The Most Ancient Lives of Saint Patrick / Including the Life by Jocelin, Hitherto Unpublished in America, and His Extant Writings

by Unknown

The man of God landed with the companions of his voyage within the borders of Leinster, in the port of Innbherde, where a river flowing into the sea then abounded with many fishes. And the fishermen were quitting the water, and drawing after them to the bank their loaded nets, when the servants of the holy prelate, being wearied with their travel and with hunger, earnestly besought that they would bestow on them some of their fishes; but they, barbarous, brutal, and inhuman, answered the entreaty, not only with refusal, but with insult. Whereat the saint, being displeased, pronounced on them this sentence, even his malediction: that the river should no longer produce fishes, from the abundance of which idolaters might send empty away the worshippers of the true God. From that day, therefore, is the river condemned to unfruitfulness, so that the sentence uttered by the mouth of Patrick might be known to proceed from the face of the Lord.

CHAPTER XXX.

How the Dry Land was turned into a Marsh.

And going forward, he arrived at a place which was called Aonach Tailltion, and there he made ready to refresh himself and his people, and to announce the office of his ministry. But the idolatrous inhabitants, not enduring the presence of the man of God, gathered together and violently drove him thence, as the light of the sun is intolerable to the weak-eyed. Yet the God whom Patrick bore about him, and glorified in his body, permitted not that an affront offered unto His servant for the sake of His name should go unpunished; but quickly did he bring on them his deserved wrath, inasmuch as for the wickedness of them who dwelt therein the Lord converted their fruitful land into a salt marsh; and the sea, with the foreflowing of an unwonted tide, covered it, and, that it might even for ever be unhabitable, changed the dry land into a plashy lake. Then the saint, going unto a small island not far from the main shore, abided there certain days, and it is called unto this time Saint Patrick's Island.

CHAPTER XXXI.

Of his coming into Ulidia, and of the Prophecy
of the Magicians on his coming.

And the blessed Patrick, embarking with his people, steered toward the northern parts of the island, that he might overcome the northern enemy, and expel him from those hearts where he had fixed his seat. And the north wind fell, and the south wind arose, that he might go into the quarters of the north, and plant therein the garden of the Lord, breathing sweet odors; and the desire had come into his mind to bring unto the knowledge of truth the king, Milcho, who was yet living, to whom he had formerly been a servant, and to make him a servant of the true King, whose service is a kingdom. But forasmuch as the ways of man are not in his own power, but as his steps are directed of the Lord, he landed on the coast of Ulidia, that the vessels of mercy might there be gathered together. But Patrick being come forth on the dry land, a multitude of heathens met him who were waiting and expecting his coming; for the magicians and soothsayers, either by divination or by prophecy, had foreknown that the island would be converted by the preaching of Patrick, and had long before predicted his arrival in these words: "One shall arrive here, having his head shaven in a circle, bearing a crooked staff, and his table shall be in the eastern part of his house, and his people shall stand behind him, and he shall sing forth from his table wickedness, and all his household shall answer, So be it! so be it! And this man, when he cometh, shall destroy our gods, and overturn their temples and their altars, and he shall subdue unto himself the kings that resist him, or put them unto death, and his doctrine shall reign for ever and ever." Nor let it seem strange or incredible that if the Lord inspired or even permitted the magicians should thus foretell the arrival and the several acts of Saint Patrick, since the soothsayer Balaam and the King Nabuchodonosor plainly prophesied the coming of Christ, and since the devils that bore testimony to the Son of God. But when they said that he should from his table sing forth wickedness, evidently doth it appear that he who never stood on the truth, but who from the beginning was a liar and the father of lies, did in his blasphemy utter these things through their mouths.