The story of S. Piran, or Kieran, as he is called in Ireland, is of sufficient interest to be given.
He was born in Clear Island, in the county of Cork, the extreme south point of Ireland. He established a monastery at Saighir, in the extreme north of Munster. The legend is that his first disciples were a boar, a fox, a badger, a wolf, and a doe. And in this we have an instance of the manner in which simple facts assume a fabulous character in the hands of late writers. The district was that of the clan of Hy Sinnach, i.e. the foxes; an adjoining tribe was that of the Hy Broc, or the badgers; an Ossorian disciple was regarded as Os, i.e. a doe; and his wolf was no other than one of the Hy Faeladh, which has a double meaning of “hospitable” or “wolfish;” another disciple was S. Torc, and the name means “boar.”
Kieran, as his name is in Irish, invoked the assistance of his mother, Liadhain, and induced her to start a school for girls at Kellyon, not far from Saighir. The arrangement was not happy, as at least one of his disciples carried on a lively flirtation with Liadhain’s damsels.
How Kieran placed Buriena the Slender with Liadhain, and how a chief ran away with her, and how Kieran got her back, shall be told when we come to Land’s End. It was possibly on account of this unpleasantness that he withdrew to Cornwall, and brought with him both his nurse, Cocca, and Buriena. But there were other reasons. Kieran belonged to the royal race of Ossory, and in his time Ossory was overrun by Cucraidh, who massacred all he could lay hands on of the royal race of the O’Bairrche, to which Kieran belonged. Most of Kieran’s clan migrated to the north of Ossory, where they maintained their independence till 642. It was not likely that Kieran cared to remain in the country under an usurper whose hands were steeped in the blood of his brethren. Cucraidh tried to make terms with the saint, and his granddaughter was either put under his rule, or else voluntarily entrusted herself to him. But even if Cucraidh invited Kieran to remain, he was but under-king to Aengus, King of Munster, and Kieran quarrelled with the latter and denounced him to death. In fact, Aengus was killed in battle in 489. There was consequently very good reason why the saint should leave Ireland.
Kieran’s monastery at Saighir was on a princely scale. “Numerous were his cattle; there were ten doors to the shed of his kine, and ten stalls at every door, and ten calves for every stall, and ten cows with every calf.... Moreover, there were fifty tame horses with Kieran for tilling and ploughing the ground. And this was his dinner every night: a little bit of barley bread and two roots, and water of a spring. Skins of fawns were his raiment, and a haircloth over these. He always slept on a pillow of stone.” Carantock was his scribe, and some of the books written by Carantock were long preserved at Saighir. One of Kieran’s disciples was Carthag, who, although a saint, was a somewhat loose fish, and gave the abbot not a little trouble. S. Itha put one of his escapades in as delicate a way as might be when she said—
“A son will be born to Carthag,
And Carthag will not be thought better of accordingly.”
On account of his disreputable conduct, Kieran kicked him out, and bade him go to Rome, hoping that he might sow his wild oats in that chaste and holy place.
One day Kieran of Clonmacneis and the two Brendans came to visit him. The steward approached him in dismay. “There is nothing to offer these distinguished guests except some scraps of rusty bacon and water.”
“Then serve up the bacon and the water.”