[119] Preserved.—­It is much to be regretted that almost every circumstance in the life of St. Patrick has been made a field for polemics.  Dr. Todd, of whom one might have hoped better things, has almost destroyed the interest of his otherwise valuable work by this fault.  He cannot allow that St. Patrick’s mother was a relative of St. Martin of Tours, obviously because St. Martin’s Catholicity is incontrovertible.  He wastes pages in a vain attempt to disprove St. Patrick’s Roman mission, for similar reasons; and he cannot even admit that the Irish received the faith as a nation, all despite the clearest evidence; yet so strong is the power of prejudice, that he accepts far less proof for other questions.

[120] Victoricus.—­There were two saints, either of whom might have been the mysterious visitant who invited St. Patrick to Ireland.  St. Victoricus was the great missionary of the Morini, at the end of the fourth century.  There was also a St. Victoricus who suffered martyrdom at Amiens, A.D. 286.  Those do not believe that the saints were and are favoured with supernatural communications, and whose honesty compels them to admit the genuineness of such documents as the Confession of St. Patrick, are put to sad straits to explain away what he writes.

[121] Lerins.—­See Monks of the West, v. i. p. 463.  It was then styled insula beata.

[122] St. Germain.—­St. Fiacc, who, it will be remembered, was contemporary with St. Patrick, write thus in his Hymn: 

“The angel, Victor, sent Patrick over the Alps; Admirable was his journey—­ Until he took his abode with Germanus, Far away in the south of Letha.  In the isles of the Tyrrhene sea he remained; In them he meditated; He read the canon with Germanus—­ This, histories make known.”

[123] Canons—­This Canon is found in the Book of Armagh, and in that part of that Book which was copied from St. Patrick’s own manuscript.  Even could it be proved that St. Patrick never wrote these Canons, the fact that they are in the Book of Armagh, which was compiled, according to O’Curry, before the year 727, and even at the latest before the year 807, is sufficient to prove the practice of the early Irish Church on this important subject.

[124] Further.—­Life of St. Patrick, p. 315.

CHAPTER IX.

St. Patrick visits Tara—­Easter Sunday—­St. Patrick’s Hymn—­Dubtach salute him—­He overthrows the Idols at Magh Slecht—­The Princesses Ethnea and Fethlimia—­Their Conversion—­Baptism of Aengus—­St. Patrick travels through Ireland—­His Success in Munster—­He blesses the whole country from Cnoc Patrick—­The First Irish Martyr—­St. Patrick’s Death—­Pagan Prophecies—­Conor Mac Nessa—­Death of King Laeghaire—­The Church did not and does not countenance Pagan Superstition—­Oilioll Molt—­Death of King Aengus—­Foundation of the Kingdom of Scotland—­St. Brigid—­Shrines of the Three Saints—­St Patrick’s Prayer for Ireland, and its Fulfilment.