The Idaho Springs siftings-news., 1912-03-16

Kirk Patrick, near Glasgow, In Scot
land, took its name from st. Patrick.
The saint was born about 372; was
captive and a slave of the king of
Dalaradia, in Ireland, from 3SS to 39o;
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 II. 465. the day now
sacred to his memory.
Ireland was then occupied by
great number of petty tribes, most of
whom were evangelized by Patrick. So
well was the work accomplished that
Ireland was known in subsequent cen
turies 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.
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 un-
questionably genuine, reveal a devout,
simple minded man, and a 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 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 to promote mirth in
wet weather. 1t 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-
ic and profound.
1t could not be otherwise. Such
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,
xlo fNI ,f 1or
imagination, gathered around the cen
trail stem OF fact; but the fact re-
mained.
A large tract Of Irish history is
dark; but the time of st. Patrick and
the three centuries which succeeded
1t is clearly, as depicted by history. a
time of Joy. The chronicle is song
of gratitude and Of hope, as BELTS the
story of nations conversion to
Christianity
The higher legends, which, how
ever, do not profess to keep close to
the original sources, except as re-
the time, are found in some ancient
lives OF st. Patrick, the most valu-
able Of which is the "Tripartite Life"
ascribed by Colgen to the century aft
er the saints death. The work was
lost for many centuries, but two cop
les of 1t were rediscovered, one Of
which has been recently translated by
an eminent Irish scholar, Mr. Hen
nessy.
The miracles, however. recorded in
the "Tripartite Life" are neither the
most marvellous nor the most interest
ing portion of that life.
Whether regarded from the religious
or philosophic point OF view. few
things can be more instructive than
the picture which 1t delineates Of hu-