I used to stay out in the forests and on the mountain and I would wake up before daylight to pray in the snow, in icy coldness, in rain, and I used to feel neither ill nor any slothfulness, because, as I now see, the Spirit was burning in me at that time. Saint Patrick, Confessio

I seemed to hear the voice of those who were beside the forest of Foclut which is near the western sea, and they were crying as if with one voice: ‘We beg you, holy youth, that you shall come and shall walk again among us.Saint Patrick, Confessio,

I am the sinner Patrick. I am the most unsophisticated of people, the least of Christians, and for many people I am the most contemptible…I was taken into captivity in Ireland – at that time I was ignorant of the true God – along with many thousand others.This was our punishment for departing from God, abandoning his commandments, and ignoring our priests who kept on warning us about our salvation.. .St Patrick, Confessio