Page:Great Men and Famous Women Volume 3.djvu/127

 ST. PATRICK 81 Here he was purchased as a slave by Michul or Milchu, a chief of North Dalaradia, who dwelt in the valley of the Braid, near Mount Slemish, in the country of Antrim. The work assigned him was that of attending his master's flocks and herds, and in his " Confession," which he wrote toward the close of his life, he describes how he wandered over the bleak mountains, often drenched with the rains, and numbed with the frosts. His period of servitude lasted six years; and during this time he would seem to have made himself acquainted with the language of the native tribes, and to have learned their habits and modes of life. At length he succeeded in effecting his escape to the seaside, where he took ship, and, after a tempestuous passage, regained his father's house. His stay, however, was destined to be very short. In a predatory excursion he was a sec- ond time taken captive, and again, after a brief interval, succeeded in making his escape. Had he listened to his parents, he would now have remained with them, but he was bent on a very different occupation. "The Divine Voice," he says, " fre- quently admonished me to consider whence I derived the wisdom which was in me, who once knew neither the number of my days nor was acquainted with God ; and whence I obtained afterward so great and salutary a gift as to know and to love God." During the weary hours, moreover, of his captivity, he had often reflected how blessed a thing it would be if he, to whom it had been given to know the true God and his Son Jesus Christ, could carry the glad tidings to his master's people and the land of his exile. One night, he tells us, he had a dream, in which he thought he saw a man coming from Ireland with a number of letters. One of these, he gave him to read, and in the beginning occurred the words, " The voice of the Irish." While he was reading it, he thought he heard a voice calling to him across the Western Sea, " We entreat thee, holy youth, to come and walk among us." Obedient, therefore, to what he deemed to be a plain leading from heaven, and resisting the arguments and entreaties of relatives and friends, who mocked at his enthusiastic resolve, he set out for the monasteries in Southern France, there to prepare himself for the work of preaching the gospel in the land of his captivity. Amidst the conflicting legends which now follow him at every step, it seems probable that he repaired to the monastic schools of Tours, Aux- erre, and Lerins, where he studied and was employed for some little time in pas- toral duties, having been ordained successively deacon and priest. There, too, he would seem to have been elevated to the episcopate, and thence with a band of fellow-laborers he set sail for Ireland, about the middle of the fifth century. Landing on one of the islands off the coast of Dublin, he and his com- panions tried unsuccessfully to obtain provisions, which they greatly needed. Thence sailing northward they put in at a strait called Brene, and after landing at the southwestern extremity of Strangford Lough, advanced some considerable way into the interior. They had not gone far before they encountered a native chief named Dichu, at the head of a band of men. Mistaking St. Patrick for the leader of one of