Blair Collection > Carmina gadelica > Volume 1

INVOCATIONS 39
JESU WHO OUGHT TO BE PRAISED
famous for the cure of leprosy. Crowds of leper pilgrims from the whole of
Christendom resorted to this shrine, and many of them were healed to the glory
of the Saint and the enrichment of his shrine. In their gratitude, pilgrims offered
costly oblations of silks and satins, of raiments and vestments, of silver and gold,
of pearls and precious stones, till the shrine of St James of Compostello became
famous throughout the world. The bay of Compostello was famed for fish and
shell-fish, and the leper pilgrims who came to pray at the altar of the Saint and
to bestow gifts at his shrine were fed on those and were healed — according to the
belief of the period, by tlie miraculous intervention of the Saint. As the palm
was the badge of the pilgrims to Jerusalem, the scallop-shell was the badge of
the pilgrims to Compostello : —
' My sandal shoon and scallop-shell. '
It were as easy for Jesu
To renew the withered tree
As to wither the new
Were it His will so to do.
Jesu ! Jesu ! Jesu !
Jesu ! meet it were to praise Him.
There is no plant in the ground
But is full of His virtue.
There is no form in the strand
But is full of His blessing.
Jesu ! Jesu ! Jesu !
Jesu ! meet it were to praise Hifii.
There is no life in the sea,
There is no creature in the river,