Chiefs, at variance in all else, agreed in meeting beneath the Christian banner; and the proud druid and bard laid their superstitions meekly at the foot of the cross; nor, by a singular blessing of Providence--unexampled, indeed, in the whole history of the Church--was there a single drop of blood shed on account of religion through the entire course of this mild Christian revolution, by which, in the space of a few years, all Ireland was brought tranquilly under the dominion of the Gospel." It is probable that St.Patrick was born in 387, and that in 403 he was made captive and carried into Ireland.

Those who believe Alcuith or Dumbarton to have been his birthplace, are obliged to account for his capture in Gaul--which has never been questioned--by supposing that he and his family had gone thither to visit the friends of his mother, Conchessa.

He was sold as a slave, in that part of Dalriada comprised in the county of Antrim, to four men, one of whom, Milcho, bought up their right from the other three, and employed him in feeding sheep or swine.
Exposed to the severity of the weather day and night, a lonely slave in a strange land, and probably as ignorant of the language as of the customs of his master, his captivity, would, indeed, have been a bitter one, had he not brought with him, from a holy home, the elements of most fervent piety.

A hundred times in the day, and a hundred times in the night, he lifted up the voice of prayer and supplication to the Lord of the bondman and the free, and faithfully served the harsh, and at times cruel, master to whom Providence had assigned him.

Perhaps he may have offered his sufferings for those who were serving a master even more harsh and cruel.
After six years he was miraculously delivered.