting the shoulders, hanging down the head, fixing the eyes on the ground, making long faces, breathing through pinched lips, speaking in a feminine voice, by these very signs they manifest the state of the inner man. For by their steps they make themselves like peacocks, indeed, like robbers; by the contraction of their shoulders they show that they shrink from bearing the sweet yoke of Christ and His light burden; by the hanging of their heads and the casting down of their eyes they demonstrate that their hearts cleave nearer to the dust than to heaven, that they think of the earth, love the earth, and sigh for earthly desires; by turning away their faces they show that they turn their backs rather than their faces to the Lord; and by their feminine mode of speech they prove that they live dissolutely and not like men. I would say that they are like none but jugglers, who exhibit fire, water, men, beasts, and the like, in an imaginary way where there is no reality. But although pretenders and cunning hypocrites, drawing down upon themselves the anger of God, may escape the opinion of those who judge according to appearance, they shall in no way deceive or escape the even-handed justice of Him who searches the heart and the reins. These things, most dear ones,” said the man of God, “I have said to you, not to announce what shall be a snare to you, nor that you should not exhibit a staid demeanour in countenance, gesture, dress, or discipline; but this in every way I admonish you: to seek the Lord in simplicity of heart, to associate internal with external purity everywhere, to avoid hypocrisy in reality, and to do what you have to do with spiritual joy. Thus in all your works man shall be edified and God glorified, for God loves a cheerful teacher and doer of good.”

Chapter Nineteen: How S. Kentigern converted to the Faith of Christ the people over whom he presided, most of whom had fallen away; and how he brought back to a more upright way of life those who had disgraced the faith by unrighteous works. #

¹ Therefore blessed Kentigern, having undertaken the episcopate, set himself diligently to administer the office laid upon him; and seeing that the northern enemy, that is, the prince of this world, had placed his seat in these parts and reigned there, he took up spiritual arms to fight against him. Accordingly, clad with the shield of faith, the helmet of hope, the breastplate of righteousness, girded with the sword of the Spirit which is the word of God, he attacked the house of that strong man armed and spoiled his goods, supported by the aid of the Lord of Hosts, who is very strong in battle. And to speak shortly, neither his foot, hand, nor tongue ceased from the execution of the work which he had undertaken, from the working of miracles, from the preaching of salvation, till all the ends of that earth remembered themselves and turned to the Lord. They who were not yet regenerated in the life-giving waters ran like thirsty harts to the living fountain of baptism with burning desire; and they who had fallen away from the faith and wandered aside from a sound belief into the teaching of some heretical sect, on repenting and returning from the snares of the devil by whom they were held captive, and returning to the bosom of the Church, were incorporated into Christ by means of this herald of safety, who taught them the way of the Lord in power.

² And so that renowned warrior began to overthrow the shrines of demons, to cast down their images, to build churches, to dedicate them when built, to divide parishes by certain limits with the cord of distribution, to ordain clergy, to dissolve incestuous and unlawful marriages, to change concubinage into lawful matrimony, to bring in as far as he could ecclesiastical rites, and strove to establish whatever was consonant with the faith, the Christian law, and righteousness. Wheresoever he journeyed, he did it not on horseback but, even to extreme old age, after the fashion of the apostles, on foot. Having arranged all these things in order, he returned home to his own, and there, after his accustomed way, he led a life in the perfection of the highest virtue, remarkable for virtue and miracles, some of which we now venture to write down, because we doubt not that they will be profitable to very many.

Chapter Twenty: How holy Kentigern yoked a Stag and a Wolf together in the Plough, and how, sowing Sand, he reaped a harvest of Wheat. #

¹ Thus, as we have stated, the man of God joined to himself a great many disciples, whom he trained in the sacred literature of the Divine law and educated to sanctity of life by his word and example. They all with a godly jealousy imitated his life and doctrine, accustomed to fastings and sacred vigils at certain seasons, intent on psalms and prayers and meditation on the Divine word, content with sparing diet and dress, occupied every day and hour in manual labour. For after the fashion of the primitive Church under the apostles and their successors, possessing nothing of their own and living soberly, righteously, godly, and continently, they dwelt, as did S. Kentigern himself, in single cottages, from the time when they had become mature in age and doctrine. Therefore these “singulares clerici” were called in the common language Calledei. Thus the servant of Jesus Christ went forth to his work in the morning and to his labour till the evening, labouring mainly at agriculture, so that he might not eat the bread of idleness, but rather in the sweat of his brow afford an example of labour to his own and have to give to him who was suffering necessity.

² It happened once upon a time that he had no oxen whatever, and from the deficiency of these, there being no ploughing, the land lay fallow. When the man of God saw this, lifting up his eyes he saw on the edge of a neighbouring wood a herd of deer bounding along here and there through the forest. Straightway offering up a prayer, by the mighty power of his word he called them to him, and in the name of the Lord, whom all dumb unreasoning beasts and all the cattle of the plain obey, commanded them to be yoked in the place of the oxen to the plough and to turn up the earth. They at once obeyed the command of the man of God and, like tame oxen used to the yoke, ploughed the land, to the astonishment of many. Released from their work, they went to their usual pastures, and at the proper hour, like tame and domestic — indeed, like trained animals — they returned to their accustomed toil. Once upon a time, as the stags were going and returning like domestic animals, a hungry wolf, rushing upon one of the stags which was wearied with its labour and was cropping some food as it lay upon the green turf, throttled him and filled his voracious stomach with his carcase. When the saint learnt this, extending his hand towards the wood he said, “In the name of the Holy and Undivided Trinity, I command that the wolf, who has worked this injury on me who deserved it not, appear before me to make satisfaction.” Wondrous words! More wondrous deeds! Straightway, at the voice of the man of God, the wolf, leaping forth from the wood, fell howling at his feet, and with such signs as he could declared that he begged pardon and was willing to make reparation. Whereupon the man of God, upbraiding the wolf with threatening countenance and word, said, “Arise, and I command you by the authority of God Almighty, that you place yourself in the plough in the place of our labourer the stag, whom you have devoured, and applying yourself to the yoke, plough over all that remains of the little field.” Truly the wolf obeyed the word spoken by the saint and, yoked with the other stag, ploughed up nine acres, and then the saint freely allowed him to depart. In this act, it seems to me, that prophecy of Isaiah which he spiritually uttered of the time of our Lord’s advent was in a way literally fulfilled, where he says, “The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid; and the calf, and the young lion, and the fatling together; and a little child shall lead them.” Let the reader consider whether it is more wonderful to see a wolf lying down with a lamb or ploughing with a stag. But Kentigern brought this about, being a most pure little child, meek and lowly of heart in his own eyes; yet he worked not this sign in his own power, but did it by the might of that Little One who was born for us, of the Son who was given for us. Yet it was just that he should do this bodily, who so often spiritually won back to the yoke of faith and plough of holy conversation many from wolfish cruelty and bloody slaughter, animal fierceness and a coarse life.

³ Very many gathered together to see such a sight as this and marvelled at the unwonted miracle. Whereupon the saint opened his mouth and taught them, saying, “Men and brethren, and so do you wonder, seeing this work? Believe me, that before man became disobedient to his Maker, not only all the animals but even the elements obeyed him; but now by his transgression all things are turned against him, and the lion tears, the wolf devours, the serpent wounds, the water drowns, the fire burns, the air taints, and the earth often, become like iron, consumes with famine. And in rivalry of this usual evil, not only is man accustomed to rage against man by sin, but he actually voluntarily rages against himself. But seeing that many saints are found perfect before the Lord in true innocency, pure obedience, faith, and love, in holiness and righteousness, they receive from the Lord this power, as an ancient, natural, and primordial right, so that they authoritatively command the beasts, the elements, and various kinds of diseases and deaths.”

⁴ While the holy man said this, and more to the same effect, they who heard his words were not less edified by his teaching than astonished by the miracle which they had just seen. When the field that had been ploughed came to be sown, the saint sought seed and found it not, having given away all his store of grain to feed the poor. And so he took up his accustomed weapons of prayer and, nothing doubting in faith, taking sand in place of seed he scattered it on the ground. This being done, in due season the herb grew, the seed germinated, the blade produced the head, and at the proper time brought forth the best and richest wheat, at which all who heard and saw were struck with the utmost astonishment; and his fame, great before, was mightily increased. Truly this saint, in the power of that Grain of Wheat which, falling into the earth and dying and by rising again, has brought to Himself much fruit, gathered corn from the sand which he had sown. Moreover, he so worked with the ploughshare of the gospel in the bowels of holy Mother Church, as in good ground, that he reclaimed many — indeed, an innumerable company — of persons who until then had been unstable in mind, blown about by every wind of vain doctrine, whose folly was heavier than the sand of the sea; and in faith and love and the performance of good works caused them, by the co-operation of God, to bring forth the fruit of salvation. And these the Supreme Householder deemed worthy to be transferred to the heavenly garners and to be fit for His table.

Chapter Twenty-One: How holy Kentigern, helped by Divine aid, made the river Clud serve him, and transferred the King’s Barns, which were full of wheat, to his own dwelling-place without any loss. #

¹ A considerable time having elapsed, a certain tyrant, by name Morken, had ascended the throne of the Cambrian kingdom, whom power, honour, and riches had persuaded to exercise himself in great matters which were too high for him. But his heart, as it was on the one hand elevated by pride, so on the other hand it was blinded and contracted by greed. He scorned and despised the life and doctrine of the man of God, in secret slandering, in public resisting him from time to time, putting down his miraculous power to magical illusion, and esteeming as nothing all that he did. But the man of God, once on a time, when he wanted supplies to feed the brethren of his monastery, went to the king, gently hinting at his poverty and at that of his people, desiring that out of his abundance, according to the injunction of the apostle, he should come to their aid and supply their wants. But he, elated and haughty, continually reviled him who made his petition, and only inflicted injuries on him who begged support. Then with blasphemous words he said to him ironically, “Cast your care upon the Lord, and He will sustain you; as you have often taught others, that they that fear God shall lack nothing, but they who seek the Lord shall want no manner of thing that is good. You, therefore, though you fear God and keep His commandments, are in want of everything, even of your necessary food, while to me, who neither seek the kingdom of God nor the righteousness of it, all prosperous things are added, and plenty of all sorts smiles upon me.” Lastly, he pressed upon him, “Your faith therefore is vain; your preaching false.”

² But the holy man, arguing on the other side, proved from the testimony of the Holy Scriptures, and from keen assertions of reason and by examples, that many just and holy men in various ways were afflicted by hunger and want in this life, and that wicked men were exalted by plenty of wealth, the affluence of delights, and the high places of honour. And when with power and clearness he taught that the poor were the patrons of the rich, by whose benefits they are sustained, and that the rich need the support of the poor, as the vines are supported by the elm, the barbarian was unable to resist his wisdom and the Spirit who spoke through him, but in a rage answered, “What more do you desire? If, trusting in your God, without human hand you can transfer to your mansion all the corn that is kept in my barns and heaps, I yield with a glad mind and gift, and for the future will be devoutly obedient to your requests.”

³ Saying this he retired joyful, as if by such an answer as this he had made game of the saint. But when evening had come, the holy man, lifting his hands and his eyes to heaven with many tears, prayed most devoutly to the Lord. In the very hour in which from the depth of the saint’s heart these tears rose up and flowed forth from his eyes, by the will of Him who has power in heaven and earth, in the sea and in all deep places, the river Clud, coming down, rose and became swollen in flood; then extending beyond its banks and surrounding the barns of the king which stood there, it licked them up and drew them back into its own channel, and with great power transported them to dry land at a place called by the name of Mellingdenor, where the saint was at that time accustomed to dwell. Straightway the river ceased from its fury and controlled within itself the surging waves, for the Lord had placed bounds and bars that they should not pass nor overstep the limits appointed to them. There the barns were found whole and uninjured, and not a sheaf — indeed, not a single blade — appeared to be wetted. See, in this, though in a different element, we recognise the sign repeated which we read of as having taken place in the Chaldean furnace, into which the three children, firm in their religion, were cast in bonds. For as there the fire had the power of burning only their bonds and not their bodies or their clothes, so here this water was able to transport the barns filled with corn but not to wet them. And when the people saw that in the name of the Lord His servant could perform this wonder, they said, “Truly great is the Lord, and worthy to be praised, for thus has He caused His saint to be magnified.”

Chapter Twenty-Two: How the same King Morken, at the instigation of his follower Cathen, struck S. Kentigern with his foot, and with what punishment both of them were visited. #

¹ After that, by the ferrying across of these fruits of the earth, the rivers of the flood of it had made glad the city of God, in which those enrolled as fellow-citizens of the saints and of the household of God were assembled together to serve the living God, that faithful and wise servant, made steward over the mansion of the Great Householder, distributed the measure of wheat to each of his fellow-servants according to their necessities, and what was over he dispersed abroad and gave to the poor, nor did he send empty away anyone in want who begged of him. But the same King Morken, though very rich and great in the eyes of men, yet being the vile slave of Mammon, bore ill the loss, as it seemed to him, of his stock of corn, and took scandal to his soul from that Divine sign from which he ought to have derived joy and gladness for his own advantage. Just as the solar ray is pleasant and agreeable to healthy eyes and lends its aid to their sight, yet ministers the material of darkness to the unhealthy and to those under the influence of hemlock; therefore, his eye being consumed because of fury, he belched forth many reproaches against the holy bishop, calling him magician and sorcerer, and he commanded that if ever again he appeared in his presence he should suffer severely as one that had made game of him. The reason for this was that a very wicked man, who was the king’s confidential friend, Cathen by name, had urged him on to hatred and injury of the bishop, because the life of the good is usually hateful and burdensome to the wicked; and the mind that inclines to evil easily listens to one who persuades it to that which pleases it. For every wicked leader, according to the Scripture, has all his servants wicked, and very often chooses as counsellors the men who into the ears of those who willingly listen to unjust things will pour the poisonous whisper, and diligently blow up with inflated accusations the fire of malice, adding fuel to make the flame burn the higher, lest it should be extinguished to their detriment.

² But the man of God, wishing by wisdom to extinguish malice, approached the presence of the king rather in the spirit of meekness than with the rod of severity, and instructing and warning him after the manner of a most gentle father, sought to correct the folly of a son; for he knew that by the sweetly sounding tones of the harp of David the madness of Saul had been mitigated, and that, according to the sentence of Solomon, the king’s wrath is appeased by patience. But the man of Belial, like the deaf adder that shuts his ear and listens not to the charmer, charm he never so wisely, acquiesced not in the warning words which were the words of safety. In fact, excited by fiercer madness, he rushed upon him, struck him with his heel, and struck him to the ground upon his back. But the saint of God, being raised by the bystanders, that his doctrine might be known by his patience, bore most patiently both the hurt and the dishonour, committing his cause to the vindication of the Supreme Judge; and then he departed from the presence of this sacrilegious king, rejoicing that he was counted worthy to suffer reproach for the word of the Lord.

³ The instigator of this sacrilege, Cathen, laughing loudly, mounted his horse, and seemingly triumphing over the saint, departed full of joy. And behold, judgment went forth from the face of the Lord to do justice on behalf of His servant who had been injured. He had not gone far from the crowd that was assembled in that place when the prancing steed on which he was seated, striking his foot on some sort of stumbling-block, fell down, and his rider, falling backward, broke the neck which he had erected loftily against the servant of the Lord, and expired before the gate of the king his master. But a swelling attacked the feet of the king, pain followed the swelling, and then succeeded death; so, expiring in the royal town which from him was termed Thorp-morken, he was buried. But the disease was not destroyed or buried in the succession of that family. From the beginning of that time, for the future, the weakness ceased not, and a gout was handed down hereditarily, and this family takes after the father, not in face or in habit of the body, but in disease. For the fact that the race of that king was destroyed by this sort of disease, by the witness of death, indicates how God, who is jealous for His own and the avenger of such, visits the sins of the fathers upon the children for many generations, and how great is the retribution which He inflicts upon the proud.

⁴ After this, for many days he enjoyed great peace and quiet, living in his own city of Glasgu and going through his diocese; because the Divine vengeance, shown forth upon his persecutors, supplied to others a motive of fear, reverence, love, and obedience towards the saint of God, and gave him the opportunity of doing whatever he desired for the service and glory of God.

Chapter Twenty-Three: How holy Kentigern, avoiding the snares of those who lay in wait for his death, departed from the borders of his country and went to Saint David, who was dwelling in Menevia. #

¹ When some time had passed, certain sons of Belial, a generation of vipers of the kin of the aforenamed King Morken, excited by the sting of intense hatred and infected with the poison of the devil, took counsel together how they might lay hold of Kentigern by craft and put him to death; but fearing the people, they did not dare to do that evil deed openly, because all held him for a teacher, bishop, and shepherd of their souls, and loved him as an angel of light and peace. In many ways they laid great wait for him, so that they might suddenly shoot him with arrows; but the Lord became to him a tower of strength, so that his enemies, the sons of wickedness, should not triumph over him. At last, binding themselves together by a solemn oath, they determined among themselves that in no way would they fail in carrying out the resolve by which they had conspired to compass his death, and that for the fear of no man would they pass over one unjust and treacherous word to which they had agreed against him. And when the man of God had learnt this, although he could meet force by force, he thought it better for the time to quit the place and to give place to wrath, and to seek elsewhere a richer harvest of souls, rather than to bear about with him a conscience seared as with a hot iron, or even darkened by the death of any man, however wicked. For the blessed Paul, the chosen vessel, gave him the example of acting similarly, seeing that when at Damascus he saw a death without fruit impending over him, he sought the basket and the rope to escape and to avoid it, and yet afterwards at Rome willingly submitted to it with great gain.

² At length, instructed by Divine revelation, he journeyed from those regions towards Menevia, where at that time the holy Bishop Dewi, like the morning star when it with its rosy countenance heralds the day, was shining forth in his episcopal work. Wheresoever the saint went, virtue went forth from him to heal many. And when he had come to Karleolum, he heard that many among the mountains were given to idolatry or ignorant of the Divine law. There he turned aside, and, God helping him and confirming the word by signs following, converted to the Christian religion many from a strange belief, and others who were erroneous in the faith. O how beautiful on these mountains were the feet of him who brought glad tidings, that published peace, that brought good tidings of good, that published salvation, that said to Zion, “Your God reigns.” He remained some time in a certain thickly planted place, to confirm and comfort in the faith the men that dwelt there, where he erected a cross as the sign of the faith; from which it took the name, in English, of Crosfeld, that is, “Crucis Novale”. In which very locality a basilica, recently erected, is dedicated to the name of blessed Kentigern; and to exhibit his sanctity, he is not doubted to have been distinguished by many miracles.

³ Turning aside from there, the saint directed his steps by the sea-shore, and through all his journey scattering the seed of the Divine word, gathered in a plentiful and fertile harvest to the Lord. At length, safe and sound, he reached Saint Dewi, and found in him greater works than had been reported by fame. But the holy Bishop Dewi rejoiced with great joy at the arrival of such and so great a stranger. With eyes overflowing with tears and mutually embracing, he received Kentigern as an angel of the Lord, dear to God, and retaining him for a certain time in his immediate vicinity, always honoured him to a wonderful extent. Therefore these two sons of light dwelt together, attending upon the Lord of the whole earth, like two lamps burning before the Lord, whose tongues became the keys of heaven, so that by them a multitude of men might be counted worthy to enter into it. Those two saints were united together opposite each other, like the two cherubim in the holy of holies in the temple of the Lord, having their faces bent down towards the mercy-seat. They lifted their wings on high in the frequent meditation upon heavenly things; they folded them down in the ordination and arrangement of earthly things. They touched each other mutually with their wings, as by the instruction of each other in the doctrine of salvation, and in the alternate energising of virtues they excited each other to a more earnest advance in sanctity. Thus these saints, either mentally rising up to God or being made useful to us, have left to posterity an example of laying hold of and labouring so as to attain to eternal life.

⁴ And when Saint Kentigern had abode there some time, the fame concerning him, shining forth, ran through the ears and mouths of the many, and led him to much familiarity and friendship, not only with the poor, the middle class, and the nobility of that land, but even with King Cathwallain, who reigned in that country. For the king, knowing him to be a holy and righteous man, heard him willingly, and after hearing him did much which concerned the good of his own soul. And when, on the occasion of the king from time to time inquiring, he expounded the causes why he left his native land, and said he would wish to live near and have the means of building a monastery where he might unite together a people acceptable to God and devoted to good works, the king replied, “My land is in your sight; wherever it suits you and seems good in your sight, there construct the habitation of your dwelling-place, there build your monastery. Yet, as it seems to me that it is more suitable for you than any other, I assign to you a place, Nautcharvan, because it abounds in everything suited to your purpose.” The man of God rendered profuse thanks to the king, and chose for his building and habitation that place which had been before marked out for him by Divine intimation. Then, giving his blessing to the king, he departed; and bidding farewell to S. Dewi after mutual benediction, he went to that same place with a great multitude of disciples who had flocked to him, preferring to lead with him a lowly life in a foreign land to living without him luxuriously in their own.

Chapter Twenty-Four: How S. Kentigern, following a Boar that led the way, found a fitting place. #

¹ Thus the most holy Kentigern, separated from Saint Dewi as to bodily presence, but by no means withdrawn from his love and from the vision and observation of the inner man, gave no sound sleep to his eyes nor quiet rest to his eyelids until he found a place fit for building a tabernacle to the Lord, the God of Jacob. With a great crowd of his disciples along with him, he went round the land and walked throughout it, exploring the situations of the localities, the quality of the air, the richness of the soil, the sufficiency of the meadows, pastures, and woods, and the other things that look to the convenience of a monastery to be erected. And while they went together over abrupt mountains, hollow valleys, caves of the earth, thickset briers, dark woods, and open glades in the forest, as they went along they discoursed as to what seemed necessary for the occasion, when suddenly a single wild boar from the wood, entirely white, met them, and approaching the feet of the saint, moving his head, sometimes advancing a little and then returning and looking backwards, motioned to the saint and to his companions, with such gesture as he could, to follow him. On seeing this they wondered and glorified God, who works marvellous things and things past finding out in His creatures. Then step by step they followed their leader, the boar, which preceded them.

² When they came to the place which the Lord had predestinated for them, the boar halted, and frequently striking the ground with his foot, and making the gesture of tearing up the soil of the little hill that was there with his long tusk, shaking his head repeatedly and grunting, he clearly showed to all that that was the place designed and prepared by God. Now the place is situated on the bank of a river which is called Elgu, from which to this day, as it is said, the town takes its name. Then the saint, returning thanks, adored the Almighty Lord on bended knees; and rising from prayer he blessed that place and its surroundings in the name of the Lord. After that, in testimony and sign of salvation and in earnest of the future religion, erecting a cross, he there pitched his tents. The boar, however, seeing what was done, came near, and by his frequent grunts seemed to ask somewhat of the bishop; then the saint, scratching the head of the brute and stroking his mouth and teeth, said, “God Almighty, in whose power are all the beasts of the forest, the oxen, the birds of the air, and the fishes of the sea, grant you for your conduct such reward as He knows is best for you.” Then the boar, as if well remunerated, bowing his head to the priest of the Lord, departed and went off to his well-known groves.

³ On the following night, as the man of God, intent on heavenly things, lifted up his hands in the sanctuary and blessed the Lord, it was revealed to him from on high that he was to inhabit that place and there construct a monastery, in which the sons who were scattered abroad might be gathered into one, so that coming from the east and from the west, from the north and from the south, they might be counted worthy to sit down with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven; and that God Himself would be the protector and guardian of the place and of them that dwelt in it. And on what truth that revelation rested the successful event effectually showed; for in the morning he revealed to others the Divine oracle that had been shown to him, and cheered on the souls of those who heard him to set about building. For like bees making honey, they yielded not to sloth, but all in the sweat of their brows toiled diligently at the work. Some cleared and levelled the situation; others began to lay the foundation of the ground thus levelled; some cutting down trees, others carrying them, and others fitting them together, commenced, as the father had measured and marked out for them, to build a church and its offices of polished wood, after the fashion of the Britons, seeing that they could not yet build of stone, nor were so accustomed to do.

⁴ While they were hard at work and the building was increasing on their hands, there came a heathen prince, Melconde Galganu by name, with his soldiers, and along with them a great multitude of people. The man, fierce and ignorant of God, in the indignation of his wrath demanded who they were, and from where they came, and how they had dared to do all this upon his land. The saint, humbly replying to the interrogation, answered that they were Christians from the northern parts of Britannia, that they had come there to serve the living and true God. He asserted that he had begun the mansion there by the permission — indeed, through the kindness — of King Cathwallain, his master, in whose possession he believed the place to be. But he, furious and raging, ordered them all to be expelled from the place, and that whatever had been built should be pulled down and scattered; and so he began to return to his own home. Therefore the man departed, breathing threatenings against the servants of Christ, and behold, the hand of the Lord in chastisement touched him, and he was struck with a sudden blindness. And yet, as was clear in the end, this did not happen to no good purpose; for on him that sat in outer darkness the true morning star shone, and the external light being for a time taken from him drew him forth from the darkness and shadow of death into the light of truth. And so, inwardly enlightened and induced by penitence, he caused himself to be carried by his people to the man of God, and began most devoutly to entreat that by his prayers he would dispel the darkness and wash him in the font of salvation.

⁵ Truly the saint, who endeavoured not to be overcome by evil but to overcome evil by good, willed to return to the man good for evil; so after beginning with prayer, he laid his healing hand on the blinded man in the name of the Lord and, signing him with the cross of salvation, turned his night into day, and again after the darkness poured into him the hoped-for and eagerly desired light. Thus the Lord struck that He might heal, and making the new Paul out of the old Saul, He blinded him that He might give him light. No sooner therefore was he restored to sight than he was dipped by the holy bishop in the saving water, and henceforward he became an active and devoted fellow-worker in all that he desired at his hand. Taking an account of all his possessions, he bestowed them on S. Kentigern with royal munificence for the construction of his monastery, and, aided by this assistance, he rapidly brought what he had commenced to perfection. He established the Cathedral Chair of his bishopric in the church of that monastery, of which diocese the greater part of the country was that which by his preaching himself had won to the Lord. In truth he led back to the way of salvation a countless number of men who were either ignorant of the Christian faith, or averse from it, or degraded by profane doctrine, or deteriorated by wicked works. And by his labours he turned vessels of wrath into vessels of mercy, vessels of dishonour into vessels of the glory of God. For he went forth from his monastery to exercise his episcopal office, travelling through his diocese as time permitted. But as he never found where the foot of his desire could long find rest, he returned to the much-loved quiet of his monastery, like the dove to the ark, from the face of the deluge of the world; yet he bore with him the olive-branch with its green leaves, for he received the fruit of that peace and mercy which he preached to others.

Chapter Twenty-Five: With what number of brethren his Monastery flourished, and how the holy boy Asaph carried fire without injuring himself. #

¹ There flocked to the monastery of the man of God old and young, rich and poor, to take upon themselves the easy yoke and the light burden of the Lord. Nobles and men of the middle class brought to the saint their children to be trained to the Lord. The tale of those who renounced the world increased day by day both in number and importance, so that the total number of those who enlisted in God’s army amounted to 965, professing in act and habit the life of monastic rule according to the institution of the holy man. He divided this troop that had been collected together and devoted to the Divine service into a threefold division of religious observance. For he appointed 300, who were unlettered, to the duty of agriculture, the care of cattle, and the other necessary duties outside the monastery. He assigned another 300 to duties within the cloister of the monastery, such as doing the ordinary work and preparing food and building workshops. The remaining 365, who were lettered, he appointed to the celebration of Divine service in church by day and by night; and he seldom allowed any of these to go forth out of the sanctuary, but ever to abide within, as if in the holy place of the Lord. But those who were more advanced in wisdom and holiness, and who were fitted to teach others, he was accustomed to take along with him when, at the urgent demand either of necessity or reason, he thought fit to go forth to perform his episcopal office. But dividing into troops and choirs those whom he had appointed for the service of God, he ordained that as soon as one choir had terminated its service in the church, immediately another entering should commence it, and that again being concluded, a third should enter to celebrate. Thus the sacred choirs being conveniently and discreetly arranged so as to succeed in turn, while the work of God was celebrated perpetually, prayer was regularly made to God without ceasing of the church there; and by praising God at every time, His praise ever resounded in their mouths. Very excellent things were said in that and of that city of God; for as it became the habitation of all who were joyful in it, so one might well apply the prophecy of Balaam: “How fine are your tents, O Jacob! And your tabernacles, O Israel! As the valleys are they spread forth, as gardens by the river’s side.”

² There flourished in that glorious monastery holy and perfect men, like Jacob, strong wrestlers against the world, the flesh, and the devil; by faith, love, and contemplation incessantly bent upon the vision of God, like true Israelites; fruitful in good works, humble in their own eyes, and therefore like the well-wooded valleys fragrant with sacred thought and bedewed with the showers of the Scripture, and thus, also, like the cedars by the waters, glorious in all these many virtues and wonders.

³ Among them was one Asaph by name, distinguished by birth and by looks, shining forth in virtue and miracles from the flower of his first youth. He sought to follow the life and teaching of his master, as the reader of a little book of his Life may learn at greater length, from which I have thought fit to insert into this work one miracle, because the perfection of the disciple is the glory of the master. Once upon a time in winter, when the frost had contracted and congealed everything, S. Kentigern, according to his custom, had recited the Psalter in the coldest water, naked, and having resumed his clothes had gone out in public, he began to be vehemently oppressed by the power of the cold, and so in a way to become entirely rigid, so that people might clearly see what was of himself and what was of the power of the Divine condescension. For in that, naked in the waters without being frozen, he was able for so long a time to endure the icy rigour, men might learn how that in the frail vessel of the human body the Divine virtue worked; and that when clothed in skins and other clothes he became rigid from the cold, human frailty is recognised. Therefore the holy father ordered the boy Asaph to bring fire to him at which he might warm himself. The Lord’s little boy ran to the oven and requested that coals might be given to him. And when he had not wherewith to carry the burning thorns, the servant, either in joke or seriously, said to him, “If you wish to take the thorns, hold out your dress, for I have not at hand that in which you may carry them.” The holy boy, strong in faith and trusting in the sanctity of his master, without hesitation, gathering together and holding up his dress, received the living coals in his bosom, and carrying them to the old man, cast them down in his presence out of his bosom, but no sign of burning or corruption appeared in the dress. The greatest astonishment therefore seized all those who saw it, on seeing that fire carried in a dress had not in the least burnt the combustible fabric. A friendly dispute concerning this sign took place between the holy father and his disciple; for the one side seemed to be maintaining his ground by assertions to which the other could not assent: the bishop ascribed to the innocence and obedience of the boy the performance of the miracle; the boy asserted that it had taken place for the merit and sanctity of the prelate, obeying whose command and trusting in whose holiness he had dared to attempt it. And indeed, without prejudice, I think that the miracle is to be attributed to the merits both of the one and of the other, of each wise one, inasmuch as each of them had all along from the earliest years preserved pure the members of his body, which is the clothing of the soul, in virgin chastity, and that from their heads the oil of Divine charity never was lacking; rightly, to express the innocency of either, did the dress of the disciple fail to exhibit injury or damage. For if the flame of impure love had been hidden in their bosoms, according to Solomon’s opinion their clothes would have been burnt. And if their garments had been mingled with blood — that is, if the members of their bodies had been stained with the pollution of itching lust from the will of the flesh and the blood — doubtless, according to Isaiah, it would have been the presage of burning and the food for fire. But holy Kentigern, who had always held dear and beloved the venerable boy Asaph, henceforward ever from that very day regarded him as the dearest and most loved of all, and raised him as soon as he could to holy orders. At the due season he delegated to him the care of the monastery, and made him his successor in the episcopate, as we shall relate further on.

Chapter Twenty-Six: How he saw S. David crowned by the Lord in Heaven, and what he foretold about Britannia. #

¹ Once upon a time, as the man of God continued longer and more intently occupied in prayer than usual, his face became as it were fire, so as to fill the bystanders with wonder and ecstasy. They saw his countenance as the countenance of an angel standing among them; and as they saw his face shining like that of another Moses, astonishment and admiration seized them all. When his prayer was over, he withdrew himself apart and gave himself up to the most vehement grief. His disciples, understanding that his sorrow could not be without a great reason, approached him with fear and trembling, and humbly begged him, if it were permissible and not displeasing to his paternity, to reveal to them the cause of such copious tears. The saint was silent for a time, but on their persevering and knocking at the ears of that most pious father, he at length gave way and answered to this effect: “Be it known to you, dearest sons, that the most holy Dewi, the honour of Britain, the father of his country, the most precious carbuncle of prelates, has just left the prison of the flesh rich in merits, has been introduced among the splendours of the saints, and has penetrated into the Holy of Holies. I say to you, believe me, that not only has a multitude of angels flooded in light received him with heavenly music into the joy of the Lord his God, but the Lord Jesus Christ Himself, meek and lowly of heart, has in my sight gone out to meet him at the gates of paradise and crowned him with glory and honour. See, like a matchless light to his generation and a most brilliant star which shone forth in word and in example, he has become present to everyone under his charge that calls upon him, so as with delight to shine for Him who made him, and assist all who ask his protection, who apply to him for help, and who celebrate his sacred memory. And truly, dearest ones, it is right for me to rejoice in the glory of such a father, who loved me full well; but that ardent affection of devoted love for him permits me not to abstain from tears. For know that the world of Britain, deprived of such a light, of so tender a patron, and of one so powerful before God and the people, will feel the absence of him who ever placed himself between that region and the sword of the Lord, half drawn on account of the wickedness of those that dwell in it, lest when entirely drawn from its sheath it should strike them even to utter destruction. The Lord will surely hand over Britannia to strange nations who know not God, who in religion are pagans; and the island shall be emptied of its indigenous inhabitants, and the religion of the Christian Law shall be scattered until the appointed time; but again, by the mercy of God the Mediator, who overrules all things, Christianity shall be restored as in the beginning, indeed, in a way better than before.” These things spoke the saint, and was silent; and fear came upon all who heard him, and a shower of tears bedewed them. But they, wishing over and above to be assured as to the fact, having called a messenger, they sent him to the Church over which S. Dewi presided as bishop, and they found that the saint had left this world in the same hour in which the man of God, instructed by the Divine oracle, had announced it to them. And in this matter it must be considered how great was the merit of that man in the sight of God, who, either with the eyes of the body or those of the soul, was counted worthy to see such glory and to deliver a prophecy concerning the Britons and Angles so true, which all England was able by a faith that was sight to verify.

Chapter Twenty-Seven: How S. Kentigern went seven times to Rome, and consulted the blessed Gregory about his condition. #

¹ The blessed Kentigern, knowing that Britain in many provinces was struck with many stripes by the Gentiles, and that the Church of God established in it was by idolaters in many ways reft and torn from the faith of Christ; discovering moreover that it was frequently assaulted by heretics, and that there were in it many things contrary to sound doctrine and alien from the integrity of the faith of our holy mother the Catholic Church, set himself for a long time to deliberate within himself what cure he ought to apply to all these evils. In the end, he determined in his mind to visit the seat of Peter founded on a rock; and to prevent the tares growing up in the good wheat, he resolved, by the wholesome teaching of the Holy Roman Church and by acknowledging the oracles of the faith, to cast out every scruple of doubt from his mind, so as to be able to arrive by certain guidings at the light of the truth. For Britain, during the reign of the most holy king Lucius, in the papacy of Eleutherius, by the preaching of the most excellent teachers Faganus and Divianus and others, whom Gildas the wise, the historian of the Britons, commemorates, received the faith of Christ. It preserved that Christianity thus received whole and undefiled till the time of the Emperor Diocletian. Then the moon was turned into blood, and the flame of persecution against the Christians burnt brightly through the whole world. Then that scourge, inundating Britain, vehemently oppressed it, and pagan hands, mowing the first-fruits of the island, namely Alban, took him out of the midst to be recorded in the Book of the Eternal King; and an innumerable company of others shortly after, voluntarily and in ignorance, it offered to heaven.

² From that time the worship of idols began to spring up and increase in that island, bringing in rejection and forgetfulness of the Divine law. But Christianity after this somehow revived and flourished; however, time went on, and first the Pelagian heresy prevailing, and then the Arian creeping in, defiled the face of the Catholic faith. This, however, sprang up again and flourished when these heresies were cast down and conquered by Saint Germanus, Bishop of Auxerre, a man truly apostolic and made glorious by many miracles. Yet forthwith the invasion of the neighbouring Picts and Scots, hostile to the recognition of the name of Christ, drove away entirely both the faith and the faithful from the northern part of Britannia. Finally, Britannia was conquered by the Angles, still pagans, from whom it was called Anglia. The natives being driven out, it was given over to idols and idolaters. The indigenous inhabitants of the island, however, fled either across the sea into Little Britain or into Wales, and though banished from their own land, all of them did not entirely abandon their faith. But the Picts, first mainly by S. Ninian and then latterly by SS. Kentigern and Columba, received the faith. Then, lapsing into apostasy a second time, by the preaching of S. Kentigern not only the Picts, but also the Scots and innumerable people gathered from the different parts of Britain, were, as we have said already and shall say more at length hereafter, either turned to the faith or confirmed in it.

³ However, holy Augustine, noted for his monastic life and habit, and other servants of God, religious men, were sent commissioned to England by the most holy Pope Gregory; who, rich in the showers of sacred preaching and glittering in the lightning power of miracles, either by themselves or by their disciples converting the whole island to Christ, and fully instructing them in the rules of faith and the institutes of the holy fathers, filled the whole land of Anglia with the sweet savour of Christ.

⁴ On account therefore of Britain being crushed by so many misfortunes and Christianity so often obscured and even cast down, at different times diverse rites were found in her contrary to the form of the holy Roman Church and to the decrees of the holy fathers. In order therefore that he might learn and be able to meet and to remedy all these evils, blessed Kentigern, going forth from the monastery of which we have made mention, went seven times to Rome, and brought home what he learnt there, in so far as the correction of Britain required it; but as he was returning for the seventh time he was attacked by a most grievous malady and got home with the greatest difficulty.

⁵ One of his visits was made to Rome during the time that blessed Gregory presided on the apostolic seat, a man truly apostolic in office, authority, life, and doctrine, and the special apostle of England, for the English are the sign of his apostleship. He was as a vessel of solid gold adorned with every manner of precious stone, and was called Golden Mouth, because in expounding great parts of the Scripture he made it clear by the most lucid and polished style. His memory is as the work of the apothecary in making up the unguent, and as music in a banquet of wine, because by his honeyed writings, by his hymns composed according to the laws of music, he gladdened, and by his canonical institutions he strengthened and adorned, the house of God, the holy Catholic Church, diffused throughout the world. To this most holy Roman Pontiff he laid bare and declared in order his whole life, his election to the episcopate, his consecration, and all the events that had happened to him. But the saintly Pope, inasmuch as he was strong in the spirit of counsel and discretion, filled with the Holy Ghost, and knowing him for a man of God and full of the grace of the blessed Spirit, confirmed his election and consecration, because he knew that both had come from God. And on the bishop on many occasions seeking it, and with difficulty obtaining it, he supplied what was wanting to his consecration, and destined him to the work of the ministry enjoined on him by the Spirit of God. Holy Bishop Kentigern, having received the apostolic absolution and benediction, returned home, bearing with him the codes of canons, many other books of Holy Scriptures, as well as privileges, and many relics of the saints, and ornaments of the Church, and whatever lends grace to the house of the Lord. And he gladdened his own by his return, as well as by many presents and religious gifts. He dwelt there for some time in great peace and godly conversation, and ruled holily and firmly both his see and his monastery with great care.

Chapter Twenty-Eight: What he knew by the revelation of the Spirit of two Clerics, and what happened to them according to his prediction. #

¹ It happened that the holy bishop felt it his duty, by ordaining clergy, to confer sacred orders and to promote some to the priestly office. Among others there was brought to him a certain cleric, of elegant form, of great eloquence, of much learning, by birth a Briton, but educated in the Gauls. When the saint saw him, he summoned the archdeacon and ordered him to be straightway removed and separated from the clergy. For there seemed to the eyes of the saint a sulphurous flame to proceed from the bosom of that clerk, and an intolerable smell to offend his nostrils. By this vision, through the revelation of the Holy Spirit, he was made aware of the vice which reigned in his body. For he was, as was then made known to the man of God alone, and afterwards to all, habitually guilty of that most disgusting crime for which the Divine vengeance overthrew in fire and sulphur, and utterly destroyed, the sons of unbelief in the Five Cities. Then said the saint to those who stood around him, “If the sacred canons forbid women, on account of the infirmity of their sex, to which in no way is blame attached, to be promoted to the rank of the priesthood, much more is it our duty to banish from a rank and office so sacred men who pervert their sex, who abuse nature, who in contempt of their Master, in degradation of themselves, in injury of all creatures, cast off that in which they are created and born, and become as women. Nowhere do we read of punishment exercising a graver vengeance than against that monstrous race of men among whom that execrable crime first began. Not only did it overthrow those cities with their inhabitants, with fire on account of the burning of evil passion and with sulphur on account of the stench of that abominable sin, but it also turned them into a place horrid to the sight, full of sulphur and bitumen and horrible smells, receiving nothing living into itself, having indeed on its banks trees that produce fruits externally sound but inwardly full of smoke and ashes, shadowing forth an image of the torture of hell. And this indeed sufficiently distinctly exhibits how so execrable a pleasure is to be held in abhorrence, and how horrible and how much it is to be avoided of all men in this life, and in the future with what torment it will be visited; while the fire expresses the heat of passion, the sulphur the ill savour of the crime, the bitumen the adhering effect of the vice, the smoke the blindness of heart in this world, and in the world to come the unquenchable flame, the intolerable stench, the indissoluble chains, the horror of darkness and eternal death.” After this the same cleric departed by the way that he came, and, as the report goes, he died, cut off by a sudden destruction.

² When the holy man had finished his office and was returning home, there met him among the rest a cleric, a most eloquent foreigner. The man of God, beholding him, glanced at him with burning eye, and asked who he was, and from where he was, and why he had come into these parts. He asserted that he was a preacher of the truth, teaching the way of God in truth, and that he had come into these parts for the salvation of souls. But when the saint had conversed with him he convicted him of being intoxicated with the poison of the Pelagian pestilence. Willing therefore that he should rather return than perish, he warned and reasoned with him to renounce the pernicious sect, but found his heart stony as to conversion. Then the saint ordered him to be expelled from his diocese, and denounced him as the son of death, and that the death of body and soul was in his gates. He remembered also the saying of the apostle, “A man that is an heretic, after the second admonition, avoid; knowing that he that is such is subverted.” The same son of hell, expelled from these borders, departed, and trying to cross a certain river, choked in the waters, he descended into hell, and thus by an evident proof illustrated the exceeding trustworthiness of the truthful prophecy of the most saintly man.

Chapter Twenty-Nine: How the Divine vengeance struck the adversaries of S. Kentigern, and how it bore down upon his countrymen who had fallen away from the faith. #

¹ Until now we have related as carefully as we could what S. Kentigern did when he withdrew from his own country, and when he dwelt in a foreign land. Let us from this point turn back and show what his adversaries suffered, how he returned to the Cambrian region, and what he did there.

² After the man of God had departed, yielding to malice, his enemies were not long permitted to triumph over his absence. For the Lord visited them with heavy hand and hard arm, and with fury poured out, holding over them a rod that watched for evil and not for good, smiting them with the blow of an enemy, and with cruel chastisement, even to destruction. For the night obscured some of them, and a gloom of blindness followed; others were attacked by paralysis, which enfeebled all their strength, and rendered them actually effete so far as concerned their bodily strength; others an incurable madness, proceeding as far as death, seized; others a contagious leprosy devoured or struck down, tainting them, and making them, as they breathed in their half-alive bodies, like to the dead in a state of putrefaction. Very many of them became epileptic, and exhibited a dreadful spectacle to those who saw them. Some one way, some another, were consumed by every kind of incurable disease, and gave up the ghost. So great and so sudden was the indignation of the wrath of God, that all those who had known their power and great numbers hissed over them, saying, “And so has the Lord done thus to this people? Since, look, suddenly they have come to an end, and perished on account of the iniquity which they worked against the holy one of the Lord, striving to take away from the earth his life and memory.”

³ Even his countrymen had quickly abandoned the way of the Lord, which the good shepherd and true teacher had shown to them, and, like dogs returned to their vomit, had fallen into the rites of idolatry. But not with impunity; for from them the heavens, the earth, the sea, and all that are in it, withdrew their obedience, use, and customary aid, so that, according to the Scripture, the very world itself seemed to fight against these foolish ones; and the elements seemed not able to bear with equanimity the absence of so great a man exiled from that land; for according to the words of the prophecy, “All men have departed, all the cattle died, the heaven above was as brass, and the earth as iron, devouring the inhabitants of it; and a consuming famine prevailed for a long time over all the earth.”

⁴ But when the time of having mercy had arrived, that the Lord might remove the rod of His fierce anger, and that they should turn to Him, and He should heal them, He raised up over the Cambrian kingdom a king, Rederech by name, who having been baptised in Ireland in the most Christian manner by the disciples of S. Patrick, sought the Lord with all his heart, and strove to restore Christianity. And truly it is a great sign of the Divine pity, when the Lord constitutes for the government of the holy Church, and for the dominion of the earth, rulers and kings who judge righteously, live holily, seek the good of their people, and execute judgment and justice on the earth. So, moreover, on the other hand, it is an evident proof of the wrath of God when, for the sins of a people, he causes a hypocrite to reign, when he calls the king apostate, and the leaders unjust, as it is written in Job, and when, according to the prophet, he gives kings in His indignation, and princes in His fury.

Chapter Thirty: How holy Rederech, by messengers and letters, invited S. Kentigern to return to his own see in Glasgu; and how the holy prelate, taught by the Divine oracle, assented to the king’s petition. #

¹ And so King Rederech, seeing that the Christian religion was almost entirely destroyed in his kingdom, set himself zealously to restore it. And after long considering the matter in his own mind, and taking advice with other Christians who were in his confidence, he discovered no more healthful plan by which he could bring it to a successful result, than to send messengers to S. Kentigern to recall him to his first see. The fame of the saint going forth struck on the ears and mind of the king, for his light could not be hid, although it shone in the more remote regions. The king, therefore, sent forth messengers to the holy prelate with letters deprecating refusal, and warning, praying, exhorting, and adjuring him by the name of God, as a shepherd, not any longer to withdraw his care from the sheep of his pasture, long desolate and destitute, by any further absence, lest he should expose them to be carried off and torn by the open mouth of the infernal wolf; but rather to hasten forth and meet them before they were swallowed by the throat of the roaring lion seeking whom he might devour, since there is none but he who could deliver, or ought more justly to do so. He declared that it was wrong that the spouse should desert his bride, the shepherd his flock, the prelate his church, for the love of whom he ought to lay down his life, so as not to become a hireling. He showed also that they who had sought his life had perished by the just anger of God, and he swore that in all things, as a son to his father, he would obey his will, his teaching, and his commands.

² On receiving this, the holy father was silent, nor did he on that day return any definite answer, for he had prepared to nourish his grey hairs to the evening of his life, and to end his days, in that glorious monastery which he had raised with long and great labour, and to lay him down to sleep, and to take his quiet rest in the sight of those, his sons, whom he had begotten in the gospel, and brought forth in Christ. But because he sought not his own, but the things that are of Jesus Christ, and came not to do his own will, but the will of Him who sent him, as it could be done in heaven, respecting himself, in himself, and towards himself, he submitted himself entirely to the disposition of God. And while on the following night he was engaged in prayer, and was consulting the Lord on this matter, the angel of the Lord stood beside him, and a light shone in the place of the oratory where he then was, and he smote him on the side and commanded him to rise. And on his standing up, the heavenly messenger said to him, “Go back to Glasgu, to your church, and there you shall be a great nation, and the Lord will make you to increase among your people. You shall truly acquire for the Lord your God a holy nation, an innumerable people to be won for the Lord your God, and you shall receive an everlasting crown from Him. There you shall end your days in a good old age, and shall go out of this world to your Father who is in heaven. Your flesh shall rest in hope, buried with glory and honour, much dignified by the frequent visit of the peoples, and by the exhibition of miracles, till in the last day, by receiving from the hand of the Lord a double robe, you shall possess a twofold reward at the general resurrection.” Having said this, the angel that appeared to him and who addressed him, departed; but he, weeping copiously, gave thanks to the Lord, frequently saying, “My heart is ready, O God! My heart is ready for whatever may please You.”

Chapter Thirty-One: How the Saint, addressing his disciples about his return, appointed S. Asaph as his successor in the government. #

¹ And when the day dawned, having called his disciples together, he said to them, “I speak as a man to you, dearly beloved; I desired, after long thought and deliberation, according to the infirmity of my flesh, that these my aged eyes should be closed by you, and that my bones should be hidden in the womb of the mother of all, in the sight of all of you. But since the life of man is not in his own power, it is laid upon me by the Lord that I should return to my own church of Glasgu; nor ought we, nor dare we, nor will we, contradict the words of the Holy One, as Job says, nor in any way go against it; but rather in all things obey His will and command, even to our life’s end. Do you, therefore, most beloved ones, stand firm in the faith. Acquit yourselves like men and be comforted, and seek always that everything be done in charity.” These, and many things like these, he said in their presence, and lifting his hand he blessed them. Then, with the unanimous consent of all, he appointed the above-mentioned S. Asaph to the government of the monastery, and by the petition of the people, and by canonical election, the successor of his bishopric; and after that he delivered a profound sermon at great length, of faith, hope, and charity, of mercy and justice, of humility and obedience, of holy peace and of mutual forbearance, of avoiding vice and of acquiring virtue, of observing the institutes of the holy Roman Church, of the regular discipline and exercises which he had established, to be observed by them all, and, in fact, of constancy and perseverance to the end in all good things.

² When the sermon was over he enthroned S. Asaph in the cathedral see, and again blessing and taking leave of them all, he went forth by the north door of the church, because he was going forth to combat the northern enemy. After he had gone out, that door was closed, and all who witnessed and heard of his going out and departure bewailed his absence with great lamentations. Hence a custom grew up in that church that that door should never be opened, save once a year, on the day of S. Asaph, that is, on the Kalends of May, for two reasons — first, in deference to the sanctity of him who had gone forth, and next, that thereby was indicated the great grief of those who had bewailed his departure. Therefore, on the day of S. Asaph, that door is opened, because when he succeeded to S. Kentigern in the government, their mourning was turned into joy. Of that monastery, a great part of the brethren, to the number of 665, in no way being able or willing to live without him so long as he survived, went away with him. Three hundred only abode with S. Asaph. Surrounded by such a troop as this, as if compassed by the host of the court on high, he returned to fight the old enemy, and to drive him out from the region of the earth where the apostate angel had placed his seat. And truly those who accompanied him were counted by such a number, and by multiplying the sixfold exercise of good works, by fulfilling the decalogue of the law, arrived at the centenary perfection of virtues, and maintained the fivefold guard over the discipline of the senses, so far as they could.

³ When King Rederech and his people had heard that Kentigern had arrived from Wallia into Cambria, from exile into his own country, with great joy and peace both king and people went out to meet him. On account of his arrival there sounded in the mouths of all thanksgiving and the voice of praise and joy; while from the lips of the holy bishop there issued “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men of good will.”

Chapter Thirty-Two: Of the Devils miraculously driven away, and of the place where he stood to preach, and of the fertility of the land which ensued. #

¹ Blessed Kentigern, on seeing the gathering together and approach of a great multitude hastening towards him, rejoiced in spirit, and therefore offering up thanks, he knelt down in prayer. When he had finished it, he arose and, in the Name of the Holy Trinity, blessed the assembled multitude. Then, as if fortifying the bystanders with the sign of the holy cross, he spoke as follows: “I command that all those who envy the salvation of men, and oppose the Word of God, in the power of the same, depart instantly from here, and oppose no obstacle to them who shall believe.” Whereupon, with exceeding speed, an immense multitude of phantoms, horrible in stature and appearance, coming out of that crowd, fled away in the sight of all; and a great terror fell on those who beheld them. The holy bishop, comforting them and strengthening them, laid bare the natures of those in whom they had believed, and encouraged the hearts of all who stood around to believe in the living God; for by clear reason he showed that idols were dumb, the vain inventions of men, fitter for the fire rather than for worship. He showed that the elements in which they believed as deities, were creatures and formations adapted by the disposition of their Maker to the use, help, and assistance of men. But Woden, whom they, and especially the Angles, believed to be the chief deity, from whom they derived their origin, and to whom the fourth day of the week is dedicated, he asserted with probability to have been a mortal man, king of the Saxons, by faith a pagan, from whom they and many nations have their descent. His body, he continued, after many years had passed, was turned into dust, and his soul, buried in hell, endures the eternal fire.

² By these and similar arguments casting forth the worship of idols from their hearts, he proved to them the Almighty God, Three and One, to be the Creator of all things from the very beauty of the visible creation; and after that, preaching to them the faith that is in Jesus Christ and the Sacraments of faith, he showed by the most true and lucid demonstrations that there is none other name under heaven, believing in which men may be saved, but only the Name of our Lord Jesus Christ. And when he had, by the instruction and dictation of the Spirit, taught much that referred to the Christian faith, in the place which is called Holdelm, the ground on which he sat, in the sight of all, grew into a little hill, and remains there to this day. Therefore, they who had come together, beholding so great and sudden a miracle, obeying the word of faith in their inmost soul, firmly and faithfully believed that Jesus Christ is God, Who had revealed himself to them by His servant Kentigern. Eagerly, therefore, men and women, old men and young men, rich and poor, flocked to the man of God to be instructed in the rules of faith; after being catechised, they renounced Satan and all his pomps and works, were washed in the saving laver in the Name of the Holy Trinity; and so anointed with the sacred chrism and oil, and incorporated into the body of the Church, they became members of Christ. Therefore the bishop rejoiced with great joy, for that a great salvation had been made, and mighty happiness increased among that people; nor was there less joy in the presence of the angels of God in heaven, for that so great a multitude had turned to the Lord. Appropriately by such a sign as the elevation of the mountain in the commencement of his preaching, did the Lord deem right to magnify His saint, who by that very preaching effectually brought all to believe, as to the very mountain, compact and fruitful, in which the Lord was well pleased to dwell. That very Stone, first cut without hands from the mountain, grew up into a high mountain and filled the face of the earth — for the omnipotent God, born of the Virgin, without human passion, was manifestly shown forth in the breadth of this world. Truly, Christ is that Hill exalted on the top of the mountains, even the Lord Himself, that surpasses all the power and greatness of the saints; in whose ways, paths, and light, by the instruction of Kentigern, these nations walked much more devoutly and consistently than that carnal house of Jacob, who, loving darkness rather than light, and wandering away from the ways of truth, refused to be enlightened by the illumination of the Supreme Light.

³ After that the inhabitants of Cambria had turned to the Lord and were baptised, all the elements, which in vindication of the Divine justice had seemed leagued for its ruin, put on a new face towards them for the salvation of body and soul. For as the Lord turning away from the apostates, and opposing them by forbidding the dew to fall, commanded his clouds not to rain upon the earth, and summoned a famine which desolated them, so turning to them that had returned to Him, He commanded the heaven to yield its rain, and the earth to give forth the green herb, and to produce its fruit for those who dwelt on it. Thus by the Lord causing His face to shine upon them, the sun was felt warmer than usual, the vault of heaven clearer, the air more healthy, the earth more fruitful, the sea more calm, the abundance of all things greater, peace more confirmed, the face of all things more joyous, and therefore the devotion of all in the maintenance of Divine worship was more profuse.

Chapter Thirty-Three: How King Rederech conceded to him power over himself and his posterity. #

¹ Now King Rederech, seeing that the hand of God was good to him, and was operating according to his desires, was filled with great joy. And he made no delay in exhibiting openly the inward fervour which animated his soul. For, stripping himself of his royal robes, on bended knees and hands joined, with the consent and advice of his lords, he gave his homage to S. Kentigern, and handed over to him the dominion and princedom over all his kingdom, and willed that he should be king, and himself the ruler of his country under him as his father, as he knew that formerly the great Emperor Constantine had done to S. Silvester. Hence the custom grew up for a long course of years, so long as the Cambrian kingdom lasted in its own proper rank, that the prince was always subject to the bishop. Frequently was the word again and again asserted by the king, that not in vain, but of set purpose had he been called Kentigern by S. Servanus, because by the will of the Lord he ought to become the head lord of all; for “Ken” is “caput” in Latin, and the Albanic “tyern” is interpreted “dominus” in Latin.

² S. Kentigern, thus made a new Melchizedech, hesitated not to accept what the king had so devoutly offered for the glory of God, because he foresaw that in the future even this would be for the advantage of the Church. He had also a privilege sent him from the Supreme Pontiff, that he should be subject to no bishop, but rather should be styled and actually be, the vicar and chaplain of the Pope. But the king, in return for the honour and glory he bestowed upon the holy bishop, received grace for grace, and greater honours and wealth from the Lord. Moreover, his Queen Languoreth, long bowed down by the disgrace of continued barrenness, by the blessing and intercession of the saintly bishop, conceived and brought forth a son, to the consolation and joy of his whole kindred; and the saint baptising him, called him Constantine, in remembrance of the act of his father which he had done to him in resemblance of that which the Roman Emperor Constantine had done to S. Silvester, as has been already stated. He grew up a boy of good disposition, in stature and grace, beloved of God and man, and by hereditary right, when his father yielded to fate, succeeded him in the kingdom, but always subject to the bishop like his father before him. And because the Lord was with him, he overcame all the barbarous nations in his vicinity without bloodshed, surpassing all the kings that had reigned before him in Cambria, in riches, glory, and dignity, and, what is better still, in holiness. So that, famed for merit, and finishing his course in peace, he was counted worthy to triumph over the age, and to be crowned with glory and honour in heaven; so that to the present day he is called S. Constantine by many. We have said this by anticipation, because we have mentioned Constantine as being born by the prayers of S. Kentigern, and baptised and educated by him. The holy bishop Kentigern, building churches in Holdelm, ordaining priests and clerics, placed his see there for a certain reason for a time; afterwards, warned by Divine revelation, justice demanding it, he transferred it to his own city Glasgu.

Chapter Thirty-Four: How many nations the Saint, at one time by himself, at another by his Disciples, cleansed from the foulness of Idolatry, and how he was distinguished for many miracles. #

¹ The blessed Kentigern, like a burning torch in those days, was diligent, by the radiant flames of his virtues, and the burning and shining word of God, to illuminate the souls that were blinded by the darkness of ignorance, to kindle in the cold the love of God, and to burn up and so clear away the thorns of sins and the tares of vices, which according to the ancient curse had spread over the earth and covered it. There was none that could easily hide himself from his heat. For he carefully visited his diocese, and taking away all strange gods from the midst of them, cast forth all the ceremonies of foreign worship, and so preparing the way for the Lord, and making the paths of our God straight, he brought the whole of Christianity there into a better state than it had been before.

² Then the warrior of God, consumed with the fire of the Holy Spirit, like a fire that burns the wood, and like the flame setting on fire the mountains, after he had converted what was nearest to himself, that is to say, his diocese, going forth to more distant places, cleansed from the foulness of idolatry and the contagion of heresy the land of the Picts, which is now called Galwiethia, with the adjacent parts; and amid shining miracles, bringing it back to the rule of truth, he amended, as far as lay in his power, whatever he found contrary to Christian faith or sound doctrine. In all these things the fervour of his devotion was not turned away, but his hand was stretched out still to greater actions, and to the increase of the honour and glory of the Most High, his feet having been shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace.

³ For he went to Albania, and there with great and almost unbearable toil, often exposed to death by the snares of the barbarians, but ever standing undeterred, strong in the faith (the Lord working with him, and giving power to the voice of his preaching), he reclaimed that land from the worship of idols and from profane rites that were almost equal to idolatry, to the landmarks of faith, and the customs of the Church, and the laws of the canons. For there he erected many churches, and dedicated them when erected, ordaining priests and clerics; and he consecrated many of his disciples bishops. He also founded many monasteries in these parts, and placed over them as fathers the disciples whom he had instructed.

⁴ In all these matters, his spirit, always panting for the salvation of the many, never rested till, as a glorious standard-bearer of the Lord’s host, and as a wrestler of unconquered mind, he fought the battles of the Lord. Therefore he sent forth those of his own, whom he knew to be strong in faith, fervent in love, known for doctrine, lofty in religion, towards the Orkneys, Norway, and Iceland, to announce to the dwellers in them the Name of the Lord and the Faith of Christ, for that in those places the harvest indeed was great, but there were no labourers; and seeing that he was now old and unable to go himself, he willed that this work should be accomplished by his disciples.

⁵ All this being duly done, he returned to his own church of Glasgu, where, as elsewhere — indeed, as everywhere — he was known to shine in many and great miracles. For wherever his lips disseminated the knowledge of salvation, the virtue of God, working in His servant, exhibited the manifold power of marvels. For he restored sight to the blind, hearing to the deaf, the power of walking to the lame, speech to the dumb, reason to the insane. He drove away fevers; he cast out devils from the bodies of those possessed by them; he gave strength to the paralytic; healing to the lunatics; cleansing to the lepers, and cure to all sorts of sicknesses. But in such works as these was his daily custom, his accustomed play, his assiduous practice, which in a way became common from so constant occurrence, and which have not been written down, lest the quantity of them brought together should engender weariness. In many other ways also were many sick men taken to the bishop to be healed by the touch of the hem of his garment, frequently by mouthfuls of food and drink given and received; and sometimes men borne in a bed were healed by the shadow of his body as he passed along, like another Peter.

Chapter Thirty-Five: How the Lord kept his Clothes untouched by any drops of rain, or snow, or hail. #

¹ Although the hand of the Lord worked by blessed Kentigern many miracles not commonly vouchsafed to other saints, He worked one work in him in particular at which all men wondered. For as all bear witness who knew the man, as well as those that conversed with him, never in his life were his clothes wetted with drops of rain, or with snow or hail pouring upon him and falling to the ground. For often, standing in the open air, while the inclemency of the weather increased, and the pouring rain flowed in different directions like bilge-water, and the spirit of the storm raged around him, he from time to time stood still, or went where he would, and yet he always continued uninjured and untouched by a drop of rain from any quarter. And not on him alone did the Lord vouchsafe to exhibit this prodigy, which was the Lord’s doing, and wonderful in the eyes of all, but the whole company of his disciples going along with him, by his merits, often, though not as in his own case always, experienced the same grace in themselves and for themselves. For the sanctity of the holy doctor Kentigern, who was bedewed with Divine grace, was to his followers for a shadow in the day-time from the heat, and a refuge, and for a covert from the storm and tempest.

² So let no one disbelieve that the Lord bestowed the blessing of the miracle which we have described on His most devout servant, to the praise of His own most holy Name, and to commend his sanctity, since, in a manner like to this — indeed, in a manner greater than this — He vouchsafed in the desert a boon to the whole Hebrew people to show that they had found favour in His eyes. For, as we read, the garments of that people were not worn or destroyed by time; the garments of this man alone were never wetted with the drops of rain from heaven. Therefore to none let this seem incredible; for, as the Lord says, all things are possible to him that believes, and with the Lord there is nothing impossible. In like manner, the sign which in the smiting of Egypt, as we find written in a certain place concerning the children of Israel, we know to have been frequently repeated in the case of blessed Kentigern. For when darkness overwhelmed the whole land of Egypt, and thick darkness the people, as it is written, where the children of Israel dwelt, there there was light; so, often, when a cloud covered the whole earth, bringing on a darkness that might be felt, a light shone around himself, the place, and the inhabitants of it, where the saint was preaching. Rightly, therefore, as we believe, never were wet with any drops the garments of this saint, whose members he strove with the utmost care to preserve clean and pure from all defilement of flesh and blood. With justice also did a light shine forth from the darkness in the place of his preaching where he taught the people, as in his heart the Sun of Righteousness, the Light that knows no setting, ever shone; and he himself, like a lamp in a dark place, gave forth light in the midst of a perverse and wicked generation, as the apostle Peter bears witness.

Chapter Thirty-Six: How the Saint miraculously restored to the Queen the Ring which she had improperly given away, and which was thrown by the King himself into the River Clud. #

¹ So S. Kentigern having, as we have told, returned home, and disposing himself to dwell by himself in mental solitude far from the throngs of men, willed not to be freely seen in public or to go abroad except in cases of great urgency. Nevertheless he ceased not, though against his will, to shine forth abroad in wondrous signs. Queen Languoreth, who has been mentioned above, living in plenty and delights, was not faithful to the royal chamber or the marital bed, as she ought to have been: for the heap of her treasures, the exuberance of her means of sensuality, and the elevation of power, were accustomed to minister incentives and fuel to the will of the flesh. She cast her eyes on a certain youth, a soldier, who, according to the perishing beauty of this perishing flesh, seemed to her to be beautiful and fair of aspect beyond many that were with him at court. And he, who without external temptation was himself ready enough for such a service as this, was easily induced to sin with her.

² So as time passed, and the forbidden pleasures, frequently repeated, became more and more delightful to both of them — for bread eaten in secret, and stolen waters, according to Solomon, seemed to them to be sweeter; so from a rash act they proceeded to a blind love, and a royal ring of gold, set with a precious gem, which her lawful husband had entrusted to her as a special mark of his conjugal love, she very impudently and imprudently bestowed upon her lover, and he, more impudently and more imprudently placing it upon his finger, opened the door of suspicion to all who were conversant in the matter. A faithful servant of the king, finding this out, took care to instil the secret of the queen and the soldier into the ears of the husband, who did not willingly lend his ear or his mind to her disgrace, as the unworthiness of his wife was brought to him. It is an old and true proverb: it is difficult for a cuckold to put faith in one that reveals the failings of a beloved wife; and the odium is apt to fall rather upon the informer than upon the accused. But the detector of the adultery, in proof of the matter, showed the ring on the finger of the soldier; and by this proof persuading the king to believe him, he succeeded in kindling the spirit of jealousy within him.

³ So the king, being secretly assured of this, veiled under a calm demeanour the wrath of his soul against the queen and the soldier, and appeared more than usually cheerful and kind. But when a bright day occurred, he went out hunting, and summoning the soldier to accompany him, sought the woods and forests with a great company of beaters and dogs. Having uncoupled the dogs and stationed his friends at different places, the king with the soldier came down to the banks of the river Clud, and they, in a shady place on the green turf, thought it would be pleasant for both to sleep for a little. The soldier, worn out, and suspecting no danger, resting his head, stretching out his arm, and extending his hand, straightway slumbered; but the spirit of jealousy exciting the king, who simulated sleep, suffered him neither to slumber nor to take any rest. Seeing the ring on the finger of the sleeper, his wrath was kindled, and he with difficulty restrained his hand from his sword and from shedding of blood; but he controlled his rage, at least in part, and after drawing the ring off the finger threw it into the neighbouring river, and then, waking him up, ordered him to return to his companions and go home. The soldier waking up from sleep, and thinking nothing about the ring, obeyed the king’s order, and never discovered what he had lost till he entered his house.

⁴ But when, on the return of the king, the queen in the usual manner came forth from her chamber and saluted him, from the mouth of him who was thus saluted there proceeded continuously threats, contempt, and reproach, while with flashing eyes and menacing countenance he demanded where the ring was which he had entrusted to her keeping. When she declared that she had it laid up in a casket, the king, in the presence of all his courtiers, commanded her to bring it to him with all haste; but she, still full of hope, entered the inner chamber as if to seek the ring, but straightway sent a messenger to the soldier, telling him of the anger of the king in demanding the ring, and ordering him to send it quickly. The soldier sent back to the queen to say that he had lost the ring and could not tell where. Then, fearing the face of the king, for the sake of concealment, he absented himself from court. In the meantime, as she sought further delays, and was slow in producing what, of course, she could not find, uselessly seeking here and there, the king in fury frequently calling her an adulteress, broke forth in curses saying, “God do to me, and more also, if I judge you not according to the law of adulterers, and condemn you to a most disgraceful death. You, clinging to a young adulterer, have neglected the king your spouse; yet I would have made you the sharer of my bed and the mistress of my kingdom: you have done it in secret; I will do it in public, and the sun shall manifest your ignominy and reveal your more shameful things before your face.”

⁵ And when he had said much after this sort, all the courtiers praying for some delay, he with difficulty conceded three days, and ordered her to be imprisoned. Cast into a dungeon, she now contemplated death as imminent; but not the less did her guilty conscience torment her. O weighty and intolerable punishment, the damning testimony of a guilty conscience! Although one condemned to punishment may have external peace, yet he is acknowledged to be wretched and disturbed whom a gnawing conscience ceaselessly persecutes. The spirit, therefore, of the guilty woman was vexed within her, and with contrite and lowly heart, with tearful prayer, she begged God not to enter into judgment with His handmaiden, but according to His great mercy, as formerly He had pity on the woman taken in adultery and placed in the midst before Him, so in a like case He would have mercy upon her. By the inspiration of the Lord, the woman in her great strait found out a wise device, and, sending a most faithful messenger to S. Kentigern, told him her whole misfortune, and from him, as her only deliverer, she urgently requested help. She also begged that at least he would use his influence with the king and beseech pardon for her, for there was nothing so great which he would, or could, or ought to deny him.

⁶ The saintly bishop, instructed by the Holy Ghost and by virtue from on high, knowing the whole story in order before the arrival of the messenger, ordered him to go with a hook to the bank of the river Clud already mentioned, to cast the hook into the stream, and to bring back to him straightway the first fish that was caught upon it and taken out of the water. The man did what the saint commanded, and exhibited in the presence of the man of God a large fish which is commonly called a salmon; and on his ordering it to be cut open and gutted in his presence, he found in it the ring in question, which he straightway sent by the same messenger to the queen. And when she saw it and received it, her heart was filled with joy, her mouth with praise and thanksgiving; her grief was turned into joy; the expectation of death into the dance of exultation and safety. Therefore the queen rushed into the midst and returned to the king the ring he had required, in the sight of all. Therefore the king and all his court were sorry for the injuries done to the queen; and humbly on his knees he sought her pardon, and swore that he would inflict a very severe punishment, even death or exile if she willed, upon her slanderers. But she, wisely judging that mercy rather than the award of judgment was what she had to do with, was desirous that he should show mercy, as a servant ought to have on his fellow-servant. She said, “Far be it, my lord, O King, that any one should suffer on my account; but if you will that from my heart I should forgive you for what injury you have done me, I will that you put away all angry feeling from your heart and mind, as I do against my accuser.” And all, when they heard this, wondered and were glad. And so the king, and the queen, and the accuser are recalled to the grace of peace and mutual love. The queen, as soon as she could, went to the man of God, and confessing her guilt, and making satisfaction by his advice, carefully corrected her life for the future and kept her feet from a similar fall. During her husband’s lifetime she never revealed to any one the sign whereby the Lord had shown forth His mercy toward her, but after his death she told it to all who wished to know it.

⁷ Behold the Lord sitting in heaven willed to do by His servant Kentigern that which, clothed in our flesh, He condescended to do when conversing with men on earth. At His order Peter, casting a hook into the sea, drew out the great fish in whose mouth he found the piece of money, which he gave in tribute for the Lord and for himself. So by the command of S. Kentigern, in the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ, the queen’s messenger, casting a hook into the river, took a fish, and bringing it thus to the saint found in it, when taken and opened, a ring which saved the queen from a double death. In both these cases, as it seems to me, there was rendered to Caesar that which belongs to Caesar, and to God that which is God’s. For in the piece of money the image of Caesar was restored to him, and in the ring restored the flesh was redeemed from destruction, and the soul made in the image of God was cleansed from sin and restored to Him.

Chapter Thirty-Seven: How a Jester, despising the gifts of the King, demanded a dishful of fresh mulberries after Christmas; and how he received them through the instrumentality of S. Kentigern. #

¹ King Rederech was magnified by the Lord because he clung to Him, by serving Him in faith and good works, and because he obeyed the will of S. Kentigern. For glory and riches were in his house, generosity in his heart, politeness in his mouth, munificence in his hand, for that the Lord had blessed the works of his hands, so that not only to the regions in his own neighbourhood, but even across the sea to Ireland, the fame of his liberality extended. Therefore a jester from one of the kings of Ireland, skilled and clever in his art, was sent to Cambria to the court of the same king, that he might see whether the truth responded to the fame of him, which was far and wide extended. The jester, admitted into the court, played with his hand on the timbrel and harp, and gave joy to the king and his paladins all the days of the Christmas holidays. When the feast of the Lord’s holy epiphany was past, the king ordered gifts to be brought forth and bestowed upon the jester, in accordance with the royal generosity, all of which the actor refused, stating that he had sufficiency of such things in his own country. Being asked by the king what he would be willing to receive, he answered that he had no need whatsoever of silver, and gold, and garments, and horses, in which Ireland abounded; but “if you desire,” said he, “that I should depart from you well rewarded, let there be given to me a dish full of fresh mulberries.” When they heard this speech uttered from the mouth of the man, all burst out laughing, because they thought that he was joking and speaking in sport; for a person of this kind is esteemed the more highly the better he is able, by words that produce mirth, to excite laughter. But he with an oath declared that he had demanded the mulberries not in jest but in all seriousness; nor could he be moved from this by prayers, promises, or the offer of the handsomest gifts; and rising, he declared that he wished to retire from the midst of the crowd, and, as the saying is, to carry off the king’s honour. The king took this very ill, and asked his companions what could be done that he should not be dishonoured in this matter; for it was the season of winter and not a mulberry could be found anywhere. Acting on the advice of his courtiers, he went to S. Kentigern, and humbly begged that by prayer he would obtain what he wanted from God. The man of God, although he thought that his prayer would not be fitly offered for such trifles as these, knew that the king had a great devotion to God and Holy Church, yet though his eyes beheld his substance, which was imperfect, in this case the holy bishop made up his mind to condescend to his petition, hoping that thereby in the future he might advance in virtue. Therefore pondering for a time in his heart, and praying shortly, he said to the king, “Do you remember in what place during summer you threw away the garment with which you were girded, in the great heat when you were hunting, that you might follow the dogs more expeditiously, and then forgetting or underrating it you never returned to recover what you had cast off?” The king answered, saying, “I know, my king and bishop, both the time and the place.” “Go,” said the saint, “straightway to the place, and you shall find the garment still perfect, hanging over a bush of thorns, and below that you shall find mulberries sufficient still fresh and fit for gathering. Take them and satisfy the demand of the jester, and in all things concern yourself that you more and more reverence God, who will not allow your honour to be marred or minished even in so light a thing as this.” The king did as the bishop ordered, and found all as he had predicted. Therefore taking the dish and filling it with the mulberries, he gave it to the actor, saying, “There, take that which you have asked for; for by the help of the Lord who works with me, you cannot in anything injure the fame of my generosity. And that I may not seem to you more niggardly than others, you are welcome to stay here as long as it pleases you.” The actor, seeing the charger full of mulberries contrary to the time of the year, wondered and feared, and when he knew how it had happened, he cried out and said, “Truly, there is none like you among the kings of the earth, munificent in your generosity, and there is none like Kentigern, glorious in holiness, fearful in praises, doing such wonders in my sight beyond expectation. Henceforth I will not leave your house or your service, and I will be to you a servant for ever, so long as I live.” The actor therefore abode in the king’s court, and served him for many days as jester. Afterwards, by the instigation of the fear of God, he set himself against his former profession, renounced the trade of actor, and entering the ways of a better life, gave himself up to the service of God.

Chapter Thirty-Eight: Of the two vessels filled with Milk which S. Kentigern sent to a certain workman; how, when the Milk was poured into the river, it became Cheese. #

¹ There was a certain man, skilled in the trade of an artisan, who served by hammering and forging, took charge of the works of the man of God, and of the monastery, and received from the saint the necessary wages. Now the saint was accustomed to use milk as food and drink, for, as we have said above, he usually abstained from all liquor that could intoxicate. He therefore ordered vessels of new milk to be carried to the artisan, because he knew that workmen and hired servants are gratified by partaking of the food prepared for the lord and householder. But when he who bore it was crossing the Clud, the covers of the vessels, by the merest accident, became open, and the whole milk was poured into the water. But, strangely and wonderfully, the milk poured out did not mix with the water, and was not altered as to colour and taste, but all at once it became curded, and was turned into cheese. In fact, that cheese was no less properly made solid by the beating of the waves, than in other cases it is compacted by the pressure of the hands. The bearer snatched the little shape of cheese out of the water, and went and detailed from the beginning the whole story to the workman to whom the saint had sent him. Many saw this remarkable sign, and on seeing that the fluid had not been turned into fluid, or liquefied, stood astonished. But the workman and many others tasted of that cheese, and also distributed minute particles piece by piece of the same to many to be kept as relics. These relics are preserved in many places and during many times, making the beloved and famous miracles of Kentigern more beloved and more famous by the testimony of this very fact. But although this sign, even externally, is the cause of great wonder, yet to those who view it subtly, and who infer spiritual from corporeal things, the invisible things from the visible, it affords much instruction. In the milk which fell into the waters, yet was not mixed with them, nor turned into them, or immersed in them, we have the example of preserving innocency and justice, which are relics to a peaceable man, among those who swell with pride, who would invade us with all evil, who dissipate themselves in pleasures, and who seek to drown us in destruction by bad examples and persuasions. That the milk in the stream was hardened into cheese, gives us an example of maintaining constancy in the presence of trials and straits. For the just and innocent man hardens among the waves, as the milk did into cheese, when, in obedience to words proceeding from the mouth of God, he keeps the hard paths, and by many tribulations seeks to enter into His kingdom. Moreover, if he endure threats, insults, losses, and injuries, from wicked and perverse men, then he feels them as though he did not feel, but in peace possessing his soul, he endeavours to persevere in good, knowing certainly that whoever perseveres to the end the same shall be saved.

Chapter Thirty-Nine: How S. Columba visited blessed Kentigern, and saw a crown that came down from Heaven upon his head, and a celestial light shining around him. #

¹ At the time when blessed Kentigern, placed in the Lord’s candlestick, like a burning lamp, in ardent desires, and shining forth in life-giving words, in the examples of virtues and miracles, gave light to all that were in the house of God, S. Columba, the abbot, whom the Angles call Columkillus, a man wonderful for doctrine and virtues, celebrated for his presage of future events, full of the spirit of prophecy, and living in that glorious monastery which he had erected in the Island of Yi, desired earnestly, not once and away, but continually to rejoice in the light of S. Kentigern. For hearing for a long time of the fame in which he was estimated, he desired to approach him, to visit him, to behold him, to come into his close intimacy, and to consult the sanctuary of his holy breast regarding the things which lay near his own heart. And when the proper time came the holy father S. Columba went forth, and a great company of his disciples, and of others who desired to behold and look upon the face of so great a man, accompanied him. When he approached the place called Mellindenor, where the saint abode at that time, he divided all his people into three bands, and sent forward a message to announce to the holy prelate his own arrival, and that of those who accompanied him.

² The holy pontiff was glad when they said to him these things concerning them, and calling together his clergy and people similarly in three bands, he went forth with spiritual songs to meet them. In the forefront of the procession were placed the juniors in order of time; in the second those more advanced in years; in the third, with himself, walked the aged in length of days, white and hoary, venerable in countenance, gesture, and bearing, indeed, even in grey hairs. And all sang, “In the ways of the Lord how great is the glory of the Lord”; and again they answered, “The way of the just is made straight, and the path of the saints prepared.” On S. Columba’s side they sang with tuneful voices, “The saints shall go from strength to strength, until to the God of gods appears every one in Sion,” with the Alleluia. Meanwhile, some who had come with S. Columba asked him, saying, “Has S. Kentigern come in the first chorus of singers?” The saint answered, “Neither in the first nor in the second comes the gentle saint.” And when they loudly asked how he knew this, he said, “I see a fiery pillar in fashion as of a golden crown, set with sparkling gems, descending from heaven upon his head, and a light of heavenly brightness encircling him like a certain veil, and covering him, and again returning to the skies. Therefore it is given to me to know by this sign that, like Aaron, he is the elect of God, and sanctified; who, clothed with light as with a garment, and with a golden crown represented on his head, appears to me with the sign of sanctity.” When these two godlike men met, they mutually embraced and kissed each other, and having first satiated themselves with the spiritual banquet of Divine words, they after that refreshed themselves with bodily food. But how great was the sweetness of Divine contemplation within these holy hearts is not for me to say, nor is it given to me, or to such as I am, to reveal the manna which is hidden, and, as I think, entirely unknown save to them that taste it.

Chapter Forty: Of the head of S. Kentigern’s ram, that was cut off, and how it was turned into stone. #

¹ While these two men whom we have mentioned were mutually associated as two columns in the courts of the Lord’s house, firmly founded in faith and love, and strengthened in the same, by the imitation and instruction of whom many peoples and tribes and tongues entered, and are still entering, into the heavenly temple, which is the joy of the Lord their God, some sons of the stranger, who had come with S. Columba, were confirmed in bad habits, and halted in the paths of the man of God. For as the Ethiopian cannot change his skin, so the man that is bred to theft and robbery finds it difficult to change his malice. There came, therefore, some with the blessed Columba, who had no dove-like innocence, merely by the advances of their feet, and not by the affection of devotion, or by progress in morals. While they journeyed, they beheld from a distance one of the flocks of the holy bishop feeding, and leaving the path and going through dark ways, as it is said of such in the Proverbs, they turned aside there, and, in spite of the struggles and remonstrances of the shepherds, seized the fattest wether. But the herdsman, in the Name of the Holy Trinity, and by the authority of S. Kentigern, forbade them to commit such robbery, indeed, such sacrilege, on the flock of the holy bishop, informing them, that if they would but ask a ram of the saint, they would be sure to obtain it. But one of them insulted and drove away the shepherd, threatening him with some injury, or even with death, and carried away a ram, while the other, taking a knife, cut off its head. Then they took counsel how to carry off the carcase, and at a time and place that suited their crime, to skin it, so as they well knew how, to fit it more carefully for their use.

² But a thing wonderful to relate, more wonderful to behold, took place. The ram with his head cut off rushed back with unaccountable speed to his flock, and there fell down; while the head, turned into stone, stuck firmly, as by some most cohesive glue, in the hands of him who held it and had struck it. They who were able to pursue, catch, hold, behead the ram living and strong, were unable to overtake it by following or pursuing when it was mutilated; nor could they cast away from their hands the head which had become stone, in spite of all their efforts. The men became rigid, and their hearts died within them, and became as stone, as they were carrying a stone, and at length they took the wise determination of going to the saints, and, prostrate before the feet of S. Kentigern, penitent and confounded, they prayed with tears that he would pardon them. But the holy prelate, chiding them with kindly reproof, and warning them never again to commit fraud, theft, robbery, or, what was more detestable, sacrilege, unloosed them from the double bond, that of sin, and of the grasp of the stone. He ordered the carcase of the slain ram to be given them, and allowed them to depart. But the head turned into stone remains there to this day, as a witness to the miracle, and, being mute, yet preaches the merit of holy Kentigern.

³ Assuredly this miracle, as it seems to me, in the main, is not inferior to that which the book of Genesis records to have been wrought in the case of Lot’s wife. When the heavenly fire, the avenger of the injury done to God, being ordered to destroy the wicked ones who would upset the natural laws of the generation of man, was about to descend, Lot, warned by the angelic counsel, and aided by its help, escaped the fire of the overthrown and overwhelmed city of Sodom. But his wife, looking back in opposition to a command sent from heaven, was turned into a rock, into an image of salt, to be a relish to the food of brute animals. Here the head of the ram is turned into stone to condemn the hardness and cruelty of those who carry off their neighbour’s goods. In the figure of Lot’s wife, by the Lord’s own teaching, every faithful man is taught and warned, not foolishly to turn back from any sacred duty once undertaken. In the head turned into stone, every Christian is warned not to commit theft or fraud or rapine, or any violence on the property of the Church or on the substance of the servants of God. In the very place, where the miracle wrought by S. Kentigern came to the knowledge of S. Columba and many others, there they interchanged their pastoral staves, in pledge and testimony of their mutual love in Christ. But the staff which S. Columba gave to the holy bishop Kentigern was preserved for a long time in the Church of S. Wilfred, bishop and confessor at Ripon; and held in great reverence on account of the sanctity both of him who gave it and of him who received it. Therefore, during several days, these saints, passing the time together, mutually conversed on the things of God and what concerned the salvation of souls; then saying farewell, with mutual love, they returned to their homes, never to meet again.

Chapter Forty-One: How the man of God erected Crosses in many places, by which, even to the present day, miracles are wrought. #

¹ The venerable father and bishop Kentigern had a custom, in the places in which at any time by preaching he had won the people to the dominion of Christ, or had imbued them with the faith of the cross of Christ, or had dwelt for any length of time, there to erect the triumphant standard of the cross, that all men might learn that he was in no way ashamed of the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, which he carried on his forehead. But, as it seems to me, this holy custom of the good man is in many ways supported by sound reason. For for this cause the saint was accustomed to erect this life-giving, holy, and terrible sign, that, like as wax melts at the fire, so the enemies of the human race, the powers of the darkness of this world, melting away in terror before this sign, might disappear and in terror and confusion might be banished far away. Moreover, it is fitting that the soldiers of the Eternal King, recognising by a glance the unconquerable standard of their Chief, should fly to it, as to a tower of strength, from the face of the enemy, and from the face of those wicked ones who afflict them; and that they should have before their eyes that which they adore and in which they glory. And inasmuch as, according to the apostle, the wrestling against spiritual wickednesses in high places, and against the fiery darts of the evil one, is continual, it is meet and healthful that they should fortify and protect themselves by signing themselves with this sign; and by imitating the Passion of Christ, and with the apostle bearing about in their bodies the stigmata of the wounds of Christ, they should, for the love of the Crucified One, crucify the flesh with its vices and lusts, and the world to them, and themselves to the world.

² Therefore, among many crosses which he erected in several places where the word of the Lord was preached, he erected two which to the present time work miracles. One in his own city of Glasgu he caused to be cut by quarriers from a block of stone of wondrous size, which, by the united exertions of many men, and by the application of machinery, he ordered to be erected in the cemetery of the church of the Holy Trinity, in which his episcopal chair was placed. But all their labour was expended in vain; every machine was powerless, human strength and might availed not to raise it up, though much and long they toiled. But when human genius and help failed, the saint had recourse to the Divine aid. For on the succeeding night, which happened to be Sunday, and while the servant of the Lord was pouring forth his prayers for this end, an angel of the Lord descended from heaven, and coming near, rolled back the stone cross and raised it to the place where it stands today, and blessing it with the sign of the cross, he signed it, sanctified it, and disappeared. The people, when they came to the church in the morning and saw what was done, were astonished and gave glory to God in His saint. For the cross was very large, and never from that time lacked great virtue, seeing that many maniacs and those vexed with unclean spirits are used to be tied of a Sunday night to that cross, and in the morning they are found restored, freed, and cleansed, though often they are found dead or at the point of death.

³ He constructed another cross, wonderful to be described, unless it could be tested by sight and touch, of simple sea-sand, in Lothwerverd, while he meditated righteously and religiously of the Resurrection. In this place he abode eight years. Who ought to dispute on this truth, and say that the Lord will not raise our mortal bodies though turned into dust, since He has so promised with His blessed mouth, when in His name, this saint, of like passions with ourselves, by praying to God raised up a cross formed of sea-sand? Truly it must be believed that at the Lord’s will all the bones of the dead shall be joined to their bones, according to the prophecy of Ezekiel, and that the Lord will give them sinews and make flesh to come on them, and skin to cover them, and shall put breath into them, and they shall live for ever; seeing that at the prayer of a man still alive, a collection of the minutest sand, I had almost said of atoms, was extended into a solid and perfect matter, a mass of sand was condensed and formed into a cross, which neither the burning sun by day, nor the frost by night, nor any inclemency of the atmosphere can dissolve. That cross then was formed as proof to our faith that this our corruptible must put on incorruption; and that of the multitude of the children of Israel, if they were as the sand of the sea, a remnant shall be saved by the faith of the cross of Christ; and that the friends of God shall be multiplied beyond the number of the sand by Him who numbers the stars of heaven, and the sand of the sea, and the drops of rain, and the days of the age. To this cross also many afflicted with various diseases, and specially madmen and those vexed by the devil, are bound in the evening; and often in the morning they are found safe and sound, and return to their friends.

⁴ There are many other places in which he lived, specially during Lent, unknown to us, which the saint sanctified by the presence of His holy indwelling. Yet very many persons relate numerous instances regarding those which, by sure tokens to this day, diffuse the odour of his sanctity, and by his merits afford many blessings to the feeble, and possess the efficacy of miracles.

Chapter Forty-Two: How he tied up his Chin with a certain bandage, and how he prepared for his Soul’s Departure. #

¹ Blessed Kentigern, overcome by excessive old age, perceived from many cracks in it that the ruin of his earthly house was imminent; but the foundation of his faith, which was founded on the Rock, comforted his soul; for he trusted that when the earthly house of this tabernacle was dissolved, he had prepared for him a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. And because by reason of the extremity of old age, and the infirmity consequent upon it, the fastenings of his nerves were almost entirely withered throughout his body and loosened, therefore he bound up his cheeks and his chin, by a certain linen bandage, which went over his head and under his chin, neither too tight nor too loose. This the most refined man did, that by the fall of his chin nothing indecent should appear in the gaping of his mouth, and that such a support should render him more ready in bringing forth what he could or would.

² In the end, this man, beloved by God and man, knowing that the hour was drawing near when he should pass out of this world to the Father of lights, fortified himself with the sacred unction which worked remission of sin, and with the life-giving sacraments of the Lord’s Body and Blood, in order that the ancient serpent, seeking to bruise his heel, should be unable to fix on it his poisonous tooth or to inflict on him a deadly wound: yes rather, that with bruised head he should retreat in confusion. In this very way, the Lord treading Satan under his feet, in order that his holy soul should not be speedily put to confusion, when in his coming out of Egypt he spoke with his enemies in the gate, he patiently, like an excellent under-pilot, awaited the Lord, who had saved him from the storms of this world. And now, close to the shore, driven into the harbour of a certain inward quietude, after so many dangers of the sea, he cast out the anchor of hope, with the ropes of his desire well bound, in the solid and soft ground, reaching in truth even to the inside of the veil, where Jesus Christ had gone before him. Henceforward he alone awaited the departure from the tents of Kedar and the entrance into the land of the living, so that in the City of Powers, that is the heavenly Jerusalem, like a successful wrestler he might receive from the hand of the heavenly King the crown of glory and the diadem of the kingdom which shall not be destroyed. He warned his disciples, gathered around him, so far as his strength would allow him, concerning the observance of the holy rule, the maintenance of love and peace, of the grace of hospitality, and of the continuing instant in prayer and holy study. But above all things he gave them short but peremptory commands, warning them to avoid every evil appearance of simoniacal wickedness, and to shun entirely the communion and society of heretics and schismatics, and observe strictly the decrees of the holy fathers, and especially the laws and customs of Holy Church, the mother of all. After that, as was right, he gave to each of them, as they humbly knelt before him, the kiss of peace; and lifting his hand as best he could, he blessed them, and bidding them his last farewell, he committed them all to the guardianship of the Holy Trinity, and to the protection of the holy Mother of God, and gathered himself up into his stone bed. Then one voice of mourners sounded full everywhere, and a horror of confusion fell on the faces of all of them.

Chapter Forty-Three: Of his Disciples, who sought a speedy journey to heaven, and of his warm bath. #

¹ Some of them, who very dearly loved the saint of God, prostrating themselves in tears before him, begged him thus: “We find, O Lord Bishop, that you desire to depart and to be with Christ. For your old age, venerable, long protracted, and measured by many years, as well as your spotless life, demand this; but, we beg you, have mercy upon us whom you have begotten in Christ. For wherever we have erred through human frailty we have always confessed in your presence, and by satisfaction have made amends by the judgment of your discretion. Since then we have no power of retaining you longer among us, pray to the Lord that it may be vouchsafed to us to depart with you from this vale of tears to the glory of your Lord. So far as concerns this we believe in truth and assert that the Divine mercy will grant you what you ask, for the will of God has been to us directed in your hand from your youth upwards. It seems to us improper that the bishop without his clergy, the shepherd without any of his flock, the father without his children, should enter into these joyous and festive abodes; yes rather, the more festive and the more sublime, by how much a greater company of his own should attend him.” And when they had urged him more with tears, the man of God, full of compassion, collecting his breath, as best he might, said, “The will of the Lord be done in us all: and do with us as He best knows, and as is well-pleasing to Him.”

² After these things the saint was silent, and sighing in his soul for heaven, he awaited the passage of his spirit from the body; and his disciples watching by him, took care of him as if close to death. And look, while the morning day-star, the messenger of the dawn, the herald of the light of day, tearing in sunder the pall of the darkness of night, shone forth with flaming rays, an angel of the Lord appeared with unspeakable splendour, and the glory of God shone around him. And for fear of him the guardians of the holy bishop were exceedingly astonished and amazed, being but earthly vessels, and, unable to bear the weight of so great glory, became as dead men. But the holy old man, comforted by the vision and visit of the angel, and, as it were, forgetting his age and infirmity, being made strong, experienced some foretastes of the blessedness now near at hand, and held close converse with the angel as with his closest and dearest friend.

³ Now the heavenly messenger said these words to him: “Kentigern, chosen and beloved of God, rejoice and be glad, let your soul magnify the Lord, for He has greatly increased His mercy towards you. Your prayer is heard, and the Divine ear has listened to the preparation of your heart. It shall be to your disciples who desire to accompany you as you will. Therefore be steadfast, and you shall see the help of the Lord toward you. Tomorrow you shall go forth from the body of this death into the unfailing life; and the Lord shall be with you, and you shall be with Him for ever. And because your whole life in this world has been a continual martyrdom, it has pleased the Lord that your mode of leaving it shall be easier than that of other men. Have, therefore, a warm bath prepared for you tomorrow, and entering it, you shall fall asleep in the Lord without pain, and take your quiet rest in Him. And after you have paid the debt to nature, and even before the water has begun to cool but is yet warm about you, let your brethren follow you into the bath, and straightway, loosed from the bonds of death, they shall depart with you as companions of your journey, and being introduced into the splendours of the saints, they shall with you enter into the joy of the Lord.”

⁴ With these words the angelic vision and voice departed; but a fragrance of wondrous and unspeakable odour in a strange way filled the place and all that were in it. And the holy man, calling together his disciples, revealed to them in due order the secret of the angel, and ordered that his bath should be prepared as the Lord commanded by his messenger; and his brethren above mentioned rendered unmeasured thanks to God Almighty and to their holy father Kentigern, and thus assured by the oracle in every way they could, fortified by the Divine Sacraments, prepared themselves for what was awaiting them.

Chapter Forty-Four: How he passed out of this world, and how he shone forth after his death in many Miracles. #

¹ When the octave of the Lord’s Epiphany, on which the gentle bishop himself had been accustomed every year to wash a multitude of people in sacred baptism, was dawning — a day very acceptable to S. Kentigern and to the spirits of the sons of his adoption — the holy man, borne by their hands, entered a vessel filled with hot water, which he had first blessed with the sign of salvation; and a circle of the brethren standing round him, awaited the issue of the event. And when the saint had been some little time in it, after lifting his hands and his eyes to heaven, and bowing his head as if sinking into a calm sleep, he yielded up his spirit. For he seemed as free from the pain of death as he stood forth spotless and pure from the corruption of the flesh and the snares of this world.

² The disciples, seeing what was taking place, lifted the holy body out of the bath, and eagerly strove with each other to enter the water; and so, one by one, before the water cooled, they slept in the Lord in great peace, and having tasted death along with their holy bishop, they entered with him into the mansions of heaven. And when the water cooled, not only the fear of death, but every spark of discomfort, wholly disappeared.

³ My judgment is that this bath is to be compared with the sheep-pool of Bethesda, in which, after the descent of the angel and the troubling of the water, one sick man was healed of whatever infirmity he had, but he was still liable to death. But in this ablution a very great company of saints is set free from all sickness, to live for ever with Christ. The water of that laver was distributed to various persons in various places; and from its being drunk or sprinkled health was conferred upon many sick persons in various ways.

⁴ The brethren stripped the saint of his ordinary clothes, which they partly reserved and partly distributed as precious relics, and clothed him in the consecrated garments which became so great a bishop. Then he was carried by the brethren into the choir with chants and psalms, and the life-giving Victim was offered to God for him by many. Diligently and most devoutly, as the custom of the Church in those days demanded, celebrated they his funeral; and on the right side of the altar laid they beneath a stone, with as much becoming reverence as they could, that abode of virtues, that precious stone, by whose merit, as it was a time for collecting stones for the building of the heavenly edifice of the temple, many elect and living stones, along with that pearl, were taken up and laid in the treasures of the Great King. The sacred remains of all these brethren were devoutly and fittingly consigned to the cemetery for burial, in the order in which they had followed the holy bishop out of this life.

⁵ Thus blessed Kentigern, full of years, when he was one hundred and eighty-five years old, matured in merit, famous for signs, wonders and prophecies, left this world and went to the Father on this wise: from faith to sight; from labour to rest; from exile to fatherland; from the course to the crown; from the present misery to eternal glory. Blessed, I say, is that man to whom the heavens were opened, who penetrated the sanctuary and entered into the powers of the Lord, received by the angel hosts; marshalled among the hosts of patriarchs and prophets; joined to the choirs of the apostles; mixed up in the ranks of those martyrs who are crowned by the purple of their rosy blood; associated with the sacred confessors of the Lord; crowned with the snow-white choirs of virgins. And no wonder; for he was indeed, in office and desert, an angel of the Lord, who announced to those who were far away, and those who were near, peace and safety in the Blood of Christ; whose lips kept true wisdom; at whose mouth very many people sought and found the law of God. He, moreover, was a prophet of the Most High, who knew many things in absence, foresaw and predicted many things that were to come to pass. For he rightly is called, and is, the Apostle of the region of Cambria, since its inhabitants and many other people are the signs of his apostleship. He deservedly is called martyr, who by constant and uninterrupted martyrdom mortified himself for Christ, and was proved to have had his heart prepared to sustain any kind of death, should the occasion require it. For, for the name of Christ, and for the defence of truth and righteousness, he frequently offered himself to persecution, proscription, the wiles and swords of the enemies of the cross of Christ; and truly and happily triumphed over the flesh, the world, the devil and his satellites. He, by change of terms, is called the Confessor of Christ, who, confessing the Name of Christ before Gentiles and kings, preached with courage, and instigated all men to the profession of the Name of Christ, and to the confession of their own sins, and of the Christian Faith and praise of God. Nevertheless he by special prerogative obtained the glory and honour of virgins, because from the tamarisk he extracted the balsam, from the nettle the lily, and while in the vessel of this frail and perishing body, he never disturbed, as they say, even by a look, his angelic celibacy, and preserved in a vessel of clay the heavenly treasure of chastity. Therefore from a virgin body he soared in white to the white-robed company of the virgins, that without stain he might stand by the Throne of God and of the Lamb, and following Him whithersoever He goes, might sing the new song which was only known to those who had not defiled their garments. Justly, therefore, the holy man lives as the companion, fellow-citizen, and partaker with all the saints, seeing that in this life he had communion with them, and always sought to please, obey, cling to, and be united in spirit to the Saint of Saints, the Sanctifier of all; and now and ever, being united to them with Him, he lives and rejoices.

⁶ The spirit of S. Kentigern being taken up to the starry realms, that which the Earth, the mother of all, had bestowed she gathered into her womb. But the power of miracles which had existed in him when alive could not be hid behind the turf or stone, but burst forth. From the very day of his burial to the present time his sacred bones are known to put forth power from their own place, and do not cease to announce, by benefits bestowed on many kinds of witnesses, that both in heaven and earth the righteous is had in everlasting remembrance. At his tomb sight is restored to the blind, hearing to the deaf, the power of walking to the lame, strength of limb to the paralytic, a sound mind to the insane, speech to the dumb, cleanness of skin to the lepers. Impious, sacrilegious, perjured men, the violators of the peace of the Church and the profaners of holy places, are justly punished.

⁷ For once upon a time a certain man by night stole away from Glasgu a cow, which in the morning was found living and bound to the foot of the thief, who had been deprived of life; which excited both astonishment and joy. Many who, having committed sins of the flesh, had not hesitated to profane the sanctuary by their impure footsteps, were sometimes either cut off by sudden death, or mutilated in their limbs, or afflicted by some incurable and protracted disease. The breakers of his peace often suffered thus. Those who presumed, by any servile work, to dishonour the anniversary of the saint, on which at Glasgu, where his most sacred body rests, a great multitude is used to assemble from all quarters to seek his intercession, and to behold the miracles which are accustomed to take place there, have often experienced in themselves a speedy vengeance.

Chapter Forty-Five: Of the Prophecy of a certain man, and of the Burial of the Saints in Glasgow. #

¹ In the same year that S. Kentigern, set free from earthly things, migrated to the heavens, King Rederech, who has been often mentioned before, remained much longer than usual in the royal town, which was called Pertnech. In his court there lived a fool called Laloecen, who was in the habit of receiving the necessaries of food and clothing from the munificence of the king; for the chiefs of the earth, the sons of the kingdom, given to vanity, are used to have such persons about them, that by their foolish words and gestures they may excite to jokes and loud laughter the lords themselves and their servants. This man, after the death of S. Kentigern, gave himself up to the most extreme grief, and would receive no consolation from any one.

² When they asked him why he mourned so inconsolably, he answered that his lord, King Rederech, and another of the chiefs of the land, by name Morthec, would not live long after the death of the holy bishop, but would die within the year. That the saying of the fool was uttered not foolishly but prophetically, was clearly proved by the fact of the death of both in the same year. Nor is it much to be marvelled at that the Creator of all things should allow to be announced through the mouth of a fool what was determined, when even Balaam the soothsayer, by his inspiration seeing beforehand many important events, with foreboding mind declared them; and when Caiaphas prophesied that the redemption of the people was to come from the death of Christ; when by the mouth of a she-ass the madness of a prophet was rebuked; when the destruction of Jerusalem was foretold by a madman, as Josephus writes. Therefore in the same year in which the holy Bishop Kentigern died, the same king and prince died and were buried in Glasgu.

³ In the cemetery of the church of that city, as the inhabitants and countrymen assert, 665 saints rest; and all the great men of that region for a long time have been in the custom of being buried there. O how much is that place to be feared and had in reverence which so many pledges of the saints adorn as their resting-place! and which so precious a confessor decorates with the sacred spoils of his mortality and adorns with such frequent miracles, that if everything were written they would be found to fill many volumes. Not only in the place where he rests in the body, though there most frequently, and on his anniversary, is he used to shine forth in signs, but in almost all places, in the churches, and chapels, and altars where his memory is held in honour, he is present as a powerful helper in necessities to those who are placed in tribulations, to those who love him, and trust him, and call upon him. And where faith or certain reason demands it, he does not cease to shine forth in miracles, to the praise and glory of our Lord Jesus Christ; to whom is glory, praise, honour, and power, for ever and ever. Amen.

Here ends the Life of the most holy Kentigern, Bishop and Confessor, who is also called Mungu.