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Reed-plot Libran
¶1. AT another time, when the holy man [St Columba] lived in the island of Iona, a certain layman,
who had recently put on clerical dress, sailed across from Ireland; and he came to the island
monastery of the blessed man. On the next day, the saint found him sitting alone as a guest in the
hospice. He first asked him about his country, his family, and the reason for his journey; and he
declared that he was a native of [Connaught in western Ireland], and that he had made the long,
laborious journey deliberately, to expiate his sins in pilgrimage.
When, in order to make trial of the nature of his penitence, the saint had exposed to his view
the hard and heavy discipline of monastic life, he then said to the saint in reply: ‘I’m ready for any
commands that you may wish to impose upon me, however difficult, however humiliating.’
¶2. WHY say more? In that hour, he confessed all his sins; and he promised, kneeling on the
ground, that he would perform all that the laws of penance required. The saint said to him: ‘Rise,
and sit;’ and when he was seated, he then addressed him thus: ‘You are required to complete a
penance of seven years in Tiree [an island west of Iona]. We shall live, you and I, God granting it,
until you complete the number of seven years.’
¶3. ENCOURAGED by these words of the saint, he rendered thanks to God, and said to the saint:
‘What must I do with regard to a false oath that I gave? For, while I lived in my native land, I
slaughtered a man. After his murder, I was held in chains, as the one condemned. But a very
wealthy relative of the same kindred, coming to my aid, opportunely released me, a prisoner, from
the chains, and snatched this condemned man from death. After the acquittal I promised to him with
a binding oath that I would serve him during all the days of my life. But after some days passed in
servitude, disdaining to be a servant of Man, and choosing rather to obey God, I broke my oath, and
departed, deserting that earthly lord. And with God’s favour on my journey, I have come to you.’
¶4. SEEING that the man was greatly distressed about these things, the saint, as before, spoke
prophetically in reply, saying: ‘After the completion of the seven years of which you have been told,
you will come to me here, throughout the days of Lent, so that in the celebration of Easter you may
approach the altar, and receive the Eucharist.’
¶5. WHY linger over words? The pilgrim penitent obeyed the orders of the holy man in everything.
He was sent in those days to the monastery of Mag Luinge [Iona’s daughter house in Tiree]; and he
completed there seven full years of penance. In accordance with the saint’s former prophetic
command, he returned to him for the days of Lent; and after the celebration of Easter had been
completed, in which, as he was bidden, he had approached the altar, he went to the saint, and
questioned him about the above-mentioned oath. To his question the saint, prophesying, made this
reply: ‘Your earthly lord, of whom you once told me, is alive; and your father, and mother, and
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brothers, still live. Now therefore you must prepare yourself for a voyage.’
With these words, he held out a sword, decorated with shaped monsters’ teeth, saying:
‘Take this, to carry with you as the gift that you will offer to your lord for your redemption; and yet he
will by no means accept it. For he has a virtuous wife, and, yielding to her sound advice, he will on
that day grant you liberty, freely and without recompense, unloosing the captive’s belt from your
loins, according to custom.
¶6. ‘BUT when your mind has been relieved from this anxiety, you will not escape another
responsibility arising at your side. For together your brothers will constrain you, to make good the
filial service that you have for so long owed to your father, and have neglected. But obey their will
without hesitation, and receive your aged father into your dutiful care. And although that charge may
seem to you burdensome, you need not be disheartened, since you will lay it down soon. For, on
one day, you will begin to wait upon your father, and on another, at the end of the same week, he
will have died, and you will bury him.
‘After your father’s burial, your brothers will again urge you sharply to pay also the services
of filial duty that are owed to your mother. But from that obligation your younger brother will in fact
release you, for he will be ready to render in your place all the labour of filial duty that you owe,
serving your mother on your behalf.’
¶7. AFTER these words, the aforesaid brother, Librán by name, went away, taking the gift, and
enriched with the saint’s blessing. And arriving in his native land, he found everything confirmed as
the saint had prophesied. As soon as he showed the price of his liberty, offering it to his lord, who
was willing to receive it, his wife refused, saying: ‘How can we take this price that St Columba has
sent? We are not worthy of this. Let this pious servant be released for him without payment. The
holy man’s blessing will profit us more than this price that is offered.’ When the husband heard this
salutary counsel of his wife, he immediately released his slave without payment.
¶8. THEN he, in accordance with the prophecy of the saint, was compelled by his brothers, and
began to serve his father; and, on the seventh day, his father being dead, he buried him. After the
burial, he was compelled duly to devote himself to his mother also; but he was released, because
his younger brother came to his assistance, as the saint had foretold, and took his place, speaking
to the brothers thus: ‘We ought by no means to detain our brother in this country, considering that
he has for seven years, in Britain with St Columba, laboured for the salvation of his soul.’
¶9. AFTER that, relieved from all his troubles, he bade farewell to his mother, and to his brothers,
and he returned, a free man, coming to the place [Derry in Northern Ireland] that is called in Gaelic
Daire Calcig. There he found a ship under sail, setting out from the harbour, and he called from the
shore, begging the sailors to take him with them, as a voyager to Britain. But they spurned him, and
would not receive him, because they were not of the monks of St Columba.
Thereupon, he spoke to that venerable man – who, although far distant, was yet present in
spirit, as the event soon showed – and he said: ‘Does it please you, Holy Columba, that these
sailors, who will not receive me, your associate, are sailing away with full sails and with favourable
winds?’ As he said this, the wind, which had before been in their favour, was changed, more quickly
than speech, to a contrary one.
Meanwhile, the sailors saw that the same man was running alongside them, by the river.
And suddenly, taking counsel together, they shouted to him from the ship, saying: ‘Perhaps the wind
has turned so suddenly against us because we refused to take you with us. And, if now we do invite
you to join us in the ship, you will be able to change the winds, which are now against us, into winds
that are favourable.’
Hearing this, the traveller said to them: ‘St Columba, to whom I am going, and whom I have
obeyed for the last seven years, will, if you take me with you, be able to obtain from his Lord, by the
power of prayer, a wind that will favour you.’ When they heard this, they brought the ship to the land,
SCHOOL OF HISTORY, CLASSICS AND ARCHAEOLOGY
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and they invited him to join them in it. Immediately on entering the ship, he said: ‘In the name of the
Almighty, whom St Columba blamelessly serves, hoist the sail, making taut the ropes.’ They did this,
and the contrary winds were at once changed to favourable ones, and a prosperous voyage to
Britain followed, with full sails.
¶10. AFTER their arrival in British land, Librán left that ship, and, blessing the sailors, he made his
way to St Columba, who was living in the island of Iona. The blessed man received him joyfully, and
related in full, without being told by anyone, all that had happened to him on his journey: of the lord,
and his wife’s salutary counsel; how he had been set free by her persuasion; also of his brothers; of
his father’s death and burial after the end of seven days; of his mother, and of the timely help of his
younger brother; of the things that happened on his way back; of the wind, contrary and favourable;
of the words of the sailors who at first refused to receive him; of the promise of prosperous winds,
and the favourable change of wind after he had been received into the ship. To be brief, all that the
saint had prophesied would happen, he repeated as having been fulfilled.
After this narration, the traveller handed over the price of his ransom, which he had received
from the saint. In the same hour, the saint gave him a name, saying: ‘You shall be called Librán,
because you are free (liber).’
¶11. IN those same days, this Librán devoutly vowed the monastic vow. And when he was sent
back by the holy man to [Tiree], he received these prophetic words concerning him, spoken by him
in farewell: ‘You will live for a long lifetime, and end this present life in good old age. Nevertheless,
your resurrection will be not in Britain, but in Ireland.’
Hearing these words, he bowed his knees and wept bitterly. Seeing that he was very sad,
the saint began to comfort him, saying: ‘Rise, and do not be grieved. You will die in one of my
monasteries; and your part in the kingdom will be with my elect monks, and with them you will
awake from the sleep of death into the resurrection of life.’ Much cheered by the great comfort that
he had received from the saint, and enriched with the saint’s benediction, he went away in peace.
¶12. THIS truthful prophecy of the saint concerning that man was afterwards fulfilled. For, when he
had served the Lord obediently as a monk in the monastery of Mag Luinge for many years, after the
passing of St Columba from the world, he was sent, a very old man, to Ireland, on some monastic
business; and, as soon as he landed from the ship, he went through Mag Breg [in eastern Ireland],
and came to the monastery of [Durrow in central Ireland]. There, hospitably received as a guest, he
fell ill of a malady; and, on the seventh day of his illness, he went to the Lord in peace. And he was
buried among the elect monks of St Columba, according to his prophecy, to rise again into eternal
life.
Let it suffice to have written these true prophecies of St Columba concerning Reed-plot Librán. This
Librán is called Reed-plot (harundineti) because, for many years, he worked in a reed-plot;
gathering reeds.
I thought one or two may enjoy reading this extract from a tutorial reader
Regards
Wot
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Nemo Me Impune Lacessit
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