“One night, while I was sleeping, I heard a voice saying to me, ’You have fasted well, and soon you shall see your home and your native land.’  Soon after, I heard the voice again, saying, ’The ship is ready for you.’  But the ship was not near, but two hundred miles off, in a district I had never visited, and where I knew no one.  Therefore I fled, leaving the master I had served for six years, and found the ship by divine guidance, going without fear....

“We reached the land after three days’ sail; then for twenty-eight days we wandered through a wilderness....  Once more, after years of exile, I was at home again with my kindred, among the Britons.  All welcomed me like a son, earnestly begging me that, after the great dangers I had passed through, I would never again leave my home.

“While I was at home, in a vision of the night I saw one who seemed to come from Ireland, bringing innumerable letters.  He gave me one of the letters, in which I read, ‘The voices of the Irish ...;’ and while I read, it seemed to me that I heard the cry of the dwellers by the forest of Foclut, by the Western Ocean, calling with one voice to me, ’Come and dwell with us!’ My heart was so moved that I awoke, and I give thanks to my God who after many years has given to them according to their petition.

“On another night, whether within me or without me I know not, God knows, One prayed with very wonderful words that I could not comprehend, till at last He said, ‘It is He who gave His soul for you, that speaks!’ I awoke for joy.  And once in a vision I saw Him praying within me, as it were; I saw myself, as it were, within myself; and I heard Him praying urgently and strongly over the inner man; I being meanwhile astonished, and wondering who thus prayed within me, till at the end He declared that I should be an overseer for Him....

“I had not believed in the living Divine from childhood, but had remained in the realm of death until hunger and nakedness and daily slavery in Ireland—­for I came there as a captive—­had so afflicted me that I almost broke down.  Yet these things brought good, for through that daily suffering I was so changed that I work and toil now for the well-being of others, I who formerly took no care even for myself....

“Therefore I thank Him who kept me faithful in the day of trial, that I live to offer myself daily as a living offering to Him who saves and guards me.  Well may I say, ’Master, what am I, what is my calling, that such grace and divine help are given to me—­that I am every day raised to greater power among these unbelievers, while I everywhere praise thy name?  Whatever comes to me, whether happiness or misery, whether good or evil fortune, I hold it all the same; giving Thee equal thanks for it, because Thou hast unveiled for me the One, sure and unchanging, in whom I may for ever believe.  So that in these latter days, even though I am ignorant, I may dare to undertake so righteous a work, and so wonderful, that makes me like those who, according to His promise, should carry His message to all people before the end of the world.