Now when the hour of his departure was approaching, he commanded that he should be carried outside, out of the house; and looking up into heaven, he said, “Hard is that way,[6] and this needs must be.”  To him the brethren said, “We know that nothing is difficult for thee, father; but we unhappy ones must greatly fear this hour.”

And being carried back into the house, he raised his hand and blessed his people and clerks; and having received the Lord’s Sacrifice, on the fifth of the ides of September he gave up the ghost, in the thirty-third year of his age.  And lo, angels filled the way between heaven and earth, rejoicing to meet Saint Kiaranus.

L. THE VISIT OF COEMGEN

36.  And on the third night after the death of Saint Kiaranus, the most holy abbot Coemhgenus came from the province of the Lagenians to the burial of Saint Kiaranus; and Saint Kiaranus spake with Saint Coemhgenus and they exchanged their vesture, and they made a perpetual brotherhood between themselves and their followers.  This is related faithfully and at length in the Life of Coemhgenus himself.

LI.  THE EARTH OF CIARAN’S TOMB DELIVERS COLUM CILLE FROM A WHIRLPOOL

37.  Saint Columba, on hearing of the death of Saint Kiaranus, said, “Blessed be God, Who hath called to Himself most holy Kiaranus from this life in his youth.  For had he lived to old age, there would have been envy of many against him, for he would have had a firm hold on the parish of all Ireland.”

Saint Columba made a hymn to Saint Kiaranus; and when he set it forth in the settlement of Cluain, the successor of Saint Kiaranus said unto him, “Shining and worthy of praise is this hymn; what reward then, father, shall be rendered unto thee?” Saint Columba answered:  “Give me my hands full of the earth of the grave of your holy father Kiaranus; for I wish for and desire that, more than for pure gold and precious gems.”  And Saint Columba receiving earth from the grave of Saint Kiaranus, made his way to his own island of Hya.

When Saint Columba was voyaging on the sea, there arose a storm in the sea, and the ship was thrust towards the whirlpool which is in the Scotic tongue called Cori Bracayn, in which is a sea-whirlpool most dangerous, wherein if ships enter they come not out.  And the whirlpool beginning to draw the ship towards itself, blessed Columba cast part of the earth of Saint Kiaranus into the sea.  Most wondrous to relate, immediately the storm of the air, the movement of the waves, and the swirl of the whirlpool all ceased, till the ship had long escaped from it.  Then Saint Columba, giving thanks to God, said to his followers, “Ye see, brethren, how much favour hath the earth of most blessed Kiaranus brought us.”

LIII.  A PANEGYRIC OF CIARAN

38.  Most blessed Kiaranus living among men passed a life as of an angel, for the grace of the Holy Spirit burned in his face before the eyes of men.  Who could expound his earthly converse?  For he was young in age and in body, yet a most holy senior in mind and in manners, in humility, in gentleness, in charity, in daily labours, in nightly vigils, and in other divine works.