CHAPTER CLXXXVI.
Of the Sick whom he healed, and the Dead whom he raised;
and of his Disciples who recorded his Acts.
Therefore under this most sanctified rule of life did he shine in so many and so great miracles that he appeared second to no other saint. For the blind and the lame, the deaf and the dumb, the palsied, the lunatic, the leprous, the epileptic, all who labored under any disease, did he in the name of the Holy Trinity restore unto the power of their limbs and unto entire health; and in these good deeds was he daily practised. Thirty and three dead men, some of whom had many years been buried, did this great reviver raise from the dead, as above we have more fully recorded. And of all those things which so wondrously he did in the world, sixty and six books are said to have been written, whereof the greater part perished by fire in the reigns of Gurmundus and of Turgesius. But four books of his virtues and his miracles yet remain, written partly in the Hibernian, partly in the Latin language; and which at different times four of his disciples composed—namely, his successor, the blessed Benignus; the Bishop Saint Mel; the Bishop Saint Lumanus, who was his nephew; and his grand-nephew Saint Patricius, who after the decease of his uncle returned into Britain, and died in the church of Glascon. Likewise did Saint Evinus collect into one volume the acts of Saint Patrick, the which is written partly in the Hibernian and partly in the Latin tongue. From all which, whatsoever we could meet most worthy of belief, have we deemed right to transmit in this our work unto after-times.
CHAPTER CLXXXVII.
The Angelic Voice showeth unto Saint Patrick of his Death
and of the Place of his Burial.
And Patrick, the beloved of the Lord, being full of days and of good works, and now faithfully finishing the time of his appointed ministry, saw, as well by the divine revelation as by the dissolution of his earthly tabernacle, that the evening of his life was drawing near. And being then nigh unto Ulydia, he hastened his journey toward the metropolitan seat, Ardmachia; for earnestly he desired to lay in that place the remains of his sanctified body, and in the sight of his sons whom he had brought forth unto Christ to be consigned unto the common mother. But the event changed the purpose of the holy man; that all might know, according to the testimony of the Scriptures, that the way of man is not in his own power, but that his steps are directed of God. For the Angel Victor met him while on his journey, and said unto him: "Stay thou, O Patrick, thy feet from this thy purpose, since it is not the divine will that in Ardmachia thy life should be closed or thy body therein be sepultured; for in Ulydia, the first place of all Hibernia which thou didst convert, hath the Lord provided that thou shalt die, and that in the city of Dunum thou shall be honorably buried. And there shall be thy resurrection; but in Ardmachia, which thou so lovest, shall be the successive ministry of the grace which hath been on thee bestowed. Therefore remember thy word, wherewith thou gavest hope unto thy first converts, the sons of Dichu; when, instructed of heaven, thou didst foretell unto them that in their land thou wouldest die and be buried." And at the word of the angel the saint was grieved; but quickly returning unto himself, embraced he the divine Providence with much devotion and thanksgiving, and submitting his own will unto the will of God, he returned into Ulydia.