The Most Ancient Lives of Saint Patrick/The Life and Acts of St. Patrick/Chapter 164

The Saint beholdeth a Vision of Angels, and cureth Sixteen Lepers.

When the lamp of the daily light was extinguished in the shades of nocturnal darkness, the man of God beheld in a vision of the night angels measuring the form and the extent of the city which was to be builded in that high place, and one of the angels enjoined him, that on the morrow he should go unto the fountain near Ardmachia, which is now called Tobar Patraic, that is, the Fountain of Patrick; and there he should heal in the name of the Lord sixteen lepers, who were come thither from many places to experience the mercy of the Lord, and to receive his faith. And Patrick obeyed the voice of the angel; and early in the morning he found those men, and by his preaching he converted them unto the faith, and being converted, he baptized them in that fountain, and when baptized, he purified them from the leprous taint of either man. And this miracle when published abroad, was accounted a fair presage and a present sanction of the future city. And the angel, at the prayers of Patrick, removed far from thence an exceeding huge stone which lay in the wayside, and which could not be raised by the labor or the ingenuity of man; lest it should be an hindrance to passengers approaching the city.