at his steps are directed of God.
For the Angel Victor met him while on his journey, and said unto him:
"Stay thou, O Patrick, thy feet from this thy purpose, since it is not
the divine will that in Ardmachia thy life should be closed or thy body
therein be sepultured; for in Ulydia, the first place of all Hibernia
which thou didst convert, hath the Lord provided that thou shalt die,
and that in the city of Dunum thou shall be honorably buried. And
there shall be thy resurrection; but in Ardmachia, which thou so
lovest, shall be the successive ministry of the grace which hath been
on thee bestowed. Therefore remember thy word, wherewith thou gavest
hope unto thy first converts, the sons of Dichu; when, instructed of
heaven, thou didst foretell unto them that in their land thou wouldest
die and be buried." And at the word of the angel the saint was
grieved; but quickly returning unto himself, embraced he the divine
Providence with much devotion and thanksgiving, and submitting his own
will unto the will of God, he returned into Ulydia.

CHAPTER CLXXXVIII.

_The Place of his Sepulture is foreshown by a Light from Heaven._

And after a few days Patrick, the most holy old man, rested on a place
not far distant from the mother church of the city of Dunum; and with
him was Brigida, the spotless Pearl of Hibernia, and no small assembly
of religious and ecclesiastical persons. And while the saint
discoursed unto them of the glory of the saints, a great light
descended from heaven, and poured round a certain spot on the eastern
side of the cemetery; at the which marvelling, they enquired of the
saint what meant that light, and the holy prelate bade the blessed
Brigida to explain to them the meaning thereof. Then the virgin openly
declared that the so great light denoted and sanctified the
burial-place of a certain saint most illustrious and dear unto God, who
therein would shortly be buried. And the holy woman, Ethembria, who
first of all the nuns in Hibernia had been consecrated by Patrick,
privily enquired of Brigida who was the saint. And she answered that
Saint Patrick himself, the father and apostle of Hibernia, would soon
be buried in that place, but that in process of time he would be
removed from thence; and further she pronounced that she would be happy
if she might enshroud his most holy body in a linen cloth, which she
had made with her own hands and woven for his obsequies. This said she
secretly unt