Saint Patrick and the
story of the three leaf clover.
The chiefs and Brehons came in full numbers and the druids too would muster all their
strength to bid defiance to the herald of good tidings and to secure the hold of their
superstition on the Celtic race, for their demoniac oracles had announces that the
messenger of Christ had come to Erin. St. Patrick arrived at the hill of Slane, at the
opposite extremity of the valley from Tara, on Easter Eve, in that year the feast of the
Annunciation, and on the summit of the hill kindled the Paschal fire. The druids at once
raised their voice. "O King", (they said) "live for ever; this fire, which
has been lighted in defiance of the royal edict, will blaze for ever in this land unless
it be this very night extinguished." By order of the king and the agency of the
druids, repeated attempts were made to extinguish the blessed fire and to punish with
death the intruder who had disobeyed the royal command. But the fire was not extinguished
and Patrick shielded by the Divine power came unscathed from their snares and assaults. On
Easter Day the missionary band having at their head the youth Benignus bearing aloft a
copy of the Gospels, and followed by St. Patrick who with mitre and crozier was arrayed in
full episcopal attire, proceeded in processional order to Tara.
The druids and magicians put forth all their strength and employed all their
incantations to maintain their sway over the Irish race, but the prayer and faith of
Patrick achieved a glorious triumph. The druids by their incantations overspread the hill
and surrounding plain with a cloud of worse then Egyptian darkness. Patrick defied them to
remove that cloud, and when all their efforts were made in vain, at his prayer the sun
sent forth its rays and the brightest sunshine lit up the scene. Again by demoniac power
the Arch-Druid Lochru, like Simon Magus of old, was lifted up high in the air, but when
Patrick knelt in prayer the druid from his flight was dashed to pieces upon a rock. Thus
was the final blow given to paganism in the presence of all the assembled chieftains. It
was, indeed, a momentous day for the Irish race. Twice Patrick pleaded for the Faith
before Leoghaire. The king had given orders that no sign of respect was to be extended to
the strangers, but at the first meeting the youthful Erc, a royal page, arose to show him
reverence; and at the second, when all the chieftains were assembled, the chief-bard
Dubhtach showed the same honor to the saint. Both these heroic men became fervent
disciples of the Faith and bright ornaments of the Irish Church. It was on this second
solemn occasion that St. Patrick is said to have plucked a shamrock from the thick grass
covered land, to explain by its triple leaf and single stem, in some rough way, to the
assembled chieftains, the great doctrine of the Blessed Trinity. On that bright Easter
Day, the triumph of religion at Tara was complete. The Ard-Righ granted permission to
Patrick to preach the Faith throughout the length and breadth of Erin, and the druidical
prophecy like the words of Balaam of old would be fulfilled: the sacred fire now kindled
by the saint would never be extinguished.
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