XXXIII.
Quando decessit Patricius
Venit ad Patricium alterum
Et simul ascenderunt
Ad Jesum filium Mariæ.
XXXIV.
Patricius absque elationis nævo
Multa bona excogitavit
In servitio filii Mariæ
Fælicibus natus est auspiciis.
St. Fiech, the author of the above Hymn, was a disciple to Duvhach, poet laureate of Laoree, monarch of Ireland. He was converted by St. Patrick, who taught him the elements of the Latin language, in which he was enabled to read the bible after fifteen days' study. Fiech was appointed bishop of Leinster by his holy master, upon which he founded a celebrated monastery, called from him Domnach-Fiech, on the mountain of Sletty, about a mile to the north of Carlow, in the territory of Leix, now in the barony of Slieve- Margey, and Queen's county. In this church, the remains of which still exist, he also established a college, celebrated for producing many saints, as may be seen in Colgan's Lives of Irish Saints, &c.
NOTES.
The figures refer to the stanzas.
[(1)] In the Latin translation accompanying Colgan's edition of this Hymn Nein Thur, or Holy Tours, is rendered into Nemthur, as if the two words were but one, designating a place of that name. In the fifth and ninth stanzas, the word Lethu or Letha, is rendered by Latium or Italy: upon which absurd translation, Colgan, without rectifying the mistake, observes that Nisi Germanus dicatur degisse in eis (insulis Tyrrheni maris) videtur hic preposterus ordo; "except St. German be said here to have lived in them, (the islands of the Tyrrhenian sea,) the order of time seems preposterous." So contradictory does this appear to the Latin translator, that he has totally mistranslated the 17th and 18th verses, in which Letha again occurs, by his omitting the word altogether. The editor's reason for deviating from the Latin translation may be seen, at full length, in the preceding work.
[(2)] Colgan, from the psalter of Cashel, traces back St. Patrick's pedigree to the 17th progenitor, thus: