Page:The most ancient lives of Saint Patrick - O'Leary.djvu/290

 the erection of a church; the which when he had begun, a crowd of rustics issued from the village, and impeded the work. Then the saint, being filled of the spirit of prophecy, foretold unto them with the voice of truth, "Since ye have made yourselves a hindrance unto me, that I may not build a habitation to the Lord my God, never shall the smoke go out of the houses which ye or your generation shall build in this place." And the testified proof of the words of the saint even to this day evinceth its truth, for many have oftentimes begun to build houses there, but for the rudeness of these men never could they be finished.

A certain man named Dengo, who was wicked and perverse, and powerful in iniquity, prevented the saint from building a church in a convenient place; to whom the saint attesting his Judge, nay, prophesying, said, "In a short time shall thine house be destroyed, and thy substance wasted away; and thy sons that issue from thine impious loins shall of the greater part defile themselves by mutual fratricide; while the remnant of them shall never attain unto dignity or power, but shall be strangers and wanderers on the earth." And the prophecy of Saint Patrick was proved by the subsequent misery visited on the man and on his children.