A third Patrician fragment in the Book of Hymns, eleventh century, is entitled Ninine’s Prayer, with the explanatory head-line, “Ninine the poet made this prayer, or Fiacc of Sletty.” It runs:— We put trust in St. Patrick, chief apostle of Ireland, Conspicuous his name, wonderful; a flame that baptized Gentiles, He fought against hard-hearted Druids; he thrust down proud men with the aid of Our Lord of fair heavens. He purified the great offspring of meadow-landed Erin, We pray to Patrick, chief apostle, who will save us at the Judgment from doom to the malevolences of dark demons. God be with me with the prayer of Patrick, chief apostle! In all this varied literature, reaching from his own time till ours, the Apostle of Ireland stands forth a commanding personality, as different from St. Columba as St. Francis was from St. Bernard. Genial, earnest, humble, sensitively sympathetic, with commanding force of character and irresistible determination as the agent of a Divine Mission, his enthusiasm made way for him. Less impulsive, less warlike, and less learned than Columcille, he carried on his spiritual campaign in a spirit of self-denying devotion and love of men. “Patrick, without loftiness or arrogance,” as Fiacc describes him, “it was much of good he thought.” At the end of the day we find him in poverty and misery writing his Confession, not sure but the morrow of his life may bring a violent death, or slavery, or some other dread evil. Yet true to the last in his unquenchable zeal, his own words seem to sum up the high aim of his life: “Therefore it is very fitting that we should spread our nets that a copious multitude and crowd may be taken for God, and that everywhere there may be clergy who shall baptize a needy and desiring people.” He died at Saul, while on a visit there from Armagh, and his grave is believed to be at Downpatrick, to which place tradition says the remains of St. Columba were transported from Iona in the more troublous times, and re-interred beside those of his great forerunner. CHAPTER III ST. COLUMBA AND THE DAWN OF LETTERS IN SCOTLAND The fugitive MSS.—Gaelic a literary language for ages—Scotland’s first writer—St. Columba one of the rarer master-spirits—His peculiar qualities—Intellectual standpoint—Birth—Early life—A fateful incident—Sets sail for Pictland—Motive—Arrival in pagan Scotland—His missionary enterprise—Lights the lamp of literature—An ardent scholar, penman, and poet—The famous “Cathrach”—His Gaelic poems—Latin hymns—The Columban renaissance—Encouragement of bards and scholars—The _Amra Choluimcille_—Iona as an educational centre—European fame and influence.