Irish Druids and old Irish religions / by James Bonwick.

  • James Bonwick
Date:
1894
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Irish Druids and old Irish religions / by James Bonwick. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    Colgan contended that St. Patrick, by “continually warring with Druids, exposed his body to a thousand kinds of deaths.” In The Guardsman's Cry of St. Patric, which declares “ Patric made this hymn,” we are in- formed that it was “ against incantations of false prophets, against black laws of hereticians, against surroundings of idolism, against spells of women, and of smiths, and of Druids.” The Annals of the Kingdom of Ireland by the Four Masters mentions a number of stories relative to Irish Druids, then believed to have once ruled Erin. St. Patrick was a youthful slave to Milcho, a Druidical priest. Grad- well’s Succat, therefore, says, “ He must often have practised heathenish rites in the presence of his household, and thus excited the horror of his Christian slave.” Scoto-Irish Druids. St. Columba, the Culdee, was much the same as St. Patrick in his mission work, and his contests with Druids. He changed water into wine, stilled a storm, purified wells, brought down rain, changed winds, drove the devil out of a milk-pail, and raised the dead to life. All that tradition acknowledged as miraculous in the Druids was attributed equally to Columba as to Patrick. Adamnan of Iona tells some strange stories of his master. One tale concerns Brochan the Druid. “On a certain day, Brochan, while conversing with the Saint, said to him, ‘ Tell me, Columba, when do you propose to set sail ? ’ To which the Saint replied, ‘ I intend to begin my voyage after three days, if God permits me, and preserves my life.’ Brochan then said, ‘You will not be able, for I will make the winds unfavourable to your voyage, and I will create a great darkness over the sea.’ ” The wind rose, and the