Page:The most ancient lives of Saint Patrick - O'Leary.djvu/281

 for the love of Him in whom he believed he would not delay to go unto the nearest place which was full of bulrushes, and, pulling up the bulrushes by the roots, to bring unto him a bundle thereof. And at his entreaty, or rather, at his adjuration, the man went unto the place; he pulled up a bulrush, and immediately a clear fountain burst forth; and he bore the bulrush unto the leper, and related of the new fountain. Then the leper rejoiced and gave thanks unto God, and said unto him: "Knowest thou not, most dear brother, that our Lord Jesus Christ brought thee hither that thou mayest wash my body in the water of that fountain, and bury me there?" Thus the leper said, and, raising his eyes and his hands towards heaven, he expired; and the man washed his body in the fountain, and beheld no mark of leprosy thereon, and committed it without spot to the sepulchre, and departed. And after some days Saint Munis, the devout bearer of many relics of saints, was returning from Rome, and of necessity abided there for one night. And in the silence of the night-season he beheld a great light to cover the place, and he heard angels hymning and watching even until the morn around the tomb of the buried leper. And all these things reported he unto Saint Patrick, saying that he wished to remove the body from that desert place. But Saint Patrick forbade this to be done, foretelling that a certain son of life, named Keranus, but as yet unborn, should there dwell, who should fill that place with a worthy company of holy men, and exalt the body of the saint with much honor. And what Patrick foretold in the course of time came to pass; the place is between Midia and Connactia, and therein is situated the city of Cluane, in which even to this day is an episcopal seat.