Читать книгу 366 Celt: A Year and A Day of Celtic Wisdom and Lore - Carl McColman - Страница 77

Piran is the patron saint of Cornwall and of tin miners (the tin trade being particularly important in Cornwall); he is possibly the same figure as the Irish saint Ciaran, the founder of the monastery at Clonmacnoise. Legend holds that Piran once escaped from captivity in Ireland and sailed to Cornwall using a millstone for a raft! Apparently the good saint had quite the capacity to work miracles—after all, sailing a stone boat makes even walking on water seem, well, easy. Today, scholars question just how historical a figure he is, wondering if, like other Celtic figures such as Brigid and even Patrick, his story may actuatlly reflect more myth than fact. Well, maybe it does. But in the Celtic world, myth matters. Celtic spirituality envisions a world where anything is possible: where saints can cause a millstone to float or perform all sorts of other miracles. Why believe in such impossible tales? What good can possibly come out of crazy tales of miracles and floating rocks? We know that the human mind is an amazing instrument, and that often the key to miracles such as healing serious diseases, or summoning superhuman strength at a moment of crisis, begins with the power to believe. When we consider how a saint could make a millstone float, it opens up just a glimmer of possibility—Pearce’s “the crack in the cosmic egg”—that allows miracles to really happen. Just because we believe.