And the boy Patrick grew up precious in the sight of the Lord, in the old age of wisdom, and in the ripeness of virtue. And the number of his merits multiplied beyond the number of his years; the affluence of all holy charities overflowed in the breast of the boy, and all the virtues met together made their dwelling in his youthful body. Entering, therefore, and going forward in the slippery paths of youth, he held his feet from falling, and the garment that nature had woven for him, unknowing of a stain, he preserved whole, abiding a virgin in the flesh and in the spirit. And although the divine unction had taught him above all, the fit time being now come, he was sent from his parents to be instructed in sacred learning. Therefore he applied his mind to the study of letters, but chiefly to psalms and to hymns and to spiritual songs, and retaining them in his memory, and continually singing them to the Lord; so that even from the flower of his first youth he was daily wont to sing devoutly unto God the whole psaltery, and from the vial of his most pure heart to pour forth the odor of many prayers. Thus wearing out his tender body in fastings, in many watchings, and in the pious exercise of holy labors, he offered up himself a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God; and thus passing his days in the flesh, against the flesh, and above the flesh, in his conversation he represented an angel. CHAPTER XIII. _How Saint Patrick was Carried into Ireland._ As, according to the testimony of Holy Writ, the furnace tries gold and the fire of tribulation proves the just, so did the hour of his trial draw near to Patrick, that he might the more provedly receive the crown of life. For when the illustrious boy had perlustrated three lustres, already attaining his sixteenth year, he was, with many of his countrymen, seized by the pirates who were ravaging those borders, and was made captive and carried into Ireland, and was there sold as a slave to a certain pagan prince named Milcho, who reigned in the northern part of the island, even at the same age in which Joseph is recorded to have been sold into Egypt. But Joseph, being sold as a slave, and being after his humiliation exalted, received power and dominion over all Egypt. Patrick, after his servitude and his affliction, obtained the primacy of the especial and spiritual dominion of Ireland. Joseph refreshed with corn the Egyptians oppressed by famine; Patrick, in process of time, fed with the salutary food of the Christian faith the Irish perishing under idolatry. To each was affliction sent for the profit of his soul, as is the flail to the grain, the furnace to the gold, the file to the iron, the wine-press to the grape, and the oil-press to the olive. Therefore it was that Patrick, at the command of the forementioned prince, was appointed to the care of the swine, and under his care the herd became fruitful and exceedingly multiplied.