ST. PATRICK, APOSTLE OF IRELAND.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXVII, Issue 10, 8 March 1900, Page 7

ST. PATRICK, APOSTLE OF IRELAND.

The arms of proud Imperial Rome, which laid the world prostrate at the feet of the Caesars, were never able to penetrate Ireland. Her sons were never dragged after the chariot wheels of her victorious generals, or sold as slaves in her markets. Their blood was never shed in the gladiatorial arena to grace a Roman holiday, nor upon her altars to consecrate pagan rites and sacrifices. But Rome, Christian and Apostolic, was destined to extend the eceptre of the croßs where its eagles were never unfurled. The Apostles of Rome and their disciples, spreading Christianity and civilisation in their paths, penetrated where her proudest armies dared not set foot, and gained victories nobler far than those achieved by her great generals. Among thia saintly cohort of Christian soldiers there is not one whose name stands higher or purer than that of St. Patrick the Apostle of Ireland.

Keating, in his History of Ireland, says : ' I have read in an ancient Irish manuscript, whose authority I cannot dispute, that St. Patriok and his two sisters were brought captive into Ireland from Armorica, or Brittany, in the kingdom of France ,' which is sustained by O'Flaherty in his history. All the circumstances connected with his early life confirm this supposition. His family resided in Gaul — there the events of his early life took pla^e — there he was taken prisoner in hiß early youth. These circumstances, combined with his own confession, leave no doubt as to his place of birth. On being brought to Ireland, he was obliged to serve four different masters, who were most likely brothers. At the end of six years he obtained his release in the following manner, as related by himself. While asleep one night he heard a voice say to him : ' Thou fastest well, and art Boon to go to thine own country.' Again the voice announced to him : ' Behold a 6hip is ready for you.' He tells us that the ship was about two hundred miles away, where he had never been. But strong in his faith in the Lord, Whom he felt had destined him for some wise ends of His own, he left his master and travelled towards Benum. (Benum, which was distant two hundred miles from Antrim, must be somewhere in the south of Ireland ; most probably it is Bantry, which signifies the coatt of Ben — that is, Bentraighe ) St. Patiick reached home, where he waa joyfully received by his family and friends, about the year 409, when in hi-* twenty-second year. He soon after retired to the monastery of St. Martin of Tours, where, though that great prelate was dead some years, he was most kindly received, and earnestly devoted himself to study and eccle-iastical learning. At the end of four years he went back among his relatives, and continued to practise works of piety and charity. About this time he had many visions, one of which he describes as follows : ' And there in the midst of the night I saw a man coming as if from Hibernia, whose name was Victricius, with innumerable letters, one of which he handed me. On reading the beginning of the letter I found it contained these peculiar words : ' The voice of the Irish.' And while I was reading the letter I thought I heard at the same moment the voices of persons from near the wood of Foclut, which is near the Western Sea, and they cried out as if with one voice : ' We entreat thee, holy youth, to come and walk still among us.' Thus urged by the Holy Spirit, and believing that he was called as the servant of God to fulfil His wide purposes, he took an affectionate leave of hia family and friends, and placed himself under the guidance of St. Germanus, bishop of Auxerre. This took place about the year 418.

St. Germanus, knowing St. Patrick's fitness for the Irish misBion, broached the subject to him, and he entered eagerly into the project ; so that early in the year 431 he went to Rome to obtain the Papal bltssiug before departing on his journey to Ireland. He landed there in the year 432, the first year of the pontificate of St. Xiitup 111., the successor of Celestine.

During the 28 years of his apostolate our saint penetrated into almost every part of Ireland, and has everywhere left memorials of hia presence in the traditions of the people. Wherever he went he erected churches and monasteries and ordained priests and bishops to minister to the wants of his people. Reestablished his Episcopal See at Armagh, where he had built a monastery, and where the Primacy has always remained in honour of Ireland's Apostle. So successful were the labours of this great saint that he not only converted during his lifetime the whole of the island, rendering it a fruitful garden of saints, but he implanted the seed of Faith so deeply in the hearts of the people that no storm of persecution nor artifice of man has ever been able to eradicate it. Admonished by his guardian angel that bin life was drawing to a close, he fortified himself with the Divine Mysteries, from the hand of Bishop Tassach, and then raising his hands and blessing his people he passed forth from this world, from transitory pain to eternal glory, in the year a.d. 460, and was buried in Down in Ulster.