The Most Ancient Lives of Saint Patrick/The Life and Acts of St. Patrick/Chapter 39

Of Saint Benignus, and of the Prophecy which was made of him.

And the Passover was nigh, the festival of the Christians, whereon the Life that died, arising from the dead, became the first-fruits of the resurrection of the dead. Therefore was it near to the heart of the holy prelate to solemnize this solemn day, which the Lord had appointed a day of joyfulness to the dwellers on earth and the dwellers in heaven, on the fair and spacious plain called Breagh, and there, by evangelizing the kingdom of God, and baptizing the people of his conversion, to gather together the elect race unto Christ. And he embarked in a vessel, and arrived in a harbor nigh unto this plain, and, committing the care of the vessel unto his nephew, Saint Lumanus, he there landed, and went to the mansion of a certain venerable man named Sesgnen, therein to pass the night. And he gladly received the saint, hoping that salvation would be brought unto his house by such a guest, nor did his hope fail unto him, for when Patrick preached the word of salvation he and all his household believed and were baptized. And the venerable man had a son, whom the saint purified with the healing water, and, taking the name from the occasion, called Benignus; and as was his name, so were his life and his manners; and he was beloved of God and of man, worthy of honor and of glory on earth and in heaven, and he steadfastly adhered to the holy prelate, nor ever could be separated from him; for when the saint, being weary, would lie down to rest, this unspotted youth, flying from his father and from his mother, would cast himself at the feet of the holy man, and enfold them in his bosom, and ever and anon would he kiss them, and there would he abide. But on the morrow, when the saint was arrayed for his journey, and, with one foot in his sandal, the other on the ground, was ascending his chariot, the boy caught his foot with fast-closing hands, and besought and implored that he might not leave him. And when his parents would have separated him from the saint, and retained him with themselves, the boy, with wailing and lamentation, cried out, Away, away, I entreat ye! Release me, that I may go with my spiritual father. And the saint, observing such devotion in his tender heart and body, blessed him in the name of the Lord, and, bidding him ascend with him the chariot, prophesied that he would be, as indeed he was, the successor of his ministry. And this Benignus succeeded Saint Patrick in the primacy of all Ireland, and, being illustrious for his virtues and his miracles, at length he rested in the Lord.