on all sides of the chamber, and withdrew with his train as quietly as he had entered. In due time the wonderful child was born, and St. Brandon, knowing by revelation that he had received the Spirit, enjoined his clergy and people to observe a three days fast before the christening, and then baptized him Fursey, a name significant of the virtues wherewith he was endowed.

Under this holy kinsman the young Saint was brought up, with all the advantages of worldly wealth and spiritual instruction, by which he profited so well as to preach during his boyhood. He was still under this tutelage, when a remarkable circumstance occurred which made his supernatural gifts known. A brother and sister of King Brendin's family died in the flower of their youth; they were twins, and singularly beautiful, and not less amiable; and the people, to testify their exceeding grief and affection, wanted to eat them, for such a custom is said to have prevailed

*... nullatenus possent eorum corpora humari, quærentibus omnibus, præ dolore phrenesim patientibus, ea membratim rapi. Upon this there is the following annotation: "Exponit hæc Desmaius ex Joanne Mieloto et Legendario Ecclesiæ Peronensis, quod populus, paganico adhuc ejus gentis ritu insaniens, regiorum horum puerorum corpora corare cupierit; quæ ut pater eorum furori

among the unconverted Irish, as among the Tapuyas of Brazil. The wiser friends of the deceased, fearing that the bodies would be torn to pieces with this intent, before it could be possible to bury them, shipt them by stealth and sent them off by night to St. Brandon, that he might inter them in his island. Whether they were entrusted to rapacious hands, or, as according to another account, the vessel was captured by pirates on the way, so it was that the bodies were plundered, stript, and laid during the night stark naked, before the cell of St. Fursey. At day-break, when he opened his door, meaning as usual to visit the Church at that early hour, there he saw them; and, being filled with compassion, because they were of his own age, he immediately besought God that in the immensity of his mercy He would restore them to life. Before the prayer was concluded it was granted, and the dead arose in perfect health, marvelling where they were, and as much ashamed when they perceived

subtraheret, ad Brandanum clam miserit, isthic sepelienda. Plura de ferali hoc barbarorum more congerit Desmaius, quibus tamen fidem non facit eum tunc apud Hibernos viguisse. Acta SS. Jan. t. ii. 47. N. a.

Desmaius, who is here referred to, was a Canon of Peronne, who published a French life of St. Fursey in 1607.

This

their plight as Adam and Eve after the transgression. Fursey, with ready considerateness, shut them up in his own cell while he provided garments for them; then he led them into the Church, where they passed the whole day in returning thanks for their resurrection. done, he asked them in what manner they wished to dispose of themselves; supposing, perhaps, as was usual for persons after such an event, that they would think it proper to enter upon a monastic life. But they were of royal parentage, and were desirous of returning to their country and their parents, and the enjoyments from which they had been cut off by death. How to get back was the difficulty; the vessel from which they had been carried on shore in that unseemly and yet fortunate manner, was gone; they had no other, and they besought him with tears in their eyes that he would assist them with means of transport. Perhaps they thought, as well they might, after what they had experienced, that this was an easy thing for St. Fursey. He happened to have in his hand a writer's rule, which he cast into the sea, commanding it to show them the way, and bidding them follow it. Away went the obedient rule, true as the needle, to its 'direction; the brother and sister followed fear

lessly on foot; crowds flocked to the shore when they beheld two persons walking on the water; the astonishment was heightened when those persons were recognised for the dead restored to life. The rule was taken up and deposited in a church, there to be preserved and venerated in honour of God and St. Fursey; and the Saint received a visit from King Brendin, his kinsmen and people, to solicit the benefit of his prayers.

But bad passions were not more prevalent in the minds of the heathen Gods and Goddesses than they were in monasteries, even in this age, when Saints were more numerous upon earth (and especially in Ireland) than Demigods and Heroes had ever been in the environs of Olympus. The monks of Cluainfert began to envy St. Fursey, and consequently to hate him, insomuch that he found it expedient to withdraw. He departed, therefore, with St. Brandon's permission, and founded a monastery near the lake of Orbsen,* in the diocese of Tuam, where the church, called after him Kill-fursa, stood in later times. Thither his grandfather, Aelfiud, came in sackcloth and ashes to confess his sins, and entreat forgiveness

* Alban Butler, vol. i. 204. stereotype edition.

for having attempted to burn him alive before he was born. The absolution thus humbly asked was freely given. Soon afterwards Phyltan, his father, succeeded to the throne of Munster, and it was about this time that the Saint was favoured with his visions.

The first occurred when he was on the way to visit his parents: a sudden illness seized him on the road; it was not so severe as to render him incapable of proceeding, and he had advanced, leaning on his companion's arm for support, nearly to the end of his journey, when the hour of vespers arrived, and he stopt to begin his even-song: a darkness then came over his sight, his limbs failed, the body lost all sense, and he was borne, dead to all appearance, into the nearest house. Unconscious of all that was done to him there, he in this trance saw the four hands of two Angels who carried him through the air, and the four wings of each, and the snowy whiteness of their feathers; but their bodies he could not see, because of their exceeding brightness. A third went before armed with a white shield and a fiery sword. He heard also the song of many thousand Angels, and observed, as far as he could distinguish their faces, that they had all a strong family likeness to each other. It was not till one of