m autem habere nisi
perfecti non possunt. Vnde Iesus ait, "In hoc cognoscent omnes quod
discipuli Mei estis, si dilexeritis inuicem."_ "For the roof and
summit of divine doctrine is charity, because charity is the especial
virtue of the Christians. For the other virtues may belong to good and
to evil men alike; but none hath charity save good men only. Wherefore
Jesus saith, 'Hereby shall all men recognise that ye are of My folk,
if each of you loveth his fellow as I have loved you.'"[3] _Et iterum
dixit Iesus: Hoc est preceptum meum ut diligatis inuicem sicut dilexi
uos._ "And thus said Jesus further: 'This is my counsel to you, that
each of you love his fellow as I have loved you.'"

Many of the children of life, apostles and disciples of the Lord, have
thenceforward fulfilled with zeal and with piety the counsel that
Jesus gave them as to fulfilling charity; as _he_ fulfilled and loved
charity especially beyond all virtues, to wit the noble glorious
apostle, the father confessor, the spark-flashing, the man through
whom the west of the world shone with signs and wonders, with virtues
and with good deeds, _Sanctus Ciaranus sacerdos et apostolus Dei_, the
archpresbyter and apostle Saint Ciaran, son of the wright. Now he was
son of the Wright Who formed heaven and earth with all that in them
is, according to his heavenly genealogy; and son of the wright who
used to frame carriages and all other handiworks beside, according to
his earthly genealogy.

The date which the Faithful honour as the feast-day of this noble one
is the fifth of the ides of September according to the day of the
solar month, and this day to-day according to the day of the week.

Accordingly I shall relate a short memoir of the signs and wonders of
that devout one, for a delight of soul to the Faithful; and of his
earthly generation, and of his mode of life,[4] and of the perfection
which he gave to his victorious course in the earth. A man held
greatly in honour of the Lord was this man. A man for whom God
reserved his monastery, fifty years before his birth; a man whom
Christ accounteth in the order of apostles in this world, as Colum
Cille said--

_Quem Tu Christe apostolum mundo misisti hominem._

A lamp was he, shining with the light of wisdom and doctrine, as Colum
Cille said--

_Lucerna huius insulae lucens luce mirabili._

A man who established a cathedral from which was drawn the
effectiveness of rule, and wisdom, and doctri