e
had been a humble anchorite, it soon became distinguished for its
sanctity and usefulness. The concourse of strangers and pilgrims was
immense; and in the once solitary plain one of the largest cities of the
time soon made its appearance. It is singular and interesting to remark,
how the call to a life of virginity was felt and corresponded with in
the newly Christianized country, even as it had been in the Roman
Empire, when it also received the faith. Nor is it less noticeable how
the same safeguards and episcopal rule preserved the foundations of each
land in purity and peace, and have transmitted even to our own days, in
the same Church, and in it only, that privileged life.

The Four Masters give her obituary under the year 525. According to
Cogitosus, one of her biographers, her remains were interred in her own
church. Some authorities assert that her relics were removed to Down,
when Kildare was ravaged by the Danes, about the year 824.

It has been doubted whether Downpatrick could lay claim to the honour of
being the burial-place of Ireland's three great saints,[141] but there
are good arguments in its favour. An old prophecy of St. Columba
regarding his interment runs thus:--

"My prosperity in guiltless Hy,
And my soul in Derry,
And my body under the flag
Beneath which are Patrick and Brigid."

The relics of the three saints escaped the fury of the Danes, who burned
the town and pillaged the cathedral six or seven times, between the
years 940 and 1111. In 1177, John de Courcy took possession of the town,
and founded a church attached to a house of Secular Canons, under the
invocation of the Blessed Trinity. In 1183 they were replaced by a
community of Benedictine monks, from St. Wirburgh's Abbey, at Chester.
Malachy, who was then bishop, granted the church to the English monks
and prior, and changed the name to that of the Church of St. Patrick.
This prelate was extremely anxious to discover the relics of the saints,
which a constant tradition averred were there concealed. It is said,
that one day, as he prayed in the church, his attention was directed
miraculously to an obscure part of it; or, according to another and more
probable account, to a particular spot in the abbey-yard, where, when
the earth was removed, their remains were found in a triple
cave,--Patrick in the middle, Columba and Brigid on either side.

At the request of De Courcy, delegates were despatched to Rome by the