bishop to acquaint Urban III. of the discovery of the bodies. His
Holiness immediately sent Cardinal Vivian to preside at the translation
of the relics. The ceremony took place on the 9th of June, 1186, that
day being the feast of St. Columba. The relics of the three saints were
deposited in the same monument at the right side of the high altar. The
right hand of St. Patrick was enshrined and placed on the high altar. In
1315, Edward Bruce invaded Ulster, marched to Downpatrick, destroyed the
abbey, and carried off the enshrined hand. In 1538, Lord Grey, who
marched into Lecale to establish the supremacy of his master, Henry
VIII., by fire and sword, "effaced the statues of the three patron
saints, and burned the cathedral, for which act, along with many others
equally laudable, he was beheaded three years afterwards." The
restoration of the old abbey-church was undertaken of late years, and
preceded by an act of desecration, which is still remembered with
horror. The church had been surrounded by a burying-ground, where many
had wished to repose, that they might, even in death, be near the relics
of the three great patron saints of Erinn. But the graves were exhumed
without mercy, and many were obliged to carry away the bones of their
relatives, and deposit them where they could. The "great tomb," in which
it was believed that "Patrick, Brigid, and Columkille" had slept for
more than six centuries, was not spared; the remains were flung out into
the churchyard, and only saved from further desecration by the piety of
a faithful people.

The shrine of St. Patrick's hand was in possession of the late Catholic
Bishop of Belfast. The relic itself has long disappeared; but the
shrine, after it was carried off by Bruce, passed from one trustworthy
guardian to another, until it came into his hands. One of these was a
Protestant, who, with noble generosity, handed it over to a Catholic as
a more fitting custodian. One Catholic family, into whose care it passed
at a later period, refused the most tempting offers for it, though
pressed by poverty, lest it should fall into the hands of those who
might value it rather as a curiosity than as an object of devotion.

This beautiful reliquary consists of a silver case in the shape of the
hand and arm, cut off a little below the elbow. It is considerably
thicker than the hand and arm of an ordinary man, as if it were intended
to enclose these members without pressing upon them too clos