In the year 444, the work of the teacher had so thriven that he was able to build a larger church on a hill above the Callan River, in the undulating country south of Lough Neagh.  This hill, called in the old days the Hill of the Willows, was only two miles from the famous fortress of Emain of Maca.  It was a gift from the ruler Daire, who, like so many other chiefs, had felt and acknowledged the Messenger’s power.  Later, the hill came to be called Ard-Maca, the Height of Maca; a name now softened into Armagh, ever since esteemed the central stronghold of the first Messenger’s followers.

The Messenger passed on from chief to chief, from province to province, meeting with success everywhere, yet facing grave perils.  Later histories take him to the kings of Leinster and Munster, and he himself tells us that the prayer of the children of Foclut was answered by his coming, so that he must have reached the western ocean.  It was a tremendous victory of moral force, of the divine and immortal working through him, that the Messenger was able to move unarmed among the warriors of many tribes that were often at war with each other; everywhere meeting the chiefs and kings, and meeting them as an equal:  the unarmed bringer of good tidings confronting the king in the midst of his warriors, and winning him to his better vision.

For sixty years the Messenger worked, sowing seed and gathering the fruit of his labor; and at last his body was laid at rest close to his first church at Saul.  Thus one of the great men of the world accomplished his task.

IX.

The saints and scholars.

A.D. 493-750.

It would be hard to find in the whole history of early Christianity a record of greater and more enduring success than the work of St. Patrick.  None of the Messengers of the New Way, as they were called first by St. Luke, unless the phrase is St. Paul’s, accomplished single-handed so wonderful a work, conquering so large a territory, and leaving such enduring monuments of his victory.  Amongst the world’s masters, the son of Calpurn the Decurion deserves a place with the greatest.

Not less noteworthy than the wide range of his work was the way in which he gained success.  He addressed himself always to the chiefs, the kings, the men of personal weight and power.  And his address was almost invariably successful,—­a thing that would have been impossible had he not been himself a personality of singular force and fire, able to meet the great ones of the land as an equal.  His manner was that of an ambassador, full of tact, knowledge of men and of the world.  Nor can we find in him—­or, indeed, in the whole history of the churches founded by him—­anything of that bitter zeal and fanaticism which, nearly two centuries nearer to apostolic times, marred the work of the Councils under Constantius; the fierce animosity between Christian and Christian which marked the Arian controversy.  The Apostle of Ireland showed far more urbanity, far more humane and liberal wisdom, far more gentleness, humor and good feeling, in his treatment of the pre-Christian institutions and ideals of Ireland than warring Christian sects have generally been willing to show to each other.