The Dolores star., 1905-03-17
LIFE STORY OF ST. PATRICK

The young man Succat, who was
long afterward canonized as st. Pat
rick. was 13 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
was afterward named Patrick or The
Noble, 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 che
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
gio-Saxonism. The spirit of this is
penalty; Of that. compensation. II I
kill man in Great Britain, Ireland
or America, l 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 system Of Jurisprudence diff
ferent widely from the Gaelic or the
| Saxon, edited the Brehon laws to
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 can
understand the imagery of the Gael
any more than of his oriental cousin.
AngloSaxonism has made the snakes
of st. Patrick material, and has scoff-
ed at them heartily. But the poetic
fact stands that Patrick'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 man
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 Irish
jurisprudence; Roman scholar, he
did not write in Latin, but in Gaelic
/ when he produced his Apologize, or
Confession" as it is called, the only
book from his pen.
The Confession" is not a fine piece
of literature. He knew that. In it he
says that he fears and is ashamed be-
cause of the demerits of the work. He
breads the critics and frankly says
SO.
But the work has the charms of
simplicity and veracity. He tells with
out ornamentation the simple story
of his life and apostolate.
This work, the first Irish autobiog-
raphy, bears the indubitable stamp OF
the foreign hand. Its author was
clearly no Gael. He made no images
to ornament his work. Besides the
ornate compositions of the Irish writ
ers of his day his Confession" seems
poor and Insignificant.
But his glory as an editor is un-
matched and unmatchable. Nobody
else could do the work he accom-
plished.
Patrick. being a bishop, took the
rank Of "honor-place" of the chief
druid; therefore. the temptation to
change the law so as to exempt his
class from the extra severity with
which it was threatened. was ever
present.
What did he do? He wrote into the
law . special rule against bishops. the
IKE Of which they had not ordered