"Now you, Coroticus — and your gangsters, rebels all against Christ, now where do you see yourselves? You gave away girls like prizes: not yet women, but baptized. All for some petty temporal gain that will pass in the very next instant. "Like a cloud passes, or smoke blown in the wind," so will "sinners, who cheat, slip away from the face of the Lord. But the just will feast for sure" with Christ. "They will judge the nations" and unjust kings "they will lord over" for world after world. Amen."

"I grieve for you, how I mourn for you, who are so very dear to me, but again I can rejoice within my heart, not for nothing "have I labored," neither has my exile been "in vain.""

"At Tara today in this fateful hour I place all Heaven with its power, And the sun with its brightness, And the snow with its whiteness, And fire with all the strength it hath, And lightning with its rapid wrath, And the winds with their swiftness along their path, And the sea with its deepness, And the rocks with their steepness, And the earth with its starkness All these I place, By God's almighty help and grace, Between myself and the powers of darkness."

"It is Patrick the Legend, of course, who is most engaging and comes to us as something of a happy Celtic party monster."

"St. Patrick... one of the few saints whose feast day presents the opportunity to get determinedly whacked and make a fool of oneself all under the guise of acting Irish."

"Patrick... understood that, though Christianity was not inextricably wedded to Roman custom, it could not survive without Roman literacy."

"St. Patrick was a gentleman Who through strategy and stealth Drove all the snakes from Ireland, Here's toasting to his health; But not too many toastings Lest you lose yourself and then Forget the good St. Patrick And see all those snakes again."