16.  He was nevertheless inspired with a spirit of prophecy, which appears from the preceding and the following examples.  For on a certain day the voice of one asking for ferrying had struck on his ears.  Then he said to the brethren, “I hear,” said he, “the voice of him whom God will set over you as abbot.  Go, therefore, and fetch him.”  So they hastened; and coming to the harbour, they found an unlettered youth.  Not caring to lead him to the holy man, they returned and declared that they had found no one, save an unlettered youth who was wandering as a vagabond in the woods.  But Saint Queranus said, “Lead him hither,” said he, “and despise not your future pastor.”  Who being led in, by the inspiration of God and by the instruction of the holy man, took on him the habit of religion, and duly learned his letters.  For he is Saint Oenius, a man of venerable life; and, as the saint prophesied beforehand, he was duly set over the brethren.

XLI.  HOW CIARAN WENT FROM INIS AINGHIN TO CLONMACNOIS

17.  At length, when some time had passed, a holy man by name Dompnanus, of Mumonia by race, came to visit the man of God.  When Saint Keranus enquired of him the cause of his coming, he replied that he wished to have a place in which he could serve the Lord in security.  But Saint Keranus, seeking not his own, but the things of Jesus Christ, said, “Here,” said he, “dwell thou, and I with God’s guidance shall seek a place of habitation elsewhere.”  Finally, the sacred community accompanying him, he made his way to the place foreshown him of God, in which, when the famous and renowned monastery which is to-day called the city of Cluayn was built, he himself illuminated the world, like the sun, with the light of famous miracles.

XLIV.  CIARAN AND THE WINE

18.  Of the multitude of these miracles we add some here.  One time, when the brethren, labouring in the harvest, were oppressed with peril of thirst, they sent to holy Father Queranus that they might be refreshed by the blessing of water.  To these, through the servants, he said:  “Choose ye,” said he, “one of two things; either that ye be now revived with water, or that those who are to inhabit this place after you be blessed with the things of this world.”  But they answering said:  “We choose,” said they, “that those who come after us may abound in temporal goods, and that we may have the reward of long-suffering in heaven.”  And so, rejoicing in the hope of the things to come, they abstained from drinking, though they were in great need of it.

But in the evening when they were returning home, the tender father, having compassion on the weariness of the labourers, blessed a vessel filled with water:  and now renewing the holy miracle in Cana of Galilee, he changed the water into the best wine.  By this wine they, fainting from thirst, were revived; and revived in faith by the manifestation of an unwonted miracle, they gave praises to God Almighty.  For the taste of this miraculous wine was more grateful than was wont, and its odour scented the thumb of the wine-drawer so long as he survived.