The Most Ancient Lives of Saint Patrick/The Life and Acts of St. Patrick/Chapter 29

Of the River sentenced to perpetual Sterility.

The man of God landed with the companions of his voyage within the borders of Leinster, in the port of Innbherde, where a river flowing into the sea then abounded with many fishes. And the fishermen were quitting the water, and drawing after them to the bank their loaded nets, when the servants of the holy prelate, being wearied with their travel and with hunger, earnestly besought that they would bestow on them some of their fishes; but they, barbarous, brutal, and inhuman, answered the entreaty, not only with refusal, but with insult. Whereat the saint, being displeased, pronounced on them this sentence, even his malediction: that the river should no longer produce fishes, from the abundance of which idolaters might send empty away the worshippers of the true God. From that day, therefore, is the river condemned to unfruitfulness, so that the sentence uttered by the mouth of Patrick might be known to proceed from the face of the Lord.