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received, with some reluctance, on board a merchant vessel, which, after a voyage of three days, landed him on the coast of Gaul.*

409

After indulging, for a time, in the society of his parents and friends, being natuA. D. rally desirous of retrieving the loss of those years during which he had been left without instruction, he repaired to the celebrated monastery or college of St. to Martin, near Tours, where he remained four years, and was, it is believed,

410. initiated there in the ecclesiastical state. That his mind dwelt much on recollections of Ireland, may be concluded from a dream which he represents himself to have had about this time, in which a messenger appeared to him, coming as if from Ireland, and bearing innumerable letters, on one of which were written these words, "The Voice of the Irish." At the same moment, he fancied that he could hear the voices of persons from the wood of Foclat, near the Western Sea, crying out, as if with one voice, "We entreat thee, holy youth, to come and walk still among us."-"I was greatly affected in my heart," adds the Saint, in describing this dream, "and could read no farther; I then awoke." In these natural workings of a warm and pious imagination, described by himself thus simply,-so unlike the prodigies and miracles with which most of the legends of his life abound,-we see what a hold the remembrance of Ireland had taken of his youthful fancy, and how fondly he already contemplated some holy work in her service. At the time when this vision occurred, St. Patrick was about thirty years old, and it was shortly after, we are told, that he placed himself under the spiritual direction of St. German of Auxerre, a man of distinguished reputation, in those times, both as a civilian and an ecclesiastic. From this period, there is no very accurate account of the Saint's studies or transactions, till, in the year 429, we find him accompanying St. German and Lupus, in their expedition to Britain, for the purpose of eradicating from that country the growing errors of Pelagianism. Nine years of this interval he is said to have passed in an island, or islands, of the Tuscan Sea; and the conjecture that Lérins was the place of his retreat seems, notwithstanding the slight geographical difficulty, by no means improbable. There had been recently a monastery established in that island, which became afterwards celebrated for the number of holy and learned persons whom it had produced; nor could the destined apostle have chosen for himself a retreat more calculated to nurse the solemn enthusiasm which such a mission required than among the pious and contemplative Solitaries of the small isle of Lérins.

The attention of Rome being at this time directed to the state of Christianity among the Irish,-most probably by the reports on that subject received from the British missionaries, it was resolved by Celestine to send a bishop to that country, and Palladius was, as we have seen, the person appointed. The peculiar circumstances which fitted St. Patrick to take part in such a mission, and probably his own expressed wishes to that effect, induced St. German to send him to Rome with recommendations to the Holy Father. But, before his arrival, Palladius had departed for Ireland, and the hopeA. D. less result of his mission has already been related. Immediately on the death of this bishop, two or three of his disciples set out to announce the event to his successor St. Patrick, who was then on his way through Gaul. Having had himself consecrated bishop at Eboria, a town in the north-west of that country, the Saint proceeded on his course to the scene of his labours; and, resting but a short time in Britain,§ arrived in Ireland, as the Irish Annals inform us, in the first year of the pontificate of Sextus the

431.

Third.

A. D. 432.

His first landing appears to have been on the shore of Dublin: or, as it is described, "the celebrated port of the territory of the Evoleni," by which is supposed to have been meant the " portus Eblanorum" of Ptolemy, the present harbour of Dublin. After meeting with a repulse, at this and some other places in Leinster, the

*It is said in some of the lives of St. Patrick, that there was a law in Ireland, according to which slaves should become free in the seventh year, and that it was under this law he gained his liberty. The same writers add, that this was conformable to the practice of the Hebrews-more Hebræorum.-(Levit. xxv. 40, See on this point, Dr. Lanigan chap. iv. note 43.

The monastic institution, says Mabillon, was introduced "in Hiberniam insulam per S. Patricium, S. Martini discipulum."

The following is the Saint's description of this dream in his own homely Latin:-Et ibi scilicet vidi in visu, nocte, virum venientem quasi de Hiberione, cui nomen Victoricius, cum epistulis innumerabilibus, et dedit mihi unam ex illis, et legi principium epistolæ continentem Vox Hiberionacum. Et dum recitabam principium epistolæ putabam ipso momento audire vocem ipsurum qui erant juxta sylvan Focluti, quæ est prope mare occidentale. Et sic exclamaverunt quasi ex uno ore, Rogamus te, sancte puer, ut venias et adhuc ambules inter nos. Et valde conpunctus sum corde, et amplius non potui legere: et sic expergefactus sum." § During one of St. Patrick's visits to Britain, he is supposed to have preached in Cornwall. in their Druidism," says Borlase, "the Britons of Cornwall drew the attention of St. Patrick this way, who, By peristing about the year 432, with twenty companions, halted a little on his way to Ireland on the shores of Cornwall, where he is said to have built a monastery. Whether St German was in Cornwall at this time, I cannot say; but (according to Usher) he was either in Cornwall or Wales, for St. Patrick is said, "ad præceptorem suum beatum Germanum divertisse, et apud Britannos in partibus Cornubiæ et Cambriæ aliquandiu subtitisse."-Borlase, Antiq. book iv. chap. x. sect. 2.

Saint, anxious, we are told, to visit the haunts of his youth, to see his old master Milcho, and endeavour to convert him to the faith, steered his course for East Ulster, and arrived with his companions at a port near Strangford, in the district now called the barony of Lecale. Here, on landing and proceeding a short way up the country, they were met by a herdsman, in the service of the lord of the district, who, supposing them to be searobbers or pirates, hastened to alarm the whole household. In a moment, the master himself, whose name was Dicho, made his appearance, attended by a number of armed followers, and threatening the destruction to the intruders. But on seeing St. Patrick, so much struck was the rude chief with the calm sanctity of his aspect, that the uplifted weapon was suspended, and he at once invited the whole of the party to his dwelling.— The impression which the looks of the Saint had made, his Christian eloquence but served to deepen and confirm; and not merely the pagan lord himself, but all his family became converts.

In an humble barn belonging to this chief, which was ever after called Sabhul Padruic, or Patricks Barn, the Saint celebrated divine worship; and we shall find that this spot, consecrated by his first spiritual triumph, continued to the last his most favourite and most frequented retreat.

Desirous of visiting his former abode, and seeing that mountain where he had so often prayed in the time of his bondage, he set out for the residence of his master Milcho, which appears to have been situated in the valley of Arcuil, in that district of Dalaradia inhabited by the Cruthene, or Irish Picts. Whatever might have been his hope of effecting the conversion of his old master, he was doomed to meet with disappointment; as Milcho, fixed and inveterate in his heathenism, on hearing of the approach of his holy visiter, refused to receive or see him.

After remaining some time in Down, to which county he had returned from Dalaradia, St. Patrick prepared, on the approach of Easter, to risk the bold, and as it proved, politic step of celebrating that great Christian festival in the very neighbourhood of Tara, where the Princes and States of the whole kingdom were to be about that time assembled.Taking leave of his new friend Dicho, he set sail with his companions, and steering southwards arrived at the harbour, now called Colp, at the mouth of the Boyne. There leaving his boat, he proceeded with his party to the Plain of Preg, in which the ancient city of Tara was situated. In the course of his journey, a youth of family whom he baptized, and to whom on account of the kindly qualities of his nature, he gave the name of Benignus, conceived such an affection for him as to insist on being the companion of his way. This enthusiastic youth became afterwards one of his most favourite disciples, and, on his death, succeeded him as bishop of Armagh.

On their arrival at Slane, the Saint and his companions pitched their tents for the night, and as it was the eve of the festival of Easter, lighted at night-fall the paschal fire.* It hap pened that, on the same evening, the monarch Leogaire and the assembled princes were, according to custom, celebrating the pagan festival of La Bealtinne; and as it was a law that no fires should be lighted on that night, till the great pile in the palace of Tara was kindled, the paschal fire of St. Patrick, on being seen from the heights of Tara, before that of the monarch, excited the wonder of all assembled. To the angry inquiries of Leogaire, demanding who could have dared to violate thus the law, his Magi or Druids are said to have made answer:-"This fire, which has now been kindled before our eyes, unless extinguished this very night, will never be extinguished throughout all time. Moreover, it will tower above all the fires of our ancient rites, and he who lights it will ere long scatter your kingdom." Surprised and indignant, the monarch instantly despatched messengers to summon the offender to his presence; the princes seated themselves in a circle upon the grass to receive him; and, on his arrival, one alone among them, Herc, the son of Dego, impressed with reverence by the stranger's appearance, stood up to salute him.

That they heard with complacency, however, his account of the objects of his mission, appears from his preaching at the palace of Tara, on the following day, in the presence of the king and the States-General, and maintaining an argument against the most learned of the Druids, in which the victory was on his side. It is recorded, that the only

"According to the ancient, as well as the modern ecclesiastical liturgy, fire was to be struck and lighted up, with solemn prayers and ceremonies, on Easter Eve, which fire was to be kept burning in the church lamps till the eve of Good Friday in the ensuing year."-Milner's Inquiry, &c.

"Anciently, their times of repast were for the most part in the evening; from which custom that solemn feast at which Laogair, King of Ireland, entertained all the orders of the kingdom at Tarah ann. 455, is in the Ulster annals called the Cona Temre, the supper of Tarah; and it is remarkable that from this supper historians have fixed an era for the latter part of the times of that monarch's administration."-Ware's Antiquities.

Hic ignis quem videmus, nisi extinctus fuerit hac nocte, non extinguetur in æturnum; insuper et omnes ignes nostræ consuetidinis super excellet; et ille qui incendit illum, regnum tuum dissipabit.-Probus, S. Patric. Vita, lib. i. c. 35.

person who, upon this occasion, rose to welcome him was the arch-poet Dubtach, who became his convert on that very day, and devoted, thenceforth, his poetical talents to religious subjects alone.* The monarch himself, too, while listening to the words of the apostle, is said to have exclaimed to his surrounding nobles, "It is better that I should believe than die;"-and appalled by the awful denouncements of the preacher, to have at once professed himself Christian.

There seems little doubt that the king Leogaire, with that spirit of tolerance which then pervaded all ranks, and so singularly smoothed the way to the reception of the Gospel in Ireland, gave full leave to the Saint to promulgate his new creed to the people, on condition of his not infringing the laws or peace of the kingdom. But that either himself, or his queen, had enlisted among the converts, there appears strong reason to question. In adducing instances of the great success with which God had blessed his mission, the Saint makes mention of the sons and daughters of men of rank, who, he boasts, had embraced the faith; but, with respect to the conversion of the king or queen, he maintains a total silence. It has been, indeed, in the higher regions of society that, from the very commencement of Christianity, its light has always encountered the most resisting medium; and, it is plain, from the narrative of St. Patrick, that, while he found the people everywhere docile listeners, his success with the upper or dominant caste was comparatively slow and limited; nor does it appear that, so late as the time when he wrote his Confession, the greater part of the kings and princes were yet converted.

Among the females however, even of this highest class, the lessons of peace and humility which he inculcated were always hailed with welcome; and he describes one noble young Scotic lady, whom he had baptized, as “blessed and most beautiful." To the list of his royal female converts are to be added the sisters Ethnea and Fethlimia, daughters of the king Leogaire; whom he had the good fortune to meet with, in the course of a journey over the plain of Connaught, under circumstances full of what may be called the poesy of real life.

It was natural that the dream of "the Voice of the Irish," by which his imagination had many years before been haunted, should now, in the midst of events so exciting and gratifying, recur vividly to his mind; and we are told, accordingly, that a wish to visit once more the scene of that vision,-to behold the wood, beside the Western Sea, from whence the voices appeared to come,-concurred with other more important objects to induce him to undertake this journey westwards. Resting for the night, on his way, at a fountain in the neighbourhood of the royal residence, Cruachan himself and his companions had begun, at day-break, to chant their morning service, when the two young princesses coming to the fountain, at this early hour, to bathe, were surprised by the appearance of a group of venerable persons all clothed in white garments and holding books in their hands. On their inquiring who the strangers were, and to what class of beings they belonged, whether celestial, æriel, or terrestrial, St. Patrick availed himself of the opportunity thus furnished of instructing them in the nature of the true God; and while answering their simple and eager questions as to where the God he worshipped dwelt, whether in heaven or on the earth, on mountains or in valleys, in the sea or in rivers, contrived to explain to them the leading truths of the Christian religion. Delighted with his discourse, the royal sisters declared their willingness to conform to any course of life that would render them acceptable to such a God as he announced; and, being then baptized by the holy stranger, at the fountain, became in a short time after consecrated virgins of the church.g

The Saint had, previously to his leaving Meath, attended the celebration of the Taltine Games, and taking advantage of the vast multitudes there assembled to forward his mighty work of conversion. In the course of this journey, likewise, to Connaught, he turned aside a little from the direct road, to visit that frightful haunt of cruelty and superstition, the Plain of Slaughter, in the county of Leitrim, where, from time immemorial, had stood the Druidical idol Crom-Cruach, called sometimes also Cean Groith, or Head of the Sun. This image, to which, as to Moloch of old, young children were offered up in sacrifice, had been an object of worship, we are told, with every successive colony by which the island had been conquered. For St. Patrick, however, was reserved the

Carmina quæ quandam peregit in laudem falsorum deorum jam in usum meliorum mutans et linguam poemata clariora composuit in laudem Omnipotentis.-Jocelin.

Some writings under the name of this poet are to be found in the Irish collections. "An elegant hymn of his, (says Mr. O'Reilly) addressed to the Almighty, is preserved in the Felire Aenguis,, or Account of the Festivals of the Church, written by Angus Ceile-De, in the latter end of the eighth century." There is also in the book of Rights a very old poem attributed to him,in which he thus asserts the supremacy of his art:-"There is no right of visitation or headship (superiority) over the truly learned poet."-Trans. Iberno-Celt. Society. + Et etiam una benedicta Scotta, genitiva, nobilis, pulcherrima, adulta erat quam ego baptizavi.-Confess. Jocelin, cap. iv.

§ Lives of St. Patrick, Probus, Tripartite, &c.

glory of destroying both idol and worship; and a large church was now erected by him in the place where these monstrous rites had been so long solemnized.*

His spiritual labours, in the West of Ireland, are all detailed with a fond minuteness by his biographers, and exhibit, with little exception, the very same flow of triumphant success which marked his progress from the beginning. Baptizing multitudes wherever he went, providing churches for the congregations thus formed, and ordaining priests from among his disciples, to watch over them,-his only rest from these various cares was during a part of the Lent season, when retiring alone to the heights of Mount Eagle,† or, as it has been since called, the Mountain of St. Patrick, he there devoted himself, for a time, to fasting and solitary prayer. While thus occupied, the various seafowl and birds of prey that would naturally be attracted to the spot, by the sight of a living creature in so solitary a place,‡ were transformed, by the fancy of the superstitious, into flocks of demons which came to tempt and disturb the holy man from his devotions. After this interval of seclusion, he proceeded northwards to the country then called Tiramalgaidh, the modern barony of Tyrawley.

He was now in the neighbourhood of the wood of Foclut, near the Ocean, from whence the voices of the Irish had called to him in his dream; and, whether good fortune alone was concerned in effecting the accomplishment of the omen, or, as is most likely, the thought that he was specially appointed to this place gave fresh impulse to his zeal, the signal success which actually attended his mission in this district sufficiently justified any reliance he might have placed upon the dream. Arriving soon after the death of the king of that territory, and at the moment when his seven sons, having just terminated a dispute concerning the succession, were, together with a great multitude of people, collected on the occasion, St. Patrick repaired to the assembly, and, by his preaching, brought over to the faith of Christ not only the seven princes, including the new king, but also twelve thousand persons more, all of whom he soon after baptized. It is supposed that to these western regions of Ireland the Saint alludes, in his Confession, where he stated that he had visited remote districts where no missionary had been before;-an assertion important, as plainly implying that, in the more accessible parts of the country, Christianity had, before his time, been preached and practised.

From this period, through the remainder of his truly wonder-working career, the records of his transactions present but little variety; his visits to Leinster, Ulster, and Munter being but repetitions of the course of success we have been contemplating,-a continuation of the same ardour, activity, and self-devotion on the part of the missionary himself, and the same intelligence, susceptibility, and teachableness on the part of most of his hearers.

Notwithstanding, however, the docile and devotional spirit which he found everywhere, among the lower classes, and the singular forbearance with which, among the highest, even the rejecters of his doctrine tolerated his preaching it, yet that his life was sometimes in danger appears from his own statements; and an instance or two are mentioned by his biographers, where the peril must have been imminent. On one of these occasions he was indebted for his life to the generosity of his charioteer, Odran; who, hearing of the intention of a desperate chieftain, named Failge, to attack the Saint when on his way through the King's County, contrived, under the pretence of being fatigued, to induce his master to take the driver's seat, and so, being mistaken for St. Patrick, received the lance of the assassin in his stead. The death of this charioteer is made more memorable by the re

* When we hear of Churches erected by St. Patrick, very many of which were certainly of much later foundation, we are not to understand such edifices as are so called in our days, but humble buildings made of hurdles or wattles, clay and thatch, according to the ancient fashion of Ireland, and which could be put together in a very short time."-Lanigan, chap. v. note 74.

Cruachan-aichle, since called Cruach Phadruic, (Croagh Patrick, in Mayo) that is the heap or mountain of St. Patrick.

"Mullitudo avium venit circa illum, ita ut non posset videre faciem cœli et terræ ac maris propter aves. "Jocelin is the only biographer of St. Patrick that has spoken of the expulsion by him of serpents and other venomous creatures from Ireland. From his book this story made its way into other tracts, and even into some breviaries. Had such a wonderful circumstance really occurred, it would have been recorded in our Annals and other works long before Jocelin's time."-Lanigan, Ecclesiast. Hist. chap. v. note 108. The learned Colgan, in exposing the weakness of this story, alleges, that in the most ancient documents of Irish history, there is not the least allusion to venomous animals having ever been found in this country.

§ In his Confession, the Saint makes mention of the sufferings of himself and followers, and of "the precautions he took against giving occasion to a general persecution, using, among other means, that of making presents to the unconverted kings, some of whom, however, while obstinate themselves, allowed their sons to follow him:-"Interim præmia," he says, "dabam regibus proter quod dabam mercedem filliis ipsorum qui mecum ambulant, et nihil comprehenderunt me cum comitibus meis."

Among the specimens of Irish manuscripts given by Astle, there is one from a tract relating to this event:"This specimen," says the writer, "is taken from an ancient manuscript of two tracts, relating to the old municipal laws of Ireland. The first contains the trial of Enna, brother of Laogarius, chief king of Ireland, for the murder of Oraine (Odran) chariot driver to St. Patrick, before Dumpthac, (Dubtach) the king's chief bard, and the sentence passed thereon, about the year 430."

markable circumstance, that he is the only martyr on record who, in the course of this peaceful crusade in Ireland, fell a victim by the hands of an Irishman. On another occasion, while visiting Lecale, the scene of his earliest labours, a design was formed against his life by the captain of a band of robbers, which he not only baffled by his intrepidity and presence of mind, but succeeded in converting the repentant bandit into a believer. Full of compunction, this man, whose name was Maccaldus, demanded of St. Patrick what form of penance he ought to undergo for his crimes; and the nature of the task which the Saint imposed upon him is highly characteristic of the enterprising cast of his own mind. The penitent was to depart from Ireland immediately; to trust himself, alone, to the waves, in a leathern boat, and taking with him nothing but a coarse garment, land on the first shore to which the wind might bear him, and there devote himself to the service of God. This command was obeyed; and it is added that, wafted by the wind to the Isle of Man, Maccaldus found there two holy bishops, by whom he was most kindly received, and who directed him in his penitential works with so much spiritual advantage, that he succeeded them in the bishopric of the island, and became renowned for his sanctity. The most active foes St. Patrick had to encounter were to be found naturally among those Magi or Druids, who saw in the system he was introducing the downfall of their own religion and power. An attempt made against his life, shortly before his grand work of conversion in Tyrawley, is said to have originated among that priesthood, and to have been averted only by the interference of one of the convert princes. Among the civil class of the Literati, however, his holy cause found some devoted allies. It has been already seen that the arch-poet Dubtatch became very early a convert; and we find the Saint, in the course of a journey through Leinster, paying a visit to this bard's residence, in Hy-Kinsellagh, and consulting with him upon matters relating to the faith. The archpoet's disciple, too, Fiech, was here admitted to holy orders by St. Patrick, and, becoming afterwards bishop of Sletty, left behind him a name as distinguished for piety as for learning.

The event, in consequence of which the Saint addressed his indignant letter to Coroticus, the only authentic writing, besides the Confession, we have from his hand, is supposed to have taken place during his stay on the Munster coast, about the year 450.* A British prince, named Coroticus, who, though professing to be a Christian, was not the less, as appears from his conduct, a pirate and persecutor, had landed with a party of armed followers, while Saint Patrick was on the coast, and set about plundering a large district in which, on the very day before, the Saint had baptized and confirmed a vast number of converts. Having murdered several of these persons, the pirates carried off a considerable number of captives, and then sold them as slaves to the Picts and Scots, who were at that time engaged in their last joint excursion into Britain. A letter despatched by the Saint to the marauders, requesting them to restore the baptized captives, and part of the booty, having been treated by them with contumely, he found himself under the necessity of forthwith issuing the solemn epistle which has come down to us, in which, denouncing Coroticus and his followers as robbers and murderers, he, in his capacity of "Bishop established in Ireland," declares them to be excommunicated.

Having now preached through all the provinces, and filled the greater part of the island with Christians and with churches, St. Patrick saw that the fit period was now arrived for the consolidation of the extensive hierarchy he had thus constructed, by the establishment of a metropolitical see. In selecting the district of Macha for the seat of the primacy, he was influenced, doubtless, by the associations connected with that place, as an ancient royal residence,-the celebrated Palace of Emania having stood formerly in the neighbourhood of the eminence upon which Ardmacha, or Armagh, afterwards rose. The time of the foundation of this see by St. Patrick has been variously stated; but the opinion of those who place it late in his career, besides being equally borne out by evidence, seems by far the most consonant with reason; as it is not probable that he would have set about establishing a metropolitical see for all Ireland, until he had visited the various provinces, ascertained the progress of the Gospel in each, and regulated accordingly their ecclesiastical concerns. It may be remarked, that Ware and other writers, who give to this see the designation of archiepiscopal, and style St. Patrick an archbishop, have been guilty of a slight anachronism; as it was not till the beiginning of

*In the chronology of the events of St. Patrick's life, I have throughout followed Dr. Lanigan, than whom, in all respects, there cannot be a more industrious or trustworthy guide.

"De sanguine innocentium Christainorum, quos ego innumeros Deo genui, atque in Christo confirmavi, postera die qua chrisma neophyti in veste candida flagrabat in fronte ipsorum."-Confess.

"We have here, in a few words," says Dr. Lanigan," an exact description of the ancient discipline, according to which the sacrament of confirmation or chrism used to be administered immediately after baptism by the bishop, in case he were the baptizer or present on the occasion. We see also the garment of the newly baptized."

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