Chapter I. of st. patrick’s birth and captivity, and of this confession.

I Patrick, a sinner, the rudest and the least of all the faithful, and an object of the greatest contempt to many, am the son of Calpornius, a deacon, the son of Potitus, heretofore a presbyter, who lived in Bannavan, a village of Tabernia, in the neighbourhood of which he had a small farm; and here I was taken captive. I was then nearly sixteen years old; I was ignorant of the true God, and was brought to Ireland in captivity, with so many thousand persons, as we deserved, because we had turned away from God, and had not kept his commandments, and were disobedient to our priests, who admonished us of our salvation; and the Lord brought on us “the anger of his fury,”^[fn] and scattered us among many nations, even to the uttermost parts of the earth, where now obscurity seems to be my lot, amongst a foreign people. And there the Lord brought me to a sense of my unbelief, that I might, even at a late season, call my sins to remembrance, and turn with all my heart to the Lord my God, who regarded my low estate, and, taking pity on my youth and ignorance, guarded me, before I understood anything, or had learned to distinguish between good and evil, and strengthened and comforted me as a father does his son.

2. Wherefore I cannot, and indeed I ought not, to be silent respecting the many blessings, and the large measure of grace which the Lord vouchsafed to bestow on me in the land of my captivity; for this is the only recompense which is in our power, that after being chastened we should be raised up to the acknowledging of the Lord, and should confess his wonders before every nation under heaven; that—

There is no other God nor ever was nor will be after him except God the Father, without beginning; From whom is all beginning; Who upholds all things as we have said: And his Son Jesus Christ whom together with the Father we testify to have always existed; Who before the beginning of the world was spiritually present with the Father; Begotten in an unspeakable manner before all beginning; By whom were made all things visible and invisible; Who was made man, and having overcome death was received into heaven to the Father: And he hath given him a name which is above every name: that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow of things in heaven and things in earth and things under the earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord and God (Phil. 2:9-11): In whom we believe, and we await his coming who ere long shall judge the quick and dead: Who will render to every one according to his deeds, and has poured out abundantly on us the gift of the Holy Spirit, even the earnest of immortality, who makes those that believe and obey, to be the sons of God the Father, and joint-heirs with Christ; Whom we confess and adore—one God in the Trinity of the sacred name.

For he himself has said by the Prophet, “Call upon me in the day of trouble and I will deliver thee, and thou shalt glorify me” (Ps. 50:15); and again he says, “It is honourable to reveal the works of God” (Tob. 12:7).

3. Although I am imperfect in many things, I wish my brethren and relatives to know my disposition, that they may be able to perceive the desire of my soul. I am not ignorant of the testimony of my Lord, who declares in the Psalm, “Thou shalt destroy them that speak leasing” [falsehood] (Ps. 5:6); and again, “The mouth that belieth slayeth the soul” (Wisd. 1:11); and the same Lord says in the Gospel, “Every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the day of judgment” (Matt. 12:36). Therefore, I ought in great fear and trembling, to dread this sentence on that day when no one shall be able to withdraw or hide himself, but all must give an account even of the least sins before the judgment-seat of Christ the Lord. And for this reason, although I have for some time meditated writing, I have hesitated until now; for I feared that I should fall under the censure of men, because I have not studied like others who have enjoyed the great advantages of becoming acquainted with the Holy Scriptures in both ways equally, and have never changed their language from infancy, but have rather always approached to perfection, for I have to translate my thoughts and speech into a foreign language.

4. And it can be easily proved from the style of my writing, how I am instructed and learned in discourses, “for (says the Wise Man) by speech wisdom shall be known, and learning by the word of the tongue” (Sir. 4:24). But what does it avail to offer an excuse, however true, especially when accompanied with presumption? Since I now in my old age attempt what I did not attain in my youth, for my sins prevented me from confirming what I had not before [my conversion] thoroughly examined. But, who believes me? and yet to repeat what I stated before, I was taken captive when a youth, nay, rather, when almost a beardless boy, before I knew what I ought to seek or to avoid. Wherefore, at this day I am greatly ashamed and afraid to expose my unskilfulness because I am unable to explain myself with clearness and brevity of speech, as the Spirit greatly desires, and all the feelings of my mind suggest. But if I had been gifted like others, I would not have been silent, inasmuch as a recompense was due from me. Perhaps, there are some who think that in this I put myself forward, although I am ignorant and slow of speech, but [they should remember that] it is written, “The tongue of the stammerers shall be ready to speak peace” (Isa. 32:4), and how much more ought we to attempt [this work] “who (says he) are the epistle of Christ (who was set for salvation unto the ends of the earth)^[fn] written in your hearts, if not eloquently, yet powerfully and enduringly, not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God” (2. Cor. 3:2-3).  

5. And, again, the Spirit testifies, “Rusticity was ordained by the Most High” (Sir. 7:15). Wherefore, at the first, I [undertook this work] though a rustic, a fugitive, and moreover, unlearned and incapable of providing against the future, but this I know most certainly, that—especially before I was humbled—I was like a stone that lay in the deep mire, and He, who alone is powerful, came, and in his own mercy, raised me, and lifted me up, and placed me on the top of the wall, from which it is my duty to cry aloud, in order to make some recompense to the Lord for all the benefits temporal and eternal, beyond man’s conception, which he has bestowed upon me. But, wherefore, do you wonder, O great and small, who fear God? And you, rhetoricians of the Gauls, who are ignorant of the Lord? Hear, then, and inquire who has stirred me up, who am a fool, out of the midst of those who are esteemed wise and skilled in law, and powerful in eloquence, and in everything, and inspired beyond others (if haply it be so) me, the object of this world’s hatred? [It was God] provided that if I were worthy, I should during my life, faithfully labour with fear and reverence and without murmuring, for the good of the nation to which the love of Christ transferred and gave me, in fine, that I should serve them with humility and truth.

Chapter II. having escaped from slavery by flight, he returns to his country.

6. In “the measure, therefore, of the faith” of the Trinity, it is my duty to make a distinction [of persons] without regarding any censure of danger; to make known “the gift of God,” and “everlasting consolation,” and to proclaim the name of God everywhere, faithfully and fearlessly, that after my death I may leave [the knowledge of it] to my Gallican brethren, and my sons whom I have baptised in the Lord, many thousands in number. And I was neither worthy nor deserving that the Lord should so favour me, the least of his servants, as after such great afflictions and difficulties, after captivity, after many years, to grant me so large a measure of his grace for the conversion of this nation, [a blessing] which, in my youth, I never either hoped or thought of.

But after I had come to Ireland, I was employed every day in tending sheep, and I used often in the day to have recourse to prayer, and the love of God was thus growing stronger and stronger, and the fear of Him and faith were increasing, and the Spirit, so that in a single day I have said as many as a hundred prayers, and in the night almost as many; and I used to remain even in the woods and on the mountain, and used to rise to prayer before daylight, in the midst of snow, and ice, and rain, and I felt no injury from it, nor was there any sloth in me; because, as I now see, the spirit was then fervent within me. And there one night, in a dream, I heard a voice saying to me, “thou dost well to fast, and shalt soon return to thy country;” and again, after a little time, I heard a response saying to me, “behold, thy ship is ready;” and the place was not near, but perhaps two hundred miles off, and I had never been there, nor was I acquainted with any one there.

7. And after this I took flight; and having left the man with whom I had been six years, I came in the strength of the Lord, who directed my way to good; and I feared nothing until I arrived at the ship; and, on the day of my arrival, the ship had moved out from her berth, and I spoke to them, saying I had money to pay for my passage with them; and the master was displeased, and replied angrily, “don’t at all think to go with us;” and when I heard this, I withdrew from them, to go to the cottage where I was lodging; and on my way I began to pray, and before I finished my prayer I heard one of them crying out loudly after me, “come back at once, for those men are calling you;” and I returned immediately to them, and they began to say to me, “come, for we receive you in good faith; make friends with us in what manner you please.” And then I gave up the thought of fleeing, on account of the fear of God, yet I hoped they would [before long] say to me, “come in the faith of Jesus Christ,” because they were Gentiles. And when I had thus obtained my desire, we immediately set sail.

8. After three days we arrived at land, and for twenty-eight days we journeyed through a desert; when, their provisions becoming exhausted, they suffered severely from hunger; and one day the master said to me: “What do you say, Christian? your God is great and all-powerful; can you not then pray for us, since we are in danger of perishing by famine, for it is very improbable that we shall ever see the face of man again.” And I plainly said to them: “Turn faithfully and with your whole heart to the Lord our God—for to him nothing is impossible—that he may send food into your path today, even until you are satiated, for it abounds everywhere to him.” And, with God’s help, it happened so; for lo, a herd of swine appeared in the way before our eyes, and they killed many of them, and remained there two nights, much refreshed; and they were relieved [from hunger] by their flesh, for many of the party had sunk from exhaustion, and were left scarely alive by the way-side. After this they gave the greatest thanks to God, and I was honoured in their eyes.  

9. And from that day forth they had food in abundance. They also found wild honey, and offered part of it to me; and one of them said, “this is offered in sacrifice thanks to God;” after that I tasted no more. But the same night, while I was asleep, Satan, of whom I will be mindful as long as I shall be in this body, tempted me strongly, and fell on me like a great rock, so that I was unable to move my limbs; but I know not how it was suggested to me to call Helias, and at this moment I saw the sun rise in the heavens, and while I was calling, Helias, Helias, with all my might, behold, the splendour of the sun fell upon me, and immediately dispelled all my heaviness; and I believe that I was aided by Christ my Lord, and that his Spirit was then crying out in my behalf; and I hope it will be so in the day of my adversity, even as the Lord says in the Gospel, “it is not ye that speak, but the Spirit of your Father which speaketh in you” (Matt. 10:20). Not many years after, I was again taken captive; and, on the first night that I remained with them, I heard a divine response saying to me, “you shall be two months with them;” and it happened so, for on the sixtieth night the Lord delivered me out of their hands. Behold, in the journey he provided for us food, and fire, and dry weather, daily, until on the fourteenth day we came to men. As I have above mentioned, we journeyed for twenty-eight days through a desert; and, on the night when we arrived at the abodes of men, we had no provisions remaining.

Chapter III. of his calling into ireland, and of many impediments.

10. And again, after a few years, I was in Britain with my parents, who received me as a son, and besought me earnestly that then at least, afterso great tribulations as I had endured, I should not go away from them any more. And there I saw in a vision of the night a man whose name was Victoricius, coming as if from Ireland with innumerable letters, one of which he handed to me, and I read the beginning of the letter, which ran thus, “The voice of the people of Ireland;” and while I was reading aloud the beginning of the letter, I thought at that very moment I heard the voice of those who were near the Wood of Foclud, which is by the Western Sea, and they cried out thus as if with one voice, “We entreat thee, holy youth, to come and walk still among us.” And I was very much pricked to the heart, and could read no more, and so I awoke. Thanks be to God, that after very many years the Lord has granted to them according to their cry.

11. And on another night [some one], I know not, God knows, whether in me or near me, spoke in most eloquent language, which I heard and could not understand, except that at the end of the speech he addressed me thus, “Who for thee laid down his life?” (1 John 3:16) and so I awoke full of joy, and again I saw one praying on me, and I was as it were within my body, and I heard him over me, that is, over the inner man, and there he prayed fervently with groanings, and during this time I was full of astonishment, and was wondering and considering who it could be that was praying in me; but at the end of the prayer he declared that it was The Spirit; and so I awoke, and remembered that the Apostle says, “The Spirit also helpeth our infirmities, for we know not what we should pray for as we ought, but the spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered” (Rom 8:26), that is, expressed in words: and again, “The Lord our Advocate makes intercession for us.”^[fn] And when I was sorely tried by some of my elders, who came and [spoke of] my sins as an objection to my laborious episcopate; on that day in particular I was almost driven to fall away, not only for time, but for eternity; but the Lord spared a convert and a stranger; and for the honour of his name he in his mercy powerfully succoured me in this severe affliction, because I was not entirely deserving of censure as regards the blame and disgrace now brought on me. I pray God they may not be accounted guilty of the sin of laying stumbling-blocks [in a brother’s way.] After thirty years they found me, and charged against me the word which I confessed before I was a deacon.

12. From anxiety of mind, I told my dearest friend in sorrow what I had done in my boyhood one day, nay, rather one hour, because I was not yet used to overcome [temptation]. I know not, God knows, if I was then fifteen years of age, and from my childhood I was not a believer in the true God, but continued in death and unbelief until I was severely chastened; and in truth I have been humbled by hunger and nakedness, and on the other hand, I did not come to Ireland of my own desire, nor until I was almost worn out, but this proved rather a benefit to me, for thus I was corrected by the Lord, and he rendered me fit to be at this day what was once far from my thoughts, so that I should interest or concern myself for the salvation of others, for at that time I had no thoughts even about myself. And in the night succeeding the day when I was reproved by being reminded of the things above-mentioned, I saw in a vision of the night my name written against me without a title of honour, and meanwhile I heard a Divine response, saying to me, “We have seen with displeasure the face of the [Bishop] elect, and his name stripped of its honours.” He did not say thus, “Thou hast seen,” but, “We have seen with displeasure,” as if he there joined himself with me; even as he has said, “He that toucheth you toucheth the apple of my eye” (Zech. 2:8). Therefore I give thanks to him who has comforted me in all things, that he did not hinder me from the journey which I had proposed, and also as regards my work which I had learned of Christ. From this trial I saw more clearly that I possessed no little strength, and my faith was approved before God and men.

13. Wherefore I say boldly, I fear no reproaches of conscience now or hereafter. God is my witness that I have not lied in what I have stated to you, but I feel the more grieved that my dearest friend, whom I trusted even with my life [should have been the cause] of my being rewarded with such a response; and I learned from some brethren, that before that defence, on an occasion when I was not present, and when I was not in Britain, and with which I had nothing to do, he defended me in my absence. He had also said to me with his own mouth, “You are to be raised to the rank of Bishop.” What could have influenced him that he should afterwards before all, good and bad, and myself, publicly throw discredit on me with respect to an office which he had before spontaneously and gladly offered? There is a Lord who is greater than all—I have said enough. But yet I ought not to hide the gift of God, which was given me in the land of my captivity: because I sought him earnestly then, and I found him there, and he preserved me from all iniquities; so I believe, “because of his spirit that dwelleth in me” (Rom. 8:11 v.l.) and has worked in me even to this day; God knows if it were man who had spoken to me, I would perhaps have been silent for the love of Christ.  

14. Wherefore I give unceasing thanks to God, who preserved me faithful in the day of my temptation, so that I can this day confidently offer up my soul as “a living sacrifice” to Christ my Lord, who preserved me from all my troubles; so that I may say, “Who am I, O Lord, or what is my calling, that thou hast granted me so much of thy Divine presence? So that at this day I can constantly rejoice among the nations, and magnify thy name wherever I may be, not only in prosperity, but in adversity [teaching me] that I ought to accept with a contented mind whatever may befall me, whether good or evil, and always give thanks to God, who showed me that I should believe in him for ever without doubting, and who heard me that although I am ignorant, I should in these last days attempt to undertake so holy and wonderful a work, so that I should imitate those who the Lord long since foretold should preach his Gospel “for a witness to all nations” (Matt. 24:14) before the end of the world, which has been so accomplished as we have seen. So we are witnesses, that the Gospel has been preached up to the limits of human habitation.

Chapter IV. the fruits of his mission.

15. But it is long to detail the particulars of my labours even partially. I will briefly say how the God of piety often liberated me from slavery; how he delivered me from twelve dangers by which my soul was perilled, besides many snares and troubles which I cannot enumerate, nor will I do injustice to my readers; [yet I cannot altogether be silent], while I have a master who knows all things even before they come to pass, as he does me a poor helpless creature. Therefore, the Divine response frequently admonished me [to consider] whence I derived this wisdom, which was not in me, who neither knew the number of my days nor was acquainted with God; whence I obtained afterwards so great and salutary a gift as to know or to love God, and also that I should give up my home and parents. And many offers were made to me with weeping and tears, and I incurred displeasure there from some of my elders, contrary to my wish; but under the guidance of God I in no way consented, nor gave in to them; yet not I, but the grace of God which prevailed in me, and resisted them all, in order that I might come to preach the Gospel to the people of Ireland, and bear with the ill-treatment of the unbelieving, and that I should be reproached as a foreigner, and have to endure many persecutions, even to bonds, and that I should give up my free birth for the good of others.

16. And I am ready at this moment to lay down even my life with joy for his name’s sake, if I were worthy, and thus I wish to bestow it even unto death, if the Lord should so favour me. Because I am greatly a debtor to God, who has bestowed his grace so largely upon me that multitudes should be born again to God through me, and afterwards confirmed, and that of these, clergy should be everywhere ordained for a people lately coming to the faith, whom the Lord took from the extremities of the earth, as he promised long before by his Prophets. “The Gentiles shall come unto thee from the ends of the earth, and shall say, Surely our fathers have inherited lies, vanity, and things wherein there is no profit” (Jer. 16:19); and again, “I have set thee to be a light of the Gentiles, that thou shouldst be for salvation unto the ends of the earth” (Acts 13:47); and thus I wish to await the promise of him who in truth never deceives, which is thus given in the Gospel—“They shall come from the east and west, and shall sit down with Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob” (Matt. 8:11). So we hold that believers shall come from all the world.

17. Therefore we ought to fish well and diligently, as the Lord tells us when he says, “Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men” (Matt. 4:19); and again he says by the Prophets, “Behold I send you many fishers and hunters, saith the Lord” (Jer. 16:16), &c. Wherefore there is great need that we should so set our nets that a vast assemblage and multitude may be caught to God; that there may be everywhere clergy to baptise and exhort a people who need and desire it, as the Lord admonishes and teaches us in the Gospel, saying, “Go ye therefore and teach all nations, baptising them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you; and lo I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world” (Matt. 28:19); And again he says, “Go ye into all the world, and preach the Gospel to every creature. He that believeth and is baptised shall be saved” (Mark 16:15-16). “And this Gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come” (Matt. 24:14). And again, the Lord speaking by his prophet says—“And it shall come to pass afterward, that I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh, and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, your young men shall see visions; and also upon the servants and upon the handmaids in those days will I pour out my spirit” (Joel 2:28); and in Hosea he says, “I will call her my people which was not my people, and have mercy on her that had not obtained mercy; and it shall come to pass that in the place where it was said unto them, Ye are not my people, there shall they be called the children of the living God” (Hos. 1:10; 2:23). Wherefore, behold, how the Irish who never had the knowledge of God, and hitherto worshipped only idols and unclean things, have lately become the people of the Lord, and are called the sons of God.

18. The sons and daughters of Scottish princes appear to be monks and virgins of Christ. And there was one blessed Scottish maiden, very fair, of noble birth, and of adult age, whom I baptised, and after a few days she came to me, because, as she declared, she had received a response from a messenger of God, desiring her to become a virgin of Christ, and to draw near to God. Thanks be to God, on the sixth day from that, she with most praiseworthy eagerness, seized on that state of life which all the virgins of God likewise now adopt, not with the will of their parents, nay, they endure persecution and unfounded reproaches from their parents, and nevertheless the number increases the more; and as to those of our kind who are born there, we know not the number, except widows and continent persons. But those [virgins] who are detained in slavery are the most severely afflicted, yet they persevere in spite of terrors and threats. But the Lord gave grace to many of my handmaidens, for whether as much [as they ought or not] they zealously imitate him.

19. Wherefore, although I could have wished to leave them, and had been ready and most desirous to go into Britain, as if to my parents, and country, and not that alone, but had been ready to go as far as Gaul to visit my brethren, and to see the faces of the Lord’s saints; God knows that I greatly wished it, but I am “bound in the spirit,” who “witnesseth” (Acts 2:22-23)^[fn] that if I do this he sets me down as guilty. I also fear to lose the labour which I have commenced, and yet not I, but Christ the Lord, who commanded him to come and be with them the remainder of my life. If the Lord willed it so, and guarded me against “every evil way” [it was] that I should not sin before him. I hope [to do] that which I ought, but I trust not myself so long as I shall be “in this body of death” (Rom. 7:24 v.l.), because he is strong who daily endeavours to subvert me from the faith and chastity which I have proposed to myself, even to the end of my life, to Christ my Lord; but the carnal mind, which is enmity, always draws me to death—that is, to unlawfully accomplishing desires; and I know in part why I have failed to live a perfect life, as well as other believers; but I confess to my Lord, and I lie not, from the time that I knew him (that is, from my youth), the love, and fear of God increased in me—so that up to this time, by the grace of God, “I have kept the faith” [2 Tim. 4:7].

Chapter V. he declares with how much disinterestedness he had preached the gospel.

20. Let him who pleases deride and insult me, I will not be silent, nor will I conceal the signs and wonders which were ministered to me by the Lord, who knew all things many years before they existed, as it were, even “before the world began” [John 1:1; 17:5], wherefore, I ought to give thanks without ceasing to God, who often pardoned my folly even out of place, and not in a single instance only; that his anger was not fierce, against me, but that he granted me the privilege of being a labourer together with Him, and I did not immediately acquiesce, as it had been pointed out to me, and as the Spirit prompted. And the Lord had compassion on me, among thousands of thousands, because he saw in me a readiness of mind. But I was perplexed as to what I should do about my condition, because many were endeavouring to hinder this mission, and were talking among themselves, behind my back, and saying, “why does he endanger his life among enemies, who know not the Lord?” It was not with malicious intent they said this, but because they did not approve of it, as I also understood (I myself bear witness) on account of my imperfect education. And I did not immediately recognize the grace which was then in me; but now I am aware of what I should have known before.

21. I have now, therefore, simply informed my brethren and fellow-servants who believed me, why I have preached and preach still, to confirm your faith. Would that you too may aim at nobler things, and succeed better in them; this shall be my glory, because “a wise son is the glory of his father” (Prov. 10:1). You know, and God knows, how I have lived among you from my youth up, faithful in the truth, and sincere in heart. I have also made known the faith to those people among whom I dwell, and I will continue to do so. God knows I have not overreached any of them, nor do I design it, from fear for the interests of God and his Church, lest I should excite persecution for them and all of us, and lest the name of God should be blasphemed by me, because it is written, “Wo to the man by whom the name of God is blasphemed” (see Lev. 24:16); for, though in all things I am unskilled, yet I have endeavoured to be on my guard, even with Christian brethren and virgins of Christ, and religious women, who, of their own accord, used to bestow gifts upon me, and to place their ornaments on the altar; but I returned them again to them, and they were offended at me for doing this. But I was animated by the hope of immortality, to guard myself cautiously in all things, so that they should not find me unfaithful, even in a tittle, and that I should not give room to the unbelievers, even in the least, to defame or detract from the ministry of my service.

22. But, perhaps, when I baptised so many thousand men, I hoped to receive from some of them even half a scriptula? Tell me, and I will give it back to you. Or, when the Lord ordained clergy by my weak ministry, did I confer that gift on them gratuitously? If I have asked of any of them even the value of a shoe, tell it—tell it against me, and I will repay it to you (see 1 Sam. 12:3). I rather expended whenever it appeared requisite [money] for your sakes; and I went among you everywhere for your sakes, in constant danger, even to those distant parts beyond which there were no inhabitants, and where no one had ever come to baptise, or ordain clergymen, or confirm the people; [and] the Lord assisting me, I adopted every means for your salvation, using all diligence and zeal. And during this time, I used to give rewards to kings, because I gave hire to their sons, who travel with me; and thus they abstained from seizing me with my companions. And, on one day, they desired exceedingly to kill me; but the time had not yet come, and they carried off everything they found with us, and fettered me with iron; but, on the fourteenth day, the Lord loosed me from their hands, and whatever was ours was restored to us, through the power of God, and by means of the attached friends whom we had before provided.

23. But you know how much I expended on those who were the judges, through the districts that I more frequently visited, for I think I paid them the hire of fifteen men—no small sum—that you might enjoy me, and I you, always in the Lord. I do not regret it, nor is it sufficient for me. I still spend, and, moreover, will spend. The Lord is able to grant me afterwards to expend even myself for your sakes. Behold, I call God to witness to my soul that I lie not, nor have I written to you to give you an opportunity of gratifying my love of flattery, or my avarice, nor that I might hope for honour from you. For sufficient to me is the honour which is not seen, but believed in from the heart; but the faithful one who has promised it never lies. But I see that now, in the present world, I am exalted beyond measure by the Lord; and I was not worthy nor fit to be thus favoured by him, since I know most certainly that poverty and calamity suit me better than luxury and riches, and Christ the Lord also was poor for us. But, wretched and unhappy that I am, even if I wished for wealth, I now have it not; neither do I judge myself [to want it], because every day I disregard either the danger of being put to death, or overreached, or brought into slavery, or of becoming a stumbling-block to any one. But I fear none of these things, relying on the promise of the Heavens; for I have cast myself into the hands of the Omnipotent God, who reigns everywhere: as the prophet says, “Cast thy burthen upon the Lord, and he shall sustain thee” (Ps. 55:22).

24. Behold, now I commend my soul to God, who is faithful, whose mission I perform, lowly that I am. But because he accepts not the person, and has chosen me to this office, that I alone, of the very least of his people, should be his minister, “What shall I render unto the Lord for all his benefits towards me?” (Ps. 116:12); and what shall I say, or what shall I promise to my Lord, for I see that I should have had nothing, unless he himself had given it to me; but I will search my heart and reins, because I am ardently desirous and ready that he should give me to drink of his cup as he has granted to others who have loved him. Wherefore, may God never permit that I should lose his people whom I have acquired in the ends of the earth. I pray God that he may grant me perseverance, and that he may vouchsafe to permit me to bear faithful witness to him, even unto my death. And if I ever effected anything good on account of my God whom I love, I entreat him to grant me this, that with those converts and captives I may pour out my blood for his name, even though I should be deprived of burial, or my dead body be miserably torn limb from limb by dogs or wild beasts, or though the birds of the air should devour it. I believe most certainly that if this should happen to me, I have gained my soul with my body; for without any doubt we shall rise one day in the brightness of the sun, that is, in the glory of Christ Jesus our Redeemer, the son of the living God, “joint-heirs with Christ,” and to be conformed to his image, since of him, and through him, and to him, we shall reign (Rom. 8:17, 29). For that sun which we see, rises daily at God’s will for our sakes; but it shall not rule for ever, nor shall its splendor continue, and woe to its unhappy worshippers, for punishment awaits them. But we believe in and adore the true sun, Christ, who never shall perish, nor shall he who does his will, but shall abide for ever, as Christ also shall abide for ever, whose reign with God the Father Omnipotent, and with the Holy Ghost, was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be. Amen.  

25. Behold again and again I briefly set forth the words of my Confession. I bear witness in truth and joy of heart, before God and his holy angels, that I never had any occasion, except the Gospel and its promises, to return to that nation from which at first I escaped with difficulty. But I pray those who believe in and fear God, whoever may think fit to look into or receive this writing which I, Patrick, a sinner and unlearned, wrote in Ireland, that no one may ever say, if I have demonstrated anything, however weak, according to the will of God, that it was my ignorance. But do you judge, and let it be most firmly believed, that it was the gift of God. And this is my Confession, before I shall die.

The End.

* For the Latin text, see PL 53:801-814.

1. St. Patrick’s phrase is et Dominus induxit super nos iram animationis suae (PL 53:801B). Here Olden cites 2 Chron. 29:10, which uses furorem irae suae in the Vulgate. White cites Isa. 42:25, which uses indignationem furoris sui. However, it seems possible that the biblical allusion here, due to the context in which it occurs, is Lamentations 2:3 when it uses ira furoris sui (“his fierce anger”; DRB). In the Vulgate, the lemmas īra and anima do not appear in a phrase together as St. Patrick has used them.
2. Acts 13:47.
3. Olden only cites 1 John 2:1 here, but the reference seems to be a combination of this text with Heb. 7:25.
4. Olden only cites verse 22 here.