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40 SCOTTISH ANNALS
turn from them the anger of the just Judge by fasting, tears
and prayers. 1
For there was in that monastery a man of the race of the
[Irish] Scots, Adamnan by name, who led a life in continence,
and greatly devoted to prayers to God so that ; except on
Sunday and on the fifth day 'of the week he never partook
of any food or drink, and often passed whole nights wakefully
in prayer. And this discipline of so strict a life he had
acquired at first from the necessity of mending his evil ways ;
but as time went on he had turned the necessity into a
custom. . . .
2
And when for a long time he had diligently persevered in
this, it chanced that on a certain day he had gone out a considerable
way from that monastery, one of the brethren ac-
companying him, and was returning after finishing his journey.
And when he approached the monastery and beheld its
buildings rising aloft, the man of God burst into tears, and
betrayed in the expression of his face the sorrow of his heart.
And his companion perceiving it asked him why he did thus.
"
But he replied, All these buildings which thou seest, public
and private, very soon is it that fire shall consume them and
turn them to ashes."
And hearing this [his companion,] so soon as they entered
the monastery, took heed to relate it to the mother of the
congregation, Ebba by name. But she was naturally disturbed
by such a prediction; and called the man to her, and
very diligently inquired the matter of him, and how he knew
of this.
1
Cf. Jonah, III.
2 The priest who had laid this penance upon him had died without having
released him ; ibid., 263-264.
Asceticism was frequent in the Irish church. Cf. the extreme case of
Drythelm of Melrose, ca. 696, in Bede, H.E., V, 12 ; i, 303-310. He died,
and returned to life after a remarkable vision of the other world ; and, although
formerly he had led a religious life in Cunningham (ibid., 304,) he now
"
became a monk in a separate dwelling at Melrose (ibid., 304, 310) ; and
because this place was situated above the bank of the river [Tweed], he used
frequently, for the great desire of chastising his body, to enter it, and very
often to be immersed in it, the waves flowing over him ; and thus continue
there in psalms or prayers so long as he seemed able to endure it ; and to
remain stationary while the water of the river rose to his loins, sometimes
even to his neck. And when he came out thence to the shore he never troubled
to lay off his garments, wet and cold, until they were warmed and dried by
his body." He kept this up in the winter also, even when there was ice in
the river. Ibid., 310. This story was vouched for by one Hsemgils, a priest,
"
who is still alive ; and, living solitarily in the island of Ireland, supports
the last age of his life on coarse bread and cold water," ibid., 309 ; and
Drythelm was personally known to king Aldfrid, 309-310. Hugo Candidus,
"
in Sparke, iii, 40 : And in Melrose [rests] St. Drythelm, the confessor."