The Most Ancient Lives of Saint Patrick/The Life and Acts of St. Patrick/Chapter 7

How he restored to Life his Foster-Father.

The husband of Saint Patrick's nurse, who had often-times borne him an infant in his arms, being seized with a sudden death, expired. And his wife, with many others of the household, ran thither, and to Patrick, who was standing nigh, bursting into tears, she thus spake: "Behold, O Patrick! thy foster-father, the bearer of thine infancy, lieth dead; show now, therefore, on him thine enlivening virtue, even that which hath been wont to heal others!" And the boy of holy disposition, compassionating the tears of his nurse and the miserable state of his foster-father, approached him lying there lifeless, and he prayed over him and blessed him, and signed him on his head and on his breast with the sign of life, and he embraced him, and raised him up, and restored him unto her alive and safe. And all who beheld this miracle gave praise to God, who worked such works in Patrick.