IN CONNAUGHT
It is uncertain how long Patrick had been in the island before he set
forth to accomplish the thing which had been the dream of his life, the
preaching of his gospel in the western parts of Connaught, _ubi nemo
ultra erat_, by the utmost margin of European land. We remember how the
cry of the children of Fochlad, heard in the visions of the night, was
the supreme call which he felt as irresistible. And although his outlook
must have widened as he came face to face with facts, and new tasks of
great worth and moment, presenting themselves, transformed and enlarged
the conception of his work as he had originally grasped it, we cannot
doubt that to bear light to the forest of Fochlad was the most cherished
wish of his heart. Nor is it likely that, however much he found to do in
Ulidia and Meath, he would have deferred this purpose long, unless some
grave obstacle had constrained him to delay. The necessary condition of
success was the consent of the king of the land; the decisive hindrance
would have been his disapprobation and opposition.
[Sidenote: WORK IN CONNAUGHT]
Now there was one district close to the woods of Fochlad where Patrick
was unable to fulfil his wishes till after the lapse of thirteen or
fourteen years. This was the land of Amolngaid, in north Mayo, the
land which is still called by that king’s name—Tír Amolngid, which is
pronounced Tirawley. It was not till after his death that the Christian
bishop visited those regions, and it may be inferred, perhaps, that
Amolngaid could not be persuaded to look with favour on the strange
religion which his sons afterwards accepted. According to the common
view, the forest of Fochlad was restricted to this corner of Connaught,
and in that case Patrick’s fulfilment of his original purpose would have
been thus long delayed. But it has been pointed out in a previous chapter
that Fochlad had possibly a wider compass, stretching across Mayo towards
the neighbourhood of Murrisk, and that the scene of Patrick’s bondage was
in that neighbourhood. If so, our records allow us to suppose, though
certainty cannot be attained, that he may have visited the southern
limits of Fochlad at an earlier period. We are told that he crossed the
Shannon and visited Connaught three times. One of these occasions was
shortly after the death of king Amolngaid;[111] but one or both of the
other visits may have been earlier, and on such an earlier occasion
he may have made his way to the region which he had known of old as a
bond-slave. In our records, events which belong to different journeys
are thrown together, and it is not possible, except at some particular
points, to distinguish them; but this chronological uncertainty will
not seriously affect the general view of Patrick’s labours in Connaught
as remembered there. In the following account of some of his acts it is
assumed that his first two journeys were in the lifetime of Amolngaid;
but while this assumption is adopted for the purpose of the narrative, it
will be understood that it is only tentative.[112]
* * * * *
[Sidenote: IN TIRERRILL]
The field of Patrick’s work in his first journey beyond the Shannon
seems to have been, partly, in the land of the children of Ailill. Their
country covered a large part of the county of Sligo, and perhaps extended
southward into Roscommon to the neighbourhood of Elphin. As in the case
of other Irish kingdoms, its memory is still preserved in the name of
a small portion of its original compass. The barony of Tirerrill is a
remnant of the land of Ailill, son of king Eochaidh, and brother of king
Niall.
In the north of this kingdom, on the west side of Lough Arrow, Patrick
founded a church in a district which still bears the old name of
Aghanagh; and east of the same lake, at the extreme border of Tirerrill,
the parish of Shancoe enables us to fix the whereabouts of another church
which he established at Senchua. There is a curious piece of evidence
which suggests that Christianity had already made an attempt to win a
footing in these regions. When Patrick ordained[113] a certain Ailbe, who
belonged to the family of Ailill, to the rank of priest, he told him of
the existence of a “wonderful” subterranean stone altar in the Mountain
of the Children of Ailill. There were four glass chalices at the four
corners of the altar, and Patrick warned Ailbe to beware of breaking the
edges of the excavation. As Shancoe was Ailbe’s church, we are entitled
to infer that the altar was somewhere in the Bralieve hills, which are
in that district.[114] It is clear that, if the tradition is genuine,
Patrick had seen the place himself, and the story implies that it was not
he who had set the altar in the lonely spot on the mountains, but that it
had been used in older days and abandoned.
No commemorative name has survived to mark the place of another church in
the same regions which owed its origin to Patrick, the Cell Angle;[115]
but what seems to have been the most important foundation of all was
farther north, in the parish of Tawnagh,[116] still called as it was
called when he first gave it a place on the ecclesiastical map of
Ireland.
It seems probable that in his first journey Patrick also visited the
north of Sligo, and consecrated Brón bishop for a church founded at
Caisselire. This place was on the sea-shore, under the massive hill of
Knocknaree, which dominates on the west the modern town of Sligo, and the
name Killespugbrone[117] still preserves the memory of the fifth-century
bishop.
He also worked in the regions south of Lake Gara, where Sachall, whom
we shall presently meet as a bishop, became his pupil.[118] Thence he
may have journeyed southward through the plains and wilds of Kerry,[119]
founding some churches on his way, till he came to the lake country
on the confines of Mayo and Galway. Then he turned westward through
Carra and founded the church of Achad-fobuir. The old name has clung
to the place—Aghagower, and in ancient times it had ecclesiastical
importance.[120] It marks clearly a stage in the apostle’s progress to
the famous mountain to which his visit gave a new name.
[Sidenote: CROCHAN AIGLI]
If we are right in supposing that this was the region in which Patrick
spent the years of his captivity, that this was the home of the children
of Fochlad who called to him in his dreams, the church of Aghagower
would possess a singular interest among all the churches which he founded
in Ireland, as fulfilling the wish which had first impelled him to make
the great resolve of his life. Here he revisited the scenes where he had
herded his master’s flocks and prayed at night in the woods in snow and
rain. Here he climbed again the mountain which he mentions in his own
description of the days of bondage, and which was always henceforward to
be linked with his own name. Crochan Aigli rises high and prominent on
the north shore of the wild desolate promontory, which is girt on three
sides by the sea, and is known as the “sea-land.”[121] To the summit
of this peak Patrick is said to have retired for lonely contemplation
and prayer. It is said that he remained there fasting forty days and
forty nights, like the Jewish teachers, Moses, Elias, and Jesus. It
may be thought that this report arose from the pious inclination of
later admirers to seek in his life similitudes to the lives of Moses
and other holy men of the Christian Scriptures. But it is conceivable
that the similitude was designed by Patrick himself. It is not unlikely
that, if he desired a season of isolation to commune with his own soul
and meditate on things invisible, he should have fixed the term of his
retreat by the highest examples. The forty days and forty nights may
be the literal truth, and may have helped to move the imagination of
his disciples to create a legend. For in after days men pictured the
saint encompassed by the company of the saints of Ireland. God said to
the souls of the saints, not only of the dead and living, but of the
still unborn, “Go up, O ye saints, to the top of the mountain which is
higher[122] than all the other mountains of the west, and bless the
folks of Ireland.” Then the souls mounted, and they flitted round the
lofty peak in the form of birds, darkening the air, so great was their
multitude. Thus God heartened Patrick by revealing to him the fruit of
his labours.
Ever since, this western mount has been associated with the foreign
teacher, not only bearing his name, but drawing to it multitudes of
pilgrims, who every year, as the anniversary of his death comes round,
toil up the steep ascent of Croagh Patrick, imbued still with the same
superstitious feelings which moved the minds of Christian and heathen, of
clerk and lay alike, in the days of Patrick. The confined space of its
summit is the one spot where we feel some assurance that we can stand
literally in his footsteps and realise that, as we look southward over
the desolate moors and tarns of Murrisk, northward across the bay to the
hills of Burrishoole and Erris, and then westward beyond the islets to
the spaces of the ocean, we are viewing a scene on which Patrick for
many days looked forth with the bodily eye. But the spot has a greater
interest if it is associated not only with the ground of solitary retreat
in his later years, but with the servitude of his boyhood. For if this
was so, the meditations on the mount were interfused with emotions
intelligible to the children of reason, who do not understand the need
of “saints” for fasting and prayer. It requires little imagination to
realise in some sort what the man’s feelings must have been when he
returned to the places of his thraldom, conscious that he was now a
“light among the Gentiles,” and that his bitter captivity had led to
such great results. It was a human as well as a saintly impulse to seek
isolation on the mountain where he had first turned to thoughts of
religion amidst the herds of his heathen lord.
* * * * *
In the case of what we may suppose to have been another and later
journey in Connaught some genuine tradition of the line of advance
appears to have been preserved. The bishop is said to have travelled
westward through the southern corner of Leitrim to the banks of the
Shannon. That river sweeps to the east below the town of the Rock,[123]
and then, continuing its southward course, widens into a series of
swellings, which, though small compared with the greater sheets of water
into which it afterwards expands, are striking in their peculiar form.
The stream flows through Lake Nanoge, Lake Tap, Lake Boderg, and Lake
Bofin, but the special feature is the long arm of water which it flings
south-westward, known as Lake Kilglass. The effect of this is that the
river seems to bifurcate, and a promontory is formed by the true stream
and Lake Bofin on the east, and by the blind water passage of Lake
Kilglass on the west. It was to these river-lakes that Patrick bent his
way, and the place of his crossing, though not designated by any name
that is still used, is yet so clearly defined that we cannot mistake
it, and can hardly doubt that the tradition is true. He first crossed
over a river-swelling, and then found a second swelling in front of him,
which he also passed. The only place in the course of the Shannon which
satisfies these conditions is the place which has been described. When
he was rowed across Lake Bofin, Patrick found himself on the water-girt
promontory which is washed on the west by Lake Kilglass. In order to
reach the district of Moyglass, which was his first destination, he took
the shortest and most direct way, and crossed this second lake (perhaps
near the modern Carnado Bridge) instead of making half-a-day’s journey
round its shores.
[Sidenote: IN EASTERN CONNAUGHT]
On reaching the other bank he was in the plain of Glass,[124] and here
again we find that the name of a large district has been preserved in the
name of a small part. The little townland of Moyglass is adjacent to
Lake Tap, but the ancient plain of Glass extended, we may be confident,
from the banks of the river Shannon to the foot of the western hills,
which screen the river here from the great plain of Roscommon. In this
district the bishop established a Cell Mór or great church, and his visit
gave the place its abiding name. It can be inferred that Patrick’s church
was close to the village of Kilmore.
From the small plain of Glass Patrick made his way into the great plain,
known as Mag Ái, which extends over the central part of the county of
Roscommon. It is divided from the Shannon by a screen of low hills,
and only from some of the ridges in the south of it can one descry,
shimmering far away, the waters of Lake Ree. When he crossed that chain
of hills, Patrick found himself in the land of the Corcu Ochland, and
he was welcomed by a certain Hono, who is described as a Druid, and
was evidently a man of wealth and influence. There is good reason to
believe that Hono was prepared for Patrick’s coming, for two of Patrick’s
disciples, Assicus and his nephew Bitteus, along with Cipia, the mother
of Bitteus, were already with Hono when Patrick arrived. We may probably
infer that Christianity had already made some way here, and that, on
Patrick’s coming, no persuasions were necessary to induce Hono to
co-operate in founding a church and monastery. They went together to the
place which still bears the name of the White Rock—Ailfinn, and there
founded together one of the most important of Patrick’s ecclesiastical
foundations, which in later times, when the great dioceses were formed,
was to become the seat of a diocesan bishop. The community of Elphin was
to be under the headship of Hono’s descendants, but its first members
were Assicus, Betheus, and Cipia. Bishop Assicus, whose name has not been
forgotten at Elphin, was a skilful worker in bronze, and used to make for
Patrick altars and cases for books. Square patens of his workmanship were
long preserved as treasures at Armagh and at his own Elphin.
The next station of the bishop’s journey was the seat of the kings of
Connaught, the fortress of Crochan, famous in story. On one of the
highest and broadest of the low ridges which mark the plain of Ái stood
the royal palace, and though, as in the case of the other palaces of the
kings of Ireland, no remains of the habitation survive except the earthen
structure, it is something even to stand on the site of Rathcrochan,
where queen Maeve and her lord lived—if they lived at all. Around the
royal fort itself the ground is covered with other mounds and raths
and memorials of ancient history, so that one can hardly fancy what
appearance Crochan presented to Patrick. Near at hand was the place of
sepulchres, to which the kings went down from their stronghold, as the
kings of Mycenae went down from their citadel to the tombs below. In
that field of the dead one red stone stands conspicuous to the present
day, and the ill-certified tradition is that it marks the tomb of
Dathi, the successor and nephew of Niall. If there were any truth in
that tradition, the pillar would be an interesting link with the age of
Patrick, for it would have been set up not many years before he visited
the place.[125]
[Sidenote: RATHCROCHAN]
Imagination peopled many spots in Ireland with supernatural beings—not
only with fairies, but also with an earth-folk[126] that was once at
least human, a conquered population who had formerly held the island,
and, driven by invaders from the surface of the ground, had found new
homes in chambered mounds, where they practised their magic crafts. But
no spot was more closely associated with these fabled beings than the
hill of Rathcrochan. On ground so alive with legend, in a place which
stimulated fancy, it was hardly possible that the incident of Patrick’s
visit should be handed down in the sober colours of history or that
it should escape the meshes of fable. But the legend-shaping instinct
of some Christian poet wrought here with signal grace, and the story
must have been invented not many decads of years after the visit to
Rathcrochan.
[Sidenote: RATHCROCHAN LEGEND]
Patrick, the tale tells, and the bishops who accompanied him, had
assembled together at a fountain[127] near Rathcrochan to hold a council
before sunrise, when two maidens came down, after the fashion of women,
to wash at the fountain. They were the daughters of the High King of
Ireland, and their names were Ethne the White and Fedelm the Red. They
lived at Crochan, to be fostered and educated by two Druids, Mael and
Caplait. These Druids had been deeply alarmed when they heard that
Patrick was about to cross the Shannon, and by their sorceries they had
brought down darkness and mist over the plain of Ái to hinder him from
entering the land. The darkness of night prevailed for three days, but
was dispelled by the saint’s prayers.
When the princesses beheld the bishops and priests sitting round the
fountain, they were amazed at their strange garb, and knew not what to
think of them. Were they fairies—men of the _side_; or were they of the
earth-folk—the Tuatha De Danann; or were they an illusion, an unreal
vision? So they accosted and asked the strangers, “Whence have ye come,
and where is your home?” And Patrick answered, “It were better for you to
believe in the true God whom we worship than to ask questions about our
race.” Then the elder girl said, “Who is God, and where is God, and of
whom is he God? Where is his dwelling? Has he sons and daughters, your
God, and has he gold and silver? Is he immortal? Is he fair? Has his Son
been fostered by many? Are his daughters dear to the men of the world,
and fair in their eyes? Is he in heaven or in earth? in the sea, in the
rivers, in the hill places, in the valleys? Tell us how we may know him,
in whatwise he will appear. How is he discovered? Is he found in youth or
in old age?”
To these greetings Patrick replied: “Our God is the God of all men, the
God of heaven and earth, of sea and rivers, of sun and moon and stars,
of the lofty mountain and the lowly valleys, the God above heaven and
in heaven, and under heaven; he has his dwelling around heaven and
earth and sea and all that in them is. He inspires all, he quickens
all, he dominates all, he supports all. He lights the light of the sun;
he furnishes the light of the night; he has made springs in the dry
land, and has set stars to minister to the greater lights. He has a Son
co-eternal with himself, and like unto himself. The Son is not younger
than the Father, nor the Father older than the Son. And the Holy Spirit
breathes in them. The Father, the Son, and the Spirit are not divided.
I wish to unite you with the heavenly King, as ye are daughters of an
earthly king. Believe.”
With one voice and with one heart the two king’s daughters said, “Tell
us with all diligence how we may believe in the heavenly King that we
may see Him face to face, and we will do as thou sayest.” Patrick said,
“Do ye believe that by baptism ye can cast away the sin of your father
and mother?” They said, “We believe.” “Do ye believe in repentance after
sin?” “We believe.” “Do ye believe in life after death?” “We believe.”
“Do ye believe in the resurrection in the day of Judgment?” “We believe.”
“Do ye believe in the unity of the Church?” “We believe.”
Then Patrick baptized them in the fountain and placed a white veil on
their heads, and they begged that they might behold the face of Christ.
And Patrick said, “Until ye shall taste of death, ye cannot see the face
of Christ, and unless ye shall receive the sacrifice.” They answered,
“Give us the sacrifice that we may see the Son, our bridegroom.” And they
received the Eucharist, and fell asleep in death. And they were placed in
one bed, and their friends mourned them.
Then Caplait the Druid came, and Patrick preached to him, and he believed
and became a monk. His brother Mael was wroth at his falling away, and
hoped to recall him to the old faith, but on hearing Patrick’s teaching
he too became a Christian and his head was tonsured.
When the prescribed days of lamentation were over, the maidens were
buried in a round tomb near the fountain. Their grave was dedicated to
God and to Patrick and his heirs after him, and he constructed a church
of earth in that place.
In this curious legend is embedded some matter of historical
significance. In the first place we must treat the story of the brother
Druids separately from the story of the maidens, for they are bound
together only by an external link, and their motives are distinct. The
motive of the legend of the two virgins who died in the hour of their
conversion recurs in other tales,[128] and the solid basis of fact was
their tomb by the spring at Rathcrochan. At that tomb the story grew
up that when they were baptized, their desire for the heavenly vision
was fulfilled immediately by their death. This legend was then worked
up artificially, and the dialogue was composed and written down in
Irish, partly in verse.[129] The freshness and simplicity, which are so
striking, and some particular traits, justify us in surmising that this
happened at an early date, within the first generation after the saint’s
death. The naive wonder of the maidens at the appearance of the clerks,
the brief view which Patrick unfolds of the articles of his religion,
the emphasis laid upon the unity of the Church, point to the conclusion
that the story took shape when Patrick’s ways of teaching, and the first
impressions made upon pagans by the apostles of the new faith, were
within the memory of the Church. The dialogue is artificial, for the
questions of the damsels are arranged so as to lead up to the bishop’s
exposition of his creed. And, on the other hand, the baptismal questions
of Patrick assume a knowledge on the part of the princesses which is
inconsistent with their previous ignorance.
Now if we are right in the view that the legend originated at an early
date and was cast into literary shape—at least before the end of the
fifth century—we can hardly escape the inference that the maidens whose
memory was preserved at Crochan were in truth daughters of Loigaire. Such
an identification was not at all likely to have been invented by popular
legend, nor by any recorder of Patrick’s acts, living within a generation
of his death. In sending children to be brought up away from their home,
king Loigaire would have followed the general practice of the country,
and that he should send them to the royal residence of Connaught would
have been natural enough. The fathers of king Amolngaid and king Loigaire
were brothers, and it would not be surprising that Loigaire should send
his daughters to Rathcrochan to be educated by the Druids of Amolngaid.
[Sidenote: IRISH AND ROMAN TONSURES]
But the episode of these brethren has an independent motive of its own.
One brother, Mael, has an Irish name, designating the native tonsure, by
which only the front part of the head was shaven from ear to ear; while
Caplait, his fellow, has a Latin name (_Capillatus_), which signifies
the removal of all the hair in the fashion already largely adopted in
the western Empire, and subsequently known as the Roman tonsure.[130]
Both Druids alike were tonsured by Patrick according to the story;
both alike, it is implied, wore the native tonsure before they were
converted. The name _Caplait_ could not have been applied to either till
after his conversion. But when they became monks it applied equally to
both, just as _Mael_ was equally applicable to both when they were still
pagans. Thus the story, taken literally, does not hang together, and the
transparent names suggest that it arose from some circumstance connected
with the Christian tonsure. Fortunately, the narrative supplies us with
the clue. The writer who tells the tale observes that the incident
gave rise to an Irish maxim, _cosmail Mael do Chaplait_, “Mael is like
unto Caplait.” It is manifest that here, as in other cases of the same
kind, the story originated from the proverb, not the proverb from the
story. The story was told to explain the existence of the proverb, but
the existence of the proverb itself is the ultimate fact. It happens to
be a fact of historical significance. We may infer that the Christian
tonsure had been introduced and enforced by Patrick, but that his rule
was relaxed and disregarded after his death, the native clergy adopting
the old native tonsure of the Druids. The two fashions subsisted for a
time side by side, then the Roman fell completely out of use till it
was restored in the seventh century. But the proverb “Mael is like unto
Caplait” arose when the two tonsures were in use together, and expressed
the claim that the native mode was as legitimate for a monk as the
foreign.
* * * * *
From Rathcrochan, Patrick and his company proceeded westward and planted
religious foundations in the region which is now most easily described
as the barony of Castlereagh. A number of Gallic clergy were with him,
and these he dispersed to found churches in various places. One of
these places stands out in interest, though it is of small account now.
Baslic survives as the name of a parish, and preserves the memory of the
foreign clerks who thought of the greater _basilicae_ of the Empire when
they built their little sanctuary in the wilds of Connaught and gave it
the high-sounding name of _Basilica sanctorum_. No place-name, due to
Christianity, in Ireland has a greater interest than Basilica, west of
Rathcrochan. Another church founded in this region, near the banks of
the river Suck, was Cell Garad, which is perhaps to be sought at Oran,
where an old burial-ground and the fragment of a belfry mark an ancient
ecclesiastical site. Both Baslic and Cell Garad were the seats of bishops.
[Sidenote: INSCRIPTION AT SELCE]
Patrick then went northward to Selce,[131] in the land of Brian. Here the
sons of Brian welcomed him and were baptized, and he founded a church
close to Lake Selce. On a hill hard by, where he and his companions
encamped, a memorial of their visit was preserved for centuries. They
wrote upon some stones in the place, and it was probably their own names
that they recorded, so that posterity knew who were of Patrick’s company
when the sons of Brian were baptized at the hill of Selce. Two bishops
were with him, Brón, whose home, as we saw, was in the north, on the
sea-shore under Knocknaree, and Sachall, bishop of the new church of
Baslic; eight priests, including Benignus, his favourite pupil; and two
women. It may have been that the names of the company were inscribed on
three stones severally consecrated by the names _Iesus_, _Christus_,
_Soter_.
From here Patrick may have proceeded westward to Lake Tecet—Lake Tecet of
Ireland, bearing the same name as the more famous Lake Tecet of Britain,
which the stranger knows as the Lake of Bala. The boggy soil makes the
waters dark, and if we look down from one of the hills which partly gird
it, the form of the lake, with its many corners and inlets, eludes the
eye. It was probably near the western or northern shore that Adrochta,
who took the veil from Patrick’s hand, founded a church. Nor is she
forgotten to-day, for as we walk on the eastern bank of the lake, we are
in the parish of “Adrochta’s Church.”[132]
* * * * *
We now come to a journey of Patrick for which we have a definite
chronological indication, since we know that it was undertaken soon
after the death of king Amolngaid, and that king probably died about
thirteen years after Patrick’s arrival in Ireland. The story represents
the land of Amolngaid as the particular region of Fochlad which had
been the goal of Patrick’s desires, and describes the occasion of his
setting forth as if it had been brought about by a pure chance. Near
the palace of king Loigaire at Tara he overheard a conversation between
two noblemen, one of whom informed the other that he was Endae, son of
Amolngaid, and had come from the far west, “from Mag Domnon[133] and the
wood of Fochlad.” Then Patrick, hearing the magic name of his dream,
was thrilled with joy, and, turning round, he cried to Endae, “Thither
I will go with thee, if I live, for God bade me go.” But Endae replied,
“Thou shalt not come with me, lest we be slain together.” “Yet,” said the
saint, “thou shalt never reach thy home alive if I come not with thee,
nor shalt thou have eternal life. For it is on my account that thou hast
come hither.” And Endae said, “Baptize my son, for he is young. But I and
my brethren may not believe in thee till we come to our own folk, lest
they mock us.” And Patrick baptized his son Conall.
[Sidenote: THE SONS OF AMOLNGAID]
It appears that Endae and his six brethren had come to Tara to invoke the
judgment of the High King in a dispute about the inheritance of their
father’s property. The claim of Endae and his son was opposed to the
claims of the other six. In giving judgment king Loigaire is said to have
invited the aid of Patrick, and they decided that the inheritance should
be divided among the claimants in seven parts. This doom was in favour
of Endae’s brethren, if, as we may suppose, Endae’s claim was that the
division of the property should be eightfold, his son Conall receiving a
separate portion for himself. But however this may have been, Endae is
said to have dedicated his seventh portion and his son Conall to Patrick
and Patrick’s God.
When the award was given, Patrick and a company of ecclesiastics
prepared to set forth with Endae. But they took the precaution of making
a formal agreement with Endae and his brothers, and we may be certain
that whatever the other terms may have been, the bodily safety of the
Christians was expressly ensured. The most significant circumstance
concerning this treaty is that it was made under the warranty of king
Loigaire. This is an important piece of evidence as to the attitude
of that king to the Christian teachers. It exhibits his policy of
enlightened toleration, and shows that, though personally he clung to
the beliefs of his fathers, yet in his capacity of king of Ireland he
was willing to assist the diffusion of a doctrine subversive of those
beliefs.
Patrick set out with Endae and his brethren, and having crossed the river
Moy, perhaps at a ford where the “town of the ford” stands to-day,[134]
they entered the territory of Amolngaid, where were the woods of Fochlad,
and beyond, to westward, the wild Mag Domnon. That the baptism of Conall
and the coming of the Christian teacher in the company of the chiefs
should arouse wrath and disgust among the Druids is not surprising, and
there may be some historical foundation for the legend which tells how
the chief Druid, Rechrad, sought to kill Patrick. Along with nine Druids,
arrayed in white, he advanced to meet Endae and his company. When Endae
saw them, he snatched up his arms to drive them off, but Patrick raised
his left hand and cursed the wizard, and Rechrad fell dead, and was
burned up before the eyes of all. The other Druids fled into Mag Domnon.
And when the folk saw this miracle, many were baptized on that day.
[Sidenote: IN TIRAWLEY]
It was in this way, according to the legend, that Christianity entered
the northern regions of Fochlad. Near the forest, and close to the
sea-shore, was founded a church,[135] and not far from it a cross was set
up, of which the memory is preserved in the local name Crosspatrick.[136]
The church, built doubtless of timber, was afterwards to be overshadowed
by the neighbouring foundation of Killala, conspicuous by its lofty
belfry. Elsewhere Patrick caused a square church of earth to be
constructed, at the gathering-place of the sons of Amolngaid, which has
been identified with Mullaghfarry, “the hill of the meeting-place.”