Show of sao 91 A good deal of scholarly research has recently been given to st by both british and german al author lLUVIA ties and it is now admitted that the chief documents concerning him genuine and that he really lived and carried on in ireland a work such as has been attributed to him by bradl tion lately a new biography giving st patrick an unquestioned place in history haa has been published by prof bury of king kings s college cambridge three men of patricks patrick s own time bore the same name and have survived in records this has confused scholars who paid no attention to the myths one was an earlier bishop of ireland named another person named sen padraic and also called old pat rick is now treated as a myth by in vesti gators saint patricks own name was a latin pseudonym and as he wrote it Pa means clan or gentleman strengthening the former belief that he was aradi lional or the personification of a clas 1 in ancient irish affairs that patrick really lived Is now beyond dispute the important facts about him indeed are in his own writing or at least exist as later manu script copies of documents he penned himself there are two of these the more informative Is his confession confess on written when he was an old manatad man aana the other his letter to Coro corotitus written against a british chieftain who had carried off some irish con verts as slaves scholars who former ly doubted the genuineness of the con have since admitted its au and prof bury demon strates that it could hardly be a forgery because the text on critical examina tion by the most searching modern methods Is consistent in every detail while the strong personal feeling displayed is the highest proof of all that it is a genuine document and the letter Is identical in style there are also many other documents of pat ricks rick s time timer or later from which a compact body of genuine information has been sifted the legends that have grown up around him are much more beautiful than ascertained fact surviving in the old manuscripts under a heathen religion ireland 9 priests were the pow erful druids priests and magicians who had supernatural lore and innocent secular learning together with skill in poetry and knowledge of the laws and history of the island they were naturally opposed to a new creed that would abolish their power yet it Is conjectured that their opposition to patrick was not great because they had little organization and pat rick very wisely engrafted christian ity fly onto old pagan beliefs the irish believed in demons so did the chris tian church of that day and patrick carried with him exorcists whose ape cial function was to deal with demon patrick believed as firmly in the evil powers the druids fought as they themselves so both met on common grounds his ills aim was to show not that they were wrong but that his be I 1 ef and his god were more potent than theirs this Is the tact fact of the matter but the legends tell a more interesting story and myths though they are their beauty Is compelling two maidens daughters of the high king lived at crochan to be educated by the druids druies they went one day to a fountain to draw water and found patrick and his companions sitting there they questioned him thinking him supernatural and he converted and baptized them in the fountain they immediately tell fell asleep in death and were burled near the fountain in these poetic old stories woven around the saint by an imaginative people and polished by centuries of telling there are grains of historical fact such as names of persons and places records of ancient customs and other hints that throw light on pat rick s real work he lived 31 years in ireland and founded many churches made the nation christian as a whole and brought ireland into connection with the roman empire making it a part of christendom and civilization j there were christian communities before he came but without him these might have died out he ile brought ma aerial benefits as well as spiritual for he diffused a knowledge of latin and thus put ireland in touch with mith the world s letters and arts |