Mr. Petbie on the History and Antiquities ofTara Hill. 113 



be doubted by the impartial investigator, when it is considered that it is not 

 found in the original lives of the Saint, and a suspicion can hardly fail to arise 

 that it owes its origin to the necessity for reconciling the sixty years assigned to 

 the Saint's mission in Ireland with the year 432, in which it is asserted to have 

 commenced. As to the foreign authorities, they can have little weight in this 

 question as the most ancient of them, that of Florence of Worcester, is not earlier 

 than the beginning of the twelfth century. 



Another point connected with this question is the reputed day of his death; 

 and on this the authorities, ancient as well as modern, all concur in the statement, 

 that it was the I7th of March. Thus in the earliest, the Book of Armagh : 



" Quod in die xvi Kal. Aprilis peractis totius ejus vitae annis .cxx. at provenerat sicut 



omnibus totius Hyberniae annis celebratur." — Maccutheniiis. 



" SoUempnitate dormitationis ejus honorari [debet] in medio veris per .iii. dies et .iii. noctes omni 

 bono cibo praeter carnem quasi Patricius veniisset in vita in hostium." — Tirechan. 



So also in the Feilire or Festilogium of Aengus, at the IJth of March : 



LQsaiR 5r?eNi aiNe, 



Flamma soils puri, 



aspoL ei?eNO oi^e, 



Apostolus Hiberniaj sacrse, 



pauRQic coTTieu mice 



^ Patricius custos millium 



T?op oiuiu oiar? uRoi^e. 



Fuit prsDsidium nostris miseris. 



Here then is a perfect agreement of all the authorities, ancient as well as 

 modern, as to the day at present universally received as the festival of the Irish 

 Apostle ; and this day is altogether different from that assigned to the death of 

 Sen- Patrick, as well as different from any one of the days, for there are several, 

 assigned as that of the death of Palladius. But though these records seem clearly to 

 establish the fact that a second Patrick, the reputed Apostle, died on the 17th of 

 March, the very great degree of uncertainty respecting the day as well as year of the 

 death of Palladius, leave it by no means clear that this may not as properly be 

 his day. The day of Palladius's death is variously assigned to the 15th and 25th 

 of December, 431, and to the 27th of January and 6th of July, 432 ; and where 

 three of these dates must obviously be wrong, it is not unreasonable to conclude 



VOL. xviii. p 



