The rhymed life of St Patrick Written by Katharine Tynan: With pictures by L. D. Symington: And a foreword by Lieut.-General Sir William Butler |
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 | The rhymed life of St Patrick |  |
24
First and second of St Patrick's Prayers
On Croagh Patrick he fought with an angel,As the prophet once in the old Evangel;
The holy mountain beheld his passion,
His prayer, his fasting, his consolation:
For forty days he had earned the price,
For Erin's children, of Paradise:
He made four prayers that the Irish be
Free from a barbarous slavery
For ever and ever. After that prayer
The angel of God was standing there.
“Your prayer is granted,” he said; “now go
Down from the Mountain.” But Patrick, “No.
'Twas not for this I fasted in pain
Forty days in the snow and rain.
Ask my God that He grant salvation
To everyone of the Irish nation
Who says my prayer from the ‘Christ be with me!’
And doeth penance upon his knee.”
And the angel said, “Your prayer is granted;
You have had enough. Had you all you wanted,
You would ask for heaven: go from the hill.”
But Patrick: “Prayers I have others still.”
| The rhymed life of St Patrick | |