St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1895-03-18
SAINT OF IRELAND.
Eloquent Sermon Of Father
Clearly on the Christian
Apostle.
IT WAS A LONG WHILE AGO
But His Memory Is Still Green
in Civilized Coun-
tries.
WORD PICTURE OF THE ISLE
Big Changes in ireland Since
1t Was Cleared Of
Snakes.
WORD PICTURE OF THE ISLE

Race" and his large church was
audience. The following is a brief
outline of his DISCOURSE: Fourteen
hundred years, the most eventful
since mans creation, have made
their record upon the dial of time
since st. Patrick, the Christian
apostle of the Irish race, was called
to his eternal home. About the year
$50, the most reliable records tell us,
st. Patrick landed on Irish soil as
the authorized messenger from
Rome, the center of Christian faith,
to deliver the glad tidings of the
Gospel to pagan ireland. Although
the place of his birth has been some
what shrouded in mystery, compe-
tent authorities generally admit that
he was born in the year 372. When
he accepted the task Of bringing the
light of the Gospel to the benighted
paganS of the Green Isle, he was
man far advanced in years. But
since the days of his captivity as
boy on the green hillsides of ireland
he has not forgotten the holy i'm
pulse from on high that had fired
his innocent soul with a consum-
ing desire to overturn the idols of
paganism and plant the cross as the
standard of Christian light and lib
erty in every valley and on every
hilltop of the Gem of the Ocean"
that had been the scene of his bond
age. After thirty-three years of
sanity work among the Irish peo-
pie, the great apostle laid down the
burden Of the more than 100 years
of unselffsh activity, and the Green
Isle of the West" that before his
coming had sat in the darkness and
the shadow of death without any
correct knowledge Of the living God,
awoke from its long night of super
stition and gloom to become the
guiding light of the worlds best
civilization and to be known among
the nations as the island of saints
and scholars"
Irish missionaries became the
apostles of a great part of Europe.
Irish monks founded fifteen monas-
teries in Bavaria, fifteen in Helvetia-
Switzerland, thirteen in Scotland,
twelve in England, twelve in Ar
morica, ten in Alsatia, seven in Lor-
raine and seven in France. They
gave to Germany $50 saints, many
of whom were martyrs, As to France,
so to Belgium, 10 to Italy and to
Norway and Iceland. While her
jealous apostles went forth to every
part of Europe to build up the
church and evangeliZe the nations,
her schools at home had aroused
the studiouS youth of the world and
attracted the seeker after knowledge
from every cline.
An Irishman founded the University
of Paris. Alfred the Great, the found
er of the English monarchy, received
Irish scholars carried the dual torch
of religion and learning into the Sean
dinavian countries. For three hundred
years this work of evangelization and
civilization continued, until the pi-
ratical incursions of the Danes into
Ireland disturbed their peaceful >condi-
ton and directed the energies of the
nation to the defense of religion and
country. Until the final expulsion of
the Danes on the field of Clontarf, in
the year 1014, for three hundred years
Ireland was a battle field, on which
the national strength was spent fight
for faith and fatherland.
The nation, weary of strife, had but
just begun a breathing spell when the
invasion of the Normans began. The
fierce and bitter strife against the
Norman occupation of their country
had not ceased when England's defec-
ton from the ancient faith added the
fanaticism of religious frenzy to the
already existing causes of hatred
against the invader. In the year 1885,
Henry VIII. attempted to introduce
by force, the Protestant religion into
Ireland. From that unhappy day until
the memorable morning of April 3
1829-three long centuries of blood and
| tears-Ireland was the martyr nation
! of the world. Her children were bound
| by the triple chain of slavery, ignor-
ance and beggary. His faith brought
| the only bright beam of hope or oil
gladness that for three hundred dark
|
| through his tears.
AS far as the world was concerned
| Catholic Ireland had ceased to exist
She sank out of sight, forgotten ever
by the Catholic nations, left like Chris
upon the cross, abandoned to her enc
mics. The prosecuted Christians Of
| the first three centuries form the only
approximate comparison to the martyr
dom undergone by the Irish people
| during their three centuries of sorrow
| The prosecutions undergone by the
| early Christians were inhuman an(
fierce, but they were spasmodic ant
| fitful. The prosecutions inflicted upor
bleeding Ireland were savage, satanic
unceasing and vigilant in their search
| for every tender sentiment of the hui
man heart that it might be made te
suffer for the grim satisfaction OF
| England's heartless vanity.
! The Irish were a proud and naughty
race, their sacred traditions for six
| hundred years bore testimony to theil
intellectual superiority over their en-
| vious foes. England's refinement Of
| cruelty was to condemn this proud
| and intellectual race to hopeless ig
| norance. An Irish Catholic was for
hidden by English law to read or t
| send his children to school, and then
in every land where the language OF
| England was spoken, the victim. o.
! English infamy was scoffed at as ig
| norant. The nobility of ancient Ire
land was robbed of its ancestral do
mains, the people despoiled of lands
and home and then branded as beg
| hafOra tha world
| An alien church, hated and alb
| horred by nine-tenths of the people
was imposed upon them by law, ant
their merciless oppressors forced then
by a system of iniquitous tithes t.
| support it out of their scanty means
| Notwithstanding all this inhumar
and persistent persecution for 30
years, the Irish race in every land to
day are the foremost defenders ant
most loyal friends of religion. Where