Produced by Dennis McCarthy
(Edited from MS. in Library of Royal Irish Academy).
Translated from the Irish With Introduction
by
REV. P. POWER, M.R.I.A. University College, Cork.
It is solely the historical aspect and worth of the two tracts herewithpresented that appealed to their edition and first suggested to himtheir preparation and publication. Had preparation in question dependedfor its motive merely on considerations of the texts' philologicinterest or value it would, to speak frankly, never have beenundertaken. The editor, who disclaims qualification as a philologist,regards these Lives as very valuable historical material, publication ofwhich may serve to light up some dark corners of our Celticecclesiastical past. He is egotist enough to hope that the present"blazing of the track," inadequate and feeble though it be, may induceother and better equipped explorers to follow.
The present editor was studying the Life of Declan [Project GutenbergEtext #823] for quite another purpose when, some years since, thezealous Hon. Secretary of the Irish Texts Society suggested to himpublication of the tract in its present form, and addition of the Lifeof Carthach [Mochuda]. Whatever credit therefore is due to originatingthis work is Miss Hull's, and hers alone.
The editor's best thanks are due, and are hereby most gratefullytendered, to Rev. M. Sheehan, D.D., D.Ph., Rev. Paul Walsh, Rev. J.MacErlhean, S.J., M.A., as well as to Mr. R. O'Foley, who, at muchexpense of time and labour, have carefully read the proofs, and, withunselfish prodigality of their scholarly resources, have made manyvaluable suggestions and corrections.
A most distinctive class of ancient Irish literature, and probably theclass that is least popularly familiar, is the hagiographical. It is,the present writer ventures to submit, as valuable as it is distinctiveand as well worthy of study as it is neglected. While annals, tales andpoetry have found editors the Lives of Irish Saints have remainedlargely a mine unworked. Into the causes of this strange neglect it isnot the purpose of the present introduction to enter. Suffice it toglance in passing at one of the reasons which has been alleged inexplanation, scil.:—that the "Lives" are uncritical and romantic, thatthey abound in wild legends, chronological impossibilities and all sortsof incredible stories, and, finally, that miracles are multiplied tillthe miraculous becomes the ordinary, and that marvels are magnified tillthe narrative borders on the ludicrous. The Saint as he is sketched issometimes a positively repulsive being—arrogant, venomous, and cruel;he demands two eyes or more for one, and, pucklike, fairly revels inmischief! As painted he is in fact more a pagan deity than a Christianman.
The foregoing charges may, or must, be admitted partially or in full,but such admission implies no denial of the historical value of theLives. All archaic literature, be it remembered, is in a greater orless degree uncritical, and it must be read in the light of the writer'stimes and surroundings. That imagination should sometimes run riot andthe pen be carried beyond the boundary line of the strictly literal isperhaps nothing much to be marvelled at in the case of the supernaturalminded Celt with religion for his theme. Did the scribe believe what hewrote when he recounted the multiplied marvels of his holy patron'slife? Doubtless he did—and w