Evening Republican, Volume 17, Number 64, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 15 March 1913 — ST. PATRICK WON HEARTS BY LOVE [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

ST. PATRICK WON HEARTS BY LOVE

It is remarked by historians that Ireland —the virgin island on which

woman proconsul never set foot — was the only country In western Europe where the Gospel was planted without a previous conquest of arms. What followed, as a result of the great work of Saint Patrick In Ireland is one of the salient facts In the history of civilization—the uplifting influence of the Irish in the pagan and semi-

Christian nations of the north and west of Europe during several centuries succeeding his beneficent career. During the centuries In which Ireland was the lighthouse of religion and humanity she sheltered learning, and art flourished within her borders. It was Irish illuminators who engrossed the Book of Kells, a transcript of the Gospels still famous among connoisseurs &s the most beautiful book in the world. As late as King Alfred’s time—the ninth century—scholars from Ireland were welcomed by the monks of the famous English abbey of Croyland as instructors in the art of illuminating missals and breviaries. That century was a rude age in England, but an age of culture in the Green Isle. , Civilizations rise and fall. The time came, after centuries of enlightenment and peace, when Ireland fell a prey to foreign conquest, the result of strife among her native chiefs. It was in the latter half of the twelfth century that Dermod MacMurrough of Leinster, deposed for his tyranny, negotiated with Henry n. and invited Norman-Engllsh mercenaries to help him in the recovery of his kingdom. From that time dated Ireland’s evil days. But her people under every stress ot misfortune retained ■ their love of liberty and the. morality which has made them singular among the nations. Idealists and enthusiasts — the stuff of which martyrs are made—they remained true amid all vicissitudes to their religious faith. There are other Instances in human history which demonstrate that it is moral qualities that win the end, but no example of this truth is more conspicuous and resplendent than that which is deducible from the history of the Irish people.