Corpus of Electronic Texts Edition
Muirchú's Life of Patrick (Author: Muirchú maccu Machtheni)
Chapter 7
7
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
p.103
experiencing. For I see heaven open and behold the Son of God and His angels.’ Then Patrick said: ‘I see now that you are worthy to be
my successor.’(4) At once they walked at a quick pace to his usual place of prayer. As they were praying in the middle of the river bed the boy
said: ‘I can stand the cold water no longer.’ For the water was too cold for him. (5) Then Patrick told him to go from the upper river down to
the lower. There too, however, he was not able to stay very long because, he confessed, he felt the water to be too hot. Unable to stay long in
that place, he then went on land.