# Matins Nocturn 2 reading for St. Patrick, Bishop, Confessor (Mar 17). # Sourced directly from web/www/horas/Latin/Sancti/03-17.txt, # English/Sancti/03-17.txt. Lectio4-6 combined into one reading, one # continuous vita. No Lectio7-9 in the source (6-lesson office). id: st-patrick readings: - nocturn: 2 isGospel: false text: la: >- Patricius, Hiberniæ dictus Apostolus, Calphurnio patre, matre Conchessa sancti Martini Turonensis episcopi, ut perhibent, consanguinea, majori in Britannia natus, puer in barbarorum sæpius incidit captivitatem. Eo in statu, pascendis gregibus præpositus jam tum futuræ sanctitatis specimen præbuit: fidei namque, divinique timoris et amoris spiritu repletus, antelucano tempore per nives, gelu ac pluvias ad preces Deo fundendas, impiger consurgebat; solitus centies interdiu, centiesque noctu Deum orare. A servitute tertio exemptus, et inter clericos relatus, in divinis lectionibus longo se tempore exercuit. Galliis, Italia, insulisque Tyrrheni maris labore summo peragratis, divino tandem monitu ad Hibernorum salutem advocatur; et facta a beato Cælestino Papa Evangelii nuntiandi potestate, consecratusque episcopus, in Hiberniam perrexit. Eo in munere mirum quot vir apostolicus mala, quot ærumnas et labores, quot pertulerit adversarios. Verum Dei afflante benignitate, terra illa, idolorum antea cultrix, eum mox prædicante Patricio fructum dedit, ut sanctorum insula deínde fuerit appellata. Frequentissimi ab eo populi sacro sunt regenerati lavacro: episcopi, clericique plurimi ordinati; virgines ac viduæ ad continentiæ leges institutæ. Armachanam sedem, Romani Pontificis auctoritate, totius insulæ principem metropolim constituit, sanctorumque reliquiis ab Urbe relatis decoravit. Supernis visionibus, prophetiæ dono, ingentibusque signis et prodigiis a Deo exornatus adeo refulsit, ut longe lateque celebrior Patricii se fama diffuderit. Præter quotidianam ecclesiarum sollicitudinem, invictum ab oratione spiritum numquam relaxabat. Ajunt enim, integrum quotidie Psalterium, una cum Canticis et Hymnis, ducentisque orationibus, consuevisse recitare, tercenties per dies singulos flexis genibus Deum adorare, ac in qualibet hora diei canonica centies se crucis signo munire. Noctem tria in spatia distribuens, primum in centum Psalmis percurrendis et bis centies genuflectendo alterum in reliquis quinquaginta Psalmis, algidis aquis immersus, ac corde, oculis manibusque ad cælum erectus, absolvendis insumebat: tertium vero super nudum lapidem stratus tenui dabat quieti. Humilitatis eximius cultor, apostolico more a manuum suarum labore non abstinuit. Assiduis tandem curis pro Ecclesia consumptus, verbo et opere clarus, in extrema senectute divinis mysteriis refectus, obdormivit in Domino, sepultusque est apud Dunum in Ultonia, a christiana salute sæculo quinto. en: >- Patrick, called the Apostle of Ireland, was born in Great Britain. The name of his father was Calphurnius, and that of his mother Conchessa. She is said to have been a relation of St. Martin, Bishop of Tours. When Patrick was a lad, he was several times taken prisoner by savages, and while being in their hands he was employed as a shepherd, he already showed marks of his saintliness to come. His spirit was filled with faith, and love, and fear of God, so that he would rise before the light, in snow, and frost, and rain, to make his prayers to God, being accustomed to address God in prayer an hundred times every day, and an hundred times every night. After being rescued from his third captivity, he was placed among the clergy, and for a long time exercised himself in sacred learning. To this end he travelled with much labour, through Gaul, Italy, and the islands of the Tyrrhenian Sea, but at last being called of God to work for the salvation of the Irish, and, having received from the Blessed Pope Celestine a commission to preach the gospel, and likewise being consecrated a Bishop, he betook himself to Ireland. In the discharge of his calling it is a marvel with how many evils, with how many sufferings and labours, and with how many adversaries the Apostolic Patrick had to bear. Nevertheless, by the goodness of God, that island, which had up to that time been given over to the serving of idols, was, through the preaching of Patrick, so wrought on that she soon brought forth the fruit which won her the name of the Island of Saints. Patrick caused many of her people to be born again by the washing of regeneration; he ordained many Bishops and clerks; he decreed rules for virgins and widows living in continency. By the authority of the Bishop of Rome he established the See of Armagh as the Primatial See of all Ireland, and enriched the Church with relics of the Saints brought from Rome. Patrick, moreover, was so eminently adorned with heavenly visions, with the gift of prophecy, and with great signs and wonders from God, that the fame of him spread itself abroad more and more, day by day. Besides that which came upon him daily, the care of all the Churches of Ireland, he never suffered his spirit to weary in constant prayer. They say that it was his custom to repeat every day the whole Book of Psalms, together with Songs and Hymns, and two hundred Prayers; that he bent his knees to God in worship three hundred times every day, and that he made on himself the sign of the Cross an hundred times at each of the Seven Hours of the Church Service. He divided the night into three portions; during the first he repeated the first hundred Psalms, and bent his knees two hundred times; during the second he remained plunged in cold water, with heart, eyes, and hands lifted up to heaven, and in that state repeated the remaining fifty Psalms; during the third he took his short rest, lying upon a bare stone. He was a great practicer of lowliness, and, after the pattern of the Apostle, he always continued to work with his own hands. At last he fell asleep in the Lord in extreme old age, refreshed with the Divine Mysteries, worn out with unceasing care for the Churches, and glorious both in word and work. His body is buried in Down in Ulster. He passed away in the fifth century after the giving of salvation by Christ. status: { la: verified, en: verified }