PATRICK
554
PATRICK
tion of the instituto the Hrotlicrs have been enabled to
perfect and extend their coiiKreKation in Ireland, and
to open new colleties, .'iehoois, and orphanages in the
above-mentioned foreign count ries. The scope of their
work, which embraces jirimary, intermediate, and
university education, luus been much extended in re-
cent years. The introduction of a scheme of technical
and scientific study by tlie ditTercnt educational de-
partments has been warmly su))ported by Uie lirothcr-
hood; while by their management of orjilianagcs and
industrial schools they aid thousands of youths to
raise themscKes to a higher place in the social scale.
Their resid(-nlial colleges and secondary day-schools
equip the students for responsible positions in life.
The colleges of the Brothers in India are affiliated to
the Allahabad and Calcutta Universities, in which
their students have distinguished themselves; while
in Australia, notwithstanding that the Brothers re-
ceive no State aid, their pupils compete successfully
with those of the highly subsidized Government
schools for positions in the civil service. On the occa-
sion of the centenary in 1908, His Holiness Pope Pius
X bestowed on the order many favours and special
indulgences. The superior general and his assistants
reside at the mother-house, TuUow, Ireland, where are
also the novitiate and house of studies.
Jerome F. Byrne.
Patrick, Saint, Apostle op Ireland, b. at Kil- patrick, near Dumbarton, in Scotland, in the year 387; d. at Saul, Downpatrick, Ireland, 17 March, 493. He had for his parents Calphurnius and Conchessa. The former belonged to a Roman family of high rank and held the office of decurio in Gaul or Britain. Con- chessa was a near relative of the great patron of Gaul, St. Martin of Tours. Kilpatrick still retains many memorials of Saint Patrick, and frequent pilgrimages continued far into the Middle Ages to perpetuate there the fame of his sanctity and miracles. In his sixteenth year, Patrick was carried off into captivity by Irish marauders and was sold as a slave to a chief- tain named Milchu in Dalaradia, a territory of the present county of Antrim in Ireland, where for six years he tended his master's flocks in the valley of the Braid and on the slopes of Slemish, near the modern town of Ballymena. He relates in his "Confessio" that during his captivity while tending the flocks he prayed many times in the day: "the love of God", he added, "and His fear increased in me more and more, and the faith grew in me, and the spirit was roused, 80 that, in a single day, I have said as many as a hun- dred prayers, and in the night nearly the same, so that whilst in the woods and on the mountain, even before the dawn, I was roused to prayer and I felt no hurt from it, whether there was snow or ice or rain; nor was there any slothfulness in me, such as I see now, be- cause the spirit was then fervent within me." In the ways of a benign Providence the six years of Patrick's captivity became a remote preparation for his future apostolate. He acquired a perfect knowl- edge of the Celtic tongue in which he would one day announce the glad tidings of Redemption, and, as his master Milchu was a druidical high priest, he be- came familiar w^ith all the details of Druidism from whose bondage he was destined to liberate the Irish race.
Admonished by an angel he after six years fled from his cruel master and bent his steps towards the west. He relates in his "Confe.ssif)" that he had to travel about 200 miles; and his journey was probably towards Killala Bay and onwards thence to Westport. He found a ship ready to set sail and after some re- buffs was allowed on board. In a few days he was among his friends once more in Britain, but now his heart was set on devoting himself to the service of God in the sacred minist^,^ We meet with him at St. Martin's monastery at Tours, and again at the island
sanctuary of L6rins which was just then ac(|uiring
widespread renown for learning and piety; and wher-
ever lessons of heroic perfection in the exercisi! of
Christian life could be acquired, thither the fervent
Patrick was sure to liend his steps. No sooner had
St. Germain entered on his great mission at Auxerre
than Patrick put himself under his guidance, and it
was at that great bishop's hands that. Irelatxl's future
apostle was a few years later pnnnoled to the priest-
hood. It is the tradition in the territory of the Morini
that Patrick under St. tJcrmain's guidance for some
years was engaged in missionary work among them.
When (Jermain commissioned by the Holy .See pro-
ceeded to Britain to combat the erroneous teachings of
Pelagius, he chose Patrick to be one of his missionary
companions and thus it was his privilege to be a.ssoci-
ated with the representative of Rome in the triumphs
that ensued over heresy and Paganism, and in the
many remarkable events of the expedition, such as
the miraculous calming of the tempest at sea, the visit
to the relics at St. Alban's shrine, and the Alleluia
victory. Amid all these scenes, however, Patrick's
thoughts turned towards Ireland, and from time to
time he was favoured with visions of the childriTi from
Focluth, by the Western sea, who cried out to him:
"O holy youth, come back to Erin, and walk once
more among.st us."
Pope St. Celestine I (q. v.), who rendered immortal service to the Church by the overthrow of tlie Pelagian and Nestorian heresies, and by the imperishable wreath of honour decreed to the lilessed Virgin in the General Council of Ephesus, crowned his pontificate by an act of the most far-reaching consequences for the spread of Christianity and civilization, when he entrusted St. Patrick with the mission of gathering the Irish race into the one fold of Christ. Palladius (q. V.) had already received that commission, but terrified by the fierce opposition of a Wicklow chief- tain had abandoned the sacred enterprise. It was St. Germain, Bishop of Auxerre, who commended Patrick to the pope. 'The writer of St. Germain's Life in the ninth century, Heric of Auxerre, thus attests this important fact: "Since the glory of the father shines in the training of the children, of the many sons in Christ whom St. Germain is believed to have had as disciples in religion, let it suffice to make mention here, very briefly, of one most famous, Patrick, the special Apostle of the Irish nation, as the record of his work proves. Subject to that most holy discipleship for 18 years, he drank in no little knowledge in Holy Scripture from the stream of so great a well-spring. Germain sent him, accompanied by Segetius, his priest, to Celestine, Pope of Rome, approved of by whose judgment, supported by whose authority, and strengthened by whose blessing, he went on" his way to Ireland." It was only shortly before his death that Celestine gave this mission to Ireland's apostle and on that occasion bestowed on him many relics and other spiritual gifts, and gave him the name "Patercius" or "Patritius", not a,s an honorary title, but as foreshadowing the fruitfulness and merit of his apostolate whereby he became pater civium (the father of his people). Patrick on his re- turn journey from Rome received at Ivrea the tidings of the death of Palladius, and turning aside to the neighbouring city of Turin received episcopal conse- cration at the hands of its great bishop, St. Maximus, and thence hastened on to Auxerre to make under the guidance of St. Germain due preparations for the Irish mission.
It was probably in the summer months of the year 433, that Patrick and his companions landed at the mouth of the Vantry River close by Wicklow IleafI The Druids were at once in arms against him. But Patrick was not disheartened. The intrepid mission- ary resolved to search out a more friendly territory in which to enter on his mission. First of all, however,
