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THE LIFE OF ST. PATRICK,
Nihil Obstat.
J. MURPHY,
Censor deputatus.
Emprimatur.
HENRICUS EDUARDUS,
Card. Archiep. Westmon.
THE
75329
LIFE OF SAINT PATRICK
APOSTLE OF IRELAND
WITH A PRELIMINARY ACCOUNT OF THE SOURCES
OF THE SAINT'S HISTORY
BY
WILLIAM BULLEN MORRIS
PRIEST OF THE ORATORY OF ST. PHILIP NERI
Qui s'étonnera que dans une entreprise toute Apostolique. . . . Dicu
oit conduit, coinme les Prophètes et les Apostres, un Saint qui paroist
leur avoir esté plus semblable qu'aux Saints qui sont venus après cux.
En un mot, on y voit beaucoup le caractère de $. Paul.
TILLEMONT, t. xvi. (Art. S. Patrice).
ORATORIE
BUNAUKOJ KULVI IN PIVITETE
ST'U PHILIPPIO
t 보
​ENEFITS
FOURTH EDITION
LONDON AND NEW YORK
BURNS & OATES, LIMITED
M. H. GILL & SON, DUBLIN
1890
BX
4700
.P3
M88
TO THE
MEMBERS OF THE CONFRATERNITY OF ST. PATRICK
ESTABLISHED
AT THE LONDON ORATORY,
WHO,
WITH THE CHILDREN OF THE SAINT
IN MANY LANDS,
ARE
THE ENDURING WITNESSES
OF
THE FAITH
WHICH SEETH HIM WHO IS INVISIBLE,
ADVERTISEMENT TO THE FOURTH EDITION.
On the first appearance of this book in 1878, my critics were
encouraging beyond all expectation, but for all that I felt
that something was wanting, and that I ought not to be
satisfied until it had been subjected to the ordeal of adverse
criticism. St. Patrick is still militant and aggressive, and any
picture of the Saint which pleases everybody canuot be true to
life. The Saints are one with the Church, and inspire the same
feelings of loyalty or rebellion. If, therefore, I welcome the
fact that iny third and enlarged edition has aroused antagonists,
I do so, I trust, not under the influence of the combative spirit,
but rather because discussion can only serve to enhance the glory
of the Apostle of Ireland.
I had made up my mind to introduce a few answers into my
Appendix, in reply to my critics. On second thought, however,
I have come to the conclusion that it is better to allow the Life
of St. Patrick to stand by itself, and speak for itself. I have
therefore determined to bring out, in a separate volume, some
Essays published on various occasions, in which, either directly
or indirectly, I have touched on most of those disputed questions
to which my reviewers allude. Everything that has been objected
has only served to strengthen my confidence in the security of
the foundations on which this Life of St. Patrick has been
built. In the present edition, I have contented myself with two
short notices in the Appendix of certain theories relative to St.
Patrick's Ancestors, and the Roman Mission.
November 21, 1889.
PREFACE
TO THE THIRD AND FOURTH EDITIONS.
The present edition has been much altered in
form and dimensions. It is therefore with some
trepidation that the writer awaits another verdict
on the part of the benevolent reader. If it turns
out that in attempting to improve, he has over-
leaped the mark, his excuse must be that in so
doing he has acted under strong pressure on the
part of those who, on its first appearance, com-
plained of the brevity of the work.
The introduction has been re-written : an in-
quiry into the state of Ireland at the period of St.
Patrick's advent has been introduced into the life,
and there are considerable additions, and some
omissions, in the body of the work. With something
like a pang the writer has been driven to give up the
very beautiful legends connected with St. Patrick's
infancy, having come to the conclusion that they
do not rest on any solid historical foundation, and
that it is impossible to make them harmonise with St.
viii
PREFACE.
Patrick's autobiography. When, however, we take
into account that the events which they profess to
record were separated by an interval of more than
half a century from the historic life of the Apostle
of Ireland, and that during that period he was an
exile and a pilgrim, an outcast of fortune-detesta-
bilis hujus mundi, as he himself expresses it—there
is nothing wonderful in the fact that the private life
of St. Patrick was nut accurately registered in the
very sterile records of the fifth century. The
imperious requisitions imposed on St. Patrick's
biographer are often very unreasonable, and likely
to become a snare to anxious and over-submissive
investigators. Surely the biographer of St. Patrick
ought not to forfeit his reputation if he sometimes
says that he is ignorant as regards particular events,
when such large indulgence is granted to the histo-
rians of St. Patrick's most famous contemporaries ?
St. Patrick's authentic history begins with his
sixteenth year: the period at which he commences
his autobiography. Outside his own record we have
only vague indications of his early life, by writers
of uncertain dates, the value of whose testimony
depends entirely upon its subordination to the
Saint's own writings. If any proof is wanted of
this, it is to be found in the perplexities and con-
1
PREFACE.
ix
tradictions of all writers, ancient and modern, who
have attempted to build up his life on any other
foundation. It is to the neglect of this obvious
principle that we must attribute that perpetual
piecemeal controversy which has brought so much
discredit on St. Patrick's history.
The ephemeral productions of belligerent critics
have done more to weaken faith in St. Patrick than
all the efforts of the Anglo-Irish Establishment,
which for centuries bas expended its strength in
alternate attempts to capture or to annihilate our
national Apostle. Writers who merely make use of
his Acta to arm themselves with chips and fragments
of his history, to be used as missiles and nothing
more, have kept alive the impression that there is no
animating principle in the record : that it is a body
without a soul.
The truth is that few Saints have transmitted to
posterity a more perfect revelation of their own lives
and character than that which is found in the Con-
fession, Epistle, and Hymn of St. Patrick, although
this will doubtless seem an extravagant assertion
to cursory readers, and to those who only use them
for literary party-purposes. They are a record,
,
fragmentary indeed in form, but inspired by one
inimitable spirit, of the course of a life which was
!
X
PREFACE.
prodigious and unprecedented in every stage. The
study of St. Patrick's writings explains how it came
to pass that his life was so imperfectly recorded.
His simple and awestruck neophytes did not
comprehend him : indeed it may be said that
St. Patrick is not understood yet; as Cardinal
Newman says of St. Joseph, he is a star that is
late in rising for the very reason that he is so
specially glorious.
The chief additions in the present edition con-
sist of passages from the Saint's autobiography
which seem to fit in with the narrative. The effect
of such a combination must necessarily be very un-
favourable to the Saint's biographers. Nothing
that has been written about St. Patrick has ever
even approached the exalted level of his own writ-
ings; but if the Saint is glorified by the contrast
our object will be attained. Building on the
foundations laid by the Saint himself, we can make
all other authorities subservient to that ideal which
is revealed in his autobiography, which is at once a
record of his external actions and a revelation of
his interior spirit. At the same time, so far from
discrediting the ancient lives of the Saint, this
plan invests them with an authority which, stand-
ing alone, they have hitherto failed in vindicating
PREFACE.
xi
for themselves. The Acta of St. Patrick, collected
and religiously preserved in the Trias Thauma-
turga of the learned Franciscan Fr. Colgan, are
little more than the scattered members of the
Saint's extraordinary history. For more than two
centuries the literary skill of many learned writers
has been brought to bear upon them, but the
general impression is that the result has not been
satisfactory. We need a guide and an interpreter
in studying the mysteries of St. Patrick's life, and
that guide and interpreter can be no other than –
himself. Hypothesis, invention, rhetoric, and that
criticism which professes to make a science out of
uncertainties have done their best and failed; it
is time that they should stand aside and allow the
Saint to speak for himself, and if many things in
St. Patrick's writings turn out to be beyond our
comprehension, it will be both easier and more
instructive to endure the mystery than to accept
the assumptions of writers who would have us
believe that St. Patrick's science never rose to any
level higher than their own.
It is only fair to warn the reader that, as far as
the following pages are concerned, the mystery of
St. Patrick's birthplace still remains a mystery.
Boulogne, Tours, Dumbarton, Kilpatrick, Baunave,
xii
PREFACE.
Bristol, Paisley, Cornwall, Glastonbury, Rosnatt
Valley, Perpediaç, Carlisle, Carleon, and Bath still
contend for the distinction, like the seven rival
cities which laid claim to Homer.
These widely distant and distracting national
claims are, indeed, an honourable evidence of the
way in which St. Patrick has taken root, and been
domesticated in many lands; but for his own part,
the writer confesses that he has never felt
any
special inclination to embark in the controversy.
It is clear that the blood of several races ran in our
Saint's veins. From the well-known classic names
of his father and grandfather, it would seem that
the male parental stem was Roman, and his mother
being a relative of St. Martin of Tours, was probably
an Hungarian. If, like the Irish St. Columba, or
the Italian St. Francis, St. Patrick's young soul
had developed, and arrived at its supernatural
maturity amidst the associations of his native land,
deriving strength, colour, and beauty from persons
and things around him; under such circumstances
the identification of the scenes of his childhood
would have a significance and importance which in
his case does not belong to them. We have his
own words for the fact that it was in a land of
exile that his supernatural life and vocation began;
PREFACE.
xiii
!
for such unquestionably was the meaning of his
extraordinary communications with God during his –
exile in Ireland. Even were St. Patrick's birth-
place identified, the lonely summit of Slemish,
the birthplace of his spirit, might well dispute its
claims to the veneration of St. Patrick's children.
The list would be a long one were the writer
to enumerate all the friends, living and dead, and in
many lands, who have had a share in the prepara-
tion of the present work, extending over a period
of more than a quarter of a century. The assistance
and restraints afforded by enlightened public dis-
cussion in better ventilated subjects, he has had
to obtain by correspondence and conversation.
Amongst the many, however, to whom he is in-
debted he is bound to single out the Deputy Keeper
of Irish Records, W. M. Hennessy, Esq., M. R.I.A.,
and gratefully to acknowledge the priceless hours
spent with him in diving amongst the historical
treasures of the Libraries of Trinity College, the
Irish Academy, and the monuments of Tara, and it
is one of his chief aspirations to give the public, in
a diluted form, some of the lessons he has learned
from this prince of Celtic scholars. Moreover, as
will be seen, he has drawn largely from Mr. Hennessy
translation of the ancient Tripartite Life of St.
xiv
PREFACE.
Patrick, which is appended to the quarto edition
of the Life of St. Patrick, by M. F. Cusack, giving
the collection an imperishable value. He has
chiefly used this simple and unstudied record as a
voucher for the fidelity of Jocelyn, the Cistercian
biographer of St. Patrick in the twelfth century,
whose work, in the text, is always quoted from the
Bollandists' Acta Sanctorum Martii xvii.
He must also not omit to mention his obligations
to his Eminence Cardinal Moran : to his lamented
friend J. E. O'Cavanagh, Esq.: to Professor O’Loony,
M.R.I. A., for his assistance in collating the text
of a passage in the Book of Armagh: to Lord
Emly, who was the first to put him on the track of
the invaluable monuments and traditions of St.
Patrice en Touraine, and to a writer in the Scottish
Review for an ingenious translation of an expression
in St. Patrick's Confession; and doubtless, there are
innumerable similar debts to his predecessors in the
fields of Patrician literature which in the course of
time he has incurred and forgotten.
It must not be supposed, however, that anyone
mentioned above is responsible for the opinions in
this work. With one alone the praise or blame of
partnership must be shared. At every step he has had
to thank his friend Mr. Boardman for the inestim-
PREFACE.
XV
able assistance of enlightened criticism sustained by
constant study in lines parallel to those which he
was himself pursuing. At the same time he is far
indeed from supposing that the work as it now
stands is incapable of improvement. A biographer
of St. Patrick must ever feel that he is the servant
and interpreter of a mysterious master, and there-
fore it is in all sincerity that the writer borrows the
declaration of St. Gregory the Great, as it stands
in the preface to Villanueva's edition of the Works
of St. Patrick: “Ab omnibus corripi, emendari ab
omnibus paratus sum”.
FEAST OF ST PATRICK, 1887.
CONTENTS.
PAGE
THE BIOGRAPHY OF ST. PATRICK THE FOUNDATION OF THE
CHURCH
HISTORY OF IRELAND-IMPROVED
TONE
OF
CRITICS WEARIED WITH INTERNECINE CONFLICTS-
-RATION-
ALISM OUT OF ITS ELEMENT-SAINTS JUDGED ONLY BY
THEIR PEERS-DE VERE'S “ST. PATRICK”—TILLIMONT'S
VINDICATION OF THE SAINT'S AUTOBIOGRAPHY-SAINTS
NOT INVENTED THE ROMAN MISSION-MIRACLES-DE-
MONOLOGY,
1
0
CHAPTER I.
THE CHURCH IN THE FOURTH CENTURY--BIRTH AND PARENT-
AGE OF PATRICK HIS SIX YEARS' CAPTIVITY IN IRELAND-
CITO ITURUS AD PATRIAM TUAM-THE DESERT-ARRIVAL
AT MARMOUTIER,
53
CHAPTER II.
ST. MARTIN AND ST. PATRICK-ANTIQUITY AND PERPETUITY OF
THE RECORDS OF MARMOUTIER-ITS IRISH MONKS-ST.
MARTIN OUR SAINT'S FIRST SPIRITUAL GUIDE-FOUR
YEARS AT MARMOUTIER-DEATH OF ST. MARTIN-DE-
PARTURE FROM MARMOUTIER ST. PATRICK'S PIL-
GRIMAGES SUPERNATURAL PREPARATION FOR THE
APOSTOLATE-ST. GERMANUS OF AUXERRE--FAILURE
TO
ROME—CONSECRATED
OF ST. PALLADIUS-VISIT
BISHOP A.D. 432,
75
CHAPTER III.
IRELAND IN THE BEGINNING OF THE FIFTH CENTURY-HER
HISTORY HITHERTO OUT OF COURT-ANNALS AND HIS-
TORIC POEMS - THE CHURCH THE ONLY BOND BETWEEN
THE OLD WORLD AND THE NEW-PROFESSOR O'CURRY-
7
xviii
CONTENTS.
PAGE
THE SCOTI AND THE ROMANS-ST. PATRICK'S EVIDENCE
PROSPERITY OF THE COUNTRY-DRUIDISM-THE BREHON
LAWS-INFLUENCE OF THE BARDS-MILITARY ORGANISA-
TION—EXALTED POSITION OF WOMEN IN PAGAN IRELAND, 116
1
CHAPTER IV.
PATRICK A SINNER AND UNLEARNED, APPOINTED BISHOP IN
IRELAND" -LANDS IN WICKLOW—VOCATION OF ST.
BENIGNUS-ST. PATRICK REVISITS THE SCENE OF HIS
CAPTIVITY—THE DEATH OF MILCHO—TARA-ST. BENIG-
NUS AND THE FIERY ORDEAL—THE SHADIROCK,
168
CHAPTER V.
THE RELIGION OF THE ANCIENT IRISH-WORSHIP OF THE SUN-
ST. PATRICK IN CONNAUGHT-THE DAUGHTERS OF THE
KING CONVERTED THE SAINT'S
SAINT'S PRAYER ON CROAGH
PATRICK,
196
CHAPTER VI.
ST. PATRICK IN MUNSTER-BAPTISM OF ENGUS AT CASHEL-
MARTYRDOM OF ST. ODRAN-FOUNDATION OF ARMAGH
CATHEDRAL-TAE
RAID OF COROTICUS--ST. PATRICK'S
EPISTLE-EXCOMMUNICATION AND PUNISHMENT OF CORO-
TICUS,
213
CHAPTER VII.
OF ST. PATRICK'S FAITE AND HOW HE IMPARTED IT TO OTHER
MEN,
230
CHAPTER VIII.
OF ST. PATRICK'S TENDERNESS OF HEART, AND HOW HE TAUGHT
HIS DISCIPLES CHARITY,
243
CHAPTER IX.
OF THE SAINTS WONDERFUL PRAYERS AND PENANCES, AND OF
THE SUCCESS WITH WHICH HIS LABOURS WERE CROWNED
—HIS LAST YEARS AND DEATH,
251
APPENDIX,
271
INDEX,
291
THE LIFE OF ST. PATRICK.
THE SOURCES
OF
ST. PATRICK'S HISTORY.
THE BIOGRAPHY OF ST. PATRICK THE FOUNDATION OF
THE CHURCH HISTORY OF IRELAND IMPROVED
TONE OF CRITICS WEARIED WITH INTERNECINE
CONFLICTS-RATIONALISM OUT OF ITS ELEMENT
-SAINTS JUDGED ONLY BY THEIR PEERSDE
VERE'S “ST. PATRICK
ST. PATRICK”-TILLEMONT'S VINDICATION
OF THE SAINT'S AUTOBIOGRAPHY-SAINTS NOT IN-
VENTED --THE
ROMAN
MISSION-MIRACLES-DE-
MONOLOGY.
A }
The following introduction embraces so many ques-
tions that, perhaps, it might more appropriately be
styled a chapter of Patrician evidences.
In the years which have elapsed since the first
appearance of this work, the writer has often re-
verted to the subject. He has visited the chief
places in Ireland and France whose local monuments
and traditions illustrate the history of the Apostle
of Ireland. He has also personally examined the
I
2
ST. PATRICK,
so-called Loca Patriciana of Scotland, and he has
satisfied himself that the North British traditions
are as untrustworthy as those of Ireland and France
are authentic. The results of these studies and in-
vestigations have been published at intervals in the
Dublin Review and the Irish Ecclesiastical Record.
At the same time he has watched the course of the
current writings of the last few years in the wide
field of Patrician literature, and observed that a
remarkable change has taken place in its tone and
character. Time was when he thought that St.
Patrick's history was for ever doomed to the en-
tanglements of philological criticism and sectarian
conflict, but he thinks so no longer. ( At length it
is admitted that the life of the Founder of Chris-
tianity in Ireland can stand by itself and speak for
itself. St. Patrick was a conqueror, and because
his conquests endure, they are their own evidence.
Moreover, in a way that is almost unparalleled, they
have become the title-deeds of a Church, the suc-
cession of whose pastors has never been interrupted.
Hence St. Patrick has always lived in his successors,
and his history has never become the property of the
antiquarian.
While, therefore, the surroundings of the life of a
fifth-century Saint must necessarily suggest many
questions which cannot now be answered, our
ignorance regarding things which have not been
mania
APOSTLE OF IRELAND.
3
recorded need not weaken our faith in others about
which we have satisfactory evidence. We can
believe in facts although we do not understand
how they came to pass; and at this stage of the
history of Christianity it ought not to be necessary
to remind people that Saints have done things
which we cannot do, and in ways which are beyond
our comprehension, otherwise they would be no
more than ourselves.
The flowers and fruits of faith, all springing
from one root, are even more varied than those of
nature. Hence there are no manifestations of
human character and action so diversified as those
which are found in the lives of the Saints. Every
Catholic country, in every age, has had its own
special types of spiritual excellence, and every day
new lives of Saints and servants of God appear,
which are all original, and objects of interest, even
to persons outside the Church, so long as their
biographers are in a position to record them with
fidelity. On the other hand, we can almost count
on our fingers the secular biographies which hold
their place in literature, independent of historical
or political interest, and the best of them are little
appreciated except at home. We can hardly ima-
gine an Italian or a Spaniard growing enthusiastic
over Boswell's Life of Johnson. The Catholic Saint
alone takes root, and is naturalised in every land.
:4
ST. PATRICK,
Indeed it often happens, as in the case of St. Martin
and St. Patrick, that it is foreigners who have grown
most into the hearts of the people, and this devo-
tion is something very different from the evanescent
enthusiasm which the young and the ardent feel for
the heroes of secular history. (The Saints become
the spiritual parents of their clients : the life which
they impart works out its own image in the souls
of their children, and is the same after the lapse of
a thousand years as it was in the beginning.
When scepticism, with its irritating assumption
of judicial impartiality, attempts to undermine
those sacred histories, which are written in hearts
as well as in books, it often happens that Catholics
are betrayed by their feelings, and set themselves
to answer objections which if simply brought face
to face, one against the other, would perish in an
internecine struggle. Such is the conclusion that
the present writer has arrived at from the study
of the 'sceptical Patrician theories of Archbishop
Ussher and his successors, Sir William Betham,
Dr. Todd, and the Rev. J. F. Shearman. It was
hard indeed at first to be altogether indifferent to
the opinions of writers whose collective learning
made so formidable an appearance. When, how-
ever, he found that, while using the same materials,
all these writers arrived at different and even con-
tradictory results, he came to the conclusion that,
APOSTLE OF IRELAND.
5
although there was plenty of good matter in their
writings, the animating principle, the form of the
body, was absent.
The acts of St. Patrick have often been thrown
into the cauldron of rationalistic criticism, and the
smoke produced by the experiment has led some
people to suppose that there was an end of them,
until their re-appearance revealed the fact that the
exhalations were the product of the new, not of
the old, ingredients. In applying this ugly epithet
of “rationalistic” to St. Patrick's modern critics,
it is necessary to define the sense in which the word
is here used. “ The rationalist,” says Dr. Johnson,
“is one who proceeds in his disquisitions and prac-
tice wholly upon reason," and he illustrates his
meaning by the words of Lord Bacon: “The
rationalists are like to spiders, they spin all out
of their own bowels”. It is true that there are
fields of investigation where reason ought to be
supreme, where all the subject-matter is on a
level with our own minds, and everything can
be tested by experience. In such cases it is our
true wisdom to imitate the spider. When, how-
ever, our minds ascend above this visible world,
even though it be no higher than the inferior
heaven of philosophy, or imagination, some ruler
or guide is essential, if we would escape the Nemesis
of Phaeton in the chariot of the sun.
6
ST. PATRICK,
It is plain that the want of guidance is still more
urgent in all investigations which lead us into the
supernatural world. The rationalist who assumes
that, in the mirror of his own intelligence, he can
see all that can be seen, and at the same time is
certain that he himself is not a saint, is compelled to
deny the existence of such beings, after the manner
of Dr. Ledwich and his school, who denied that there
had ever been such a person as St. Patrick. For
such people this is the only logical course, and it is
a pity that they cannot adhere to it consistently.
History, however, like nature, abhors a vacuum ;
so when the saint is put out of the way, some-
thing else must be forthcoming to fill up the empty
space, and the wildest phantasmagoria of distem-
pered fancy are more rational than the caricatures
of heroic sanctity which have been presented to us
by modern writers of this denomination. In
their despairing efforts to escape from all super-
natural disturbers of their peace, some have even
gone so far as to seek in epilepsy, hysteria, and
nightmare for philosophic explanations of the in-
spiration and energy of the men and women who
have converted and civilised the world. There
are others, again, whose belief in a supernatural
world comes down no further than the Apostolic
age; but there is little to choose between such
and the unmitigated materialist. Of God's dealings
APOSTLE OF IRELAND.
7
with St. Patrick, the Rev. Dr. Neander writes
that there was “ nothing wonderful except what
may be very easily explained on psychological prin-
çiples"; and in the same strain Dr. Todd remarks :
** He believed, no doubt, that his call was super-
natural, and that he had seen visions and dreamt
dreams.) But other well-meaning and excellent
men, in all ages of the Church, have in like manner
imagined themselves to have had visions of this
kind, and to have been the recipients of immediate
revelations.” 1
When writers assume this levelling style in
dealing with the inspired records, all believers in
Christianity are on their guard. When, however,
it is directed against sacred writings, and events
whose authenticity is unsupported by inspiration, the
attitude even of Catholic minds will vary according
to the faith that is in them. ( Belief in the Saints is
a part of the Catholic faith. As soon as we allow
them to be pulled down to the vulgar level of ordi-
nary life, they disappear from our sight. In St.
Patrick's life there are two elements, the natural v
and the miraculous, but it is the latter which gives
unity and life to the former. The events of his life,
taken separately in their mere outward appearance,
may be compared with those of Buddha or Mahomet;
1 Neander, Church Hist., iii. 173. (Bohn's Ed.) Todd, Apostle
of Ireland, 378.
8
ST. PATRICK,
and those who would have it that one religion is as
good as another, which means that they believe in
none, will perhaps give the palm to the impostors.
It is not for such readers that a Catholic writer
composes the biography of a Saint. He writes for
those who believe that the Divinity who shapes
the deeds even of those who are ignorant of His
designs, has made the Saints the conscious agents of
His divine and irresponsible authority. To them is
given the Word which is never to be unsaid, which
is ever as true, and as comprehensive, and as well
suited to the needs of men as when it was first
- uttered by inspired lips. Fourteen hundred years
have passed since Şt. Patrick preached at-Tara, and
the Word that then gave life to thousands is now
the strength and consolation of millions., As fire
proves gold, so does time try truth. (The en-
durance and the growth of St. Patrick's power is
one evidence_that became from Gody His tife,
his character, and his writings have passed through
a very
fierce ordeal of criticism; but, like the re-
ligion of which he is the representative, he has
outlived all assailants.
Influenced by these considerations, the writer
is conscious of a sense of security in his position,
which he is obliged to confess was not so strong when
he first approached the subject. Looking back
along the line of Patrician writers who for a period
)
APOSTLE OF IRELAND.
9
19 1
of more than two centuries have traversed the same
field, and seeing that so many had lost their way,
he naturally dreaded a similar fate, and more than
once he was tempted to follow the example of
Montalembert. When this most uncompromising
chronicler of the supernatural world fell upon Dr.
Lanigan's account of St. Patrick, he threw up the
subject in something bordering upon despair, dis-
missing it with the remark that this learned historian
may
be consulted "with profit, though not with
pleasure”. It would be nearer the mark to say
that, as regards the supernatural aspect of the life of
the Apostle of Ireland, there is little either of profit
or pleasure to be derived from Dr. Lanigan's pages.
In common with some other Catholic writers, he
has been betrayed into taking a false position.
They have allowed St. Patrick's cause to be carried
into a court where the judges do not so much as
understand the language of the witnesses; and
from such a tribunal it is hard to see how, without
a miracle, even St. Paul himself could come off
victorious.
In dealing with a subject so peculiar, the writer
feels that it is his duty to be candid with the reader.
Even if it were possible, he does not wish to conceal
the fact that he writes in the spirit of an apologist,
as well as of an historian. In composing a life of
1 Moines d'Occident, ii., p. 13.
10
ST. PATRICK,
St. Patrick, it is vain to attempt to imitate the
tranquil style of the biographer whose narrative,
drawn from undisputed authorities, flows on in
unbroken sequence. (St. Patrick is still on his
trial before the world in every detail of his won-
Verful life. It is a battlefield in which the
principles of the supernatural life and the claims
of Church history are fought out on a gigantic
scale; and this is, and has always been, one chief
source of the interest which all questions connected
with the Apostle of Ireland arouse in the minds
of the enemies, as well as the friends of revealed
religion.
It may be said that discussion and argument are
out of place in a work like the present. At one
time the writer thought so himself
. It was his
ambition to state facts without any apology, as he
himself was persuaded that none was needed; until
he reflected that it was too much to expect the same
unhesitating faith in those who have been taught
to believe that no life of St. Patrick can be written
which will satisfy the claims of either ascetical or
historical criticism. In the Saint's case, therefore, it
is necessary to explain, to defend, and to illustrate
by examples, matters which are accepted without
difficulty when supported by the authority of
biographers of the stamp of St. Athanasius, St.
Jerome, or Sulpicius Severus : this must be his
APOSTLE OF IRELAND.
II
apology for the many argumentative interruptions
which occur in the course of his narrative.
It is now some twenty-five years since he began
the critical study of the original sources of St.
Patrick's history, and at every step he became more
and more impressed with the sense of the organic
unity of the image presented by those simple and
fragmentary records. At that time, unknown to
him, another mind was pursuing the same course in
a more exalted intellectual region, and in 1872
Aubrey de Vere published his Legends of St.
Patrick. They are, properly speaking, a connected
life of the Saint in verse ; and it is the verdict of
critics, unaffected by anything like devotion to the
Saint, that this work is almost unapproached in
literature. It is an epic that advances in sustained
majesty from the Saint's youth until his death :
there is the same light from the sunrise to the sun-
set. To one who has studied the Saint's own
writings, and seen their spirit reflected in his
deeds, the Legends of St. Patrick have more than
a mere literary interest, when he finds that the
poet has not created the character of St. Patrick
any more than Shakespeare has invented those of
Cæsar, or Catherine of Aragon. Indeed, the poet
is never more than a discoverer-
" Like some lone watcher of the skies
When a new planet swims into his ken”.
12
ST. PATRICK,
The life of St. Patrick in its mere outward form-
for none of his ancient biographers have attempted
more-has won the devotion of Catholics for four-
teen centuries and in all lands, (for the inspirations
of faith gave it life and filled up that, which was
wanting.) In the pages of Aubrey de Vere it has
stood a further test. It has been tried by the
principles of Catholic art by one who is a master in
that science which discerns the mysterious har-
monies of nature and grace in the lives of the
Saints, and the image evoked leaves no sense of
incongruity, on the mind of the reader. In the
Legends of St. Patrick we see a contest long drawn
out between the imagination of the poet and the
realities of the Saint's life, in which the latter are
always victorious. St. Patrick is made to measure
his strength with angelic spirits, the powers of evil,
and the gigantic forces of nature, and faith finds
no exaggeration in lines such as these :
Tenfold once more the storm burst forth;
Once more the ecstatic passion of his prayer
Met it, and, breasting, overbore, until
Sudden the Princedons of the night that rode
This
way and that way through the whirlwind, dashed
Their vanquished crowns of darkness to the ground
With one long cry”.
The triumphs of the Apostles of Christ can never
be likened to those of men who have started ideas
* Legends of St. Patrick, p. 40.
APOSTLE OF IRELAND.
13
of their own, and carried the multitude with them
by sheer force of genius or personal influence. The
principle that an Apostle is merely the ambassador
of God was one to which St. Patrick continually
reverted. Now, an ambassador is one who is
always dependent on his sovereign, and in the
Catholic Church that authority is ever present
and vigilant. Miracles are the credentials of the
heavenly messenger, and when they have secured
the attention of his hearers their chief work is
done. The interest of St. Patrick's history has, to
many minds, been diminished by the preponder-
ance of miraculous incidents in the ancient records
of his life, although it was natural that these mani-
festations of supernatural power should have made
a predominant impression on the simple minds of
newly converted witnesses. There were other and
still greater prodigies, the theatre of which was in
their own souls, when St. Patrick's words made
them one with the Church past and present, and
gave them that supernatural life, which was so
absolutely their possession that they could infuse it
into others, in distant lands, as well as in their own.
While a portion of St. Patrick's history affords an
fair field for criticism, the main body of his acts
1“ Behold, I now commend my soul to my most faithful God, for
whom, in my lowliness, I am ambassador."--Confession, ch. , $ 23;
Epistle, $ 3.
14
ST. PATRICK,
}
1
belongs to an order of things to which criticism
cannot ascend. The man who, coming to Ireland
in his old age, turned the current of her national
life, and in the evening of his days converted a
nation of warriors into a nation of Saints)carrying
men with him, not by flattering, but by extinguish-
ing their passions : who, looking back on his work
at the end of his life, saw nothing of his own in it,
so that, dazzled by the light and oppressed by the
mystery, he was fain to cry out, “Who am I, or
what is my prayer, O Lord, who hast laid bare to
me so much of Thy Divinity ?”? such an one is the
master, not the subject, of reason.
It is no small reproach to us, the modern children
of the Saint, that it is to a foreigner that we owe
the first, and the boldest vindication of the
super-
natural majesty of St. Patrick's character in the
face of the animal scepticism with which the revolt
of Luther has impregnated much of the so-called
Christian literature of these latter days. Tillemont
was certainly no ardent or credulous enthusiast.
Indeed, he has been fairly accused of an excessive
ambition to preserve the golden mean of modera-
tion in all things appertaining to the supernatural
1 « Terra illa, idolorum antea cultrix, eum mox prædicante
Patricio, fructum dedit, ut Sanctorum insula deinde fuerit appel-
lata.”—Brev. Rom., xvii. Mart.
Confession, ch. iii., $ 14.
2
APOSTLE OF IRELAND.
15
1
world : an impossible aspiration, seeing that we
can neither comprehend the modus operandi, nor
the limits of operations, which have their origin
in the mind of One who is infinite.
When once
they begin we have no rule to tell us when or
where they will stop; so that the answer, Ce
n'est que le premier pas qui coûte, was a reasonable
rejoinder to the objector who quarrelled with the nar-
rative of the martyrdom of St. Denis on the score of
the great distance which he is said to have walked
after his decapitation. We are not surprised, there-
fore, to find that Tillemont was staggered by some
of St. Patrick's miracles : his incredulity on this
score only gives additional strength to his testi-
mony in favour of the supernatural majesty of the
Saint's character, as revealed in his own writings.
The Confession of St. Patrick and his Epistle
to the Christian Subjects of the Tyrant Coroticus,
like so many of the wonders of Christian antiquity,
lay like a hidden treasure in the vast storehouse of
the Church, until hostile criticism fastened on
them, and so aroused the interest and stimulated
the investigations of Catholics. The. Bollandists
published them in 1668, with the life of St. Patrick
by Jocelyn, and some twenty years later Tillemont
1
1 He is severely taken to task by Schüz, for “repudiating the
acts of the Saints on the most trifling grounds".—Nomenclator
Literarius, T. Hurter, S.J., part i., p. 466 (11.).
!
16
ST. PATRICK,
wrote his abstract of the Saint's life in his Ecclesi-
astical Annals. Having alluded to St. Patrick's
special commission from. God,” and to the “over-
flowing plenitude of the Apostolic spirit” with
which he was invested, he remarks on the extra-
ordinary number of ancient lives of the. Saint, and
goes on to say: "We are better pleased to extract
his history from documents entitled his Confession,
which is said to be his own composition, and which
is certainly worthy of him. We do not find in it
any great number of facts, but I believe that those
which are related are a sufficient foundation for
the extraordinary veneration paid to him by the
Church in Ireland : a better title, perhaps, than the
numerous miracles of doubtful probability, not to
say more, which are found in the lives.
“ There are hardly any in his Confession. On
the other hand, there are a considerable number of
visions; and the Saint himself tells us that God
often directed his actions in an extraordinary
But who can wonder, if in an undertak-
ing altogether Apostolic, in which it was necessary
to overcome the opposition of men, friends as well
as enemies, God should have conducted, after the
manner of the Prophets and Apostles, a Saint who
appears to have approached nearer in resemblance
to them than to the Saints who have appeared in
later times. Nevertheless, even amongst these, He
manner.
APOSTLE OF IRELAND.
17
has led St. Cyprian by the same road; and we ven-
ture to hope that in the visions which St. Patrick
attributes to himself, we shall find nothing which
is not grave, holy, and worthy of God. . . This
writing is full of solid wisdom, as well as of spirit
and fire, and, what is of more importance, it is full
of filial devotion towards God. In every line we
find evidence of the Saint's extraordinary humility,
while the dignity of his ministry is never abased.
It also reveals his passionate desire for
martyrdom. In a word, we see in it much of the
character of St. Paul."
This testimony of Tillemont is worth more than
a volume of ordinary controversy, on the principle
that cuique in sua arte credendum. He belongs to
that race of ancient giants in ecclesiastical history,
who were so great because their energies were con-
centrated. He had devoted his life to one subject,
and thus he was able to trace that unity and iden-
tity in the history of the Church which is hidden
from the impatient and casual investigator. "If I
am asked,” he observes in his Avertissement, "for the
rules by which I presume to distinguish between
true and false documents in the absence of any
knowledge of their authors ; those who have read
the history of the martyrdom of St. Polycarp, and
that of the martyrs of Lyons in Eusebius, with
others which are generally accepted as incontest-
2
18
ST. PATRICK,
able, will easily perceive that in this study we
acquire an instinct in separating that which has
the character of antiquity and truth from that
which is redolent of fable or popular tradition.
Acquaintance with the history, style, and disci-
pline of the period enables us to judge between
writings which are contemporary, and those which
probably belong to some later period.”
Applying these principles to the writings of St.
Patrick, he observes: “His confession is quoted by
all the ancient writers of his life, which at least
proves its superior antiquity, and it appears to me
that it bears upon it that stamp of veracity which
would enable it to stand by itself, even if it had
never been quoted by anyone”.
Tillemont's profession of faith in St. Patrick is a
remarkable instance of the unembarrassed confidence
with which acute and critical Catholic minds approach
the question of supernatural events. He desiderates
more specific evidence; but it is plain that he con-
sidered that no prodigality of visions or miracles need
astonish us in the life of such a Saint as St. Patrick.
His language is on the same level as that of Cardinal
Newman when he remarks: "Did I read of any great
feat of valour, I should believe it if imputed to
Alexander, or Cour de Lion. Did I hear of any act
1 Hist. Eccl., vol. xvi., pp. 455-464. He also used the Epistle, to
which he attributes equal authority-Ib., p. 782.
APOSTLE OF IRELAND.
19
of- baseness, I should disbelieve it if imputed to a
friend whom I knew and loved. And so, in like
manner, were a miracle reported to me as wrought
by a member of Parliament, or a bishop of the
Establishment, or a Wesleyan preacher, I should
repudiate the notion. Were it referred to a Saint,
or the relic of a Saint, or the intercession of a Saint,
I should not be startled at it, though I might not
at first believe it."
Saints are not classed according to themultiplicity
or magnitude of their miracles.
They were very
important to the persons concerned; but to others
they are the least interesting part of their lives.
When grave writers, ancient and modern, compare
St. Patrick to the Prophets, and to St. Paul, it is
the unearthly elevation of his character, rather
than his external actions, which suggests the com-
parison. It is certainly very mysterious that such
a parallel can be drawn, and yet leave no sense of
exaggeration or absurdity on the mind of the
reader; even Dr. Todd, with all his jealousy of
supernatural intrusions, finds nothing extraordinary
in this comparison as it stands in the pages of
Tillemont.
The line of this inquiry into the character of
St. Patrick's acts is rather spiritual than literary.
2
1 Present Position of Catholics, p. 308.
2 Apostle of Ireland, p. 382.
1
20
ST. PATRICK,
It follows and represents the development of the
writer's own reflections during the many years
which he has devoted to the study of St. Patrick's
life. He is writing for those who believe that
while “the Spirit breatheth where He wills,” for all
that the signs of His inspiration are unmistakable.
“Grace,” says St. Thomas, " destroys not nature,
but perfects it, and supplements its wants." Its
gifts are like those of genius, with this difference,
they cannot be imitated by any industry of our own.
They are always new operations of God's creative
power. There have been successful imitations of
the greatest writers and artists; but even the
unbelieving world has never been long deceived by
spurious Saints. As the least living creature and
the lowliest flower are inimitable, so the Saints
stand by themselves.
Many strange things are found in books; but,
perhaps, nothing is more extraordinary than the
way in which some writers insist on applying the
measurement of one time and place to others how-
ever distant. By such investigators, the lapse of
fourteen centuries and the circumstances of Ireland
in St. Patrick's time are ignored, and his biographer
is expected to account for omissions, to haggle over
every anachronism, and to explain every archaic
difficulty in the life of the Saint with the ease and
assurance of a minister in Parliament. The three
APOSTLE OF IRELAND.
21
centuries which intervened between the death of
St. Patrick and coming of the Northmen was the
most glorious period of Irish history. It was a
time of intellectual and spiritual development so
rapid and so universal that the record reads like an
invention of the imagination rather than a sober
statement of facts. Before St. Patrick's time the
Scots were only known as destroyers from the
Grampians to the Alps. Then in the full tide
of their military success, when they seemed on
the point of subjugating Britain, they were drawn
home by a mysterious power, and Ireland was
forgotten until, in the century following St. Patrick,
the torrent of her apostolic armies poured forth
upon Europe : when St. Columba and his disciples
brought stern Caledonia under the sweet yoke of
Christ, and came down from the north upon England,
and St. Columbanus infused new life into the Church
in Gaul, Switzerland, and Italy. It is easy to
understand how Athens enchanted and civilised the
world, and how it was conquered and chained by
the iron hand of Rome. Civilisation was
attractive and discipline as resistless then as they
are now; but in the case of Ireland it was self-
instructed barbarians who subdued their fellows,
and came to the assistance of the inheritors of the
wisdom of the world, Christian as well as pagan.
It is high time to set the classic denomination of
as
22
ST. PATRICK
barbarian in its rightful place. If the Irish were
styled barbarians in St. Patrick's time, they were
barbarians of the stamp of Caractacus and Clovis,
and the men who put living blood into the veins of
expiring Europe. It is their glory that they were
the first of the new born nations of the West who
began the work of the spiritual and intellectual
reorganisation of Europe. Ireland had already
won the title of “ The Island of Saints" at a time
when Clovis and his Franks were still worshippers
of Odin, and the Arian Goths were enemies and
destroyers of Christianity as relentless as the pagan.
Of this period Cardinal Newman writes : "Dreary
and waste was the condition of the Church, and
forlorn her prospects. ... Her imperial protectors
were failing in power or in faith. . . . In the year
493 in the Pontificate of Gelasias the whole of the
East was in the hands of traitors to Chalcedon,
and the whole of the West under the tyranny of
the open enemies of Nicæa.” 1
This then was the battlefield into which some
fifty years later the sons of St. Patrick flung them-
selves with all the characteristic fire of their
national character. The Churches founded, and
the names of Saints enshrined in the grateful
memories of the people of Italy, France, Germany,
and Switzerland, tell of the work which they
1
i Development of Christian Doctrine, p. 320.
1
APOSTLE OF IRELAND.
23
effected. They taught the faith, and the fact that
they taught sound Catholic doctrine at a time
when heresy was so prevalent is a glory which
reverts to their founder. The scholarship of
Ireland in those ages when she was honoured as
the “ Lamp of the West” and the “University of
Europe," was not on a level with that of Ambrose,
Jerome, and Augustine; it would have been
indeed a national miracle had such been the case.
Nearly two centuries intervened between the death
of Theodosius the Great, with whom the civilisation
of Rome may be said to have expired, and the
arrival of those fugitives from the Continent who
bore with them into Ireland the little that re-
mained of the learning of the dead past.
the good use which she made of these fragments in
an age of almost universal darkness, which, in the
sixth century, won for her the first place amongst
the saviours of learning and civilisation. When
we hold fast to dates, and remember the circum-
stances of the time, the wonder is, not that Irish
scholars wrote Latin and Greek imperfectly, but
rather that in those days they were able to write
these languages at all.
It is one thing to cultivate letters, and another
to use them, and of the two the latter is the more
It was
16 The storehouse of the past and the birthplace of the future.”
-Card. Newman, “Isles of the North," Hist. Essays, i., p. 124.
24
ST. PATRICK,
difficult and honourable employment. The Irish
monks in the sixth and seventh centuries were
apostles by profession and professors by accident.
If it turned out that they became the pioneers of
learning and civilisation, it was the result of their
exuberant life and energy : a virtue went out from
them of which they were unconscious. The mul-
titude of Irish Saints who, like a torrent, invaded
the continent of Europe," went forth impelled by
gratitude as well as by zeal and charity. Ireland
had already opened her heart to the exiles of that
Roman world in whose name St. Patrick had come to
conquer, not by the sword but by the Cross. “The
pilgrims of the men of Rome and Latium,"2 invoked
in the Litany of Aengus, were ambassadors, as
well as fugitives. They came in the name of that
great Alma Mater whose children were crying for
the bread of life, and there were none to break it
to them. Faith is ever an inheritance of gratitude,
and the energy with which Ireland set herself to
repay the debt she had contracted with Rome is
an evidence at once of the purity of her faith, and
of the value which she set on that divine gift.
I have no ambition to draw the sword in defence
of the orthodoxy of the ancient Church of St.
Patrick. The wonder is, that with these great facts
16 Quasi inundatione facta, illa se Sanctorum examina effude-
runt.”—St. Bernard, Vita St. Malachice, cap. vi., $ 12.
2 O'Curry, MS. Materials of Ancient Irish History, p. 381.
orien
APOSTLE OF IRELAND.
25
of history staring them in the face, Catholic writers
can allow themselves to be entrapped and detained
by the objections of those professional critics who
do not take the trouble to learn the difference be-
tween a creed and a rubric. The Irish Church, at
home and abroad, was proved to be Roman by her
works, and by the ecclesiàstical offices entrusted to
her missionaries, unless, indeed, we suppose that true
faith could have come from an impure fountain, or
that the Catholic Church did not know her own, and
ignorantly accepted the services of aliens and ene-
mies. It sometimes seems as if it were useless to
speak of the divine life of the Church to those who
do not believe in a church: to accept our arguments
is to condemn their own incredulity. Hence our
opponents are always ready with some theory as a
way of escape, and it matters little to them whether
or not that theory has ever been known to fit in with
the ways of men in this world. St. Patrick set up
the Church in Ireland; he fills up its first age; sixty
years of the fifth century, the whole period of the
conversion of the country, belong to him. The
native Saints that followed close upon him in the
next century, such as SS. Brendan, Ciaran, Colum-
banus, and Columba, or Columcille, found Ireland
already a Christian nation, and when urged by
apostolic zeal, they were obliged to go abroad in
search of work. As there is no stronger proof than
I ㅗ
​26
ST. PATRICK,
this of the completeness of St. Patrick's work, so
the fact that his sons were founders of orthodox
churches in other lands is cogent evidence that
they were orthodox at home.1 Montalembert,
one of the most learned and dispassionate autho-
rities on the subject, affirms that more than two-
thirds of England owed its final conversion to the
labours of the Irish monks of the great schools of
Iona, Old Melrose, and Lindisfarne.2 Irish mission-
aries in Gaul, Germany, and Switzerland fall into
the ranks of the clergy as gracefully as their suc-
cessors in England in our own times, and, even
in the parent land of orthodoxy, St. Columbanus
1 While this was in the press my attention was drawn to the
work of Dr. Loofs, on the ancient British and Irish Churches. He
is a Protestant and a German. He has studied the subject with
great care, and in our books, and, looking on it as an integral part of
the Church history of the time, he weighs the claims of the early
British and Irish Churches to be called “evangelical” in his sense of
the word. These claims, originated by the centuriators of Magde-
burgh, have, he remarks (p. 1), with “fresh temerity” (nova audacia)
been reproduced by Ebrard. “Truly," he continues (p. 5), “it would
be a joy to us evangelicals if it were so, but, alas ! our woe, so unsup-
ported by truth is this view of Ebrard's, that well-nigh everything
which he alleges is false.” The chief interest of Dr. Loofs' work is
found in his common sense arguments (pp. 72, 97, 104). He finds
out, what was always understood by Catholics, that the British and
Irish Churches merely differed with Rome on points of discipline :
in doctrine, and in the laws of the religious life, they were one with
the Church, and its saints all the world over ; therefore they had no
claim to be called “evangelical” according to the Protestant sense
of the word.—(Antiquce Britonum Scotorumque Ecclesice.) Lipsiæ et
Londini, 1882.
2 Moines d'Occident, tom. iv., p. 128.
À 27
APOSTLE POSZ
OF IRELAND.
Monastery at Bobbio was the great stronghold of
Italy against the Arians. In England, at the
Synod of Whitby, A.D. 664, St. Colman and some
Irish monks took the wrong side on the Easter
question. For some time they held on obstinately
to Irish customs against the Roman customs of the
day. But those so-called Irish customs were no-
thing more than old Roman customs which, exactly
two hundred and thirty-two years previously, had
been imported into Ireland by St. Patrick, the
Roman Legate of Pope St. Celestine; their fault be-
ing somewhat similar to that of over-ardent admirers
of the Mediæval Church in our own times. On the
scent of this battle the eagles of controversy have
made their appearance, and we fear for many a
long day they will continue to hover over the field.
Apparently in all simplicity, Mr. Green thus ex-
patiates on the imaginary diversities of “Celtic"
and “Latin Christianity”: “The science and
biblical knowledge which fled from the Continent
took refuge in the famous schools which made
Durrow and Armagh the universities of the West.
The new Christian life soon beat too strongly to
brook confinement within the bounds of Ireland
itself. Patrick, the first missionary of the island,
had not been half a century dead when Irish
Christianity flung itself into battle with the mass
of heathenism which was rolling in upon the
28
ST. PATRICK,
Christian world.
For a time it seemed as if
the course of the world's history was to be changed,
as if the older Celtic race, that Roman and German
had swept before them, had turned to the moral
couquest of their conquerors, as if Celtic and not
Latin Christianity was to mould the destinies of the
Churches of the West. The labours of Aidan,
the victories of Oswald and Oswy, seemed to have
annexed England to the Irish Church," &c., &c.
Then, leaving the seventh, with one swoop Mr.
Green passes over several centuries, and gives
his readers to understand that in the tortures and
miseries of Ireland in conflict with the heathen
Northmen they may read the logical results of
Celtic Christianity”; but he prudently abstains
from attempting to explain the connection.
The truth is, that from the age of St. Patrick to
our own the Irish Church has been crippled less
than most Churches by the narrowness of nation-
ality. She has never been a State Church, and if she
has suffered in consequence, she has on the other
hand been always free.
She has been ever at home
in every Catholic land.
Catholic land. In the history of the
Church there are few events more supernatural
than the transfer of allegiance on the part of Irish
monks all over Christendom, when they surrendered
their monasteries, their conquests, and themselves to
Short History of the English People, pp. 21-28.
t
APOSTLE OF IRELAND29
RELAND
.
2
the Roman St. Benedict. Few Saints were better
calculated to inspire enthusiasm than those great
monastic founders the chivalrous Columbanus, and
the mystical Columba, and whosoever understands
how strong are the family traditions and legiti-
mate rivalries of religious orders, will find evi-
dence in this pacific revolution that Ireland was
one in spirit with Rome. With characteristic
generosity the Irish monks kept no account of their
donations to St. Benedict. All that we know is
that they were everywhere in France, Germany,
England, and Scotland, and that everywhere
they enlisted under the standard of the Roman
patriarch.
In concluding this interlude on the subject of
St. Patrick's orthodoxy as revealed in his disciples,
it may be observed that the period when the con-
troversies regarding Easter and the Tonsure were
hottest in England was precisely the time when the
1
1 Of Luxeuil, the mother house of the disciples of St. Columbanus,
St. Bernard writes that it became a “great nation” (factus in gentem
magnam), Vita St. Malachice, cap. vi. ; and Montalembert says of this
monastery, that “During the whole course of the seventh century it
was the most celebrated and the most frequented school in Christen-
dom. ... From the banks of the Lake of Geneva to the shores of the
North Sea, each year saw some new monastery founded and peopled
by the disciples of Luxeuil, while episcopal cities sued for bishops
prepared for the government of souls under the influence of the
regenerating spirit of Luxeuil.”--Moines d'Occident, tom. ii., p. 429.
2 St. Benedict was born about the year 480, some twelve years
before the death of St. Patrick.
}
30
ST. PATRICK,
very flower of English sanctity and orthodoxy were
in Ireland numerous as bees,” in the well-known
words of St. Aldhelm. Venerable Bede tells us
that .
they retired thither, either for the sake of
divine studies, or of a more continent life”; 1 and
amongst them we find the glorious name of St.
Willibrord, the Apostle of the Frisians, who, at the
age of twenty, left his monastery at Ripon, and set
off for Ireland, with the approval of his abbot, St.
Wilfrid, the special champion of Roman usages,
because, says the lections of his Office," he was all
on fire with the longing for a more strict life'
(arctioris vitæ flagrans desiderio).
The militant spirit of the early Irish Church,
and her freedom from internal theological con-
flicts, was probably one cause of the paucity
and the desultory character of her early ecclesi-
astical writings. The monks who stayed at home
gave themselves to prayer, and those who went
abroad converted the heathen, making no pre-
paration for the severe cross-examination which
awaited them in our times ; and when, in the age
of Charlemagne, three centuries after the death of
1 Eccl. Hist., Bk. iii., C. xxvii. In the preceding chapter he bears
testimony to the exalted spirit of self-sacrifice and detachment of the
Irish monks, of whom he says:
" The whole care of the teachers was
to serve God, not the world, to feed the soul and not the belly”.
See also Henry of Huntingdon, Chron., A.D. 652. This characteristic
of Irish apostles (lid not escape the penctrating glance of Edmund
Burke (Eng. History, chap. ii.).
APOSTLE OF IRELAND.
31
1
St. Patrick, the learning of Europe began to be re-
organised, the barbarians of the North came down
upon Ireland, and from that day to this the pages of
her history have been blotted with tears and blood.
The Canon of St. Patrick, in the Book of Armagh,
which orders that any case of extreme difficulty
(causa valde difficilis) should be referred to the
Chair of the Apostle Peter (ad Petri apostoli
cathedram)," would long ago have silenced all
disputes concerning St. Patrick's connection with
Rome, were it not that the Church of St. Patrick so
obstinately refused to supply cases for the exercise
of the law. The same obscurity rests on the
relations of St. Martin and his Church with Rome.
In his time “Gaul is said to have been perfectly.
free from heresies ; at least none are mentioned as
belonging to that country in the Theodosian Code”. ?
Hence St. Martin, like St. Patrick, imported no
1 The Canon of St. Patrick : “Moreover, if any case should arise
of extreme difficulty, and beyond the knowledge of all the judges of
the nation of the Scots, it is to be duly referred to the chair of the
archbishop of the Irishi, that is to say, of Patrick, and the jurisdic-
tion of the bishop (of Armagh). But if such a case, as aforesaid, of a
matter at issue cannot be easily disposed of (by him) with his coun-
sellors in that (investigation), we have decreed that it be sent to the
apostolic seat, that is to say, to the Chair of the Apostle Peter,
having the authority of the city of Rome. These are the persons
who decreed concerning this matter, viz., Auxilius, Patrick, Secun-
dinus, and Benignus." -O'Curry, MS. Materials, p. 612.
Card. Newman, Development, p. 248. Also S. Severus, Hist.
Sac., L. ii. cxlv.
32.
ST. PATRICK,
difficulties into Roman legislation, and consequently
has left no mark upon it.
1
The life of St. Patrick must be built up out of
historical ruins; but when we find that these de-
tached fragments fit in with one another, it is plain
that the sum of the evidence will be multiplied with
quite a peculiar force by the number of the autho-
rities. This is the argument which more than any
other has satisfied the present writer as to the
authenticity of the lives of St. Patrick in Father
Colgan's collection, included in the Trias Thauma-
turga. The discrepancies in these ancient records
are not more numerous than are commonly found
in our contemporary modern biographies, and they
affect the substance less, owing to the transparent
simplicity and honesty of the ancient writers. The
image before the minds of all these writers is one
and the same, and it is identical with the revelation
which St. Patrick gives of himself in his auto-
biography, This is the more remarkable as it is
-/ plain that the earliest writers of St. Patrick's history
made little use of the Saint's own writings in their
compositions. Their works are principally made up
from the statements of those who listened to the
Saint's discourses, and witnessed his miracles : the
names of persons and places, and the most trivial
circumstances, being introduced into the narrative
with that minuteness of detail which always dis-
}
$
APOSTLE OF IRELAND.
33
v
tinguishes the evidence of those who relate their
personal experiences. They are chiefly an account
of events which occurred before St. Patrick wrote his
Confession; hence they are independent witnesses.
They are very rude in form, but this strengthens
rather than weakens their authority, when in these
rough outlines we recognise the majestic lineaments
of a supernatural character which no mind of man x
could invent. In the Confession, Epistle, and
Hymn of the Saint, we contemplate the soul of
one in whom were fulfilled the words of the Imita-
tion, on the wonderful effects of divine love," which
disputes not about impossibilities, because it judges
that it can do and dare all things”; while in the
Lives we see the outward effects of that spirit as
they appeared to his astonished disciples. The boy
who,“ before the dawn," on Slemish, was sum
moned to prayer by the snow, the ice, and the rain,"
had already the first fruits of graces which were the
pledge and promise of that plenitude of supernatural
domination which flashes on our souls in those
words of his Hymn at Tara : that sovereign faith
and love to which God has linked His omnipotence.
In the name of common sense, as well as of
sacred science, we repudiate the usurpation of that.
“scientific history” which aspires to dissect and
secularise a biography so supernatural. In like
manner, as far as human understanding can see in
}
3
34
ST. PATRICK,
the dark, we reject the conclusions of those phi-
losophers who would catalogue St. Patrick amongst
the specimens of modern psychological chemistry.
Reason is less embarrassed by the prodigies in the
pages of the ancient biographers of the Saint, than
by the inventions and contradictions of writers
who would make the body the interpreter of
the soul, as if the mysteries of matter were in
any sense less inscrutable than those of mind. As
regards the value and authenticity of these ancient
records, a glance at the list with which this intro-
duction concludes will suffice for our present pur-
pose. The dates of these works reveal the fact that
for more than a thousand years after St. Patrick's
death writers were busy with his history in every
Christian country, and in spite of interpolations,
and of difference of style and language, the cha-
racter of the Saint and the nature of his work are
the same in all their pages.
The miracles of St. Patrick are unquestionably
the part which may be fairly disputed without
any dishonour to the Saint himself.) Unlike his
own account of his relations with God, and of his
apostolic work, they come to us on the authority
of ordinary witnesses. It is quite possible that
they were sometimes mistaken, and it is vain to
attempt to prove that they were not. All that
we can do is to ask those who believe in miracles,
for
1
APOSTLE OF IRELAND.
35
why they should withhold from St. Patrick's
witnesses the credence which they freely give to
others? It cannot be said that miracles were
unlikely under the circumstances; and as to their
character, they only differ in degree, and not in
kind, from those of other Saints; and there is
nothing more remarkable in the sacred records,
and in hagiology than the different characteristics
and dimensions of the thaumaturgi who appear in
their pages. Miracles are always a tempting sub-
ject of controversy. The last word has never yet
been said about them. In St. Patrick's case the
credibility of his acta is inextricably bound up
with that of his miracles; and as all his modern bio-
graphers have thought it necessary to say something
about the characteristics of his miracles, I suppose
we cannot avoid the discussion. I do not deny
that St. Patrick's history is one whose every page
is a trial of faith far greater than that which is
commonly met with in Saints' lives; and if the
difficulties are enbanced by the fervid language of
his Celtic biographers, it may be said, on the other
hand, that granting the facts, they are enough to
rouse the enthusiasm and colour the style of the
most phlegmatic of writers.
It is too commonly assumed that readiness to in-
vestigate the subject of miracles is a characteristic
of wonder-loving, weak, and illogical minds; whereas
1
1
36
.
ST. PATRICK,
to go.
once the possibility of such supernatural inter-
positions is accepted, so far from being an abuse
of reason, it is one of its highest offices to examine
the evidence by which they are supported, and to
determine the extent to which faith is called upon
There are few questions more open to
discussion than that of ecclesiastical miracles. The
miracles recorded in Holy Scripture are alone
matters of divine faith. “In a process of canonisa-
tion, for instance, the evidence is not divine. The
facts are in no sense revealed facts, for they are
simply conclusions inferred from the evidence of
human testimony, by which the heroicity of the
virtues, the final perseverance, and the miracles of
the Saints have been proved.”? If we suppose, as
we have a right to do, that one of the purposes of
God in working miracles is to reveal that He has
uncontrolled dominion over His own creatures,
then we shall not be tempted to deny a miracle
because we cannot see a reason for its performance.
At the same time we find that, as a rule, a great
gift of miracles is only granted for great purposes,
and pre-eminent among these is the conversion of
the heathen. This is admitted even by Protestants.
Knowledge," says Lord Bacon, "sufficeth to
convince atheism, but not to inform religion, and
therefore there never was miracle wrought to con-
IT. F. Knox, When does the Church speal Infallibly? p. 64.
APOSTLE OF IRELAND.
37
vert an atheist, because the light of nature might
have led him to confess a God, but miracles have
been wrought to convert idolaters, and the super-
stitious." Edmund Burke, in his account of the
conversion of England by St. Augustine, remarks :
“It is by no means impossible, that for an end so
worthy Providence on some occasions might directly
have interposed”. Bacon also, in his New Atlantis,
in the same strain, observes." that God never works
miracles except to a divine and excellent end, for
the laws of nature are His own laws, and He ex-
ceedeth them not but upon good cause”.? Yet
what cause could be more worthy than the pro-
pagation of that Gospel which He came on earth to
establish, and which He commissioned His Apostles
to extend and perpetuate.
It is a vain and useless undertaking to attempt
to bring home the records of supernatural events
to the minds of those who acknowledge no higher
tribunal than that of their own opinion. Our real
work is with Catholics, amongst whom there are
many degrees of faith. If we are asked how much
and what parts of St. Patrick's miracles we are bound
to believe, I suppose we must answer that so long
as we hold that he is a Saint reigning with God, we
are at liberty to question each separate detail of his
1 Advancement of Learning, Bk. ii., p. 188. Abridgment of English
History, ch. i., p. 201. · New Atlantis, p. 205.
38
ST. PATRICK,
history regarding which the Church has made no
decision. At the same time, however, the further
question arises—Is it consistent with our principles
as Catholics to do so ? This opens up the question
how far we are responsible to God for the co-opera-
tion of our reason in matters of faith, and experi-
ence tells us that it is a serious one. We are bound
to believe that in the Church of God the age of
miracles has never ceased. This once granted, we
are led to inquire into the consequences of this
belief; and to ask who among Catholics are they
who are most consistent and faithful to the dictates
of reason-those who are ready to believe, or those
who are jealous of such demands upon their faith?
When we turn to the inspired writings we are plainly
told that not only is readiness to believe accounted
a virtue by God, but that it is actually a source of
miracles so far as the co-operation of man is con-
cerned. Moreover, reason and natural religion lead
to the same conclusion. The creature honours God
by belief and trust in His omnipotence and His
goodness; and it is only reasonable to expect that
God will favour those who pay Him the homage of
an unlimited confidence. "If thou canst believe,
all things are possible to him that believeth," are
the words of the Son of God: this is the divine
promise which the reason of a Catholic, following
the guidance of faith, expects to find fulfilled in the
APOSTLE OF IRELAND.
39
+
Saints. It implies an undefined co-operation of
God as unlimited as His omnipotence; so that we
can never lay down laws as to the lines in which
miracles must run. It is, however, one thing to
believe that miracles are possible, and another to
believe that they have taken place in particular
instances; and this leads to that further distinction
as to belief in miracles to which allusion has already
been made. It is a virtue only so far as it is reason-
able; without the restraint of reason it runs into
credulity and superstition. At the same time it is
certain that the condition of mind implied by
these ugly epithets has more of reason in it than
the animal apathy of the agnostic: in one case the
mind goes astray, in the other it commits spiritual
suicide. “ There is a superstition," says Lord
Bacon, “in avoiding superstition when men think
to do best if they go farthest from the superstition
formerly received."
The result of the labours of Dr. Todd and
others, who have eliminated the supernatural
from St. Patrick's life, is a striking proof of
the force of this remark. In the acts of the
Saint the miraculous element is essential to the
narrative ; take it away, and at once all reality
vanishes, and his history evaporates. Every
attempt to strip him of his supernatural character
has ended in the fabrication of a drama without a
40
CK;
ST. PATRICK,
hero, in which a series of effects are produced
without a cause. We can hardly conceive a
stronger argument in favour of the Saint's thauma-
turgic powers. All his biographers unite in stating
that fat
the outset of his apostolate he was brought
face to face with extraordinary manifestations of
diabolical power, and that his victory was so con-
vincing to the minds of the pagans that from that
time all serious opposition to his mission ceased)
There is no better established event in history than
the fact that when St. Patrick died, A.D. 492, the
Scottish, or Irish nation was Christian. It is
equally certain that before St. Patrick the warlike
Scoti were the terror of the Christian world, and
that for the space of nearly a hundred years after his
coming they disappeared from the battlefields of
Europe, until in the sixth century they returned as
apostles of Christianity. Narrowness of the field of
action, isolation from foreign influences, rapidity of
conversion, continuity and development, —all the
elements of certainty are combined in the evidence
of the conversion of Ireland ; and when we look for
an explanation of the fact, it is impossible to con-
ceive one so rational as that which is giren by the
writers of the acts of St. Patrick.
It is certainly rather hard on St. Patrick's his-
tory that the learned Bollandists should raise doubts
about some of the Saint's miracles, on the ground
APOSTLE OF IRELAND.
41
that they are like those recorded in the lives of subse-
quent Irish Saints. Surely it may be answered
that, as the stream of history does not flow upwards,
it is the lives of later Saints which must be put on
their trial, if there is anything like a charge of
plagiarism.
The truth is, it is not necessary to
suppose it in either case. There is a remarkable
sameness in the ordinary miracles of the Saints,
which arises from the fact that they are narrowed
within the restricted limits of nature, and its
necessities, which are the same in all ages. Hunger,
disease, blindness, and the pale faces of the dead
are ever soliciting the mercy of God through the
interposition of His Saints. Nay, the very trick
which was played on St. Patrick, when a man who
feigned death in mockery of the Saint's power was
found to be really dead, is also found before his
time in the life of St. Gregory Thaumaturgus, and
subsequently in that of St. Anthony of Padua.
It is the question of degree, not of kind, which
staggers people in the case of St. Patrick's miracles,
and this is especially the case in the narrative of
his contests with the powers of darkness. Some-
thing more will be said in the body of the work on
this subject. Here it is only necessary to observe
that no consideration for æsthetic delicacy can
justify Christians in temporising in the matter of
their confession of belief in the devil. It is true that
42
ST. PATRICK,
we have a very imperfect idea of his nature or of the
power which God permits him to wield in this world;
but no Christian can deny the existence and the
power of the evil one. The proofs are found in Holy
Scripture, and in the lives of the Saints : in the one
case, the evidence is matter of faith ; in the other,
it is a development of faith, on testimony which
is only second to that of inspiration. At the same
time the devil is not a subject of the Church, and
she does not define the nature and extent of his
operations. There is no study more bewildering
and unsatisfactory. The learned Görres has de-
voted two volumes of his work on Mysticism to the
study of devilry in all its manifestations. “ Revela-
tion, history, and the study of nature," he observes,
prove that all the provinces of creation, visible
as well as invisible, are divided, in the words of an
ancient creed, into two kingdoms, one of light, the
other of darkness, and that man, placed between
the two, is an instance of the same division.”l. This
s pretty well all that can be said on the general ques-
tion. As Satan and his agents come out of the dark-
ness, so into the darkness they return; hence it is not
to be expected that we can know much about them.
That which we do learn is principally from contrast
with those celestial messengers of God who come in
light and depart in light—both are mysterious; but
1 Mystique Diabolique, Lib. vi., ch. i.
}
APOSTLE OF IRELAND.
43
+
with this difference, that the more we study the
nature of evil spirits, the more the darkness thickens,
whereas the contemplation of the angels always
brings light to our souls, although, like the stars,
they are so far above us. Again, diabolical opera-
tions are like the passions of man, at one time
acting in concert, at another contending and yield-
ing one to the other, according to the idea of the
great moralist :
"... How came you thus recovered ?
“It hath pleased the devil drunkenness to give place to the
devil wrath."
They are like them also in their ungovernable and
suicidal fury, and so they serve a great purpose in the
designs of God; for like insanity, and the parodies of
human degradation which are seen in the brute crea-
tion, by contrast they enable men better to under-
stand the beauty of reason and virtue. An inquiry
into the extent of diabolical power must, of necessity,
be unsatisfactory. Its extent depends on God's
permission; we only know what it can do, by ou
experience of what it has done. The order of
Providence requires that, in this world, it should be
inferior to the power of man, as the earth is man's
inheritance; so that when the devil is called "the
Prince of this World,” he is such only so far as
men of their own free will submit to him. The
explanations of St. Thomas on this point are very
44
1
ST. PATRICK,
clear, and, like all his teaching, they leave the im-
pression that, although he was not infallible, he
knew more than any uninspired writer about the
relations of the visible and invisible world. It is
with the power of the demon to produce extra-
ordinary physical phenomena that we are chiefly
concerned in the life of St. Patrick. On this
point St. Thomas affirms that demons can produce
“all those changes in physical substances of which
they are capable, according to
according to their natural
qualities,” or those which are “ produced by the
movement of inferior bodies from place to place”.
Without pledging ourselves, therefore, to any.
thing like a profession of faith in the record of
diabolical interference with the elements which we
find in St. Patrick's life, they need not prejudice
us against his biographers, seeing that we have such
an august authority on the side of the antecedent
credibility of such operations; whatever may be
thought of the manner in which the acts of St.
Patrick are written, the matter is familiar to all
readers of Saints' lives.
CHIEF AUTHORITIES FROM WHICH THE FOLLOWING
NARRATIVE HAS BEEN COMPILED.
A complete list of all the ancient sources con-
sulted, if imposing, would be at the same time
1 1. Q. 114. 4 ad. 2; I. 2. Q. 80 C.
APOSTLE OF IRELAND.
45
misleading. In many, the matter, and sometimes
even the words, are the same, and the chief value
which attaches to their number is to be attributed
to the fact that they are a chain of evidence which
carries St. Patrick's history upwards from Jocelyn,
in the twelfth century, to the Book of Armagh,
in the middle of the seventh. From that date to
the death of St. Patrick leaves only a hundred
and fifty years to be accounted for: a period which
might have been bridged over by the memories of
two generations. But from the Book of Armagh,
whose date is certain, we learn that it was itself in
great part second-hand, as it refers to previous lives,
and tells us that “after the death of Patrick his
disciples carefully wrote out his books” (O'Curry,
MS. Materials, p. 612). The collection known as
the Book of Armagh includes the Confession of St.
Patrick, and, however venerable the compilation
itself may be, its real authority must be estimated
by the place which it holds as a faithful commentary
on the Saint's confession or autobiography. In pur-
suance, therefore, of this principle which has directed
him in the composition of his work, the writer
ventures to classify the ancient sources of St.
Patrick's life in the following order, and at the
same time to add a few words of explanation which
may be of use to those to whom the subject is new.
1. The Confession of St. Patrick — Letter to
7
46
+
ST. PATRICK,
4 .
the Christian Subjects of the Tyrant Coroticus.
The text of Villanueva (Sancti Patricii Ibernorim
Apost. Opuscula, Dublinii, 1835) and that of the
Bollandists (Acta SS., Mart. xvii.) have been used
alternately, as it is impossible to prove anything
definite as regards the comparative dates of the
different manuscripts, even including the abstract in
the Book of Armagh. Some have supposed that the
latter is the identical copy written by St. Patrick
from the words : “ So far the volume which St.
Patrick wrote with his own hand”; but the word
volumen is not in the Saint's style, and the sentence
is incongruous, as well as redundant, following on
the words which immediately precede it : "and this
is my Confession before I die”. As the scribe in
the Book of Armagh adds, “On the seventeenth
of March Patrick was translated to heaven," it is
evident, therefore, that the first part of the sentence
is only a voucher of his own fidelity as a copyist.
As to the authenticity and value of St. Patrick's
autobiography, it would be superfluous to add any-
thing to what has been already written.
2. Triadis Thavmaturgæ sev divorum Patricii
Columbæ et Brigidæ acta, Joannes Colganus, Lo-
vanii, 1647. This work forms the second volume
of Fr. Colgan's Acta Sanctorum Veteris et Majoris
Scotic seu Hiberniæ, and contains seven different
lives of St. Patrick, some of which are supposed, on
APOSTLE OF IRELAND.
47
1
good grounds, to be the original lives of the Saint,
written by his disciples, which Jocelyn used in the
twelfth century.
They are classified by Fr. Colgan in the follow-
ing order, with the names of their authors :
Vita Prima, by St. Fiacc, Bishop of Sletty (in
verse).
Vita Secunda, by Patrick Junior.
Vita Tertia, by St. Benignus.
Vita Quarta, by St. Eleran, surnamed the Wise.
Vita Quinta, by Probus.
Vita Sesta, by Jocelyn.
Vita Septima, by St. Evin (The “ Tripartite,"
or “ Life in Three Parts").
Fr. Colgan holds that all these lives, with the
exception of the fourth and the sixth, were written
either by disciples of the Saint or by authors of the
sixth century, to the verge of which St. Patrick's
own life was prolonged; but Mr. O'Curry inclines
to the more common opinion that the life by Pro-
bus belongs to the tenth century (MS. M., p. 390).
3. The Book of Armagh. The manuscript of
this work is preserved in the Library of Trinity
College, Dublin, and it contains several documents
relating to St. Patrick. The Bollandists at Brussels
discovered another copy of these writings which has
been edited with extraordinary care and ability by
Fr. Hogan, S.J. Critics are divided as to the
$
48
ST. PATRICK,
1
antiquity of this collection, as compared with
the ancient lives in the Trias Thaumaturga
of Fr. Colgan; but it does not concern us bere
to discuss the question. It is enough for our
purpose that the Book of Armagh, the manu-
script of which belongs unquestionably to the
seventh century, bears testimony to other and
earlier lives of the Saint, and that in one and all
these ancient lives the picture given of St. Patrick
is identical. That it is unsatisfactory cannot be
denied. As a rule, the writers confine themselves
to the marvellous, for which they are severely
corrected in the pages of certain modern writers,
and, strangely enough, by some who are Catholics.
Advice to our forefathers is something like indigna-
tion with circumstances. The old style will always
be the old style, and we must make the best of it.
Even Jocelyn, who is so roughly handled by Dr.
Lanigan and Fr. O'Hanlon for his devotion to the
incredible,” is quite as terrestrial as St. Gregory
of Tours in his four books De Miraculis Sti.
Martini. Indeed, the works are so similar in style
that we may suppose that Jocelyn modelled his
book on that which St. Gregory had written in
honour of St. Patrick's great kinsman. It is this
life, the Vita Sexta, in Fr. Colgan's collection,
which is found in the Acta Sanctorum of the
Bollandists. It is not fair to Jocelyn to say that
APOSTLE OF IRELAND.
49
he was a mere collector of marvels. The Cistercian
was a conscientious writer, and many of the most
beautiful and characteristic incidents of the Saint's
life in the following pages are given almost in his
own words. The principal miracles he relates are
all found in the older lives, and at the time when
he wrote, in the twelfth century, there were other
lives of St. Patrick extant, of which there is now
no trace. He tells us that he composed his work at
the command of the Heres Patricii, the Archbishop
of Armagh of the day, and of the Bishop of Down,
and that he was also urged to undertake the work
by John de Courcy, one of the agents of Henry
Plantagenet. De Courcy, like the Danes, two
centuries before, did homage to St. Patrick, and
appears to have been as fully persuaded as the
Irish themselves that devotion to the Saint was,
even under a political aspect, an important element
in Irish affairs.
4. The Ancient Annals of Ireland.—For infor-
mation as to the value and antiquity of these
writings, the reader is referred to O’Curry's work
on the MS. Materials of Irish History (p. 53 et
seq.). They are a record of the unbroken tradition
concerning St. Patrick which was handed down
from generation to generation in the Irish monas-
teries, and it is upon them that we principally
depend for the chronology of the Saint's life.
4
50
.
ST. PATRICK,
Anyone who studies the history of Patrician
literature in these countries for the last two cen-
turies will easily understand how it has come to
pass that the history of St. Patrick was so long
shrouded in mystery.
Much had been written
about the Saint; but the vast majority of those
writers who had the public ear, from Archbishop
Ussher in the seventeenth century, to Dr. Ledwich
in the eighteenth, and Sir William Betham in our
own, were Protestants. Moreover, none of them
attempted to write a life of the Saint; they were
content with fragments which were available for
controversial purposes, and so St. Patrick in their
pages became like the John Doe and Richard Roe
of the lawyer impersonal, shapeless, a mere
shadow. At length, in 1829, Dr. Lanigan took the
field. He devoted the first volume of his Ecclesi-
astical History of Ireland to St. Patrick; and
however much we may differ with him as to the
manner in which Saints' lives should be written,
can deny that in purely
in purely historical
discussions he prostrated his adversaries of the
sectarian school. In 1864 Dr. Todd published
his Apostle of Ireland, which is one of those pro-
ductions which represents all opinions except those
of its author. The name and position of the
writer have sufficed to entrench this work in our
public libraries, and to make it a common book of
no
one
!
APOSTLE OF IRELAND.
51
reference, and it will, probably, long be the text-
book of those who search for doubt rather than
conviction. His object seemed to be to give all
parties a share in the Saint, and his book has there-
fore that dangerous fascination which inconsistency
always exercises over minds to whom anything like
certainty in religious questions is an intolerable
captivity.
In 1871 appeared the Life of St. Patrick by
M. F. Cusack. This work is distinguished by its
uncompromising defence of the supernatural charac-
ter of St. Patrick's history. The present writer has
ventured to differ with some of the conclusions in
this work, and if it turns out that he is right, he
is fully conscious that it must be attributed, not to
his own merit, but to the natural development of
the subject : an advantage which he hopes will be
used at his own expense, by some writer more
competent than himself. The value of the above-
named work is enhanced by the fact that the large
edition also embodies Mr. Hennessy's translation
of the ancient manuscripts of the Tripartite Life
of St. Patrick. The discovery of this renerable
treasure was regarded by O'Curry as a most impor-
tant vindication of the fidelity of Fr. Colgan, as
well in the matter of St. Patrick's history as of the
Saint's doctrine.
1 MS. Materials of Irish History, p. 345.
5
52
ST. PATRICK, APOSTLE OF IRELAND.
The Hymn of St. Patrick's disciple St. Sechnall
is interesting as an archæological curiosity, and as
an evidence of the doctrine taught by St. Patrick;
but, like the Hymn of St. Fiace, its poetical style
takes away from its historical value. St. Patrick's
Hymn, or “Breastplate," however, like all the
Saint's writings, has a value altogether its own; but
its importance as a revelation of the Saint's interior
spirit will be more appropriately considered in the
body of the work. The canon of Tillemont, which,
as we have seen, he applies to the Confession of St.
Patrick, may with equal propriety be extended to
this extraordinary and inimitable production ; for
it also “ bears upon it that stamp of veracity which
would enable it to stand by itself, even if it had
never been quoted by anyone,” so that, to borrow
the idea of another French writer of a very different
stamp, " the inventor would have been more
wonderful than the hero”. Dr. Petrie gives a
Latin version of the Hymn from the Gaelic in his
Essay on Tara (p. 55), and it has been translated
into English by Dr. Todd, Mr. Whitley Stokes, and
the Irish poet, Clarence Mangan; the version given
in the Notes of De Vere's Legends of St. Patrick
(p. 239), with some few alterations, is that which
has been followed in the text.
THE
LIFE OF ST. PATRICK.
CHAPTER I.
THE CHURCH IN THE FOURTH CENTURY-BIRTH AND
PARENTAGE OF PATRICK HIS SIX YEARS' CAPTIVITY
IN IRELAND-OITO ITURUS AD PATRIAM TUAM—THE
DESERT-ARRIVAL AT MARMOUTIER.
A GREAT part of the history of the Church
may
be
found in the Lives of her Saints. In this respect
sacred and secular history resemble each other, for
in both our attention is concentrated on the few
great men who were the representatives as well as
the rulers of their age. The century in which St.
Patrick was born, the fourth after Christ, was one
in which God wonderfully revealed His power, and
as His instruments are ever in proportion to the
work required, the character of our Saint, as one of
God's chief agents at that time, comes before us
invested with all the supernatural grandeur of the
54
ST. PATRICK,
age in which he lived. It was then that the pro-
mise made by God through His prophet seemed on
the eve of its complete and manifest fulfilment :
“The stone that struck the statue became a great
mountain and filled the whole earth". The Church
had scarcely come forth from the catacombs, when
the Roman Empire yielded place and retired before
her, surrendering the Imperial city itself to the
Vicar of Christ, while paganism, as it was nothing
more than a religion of the State, was extinguished
by the power that had made it, when Constantine,
in the final exercise of his office of Pontifex Maxi-
mus, turned the gods out of the temples, setting
some to stand in the streets, and others in even
more ignoble places.
It is true that heresy, and the usurpations of the
civil power soon chilled the high hopes which had
been enkindled when the lord of the earth became
a Christian ; still it is remarkable that for some
time fidelity to the Church and material prosperity
went together. It was the first Christian Emperor
who united the empire, and it was Constantine,
and after him the great Theodosius, who upheld
the majesty of the Roman name, and gave it back
some of its old glory; but the very year that the
latter died (A.D. 395), the barbarians, who in the
century before had shaken the foundations of the
empire, broke once more upon it, and then its long
)
APOSTLE OF IRELAND.
55
and terrible agony began. St. Patrick lived through
the years of Alaric, Attila, and Genseric, and saw
the final extinction-of-the-empire of the West, and
it was in the midst of the desolation of those days
all the more appalling from the contrast with what
had gone before—that God gave him the heart to
undertake the conversion of one of the fiercest of
those races who were then grinding the ancient
world into dust. His life carries us away from the
spectacle of the struggle which was going on around
the great centres of the Roman power, between the
old civilisation and barbarism, and reveals how it
fared with those who lived in countries which
formed the frontiers of the empire. When the
signal was given, and the legions, which for cen-
turies had garrisoned the world, began their retreat
on Rome, many of her colonists, who, under the
shelter of their protection, had gathered together
possessions, and made homes for themselves in the
distant provinces, still clung to the countries
which they had adopted, and, like the stragglers of
a retreating army, it was they who suffered most
from the enemy. To this class our Saint's family
belonged; and his life has a special interest from
the light which it throws on the state of things in
our own part of the world, at a time of which we
have so few records. It tells us how frail was the
tenure of life and liberty for those who were
56
.
ST. PATRICK,
dwelling upon the shores of Gaul or Britain, when
Scots from Ireland, and Saxons from the banks of
the Elbe or the Rhine scoured the seas, or made
inroads on the mainland at unexpected times, and
in unprotected places. It is hard at the present
day to realise the conditions of life in that age,
when wars began on land and sea without those
preliminary warnings and declarations which are
now the rule. We know that at the end of the
fourth century through the length and breadth of
Europe there were happy Christian homes wherein
were to be found at once the splendour of Roman
civilisation, and the flowers of Christian purity and
love, and that in the event of an invasion the woes
of the vanquished were wide-spread and terrible in
a way we can now hardly imagine. It was a time
when the fate of those who fell was envied by the
survivors; for then the living death of slavery
was the universal doom. It seemed as if the
dread despotism of brute force was mustering its
forces to extinguish the freedom with which Christ
had begun to make man free; and as it has always
been, the soldiers of Christ went forth to conquer
by sacrifice. Amongst the many victims in this
age of immolation the subject of the following
biography stands
pre - eminent.
St Patrick's
authentic history begins with his captivity and
slavery, and there is something very mysterious in
APOSTLE OF IRELAND.
57
4 I
the fact that from the first he comes before us as
representative of that crucified life which has
so specially distinguished-the-Church which he
founded, and still inspires and governs.
Before we take up the narrative of the Saint's
life under the guidance of, and in subordination to,
his own autobiography, we must see what can be
inferred, with tolerable certainty, regarding his
family. His own account is perplexing. In one
place he calls his father Calphurnius a deacon, and
in another a decurio; and while the context leaves
no doubt as to the correctness of the latter term,
the former stands alone. Writing of his vocation
and separation from the world, he says : “How
came it that I was led to understand, and love the
gift of God so mighty and so saving, and abandon
my fatherland, and relatives, and the many gifts
which with sighs and tears they offered me. More-
over, I then incurred the displeasure of some of my
, elders. But, God ruling me, I in no way consented
or yielded to them; not I, but the grace of God
which conquered in me, and I withstood them all,
so that I might come to the Hibernian races
(Ibernas gentes) to preach the Gospel and
give myself and my free-born state for the good of
others.” And again :
And again : “Was it without God (sine
Deo), or according to the flesh, that I came to
Ireland ? Who forced me? I was bound in the
58
ST. PATRICK,
۱: 1
Spirit that I should never again see anyone
of
my
relations. Do I not love tender mercy, when I
thus act towards that nation which of old enslaved
me? According to the flesh I am free-born; for I
derive my descent from a father, who was a decurio.
But I have sold my nobility for the good of others,
for which I have neither shame nor sorrow.
This is plainly the language of one whose family
held a high place in that Roman society which in
many places he contrasts with the barbarian nations
amongst whom he was thrown. When, therefore,
he mentions that his father and grandfather were
in holy orders, we must suppose either that the
ancient copyist has made a mistake, or else that
the Saint is alluding to what has been permitted in
all ages of the Church to married men like St.
Gregory of Nyssa and St. Hilary, who have been
allowed to take holy orders when separated from
their wives by death or mutual consent. The
Confession was written when St. Patrick's work
was finished, concluding with the words : “This is
my Confession before I die," and was chiefly ad-
dressed to that monastic clergy on whom he had
imposed so rigid a law of celibacy. 8
1 Confession, c. iv., § 15; Epistle, $ 5.
See Appendix, p. 284.
3 Mabillon infers that St. Patrick introduced into Ireland the
Monastic Rules which he had learned at St. Martin's Monastery at
Marmoutier and at Lerins (Annal. Bened. I. viii.). The Rule of St.
APOSTLE OF IRELAND.
59
On his mother's side St. Patrick was a near
relative of St. Martin of Tours. There is a con-
sensus of ancient authorities on this point, which,
when linked with his subsequent connection with
St. Martin, throws some light upon our Saint's
mysterious origin. St. Martin, himself a soldier in
his youth, was the son of an Hungarian who held
the rank of tribune in the Roman army, and we
know that St. Martin served in Gaul, as it was at
the gates of Amiens that he divided his cloak with
our Lord under the appearance of a beggar. We are
also told that as soon as he could get free from the
army, he returned to Gaul, and took up his resi-
dence with St. Hilary at Poitiers. Gaul had
therefore early become the adopted country of St.
Martin, and in his footsteps had probably come
St. Patrick's mother Conchessa and other members
of her family, seeking their fortunes in that favoured
province of the empire.
St. Patrick begins his autobiography at his
sixteenth year with the account of his exile and
1
Columbanus, which dates from the century after St. Patrick, imposes
the penance of two days' fast or two hundred strokes of the scourge
on a monk seen speaking alone with a woman (Reg. S. Columbani,
Migne, t. lxxx., p. 223); and the Penetential of St. Cummian, written
in the seventh century, ordains that the priest or deacon who has
broken his vow shall do penance by rigorous fasts and humiliations
for three years, with deprivation of the Holy Eucharist during half ·
his time of expiation (Lib. Poenitentiarum, Migne, t. lxxxvii., p. 984).
1 Sulpicius Severus, Vita B. Martini, c. iv. and v.
60
ST. PATRICK,
captivity in Ireland. In the beginning of the
narrative he says nothing about his own sufferings,
but in many places in his writings there are inci-
dental expressions which reveal the agonies of his
young soul, when, as he says: “The Lord poured
upon us the wrath of His indignation, and dispersed
us amongst many nations, even to the end of the
earth”. In his humility he attributes this calamity
to his own sins and those of his fellow-captives;
but the sequel shows that, in his case, captivity was
to be the beginning of his divinely appointed
preparation for the apostolate. He does not tell
us who his captors were, or who was their leader.
This is always the Saint's way in his writings. He
makes no account of the operations of human
instruments in the events of his own life; he is
always alone amongst men, and seems to be uncon-
scious of any power save that of God. He tells us
that “ thousands of men ” were carried off at the
same time by the invaders, who must therefore
have come in great force. It was one of those
expeditions celebrated by the poet Claudian, who
about that time was the Court Poet of the Emperor
Honorius, when he describes all Ireland rising at
the command of her Scottish rulers, and the ocean
foaming beneath their hostile oars : 1
1 (6
totam cum Scotus Ibernam
Movit, et infesto spumavit remige Tethys".
APOSTLE OF IRELAND.
61
At this time, A.D. 387, Nial of the Nine Host-
ages was Ard-Righ, or chief of the kings of Ireland.
He was one of the most adventurous and famous
of the Scottish kings, and the Irish annals record
his death in the year 405, in Gaul, on the banks of
the Loire ;1 where, as we shall see later on, St.
Patrick seems again to have fallen into the hands
of Nial's soldiers.
In taking up St. Patrick's narrative, we must
ever keep before our minds as a guiding principle
that his statements can only be understood by
setting one against another, so as to measure his
language by the exalted standard which was before
the Saint's mind. “I was ignorant of the true
God,” he writes, “and I was carried into Ireland
with many thousands of men, as we deserved
because we had turned away from God; neglected
His commandments, and been disloyal to
priests, who instructed us for our salvation, and
the Lord poured upon us the wrath of His indigna-
tion, and scattered us amongst many nations, even
to the ends of the earth, where now my littleness is
seen among strangers. And there the Lord opened
the understanding of my unbelieving heart, so that
even thus late I should remember my sins and turn
with all my heart to my Lord, who regarded my
our
1 O'Curry, Manners and Customs of the Ancient Irish, vol. ii.,
P. 59.
62
. ST. PATRICK,
humility and took pity on my youth and ignorance,
and watched over me before I knew Him, and
before I had understanding, or could distinguish
between good and evil, and taught and consoled
me as a father with his son.
“Therefore I cannot, and I ought not to be
silent concerning the many favours and the grace
so extraordinary which the Lord deigned to grant
to me in the land of my captivity; for this is our
return, that after correction or instruction we should
glorify God, and confess all His wonders before
every nation under heaven."
If we accepted the Saint's words literally, we
might suppose that he was not a Christian at this
time; but this would only make the mystery of
what follows more incomprehensible ; for the Saint
continues :
“On coming to Ireland I was daily tending
sheep, and many times in the day I prayed, and
more and more the love of God, and His fear and
faith, grew in me, and the spirit was strengthened,
so that in a single day I have said as many as a
hundred prayers, and in the night nearly as many;
so that I remained in the woods and upon the
mountain, and before the dawn I was summoned
to prayer by the snow, the ice, and the rain, and I
did not suffer from them, nor was there any sloth
APOSTLE OF IRELAND63
LAND
.
in e, as I see now, because then the Spirit was
hurning within me”.
We must take St. Patrick's apparently contra-
dictory statements as they stand. Whatever view
we adopt will not lessen our wonder at the revela-
tion they give of God's dealings with this young
soul, which, like that of Moses, amidst the clouds
upon the mountain, was brought face to face with
God.
So far the narrative of St. Patrick's captivity is
complete and unquestionable, and perfect as it
stands. We must now see how far it can be supple-
mented by authentic evidence derived from other
sources. It should be borne in mind that after a
lapse of thirty-nine years St. Patrick returned to
the scene of his captivity. Consequently the
events and personages who were connected with it
would again group themselves around the Saint,
and become known to his disciples. Some ancient
writers tell us that St. Patrick's parents were both
slain by the invaders, and that two of his sisters
were also carried off in the fleet; but as the children
were separated in the confusion, they knew nothing
of each other's fate. It appears, therefore, that it
was only those captives who were young and useful
as slaves who made up the thousands of victims
of whom St. Patrick speaks.
It is vain to attempt a consecutive narrative of
64
.
ST. PATRICK,
all the circumstances of this portion of the it's
life. It is very remarkable, however, that, thal ks
to the absence of cultivation, with its attendant
destructiveness, the scene of St. Patrick's cap-
tivity, like so many other places which retain
the mark of his footprints, is probably un-
changed in its natural features. No part of the
Saint's history is better established than the
fact that the boy was sold as a slave to Milcho,
a chieftain of Antrim, Father Colgan has dis-
covered in ancient records a notice of a chieftain of
this name in the north of Ulster at the end of the
fourth century, and modern archæological investiga-
tions have brought to light the ruins of a rath, or
fortified dwelling, at a distance of three miles from
the modern town of Ballymena, which unquestion-
ably belonged to pagan times, and is supposed to
have been the fortress of Milcho, situated at the
foot of Sliabh Mis, or Slemish the mountain,
which was the scene of St. Patrick's lonely novitiate.
St. Patrick's history has suffered so much from
the romantic school of historians, that great caution
is demanded in introducing anything in the way of
speculation into our narrative. At the same time,
as long as a writer holds on to facts, it is not un-
worthy of history if he tries to impart to his readers
the impressions which they have made upon him.
Acta SS. "Hib., p. 741.
APOSTLE OF IRELAND,
65
The pilgrim who has studied St. Patrick's acts in
that Catholic, and therefore truly critical spirit
which takes in the whole instead of halting at every
interruption, will find at Slemish a commentary on
the Saint's history written on the face of Nature.
Standing on the ruins of the fortress of Milcho,
the past returns with all its mysterious' revelations.
The mountains, the elements, and probably most of
the surroundings of the scene are unchanged, and
tell their tale with a clearness and eloquence sur-
passing the writings and the monuments of man.
The boy who, without help from man, alone amidst
pagans, made that rugged mountain a ladder by
which to ascend to heaven, had already attained
to
heights of sanctity which we cannot measure. He
had received an infusion of that spirit of austere
self-sacrifice which heaven so honours that its
inhabitants descend to commune with its posses-
So we do not wonder when Probus tells
us that at this time "an angel visited the boy every
seventh day, and spoke to him as man is wont to
speak to man”. This, we may suppose, was one of
those extraordinary favours which the Saint tells
us that the Lord deigned to grant to him at this
time.
Milcho, whose name will appear' again in our
narrative, was not allowed to remain in ignorance
i Trias Thaumaturga, p. 49.
sor.
!
1
5
66
ST. PATRICK,
of the spiritual gifts of his mysterious slave, and
his obduracy at this time must not be forgotten in
his subsequent history. Jocelyn relates that Milcho
had a dream in which the Saint appeared to his
master in the night, as it were all on fire, coming
so close that the burning hair of the boy seemed
to suffocate him. Milcho pushed him away ;
where-
upon the flames turned aside and seemed to envelop
and consume his two little daughters, who lay asleep
in the same bed, and finally the wind dispersed
their ashes over many parts of Ireland. When
Milcho questioned the Saint as to the meaning of
his dream, he told him that the fire which he saw
was the faith of the Holy Trinity, which to him
would be announced in vain; but that his daughters
at his preaching should believe in the true God, and
that, dying the death of the just, their relics would
be honoured in many parts of Ireland.
From this it would seem that St. Patrick had
at that time received a revelation of the work for
which he was destined ; and this the Saint himself
seems to imply when in his Confession he attributes
his triumph over those who opposed his laborious
episcopate to “the gift of God which had been
granted to him in the land of his captivity”
St. Patrick's captivity, as he tells us, lasted for
six years. During this period he had time to learn
1 Confession, ch. iii., $$ 11, 13.
" 1
4
APOSTLE OF IRELAND.
67
the language of the country, and to acquire a know
ledge of the manners and spirit of the people. This
was a preparation for his work which has seldom
been granted to the missioner. At the end of this
period he received a revelation that his time of
servitude was at an end ; and the fact that the
duration of his captivity was determined by God
implies that his life at this time was altogether
under a special divine guidance. The Saint himself
was impressed with this conviction, as we learn from
one of those abrupt sentences of his Confession
which say so little and suggest so much. It follows
without any break after his account of his austerities
and prayers on Slemish : “And there indeed," he
continues, “ on a certain night I heard a voice that
said to me, 'You have fasted to good purpose, you
shall soon return to your fatherland' (cito iturus
ad patriam tuam). And again after a little time
I heard the answer telling me, 'Behold, your ship
is ready'. And it was not near, but at the distance
of some two hundred miles, and I had never been in
the place, neither had I any acquaintance with the
people who lived there."
The reader by this time will have perceived that
St. Patrick's writings are of such a character that
they require a running commentary in order to
make them fit in with the narrative. . We observe
that he speaks of the answer which he received
68
ST. PATRICK,
(responsum audivi): a form of expression which
recalls the statement of Probus concerning the angel
with whom he had familiar intercourse.
It is this part of his life, more than any other,
which is almost unexampled, save in the pages of
Holy Writ, and yet the facts come to us on authority
which somehow carries with it its own credentials.
Since the Apostles, the Saints in their vocations
and dealings with God have been led in the way
of
obedience to higher powers in the Church, and as
a rule they have depended in some way on others;
whereas in St. Patrick's case it is impossible to resist
the conviction that at this time he was absolutely
the pupil of the Spirit of God; so that we may
venture to apply to him the words of the Apostle
St. Paul : “For neither did I receive it of man, nor
did I learn ; but by the revelation of Jesus Christ”.
The Saint continues : “ After this, leaving the man
with whom I had passed six years, I fled, and in the
strength of God, who directed my way, I reached
Benum,' and I had no fear on the way until I gained
the ship”. Our chief interest in the course of this
mysterious journey arises from the fact that it
enables us to explain St. Patrick's connection with
the dwellers in the forest of Focluth, by whom
i The reader must be patient with obscurities in this narrative,
and the identification of Benum is one ; it was probably a port, the
name of which has not survived.
APOSTLE OF IRELAND,
69
1
later on he was summoned to return to Ireland ;
and the arguments for this opinion form an im-
portant part of the chain which connects St.
Patrick with St. Martin.
All that need be here observed is that it is clear
that the whole term of St. Patrick's captivity was
passed with one master and in one place) and there-
fore when, hereafter, we shall find that he was
acquainted with people on the other side of the
island, it is only reasonable to suppose that this
knowledge was acquired on the occasion of his
flight from the East to the West coast of Ireland.
When St. Patrick came in sight of the ship, he
found that it had already put off from its moorings,
and when he asked to be taken on board, the
captain refused him in an angry manner. Then,
says the Saint, “When I received this answer I
turned away from him to go back to the cottage
where I had stopped ; and on my way I began to
pray, and before I had finished the prayer I heard
one of them shouting to me, Come quickly, for
these men call for thee'; and at once I returned to
them, and they began to say, 'Because in faith we
have understood thee, come and make friends with
us in any way you please'. And on that day I
had to mount into their ship for God's sake.
i From Slemish on the east coast to his place of embarkation on
the Western Sea : about 200 Roman miles, as stated in the Confes-
sion, ii., $ 6.
70
ST. PATRICK,
Yet I had [not] hoped that they would say to me,
Come in the faith of Christ, for they were pagans.
However, this I obtained from them, and at oncc
we set sail."
It appears from this passage that the Saint
had made some profession of faith which at first
had irritated the unbelievers ; but how their hearts
were changed he does not tell us, for it is one of
the characteristics of his style that he gives us no
explanation of mysteries, as if he always assumed
that the faith of the reader would be similar to his
own.
After three days,” says the Saint, “ we reached
the land, and for twenty-eight days we made our
way through a desert. Food and drink failed us,
and hunger pressed us sorely. And one day the
captain said to me : 'How is it, 0 Christian ? You
say
that your God is mighty and can do all things.
How is it that you cannot intercede for us? Pray
for us, for we are nigh to death with hunger, and
it will
go
hard with us ever to see the face of man
again.' Then I said to them plainly : 'Turn with
your whole heart to the Lord my God, to whom
nothing is impossible, that this very day He may
send us abundant food for our journey, for His
storehouses are always full'. And, by the help of
God, so it came to pass. For, behold, a herd of
swine appeared in the way before our eyes, and the
APOSTLE OF IRELAND.
71
men killed a great number, and they were refreshed
with their flesh, for many of them had fainted and
been left half dead upon the way. And after this
they gave supreme thanks to God, and I was
honoured in their eyes.
“From that time forward they had an abun-
dance of food. They also found wild honey, some
of which they offered to me, and then one of them
said : Give thanks to God ; this is part of the
sacrifice,' whereupon I tasted no more of it. But
in that same night, while I slept, Satan tempted me
fiercely (which I shall remember as long as body
and soul hold together). As it were, a great stone
fell upon me, and all my limbs were paralysed.
Then in some way that I do not understand it
came into my mind to call upon Elias.
Elias. And while
these things went on, I saw the sun rise in the
heavens; and as I cried · Elias, Elias,' with all my
strength, lo ! the splendour of that sun fell upon
me, and all at once shook off the weight.
And I believe that my Christ came to my assist-
ance, and that His Spirit then cried out for me,
and so I hope that it will be in the day of my
distress, as the Lord testifies in the Gospel. . 'In
that day,' He says, “it is not you that speak, but
the Spirit of your Father that speaketh in you.'
On our journey He gave us food and fire, and
dryness every day, until on the fourteenth day we
72
ST. PATRICK,
arrived amongst human beings. As I have said
above, for twenty-eight days we wandered in the
desert, and on the night of our arrival we had come
to the end of our provisions.'
So far we have a narrative which, in spite of
the imperfections of the Latin text and of our
translation, is full of mysterious beauty. Every
line vibrates and tells of one who was the organ
and the instrument of some power which was as in-
comprehensible in its operations as it was certain in
its results. / At this point, however, there is a gap
of several years in the Saint's autobiography, so we
must seek elsewhere for evidence as to the locality
of that fatherland or Patria to which the Saint was
miraculously directed. It is plain that we must
either accept the history as supernatural or reject
it altogether. It is assumed, therefore, that the
reader who has followed the narrative thus far
believes that God fulfilled His promise when He
told the Saint that he should return to his own
country.
It should be observed that the Saint gives us no
dates, and that, with the exception of the names of
his father and grandfather, and of a prince whom
he excommunicates, there is not a single proper
name to be found in St. Patrick's writings) although
it is certain that he was in relations with some of
the greatest Saints of his age. From this time
APOSTLE OF IRELAND.
73
1
forward, therefore, we shall get little help from the
Saint himself in our investigation of the order and
sequence of his life. Now and then passages in his
mysterious writings will throw light upon our way,
but this is all.
As regards the term of St. Patrick's journey,
the conclusion of the present writer is that itfied
him to his kinsman St. Martin at Marmoutier, in,
Gaul
.
his
arguments for this opinion will be
found elsewhere.
One mysterious witness, one abiding landmark
on the line of our Saint's journey, however, deserves
special notice, for its own sake as well as an evidence
of the immemorial tradition which unites St. Martin
and St. Patrick. In the course of the Saint's
journey from Bordeaux by Trajectus to Tours,
he was obliged to cross the Loire, and after the
lapse of fifteen centuries the spot is still marked as
sacred by the inhabitants of Touraine. There we,
find a memorial of the Saint which tradition:
declares to be coeval with his flight from Ireland
and his passage of the Loire on his way to St.
Martin. I allude to the tree which unfailingly
every year at Christmas time is seen covered with
what are called the “Flowers of St. Patrick".2
The neighbouring village and commune bear the
ما
1
1 “St. Martin and St. Patrick,” Dublin Review, Jan., 1883.
2 Vide Appendix.
74
ST. PATRICK, APOSTLE OF IRELAND.
name of the Saint, while documents relating to the
adjacent church of St. Patrice prove that the
devotion to the Saint was already established at
St. Patrice some nine hundred years ago.
1
1 Cartulaire de l'Abbaye de Noyers, pp. 11, 69.
CHAPTER II.
ST. MARTIN AND ST. PATRICK-ANTIQUITY AND PERPE-
TUITY OF THE RECORDS OF MARMOUTIER-ITS IRISH
MONKS-ST. MARTIN OUR SAINT'S FIRST SPIRITUAL
GUIDE-FOUR YEARS AT MARMOUTIER-DEATH OF
ST.
MARTIN-DEPARTURE FROM MARMOUTIER
ST. PATRICK'S PILGRIMAGES--SUPERNATURAL PRE-
PARATION FOR THE APOSTOLATE-ST. GERMANUS OF
AUXERRE-FAILURE OF ST. PALLADIUS-VISIT TO
ROME-CONSECRATED BISHOP A.D. 432.
As soon as the biographer of St. Patrick is deprived
of the Saint's own guidance, he feels that he is
expected to make good his ground at every step,
and that it is not enough to give his facts unless at
the same time he can defend them. When this has
been done by merely multiplying quotations from
ancient authors, without any attempt at estimating
their relative value, very little advance has been
made. Certain modern writers have tried to
explain away the statements of St. Patrick's bio-
graphers, who tell us that our Saint was the com-
panion of St. Martin at Marmoutier, suggesting
that this means nothing more than that he was
76
ST. PATRICK,
377
12
for a time a resident at the Monastery of St.
Martin. In order, therefore, to avoid the imputa-
tion of writing romance rather than history, in the
following chapter something must be said as to the
origin and value of this theory. We trace the
objection to certain controversial necessities which
demand the reduction or division of the age as
well as the personality of the Apostle of Ireland.
St. Martin died A.D. 397. St. Patrick, as we have
Alearned from himself, was twenty-one years
of
age
at the time of his escape from captivity, and, as we
shall see, he spent four years with St. Martin. Thus
twenty-five years of St. Patrick's life are accounted
for, starting from his birth in the year 372, and St.
Patrick survived St. Martin for a period of ninety-
five years, as he did not go to heaven until the year
492. If we believe the annals of ancient Ireland
and St. Patrick's biographers—and we may well ask
who else are we to believe?—we thus obtain from the
records of another country a most triumphant his-
torical confirmation of the world-wide tradition that
St. Patrick attained the age of six-score years.
It is necessary thus to anticipate in order to
make good our foundations. Outside his own writ-
0
4.92
1
1 The writer has treated the subject of St. Patrick's longevity
at greater length, in two articles in the Dublin Review (July, 1880,
and January, 1883), entitled “The Apostle of Ireland and his
Modern Critics“ (republished, Burns & Oates), and “St. Martin and
APOSTLE OF IRELAND.
77
ings there is no part of St. Patrick's early history
so solid as that which is bound up with the great
St. Martin, and the traditions of Marmoutier, which
even before St. Patrick's time was the citadel of
learning as well as of devotion in Gaul. Unlike
the less favoured sanctuaries of Great Britain and
Ireland, over which the destroyer has passed again
and again, Marmoutier has had an unbroken history;
from St. Martin to the age of Clovis and the Francs,
and thence through the period of its peaceful Bene-
dictine occupation down to the French Revolution
and our fathers' time. Its annals tell us of
many Irish Saints, who came thither following
the example of their Apostle St. Patrick".
Amongst these Marmoutier claims to have been the
1
St. Patrick". The ancient authorities on his side are overwhelm-
ing, viz. :
1. The Tripartite Life.
10. The Book of Howth.
2. The Book of Armagh.
11. Annals of IV, Masters.
3. The Vita Secunda.
12. The Chronicum Scotorum.
Colgan.
4. The Vita Quarta.
13. Marianus Scottus.
5. The Lebher Brecc.
14. Nennius.
6. The Annals of Tighernach. 15. Giraldus Cambrensis.
7. The Annals of Ulster.
16. Florence of Worcester.
8. The Annals of Boyle.
17. Roger of Wendover.
9. The Annals of Innisfail.
For the sake of those who are staggered by the mere idea of so long
a span of life, he produced the evidence of the famous Dr. Harvey,
to the effect that Thomas Parr reached the age of one hundred and
fifty-two years and nine months, and that of another medical writer
who gives us a list of 2003 centenarians, of various nations, 17 of
whom are said to have lived to the age of 150.
78
.
ST. PATRICK,
instructor of the glorious St. Finian," who is said to
have founded his famous school at Clonard as early
as the year 520, so that it is not improbable that
he went to Marmoutier in the lifetime of St. Patrick:
thus the historical connection of Marmoutierwith the
Apostle of Ireland was perpetuated in his disciples.
In resuming the thread of our narrative, it should
be observed that amongst those ancient biographers
of our Saint who bring St. Patrick to St. Martin,
Probus is the only one who seems to have made any
attempt to harmonise his narrative with that of the
Saint. He is also the only one who gives us geogra-
phical information, which is obviously an essential
element in a description of a journey. |
He tells us that in company with the Gauls, St.
Patrick travelled from Brotgalum to Trajectus,
which is found in the ancient map of Gaul on the
river Dordogne, about sixty miles to the east of
Burdigala, or Burdegala, the modern Bordeaux.
Whatever doubt may have existed as to the accu-
racy of the writers who identified Brotgalum with
Burdigala is set at rest by the identification of
Trajectus. From Trajectus to Tours, a distance of
about a hundred and sixty miles, St. Patrick's way
lay through an immense wilderness of some five
thousand square miles, where even at the present
2
Martène, Hist. de l'Abbaye de Marmoutier, t. i., p. 372; and
Mabillon, Annals Benedict., t. i., p. 208.
APOSTLE OF IRELAND.
79
day the inhabitants find it hard to defend them-
selves against the devastating floods of the Loire,
the dread monarch of French rivers, with its count-
less tributaries. That this desert of which St.
Patrick speaks was the result of floods, explains
the Saint's expression already quoted, when he says
that God “gave us food, and fire, and dryness every
day” (siccitatem quotidie). Thus Probus leads St.
Patrick northward through the desert until he
brings him to the banks of the Loire, and obviously
to the very spot commemorated by the faithful
traditions of St. Patrice.
It is the generally-
received opinion that Probus wrote his Life of St.
Patrick in the tenth century; and Father Colgan's
arguments, grounded on intrinsic evidence in the
text, leaves no doubt in our minds that Probus was
a foreigner. In all questions, therefore, concerning
St. Patrick's life in Ireland, this writer must take a
secondary place as compared with those authors
who have preserved the home-made history of the
Apostle of Ireland. In another point of view, how-
ever, his writings have a value which is altogether
their own. They establish the fact that nearly a
thousand years ago—that is, some four hundred
years after the death of St. Patrick—the footprints
of the Saint on his way to St. Martin were still
marked and reverently venerated, and thus the
1 Trias Thaumat., p. 61 (n.).
80
ST. PATRICK,
itinerary of St. Patrick in Probus must be regarded
as one of the title-deeds of that venerable Église de
St. Patrice and those mysterious Fleurs de St.
Patrice, which, according to the immemorial tradi-
tions of Touraine, mark the spot at which St. Patrick
crossed the Loire when he emerged from the desert.
Probus goes on to say that “the Blessed Patrick
arrived at Tours and joined Martin the Bishop,
with whom he remained for four years, receiving
the tonsure and admission into the clerical state,
and he held fast to the doctrine and learning
which he received from him".
When St. Patrick arrived at Marmoutier there
was little in the external aspect of the place to
reveal the work which was going on. St. Martin
had chosen it on account of its seclusion and
separation from the world, and with his disciples
he observed a rule of life very similar to that of
the Eastern anchorites. Some lived in cells made
of wood, and others in the caverns which may still
be seen at Marmoutier, and the casual observer
passing by would probably have seen nothing in
the settlement to distinguish it from any other
colony of poor squatters on the banks of the Loire.
Yet never in succeeding ages, in the days of its
1 Trias Thaumat., p. 48. Two ancient Breviaries of Rheims also
give four years as the period of St. Patrick's stay with 'St. Martin.
-Lanigan, Eccl. Hist., p. 157 (n.).
APOSTLE OF IRELAND.
81
man,
greatest celebrity, was Marmoutier so glorious as at
that time. From its huts and caves missionaries
went forth to become the founders and princes of
that spiritual empire which was to take the place
and enlarge the boundaries of the Roman empire ;
for “where then was there a church or city which
did not aspire to possess priests from the Monastery
of Martin ?" These are the words of his biographer,
Sulpicius Severus," who was as careful and con-
scientious a writer as he was a learned and spiritual
He was the intimate friend of St. Martin,
while his knowledge of the state of the Church at
the time enabled him to form a comparative esti-
mate of St. Martin's influence on his age. It seems
clear that he regarded St. Martin as the foremost
figure in that apostolic army whose conquests were
then advancing from the rising to the setting of
the sun; and from the extraordinary and widespread
devotion to St. Martin in the Western Church, we
gather that this was the general impression of his
contemporaries.
The life of St. Martin, like that of St. Patrick,
is one continued challenge to unbelief. He
was an unlearned man ;8 he wrote nothing; he
1
2
i Cap. x., § 9.
2 In France alone, there are 3,560 parishes dedicated to St. Martin.
-Vie de St. Martin, La Marche, p. 670.
3 Homo illiteratus, Sulpicius Severus, cap. xxv., § 8.
6
82
ST. PATRICK,
does not appear to have given any special rules
or laws to his disciples, and yet he founded an
empire. The fact remains, although reason cannot
explain it. If it was able to do so, it might perhaps
produce the same results, whereas, as a candid
infidel writer acknowledges, no philosopher has ever
yet succeeded in correcting the morals of a single
village. We know that St. Martin did an immeasur-
able work. If we are asked what was the secret of his
success, the supernatural character of the man is our
only answer. Born in Hungary of heathen parents,
about the year 315, at the age of ten we find him,
as it were, forcing his way into the Church, carrying
heaven by storm, and at twelve he was a hermit in
desire. We see him as a young soldier, fearless
and tranquil in the presence of the apostate Julian,
or dividing his cloak with his hidden Lord at the
gates of Amiens. We follow him into solitude, or
again, when by a stratagem he was enticed from it,
captured, and set upon the episcopal throne of
Tours. We see the Bishop in the long hours of the
night prostrate at the door of Avitian, until an
angel roused the tyrant with the words, "Can
you
sleep while the servant of God lies at your
threshold?" or healing the leper by his kiss in the
presence of the multitude at the gates of Paris.
Such as these are the facts related of St. Martin's
life before men. Of that other life with God, from
.
APOSTLE OF IRELAND.
83
which he drew his strength, little is known, save
that he held continual and familiar intercourse with
the inhabitants of heaven. This we learn from the
following narrative in the Dialogues of Sulpicius
Severus, in which the disciple Gallus is introduced
as spokesman:
“One day as I and Sulpicius were keeping
watch at his (Martin's) door, for some hours we
had sat in silence, and with great fear and trembling,
much as if we were the sentinels of an angel's
tabernacle ; for the door being closed, he knew not
that we were outside. Meanwhile from within we
heard the murmur of voices, and at once there
stole over us a sort of horror and amazement, and
we were overcome by the feeling of some divine
manifestation. After the lapse of about two hours
Martin joined us, and then the same Sulpicius (for
no one was more familiar with him) implored him
to explain the reason of that religious fear which
we both acknowledged that we had felt, and also
to tell us who had been speaking with him in his
cell. ... then after a long pause (for there was
nothing which he could refuse to Sulpicius ;
perhaps what I am going to say may seem in-
credible, but I call Christ to witness that I speak
the truth, unless there be anyone so sacrilegious as
suppose that Martin was a liar), 'I will tell you,
he said ; 'but I beseech that you reveal it to no
84
ST. PATRICK, ,
1
one ; Agnes, Thecla, and Mary were with me,' and
he described the countenances and dress of each.
And he confessed that they, as well as the
Apostles Peter and Paul, were his frequent
visitors.” 1
St. Martin's miracles and his conflicts with
infernal spirits were continual, and perhaps as
prodigious as anything which is found in the lives
of the Saints. We observe, however, that Probus
makes no reference to their influence on the mind
of St. Patrick; he alludes only to the “doctrine
and learning” which the disciple received from his
master. (St. Martin was St. Patrick's first spiritual
master, and therefore the one most likely to make
an impression and leave his mark on our Saint's
soul, ) who was then in his twenty-second year;
whereas his relations with St. Germanus of Auxerre
could not have commenced before the year 418.
Up to this period St. Germanus was a courtier, and
not at all a pious one ;? and, moreover, he was six
years younger than St. Patrick, who when he joined
St. Germanus would have completed his forty-sixth
year.
When, however, we seek to discover the nature
1 Dial., ii., cap. xiii.
2 St. Germanus, like St. Ambrose, was called to the episcopate
miraculously, and by an intervention of God even more wonderful,
as St. Ambrose was a Saint from his youth.
APOSTLE OF IRELAND.
5
85
V
!
of the influence which St. Martin exercised over his
young disciple, we feel that we are on sacred ground,
which it becomes us to tread reverently. As we
advance in our subject we shall see that in their
external characteristics the apostles of Gaul and
Ireland were very like each other. The circum-
stances under which they were placed were similar,
and the same faith within them worked in the
same way and produced similar results. . That
which in a very special way distinguishes these
Saints is the fact that they were missionaries under
circumstances analogous to those of the Apostles.
They were in great measure their own witnesses.
Those to whom they came were acquainted with no
others, and, like the Apostles, they received indi-
vidually that diversity of supernatural powers which
in later ages has been divided amongst many.
The authority of the Church was their strength and
security ; but that authority was for the time appa-
rently altogether vested in themselves. Miracles
were the credentials of their embassy from Christ;
but they were less wonderful than that power
which went forth with their words, and evoked an
organised and enduring Church from the simple
words of the Credo.
If, then, we were to say that St. Martin had
power to impart such gifts to his disciples, we
should seem to be attributing to him the preroga-
86
ST. PATRICK,
tives of that Divinity who works in the souls of His
Saints after the manner of that primæval ordinance
imposed upon “the tree that beareth fruit,
having seed each one according to its kind”. It is
the independence and originality of St. Patrick's
supernatural character which arouse our admira-
tion, and this is what we have a right to expect
from what we have already learned. In all external
things—in monastic discipline and ecclesiastical
studies--he was a novice, but internally he had
already had dealings with God as intimate those
of St. Martin himself. The veil had already been
drawn aside, and he had become familiar with the
supernatural world; hence we are not surprised
that he has left no record of the wonders that he
witnessed at Marmoutier : to him such things had
ceased to be extraordinary.
The four years of St. Patrick's sojourn with St.
Martin bring us to the year 397, the year in which
St. Martin died; and although we have no positive
statement of the fact, it seems clear that St. Patrick
left Marmoutier immediately after this event, and
that it was at this time, when he had reached his
twenty-fifth year, that he began that life of per-
1 The chronology of St. Patrick's life up to this point, as it
is rigorously deduced from the Saint's Confession and from Probus, in a
very remarkable manner supports the arguments of the Bollandists,
Tillemont, and Mgr. Chevallier in their triumphant vindication of
the year 397, as the date of St. Martin's death.
APOSTLE OF IRELAND.
87
petual pilgrimage which was to fill up the years
until his election to the apostolate. In so doing he
would probably have the approval of the successor
of St. Martin, even supposing that he was a subject
of the community, which is not likely. Long
pilgrimages appear to have been the fashion at
Marmoutier in those days when monks could carry
their rule with them, finding cloisters in the forest
and on the mountain side wherever they went
throughout the length and breadth of Europe. St.
Patrick did but follow the example of those seven
brothers, Les Sept-Dormants, who, in the lifetime
of St. Martin, and with his sanction, left Marmoutier
and spent five years in visiting les grands pèlerinages
du monde. 1
If, therefore, it is well-nigh certain that St.
Patrick remained at Marmoutier until the death of
St. Martin, we may number his young kinsman
amongst the disciples that wept and prayed around
the deathbed of the Apostle of Gaul, in that
memorable scene when, with the gates of heaven
already open, the Saint consented to prolong his
The history of Les Sept-Dormants of Marmoutier must be dis-
tinguished from that of Les Sept-Dormants of Ephesus in St. Gregory
of Tours (De Gloria Martyr., L. i., c. cxcv.). The seven brothers of
Marmoutier, according to Dom. Martène, were nephews of St. Martin,
and consequently cousins of St. Patrick. It is interesting to note
tiat the chapel of the Saints, at its restoration in 1881, was blessed
by Mgr. Colet, Archbishop of Tours, on the Feast of St. Patrick
(Notre-Dame des Sept-Dormants, pp. 19,81. L'Abbé Püan. Tours, 1881).
88
ST. PATRICK,
exile if he were still necessary to his people. At
the burial of St. Martin, St. Patrick must'have met
St. Ambrose, who at one and the same time was
present and visible to his flock in the Cathedral of
Milan, while he performed the obsequies of his
friend St. Martin at Tours; and thus St. Patrick
had the privilege of catching inspiration from the
face of the man who had converted Augustine,
and brought Theodosius to repentance, and whose
memory lives in the Church as the representative
of her majesty in resisting and reproving the sins
of princes.
St. Gregory of Tours, writing in the century
after the death of St. Patrick, gives the following
account of this memorable instance of bilocation :
It came to pass on this day of the Lord, after
the lection of the Prophet, when the reader,
standing before the altar, was about to begin that
of St. Paul, that the most blessed Bishop Ambrose
slept at the altar. Many observed it, but no one
presumed to awaken him, while two or three hours
passed in this way. Then they aroused him, saying,
'The hour is past, let our Lord command the reader
to proceed, for the wearied people are waiting ?
Then Bishop Ambrose replied, “Be not troubled,
for this sleep has been of great profit to me, to
whom God has manifested so great a miracle. For
you must know that the soul of my brother Martin
APOSTLE OF IRELAND.
89
the priest has departed, and that I have paid the
last offices to him in the usual manner; the little
chapter (Capitellum.) alone, I have not finished,
because of your interruption.' In astonishment and
wonder, they noted the day, and having made
careful inquiries, they found that the Saint had
passed away on the same day, and at the same time
when the Blessed Confessor declared that he had
assisted at his obsequies.” 1
From the death of St. Martin until the mission
to Ireland embraces a period of thirty-five years of
St. Patrick's life, and few indeed are the indica-
tions we can obtain as to the order of events.
One thing, however, is certain, from the Saint's
own words. During all this period he was pressing
onwards to the apostolate of Ireland in the face,
not merely of coldness, but of positive opposition,
and this as well from his ecclesiastical superiors as
from his relations. As far as our Saint himself is
concerned, this one thought of his undaunted and
i De Miraculis Sti Martini (Migne), vol. lxxi., p. 919. This tradi-
tion has been questioned by those who held that St. Ambrose's death
preceded that of St. Martin ; but the Bollandists defend it in a
dissertation on the year and day of the death of St. Ambrose, prefixed
to the Acta SS.. April, tom. i., using it as one of their arguments for
fixing the death of St. Ambrose in 398 ; and to his connection with
St. Ambrose, they attribute the great honours paid to St. Martin in
the Church of Milan. M. de la Marche, Vie de St. Martin, says
that St. Paulinus of Nola, St. Martin's contemporary, celebrated this
event in verse ; but I have not succeeded in discovering the poem.
90
ST. PATRICK,
persevering energy is by itself enough to give
unity and interest to this period of his life; but
if we would understand how it came to pass that
St. Patrick's aspirations after the conversion of
Ireland met with so little sympathy, we must take
a glance at the state of the Church during those
years in which our Saint waited for his commission
while the pent-up fires of apostolic zeal burned in
his bosom, annealing, not consuming, the energies
of his soul.
St. Patrick lived in what is truly called the age
of the Doctors of the Church. He was the contem-
porary of St. Jerome, St. John Chrysostom, St.
v Ambrose, and St. Augustine. In those days the
chief field of the Church's work lay within the
limits of the Roman empire, which had been handed
over to her on the conversion of Constantine, just
fifty years before the birth of St. Patrick. In the
fourth century we hear little of missions outside
the empire ; even St. Martin's work was carried on
in countries nominally subject to Rome. Then,
while St. Martin was still living in the year 395,
the death of the great Theodosius laid the empire
prostrate at the feet of the barbarians. The year
408 saw Alaric at the gates of Rome, and in the
footsteps of Alaric came horde after horde of
barbarians, involving the cities of the empire and
the sanctuaries of the Church in a common destruc-
1
APOSTLE OF IRELAND.
91
tion. At such a time and under such circumstances
defence rather than aggression must to many have
seemed the only rational aspiration of the ministers
of the Gospel; and that such was the opinion of
St. Patrick's friends appears from the following
passage in his Confession, in which, as far as we
can follow him, he seems to take up the narrative
of his life at the time of his departure from Mar-
moutier on the death of St. Martin :
“And again, after some years, I was once more
taken captive, and on the first night I remained with
them. But I heard the divine response telling me,
'You shall be with them for two months'; and so
it came to pass. On the sixtieth night the Lord
delivered me from their hands. Again, after a few
i The Saint does not tell us who his captors were on this occa-
sion. The words, “I remained with them,” convey the impression
that they were the Scots, his old familiar persecutors, and that his
second captivity was a continuation of, and similar to the first; for it
is certainly very remarkable that, as has been already observed, we find
Nial of the Nine Hostages and his Scots again in St. Patrick's patria on
the Loire, in the year 405, just eight years after the death of St.
Martin. The fact that the banks of the Loire were one of Nial's
favourite hunting-grounds must be borne in mind in weighing the
evidence for the opinion that Gaul was the country from which St.
Patrick was carried off in his youth. The south bank of the river
was held by the Pictones or Pictavi, whose name suggests the idea of
relationship with the Irish Picts, and others of the same race in
Caledonia : the fact that the Pictones took the side of Cæsar
against the Gauls supports the view that they were comparatively
recent intruders in Gaul.-H. Martin, Hist. de France, i., pp. 153,
167.
92
ST. PATRICK,
my tribu-
years, I was with my relations in Brittany, who
received me as a son, and in the language of faith
implored me that now, at least, after all
lations I should never again leave them; and there
in a vision of the night I saw a man named Vic-
tricius, coming as it were from Ireland, with
innumerable letters, one of which he gave to me,
and in the first line I read, 'The voice of the Irish”;
and as I repeated the first words of the letter I
seemed at the same moment to hear the voices of
those who dwelt near the forest of Focluth, which
borders the Western Sea, and they cried as it
were with one voice, We beseech thee, holy youth,
to return, and still walk amongst us’. And my
heart was melted within me, and I could read no
more, and I awoke. Thanks be to God, seeing that
after many years the Lord has granted them that
for which they supplicated.”
We see, therefore, that the Saint never faltered
in his purpose, and that heavenly encouragements
were not wanting. On the other hand, there is
nothing to show that at this time his apostolic
vocation received any human acknowledgment or
sympathy. On the contrary, we gather from his
writings that our Saint had his full measure of that
chalice of scorn and humiliation which is the
ordinary divine preparation for all great spiritual
exaltation.
APOSTLE OF IRELAND.
93
No apology need be made for irregular quota-
tions from the Saint's Confession, as he himself
continually inverts the order.
He writes as one
already entering into that higher world in which
there are
no boundaries of space and time.
In the following passage, which occurs in the
beginning of the Confession, the Saint is evidently
exulting over the confusion of those who at one
time despised him, and yet there is no savour of
self in his language : the glory is altogether made
over to God:
“Husbandry was created by the
Most High, as has been declared by the same Spirit
of the living God. Wherefore I was at first a
husbandman, an exile, and unlearned, not knowing
how to provide for the morrow. But this I know
for certain, that verily at first I was humbled, and I
✓
was as a stone lying in deep mire; and He who is
powerful came, and in His mercy He lifted me up,
nay, raised me on high, and placed me on the
height of the enclosure. Therefore, most earnestly
I am bound to lift my voice in making some return
to the Lord for all His gifts, so great in time and in
eternity, which the mind of man cannot estimate.
What then? Wonder, all ye who fear the Lord,
great and little, and you, ignorant lords of rhetoric,
listen, therefore, and scrutinise. Who is He who
Eccl. vii. 16. See also I Cor. iii. 9, where St. Paul seems to
express the same idea.
94
ST. PATRICK,
has raised me up, fool that I am, from amongst
those who appeared to be wise, and learned in the
law, and powerful in word, and all other things ;
who has breathed upon me, one abominable in the
eyes of the world beyond all others (even though I
be such), so long as with fear, and reverence, and
without complaint, I should faithfully serve this
nation to which the charity of Christ has transferred
me, and made me over for my life, if I shall be
worthy, so that I may serve Him in all humility
and truth.”
The state of Gaul in those years which imme-
diately followed the death of St. Martin gives a
special significance to this passage. At that time
Gaul was one of the most favoured of the provinces
of the Roman empire. The Alps lay between it, and
protected it from the barbarians who in the year
400 had entered Italy, and for a time the semi-pagan
literature and arts of Rome seem to have found a
shelter in the schools of Gaul, with no small damage
to the austere Christian simplicity of the Church of
St. Hilary and St. Martin. In such a state of
things St. Patrick, “a husbandman, an exile, and
unlearned,” as he styles himself, was not likely to
meet with much encouragement in his efforts to
prepare himself for the apostolate, and in the above
extract we read the history of more than thirty
years of hope deferred and faith that never failed.
APOSTLE OF IRELAND.
1
95
The ancient lives of the Saint help us very little as
regards this part of his history. They merely tell
us that he went from place to place as a pilgrim,
and that he passed some time at Lerins, the Insula
Tamarensis or Insula Beata of the ancients, which
at that time was one of the most famous sanctuaries
of piety and learning in the world.
In pursuing this commentary on the autobio-
graphy of St. Patrick, the writer wishes to be
quite candid with the reader. He is fully alive
to the fact that the road he is traversing is at
the present point an obscure one, and that his
views may be disputed. All that he can say in
their favour is that they are the result of long and
patient study. He has compared St. Patrick's
statements with those of his ancient biographers,
and tried to read both in light borrowed from the
lives of the Saints of the fourth and fifth centuries
of the Church ; and he has come to the conclusion.
that the chief cause of the obscurity which sur-
rounds the character of St. Patrick is to be found
in the impatience of those narrow-minded critics
whose
way
is to fasten on some one difficulty and
worry it to death, refusing to believe anything
where they cannot comprehend everything.
We now come to consider how St. Patrick
was prepared for his apostolate, and how it came to
pass that one so destitute of ordinary qualifications
96
ST. PATRICK, ,
.
obtained so high an office in the Church as that of
an apostolic bishop; and it must be borne in mind
that we ground our opinion of his apparent incom-
petence, not on his own expressions of humility, but
on the unmistakable evidence which is found in the
simple-hearted and eloquent irony of his triumph
over his learned opponents and critics.
In the following passage St. Patrick goes further
and reveals that his episcopal consecration was the
result of the direct interposition of God :
“And on another night, whether in me, or near
me, I know not, God knows, I heard sublime
language, as of some who in spirit sang within me,
and I knew not who they were whom I heard,
neither could I understand until the end of the
discourse, when He spoke to me thus: 'He who
gave His life for thee, He it is that speaks in thee'.
And so I awoke. And again I heard One praying
within me, and I was as it were within my body,
and I heard Him above me, that is, above the
interior man, and there He prayed fervently with
groanings. And while this went on I was amazed
and wondered, considering who it was that prayed
within me.
But at the end of the prayer He said
that He was the Spirit; and I remembered the
words of the Apostle, saying, "The Spirit helps the
weakness of our prayer; for we know not what we
should pray for, but the Spirit Himself asketh for
-
APOSTLE OF IRELAND.
97
us with unspeakable groanings, which things I
cannot express in words. And again : The Lord is
our advocate, and He Himself pleads for us'. And
when I was tried by some of my elders, who because
of my sins came to oppose my laborious episcopate,
truly in that day I was sometimes fiercely pressed,
and might have fallen in time, and for eternity.
But for the honour of His Name, the Lord spared a
convert and pilgrim, and very mercifully came to
my assistance when under this oppression, because
I was not altogether worthy of this stain and
reproach. I pray to God that their act may not
be accounted a sin. .. Therefore on the day
when I was cast off by those mentioned above,
on the same night, in a vision of the night, I saw
a writing 'without honour' before my face. And
then I heard the divine reply saying, 'We have seen
with displeasure the face of My chosen one stript of
his name'. It did not say, 'You have seen with
displeasure'; but “We have seen with displeasure’;
as if He then made Himself one with me, even as
He has said, 'He that toucheth you toucheth the
apple of my eye?'
From these extracts we gather that St. Patrick's
election to the episcopate was altogether super-
natural, so that, as far as we can make out from his
writings, he met with hardly anything but hostility
and opposition from men.
It should also be
7
98
.
ST. PATRICK,
&
observed that in no other way can we explain the
absence of all acknowledgment of personal obliga-
tions in one with whom humility and self-abasement
amounted to a passion. It is this extraordinary
blank in his autobiography which has opened the
way for the theory that St. Patrick started for
Ireland on his own account, and set up a Church
for himselfa view which has great attractions for
some minds. It is natural that it should recom-
mend itself to those who have no conception of the
operations of the Divinity in the shaping of the
Church. Those, however, who believe in the
divine origin, life, and unity of the Catholic Church
will hardly consider the theory to be worthy of
serious refutation. St. Patrick's account of his
election to the apostolate is certainly the most
mysterious part of his life. At the same time
it is not altogether without a parallel. Direct
divine vocations did not cease at the Ascension,
as we learn from the call of Saul and Barnabas ;
and although in later times God seems to work
more and
more by the divinely appointed
magisterium of the Church, for all that He is
still the irresponsible dispenser of His gifts, ,
and supernatural endowments are as real and as
clearly recognised now as in the age of the Prophets
and Apostles. The fact that St. Patrick founded a
Church whose faith has never failed is one of those
:
APOSTLE OF IRELAND.
99
proofs of union with the See of Rome which in the
mind of a Catholic dispenses with all need of other
evidence.) Stability, and that growth which unites
one generation with another, is the undisputed
appanage of Catholic faith. Fourteen centuries of
perseverance have canonised the Church of St.
Patrick, and proved that he communicated to Ire-
land the faith which he received from St. Celestine,
of whom the author of the Tripartite says: "To the
comarb (successor) of Peter belongs the instruction
of Europe”.
St. Patrick's writings give us
indication of the extent to which he prosecuted
ecclesiastical studies at Marmoutier, Lerins, and
the other monasteries and sanctuaries at which he
resided. (It is certain that he studied under
St. Germanus, Bishop of Auxerre, who, as well
learn from the Book of Armagh, introduced St.
Patrick to the notice of the Pope. The same
authority tells us that this was the second visit of
our Saint to Rome, whither he had turned his steps
in the first instance some thirty years previously.
There is a concensus of ancient writers to the effect
that in the years preceding his consecration St.
Patrick led the life of a pilgrim.) As we have seen,
this is one of the titles which he gives himself, and
very little
i Tripartite Life, p. 377.
2 Documenta de St. Patricio, E. Hogan, S.J., pp. 24, 25.
IOO
.
ST. PATRICK,
1
:
in the “Sayings of Patrick,” in the Book of Armagh,
we read : “I had with me the fear of God, as the
guide of my path through Gaul and Italy, as well
as in the islands of the Mediterranean Sea”.i
With the exception, however, of the narrative of
the journey to Marmoutier in Probus, there is
nothing consecutive in this part of St. Patrick's
history: the ancient writers had plainly only
general information imported from a distance, out
of which it is now impossible to construct a chrono-
logical narrative. We must be content with the
help which they afford in our efforts to interpret
and illustrate the Saint's own statements.
For nearly forty years St. Patrick was pressing
on to the goal of his vocation; his eyes ever
following the sun as it set over the Western
Sea, and those forests of Ireland from whence
came the cry of the little ones who asked for
the bread of life, and there were none to break
it to them. Youth passed away, and maturity,
and, if we take as our measure the duration of an
ordinary life, old age had begun to creep upon
him, and as yet his work was not even com-
menced. When we ask what sort of preparation
for the apostolate were these wanderings " through
Gaul and Italy and the islands of the Mediter-
ranean, we find ourselves in that bright
27
i Documenta de St. Patricio, E. Hogan, S.J., p. 57.
APOSTLE OF IRELAND.
IOI
darkness” of the mystical life which rests on
every page of the life of the Apostle of Ireland,
and our sense of God's special operations is in
proportion to the depth of the mystery. Surely
at this stage of our study of the Saint's life
we can have no hesitation in classing him amongst
those servants of God whose mission it was to
humble the mind of. man by confounding all its
rules and calculations. Seven hundred years after
St. Patrick another man appeared in this world,
whose words and character exercise a fascination
over men's minds very similar to that of St. Patrick
St. Francis of Assisi, in his way, was as incompre-
hensible as the Apostle of Ireland, and when Bossuet
attempts to give an explanation of the mystery of
his life, he is driven to fall back on those words of
Tertullian : ".
"Truly it is credible because it is
foolish. it is certain because it is impossible'.'
Thus, the consolation of our faith is to silence
human reason by those bold propositions which it
is utterly incapable of comprehending.” This is
the wisdom of St. Paul in other words: the only
interpretation of St. Patrick's history, and the event
has proved that what in another would have been
pride and delusion, in our Saint was a special
inspiration of God.
That St. Patrick had a profound knowledge of
971
Panegyrique de S. François d'Assise.
IO2
ST. PATRICK,
the text and mysteries of Holy Scripture'is evident
from his writings; but of other learning there are
no signs. “I doubt much," says Tillemont, “that
there are any satisfactory proofs of his having ever
given himself to the study of human learning
having, without doubt, set himself less to science
than to piety, for which God had already given
him a great love.” 1
It is certain that St. Patrick was in relations
with St. Germanus of Auxerre, and that under the
guidance of this Saint he was prepared for his
episcopal consecration. As we shall see, the date
and circumstances of this event have been recorded,
but we are in the dark as to the period of his life
at which he was ordained priest. The life by
Probus, and the Scholiast, or Commentator, on St.
Fiacc's metrical life, are the most precise in their
statements regarding this part of the Saint's history.
Of his life with St. Germanus, Probus writes : “He
passed the time in utter submission, in patience,
obedience, charity, and chastity, remaining a virgin
in the fear of the Lord, and walking, all the days
of his life, in holiness and simplicity of heart”.
The Scholiast tells us that he studied the “Canons
and all other ecclesiastical learning under Ger-
manus," and then goes on to say that he told St.
Germanus that he often heard in heavenly visions
i Hist. Eccl., xvi. 783.
APOSTLE OF IRELAND,
103
It is on
(coelestibus visionibus) the voices of infants sum-
moning him to Ireland; and St. Germanus, he adds,
sent him to Pope St. Celestine, who, having already
sent St. Palladius to Ireland, "paid no regard to
him” (nec ei honorem dedit,
The writer then tells us that while St. Palladius
was engaged in his unsuccessful enterprise, St.
Patrick retired to the islands of the Mediterranean.
All this fits in with St. Patrick's account.
a supernatural invitation rather than on his natural
or acquired qualifications that he depends, and the
contradictions and disappointments which he en-
dured are the ordinary lot of those who, like the
Prophets and Apostles, are raised up by God in
solitary majesty, with credentials which are derived
direct from heaven.
(One of the most remarkable characteristics of
our Saint's vocation is the tenacity with which he
held on to his purpose of obtaining episcopal con-
secration The holy ambition of other missionaries
has gone, no further than the desire of individual
sacrifice. St. Patrick anticipated and demanded a
spiritual.empire, and the revelation he has left us
of his intimate knowledge of the mind of God,
which was so marvellously corroborated by the
results of his apostolāte, are convincing proofs that
in this he acted under a special divine inspiration.
1 Trias Thaumaturga, pp. 5, 48.
104
ST. PATRICK,
not accuse me.
It is not to be wondered at that such an unusual
vocation had to make its own way. It is no
dishonour even to Saints to suppose that they do not
always understand each other, and certainly the
impression left on us by St. Patrick's writings is,
that all his consolations, and all help, came direct
from God, and that ſhe owed nothing to many
This seems to be the meaning of the following
words, which are found at the conclusion of the Saint's
account of the opposition made to his consecration :
“Therefore I speak boldly: my conscience does
God is my witness that I have not
lied in the things that I have related. . . . The
Lord is He who is greater than all. I say enough.
Yet I ought not to hide the gift of God which was
imparted to me in the land of my captivity.
Because I then earnestly sought for Him, and
there I found Him, and He preserved me from all
iniquity, because of the indwelling of His Spirit,
who has worked in me even to this day. But
the Lord knows how, if I had heard these things
from man, peradventure I should be silent, for the
sake of the charity of Christ.
“ Therefore I faint not in giving thanks to Him
who has preserved my fidelity in the day of my
temptation, so that to-day I can confidently offer to
Him the Sacrifice, and consecrate my soul as a
living victim to my Lord, who has saved me in all
APOSTLE OF IRELAND.
105
my difficulties ; so that I may say, Who am I, or
what is my prayer, O Lord, who hast thus laid
bare before me so much of Thy divinity ? So
that this day I should exalt and magnify Thy name
in every place, as well in adversity as in prosperity,
rightfully receiving with an untroubled mind what-
soever may come, whether good or evil, ever giving
thanks to God, who has taught me to believe in
Him without doubting unto the end; who has lent
His ear to me, so that in those latter days I had
the heart to face a work so holy and so wonderful,
and to imitate those of whom it was of old predicted
by the Lord that they should announce His Gospel
as a testimony to all nations before the end of the
world. As we have seen, so it has been completed.
Behold we are witnesses that the Gospel has been
preached to the limits of human habitations.”
With this extract we may conclude the account
of St. Patrick's preparation for his mission; and if
the line of argument pursued leaves many details
undetermined, it is to be hoped, on the other
hand, that it will help to reveal what is still more
important;—to lay bare the interior spirit and
supernatural gifts of the Apostle of Ireland. They
belong to an order of things which overrides all
mere historical criticism, in the minds of those who
believe that the Saints are the visible agents of that
unseen God whose operations are never on a level
106
ST. PATRICK,
with our thoughts. The Saints are subjects of his-
tory in that which is seen, and so far reason and faith
keep company; but beyond that there are things
which have not entered into the heart of man-an-
other world into which unaided reason cannot enter.
When reason stops and can go no farther, faith takes
wings, and unless reason is content to borrow them,
it must remain for ever in its exterior darkness.
With the elevation of St. Patrick to the epis-
copate begins his public life.) As a simple ecclesi-
astic there was little to give “a local, habitation and
a name” to the events of his life. But as soon as
he became a prince of the Church, the central figure
around whom subordinate agents, and the interests
of a multitude ranged themselves, then, as might
be expected, dates, and places, and the persons
with whom he was connected assume a more fixed
and determinate character? It is certain that St.
Palladius was sent to Ireland by Pope St. Celestine
A.D. 431,- and that within a year from that time
St. Patrick followed him.2 In this year, therefore,
we must place the-elovation of our Saint to the
episcopate. The following is the account of the
mission of St. Palladius, which was written when
1 St. Prosper Chron. (Migne), t. li., p. 595.
2 Dr. Petrie, Antiq. Tara, p. 75, declares that “A.D. 432 is the
year in which, according to all authorities, St. Patrick came to Ire-
land," and if the word “authority” is restricted to its legitimate
sense, his language cannot be accused of exaggeration.
APOSTLE OF IRELAND.
107
the event was still fresh in the memories of the
people of Ireland : “Palladius, Archdeacon of Pope
Celestine, Bishop of Rome, and forty-fifth suc-
cessor of St. Peter in the Apostolic See, was ordained
and sent to convert this island, lying under wintry
cold. But he was unsuccessful, for no one can
receive anything from earth unless it be given to
him from heaven; and neither did these fierce
barbarians receive his doctrine readily, nor did he
himself wish to remain long (transigere tempus) in
a land not his own; wherefore he returned to him
who sent him. On his way, however, after passing
the first sea, having begun his land journey, he died
in the territory of the Britons." i
St. Patrick does not tell us what was the
impression made on his mind by the failure of St.
Palladius. When we call to mind the many inti-
mations which he had received that God had
chosen him for the apostolate of Ireland, it is not
too much to suppose, that to him the retreat of St.
Palladius from her shures was a revelation that his
own time was come, rather than a cause of dis-
couragement, and that the undaunted intrepidity of
the man who, at such a time, offered to renew the
conflict, must have made itself felt at Rome the
recognition of supernatural heroism is a gift which
belongs by divine right to the Apostolic See.
i Book of Armagh, fol. ii., ap. Petrie, Antiq. Tara, p. 108.
108
ST. PATRICK,
Probus, who, as has been remarked, above all
the ancient biographers of our Saint, impresses us
with the conviction that he had authentic informa-
tion regarding many of the events of St. Patrick's
career on the Continent anterior to his consecration,
tells us that before setting out for Ireland the Saint
✓ took a journey to Rome to obtain the apostolic
benediction of Pope St. Celestine.
“ But first,"
says this writer, “he thus prayed tó God : 'O Lord
Jesus Christ lead me, I beseech Thee, to the
Chair of the holy Roman Church, that receiving
authority there to preach with confidence Thy
sacred truths, the Irish nation, by my ministry, may
be gathered to the fold of Christ'; and soon after
the man of God, Patrick, being about to proceed to
Ireland, went, as he had desired, to Rome, the head
of all the Churches, and having asked and received
the apostolic benediction, he returned, pursuing
the same road by which he had journeyed thither.” 1
It is certain that St. Patrick was consecrated
bishop in the year that followed the failure of the
mission of St. Palladius, but there is considerable
controversy regarding the name of his consecrator,
and the place at which the ceremony was performed.
Unfortunately for the record of this event, it is one
of the cardinal points in the strange discussion
which has been started in modern times regarding
1 Probus, Trias Thaumat., p. 48.
APOSTLE OF IRELAND.
the Roman mission of St. Patrick. An overwhelm-
ing array of ancient Irish writers are witnesses to
the fact that St. Patrick received his commission
from Pope St. Celestine : there is not a dissentient
voice amongst them. When, however, we try to
trace the steps of the transaction in the pages of
his ancient biographers, we are embarrassed by a
number of details relating to St. Patrick's pilgrim-
ages, without dates or sequence, which appear to
have been inserted on the principle that 10 frag-
ments should be allowed to perish. On these, the
antagonists of the Roman mission have fastened,
with the intent apparently of increasing rather than
of diminishing the confusion. On this point
it will be enough to say that, if not exalted
criticism, it is something like common sense to
hold that (St. Patrick's clergy and converts knew
very well how he came to be appointed supreme
head of the Church in Ireland, and that they were
certain to transmit the information correctly, and
if the narrative of his consecration, in the words of
Dr. Todd, is in some places "curiously lame,” a
proper allowance for what he styles " forgotten
geography,” and, we may add, forgotten forms of
ancient names, will teach us more respect than
this writer shows for such venerable relics of
ancient literature.
1 Apostle of Ireland, pp. 327, 335.
ST. PATRICK,
The following is the account of the event by an
author whose arguments and conclusions hold
together, because the study of the ecclesiastical
records of his country is to him as simple as an
investigation of a family history. Cardinal Moran?
agrees with the Bollandists in fixing the spot of
St. Patrick's episcopal consecration at the modern
Ivrea, styled Eboria by Fr. Colgan, Ebmoria in the
Book of Armagh, and Euboria by Probus.
" John of Tinmouth writes that St. Patrick
'turned aside on his journey to a certain famous
man named Amator, a chief bishop and Saint, and
obtained the rank of bishop from him'. Probus says
he was 'a man of wondrous sanctity,' and 'a chief
bishop'; and Maccuthenus, in the Book of Armagh,
also styles him a wonderful man, a chief bishop'.
“Now, it is difficult to conceive a bishop so
remarkable amongst his contemporaries, and so
famed for his sanctity, and yet uncommemorated
in the many records of the French Church about
the year 430. Neither in the synod then held in
France, nor in the lives of St. Germanus and of the
other great ornaments of France at that time, is
there found any mention of his name.
* But if in Gaul, neither a town can be found to
correspond with Eboric, as all acknowledge, nor a
bishop who might answer for St. Amator, can such
1 Irish Ecclesiastical Record, Oct., 1866.
APOSTLE OF IRELAND.
III
1
a town and such a bishop be found in Italy? We
unhesitatingly answer that they can. Indeed, as to
the town in which St. Patrick received the intelli-
gence of the death of Palladius, we precisely find
at the foot of the Alps an Eboria, or Eporia, also
styled Iporia and Eporedia, lying on the route
from Ravenna (where probably St. Germanus then
lived) to Gaul and Ireland. This is the modern
town of Ivrea. Formerly travellers passed through
it in journeying from Italy to Gaul. It was the
route pursued by the army of Hannibal in olden
times, as by the first Napoleon in the beginning of
this century. What is more striking, it was the
road hallowed by the relics of St. Germanus when
they were translated with solemn
pomp
from
Ravenna to Auxerre. We learn that from Ravenna
they were first conducted to Vercelli, and there the
presence of the angelic choir around the Saint's
relics was said to have dedicated the newly-built
cathedral. From Vercelli to Ivrea, and thence
along the Alps, the triumphal route is marked by
churches dedicated to St. Germanus, each
of which was erected on the spot where his precious
relics were deposited for a little while. Thus in the
town and small diocese of Ivrea there are at present
seven chapels bearing the name of St. Germanus, and
marking the route taken in this sacred procession.
'It is, perhaps, no small confirmation of the
the many
II2
ST. PATRICK,
opinion that Eporia, or Ivrea, was the town thus
referred to by our ancient writers, that it brings
together, in one harmonious whole, all the elements
of their at first sight discordant narrative. We
understand at once how our Apostle is said to be
on his way from Pope Celestine when he received
in Eboria the news of the death of St. Palladius;
we understand how it is that St. Patrick's consecra-
tion is so emphatically described as having been
performed in a neighbouring town, in conspectu
Theodosii, in conspectu Celestini, and again in
conspectu Germani. There is nothing, indeed, to
prevent these accounts from being literally true.
The history of St. Germanus justifies the conjecture
that he was then actually at the Court of the
Emperor, who often journeyed to and fro from
Ravenna to the imperial city Turin, the Augusta
Taurinorum of those times. The Popes, too, are
often met with, even in the scanty records of that
age that have come down to us, visiting Ravenna,
the headquarters of the Western Empire, and other
cities of North Italy.
Some one will, perbaps, say that there was no
Saint at that time in the north of Italy whose name
corresponds with Amator, or Amatheorex, remark-
able for his learning and sanctity. We reply that
there was at this time the great St. Maximus ruling
the See of Turin, which city, in a straight course, is
APOSTLE OF IRELAND.
113
not more distant than a few miles from Ivrea. The
name Maximus in the old Celtic form would be
precisely Amahor, and the transition from that to
the various Latinised names given above is easily
explained.
“From all this we may conclude that St. Patrick,
when he received intelligence of the death of St.
Palladius, was still in close relation with Pope Celes-
tine, as also with the Emperor and St. Germanus ;
that the town of Eboria, at which he had arrived
when the intelligence was brought to him, is no
other than the modern town of Ivrea, hallowed by
the memory of the other ornaments of the Church-
St. Malachy and the blessed Thaddeus; and, in
fine, that it was from the great Doctor of Turin, the
illustrious St. Maximus, that our Apostle received
his episcopal consecration.'
The chronology of the life of St. Maximus is like
that of St. Patrick : it has to be put together with
the help of events, rather than of dates. His
famous Homilies, of which more than two hundred
have been collected by Migne, prove that he was at
Turin in 423, in the reign of the Emperor Honorius,
who in 404 had transferred the seat of the empire
from Rome to Ravenna, and that he was still on
the episcopal throne of Turin when Attila came
down upon Italy in 452. His exhortations to
his people on this occasion are impregnated with
27
8
I14
. ST. PATRICK,
that same spirit of immeasurable faith which dis-
tinguishes the writings of St. Patrick.
In St. Maximus, therefore, our Saint would find
a kindred spirit : one who like himself was, so to
speak, intolerant and jealous of human interference
in the work of God. His advice to his terrified
flock, when Attila was approaching, reads like a page
from the Confession of St. Patrick : “ We see you, ”
he says, "fortifying the gates of the city ; but it
is the primary duty of strengthening the gates
of justice which presses on you . . . for it avails
nothing to defend the walls with bulwarks, and at
the same time to provoke God by sin". The event
justified the strategy of St. Maximus : Attila turned
aside, and Turin was one of the few cities of Italy
which escaped the ravages of the Hun who adopted
the mysterious title of “ the scourge of God”.
The episcopate of St. Maximus embraced many
of those years which were spent by St. Patrick in
his Italian pilgrimages. It is therefore probable
that the two Saints were known to each other long
before the date of St. Patrick's consecration.
As regards St. Patrick's consecration in Italy, it
is absurd to suppose that the records of the Irish
Church can be at fault. Objections grounded on
obsolete and perplexing forms of the names of persons
and places in old Irish manuscripts may be dismissed
as instances of mere pedantic combativeness. In like
APOSTLE OF IRELAND.
115
manner the supposition that his admirers were
driven to decorate St. Patrick with the character of
a Roman legate in order to support his authority
is utterly opposed to the whole tenor of St. Patrick's
acts. Ancient Irish writers are content to mention
the fact; for it never appears that they supposed
that the orthodoxy, or the mission of their miracu-
lous apostle, could be called in question : people
do not inquire minutely into the credentials of
those spiritual ambassadors who raise the dead.
Whatever may be the difficulties of St. Patrick's
life, his Roman mission is not certainly one of them.
Without attempting to enlist that high-sounding
expression “unanimous
unanimous” on our side, we may say
that ancient Irish writers who allude to the subject,
and the traditions of the Irish Church, undisputed for
ten centuries, all declare that St. Patrick received
his mission from Pope St. Celestine. We have no
reason to suppose that the decision of the Pontiff
was preceded by all those official forms which
attend the appointment of a metropolitan in our
own times. The episcopate was the only difficulty,
as we see from St. Patrick's writings : for the rest
his mission merely meant the apostolic blessing on
one who was about to go in search of martyrdom.
!
CHAPTER III.
IRELAND IN THE BEGINNING OF THE FIFTH CENTURY-
HER HISTORY HITHERTO OUT OF COURT-ANNALS
AND HISTORIC POEMS THE CHURCH THE ONLY
BOND BETWEEN THE OLD WORLD AND THE NEW
PROFESSOR O'CURRY—THE SCOTI AND THE ROMANS
-ST. PATRICK'S EVIDENCE-PROSPERITY OF THE
COUNTRY DRUIDISM THE BREHON LAWS-IN-
FLUENCE OF THE BARDS-MILITARY ORGANISATION
-EXALTED POSITION OF WOMEN IN PAGAN IRE-
LAND.
The public or missionary life of St. Patrick, on
which we are about to enter, introduces us to a
world whose characteristics are, in some respects,
even stranger than those supernatural events which
have been related in the first part of his life. We
can illustrate St. Patrick's personal relations with
God by examples drawn from the lives of other
Saints, even when we are compelled to look for
those prototypes amongst the Prophets and Apostles.
On the other hand, the rapidity, completeness, and
bloodless triumphs of his apostolate may be truly
said to have had no parallel in ecclesiastical history.
ST. PATRICK, APOSTLE OF IRELAND.
117
It will therefore be worth our while to inquire
whether we can discover anything in the state of
Ireland at the time which may be regarded as a
providential preparation for a work which was
altogether so divine.
If the object of all history is to get at the truth
rather than to exalt individual heroes, the obliga-
tion is imposed with special strictness on the
ecclesiastical historian. It is his duty, as well as
his privilege, to summon witnesses from the past,
who in their own day were unconscious of the im-
portance of the evidence which they possessed.
This assumption of judicial authority is doubtless
beset with many snares; but from the worst of
these, an insolent and domineering treatment of
his authorities, the writer will do his best to keep
clear.
The proposition with which he starts will sur-
prise some of his readers. He believes, and
hopes to demonstrate, that in the fifth century,
amongst all the nations outside the sphere of Greek
and Roman arts and legislation, pagan Ireland was
one of the most favoured as regards laws, literature,
and the arts of life. The common impression is
certainly opposed to this view; but the subject is
one in which common impressions are absolutely
worthless, seeing that all authorities from the
days of Petrie and O'Curry are on the other side ;
1
118
ST. PATRICK,
and although it is a truism to say that the opinion
of one man who has mastered 'bis subject ought to
go farther than that of thousands who know nothing
about it, in the peculiar circumstances of Ireland
it is well, here, vigorously and emphatically, to
insist upon the principle.
For many centuries, as regards her history, Ire-
land has occupied the place of the lion in the famous
moral legend of “The Lion painted by the Man”.
Hence the revelations of her actual and authentic
history, as they emerge into the light, are so many
successive surprises to the literary world. Irrespec-
tive of its own intrinsic importance, Irish history is
interesting as an example of the judicial and aveng-
ing power of time
of time. From the day of Henry Plan-
tagenet—that is, for seven hundred years—England
has been before the world as spokesman for Ireland.
During that time middle-age literature has passed
into modern literature, and all the while Ireland has
had none of her own. In the great parliament of
letters she has not been represented, and it is
therefore not wonderful that her case has not
been fairly stated. Moreover, from the days of
Giraldus Cambrensis and Mathew Paris, the so-
called history of Ireland, as it went forth to the
world, was, in great part, written for diplomatic
purposes, and each falsehood became the parent of
a brood. Take, for instance, the "Spurious Bull of
APOSTLE OF IRELAND.
119
Adrian IV.".1 Without name of sender, or receiver,
unsigned, unsealed, and undelivered, it was worth-
less as an ecclesiastical or political instrument. Its
venom, and that of other kindred forgeries, lay
in the motives which were supposed to influence
the Popes. Those epistles, well worthy of the title
of False Decretals, that condemned the Church
and nation of SS. Celsus, Malachy, and Laurence,
once entrenched in the pages of the court histo-
rians of Henry II., became the text of honest, as
well as dishonest, writers in subsequent centuries.
ness.
1 Such is the judgment of his Eminence Cardinal Moran. To
this great writer belongs the glory of being the first clearly to see,
and to unveil, the absurdity of this fabrication. Before the Cardinal
many had wondered, doubted, and too patiently endured the dark-
We have now a growing literature on the negative side.
Vide Card. Moran, Irish Eccl. Record (Nov., 1871); Analecta Juris
Pontificii (May, 1882); and three articles in the Irish Eccl. Record
(Aug., 1885), by the present writer. In a notice of Jungmann's Dis-
sertationes Selectæ in Historiam Ecclesiasticum, in the Dublin Review
for January, 1886, p. 207, Canon Bellesheim of Aachen remarks :
“Of still greater interest, perhaps, is the dissertation, occupying pp.
209-228, which discusses Henry II.'s claim to Ireland, and the Papal
documents it was founded upon. Here we have the important
question, Is Hadrian's Bull to be considered authentic ? German
critics appear not to be at all favourable either to the Bull, or to the
document in which Alexander III. is said to mention it (I refer to
an able Article in the Katholik in 1864). Professor Jungmann's
arguments produce the same effect on the reader's mind. He,
however, refrains from giving an express decision against it. .
I may, however, point out that the latter, taken in connection with
the able articles from the pen of Father Morris in last year's Irish Ec-
clesiastical Record, Aug., 1885, seem to give a final negative answer to
the long-agitated question whether or not Hadrian's Bull is genuine."
I20
ST. PATRICK,
Now it is a reasonable inquiry to ask what the
Irish monks, once the instructors of England herself
and of a great part of Europe, were about all this
time: was Ireland not fairly judged by default ?
The answer to this question must be sought for in
the history of the times, and the peculiar circum-
stances of the country give special importance to
the explanation.. Christianity had taken possession
of Ireland as if it were a natural growth in the
hearts of her people. There was none of that
violence, which in other countries turned the swords
of the persecutors upon themselves, and subverted
their national institutions. (St. Patrick, and suc-
cessive generations of Christian legislators follow-
ing in his footsteps, built up society in Ireland on
old foundations : clans, laws, literature, everything
except religion remained as it was. When, there-
fore, her clannish or patriarchal system was stigma-
tised as barbarous, merely on the ground that it was
unlike the military despotism of the Normans, Irish
writers, supposing that they thought it worth while
to answer the objection at all, could only reply that
it was useless to dispute about a matter of taste;
while, as regarded results, it was plain that if the
new Cæsarism had the best of it in the art of
destruction on the battle-field, Christian civility
had found a more congenial home and more docile
instruments amongst the clans.
APOSTLE OF IRELAND.
I 2 I.
For nearly four centuries, from her conversion in
the fifth until the first irruption of the Northmen in
the ninth, Ireland presented a spectacle of spiritual
and intellectual glory which without exaggeration
may be styled unparalleled, if we confine the word
to its literal and restricted meaning. If her his-
tory had had a counterpart, it would have obtained
a much readier credence from an external and un-
believing public. As regards this period of Irish
history, there is perfect unanimity amongst all
historical writers who measure and value men and
things by a Christian standard. From Tillemout
to Montalembert, Döllinger, and Cardinal Newman,
all such witnesses agree, and draw a picture of the
period in language coloured by an enthusiasm
which would certainly discredit their testimony,
were these writers open to the amiable suspicion
of the colour-blindness of domestic prejudice.
In the ninth century came the Northmen.
They came not from one point; not across one
frontier : the ocean was theirs, and like a serpent
their fleets folded the little island in their deadly
embrace. Never was there such resistance against
such odds; and, while the Northmen conquered
Sicily, and Normandy, and England, Ireland kept
up the struggle, and remained victor of the field,
with a diminution, as it is computed, of five-sixths
of her population. Churches, monasteries, and
I 22
ST. PATRICK
learning were gone : all was lost save faith and
honour, and even these were seriously imperilled by
the presence of heathen foreigners, who, as a conse-
quence of mixed marriages and other fatal alliances,
had been allowed to settle in the country. Such was
the gulf of fire and blood which separated Ireland
from her former glories when the Northmen, in
another form, appeared again upon the shores of
Ireland, headed by Henry Plantagenet, the master
of the best part of the chivalry of France, as well
as that of England.
When, therefore, Giraldus Cambrensis, and
similar brilliant and accomplished political novel-
ists on the other side of the Channel, began their
so-called historical work, they had it all their own
way as regarded the past and present history of
Ireland, and, for the reasons already given, they
found it necessary to blacken the past in order more
successfully to defile the present. Irish men of letters
did not answer, for very obvious reasons. Few
remained to write, and fewer still in England were
ready to read any story save that which suited
their own purposes ; and thus, like the story of
Mary Stuart in her prison of Fotheringay, false
histories of Ireland went forth over the civilised
world, awaiting the slow but inexorable verdict-
“... Of time, ,
The old justice, who tries such offenders”.
APOSTLE OF IRELAND.
123
The exuberance of the sources from which the
history of ancient Ireland is yet to be drawn may
be estimated from the fact that the two libraries
of Trinity College, Dublin, and that of the Royal
Irish Academy, contain 600 manuscript Gaelic
works, which, if printed, would fill 30,000 large
quarto pages, and to these must be added similar
almost unexplored literary treasures in the British
Museum, the Bodleian, the Roman, the Burgundian,
and other libraries at home and abroad. These
works, so far as they bear on the early history of
Ireland, may be divided into two classes—the
Annals and the Historic Tales ; and, although they
differ widely in their character, they are almost
equally valuable in building up the early history of
Ireland. No country can produce more sober
records than those ancient annals of Ireland,
whereas the Historic Tales are not unlike those
modern sketches of St. Patrick and other Saints,
in which facts are merely used as fuel for the
writer's imagination, with this advantage on the
side of the Tales, that they do not pretend to be
history. The laconic simplicity of the monks who
collected the ancient traditions of Ireland has laid a
heavy burthen on those who set themselves to the
task of completing their unfinished pictures, and
1 O’Curry, MS. Materials of Ancient Irish History, p. 200.
I 24
ST. PATRICK,
this is true of Christian as well as of pagan times.
When, for instance, we turn to the monastic Annals
of Ulster, the following are the only entries,
between 432 and 492: the era of St. Patrick, in
which the name of our Apostle appears :
- 432. Patrick arrived in Ireland in the ninth year
of Theodosius the younger, and the first of
the episcopate of Sixtus, the forty-second bishop
of the Roman Church (as they are numbered
in the chronicles of Bede, Marcellinus, and
Isidore), and in the twelfth year of Laeghaire,
the son of Niall.
' 439. Secundinus, Auxilius, and Iserninus, being
bishops, were sent to Ireland to assist
Patrick.
“ 441. Leo being ordained the forty-second bishop of
the Roman Church, the Catholic Faith of
Patrick the Bishop was approved.
* 443. Patrick the Bishop, shining in our Ireland,
amidst the fires of the faith, and doctrine of
Christ
“ 492. Patrick, Archbishop and Apostle of the
Scoti, went to his rest on the 17th of March,
in the 120th year of his age, sixty years
after his coming to Ireland to baptise the
Scoti.”
As has been observed, it must not be supposed
APOSTLE OF IRELAND.
125
that such dry historic bones as these are all that we
possess of ancient Irish history. From the historic
Tales and Poems of the bards we obtain abundant
materials wherewith to clothe them with flesh and
blood.
The object of this chapter is to present the
reader with a very brief sketch of the state of
Ireland at the time of St. Patrick's advent, and this
by the combined evidence of annalists, bards, and
St. Patrick's own writings. It must be borne in
mind that the bards wrote in Gaelic, and St. Patrick
and the annalists chiefly in Latin, and that it was
only within the last thirty years that anything like
an exploration was possible in the interminable
catacombs of our ancient Gaelic literature. The
Franciscan Four Masters, and Father Keating, in
the middle of the seventeenth century, collected and
collated manuscripts while lying hid amongst the
mountains of Donegal and Tipperary, with soldiers
and blood-hounds on their trail. They did a
superhuman work; but it is needless to say that
the treasures of Celtic antiquity laid up in the
strongholds of the dominant religion were not put
at their disposal. The time at length came when
the greatest scholars of the Catholic and Protestant
party found a neutral ground and combined, and
the world was electrified by the historical and
archæological discoveries of Petrie, O'Curry, and
126
ST PATRICK,
1
O'Donovan, and if Dr. Todd had not written bis
Life of St. Patrick, he would have a still better
claim to be numbered as one of the lesser stars
amongst this band of scholars. It is the work by
which he is best known; indeed it is to some
almost a popular text-book of Irish ecclesiastical
history. It certainly contains a great deal of
valuable detached historical matter; but no one
who knows anything about the subject can fail to
observe that the book was written for controversial
purposes during the excitement of the agitation on
the question of the Disestablishment of the Irish
Church, and that the dignitary of the Establishment
fell into the snare of using a grave historic question
in the interests of his party.
As history is based on authority, and as the
most important part of this chapter is drawn from
the writings of Professor O’Curry; for the sake of
the many who are strangers in the fields of Irish
literature, it is necessary to show cause why we
should accept his testimony. Although it would
be presumptuous to give an opinion as to the
comparative eminence of modern Celtic investi-
gators, there is certainly one characteristic in which
O’Curry stands pre-eminent. If the term philo-
sophic historian may be applied to one who makes
unadulterated historical facts coalesce and take life
by their own inherent affinities, then O'Curry
APOSTLE OF IRELAND,
127
66
certainly deserves the name. Other writers culti-
vated special fields of Irish Gaelic literature, but
O’Curry took in the whole.
· He belongs," says
Mr. Matthew Arnold, “to the race of giants in
literary research and industry-a race now almost
extinct.” Of his Manuscript Materials of Ancient
Irish History, Mr. Skene remarks: "For the
masterly and complete survey taken of the sub-
ject, as well as for accurate and minute details,
they are almost unexampled in the annals of
literature"; and in the same strain Dr. O'Dono-
van says of O'Curry that there were various Irish
manuscript authorities "unexplored by any but
himself”.1
The personal character of a writer is of special
importance whenever he is dealing with subjects
in which he is supreme.
In such cases he is a
judge; whereas, when they are already the common
property of many, authors are commonly little more
than commentators. The cordial admiration which
O’Curry obtained, from contemporary writers op-
posed to him on points which were very fiercely
contested, is a triumph which few men attain in
their own day. O'Curry occupied the chair of Irish
History and Archäology in the Catholic University
i On the Study of Celtic Literature, p. 28. Introd. Dean of
Lismore's book, p. lxxxvi. Annals of Four Masters, Introduction,
p. liii.
128
.
ST. PATRICK
of Ireland at the time when Cardinal Newman was
president. In the preface to the MS. Materials
of Ancient Irish History we have an account of the
relations of those great men, which reveals the fact
that the Cardinal was the first who accurately
measured the gigantic intelligence of the humble
Irish scholar. The touching simplicity of the
following passage, in which O'Curry dwells on his
own deficiencies, proves that he was truly one of
those who looked on himself as the servant, not the
master, of truth, and that nature had taught him
the lesson, now too often forgotten, that-
“Study is like the heaven's glorious sun,
That will not be deep-searched with saucy looks”.
“The course of my studies in Irish history and
antiquities had always been of a silent kind. I
was engaged, if I may so speak, only in underground
work; and the labours in which I had spent my
life were such that their results were never intended
to be brought separately before the public on my
own individual responsibility. No person knows my
bitterly felt deficiencies better than myself.” He
adds: “There was, however, among my varying
audience one constant attendant, whose presence
was both embarrassing and encouraging"; and he
describes his astonishment when this auditor, his
illustrious president, informed him that not only
had he found time to attend the lectures, but that
APOSTLE OF IRELAND.
129
1
in addition they were to be published at the expense
of the University
Cardinal Newman was not a Gaelic scholar;
still it must be borne in mind that the Lectures
were delivered in English, and that critics who like
the Cardinal possess the practised faculty of detect-
ing historical and literary assumption and incon-
sequence can almost instantly take the measure of a
writer or speaker from his style. It is not true to
say that O'Curry's matter was strange to one
who, perhaps, above all living men, knows how it
is that the dead past speaks again to the dispas-
sionate and patient listener. Armagh, and Durrow,
and Clonmacnois, silent for centuries, were eloquent
. Voices were heard which told as well of
pagan as of Christian times, and the harmonies of
nature and grace, and the triumphs of faith in
Ireland were discovered to be identical with those
which Pontus and Gaul witnessed, when Gregory
and Martin were sent to those countries as the
plenipotentiaries of a Divine Master. O’Curry was
the representative of ancient Ireland at that
memorable time when Christian Oxford, risen from
the dead, went over to Ireland to be united, in the
person of her greatest representative, with the
sister on whom the tomb had never closed, and his
commentaries on Irish history have for ever ex-
once more.
1 MS. Materials of Ancient Irish History, Pref., p. viii.
9
130
ST. PATRICK,
ploded the grotesque historical inventions of
Trinity College-an institution which never has
had any Catholic traditions, and therefore seems
incapable of comprehending them.
O’Curry believed that the Irish ecclesiastical
chroniclers told the truth within the limits of
human fallibility, just as Cardinal Newman and his
school believed in St. Athanasius and St. Jerome;
and such writers have all that conscious strength
which is derived from confidence in their founda-
tions.
In all those departments of history wherein
ecclesiastical writers are either witnesses for
their own times, or a link with the past, Catholic
students have a manifest advantage over their
antagonists, arising from the fact that they believe
in their authorities. Time was when this was
deemed to be an essential condition in the com-
position of history. Although it is so no longer, in
the case of many writers, it is evident that they
are half-conscious of the insecurity of their position.
Historians who, with Gibbon, include the monks
and bards of Ireland in a common category as "the
two orders of men who equally abused the privilege
of fiction," can make little use of either; so, by the
help of probabilities, analogies, and suppositions,
they set to work to produce something original of
their own.
APOSTLE OF IRELAND.
131
When the scholars of the revival at Oxford drew
Church history from the writings of the Fathers,
they allowed their readers to judge for themselves
as to the probability of Saints and Fathers being
either deluded or dishonest. In a similar manner,
O’Curry deals with the writings of his own
spiritual ancestors. He does not pretend to know
facts better than they were known by eye-
witnesses, and, therefore, his writings are free
from that assumption of oracular infallibility which
gives so strong a tinge of the ludicrous to the
writings of many of his contemporaries.
O’Curry does not profess to do more than pre-
pare the way for future historians, and it is pro-
bable that he himself had very little idea of the
way in which his labours would light up the
Christian history of his country. He found that
for centuries innumerable works on ancient Ireland
had been published which were worse than useless.
Writing in 1862, he declares that, in order to get a
correct idea of that history, "students must first cast
behind them almost all that has yet been printed
on the subject,” by authors “who never took the
trouble to learn to read the ancient MSS. ... the
flesh and blood of all the true history of Ireland”.
1 ܕܙ
1 MS. Materials, Pref., p. vii., and p. 436. At p. 154 he gives an
amusing account of a visit paid him, in 1839, by Moore, accompanied
by Dr. Petrie. O’Curry had before him a number of dark and time-
132
ST. PATRICK,
Such being the state of modern Irish literature,
it is easy to understand how St. Patrick's history
was submerged in that universal deluge of historical
inventions, and, as the waters have not yet quite
subsided, the most serious difficulty in the way of
his biographer is to know what his readers will
allow him to take for granted. Hence the im-
portance of getting hold of some well-established
authority. No dispassionate reader who has gone
through the three great volumes of O'Curry's
works, with Dr. Sullivan's learned introduction, can
resist the conviction that it is not the want, but the
exuberance of ancient and authentic records which
has oppressed and confused inferior investigators,
and driven them to take refuge from study in the
less laborious territories of theory and speculation.
The main facts of Irish history, as given by
O’Curry from secular sources, in no way differ from
the records of the ancient Irish ecclesiastical anna-
lists. His greatest triumph is to be found in the
way
in which he makes the Ossianic Historic Tales
and Poems fit in with these austere histories. As
might be expected, chronology is the greatest
difficulty in the history of a nation which had few
permanent relations with neighbouring countries.
worn Gaelic MSS., which, when Moore had scanned, he turned to
Petrie and said : “I never knew anything about these before, and I
had no right to have undertaken the history of Ireland”.
APOSTLE OF IRELAND.
133
t ㅗ
​2002Nti a noul
This, however, in no way weakens the evidence
which he gives regarding the triple colonisation of
Ireland by the Firbolgs, Tuatha dé Danaann, and
the Milesians or Scots, the dominant race at the
period of St. Patrick's advent. There is little doubt
that, like the Irish, the Highlanders, the Welsh, and
the Bretons of to-day, all three were of the same
race and with a similar language, although differing
in character and manners. This accounts for the
ease with which they amalgamated and formed one
nation. St. Patrick in his writings always calls
Ireland Iberio, and alludes to the Scots as a race
distinct from the Hibernians, or Irish proper. He
wrote as one familiar with the domestic life of the
people, while St. Jerome and foreign writers were
only acquainted with the country as Scotia, and the
people under the title of Scots, who were the latest
colonists, and the race which, as we shall see, was
always foremost in all foreign military enterprises.
Some knowledge of the character of this regal and
dominant race is therefore necessary if we would
understand St. Patrick's work.
In entering on this question, the investigator
on O'Curry's principle, must “cast behind him”
almost all that has been written, even by vener-
able ancient authors, who had never seen the
„Scots at home. It must be remembered that
Ireland was outside the Roman world until she was
134
ST. PATRICK,
spiritually annexed by St. Patrick, and that neither
Tacitus nor St. Jerome had more than the very
vaguest idea of her internal state. The Scots were
well known in Britain and Gaul, and as far as the
Alps, but chiefly as desperate adventurers, the
Raleighs and Drakes of the third and fourth
centuries. Nial of the Nine Hostages (379 to 405),
the king in whose reign St. Patrick was carried
prisoner into Ireland, was slain on the banks of the
Loire, and his nephew Dathi, who succeeded to the
throne, was killed by lightning in the Alps (428) on
his way to Italy; and this appears to have been
the last historic outburst of the belligerent Scots."
It is remarkable that the army of Dathi is said
to have been composed of Scots from Caledonia, or
Alba, as well as from Ireland. Celtic historians are
now pretty well agreed that up to the period of St.
Patrick's advent and the conversion of Ireland, the
north-western provinces of Caledonia were practi-
i The account of Dathi's adventures is found in the tract entitled
Sluaghid Dathi co Sliabh n-Ealpa, or the Expedition of Dathi to
the Alps” (O’Curry's MS. Materials, p. 284; Manners and Customs, ii.,
p. 59). The Abbé MacGeoghegan, chaplain to the Irish Brigade under
Louis XIV., in his History of Ireland (p. 94), tells us : “The relation
of this expedition of Dathy, mentioned in all the Irish writings,
agrees with the Piedmontese tradition, and a very ancient registry in
the house of Sales, in which it is said that the King of Ireland
remained some time in the Castle of Sales". The officer who related
the tradition assured MacGeoghegan that it was told to him by the
Marquis of Sales at the table of Lord Mont-Cashel, who had taken
the marquis prisoner at the battle of Marsaille.
APOSTLE OF IRELAND.
135
A
cally annexed to the mother country. The separa-
tion, and even hostility, manifested in St. Patrick's
writings between the Christian Scots of Ireland and
their
pagan
kindred in Caledonia, is an extraordi-
nary evidence of the revolution effected by the
Saint's mission, which began just four years after
the death of Dathi.
According to the same authorities, nearly a
century anterior to this date, the first settlement of
the Scots had taken place in Argyleshire, under the
leadership of Cairbre Riada, of whom Venerable
Bede writes: "The Scots who, migrating from
Ireland under their leader Reuda, either by fair
means or by force of arms, secured to themselves
those settlements among the Picts which they still
possess”. It is certain that it was the support
of military contingents from Scotia Major which
made the periodical invasions of the Scots so serious
a trouble to the Romans in Britain. The Picts, as
is evident from the Life of St. Columba, the best
record we possess of their condition, were an inferior
race, with apparently little organisation, and without
national traditions, thinly scattered through the
country; whereas in Ireland there was an over-
flowing and very martial population. Venerable
Bede says of ancient Ireland that, “ for wholesome-
1 Airer-Gaeidhil, the district or region of the Gaeidhil (O'Dono-
van).
136
ST. PATRICK,
0
ܙܙ
1
ness and serenity of climate, Ireland far surpasses
Britain.
The island abounds in milk and
honey, is not without vines, and is famous for the
chase of fish, fowl, stags, and roes.
At the same
time all the ancient literature of the country bears
testimony to her stores of wealth in gold and precious
stones; and strange as it reads now-a-days, it was
the plenty and treasures of Ireland which attracted
the hungry and avaricious Danes, three centuries
after St. Patrick.
The study of the military organisation of the
Scots gives us a curious and most valuable insight
into the state of the nation at the period of
St. Patrick's mission. No people have ever been
perseveringly great on the battle-field who have not
been at the same time distinguished by great
national virtues : mere savage ferocity is self-
destructive. Aubrey de Vere, with his exquisite
and unrivalled perception of the ancient Irish
spirit, observes : “The military rules of the Feinè
included provisions which the chivalry of later ages
might have been proud of”? We shall revert to
this subject in noticing the Ossianic poems, and con-
tent ourselves here with quoting the four primary
rules of the Fienė, or standing army of Ireland in
the third century :
i Eccl. Hist., Bk. i., c. 1.
2 Legends of St. Patrick, Pref., p. xvii.
APOSTLE OF IRELAND.
137
1
“There are four conditions which every man
who was received into the Fianns was obliged to
fulfil :
“The first condition was, that he should not
accept any fortune with a wife, but select her
for moral conduct and her accomplishments.
“ The second was, that he should not insult any
woman.
“The third was, that he should not refuse any
person for trinkets or food.
“The fourth was, that he should not turn his
back on (that is, fly from) nine champions.
It was in Caledonia that the Romans first made
the acquaintance of the Scots from Ireland; and
the fact that they were there brought under
the notice of Roman historians supplies us with
some standards of measurement and comparison
which are of great value in illustrating Irish
records.
For more than four hundred years the Romans
had held possession of Britain. Many of the
emperors had visited the country, or commanded
the armies which defended this important province
of their empire; but during this period they had
suffered Ireland to remain unmolested. . It is
strange that the Romans, so insatiable in their
1 Keating ap. O'Curry, Manners and Customs of Ancient Irish,
ii. 381.
138
ST. PATRICK,
thirst for conquest, should never have made an
attempt to subdue that island whose mountains
rose so near them in the west, especially when we
consider how grievous and persevering a thorn it
was in the side of the imperial Colossus. Tacitus
tells us that Agricola, who governed Britain A.D.
78, had contemplated the invasion of Ireland, and
that under an appearance of friendship he retained
with him an Irish prince who had been exiled, in
the hope of using him for his own purposes.
Agricola's reason, says Tacitus, for urging the
Romans to invade Ireland was that by its conquest
they would strengthen their hold on Britain—when
Roman armies were everywhere triumphant, and
the dangerous example of liberty was taken away :
Si velut e conspectu libertas tolleretur.' The event
justified the foresight of the great Consul, and the
trouble that Irish warriors gave to the conquerors
of the world is not the least of their military dis-
tinctions.
Eight years subsequently we find Agricola face
to face with a disciplined army of Highlanders in
the Grampians, and in 207 the Emperor Severus
followed the same foe into their fastnesses at the
loss of 50,000 of his soldiers, leaving a permanent
garrison of 10,000 men to guard the wall or line of
fortresses which he erected on the northern frontier
1 Vita Agricole, $ 24.
APOSTLE OF IRELAND.
139
1
of Britain. At one time it seemed as if the Scots,
with their allies the Picts, were in a fair way to get
possession of the South as well as the North of
Britain. In 368 they advanced as far as London.?
The Roman legions, whose leaders were slain, gave
way before them, and they were only driven back
on the arrival of Theodosius with reinforcements
from Gaul. But in 446 they returned, and then
it was that the Britons appealed to the Romans for
help in the well-known letter which begins : “To
Ætius, thrice consul, the groans of the Britons
going on to say: “The barbarians drive us to the
sea, the sea drives us back to the barbarians ; be-
tween them we are exposed to two sorts of death-
we are either slain or drowned "3 The Romans at
this time were unable to defend their own capital,
much less their provinces, so the Britons turned to
the Germans for help, and opened their gates to
those Saxon allies, who soon proved worse enemies
even than the Scots.
For nearly four hundred years Ireland kept up
an intermitting contest with Rome; and although
the expeditions of one small island which borrowed
nothing from other quarters cannot be compared to
those barbarian deluges from the North, when one
1 Lingard, Hist. England, vol. i., p. 46.
2 Knight's Hist. of England, vol. i., p. 54.
3 Ven. Bede, Ecclesiastical History, Bk. i., c. 13; ed. Giles.
140
ST. PATRICK,
horde pushed on another, they are an evidence of
the existence of that permanent and powerful mili-
tary organisation which is recorded in Irish annals.
During these centuries Ireland possessed a nume-
rous and well-disciplined national militia, whose
duty it was to hold themselves in readiness to assist
their countrymen in Caledonia (Alba) in any great
emergency. Their number throughout the country
may be estimated from the fact that in the reign of
Cormac Mac Airt as many as 7500 were stationed
at Tara. In the Annals of the Four Masters we
find the following entry: “The Age of Christ 240
the fleet of Cormac (sailed) across Magh-
Rein (i.e., the sea) this year, so that it was on this
occasion that he obtained the sovereignty of Alba”.
It is strange that so little use has been made
of St. Patrick's writings as a means of giving
life to the pagan records of his time. It will
always be difficult to understand the history and
the manners and customs of a people who, in
a spiritual sense, have left no lineal successors.
If Christianity makes us strangers in the midst
of the Mahommedans and Buddhists of our own
time, much more is this the fact in the case of
nations of which the skeletons alone remain in
their dead records. In St. Patrick's time, and for
many subsequent centuries, there was very little
1 O’Curry, Manners and Customs of Ancient Irish, vol. ii. 377.
APOSTLE OF IRELAND.
141
comparative, or philosophical history written. Men
described what they saw, or related facts as they
were handed down from their forefathers, omitting
the links which bound them together, which were
manifest to themselves, but which we find it very
hard to supply: facts which were well known being
taken for granted. Hence the importance of the
testimony of a writer who looked on these things
with eyes like our own, and made use of our modes
of expression. (St. Patrick was already old when he
returned to Ireland. For more than thirty years
he had been familiar with the features of Roman
civilisation in Italy as well as Gaul, and therefore the
incidental judgments on Irish life which are found in
his writings are of immense importance in supply-
ing us with something like comparative standards. <
He speaks of the people as made up of distinct
ť 논
​1 Something like this is still found in remote districts of Ireland.
The Irish peasant will take it for granted that the historical person-
ages and events of his country, long before the Christian era, are
known to everyone. Some years ago, as the present writer was
walking amidst the glens of Sliabh Mis, near Tralee, he came
upon a party of woodcutters, and an old man in the company re-
marked : “If you go up to the top of the glen, your reverence, you
will see the marks of her heels on the flagstone”. “ Whose
heels ?" “Why, Scota's, to be sure,” said he, evidently very much
surprised at the question. Now we learn from the Book of Drom
Sneachta, written before St. Patrick's time, that it was on this spot
that, long before the Christian era, Eber Finn and Amergin, the sons
of Milesius, defeated the Tuatha dé Danaann, and that their mother
Scota, from whom the Scots derived their name, was killed in the
battle.—O'Curry, MS. Materials, p. 448.
142
ST. PATRICK,
✓
races (Ibernas gentes), and in two different places
of the so
sons of the Scots” and the “ daughters of
princes,” in the same category, which evidently
implies that the Scots were a distinct class, and that
they were regarded as the nobility of the country.
He describes one Scottish lady whom he had bap-
tised as una Scotta benedicta nobilis, pulcherrima.
Now it is plain from several passages in his writings
that he attached a very definite meaning to the
word "noble," and that by its application in this
instance St. Patrick meant to convey the idea that
this Irish lady possessed those graces of mind and
manner which are the characteristics of nobility.
Again, when he tells us of the gifts and ornaments
which the Irish women tried to force upon him,
even flinging them upon the altar (super altare jac-
tabant), he confirms the testimony of Irish writers
regarding their wealth and independent possession
of property.
The value of these glimpses of Irish life in our
Saint's writings can only be appreciated by those
who have made some progress in the study of the
history of the times. His evidence is similar to
that of Cæsar in the case of Gaul. The Saint had
even better opportunities of observation than the
conqueror, and we find that intimate knowledge in
both cases was accompanied by respect and admi-
Confess., iv., $$ 15, 18 ; V., § 21 ; Ep., $ 6.
1
1
APOSTLE OF IRELAND.
143
ration for the so-called barbarian nations. In the
mouth of a Roman citizen the word “barbaric"
often implied nothing more than that simplicity of
manners which distinguished the young and hardy
races of the North, as contrasted with the luxurious
inhabitants of Greece and Rome. The immeasur-
able separation between Christian and pagan civili-
sation effected by monogamy, and the abolition of
slavery, has given a meaning to the term very
different from that which was attached to it in
St. Patrick's time.
The comparative variety of the institutions of
any country is a fair test of its intellectual growth,
and tried by this standard Ireland in the fifth cen-
tury held a high position amongst pagan nations.
If the sword was the chief institution it was so
everywhere; for in those days time was measured
by battles, and history was written in blood.
People who ran their eyes down the entries of the
ancient annals of Ireland, after the manner of the
investigator who, with the help of a card, slipped
over the pages of the Bollandists, and found nothing
in them, have come away with the impression that
from the days of Cimboeth? to those of Lae-
1 In Irish Annals, he is synchronised with Ptolomey Lagus, B.C.
289, and Tighernach fixes the reign of this monarch as the period at
which Irish authentic history begins. Usque Cimboeth omnia
monumenta Scotorum incerta sunt. “ All the monuments of the Scots
to the time of Cimboeth were uncertain.”_O’Curry, MS. M., p. 63.
144
1
ST. PATRICK,
ghaire and St. Patrick, the history of Ireland is little
more than a catalogue of wars, domestic and foreign.
We shall see that there is much more to be told,
and that what Edmund Burke, speaking of a later
period, calls the “interior history of Ireland,” is to
be learned from the study of the writings of her
bards and legislators.
As we have seen, the Venerable Bede tells us
that in his time Ireland was more fertile than
Britain. O'Curry and Dr. Sullivan supply us with
convincing evidence of her great agricultural wealth,
and of the existence of those treasures of gold and
precious stones which attracted the Northmen. On
the evidence of a document of the fifth or sixth cen-
tury, which gives the number of landholders at that
period in Ireland, Dr. Sullivan calculates that the
population was at least three millions. The number
is certainly large as compared with other countries
at that time, and explains the continual overflow of
population which took place from heathen as well
as Christian Ireland. At the same time it is certain
that the country did not depend entirely on her
own resources for the support of her inhabitants.
Tacitus, writing in the reign of Trajan, some three
centuries before St. Patrick, tells us that in his
time Ireland was already known as a theatre of
1 O'Curry, Manners cond Customs of Ancient Irish, Introd., pp.
xvii. and xcvi.
APOSTLE OF IRELAND.
145
commercial enterprise, and we have every reason
to believe that the prosperity of the country
continued until St. Patrick's time, and that the
merchants from Gaul, with whom the Saint escaped
from captivity, were representatives of those nume-
rous traders who in those days frequented the ports
of Ireland.
The intellectual development of Christianity in
Ireland was almost as wonderful as her rapid con-
version. St. Patrick was hardly laid in the tomb
before legions of Irish religious teachers began to
spread themselves over Europe. St. Columba and
St. Columbanus both belonged to the first half-
century after St. Patrick's death.
It is quite
possible to suppose a nation of rude savages
suddenly subjugated by supernatural powers such
as St. Patrick possessed, but that he should have
been able all at once to fit such a people to be
the instructors of Europe is more difficult to com-
prehend. This is the dilemma in which short-
sighted jealousy has involved those writers who,
for sectarian and political purposes, have devoted
their energies to the work of defiling the Irish
character at its fountainhead, and there is some-
thing like malice in the vengeance which outraged
history has taken on them.
1“ Aditus portusque per commercia et negotiatores cogniti.”-
Agricola, ch. xxiv.
IO
146
ST. PATRICK,
If it were possible, it would be safer altogether to
avoid the fascinating but slippery ground on which
stands the cradle of the Scottish race. Ethnology
is so complex a science, and shifts its ground so
easily, that he must be a bold man who ventures
positively to lay down its laws. The charm of
O’Curry's writings, which bear upon this difficult
subject, is found in the way in which he gives us
documents and facts which speak for themselves.
From these Dr. Sullivan proves that in pagan times
there were in Ireland “ two distinct types of people
-one a high-statured, golden-coloured, or red-
haired, fair-skinned, and blue, or grey-blue-eyed
race; the other a dark-haired, .dark-eyed, pale-
skinned, small or medium-statured, lithe-limbed
race”.
The celebrated Queen Meave, or Mab, whose
glories have been sung by Aubrey de Vere, is de-
scribed in the Tain Bo Chuailgne as "a beautiful,
pale, long-faced woman, with long, flowing, golden
yellow hair; upon her a crimson cloak, fastened with a
brooch of gold over her breast”. Again, the king,
Conaire Mor, is depicted as "a tall, illustrious chief,
with cheeks dazzling white, with a tinge like that
of the dawn upon stainless snow, sparkling black
· pupils in blue eyes glancing, and curling, yellow
hair," while his swineherds are “ Dub, Dond, and
Dorcha, 'black, brown,' and 'dark’. Judging from
APOSTLE OF IRELAND.
147
"71
In our
the ancient tales, the ruling classes in ancient Erin
appear to have had the same prejudice against black
hair as the Norsemen hrad. All who elaimed to be
of noble birth should have fair, or rather golden-
coloured, or at least brown hair, blue eyes, and a
fair skin-three characteristics which are especially
dwelt on in describing a warrior or king.'
times, therefore, O'Connell, in his physical character-
istics, might have stood for a representative of the
dominant. Scot of ancient Ireland, and Curran for
one of the subject race. Already in those days
race rivalry aspired to be scientific, and our ancestors,
who ostracised dark men, were the worthy predeces-
sors of those modern political ethnologists who are
content to study the moral characteristics of the
nations of to-day, by means of observations made
amongst the bones of their forefathers. Those
ancient Irish records read us some very wholesome
lessons. When we find that the Irish Celts, the
Greeks, Persians, Slavs, Britons, Gauls, Germans,
and Scandinavians, were all originally one race, with
a common language, ethnology is led back to its
fountain in Genesis, and we are taught that national
glories, whatever they may be, are to be attributed,
not to the inherent superiority of any race, but rather
to the very impersonal influence of circumstances.
Quietly, but irresistibly, the wandering science
1 Manners and Customs of the Ancient Irish, vol. i., p. lxxii., &c.
148
ST. PATRICK,
of our origin is being led back to its fountainhead
in Paradise.
Every day the evidence becomes
more convincing as regards the common origin
of those conquering Asiatic tribes who peopled
Germany, Gaul, and the neighbouring islands of
the Atlantic, and infused new life into the decrepit
Greek and Roman world. The ancient Irish
annalists describe one tribe, or rather family, the
Milesians, advancing westward, following the sun,
like their descendants in our own day, until they
reached Ireland. They tell us that they were
Scythians, a generic term used in the Book of
Machabees, and by St. Paul, to designate the people
of Northern Asia and Europe, and that on their
arrival in Ireland they found it already peopled by
the Tuatha Dé Danann, whom they conquered, the
latter having in their day subjugated the Firbolgs,
whom they found already in possession. At the
same time, it is very remarkable that the Milesians,
or Scoti, acknowledged that the Tuatha Dé Danann
were not only predecessors at Tara, but also their
superiors in learning, and the arts of peace.
MʻFirbis gives an extract from an ancient Irish
work, composed before the introduction of Chris-
tianity, which not only confirms this fact, but also
seems to imply that it was from the conquered
race that the ministers of the national religion were
chiefly drawn.
If this view be correct, it may
APOSTLE OF IRELAND.
149
i
serve to explain the fact of the rapid conversion of
the warlike chiefs, and the long continued opposi-
tion of the Priests and Druids. It also throws light
on the remarkable fact, which will be referred to
later on, that no representatives from amongst the
Druids were present at the council assembled to
assist St. Patrick in the revision of the Brehon
laws.
In the Book of Genealogies above mentioned,
which has been brought to light by M‘Firbis, a com-
parison is drawn between the soldier and the pro-
fessor of Druidism, which is anything but flattering
to the latter. It is an example of that which is not
uncommon in false religions, whose ministers are
allowed by their followers to take a lower level in
morals than that which they themselves adopt.
The Scoti, or sons of Milesius, are described as
"bold, honourable, daring, bountiful,” while the
Tuatha Dé Danann are vengeful, plunderers, and
adepts in all Druidical and magical arts”. What
Druidism and its arts were will probably always
remain undetermined. There is only one religion
which has a reasonable history, and knows the
secret of its origin. Mr. O'Curry styles Druidism,
or magic, “the very imperfectly investigated,
religion, or philosophy, of the more ancient nations
of the East," and he quotes the words of Pliny,
1 O'Curry, MS. Materials, p. 223.
150
ST. PATRICK,
that " in Britain the magic arts are cultivated with
such astonishing success, and so many ceremonies,
at this day, that the Britons seem to be capable of
instructing even the Persians themselves in these
arts". At the same time, O’Curry concludes his
interesting chapter on Irish Druidism with the
remark that “there is no ground whatever for
believing the Druids to have been the priests of
any special positive worship”; and be adds: “I
cannot satisfactorily specify the forms and doctrines
of our ancient system of paganism. There
are some curious allusions to an educational con-
nection with Asiatic Magi, in some of the stories of
the very early Gaedhelic champions, some of whom
seem to have travelled by the north of Europe to
the Black Sea, and across into Asia.” 2
Beside this gloomy current of primeval necro-
mancy flowed another and a purer stream of heroic
human song. The spirit of Ossian, who represents
the chivalry of nature, was more akin to the souls
of the warlike Scoti, and, as it came to pass with
Clovis and his Francs, at the end of the same
century, the chivalry of nature in Ireland did
homage to sacrifice, and found its ideal of perfection
in the Crucifix. As we shall now see, it was
amongst the Bards that St. Patrick found his most
!
1 Circa A.D, 60.
Manners and Customs, vol. ii., pp. 179-228.
2
APOSTLE OF IRELAND.
151
influential auxiliary. In the year 443, eleven v
years after his landing in Ireland, St. Patrick took
his place in the great council which assembled for
the purpose of femodelling the laws of Ireland on a
Christian basis.) Three volumes of these laws, from
the MSS. of O’Curry and O'Donovan, have been
published, and they are one of the most remark-
able evidences which we possess of the complete
Christian conquest of Ireland by St. Patrick.
From that time the Senchus Mor, or “Great Book"
of the Brehon statutes, was known as the Cain
Patraic, or “Law of Patrick”. If any proof were
needed of its great antiquity at the time of its
revision by St. Patrick, it would be found in the
extraordinary minuteness and subtlety of its pro-
visions. Indeed, in St. Patrick's time it is evident
that the ingenuity of the lawyers had in course of
time invented so many complications, that, like our
own old Chancery law, it had expanded almost
beyond the limits of human comprehension. It
embodies a code of minute legislation, embracing
offences as well against the reputation as the bodies
of men; taking account of injuries done by dogs
and by the incursions of bees. At the same time
we discern in this complex web of enactments an
elevated spirit of natural justice, from which
modern legislators might learn many useful lessons.
1 Ancient Laws of Ireland. Dublin, 1865.
152
ST. PATRICK,
The weak are protected against the strong; the
rights of women to their own property, even after
marriage, are carefully defined ; and homes are pro-
vided for the orphan, under the most minute and
tender regulations.
The Cain, or “ Law of Fosterage” (vol. ii. of the
modern translation, pp. 147 to 193) provides for
such things as the dress and food of children,
according to their rank, and for their punishments,
in the following words: “It is safe to strike or
libel them, but so as no blemish or nickname has
been given or a wound inflicted on the body”.
Then it presides over their amusements and occupa
tions. “Chess-playing, riding, swimming, are to be
taught the sons, and sewing, cutting-out, and
embroidering to the daughters.” As examples of
the Cain Lanamhna, or “Law of Social Con-
nexions” (pp. 344 to 421), we may cite the follow-
ing: “In the connexion of a woman on the
property of a man, the contract of the man is good
without the consent of the woman; except as
regards the sale of clothes and food and the sale
of cows and sheep”. Again : "The woman may
entertain half the number of the company of the
man, according to the dignity of the husband of
the woman”.1
The following is the account given by the Four
1 Ancient Laws of Ireland, vol. ii., introd., p. lvi.
APOSTLE OF IRELAND.
153
"1
any minis-
Masters of St. Patrick's share in the revision of this
code :
“The Age of Christ 438.
The tenth year
of Laeghaire. The Senchus and Fienchus of Ire-
land were purified and written, the writings and
old books of Ireland having been collected (and
brought] to one place at the request of Saint Pa-
trick. These were the nine supporting props by
whom this was done: Laeghaire, i.e. king of Ireland,
Corc and Daire, the three kings; Patrick, Benen,
and Cairneach, the three Saints ; Ross, Dubhthach,
and Fearghus, the three antiquaries. No mention,
as has been already observed, is made of
ter of paganism, and this is the more remarkable
as it seems quite certain that Laeghaire was not a
Christian. The foremost spokesman on the Irish
side was Dubhthach, the chief Bard.
He was
already a Christian, and in a curious poem prefixed
to the Senchus he says : "I follow Patrick since my
baptism”. The conversion of this extraordinary
man was one of the most important events in St.
Patrick's apostolate, and the ancient author of the
introduction to the Senchus gives us the following
account of the part which the poet played in the
councils of the nation : “St. Patrick, after the
death of his charioteer Odran, and the judgment
? O'Donovan's translation. O’Curry gives 443 as the date of this
event.
154
ST. PATRICK,
which was pronounced on the case by Dubhthach
Macua Lugair, chief of the royal poets, and chief
Brehon of Erin, requested the men of Erin to come
to one place, and hold a conference with him.
When they came to the conference, the Gospel of
Christ was preached to them all; and when the men
of Erin heard all the power of Patrick since
his arrival in Erin, and when they saw Laeghaire
with his Druids overcome by the great signs and
miracles wrought in the presence of the men of
Erin, they bowed down in obedience to the Word
of God and Patrick.
“It was then that all the professors of the
sciences in Erin were assembled, and each of them
exhibited his art before Patrick, and in the pre-
sence of every chief in Erin.
“It was then that Dubhthach was advised to
exhibit the judgments, and all the poetry of Erin,
and every law which prevailed amongst the men of
Erin, through the law of nature and the law of the
seers, and in the judgments of the island of Erin,
and in the poets.
“Now the judgments of true nature, which the
Holy Ghost had spoken through the mouths
of the Brehons, and just poets of the men
of Erin, from the first occupation of this island,
down to the reception of the Faith, were all exhi-
bited by Dubhthach to Patrick. What did not
APOSTLE OF IRELAND.
155
clash with the Word of God in the written law, and
in the New Testament, and in the consciences of
the believers, was confirmed in the law of the
Brehons by Patrick, and by the ecclesiastics, and
by the chieftains of Erin ; for the law of nature had
been quite right, except the faith, and its obliga-
tions, and the harmony of the Church, and the
people. And this is the Senchus..” 1
In the concise and simple language of the antique
world this extract sums up the whole of our previous
argument. It tells of a nation which, up to the time
when Christianity was presented to it, retained
much of the simplicity of that law of nature, which,
while it “enlighteneth every man that cometh into
this world,” is dependent on circumstances for its
development. The Brehon laws and the Ossianic
poems prove that the people to whom St. Patrick
preached were remarkable for their intellectual
activity, and for their adherence to fixed principles
of justice. Such endowments and virtues are gifts
from God, and must be regarded as providential
preparations for higher things. God has chosen the
weak as His agents in the propagation of the Gospel;
but it is also true that these agents have ever sought
out the strong in the intellectual and moral order, as
their most worthy antagonists. As the subjugated
philosophy and poetry of Greece and Rome became
i Ancient Laws of Ireland, vol. i., pp. 1, 9.
156
ST. PATRICK,
I
servants of the Gospel, so we need have no hesita-
tion in attributing a similar office to the heroic
literature of Ireland, which, in its native purity,
approached nearer to the standard of original jus-
tice. The influence of national ballads is proverbial,
and no nation was ever more swayed by poetry
than ancient Ireland. The scope of its teaching
may have been narrow, but it was none the less
powerful in consequence. If it did no more than
inspire chivalrous sentiments, and elevate the con-
dition of woman, its work would be immeasur-
able. Now both these characteristics are found in
ancient Irish poetry. The following lament of
Chuchulaind over Ferdiad, his former companion in
arms, whom he had slain in the foray of Queen
Meave, is worthy of, the best days of Christian
chivalry :
“O Ferdiad, treachery has defeated thee !
Unhappy was thy last fate;
Thou to die, I to remain :
Sorrowful for ever, is our perpetual separation.
" When we were far away, beyond
With Scathach, the gifted Buanand,
We then resolved that till the end of time
We should not be hostile to each other.
“Sorrowful the morning—a Tuesday morning-
That the son of Daman was bereft of strength.
Alas! I loved the friend
To whom I have served a drink of red blood.
APOSTLE OF IRELAND.
157
"Until Ferdiad came into the ford,
Dear to me the beloved Ferdiad :
It shall hang over me for ever.
Yesterday he was larger than a mountain ;
To-day there remains of him but his shadow,"I
We are not concerned now with the artistic
and literary excellence of the Ossianic poems, but
with something more important. They are a
revelation of the ideas, the social relations, and
ruling principles of the time.
In the fifth cen-
tury they were the voice of the people's heart, like
the songs of the Troubadours, or Jacobite ballads.
Moreover, they had a sort of legal authority, as
the Bard, and the Brehon, or Judge, belonged to
the same order and worked together; and thus the
poet and the lawgiver in Ireland were often one
and the same.
Great, however, as was the power of the Bards, the
reader will hardly feel inclined to go so far as those
modern writers who have started the theory that
St. Patrick himself and Irish Christianity were
nothing more than evolutions of native poetic
1 O'Curry, Manners and Customs, vol. iii., p. 445. Compare
Prince Henry's lament over his antagonist Hotspur :
“For worms, brave Percy ; fare thee well, great heart!
Ill-weaved ambition, how much art thou shrunk !
When that this body did contain a spirit
A kingdom—for it was too small a bound;
But now two paces of the vilest earth
Is room enough."
-Henry IV., v. 4.
158
ST. PATRICK,
genius. In the words of an eloquent representa-
tive of this school : “Patrick was but one of many
prehistoric figures floating in the imagination of
the people, and deriving life, colour, and movement
from the Bards, the ever-ready exponents of the
dumb wishes and desires of the people”. The
ardour of this advocate of Christianity by evolution
outstrips our present argument. The "dumb
wishes and desires” of the people of Ireland for
heroic ideals were evidently very strong, but the
supposition that they were distinct and energetic
enough to give “life, colour, and movement” to
an archbishop of Armagh and an unbroken line of
successors is certainly an exaggerated compliment
to the poetic muse.
The fact is that poetry in Ireland, like poetry
everywhere, was a very inconstant and inconsequent
auxiliary of religion. It had more affinity to the
Gospel in theory than in practice, and the Bards
were as unwilling as other men to surrender power.
So far, therefore, from St. Patrick being a hero of
the Bards, it is evident from their writings that ere
long they became jealous of his influence, and their
struggle to preserve their dominion over the minds
of the people supplies us with a very interesting
incidental evidence of the authenticity of St.
Patrick's history which, under the circumstances,
i Dublin University Magazine, March, 1876.
APOSTLE OF IRELAND.
159
is of peculiar importance. The Bards were a power-
ful body in the century which immediately fol-
lowed the death of St. Patrick : so powerful, indeed,
that they became intolerable to the civil power,
and their order was only saved from extinction
by the influence of St. Columba, at the celebrated
Convention of Drumceat, A.D. 575.
This was the period at which the acts of St.
Patrick were collected and made public. They ap-
peared, therefore, under the eyes of a number of
critics, who, as we shall see, had every inclination:
to act the part of advocati diaboli. The Bards,
amongst their other avocations, were educated as
professors of irony, and the ancient records of Ireland
tell of many cases in which even kings had to give
way before the withering onslaught of their sarcasms.
When, therefore, we find that, instead of disputing
the facts of St. Patrick's history, or the reality of
his conquests, they are driven to fall back on
lamentations and vituperation, we come to the con-
clusion that they had nothing better to say.
We must not suppose that Christianity all at
once dethroned the ancient literature of Ireland.
Indeed, we have direct evidence to the contrary,
which proves that national traditions, enshrined in
the writings of the Bards, became the stronghold of
1
Lanigan, Eccl. Hist., ii., p. 236 ; Chronicon Hyense, A.D. 575;
Life of St. Columba (ed. Reeves), p. 334.
160
ST. PATRICK,
a long and jealous resistance. There were many
reasons for this. When the Christian religion sup-
planted paganism, it gave men something better in
its place. As far as their religious needs were con-
cerned, it was all they wanted; but it made no
amends to them for the humiliation and reproof
which it gave to that ancestral worship which was
identified with the ancient glories of Ireland. With
bis usual felicity, De Vere gives expression to the
national mind in his “ Contention of Saint Patrick
with Oisin":
wo One question, O Patrick ! I ask of thee,
Thou king of the saved and shriven :
My sire and his chiefs, have they their place
In thy city, star-built, of heaven ?'
"Oisin, old chief of the shining sword,
That questionest of the soul,
That city they tread not who loved but war,
Their realm is a realm of dole.'
«. By this head thou liest, thou son of Calphurn.
In heaven I would scorn to bide
If my father and Oscar were exiled men,
And no friend at my side."
In the Ossianic poems, portions of which De Vere
has popularised, St. Patrick, with poetic licence, is in-
troduced as contending with Ossian, who flourished
nearly two hundred years before the Saint. The
translation of the originals fills several volumes of
1
Legends of St. Patrick, p. 107.
APOSTLE OF IRELAND.
161
the Transactions of the Ossianic Society, and is
probably as graphic and interesting an account
of the struggles of expiring paganism as any
country can produce. In Greece and Rome the
gods were well-nigh worn out when Christianity
made its appearance.
In Ireland paganism was
strangled by a giant, in the fulness of its life and
vigour. The editor of the Ossianic transactions
tells us that “there is reason to suppose that these
compositions, in their original form, were coeval
with St. Patrick's arrival, or immediately after”.!
They are the work of many authors of very dif-
ferent merits, and one and all they need a poet
like De Vere to give them the life of days long
past. A few extracts will reveal the spirit which
pervades them.
Ossian is represented alternately lamenting the
old pagan glories of the past, or pouring forth
invectives on their destroyer :
“Sorrowful for me that the Tulach of the Fenians
Is now under the bondage of clerics".
Then having lamented the desolation of an ancient
palace, over the site of which the chase now passes,
he breaks out thus :
1
“ Thou man of the golden vestments,
Who assumest the prosperous position,
Happy for thee that Conan does not live,
Lest his clenched hand might touch thee".
1 Vol. vi., p. 121 (n.).
II
162
ST. PATRICK,
Again, Ossian asks St. Patrick whether the heroes
of his race had inherited heaven; and, on receiving
an unfavourable answer, at frst he mourns over
them, then indignation masters him, and he tells
the Saint:
“ Had Conan survived to my time,
The foul-mouthed man of the Fenians,
He would break thy neck
For thy contention, O cleric”.
In another passage, on receiving a similar answer,
Ossian replies-
“Now on the virtue of thy white book,
And the crozier which lies at its side,
Under the chiming of thy high-sounding bells,
Dost thou lie in what thou sayest”.]
These passages have no particular charm in
themselves ; even the poet cannot make vitupera-
tion attractive. They are very valuable, however,
as a revelation of the nature of that intellectual
resistance which was made to Christianity in
Ireland, which was all the more prolonged in
consequence of its peaceful character.
There is another characteristic of society in
Ireland at this time which should be borne in mind
when we come to consider the bloodless apostolic
triumphs of St. Patrick in that country. Amongst
her people, intellectual gifts appear to have been
1 Transactions of the Ossianic Society, vol. i., pp. 69, 71, 99 ; vol.
V., p. 121.
APOSTLE OF IRELAND.
163
in man.
regarded with a religious reverence which it would
be unfair to call superstitious, seeing that it was the
simple-hearted worship of God's image dimly seen
Cæsar, who got at the truth of things
more than most men, observed something very
similar in his time in Gaul,' and the conformity of
popular ideas in these countries is probably one
explanation of the striking resemblance between
the missionary career of St. Patrick, and that of
St. Martin, the apostle of the Gauls. In Ireland,
however, the honours which in Gaul were paid to
the Druids were extended to sages or philosophers
of every class.
“ The Ollamh, or philosopher,"
writes Mr. O’Curry, "when ordained by the king or
chief-for this is the expression used on the occasion
-was entitled to rank next to the monarch him-
self at table.
He was, besides, entitled to
a singular privilege within his territory, that of
conferring a temporary sanctuary from injury or
arrest, by carrying his wand, or having it carried,
around or over the person or place to be protected.
His wife also enjoyed certain other valuable privi-
leges. Similar rank and emoluments were
awarded to the Seanchaidhe, or historian.” And
he adds: “There is abundant evidence in the
MS. relating to this period (the authority and
credibility of which will be fully proved to you)
1 Commentaries, bk. vi., c. xiii., &c.
164
ST. PATRICK,
to show that St. Patrick found on his coming to
Erin a regularly defined system of law and policy,
and a fixed classification of the people according to
various grades and ranks, under the sway of a
single monarch, presiding over certain subordinate
kings”.
Those objectors are indeed frivolous who, in the
face of such evidence as this, fling the dust of Irish
battles in our eyes, and argue that because the
nation was warlike it must of necessity have been
uncouth and savage. The history of the world is
against them. King David was at once warrior
and poet; and Socrates and Xenophon fought side
by side at Delium. Whenever arms are a pro-
fession, then military discipline becomes one of the
most powerful factors in civilisation. Moreover, no
men love their country so passionately as they who
are ready to bleed for her, and love of country is
love of the sanctuary of home and its treasures.
The soldier, with all his faults, is the representative
in the natural order of that sacrifice of self which
only needs a spark from the high altar of heaven
to become the heroism of the saint. True courage
is always chivalry in one shape or another, and
ever does homage to weakness as to a sovereign.
Woman has ever been the representative of the
hardest battle of the weak against the strong, and
1 MS. Materials, pp. 2-4.
APOSTLE OF IRELAND.
165
pagan Ireland.
she owes more to the sword than to the pen, the
pencil, or the chisel. In every nation the heroic
age
of men has also been the heroic
age
of women.
In the famous expedition already mentioned, which
inspired the greatest of the Ossianic poems, Queen
Meave is the central figure, and she is only one
amongst many exalted queens and heroines who
brighten the pages of the romantic literature of
That “Irish legend, with its
morality ever so exalted and so pure,"1 still
flourished in all its original simplicity in St.
Patrick's time, and a singularly chivalrous con-
stitution of society in Ireland contributed to
preserve that primeval chastity which Tacitus tells
us was the glory of the barbaric races of Europe.
Her insular position also protected her from the
contagion which exhaled from the body of the
dying Roman empire. Her sons were therefore
strangers to the spectacle of those imperial and
patrician orgies which defiled the cities of Gaul and
Britain, and emasculated their inhabitants. Clois-
tered by the Atlantic, Ireland had produced
generations of men of the stamp of Vercingetorix,
Caractacus, and Clovis, and such men have always
had mothers, wives, and sisters of the same stamp.
Of all providential preparations for the Gospel of
1 “La legende Irlandaise, d'une moralité toujours si haute et si
pure.”—Montalembert, Moines d'Occident, iii., p. 109.
166
ST. PATRICK,
1
Christ, the social elevation of woman must be re-
garded as the most important. It is from the altar
of home that the fire of heaven spreads over a
Christian land. When St. Patrick had converted
those Irish women, whose number, he tells us, he
could not count, he won auxiliaries who were
already conscious of their dignity and strength, and
prepared to assume the majesty and authority of the
Christian mother, wife, and sister; and so the next
generation saw the sons of warriors elevated into
messengers of the Gospel of peace and love.
If the chain is a long one which binds Ireland to
St. Patrick, it is unbroken ; and thus the present is
the witness of the past. Her title of “ Virgin
Ireland, Island of Saints," 2 is a summary of her
history for fourteen centuries.
Like the lily
amongst thorns, she has preserved her fair name
in morals as well as in doctrine, and purity has
multiplied the children of faith. In our own time,
a renewal of that wonder which excited the admira-
tion of St. Bernard has aroused the attention of the
world. Millions have gone forth from Ireland to
plant the faith in the new world, or to revive it in
the old. We may estimate the Episcopal Sees,
Vicariates, Apostolic Delegations, and Prefectures of
the Catholic Church at something over a thousand,
1 “Nescimus numerum earum.”—Conf., iv., § 18.
2 « Eiré ôg inis na naomh."-O’Curry, MS. M., p. 163.
APOSTLE OF IRELAND.
167
and at least two hundred of these are found in
nations using the English language. No hierarchy
of any race or language is so numerous, and no
other increases with such prodigious rapidity.
Pius IX. created thirty new bishoprics in the United
States of America alone; and when we count the
number of prelates in that country, and in others
as well, who have received their faith itself, or their
flocks, from St. Patrick, we realise the place held by
the Apostle of Ireland in the Church of the nine-
teenth century. "In the Vatican Council,” writes
Cardinal Manning, “no Saint had so many mitred
sons as St. Patrick.” The vitality of nations, and
their promise of an imperial future, is an interesting
field of speculation, and they who forecast the
future by the help of the past will confess that,
amongst the conditions for national endurance,
there are none which carry with them such promise
as does fidelity to those moral laws which St.
Patrick so marvellously inculcated and established.
CHAPTER IV.
“
PATRICK, A SINNER AND UNLEARNED, APPOINTED
BISHOP IN IRELAND"-LANDS IN WICKLOW-VOCA-
TION OF ST. BENIGNUS-ST. PATRICK REVISITS THE
SCENE OF HIS CAPTIVITY THE DEATH OF MILCHO
TARA-ST. BENIGNUS AND THE FIERY ORDEAL
-THE SHAMROCK.
WITH the year 432 begins the Christian history of
Ireland. St. Prosper, in describing the mission of
St. Palladius, tells us that “Palladius was con-
secrated by Pope Celestine, and sent as the first
bishop to the Scots believing in Christ”. Who
these Christians were it is impossible to determine.
No mention is made of them in the narrative of
St. Patrick's apostolate; and from the language of
all early Irish historians, as well as from the
incidental evidence in the Saint's own writings, it
is plain that before St. Patrick's advent Ireland
was a pagan nation from shore to shore. That
there were many foreign Christians in captivity in
Ireland is very probable, and it is not unlikely that
they had made some converts.
(The return of St. Patrick to Ireland is one of
1 Chronica (Migne, Patrol., t. li., p. 595).
ST. PATRICK, APOSTLE OF IRELAND.
169
those events in the world's history, the full signi-
ficance of which it has taken fourteen centuries to
develop. His history is an ever-increasing mani-
festation of prophecies fulfilled and divine promises
performed, when it is read in the light of his own
marvellous revelations. He came to Ireland with
a. double commission; one direct from God, the
other from his Vicar on earth ; and during the long
years of his probation the divinely-appointed
balance of these two ordinances had never been dis-
turbed. Obedience to the visible Church has ever
been the test of union with that which is invisible,
and the long-enduring patience of St. Patrick,
under the apparent opposition of a divine impulse,
and the restraints of authority, is one of the most
beautiful and instructive mysteries of his life up to
this point.
From this time forward, however, we shall meet
with very little evidence that St. Patrick had need to
look for advice or assistance from anyone save God.
We have indeed that remarkable entry, already
quoted from the Annals of Ulster, to the effect
that (in the ninth year of his apostolate, on the
accession of St. Leo the Great, “Patrick, the
bishop, was approved in the Catholic faith ")
Then, after an interval of nineteen years, in 460,
still in the reign of St. Leo, we find St. Mochta of
Louth, a disciple of St. Patrick, at Rome, where he
170
ST. PATRICK,
66
presented a profession of faith to the Pope," which
was unquestionably an embodiment of the
' approved faith' of St. Patrick. This is, I
believe, all that has been told us regarding the
official relations of the Apostle of Ireland with the
Vicar of Christ. It is needless to say that the
silence of ancient records is no proof that other
messages from headquarters were not received in
Ireland in St. Patrick's time. It is incredible that
the young Church in Ireland, already known in
St. Patrick's time as the “Island of Saints," should
have escaped the vigilance of the five Pontiffsin
whose reigns St. Patrick did his work. For twenty
years, from 440 to 460, in his own words, "Patrick,
a sinner and unlearned, appointed bishop in
Ireland, 18 served under St. Leo.) His“ Catholic
faith” was “approved," and St. Leo's approval was
the first and last sentence which Rome has found it
necessary to pronounce in the matter of the ortho-
doxy of the Irish Church.
( The hills of Wicklow were the first objects which
saluted the eyes of St. Patrick on his return to
Ireland, and authorities are pretty well agreed
1 The MS. was discovered by Muratori amongst the treasures of
the Monastery of Bobbio, in Piedmont, the chief foundation of St.
Columbanus in Italy, and he agrees with Montfaucon in attributing
the MS. itself to the eighth century.-Card. Moran, Essays on Ancient
Irish Church, pp. 94, 296.
2 Sixtus III., St. Leo, St. Hilary, St. Simplicius, St. Felix III.
3 Epistola Sti Patricii, $ i.
APOSTLE OF IRELAND.
171
1
that Inbher Dea, the mouth of the modern river
Vartry, in Wicklow, was the spot at which he
landed. Wicklow had been the scene of the
unsuccessful enterprise of St. Palladius in the pre-
ceding year, and at first it seemed as if a similar
fate was about to involve the mission of St. Patrick,
To Nathi, the son of Garchon, the territorial chief-
tain, belongs an unenviable distinction. He hac!
driven St. Palladius from the shores of Ireland, and,
in the first instance, St. Patrick was compelled to
retreat before this ferocious enemy of the Christian
name; this being the only occasion mentioned in
the life of the Saint in which he was ever known
to give way to any force, material or moral.
It was to be expected that St. Patrick should
follow in the track of St. Palladius. It was his duty
to come to the assistance of those who had been
converted to Christianity, if any such existed ; but
as no allusion is made to them, either at this time
or subsequently, by the Saint or his biographers,
it is plain that the work of St. Palladius had come
to naught. Hence, as Jocelyn tells us, it was a
proverb amongst the Irish that, “Not to Palladius
but to Patrick the Lord vouchsafed the conversion
of Ireland”.2 The account of the mission of St. Pal-
1 It is remarkable how many local traditions about St. Patrick
are identified with rivers and mountains, those natural monuments
which time cannot efface.
2 Acta SS. Mart., xvii., cap. XXV.
172
ST. PATRICK
nawe sanatat
ladius, already quoted from the Book of Armagh, is
written in the same strain : he is supposed to have
received nothing from heaven, and so he soon
departed from “the land that was not his own". St.
Patrick's proceedings, on the other hand, reveal that
there was no change in his determination. Indeed,
it is not unlikely that his descent on Wicklow was
merely for the purpose of reconnoitring, and that
it had always been his intention to push on north-
wards, so as to commence operations in that part
of the country which had been the scene of his
captivity.
Leaving Wicklow, he set sail for the North, and
touching at Malahide and Holme Patrick, he landed
in Meath, at Inbher-Nainge, the mouth of the
modern river Nanny. It was here that, amongst
the first-fruits of his apostolate, if_not actually the
first, God gave him his beloved disciple_ Benignus,
whose name will often meet us in the course of
this narrative. The account of his vocation is
substantially the same in ancient records.? The
Saint had lain down to rest by the river-side, and
as he slept, Benignus, who is described as a youth
of tender years, drew near, and collecting all the
fragrant flowers he could find, he placed them in
the old man's bosom. Those who stood by forbade
1 O'Curry, MS. Materials, p. 485.
Tripartite, Book of Armagh, and Jocelyn.
2
APOSTLE OF IRELAND.
173
him, lest he should awake the Saint; but he, rising
up, and filled with the spirit of prophecy, foretold
the boy's future greatness, and said : “He will be
the heir of my kingdom ”. Another writer, com-
pleting the touching record, relates how, when
Patrick passed the night in the house of the
parents of Benignus, the child would rest nowhere
but at his feet, which he tenderly kissed; and how,
when the morning came, and the Saint rose to
depart, Benignus again embraced his feet, and with
many tears implored permission to follow him; and
that the Saint, blessing him, lifted him up, and from
that hour he became the companion of the apostle
in his labours and triumphs. It was because of his
gentle and affectionate disposition that the other
disciples 1 gave him the name of Benignus, or the
· Benign”. He became the beloved disciple of the
Saint, and was his successor in the See of Armagh.
From Meath St. Patrick proceeded on his way
to the North, until he reached Strangford Lough, in
Down, where he again landed. Here he was met
by Dichu, prince of that province. According to
1 Tripartite, p. 381; Acta SS. Mart., xvii., p. 549. The Tripartite
(p. 378) gives the names of Auxilius and Iserninus as ordained on the
day of the Saint's consecration. The Annals of Ulster, under the
year 439, states: “Secundinus, Auxilius, and Iserninus, being bishops,
were sent into Ireland to the assistance of Patrick”. It may be that
the two latter were with the Saint on his arrival, and then returned
to the Continent, where they were consecrated bishops.
174
ST. PATRICK,
1
Jocelyn, he had received information of the arrival
of the Saint from the court of the chief monarch
Laeghaire at Tara. There is a tradition that, some
years before, the King's Druids had foretold the
Apostle's coming, describing even his vestments
and tonsure, declaring that he would destroy
idolatry, and that the religion which he should
introduce would live for ever in Erin; and what-
ever may be thought of druidical prophecies, it is
not improbable that at this time the ministers of
paganism in Ireland may have anticipated the
advent of those Christian missioners whose in-
fluence had been so destructive to the power of
their order in neighbouring countries. Laeghaire
had therefore given orders that when this intruder
landed, he should at once be driven from the shores
of Ireland. Accordingly, when Dichu's servants
brought the tidings of the landing of one whose
appearance seemed to correspond with that of the
prophet anticipated by the Druids, the chief de-
scended to the coast. At first, either from super-
stitious dread of the strange visitor, or disdaining
to draw his sword on an old unarmed man, the chief
set his dog at him. Whereupon the Saint repeated
the words of the Psalm, “Deliver not up to beasts
the souls that confess Thee," and the animal stood
still, rigid as stone. Then Dichu raised his sword,
but found his hand held in the air by the same
APOSTLE OF IRELAND.
175
1
strange power; and fear brought light and faith to
his soul, and he was the first-in-Ulster who received
baptism from Patríck..
The Saint does not appear at this time to have
made any stay in Down, but steadfastly to have
set his face to the North. One thought seems to
have urged him on, and to have given him no rest,
and this was his desire to see Milcho, his old
master: it was the man who had most wronged
him whom he most-desired to saye. St. Evin
writes that Patrick took gold with him, that by his
gifts he might first win the heart of this man, who
was a great miser, and thus induce him to listen
to the message from heaven. When Milcho heard
of the return of Patrick to Antrim, he appears to
have regarded his arrival as the beginning of the
fulfilment of that strange dream which had so
troubled him. He could not have forgotten the
signs of supernatural greatness which had shone
forth in the poor boy whom he had .so cruelly.
treated; but it was rage, the repentance of the
proud, which filled his heart at the thought of
having to yield to one who had been his slave, and
in a fit of despair he gathered all his treasures into
his house, and setting it on fire, perished in the
flames. “Then it was that Patrick proceeded past
the northern side of Sliabh-Mis (there is a cross in
that place), and he saw the fire afar off. He
176
ST. PATRICK,
v
remained silent for the space of three or four hours,
thinking what it could be, and then said, “That is
the fire of Milcho's house, after his burning himself
in the middle of his house, that he might not
believe in God in the end of his life.” 1
It was in 433, the year following his arrival in
Ireland, that the Apostle was first brought face to
face with King Laeghaire and the chief ministers
of the religion then established in Ireland. When
Easter drew nigh, the Saint, who was then at
Slane, resolved to make an attack upon the reign-
ing idolatry by celebrating the great Christian
feast in the chief stronghold of superstition, Magh-
Bregh, in Meath, near the royal residence of Tara.
This was the time of the year when the pagans
kept their great festival called the “Fes of Tara, "
and the subordinate kings and chieftains, as well
as the priests and Druids, met at the court of
Laeghaire. We may suppose that St. Patrick
foresaw what the result of a victory of the faith
would be in such a place, and under such circum-
stances, and how he might here strike at once at
the superstition of the whole nation through its
spiritual and temporal chiefs. He knew the risk
that he ran, but he had come with his life in his
hand for the sake of the Irish nation, and he was
one of those who did not know what fear meant
1 Tripartite Life, p. 383.
APOSTLE OF IRELAND.
177
.
The accounts given of St. Patrick's contests with
the ministers of paganism at Tara are substantially
the same in all the old lives of the Saint, though
all are not equally minute. We gather from these
narratives that while his success must be chiefly
· attributed to those prodigious supernatural powers
which were his credentials as the Ambassador of
Christ, there was something in the character of the
people which prepared them for the Gospel. The
honoữr they paid to learning was a sort of worship
given to that which, in their eyes, was divine in
man. They had the simple hearts of children ready
to believe, and in their irresolute resistance we
seem to see signs of a real though vague impression
that there was a religion purer and more exalted
than their own. It may also be that the traditions
by which the Irish bards and historians had led the
minds of the people back into an interminable past,
while they preserved faint recollections of original
truth, helped to keep them at the threshold of the
invisible world listening for the voice of that un-
known God whom, like the Athenians, they wor-
shipped ignorantly.
The events now to be related are very strange
and unearthly, very far removed from the common
course and order of grace as well as nature. They
are a revelation of the contest between the powers
of light and darkness on a scale so gigantic that
I 2
178
ST. PATRICK,
patience under the recital can only be expected
from those who, in the matter of miracles and super-
natural events, accept our primary principle that it is
only the first step that can be really said to cost us
anything. All writers of St. Patrick's life, like
St. Gregory of Nyassa in the case of St. Gregory
Thaumaturgus, must take the humble position of
apologists; they cannot pretend that the evidence
produced is on a par with that of a modern process
of canonisation. The facts shall be given in almost
the precise words of the authentic lives of the
Saint, reminding the reader that “the very same
scoffing temper which rejects the teaching of the
Church, primitive and modern, concerning Satan's
power, as ‘pagan, Oriental,' and the like, does
actually assail the inspired statements respecting
it also. . I have no wish to trifle or argue
with subtlety upon a very deep subject. This
earth had become Satan's kingdom. Our Lord
came to end his usurpation, but Satan retreated
only inch by inch. The Church of Christ is
hallowed ground, but external to it is the king-
dom of darkness. Many serious persons think
that the evil spirits have even now extraordinary
powers in heathen lands, to say nothing of the
remains of their ancient power in countries now
Christian.” 1
i Cardinal Newman, Hist. Sketches, ii., p. 109.
APOSTLE OF IRELAND.
179
It was in Holy Week that our Apostle, leaving
Slane, set out for Tara, and, arriving at a plain in
sight of the king's palace, lit the Easter fire. Now,
it was one of the laws of the festival which the
pagans were then celebrating that upon this night
the fires should be extinguished on every hearth in
Erin, and death was the penalty if anyone kindled
his own before the first fire lit in Tara was seen
shining in the darkness of the night. “Patrick
knew not this,” says St. Evin, “and if he knew it,
it would not prevent him.”1 King Laeghaire saw
the sacred fire, and asked who it was that had thus
violated the law. Then the Druids told him that
if this fire was not put out before morning, it would
never be extinguished, and that the man who had
lighted it would be exalted above kings and
princes. The king, infuriated at these words,
mounted his chariot as the day was breaking, and
set out to meet the Saint, at the same time declar-
ing his determination to put him to death. When
Laeghaire came in sight of St. Patrick and his
companions, he was warned by his priests not to
go near the fire, but to send for the Saint, and
orders were given that no one should rise up to
meet him. The servant of God was not slow in
answering the summons of the king, and as he
drew near he sang the Psalm, - Some trust in
Tripartite Life, p. 385.
1
180
ST. PATRICK,
chariots, and some in horses ; but we will call on
the name of the Lord our God”. The royal party.
had dismounted, and, in the words of St. Evin,
They were before him, and the rims of their
shields against their chins, and none of them rose up
before him, except one man alone, in whom was a
1
figure from God, i.e., Erc, son of Dega.
Patrick blessed him, and he believed in God.”
In the contest which followed, the Saint's chief
antagonist was Luchru, one of the heathen priests,
who had so deluded the people by his magical arts?
that they gave him something like divine honours.
We are told how he boasted that he had power to
ascend to heaven, and how, in the sight of all, he
arose from the earth; how the man of God,
2 It is remarkable that a strongly-supported tradition records that
the first Milesian colony which, passing through Spain, found its way
to Ireland, halted in its migration westward for some time in Egypt,
in the age of the Pharaohs (“Celtic Ethnology," Home and Foreign
Review, Jan., 1864). That country seems then to have been the hot-
bed of magic and the black art, and it is therefore conceivable that
the descendants of the colonists retained a knowledge of Egyptian
necromancy, and remained under its influence until the arrival of
St. Patrick. Mr. O‘Curry complains of the way in which this part
of the ancient history of Ireland has been handled by writers who,
on this point, as well as on the Roman mission of St. Patrick, have
managed to infuse a sectarian spirit into a purely historical question,
to the destruction of fair discussion and candid examination ; and
he observes of the opponents of this tradition that “not one has ever
ventured upon assigning any other origin to the peculiarly-
constituted race of the Gaedhil, at least none founded on anything
more than mere conjecture, and that of the weakest kind.” -MS.
Materials, p. 446.
APOSTLE OF IRELAND.
· 181
Patrick, prayed, and how his prayer brought the
impostor down, and stretched him lifeless on the
earth ; how the king and his people, maddened at
the sight, rose against the Saint and made an
attempt on his life : how he drew the sword of the
Word and intoned the Psalm, “Let God arise, and
let His enemies be dispersed, and let them that
hate Him fly before His face"; and how God
heard His servant by sending a terrific tempest,
which swept the plain, and, in the darkness and
panic which ensued, the swords of the pagans were
turned against each other. The queen, who was
present, was won to the faith, and thus ended the
first day of Patrick's struggle at Tara. Laeghaire,
amazed but unsubdued, dissimulated, and asked
the Saint to come to see him at his palace on the
next day. Doubtless he thought, like Simon
Magus when witnessing the Apostle's powers, that
St. Patrick was no more than a magician, and that
in the end he might find some way to subdue him.
In the first place, he determined to make another
attempt on the Saint's life, so with this design he
posted men on all the roads which led from Slane
to Tara. The Saint, to whom God had revealed
the king's intention, took eight of his...clerics and
the boy Benignus to bear him company, and having
blessed them, set out on his way; and the soldiers
of the king saw nothing but eight deer followed by
182
ST. PATRICK
a fawn' passing them along the mountain. It was
on this journey from Slane to Tara that the Saint
composed and sang that beautiful hymn of invoca-
tion known as St. Patrick's “Lorica,” or Breastplate,
portions of which are still used by the Irish
peasantry in their
prayers.
THE BREASTPLATE OF ST. PATRICK.
I bind to myself this day
The strong virtue of the
Invocation of the Trinity,
The Faith of the Trinity in Unity,
The Creator of the Elenients.
I bind to myself this day
The power of the Incarnation
of Christ and His Baptism,
The power of His Crucifixion
with His Burial,
The power of His Resurrection
with His Ascension,
In virtue of His coming to the
sentence of the Judgment.
I bind to myself this day
The power in the love of Seraphim,
In the obedience of Angels,
In the hope of Resurrection
unto reward.
In the prayers of the Patriarchs,
In the predictions of Prophets,
In the preaching of Apostles,
In the faith of Confessors,
In the purity of Virgins,
In the deeds of holy men.
I
are
1 In the Lebher Brecc (Whitley Stokes, Trans., p. 25) the words
one fawn with a white bird on its shoulder that is, Benen with
Patrick's book-satchel on his back". The Saint himself was totally
invisible.
APOSTLE OF IRELAND.
183
I bind to myself this day
The strength of Heaven,
The light of the sun,
The whiteness of snow,
The force of fire,
The flashing of lightning,
The swiftness of wind,
The depth of the sea,
The stability of the earth,
The hardness of rocks.
I bind to myself this day
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 give me speech,
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 temptation of vices,
Against the lusts of nature,
Against every man that meditates injury to me,
Whether far or near,
Whether alone, or with many.
I bave invoked all these virtues
Against every hostile, savage power
Warring upon my body and my soul,
Against the enchantments of false Prophets,
Against the black laws of heathenism,
Against the false laws of heresy,
Against the deceits of idolatry,
Against the spells of women, magicians, and Druids,
Against all knowledge which blinds the soul of man.
Christ protect me this day
Against poison, against burning,
184
ST. PATRICK,
Against drowning, against wounding,
That I may receive abundant reward.
Christ be with me, Christ in the front,
Christ in the rear, Christ within me,
Christ below me, Christ above me,
Christ at my right hand, Christ at my left,
Christ in the fort,
Christ in the chariot seat,
Christ at the helm,
Christ in the heart of every man who thinks of me,
Christ in the mouth of every man who speaks to me,
Christ in every eye that sees me,
Christ in every ear that hears me.
I bind to myself this day
The strong faith of the Invocation of the Trinity,
The Faith of the Trinity in Unity,
The Creator of the Elements.
Salvation is the Lord's,
Salvation is the Lord's,
Salvation is from Christ,
Thy Salvation, O Lord, be with us for ever.1
i The following account of the hymn is found in Father Colgan's
Latin Tripartite Life of the Saint, p. 126: “Thus did this wonder-
ful man, with his companions, reach Tara, passing safe and un-
harmed through the midst of their enemies, the blessed child,
Benignus, all the while bearing on his shoulders the Book of the
Holy Scriptures ; for, like a sacred shield, above them hung the
saving power of the prayer of the man of God. It was then that the
holy man composed in the vernacular the hymn, which by some is
called Feth-fida, and by others "The Breastplate of St. Patrick,
since held in great honour by the Irish, owing to the belief, which
experience has verified, that threatening dangers of soul and body
are averted from those who recite it with devotion."
Some trifling variations are found in the various translations ;
but in all, Latin as well as English, the living fire of the original breaks
forth. It bears a striking resemblance to the “Canticle of the Sun,"
by St. Francis of Assisi. In both we find the same triumphant
assertion of the dominion of faith over matter, as well as spirit, with
APOSTLE OF IRELAND.
185
On Easter Sunday St. Patrick arrived at Tara,
and appeared before the astonished king. The
pagans had resumed their festivities ; Laeghaire
with his court was at table, probably seeking to
drown the terrible recollections of the previous
day, when, the doors being closed, the man of God
appeared amongst them. The scene of the day
before was repeated; the king remained seated,
and all the royal party followed his lead, except
two, who rose to honour the Saint; these were
Dubhtach, the royal poet, and a tender youth
named Fiacc: with the former we are already ac-
quainted, and the name of the latter, as saint and
poet, has become familiar in the Irish Church.
The circumstance that they rose to meet St. Patrick
is specially recorded, as to remain seated seems to
have been, in the customs of the country, the form
of protest against an unwelcome guest.
Patrick was then invited to eat, and was offered
a goblet of poisoned ale. The Saint blessed the
goblet, and turning it over, the poison alone fell
.
this difference, that whereas, in the mind of St. Francis, sun, stars,
and fire are his “brothers and sisters," St. Patrick summons and
“ binds them to himself," as servants and soldiers of the Great King,
whose commission be bears.
Ussher says that the MS. of the hymn belongs to the seventh
century, and Dr. Petrie styles it the “oldest undoubted monument
of the Irish language remaining” (Essay on Tara, p. 55).
1 The words in the Tripartite are “Januis clausis ut Christus in
cennaculum” (sic), “because Patrick meditated” (p. 387).
186
ST. PATRICK,
out in the sight of all. When the party had arisen
from table they adjourned to a plain outside Tara,
and a great multitude went with them. Here the
Druid Luchat Mael challenged the Saint to work
wonders before the multitude. In the contest which
followed, God allowed the magician to exercise
strange and preternatural powers, which turned in
the end to his own confusion. By his spells and
incantations he brought snow upon the ground up
to the men's girdles, and involved the whole plain
in darkness, but he could neither remove the snow
nor dispel the darkness, both of which disappeared
at the prayer of Patrick. The king proposed that
they should both throw their books into the water,
and that whosesoever books came out dry should be
declared worthy of adoration. Patrick consented,
but the Druid refused, saying that the waters were
Patrick's god, for he had heard that it was through
water that the Saint baptised. At this the king
urged them to try their books by fire, but the
magician again objected, and said that this
Christian, in alternate years, venerated either a
god of fire or one of water. The Saint, who at
first had shown an unwillingness to seem to antici-
pate the designs of God by demanding miracles,
saying, "I do not wish to go against the will of
God,” was now inspired to make a proposal which
reveals at the same time the boldness of his own
APOSTLE OF IRELAND.
187
fearless faith, and the power which he had of
imparting it to others. He told his opponents
that he adored, not
not any of the elements,
but the Maker of all; and as an evidence
that his God was the ruler of these elements, he
made a proposal which nothing but a special
inspiration could justify. He challenged them
to raise a temporary structure, of which one-half,
should be composed of dry faggots and the other
of green wood. Amidst the dry wood the boy
Benignus, whom he loved, wearing the Druid's
tunic, would take his place, if the Druid, invested
with the Saint's casula would consent to bury
himself amongst the green wood; then the struc-
ture should be set on fire, leaving it to God to
defend His own. The faith of Benignus was equal
to the emergency, and the Druid at once accepted
an ordeal in which all the chances were
his side; and when the pagan priest and the
Christian boy had entered the house, the door was
fastened on the outside, and fire applied.
applied. As
Patrick prayed, he guided the fierce element, which
consumed the Druid, and the wet green wood
around him, leaving the casula of the Saint
untouched, while it passed through the dry wood,
and, surrounding Benignus, only burnt the Druid's
tunic which he wore. When the Christian boy came
forth unburt from the fire, while the smoke of the
on
.
188
ST. PATRICK,
magician's torments ascended to heaven, it seemed
as if the cause was finished; but it was not so; for
Laeghaire, irritated rather than humbled, like a wild
beast, seems to have lost his reason in his rage.
The concluding scene of this memorable day is
thus given in the Bollandists from Jocelyn :
“The heart of King Laeghaire was hardened
against the commands of God after the manner
of Pharaoh in the presence of Moses, for in spite
of all these miracles he did not fear to arouse the
wrath of the Most High God, or to irritate His
servant Patrick”; and again, with his followers, he
prepared to make attack on the life of the Saint.
“But the Omnipotent God, the supreme protector
and defender of His own, armed the zeal of the
creature against these senseless idolaters. For, in
obedience to its avenging Lord, the earth opened
and engulfed them, with many of their supporters,
from amongst the people of Teamhrach; as it is
written, 'Hell opened its mouth, and they were
taken down, as it were, in life'. The survivors,
and all that dwelt in that land, beholding and
understanding these things, being aghast and
stricken with a great fear, believed in Christ, and
came without delay to receive baptism, fearing
that a like punishment should fall upon themselves.
The terrified king, falling at the feet of St. Patrick,
implored mercy, and promised obedience for the
APOSTLE OF IRELAND.
189
future to all his commands. The compassionate
father mercifully forgave all the wrongs done to
himself :)
) but although he spent a long time in
teaching him the faith of the Lord Jesus, he never
could bring him to baptism. So the Saint dis-
missed him, that, using his own free will, he might
go according to the inventions of his own heart,
lest he should seem to compel him to receive the
faith. Nevertheless, by an interior revelation he
openly declared to him the things which were
coming upon himself and his descendants. Be-
cause,' said be, you have ever resisted my teach-
ing, continuing to cause me sorrow beyond all
measure, scorning the faith of the Creator of all
things, thou art a son of death, and with, yea, more
than your adherents, you deserve even now to
begin your eternal punishment; but as you have
come to me humbly asking forgiveness, and since,
like the King Achab, you have humbled yourself
before my God, the Lord will not bring upon you
at once the evil things you have merited, but none
of your seed after you shall ascend your throne;
your younger brother shall believe in my God, and
his seed shall rule for ages.' The queen believed
in Christ, and, receiving baptism and the blessing
of Patrick, made a holy death in the Lord. Then
Patrick with his followers passed through the
whole country, baptising the believers in the name
190
S.T PATRICK,
of the Holy Trinity, and God was his helper, and
confirmed the word by the signs which followed.” 1
This is a rude picture, which at first sight seems
to be very much out of proportion with the revela-
tion which the Saint makes of himself. But after
all it is true to nature. Heaven is often open over
men's heads when the frenzy of their passions is
wildest, like Raphael's picture of the Trans-
figuration, with Christ and the Prophets above in
light, the Apostles overpowered by its brightness,
and at the foot of the mountain the demoniac and
the excited multitude. St. Patrick's Hymn is
the best commentary on what we have just read.
It rises even to a higher supernatural level,
although, in condescension to the infirmities of his
converts, the Apostle prays with them against such
weak antagonists as the incantations of the pagan :
the man who composed that Hymn was united to
God, consors divince naturce, in a way which no
thoughts of ours can ever even approach.
Again, we recall his own amazement at the gifts
of God, as the best proof of their immensity. “Who
am I, or what is my prayer, O Lord, who hast thus
laid bare to me such a plenitude of Thy divinity
(tantam divinitatem). He is as familiar with the
terrors of the Invisible as with the tenderness of
the Incarnation, with the “Creator of the
1 Acta SS. Mart., xvii., p. 550.
APOSTLE OF IRELAND.
I9I
Elements” as
as with “Christ in the heart”; and,
without effort or violent transition, he reveals and
reconciles the justice and mercy of God. It is from
the Hymn that we learn how St. Patrick preached
at Tara, and what it was that he preached on that
memorable occasion, which may well be styled the
birthday of Christian Ireland. As was natural, his
awe-struck converts reported the signs and won-
ders, which to St. Patrick himself were matters of
little importance when compared with those eternal
truths on which they attended as witnesses.
So we are not surprised at finding that the
reporters of that eventful day, at least as far as we
know, should have omitted to mention the part
that the lowly shamrock was made to play in the
great contest of Tara. If we had no image of St.
Patrick other than that which is presented for our
contemplation in the pages of the Tripartite and
Jocelyn, we should find it hard to introduce the
tradition that on this occasion (St. Patrick taught
men to read the mystery of the Holy Trinity
in the simple form in which it is written on
the triple leaf of the shamrock. It is evident,
i St. Patrick's consecration of the shamrock has had its
gainsayers. “ This story," says Dr. Joyce, “must be an invention
of recent times, for we find no mention of it in any of the old lives
of the Saints.”—Irish Names of Places, p. 54. The obvious answer is
that there were very many things said and done by St. Patrick which
were not written down. The tradition exists at Tara, and it is easy
192
. ST. PATRICK,
however, from the Saint's writings, and from
incidental allusions in his ancient biographers,
that the doctrine of the Trinity was the one which
he pressed with special force upon his converts,
and in the account in the Tripartite of the dis-
cussion at Tara it is the only doctrinal question
which is mentioned.
The following extract from the Confession tells
us how St. Patrick taught men to believe in the
Trinity, and how from that primal mystery he led
them on to faith in the Incarnate Word :
“There is no other God, and never has there
been, or will be, save the Lord, the unbegotten
Father, without Beginning, from whom is all Be-
ginning: for by Him have been made all things,
visible and invisible (who has begotten a Son con-
substantial with Himself], made man, drawn back
to heaven to the Father when death was overcome.
And to Him He gave all power over every name
in heaven and earth and hell, so that every tongue
should confess that the Lord Jesus Christ is in the
glory of God the Father: Him we believe, and we
I น
to conceive that it continued to be a local one until some unrecorded
circumstance raised the shamrock to its present dignity as the
national emblem. It is worthy of notice that in the modern Church
of the Braid, at the foot of Slemish, we find an ancient stone font in
the form of a shamrock, which is said to have come down from St.
Patrick's time. It has been built into the wall to save it from
marauding antiquaries.
APOSTLE OF IRELAND.
193
expect His speedy coming as judge of the living
and the dead, who will repay to each one according
to his works :and He has poured into us, in its
fulness; the gift of the Holy Spirit and the
pledge of immortality. Who makes believers and
subjects to be the sons of God the Father, whom we
confess and adore, one God in the Trinity of the
most holy name. Without any doubt, in
that day we shall arise in the brightness of the Son,
that is, in the glory of Jesus Christ, and, all re-
deemed, we shall be, as it were, the sons of God and
co-heirs of Christ, and made like to His image in
the future. For from Him, and by Him, and
in Him, are all things : to Him be glory for ever.
Amen.
Verily, in Him we are to reign; for that sun
which we look upon, at His command rises daily for
our sakes; but it will never reign, neither will its
splendour last. Moreover, all those unhappy ones
who adore it shall end miserably in tortures. But
we believe and adore the true Sun, Jesus Christ,
who will never fail, neither shall he who does His
will, but for ever he shall stand, as Christ stands
for ever, who, with God the Father · Omnipotent
and the Holy Spirit, reigns before all time, and
now and for ever. Amen."
It is very remarkable that from this time for-
ward the Ard Righ Laeghaire is almost entirely
66
1
13
194
ST. PATRICK,
ignored by the Saint's biographers. His reign was
prolonged until the year 458 — that is, during
twenty-six years of the most eventful period of
St. Patrick's apostolate. He makes his appearance
once more in 438, when he assisted with the Saint at
the great council of the nation, already described,
in which Senchus Mor, or great book of the Irish
laws, was purified and elevated to a Christian level
by St. Patrick. In the Book of Armagh, however,
there is an allusion to another attempt on the part
of our Saint to convert the king. “ Laeghaire, the
son of Nial," says the writer, “ had made a treaty
with him that he should not be killed in his
dominions, but he would not believe, saying: 'For
Nial, my father, did not allow me to believe, but
rather that I should be buried on the heights of
Tara, as it is with men who stand up in battle';
for the pagans are wont to be buried in their
sepulchres with arms ready, face to face (with the
foe), until the day erdathe of the Magi, that is, the
Day of the Judgment of the Lord.”i His wishes
were scrupulously carried out, and another ancient
writer tells us how “The body of Laeghaire was
afterwards brought from the south, and interred,
with his arms of valour, in the south-east of the
external rampart of the royal Rath-Laeghaire at
Temar (Tara), with his face turned southward upon
i Lib. Armach., Fr. Hogan, p. 63.
APOSTLE OF IRELAND.
195
the Lagenians—as it were, fighting with them ; for
he was the enemy of the Lagenians (men of
Leinster) in his lifetime”.
This concordat, and the homage paid to St.
Patrick's authority by this fierce king, is a remark-
able (disclosure of the Saint's success. It is clear
that even at that time Laeghaire was convinced that
Christianity was already in the ascendant, so, like
many a sovereign in subsequent ages, the Ard-Righ
of Ireland made peace with the spiritual power from
motives of political expediency.
Emanet
1 Leabhar na Huidre, ap. Petrie, Antiq. Tara, p. 170.
CHAPTER V.
THE RELIGION OF THE ANCIENT IRISH-WORSHIP OF
THE SUN
ST. PATRICK IN CONNAUGHT
THE
DAUGHTERS
OF
THE
KING
CONVERTED
THE
SAINT'S PRAYER ON CROAGH PATRICK.
ST. PATRICK'S success at Tara laid the country at
his feet. By attacking paganism in its secular and
religious stronghold, and thus breaking its power,
he won for himself a sort of sovereignty over Ire-
land, and from this time he met with little or no
resistance. It is no exaggeration to say that the
picture given of him in all the ancient records is
that of a conqueror subduing a nation in one battle.
When we remember his prodigious supernatural
powers, and that he came to a people to whom
everything about him was new and strange, we are
not surprised at the impersonal style of the old
lives of the Saint. It seems as if the profusion of
his miracles concealed the personal character of the
Saint from his contemporaries. If his life had been
more like that of other men, checkered by reverses
and disappointments, and if the proportions of his
ST. PATRICK, APOSTLE OF IRELAND.
197
supernatural character had been less colossal, we
should probably know more about him; but, evi-
dently, in the eyes of his followers he was more
like some being from another world mingling in
human affairs than a mortal man subject to the
vicissitudes of life; so they chronicled his deeds
without attempting to measure the man, looking at
him in some such way as we may fancy men will
regard Elias, the precursor of the second Adyent,
when he visits the earth again.
We shall follow the chronological division of the
Saint's life given in the Tripartite. The first of
the three parts into which this life is divided con-
tains all the events already recorded ; the second
describes his journey into Connaught, and his work
in that province, embracing a périod of seven years;
and the third gives us his return by Ulster, north
and east, and his mission in Leinster and Munster,
terminating with his journey back to Ulster, and
his death at Saul, in the county of Down.
From Tara St. Patrick went to Telltown, in
Meath, where he found Cairbre and Conall, two of
the sons of Nial of the Nine Hostages, and brothers
of the reigning King Laeghaire. Conall, receiving
the Saint joyfully, was baptised, and at his desire
St. Patrick founded the Church at Donagh-Patrick;
but Cairbre, like the king, his brother, remained
obstinate in his unbelief.
198
ST. PATRICK,
Passing through the western part of the terri-
tory of Meath, and preaching as he went, the Saint
arrived at “Magh-Slecht" (the plain of adoration,
or genuflections), in the modern county of Cavan,
which appears to have been the chief seat of
idolatry,' properly so called. O’Curry thus trans-
lates the account of St. Patrick's visit given in the
Tripartite Life :-“Patrick after that went over
the water to Magh-Slecht, where stood the chief
idol of Erin—i.e., Cenn Cruaich '-ornamented
with gold and with silver, and twelve other idols,
ornamented with brass, around him. When Patrick
saw the idol from the water, which is named Guth-
ard—[loud voice]-(i.e., he elevated his voice);
and when he approached near the idol, he raised
his arm to lay the staff of Jesus on him, and it did
not reach him, he bent back from the attempt
upon his right side, for it was to the south his face
and the mark of the staff lives in his left side
still, although the staff did not leave Patrick's
hand; and the earth swallowed the other twelve
idols to their heads; and they are in that condition
in commemoration of the miracle; and he called
was,
1 It is hard to determine the extent of the worship of idols in
Ireland at this time, but it does not appear to have been the pre-
valent superstition : no mention is made of it in the contest with
the Druids at Tara. St. Patrick alludes to idolatry once in the Con-
fession, but, as we have seen, it is the worship of the sun which he
specially attacks.
APOSTLE OF IRELAND.
199
"1
upon all the people, 'Cum rege, Laeghaire'—they
it was that adored the idol; and all the people saw
him (i.e., the demon), and they dreaded their dying
if Patrick had not sent him to hell.”
It is very interesting to follow the great Irish
scholar and critic just mentioned, as he identifies
the very spot where the miracle took place, having
found in the Annals of Loch Cé an account of the
battle of Magh-Slecht, which took place A.D. 1256.
He says: “Magh-Slecht (that is, the plain of adora-
tion or genuflections), the situation and bearing of
which are so minutely laid down here, was no other
than the same plain of ‘Magh-Slecht,' in which
stood Crom Cruach [called Cean Cruach’ in the
Tripartite Life), the great idol of Milesian pagan
worship, the Delphos of our Gadelian ancestors
from the time of their coming into Erin, until the
destruction of the idol by St. Patrick, in the early
part of his apostleship among them. The precise
situation of this historical locality has not been
hitherto authoritatively ascertained by any of our
antiquarian, investigators; but it is pretty clear
that if any man fairly acquainted with our ancient
native documents, and practised in the examination
of the ruined monuments of antiquity so thickly
scattered over the face of our country--if, I say,
such a man, with this article in his hand and an
MS. Materials, Appendix, p. 539,
200
ST. .
PATRICK,
extract from the life of St. Patrick, should go to
any of the points here described in the route of the
belligerent forces, he will have but little difficulty
in reaching the actual scene of the battle, and
will then stand, with certainty, in the veritable
Magh-Slecht; nay, even may, perhaps, discover
the identical Crom Cruach himself, with his
twelve buried satellites, where they fell, and were
interred when struck down by St. Patrick with
his crozier, the Bachall Josa, or Sacred Staff of
Jesus.”1
Before leaving Cavan, St. Patrick founded a
church on the spot where -he had” overthrown the
idols ; then, turning his face westward, he passed
over the Shannon into Connaught, near the present
Clonmacnoise. Here we find him again in relations
with members of the reigning royal family. Ethna
and Fidelm, the two daughters of King Laeghaire,
were living at Cruachan, the residence of the
kings of Connaught. This palace lay near the
1 MS. Materials, p. 103. This crozier, or
baculus"
as it was
called in the ecclesiastical language of the time, was said to have
been given to the Saint by our Lord Himself. It is mentioned by
St. Bernard, in his Life of St. Malachy, Archbishop of Armagh, as
being, in his time, one of the chief insignia of that See. It was plated
with gold, and adorned with precious stones, on account of the
tradition that the Lord Himself had fashioned it, and held it in His
own hands. So great was the veneration in which it was held, says
St. Bernard, that whoever possessed it was regarded by the simple
and foolish populace as the true Bishop.–Vita S. Malachice, c. xxi.
APOSTLE OF IRELAND.
201
1
place now occupied by the village of Tulsk, in Ros-
common, and two of the king's Druids, Mael and
Caplait, were appointed to guard and educate the
royal maidens.
The account of their interview with St. Patrick
supplies us with a specimen of his style of preaching
that is more in accordance with the spirit of the
Confession than any other of his recorded utter-
The Saint's sermon, or rather catechetical
instruction, is given in almost identically the same
form in the Book of Armagh, the Tripartite Life,
and in an ancient Life of SS. Ethna and Fidelm,
in Father Colgan's Collection ;? and as the latter
account is specially praised by this great authority
for its copiousness and exactitude, it is the one that
has been followed. This writer tells us that St.
Patrick, on his journey westward, arrived with a
numerous attendance of clerics at a fountain called
Clibech, near Cruachan, where he halted, and with
his followers began to sing the praises of God.
From the narrative it would seem that they had
spent the night in prayer, for it goes on to say that,
as the morning dawned, Ethna and Fidelm, the
daughters of the king, arrived at the fountain.
They were filled with astonishment, supposing the
strangers to be beings of another world; but,
that there was nothing in their appearance or voices
ances.
1 Acta Sanctorum Hibernice, Die xi. Januarii.
202
PATRICK,
ST. .
At once
66
calculated to inspire terror is evident from the
fearless bearing of the royal maidens.
they began to interrogate the white-robed band,
and asked them from whence they came, and
whither they were going : whether they came from
the spirits who dwell beneath the earth, or from
those who lived in the heavens. Then says the
ancient writer :
Patrick, the glorious herald of Christ, an-
swered:You have no need to be solicitous about
our origin or the place of our abode. Better for
you to inquire concerning our true and only God,
the Maker of all creatures in heaven and on earth.'
Then the elder sister said: "Who is this God of
yours, and where does He dwell? Lives He above
the skies, or beneath them, or upon the earth ? In
mountains or in valleys, or perhaps His dwelling is
in the sea, or in the rivers? Has He daughters and
sons whose forms are beautiful, is He rich in silver
and gold, and does His kingdom overflow with all
treasures ? In what manner is He to be worshipped;
one in the flower of life, or as one laden
with years? Has His life a fixed limit, or is it
interminable?' Then the man in whom was the
plenitude of God replied : 'Our God is the God of
all things; the God of heaven and earth; the God
of the sea, and of the rivers ; the God of the sun,
the moon, and the stars; the God of high moun-
as
APOSTLE OF IRELAND.
203
tains and of lowly valleys; the God who is above
the heavens, in the heavens, and beneath the
heavens. He has many mansions in heaven, on
the earth, in the sea, and in all things that exist
within their compass. From Him are the sun and
moon, the luminaries of the world, and by Him is
their light infused. His hand has brought forth
the rivers and fountains from the earth, and the
islands from the sea. He has a Son coeval with
the Father; for the Father is not prior to the Son,
neither is the Son subsequent to the Father. Also,
there is the Holy Spirit who proceeds from the
Father and the Son, in the same eternity and
equality, and these three are one, and inseparable.
Wherefore, as you are daughters of an earthly king,
it is fitting that you should lift your eyes from
things that perish to those that are eternal, and
that you should aspire to those espousals which
last for ever in endless joys, rather than wait for
an ignoble union with husbands from whom you
must soon separate, or be separated.'
“Pierced by these words as if by arrows, the
virgins, as it were with one heart and one voice,
replied: 'In your compassion, teach us how we
may obtain the favour of so great a King, and do
His will, or see Him, face to face, and whatsoever
commands
you impose upon us we will gladly
obey'.
204
ST. PATRICK,
Do you believe,' said the holy man,
that by
the power of so great a King all your sins and
offences can be remitted by the pouring of water;
or that if sins are committed after this outpouring,
they can be blotted out, and atoned for by
penance ?' And when the Virgins, anointed with
the preventing grace of the Holy Spirit, replied
that they were prepared to believe these, and the
other mysteries of the faith which was preached
to them, not only were they baptised by the
holy man, but likewise, by the reception of the
sacred veil from the hand of St. Patrick, they
were still more closely united to the Heavenly
Spouse.
“Then, as more and more ardently they desired
to see the Spouse face to face, the holy man said :
' As long as you are clothed in this mortal flesh
you cannot see the Son of God: before you can see
Him in the brightness of His majesty, the vesture
of this corruptible body must be laid aside. More-
over, His Body and Blood, hidden and invisible
under the visible form and appearance of bread and
wine, must be first received. At these words the
virgins, burning with a still more ardent fire of love,
earnestly asked that they might receive the Sacra-
ment of the Body and Blood of Christ, and that,
laying aside the burthen of the flesh, they might
be transported into that Presence which, above all
APOSTLE OF IRELAND.
205
things, they longed to behold. The holy man, to
whom the divine decrees were revealed, assented,
and the virgins having received the saving Viati-
cum, lay down on the same couch, and, as if resting
and sweetly reposing in the Lord, passed to that
marriage feast of the Heavenly Spouse so ardently
desired."
This narrative deserves special attention. It is
the only complete specimen of the Saint's manner
of dealing with gentle opponents which is found in
his ancient acts. And yet such must have been
the ordinary work of his ministry in an apostolic
career which was bloodless. Like every event in
St. Patrick's life which rises above the dead level
of the natural order, doubt has been thrown on the
authenticity of the story,' and we need not complain
of this if objections lead to a more careful study
and appreciation of its beauty. If we look upon
the
episode as altogether supernatural, then nothing
more need be said on the subject; but this we have
no right to suppose. It was a conversion which,
in all essentials, was brought about according to the
usual rules; and when the narrative is read with
light borrowed from St. Patrick's writings and the
1 Dr. Todd gives this "curious anecdote” from the Book of
Armagh, with the cautious proviso "whether true or false," although
he acknowledges that it “bears internal evidence of high antiquity ;
it was evidently written when paganism was not yet extinct in the
country":--Apostle of Ireland, pp. 451, 455.
206
ST. PATRICK,
history of the period, the poetical form which it
assumes becomes an additional argument in favour
of its authenticity. We know enough now of St.
Patrick to understand that his words and actions were
heroic in the highest sense of the word, and such
characters have always power to lift others to the
same level. Sudden conversions, with the unhesi-
tating acceptation of all the consequences of faith,
have been phenomena of conquering grace in all
ages. Such were those Saints without a name, the
Adaucti, with whose commemorations the Martyr-
ology is studded, who were converted at the mere
sight of Martyrs on their way to victory, and by
the baptism of blood became their companions. If
even now the written words of St. Patrick are like
a torrent of living fire in the heart, what limits
can we place to the power that went with them, as
they fell from the lips of one who seemed to his
auditors to be “one of those spirits who inhabit the
heavens”? When we compare St. Patrick's lan-
guage on this occasion with his “Breastplate” and
many parts of the Confession, we observe the same
irresistible flood of exalted doctrinal ideas, which
are so identified with his own thoughts, that they
advance with a sort of rhythm and melody, like the
Charitas patiens est, or the Quis ergo nos separabit,
of St. Paul. St. Patrick's style is inimitable. As
Tillemont observes, it is its own evidence; and
APOSTLE OF IRELAND.
207
1
we have here got a priceless revelation of the spirit
of our Saint.
At all times the effects produced by his words
depended in great measure on the preparation of
the minds of the recipients, and there can be little
doubt that the daughters of the king had quite
singular advantages in this respect. The interview
took place some time after the contest at Tara. St.
Patrick's fame must have been spread far and wide;
and although the royal maidens were at first in
doubt as to the identity of the mysterious strangers,
there can be no doubt that they soon realized
who St. Patrick was. We observe that when the
first impressions of superstitious dread had passed
away, the princesses begin the conversation with a
certain imperiousness of manner which was natural
in persons of their condition. It is evident also that
they were very ardent in their religious inquiries,
and that they were prepared for the discussion into
which St. Patrick led them. At their father's
court, and in the society of bards and Druids, they
had been accustomed to religious discussions, wild,
indeed, and fantastic, but for all that impregnated
with the pure and exalted morality of that Legende
Irlandaise which won the admiration of Montalem-
bert. We have no more striking example than
this of the effect produced by Irish romantic and
heroic literature, on the minds of the women of
208
.
ST. PATRICK,
Ireland, and the conversion of Ethna and Fidelm
was the type of myriads of similar victories of
grace, which were sudden and perfect because God
had already prepared the heart for the heavenly
messenger.
All the ancient narratives tell us that the in-
structors of the princesses, Mael and Caplait, soon
appeared on the scene, and the account given of
their conduct is a remarkable illustration of the
way in which, at this time, St. Patrick's super-
natural authority seems to have quelled every idea
of violent resistance in the minds of his opponents.
These Druids were brothers, and Caplait, who was
the first to arrive, wept bitterly, while he com-
plained that St. Patrick, not satisfied with separat-
ing the king's children from the gods of their
nation, should have also taken them away from the
world. Before long, however, he and his brother
were subdued by the Saint's words, and became
converts to Christianity.
Leaving Roscommon, St. Patrick went up north-
wards to Sligo, baptising many on his way, and
founding churches for his converts ; then descend-
ing, he passed to the West, through Mayo, until he
reached that high mountain, now bearing his name,
which looks to the North on Clew Bay, and to the
West over the Atlantic.
Amongst the many monuments built by Go
APOSTLE OF IRELAND.
209
which St. Patrick has appropriated to himself, and
on which he has set his seal, Cruachan Aigle, now
Croagh Patrick, is the most eloquent in its abiding
recollections. There we read his history in the path-
ways worn on its rugged sides by those pilgrims who,
for fourteen centuries, have kept alive the memory
of its consecration by the presence and the prayers
of the Father of their faith. This mountain was
the scene of that memorable prayer and fast of
forty days, which has ever been regarded by St.
Patrick's biographers as the occasion on which the
Apostle obtained for Ireland the gift of perse-
verance in the faith.
The appearance of Croagh
Patrick, as we approach it from the east, reminds us
of that other mountain in Antrim where first the
Saint had learned the power of austerities and
prayer. There is something characteristic of our
Saint in the choice of such a place as Croagh
Patrick from whence to lay siege to heaven; for
from his youth he had learned to ascend to God on
the wings of the elements. At Slemish, Tara,
and Croagh Patrick we find the same revelation
of the conscious and triumphant supremacy of his
soul over the forces of the visible world. It is
hard to tell how much of the details of what passed
between God and His servant on this occasion are
authentic history, for no one supposes that there
was any human witness present at the time. It is
14
210
ST. .
PATRICK,
certain that for forty days and nights he was alone
upon the mountain wrestling in prayer with God,
who has made His omnipotence the servant of
prayer. No food or drink passed his lips, and his
heart was wrung out before the throne of God
while he prayed for the salvation of his people, and
the living fire of his words, now so familiar to us,
tell us what was the character of that prayer. It
is said that, while an angel acted as his messenger,
St. Patrick prayed and wept until his tears
drenched his monastic cowl, and that amongst
other petitions he prayed that the barbarian, by
which is understood the unbeliever, should never, by
consent or force, hold Erin while he was in heaven.
Also, it is said that he made a demand, which faith
alone can appreciate, to the effect that seven years
before the day of doom the waters should cover
the island that he loved ; and our Lord's words
i Tripartite, p. 415. In Mr. Hennessey's translation the term
used is “Saxon”: Father Colgan makes St. Patrick pray against the
“ barbarian”. The Saxons had probably appeared off the coast of
Ireland before St. Patrick's time. The Annals of Ulster record their
first incursion in the year following St. Patrick's mission to Con-
naught (A.D. 434, Prima preda Saxonuni in Hibernia). We may
suppose, therefore, that the words “Saxon” and “barbarian
“heathen ” were used indiscriminately. Father Colgan, in a note
(Trias Thaumat., p. 179), appears to interpret the words in a spiritual
sense, to which the more generic teria “barbarian,” as opposed to
Christian, is better suited, and adds: “Hitherto we have witnessed
their fulfilment, and so, we may piously believe, they will be for
ever".
or
APOSTLE OF IRELAND.
2II
explain the meaning of this prayer when He tells
us that, Unless these days had been shortened, no
flesh should be saved : but for the sake of the
elect those days shall be shortened (St. Matt.
xxiv. 22). Then, says the writer of the Tripar-
tite, he claimed from God that on the day that
“the twelve royal seats shall be on the Mount, and
when the four rivers of fire shall be about the
Mount, and when the three peoples shall be there
-viz., the people of heaven, the people of earth,
and the people of hell—I myself shall be judge
over the men of Erin on that day”. The angel
said this thing could not be obtained from the
Lord; then Patrick said: “ Unless this is obtained
from Him, I will not consent to leave this Cruachan
from this day for ever; and even after
and even after my death
there shall be a caretaker for me there". The
angel went to heaven ; Patrick went to his offering.
The angel came in the evening. “ How now?”
asked Patrick, Thus," answered the angel, “ all
creatures, visible and invisible, including the twelve
Apostles, entreated, and they bave obtained.
“Strike thy bell,” said the angel ; " thou art com-
manded from heaven to fall on thy knees, that it
may be a blessing to the people of all Erin, both liv-
ing and dead.” “A blessing on the bountiful King
- that gave,” said Patrick ; " the Cruachan shall be
left.” It was on Holy Thursday, according to
,
2 I 2
ST. PATRICK, APOSTLE OF IRELAND.
Jocelyn, that the Saint came forth from his solitude
and returned to his people.
1
16. That thou sought'st
Shall lack not consummation. Many a race,
Shrivelling in sunshine of its prosperous years,
Shall cease froin faith, and, shamed though shameless, sink
Back to its native clay ; but over thine
God shall the shadow of His hand extend,
And through the night of centuries teach to her
In woe that song which, when the nations wake,
Shall sound their glad deliverance : nor alone
This nation, from the blind dividual dust
Of instincts brute, thoughts driftless, warring wills
By thee evoked, and shapen by thy hands
To God's fair image, which confers alone
Manhood on nations, shall to God stand true ;
But nations far in undiscovered seas,
Her stately progeny, while ages waste,
The kingly ermine of her faith shall wear.'
Then Patrick knelt, and blessed the land, and said :
· Praise be to God who hears the sinner's prayer'."
-De Vere's St. Patrick, p. 49.
1
CHAPTER VI.
ST. PATRICK IN MUNSTER-BAPTISM OF ÆNGUS AT
CASHEL MARTYRDOM OF ST. ODRAN FOUNDA-
TION OF
ARMAGH CATHEDRAL
THE
RAID
OT
COROTICUS — ST.
PATRICK'S
EPISTLE
EXCOM-
MUNICATION AND PUNISHMENT OF COROTICUS.
THE Tripartite Life tells us that St. Patrick went
three times across the Shannon into the land of
Connaught, and that he spent seven years preach-
ing in that province, at the end of which time he
gave its people his blessing, and bade them fare-
well. As those years were not consecutive, it may
be that, in the intervals, the Saint returned to
watch over his first converts in Ulster-and Leinster.
The record of our Saint's labours in Connaught
occupies twenty-five quarto pages of Mr. Hen-
nessey's - translation of the above-mentioned life.
It gives us an account of his journeys, and the
churches he founded in Roscommon, Connemara,
Mayo, Sligo, and Leitrim, and this so minutely,
that the reader is perplexed, and finds it hard to
Tripartite, p. 432.
214
ST. PATRICK,
1
get a clear sight of the Saint himself amidst a
maze of local references. In like manner we can
trace the Saint's course when, leaving Connaught,
he went up to the North into Tyrone and Donegal;
then, retracing his steps to Antrim, he descended
to the South, passing through Louth, Kildare,
Queen's County, and Ossory; until he arrived at
Cashel in Munster. The writer does not mention
the length of time devoted by St. Patrick to evan-
gelising these counties, but as the life in this
part is little more than a diary of the Saint's
actions, if we measure the time by the number of
events recorded, taking the seven years in Con-
naught as the basis of our calculation, we must
conclude that several years elapsed before he
reached Munster. The singular accuracy of the
writer in naming places and persons, although
wearisome, is valuable, as bearing witness to the
veracity of the life. A great part of the record of
our Saint's apostolate reads like an account of an
ordinary bishop's visitation of his diocese. It is
because he met with so little opposition that we
miss in his life those struggles and alternations of
fortune which make up the lives of other mis-
sionaries, and enable writers to give a distinct
1 In the notes appended to the translation more than two hun-
dred of the places consecrated by St. Patrick's presence in the course
of his apostolate in Ireland are identified.
APOSTLE OF IRELAND.
215
1
picture of their labours. St. Patrick in his work,
as we have before observed of his personal charac-
ter, is well-nigh lost in the blaze of his own glory.
With the exception of the stern and obdurate
Laeghaire, who so soon disappears from the scene,
there is no formidable opponent to bring out the
Saint's greatness, no background to the picture,
which is consequently indistinct from its very
brightness. For the same reason, there is little to
say about the conversion of Ireland—less, perhaps,
than of that of any other country. It was a cam-
paign where all the victories were on one side.
In Munster, miraculous signs and wonders had
prepared the minds of the people for the coming of
the man of God. In the south of Ireland, the pro-
vincial king resided at “Cashel of the Kings," as it
was then called, and thither St. Patrick directed
his steps; for it seems to have been his custom to
seek out the rulers of the provinces which he
entered, knowing that if he could win them over
the people would more easily follow. Ængus, the
prince whom the Saint found there, appears at this
time to have been acting for his father, whom he
ultimately succeeded on the throne. It is related
that when the prince arose on the morning of the
day of the Saint's arrival at Cashel, he found all the
idols in the fort prostrate on the ground, and that,
influenced, doubtless, by this sign from heaven, he
216
ST. PATRICK,
received Patrick and his followers joyfully. While
the Saint preached and prepared the people for
baptism, Ængus stood beside him, and the sharp
point of the sacred crozier, or “staff of Jesus,”
upon which the Saint supported himself, rest-
ing on the prince's foot, pierced it; but Ængus
neither moved nor gave any sign of pain. When
the blood flowing on the ground revealed the
torture endured by the patient and heroic listener,
St. Patrick asked him why he had been silent, to
which the prince replied that he had supposed
he was only submitting to one of the ordinances of
the faith.
When we compare the account given by St.
Evin of the Apostle's work in Munster with the
earlier parts of the life, we are struck by the signs
of that rapidly-increasing power which was so soon
to make St. Patrick master of the country. We are
told how the men of North Munster, to the north
of Limerick, came in their boats, “a very fleet,” as
St. Evin describes them, and that finding the Saint
at Terry-Glass, in Ormond, on the shores of Lough
Derg, they were there baptised. Then St. Patrick
ascended a hill at Finnine, north-west of Domnach-
Mor, which commanded the view to the north of
Limerick, and gave his blessing to the men of
North Munster, and also to the islands, and the
country north and west. From St. Evin's account,
APOSTLE OF IRELAND.
217
our Saint does not appear at this time to have
entered Clare or Kerry, but before he retraced his
steps he prophesied of the saints who were to
follow him, and carry on his work : of St. Senanus,
“the green island in the West,” said Patrick,
“ in the mouth of the sea ; the lamp of the people
of God shall come unto it, who will be the head of
counsel to this district-i.e., Senan of Innis-
Cathaigh?—six score years from this”. He also
foretold the birth of St. Brendan, of the race of
Hua-Alta, one of the greatest of the Irish monastic
founders, in the century after St. Patrick.
St. Evin gives a graphic account of the enthu-
siastic devotion manifested towards our Saint by
1 The writer is indebted to Mr. Hennessey for the following facts
in support of St. Evin's statement :—“The tradition so widely
known and so carefully handed down, that the churches founded by
St. Patrick in the course of his itineraries were afterwards dis-
tinguished by the name Domnach-Mor (Dominica magna), receives
some confirmation from the fact that, whereas there are churches
called Donaghmore in the neighbouring counties of Cork, Limerick,
and Tipperary, there is no place bearing the name in Clare or Kerry.
Even at the present day, Irish-speaking people are often heard to say
to persons situated to the west of them, 'Bennaigim uaim siar sibh
mar adubairt Naem Patraic las na Ciarraidib' ("I bless you all to the
West, as St. Patrick said to the Kerrymen ”).” It is not improbable,
however, that the tradition, that St. Patrick was content to give
Kerry his blessing from the hill of Finnine, having its origin in St.
Evin's words, refers only to St. Patrick's first journey to the south.
Clare and Kerry may have been converted, and their churches
founded by St. Patrick's deputies, and visited later by the Saint,
during the long period which elapsed before his death.
Scattery Island, at the mouth of the Shannon.
2
218
ST. PATRICK,
the people of Munster. 6 After that Patrick had
founded cells and churches in Munster, and had
ordained persons of every grade, and healed all sick
persons, and resuscitated the dead, he bade them
farewell, and left his blessing with them.” When
the people heard that the Saint had left them, they
rose up like one man and followed him, overtaking
him at Brosna," in King's County, and filling the
air with shouts of joy at seeing him again. St.
Patrick blessed them once more, and continued his
journey.
It is at this time, as the Saint passed through
Leinster on his way to the north, that we find the
record of the martyrdom of St. Odran, the only
martyr of the Irish Church in St. Patrick's time.
An obstinate pagan, named Foilge Berrad, had long
nourished murderous designs against St. Patrick,
the destruction of the chief idol of Erin, Crom
Cruach, in the Plain of Adoration, having robbed
him 'of his favourite deity : "for it was this,” says
St. Evin, “ that was a god to Foilge”.? He had de-
clared his intention of assassinating St. Patrick, but
St. Evin adds that, for some reason or other, St.
Patrick's people said nothing to him concerning
1 Tripartite, p. 476. St. Evin tells us that the name Brosnacha,
now Brosna—from the Irish word brosnugad, excitement-was given
to this place in memory of the event.
Ibid., p. 477.
2
APOSTLE OF IRELAND.
219
the designs of the conspirator; perhaps experience
had taught them that it was vain, or unnecessary,
to warn their master against such dangers. We
gather from St. Evin's narrative that St. Patrick
sometimes travelled alone with Odran, passing
swiftly through the country in one of the light
chariots then used in Ireland, and that one day,
when the faithful servant 'knew that they were
likely to fall in with Foilge Berrad, he asked St.
Patrick to change places with him, and take the
reins; the Saint consented, and, by his stratagem,
Odran won the crown of martyrdom, falling be-
neath the blow intended for St. Patrick.1
The foundation of the Church and See of Ar-
magh is the next great event commemorated in St.
Patrick's life, and in the course of St. Evin's narra-
tive it comes almost immediately after St. Patrick's
return from Munster. The territory of Macha, or
Armagh, which was held at this time by a certain
man named Daire, whom St. Evin styles a pros-
perous and venerable person,” seems to have been
but a small one; at one time, however, it had been
a place of great importance, owing to the neigh-
$
1
1 Father Colgan (Trias Thaumat., Notes to Fourth Life), follow-
ing Ferrar's Catalogue, fixes the Feast of St. Odran, martyr, and
disciple of St. Patrick, on the 26th of October. It is remarkable
that the Protomartyrs of Ireland and England, ss. Odran and
Alban, both met death in the same way, each offering his own life
to save that of a priest.
!
220
ST. PATRICK,
bourhood of the fortress of Emania, the residence
of the kings of Ulster. The immense rath,' or
mound, with its deep circular entrenchments, is
still to be seen, and in the middle of the seventeenth
century Colgan describes Emania,1 " with its broad
trenches, and the rugged and towering ruins of its
walls," as still retaining signs of its former splen-
dour. At first Daire refused to give the Saint the
land he had chosen, which was on a hill to the
north of the city, but he allowed him to build a
church lower down, where, according to St. Evin,
the Saint remained a long time. Daire had soon
reason to regret his refusal; he was seized with
sickness, which seemed unto death ; Patrick blessed
water, and sent it to him, and by its miraculous
power the sickness departed. Daire then sent the
Saint a thank-offering, in the shape of a brazen
cauldron, on receiving which he merely said, “ Deo
gratias”. On the return of the messengers, Daire
asked them what St. Patrick had said; and, in
their ignorance of the language, they replied that
he had only said one word, gratzicum. Daire was
indignant at the Saint's indifference to his gift, and
ordered his servants to bring it back; upon which
Patrick again repeated, “Deo gratias”. When
Daire heard this he wondered much, and said,
“This is a good word with them; gratzicum
1 Trias Thaumat., p. 6.
APOSTLE OF IRELAND.
221
when giving it to him, and gratzicum when taking
it away from him”;' and he and his wife, touched
by the Saint's patience, went to him and gave him
back their gift, adding the grant of the hill which
before they had refused. The Book of Armagh
thus completes the narrative: “And they went
forth together, both St. Patrick and Daire, to view
the admirable and well-pleasing gift; and they
ascended the height, and found a roe, and a little
fawn with her, lying on the spot where the altar
of the northern church in Ardmacha now stands.
And St. Patrick's companions wanted to catch the
fawn and kill it, but the Saint objected, and would
not permit them; nay, he even took up the fawn
himself, and carried it on his shoulders, and the roe
followed him like a pet lamb until he laid down the
fawn on another eminence at the north side of
Armagh, where, according to the statements of
those who are familiar with the ground, miraculous
attestations are to be witnessed to this day.”2 It is
the opinion of those learned in the topography of
Armagh, that the hill on which the new Cathedral
of Armagh is now built is the identical spot
to which, like the Good Shepherd, St. Patrick
carried the fawn-a touching image of that Church
1
Tripartite, p. 484.
2 Book of Armagh.
p. 7.
Reeves, Ancient Churches of Armagh,
222
ST. .
PATRICK,
of Ireland which for ages he has loved so tenderly,
and borne faithfully in his paternal arms.
The foundation of the Church and See of Armagh
was evidently regarded by St. Evin as the crowning
event in the missionary career of the Apostle of
Ireland. At this point, therefore, we are obliged, in
imitation of this writer, to bring the chronological
part of our narrative to a close, devoting the
remainder of the book to the consideration of
separate incidents in the life of our Saint.
We observe that, although there is some dis-
crepancy in the Chief Irish Annals as regards the
date of this event, their silence about St. Patrick's
mission, from this period until his death, is in
accordance with the style of the Thripartite Life.
All ancient Irish records point to the fact that the
spiritual conquest of Ireland was completed within a
comparatively short period of time, and that the
i The Annals of Ulster register the foundation under the year
444, and the Annals of the Four Masters in 457. When we consider
how quietly institutions take root when there is no opposition, this
discrepancy will not surprise us. Dr. Todd's suggestion (Apostle of
Ireland, p. 469), that we have here one of "the chronological diffi-
culties created by the story of his Roman Mission," is a characteristic
specimen of his controversial insinuations. The truth is, the supre-
macy of Armagh dates from the death of St. Patrick : the Apostle
himself was supreme, everywhere, and at all times. The five
bishops who occupied the see in his lifetime were his subjects, and
there is nothing that is either suspicious or extraordinary in the fact
that the beginnings of Armagh should have left an uncertain mark
in history.
APOSTLE OF IRELAND.
223
greater portion of St. Patrick's archiepiscopate was
devoted to the consolidation of his work ; and if
this was done rather by oral teaching and personal
influence than by written laws, it only brings his
government into a more striking conformity with
that of Christ and His Apostles.
The event which drew from St. Patrick his
celebrated Letter to the Christian Subjects of the,
Tyrant Coroticus now invites our attention. It
merits careful study, for, like the Confession, in
addition to its intrinsic interest, it contains many
incidental allusions, which, when separated from
passages which are devotional or hortatory, help us
in our work of knitting together the fragments of
St. Patrick's history.
Coroticus—or, to give him his native name,
Caradoc—was one of those marauding chieftains of
the day who traded in human beings, after the
manner of modern Arabs in Africa, and at some
period in St. Patrick's episcopate he made a
descent on the Irish coast, and carried off a vast
number of the Saint's flock./ When and where he
landed is unknown; all that seems certain is that he
was a British chief, and that the incursion took place
towards the termination of St. Patrick's apostolate.
The narrative which is contained in the Saint's
letter is merely incidental, as is natural when the
facts themselves were before the eyes of the
224
ST. PATRICK,
1
readers. St. Patrick alludes to a previous letter,
which, unfortunately, does not exist, which he says
had been sent by a holy priest whom he had in-
structed from his infancy;' but the Saint's
messengers had been treated with scorn. No
doubt the first letter was addressed to Caradoc him-
self, whereas the second, as Villanueva points out,
repudiates all connection with the sacrilegious and
excommunicated prince, and appeals to his fol-
lowers. The Saint first briefly states the case, in
language which might be supposed to appeal to
the consciences of Christians, as the mere fact of
slave-capture would hardly shock people in those
days. He begins in a style which, with some
variations, seems to have been his ordinary formula
as an introduction to his ecclesiastical documents.
I, Patrick, an unlearned sinner, have been
appointed bishop in Ireland, and most certainly I
know that from God I have received that which I
am. Therefore, I dwell amongst foreign nations,
as a pilgrim and wanderer, for the love of God.
He is my witness that it is so. Although I have
no wish that anything rigorous or austere should
fall from my lips, I am urged on by zeal for God
and the truth of Christ, who has summoned
me for the love of my neighbours, and of my
children, for whom I have abandoned fatherland
'
1
Quem ego ex infantia docui.
APOSTLE OF IRELAND.
225
me.
and kindred, and my own life I have consecrated
to God, even unto death, for the teaching of the
nations, if I am worthy, although now some despise
And with my own hand I have written, and
confirmed these words to be written, sent, and
delivered to the soldiers of Caradoc; I say not to
my fellow-citizens, nor to the fellow-citizens of the
Roman saints, but to the fellow-citizens of demons,
who, because of their evil deeds, live in death,
making war after the manner of barbarians, the
companions of the Scots, and apostate Picts,
desiring, as it were, to fatten on the blood of
those innocent Christians, whom, in numbers be-
yond all counting, I have begotten in God, and
confirmed in Christ.”
The Saint then draws a vivid picture of the out-
rage, which was perpetrated in the midst of some
religious ceremony-probably a confirmation, for he
describes the victims as anointed with chrism and
arrayed in white. Wherefore," he continues,
“let everyone who fears God know again that
they are separated from me, and from Christ my
God, for whom I am ambassador, as parricides and
fratricides, as ravening wolves, 'devouring the
people of the Lord as they eat bread'; as He has
said: “The wicked have dissipated Thy law, O
Lord,' wherein, in these latter days, Ireland has
been most perfectly and mercifully planted and
TS
226
ST. PATRICK,
instructed.” Again, in the same strain : “Not
from myself, but God Himself has put this desire in
my heart, that I should be one of those hunters, or
fishers, whom of old the Lord foretold in these
latter days. He en vies me, O Lord! what shall I
do? I am grievously despised. Behold, Thy sheep
around me ore torn to pieces, and carried off
by the robbers already named, by the command
of Caradoc, Thine enemy: this betrayer of Chris-
tians into the hands of the Scots and Picts is
far indeed removed from the charity of God.
Ravening wolves have devoured the flock of the
Lord, which truly was increasing in Ireland with
the greatest rapidity and perfection; and I cannot
number the sons of the Scots, and the daughters of
princes who have become monks and virgins of
Christ. . . . It is customary with the Christians of
Rome and Gaul to send priests, who are holy and
fit for the office, to the Franks, and other foreign
nations, with many thousands of gold pieces for the
redemption of baptised captives. You slay them
without pity, or sell them to a foreign nation which
knows not God: you, as it were, deliver up the
members of Christ into a den of ill-fame. What
hope, therefore, have you in God?
Whosoever
you, or makes common
cause with you, by arguments adverse to mine, or
flattery, him God will judge. I know not what I can
agrees
with
APOSTLE OF IRELAND.
227
add, or what more I can say concerning the departed
children of God, who have been struck by that
sword that was cruel beyond all measure. For it
is written, 'Weep with those that weep'; and again,
' If one member suffer anything, all the members
suffer with it'. Therefore the Church weeps, and
bewails her sons and daughters, whom as yet the
sword of the enemy has spared, and who have been
transported to distant lands, where sin is open
and shameless : there the lawless one dwells, and
is filled : there free-born Christians are sold and
reduced to slavery, especially amongst the most
unworthy, the most infamous and apostate Picts.
Therefore, I cry out in grief and sorrow: 0
most beautiful and most loving brethren and
children, whom, in Christ, I have begotten in such
multitudes that I cannot number you, what shall
I do for you?"
These extracts demand some commentary.
In
the first place, we see that/St. Patrick was himself
conscious of a divine power that went out from
him, in addition to his purely ecclesiastical autho-
rity.) It is the very obscurity and incoherence of
his style which impress us with conviction that
his language is the voice of prophecy and inspira-
tion, and that his soul was the dwelling-place of
some power which overflowed and broke down all
the barriers of human language ; while complaints
228
:
ST: PATRICK,
1
of outrages done to God, and wrongs to himself, are
mingled together with that inimitable simplicity
which reveals that, like St. Paul, he no longer
lived, but Christ lived in him. The historical
revelations of this letter are also most interesting.
The allusion to the Franks as heathens reminds us
that Ireland was already a Christian nation at a
time when the ancestors of Charlemagne were still
pagans.
The appearance on the scene of the Scots of
Caledonia, and the Picts as enemies of the Irish
Scots, reveals the complete separation which Chris-
tianity had wrought between the Scots abroad and
their parent country, which continued until Ireland
sent St. Columba in search of her lost children. The
abhorrence manifested by St. Patrick for the Picts
is also very remarkable. The mere fact that they
were heathens could not possibly excite such feel-
ings in the mind of an apostle, although it is clear
from the Life of St. Columba that they were an
inferior race as compared with the Scots. St.
Patrick's horror of the nation must, therefore, be
attributed to their apostasy; and, as Dr. Lanigan
remarks, this stain rested only on the Southern
Picts, who, in St. Patrick's own lifetime, had been
1 The conversion of the Franks dates from the year 496, when,
four years after the death of St. Patrick, Clovis was baptised by
St. Remigius.
APOSTLE OF IRELAND.
229
converted to Christianity by St. Ninian, and subse-
quently relapsed into idolatry. At this time the
Picts, united with the pagan Scots from Argyle-
shire, were ravaging Britain, and so Caradoc had a
market close at hand for the sale of his captives.
We have no record of the effect of St. Patrick's
appeal, further than the statement which is found
in three of the ancient lives in Father Colgan, to
the effect that God punished Caradoc after the
manner of the malediction which fell upon the
proud king of Babylon. On a certain day, we are
told, as he stood in the midst of his attendants,
suddenly, in the sight of all, he was seen to take
the shape of a wolf, and in this guise he fled from
the face of men. Villanueva has a long disputation
on the credibility of the miracle. Some writers are
very much shocked at the idea, as if it were St.
Patrick's own act, which it certainly was not; but
Jocelyn is satisfied with remarking that “this fact
no one can lawfully discredit who will read the
narrative of the wife of Lot, turned into a rock,
and that of king Nabuchodonozor”.
CHAPTER VII.
OF ST. PATRICK'S FAITH AND HOW HE IMPARTED IT
TO OTHER MEN.
The reader must have already observed that it is
easier to get an idea of what St. Patrick was than
of what he did. Statistics without dates are always
unsatisfactory, and they are peculiarly so in a
missionary career which embraced the lifetime of
well-nigh three generations. It is possible that
records will yet be brought to light which will
enable the historian to complete the picture of the
conversion of Ireland, but in the present state of
our knowledge the writer feels that he is inadequate
to the task. As it is, he is conscious that he has
again and again tried the reader's patience by
repetitions, especially in cases where some sentence
in St. Patrick's writings has been made to do duty
in commenting on different events in the Saint's
life. He hopes, however, that this literary imper-
fection will be condoned by those who, like himself,
in the study of St. Patrick's life, are looking, not
- for pleasure, but for light. In obedience to this
ST. PATRICK, APOSTLE OF IRELAND.
231
!
principle, he will devote the remainder of the work
to a commentary on St. Patrick's virtues, with
illustrations given, as far as possible, in the antique
style of his ancient biographers.
Our Lord's promise that “All things whatsoever
you ask when you pray, believe that you shall ret
ceive, and it shall come unto you," was wonderfully
fulfilled in the Blessed Patrick. If we may estis
mate his faith by his works, we shall be inclined
to consider it to have been his predominant virtue.
Faith belongs to this world: it has no place in
heaven. Consequently, it seems to have a special
reward and glory in time; for it.appears to be
almost an unvarying law in God's government
of the
world that spiritual power on earth is attributed to
faith. We have seen the Saint's enduring faith in
his prayer on Croagh Patrick, in that trial of
strength with God which has been called “the
striving of St. Patrick," for, like Jacob, he wrestled
with God, and in the end obtained what he desired.
It is this spirit of superhuman faith revealed in his
writings which has led so cautious a writer as
Tillemont to compare him with the inspired Pro-
phets and Apostles, and especially with St. Paul.
The extracts from the Saint's Confession, in the
beginning of this life, give us a picture of enduring
faith in the soul of a boy, more wonderful than
miracles. He tells us how, alone upon the moun-
232
ST. PATRICK,
tain-side, in the silence of the night, the faith, and
the fear of God' grew within him, and how, with-
out priest or sacrament, during those six years of
slavery, his soul remained in constant union with
God. His faith was tried, and its enduring patience
manifested in a probation of more than thirty years,
during which he awaited that mission to Ireland
which he so ardently desired. A vision from
heaven, in his youth, brought to him from afar
“the voice of the Irish," but he was an old man
before God allowed him to begin his work. In his
humility he styled himself “an ignorant sinner,"
“a fool,” “the rudest and least of the faithful”;
but, when he spoke in the name of God, faith gave
him majesty and authority, and he became in very
truth that which he announced himself to be, “fthe
Ambassador of Christ There was a vehemence,
a sacred intolerance in his faith, which swept away
all obstacles ; it made him a stranger to respect of
persons; he spoke as one conscious that he came
with a message direct from God, and faith made all
men equal in his eyes. It was this sense of his
mission, and the conviction that "he could do all
things in Him who strengthened him,” which gave
his apostolate its peculiar character. He seems to
have seldom sought to persuade—he subdued men
by the intensity of his own faith.
We have a striking instance of the way in which
APOSTLE OF IRELAND.
233
he infused this faith, and took instantaneous pos-
session of souls, in the conversion and penance of
the robber chief MacKyle, afterwards a Saint and
bishop. This man and his band were the
scourge
of Ulster, and when he heard of the arrival of the
Saint in the neighbourhood, his first thought was
to make away with the priest whose teaching
brought such shame on his own unholy trade; but,
bad and bloodthirsty as he was, some sort of wild
chivalry in his heart restrained him. He therefore
determined to make sport of the Saint, and thus
bring discredit upon him and his mission, and,
with this design, arranged that one of his band,
named Garban, should simulate death. Accord-
ingly, Garban laid himself upon a bier, and his
companions, having covered him with a pall,
entreated the Saint to bring the dead man to life.
St. Patrick, who knew by divine revelation all that
had occurred, prayed over the man, and then went
When his associates approached, and
drew the pall from the face of Garban, they found
that the jest had become earnest, and that the
man was really dead. In fear and trembling, the
whole band followed the Saint, and, falling at his
feet, implored his pardon for their own sins, and
life for their friend. St. Patrick took pity on
them, and at his prayer the dead man arose ; and
he, with his companions, believed in Christ, and
on his way.
234
ST. PATRICK,
{ t
was baptised. Then their leader MacKyle came
forward, and confessed how it had entered into his
mind to take away St. Patrick's life, and then, in
the simplicity and energy of his repentance, he
asked how he could atone for the crime which he
had meditated. The Saint must have seen that he
had to deal with one already transformed by grace,
and equal to any sacrifice, for the penance imposed
and accepted could only have been justified by
a divine revelation. At the command of St.
Patrick, MacKyle went down to the sea-shore, and
having bound and locked his feet together with an
iron chain, he flung the key into the sea, and in a
light coracle, or boat made of a single skin, com-
mitted himself to the waves, with God alone as his
pilot. And the Lord, mindful of the faith of His
servant Patrick, and of the sublime sacrifice of the
penitent, guided the boat until it was cast on the
shore of the Isle of Man. Living there at this
time were two Christians, Conindrus and Romulus,
who are said to have been sent by St. Patrick to
preach in that island. These men received and
entertained the mysterious penitent, and instructed
him in the Catholic faith; and in time he became
bishop of the island, and his name was held in
great veneration both in the early Irish and British
Churches,
Another famous penitent was St. Assicus, whom
APOSTLE OF IRELAND.
235
1
.
St. Patrick had consecrated, and appointed Bishop
of Elphin : he was also the founder of a monastery
in his diocese, over which he presided. Now, it
happened that this servant of God once told a lie,
and then, entering into himself, was filled with
such bitter regret, and such a spirit of penance,
that he fled the face of men, and buried himself in
solitude, where for seven years he remained con-
cealed, for he judged that he was unworthy any
more to be a pastor and guide of souls. During
these years his monks sought him sorrowing, and
at length discovered his hiding-place, which was a
cavern in a lonely valley. They besought him in
vain to return to that Church which was his spouse,
and expected him ; they even tried violence, but
failed, for the Bishop declared himself unworthy
ever again to exercise his pontifical office, since
from his lips had proceeded a wilful lie, which;
coming from a priest, the sacred canons declare to
be a sacrilege. Such are the words of the ancient
chronicler. Seeing that their beloved father and
founder was fixed in his resolution, the monks, who
could not bear to live away from him, turned the
cave into a monastery, and remained with St.
Assicus until his death, and then over his grave
they built a monastery, which was afterwards
rendered famous by the sanctity of its inmates.
The same intensity of faith which shrank from
.
236
ST. PATRICK,
}
no sacrifices was seen in the fervour of those
religious vocations which, even in the Apostle's
own time, made Ireland the wonder of the Christian
world." In the history of the Church there has
been no other example of a heathen nation, in the
lifetime of one man, springing up into the maturity
of the Christian life, and becoming, in truth, what
even from that time she was called, " The Island of
Saints”.
As we have seen from the Saint's letter to
Coroticus, this passion for the religious life took
hold of the Irish people almost as soon as the
Gospel was preached to them ; and when the great
Patriarch at the close of his life looked back upon
his work, and poured forth the fulness of his heart
in his Confession, this was one of his consolations :
Wherefore now in Ireland, they who never had
the knowledge of God, and hitherto only wor-
shipped idols, and unclean things, in these latter
times have been made the people of the Lord, and
are called the sons of God. The sons of the Scoti
and the daughters of princes have become monks
and virgins of Christ.” They did not fly from
persecution, unless so far as the sight and the
presence of men are a torture to those who seek to
be alone with God. St. Patrick brought with him
to Ireland those traditions of the religious life
which, beginning in Palestine and Egypt, had been
1
!
APOSTLE OF IRELAND.
237
imported into the West by St. Martin and St.
Ambrose ; and the sacred contagion spread, so
that the whole nation presented a sight similar to
that seen at Milan when St. Ambrose preached his
famous sermons on virginity, and mothers feared
to let their daughters listen to him, and shut them
up at home, because the Divine Bridegroom
threatened to bear them all away.
When we
find how marvellous were the signs and favours
by which God encouraged His chosen servants at
this time, and attracted them to Himself, we are
prepared for the statement that, before he died, the
Saint had consecrated every tenth man and woman
in Ireland to God.1
In the biographies of the early Irish saints we
1 Actci SS. Mart., xvii., p. 475. As it was after St. Patrick's
death that the great Monasteries of Clonard, Bangor, Clonfert, &c.,
were founded, we may suppose that the majority of the men and
women whom St. Patrick consecrated to God lived in the world like
members of those Third Orders, now so common in the Church, and
that, in process of time, the spirit infused by St. Patrick gathered
them into communities. Many of these, like that of Bangor, in
Down, counted their members by thousands. St. Bernard, in his
Life of St. Malachy, tells us that one monk from Bangor is said to
have founded as niany as a hundred monasteries ; and the glory of
this great sanctuary reached its climax when, about the year 823,
being attacked by the Danes, it gave in one day nine hundred
martyrs to Christ. It appears also that the number of anchorites
dwelling in complete solitude and silence was very great ; and Mr.
Haverty (Hist. Ireland, p. 92) tells us of some who, in their passion
for solitude, spent their days at sea, where, alone in their light
coracles, they sought and found a desert on the ocean.
238
ST. PATRICK,
1
find all that freshness and simple beauty which are
the special grace of those souls who are led by God,
with little interference on the part of man. There
was the blessed child, St. Treha, whose holiness
was foretold by St. Patrick before her birth. She
was the daughter of a powerful chief named
Carthend, who was converted to the faith ; and
when he and his wife were receiving baptism, the
Saint told the mother that the unborn child whom
she bore was one, whom, in the fulness of time,
he should vei), and consecrate for a heavenly Lover.
When the child had reached her tenth year, she set
out in search of the Saint to obtain the fulfilment
of his promise. On her way she arrived at the
shores of a lake, from whence she saw the Saint in
the distance, on the other side of the water.
Wearied with the journey, she sat down on the
bank, and, with an anxious heart and longing eyes,
followed the distant form of the man of God. Then
St. Patrick, understanding and compassionating her
trouble, prayed, and, the waters receding, made
way for the child to pass. When the Saint had
received her vows, and consecrated this spouse of
Christ, there is a tradition that an angel of the
Lord laid a veil upon her head, which, covering
her eyes, extended to the nostrils. The Saint was
about to lift the veil, but the maiden objected, and
earnestly besought him, saying, “I implore thee,
APOSTLE OF IRELAND.
239
» 1
O my lord, to allow this veil to remain as it is, so
that never again mine eyes may see the vain things
of this world, and that thus, with pure interior
vision, I may be able to contemplate the bright
beauty of my Spouse". The Saint, filled with
consolation, assented; "and thus," continues the
narrator, “this veil, descending from heaven, re-
mained all the days of her life, covering those
cheeks and eyes, which were like those of the
turtle-dove; keeping out all visions of evil, lest
death should by any chance enter in at the
windows".
St. Cinne, another soul consecrated by St. Pat-
rick to God, was the only child of a prince named
Eochaidh, and her parents had promised her in
marriage to Cormac, son of Cairbre M`Neill. At
the exhortation of Patrick, the virgin declined this
alliance with one who appears to have belonged to
the reigning royal family, and consecrated herself
to Christ. When her father found that his daugh-
ter's determination was immovable, he sent for the
Saint and made a strange proposal. He told him
how he had expected to find in his grandchildren
his own consolation and the strength of his house,
but that, in thus influencing his daughter, St.
Patrick had cut off his succession, and frustrated
all his hopes : if, however, in return for this loss,
1 Acta SS. Mart., xvii., p. 558; Tripartite Life, p. 445.
240
.
ST. PATRICK,
the Saint would promise him the kingdom of
heaven, and at the same time not compel him
unwillingly to receive baptism, he would allow his
daughter to go her way. St. Patrick, trusting in
the mercy of God, made the strange agreement
demanded, seeing, we may suppose, something in
the man's simplicity which made both his sacrifice
and his demand acceptable in the sight of God.
The maiden received the veil, and was consecrated
to Christ; and, serving God in virginity and great
holiness, she led many people to follow her example,
and was glorified by miracles in her life and after
her death. At length the time came when the old
man, her father, was struck down by sickness, and
knowing that he must die, he sent a messenger to
summon the Blessed Patrick, for he now desired to
receive that baptism which in health he had re-
fused ; at the same time, he gave strict orders that,
in the event of his death, his body should remain
unburied until the arrival of the man of God.
Patrick, who at this time was at Saul, in Ulster,
having had a revelation of the chieftain's death, set
out on his journey before the arrival of the mes-
senger; but Eochaidh had been dead twenty-four
hours before the Saint reached his house. Kneeling
down beside the corpse, St. Patrick prayed over it
and forthwith Eochaidh was restored to life, and,
having received baptism, he related to the awe-
APOSTLE OF IRELAND.
241
struck bystanders all that he had learned concern-
ing the joys of heaven and the tortures of the
damned, and declared that he had seen the place in
heaven which Patrick had promised him; but,
because he was unbaptised, he had not been able to
enter. The Saint asked him whether he would
now rather remain in this world, or go at once to the
reward prepared for him? And Eochaidh answered
that he counted the dominion of the whole world,
with all its riches and pleasures, as an empty
shadow, compared to those joys of heaven which
with his own eyes he had witnessed. So, when
he had received the Viaticum, he lay down again
and died.)
Like St. Francis Xavier, who was wont to send
children to work' miracles for him, our Saint some-
times appointed deputies to do these wonderful
works. There was a chief named Elelius, who ob-
stinately shut his cars to the teaching of St. Pat-
rick, until at length sorrow and tribulation changed
his heart. He had one child, a son, whom he loved
tenderly, who was attacked by a herd of swine, and
torn limb from limb. The wretched father came to
the Saint, and declared that he would believe in
his God, and obey Him, if in His name he would
restore his son to life. Whereupon St. Patrick
turned to one of his disciples, named Malachy, and
Tripartite Life, p. 453; Acta SS. Mart., xvii., p. 557.
1
16
242
ST. PATRICK, APOSTLE OF IRELAND.
told him to go and do as the sorrowing father
wished; but Malachy's faith was weak, and he re-
fused, saying that it would be tempting God were
he to attempt such a thing. Then the Saint asked
him if he had not read the promise of the Lord
beginning, “ Whatsoever thou shalt ask the Father
in My name”; and again : “If you have faith as a
grain of mustard-seed, you shall say to this moun-
tain, remove from hence thither, and it shall
remove"? and he foretold that, for the future,
Malachy should be empty-handed in the Church.
Then St. Patrick chose two other disciples, who, with
great faith, accepted his commission, and while the
Saint remained in prayer, they restored the child
not only to life, but to all his former strength and
beauty. It is needless to add that the father
believed and was baptised with all his house.
1
Acta SS. Mart., xvii., p. 558; Tripartite Life, p. 467.
CHAPTER VIII.
OF ST. PATRICK'S TENDERNESS OF HEART, AND HOW
HE TAUGHT HIS DISCIPLES CHARITY.
THE reader will recall St. Patrick's language in his
letter to Coroticus, wherein we find such eloquent
revelations of our Saint's passionate love for those
whom he had begotten in Christ, and of that sym-
pathy which made their sufferings his own. We
have become outcasts," he cries, " in our sadness and
mourning"; and again : “Not from myself, but God
Himself has put this desire into my heart. .. He
(Coroticus) is envious of me. What shall I do, Lord?
I am grievously despised. Lo, Thy sheep on every
side are torn to pieces and made the prey of these
robbers."
As it has been with all the saints, (St. Patrick
manifested not merely compassion, but reverence
for the outcast and the aflicted.) Especially was
this seen in his loving service of those who were
stricken by the loathsome malady of leprosy. In
this, if our Saint had need of an instructor, he had
found one in his glorious master, St. Martin, of
244
ST. PATRICK,
1
whom we are told, that on a certain occasion, when
he came to one of the gates of Paris, and its
inhabitants went forth to meet him, his eyes were
drawn away from the triumphant multitude by
the sight of a deformed and hideous leper who
was near. Approaching the poor man, he put his
arms round his neck and kissed him, and at his
touch the leper was healed. In St. Patrick's time,
the victims of this terrible malady were the object
of a superstitious horror and fear, which must have
greatly aggravated their miseries. The Jewish law
had forbidden anyone to touch a leper, ordaining
that, “All the time that he is a leper and unclean,
he shall dwell alone, without the camp,
during the reign of paganism lepers were con-
sidered as accursed by the gods. The example of
our Lord, in the tenderness which He showed to
this afflicted class, was enough for the saints, but it
was a long time before the popular feeling gave
way to the divine charity of the Gospel. St.
Patrick had great tenderness for these unhappy
beings, for he saw in them the image of Him of
whom the Prophet has written, “And we have
thought Him as it were a leper, and as one struck
by God and afflicted”? It is recorded how the
man of God retained several lepers near him, and
ministered to them in all things for Christ's sake;
» 1 and
Levit. xiii. 46.
2 Is. liii, 4.
APOSTLE OF IRELAND.
245
1
and of one especially we are told how, with his
own hands, the Saint washed the ulcers which
devoured his flesh, and gave him the food suited
to his state. This poor man, destitute of all
bodily gifts, grew wonderfully in those of the
Spirit, so that he spent all his time in prayer
and giving thanks to God. At length, that he
might spare his companions, and free them from
the sight of his horrible malady, in his humility,
of his own accord, he withdrew from their com-
pany, and made a dwelling for himself in a hollow
tree, where he lived alone with God. The extra-
ordinary sanctity to which this man attained by
his sufferings was probably the reason that St.
Patrick did not exert his miraculous powers on his
behalf. At length the time came for this great
lover of the Cross to receive his reward. On the
day
of his death, which had been revealed to him,
looking out from his hiding-place, he saw a man
passing by, and, calling him, he inquired what re-
ligion he professed. When the other replied that
he was a Christian, he begged him, for the love of
Him in whom he believed, to go to a wood close by
and pluck one of the saplings from the earth, and
bring it to him: the man did as he was asked, and
forth with a bright fountain burst forth on the spot.
He returned to the solitary and told him what had
happened, whereupon the dying man gave thanks
1
246
ST. PATRICK,
to God, and said: "Be it known to thee, dearest
brother, that our Lord Jesus Christ has brought
thee hither that thou mayest wash my body in the
water of that fountain, and bury it in the same
place”. Saying this, and lifting his eyes and
hands to heaven, he expired. When the man had
washed the leper's body in the fountain, every trace
of leprosy disappeared, while the air was filled with
the fragrance which exhaled from those sacred re-
mains; and, having buried the body, the traveller
went on his way. Some time after, one of the dis-
ciples of St. Patrick, being on a journey, halted at
this spot, and, in the silence of the night, he heard
angelic choirs singing, while a great light surrounded
the
grave of the leper. He related this to St. Patrick,
and expressed a wish to remove the body of this
Saint from so unhonoured a place ; but St. Patrick
forbade him, predicting that there, in time to come,
should dwell Ciaran, "a son of life yet unborn,"
who should people it with an army of saints, and
give great glory to these relics.?
We find mention of St. Patrick's charity towards
lepers at other times in his life ; as when at
Armagh he cured at one time sixteen, who had
i St. Ciaran, born in 516, was the founder of Clonmacnois, which
continued to be the seat of learning and sanctity, the retreat of de-
votion and solitude, and the favourite place of interment for the
kings, chiefs, and nobles of both sides of the Shannon, for a thousand
years after the founder's time.-O'Curry, MS. Materials, pp. 58-60.
APOSTLE OF IRELAND.
247
come together from various quarters, attracted by
the fame of his mercy and power, and were all
restored to health in the act of receiving baptism
from the Saint's hands. Again, when St. Mochta
had retired to his hermitage, we are told that St.
Patrick often visited his disciple to hold communion
with him on divine things, and that he gave over
to him, as a precious inheritance, twelve lepers
whom, hitherto, the Apostle had served and tended
himself.
The Saint's supernatural knowledge ministered
to his gift of sympathy) On one occasion, when
engaged in instructing and baptising, he remained
so long in the same place, that the ardent Benignus
grew impatient at the delay, and complained with
all the freedom of a beloved disciple. The Saint
then declared that he could not bring himself to
leave the neighbourhood before the arrival of some
of his followers, who were on the sea, coming from
a distance. On the following day the sky was
darkened, and so violent a tempest arose that those
who watched the waves said the boat must certainly
perish. The Saint's face became very sorrowful,
and he told his companions that his children in the
boat were in sore distress, and that he compassioned
one in particular, a boy named McErc, who was
quite beside himself with terror, whereupon the
Saint betook himself earnestly to prayer. After a
1
248
ST. PATRICK,
short interval, in the hearing of all present he com-
manded the winds and the waves, in the name of
God, to cease their fury and be still, and forth with
the sky cleared, and the sea became quiet. On the
same day the travellers arrived, and it was found
that they had been delivered from their danger
at the very hour that the man of God had seen
them in spirit, and prayed for their deliver-
ance.
The holy master Patrick was one who taught
clearly that charity was 'not a mere matter of
feeling, but a duty, as we see from the punishments
he inflicted on those who sinned against this virtue.
An instance of this is recorded in the case of the
cure of a blind man, who, hearing that the Saint
was passing, ran to meet him in the hope of re-
ceiving his sight; and as he hurried on, staggering
and falling, as he had no one to guide him, one of
the clerics in the Saint's company burst out laugh-
ing, and made sport of the poor man.
St. Patrick
was filled with indignation, and as a warning to
those around him, when he had rebuked the scoffer,
and chastised him with his own hand, he said, “Amen:
I say to you that, in the name of my God, the eyes
of this man, now shrouded in darkness, shall see
the light, while your own, that are open to evil,
and provoke others to mockery, shall be closed”.
When he had made the sign of the Cross on the
APOSTLE OF IRELAND.
249
1
eyes of the blind man, his sight was restored, and
the jester became blind.
A still more terrible judgment fell upon a chief
named Trian. Patrick, being on a journey, passed
through a wood in which he found some men cutting
trees, and saw that their hands were bleeding. To
the questions of the Saint they replied that they
were the slaves of a hard master named Trian, who
condemned them to work in this way, and that, to
make their work intolerable, he would not even
allow them to sharpen their axes.
Patrick blessed
the axes, and the men were able to use them without
difficulty. He then visited the chief, and tried to
soften the obduracy of his heart. Finding, however,
that words failed, the Saint sat down at Trian's gate,
and “fasted upon him,” remaining there for a long
time without food, for Patrick was his creditor in
the name of the charity of Christ; but all was in
vain, and the Saint departed, declaring that the
hard-hearted man would come to an evil end.
Trian was only exasperated by the Saint's remon-
strances, and in revenge he bound and grievously
tortured the poor slaves who had informed Patrick
of his cruelty, until at length, as the Saint had
foretold, the wrath of God fell upon him. Driving
one day on the shores of Lake Trena, his horses ran
away, and carried chariot and driver into the lake.
1 Acta SS. Mart., xvii., p. 566.
ST. PATRICK, APOSTLE OF IRELAND.
250
St. Evin adds: “Loch Trena is its name. This
was his last fall. He will not arise out of that lake
till the Vespers of Judgment, and it will not be in
happiness even then.” 1
St. Patrick once gave two brothers a lesson in
fraternal charity in the following manner.
Their
father had lately died, and a dispute arose between
them about the inheritance; and passing from
words to blows, they drew their swords, and
attacked each other in the presence of the Saint.
Filled with horror and fear of the threatened fratri-
cide, he betook himself to prayer. Then, raising
his hand, he blessed them, whereupon the arms of
the combatants became immovable, and remained
uplifted and rigidly fixed in the air. The Saint
again gave them his benediction and made peace
between them; whereupon they surrendered the
disputed land to St. Patrick for the repose of their
father's soul, and he built a church on the spot.
!
1 Tripartite Life, p. 479.
CHAPTER IX.
OF THE SAINT'S WONDERFUL PRAYERS AND PENANCES,
AND OF THE SUCCESS WITH WHICH HIS LABOURS
WERE CROWNED-HIS, LAST YEARS AND DEATH.
in prayer.
THE man of God, Patrick, was marvellously
favoured with heavenly visions and revelations
“When,” says his biographer, “he
every day in the Mass sacrificed the Son to the
Father, or devoutly recited the Apocalypse of
St. John, it was granted to him to see the
heavens opened, and Jesus standing surrounded
by a multiude of angels; and whilst he meditated
on these great visions his soul was altogether
lost in God.” Three times in the week the
angel Victor visited and conversed with him,
filling his soul with celestial consolations. The
labours of the day amongst men seem to have
been less arduous than those of the night with
God. He divided his time, so that in the first
part of the night he recited a hundred Psalms,
making at the same time two hundred genuflec-
>>
252
ST. .
PATRICK,
tions ;? the second part he spent immersed in the
water of some cold spring, keeping heart, eyes, and
hands lifted up to heaven until he had finished the
other fifty Psalms. After this he gave the short
time that remained to sleep, lying on a rock, with
a stone for a pillow, while the rough haircloth
which he wore macerated his body even in his
sleep.
This is really the prodigious part of St. Patrick's
life. We are not surprised that God should give
power over nature to a man who had such power
over himself, and we are therefore prepared for the
statement that the working of miracles was of
almost daily occurrence with him, that he gave
sight to the blind and speech to the dumb, cured
all manner of diseases, and raised thirty-three
Repeated prostrations and genuflections seem to have been
common even in the most sublime contemplations of the saints of
this period. It is related of St. Simeon Stylites, a contemporary of
St. Patrick—“He bad adopted the habit of expressing his worship
at times by deep reverences, bowing so low that his forehead nearly
touched his feet. One of Theodoret's companions once counted
twelve hundred and forty-four of these adorations, one after another,
and then grew weary of counting” (Fathers of the Desert, Hahn
Hahn, p. 334). The practice of frequent genuflections in prayer is
recommended by the Council of Clovesho in England, A.D. 747
(Haddan and Stubbs, vol. iii., p. 372).
? In subsequent ages, St. Patrick had many imitators of this
austerity. The practice passed over into England with the Irish
niissioners. St. Wilfrid of York probably learned it in his novitiate
under the Irish monks at Lindisfarne, for in the latter years of his
life we find the Pope forbidding hini to continue this penance, in
consideration of his age and infirmities.
1
APOSTLE OF IRELAND.
253
1
persons from the dead in the name of the Holy
Trinity.
It will be worth our while here to pause, and
look back over that life into the abysses of which
we have been reverently gazing. This is all that
we have been able to do in a biography like the
present, in which the mysteries of the ascetical,
mystical, and apostolic life are all so immeasurable.
On the other hand, the bare statement of these
wonders does not satisfy us: they have even a
tendency to weary the mind unless we can trace
them to their source. Now, if we would discover
the fount and origin of St. Patrick's strength, the
explanation of all the prodigies of his life, we must
try to get some idea of the nature of his intercourse
and union with God in prayer. If we say that the
comparative greatness of saints and their super-
natural powers are always in proportion to the
perfection of their spirit of prayer, we shall have
Holy Scripture and all sacred authority on our side.
At first it seems as if it were an intrusion into the
secrets of God to attempt to sound such mysteries,
and that we can get no farther than the thought
that St. Patrick's prayer was like that of Moses and
1 Acta SS., pp. 576, 578. St. Francis Xavier appears to have ap-
proached nearest to St. Patrick in this greatest exercise of miraculous
power. Twenty-four resurrections rere juridically proved to have
been worked by St. Francis in his lifetime.—Giry, Vie des“ Saints,
3rd Dec. (11.).
254
ST. PATRICK, ,
ܪ
St. Paul : that inspired prayer, which is more like
prophecy. than supplication. But this comparison
is after all incomplete, although in so many ways St.
Patrick resembled those saints who belonged to the
invisible rather than to the visible world: The
prayer that is a perpetual fiery sacrifice of self;
that sacred recklessness which sees nothing, and
fears nothing, while it looks only to God-all these
characteristics of the prayer, of the Prophet and the
Apostle are found in St. Patrick; but here our com-
parison must stop. In St. Patrick's prayer we find
nothing of that inimitable and unapproachable
majesty, that conscious power which belongs to
inspiration alone. St. Patrick's use of the word
on more than one occasion, in refer-
ring to the gifts and graces of God, reveals
how abiding was his sense that he was always
and ever a scholar, and not a master in the
school of Christ. The vehemence of his spirit of
self-abasement before God is hardly equalled,
certainly not exceeded, by anything in the
language of the most lowly and penitent saints.
He who could use such language, and at the same
time convince us that it was the language of the
heart, must indeed have been great before God,
“imitate," 1
.
1“Imitarer illos quos Dominus jam prædixerat.”
“Si ali-
quid boni imitatus sum, propter Deum meum quem diligo” (Conf.,
c. iii., $ 14; V., $ 23).
APOSTLE OF IRELAND.
255
whose grace descends in proportion to the depths
of the creature's lowliness.
There is no point clearer in St. Patrick's life
than the fact that it was on prayer that he relied
for success.' His own writings, and the evidence of
his biographers tell the same tale in different ways :
one supplements the other. The elevations of his
soul to God in his youth on Slemish were not less
wonderful than his prayer on Cruachan, and those
vigils at Saul and Armagh, when he was about
to bid farewell to earth and take his flight to
heaven. If we had faith in prayer like that of
St. Patrick, there would be no mysteries in his
life. It
was by prayer that he converted
the Irish nation; by prayer he legislated, and
obtained obedience to his laws; and by prayer he
organised the work of God, and built up His
spiritual and enduring empire.
holy and zealous auxiliaries in his work, but we
may safely assert that his prayer flowed into
all their operations, like that of Moses on the
mountain, while his followers were fighting in
the field. 1
His union with God in prayer infused such
beauty and power into his preaching that on one
occasion, when a great multitude had come together
He had many
1«Moses plus profecit in monte adorando, quam multitudo
magna bellantium” (Walter Hilton, Pref., p. xl. ; ed. Guy).
256
ST. PATRICK,
1
1
**
to hear the word, and the Saint interpreted the four
Evangelists, for three days and nights the people
were so entranced and spellbound by his inspired
eloquence, that the time seemed to them but as the
space of one day.
Not only was the conversion of the Irish people
to Christianity effected with extraordinary rapidity,
but to this first grace God added another almost as
great, in the abiding presence of the great Patriarch
with his children. Other Apostles have had to
leave their work to be finished by inferior men, but
for fifty-nine years after the power of paganism
had been broken at Tara, St. Patrick held undis-
puted sway as Pontiff and Teacher of the Church in
Ireland. He lived long enough to see the grey
hairs on the heads of those whom he had baptised
as children, so that he had time to organise and
consolidate the infant Church, and to create a
native clergy: works, under the circumstances,
quite as superhuman as the conversion of the
nation.
The evidence on this point in St. Patrick must,
as usual, be extracted from detached sentences.
He alludes to the thousands of men (tot millia homi-
num) whom he had baptised. “Greatly am I in
debt to God, who has given me such grace that
great multitudes are, by my ministry, born to God,
and then confirmed. And that for this people
APOSTLE OF IRELAND.
257
"1
whom the Lord hath taken, coming to the faith in
those latter days, clerics should everywhere be
ordained." Again, in the following sentence he
plainly refers to the first year of his apostolate, before
Christianity had become identified with the laws, as
the constituted religion of Ireland : “Wherefore in
Ireland they who, hitherto, had no knowledge of
God, and up to this time only worshipped impure
idols, have lately become the people of the Lord,
and are styled the sons of God. The sons of the
Scots and the daughters of princes are seen as
monks and virgins of Christ. Even as it was with
that Scottish lady in the prime of life, blessed,
noble, and beautiful, whom I baptised; and after a
few days, in the same spirit, she came to us, and
disclosed how she had had a revelation from a
messenger of God, telling her to continue a virgin
of Christ, and that thus she should come nigh to
God. Thanks be to God, six days later, in all
perfection and ardently, she took hold of it, in like
manner as do all the virgins of God, and this
against the will of their parents : nay, under the
pressure of persecutions and unjust reproaches on
the part of their relations. Nevertheless, their
number increases the more, and we know not the
1 Conf., c. iv., § 16.
? Responsum accepisse nuntio Dei: the style of St. Patrick's usual
form of expression for special divine inspirations addressed to himself.
17
258
ST. PATRICK,
A
971
b
number of those of our own race who are born there
[to Christ] besides widows and the uncorrupt. But
they (the virgins) who are slaves endure the most
grievous trial, and they endure in spite of terror
and threats. Truly the Lord has given grace to
many of His daughters ; for although they are for-
bidden, for all that they courageously follow His
example.”
There seems to be no doubt that St. Patrick
retired from the government of the See of Armagh
'many years before his death, probably in 455, and
during the long interval between that period and
his own death he saw four bishops successively fill
It was Cormac, the fifth successor of
the Saint, who outlived him. Sixty years of
ecclesiastical rule in Ireland gave St. Patrick time,
not only to teach the faith, but to establish tra-
ditions. The rulers of the Church during this
long period were his own spiritual children, so while
one generation passed away, and another succeeded,
there was no change or disturbance in the life of
that Church, which had all its organisation and
discipline, as well as its doctrines, from one man.
The same prodigious power, which in the beginning
had broken all opposition, preserved unity and
peace when the struggle was over, and made the
that see.
Portal
only
1 Conf., c. iv., $ 18.
Colgan, Acta SS. Hibernice, p. 358.
2
APOSTLE OF IRELAND.
259
fold of St. Patrick like the infant Church in Judæa,
when “ the multitude of believers were of one heart
and one mind”. As we have seen, it was St.
Patrick who imprinted on the Church in Ireland
that monastic character which was her strength and
glory for centuries ; and so great and universal was
the enthusiasm of the people, that he devoted a
tenth of the people, as well as of their herds and
the produce of the land, to the service of the
Church and the monasteries. I
St. Patrick's example in retiring from his
bishopric, and that of St. Assicus in resigning the
See of Elphin, suggest an explanation of a statement
in the Saint's life which has been too much for many
modern writers—viz., that he consecrated over
three hundred bishops with his own hand. Grave
authors have held it to be probable that St. Patrick
introduced the order of Chorepiscopi into Ireland ;
and if we accept the view that these prelates were
often nothing more than simple priests, and that
they have been included in the total number of
those styled bishops, there is no difficulty in the
numbers. But even if we take the statement in its
ordinary sense, as meaning bishops with or without
2
2 Acta SS. Mart., xvii., p. 575.
2 In our Saint's time the great number of Chorepiscopi had in
some countries grown into a serious abuse. See St. Leo's letter to
the Bishops of Gaul and Germany (Bullarii Rom., Appendix,
p. 193 ; Taurin., 1867).
263
· ST. PATRICK,
1
sees, there is no extravagance in the conjecture
that many may have resigned their sees, induced
either by their master's example, or by love of soli-
tude and the contemplative life, which had such
attractions for fervent Christians in those ages of
faith ; while St. Patrick could not fairly refuse them
the consolation which he had chosen for himself in
his solitude at Saul. It was truly an age of won-
ders in Ireland, when grace was given without
measure, and the records of that time cannot be
tried by ordinary standards. Jocelyn tells us that
in those days no one was chosen for the episcopal
office, or the government of souls, unless he was
declared worthy by divine revelation, or some
evident sign.
“ Before long," says this ancient writer, " there
was no desert, no spot, or hiding-place in the island,
however remote, which was not peopled with per-
fect monks or nuns ; so that, throughout the world,
Ireland was justly distinguished by the extraordinary
title of the Island of Saints : for they lived accord-
ing to the rule imposed upon them by St. Patrick
in contempt of the world and desire of heaven ; in
holy mortification of the flesh and renouncement
of self-will, rivalling the monks of Egypt in merits
and in numbers, and by word and example they
were a light to foreign and distant lands. In
St. Patrick's time, and long after under his suc-
APOSTLE OF IRELAND.
261
1 ܙܙ
1
cessors, none were elevated to the episcopate, or
the care of souls, except those who were proved
to be worthy by divine revelation or some mani-
fest sign.”
The latter years of the Saint's life were spent for
the most part at Saul or Armagh, where in retire-
ment he held communion with God, and again
tasted the ineffable joys of his youth, when his soul
was espoused to God in solitude on Slemish. The
Last Day alone 'will reveal the lights then given to
him, and the graces which he obtained for his
children. Once the Saint had a great vision, in
which the actual state, and the future of the Church
in Ireland were revealed to him. In the first place,
he saw the whole land, as it were, like a great
furnace whose flames reached to the sky, and he
clearly heard the voice of an angel saying, “Such
is now the state of Ireland in the sight of the
Lord”. After a little time, instead of this far-
spreading universal fire, he saw flaming moun-
tains here and there over the land, then torches
shining, succeeded by glimmering lights amidst
an ever-increasing darkness; and last of all, a
few live coals buried, and burning deep in the
earth. And an angelic voice was heard, saying,
that such, in times that were coming, should be the
successive states of the Irish people. Then, with
1 Acta SS. Mart., xvii.
Com
262
ST. PATRICK,
1
eyes, and,
tears rolling down his cheeks, the Saint repeated
many times those words of the Psalmist, “ Will God
then cast off for ever? Or will He never more be
favourable again? Or will He cut off His mercy
for ever from generation to generation? Or will
God forget to show mercy ? Or will He in anger
shut up His mercies?”
His mercies?” And the angel answered
and told him to look to the north of the land, and
that there he should see the change of the hand of
the Most High. The Saint lifted up
his
behold, a little light arose in Uladh (Ulster), which
struggled long with the darkness, until at length
the whole island was filled with the brightness of
its glory, and Ireland returned to its first state of
all-pervading fire. At the time when Jocelyn
wrote, in the twelfth century, conflicting interpre-
tations of this vision were prevalent. The days of
darkness were taken to be the terrible time of the
Danish persecution in the ninth century. The
light that began in Uladh was thought by some
to be a figure of the great St. Malachy, first
Bishop of Down in Ulster, then of Armagh, and
Legate of the Holy See under Innocent II., whose
life and labours have been recorded by his
friend St. Bernard; while the English invaders
boldly asserted that the light was a figure of the
state of things which they had introduced. Jocelyn
1
1 Acta SS., p. 575.
APOSTLE OF IRELAND.
263
1
himself abstains from giving any opinion on the
subject.
The time at length came when St. Patrick under-
stood by divine revelation that his end was near.
He was then in Uladh; and as he desired to be
buried near his children at Armagh, for whom he
seems to have had a special love, he turned his
steps towards that city ; but on the way the angel
Victor met him, and told him that it was the will
of God that he should die in Uladh, which was the
province he had first converted, and that the city
of Down was to be the place of his resurrection;
at the same time reminding the Saint of his pre-
diction and promise to the sons of Dichu, his first
converts, that he should die in their land. The
Saint for a moment was troubled by this message;
then recovering himself, he accepted the obedience,
and returned to Uladh.
A few days after this, the holy old man Patrick
sat down, surrounded by a number of his followers,
in a certain place not far from the city of Down,
and began to treat of the glory of the saints and
of the mansions of the blessed. While he spoke, a
bright light was seen shining over one particular
1
Although Jocelyn had come to Ireland in the train of the
invaders, he had nothing in common with the very unworthy clerical
associates of Henry Plantagenet, and the fact that he was a foreigner
gives additional force to his evidence : no Irish writer goes further
in admiration for St. Patrick and the Irish Church.
264
ST. PATRICK,
spot in a neighbouring cemetery, and when the
lookers-on asked the Saint to tell them the meaning
of this light, he turned to St. Brigid,' and ordered
her to explain the mystery, upon which the holy
virgin declared it to be a sign that in this place
would soon be laid the body of some great servant
of God. St. Ethembria, described by Jocelyn as
the first of the virgins of Ireland consecrated to
Christ by Patrick, was present, and secretly asked
St. Brigid to tell her the name of the Saint. She
replied that it was the Father and Apostle of
Ireland himself, and at the same time revealed to
her friend her desire to have the privilege of invest-
ing his sacred remains in a shroud which she had
herself woven for his burial. St. Patrick, who
knew in spirit what was passing in his daughter's
mind, turned to her and bade her go back to her
convent and bring this shroud which she had pre-
pared. The Saint himself then set out for his
monastery at Saul, and upon his arrival took to his
bed, knowing now that the end of his life was come.
When St. Brigid had reached her convent on the
Curragh, she took the 'shroud, and with four of her
daughters to bear her company, with all speed re-
1 St. Brigid died A.D. 525. A poem attributed to St. Berchan,
about A.D. 690, says that St. Brigid came to Downpatrick at this time
to procure that St. Patrick might be buried at Kildare (O’Curry,
MS. Materials, p. 415).
APOSTLE OF IRELAND.
265
traced her steps to Saul; but, worn out with fasting
and the length of the journey, she and her com-
panions grew so faint that they could proceed no
farther. Their distress was revealed to the dying
Saint, and in the same hour he sent five of the
light chariots of the country to meet them, so that
they arrived in time to present their offering ; and
having kissed his feet and hands, they received his
benediction.1
( St. Patrick died March 17, 492. The conclusion
of his life shall be given in the words of St. Evin :
"A just man, indeed, was this man ; with purity of
nature like the patriarchs ; a true pilgrim, like
Abraham; gentle and forgiving, like Moses ; a
praiseworthy psalmist, like David; an emulator of
wisdom, like Solomon ; a chosen vessel for pro-
claiming the truth, like the Apostle Paul; a man
full of grace and the knowledge of the Holy Ghost,
like the beloved John; a fair flower-garden to
children of grace; a fruitful vine-branch ; a spark-
ling fire, with force and warmth of heat to the sons
of life, for instituting and illustrating charity ; a
lion in, strength and power, a dove in gentleness
and humility ; a serpent in wisdom, and cunning to
do good; gentle, humble, merciful to the sons of life,
- dark, ungentle towards the sons of death ; a
servant of labour and service of Christ; a king in
1 Acta SS., p. 579.
266
ST. PATRICK,
1
dignity and power, for binding and loosening, for
liberating and convicting, for killing and giving life.
“After these great miracles, therefore—i.e., after
resuscitating the dead ; after healing lepers, and
the blind, and the deaf, and the lame, and all
diseases ; after ordaining bishops, and priests, and
deacons, and people of all orders in the Church ;
after teaching the sons of Erin, and after baptising
them ; after founding churches and monasteries ;
after destroying idols, and images, and druidical
arts--the hour of death of St. Patrick approached.
He received the Body of Christ from Bishop
Tassach, according to the advice of the angel
Victor. He resigned his spirit afterwards to
heaven, in the one hundred and twentieth year of
his age. His body is here still in the earth, with
honour and reverence. Though great his honour
here, greater honour will be to him in the Day of
Judgment, when judgment will be given on the
fruits of his teaching, like every great Apostle ; in
the union of the Apostles and disciples of Jesus
in the union of the nine orders of angels, which
cannot be surpassed ; in the union of the divinity
and humanity of the Son of God; in the union of
the Holy Trinity, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.”
A little before his death the Saint had composed
what may be fittingly called his last will and testa-
;
1 Tripartite Life, p. 500.
APOSTLE OF IRELAND.
267
ment; and his language, in spite of his humility,
reveals how he was conscious that he was restoring
to God a nation which he had held in trust for his.
Master. “Behold," he writes at the termination of
his Confession, "I now commend my soul to my
most faithful God, for whom in my lowliness I
am ambassador; and, therefore, He who makes no
account of persons has chosen me for this office, so
that, from amongst the least of His creatures, I
should be His minister.
.
What shall I render to
Him for all the things that He hath rendered to me?'
Or what can I say, or what can I promise to my
Lord ? For of myself I am worth nothing, unless He
Himself shall give; but He who is the searcher of
the heart and reins' knows how I desire, in measure,
and beyond all measure, and how I was prepared
that He should give me to drink of His chalice, as
He has lovingly granted to others, who have loved
Him. Wherefore may my Lord avert that it should
ever come to pass that I should lose His people,
whom He has gained at the ends of the earth. I
pray, therefore, that God may give me perseverance,
and that He may deign to make me a faithful wit-
ness until the hour of my departure, for the sake of
my God. And if for the sake of my God, whom
I love, I have ever imitated anything that is good,
I beseech Him to grant that, in the likeness of
those who were converts, or captives for His Name,
268
ST. PATRICK, APOSTLE OF IRELAND.
LANI
I
may
also pour out my blood, and even have no
place of burial, and that my miserable body may
be cut into pieces, and cast out to be the food of birds
and dogs and wild beasts. For of a certainty I
know that, if this service is paid to me, I shall gain
my soul with the price of my body; for without
doubt in that day we shall rise in the brightness
of the sun, that is, in the glory of Jesus Christ.”
The body of the Saint was wrapped in the
shroud woven by St. Brigid, and the prodigies
attendant on his death were in keeping with those
of his life. A sweet fragrance exhaled from his
sacred flesh, and during the twelve days that his
body lay unburied, a bright light was seen in that
part of the country, and it is said that the voices
of angels were heard singing, night and day, the
praises of the servant of Christ. At the end of
this time a dispute arose between the people of
Armagh and the Ulidians, as to who should possess
the relics of the Apostle, and a miracle decided the
contest; for when the body was laid upon a funeral
car, drawn by two oxen, the men of Armagh, as it
seemed to them, followed it, going towards their
own city, until they found that they had been led
astray, and pursued what was only a phantom';
while the Ulidians carried away the body of the
Saint, and buried it, as he predicted it should be,
amidst the sons of Dichu in Downpatrick.
APPENDIX.
APPENDIX.
LES FLEURS DE ST. PATRICE.
THE traditions and monuments which are bound up
with the beautiful legend of Les Fleurs de St. Patrice,
are, historically, as important as they are poetical. The
subjoined account is from the pen of Mgr. Chevallier,
President of the Archaeological Society of Touraine, and
it was sent to the writer by his lamented friend, M.
Fleurat, Curé de St. Patrice.
We have already observed how, in Ireland, natural
monuments are a distinguishing feature of St. Patrick's
history, and it is certainly very remarkable that the
same characteristic should attach to the record of his
life in France, where, year after year, thousands come
to gather those winter flowers which are believed to be
an undying witness of St. Patrick's connection with
St. Martin of Tours.
It seems as if nature would fain repay St. Patrick
for the way in which he had honoured the inanimate
creation when he made high mountains his altars, and
" bound to himself” the elements as attendants in the
service of his Lord.
1
272
APPENDIX.
t
(Extrait des Annales de la Société d'Agriculture, Science,
&c., du Départment d'Indre et Loire, t. xxx., année
1850, f. 70.)
A quelques lieues de Tours, sur les bords de la Loire,
il se produit chaque année, de temps immémorial, un
phénomène fort remarquable, dont la science n'a point
encore donné d'explication satisfaisante. Ce phénomène
trop peu connu, c'est celui de la floraison, au milieu
même des rigueurs de l'hiver, de l'épine noire, prunus
spinosa, connue vulgairement sous le nom de prunellier.
Ce phénomène, nous venons de le constater nous-
mêmes de nos propres yeux, et nous pouvons l'affirmer
hautement sans crainte d'être démenti. Nous avons
cueilli ces fleurs merveilleuses et nous pouvons appeler
à notre aide les témoignages des milliers de personnes
qui chaque année à la fin de décembre les voient se
renouveler sous leurs yeux.
C'est donc un fait incon-
testable. C'est à S. Patrice, non loin du château de
Rochecotte, que se trouve ce curieux arbuste, sur le
penchant du coteau. Le mouvement de la sève, qui
devrait être stationnaire à cette époque de l'année, se
manifeste d'une manière sensible. L'écorce, toute
humide de cette sève d'hiver, se sépare sans peine du
bois qu'elle recouvre ; les boutons se gonflent, les fleurs
s'épanouissent comme au mois d'Avril et chargent les
branches d'une neige odorante; quelques feuilles
essaient plus timidement d'exposer leur verdure délicate
à la bise glacée. Le dirai-je ? Aux fleurs succédent
les fruits, et dès les premiers jours de janvier, on voit
apparaitre au sein des pétales, flétris et décolorés, à
l'extrémité d'un long pédoncule, une petite baie qui
bientôt se ride et se desséche.
Cette floraison si curieuse est presque inconnue, et
cependant elle se produit chaque année de temps im-
ST. PATRICK, APOSTLE OF IRELAND.
273
mémorial. Les vieillards les plus âgés de S. Patrice
l'ont toujours vue s'accomplir à une époque précise
quelle que fût la rigueur de la saison. C'etait aussi
l'antique tradition de leurs pères, et la légende que nous
racontons plus bas semble attribuer à ce fait une origine
très reculée.
L'arbuste dont nous parlons semble cependant être
encore fort jeune; mais il est probable qu'il se renou-
velle par les racines. Du reste le phénomène est cir-
conscrit à la localité et à l'arbuste en question. Les
branches que l'on a voulu transplanter ailleurs n'ont
offert que la floraison du printemps, et les aubépines qui
croissent au milieu des prunelliers ne manifestent aucun
mouvement de sève.
Mais, nous diront les incrédules, après tout, ce phéno-
méne n'est pas plus merveilleux que celui de la floraison
des lilas dans le mois de novembre, lorsque les bourgeons,
par une méprise imprudente, croient trouver dans une
température encore tiède les douces haleines du prin-
temps. Que nos lecteurs se détrompent : l'épine noire
de S. Patrice croit, se développe et fructifie au milieu
des rigueurs de l'hiver, par la température la plus froide.
Cette année, les fleurs se sont épanouies depuis Noël
jusqu'au 1er janvier, c'est à dire à une époque où le ther-
momètre a été presque constamment au dessous de
glace Quoique sur le penchant du coteau, l'arbuste
n'est point abrité des vents du nord, le givre en couvre
les branches, une bise glaciale y souffle avec violence,
et il arrive souvent que l'arbuste est chargé tout à la
fois et des neiges de l'hiver, et des neiges de ses fleurs.
(L'auteur réfute l'hypothèse d'une source thermale
qui serait à une faible profondeur: le sol, dit-il, reste
couvert de neige-les autres arbustes ne fleurissent
pas.)
18
274
APPENDIX. .
Les habitants de S. Patrice se racontent une vieille
tradition qui, dans sa naïvete, est pleine de fraîcheur et
de poésie. Un jour, disent-ils, S. Patrice vint d'Irlande
dans les Gaules. Il se rendit auprès de S. Martin,
attiré par la réputation de sa sainteté et de ses miracles.
Arrivé sur les bords de la Loire, non loin du lieu où
depuis fut bâtie l'église qui porte aujourd'hui, son nom,
il se reposa sous un arbuste. C'était au milieu d'un
hiver rigoureux, à l'époque des fêtes de Noël. L'arbuste
par respect pour le Saint, étendit ses branches, secoua
la neige qui le recouvrait, et, par un prodige inouï, se
couvrit d'une neige de fleurs. S. Patrice traversa la
Loire sur son manteau, et arrivé sur le bord opposé, se
reposa sous une autre épine noire, qui fleurit aussitôt.
Depuis lors, dit la chronique, les deux arbustes n'ont
cessé de fleurir chaque année, à Noël, en témoignage de
S. Patrice.
[Translation.]
"On the banks of the Loire, a few leagues from
Tours, a very remarkable phenomenon is repeated year
by year, and from time immemorial, one concerning
which science as yet has given no satisfactory explana-
tion. This phenomenon, too little known, consists in
the blossoming, in the midst of the rigours of winter, of
the blackthorn, prunus spinosa, commonly called the sloe.
We have lately verified this circumstance with our own
eyes, and can vouch for its truth without fear of contra-
diction. We can appeal to the testimony of thousands
who at the end of December in each year are eye-
witnesses to its repetition, and we have ourselves
gathered these extraordinary flowers. This remark-
able shrub is to be found at St. Patrice, upon the slope
of a hill not far from the Chateau de Rochecotte. The
ST. PATRICK, APOSTLE OF IRELAND.
275
covers.
circulation of the sap, which should be suspended in
winter, is plainly revealed by the moist state of the
bark, which easily separates from the wood which it
The buds swell, the flowers expand as in the
month of April, and cover the boughs with odorous and
snowlike flowers, while a few leaves more timidly ven-
ture to expose their delicate verdure to the icy north
wind. Shall I venture to add ? to the flowers succeed
the fruit, and at the beginning of January a small berry
appears attached to a long peduncle in the midst of the
withered and discoloured petals, which soon shrivels
and dries up.
This singular growth of flowers is almost un-
known, although it has been repeated every year from
time immemorial. The oldest inhabitants of St. Patrice
have always seen it take place at a fixed period of the
year, no matter how severe the season may be, and
such has also been the ancient tradition of their fore-
fathers, while the legend we are about to relate appears
to attribute a very remote origin to the fact; but, as
the shrub itself appears quite young, it is probable that
it is renewed from the roots. However, this pheno-
menon is limited to the locality and to the shrub in
question. Cuttings transplanted elsewhere bave only
blossomed in the spring, and the hawthorns which
grow amidst the sloes do not manifest any circulation
of sap.
“The incredulous will object that, after all, this cir-
cumstance is not more extraordinary than the flowering
of the lilac in November, when the buds by an unwary
mistake suppose that, in the still mild temperature,
they have found the soft breath of spring. Our readers
must not be deceived; the blackthorn of St. Patrick
grows, develops, and bears fruit in the midst of the
276
APPENDIX.
+
סבון
rigours of winter in the most icy temperature. This
year the flowers were in bloom from Christmas until
the first of January, that is, at a time when the ther-
mometer was almost always below freezing point.
Although growing on the slope of a hill, this shrub is in
no way sheltered from the north wind, its branches are
encrusted with hoar-frost; the icy north-east wind
blows violently amongst them, and it often happens
that the shrub is loaded at one and the same time with
the snow of winter, and the snow of its own flowers.
(The author refutes the hypothesis of the proximity
of a thermal spring; the ground, he observes, remains
covered with snow, and the other shrubs do not
blossom
• The inhabitants of St. Patrice record an ancient
tradition, which in its simplicity is full of freshness and
poetry. St. Patrick, it is said, being on his way from
Ireland to join St. Martin in Gaul, attracted by the
fame of tbat Saint's sanctity and miracles, and having
arrived at the bank of the Loire, near the spot where
the church now bearing his name has been built, rested
under a shrub. It was Christmas time, when the cold
was intense. In honour of the Saint, the shrub expanded
its branches, and shaking off the snow which rested on
them, by an unheard-of prodigy arrayed itself in flowers
white as the snow itself. St. Patrick crossed the Loire
on his cloak, and on reaching the opposite bank, another
blackthorn under which he rested at once burst out
into flowers. Since that time, says the chronicle, the
two shrubs have never ceased to blossom at Christmas,
in honour of St. Patrick."
When the present writer visited St. Patrice in
August, 1881, he was struck by the extraordinary
beauty and luxuriance of the foliage on the tree : it
ST. PATRICK, APOSTLE OF IRELAND. 277
was so dense from the ground upwards that it was
impossible to distinguish the stem, and he could under-
stand how, when it flowers at Christmas, it supplies the
country round with trophies of St. Patrick. It also
appears that they are objects of religious veneration, as
we learn that M. Dupont always kept a branch of the
Fleurs de St. Patrice, hung up in his room. The whole
neighbourhood is redolent of St. Patrick. The railway
stops at the Station St. Patrice, the Commune is also
named after the Saint, while at about thirty yards
from the tree stands the ancient parish church dedi-
cated to the Apostle of Ireland. From the style of its
architecture it is clear that this church dates from the
tenth or eleventh century, and in the Cartulaire de
l'Abbaye de Noyers, beginning with the year 1035, we find
no less than thirty charters relating to this church,
and the parish and cemetery attached to it.
1
FATHER COLGAN.
(Account of his Life and Labours, extracted from the Report
of the Historical MS. Commission. Appendix to Fourth
Report, p. 599. London, 1874.)
Among the institutions which, after the Reformation,
were established for Irish Roman Catholics on the Conti-
nent, the College of the Irish Franciscans, or Minor
Friars, at Louvain, acquired the highest national literary
reputation, as the centre, in the seventeenth century,
of an organisation for the preservation and publication
of the early history and hagiography of Ireland. .
The project of editing the Acts of the Irish Saints and
other ancient monuments of Ireland was first conceived
by Friar Hugh Ward, professor and subsequently
guardian of the Franciscan College of Louvain. Ward,
.
278
APPENDIX.
or Mac and Bhaird, a graduate of Salamanca, was of an
ancient Donegal family, which from remote times pro-
fessionally cultivated literature. His proposed work
was no doubt promoted by the literary controversy
which sprang out of the attempt made by some inju-
dicious Scotch writers to appropriate to their country
the renown for religion and learning which Ireland had
acquired in the ages during which she was styled
“Scotia Major". The design of Ward having received
the sanction of the heads of his Order, was entered
upon with zeal by Friars Patrick Fleming and Brendan,
O'Connor, who commenced researches for him in foreign
libraries. The learned Irish Jesuit Stephen White,
professor at Dilengen, also co-operated, and supplied
transcripts made by himself of documents at Biburg,
Ratisbon, and Reichenau.
The task of collecting all Gaelic materials to be
obtained in Ireland was committed to the lay brother
Friar Michael O'Clery, who belonged to a family of
native hereditary Irish chroniclers, and was himself
considered one of the most learned in that line. Aided
by some support from native Irish proprietors, to whose
religion and pride of ancestry he appealed, and sup-
plied occasionally with food and shelter in the places
of refuge of the proscribed Franciscans in Ireland,
Michael O'Clery indefatigably laboured, with some of
his kinsmen and other Irish Antiquaries, to collect,
transcribe, and methodise all available native materials.
Among the works in the Irish language thus executed
and transmitted to Louvain were the Leabhar Gabhala,
or Chronicle of the Conquests of Erin ; the Calendars of the
Irish Saints; the Successions and Pedigrees of the Irish
Kings and Saints, in the present collection; the Annals
of Ireland by the Four Masters, styled also the Annals
ST. PATRICK, APOSTLE OF IRELAND. ,
279
of Donegal, from having been compiled in a hut built
amid the ruins of the then lately dismantled Franciscan
Convent of Donegal. Fleming made considerable col-
lections from libraries in Italy for the history of St.
Columbanus, but before they reached the press he was
sent to take charge of the Irish Franciscan house at
Prague, and was murdered amid the commotions inci-
dent to the siege of that town in 1632. Ward died in
1635, without having completed any of the works which
he had projected. The materials then came to the
hands of John Colgan, also a native of Donegal, pro-
fessor of theology in the same college. In 1643
Michael O'Clery's vocabulary or glossary of difficult
Gaelic words was printed in Irish type at Louvain.
Colgan, though suffering severely from bodily in-
firmities, applied with energy to the task of preparing
some of the hagiographical manuscripts for the press,
and received much encouragement from Hugh O'Reilly,
the Roman Catholic Primate of all Ireland, who de-
frayed the cost of printing a collection of the Acts of
the Irish Saints for January, February, and March.
This, which Colgan intended to form the third volume
of the Ecclesiastical Antiquities and History of Ireland,
was published at Louvain, with the following title, in
1645, a few months after the death of Michael
O'Clery :-
“Acta Sanctorum veteris et maioris Scotiæ, sev
Hiberniæ sanctorvm insvlæ, partim ex variis per
Euro-
pam MS. codd. exscripta, partim ex antiquis monu-
mentis et probatis authoribus eruta et congesta; omnia
notis et appendicibus illustrata per R. P. F. Joannem
Colganvm, in conventu FF. Minor. Hibern. Strictioris
obseru. Louanij S. Theologiæ Lectoris Jvbilatum.
Nunc primum de eisdem actis juxta-ordinem mensium
280
APPENDIX.
et dierum prodit tomvs primvs, qui de Sacris Hiberniæ
antiquitatibus est tertius, Januarium, Februarium, et
Martium complectens."
Another volume, containing ancient Lives of SS.
Patrick, Brigid, and Columba, was, mainly at the ex-
pense of Lord Slane's son, Friar Thomas Fleming,
Archbishop of Dublin, published two years subsequently
at Louvain, under the following title :-
“Triadis Thavmaturgæ sev divorvm Patricii Col-
umba et Brigidæ, trivm veteris et maioris Scotiæ, sev
Hiberniæ, sanctorvm insvlæ, commvnivm patronorum
acta, à varijs, ijsque pervetustis, et sanctis authoribus
scripta, ac studio R. P. F. Ioannis Colgani in conventu
FF. Minor. Hibernor." &c., &c.
The following additional particulars appear in a
unique and torn copy of a printed obituary memorial
ssued by the Order at the time :-
Anno Domini 1658, 15 Januarii, Lovanii in Col-
legio S. Antonii de Padua, Fratrum Hibernorum,
strictioris observantiæ, omnibus ecclesiæ sacramentis
præmunitus, migravit ad Dominum anno suæ ætatis 66,
sacerdotii 40, professionis 38, R[everendus] A[dmodum]
P[ater] Frater Joannes Colganus, S. theologiæ lector
jubilatus, et 'collegiorum suæ provinciæ aliquamdiu
commissarius. Vir erat ab eruditione, pietate et animi
candore valde commendabilis, et præclare meritus de
suo instituto, patria [ejusque] sanctis, quorum actis, in
publicam notitiam proferendis (triginta sex] et amplius
annis pertinaci labore, indefessoque ad mortem usque
sedulus incubuit patrocinium prome
humana
fragilitate aliquid adhuc luendum . . vestris precibus
enixe commendamus. Requiescat in pace."
A catalogue of the MSS. in Colgan's cell at the time
of his death is extant in this collection. Some of these
ST. PATRICK, APOSTLE OF IRELAND.
281
are now in the library of the Dukes of Burgundy at
Brussels, and others, as will be seen, in the present
collection. Among the unpublished compilations of
Colgan and his fellow-workers were some of great
interest on the labours of, and establishments by, Irish
missionaries in England, Belgium, Bretagne, Alsace,
Lorraine, Burgundy, Germany, and Italy.
THE BOOK OF ARMAGH.
(Extracted from Sixth Report of the Deputy-Keeper of the
Public Records in Ireland, p. 105.)
The Book of Armagh is now defective at the com-
mencement. Its first portion is occupied with notes in
Latin and Irish on St. Patrick's Acts ;- a collection
styled “Liber Angueli,” relating to the rights and pre-
rogatives of the See of Armagh, and the Confession of
St. Patrick, ending, “hucusque volumen quod Patricius
manu conscripsit sua". These are followed by St.
Jerome's Preface to the New Testament; Gospels of
Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John; Epistles of St. Paul,
including that to the Laodiceans, with prefaces, chiefly
by Pelagius; Epistles of James, Peter, John, and Jude;
Apocalypse; Acts of Apostles, and Life of St. Martin of
Tours by Sulpicius Severus. It also contains coloured
drawings of the evangelistic symbols, and of these, one
page, in four compartments, is reproduced on Plate
XXVIII.
The name of the scribe of the Book of Armagh was
ascertained in recent times by the Rev. Charles Graves,
now Bishop of Limerick. Having noticed ancient and
elaborate erasures on some of its pages, he conceived
that matter connected with the history of the book
might be recovered through a careful examination of
282
A
APPENDIX.
them. Under these erasures vestiges were found of
entries in which Ferdomnach, in the customary manner
of ancient Irish transcribers, entered his name, and re-
quested a prayer from the reader. The only scribes
named Ferdomnach mentioned in Irish records are two
who died at Armagh in A.D. 790 and A.D. 844 respectively,
The latter was characterised as a wise man and a dis-
tinguished scribe. That he wrote the first part of the
Book of Armagh in A.D. 807 is assumed mainly on the
following grounds :-
At the end of the Gospel of St. Matthew, the scribe
records, in semi-Greek characters, that he finished the
writing of this Gospel on the festival of that Apostle.
That this was during the single year A.D. 807, in which
Torbach held the bishopric of Armagh, is inferred from
a fragment-bach—of the name of "the successor of
Patrick" brought to light from under another ancient
erasure. Torbach was the only bishop of the see whose
name terminates with those letters during the time of
any known scribe styled Ferdomnach
The collections concerning St. Patrick in the first
part of the Book of Arinagh constitute the oldest writings
now extant in connection with him, and are also the
most ancient specimens known of narrative composition
in Irish and Hiberno-Latin. They purport to have
been originally taken down by Bishop Tirechan from
Ultan, who was Bishop of Ardbraccan towards A.D.
650, and by Muirchu Maccu Machteni, at the request
of his preceptor, Aed, Bishop of Sletty, in the same
century. . . . It would seem that the Book of Armagh
was supposed to have been written by St. Patrick's own
hand from the following passage on page 21, at the end
of the copy of his Confession : Hucusque volumen quod
Patricius manu conscripsit suci. (See text p. 46.)
ST. PATRICK, APOSTLE OF IRELAND.
283
:
THE DOMHNACH AIRGID.
The Domhnach Airgid (the Silver Shrine) :-
Among ancient manuscripts preserved in, or con-
nected with, Ireland, which have survived to the
present time, the first place in point of age is assigned
to that contained in the antique metal case styled in
Irish, DOMANACH AIRGID (the silver shrine).
This reliquary would appear to be that mentioned as
follows in an old Life of St. Patrick, to have been given
by him to his disciple and companion, St. MacCarthen,
when he placed the latter over the See of Clogher in
the fifth century :
“Aliquantis ergo euolutis diebus MacCærtennum
sive Cærthennum Episcopum præfecit sedi episcopali
Clocherensi ab Ardmacha regni Metropoli haud multum
distante : et apud eum reliquit argenteum quoddum
reliquiarium Domnach Airgidh vulgò nuncupatum, quod
viro Dei, in Hiberniam venienti coelitùs missus erat
-Vita Sancti Patricii, by St. Evin.
The Domhnach Airgid was preserved as a reli-
quary in the neighbourhood of Clones, in the county
of Monaghan, till deposited in the Museum of the
Royal Irish Academy, about the year 1832.
The manuscript in the reliquary was then in four
portions, the membranes of each of which had become
tenaciously incorporated into an opaque solid mass.
Some of the external leaves, successfully detached and
expanded, were found to contain part of the first chapter
of a Latin version of the Gospel according to St.
Matthew, in uncial character not inconsistent with the
age to which, on examination, the manuscript was
assigned by the eminent archæologist, George Petrie,
LL.D., author of a treatise on The Ecclesiastical Archi-
tecture of Ireland anterior to the Anglo-Norman Invasion.
284
APPENDIX
The view of Dr. Petrie, communicated by him to the
Royal Irish Academy in 1838, was that “we might with
tolerable certainty conclude that the Domhnach is the
identical reliquary given by St. Patrick to St. MacCar-
then"; and that “as a manuscript copy of the Gospels, ,
apparently of that early age, is found with it, there is
every reason to believe it [the manuscript] to be that
identical one for which the box was originally made”.
-Ibid., pp. 90, 91.
THE ANCESTORS OF ST. PATRICK.
A critic has dealt rather severely with my views
(p. 58) regarding the uncertainty of the text of the
Confession in the matter of St. Patrick's ancestors,
which he characterises as an instance of “the hope-
less bondage in which an Orthodox Roman Catholic
historian lies," and he paraphrases my line of reason-
ing as follows: "In other words rather than admit
the obvious and common-sense meaning, which might,
though supported by innumerable other historical
proofs, run counter to an opinion of our own, let us
either put a perfectly gratuitous gloss on the text, or
shipwreck its authority by suggesting that the copyist
has made a mistake”.
I reply, that, as to the “hopeless bondage" of the
Catholic historian, which excites the commiseration of
my reviewer, we need not quarrel with the expression:
the service of truth is more akin to bondage, than to that
domination to which some historians aspire. In the
particular instance quoted against me, I have to choose
between the bondage of the spirit, and that of the letter.
I do not think that the suggestion of an error in
any manuscript is equivalent to "the shipwreck of its
ST. PATRICK, APOSTLE OF IRELAND.
285
authority". If this be so, then indeed we may bid
farewell to the writings of St. Patrick, seeing that the
learned Villanueva has noted 311 variations in the
different manuscripts of St. Patrick's Confession and
Epistle. The most prodigious feature of these writings
is the fact that the spirit survives, and preserves its
living identity in spite of the errors of copyists.
When I say that the spirit of St. Patrick's writings
is opposed to the idea that his immediate ancestors
were in Holy Orders, I am bound to state my reasons.
I have given some already (p. 58), and I am now glad
of an opportunity of re-opening the question, and still
further developing my argument. In the first place,
as I have remarked, St. Patrick speaks of his father,
Calphurnius, alternately as a Decurio and a Deacon,
and this discrepancy in itself is enough to throw doubt
on the accuracy of one at least of the statements. He
gives no explanation of what would be an anomaly,
whether we interpret Decurio in the military or civic
sense of the word. When, however, we find that St.
Patrick, according to his own Confession, was, at the
age of sixteen, ignorant of the existence of the true
God, it certainly seems incredible that his father and
grandfather could have been Christian ecclesiastics.
Again, as I observe (p. 57), St. Patrick, who is so
eloquent in his humility in all that concerns himself
personally, seems, for some reason unknown to us, to
attach extraordinary importance to the nobility of his
ancestry; and it is inconceivable that a Bishop could
have grounded such a claim on the fact that his father
was a Deacon. On the other hand, the theory that his
father, Calphurnius, was an officer in the Roman army
+
i Deum enim verum ignorabam. Deum unum non crede-
bam.—Confessio Sts. Patricii, i., § 1; iii., § 12.
286
APPENDIX.
fits in with both statements of the Saint; for the life
of the soldier is as unfavourable to the religious instruc-
tion of his children as it is noble and exalted in the
estimation of men of the world. By his mother's side,
St. Patrick belonged to a distinguished military family.
His kinsman, St. Martin, who was the son of a tribune
in the Imperial army, had served under the Emperor
Julian in Gaul, and a common profession would very
naturally bring St. Patrick's father, Calphurnius, and
St. Martin's relations together at some of the world-
wide stations of the Imperial army: the whole spirit,
therefore, of St. Patrick's writings is in accordance
with the opinion that he was the son of a Roman
officer.
Besides the strange discrepancy between Dccurio
and Deacon, there is another fact which tends to throw
suspicion on the accuracy of this part of the text of the
Confession. At this point in the manuscript in the
Book of Armagh, the scribe has made an addition to
the pedigree of St. Patrick, and the words "son of
Odissus” are found written on the margin. These
words Dr. Whitley Stokes has introduced into the text
of his recent edition of the Confession, and he has
done so without any note or comment. This bold
treatment of the text by an editor in the nineteenth
century reminds us that such manipulations of manu-
scripts have only been too common in all ages. Ancient
scribes, like modern editors, are often afflicted with
1 Sulpicius Severus, Vita Sti. Martini, cap. ii. & iv.
2 The Tripartite Life of St. Patrick, with other Documents relating
to the Saint. Edited, with translations and index, by Whitley Stokes,
D.C.L., &c. Published by the authority of the Lords' Commis-
sioners of Her Majesty's Treasury, &c. Vol. ii., p. 357. London,
1887.
ST. PATRICK, APOSTLE OF IRELAND. 287
the malady of desire to do more than their duty,
and to ancient Celtic scribes, with that rage for ge-
nealogies which they inherited from the bards, the
subject of pedigree would easily become a fatal temp-
tation.
The wild language of my reviewer about "obvious
and common-sense meaning” and
and “innumerable
historical proofs" is only a too common specimen of
that partisan credulity which has so dishonoured
Patrician literature. It is impossible to preserve our
gravity when we find learned critics and archæologists
gravely discussing the pedigree of one whose birth-
place is unknown, and raising critical structures on the
text of a document which, in its career of fourteen
centuries, has been so maltreated by copyists. The
Rev. J. F. Shearman is as credulous as Archbishop
Ussher. In Loca Patriciana (p. 437, n.2), the mystery
of “Odissus” is thus solemnly discussed.
the Naemsenchus Lebhar Breac," says this
learned author, “the pedigree of St. Patrick, son of
Calphurn, son of Potitus, a presbyter, son of Odissus,
&c., is carried down in sixteen generations to Britain
Moel, grandson of Nemidh, and from him to Lamech,
son of Noe.
Ussher (vol. iv., p. 378) gives only
fourteen generations; some of the names appear to
have got Latin terminations. In their present form
they are not Celtic. This pedigree gives a common,
though remote, ancestor to both Patricks. The Con-
fession gives only the names of the father and grand-
father of the writer. It is probable that subsequent
biographers used sources of information long lost or
unknown. Calphurn, or Alphurn, is styled a deacon in
the Confessio, which, as Mr. Nicholson remarks (p.
7), was a guess on the part of the transcribers of the
66 In
288
APPENDIX.
Book of Armagh, for hé writes at this word 'incertus
liber hic
It is to be hoped that the publication of so many
original Patrician documents by Dr. Whitley Stokes
will put a stop to such wild speculations as are found
in the above extract. The simple fact that the most
important of the ancient Acta of St. Patrick are now
conveniently collected together will probably save us
from that piecemeal treatment of his history, under
cover of which so many absurdities have grown and
flourished. It needs but a novice in criticism to
observe that writers like Archbishop Ussher and Dr.
Todd, who in other departments of literature are both
learned and careful, evidently treat St. Patrick's history
as a mere peg on which to hang their own fantastic
religious and archæological theories.
THE ROMAN MISSION.
Although the “Introduction” and “Notes” of Dr.
Whitley Stokes' Tripartite are evidently the work of one
in whose philosophy supernatural heroes have no part,
it would be very ungracious on the part of Catholics if
they did not acknowledge the great services which his
work has done to ancient truth, and the ancient faith.
It is true that to those acquainted with the writings of
our great Catholic authorities, O'Curry and Hennessy,
there is little that is new in Dr. Stokes's imposing
volumes. Their chief interest arises from the fact
that they bring what will be regarded as inde-
pendent testimony to the support of truths which
have always been familiar to the Irish inheritors of
the ancient Faith. In the present position of
the Church in these countries, it would be foolish
ST. PATRICK, APOSTLE OF IRELAND. 289
affectation on our part to pretend to make light of the
testimony of our adversaries. However unimportant
it may be in itself, we must remember that, both by
numbers and position, they are dominant and estab-
lished. They rule in our seats of learning, and their
literature is to a great extent the pasture on which the
minds of Catholics feed, so "in the fatness of these pursy
times” truth must submit to be patronised for the sake
of her unprotected offspring. When, therefore, " By the
authority of the Lords' Commissioners of Her Majesty's
Treasury, under the direction of the Master of the
Rolls," Dr. Whitley Stokes comes forward as the
champion of the Roman Mission of St. Patrick, we
have good reason to lift up our heads. The Roman St.
Patrick may be regarded as "by law established” when
a Government editor writes as follows: "He (St. Patrick)
had a reverent affection for the Church of Rome, and
there is no ground for disbelieving his desire to obtain
Roman authority for his mission, or for questioning
the authenticity of his decrees, that difficult cases arising
in Ireland should ultimately be referred to the Apostolic
See".1
No doubt Ireland has to thank Germany for the
final collapse of the Protestant "Apostle of Ireland”
of Ussher and Todd. It was an auspicious day when
German scholars took up the study of ancient Irish
literature. While at home its genuine voice was
stifled under the influence of party spirit, in Germany
it was allowed to speak for itself. At length Ireland
has obtained her place in the great republic of letters:
her history has passed out of the hands of a clique, and
no British historical writer endowed with the most
1 The Tripartite Life of St. Patrick, vol. ii., pp. 356, 506.
19
290
APPENDIX.
moderate sense of the ludicrous will now venture to
brave the ridicule of his foreign associates by asserting
that St. Patrick was the founder of the Protestant
Church in Ireland.
POSTSCRIPTUM.
The writer is sorry to find that, in his second
chapter, he has omitted to notice the statement of
the Scholiast on St. Fiacc (Trias Thaumaturga, p. 5),
to the effect that, in 429, St. Patrick came to Britain
in the train of the Papal Legate, St. Germanus of
Auxerre. The Bollandists (Acta SS. Mart., xvii., p. 529)
tell us that they can not bring themselves to believe
this; but their arguments against the Scholiast are
very weak. The fact is accepted by Cardinal Moran
(Essays on Irish Church, p. 17) and by Dr. Lanigan
(Eccl. Hist., p. 180). The remarks of the latter writer
are very much to the point, when he observes that
in the Lives which are silent about the fact there is
no circumstance to be met with which might tend to
invalidate the record. “The Bollandists,” he continues,
“do not admit it, as it would not accord with their
calculations, and their presupposing that our Saint was
at that time still in Lerins.'
INDEX
INDEX
A,
secrated by St. Patrick, 235; his
retirement from his See and
ADAUCTI, in Martyrology, 206.
death, 235, 259.
Adoration, plain of (see Magh Slecht). Athanasius, St., 10.
Ængus, foot of, pierced at his bap- Attila in Italy, 55, 113, 114.
tism, 215, 216.
Augustine, St., 88, 90.
Ætius, appeal of Britons to, 139.
Auxilius, companion of St. Patrick,
Age, authorities in support of St. 173 (n.).
Patrick's, 77 (n.).
Avitian and St. Martin, 82.
Agricola contemplates the invasion
of Ireland, 138; campaign in
B.
Caledonia, 138.
Aidan, St., missionary labours of, 28. BACHALL Josa, or staff of Jesus, St.
Alaric, 55, 90.
Patrick's crozier, 200; said to
Aldhelm, St., on English immigra- have been given to the Saint
tion to Ireland, 30.
by our Lord, 200 (n.); venera-
Amahor, 113.
tion in which it was held, 200
Amator, 112.
(n.).
Ambrose, St., on virginity, 237 ; Bacon, Lord, definition of a Rational-
miraculously present at St. ist, 5; on atheism, 36, 37; on
Martin's obsequies, 88.
superstition, 39; on miracles, 37.
Anchorites, great number of, in Ire- | Bangor,
Bangor, monastery of, 237 (n.);
land, 237 (n.).
martyrdom of its monks, 237
Annals of Ireland, 49.
(n.).
Anthony of Padua, St., 41.
Barbarians, descent of, upon Ireland,
Antrim, St. Patrick's return to, 175. 31 ; overthrow the Roman Em-
Argyleshire colonised by Irish Scots, pire, 54, 90, 94; St. Patrick
135.
that Ireland may not be
Armagh, Book of, antiquity and im- subdued by, 210.
portance of, 45, 47, 48; famous Bards, Irish, influence of, 156 ; their
school of, 27, 129; Church and privileges, 157; evidence they
See of, founded, 219 and seq.; bear to St. Patrick's mission,
St. Patrick's successors in, 222; 159 ; saved from extinction by
supremacy of, 222 (n.).
St. Columba, 159 ; theory that
Arnola, Matthew, 127.
St. Patrick was a creation of,
Assicus, St., Bishop of Elphin, con- 157, 158.
1
prays the
294
INDEX
1
A
Bede, Venerable, on the Scottic in- i Caledonia, partially annexed to Ire-
vasion of Caledonia, 135; on the land, 135.
richness of Ireland, 136, 144; on Calphurnius, father of St. Patrick,
the influx of the English to Irish 57 ; death of, 63.
Schools, 30.
Canon of St. Patrick, on appeals to
Benedict, St., Rule of, accepted by Rome, 31.
Irish monks, 29.
Canonisation, 36.
Benignus, St., author of the Vita Caplait, 201, 208.
Tertia, 47; assists at revision Caradoc (see Coroticus).
of Brehon Laws, 153 ; his fiery Carthend, father of St. Treha, 238.
ordeal, 187; his attachment to St. Cashel of the kings, St. Patrick's re-
Patrick, 172, 173, 181; succeeds ception at, 215.
him in the See of Armagh, 173. Casula, St. Patrick's, 187.
Berchan, St., poem attributed to, Celestine I., St., sends St. Palladius
264 (n.).
to Ireland, 27, 107, 168; appoints
Bernard, St., his life of St. Malachy, St. Patrick to succeed him, 99, 109.
200 (n.), 237 (n.); his account of Cem Cruaich, chief idol of Erin, 198;
St. Patrick's crozier, 200 (01.).
destroyed by St. Patrick, 199,
Betham, Sir W., 4, 50.
200; its locality identified, 199.
Bishops, number of, consecrated by Charlemagne, 228.
St. Patrick, 259.
Chrysostom, St., 90.
Bobbio, 27.
Chuchulaind, lament of, 156.
Bollandists, the, 15, 40, 46, 47. Church, the, in the fourth and fifth
Bordeaux, 73.
centuries, 53, 54, 90.
Bossuet on St. Francis of Assisi, 101. Church, Irish, orthodoxy of, 25, 30,
Breastplate (see " Lorica ”).
169 ; never a State Church, 28;
Brehons (Irish Judges), privileges of, extraordinary growth of, 167.
157.
Ciaran, St., prediction of St. Patrick
Brendan, St., birth of, foretold by concerning, 246 ; founds the
St. Patrick, 217.
monastery of Clonmacnois, 246
Brigid, St., makes a shroud for St. (n.); see also p. 25.
Patrick's burial, 264; is present Cimboeth, 143.
at his death, 265, 268.
Cinne, St., 239, 240.
Brosna, Munstermen follow St. Civilisation in Ireland prior to St.
Patrick to, 218.
Patrick, 164.
Burke, Edmund, on miracles, 37; see Clare, not visited by St. Patrick on
also pp. 30 (n.), 144.
his first journey to Munster, 217.
Claudian, on the expeditions of the
Scoti, 60.
Clibech, 201.
CAIBRE, Riada, leads an Irish Colony Chorepiscopi, order of, 259.
to Argyleshire, 135.
Clonard, school of, 78.
Cain Lanamhna, 152.
Clonmacnois, burial place of Irish
Cain Patrick, or Senchus Mor, 147, kings, 246.
151, 194.
Clovesho, council of, recommends
Cairbre, son of Nial of the Nine genuflections, 252 (n.).
Hostages, 197.
Clovis, 228 (11.); see also pp. 150, 165.
C.
ST. PATRICK, APOSTLE OF IRELAND.
295
Colgan, Fr., author of Acta Sanc- [ Cruachan Aigle (see Croagh Patrick).
torum Hiberniae, 32, 47, 64; | Cummian, St., "Penitential” of,
account of the “Lorica," 184
59 (n.).
(n.); importance of the Lives Curragh, St. Brigid's convent at the,
of St. Patrick preserved by, 32; 264.
account of the life and labours Curran, 147.
of, 277.
Cusack, M. F., life of St. Patrick by,
Colman, St., on the Easter question, 51.
27.
Cyprian, St., 17.
Columba, St., saves the Irish bards
from extinction, 159 ; apostle of
D.
the Northern Picts, 135; see also DAIRE, grants site of Armagh Cathe-,
21, 25, 29.
dral to St. Patrick, 220, 221; as-
Columbanus, St., rule of, 58 (n.).
sists at revision of the Brehon
Columbcille (see Columba).
Laws, 153.
Conaire, Mor, 146.
Danes, martyrdom of monks by,
Conall, son of Nial of the Nine
237 (n.).
Hostages, conversion of, 197. Dathi, death of, 134.
Conchessa, mother of St. Patrick, 59; | De Courcy urges Jocelyn to write St.
a relative of St. Martin of Patrick's life, 49.
Tours, 59.
Dega, 180.
Confession, St. Patrick's, 15, 33, 45, De Vere, Legends of St. Patrick,
46, 57, 67.
11; popularises the Ossianic
Conindrus, missionary in the Isle of Poems, 160, 161; on Irish chi.
Man, 234.
valry, 136.
Connaught, St. Patrick in, 200, 213. Devil, the, belief in, 41; power of, 42,
Constantine, 54, 90.
43.
Corc assists at revision of the Brehon Dichu opposes St. Patrick: is con-
Laws, 153.
verted, 173-175.
Cormac Mac Airt, invasion of Cale- Domhnach Airgid, account of, 283.
donia by, 140.
Dominica Magna, churches founded
Cormac, Bishop, fifth successor of by St. Patrick, so called, 217 (11.).
St. Patrick in the See of Armagh, Donagh Patrick, the Church of,
258.
founded, 197.
Coroticus, supposed to have been a Druids, contest of, with St. Patrick at
Welsh prince, 223 ; his maraud- Tara, 179; anticipate his coming,
ing expedition into Ireland, 223; 174; and the Easter fire, 179.
excommunicated by the Saint, Drumceatt, convention of, 159.
224, 225 ; his punishment, 229; Dubhtach, chief bard of Erin, 153,
see also pp. 15, 33, 46, 58.
185.
Croagh Patrick, St. Patrick's prayer Dupont, M., and the Flowers of St.
Patrick, 277.
Crozier, St. Patrick's, veneration of, Durrow, University of, 27, 129.
200 (n.), 198.
Cruachan, residence of the kings of
E.
Connaught, 200; St. Patrick's EASTER, controversy on the time of
visit to, 200.
keeping, 27, 29.
on, 208.
296
INDEX."
assas-
Ebmoria (see Ivrea and Eboria). Finian, St., studies at Marmoutier,
Eboria, place of St. Patrick's conse- 78.
cration, 110.
Finnine, St. Patrick blesses the
Egypt, necromancy imported to Ire- Munstermen from, 216.
land from, 180 (n.).
Firbolgs, 133.
Elelius, bis son restored to life by St. " Flowers of St. Patrick," 73, 80,
Patrick's disciples, 241.
271.
Eleran the Wise, St., author of the Focluth, probably known to St.
Vita Quarta, 47.
Patrick, 68'; mysterious message
Elias invoked by St. Patrick in his from people of, 92.
temptation, 71.
Foilge-Berrad attempts to
Emania, residence of the kings of sinate St. Patrick, 218.
Ulster, 220.
Fosterage, law of, in ancient Erin,
England, final conversion of, due to 152.
Irish monks, 26.
Francis, St., of Assisi, 101, 184 (n.).
Eochaid restored to life by St. Patrick, Franks, mentioned by St. Patrick,
239-241.
228.
Epistle of St. Patrick (see Coroticus).
G.
Eporia (see Eboria).
GARBAN, restored to life by St.
Erc, conversion of, 180.
Patrick, 233.
Ethembria, first Irish virgin who Garchon, 171.
embraced the religious life, 264. Gaul, its freedom from heresy, 31;
Ethna, baptism and death of, 200, state of, after St. Martin's death,
205.
94.
Ethnology, 146, 147.
Genealogies, book of, 149; of St.
Euboria (see Eboria).
Patrick, 284.
Eusebius, 17.
Genseric, 55.
Evin, St., author of Tripartite Life, Genuflexions, St. Patrick's habit of
47.
making, 252; Plain of (see
Magh Slecht).
F.
Germanus, St., St. Patrick places
FAITH, purity of, in Ireland, proved himself under direction of, 84,
by teaching of Irish missionaries, 99, 102, 103; St. Patrick accom-
23; St. Patrick's, 230 et seg.
panies him to Britain, 284.
Fast, St. Patrick's, 209.
Giraldus Cambrensis, 122.
Fawn, St. Patrick and the, 221 ; Be- Görres on Demonology, 42.
nignus appears under form of a, Green, Mr., on Celtic and Latin
182.
Christianity, 27.
Fearghus assists at revision of the Gregory of Nyssa, St., 58; on St. Gre-
Brehon Laws, 153.
gory Thaumaturgus, 178.
Fedelm, conversion and death of, 200, Gregory of Tours, St., account of
205.
St. Martin's miracles, 48; on St.
Fenian poems, 160, 162.
Martin's obsequies, 88.
Ferdiad, lament over, 156.
Gregory Thaumaturgus, St., miracles
Fiacc, St., Bishop of Sletty, author of, 41, 178.
of Vita Prima, 52, 185.
H.
Fienè, chivalrous rules of, 136. HAVERTY, history of, quoted, 237 (n.).
ST. PATRICK, APOSTLE OF IRELAND.
297
a
1: -
Hennessy, W. M., his translation of
J.
the Tripartite, 51.
JEROME, St., 10, 90, 133.
Henry II., 263 (n.).
Jocelyn, author of Vita Sexta, 47;
Hilary, St., of Poitiers, 58, 59.
see also pp. 15, 48, 49, 263 (n.).
Hogan, F., edits the Brussels Book Johnson, Dr., definition of
of Armagh, 47.
tionalist, 5.
Honorius, Emperor, 60, 113.
Joyce, Dr., on the legend of the
Hurter, Rev. F., quoted, 15.
Shamrock, 191 (n.).
Hymn of St. Patrick, 33, 52, 182.
Judgment day, St. Patrick to judge
the Irisb on, 211.
I.
K.
IBERIO, name applied to Ireland by KEATING, Fr., 125.
St. Patrick, 133.
Kerry, 217.
Idols, destruction of, by St. Patrick, Knox, Rev. T. F., on miracles, 36.
198, 215; worship of, in Ireland,
198 (n.), 257.
Inbher Dea, 171.
L.
Inbher Nainge, 172.
LAEGHAIRE orders St. Patrick's ex-
Insula Beata (see also Lerins), 95.
pulsion from Ireland, 174; con-
Iona, monks of, 26.
test with the Saint at Tara, 176,
Ireland, a pagan nation before St.
179; assists at revision of the
Patrick's coming, 168; civilisa- Brehon Laws, 153; St. Patrick's
tion of, in the fifth century, 117; prophecy concerning descen-
its intellectual development, 21, dants of, 189; his death and
22, 23, 121, 145; rapidity of its warlike obsequies, 194.
conversion, 25, 40, 256, 257.
Lamp of the West,” Ireland known
Ireland, purity of its morals and
as the, 23.
doctrine, 166; its military or- Lanigan, Dr., 9, 48, 50.
ganisation, 136, 140, 143; rich- Law, state of, in Ireland prior to St.
ness and prosperity of, 144; its Patrick, 164.
historical treasures, 123.
Leabhar na Huidhre, description of
Irish Church, orthodoxy of, 22, 24, Laeghaire's burial, 195.
26, 28, 31, 99; monastic character Lebher Brecc, 182 (n.).
of, 259, 260.
Ledwich, Dr., denies St. Patrick's
Irish history, most glorious period existence, 6, 50.
of, 21.
Legends, Irish, pure and exalted
Irish histories, value of, 131.
morality of, 165, 207.
Irish monks, 120.
Leo, St., 169, 170, 259 (n.).
Irish people, honour paid to learning Lepers healed by St. Martin's kiss,
by, 163; rapidity of their con- 82; extraordinary sanctity of,
version, 236, 257; missionary 245; Jewish law respecting, 244;
zeal of, 22, 27, 40.
St. Patrick's love of, 244-246;
Iserninus accompanies St. Patrick cures sixteen at one time, 246.
to Ireland, 173 (n.).
Lindisfarne, School of, 26.
: Ivrea (see Eboria), 110.
Lerins, Island of, 95.
298
INDEX.
1
Loca Patriciana, unreliable charac- Malachy, St., Archbishop of Armagh,
ter of Scottish, 2.
262; Legate of the Holy See,
Loch-Cé, annals of, 199.
262.
Loire, St. Patrick crosses the, 80; Malachy, disciple of St. Patrick, re-
Nial slain on banks of, 61, 91 buked for want of faith, 242.
(n.).
Man, Isle of, Irish missionaries sent
Longevity, renarkable instances of, to, 234.
77; authorities in support of St. Manning, Cardinal, on the Irish
Patrick's, 77.
Episcopate, 167.
Loofs, Dr., on the Irish and Roman Marmoutier, St. Patrick at, 73, 75,
Churches, 26.
78, 80, 81.
Lorica, or Breastplate of St. Martin of Tours, St., connection
Patrick,” 182; antiquity of, 185 of St. Patrick with, 73, 84;
(n.); use of by the Irish peasan- his father an Hungarian, 59, 82;
try, 182, 184 (n.); doctrinal ideas orthodoxy of his disciples, 31 ;
contained in, 206.
widespread devotion to, 4, 81, 82;
Lough Derg, men of Munster baptised heals the leper at Paris, 244;
at, 216.
Our Lady visits him, 84; his
Luchat Mael, magical powers of, 186; miracles, 84; apostolical charac-
his ordeal, 187.
ter of, 85; St. Ambrose per-
Luchru, chief antagonist of St. forms his obsequies, 88; date of
Patrick at Tara, 180.
his death, 76, 86, 89.
Luther, effect of his teaching on Maximus of Turin, St., consecrates
Christian literature, 14.
St. Patrick, 112-114.
Luxeuil, monastery of, 29.
Meave (or Mab), Queen, 146, 156, 165.
Melrose, Old, monastery of, 26.
M.
Milcho, St. Patrick sold to, 64;
MABILLON, on monasticism in Ire-
dream of, interpreted by the
land, 58 (n.).
Saint, 66; his tragic death, 175,
Maccuthenus, 110.
176.
Macha (see Armagh).
Milesians, their conquest of Ireland,
McErc, St. Patrick's compassion for, 133, 148; magical arts of, 180 (n.).
247.
Miracles, St. Patrick's, not matters of
M‘Firbis, 148, 149.
faith, 13, 34, 49; how far we are
MacGeoghegan on Dathi's death, 134 called on to believe them, 35, 37.
(n.).
Missionaries, Irish, zeal and success
MacKyle, St., penance imposed upon,
of, 26.
233, 234; Bishop of the Isle of Mochta, St., profession of faith of,
Man, 234.
169; and the twelve lepers, 247.
Macteus, (see Mochta).
Monks, great number of, in Ireland
Mael, 201, 208.
in St. Patrick's time, 237; their
Magh-Bregh, stronghold of supersti- foreign missions, 24.
tion in Meath, 176.
Montalembert, on Lanigan's History,
Magh-Slecht, principal seat of idola- 9; conversion of England and
try in Erin, 198.
the Irish monks, 26; on Luxeuil,
Magical arts practised in Ireland, 29 (11.); the purity of Irish
180 (n.).
legends, 165 (n.).
ST. PATRICK, APOSTLE OF IRELAND.
299
48.
N.
Montfaucon on the antiquity of St. Magh Slecht, 198-200; descrip-
Mochta's profession of faith, tion of Clonmacnois, 246 (n.).
170 (n.).
O'Donovan, Dr., on O’Curry as a
Moore, Thomas, unfit to be an Irish Celtic scholar, 127; and the
historian, 131 (n.).
Senchus Mor, 151.
Moran, Cardinal, account of St. Odran, St., martyrdom of, 218, 219.
Patrick's consecration, 110-113. O'Hanlon, F., his attack on Jocelyn,
Muratori, St. Mochta's profession of
faith discovered by, 170 (u.). Ollamh, privileges of, in ancient
Erin, 163.
Ossian, 150, 160-162.
Ossianic poems, Bardic view of St.
NATHI opposes St. Patrick on his
Patrick in, 159; date of, 161;
landing in Wicklow, 171.
in accord with Irish history,
Neander, Rev. Dr., assumptions
132.
of, 7.
Ossianic Society, Transactions of,
Necromancy, practised by the
quoted, 161.
ancient Irish, 180 (n.).
Oswald, 28.
Neophytes, St. Patrick's, killed or
Oswy, 28.
carried off by Coroticus, 225.
Newman, Cardinal, antecedent pro-
P.
bability of miracles, 18; power PAGANISM, power of, in Ireland, 161.
of the evil spirits, 178; the Church Palladius, St., sent by Pope Celes-
in the fifth century, 22; Ireland in
tine to Ireland, 106, 168; failure
the sixth century, 23 (n.); ortho-
of his mission, 103, 107, 171; dies
doxy of the Church in Gaul, 31;
in Britain, 107.
his relations with O'Curry, 129;
Patria,” St. Patrick's, 72, 91 (n.).
see also pp. 121, 131.
Patrice, St., church of, 74, 80;
Nial of the Nine Hostages, father of
"Fleurs de," 73, 80, 271.
Laeghaire, 61, 91, 134.
Patrick, junior, author of the Vita
Ninian, apostle of the Southern
Secunda, 47.
Picts, 229.
Patrick, St., sources of his history,
Northmen, incursions of, into Ire-
44-47; their value and authen-
land, 31, 121.
ticity, 34; unity and consistency,
32,34; relation to Church history,
0,
10; sceptical theories respecting
O'CONNELL, Daniel, 147.
him, 4; hostility of Protestant
O’Curry, on date of Probus, 47; writers to, 4-7; theory that his
British Museum Tripartite, 51; life was invented by the bards,
his authority as a critic, 127; 157; modern contributions to
on the value of Irish histories, his history, 50 et seq.; ancient
131; the religion of the Druids, lives of, when and by whom
150; the honour paid to learning written, 47 et seq.; date of his
in Ireland, 163; state of Ireland birth, 76; his Roman origin, 55;
at St. Patrick's coming, 163; the his mother a relative of St.
unfair treatment of Irish history, Martin of Tours, 59; his parents
180 (n.); on identification of are slain, 63; captivity in Ireland,
300
INDEX.
1
death,
89;
60,61; employed to tend Milcho's
sheep, 62; his austerities during
captivity, 62; its duration, 66;
interprets Milcho's dream, 66;
visited by the angel Victor, 65;
escapes from captivity, 67 et
seq.; the Saint on the way to
his "own country," 70; miracu-
lously obtains food for his com-
panions, 70; invokes Elias in
his temptation, 71; his journey
through Gaul, 78; his second
captivity, 91; arrives at Tours,
80; his relations with St. Martin,
75-89; remains four years with
him, 80, 85,86; quits Marmoutier,
91; his history after St. Martin's
his wanderings
through Gaul and Italy, 100;
hears the “ Voice of the Irish,"
92, 232; revisits his relations,
92; his visions, 92, 96; at Lerius,
95; under direction of St.
Germanus; 99, 102; opposition
to his episcopate, 94, 169; is
consecrated Bishop, 97, 106;
appointed to succeed Palladius,
106, 107; goes to Rome to
obtain the Pope's sanction for
his Irish mission, 108; receives
his commission from Pope
Celestine, 108, 115; commence-
ment of his public life, 106;
receives the Bachall Josa or
Crozier, 200 (n.); lands in Wick-
low, 170; re-embarks and lands
in Meath, 172; arrives at Strang-
ford Lough; is opposed by
Dichu, 173; proceeds to the
house of his old master, Milcho,
175; sets out for Tara, and lights
the Easter fire, 179; is summoned
to a conference by King Laeg-
haire, 179; contends with the
pagans on Tara Hill, 180, 185;
going from Slane to Tara, escapes
assassination, 182; destroys
idols at Magh Slecht, 198; visits
Connaught, 200; conversion of
daughters of Laeghaire, 201-205;
fasting and prayer on Croagh
Patrick, 209; his stay in Con-
naught for seven years, and
return to Ulster, 213; proceeds
through Leinster to Cashel, and
is received by Ængus, 215; his
reception by the men of Munster,
216; returns through Leinster
and escapes assassination, 218;
founds the Church and See
of Armagh, 219 et seq.; his
letter to, and excommunication
of, Coroticus, 223-229; his faith,
and how he imparted it to others
230 et seq.; his compassion and
reverence for the afflicted, 243;
revises the Brehon Laws, 153,
155; cures sixteen lepers at one
time, 246; prayers and austeri-
ties, 251, 253; marvellous effect
of his preaching, 255; knowledge
of Holy Scripture, 102; retires
from the See of Armagh, 258;
the number of bishops con-
secrated by, 259; his vision of
the future of the Church in
Ireland, 261; his end approaches;
wishes to go to Armagh, 263;
the angel Victor meets him and
bids him return to Uladh, 263;
prays for the perseverance of
the Irish people, 267; his death
and the prodigies which attended
it, 268; dispute for the possession
of his body, 268; lived to the
age of 120 years, 76, 77; date
of his death, 40, 124; his
humility and perseverance,
93, 103; his love for his
spiritual children, 243; growth
and endurance of his work, 8,
166; his spiritual conquests, 2;
predominance of
the super-
natural in his life, 14, 196; com-
ST. PATRICK, APOSTLE OF IRELAND.
301
as, 236.
134.
3
pared to St. Paul, 17; mitred Saints, Island of," Ireland known
sons of, 167; sayings of, 100.
Petrie, on the antiquity of the Saul, St. Patrick spends some of his
Lorica," 185 (n.); date of St. later years at, 261, 264.
Patrick's mission, 106 (n.). Saxons, devastations of the, 56; their
Pictones (or Pictavi), 91.
first incursion into Ireland, 210
Picts, Northern, converted by St. (n.).
Columba, 228; Southern, by St. Scota, Queen, death of, 141 (n.).
Ninian, 229.
Scotia Major, Ireland known as, 278.
Pliny, on magic arts in Britain, 150. Scots, character of the, 21, 40, 149;
Poetry of ancient Erin, influence of, of Caledonia, hostile to the Irish,
156.
228; Irish, adventurous spirit of,
Polycarp, St., 17.
Probus, author of the Vita Quinta, Scottish lady converted by St. Pat-
47, 49; account of St. Patrick's rick, 257.
journey to Tours, 78, 100.
Seanchaidhe, or historian, preroga-
Prosper, St., on the mission of Palla- tives of, 163.
dius, 168.
Sechnall, St., Hymn of, 52.
Secundinus accompanies St. Patrick
to Ireland, 173 (n.).
R.
Senanus, St. Patrick's prophecy
RATH-LAEGHAIRE, 194. .
concerning, 217.
Rationalist, definition of a, 5.
Senchus-M0r, Pagan code of Irish
Rationalistic criticism, 5, 6.
law revised by St. Patrick, 151,
Religion of the ancient Irish, 149, 198
194.
(n.).
Sept-Dormants, pilgrimage of, 87.
Remigius, St., baptises Clovis, 228 Severus, Emperor, 138.
(n.).
Shamrock, legend of the, 191.
Roman Empire, overthrow of, 55, 90. Shearman, Rev. J. F., 4.
Roman Mission, St. Patrick's, 98, Simon Magus, 181.
106, 109, 288.
Simon Stylites, St., 252 (n.).
Romans, conquest of Britain by the, Skene, Mr., on O'Curry's writings,
137; contemplate invasion of 127.
Ireland, 138.
Slemish, St. Patrick's prayers and
Rome, appeals to, from Irish Church,
austerities on, 33, 64-69 (n.), 175,
232.
Romulus sent by St. Patrick to Isle Sligo, St. Patrick's work in, 208.
of Man, 234.
Stokes, Whitley, 52.
Sullivan, Dr., 132, 144.
Sulpicius Severus, his biography of
St. Martin, 10, 81; dialogues of,
SAINTS, works beyond our compre-
83.
hension, 3; each country has its
special types of, 3; interest of
their biographies, 3; take root in
T.
foreign nations, 4; belief in, a
part of the Catholic faith, 7. TACITUS on the contemplated Roman
31.
S.
302
INDEX.
{ A
on, 192.
U.
invasion of Ireland, 138; Ireland | Trinity, the, St. Patrick's doctrine
as a commercial country, 144;
see also pp. 134-165.
Tripartite, date and importance
Tain Bo Chuailgne on Queen Mab, of, 47, 51; localities of, identi-
146.
fied, 214 (n.).
Tara, St. Patrick's contest with the Tuatha dé danaann, 133; subdued by
pagans at, 176 et seq.
the Milesians, 148; characteris-
Tassach, Bishop, administers the tics of the, 149.
Viaticum to St. Patrick, 266. Turin (see Maximus), 112-114.
Telltown, reception of St. Patrick
at, 197.
Terry-Glass, baptism of the men of
North Munster at, 216.
ULADH, St. Patrick's vision, and the
Theodosius the Great, 54, 88, 90.
mysterious light in, 262, 263.
Thomas, St., on Grace, 20; on de-
Ulster, Annals of, on chronology of
moniacal interferences, 44.
St. Patrick's life, 124; doctrine
Tillemont, critical principles of, 17,
of the Saint, 169.
52; on St. Patrick's learning,
University of Europe," Ireland
102; vindication of St. Pat-
known as the, 23.
rick's Confession, 18; estimate Ussher, on the antiquity of the
of St. Patrick, 14, 15.
“Lorica," 185; see also pp. 4,50.
Tinmouth, John of, on St. Patrick's
consecration, 110.
Todd, Dr., on the supernatural in
V.
St. Patrick's life, 7, 19; his
Apostle of Ireland, 39, 50, VARTRY, river, St. Patrick lands at
125; on St. Patrick's consecra-
mouth of, 171.
tion, 109; conversion of Ethna | Vatican Council, St. Patrick's sons
and Fidelm, 205 (n.); founda- at, 167.
tion of the See of Armagh, Vercingetorix, 165.
222 (11.).
Victor, angel, visits St. Patrick, 65, 92,
Tonsure, controversy respecting the,
251 ; tells the Saint where he is
29.
to die, 263 ; advises the Saint to
Tours (see St. Martin), 73, 78.
receive the Viaticum, 266.
Tradition,
unfair treatment
of
Villanueva, editor of the works of
Irish, 180 (n.).
St. Patrick, 46.
Traditions regarding St. Patrick, 2.
Virgin Ireland," 166.
Trajectus, St. Patrick's journey to, Virgins, number in Ireland who
embraced the religious life,
73, 78.
257.
Treha, St., holiness of, foretold by
St. Patrick, 238; her consecra-
“ Voice of the Irish” heard by St.
tion to the religious life, 238,
Patrick in a vision, 92, 100, 232.
239.
Trian, cruel treatment of slaves by,
W.
249; death of, 250.
Trias Thaumaturga, authenticity of, Wars not incompatible with civilisa-
48.
tion, 164.
47,1
ST. PATRICK, APOSTLE OF IRELAND.
303
Whitby, Synod of, 27.
of, converted by St. Patrick,
Wilfrid, St., of York, 30, 252.
166.
Willibrord, apostle of the Frisians,
30:
X.
Women, Irish, their influence, 166; XAVIER, Francis, St., miracles of,
mothers'of heroes, 365; number 241, 253.
THE LIFE OF ST. PATRICK,
APOSTLE OF IRELAND.
(FOURTH EDITION.)
OPINIONS OF THE PRESS.
From some thirty-six Reviews of this Worl the publishers have selected
the following which touch upon the disputed questions in St. Patrick's
life; the concessions of most of the Protestant Reviews are specially
interesting.
MIRACLE S.
“This strange book . . . surely this is grovelling. Mr. Morris has
drunk of the cup of the enchantress, and one is apt to think that Milton,
when he wrote his Comus, and pictured the results of quafling the oup of
Circe, must have had such cases as Mr. Morris's in his thoughts."—Church
Quarterly, July, 1889, p. 407. :
“We have no quarrel at all with his attitude on the question of miracles
in itself."-Saturday Review, 17th March, 1888.
“We notice that Father Morris has, in certain quarters, been blamed for
too great a credulity as to the marvellous element in the Saint's recorded
life, and for too great a readiness in trusting certain authorities. As
regards the latter point, the author states his reasons for accepting those
authorities on whom he relies, and to us, at least, those reasons appear
entirely cogent. As to Father Morris's attitude respecting the miraculous
stories associated with St. Patrick, it is characterised by the soundest
common-sense and an evident desire to avoid over-credulity."-John Bull,
23rd November, 1888.
“In a word, the historical St. Patrick is surrounded by an atmosphere of
the supernatural and the marvellous; tho St. Patrick of modern bio-
graphers, reduced to natural proportions, a caricature of the real St.
Patrick, with evorything wonderful explained away, never lived on earth.
OPINIONS OF THE PRESS.
"Belief in the Saints is a part of the Catholic faith. As soon as we allow
them to be pulled down to the vulgar level of ordinary life they disappear
from our sight. In St. Patrick's life there are two elements, the natural
and the miraculous, but it is the latter which gives its meaning to the
former. The events of his life, taken separately in their mere outward
appearance, may be compared with those of Buddha or Mahomet; and
those who would have it that one religion is as good as another, which
means that they believe in none, will perhaps give the palm to the
mpostors. It is not for such readers that a Catholic writer composes the
biography of a Saint (p. 7).
Decidedly not, and anyone hoping or pretending to give an account of
a Saint's life which could be satisfying to a rationalistic mind puts himself
in a grotesquely false position. The supernatural must be taken for
granted, and if the cramped narrowness of the rationalistic mind finds rio
place for the supernatural so much the worse for rationalism.
Accurate criticism exacts, however, that we should be sure of the
sources of our information, of their trustworthiness aud veracity. St.
Patrick's biographer has a singular advantage in the copiousness of con-
temporary records. Four lives at least are extant written by his own
disciple, or within half a century of his death, those by St. Fiace, Patrick
the younger, St. Benignus, and St. Evin, while the Saint's Confessions,
written by himself, a work of undisputed authenticity, give unity to the
whole. With such materials no difficulty ought to lie in our way, were it
not that we have it as it were to unlearn and sweep out of our path so
much that has hitherto been written in a hostile spirit, so that, to use
Father Morris's own words, he has to write in the spirit of an apologist as
well as of an historian.”—The Tablet, 14th July, 1888.
"This is a book of a higher literary, antiquarian, and historical order
than usually falls within the series, and not less of a devout character.
There is prefixed to it an inquiry into the authority of the traditional
history of the Saint of considerable value, marked by careful discrimination
and weighing of evidence. The Church in the fourth century must be of
interest. to all, and our own portion in it of special interest to Anglicans.
St. Patrick, with whatever of legend has gathered round, remains a
prominent figure in its history; his early miracles may be discredited, but
his six years' captivity in Ireland is incontestable; his preparation there
for his mission, no less than the great results of that mission, as well as his
visit to England, are here excellently put together."--The Church Review,
23rd November, 1878.
CHARACTER OF SAINT.
“From Ussher down to Dr. Todd it has been persistently attempted to
minimise the historic identity of Ireland's Apostle. The illustrious name
was a myth, or the conglomerate of the lives and acts of more than one
OPINIONS OF THE PRESS
individual-anyhow, one was left with the impression that the story was
mainly untrustworthy. Nor, indeed, when we come to the genuine records
that remain, is it easy to define the subject with much circumstantial
precision of detail. Twice the number that claimed Homer dispute the
honour of the birthplace of St. Patrick. His father is described now as a
deacon, now as a decurion. No dates are given, and, with the exception of
the names of his father and grandfather and Prince Caradoc, not a single
proper name is to be found in the Saint's writings. Yet, when we take the
autobiography of St. Patrick as basis, adding to it what may be legitimately
gathered from the Acta and other documents, we get a view of an historic
personage as little to be doubted as our own Alfred. And a very beautiful
portrait it is.”—The Bookseller.
1
" The secret of Father Morris's success is, that he has got the proper
key to the extraordinary, the mysterious life and character of St. Patrick.
He has taken the Saint's own authentic writings as the foundation
whereon to build. Whatever he finds in the various lives, and other
records, in harmony with the Saint's own words, he accepts, and arranges
judiciously in its proper place in his Life, Whatever he finds in the lives,
and other authorities, irreconcilable with the Saint's own writings he
rejects, if he cannot satisfactorily explain,"–Irish Ecclesiastical Record.
6
“St. Patrick was called upon to do a prodigious and supernatural work,
and God endowed him with gifts proportionate to the undertaking.
Tillemont caught the secret of the Saint's character when he said of him:
Who can be surprised if, in an enterprise altogether apostolic, God
should have led in the way of the Prophets and Apostles a Saint who
appears to have borne a greater resemblance to them than to those Saints
who have succeeded them ? ... In one word, we see in him much of the
character of St. Paul.' F. Morris has put these words on his title-page,
and their spirit is manifest throughout the book. They are the key to
the Saint's life; bearing them in mind we find no difficulty in the wonder-
ful things which are recorded of him, and which certain writers have
taken it upon them to reject. Everything in St. Patrick was extraordinary
--his captivity, his privations, his prayers, his fasting, his mortifications,
his long and laborous perparation for his episcopate, his length of life, the
success of his labours, and the influence which he has preserved to this
day over the people whom he brought forth from pagan darkness to the
full light of the Christian faith. ... The lives of St. Patrick hitherto
published have contained only the broken fragments of bis portrait, inter-
mingled with so many archeological discussions, that it is no wonder
his personal identity should have altogether disappeared. F. Morris, by
fidelity to the ancient lives, has placed three different fragments in one
OPINIONS OF THE PRESS. .
frame, each in its own place; the unity of the picture is restored; we at
last see the Father and Founder of Christianity in Ireland in his true
light; we are able to make bis acquaintance, to estimate his character, his
prodigious work, and the means by which it was accomplished. St. Patrick
is presented to us as he is portrayed in the old lives, in his office at once of
Prophet, Apostle, and Legislator, and with that passionate love of souls
which we can readily understand in him who abandoned home and kindred
and country in answer to that mysterious voice inviting him to come and
walk among the children of Erin.”—The Tablet, 27th July, 1878.
"But hitherto even those most anxious to cultivate devotion to St.
Patrick have laboured under a most serious disadvantage. Previous to
the publication of the recent discovery of Irish manuscripts, his life was
shrouded in mystery so great that even learned men (outside the Church)
ventured to declare it altogether a myth. It was therefore scarcely possible
to obtain a definite notion of his character. . . . In it the great difficulty to
which we have alluded has been removed. Father Morris not only treats
with great success the historical portion of his subject, but presents us to a
noble portrait of a great Apostle, whom he justly designates as another
St. Paul. Until we read this life, we must confess we never imagined that
poor human nature, even with the marvellous assistance of Divine Grace,
could produce a hero of such gigantic proportions as those in which St.
Patrick is here exhibited to us.”—Franciscan Annals, September, 1878.
BIRTHPLACE.
"The secret of the author's success, where so many have hitherto failed,
is his steady adherence to the method adopted by Le Nain de Tillemont,
when writing his abstract of the Saint's life in his Ecclesiastical Annals (p.
17)-in other words, his choice of St. Patrick's own genuine writings-his
Confession, the Epistle to the Christian subjects of the tyrant Coroticus, and
his ' Lorica,' or 'breast-plate'--where withhe tests the several data of
the various lives and other records. Failing this test, he discusses with
judicial discernment statements not inconsistent with the Saint's account
of himself, rejecting whatever is at irreconcilable varience therewith. We
are glad to see that Father Morris wastes no time over the interminable
controversy as to the Saint's birthplace, which, as a recent critic facetiously
observes, favours, if any, he conclusion that he was not born at all. .
It remains for us to congratulate Father Morris on having given us a
portrait hitherto unequalled of the Saint who has shown to so many among
us 'the ways of life.'"--The Month, April, 1888.
OPINIONS OF THE PRESS.
"Father Morris's aim is to present to our view the grand personality
of the Saint as he lived—the personality, that is, of his character, for we do
not notice any description of St. Patrick's bodily presence. He does not
waste time by tedious disquisitions on possible birthplaces, nor does he go
out of his way to criticise or confute the numerous advocates of this or that
view. As far as the following pages are concerned,' he says, 'the mystery
of St. Patrick's birthplace remains a mystery,' and it is this steady ad-
herence to the main purpose of his book, to reveal St. Patrick to us as he
was and as his own writings show him to have been, that gives the volume
its unity and completeness.”—The Catholic Press, 10th March, 1888.
ROMAN MISSION.
"We can but approve Father Morris's demonstration that the Irish
Church (like the English) was in the early days in agreement with Romc
in all matters of doctrine, differing, indeed, on a few small points of practice
which were really nothing more than old Roman customs preserved in
Ireland owing to its isolation, while Rome itself had adopted new customs
in these matters. Those eager persons who deny this lay themselves open
to Father Morris's reproach, that they do not take the trouble to learn the
difference between a creed and a rubric.'” - The Guardian, 10th October,
1888.
“Father Morris emphasises the undisputed fact that the Irish Church,
at home as well as abroad, through her influence, and through those
offices that were entrusted to her missionaries, had shown herself
Roman, and also that St. Patrick's sons had become the founders of
orthodox churches in foreign lands. Only he who fails to distinguish'a
Creilo from a rubric' can accuse the old Irish Church of false independence
as regards the centre of unity. We urgently recommend Father Morris's
excellent work.”—Literarische Rundschaw, 1st Nov., 1889.
6
"Father Morris says:
The Irish Church at home and abroad was
proved to be Roman by her works, and by the ecclesiastical offices
entrusted to her missionaries.' · The fact that his (St. Patrick's) sons
were founders of orthodox churches in other lands, is cogent evidence
that they were orthodox at home' (pp. 25, 26). St. Martin was St.
OPINIONS OF THE PRESS.
Patrick's first spiritual master, and therefore the one most likely to make
an impression, and leave his mark on our Saint's soul' (p. 84). "St.
Patrick lived in what is truly called the age of the Doctors of the Church.
He was the contemporary of St. Jerome, St. John Chrysostom, St. Ambrose,
and St. Augustine' (p. 90), 'It is certain that St. Patrick was in relations
with St. Germanus of Auxerre, and that under the guidance of this Saint
he was prepared for his episcopal consecration' (p. 102). And hence
Father Morris very properly says: The wonder is, that with these great
facts of history staring them in the face, Catholic writers should allow
themselves to be entrapped and detained by the objections of those
professional critics who do not take the trouble to learn the difference
between a creed and a rubric' (pp. 24, 25). The truth of this remark
is fully borne out by the use made of the Paschal controversy in deter-
mining the religion of St. Patrick, and the orthodoxy of the early Irish
Church. It was a matter of discipline, not of faith, a rubric, not a
'creed,' and as we shall just see is a very strong proof that St. Patrick had
his mission as well as his doctrines from Rome. Father Morris rightly
gave rise to a
somewhat bitter and prolonged controversy in the seventh century,
was nothing else than a Roman custom introduced by St. Patrick two
hundred years before, (See also Smith's Dict. of Char. Antiq. art. 'Easter,
Encyc. Theol. of Wetzer and Welte and Jungman, Diss. 5.) When St.
Patrick came to Ireland the eighty-four years' cycle was used at Rome, and
it so continued for nearly a hundred years subsequently. That cycle he
brought with him to Ireland, and his disciples adhered to it. Now is not
this fact of his adopting a Roman custom in preference to others then in
use a strong presumptive proof of his submission to Roman authority ?
And the conduct of his disciples raises this presumption to a certainty.
For in the controversy the Irish maintained that they got their faith and
their customs from Rome, and the controversy ended by their sending a
deputation to Rome to know their spiritual father's will. (Letters of St.
Columbanus and Cummian.)”–Irish Ecclesiastical Record, March, 1888.
" This same reasoning is quite sufficient to settle the question of St.
Patrick's Roman mission. A Roman mission, direct or indirect, is neces-
sarily involved in the Roman Primacy. Now St. Patrick must have
established in Ireland that religious system in which he himself was trained
by St. Martin—the admired of the Roman Church, and by St. Germain,
the Roman Legate; and of that system the Primacy of the Pope was
the very corner stone."--Irish Ecclesiastical Record, March, 1888.
SECOND EDITION.
CROWN 8vo, CLOTH, 5s.
IRELAND AND
AND ST. PATRICK.
A Study of the Saint's Character, and of the results of his Apostolate.
By the Rev. W. B. MORRIS, of the Oratory.
“Father Morris applies the results of his researches into the life of St.
Patrick to a modern purpose, wbich cannot be described as other than
polemical. The book is an almost passionate apology for the Catholic
nationality of Ireland, whose characteristic note is, according to Father
Morris, derived from the abiding influence of St. Patrick, and as such,
in spite, or rather, perhaps, in consequence of its literary merits, which
are not inconsiderable, it is, we fear, only too likely to add one more faggot
to the flames of Irish controversy."--Times.
Father Morris is a very honest man, a very clever man, and (though
we may confess, while disclaiming the least intention to be offensive, that
his enthusiasm sometimes amuses us) a very enthusiastic man. If all
Irishmen were like him there might still be some difficulty in dealing with
Ireland; but the difficulty would never be unconquerable by patience, good
temper, and justice going a little to the side of kindness. Therefore, we
read with pleasure his new volume of essays, which, though the Saint's
name is taken by no means in vain, really contain a sort of discussion
of current events and current English views of Irish character. Shows
neither bad blood, nor bad faith."-Thc Saturdlay Review, 26th March,
1892.
"The pages devoted to Burke are excellent, and one would be glad to see
,
should be better knowu both in England . Mr. Morris will
have many readers who will sympathise heartily with his point of view,
and others will be made a little uncomfortable when they reflect upon the
common English platform politician, who, in his contrast between British
prosperity and Irish starvation, goes perilously near thanking God he is
not even as this Irishman. Mr. Morris's book may be recommended as a
gentle and skilful statement of the modern Catholic attitude towards some
of the most important questions of this and every day."-Manchester
Guardian, 2nd January, 1892.
"The essay form has afforded the author scope denied to the historian,
and the thoroughness with which he has worked out particular veins yields
rich results. In the third essay, 'St. Patrick's Work, Past and Present,'
the apologetic and defensive tone which Father Morris is forced to adopt,
as he says, is sustained through a long course of argument and rises to an
almost triumphant vindication of his theme. The poverty and humiliation
of Ireland is reviewed with much eloquence, and English prejudices attacked
on all sides by finely-chosen passages from Burke, Johnson, Arthur Young,
Mr. and Mrs. S. C. Hall, Dr. Forbes, MacGeoghegan, Gustave de Beaumont,
and a host of others. But tbe author's fighting spirit is most apparent
when he turns the arguments of Ireland's antagonists to their own dis-
comfiture. Mr. Froude is time after time opposed with citations and
arguments from Mr. Lecky and every authority on the same side whose
opinions are worth quoting; but in confuting his opponent (Mr. Froude)
OPINIONS OF THE PRESS.
.
with quotations from his own writings, and taunting him as to his “inter-
mittent attacks of anti-Irish insanity,' our author's irony is his best and
keenest weapon.
Even those who do not, a priori, give the work any
of that sympathy which its author demands, will admire in it the research
to which the priests of the Oratory in this country have accustomed us
in their literary work; and will enjoy the culture of the author's style.”-
Birmingham Daily Gazette, 29th December, 1891.
“Pictures, mainly by Protestant hands, of a noble people, who have for
ages suffered cruel martyrdom for their religion.”—Catholic News.
'The final essay on The Future?' consists mainly of an eloquent,
temperate plea for higher education, the absence of which on a national
Catholic basis is one of the most crying evils in Ireland to-day.”-Catholic
Times, 1st January, 1892.
“The extraordinary success achieved by Father Morris in his Life of
St. Patrick, and the more than favourable criticisms which that model
biography called forth from quarters where censure would have seemed
more natural than praise, tended to prepare us for a high degree of
excellence in this, his latest volume. Our anticipations have been fully
realised.”—The Ave Maria, February, 1892 (U.S.).
“This beautiful volume may be regarded to some extent as a supplement
to the learned author's Life of St. Patrick. It may be said to be the lite
of St. Patrick's work. In it Father Morris traces through the generations
that have intervened since St. Patrick's time, and in language of simple
beauty, the influence on Ireland of that extraordinary life of which his
previous volume was so faithful, so happy a picture. And no one can lay
aside this volume without feeling that Irish Catholics are as deeply
indebted to Father Morris for his second volume as they were for the first.
His intimate knowledge of our history, and his zeal for the honour of
our national apostle, have enabled him to give us a most useful, a most
fascinating book-one of the most useful on the history of Ireland that has
appeared for a considerable time. We have no hesitation in saying
that he has disposed once for all of 'Adrian's Bull'; and in doing so he
has rendered a signal service to Irish Catholics." --Irish Ecclesiastical
Record.
The second chapter deals with 'Adrian IV. and Henry Plantagenet.'
The story of the 'Bull' is subjected to a close analysis, and its incongruities
are explicitly pointed out, while we have a learned description of the
religious state of Ireland at that period. This chapter is undoubtedly the
most important in the book, if not, perhaps, the ablest and most logical
contribution to the controversy with which it is taken up."-Coric Examiner.
Father Morris has given us a delightful book. It appears opportunely
too on the recurrence of the fourteen hundredth anniversary of the death
of St. Patrick."-Dublin Review.
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