The Birmingham age-herald., 1907-03-17

suns course, to win magic power over him. Patrick was summoned to the Kings side. Let none arise at his coming" said the sorcerers. for whoever rises will afterwards worship him" But one Ere rose, and Patrick blessed him, and he was converted. 1Sochru one of the sorcerers uttered strong words against the Christian faith. Patrick prayed, and Lochru was lifted up by invisible powers and dashed to death. Then the King cried, Lay hands upon this fellow" and a great darkness fell, and the earth quaked, and the horses fled, and all but the King and Queen and the other sor- cerer were killed. The King in fear bent the knee to the saint, but secretly pur- posed to slay him. Presently, instead of Patrick and his eight companions, he saw only eight deer and a lawn, running toward the wilderness. Loigaire returned to Tara in the dawn, disheartened and ashamed.
 Historical fact shows. on the other hand that though King Loigaire clung to his ancestral faith, he also encouraged Patrlcll's labors.
 Another legend relates how Patrick came to the King, entering his palace through the closed door, Lucetmael, a Druid sorcerer, poured a poison drop into the saints cup as he sat at table. Pat rick blessed the cup, the liquor was frozen to lee, and when the vessel was inverted the poison drop fell out. Lucet- mael then caused snow to fall waist high on the plain outside. Now remove it. said the saint. q cannot" answered the Druid. You can do evil, but not good,'' said Patrick, and blessed the plain. when the snow vanished without rain, mist or wind. The Druid brought down dark ness. Only Patrick could remove it. The saint then proposed an ordeal Lucetmael was placed in a hut with Patrick's pupil, Benignus. It was built half of dry wood, half of green. Benignus was placed in the dry half, the Druid in the green, and fire applied. The Druid consumed Be- nignus was unharmed. LCctmael had been robed in Patrieks robe. This was unburnt. Benlgnus was draped in the Druid's robe. which was consumed to ashes. This latter ordeal is supposed to perpetuate an ancient Irish custom of burning a human victim in spring and spreading his ashes over fields to make them fruitful Later In Irish history D straw figure was burned instead. In an- cient Germany tree was burned.
 Two maidens, daughters of the High King lived at Crochan to be educated by the Druids. They went one day to fountain to draw water and found Pat rick and his companions sitting there. They questioned him. thinking him su- pernatural, and he converted and bap-
 
 diately fell asleep in death, and were buried near the fountain
 In all these poetic old stories. woven around the saint by an imaginative peo- pie. and polished by centuries of telling, there are grains of historical fact. such as names of persons and places, records of ancient customs and other hints, that throw light on Patrick's real work. He lived thirty-one years in Ireland, and founded many churches made the nation Christian as q whole. and brought Ire land into connection with the Roman empire. making it q part of Christendom and civilization. There were Christian communities before he came but with out him these might have died out. Ho brought material benefits as well as spir- itual for he diffused a knowledge of Latin and thus put Ireland in touch with the worlds letters and arts Rome as an empire was of even more import ance at that time than Rome as the center of the Christian faith. for the latter had only been lately recognized as the state religion, and the. Pope was still subject of the Roman emperor Patrick brought Europe nearer to Ire land-and how much this meant in the practical sense is realized when one re- members that the Emerald Isle at that day stood at the uttermost western bounds of the world. Beyond Ireland men believed, existed only chaos.
 "Patricks Confession" was written when he was a very old man, and for curious purpose. It is more in the na-