The history of Ireland is, in many respects, peculiar. Few nations received the faith so readily, and no other preserved it amidst similar struggles. St. Patrick first announced the Gospel to the assembled states of the realm at Tara. He received permission to preach it, unmolested, throughout the length and breadth of the land. By his indomitable zeal and heroic virtue, he succeeded in winning over the natives so effectually, that at his death few pagans remained in Ireland. Not a drop of blood was shed when Christianity was first announced. Heroism was displayed only by the exalted virtues of the Apostle and of the neophytes. Nowhere else did the Gospel take root so quickly and so firmly, and produce fruits so immediate and so abundant. Catholic Ireland soon became the home of the saints and sages of the Christian world. To many of the nations of the continent her apostles went forth, charged with the embassy of eternal truth. In every realm of Europe her children established sanctuaries of piety and learning; and to her own hospitable shores the natives of other lands flocked to receive education, and even support, from her gratuitous bounty. Homes of virtue dotted her hills and valleys; and thus were laid deep the roots of that strong attachment to the faith, which, later, was to be exposed to trials the most severe. We thus find God preparing Ireland for a future, then hidden to all but Himself. For the day of trial came at last. She was reposing in peace, under the shadow of the Gospel, when the barbaric invasion, that swept before it every vestige of learning and religion in many parts of Europe, reached her shores. Ireland was the only country that rolled back its wave. But she did this at the cost of her life’s blood. For two centuries the Dane trampled her sons under foot. His cruelties yet re-echo in the national traditions. But the Irish race at last arose in its might, and drove the barbarian from its shores. The churches of the country had been pillaged, its monasteries plundered, its institutions of learning destroyed—everything that the sword could smite, or fire consume, had perished; but the Irish race came out of the ordeal preserving its own integrity, and the jewel which it prized above all else—its glorious faith.