The Most Ancient Lives of Saint Patrick/The Life and Acts of St. Patrick/Chapter 42

How the Magician was Destroyed.

And there was in that place a certain magician named Lochu, who was highly favored with the king, and he uttered blasphemies against the Lord and his Christ. For being driven mad by the delusions of devils, he declared himself to be a god; and the people, being dazzled with his cheats, and stubbornly adhering to his pernicious doctrine, worshipped him even as a deity. Therefore he continually blasphemed the ways of the Lord, and those who were desirous to be converted from idolatry did he labor to subvert in their faith, and to pervert from Christ. And almost in the same manner as Simon Magus resisted Saint Peter did he oppose Saint Patrick. And on a certain time, when he was raised from the earth by the prince of darkness and the powers of the air, and the king and the people beheld him as if ascending into the heavens, Saint Patrick thus prayed unto the Lord: "O omnipotent God! destroy this blasphemer of Thine holy name, nor let him hinder those who now return or may hereafter return unto Thee!" And he prayed, and the magician fell from the air to the earth at the feet of the man of God, and his head was stricken against a stone, and, bruised and wounded, he expired, and his spirit descended into hell.