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THE STORY OF SAINT PATRICK

the
STORY OF SAINT PATRICK

EMBRACING A SKETCH OP THE CONDITION OF IRELAND BEFORE
THE TIME OF PATRICK, DURING HIS LIFE, AT HIS
DEATH, AND 1MMEDLA.TELY AFTER IT

BT

JOSEPH SANDEESON, D. D., LL. D.
LATE EDITOR OP "THE TEEA8UBT OP RELIGIOUS THOUGHT"
AUTHOR OP "JESUS ON THE HOLY MOUNT," "PUNEKAL SERVICES," ETC.

ie

NEW YORK
WILBUR B. KETCHAM PUBLISHING COMPANY

Copyright, 1902,
BY
JOSEPH SANDERSON

DEDICATED TO
MY BELOVED CHILDREN
WHOSE
FILlAIi AFFECTION
IS AN miCEASING JOT.

There is no heroic poem in the -world but is at bottom a biography,
the life of a man ; and there is no life of a man faitufuUy recorded but is
a heroic poem of its sort, rhymed or unrhymed. — Carltle.

PEEFAOE.

When Erin flrst rose from the dark, swelling flood,
God blessed the green island, and saw it was good ;
The emerald of Europe, it sparkled and shone,
In the ring of the world, the most precious stone. Dkennan.
The author of " The Story of St. Patrick" has aimed to
produce a popular life of this notable missionary, based
upon facts and upon his characteristics and teachings as
revealed in his genuine writings. The story is preceded
by a brief sketch of Ireland in its early settlements, its
social condition, its legal enactments, its religious beliefs,
and its ancient language; and is followed by a careful
description of the church-work Patrick performed in
Ireland. The book closes with an account of a few of the miracles
attributed to St. Patrick, a few of the legends with which
some writers have associated his name, and with the " say
ings, proverbs, and visions," whose genuineness has not
been admitted by the most judicious critics. The volume
contains an account of every known and important trans
action of his life, as the latest research and best scholar
ship have brought to light the different phases of his

8 PREFACE.
much discussed and disputed career. Facts are the same
everywhere ; but for the setting forth of the facts as they
are presented in this " Story," and for many of the lessons
deduced therefrom, the author claims that these " apples
of gold " are in his own " pictures of silver." He will wel
come criticism, whether adverse or favorable, for he would
greatly prefer to knoW wherein he may be in error ; and
where the views presented are just they may become more
useful in being ventilated by discussion.
Dear Shamrock of Erin ! so sacred and green,
Though ages of sorrow thy past years have seen ;
From childhood's bright morning to manhood's decline
Thy leaflets we wear o'er our hearts ever thine.
In sadness we loved thee, and earnest our prayer,
Long years of rich blessing may yet be thy share,
When strife o'er thy verdant soil ever shall cease.
Thy three leaves the symbol of Love — Union — Peace.
T. E. E.

OOIiJ'TElil^TS.

PAGES
CHAPTER I.
The Early Settlers of Ireland  13

CHAPTER II.
The Prxmittve Social Condition of Ireland  291
CHAPTER III.
The Ancient Laws of Ireland  36
CHAPTER IV.
The Druidical Religion of Ireland  42;
CHAPTER V.
The Original Language of the Celtic Irish  52
CHAPTER VI.
The Progress of Christianitt before the time of Patrick, , 65
CHAPTER VII.
Patrick's Birthplace and Birth  74
CHAPTER VIII.
Patrick's Parentage  81
9

10 CONTENTS. PAGE
CHAPTER IX.
Official Positions of Patrick's Grandfather and Father . . 85
CHAPTER X.
Patrick's Baptism and Early Life  89
CHAPTER XI.
The Captivity of St. Patrick  93
CHAPTER XII.
Patrick's Conversion in Bondage  98
CHAPTER XIII.
Patrick's Escape from Slavery  102
CHAPTER XIV.
Patrick at Home Agadst  105
CHAPTER XV.
Patrick's Call to Mission Work  112
CHAPTER XVI.
An Estimate of Patrick before entering upon his Mission , 117
CHAPTER XVII.
Patrick Starting on his Mission in Ireland  121
CHAPTER XVIII.
Patrick's Visit to Taea  128

CONTENTS. W
PAGE
CHAPTER XIX.
Description op Tara and Tara Hall  132

CHAPTER XX.
Patrick's Mission Work in the West and South  135
CHAPTER XXI.
Patrick's Visit to Connaught, etc  139
CHAPTER XXII.
Patrick's Visit to the Northwest  144
CHAPTER XXIII.
Patrick's Closing Missionary Tours  148
CHAPTER XXIV.
Patrick's Death and Burial  155
CHAPTER XXV.
A Memorial Tribute to Patrick  159
CHAPTER XXVI.
Patrick's Chief Characteristics  162
CHAPTER XXVII.
Patrick's Scriptural Knowledge  181
CHAPTER XXVIII.
Patrick's Doctrines  186

12 CONTENTS. PAGE
CHAPTER XXIX.
The Rise op Monasticism  196
CHAPTER XXX.
The Church of St. Patrick. . ,  206
CHAPTER XXXI.
Conclusion op " The Story of St. Patrick"  228
CHAPTER XXXII.
The " Confession" op St. Patrick  239
CHAPTER XXXIII.
The Hymn op St. Patrick  262
CHAPTER XXXIV.
Patrick's Epistle to Coroticus  267
CHAPTER XXXV.
Index of Biblical Texts Quoted by St. Patrick  276
CHAPTER XXXVI.
The Doubtful Remains of Patrick  278
CHAPTER XXXVII.
Miracles and Legends  284

THE STORY OF ST. PATRICK.

CHAPTER I.
THE EAULY SETTLERS OF IRELAND.
Long, long ago, beyond the misty space
Of twice a thousand years.
In Erin old there dwelt a mighty race.
Taller than Roman spears ;
Like oaks and towers they had a giant grace.
Were fleet as deers,
"With wind and waves they made their 'biding-plaee,
These western shepherd seers. T. D. McGee.
Theee are few more important and interesting person
ages in aU history, and around whom so much mystery
hangs, than that of Patrick, usuaUy designated the Apostle
of Ireland.
Nor can the condition of the Irish country and people
before Patrick landed upon its shores be seen in a more
satisfactory historic light. Therefore, before we enter
upon the story of Patrick, let us briefly scan the condi
tion of Ireland in those early days.
There is a mistiness enwrapping the annals of that
*' Green Isle of the Ocean," which obscures in a great
13

14 THE STORY OF ST. PATRICK.
measure the facts both before and after the commence
ment of the Christian era.
The prehistoric legends of Ireland are, however, of con
siderable importance in obtaining a pretty accurate view
of its earliest settlements. The long continuance of tribal
government, and the existence of a special class whose
duty it was to preserve the genealogies of the ruling fami
lies, and to keep in memory the deeds of their ancestors,
were favorable to the growth and preservation of these
legends. Long pedigrees and stories of forays and battles
were preserved, but were altered more or less in being
transmitted from father to son.
But as there had been no great conquest for centuries
by foreign races to destroy these traditions they were not
eradicated by internal contests and displacements of tribes.
When these Irish prehistoric legends are therefore di
vested of their extraneous additions, they express the
broad facts of the peopling of Ireland, and are in a mea
sure in accordance with the results of archaeological inves
tigation. Keeping these things in view, these prehistoric legends
inform us that several principal peoples were the earhest
settlers of Ireland.
We must, however, remember that no two histories
of Ireland seem to agree as to the strifes, changes, and
rules which characterized that unhappy countiy during
its earliest centuries. It is simply impossible to recon
cile the historical accounts handed down by the sages or
scribes of those primitive times, when Ireland was a battle
ground for fierce wars of petty kings and chieftains.

THE EARLY SETTLERS OF IRELAND. 15
There is an early tradition that Gomer, the eldest son of
Japheth, one of the sons of Noah, was the progenitor of
the early branches of the Celtic family, and of the modern
people who are known as Gaels, or Scotch Highlanders,
of Celtic origin.
A curious compilation called " The Book of Invasions "
teUs us that the first people who arrived in Ireland were
under the leadership of Parthelan, and came from Scythia,
or middle Greece, in the fifteenth century before Christ,
and settled at Kenmare, on the southwest coast of Ireland.
Parthelan divided the coast into four parts, giving to each
of his four sons a part, and having occupied Ireland for
three hundred years, they all died of a plague.
From the earliest period Ireland was well wooded and
the interior full of marshes. It was occupied by a sparse
population of forest tribes, who were doubtless of the ab
original race of western and southern Europe. There is
no date given for the arrival of this race, and it is said
that these people were in Ireland when Ireland itself was
discovered, as people were in San Salvador when it was
discovered by Columbus.
The incoming of the first Celts with Parthelan, who
were akin to the later people called Scots, who settled on
the sea-coast and built fortresses on the principal high
lands, was a marked era in the earliest history of Ireland,
for these people, with the " forest tribes," formed the ear
liest basis of the population.
Different parts of Ireland seem to have been settled at
different times by people varied in origin and traits of
character. The north people were probably a branch of

16 THE STORY OF ST. PATRICK.
the Celts ; the eastern and central people were an offshoot
of the British and Belgic tribes ; and the people of Mun
ster were of a southern or Gallic type. The Britons came
from that part of France which lies between the river
Seine and the English Channel, and which includes Nor
mandy as weU as Brittany. Three other tribes, caUed the
Invading tribes, came from between the river Humber and
the shore of the North Sea. While the people who in
habited the British Isles were of the same stock as those
of Gaul, yet they flowed into these isles in two streams,
one from the neighboring Gaul, and one from some coun
try east of Gaul, by way of the North Sea,
Another instalment of Celts, consequent upon their
displacement from other countries by conquests of the
Romans, soon after arrived. These commenced a war
upon the various tribes they found in Ireland, and having
conquered many of them, reduced them to servitude.
The foremost of the conquering tribes was caUed Scot-
raige, and having acquired the leadership of the free clans,
were then called Scoti. These Scots gave the name of
Scotia to Ireland, a name which it retained tiU the eleventh
century, when the old name Hibernia, given to it by the
Latin wiiters, was revived — a name which, on the author
ity of a leamed scholar, is the Latin form of the word
Erin. As these Celts formed the basis of the population in
Gaul, Thrace, Asia Minor, and Caledonia, as well as in
Ireland, it will be interesting to look at their origin, trace
them through the nations, and study their characteristics
as given by credible historians.

THE EARLY SETTLERS OF IRELAND. 17
The Aryans were a primitive people who lived in pre
historic times in Central Asia, east of the Caspian Sea and
north of the Hindu Mountains ; and from them sprang the
Celtic, Teutonic, Slavonic, and other races. It was a divi
sion of mankind otherwise caUed Indo-European or Indo-
Germanic. These people, moved either by the pressure of
their increasing numbers or by the restlessness of their
disposition, migrated in great hordes eastward. A side
wave of this great flood of people poured over the Apen
nines, submerged Rome, and spread out in weaker waves
over southern Italy. Many years afterward they swarmed
into Thrace, and a part of them pushed into Asia Minor.
We have no credible account of the separation of the
Celts from the other Aryans or Indo-Germans. Invading
eastem Europe, they were driven westward and settled in
France and Spain, spreading themselves into north Italy,
Belgium, and the British Isles. This migration was doubt
less made long before the dawn of British history. More
than six hundred years before the Christian era the coun
try of the Gauls was visited by the Phenieians and the
Greeks. They found the people a race of warlike savages,
who dressed in the skins of beasts, dyed or tattooed their
limbs and bodies, made drinking-cups of the skuUs of their
enemies killed in battles, and strangled the unfortunate
strangers wrecked upon their coasts. Their only religion
was the worship of trees, fountains, thunder, and aU things
wild or strange in nature.
The Phenieians and subsequently the Greeks carried on
some trade with this wild people with the result of iutro-
ducing a few civilized arts among them.

18 THE STORY OF ST. PATRICK.
The present town of MarseiUes w«s«founded 600 B.C. by
Grecian traders. Six years later these barbarians, under
their general, Belmus, captured and plundered Rome, but
were driven out by the Roman leader Cornilleus. During
the two hundred years foUowing there were frequent
wars between the Gauls and Romans. Those who settled
in northern Italy, the cisalpine Gauls, were submerged
by Rome about 220 b.o. Caesar subdued Gaul proper in
eight campaigns between the years of 58 and 50 B.C. The
loss of the Gauls in the last struggle was probably nearly
a million of men.
At the time of this conquest the Gauls had a number of
fortified towns, they had invented various implements for
use in husbandry, and exceUed in the arts of working in
metals, in embroidery, and the manufacture of various
kinds of cloth. But they were rude in manner and rough
in speech. They practised polygamy and worshiped many
gods, to whom they offered in sacrifice the captives taken
in war. They are described by Roman writers as a large,
fair-skinned, and yeUow-haired race, social, turbulent, en
thusiastic, imaginative, and vain. Because of their noisy
and fluent speech, Cicero compared them to town-criers,
and Cato remarks admiringly of their tact in turning an
argument against their opponents.
They wore their hair long and flowing, and delighted in
showy garments. Their chiefs wore much jewelry, large
head-pieces of fur and feathers, with gold and silver waist-
belts, from which hung enormous sabers. They went into
battle with all this finery on, but threw it off in the heat
of the conflict. They fought fiercely, armed with barbed,
iron-headed spears, heavy broadswords, and lances.

THE EARLY SETTLERS OF IRELAND. 19
After their subjugation by Csesar the Gauls remained
entirely quiet for more than two centuries, and the civili
zation of the country proceeded rapidly under the influ
ence of Roman rule. Many towns were built, new arts
introduced, and commerce was stimulated. The national
habits and religion retired by degrees to the northwest,
and at last found their only refuge in the islands beyond it.
Christianity was first introduced into Gaul about 160 a.d.,
by teachers sent out by the Apostles and their succes
sors. During the fourth and fifth centuries the countiy
was taken from the Romans by the Franks, a German
tribe which gave its name to the country.
The French people to-day are of mixed ancestry, deriv
ing their characteristics from the Celts, Romans, and
Franks. The Irish are the only people from GaUic or Celtic an
cestry who have been mixed so slightly with other nation
alities as to show, even to the present time, the survival
of the physical and mental traits of the GaUic Celts.
Historians seem unanimous in tracing the inhabitants
of Thrace, in the centuries immediately preceding the
Christian era, to the influx of the Celts from southem and
eastern Europe. Of the inhabitants of Thrace in those
days, we are informed by eminent historians of their
habits and practices. Polygamy was general, and when
the husband died his favorite wife was slain over his
grave. Before marriage the Thracian women enjoyed the
utmost liberty, but after marriage they were guarded with
Turkish rigor.
Wars and robbery were the only honorable occupations
of the men. They lived to steal either from one another

20 THE STORY OF ST. PATRICK.
or from the neighboring people. When not fighting or
plundering, they spent their days in savage idleness, or
quarreling over their cups. They were courageous, or
rather ferocious, after the fashion of barbarous people, yet
they lacked the steady valor and endurance of disciplined
troops. At all times their warfare displayed more flerce-
ness and impetuosity than fortitude. Their treachery was
probably no greater than that of other barbarians.
When the Romans under Csesar invaded Britain fifty
years before Christ they found the islands occupied by a
tribe of the Cymric Celts, a people descended from the
Belgic Gauls, who had crossed over to the island from the
mainland opposite.
These people were called Britons. A tribe of similar
origin, the Caledonians, inhabited the northern half of the
island, and still another tribe occupied the adjoining island
of Ireland, then called Scotia, whence its inhabitants were
known by the name of Scots ; but they caUed their island
Eri, whence it is supposed that they were originally de
scended from wanderers from the land of the Spanish
or Iberian Gauls.
The Romans governed Britain for three centuries in
justice and tranquillity, but the Caledonians made them
selves very troublesome by plundering incursions, and the
Romans made a stone wall across the narrowest part to
keep the northern barbarians off.
These Caledonians were called Picts by the Romans
because they painted their bodies. Early in the third
century the Saxons from north Germany made incursions
into Britain, and these, with the Picts on the north and

THE EARLY SETTLERS OF IRELAND. 21
-the Scots on the west, harassed the Britons, who were
protected, as far as possible, by the Romans, until the fall
of their empire in the fifth century.
The Celts in their dispersions through different coun
tries made themselves a " terror " wherever they went, and
were so troublesome to the Romans in Asia Minor, where
they had been driven because of their marauding and
plundering, that they were hemmed in by the emperor
to the province of Galatia, so called because these people
were Gauls.
Here the Apostle Paul visited them, preached to them
the gospel, and founded several churches, the first Celtic
churches of which we read in history.
In writing an " Epistle " to them afterward he deplores
their " fickleness," in backsliding so quickly after conver
sion, and with such little persuasion from the tempter.'
Paul had reached Galatia a broken-down traveler. He
had halted on his journey because his strength had given
out, and he must stay until regained. This in his letter
to them he freely confessed. " Because of the weakness
of the flesh I preached to you at first," is his language.
He was physicaUy unable to proceed, and, moreover, he
was afifticted with some malady the nature of which tended
to excite contempt and even repulsion in beholders. Yet
in spite of all this the warm-hearted Galatians or Celts
received him with enthusiasm. Paul testifies that had he
been " an angel of God," or " Jesus Christ " himself, they
could not have shown him greater hospitality.
They thought themselves happy, indeed, that he had be
come their guest ; there was nothing they would not have

22 ISE STORY OF ST. PATRICK.
done for him, even "to the digging out of their eyes to
give him," as they said, with a touch of genuine Celtic
exaggeration, and yet with a true streak of kindness and
hospitaUty, for which Celts are still distinguished.
These Galatians, be it remembered, were of Celtic de
scent. Galatian is synonymous with Gallic. They were
the relics, as we have seen, of a Gallish or Celtic invasion
that swept over southern Europe in the early part of the
third century before Christ and poured into Asia Minor.
Here the Celtic tribes maintained themselves in indepen
dence, under their native princes, until, a hundred years
later, they were subdued by the Romans, and their coun
try formed a province of the empire.
WhUe they had retained much of the ancient language
and manners, they had also readily acquired Greek culture,
and were superior to their neighbors in intelligence.
None of the New Testament churches possessed a more
strongly marked character than did those in Galatia. They
exhibited the weU-known traits of the Celtic nature. They
were generous, impulsive, vehement in feeling and lan
guage, but vain, fickle, and quarrelsome.
Eight out of the fifteen works of the flesh enumerated
in the twentieth and twenty-first verses of the fifth chapter
of Paul's Epistle to the Galatians, works in which the Gala
tians indulged, were sins of strife. They could hardly be
restrained from biting and devouring one another (chapter
V. 1-5). They were prone to " revelings and drunkenness."
They had probably, too, a nature bent toward a scenic
and ritualistic type of religion, which made the spirituality
of the gospel pall upon their taste, and gave to the teach-

THE EARLY SETTLERS OF IRELAND. 23
ing of the Judaizers who had come among them its fatal
bewitchment. " The beggarly elements of the world " still
bewitch. The Romans, dreading the influence of these Celts,
pushed them westward, and the Teutons, following up
this pressure upon the Celts, drove them into Gaul and
also into what is now known as the Three Kingdoms —
England, Scotland, and Ireland. In these kingdoms they
found a refuge, especially in Devon, CornwaU, Wales, the
country from Mersey to the Clyde, and in Irene, or Ire
land. It must be remembered that while the Roman Empire
was almost coextensive with the entire world, its legions,
for whatever cause, never set foot on Ireland, nor could
they ever penetrate into the great natural fortresses of
northern Caledonia.
Other .peoples struggled for the mastery of Ireland, as
the Nemedians, the Ferbolgs, the Danaans, and the Melis-
ians, but the Celts, under a leader called Scotraige, finally
gained the mastery and were afterward called, as we have
already stated, Scots.
The leader of these Scots was Tuathal, who founded a
feudal system in Ireland, which existed when Patrick ap
peared upon the scene, and which ruled Ireland while the
Scotia power endured.
Hitherto the island had been divided into four prov
inces, each province ruled by its own king, but Tuathal
took a portion from each of the other provinces and of
these formed the province or kingdom of Meath, which by
its rental supported the chief king, who had his capital at

24 THE STORY OF ST. PATRICK.
I ¦
Tara. Tuathal made himself chief king, and to him aU
the other kings were subject.
He built in Munster the sacred place of the Druids,
now caUed the HiU of Ward, near Athboy. He established
also a similar reUgious centier for each of the other prov
inces. The sacred place of Munster was then called Ti-
achtga; that of Connaught was caUed Usnech; that of
Ulster was Tailti, now Telltown ; and Temair, or Tara, was
in Leinster.
Each of these sacred places had its great reUgious druid
ical festival.
The great festival at Tiachtga was caUed Samium, now
AUhallow-tide. On this occasion aU the hearths in Mun
ster must be rekindled from the sacred fire, for which a
tax was due to the king.
The great festival of Beltaine was celebrated at Usnech,
now the hill of Usnagh, in Westmeath. This was observed
in the month of May. The horse and garments of every
chief who came to the festival formed a part of the toU of
the king of Connaught.
At TaUti (TeUtown) a great fair was held at certain inter
vals on the 1st of August, at which were celebrated games
supposed to have been established by Lugaid of the Long
Arm, one of the gods of Dia and Ana, in honor of his
foster-mother, Tailti.
It was here that Tuathal erected a royal sacred fort,
caUed a dun, in which was placed the shrine of the Ulaid,
and to the kings of which the rents of the fair belonged.
These rents consisted chiefly in a fine due for each mar
riage celebrated there.

THE EARLY SETTLERS OF IRELAND. 25
At Tara, the principal royal residence, he established the
feast of Tara, which was a general assembly of the provin
cial kings and other sub-governors of Ireland who came
to do homage to the Ardri, or over-king.
The feast continued to be held from Tuathal's time to
554 A.D., when the last was held by Dairmait, son of Cer-
ball. The estabUshment of the feast is also attributed to
the prehistoric king Eochaid OUam Fotla, which implies
that Tuathal merely reestablished it.
As a reparation for the loss of his two daughters at the
hands of the treacherous and wanton king Boroimhi, Tua
thal imposed a heavy tribute upon the province of Lein
ster, which was to be paid every season forever after. This
tribute, which afterward caused so many wars, consisted
of 6000 cows, 6000 hogs, 6000 wethers, 6000 copper cal
drons, 6000 ounces of silver, and 6000 mantles.
After introducing several social reforms, one of which
was the choosing of supervisors of the most expert work
men in the kingdom, Tuathal met his death at the hands
of Mal, 109 A.D., who seized the throne.
In the year 125 a.d., Cond, the hero of the hundred bat
tles, became king, and entered upon a career of warfare
which continued with varying fgrtune until he was slain
by Tiofraid Tirech, king of Ulster. About this time Mug
Nuadat founded a dynasty that ruled Munster for many
years. The career of Cormac the son of Art, who lived in the
first half of the third century, was remarkable for its
treacherous cruelty, and afterward for its justice and wis
dom. Having in his youth been banished from Ulster, he

26 THE STORY OF ST. PATRICK.
aroused the sympathy of Thedy, a noble of considerable
influence, and of Lughaigh, an invincible hero, who es
poused his cause and marched against the king of Ulster,
After a hard-fought battle and- a great display of hero
ism on the part of Lughaigh, the king of Ulster was slain
and his army overwhelmed. Thedy in the contest received
three wounds, which the ungrateful Cormac caused to be
fiUed— one with an ear of barley, another with a black
worm, and the third with a point of a rusty spear, hoping
in this way to torture him to death ; but the wounds healed
after a year of great suffering. In the meantime Cormac
became established on the throne of his father, and after
ward ruled Ireland with great wisdom. He was converted
to Christianity, but died seven years afterward, being
choked with a salmon bone.
During the latter part of the same century, Niall, a pow
erful and ambitious monarch of Ireland, invaded France
and plundered the countiy.
In this discursive sketch of the first settlers of Ireland
we have seen that the Celts, wherever they have been,
have demonstrated that they are a very important branch
of the Indo-German family.
If we look at them in Gaul, we see there that their in
cessant warfares bespeak at least activity of mind and
body. If we look at them in Ireland, we see that the Irish
missions have done a great deal for European civilization.
If we look at them in Britain, we see that their traditions
have deeply influenced medieval literature.
One great defect of the Celts is incapacity for political

THE EARLY SETTLERS OF IRELAND. 27
organization. Their very enthusiasm, lively feeling, and
vivid imagination have prevented them from taking coolly
and deliberately those measures which lead to national
unity; hence it is that they have given way before the
more practical Roman and Teuton, The Teuton has quiet
resolution, sturdy common sense, a talent for pubUc Ufe,
state organization, and political dominion. The Celt has
genuine refinement of manner and feeling and high poetic
susceptibilities. We have also seen what a mixed race the inhabitants of
Great Britain and Ireland are. At the invasion of Britain
by the Romans the inhabitants included Phenician, Ro
man, and German elements, which had become incorpo
rated with the native Britons, who were of Celtic descent,
and to these have since been added the Anglo-Saxons.
The inhabitants of Ireland are no less composite and
complex, since they have sprung, as we have seen, from
peoples in the northern parts of Europe, Asia Minor, and
Central Asia, with a large infusion of immigrations from
Gaul and from ancient Germany and Scandinavia. Though
the inhabitants of Ireland may have retained some of the
bad quaUties of the peoples from whom they have sprung,
they are nevertheless distinguished for many of their best
traits, and in several of these are not a whit behind some
of the best peoples on the earth.

28 THE STORY OF ST. PATRICK

Salutation to the Celts,
Hail to our Celtic brethren, wherever they may be.
In the far woods of Oregon, or o'er the Atlantic sea —
Whether they guard the banner of St. George in Indian
vales.
Or spread beneath the nightless North experimental sails —
One im name and in fame
Are the sea-divided Gaels.
A greeting and a promise unto them all we send ;
Their charter our charter is, their glory is our end ;
Their friend shaU be our friend, our foe whoe'er assails
The past or future honors of the far-dispersed Gaels,
One in name and in fame
Are the sea-divided Gaels, T. D. McGee,

CHAPTER II.
THE PBIMITIVE SOCIAL CONDITION OP lEELAND.
Oh, to have lived Uke an Irish chief when hearts were fresh
and true.
And a manly thought, like a peaUng bell, would quicken
them through and through.
And the seed of a gen'rous hope right soon to a fiery
action grew,
And men would have scorned to talk and talk, and never
a deed would do. C. G. Duffy.
The constitution of the Irish social system was tribal.
It divided the population into numerous tribes, which were
again subdivided into smaUer clans, composed of famUies
and individuals descended from a common ancestor, from
whom tribes and clans took their jiame. This division of
the people into tribes or clans was a fundamental feature
of primitive Irish society, and must be always kept in
view by any one who would understand the constitution
of the church founded by Patrick and his successors.
Each tribe had its chief, and the chiefs of the tribes
were subject to the king of the province, and these pro
vincial kings were subject to the chief king. The chief
tainship and the kingship were all elective, although the
choice was limited to the relatives of the ruling chief. The
29

30 THE STORY OF ST. PATRICK.
successor of a chief was chosen in the iifetime of the latter.
Though the choice was confined to relations, the eldest
son was not necessarily elected, but generaUy the ablest
man in the chiefs connections, and the person on whom
the choice fell was called the Tanish.
There were five kings in Ireland in those early times,
the realms of four of them nearly corresponding to the
present four provinces, except that by taking a portion
from each of the four, in the year 130 A.D., Meath was
formed into a separate central kingdom, its ruler being
recognized as over-king, and having his residence at Tara
in Meath, till the middle of the sixth century.
When a strong man held the place of supreme ruler his
controUing power was everywhere felt. But it often
happened that the provincial king or chief was abler and
more powerful than the over-king, in which case the cen
tral control was little more than nominal,
A true Irish king of those days is beautifuUy described
by Thomas Davis in the foUowing lines :
The Caesar of Rome has a wider domain.
And the great king of France has more elans in his train ;
The scepter of Spain is more heavy with gems.
And our crowns cannot vie with the Greeks' diadems ;
But kinglier far, before heaven and man.
Are the Emerald fields and the fiery-eyed clan,
The scepter, and state, and the poets who sing,
And the swords that encircle a true Irish king.
For he must have come from a conquering race —
The heir of their valor, their glory, their grace ;
His fame must be stately, his step must be fleet ;
His hand must be trainM to each warrior feat ;

THE PRIMITIVE SOCIAL CONDITION OF IRELAND. 31
His face as the harvest moon, steadfast and clear,
A head to enlighten, a spirit to cheer ;
While the foremost to rush where the battlebrands ring.
And the last to retreat is a true Irish king.
But there were other grades in society than these. The
people were not only divided into ranks and grades, as we
have described, but these grades were also designated, by
the number of colors they were permitted to wear. The
lowest were only permitted to wear one color, and none
but the royal family could wear seven. The rank next to
royalty was composed of the learned order: these wore
six colors. This is an indication of the high estimation
in which learning was then held. This custom of wearing
colors is the origin of the Scotch plaid, worn by the High
landers tiU this day.
The dwellings of the primitive Irish deserve also a
word. These houses were, in many places, such as might
be expected of a race that feared attacks from neighbor
ing people. Many of them were circular inclosures caUed
by various names, but were in reality forts, inside of which
were the chief habitations of the people. They were erected
for shelter and protection, and in the case of the better
class of these forts, in which the chiefs resided, they were
surrounded by two ramparts. The houses inside of these
were usually constructed of wood and wattles.
The early Christian churches were similarly constructed,
and generally plastered over with clay. There were also
numerous circular stone forts.
A large portion of the country was then covered with
dense forests, in which the oak predominated. In these

32 THE STORY OF ST. PATRICK.
forests, boars, wolves, and other wild beasts roamed. So
extensive were these forests that Ireland was at one time
caUed " Island of the Woods."
Hunting was common, but agriculture was also prac
tised. The wealth of the people consisted chiefly of cattle,
pigs, sheep, and horses.
The members of one tribe formed a number of com
munities; each community had a head, who had under
him kinsmen, slaves, and retainers. Each of these com
munities occupied a certain part of the tribe land. The
arable part was cultivated under a system of tillage ; the
pasture-land was grazed by all, according to certain cus
toms ; and the wood, bog, and mountain formed the unre
stricted common land of the community.
And what this village community was to the tribe the
homestead was to the community. In that homestead
dwelt the representative freeman, capable of acting as a
witness, or going bail for his neighbors.
So long as there was abundance of land each family
grazed its cattle upon the tribe land without restriction.
Unequal increase of wealth and growth of population
naturally led to its limitation, each head Of a household
being entitled to gi-aze an amount of stock in proportion
to his wealth, the size of his household, and his acquired
position. The arable land was annually applotted, but generally
some of the richer families succeeded in evading the ex
change of the allotments, and of converting part of the
•common land into an estate. This course of conduct soon
created an aristocracy.

THE PRIMITIVE SOCIAL CONDITION OF IRELAND. 33
The head of the homestead who had held the same land
for three generations was called a lord, of which rank
there were several grades, according to their wealth in
land and chattels. Several grades in society were simi
larly formed, and gradually sprang into existence.
It should also be remembered that the man selected to
be the head of the tribe, or the chief of the clan, must
have certain specifled qualifications, viz., he must be the
most experienced, the most noble, the most wealthy, the
wisest, the most learned, the most popular, the most pow
erful to oppose, and the most steadfast to sue for profits
and to be sued for losses. In addition to these qualities,
he should be free from personal blemishes and deformities,
and of fit age to lead his tribe or clan, as the case might
be, to battle.
In order to support the dignity of the chief or chieftain
a certain portion of tribe or clan land was attached as a
perquisite (an apanage) to the office. This land, with the
fortified residence upon it, went to the successor of the
chief, but a chiefs own property might be divided at his
death, as an inheritance, among the members of his
family. There was also another order, called entertainers.
These were obliged by law to provide for strangers and
travelers. They were dignitaries among their fellow-men,
and were required to be the proprietors of seven town
lands, to have seven herds of cows, each herd to contain
one hundred and fifty. Their mansion was required to be
accessible by four different avenues; and a hog, sheep,
and beef were required to be in constant preparation, that
whoever called should be fed without delay.

34 THE STORY OF ST. PATRICK.
AU this was gratuitous. Probably it was this social
custom and provision which gave the Irishman an idea
of his elysium in the next world, where, according to the
description of it in the olden times, the pig is as conspic
uous as he is to-day in the cabin of the Irish peasant.
Here is the description of an Irishman's elysium in those
days: "There are three trees always bearing fruit; there is
one pig there, always alive, and another pig ready cooked ;
and there is a vessel full of exceUent ale."
The laws by which the people were governed, as we
shall see, were singularly just and sympathetic, protecting
the weak against the strong and the rich, and opening a
door to wealth and high rank for ability and industry.
It is recorded in an old manuscript that speaks of the
age of Cormac, one of Ireland's earliest, wisest, and strong
est rulers, who lived in the middle of the third century,
" that the world was full of aU goodness in his time ; there
were fruit and fatness of the land, an abundant produce
of the sea, with peace, ease, and happiness. There was no
kUUng nor plundering in his time, but every one occupied
his land in happiness."
This description of those times may be rather rosUy
drawn, but Cormac had doubtless come under the influ
ence of Christianity, and sought to follow the Golden
Rule, Be that as it may, the social primitive condition of
Ireland, we can well imagine, was somewhat similar to the
condition portrayed by the poet in his beautiful words, on

THE PRIMITIVE SOCIAL CONDITION OF IRELAND. 35

The Brave Old World,
There was once a world, and a brave old world.
Away in the ancient time.
When the men were brave and the women fair.
And the world was in its prime ;
And the priest he had his book.
And the scholar had his gown.
And the old knight stout, he walked about.
With his broadsword hanging down.
Ye may see this world was a brave old world,
In the days long past and gone.
And the sun he shone, and the rain it rained,
And the world went merrily on ;
The shepherd kept his sheep.
And the mUkmaid mUked- her kine.
And the serving-man was a sturdy loon
In a cap and doublet fine.

CHAPTER III.
the ancient laws of ibeland.
When on Sinai's top I see
God descend in majesty.
To proclaim his holy law.
All my spirit sinks with awe.
When on Calvary I rest,
God, in flesh made manifest.
Shines in my Redeemer's face.
Full of beauty, truth, and grace. Montgomery.
The inhabitants of Ireland were governed, from a very
early period, and for many centuries, by what were caUed
the Brehon Laws. These laws obtained this name because
they were made by the judges.
These judges were hereditary, and each administered
justice to the members of his tribe, while seated in the
open air, on a few sods, on a hill or rising ground. The
language in which these laws were written is a convincing
proof of their antiquity, and also the subject-matter of
many of them indicates the primitive nature of the society
which then prevailed. Their style of composition differs
from that of the vernacular Irish language of the present
day; time has modifled much of the spelling and many
of the grammatical forms, also several of the legal terms.
36

THE ANCIENT LAWS OF IRELAND. 37
Some phrases of constant occurrence in these Brehon
Laws have become obsolete.
Some of these statutory documents are ascribed to Cor
mac MacArt, a wise and celebrated monarch of Ireland,
in the middle of the third century; and allusions are
made in them to a general revision of them in the fifth
century, at the suggestion of St. Patrick, who, in conjunc
tion with certain kings and learned men, expunged from
them many enactments which savored of paganism ; yet
many traces of heathenism were not removed, especially
their provisions respecting marriage, and its relations and
obUgations — provisions that demonstrate that Christian
ity had not yet exercised its fuU influence upon those who
were either the enactors or revisers of these laws.
By these laws a community or village comprised sepa
rate families and individuals, numerous enough to occupy
what might be called a barony, or enough land to supply
aU their necessities by pasture and cultivation ; and with
in this barony a court and a complete system of social
organization were established.
In each of these communities lands were set apart per
manently for the support of the chief ; and means were
arranged by which portions of the common land could
within certain limits be acquired by individual owners.
The grades of life were numerous, and regulated by the
amount of wealth possessed in cattle, and in a ^-escribed
assortment of agricultural implements and household
goods. The houses were constructed of timber and wattle- work,
surrounded by open spaces, of prescribed extent for each

38 THE STORY OF ST. PATRICK.
class. The shortest Umit for this space was the distance
to which the owner, seated at his door, could throw a
stone of a given weight.
There were slaves and serfs and farmers and landlords,
the relationship between which we need not specify in
detaU, except that they resembled very much the relation
ship between such classes in modern times.
The use of coined money was practically unknown, and
the standard of value was the cow.
The succession to the territorial headships was, as we
have stated, elective within certain hereditary limits, and
the succession to the tribal rights, and rights of ownership
in land, was hereditary.
The law of marriage, as we have already hinted, allowed
many irregular relations, but protected the property both
of the irregular and of the lawful wife. The lawful wife
could only protect herself from an unlawful one by the
withdrawal of her separate property, and by fines which
must be paid to her on such an occasion.
The looseness of the connubial tie, evidenced by these
laws, was one of the evils calling for reform, alleged by
the Irish prelates in their letter, praying Pope Alexan
der III. to ratify the grant of Ireland made by Hadrian IV.
to King Henry II. of England in the twelfth century.
The upper classes put out their children to be nursed
and educated by the poorer members of the community,
who received a fee for their fostering care, and had a claim
in their old age upon the child fostered and educated.
This fostering care commenced with infancy, and in the
case of girls terminated at thirteen years of age, and of

THE ANCIENT LAWS OF IRELAND. 39
boys at seventeen years. Under this system of early
training the Brehon Laws provided that girls of the less
wealthy class must be taught to use the handmiU and
the sieve, to bake and to rear young cattle. Girls of the
higher class must be taught to sew, cut out garments, and
embroider. The poorer boys must be taught kiln-drying and wood
cutting. The boys of the upper class were taught chess-
playing, the use of the missile, horsemanship, and swim
ming. The clothing, besides the nursing-cloths supplied
by the parents, was to be regulated according to their sta
tion, from sober-colored stuffs for the children of the less
wealthy to scarlet cloth and silks for the chUdren of those
of the rank of the king.
Provision was made for the necessary correction of the
pupil, and fines were to be imposed for the excess of cor
rection, with many other reasonable and necessary laws.
Contributions were levied for the repair of the roads
and bridges, etc., and each community had a public mill,
a fishery, and a ferry-boat.
Markets were held, and great fairs, at distant places and
long intervals of time. Either party might rescind a con
tract within twenty-four hours.
There was a law for " tramps " and " waifs " and " serfs,"
for caring for wrecks at sea, and for sustaining ship
wrecked sailors. All fines were graduated in the interest
of the poorer classes, and crime and breach of contract
reduced the guilty ones from a higher to a lower grade of
society. Privileges were given to those attending the fairs, and a

40 THE STORY OF ST. PATRICK.
violation of some of the necessary laws for securing peace
and decorum at these fairs was in some instances punish
able with death, and in other cases was punished with a
pecuniary fine. At these fairs new laws were proclaimed,
and old laws were read over publicly to the people. Im
prisonment was unknown, but the culprit was fettered.
There were laws for the regulation or settlement of cases
out of court, and for bringing other cases to a higher juris
diction, for which professional advocates were appointed.
These laws defined the respective rights both of the
clergy and of the laity, and among the rights expressly
guaranteed to the latter " was the recital of the Word of
God to all who would listen to it and keep it." Thus this
time-honored law, the right to God's most precious Word,
was secured to the people of Ireland by this ancient Irish
law. The boundaries of their land were preserved by laying
a quantity of burned ashes on the ground, and big stones
on these, and to these places they carried boys, showed
them the ashes and stones, and whipped them soundly,
that they might remember the place, and tell it to their
children. The main features of these laws were similar to those
of the common law of England. Take them all in all,
these were not hard laws by whicli Ireland was governed
at the time when Patrick appeared upon the scene.
God's law is perfect, and converts
The soul in sin that lies ;
God's testimony is most sure,
And makes the simple wise ;

THE ANCIENT LAWS OF IRELAND. 41
The statutes of the Lord are right.
And do rejoice the heart ;
The Lord's command is pure, and doth
Light to the eyes impart ;
Unspotted is the fear of God,
And doth endure forever ;
The judgments of the Lord are true.
And righteous altogether ;
They more than gold, yea, much flne gold,
To be desired are ;
Than honey from the honeycomb
That droppeth, sweeter far.
David, King of Israel.

CHAPTER IV.
the druidical religion op IRELAND.
¦Great were their deeds, their passions, and their sports ;
With clay and stone
They pUed on strath and shore those mystic forts.
Nor yet o'erthrown ;
On cairn-crowned hills they held their council courts ;
While youths alone.
With giant dogs, explored the elk resorts.
And brought them down.
The Druids' altar and the Druids' creed
We scarce can trace.
There is not left an undisputed deed
Of all that race.
Save their majestic song, which hath their speed.
And strength and grace ;
In that sole song they live and love and bleed —
It bears them on thro' space. T, D. McGee.
There are no definite accounts of the religious rites
practised by the pagan Irish, but there are several allu
sions which, though vague, plainly show that such rites
existed, and that it was one of the functions of the Druids
io perform them.
These Druids were a class of priests corresponding to
the Magi, or wise men, of the ancient Persians, and druid-
42

THE DRUIDICAL RELIGION OF IRELAND. 43
sim was the name usually given to the religious system of
the ancient Gauls and Britons,
The word Druid is thought to be derived from the Greek
word drus, an oak.
Groves of oak were their chosen retreat, and whatever
grew on that tree was thought to be a gift from heaven,
especiaUy the mistletoe, under which fair ones still enjoy
a kiss at Christmas. Wherever the mistletoe was found
growing on an oak in those ancient times, it was cut with
a golden knife by a priest clad in a white robe, and two
white bulls were sacrificed upon the spot. The Druids
called it " all heal," and its virtues were considered to be
very great.
The mistletoe was only regarded with reverence when
found growing on the sacred oak, the tree of one of the
gods of the ancient Britons. These druidic rites were main
tained under the Romans, Jutes, Saxons, and Angles.
But how -and when the mistletoe became ingrafted on
the greatest festival of the Christian world is not yet
apparent, and is evidently lost in the darkness of the dim
and misty past. The mistletoe also appears in the Scan
dinavian mythology, in which an arrow formed from the
mistletoe is represented as a sure weapon of success in a
contest with an adversary.
The custom of kissing under a suspended bough of the
mistletoe has come down from the druidic days, and is
likely to survive to the end of time, as it has survived the
faith of the ancient Britons.
Possibly the popularity of the rite has had much to do
with its survival. In some parts of' England, if a man

44 THE STORY OF ST. PATRICK.
neglects to provide the evergreens for the Christmas deco
ration he loses the privilege of kissing any maid or dame
he catches under the mistletoe bough.
This pleasant holiday custom has found expression in
the following lively lines :
On Christmas eve the beUs were rung ;
On Christmas eve the mass was sung ;
That only night in all the year
Saw the stoled priest the chalice rear ;
The damsel donned her kirtle sheen.
The hall was dressed with holly green ;
Forth to the wood the merrymen go.
To gather in the mistletoe.
The Druids made the cutting of the mistletoe an occa
sion of solemn religious ceremonies, terminating often in
extreme barbarity.
If the readers of these pages could have been in Ireland
about the time of Patrick's arrival there, and could have
stood upon a hill with a village in front of .them, and a
thick, wild forest near by, they might have seen, according
to an ancient writer, strange-looking men creeping out of
cabins, walking about solemnly, and whispering mysteri
ously. These men have long beards, and in their hands magi
cians' wands, their coats are of many colors, and they have
a string of serpents' eggs about their necks. Others have
a white scarf thrown over their shoulders, bracelets on
their arms, and long white rods in their hands. The moon
is just six days old. They gaze at the stars and decide it
is the proper time for their sacred rites. They gather in
solemn conclave, and their chief leads them as they march

THE DRUIDICAL RELIGION OF IRELAND. 45
into the dark, gloomy woods. They halt under an ancient
oak, and engage in solemn mummery. One of the priests
climbs the oak, and with the golden knife cuts away the
wondrous mistletoe. He throws it carefully down upon a
white cloth, and all around adore it. Every leaf is a trea
sure. Those around think it has power to charm away
evil spirits, and to preserve its worshipers in health.
Two white bullocks are on hand for a sacrifice ; a wreath
of oak leaves is placed upon their horns, and solemn rites
are begun ; a golden knife is plunged into the necks of the
victims, and they fall quivering in death; fires are kin
dled, and skilful hands prepare a feast, around which aU
gather, and of which they partake in pagan joy.
At other times these barbarous Druids enact a more
horrid part stiU at the observance of these demoniac rites.
A slave, or prisoner of war, or the child of some peasant,
is led into the gloomy woods, and there offered as a sacri
fice upon the Satanic altar, while the priests roar and howl
and beat their drums, to drown the cries of the suffering
martyr. The Druids of Gaul sometimes made huge baskets of
osier in the shape of a man, and fiUed them with human
beings, and set the vast living mass on fire. Probably the
ancient Irish were not so barbarous.
These horrid rites seem to have been derived by the
Druids from the Phenieians, who worshiped Baal and
Moloch, and often offered up their children to them in
sacrifice. These Druids had their Baal, which means " sun," for
they had their Beltine fires, or Baal-fire day, and in honor

46 THE STORY OF ST. PATRICK
of the sun the fire was made. They held that to face the
sun was to be right in the world ; to face the sun at noon
is to face the south, and south means right, while the
north means wrong. One must look toward the sun at
the beginning of his work if he would prosper in it, A
boat going to sea must turn sunwise; people must turn
toward the sun as soon as they are married, and they must
be borne to the grave in the same fashion. Some people
stUl are influenced, unconsciously it may be, by these old
Druid rites, and so front churches toward the sunrising,
and turn toward sunrise when they say their prayers. God
forbade his ancient people to be imitators of such people.
These Druids adored the sun, but some deny that they
made idols. They believed their God was omnipresent,
and worshiped him in roofless temples, or within large
circles of stone. In Latin the poet has described these
Druids in the following lines :
Through untold ages past there stood
A deep, wild, sacred, awful wood ;
Its interwoven boughs had made
A cheerless, chilly, silent shade ;
There, underneath the gloomy trees,
Were oft performed the mysteries
Of barbarous priests, who thought that God
Loved to look down upon the sod
Where every leaf was deeply stained
With blood from human victims drained. LUCIEN.
They beUeved that God's eye was always upon them,
that the soul was immortal, and that there was a state of
future rewards and punishments — another world, where

THE DRUIDICAL RELIGION OF IRELAND. 47
good souls preserved their identity and their habits, while
the souls of the bad passed into the lower animals to be
chastised. Letters were burned at funerals, that the dead
might carry them in smoke to those who had before them
crossed the borders of the spirit-land. Money was loaned
to the departed, on condition that it should be repaid in
the world to come ; but the priests always received this
money, and never failed on such occasions to be the bank
ers, both of the dead and the living.
The power of these Druid priests was very great. They
directed in aU sacred things, and offered all sacrifices.
They were the teachers of the youth, and judges, both in
pubUc and private, of all disputes. Their chief priest was
elected by the priests in conclave, and possessed power
without check or control. They enforced their legal deci
sions by religious sanctions, and forbade the presence of
any at the religious sacrifices who refused obedience to
their decrees. The persons thus doomed were regarded
as accursed, and shunned by all the people.
These priests were exempt from war and from taxation,
and were regarded with the deepest reverence. They did
not commit their learning to writing, lest it should be read
by the people; but committed it to memory, and trans
mitted it orally from one to another. If at any time any
of the priests wrote anything, it was in the Greek lan
guage, which the priests only understood. These Druid
priests had also their fairies and their bushes, and their
hills and groves, and places sacred to them.
The king and great aristocratic families among these
Druids had their bards, who became in time a privUeged

48 THE STORY OF ST. PATRICK.
class, and exercised great influence. They were the chief
historians, kept the family genealogies, cast into rude
verse the deeds of their heroes, recited them on public
occasions and at all great festivals, at which these bards
were always present. On such times they excited the
youth to the cultivation of oratory, swayed the multitudes
by their fervid appeals, and filled all with the greatest
enthusiasm. They would seize their harps, and play and sing their
own national songs, in which the people joined, untU the
famUy, provincial, or national spirit was intensely excited,
and all were ready to go forth to deeds of heroism or
rapine. The names of some of these bards are retained
and honored among the people of Ireland to the present
day. The Druids invoked their divinities in favor of their
friends, and for this purpose made incantations upon a
mound or elevated ground near the fleld of battle.
They determined by auguries from the heavenly bodies,
clouds, wind, and smoke, the flight of birds, and other
phenomena, the propitious and the unpropitious times
for fighting a battle, or for any other important action.
They announced the things it would be unlucky for a
chief or a tribe to do, pretended to foretell future events,
practised incantations of various kinds, kept events in
remembrance, and were, in a word, the depositaries of such
knowledge as was possessed in Ireland at the time.
These Druids believed also in the unity of God, and as
already stated, in the immortality of the soul, and in a
future state of rewards and punishments. They studied

THE DRUIDICAL RELIGION OF IRELAND. 49
botany, astronomy, medicine, and attained to great skill in
mechanics ; but notwithstanding their boasted civilization,
their rites were barbarous in the extreme, even to the offer
ing up, as we have seen, of human beings as sacrifices as
an atonement to the Deity for the sins of men. They
taught the people to worship supernatural beings, such as
fairies, who were supposed to dweU in the earth, the sea,
rivers, valleys, hUls, fountains, wells, and trees. These
supposed supernatural beings had to be conciliated by the
incantations of the Druids, for which they received a fee.
The superstition about the Banshee, a female fairy, so
much talked about in Ireland, is a remnant of this druid-
ism. The Banshee had a most mournful cry, almost like
that of a baby in great distress, and when heard after dusk
made many a young Irish heart tremble. The cry of that
which the Irish imagined was the Banshee is heard stUl
in this land after nightfall, at some distance from dwell
ings in the countiy, and in the rear yards of houses in the
city. A Druid was the most jealous of beings, and woe to the
individual who excited his jealousy. A single word from
the Druid, and the man was cut down like grass. A Druid
had always the king's ear, and at his whisper the order
went forth to slay the hated man. On his lip was war or
peace. In his hand was the golden knife for the throat
of the condemned. At the sound of his rude lyre the
people rose to the work of vengeance.
The religion of the land, as can be easily seen, was a
reUgion of wonder and fear, and to dispute with a Druid
was a crime against the state. Woe to any one who kept

50 THE STORY OF ST. PATRICK.
back the tax claimed by a .Driiid. The chief Druid of
every district required all families, rich and poor, to pay
him certain annual dues.
On an evening in autumn the people were required to
extinguish every fire in their houses. Then every man
must appear and pay his tax ; if he failed he was the ob
ject of terrible vengeance. To be at that time with a fire
in the house or without money in the hand was a crime.
The next morning the Druid priest allowed every man
to take some of his sacred fire and rekindle the flame on
the man's own hearth. No man must lend a living coal to
his neighbor; if he did he was reduced to poverty, and
declared an outlaw. If he changed his religion it was at
the peril of his life. If he saw the " fiery cross " borne on
the hills he must rush to the raUying-place of the clans.
The chieftain tested the loyalty of his people in this way :
he would slay a goat, dip in its blood the end of a wooden
cross, set it on fire, give it to the clansman, and tell him
to run and wave it on the hilltops. When this first clans
man became breathless, another would take up the fiery
cross, and repeat the signal from hilltop to hilltop. The
man who did not obey the summons was doomed.
The Druids were also a kind of sorcerers, said to be in
league with the demons of paganism, and able, by this
agency, to do good to their friends and mischief to their
enemies. The followers of the first missionaries of Christianity in
Ireland seem to have thought it necessary, to prove the
superiority of the new faith, to spread the belief that its
apostles were gifted with supernatural powers, which they

THE DRUIDICAL RELIGION OF IRELAND. 51
could use more especially for counteracting the malice of
the Druids. This may have given rise to the superstitious
belief that Patrick could, and did, work miracles.
Elijah^s Challenge and Victory,
(1 Kings xviii, 21-40,)
" Ye prophets of Baal ! let an offering be laid
On the altar which you to your idol have made ; .
Let an offering be laid on the altar I rear
To the Lord that I worship, the Lord that I fear.
Pray ye to your god, while to my God I pray
For the fire of his power to consume it away.
And let him, the omnipotent, who hath bestowed
The boon we request, be acknowledged as God.
" Ye prophets of Baal, cry aloud, cry aloud !
Perhaps he is wrapped in his thoughts like a cloud.
Cry aloud, cry aloud, with your voices of woe !
Perhaps he is now in pursuit of his foe.
Cry aloud, cry aloud, like a trumpet of war !
Perhaps he is gone on some journey afar.
Cry aloud, cry aloud, in your agony deep !
Perhaps he is laid on his pillow asleep."
When Elijah had spoken, an altar was reared
To the Lord that he worshiped, the Lord that he feared ;
And he bowed him in prayer, and the fire was bestowed,
And the God of his sires was acknowledged as God.
Wm. Knox.

CHAPTER V.
the OBIGINAL language of the inhabitants of IRELAND.
Sweet tongue of our Druids and bards of past ages.
Sweet tongue of our monarchs, our saints, and our sages,
Sweet tongue of our heroes and free-born sires.
When we cease to preserve thee, our glory expires.
There can be no doubt that the Celtic language, or
what is now usually called the Irish language, was that
spoken by the earlier settlers of Ireland. The name
Keltai, or Celts, was given by themselves, and about the
third century before the Christian era it was applied by
the Greeks to a western people, who, when first known by
the Romans, inhabited northern Italy, France, Belgium,
part of Germany, western Switzerland, and subsequently
the British Isles. Some of these Celts migrated by the
valley of the Danube and northern Greece into Asia
Minor, and from Asia Minor and northern Gi'eece came
to Ireland and also to Britain. These people spoke essen
tially one language, but phonetic changes occurred in the
language of some of these people as they migrated and
mixed with other people. Those of this race who migrated
to Ireland and were among its earliest inhabitants, not
mixing thereafter, as formerly, with other races, retained
their ancient forms of speech with more tenacity and puri-
52

THE ORIGINAL LANGUAGE OF THE IRISH CELTS. 53
ty than any portions of their kindred race that occupied
other countries. Hence the original Celtic language as
spoken by the Irish when they first set foot upon Irish
soil, and which is spoken in some parts of Ireland stUl,
with more or less purity, is the best specimen extant of
the ancient Celtic language. It belongs to the great family
of Indo-European languages.
The Celtic group of languages seems to have diverged
from the common stock much earlier than any of the
other members of the same wide-spread family. This
group consists of two great branches, the GaeUc and
Kymric. There is no Celtic tongue or dialect known that
does not belong to either the Gaelic or Kymric branch,
although there may have been other branches of Celtic,
which have been lost or have disappeared under Roman
rule and influence. The Celtic languages form two distinct
classes, viz., Irish, Scotch, and Manx — ^belonging aU three
to the Gaelic — and Welsh, Cornish, and Armoric — belong
ing to the Kymric branch. According to Dio Cassius,
Celt is identical in meaning with Gallus, and there seems
to be no doubt but originally the names of Gallia, Galli,
Galatae, Celtae, were of one and the same root, and that
GaUi and Celtae denoted one and the same people; so
also Galatae, which afterward received the more restricted
meaning of Celts, in Asia. The word itself means pri
marily mighty, great — mighty men; secondarily, those
that violently immigi'ate and powerfully invade a country,
who appear to the inhabitants as hostile people, enemies ;
thus, it means an enemy, and subsequently, when hostUi
ties have subsided, a stranger, foreigner.

54 THE STORY" OF ST. PATRICK.
The Irish language, more than any other, has preserved
most of its primitive, genuine, original, and antique forms.
More than any other it has transmitted to us the most
grammatical and lexical condition of the Celtic languages.
From its comprehensive extension, its literary treasures,
and the antiquity of the written monuments in Irish, it is
certainly by far the most important and interesting, not
only of the Gaelic, but of all the Celtic languages.
The Irish language is, moreover, decidedly superior to the
other Gaelic dialects, in the extent, culture, and antiquity
of its literature, but all belong to the same great parent-
stock of Indo-European languages; and the aflinity of
Celtic with Sanskrit and the entire Aryan family has been
established beyond any reasonable doubt. The Celtic
tongues sustain to Sanskrit quite as close and consistent
a relation as any other of the Indo-European languages ;
and even where the Celtic seems most widely to diverge
from Sanskrit and the Aryan languages, the philologist
will discover that the most genuine and remarkable Indo-
European family features stiU, and that, too, in a preemi
nent degree, exist under the surface, as is the case in the
aspirated and unaspirated forms of nouns, etc.
The Celts appear to have been the first Aryans to arrive
in Europe, and their tongue forms the most western stem
of the Indo-European languages. Indeed, the very name
Ireland (which has been so often analyzed and explained)
seems to mean simply the land of Ires or Eres — in other
words, the countiy of the Aryes, that is, the "nobles,"
" warriors," " heroes."

THE ORIGINAL LANGUAGE OF THE IRISH CELTS. 55
• A great many Celtic roots are identical with those of
Sanskrit, and the Irish language possesses also very many
words that are derived from or connected with such San
skrit roots as have been hitherto standing isolated, and
could in no way be analyzed, classified, or accounted for
in dictionaries. The Celtic roots are, moreover, for the
greatest part, monosyUabic, like those of Sanskrit and the
Indo-European languages. These roots are in the Irish,
as well as in Sanskrit, always, at least in their original or
primitive condition, of the nature of a verb. Also many
substantives in Celtic (Gaelic and Kymric) are closely
allied to Sanskrit roots. The system of derivation and
composition of words is analogous, and often the same in
Celtic and Sanskrit.
A large number of Celtic compounds are such as can be
explained only by Sanskrit, and must have existed already
before the time when these, languages branched from the
common parent-stock. The whole system of grammatical
forms in the Celtic is closely connected with Sanskrit,
notwithstanding some changes which have occurred iu the
.long process of time. The anomalies in Celtic can often
find their full explanation only through Sanskrit, and also
their elements can be derived in the last analysis only
from Sanskrit. In the system of conjugation, the affinity
between Irish and Sanskrit becomes particularly apparent.
The power and facility of forming compounds is very
great in Irish, and may fairly be compared with the Greek,
German, and Sanskrit. These compounds display the
richness, elegance, and flexibility of the Irish language;

56 THE STORY OF ST. PATRICK.
and it is especiaUy in poetical productions that we meet
in Irish with combinations of nouns which come very near
to the much admired Sanskrit compounds.
It is also worthy of remark that the other Celtic lan
guages here and there, Welsh excepted, possess nothing
of this compared with the Irish. As already stated, the
whole phonetic system of the Celtic group is intimately
related with that of Sanskrit.
But it is not so much in the Irish of the present day
that all the resemblance, analogy, and relationship with
Sanskrit, Zend, and the classic languages are most clearly
to be seen. We have often to resort to the old Irish to
obtain a full view of these manifold connections. Thus,
we find there a complete declension, in many respects
more so than in the Latin ; with five cases in the singular,
four in the plural, and two in the dual.
The Irish language is, moreover, very regular in its
grammar. It has only such grammatical forms as are
indispensable for deflniteness and perspicuity. It has
no indefinite articles, neither has Sanskrit or Arabic, and
some other languages. Irish has but one main past tense
and one future. The same is the case with Hebrew and
Arabic. The Irish is indeed the prominent a.nd perfect language
of the Celtic group. It surpasses in richness, beauty, and
elegance many other languages, and among them even
some of the most cultivated and best organized. In poet
ry and romance, in tales and songs, it displays its greatest
charms and all its wonderful beauty. It has lost noth
ing of its excellence and perfection, notwithstanding the

THE ORIGINAL LANGUAGE OF THE IRISH CELTS. 57
changes to which it has been subjected. Its intense en
ergy and power, its refined elegance, its exquisite beauty
and marvelous flexibility, have made it possible to repre
sent by a most successful translation aU the original per
fection of Homer's " Iliad," turned into Irish by the late
Archbishop of Tuam. The Celtic is extremely rich in the
words which have come down to us, with all their primi
tive freshness, in their unadulterated original form, and
that from the remote ages of dim prehistoric times.
The luxuriant lexical growth and richness of the Irish
language are also apparent by the fact that, should all the
existing glossaries, old and new, be added together, we
should have at least thirty thousand words, besides those
in printed dictionaries — a richness of vocabulary to which,
perhaps, not a single living language can bear even a re
mote comparison, and for this reason it is the only Celtic
tongue which has entirely escaped the subversive influence
of the Roman rule and dominion.
A comparison of Celtic and Sanskrit words would throw
a clear light upon the relationship that exists between the
two languages, but we can specify only a few. There is
no cognate word in any Indo-European language to the
Sanskrit verb tag, to go, but in the Irish we flnd it in tag,
to approach, and in tigh, to come. In Sanskrit we have
ira, earth, and in Irish, ire, field, land; in Sanskrit we
have vasra, shelter, and in Irish, fosra, bed ; in Sanskrit
we have ing, to move, in Irish we have ing, movement ; in
Sanskrit we have dak, to burn, in Irish we have dagh, to
burn; and so on. Hundreds of words are so similar as
to leave no doubt that the Sanskrit and Irish are closely

58 THE STORY OF ST. PATRICK.
related in origin. And it should be remembered that al
though there are several dialects of the Irish, the written
and especially the literary language has been compara
tively little affected by them, and has remained almost
uniform and everywhere the same.
The Irish language is therefore a venerable mother-
tongue, superior to a great number of languages spoken
on European soil — superior for its antiquity, its origi
nality, its purity, its remarkable pleasing euphony, and
¦easy harmonious flow; its poetical adaptation, musical
nature, and picturesque expressiveness ; its vigorous vital
ity, freshness, energy, and inherent power ; its local, sys
tematic, regular, and methodically constituted grammar;
its philosophic structure and wonderful literary suscepti
bility. Many works exist in the Irish language, but chiefly only
in manuscript. The principal collections of Irish manu
scripts are to be found in the Royal Irish Academy and
in Trinity College, Dublin. The British Museum, the
Bodleian Library, and several of the continental libraries
of Europe also, contain numerous old and very valuable
Irish manuscripts.
It has been ascertained that a greater number of valu
able ancient Irish documents are extant as manuscripts
than either English or French or any European nation
can boast of. A scholar in Germany has made an esti
mate, showing that it would take about one thousand
volumes, in octavo form, to publish the Irish literature
alone which is contained in the extant manuscripts from
the sixth to the eleventh century.

THE ORIGINAL LANGUAGE OF THE IRISH CELTS. 59
It may also be of interest to record that the Celtic lan
guages constituted once a far-extending family of related
tongues, which about two thousand years ago actuaUy
covered a larger ground than Latin, Greek, and German
combined, and that many valuable works have been pub
lished to aid the learner in the study of these languages,
but especially in acquiring a fair and thorough knowledge
of Irish.
But the literary productions in Irish are not only very
numerous, they extend also to a wonderful variety of sub
jects and departments of mental conception and activity,
such as poetry, history, laws, grammar, etc., and it is a
well-known fact that many legends of French and German
poets in the middle ages derive their origin from Irish and
other Celtic songs.
The Irish epic literature is abundant, and of great inter
est. The Irish songs and poems of old were flrst preserved
as oral traditions, and were at a much later period com
mitted to writing, afterward were variously combined, and
appeared finaUy in a regular, well-connected form.
In aU the beautiful songs and Irish poems, stories, and
romances there is a wonderful productiveness and origi
nality and a most surprising power of invention, such as
we flnd in the oriental tales, which for so long a time were
the delight of the whole western world. In lyric poetry
the Irish literature has evinced, and always maintained,
an astonishing superiority. Irish historians mention works
written even in pagan times in Ireland ; and of these the
most famous was the " Saltair of Tara," a work which has
not come down to us, but is described as having been a

60 THE STORY OF ST. PATRICK.
complete collection of metrical essays and dissertations on
the laws and usages of Ireland. Its author is said to have
been Cormac MacArt, king of Ireland from 227 to 266 a.d.
The "Book of Aichill" is one of the principal monu
ments of Irish jurisprudence, A part of the regulations
and laws contained in this book are attributed to Cormac
MacArt. The Brehon Code seems to be an embodiment and a
coUection of very ancient oral traditions and customs
relating to law; and what increases its interest and im
portance is the fact that it is in no wise influenced by the
Roman system. Its language is of a very archaic type,
the oldest form of Irish.
It has been said that " had there come nothing down to
us but this collection of laws, it would have been amply
sufficient to testify to the antiquity of the old Irish civil
ization and literary culture." The original text of the
Brehon Laws is of high antiquity. They were elaborated
and committed to writing in the time of King Laogaire II.,
son of Niall of the Nine Hostages. This was done mostly
at Teamhair (Tara). These judgments of pagan "bre-
hons " are said to have been subsequently revised, remod
eled, purified, and changed on the conversion of the Irish
to Christianity. These modifications are attributed to the
influence of St. Patrick, under the guidance of a chief
Druid. The Brehon Code seems to have maintained its author
ity among the native Irish for a period of twelve hundred
years. As to the authors who were directly concerned
with the elaboration of these laws, they were nine in num-

THE ORIGINAL LANGUAGE OF THE IRISH CELTS. 61
ber (" knowledge of nine persons " is the name given to it
on that account) ; they were the nine pillars of the Senchas
Mor, as the text says.
The Brehon Code must impress the reader favorably by
the refinement of its morals, as weU as by the skill and in
genuity which are evinced in the discussion of the cases,
the nicety of the distinctions, and the accuracy of the defi
nitions and classifications. Its judgments and penalties
are, to a great extent, mild and human ; and in regard to
various points a somewhat considerable latitude seems to
be allowed. Some laws relating to damages done to or by
animals, etc., remind us of some more or less analogous
regulations in the Jewish " Mishna." There exists, also, a
remarkable analogy with the laws of Manu and the legal
customs of the Hindus ; not only in regard to fines, but
particularly to the " Fasting," in certain cases, where the
contending parties would go before the residence of the de
fendant and wait there without food for some time. This
corresponds, in a measure, to the dherna, which was com
monly resorted to by the creditors in Hindustan, when
they went to sit at the door of a debtor, rigorously abstain
ing from aU food, and threatening to commit suicide by
starvation ; intending thereby to compel the debtor to re
turn a loan, or fulfil his obligations toward the claimant.
Since the first grammar of Irish language was made in
the seventh century many grammars and dictionaries have
been published, which we need not enumerate, and there
have been many prominent and successful workers in the
domain of Celtic erudition through many centuries till the
present. It must suffice to state that a professorship of

62 THE STORY OF ST. PATRICK.
the Irish language exists in Trinity CoUege, Dublin, in the
Queen's College at Belfast, in that of Cork, of Galway, the
college of Maynooth, and in the Catholic University.
A professorship of Celtic also exists in Paris, at the
College de France, a chair which is very ably filled by
Professor Jubainville. Also Professor Gaidoz lectures in
Paris on the Celtic languages and literature.
As a spoken language, the foUowing statement in regard
to Irish may be of interest. According to the census of
1851, Irish was spoken exclusively by 319,602 persons,
especially in the provinces of Connaught and Munster;
while English as well as Irish was spoken by 1,204,688
persons : thus, for nearly one fourth of the whole popula
tion of Ireland it was then still a living tongue. Twenty
years later, according to the census of 1871, 103,562 per
sons could speak the Irish only; and 817,875 persons
spoke Irish and English. Nowadays it is especially among
the rural classes and native landowners in Connaught,
Munster, the remote parts of Ulster, the south of Leinster,
as well as in the islands off the western coast of Ireland,
that Irish is still retained as the every-day language in the
family circles and the entire social relations at home.
It is stated that members of old Irish families who dis
tinguished themselves in the armies of the Continent felt
proud of their Gaelic mother-tongue, and continually used
it in their intercourse, while it was also commonly spoken
by the Irish soldiers in France, and in the American army
during the War of Independence. No Roman legions in
vaded Ireland, although for its commerce, resources, and
advanced state of civilization it was the most important

THE ORIGINAL LANGUAGE OF THE IRISH CELTS. 63
of aU the Celtic countries. Tacitus informs us that the
Irish seaports were better known through commerce, and
were more frequented by the merchants, than those of
Britain. Historians also tell us that Ireland retained its
Celtic institutions, laws, and literature for more than
twelve hundred years, after all the other Celtic countries
had been subjugated and transformed. Education, cul
ture, and learning gained more and more ground among
the Irish ecclesiastics ; and a school founded at Armagh
and another at Bangor became far-famed and renowned
throughout all Europe. In the early part of the middle
ages, Ireland, which was at that time spoken of as the Isle
of Saints, was regarded as a center of light and inteUigence,
and was the focus of a remarkable literary and Christian
activity. Ireland soon enjoyed the fame of being the most
enlightened country of all western Europe. It then had
the best scholars and the most advanced condition of learn
ing. More than any country of Europe, it was particularly
among the Irish that men of acute minds and extensive
knowledge, and real philosophers, were found. It was also
in Ireland that literature and philosophy of the highest order
were taught, and the Saxons from all places flocked to Ire
land as the great emporium of letters. The Irish monks,
more than any others, were especially esteemed for their ex
traordinary artistic skill. There is preserved in the library
of Trinity College, Dublin, the " Book of Kells," which is
wiitten in Latin, and competent writers declare it is the
most exquisite specimen in the world of that minute and
intricate style of illuminating in which the Irish excelled
and were the foremost among all others.

64 THE STORY OF ST. PATRICK.
But space will not permit us to extend these observa
tions on the language of the Celts. It must suffice for
our object to record our opinion that had the Irish lan
guage been appreciated at the proper time, and gospel mis
sionaries having the spirit, tact, and courage of Ireland's
patron saint been sent among the people, Ireland to-day
might have been throughout its whole length and breadth
a united, prosperous, happy, rejoicing people. But the
error was made of not giving the gospel to the people
in the language of Erin Mavourneen acushla Machree — the
language, a century or two back, of several millions of the
inhabitants of the island. The gospel has been given to
other nations in their native tongue, why not to Ireland ?
— given not partially and spasmodically, but generaUy and
continuously wherever the Irish language was spoken.
There is no language more expressive of the finer feelings
of the soul than the Irish, and no people more susceptible
to good impressions than they are when approached in the
proper manner and their confidence gained. Every true
lover of the gospel and of human souls must therefore
wigh that the truth as it is in Jesus may be proclaimed to
every man in the language in which he was born.
And oh ! be it heard in that language endearing.
In which the fond mother her lullaby sung,
Which spoke the first lispings of childhood, and bearing
The father's last prayer from his own silent tongue ;
That so as it breathes the pure sound of devotion.
And speaks with the power that stUl'd the rough ocean.
Each breast may Ije calmed into gentle emotion.
And Erin's wild harp to hosannas be strung.

CHAPTER VI,
the progress of Christianity before the time of patrick.
'Tis built on a rock, and the tempest may rave ;
Its solid foundation repels the proud wave.
Though Satan himself should appear in the van.
Truth smiles at the rage of the infidel clan.
" Like the sun going forth " in his mighty career.
To gladden the earth, and to illumine each sphere.
The chariot of Truth shall in majesty roll
O'er climate, isle, ocean, to each distant pole.
A glorified course it shall nobly pursue,
EncircUng with radiance both Gentile and Jew ;
And milUons of heathens, their idols despising,
ShaU bask in the light, and exult in its rising.
The shadows that cover the regions of Ham
Shall vanish, or flame with the light of the Lamb ;
Each lovely green island that gems the salt wave
His truth shall convert, his philanthropy save. Mabsden.
Jesus Chbist was the flower, the fulfllment, and perfec
tion of all that was in Judaism. His system of religion
under this dispensation was founded upon himself, was
inaugurated in Jerusalem on the day of Pentecost, and
was designed to gather into one the children of God that
are scattered abroad in every nation under heaven. The

66 THE STORY OF ST. PATRICK.
followers of Christ obtained their name " Christians " at
Antioch in Syria ; and the first city in the world which
openly professed Christianity and built the fii"st church
edifice was Edessa, or Osroboena, in the north of Mesopo
tamia, very near the river Euphrates,
It was therefore in the East, and not in the West, that
Christianity as a religion was founded, obtained its most
venerable and abiding name, inaugurated its commence
ment, began to disseminate its principles, and to spread
far and wide its blessings.
The Apostles in person widely spread this Christianity,
The last words uttered by Christ on earth seemed to en
join this course. His words were these: "Ye shaU be
witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea,
and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth."
In accordance with this injunction of the Master the Apos
tles soon commenced their missionary tours as pioneers of
a new faith, whose duty it was to carry it far and near,
and whose geographical field of action was literally the
world, Jerusalem was, however, their common and habit
ual headquarters. It was there Paul met Peter by appoint
ment. It was there, fourteen years afterward, that Paul
and Barnabas went to communicate to the other pillars of
the church their mode of addressing the gospel to the
Gentiles, It was there that the Apostles, with the elders
and brethren, met in solemn conclave and established the
great canon which absolved the Gentiles from the practice
of circumcision. It was Jerusalem that was probably a
center for charitable contributions (Acts xi, 27-30; Rom,
XV, 26 ; 1 Cor, xvi, 3),

CHRISTIANITY BEFORE THE TIME OF PATRICK. QJ
It will be thus seen that Christianity had a local central
position in and around the cradle of its birth. The Medi
terranean Sea afforded the silver border on one side the
lands of its early life. Palestine, Asia Minor, southern
Europe (including Greece, Italy, and southern Gaul), and
northern Africa (including Egypt and Numidia) were the
flrst countries subdued by the power of the gospel. It
was planted in the very heart of the world's greatest civil
ization as well as of its greatest superstition and heathen
ism. In the soil where Greek and Latin culture attained
its greatest glory and reached its highest victories there
Christianity ascended the throne, showing it was the power
of God and the wisdom of God. During these earliest
years of its history it experienced opposition from Juda
ism on the one hand, and heathenism, backed by national
pride and arrogance, on the other. For two hundred and
forty-nine years, with short intervals of peace, it struggled
with severe persecutions, and produced the gi'andest heroes
the world has ever known. It went on extending its terri
tories and entering upon new fields and countries to sub
due the powers of sin. It moved west and north into the
heart of Europe, to Italy, Spain, France, Britain, Germany,
Scandinavia, and Russia, and wherever it went it conferred
blessings and won victories.
It is impossible to fix the exact date when the gospel
was first introduced into Britain, nor can the channels
through which it came be determined with certainty.
There is reason to beUeve that the gospel came to Britain
chiefly in the track of commerce. The Tyrians traded
with Britain for ages before the Christian era. The Car-

68 THE STORY OF ST. PATRICK.
thaginians, after the capture of Tyre by Alexander, inher
ited for a time the commerce of Britain. The Greeks,
first as rivals and then as successors to the Carthaginians,
took possession of the exports and imports of Britain.
Marseilles, a Greek colony in France, said to have been
founded flve hundred years before Christ, was the grand
depot to which the tin, lead, and skins of Britain were
conveyed, and from which they were transported to aU
parts of the world with which the Greeks had commercial
relations. The conversion of many Greeks in early Chris
tian times accomplished much for the spread of the gos
pel, and even through business relations that intelligent
and resolute people sometimes rendered great service in
extending Christ's kingdom. We have reason to believe
that Greek Christians, buying their tin and lead, compas
sionated the idolatrous Britons who exported these scarce
metals, and preached Christ unto them.
The first known church in France was founded by
Greeks, and in 177 a.d. the Christians of Vienne and Lyons
were sorely persecuted. After the persecutions ceased the
surviving Christians wrote a long account of their suffer
ings to their Phrygian brethren ; this record of their suf
ferings was sent to their fellow-believers in Asia Minor.
These Greek Christians, both in France and ill the East,
gave effective help to the evangelization of Britain. The
peculiarity of the British churches is evidence that their
origin was from the churches of Asia Minor and not from
Rome. The commercial intercourse existing between Brit
ain and Asia Minor made it quite possible that this should
have occurred, and it is well known that these churches

CHRISTIANITY BEFORE THE TIME OF PATRICK. 69
were ecclesiastically independent, and long withstood the
authority of the Romish papacy. It must be remembered,
too, that every believer in early times proclaimed the gos
pel wherever men would listen, and that often then the
Holy Spirit came in more than pentecostal power, turning
pagans in teeming multitudes to Christ and his cross, and
setting their weapons upon their idols. By these means
the whole of south Britain was brought to the Saviour
without a historical trace of any great missionary leader.
One historian in the early centuries tells us that about
63 A.D. the gospel sent its beams of light into the British
Isles and produced fruit that lived in Christian hearts;
another distinguished writer, of the second century, gives
a list of countries into which the gospel had been carried,
and uses these words, "parts of Britain not reached by
the Romans, but subjugated to Christ"; and still an
other writer, of the third century, says that believers in
Christ crossed the ocean into those islands caUed British ;
another historian, of the fourth century, writes that the
first heralds of the cross persuaded not only the Romans,
etc., but Britons, etc., to embrace the religion of Him who
had been crucified ; and Lucian, a British king, is declared
to have been a Christian in 180 a.d.
It is impossible, as we have said, to assert with any
certainty by what means Christianity made its way into
Britain. Eusebius, it is recorded, certainly believed the
Britons were converted as early as the apostolic age, and
uses these words : " The Apostles preached the gospel in
all the world, and some of them passed beyond the ocean
to the Britannic Isles." Another writer asserts that " Aris-

70 THE STORY OF ST. PATRICK.
tobulus, one of the seventy," brought Christianity into
Britain ; and another maintains that Claudia, the wife of
Pudens, mentioned in 2 Tim. iv. 21, was a British princess.
Another eminent historian says that Joseph of Arimathea
brought the gospel to Britain. Others assert that Chris
tianity was introduced there by the Apostle Peter ; others,
by the Apostle Paul ; others, by James the son of Zebedee ;
and others, by Simon Zelotes. A careful historian, who
has examined each of these averments, concludes thus:
"By aU this, it doth not appear that the first preachers
of the gospel in Britain did so much as touch at Rome, or
received any command or commission from that quarter
to convert Britain."
It should be stated that the difficulty of ascertaining
who did inaugurate Christianity in Britain arises from the
fact which the earliest of all the English historians asserts,
viz., that the early records of the country were all destroyed
by wars, and everything had to be gleaned from foreign
sources and from the narratives of exiles.
There is, however, sufficient ground for concluding that
Britain was the first of all islands that received the light
of Christ's religion, even though it may not have been, as
one learned professor of church history maintains, as early
as five or six years after Christ's ascension. But whenever
the gospel reached Britain, it may be confidently asserted
that it came in a direct line from the Asiatic churches.
Indeed, one of the most erudite and unwearied historians
maintains that devout men from Asia established Chris
tian discipline among the ancient Britons, There must
have been an organized Christian church in Britain in the

CHRISTIANITY BEFORE THE TIME OF PATRICK. 7I
beginning of the fourth century, for there were British
Christian bishops at the Council of Aries in 314 a.d. One
of these bishops was from Wales.
At that time the Irish had possession of many places in
west and south Britain, and must have come in contact
with Christians. These Christians were more numerous
and the church better organized in south Wales and south
west Britain, where the Munster or southern Irish were,
than in north Wales, held by the Scots proper,
Christianity may therefore have found its way into
Munster some time in the fourth century, and although
no organized church may have existed in Ireland before
the advent of St, Patrick, there may have been several
Chiistian communities in the south of Ireland, and it is
almost certain that the church founded by St. Patrick
was identical in doctrine with the churches of Britain and
Gaul, and others that had received the gospel through
the same instrumentality. These may have resembled the
primitive church, whose chief traits are set forth in these
lines : Happy the souls that first believed.
To Jesus and to each other cleaved ;
Joined by the unction from above
In mystic feUowship of love.
Meek, simple followers of the Lamb,
They lived and spake and thought the same,
Brake the commemorative bread.
And drank the spirit of their Head.
To Jesus they performed their vows,
A little church in every house ;

72 THE STORY OF ST. PATRICK.
They joyfully conspired to raise
Their ceaseless sacrifice of praise.
With grace abundantly endued,
A pure, beUeving multitude.
They all were of one heart and soul.
And only love inspired the whole.
Historians did undoubtedly discover traces of Chris
tianity in Ireland before the coming of Patrick — as in
the case of Cormac MacArt, the great reforming king of
the third century, who certainly renounced druidism, and
who gave, as his final testimony to his belief in Christian
ity, his dying orders not to bury his body in a cemetery of
idolaters, but to lay it elsewhere, with his face toward the
east ; and also, in the case of St. Kieran of Saigir, who was
probably born in 352, and who was called the first-born of
the saints of Ireland. His memory still survives on the
island of Cape Clear, whose shore bears the name of St.
Kieran's Strand, and his kinsmen, who owned the adjoin
ing land, are characterized as " the first who believed in
the cross, and gi-anted a site for a church." The ruins of
a small church, called Kilkieran, still exist in that locality.
To Patrick, however, belongs the undoubted honor of
having been " the Apostle of Ireland," and the true founder
of the Christian church there. There may have been occa
sional and isolated efforts to evangelize some parts of Ire
land before his time; but Christianity was practically
unknown there before the arrival of Patrick. By his
efforts, and through his instrumentality, the gospel was
preached, multitudes were converted, preachers commis
sioned, and churches built over a wide area. His story.

CHRISTIANITY BEFORE THE TIME OF PATRICK. 73
divested of fabulous accretions, is deeply interesting, and
one of the most remarkable chapters in the history of
Christ's kingdom upon the earth.
There are probably a dozen lives of St. Patrick written
in the early centuries, but none earUer than the middle of
the seventh century; and all these lives contain many
incredible statements, while fable and legend abound in
their pages. He, therefore, who would write a truthful
statement concerning Patrick must depend chiefly on his
own writings, described by Sir Samuel Ferguson as " the
oldest documents in British history."
Glorious things of thee are spoken,
Zion, city of our God ;
He whose word cannot be broken
Formed thee for bis own abode.
On the Rock of Ages founded,
What can shake thy sure repose?
With salvation's walls surrounded,
Thou mayst smUe at all thy foes.

CHAPTER VII.
patbick's birthplace and birth.
O Caledonia, stern and wild.
Meet nurse for a poetic child ;
Land of brown heath and shaggy wood,
Land of the mountain and the flood.
Land of my sires ! what mortal hand
Can e'er untie the filial band
That knits me to thy rugged strand !
There is no historical data upon which to base a cor
rect conclusion regarding the year, the month, or the day
of the month upon which Patrick was born. The year
has varied from 373 to 396. The month — well, it may be
said of it as was said of Moses's sepulcher, " no man know
eth of it until this day." The day of the month — there is
no more certainty regarding this than there is regarding
the year or the month. The nearest approach to fixing
the day of his birth is contained in the following facetious
lines, furnished the writer by a friend who has ransacked
all history to find the day. The lines are from the pen of
Samuel Lover,
On the eighth day of March it was, some people say.
That St. Patrick at midnight he first saw the day ;
While others declare 'twas the ninth he was born.
And 'twas all a mistake, between midnight and morn ;
74

PATRICK'S BIRTHPLACE AND BIRTH. 75
For mistakes will occur in a hurry and shock.
And some blamed the baby and some blamed the clock ;
Till, with all their cross-questions, sure, no one could know
If the child was too fast or the clock was too slow.

Now the first faction fight in ould Ireland, they say.
Was all on account of St. Patrick's birthday ;
Some fought for the eighth, for the ninth more would die.
And who wouldn't see right, sure, they blackened his eye !
At last both the factions so positive grew.
That each kept a birthday, so Pat then had two,
TiU Father Mulcahy, who showed them their sins.
Said no one could have two birthdays but a pair of twins.
Says he, " Boys, don't be fighting for eight or for nine.
Don't be always dividing, but sometime combine.
Combine eight with nine, and seventeen is the mark.
So let that be his birthday." "Amen," says the clerk.
If he wasn't a twin, sure, our history will show
That at least he is worth two saints that we know.
Then they all got blind drunk, which completed their bliss.
And we kept up the practice from that day to this.
Though it may be difficult, if not impossible, to deter
mine the exact date of Patrick's birth and death, the place
of his birth, or, to be more accurate, where his father
lived, has been told by himself. However, here are the
opening words of the " Confession " : " I, Patrick, a sinner,
the rudest and the least of all the faithful, and most con
temptible to very many, had for my father Calpornius, a
deacon, a son of Potitus, a presbyter, who dwelt in the
village of Bannavem Taberniae, for he had a small farm
hard by the place, I was taken captive. I was then nearly
sixteen years of age. I did not know the true God, and I
was taken to Ireland in captivity with so many thousand

76 THE STORY OF ST. PATRICK.
men, in accordance with our deserts, because we departed
from God."
Scholars are now almost unanimous in placing Banna
vem Taberniae in the neighborhood of Dumbarton on the
Clyde. In two distinct places in his " Confession " Patrick
speaks of going to, and being with, his parents in the
Britains. In the fourth century, it must be remembered, Britain
was divided into five provinces, called Britannia Prima,
Britannia Secunda, Maxima CEesarienses, Flavia Caesari-
enses, and Valentia. Using the plural when referring to
Britain was therefore strictly accurate during Patrick's
life, for shortly after his death these divisions were oblit
erated and the country was unified.
There is a lonely rugged rock on the river Clyde in
Scotland which is crowned with a castle, and thus rises
about three hundred feet above the water. It was once
called Alcluyd, the Rock of the Clyde. The same name
was given to a fort on its top and to a town at its foot.
There the ancient Britons resisted the northern Scots and
Picts. The river there was often reddened with the blood
of the contending parties.
The Romans had subdued the Britons, who looked
afterward to their conquerors for defense. The Romans
made a stronghold of this rock, and built a wall from it
across the countiy to the Frith of Forth. A large British
population from Cumberland, England, came in very early
times into Dumbarton, Scotland. From these settlers
the kingdom of Strathclyde was formed. This comprised
the country between the Clyde and Solway governed by

PATRICK'S BIRTHPLACE AND BIRTH. 77
princes of its own, and having the fortress town of Alclyde
or Dumbarton for its capital. Its people maintained their
own sovereignty until 1124, when the country was united
to the Scottish kingdom under David I. Dumbarton in
Scottish Gaelic is Dun Boreatuin, the city of the Britons.
It formed the western termination of the Roman wall,
built by Agricola a.d. 80, which extended from the Frith
to the Clyde.
Patrick's birth therefore took place in or near Dumbar
ton, among the Strathclyde Britons, and though the place
of his birth is now in Scotland, yet for centuries before
Patrick was born and for centuries afterward the place be
longed to the Britons, from whom Patrick himself sprung.
Dumbarton town is situated at the confluence of the
rivers Clyde and Leven, fourteen miles from Glasgow.
The site was used as a naval station by the Romans, who
called it Theodosia, and the arable lands around are com
posed of rich black loam, gravelly soil and clay, and the
farmers thereon are thrifty and prosperous. The situa
tion of Dumbarton Castle is eminently picturesque. The
buildings composing the fort are perched on the summit of
a rocky mount, shooting up to the height of two hundred
and six feet sheer out of the alluvial plain on the east side
of the river Leven. To the east of the castle there are
rocky eminences on the verge of the Clyde, of a similar
form, though less isolated. The Rock of Dumbarton
measures a mile in circumference at the base. It dimin
ishes in breadth near the top, which is cloven into two
summits of different heights. The rock is basalt and has
a tendency to columnar formation. Some parts of it have

78 THE STORY OF ST. PATRICK.
a magnetic quality. The fortress, naturally strong, pos
sesses several batteries, which command a very extensive
range. The defenses are kept in constant repair, and a
garrison is maintained in the castle. Four miles from
this town toward Glasgow, on the line of the old Roman
wall, is the modern town of Kilpatrick, which claims to be
the birthplace of St. Patrick.
In confirmation of the statement that Dumbarton was
the birthplace of Patrick, it may also be adduced that in
the old hymn of Fiacc it is said that Patrick was born in
Nemthur, and in the margin the writer states that " that
is a city which is in north Britain — viz., Ailcuide," — the
ancient name of Dumbarton. Other writers in the early
centuries designate the same village as the place of his
birth. In giving an account of himself Patrick does not
tell where he was born, but simply relates that his father
dwelt at Bannavem Taberniae, where he also was living
when he was taken captive. Bannavem means the river's
mouth, and the sheds, shops, and houses of entertain
ment set up for the accommodation of the Roman armies,
whether of the temporary or stationaiy kind, were called
Taberniae. Here was his home, and of this place he was
most probably a native. It may be that Patrick could
have pointed it out to some friend, as the poet did the home
of his early youth, and could have expressed similar feel
ings and resolves regarding it :
You see the slender spire that peers
Above the trees that skirt the stream —
'Twas there I passed those early years •
Which now seem like some happy dream.

PATRICK'S BIRTHPLACE AND BIRTH. 79
You see the vale which bounds the view —
'Twas there my father's mansion stood
Before the grove, whose varied hue
Is mirrored in the tranquil flood.
There's not a stone remaining there,
A reUc of that flne old hall ;
For strangers came the spot to share.
And bade the stately structure fall !
But now, if Fortune proves my friend.
And gives me what may yet remain,
In that dear spot my days to end
I'll build a mansion there again.
Douglas Thompson.
Or it may be, that as he considered himself one of " the
chief of sinners " when he wrote his " Confession," in which
he gives an account of himself, he may have felt that he
was unworthy of any birthplace, and did not clearly deflne
it. In his old age he thought more of his home in the
heavens ; and he may have entertained sentiments regard
ing his birthplace, as SeverinUs, a missionary on the banks
of the Danube in the fifth century, did when he expressed
himself in these words : " What pleasure can it be for a
servant of God to specify his home or his descent, since
by silence he can so much better avoid all boasting? I
would that the left hand knew nothing of the good works
which Christ grants the right hand to accomplish, in order
that I may be a citizen of the heavenly country. What
need you know, my earthly countiy, if you know that I
am truly longing after the heavenly ? But know this, that
God has commissioned me to live among this heavily op
pressed people."
And as an Irish barrister, Charles Phillips, said of Wash-

80 THE STORY OF ST. PATRICK.
ington, so it may be said of Patrick : " It matters very little
what immediate spot may be the birthplace of such a man.
No people can claim, no country can appropriate, him —
the boon of Providence to the human race. I almost bless
the convulsion in which he had his origin. In the produc
tion of such a man it does really appear as if Nature were
endeavoring to improve upon herself, and that all the vir
tues of the ancient world were but so many studies pre
paratory to the patriot of the new."
Such language applied to Patrick would almost appear
to be an emanation from Blarney Castle, until you have
thoroughly studied Patrick himself.
Why should we count our life by years.
Since years are short and pass away?
Or why by fortune's smiles or tears.
Since tears are vain and smiles decay?
Oh ! count by virtues — these shall last
When earth's lame-footed race is o'er ;
And these, when earthly joys are past.
May cheer us on a brighter shore. S. J. Hall.

CHAPTER VIII.
PATRICK'S PARENTAGE.
His hair was like silvery amber,
Strangely floating and fine.
And soft as the down of the thistle
That rolls in the autumn shine ;
His eyes were lucent, supernal.
Of a mournful, angel blue.
And his skin like a tender roseleaf.
With pulsing and inner hue.
How often by night, how often
He knelt by the window-sill
While the tears of his prayer and his longing
Over his cheek fell chill.
And the billows of forest and mountain
Seemed murmuring with his breast.
And the rush of the mountain river
The cry of his own unrest.
In the wilderness' lonely border
He roamed like a spirit-child.
And kneeled under mossy ledges
In his chosen chapels wild ;
And the voice of his adoration
Thrilled through the silence dim,
TUl the hermit thrush from her cloister
Poured a serene, sad hymn.
We know nothing of Patrick's ancestry farther than
two removes back. He himself tells us that he was the
81

82 THE STORY OF ST. PATRICK.
grandson of Potitus, the presbyter. These few words show
that his blood was good. If Patrick had thought that
his clerical ancestor had disgraced himself by marriage he
would not probably have written that he was a minister
of God's Word, But this he does in his " Confession," or
creed, which was written when he was well advanced in
years, so that even in his old age he did not believe in the
celibacy of the clergy.
Of Potitus we can learn nothing except that his office
was held in high esteem in his times. He was most likely
a presbyter of the early British church, for his name does
not prove that he was a Roman, as native names were
often Latinized by the historian, as Patrick's own native
baptismal name, Succath, was changed to Patricius, or
Patrick, It is more likely that Potitus, Patrick's grand
father, was a Briton by birth, and that he studied the
Scriptures and prayed in the little British kil, or church,
at Alcluyd, and at its door preached to the people. He
doubtless answered the description of the good pastor that
Goldsmith describes in the following lines :
In his duty prompt, at every call.
He watch'd, and wept, and felt, and pray'd for all.
At church, with meek and unaffected grace,
His looks adorn'd the venerable place ;
Truth from his lips prevail'd with double sway.
And fools, who came to scoff, remain'd to pray.
At some period a kil, or church, was located near the
spot where St. Patrick was born. It may have been close
by the same cottage, for there it seems a kirk, or church,
grew up, which the people of later days called Kilpatrick,

PATRICK'S PARENTAGE. 83
in honor of the great missionary who was born at the
place. Potitus seems to have lived to a good old age, and to
have been worthy the respect of his grandson. It is some
proof of his exceUent family government that he reared a
deacon. That deacon was Calpornius, the father of Pat
rick. If this deacon belonged to the Romish order of or
dained clergy, he did not entertain Roman notions of celi
bacy, for he also took a wife and reared a family, of which
" our Patrick " was the most notable child.
But Calpornius was most probably a deacon in the
evangelical British church at Alcluyd, a church that was
not regulated after the Roman model of the present day,
but sought to follow the order of the primitive church,
without, it may be, having any perfect system of church
government. But Patrick's father was also a decurio, as
he himself also tells us. The decurio was a magistrate
and counselor in the Roman colonies in Britain, and the
office conferred a high rank on those who held it : they
were members of the court and counselors of the city, and
must have a certain amount of property. Such was the
law of Constantine for the wealthy decurios. Such a man,
then, was Patrick's father, honored both in the church and
state, and we may fairly conclude that Calpornius ruled
in the state like a good deacon of the church.
We know nothing of Patrick's mother, except that tradi
tion informs us that her name was Conchessa, and tradi
tion has it that she was a sister of Martin, Archbishop of
Tours, and the founder of monasteries in western Europe.
Dr. McGlinn says she was a Frenchwoman, that Patrick's

84 THE STORY OF ST. PATRICK.
father was a German, that Patrick himself was a native
Scotchman, and by adoption an Irishman. In a tract on
" The Mothers of the Saints in Ireland," she is represented
as a Briton, But whoever she was, we can readily believe
she was " a woman superior to the majority of her sex,"
and that she endeavored to instill into the heart of her
son the doctrines of Christianity. In her home, piety was
doubtless displayed as described in the following lines :
Lo, where yon cottage whitens through the green.
The loveliest feature of a matchless scene.
Beneath its shading elm, with pious fear.
An aged mother draws her children near,
WhUe from the Holy Word, with earnest air.
She teaches them the privilege of prayer.
Look, how their infant eyes with rapture speak ;
Mark the fiush lily on the dimpled cheek ;
Their hearts are filled with gratitude and love,
Their hopes are centered in a world above.
Where, in a choir of angels, faith portrays
The loved, departed father of their days, R. Dawes,
Such was the ancestry of Patrick according to the most
reliable authorities.

CHAPTER IX.
the OFFICIAL POSITIONS OP PATRICK'S GRANDFATHER AND
FATHER.
Thou must be true thyself.
If thou the truth wouldst teach ;
Thy soul must overfiow, if thou
Another's soul wouldst reach;
It needs the overflow of heart
To give the lips fuU speech.
Think truly, and thy thoughts
Shall the world's famine feed ;
Speak truly, and each word of thine
Shall be a fruitful seed ;
Live truly, and thy life shall be
A great and noble creed.
It may be profltable to digress for a moment to consider
more fully what is involved in this statement that Patrick
himself makes in connection with his father and grand
father's name. The former, his father, Calpornius, was a
deacon, and the latter, Potitus, his grandfather, was a
presbyter. Both, therefore, if it is claimed to be so, were
clergymen in the church of that time, and both were mar
ried, as the Apostle Peter was, for we are told in Matthew's
Gospel, viii, 14, " When Jesus came into Peter's house he
saw his wife's mother laid, and sick of a fever."
The Brehon Laws, of which we have given some ac-
85

86 THE STORY OF ST. PATRICK.
count, and under which Ireland was governed at the period
of which we write, constantly assume the marriage of the
clergy. These laws state that if a clergyman feU into sin
he could be restored to office in three days if he were
penitent, and was the husband of one wife ; but if he were
unmarried he could not recover his position. Married
clergymen were therefore more favored by the law than
if they were single. And as an additional evidence that
clergymen married in those days, there are directions
given in the canons of an Irish synod respecting the dress
of a clergyman's wife. The old annals of the Irish church
record that an eminent clergyman at Clonmacnois was
married, and that his father, grandfather, and great-grand
father, who were clergymen, were all married men. In the
primitive Christian church the state of celibacy began to
be extolled as holier than matrimony as early as the sec
ond century. The early fathers especially commended it,
and cited, though erroneously, the example of St. Paul, as
showing that it was, for the clergy, the better condition.
Still there was no law or uniformity of opinion on the
subject, and it was not until the fourth century that even
the higher clergy began generally to live in celibacy. Near
the close of this century Pope Siricius forbade all priests
to marry, and all who had married previous to ordination
were commanded to put away their wives. The Council
of Tours in 566 ordered that all priests and deacons who
persisted in retaining their wives should be suspended
from office for a year ; and the Emperor Justinian declared
all children born to a clergyman after his ordination to be
iUegitimate and incapable of inheritance.

PATRICK'S GRANDFATHER AND FATHER. 87
The Eastern church, on the other hand, always opposed
this doctrine, and the Council of Constantinople in 692
condemned it as heretical. The orthodox Greek Church
has therefore always sanctioned the marriage of priests.
The opposite doctrine, however, was only established in
the Romish Church after many orders and interdictions,
extending over several centuries. At last, in the eleventh
century, it was ordered that any priest living with a wife
should be excommunicated. Even this not being regarded
as sufficient. Pope Gregory VII. finally carried the point
by deposing all married priests and excommunicating all
laymen who upheld them in the exercise of their spiritual
functions. This decree met with violent opposition in all
countries, but Gregory succeeded in carrying it out with
the utmost rigor, and thus the celibacy of the Roman clergy
was at last established and has since continued.
We learn from St. Patrick's statement that it was not
considered in those days inconsistent with the profession
of a clergyman to hold a secular office. Patrick tells us
in his "Epistle to Coroticus" that his father, though a
deacon — a clergyman — held a secular office. Besides pos
sessing a farm, he informs us that he was a decurio, or
member of a local town council, a Roman institution which
at this time existed everywhere in the empire. This sim
ple statement is a strong proof of the authenticity of the
epistle in which the term occurs, for soon after Patrick's
death the institution to which he refers disappeared in
Britain. The fact that Calpornius, a clergyman, held a farm, and
was a local town councilor, confiicts in no way with the

88 THE STORY OF ST. PATRICK.
usages of the time. It is certain that in the early centu
ries clergymen, of whatever name, earned their bread by
their own toil, as Paul did. The history of those days
makes it plain that clergymen cultivated farms, kept shops
and banks, acted as physicians, shepherds, smiths, and
artificers of all kinds. Hatch, a celebrated historian and
lecturer, tells of one clergyman who was a weaver, of an
other who was a shepherd on the mountains of Cyprus, of
another who practised in the courts of law, of another who
was a silversmith, and of another who was an innkeeper
at Ancyra, Patrick's own nephew, though a clergyman,
was a pilot, and of those clergymen who were Patrick's
companions one was a smith, and another was a maker of
satchels for books, Patrick himself was poor, and per
formed gratuitously the functions of his calling, as did the
Apostle to the Gentiles, There is no evidence in early
Christian literature that the pursuit of a secular caUing
was incompatible with the office of the Christian ministry.
The proposal of the Montanists to pay a fixed salary to
the clergy was condemned as an innovation alien t© all
prevailing usage. Salaries to clergy and their withdrawal
from secular calling came into the church when it was los
ing its spirituality. Lives of great men all remind us
We can make our lives, sublime ;
And, departing, leave behind us
Footprints on the sands of time —
Footprints that perhaps another.
Sailing o'er life's solemn main,
A forlorn and shipwrecked brother.
Seeing, shall take heart again.
H. W. Longfellow.

CHAPTER X.
PATRICK'S BAPTISM AND EARLY LIFE.
" Come, dearest, come, the Sabbath bell
Hath almost rung its closing knell;
Give me our babe, and haste away,
With gladness on its christening-day."
Yet still the youthful mother prest
Her first-born darling to her breast.
And, careful o'er the grassy way
That 'tween the church and cottage lay.
The precious burden chose to take.
Scarce breathing, lest its sleep should break.
And now while holier thoughts prevaU
Her chasten'd beauty, lily-pale.
The fervor of the prayer that stole
In new devotion from her soul
Gave brighter charms to brow and cheek.
Such as an angel's love might speak.
Close in her steps an aged pair.
With furrow'd face and silver hair.
Press toward the font, intent to see
The honor done to infancy.
The rite is o'er, the blessing said.
The first-born finds its cradle-bed.
Young mother ! prompt must be thy part
To pour instruction o'er his heart ;
For scarce upon our infant eyes
The sprinkled dew of baptism dries
Ere the thick frost of manhood's care
And strong death's icy seal are there.
Mrs. L. H. Sigourney.
89

90 THE STORY OF ST. PATRICK.
Infant baptism was observed both by the British and
Oriental Christian churches, and as there was not in those
days the same stately and refined mode of observing this
sacred ordinance as in the present age, in fonts and sil
ver bowls set for the purpose in the churches, the child
was carried by the parents to a well or spring or running
stream near the church, and there the ordinance was ad
ministered. Churches were usuaUy located in those days
near a river or spring, and if this could not be conve
niently done, a well was dug, so that the people assembled
for worship might have the means ready for quenching
their thirst and that of their cattle, as well as for other
purposes. It was at such places, and by the outpouring
of water from the hand or from a small vessel, that num
bers were often baptized, while immersion of believers in
other places was the usage. It is related in the life of
Columba that a certain peasant, with his household, hav
ing heard the preaching of the word of life from the lips of
this godly man, believed and was baptized, " the husband
with his wife and the children and the servants." This
was strictly in accordance with apostolic usage and that
of the early British churches. One can easily imagine
Patrick's father and mother going side by side, he bearing
their infant son in his arms, and coming to the door of
the little church in which the aged Potitus the presbyter
was praying and studying, or around which the neighbors
were assembled for worship, and all going together to a
well or running stream near by, where all listened to what
was said of God's holy covenant with his people, and with
their little ones, as explained by the presbyter Potitus;

PATRICK'S BAPTISM AND EARLY LIFE. Ql
and then Calpornius, the father, holding forth his child to
receive the token of its surrender to the Father, the seal of
its redemption by the Son, and the symbol of its renewal
by the Holy Ghost. We can almost see the aged presbyter
take his gi-andson in his arms, and with the words of
Christ apply to him the waters of baptism, give him,
according to an ancient British custom, the kiss of peace,
place him in the arms of his tender, prayerful mother, and
lift up his hands for prayer and the benediction. We are
told that this child was given the name of Succath in his
baptism. At a later day he was caUed Patrick.
Any one can readily see that all this, or something very
similar, may have occurred; but not so what the story
tellers of the middle ages inform us regarding Patrick's
baptism, namely, this, "that Patrick was baptized by a
blind priest who obtained water for the purpose by caus
ing the infant to make the sign of the cross over the earth,
out of which issued at once a well of water which cured
the priest of his blindness and enabled him to read in a
book the order or ritual of baptism without knowing until
then his letters."
Let me here also say that there is not a word in Patrick's
account of himself and family, or in contemporaneous
history, to show that he had brothers and sisters. Yet
monks several centuries afterward place on the family roll
of Patrick's father a list of descendants long enough to
supply two or three kingdoms with bishops, priests, monks,
and nuns. One sister, they relate, was carried to Ireland
and became the mother of seventeen bishops ! Another
sister counted among her sons four bishops and three

92 THE STORY OF ST. PATRICK.
priests, A third, Lemania by name, had two sons — the
elder became a bishop and the younger a priest.
But we must leave aU these fables and devote our at
tention to Patrick, We know nothing of his infancy and
boyhood up to fifteen years of age, except what we gather
from the legends of the middle ages, and in these the facts
are almost lost. But it is easy to believe that Patrick had
all the human nature of a boy ; that he had all the frolic
some and mischievous spirit of the great majority of boys
since ; that he often got tired of porridge for his breakfast,
and ran away to fish for trout for dinner ; that when sent
on an errand to town he would climb the rock and linger,
throw snowbaUs at the Druids if it was winter, and talk
with Roman soldiers when he ought to have been herding
his father's sheep.
We know, for he tells us in his " Confession," that he
was taught the holy commandments, but did not keep
them ; that he was warned for his salvation, but did not
heed the preachers ; that he did not know the true God
savingly, although he had been taught the way to be
saved and to read the Bible, whose truths his grandfather
preached. He loved pleasure, was the leader of his youth
ful companions, and committed, as he tells us, a grievous
fault, the character of which we know not. He was then
sixteen years of age, and the end of the time for sowing
his wild oats had come.
Speak of me as I am ; nothing extenuate.
Nor set down aught in malice ; then must you speak
Of one that loved not wisely but too well. Shakespeare.

CHAPTER XI.
the captivity of ST. PATRICK.
Adieu, adieu ! My native shore
Fades o'er the waters blue ;
The night-winds sigh, the breakers roar.
And shrieks the wild sea-mew.
Yon sun that sets upon the sea
We follow in his flight ;
Farewell, awhile, to him and thee.
My native land, good-night ! Bybon.
Pirates in those days, Danish and Irish and Scots,
j)lowed continually the channels and seas around the Brit
ish Isles, made inroads upon the land, plundering vUlages
and towns, killing many, carrying off young and old to
strange lands, and selling them into slavery. Irish ships
in that period were chiefly " coracles," made of the skins
of beasts and wicker or willow rods — a kind of boat, frail
as it may seem, still used frequently in Arran, Achill, and
the westem coasts of Ireland. It is not probable that
thousands of unwilling, vindictive captives could be con
veyed in these hide-covered basket-ships over the wide sea
separating France from Ireland, if Patrick's parents had
lived in France. From the coast of Antrim in Ireland to
93

94 THE STORY OF ST. PATRICK.
Dumbarton on the Clyde the space is crossed by a steamer
in a few hours, and from the cliffs of the Antrim coast the
houses in the nearest parts of Scotland can be seen.
In one of those piratical incursions Patrick and about
two hundred others were seized, placed in boats, whose
prows were turned down the Clyde and headed toward
Ireland. What sad thoughts Patrick must have had as he gazed
back on the high rock so near his home. What indigna
tion must have burned within him toward these pirates.
But afterward he saw a reason for it all. The hand of God
was laid severely upon him to correct his evil ways, and
his words written many years afterward clearly reveal that
he understood the reason for the stroke of God's afflicting
hand. The boats which carried young Patrick and his compan
ions with a load of spoils would be likely to land at some
near point. Leaving the Firth of Clyde, a straight course
west would bring them upon the Antrim coast of Ireland
just where tradition fixes the landing. It is possible that
in some little harbor between the Giant's Causeway and
the mouth of the river Bann, Patrick's captors disem
barked, and there touched the country which gave Patrick
years of degradation and suffering and a long life after
ward of wide-spread gospel triumphs.
It may be interesting to some readers to know that the
Giant's Causeway, near which Patrick landed in Ireland,
is situated on its north coast, and is a curiosity which
probably has no parallel in the works of nature or art. Its
form is nearly triangular, and extends from the foot of an

THE CAPTIVITY OF ST. PATRICK. 95
adjacent mountain into the sea, having six hundred feet
discernible at low water. It consists of innumerable flve^
six, and seven sided pillars, but irregular, as there are few
of these piUars whose sides are of equal breadth. Nor are
they more uniform in thickness, as they vary from twelve
to twenty-six inches iu diameter. They all touch by equal
sides, and are so near to one another that it is sometimes
difficult to see the joints. Neither are they uniform in
height, some having a smooth and others an uneven ter
mination. Each pillar also consists of many unequal
pieces, from twelve to twenty-fdiir inches in length. These
pieces are jointed into one another by concave and convex
surfaces, highly polished, as are aU the sides of the pillars
that come in contact. This colonnade is in some parts
thirty-two and in others thirty-six feet above the level of
the sea, but its foundation has never been ascertained.
One of the pillars has been broken to the depth of eight
feet in the earth, and its flgure was found to be the same
as above the surface. The learned have never agreed in
opinion as to whether this wonderful "causeway" is a
work of nature or of art. Patrick, in his missionary tours
through Ulster, doubtless visited this scene, where Nature
stUl retains one of her mysteries.
In conformity with the statement made by Patrick in his
" Confession," history records that freebooting raids of
the north of Ireland Scots (as the Irish then were called)
were often made upon north Britain in the fourth and
fifth centuries. The evidence of these raids is still found.
In 1854 two thousand Roman coins of these centuries were
discovered at Coleraine, some of these bearing the name

96 THE STORY OF ST. PATRICK.
of Patricius. In one of these raids Patrick, along with
many others, as we have stated, was carried away captive
to Ireland. He was then nearly sixteen years of age. He
was sold to Milchu, son of Hua Bain, king of north Dala-
radia, whose residence was in the valley of the Braid near
the hill of Slemish, and close to Broughshane, five miles
from Ballymena. There is a town land in the valley stiU
caUed Ballyligpatrick, or the town of Patrick's hollow,
MUchu, his owner, employed Patrick to herd cattle, or, as
some translators render the Irish words, " to feed swine ; "
so, Uke another prodigal, he " was sent into the fields to
feed swine."
When Patrick was carried into captivity in his sixteenth
year, and during the six years of his captive state, his
condition was most deplorable. He had gospel seed indeed
in his memory, but this did not germinate for some years.
He had no Christian principles to guide him, and no asso
ciates but slaves and the lowest class of Irish idolaters,
who could only converse upon reUgious subjects about
their own " Cenn-Cruaich," the chief idol of Ireland, which
was covered with gold and silver, surrounded with twelve
other idols plated with brass. He had not one Christian
companion, nor one kind heathen friend, and the natural
result would seem to be his conforming to heathenism and
joining in the worst sins of the neighborhood. He was
like "a stone," as he himself says, "deep in the mud,"
but God lifted him up and placed him upon the waU of
the spiritual temple.

THE CAPTIVITY OF ST. PATRICK. 97
Oh for a faith that will not shrink.
Though pressed by every foe ;
That wiU not tremble on the brink
Of any earthly woe ;
That will not murmur nor complain
Beneath the chastening rod.
But, in the hour of grief and pain,
Will lean upon its God.

CHAPTER XII.
PATRICK'S CONVERSION IN BONDAGE.
Thus far did I come laden with my sin.
Nor could aught ease the grief that I was in
Till I came hither. What a place is this !
Must here be the beginning of my bliss ?
Must here the burden fall from off my back ?
Must here the string that bound it to me crack?
Blest cross ! blest sepulcher ! Blest, rather, be
The Man that there was put to shame for me.
John Bunyan.
Patrick remained in this degraded condition for six
years. During that time the grace of God visited him, and
the Spirit of the Lord took possession of him, revived the
teachings of his early boyhood, and brought the young
disciple to a deep and sincere Christianity. Thus severe
trials were to him a means of grace. He remembered
happier days. He thought upon his sins. He felt that
he was far from Christ, the true home of his soul. He
recaUed the teachings of God's servants, and the lessons
learned in his father's house.
It was at this time that he became a man of prayer. One
extract from his " Confession," as it is called, wiU suffice
to prove this.
" While I was feeding cattle," he writes, " I prayed fre
quently every day, and my love and fear of God and faith
98

PATRICK'S CONVERSION IN BONDAGE. 99
in him continually increased. I dwelt in the woods and
on the mountain, and woke up to pray before the dawn.
I felt no pain, nor frost, nor snow, nor rain, nor any sense
of indolence, for the Spirit was burning within me."
His early religious education in these after years thus
began to bear fruit, in meditation, prayer, and consecra
tion. Silch words as those we read in the " Confession "
of this swineherd, show what Bible truths were taught and
what gospel faith existed in the homes of British Chris
tians in those eaiiy days, thus giving an encouragement
to parents in aU ages to " train up a child in the way he
should go, and when he is old he wiU not depart from it."
The good seed that Patrick's parents cast upon the waters
began to bear fruit after many days. The ground of Pat
rick's young heart may have appeared an unlikely soil, but
the incorruptible seed of God's Word was sown there amid
the shedding perhaps of many parental tears, and at length
it began to take root, show signs of life, spring up, and
bud. During Ms six years' bondage in the vaUey of the Braid
and on the hill Slemish, Patrick had a good opportu
nity for observing the condition of the natives, must have
learned necessarily to speak their language, and evidently
conceived for them a deep and abiding sympathy.
On that abrupt and picturesque elevation rising from
the valley of the Braid, near Ballymena, County Antrim,.
called Mount Slemish, between fourteen and fifteen hun
dred years ago the heart of the captive boy from the
banks of the Clyde, as he herded his cattle on its bleak
sides, yielded to the all-conquering power of the love of

100 THE STORY OF ST. PATRICK.
Christ, The fact is worthy of repetition. We often bow
with wondering adoration before the sovereign grace of
God, which laid a loving arrest on Saul of Tarsus as he
drew near to the city of Damascus, and, in a double sense,
made him a " vessel of mercy " — a vessel of mercy as re
garded his own personal salvation, " a chosen vessel," to
bear the name of Christ before the Gentiles. Thousands,
tens of thousands of conversions were, so to speak, folded
up in the individual conversion of that intellectual and
fanatical Jewish youth.
So it was in the case of Patrick. He was " a chosen
vessel " also. The spiritual change he experienced on the
side of Slemish, interpreted in the Ught of subsequent
events, may be said to have been one of the most remark
able and determining facts in the entire history of Ireland,
It changed the national religion. It raised Ireland to a
position of distinguished, and for a time unparaUeled,
honor among, the nations ; and it helped to transform the
face of Christendom itself. It seemed aU unUkely that
such results should follow the introduction of this un
known captive herd-boy into the kingdom of God, but
then, as now, God's ways are not our ways, nor his plan
of working ours.
Hope on, hope ever ! Though to-day be dark.
The sweet sunburst may smile on thee to-morrow ;
Tho' thou art lonely, there's an Eye wUl mark
Thy loneliness, and guerdon aU thy sorrow ;
Tho' thou must toil 'mong cold and sordid men.
With none to echo back thy thought, or love thee.
Cheer up, poor heart ! Thou dost not beat in vain.
For God is over all and heaven above thee —
Hope on, hope ever !

PATRICK'S CONVERSION IN BONDAGE. \Q\
Hope on, hope ever ! After darkest night
Comes, full of loving life, the laughing morning.
Hope on, hope ever ! Spring-tide flusht with light,
Age crowns old winter with her rich adorning.
Hope on, hope ever ! Yet the time shall come
When man to man shaU be a friend and brother,
And this old world shall be a happy home.
And all earth's family love one another !
Hope on, hope ever !

CHAPTER XIIL
PATRICK'S ESCAPE FROM SLAVERY.
I'm going to my own hearthstone.
Bosomed in yon green hiUs alone —
A secret nook in a pleasant land.
Whose groves the frolic fairies planned.
Whose arches green, the livelong day.
Echo the blackbird's roundelay.
And vulgar feet have never trod —
A spot that is sacred to thought and God.
R. W. Emerson.
In his "Confession" Patrick goes on to tell how he
escaped from his place of slavery. " And there," he says
(on the wild mountain-side), " one night in my sleep I
, heard a voice saying to me, ' Thou fastest well, [fasting
so] thou shalt surely go to thy country.' And again, after
a very short time I heard a response saying to me, ' Behold,
thy ship is ready.' And it was not near, but perhaps two
hundred miles away, and I never had been there, nor was
I acquainted with any of the men there."
These dreams came to him again and again, and Patrick
felt as God's servants often did in Old Testament times
when they had their dreams, that God by these dreams
was indicating his mind and will to him, and that a divine
hand and voice were in them, and he acted accordingly.
" After this," he writes, " I took fiight, and left the man
102

PATRICK'S ESCAPE FROM SLAVERY. 103
with whom I had been six years, and I came in the strength
of the Lord, who directed my way for good, and I feared
nothing, till I arrived at that ship."
So he goes on to relate that he found the ship ready to
sail, but the captain refused to take him on board because
he had no money to pay his passage. Upon this repulse
he went to look for some cottage in the woods where he
might securely wait for a better opportunity to make his
escape. In the meantime he betook himself to his usual
consolation, his prayers ; but the sailors sent after him to
return, took him on shipboard, and hoisted saU.
The place where he took ship has been much discussed ;
the name has been translated Benum, near which was the
wood Foclut, mentioned in his " Confession." This wood
has been located in or near the parish of Killala, barony
of Tirawley, county of Mayo. This place was about two
hundred miles, as Patrick mentions in his " Confession,"
from the Slemish mountain where he fed the swine.
Killala Bay is upon the northwestern coast of Ireland,
as any one will see by looking at the map of that island.
Killala town is situated at the extremity of the bay, on
the west bank of the river Moy. It contains about two
hundred houses, and has some trade in the export of grain,
etc. The harbor affords good anchorage in about ten or
twelve feet of water. There is good fishing, and about
three hundred persons are employed in the pursuit an
nuaUy. Six miles higher up the river, delightfully situ
ated, stands the town of Ballina. From that bay he doubt
less sailed on his escape from slavery, and " after three
days we reached land," are the words in his " Confession,"

104 THE STORY OF ST. PATRICK.
and in sixty days he was among his kindred, who received
him as a son.
The voices of my home — I hear them stiU !
They have been with me through the dreamy night.
The blessed household voices, wont to fill
My heart's clear depths with unalloyed delight !
I hear them still unchanged, though some from earth
Are music parted ; and the tones of mirth —
Wild, silvery tones, that rang through days more bright —
Have died in others ; yet to me they come.
Singing of boyhood back — the voices of my home !
They caU me through this hush of woods reposing,
In the gray stillness of the summer morn ;
They wander by when heavy flowers are closing.
And thoughts grow deep and winds and stars are born ;
Even as a fount's remember'd gushings burst
On the parch'd traveler in his hour of thirst.
E'en thus they haunt me with sweet sounds, tiU, worn
By quenchless longings, to my soul I say.
Oh for the dove's swift wings, that I might flee away !

CHAPTER XIV.
PATRICK AT HOME AGAIN.
My whole though broken heart, O Lord,
From henceforth shaU be thine ;
And here I do my vow record —
This hand, these words, are mine ;
All that I have, without reserve,
I offer here to thee ;
Thy wUl and honor all shaU serve
That thou bestow'dst on me.
I know that thou wast willing flrst.
And then drew my consent ;
Having thus loved me at the worst,
Thou wilt not now repent.
Now I have quit all self-pretense,
Take charge of what's thine own.
My life, my health, and my defense
Now Ue on thee alone. Baxter.
There is no reliable data upon which to form a conclu
sion where Patrick spent several years of his life after his
return to his family in Scotland.
The British churches doubtless often thought of the con
dition of pagan Ireland, and often prayed for its wretched
inhabitants ; but they may have been deterred from seek
ing their conversion because Ireland was not under the
protection of Roman rule. But there is evidence that
105

106 THE STORY OF ST. PATRICK.
some of these British Christians made their way to some
places in the south of Ireland and were instrumental in
making converts to the Christian faith; but these con
verts were comparatively few, and the great bulk of its
inhabitants remained pagan,
Patrick, as we learn from his own " Confession," was
brought up in a Christian f amUy in Britain, where he was
born, and where he was taiught the truth which obtained
a lodgment in his mind, and which was impressed savingly
on his heart when a youthful slave in pagan Ireland, This
truth he was taught in the godly home of Deacon Calpor
nius his father, and in the church of which his father was
a member and officer.
When Patrick escaped from slavery and returned to his
home and once more enjoyed Christian society, his be
lieving experience was greatly enlarged, his reUance upon
Christ strengthened, and, as he explains in his " Confes
sion," he decided to become a missionary to the Irish. It
was but natural and proper, therefore, that he should de
vote his time and talents in order to prepare himself for
the great work to which he had devoted himself. One of
the powerful agencies for extending the gospel among the
ancient Britons was the establishment of great monastic
schools where the Bible was studied and literary instruc
tion imparted.
Some of those who were at the head of these institu
tions were men of great piety and learning. Their know
ledge of the Old and New Testaments was so remarkable
that their fame spread over the whole country, and schol
ars came from every part to them and spent several years

PATRICK AT HOME AGAIN. 107
in the study of literature and divinity. These students
supported themselves by cultivating the land belonging to
these institutions and by catching the flsh in the rivers.
Into some of these schools thousands of students were
gathered, to whom instruction was imparted in every
branch of knowledge and especially in the teachings of
Scripture. Patrick most likely spent several years in
these schools preparing for his entrance upon his Irish
mission, in which the Saviour was about to give him the
whole country as his reward.
Patrick, as we have seen, having been carried away
captive from home and school in his teens, his educational
success was hindered, and he did not have, therefore, the
great positive advantages of his school companions, who
were permitted to pursue their studies, who were taught
in the best way, and drank in the prescribed literature in
a proper manner. His apology for his own educational
defects implies a testimony to the superior instruction of
the schools of Dumbarton. In those days there were
ninety-two cities in Britain, thirty-three of which were
conspicuous and celebrated, and which had these schools.
Dumbarton was one of these, where St. Patrick's father
was a decurio, or a member of the city council. At this
time the people were civilized and surrounded in many
cases with comforts and luxuries. Their gardens and
viUas were in some instances models of elegance. The
students in these schools were called monks, a name which
primarily only meant those who secluded themselves for
purposes of study and devotion. These monks led stricter
lives than others within their own houses. Having retired

108 THE STORY OF ST. PATRICK.
from the common employments of the world for sacred
studies and prayer, their chief occupation, next to their
devotions, was the study of the Scriptures, while some
learned godly person instructed the disciples in the Holy
Word, It wUl tend to show the importance attached to educa
tion in those early times, and especially for the prepara
tion of ministers for their work, when it is stated that in
Britain there was at this time a valuable system of public
education. It was for the free and superior classes. Each
city maintained a certain number of professors, according
to its size and population, who taught grammar, rhetoric,
and philosophy. These professors were appointed by the
magistrates and partly paid by municipal funds. In other
words, the instructors received a salary from the city and
a smaU fixed sum from -each pupil. These instructors
were exempt from taxation and military service. These
public schools were manned in some places by Christians.
It is a matter of great lamentation that all the early lit
erature of these schools and colleges was destroyed by the
ravages of those who overran and plundered Britain when
the Roman forces were withdrawn. It is a remarkable
fact that the only writings of any native British author
of this period that survive are those "of St. Patrick, all of
which are pubUshed in this book. And in one of these
writings, that of the " Confession," he makes this apology
for the style of his composition: "For I have not read
like others, who, being taught in the best way, therefore
rightly, both drank in the customary learning in a proper
manner and have never changed their language from child-

PATRICK AT HOME AGAIN. 109
hood." And as the few authentic writings we possess,
which evidently came from his hand, are saturated with
the spirit of the gospel, are enriched with many quotations
from both the Old and New Testaments, and are mani
festly the product of one who had read diligently his Bible
and had imbibed its great fundamental truths under the
guidance of the spirit of truth, we must conclude that
whether he had any human teacher or whether he attended
any institution of learning or not, he was taught of the
Lord, and prepared by him for the great work God had
designated him to accompUsh. In Patrick's own account
of his missionary work in Ireland he never aUudes to hav
ing received a commission from the pope nor from any
human being. If he did receive such a commission his
silence upon the subject would seem to prove how little
importance he attached to it.
There is not, however, the shadow of a proof that he
was ever at Rome, or that any pope commissioned him to
proceed on a mission to Ireland ; nor is there any evidence
whatever that he was licensed to preach by any human
authority, or ordained by any man or body of men, or dele
gated by any creature. He seems to have been appointed
to his work by God, without the official sanction of man,
as were Charles H. Spurgeon, Dwight L, Moody, and
others. Prosper of Acquitaine, who was contemporary with
Patrick, was famUiar with the acts of the popes in his
day and sustained friendly relations with them, and regis
tered the mission of those who were sent out by them,
makes no mention of Patrick. The reason was doubtless

110 THE STORY OF ST. PATRICK.
this, that Patrick was not commissioned by the pope, that
Patrick's churches in Ireland, like their brethren in Brit
ain, repudiated the authority of the popes ; all knowledge
of the conversion of Ireland through Patrick's ministry
was therefore for the time being suppressed as completely
as the silence of the pope's registers could secure it.
He certainly was not urged to undertake this mission
at the instigation of his own relations or kindred, who, as
he tells us, received him back from slavery as a son, but
who besought him not to part from them again. His
family, while probably greatly pleased with his Christian
zeal, seems to have endeavored to dissuade him from go
ing on this Irish mission. His parents did not forget
the privation and hardships which their son endured for
six years, day and night, on the rugged sides and black
summit of that Slemish mountain where snow and rain
drenched his rags and pinching hunger beset him. They
were alarmed for his safety amid the cruel pagans that
swarmed everywhere in that land, and their hearts' yearn
ing over him led his parents to entreat him to stay with
them. They offered him gifts and presented the most
pressing appeals, but all proved unavailing, and Patrick
may have said as Paul did, when his friends besought
him on one occasion not to go up to Jerusalem, " What
mean ye to weep and to break mine heart ? for I am ready
not to be bound only, but also to die at Jerusalem for the
name of the Lord Jesus." Patrick himself confirms the
doctrine that God, and no ecclesiastic of any name, called
him to Ireland. Here are his own words in his " Confes
sion " : "I commend my soul to my most faithful God, for

PATRICK AT HOME AGAIN. Ill
whom I discharge an embassage [in Ireland] in my ignoble
condition, because, indeed, he does not accept the person,
and he chose me to this office that I might be one of the
least of his ministers." Wide is the glorious field :
Throughout the world go forth,
The Spirit's sword to wield.
To bear the Spirit's shield,
TiU every nation yield.
And blessings crown the earth.
Oh ! speed the rising rays
Of the Sun of Righteousness !
So shall the glad earth raise
A noble song of praise.
Touched by the light which plays
From a nobler world than this !
Early and late still sow
The seed which God hath given.
Seek not reward below ;
The glorious flower shaU blow
Where cloudless summers glow,
The harvest is in heaven.

CHAPTER XV.
PATRICK'S CALL TO MISSION WORK.
Christ said to all his church, below.
Thro' those who heard his wondrous claim,
" Go ye to every nation, go
And make disciples in my name ;
" Baptizing all who come to me
Into the name of Father, Son,
And Holy Spirit, one in three.
And three in name, but essence One ;
" And teach them all that ye have heard
And seen in me from day to day;
And as ye bear abroad my word,
Lo, I am with my own alway.
" Altho' I go to take my throne
As Head o'er all to rule and reign.
Yet I will leave you not alone,
But wUl return to you again."
His own account of his call to mission work in Ireland
is natural and lifelike. His heart had been given to God
and to his work, and his thoughts were full of it by day,
and his dreams were burdened with it by night. When
he slept he saw Ireland in visions, and heard the voices of
its youth calling upon him to hasten and help them. Here
are his own words : " In the dead of night I saw a man
112

PATRICK'S CALL TO MISSION WORK. II3
coming to me as if from Ireland, whose name was Victori
ous, bearing innumerable epistles, and he gave me one of
them, and I read the beginning of it, which contained the
words, ' The voice of the Irish ; ' and while repeating them,
I imagined that I heard in my mind the voice of those
who were near the wood of Foclut, which is near the
westem sea. Thus they cried, ' We pray thee, holy youth,
to come and henceforth walk among us.' I was pierced in
heart and could read no more ; and so I awoke. Thanks
be to God that after many years the Lord granted unto
them the blessing for which they cried! Again, on an
other night — I know not, God knoweth, whether it was in
me or near me — I heard distinctly .words which I could
not understand except these at the close : ' He who gave
his life for thee is he who speaketh in thee.' And so I
awoke rejoicing."
In some of his dreams he was led to recall such texts of
Scripture as these: "The Spirit helpeth our infirmities,"
"Christ, who maketh intercession for us." These were
surely blessed effects of his dreams. AU was quite in
keeping with the feelings and resolutions of one who was
enthusiastic and eager to tell the good news of salvation
to a barbarous people. Neither did he relate his dreams
for display, but to convince others that he did not assume
the ministry of his own accord, that he was not sent to
his work by man, but that he felt he was called of God.
He understood that his call was supernatural, and that he
interpreted his dreams as signs that he was commissioned
by the Lord to preach the gospel in Ireland. The appeal
in the vision, we must remember, came to him from those

114 THE STORY OF ST. PATRICK.
who were in the wood Foclut, in the neighborhood of
KUlala Bay, on the borders of the county Mayo, where he
remained probably concealed from enemies while waiting
for the boat to make his escape from slavery. He had his
heart full of his Master's spirit and his ear opened to his
Master's caU, and he listened to the appeal as Paul did to
that man of Macedonia who stood and cried, " Come over
and help us." And as Paul did on another occasion so did
Patrick : " He was not disobedient to the heavenly vision,"
but returned to Ireland, as God's messenger to the pagan
inhabitants of that land. A crisis had arrived in his his
tory when he heard the voice of duty irresistibly caUing
him away from home and friends ; and Patrick never for
a moment hesitated to prefer what was dutiful to what
was agreeable when the two were in conflict.
He was a man of simple, childlike faith, full of the
primitive Christian spirit. His writings show him to be
in an exceptional degree familiar with the sacred writings
and imbued with their teaching. And as the Scripture
speaks much of visions and dreams and of holy men of
God having been much influenced thereby, so one cannot
but be struck with the large place they had in Patrick's
life, and with the determining effect which they had upon
him at critical moments in his career.
One word more upon these visions that Patrick had,
and which he obeyed. It may be remembered that imme
diately after giving an account of that vision to Paul, the
historian adds : " Immediately we endeavored to go into
Macedonia, assuredly gathering that the Lord had called
us to preach the gospel unto them." We may not be

PATRICK'S CALL TO MISSION WORK. II5
warranted, and Patrick may not have been warranted, in
placing quite on a level with that vision of Paul anything
of a similar nature that may come to ourselves. But yet
within certain limits we may speak of those beckonings
toward future labors in life or achievements of character
which may be given to us in God's ordinary providence,
which become oui* ideals for the time, and after which we
strive with all the earnestness and enthusiasm of our
souls, as visions not unlike that which was given to Paul.
In this lower sense many of us have had at some time
or other our visions. Such may have been the dreams of
our youth, which, like those of Joseph, may have exposed
us at the time to the ridicule of those around us, but
which, at a later date, kept us from despondency, nerved
us for effort, and perhaps also prevented us from yielding
to the lowest forms of temptations — which, at any rate,
have allured us on until, in some degree at least, they have
been fulflUed. Many illustrations might be given. One
must suffice.
Warren Hastings, at seven years of age, was lying, poor
and orphaned, almost friendless, on the bank of a rivulet
in England, looking wistfully on the lands of his ancestors,
which had passed into the hands of strangers. On that
sunny day there arose in his mind a scheme which through
all the turns of his eventful career was never abandoned.
It was, that he would recover the estate which belonged
to his father. That was his vision. That purpose formed
in infancy grew with his growth, strengthened with his
strength, and matured with his maturity. When under a
tropical sun he ruled, as governor-general of British India,

116 THE STORY OF ST. PATRICK.
fifty miUions of Asiatics, his hopes, amid all the cares of
war, finance, and legislation, still pointed to his ancestral
haU. And when his long public life closed (nearly eighty
years after he had his boyish vision), it was at that
" home," purchased a few years before, that he retired to
die. We might multiply such illustrations, and as we medi
tate upon them we should remember that these visions
come in the line of a person's own aspirations, and whose
training and qualifications prepare him to receive these
visions. And when the vision is accepted it holds the in
dividual to itself. The fulfilment of it becomes henceforth
the one great object of his life, concerning which he says,
" This one thing I do."
Church of the Crucified, earth needs thy passion.
Love agonizing the wayward to win
Pure self-oblation in Christliest fashion.
Soul-sweat and travail to save men from sin.
Church of the Risen One, love that withholdeth
Naught that it has God would give to thee now ;
Rise in the might that thy weakness enfoldeth.
Bid the whole earth to the Crucified bow.
H. Wright Hay,

CHAPTER XVI,
AN ESTIMATE OF PATRICK BEFOBE STARTING ON HIS MISSION.
O Master, let me walk with thee
In lowly paths of service free ;
Tell me thy secret ; help me bear
The strain of toil, the fret of care.
Help me the slow of heart to move
By some clear, winning word of love ;
Teach me the wayward feet to stay.
And guide them in the homeward way.
Let us look for a moment at Patrick before he starts
for the field of his labors in Ireland. We do not know
his precise age, but he was doubtless in the fulness of his
manhood, with a fine presence and good health, with a
tongue that could gain the Irish ear and a soul that could
win the Irish heart. He was not educated even up to the
standard of that day, a fact which he more than once
deplores, as he makes his defense for setting out as a
missionary of the cross and a preacher of the gospel of
Jesus Christ.
His writings attest the truthfulness of his apologetic
confession, for they are often rude and broken utterances,
ungrammatical in construction and obscure in statement.
Yet these same writings reveal a strong and rugged per
sonality, in presence of which even princes and kings were
117

118 THE STORY OF ST. PATRICK.
subdued and awed when he stood before them as God's
ambassador, and proclaimed the glorious gospel of the
blessed God. Moreover he had a decision of character, an
intrepidity and magnanimity of spirit always distinctive
of great men — traits that gave Patrick a place beside
Elijah and Paul. These traits of character were, more
over, set on fire by an intense ardor that no difficulties or
discouragements could cool, and were sustained by an
indomitable courage, that, without flinching, could look
danger and death in the face.
Besides, his heart throbbed with a tremulous sympathy,
and yearned with genuine compassion for the objects of
his mission. Over and above all, his whole nature was
chastened by a deep humiUty in the presence of the thrice
lioly God, and his whole life was pervaded in a remark-
.able degree by an unquenchable spirit of prayer and by
an unbounded trust in God. It is furthermore worthy of
Temark that during the six years of his captivity in Ire
land his soul seems to have greatly compassionated the
people, whom he saw were wholly given up to heathenism,
and this brought him to resolve to seek their conversion
— a resolution that was vitalized and strengthened by the
Holy Spirit working upon his heart through the visions
and voices with which he was favored. For this work he
was in various ways speciaUy quaUfied ; and one of these
qualifications was his perfect knowledge of the Irish lan
guage, which he acquired through the wonderful provi
dence of God permitting him to be taken captive and to
be held in captivity for six years during his maturing
years — a period sufficiently long for him to become well

AN ESTIMATE OF PATRICK. 119
acquainted with the language, manners, and dispositions of
the people to whom he was intended as a future apostle.
O Irishmen ! we call him saint.
And name his name with pride.
Then, let us follow in his steps,
And walk where he would guide.
Let us, too, rise with purpose high,
In Christ's own strength, and flee
To home and freedom from the curse
Of sin's sad slavery ;
And then, like him, return to bless
The land we trod as slaves ;
And lay our bones, at last, to rest
In honored, well-loved graves. G. R, BuicK,
But what Patrick values and emphasizes most is the
fact which he asserts, and to which he refers again and
again, that he received his caU from a higher than any
earthly source — that his mission was from God ; and he
seems always to take pleasure in relating the circum
stances in which the divine voice spake to him, and in
adding : " I testify in truth and in joy of heart, before
God and his holy angels, that I never had any reason
except the gospel and its promises for ever returning to
that people from whom I had formerly escaped with diffi
culty," And when "the voice of the Irish" summoned
him back, he obeyed what he believed to be a divine call ;
and with an unreserved consecration he gave himself to
the land which, in the person of some of its sons, had so
grievously wronged him.

120 THE STORY OF ST. PATRICK.
In point of prayerfulness, self-denial, consecration, abun
dance of labors, love to Christ and to the souls of men,
combined with marvelous success, Patrick has had but
few equals in the entire annals of the Christian church.
For the national conversion of Ireland to the Christian
faith was wholly attributable, under God, to his indifatega-
ble labors. He gave himself to her, Ireland became his
adopted countiy. For her he lived, prayed, labored, died,
and in her he found his grave, and the soil of Ireland holds
to-day the dust of no saintlier hero,
I teach what Christ has taught me,
The wisdom from above ;
The news from heaven he brought me,
That God himself is love ;
And that in every nation
He waits that soul to bless
Who seeks from sin salvation,
And worketh righteousness.
How Jesus, God anointed.
With his own mighty power.
To meet the time appointed.
And bring us mercy's hour ;
Endowed with grace of healing.
How fair earth's walks he trod ;
At length, in death, revealing
Himself the Son of God,
And this is my commission :
That all who trust his name,
Of sin shall have remission —
For this is why he came.
Not for our condemnation —
For that, alas ! we have —
To bring, instead, salvation,
And triumph o'er the grave. J. E. Rankin.

CHAPTER XVII,
PATRICK STARTING ON HIS MISSION TO IRELAND.
I travel'd once a rocky road,
A weary road it was to go.
With burdens, too, a heavy load.
And where it led I did not know.
A weary road, with rivers high.
Wild beasts were standing on the rocks ;
And clouds came drifting through the sky,
FiU'd deep with fires and thunder-shocks.
But through the floods and through the flame,
And foaming floods, as on I went,
A voice of hope and cheering came,
" Fear not to go where God hath sent?''
That voice is ringing in my ears ;
Let mountains rise and oceans flow.
It matters not. Away with fears.
If God hath sent me, let me go, J, C, Upham.
We have seen the spirit with which Patrick appears to
have set out on his great mission to Ireland, and now let
us trace with as much detail as possible his missionary
tours. It is generally conceded that he landed flrst on the coast
of Wicklow, in the southeast of Ireland, at the mouth of
the river Vartry. Though his stay here was brief, it is
121

122 THE STORY OF ST. PATRICK.
recorded that the gospel he preached resulted in the con
version of Sinell, a great man of that place, and the eighth
in lineal descent from Cormac, king of Leinster. He sailed
northward around the coast, and touched at an island off
the Skerries, now caUed, after him, Holmpatrick, which is
about twelve miles from Dublin. Sailing still northward,
he called for a short time at the mouth of the river Boyne
near Drogheda ; pressing still northward, he made his way
past Carlingford Bay, and entering Strangford Lough, he
landed in the barony of Lecale, at the mouth of a small
river called Slany^ which falls into the north end of the
bay of Dundrum and about two miles from the place now
known as Saul.
The Lough of Strangford, formerly called Lough Coyne,
is seventeen miles in length from Killard Point to New
town- Ardes, and in some places five miles in breadth. It
contains four or five islands, some of them upward of one
hundred acres in extent, and in general well cultivated.
Some of the land in the county of the Ardes cannot be
excelled in Ireland. Once entered, its harbor is deep and
safe, but owing to the gi*eat rapidity of the tide and the
rocks near its entrance it is not safe for vessels to attempt
without a pilot. There are two passages to it, divided by
a reef half a mile long, called Rock Angus, on the south
side of which there are fifteen feet of water, and it is the
only channel navigable for merchant-vessels.
Here Patrick and his companions were brought into the
presence of a chief called Dichu, a descendant of an an
cient Irish king, who, taking them for pirates, came out,
armed against them. But Dichu soon discovered his mis-

PATRICK STARTING ON HIS MISSION TO IRELAND. 123
take, listened while Patrick preached the gospel of Jesus
Christ, and the old chief with his whole famUy became
Christians and were baptized.
Dichu gave Patrick a barn to be used as a temporary
chm-ch, and gave him ground on which to buUd a church,
which, at Dichu's request, was not to be located from west
to east, but from north to south, and became known as
Saul-Patrick, or Patrick's barn ; and the place is known as
Saul to this day. It is the place where Patrick died, half
a century or more afterward, and is about two miles from
Downpatrick, Several readers of this story who are not familiar with
the localities mentioned may be interested in a brief
description of a few of them as we come to them in this
narrative, Downpatrick is situated near the mouth of the river
Quoyle, which flows into the southwest extremity of
Strangford Lough about twenty miles southeast of Bel
fast. The town lies in a vaUey formed by hUls of some
elevation, and consists of four main streets meeting in the
center. It has an Episcopal cathedral, a Roman Catholic
church, two Methodist churches, and two Presbyterian
churches. In the vicinity are the ruins of Saul Abbey, said
to have been founded by St, Patrick, and also a number
of monastic ruins. A legend has it that the cathedral
contains the remains of St. Patrick, with those of St.
Columba and St. Bridget. To the northwest of Down
patrick are the remains of a great earthwork, two thirds
of a mile in circuit, inclosing a conical fort 60 feet high
and 2100 feet in circumference. It is pretty certain that

124 THE STORY OF ST. PATRICK.
at this place was founded the flrst church established by
St. Patrick.
From Lecale, which was an island or peninsula in that
locaUty, Patrick soon passed northward by land to the
scene of his early captivity near Broughshane ; but his old
master, Milchu, having heard of the great success of Pat
rick's preaching, and fearing perhaps that he would be
overcome by some magical influence emanating from his
former herd-boy, set flre to his house, according to the
story, and perished in the ruins.
We suppose many of the readers of this story have
known persons who resolutely kept away from church
and from all intercourse with the preachers of God's
Word, lest they might in some way be brought under the
influence of saving truth, and be led in penitence and
faith to the feet of Jesus, Resolute perseverance in such
a course always ends in ruin.
But Patrick's visit to that neighborhood was far from
fruitless, Milchu's son, Guasacht, was converted, became
a preacher of the gospel and the pastor of a church at
Granard, Two daughters of Milchu also became converts
to the Christian faith, and devoted themselves to God's
service, A grandson of Milchu, son of a third daughter,
a young man caUed Mohay or Mohee, embraced Christian
ity, became a preacher of the gospel, established a church
and monastery on Mahee Island in Strangford Lough,
where there are to be seen to this day the remains of a
round tower and the foundations of an old church,
Patrick did not remain long at this scene of his old

PATRICK STARTING ON HIS MISSION TO IRELAND. 125
captivity, but returned to the district of Downpatrick and
continued there for many days, preaching and spreading
the faith.
The king of Ulster at this time was Eochy, whose son,
Domhanghert, or Donart, became a disciple of Patrick
and a preacher of the Word, founded two churches, one
at Maghera near Newcastle in County Down, not far from
the mount called Slieve Donard, and another on the sum
mit of the mount. The conversion of these persons occu
pying prominent positions in society furnishes the key to
the methods Patrick pursued in his work.
With the instinct of a statesman or great general, the
policy of Patrick all through life was in the first instance
to approach the kings and chiefs and endeavor to win
them over, being confident that as a result of the tribal
constitution, if they could be secured the gain of their
followers would be easy ; but if they were hostile, an insu
perable barrier would be put in the way of his missionary
operations. It is sometimes made a reproach against the early Irish
church that it had no martyrs. The assumption is not
true. Patrick's own life was repeatedly threatened, and
in one of these attacks the driver of his carriage was slain
in mistake for himself.
But Patrick was not deterred from pursuing his journey
or his work by any dangers through which he was obliged
to pass. He therefore continued his course southward by
sea and came to a little port now called Colp, where he
landed and left his vessel in charge of Lomman, one of his

126 THE STORY OF ST. PATRICK.
companions, while he went away for a few days to travel
inland and preach the gospel. During Patrick's absence
it is reported that Lomman was reading the gospel aloud,
when Fortchern, son of Fedilmid, admiring the gospel
and its teaching, forthwith believed; and a well being
open, he was baptized in that place by Lomman. Fort
chern remained with him until his mother came in search
of him, and she was rejoiced to see him, for she was a
Britoness. She also believed and returned again to her
house and told her husband everything that had happened
to her and to her son, and Fedilmid rejoiced in the coming
of the clergyman because his mother was British, the
daughter of Scotch Noe, the king of the Britons. Then
FedUmid greeted Lomman in the British tongue, asking
about his faith, rank, and kindred. And he answered, " I
am Lomman, a Briton, a Christian, a disciple of Bishop
Patrick, who was sent by the Lord to baptize the people
of Ireland, and turn them to the faith of Christ, who sent
me here according to the will of God." And immediately
Fedilmid believed with his whole family, and he made an
offering to him and to St. Patrick, of his lands, his posses
sions, and his substance, with all his rights as a chieftain
over his followers.
On his journey inland Patrick lodged at a house in
Meath, where he was kindly received and entertained ; and
embracing every opportunity wherever he went to preach
the gospel, he proclaimed Christ to this family, and the
father believed and was baptized with his whole family,
A little son, of a sweet and gentle disposition, became a
great favorite with Patrick, who named him Benignus,

PATRICK STARTING ON HIS MISSION TO IRELAND. 127
which in Irish means sweet, because of the qualities he
observed in this young Christian, who afterward became
a famous poet and preacher.
A traveler through a dusty road strewed acorns on the lea,
And one took root and sprouted up and grew into a tree.
Love sought its shade at evening time, to breathe its early
vows;
And age was pleased in heats of noon to bask beneath its
boughs ;
The dormouse loved its dangling twigs, the birds sweet
music bore ;
It stood a glory in its place, a blessing evermore.
A nameless man, amid a crowd that thronged the daily
mart.
Let fall a word of hope and love, unstudied, from the
heart ;
A whisper on the tumult thrown — a transitory breath —
It raised a brother from the dust, it saved a soul from
death.
O germ ! O fount ! 0 word of life ! 0 thought at random
cast!
Ye were but little at the first, but mighty at the last.
Charles Mackay, LL.D.

CHAPTER XVIII.
PATRICK'S VISIT TO TARA,
His was the searching thought, the glowing mind ;
The gentle will to others soon resigned ;
But, more than all, the feeling just and kind.
True to his kind, nor himself afraid.
He deemed that love of God was best arrayed
In love of all the things that God has made.
His thoughts were as a pyramid up-piled.
On whose far top an angel stood and smiled ;
Yet in his heart he was a simple child.
To whatever extent Christianity may have obtained a
foothold in Ireland before this time, the best authorities
concede that its condition was very unprosperous among
the mass of the population, and that it had not secured
either the acceptance or the patronage of the kings and
pagan priests. The Christian men who endeavored to
implant the Christian faith had spent their lives in an
almost fruitless struggle against the ferocious hostility of
the pagan priests, who encompassed the missionaries of
the cross with obstacles and dangers, which rendered
their best efforts almost unproductive of good results;
besides, Palladius, the immediate predecessor of St. Pat-

PATRICK'S VISIT TO TARA. 129
rick, was ignorant of the Irish language, was devoid of
the requisite courage, and propagated a faith so tainted
with error that it could not reasonably be expected that
he should long continue to oppose the increasing enmity
of a people naturally fierce in defense of their faith or
superstition ; and so he retired in terror and despair from
the strife.
The Druids, who had well-nigh monopolized before Pat
rick's time the religion of the countiy, were exasperated
against Patrick. In consequence of their bitter opposition
he was compelled to travel with an escort, to surround
the churches and places of learning built by him with
ramparts or forts for self-defense.
If he had not as a rule secured the countenance and
protection of the king or chief, his life would have been
continually imperiled, and his success almost hopeless.
Acting on this plan, this astute missionary now deter
mined to visit Tara, the seat of the chief king of Ireland,
and try to effect the conversion of King Laoghaire and his
court. He determined to make his journey from Down
patrick onward by water. Sailing to the mouth of the
Boyne River, he left his boats thei-e and went with his
little company a day's journey to the Hill of Slane, where
by way of celebrating Easter — for it is said to have been
Easter-eve — he kindled the Easter fire. King Laoghaire
and his Druids were at this time celebrating a great
heathen festival, part of the ceremonial of which was the
lighting of a fire at Tara.
There was a stringent Druid law, as we have seen, that
while the sacred fire was burning no other should be

130 THE STORY OF ST. PATRICK.
lighted by the people on pain of death. The king, there
fore, on seeing the fire on the Hill of Slane, easily visible
at Tara, though nine miles distant, was much incensed,
and with horses and chariots he set out to punish the im
pious transgressor of the sacred law. Other writers assert
that a pagan magician, when he looked on the fire, said to
the king : " Unless yonder fire be this night extinguished,
he who lighted it will, together with his followers, reign
over the whole island," Whereupon the king, gathering
together a multitude, hastened with them in his wrath to
extinguish the fire. He proceeded to Slane with twenty-
seven chariots, hoping with that number to obtain a com
plete triumph. Acting on the advice of his magicians, he
turned the face of his men and horses toward the left hand
of St. Patrick, trusting that by doing so his purpose could
not be thwarted. But Patrick, on beholding the multitude
of chariots, repeated the verse of King David's psahn:
" Some trust in chariots and some in horses, but we will
invoke the name of the Lord." On approaching the place
where St. Patrick was, his magicians advised the monarch
not to go farther, lest by going in Patrick's presence the king
should seem to honor him. The king therefore remained
where he was, and forbade any one to stand up before
Patrick when he arrived.
On reaching Slane, Patrick was summoned to the king's
presence and commanded to appear next day and give an
account of his proceeding. It was on this occasion that
Patrick is said to have composed his famous hymn, as an
armor or breastplate to protect him from his foes. The
hymn is written in a very ancient dialect of Irish, and

PATRICK'S VISIT TO TARA. 131
both internal and external evidence connects it with the
age of Patrick. Its doctrine and spirit are in perfect har
mony with his acknowledged writings. It is printed in
fuU toward the close of this story.
There is doubtless much that is legendary in the details
of the recital of this visit to Tara as they are set forth in
many of the Lives of Patrick, but there is no reason to
doubt the substance of the narrative.
The next day after the demand was made by the king
upon Patrick, he, with his companions, presented them
selves before the king and his assembled courtiers, priests,
and bards. Dubbthack, or Duffa, the chief bard, rose and
welcomed them.
Patrick expounded and enforced at length the doctrines
of Christianity, Dubbthack and many others were con
verted. The king professed to acquiesce, but his conver
sion was only nominal. He permitted Patrick, however,
to preach the gospel everywhere throughout Ireland, and
he was not slow to avail himself of the privilege.
Christian courage, as described in the foUowing Unes,
was well Ulustrated by Patrick at Tara :
Stand but your ground, your ghostly foes will fly ;
Hell trembles at a heaven-directed eye ;
Choose rather to defend than to assail —
Self-confidence will in the conflict fail.
When you are challenged, you may dangers meet —
True courage is a fixed not sudden heat.
Is always humble, lives in self-distrust.
And will itself into no danger thrust.
Devote yourself to God, and you will find
God fights the battles of a will resigned.
Love Jesus ! love will no base fear endure ;
Love Jesus ! and of conquest rest secure. Ken.

CHAPTER XIX.

DESCRIPTION OF TARA,

There was a feast that night.
And colored lamps sent forth their odorous Ught
Over gold carving, and the purple fell
Of tapestry ; and around each stately hall
Were statues pale, and delicate and fair.
As all of beauty, save her blush, were there.
At first the pillared halls were still and lone.
As if some fairy palace, all unknown
To mortal eye or step. This was not long.
Wakened the lutes, and rose the sound of song ;
And the wide mirrors glittered with the crowd
Of changing shapes — the young, the fair, the proud.
Came thronging in. Landor.
Before we accompany Patrick farther it may be inter
esting to pause for a few minutes and learn something
about Tara and Tara's HaU.
Tara is about twenty-five miles from Dublin, in County
Meath, Ireland, and was the site of Tara's Hall, which was
the residence of the chief king of Ireland from the third
till the seventh century. The banqueting-haU of the
palace is said to have been 759 feet in length and 90 feet
in width and to have had fourteen entrances. With one
132

DESCRIPTION OF TARA. 133
exception the buildings were constructed of wood and clay
— but were overlaid with earth so pure and splendid that
it resembled painting.
Two magnificent neck-chains of gold were found at Tara
in 1810 and are now in the Museum of the Royal Irish
Academy, Dublin. They are spiral in form ; one weighs
twenty-eight ounces and is seven feet seven inches long ;
the other is of equal length, is of more delicate construc
tion, and weighs twelve and a half ounces.
Under the supremacy of Brian Boru, one of his subor
dinate chiefs or provincial kings held the title of king of
Tara. The Tara estate in the thirteenth century belonged
to a family of Norman descent — the Renpenthenyes. In
the reign of Queen Elizabeth, the then Lord of Cabra and
Tara, Richard Renpenthenye, was arraigned on the charge
of uttering treasonable expressions against the queen, and
though an old man of seventy, he was condemned and
executed. However, about twenty years later, his de
scendant, Edward de Repenthenye, was restored to the
estates by James I. In the civil wars several members of
the family were kiUed, and when CromweU extended his
rule over Ireland the estates of Francis de Pentheny were
again alienated. The lands of Cabra and Tara were sur
veyed in 1657 with the rest of the forfeited possessions in
Ireland, and after the restoration of Charles II. were, by
letters patent, under the act of settlement, bearing date
February 5, 1669, granted to James, Duke of York, the
king's brother, afterward James II. From him they
passed to Lord Tyrconnell, who also forfeited them. In
1702 they were purchased by a company that had been

134 THE STORY OF ST. PATRICK.
formed for making sword-blades in England, who soon
after disposed of their interest to Thomas Meredith of
DubUn, and thus disappeared the ancient estates of the
Lord of Tara. But in the latter part of the century 'a por
tion of the estate was regained by the family of Pentheny
O'KeUy, who were legitimate descendants of the ancient
family. Near the ruins of Tara's Hall a battle was fought. May
26, 1798, in which the English forces worsted the Irish,
On the same spot Daniel O'ConneU held a mass meeting
in favor of repeal of the Act of Union between Great
Britain and Ireland, August 15, 1843, and it is said two
hundred and fifty thousand people were present.
The ancient character of this ruined haU and its connec
tion with the early glories of Ireland give it a romantic
interest which is touchingly expressed in Moore's poem :
The harp that once through Tara's haUs
The soul of music shed.
Now hangs as mute on Tara's waUs
As if that soul were fled.
So sleeps the pride of former days.
So glory's thrill is o'er.
And hearts that once beat high for praise
Now feel that pulse no more.
No more to chiefs and ladies bright
The harp of Tara swells ;
The chord alone that breaks at night.
Its tale of ruin tells.
Thus Freedom now so seldom wakes ;
The only throb she gives
Is when some heart, indignant, breaks.
To show that still she lives.

CHAPTER XX.
PATRICK'S MISSION WORK IN THE WEST AND SOUTH.
The proud he tam'd, the penitent he cheer'd.
Nor to rebuke the rich offender fear'd.
His preaching much, but more his practice wrought —
A living sermon of the truths he taught.
For this, by rules severe his life he squar'd.
That all might see the doctrine which they heard. Dryden.
Patrick proceeded next to Tailltown or Telltown, TeU
town is a mountain in Meath where annual sports were
celebrated flfteen days before and fifteen days after the
1st of August, Their institution is ascribed to Lugaidh-
lam-fadah, the tweffth king of Ireland, in gratitude to the
memory of TaUto, the daughter of a prince in Spain, who
married a king of Ireland and took Lugaidh under her
protection during his minority and gave him an educa
tion. From this lady the sports themselves and the place
where they were celebrated took their names. The 1st of
August was called Lugnasa, formed from two words signi
fying in memory of Lugaidh, It is now called Lammas;
the ancient name, however, was Loafmas, or the feast of
the loaf, from the custom of offering a loaf of new wheat
on the 1st of August, as an oblation of the first-fruits.
These sports observed at Telltown were a sort of warlike
]35

136 THE STORY OF ST. PATRICK.
exercises, somewhat resembling the Olympic games, con
sisting of racing, tilts, tournaments, and simUar exercises.
At these annual games an immense number of people
usuaUy assembled, and the occasion, therefore, afforded
Patrick a good opportunity of preaching the gospel to the
masses. Caibre and Cormall, two brothers of King Lao
ghaire, were present. The former obstinately refused to
accept the gospel preached by Patrick and treated him
with great incivility, but Cormall joyously believed, was
baptized, and granted a site for a church. This new con
vert was the grandfather of the famous Columbille.
Patrick spent several months in Meath and the counties
around, preaching with great zeal, traveling almost daily,
and great numbers of p.eople were converted to the Chris
tian faith.
It was on the occasion of his preaching at one of these
places that the interestiijg incident respecting the sham
rock occurred, which shows the readiness with which
Patrick could seize upon some simple object to iUustrate
his subject.^ It is well known that the shamrock is a
variety of the white clover, the trifolium replens of botan
ists, known also as the trefoil, or three-leaved clover. It is
said that when Patrick was trying to explain the doctrine
of the Trinity the audience was sorely puzzled at his state
ments, "How," said one of their chiefs, "can there be
three in one ? " Patrick in reply picked up a leaf of trefoil
from the ground and held it up before them. " Behold,"
he said, " three and yet one. Behold in this trefoliate leaf
how the three persons in the Godhead can exist and yet
be one." The illustration was so beautiful and so forcible

PATRICK'S MISSION WORK IN THE WEST AND SOUTH. I37
that the chief immediately accepted the Christian faith
and was baptized, and his clan foUowed his example, as
was the fashion of those days. From this legend it is
thought came the adoption of the shamrock leaf in later
years as the national emblem.
It may also be remarked that among the uneducated
classes in Ireland any strange or unusual formation in
plant or flower is regarded with more or less superstition.
A double nut, an unusually large or oddly shaped fruit of
any kind, a leaf of peculiar formation — these things are
always plucked when found and kept for " luck." But the
superstitious reverence with which the four-leaved clover
has been regarded for so long a time, that " the memory of
man runneth not back to the contrary," has a very simple
explanation. Its resemblance to the form of a cross is
unquestionably the cause of its endowment in the estima
tion of the people with magic virtues, and especially with
the virtue of detecting the presence of evil spirits, and nul
lifying their power to inflict injury.
The legend respecting the influence of the four-leaved
shamrock which is prevalent in Ireland is also beautifully
told by Samuel Lover in the following verses, that deserve
a place in the story of Ireland's patron saint :
I'll seek a four-leaved shamrock
In all the fairy dells ;
And if I flnd the charmed leaf,
Oh, how I'll weave my spells !
I would not waste my magic might
On diamond, pearl, or gold,
For^treasure tires the weary sense —
Such triumph is but cold ;

138 THE STORY OF ST. PATRICK.
But I will play the enchanter's part
In casting bliss around ;
Oh, not a tear or aching heart
Should in the world be found !
To worth I would give honor ;
I'd dry the mourner's tears ;
And to the paUid Up recaU
The smile of happier years ;
And hearts that had been long estranged,
And friends that had grown cold
Should meet again like parted streams.
And mingle as of old.
Oh, then I'd play the enchanter's part
In casting bliss around !
Oh, not a tear or aching heart
Should in the world be found !
The heart that had been mourning
O'er banished dreams of love.
Should see them aU returning.
Like Noah's faithful dove.
And Hope should launch her blessed bark
On Sorrow's darkening sea.
And Misery's children have an ark.
And saved from sinking be.
Oh, thus I'd play the enchanter's part
In casting bliss around !
Oh, not a tear or aching heart
Should in the world be found !
Samuel Lover.

CHAPTER XXI.
PATRICK'S VISIT TO CONNAUGHT, ETC,
His path he strewed
With gentle kindnesses and words of grace.
With all degrees of men his open face
Won high regard or earnest gratitude.
With sturdy honesty and truth endued.
His soul was written on his countenance.
And aU might read him at a casual glance.
As on a world-wide pedestal he stood.
By unclean pelf his hand and heart unstained.
Strong for the right, and turning not aside
Whene'er the public weal was in debate.
He justified the honor he had gained.
If specks in marble envious eyes espied.
His faith in God was his sure armor-plate.
Our missionary next repaired to Connaught, where he
spent seven years preaching, founding churches and
schools of learning, and sending forth preachers.
It was there, in the vicinity of the royal palace of Cro-
ghan, that he had the famous reputed interview with the
two daughters of King Laoghaire, Ethna the Fair and
Fedelma the Ruddy. They had been sent there, it is said,
to be educated by two Druids named Mael and Caplait.
The account given in some of the Lives of Patrick of the
interview between Patrick and these pagan princesses is
generaUy accepted as substantially true ; and the incident
139

140 THE STORY OF ST. PATRICK.
is one of the most picturesque and striking in the history
of Patrick. The simple questions put by them, and Pat
rick's answers touching the leading truths of the Christian
faith, are natural and lifelike, but ^evidently tinged with
the superstitions and errors that crept into the church at
a later date. The conference ended in the conversion and
baptism of the princesses and also of their tutors, and on
the part of the princesses the dedication of themselves to
a religious life, although the account closes with a descrip
tion of a death scene. The whole account is given in the
doubtful writings of Patrick near the close of this book.
The great truth doubtless to which Patrick directed the
attention of these young pagan princesses was the atoning
death of God's own Son, which is symbolized by bread
and wine in the sacrament of the Lord's Supper, of which
elements it is the duty and privilege of all believers in
Jesus to partake while they thankfully remember Jesus
as their Prophet, Priest, and King, feast their souls upon
the precious truths embodied' in Jesus and his saving
work, thus gaining the nourishment which their souls
need. Each believer in him can adopt the truth conveyed
in the words of this hymn :
When time seems short, and death is near.
And I am pressed by doubt and fear.
And sins, an overflowing tide.
Assail my peace on every side.
This thought my refuge still shall be —
I know my Saviour died for me.
His name is Jesus, and he died.
For guilty sinners crucified ;
Content to die that he might win

PATRICK'S VISIT TO CONNAUGHT, ETC. I4I
Their ransom from the death of sin ;
No sinner worse than I can be ;
Therefore I know he died for me.
If grace were bought, I could not buy ;
If grace were coined, no wealth have I ;
By grace alone I draw my breath,
Held up from everlasting death ;
Yet since I know his gi-aceis free,
I know the Saviour died for me.
I read God's Holy Word, and find
Great truths which far transcend my mind ;
And little do I know or see ;
Than this, that Jesus died for me.
This is my best theology —
I know the Saviour died for me.
My faith is weak, but 'tis thy gift ;
Thou canst my helpless soul uplift.
And say, " Thy bonds of death are riven.
Thy sins by me are all forgiven.
And thou shalt live, from guilt set free.
For I, thy Saviour, died for thee."
Dr. George W. Bethune.

After this interview Patrick went to a mountain now
called Croagh-Patrick, on the western coast of Connaught,
and is said to have gathered there the several tribes of
serpents and venomous creatures, and to have driven
them headlong, by the beating of a drum, into the western
ocean, and no poisonous reptile has been seen in Ireland
since. This is the legend that is so intimately connected
with St. Patrick's name. There is quite an uncertainty as
to the cause of the absence of any snakes, etc., in Ireland.
Some think that the prevalent growth of the shamrock in

142 THE STORY OF ST. PATRICK.
Ireland is the cause there of the absence of snakes, PUny,
in his "Natural History," says that serpents are never
seen on trefoil, and that the leaves of the plant will cure
the stings of common reptiles. Other naturalists have
asserted that serpents and trefoil are never found together.
We are not aware that the matter has ever been scientifi
cally tested. Scientists affirm that there is no evidence
showing that snakes have at any time existed upon the
Irish Isle. There are very few snakes of any species in
Great Britain. The character of the countiy may have
something to do with it ; but it is probably largely due to
the fact that being islands, but few of the species reached
them. It should be known in order to counteract the
foolish legend about St, Patrick's banishing all poisonous
reptiles from Ireland, that Solinus, who wrote several
hundred years before the arrival of St. Patrick in Ireland,
notices Ireland's exemj)tion from reptiles.
Our readers must not forget that St. Patrick's fame has
come down to us through the medium of vast exagger
ations, and that he was not quite so remarkable a person
as legends have described and fond nationality believed.
Instead of the wonder-worker crowned with shamrock
and marching to the national air to subdue legions of
vipers, the earliest documents extant concerning him de
scribe a missionary teacher, simple, faithful, and zealous,
exhibiting the clearest evidence of one thoroughly in
structed in God's Word, and supported by the grace of
his Master. As the purest stream always flows nearest
the fountain, so, of the many writers of the life of Patrick,
those who lived nearest to his tirae have had the great-

PATRICK'S VISIT TO CONNAUGHT, ETC. 143
est regard for truth, and have been the most sparing in
recounting miracles, whUe in Patrick's own writings there
is not the remotest hint that he ever wrought a miracle,
or ever claimed that he possessed the power to work one.
The most material events of his life were flrst written by
Fiecc, who is said to have been a contemporary of Patrick ;
and these were comprehended in a hymn in the Irish lan
guage, of thirty-four stanzas, in which there is no aUusion
whatever to miracles: but as the writers of his life in
creased, so his miracles were multiplied, especially in the
dark ages, until they at last exceeded all bounds of credulity.
An ancient wiiter near Florence, Italy, long before Pat
rick's day, in describing Ireland has these lines :
Far westward lies an isle of ancient fame.
By nature bless'd, and Scotia * is her name.
EnroUed in books, exhaustless in her store
Of veiny silver and of golden ore.
Her fruitful soil forever teems with wealth ;
With gems her waters, and her air with health ;
Her verdant flelds with milk and honey flow.
Her woolly fleeces vie with virgin snow ;
Her waving furrows float with bearded corn
And arms and arts her envy'd sons adorn.
No savage bear with lawless fury roves.
No rav'nous lion through the peaceful groves ;
No poison there infests ; no scaly snake
Creeps through the gi'ass, nor frog annoys the lake.
An island worthy of her pious race,_
In war triumphant and unmatched in peace.
But after this short digression, which may be regarded
in the nature of a diversion, we must return to Patrick's
main work.
* Ireland was called Scotia when these lines were written, and for many-
centuries afterward.

CHAPTER XXII
PATRICK'S VISIT TO THE NORTHWEST.
And such a voice, and such a theme ;
He lay enchanted till the light
Dispelled the vision of the night.
And he awoke with awe supreme ;
So near the gate of heaven, thought he.
With floods of glory like a sea —
Majestic in his dream.
Having moved northward, Patrick came, after much
preaching by the way, into the region wherein was the
wood Foclut, from which he heard voices in the vision
that determined him to come as a missionary to Ireland.
This was to Patrick a most interesting place — the place at
which he took ship escaping from slavery — the place of
Ms holy vision afterward. In this place, when he arrived,
he found all the nobles and people of that province assem
bled in council, disputing about a successor to the throne
made vacant by the death of the king, Amalgaid. His
seven sons were present, and great excitement prevailed.
Patrick, like another Paul, preached the Word of God with
great boldness to all ; the Spirit of God accompanied his
words, multitudes believed and turned unto the Lord,
among whom were the seven sons of Amalgaid, and twelve
thousand others, all of whom Patrick baptized in one day.
144

PATRICK'S VISIT TO THE NORTHWEST. I45
Here also a church was planted, and Mancenus, a devout
man skilled in the Scriptures, was placed in charge. These
brief records indicate the vast numbers of converts there
must have been from paganism to Christianity when so
many thousands of , men, women, and children followed the
example of their chiefs and were baptized.
Patrick is reported to have remained seven years in
the province of Connaught preaching, baptizing, planting
churches, and placing them in charge of men who could
speak to them the word of life and train them in the ways
of the Lord. It is reckoned that forty-seven churches
were during these years planted in this province and were
committed to the oversight and pastoral care of as many
primitive bishops.
After preaching in Cashel and establishing a church
there and giving it a pastor, Patrick still pursued a north
ward course, visiting principaUy the towns upon and near
the sea-coast. Among these were Sligo, Drumcliffe, Ross
Clogher, Droos Ashrol, etc., tarrying for some days or
weeks at each of these places and founding a church wher
ever the circumstances seemed to warrant it. Thus he
pursued his way through the counties of Donegal and
Tyrone until he reached the palace of the kings of Ulster,
about three miles north of Derry. This palace was at
the time of Patrick's visit the seat and residence of Prince
Owen, one of the sons of King NeU, to whom he proclaimed
the doctrines of Christ with the result of the king's conver
sion and that of his whole family. In this instance also
Patrick displayed his usual knowledge of human nature,
and of the tendency there is in the lower grades of society

146 THE STORY OF ST. PATRICK.
to follow the example of those who occupy a more exalted
position. The populace are easily prevailed upon to f oUow
their leaders.
He crossed the river Foyle and continued his missionary
operations in that neighborhood, crossing and recrossing
the smaUer rivers in the vicinity, as necessity required, all
the time vigorously prosecuting his work of preaching the
gospel, baptizing his converts, planting churches, and sup
plying them with teachers and preachers. For several
weeks, if not months, he persisted with great assiduity in
his work and with marvelous success, untU all those north
ern Ulster people were brought over to the Christian faith.
He proceeded through Coleraine, along the banks of the
river Bann, preaching ; and wherever he went many were
converted, churches were established, and wondrous refor
mations were effected. It is calculated that he spent two
years in this tour through Donegal, Tyrone, Derry, An
trim, Armagh, and Louth.
Soon after Patrick proceeded to Moy Slecht, in County
Cavan, then the seat of the great national idol, Crom Cru-
ach, which Patrick demolished, having won over the peo
ple, and thus put an end to pagan worship at its center.
In this way this great missionary, in his gospel tours,
dealt many death-blows to the cruel paganism that held
the inhabitants of Ireland in its merciless grasp, striking
the fetters of error and superstition from their minds and
hearts by the use of the sword of the Spirit, which is the
Word of God. His weapons were not, except in such a
case as this Art Moy Slecht, carnal but spiritual, but they
were nevertheless mighty through God to the pulling

PATRICK'S VISIT TO THE NORTHWEST. I47
down of strongholds. The incident connected with the
destruction of this idol is graphically told in the following
lines :
And there wanted not who counsel'd that he should his
hand withhold.
Should that noblest image spare and accept their offered
gold.
But he rather — " God raised me not to make a shameful
gain.
Trafficking in hideous idols with a service false and vain ;
But to count my work unflnished, till I sweep them from
the world ;
Stand and see the thing ye sued for by this hand to ruin
hurled."
High he reared his battle-ax, and heavily came down the
blow;
Reeled the abominable image, broken, bursten, to and fro.
From its shattered side, revealing pearls and diamonds,
showers of gold.
More than all that proffered ransom, more than all a hun
dredfold.

CHAPTER XXIII.
PATRICK'S CLOSING MISSIONARY TOURS.
At church, with meek and unaffected grace.
His looks adorned the venerable place ;
Truth from his lips prevailed with double sway.
And fools who came to scoff remained to pray.
As some taU cliff that lifts its awful form
Swells from the vale, and midway leaves the storm.
Though round its breast the rolling clouds are spread,
Eternal sunshine settles on its head.
After spending some time at Ard-Patrick and Clogher
and continuing with great success his work in these places,
he moved southward in the neighboring counties and
came to the place afterward called Armagh, meaning the
high field, from its situation on an eminence. It is said
that the chief man of the place, named Daire, made Patrick
a present of the site, where a city was laid out, large in
compass and beautiful for situation, where a cathedral
was afterward established, also seminaries and schools.
Everywhere his labors seemed to be crowned with suc
cess; assistants gathered around him from various quar
ters, and hundreds of persons trained in his schools and
seminaries went forth to take charge of churches in all
parts of the land.

PATRICK'S CLOSING MISSIONARY TOURS. I49
He was himself the moving and governing spirit every
where — stimulating both by precept and example thou
sands of others to come to his help and to work assid
uously for God.
From Armagh he proceeded to Dundalk and Dublin.
At Dublin the people, hearing of his fame, came out in
multitudes to welcome him. Alphin, the king of the place,
listened to his words with unwonted interest, was aston
ished at the fervor of Patrick's zeal in preaching, and the
king with all his people believed. A cathedral was after
ward built near a well where it is said Patrick baptized
many people. His labors changed this place, that hitherto
had been a stronghold of druidism and of many vices, into
a fruitful and delicious garden of the Lord, where many
churches were built on the ruins of the temples pf idolatry
and were furnished with godly and indefatigable pastors.
This great work could only be accomplished by constant
appUcation, patience, humility, and invincible courage.
God had endowed Patrick with all the natural qualities
which were requisite for such an apostoUc work. He had
the genius of a worker, was a tactician of the fii'st order,
had a fearless heart and an unbounded charity, and with
these qualities in the fullest exercise he carried the glad
news of the gospel to all.
Leaving Dublin, he bent his course once more south
ward, through Leinster and Munster. He preached
through several parts of Leinster and settled many pas
tors over churches, and, going onward to Munster, the
king, hearing of his coming, went out with joy to meet
him, conducted him, it is said, with all honor and respect

150 THE STORY OF ST. PATRICK.
to his royal city of Cashel, where he and aU his family
listened to the words of Patrick, were convinced, and
baptized. Leaving Cashel he traveled to Kerry, in the most re
mote parts of Munster, in which are located the beautiful
Lakes of KiUarney, which he doubtless visited, and estab
lished a church, and here on an island are the ruins of
Innisfallen Abbey, founded in the seventh century. The
celebrated "Annals of Innisfallen," consisting of scraps
from the Old Testament and a compendious universal
history reaching down to the time of St, Patrick, were
written here. Sweet Innisfallen, long shaU dweU
In memory's dream that sunny smile
Which o'er thee on that evening fell
When first I saw thy fairy isle, MooRE.
In this neighborhood and through this province he con
tinued preaching, visiting, baptizing, founding churches,
and otherwise executing the functions of his ministry for
about seven years., He probably often visited and en
joyed the beauty and scenery of the Lakes of KiUarney
dming these seven years. The foUowing line comprehen
sively portrays their beauty and their social environments :
Where every prospect pleases, and only man is vile.
Lough Lene, the name in the Irish language for the
Lake of Learning, but now better known as the Lakes of
Killarney, are distinguished by the upper, the middle,
or Tore Lake, and the lower, which is the most extensive —

PATRICK'S CLOSING MISSIONARY TOURS. I5I
the three being connected by a narrow channel. They are
situated in the County Kerry, and are commanded on the
east and south by the mountains of Mangerton and Tore,
and on the west by that of Glena, beautiful Glena; on
the north the country is level, stretching toward the town
of KUlarney, which lies northeast. It is beyond the power
of the artist's pencil or the poet's imagination to give even
an idea of these charming lakes; they were celebrated
ages ago for their romantic beauty and soft, bewitching
scenery, and were styled the tenth wonder of Ireland.
The surrounding mountains are covered from their apex
to their base with oaks, yew-trees, evergreens, and the
arbutus, which, although only a shrub in other countries,
becomes here a tree, and grows to a height of twenty feet.
It bears leaves ever green, like those of th;' laurel, but to
ward the extremity they are purple ; its flowers hang in
clusters like grapes, are white, and of an agreeable flavor.
These present in their different stages of vegetation a
delightful variety of colors, and form an amphitheater
which revives all the charms of the spring in the depth of
winter. The report of cascades falling from these moun
tains to mingle with the waters of the lake below are re
peated by a thousand echoes, and contribute considerably
to the charms of this delightful retreat.
On the summit of Mangerton Mountain is a lake, the
depth of which is unfathomable. It is caUed in Irish,
PouUe Iferon — the hole or opening to hell ; but it is more
generally known as the Devil's Punch-bowl. Its water
appears nearly as black as ink, caused no doubt by the
peat soil and the shade of the perpendicular rocks that

152 THE STORY OF ST. PATRICK.
surround it. The water, even in summer, is intensely
cold, and still it has never been known to freeze in winter.
Having founded a church at Ardagh, in County Long
ford, he returned through Leinster to the liorthern parts
of Ulster again, where he made frequent rounds of visits
during the following six years, preaching still and making
converts, comforting and fortifying those who had already
believed, and setting all things in order as far as possible
for the success and continuance of the churches.
Ulster, Leinster, and Munster were visited again and
again by Patrick in turn.
The same policy of endeavoring flrst to reach the kings
and chiefs was pursued, and with the same result, that
everywhere he went multitudes were converted to the
faith of the Christian religion and were baptized, churches
were established, and clergy in great numbers were sent
forth. We must not imagine that the baptisms by Patrick
were ostentatious ceremonies. The world has never wit
nessed religious rites less fitted to attract the eye than the
first baptisms of Christianity, which were effected with few
conveniences, and little or no ostensible preparation. The
practice was not new. The Jews were familiar with it.
They had practised family baptisms in admitting prose
lytes for many years, including children of all ages, so
that to them the general statement that a household had
been baptized would convey the idea that children were
included. Patrick's progress through Ireland was an
almost unbroken series of triumphs — consisting of the
natives' conversion to Christianity and of their consequent
baptism by Patrick,

PATRICK'S CLOSING MISSIONARY TOURS. I53
We must not forget that Patrick possessed a great ad
vantage in prosecuting his work from his knowledge of
the customs and language of the Irish people. He often
assembled around him in the open fields, at the beat of a
drum, a concourse of people, where he related to them the
story of Christ, which relation manifested its divine power
upon their rude minds, and their desire for the Christian
rite of baptism for whole households. Hence we read
throughout his whole life a record of baptisms wherever
he went, SeneU is supposed to have been Patrick's first
convert, then Dechu at Saul. It is recorded that " Dichu
repented and beUeved in one God, and Patrick baptized
him and a great host along with him"; that "Ere the son
of Deg believed in God, confessed the faith, and was bap
tized by Patrick," Once in journeying "Patrick saw a
tender youth herding swine, Mochal by name; Patrick
preached to him and baptized him"; "that the men of
North Munster, to the north of Limerick, went in sea-fleets
to meet Patrick, and he baptized them in Tirglass " ; " that
Patrick went into the province of Mugdovin to Donnach
Maigen, and he baptized the men of Mugdovin " ; " at Te
mair Singite Patrick baptized the men of Assail " ; " that
Patrick founded a church at Domnach Maige Slecht, and
baptized many " ; that " Patrick went to Naas, where he
baptized Dunling's two sons, Ailill and lUann " ; that "Pat
rick came into the regions of Corcutemne and baptized
many thousand men, and he founded three churches";
that Patrick baptized missionaries to the heathen Picts
of Scotland, the pagan Anglo-Saxons, and the idolaters of
almost every section of the continent of Europe.

154 THE STORY OF ST. PATRICK.
He comes, 0 soul ! His is the voice
Proclaims redemption nigh ;
His is the message bids rejoice.
And pleads, " Why will ye die ? "
His watchmen cry aloud, and far.
The heathen cease their strife.
To see the hand of Love unbar
The door that leads to life.
Oh, beautiful the feet that toil
In desert wastes of sin.
To pluck from Satan's hand the spoil.
The Master fain would win !
All hail the Messenger divine !
Hosanna to his name !
Unending may his glory shine.
His foes be put to shame ! M, C, M.

CHAPTER XXIV,
PATRICK'S DEATH AND BURIAL.
They cannot die — " whose spirits here
Were one with Christ, their living Head ; "
They cannot die :
Though the time-wasted sepulcher
In which their vestiges are laid
Crumbled in dust may lie.
They are not dead — whose ashes flU
That melancholy house of clay ;
They are not dead :
They live in brighter glory still.
Than ever cheer'd their earthly way,
FuU beaming round their head. BOWRING.
Patrick was now an old man — how old there are no
means of exactly determining. It is reported that he
passed several of his latest years in Armagh and Saul,
always, however, bearing on his heart the concerns of the
church at large in Ireland, for whose establishment and
progress he had so long and faithfully labored. During
these closing years it may well be imagined that he held
many conferences with those who had charge of the
churches ; that he set in order, so far as his counsel could
go, many things for their furtherance in knowledge and
155

156 THE STORY OF ST. PATRICK.
numbers and for their purity of life. During these years
also he wrote the sketch of his life, which is an autobiog
raphy under the title of the " Confession." Feeling his
end approaching, he retired to Downpatrick, the scene of
his earliest success, and there terminated his great career.
There has been a keen debate over the place where
Patrick's remains were buried, about which there is stUl
some uncertainty. This, however, does not correspond
with the words some imprudent, gushing admirer has
written at the close of Patrick's " Confession," viz. : " On
the 17th of March Patrick was translated to heaven."
We do not know when, if ever, Patrick was accorded
the honor of saintship by Rome, for his name is not on
the list of the canonized as kept by Prosper of Acquitaine,
whose duty it was, as secretary of the pope, to make the
requisite record ; but this we know, that the flrst recorded
example of a solemn and public decree in making a saint
by that authority on the seven hills was in the case of
Udulric or Ulric, Bishop of Augsburg, to whom the honors
of canonical sanctity were adjudged by Pope John XVL,
in the end of the tenth century, or, to be more exact, in
the year 993 a.d.
We claim the title "saint" for every true Christian,
however humble or unknown. It is a good gospel word,
always abused when conferred only upon some eminent
Christian. And in speaking of this Patrick of famous
memory we have given him the title of " saint," not as a
concession to superstition, but to identify him in the midst
of so many other Patricks, and to cause him to stand forth
in his distinctive character, as the man whom God appar-

PATRICK'S DEATH AND BURIAL. I57
ently endowed with eminent gifts, and called him to do a
wonderfully gracious work as an apostle in Ireland.
The most careful scholars concede that Patrick's re
mains were interred near Downpatrick. The Dean of
Down, the Rev. Edward Maguire, D.D., has charge of the
place, and is treasurer of a fund now being raised to erect
a suitable monument to mark, if not with absolute cer
tainty the exact spot, at all events the certain locality in
which the remains of Ireland's first and great apostle
repose. The following recent letter from Dr. Maguire, Dean of
Down in Ireland, is sufficiently explicit on this point :
The Grave of St, Patrick.
" Sir : At the recent visit to Downpatrick by the mem
bers of the R.S.A. the reputed grave of St. Patrick was
pointed out, and observations not over-complimentary
were indulged in respecting its unmarked and sadly neg
lected condition. A lady (Miss Rose Cleland, of Redford
House, Moy, niece of the late Mr. R. Steele Nicholson,
author of 'St. Patrick, Apostle of Ireland, in the Third
Century') has just handed me for safe keeping £7, col
lected by her, mostly in penny contributions, in the hope
that this sum may form the nucleus of a much larger and
more general collection, and that the authorities of Down
Cathedral may see their way to sanction a great national
effort for the erection of a suitable monument to mark, if
not with absolute certainty the exact spot, at aU events
the certain locality in which the remains of Ireland's first
and great apostle repose.

158 THE STORY OF ST. PATRICK.
" Personally, I would gladly encourage such an effort,
but the Cathedral Board and Chapter and pubUe opinion
must be brought into line before any proposal of the kind
can have any reasonable prospect of success. Perhaps the
fact of the 17th of this present month being the fourteen
hundredth anniversary of the death of our saint (he died
March 17, 493) may prove suggestive of some effort in
the direction aimed at by Miss Rose Cleland,
" Faithfully yours,
" Ed, Maguire, D,D., Dean of Down,
"March 4th."
The place of his sepulcher is not a vital question, but
wherever it is, it contains the ashes of a saintly hero.
Thus ended the earthly life of one who, once a slave on
the Ulster hiUsides, overthrew Irish idolatry by the preach
ing of the cross, by the simplicity of his life, the fervor of
his love, and the steadfastness of his faith, and founded a
church which evangelized half of Europe, and which ex
hibited zeal, character, education, and progress from the
days of St, Patrick till the time of the Norse invasions.
How sleep the brave who sink to rest
With all their country's wishes blessed ;
When Spring, with dewy fingers cold,
Returns to deck their hallow'd mold.
She there shall dress a sweeter sod
Than Fancy's feet have ever trod.
By Fairy fingers their knell is rung.
By forms unseen their dirge is sung ;
There Honor comes, a pilgrim gray.
To bless the turf that wraps their clay ;
And Freedom shall awhile repair
To dwell a weeping hermit there. Collins,

CHAPTER XXV.
A MEMORIAL TRIBUTE.
There is no death ! The stars go down
To rise upon some fairer shore ;
And bright in heaven's jeweled crown
They shine forevermore.
There is no death ! The dust we tread
Shall change beneath the summer shower
To golden grain of mellow fruit.
Of rainbow-tinted flowers.
There is no death ! The leaves may faU,
The flowers may fade and pass away ;
They only wait, through wintry hours.
The coming of the May.
There is no death ! An angel form
Walks o'er the earth with silent tread ;
He bears our best-loved things away.
And then we call them " dead." Lord Lytton,
Though we shaU consider more fully Patrick's work in
succeeding pages, we must record here over his grave that
no countiy ever experienced a greater change in its eccle
siastical history than did Ireland, through the labors of
Patrick. And among missionary heroes the career of St.
Patrick stands preeminent. As a slave, as a prince of
preachers, as a missionary, who by divine help overcame
the fierce idolatry of a whole nation, and by his unselfish
1,59

160 THE STORY OF ST. PATRICK.
love captured their hearts, and has held the hearts of their
descendants for fourteen hundred years, he occupies a
place in the front rank of the heroes of the cross. No
Christian life excels that of Patrick in fascination. He
was a simple, mighty, evangelical preacher, and one of the
greatest trophies ever won by the Saviour.
Since the days of Paul no greater missionary has ever
lived. The grand motive power of his life was love of
souls, and like another Paul or Peter he preached the
gospel with the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven. The
prodigious effects produced on the minds and hearts of
men was a clear indication that God was with him. Kings'
daughters were among the honorable women who yielded
to the truth as spoken by his lips. Leaders of hostile
clans, whose trade was war, beat their swords into plow
shares and their spears into pruning-hooks, and onward
Patrick went in his good work, from county to county
and from province to province, till in a few years he had
carried the tidings of salvation from Howth Head to the
borders of Clew Bay, and from the glens of Antrim to the
dreary wilds of Kerry.
From that time forward, during several centuries, there
was no country more distinguished than Ireland by the
possession of Scripture truth. She had a pure gospel, a
free Bible, an unclouded day of grace, a rent veil unto the
holiest of all, a religion that will run on parallel, in all
eternity, with the benign results of the redemption of
Christ. Colleges were founded, congi'egations were organ
ized, a bishop, as he was then called, had charge of each
congregation, and, according to Archbishop Usher, Pat-

A MEMORIAL TRIBUTE. 161
rick organized during his life 365 churches and placed
over them 365 bishops who were simply pastors.
Ireland was in those years at the head of the nations of
Europe in respect of godliness. Her civilization was the
most advanced, her learning the most extended and refined,
her Christianity was of the least corrupted type that then
prevailed in the world, aud the Irish divines were the only
ones, so far as known to history, who refused to dishonor
their reason by refusing to lay it prostrate at the feet of
any human authority.
Ireland became also the resort of students, and welcomed
to her hospitable shores scholars from every country in
Europe. She was then the nursery of patriots — true pa
triots — not men of the selfish, greedy, grasping, goiy type,
but men who sought her good, and besought God to bless
her, whether amid sunshine or in the stormiest days. And
we should like to see once more the true Irish harp strung
again, and to hear hymns of redemption bursting from the
joyous lips of a ransomed people.
*
" Go preach my gospel," saith the Lord ;
" Bid the whole earth my grace receive ;
He shall be saved that trusts my Word ;
He shaU be damned that won't believe.
" I'll make your gi'eat commission known,
And ye shaU prove my gospel true.
By all the works that I have done.
By all the wonders ye shall do.
" Teach all the nations my commands,
I'm with you till the world shall end ;
All power is trusted in my hands :
I can destroy and I defend." I. Watts.

CHAPTER XXVI.
PATRICK'S PHYSICAL, INTELLECTUAL, AND RELIGIOUS CHARAC
TERISTICS. His words seemed oracles
That pierced their bosoms ; and each man would turn
And gaze in wonder on his neighbor's face.
That with the like dumb wonder answered him ;
Then some would weep, some shout, some, deeper touched,
Keep down the cry with motion of their hands.
In fear but to have lost a syllable.
The evening came, yet there the people stood.
As if 'twere noon, and they, the marble sea.
Sleeping without a wave. You could have heard
The beating of your pulses whUe he spake. • Croly.
Having given a brief and truthful sketch of the condi
tion of Ireland when Patrick landed, a captive upon its
shores, probably about the year 427 a.d., and having given
a rapid view of his life afterward with an account of his
missionary tours in Ireland, we shall now sketch, as briefly
as we can, his chief characteristics, then his doctrines, and
afterward the nature and extent of the work he performed.
Everything that- is related of Patrick would lead us to
conclude that he had a fine personal presence, A person
of a noble and commanding appearance, whose sanctified
162

PATRICK'S CHIEF CHARACTERISTICS. 163
and loving spirit manifests itself in every feature of his
face, in every word of his lips, and in every gesture of his
hand, has a passport to the good-will and favor of others.
Patrick had most likely such a combination of physical
graces, and this would greatly aid him in his intercourse
with others. He is portrayed in traditionary lore as a
person of attractive, venerable, dignified appearance. The
majesty of love and truth pervaded his looks. His portly
frame, his open, manly, and pleasant countenance, with an
imposing manner, gave him special elements of usefulness.
And his ardent piety shining through his comely features
would be to many a means of grace, while his noble pres
ence would tend to awe and subdue the ignorant and
superstitious with whom he came in contact. His very
appearance, therefore, was in his favor, lending a charm
to his words and gaining an entrance to the heart.
Patrick had a powerful intellect and a high order of
eloquence. The account of God given by_Patrick in the
story of his interview with King Laoghaire's daughters is
profound, exact, and astonishing, and was well fitted to
interest listening thousands and to move a whole nation.
So also is his definition of the Three-One God contained
in his " Confession." The man who could so comprehend
these great verities of the Christian faith and clothe them
in such lucid, beautiful words, deserves to be placed in the
front rank of intellectual and eloquent men.
Patrick's wisdom and prudence were conspicuous in his
work. Irish society, as we have seen, consisted of tribes
and clans, with a chief or a petty king at the head of each.
A number of these tribes composed a province, with a king

164 THE STORY OF ST. PATRICK.
governing this larger community. Of these provinces
there were five, with a king exercising sovereign domin
ion over all. These kings were almost autocratic in their
influence and power within the domain of each, and Pat
rick, knowing their influence, took advantage of it and
planned his missionary campaigns accordingly. Patrick
sought an opportunity to preach the gospel first to the
king of a province, and even to the supreme king of Ire
land. He knew that when a leading chief received the
gospel, his subjects would become interested in its exam
ination, and many would accept the Saviour. It accord
ingly occurred that when Dubthach Maccu-Lugair, " king-
poet of Ireland and of the supreme king," received the
Saviour by faith, the gospel obtained a victory over the
culture and inteUigence of Ireland, and tidings of this
convert to the Christian faith reached and influenced in
some measure the most ignorant swineherd in the land.
While Patrick knew that the soul of a swineherd was as
precious as that of a king, he also knew that the conver
sion of the king's soul might influence thousands toward
Jesus, while that of the swineherd would make little im
pression on the community. The conversion of nobles
often tends to turn the thoughts of the lower grades of
society to Him who is the Maker of all and the only
Saviour. To facilitate his missionary labors Patrick
therefore wisely embraced the earliest opportunity to
present the claims of Jesus to the civil, literary, and legal
chiefs of Ireland.
Patrick was a lover of learning, and established educa
tional and theological schools. We have seen how he

PATRICK'S CHIEF CHARACTERISTICS. 165
lamented and apologized for his own defective education ;
and while he avaUed himself of whatever assistance he
could obtain from any quarter to help him in his work, he
early felt the necessity of training a native ministry. He
therefore constituted a " household " on a large scale, into
which were gathered aU his assistants, to whom were
aUotted certain work in teaching and preaching according
to their ability, qualiflcations, and tact. Some of these,
while engaged in this household in instructing others at
certain hours, at other times followed various occupations
— domestic, mechanical, agricultural, ecclesiastical, literary,
legal, and nautical. These were all Patrick's agents who
conducted an educational, theological, and missionary in
stitution, which aimed to supply the country with minis
ters and teachers. Secundinus, the most scholarly man
among Patrick's followers, was, we are told, at the head
of this school, and Brogan was the name of its scribe, who
lectured on theology, made addresses that were written
and circulated, and made copies of the works of others.
Patrick in his "Letter to Coroticus" speaks of a "holy
presbyter whom he had taught from his infancy " in this
seminary, whose chief object was the instruction of minis
ters for the Irish church, and where Patrick himself lived
when at home.
This household coUege of Patrick was continually bless
ing the churches which he founded with able and con
secrated ministers. In visiting these churches, he took
graduates of his college mth him, and left one here and
two there, and seven at another place, as the necessities of
the fleld required, and he would send pastors and preach-

166 THE STORY OF ST. PATRICK.
ers wherever there were openings. In this way Patrick's
college did an immense good as well as in the general in
struction of young converts.
His perseverance was very remarkable. He naturally
partook of the characteristics of an ancient Briton. He
was mercurial in temperament and was impulsive, ready-
witted, easily moved to grief or joy, but he held these
traits in proper control, and was also cool, deliberate, cling
ing to the work, though for the time unsuccessful, un
promising, and confronted with many difficulties. These
difficulties often weighed upon his spirits, bowed his soul
in tearful, supplicating grief before God, but the Holy
Spirit wiped away his tears and cheered him by impress
ing upon his heart such a text as this, " Be not weary in
well-doing, for in due season you shall reap, if you faint
not." This cheering, upholding support of God's Spirit
caused Patrick to continue his seemingly useless assaults
upon the defiant front that Irish heathenism often pre
sented. Having this continuous support of the Divine
Spirit, Patrick persevered until at last the ranks of pa
ganism were broken, and its army routed, leaving God's
chosen champion to unfurl the flag of Calvary over all
Ireland. Patrick was a man of great courage. To prove this, we
might cite several instances in which he displayed daring
as conspicuous as that of David, Luther, or Paul. Soon
after his arrival in Ireland as a missionary, he determined
to visit his old master Milchu, at Slemish Mountain in
County Antrim. This Milchu was a desperate man, at
the head of a numerous tribe of warriors, whose fathers.

PATRICK'S CHIEF CHARACTERISTICS. I67
as weU as themselves, were constantly engaged in daring
exploits, and who had never permitted even the soldiers
of Imperial Rome to land on the coast of Ireland. To
him, to his subjects, and to all his neighbors, Patrick was
but a fugitive slave, prompted by insolence in attempt
ing to visit his former master. Patrick, it is said, carried
with him money to pay his late master for the loss of his
servitude, as well as to proclaim to Milchu his own re
demption by the blood of Christ; but, though from his
former knowledge of Milchu Patrick had reason to fear
the loss of all the earthly valuables he carried, and also
.immediate enslavement or cruel death, yet as he was going
,0 preach Christ to him and to secure the salvation of his
old master's family, which he accompUshed, our missionary
feared nothing. And how sad his heart must have felt,
when, coming in sight of Milchu's house, he saw the con
flagration that destroyed its owner and his home, into
which he had gathered all his treasures, and which he
had set on flre to escape the visit of his fugitive swine
herd. Another instance of Patrick's daring courage was given
in his acceptance of an invitation to visit a desperate rep
robate named MacCuil, an Ulsterman, who is described as
an impious, cruel tyrant, depraved in thought, outrageous
in words, malicious in deeds, bitter in spirit, cross in soul,
wicked in body, fierce in mind, a heathen in life, savage
in conscience, killing passing strangers with execrable
wickedness. It was the plan of this desperado to murder
Patrick when he came within his reach; but Patrick's
words were accompanied with the convincing, converting

168 THE STORY OF ST. PATRICK.
power of God's Spirit, and MacCuil was smitten with deep
repentance, believed, and was baptized. But the most
heroic effort of Patrick's life was probably his visit to
King Laoghaire at Tara, which is briefly described else
where, but is worthy of a more extended notice.
Patrick in his journey to Tara had fixed his temporary
resting-place on the hill of Slane, near Drogheda, where he
was surrounded by the cemetery containing the remains
of many royal pagans, and with the symbols of their liv
ing and powerful idolatry. Tara was in full view of Pat
rick's camping-place, and about nine miles distant. As
we have stated elsewhere, a great convention of the chief
nobles of Ireland met at stated intervals at Tara, to attend
to the public business of the whole island, and to enjoy. a
series of feasts. The night after Patrick's arrival at Slane
was one of the dates of a great festival at Tara. Kings,
governors, generals, princes, and nobles of the people, ma
gicians, soothsayers, enchanters, and the inventors and
teachers of all art and science, were caUed together at this
time by King Laoghaire. These latter came to practise
their enchantments, magical devices, and idolatrous super
stitions. The congregated followers of these were ex
ceedingly numerous. The feast of Easter had arrived,
and was regarded in that day as the greatest festival that
ever existed. On the eve of its celebration, lamps were
lighted or fires kindled. Patrick resolved to celebrate
Easter, aud he kindled the fire. It was seen at Tara, and
created there great indignation ; for, as we have seen,
there was a custom proclaimed by edict of the king, that
the soul should perish from the people who lighted a fire

PATRICK'S CHIEF CHARACTERISTICS. 169
anywhere in any of those regions on that night, before it
was kindled in the palace of Tara.
Laoghaire, the king, was greatly disturbed by Patrick's
violation of the legal custom of Tara, and the lawless act
must be punished. Nine carriages were prepared for the
king's party ; the two magicians, Lucatemail and Lochru,
were added, for the attack on Patrick in the presence of
all the nobles. When Laoghaire came to the place where
Patrick was, he was called out from the position of his
Easter fire to the king. When he appeared before the king,
he was enraged, his nobles were indignant, the magicians
were full of malice, and all seemed ready to destroy the
apparently helpless preacher of the gospel. But the brave
missionary looked at the carriages and their horses, and
felt more powerful than the king of Tara with all Ireland
to help him, and with heart and lips sang the appropriate
words of the psalm, " Some trust in chariots and some in
horses, but we wiU remember the name of our God." Only
one of the king's retinue. Ere, rose at Patrick's approach,,
who, as the servant of Christ, blessed him, and Ere believed
in Christ as the Saviour, and in the everlasting God. It is
said that the magicians spoke abusively of Patrick's faith,
and all seemed ready to'rush upon him ; but Patrick arose,
and in a loud voice said : " Let God arise, let his enemies
be scattered, and let them that hate him fly from his face."
His powerful and desperate enemies seemed awed in the
presence of such a bold and courageous man, and all fled,
leaving Patrick, the king, queen, and two attendants. The
queen pleaded for her husband, who pretended conver
sion, but who tried to kill the missionary. He, however, ort

170 THE STORY OF ST. PATRICK.
the following day (Easter) — when the kings, princes, and
magicians were sitting at the national feast in the im
mense assembly hall of Tara with the chief king — ap
proached the scene of revelry with the boldness of a lion,
singing with his brethren the words of his famous hymn,
which we give elsewhere. As he entered the banquet
ing-haU to make an address before all the tribes of Hi
bernia upon the holy faith, he seemed like inviting death
from thousands of blood-stained reprobates. Laoghaire
the king, and many others, it is reported, believed — some
through fear, others with saving faith. Thus Patrick
secured a great victory at Tara, which in a large measure
opened Ireland to the gospel, and he often spoke of his un
bounded gratitude for the grace that enabled him to lead
such numbers to Jesus.
Patrick possessed a great advantage from his acquain
tance with the Irish language. It is sometimes assumed
that as a Briton his language was identical with that of
Hibernia. The Britons, being under the Romans for so
many years, spoke the Latin tongue, while the inhabi
tants of Ireland retained the old original Celtic language.
Time and separation made great changes in the language
of the nationalities. Our apostle, by such a providential
occurrence as sent Joseph into Egypt to provide for his
kindred and the subjects of King Pharaoh in the coming
famine, was carried into Ireland in his youth, and detained
there six years, that he might learn its language thor
oughly, and that he might be able to preach Christ with
irresistible eloquence in the Celtic language to the Celtic
people.

PATRICK'S CHIEF CHARACTERISTICS. I7I
He also had a remarkable influence over those whom
he met ; a magnetic power to draw their affections to him
self and their hearts to his Master. His followers held
him in the highest reverence while he lived, and loved
him after his death next to the gracious Redeemer, There
were no divisions among his foUowers, however numerous
they became. He was the recognized superintendent of
his many churches, whose members bestowed his name
upon their children ; and though he has been dead more
than fourteen centuries, he still lives in milUons of Celtic
hearts in Ireland and in other lands, and many of their
children, schools, and churches stUl bear his honored name.
Patrick was distinguished for the very low estimate he
placed upon his own literary qualiflcations. "Hence I
blush to-day," he writes in his " Confession," " and greatly
fear to expose my unskilfulness, because not being elo
quent, I cannot express myself with clearness and brev
ity, not even as the Spirit and the mind and the endowed
understanding can point out. . . . But I would not,
however, be silent, because of the recompense. And if,
perhaps, it appears to some that I put myself forward
in this matter with my ignorance and slower tongue, it
is, however, written : ' Stammering tongues shall learn
quickly to speak peace.' How much more ought we to
aim at this — we who are ' the epistle of Christ,' for ' salva
tion unto the ends of the earth.' And if not eloquent, yet
powerful and very strong 'written in your hearts,' 'not
with ink,' it is testified, but ' by the Spirit of the living
God.' And I hope, likewise, that it will be thus in the
days of my oppression, as the Lord says in the gospel:

172 THE STORY OF ST. PATRICK.
'It is not you that speak, but the 'Spirit of your Fa
ther that speaketh in you ; ' wherefore I give unwearied
thanks to my God, who has kept me faithful in the day
of my temptation, so that I may to-day confidently offer
myself to Christ, my Lord, as a sacrifice, a living vic
tim, who saved me from all my difficulties, so that I may
say: Who am I, Lord? and what is my vocation, that to
me thou hast cooperated by such divine grace with me.
. . . Behold we are witnesses that the gospel has been
preached everywhere, in places where there is no man
beyond." Patrick was distinguished for the modesty with which
he gave an account of the marvelous success of his mis
sion. This is the way in which he speaks of it : "It be
hooves me to distinguish without shrinking from danger,
to make known the gift of God, and his everlasting con
solation, and, without fear, to spread everywhere the name
of God, in order that even after my death I may leave it
as a bequest to my brethren and to my sons, whom I have
baptized in the Lord — so many thousand men. And I
was not worthy or deserving that the Lord should grant
this to his servant, that after going through affiictions,
and so many difficulties after captivity, after many years,
he should grant me so great favor among that nation
which, when I was yet in youth, I never hoped for nor
thought of . . . .
" Whence then has it come to pass that in Ireland, they
who never had any knowledge, and until now have only
worshiped idols and unclean things, have lately become
a people of the Lord and are called the sons of God I Sons

PATRICK'S CHIEF CHARACTERISTICS. I73
of the Scots, and daughters of chieftains are seen to be
sons and daughters of Christ. . . . Not my grace, but God
indeed hath put this desire into my heart, that I should
be one of the hunters or fishers whom of old God prom
ised before, in the last days. ... I am envied. What
shall I do ? Behold ! ravening wolves have swallowed up
the flock of the Lord, which everywhere in Ireland was
increasing with the greatest diligence, and the sons of the
Scots, and the daughters of the princes are monks, sons
and virgins of Christ, in numbers I cannot enumerate."
We almost hear Patrick in these words repeat the words
of Holy Writ: "Not unto us, 0 Lord, not unto us, but
unto thy name be the glory."
Patrick was distinguished for his detestation of dishon
esty. In his epistle to Coroticus there is this paragraph :
" The Most High reprobates the gifts of the wicked. He
that offereth sacriflces of the gifts of the poor is as one
that sacrifices the son in the presence of the father. ' The
riches,' God says, ' which he will collect unjustly, shall be
vomited from his belly ; the Angel of Death shaU drag him
off ; the fury of dragons shall assail him ; the tongue of the
adder shall slay him ; the inextinguishable fire shall devour
him.' Therefore, woe unto those who fill themselves with
things that are not their own ; or, what shall it profit a
man, if he gain the whole world and suffer the loss of his
own soul?"
Patrick was distinguished for his simple honesty and
unworldly spirit. " I have endeavored," he writes in his
" Confession," " in some respects to serve even my Chris
tian brethren; and the virgins of Christ and religious

l74 THE STORY OF ST. PATRICK.
women, who have given me small voluntary gifts, and
have cast off some of their ornaments upon the altar, and
I used to return these to them, although they were of
fended with me because I did so. But I did it for the
hope of eternal life, in order to keep myself prudently in
everything, so that the unbelieving may not catch me in
any pretext, or the ministry of my service, and that even
in the smallest points I might not give the unbelievers
an occasion to defame or to depreciate me. But perhaps
because I have baptized so many thousand men, I might
have expected a scrapall [a coin equal to about five cents]
from some of them. TeU it to me, and I will restore it
to you ; or, when the Lord appointed clergy everywhere
through my humble ministry, I dispensed the rite gratui
tously. If I asked of any of them even the price of my
shoe, tell it against me, and I will restore it "you more.
I spent for you, that they might receive me ; and among
you and everywhere I traveled for your sake, amid many
perils, even to remote places, where there was no one be
yond, and where no one else ever penetrated, to baptize,
to appoint preachers, or to confirm the people. The Lord
granting it, I diligently and most cheerfully defrayed aU
things." Who, in reading these words of Patrick, is not reminded
both of the prophet Samuel and of the Apostle Paul ? The
former of whom made this appeal to the people of Israel :
" Behold, here I am : witness against me before the Lord,
and before his anointed: whose ox have I taken? or
whose ass have I taken? or whom have I defrauded?
whom have I oppressed? or of whose hand have I re-

PATRICK'S CHIEF CHARACTERISTICS. I75
ceived any bribe to blind mine eyes therewith? and I
wUl restore it you." (1 Sam. xii. 3.) And Paul said
(Acts XX. 33, 34) : " I have coveted no man's silver, or gold,
or apparel; yea, ye yourselves know, that these hands
have ministered unto my necessities, and to them that
were with me."
Patrick was distinguished for a genuine missionary
spirit. When he sailed for Ireland to preach the gospel,
that country had many British slaves engaged in the
lowest occupation, and suffering the greatest hardships.
His old master wanted to seize him and to enslave him
again. Petty wars, piracy, tyranny, and idolatry were
rampant all over the island, but the intrepid Patrick, in
the name of Jesus, fearlessly entered upon his work, and
pursued it for half a century or more, until all Ireland
was nominally Christian, though its entire people were
not converted. He presents his missionary plan in his
" Confession " when he writes : " Therefore it is necessary
to spread our nets, so that a large multitude and throng
may be taken for God." There never was a foreign mis
sionary whose heart embraced a wider field, and whose
labors among pagan barbarians were more successful in
the conversion of souls, among whom also he planted such
a missionary spirit as led them to complete his unfinished
work in Ireland, and to send missionaries to Caledonia,
to the pagan Anglo-Saxons, and in unparaUeled numbers
to many other European countries.
Of his call to the ministry and of the spirit in which
he prosecuted his work, he thus writes : " The divine re
sponse very frequently admonished me. His poor pupiL

176 THE STORY OF ST. PATRICK.
Whence came this wisdom to me, which was not in me —
I who neither knew the number of my days nor was ac
quainted with God? Whence came to me afterward the
gift so great, so beneficial, to know God and to love him ;
that I should leave country, and parents, and many gifts
which were offered to me with weeping and tears. More
over, I offended, against my wish, many of my seniors ;
but God overruling, I by no means consented or complied
with them. It was not my grace, but God who conquered
me, and resisted them all, so that I came to the Irish peo
ple to preach the gospel, and to suffer insults from unbe
lievers, that I should listen to reproach about my wander
ings, and endure many persecutions, even to chains, and
that I should give up my noble birth for the benefit of
others." Writing to Coroticus, Patrick says: "I was a
freeman according to the flesh, having a decurion for my
father ; but I sold my nobility for the advantage of others
[Irish converts] and I am not ashamed nor grieved for
the act." Patrick's father, as we have seen, was a mem
ber of the Town Council of Dumbarton, one of the ten
Romano-British cities under the " Latian law," which in
vested him with this privilege. Patrick, as a native of
Dumbarton, was a Roman citizen of patrician rank. This
he sacrificed to preach to the Hibernians.
" I pray God that he may give me perseverance, and
count me worthy to render myself a faithful witness to
him, even till my departure, on account of my God whom
I love. I pray him to grant me, that with those prose
lytes and captives I may pour out my blood for his name's
sake, even althougli I myself may even be deprived of

PATRICK'S CHIEF CHARACTERISTICS. I77
burial, and my corpse most miserably be torn limb from
limb by dogs, or by wild beasts, or that the fowls of heaven
should devour it. I believe most certainly, if this should
happen to me, I shall have gained both soul and body.
Because, without any doubt, we shall rise in that day in
the brightness of the sun, that is, in the glory of Jesus
Christ our Redeemer, as sons of the living God and joint
heirs with Christ, and to be conformed to his image ; for
of him, and through him, and in him, we shall reign."
Patrick was distinguished for his love of souls. " I am
ready," he writes, "to lay down my life unhesitatingly
and most gladly for his name, and there, in Ireland, I
wish to spend it even till death, if the Lord permit. I
distributed among them not less than the hire of fifteen
men, so that you might enjoy me, and that I might always
enjoy you in the Lord. I do not regret it, nor is it enough
for me. I stiU spend and will spend for your souls. God
is mighty, and may he grant me that in future I may
spend myself for your souls. Behold, I call God to wit
ness upon my soul that I lie not! Wherefore may it
never happen to me, from my Lord, to lose his people
whom he has gained in the utmost parts of the earth."
His kindred loved him, and by " tears and gifts " tried to
prevent his entrance upon the duties and dangers of the
Irish mission ; but he had intense compassion for unsaved
souls. Urged forward by this compassion, he journeyed
through many dangers, and to the most remote places.
He was not satisfied until the last man in the most remote
part of the island had heard the gospel. To accomplish
this, he had to visit every bog shelter, mountain hut, and

178 THE STORY OF ST. PATRICK.
fisherman's cabin in the land. Incessant prayer for the
conversion of souls was his daily exercise. Like the well-
known prayer of John Knox, "Give me Scotland or I
die," so Patrick's heart was continually crying out to God,
" Give me Ireland or I die." And as a result God opened
the windows of heaven and poured out floods of convert
ing grace, so that Ireland in his day, while not entirely
without unbelievers, became a Christian island, and soon
after a school for the training of missionaries for many
lands. Patrick was distinguished for a tender and sympathetic
faith in the Irish people. He seems to have loved the
Irish as Paul loved the Galatians. His letter to Coroticus
might almost be placed beside a Pauline epistle. The
Irish are his dear children. He yearns over them, prays
over them, trains them, fosters them, educates them, and
believes in their wondrous capabilities under the action
of divine grace. In this respect he was an example for
every preacher and every Christian worker. He was a
stranger in Ireland, and was surrounded with influences
which at times might seem to demonize him. He worked
amid clans torn by intestine wars, and burning with mu
tual hatred. It might appear to be in vain for him to
preach the doctrines of free grace to such a population ;
but though he may have preached long with only partial
success, he was patient, and tender, and persevering in his
work, and at length that work told, and at the close of his
patriarchal life, the country whose people he loved, and for
whom he was willing to lay down his life, was studded with
Christian churches.

PATRICK'S CHIEF CHARACTERISTICS. I79
Patrick was distinguished for his intense realization of
a future state of rewards and punishments. " Although
I am in many respects imperfect," are his words, " I wish
my brethren and acquaintances to know my disposition,
that they may be able to comprehend the wish of my
soul. I am not ignorant of the testimony of the Lord,
who witnesses in the psalm, 'Thou shalt destroy those
that speak a lie.' And again, ' The mouth that belieth
killeth the soul." And the same Lord says in the gospel :
' The idle word that men shall speak, they shall render an
account for it in the day of judgment.' Therefore I ought
earnestly, with fear and trembling, to dread this sentence
in that day, when no one shall be able to withdraw him
self or to hide, but when we all together shall render ac
count of even the smallest of our sins before the tribunal
of Jesus Christ. And he has given to him all power,
above every name of those that are in heaven, on earth,
and under the earth, that every tongue should confess to
him, that Jesus Christ is Lord and God, in whom we be
Ueve, and expect his coming to be ere long the Judge of
the Uving and of the dead, who will render to every one
according to his deeds. Because, without doubt, we shaU
rise in that day in the brightness of the sun — that is, in
the glory of Jesus Christ our Redeemer — as ' sons of the
living God' and 'joint heirs with Christ'; for that sun
which we behold at God's command rises daily for us ; but
it shaU never reign, nor shall its splendor continue ; but all
that even worship it — miserable beings — shaU wretchedly
come to punishment. But we who believe and adore the
true Sun, Jesus Christ, wUl never perish, neither shaU they

180 THE STORY OF ST. PATRICK.
who do his will, but shall continue forever, as Christ con
tinues forever, who reigns with God the Father Almighty,
and with the Holy Spirit, before the ages, and now, and
through all the ages of ages. Amen.
" Ye therefore shaU reign with the apostles and prophets
and martyrs, and obtain the eternal kingdom, as He him
self witnesses, saying: 'They shaU come from the east
and from the west, and shall sit down with Abraham and
Isaac and Jacob, in the kingdom of heaven. Without are
dogs, and sorcerers, and murderers, and liars, and perju
rers ; their part is in the lake of eternal fire,' "
He only in a general honest thought.
And common good to all, made one of them.
His life was gentle ; and the elements
So mix'd in him, that Nature might stand up.
And say to all the world, " This was a man ! "
Shakespeare,

CHAPTER XXVII.
PATRICK'S SCRIPTURAL KNOWLEDGE.
Most wondrous Book ! bright candle of the Lord !
Star of Eternity ! The only star
By which the bark of man could navigate
The sea of life and gain the coast of bliss securely. Pollock.
Patrick's writings give unmistakable evidence that he
was trained to read the Bible in his childhood, and to store
his memory with its language. It would have been well-
nigh impossible for him to so familiarize himself with its
language in after years if he had not packed his memory
with it in his youth. The Word of God must have dwelt
richly within him in the springtime of his Ufe ; and hence
there was such fruitage of it in his writings in his older
days, John Ruskin, that master- writer of English prose,
says that when he was a boy, his mother compelled him
to memorize chapter after chapter of the Old Testament,
particularly the Psalms, and chapter after chapter of
the New Testament; and whatever he wrote after was
fiUed with qtiotations from the Bible. As you can taste
the June clover in the sweet countiy butter, so you can
taste the Bible in the writings of John Ruskin, And as
Irish butter partakes of the scent of the daisy-field in
181

182 THE STORY OF ST. PATRICK.
which the cows pastured, so Patrick's language, every
where, is perfumed with the green pastures of God's Word,
in which he fed, lay, and rose, and which he afterward
esteemed more than his necessary food.
Patrick was not a writer of books, much less of syste-
itfatic theological treatises. The writings, genuine and au
thentic, that have come down to us, are comprised in less
than ten thousand words. The most important is a short
apology for one so insignificant as he was presuming to
come to Ireland as a missionary. Another is a spirited
and at tiines scathing letter of remonstrance to a petty
Welsh prince, who, while professing to be a Christian,
inflicted massacre, rapine, and robbery on some Irish
Christians, and carried many away captive. And the
third is a hymn, which is called his breastplate or armor,
and full of earnest gospel truth. We cannot expect to
flnd much theology in such brief documents. Yet as
Patrick was an earnest Christian man whose heart was
in every word he wrote, it is wonderful what insight even
these fragments afford us of the innermost thought of the
Irish apostle on the gi-eat Christian verities.
We come, in this fact, upon one secret of the extraor
dinary power and influence of his teaching. It had its
root in, and drew its inspiration and vitalizing force from,
his personal experience of the saving power of God's Word.
What he had seen and touched and handled and experienced
of the Word of Life, that declared he to men. And, as it
was this that gave life and power to his doctrine when he
preached it, it is not less from this that it derives its
interest for us to-day.

PATRICK'S SCRIPTURAL KNOWLEDGE. 183
In reading these writings of Patrick, we have been so
much impressed by his familiarity with God's Word, that
we have gone carefully over them, and flnd that he has
quoted 61 times from 18 books of the Old Testament, and
131 times from 22 books of the New Testament, and has
used 5 quotations from 3 books of the Apocrypha. Indeed,
whole pages of his writings consist of quotations from
the Bible. Even when there is no quotation, he speaks
in the language of Scripture. God's Word seems to have
been his chief study; for in his genuine works there is no
reference whatever to any human authority, except the
few verses that are quoted from the Apocrypha. It is
worthy of note here that the old Brehon Laws, some of
which we have elsewhere quoted, deflne the respective
rights both of the clergy and of the laity ; and among
the rights expressly guaranteed to the latter was " the re
cital of the Word of God to all who listen to it and keep
it." Thus was this time-honored right — the right to God's
most precious Word — secured to the people of Ireland in
ancient Irish law.
Patrick was, undoubtedly, a giant in the Scriptures, and
he taught his followers to search the Scriptures. His own
writings are thoroughly imbued with the phraseology of
God's Word, and an early Roman Catholic writer teUs us
that Patrick used to read the Bible to the people and ex
plain it to them for days and nights together. Patrick's
quotations accord, in a great measure, with a version
of the Bible caUed the Itala, in use before the Vulgate
version was made by Jerome. It is likely he often quoted
Scripture from memory, and not always with verbal ac-

184 THE STORY OF ST. PATRICK.
curacy. It may be interesting, as a proof of Patrick's
love for the Scriptures, to state that there is a remarkable
antiquarian " silver shrine," inclosing a copy of the Four
Gospels in Latin, which for many, many years belonged to
the monastery of Clones, County Monaghan, Ireland, and
now among the most prized treasures of the Royal Irish
Academy in Dublin, which, it is highly probable, was the
veritable copy of the Gospels used by Patrick himself dur
ing his devotions. The manuscript is, unfortunately, for
the most part, a solid opaque mass, with only portions of it
legible. Facsimiles of some of its leaves have been printed
and published.
We cannot read a page Of Patrick's writings without
perceiving that we are in the presence of another Apol
los, one mighty in the Scriptures, a genuine teacher and
preacher of Jesus Christ. He held to the Bible and to the
Bible alone, knowing that its truths are sanctifying and
saving, and that to attempt to lead a holy life without the
Bible is like attempting to build a castle out of clouds, or
to weave canvas out of threads of gossamer. Oh, that
we had some one with the fervid, heaven-taught spirit of
Patrick, who, with Bible in hand, would go through these
United States as Patrick paced the provinces of that
"green isle of the ocean," to evangelize his own warm,
fond admirers here, to teach them biblical truth, and
drive out everything that loveth and maketh a lie.
It is said that in the neighborhood of Clonmel there is
a beautiful well in a secluded valley, called St, Patrick's
weU, Clear, sparkling water, cool and pure, bubbles up
all the year round from the hidden depths of the earth,

PATRICK'S SCRIPTURAL KNOWLEDGE. 185
and flows away from the lip of the well, down to the
vaUey into a large stagnant pool which it feeds. The
water in the weU is ever fresh and beautiful ; but when
it flows into the sedge and slime and weeds of the pond,
it loses its Umpidity and becomes muddy and dark. On
St, Patrick's day, every year, crowds of pilgrims, whom
superstition attracts to the well, go there to drink, in hopes
that they wiU be healed of disease or protected from dan
ger, A correct instinct keeps them away from the murky,
malerial pond down in the vaUey. That weU in its spark
ling purity is, in parable, the faith which Patrick preached
and practised. The stagnant pool is that faith corrupted
and darkened in the course of the centuries. That well
js the pure gospel of Jesus Christ, the gi-and doctrine of
grace, and faith, and holiness, and eternal Ufe, through
God's love in Christ, and the operations of the Holy Spir
it. Would that all people, of whatever name or nation,
had the spiritual instinct to pass up from the pond and
repair to the Fountainhead. Here are the heahng waters,
and here is the fountain, over which the invitation of the
prophet is written, " Ho ! Every one that thirsteth, come
ye to the waters." Blessed Bible ! How I love it !
How it doth my bosom cheer !
What hath earth like this to covet ?
Oh what stores of wealth are here !
Man was lost and doomed to sorrow.
Not one ray of light or bliss
Could he from earth's treasure borrow,
'Till his way was cheered by this !
Palmer,

CHAPTER XXVIII.
PATRICK'S DOCTRINES.
Jesus, Saviour, pilot me.
Over Uf e's tempestuous sea ;
Unknown waves before me roll.
Hiding rock and treacherous shoal ;
Chart and compass come from thee :
Jesus, Saviour, pilot me.
What Patrick's authoritative standard of doctrine and
life was is clear and certain, as revealed in his writings.
He knew no standard of appeal but Scripture. For him
the supreme source of authority was no human person,
no tradition, and no church council, but Holy Writ alone.
The only rule to which he refers for direction, whether in
doctrine or duty, was the Word of God. He perpetually
appeals to it, his familiarity with it is remarkable, he
interweaves it skilfully with his exhortations and remarks.
He was, on this account, characterized as the man of " the
Holy Book." When he founded a church, one present
he was accustomed to make to it was the Books of the
Law and the Books of the Gospel.
The expression of his faith in the sacred Trinity, given
in his " Confession," takes very much the form of a creed.
It immediately follows a reference to his conversion, and
is, in fact, a warm outpouring of his faith in God. Here
186

PATRICK'S DOCTRINES. 187
are his words: "Because there is no other God, neither
ever was, neither before, nor shall be hereafter, except God
the Father, unbegotten, without beginning, from whom
is aU beginning, upholding all things, as we have said,
and his Son, Jesus Christ, whom, indeed, with the Father,
we testify to have always been, before the origin of the
world, spiritually with the Father, in an inexplicable
manner begotten before all beginning, and by himself
were made the things visible and invisible, and was made
man; and death having been vanquished, was received
into the heavens to the Father. And he has given to him
all power, above every name, of those that are in heaven,
on earth, and under the earth, that every tongue should
confess to him that Jesus Christ is Lord and God, in whom
we believe, and expect his coming to be ere long the ' Judge
of the living and the dead,' ' who shall render to every man
according to his deeds.' And he hath poured upon us
abundantly the Holy Spirit, a gift and pledge of immor
tality; who makes the faithful and obedient to become
sons of God and joint heirs with Christ, whom we con
fess and adore, one God in the Holy Trinity of the sacred
name." His creed stands out before us in his writings both clear
and terse. The doctrine of the Trinity, as we have seen,
is in the forefront of his faith. The opening pages of his
" Confession " are illumined with its statement, and it is
woven into the texture of his Hymn as its very substance
and life. He taught the unity in Trinity, and won the
Irish people from polytheism, idolatry, and druidical su
perstition. He taught the Trinity in unity, and unfolded

188 THE STORY OF ST. PATRICK.
the great cardinal doctrines of grace — the Father's love,
the Son's sacrifice, and the Spirit's regenerating work.
This rich cluster of scriptural truths formed the ground
work of his creed. And whatever errors may have crept
into the creed of many inhabitants of the Emerald Isle
since, the simple faith which the shamrock illustrated in
Patrick's hand is still the faith of the Irish people. They
still beUeve in the Trinity.
Patrick's teaching of the way of salvation was strictly
evangelical. This he iUustrates by his own case. Here
are his words :
" I was, as it were, a stone lying in the deep mire, and
He that is mighty came, and in his mercy raised me up,
and placed me on top of the wall. . . . He took me from
the midst of those who seemed wise and leamed and
mighty in speech, and inspired me, fool that I am, and
despised by the world, that I should, with fear and rever
ence and without a murmur, be useful to the nation to
which I was dedicated by the loving will of Christ." He
laments his want of education ; he had had good teachers,
but he had neglected them. He deplores his want of suit
able language to express what he has in his heart; but
the Lord had pity on his ignorance and low estate. " He
guarded me before I knew him, or could distinguish be
tween good and evil. He admonished me and comforted
me, as a father does a son." In another place he alludes
to sore trials and unworthy accusations which he had
endured, and breaks forth in a strain of heartfelt grati
tude : " Unwearied thanks I render to my God, who has
kept me faithful in the day of my temptation, so that now

PATRICK'S DOCTRINES. 189
I offer my soul a living sacrifice to my Lord, who pre
served me in all my distresses. Who am I, Lord, that
thou shouldst reveal to me so much of thy divine power ?
So that to this day I have exalted and magnified thy Name
in every place where I have been, in prosperity and ad
versity, in every event, good or bad. Thanks be to God,
who heard my prayer and gave me courage to attempt a
work so pious and so wonderful."
Patrick believed in conversion by the sovereign grace and
Spirit of God. In the first chapter of his " Confession " he
gives an account of the commencement of the divine life in
his soul. These are his words : " The Lord opened to me the
knowledge of my unbelief, that even late I might remem
ber my sins, and turn to my Lord with my whole heart."
This statement reminds a Bible-reader at once of the
account given by Luke in Acts xvi. 14 of the conversion
of Lydia, " whose heart the Lord opened, that she attended
unto the things which were spoken of Paul."
Farther on in his " Confession " Patrick also writes, " He
hath poured out upon us abundantly the Holy Spirit, the
gift and assurance of immortality, which causes men to
believe and to become obedient, that they might be sons of
God and joint heirs with Christ." Surely here is as clear a
statement as any one can require that Patrick believed
that faith, obedience, sonship with God, and the assurance
of immortaUty, all come exclusively from the outpouring
of the Spirit upon the unsaved.
One striking iUustration that Irish divines of that day
believed that men were naturally under the control of sin
and needed God's grace and truth, is the foUowing : " As a

190 THE STORY OF ST. PATRICK.
man in the dark, though he possesses the ability to see
with his eyes, yet sees nothing till light comes from with
out, so it is with the corrupt wiU till the light of divine
mercy shines upon it."
Patrick believed in the atoning character of Christ's
death. In the vision of which he teUs us, that he had
relating to his mission to the pagan Hibernians, he
heard these words, which he records in his " Confession " :
" He who gave himself for thee is he who speaks to thee."
This earnest man undoubtedly thought that Christ uttered
these words when he appeared to him in that vision. The
Saviour's gift of his life, as it is expressed, shows that, in
Patrick's opinion, Christ died as his substitute on the
cross; and in Fiacc's hymn, which was written in the
eighth century, in which the leading incidents of Patrick's
life are related, the author writes of our missionary thus :
"He preached for threescore years Christ's cross to the
iribes of the Hibernians. The blood of Calvary was the
theme of Patrick's preaching, and of his followers for some
ages after him."
Patrick taught that the Lord's Supper was emblematical
of Christ's body and blood, and that both bread and wine
were to be partaken by communicants.
This was the doctrine of John Scotus even in the ninth
century, viz., that the Eucharist was a remembrancer of
the Saviour's body and blood — the symbols of the absent
body and blood of Christ. This was entirely agreeable to
the belief of the church in primitive times and the doc
trine of the fathers. This was the belief of the ancient
British and Irish Christians, as it was at first of aU be-

PATRICK'S DOCTRINES. 191
lievers. Communion in both kinds was the practice of
the early Irish church and of the church universal for
centuries after Patrick's time. This is the true interpre
tation of the statement made by Patrick to the daughters
of King Laoghaire who were converted through his in
structions. " Ye cannot see Christ unless ye first taste of
death, or unless ye receive Christ's body and his blood."
This statement unquestionably represents the practice of
St. Patrick and of the Irish church for ages. The body
and blood are the bread and wine of the Lord's Supper,
which are spoken of by the Saviour as his body and
blood, because they are figures of them, and in the inci
dent referred to both were given to the daughters of an
Irish king. Patrick taught the way of salvation by faith
in Christ alone.
In the earUest Christian writers of Ireland there is no
hint given of any intercessor but Christ. They rejoiced
in justification by faith alone, and continuaUy insisted
upon holy hearts and lives. In a brief reference to Pat
rick's sermon before Laoghaire the king and nobles of
Tara, in Muirchus's " Life of Patrick," written in the sev
enth century, it is stated that when Patrick appeared be
fore this distinguished assembly, Dubbthac, the chief poet,
alone among the Gentiles arose to his honor ; and he first
on that day believed in God, and it was "imputed unto him
for righteousness," or justification. Justification by faith
was held with the strictest purity by Patrick and by many
Celtic believers in Britain and Ireland at this period.
These doctrines, and others revealed in God's Word,
were aU held and taught by Patrick and his successors for

192 THE STORY OF ST. PATRICK.
many years in Ireland. He recognized that God was the
source of all grace through Jesus. Christ alone. He felt
that God had come to him at Slemish as he did to Jacob
at Bethel, where he had a vision of angels and heard en
couraging words, and which he ever afterward knew as
Bethel, the house of God ; and Patrick, after his vision and
encouraging call to mission work, looked on the Slemish
mountain side as the scene of God's grace, where, like the
prodigal, he came to himself and said, " I will arise and go
to my Father;" This led him to a constant reliance upon
the grace and Spirit of God. He wrote in his "Confes
sion," " I can accomplish nothing unless my Lord himself
should give it to me. It was not my gi-ace, but God, who
overcame me, that I should come to the Hibernian nations
to preach the gospel." " Therefore I am much indebted to
God who gave me such great grace that many were bom
again of God."
These doctrines held and preached led him to a life of
personal humility before God, The scriptural doctrine of
sin and of expiation by Christ, which Patrick held, pro
duced this fruit in his soul. He was humble and meek as
a little child before God. A sweet spirit of self-abasement
breathes everywhere through his writings. " I am noth
ing," he seems everywhere to say — " Christ is everything."
This is what he felt, and this is what he wrote. He was
therefore distinguished for his simple and unaffected
piety. His language everywhere betokens this spirit — such
language as this: "I believe I was aided by Christ my
Lord, and his Spirit was then crying out for me." He was

PATRICK'S DOCTRINES. 193
consequently one of the humblest men that ever lived.
After he had wielded an infiuence in Ireland greater than
any man who preceded him, and at his death looking back
on the wonderful missionary work he had accomplished, he
uses expressions indicating the grea^test lowliness of mind.
It was the belief in these doctrines also that caused his
unselfishness to shine conspicuously throughout his genu
ine writings. He certainly owed nothing to the people in
Ireland to whom he came to preach Christ, and for at least
fifty years he labored night and day among them without
pecuniary reward.
Patrick never speaks of any mediator but Christ, who is
all-sufficient. He speaks of him in his " Confession " as
our " Redeemer, who gave his life for us," and in his Epis
tle to Coroticus as " He who was crucified and put to death
for his people." And in his Hymn he speaks of the " virtue
of his intercession. and of the ineffable glory of that peren
nial life which is in Christ Jesus our Lord." Patrick
declares in the same Hymn what he needs to protect him
in every peril is " Christ within him, Christ before him,"
etc., and closes that Hymn with the words.
Salvation is the Lord's ;
Salvation is the Lord's ;
Salvation is Christ's.
Let thy salvation, O Lord, be ever with us !
In teaching salvation by faith in Christ and in him
alone, he was particularly fond of quoting the Scripture,
" He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved, but he
that believeth not shall be condemned." He urgently in
sisted also upon the necessity of regeneration and sanctifi-

194 THE STORY OF ST. PATRICK.
cation by the Holy Spirit. He refers to the new birth
again and again, and speaks of "many people through
him having been born to' God^' ; whUe he represents the
Christian life as a " living sacrifice," a complete consecra
tion of ourselves to God which, however, divine grace can
alone enable us to offer. Nor was his teaching about the
observance of the Sabbath and the worship of God less
strict. In the early Irish church this day was devoted to
the divine service, and its sanctity most strictly guarded.
By the ancient Brehon Law the people were required to
give "eveiy seventh day of the year to the service of
God," This is really the requirement of the fourth com
mandment of the Decalogue, and it is stated in an early
life of St, Patrick that from vespers on Saturday night
until the third hour on Monday, Patrick did not travel
from place to place on the seventh day, but stayed where he
was, and Saturday night was observed as a part of Sun
day. The early Irish Christians would not work on Sun
day, and Patrick insisted on a total cessation of all labor.
Wherever his foUowers and disciples were when they heard
the sound of the vesper-beU on Saturday, they instantly
ceased working, and remained wherever they were till
Monday morning, spending the whole of the Lord's Day
in reUgious services.
Image worship, as well as the worship of saints or
angels, was peremptorily forbidden, and those were con
demned who thought they had found out a way " whereby
the invisible God might be worshiped by a visible image,"
and it was expressly taught that "to adore any other besides
the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, is the crime of

PATRICK'S DOCTRINES. 195
impiety." There is no mention in Patrick's teaching of
auricular confession, invocation of saints, purgatory, or
any of the distinctive dogmas of the Romish church.
None of these had a place in the creed of St, Patrick or in
the teaching of the early Irish church.
Meek, simple foUowers of the Lamb,
They lived and spake and thought the same !
Brake the commemorative bread.
And drank the Spirit of their Head,
On God they cast their every care ;
Wrestling with God in mighty prayer.
They claimed the grace through Jesus given ;
By prayer they shut and opened heaven.
To Jesus they performed their vows,
A little church in every house ;
They joyfuUy conspired to raise
Their ceaseless sacrifice of praise.

CHAPTER XXIX.
THE RISE OF MONASTICISM.
A little holy hermitage it was,
Down in a dale, hard by a forest side,
Far from resort of people that did pass
In travel to and fro ; a little wide
There was an holy chapel edifyde.
Wherein the hermit duly wont to say
His holy things each morn and eventide ;
There, by a crystal stream, did geiitly play.
Which from a sacred fountain welled forth alway.
Spenser.
Before we attempt to delineate the church founded by
Patrick in Ireland, it will aid in the understanding of some
of its peculiarities if we briefiy sketch the origin and
progress of monasticism, that characterized many of the
early churches of Christianity.
Paul, a native of the Lower Thebais, in Egypt, is gen
erally regarded as the first Christian hermit ; and it is cer
tain that he was, at least, the most distinguished of the
age in which he lived. Mild, modest, learned, and emi
nently pious, he fled into the desert, a.d. 251, to escape the
bloody persecution of the Emperor Decius. Finding there,
in a rock, some spacious caverns, which were said to have
been the retreat of money-coiners in former days, he chose
one of them for his dwelling. A bright spring supplied
196

THE RISE OF MONASTICISM. I97
him with water, while the fruit of a neighboring palm-
tree furnished his food, and its leaves his raiment. When
he entered upon this mode of life he was only in his
twenty-second year ; yet, after the persecution had ceased,
the attractions of the world did not wean him from soli
tary contemplation ; for we are told that he thus contin
ued during ninety years, praying, fasting, and meditating
on the subUmest themes that can occupy the mind.
This brief sketch of the life of Paul may give a general
idea of the habits of the whole class to which he belonged.
There are, altogether, twenty-four "fathers and saints of
the desert" enumerated by the Roman church, as distin
guished for their holy living, in the fourth century. How
erroneous their conception of the spirit of the gospel!
Man was made for society, not for solitude. God has en
joined upon us the performance of duties that never
can be discharged by a hermit in his cave. Abandoning
all idea of being useful in his generation, he resembles
the servant in the parable who hid his talent in the earth.
A hermit is the very personification of selfishness; and
selfishness is utterly at variance with the open-hearted
generosity and disinterested benevolence inculcated in
the Bible. So complex is the spiritual structure of the
heart, it is often difficult to discover in what part of the
machinery the moving power lies. A man may deceive,
not only his neighbors, but himself, by plausible phrase
ology. Paul and his brother eremites supposed that, by
retiring from society and employing themselves con
stantly in a routine of strict observances, they in the
highest sense devoted themselves to God and sustained

198 THE STORY OF ST. PATRICK.
the character of saints. They appear to have forgotten
that it was a part of true religion " to visit the fatherless
and widows in their affliction," as well as " to keep them
selves unspotted from the world."
St. Antony, the contemporary of Paul, was born a.d.
251, at Coma, a village in Upper Egypt, His parents, who
were wealthy Christians, brought him up " in the nurture
and admonition of the Lord"; and he was remarkable,
from childhood, for filial obedience and strict observance
of the duties required by the church. Before he had com
pleted his twentieth year he found himself an orphan,
possessed of a considerable estate, and intrusted with the
care of an only sister. Having resolved that they both
should devote their lives exclusively to reUgion, he made
over a part of his property to the state, and sold what
remained for the benefit of the poor. He then placed his
sister in " a house of virgins," and Athanasius tells us that
St. Antony visited her long afterward, in her old age,
when she had become superior, or "mistress of many
virgins." From this it is inferred that the most ancient
religious house was a nunnery, as history records that
the first organization of male devotees was subsequently
established by St. Antony himself.
After having passed about thirteen years in the neigh
borhood of his native viUage, he crossed the eastern branch
of the Nile and took up his abode in the ruins of an old
castle among the mountains. Excepting the person who
carried bread to him once in every six months, he very
rarely saw a human being in this remote solitude for the
space of twenty years, at the close of which period he

THE RISE OF MONASTICISM. I99
left his retirement and founded the first' monastery. This
he did at Phaium, near Aphroditopolis, in Heptanomis, or
Middle Egypt. This institution, during its earlier prog
ress, comprehended only a few anchorets, living in sepa
rate ceUs within a short distance of one another, and thus
constituting, collectively, what was called a Laura, They
probably met together, at intervals, for mutual counsel
and edification; but their general habits were those of
solitaires. This appears to have been the first step toward
association. To live in perpetual solitude was a self-
inflicted punishment of such intolerable severity that few
could endure it; and the devotees accordingly began to
inquire whether they could not attain the same ends with
some relaxation of the rules by which they had at first
thought it expedient to bind themselves. The result of
this inquiry was the Laura, The next step was to leave
the caves of the rocks and inhabit separate cells in one
edifice, or monastery. The third and last step was to
abandon entirely the idea of living in solitude, and form
a religious society, or Ccenohium, which was governed by
an Abbot, according to particular rules.
In this way, it is believed, the monastic system was
gradually developed. It originated in rigid adherence to
a manner of life which, being contrary to nature, could
not permanently be maintained. Modifications were there
fore introduced ; and, as men love extremes, the monk in
after-ages, instead of dwelling in a lonely rock and living
on herbs, degenerated, in some parts of the world at least,
into the most boisterous of boon companions — became, in
fact, a scientific epicure and a jolly bacchanalian.

200 ^^^ STORY OF ST. PATRICK.
St. Antony, however, exhorted his monks rigorously to
perform the duty of self-examination before retiring to
rest ; to despise the vanities of the world and reflect con
stantly upon heaven ; to spend every day of their life as if
they knew it to be the last ; to cultivate assiduously a holy
fervor ; and to be at all times prepared to repel the assaults
of the devil.
The principal founders of monastic orders, in the fourth,
fifth, and sixth centuries, after St. Antony, were St. Pacho-
mius, St. Basil, St. Augustine, St. Benedict, and St, Maur.
One cause for the rise of monasticism in the days of
primitive Christianity was undoubtedly the persecutions
to which the followers of Jesus were subjected. These
persecutions were so severe and relentless that they were
compelled to abandon their worldly pursuits, to deny
themselves the comforts of society, and to flee for their
lives into secluded places where they might be safe from
the violence of the oppressor. These pious people some
times became so much attached to the mode of life which
tyranny had compelled them to adopt that when persecu
tion ceased they still remained in retirement, and became
enamoured with the advantages of solitude, and regarded
it as so conducive to the development of religious char
acter that they separated from the little bands with which
they were associated as companions in tribulation, and
thenceforth led the lives of hermits. Those who enter
tained more moderate views concerning the necessity of
lonely meditation formed themselves into societies under
the government of a superior, erected monasteries in pic
turesque localities, observed certain rules laid down by the

THE RISE OF MONASTICISM. 201
founder, and wore a uniform dress to distinguish them as
members of that particular brotherhood. The luxury and
profligacy of the Roman empire also alienated the most
earnest disciples of the cross from taking their part in
things around them, and drove them far from the haunts
of men. But the causes that led to monasticism were
many and complex. The monastery to the timid and in
dolent was a refuge from the storms of life, to the weak
and wavering it was a prop and defense against them
selves, to the fanatic it was a short and speedy way to
heaven, to the ambitious it was a pedestal from which to
look down on the rest of mankind, and to persons of noble
temperament it was, as it seemed to them, the way to
attain to counsels of perfection.
Such, it is believed, was the origin of monasticism, that
gigantic system of hypocrisy and delusion which ultimately
spread over Europe and wields in many countries such an
influence still. It cannot, however, be denied that, among-
the earlier ascetics especially, there was much cordial sym
pathy and genuine piety, and many whose views did honor
to their intellect and whose unfeigned devotion proved the
honesty of their hearts. This life of seclusion, it should be
remembered, was not the product of Christianity, but its
adopted child. It came in from without. It was in keeping
with Eastern tastes, had its ancestry in the Essen es and
other similar Oriental mystics, and found its exemplars in
Elijah and John the Baptist. A monastery was at first the
cave of a solitary hermit ; then in Lower Egypt two were
together in one cell ; and then in Thebald each cell con
tained three monks. They soon began to arrogate to

202 THE STORY OF ST. PATRICK.
themselves the term. " religious," and admission, to the
monastery was termed "conversion." Pride very soon
became the besetting sin of the cloister. Ambition and
covetousness crept in among those who had renounced
the world, its jpomps and vanities; sensuality assailed
those who had retired, as they had hoped, to a safe distance
from the temptations of the flesh ; and sometimes religious
melancholy and even downright insanity were induced by
the loneliness and silence of the cell. Monks, as a rule,
were fanatics either for orthodoxy or for heresy. They
often became frenzied theologues, and listened eagerly for
the rumors of polemical controversy, and rushed out into
the fray not as peacemakers but as combatants. They
claimed for themselves an authority above that of bishops,
emperors, councils.
The growing reverence for celibacy in the fourth cen
tury aided monasticism to make its way into almost every
province of the Roman empire, and enormous commu
nities of monks were founded in rude organizations. Not
withstanding the rapid growth of monasticism in some
places, it had many and grave difflculties to contend with
in others. The very enthusiasm in its favor by some
intensified bitterness and antagonism in others. The aus
terities practised in the cells, sometimes causing death,
provoked popular protests, and jibes and jeers were ex
cited by the pale faces and somber dress of the monks in
the streets, while the civil power regarded with jealousy
the absorption of so many of its citizens from the duties of
life and from all participation of a social and political nature.
From the first there was a marked contrast between

THE RISE OF MONASTICISM. 203
Eastern and Western monasticism. The dreamy quietism
of the East preferred silent contemplation of the unseen
world to labor and toil. Its self -mortification was passive
rather than active. So far as it prescribed work at all, it
was more as a safeguard of the soul against the snares
which Satan spreads for the unoccupied than with a view
to benefiting others. Weaving mats and baskets of osiers
was aU that was required as a harmless way of passing
the time, or of busying the fingers while the thoughts
were fixed on vacancy. The soft and genial climate, too,
spared the Asiatic the trouble of providing for his own
daily wants and those of his brethren with the sweat of
his brow. The same habit of indolent abstraction held
him back from those literary pursuits which were in many
instances the redeeming characteristic of the gi'eat mon
asteries of the West, even when they gave the rein to an
abstruse and bewildering disputativeness which contin
uaUy evolved materials for more disputing.
In Europe it was quite otherwise. There, even within
the walls of the monastery, was the ever-present sense of
the necessity and blessedness of exertion. There the
monk was not merely a worker among other workers, but
by his vocation led the way to enterprises of danger and
difficulty. Whatever time remained over and above the
stated hours of prayer and study was for manual labors
of a useful kind, as farming, gardening, building, out of
doors ; and within the house, for calligraphy, painting, etc.
The monks in Europe were the pioneers of culture and
civilization as well as of religion ; usuaUy they were the
advance guard of the hosts of art, science, and literature.

204 THE STORY OF ST. PATRICK.
From this radical divergence of thought and feeling two
main consequences naturally followed : a less sparing and
more generous diet was a necessity for those who were
bearing the fatigue of the day in a way of which their
Eastern brethren could form no idea ; a more exact and
more minute arrangement of the hours of the day was a
necessity for those who, instead of wanting to kill time,
had to economize it to the best of their abUity,
In the islands of the West, by their position and by
other circumstances removed from immediate contact
with Central Europe, the course of events was somewhat
different. In the monasteries there, discipline was lax.
The fervent temperament of the Celts was in itself less
patient of control, less amenable to discipline. Monks
living in cells apart from the monasteries were not dis
countenanced nor supervised in Ireland as on the Conti
nent. The character of the monasteries there, and of their
ecclesiastical organization, tended to make the monastery
less dependent on its bishop. Originally the chieftains of
the clan or tribe, even after its conversion to Christianity,
exercised a patriarchal authority in spiritual as weU as in
temporal matters ; and as the convent establishments grew
in number and importance, the headship of them was stiU
retained generally in the family of the chieftain, the office
of the abbot, Uke the office of the bard, who was usually
found in every Celtic monastery, being, as a rule, heredi
tary. This provision for the continuance of the supremacy
we have explained elsewhere. The Bible in this matter
does not appear to have been consulted, or if consulted, its
counsels were disregarded.

THE RISE OF MONASTICISM. 205

The Bible.
Happiest they of human race
To whom God has granted grace
To read, to fear, to hope, to pray.
To lift the latch and find the way ;
Better had they ne'er been born
Who read to doubt, or read to scorn.

CHAPTER XXX.
THE CHURCH OF ST. PATRICK.
The Bible,
Study it carefully.
Think of it prayerfully.
Deep in our hearts let its pure precepts dwell ;
Slight not its history.
Ponder its mystery —
None can e'er prize it too fondly or well.
Accept the glad tidings.
The warnings and chidings,
Found in this volume of heavenly lore ;
With faith that's unfailing.
And love all-prevailing.
Trust in its promise of life evermore !
The church of St. Patrick was from its beginning monas
tic, as we learn from a passage in his " Confession." But
the early Irish monasticism was, as- we shall see, unlike that
known at a later period. It is not possible to fix the date
of the first monastery in Ireland deserving of the name. A
monastery was founded by Comghall at Bangor, County
Down, about 540 a.d., which is the second oldest in Ire
land. The name Bangor is derived from Banchor or Bane
Choraidh, " The White Choir," and was originally called
" The Vale of Angels," as weU as " The City of the Saints."
206

THE CHURCH OF ST. PATRICK. 207
This monastery was an abbey of regular canons, whose
fame for learning spread throughout Europe, and its
school, over which Carthagus presided, became so cele
brated that students from all parts of the world resorted
to it. When Alfred, the most renowned of aU Anglo-
Saxon kings, founded the University of Oxford, he pro
cured the principal professors from this great seminary.
The special occupation of the inmates in these early
schools was the study of the Scriptures. Many of these
did not dweU in the monastery, but lived in their own
houses with their wives or families, like other men. Many
of them, at least, were men who, retiring from the common
employments of the world, dedicated themselves to reli
gious studies and devotion, and who within their own
houses led stricter lives than others. In those days many
went by the name of monks who were married men, had
children, and possessed property. The rules of monastic
Ufe in that early day did not oblige a man to renounce
either his possessions or his married state. He might
possess and use both, if he pleased, without any ecclesias
tical censure. These were the kind of " monks and virgins
of Christ " of whom Patrick makes mention in his " Con
fession " — those who lived in their own houses, and only
differing ±fom other Christians by special consecration to
God. Such persons had a cottage or neighborhood meeting
for prayer and Bible reading and study. These devoted
disciples, " living sacrifices to Christ," rendered noble ser
vice in the evangelization of Ireland and in building up
Patrick's converts in scriptural knowledge.

¦208 THE STORY OF ST. PATRICK.
Patrick's "monks and virgins of Christ," married or
nnmarried, were of those of whom the beloved disciple
writes in the Book of Revelation as constituting "the
Bride, the Lamb's wife," to whom her heavenly Hus
band was " the chief among ten thousand and altogether
lovely." These schools were not only theological seminaries, but
were also home-missionary societies. Bangor sent forth
its students to all the surrounding country, where in many
places there was much destitution from the poverty of
the mountain soil along the Antrim coast. To the in
habitants of these parts the ministers of Bangor preached,
and with them they prayed and read the Scriptures, in
mountain huts, in fishermen's cottages, and often in the
presence of large congregations.
These Bangor ministers supported themselves by the
labor of their hands, and frequently gave assistance to the
poor. This Bangor home-missionary school also founded
large numbers of other institutions of its own order,
preaching the gospel over extensive regions of the north
of Ireland, UteraUy without cost, and among a people who
had scanty if any means of paying for it. This was one
of the noble fruits of Patrick's earliest mission work. But
these schools fostered also a foreign-missionary spirit. It
may have been at such a school in Britain that Patrick
became first imbued with a missionary spirit which led
him to respond so heartily to God's call to preach to the
foreign Irish pagans ; and when Patrick was blessed with
such success in his work, many hundreds of pious Irish
men were led both in that age and afterward to ask. Could

THE CHURCH OF ST. PATRICK. 209
not we with God's blessing accomplish as much among
some of the idolatrous peoples of the continent of Europe ?
Though monasticism flourished in the British Isles be
fore the mission of Augustine to England in 596, yet the
Roman missionaries on their arrival received anything
but a cordial welcome from their British brethren. There
was a feeling of mutual distrust and hostility, because of
the differences which existed in ritual, costume, etc. There
was probably, as we have seen, an organized church in
Britain in the fourth century. There were then many
populous towns and some of the culture of a rich Ro
man province. The intercourse, partly commercial and
partly hostile, which took place between Britain and Ire
land in the third and fourth centuries could scarcely have
failed to introduce Christianity into Ireland, and medieval
writers state that Christianity existed in Ireland before
St. Patrick. But the church which grew out of these
earlier Christian efforts appears to have been principally,
if not altogether, conflned to the south of Ireland; the
province of Munster forming an independent kingdom at
this period, or at least having but little political connection
with the other provinces. This church which grew up in
the south of Ireland, though the offspring of the British
church, must necessarily have adapted itself to the politi
cal and social organization of the country, which was
altogether tribal, and, there being no walled towns, had
none of the elements of municipal government which had
molded the church organization elsewhere. By the sub
sequent conversion of the rest of Ireland by St. Patrick
this organization was merely extended, not changed. The

210 THE STORY OF ST. PATRICK.
spirit and laws of clanship, therefore^ gave shape and form
to the external framework of the church founded by St.
Patrick. The salient characteristics of that framework are
instructive and interesting.
The church established by Patrick was not subject to
the jurisdiction of the Bishop of Borne, The independence
of the Irish church in relation to Rome continued for cen
turies after Patrick's time. It was not until near the end
of the seventh century that any in Ireland conformed even
to the Romish usages at Easter, and it was not until the
end of the eleventh century that Roman rule made its way
through the instrumentality of Danish invaders.
Another feature that distinguished the early Irish church
was its freedom from metropoUtan jurisdiction. Though
the Abbot of Armagh was regarded as Patrick's successor,
and as such was held in honor, he had no jurisdiction as a
primate of the church. He may have been eminent in his
sphere, but that sphere was limited, and not coextensive
with the church. In those days there was no archbishop
in Ireland, nor was there any diocesan bishop there. Each
bishop, as the pastor of every church was called, acted in
dependently of any outside episcopal jurisdiction, and was
only subject in a measure to the abbot of his monastery,
or in the spirit of clanship to his chieftain. There were
no dioceses in the modern meaning of the word, and there
were not even parishes. There was, however, as can be
easily seen from this condition of things, a great multi
plicity of bishops. In a famous document believed to
have been written in the eighth century it is recorded
that in the time of Patrick the clergy were " all bishops,

THE CHURCH OF ST. PATRICK. 211
famous and holy and full of the Holy Ghost, 350
in nunjber, and founders of churches," and "they re
jected not the service and society of women." In an
other ancient document the number of bishops mentioned
as in Ireland at this time is "seven times fifty holy
bishops." Another ancient author states that "Patrick
erected 365 churches and ordained 365 bishops," while
another makes the number 370; but another eminent
document asserts that Patrick built 700 churches and or
dained 700 bishops. H Ireland had at our present writing
as many bishops in proportion to its population as it had
in those days, it would now have from 5000 to 10,000
bishops, according as we flx the number of its early bish
ops at 350 or 700. Well may an eminent historian call
the episcopacy of that early period " a congregational and
tribal episcopacy." Another author affirms that in towns
and cities many bishops were ordained who had charge
of what would now be considered contiguous parishes.
Moreover, there were associations of bishops who lived
together in groups of seven. One authority mentions six
such groups with seven bishops in each, and in three of
these groups the seven bishops were brothers, sons of one
father. Another authority gives 138 such groups of seven
bishops each, and in many instances the seven were sons
of one father ; and the same authority mentions two sets,
each of 150 bishops; and two sets more of 350 bishops
each, and also that Mochta, the abbot of Louth, a disciple
of St. Patrick, had in his monastery and as part of his
"family" there 100 bishops and 300 presbyters. It is
estimated that the population of Ireland then numbered

212 THE STORY OF ST. PATRICK.
about 200,000, and the inquiry naturally arises. Why, in
this sparse population and in the rude, primitive condition
of society that then existed, should the Irish church pro
vide such an immense supply of clergy for home service,
and also send them, as a " flood," over other countries ?
The answer is probably this, that there was an earnest
religious spirit prevalent among the people, and also a
high regard for the clerical office, and there was, as a
result of this, a remarkable law in the Senchus Mor, or
Brehon code, which, as we have seen, St. Patrick assisted
in revising — a law probably unparalleled in any other
church in Chiistendom — a law which declared " that every
first birth of every human couple, the mother being a law
ful wife, belonged to the church " ; and that if there were
eleven or more children of whom fewer than ten were sons,
the church was entitled to a second son. This was evi
dently a partial Christianizing of the Mosaic law, which
declared that the first-born of every creature, including
the first-born of man, was to be presented to the Lord and
given to Aaron and his successors, as recorded in Exodus
xiii. 2 and in Numbers xviii. 15. This law was no dead
letter in the early Irish church, and there were no excep
tions allowed in its operation. It applied to the sons of
kings and chiefs as weU as to the humblest in the land.
In pursuance of this law, the young persons dedicated to
God were put under training in the great monastic schools,
which were the colleges of that time. No other Christian
church in Europe claimed such rights as these as against
the whole body of the laity.
It is interesting to contemplate so many persons called

THE CHURCH OF ST. PATRICK. 213
bishops devoted to the services of religion, but it may be in
quired. How, in the midst of so sparse a population, were
they employed ? Many of them were doubtless pastors of
congregations, but they had comparatively no jurisdiction,
as the government of the church was principally in the
hands of the abbots. The Apostle Paul requires that a
bishop should be " apt to teach," that he may " feed the
flock" and by "sound doctrine both exhort and convince
the gainsayers." It is unquestionably certain that the
proper functions of a bishop in the ancient church of Ire
land were regarded as those of teaching and preaching, and
of giving spiritual instruction and comfort in their visits
from house to house; but doubtless very many of these
bishops were also engaged professionally in the communi
cation of sacred learning in the monasteries and in the
schools and colleges that sprang up around them. Some
of these Irish bishops attained to such high distinction as
instructors in both theology and science that great num
bers of students flocked to them from aU parts of Europe,
Others of them were employed as scribes. The art of
printing had not been invented, and it was necessary to
copy the Scriptures, that copies of God's Word might be
accessible to those who had become converts to the new
faith ; and this copying process was carried to great per
fection as regards both the style of the text and its illumi
nation. This was a work of the greatest importance and
one of the most honorable in which any one could engage ;
and aU this work, with all that pertained to the ornamen
tation, preservation, and protection of the sacred manu
scripts, was almost exclusively in the hands of the clergy.

214 THE STORY OF ST. PATRICK.
It must be borne in mind that the early monasteries, num
bering hundreds in all in the British Islands, were Bible
schools where thousands of students were under instruc
tion. Other branches of study were pursued, but Bible
knowledge especiaUy was sought. Nearly a thousand New
Testaments were required for even one of these schools,
allowing one Testament to three or four students. The
Scriptures also were supplied to the many churches de
pendent upon the monasteries; and the scribes in these
monasteries supplied them all. The copying of the Scrip
tures reached in the Irish monasteries its greatest perfec
tion in the beauty of the writing and in the splendor of
the ornamentation. The work looked more like the work
of an angel than of a man.
Almost innumerable copies of the Word of God, in Gos
pels, New Testaments, and in entire Bibles, were made in
these monasteries, where there was a room called the scrip
torium, or copying-room, which varied in size and in its
activities as the work was more or less pressing, but in
all there was a warm love for the Bible, and this prayer
was often offered in these transcribing-rooms :
"Vouchsafe, 0 Lord, to bless this scriptorium of thy
servants, and all that dwell therein, that whatsoever sacred
writing shall be here read or written by them they may
receive with understanding and bring the same to good
effect, through our Lord."
Nor was the work in these monasteries confined to copy
ing the Scriptures — the earnest examination. of the Scrip
tures by these students often resulted in expositions of
them. These expositions became numerous and were

THE CHURCH OF ST. PATRICK. 215
freely used. One of these learned students is said to have
written short notes on thirteen of Paul's epistles, another
wrote a commentary on the Psalms, and a third was the
author of a solution of the difficulties of the Bible, which
he called " The Wonders of the Scriptures." Columbanus
wrote an elegant exposition of the Book of Psalms ; Sedu-
lius, a commentary on the Epistles of Paul, which was
PauUne in- its doctrine and excellent in its practical sug
gestions. Many other excellent commentaries were written
in these monasteries, but only fragments of this ancient
literature escaped the destructive fury of the Danes, who
commenced their ravages in 795 a.d. and continued them
to the end of their sway in Ireland. It is sad to think
these places, and many others of greater renown, were all
destroyed, many of the professors and students slain, and
their books and documents burned, by pagans who lived
in the surrounding districts of Britain, by Anglo-Saxon
heathen, and others. The godly men who conducted these
schools lived near to God, led their suffering brethren to
the only Saviour for. refuge and consolation, built churches
and coUeges, sent out ministers everywhere to preach
Christ among the pagans, made and circulated thousands
of copies of the Scriptures, cheered the people as they
went forth to battle for their altars and their homes,
prayed for their success, ministered to the wounded, di
rected the dying to the Lord of life, and invoked his pro
tection upon the dear ones at home.
The bishop had in the early Irish church many other
duties of a much less dignified character to discharge than
in copying the Scriptures. In rank and dignity he held in

216 THE STORY OF ST. PATRICK.
those days a position subordinate not only to the abbot of
the monastery but also to its reader ; and he had also to be
the companion and defender of some one who was going
forth on a missionary tour. St. Patrick, we are informed,
was accompanied in his missionary journeys by a strong
man or "champion," who had to defend him from his enemies
and at times to carry him. The name of the bishop who
discharged this duty for Patrick is a matter of record, and
also that he got tired of Ms work and settled at Clogher.
Life was exposed to such risks in those times, and fighting
was so common, that even the clergy found it expedient
to learn the art of self-defense. Monasteries, too, were
obliged to have their champions and armed retainers. A
bishop of our day would not likely feel at home filling
such a position, and would consider it not consistent with
his episcopal functions and dignity.
But we must remember that the ordination in this early
church in Ireland was neither rigorous nor stringent. It
was not necessary that the candidate for bishop should
have been previously, as required now, a deacon or a pres
byter, and one bishop was thought sufficient to confer it ;
nor were women excluded from the episcopate. It is stated
on the most reliable authority that the form of ordaining
a bishop was read over Brigit by Bishop Mel, and that she
was actuaUy ordained a bishop — a statement confirmed by
her biographer, who speaks of her " episcopal and virginal
chair." History makes it very evident that Irish eccle
siastics did not confine themselves to what was elsewhere
regarded as regular and canonical. The English church
of that day considered the Irish clergy so lax in their ordi-

THE CHURCH OF ST. PATRICK. 217
nation usages that it refused to recognize them as hav
ing true orders. So persistent were they in this refusal
that the synod of Cealcythe, presided over by Wilfred,
Archbishop of York, passed a special canon enacting
that no person of Scotic — that is, of Irish — race should be
permitted to exercise his ministry in any of their dioceses,
and the first reason given is, " because it was uncertain
whether, or by whom, they had been ordained," It was
even doubtful whether they had been ordained at all.
Another feature of the early church in Ireland was that
its chief functionaries succeeded one another, not by elec
tion, but by a hereditary law. It should be remembered
that the real rulers were the abbots or " coarbs " as they
were caUed, the principals of the monasteries. These
abbots were sometimes presbyters and sometimes only
laymen. These exercised almost absolute jurisdiction,
and the bishops were in complete subordination to them.
Even when the head of a monastery was a woman the
bishops and other clergy were subject to her. The heads
of the principal monasteries formed a council who debated
questions and spoke the voice of the church ; so it is evi
dent, from all points from which this question is consid
ered, that the coarbs were the true heads of the church.
We have seen that the succession of these coarbs was
determined by a hereditary principle. This becomes evi
dent when we refer again to the way in which a monastery
was founded.
On that occasion a portion of land, or in some cases a
royal fort, was made over by the head of the tribe to which
it belonged to the founder, who was usually connected

218 THE STORY OF ST. PATRICK.
with the same tribe. The abbacy or headship of that
monastery was retained in the family of the founder, and
the abbot was provided from among its members. When
a vacancy occurred it was filled either from the direct line
of the founder's kin, or, when that failed, a successor was
taken from a coUateral branch. For many generations
the coarbs were the lineal descendants of the family that
had given the original endowment. Free election of the
abbot by the community was thus quite unknown, and
the abbot was often not a bishop but a presbyter or a
layman. In the case of Kildare the coarbs were always
females, and in one instance the coarb ot Armagh was a
female. It was the abbot that inherited the rights of
chieftainship and property, and who was therefore the im
portant personage in the ecclesiastical community. Hence
it were easier to get a correct list of the abbots than of the
bishops. The bishop or bishops, for there was often more
than one bishop connected with a monastery, were in
subjection to the abbot and did not necessarily succeed
each other according to our modern notions of episcopal
succession. There were frequent breaks in the chain. In
the attempt to trace St. Patrick's successors, many of
the persons mentioned are called abbots, some are called
bishops, some are called coarbs, but there is nothing in
the abbot or coarb to indicate whether the personage so
designated was a bishop, a presbyter, or a layman. Hence
there can be no continuous catalogue of successive bish
ops of Irish sees from Patrick to the present time. The
synod of Cealcythe, in England, so regarded the succes
sion of Irish bishops, and therefore excluded them from

THE CHURCH OF ST. PATRICK. 219
their dioceses ; and St, Bernard, in his Life of Malachi, teUs
us how the Irish bishops were regarded on the Continent.
" There had been introduced," he says, " by the diabolical
ambition of certain people of rank, a scandalous usage
whereby the Holy See (Armagh) came to be obtained by
hereditary succession. For they would allow no persons
to be promoted to the bishopric except such as were of
their own tribe and family. Nor was it for any short
period that this succession had continued, nearly fifteen
generations having been already exhausted in this course
of iniquity." The same authority mentions that before
the time of Celsus eight of these coarbs or successors of
St. Patrick in Armagh were married and not in orders —
only laymen. The law of succession throughout Ireland
was the same everywhere as at Armagh.
The predominant feature of the early Irish church was its
monasticism in its primitive type. This was its most essen
tial and fundamental quality, which dominated and colored
everything. It was the keystone in the arch of its ecclesias
tical order, the most distinctive note of its life. The whole
clergy was embraced within the fold of the monastic rule.
Through the abbots, who were the real heads and rulers of
the Irish church, the whole church was brought under the
control of monasticism, molded to its forms, and leavened
by its spirit. But the primitive church of Ireland was as
unique and peculiar in its monastic system as we have
found that it was in other things.
It is evident from Patrick's own writings that monasti
cism existed in the Irish church in his day. Patrick prob
ably acquired his idea of this peculiar polity of the church

220 THE STORY OF ST. PATRICK.
from his brethren in Britain, and made it tributary to his
work and also conformable with the social condition of the
country. The primitive Irish monastery seems to have been in
some respects unique. As a building it was rude and
simple. Some chief gave the site, which was often on the
edge of a forest and had to be cleared of the trees. This
clearing process was done by monks who learned to be
expert with the ax, and who often went round with one
slung over the shoulder. The church, or study, or house
of prayer, or by whatever name it was called, was rarely
built of stone, and generally of wood or wattles. Stakes
were driven into the ground a foot or two apart ; rods or
wattles were woven between the stakes after the manner
of basket-makers ; moss was stuffed between the wattles,
and the whole was plastered with clay. Stone belfries in
the shape of round towers, as a protection for monks and
their valuables, were erected when the Danes began to
ravage the countiy and to burn the wattled or wooden
houses. In this rude monastery there was a common room
in which they took their meals, and off this was a kitchen.
The monastery was generally built near a stream of water,
beside which the monks built their mill and a kiln for
drying corn. Grouped around the central building were the
huts, each by itself, in which each monk lived apart. These
huts were usually constructed as the main building. A
rampart or circular inclosure made of earth or stone was
erected for shelter and protection around the whole group
of huts. The huts varied in number, as accommodations
were needed for monks and pupils, but few groups num-

THE CHURCH OF ST. PATRICK. 221
bered less than one hundred and fifty. But the number
often rose to several hundred, and sometimes would rise to
ihousands. There was no limit to the accommodations,
for whenever a new pupil arrived he would go to the
neighboring wood, cut down some wattles, and construct
his hut in a few hours. The students' rooms of those days
were very different from those in which many of the stu
dents of the present day luxuriate. Yet it was in such
huts, scarcely high enough for a man to stand erect,
with no light but what entered by the door, and with no
table but the knee, on which a book could rest, that the
beautiful Irish manuscripts which are prized so highly in
Trinity College, DubUn, and in the British Museum, Lon
don, were written and illuminated.
It may be asked. How were these monks sustained, where
did they find support in a country so poor as Ireland must
then have been ?
Their mode of life was simple and abstemious. A sim
ple rough garment, a little coarse bread made from the
corn grown on the patch of ground which their o'wn hands
cultivated, an egg from the fowl they kept, a few water-
cresses, and some water satisfied the demands of nature
and solved the problem of living. We are told that Ere,
one of Patrick's disciples, lived beside the river Boyne,
kept a flock of geese, and that half of one of their eggs sus
tained him for twenty-four hours. When anything more
was required than was supplied by their own resources, it
was obtained gratuitously from the neighborhood. The
wants of several students were often thus supplied.
These primitive Irish monasteries were, however, largely

222 THE STORY OF ST. PATRICK.
self-sustaining. Persons of almost every trade and pro
fession were found within them. In the " household " of St.
Patrick we read not only of the judge and the scribe, the
reader and the singer and the bell-ringer, but of monks
who devoted themselves to labor with their hands, foUow
ing husbandry in the fields or mechanical employment
within doors. We read also of the poet and the brewer
and the woodsman and the helmsman, of the cook and
the chamberlain and the shepherd and the miller and the
charioteer and the smith, and many other artificers, aU of
whom were monks. The soeiety and service of women
also were utilized in the early period of the Irish monas
tery. The monks were not bound to shun intercourse
with them, but profited by their society and ministrations.
There were many women there, like Patrick's own sister
Lupait, who employed their skill in embroidery and in the
general service of the brotherhood.
These facts put a very modifying phase on the monastic
institutions of the early Irish church. They demonstrate
that the social, industrial, and educational spirit dominated
them more fully than the monastic. Indeed they should
be described more as industrial colonies devoted to the
cultivation of learning and the useful arts and also to re
ligion. They somewhat resembled the Shaker communi
ties in the United States. One of these schools had seven
streets of huts occupied by foreigners in the first half of
the eighth century.
The course of instruction included twelve years, eight
of which were devoted to reading and writing the grammar
of the Irish language, the laws of the privileged classes, be-

THE CHURCH OF ST. PATRICK. 223
sides vaticination, etc., the phenomena of nature, the ele
ments of philosophy, historical topography, and learning
by heart about two hundred and seventy tales and a num
ber of poems and the secret language of the poets. The
ninth and tenth years were devoted to composition of
various kinds of poetry. The eleventh year was employed
in composing fifty major and fifty minor specimens of
verse requiring the use of four kinds of meter. The stu
dies of the twelfth year consisted in the composition of six
orations and the study of the art of poetry according to the
precepts of four different authors.
Whatever may have been the character of the teaching
or the value of the outcome, it is the earliest example of
the cultivation of any vulgar language in Europe. The
head-master of a school was obliged to go through the
course just indicated, as well as to know Latin and " from
the Ten Commandments to the whole of the Scriptures."
Such a school was connected with a coenobium — monas
tery — and had usuaUy six teachers. The lowest of these
taught the students to recite the Psalms. The second
taught the course of native literature just described up to
the end of the tenth year. The third taught the art of
poetry and whatever pertains to the expression of the emo
tions and the finer feelings. The fourth master taught
Latin, arithmetic, and the elements of astronomy and
geography. The fifth master was professor of divinity,
and the sixth was the head-master, who was supposed to
know the whole course, both profane and sacred.
Patrick probably founded several schools of the class
we have described. The students were called monks be-

224 THE STORY OF ST. PATRICK.
cause they led a secluded life. But a young monk in the
fifth century was a very different man from an old monk
in the twelfth century. He was in the years of which we
write a young man preparing to become a missionary. His
head was shorn over the forehead, and he wore a dress
peculiar to his class. Patrick did not allow such men to
take their rest. They must prepare for work in the world,
and, when prepared, go forth into the great field to sow
and reap for the Master.
Patrick often visited these schools, which ought not
to be called monasteries. Their regulations were very
different from those of the institutions that are desig
nated monasteries in succeeding ages. They were little
else than would now be prescribed in a college where
the inmates are required to support themselves. The
great design of these monastic schools was by com
municating instruction to train up men for the work of
the ministry. They were, in fact, the seminaries of the
church both in North Britain and in Ireland, and when
Patrick found men in these schools qualified to preach — ^in
other words, to teU the simple story of the cross to poor
ignorant pagans — he ordained them as a matter of neces
sity. He was a bishop in this sense, that he was the
church's superintendent — he had on him "the care of all
the churches " as they were organized ; but there is no
evidence to show that he ever was the pastor of more
than one church, or that he had a diocese and an array of
clergy under him.
The condition of things was peculiar. The success of
Patrick as a missionary was something wonderful, and

THE CHURCH OF ST. PATRICK. 225
he did in these extraordinary circumstances what no
man would be justified in doing in an ordinary settled
condition of things. The church that grew up under his
labors was monastic in its character, and yet its monastery
was not the abode of the " monk," as that word is under
stood by us now. It was the resort of the missionary —
his study, where he prepared for preaching the gospel. It
may have been at first a refuge from enemies, or a resort
for prayer.
This monastery developed, as converts increased, into a
school, college, or church. It became the fixed abode for
studious men — a religious center where the people fiocked
for worship, teaching, and consolation. And in course of
time a town grew up, along whose streets houses were
built for schools and seminaries for preparing young men
to preach the gospel.
One other peculiarity of this early church must be noted.
The whole church was under the rule of the monks, and
the monks in turn, and the whole monastic system, were
dominated and modified by the spirit of clanship which
then reigned supreme over Irish society. The monasteries
were indeed only clans, reorganized under a religious form ;
and from this resulted the extraordinary number of their
inhabitants, which were counted by hundreds and thou
sands, and their influence and productiveness, which were
still more wonderful.
These Irish monasteries were famous for the service
rendered by them to the cause of education, and for their
service as centers and sources of missionary enterprise.
The youth of the tribe were sent to these monasteries, as

226 THE STORY OF ST. PATRICK.
educational establishments where they received a secular
education and were trained to monastic life. Besides the
monks, each institution had a body of young, people who
became inmates for the purposes mentioned, and the num
ber of these, even in the smaller institutions, was usually
fifty, and in the larger a much greater number. To these
institutions not only the better classes in Ireland resorted,
but even the middle classes and nobility of England sent
their sons to be educated. They resorted thither to study
the Word of God, to practise the duties of monastic life,
and to devote themselves to the study of general literature,
going for this purpose from one master's cell to another.
Not only from Britain did students flock to these Irish
schools, but from all parts of Europe, so great was the
repute for learning which Ireland obtained, and so great
her fame for ardent, independent thought.
Nor were these Irish monasteries more renowned for'
their seminaries of learning than for the missionary enter
prise which they inspired — for the bands of great mission
aries whom they sent forth, who carried their peculiar type
of Christianity to Scotland, England, and over the broad
continent of Europe. This showed the vitality and vigor
of the religion possessed by this primitive Irish church.
It was her own kindred, too, across the channel on the
opposite coasts and islands of North Britain that flrst
awoke her sympathy and to whom she first sent her sons
with the tidings of salvation. It is said that her first mis
sionary was Brendan, who at his ordination was greatly
impressed with the words of our Lord in Luke xviii. 29,
and that he resolved to live in the spirit of them. The

IHE CHURCH OF ST. PATRICK. 227
words are these : " Verily I say unto you. There is no man
that hath left house, or parents, or brethren, or wife, or
children, for the kingdom of God's sake, who shall not re
ceive manifold more in this present time, and in the world
to come life everlasting." He accordingly went to the
Western Islands, and planted these primitive monasteries
there and through Scotland and the surrounding isles, as
Columba did afterward ; others following them and doing
a similar work — evangelizing Cantyre and settling in lona,
and from that as a basis of operation evangelizing the
Northern Picts and establishing a thousand institutions
like that of lona, so that it has been said that, were bon
fires kindled on a winter night on the hills adjacent to the
institutions which these missionaries founded, there would
be a complete chain of lights visible one to another from
the Humber to the Orkneys, and from Aberdeenshire to
the remotest of the Hebrides. But these missionaries car
ried the gospel to the Continent — to Switzerland and Italy ;
some of them labored among the East Angles, and after
ward in France ; others in Bavaria, Friesland, and West
phalia. But the story of these missions is too long, and is
not included in the purpose for which this book is written ;
enough, however, has been unfolded to show what vast re
sults may follow the sowing of the seed of God's Word in
one mind, even though that mind may appear very unpropi
tious soil, and though that seed may lie dormant for many
years. "There shaU be a handful of corn in the earth
upon the top of the mountains; the fruit thereof shall
shake like Lebanon."

CHAPTER XXXI.
conclusion.
The Bible
. , , Stands like the cerulean arch we see.
Majestic in its own simplicity ;
Inscribed above the portals from afar,
-Conspicuous as the brightness of a star.
Legible only by the light they give.
Shine the soul-quickening words —
" Believe and live."
In concluding this sketch of the church founded by St.
Patrick we must not omit to state that while monasticism
as then practised was very different from what it after
ward claimed as its peculiarities, so also was it in the case
of the bishops.
Bishop and presbyter were undoubtedly originally but
different names for one office, and the distinction between
them was a matter of human arrangement ; the superiority
of the former over the latter was developed after the days
of the apostles " little by little," and in some countries more
slowly than in others. The primitive relation of presbyter
and bishop was interchangeable. As the former was of
Jewish origin and presided over Jewish communities, so
the latter was of Gentile origin and presided over GentUe
228

CONCLUSION. 229>
communities; and when the distinction between Jewish
and Gentile communities began to fade away, the two sets
of offices, fulflUing as they did analogous functions, werC'
regarded as having equivalent rank. This point has been
conceded by almost all important writers upon the subject
in both ancient and modern times.
According to the eminent Dr. Lightfoot, that great his
torian of the Church of England, in the beginnings of
Christianity the Episcopalian bishop and the Presbyte
rian elder not only walked under the same umbrella,
but walked under the same hat — they were the same indi
vidual. In no other way is the constitution of the old
Irish church as founded by St. Patrick capable of expla
nation. It is asserted by two recent writers that Patrick
was constituted a bishop in Ireland ; but by whom he was
ordained, or in what circumstances, is not explained ; and
who his ordainers were, or what was their canonical right
to officiate, nobody can now say. And although we have
it from himself that Patrick was a bishop, there is no his
torical evidence whatever as to the time, place, persons, or
circumstances under which he was ordained. Who, there
fore, can prove that his ordination was canonical, or that he
was ordained at all? The diocesan bishop was a growth
from a primacy of influence based upon merit and local
advantages into a primacy based upon a theory founded
on a series of historical assumptions. This growth is the
sole basis of the historic episcopate, and to claim that
diocesan episcopacy originated in the apostolate of the
Saviour is one of the sublime religious farces that some
times take hold upon men, and which a portion of credu-

230 THE STORY OF ST. PATRICK.
lous humanity accepts as a fact. This would constitute a
religious wonder, were it not remembered that there was
a dispute among the immediate disciples of Jesus who
should be the greatest. The historic episcopate is a per
sonal pious opinion which has no historic value. The
local church up to nearly the close of the second century
preserved much of its primitive usages ; traces of a written
liturgy then are scanty and vague. The Lord's Supper
and the " love-feast " were observed in close affinity. In
fant baptism had not wholly displaced immersion. The
bishop was not yet sharply distinguished from the pres
byter, nor the presbyter and deacon from the lay brother.
But the lowering of the average tone of piety among the
laity threw into stronger relief the virtues of the clergy,
and enabled them with a good show of justice and neces
sity to claim exclusive possession of powers which had
originally been shared by all male members of the church.
The early Irish church undoubtedly had peculiarities
without parallel in other churches. In various important
particulars no modern church can claim to resemble it or
reproduce it. As Patrick stands out by himself in history,
as a personality distinct and peculiar in some respects
from all other persons, so was the church which through
his agency was organized and established in Ireland one
that differed in some of its aspects from all other churches.
It was not Romish either in its teaching or in its govern
ment. It is most likely that Patrick did not trouble him
self much about the framework of the church, or what the
church might be denominated. What were his views on
church polity is very uncertain. He probably esteemed it

CONCLUSION. 231
his great work to preach the gospel and to make converts
to the Christian faith.
Ireland, we read, was in Patrick's day full of " village
bishops." In one county, that of Meath, there were nearly
thirty bishops ; at one period there were three hundred
bishops in the kingdom: so we may reasonably conclude
that parochial bishops were the only ones known to the
primitive Christianity of Ireland. Every parish was a
diocese, and the pastor of every church was a bishop.
Patrick, as we have seen, had many young men as stu
dents and helpers. They were in this way trained for
missionaiy work. It was not necessary to send them far
away to be educated. Ireland itself was then the great
seat of learning. Anglo-Saxons flocked to Ireland as to
the great mart of learning, and this is the reason why we
flnd this saying so often in English writers, " Such an one
was sent over into Ireland to be educated." It had in this
excited the envy of England, and gave rise to the sarcas
tic question of an English abbot, "Why should Ireland,
whither students are transplanted in troops by fleets, be
exalted with such unspeakable advantages ? "
The rapid extension and singular prosperity of the early
Irish church are to be attributed in no small degree to its
freedom from foreign control and to the simplicity of its
system of church government. Bishops, as aU preachers
and pastors were then usually called, were appointed with
out consulting any one outside of Ireland. In things
spiritual and ecclesiastical its church refused obedience to
any civil or spiritual power, holding that the Lord Jesus is
the sole King and Head of his church.

232 THE STORY OF ST. PATRICK.
The principal features of the church organized by
Patrick were therefore in many respects quite unique.
The men whom he ordained and sent forth were more
like our evangelists, going everywhere preaching, organ
izing churches, administering the sacraments, and doing
from necessity whatever was necessary to be done. It was
necessary to have a strong force of evangelists, mission
aries, traveUng preachers, and superintendents of schools
in the field, and Patrick thought it important that they all
should be on an equal footing with himself. He called him
self, as we have said, bishop, and these aU were bishops.
His rule was to place over every church a pastor who was
in office equal to himself. Hence a reliable historian
says that Patrick founded three hundred and sixty-five
churches and placed over them three hundi'ed and sixty-
five bishops. These bishops, however, were evangelists
as well as pastors, going round preaching, .gaining con
verts, and gathering these converts into churches. Patrick
must have exercised a very great influence over the Irish
church. He had a splendid gift of management. He was
able to keep all the forces at work, and the church grew,
extended, and became a vast power not only in Ireland,
but in the world.
Thus the work of church extension, commenced on a
large scale by Patrick, was carried on by faithful followers
until, before the beginning of the ninth century, the whole
land had been studded with churches, colleges, and scrip
tural schools, and Irish Christians were famous over Eu
rope for learning, piety, and missionaiy zeal. Ireland was
regarded at this period throughout Europe as the great

CONCLUSION. 233
school of the West and an isle of saints. There is no
indication in Patrick's writings that he recognized any
authority in creeds, however venerable, nor in councils,.
though composed of many hundreds of the most godly
men. He does not call any special attention to that part
of his " Confession " which evidently contains his creed.
It stands with the same claims to respect as the account of
his conversion, of his missionarj^ call to Ireland, of his
strong desire to save men, or of God's frequent answers to
his prayers. His great appeal was to Scripture. Prom
ises, commands, prohibitions, heart exercises, prayers, the
condition of men around — all these things and many others
stirred up Patrick not to refer to councils or ancient
creeds but to Scripture. His own views and sentiments
regarding the Bible are evidently expressed in the follow
ing paragraph, of a very ancient date ; whether it emanated.
from the pen of Patrick or not is uncertain :
" One of the noble gifts of the Holy Spirit is the divine
Scripture, whereby every ignorance is enlightened, every
earthly distress is comforted, every spiritual light is
kindled, and every weakness is strengthened. For it is
through the Holy Scripture that heresies and schisms are
cast forth from the church. In it is found perfect counsel
and fltting instruction by each and every grade in the
church. For the divine Scripture is a mother and gentle
nurse to all the faithful ones who meditate upon it, and
consider it, and are nurtured until they are chosen sons of
God through its counsel."
It is undoubtedly true that several old pagan customs and
superstitions were allowed, and only modifled to ChristiaiJ-

234 THE STORY OF ST. PATRICK.
nses, and that the monastic spirit which from the flrst
seemed to be a prominent element in the Irish church was
a leaven essentially at variance with New Testament Chris
tianity ; and these defects worked toward the deterioration
of the Irish church soon after the death of Patrick, causing
her to become less evangelical and more superstitious, and
to relapse into many of her old pagan ways, and this in pro
portion as she came under Roman domination ; and among
the native Irish to this day many pf the old pagan obser
vances continue. From the very start, Christianity was in
many cases only paganism baptized ; the very fact that
whole clans and even tribes followed the lead of their chiefs
and were baptized as persons who renounced paganism and
accepted Christianity demonstrates that mere formaUsm
prevailed among vast numbers of these converts — in name
Christian, but in knowledge and often in practice only
pagan. The tendency, also, to a belief in miracles per
formed by the monks and some of the " saints " shows how
the leaven of paganism still continued to work among the
people. Patrick, in his genuine wiitings, never hints at
possessing miraculous powers, but the monks who cen
turies after his death wrote biographies of him repre
sented him as an adept in the performance of all kinds of
miracles and wonders. Many of these monks also retained
much of the passionate, revengeful, implacable spirit that
has always characterized the Celtic race, and which some
times so dominated their lives that pitched battles were
fought between monasteries, in which many were slain ;
and synods were held in which the members appeared as
armed men, and often severe deadly struggles occurred
before controversies were settled. In the cariying out of

CONCLUSION. 235
the erroneous adage that we may do evil that good may
come, the monks did not hesitate to equivocate, deceive, and
lie, if by such conduct they could gain their end. They did
not seem to think that Christianity required them to live
truthful, honest, upright lives, and to pursue " whatsoever
things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever
things are just, whatsoever things are pure, and whatso
ever things are lovely." Into this low condition did Irish
Christianity gradually lapse as the years passed after Pat
rick's death, and as paganism regained its foothold and
Romanism increased in its domination. The heads of the
monasteries in time came to wield an immense influence,
and that influence, it could easily be shown, was so used
as to inflict an irreparable injury on the best civil inter
ests of Ireland. Princes and kings were compelled to cul
tivate their good-will, and dared not thwart the wishes of
the heads of the monasteries, who controlled the people
east and west, north and south. These monks in time
wrought desolation in the land and prepared it for the
crushing heel of Rome.
It seemed for a time, during Patrick's day and for some
time afterward, as if the course of the world's history was
to be changed, and as if Celtic and not Latin Christianity
was to mold the destiny of the churches of the West. This
was one of the gi-eatest changes this world has ever seen.
And be it remembered that all these magnificent results
were brought about by the labors of missionaries who could
trace historicaUy their Christian faith to the conversion of
that herdboy Patrick on the side of that Slemish mount.
Beautiful Ireland, gem of the sea ! once the resort of
students, the home of scholars, the abode of poetry, the

236 THE STORY OF ST. PATRICK.
nursery of orators, the light of Europe, the isle of saints
— and that, thou wouldst have continued to be, had the
church of St. Patrick never been overthrown.
Such is a brief story of St. Patrick, whose name, after
the lapse of fourteen hundred years, is as fresh as the
shamrock and as green as the emerald.

Erin^s Old Song of Peace,
O'er the green hills of Erin
The old winds wander on.
In calm or storm still singing
The song of ages gone ;
Sweetly that song is swelling.
In strains all soft and low.
The hymn of holier ages.
The psalm of long ago —
Peace, peace, from God to men,
Good-wiU, good- will. Amen!
Through the green vales of Erin
Pours the glad lay of love —
The love that passeth knowledge,
Descending from above ;
The love of Him who bought us,
And sought us in our sin ;
The long-shut gate who opens.
And bids us enter in.
Peace, peace, from God to men,
Good-wiU, good- will. Amen !
Through the blue skies of Erin
The mighty melodj^
Steals, with its glorious tidings
Of all things true and free ;
Of chains forever broken.
Of life and freedom won ;

CONCLUSION. 237
The sighs of exile ended.
Captivity undone.
Peace, peace, from God to men,
Good-wiU, good--wUl. Amen !
Bright hills of ancient Erin,
Grow brighter, balmier still ;
And with your meUow music
The listening valleys fiU —
The heaven-begotten music.
Whose cadences are peace,
Whose chimes of soothing sweetness
Shall never, never cease.
Peace, peace, from God to men,
Good-wiU, good-will. Amen !
Fair peaks of emerald Erin,
See Scotland's glens afar.
Gleaming across the ocean.
Beneath the same dear star !
One star o'er both is gleaming.
One hope to both is given.
One love o'er both is bending —
The pardoning love of Heaven !
Peace, peace, from God to men,
Good-wiU, good-wiU, Amen!
They greet each other gladly.
These island sisters fair ;
And with each other freely
The heavenly tidings share.
True daughters of the ocean.
Each clasps the other's hand.
To give and take the welcome
Of the one Fatherland.
Peace, peace, from God to men,
Good-wiU, good- will. Amen !
Though Tara's harp lies broken.
And Tara's halls are dumb.

238 THE STORY OF ST. PATRICK.
Though Tara's minstrel voices
Ai'e silent as the tomb,
A sweeter harp is swelling
Through Erin's pensive skies,
And truer bards are chanting
The song that never dies —
Peace, peace, from God to men,
Good-wiU, good- will. Amen !
Round the old manger-cradle
We gather hand in hand ;
Beneath one Cross we shelter ;
Upon one Rock we stand ;
One holy faith is knitting
The kindred West and East ;
One Christ the blessed center ;
One table for our feast.
Peace, peace, from God to men,
Good-wiU, good-wiU. Amen !
One Pilot through the breakers.
One port to all is given ;
One love our hope and refuge —
The boundless love of Heaven !
'Tis love to man the sinner.
Free love to earth undone ;
The love that knows no quenching —
The love of God's dear Son,
Peace, peace, from God to men,
Good-wiU, good- will. Amen !
One everlasting gospel
Shines out before our eyes.
One temple and one altar.
One perfect Sacrifice !
0 sons of men sore-burdened
With sin's oppressive load.
Of Erin and of Scotland,
" Behold the Lamb of God ! "
Peace, peace, from God to men,
Good-will, good-will. Amen !
HORATIUS BONAR.

CHAPTER XXXII.
THE "confession" OF ST. PATRICK.
Memorials ofthe Dead,
We gather up with pious care
What happy saints have left behind.
Their writings in our memory bear.
Their sayings on our faithful mind.
Their works which traced them to the skies
For patterns to ourselves we take.
And dearly love and highly prize
The mantle for the wearer's sake. C, Wesley,
The avowed object of the " Confession " was to show
why Patrick felt caUed to preach the gospel to the Irish
people ; to declare that he was not sent by man, but by the
Lord; to furnish evidence that God had approved of his
mission and labors ; to record some of his experiences ; to
"make kno-wn God's grace and everlasting consolation,
and to spread the knowledge of God's name in the earth.
He wished in his old age to leave it on record after his
death for his sons whom he had baptized in the Lord."
The "Confession" has an honest face and good credentials.
Neither it nor either of his other writings is entirely free
from errors, but aU are scriptural in their general character.
239

240 THE STORY OF ST. PATRICK.
There are no quotations from the "fathers," but many
from the inspired writings. They all abound in simple
statements of gospel truth. The Scriptures are treated
with deep reverence as infaUible and sufficient, and no
authority is appealed to but that of the written Word.
The true coin is distinguished from the cheap counterfeit,
and by these ancient documents we are guided to some
knowledge of the life, the labors, and doctrines of Patrick.
Whoever adopts the religion of Patrick will go to the
Word of God as the only authority in matters of faith,
and the only source of light to guide him in the way of
Ufe. It was the principles of the Bible alone that con
trolled him in the labors that made his name renowned,
and that made him one of the noblest Christian mission
aries our world has ever seen.
the "confession" of PATRICK,

" Patrick, a sinner, the rudest and least of all the faithful,
and most contemptible to very many, had for my father
Calpornius, a deacon, a son of Potitus, a presbyter, who
dwelt in the -village of Bannavem Taberniae, for he had a
small farm hard by the place where I was taken captive.
I was then nearly sixteen years of age. I did not know
the true God ; and I was taken to Ireland in captivity with
so many thousand men, in accordance with our deserts,
because we kept not his precepts, and were not obedient
to our priests who admonished us for our salvation.
"And the Lord brought down upon us the -wrath of his

THE "CONFESSION" OF ST. PATRICK. 241
indignation, and dispersed us among many nations, even
to the end of the earth, where now my littleness is seen
among foreigners. And there the Lord opened (to me)
the sense of my unbelief, that, though late, I might re
member my sins, and that I might return with my whole
heart to the Lord my God, who had respect to my humUia
tion, and pitied my youth and ignorance, and took care of
me before I knew him and before I had wisdom or could
discern between good and evil, and protected me, and com
forted me as a father does a son.
"2. Wherefore I cannot keep silent — nor is it indeed
expedient (to do so) — concerning such great behests and
such great favor as the Lord has vouchsafed to me in the
land of my captivity ; because this is our recompense (to
him), that after our chastening or knowledge of God we
should exalt and confess his wonderful works before every
nation that is under the whole heaven.
" Because there is no other God, neither ever was, neither
before, nor shall be hereafter, except God the Father, un
begotten, without beginning; from whom is all begin
ning ; upholding aU things, as we have said ; and his Son
Jesus Christ, whom indeed, with the Father, we testify to
have always been, before the origin of the world, spiri
tually with the Father ; in an inexplicable manner begotten
before all beginning ; and by himself were made the things
visible and invisible; and was made man; (and) death
having been vanquished, was received into the heavens to
the Father.
"And he has given to him aU power above every name of
those that are in heaven, on earth, and under the earth.

242 THE STORY OF ST. PATRICK.
that every tongue should confess to him, that Jesus Christ
is Lord and God, in whom we believe, and expect (his)
coming, to be ere long the Judge of the living and of the
dead, who will render to every one according to his deeds.
And he hath poured upon us abundantly the Holy Spirit,
a gift and pledge of immortality, who makes the faithful
and obedient to become sons of God and joint heirs with
Christ ; whom we confess and adore — one God in the Holy
Trinity of the sacred name.
" For he himself has said by the prophet, ' Call upon me
in the day of thy tribulation, and I will deliver thee, and
thou shalt magnify me.' And again he saith, ' It is hon
orable to reveal and confess the works of God.'
" 3. Although I am in many respects imperfect, I wish my
brethren and acquaintances to know my disposition, that
they may be able to comprehend the wish of my soul. I
am not ignorant of the testimony of my Lord, who wit
nesses in the psalm, ' Thou shalt destroy those that speak
a lie.' And again, ' The mouth that belieth kUleth the
soul.' And the same Lord says in the gospel, 'The idle
word that men shall speak, they shall render an account
for it in the day of judgment.' Therefore I ought ear
nestly, with fear and trembling, to dread this sentence in
that day, when no one shall be able to withdraw himself
or to hide, but we all together shall render an account of
even the smallest of our sins before the tribunal of the
Lord Jesus.
" Wherefore I thought of writing long ago, but hesitated
even till now ; because I feared falling into the tongue of
men; because I have not learned like others who have

THE "CONFESSION" OF ST. PATRICK. 243
drunk in, in the best manner, both law and sacred litera
ture in both ways equally, and have never changed their
language from infancy, but have always added more to
its perfection. For our language and speech is translated
into a foreign tongue.
" 4. As can be easily proved from the drivel of my writ
ing, how I have been instructed and learned in diction ;
because the wise man says, 'For by the tongue is dis
cerned understanding and knowledge and the teaching of
truth.' But what avails an excuse, (although) according
to truth, especially when accompanied with presumption ?
Since, indeed, I myself now, in my old age, strive after
what I did not learn in my youth, because they prevented
me from learning thoroughly that which I had read
through before. But who believes me although I should
say as I have already said ? When a youth, nay almost a
boy in words, I was taken captive, before I knew what I
ought to seek, or what I ought to aim at, or what I ought
to avoid. Hence I blush to-day, and gi-eatly fear to expose
my unskUfulness, because, not being eloquent, I cannot
express myself with clearness and brevity, nor even as the
spirit moves, and the mind and endowed understanding
point out.
" But if it had been granted to me even as to others, I
would not, however, be silent, because of the recompense.
And if, perhaps, it appears to some that I put myself for
ward in this matter with my ignorance and slower tongue,
it is, however, written, ' Stammering tongues shall learn
quickly to speak peace.' How much more ought we to
aim at this — we who are the ' epistle of Christ ' for salva-

244 THE STORY OF ST. PATRICK.
tion even to the end of the earth — and if not eloquent, yet
powerful and very strong — written in your hearts, 'not
with ink,' it is testified, 'but by the Spirit of the living
God'! " 5. And again the Spirit testifies, ' and husbandry was
ordained by the Most High.' Therefore I, first a rustic,
a fugitive, unlearned, indeed not knowing how to provide
for the future — but I know this most certainly, that before
I was humbled I was like a stone lying in deep mud ; and
He who is mighty came, and in his own mercy raised me
and placed me on the top of the wall.
" And hence I ought loudly to cry out, and return also
something to the Lord for his so great mercies, here and
in eternity, which benefits the minds of men cannot esti
mate. But, therefore, be ye astonished, both gi'eat and
small, who fear God. And ye rhetoricians who do not
know the Lord, hear and examine: who aroused me, a
fool, from the midst of those who appear to be wise, and
skiUed in laws, and powerful in speech and in every mat
ter? And me — who am detested by this world — he has
inspired me beyond others (if indeed I be such), but on
condition that with fear and reverence and without com
plaining I should faithfully serve the nation to which the
love of Christ has transferred me, and given me for my
life, if I should be worthy ; that, in fine, I should serve
them with humility and in truth. II.
" In the measure, therefore, of the faith of the Trinity, it
behooves me to distinguish, without shrinking from dan-

THE "CONFESSION" OF ST. PATRICK. 245
ger, to make known the gift of God and his everlasting
consolation, and without fear to spread faithfully every
where the name of God, in order that after my death I
may leave it as a bequest to my brethren and to my sons,
whom I have baptized in the Lord — so many thousand
men. And I was not worthy that the Lord should grant
this to his servant; that after going through afflictions
and so many difficulties, after captivity, after many years,
he should grant me so great favor among that nation,
which when I was yet in my youth I never hoped for nor
thought of.
" But after I had come to Ireland I daily used to feed
cattle, and I prayed frequently during the day; the love
of God and the fear of him increased more and more, and
faith became stronger, and the spirit was stirred ; so that
in one day I said about a hundred prayers, and in the
night the same ; so that I used even to remain in the
woods and in the mountain ; before daylight I used to rise
to prayer, through snow, through frost, through rain, and
I felt no harm ; nor was there any slothfulness in me, as I
now perceive, because the spuit was then fervent within
me. " And there indeed, one night in my sleep, I heard a voice
saying to me, 'Thou fastest weU; fasting so, thou shalt
soon go to thy country.' And again, after a very short
time, I heard a response saying to me, ' Behold, thy ship
is ready.' And it was not near, but perhaps two hundred
miles away, and I never had been there, nor was I ac
quainted with any of the men there.
" 7. After this I took flight, and left the man -with whom

246 THE STORY OF ST. PATRICK.
I had been six years ; and I came in the strength of the
Lord, who directed my way for good ; and I feared noth
ing till I arrived at that ship. And on that same day on
which I arrived the ship moved out of its place, and I
asked them, the saUors, that I might go away and sail with
them. And it displeased the captain, and he answered
sharply, with indignation, ' Do not by any means seek to
go with us.' And when I heard this I separated myself
from them in order to go to the hut where I lodged.
"And on the way I began to pray, and before I had ended
my prayer I heard one of them, and he was calling loudly
after me, ' Come quickly, for these men are calling you.'
And immediately I returned to them, and they began to
say to me, ' Come, for we receive you in good faith ; make
friendship with us in whatever way you wish.' And in
that day I accordingly disdained to make friendship with
them, on account of the fear of God. But in very deed I
hoped of them that they would come into the faith of
Jesus Christ, because they were heathen. And on account
of this I clave to them. And we sailed immediately.
" 8. After three days we reached land, and for twenty-
eight days we made our journey through a desert. And
food failed them, and hunger prevailed over them. And
one day the captain began to say to me, ' What is it, 0
Christian? You say that God is great and almighty;
why, therefore, canst thou not pray for us, for we are per
ishing with hunger ? For it will be a difficult matter for
us ever again to see any human being.' But I said to
them plainly, ' Turn with faith to the Lord my God, to

THE "CONFESSION" OF ST. PATRICK. 247
whom nothing is impossible, that he may send food this
day for us in your path, even till you are satisfled, for it
abounds everywhere with him.' And God assisting, it so
came to pass. Behold, a herd of swine appeared in the
path before our eyes, and my companions killed many of
them, and remained there two nights, much refreshed.
And their dogs were filled, for many of them had fainted
and were left half dead along the way. And after that
they gave the greatest thanks to God ; and I was honored
in their eyes.
" 9. From that day forth they had food in abundance.
They also found wild honey, and offered me a part of it.
And one of them said, ' It has been offered in sacrifice.'
Thanks to God, I consequently tasted none of it. But
the same night while I was sleeping and Satan greatly
tempted me, in a way in which I shall remember as long
as I am in this body. And he fell upon me like a huge
rock, and I had no power in my limbs save that it came to
me into my mind that I should call out ' Helias.' And in
that moment I saw the sun rise in the heaven ; and while
I was crying out ' Helias ' with all my might, behold, the
splendor of that sun fell upon me and at once removed
the weight from me. And I believe I was aided by Christ
my Lord, and his Spirit was then crying out for me ; and
I hope like-wise that it will be thus in the days of my op
pression, as the Lord says in the gospel, ' It is not you
that speak, but the Spirit of your Father which speaketh
in you.'

248 THE STORY OF ST. PATRICK.

m.

"10. And again after many years I was taken captive
once more. On that first night, therefore, I remained with
them. But I heard a divine response saying to me, ' But
for two months thou shalt be with them,' which accord
ingly came to pass. On that sixtieth night the Lord de
livered me out of their hands.
" Even on our journey he provided for us food and fire
and dry weather every day, till on the fourteenth day we
all arrived. As I stated before, we pursued our journey
for twenty-eight days through the desert, and the very
night on which we arrived we had no food left.
"And again, after a few years, I was in the Britains with
my parents, who received me as a son, and earnestly be
sought me that now, at least, after the many hardships I
had endured, I would never leave them again. And then
I saw indeed, in the bosom of the night, a man coming as
it were f^'om Ireland, Victorious by name, with innume
rable letters, and he gave one of them to me. And I read
the beginning of the letter containing ' The Voice of the
Irish.' And while I was reading aloud the beginning of
the letter, I myself thought indeed in my mind that I
heard the voice of those who were near the wood of Foc
lut, which is close by the western sea. And they cried out
thus as if with one voice : ' We entreat thee, holy youth,
that thou come and henceforth walk among us.' And I
was deeply moved in my heart and could read no farther,
and so I awoke. Thanks be to God that after very many
years the Lord granted to them according to their cry !

THE "CONFESSION" OF ST. PATRICK. 249
" 11. And on another night, I know not — God knows —
whether in me or near me, with most eloquent words,
which I heard and could not understand, except at the end
of the speech, one spoke as foUows : ' He who gave his life
for thee is he who speaks in thee,' and so I awoke fuU of
joy. And again I saw him praying in me, and I was as it
were within my body, and I heard above me, that is, above
the inner man, and there he was praying mightily with
groanings. And meanwhile I was stupefied and aston
ished, and pondered who it could be that was praying in
me. But at the end of the prayer he so spoke as if he
were the Spirit. And so I awoke and remembered that
the Apostle says, ' The Spirit helps the infirmities of our
prayers. For we know not what we should pray for as
we ought, but the Spirit himself asketh for us with un
speakable groanings which cannot be expressed in words,'
And again he says, ' The Lord is our Advocate and prays
for us,'
"And when I was attacked by some of my seniors, who
came and urged my sins against my laborious episcopate,
so that on that day I wa's strongly driven to fall away, here
and forever. But the Lord spared a proselyte and stranger
for his name's sake. He kindly and mightily aided me in
this treading-under, because in the stain and disgrace I
did not come out badly. I pray God that it be not reck
oned to them as an occasion of sin. For after thirty years
they found me, and brought against me a word which I
had confessed before I was deacon.
" 12. Under anxiety, and -with a troubled mind, I told my
most intimate friend what I had one day done in my boy-

250 THE STORY OF ST. PATRICK.
hood, in one hour, because I was not then used to over
come, I know not — God knows — whether I was then fifteen
years of age, and I did not beUeve in the living God from
my infancy ; but I remained in death and unbelief until I
was severely chastised ; and in truth I have been humbled
by hunger and nakedness, and that daily. On the other
hand, I did not of my own accord go to Ireland until I
was almost worn out. But that was rather good for me,
that I should be filled with care and be concerned for the
salvation of others ; since at that time I did not think even
about myself.
" Then on that day on which I was reproached for the
things above mentioned, on that night I saw in a vision
of the night a writing against me, without honor. And at
the same time I heard a response saying to me, ' We have
seen with displeasure the face of the designate with his
name stripped.' He did not say, 'You have seen with
displeasure,' but ' We have seen with displeasure,' as if
he had joined himseK to me, as he has said, ' He that
toucheth you is he that toucheth the apple of mine eye.'
Therefore I "wiU give thanks to him that comforted me in
aU things, that he did not hinder me from the journey on
which I had resolved, and also from my work which I had
of Christ my Lord, But the more from that time I felt in
myself no little power, and my faith was approved before
God and men,
" 13, But on this account I boldly assert that my con
science does not reprove me now or for the future, ' God
is my witness ' that I have not lied in the statements I
have made to you. But I am the more sorry for my very

THE "CONFESSION" OF ST. PATRICK. 251
dear friend, to whom I trusted even my life, that we
should have deserved to hear such a response. And I as
certained from several brethren before the defense that I
was not present, nor in Britain, nor did it originate with
me. Even he in my absence made a fight for me. Even
he had said to me with his own mouth, ' Behold, thou art
to be promoted to the rank of bishop '—of which I was
not worthy. But whence, then, did it occur to him that
before all, good and bad, he should publicly put discredit
upon me, although he had before of his own accord gladly
conceded that honor to me ? It is the Lord who is greater
than aU.
" I have said enough. But, however, I ought not to hide
the gift of God which he bestowed upon us in the land of
my captivity, for then I earnestly sought him and there I
found him, and he preserved me from all iniquities, so I
believe, because of his Spirit that dwelleth in me, which
has wrought in me boldly even to this day. But God
knows, if a man had spoken this to me I might have been
silent for the love of Christ.
" 14. Wherefore I give unwearied thanks to my God, who
has kept me faithful in the day of my temptation; so
that I may to-day confidently offer my soul to Christ my
Lord, as a sacrifice, ' a living victim ; ' who saved me
from all my difficulties, so that I may say. Who am I,
Lord, and what is my vocation, that to me thou hast
cooperated by such divine grace with me ? So that to-day
I can constantly rejoice among the Gentiles and magnify
thy name wherever I m^y be, not only in prosperity but
also in distresses; that whatever may happen to me.

252 THE STORY OF ST. PATRICK.
whether good or evil, I ought to receive it equaUy, and
always to give thanks to God, who has shown me that I
should believe in him, the indubitable One, without ceas
ing, and that he will hear me ; and that I, though ignorant,
may in these last days approach this work, so pious and
so wonderful ; that I may imitate some of those of whom
the Lord before, long ago, predicted that they should
preach his gospel, for a testimony to all nations, before
the end of the world. Which, therefore, has been so ful
fiUed as we have seen. Behold, we are witnesses that the
gospel has been preached everywhere, in places where
there is no man beyond. rv,
" 15, But it would be long to relate aU my labor in details,
or even in part. Briefly, I may tell how the most holy God
often delivered me from slavery, and from twelve dangers
by which my life was imperiled, besides many snares and
things which I cannot express in words, neither would I
give trouble to my readers. But there is God the Author
of all, who knew aU things before they came to pass.
" So, however, the divine response very frequently ad
monished me, this poor pupil. Whence came this wisdom
to me, which was not in me, I who neither knew the num
ber of my days, nor was acquainted with God ? Whence
came to me afterward the gift so great, so beneficial, to
know God, or to love him, that I should love country and
parents, and many gifts which were offered to me with
weeping and tears? And, moreover, I offended against
my wish certain of my seniors. But God overruling, I by

THE "CONFESSION" OF ST. PATRICK. 253
no means consented or complied with them. It was not
my grace, but God who conquered in me and resisted them
all ; so I came to the Irish peoples, to preach the gospel
and to suffer insults from unbelievers ; that I should listen
to reproach about my wandering, and endure many perse
cutions, even to chains, and that I should give up my
noble birth for the benefit of others.
" 16. And if I be worthy, I am willing to lay down my
life unhesitatingly and most gladly for his name ; and
there I wish to spend it even till death, if the Lord permit.
For I am greatly a debtor to the God who has bestowed
on me such grace that many people through me should be
born again to God, and that everywhere clergy should be
ordained for a people newly coming to the faith, whom
the Lord took from the ends of the earth, as he had prom
ised of old by his prophets: 'To thee the Gentiles will
come and say. As our fathers made false idols, and there
is no profit in them.' And again : ' I have set thee to be
the Ught of the Gentiles, that thou mayest be for salvation
unto the utmost parts of the earth.' And there I am
-wilUng to wait the promise of him who never fails, as he
promises in the gospel : ' They shall come from the east
and the west, and shall sit do-wn with Abraham and Isaac
and Jacob,' as we believe that believers shaU come from
aU the world.
" 17. Therefore it becomes us to fish well and diligently,
as the Lord premonishes and teaches, saying : ' Come ye
after me, and I will make you fishers of men.' And again
he says by the prophets : ' Behold, I send my fishers and
hunters, saith the Lord.' Therefore it is very necessary

254 THE STORY OF ST. PATRICK.
to spread our nets, so that a copious multitude and crowd
may be taken for God, and that everywhere there may be
clergy who shall baptize and exhort a people needy and
anxious, as the Lord admonishes and teaches in the gos
pel, saying : ' Going, therefore, teach ye all nations, bap
tizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and
of the Holy Ghost — even to the end of the age.' And
again : ' Going, therefore, into the whole world, preach the
gospel to every creature. He that beUeveth and is bap
tized shaU be saved, but he that believeth not shaU be
confounded.' And again : ' This gospel of the kingdom
shaU be preached in the whole world, for a testimony to
aU nations, and then shall the consummation come.' And
also the Lord, f oreteUing by the prophet, says : ' And it
shall be in the last days, saith the Lord, I will pour out of
my Spirit upon aU flesh ; and your sons and your daughters
shall prophesy, and your sons shall see visions, and your
old men shaU dream dreams. And upon my servants and
upon my handmaids I will pour out in those days of my
Spirit, and they shall prophesy.' And in Osee he says:
' I wUl call that which was not my people my people, and
her who had not obtained mercy; and it shall be in the
place where it was said. You are not my people, there they
shall be caUed the sons of the living God.'
" 18. Whence, then, has it come to pass that in Ireland
they who never had any knowledge, and until now have
only worshiped idols and unclean things, have lately be
come a people of the Lord, and are called the sons of God?
Sons of the Scots and daughters of chieftains are seen to
be monks and virgins of Christ. And there was even one

THE "CONFESSION" OF ST. PATRICK. 255
blessed Scottic lady, nobly born, very beautiful, of adult
age, whom I baptized. And after a few days she came to
us for a season, and intimated to us that she had secured
a response from a messenger of God, and he advised her
that she should be a virgin of Christ, and that she should
always draw near to God. Thanks be to God, on the
sixth day after that she most excellently and eagerly seized
on that which also all the virgins of Christ do ; not with
the will of their fathers — but they suffer persecution and
false reproaches from their parents ; and notwithstanding
the number increases the more ; and of our own race, who
were born there, there are those, we know not the number,
besides widows and those who are continent. But those
women who are detained in slavery especially suffer ; in
spite of terrors and threats, they have assiduously per
severed. But the Lord gave grace to many of my hand
maids, for, although they are forbidden, they zealously
imitate him.
" 19. Wherefore, though I could wish to leave them, and
had been most wiUingly prepared to proceed to the Bri
tains as to my country and parents ; and not that only, but
even to go as far as to the Gauls, to visit the brethren and
to see the face of the saints of the Lord — God knows that
I greatly desired it : but I am bound in the Spirit, who-
witnesseth to me that if I should do this he would hold
me guilty ; and I fear to lose the labor I have commenced ;
and not I, but Christ the Lord, who commanded me tO'
come and be with them for the rest of my life. If the
Lord will, and if he will keep me from every evil way,
that I may not sin before him. But I hope to do that

256 THE STORY OF ST. PATRICK.
which I ought ; but I trust not myself, as long as I am in
this body, for strong is he who daily tries to subvert me
from the faith, and from the chastity of religion proposed
to myself, not feignedly, which I will observe to the end
of my life, to Christ my Lord. But the flesh, which is in
enmity, always leads to death, that is, to unla-wful desires
to be unlawfully gratified. And I know in part that I
have not led a perfect life, as other believers. But I con
fess to my Lord, and I do not blush before him, for I lie
not : from the time I knew him in my youth the love of
God and his fear have increased in me, and untU now, by
the favor of the Lord, ' I have kept the faith.'

V,
" 20, Let him who will, laugh and insult ; I wiU not be
silent, nor will I hide the signs and wonders which were min
istered to me by the Lord many years before they came
to pass, as he who knew all things before the world began,
"But hence I ought to give thanks without ceasing to
God, who often pardoned my ignorance and my negligence,
even out of place — not in one instance only — so that he
was not fiercely angry with me, as being one who was per
mitted to be his helper. And yet I did not immediately
yield to what was pointed out to me, and to what the
Spirit suggested. And the Lord had pity on me among
the thousands of thousands, because he saw in me that I
was ready, but that in my case, for these reasons, I knew
not what to do about my position ; because many were
hindering this mission, and already were talking among

THE "CONFESSION" OF ST. PATRICK. 257
themselves and saying behind my back, ' Why does that
fellow put himself in danger among enemies who know
not God?' Not as though they spoke for the sake of
maUce, but because it was not a wise thing in their opin
ion, as I myself also testify, on account of my defect in
learning. And I did not readUy recognize the grace that
was then in me ; but now I know that I ought before to
have been obedient to God calling me.
" 21, Now, therefore, I have related simply to my breth
ren and fellow-servants who have believed me the reason
I have preached, and do preach, in order to strengthen and
confirm your faith. Would that you might aim at greater
and perform mightier things ! This will be my glory, be
cause ' a wise son is the glory of his father,'
" You know, and God also, how I have conducted myself
among you from my youth, both in the faith of the truth
and in sincerity of heart. Even in the case of those
nations among whom I dwell, I have always kept faith
¦with them, and I wiU keep it. God knows I have never
overreached none of them; neither do I think of it, that
is, of acting thus, on account of God and his church, lest
I should excite persecution against them and us aU, and
lest through me the name of God should be blasphemed,
because it is written, ' Woe to the man through whom the
name of God is blasphemed.' Though I am unskilful in
names, yet I have endeavored in some respects to serve
even my Christian brethren, and the virgins of Christ, and
religious women who have given to me small voluntary
gifts and who have cast off some of their ornaments upon
the altar, and I used to return these to them, although they

258 THE STORY OF ST. PATRICK.
were offended with me because I did so. But I did it, for
the hope of eternal life, in order to keep myself prudently
in everything, so that the unbelieving may not catch me
on any pretext, or the ministry of my service; and that
even in the smallest point I might not give the unbeliev
ers an occasion to defame or depreciate me.
" 22. But perhaps, since I have baptized so many thou
sand men, I might have expected half a screpall from some of
them ? Tell it to me and I will restore it to you. Or when
the Lord ordained everywhere clergy through my humble
ministry, I dispensed the rite gratuitously. If I asked of
any of them even the price of my shoe, tell it against me
and I will restore you more. I spent for you that they
might receive me; and among you and everywhere I
traveled for your sake amid many perils — even to remote
places, where there was no one beyond, and where no one
else had ever penetrated — to baptize or ordain clergy or
confirm the people. The Lord granting it, I diligently
and most cheerfuUy for your salvation defrayed all things.
During this time I gave presents to the kings, besides
which I gave pay to their sons who escorted me; and
nevertheless they seized me, together with my companions.
And on that day they eagerly desired to kill me ; but the
time had not yet come. And they seized all things that
they found with us, and they also bound me with iron.
And on the fourteenth day the Lord set me free from
their power; and whatever was ours was restored to us
for God's sake, and the attached friends whom we had be
fore provided.
" 23. But you know how much I paid to those who acted

THE "CONFESSION" OF ST. PATRICK. 259
as judges throughout all the regions which I more fre
quently visited. For I think that I distributed among them
not less than the hire of fifteen men. So that you might
enjoy me, and I may always enjoy you, in the Lord, I do
not regret it, nor is it enough for me — I still ' spend and
wUl spend for your souls.' God is mighty, and may he
grant to me that in future I may spend myself for your
souls! Behold, 'I call God to witness upon my soul'
' that I lie not ' ; neither that you may have occasion, nor
because I hope for honor from any man. Sufficient to me
is honor which is not belied. But I see that now ' I am
exalted by the Lord above measure ' in the present age ;
and I was not worthy nor deser-vdng that he should aid
me in this, since I know that poverty and calamity suit
me better than riches and luxuries. But Christ the Lord
was poor for us.
" But I, poor and miserable, even if I wished for riches,
yet have them not, ' neither do I judge my own self,' be
cause I daily expect either murder, or to be circumvented,
or to be reduced to slavery, or mishap of some kind. But
I 'fear none of these things' on account of the promises
of the heavens ; but I have cast myself into the hands of
the omnipotent God, who rules everywhere ; as saith the
prophet, ' Cast thy thought on the Lord, and he will sus
tain thee.'
" 24. Behold now, I commend my soul to my most faith
ful God, for whom I discharge an embassage in my ignoble
condition, because indeed he does not accept the person,
and he chose me to this office that I might be one of the
least of his ministers. But ' what shall I render him for

260 THE STORY OF ST. PATRICK.
aU the things he hath rendered to me? But what shaU I
say, or what shaU I promise to my Lord ? Because I had
no power unless he had given it to me, but he searches the
heart and reins ; because I desire enough and too much,
and am prepared that he should give me " to drink of his
cup," as he has granted to others that love him. Where
fore may it never happen to me of my Lord, to lose his
people whom he has gained in the utmost parts of the
earth.' I pray God that he may give me perseverance,
and count me worthy to render myself a faithful -witness
to him even till my departure, on account of my God.
And if I have ever imitated anything good, on account of
my God whom I love, I pray him to grant me that with
proselytes and captives I may pour out my blood for his
name's sake, even though I myself may even be deprived
of burial, and my corpse most miserably be torn limb from
limb by dogs or by wild beasts, or that the fowls of heaven
should devour it; I believe most certainly that if this
should happen to me I shall have gained both body and
soul. Because, -without any doubt, we shall rise in that
day in the brightness of the sun, that is, in the glory of
Jesus Christ our Redeemer ; as ' sons of the li-sdng God '
and ' joint heirs with Christ,' and ' to be conformable to
his image,' ' for of him and through him and in him we
shall reign.'
" 25. For that sun which we behold, at God's command
rises daUy for us — ^but it shaU never reign, nor shaU its
splendor continue ; but aU even that worship it, miserable
beings, shall -wretchedly come to punishment. But we
who believe in and worship the true Sun, Jesus Christ,

THE "CONFESSION" OF ST. PATRICK. 261
who wUl never perish : neither shaU he ' who does his will,'
but shaU continue forever, as Christ continues forever,
who reigns with God the Father Almighty and with the
Holy Spirit, before the ages, and now, and through aU the
ages of ages. Amen.
" Behold, I wiU again and again declare briefly the words
of my Confession ; I testify in truth and in joy of heart,
before God and his holy angels, that I never had any
reason, except the gospel and its promises for ever re
turning to that people from whom I had formerly escaped
-with difficulty.
" But I beg of those who believe and fear God, who ever
shaU deign or look into or receive this -writing which Pat
rick, the sinner, unlearned indeed, has -written in Ireland,
that no one may ever say, if I have done or demonstrated
anything according to the -will of God, however little, that
it was my ignorance which did it. But judge ye, and let
it be most truly believed that it has been the gift of God.
And this is my Confession before I die."

CHAPTER XXXIII.
the second of PATRICK'S -WRITINGS, CALLED THE HYMN OR
" BREASTPLATE."
This Hymn is a composition of considerable force and
beauty, written in a time when paganism was almost su
preme in Ireland. It was the general belief of that day
that heathen sorcerers had mysterious powers by which
they could harm their opponents ; and these reputed sor
cerers were gathered at Tara, a noted hill in County Meath;
not many miles from Dublin. This Tara was the seat of
the chief king of Ireland; there -with the subkings was
held the annual assembly ; and thither Patrick was moved
to go and preach the gospel even at the risk of deadly
peril. The expressions used in the Hymn correspond with
the circumstances undCT which Patrick set out on his mis
sionary journey- to Tara, to confront in its own stronghold
the idolatry which was then rampant in the land.
But while (many) -writers attribute to Patrick the power
of working greater miracles than were performed by any
of the apostles of Christ, Patrick himself, according to the
language of the Hymn, in anticipating the dangers that
were before him, relied on no such powers, but only on the
protecting hand of the God who has ever been a refuge
and strength to his people. This Hymn partakes very
262

THE HYMN OR "BREASTPLATE." 263
much of the spirit of the Forty-sixth Psalm, of which Lu
ther was accustomed to say to those around him in times
of trouble and danger, " Come, let us sing the Forty-sixth
Psalm." This Hymn of Patrick was originally written in a very
ancient dialect of the Irish language, and is known by the
name of " Lorica " or " Breastplate," because its recital
was supposed by the superstitious to guard a traveler, like
a breastplate, from spiritual foes. It has been set to
music as a sacred cantata, and was performed for the flrst
time in St. Patrick's Cathedral, DubUn, March 17, 1888.
It consists of eleven stanzas of varying length.
The Hymn or " Breastplate.''''

" I bind myself to-day
To a strong power, an invocation of the Trinity.
I believe in a Threeness, with confession of a Oneness,
in the Creator of Judgment. 2.
" I bind myself to-day
To the power of the birth of Christ, -with his baptism.
To the power of the crucifixion, with his burial.
To the power of his resurrection, -with his ascension.
To the power of his coming to the judgment of doom.
3.
" I bind myself to-day
To the power of the ranks of cherubim.
In the obedience of angels.
In the service of the archangels.
In the hope of resurrection unto reward.
In the prayers of patriarchs.
In the predictions of prophets,

264 ^^^ STORY OF ST. PATRICK.
In the preachings of apostles,
In the faiths of confessors.
In the purity of holy -virgins.
In the acts of righteous men.

" I bind myself to-day
To the power of Heaven,
The light of sun.
The brightness of moon.
The splendor of fire.
The speed of lightning.
The swiftness of wind.
The depths of the sea.
The stabUity of the earth.
The firmness of rocks, 5,
" I bind myself to-day
To the power of God to guide me.
The might of God to uphold me.
The wisdom of God to teach me.
The eye of God to watch over me,
The ear of God to hear me.
The word of God to speak for me.
The hand of God to protect me.
The way of God to lie before me.
The shield of God to shelter me,
The host of God to defend me.
Against the snares of demons.
Against the temptations of vices.
Against the lusts of nature.
Against every man who meditates injury to me,
Whether far or near.
Alone and in a multitude, 6,
" I summon to-day around me all these powers
Against every hostile mercUess power directed against
my body and my soul ;

THE HYMN OR "BREASTPLATE." 265
Against the incantations of false prophets.
Against the black laws of heathenism.
Against the false laws of heretics.
Against the deceit of idolatry.
Against the spells of women and smiths and Druids,
Against aU knowledge which hath defiled man's body and
soul. 7,
" Christ protect me to-day
Against poison, against burning.
Against drowning, against wound.
That I may receive a multitude of rewards.
8.
" Christ -with me, Christ before me,
Christ behind me, Christ within me,
Christ beneath me, Christ above me,
Christ at my right, Christ at my left,
Christ in breadth, Christ in length,
Christ in height, 9,
" Christ in the heart of every man who thinks of me,
Christ in the mouth of every man who speaks to me,
Christ in the eye of every man that sees me,
Christ in the ear of every man that hears me,
10,
" I bind myself to-day
To a strong power, an invocation of the Trinity.
I beUeve in a Threeness, -with confession of a Oneness,
in the Creator of Judgment. 11.
" Salvation is the Lord's,
Salvation is the Lord's,
Salvation is Christ's.
Let thy salvation, O Lord, be ever with us."

266 THE STORY OF ST. PATRICK.
The last stanza is an antiphony — a response divided
into two parts, sung alternately by the choir and congre
gation — the most ancient form of church music. AJl the
preceding stanzas of the Hymn are in Irish ; the last is in
Latin and reads thus :
Domini est salus, Domini est salus, Christi est salus,
Salus tua, Domine, sit semper nobiscum.

CHAPTER XXXIV.
THE THIRD GENUINE WRITING OF ST. PATRICK, HIS EPISTLE
TO COROTICUS.
This letter was written in Latin to Coroticus, a barba
rous chieftain and pirate in Wales, who had made a descent
on the shores of Ireland, slaying some of Patrick's con
verts and carrying others into captivity. It was prob
ably -written about 475, when Patrick was an old man
and had labored many years as a missionary. About
twenty years ago a piUar was discovered in Wales with
the name Coroticus inscribed upon it, the same Coroti
cus who was Patrick's correspondent. There is a rugged
eloquence in his letter to this Welsh Nero, which comes
home to the hearts of all who read the stirring and manly
rebuke administered by the Irish apostle.
The Epistle is a plain, frank arraignment of the great
sin and crime of which Coroticus had been guilty in slay
ing the children of God and in perpetrating such enormi
ties upon those who had devoted themselves to Christ.
Patrick contrasts the conduct of Coroticus with the con
duct of many of Patrick's converts who had sent money
and gifts to purchase back those who had been taken cap
tive by barbarians in the northern and eastern part of
267

268 THE STORY OF ST. PATRICK.
Gaul. Here is a paragraph from Patrick's Epistle on this
point: " It is the custom to send holy and suitable men to the
Franks and to the other nations, with so many thousands
of soUdi, to redeem baptized captives — you, Coroticus, so
often slay them, and sell them to a foreign nation that
knows not God! You surrender members of Christ as
into a den of lions ! What hope have you in God? or he
who either agrees with you or who uses to you words of
flattery? God wUl judge."
The Epistle to Coroticus,
" 1. I, Patrick, a sinner, unlearned, declare indeed that I
have been appointed a bishop in Ireland ; I most certainly
believe that from God I have received what I am. I dweU
thus among barbarians, a proselyte and an exile, on ac
count of the love of God. He is -witness that it is so. Not
that I desired to pour out anything from my mouth so
harsh and severe, but I am compelled, stirred up by zeal
for God and for the truth of Christ, for the love of my
neighbors and sons, for whom I have abandoned country
and parents, and my soul, even unto death, if I be worthy
of such honor. I have vowed to my God to teach the
peoples, although I be despised by some.
" With my own hand I have -written and composed these
words, to be given and handed to the soldiers, to be sent
to Coroticus — I do not say, to my fellow-citizens, and to
the citizens of the Roman saints, but to the citizens of
demons, on account of their own evil deeds, who by hostile

PATRICK'S EPISTLE TO COROTICUS. 269
practice of barbarians live in death — companions of the
Scots and apostate Picts, who stain themselves bloody
with the blood of innocent Christians whom I have be
gotten without number to God, and have confirmed in
Christ. " 2. On the day after that in which these Christians were
anointed neophytes in white robes, while it, the anointing,
was yet glistening on their foreheads, they were cruelly
massacred and slaughtered with the sword by those above
mentioned. And I sent a letter with a holy presbyter,
whom I taught from his infancy, with other clergy, beg
ging them that they would restore to us some of the plun
der, or of the baptized captives whom they took ; but they
laughed at them. Therefore I do not know what I should
lament for the more, whether those who were slain, or
those whom they captured, or those whom the devil has
grievously ensnared with the everlasting pain of Gehenna,
heU-fire, for they will be chained together with him ; for,
indeed, ' he who commits sin is a slave,' and is termed ' a
son of the devil."
"3, Wherefore let every man fearing God know that
they, the soldiers, are aliens from me, and from Christ my
God, for whom I discharge an embassage — patricides, fra
tricides, 'ravening wolves' devouring the people of the
Lord as the food of bread. As he says, the ungodly ' have
dissipated thy law. Lord.' Since in these last times Ire
land has been most excellently and auspiciously planted
and instructed by the favor of God. I do not usurp other
men's labors, but I have part with those whom he hath
called and predestined to preach the gospel amid no small

270 THE STORY OF ST. PATRICK.
persecutions, even to the end of the earth; although
the enemy envies us, by the tyranny of Coroticus, who
fears not God nor his priests whom he hath chosen, and
committed to them that greatest, divine, sublime power,
'Whom they bind upon earth, they are bound also in
heaven.' " 4. I therefore earnestly beseech you who are holy and
humble in heart not to flatter such persons, nor to take
food or drink -with them, nor to deem it right to take their
alms, until they rigorously do penance with tears poured
forth, and do make satisfaction to God, and Uberate the
servants of God, and the baptized handmaidens of Christ,
for whom he was put to death and crucified.
" ' The Most High reprobates the gifts of the wicked. . . .
He that offereth sacrifice of the goods of the poor is as
one that sacrificeth the son in the presence of his father.'
' The riches,' he says, ' that he will coUect unjustly shall
be vomited from his beUy ; the angel of death shall drag
him off, the fury of dragons shaU assail him, the tongue
of the adder shall slay him, the inextinguishable fire shaU
devour him. And therefore, woe unto those that fill them
selves with things which are not their own ; ' or ' what
doth it profit a man, if he gain the whole world, and suffer
the loss of his own soul ? '
"It were long to discuss texts one by one, or to run
through the whole law to select testimonies concerning
such cupidity. Avarice is a deadly sin : ' Thou shalt not
covet thy neighbor's goods.' A murderer cannot be with
Christ. ' Whosoever hateth his brother is termed a mur
derer,' or, 'He who loveth not his brother abideth in

PATRICK'S EPISTLE TO COROTICUS. 271
death,' How much more guilty is he who has stained his
hands -with the blood of the sons of God — whom he lately
acquired in the ends of the earth, by the exhortation of
our littleness !
" 5. Was it indeed -without God, or according to the flesh,
that I came to Ireland? Who compelled me? I was
bound by the Spirit not to see again any of my kindred.
Do I not love pious compassion, because I act thus toward
that nation which once took me captive and laid waste
the servants and handmaidens of my father's house? I
was a free man, according to the flesh ; I was born of a
father who was a decurio. For I bartered my noble birth
— I do not blush nor regret it — for the benefit of others.
In fine, I am a servant in Christ, given over to a foreign
nation, on account of that ineffable glory of that perennial
life which is in Christ Jesus our Lord, And if my own
friends do not acknowledge me — 'A prophet hath no
honor in his o-wn country,'
" Perhaps they think we are not of the one sheepf old nor
have the one God as Father. As he says, ' He that is not
¦with me is against me ; and he that gathereth not -with me
scattereth.' It is not fitting that ' one destroys, another
builds.' ' I do not seek those things which are my own.'
" 6. Not my grace, but God, indeed, hath put this desire
into my heart, that I should be one of the hunters or fish
ers whom of old God promised before in the last days. I
am en-vied. What shaU I do. Lord? I am greatly despised.
Behold, thy sheep are torn around me, and are plun
dered even by the above-mentioned robbers, by the order
of Coroticus, with hostile mind. Far from the love of

272 THE STORY OF ST. PATRICK.
God is the betrayer of the Christians into the hands of
the Scots and Picts. Ravening wolves have swaUowed
up the flock of the Lord, which everywhere in Ireland was
increasing with the greatest diligence, and the sons of the
Scots and the daughters of princes are monks and virgins
of Christ in numbers I cannot enumerate. Wherefore the
injury done to the righteous will not give thee pleasure
here, nor will it ever give pleasure in the regions below.
" 7. Which of the saints would not dread to be sportive
or to enjoy a feast with such persons ? They have filled
their houses with the spoil of the Christian dead. They
live by rapine, they know not how to pity. Poison they
drink, deadly food they hand to their friends and sons.
As Eve did understand that she offered death to her hus
band, so are all those who do evil — they work out ever
lasting death and perpetual punishment.
" It is the custom of the Roman and Gallic Christians to
send holy and suitable men to the Franks and to the other
nations, "with so many thousands of solidi, to redeem bap
tized captives — ^you, Coroticus, so often slay them, and
seU them to a foreign nation that knows not God ! You
surrender members of Christ as into a den of wolves !
What hope have you in God? or he who either agrees with
you or who uses to you words of flattery ?
" 8. God wUl judge. For it is written, ' Not only they
who do evil, but also they who consent thereto, are to be
condemned.' So I know not what I can say, or what I can
speak further, concerning the departed sons of God, whom
the sword has touched beyond measure severely. For it
is -written, 'Weep with them that weep,' and again, 'If

PATRICK'S EPISTLE TO COROTICUS. 273
one member suffers, all the members suffer along -with it.'
Wherefore the church laments and bewails her sons and
daughters whom the sword has not yet slain, but who
have been carried to distant parts, and exported into far-
off lands, where sin manifestly is shamelessly stronger —
there it impudently dwells and abounds. There free-born
Christian men having been sold are reduced to bondage —
bondage, too, of the most worthless, the -vilest and apostate
Picts !
" 9. Therefore -with sadness and sorrow I -will cry out, 0
my most beautiful and beloved brethren and sons whom I
begot in Christ — I cannot count you — what shall I do for
you ? I am not worthy before God or men to help ! The
"wickedness of the wicked has prevailed against us ! We
are become as strangers. Perhaps they do not believe
that we have partaken of one baptism, or that we have
one God as Father. To them it is a disgrace that we have
been born in Ireland, as he says, ' Have ye not one God —
why have ye forsaken each his neighbor ? '
" Therefore I grieve for you, I do grieve, my most beloved
ones. But again, I rejoice within myself, I have not la
bored in vain, and my pilgrimage has not been in vain,
although a crime so horrid and unspeakable has happened.
Thanks be to God, baptized believers, ye have passed from
this world to- paradise ! I see you have begun to migrate
where there shall be no night, nor giief, nor death any
more, but ' ye shall exult as calves let loose from their
bonds, and ye shall tread down the wicked, and they shall
be ashes under your feet.'
" 10, Ye, therefore, shall reign with the apostles and pro-

274 THE STORY OF ST. PATRICK.
phets and martyrs, and obtaiii,,.the eternah kingdom, as
He himself testifies, saying: 'They shaU come from the
east and the west, and shaU sit down with Abraham, and
Isaac, and Jacob, in the kingdom of heaven,' ' Without
are dogs, and sorcerers, and murderers, and Uars, and per
jurers,' 'Their part is in the lake of eternal fire,' Not
¦without reason does the Apostle say : ' Where the just will
scarcely be saved, where shall the sinner, and the impious,
and the transgressor of the law find himself ? ' But where
wUl Coroticus, with his most wicked rebels against Christ
— where shaU they see themselves ? When baptized women
are distributed as rewards on account of a wretched tem
poral kingdom, which indeed in a moment shall pass away
like clouds or smoke which is dispersed everywhere by
the wind! So sinners and the fraudulent shall perish
from the face of the Lord, but the just shall feast with
great confidence with Christ ; they shaU judge the nations,
and shaU rule over wicked kings forever and eyer. Amen,
" 11, I testify before God and his angels that it shall be
so, as he has intimated to my ignorance. They are not
my words, but those of God and of the apostles and pro
phets, which I have set forth in Latin — for they have
never lied. ' He that beUeveth shall be saved ; but he
that believeth not shall be condemned.' ' God hath
spoken.' I entreat earnestly whosoever is a servant of
God, that he may be prompt to be the bearer of this letter ;
that it be in no way abstracted by any one, but far rather
that it be read before all the people, and in the presence of
Coroticus himself : to the end that, if God should inspire
them, that they may at some time return to God, or even

PATRICK'S EPISTLE TO COROTICUS. 275
though late may repent of what they have done so impi
ously — murderers of brethren in the Lord — anid may libe
rate the baptized captives whom they have taken before, so
that they may deserve to Uve unto God, and may be made
whole here and in eternity. Peace be to the Father, and
the Son, and the Holy Ghost. Amen."

CHAPTER XXXV.
INDEX OF BIBLICAL TEXTS QUOTED BY ST. PATBICK OR RE
FERRED TO IN HIS ¦WRITINGS.

Genesis xx^viii. 20.
Exodus XX. 13, 17.
Leviticus xxiv. 16.
Deut. xxxiii. 27.
1 Samuel xii. 13.
2 Samuel ¦vii. 18.
2 Samuel vii. 28.
2 Samuel xii. 3.
2 Kings vi. 17.
2 Kings vii. 8.
2 Chron. xxix. 10,
Job XX, 15, 16,
Psalms iii. 8.
Psalms V. 6.
Psalms ¦vii. 9.
Psalms xiv. 14.
Psalms xviii. 12.
Psalms xxxiv. 7.
Psalms xxxix. 4.
Psalms I. 15.
Psalms Iv. 22.
Psalms lix. 8.
Psalms Ix. 6.
Psalms Isv. 3.
Psalms Ixix. 8.
Psalms civ. 4.
Psalms civ. 5.
Psalms cvii. 25.
Psalms cxvi. 12.

Psalms cxix. 26.
Psalms cxMii. 1,
Psalms cxl^viii, 3,
Psalms cxMii, 7, 8.
Proverbs x, 1,
Proverbs xv. 20.
Proverbs xvii. 17.
Proverbs xviii, 5.
Isaiah xxv. 9.
Isaiah xxx, 18,
Isaiah xxxii. 4.
Isaiah xlv. 7.
Isaiah xlix. 6.
Isaiah xlix. 6.
Isaiah Ixi. 2.
Jeremiah xi. 20.
Jeremiah xvi. 16.
Jeremiah xvi. 19.
Hosea i. 9, 10.
Joel U. 28, 29.
Amos iii. 6.
Habakkuk ii. 6.
Malachi ii. 7.
Malachi U. 10.
Malachi iv. 6.
Tobit xii. 7.
Wisdom i. 11.
Ecclus. iv. 29.
Ecclus. vii. 15.

Eccl. xxxiv. 23, 24,
Ecclus. xxxiv. 28.
Matt. iii. 12.
Matt, iv. 19.
Matt. V. 26.
Matt. viii. 11.
Matt. X. 20.
Matt. xU. 36.
Matt. xiu. 30.
Matt. xvi. 26.
Matt, x-viu. 18.
Matt. XX, 22, 23,
Matt, xxiv. 14.
Matt, xxvii. 45,
Matt,xxviu,19,20.
Mark xv, 34.
Mark xvi, 15, 16,
Mark xvi, 28,
John V, 21,
John V, 44.
John ¦viii. 14.
John ¦viii. 20,
John ¦viii, 34.
John viii. 44,
John XX, 15, 16.
John XX. 23.
Acts ii. 17, 18,
Acts vU. 53, 60,
Acts X, 42,

INDEX OF BIBLICAL TEXTS.

277

Acts xiii. 8,
Acts xiii. 47.
Acts XV. 28.
Acts xviii. 6.
Acts XX. 22.
Acts XX. 23.
Acts XX. 29.
Acts xxviii. 22,23,
Romans i. 9.
Romans i. 32.
Romans ii. 16.
Romans ii. 24.
Romans v. 21.
Romans vii. 24.
Romans viii. 7.
Romans viii. 11.
Romans ¦viii. 17.
Romans viii. 26.
Romans viii. 29.
Romans -viii, 34.
Romans ix. 25, 26.
Romans xi. 36,
Romans xii, 1.
Romans xii, 3.
Romans xii. 25.
Romans xiii. 9.
Romans xv, 19,
1 Cor. i. 26.

1 Cor. iv. 3.
1 Cor. xU. 26.
1 Cor. XV. 10.
2 Cor. i. 15-17.
2 Cor. i. 23.
2 Cor. ui. 3.
2 Cor. viii. 9.
2 Cor. X. 15.
2 Cor. xU. 7.
2 Cor. xii. 9.
2 Cor. xii. 14.
2 Cor. xU. 20.
Galatians i. 20.
Galatians ii. 2.
Galatians ii. 6.
Galatians iv. 11,
Eph, U. 21, 22.
Eph. iii. 18, 19.
Eph. iv. 5, 6.
Eph. V. 10-17.
PhU. ii. 9, 11.
Colossians i. 16.
Colossians iii. 16.
1 Thess. u. 10.
1 Thess. V. 17, 18.
2 Thess. ii. 16.
1 Timothy v. 21.
2 Timothy iv, 8,

2 Timothy iv, 18.
Titus iii, 6,
Hebrews i, 14.
Hebrews x. 23.
James iv. 15.
1 Peter i. 12.
1 Peter ii. 5.
1 Peter U. 25.
1 Peter iv. 11.
1 Peter iv. 18.
1 Peter iv. 19.
1 Peter viii. 18.
1 John ii. 1.
1 John U. 17.
1 John iii, 14,
1 John iii, 15.
1 John iii, 16.
Jude 10,
Jude 20,
Rev, U. 10.
Rev. iv. 25.
Rev. vii. 10.
Rev. xiv. 4.
Rev. xxi. 4.
Rev. xxi. 8.
Rev. xxii. 9.
Rev, xxii. 15,

CHAPTER XXXVI,
THE DOUBTFUL BEMAINS OF PATRICK.
/. Sayings of Patrick.
"I had the fear of God as the guide of my journey
through the Gauls and Italy, even in the islands which
are in the Tyrrhenian Sea,"
" From the world ye have passed on to paradise."
" Thanks be to God ! "
"The church of the Scots, nay, even of the Romans,
(chant) as Christians ; so, that ye may be Romans, (chant)
as it ought to be chanted with you, at every hour of prayer,
that praiseworthy sentence, ' Lord have mercy upon us ! '
•* Christ have mercy upon us ! ' "
" Let every church that follows me chant, ' Lord have
mercy upon us ! ' ' Christ have mercy upon us ! ' ' Thanks
be to God!'" IL Proverbs of Patrick,
1. " Patrick says : ' It is better for us to admonish the
negligent, that crimes may not abound, than to blame the
things that have been done.' Solomon says : ' It is better
to reprove than to be angry.' "
2. " Patrick says : ' Judges of the church ought not to
have the fear of man, but the fear of God, because the
fear of God is the beginning of wisdom.' " (Prov. i. 7.)
278

THE DOUBTFUL REMAINS OF PATRICK. 279
3. " Judges of the church ought not to have the wisdom
of this world, for ' the ¦wisdom of this world is fooUshness
with God,' but to have ' the wisdom of God.' " (1 Cor. i. 21 ;
in. 19.)
4. " Judges of the church ought not to take gifts, be
cause 'gifts blind the eyes of the wise and change the
words of the just.' "
5. " Judges of the church ought not to respect a person
in judgment, ' for there is no respect of persons with God.' "
(Rom. u. 11.)
6. "Judges of the church ought not to have worldly
wisdom, but divine examples (before them), for it does
not become the servant of God to be crafty or cunning."
7. " Judges of the church ought not to be so swift in
judgment until they know how too true it may be which
is ¦written, ' Do not desire quickly to be a judge.' "
8. " Judges of the church ought not to be voluble."
9. " Judges of the church ought not to tell a lie, for a
lie is a great crime."
10. " Judges of the church ought ' to judge just judg
ment,' ' for with whatever judgment they shall judge, it
shall be judged to them.' "
11. " Patrick says : 'Look into the examples of the elders,
where you wiU find no guile.' "
12. " Patrick says : ' Judges who do not judge rightly the
judgments of the church are not judges, but falsifiers.'"
Ill, The Story of Patrick and the Eoyal Daughters,
But thence went the holy Patrick to the spring which
is caUed Clebach, on the sides of Crochan, toward the ris-

280 THE STORY OF ST. PATRICK.
ing of the sun, before the rising of the sun, and they sat
beside the spring. And behold, two daughters of Loe-
gaire, Ethne the fair and Fedelm the ruddy, came to the
spring in the morning, after the custom of women, to wash,
and they found a holy synod of bishops with Patrick by
the spring. And they did not know from whence they
were, or of what shape, or of what people, or of what
region. But they thought that they were men of the side,
or of the terrestrial gods, or an apparition. And the
daughters said to them: "Whence are ye, and whence
have ye come ? "
And Patrick said to them: "It were better that you
would confess our true God than to inquire about our
race," The first daughter said : " Who is God ? And where is
God ? And of what is God ? And where is his dwelUng-
place ? Has your God sons and daughters, gold and silver ?
Is he ever-living? Is he beautiful ? Have many fostered
his Son ? Are his daughters dear and beautiful to the men
of the world? Is he in heaven or on earth? In the sea?
In the rivers ? In the mountains ? In the vaUeys ? Tell
us, how is he seen ? How is he loved ? How is he found ?
Is he in youth, or in age ? "
But holy Patrick, fuU of the Holy Spirit, answering,
said: " Our God is the God of all men, the God of heaven and
earth, of the sea and of the rivers ; the God of the sun and
of the moon, of all the stars ; the God of the lofty moun
tains and of the lowly valleys ; the God over heaven, and
in heaven, and under heaven. He has his dwelling toward

THE DOUBTFUL REMAINS OF PATRICK. 281
heaven and earth, and the sea, and all things that are in
them. He inspires all things. He gives life to aU things.
He surpasses aU things. He supports all things. He kin
dles the Ught of the sun ; he strengthens the light of the
moon at night for watches ; and he made springs in the
arid land, and dry islands in the sea; and the stars he
placed to minister to the greater Ughts, He has a Son
coetemal with himself and like unto himself. The Son is
not younger than the Father, nor is the Father older than
the Son, The Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit are not
separated, I truly desire to unite you to the Heavenly
King since ye are daughters of an earthly king. Believe
(on him),"
And the daughters said, as if with one mouth and heart :
"How can we beUeve on the Heavenly King? Teach
us most dUigently, so that we may see him face to face.
Point out to us, and we will do whatsoever thou shalt say
to us,"
And Patrick said : " Do you believe that the sia of your
father and mother is taken away by baptism ? "
They repUed : " We do believe it,"
Patrick, " Do you beUeve there is repentance after sin ? "
Daughters, " We do believe it."
Patrick, " Do you beUeve there is a life after death ? Do
you beUeve in the resurrection on the day of judgment ? "
Daughters, " We do believe it."
Patrick, " Do you believe in the unity of the church ? "
Daughters, " We do beUeve it."
And they were baptized, and (Patrick placed) a white
garment on their heads.

282 THE STORY OF ST. PATRICK.
And they begged to see the face of Christ.
And the saint said to them: "Unless you shaU have
tasted death, you cannot see the face of Christ, and unless
you shall receive the sacrifice."
And they replied : " Give to us the sacrifice, that we may
see the Son our Spouse."
And they received the Eucharist of God, and they slept
in death. And they placed them in a bed covered with
one mantle, and their friends made a wailing and a great
lamentation. . . . And the days of the wailing for the
daughters of the king were ended, and they buried them
by the spring Clebach ; and they made a round ditch in the
likeness of a grave, because so the Scottic men and Gen
tiles used to do ; but with us it is called relic, that is, the
remains and feurt.
IV. Patrick^s Vision of the Futwre of Ireland,
And the man of God was anxiously desiring and ear
nestly praying that he might be certified of the present and
future state of Hibernia, to the end that he might know
¦with what devotion of faith he was burning, and also the
value of his labor in the sight of God. Then the Lord
heard the desire of his heart and manifested that which
he sought for unto him by an evident revelation.
For whUe he was engaged in prayer and the heart of his
mind was opened, he beheld the whole island as it were a
flaming flre ascending unto heaven, and he heard the angel
of God saying unto him : " Such at this time is Hibernia
in the sight of the Lord."

THE DOUBTFUL REMAINS OF PATRICK. 283
And after a little space he beheld in all parts of the island
conelike mountains of fire stretching unto the skies. And
again, after a little space, he beheld as it were candlesticks
burning, and after a while darkness intervened, and then
he beheld scanty lights, and at length he beheld coals lying
hidden here and there, as reduced unto ashes, yet appear
ing still burning.
And the angel added : " What thou seest here shown in
different states are the Irish nations." Then the saint,
weeping exceedingly, repeated often the words of the
Psalmist, saying : " Will God cast off forever, and wiU he
be no more entreated? Shall this mercy come to an end
from generation to generation ? Shall God forget to be
merciful, and shut up his mercy in his displeasure ? "
And the angel said : " Look toward the northern side,
and on the right hand of an height shalt thou behold the
darkness dispersed from the face of the light which thence
forth will arise."
Then the saint raised his eyes, and behold, he at first
saw a smaU light arising in Uiidia, the which struggled a
long time with the darkness, and at length dispersed it and
illumined ¦with its rays the whole island. Nor ceased the
light to increase and to prevail even until it had restored
to its former fiery state aU Hibernia.
Then was the heart of St. Patrick filled with joy and his
tongue with exultation, gi^ving thanks for all these things
which had been shown unto him by grace. And he under
stood, in the greatness of this fiery ardor of the Christian
faith, the devotion and the zeal for religion wherewith
those islanders bumed.

CHAPTER XXXVII.
MIRACLES AND LEGENDS.
The following are some of the miracles attributed to
St. Patrick, as having been wrought by him, and some
of the legends that several writers have recorded concern
ing him. These are in addition to the few we have given
in " The Story of St. Patrick."
Lives of Patrick written in the fourth, fifth, and sixth
centuries after Patrick's death abound in the recital of
miracles wrought by Patrick, but there is not the slight
est reference in his own writings to any miracles wrought
by him.
For example, it is recorded, in notes on Patrick's life
¦written about three hundred years after his death, when
Patrick was contending with the magicians of King Loe-
gaire (or Leary) at Tara, that he raised Daire's horse
to Ufe, after dying because of his trespass on the ground
given by Daire to Patrick at Armagh for religious pur
poses; that a dead man in his grave spoke to Patrick;
that an angel appeared to Patrick as to Moses in the
burning bush ; that when water flooded his mother's floor,
fire dropped from his fingers and every drop of water was
dried up ; that when his mother wanted some firewood the
boy Patrick brought ice in his arms and kindled a rous
ing fire ¦with it ; that his sister Lupita fell and bruised her
forehead, and Patrick healed the wound in an instant;
that when Patrick was herding his father's sheep a wolf
came and stole one of the finest lambs : his father reproved
Patrick, who prayed all night, and lo ! in the morning the
roguish wolf brings back the lamb, lays it unhurt at Pat-
284

MIRACLES AND LEGENDS. 285
rick's feet, and then flees to the wood ; that Patrick changed
butter into honey and passed through shut doors; that
when the cruel lord of Dunbriton ordered Patrick's aunt
to do the slavish job of cleaning out his fortress and sta
bles, Patrick, though only a lad, came forward like a man,
and by miracle made such a riddance of all trash that none
was ever found afterward in the whole establishment ; that
when he had his head shorn, and the tonsure marked him
as one of the lower clergy, he grew wise in church disci
pline and learned to convert flesh into fish. When he asked
to dwell in a solitary cave with three other Patricks, they
told him that he could not unless he would draw water from
a certain fountain that was guarded by a very savage -wild
beast. He agrees to draw the water, goes to the fountain,
the ravenous beast sees him, gives signs of great joy, and
becomes quite tame and gentle. Patrick draws the water
and returns with a blessing. That he was offered a staff as
a precious relic, which had the power of preserving in all
the freshness of youth those who sacredly kept it ; he re
fused taking it unless he should receive it from the Lord
himself, and three days afterward the Lord gave it to him
to qualify for the conversion of Ireland.
He then visited Rome, was ordained a bishop by the
pope, given the name of Patrick, and sent on his great
mission, on which he soon started -with a fair supply of
reUcs, which, some of his biographers will have it, Patrick
filched from the pope. Three choirs then sang praises —
one in heaven, another in Rome, and a third in the wood
of Erin, where the children were still calling for the saint
to come and bless them.

286 THE STORY OF ST. PATRICK.
That on one occasion when his horses were lost, St.
Patrick raised up his hand, his five fingers iUumined the
whole plain as if they were five lamps, and the horses were
found at once ; that a goat bleated out of the stomachs of
men who had eaten it up, and, according to a later embel
lishment, came alive out of their mouths; that when a
tooth fell out of St. Patrick's head the tooth shone in the
ford like the sun; whUe, on another occasion, Coroticus,
the king of the Britons, was changed into a fox.
The " Holy Stone " of Ireland is the name given to a
famous stone possessed at Ardmore in County Waterford,
Ireland, The legend asserts that this stone floated over
the ocean from Rome to St, Patrick, bringing to him his
sacred vestments, a bell for his church, and a Ughted can
dle for the Mass. It is now held sacred to the memory of
the saint. It is upon ±he sea-shore, is a large stone weigh
ing perhaps some four or five tons, and is much visited
by pilgrims. At low tide, when, only, the lower part of the
stone can be seen, these visitors go round it several times
on their knees, and finally, lying flat, creep through a hol
low of sand that has been made under it.