Chapter One: The Beginning of the Life of Tigernach, Bishop and Confessor #

¹ The venerable bishop Tigernach, born of royal lineage, was the grandson of King Eochu, who dwelt near the city of Clogher. Concerning the miracles of this holy man, we have judged it necessary to relate briefly something, as it has been handed down by our elders.

² Therefore the same king Eochu, since he had three most beautiful daughters reared in his palace, one of them, Derfraych, loved a certain noble man from among her father’s warriors, a Leinster man by race, named Corbri. And when she had conceived by him, she hid herself from the sight of men until she should give birth. And when she bore a son, immediately her father, taking the child, set out with haste for his own homeland.

³ And when they were entering the city of Saint Brigid, at once the blessed Brigid, by the Spirit revealing it, understood their coming, and made it known to her household, saying: “Now honorable guests are coming to us, whom we must receive gladly.” And the blessed virgin herself went out to meet them, and taking the child in her bosom, she had him baptized by the bishop of that city. And the blessed virgin, giving him a name, said: “Because he is the grandson of many lords and kings, let him be called Tigernach.” When this had been done, the father led the child with him to his own country.

⁴ After this, the holy boy was captured by pirates who were plundering his homeland, and he was led as a captive to the king of the Britons. And because of the beauty of his face and the grace of God shining in him, he was so greatly loved that the king allowed him to sleep with him in his own bed. But, as though appearing like the other bush of Moses, the royal bed very often seemed to burn.

⁵ Then the queen said: “This Irish boy causes this fire to descend upon us from heaven. Therefore let him be removed from us, and let him lie in another bed among our sons.”

⁶ But when he slept at night between the king’s two sons, in the morning both were found dead. And the king and queen, seeing their sons dead, sent for a holy man named Monennus, begging that he would come to them and show what ought to be done in this matter. And when he had come, he commanded the holy boy to lie among the dead and to order them to rise with him.

⁷ And he, immediately obeying the commands of the holy man, placing one hand upon the crown of the one and the other upon the eyes of the other, by Christ working in him, raised them to life. Of these, one, for the memory of the miracle, remained with closed eyes, and the other with a bald crown, for as long as he lived.

⁸ Then the blessed boy, restored to freedom, was diligently instructed in the disciplines and counsels of Saint Monenn in the monastery of Rosnat, which is called by another name Alba, and he was advanced into a perfect man in holiness and in character.

⁹ Now when on a certain day, while his master was present, he was sleeping, the holy man, carefully gazing upon him, perceived that he was breathing forth, first a breath of white color, second of red color, third tinged with yellow color. And when he had awakened him, he said: “Son, what did you see?”

¹⁰ And he, answering, said: “I dreamed that three rivers flowing from heaven were poured into my mouth: the first was of new milk, the second of wine, the third of oil. And with this I saw a man standing by of venerable and white attire, who prophesied to me, saying: ‘In the land of your mother you will found a renowned church.’” Which is most certainly proved to have been said concerning the monastery of Clones.

¹¹ After this, having received the blessing of his master, he went to Rome; and from there, carrying the relics of the holy apostles Peter and Paul, he hastened to return to his own country, according to what he had been admonished in the same vision.

¹² And when the blessed man was journeying, with Saint Ciaran, son of Euchodius, accompanying him, in the winter season he came to the city of Saint Martin, where he was received into a lodging in which nine dead persons were lying that night. Then Saint Ciaran, his companion, taking pity on the immoderate cries of those lamenting, said to blessed Tigernach: “Let us beg almighty God throughout this whole night, that by his ineffable mercy he may deign to raise these dead.”

¹³ And at once the pious father, full of the bowels of charity, consenting to the petitions of the holy man, poured forth pure and devout prayers to the Lord for them. And he, not enduring that the requests of his beloved friends should return to him empty, for the praise and glory of his name and of his servants, called those nine dead back to life.

¹⁴ Then Saint Tigernach and Saint Ciaran gave to one another the right hands of fellowship.

¹⁵ And when the man of God had come to the Irish Sea, it happened that at that time the daughter of the king of the Munstermen, named Ethnea, taken from Ireland for marriage to the king of the Britons, was being led by his soldiers to the harbor where the man of God was waiting for a favorable wind.

¹⁶ When she saw the blessed man with his disciples in the harbor, she begged him, saying: “Holy father, do not allow me to remain among unbelievers, for I have devoted myself to Christ, whose faith and love I hold with my whole heart.”

¹⁷ Then the blessed man begged the soldiers that they would release the girl to him. But they, despising the prayers of the holy man, led her to the king of the Britons. And that very night, after she had unwillingly been placed together with the king in the same bed, she immediately died.

¹⁸ But the king, marveling at what had happened to him, questioned the soldiers about the things they had done on the way, and commanded that they should relate everything to him in order. And they, obeying the royal command, reported that they had scorned a certain pilgrim cleric who was begging that the girl be given to him, and that they had not wished to consent to his prayers.

¹⁹ Then the king ordered that without delay they should bring the dead girl to the holy man. And when this was done, the man of God, placing the body of the girl in a coffin, commanded the sailors to set sail. And when they had hoisted the sails to the deep and had begun to move some distance from the land, meanwhile the man of God prepared himself to celebrate Mass.

²⁰ And when the fitting time came for water to be mixed with the wine, by divine prompting, according to the customary practice, a drop of water fell from heaven. And after they had come by a prosperous voyage to the long-desired harbor, the man of God, turning to the girl, said: “O Ethnea, you are weighed down by a long sleep. In the name of Jesus Christ arise, and before all of us go down from the ship.”

²¹ And she, immediately rising, to the amazement of those standing by, went out from the ship unharmed. And afterward, throughout the whole time of her life, she served God devotedly in the chastity of both states of life.

²² We judge that another miracle also, worked by the same man of God, ought to be related. For the thurible which they had left behind through forgetfulness in the British harbor from which they had come, they found in the Irish harbor to which they had arrived.

²³ Then he came to the land of the Munstermen, in which there was an idol from which a demon, giving responses, was worshiped by men. And the demon foretold to his followers the coming of the man of God, and calling him a hypocrite and a deceiver, he persuaded his worshipers to kill him.

²⁴ And they, at once obeying the commands of their leader, hastened to slay the man of God. But the man of God, armed with the shield of faith and taking up the accustomed weapons of devout prayers, begged Christ to restrain their fury. And they, immediately appeased by the mercy of God, he said: “Cease, wretches, and grant me this, that I may show you in his own form him whom you worship.”

²⁵ When he had said this, making the sign of the cross upon the idol, he compelled the demon to stand before all in his own foul form, and forced him to confess his evil deeds. And the man of God commanded him to go into a certain rock set near in the sea, where his lamentation and howling are often heard. And all those idolaters there, abandoning the worship of demons and confessing the faith of Christ, were baptized by the holy man.

²⁶ Then, returning to his own country, he asked from the king of the land, named Fiachra, a place in which he might found a monastery. And he did not delay to grant what he had asked, and commanded his men to make a deep ditch around the same place. Moreover, he gave in perpetuity possessions of fields for the work of the monastery.

²⁷ Finally, when on a certain occasion the king, compelled by necessity, asked from one of his servants a little hay to place under his foot in his shoe, and when he had received it, he said to him: “From where did you get this?” He answered: “From the land which you gave to the holy man.”

²⁸ Then he said in a clear voice before those standing by: “From the produce of the land which I have offered to God, henceforth and in the future I will never make use in my own uses or necessities.”

²⁹ Afterward, the devout king earnestly begged the man of God to pour forth prayers to the King of heaven, that on the following day he might obtain victory over the enemies who were to fight against him. Which the holy bishop promised that he would do, and he fulfilled it.

³⁰ For on the next day the enemies, before they could join arms with arms, turned their backs; and very many of them, according to the opinion of those pursuing, were thought to have been slain and beheaded. But in truth, through the prayer of the holy man alone they were put to flight, and not slain.

³¹ Finally the king and his army, returning to their own country, carried with them, according to their estimation, the heads of the beheaded. But they discovered that these were not true heads, but marshy clods with their long grasses. And when this too was known, they glorified the blessed man, by whose prayers the hostile army, harming no one and harmed by no one, was turned to flight.

³² Now when the monastery had been founded there, and religious brothers had been left there, he set out to his spiritual mother, namely Saint Brigid, who had formerly lifted him from the font of baptism, who was then dwelling in the monastery of Kildare. And she, admonished by mystical signs and by the Spirit revealing to her that her spiritual son was worthy of episcopal honor, having called together bishops, caused him to be promoted to the summit of the pontifical order.

³³ For in this the blessed Brigid herself was privileged by the clergy and the people of all Ireland, that whomever she judged should be ordained, he was chosen by all.

³⁴ When therefore these things had been accomplished, the venerable bishop Tigernach, with the permission of the virgin and of the bishops, directed his steps to King Eochodius, namely his maternal grandfather. And he received him with great joy. For he greatly rejoiced, not a little, that he had so great and such a grandson.

³⁵ And also the motherly bowels, when she saw her son, were filled with ineffable joy. But the same king, overcome by carnal love, offered to him the dignity and see of the holy bishop Maenchatus, namely the monastery of Clogher, and promised that he would expel the same bishop from his borders.

³⁶ Which the man of God, as a true despiser of worldly honor, abhorring this, and fleeing from the king and his relatives, immediately departed, and hastened to direct his steps to a mountain set far away; where in a cell which he had founded there, he remained for a long time.

³⁷ Now when the fame of his holiness and virtues had spread on every side, religious men came together to imitate the examples of his sanctity. One of these was the venerable man Doachus, the illustrious archbishop of the Patrician see, whom he received with pious affection and a cheerful countenance, and nourished according to his strength with bodily and spiritual refreshment; and for him, when he set out on his journey the next day, he poured forth devout prayers to the Lord.

³⁸ But the archbishop of Armagh, journeying on that same day in Magh Glas, that is, in a certain plain so called, was overtaken by death. This was immediately made known to the man of God by the Spirit of God revealing it. And at once he commanded his charioteer to harness the chariot to the horses, and when he himself had mounted the chariot, he ordered that he should not open his eyes without his permission. For he knew beforehand that angels would accompany him on that journey. Moreover, he promised that on that day he himself would guide the reins of the horses; and this he did.

³⁹ Therefore when he had mounted the chariot, with wondrous speed, under angelic guidance, they passed over the long road. And when the charioteer perceived this, struck with great astonishment, with head uncovered and against the commands of the bishop, but not without punishment, he looked around. For one of his eyes immediately burst. Which the blessed bishop, making the sign of the cross, immediately healed. And the mark of this sign, traced in his eye, appeared for as long as he lived.

⁴⁰ And when he had come to the lifeless body of the archbishop, blessing water, he sprinkled it upon him. Then, bending his knees to the ground, he humbly begged almighty God that, for the showing forth of his omnipotence, he would command the soul of his dead servant to return to the body. And as soon as he had finished the prayer, he who was already dead rose up unharmed, and said: “Tigernach on earth, Tigernach in heaven”; that is, on earth in body, in heaven in soul and in manner of life.

⁴¹ After this, the holy men, having given the kiss of peace and having entered into a covenant forever, departed from one another.

⁴² Not long afterward, an angel of the Lord appearing to Saint Tigernach said to him: “Go to the farthest bounds of the region over which King Eochodius, namely your grandfather, presides; and there, between the west and the south, you will found holy places, with God helping you.” And he, immediately obeying the angelic commands, set out on his journey.

⁴³ And when he had come to the promised place, he built there the monastery of Gabalin, where with his holy fellowship he manfully served the King of ages, and by the shining forth of miracles he gleamed like the sun. Of these we shall say a few.

⁴⁴ At one time he asked King Aed, son of Cormac, that seven hostages, already destined to death for the crime of their parents, might be released to him as free men. And he released them on this condition, namely that he himself, from whatever greater danger he might incur, should be delivered through the man of God. Which was afterward fulfilled.

⁴⁵ For when enemies suddenly rushed upon him in that very town, and the king himself and his wife most devoutly invoked the name of their holy patron Tigernach, lest they should be killed by the enemies, divine power protected them, so that the enemies did not recognize them, and allowed them to go away unharmed. And the blessed man made those hostages clerics, of whom he advanced two to the summit of the pontifical order.

⁴⁶ Moreover, he signed with the sign of the saving cross the womb of the same king’s wife, named Bardubhe, which had until then been closed by the vice of barrenness; and afterward she bore two sons to the same king, of whom one, named Fechin, was the father of a very numerous people, and the other, Romanus, was an abbot.

⁴⁷ On another day, when he saw a hawk snatching a chick of a hen, the pious father, full of the bowels of charity, commanded it to allow the chick to return to its mother without any harm. And scarcely had he finished speaking, when immediately, obeying the command of the man of God, it released the chick to the hen. Moreover, lest it should presume to repeat this by rash daring, he commanded it under interdict, saying: “You, and the birds of your kind, from this day forward shall be the guardians of the hens of the monastery of Gabalin, not robbers.”

⁴⁸ And when he had compassion, though absent, on the necessity, almost extreme, of certain of his household who were laboring in a nearby lake, he prayed to the Lord; and immediately, the storm being calmed, they were at once freed from the jaws of death. And from that day in the same part of the lake, by the power of his prayer, no one has been drowned.

⁴⁹ Meanwhile, the man of God, admonished by divine grace inspiring him, was warned to entrust that monastery to his beloved Comgall to govern, and himself to hasten toward the eastern region, not far away, to a broader and more fertile land, where he might build a monastery. Which the man of God immediately fulfilled; and afterward he founded the monastery of Clones, where from ancient times a multitude of holy men and nuns faithfully served God.

⁵⁰ Now in the last thirty years of his life, struck with blindness of the body, not of the mind, remaining in his secret cell, tasting beforehand the sweetness of the contemplative life alone, he lived as though leading the life of a hermit.

⁵¹ But when the end of this life was drawing near, a multitude of the heavenly host, descending to meet his soul, gently and peacefully received it from the holy body, and from the pilgrimage of this dwelling-place they led it with sweet melody to the heavenly fatherland, where he enjoys everlasting glory to the ages of ages. Amen.

Chapter Two: A Hymn for Vespers #

¹ The celebrated day of Saint Tigernach is here,
Which clergy and people ought to venerate,
On which it is fitting that old men rejoice with boys.
We ought today greatly to glory,
That through him we may wish to be honored elsewhere,
For thus we shall deserve to be exalted by him.
Let each one press on to the feast of so great a man;
A solemn light for all is the feast of his saint,
He who opens the gates of heaven to the one who asks.
He grants health, as to the sick,
Believe that he will thus give the other things to one who prays;
Therefore let us rejoice in one so beneficent.
He kept the temple of his body in chastity,
Beyond what was lawful he desired nothing,
And he always obeyed the commandments of the Lord.
He bestowed the seed of spiritual wheat,
Teaching the peoples, he loosed their faults,
Giving his own to the poor, he gave himself to God.
By the merits and prayers of this man we beg,
That we may deserve to be joined to the heavenly ones, O Christ,
And together with the angels may enjoy the kingdom of heaven.

² Amen.

Chapter Three: A Hymn for Matins #

¹ Tigernach, loving to seek the things above
with the fire of grace,
directed his purpose, O bishop,
toward the hope of the fatherland.
He cast away sweet banquets,
repelling the gluttony of the belly;
he reduced the lowest lusts of the flesh,
pressing them down with great force.
Approving one true knowledge,
he despised learning what is vain;
checking self-exaltation,
he avoided pride;
rejecting every honor,
he fled empty praises.
In the summit of charity
he grew beyond the rest;
despising perishable deeds,
he sought a splendid life.
Drawing his mind away from the world,
he prepared a path for many;
resounding with many miracles,
teaching by words and by conduct.
He caused diseases to be healed,
lavishing the gift of salvation;
to the blind he granted clear sight,
to the lame he gave the power to walk;
and the dead from the lower regions
he called back to life.
We beg Christ, by the merits
of the holy bishop Tigernach,
that he may grant us to enjoy
with him blessed glory.

² Amen.