The Most Ancient Lives of Saint Patrick: Including the Life by Jocelin, Hitherto Unpublished in America, and His Extant Writings
History
The Most Ancient Lives of Saint Patrick: Including the Life by Jocelin, Hitherto Unpublished in America, and His Extant Writings
Patrick, Saint, 373?-463?
And in Lesser Britain lived a venerable man, named Vinvaloeus, who was
even from his infancy renowned for signs and wonders; for as his acts
are recorded, very many exceeding great miracles are attested to have
been done by him. And he, the south wind so blowing that all his
perfumes breathed forth, heard the holy name of Saint Patrick, and
earnestly desired he to hasten unto the odor of his virtues. And long
time he pondered and desired; and at length determined he to leave his
country and his parents, and to go unto Hibernia to serve Christ under
the discipulate and disciplinate of Saint Patrick; but when the night
came, with the morrow whereof he purposed to begin his journey, he
beheld in a vision that most illustrious man standing before him,
clothed in his pontifical vestments; and then said he unto him: "Know
thou me, beloved Vinvaloeus, to be the Patrick unto whom thou purposest
to travel; yet weary thou not thyself, nor seek thou him whom thou
canst not find; for the hour of my dissolution draweth nigh, when I
shall go the way of all flesh. Therefore it is the will of God that
thou leavest not this place; but by thy conversation and example shalt
thou endeavor to gain over a people acceptable unto him, and which
shall follow good works; forasmuch as the crown of life is yet to be
seen, which he hath promised unto those who love him." Thus saying,
the vision disappeared, and Vinvaloeus did as he was bidden of heaven.
Now let the hearer admire his perfection, who by the spirit which was
in him saw the desire of the holy man dwelling in Armorica, and thus
wondrously changed him from the purpose of his intended journey.
CHAPTER CLXXXIII.
_The Daily Prayers and Genuflexions of the Saint._
And now, the cloud of unbelief, by whose eclipse the people of Hibernia
so long had wanted the warmth and the light of the true sun, being
dispersed, now did the tongue, the life, the virtue of the blessed
Patrick, so long as the breath and the Spirit of God were in his
nostrils, avail unto the things which were begun, continued, and ended
in the Lord; giving the knowledge of salvation, affording the example
of holiness, extending the remedy of all diseases. And verily, this
peculiar habit of life, which he exercised in secret, was daily and
perpetual; inasmuch as every day was he wont diligently to sing the
entire Psaltery, with many songs and hymns, and the Apocalypse of the
Apostle John, and two hundred prayers before God; three hundred times
did he bend his knees in adoration of the Lord; every canonical hour of
the day did he one hundred times sign himself with the sign of the
cross. Nevertheless did he not omit every day worthily and devoutly to
offer up unto the Father the sacrifice of the Son; and never ceased he
to teach the people or instruct his disciples.
CHAPTER CLXXXIV.
_How he passed the Night Season._
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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