penance and they bestowed on Declan a suitable site whereon he built
a monastery and he got another piece of land and had the dead buried
where he built the monastery. The name of that monastery is
Cill-Colm-Dearg. This Colm-Dearg was a kind, holy man and a disciple
of Declan. He was of East Leinster, i.e. of the Dal Meiscorb, and it
is from him that the monastery is named. When he (Declan) had
completed that place he came to his own territory again, i.e. to the
Decies.

34. On a certain day Declan came to a place called Ait-Breasail and
the dwellers therein would not allow him to enter their village;
moreover they hid all their boats so that he could not go into his
own island, for they hated him very much. In consideration however
of the sanctity of his servant, who prayed in patience, God the
All-Powerful turned the sea into dry land as you have already heard.
Declan passed the night in an empty stable out in the plain and the
people of the village did not give him even a fire. Whereupon,
appropriately the anger of God fell on them, who had not compassion
enough to supply the disciple of God with a fire. There came fire
from heaven on them to consume them all [together with their]
homestead and village, so that the place has been ever since a
wilderness accursed, as the prophet writes: "civitates eorum
destruxisti" [Psalm 9:7], i.e. the dwellings of the unmerciful are
laid waste.

35. On yet another occasion Declan was in his own region--travelling
over Slieve Gua in the Decies, when his horse from some cause got
lame so that he could proceed no further. Declan however, seeing a
herd of deer roaming the mountain close to him, said to one of his
people: "Go, and bring me for my chariot one of these deer to replace