The Blackfoot optimist. [volume] (Blackfoot, Idaho) 1907-1918, 1912-03-18

Kirkpatrick, near Glasgow. in Scot
land. took it's name from St. Patrick.
The saint was born about 372; was
a 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
Tough, County Down, Ulster. where
many years before he had founded his
church. March II, 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
we'll was the work accomplished that
ireland was known in subsequent CEN
turtles as the island of saints and
scholars"
The method employed was that Of
dealing cautiously and gently with the
old paganism Of the people. The chief
tains were first won over and then
through them their clans.
OF st. Patrick himself much that has
been related is fabulous, but his au-
photographed confession and his epis-
tie to Coroticus, both Of which are un-
questionably genuine, reveal devout,
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 to Britain, but whether the
term refers to Great Britain or Brit
tany or other parts of France is mot
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 beneft Of
witty guides, or to promote mirth in
wet weather. It Is not remarkable
that the subject of these stories for 16
centuries, at countless hearths, has
been regarded and is today honored as
the greatest man and the greatest BEN
efactor that ever trod the Irish soil.
and considering the versatility OF the
irish character, 1t Is not strange that
there remains respecting the saint a
vast cycle of legends-serious, pathet-
lc and profound.
1t could not be otherwise. Such q
people could not have forgotten the he
roic figure who led them forth in the
exodus from, the bondage Of - pagan
darkness. In many instances doubt.
less has the tale become a tradition,
the foliage of an ever active popular
Imagination, gathered around the cen.
trail stem Of fact; but the fact re.
, NAMED.
, A large tract of Irish history is
dark; but the time of St. Patrick and
, the three centuries which succeeded
It ts clearly. as depicted by history, 9
time of Joy. The chronicle is song
of gratitude and of hope, as BELTS the
story Of q nations conversion t.
Christianity.
The higher legends. which, how
ever, do not profess to keep close tt
, the original sources, except as re
CARDS their spirit and the manners O
the time are found in some ancien
lives of st. Patrick, the most valu
able of which Ia the "Tripartite Life
, ascribed by Colgen to the century aft
> er the saints death. The work wa
lost for many centuries, but two cor
j. les OF 1t were rediscovered, one O
l which has been recently translated b,
an eminent Irish scholar, Mr.. Hen
messy.
The miracles, however, recorded Il
, the "Tripartite Life" are neither tn
most marvellous nor the most interest
. ing portion of that life.
' Whether regarded from the religion
or philosophic point of view. fe,
things can be more instructive tina
the picture which it delineates of h,