John Clyn
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Brother John Clyn of the Friars Minor, Kilkenny was a 14th century Irish monk and chronicler who lived at the time of the Black Death. When the plague struck Clyn's monastary, it infected and ultimately killed every member. Clyn, the last survivor and infected himself, kept a journal in which he chronicled the deaths of every other person in his world. After burying the last of his brothers, he wrote:
"So that notable deeds should not perish with time, and be lost from the memory of future generations, I, seeing these many ills, and that the whole world encompassed by evil, waiting among the dead for death to come, have committed to writing what I have truly heard and examined; and so that the writing does not perish with the writer, or the work fail with the workman, I leave parchment for continuing the work, in case anyone should still be alive in the future and any son of Adam can escape this pestilence and continue the work thus begun."
Following this entry is another, written in another hand, which explains "Here, it seems the author died."
In 2006 an edition of the annals of Friar Clyn was translated into English by Dr. Bernadette Williams.
[edit] Reference
- "The Annals of Ireland by Friar John Clyn", edited and translated with an Introduction, by Bernadette Williams, Four Courts Press, 2007. ISBN 978 1 84682 034 2
- John Clyn - Catholic Encyclopedia article
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