death? Do you believe in the resurrection in the day of judgment?'
[Daughters] 'We do believe it.'
[Patrick] 'Do you believe in the unity of the Church?'
[The Daughters] 'We do believe it.'
And they were baptized, and [Patrick placed] a white garment[1] on their heads.
And they begged to see the face of Christ.
And the saint said to them: 'Unless you shall have tasted death, you cannot see the face of Christ, and unless you shall receive the sacrifice.'[2]
And they replied: 'Give to us the sacrifice, that we may see the Son our spouse.'
And they received the Eucharist of God, and they slept in death. And they placed them in a bed covered with one mantle, and their friends made a wailing and a great lamentation. . . . And the days of the wailing for the daughters of the king were ended, and they buried them by the spring Clebach, and they made a round ditch in the likeness of a ferta [a grave], because so the Scotic men and Gentiles used to do. But, with us it is called relic, that is, the remains and feurt.
The latter few lines of the story are slightly different in the Tripartite Life. It will be observed that the doctrine set forth with regard to the two sacraments is somewhat questionable. But it must
- ↑ The white garment of baptism worn for eight days by the newly-baptized in the ancient church. See Coroticus, p. 68. Some Roman Catholic writers have endeavoured to explain this that the virgins took the veil, but that is not the meaning. See Dr. Todd's St. Patrick, p. 456.
- ↑ Instead of 'the sacrifice,' the Tripartite Life has, 'unless ye receive Christ's body and His blood.'
