picelegium, were engraved by Messengham, with the
approbation of the French King and the Paris Archbishop, at Paris, in
1629, and were reproduced at Dublin in 1809. They are now re-engraved
for the first time in this country. The illustration prefixed to the
life by Jocelin is of ancient date, and supposed to have been suggested
by the representation of St. Patrick in the Kilkenny Cathedral.

I hold myself responsible in no way whatsoever for the statements of
St. Fiech, St. MacEvin, or Jocelin, but I present to the reader what
they asserted they had received from antiquity. Their narratives may
be pronounced fables, or legends, or inventions, or superstitions, or
histories. On their intrinsic merits I am silent, except inasmuch as
they breathe a firm belief in the omnipresence of God amongst men,
strangely at variance with the lifeless, frosty indifference of our own
day, and are, in addition, savored with a holy heat of charity and a
high moral tone. Without comment, then, from me, I present to you in
America, kind readers, Saint Patrick, the Apostle and Patron of Ireland
and the Irish race, as I received him from my ancestors. I neither
overstate, nor under-estimate, nor withheld anything. Judge for
yourselves.

REV. JAMES O'LEARY, D.D.

THE CONFESSION OF ST. PATRICK.

_THE BEGINNING OF THE BOOKS OF THE BISHOP ST. PATRICK._

I, Patrick, a sinner, the rudest and least of all the faithful, and
most contemptible to very many, had for my father Calpornius, a deacon,
the son of Potitus, a priest, who lived in Bannaven Taberniae, for he
had a small country-house close by, where I was taken captive when I
was nearly sixteen years of age. I knew not the true God, and I was
brought captive to Ireland with many thousand men, as we deserved; for
we had forsaken God, and had not kept His commandments, and were
disobedient to our priests, who admonished us for our salvation. And
the Lord brought down upon us the anger of His Spirit, and scattered us
among many nations, even to the ends of the earth, where now my
littleness may be seen amongst strangers. And there the Lord showed me
my unbelief, that at length I might remember my iniquities, and
strengthen my whole heart towards the Lord my God, who looked down upon
my humiliation, and had pity upon my youth and ignorance, and kept me
before I knew him, and before I had wisdom or could distinguish between
good and evil, and strengthened and comforted me as a