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Many concurring circum- stances tended to promote the advancement, and facilitate the completion, of that most happy event. Since the illustrious Ollav Fola, who was nearly contemporary with Lycurgus, instituted wholesome laws for limiting the powers of the monarch and restraining the licentiousness of the subject, the people at large had become more civilized, courteous I , s H* 6 THE LIFE OF ST. PATRICK. and polite. To him Ireland is, under Heaven, indebted for establishing triennial parliaments at Tara , discriminating the various orders of society into distinct classes, and erecting semi- naries for acquiring a knowledge of physics, philosophy, heraldry, and music. The long interval of prosperity and peace enjoyed by the people of this isle, till the mis- sion of our Apostle, was a blessing which the Author of life intended, no doubt, as another grand means for facilitating the propagation of the Gospel here. For six centuries ante- cedently to the introduction of Christianity, history records no more than six or seven pro- vincial insurrections, with scarcely as many general engagements, without any invasion from abroad. During this tranquil periodi we find the national institutions uniformly conducted and governed by druidic professors. Here, as well as in Gaul and Britain, druids had the mana- gement of sacrifices, and were intrusted with the decision of controversies, both public and private ; nay, so great was their power and f /iTRlCK. is, under Heaven, ennial parliaments various orders of and erecting semi- wledge of physics, [lusic. >sperity and peace s isle, till the mis- blessing which the • doubt, as another ig the propagation ix centuries ante- )n of Christianity, ,n six or seven pro- scarcely as many bout any invasion riod, we find the nly conducted and sors. Here, as well ids had the mana- ere intrusted with BS, both public and s their power and THE LIFE OP CT. PATRICK. 7 , influence, that such as abided not by their verdicts wore interdicted from being present . at their religious rites —a powerful andgrievous punishment in those days. It is abundantly , testified, that the druids were distinguished i for profound learning, and consequentlysuper- iior toother ignorant priests of the heathens. I They believed in one God, in the immortality ^ of the soul, and that men were after death i^ rewarded according to their actions during their life. The prudence and policy, with which they regulated their own order, gained them the veneration and respect of the people. They had provincial conferences annually, and also assembled as a constituent part of the triennial convention of Tara. As the oak was jthe object of their esteem , their places of worship were surrounded with oak-trees , [whence they were called druids. Such w^as the estate of Ireland on our great Apostle's mission thereto. His admirable management in con- verting the druids from their idolatrous customs to the communion of Christ will be shown in its proper place. .-->-> CHAPTER II. tishop was « person „f t " ''"'»"'^« -^ his uCzz7:::t'' ''-'" ""•ee pa,,an„at/o„ .o ChrL, . """« '''•' ^"'-^'useHthatteaCofl'r'^^- ^'Of thy of boin» f ,. ^" h^" were 'f 0- that, lik? is rf-"""'''^'^^' they would aI„>ost t^J^^f ^'"^ ^'"■"'•. a« 'he purest sCrfln " °''''"^''^'«' «'««. ta'n,so.amonrtrl "^""^ *'>«'« W "'t'''^ prelate! tht:rr''""''''«''^<' toWs tia,e have hadlhe '" '''^^'^ 'dearest truth, and havebeenl' ''"'^'' ''^'^^ ^o '•»? miracles. ll>tl „t/^''"»=- '° •^''"""t- hath followed f«,ms„eh !rT°"' *''' '-"•tmg . which . hln „„.>"''^'' ^«y of which, hadauthow of this time ■V THICK. f. ntipathy to the ill's introduction This primitive ^emplary piety, converting this fiity so wonder- of his life were Josterity hy the unhappily this dicious hands, -h numberless ^log Ar">ur, > doubt of the '^abJe, that, t to the foun- of the life ived nearest ' regard to in recount- ^ence, that iry way of *Ws time THE LIFE OF ST. PATRICK. d JDrcsccn, would have made them cautious in ills respect. Miracles are things of such an fxtraordinary nature, thai they must be well iltested, in order to gain credit among men. lut such writers, by introducing them on jvery frivolous occasion without number , leasure or use, have called in question the f truth of every thing they relate ; and have I brought into discredit and even ridicule the real miracles, which this holy man may have wrought. By this great indiscretion they have caused their writings to be generally looked upon as fabulous ; and their unskilful mana- gement halh only served to bring our great patron into contempt. » « As to the truth of his miracles, » adds Harris, « it may be urged, that, as God inspired him with the glorious resolution of adventuring himself to reclaim an infidel people to Christianity, so he armed him with all the necessary powers and virtues to go through so great a work. In the following account therefore, I shall avoid dwelling on his miracles, as I think it a more profitable task to relate his good works, which may and 10 THKLIPEOF ST. PATRICK. ought to be the subject of every good man's imitation. ^» « Such an attempt, » viz. that of writing his life , writes another author , « may be the means of rectifying our deluded country- men, who spend the Festival of this most abs- temious and mortified man in riot and excess, as if they looked upon him only in the light of a jolly companion. » Dr. Wm. Lloyd says, « I know not whether it be worth noticing with Nennius and others, that St. Patrick wrote 365 alphabets, founded 365 churches, ordained 365 bishops, or more and no less than 3001 priests. It seems that the writers of these times, when on the plan of multiplying, used to say that things were as many as the days of the year, for so Kentigern's Hfe saith that in his monastery of St. Asaph he had 365 monks, which no man will understand literally that knows the place. » Of the imputation of unnecessary miracles to Saints Cailiolics have always expressed their disapprobation. The Bollandists and ood man s of writing « may be id country- 5 most abs- and excess, n the liglit Lloyd says, rth noticing St. Patrick 5 churches, and no less ;the writers he plan of things were (Tear, for so is monastery IS, which no that knows sary miracles ys expressed llandists and THE LIFE OF ST. PATRICK. It others have been extremely censorious in their criticisms, and severe in their reproba- tion of such a legendary species of writing. CHAPTER III. That our Apostle was not an ideal personage, introduced into the Irish calendar during the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, is abundantly evinced from the many foreign writers who have recorded his life. Among our Saint's biographers was Petrus de Natalibus, who wrote about the year 1470. Saint Antoninus, archbishop of Flo- rence, gave a summary account of our Apos- tle's life in his chronicle, which was written in i459. Neither did James de Yoragine doubt of our Apostle's existence a century before that. This illustrious doctor was bishop of Genoa and lived in 1350. About the middle of the ninth century Eric of Auxerre wrote the life and miracles of St. I Germanus, bishop of Tours, the birth*place of our Saint. The following account of St. Pa- trick's existence, mission, apostolical labours, 12 THE LIFE OF ST. PATRICK. and sanctity, we with pleasure extract from that work written in 850. Eric declares that he « considers it as the highest honour of that prolate to have been the instructor of St. Pa- trick, as the glory of a father shines in the government of his children : from the many disciples in religion, who are reported to have been his sons in Christ, sufilce it briefly to mention one, by far the most famous, as the seriesof his actions show,— Patrick, the part- icular Apostle ofJrelavdj who being under his holy discipline eighteen yee^'S derived no little knowledge in the inspired writings from such a source. This most godly prelate, considering him ahke distinguished in rehgion, eminent for virtue, and steadfast in doctrine, and thinking it absurd to let one of the best labou- rers in the Lord's vineyard remain inactive, recommended him to Celestine, then Pope, by his presbyter, Segetius, who was to carry to the Apostolic See a testimonial of the ecclesias- tical merit of this excellent man. Approved by his judgment, supported by his authority, and confirmed by his blessing, he set out for Ire- I X tract from declares that nour of that ir of St. Pa- hiaes in the D the many rted to have it briefly to lous, as the ek, the part- og under his •ived no little 5s from such ), considering ion, eminent loctrine, and le best labou- lain inactive, hen Pope, by s to carry to the ecclesias- Approved by uthority, and out for Ire- 'I I THE LIFE OF ST. PATRICK. (3 land ; and being peculiarly destined for that people, as their Apostle, instructed them at that time by his doctrine and miracles, as he now does and ever will by displaying the won- derful effects of his apostleship. » Our Saint is also recorded by Venerable Bede in the genuine copy of his Marty- rology. CHAPTER IV. Seven cities have contended for the birth of Homer, the prince of poets ; almost as many nations have claimed the honour of giving birth to the illustrious Apostle of the holy Isle. Some assert that he was an Irishman ; others, that he was of Cornwall ; some say that he was a Welshman ; while others maintain that he was a Scotch Highlander ; and others again attempt to prove that he was born in the Lowlands. St. Patrick was born at holy Tours, This, according to Father Colgan, who embraces tL3 opinion of the Anglo-Irish and British writers on the present question , is handed I 14 THE LIFE OP ST. PATRICK. down as an established tradition among the natives of Armoric Gaul and those who live contiguous to that venerable city. Mr. Philip O'SuUivan in his li^e of our Saint makes him a native of Bretagne in France. This is the account of Probus too , whose words are plain. In his life of our Saint Probus says , « St. Patrick was a Briton, of the village ofBanave, in the district of Tyburnia, adja- cent to the Western Ocean, which village wo undoubtedly find to have been in the province of Neutria. » The Western Ocean, here mentioned, is in another part called Tyrrhenian, which desig- nates the Turonian Sea at the mouth of the Loire, and opposite the country inhabited by the Turones, or , as now denominated, the people of Turaine, whose capital, Tours, was a great city even in the time of the Romans ; but more celebrated afterwards for being the residence of St. Martin, St. Gregory, and a multiplicity of other illustrious men. Whence had Probus and the writers of his time this account ? From the same source, no n mong the who live Mr. Philip lakes hi in lis is the ^ords are Dbus says, he village rnia, adja- village wo le province oned, is in 'hich desig- luth of the ihabited by linated, the Tours, was e Romans ; r being the ^ory, and a 1. 'iters of his 3 source, no THE LIFE OF ST. PATRICK. 18 doubt, whence Gildas had his materials for the notice he gives us of the Britons ; that is, from the seminaries and writings of the Saints who flourished at that time in Gaul and ire- land. They had it from those who wore either the disciples of St. Martin or St. Germanus, and therefore contemporaries and fellow- stu- dents of our Saint. But what puts this point beyond all doubt is the hymn of his own disciple, St. Fiech, the bishop of Sletty. This venerable relic of Irish literature bears most unequivocal proofs of its having been composed about the period in which St. Patrick lived, as is fully evinced by the simplicity of its style. In the first verse of this Irish poem we are plainly informed, that « Patrick was born at holy Tours, as is affir- med in histories. > To the natives of Ireland and Scotland it is well known that an isle in the sea, an islet in the loughs, lakes and rivers, a dry hillock in a morass, nay, sometimes a place nearly, though not altogether, surrounded by water, is, in Irish and Erse, called an 4 s^ 1 16 THE LIFE OF ST. PATRICK. inch. Islands of this sort were in the primitive ages of Christianity particularly sought after, for a contemplative retreat, by pious monks and ascetics. Thus, in the river Shannon, there is scarcely an island but has a cell, church, or monastery founded by our Saints. Lough Derg has been celebrated over Christendom. In the isles of the Armoric Sea too, there are many such edifices. Nay, along the meandering banks of the fertilizing Loire, from Orleans till it empties itself into the Turonian or Armoric Sea, many of the primitive Saints of Gaul built their cells and monasteries for religious contemplation. Among those, neither the last, nor the least distinguished, was our Saint's uncle, Martin of Tours. This great apostle, whose pious labours achieved the conversion of the western parts of Gaul from Gentiiism to Christianity, and who was originally the son of a Roman tribune, born in the year 3(6, was first compelled to embrace the profession of a soldier, though he always showed a particular predilection for a retired life : from THE LIFE OF ST. PATRICK. 17 primitive ight after, ous monks Shannon, las a cell, our Saints, ited over Armoric fices. Nay, 5 fertilizing \ itself into any of the ir cells and templation. or the least iclo, Martin /hose pious DTI of the rentilism to illy the son ) year 3i6, 5 profession showed a i life : from '4 IS '■Z'f ■:-i *his, however, he was necessitated to with- draw in 374, on being elected ' ishop of Tours, with the concurrent approbation of the clergy and people. In order however to have less converse with the world, he built near the city of Tours, between the Loire and a sharp rock, the celebrated monastery of Marmoutier, which still exists and is consi- dered the most ancient abbey of France. In this inch it was, and in some other inchea in the Turonian, and not in the Tyrrhenian or Mediterranean islands, that St. Patrick fixed his residence for studying divinity (on escap- ing from slavery) under St. Martin, and other holy masters after that Sainfs death. The writers of his life make his mother a niece or a sister of St. Martin. CHAPTER V. That the inonarchs who wielded the sceptre o[ Ireland were profoundly skilled in the system of politics necessary to be observed respecting their relative connexions with the sister isle, is abundantly evinced by their t i9 THE LIFE OF ST. PATRICK. conduct towards Scotland. Since the Roman eagle first hovered over the shores of South Britain, about half a century before Christ, our Milesian sovereigns saw the necessity of keeping up a balance of power against the further encroachments of the Romans. They therefore sent colonies to North Britain, assisted the Picls also in establishing them- selves there, kept both nations in reciprocal terms of amity and peace among themselves, and sent them a re-enforcement of auxiliaries to harass the Romans, arrest their progress, prevent them from achieving the total conquest of that ill-fated country, and thus incapacitate them from undertaking their meditated invasion of Ireland. This was the motive which induced Con- nall Kearnack, Connor the Great, Criovhan, Faradach Fiacha, Fuahal, Cormac, Cairbry, Eochuy, and the other Irish princes of that time, to transport mighty armaments to Bri- tain, and unite in a well associated confederacy the different nations of the Picts, Scots, and Attacotti, to the North of the Tweed; and lead ll h THK LIFiiOF ST. PATRICK. 19 the Roman res of South if ore Christ, necessity of against the mians. They rlh Britain, shing thein- in reciprocal • »; themselves, of auxiliaries leir progress, g the total ry, and thus rtaking their induced Con- at, Criovhan, oaac, Cairbry, inces of that iments to Bri- d confederacy ts, Scots, and ^eed; and lead them often in person against the Roman inva- ders. For proofs of their frequent invasions of the Roman provinces, and their successful conflicts with the Italian legions and their British auxiliaries, especially in the years 183, 364, 393, 403, 42J , 426, 443, we have the unimpeached authorities of Dion, Ammianus Marcellinus, Gildas, Bede , Florence of Wor- cester, and others. So frequent and incessant were the invasions of our countrymen of those times, that Bede, after Gildas, designates them by the appellation of « Llibernian marauders, not likely to remain long till they return and renew their depredations. » Such was the wise policy which sa\^d Ire- land from experiencing the galling thraldom of Roman oppression, and which ultimately,' through the victorious efforts of Niall Neeal- lach, was the principal cause that compelled the Roman emperor to withdraw the remain- der of his vanquished legions. Niall rested not here, for, not content with their expulsion from Britain, he chased them with his victori- ous fleets and armies into Armorio Gaul. The 20 THE LIFE or ST. fATRICK. lovers and assertors of liberty in that country, aided by the alliance of our victorious mon- arch, « altogether freed themselves from the tyranny and yoke of Rome also, » as Zosimus relates. To the patriots of Armoric Gaul the renow- ned Niail, of the nine hostages, was necessita- ted a second time to lend his assistance. On landing in Armorica, the Roman garri- sons, the Roman tax-gatherers, the Roman oppressors, with their numerous train of more oppressive agents, the native abettors of their country's thraldom, a species of degenerate and cowardly reptiles which have ever been the pest of all nations, left the country at the invader s mercy. Niall remunerated the patri- ots with the territorial possessions of their former task-masters, and re-established the blessings of liberty and peace among his allies. Previously to his fleet's return, Niall fell a victim to the assassinating hand of an Irish vassal, who, following him to Gaul, murdered him on the bank of the Loire. If Ireland had cause to regret the loss sus- at country, rious mon- from the as Zosimus the renow- s necessita- nice. >man garri- the Roman ainof more ors of their degenerate B ever been untry at the ed the patri- )n3 of their ablished the Dg his allies. Niall fell a of an Irish il, murdered he loss sus- ''•'-■( THE LIFE OF ST. PATRICK- 21 taincd in consequence of this expedition by the death of a monarch, to whose political skill and military achievements she stood so emi> nently indebted for her internal peace and ex- ternal aggrandizement ; yet more abundant are her motives for congratulating herself for the immortal blessings conferred upon herself and her children by the all-wise hand of Pro- vidence on that occasion. In fact, all true-born Irishmen will, while Christianity exists among them, entertain a grateful remembrance of the victorious fleet that first wafted to their shores the illustrious patron saint and apostle of Ireland. Niall's naval armament returned to Ireland in the year of the Christian era 389. The commander of the Dalriadian land-for- ces on this occasion was Gauran, but the na- val officer to whom the management of the flcbt was committed is not known. From its magnitude however it may be naturally con- cluded, that the commander-in-chief was a hero of tried valour, consummate skill and long experience. At that time the Ultonian Dalriadas produced a prince of this description. ■t » i 22 THE LJFE OP ST. PATRICK. The superiority of this chieftain*s fleet at sea, and the success attendant on his military en- terprises both by sea and land against the Ro- mans and Britons, and more particularly against the Dalreudian colonists of Scotland, whom he kept in obedience to the molher- country for many years, before this acquired for him from the enemies of his country in North Britain the appellation Fommaire, a pi- rate or depredator at sea. As most fables are generally fabricated from stories which have some allusion to truth, the biographers of St. Patrick, either through ignorance or design, have metamorphosed this name into that of a British prince, whom they call Tehmair, Fechtmair, Fehtmair, etc. etc. In some copies of Probus this prince is also called Rethmaig Rethmet ; and by Rede, Reuda; by the Scots, Rether; and by Nennius,Histareuth; all which Dr.Langhorne supposes to have been applicable to the same person, as being a Fommaire, or depredator of the Reudians, or Dalriadians of Ulster, and not of Britain. This prince had seven sons, who were commanders aboard pn Co] pn St.l J. THE LIFE OF ST. PATRICK. 23 fleet at sea, military en- ainst the Ro- particularly of Scotland, the molher- this acquired lis country in mmaire, a pi- st fables are which have raphers of St. ce or design, into that of a sail Tehmair, In some copies led Rethmaig ; by the Scots, nth; all which een applicable Fommaire, or )alriadians of is prince had nders aboard ■'^ Niall's fleet. These sons, after their monarch's death, embarked their troops and booty. The most considerable part of their spoils consisted of two hundred children, descended from such of the Armoric nobles as supported the government and interests of the Romans. CHAPTER VI. Among the children thus made captive and brought to Ireland aboard the fleet was St. Patrick, with his two sisters, Lupita and Darerca. St. Patrick was sixteen years of age when taken captive ; and was, as he himself informs us, born of a respectable family. His father's name was Galphurnius, the son of Potitus or Otide, who entered into holy orders after the birth of their children, Galphurnius being a deacon and Potitus a priest. The name of our Saint's mother was Conchessa, who was, according to the most probable opinion,not the sister, but the niece of St. Martin, the celebrated archbishop of Tours. St. Patrick himself tells us, that his father 21 THE LIFE OF ST. PATRICK. was a denizen of a neighbouring cily of Iho Romans. Calphurnius and his father's namos also indicate that they were of Roman ex- traction, as Colgan justly observed in his remarks on the list of our Saint's ancestors, given in his genealogy. Their Roman origin will easily account for both his father and mother having been killed by the Irish invaders of Armoric Gaul, who undoubtedly considered our Saint's parents and relatives as a part of the ascendency-faction, that supported the interest and power of Rome in that country in opposition to the oppressed natives, otherwise this murder would have been an unnecessary and wanton act of cruelty. His biographers vary in their accounts respecting his brothers and sisters. Some, with the old scholiast of St. Fiech's Hymn, maintain that he had one brother, the deacon Sannanus, and five sisters, whose names were Lupita, Tigris, Liemania, Darerca, and Cinnenaev. Instead of Liemania, some make Riccall his third sister, for which they quote a THE LIFE OF ST. PATRICK. 25 cily of Iho Iher's namos Roman ox- erved in his s ancestors, Oman origin father and )y the Irish undoubtedly and relatives faction, that r of Rome in Ihe oppressed ' would have mton act of lieir accounts isters. Some, riech's Hymn, 5r, the deacon whose names Darerca, and ly some make 1 they quote a very ancient Irish verse. St. Evinus, and after him Joceline, affirm he had only three sisters, Lupit, Darerca, and Tigris. Liema- nia's children were the Hua-baird, or long beard, to wit, Secundin, Nectan, Dabonna, Mogurnan, Darioc, Auxilius, and Lugath the priest. Tigris had seventeen sons and five daughters ; all the male children signalize J themselves in the practice of the most austere virtues, as monks, priests, or bishops. Darerca was, according to the calendar of Cashel, the mother of seventeen bishops^ and two daughters, remarkable for their sanctity and Christian devotion in their recluse lives as holy nuns. Of RichelFs children nothing can be collected with certainty from St. Patrick's biographers; there remains no doubt however, but that she must also have contributed her share towards cultivating the vineyard of Christ, so happily planted by her illustrious uncle. As there were various opinions concerning his country, so writers differ much as to the time of his birth. William of Malmesbury, m n 26 THE LIFE OF ST. PATRICK. Adam of Domerham, and John, the monk of Glastonbury, who are quoted and followed hy Alford and Cressy, place his birth in 361, with whom Stainhurst agrees;and all of them follow Probus, on whom, in this particular as well as in that respecting the place of our Saint's nativity, we cannot depend. nis error seems to be grounded on an eager endeavour to stretch St. Patrick's life to a longer period than what the best writers of it have done ; for he makes him 132 years old at the time of his death, 493, which carries the account back to the time assigned by him for his birth. Colgan thinks the number 132, a typographical error instead of 122; but it is better accounted for in. that way, and espec> ially as ProDus repeats it in two different para- graphs. And in this William of Malmesbury differs from Probus, for he places his death in 472, in the hundred and eleventh year of his age. The annals of Gonnaught are yet more grossly mistaken in assigning his birth to the year 366. Henry of Marleburgh says he was born in 376 ; Joceline, in 370 ; but Florence I •'■■Is '■-'■a 4 the mook Ind followed )irth in 361, all of them Lis particular [place of our on an eager ;k's life to a writers of it years old at carries the id by him for mber 132, a [22; hut it is , and espec- lifTerent para- Malmeshury I his death in h year of his ire yet more birth to the says he was but Florence THE LIFE OF ST. PATRICK. 27 of Worcester is nearer the truth in giving 372: from whose calculation Usher could see no reason to depart ; yet his birth seems to have been, notwithstanding the now mentioned authorities, a year later, viz. in 373, on the Sth of April. For the most commonly received opinion is, (with which Usher in another part of his work agrees,) that St. Patrick lived but 120 years, and that he died in 4<23, from which subtract 120, and it leaves 373 for the year of his birth ; and this is further confirmed by the old Irish book of Sligo, as quoted by Usher, « that St. Patrick was born, baptized and died on the 4th Feria » viz. Wednesday. Now, the 5th of April in 373 fell on Wednes- day, and consequently was his birth-day in that year. Having cleared up the place and time of his birth, it is to be observed that he was not cal- led Patrick at his baptism, as Joceline saith, but Succoth, which the old scholiast on the Hymn of St. Fiech interprets, in the British language, to signify valiant in war, Mr. 0*Sul- livan tells us, that he was named at his bap- t I: I 28 THE LIFE OF ST. PATRICK. tism Souchet ; for, saith ho, Souch, in the old French signifies truncus, a stock of a tree ; and that Souchet is trunculuSf a little stock ; and he further says, that the name was very well adapted to the fruit-bearing shoulders of this infant Saint ; for he was a most plentiful stock, whence so many boughs, so many branches, so many leaves, so many flowers, so much fruit , that is, so many venerable Irish prelates, so many priests, so many prea- chers, so many monks, and so many doctors of foreign nations have proceeded. CHAPTER VII. With respect to our Apostle's infantine years very little can be collected from his biographers, if we except the numerous mira- cles absurdly ascribed to him. A miracle is a sensible change in the order of nature. The proper intent of a miracle is designated for the clear manifestation of the divine interfer- ence. Scripture supposes that to be its desti- nation ; consequently a miracle is wrought for proving the divine mission of the agent. A t" h, in the old of a tree ; little stock ; e was very shoulders of Dst plentiful so many ny flowers, y venerable many prea- aany doctors ^s infantine ed from his lerous mira- miracle is a nature. The Bsignated for ine interfer- be itsdesti- wrought for iie agent. A n m 1 THE LIFE OF Sr PATRICK. 29 miracle then should have an important and grand object, worthy of the intervention of cmnipotence. It should be sensible and fully perceptible to general observation. It should be independent of all secondary causes, and be wrought in an instantaneous manner. How ridiculous, how absurd, how impious an at- tempt it is to impose on human credulity a belief that the omnipotent Ruler of the world would particularly intervene, and suspend those laws of nature by which he governs the universe without necessity, for a frivolous reason, contrary to his wisdom and unbeco- ming his divine Majesty. Conformably with the above general princi- ples respecting miracles, principles grounded upon reason, we find no miracles ascribed to, or wrought by, our blessed Redeemer, during his infancy or youth. The first manifestation of the Omnipotents intervention in the Mes- siah's favour was not till the thirty-second year of his age, and that in presence of all Judea, assembled on the banks of the river Jordan to hear his precursor, John the Bap- ^ i.-i ^1 30 THE LIFE OF ST. PATRICK. :& hx\ tist. Here the astonished multitude was agree- ably informed of Christ's divine mission, as well by the blessed Baptist as by the mystic Dove. In the same year he began to work miracles by his forty days'fast, by his with- standing Satan's temptation, by his changing water into wine, by his appeasing the tempest, by his healing one possessed of the devil, by his curing palsied and leprous men, with the recovery of the centurion'3 servant, the bring- ing of the widow's son to life, the multiplica- tion of the loaves and fishes, etc. How contrary to these examples, how derogatory from com- mon sense, have the biographers of our Saint acted, and particularly Joceline. Not a mira- cle ever performed in Scripture by the elect of God, but St. Patrick is made to surpass by a more marvellous one. But the hagiographers of Scripture never record any miracles except what have been performed for manifesting the interference of divine Omnipotence to the public at large. DiflPerent from this is Joceb'ne's conduct in imputing miracles done on the most trivial and ICK. ade was agreo- ne mission, as by the mystic began to work , by his with- er his changing ng the tempest, f the devil, by men, with the ^ant, the bring - the multipHca- . How contrary Dry from com- s of our Saint Not a mira- by the elect o surpass by a lagiographers liracles except lanifesting the tence to the )'s conduct in ost trivial and THE LIFE OF ST. PATRICK. 3i t ► ' ridiculous occasions to our Saint. Scarcely is he baptized, when a Mind man is made by Joceline to apply his infant hand to the ground, and therefrom issues a well, whose all-healing waters restore sight, science, and literature to this hitherto illiterate man. Does his aimt's cabin overflow with water, St. Patrick works a miracle for stopping the inundation. Does his aunt want a fagot, « the boy Patrick » is made to convert the ice, which he brings home in his bosom, into dry wood. Has his sister Lupita received a contusion in her forehead by an accidental fall, « the boy Patrick* works a miracle to cure the « damsel. » Does his fosterfather die, the child is made to work a miracle for restoring him to life again. Does the wolf take away a lamb, the « boy » is accused of negligence, and next morning the wolf brings back the lost lamb. Are the cattle butting with their horns or seized with the mur- rain, the child is made to Free them from the evil spirits wherewith they are possessed. Has his nurse a longing wish for honey, he is made by a miracle to cp&vert water into that liquid 1 ; r ill 32 THE LIFi: OF ST. PATRICK. Does the cruel lord of the castle of « Dun- breaton » want to have his fortress, stalls, and stables cleaned out by the aunt of our Saint, who was, it seems, his slave, the nephew is made to work a miracle, and from that time till Joceline wrote the dung and dirt continued to be cleaned away by an invisible hand ; « even if all the herds and horses in the coun- try were driven into these stalls, no dirt could be ever found after them, a miracle so well known to the people there, as to require no further demonstration : » but of this enough to rouse the indignation of every pious reader. Such are the contents of the thirteen first chapters of Joceline's work, including our Saint's actions till he attained his fifteenth year ; or, as more learnedly and more classi- cally expressed by his late translator for the anti-Catholic Hibernia Press Company, until « he perlustrated three lustres. » From this specimen the pious Catholic reader will be enabled to appreciate the merits of the remai- ning part. He will also see with what propri- ety it was animadverted on by Harris, whose '4 M le of « Dun- s, stalls, and f our Saint, the nephew om that time rt continued isible hand ; in the coun- 10 dirt could acle so well require no this enough )ious reader, thirteen first eluding our lis fifteenth more classi- lator for the ipany, until From this der will be the remai- hat propri- rris, whose THE LIFE OF ST. PATRICK. 33 judicious observations on this species of writ- ing, and particularly on Joceline's work, are delivered in a former chapter. Who does not then sec that the hands of Joab have been at work in translating and editing a work which brings our Saint into contempt, by the impu- tation of such absurd and ridiculous miracles, rendered still more laughable from the bur- lesque and quaint phraseology adopted by the translator ? Thus the obscure and equivocal manner in which he informs us that our Saint arrived at the third lustrum, or 15th year of his age, by affixing English terminations to the Latin words, and saying that St. Patrick « PERLUSTRATED three LUSTRES, » which is cloth' ing an obscure and unclassical expression in a more obscure and unclassical English dress. In vain will the mere English scholar look into Johnson for perlustrate, neither will the Latin word bear him out in the sense attached to it. Yet this barbarous solecism, arising rather from some voluntary cause than from ignorance, as the style of the Post- liminous Preface, attached to the end of i ; I ■ J'': 34 THE LIFE OF ST. PATRICK. the translation, abundantly shows, is by no means of so dangerous a tendency towards depreciating our Saint's character, by exciting the sneers of scepticism or contempt of igno- rance , as is the adoption of that ludicrous and antiquated style in which the narration is dressed. Thug we are told in the first paragraph that Galphurnius « married a French damsel named Conevessa, and the damsel was elegant in her form. » Now the word rfamse/, though « originally used to denote the daughter of a prince and great lord » among the French, is not at present employed but in poetry, plays, and farces, or among the lower orders of people to denote a country lass, or a woman of bad character, for which see the dictionary of Dr. Johnson. St. Patrick tells us of himself that, at th6 age of sixteen, he still lived ignorant of God ; « meaning, » says the pious Alban Butler, a the devout and fervent love of God, for he was always a Christian ; he never ceased to be- wail this neglect, and wept when he remembe- red that he had been one moment of his life THK LIFE OF ST. PA'iRICK. 35 insensible to the divine love. In his sixteenth year he was carried into captivity by certain barbarians, together with many of his father's vassals and slaves taken upon his estate. They brought him into Ireland, where he was obli- ged to tend cattle on the mountains and in the forests, in hunger and nakedness, amidst snows , rain and ice. Whilst he lived in this suffering condition God had pity on his soul, and quickened him to a sense of his duty by the impulse of a strong inter- ior grace. The young man had recourse to him with his whole heart in fervent prayer and fasting, and from that time faith and the love of God acquired continually new strength in his tender soul. He prayed often in the day, and also many times in the night, breaking off his sleep to return to the divine praises. His afflictions were to him a source of heavenly benedictions, because he carried his cross with Christ, that is, with patience, resignation and holy joy. :|::.- I, I M ! 36 THE LIFE OF ST. PATRICK. 'H( ' '.ii ■J CHAPTER YIII. He was just advanced into his sixteenth year (389), when he was taken captive in Bretagne, and brought to the North of Ireland, where he was sold to Milcho Huanan, a petty prince of Dalaradia ; and St. Lupita they sold to Conal Muirthemne. Doctors Fell and Sharp, alias Gunston, in their English abridgment of Bailet, tell the story in a different manner, in order to give his British origin more probabil- ity : that the Romans, having left Britain naked and defenceless, its inhabitants became an easy prey to their troublesome neighbours, the Irish ; and that our Saint fell into the hands of some of these pirates and was carried into Ireland. For six years he was sold to Milcho and his three brothers, which gave the occas- ion of changing his name into Cothraig, or rather Ceather-Tigh, because he served four masters ; Ceathear signifying four, and Tt'gh, a house or family. Milcho, observing the care and dibgence of this new servant, bought the shares of his brothers and made him his own THE LIFE OF ST. PATRICK. 37 property. He sent him to feed his hogs on Slieu-miss, and St. Patrick himself tells us his behaviour in this office. » My constant business was to feed the hogs ; 1 was frequent in prayer ; the love and fear of God more and more inflamed my heart ; my faith was enlar- ged and my spirit augmented, so that 1 said a hundred prayers by day and almost as many by night ; 1 arose before day to my prayers, in the snow, in the frost, in the rain, and yet 1 received no damage ; nor was 1 affected with slothfulness, for then the Spirit of God was warm within me. » It was here he perfected himself in the Irish language, the wonderful providence of God visibly appearing in this instance of his captivity, that he should have the opportunity in his tender years of becom- ing well acquainted with the language , manners and dispositions of that people, to whom he was intended as a future apos- tle. The ignorance, in these particulars, of his predecessor, St. Palladius , may have been the cause of his failure in the like at- tempt. \i. '" ^' in ,■ HI : i 38 THE LIFE OF ST. PATRICK. He that with faithful eyes should have beheld this blessed youth, eminent for birtli and far more for virtue, « and whom the Al- mighty had separated from his mother s womb and called by his grace to reveal his Son in him that he might evangelize him among the Gentiles, » condemned to so base a service, might well think that he saw the patriarch Joseph sold into £gypt and cast into prison ; for there seems to be a great affinity and like- ness between them. Joseph, in the opinion of some, was at that time about the age Patrick was now. Joseph after his servitude and hum- iliation was exalted to great power and author- ity,, and made lord of Egypt ; Patrick after he had been sold, had served, and endured great afflictions and miseries in Ireland, became an apostle thereof, and now its most glorious patron. Joseph in a great famine fed and maintained all the people with corn ; and Patrick with the salutary sustenance of the Gospel and the Bread of Life nourished the Irish nation, which was perishing with spirit- ual hunger. Joseph made use of the visitation THE LIFE OF ST, PATRICK. of God and his painful affliction for the advancement of his soul and improvement in virtue; and Patrick hy his slavery in- creased in piety, and confirmed himself daily in the love of God and praise of virtue. He continued six whole years in servitude, and in the seventh (395) was released. There seems to have been a law in Ireland for this purpose, agreeably to the institution of Moses, that a servant should be released the seventh year; as it is said in an ancient life of St. Patrick, supposed to be writtei^ by St. Patrick junior ; in another ascribed tq Elerane, the wife, and in the tripartite life before mentioned. Joceline, who deals in the marvellous , says that the angel Victor appeared to him and bade him observe one of his hogs, which should root out of the ground a mass of money, sufficient to pay his ransom. But St. Patrick saith no such thing; he only informs us that he was warned in a dream to prepare for his return home, and that ho arose and betook himself to flight , and left the man with whom he had been six years. Ho u in iji . I ( ,1 H 40 THE LIFE OF ST. PATRICK. made all the haste he could to the sea- side, and found a ship unmoored and ready to sail ; the master refused to take him in , because he had no fare to give him. Upon this repulse he went to look for some cottage, where ho might securely wait for a better opportunity of making his escape, and in the mean time betook himself to his usual consolation, his prayers ; during which the sailors sent after him to return, took him on ship -board, and hoisted sail. He is said to have had a bad voyage, having been three days on sea, and afterwards spent near a month in travelling by land, before he came to his parents ; after which he suffered another captivity, which, as Joceline and O'SuUivan tell us and he himself saith, was post annos non multos, a few years after. At this time he continued in captivity two months ; but with whom he was a prisoner, or how ho was released, wo want informalion ; excepting that Bailet writes that he was brought a slave to Bourdeaux or thereabouts. After all his sufferings he arrived at last to THE LIFE OF ST. PATRICK. 41 his relations, who received him with the greatest joy, with whom he continued about two years. His relations would have persuaded him to spend the remainder of his days with them, but ho was destined for a more active and useful employment. While he was pondering upon this advice, he tells us that he had one night a vision or dream , in which ho saw a man coming to him, aS if from Irclai. d, whose name was Victcricius, with a great number of letters ; that he gave him one of them to read, in the beginning of which were these w^ords. Fox Hiberni- (jenarum, a the voice of the Irish, » While he was reading this letter , he the same moment thought that he heard the voice of the inhabitants who lived hard by the wood of Foclut near the western sea, crying to him with one voice, « We entreat thee, holy youth, to come and walk among ufe. » Thus formerly the great apostle of the world, St. Paul, was called to preach in Macedonia by a vision of one of that nation, begging help and assistance from him. St. Patrick was 4. *i: 4 I (I I 42 THE LIFE OF ST. PATRICK. greatly amazed with this vision, and awoke. He tells us, « he thanked God, that after many years he had dealt with them according to their crying out. » From this time he formed the resolution of attempting the conversion of tho Irish ; and, the better to prepare himself for such a task, he undertook a painful journey to foreign parts, to enrich his mind with learning and experience. He continued abroad thirty- live years, pursuing his studies, for the most part under the direction of his mother's uncle, St. Martin, bishop of Tours, who had ordained him deacon ; and after his death , partly with St. Germanus, bishop of Auxerre, who ordained him a priest, and called his name Mogonius, which was the third name he was known by; and partly among a colony of hermits and monks in some islands of the TuroDhn or Armoric Sea ; a part of the time ho also spent in the City of Rome, among the canons regular of the Lateran church. THE LIFE OF ST. PATRICK. CHAPTER IX, 43 St. Patrick , being delivered from Jiis captivity in the beginning of this year (393), being then in the twenty- third year of his age, returned to Great Britain, according to Marianus Scotus and other writers ; but Ihey all disagree as to the number of years he remained there. Some are of opinion that he continued for the space of eight years, but it seems not probable to have been so long, to wit, from 395 to 403 inclusively; for, if so , how could he have been a disciple of St. Martin, who died in 402? There are other authors who suppose him to have continued in Britain four years ; but it is far more probable that he sojourned there but a few months, before he was taken prisoner the second time , and continued between twenty and thirty days on sea, and in deserts, where ho and the sailors fed on wild honey; but in two months' time he had his liberty, and returned in June to his relatives, with whom he continued not many months. t>. 4 44 THE LIFE OF ST. PATRICK. About ilio beginning of this year (396) he went for the first time to St. Germanus, who was at that time a layman, and was then studying the civil law of the Romans in Italy, and continued with him three years and some months, applying himself to the study of humanities, in which he could have made no great proficiency before on account of bis captivity. Being then twenty-seven years old (399), he left St. Germanus and went to his relation, St. Martin, with whom ho continued almobt four years , improving himself in the knowledge of Church-discipline. About this period (402 or 403) he went a second time to St. Germanus in the island of Arel, being thirty years old, but did not continue long there. He went to Rome in 403, where he applied himsolf to the study of the Scriptures ; according to Vincentius , in his Speculum nib. lib. 20. c. 23, Matth. Westminster, in chron. 491, and Ninius : ho lived among the canons of Lateran , according to Gabriel THE LIFE OF ST. PATRICK. 45 Pennot , John do Nigravalle , Volterauus , Augustinus , Tinicensis and others. His stay at Rome is computed to have been six years. Ho went from Rome (408) to a certain island in the Turonian Sea, and sojourned among some barefooted hermits, who inhabited that island ; where he received the famous staff, called Jesus's staff, which, as St. Bernard writes, was covered with gold and precious gems. Some writers have afGrmed that it was given to St. Patrick by Christ himself; others, that it was given to the Saint by a solitary of that isle , called Justus , who received it from our Saviour with orders to give it to St. Patrick. But Cambrensis , in his topography, dis. 3. c. 34, remarks, that the virtue of this staff was as uncertain as its origin ; or as the manner of St. Patrick's receiving it from Christ immediately, or from the insular recluse who received it from our Saviour with orders to deliver it to St. Patrick, was uncertain ; but this is certain, that it was preserved with religious pomp, M i "i .J ''I 46 THE LIFE OF ST. PATRICK. as one of the chief relics of Ireland, and translated together wilh the text of the Gospel, used by St. Patrick, from Armagh to Christ- Church , Dublin , as the same Cambrensis observes. Joccline compares it with the rod of Moses, and makes a parallel between the wonders wrought by both the one and the other, which Thyrie, David Rolh, and Peter Walsh from his 46th page to p. 473 of his Prospect of Ireland, improve. Ware mentions in his Annals , that this staff was burnt with other relics in 1538, a little after the so called Reformation. Towards the end of this year (409), in the thirty-eighth year of his age, he went to some monks who dwelt in the island of Taniary, between the mountain and the sea , and continued wilh them nine months. Towards the end of this year (418), being between forty-six and forty seven, he went a third time to St. Gcrmanus in the month of July , and was consecrated bishop of Auxerre after the death of St. Amator, who ordainod the said Gcrmanus, then a secular THE LIFE OF ST. PATRICK. 47 priest and formerly a married man, willi whom ho staid fourteen years. Sl.Gormanus sent him along with Segetius (424), the priest, to be consecrated bishop, and to exorcise the episcopal functions at Banonia or Bolonir, according to John Malbrancho , torn. I. do Morinis , i. 2. c 26. St. Patrick, aged fifty-seven (429), accom- panied the holy bishops, St. Germ anus and St. Lupus, into Britain, to extinguish the Pelagian heresy, where he continued some years. St. Celestine, having been inf6rmed of the death of St. Palladius (433), appointed St. Patrick to preach in Ireland. It is necessary now to show the state of religion in Ireland before the arrival of St. Patrick, the better to judge of what ho had to do and what he did. Not to mention what writers have said , that St. James, the son of Zebedee, arrived and preached the Gospel there, in the 4ist year of Christ; nor the dreams of others, who would make us indebted to a Pictish w. 4K 1HK LIFE OF ST. PATtlCK. woman for our conversion aboot ihe year Xll**; nor St. Maasueliw, an Irishman, who was repulcd by some aathors a disciple of Ihc apostle, St. Peter, but who is not recorded by them to have returned to bis native country ; it is certain that there were many Christians in Ireland before the arrival of St. Palladius in 431, or of St. Patrick in the year following. St. Kieran, St. Ailbe, St. Declan and St. Ibar, whom Usher calls the precursors or forerunners of St. Patrick, are pregnant proofs of this. TT^y were natives of Ireland, whence they travdkd to Rome in search of education and kamine. where they lived some years, were ordained, and returned home about the year 102. That there were some few Christians in Ireland, even before this time, may be gathered froca the lives of St. Declan and St. Ailbe , as they art> quoted by Uslwr. For St- Deeian is there said to have been b^^ihed by Goe Colman , i priest , and Ailbe by a Christian priest, possibly the saise C^ilx^ui; and Decbn, w^hen he was seven years old. w:» pert under THE MFK OF ST. PATJllCK. U\) tho tuition of Dymau, n religious Clirislinn, to learn to read; and (lairbre was his school fellow. Tho writer of the life of Si. Kieran, published by Colgan, says, that ho was baptized in Rome in tho thirtieth year of his age, that ho continued Ihoro twenty years, and that on his return to Irelai 1 about the year 402 St. Patrick, who was then on his journey to Rome, met him in Italy, and tho saints of God rejoiced. It seems that these early preachers confmed their labours to particular places, in which they had considerable success, but fell very short of converting the body of the nation. However , they sowed the seed which St. Patrick came afterwards to cultivate. And it appears in the sequel, that St. Patrick was so well satisfied with the progress they made in their particular districts in Munster, that this was the last province in Ireland he thought proper to visit. That there were many Christians in Ireland at this period seems to be confirmed by Prosper, who, in giving an account of the mission of St. Palladius, says, 5 30 THE LIFE OF ST. PATRICK. that he was ordained by Pope Ce?rstino 1. and sent as the first bishop to the Scots, who believed in Christ. This passage can mean nothing else, but that Palladius, born in Britain, was sent to he Scots, that is the Irish , who had already formed Churches under the Saints Kieran, Ailbe, Declan and Ibar ; and so the bishop of St. Asaph's ex- pounds it. This, then, was the next attempt, (hat was made for the conversion of the Irish; Palladius engaged in a more ample and extensive design than his predecessors, yet ho failed in the execution of it , staid but a short time in Ireland, converted a few, and is said to have founded three churches ; but he had not courage to withstand the fierceness of the heathen Irish, nor abilities, through ignorance of the language , prop r for the mission. Nathi, the son of Garchon, an Irish prince, opposed his preaching, upon which Palladius left the kingdom, and died in the land of the Picts on the 1 5th of December, 431. This great work was reserved for ■' THE LIFE OF ST. PATRICK. J)i St. Patrick, to whose actions it is time to return. It is controverted among writers by whom St. Patrick wa$ ordained a bishop, and sent on the Irish mission ; some say by Amatus, Amator, Amatarex, Amalheus, Amotus, or Matheus, for his name is written in all these ways ; while others hold that it was Pope Celestine himself who ordained him aitd changed his name to Patricus, that is Pater Cmunif Father of the People, whereas before he had been called Magonios or Maun by St. Germanus, when he ordained him a priest. Concerning the dignity and privileges of the Patricii among the ancient Romans, an account may be found in Dionysius Halicarnassus, Velleius Paterculus and others ; from this dignity amongthe Romans the kings of France in after ages, by a decree of Pope Stephen made in the reign of king Pepin, came to be called Patricii Romanorum. That St. Patrick was ordained bishop at Rome, is the opinion of the generality of writers, which seems to be contirmed by Pros- >/ i 32 THE LIFE OF ST. PATRICK. per, who speaking of Celesiine, says, « that, having ordained a bishop for the Scots, (the Irish,) while he endeavoured to keep the Ro- man islands, (Britain,) Catholic^ he made the barbarous island, (Ireland,) Christian, n Now, as bishop Lloyd judiciously reasons, this can* not with any probability be affirmed of Palla- dius,but of some other bishop,\vho,by consent of all the ancients, was St. Patrick, sent to the Irish by the Pope after the death of St. Palla- dius ; and there was a sufficient space of time between the 15th of December, the day on which Palladius died, and the 6th of April, on which PopeCclestine died, for the Pope to hear of the death of the first missionary and to send St. Patrick to succeed him ; and there was also time enough in the year 431, before the 15lh of December, for St. Palladius to receive his commission at Rome to try w^hat ho could do in Ireland, and, finding no success, to go over to Britain, where he died. Bishop Lloyd observes, that the compassion with which St. Patrick was touched for the people of Ireland, whom ho found during his THE LIFE OF ST. PATRICK, 53 captivity to be allogelher heathens, was that which gave him the first impulse to labour at their coaversion ; and no doubt this impulse was not a little heightened by his vision before- mentioned. As St. Palladius died among the Britons, it was easy for him to hear of his death, which he soon did ; and, being then at Auxerre in the dutchy of Burgundy with St. Germanus, the bishop thereof, that bishop advised and persuaded him to pursue his former design of jzoina; to cpnvert the Scots to the failh of Christ. In order to this he went to the Pope, to get such powers as were necessary for accomplishing his great design. CHAPTER X. AuxiLius, and Iscrninus, by some called Scr- vinus, canons of the Lateran church, and some others, received the inferior Orders with him, being intended for under labourers in the same harve>t ; Auxilius being ordained a priest, and Servinus a deacon. Having received his credentials, he took leave of Rome, and 1/. ■4 :.'l SI THE LIFE OF ST. PATRICK. with all expedition set forward on his jour- ney to Ireland, attended by twenty principal men , eminent for piety -^nd wisdom. Ho arrived safe in Britain , wu^re ho preached in Cornwall a few days with success , and , as somo say , in Wales ; here having increased his attendants to the number of thirty-four, he set sail for Ireland , and arrived with a prosperous gale at a port in the territory of the Evoleni, as Probus calls it, but w^hich the Irish writers term Crioch- Cuolan or the county of Cuolan ; others call it the port of Jubber-Dea, or the mouth of the river Dca , and is now the port of Wicklow. IJe was in his sixtieth year (432) when he landed in Ireland. John Flood , an English Jesuit, * and his copier or English abridger, Hugh Paul of Yorkshire , f and other writers, following the authority of William of • Who published bis Ecclesiastical History of England In Latin under theberrowed name of Michael Alford. f Who , from being the Protestant dean of Leighlin , became a Benedictine , and published under the borrowed name of Serenus Crcssy his folio Church History in 4668. THE LIFE OF ST. PATRICK. iVIalmesbury, and of John , the monk of Glastonbury, before quoted, place his arrival in Ireland in 425 ; but this contradicts the more early writers. lie happily began his ministry by the conversion and baptism of Sinell , a great nan in that country, the grandson of Finchad , who ought to be remembered as the first fruits of St. Patrick's mission in Ireland , or the first of the Irish converted by him. He was the eighth in lineal descent from Corraac, king of Leinster, and afterwards came to be enumerated among the* saints of Ireland. Nathi, the son of Garchon and king of that district , who had the year before frightened away St. Palladius, in vain attempted to terrify St. Patrick by opposing and contradicting his doctrine. From hence he bent his course to a castle near the sea, called Rath-Inbher, near the mouth of the river Bray ; but the pagans of those parts rose up and drove him to his ship ; and then he sailed to an island on the coast of the county of Dublin, which, after him , is called Inis-Phadniig , and by the English , Holm- •'. ,1.1. 80 THE LIFE OF ST. PATRICK- Patrick , to this day , where ho and his companions rested after their fatigue. From Inis-Patrick he sailed northward to that part of Ulster called Ulidia, and put in at Inbher slaing Bay. When he and his fellow- labourers had landed, Dichu, the son of Tri- chem , lord of that country, being informed that they were pirates, came out with armed men in order to kill them ; but, being struck with the venerable appearance of St. Patrick, and listening attentively to the word of life preached by him, he changed his wicked purpose, believed and was baptized, and brought over all his family to the Faith. It is further observed of him, that he was the first person in Ulster who embraced Christianity ; but this was not all, he dedicated the land, « whereon his conversion was wrought, to God, where a church was built, which got the name of Sgibol, or Sabhall-phadruigh, * or the barn Sabliall-phadruigh , called Saballum , and commonly Saul,^Yas anabbey of canons regular, founded by St. Patrick in the year4o2, in the barony of Lecale, and county of Down, on the east side of the Bay ofDundrum. Sgibol, in Irish, signifies a barn. Though some hold tl:at the nape of th^ THE LIFE OF ST. PATRICK- 57 of Patrick, and is said to bo extended from North to South, contrary to the usual form of churches, after the figure of the barn dedicated by Dichu ; and this church was afterwards converted into an eminent monastery : these were the transactions of the year 432. place was Samhall, which signities, save ; for the cry was, a come and be saved; » and that, by softening the m into v, the word is pronounced by the Irish, saval, and by the Eng- lish, csul. This monastery appears now to stand in the usual form of churches , East and West , though some ancient writers relate that it stood North and South, which perhaps it might have done in its original slate. This was perhaps one of the first founded monasteries in the kingdom, being erected in the year 432 ; but we must not conceive it to be then built of stone, in the stately manner it has since appeared ; for that task was performed by St. Malachy O'Morgair, when bishop of Down ; and there are here two small vaulted rooms of stone yet entire, about seven feet high, six feet long, and two feet and a half broad, with a small window placed on one side. One of them is now closed up, and used by some families for a tomb, the church-yard being a great burial-place of the natives. At some distance from the church, on the S. W. side, stands a battlemented castle and two small towers, but no stone stairs in the castle leading up to the top of it, as is usual in such fabrics. It is probable there were stairs of timber in the body of the building, by which people might ascend from story to story ; in the west angles of each, these stories are neatly finished within the wall, rising in various sections tu the top, where they terminate in a circle. m 98 HIE LIFE OF ST. I'ATniCK. Early in the year 433 St. Patrick left Sab- hall, and travelled northwards by land to Cianebois in Dalaradia, to try to convert his old master, Milcho, whose service he had left thirty-eight years before; but this obstinate prince, hearing of the great success of St. Patrick's preaching, and ashamed to be per- suaded in his old age to forsake the paganism of his ancestors, especially by one whohad been his servant, made a funeral pile of his house and goods, and by the instigation of the enemy of mankind burnt himself therem. Thus most of the writers of the life of St. Patrick relate this event ; but the tripartite author adds, that Guasact, the son of Milcho, and two of his daughters, both called Emeria, were converted and baptized. The former became aftei wards bishop of Granard in the ancient Teffia, * and * Teffia was an extensive territory, comprehending more than half the county of Wcslmeath, and all the county of Longfofd. The Longford Teffia was divided into north and west Teffia ; in the former of which stood Granard, an early episcopal See, planted hy S(. Patrick. If I mistake not, llie north parts of the Lonj; ford Teffia came afterwards to he called Anpalia ; Ciuain-hroin, in which was a nunnery founded by St. Patrick, was a few miles South of Granard. h^ THE LIFE OP ST. PATRICK. 59 the two daughters took tho veil at Cluain- broiii in the ncij^hbourhood. St. Patrick was sorely afflicted at this rash action of Milcho, and is said to have stood three hours silent and in tears. It put ia stop to his further progress northward at this time. He returned to Inis, * the habitation of Dichu, by the same roads he came ; he made the circuit of that whole territory , and in it the Faith increased rapidly. He took his leave of Dichu, and bent his course southward by sea, keeping the coast on his right hand, and arrived at portColbdi, -j- where he landed, and committed the ch >rge of his vessel to his nephew, St. Luman, by his * The habitation of Dichu was said before to be at Sal)hallt now at Inis ; this implies no contradiction : Sabhall was the particular spot where his bouse stood, Inis liis whole territory, which was the island or peninsula of Lecale ; it is almost surrounded by the lough and hay of Strangford. -{' Colbdi was a little port, which yet retains a share of its name, and is called Golp, near Drogheda, at the mouth of the Boyne. In Colp stood formerly a priory of canons regu- lar, founded at the close of the twelfth century by Hugh dc Lacy, lord of Mealh ; it depended on the priory of Lanthon, in Monmouthshire, Wales. ; .^1 ii^ 60 THE LIFE OF ST. PATRICK. sister, Tigrida, whom afterwards ho consocra* tod bishop of Trim , desiring him to wail for him there forty days, while he and his disciples were travelling into the inner parts of the country to preach the Gospel. His intention in this journey was to celebrate the Festival of Easter in the plains of Bregia, * and to be in the neighbourhood of the great triennial convention at Tarah, which at this season was to be held by king Loaghaire, and all his tributary princes, nobles, and druids or pagan priests. St. Patrick justly thought that whatever impressions were made here must have an influence on the whole kingdom, and therefore being armed with unshaken fortitude he determined not to be absent from a place where his presence was so necessary. He took up his lodgings at the house of the hospitable Sesgnen in Meath, who kindly received and welcomed him. St. Patrick preached Christ and his doctrine to him ; he * Bregia or Mac-bregh was a large, spacious plain, extend* ing many miles about Tarafa, the residence of the monarch of Ireland, called anciently Temoria. jonsecra- THE LIFE OF ST. PATRICK. Gl believed and was baptized wUli his whole fami- ly. Sesgnen had a little son, of a sweet and gentle disposition, whom St. Patrick named Benignus or Benneen, that is, sweet, in Irish, from the qualities he observed in this young Christian ; he was afterwards one of the successors of St. Patrick in the See of Armagh , and to him is ascribed an Irish poem on the conversion of the people of Dublin to Christianity. From the house of Sesgnen he moved westwJaird, and arrived on the eve of Laster at Ferta iir feic * on the norlh banks of the river Boyne, where he rested in a tent erected for shelter, resolving there to prepare for the next day s solemnity. It was penal for any * Ferta- fir fieic , in Irish, imports « the graves of the men of Fiech ; > it is now called Slanc. It w.is afterwards made an episcopal See and St. Ere the first bishop of it, but merged into the bishopric of Meath in later ages together with Trim , Duleek , Dunshaughlin , Foar , Kilskire , Ardbracan and Slane. Christopher Fleming, baron of Slane, who was treasurer of Ireland in Henry the VIU's reign, and Elizabeth Stukely, his wife , founded there a convent of the third Order of St. Francis in 151 S, in the hermitage of St. Ere. 6 A, I i -^ G2 THE LIFE OF ST. PATRICK. person, at Iho time of the celebration of this solemn convention at Tarah , to kindle a lire in the province before the kings bonf 'e first aipeared. St. Patrick, either not knowing or not minding this law, lighted up a fire before his booth, which, although eight miles distant from Tarah, was very visible. It was seen with astonishment from the court, and the druidf informed the king that, if he did not immediately extinguish this fire, he who kindled it and his successors would hold the principality of Ireland for ever ; which has hitherto happened to be a true prediction of those heathen priests as to spiritual principality. The king despatched messengers to bring Patrick before him , and gave his positive orders that nobody should presume to rise out of his seat or pay him the least honour. But Ere, the son of Dego, ventured to disobey this command. He arose , and offered the holy father his seat ; St. Patrick preached to him, and converted him ; he became a person of great sanctity, and after some time was THE LIFE OF ST. PATRICK. 63 consecrated by St. Patrick bishop of Slane. The day following , when St. Patrick and two of his disciples appeared unexpectedly at court and preached to the king and all his nobles, Dubtach, the king's poct-laurcato. paid honour and respect to St. Patrick , and was converted by his preaching. Ficch, a young poet who was under the tuition of Dubtach, was also converted and afterwards made bishop of Slotty , and was the author of a poem on the Hfe of St. Patrick. St. Ansclm, archbishop of Canterbury , relates the con- version of Fingar, the son of Clito, one of the nobles at this assembly, in the same manner. The queen also and many others of the court became Christians , and although the king held out for a long time with great obstinacy , yet at last he submitted to bo baptized, St. Patrick is said to have here wrought many miracles ; there could not indeed , according to the projects of human wisdom , have happened a more weighty occasion for the Almtghty s supporting this preacher by miracles, than when the collective I "i 6i THE LIFE OF ST. PARTICK- body of the whole nation was assembled together , from whose report and conviction the influence of his doctrine and works must necessarily spread through the kingdom ; for it was suitable v/ith divine Providence thai the ** signs of his apostolate should bo confirmed, » as St. Paul expresses it, « not only in all patience , but also in signs and wonders and mighty deeds. » CHAPTER XI. FftOM Tarah he proceeded next to Talten, not far from thence , at the season of the royal diversions. Here he preached to Cairbrc and Connall, the two brothers of king Leoghair ; the former received him with great indignity and obstinately shut his ears against his doctrine , but Connall believed and was baptized and gave St. Patrick a place to build a church on. This Connall was great grandfather to St. Columbkille. Our Saint spent the remainder of this year in Mealh and Louth and the countries adjacent, 11 THE LIFE OF ST. PATRICK. 65 preaching, and converting great numbers of people. About this time (434), we are told by the writers of his life,having given his benediction to his dear friend Connall , he took leave of Meath and travelled into Connaught, not forgetting the oracular dream or vision by which ho thought himself more particularly called to the conversion of those parts. In his way he happened to meet the two daughters of the king Lcoghair, Ethne the fair and Fedcline the ruddy , who were educated under the tuition of two druids, Mael and Caplait ; he preached to them the words of truth ; they heard him, and were converted together with their tutors. The lives of these pious ladies have been published by John Colgan , who assigns the 11th of January for their feast ; and Probus has given us at large the sermon which he says St. Patrick preached to them. The season of Lent approaching, St. Patrick withdrew into a high mountain on the western coast of Connaught, called Cruachan-Aickle, 6. it „ 'ii V, s - 1*1 THE LIFE OF ST. PATRICK. * to be more at leisure for contemplation and prayer. The writers of his life tell us, " that in imitation of our Saviour he here fasted forty days without taking any kind of sustenance. » Joceline says further, ** that in this place he gathered together the several tribes of serpents and venomous creatures, and drove them headlong into the Western Ocean , and that hence hath proceeded that exemption which Ireland enjoys from all poisonous reptiles » But the earlier writers of St. Patrick's life have not mentioned it. Solinus, who wrote some hundred years before St. Patrick's arrival in Ireland, takes notice of this exemption. Venerable Cede in the eighth age mentions this quality , but is silent as to the cause, and so is St. Donat, bishop of Fesula, who , in describing his country, Ireland, hath these lines : Far westward lies an isle of ancient fame, By nature blessed, and Scotia is her name ; ' CruacbanAiclile or rather Cruachar.-Achuil, which in the old Irish signifies mount-eagle, is a hi>rh mountain in the West of Connaught, in the barony of Morisk and county of Mayo, now called Croagh-Palrick. il\ THE LIFE OF ST. I'ATniCK. 67 Knrolied in l)Ooks, exhaustless is her store Of veiny silrer and of golden ore. Her fruilful soil for ever teems with wealth* With gems Iier waters and lier air with health ; Her verdant tields with mil It and honey flow, Her woolly fleeces vie with virgin-snow ; Her waving furrows float with bearded corn. And arms and arts her envied sons adorn. No savage bear with lawless fury roves , Nor ravenous lion trough her peaceful groves ; No poison there infects ; no scaly snake Creeps through the grass, nor toad annoys the lake, An island, worthy of her pious race. In war triumphant and unmatched in peace. Cambrensis treats this story as a fable, and Ck)lgan gives it up. From these testimonies ari- se unanswerable arguments to prove that this exemption is owing to the nature and quality of the air or soil, or to some other unknown cause, and not to the virtues of our patron, which have no need to be supported by inventions. Solinus, not only mentions this exemption of Ireland from venomous creatures, but says that in Ireland there are few birds and no bees ; now, as he is mistaken in these latter particulars so he may be in the former. But this way of reasoning strikes t ■ II 08 THE LIFE OF ST. PATRICK. at the credit of all profane history, none being exempt from error ; besides, although we have plenty of birds and bees now, yet it may admit of some question whether wo had very many in the age of Solinus. The Britons, in the time of Caesar, had no corn, especially in the inland countries, but lived on milk and flesh. The food of the ancient Irish was, for the most part, milk, butter and herbs, from whence Strabo cals them herb-eaters. If there was a scarcity of corn among the Irish in the days of Solinus, it may seem to follow that there could be no very great plenty of birds, since there was not sufficient food for tho. support of the several tribes of them, especially such as lived on corn ; and it may be observed at this day that birds abound most in the corn- countries cf the kingdom. There are several species of birds among us now, which were unknown to our ancestors, and particularly it is not many years since the magpie first visited us. As to what Solinus mentions, lliat there were no bees in Ireland at the time he wrote, I shall not take upon THE LIFE OF ST. PATRICK. 69 mo to defend the fact, but only observe tha* Madomnoc or St. Dominic of Ossory, who flourished about the middle of the sixth century, is by the writer of his life said to bo the first who brought bees or at least a particular sort of bees into Ireland , which Cambrensis, Peter Lombard, and many others confirm. Having finished his devotions on Mount Aichle, St. Patrick descended into the plain to forward the work of his mission, and after converting great numbers there he celebrated the Festival of Easter. In this place he founded a church in the territory of Umalia * or Hy malia, and placed over it one of his disciples, the humble Senach , who was so regardless of vain glory as to make a request that the church might not be called after his name. * Urnali or Hy-Malia, an ancicnl territory in ihe Soufh- wesl of the county of Mayo, seated on the Western Ocean, compreliending the barony of Morii^k, or at least the mantiinc parls of it and perhaps the half barony of Ross in the county of Galway as far as the banks of Lough- corb. • '■■ ii iImI ,)'■ ;. I'll •i.t .■ k^ 70 I THE L1F£ OF ST* PATAICK. CHAPTER XII. From hence he moved northward until he came to TyrAmalgaid, all the way preaching and converting multitudes. It was in this teirilory the wood of Foclut stood, concerning the inhabitants of which he had the lively dream or vision before mentioned. He looked upon this as the place to which he was more particularly appointed, and did not fail to lay hold of the opportunity which here presented it.self . At this time the seven or twelve sons of Amalgaid, contending about a successor to the throne of their father, had here convened all the nobles and people of that province to a council. He preached with boldness among them, and is said to have wrought many miracles for their conversion, especially among the druids. The writers of his life, with whom Nennius and Matthew of Westminster agree, say that he baptized in one day the seven sons of Amalgaid and twelve thousand others. St. Patrick himself mentions many thousands as converted I THE LIFE OF ST. PATRICK. 74 on this occasion. Among this people he planted a Church, and placed over il Manconus, a religious and devout man, and one well skilled in the holy Scriptures. It would be a tedious journey to travel with him step by step through this province, in which he continued seven years, preaching in every quarter and baptizirj wherever he went, so that he may be said to have wrought almost a general conversion in it. Colgan reckons up the particular names of forty-seven parishes planted by him here, over which he placed as many pastors. The last Church he founded in Connaught (44!) was at Cassiol-Irra, * in that part of it now called the county of Sligo, of which ho made St. Bron bishop. From hence ho travelled along the maritime coasts of the North of Connaught by Sligeach, Drumcllabh and Ross-Clogher, until he arrived at Magh- Ean in the south parts of Tirconnel in Ulster, • GassioMrra, bow simply called Cashel, is a church and village lyipg in the barony of Leny and county of Sligo, between the rivers Unehin and Owenmor, about six miles South of Sligo. •%'■»'" 72 THE LIFE OF ST. PATRICK. where he continued some txiie and founded a Church called Domnac tic Magh-Ean. * fie then crossed the Erne near Ea r )a or Ashroe, and passed through all Tirconnel, preaching, converting, and planting parishes every where, until he arrived at AilechNeid, the seat and residence of prince Owen, one of the sons of king Neil, whom he converted with all his family. He generally addressed himself first to the princes and great men , wisely judging that the populace would easily he prevailed on to follow their leaders, according to that saying of the poet, « The monarch frames the morals -of the State. » From the peninsula of InnisEoghain or Inis Owen he ' Sligeacb, now called Sligo, is a well-kuown seaport- town, seated in a county and on a river and bay of the same name. Drumcliabb , now called DrumclitTe or Drumclive, though anciently an episcopal See, is now but a sorrA Tillage in the barony of Garberry and county of Sligo, about three miles due North of Sligo. Ross-Glogher is a barony in the county of Leitrim, in the north part of which stands a village of the same name near Lough-melvln. Magb-Eau is a large plain lying in the South of the county of Donegal, extended between the bay of Donegal and the river Erne and Drabhois. Easroa is a great cataract or waterfall on the Hiver Erne. THE LIFE OF ST. PATRICK. 73 passed the Foyle between Derry and the Lough, and came to the river Fochmuine, * about which neighbourhood he continued seven weeks and founded as many churches ; and then returned to Inis-Eoghaiu the same way, and travelling northwards continued there about the river Bredach forty days, where he founded the church of Domnach- Bile, and converted these northern parts of the peninsula to Christianity. From thence, passing over the narrow Frith at the north end of Lough Foyle, he kept along the shore till he came to Duncruthen, f where he founded a church and placed a pastor over it. In these parts he continued seven weeks, and converted Sedna, the son of Trena, and all his clan. Then he passed the river Bann at Cuil- * Fochmuine, now corrupted into Faughan, a river rising in ttie barony of TirelLerin in tlie county of Derry, wiiich taking a N. N. W. course falls into Lougli-Foyle about a mile East of the mouth of the Foyle. f Dun-cruthen or the castle of Crutheni is now called Dunbo, a parish church in the north parts of the barony of Goleraine and county of Kerry. 7 .1 'I I 71 THB LIF£ OF ST. PATRICK » ratL^n, * iind made some stay ia the territory of Lea, where he formed the resolution of proceeding both through Dalrieda and Dala- radia. In the former of these territories he had never heen before, and in Dalaradia he made but a short stay, having retired from thence oppressed with grief for the cruel fate of Milcho. I shall not follow him through those districts, but only observe that wher- ever he went he preached the Gospel, con- verted the countries, erected churches and established ecclesiastical discipline. He spent two whole years in this progress, from the lime he left Gonnaught until he arrived at Lugh or Ludha, now called Louth. He staid here some time , at a place called afterwards Ard- Patrick , to the East of the town of Louth ; he intended to have built a church and to have fixed a bishop's See at Louth, but was prevented herein by the religious Mochthe, who, arriving from " Cuilratlien, now called Colerain. Lea was an ancient territory in the North of Ulster, in the county of Antrim and extended along the east banks of the Bann. IHE LIFE OF ST. PATRICK. 75 Britain at (his time, set about building a church here, and became himself first bishop of Louth. From hence he moved northward to Clogher, and founded there a church and bishop's See, which for some time he himself governed, but then surrendered it to Mac Cartin, the old companion of his travels both in Italy and Ireland, who is accounted the first bishop of Clogher. CHA.PTER XIII. After spending some time in Ard-Patrick and Clogher and the neighbouring coun- tries, he this year (445) moved to Druim* Sailech, afterwards called Armagh Daire. The lord of the territory made him a present of the place Here he laid out a city, large in compass and beautiful in situation ; built a cathedral, monasteries and other religious places ; drew to it inhabitants both secular and spiritual, and therein established schools and seminaries of education. Ware places the foundation of the Church of Armagh in 76 THE LIFE OF ST. PATRICK- il I 455, which surely must be an error , else that exa< t writer must bo supposed to contra- dict himself in the same page ; for he says that St. Patrick committed the care of the Church of Armagh to St. Benignus ten years after, and that St. Benignus resigned in 465 ; by which account he must be understood to resign the See at the same time as he was promoted to it. But Usher is more exact when he places the foundation in 445, the succession of St. Benignus in 455, and his resignation, with the advancement of Jarlath, in 465. 11 is labours everywhere met with such prodigious success, that he had not assistants sufficient to gather in so large a harvest. To obtain therefore coadjutors and fellow- labourers for this pious work , he crossed over into Britain this year, 447. Ho found that island miserably corrupted with the Pelagian and Arian heresies ; but he took §uch pains while he staid there, that he recovered multitudes of that country from those pestilent infections. Here he found a great many men of learning^ and piety, whom THE LIFE OF ST. TATIUCK. 77 ho engaged to assist him in the conversion of the Irish, and consecrated thirty of Ihem bisjhops before he returned, lie went to Liverpool to take shipping, and on his ap- proach to that town the peopde came out to receive him, and at the place where they met him erected a cross in honour and memory thereof, and callod if by his name, which to this very day it bears. John Scacome, a native of Ratoath in the county of Mealh, and alderman of Liverpool, in his History of the Isle of Man, relates, that St. Patrick and his companions having rested and refreshed themselves some lime at Liv- erpool, put into the Isle ^f Man, where he found the people very much given to magic, but, being overcome and convinced by his preaching and miracles, were cither converted or expelled the island. St. Patrick placed here St. German (447), one of his disciples, who travelled with him from Rome , and was , according to some writers, a canon of the Lateran church and a companion of Auxilius and Isernius. i-'l 1 ^ •> I i 78 THE LIFE OF ST. PATRICK. This German was a holy man, says Joceline, proper to rule and instruct the people in the faith of Christ , and he was appointed bishop of the Isle of Man , but died before St. Patrick, who sent two bishops to supply his place, St. Conindrius and St. Romulus, of whom there is little memorable , but one or more of them survived St. Patrick, and died in 494 ; St. Maughold succeeded him as bishop. But to return to St. Patrick ; — besides the Isle of Man, he is said to have visited many of the neighbouring islands, St. Patrick returned to Ireland early in the year following, 448, and visited his new See of Armagh, where in conjunction with Auxilius and Isernius he held a synod, the canons of which are yet extant. In the eighth are the footsteps of the ancient combat for the trial of truth , it being there provided , « That if a clerk become surety for a heathen and be deceived, ho shall pay the debt ; but if he enters into the lists with him, he shall be put out of the pale of the Church. ■ The fourteenth lays a penance on those who THE LIFE OF ST. PATRICK. 79 should have recourse to soothsaying, or the entrails of beasts, for searching into future events. Having broken up this synod, he look bis journey to Leinster through Mealh , and passing the river Finglas, * came to Bally- alh-Cliath, now called Dublin : the people, not unacquainted with his fame, flocked out in multitudes to welcome him. Alphin, the son of Eochaid, is said to have then been king of that place, to whom St. Patrick preached, and having converted him and all his people by the fervour of his zeal in preaching and by restoring to life his son and daughter, whereof one was drowned and the other died of sickness, the king and people were baptized in a fountain called St. Patrick's Well, South of the city of Dublin. * Finglas, a village two miles from Dublin, formerly an episcopal see and an abbey, now a parochial church, dedicated to St. Kenny. It gave the title of baron to Thomas Windham, lord high chancellor of Ireland. Colgan relates that in Finglas Abbey were buried St. Flanius, whose feast was kept on the :2ist of January ; St.'.Noe, 27th Jan., and St. Dubliterius, May the i5lh. .;: Am m l>'i» \m 80 THE LIFE OF ST. TATRICK. I i This well, according to Jocoliiic, owes its birth to a miracle wrought by St. Patrick in favour of his landlady who complained of the scarcity of fresh water. Having recourse to prayer in presence of many, St. Patrick s trick the ground with the s/as built over the place where the arclies or vaults were founded by Silricus, the sonorAmlave, king ot tne Oslmen of Dublin, by Donat, bishop of Dublin, alwut the year 1038. m-f'^ 82 THE LIFE OF ST. PATRICK. far more ancient than Ossory , of which Kyran was bishop, or Emley, of which St. Albeus was bishop, or Trim, of which St. Luman was bishop, according to Usher, vwelve years before Armagh, which was not built till 454. St. Patrick in 448 celebrated Mass in Dublin, which was called Eblana by Ptolomy, who flourished under the emperor T. Aurelius Hadrianus and Antoaius Pius ; whence it follows that noi^e of the three Norwegian brethren , Amelachus , Sitricus, or Ibor, were the lirst founders, but only the re^^airers and fortifiers of it, a little before iht lish war ; and Donat, not the first bishop of Dublin, but only the first Ostman bishop of Dubhn ; for it is highly improbable that St. Patrick would leave a Church at Dablin in 448 without a bishop to preside over it, and m this particular instance deviate from his universal p.nctice in other places ; and by that means introduce r different species of church-government from what ho had settled in all other parts of the Kingdom, according to the form which in the course of ft.xfV't J*' THE LIFE OF ST. PATRICK. 83 his travels he had observed in all the Churches of the Roman empire ; and though the records of this Church placed Bonat the first bishop thereof, it is to be observed that the monuments preceding the eleventh century were lost, as the learned fatier Hugh Ward, a minorite of the Irish convent of that Order in Louvaiu, who was admirably skilled in Irish antiquities, justly remarks in his life of St. Rumold, bishop of Dublin and martyr, dedicated to the then archbishop of Mechhn and primate of Flan- ders. Yet , in some manner , the silence of records are at best but a negative argument, and consequently inconclusive. However, the silence of these records are supplied by biographers and historians, who mention St. Livinus, bishop of Dublin in 620 ; St. Wiro, bishop of it in 650 ; St. Disibod, its bishop in 675 ; and St. Gormac in 746. St. Gualaser, who was predecessor of St. Rumold, governed the church of Dublin ui 770, and after him St. Seduliasin 785. Mortf er, Peter Walsh obseives, in page 438 of b? i Prospect of Ire- If \ ! 84 THE LIFE OF ST. PATRICK. land, that Dublin was a considerable place in the days of Bennin, seeing that it had then, or at least before his time, a king, and was a kingdom of itself different from that of Lein- ster ; yet afterwards, probably, was destroyed, though the time of its being razed is not exact- ly known ; yci certain it is, that St. Patrick converted and confirmed the inhabitans of Du- blin in the Christian faith, on which subject there is extant an Irish poem, ascribed to St. Benignus or Binenus,St. Pitrick's disciple, and immediate successor in the See of Armagh. St. Patrick in the mision of Dublin may be justly compared to a lamb among wolves, but most happily chanp:ed those very wolves into lambs. The zealous idboiir^ of this eminent luminary changed this great city into a fruitful and delicious garden, and to secure the conquests which Jesus Christ had made through his ministry the glorious Saint was the occasion of building in and about Dublin several churches on the ruins of idolatrous temples, furnishing them with virtuous and indefatiga- ble pastors, and founding monasteries of both THE LIFKOF ST. PATRICK. 85 sexes for the reception of such as desired to retire from the folHes and vanity of this deceitful and uncertain world. These regulati- ons were not made without much difficulty ; yet he found it a task much more arduous to reform the heart, and to root out paganism and vice when fortified by custom and long habits ; but his constant application to the great work, his patience, humility and invin- cible courage conquered all opposition. He had the comfort to see his labours, which were truly apostolical, crowned with success among the inhabitants of Dublin ; such, at least, as were not Christians before his coming, he entirely converted to Christianity. Divine providence, which had selected St. Patrick for the total conversion of so populous and noble a city, endued this champion of the Gospel with all the natural qualities which were requisite for the functions of an apostle. His genius was sublime and capable of the greatest designs, his heart fearless , his charity was not confined to words and thoughts, but shone out in works and actions 8 l\ w ■ii •i' I ri I r 86 THE LIFE OF ST. PATRICK. and extended itself to the service of his neighbours, to whom ho carried the light of the Gospel. In fino; after the Saint had made a very considerable stay in Dublin, he gave its inhabitants and Iheir posterity his blessing, at the same time prophetically insinuating the future happiness and pros- perous state of this ancient and pious metropolis. St. Evin, abbot of Ross-mac-treoin, not far from the river Barrow in the diocese of Ferns, about the close of the sixth or the beginning of the seventh century , * relates that, after St. Patrick had confirm- ed the inhabitans of Dublin in the Chistian faith by the zeal of his persuasive preach- ing , and by the efficacy of his pious mi- racles, he went to a neighbouring village, now called Castleknoek, the seat and estate of a certain infidel, named Murinus, or ra- • liis feast is celebrated on the Srld of December. To him is dedicated the church at the new bridge of Ross which was granted by William Marshall, Earl of Pembroke, to the prior and convent of St. John the Evangelist, near Kilkenny. : of his light of ad made 3lin, he J 3rity his helically id pros- [l pious )in, not diocese sixth or > itury , * confirm - 1 Chistian preach - ous mi- village, id estate ! s, or ra- lember. To ge of Ross Pembroke, j;elisty near * THE LIFE OF ST. PATRICK. 87 ther Fullenus, according to Colgan, whom the apostolical preacher hoped to convert, and having signified that he wished to speak to him, he replied that ho was about to sleep and unwilling to bo disturbed ; and the same message was repeated, to get rid of the importunities of the Saint, who found him as obdurate as ever Moses found Pharaoh. CHAPTER XIV. St. Patrick, having preached through sti- veral parts of Loinster, propagated tho faith and settled bishops in it ; towards the close of the year 448 he took a journey to Munster , which he had hitherto put off , not doubting but his precursors had made a good progress in these parts ; and ?o indeed they had. But the conversion and baptism of Angus, the son of Naitfrach , king of Munster , was reserved for St. Patrick. The king, hearing of his coming into his territories, went out with joy to meet him in the plains of Fennor, and \l W •'\ (JM 88 THE LIFE OF ST. PATRICK. conducted him with all honour and respect to his royal city of Cashel, where he and all his family attending to the words of St. Patrick were convinced and baptized. Iho saints Ailbe , Declan , Kieran and Ibar visited the king and St. Patrick, and they held a synod together, wherein they made several regulations profitable to the govern- ment of the Church and the establishment of ecclesiastical discipline. But these holy men had almost separated on account of some points which were not easily settled; for the saints Ailbe, Declan, Kieran and Ibar, who had derived their commissions from the same source as St. Patrick and were antecedent to him in point of time, with reluctiince submitted to his legatine authority. The three first, for the sake of union in the Church, were afler a short contest easily prevailed on ; but Ibar with some obstinacy adhered to his own opinion, not willing that any but a native of Ireland should be acknowledged the patron of it. However, after some debates, ho was at THE LIFE OF ST. rATlUCK. 80 respect he and i of St. [?d. I ho d Ibar id they y made govern- ishment 56 holy mnt of settled ; m and nissions ck and time, egatine >ake of short with •pinion, Ireland of it. ivas at last prevailed on to submit out of regard to the great pains St. Patrick hud taken and to his extraordinary succo-^s. Emly was in this synod conferred on St. Ailbo , and St. Declan was confirmed bishop of Ardmorc ; St. Kieran was settled in the See of Sageir, which in process of lime was translated lo Aghavoc, and from thenco to Kilkenny ; St. Ibar was created bishop of Bcif-Eri. Things being thus settled and the synod dissolved, St Patrick left Cashel and travelled through Ormond to Kerry and the most remote parts of Munst(r ; in which province he continued preaching and executing other functions of his ministry about seven years. St. Patrick founded tho Church of Ardagh in the county of Longford, 454, and con- secrated St. Mff'l (the son of his sister Darerca) bishop of it ; St. Mael was not only bishop but also abbot of this church. Jocelino says, « that St. Mail , like St. Paul, got his livelihood by the labour of his own hands. » He is said to have written 11 m '1 \-r, k : I IMAGE EVALUATION TEST TARGET (MT-3) /> w €// ^^ .^^ii.. h A V ^ /a 1.0 I.I '-liiiS IIM If 1^ 1.8 1.25 1.4 1 i/s * .4 6" ► Hiotographic Sdences Corporation 23 WEST MAIN STREET WEBSTER, NY. 14580 (716)872-4503 S ■W #^ V iV :\ \ ^. 6^ 4^'%^ # ^ Xj ^^% ^ % '*'0 ,@ s^ 90 THE LIFE OP ST* PATRICK > a book on the Virtues and iMiraeles of St. l^atrick, who was then living. He died on the sixth of February, 487, according to the Ulster annals, but according to others, in 488, five years before his uncle, and was buried in his own church of Ardagh; he was succeeded by his brother, St. Mel- chuo, who, according to Colgan, followed his uncle, St. Patrick, out of France into Ireland before the year 454, and was an unwearied campanion of his labours and a zealous imitator of his virtues. St. Patrick went back through Leinstcr, and proceeded to the northern parts of Ulster, round which he made frequent circuits during the following six years, converting the few who yet remained heathens, and comforting and fortifying those in the Faith whom ho had brought over to a sincere sense of the Christian religion. The same year he relin- quished the See of Armagh, and appointed St. Benignus, or Bineu, his successor in it. He employed a great part of these six years in founding Churches, visiting such as had been js of St. died on rding lo others, icle, and Ardagh; St. Mel- followed ncc into was an s and a Leinstcr, )f Ulster, :s during the few mforting vhom ho se of the ie relin- inted St. 1 it. He years in lad been THE LIFE OF ST. PATRICK. 91 before founded) and placing proper pastors over them. He settled the Church of Ireland on a solid foundation, and ordained bishops and priests through the whole island, according to the system he had seen in other countries. Thus he established the same kind of church- government as was used in the several parts of the Roman empire ; and it is observable that, in some of the Sees fixed by him, the succession has been continued down to this day. He took a journey to Rome in 461 ,to render an account of the fruits of his mission The Pope received him with joy, confirmed him, as Joceline says, in his Apostolatc of Ireland, and sent him back armed with the legatine authority. That writer adds further, that he adorned him with the pallium ; but Roger Hoveden and the annals of Mailross deny that the Pope ever sent a pallium to Ireland until the year 1151 or 1152, in the legation of Cardinal Paparo, which is conlirmed by St. Bernard, who says, in the life of St. Malachy, 11 92 THE LIFE OF ST. PATUICK. that tho use of tho pallium, which is tho plenitude of honour, was wanting from tho beginning. This shakes the authority of Jocelino and the writers subsequent to him, who would make the legatino authority, and tho use of the pall, as early as the ago of St. Patrick, and confounds the unguarded asser- tion of Bailet, who makes the legatine author- ity descend in course with the archbishopric of Armagh from St. Patrick to his successors : if ihis were so, it must be for Benignus that St. Patrick obtained tho pallium and legatine authority, for he was at this time archbishop of Armagh. lie returned to Ireland in 463, and took Britain in his way , where he staid but a short time, which he employed in founding monasteries and repairing such as bad been destroyed by the pagans, which he filled with monks, and laid down rules- for them. Thus Prcbus tells us that St. Patrick had received tho monks' habit from his uncle, St. Martin, and likewise the institutes which were after- wards observed in Ireland and called Cursus r . THE LIFE OF ST. PATRICK. 93 Scotorum. A niimbor of bishops and othor holy men accompanied him on his return. CHAPTER XV. Our Aposllo lived thirty years after this, which he employed for the most part in re- tirement and contemplation, being old and unable to perform the active part of his charge , Me did not however neglect the con- cerns of the Church which he had planted and watered j he held synods and ecclesiastical councils, by which he rooted up and destroyed whatever was practised coi\trary to the Catholic faith. FTe settled and established rules consonant to the Christian law, to justice, and the ancient canons of the Church. Nennius says of St. Patrick (and is followed therein by others) that he wrote 365 alphabets, found- cd 365 churches, ordained 365 bishops and 3000 priests. The number of the churches, however great, has been underrated by Nennius ; for Colgan says they amounted to upwards of 111 .:S l\ 94 THE LIFE OF ST. PATRICK. 700, of which he names 196 besides 66 in Leinster alone not mentioned. To the frivolous objections started by Dr. Ledwich against Nennius's nutnbers we have opposed the satisfactory observations of Dr. Lloyd. From the same work we submit to the reader s perusal the following additional explanation of those numbers. «t Perhaps the meaning might be , that besides those thirty bishops, which St. Patrick ordained for the bishop's Sees, he also ordained as many suffragans as there were rural deaneries ; in each of which there were eight or nine parish priests, taking one deanery with another, if St. Patrick so far consulted the ease of the bishops or the people's convenience, he might do it without altering the species of church - government ; but no man, that writes of the church-government of Ireland , speaks of any thing there in those times which was otherwise than it was in the Churches of the Roman empire. » He spent most of the last thirty years THE LIFE OF ST. PATRICK. 95 of his life between the monasleries of Sa- ballum or Saul, and Armagh. Nor was he easily drawn out of these retreats , unless some urgent business relating to his function called him abroad. Pleased with the success of his labours, he concluded his ministry and his life in the abbey of Saul on the i7th of March, 493, in the 120th year af his age, and was buried at Down. As the place of his birth, so that of his death and burial, is much contested ; some affirm that he died and was buried at Glastonbury in England, and of this opinion is William of Malmsbury in his antiquities of that abbey ; yet in another of his works he adds this cautionary remark to his as- sertion, namely, « if we may venture to believe it. » Capgrave also speaks dubiously of the matter , for , having related that St. Patrick was buried at Glastonbury, he adds, < I leave the truth of this to the judgment of the reader ; « and John of Tinmouth ailirms it only as the opinion of the mo- ■ i 'ii' h Hi ! 1 'I ,.? ill 96 THE LIFE OF ST. PATRICK. derns. Other late English writers hold the same opinion and are induced to do so , perhaps, from an equivocal signification of the word Dunlethglaisse and Glastonbury. This notion is confirmed by a passage related by Usher out of a manuscript life of St. Patrick remaining in the public Hbrary at Cambridge written by an Irishman ; wherein it is said, that his resurrection would be at Dunelege* Glaisse to which passage is added, « Quod nos dicimus in nostra lingua Glastingahyri, i. e. Glastonbury. » An error of the person might also have induced the English writers to think that our Apostle was buried at Glastonbury : for there were three Patricks in early times besides our Saint ; the first was called Patrick the elder, a disciple of the great St. Patrick, and, according to some writers , his suffragan in the See of Armagh ; the second was Patrick junior, who was a disciple and nephew to our St. Patrick ; the third was the abbot Patrick , who flourished about the years 850. One of these four Patricks is said to have been buried it was I km affirme( ArmagI St. Pat Thus g the dis when h be bur the inl ancient he was his jou be bur life of his dis Saul ai suppose wrote 1 close oi fought concerr conclud )ld the lo so , tion of inbury. related Patrick abridge is said, Delege- « Quod igabyri, person writers led at atricks 18 first iple of log to See of junior, )ur St. Ltrick , One of been THE LIFE OF ST. PATRICK. 97 buried at Glastonbury, but which of them it was is uncertain. I know not on what authority St. Bernard aiDrmed that St. Patrick was buried at Armagh, for all Irish writers agree that St. Patrick was buried at Down in Ireland. Thus St. Fiech, bishop of Slelty, who was the disciple of St. Patrick, asserts that when he sickened he had a desire to go and be buried in Armagh, but was hindered by the interposition of an Angel ; and the ancient scholiast on that writer says, « that he was at Saul when he fell sick, and began his journey towards Armagh, desiring to be buried there. » The writer of the third life of St. Patrick, supposed to be one of his disciples, asserts that he sickened at Saul and died at Down. Another writer, supposed to be St. Elerane, the Wise, who wrote the life of St. Patrick towards the close of the sixth century, relates a battle fought between the Airtherians and Ulidians concerning the property of his body, and concludes that it was buried at Down ; so 9 1 *' : i f 1 i 1 ir<. I [i , I 98 THE LIFE OF ST. PATRICK. doth St. Evin, in tko tripartite life of St. Patrick ascribed to him. St. Ullan in the Life of St. Bridgid is positive in that par- ticular : from these and other authorities we may give Down the honour of containing his sacred remains ; with which several English writers agree, and Cambrensis alTirms that the bodies of St. Patrick, St. Bridgid and St. Columba were not only buried at Down, but were also there taken up and translated into the shrines by John Gourcey who sent a supplication to Rome on that account. To this purpose Cambrensis gives us these verses : Hi tres in Duno tumulantur in uno Bridgida, Patricius atque Columba pius. In Down three Saints one grave do fill, Bridgid, Patricli aod Columbkille. Or : One tomb three Saints contains ; one vault below Does Patrick, Bridgid and Columba show. Or rather ihtu : Three Saints one shrine in Dowels cathedral fill Patrick and Bridgid too with Columbkille. The when found, and St. of Dovi on tho to a n the cat bore tl lation ( besides Monte See, s nine dignita Ulster, asseml of tho! throng of Jul the h compo printe Colgai of St. in the It par- loritics taining several alTirms Bridgid ried at ip and burcey m that 8 gives €lOW flii e. THE LIFE OF 8T. PATRICK. 99 The English invaded Ulster in 1185 ; when in H86 St. Patrick's relics were found, together with those of St. Columba and St. Bridgid, by Malachy the third bishop of Down, they were by the Pope's nuncio, on tho 9th of June most solemnly translated to a more honourable place, prepared in the cathedral of Down , which afterwards bore the name of St. Patrick. At the trans- lation of these sacred relics there assisted , besides Cardinal Vivian of St. Stephen's in Monte Celio, (Legate a latere of the Apostolic See, sent for that purpose by Urban III.), nine bishops, several abbols and other dignitaries, as also John Courcey, prince of Ulster. It was enacted in that venerable assembly, that the solemnity of the finding of those relics should be yearly celebrated throughout all Ireland for ever, on the 9th of June, with an octave, as appears from the historical lessons of the divine Ollice composed on that occasion, which was re- printed by Thomas Messingham and John Colgan from this ancient breviaries made use ■' 'ti :«;.;?;! I'';, . II ■!t 100 THELIFE OFST. PATHICK- of in Ireland before the so-called Reformation. It is indeed true that this ofTico is not composed with such exactness as is to be wished ; however, if this feast be ever re- vived, that defect may be soon supp'ied from the Offices, which are either in the Parisian or Cluny breviary, on November the 8th, retaining only the historical lessons of the second nocturn. In some ancient martyrolo- gies the feast of this translation is deferred to the 10th, on account of St. Golumba's solemnity which is kept on the 9th of June; but in St. Patrick*s church at Roan it is observed on the 17th day of March, which seems to be the most proper day. The reason of its being celebrated with an octave is , because, as St. Patrick's feast always happens in Lent , and is therefore kept without an octavo , (though not so in Murcia,) this, is in some measure to supply that defect. The church of Down and the Saints shrine were profaned by Leo- nard. Lord Grey, lord deputy of Ireland, in 1538, but bis sacrilege was punished by THE LIFE OP ST. PATRICK. 101 >rmation. ;o is not is to be ever re- I'icd from Parisian the 8tii, 8 of the artyrolo- deferred olumba's of June; )an it is h, which [le reason itave is , i happens thout an Murcia,) supply and the y Leo- :)and, in shed by the loss of his head on a scaffold on Tower- hill. CnAPTEU XVI. The deference paid by the faithful to the mortal remains of Saints has been a most ancient practice : the Marcioniles . who opposed it. were reputed heretics, as Magncs relates in his fourth book against Theosion. Vigilanlius, who impugned the said devotion, was proscribed as a heretic, and St. Jerome wroto against the heresiarch. It is recorded in the nineteenth verse of the fifteenth chapter of Exodus, that Moses quitted Egypt to go into the land of promise to search for the bones of the patriarch Joseph. The wise and prudent king Josias, after having des- troyed the altars of the idols, burnt the bones of the ^falso prophets, which were made use of in the greatest abominations. Having found in the same place the sepulchre of a prophet of Xho true God, he revered his j H U ■in fi; ;t ti i ;3: 102 THE LIFE OF ST. PATRICK. ashes, and prevented them from being profan- ed by touching them. Besides, the same fourth book of Kings mentions that after the prophet Eliseus was dead and buried, cor tain men, carrying the corpse of a dead man to his grave, were frightened by robbers, and cast down the body into the prophet's sepulchre , ^hich , as soon as it touched nis bones, came to life again. The end of this groat miracle, wrought by the Almijnjhty and recorded in Scripture, was to let the people then present and pos- terity know how much he valued and esteemed the very bones of his great servant, when he thus inverted the order of nature to manifest it. Again, in Acts xix., it is mentioned, that i God wrought special miracles by the hands of Paul, so that from his body were brought unto the sick hand- kerchiefs and aprons, and the diseases depar- ted from them and the evil spirits went out of them. » The same Acts record, in the fifteenth chapter, verses 12 and ifj, « that by the hands of the apgstlcs were wrought pro fail' Kings ms was ing the were vvn the vvhich , to life rought ipture, id pos- d and srvant, nature it is special it from hand- depar- at out n the ■ that •ought THE LIFE OF ST. PATRICK. . ! C J many signs and wonders among the peo- ple ; insomuch , that they brought forth the sick into every street, and laid them on beds and couches, that al least the shade of Peter , passing by , might overshadow them. » Eusebius Caesariensis, in the fifteenth chapter of the fourth book of his Ecclesi- astical History, gives an account of the mar- tyrdom of St. Polycarp, a disciple of the apostles, which account Eusebius extracted from a letter from the Church of Smyrna, written to that of Pontus, relating the whole trial and execution of that prelate, which, he says, was extant in his days and seen by himself. In it, as Eusebius ailirms, we are informed that, when St. Polycarp was burnt, the Christians gathered his bones with more earnestness than if they were precious jewels and more pure than gold , and laid them up in a proper place. St. Gregory Nyssen, in his funeral oration of Theodorus the martyr, speaks thus both of his soul and body : » The soul indeed, » says he, « since it wont on I"'*- !#l !04 THE LIFE OF ST. PATRICK. high, is at rest in its own place, and, being dissolved from the body, lives together with those of its own likeness ; but the venerable and immaculate body, its instrument, being dressed and adorned, is with much honour and veneration deposited in a magnificent and sacred place. » St. Austin wrote thus to Quintianus concerning tho relics of St. Stephen, which he sent by tho bearers of his letters : « They carry indeed tho relics of the most blessed and most glorious martyr St. Stephen, which your holiness is not ignorant how con- veniently you ought to honour as we have done. »> St. Gregory Nazianzen in his oration on St. Cyprian says, « the dust of St. Cyprian can, with faith, do all things, as they know who have experienced it and have transmitted the miracles to us. » St. Chrysostom speaks thus ot the relics of St. Babyla : « The miracles, which are daily wrought by the martyrs, abundantly confirm our opinion. » St. Jerome in his book against Vigilantius, in which he calls him a new monster who merits the name of Dormitantius, thus says. THE LIFE OF 8T. PATRICK. 105 1, being er with inerablo , being honour ent and hus lo tephen, letters : he most Stephen, low con- re done. »> uion on Cyprian jy know nsmitted 1 speaks « The by the )inion. o ilantius, ter who us says. c Vigilantius is sorry that the relics of the martyrs should bo covered with a precious veil, and not rather bundled together in rags or sackcloth and cast on the dunghill, that Vigilantius alone, drunk and asleep, might be adored. » Several national and provincial councils in the primitive Church have decreed that no altar should be consecrated, except relics be set in them. St. Athanasius, St, Cyril of Jerusalem, St. Basil, St. Justin, St. Epiphanius, St. Paulinus, Eusebius, Emis- senus, Theodoretus , Sulpitius , Severus , St. Leo, St. Gregory the Great, Venerable Bede and many more in sundry places extol the veneration which all antiquity had for the relics of Saints. All ecclesiastical historians, Eusebius, Socrates, Theodoretus, Sonzomen, Evagrius, Nicephorus, RufTmus, Sulpitius and many others record innumerable miracles wrought at the shrines and relics of Saints. St. Aust- in , in the eighth chapter of the twenty- second book of the City of God, enumerates more than twenty miracles wrought at the t I 'I 106 THE LIFE OF ST. PATRICK. altars where the relics of St. Stephen, the proto-martyr, were preserved. Thus much hy way of digression ; let us return to the great St. Patrick, lie was truly mortified in the flesh but enlivened in the spirit, constantly girded his loins with a rough and coarse hair-cloth, and laboured for his livelihood, like St. Paul, in fishing, tilling the ground, and particularly in building churches. He generally kept in his company some lepers, whom he served and attended most carefully, washing with his own hands their sores and ulcers, and pro- viding them with all manner of necessaries. His humility was so extraordinary and great, that he was not in the least elated with the graces which the Almighty bestowed upon him in great abundance, but thought and styled himself the greatest sinner in the world and the most contemptible amongst men. From this humility proceeded his sweet and ami- able conversation, by which he accommodated himself to all sorts and conditions of people, and so gained their affections, that, (as the len, the pon ; let lie was vened in s with a laboured fishing, larly in )t in his rved and with his and pro- uessarics. nd great, with the red upon [ght and the world ?n. From and ami" imodatcd f people, , (as the THE LIFE OF ST. PATRICK. !07 apostle speaks of the Galatians,) if it could be done, they would have plucked out their eyes and given them to him. They pressed our Saint to accept of very large presents, which he always refused, except what he employed in relieving the indigent members of Jesus Christ, or in erecting altars to his august and most adorable name. This holy and austere man^ the lustre of whose virtues had long charmed and edified the world, was in a manner sustained by his zeal alone ; but how painful soever were his functions, he acquitted himself with promptitude and joy. The least of his busin- ess, in all his travels, was to labour, so that what St. Chrysostom styles St. Paul may not be improperly applied to this apostolic prelate, in calling him a winged labourer, Pennaius Jgricola, for he ran through the world with an incredible swiftness, and, as it were, on the wing, yet not without labour, nor was that labour without fruit; but rooting out idolaters, who36 idols could no more stand before him than could Dagon in the presence of the ark ; reforming manners , establishing Christian ii li t 108 THE LIP£ OF ST. PATRICK* piety, and bringing numbers under the ban- ner of the cross : he left no corner of the kingdom unvisited.The fatigues of so laborious and difficult a mission might seem a very sufficient mortification ; Ihe badness of the roads, the great variety of bad weather, and the stupidity and obstinacy of those he had to deal with, gave him trouble enough to ground an excuse for not practising austerities on himself ; but this second Paul , fearing that whilst he preached to others he should become a reprobate himself, was not so tender of his own person ; he joined rigorous fasts and other penitential severities to his apostolic labours. Bailet relates that his biographers mention him to have daily rehearsed the whole psaN ter with a great number of prayers, and that he mortified himself every night by repeating fifty psalms in the water, and then taking a httle sleep upon the bare ground, with a stone under his head for a bolster, until he was fifty years of age. he ban- r of the aborious a very I of the her, and he had ough to isteritics fearing ) should not so rigorous i to his mention )le psal- nd that ipealing aking a a stone he was TRK LIFE OP ST. PATRICK. 109 ff^e will conclude with the following re/lections, extracted from the Rev, Alban Bulter's sketch of our Saint's life. The apostlesof nations were all interior men, endowed with a sublime spirit of prayer. The salvation of souls, being a supernatural end, the instruments ought to bear a proportion to it, and preaching should proceed from a grace which is supernatural. To undertake this holy function without a competent stock of sacred learning,and without the necessary precautions of human prudence and industry, would be to tempt God. But sanctity of life, and the union of the heart with God , are qualifications far more essential than science, eloquence and hu- man talents. Many almost kill themselves with studying to compose elegant sermons, which flatter the ear, yet produce very little fruit. Their hearers applaud their parts,but very few are converted. Most preachers now-a-days have learning, but are not sufficiently grounded in true sanctity and a spirit of devotion. Interior humility, purity of heart, recollection, and the spirit and assiduous practice of holy prayer are 10 f I 1 iO THE LIFE OF ST. PATRICK. the principal preparation for the ministry o the word, and the true means of acquiring the science of the Saints. A short devout meditation and fervent prayer, which kindle a fire in the affections, furnish more throughts proper to move the hearts of the hearers, and inspire them more with sentiments of true virtue, than many years employed harely in reading and study.St. Patrick and other apostolic men were dead to themselves and the world, and anima- ted with the spirit of perfect charity and humi- Uty , by which they were prepared by God to be such powerful instruments of his grace, as, by the miraculous change of so many hearts, to plant in entire barbarous nations not only the faith, but also the spirit of Gbrist. Preachers, who have not attained to a disen- gagement and purity of heart, suffer the petty interests of self-love secretly to mingle themselves in their zeal and charity, and we have reason to suspect that they inflict deeper wounds on their own souls than they are aware of, and produce not in others the good which they imagine. APPETVDIIL. - Trim , the chief town of the county of Meath , was formerly an episcopal See , and the first erected in Ireland, in 432, by St. Lunian , nephew of St. Patrick , who appointed him the first bishop in Ireland. St. Luman's feast is kept on the 11th of October ; the church, now only parochial, is dedicated to St. Patrick. The church of the abbey was dedicated to the B. V. Mary, of whom there was a most famous statue,ador- ned with many and various donations of pilgrims , who came far and near to visit it, which were taken and the statue burnt in 1538. In the suburbs of Trim , called Nev/town, stood a stately priory of canons regular, the spacious ruins of which remain. Simo:^. de Rochfort , bishop of Meath , who died in 1224, held a synod in this church in 1216, the constitutions of which ill m ■'M m "■ 112 APPENDIX. are extant in Wilking's Councils, torn. l,p. 547. St. Macartin is mentioned by writers under various names ; first , Aed or Aid , which was the name given by his parents; secondly , Derdechrich or Derdachrioch, as much as to say , a man of two places or countries, because he was successively abbot of Garinis and bishqp of Clogher ; thirdly, Kerten MacKerten, the son of Kerten. He was one of the earliest disciples of St. Patrick, and an indefatigable assistant to him in preaching tho word of God, and for many years the inseparable companion of his travels and labours, so that he was called the staff and support of his old age. Usher, in page 856 of his Antiquities of the British Ghurches, says he was St. Patrick's fellow- traveller in foreign countries, before he came to preach the Gospel in Ireland. He fixed his See at Clogher, where he also built a monastery at the command of St. Patrick, « in the street before the royal seat of the kings of Ergall. » He was descended from the tool was I and lies, I of of APPENDIX. 113 am. if p, writers or Aid, parents; rioch^ as )laces or ly abbot thirdly, Pten. He Patrick, him in >r many 5 travels ed the }her, in British fellow- ie came e fixed built a *atrick, of the i from the noble family of Arads, the sept of which took its name from Fiactrus Araidah, who was king of Ulster about the year 240, and was the founder of many potent fami- lies, and also gave name to the territory of Dalaradia. St. Macartin died on the 24th of March, and was buried in his own church- yard some centuries after. St. Christian O'Morgair, only brother to St. Malachy, du- ring whose life he died on the 12th of June, in 1139, was bishop of Clogher. St. Christian was buried at Armagh, in the abbey of St. Peter and St. Paul , under the great altar , where his relics were formerly preserved with great veneration. Bally-aih CLIATH was the ancient name of Dublin, and it is still so called in Irish. The Black Book of Christ Church mentions that the vaults of that church were built before the coming of St. Patrick into Ireland. According to the Obituary Book of that same church the following relics were pre- served in it before the so* called Reformation: namely, a large crucifix , reputed miracu- « b- M m Ill APPENDIX. lou8 ; the Staff of Jesus, which was translated in 1481 along with the Book of the Gospel used by St. Patrick and his altar-stone from Armagh to Dublin ; a thorn of our Saviour's crown , a part of the B. Virgin's belt ; some bones of the holy Apostles Peter and Andrew ; some relics of St. Clement , St. Oswald, St. Thomas of Canterbury, St. Wolstan, and of St. Laurence OTool ; and finally the shrine of St. Cubius, brought from Wales in 1405. These relics were much damaged by a tempest in 1461 , but the Staff of Jesus remained whole until it was burnt in 1533. John Comyne , archbishop of Dublin and successor to St. Laurence O'Tool , held in Christ Church a provin- cial synod , the decrees whereof were confirmed by Pope Urban IlL about the year 1186 , and are still extant although much defaced by time. Joceline says that St. Patrick celebrated the unbloody sacrifice of the Mass near the place where St. Pa- trick's cathedral in Dublin was afterwards built. An old church , standing in the ranslated e Gospel one from Saviours 's belt ; 38 Peter [Element , •ury, St. [)ol ; and brought 5re much but the it was chbishop [^aurence provin- of were )out the although lys that sacrifice St. Pa- terwards in the APPENDIX. 11J5 south suburbs of that city and dedicated to St. Patrick, was demolished about the year 4190 by the successor of St. Laurence 0' Toole. St. KiNNiA was baptized by St. Patrick, and received the religious veil at his hands. Her memory was long sacred in the Holy Islr, and her relics were in veneration in Lowth, in the southern part of Ulster. Her feast was kept on the first of February. St. Tarahata or Attracta also received the veil from St. Patrick. She lived at a place, called from her Kill- Attracta to this day, in Connaught. Her feast is on the ninth of February. St. Loman was, according to Joceline, a nephew of the Apostle of Ireland, son of one of his sisters. He was at all events a disciple of St. Patrick, and the first bishop of Trim, in Meath. Port-Loman, a town in "^Vestmealh, takes its name from him, and honours his name with singular vene- ration. St. Forchern, son of the lord of that territory, was baptized by St. Loman, succeed- ed him in the bishopric of Trim , and is i^i 116 APPENDIX. honoured among the Saints of Ireland on the 11th of October. St. Kiaran , Kenerin , or Piran, is styled by the Irish the first-born of their Saints. He was among those who were somewhat older than St. Patrick. According to some he was a native of Ossory ; others say that he was of Cork. Usher places his birth about the year 352. Having received some information about the CathoHo religion, he took a journey to Rome when he was thirty years of age that he might be instructed in its heavenly doctrine, and might learn how to practise its precepts faithfully. He was accompanied home by four holy clerks, who were all afterwards bishops : tbeir names are Lugacius, Columbanus, Lugad and Cassan. The Irish writers suppose him to have been ordained bishop at Rome ; but what John of Tinmouth affirms seems far more probable, namely, that he was one of the twelve whom St. Patrick consecrated bishops in Ireland, to assist him in planting the Gospel in that island. APPENDIX. il7 land on IS styled • Saints, ►mewhat to some lay that s birth id some ion, he he was structed it learn lly. He clerks, : their Lugad ose him lome ; ^ seems 7as one jecrated )laritinsr For his residence he built for himself a cell in a place encompassed with woods, near the water of Fuaran, which soon grew into a large monastery. A town afterwards arose there under the name of Saigar, but now called from this Saint Sier-keran Here he converted to the Faith his family and clan (the Osraigs) with many others. Having given the religious veil to his mother, whose name was Liadan, he appointed her a cell or convent near his own, called in Irish Ceall Lidain. In his old age, being desirous to prepare himself for his passage to eternity in close retirement, he withdrew to Corn- wall, where he led an eremitical life near the sea of the Severn, fifteen miles from Padstow. Some disciples joined him, and by his words and example trained them- selves to the true spirit of christian piety and humility. In this place he ended his pilgrimage by a happy death. A town on the spot is to this day called from him St. Piran's-in the-Sands, and a church is dedica- ted to his memory near St. Mogun's creek. I 118 APPENDIX. A great number of other Saints of the Holy Isle retired to Cornwall, where many towns and churches still retain their names. Thus St. Burian's is so called from an Irish virgin, Buriana, to whose college and church king Alhelstan granted the privilege of sanctuary in 936. St. la, Erwine and many others leaving Ireland for Cornwall, landed at Pendinas, a stony rock and peninsula. St. la was daughter of an Irish nobleman, and a disciple of St. Barricus. At her request Dinan, a lord of the country, built a church on the Se- vern, now called St. les, eighteen miles from St. Piran*s. St. Breaca, who was Lorn in Ireland on the borders of Leinster and Ulster, and who consecrated herself to God under the direction of St. Bridgid (who built for her a separate oratory and convent in a place since called <» the field of Breaca » ), also passed over to Corn- wall along with the abbot Sinnin, a disciple of St. Patrick. They were accompanied by Maruan , Germoch or Gemoch , Crewenna , of the '6 many names, an Irish i church ilege of 16 and orriwall, ck and of an of St. a lord the Se- ll miles iio was Leinster jrself to Bridgid )ry and he field Corn- disciple Died by wenna , APPENDIX. ii9 Helen, and king Elwen. Tewder, a Welch- man, slew a part of this holy company. St. Sen an was born in the country of Hy Conalls in Ireland, in the latter part of the fifth century, and was a disciple of the abbots Cassidus and Natal or Nael. He travelled for the benefit of his soul to Rome ; then to Britain, where he con- tracted a close friendship with St. David. After his return to the Boly Isle he built many churches, and a large monastery in InisCathaig (an island lying at the mouth of the Shannon), which he governed and in which he resided after he was advan-* ced to the episcopal dignity. The abbots of that house were for several centuries bishops, until their vast diocese was divided into three — Limerick, Killaloe, and Ard- fert. St. Senan died on the same day as St. David, and in the same year, about 544. St. Enna or Endeus was son of Conall Deyre, lord of Ergall, a vast territory in Ulster. After succeeding to his father^s i; ' ,' -SA 9 1 r'M 120 APPENDIX. principality he forsook the world and be- came a monk, being induced to do so by his sister, St. Fanchea, abbess of Kill-Aino at the foot of mount Bregh on the confines of Meath. Later by her advice he went abroad, and dwelt for a time under the abbot Mansenus in the abbey of Rosnal, or the vale of Ross. At length returning home he obtained of iEngus , king of Munster, a grant of the isle of Arra or Arn, and founded there a great monastery, in which he trained up such a host of disciples illustrious for sanctity, that the island was called « Arran of the Saints » . His death must have happened in the beginning of the sixth century. The chief church of that island is dedicated in his name, and is called Kill-Enda. His tomb is shown in the church- yard of another church of that same island, called Teg- lach-Enda. St. Tigernach was a godson of St. Bridgid. His father was a famous general and is mother a princess. In his youth he i APPENDIX. 121 i and be- lo so by Kill-Aino I confines he went mder the : Rosnal, returning king of Arra or onastery, host of that the Saints » . in the he chief in his is tomb another )d Teg- of St. general outh he was carried by pirates into Britain, and fell into the hands of a British king who placed him in the monastery of Rosnat. In exile he learnt the emptiness of all earthly pleasures , and devoted himself with his whole heart to the pursuit of true happiness in the service of God. When he returned to Ireland, he was com- pelled to receive episcopal consecration , but declined the administration of the See of Clogher, to which he was chosen after the death of bishop Macartin in 506. He founded the abbey of Cluanois or Clones in the county of Monaghan, and there fixed his episcopal See, which is now united to that of Clogher. He taught a great multitude to serve God in primitive purity and simplicity. In his old age he lost his sight, and spent his time in a lonesome cell in continual prayer, by which he in some measure anticipated the bliss of hea- ven, to which he passed in 550. St. Becan is named among the Twelv© Apostles of the Holy Isle ; and in the fes- 11 I 122 APPENDIX. tilogy of iEngus he is said to be (with St. Endeus and St. Mochua) one of the three greatest champions of virtue and leaders of Saints in that fruitful age of holy men. In building his church he fre- quently worked on his knees, and whilst his hands were engaged in labour ho ceased not to prav with his lips, and his eyes at the same time were streaming with tears of devotion. He was of the royal family of Munster, and contemporary with St. Golumba. St. Macai was a disciple of St. Patrick who flourished in the Isle of Bute in Scotland, and was there honoured after his death. St. Ibar or Ivor is said to have been ordained bishop in Rome , and to have preached in Ireland along with St. Kiaran, St. Ailbeus and St. Declan a little before St. Patrick*s arrival there. Others however tells us that he was consecrated bishop by St. Patrick. He preached in Meath and Leinster, and built a monastery in Leg« APPENDIX. 123 be (with e of the 'tue and I age of 1 he fre- id whilst ibour ho and his streaming i of the ;emporary ;. Patrick Bute in after his ave been to have Kiaran, le before however {ishop by lath and m Leg« erin or Little Ireland, a small isle on the coast of Kenselach in Leinster. In this monastery he trained up with many others St. Abban, the son of his sister Mella and of Cormac king of Leinster. St. Abban was afterwards abbot of Magarnoide in Kenselach. St. Ibar divided his time be- tween the labours of his apostolic mission among the people, and the sweet repose of contemplation in his monastery, where he died about the year 500. His relics were kept with great veneration in the monas- tery of Leg-erin. St. Macull or Macallus was an Irish prince, and captain of a gang of robbers, whom St. Patrick converted to the Faith. By baptism he was so changed into a new man as to appear at once to have put on perfectly the spirit of Christ. To cut ofT all dangerous occasions he renounced the world, and retired into the Isle of Man. St. Patrick had before this time sent St. Germanus to that isle, to plant a Church there. On the death of that holy bishop, ) i24 APPENDIX. who is honoured as the Apostle of that isle, St. Patrick sent thither two other preachers, Gonindrius and Romulus. In their time St. MacuU arrived there in an open boat ; and it is said that, after their death, he was elected bishop in 498 by the unanimous consent of the Manks nation. He had till then led a penitential life in the mountainous tract, called from him, St. Maughold, and where a town was afterwards built under the same name, though now scarcely a village, Ramsey being the only town within this tract. This Saint by his labours and example enlarged ex- ceedingly the Kingdom of Christ in this isle. He is honoured in the British and Irish calendars. The year of his death is not known. A famous monastery formerly flourished in the isle of Man at Russin, now called Castletown, the present capital of the is- land. In Peeling, the ancient capital, there is a parish church dedicated to St. Patrick. In the church -yard of the parish of St. Maugl] water receive chair , in whi ing of maladi the cb St. son of at Clc went partly partly Glamo of Ail4 return monasi was a the c( astic I Ireland carbre. 578, ii APPENDIX. 425 3f that other n their L open death, )y the nation, life in 1 him, 1 was name, y being s Saint id ex- n this ih and jath is irished called he is- there atrick. of St. Maughold there is a well of very clear water called St. Maughold's well, which is received in 'a large stone coffin. The Saint's chair , as it is named , is placed above , in which a person used to sit when drink- ing of the water for the cure of certain maladies. His shrine was shown there before the change of religion. St. Brendan, styled the elder, was the son of Findloga, and disciple of St. Finian at Clonard, and was born about 484. He went for a time into Wales, and lived partly under the guidance of a St. Gildas, partly in the monastery of Llan-carven in Glamorganshire. He built the monastery of Ailech and a church at Heth. After his return to the Holy Isle he founded several monasteries and schools, the chief of which was at Gluain-fearta on the Shannon, in the county of Galway. He wrote a mon- astic rule, which was long in repute in Ireland ; and he taught some time at Ros- carbre. He died on the i6th of May in 578, in the ninety- fourth year of his age, ! ' \ i , t., pulUarlaith. He died full of days on the 26th of December about the year 540. His bones were placed at a later epoch in a silver shrine, and deposited in a church at Tuam, which on that account obtained the liame of Tempull-na-scrin or church of the shrine. His principal feast was kept at Tuam on the 6th of June, the translation of his relics. Some bishops of this See were styled metropohtans of Connaught. At length it was regularly raised into an APPENDIX. 143 archbishopric with the concession of the pallium in 1152. Two other Sees were afterwards united to this of Tuam ; first, that of Enaghdune, in the 14th century ; secondly, that of Mayo, founded by St. Gerald an Englishman, who accompanied St. Colman into Ireland form Lindisfarne. St. Colman erected a monastery at Mayo for his Saxon followers, which was called from them Mayo of the Saxons (Mayo-na- Sasson.) St. Gerald enlarged this monastery, and erected it into a bishopric about the year 685^ It was united to that of Tuam in 1560. St. Laserian, called by some, Molaisre, was son of Gairel and Blitha, persons of great distinction, who intrusted him from his infancy to the abbot St. Murin. In after-life he travelled to the Eternal City, during the Pontificate of St. Gregory the Great ; and it is stated that ho was ordained priest by that most holy and illustrious Pope. Soon after his return to Ireland he visited Leighlin, k place situated 144 APP£ND1X. a mile and a half westward of the river Barrow, where St. Goban was abbot. This holy man resigned his abbacy to St. Lase- rian, and built for himself and a few of his disciples a small place of retreat. Soon after this a synod was assembled, at Leighlin> in the White Fields, and in that synod St. Laserian strenuously maintained the Catholic time of fixing Easter Sunday against St. Munnu, St. Laserian not being able however to satisfy the minds of all his opponents, took a second journey to Rome ; and during this visit he was ordained bishop by Pope Honorius, who also made him his Legate in Ireland. His commission was not fruitless; for after his return home the time of keeping Easter was reformed in the southern parts of Ireland. He ended his labours on the 18th of April, in 638, eight years after .^e 3ynod. .-n. ;/ ^