The Life of Saint Patrick, Apostle of Ireland
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''' m ' .. ' I I J , ' . ,. Hra ' . p m :-. 1 1 ; THE LIFE OF ST. PATEICK, ihil (Dbstat. J. MURPHY, Censor deputatus. imprimatur. I HENRICUS EDUARDUS, Card. Archiep. Westmon. THE LIFE OF SAINT PATRICK - WITH A PEELIMINAEY ACCOUNT OF THE SOUECES. OF THE SAINT'S HISTOEY BY WILLIAM BULLEN MOEEIS PRIEST OF THE ORATORY OF ST. PHILIP NERI Qui s'dtonnera que dans une entreprise toute Apostolique. Dieu ait conduit, comme les Prophetes et les Apostres, un Saint qui paroint lew avoir estt plus semblable qu'aux Saints qui sont venus apres eux. le de S. Paul. En un mot, on y voit beaucoup caractere TlLLEMONT, t. xvi. (Art. S. Patrice). FOURTH EDITION LONDON AND NEW YORK BUKNS & GATES, LIMITED M. H. GILL & SON, DUBLIN 1890 SAINT BRENDAN PARIS* LIBRARY IT . WAS?A~HUSTT fc ;-\rv 91983 Tr TO THE MEMBERS OF THE CONFRATERNITY OF ST. PATRICK ESTABLISHED AT THE LONDON ORATORY, WHO, WITH THE CHILDREN OF THE SAINT IN MANY LANDS, ARE THE ENDURING WITNESSES OF f THE FAITH WHICH SEETH HIM WHO IS INVISIBLE. ADVERTISEMENT TO THE FOURTH EDITION. ON the first appearance of this book in 1878, my critics were encouraging beyond all expectation, but for all that 1 felt that something was wanting, and that I ought not to be satisfied until it had been subjected to the ordeal of adverse criticism. St. Patrick is still militant and aggressive, and any picture of the Saint which pleases everybody cannot be true to life. The Saints are one with the Church, and inspire the same feelings of loyalty or rebellion. If, therefore, I welcome the fact that my third and enlarged edition has aroused antagonists, I do so, 1 trust, not under the influence of the combative spirit, but rather because discussion can only serve to enhance the glory of the Apostle of Ireland. I had made up my mind to introduce a few answers into my Appendix, in reply to my critics. On second thought, however, I have come to the conclusion that it is better to allow the Life of St. Patrick to stand by itself, and speak for itself. 1 have therefore determined to bring out, in a separate volume, some Essays published on various occasions, in which, either directly or indirectly, I have touched on most of those disputed questions to which my reviewers allude. Everything that has been objected has only served to strengthen my confidence in the security of the foundations on which this Life of St. Patrick has been built. In the present edition, I have contented myself with two short notices in the Appendix of certain theories relative to St. Patrick's Ancestors, and the Roman Mission. November 21, 1889. _ iUUUU.ctbJ.ULLj U1U. that it is impossible to make them harmonise with St. PEEFACE TO THE THIED AND FOUETH EDITIONS. THE present edition has been much altered in form and dimensions. It is therefore with some trepidation that the writer awaits another verdict on the part of the benevolent reader. If it turns out that in attempting to improve, he has over- leaped the mark, his excuse must be that in so doing he has acted under strong pressure on the part of those who, on its first appearance, com- plained of the brevity of the work. The introduction has been re-written : an in- quiry into the state of Ireland at the period of St. Patrick's advent has been introduced into the life, and there are considerable additions, and some omissions, in the body of the work. With something like a pang the writer has been driven to give up the very beautiful legends connected with St. Patrick's infancy, having come to the conclusion that they do not rest on any solid historical foundation, and that it is impossible to make them harmonise with St. viii PREFACE. Patrick's autobiography. When, however, we take into account that the events which they profess to record were separated by an interval of more, than half a century from the historic life of the Apostle of Ireland, and that during that period he was an exile and a pilgrim, an outcast of fortune detesta- bilis Jiujus mundi, as he himself expresses it there is nothing wonderful in the fact that the private life of St. Patrick was not accurately registered in the very sterile records of the fifth century. The imperious requisitions imposed on St. Patrick's biographer are often very unreasonable, and likely to become a snare to anxious and over-submissive investigators. Surely the biographer of St. Patrick ought not to forfeit his reputation if he sometimes says that he is ignorant as regards particular events, when such large indulgence is granted to the histo- rians of St. Patrick's most famous contemporaries ? St. Patrick's authentic history begins with his sixteenth year : the period at which he commences his autobiography. Outside his own record we have only vague indications of his early life, by writers of uncertain dates, the value of whose testimony depends entirely upon its subordination to the Saint's own writings. If any proof is wanted of this, it is to be found in the perplexities and con- PREFACE. ix tradictions of all writers, ancient and modern, who have attempted to build up his life on any other foundation. It is to the neglect of this obvious principle that we must attribute that perpetual piecemeal controversy which has brought so much discredit on St. Patrick's history. The ephemeral productions of belligerent critics have done more to weaken faith in St. Patrick than all the efforts of the Anglo-Irish Establishment, which for centuries has expended its strength in alternate attempts to capture or to annihilate our national Apostle. Writers who merely make use of his Acta to arm themselves with chips and fragments of his history, to be used as missiles and nothing more, have kept alive the impression that there is no animating principle in the record : that it is a body without a soul. The truth is that few Saints have transmitted to posterity a more perfect revelation of their own lives and character than that which is found in the Con- fession, Epistle, and Hymn of St. Patrick, although this will doubtless seem an extravagant assertion to cursory readers, and to those who only use them for literary party-purposes. They are a record, fragmentary indeed in form, but inspired by one a life which was inimitable spirit, of the course of x PREFACE. prodigious and unprecedented in every stage. The study of St. Patrick's writings explains how it came to pass that his life was so imperfectly recorded. His simple and awestruck neophytes did not comprehend him : indeed it may be said that St. Patrick is not understood as Cardinal yet ; Newman says of St. Joseph, he is a star that is late in rising for the very reason that he is so specially glorious. The chief additions in the present edition con- sist of passages from the Saint's autobiography which seem to fit in with the narrative. The effect of such a combination must necessarily be very un- favourable to the Saint's biographers. Nothing that has been written about St. Patrick has ever even approached the exalted level of his own writ- but if the Saint is ings ; glorified by the contrast our object will be attained. Building on the foundations laid by the Saint himself, we can make all other authorities subservient to that ideal which is revealed in his autobiography, which is at once a record of his external actions and a revelation of his interior spirit. At the same time, so far from discrediting the ancient lives of the Saint, this plan invests them with a.n authority which, stand- ing alone, they have hitherto failed in vindicating PREFACE. xi for themselves. The Ada of St. Patrick, collected and religiously preserved in the Trias Thauma- turga of the learned Franciscan Fr. Colgan, are little more than the scattered members of the Saint's extraordinary history. For more than two centuries the literary skill of many learned writers has been brought to bear upon them, but the general impression is that the result has not been satisfactory. We need a guide and an interpreter in studying the mysteries of St. Patrick's life, and that guide and interpreter can be no other than himself. Hypothesis, invention, rhetoric, and that criticism which professes to make a science out of uncertainties have done their best and failed ; it is time that they should stand aside and allow the Saint to speak for himself, and if many things in St. Patrick's writings turn out to be beyond our comprehension, it will be both easier and more instructive to endure the mystery than to accept the assumptions of writers who would have us believe that St. Patrick's science never rose to any level higher than their own. It is only fair to warn the reader that, as far as the following pages are concerned, the mystery of St. Patrick's birthplace still remains a mystery. Boulogne, Tours, Dumbarton, Kilpatrick, Baunave, xii PREPACE. Bristol, Paisley, Cornwall, Glastonbury, Eosnatt Valley, Perpediac, Carlisle, Carleon, and Bath still contend for the distinction, like the seven rival cities which laid claim to Homer. These widely distant and distracting national claims are, indeed, an honourable evidence of the way in which St. Patrick has taken root, and been domesticated in lands but for his own many ; part, the writer confesses that he has never felt any special inclination to embark in the controversy.