Above: Picture of Cardinal Newman in sitting position

During the three centuries that followed the coming of St. Patrick there were numerous Saints in every province of Ireland, and the conversion of the people to the faith influenced the whole life of the nation to an extent that has scarcely been paralleled in the history of the spread of Christianity. Cardinal Newman speaks of ” the Irish multitude of Saints which the Book of Life alone is large enough to contain,” and Montalernbert tells us that the baid reappeared in Ireland, and that the West had no longer anything to envy in the history of the East.

Above: Picture of an Irish Manuscript called the Book of Kells

An ancient Irish manuscript of unknown authorship divides the Saints of Ireland into three great orders. The First Order was in the time of St. Patrick. They were 350 in number, all bishops and all founders of churches, and were either citizens of the Roman Empire, Franks, Britons or Scots. This order consisted chiefly of St. Patrick with the great number of foreign missionaries who accompanied him to Ireland, or who came there after his time, and of the Britons and native Irish ordained by the Apostle of Ireland and his successors. The Order continued toi more than a century after the date of St. Patrick’s arrival. The Second Order numbered 300, of whom many were priests and a few were bishops. It included Finnian, Enda, Colman, Comgall, Ciaran, Columba, Brandan, Cainnech, Coemghan, Lasrian, Lugeus and Barrind, and flourished during the latter half of the sixth century. The Third Order of Saints lived in Ireland for a period which extended for about seventy years from the end of the sixth century.

Below: Portrait of St. Patrick gently clasping a church building

The writer of the manuscript says that ” the First Order was most holy, the Second Order holier, and the Third holy. The First glowed like the sun in the fervour of their charity; the Second cast a pale radiance like the moon; the Third shone like the aurora. These Three Orders the blessed Patrick foreknew, enlightened by heavenly wisdom, when in prophetic vision he saw at first all Ireland ablaze, and afterwards only the mountains on fire; and at last saw lamps lit in the valleys.”