ced to be the controversy of the pure
and impure prelates, of good and of bad men, which, after the lapse of
many years, would at length come to pass. And having said, he
departed. Now, that the vision of the virgin and the interpretation of
the saint are proved by indisputable truths no one, I think, will doubt.

CHAPTER XCVI.

_Of the Angels of God, of the Heavenly Light, and of the Prophecy of
Saint Patrick._

The blessed Patrick was accustomed to visit frequently all parts of
Hibernia, and, as opportunity permitted or discretion required, to
abide therein. Wherefore he abided for seven years in Momonia, and as
many in Connactia; but he dwelled a much longer time in Ultonia,
wherein, first announcing the kingdom of God, he had brought its
inhabitants unto the faith of Christ, and whose country he had more
frequently in his perlustrations illustrated with his holy presence.
And whithersoever he went he converted unto the faith or confirmed in
the faith all his hearers. And on a certain time he was journeying
through that part of Ultonia which is called Dalnardia; became unto a
place named Mucoomuir, when his disciple, the aforementioned Benignus,
stayed his steps, and gazed upward, as contemplating something
wonderful in the heavens. For he beheld radiant choirs of angels
surrounding the place with heavenly brightness; and he heard them with
unspeakable melody singing the praises of the Creator. And he,
intently contemplating these wonders, was filled with inward joy; yet
understood he not what meaned the angelic presence, the glittering
light, the celestial psalmody. But after a short season it vanished
from before his eyes, and he, following the holy prelate, hastened his
course, that he might overtake him. And when the saint enquired of his
delay, he related unto him his heavenly vision. Then the saint,
instructed of heaven, expounded this effusion of light and this angelic
choir: "Know ye, beloved children, in that place shall a certain son of
life, named Colmanclus, build a church, and gather together many who
will be the children of light and fellow-citizens of the angels. And
he will become the prelate and the legate of all Hibernia; and being
eminent in his virtues and his miracles, after he shall have closed the
darkness of this life, he will be conveyed by the angels of God unto
eternal light and eternal rest." And in that place, after the process
of time, all those things happened accord