Neither need we repeat here the escape of S. Patrick from a chieftain in Leinster who sought his death, through the generous self-sacrifice of his charioteer, Odran (Feb. 19th).
When S. Patrick reached Sabhall, his favourite retreat in Ulster, he would not take that rest he so much needed, but spent his time in completing the conversion of the natives, and building churches. But the time had come for fixing on a spot for a metropolitan see. He, therefore, went through the land, and coming into the district where is the present Armagh, a man, named Macka, offered him a site on an eminence. There he built a church and a monastery. A legend in the Book of Armagh is too good not to be true; it could hardly have been invented. According to this book, the owner of the hill was one Daeri, and Patrick having set his heart on the site, asked for it; but it was refused, and a portion of the valley offered him instead. One day the noble brought to S. Patrick a large cauldron of foreign manufacture, and presented it to him, saying, "There! this cauldron is thine." "Gratias agam (I thank thee)," answered the saint in Latin. Daeri went home muttering, "What a fool that fellow is to say only 'Gratzacham,' for a wonderful cauldron containing three firkins. Ho! slaves, go and fetch it back to me again." So the thralls went and brought back the vessel. "Well, what said he to you, churls?" "He said 'Gratzacham' again," they replied, "Gratzacham when I give, and Gratzacham when I take away! The saying is so good, that for these Gratzachams he shall have his cauldron back again. Ho! slaves, take the vessel back to Patrick." Daeri accompanied the cauldron, and praised the saint for his imperturbable self-possession; and then, in a fit of good-nature, gave him the hill which he had at first refused him. Patrick went forth to view the site, and found a roe with her fawn lying on the place where the altar of the Northern Church now is. His companions would have killed it, but the saint raised the fawn and laid it on his shoulders, and the roe trotted after him, till he laid the fawn down in another place.
He held two Synods at Armagh, at which canons for the whole of Ireland were drawn up.
S. Patrick having thus established the see of Armagh, spent the remainder of his life between it and his favourite retreat of Sabhul or Saul. He may have made excursions to some of the districts adjacent to both places; but we do not find any account that can be depended upon, of his having thenceforth visited again the other provinces of Ireland, much less of having undertaken any long journey. For we are not to listen to Jocelin, who says that he then set out for Rome with the intention of getting the privileges of the new metropolis confirmed by the Holy See; and that when he arrived there, the pope decorated him with the pallium, and appointed him his legate in Ireland. This pretended tour to Rome, and the concomitant circumstances are all set aside by the testimony of S. Patrick himself, who gives us to understand that from the commencement of his mission he constantly remained in Ireland, until he published his Confession, which was not written till after the foundation of Armagh; and that he did not leave it afterwards is equally plain, from his telling us that he was afraid to be out of Ireland even for as much time as would serve for paying a visit to his relations, because in that case he would be disobeying the orders of Christ, who had commanded him to stay among the Irish for the remainder of his life.
A singular fact is related as having occurred about the time of the building of Armagh, which shows how strictly the fasting rules were observed by the ancient Irish. One of the disciples of S. Patrick, named Colman, having been one day greatly fatigued by getting in the harvest, became exceedingly thirsty, but from fear of breaking the rule of fasting till vesper-time, would not taste a drop of water. The consequence was that he died of exhaustion. Had the saint been apprized of the danger in which Colman was, he would certainly have dispensed with his observance of the rule on this occasion.
At length we come to the last days of S. Patrick. In his extreme old age he wrote his Confession, and he seems to have felt that his dissolution was close at hand, for he concludes with these words: "And this is my confession before I die"; and provides how the work is to be carried on after his death. He had been through every province of Ireland, and he speaks of the bulk of the nation as then Christian, and of his having ordained clergy everywhere. His object in writing it was to return thanks to the Almighty for his singular mercies to himself and to the Irish people, and to confirm them in their faith, by proving that God had assisted him in a most remarkable way. He also wished that all the world, and particularly his relatives on the continent, who had so urgently opposed his going to Ireland, should know how that the Almighty had prospered his handiwork. For this reason he composed his book in Latin, apologizing, however, for the rudeness of the style; for his long sojourn in Ireland, and constant use of the Erse language, had blunted his ease in expressing himself in his native tongue.
He was at Saul when attacked with his last illness. Perceiving that his departure was at hand, he desired to go to Armagh, there to breathe his last and lay his bones. But he is said to have been arrested on his way thither by an angel, who ordered him to return to Saul. Be this as it may, to that place he went back, and there he died seven days after, on the 17th March, A.D. 465.[60] In Fiech's hymn we read that his soul joined that of another Patrick, and that they proceeded together to heaven. In this singular passage the author alludes to a second Patrick, who, as he supposed, died just about the same time. Who this Patrick was we do not know.
It is curious to notice a mistake which has crept into some martyrologies, where we find a Patrick, bishop of Avernia, or Auvergne, mentioned on March 16th. But no such a Patrick is known in Auvergne; and this Patrick is simply due to a mistake of some copyist, who wrote Avernia for Hivernia or Hibernia, and so got his name into the martyrologies as a separate saint, and, to avoid confusion, this Patrick of Auvergne was placed on a different day.
There was also, or was supposed to be, a Patrick Senior, who is commemorated on August 4th. This Patrick, according to Ranulph of Chester (Polychronicron, lib. v. c. 4) was an Irish abbot, who in 850 retired to Glastonbury, and there died on the 25th of August. But that being S. Bartholomew's day there, his festival was put back to the day before. A great confusion arose, partly from this and partly from S. Patrick being spoken of in the Annals as Sen Patrick, or Senex Patrick, the old man Patrick, dying in 458.[61] Now, some of the writers of the Lives were determined to give to S. Patrick a long life, equal to that of Moses, just as they made the contest of Moses and the magicians a model for a contest of Patrick and the Wise-men; so they made this
Sen Patrick into a Patrick the elder, distinct from the great apostle. And this mistake has found its way into the catalogues of the archbishops of Armagh, which has, besides S. Patrick, a namesake of his surnamed Senior. But this subject has been further obscured by the fables concerning Glastonbury, as the monks there, having a body of a Patrick of Ireland, supposed or pretended that it was the body of the great S. Patrick, and they asserted that he had come over to Glastonbury, and had died and been buried there. The Irish writers finding themselves puzzled by these Glastonbury stories, and unwilling to allow the Glastonians the honour of having among them the remains of S. Patrick, endeavoured to compromise the matter by giving them, instead of the apostle, Sen-Patrick, or Patrick Senior. This, however, was not what those monks wished for. They insisted on having the right S. Patrick, and him alone they understood by the name of Patrick Senior.