The Legends of Saint Patrick by Vere, Aubrey de, 1814-1902

This day to Him, the Faithful and the True, For Whom I toiled, my spirit I commend. That which I am, He knoweth: I know not now: But I shall know ere long. If I have loved Him I seek but this for guerdon of my love With holier love to love Him to the end: If I have vanquished others to His love Would God that this might be their meed and mine In witness for His love to pour our blood A glad stream forth, though vultures or wild beasts Rent our unburied bones! Thou setting sun, That sink'st to rise, that time shall come at last When in thy splendours thou shalt rise no more; And, darkening with the darkening of thy face, Who worshipped thee with thee shall cease; but those Who worshipped Christ shall shine with Christ abroad, Eternal beam, and Sun of Righteousness, In endless glory. For His sake alone I, bondsman in this land, re-sought this land. All ye who name my name in later times, Say to this People, since vindictive rage Tempts them too often, that their Patriarch gave Pattern of pardon ere in words he preached That God who pardons. Wrongs if they endure In after years, with fire of pardoning love Sin-slaying, bid them crown the head that erred: For bread denied let them give Sacraments, For darkness light, and for the House of Bondage The glorious freedom of the sons of God: This is my last Confession ere I die.

NOTES.

{10a} Cotton MSS., Nero, E.'; Codex Salisburiensis; and a MS. in the Monastery of St. Vaast.

{10b} The Book of Armagh, preserved at Trinity College, Dublin, contains a Life of St. Patrick, with his writings, and consists in chief part of a description of all the books of the New Testament, including the Epistle of Paul to the Laodiceans. Traces found here and there of the name of the copyist and of the archbishop for whom the copy was made, fix its date almost to a year as 807 or 811-812.

{77} The Isle of Man.

{101} Now Limerick.

{111} Foynes.

{116} The Giant's Causeway.