[Rank]
S. Patricii Episcopi Conf.;;Duplex;;3;;vide C4

[RankNewcal]
S. Patricii Episcopi et Conf.;;Duplex optional;;2;;vide C4

[Rule]
vide C4;
9 lectiones;

[Oratio]
O God, Who didst send forth thy Blessed Confessor and Bishop Patrick to preach~
thy glory among the Gentiles, mercifully grant unto us, for his sake and at his~
petition, whatsoever Thou commandest us to do, to have grace and power~
faithfully to fulfil the same.
$Per Dominum

[Lectio4]
Patrick, called the Apostle of Ireland, was born in Great Britain. The name of~
his father was Calphurnius, and that of his mother Conchessa. She is said to~
have been a relation of St Martin, Bishop of Tours. When Patrick was a lad, he~
was several times taken prisoner by savages, and while being in their hands he~
was employed as a shepherd, he already showed marks of his saintliness to come.~
His spirit was filled with faith, and love, and fear of God, so that he would~
rise before the light, in snow, and frost, and rain, to make his prayers to God,~
being accustomed to address God in prayer an hundred times every day, and an~
hundred times every night. After being rescued from his third captivity, he was~
placed among the clergy, and for a long time exercised himself in sacred~
learning. To this end he travelled with much labour, through Gaul, Italy, and~
the islands of the Tyrrhenian Sea, but at last being called of God to work for~
the salvation of the Irish, and, having received from the Blessed Pope Celestine a~
commission to preach the gospel, and likewise being consecrated a Bishop, he~
betook himself to Ireland.

[Lectio5]
In the discharge of his calling it is a marvel with how many evils, with how~
many sufferings and labours, and with how many adversaries the Apostolic Patrick~
had to bear. Nevertheless, by the goodness of God, that island, which had up to~
that time been given over to the serving of idols, was, through the preaching of~
Patrick, so wrought on that she soon brought forth the fruit which won her the~
name of the Island of Saints. Patrick caused many of her people to be born again~
by the washing of regeneration; he ordained many Bishops and clerks; he decreed~
rules for virgins and widows living in continency. By the authority of the~
Bishop of Rome he established the See of Armagh as the Primatial See of all~
Ireland, and enriched the Church with reliques of the Saints brought from Rome.~
Patrick, moreover, was so eminently adorned with heavenly visions, with the gift~
of prophecy, and with great signs and wonders from God, that the fame of him~
spread itself abroad more and more, day by day.

[Lectio6]
Besides that which came upon him daily, the care of all the Churches of Ireland,~
he never suffered his spirit to weary in constant prayer. They say that it was~
his custom to repeat every day the whole Book of Psalms, together with Songs and~
Hymns, and two hundred Prayers; that he bent his knees to God in worship three~
hundred times every day, and that he made on himself the sign of the Cross an~
hundred times at each of the Seven Hours of the Church Service. He divided the~
night into three portions; during the first he repeated the first hundred Psalms,~
and bent his knees two hundred times; during the second he remained plunged in~
cold water, with heart, eyes, and hands lifted up to heaven, and in that state~
repeated the remaining fifty Psalms; during the third he took his short rest,~
lying upon a bare stone. He was a great practiser of lowliness, and, after the~
pattern of the Apostle, he always continued to work with his own hands. At last~
he fell asleep in the Lord in extreme old age, refreshed with the Divine~
Mysteries, worn out with unceasing care for the Churches, and glorious both in~
word and work. His body is buried in Down in Ulster. He passed away in the fifth~
century after the giving of salvation by Christ.
