pass [as he does me, a poor creature. Therefore the divine voice very
often admonished me to consider whence came this wisdom, which was not
in me, who neither knew God nor the number of my days. Whence did I
obtain afterwards the great and salutary gift to know or love God, and
to leave my country and my relations, although many gifts were offered
to me with sorrow and tears. And I offended many of my seniors then
against my will. But, guided by God, I yielded in no way to them--not
to me, but to God be the glory, who conquered in me, and resisted them
all; so that I came to the Irish people to preach the Gospel, and bear
with the injuries of the unbelieving, and listen to the reproach of
being a stranger, and endure many persecutions, even to chains, and to
give up my freedom for the benefit of others. And if I be worthy, I am
ready to give up my life unhesitatingly and most cheerfully for His
name, and thus, if the Lord permit, I desire to spend it even until my
death.]

For I am truly a debtor to God, who has given me so much grace that
many people should be born again to God through me, and that for them
everywhere should be ordained priests for this people, newly come to
the faith, which the Lord took from the ends of the earth, as He
promised formerly by His prophets: "Our fathers falsely prepared idols,
and there is no profit in them, to thee the Gentiles come and will
say." And again: "I have set thee to be the light of the Gentiles,
that thou mayest be for salvation unto the utmost parts of the earth."
And thus I wait the promise of Him who never fails, as He promises in
the Gospel: "They shall come from the east and the west [from the north
and from the south], and shall sit down with Abraham and Isaac and
Jacob." So we believe that the faithful shall come from all parts of
the world.