Mr. Petrie on the History and Antiquities of Tara HilL 



99 



prcedicare, et babtizare, et mortuos suscitare, 

 et sanare omnes morbos, et effugere omnes de- 

 mones de Hibemia, et sanctificare et conse- 

 crare, et ordinare et benedicere, et decertare 

 et cumsumare, [recte consummare,] quia 

 Apostolus ait, Certamen bonum certavi et cur- 

 sum consumavi, Sfc. . ' 



6a hi qia bliaoain ranic pacjiaic do 

 cum n-Gpeno, Nin. ipin qiepp bliaoain o;^^. 

 op cccc. o InchollujUD, ipn nomao bliaoain 

 placha Ceorhanep, pij in Domain, ocup ipin 

 cema bliooain Gppcopooi Xipci, comopba 

 Pecaip, ocup ip in cecpumao bliaoain placha 

 Coejaipe TDic Neill i Cemaip, ocup ipm Ix,- 

 acmoD bliaoain a aipe pooen. jLx. bliaoain 

 cpa, DO ic bairpeo ocup ic poipcecul pep 

 n-6penD, amail ar bepr piacc : 

 Ppicchaip qii pichce bliaona 

 CpocJii Cpipc DO chuarhaiB pene, &c. 



Ir he in po cpa cepcup h-Glepain pop pa- 

 qiaic, in can cuccao capo pacpaic chuca 

 DO Cluain h-lpaipo: 



6a mJn, ba map TTlac Calpuipn, 



Cpoeb pine po mepp, 



to resuscitate the dead, and to cure all diseases, 

 and to banish all the demons from Ireland, and to 

 sanctify and consecrate, and to ordain and bless, 

 and to contest and consummate ; for the Apostle 

 says, I have fought a good fight, and I have 

 finished my course, &c.* 



The year, then, Patrick came to Ireland was in 

 the thirty -third year above four hundred from 

 the Incarnation,' in the ninth year of the reign of 

 Theothanes,' [recte Theodosius,] king of the 

 world, and in the first year of the Episcopacy of 

 Sixtus,' the coarb [successor] of Peter, and in the 

 fourth year of the reign of Loeghaire,* the son of 

 Niall, at Temur ; and in the sixtieth year of his 

 own age.' He was sixty years baptizing and in- 

 structing the men of Ireland, as Fiec says :'' 



He preached for three score years 



The crucifixion of Christ to the tribes of the 

 FeniJ 

 Here is the character given by Heleran'* of 

 Patrick, when he brought them an account of 

 him to Clonard : 



Meek and great was the son of Calphurn, 



A vine branch under fruit, [i. e. bearing fruit] 



i • II. Tim. iv. 7. 



' 433, i. e. reckoning from tlie conception, not tlie birth of Christ. 



' Counting from the death of Honorius, in the year 423, the ninth year of the reign of Theodosius would be 432, 

 which is the year in which, according to all authorities, St. Patrick came to Ireland. 



' That is, in the first year of Pope Sixtus III., who succeeded Celestine on the 10th of August, 432. 



■• King Laoghaire succeeded, according to the Four Masters, in the year 429 ; 432 would consequently be his fourth 

 year. 



' According to this chronology Patrick was born in the year 372, which is also the date given in the Chronicle of 

 Florence of Worcester, but this is thirty-one years later than the period assigned to his birth by Tighearnach, and 

 thirty-six later than that given in the Annals of Connaught. 



* This would fix Patrick's death in the year 492, or, reckoning from the period of the Conception, as some of the 

 Irish annalists do, in 493. 



' By Feni Fiec certainly means the people of Ireland, who, according to all the Shanachies, were called Feni, Gael, 

 and Scoti, from three of their celebrated progenitors. See Fiec's Scholiast, Trias Thaum, p. 7. 



* Eleran, generally called Eleranus Sapiens, is supposed by Colgan to be the author of the fourth Life of Saint Patrick 

 published in Trias Thaum. He died a very old man in 6fi4, according to the Four Masters, Ware, L. 1, c. 13, and 

 Ussher in his Chronological Index. This quotation from Eleran is also given in the Litany of Aengus. 



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