_How Saint Patrick was Carried into Ireland._
As, according to the testimony of Holy Writ, the furnace tries gold and
the fire of tribulation proves the just, so did the hour of his trial
draw near to Patrick, that he might the more provedly receive the crown
of life. For when the illustrious boy had perlustrated three lustres,
already attaining his sixteenth year, he was, with many of his
countrymen, seized by the pirates who were ravaging those borders, and
was made captive and carried into Ireland, and was there sold as a
slave to a certain pagan prince named Milcho, who reigned in the
northern part of the island, even at the same age in which Joseph is
recorded to have been sold into Egypt. But Joseph, being sold as a
slave, and being after his humiliation exalted, received power and
dominion over all Egypt. Patrick, after his servitude and his
affliction, obtained the primacy of the especial and spiritual dominion
of Ireland. Joseph refreshed with corn the Egyptians oppressed by
famine; Patrick, in process of time, fed with the salutary food of the
Christian faith the Irish perishing under idolatry. To each was
affliction sent for the profit of his soul, as is the flail to the
grain, the furnace to the gold, the file to the iron, the wine-press to
the grape, and the oil-press to the olive. Therefore it was that
Patrick, at the command of the forementioned prince, was appointed to
the care of the swine, and under his care the herd became fruitful and
exceedingly multiplied. From whence it may well be learned that as the
master's substance is often increased and improved by the attention of
a diligent and fortunate servant or steward, so, on the other hand, is
it reduced and injured under an idle or unprosperous hand. But the
holy youth, heartily embracing in his soul the judgments of the Lord,
made of his necessity a virtue, and, having in his office of a
swineherd obtained solitude, worked out his own salvation. For he
abode in the mountains, and in the woods, and in the caves of the
wilderness, and having leisure for prayer, and knowing how kind was the
Lord, freely and more freely did he pour forth the incense of his
supplications in the presence of the Most High; and an hundred times in
the day and an hundred times in the night did he on his bended knees
adore his Creator, and often did he pray for a long time fasting, and,
nourishing himself with the roots of herbs and with the lightest food,
did he mortify his members which were stretched upon the earth. Nor
him could heat, nor cold, nor snow, nor hail, nor ice, nor any other
inclemency of the air compel from his spiritual exercises. Therefore
went he forward daily increasing and confirming himself more strong in
the faith and love of Christ Jesus; and the more weak and infirm he
appeared, so much the steadier and more powerful was he in fulfilling
the commands of the Lord.