When Patrick concluded his triumphant career in the present life, as the
Apostle Paul said, "I have fought the good fight; I have finished my
course; I have kept the faith; as to the rest, there is laid up for me a
crown of justice, which the Lord the just judge will render to me in that
day," he received communion and sacrifice from Bishop Tassach. His
remains and relics are here regarded with honor and veneration by the
earthly church. Though great his honor and veneration on the earth,
greater still will they be in the Day of Judgment, when the fruit of his
preaching will be committed to him as to each other high apostle, with
the apostles and disciples of Jesus, in the union of the nine choirs of
angels, in the union of the Divinity and the Humanity of the Son of God,
in the unity which is nobler than all unity--in the unity of the Holy
Trinity, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. I beseech mercy through the
intercession of Patrick. We ask that we may all ourselves obtain this
union _in soecula soeculorum_. Amen.

[It should be observed that, at the commencement of each of the three
parts of the Tripartite Life, there are several pages of Latin, which
were intended by the author as a sort of introduction or preface to what
follows in each part. They are made up principally of Scriptural
quotations strung loosely together. These quotations have general
reference to the establishment of Christ's kingdom upon earth, and are
obviously intended to bear upon the happy introduction of Christianity
into Ireland through the labors of our glorious apostle. At the end of
each of the parts, in like manner, are some paragraphs, by way of
peroration, devoted chiefly to the praises of the great saint, who
dedicated the greater part of an unusually long life to the service of
God, by the regeneration of our pagan ancestors. The language of both
prefaces and perorations, whether corrupted by the copyists in