Ruadanus, and stopped him from working the same miracle again, departed with his companions.[30] CHRONOLOGY. 1723. March 16, a royal proclamation was issued for a thanksgiving for our preservation from the plague. [It has been lately proved that the plague is not contagious. Dr. Maclean is understood to have established the fact to the satisfaction of government, and it is in contemplation to repeal the present laws of _quarantine_.] * * * * * FLORAL DIRECTORY. Nodding Daffodil. _Narcissus nutans._ Dedicated to St. Julian. [29] Butler’s Saints. [30] Patrick’s Devotions. ~March 17.~ _St. Patrick._ _St. Joseph_, of Arimathea. _St. Gertrude_, Abbess, A. D. 626. ST. PATRICK, _Apostle of Ireland_. St. Patrick was born towards the end of the fourth century, in Killpatrick, between Dunbriton and Glasgow. At sixteen he was carried off with many of his father’s vassals into slavery, and compelled for six months to keep cattle on the mountains in Ireland, from whence he escaped through the humanity of some sailors. He travelled into Gaul and Italy, and received his apostolical mission to convert the Irish, from pope Celestine, who died in 432. Determined on attempting the conversion of the people, he penetrated to the remotest corners of Ireland, baptized multitudes, ordained clergy to preside over them, instituted monks, gave alms to the poor of the provinces, made presents to the kings, educated children to serve at the altar, held councils, founded monasteries, restored health to the sick, sight to the blind, raised dead persons to life, continued his missions during forty years, and died at Down in Ulster, where he was buried. Such, in brief, is Alban Butler’s account, who assigns the year 464, for a period wherein he lived. Ribadeneira affirms it, as a most famous miracle, and well known to the whole world, that St. Patrick did so free Ireland of all venomous beasts, that none could ever since breed or live there, and that even the very wood has a virtue against poison, “so that it is reported of king’s college, Cambridge, that being built of Irish wood, no spider doth ever come near it.”