Where the Clyde comes forth from the plain to the long estuary of the sea, the Messenger of the Tidings was born.  His father, Calpurn, was a Roman patrician; from this his son, whose personal name was Succat, was surnamed Patricius, a title raised by his greatness into a personal name.  His letters give us a vivid picture of his captivity, and the stress of life which gradually aroused in him the inspiration of the humane and divine ripened later into a full knowledge of his apostolate.

“I Patricius, a sinner,” he writes, “and most unlearned of believers, looked down upon by many, had for my father the deacon Calpurn, son of the elder Potitus, of a place called Bannova in Tabernia, near to which was his country home.  There I was taken captive, when not quite sixteen.  I knew not the Eternal.  Being led into captivity with thousands of others, I was brought to Ireland,—­a fate well deserved.  For we had turned from the Eternal, nor kept the laws of the Eternal.  Nor had we heeded the teachers who urged us to seek safety.  Therefore the Eternal, justly wroth, scattered us among unbelievers, to the uttermost parts of the earth; here, where my poor worth is now seen among strangers, where the Eternal liberated the power hid in my unenkindled heart, that even though late I should recognize my error, and turn with all my heart to the Eternal....

“I have long had it in mind to write, but until now have hesitated; for I feared blame, because I had not studied law and the sacred writings,—­as have others who have never changed their language, but gone on to perfection in it; but my speech is translated into another language, and the roughness of my writing shows how little I have been taught.  As the Sage says, ’Show by thy speech thy wisdom and knowledge and learning.’  But what profits this excuse? since all can see how in my old age I struggle after what I should have learned as a boy.  For then my sinfulness hindered me.  I was but a beardless boy when I was taken captive, not knowing what to do and what to avoid; therefore I am ashamed to show my ignorance now? because I never learned to express great matters succinctly and well;—­great matters like the moving of the soul and mind by the Divine Breath....  Nor, indeed, was I worthy that the Master should so greatly favor me, after all my hard labor and heavy toil, and the years of captivity amongst this people,—­that the Master should show me such graciousness as I never knew nor hoped for till I came to Ireland.

“But daily herding cattle here, and aspiring many times a day, the fear of the Eternal grew daily in me.  A divine dread and aspiration grew in me, so that I often prayed a hundred times a day, and as many times in the night.  I often remained in the woods and on the hills, rising to pray while it was yet dark, in snow or frost or rain; yet I took no harm.  The Breath of the Divine burned within me, so that nothing remained in me unenkindled.