translated by Ludwig Bieler
Electronic edition compiled by Liam Costello
Funded by University College, Cork, School of History
1. First draft.
Extent of text: 13590 words
Distributed by CELT online at University College, Cork, Ireland.
Text ID Number: T201045
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This text was digitized and made available online as part of a work placement for the MA in Medieval History. The Latin text is available online, with many other resources, at the RIA's Confessio Hypertext Stack Project (https://www.confessio.ie/more/muirchu_latin#).
CELT: Corpus of Electronic Texts
The present text represents pages 63123 of the volume. All editorial introduction, notes and indexes have been omitted.
The text has been checked and proofread twice.
The electronic texts represents the edited text.
Quotation marks are rendered q.
The hyphenation is that of the edition.
div0=the Saint's life; div1=the book; div2=the chapter; page-breaks are marked. Paragraphs are marked. Passages in verse are marked. The story was reconstructed by Bieleer from the three manuscripts into chapters 1-22 of Book 1. Manuscripts B and C start a second Book containing according to Bieler, 'a series of disconnected single stories'; the first three not being in A (7).
Names of persons and place names are not tagged. Numbers and dates are not marked. The sentences within each paragraph were numbered by the editor.
This text uses the DIV2 element to represent the Chapter.
Created: Translation by Ludwig Bieler. (1979)
Beatrix Färber (ed.)
M. Krasnodebska-D'Aughton (ed.)
Liam Costello (ed.)
Beatrix Färber (ed.)
Liam Costello (ed.)
Liam Costello (text capture)
(1) Considering, my Lord Áed, that many have attempted to write this story coherently according to the traditions of their fathers and of those who were ministers of the Word from the beginning, but that the great difficulties which the telling of the story presents, and the conflicting opinions and many doubts voiced by many a person have prevented them from ever arriving at one undisputed sequence of events, (2) I might well say that, like boys making their first appearance in the assembly (to quote a familiar saying of ours), I have taken my little talent a boy's paddle-boat, as it were out on this deep and perilous sea of sacred narrative, where waves boldly swell to towering heights among rocky reefs in unknown waters, (a sea) on which so far no boat has ventured except the one of my (spiritual) father Cogitosus. (3) However, far from giving the impression that I want to make something big out of something small, I shall (merely) attempt to set forth, bit by bit and step by step, these few of the numerous deeds of holy Patrick, with little knowledge (of traditional lore), on uncertain authority, from an unreliable memory, feebly and in poor style, but with the pious affection of holy love, in obedience to the command of your sanctity and authority. In the name of the king of heaven, the redeemer of this world.
(1) Time, place, and person are demanded. The name of the place is Caesarea of Cappadocia, which was formerly called Masadra. (2) The time is that of Valentinian and Valens, who reigned seventeen years, at the age of the world (of) five thousand one hundred and seventy-five (years). (3) From the passion of our Lord Jesus Christ one reckons 436 years to the obit of Patrick. (4) The person: Basil, (which is) melchus in Hebrew, basilius in Greek, rex in Latin. Basilius, that is, a (petty) king; basilica, that is, a royal dwelling; basilicum, that is, royal; basilium (?), that is, kingdom. (5) And he wrote all his works in the Greek language; the priest Rufinus, master of both languages, who had been brought up in Caesarea although he was a Latin, translated his works into Latin. (6) I have found four names of Patrick in a book in the possession of Ultan, bishop of Connor: Holy Magonus, that is: famous; Succet.. . that is: Patricius 1 Cothirthiacus, because he served four households of druids; and one of them bought him, whose name was Miluch moccu Boin, the druid, and he (Patrick) served him for seven years. (7) Patrick son of (C)alforni(us) had four names: Sochet when he was born, Cothriche when he was a slave, Mauonius when he studied, Patrick when he was consecrated.
These few details concerning the tradition of holy Patrick and his miracles Muirchu moccu Machtheni has written at the request of Áed bishop of the see of Sléibte.
(1) Patrick, also named Sochet, a Briton by race, was born in Britain. His father was Cualfarnius, a deacon, the son (as Patrick himself says) of a priest, Potitus, who hailed from Bannavem Thaburniae, a place not far from our sea. This place, as I am informed beyond hesitation or doubt, is (now) Ventre 2. His mother's name was Concessa. (2) As a boy of sixteen he was taken captive together with others, was brought to this barbarian island, and was held in servitude by a harsh pagan king. (3) He served him for six years, as is the Hebrew law, with fear of God and trembling (in the words of the Psalmist), with many vigils and prayers he would pray a hundred times during the day and a hundred times during the night giving gladly to God what is God's and to Caesar what is Caesar's, and beginning to fear God and love the almighty Lord; for until then he had not known the true God, but now the spirit in him was fervent. (4) After many hardships
I 2. (1) Having been at sea with (these) wicked people for three days and as many nights, rather like Jonas, he afterwards tramped for twenty-eight days through desert, as did Moses, although in a different sense. Compelled by the pagans, who grumbled, as the Jews had done, because they were worn out almost to the point of exhaustion by hunger and thirst, challenged by the captain and asked to pray to his god for them to save them from death, moved by their plight, pitying the crowd, suffering (with them) in spirit, crowned with merit, glorified by God, he secured for them plenty to eat with the help of God, (who) sent him a herd of pigs as he had sent (the Jews) a flight of quails. (2) They also came across wild honey, as did John in his time, butas was befitting the wicked pagansthey got pork meat instead of locusts. He [holy Patrick], however, tasted none of that foodfor it had been offered in sacrificeand he remained unscathed, feeling neither hunger nor thirst. (3) In that same night Satan attacked him vigorously in his sleep, as if burying him under huge rocks and crushing his limbs, but he invoked Elijah twice and at once the sun rose for him and its brightness dispelled all the shadows of darkness, and his strength was restored to him.
And again, after many years, he was taken captive by strangers. There on the first night he was granted to hear a divine message saying
I 4. And again, after a few years, he stayed, as before, happily in his own country with his relatives, who received him as their son and urged him never again to go away from them after so many trials and hardships. He, however, did not consent, and there he saw many visions. lI 5 . (1) At that time he was already approaching the age of thirty, reaching, according to the Apostle, perfect manhood, the full maturity of the age of Christ. (2) He set out to visit and honour the apostolic see, the head, that is, of all the churches in the whole world, in order to learn and understand and practise divine wisdom and the holy mysteries to which God had called him, and in order to preach and bring divine grace to the peoples beyond the Empire, converting them to belief in Christ.
I 6 (5). (1) So he crossed the sea to the south of Britain and began to travel through Gaul, with the ultimate goal, as was his ardent wish, to cross the Alps (and to proceed to Rome). But on his way he found a very holy man of approved faith and doctrine, bishop of the city of Auxerre, leader of almost all Gaul, the great lord Germanus.3 (2) With him he stayed for a considerable time, as Paul sat at the feet of Gamaliel, and I there, in perfect subjection, patience, and obedience, he learned, loved, and practised knowledge, wisdom, chastity, and every good disposition of spirit and soul, as was his heart's desire, with great fear and love of God, in goodness and simplicity of heart, a virgin in body and in spirit.
I 7 (6). After he had spent a long time theresome say forty years,
I 8 (7). (1) Now that the right moment had come he set out, with God's help for the work for which he had prepared himself all that time, that is, the work of the Gospel. And Germanus sent with him a senior, the priest Segitius, so as to have as companion a witness, because until then he had not yet been consecrated a bishop by the holy lord Germanus. (2) They knew for certain that Palladius, archdeacon of Pope Celestine, the bishop of Rome, who was then occupying the apostolic see as the forty-fifth successor of St. Peter the apostle, had been consecrated and sent to this island in the cold north in order to convert it. (3) But he was prevented from doing so (by the fact that) nobody can receive anything from the earth unless it be given him from heaven. Neither were these wild and harsh men inclined to accept his teaching nor did he himself wish to spend a long time in a foreign country, but (decided to) return to him who had sent him. On his way back from here, having crossed the first sea and begun his journey by land, he ended his life in the territory of the Britons.
I 9 (8). (1) On receiving the news of the death in Britain of holy Palladiusthe disciples of Palladius, Augustine, Benedict, and others, on their way home had reported his decease at EbmoriaPatrick and
I 10 (9). (1) In the days when this took place there was in those parts a great king, a fierce pagan, an emperor of non-Romans, with his royal seat at Tara, which was then the capital of the realm of the Irish, by name Loíguire son of Níall, a scion of the family that held the kingship of almost the entire island. (2) He had around him sages and druids, fortune-tellers and sorcerers, and the inventors of every evil craft, who, according to the custom of paganism and idolatry, were able to know and foresee everything before it happened. (3) There were two of these whom he preferred above all the others, whose names are these: Lothroch, also called Lochru, and Lucet Mael, also called Ronal; (4) and these two, by their magical art, prophesied frequently that a foreign
(7) In our own language all this can be expressed more clearly. When all this happens (the druids would say) our kingdom, which is a pagan one, will fall. And so it happened afterwards: when Patrick came the worship of idols was abolished and the catholic Christian faith spread over our whole country. Enough of this; let us return to our subject.
- There shall arrive Shaven-head,
with his stick bent in the head,
from his house with a hole in its head
he will chant impiety
from his table in the front of his house;
all his people will answer Be it thus, be it thus.
I 11 (10). (i) At the end and termination of the holy voyage the boat of the holy man, laden with marvels from across the sea and with spiritual treasures, reached a convenient port in the district of Cúalu, a well-known harbour of ours called Inber Dee. (2) There it seemed to him
I 12 (11). (1) When Miliucc heard that his slave was about to come and see him, in order to make him accept, forcibly as it were, a way of life against his will at the end of his days, for fear he might be subject to his slave and the latter might become his master, the devil put it into his mind to seek death of his own free will in fire. He gathered all his wealth together in the palace where until then he had lived as king, and burnt himself along with it. (2) Holy Patrick, standing in the said place on the right flank of Sliab Miss, from which, on his return full of grace, he had the first view of the district where he had lived as a slaveto the present day a cross stands there to mark (the spot of) his first view of that districthe at once saw, right under his eyes, the pyre of the king. (3) Stunned by this sight, (he stood there) for two or three hours without uttering a word, sighing and mourning and weeping, and then spoke these words:I know not, God knows, this man and king, who chose to burn himself in fire rather than believe at the end of his life and serve eternal God, I know not, God knows, none of his sons shall sit on his throne as king of his kingdom in generations to come; what is more, his line shall be subordinate for ever. (4) Having said this, he prayed, armed himself with the sign of the cross, turned round at once and went back to the territory of the Ulaid by the same way that he had come. He returned to Mag Inis, to Díchu, stayed there for many days and travelled around the whole plain. He favoured and loved the district, and the faith began to spread there.
II 15 (13). (1) Let our account return to what has been said above. An angel used to come to him regularly on the seventh day of every week, and as one man talks to another so Patrick enjoyed the angel's
(3) One day, when tending swine, he lost them and the angel came to him and showed him where the swine were. One day after the same angel had talked to him about many things he placed his foot on the rock of Scirit opposite Sliab Miss and ascended in his presence, and the footprint of the angel can be seen in the rock to the present day. (4)And it is that place where (the angel) had spoken with him thirty times, and that place is a place of prayer, and there the faithful obtain most happily the things for which they pray.
I 13 (12 ) (1) In those days Easter was approaching, the first Easter to be offered to God in the Egypt of this our island as it once was (offered), as we read in Genesis, in Gessen; and they took counsel where they should celebrate this first Easter among the pagans to whom God had sent him, (2) and after many proposals had been made in this matter, at last holy Patrick, divinely inspired, decided that this great feast of the Lord, being the principal feast of all, should be celebrated in the great plain of Brega, because it was there that there was the greatest kingdom among these tribes, the head of all paganism and idolatry; (3) there, in the words of the Psalmist, he would smash the head of the dragon, and for the first time an irresistible wedge would be driven into the head of all idolatry with the hammer of brave action joined to faith
I 14 (13). (1) They set their ship afloat, left that good man, Díchu, behind in perfect faith and peace, sailed from Mag Iniswith the coast now, in the fullness of ministry, on their right hand, having had it quite aptly on their left hand beforeand after a good and calm voyage they landed at Inber Colpdi. (2) There they left their boat and went by foot to that great plain. In the evening they at last arrived at the burial place of (i.e. constructed by) the men of Fíacc, which, as stories tell us, the men (that is, the servants) of Fíacc had dugsays Ferchertne, who was one of the nine druid-prophets of Brega. (3) There they pitched their tent, and then Patrick with his companions duly offered Easter to God in heaven with great spiritual devotion, a sacrifice of praise, as the prophet says.
I 15 (14). (1) It so happened in that year that a feast of pagan worship was being held, which the pagans used to celebrate with many incantations and magic rites and other superstitious acts of idolatry. (2) There assembled the kings, satraps, leaders, princes and the nobles of the people; furthermore, the druids, the fortune-tellers, and the inventors and teachers of every craft and every skill were also summoned to king Loíguire at Tara, their Babylon, as they had been summoned at one time to Nabuchodonosor, and they held and celebrated their pagan feast on the same night on which holy Patrick celebrated Easter. (3) They also had a custom, which was announced to all publicly, that whosoever, in any district, whether far or near, should have lit a fire on that night before it was lit in the king's house, that is, in the palace of Tara, would have forfeited his life. (4) Holy Patrick, then, celebrating Holy Easter,
(5) Thus the fire from his tent happened to be seen at Tara, and as they saw it they all gazed at it and wondered. And the king called together the elders and said to them: Who is the man who has dared to do such a wicked thing in my kingdom? He shall die. They all replied that they did not know who had done it, but the druids answered: King, may you live for ever! Unless this fire which we see, and which has been lit on this night before the (fire) was lit in your house, is extinguished on this same night on which it has been lit, it will never be extinguished at all; (6) it will even rise above all the fires of our customs, and he who has kindled it and the kingdom that has been brought upon us by him who has kindled it on this night will overpower us all and you, and will seduce all the people of your kingdom, and all kingdoms will yield to it, and it will spread over the whole country and will reign in all eternity.
I 16 (15) (I) When the king heard this he was greatly alarmed, as once was Herod, and all Tara (was alarmed) with him. And the king answered and said: It will not be so, but we shall go and see what is going on, and restrain and kill those who are doing such a wicked thing against our kingdom. (2) Loíguire ordered thrice nine chariots to be equipped, according to the tradition which they had received from their gods, took with him the two druids who were most powerful of all in a contest, that is, Lucet Máel and Lochru, and towards the end of that night went out from Tara to the burial place of the men of Fíacc; they turned the faces of the men and horses to the left, as was befitting them. (3) As they went along, the druids said to the king: King, do not
I 17 (16). (1) And holy Patrick was summoned to the presence of the king outside the illumined place, and the druids said to their people: 'Let us not rise when he comes, for whosoever rises at his coming will believe afterwards and reverence him.' (2) When Patrick rose and saw the great number of their chariots and horses, he fittingly recited with his lips and his heart the verse of the Psalmist: Let others (come) on chariots and on horseback, we shall go our way in the name of the Lord our God, and went to them. (3) They did not rise at his coming; there was only one man who, with the help of the Lord, refused to obey the command of the druids, that is Ercc, son of Daig, whose relics are now worshipped in the city called Slane. He stood up, and Patrick blessed him, and he believed in the eternal God. (4) Then they began their dispute, and one of the druids named Lochru provoked the holy man and dared to revile the catholic faith with haughty words.
(5) Holy Patrick looked at him as he uttered such words and, as Peter had said concerning Simon, so with power and with a loud voice he confidently said to the Lord: O Lord, who art all-powerful and in whose power is everything, who hast sent me here, may this impious man, who blasphemes thy name, now be cast out and quickly perish. (6) And at these
I 18 (17). (1) The king with his companions was furious with Patrick over this incident and he tried to kill him and said: Lay hands on this fellow who is about to ruin us. (2) When holy Patrick saw that the pagans were on the point of attacking him he rose and said with a loud voice: May God bestir Himself, and may His enemies be routed and His illwishers flee before His face. (3) And at once darkness set in, and there was a dreadful uproar and the infidels fought among themselves, one rising up against the other, and there was a big earthquake which caused the axles of their chariots to collide with each other, and drove them violently forward so that chariots and horses rushed headlong over the plain until, in the end, a few of them escaped barely alive to Mons Monduirn, (4) and by this disaster seven times seven men perished through the curse of Patrick before the eyes of the king as a punishment for his words, until there remained only he himself and three other survivors, that is, he and his queen, and two of the Irish, and they were in great fear. (5) And the queen went to Patrick and said to him: O just and powerful man, do not bring death upon the king! For the king will come and bend his knees and adore your lord. (6) And the king came, impelled by fear, and bent his knees before the holy man, and pretended to do him reverence though he did not mean it; and after they had parted and the king had gone a short distance away, he called holy Patrick with false words, wishing to kill him by any means. (7) Patrick, however, knew the wicked thoughts of the wicked king. He blessed his companions, eight men with a boy, in the name of Jesus Christ, and started on his way to the king, and the king counted them as they went along, and suddenly they disappeared from the king's eyes; (8) instead, the pagans merely saw eight deer with a fawn going, as it were, into the wilds. And king Loíguire, sad, frightened, and in great shame, went back to Tara at dawn with the few who had escaped.
I 19 (18). (1) On the following day, that is Easter Day, when the kings and princes and druids were at table with Loíguirefor this was their greatest feast dayeating and drinking wine in the palace of Tara, some of them talking, and others thinking about the things that had happened, (2) holy Patrick with only five companions entered through closed doors, as we read about Christ, in order to vindicate and to preach the holy faith at Tara before all the nations. (3) As he entered the banquet hall of Tara, none of them all rose in order to welcome him, except one man only, Dubthach maccu Lugir, an excellent poet. With him was then in that place a young poet named Fíacc, who afterwards became a renowned bishop, whose relics are worshipped in Sléibte. (4)This Dubthach, as I have said, alone among the pagans rose in honour of holy Patrick, and the holy man blessed him, and he was the first on that day to believe in God, and it was counted to him for righteousness. (5) When the pagans had perceived Patrick they asked him to eat with them in order to put him to the test as I shall relate. He, however, knowing what was to come, did not refuse to eat.
I 20 (19). (1) Now, while they were all eating, the druid Lucet Máel, who had taken part in the conflict on the previous night, was anxious even on that day, now that his colleague had perished, to fight against holy Patrick, and as a start he put a drop (of poison) from his cup into the goblet of Patrick while the others looked on in order to find out what (Patrick) would do. (2) When holy Patrick saw the kind of test to which he was being subjected, he blessed his goblet in the sight of all and the liquor froze like ice; then he turned his goblet upside down, and only the drop which the druid had added fell out. And he blessed the goblet again: the liquor resumed its natural state, and they all were
I 21 (20). (1) King Loíguire summoned his elders and his whole council and said to them: It is better for me to believe than to die, and having held counsel, acting on the advice of his followers, he believed on that day and became converted to the Lord the eternal God, and
I 22 (21). Holy Patrick, however, following the command of the Lord Jesus, left Tara, going forth and teaching all peoples and baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, and preached everywhere, the Lord working with him and confirming his word by the miracles which followed.
I 27 (26) = B II 1. I shall therefore attempt, the Lord willing, to relate a few of the many miracles of Patrick, the bishop of all Ireland, if I may say so, and her illustrious teacher.
At a time, then, when all Britain was still frozen in the cold of unbelief, the illustrious daughter of some kingher name was Monesanwas full of the Holy Spirit. Assisted by Him, although many desired to marry her, she accepted no proposal. Not even when floods of water were frequently poured over her could she be forced to do what she did not want and what was less valuable. (3) When, in between beatings and soakings with water, she was insistently urged (to do so) she kept asking her mother and her nurse whether they knew the maker of the wheel by which the world is illumined, and when she received the answer that the maker of the sun was he whose throne was in heaven, she, frequently urged to enter into the bond of marriage, said, enlightened by the luminous counsel of the Holy Spirit: I shall never do that. (4) For through nature she searched the maker of all that is created, following in this the example of Abraham the patriarch. (5) Her parents, deliberating in their great sorrow, on hearing that Patrick, a just man, was visited by eternal God every seventh day, went with their daughter to Ireland and after such a great effort met Patrick. He asked his visitors why they had come. (6) Then the travellers told him in excited tones:
I 29 (28) = B II 2. (1) I shall not pass over in silence a miraculous deed of Patrick's. News had been brought to him of a wicked act by a certain British king named Corictic, an ill-natured and cruel ruler. (2) He had no equal as a persecutor and murderer of Christians. Patrick tried to call him back to the way of truth by a letter, but he scorned his salutary exhortations. (3) When this was reported to Patrick, he prayed to the Lord and said: My God, if it is possible, expel this godless man from this world and from the next. (4) Not much time had elapsed after this when (Corictic) heard somebody recite a poem saying that he should abandon his royal seat, and all the men who were dearest to him chimed in. (5) Suddenly before their eyes, in the middle of a public place, he was ignomiously changed into a fox, went off, and since that day and hour, like water that flows away, was never seen again.
I 28 (27) = B II 3. (1) I shall briefly relate a miracle of the godly and apostolic man Patrick, of whom we are speaking, (something) that miraculously happened to him when he was still in the flesh; this, as far as I know, has been written about him and Stephen only. (2) At one time when he was in his usual place to pray during the night, he beheld the wonders of heaven, familiar to him, and wishing to test his beloved and faithful holy boy, he said to him: Please, tell me, my son, whether you experience what I experience. (3) Then the small boy, named Benignus, said without hesitation: I know already what you are
I 23 (22) = B II 4. (1) There was a man in the territory of the Ulaid in Patrick's time, Macc Cuill moccu Greccae. He was a fierce and wicked ruler, so much so that he was (sur)named Cyclops. (2) His thoughts were evil, his words haughty, his deeds wicked, his spirit bitter, his temper angry, his body given to sin, his mind cruel, his life pagan, his conscience vain. (3) In his godlessness he had sunk so low that one day, as he sat in a wild place high up in the hills, in Druim moccu Echach, where this bandit daily exercised his harsh rule, wearing emblems of the most wicked cruelty and cruelly killing wayfarers as they passed by, (4) he saw Patrick coming along, shining with the bright light of faith and, as it were, the wondrous diadem of heavenly glory, making his way towards his destination with unshaken confidence in his teaching. (Macc Cuill) thought of killing him and said to his followers: (5) Look, here comes the man who seduces and perverts people, who is in the habit of performing tricks in order to deceive people and to seduce many. Let us go and set a trap for him to find out whether that god in whom he glories has any power. (6) So they set a trap for the holy man in this way: They made one of their company, who was in perfect health, lie down in their midst, covered with a cloak and pretending to be mortally ill, with the intention of testing the holy
(16) And Macc Cuill said: I will do as you have told me. But
I 25 (23) = B II 5. (1) Once on a Sunday holy Patrick, resting above the seashore beside a marsh which is a short distance to the north of Druimm Bo, heard a loud noise of pagans working on Sunday and digging the moat of a rath. (2) Patrick sent for them and forbade them to work on Sunday. They, however, did not heed the words of the holy man, but even laughed at him and jeered. (3) And holy Patrick said: Mudebroth, in spite of all your labour you shall achieve nothing. And so it happened. The following night there came a heavy storm and stirred up the sea, and the storm destroyed all that the pagans had done, as the man of God had said.
I 24 = B II 6. (1) There was a wealthy and honoured man in the territory of Airther, whose name was Dáire. Holy Patrick asked him to give him a place wherein to worship, and the wealthy man said to the holy man: Which place do you want? (2) I am asking, the holy man said, to be given that hill which is called Druim(m) Sailech, and that I may settle there. He, however, did not want to give the holy man that lofty place, but gave him another place, lower down, where there is now the Burial-Ground of the Martyrs beside Armagh, and there holy Patrick lived with his followers. (3) After some time a groom of Dáire's came with his master's horse to let it graze in the meadow of the Christians, and Patrick was offended by the release of the horse in his place, and said: Dáire has behaved foolishly in sending brute animals to disturb the small place which he has given to God. (4) The groom, however, listened as little as if he were deaf, and like one who is dumb he did not open his mouth to speak, but left the horse there over night and went away. (5) Next day in the morning the groom came to look after the horse and by that time found it dead. He went home sadly and said to his master: Look, that Christian has killed your horse because it displeased him that his place was disturbed, and Dáire said: He also shall be killed. Go ye now and kill him. (6) The very moment his men went out sudden death struck Dáire, and his wife said: This death is because of the Christian. Let somebody go at once and bring us his favours, and you will be well; and let those who have gone out to kill the Christian be stopped and told to return. (7) Two men, then, went out and said to him, concealing from him what had actually happened: Look, Dáire has fallen ill. Give us something to bring him by which
I 26 (25). (1) Knowledgeable men tell us that there lived in Mag Inis a hard and greedy man, who in his folly pushed his avarice so far that, when one day the two oxen drawing Patrick's cart after their holy toil rested and grazed in his field, this vain man brutally and forcibly drove them away in the presence of holy Patrick. (2) Holy Patrick grew angry with him and said with a curse: Mudebrod, you have done wrong. May this your field here never again yield profit either to you or to your descendants; from now on it will be useless. (3) And so it happened. On the same day a vast flood of the sea submerged and covered the whole field and, as the prophet says, fertile land was turned into marsh because of the wickedness of those who dwelled there. It has remained sandy and barren from the day when holy Patrick cursed it to the present day.
II 1. Concerning his assiduity in prayer, we shall attempt to write down a few of many things we might tell. He used to recite daily all the psalms and hymns and the Revelation of John and all the spiritual canticles of the Scriptures, whether he was staying in one place or travelling. He also signed himself with the victorious sign of the cross a hundred times at every hour of day and night, and wherever he saw a cross he would descend from his chariot and go out of his way to pray before it.
II 2. (1) One day, then, when he was on a journey, he passed a cross by the wayside which he did not see. His charioteer, however, had seen it, and when they came to some guest-house for which they had been making and had begun to pray before their meal the charioteer said: I saw a cross beside the way we have come. (2) (Patrick), however, left the inn and went back the way they had come and prayed (before the cross); and there he saw a tomb, and he asked the dead man who had been buried there what sort of death he had died and whether he had lived under the faith. (3) The dead man answered: I was a pagan in life, and I was buried here. There was also a woman who lived in another province, and she had a son who died far away from her, and was buried in her absence, but after some days the mother came here in mourning, keening for the son she had lost, and in her distracted state of mind she mistook a pagan's tomb for the grave of her son and placed a cross beside a pagan. (4) It was for this reason, Patrick said, that he had not seen the cross because it stood on the burial site of a pagan. All the more, his miraculous power was exalted in that a dead man spoke, and he who had died in the faith was made known and the meritorious sign of the blessed cross was transferred to its proper place beside him.
II 3. (1) Patrick had made it a habit not to travel from the evening of the Lord's night (i.e. Saturday night) until Monday morning. Once on a Sunday, when he was spending the night in a field in honour of the holy day, heavy rain and storm set in. But while the heavy rain raged in the whole country, the place where the holy bishop spent the night was dry, as had happened (in the story of) the shell and fleece of Gideon.
(2) (Patrick's) charioteer came to him and told him he had lost his horses and lamented for them as he would lament for dear friends,
II 4. When, after so many miracles which have been written down elsewhere and which the world celebrates in pious language, the day of his death was approaching, an angel came to him about his death. He therefore sent word to Armagh, the place he loved more than any other, with orders that a number of men should come for him and bring him to the place where he wished to go. Then, with his companions, he began to make his way towards Armagh, his beloved place, as he had wished.
II 5. (1) Beside the road, however, a bush was ablaze, but it did not burn down, as had happened to Moses before. In the bush was the angel Victor, who often used to visit Patrick, and Victor sent another angel to Patrick to stop him from going where he wanted to go, and he said to him: Why do you go on a journey without Victor's counsel? Therefore Victor calls you. Change your route and go to him. (2) And he changed his route as he had been told and asked what he should do. And the angel answered and said: Return to the place from which you come (that is, to Saul), and the four requests you have made are granted to you.
(II 6 (5).) (1) The first request: that your pre-eminence shall be in Armagh. The second request: that whoever on the day of his separation from the body recites the hymn that has been composed about you will be judged by you as regards the penance for his sins. (2) The third request: that the descendants of Díchu, who kindly received you, shall find mercy and shall not perish. (3) The fourth request: that all the Irish on the day of judgement shall be judged by you (as is said to the apostles: And you shall sit and judge the twelve tribes of Israel), so that you may judge those whose apostle you have been.
(II 7 (6) Return therefore as I tell you, and you will die and go the way of your
II 8 (7). (1) And you will suspend nightfall. For on the day of his death there was no night, and for twelve days night did not fall in the province in which his exequies were celebrated, and it did not enfold the earth with its dark wings, and night was not so pale, and Hesperus did not send the shadows which bring along the stars; (2) and the people of the Ulaid say that to the end of the entire year in which he had de- ceased the nights were never as dark as they used to be, which beyond doubt happened in order to testify to the merits of so great a man. (3) If, however, any person should be inclined to deny that night was suspended and that in the whole province no night was witnessed during the short time while Patrick was being mourned, let him hear and note carefully how Ezechias in his illness, as a sign of recovery, was shown the sun going back over ten lines on the sundial of Achaz so that the day was nearly doubled, and how the sun stood still against Gabaon and the moon against the valley of Achilon.
II 9. When the hour of his death was approaching he received the sacrament from the hands of bishop Tassach for his journey to a blessed life, as the angel Victor had told him.
II 10 (8). (1) During the first night of his exequies angels kept the vigil of his blessed body with prayers and the singing of psalms, and all those who had come for the vigil slept on that night. During the other nights, however, men watched by the body, saying prayers and singing psalms. (2) After the angels had returned to heaven they left behind them a sweet scent as of honey and a fragrance of sweetness as of wine, so as to fulfil what has been said in the benedictions of the patriarch Jacob: Behold, the scent of my son is like the scent of a fruitful field which the Lord has blessed.
II 11 (9). (1) When the angel came to him he gave him advice regarding his burial: Let two untamed oxen be chosen and let them go wherever they will with the cart that carries your body, and wherever they stand still, there a church in honour of your body shall be erected. (2)And as the angel had said, untamed oxen were chosen and they steadily drew the cart containing the holy body placed on their necks. It was from a place called Clocher, east of Findabair, from the cattle of Conal that the honourable choice was made. And, guided by the will of God, they went out to Dun Lethglaisse, where Patrick lies buried.
II 12 (10). And (the angel) said to him: Lest your relics be removed from the ground, one cubit of earth shall be placed on your body. That this was done at the command of God has been shown recently, because, when a church was being built above the body, the men who dug up the ground saw fire burst forth from his tomb and retreated in fear of the flames of fire.
II 13 (11). (1) At the time of holy Patrick's death bitter contention for his relics, leading even to war, between the Uí Neill and the Airthir on the one hand and the Ulaid on the othertribes at one time neighbourly and friendly, now bitter enemiescame to breaking-point. (2) However, in order to prevent the shedding of blood, through the merits of Patrick and the mercy of God, an inlet called Druimm Bó rose high with swirling waves, and the crests of the waves burst into the hollow air and the quivering billows of the high flood rushed along as in a race, now surging up and now falling, and as if it were to check the animosity of the fierce tribesfor fierce they arethe wild sea rose and stopped the people from fighting.
II 14 (12). (1) Afterwards, when Patrick had been buried and the overflow of the inlet had abated, the Airthir and Ui Neill rushed (again) into fight against the Ulaid. Fully prepared and armed for war, they had invaded the resting-place of the blessed body, (2) but they were misled