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 THE OEIGIN, OF CimiSTIANITY' 
 IN niELAND : " 
 
 A L E C T U R E 
 
 JJELIVERED BEFOKfi 
 
 Till-] HALIFAX CATPIOLIC INSTITUTE, 
 
 ON TUESDAY EVENING, NOVEMBER 1, 1359. 
 
 m EDMUND MATURIN, A JL, 
 
 (President.) 
 
 ftT 
 
 HALIFAX, N. S. 
 
 rniNTED FOR THB CATHOLIC INSTITOTE, 
 
 By Compton & Bowden. 
 1859. 
 
 M43 
 
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 THE ORIGIN OP CHRISTIANITY 
 IN IRELAND.: 
 
 A LECTURE 
 
 DELIVERED BEFORE 
 
 THE HALIFAX CATHOLIC INSTITUTE, 
 
 ON TUESDAY EVENING, NOVEMBER 1, 1859. 
 
 BY EDMUND MATURIN, A. M., 
 
 (President.) 
 
 HALIFAX, N. S. 
 
 PRINTED FOR THE CATHOLIC INSTITUTE, 
 
 « By Compton k Bowden. 
 1869. 
 
THE OHIGIN or CnniSTIANITY IN 
 
 IRELAND. 
 
 1 
 
 ! 
 
 On the last occasion on which I had an opportunity of delivering a 
 Lecture before this Association, I selected for my subject " the Origia 
 of Christianity in England," and it was my great design to show, 
 from historical evidence, that, from the period of the first commence- 
 ment of the Christian Religion in that country down to the time of 
 the final disruption in the 16th Century, the Church of England wai 
 always regarded as an integral part of the Catholic Church, in full 
 communion with the See of Rome. And now, 1 shall proceed to con- 
 tinue the same inquiry with reference to another of the British Islands, 
 in which 1 am sure that we all take the deepest interest, and witli which 
 most of us are more or less directly connected, by birth or by descent, 
 ns the home of our youth and the land ot our fathers, which, after all 
 its political and religious revolutions, and after all the various vicissi- 
 tudes in our own lives, is so dear to memory still, and eo closely jisho- 
 ciated with all the sacred recollections of past events in the national 
 and Ecclesiastical History of Ireland. 
 
 It may be observed, then, that there are three great events which 
 must be taken into consideration, in order to understand the present 
 religious situation of Ireland. The first is the introduction of Chris- 
 tianity into the country — the second is the English invasion of the 
 kingdom in the 12th Century— and the third is the legal establish- 
 ment of the Protestant Reformation in fhe 16th Century. These 
 may be regarded as the principal elements out of which the present 
 condition of the country has grown, and their effects are clearly per- 
 ceptible in every part of Ireland to this day. I must, however, con- 
 fine myself chiefly to the first of these on the present occasion, as my 
 purpose is to speak of the earliest period of the history of the Irish 
 Church, of the principal Missionaries by whom the Faith of Christ 
 
 5')'?i)"o 
 
wuH pluntca in that country, and of tho general nature of the doc- 
 trines wliich thoy dolivcrod to tho infant Church, ua derived from the 
 most authentic sources of information. 
 
 The fimt piint of inquiry, to which our attention is directed, relates 
 to tlie time when tlio Ciospel was first preached in Ireland, and tlie 
 individual!! who were engaged in its propagation. But, unfortunately, 
 we have no means of arriving at any natisfactory conclusion on these 
 points. It must be confessed, and it is rather a discouraging con- 
 fession, that the history of the introduction of Christianity into Ireland 
 is involved in impenetrable obscurity. It is now impossiblo to ascer- 
 tain the precise time, at which Christianity was originally introduced 
 into the country. This is generally admitted by all Ecclesiastical 
 historians, both Catholic and Protestant. Perhaps this m;iy appear 
 strange to some of you, who are accustomed to associate tho memory 
 of St. Patrick with the very existence of tho Christian Faith among 
 the ancient inhabitjints of Ireland. It may be asked— Was not St. 
 Patrick the Apostle of Ireland, and the Founder of the Irish Church? 
 Now this is certainly true in one sense, but it is not true in another 
 sense, and therefore it is necessary to enter into a more particular ex- 
 planation on these points, in order to construct our system of Church 
 History on a solid foundation. In the first place, then, it is certain 
 that St. Patrick was not the first person who was sent to Ireland by 
 tho Apostolic See, nor was he originally invested with Episcopal 
 authority for the government of the Church, and the conversion of 
 the natives to the Faith of Christ. The individual who was appointed 
 to this commission, though he preceded St. Patrick by a very short 
 interval of time, was Palladius, of whom I shall soon have occasion to 
 speak more fully, but at present I merely notice the fict, in order to 
 present a clearer view of the order of events. But further, as the 
 learned Dr. Lanigan remarks, " it is universally admitted, that there 
 were Christian congregations in Ireland, before the mission of Pal- 
 ladius, which took place in 431."* How, or when, or by whom, 
 these Christian congregations were formed, we have no direct evidence 
 in the records of antiquity, and we are therefore left very much to 
 probable conjectures, founded upon indirect allusions or remote anal- 
 
 4 
 
 * Lanigan'g Ecclesiastical Uifltory, Vol. I. p. 9. (Ed. Dub. 1822.) 
 
ogiofl. In my former Lecture, I referred to tho groat want of histo- 
 rical information which can bo (l"rived from tho writings of the 
 ancient Fathers on tho earliest Church History of Enghmd, and I 
 regret to say, that wo have to complain of tho same want still more 
 strongly with reference to Ireland, as I am not awaro of a single pas- 
 sage from any of tlio Christian Fathers which can bo brought forward 
 in illustration of tho subject. Poor Ireland, from its remote situation 
 and insular position, seems to have been so entirely cut off from all 
 Ecclesiastical communication with the rest of the world, in those days, 
 that it appears to have almost escaped the notice of the great writers 
 of the Church, or at leas', to have been included in the general de- 
 scription of tho British Islands. This want of acquaintance with 
 Ireland was also probably increased by the circumstance of its national 
 independence, as it is well known that the victorious arms of the 
 Romans had never penetrated into that distant Island, in consequence 
 of which it was regarded as completely removed from the centre of 
 civilization, and looked upon as a barbarous country by tho other 
 nations of Europe. Still, however, it appears from the statement of 
 the Roman historian Tacitus, who wrote in the latter part of the Ist 
 Century, that, in a commercial point of view, the harbours of Ireland 
 were better known in his time than those of England, for he says that 
 *' the soil and climate of Ireland, and the disposition and habits of the 
 people, differ not much from those of Britain, while the approaches to the 
 country and its ports, are better known, through commercial inter- 
 course and merchantmen."* 
 
 But though the Fathers are entirely silent as to the first preachers . 
 of the Gospel in Ireland, the: 3 are some general statements made by 
 some of them, with reference to Britain, which may be extended to 
 the sister Island, though it is not expressly mentioned -by any one of 
 them. For it is well known , and it has been clearly proved by Abp. 
 Ussher*, that Ireland was reckoned among the ancients as one of the 
 British Islands, even long before the commencement of the Christian 
 Era. I need not again particularly quote the passages of the Fathers 
 to which I referred in my former Lecture ; it is sufficient to mention 
 that the principal testimonies of this nature are to be found in the 
 
 * Taciti Aj;rieola, Cap. xxiv. 
 
 t Usserii Brit. Eccl«s. Antiq. p. 723, 
 
 (ito. Dub. 1639.) 
 
 I 
 
 I 
 
Works of Tortulllun. I^luseMus, ami CliryBostom, who flatirlHliod ro- 
 •pw lively in tlio heginnitij; of tlio .'inl, 4th, und r)kh Ctrnturles iiftor 
 Chriwt. When Tertulliun wiys that " the parts of Britain, inacnssible 
 to the RoiHans, are suhj-jct to Christ'**, it iH evi<l(^ntly intimated that 
 ChriHtianity had extended, in his time, In^yond tlio limitM of Uonmn 
 Britain, and tlicrefore he has h<x!n underHtood hy Up. Stillingflcetf and 
 others as alluding to tho northern parts of Great Britain huyond 
 Adrian's Wall, though some have supposed that he refers to that part 
 of Britain which is now called by the name of Scotland, hut Dr. Lani- 
 gan " believes that there can bo littfc doubt, that TertuUian had also 
 in view tlio inhabitants of Ireland."! And, in like manner, when 
 Eusebius informs us that some of tho first preachers of Cliristianity 
 " crossed the Ocean to thone called the liritish Islands'"^, anu Airther, 
 when St. Chrysostom says that "Churches and altars have been erected 
 in tho Brttish Islands^^'' and again, that the Scriptures wore studied and 
 expoun<led "even in tho very Z?rj//s/t /i/a/u/5'"^— these express- ons, 
 employed in the plural number, may properly bo applied to the 
 " lesser" as well as the " greater" Britain, as tho two British Island* 
 were distinguished from each other by ancient writers. These, tlicn, 
 aro some indirect lestimanies, which seem to imply that tlie Cliristian 
 Faith was known in some parts of Ireland at an early period, and it 
 is scarcely necessary to observe tiuit these Ecclesiastical authors lived 
 long before tho time of St. Patrick's mission. Indeed, it can hardly 
 be supposed, /Vom the very nature of tJie case, that Ireland would have 
 been entirely deprived of tho light of the Gospel for so long a period^ 
 when we remember that Christianity had l>een 8ucee8.sfully preached to 
 the Britisli people in tho neighboring country for more than 2=30 yeara 
 before St. Patrick's time — when it appears that there was frequent 
 communication between Ireland and otlier countries at that time — and 
 when we take into account tho ardent zeal of tlie first Christian Mis- 
 sionaries, who, inspired with the love of Christ, would never lose an 
 
 * Tertull. 0pp. Tom. II. p. 290. (Ed. Semler.) 
 
 t Stillingftcet's Orig. Brit. p. 50. (Ed. Lond. 1685.) 
 
 t Lanlgan, Vol. I. p. 2. 
 
 5 Eusobli Demonst. Evang. Lib, III. Clap. vii. p. 112. (Par. 1628.) 
 
 II 5*. Chrysostomi 0pp. Tom. I. p. 575. (Ed. IJen.) 
 
 IT Ibid. Tom. III. p. 7I. 
 
opportunity of fulfilling tl.o great commission ontrustcl to tlicin by 
 thoir Divino Muster, to ♦' go into tho whole world, and proach the 
 (Jospol to every creuture." 
 
 It is not very surprising, however, that there is so much obscurity 
 About tho first introduction of Christianity into Ireland, when we 
 recollect that there is much the same obscurity about tho introduction 
 of Christianity into Franco, Spain, Engfend, and even some parts of 
 lUly, us there were no EcclesiaHticul historians in those early times to 
 record the events reluting to tho rise and progress of tho Christian 
 Faith in different countries, and to transmit them to future genera- 
 tions. And it is very much to the credit of our ancient annalists, 
 that none of them have attempted to trace the conversion of tho Irish 
 people to the Twelve Apostles, or of their immediate successors, and 
 they have thus avoided the tempUition, bO common ♦ - Jther writers of 
 this class, of mixing up uncertain traditions and fabulous legends 
 with tho genuine history of those events of which tho origin is lost 
 in the remote antiquity of the times in which thoy occurred. 
 
 There are, indeed, somo I-ish Christians whoso names have been handed 
 down to us, who flourished before tho time of St. Patrick, but it must 
 bo observed that, though they wore natives of Ireland, yet ti.ey were 
 Irishmen residing in foreign countries on tho Continent of Europe, 
 and the accounts of them have been delivered to us by foreign writers, 
 nor does it appear that any of them had received tho knowledge of 
 Christianity while they were yet living in their native land. One of 
 these was Mansuotus, who is said to have been tho first Bishop of Toul, 
 in Franco, and was undoubtedly an Irishman, to which is added in 
 •ome accounts, that ho was a disciple of St. Peter the Apostle. '• There 
 is, however," as Dr. Unigan remarks, " no sufficient authority to 
 prove that he lived in tho times of St. Peter, and it is more than pro- 
 bable, that hie mission to Toul did not tiikc place until late in the 4th 
 Century, or perhaps, about the beginning of the 5th." His life wa- 
 written by tho Abbot Adso in the 10th Century, and it is remarkable 
 that his biographer states the fact, that Ireland contained many 
 Christian tribes in the times of Mansuetus. Calmet, the French 
 Divine, maintains that Mansuetus was sent from Rome to Toul about 
 tho middle of tlie 4th Century, and Dr. Lanigan supposes that the 
 circumstance of his having been sent there by the Church of Rome, 
 
8 
 
 gave rise to the subsequent tradition of his baving*been sent by St. 
 Peter himself, whose name has been constantly applied to all his suc- 
 CPBsors in the See of Rome.* 
 
 We have another remarkable instance of the saipe kind, though a 
 very unfortunate one, in the case of Celestius, the disciple and assistant 
 of the ffraous heresiarch Pelagius, in the l>eginning of the 5th Century. 
 It is generally believed that Ceiettius was a native of Ireland, and this 
 opinion is chiefly founded on two passages in the Writings of St. 
 Jerome, one of the greatest Doctors of the Latin Church, in both 
 of which he is supposed to refer to Celestius, whom he describes as an 
 Irishman. St. Jerome, with all his sanctity and learning, was cer- 
 tainly not remarkable for elegance of language when attacking a 
 theological adversary, and accordingly, in one of these passages, in 
 8p <iking of Celestius, with reference to his personal appearance, as 
 •' a large and corpulent dog,, of the Scottish (Irish) nation, 'f while 
 in the other passage, he says of him, that he "was a most stupiu 
 person, fattened up with Scottish (Irish) porridge."| It is true, 
 indeed, that, as St. Jerome does not expressly name Celestius, some 
 persons have thought that he is referring to Pelagius himself, but 
 without entering into further particulars, it is clear from other 
 testimonies, that Pelagius was not an irishman, but a native of Britain; 
 and thus it is u, remarkable circumstance, that this heresy, which so 
 long disturbed the peace of the Church, was originated and propa- 
 jrated by two natives of the British Islands. It may be added, that 
 St. Augustine, in one of his Works against the Pelagians, bears a high 
 testimony to the intellectual abilities of Celestus, as he acknowledges 
 him to be a man of exceedingly acute genius.^ It appears that he 
 left Ireland in early life, and entered a Monastery on the Continent 
 though it is not known in what country. During this time his faith 
 was sound and his piety unquestionable; but having afterwards mefc 
 with Pelagius at Rome, he adopted his principles, which ultimately led 
 to the denial of the doctrine of Original Sin, and of the necessity ot 
 divine grace, in the conversion of the soul to God. 
 
 * Lanigan, Vol. I. p. 3, 
 
 t S. Hieronymi 0pp. Tom. IV. p. 925, (Ed. Ven. 1766.) 
 
 I Ibid. p. 835. 
 
 '% 
 
 to A i!_ 
 
 s >j. -vuisastmi 0pp. Toa. X. p. 433. (»id. Ben.) 
 
I elnil] refer to one other illustrioup Irishman, who was distinguished 
 as a Christian poet and theologian in those early times— I mean 
 Seduliu8, who has been the subject of various opinions as, to the place 
 of his birth, and the precise time in wlilch he lived. Ussher, Ware, 
 Harris, and Lanigan think that there is satisfactory evidence to prove 
 that he was born in Ireland, and he is generally supposed to have 
 lived during some part of the 5th Century. It is a curious ciicum- 
 stance that his name is only the Latin form of the name of Shiel, 
 which is well known to be still quite common in Ireland. And it has 
 been remarked, that "some of the most beautiful Hymns that are 
 reaf": in the Church, hiive been taken from Sedulius" Poems*;" and 
 thus it appears that some of those glorious songs of praise which 
 are chanted in the service of the Catholic Church throughout the 
 whole world, were the productions of an Irish Christian in the 
 5th Century. 
 
 But I must now proceed to speak of those Irish Ecclesiastics who 
 lived and died in their native country in those ancient times. It has 
 been staled by some writers that there were several Bishops in Ireland 
 before the time of St. Patrick, or the arrival of any Missionaries from 
 Rome, and there are four members of the Episcopal order who are 
 particularly mentioned by name in this description — Ailbe of Emly, 
 Declan of Ardmore, Ibar of Begery, and Kieran of Saigir. It has been 
 clearly shown, however, that the^*" '.. no real foundation " r the high 
 antiquity which has thus been assigned to them, and though the three 
 first of them were partly contemporary with St, Patrick, yet the last 
 of them belongs to a much later period, as he flourished about the 6th 
 Century of the Christian Era. St. Ailbe is said to have been born at 
 Eliach in Munster, and according to several ancient accounts, he was 
 ordained priest by St. Patrick himself. The Annals of Ulster and 
 Jnnisfallen mark his death at the year 527, which is decisive evidence 
 against the very early data of his ministry. Declan is said to have 
 been the son of Ere, a prince in the County of Waterford, and was 
 probably born in the latter part of the 5th Century. Ibar is said to 
 have been a native of Ulster, and to have been one of the disciples of 
 St. Patrick. He resided chiefly in his Monastery in Begery or Bege- 
 
 * Lanigan, Vol. I. p. 19, 
 
10 
 
 rin, which means ♦' little Ireland, " and is a small Island near the har- 
 bour of Wexford. His death is placed in the ancient Irisli Annals at 
 the year 500*. 
 
 On the whole, then, it appears that there is no sufBcient authority 
 for the opinion, that there existed a Christian Hierarchy in Ireland 
 before the mission of the first Catholic Bishop from Rome. There 
 can be no donl)t that there were Christians, and Christian Priests in 
 the country before that period, and especially in the southern parts of 
 Ireland, but there is no evidence to prove that there were any Bishops, 
 and these Priests must therefore have been ordained in foreign coun- 
 tries. Their situation, in this respect, was probably similar to that of 
 the Catholics in the United States, who had no resident Bishop among 
 them until the latter end of the lust Century, as the first Bisliop of 
 Baltimore, the oldest See in the great Republic, was not consecrated 
 till the year 1790 ; thougli there were 20 Priests and a considerable 
 body of the Catholic Laity In the country before that tiracf. 
 
 But I must now proceed to give some account of the first Mission- 
 ary Bishop who was sent by authority of the See of Rome, to the peo- 
 ple of Ireland, for the propagation of the Gospel, and the government 
 of the Church, in that country. The individual who was selected for 
 this commission was Palladius, who is supposed to have been a native 
 of Britivin, and who had held the office of Deacon, or, as some writers 
 have called him, Archdeacon of the Roman Church, and had alnady 
 been distinguished for his exertions in extirpating the Pelagian 
 heresy from Britain. For it is recorded in St. Prosper 's Chronicle, at 
 the year 420, that " at tlie suggestion of Palladius the Deacon, Pope 
 Celestine sends Germanus Bishop of Auxerre, in his own stead, in 
 order that, having vanquished the heretics, he might direct the Britons 
 to the Oatliolic Faith.' 'I 
 
 We shall now examine the celebrated passage of Prosper, relative to 
 the mission of Palladius. It is expressed in these words — *« Palladius 
 is ordained and sent by Pope Celestine as tlie first Bishop to the Scots 
 bolieving in Christ." The same account is repeated, nearly in the 
 same words, by the Venerable Bode, both in his " History" and in his 
 
 • Lanij;an, Vol. I. pp. 22-33. 
 
 t Metropolitan Catliolic Almanac for U. S. (1859.) pp. 50,251. 
 
 :j:S. Prosperi Cliron. (Inter S. Aug. 0pp. Tom. X. p. 1^8 App.) 
 
I 
 
 11 
 
 «' Chronicle."* Here it is necessary to explain that all learned men 
 are fully agreed that by the " Scots" are meant tlic ancient inhabi- 
 tants of Ireland. This may appear, indeed, quite a paradoxical opinion 
 to tiiose who are only acquainted with the modern names of those 
 countries, but it has been conclusively proved by Archbishop Ussher 
 that the name of " Scotia" ov " Scotland" was invariably applieti by 
 ancient writers, not to the country which is now called by that name 
 but to Ireland ; and that there is not a single instance of any other 
 application of the name from the 4th to the lltli Centuryf. Without 
 going into details, it is sufficient to refer to the fact, well known to all an- 
 tiquarians, that the Scots originally came over from Spain and settled 
 in Ireland at a very early period, and probably long before the begin- 
 ning of the Christian Era ; that from thence the name of " Scotia'' was 
 gradually given to the country, in addition to that of Hibernia, by 
 which it was formerly known, and that Iiaving afterwards passed over 
 into Albania, the same name was, in process of time, applied to the 
 new country, which is now exclusively known by the name of Scot- 
 land. But while this is now universally admitted, some writers have 
 found a difiicuity in reconciling the statement of Prosper with their 
 own particular theories on this subject. Thus Archbishop Ussher, 
 who was inclined to the opinion that there were Dishops in Ireland at 
 an earlier period, endeavors to explain the word '• primus" or '' first" 
 by supposing that it may refer to the circumstance of Palladius having 
 been the first sent of the two Bishops ivppointed by Celestine for Ire- 
 land, of whom St. Patrick was the second in point of time—oT that it 
 may mean the chief Bishop in point of dignity, in the sense of Primate 
 or Metropolitan. t But both these arc unusual senses of the word, and 
 there is nothing whatever in the context to justify such an interpreta- 
 tion, as Prosper never mentions the name of St. Patrick at all, nor 
 does he refer to any other Bishops, in comparison with Palladius. 
 
 Further, this testimony is of great importance* in another point of 
 view, because it proves that there were Christians in Ireland before the 
 time of Palladius, as he is said to have been sent not merely for tha 
 conversion of the trich, but to tho<se who already '• bthevcd in Christ,'* 
 
 *lji^(iffi Hist. Eccl. Angl. Lib. I. Cap. xiii. and Chron. ad an. 430. 
 t Ussorii Brit. Eccles. Autiq. p. 725. 
 t Usser Brit. Ecclea. Autlq. p. 800. 
 
12 
 
 which clearly implies that they were believers in Christ before his arri- 
 val in tlie country. An objection, indeed, has been founded upon a 
 passage in Nennius, an ancient British Historian, in which he says— 
 «' Pulladius was sent as Bishop first by Colestine, Pope of Rome, to the 
 Scots who were to be converted to Christ:'* From this it rai^ht be 
 inferred, that his mission was merely to a land of heathens, who had 
 previously no knowledge of Christianity. But, even if these words be 
 genuine, there is no comparison between the credit due to the authority 
 of Prosper and of Nennius, as the former lived some Centuries before 
 the latter, and in the very times to which his Chronicle refers, with 
 the best opportunities of knowing the true state of Christianity in Ire- 
 land, as he was himself Secretary to the Pope. Still less credit is due 
 to Platina, in his "Lives of the Popes," written more than 1000 
 years after the time, in which he says that Celestine " sent to the Scots, 
 desiring the Faith of Christ, Palladius, whom he himself had created 
 Bishop. "f Indeed, it may bo observed that the previous existence of 
 Christianity seems to bo implied in a remarkable passage in St. Pat- 
 rick's own " Confession" (which isadmitted to be a genuine document) 
 in which he says to the Irish poople— "I travelled in every direction for 
 your sakes, amidst many dangers, even to remote places to whicli no 
 person had ever come to baptize, or ordain Clergymen, or to confirm 
 the people in the Faith J"— which seems to intimate that there were 
 other places less remote whicli had been visited by Christian missionaries 
 before his time. It is also mentioned In one of the ancient Lives o"^ St. 
 Patrick, that in coming to a place near the river Shannon, where 
 Palladius had never been, he found an altar and its sacred vessels for 
 the celebration of the holy Sacrifice, which is a further incidental 
 proof of tl.e same point. 
 
 But there is also another important statement of Prosper, in which 
 he speaks of the spiritual benefits conferred upon Ireland by Pope 
 Celestine, so that he does not hesitato to say, that by his instru- 
 mentjility Ireland was become a Christian country. After referrino- 
 to the successful eff'ortsof this Pope to preserve the purity of the Faith 
 in Britain, he draws a comparison between his exertions for each of 
 
 *Nennii Hist. Brit. Cap. 53. (Apud Usser. p. 812.) 
 t Plat) lite Vit. Pont, ad Ccleit. (Ed. Nurembergte, 1481.) 
 b. Ptttricii Opusouia p. siotj. (Ed. Dub. If35.) 
 
13 
 
 i 
 
 the two British Islands, when he adds that •' having ordained a 
 Bisliop for the Scots, while he is anxious to preserve a Roman Island 
 Catholic, he made also a barbarous Island Christian.''* I need hardly 
 explain, tliat the former of these means Britain, and the latter Ireland. 
 On this passage Dr. Lanigan remarks— "I hope none of my countrymen 
 will be offended at the epithet barbarous, here given by Prosper to Ire- 
 land. Whatever country did not form a part of the Roman Empire was 
 80 called at that period. "f And it must bo confessed, indeed, that the 
 description was properly applicable to the Irish people at that time, who 
 were generally in a stivte of heathenism and barbarism". There is a 
 curious passage in the Writings of St. Jerome on this subject, which 
 for the honor of our country, we might hope is exaggerated, though 
 we can hardly question the veracity of the Saint. He says—" When 
 I was a young man in Gaul, I saw the Scots (Irish), a British nation, 
 feeding on human flesh''— and he" goes on to give some shocking in- 
 stances of this barbarous practice, after which he includes the whole 
 nation in one sweeping sentence on another charge, when he adds that 
 "the nation of the Scots (Irish), Aayc no wives of their own," &nd 
 live in utter neglect of the law of marriage^. It must be remembered 
 that St. Jerome lived shortly before the time of St. Patrick, and 
 therefore it is some consolation to think that he is not speaking of 
 Christian Ireland, but of a time when the nation was comparatively 
 in a heathen state. In the second of the ancient Lives of St. Patrick, 
 the mission of St. Palladius is thus briefly mentioned—" The most 
 blessed Pope Celestine ordained Palladius, Archdeacon of the Roman 
 Church, as Bishop, and sent him into the Island of Ireland, having 
 delivered to him some relice of SS. Peter and Paul and other Saints, 
 and also the books of the Old and New Testament."* This, indeed, 
 is a point about which there can be no controversy, that whatever may 
 have been the origin of Christianity in Ireland in the earliest times, 
 the first Christian Bishop was sent to Ireland^ btj the successor of 
 St. Peter in the See of Rome. 
 
 After his consecration, Palladius set out for Ireland, accompanied 
 by some Missionaries, four of whom are mentioned by name in some of 
 
 * S. JrVi jp. contra CoUat. (later S. Aug. 0pp. Tom. X. p, 
 
 t Lanigan, Vol. I. p. 42. 
 
 t S. Hieron. 0pp. Tom. I. ool. 503. (Ed. Par, 1609.) 
 
 195. App.) 
 
14 
 
 St. Patrick's Lives, as Sylvester, Soloniiis, Augustine, and Benedict. 
 It is nut particularly recorded where he landed, but from some indirect 
 allusions, it has been thought to be near the situation of the present 
 town of Wexlord. Although ho met with much opposition, yet it 
 appears that, according to the most authentic accounts, he baptized 
 several converts, and erected three Churches, which are generally sup- 
 posed to have been situated in that part of the country which is now 
 called the County of VVicklow. But the mission of Palladius was of 
 short duration, and his success was comparatively small, in accord- 
 ance with an old Irish adage, that " not to Palladius, but to Patrick, 
 did God grant tlie ecu version of Ireland." The prince of the territory 
 ordered him to quit the country, and accordingly he was obliged to 
 witlidraw, though he left some of his companions behind him, in order 
 to carry on the mission in his abdence. He sailed from Ireland in the 
 latter part of the same year in which he arr'vcd, and, after a stormy 
 passage, he landed in Britiiin, with the intention of proceeding to 
 Rome, and he is generally aiid to have died shortly afterwards, at a place 
 called Fordun, in the country of the Picts, or in modern Scotlandf. 
 We have now arrived at the most re vrkable period in the ancient 
 hist'jry of the Irish Church, when it pleased Almighty God to effect 
 the general conversion of the people of Ireland to the Christian Faith 
 by the ministry of St. Patrick. But, before I proceed to this subject, 
 it may be proper to make a few remarks, in refutation of an extraor- 
 dinary opinion which has been advanced in modern times, with refer- 
 enc to this illustrious Saint. The opinion to which I refer is simply 
 this, tliat there never was such a person in eiistence ! Now there havt 
 been some writers who entertained doubts as to the precise ttme in 
 which he lived, or the reality of the miracles attributed to him, but it 
 does not appear that any author ever ventured to deny the very 
 existence of St. Patrick until the latter end of the last Century, when 
 Dr. Edward Ledwich, a Protestant Divine, published a large book 
 with the imposing title of *' The Antiquities of Ireland", in which he 
 seriously maintained, with great appearance of learning, that Lhe 
 popular belief on this point was entirely derived from uncertain tra- 
 ditions of the Middle Ages, and had no real foundation in theauthen- 
 
 * Lanigan, Vol. I. p. 41. 
 t Ibid. Vol. I. pp. 37-47. 
 
 ■m 
 
I 
 
 # 
 
 15 
 
 tic records of history. His principal arguments consist of two 
 asfiertions, the one founded on the supposed silence of the most anc.cnt 
 writers, and the other on the Jictitious miracles which had been ascri- 
 bed to the Sivint. Dr. Ledwich says-" It is an undoubted fact, that 
 St. Patrick is not mentioned by anyauthor, or in any work of veracity, 
 in the 5th 6th, 7th or 8th Centuries,"* and accordingly he concludes 
 that his name is first mentioned about the middle of the 9th Century. 
 Now this sUvtement can only be supported by ignorance, or misrepre- 
 gentation. In fact, there is no truth whatever in it. It is contra- 
 dicted by the original works of St. 'Patrick, and the Canons which 
 bear his name, the genuineness of which documents is admitted by the 
 Biost learned Protestants. It is contradicted by the Alphabetical 
 Hymn in honor of St. Patrick, written by Secundinus during the life- 
 time of the Saint. It is contradicted by the Irish Hymn or metrical 
 account of St. Patrick, attributed to Fiech, which was probably 
 written in the 6th Century. It is contradicted by the Paschal Epistk 
 of Cummian, written, according to Ussher, in the year 634, and m 
 which St. Patrick is expressly mentioned by name. It is contradicted 
 even by the public Services of the Church used at that period, as, for 
 instance, in an Anglo-Saxon Litany of the 7th Century, which con- 
 tains the name of St. Patrick. It is contradicted by Ada.nnan s Life 
 of St. Columbkill, written in the 7th Century, which also alludes to 
 St Patrick by name. It is contradicted by the evidence of an ancient 
 MS now in the British Museum, and which Ussher supposed to have 
 been written in the beginning of the 8th Century, and which has since 
 been published in the two great Collections of British Councils, by 
 Spelman,and by Wilkins. Finally, it is contradicted by the testimony 
 of the, Venerable Bede, in the 8th Century, in whose Martyrology the 
 Festival of St. Patrick in Ireland is marked at the 17th of March. 
 Sureiy, then, we may justly adopt the conclusion of the learned Dr. 
 O'Conor who says that " even if all thcs 3 authorities and Manuscripts 
 in which'st. Patrick is mentioned , were destroyed, the laws of just criti- 
 cism forbid that after the lapse of so many ages, and the destruction 
 of so many Monasteries and Libraries as formerly existed m Ireland 
 before the Danish Invasions, the silence alone of such authors as 
 remain (supposing s^^nce)jhould be_admitt ed in eviden ce _t^ 
 '~T'Led«^oh'B'A^ti4uitie8oflrerand,p.375. (4to. Dub. 179o') 
 
16 
 
 overthrow a national tradition, so universal in every part of Ireland, 
 Scotland, and Man, so immemorial, and so incorporated as that of St. 
 Patrick is, with the traditionary usages, names, anniversaries, monas- 
 tic ruins, and popular manners of one hundred millions of Irishmen 
 who have existed since his time."* It is evident, then, that' there is 
 dcarcely a single character recorded in sacred or profane history, of 
 whose existence we have more clear and unequivocal evidence, than 
 that of St. Patrick, and surely nothing can be more unreasonable than 
 to argue that, because there is some uncertainty as to various particU' 
 lars in his life, therefore there is no trutl^ in any part of the narrative 
 of his life. And yet the learned Antiquarian, to whom I refer, has 
 urged an objection to the existence of St. Patrick, founded on the 
 variety of opinions relative to the place of his birth, from which he 
 comes to the conclusion, that he was never horn at all ! And as to tue 
 miracles of St. Patrick, the reality of such acts of divine interposi- 
 tion may be estiiblished by incontrovertible evidence, and it is surely 
 in perfect accordance with the promises of the Divine Founder of the 
 Church, as well as the exigencies of the mission in which he was 
 engaged. Indeed it is fully admitted by several impartial Protes- 
 tant historians, as for instance, the learned Jeremy Collier, who, after 
 mentioning the fact, that " the writers of St. Patrick's Lives rqport a 
 great many miracles performed by him," adds this remark — "neither 
 have we reason to wonder at St. Patrick's being; furnished with such 
 
 CD 
 
 a supernatural ssistance, considering the difficulties of the task, and 
 the barbarity of the people he had to deal with."f At the same time, 
 it must be observed that there is a wide difference between the true 
 miracles which the Almighty was pleased to perform by him, and 
 those spurioiLS and ridiculous miracles which have been ascribed to 
 him by some superstitious writers of later times, and which have 
 chiefly contributed to bring discredit and contempt upon the whole 
 history of his life among those who are unable to distinguish between 
 the genuine accounts of ancient authors, and the fabulous stories of 
 modern compilers. Indeed, these very miracles, however false, instead 
 of disproving his existence, strongly attests the contrary, for, as it has 
 been justly remarked " miracles would never have been ascribed ex- 
 
 * Columbanus ad Hibernoa, No. 3, p. 59. (Lond. 1310.) 
 t Collier's EccloB. Hist. Vol. I. p. 51, (Lond. 1707J 
 
 
17 
 
 cept to one who was already known in the traditions of the country,"* 
 and accordingly we find that it was not for several Centuries after the 
 death of St. Patrick, that the great multitude of miracles connected 
 with his name were invented and puhliahod in the Lives of the Saint, 
 which are still in circulation. It is well known that a great number of 
 such biographies have bjcn written at various times and by different 
 persons. It is said that several of these were drawn up by the 
 immediate disciples of St. Patrick, which have been lost in the course 
 of time ; and we have the evidence of Joceline, the monk, who wrote 
 his own account in the the I2th Century, that, in his time, not less 
 than GG diffjrent Tracts or Memoirs had been written concerning the 
 Acts of St. Patrick, the greatest part of which were destroyed during 
 the Danish persecution. However, it should be stated that seven of 
 the most important of the ancient Lives of St, Patrick have been col- 
 lected and published by John Colgan, an Irish Franciscan Friar, who 
 lived in the 17th Century. The first and last ot these were written in 
 the Irish language, and the others in Latin. The oldest of them is 
 called the llymn of Ficch, because it is arranged in the form of 
 poetry, and it is generally supposed to have been written in the Gth Cen- 
 tury. Dr. Lanigan remarks of the second, third, and fourth of them, 
 that " they are full of fables, and seem to have been copied, eitlier 
 from each other, or from some common repository, in which those 
 stories had been collected."! The fifth Life is attributed to Probus, an 
 Irishman, and is regarded as a very valuable Work, though, in the 
 opinion of the best judges, it is not older than the 10th Century. 
 The sixth is that of Joceline, a Welshman, who lived in thel2th Cen- 
 tury, and was brought over to Ireland in the time of Henry II. It is 
 one of the most celebrated of the Lives of St. Patrick, though Dr. 
 Lanigan pronounces it to be the worst of them all. The seventh is the 
 longest of these biographies, and is considered fo be a very useful 
 Work. It is distinguished as the " Tripartite Life,"' because it is 
 divided into three parts, and the date of its composition is generally 
 assigned to the 10th Century. These Works, together with the Wri- 
 tings of St. Patrick himself, and some occasional allusions to his his- 
 tory in other ancient documents, form the principal materials from 
 
 * Kinsi's Church Hist, of Ireland, Vol. I. p. 14. (3rd Ed.) 
 t Lanigan, Vol. T. p. 81. 
 
 o 
 
18 
 
 •which all tho modern Lives of the Suint have been compiled, though 
 it must bo confessed that it in a task of considerable difficulty to 
 arrange and ]iarnu)ni/,e these dilforent narratives, and to deduce a con- 
 sistent and authentic account from tlie combined testimony of them all, 
 in chronological order. 
 
 But it is time to enter into some particulars of the life and minifitry of 
 the Apostle of Ireland— and first, with refcronco to the time and place of 
 his birth. Where was St. Patrick born ? This is a question which has 
 been variously answered, according to the fanciful attempts of different 
 writers to identify the places mentioned in his Lives with tho corres- 
 ponding names of localities in modern countries. According to theso 
 conjectures, it has been held by some, that he was born in Cornwall in 
 England— l)y other?, in Pembrokeshire in Wales— and by others, (wiiich 
 is the most unfounded of all) , in some part of Ireland itself. The most 
 general opinion, since the time of Usshcr and Colgan in tho 17th 
 Century, has been, that his native place was Kilpatrlck in Scotland, 
 which is situated between Dumbarton and Glasgow ; but, after all, thi» 
 opinion rests on very slight grounds, which I shall endeavor briefly to 
 explain. The Hymn of Fieeh says that he was born in a place called 
 Nemthur. But no one ever heard of such a place in any of tho 
 three kingdoms. However, an ancient commentator on the Hymn of 
 Fiech informs us, that Nemthur was a town in North Britain, after-' 
 wards called Alcluit, which is now known by tho name of Dumbarton. 
 But this seems to have been a mere conjecture, advanced without any 
 historical authority. Subsequently, it appears, that Jocelino distin- 
 guished Nemthur from Alcluit, and Ussher, following his account, sup- 
 poses that it was the same with the modern town of Kilpatrick. Such 
 is the principal evidence in fiivor of this opinion. Let us now attend to 
 the statement of St. Patrick himself, in tho following passage in his 
 " Confession," He says—" My father was Calpornius, a Deacon, son 
 of Potitus, a Presbyter, of the town of Benaven Tabernite. He had 
 near the town a small villa called Enon, where I was carried into 
 captivity."* We may reasonably suppose, then, that he was bom in 
 the place where his father lived ; but the difficulty is, to fix those 
 places with precision in modern geography. There were no such 
 places known in Scotland, so as to reconcile St. Patrick's own account 
 * S. Patricii Opuscula, p. 184. 
 
19 
 
 I'd, though 
 lifliculty to 
 liico a con- 
 >f thciu ull, 
 
 mlnifitry of 
 nJ pli\co of 
 wliich has 
 >f differ out 
 dio corres- 
 ig to theso 
 Drnwall in 
 FB, (which 
 The most 
 tho 17th 
 Scotland, 
 LTall, thi» 
 briefly to 
 aco called 
 iny of tho 
 Hymn of 
 lin, after-^ 
 imbarton. 
 Ijout any 
 ne distin- 
 >unt, Biip- 
 k. Such 
 attend to 
 ge in his 
 aeon, son 
 He had 
 ricd into 
 3 bom in 
 fix those 
 no such 
 account 
 
 with the opinion of Kilpatrick being his native place. Accordingly 
 there is another opinion which has boon hel.l by many learned men 
 and especially by Dr. I.anigan, who has fully discussed tho wholo 
 question in a most elaborate examination of ancient authorities. Ilia 
 opinion is, that St. Patrick was born in Franco, and that the name of 
 Benaven Tabernia) is the same as tho present town of IJoulogne-sur- 
 raer in Picardy. It has been shown that, in the 4th Century, that 
 town was generally known by tho name of Bononia, which was only 
 tho Latin form of the Celtic name of Benaven, given to it by St. 
 Patriek-and the name Tabernia, or Tarvenna, was the ancient name of 
 tho district in which this town was situated, while it is probably 
 added to tlie other, in order to distinguish it from the City of Bononia, 
 or Bologna, in Italy. This opinion is confirmed by the ancient tra- 
 ditions of the inhabitants of that country, and it is the only one that 
 fully agrees with all the geographical and historical allusions in tho 
 accounts of his life. With respect to the name of Nemthur, men- 
 tioned as his birth-place by Fiech, it appears to be the name of a 
 country or province well known at that time, including tho territory 
 of Boulogne ; and accordingly we find that Probus expressly asserts 
 that Benaven, the birth-place of tho Saint, was undoubtedly in tho 
 Province of Nevtria, which was the Utin name of this place. It must 
 be remarked, however, that Probus calls St. Patrick, a Briton, and he 
 himself seems to intimate thesair'e thing, when he speaks of being with 
 his parents in Britain*. But here it must bo observed that there was 
 another Britain in France, as well as that which is now called Great 
 Britain, and it is expresdy mentioned by the Venerable Bede, that the 
 Island of Britain derived its name from the Britons who came from the 
 Armorican district on the Continent, and settled in the countryf, and 
 thus there can be no doubt that the ancient Britons in England wore 
 originally colonists from Britannia in France, while the name of 
 Britain still continued to be applied to tho continental territory, even 
 at a later ago than that of St. Patrick. Indeed there is a remarkable 
 passage in the ancient life of the Saint by Probus, in which France is 
 evidently mentioned as St. Patrick's country, though he lived at a 
 time when the name of Britain was exclusively applied to England ; 
 
 * S. Patricii Opuscula, p. 194. 
 
 t Beda; Hist. Ecclcs. An^jl, Lib. I. 
 
 Cap. i. 
 
20 
 
 for ho writes that on the Saint's endeavoring to escape from IrehincJ, u 
 man sold him to be carried inlo Gaul^aud lluit tiio miilors brought him 
 to his own country, and landed hiui at liaurdcaux in Franco*. 
 
 Wo shall now briefly consider the other question — UVicu was St. 
 Patrick born? I shall mention at once a satisfaetorj modo of ascer- 
 taining tliis point, founded on a remarkable passage in liis own •• Con- 
 fession." It appears that, when ho had determined on projvehing the 
 Gospel in Ireland, and was about to be consecrated Bishop for that 
 mission, a certain person who had long'l)een his friend, publicly accu- 
 sed him of some fault which ho had committed when a foolish boy 
 scarcely lo years old. Now, though he had confessed this fault before 
 Lo was ordained a Deacon, yet ho says that after 30 yea,.;, Jiis friend, 
 to whom he had communicated it in the bitterness of his sorrow, came 
 forward to expose hi'rx in this manner, and to prevent his admisijion 
 into tho Episcopal orderf It is evident, then, that those 30 years 
 must bo counted back from the time when tho fault was committed to 
 tho time of his consecration, and if wo add the 15 years of his age to 
 that time, wo shall come to tho conclusion, that ho was 45 years old 
 when ho was made Bisliop. But that event certainly took place in 
 tho year 432, from which subtracting 45, wo shall have the year 387 
 as the date of his birth, and this is now generally admitted to be the 
 most probable opinion. According to Fiech's Ilymn and some of the 
 ancient Lives, his first name was Succath, and ho is said by several 
 respectable authors to have received tho name of Patrick from Pope 
 Celestine, on the occasion of his mission to Ireland. But there seems 
 to be no sufficient authority for this statement, as it rests entirely on 
 the statement of the old Scholiast in Fiech's Ilymn, and the Saint 
 never speaks of himself under any other name than that of Patrick, 
 though there is no reason to doubt th..t at. had also tlie name of Suc- 
 cath, which, according to the Scholir..-.i, v^as ^' 'en him .^j,- his parents 
 at his baptism. 
 
 The first remarkable event in tho life of St. Patrick was his cap- 
 tivity, which took place, according to his own account, in the IGth year 
 of his age, and therefore in the year of our Lord 403. He was carried 
 awaj from his native land by some Irish pirates, probably under the 
 
 * Lanigan, Vol. I. pp. 88-1'iS. 
 t S. Patrlcii Opuscula, p. 196. 
 
 I 
 
21 
 
 Ireliin(], ti 
 
 i>uglit him 
 
 * 
 
 t 
 
 « vva« St. 
 
 of uecor- 
 tvn *• Con- 
 iching the 
 
 1 for that 
 licWaccu- 
 lolJHh boy 
 ,ult before 
 iia friend, 
 ow, came 
 admission 
 
 30 years 
 initted to 
 liis age to 
 years old 
 
 place in 
 year 387 
 to be the 
 ne of the 
 jy several 
 am Pope 
 ere seems 
 itirely on 
 ;he Saint 
 
 Patrick, 
 } of Siic- 
 8 parents 
 
 his cap- 
 LGtli year 
 18 carried 
 inder the 
 
 «'<immand of the renowned Niall of the Nino Ilostagnu, King of Ire- 
 Ian, and Bold as a kIuvo in the Nortli of Ireland to a certain Pagan, 
 whose name was Alilcho. The Saint himself, with the most profound 
 humility, acknowledges this event to boa just punishment from (Jod oa 
 nccouni .)f tho sins of himsolf and his countrymen who were involved in 
 the sjimo calamity with iiim. lie says — " I was ignorant of the true 
 (jod, and I was brought into Ireland in c.iptivity, along with bo many 
 thousands of persons, according to what we deserved, because wo de- 
 parted from Clod, and kept not his precepts, and were di8obe(lient to 
 our Priests, who pointed out tp us tho way of salvation ; and tho Lord 
 brought upon us tho anger of his indignation, and scattered us among 
 many nations, even to the ends of tho earth "* Tho part of Ireland 
 in which ho had to endure the hirdships of slavery appears to have 
 f)cen situated in the County of Antrim, near tho present town of Bally- 
 mona, and in tho vicinity of tho mountain called Sliev Mis, whero ho 
 was employed in feeding tho cattle of his master. But it pleased 
 Almighty (Jod, in accordance with tho usual operations of Ills graco 
 in the hearts of His elect people, to bless tiiis season of affliction to his 
 spiritual 8anctification,and ho himself acknowledges it with deep grati- 
 tude to tlie Giver of every good and perfect gift. There is no doubt 
 that St, Patrick had been baptized in his infancy, and the seeds of di- 
 vine graco had been sown in his heart from his earliest years, but as yet 
 they had not produced the fruits of holiness in his life. And it may 
 be here remarked, that this circumetanco is totally inconsistent with 
 tho foolish stories of Joceline and others, about tho miracles performed 
 by St. Patrick when a boy, of which, however, there is no account 
 whatever in the most ancient and authentic Lives of tho Saint. We 
 have now reached the great turning point in tho spiritual history of 
 St. Patrick, which we do not hesitate to describe as the conversion of 
 his soul to God. 'It does not appear to have been effected by any 
 human instrumentality whatever — it was tho immediate work of tho 
 Holy Spirit in his heart, convincing him of his sins, and applying to 
 him the lessons of Christian truth which he had learned in liis child- 
 hood. He was, indeed, placed in peculiar and extraordinary circum- 
 stances, living among heathens, deprived of tho opportunity of enjoy- 
 ing thebenefits of the Christian Ministry and tlie Christian Sacraments; 
 S. Patricii Opuscula, p. 184. 
 
 I 
 
22 
 
 and ho found by I,i, own happy o.pcricnbo, that affliotion is the School 
 o the S.,nt,, ,„ winch God trains up Hi, „hihIron for grace horca^ 
 
 ratMc. I was not from my childhood a hcliover in the onlv God h„t 
 
 Ttmh I r 'T ""," '" ""^""'' ™'" ' was severe,; chl'ed; and 
 mt„h I have been humbled hy hunger and nakedness, and ill 
 my lo to traveso Ireland every day sore a^.inot my will until I Z 
 
 ^rbcin! J r r """■'"=""* "^ "" ^"''' "»<' h° !>''» fitted me 
 for being this day what was once far from me so th^t T .!,„ 1 1 . 
 
 est myself al„ut the salvation of others, whenVusdt hi 'V 
 
 thoughts even for mvself ••• l • T V '"'" "" »""'' 
 
 hron^u ™'"'°J'"-"- ^V'D, he says of this period_"Tho Lord 
 brought me to a sense of the unbelief of my heart, that I migh el 
 at a ate season call my sins to remembrance, and turn with allT 
 heart to my Lord, who regarded my low estate, and takin. ; ty „" Z 
 youth and Ignorance, watched over me before I knew Ilim, or hid "eZ 
 
 ills son. Wherefore I cannot be silent, nor is it ri^ht thnf r «i ia 
 
 .cribes his own devotional exerl:: s Im- C^ll n T '" 
 to Ireland I was employe, every day in fceCatf. ' d rr'uZ; 
 m th day I was in the habit of praying, and the lov. ;f God ' Th"l 
 
 Tmfo «::!::"" rr?- ="" "^ '"" "-" -■-"■ -- ■•- - 5 
 
 ZTin Z . . "^ *'^ ' "•""" '"^ "^ "'■^" J »« " hundred prayers 
 
 ^!l!^^^'^^'^^^°™tom^ndwo^ rise for prayer before dayligl 
 
 * S. Patrioii Opuscula, p. ise. 
 + Ibid. p. 185. 
 
 t Ibid. p. isa 
 
23 
 
 I is the School 
 'ace here, and 
 touching nar- 
 )nly God, but 
 hastened, and 
 !, and it was 
 , until I wae 
 f>, because by 
 has fitted me 
 Jhoiild inter- 
 ave no such 
 -''The Lord 
 
 might oven 
 with all my 
 ; pity on my 
 or had sense 
 
 ftithei doth 
 at I should 
 3 pleased to 
 
 was, by an 
 illy records 
 liainly, that 
 
 deep mire, 
 up, and set 
 make some 
 in eternitv. 
 he thus de- 
 f had come 
 frequently 
 :1 ",vas thus 
 increasing 
 d prayers, 
 the woods, 
 
 daylight, 
 
 in the midtst of snow, ice, and rain, and I received no injury from it, 
 nor was ti.ere any sloth in me, as I now see, for then the spirit was 
 fervent within me."* 
 
 St. Patrick's captivity lasted six years, according to his own •' Con- 
 fession" and Fiech's Hymn, and thus we may fix the date of its termi- 
 nation to the year 409. lie says he was informed in his sleep, that 
 the time of his liberation had arrived. " At night I heard a voice 
 eaying to me, Tliou fastest well, and art soon to go to thine own country. 
 And again after a little time I heard an answer saying to me, Be- 
 hold ! a ship is ready for you. xVnd the ship was not near, but about 
 200 miles off, and in a place where I had never been, nor was acquaint- 
 ed with any one."f Accordingly he betook himself to flight, and 
 obtained a passage with some difficulty, and sailed from a port in the 
 South of Ireland, and arrived at the end of his voyage in three days. 
 It appears, however, from his own narrative, that the Saint and his 
 companions were wandering for 28 days through a desert country, 
 before he reached home. It was at this time that a remarkable cir- 
 cumstance occurred, wliich throws some light on the religious prac- 
 tices of St. Patrick, and of the Christian Church in his time. lie says 
 that "one night, while I was asleep, Satan tempted me dreadfully, 
 which I shall remember as long as I live. For he fell upon me like a 
 great rock, and took away all tlie strength of my limbs. But I know 
 not how it happened that 1 invoked Elias in spirit, and during this 
 time I saw the sun rising in the heavens, and while I was calling 
 Elias ! Elias ! with all my might, behold the splendor of that sun re- 
 lieved me of all ray burden, and I believe I was assisted by Christ my 
 Lord, and Ilis Spirit was at that very time cryin;.^ out in my behalf. "| 
 It is scarcely necessary to remark here, that whatever degree of obscu- 
 rity there may be in this passage, it seems clearly to intimate that the 
 Invocation of Sainjjp was regarded by St. Patrick as a pious and salu- 
 tary practice. 
 
 St. Patrick was now 22 years of age, and it was probaljly shortly 
 after this time that he entered the celebrated Monastery, or College, of 
 St. Martin of Tours, who is said by some writers to have been his 
 
 * S. Patricii Opuscula, p. 190. 
 t Ibid. p. 190. 
 % Ibid. 192. 
 
 I 
 I 
 
24 
 
 uncle bj his mother's side. Here he romalned four yean, durin<. 
 M-h.ch ho was engaged in prosecuting the studies of a Christian educat 
 t.on though he never entered any of the Monastic orders ; and at the 
 conclusion of this period he returned to his friends, and, as the Rheims 
 Lrevunes state applied himself most fcr.ently to the practice of piety 
 I was about th. time that he had the misfortune to fall ,nto a second 
 captivity, from which, however, he was lil^rated after GO days • and 
 on his return home, his parents requested him not to leave them any 
 more, after all the hardships he had undergone. But Almi.^hty God 
 had a g O.OUS work for him to do, and He was preparing him for it by 
 ^11 the trials and difficulties of his former life, as well .1. by a previous 
 course ong study and prayer. It was at this time that he had a 
 remai-kable\ision, which probably decided the future course of his life 
 as well as the future destinies of the Irish Church. He thus relates 
 it m his own Confession-'. I saw in a vision of the night a person 
 named Victncius coming as if from Ireland with innumerable letters, 
 and he gave me one of them, and I read the beginning of the letter,' 
 running thus. The voice of the people of Ireland ; and as I was reading 
 be commencement of the letter, I thought at that very moment that I 
 heard the voice of those who were near the wood of Foclutli, which is 
 adjoining to the Western Sea, and they cried out thus, as it were with 
 one voice. We entreat thee, hoh, youth, to come and walk still among 
 r^^, and I was very much aff_cted to the heart, and could road no fur- 
 ther, and so I awoke." ^^ Thanks be to God," he adds, - that after 
 many years, the Lord hath granted to them according to their cry " 
 Yet It does not seem that St. Patrick fully understood the import of 
 this communication at the time, as we find that he still remained seve- 
 r. years in his own country. It appears that he spent nine years in a 
 Collegiate institution in the Island of L^rins in the Tuscan Sea, and 
 four years under the instruction of the celebrated St. Hermanns, Bishop 
 Auserre, wliile preparing for the duties of the Ecclesiastical life 
 t has been stated, also, on the authority of some ancient writers, that 
 he accompanied Germanus and Lupus on their mission to Britain, to 
 oppose he Pelagian heresy, in the year 429. It is very possible that 
 this statement may be correct, though it is not mentioned by the old- 
 est autWities ; and it may be here remarked, that if ever St. Patrick 
 was in England at any period of his life, it must have been either on 
 
 ii 
 
25 
 
 sara, during 
 stian cduca- 
 
 and at the 
 the Rheims 
 ico of piety, 
 ito a second 
 days ; and 
 e them any 
 nighty God 
 m for it hy 
 a previous 
 it he had a 
 ! of his life, 
 ;hu8 relates 
 t a person 
 'ble letterSj, 
 the letter, 
 'as reading 
 lent that I 
 I, which is 
 were with 
 iili amonfj 
 ad no fur- 
 that after 
 leir cry." 
 import of 
 lined seve- 
 years in a 
 
 Sea, and 
 IS, Bishop 
 tical life, 
 ters, that 
 ■rituin, to 
 sible that 
 ^ the old- 
 . Patrick 
 either on 
 
 I 
 
 this occasion, or in the course of hia own progress to the Irish mission 
 three years afterwards, as it is certain tliat from the time of his arri- 
 val in Ireland as a missionary Bishop, he never left that country till 
 the day of his death. 
 
 We have already referred to the appointment of Palladius as the 
 first Bishop in Ireland, by authority of Pope Celostine, in the year 431, 
 and it was probably in the latter part of the same year that St. Pat- 
 rick was sent to Rome by St. Gerraanus, with a recommendation to 
 the Pope as a fit person to be employed in the Irish mission, of which 
 Palladius had already been appointed the chief. Accordingly it is 
 stated in some of the Lives of the Sunt, that ho was approved of by 
 Pope Celestine, received his benediction, and was empowered by him 
 to proceed to Ireland, as principal assistant to Palladius, a situation 
 which was nearly equivalent to that of coadjutor and successor, 
 though he was not yet invested with the Episcopal dignity. It is true 
 that ho did not set out from Rome with Palladius, because it is proba- 
 ble that he did not arrive there till after the departure of Palladius, 
 and also because he obtained permission to visit his friends in France 
 before he proceeded to Ireland. It is generally admitted by the best 
 authorities, that St. Patrick was not consecrated Bishop at Rome by 
 Celestine himself, and it is surprising to find that this admission is 
 frequently quoted by Protct^tant writers as an argument against St. 
 Patrick having received his authority from the Pope, as jf tiie Pope 
 himself consccro^cf/ every Bishop who was appointed hy him to a for- 
 eign mission. But " it is easy to account for his not having been 
 made Bishop at Rome, for Palladius was the pcrsort fixed upon as 
 chief of the mission, and as the Bishop on that occasion; nor was it, or 
 is it usual to send, on the commencement of a mission, more than one 
 Bishop to any one country."* And thus we find that Pope Gregory 
 the Great, in the*end of the following Century, appointed at first but 
 one Bishop, St. Augustine, for the mission of England ; nor was he 
 consecrated by the Pope himself, but ])y the Bishop of Aries, in Franco; 
 and there is good reason to believe that St. Patrick was also consecra- 
 ted in the same country, after his departure from Rome, on receiving 
 intelligence of the death of Palladius. The account of St. Patrick's 
 consecration by Celestine is not to bo found in any of the Lives, except 
 ♦ Lanigan, Vol. I. p. 191. ~~~ 
 
26 
 
 in the two most modern of them, from which it has been copied into 
 some other documents ; but his mission from Rome is not only stated 
 by some of tlie most ancient authorities, but is generally admitted by 
 the most respectable Protestant writers, and among others by Ussher*, 
 Cavef, Collier|, and Milner<^. These are all Protestant Divines of the 
 Church of England, and to them I shall add thetestimony of Mosheim, 
 
 the learned Lutheran ecclesiastical historian. Ilis statement is this 
 
 " Celestine, Bishop of Rome, sent into Ireland to spread Christi- 
 anity among the barbarians of that Island, in the first place, Palladius, 
 whose labors were not crowned with much success. After his death, 
 Cdesiine sent Suceathus, a Scotchman, whose name he changed to Pa- 
 tricius, into Ireland, in the year 432 ; a man of vigor, and, as appears 
 from the event, not unfit for such an undertaking. He was far more 
 successful in his attacks upon idolatry ; and having converted many 
 of the Irish to Christianity, he, in the year 472, established at 
 Armagh the See of an Archbishop of Ireland. Hence St. Patrick, 
 although there were some Christians in Ireland before his day, has 
 been justly called the Apostle of Ireland, and the Father of the Irish 
 Church, and is held in high veneration to this day. "|| It may bo 
 remarked also, that the Irish NQbles, in their Letter to Pope John 
 XXII., refer to the fact, that " our chief Apostle and Patron, St. Pa- 
 trick, was commissioned by your predecessor Pope Celestine, according 
 to the inspiration of the Holy Ghost"^— while the highest of all autho- 
 rities, the Roman Missal, in the Collect for St. Patrick's day, ascribes 
 the mission of the Saint to the Almighty Himself, " who vouchsafed 
 to send the blessed Patrick, Confessor and Bishop, to preach His 
 glory to the Gentiles"* *. 
 
 At length, then, we have come to St. Patrick's arrival in Ireland, 
 which took place, according to the Irish xVnnals, in the 1st year of the 
 Pontificate of Sixtus III. who succoedod Pope Celestine on the 28th 
 April, 432. The place where he landed is generally, supposed to have 
 
 * Usser. Antiq. p. 1100. ' 
 
 t Cave, Script. Eceles. Tom. I. p. 332. (,Lond. 1688.) 
 
 t Collier's Ecclos. Hist. Vol. I. p. 51. 
 
 § Milner's Cliuroh Hist. Vol. II. p. 369. 
 
 II Moslieim's Eocles. Hist. Vol. I. p. lie. (Lend. 1S50.) 
 
 IT King's Church Hist. p. 1120. 
 
 **Miss. Rom. p. 121. (Dub. 1833.) 
 
27 
 
 HJn copied into 
 lot only stated 
 y admitted by 
 ra by Ussher*, 
 Divines of the 
 y of Mosheim, 
 ment is this — 
 )read Christi- 
 -ce, Palladius, 
 'ter his death, 
 hanged to Pa- 
 id, as appears 
 I was far more 
 nverted many 
 established at 
 I St. Patrick, 
 
 I his day, has 
 : of the Irish 
 
 II It may bo 
 3 Pope John 
 itron, St. Pa- 
 ne, according 
 t of allautho- 
 
 day, ascribes 
 
 10 vouchsafed 
 
 preach His 
 
 in Ireland, 
 
 st year of the 
 
 on the 28th 
 
 )oscd to have 
 
 been in the harbour of Dublin, or according to others, in that of Wick- 
 low. But this first attempt was unsuccessful, and in consequence of the 
 opposition of the natives, he embarked again in the same vessel which 
 brought him to Ireland, with the intention of visiting the former 
 scene of his captivity. He landed on the shore of the County of Down , 
 and probably near Strangford, where he had the opportunity of 
 preaching the Gospel, and receiving the first Irish converts into the 
 Church of Christ. Among these was the prince of the territory, 
 named Dicho, who believed and was baptized with all his fiiraily, and 
 who showed his zeal for the propagation of the faith by the grant of 
 a place for the celebration of divine worship. This Church is com- 
 monly known by the nameof Patrick's Barn, and was probably nothing 
 more than a real barn, belonging to Dicho, which was fitted up for 
 religious purposes. This was the first Churcu errected by St. Patrick 
 in Ireland. It was situated in the place now called Saul, and it is a 
 remarkable circumstance, that it was in this place that the Saint after- 
 wards ended his days in peace, within a short distance of Downpatrick, 
 where his mortal remains were interred. St. Patrick, after remaining 
 here a short time, proceeded by land to the place where his old master 
 lived in the County of Antrim, with the view of persuading him to 
 embrace the Christian Faith. But Milcho was an obstinate heathen, 
 and refused to hear the Word of God. The Saint, therefore, returned 
 to Dicho, and continued to preach in that part of the country with 
 great success. In the following year, St. Patrick had an opportunity 
 of preaching the Gospel before King Leogaire, the* supreme monarch 
 of Ireland, and the assembled princes of the whole kingdom, at the 
 royal palace of Tara, in Meath. This place is famous in the an- 
 cient Annals of Ireland, and is celebrated in one of the beautiful Melo- 
 dies of our national Poet, in those well known verses on " The Harp that 
 once ^' rougli Tara's Halls" &c. But the most important event tha t 
 ever took place in the Halls of Tara, was the preaching of St. Patrick, 
 on Easter Sunday, the 2nd of April, in the year 433. It appears that 
 the Saint had arrived at Slane on the evening of Holy Saturday, and, 
 according to the custom of the Christian Church, he made prepara- 
 tions for celebrating the Festival of Easter by lighting the Paschal fire. 
 But it happened at this very time that the king and the assembled 
 princes were engaged in celebrating an idolatrous festival, of which 
 
28 
 
 fire worship forracd an essential part. It was a standing law, that no 
 fire should bo kindled throughout the Province, until after the great 
 fire should be lighted in the royal palace of Tara. St. Patrick's 
 Paschal iire, however, was kindled before that of the palace, and 
 being seen from the heights of Tara, excited great astonighment. On 
 consulting the Magi, the King received this remarkable* answer— 
 •« Unless yonder fire, which we see, be extinguished this night, it will 
 never be extinguished; moreover, it will get the better of all our accus- 
 tomed fires, and he, who has kindled it, will destroy your kingdom." 
 On the next day, St. Patrick preached at the palace before the 
 King and his nobles, and according to some accounts, the King himself 
 was converted to Christianity, but this statement is not supported bv 
 the best authorities. Still, however, it appears that he continued to 
 preach both in East and West Meath for some time, to erect Churches, 
 and to ordain Clergymen in various parts of the country, where he 
 probably continued for about two years. 
 
 The nest scene of St. Patrick's labors was the Province of Connaught, 
 where he is said to have remained for seven years, and to have met witli 
 the most extraordinary success in the conversion of the native heathen 
 to the Cliristian Faith, and especially in that district whose inhabit- 
 ants he had seen in the Vision, beseeching him to come and labour 
 among them. Indeed some of the accounts speak of 12,000 converts, 
 including seven of the native princes, having been baptized on one of 
 these occasions; and we find that he himself speaks, in his "Confession", 
 of several thousand persons having been baptized by him. Yet he was 
 still frequently exposed to great personal dangers from the persecution 
 of the Pagans, and in the course of his mission an attempt was made 
 against his life by the heathen :^L^gi, from which he was saved by the 
 protection of the Almighty, and the interposition of some powerful 
 friends. It was during this period that he is said to have retired, 
 at the beginning of Lent, to a lofty mountain in Mayo, which is now 
 called by the name of Croagh Patrick, to spend that holy time in fast- 
 ing and prayer, and to meditate among its tranquil elevations, above 
 the smoke and stir of heathen Ireland. And it maybe remarked 
 that this was the occasion on which, according to a well known popu- 
 lar tradition, he is said to have expelled all the venomous reptiles out 
 of Ireland, and to have pronounced against them sentence of perpetual 
 
 .m 
 
r, -that no 
 the great 
 Patrick's 
 ilace, and 
 ent. On 
 answer — 
 it, it will 
 ur accus- 
 ngdom." 
 jfore the 
 g; himself 
 orted by 
 inued to 
 'hurches, 
 where he 
 
 nnaught, 
 met with 
 ! heathen 
 inhabit- 
 id labour 
 converts, 
 )n one of 
 fession", 
 it he was 
 rsecution 
 ras made 
 id by the 
 powerful 
 ! retired, 
 h is now 
 ! in fast- 
 is, above 
 marked, 
 ^n popu- 
 tiles out 
 erpetual 
 
 I 
 
 29 
 
 banishment from the country. Joceline, the latest of hia biographers, 
 is the only one of them that has mentioned this circumstance. "To 
 this place," he says, " he gathered together the several tribes of serpents 
 and venomous creatures, and drove them headlong into the Western 
 Ocean, and from thence proceeds that exemption which Ireland enjoys 
 from all poisonous reptiles."* But it appears that Solinus, who 
 wrote some hundred years before St. Patrick's arrival in Ireland, takes 
 notice of this exemption, and among other proofs Colgan alleges, that 
 in the most ancient documents of Irish history there is not the least 
 allusion to venomous animals ever having been found in the country. 
 
 About the year 442, St, Patrick proceeded to the Province of Ulster, 
 and preached in Tyrconnell, in the County of Donegal. The princi- 
 pal event which occurred here was the conversion of Owen, an Irish 
 prince, from whom the Barony of Ennishowen derives its name — and his 
 visit to the prince in the neighborhood of Dcrry. After this he made 
 a missionary journey through the present Counties of Tyrone, 
 Monaghan, Meath, Wicklow, Kildare, Queen's County, and Carlow, 
 and thence proceeded to Munster, and arrived at Cashel, the usual 
 residence of the ancient Kings of that Province. iEngus, who was 
 afterwards King, was one of his first converts, and the Saint is said to 
 have remained seven years in that Province, though few particulars of 
 his mission have been recorded. After having solemnly bestowed hia 
 blessing on the people of Munster, he left that Province for Down, from 
 which he proceeded to Louth and the adjoining parts of Ulster, where 
 he probably continued about two years, and shortly afterwards found- 
 ed the Cathedral Church and Archiepiscopal See of xVrmagh, about the 
 yetir 455, after which ho appears to have returned to his favorite re- 
 treat at Saul, and to have spent the remainder of hia life between it 
 and Armagh, in a state of comparative retirement. 
 
 In some modern Livesof St. Patrick, we have an account of his visit to 
 Dublin, of the conversion and baptism of King Alphin and all his peo- 
 ple in Patrick's Well, of the erection of a Church by him, on the foun- 
 dation of which St. Patrick's Cathedral was afterwards built, Und of 
 his pronouncing his blessirg upon Dublin, and predicting the future 
 greatness of the city. But, unfortunately, there is not a word about 
 any of these events in the authentic records of his life, as none of them 
 
 * Wills' Lives of Illustrious Irislimen, Vol. I p. 92. 
 
30 
 
 I 
 
 can be traced to a higher antiquity than to the time of Joceline, in the 
 12th Century, and they are generally rejected by the most learned an- 
 tiquarians. On the same authority, vfo have also an account of his 
 going to Rome in his old age, in order to get thq privilegefl of the new 
 Metropolis of Armagh contirmed by the Holy See, and of his being 
 decorated with the Pallium by the Pope, and appointed Papal Legate 
 in Ireland. But, as Dr. Lanigan remarks, " this pretended tour to 
 Rome, and the concomitant circumstances, are all set aside by the te--. 
 tiraony of St. Patrick himself,"*— and as they rest upon no solid autho- 
 rity, they are not entitled to any degree of credit. Still more un- 
 founded is the fable about St. Patrick's Purgatory, in Lough Derg, in 
 the County of Donegal, which is never mentioned in any of the Lives 
 of the Saint, and does not appear to have been heard of till the 11th 
 Century. It was demoHshed in the year 1497, by order of Pope Alex- 
 ander VI. , but it has since been partially restored. No mention of it is 
 allowed in any part of the Church Service, though it was once inserted 
 in a Roman Breviary printed i'^ 1522, but was omitted by authority 
 in every subsequent edition. I need scarcely remark, that this name 
 has reference entirely to the acts of penance performed by the pilgrims, 
 and not to any state of purification in the world of spirits. 
 
 St. Patrick was at Saul when he was attacked with his last illness. 
 Ho was anxious, indeed, to finish the course of his earthly pilgrimage 
 in Armagh, where he had founded the Archiepiscopal See of 
 Ireland, and accordingly he set out for that place, but was induced to 
 return to Saul, in consequence, as it is said, of a supernatural direction 
 which he received to that effect. Seven days after this, he resigned 
 his soul into the hands of God, on the 17th of March, having been 
 attended by Bishop Tassach, from whom he received the holy 
 viaticum. With respect to the precise year in which he died, and his 
 age at the time of his death, there has been much difference of opinion 
 among his biographers; but probably the most satisfactory one is that 
 of Dr. Lanigan, who, after a full review of all the evidence, comes to 
 the conclusion, " that our Apostle was called to heaven, either at the 
 age of 78 years, or in his 78th year, as his birth occurred in 387, and 
 his death in 4G5."t There was indeed an old tradition, which has 
 
 * Lanigan, Vol. I. p. 319. "~~ ~~ 
 
 t ibid. Vol. I. p. 303. 
 
SI 
 
 oHno, in the 
 
 learned an- 
 
 ount of his 
 
 of the new 
 
 f his being 
 
 I pal Legate 
 ided tour to 
 3 by the te'"- 
 solid autho- 
 i more un- 
 a!;h Derg, in 
 )f the Lives 
 
 II the 11th 
 Pope Alex- 
 tion ot it is 
 ice inserted 
 • authority 
 
 this name 
 le pilgrims, 
 
 last illness, 
 pilgrimage 
 al See of 
 induced to 
 il direction 
 e resigned 
 aving been 
 the holy 
 )d, and his 
 of opinion 
 one is that 
 , comes to 
 ther at the 
 n 387, and 
 which has 
 
 I 
 -f 
 
 Leon adopted by many respectable authors, that the Saint lived to tho 
 extraordinary age of 120 years, and several fanciful points of compa- 
 rison were drawn between him and Moses, founded on this supposed 
 resemblance. Even ^he learned Archbishop Usshor held that St. Patrick 
 died iu the year 493, at the ago of 120, and the whole system of his chro- 
 nological calculations is founded on these two positions. But, without 
 going into further details, as to the former point, it has Ijeen clearly 
 ascertained that Benignus, his successor in the See of Armagh, 
 died in tho year 408, and as to the latter point, it has been shown 
 to rest on no sufficient authority, and is totally irreconcileable with 
 the most authentic facts of history. When the news of his death 
 spread through tho country, it is stated in Fiech's Hymn, that '* the 
 Clergy of Ireland flocked from all quarters to celebrate his funeral 
 obsequies," which were performed by a constant succession of services, 
 consisting not only in the celebration of Mass, but also in Psalmody 
 and the chanting of Hymns, night and day, accompanied by an ex- 
 traordinary profusion of torches and lights, and the funeral service is 
 said to have been continued in this manner for twelve days. His body 
 was interred in Downpatrick, though some of his relics were brought to 
 Armagh, and hence, St. Bernard, in his Life of St.'Malachy, says that 
 St. Patrick presided over Armagh in his life, and rests in it after his 
 death*. It is well known, that the remains o&Sit. Patrick are now de- 
 posited with those of the two other great Patron Saints of Ireland, St. 
 Bridget, and St. Columbkill, the former of whom died in the early part 
 and the latter in the end, of the Gtli century. St. Bridget had been 
 buried in Kildare, and St. Columl)kill in lona, but their bodies had 
 been subsequently removed to Down, and finally a solemn translation 
 of the relics to a more sacred part of the Church took place in the year 
 1180, in the presence ol Cardinal Vivian, fifteen Bishops, and a great 
 number of Ecclesiastics. 
 
 We may here briefly refer to the Writings attributed to St. Patrick, 
 which have come down to our time. They are but few and short, and 
 were first collected and printed at London in the year 1050. The most 
 important of them is the document which I have frequently quoted, 
 under the title of the "Confession" of St. Patrick. It is chiefly 
 
 if. 
 
 * S. Bernardi 0pp. Tom. II. p. 73. ( Ed. Lyon. 1854.) 
 
32 
 
 wr. ton m tho form of a Lottor to the Irish Christians, to oxpre«« hi. 
 gratitude to God for the singukr niercics bestowed upon himself, and 
 tho peopo of Irdand by his instrumentality, and to confirm them in 
 ho.r holy faith by showing them that tho A^nighty had assisted 
 mm ,n an extraordinary manner for the purpose of effecting their 
 conversion It contains but few references to particular facts and 
 events and consequently throws but little light on the disputed por- 
 tions of the history of hi. lifo and doctrines. It was probably com- 
 posed shortly before his death, and it concludes with these words- 
 ' Ihis is my Confession before I dio." The next of his Works is his 
 Epistle to Coroticue," who, though apparently a professing Chris- 
 tian, was a tyrant and a pirate. He landed on the coast of the South 
 of Ireland, during St. Patrick's visit to Munster, and began to plun- 
 der the district m Which the Saint had just been engaged in bapU^ing 
 and confirming a great number of converts, and, having murdered 
 several of them, carried off others and sold them as slaves to the Picts 
 and Scots. St. Patrick wrote that Letter on this occasion, denouncing 
 aa excommunicate those who had taken part in this expedition, and 
 exhorting them to return to repentance. These, then, with a collec- 
 tion of Unons, are generally aeknawledgod by learned men to bo the 
 gonu.„e Writings of tho Saint ; but there are some others, the authen- 
 
 oTZIv U :" Ti'r'"'''''- ^"^'^ '' *^° '''''''''' ''«" ^he Abuses of 
 of the World, ' wiuch has also boon ascribed to St. Cyprian and to St 
 
 Augustine and is printed among the spurious Works in the best edi- 
 tions of these Fathers. The Treatise «' on the Three Habitations." 
 wlneh IS generally included in St. Patrick's Works, has also been as- 
 cribed to St. Augustine, and is printed among his supposititious Works, 
 whilo others have attributed it to St. Bernard, in the I2th Century 
 but the real author of it is entirely unknown. 
 
 • ^.''";.V'^"'?"^'^"°^^^ *« «'^« -^ rapid sketch of tho principal events 
 in ho he of that illustrious- Prelate, who labored witl suclf untiring 
 .eal for the propagation of the Gospel in Ireland, and who is justly 
 rnf'r ''"'"' degree of veneration, as tho Father fthi 
 Irish Church. It is well remarked by a Protestant author o^the pre- 
 sent day, that ''St. Patrick was an earnest preacher of tho Gospe 
 pious, energetic, and full of ^eal. His mind would appear to hav^ 
 been deeply nubued with the love of monastic in.titut ons an of 
 
 '"it 
 
33 
 
 tho eroinetic lifo. IIo was noither a learned Divine nor a pleasing 
 writer, if it bo fair to judge from the Works attributed to him ; but he 
 was a sincere and holy Bishop in tho Church of God, who performed 
 tlio work ot an Evangelist in all honesty amongst tho people of his 
 adoption, and comipitied to tho Church (in tho foundation of which 
 ]| bo had so great a part) tho samo tradition of tho faith as ho had him* 
 
 self received from his Christian forefathers."* And I cannot for- 
 bear to quote hero tho excellent remarks of the pious Father Butler, in 
 his valuable Work on tho " Lives of tho Saints," with reference to the 
 spiritual character of St. PatricW. " Tho Apostles of nations were all 
 interior men, endowed with a sublime spirit of prayer. The salvation 
 of souls being a supernatural end, tho instruments ought to bear a 
 proportion to it, and preaching proceed from a grace which is super- 
 natural. To undertake this holy function without a competent stock 
 of sacred learning, and without tho necessary precautions of human 
 prudence and industry, would bo to tempt God. But sanctity of life, 
 and tho union of tho heart with God, are a qualification far more es- 
 sential than science, eloquence, and human talent. Many almost kill 
 themselves with studying to compose elegant sermons, which flatter 
 tho ear, but reap 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 devo- 
 tion. Interior humility, purity of heart, recollection, and the spirit 
 and the assiduous practice of holy prayer, are tho principal preparation 
 for the ministry of the Word, and tho true means for acquiring the sci- 
 ence of the Saints. A short devout meditation and fervent prayer, which 
 kindles a fire in the affections, furnishes more thought proper to move 
 the hearts of tho hearers, and inspire them with sentiments of true 
 virtue, than many years employed barely in reading and study. St. 
 Patrick, and other Apostolic men, were dead to themselves and the 
 world, and animated with the spirit of perfect charity and humility, 
 by which they were prepared by God to be such powerful instru- 
 ments of His grace, as, by the miraculous change of so many hearts, 
 to plant in entire barbarous nations, not only tho faith, but also the 
 spirit of Christ."! 
 
 * Hook's Eccl. Biography, Vol. VII. p. 576. 
 t Butler's Lives of tho Saiuts, (March 17.) 
 
34 
 
 And now, I imist proceed to make somo observations ml a 
 Tery ijnportant subject, relativo to tbo nature of the ChriHtinn doctrine 
 held by the primitive Church of Ireland, with r.-ferenco to tiio grout 
 controver«ie8 of the present <lay. It may Ikj remarked that the mimo 
 thing which has happened to the Catholic Church in (/encfal, has hap- 
 pened to the IriHh Church in particular. It has Ixjcn said that the 
 ancient Irish Christians never acknowledged the Supremacy of the 
 Pope, and that in all the principal articles of the Chriutian Faith, 
 they held those doctrines which are now calle<l Pn/testant, but that,* 
 in course of time, after a long and successful resistance, they were 
 obliged at last to submit to the yoke of Rome, from which the national 
 Church was emancipated at the period of the Reformation, and restored 
 to its original independence and purity. Thus Abp. Usaher puf)irHhed 
 a Work, in which ho endeavors to provo that the religion of the an- 
 cient Irish Church, was sulmtantially the same with that of the modern 
 branch of the Church of England, established by law in that country*. 
 Now, I think that he has satisfactorily shown, that the doctrines taught 
 by the old Irish Divines, were substantially the same as those which 
 are now held in common ln> Protestants and Catholics; but surely, this 
 proves nothing on either side of the question, and I cannot find' any 
 conclusive evidence that they held any of those doctrines which' are 
 peculiar to Protectants, as distinguished from Catholics, while, on the 
 other hand, I find conclusive evidence that they did hold several of 
 those doctrines which are pemUar to Catholics, as distinguished from 
 Protestants. And, in fact, the same argument from prescription, 
 which has so justly been employed in defence of the divine origin of 
 the Catholic Church, may be equally applied in favor of that bnvnch 
 of the Catholic Church which existed in Ireland before the period of the 
 ProtesUmt Reformation. We maintain that the Catholic Church is the 
 only true Church of Christ, boauise she alone has praserved the unity 
 of the Christian Faith, in uninterrupted succession, since the days of 
 the Apostles; and while all other Churches have separated from her 
 she alone has never separated from any other Church on earth and 
 consequently, that she alone is the accredited representative of that 
 Church founded by our Divine Redeemer, against which He has pro- 
 i msed that '> the gates of hell shall not prev ail^>^JW, we certainly 
 
 nrH-lt ^:«°our6e on the Religion anciently prufessed by the Irish and 
 .Untisli." First pj-iiiicd in 1G31. 
 
ons an a 
 in doctrine 
 
 tho grout 
 
 tho mimo 
 ', Imrf liap- 
 
 tliat tho 
 acy of the 
 *n Faith, 
 but that, 
 they were 
 c national 
 d restored 
 piibirshod 
 )f tho.an- 
 le modern 
 jountry*. 
 lestaughfc 
 )3e which 
 rely, this 
 find any 
 «^hiehare 
 e, on tho 
 !veral of 
 led from 
 cripfi(^n, 
 origin of 
 t branch 
 od of the 
 'ch is the 
 ho unity 
 ) days of 
 oni her, 
 rth, and 
 
 of that 
 laa pro- 
 ertainly 
 
 rish and 
 
 85 
 
 know that U wqa tlie Roman Catliulio Church w!j»ch existoJ in Ireland 
 before the Ih: formation, and from thin V(*ry faet wo argiio that it was 
 the samo Church which existed in Ireland from the bcjinnmg of 
 ChrislKinity in the country, unless it can Ixj proved that a change of 
 religion was establitihod bclwien that early period and the tinio of the 
 Ilefonnation. It iiiuHt surely be admitted, that tho presumption is 
 strongly in favor of the continued identity of tho saiuo form of Chris- 
 tianity, unless thoro bo clear evidence to tho contrary. But it is 
 impot^sible to show tluit any such change over took plat^e, cither in the 
 OHtiiblishment of a new Church, or in tho introduction of new doctrines; 
 und th«*rofore, whether wo regard the ([utHtion as an historical fact, or 
 fls a theological principle, wo must come to tho oonelusion, that tho 
 religion of tho country before tho Reformation, which is still pro- 
 fessed by tho vast majority of tho people of Ireland, is essentially tho 
 same with tho religion of St. Patrick, and tho other founders and 
 Saints of tho Irish Church in ancient times. IJut if this be denied-r-if 
 it be paid, thut tho doctrines of tho Church of Rome were tho corrup- 
 tionsof a later ago — we have, surely, a right to ask, When did these 
 doctrines ify»7i to bo introduoed into Ireland? and how came thoy 
 to. be universally received in the country? how did it happen 
 that they were unanimously adopted by Bishopa, Clergy, and 
 Li\ity, without any opposition to the innovation? "VVe all know 
 that a change took place in the IGth Century, but whero can 
 we find a tnvce in history, of any change between tho 5th and 
 IGth Centuries? And, if it be said that these early oorruptions 
 were gradually introduced into tho Church, we reply that this 
 is a mere assertion, contrary to all the facts of history. We 
 are told, indeed, of the Synod of Cashol, held in the year 1172, 
 which is described by a learned Irish Protestant author as '^tho turning 
 point and pivot of our Church history," because he says that then 
 "our own Church, that had been originally free and independent, was^ 
 in tho 12th Century, reduced into obedience and subjection to the 
 Bishop of Rome."* But there is not the slightest authority for this 
 statement in any account of tho proceedings of the Synod. It was 
 convened by order of Henry II., for the purpose of regulating certain 
 matters of Ecclesiastical discipline, and it was presided over by Chris - 
 
 * King's Church Iliatory, Pref. p. iviii. 
 
 I 
 
tlan, Bishop of Lismorc, as the Pope's Legate ni Irdlancl. The most 
 complete account of it has been given by Giraldus ^ambrensis, who 
 lived at the time, and who has transmitted to us a copy of the Canons 
 passed on that occasion. There is no allusion whatever to the Pope's 
 Supremacy, or to any other point of doctrine. The most important of 
 them is the last, which provides " that all Divine matters bo henceforth 
 conducted agreeably to the practice of the holy Church, accor</m^ as 
 observed by the Anglican Church.^ ^* The object of this Canon was to 
 promote p. more perfect uniformity, in the adoption of the same ritual 
 by the two Churches of England and Ireland, which were now more 
 closely united together in their civil policy ; but there is no trace to be 
 found of any attempt to procure from the Irish Church a recognition 
 of the claims of the Apostolic See, simply because these claims had never 
 been disputed at any period of her former history. The invasion of 
 Henry II. was the commencement of that unhappy spirit of hostility 
 between the two countries, which has existed ever since in a greater 
 or less degree. That spirit had its origin in the feelings of national 
 antipathy, though it was afterwards greatly increased by religious 
 animosities. The Synod of Cashel itself was rather of a political than 
 of an ecclesiastical nature. It was ostensibly convened for the reforra- 
 tion of irreguluiities in the Church, but its real object was to establish 
 the English dominion in Ireland. It is candidly admitted by tlie late 
 Mr. Moore, in his History of Ireland, that "even at that period, 
 when all were of one Faith, the Church of the government, and the 
 Church of tlie people, in Ireland, were almost as much separated from 
 each other by difference in race, language, political feeling, and even 
 Ecclesiastical discipline, as they have been at any period since, by dif- 
 ference in Creeds."! It should be remembered that the circumstances 
 of the times were peculiarly favorable to Henry's plan of annexing 
 Ireland to his own dominions. The Pope himself was an Englishman ; 
 and, influenced by the love of his country, and a desire to gratify the 
 king, Adrian IV. had granted a Bull, in the year 1155, authorising 
 Henry II. to take possession of Ireland, ♦' for the purpose of extending 
 the boundaries of the Church, of announcing to unlearned and rude 
 people the truth of the Christian Faith, and extirpating the weeds of 
 
 i 
 
 { 
 
 * Lanigan, Vol. IV. p. 207. 
 
 Moore's Hist, of Ireland, Vol. III. p. 
 
 119. 
 
37 
 
 , 
 
 vices from the field of the Lord,"- -and further, with the express con- 
 dition, that Henry would " preserve the rights of the Church inviolate, 
 and that, as ho promised to do, he would take care that a penny 
 should be annually paid from every house to St. Peter and the holy 
 Roman Church."* It does not appear, however, that this latter con- 
 dition was ever complied with — there is nothing about it in the trans- 
 actionsof tlie Synod of Cashel, and when Henry had carried the Bull into 
 eflfect, he seems to have forgotten entirely about the collection of the Peter 
 pence, and indeed the failure of these conditions is expreasly men- 
 tioned in the complaint of the Irish Nobles to Pope John XXII. in 
 the 1.4th Century. f But, with respect to the particular Canon in 
 question, it is very probable that various Liturgies had been used in 
 different parts of the Irish Church before the 12th Century; and from this 
 circumstance, it has been argued that the old Irish Church could not 
 have been subject to Rome, as otherwise the Roman Missal would have 
 been universally adopted in Ireland. But this is a mere cavil, as it is 
 well known that the variety «/ Liturgies in the Church never did, and 
 does not, at the present day, interfere with the great principle of 
 Catholic unity. Especially was this the case in ancient times, when 
 almost every national Church had its own peculiar Liturgy, and 
 sometimes several different Liturgies in the same country, each con- 
 taining some special rites and ceremonies of its own, with the full 
 approbation of the Apostolic See. The Roman jMissal, or the Liturgy 
 of St. Peter, was, in a great measure, peculiar to the local Church of 
 Rome, and was not required to be generally adopted in other Churches. 
 The Salisbury Missal was the Liturgy chiefly used in England in Catholic 
 times, though, in some Dioceses, the York, Lincoln, Hereford, and Ban- 
 gor Mi&!«al8 were adopted before the Reformation ; but since the time of 
 Pope Pius V. the Roman Missal is most commonly followed through- 
 out the Catholic world. Still, however, this uniformity is not univer- 
 sally enjoined. Thus we find that the Greek, Syrian, Armenian, and other 
 Liturgies are still used in the city of Rome itself. So is the xVmbrosian 
 Liturgy in Milan, and the Mozarabic Liturgy in Toledo, while several 
 religious Orders of the Church have their own peculiar Liturgies, all 
 
 ♦ (yUalloran's Hist, of Ireland, Vol. III. p. 372. (Ed. 1833) 
 t Kinu's Church Hist. p. 1 1-^3. 
 
38 
 
 different from the Iloman, and all in perfect harmony with it, and 
 with each other*. 
 
 But it is said that the ancient Irish Church differed from the Ro- 
 man in the time of the celebration of Easter, and this is the great 
 argument which is continually employed to prove that the Supremacy 
 of tho Popo could not have been acknowledged in Ireland. Time will 
 not allow me to enter into the history of this controversy, to which I 
 adverted in my former Lecture with reference to the British Churdies, 
 which adopted tie same mode of computation with the Irish. It is- 
 sufficient to remark that this was originally a mere point of discipline, 
 though, after its final decision by the Church, it involved a higher 
 principle, and ultimately led to the schismatieal act of adherence to 
 local customs, in opposition to the universal practice of the Church. 
 The rule for finding Easter was settled by the great Council of Nice — 
 the same Astronomical Cycle was also adopted in all the Churches— 
 but an improved Cycle wai afterwards introdueod, and adopted by the' 
 Roman, while the British and Irish CI' irehes, owing to their great 
 distance and isolated situation, still continued to use the old and in- 
 correct Cycle, which sometimes led to the difference of a month in the time 
 of keeping Easter in the same year, between them and other Churches, 
 and which for a long time they obstinately refused to exchange for the 
 corrected system. But, though they were unwilling to depart from 
 theiT ancient traditions, they never questioned the authority of the See 
 of Kom« to decide all controversies of faith, and, in fact, it was on this 
 very ground that they finally conformed to the rule which had beenr 
 adopted by all other Catholic countries. Yet some authors have reprc- 
 seTtted this circumstance, not only as a proof of their oppositicm to 
 Rome, but also, as a strong presumptive argument in ftivor of the 
 Eastern origin of the Irish Church, before the mission of St. Patrick. 
 But, in the first place, there is not the slightest historical evidence in 
 favor of this opinion— in the second place, the Irish time of keeping 
 Easter was undoubtedly derived from St. Patrick, who was certainly 
 not a Greek or Asiatic missionary— and in the third place, the Irish time 
 of keeping Easter was never the same as that of the Oriental Churches, 
 while it was originally the same as the Roman . It is very strange that so- 
 many writers should have fallen into the mistake of supposing that the 
 
 ( 
 
 ( 
 
 P 
 
 I 
 
 a 
 c 
 
 * La,iiii;aaj Vol. I. pi 13. 
 
39 
 
 i 
 
 ( 
 
 \ ^ 
 
 Irish agreed with the Eastern Christiana on this point, when it is ex- 
 pressly mentioned liy Bede, tliat they alwaya observed Easter on the 
 Sunday between the llth and 20th days of the month^ whereas the 
 Easterns always observed it on the 14th day of the month, on whatemr 
 day of the loeek it might fall, and thus there is not even the shadow 
 of foundation for this objeetion. 
 
 But there is another historical objection to which I must 
 briefly refer, and the more so, because it is founded on an errone- 
 ous statement of the great historian of the Catholic Church. It has 
 been frequently argued that, in the celebrated controversy on " the 
 Three Chapters," in the 6th Century, the Irish Church took part with 
 the condemned opinions, in opposition to the Church of Rome, and 
 consequently that the Supremacy of the Pope was practically denied 
 by this act. Now what is the foundation of this argument ? It is the 
 following remarkable passage in the - Ecclesiastical Annals" of Car- 
 dinal Baronius, in which he says-" all the Bishops that were in 
 Ireland rose up with one accord in the most determined spirit of zeal 
 for the defence of the Three Chapters. And they were guilty more- 
 over of this further wickedness, ttiat when they had perceived that 
 the Roman Church was equally determined in condemning the 
 Three Chapters, and strengthening the Fifth Synod by her ad- 
 herence, they at once separated from her, and joined themselves 
 with the rest of the schismatics that were in Italy, or Africa, or 
 other places, puffed up with the vain conceit that, by defending 
 the Acts of the Council of Chalcedon, they were making a stand 
 in support of the Catholic faith."t This is strong language indeed, 
 and from it Abp. Ussher concludes, that " the Bishops of Ireland did 
 not take all the resolutions of the Church of Rome for undoubted 
 oracles."t ^"t. ^^^'er all, this extraordinary statement of Baronius 
 is completely founded on a strange mistake, and there is no evidence 
 that the Irish Church took any part whatever in that question. Ba- 
 ronius relies solely on the authority of Pope Gregory the Great, by 
 whom he thinks that they were convinced of their errors, and he refers to 
 two of Pope Gregory's Epistles for proof. In both of them, the proof 
 entirely depends on the genuineness of o ne wor d, ^aii berma," con- - 
 
 "TieTinn^tTE^H^ib. n. Cap. iv. Lib. Ill Cap. iii. svii. xxv. 
 \ Baronii Annal. Eccles. ad an. 566 ot 604. 
 ^ Ufldl>er'6 PiBCoursc, p. SC (Ed. XSU,, 
 
40 
 
 taincd in the superRcription of theee Epistles, and it is now the general 
 opinion of all learned men, in accordance with the critical Benedic- 
 tine Edition of St. Gregory's Works, that this word has been incor- 
 rectly inserted in the text of the old editions, and that the true read- 
 in"" is " Istria" in the one case, and " Iberia" in the other*. This 
 liag been clearly proved from internal as well as external evidence-— 
 indeed the account of Baronius is directly contrary to that of St. 
 Columbanns himself, who, in a letter to Pope Boniface IV. shortly after 
 the time of Gregory the Great, expressly affirms that Ireland was en- 
 tirely free from all heresy and schismf ; and thus it appears that this 
 whole piece of history has no real foundation in fixct, and the argu- 
 ment founded upon it falls to the ground at once. 
 
 These, then, are the principal arguments that have been advanced to 
 prove that the doctrines of the ancient Church of Ireland were dif- 
 ferent from those of the modern Church of Rome ; and I think it 
 must be admitted that the attempt is a total failure, even if we had 
 no further evidence on the subject of the particular doctrines held 
 by the Fathers of the Irish Church. Let us, then, take a few points 
 in positive proof of the Ecclesiastical connexion between Rome and 
 Ireland in ancient times. 
 
 Now, in the first place, it is certain that Palladhis and St. Patrick 
 were sent on the Irish Mission by the Pope, and thuR the first great 
 event in its Ecclesiastical history connects Ireland with Rome, aa the 
 "Mother and mistress of all Churches." But we have still clearer 
 proof that the primitive Irish Church acknowledged the Supre- 
 macy of the See of Rome. Among the Canons ascribed to St. 
 Patrick, there is one, on the subject of appeals to Rome, which 
 is expressed in these brief but decisive terms—" If any questions 
 arise in this Island, let thim be referred to the Apostolic See."t 
 But the meaning of this Canon is more fully expressed in another 
 Canon, which is attributed to a Synod held by St. Patrick— the sub- 
 stance of which is this, that " if a difficult cause may occur, which can- 
 not bo easily decided by the Irish Prelates, and the See of Armagh, 
 it shall be sent to the Apostolic Sie, that is to the Chair of the Apu stle 
 
 * S. Grogorii M. Epist. Lib. II. Ep. 51, and Lib. XI. Ep. 07— 0pp. 
 pp. CM, 1116. (Ed. Ben.> 
 
 t Kins's Churcli ITist. p, 912. 
 I S. Patricii Opuscula p. 159. 
 
 Tom. II 
 
 i 
 
i 
 
 41 
 
 Peter, which hath the authority of the City of Romer* Arch- 
 bishop Ussher quotes these Canons, and ho seems (luito puzzled by 
 them He says he does not well know what credit is to be given to 
 them-he admits, indeed, that " it is most likely that St. Patrick had 
 a special regard to the Church of Rome, from whence he was sent ^ur 
 the conversion of this Lsland,"t but then he tries co evade tlio.r force 
 by a mere riuibblo, asserting that they do not expressly affirm the infal- 
 libility of the Church of Rome in all future times, and that the Irish 
 Bishops themselves afterwards refused to submit to the Pope's de- 
 cision, in the caseof the "Three Chapters," according to the state- 
 ment of Baronius, waich has been already shown to be quite un- 
 founded. But we have a remarkable illustration of the meaning of 
 these Canons, on the first serious occasion of controversy which pre- 
 sented itself, relative to the time of Easter, though this is the very 
 instance which has been so strongly quoted on the other side. In the 
 year G33, we find that, after a long dissension, it was resoly.d by the 
 Synod of Leighlin, that "whereas, according to a Synodical Canon, 
 every important Ecclesiastical inquiry should be referred to the head 
 of cities ; some wise and humble persons should be sent to Rome, as 
 children to their mother." This resolution was carried into effect, 
 and the result was the adoption of the Roman Paschal Cycle, m the 
 South of Ireland, in accordance with the decision of the Pope. We 
 have a particular account of these proceedings recorded in the Paschal 
 Epistle of St. Cummian, who enters fully into the whole question 
 about Easter, and insists upon the necessity of submitting to the 
 authority of the Catholic Church, in preference to national traditions . 
 He quotes, with approbation, the language of St. Jerome in Ins Epistle 
 to Pope Damasus, in which he says-" If any one is in communion 
 with the Chair of St. Peter, he is on my side."| And, after dwe Img 
 strongly on the doctrine of St. Cyprian and other holy Fathers, 
 on the unity of the Church, he asks-" Can anything more per- 
 nicious be conceived as to the Mother Church, than to say-Rome err8 
 -Jerusalem errs-Alexandria errs-Antioch errs-^the who^.e world 
 errs-the Scots and Britons alone are right ?"^ Such was the argu- 
 
 * Lanigan, Vol. II. p. 391. 
 
 t Ussher's Discourse, p. 84, 
 
 + Lanigan, Vol. II. p. 396. King, Vol. I. p. 158. 
 
 §S. Uioroa. 0pp. Tom. I. p. 437. (Ed. Vallara.) 
 
42 
 
 mont by which St. Cummian endeavored to show the absurdity of 
 foUowin;; a part of the Church, in opposition to the whole. And 1 
 cannot help remarking here, that it is this very absurdity which has 
 been ndopted by tlio " Scots and Britons" of the present day, that is, 
 by the United Church of Eughuid and Irehiud, as expressed in tlie 19th 
 of the 30 Articles, ahnost in the very words condemned by St. Cum- 
 mian — "As the Churches of Jerusalem, Alexandria, and Antioch have 
 erred, so also the Church of Rome hath erred, not only in their 
 livinfic and manner of ceromon'-^'^, but also In matters of faith." Such 
 is the judgment pronounce ' e modern Church against all the 
 ancient Churches of Chrisiem.: . —involving questions infinitely more 
 serious than that which formed the subject of dispute in the 7th 
 Century. 
 
 I shall add but one testimony more on this point, that of the great 
 St. Columbanug, in his celebrated Epistle to Pope Boniface IV. in the 
 year G13. Among other passages, he uses the following remarkable 
 expressions — " We Irishmen, dwelling at the very end of the earth, 
 are all disciples of SS. Peter and Paul, and of all the disciples who 
 wrote the divine Canon, according to the Holy Ghost, receiving 
 nothing beyond the Evangelical and Apostolical doctrine. There has 
 been no Jew, nor h 'rotic, nor schismatic, among us ; but the Catholic 
 Faith, as it was delivered at the first by you, that is, the successors of 
 the holy Apostles, is still maintained among us with unshaken fidelity. 
 . . . For we, indeed, as I have already stated, are warmly attached 
 to the Chair of St. Peter. And, great as is the renown and cek'l)rity 
 of Rome, it is by means of that Chair alone that she is illustrious 
 with us. . . . And on account of the two Apostles, Peter and 
 Paul, you are almost celestial — and Rome is the head of the Churches 
 of the world.'''* Now, what can be more clear and decisive than this 
 language? It is true that he adds an apparent exception in favor 
 of Jerusalem — " saving the singular prerogative of the place of the 
 Lord's resurrection" — but this evidently relates to tlie circumstance 
 of our blessed Lord's personal connexion with that city, and not to 
 any Primacy of spiritual jurisdiction in the Universal Church, which 
 was never claimed for the Church of Jerusalem. 
 
 Again — with reference to the doctrine of the Blessed Eucharist and 
 
 * Laniu;aii, Vol. II. p. 290. King, p. 942, 953, 953. 
 
43 
 
 \ 
 
 the Sacrifice of tlie Mass, the constant hinguago of the old Irish 
 wntera clearly attests the unity of faith hotween them and the pre- 
 sent Church of Rome on these points. Thus we find that St. 
 Tatriek himself, as well as the later Irish Divines, frequently 
 describe the Mass as "the sacrifice of salvation,"— " the mysteries 
 of the sacrifice,''— '' the sacred mysteries of the Eucharist,"— and 
 even in the ordinary narrative of biography, the celebration of Mass 
 is expressed as the act of " vnahing the body of Christ :' ^ Thus 
 Adamnan, who lived in the 7th Century, mentions, in his Life 
 of St. Columbkill, that the Saint requestotl a certain Bishop '^ to 
 make tho body of Christ, according to the usual custom." In like 
 manner, the consecration of the Eucharist is called by those writers 
 " the immolation of the holy sacrifice of the Lord," and the sacra- 
 mental communion is expressed by the terms of "receiving the body 
 and blood of Christ:' Thus Cogitosus, in his Life of St. Bridget, in 
 do8cri])ing the Church of Klldare, says, that tue Bishop entered with 
 his Clergy by one door, " to immolate the holy sacrifice of the Lord," 
 and that the Abbess and Nuns entered by another door, " that they 
 might enjoy the banquet of the body and blood of Jesus Christ". 
 Another phrase for tho celebration of Mass, with the old Irish Church, 
 was the ^'offerinfi of the body of Christ." Thus, in the first Life of St. 
 Kieran, it is said that, on every Christmas night, after his community 
 had received the sacrifice from his hand, he used to go to the Nunnery 
 " to offer the body of Christ." Still more expressly, St. Columbanus 
 lays it down in his rules, that confession be required diligently before 
 Mass, lest a person receive it unworthily-" for" he says, " the altar 
 is the tribunal of Christ, and His body, lohich is there with His blood, 
 marks out those who approach in an unworthy state." Surely such 
 expressions as these clearly prove that the Catholic doctrine of the real 
 presence was the received doctrine of the ancient Irish Church. 
 On the doctrine of Purgatory, and Prayers for the Dead, tlie evidence 
 is equally conclusive. Indeed, Abp. r.sher fully admits the practice 
 of offering up the Eucharistic Sacrifice for the dead in Christ, though 
 he maintains that it was only intended as a sacrifice of thanksgiving 
 for their salvation, and not of propitiation for the remission of the 
 temporal penalty of their sins*. He refers to several instances of this 
 nature, and among them, to that of St Columbkill. on the occasion^of 
 
 * Ussher's Reliaion of tho Irish, p. 
 
44 
 
 the death of St. Brendan. " I must to-day," says the Saint, '« al- 
 though I be unworthy, celebrate tlie holy mysteries of the Eucharist, 
 on account of my veneration for that soul which, this night, carried 
 l)eyond the starry firmament between the holy Choirs of Angels, as- 
 cended into paradise." Another case mentioned by him is that of 
 Magnus, who said to Bishop Tozzo, who came to visit him on his 
 death-l)od — " I believe in the mercy of God, that my soul shall rejoice 
 in the freedom of immortality. Yet 1 beseech thee, that thou wilt not 
 cease to help me a sinner, and my soul, with thy holy prayers." Im- 
 mediately after his death, the Bishop said to Theodorus — " Let us go 
 to the Church, and be careful to offer healthful sacrifices to the Lord 
 for so dear a friend." This case, however, evidently proves nothing 
 in favor of Ussher's view ; and, in fact, his opinion is a mere theory 
 invented to meet a difficulty, and to account for a fact which cannot 
 be denied. It is certain, indeed, that there was such a distinction as 
 that to which he referred ; but while he held that all these sacrifices 
 were only thanksgivings, we find that this explanation is directly over- 
 turned by an old Canon of the Irish Church (which is expressed al- 
 most in the words of St. Augustine*) in which it is declared that the 
 Church offers to God for the departed souls in four ways — one of 
 which is, that " for iha very good, the oblations are mere thanksgiv- 
 ings'''' ; and another is, that " for those no<; very good, they are made for 
 the obtaining of full remission. ^^ But Ussher takes one class of examples, 
 while he entirely omits another — though it is certain that the ancient 
 Irish C/.ristiuns constantly adopted this practice ; and in an old Irish 
 MS. Missal of the 7th Century, discovered by Mabillon, there aretwo 
 forms of prayer for the Dead, one in general, and the other ^or a departed 
 Priest. f And yet, some persons have brought an objection from one of 
 the Canons of St. Patrick's Synod, which is entitled — " Of the Obla- 
 tion for the Dead," and is thus expressed — " Hear the Apostle saying. 
 There is a sin unto death, I do not say that for it any one pray. And 
 the Loiti — Do not give the Holy to dogs. For he who will not deserve 
 to receive the Sacrifice during his life, how can it help him after his 
 death?^^X It has been thought that this Canon condemns altogether 
 
 * S. August. 0pp. Tom. VI. p. 233. 
 t Lanigan, Vol. IV. p. 372. 
 t S. Patrioii Opuscula, p. 105. 
 
45 
 
 the practice of offering for the dead, but it is clear that the inference 
 to be drawn from it is just the reverse, on the principle that the excqi- 
 tion proves the rule. It certainly prohibits the act of offering for those 
 •who died in mortal sin, and were unworthy to receive " the sacrifice" 
 duririff their lives; but surely this very prohibition implies that all 
 others are proper subjects for the oblations and sacrifices of the Church. 
 It is the doctrine of the Church, that there is no redemption from 
 hell, and therefore she never prays for the souls in perdition. To this 
 case alone the Canon applies ; and therefore it teaches tliat the ordi- 
 nary rule of oblations for the dead, includes all her departed members, 
 who were supposed, while alive, to be wortiiy of Iwing admitted to the 
 holy communion. But another objection has been derived from a pas- 
 sage in the Treatise " on the Three Habitations," which are described 
 as Heaven, Earth, and Hell, without any mention of Purgatory*. It 
 has been frequently argued from this passage, that St. Patrick did not 
 hold the doctrine of Purgatory, or he would not have omitted it here. 
 But, in the firrt place, as remarked before, it is now generally agreed, 
 that this is not a genuine Work of St. Patrick. But further, there i» 
 nothing in it contrary to the Catholic doctrine, as the writer is not re- 
 ferring to any temporary place of purification in the intermediate 
 state, which is only visited by a certain part of the human race, but 
 to the permanent habitation of the good and bad, to which they will 
 be finally consigned in the other world ; nor does he say that all the 
 just are admitted to heaven immediately after death, which is the great 
 question in dispute ; so that this Tract, whoever might have written it 
 really affords no argument on either side. 
 
 As to the Invocation of Saints, wo have already observed an in- 
 stance of it incidentally mentioned by St. Patrick, as pro.ctised by 
 himself; and it is a singular fact, that Ussher himself, while trying to 
 prove that the ancient Irish Church held Protestant doctrines, entirely 
 omits all allusions to this subject, thus tacitly admitting the general 
 prevalence of the practice. We find that an ancient Life of St. Bridget, 
 written in the 7th Century, in Irish verse, often invokes hei in the course 
 of it, and concludes with these words—" there are two holy Virgins in 
 Heaven, who may undertake my protection, Mary, and Bridget, on 
 whose patronage let us depend.'^ Again, we find that Dungal, a most 
 learned Irishman, formally defended this and other Catholic doctrines, 
 
 * 8. Patrioii Opuscula, p. 280. 
 
46 
 
 41^ 
 
 in opposition to Claudius: Indeed, it is remarked by the modern Pro- 
 testant historian of the h-isli Church—" it appears pUiinly that, by 
 the close of the Hth Century, the grossest corruption, in this particular, 
 had become prevalent.''* The same author remarks also, that "the 
 language used in Divine Service in these countries in the earliest ages, 
 appears to have been always the Latin, as far as wo can learn from 
 any evidence that remains of ancient documents relating to the 
 Bubjoct."f 
 
 But it is quite unnecessary to enter into further proofs, in order to 
 show that the whole system of Christian doctrine, held by the ancient 
 Irish Church, was essentially the same with that held by all the other 
 branches of the Universal Church in those times, as well as by tho 
 Roman Catholic Church in the present day. It would bo easy to show, 
 indeed, that the Irish Church, as well as other national churches, 
 had its own peculiarities as to local customs, which are merely mat- 
 ters of discipline, and do not affect any article of the Christian Faith 
 or doctrine. It will bo remembered that I am speaking of the earliest 
 period in the Church History of Ireland, long before the commence- 
 raeiit of any connexion with England, and consequently we have here 
 a complete refutation of the assertion, that the Papal Supremacy, 
 and other doctrines, were first introduced into Ireland in the 
 12th Century. I have endeavored to investigate this subject in 
 a historical point of view, and to state the facts of the case, which 
 are equally open to the impartial inquiry of Protestants and 
 Catholics. My object is the pursuit of truth, without reference 
 to preconceived opinions of any kind. But the facts of Church 
 History have a very important connexion with the discovery of reli- 
 gious truth. Human opinions are constantly changing, but authentic 
 facts remain always the same. Now Christianity itself is a fact, and 
 not a mere opinion — it is not an idea communicated to each individual 
 mind, but it is a divine revelation made to the world 1800 years ago, 
 and transmitted by the Church to each successive generation. And 
 therefore, while we are attempting to ascertain, by historical evidence, 
 what was the religious system delivered to the Irish Church by St. 
 Patrick, in the 5th Century, we are really going back to the fountain 
 
 * King, Vol. I. p. 368. 
 t Ibid. p. 369. 
 
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47 
 
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 head of nil true religion— tho leaching of our Blessed liord and Ills 
 inMpirt'd Apostlos; and we are joining together tho several links In tho 
 chain which connect this present hour with tho day of Pentecost, 
 when tlie Church of Christ was founded on eiirth hy tljo descent of 
 tho Holy Ghost from Heaven. And if it ho maintained that tho 
 Roman Catholic Church in Ireland is corrupt in doctrine at thii day, 
 then it must have been equally corrupt in the time of St. Valrirk; and 
 if tho religion which he taught Was corrupt, then it must havo been 
 corrupt from the hct/inninff, for all tho links in tho chain are insepara- 
 bly connected together, and the whole deposit of the Faith is thus 
 identified with the Divine Tradition flowing from the very Throne of 
 God, descending into tho bosom of the Church, and preserved through 
 an unbroken succession of iMshops, Pastors, Doctors, Saints, and 
 Martyrs, united in comrauniim with the Chair of St. Peter, and tho 
 «' One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church" of Christ on earth. 
 
 There IS much truth, indeed, in the remarks of the learned Protestant, 
 Dr. Phelah, with reference to the hereditary feelings of our country- 
 men, as expressed in the following language — " The Irish are a fondly 
 national people ; they know little of theij- ancestors, but they believe 
 of them every thing which enters into their conceptions of worth and 
 greatness, and they feel a high, although mournful consolation in 
 turning from their own condition to the supposed freedom and glory 
 and happiness of other times. These principles have been incorpo- 
 rated into their Creed, they receive their religion as the last bequest, 
 and the last token of their almost canonised forefathers, and they 
 cling to it with a devoted and desperate fidelity. Their .religion is 
 made to look venerable through the vista of antiquity— interesting in 
 the garb and attitude of decay; and this interest assumes a dearer, and 
 this veneration a holier character, from the sympathy of the Church 
 with tho fallen fortunes of her children. Thus the faith of a zealous 
 Roman Catholic, though not that which either the truly spiritual or 
 the truly philosophic would prefer, comes upon him with the romantic 
 power of a picturesque and melancholy grandeur. Its influence is aided 
 by the habits of a rural life— it is recalled by the ruined Abbey, and 
 the tottering Round Tower— it is studiously aesoeiated with the hearths, 
 the tombs, and the altars of its progenitors. It is similarly con- 
 nected with all those of whatsoever country, who iu the first and 
 
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48 
 
 purest ages of the Gospel, tloparteJ tliLs life in the faith and foar of 
 God, until through a long lino of Martyrs and Confessors — through 
 St. Patrick— througli the Apoatlos— it liually hlonds itself with tho 
 Saviour of the world." 
 
 Yes, uiy Catholic Brethren ! you have just reason— I will not say, 
 to ho proud of such an honor, but ruther, to bo deeply thankful to 
 God, for His distinguishing grace in making you heirs, without any 
 merits on your part, of that holy faith which you havo inherited from 
 your ancestors, and tlirough them, from the glorious Saints and Foun- 
 ders of the Irish Church in ancient times. But, at tho same time, let 
 U8 remember that tho Catholic religion is not conOned to one 
 country or one nation. No ! it is, as its name implies, universal — it 
 includes every nation under heaven; and all earthly and national dis- 
 tinctions must be comparatively forgotten, and absorbed in this spiri- 
 tual relation that exists among tho members of " tho Church of tho 
 Living God." AVe must be careful to show by the example of a holy 
 life, that Catholics do not belong to anymore Irish party, associated 
 toe-other for political or ecclesiastical purposes, and separated from 
 those of every other race by their Celtic origin and habits. In tliis 
 view, a true Catholic Christian is not an Irishman — nor an English- 
 man — nor a Frenchman- nor an American, however attached he may 
 be to the land of his birth, or adoption. lie belongs to no country in 
 this world. He is a stranger and a pilgrim on earth— he is a member 
 of the Family of God, and a citizen of the heavenly Jerusalem- 
 he is " not of the world, as Christ was not of tho world." But 
 while every country has its own representatives in tho Church of 
 God, each of them still retains some marks of its national peculiarities; 
 and while we cherish, with affectionate veneration, the memory ff 
 those blessed and holy Aen and women, who have shed so bright a 
 lustre over the annals of our country by their zealous and devoted 
 lives of piety and virtue, let us hope and pray that the spirit of faith 
 and love that animated their hearts may be revived among the children of 
 the Church to the latest generations ; and that the fair land of Erin may 
 again be justly distinguished by that sacred name by which she was 
 recognised in the days of old, and may shine forth in the beauties of 
 holiness, conspicuous among all the other nations of the Christir.n 
 world, in the true character of her own glorious and immortal title- 
 as the "Island of Saints.'' 
 
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