After six years he was miraculously delivered.  A voice, that was not of earth, addressed him in the stillness of the night, and commanded him to hasten to a certain port, where he would find a ship ready to take him to his own country.  “And I came,” says the saint, “in the power of the Lord, who directed my course towards a good end; and I was under no apprehension until I arrived where the ship was.  It was then clearing out, and I called for a passage.  But the master of the vessel got angry, and said to me, ‘Do not attempt to come with us.’  On hearing this I retired, for the purpose of going to the cabin where I had been received as a guest.  And, on my way thither, I began to pray; but before I had finished my prayer, I heard one of the men crying out with a loud voice after me, ‘Come, quickly; for they are calling you,’ and immediately I returned.  And they said to me, ’Come, we receive thee on trust.  Be our friend, just as it may be agreeable to you.’  We then set sail, and after three days reached land.”  The two Breviaries of Rheims and Fiacc’s Hymn agree in stating that the men with whom Patrick embarked were merchants from Gaul, and that they landed in a place called Treguir, in Brittany, some distance from his native place.  Their charity, however, was amply repaid.  Travelling through a desert country, they had surely perished with hunger, had not the prayers of the saint obtained them a miraculous supply of food.

It is said that St. Patrick suffered a second captivity, which, however, only lasted sixty days; but of this little is known.  Neither is the precise time certain, with respect to these captivities, at which the events occurred which we are about to relate.  After a short residence at the famous monastery of St. Martin, near Tours, founded by his saintly relative, he placed himself (probably in his thirtieth year) under the direction of St. Germain of Auxerre.

It was about this period that he was favoured with the remarkable vision or dream relating to his Irish apostolate.  He thus describes it in his Confessio:—­

“I saw, in a nocturnal vision, a man named Victoricus[120] coming as if from Ireland, with a large parcel of letters, one of which he handed to me.  On reading the beginning of it, I found it contained these words:  ‘The voice of the Irish;’ and while reading it I thought I heard, at the same moment, the voice of a multitude of persons near the Wood of Foclut, which is near the western sea; and they cried out, as if with one voice, ’We entreat thee, holy youth, to come and henceforth walk amongst us.’ And I was greatly affected in my heart, and could read no longer; and then I awoke.”

St. Patrick retired to Italy after this vision, and there spent many years.  During this period he visited Lerins,[121] and other islands in the Mediterranean.  Lerins was distinguished for its religious and learned establishments; and probably St. Germain,[122] under whose direction the saint still continued, had recommended him to study there.  It was at this time that he received the celebrated staff, called the Bachall Isu, or Staff of Jesus.