Two that spring to mind are St. Ceiran of Clonmacnoise who had a dun cow and St. Kevin of Glendalough who had a white.

Both of these produced enormous quantities of milk. I don't know about Ceiran's cow, but Kevin's never at grass. Each morning it would leave its field and wander off. It was followed one day and it was discovered that every morning the cow would go and lick Kevin's feet while he slept.

There are other milk links at Glendalough. There is the Deer Stone, a bullaun, that has a cutesie story. The king's baby had no milk to feed upon, so Kevin prayed and every day a deer would come from the woods and fill the bullaun with milk for the child. The deer was killed by a wolf and when Kevin gave it a good talking to the wolf gave the milk instead. The monastic settlement got its boundaries by communication with animals too. The local king said Kevin could have as much land as a the king's very old and crippled pet goose could fly around. Kevin touched the goose and it became young and flew again. Kevin also banished larks from the glen - although they live in the mountains around there today you will never hear one in the valley. He commanded a willow to sprout apples so that a boy could be cured by eating one - no apple trees existed in the Glen.

There are other animal stories connected with him too. An otter supplied the monastery with salmon when there was a famine. One day he was praying and a blackbird landed on his outstretched hand and laid an egg. Kevin stood there until the egg hatched.

He was also a master of herbs.

He was born at The Fort of the White Fountain.

<b>HE WAS A FECKIN' DRUID!</b>

I've never read the entire Cattle Raid, but I've read quite a bit of it, and yes, I do love it!

That bit with the squirrel and the bird is surely reminiscent of Yggdrasil, I think you're onto something there.

I didn't realise that other saints had cows. If I remember it properly, though, then it's not that Cuthbert owned a cow, it's that he had a vision of a dun cow, and later when he came upon a dun cow in the flesh, on top of the hill in Durham, he knew that this was the place to build his cathedral, and the wandering from Lindisfarne in search of a suitable site was at an end. I've always read this in a similar way to my reading of the Lambton Worm story - ie. as a memory of Christianity replacing an earlier goddessy cult. Bride is the patroness of cows (and the Lambton Worm loves milk - interesting that Durham Cathedral's Sanctuary Knocker is shaped as a dragon's head).

Cuthbert is thought to have lived in the 600s. Is this too late for him to have been a druid? The Catholic Encyclopaedia says that he and his monks "adhered to the customs of Celtic Christianity", celebrating Easter on the non-Roman date.

Also interesting that Cuthbert's feast day is the 20th March - it's a bit near to the equinox, don't you think? Isn't Saint Patrick's feast somewhere around that time of year, too?

Cuthbert is buried in a shrine in Durham Cathedral. I ain't no Christian, but I can't deny that there's a "vibe" in there with him.