Page:The most ancient lives of Saint Patrick - O'Leary.djvu/358

 whatsoever we could meet most worthy of belief, have we deemed right to transmit in this our work unto after-times.

And Patrick, the beloved of the Lord, being full of days and of good works, and now faithfully finishing the time of his appointed ministry, saw, as well by the divine revelation as by the dissolution of his earthly tabernacle, that the evening of his life was drawing near. And being then nigh unto Ulydia, he hastened his journey toward the metropolitan seat, Ardmachia; for earnestly he desired to lay in that place the remains of his sanctified body, and in the sight of his sons whom he had brought forth unto Christ to be consigned unto the common mother. But the event changed the purpose of the holy man; that all might know, according to the testimony of the Scriptures, that the way of man is not in his own power, but that 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