Stokes, Revue Celtique 25 (1904) — Irish text translated; Stokes’s editorial introduction retained.

Editorial introduction (Stokes) #

¹ The following Life, now for the first time published, forms part of the rich collection of biographies of Irish saints, preserved in the Royal Library, Brussels. The ms. is in the handwriting of Michael O’Clery, one of the Four Masters, who died about 1644, and the Life is said in the colophon to have been copied out of the Book of the Muinter Duinnín in the year 1629. The date of that book, and whether it still exists, I have been unable to ascertain.

² The Life is a tolerably close version of chap. XIX of the third book of Baeda’s Historia Ecclesiastica Gentis Anglorum. It seems worth publishing, first, as a further contribution to the eschatology of the Irish, secondly, as being, in a Celtic shape, the earliest of the series of mediaeval visions which culminated in the Divina Commedia; and, lastly, as containing several words absent from Prof. Windisch’s Wörterbuch.

³ Our saint’s name appears in two forms, Fursa and Fursu. Fursa is a Middle-Irish corruption of Fursae, gen. Fursai, which occurs (as is proved by the rhyme) in the Martyrology of Oengus, Jan. 16. The latinised Furseus is from Fursae. The form Fursu is found in the Book of Leinster 349f, 372d, the Annals of Ulster, A.D. 647, and the Yellow Book of Lecan, 410d17, where a short collection of maxims (illegible in the facsimile) is headed “Apgiter crabaidh inso sis Fursu (Craibdigh)” — “This below is the Alphabet of Piety of Fursu the Pious.” Fursae and Fursu may come from a root vort and be cognate with Lat. “versutus, vortere”, etc.

⁴ “The Irish authorities”, says Mr Plummer (op. cit., II, 176) ‘differ widely as to Fursa’s pedigree’; and indeed it is impossible to reconcile the genealogical statements in the Book of Leinster, p. 349f 38, with those in the same ms. p. 372d, and in the Martyrology of Donegal, p. 18, unless by the supposition that there were two or more saints of that name. Thus according to the Book of Leinster, p. 349f:

⁵ Fursu mac Fintain maic Findloga m. Degrota m. Luachain m. Laga Lethain m. Conaill Anglonnaig m. Feic m. Rosa m. Fachtna m. Senchada m. Ailella m. Cestaig m. Rudraige. — Gelges ingen Aeda Find máthair Fursu.

Vel ita:

⁶ Fursu mac Fintain maic Findloga m. Conaill m. Luachain m. Lugdach Laga m. Eogain Moir qui et Mog Nuadat.

⁷ And according to the Book of Leinster, p. 372d 60: “Brónach, daughter of Miliuc son of Búan, with whom Patrick was in bondage, (was the) mother of Mochoe of Noendruim at Loch Cuan, and of Colmán of the Casket at Uisnech, and of Colmán of the Mill at Daire Caecháin in Dalriada, and of bishop Mac Erca of Domnach Mór Maige Coba, and of Damnatán of Slíab Betha, and of Fursu the Pious in Péronne.”

⁸ According to the Martyrology of Donegal (Jan. 16), Fursa’s father was Lochín, of Dalaradia, and his mother was Gelgéis (“Bright Swan”), who was, according to one authority, daughter of Guaire Aidne (ob. A.D. 662), and, according to another, daughter of Aed Finn.

⁹ The very modern appearance of the text is probably due to the transcriber, who seems to have substituted cc for g, cch for gh, tt for d, ff for bf (i.e. eclipsed f), ao for oe, aoi for ói, in accordance with the spelling usual in the 17th century. The presence of the infixed pronouns, t and n, points to the Middle-Irish period as the date of the translation. But the absence of deponents, and the occurrence of the preterite passive in -it (ro calmaigit) and the 2d pl. in -bair (fedabair), prove that it cannot be older than (say) the thirteenth or fourteenth century.

The Life of Fursa #

¹ When Sigebert was in the kingship of the Saxons, it was then that Fursa the Pious went over sea to seek a place and a stead wherein he might settle, for he was resplendent in word and in deed, and was famous for miracles and wonders; and therefore he deemed it fitting to go on pilgrimage and take the place of a pilgrim. When that man reached the eastern part of the Saxons he was honourably received by the king, and a place was given to him, and he proclaimed God’s word to the people there, and he brought multitudes of men to the faith, and he strengthened others in the faith, and the love and charity of God was increased by him.

² It was then that trouble and bodily feebleness seized him, and through his devotion he merited to see the angels of heaven in his presence and to see a vision; and this is the vision that was shown to him, that he should be steadfast in preaching the word of God, for he was sure that he would die, though he knew not when he should die, as Christ says (Matt. 25:13): “Watch, for you know not the day nor the hour in which you shall be taken.” And it was through that vision that he found zeal and eagerness to build and order his monastery by canonical teachings. Now there was a delightful monastery there, built in the border of the wood and the sea in a certain stronghold, and its name in the (English) tongue was Cnobheresburg — that is, a city named Cnobere; and the king of that region, Anna, and the other noble folk that were in that city, endowed it thereafter.

³ Now Fursa was of the race of the Gaels; but though he was well-born as to the flesh, he was yet nobler as to the mind, for from the time of his childhood he had a love of the consecrated books and the holy teachings; and what most adorns the saints — the doing of gracious works — it was that he did.

⁴ However that may be, he built the church we have spoken of, and a great sickness seized him therein from one Saturday to another, as his own book of life relates; and he was taken out of his body from evening until cockcrow, and he heard the singing of the angels of heaven and saw them in his presence. And this is what they used to sing, viz. (Ps. 83:8) “Ibunt sancti de uirtute in uirtutem” — “the saints shall go from strength to strength”. And this also they used to say (Ps. 83:8): “Uidebitur Deus deorum in Sion” — “the God of gods shall be seen in Mount Sion”.

⁵ He was then left in his body for three days, and on the third day he was taken up again, and he saw there a greater number of angels fighting against a great host of demons; and what they endeavoured was to bar the way to heaven and shut it against Fursa, and to speak evil and reproach to him. But they could not do that, for the angels of heaven were protecting him on the way.

⁶ Now whoever desires to relate the vision he saw fully, let him himself read the book of Fursa’s life, says Bede.

⁷ There is something, however, says Bede, that we desire to relate — that is, when he was taken up towards heaven, the angels said to him: “Look down at the world below you,” said they. He turned then and looked down, and he saw a great dark valley beneath him in the lower part of the earth. He saw four huge fires glowing red in the air above that valley, and there was no great distance between those fires. Then he asked the angels what the fires were that he saw, and the angels said: “There fires,” said they, “are burning the world. The first fire, however,” said they, “is the fire of falsehood, for when each man is baptised this is what he promises — to gainsay and renounce the Devil and his works. The folk, however, who fulfil not that afterwards, but go beyond it — it is they that are burned in there fire. The second fire is the fire of covetousness — that is, lust and greed — for the folk who covet and desire worldly things out of greed rather than heavenly things, it is they that are burned there. The third fire is the fire of discord — that is, when it grieves you not and wounds you not that your brethren and your neighbours are in deadly things and vain things, then you are burned in there fire. The fourth fire, moreover, is the fire of impiety: they that are burned there are the folk who deem it no crime to spoil and plunder the weak and the wretched.”

⁸ Then the fires grew greater and were perfected, and they drew together until a single huge fire was made of them. When Fursa drew near to the fires, fear seized him, and he said to the angel: “Lord,” said he, “there fire is coming towards us.” The angel then answered and said: “Since it was not you that kindled them,” said he, “you shall not be burned in them; for though there fire be great and terrible,” said he, “it burns no one save according to his own deserving: for the desire of every man,” said he, “it is that which burns him in there fire; for every man who is burned about his body by the unlawful will and his own hurtfulness shall be burned there after the parting of his body from his soul by due pain.”

⁹ Then Fursa saw one of the three angels that were with him in his vision, and he was before the fire, and the other two angels around the fire. And he saw the demons flying through the fire, and they fighting against the righteous and dragging them into the fire by force. The demons were also reviling Fursa, while the angels were protecting him. He saw also a host of angels there and a multitude of the holy men of his own Gaelic race — some of the priests of the people of Ireland that were known to himself. He heard, moreover, a few wholesome words from them. And when they had finished saying those few words, they went together with the angels to heaven, and the three hundred(?) angels stayed with him to bring him to the body.

¹⁰ Now when they drew near to the aforementioned fire, the angel divided the fire. But when Fursa came to the door that the angel made through the fire, the demons seized a man of the men that were burning in the fire, and they flung him at Fursa, so that he burned his shoulder and his back and his cheek. And Fursa knew the man that was flung at him, and remembered that he had once given him somewhat of his clothing. Then the holy angel took the man there and put him into the fire again. The Demon said then: “Do not put him away from you into slavery, for as you have taken the goods of there sinful man, so it behoves you to share his pains.” The angel answered and said: “It was not for greed of the world that he took there man’s goods, but for the sake of his soul’s salvation.” And the fire ceased in that wise.

¹¹ And the angel went with Fursa and said: “The fire that you did kindle — it is that which burned you; for had you not taken the goods of there sinful man out of friendship, the reproach of his sin would not have gone upon you.” And the angel was thereafter teaching him concerning everything that was fitting for him to do concerning the case of men who repent before their death.

¹² Then Fursa was put back into his body, and in his body thereafter were the marks of the burning that had been put upon his soul, so that it was manifest to the men of the world who saw it, as it was on his back and on his shoulder and on his cheek. And it was a wondrous thing to everyone that the mark of what had been put upon the soul should be visible to all in the body.

¹³ Now his life thereafter was the teaching of the men of the earth and the proclaiming of God’s word, as he used to do before. And everything that he proclaimed he himself put into practice.

¹⁴ The order of his vision, however, was that he should tell it only to the folk who would seek it with fervent heart. And there still remains, says Bede, a certain elder of our monastery’s people, and he tells that he himself conversed with a certain devout and truthful man, and he told that he himself had seen Fursa and had conversed with him in the east of the Saxons, and that he himself had heard that vision from the cleric, and that it was in winter-time it was told. And that there was a great frost along with snow, and that Fursa had but a thin scanty garment about him, and that a great sweat came over him through remembering the great terror that was upon him in the vision, as though it were in the middle of summer he was telling it.

¹⁵ However that may be, when Fursa the Pious endured the quarrels of the great hosts that used to come upon him in his own land — that is, in Ireland — he left that land, Ireland, and came to the Saxons, as we have said, with few brethren with him, leaving all his friends and everything else that he had; and he built a fair monastery there, and proclaimed God’s word therein.

¹⁶ When he had done those things he came to leave his monastery and his charge to Foillan and to the other noble priests — that is, to Gobban and to Dicuill — and he desired to go himself, since he was free of all worldly things, to seek a more fitting place. So Fursa and Ultan went from the monastery, and went into the wilderness, and were a year therein labouring with their hands with fervent heart and prayer.

¹⁷ Then when Fursa saw the heathen and unbelievers destroying the monastery and the whole community, after leaving everything in order in the monastery, he went eastward over sea into Francia, and he was honourably received by the king of the Franks — Clovis son of Erchinoald — in the place called Latiniacum, and a monastery was built by him there; and it was not long thereafter that his death-sickness seized him, and he came to the end of his life.

¹⁸ Now Fursa’s body — King Clovis Erchinoald(?) took it with him, and kept it in the porch of the church until the church was consecrated. Now when the body was brought out of the porch to be buried beside the altar when the church was ready, it was found as though he had gone to death at that hour — that is, seven and twenty days after his death; and it was buried honourably and reverently in the church — that is, in the city named Péronne — and it was exalted with honour there — a place in which miracles and many wonders are wrought by Fursa every day.

¹⁹ Now after four years a special house was built for him, and his body was brought therein, and his body was still found incorrupt, even as it was when he died.

²⁰ There is here but a little of the tales of Fursa; and he who wishes for more of them, let him look at the Life of Fursa, and he shall find them. FINIT.