The daily Nome industrial worker., 1918-03-16

1 as to Patricks fitness for the work
 which led to his writing his Confession,
 and indeed all the difficulties that beset thequest!on of the origin of the Irish Church, received simple and satisfac- | tory explanation upon the hypothesis | of Patrick having prepared himself for the priesthood at Candida Casa, the monastc institution founded by St 1 Ninian (q. v.)
 Patrick tells us that after a few years G. e. after his escape1 he was among the Britains with his kindred, who received him as a son, he was evidently bent upon his mission, for 1 tions not to part from them again
 Full of it. he dreams that a man by the name of Victorious came to him bearing innumerable epistles. one of which he received and read; the be- ginning of it contained the words, "The voice or the Irish;" whilst re- ] beating these words he says, "I inn agined that 1 heard in my mind Gin mente) the voice of those who were near the wood of Foclllad, which is near the western sea, and thus they cried: We pray thee, holy youth, to come back and henceward walk amongst us" The wood here referred to which was in the neighbOrhood of
 Killala Bay was most probably the place where he remained when con cealed waiting for a boat to make his escape from slavery. This dream was followed by others, which shows how completely his mission occupied his mind Patrick was about twenty two years of age when he escaped from slavery and, if we allow seven or eight years for the flew years preparation, he probably was not more than thirty years of age when he entered on his mission about 425. There is a passage in his Confession which shows that he was still a young man when he comenced his work "' .l You know and God knows how 1 have lived among you from my youth up" Phobus, the author of the fifth life
 pu'lished by Colgi n, who ms many claims Tpoh our confidence, supports
 this view that Patrick began his mis-
 sion while still aspriest. We see in Patricks own authentic acts that he must have sought among his friends in , Britain to be made a Bishop, for he | complaines in his Confession that q
 friend to whom he had communicated
 some fault he had committed when about fifteen years old had urged this
 thirty years after as a reason against
 his being consecrated to the higher of flee This proves that he was only about forty five years old when made a bishop. If we assume that All was
 the year that he was carried off as a
 slave. his conservation as bishop
 would fall in about Al, the fifteenth year of his mission, a date which cor responds with the result of Dr. Todd's specuations based on a close analysis
 of all available chronological data. Compare in general on the conversion
 of Ireland what has been said in vol XIII D. 247sq.
 The date of St Patrick's death is as
 uncertain as that of every other event
 connected with him. The Annals of the
 Four Masters give 49S, with which
 Ussher agrees: Tirechans annotations,
 on the other hand, states that Loegaire,
 son of Mall king of Ireland, lived from
 two to five years after St Patrick. 1 According to this account the death
 of St Patrick took place in 469, and that
 of Liegaire in All or 474, after a reign
 of thirty six years, so that Loegaire's
 reign began either in 4S5 or 43S. The
 Annals of the Four Masters record the
 death in 457 of sem Patraic, or Old Pat
 rick, and of Loegaire in the following
 year, 45S The Patrick who died in 49S is a fiction due to the fusion of the acts
 of the two real PatriclSs. Palladius Pat rick and Senn Patraicc, doubtless so called because he was the Patrick
 known as 6 priest before the arrival
 of the Roman Bishop. Assuming Tire lchans statement as correct, and that
 St Patrick died in 469 his mission as. .Ipriest and bishop lasted about forty ,
 four years. F-" Sa'
 XVIII. Encyclopaedia Britanica.)