Show chronicles AND LEGENDS OF IRELAND by NEIL MACDONALD st patrick in the annals of owes ones a measure a of its fame to the annals C B J written in gaelic and of very great antiquity the earlier portion of the history Is undoubtedly largely mythical and even in the more modern part fable and fact are so interlaced ter laced that it Is extremely difficult to attain certainty it claims to be a narration ol of events from the dawn of humanity down to 1403 1408 when the record closed according to the old chroniclers all the heathen kings who reigned in ireland until the time of st patrick numbered they trace the origin ol of the gaelic people anterior to the time of noah koah and write of events beyond the range of human knowledge with all the assurance of undoubting certainty much is written about st patrick in the annals but here again the miraculous and improbable are so commingled with reality that it is hard to determine what is truth and what Is fiction I 1 translate a portion ot of it bearing upon the life of st patrick which Is doubtless in the main correct in the fourth year of king reign st patrick the apostle of ireland was sent over by commission of pope celestine to convert the land from paganism to christianity but he did not laud land here until after the death of celestane Celest lne in the first year of sixtus his successor in the jear bear A D Ard machu was edified and made mad e the metropolitan see of ireland by st patrick some writers say that st james the apostle came to this land others say that Pall adlus was sent here before st patrick but he be had bad not much success for lie he converted to the faith faich but five parishes only which were in leinster and as lie he was returning to romo rome he be died in scotland in the annals frequent mention Is made of st kieran who was not only the founder of but was also the patron saint of the men of connaught the annals of 1 assign I vie the year bog as the date of st klemns birth and as that of lils ills death so great was his reputation for sanctity that people in that pait pa it of ireland even now couple his fits name with deity when nhen they wish to give additional force to tin an assertion concerning freedom of j land from snakes freedom of lieland ic lanil broin THIS T snakes and other creatures was hol l liy ity millers from a very early corly period popular opinion anlow anK iii the hie t ry of ireland was lanil t lia i il i I 1 v la is land fand Is IR of d to st patrick for the exemption TI alifi Is merit Is still ate to the mint maln t rit rat only by tile lie uneducated but also by some of those nho ho stand in the relationship of moral and intellectual guides of the people jocelene Jocel lne ii n monk of vurness n writer of the twelfth century wa was the first to give currency to this rep eted ted miracle of n bt the old thron leler icier writes As me hie ri tent si 81 patrick withdrew into it a IM nil fill the we 8 ivan finist ow t of C lina tight in lie he more ill lel aire for nod and arap prayer r he it fur for id 40 days ajl 1 after his or of ruit fat ins ng was completed to this place he gathered together the several tribes of 0 serpents and venomous creatures and drove them headlong into the western ocean F from rom hence hath proceeded the exemption ireland enjoys from all poisonous reptiles Soll molinus So linus nus who wrote a few hundred years before st patrick arrived in ireland makes mention of the fact of Ir elands Mands freedom from all venomous creatures but assigns no cause for the exemption the venerable bede in the eighth century notices the same fact but says nothing of st patrick in this connection donat bishop of fibulae Fl Fi near florence who lived in the seventh century wrote a latin poem describing his native country ireland in which he refers to the absence of snakes from the land and frogs from the lakes of this favored isle A translation of the poem Is subjoined sub joined far westward lies an isle ot of ancient time by nature blessed and Is 13 her name Ln enrolled rolled in books exhaust exhaustless les s Is her 8 tore store ot of silver and ot of golden ore her fruitful soil boll forever teems with wealth with gems cems her waters and her ber air with health her verdant fields with milk and honey flow her woolly fleeces vie with virgin snow her waving furrows float with bearded corn and arms and arts her envied sons adorn no savage bear with lawless fury roves no ravenous lion through her peaceful groves no poison there infects no scaly snake creeps through the grass nor frogs annoy the lake an island worthy of its pious ra race ce in war triumphant and unmatched in peace this enthusiastic expatriated abed irish saint of the seventh century mentI mentions the exemption above noted as among the many blessings enjoyed by the highly favored isle had donat believed that st patrick had been the active agent in securing this boon to irland ireland it Is improbable that lie he would neglect to state the fact in its ills confessions st patrick lays no claim to miraculous power of any kind hind unless it be as the instrument of divine grace in the conversion and transforming of sinners whereby they became the children of god it Is not dot known that there was any other authority for the story of st patricks banishing the snakes but Jocel joceline lne copyright 1920 la 12 western newspaper New paper unton should be united in honor hon or sharing sc Panl ks labors und ond bid grave why has the onre once loved and honored little irish nun saint bridget been forgotten she was among the hie first to accept we the faith preached by elf and wedded fulth to works by dedicating her lire life to the cloister the first woman of her nice 10 0 o to tv 1 so gilted milted in ind in labor for mex felli fellow jw ere nese two in minds ail 1 I ifft s in of if alrin hint I 1 I 1 11 1 el lir r in lii dus dui a mil 1 1 b lu lit la 1 9 1 J |