The youth Succat or Patrick remained in hard slavery for six years, tending cattle, probably on Slemish Mountain in the county Antrim. He seems to have been of an enthusiastic temperament, and much given to prayer and meditation. Learning of a means of escape, it so filled his mind as to give rise to visions. The bays and creeks of the west and north-west of Ireland, especially Killala Bay, were much frequented in ancient times, for they afforded secure retreats to sea-rovers when they crept round the coast of Ireland and swooped down on that of Roman Britain. Ptolemy’s town of Nagnata was probably on the bay just named; it is celebrated in the stories of Fomorians, Norsemen, and other sea-rovers. The kindred of the Ard Ri or paramount king of Ireland of the time, Dathi or rather Athi, one of the greatest leaders among the invading Scots, dwelt there; it was consequently a place which offered facilities for going to Britain, and from that place most probably Patrick succeeded in escaping. After his escape he appears to have conceived the noble idea of devoting himself to the conversion of the Irish, and to have gone somewhere for a few years to prepare himself for the priesthood. His biographers take him to Tours to St Martin, who was then dead several years, afterwards to the island of Lerins in the Mediterranean, and lastly to Rome, where he received a mission from Pope Celestine. For all this there is no evidence whatever, the whole story being the result of the confusion of Palladius with the real Patrick. The tradition of some connexion between the Irish apostle and St Martin of Tours, the monastic type of the earliest Irish Church, the doubts as to Patrick’s fitness for the work which led to his writing his Confession, and indeed all the difficulties that beset the question of the origin of the Irish Church, receive a simple and satisfactory explanation upon the hypothesis of Patrick having prepared himself for the priesthood at Candida Casa, the monastic institution founded by St Ninian (q.vf.

Patrick tells us that after a few years (i.e., after his escape) he was among the Britons with his kindred, who received him as a son. He was evidently bent upon his mission, for they besought him after such tribulations not to part from them again. Full of it, he dreams that a man whose name was Victoricus came to him bearing innumerable epistles, one of which he received and read; the beginning of it contained the words, “The voice of the Irish”; whilst repeating these words he says, “I imagined that I heard in my mind (in mente) the voice of those who were near the wood of Fochlad, which is near the western sea, and thus they cried: We pray thee, holy youth, to come and henceforward walk amongst us.” The wood here referred to, which was in the neighbourhood of Killala Bay, was most probably the place where he remained concealed when waiting for a boat to make his escape from slavery. This dream was followed by others, which shows how completely his mission occupied his mind. Patrick was about twenty-two years of age when he escaped from slavery, and, if we allow seven or eight years for the “few years’” preparation, he probably was not more than thirty years of age when he entered on his mission about 425. There is a passage in his Confession which shows that he was still a young man when he commenced his work: “You know and God knows how I have lived among you from my youth up.” Probus, the author of the fifth life published by Colgan, who has many claims upon our confidence, supports this view that Patrick began his mission while still a priest. We see in Patrick’s own authentic acts that he must have sought among his friends in Britain to be made a bishop, for he complains in his Confession that a friend to whom he had communicated some fault he had committed when about fifteen years old had urged this thirty years after as a reason against his being consecrated to the higher office. This proves that he was only about forty-five years old when made bishop. If we assume that 411 was the year he was carried off as a slave, his consecration as bishop would fall in about 441, the fifteenth year of his mission, a date which corresponds with the results of Dr Todd’s speculations based on a close analysis of all available chronological data. Compare in general on the conversion of Ireland what has been said in vol. xiii. p. 247 sq.

The date of St Patrick’s death is as uncertain as that of every other event connected with him. The Annals of the Four Masters give 493, with which Ussher agrees; Tirechan’s Annotations, on the other hand, state that Loegaire, son of Niall, king of Ireland, lived from two to five years after St Patrick. According to this account the death of St Patrick took place in 469, and that of Loegaire in 471 or 474, after a reign of thirty-six years, so that Loegaire’s reign began either in 435 or 438. The Annals of the Four Masters record the death in 457 of Senn Patraicc, or Old Patrick, and of Loegaire in the following year, 458. The Patrick who died in 493 is a fiction due to the fusion of the acts of the two real Patricks, Palladius Patrick and Senn Patraicc, doubtless so called because he was the Patrick known as a priest before the arrival of the Roman bishop. Assuming Tirechan’s statement as correct, and that St Patrick died in 469, his mission as priest and bishop lasted about forty-four years.

The materials for a life of the apostle of Ireland are very scanty; they consist indeed of only two Latin pieces—one the so-called Confession and the other an Epistle about a certain Coroticus. Some persons, apparently in Britain or Gaul, seem to have accused Patrick of presumption in having undertaken so great a work as the Christianizing of Ireland, and of incapacity for the task; the Confession is a defence of himself against these charges, and is a kind of autobiographical sketch. The Epistle is a denunciation of a British chief called Coroticus, supposed to be Caredig or Ceredig, son of Cynedda, conqueror of North Wales, who had ravaged the coast of Ireland, killed a number of Christian neophytes on the very day of their baptism while still clad in white garments, carried off others into slavery, and scoffed at a deputation of clergy Patrick had sent to ask their release. There is a copy of the Confession in the MS. called the “Book of Armagh,” written about the year 807, and apparently made from Patrick’s autograph, which the scribe several times complains of being then obscure. There are copies in other MSS. which contain nearly as much additional matter not in the “Book of Armagh” as would, if put together, be nearly equal to the text of the MS. just named. Are these additions part of the original work of Patrick omitted by the scribe because they were illegible, or for some other reason, or are they interpolations? Judging by many examples in other Irish MSS.. the former appears to be the better interpretation, for they are written in the same rude and archaic style, exhibit the same peculiarity of grammatical construction somewhat like Irish, and are not inconsistent with the rest. He modestly tells us himself that he is unlearned (indoctus) and very rustic (rusticissimus). The Epistle is not in the “Book of Armagh,” but both pieces possess all the characteristics of the time and place, and may be regarded as genuine documents, and have been so regarded by nearly all scholars who have written on the subject.

There are also several old lives of the saint, seven of which have been published by Colgan in his Trias Thaumaturga, the last of which, known as the Tripartite life, is the most copious. These lives are based upon the two genuine documents above mentioned, and are a tissue of legends and miracles, and, though no doubt containing a few genuine traditions, are only of value for manners and customs, and even for this purpose require much care in their use.

The place, time, and circumstances of Patrick’s labours have largely contributed to the obscurity which surrounds him. His very name has helped to increase it. Patricius, like Augustus, s,eems to have been commonly used, even down to the 7th century, in the sense of nobleman or gentleman; thus Dynamius, who lived in the beginning of the century just referred to, is described as “Virillustris ac patricius Galliarum.” Patrick’s real name, according to tradition, was Succat, but in his own writings he calls himself Patrick. There was, however, another Patrick whó under the name of Palladius was unquestionably sent as bishop to Ireland by Pope Celestine in the year 431, that is, the year before the other Patrick commenced his mission according to the generally received accounts. Irish writers also mention a third Patrick, Senn Patraicc, or Old Patrick, the head of St Patrick’s community (caput sapientum seniorum ejus) according to one account, and his tutor according to another. The three Patricks have sorely puzzled hagiologists, and created so much confusion and conjecture in the history of the early church that some have doubted the existence of such a personage as St Patrick at all. The absence of any contemporary reference to him, or of any mention of him by Columbanus, Bede, and indeed with very few exceptions by any writers outside of Ireland before the 9th century, adds very much to the uncertainty and obscurity of the subject.

PATRICK, St, Order of. See Knighthood, vol. xiv. pp. 123-24.

PATRICK, Simon (1626-1707), bishop of Chichester, and afterwards of Ely, author of a number of works in practical divinity, was born at Gainsborough, Lincolnshire, on 8th September 1626, entered Queens’ College, Cambridge, in 1644, and, after taking orders in 1651, became successively chaplain to Sir Walter St John, and vicar of Battersea, Surrey. He was afterwards (1662) preferred to the rectory of St Paul’s, Covent Garden, London, where he continued to labour during the year of the plague. Dean of Peterborough from 1678, he became bishop of Chichester in 1689, in which year he was employed, along with others of the new bishops, to settle the affairs of the church in Ireland. In 1691 he received the bishopric of Ely, which he held until his death, 31st May 1707.

His sermons and devotiona! writings, which are very numerous, were held in high estimation in last century, and his edifying Commentary on the Historical and Poetical Books of the Old Testament, in 10 vols., brought down as far as to the Song of Solomon, has been reprinted comparatively recently (1853). His Friendly Debate between a Conformist and a Nonconformist was a controversial tract which excited considerable feeling at the time of its publication in 1668, but he lived long enough to soothe by his moderation and candour the exasperation it had caused. The first collected edition of his works appeared at Oxford in 1859 (9 vols., 8vo); a small Autobiography was published also at Oxford in 1839.