Above: Map showing Christian Countries (click map to enlarge)

The love of little children is noted as a characteristic of others of the Irish Saints. The Feilire of Angus refers to St. TJltan, Bishop of Ardbracean, as ” the great sinless prince, in whom the little ones are flourishing: the children play greatly round TJltan of Ardbraccan.” It is also recorded that during the Yellow Plague he brought to his monastery a number of children whose fathers and mothers had been carried off by the disease, and fed and kept them. It is told of St. Fridolin that he was especially fond of boys and joined in their games and amusements.

Above: Statuette of St. Fridolin

An abundant literature of beautiful legends has grown up round the lives of our Irish Saints. In many cases the narrative of their deeds was written two or three centuries after their own age, and one can easily detect anachronisms and exaggerations. They were often founded on vague popular tradition which in course of time becomes naturally amplified and distorted, and were some¬times written to excite veneration and zeal, and with little regard for historical exactitude. Yet when due allowance has been made for all this, and when we entirely reject statements of a legendary or doubtful character, there is sufficient testimony of a thoroughly reliable nature to warrant the claim made by Dr. Healy that the first centuries of the faith in Ireland present a more beautiful spectacle before men and angels than anything seen in Christendom before or since. Pere Gou-gaud who submits all his evidence to severe critical tests, and who will not accept stories that have any appearance of being legendary or imaginative, describes the period in the following words:— ” Such an efflorescence of sanctity, lasting for three or four centuries, is a spectacle that does honour to human nature regenerated by grace, and shows %vhat Christianity is capable of accomplishing.”