COLL CHRIST! BIB. mm ST. PATRICK r? HIS LIFE, HIS HEROIC VIRTUES, HI LABOURS, AND THE FRUITS OF P^ HIS LABOURS BY VERY REV. DEAN KINANE, P.P., V.G. CASHEL Authorof TheDorfofthe Tabernacle;" "Tht Anael of the Altar* "Mary Immaculate, Mother of God; "St. Joseph, his Life, his Virtue ~ O \ his etc. Power," ^ HIS GRACE THE MOST Pu.v. &1. ARCHBISHOP OF CASHEL AND EMLY TWELFTH EDITION BURNS GATES 4& WASHBOURNEWASH LTD. LONDON 28, ORCHARD STREET, 8-10, PATERNOSTER ROW W. 1 E.G. 4 AND AT MANCHESTER, BIKillNGHAH, AND GLASGOW ^920 All rights reserved. GULIELMUS DELANY, S.J., CENSOR THEOLOG. DEPUS. ifc GULIELMUS J. WALSH, ARCHIEPISCOPUS DUBLINENSIS, HIBERNIJS PRIMAS. % THOMAS W. CROKE, ARCHIEPISCOPUS CASSLIENSM. JH THE SAME AUTHOR THE DOVE OF THE TABERNACLE; or the Love of Jesus in the Most Holy Eucharist. (32nd Edition.) THE ANGEL OF THE ALTAR; or the Love of the Most Adorable Heart of Jesus. (18th Edition.) MARY IMMACULATE, MOTHER OF GOD ; or, Devotions in Honour of the Blessed Virgin Mary. (15th Edition.) THE LAMB OF GOD ; or, Reflections on the Life of Our Divine Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, (llth Edition.) JT. JOSEPH. His Life, his Virtues, his Pri vileges, his Power. A Month of March in his Honour (9th Edition). All the above work* have been reprinted in America and translated into French, German, and Italian. The " " Dove is also translated into Spanish. DEDICATION. To St. Patrick, a model of resignation to God s holy will, for six years a captive slave, under a cruel master, on the hills of Antrim ; To St. Patrick, obedient to the call of God, " the voice of the Irish," to evangelize the Irish nation ; To St. Patrick, absorbed for years in and "the prayer study, science of the Saints," in the great schools on the Continent, pre for his mission paring heavenly ; To St. Patrick, sent by Pope St. Celestine, the Vicar of Jesus Christ, to spread the light of the to the Irish Gospel nation ; To St. Patrick, the perfect model of the most exalted of and spirit prayer penance ; To St. Patrick, whose firm faith, was like St. Peter s, and whose burning zeal was like St. Paul s ; To St. Patrick, whose unique privilege was, that alone and single-handed, he converted a whole nation, not only to Christianity, but to the highest practices of the Evangelical counsels fv Dedication. To St. Patrick, who watched over and pre served the purity of the faith of the Irish race, at home and abroad ; To St. Patrick, the glorious and ever- beloved of Ireland Apostle ; On our own, and on behalf of our dear race at seas home and beyond the ; In thanksgiving for all graces received through his intercession ; In reparation for all sins committed, and graces abused; In petition for the preservation of the purity of faith and morals until the Day of Judgment; This little book is most humbly, most reve rentially, and most affectionately dedicated. PREFACE " " needs no bush GOOD WINE/ they say, ;" and a life of the great Apostle of Ireland, from the pen of Dean Kinane of Cashcl, may well pass into the hands of the Irish Catholic public, without a word of praise or of preface from me. Like all the other works that have emanated from the same source, it is char acterised by two most remarkable features, and possesses them in a very eminent degree. That is to say, it is full to overflowing of instructive matter lucidly arranged, and it breathes forth a spirit of what may be iptly styled irrepressible piety and prayer- fulness throughout every paragraph, and, indeed, every line. One has but to run his eye over the headings of the chapters, and the various subsections into which the book vi Preface. is divided, to satisfy himself abundantly that such is in reality the case. But, at the same time, no analysis at all compressible into the short space at my dis posal, could give anything like an adequate idea of its singularly varied and edifying contents. Opening with the well-known words of the Psalmist " Wonderful is God in his Saints" it proceeds to illustrate the sacred text, by describing the glories of our Blessed Lady, and the exalted goodness of her holy St. and on in spouse Joseph ; passing then, due course, to St. Patrick, whose striking personality it is specially meant to portray, it deals exhaustively with his life, his labours, his travels, his heroic virtues, his exception ally fruitful mission, the persecution of his spiritual children, both by Bane and Saxon, their unbroken fidelity, and their present thorough devotedness to every interest of the Church. In bulk and form, the "Life of St. Preface. vii " Patrick is like the other well-known books that from time to time have been published the by Dean. The letterpress is good, the paper excellent, the style pleasing, without and I shall be being pretentious ; greatly mistaken, indeed, if this, the latest, but I trust not the last production of the pious author s be not as pen, popular, ere long, md as widely circulated as any work of his that has preceded it. ^T. W. CROKE, Archbishop of Cashel. < HE PALACE, THURLES, Feast of Our Lady of Good Counsel, 1888. CONTENTS. PAiSP CHAPTER I. The Saints . ] SECTION I. The Bleased Virgin Mary . .2 SECTION II. St. Joseph ... .4 SECTION III. St. Patrick. 9 Pious Reflection, Resolutions . .16 Prayer of St. Bernard . .18 CHAPTER II. SECTION I. The birthplace of St. Patrick . .19 SECTION II. St. Patrick s Parents and Nationality . .31 SECTION III. Miracles narrated in the Life of St. Patrick . 33 SECTION IV. St. Patrick s Birth and Baptism . 40 x Contents. SECTION V. PAGE St. Patrick s Captivity St. Patrick is taken cap tive at the age of sixteen . 45 SECTION VI. St. Patrick s Six Years Captivity in Ireland SECTION VII. St. Patrick escapes from Captivity, and returns to his native country . .53 Pious Reflections . .59 Resolutions . .60 CHAPTER III. SECTION I. The holy youth, Patrick, is called by God to be the Apostle of the Irish Nation . 62 SECTION II. St. Patrick prepares for his Mission of the Apostle of Ireland, and studies to become a Priest . 66 SECTION III. St. Patrick accompanies St. Cermanus to Britain, to combat the Pelagian heresy . 70 SECTION IV. Pope St. Celestine sends St. Palladius to evange lize the Irish Nation . .72 SECTION V. St Patrick receives his Mission, and is sent by Pope St. Celestine, Vicar of Jesus Christ, to evangelize the Irish Nation . 75 SECTION VI. 3k. Patrick was consecrated Bishop at Eboria, now called Ivrea, a spwdl town at the foot of the Alps in Italy, by St. M&ximus, Bishop of - ,80 Contents. 3L1 SECTION VII. St. Patrick lands in Ireland . .85 SECTION VIII. St. Patrick tries, but fails, to convert Milcho, his former cruel Master . .88 SECTION IX. St. Patrick returns to Strangford Lou<;h, Co. Down, the territory of his first faithful convert, Dicho, Evangelizes and Baptizes the whole population of the district .. 90 The Beloved Disciple, St. Benignus .02 SECTION X. St. Patrick meets King Laeghaire, his Chieftains and Druids at Slane, and confounds the magicians. St. Patrick and his companions are miraculously protected at Slane and on their way to Tara. The famous prayer "St. Patrick s "Lorica," or, Breastplate" , 94 SECTION XI. St. Patrick at Tara announces the Gospel before King Laeghaire ; miracles, conversion of Princes, Chieftains, Druids, and people . ] 03 The Staff of Jesus . .103 SECTION XII. St Patrick Preaches and Baptizes all the people *t Teltown, Co. Meath, on Easter Monday. 112 SECTION XIII. " St. Patrick with the Staff of Jesus" destroys the great pagan idol. Crom Cruach, and twelve other idols, in the Plain of Adorations or genuflections, in the County Cavan . Hi xii Contents. PAOB SECTION XIV. St. Patrick evangelized Connanght ; the baptism at the fountain of the two princesses, of his visit daughters King Laeghaire ; to the forest of Fochlut ; restores to life the Princess Feidelm . .116 SECTION XV. St. Patrick fasts for forty days and forty nights ot Lent on Croagh Phadriue, or Patrick s Hill in Co. Mayo. The exquisite dialogue with the his Angel ; extraordinary demands in favour of the salvation of the Irish race the granted by Almighty God . 124 Pious Reflections .... 131 Resolutions . .133 St. Prayer of Ignatius . 134 of St. Aspirations Ignatius . .135 Morning Salutations to the Sacred Heart of Jesus irom St. Gertrude . .135 CHAPTER IV. St. Patrick evangelizes Munster . 135 SECTION I. St. Patrick preaches at Cash el, baptizes Prince Aengus, Bards, and Druids, and all the natives .... 137 SECTION II. St. Patrick leaven Cashel and ; preaches and bap tizes at Kilfeacle, Cullen, Kilteely, aud Pallas-Green .... 140 SECTION III. p St. atrick goes to Limerick. The miraculous Jure at SanguL Patrick s Wei], Garryowea . 143 Contents. SECTION IV. Our Apostle at St. Patrick s Well, Garryowen, converts the natives of Desmond, enters the Co. Waterford, evangelizes the people of Desi on the banks of the Suir, enters Tip- perary a second time, and gives his parting blessing to the men of Munster . 145 The Martyrdom of St. Odran, St. Patrick s chariot for the eer ; the first who shed his blood faith in Erin . .148 SECTION V. The extraordinary conversion of the wicked man, MacCuil in Ulster, afterwards Bishop and Apostle of the Isle of Man. Graphic narra . 151 tive from the Book of Armagh .