m the fate of the
weak ones of the earth, the vanquished, the afflicted, the losers in the
race. Compassion showed him the better way, the way of sympathy and
union, instead of contest and dominion. A firm and fixed purpose grew up
within him to make the appeal of gentleness to the chiefs and rulers, in
the name of Him who was all sympathy for the weak. Thus the inspiration
of the Message awakened his soul to its immortal powers.

Later, returning with the clear purpose of his message formed, he began
his great work not far from his first place of captivity. His strong
personality led him always to the presence of the chiefs and warriors,
and he talked to them freely as an equal, gradually giving them an
insight into his own vision of life, of the kinship between soul and
soul, of our immortal power and inheritance. He appealed always to his
own inner knowledge of things divine, to the light and power unveiled
within himself; and the commanding genius in his words lit a like fire
in the hearts of those who heard, awakening an enthusiasm for the New
Way. He had a constant sense of his divine mission:

"Was it without divine promise, or in the body only, that I came to
Ireland? Who led me? Who took captive my soul, that I should no more see
friends and kindred? Whence came my inspiration of pity for the race
that had enslaved me?"

The memory of his first victories is perpetuated in the name,
Downpatrick,--that is: the Dwelling of Patrick.--where Dicu son of
Tricem, chief of the district, gave him a tract of land to build a place
of meeting and prayer for his disciples; while the church was being
built, the chief offered his barn as a meeting-place, an incident
commemorated in the name of Saul, on a hill above the town,--a name
softened from Sabal, "a barn." This first victory was won among the
rounded hills south of the Quoyle River, where it widens toward
Strangford Lough; from the hill-top of Saul there is a wide prospect
over the reed-covered flats with the river winding among them, the hills
with their oak-woods in the bends of the river, and the widening lough
with its innumerable islands, its sand-flats lit up with red under the
dawn. The sun sets among the mountains of Mourne, flushing from behind
the purple profile of the hills, and sending golden arrows over the rich
fertility of the plain. The year 432 is the probable date of this first
conversion.

The strong genius of the Messenger carried him after a few