Page:The most ancient lives of Saint Patrick - O'Leary.djvu/191

 And great marvel seized on all who witnessed this miracle, and their mouths were opened to the praise of Christ and to the veneration of Saint Patrick.

And Rius, being renewed outwardly in his body and inwardly in his spirit, brought with him his three brothers, and came with very many to be purified at the healing font. And after these things, Saint Patrick, observing him to be thoroughly freed from sin, and knowing how sin besets the slippery path of human life, inspired of the Holy Spirit, said unto him: "Choose, now, whether in this valley of tears, this world of tribulation and sorrow, shall thy years be prolonged, or whether, the misery of this life being instantly ended, thou wilt be carried up by the angels of light, and enter into the joy of the Lord thy God." But he, trusting that he should behold the mercies of the Lord in the land of eternal life, answered: "I choose, and I desire to be dissolved, and to be with Christ for ever, rather than to continue in the habitations of sinners." And he received the sacrament from the hands of the holy bishop, and, commending his spirit unto the Lord, he was brought unto eternal rest.

But Saint Patrick, confiding his affairs to his beloved Dichu, set forward to visit Milcho, his former master, even