quiet contemplation, were his
portion. Let us hear how he himself, in a confession which he
subsequently wrote, describes this change which took place in him.

"I was about sixteen years old, and knew nothing of the true God, when I
was led into captivity with many thousands of my countrymen, as we
deserved, in that we had departed from God, and had not kept his
commandments. There God opened my unbelieving heart, so that I, although
late, remembered my sins, and turned with my whole heart to the Lord my
God, to Him who had regarded my loneliness, had had compassion on my
youth and my ignorance, and had watched over me before I knew him; who,
ere I knew how to choose between good and evil, had guarded and cherished
me, as a father doth his son. This I know assuredly, that before God
humbled me, I was like a stone lying sunk in deep mire; but He who is
able came, He raised me in his mercy, and set me on a very high place.
Therefore must I loudly bear witness to this, in order, in some measure,
to repay the Lord for such great blessings in time and eternity, great
beyond the apprehension of human reason. "When I came to Ireland," he
says, "and used daily to keep the cattle, and often every day to pray,
the fear and the love of God were ever more and more enkindled in me, and
my faith increased, so that, in one day, I spoke a hundred times in
prayer, and in the night almost as often; and even when I passed the
night on the mountains, or in the forest, amid snow and ice and rain, I
would awake before daybreak to pray. And I felt no discomfort, there was
then no sloth in me, such as I find in my heart now, for then the Spirit
glowed within me."

After he had passed six years in the service of this prince, he thought
he heard a voice in his sleep which promised him a speedy return to his
native land, and soon afterwards announced to him that a ship was already
prepared to take him. In reliance on this call, he set out, and after a
journey of many days, he found a ship about to set sail. But the captain
would not, at first, receive the poor unknown youth. Patrick fell on his
knees and prayed. He had not finished his prayer before one of the
ship's company called him back, and offered him a passage. After a
wearisome voyage, in which he experienced, from the grace which guided
him, many a deliverance from great peril, and many a memorable answer to
prayer, he arrived once more amongst his people.

Many years after