198 



was fresh,) in the time of Pope Celestine and Saint Germanus; in the 

 reign of Theodosius and Valentinian, and immediately after the failure 

 of Palladius. No year can so well coincide with these several requi- 

 sites as about A. D. 432 : and accordingly Bede* marks the time of 

 Palladius's mission as in 431 ; Matthew of Westminster, as in 433 ; 

 while Marianus Scotus, at the year 432, says, that Palladius having 

 been ordained by Pope Celestine, was sent the first bishop to those of 

 the Scots who believed in Christ, (not " a nation of Christians " as Sir 

 William would translate it,)-)" and that after him Patrick was sent 

 under the same auspices. :|: To this last year Florentius Wigorniensis re- 

 fers the same account, with the inversion of "annos Ix." for "annosxl." 

 While the foreign authors thus singularly point to the year of his 

 mission, they vary not more as to the time of his death. The regis- 

 ter of Glastonbury § mentions it as in 472 ; the Anglican Marty ro- 

 logy at481 ; Sigebert says the saint died in 491,11 aged 122 years; 

 Florentius Wigorniensis agrees with the last account, and Matthew of 

 Westminster assigns it to the same year.** It would seem that the 

 earlier date is the more correct ; and that, though the saint certainly 

 died at a very advanced age, the effort to prolong it to the later 



• "Theodosius junior, post Honorium regnum suscipiens, viginti et septem annis tenuit, 

 cujus anno imperii octavo Palladius ad Scotos in Christum credentes, a Pontifice Romanae 

 ecclesiae Celestino, primus mittitur episcopus." — Eccl. Hist. b. 1. c. 13. 



f See Researches, p. 250. 



I " Ad Scotos in Christum credentes, ordinatus a Papa Celestino, Palladius primus Epis- 

 copus missus est ; post ipsum, S. Patritius fuit, genera Brito, a Sancto Celestino ordinatus, 

 et ad Archiepiscopatum Hibernensem mittitur; ibi per annos xl. signis atque mirabilibue 

 praedicans, totam insulam Hibemiam convertit ad fidem." — Chronic, ad arm. 432. 



§ Cited Lanigan's Eccl. Hist. vol. 1. p. 131. 



II The Annals of Tigemach say A. D. 493. 



** " Sanctus Patricius, secundus Hiberniae archiepiscopus, (having named Palladius as 

 the first,) anno aetatis suae 122 in Domino quievitj de cujus sanctitate et miraculis multo 

 leguntur insignia." — Flor. Hist. 



