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Proceedings of the Royal Irish Acadeiny. 



et ut uiderem faciem sanctorum Domini mei. It was during these few 

 years, we must suppose, that Patrick acquired the knowledge of Holy 

 Scripture which his writings display, and also made many friends, one of 

 whom in particular, amicissimus mens (§§ 27, 32), was his confessor, 

 and afterwards his bitterest opponent. 



Patrick now returned once more to Britain, and visited his family. 

 They begged him to stay with them, but there was a stronger counter- 

 influence at work. Here in Britain came the definite call to work in 

 Ireland, Rogamus te, sancte piier^ ut uenias et adliuc amhidas inter nos. 

 Though Patrick must have been not far from thirty, he was still in his 

 dreams the holy youth whose fastings and prayers had excited the 

 veneration of the heathen Irish. 



After narrating this yision, Patrick exclaims : JDeo gratias^ quia post 

 plurimos annos praestitit illis Dominus secundum clamorem eoruni. We 

 cannot fairly infer from this more than the fact that many years 

 passed before Patrick preached in Connaught. It gives us no clue as 

 to the interval that elapsed between his visit to his family and his 

 landing in Ireland. There is, however, a note of time a little further 

 on in § 27, where, speaking about the unfair attack made on him by the 

 se7iioreSj he says, Occasioned post aminos triginta inxienerunt^ et aduersus 

 uerbum, quod confessus fueram antequam essem diaconus. This is most 

 naturally explained to mean that as thirty years had passed since the 

 commission of the sin which he had confessed, it was therefore un- 

 generous to revive the memory of it. The sin in question had occurred 

 when Patrick was about fifteen years old ; consequently he was forty- 

 five when it was employed as a ground of accusation against him. 

 We have seen that he cannot have been more than thirty at the time 

 of the vision in which Yictoricus appeared, and the call from Ireland 

 came. The inference is a fair one, that some, if not the greater, portion 

 of those fifteen years had been spent in evangelistic work in Ireland. 

 It is not likely that he would resist the Divine summons for fifteen 

 years. There was doubtless some delay. He tells us himself, I did not 

 proceed of my oivn accord to Ireland until I was almost worn out (§ 28) ; 

 worn out, that is, by the tearful pleadings of his family (§§ 23, 37), 

 and by the somewhat scornful depreciation of his powers expressed by 

 his ecclesiastical superiors, who thought it very presumptuous in so 

 rustic and unlearned a man to attempt to initiate a mission amongst 

 such savage heathens as were the Irish (§§ 37, 46). This two-fold 

 opposition not unnaturally raised misgivings in Patrick's own mind : 

 / did not quickly assent in accordance with what had heen shown to me^ 

 and as the Spirit brought to my remembrance . . . I did not know what . . . 



