sinner, has written in Ireland, that no one may ever say, if I have
ever done or demonstrated anything, however little, that it was my
ignorance. But do you judge, and let it be believed firmly, that it
was the gift of God. And this is my confession before I die.

Thus far is what Patrick wrote with his own hand; he was translated to
heaven on the seventeenth of March.




ST. PATRICK'S EPISTLE TO COROTICUS.


_ST. PATRICK'S EPISTLE TO THE CHRISTIAN SUBJECTS OF THE TYRANT
COROTICUS._

I, Patrick, a sinner and unlearned, have been appointed a bishop in
Ireland, and I accept from God what I am. I dwell amongst barbarians
as a proselyte and a fugitive for the love of God. He will testify
that it is so. It is not my wish to pour forth so many harsh and
severe things; but I am forced by zeal for God and the truth of Christ,
who raised me up for my neighbors and sons, for whom I have forsaken my
country and parents, and would give up even life itself, if I were
worthy. I have vowed to my God to teach these people, though I should
be despised by them, to whom I have written with my own hand to be
given to the soldiers to be sent to Coroticus--I do not say to my
fellow-citizens, nor to the fellow-citizens of pious Romans, but to the
fellow-citizens of the devil, through their evil deeds and hostile
practices. They live in death, companions of the apostate Scots and