THE LIFE OF SAINT PADARN

Latin Text

§ I. Christ, the son of the living God, the third Person of the divine Trinity, coeternal and consubstantial with the Father and the Holy Spirit, gave this precept to the Church, that he might incite the minds of men with greater zeal to religion, promising them a double reward, that is, here a hundredfold, and hereafter life eternal. And Luke the evangelist, the disciple of saint Paul the apostle, a physician of body and soul, wrote this precept for the common salvation of Christians. The purport of this precept is of such a kind. He who to obtain the kingdom of God shall despise all desires, and shall tread under foot all the riches of the world and luxuries, shall receive far more in the present time, as from the brethren and comrades of his prior, who are bound to him in a spiritual tie. A far more gracious love also shall he receive in this life, seeing that it is agreed that that love which, whether the social bond or the necessity of blood relationship joins together as between parents and children and brethren and wives and neighbours, is sufficiently brief and fragile. Who, therefore, for the kingdom of God spurn temporal things, do even in this life by sure faith taste the joys of that same kingdom, and in the expectation of the heavenly country do enjoy the most sincere love equally with all the elect.

§ 2. Of whom is saint Padarn, bishop, who abandoning an earthly inheritance and seeing complete exile, desired to become heir of the heavenly kingdom and citizen. Who by race was an Armorican, and was born of noble parents, to wit, from Petran, his father, and Guean, his mother. These availing themselves of one connexion begot saint Padarn. But afterwards they dedicated themselves in service to the eternal God. For Petran straightway leaving Letavia went to Ireland. Gracious, therefore, was the birth of saint Padarn, whereby his father was made a saint, and his mother, made a handmaid of Christ, led a religious life for ever. Therefore it was foreseen by God in harmonious sequence that as Christ was sprung from the supreme Father, God of God, Light of Light, so saint Padarn was born of holy parents. For straightway that he was born, they elected to follow Christ.

§ 3. But Padarn soon as he understood anything rational in the world, asks his mother, with whom he had been left, whom he had had as father, whether he lived or not, or, if he lived, where he was, and why he tarried elsewhere, and had not rather remained in his own inheritance. To which his mother replies with tears, `Thy father indeed liveth, and more to God than to the world. But he has gone hence to Ireland, where he fasts, prays, watches, meditates, mourns, sleeps on a little mat, and kneels to the supreme Lord day and night.' Then the youth, the Holy Ghost from above inspiring, strengthened, says `How better then can a son live than in imitation of a good father? For if the father be a king, his son seeks to imitate him in government. Therefore may I die, if I follow not my father in the paths which he chose.'

§ 4. At that time an ecclesiastical company of monks, leaving Letavia, were bent on seeking the shores of Britannia. For even as a winter hive, when spring is smiling, waking to life, and, its stock increasing, prudently considering, sends out another first and principal swarm to make honey elsewhere, so Letavia, the serenity of religion increasing, sends across crowds of saints to the source, whence they went forth, under the leaders Ketinlau, Catman, and Titechon.

§ 5. The holy youth, Padarn, also, stirred by this report, girded himself with the rest for exile, not slower than his seniors, but, by as much as he was younger, so much the more fervent in labouring, he transcended his age in religious rules.

§ 6. Therefore all the companies assemble for the passage, with one accord seeking Britannia. Soon is Padarn made the fourth leader of a troop, not at his own request, but his cousins, seeing him hastening to the height of perfection, appointed him, saying, `Since the Lord has made thee to excel in morals, it behoves that thou shouldest rule over peoples for example of life'.

§ 7. Therefore with a favourable passage all the clerics land on the shores of the island of the Britanni. There follow Padarn eight hundred and forty-seven monks. The saint with his saints takes a place for a church, by name Mauritana, where saint Padarn afterwards shone by reason of a distinguished miracle. And so he there soon built a monastery.

§ 8. After that he had built a church, and placed the monastery under a steward and prior and dean, he remembers his father. He blesses the brethren, he obtains their leave, he sails to Ireland, he visits his father. They salute one another, they give thanks to Christ, the most high God, at length they sit together.

§ 9. At that time in Ireland the kings of two provinces are at variance. Devastations spring from both sides, spoils are seized, houses are burnt, wars spring up, brothers fall, the land is made desolate unto slaughter and solitude.

§ 10. At last the pitiful Arbiter of the world with wonted providence taking compassion, sends an occasion of unhoped-for peace to the bishop of the church of every monastery through his angel. And he says, `Unless both armies have seen the face of the saint lately come from Britannia, never will the malicious

kings be reconciled to one another.' Immediately messengers are sent. They appeal with respect to Padarn. The armies are summoned together. They place Padarn in the midst. By the grace of his countenance the devils of discord are driven away. Perpetual peace springs up between both provinces, eternal unity is born from God, so that as a sign of the unity of the men the woods of one province fall on the falling of the woods of the other province.

§ 11 . Then all magnify the Lord in his servant, Padarn, and all blessing him, said, `May there always be to thee a token of peace, whereby thy name may shine on the earth, while thou livest, also after thy death.' Which is fulfilled in the gift, Cirguen, Cyrwen. For so great is the service of that bachall, that, if any two are at discord, they are made to agree by swearing together on it.

§ 12. Of Christ it is said, that a good shepherd knows which are his sheep, in accordance with which precept saint Padarn brings back to memory the brethren whom he had left in Britannia. He bids farewell to his father, he is blessed by his father, he goes to Britannia, he finds the brethren safe in body and mind.

§ 13. Among whom he finds Nimannauc lately arrived, who in Letavia unable to live after Padarn, comes to the shore of the sea, and finds a certain rock, on which he stood and said, If to the Lord God what things I design are pleasing, and if that Padarn, whom I would follow, is indeed a saint, let the rock rise, and let it float on the waters, let the waves be made solid, let the sea harden that it drowns not the stone, may I be borne in safety to the master, the leader saint Padarn.' Sooner than said, he arrived by a wonderful voyage at the Maritime Church on the shores of Britannia. He is saluted by the brethren, he tells his story, they all with one voice magnify the Lord God in his saints, who fulfilled the humble desire of Nimannauc, and manifested the virtue of his most exalted saint, that is, Padarn.

§ 14. Then Padarn built monasteries and churches throughout the whole Ceredigion country, over which he appointed leaders, to wit, Samson, Guinnius, Guippir, Nimannauc. And so saint Padarn became a light in doctrine and practice throughout the whole of Britannia.

§ 15. In the meantime Maelgwn, king of the Northern Britons on a journey to the Southern Britons to vanquish and subdue them, comes with a strong army as far as the mouth of the river Clarach. And when he, ever the tempter of the saints, was at hand, he ordered two heralds to precede him, that they might try Padarn in some wicked way. They were called Graban and Terillan.

§ 16. They, wickedly scheming, came to the descent of Clarach, they fill up bags with moss and gravel, they feign them to be royal treasures to be brought to the saint. They bid him take care of these until the king returns prosperously. The saint consents, he s

orders them to be deposited, he says they will be found even as they had been left.

§ 17. The king passes on, the heralds follow. The king returns in peace, the Britons being subdued. And he sent the malign heralds to try the saint. Then quickly do they approach his cell, they take up the bags, they empty their contents, they deposit the moss and gravel, they impudently cry out that all the treasures of the king had been taken by stealth, and that gravel and moss had been put in instead of them. The saint on the other hand replies that as put in so they were found. But they began to threaten the ruin of the whole cell, if the treasures were not restored.

§ 18. Before these things it had been decreed by the king throughout the whole. of Britannia, that every liar should be discovered by means of boiling hot water. Then in the fervour of the spirit Padarn bids them heat water in a brazen vessel, until it thrice boils over. This is soon done. Immediately Padarn placed his hand in the water at its greatest heat, which when placed in appeared white and cold as snow. Soon the heralds are constrained to put their hands in the water. Soon their scalded hands show the malice of their minds. And the heralds forthwith being entirely burnt, end their life. Their souls in raven-forms fly to the riverbed, which unto this day by the name of one of them is called, to wit, Graban.

§ 19. Then King Maelgwn himself is blinded at his post, he is weakened in heart, he totters at the knees. He confesses that he is about to die by reason of the impeachment of his iniquity against saint Padarn. Straightway the king went to Padarn, before whom he bends the knee, he asks pardon. And saint Padarn granted him pardon. That king remunerates him with a quantity of land, that is, from the mouth of the river Rheidiol upwards until it touches at its head the limit of the river Clarach; and along the length of the same river as far as the sea is the limit prolonged. In that hour the king is cured in the eyes, he is quickened in heart, he stands firm on his knees. They withdraw from each other appeased, saint Padarn and the king, whilst God is in Padarn, and Padarn in God, through this miracle.

§ 20. Whilst these things are being done, a heavenly messenger comes to saint David in Rosina Vallis, serving Christ God, and says to him, `Rise and go to Jerusalem, that thou be ordained there. Join to thee two worthy companions,who likewise may be ordained, that is, Padarn and Teilo.' Soon David sent to them. They came without delay. They passed together through barbarous nations, receiving the gift of tongues. For they were men of one language, and were addressing every man in his own language, wherein he had been born. They arrived at length as far as Jerusalem. And there they preach with a preaching the most noble after the apostles. Afterwards by the imposition of the hand of the patriarch these three saints were ordained bishops. After that they were enriched with gifts. Padarn was enriched with a double gift, to wit, a bachall and a tunic woven throughout. They returned happily. They divided Britannia into their three episcopacies, did not the malice of tyrants afterwards disturb them.

§ 21. When Padarn was in his church resting after so much labour at sea, a certain tyrant, Arthur by name, was traversing the regions on either side, who one day came to the cell of saint Padarn the bishop. And while he was addressing Padarn, he looked at the tunic, which he, being pierced with the zeal of avarice, sought for his own. The saint answering said, `This tunic is not fitting for the habit of any malign person, but for the habit of the clerical office.' He went out of the monastery in a rage. And again he returns in wrath, that he might take away the tunic against the counsels of his own companions. One of the disciples of Padarn seeing him returning in fury, ran to saint Padarn and said, `The tyrant, who went out from here before, is returning. Reviling, stamping, he levels the ground (beneath) with his feet'. Padarn answers `Nay rather, may the earth swallow him.' With the word straightway the earth opens the hollow of its depth, and swallows Arthur up to his chin. He immediately acknowledging his guilt begins to praise both God and Padarn, until, while he begs forgiveness, the earth delivered him up. From that place on bent knees he begged the saint for indulgence, whom the saint forgave. And he took Padarn as his continual patron, and so departed.