The Waxahachie daily light. [volume] (Waxahachie, Tex.) 1894-current, 1912-03-16

kirkpatrick, near Glasgow, In Scot
land, took its name from St. Patrick.
The saint was born about 372; was
captive and slave of the king of
Dalaradia, in Ireland from 1888 to 1916;
went to Gaul and was there ordained
priest; was consecrated bishop and
sent to Ireland as missionary in 1872
and died at Saul, near Strangford
Lough, County Down, Ulster. where
many years before he had founded his
church, March IT, 465, the day now
sacred to his memory.
Ireland was then occupied by
great number of petty tribes. most of
whom were evangelical by Patrick. So
well was the work accomplished that
Ireland was known In subsequent cen
turtles as the island of saints and
scholars"
The method employed was that 0
dealing cautiously and gently with th'
old paganism of the people. The chief
tains were first won over and then
through them their clans
or ST Patrick himself much that has
been related is fabulous, but his au-
tobiographical confession and his epis-
tie to Coroticus, both of which are I'M
ouestionably genuine, reveal a deyout,
simple minded man, and most dis
Greet and energetic missionary.
In his epistle he states that he was
of noble birth and that his father,
Calphurnicus, was Roman decuiro.
His Mother, Conchessa, or Conceis,
was the sister of St Martin of Tours.
The family of the saint is affirmed
by the earliest authorities to have
belonged 10 Britain, but whether the
term refers TO Great Britain or Brit
tany or other parts of France is not
ascertained.
Some of the quaint stories told in
Ireland about st. Patrick would make
the traveller imagine that the saint
visited the island for the benefit OF
witty guides, or 10 promote mirth In
wet weather 1t is not remarkable
that the subject of these stories for II
centuries at countless hearths, ha
been regarded and Is today honored a
the greatest man and the greatest ben
efactor that ever trod the Irish soil
and considering the versatility of tn
Irish character, it is not strange tina
there remains respecting the saint
vast cycle of legends-serious, pathe
lie and profound.
1t could not be otherwise. Such
people could not have forgotten the h
roic figure who led them forth In II
exodus from the bondage of page
darkness In many instances dout
less has the tale become traditio
the foliage of an ever active popul
imagination, gathered around the ce
trail stem of fact; but the fact I
NAMED.
large tract of Irish history
dark. but the time of ST. Patrick al
the three centuries which succeed
it is clearly, as depicted by history,
time OF Joy The chronicle Is so
of gratitude and of hope, as BELTS t
story of a nations conversion
Christianity.
The higher legends which, no
ever do not profess to keep close
the original sources, except as
CARDS their spirit and the manners
the time are found in some ancie
lives of St Patrick, the most va
able of which is the "Tripartite Lif
ascribed by Colgen to the century q
err the saints death. The work v
lost for many centuries but two c
les Of II we're rediscovered, one
which has been recently translated
an eminent Irish scholar Mr.. H
messy.
The miracles however, recorded
the "Tripartite Life" are neither
mos, marvellous nor the most inter'
lug portion OF that life.
whether regarded from the religi
or philosophic point OF view,
things can be more instructive Il
the picture which It deHneates OF