was bursar and general business man. He was not always a popular officer. When a brother was fond of reading and study, he did not care to be sent off to cut timber or engage in farm work. The economist, however, had to be obeyed, and no one was allowed to shirk his share of the manual labour.
The Anmchara or 'soul friend' was one of the most remarkable institutions of the Irish Church. It has been often assumed that the office was simply that of confessor, and its existence has been appealed to as showing that auricular confession and priestly absolution were both practised in the early Irish Church. Such a view is reduced to an absurdity by the story already given about Saint Aidan. When his life was written it was not considered impossible that the office should be held by a woman. And all that we know of soul friends leads us to the same conclusion. They were advisers, not confessors; and they gave guidance and direction, not absolution. It is highly probable that Irish teachers of that age would have called Deborah the soul friend of Barak. The position she occupied was exactly that which the soul friends of old occupied. A few examples will be the best way of explaining the kind of service that they rendered.
After the battle of Cooldreeny, and when Columba had been excommunicated by the Synod of Teltown, he sought his soul friend for advice, and it was he who suggested the missionary work which was begun and set forward in Iona.
We have another example in the life of Fintan or Munna, founder of Taghmon in the County Wexford. He was one of the many visitors at Iona, and arrived there shortly after the death of Columba. To journey as far as Iona had long been the great desire of his life, and one would have thought that
