_How a Fountain burst forth, and how Sight and Learning were given to
the Blind._
A certain man named Gormas, who had been blind even from his mother's
womb, heard in a dream a voice commanding him that he should take the
hand of the boy Patrick, then lately baptized, and make on the ground
the sign of the cross--adding that at the touch a new fountain would
burst forth, with the water whereof, if he bathed his eyes, he would
forthwith receive his sight. And the blind man, instructed by the
divine oracle, went to the little boy, made with his right hand on the
ground the sign of salvation, and immediately did a new fountain burst
forth. And his darkened eyes, being bathed with this healing stream,
perceived the day poured in, and the virtue of Siloe renewed; and,
_that the mercies of the Lord might be acknowledged, and the wonders
that he doeth for the children of men_, while the outward blindness of
Gormas was enlightened, his inward sight received the revealing gift of
science; and he who was before unlearned, having experienced the power
of the Lord, read and understood the Scriptures, and as by the outward
mercy from being blind he became able to see, so by the inward grace
from unlearned he became learned. But the fountain flowing forward
with a more abundant stream, even unto this day pouring forth its clear
waters, sweet to the draught and wholesome to the taste, is honored
with the name of Saint Patrick, and, as is said, gives health or relief
to many laboring with divers diseases; and it rises near the seaside,
and over it the devotion of posterity has erected an oratory, with an
altar built in the form of a cross.