The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1895-03-16
ERIN'S GREAT SAINT
What st. Patrick Says in
His Confessions The
Shamrock and the
Trinity.
ST. PETERS FLUTE AND DRUM CORPS
To Give an Entertainment at the
College Hall on Monday
Father Tighe's Lecture.
ST. PETERS FLUTE AND DRUM CORPS

Tomorrow will be st. Patrick's Day,
and the A. o. H. and other prominent
Irish societies of Hudson County have
already decided how they will celebrate
the event. The A. o. II. will attend
mass in a body at the various churches,
and will on Monday hold its annual par
ace The following story of the birth
and death of Erin's great saint, by
Joseph w. Gavan, is published in the
P Evening NaWs'' of March A.
Irish historians and nearly all those
w. s~sc written about the birthplace
Of ST. Patrick are in doubt as to the
country to which he belonged or the
place where rest his mortal remains. AS
many as 90 lives OF the Saint were writ
These various works have. since the con-
guest of Ireland by England In LIP.
been condensed into seven, and en- these
Of what mas been since written IN col-
neotion with the life, the history and
the times of ST. Patrick. Much that was
of St. Patrick has doubtless beer ex-
plunged IN these condensed works, but
enough still remains to show that, though
been claimed for him, there is abundant
evidence to snow, n indeed ST. Patrick
himself says in his Confessions" that
A PRODIGAL SON.
In Ireland Patrick S occupation was like
hat of the proeigal son of the New
and tending sheep. He thus became the
slave of an Irish chief named Melcho,
who farmed lands near Ballymena, in
the County of Antrim, and while ST.
Patrick was in this condition he sighed
and longed for his native land, and
while IN a yesrning conoitions he tells
us he had an intimation that the time
CT his deExerance wss close at hand
During a vision one night he saw in his
dreams a man named Nftricus-a thor
oughly Roman name-eoming from one
of the Roman camps, in which, while a
boy, he resided with his father on the
baaks of the Avon. and he prayed long
and fervently that he might be rescued.
In his 8twenty-second year, a. D.. 4ois
he set sail from the barony of Tyrawley,
in the County of Mayo, aud after being
three days at sea he reached that part OF
France between Traiectus and Tours,
on the banks of the Loire. Here the fu-
ture apostle of Ireland remained four
years undergoing an education. He was
admitted to the priesthood in Que time
and commissioned by Pope Gelestine TO
preach the gospel to missionary nations:
The first wish of young Patrick as soon
as he became a priest was to return to
Ireland and to convert those Irish herds
men who had toiled with him in the
A HIGHLY CIVILIZED PEOPLE
When he relanced in ireland, the
Irish were already a highly civilized
clans, the head of each clan being a
chieftain, who carried on the govern
ment of his tribe uncer an admirable
constitution known as the Brehon laws,
and ST. Patrick lost no tina with the
common people. He addressed himself
to the ehisftains and the kings, feeling
that if he converted these he would Sc
cure the spiritual conquest of the entire
nation.
HOLDS UP THE SHAMROCK.
One remarkable instance of Patrick's
extraordinary cleverness and OF his
readiness to avail himself of a simple
illustration. in order to bring. conviction
home 10 MS nearers;. comes down to us
from his day. While the young mis-
siorer was d~tseoursing upon the Trinity
one of the Druid priests interrupted
him, as a Unitarian might do even in
our own day, by challenging Patrick to
explain how there were three Gods in
oraS. This WIS evidently 2 poser to the
illiterate pagans, who sat around the
royal circle. But Patrick, ~suitius- the
aston to the word, stopped down, and
pFucking q single leaf of shamrock from
the sward beneath him, hold it up to
the astonished gaze of the multitude,
and explaining that, as the little bit of
trsfoil grew on a single STEM, and the
stem emanated from the three leaves, 50
there were three Gods in one, and one in
It was in This way and by arts like
these quite as much as by the force and
the beauty of Christian principles that
ST. Patrick accomplished his purpose
and established bis right to the chief
pnoetIeship of Ireland.