Patrick blessed him and his seed. On the same day Auxilius and
Eserninus, and others of Patrick's people, were ordained; and it was
then, also, that the name Patricius--_i.e._, a name of power with the
Romans--was given to him; _i.e._, a hostage-liberating man. It was he,
moreover, who loosened the hostageship and bondage of the Gaeidhel to
the devil. And when they were reading the _grada_ (orders, degrees),
the three choirs responded--viz., the choir of the men of heaven, and
the choir of the Romans, and the choir of the children from the woods
of Fochlud--all whom cried out, "Hibernienses omnes," etc. In illis
diebus autem gesta sunt in predictis ita. In that time there was a
fierce pagan king in Erinn--_i.e._, Laeghaire Mac Neill--and his seat
and royal hold was in Tara. In the fifth year of the reign of
Laeghaire Mac Neill Patrick came to Erinn. The eighth year of the
reign of Lughaidh he died. The eighth year of the reign of Theodosius,
the forty-fifth man from Augustus, Patrick came; eight years Celestine
was then prince, as Gelasius said.

This valiant king, then--_i.e._, Laeghaire Mac Neill--possessed druids
and enchanters, who used to foretell through their druidism and through
their paganism what was in the future for them. Lochru and Luchat Mael
were their chiefs; and these two were authors of that art of
pseudo-prophecy. They prophesied, then, that a mighty, unprecedented
prophet would come across the sea, with an unknown code of
instructions, with a few companions, whom multitudes would obey, and
who would obtain dignity and reverence from the men of Erinn; and that
he would expel kings and princes from their governments, and would
destroy all the idolatrous images; and that the faith which would
arrive would live for ever in Erin. Two years, or three, before the
arrival of Patrick, what they used to prophesy was [as follows];