"The mark of St. Patrick's knee"

"The mark of St. Patrick's knee"

Lough Derg--Pilgrimage--Magazine--Narrative

An account of Lough Derg from a late-nineteenth-century pilgrim.

Matthew Russell, 1834-1912

'Lough Derg: By a Recent Pilgrim', The Irish Monthly: A Magazine of General Literature Sixth Yearly Volume, p.24-5

M.H. Gill & Son, Dublin

1878

Sponsored and digitised by Google, Princeton University Library

Public domain

Article

English

Magazine Article

DD_0438

54.616218, -7.876212

https://archive.org/details/irishmonthlyvol01unkngoog/page/n5

"The boatmen also pointed out the rock on the margin of the lake, and within a few paces of the cave, bearing the mark of St. Patrick's knee where he prayed (and where the penitents always conclude the station), when he killed the great serpent who, my informant added, had followed him all the way from Croagh-Patrick. Here is the story taken from an old Irish MS. of the O'Clerighs and given by O'Connellan in the notes to his translation of the Four Masters : — 'An extraordinary, monstrous serpent, called the ‘Caol,' was in the habit of thus passing its time. It came to Finnlough (Lough Derg) every morning, where it remained until night, and then proceeded to Gleann-na-Caoile near. Lough Erne, and there during the night it consumed a great deal of the produce of that locality until the religious champion of God, St. Patrick, came to Ireland, and, hearing of this monster, he 'went straight to Finnlough, where the serpent then was on an island in the lake, and immediately it took to the water and with its devouring mouth open it set all the lake in commotion .... and finally directed its course to the shore (of the island) and, opening its mouth, it cast forth its internal poisonous matter, like a shower of hailstones, over the lake, but chiefly towards the place where the saint and his clergy stood. The saint, however, having prayed to God, cast his crozier at the serpent which pierced its breast, so that it turned its back at him and its blood flowed so profusely that it turned all the water of the lake red. After that St. Patrick said that Finnlough (the fair lake)would be called Lough-Dearg (the red lake) thenceforth until the Day of Judgment.'"

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