r, in Brittany,
some distance from his native place. Their charity, however, was amply
repaid. Travelling through a desert country, they had surely perished
with hunger, had not the prayers of the saint obtained them a miraculous
supply of food.

It is said that St. Patrick suffered a second captivity, which, however,
only lasted sixty days; but of this little is known. Neither is the
precise time certain, with respect to these captivities, at which the
events occurred which we are about to relate. After a short residence at
the famous monastery of St. Martin, near Tours, founded by his saintly
relative, he placed himself (probably in his thirtieth year) under the
direction of St. Germain of Auxerre.

It was about this period that he was favoured with the remarkable vision
or dream relating to his Irish apostolate. He thus describes it in his
_Confessio_:--

"I saw, in a nocturnal vision, a man named Victoricus[120] coming as if
from Ireland, with a large parcel of letters, one of which he handed to
me. On reading the beginning of it, I found it contained these words:
'The voice of the Irish;' and while reading it I thought I heard, at the
same moment, the voice of a multitude of persons near the Wood of
Foclut, which is near the western sea; and they cried out, as if with
one voice, '_We entreat thee, holy youth, to come and henceforth walk
amongst us.'_ And I was greatly affected in my heart, and could read no
longer; and then I awoke."

St. Patrick retired to Italy after this vision, and there spent many
years. During this period he visited Lerins,[121] and other islands in
the Mediterranean. Lerins was distinguished for its religious and
learned establishments; and probably St. Germain,[122] under whose
direction the saint still continued, had recommended him to study there.
It was at this time that he received the celebrated staff, called the
_Bachall Isu_, or Staff of Jesus.

St. Bernard mentions this _Bachall Isu_, in his life of St. Malachy, as
one of those insignia of the see of Armagh, which were popularly
believed to confer upon the possessor a title to be regarded and obeyed
as the successor of St. Patrick. Indeed, the great antiquity of this
long-treasured relic has never been questioned; nor is there any reason
to suppose that it was not in some way a miraculous gift.

Frequent notices of this pastoral staff are found in ancient Irish
history. St. Fiacc speaks of it as having been richly adorned by