PAT 
879 
PAT 
cable hatred to their own flefti; which fometimes car¬ 
ried them fo far as to kill themfelves. They were alfo 
called Tatianites, and made a branch of the E«- 
CRATIT J£. 
PATRI'CIATE, /. The order or dignity of patri¬ 
cians. 
PAT'RICIDE, /. [patricidium, Lat.] The fame with 
Parricide, which fee, vol. xviii. 
PA'TRICK, a county of Virginia, containing 4.699 
whites, and 74a blacks. 
PA'TRICK, a Chriftian and furname of men. 
PA'TRICK (St.), from the eminent fervices he ren¬ 
dered to the Irifh in converting them from idolatry, is 
called the archbilhop, apoftle, and father, of the Hiber¬ 
nian Church ; and he has alfo the honour of being fe- 
ledted as the patron or tutelar faint of that ifland. The 
name this faint received at his baptifm was Suceath, 
formed from the Britilh language, and exprefiing “ Valour 
in War.” His parents, who were Britons by birth, were 
of great refpeftability and repute, and relided at the fpot 
now called Kirk-Patrick, near Dunbarton, where it is 
generally acknowledged this eminent charadler was born. 
But the Irifli affert him to have been a Genoefe friar, who 
travelled on foot through Italy, France, and England, to 
t he coaltof Scotland, from whence he embarked and landed 
at Donaghadee in Ireland. 
He received the firft rudiments of his education at the 
place of his nativity, and was early confpicuous for an 
ingenuous and amiable difpofition, and for fuperiority of 
mental powers. Scarcely arrived at the age of fixteen, 
he was taken prifoner by certain Irifh exiles, and con¬ 
veyed to that kingdom, where he continued fix years in 
captivity under Milcho, who purchafed him as a Have, 
and bellowed upon him the name of Cothraig, fignifying 
“ Four Families,” and defigned to convey the cireual¬ 
liance of his having been purchafed from the fervice of 
three perfons, his mailers by capture, to be employed 
under the fourth, who fo named him. During this fervi- 
tude, from which St. Patrick contrived to efcape, he had 
made himfelf a perfedl mailer of the Irifh language ; and 
he is confidered, very early after his return to his native 
fpot, to have conceived the with of converting the Irifn 
from Paganifm to Chriliianity. The qualifications ne- 
ceffary for this purpofe, could not however be attained 
in Britain, where few only were then remarkable for any 
particular mental acquirement: paffing, therefore, over to 
the continent, he ftudied the Scriptures for thirty-five 
years, firft under St. Martin, the bifliop of Tours, his 
mother’s uncle, who ordained him deacon 5 and next un¬ 
der the no lefs celebrated St. German, bifhop of Arles, 
who advanced him to prieft’s orders, and, for reafons un¬ 
known, gave the third name by which hiilory fpeaks of 
him, of Mawn, or Maginim. By St. German he was re-' 
commended to the particular confideration of Celeftine, 
the fovereign pontiff, who confecrated him a bifhop, and 
again changed his name to Patricias, or Patrick, not 
only in allufion to the refpeclability of his defeent, but 
to give luftre and weight to the important million with 
which he intended to in trull him, of converting the Irifh: 
and his receiving this fourth name is confidered as form¬ 
ing a remarkable coincidence with the fa 61 of his having 
been called Cothraig, in, allufion to the four families, or 
four mailers, whom he ferved ! Celeftine had before de¬ 
puted Palladius to preach the dodlrines of Chriftianity 
to the Irifh 5 but that learned doctor had returned un- 
fuccelsful from his million ; and hence arofe the favour¬ 
ite adage in the filler country of “ Not to Palladius, but 
to Patrick, did the Lord vouchfafe the converfion of Hi¬ 
bernia.” 
In the year 441, as afferted by moll authors, though fo 
early as 432 by others, St. Patrick landed at Wicklow, 
from whence he proceeded to Dublin and Ulfter, at which 
latter place he founded a church 5 and, after labouring 
with confiderable fuccefs for about feven years, he again 
Vol. XIX. No. 1310. 
vifited Britain, which he delivered from the then preva¬ 
lent herefies of Pelagius and Arius 5 eftabllfhed the great 
church of St. Andrew at Menevia, afterwards called Sr. 
David’s ; and fettled the bilhopric of the Ifle of Man. 
Thefe important duties executed, St. Patrick returned to 
Ireland, nearly the whole of which ifland he brought to 
the Chriftian faith, after the mofl indefatigable and 
zealous efforts of about the further period of thirteen 
years. He then once more vifited Rome, to render an 
account of the happy fuccefs of his million, which he had 
executed with fo much diferetion as not to occafion the 
martyrdom of even one of his companions, nor of any of 
thofe for whofe falyation he had fo ftrenuoufly exerted 
his noble faculties. About the year 472, lie founded the 
archbifhopric of Armagh, between which place and his 
church at Ulfter, afterwards the famous abbey of Saul, he 
palfed the remainder of his long and well-fpent life, dying 
at the latter place on the 17th March, 493, in the 120th 
year of his age. The moll current belief favours his 
having been buried in the abbey of Saul, in the county 
of Down; but there have been arguments adduced in 
proof of his having been interred at Glaltonbury, in Eng¬ 
land, and many more that his remains were depofited at 
Glafgow, in Scotland. Cambrenfis pofitively affirms, that 
“the bodies of St. Patrick, St. Bridget, and St. Columb, 
were not only buried at Down,but were alfo there taken up 
andtranflatedintofhrinesby John de Courfey about 1185.” 
The miracles attributed to St. Patrick are numerous 5 
fome of a nature too much out of the line of modern 
belief to be repeated ; others too clofely bordering on 
the efforts of other faints to create much intereft, 
fuch as having fwam acrofs the Shannon with his 
head under his arm; &c. &c. Nor fliould we have 
noticed them at all, but from the circum(lance that Jo- 
celin’s “ A6ts of St. Patrick” have been deemed of fuffi- 
cient authenticity to be introduced to notice in the vulgar 
tongue, fo recently as 1809, after having been left undif- 
turbed in the Latin in which it was originally penned, in 
the early part of the twelfth century, when fuperftition 
and ignorance were at the greateft height in Europe. 
From this legend we fliall therefore fele6l the hiilory of 
one miracle, performed not by St. Patrick, but on St. 
Patrick. It will fiiow, moreover, with what ingenuity the 
Irifh Papifts have contrived to eat meat on the anniverfary 
of their tutelar faint. “ A defire of eating meat once 
came on St. Patrick, until, being enfnared and carried 
away by his delire, he obtained (wine’s flefli, and con¬ 
cealed it in a certain veffel; thinking that he might thus 
fatisfy his appetite privily, which fhould he openly do, he 
would become to his brethren a Hone of offence, and a 
ftumbling-block of reproach. He had not long quitted 
the place, when lo! one Hood before him, having eyes 
before and behind; whom, when Patrick beheld, he 
marvelled who he was, and what meant his eyes fixed 
before and behind did earneftly alk; and h6 anfwered ‘ I 
am the fervant of God ; with the eyes fixed in my fore¬ 
head I behold the things that are open to view, and with 
the eyes that are fixed in the hinder part of my head I 
behold a monk hiding flefti-meat in a veffel, that he may 
fatisfy his appetite privily.’ This he faid, and imme¬ 
diately difappeared. Then Patrick, ftriking his bread 
with many llrokes, call himfelf to the earth, and watered 
it with fuch a Ihower of tears as if he had been guilty of 
all crimes ; and, while he thus lay on the ground, mourn¬ 
ing and weeping, the angel Vidlor, fo often before men¬ 
tioned, appeared to him in his wonted form, faying, 
‘ Arife, let thine heart be comforted, for the Lord hath 
put away thine offence; and hence-forward avoid back- 
fliding.’ Then Patrick, riling from the earth, utterly re¬ 
nounced and abjured the eating of fle(h-meat,even through 
the reft of his life ; and he humbly befought the Lord 
that he would manifeft unto him his pardon by fome evi¬ 
dent fign. Then the angel bade Patrick bring forth the 
hidden meats, and put them into water; and he did as 
5 E the 
