A New People

Et in Osee dicit: Vocabo non plebem meam plebem meam et non misericordiam consecutam misericordiam consecutam et erit in loco ubi dictum est: Non plebs mea vos, ibi vocabuntur filii Dei vivi. Unde autem Hiberione qui numquam notitiam Dei habuerunt nisi idola et inmunda usque nunc semper coluerunt quomodo nuper facta est plebs Domini et filii Dei nuncupantur, filii Scottorum et filiae regulorum monachi et virgines Christi esse videntur? Et etiam una benedicta Scotta genetiva nobilis pulcherrima adulta erat, quam ego baptizavi; et post paucos dies una causa venit ad nos, insinuavit nobis responsum accepisse a nuntio Dei et monuit eam ut esset virgo Christi et ipsa Deo proximaret: Deo gratias, sexta ab hac die optime et avidissime arripuit illud quod etiam omnes virgines Dei ita hoc faciunt, non sponte patrum earum, sed et persecutiones patiuntur et improperia falsa a parentibus suis et nihilominus plus augetur numerus, et de genere nostro qui ibi nati sunt nescimus numerum eorum, praeter viduas et continentes. Sed ex illis maxime laborant quae servitio detinentur: usque ad terrores et minas assidue perferunt; sed Dominus gratiam dedit multis ex ancillis suis, nam etsi vetantur tamen fortiter imitantur. Sanctus Patricius Hibernorum Apostolus, Confessio Source: Migne PL 53.810a-b

Hosea says: 'I will call a people not mine my people; and she who has not obtained mercy, will obtain mercy, and in the place where it was said: You are not my people, there they will be called children of the living God.' 1 Whence how in Ireland which never had knowledge of God but to serve idols and unclean things always up to now, have they recently become the people of the Lord, and are called children of God, and the sons and daughters of the leaders of the Irish are seen to be monks and virgins of Christ? There was a blessed Irish lady of noble birth, a most beautiful woman, whom I baptised, and after a few days she came to me for one reason: she told me that she had received word from a messenger of God, who admonished her that she should become a virgin of Christ and that she should come near to God. Thanks be to God, six days later, enthusiastically and well, she took up that way which all the virgins of God do. And not by their fathers' will do they do this, for they suffer persecution from them and false accusations from their parents, and nevertheless the number of them grows, and we do not know the number of our people who were born there. Besides which, there are the widows and the celibates. But of all these, those held in slavery toil most, constantly enduring terror and threats, but the Lord gives grace to so many of His handmaids who serve him, for even if they are forbidden, they bravely follow. Saint Patrick Apostle of the Irish, from The Confessio 1 Hosea 2.23-24; 1.10