said, "There is no need that man should commend him _whom_ already _God
has commended_."[801] And taking him by the hand he delivered him over
to our abbot Congan[802] and he to the brothers. But that young
man--still living if I mistake not--the first lay conversus of the
monastery of the Suir,[803] has testimony from all that he lives a holy
life among the brothers, according to the Cistercian Order. And the
disciples recognized also in this incident that Malachy had _the spirit
of prophecy_,[804] and not in this only, but in that which we shall add.

65. When he was offering the sacraments,[805] and the deacon had
approached him to do something belonging to his office, the priest
beholding him groaned because he had perceived that something was hidden
in him that was not meet. When the sacrifice was over, having been
probed privately concerning his conscience _he confessed and denied
not_[806] that he had been _mocked_[807] in a dream that night. And
Malachy enjoined penance upon him and said, "It was your duty not to
have ministered to-day, but reverently to withdraw from sacred things
and to show respect to so great and divine mysteries, that purified by
this humiliation you might in future minister more worthily."

Likewise on another occasion,[808] when he was sacrificing and praying
at the hour of sacrifice with his accustomed sanctity and purity of
heart, the deacon standing by him, a dove was seen to enter through the
window in great glory. And with that glory the priest was completely
flooded, and the whole of the gloomy basilica became suffused with
light. But the dove, after flitting about for a while, at length settled
down on the cross before the face of the priest. The deacon was amazed;
and trembling on account of the novelty both of the light and of the
bird, for that is a rare bird in the land, fell upon his face, and
palpitating, scarcely dared to rise even when the necessity of his
office required it. After Mass Malachy spoke to him privately and bade
him, as he valued his life, on no account to divulge the mystery which
he had seen, as long as he himself was alive.

Once, when he was at Armagh with one of his fellow-bishops, he rose in
the night and began to go round the memorials of the saints, of which
there are many in the cemetery of St. Patrick,[809] with prayer. And lo,
they saw one of the altars suddenly take fire. For both saw this great
vision, and both wondered. And Malachy, understandin