The Irish standard. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn. ;) 1886-1920, 1912-03-16
By William j. McHale

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shippers to sacrifice children to the
idol to set corn, honey and milk.
When famine threatened the sons of
sinless married people were brought
to Ireland and killed in front of Tara
and their blood mingled with the soil
in order to appease the gods.
The Druids.
The Druids were the chief ministers
of these strange pagan rites. They
, were the priesthood whom st. Patrick
was to displace. Their mysterious
functions were many. They were,
first of all, learned in secular things,
such as poetry, law and natural lore.
They .professed to be able to divine
the future by watching the movements
of the clouds and by means of magic
wheels which they possessed. Legends
relate how they could raise clouds of
! mist, fill the plains with darkness,
raise the winds and even bring down
showers of fire and blood. Equipped
| with such superhuman powers it is
not surprising that they should enjoy
the good will of the kings Of Ireland,
who, we are told, consulted them free
ly about the future.
We can we'll imagine how these self
empowered divines would receive with
alarm the news of the advent of a
Christian minister who threatened to
lower them from objects Of venera-
ton to objects If contempt. They die
use their best efforts to oppose the
spread Of Christianity, but in vain.
They were weak because they lacked
organization. They were destined to
be driven from their position and to
see their cult itself obliterated at the
hand of one man whose power. to win
followers and to organize has few
parallels in the history of the world
st. Patrick was about to enter on his
mission.
The Birth Of St. Patrick.
The facts about the life of st. Pat
rick which history has preserved for
us are ample to give us clear con.
ception of the wonderful personality
and the long and fruitful labors of the
man. What obscurity there is falls
mainly about dates and the sequence
of his journeys. Like Homer, his
birthplace has been claimed by several
countries. 1t is generally agreed now,
however, that to Scotland belongs the
honor. According to Cardinal Moran,
he was born at Dunbarton about ten
miles northwest of Glasgow in the
year 1877 and died at Saul, Downpat-
rick, County Down, Ireland, on March
18th, 493. Mr.. J. B. Bury, the English
(Protestant) historian, who has writ
ten life Of st. Patrick after a care
full study of the oldest documents
bearing on the subject, places the date
of his birth in the year $3.50 and the
date of his death on March 18th, 461.
At the age of sixteen the youthful
Patrick fell into the hands of a gang
of freebooters from the north coast
of Ireland who, according to one rec
ord, took him back with them and sold
him as slave to an Irish chieftain
named Milchu, in Dalaradia in the
present County Antrim. This chieftain
put Patrick to work with his other
slaves herding aocks on the slopes of
the Slemish mountains near the site
of the modern village of Rallymena.
Other records indicate that he was
first taken to Tirawley in northwest
ern Connaught. There, according to
the Interpretation which Mr.. J. B.
Bury is led to put on the Saints own
words, he served master who lived
near the forest of Foclad or Focluth,
nigh to the western sea-" 1t may be
that he served in both places, being
transferred from one master to an
other. At any rate it is certain that
six years of his life were spent as a
slave in Ireland.
EventfuI Years Of Servitude.
According to the Saints own words
these were eventful years in his life.
His sense of loneliness and depend
ence awakened in him the thought of
the majesty and omnipotence of God.
1.-THE Lord" he afterwards wrote,
Opened the sense of my unbelief." In
his Confessions he tells how he used
to rise before dawn and go forth from
I his bed to pray in hail or rain or
! snow. In single day he would offer
| up as many as hundred prayers.
1t was while he was living this rig
orous life that he heard voice in
his sleep telling him, "Thou dost well
to fast; thou shalt soon return to thy
native land" Again the same voice
told him. "Behold. thy ship is ready"