Christian Classics
‹ The Confession of St. Patrick
Contents
Kidnapped by Pirates at Age 16Embarrassed at Lack of EducationFinds God While Herding Pigs (?)Escapes, Guided by a VoiceRecalled to Ireland by DreamASCII Outline-Map of IrelandA Childhood Confession Returns to Haunt HimBoasts of Bringing Religion to the IrishBaptizes a beautiful Irish Princess“...And this is my confession before I die.”

St. Patrick · 6 of 10

ASCII Outline-Map of Ireland

Map:

24. And another night—God knows, I do not, whether within me or beside me— . . . most words + . . . + which I heard and could not understand, except at the end of the speech it was represented thus: ‘He who gave his life for you, he it is who speaks within you.’ And thus I awoke, joyful.

25. And on a second occasion I saw Him praying within me, and I was as it were, inside my own body , and I heard Him above me—that is, above my inner self. He was praying powerfully with sighs. And in the course of this I was astonished and wondering, and I pondered who it could be who was praying within me. But at the end of the prayer it was revealed to me that it was the Spirit. And so I awoke and remembered the Apostle’s words: ‘Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness; for we know not how to pray as we ought. But the Spirit Himself for us with sighs too deep for utterance.’ And again: ’The Lord our advocate for us.’

26. And then I was attacked by a goodly number of my elders, who [brought up] my sins against my arduous episcopate. That day in particular I was mightily upset, and might have fallen here and for ever; but the Lord generously spared me, a convert, and an alien, for his name’s sake, and he came powerfully to my assistance in that state of being trampled down. I pray God that it shall not be held against them as a sin that I fell truly into disgrace and scandal.