Ulster and Leinster. Among the churches or religious communities
founded by him in Ulster was that of Armagh. If he was born about
the year 405, when he was carried to Ireland as a prisoner at the
age of sixteen the date would have been 421. His age would have
been twenty-two when he escaped, after six or seven years of
captivity, and the date 427. A year at home, and four years with
Germanus at Auxerre, would bring him to the age of twenty-seven, and
the year 432, when he began his great endeavour to put Christianity
into the main body of the Irish people. That work filled all the
rest of his life, which was long. If we accept the statement, in
which all the old records agree, that the time of Patrick's labour
in Ireland was not less than sixty years; sixty years bring him to
the age of eighty-eight in the year 493. And in that year he died.

The "Letter to Coroticus," ascribed to St. Patrick, is addressed to
a petty king of Brittany who persecuted Christians, and was meant
for the encouragement of Christian soldiers who served under him.
It may, probably, be regarded as authentic. The mass of legend
woven into the life of the great missionary lies outside this piece
and the "Confession." The "Confession" only expresses heights and
depths of religious feeling haunted by impressions and dreams,
through which, to the fervid nature out of which they sprang heaven
seemed to speak. St. Patrick did not attack heresies among the
Christians; he preached to those who were not Christians the
Christian faith and practice. His great influence was not that of a
writer, but of a speaker. He must have been an orator, profoundly
earnest, who could put his soul into his voice; and, when his words
bred deeds, conquered all difficulties in the way of action with
right feeling and good sense.
HENRY MORLEY.