Two more miracles from St. Áed's Life.
My plan was to post extracts from each Life but I'm not sure there really is a point in doing this. The bits I have posted so far should be enough to give potential readers a good idea of what these texts have to offer.
The second miracle has two examples of nominative absolutes (ambulans...sanctus, hoc faciens). It's not uncommon to find them you would expect ablative absolutes in these Irish texts, which led some scholars to explain their presence by an influence of Old Irish. I'd like to get my hands on William G. Most's The Syntax of the Vitae Sanctorum Hiberniae but can't find a copy online.
xix. Erant pessimi latrones in insula in medio stagni, qui multum regioni per circuitum nocebant. Et uolebat sanctus episcopus Edus eos inde expellere, et non potuit. Quibus dixit : 'stagnum istud erit mihi obediens.' Et sequenti nocte illud stagnum de suo loco in regionem Connacthorum exiuit, et stetit ibi in quodam campo ; et vocatur Loch na h-Aidche scotice, id est stagnum noctis, eo quod in nocte peruenit illuc. Sic enim quidam propheta nomine Becc dixit : 'Stagnum aque huc veniet nocte propter imperium sancti Edi episcopi.'
19. There was some really evil thieves in an island, in the middle of a lake. They were doing a lot of harm all around the area. And the holy bishop wanted to drive them away from there, and he wasn't able to. And he told them: "This lake will obey me." And the following night, that lake left its place and went to Connemara and stood there in some field. And it is called "Loch na h-Aidhche" in Gaelic, i.e. "Night lake", because it came there by night. So said a prophet named Becc: "A lake will come here by night on order saint Áed the bishop".
xxii. Ambulans in via sanctus senior Edus, occurrit ei quidam homo tristis dicens: 'Domine, decem uac[c]as habeo ; et ecce modo omnes vituli earum a luppis deuorati sunt, excepto vno.' Cui sanctus episcopus ait : 'Collige limum quod meo baculo adheret, et mixtum cum aqua asperge inde vac[c]as et vitulum viuum. Hoc faciens, diligent eum uacce ualde, et dabunt lac suum.' Et sic factum est. De quo homo ille cum suis multum gaudebant ; quia non de vitulis dolebant, set de matribus et lacte earum.
22. As the holy elder Áed was walking on the road, he encountered a man who was grieving: "Master, I have ten cows. And all of their calves have just been eaten by wolves, except one." The holy bishop told him: "Gather the mud that is sticking to my staff, mix it with water and sprinkle the cows and the calf that is alive. Doing this, the cows will cherish it greatly, and they will give their milk." And so it happened. The man and his people rejoiced a lot over this because they were not grieving on account of the calves but on account of the mothers and their milk.