the
Mountain of the Britons; and the miracle cannot be unknown to those who
desire to be informed thereof, inasmuch as so often it is published
abroad by all the dwellers in that country.

CHAPTER XII.

_Of the Religious Conversation of Saint Patrick._

And the boy Patrick grew up precious in the sight of the Lord, in the
old age of wisdom, and in the ripeness of virtue. And the number of
his merits multiplied beyond the number of his years; the affluence of
all holy charities overflowed in the breast of the boy, and all the
virtues met together made their dwelling in his youthful body.
Entering, therefore, and going forward in the slippery paths of youth,
he held his feet from falling, and the garment that nature had woven
for him, unknowing of a stain, he preserved whole, abiding a virgin in
the flesh and in the spirit. And although the divine unction had
taught him above all, the fit time being now come, he was sent from his
parents to be instructed in sacred learning. Therefore he applied his
mind to the study of letters, but chiefly to psalms and to hymns and to
spiritual songs, and retaining them in his memory, and continually
singing them to the Lord; so that even from the flower of his first
youth he was daily wont to sing devoutly unto God the whole psaltery,
and from the vial of his most pure heart to pour forth the odor of many
prayers. Thus wearing out his tender body in fastings, in many
watchings, and in the pious exercise of holy labors, he offered up
himself a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God; and thus
passing his days in the flesh, against the flesh, and above the flesh,
in his conversation he represented an angel.

CHAPTER XIII.

_How Saint Patrick was Carried into Ireland._

As, according to the testimony of Holy Writ, the furnace tries gold and
the fire of tribulation proves the just, so did the hour of his trial
draw near to Patrick, that he might the more provedly receive the crown
of life. For when the illustrious boy had perlustrated three lustres,
already attaining his sixteenth year, he was, with many of his
countrymen, seized by the pirates who were ravaging those borders, and
was made captive and carried into Ireland, and was there sold as a
slave to a certain pagan prince named Milcho, who reigned in the
northern part of the island, even at the same age in which Joseph is
recorded to have been sold into Egypt. But Joseph, being sold as a
slave, and being