ints as the sun excels the stars (Sec. 2). His pre-eminence was
recognised by angels, who relieved him of labour when his turn came (Sec.
13): and on several occasions Findian showed a like favouritism (Sec.Sec.
18, 20, _a_, _d_, 23). Clonmacnois was superior to the rival house
at Birr (Sec. 20 _b_); and possessed in the hide of the Dun Cow an
infallible passport to heaven (Sec. 20 _c_). The vision of the tree seen
by Enda and by Ciaran prophesied the pre-eminence of Clonmacnois (Sec.
24). The other saints were envious of his renown and of the glory of
his monastery (Sec. 40).

_The Hymn of Colum Cille._--Following the usual practice of Irish
prose literary composition, the homilist intersperses his work
throughout with verse extracts, appealed to as the authority for the
various statements which he has occasion to make. In the present
section he draws upon a hymn made by Colum Cille in honour of Ciaran.
To this hymn, and to its surviving fragments, we shall return in
commenting upon incident LI, where the composition of the hymn is
alluded to.

_The Ante-natal Prophecies._--Patrick is said also to have prophesied
the advent of Senan (LL, 1845)[1] and of Alban (CS, 505); and Becc mac
De that of Brenainn (LL, 3343). But the parallels drawn between the
Life of Ciaran and that of Christ have made such prophecies especially
appropriate in the present case.

The prophecy of Saint Patrick took place under the following
circumstances (VTP, p. 84 ff.).[2] The leper whom, in accordance with
a custom frequent in early Irish monasticism, Patrick is said to have
maintained--partly for charity and partly for self-abasement--departed
from Patrick when the latter was on the holy mountain of Cruachan
Aigli (Croagh Patrick, Co. Mayo). He made his way to the then empty
site of Clonmacnois, and sat in the split trunk of a hollow elm tree.
A stranger made his appearance, and the leper, having assured himself
that he was a Christian, requested him to uproot a bundle of rushes
and to give him in a clean vessel of the water that would burst forth.
Then the leper begged of the stranger to bring tools for digging,
and to bury him there; and he was the first dead man to be buried in
Clonmacnois. Now after this had taken place, the nephew of Patrick,
Bishop Muinis, chanced to be benighted on the same spot, when
returning from a mission to Rome on which the apostle had sent him.
There were angels hovering over the leper's grave, and thus Muinis