that after his second captivity, he travelled into Gaul and Italy,
and had seen St. Martin, St. Germanus of Auxerre, and pope Celestine,
and that he received his mission, and the apostolical benediction, from
this pope, who died in 432. But it seems, from his Confession, that he
was ordained deacon, priest, and bishop, for his mission in his own
country. It is certain that he spent many years in preparing himself for
those sacred functions. Great opposition was made against his episcopal
consecration and mission, both by his own relations and by the clergy.
These made him great offers in order to detain him among them, and
endeavored to affright him by exaggerating the dangers to which he
exposed himself amidst the enemies of the Romans and Britons, who did
not know God. Some objected, with the same view, the fault which he had
committed thirty years before as an obstacle to his ordination. All
these temptations threw the saint into great perplexities, {601} and had
like to have made him abandon the work of God. But the Lord, whose will
he consulted by earnest prayer, supported him, and comforted him by a
vision; so that he persevered in his resolution. He forsook his family,
sold, as he says, his birthright and dignity, to serve strangers, and
consecrated his soul to God, to carry his name to the end of the earth.
He was determined to suffer all things for the accomplishment of his
holy design, to receive in the same spirit both prosperity and
adversity, and to return thanks to God equally for the one as for the
other, desiring only that his name might be glorified, and his divine
will accomplished to his own honor. In this disposition he passed into
Ireland, to preach the gospel, where the worship of idols still
generally reigned. He devoted himself entirely for the salvation of
these barbarians, to be regarded as a stranger, to be contemned as the
last of men, to suffer from the infidels imprisonment and all kinds of
persecution, and to give his life with joy, if God should deem him
worthy to shed his blood in his cause. He travelled over the whole
island, penetrating into the remotest corners, without fearing any
dangers, and often visited each province. Such was the fruit of his
preachings and sufferings, that he consecrated to God, by baptism, an
infinite number of people, and labored effectually that they might be
perfected in his service by the practice of virtue. He ordained
everywhere clergymen, induced women t