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Show Patrick, Apostle of Ireland. GLAX'CIXG over the army 'of saints and picking out those whom the church honors by setting apart days for commemorative feasts, how-easy how-easy it seems to distinguish the great captains of the faith in the galaxy of sanctity. Many, there were who yielded yield-ed their lives to martyrdom: but their crown or glory in the other world fills the measure of merit, and we are content con-tent to forget them. There were others oth-ers like Dominic, and Ignatius, and Francis Xavier, men of learning as well as piety, founders of religious orders whose exploits for the faith form a great part of the world's civilization. Yet we do not place them alongside I such stalwarts as Peter, Taul, John j and James, of the earliest apostles of the church, vh,i undermined the su- I persuuons of the Caesars and held up the hands of the first pontiff. Nor do we compare the saints of the Latin races with such pioneers of Christianity Chris-tianity as Fatriek and Augustine, who planted the cross in Ireland and Brit- j a in, after the legions of Rome had do- j pared from "the uppermost part of the j earth" and left its people to the contemplation con-templation of a picturesque paganism. Thus does Patrick, the apostle of Ire- j land, tower above the tonsured monks j whose merit lay in scourging the world and its niissions in th.- ftosli -,-na -Vi j could easily overcome templation be- cause it was seldom presented. In this day our veneration rather goes out to ' the living saints fulfilling their duties in the world, cheerfully abiding God's will and who offer up their daily cross in union with the Man of Sorrows. "We meet such every day, whether it be the "soggarth aroon." the noor woman scrubbing the floor or the little saint employed to sell millinery. St. Patrick lived through the fifth century of the Christian era, and died within a few years of its close. It was a time of wonders and of wonderworkers; wonder-workers; yet his marvelous life-span of a hundred and twenty years was even then without a rival, while his miracles stood unapproached by the most astounding as-tounding even of that age. Roman imperial im-perial Civiliz.lt 'on h-.tii dnno He iv.-it-l- as a channel of Christianity, and. like its own mighty aqueducts which had brought for centuries the pure mountain moun-tain waters to the thirsty multitudes, was now falling into picturesque decay, de-cay, in the west, in Gaul and Britain, the cross, which had advanced with the Roman eagles, fell back with them when they retired. The scattered Christians that remained when the legion le-gion had retreated, were either lapsing Into heresy or Mere being swallowed up in the wave of triumphant barbarism rolling from the north. But the same Providence that let loose that avenging aveng-ing flood upon the sullied "empire, was not within a care for his own. As the Frank and the Goth pushed into the fertile lands of Italy, other conquerers as mighty rose in the, lands those had loft oirll,. I. ! v... . unura n L'l c glM.Il oy God to the stricken people, and by him utrengthened with the power which is made perfect in infirmity. From a little work edited by Rev. Arthur Ryan and published by the Catholic Truth society of San Francisco, Francis-co, we learn that St. Patrick was a Gallo-Roman. By his mother, Conces-sa, Conces-sa, he was closely related to St. Martin, Mar-tin, bishop of Tours, whose disciple he afterwards became. His father, Cal-phurnius, Cal-phurnius, was, the saint tells us, a Romn officer of good family. It seems a fairly established fact that Concessa had been in her youth, as her son was afterwards, carried into slavery; and that it was from this state that Cal-phurnius Cal-phurnius won by her beauty and virtue, rescued her to make her his wife. So it was by one who had been a slave, and the son of a slave, that the Gospel Gos-pel was preached to a people who were for many a century to know the sorrows sor-rows of servitude, and amid those sorrows sor-rows to prepare for better days. The date of St. Patrick's birth was A. D. S72. The place of his birth, as in the case of some of the greatest saints and heroes that have lived, is a question of much uncertainty. A miracle is said to have .signalize the child's baptism. If so, it was a fitting fit-ting opening for a miraculous life. The blind and aged priest failed to find water for the sacrament. Illumined as to the future sanctity of the babe, the old man signed, with the infant's hand, a cross upon the ground. A spring of water at once burst up. in which the babe was baptized, and the blind eyes were washed and made to see. The M-onder would have been If God had not shown some such sign at the baptism of one who was to be the baptismal fountainhead of an entire race, and whose lite was to be one of I "'luring miracle. The child was. it seems, christened by the name of Succat. Patricius, or Patrick, the name so dear today to millions was the gift of the pope, and the saint had reached the -age of 60 before he received re-ceived it from Pope Celestine, together with his commission to preac h the Gospel Gos-pel in Ireland. To those accustomed to read the lives of the -saints in the divine office of the Catholic church, it will be no matter for wonder, and still else for doubt, that the holy boyhood of Patrick is de-:cribed, de-:cribed, by all who write of it, as rich in miracles, it jS the delight of the Creator to be with the children of men, and we seem to see him, as he has himself him-self said, ludens in orbe terraum playing, as it were, with his own works, the father condescending to be a child among his children. In the very ancient Tripartite life, written by St. Kvin. we read of "many prodigies I and miracles wrought oy Patrick through his j-outh," of which only "a few out of many" are there recorded. By the sign of tin; cross. ever Patrick's Pat-rick's strength and comfort from j-outh to extreme old age the boy healed his wounded sister, and changed water into honey. By hit breath to bring in after years the comfort of faith and love into many a soul he kindled a frozen hearth into flame. His young hands, destined to be so often raised in potent prayer to heaven for the distressed, dis-tressed, stayed the devastating flood, raised the stricken cattle, and, when times were bad. paid his nurse's rent with curds and butter miraculously drawn from the drifted snow, which miracle was wrought, it would seem, for the poor woman's sake alone, for I when the payment had been made, the curds and butter melted back again into the snow from which they came. But far more clearly than even the gift of miracles Mas the boy's sanctity foretold by his astonishing humility. So utterly did he despise himself in those young days, so far did he deem himself from God, and from all true religious obedience and observance, that in his confession, written by him a hundred years after, l.e still holds the same opinion of himself, unchanged and renews against himself the abase- j ment and reproaches of his youth, j "When we remember his sanctity and gifts, we can hardly understand unless, un-less, indeed, we recaii the language of ' St. Paul against himself such pas- . sages as these: "I knew not the true God. and I was brought captive to Ireland with many thousand men as vc deserved; for we had forsaken God, and had not kept his commandments, and were disobedient to the priests, who admonished us for our salvation, and the Lord showed mo my unbelief, and had pity on my youth and ignorance." Such humility in Patrick is more to our edification than even his wonder-working. It 1m of such as there showed himself to be that the Kfiprun says: "He hath done wonderful things in his life." And such wonder-working all may strive to imitate. |
