The Most Ancient Lives of Saint Patrick/The Life and Acts of St. Patrick/Chapter 95

Of the Vision of the Blessed Brigida, and its Explanation.

And the blessed Brigida was at these meetings; and at one, having reclined her head, she slept. And the holy prelate forbade that any one should arouse the beloved of God until she herself would awaken; so did it appear how evidently what is said in the Canticles agreed with her; "I sleep, but mine heart waketh"; for that his heavenly Spouse revealed unto her all His mysteries. And when the holy virgin awaked, he enjoined her that she should tell unto them all what she had beheld in her vision. And she, obeying the command of the saint, said: "I beheld an assembly of persons clothed in white raiment; and I beheld ploughs, and oxen, and standing corn, all white, and immediately they became all spotted, and afterward they became all black; and in the end I beheld sheep and swine, dogs and wolves, fighting all and contending together." Then Saint Patrick expounded the vision, and said that the whiteness pertained unto the state of the world as it then was; for all the prelates and servants of the church were then fruitful and diligent in faith and in good works, even according to the evangelic and apostolic doctrine. And the things which were spotted belonged, as he said, to the time of the succeeding generation, which would be pure in faith, but stained with evil works. And the blackness, he said, was the season of the following generation, when the world would be profaned, not only with evil works, but with the renunciation of the Christian faith. And the contest of the sheep and the swine, of the dogs and the wolves, he pronounced to be the controversy of the pure and impure prelates, of good and of bad men, which, after the lapse of many years, would at length come to pass. And having said, he departed. Now, that the vision of the virgin and the interpretation of the saint are proved by indisputable truths no one, I think, will doubt.