Rostra vacant, edicta silent, sua praemia desunt
Emeritis, populo jura, colonus agris.
Ista jacent, ne forte meus spem ponat in illis
Civis, et evacuet spemque bonumque crucis.
The Mss. Remains Of Professor O'Curry In The Catholic University. No. II.
Prayer of St. Aireran the Wise, ob.. 664.
[In the first number of the Record we published from the manuscripts of the late Professor O'Curry the Prayer of St. Colga of Clonmacnoise. We now publish another beautiful devotional piece from the same collection.
Speaking of ancient Irish religious works now remaining, O'Curry says (at page 378 of his great work): “The fifth class of these religious remains consists of the prayers, invocations, and litanies, which have came down to us”. The Prayer of St. Colga, published in our last number, is placed by O'Curry in the second place among these documents, which he sets down in chronological order.
“The first piece of this class (adopting the chronological order) is the prayer of St. Aireranthe Wise (often called Aileran, Eleran, and Airenan), who was a classical professor in the great school of Clonard, and died of the plague in the year 664. St. Aireran's prayer or litany is addressed, respectively, to God the Father, to God the Son, and to God the Holy Spirit, invoking them for mercy by various titles indicative of their power, glory, and attributes. The prayer consists of five invocations to the Father, eighteen invocations to the Son, and five to the Holy Spirit; and commences in Latin thus: ‘O Deus Pater, Omnipotens Deus, exerci misericordiam nobis’. This is followed by the same Invocation in the Gaedhlic; and the petitions to the end are continued in the same language. The invocation of the Son begins thus: ‘Have mercy on us, O Almighty God! O Jesus Christ! O Son Of the living God! O Son, born twice! O only born of God the Father’. The petition to the Holy Spirit begins: ‘Have mercy on us, O Almighty God! O Holy Spirit! O Spirit the noblest of all spirits!’ (See original in Appendix, No. CXX.)