Note 377 — Chapter VI · THE KINGDOM OF SCONE.

In the sixth and seventh lives of Saint Patrick we are told that he brought with him from Rome a stone altar (altare lapideum), which had been consecrated by the Pope, and that when crossing to Ireland a leper wished to be taken on board, but being refused admission by the sailors, Saint Patrick threw the stone altar into the sea, and desired the leper to sit upon it, which he did, and it floated with him to Ireland (here called ‘tabula lapidea’).—Colgan, Tr. Th. 71, 123. It is again mentioned as following him through the air, and as having been left at Domhnach Patraicc, where it was the subject of special veneration. In the Tripartite Life it is called his ‘Lec’ or stone. In the lives of St. Bridget it is said that when a girl she made a stone altar (altare lapideum), and an angel came and perforated it at the four corners and placed it upon four wooden legs.—Colgan, Tr. Th. p. 538.

In the sixth life of Saint Patrick we are told that he came to Cashel, and at his preaching the king of Munster believed and was baptized; and then follows this sentence: ‘Remansit in loco illo tabula lapidea, super quam Sanctus fortasse celebraverat divina sacramenta; vocatur autem ab Hibernicis Leac Phadruig, id est, lapis Patricii: super quam ob reverentiam illius solent reges Casselenses in principatum promoveri, et in regni solium sublimari.’—Colgan, Tr. Th. 82.

It was customary among the Celtic as well as other races that their kings and chiefs should be inaugurated standing upon a rock or large natural stone, but the coronation stone was a movable slab kept in the church, and the use of it formed part of the religious ceremony, the king sitting upon it while he is being consecrated, and the coronation of the Cashel kings appears to be the only strictly analogous case.