[661] Acts iii. 8-10.
[662] Mark vi. 49.
[663] This implies that the diocese of Cork had already been founded. But we cannot be sure that St. Bernard is correct when he says that the clergy and people met to elect a bishop, in view of his inability elsewhere (§ 19) to distinguish bishops from abbots. It is at least possible that there was strife between different septs concerning the appointment of a coarb of Barre, founder of the church of Cork. Malachy may have taken advantage of the strife to nominate a ruler who belonged to no sept in the district and who would allow himself to be consecrated bishop. The vacancy may have been made by the death of Donnell Shalvey, erenach of Cork, in 1140 (A.F.M.). The word erenach is sometimes used at this period where we might have expected to find abbot (cp. A.F.M. 1137, quoted in Additional Note C, p. 167).
[664] 2 Cor. xi. 28.
[665] Evidently Malachy was now papal legate. The date of the incident is therefore not earlier than 1140.
[666] It would seem that it was taken for granted that one of the leading men of a sept would be appointed, according to prevalent custom, exemplified in the case of Armagh. This suggests that the vacant office was that of abbot. There would be nothing surprising in the selection of a "poor man," who was not a local magnate, as diocesan bishop.
[667] Luke xvii. 16, 18.—This was probably Gilla Aedha Ua Muidhin, who attended the Synod of Kells in 1152 as bishop of Cork (Keating, iii. 317), and died in 1172 (A.U.). Since he attained "a good old age" there is no reason why he should not have been consecrated as early as 1140 or 1141. He had been a monk of Errew in Lough Con, co. Mayo (A.T. 1172), and was therefore "a stranger," i.e. not a native of Munster. He is called a "poor man," no doubt, for the same reason as Malachy himself (§ 24), because he had embraced the life of voluntary poverty. He had a reputation for piety and learning, for the Annals describe him as "full of the grace of God" (A.U.), and "the tower of devotion and wisdom and virginity of Ireland" (A.T.). And if the tradition is trustworthy that he was abbot of St. John the Evangelist at Cork, founded by Cormac Mac Carthy "for pilgrims from Connaught" (see the charter of Dermot Mac Carthy printed in Gibson's History of Cork, ii. 348), and that it received its later name of Gill Abbey from him, we can explain how he came to be near at hand when the election was taking place.
[668] Matt. ix. 20.—In this and the next two sections we have three miracles wrought on women; one at the point of death, another dead, and the third spiritually dead.
[669] See § 14.
[670] Matt. xvi. 28; Mark ix. 1; Luke ix. 27.