Lost Sheep

Invidetur mihi. Quid faciam, Domine? Valde despicior. Ecce oves tuae circa me laniantur atque depraedantur, et supradictis latrunculis, iubente Corotico hostili mente. Longe est a caritate Dei traditor Christianorum in manus Scottorum atque Pictorum. Lupi rapaces deglutierunt gregem Domini, qui utique Hiberione cum summa diligentia optime crescebat, et filii Scottorum et filiae regulorum monachi et virgines Christi enumerare nequeo. Quam ob rem iniuria iustorum non te placeat; etiam usque ad inferos non placebit. Quis sanctorum non horreat iocundare vel conviuium fruere cum talibus? De spoliis defunctorum Christianorum repleuerunt domos suas, de rapinis vivunt. Nesciunt miseri venenum letale cibum porrigunt ad amicos et filios suos, sicut Eva non intellexit quod utique mortem tradidit viro suo. Sic sunt omnes qui male agunt: mortem perennem poenam operantur. Consuetudo Romanorum Gallorum Christianorum: mittunt viros sanctos idoneos ad Francos et ceteras gentes cum tot milia solidorum ad redimendos captivos baptizatos. Tu potius interficis et vendis illos genti exterae ignoranti Deum; quasi in lupanar tradis membra Christi. Qualem spem habes in Deum, vel qui te consentit aut qui te communicat verbis adulationis? Deus iudicabit. Scriptum est enim: Non solum facientes mala sed etiam consentientes damnandi sunt. Sanctus Patricius Hibernorum Apostolus, Epistola Ad Coroticum  Migne PL 53. 816-817

They watch me with malice. What am I to do, O Lord? I am greatly despised. Behold, your sheep around me are torn and preyed upon, and by the thieves that I have spoken of, at the command of the hostile minded Coroticus. Far he is from the love of God who gives Christians into the hands of Scots and Picts. Rapacious wolves have devoured the flock of the Lord, 1 which under the greatest care was growing greatly in Ireland; I cannot count the number of sons of Scots and daughters of kings who are now monks and virgins of Christ. Thus the injuries of the righteous will not please you, even in the very depths it will not please. 2 Who among the holy would not be horrified to take pleasure or to enjoy a feast with such folk? With the spoil of dead Christians they have filled their houses, they live on plunder. These wretches do not know that they offer deadly poison as food to their friends and children, like Eve who did not understand that it was death that she gave to her man. 3 So it is with those who do evil, they work death as eternal punishment. It is the custom of the Christians of Roman Gaul to send holy and capable men to the Franks and to other pagans with so many thousands of coins to redeem the baptised who have been taken captive. You, however, kill and sell them to foreign people who are ignorant of God; as if into a brothel you hand over the members of Christ. 4 What hope have you in God, or who approves of you, or who sends you words of praise? God will judge. For it is written: 'Not only those who do evil, but also those who consent to it, will be damned.' 5 Saint Patrick Apostle of the Irish, Letter to Coroticus 1 Acts 20.29 2 Sirach 9.17 3 Gen 3.6 41 Cor 6.15 5 Rom 1.32