Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 28, 1917.djvu/227

 Collectanea. 195

to Aran. About a.d. 480 he settled to the east end of Aranmore, where his monastery, Templebrecan, his tomb, Leaha Brecain (in which a dedicatory or votive very early slab inscribed " Sancti Brecani " was found) are still objects of great interest. He appears in all the folk-tales as spotlessly pure, cheerful, and even merry, kind, and patient, beyond reach of irritation, as the devils found, for the sole result of their attacks was, quaint kindness, often so holy as to be more painful to the delinquents than the curse of the most powerful saint. As to mortals, the fiercest and most blasphemous was won, heart and soul, by Brecan's kind, open-hearted friendship — he met them as man to man and won them in crowds. One strange (if late) tale said that dining with a king (perhaps his own brother Connall) he gave up his seat to an old low-born priest and sat at the foot of the hall. Indignant at this, his host called on Heaven to put Brecan in his proper place, and lo the King was thrown from his seat and Brecan placed in it above them all. Another told of the anonymous " Saint of Too- mullin " and " Saint of Aran " (Enda) near Doolin, on the Clare shore, how a pagan defied the god of Enda and Enda called fire on his head. The sun shone and light rain fell, and Brecan returned thanks that the sinner was spared. The man was about to blaspheme, but he stopped and asked had Brecan saved him, " No," was the reply, " my God spared you, as I knew he would." " Is he more powerful than the other's (Enda's) god } " " No, he is the same." " Well, ye know more about your Master than that other one and talk as if you'd lived in his house, so I'm going to mind yoit this time out." Brecan's festival was kept in Aran on 22nd May.^ The church in later days was the Parish Church of the western part of the island. InThomond, according to Colgan, Brecan's festivals, however, were May 1st and October 12th.

Enda, on the other hand, always appears in the folk-tales as a fierce, impetuous, bitter man, if very holy. The mediaeval lives of himself and his sister show him in just the same light. A young prince, whose beloved one died at the time he wished to marry her, he fied the world and, under the instruction of

1 Colgan, Acta SS. Hib. p. Ija, 05, p. 715a.