. A bird flew past, and, attracted by the soft
woollen stuff, carried it off to line its nest. A year later when the
nest was destroyed the dress was discovered as fresh and clean as when
it was stolen--a piece of symbolism foretelling the purity and
holiness of the future saint.

As soon as the child could speak his mother sent him to school. She
hoped great things from the quiet, earnest boy, in whom she had
observed signs of fervent piety. One day he came home and asked his
mother where his father was. "All the other boys have fathers," he
said; "where is mine?" His mother sadly told him that his father,
wishing to serve God more perfectly than it was possible for him to do
at home, had gone to Ireland to become a monk. "Thither shall I go
too, when I'm a man," said Patern, and he made a resolve that when he
grew up he would also enter a monastery. Accordingly, having finished
his studies in the monastery of Rhuys, he set out for Britain, where
he founded two religious houses, and then crossed to Ireland, where he
met his father. Eventually he returned to Vannes, as one of the nine
bishops of Brittany, but he did not agree with his brethren regarding
certain ecclesiastical laws, and at last, not wishing to "lose his
patience," he abandoned his diocese and went to France, where he ended
his days as a simple monk.

There is an interesting legend to account for the foundation of the
church of St Patern at Vannes. We are told how for three years after
Patern left Vannes the people were afflicted by a dreadful famine. No
rain fell, and the distress was great. At length it was remembered
that Patern had departed without giving the people his blessing, and
at once "a pilgrimage set forth to bring back his sacred body, that it
might rest in his own episcopal town." But the body of the blessed
Patern "refused to be removed," until one of the pilgrims, who had
before denied the bishop a certain piece of ground, promised to gift
it to his memory and to build a church on it to the Saint's honour,
whereupon the body became light enough to be lifted from the grave and
conveyed to Vannes. No sooner had the sacred corpse entered Vannes
than rain fell in torrents. Hagiology abounds in instances of this
description, which in many respects bring it into line with
mythology.

_St Samson_

We have already related the story of Samson's birth. Another legend
regarding him tells how one day when the youths attached to the
monastery