An Illustrated History of Ireland from AD 400 to 1800

y to found Churches and condemn Heresy-Disputes concerning St. Patrick's Birthplace-Ireland receives the Faith generously-Victoricus-St. Patrick's Vision-Hi

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ng of any country must always form an important epoch, politically and socially, and, as such, demands the careful consideration of the historian. How and when the seed of faith was sown in ancient Erinn before the time of the great Apostle, cannot now be ascertained. We know the silent rapidity with which that faith spread, from its first promulgation by the shores of the Galilean lake, until it became the recognized religion of earth's mightiest empire. We know, also, that, by a noticeable providence, Rome was chosen from the beginning as the source from w

ssful. Palladius was repulsed by the inhabitants of Wicklow,[111] where he landed. He then sailed northward, and was at last driven by stress of weather towards the Orkneys, finding harbour, eventually, on the shores of Kincardineshire. Several ancient tracts give the details of his mission, its failure, and his subsequent career. The first of those authorities is the Life of St. Patrick

ssion of converting the heathen, and preserving the faithful from error. St. Innocent I., writing to Decentius, in the year 402, refers thus to this important fact: "Is it not known to all that the things which have been delivered to the Roman Church by Peter, the Prince of the Apostles, and preserved ever since, sho

lowed him[116] to Britain, but returned to their own country after his death. The Vita Secunda mentions that he brought relics of the blessed

It does not follow necessarily from this, that St. Patrick was born there; but it would appear probable that this was a paternal estate. (2)The saint speaks of Britanni? as his country. The difficulty lies in the identification of these places. In the Vita Secunda, Nemthur and Campus Taberni? are identified. Probus writes, that he had ascertained as a matter of certainty, that the Vicus Bannave Taburni? regionis was situated in Neustria. The Life supposed to be b

. His mother, Conchessa, was either a sister or niece of the great St. Martin of To

appellation of Succat-"brave in battle." But his warfare was not with a material foe. Erinn received the faith at his hands, with noble and unexampled generosity; and one martyr, and only one, was sacrificed in preference

ion of the soil by other hands, Christianity burst forth at the first ray of apostolic light, and, with the sudden ripeness of a northern summer, at once covered the whole land. Kings and princes, when not themselves amongst the ranks of the converted, saw their sons and daughters joining in the train without a murmur. Chiefs, at variance in all else, agreed in meeting beneath the Christian banner; and t

comprised in the county of Antrim, to four men, one of whom, Milcho, bought up their right from the other three, and employed him in feeding sheep or swine. Exposed to the severity of the weather day and night, a lonely slave in a strange land, and probably as ignorant of the language as of the customs of his master, his captivity, would, indeed, have been a bitter one, had he not brought with him, fro

vessel got angry, and said to me, 'Do not attempt to come with us.' On hearing this I retired, for the purpose of going to the cabin where I had been received as a guest. And, on my way thither, I began to pray; but before I had finished my prayer, I heard one of the men crying out with a loud voice after me, 'Come, quickly; for they are calling you,' and immediately I returned. And they said to me, 'Come, we receive thee on trust. Be our friend, just as it may be agreeable t

certain, with respect to these captivities, at which the events occurred which we are about to relate. After a short residence at the famous monastery of

the remarkable vision or dream relating to his Iris

ined these words: 'The voice of the Irish;' and while reading it I thought I heard, at the same moment, the voice of a multitude of persons near the Wood of Foclut, which is near the western sea;

erranean. Lerins was distinguished for its religious and learned establishments; and probably St. Germain,[122] under whose direction the saint still

believed to confer upon the possessor a title to be regarded and obeyed as the successor of St. Patrick. Indeed, the great antiquity of

nt Irish history. St. Fiacc speaks of it as having been ri

Sir Gerald Machshayne, knight, sworn 19th March, 1529, upon the Holie Mase-booke and the great relicke of

eresting relic by a notice of its wanton destruction, as t

iracles in Erinn since the time of Patrick down to that time, and which was in the hand of Christ Himself, was burned by the Saxons in like manner. And not only that, but there was not a holy cross, nor an image of Mary, nor other celebrated image in Erinn over which their power reached, that they did not burn. Nor was there one of the

ion and approbation. St. Patrick then returned once more to his master, who was residing at Auxerre. From thence he went into the north of Gaul, and there receiving intelligence of the death of St. Palladius, and the failure of his mission, he was immediately consecrated bish

l of the Nine Hostages, King of Ireland. It is generally supposed that the saint landed first at a place called Inbher De, believed to be the mouth of the Bray river, in Wicklow. Here he wa

e encountered by Dicho, the lord of the soil, who, hearing of their embarkation, and supposing them to be pirates, had assembled a formidable body of retainers to expel them from his shores. But it is said that the moment he perceived, Patrick, his apprehensions vanished. After some brief converse, Dicho invited the saint and his companions to his house, and soon after received himself the grace o

at, in a violent fit of passion, he set fire to his house, and perished himself in the flames. The saint returned to Saull, and from thence journeyed by water to the mouth of the Boyne, where he landed at a small port called Colp. Tara was his destination; but on his way thither he stayed a night at the house

s; and his not having mentioned it himself in his genuine writings. Second, by underrating the value of those documents which do mention this Roman mission. With regard to the first objection, it is obvious that a hymn which w

slation of St. Patrick's Canon is sufficiently plain, and evidently he found it inconveniently explicit, for he gives a "gloss" thereon, in which he apologizes for St. Patrick's Roman predilections, by suggesting that the saint was influenced by a "special regard for the Church of Rome." No doubt this was true; it is the feeling of all good Catholics; but it requires something more than a "special regard" to inculcate such absolute submission; and we can scarcely think even Usher himself could have gravely supposed, that a canon written to bind the whole Irish Church, should have inculcated a practice of such importance, merely because St. Patrick had a regard for the Hol

ns videre Sedem Apostolicam

i Germani in Galiis et

arate chapters be thus joined together, the real meaning of et ideo non exivit ultra would be, that St. Patrick never again left Germanus,-a meaning too obviously inadmissible to require further comment. But it is well known that the life of St. Patrick which bears the name of Probus,

LECTION OF THE R.I.A., FOUN

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