carrying on the scheme of pious fraud. The legend is not without some historical value; it may serve also as a sample (though but a modest one) of sacred romance,... and of the authorities to which Mr. Alban Butler refers,... when he is too sagacious to follow them.

ST. FURSEY.

FURSEY, who flourished in the seventh century, was an Irish Saint, of royal extraction, and his sanctity (which was not uncommon) began, like Tristram Shandy's misfortunes, before he was born. Phyltan, his father, son of Fundloga, King of Munster, was privately married to Gelgehe, the niece of Brendin, another Irish royalet of the race of Murchertach. Her father Aelfiud, being a hasty and violent man, no sooner discovered the natural consequences of their stolen intercourse, than he sentenced her to be burnt alive; upon which the unborn Saint, in the hearing of all present, pronounced this judicious opinion:* "Certes

* Credibile id miraculum, is the marginal note of the Bollandists, in apparent confirmation of what the biographer remarks upon this passage, for he seems here to have expected some inconvenient incredulity: Quod miraculum reverá illis videtur absurdum qui minus credunt esse omnia possibilia apud Deum,

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it is unbecoming for any màn in authority to deliver his daughter to the flames, unless there be some reasonable and cogent cause!" This astonished all the hearers, except the person himself on whom it ought to have had most effect; but he persisted in his inhuman purpose, and, lest one fire should not be sufficient, ordered three to be kindled. King Brendin, his brother, hastened to the spot, and endeavoured in vain to mitigate him. mitigate him. Crowds assembled in horror to witness this unnatural, but (as it appears) not unlawful execution; and Gelgehe, as she was led towards the flaming pile, was scarcely able, for tears and agonizing sobs, to articulate a prayer; she did however collect strength to utter her supplications aloud, and implore God to save her unborn babe, if she herself were fated to be thus cruelly consumed, inasmuch as she called Him to witness

he says; bids them remember that the Psalmist says, "quoniam omnia quæ voluit Dominus, fecit in cœlo et in terrâ ;” refers to the ill-applied example of John the Baptist leaping at the salutation of the Virgin to his mother; affirms that St. Nicolas fasted twice a week before he was weaned; and asks, if Balaam's ass could be made to speak, why might not an unborn child? "Credant igitur, credant, inquam, magnalia Dei, humanis sensibus incomprehensibilia; et potius collaudent, quam temerè vituperent cunctipotentis factoris Dei, præsertim in Sanctis suis, mirabilia opera." Acta SS. Jan. t. ii. p. 45.

that her single motive for consenting to this secret marriage was the hope of having a child who should be devoted to his service. Her prayers were heard; and upon the spot which her tears had moistened, a spring gushed forth so copiously that it extinguished the three fires. Aelfiud could not resist this miracle, but his heart was not softened, and he banished his daughter and her husband.

Upon this Phyltan took her to visit his uncle, who was no less a personage than the eminent Saint and Navigator St. Brandon, at that time residing in his monastery upon the Isle of Cluainfert. The good Saint received the exiles with kindness, lodged them in the guests' apartment, and regaled them with plenty of the best fare. When they had all retired to rest, so great a light was seen in the chamber of the married pair, that the person who had charge of the hospice, supposed it to be on fire, and communicated his fears to St. Brandon. The Abbot, understanding what it was likely to prove, was not alarmed. Taking with him the more pious of his monks and clergy, he went into the room silently, and found them asleep, safe, and unconscious of the celestial splendour in which they were embathed; so he blest them as they slept, made the sign of the cross

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.

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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. 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 Ecclesia Peronensis, quod populus, paganico adhuc ejus gentis ritu insaniens, regiorum horum puerorum corpora vorare cupierit ; quæ ut pater eorúm 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.