_How a Fierce Dog was suddenly Tamed; of the Conversion of Dichu; and
how a Fountain rose out of the Earth._
But the chief King of Ireland, named Leogaire, the son of Neyll,
recollecting the prophecy, gave command unto his subjects that as soon
as Patrick should land they should forthwith expel him from the
country. And the saint, being then in the harbor called Innbherslan,
went alone out of the ship, and immediately the people, infidel and
dog-like in their manners, excited a very fierce dog to bite him even
unto death. But the dog, being at the sight of the man of God entirely
stiffened like a stone, stood fixed and without motion, plainly showing
that the worshippers of stones were like unto the gods which they
worshipped. The which, when a certain man named Dichu, who was
powerful of strength, gigantic of stature, and savage of mind, beheld,
he brandished his sword to destroy the saint. But the Lord interposed
His protecting arm, and all his strength withered in him, and he
entirely stiffened, so that he could move neither his foot to go
forward nor his hand to strike. And he, experiencing in himself such a
miracle, suddenly is changed into another man, and from proud becoming
humble, mild from fierce, from an infidel a believer, he is, with all
his household, at the preaching of Patrick, baptized in the Christian
faith. Thus he who had been in that country its first and principal
opposer became its first professor, and even to his latest age
continued its most devoted follower. And as his soul was loosed from
the chains of sin, so were his limbs loosed from their heaviness, and
all their strength was restored unto him. Behold, therefore, the
miracle which the Book of Kings relates to have been formerly wrought
on Jeroboam did Patrick more profitably renew on Dichu; for when that
king was sacrificing unto idols, and stretched out his hand to seize on
the prophet who was reproving him, forthwith his arm stiffened, which
on his repentance the prophet healed, yet did not he when healed
forsake his error; but Dichu, for the increase and for the evidence of
his devotion toward his new faith, gave unto Saint Patrick the place
wherein this miracle had been declared, to erect thereon a new church.
In this place, at the request of Dichu (but for what cause I know not),
did the saint build the church, having its aspect against the north,
and looking toward the southern point. Perchance that by this mystical
structure the worshippers of idols might be persuaded from the northern
coldness of unbelief unto the meridian fervor of the faith and the
charity of Christ--the which to this day is called Sabhall Phadruig,
that is, the Barn of Patrick; for in process of time he builded there a
fair monastery, into which he introduced monks that had passed their
novitiate; and for their use he not long afterward, by his prayers,
produced a fountain out of the earth. Of this monastery did he appoint
his disciple, Saint Dunnius, to be the abbot, wherein when he had
returned from his mission, he abided with him not a few days.