Page:The most ancient lives of Saint Patrick - O'Leary.djvu/245



And Patrick was journeying on a certain day for the wonted purpose of his preaching; and he found near the road a sepulchre of wondrous length. And his brethren who journeyed with him beheld it; but with their very admiration could they not believe that the body of any man was buried in such a tomb. But the saint affirmed that God could prove it by the resurrection of this gigantic man, so that they did not falter in the faith; for there was then no small doubting of the general resurrection. Then prayed the saint earnestly that his acts might be accorded with his words, and that thereby he might remove from their hearts every scruple of doubt. Wonderful was the event, and to past ages wholly unknown! The holy prelate, having first prayed, signed the sepulchre with the staff of Jesus, and awakened from the dust the buried man. Then stood one before them horrible in stature and in aspect; and he looked on the saint, and, bitterly weeping, said unto him: "How great thanks do I give unto thee, O beloved and chosen of God! who even for one hour hast released me from unspeakable torments and from the gates of hell!" And he besought the saint that he might go along with him; but the saint refused, for that no man for very terror could stand before his countenance. And being asked by Patrick who he had been, he replied that he was the son of Chaiis, by name Glarcus, formerly a swineherd of the King Leogaire; and that when he was an hundred years of age, he was slain in an ambush by a certain man named Fynnan Mac Con. Then the saint admonished him that he should believe in the three-in-one God, and in His