The Sisseton weekly standard. (Sisseton, Roberts County, S.D.) 1892-1929, 1905-03-17

long afterward canonized as ST. Pat
rick, was Is when he was seized by
Irish raiders and made a slave His
escape and entrance into the priest
hood are facts of historical cogniZ-
ance. His apostolate in Ireland and
its fruits are Well known, but very
little has been written of Succat, who
Noble, a man of letters.
Patrick was writer of no great
ability, but he was the greatest editor
the world ever knew, if we may judge
editorial merit from the value of the
material he handled and the manner
OF it's treatment.
Unto him was given the changing
Of the Brehon code of Irish laws to
form in touch with Christianity. with
the understanding that any change
he should make had the sanction be-
forehand of the lawmaking power.
No editor before his time was given
such remarkable power; nor has any
been since.
The Brehon code was utterly for
eign to the soul of what is called An
gloSaXonism. The spirit of this is
penalty; of that, compensation. If
kill man in Great Britain, Ireland
or America. am put to death, and
justice is satisfied. But under the
Brehon law my death did not satisfy.
for my sons or my tribe must support
the widow or the mother or other de-
pendents OF the man slain.
Patrick, the Roman citizen, familiar
with a system of Jurisprudence diff
ferent widely from the Gaelic or the
Saxon, edited the Brehon laws tc
make them conform to Christianity
And thus did he Danish the snakes
from Ireland, There was never a ma
terial. de facto snake in the land OF
Erin, as all naturalists agree. but
there were the vices of malice, greed
and lust, and these were the reptiles
that the holy man put out of Erin
No one unable to read poetry car
understand the imagery of the Gae
any more than of his oriental cousin
Anglo Saxonism mas made the snakes
! of ST. Patrick material and has scott
ed at them heartily. But the poetic
fact stands that Patrck's work ban
ished the snakes out of Ireland.
No other country is probably so free
! from vice as that to which he was
| brought slave and of which he be
came the apostle.
He is a strange study-this par
who was first Succat and later Pat
rick. A Roman citizen, he did not at
tempt to graft any part of the Roman
law upon the peculiar system OF 1rlsf
| jurisprudence; Roman scholar he
| did not write in Latin, but in Gaelic
when he produced his Apologize, OF
| Confession" as it is called, the onl.
book from his pen.
The confession" is not fine piec,
of literature. He knew that. In it hi
says that he fears and is ashamed be
cause of the dement's of the work. Hi
breads the critics and frankly say.
so.
But the work has the charms O
| simplicity and veracity He tells with
out ornamentation the simple stor.
of his life and apostolate.
This work, the first Irish autobios
raphy. bears the indubitable stamp o
the foreign hand Its author wa
clearly no Gael. He made no image
to ornament his work. Besides tn
ornate compositions Of the Irish writ
ers of his day his Confession" seem
poor and Insignificant.
But his glory as an editor is ur
matched and unmatchable. Nobod
else could do the work he accom-
plished.
Patrick, being bishop, took tn
rank of honor place" of the chic
druid: therefore, the temptation t
4 change the law so as to exempt hi
e class from the extra severity wit
r which it was threatened, was eve
present.
: What did he do? He wrote into tn
, law spe55..a. rule against bishops. t.
like OF which they had not ordere