aun; that he continued his
missions over all the provinces of Ireland, during forty years; that he
restored sight to many blind, health to the sick, and raised nine dead
persons to life.[7] He died and was buried at Down in Ulster. His body
was found there in a church of his name in 1185, and translated to
another part of the same church. His festival is marked on the 17th of
March, in the Martyrology of Bede, &c.

* * * * *

The apostles of nations were all interior men, endowed with a sublime
spirit of prayer. The salvation of souls being a supernatural end, the
instruments ought to bear a proportion to it, and preaching proceed from
a grace which is supernatural. To undertake this holy function, without
a competent stock of sacred learning, and without the necessary
precautions of human prudence and industry, would be to tempt God. But
sanctity of life, and the union of the heart with God, are
qualifications far more essential than science, eloquence, and human
talents. Many almost kill themselves with studying to compose elegant
sermons, which flatter the ear yet reap very little fruit. Their hearers
applaud their parts, but very few are converted. Most preachers,
now-a-days, have learning, but are not sufficiently grounded in true
sanctity, and a spirit of devotion. Interior humility, purity of heart,
recollection, and the spirit and the assiduous practice of holy prayer,
are the principal preparation for the ministry of the word, and the true
means of acquiring the science of the saints. A short devout meditation
and fervent prayer, which kindle a fire in the affections, furnish {604}
more thoughts proper to move the hearts of the hearers, and inspire them
with sentiments of truer virtue, than many years employed barely in
reading and study. St. Patrick, and other apostolic men, were dead to
themselves and the world, and animated with the spirit of perfect
charity and humility, by which they were prepared by God to be such
powerful instruments of his grace, as, by the miraculous change of so
many hearts, to plant in entire barbarous nations not only the faith,
but also the spirit of Christ. Preachers, who have not attained to a
disengagement and purity of heart, suffer the petty interests of
self-love secretly to mingle themselves in their zeal and charity, and
have reason to suspect that they inflict deeper wounds in their own
souls than they are aware, and produce not in others th