IV.—PATRICK JUNIOR

OF Patrick Junior we know little for certain. He is said to have been the son of Deacon Sannan—St. Patrick’s only brother, according to the Scholiast on Fiacc’s Hymn. Jocelyn assures us that after the death of his holy uncle he returned to Britain, and retired there to the ancient and famous monastery of Glastonbury where he wrote his Life of St. Patrick. Colgan identifies it as the Second amongst the Lives published by himself, and remarks that the writer was well skilled in the Irish language, for he uses several Gaelic phrases, and must have written after the death of St. Patrick, since he describes the Saint as being sixty years when he came to preach in Ireland, and spending sixty more in this country before his death. In its present form the Life is incomplete, but so far as it goes it is of great historical value. From a reference the author makes to Fiacc, it would appear he survived that saint, and must therefore have lived somewhat later than 510, the probable year of Fiacc’s death.