The Most Ancient Lives of Saint Patrick/The Life and Acts of St. Patrick/Chapter 96

Of the Angels of God, of the Heavenly Light, and of the Prophecy of Saint Patrick.

The blessed Patrick was accustomed to visit frequently all parts of Hibernia, and, as opportunity permitted or discretion required, to abide therein. Wherefore he abided for seven years in Momonia, and as many in Connactia; but he dwelled a much longer time in Ultonia, wherein, first announcing the kingdom of God, he had brought its inhabitants unto the faith of Christ, and whose country he had more frequently in his perlustrations illustrated with his holy presence. And whithersoever he went he converted unto the faith or confirmed in the faith all his hearers. And on a certain time he was journeying through that part of Ultonia which is called Dalnardia; became unto a place named Mucoomuir, when his disciple, the aforementioned Benignus, stayed his steps, and gazed upward, as contemplating something wonderful in the heavens. For he beheld radiant choirs of angels surrounding the place with heavenly brightness; and he heard them with unspeakable melody singing the praises of the Creator. And he, intently contemplating these wonders, was filled with inward joy; yet understood he not what meaned the angelic presence, the glittering light, the celestial psalmody. But after a short season it vanished from before his eyes, and he, following the holy prelate, hastened his course, that he might overtake him. And when the saint enquired of his delay, he related unto him his heavenly vision. Then the saint, instructed of heaven, expounded this effusion of light and this angelic choir: "Know ye, beloved children, in that place shall a certain son of life, named Colmanclus, build a church, and gather together many who will be the children of light and fellow-citizens of the angels. And he will become the prelate and the legate of all Hibernia; and being eminent in his virtues and his miracles, after he shall have closed the darkness of this life, he will be conveyed by the angels of God unto eternal light and eternal rest." And in that place, after the process of time, all those things happened according to the prophecy of the saint.