Note 222 — Chapter IX · WRITINGS OF PATRICK, AND HIS DEATH

This story is also told by Muirchu, but not in immediate connexion with the story of the waggon and oxen seized by the men of Orior. It seems probable that the latter was suggested by the former. We meet the duplicate waggon and oxen in the Life of St. Abban (Colgan, Acta Sanctorum, i. March 16, cc. 41 sqq.), where the account of that saint’s death and burial and the struggle between the north and the south Leinster men is obviously borrowed from the stories about St. Patrick. Another story of wild bulls drawing a saint’s body to its tomb will be found in the Life of St. Melorus of Cornwall, Acta Sanctorum (Boll.), Jan. 1, vol. i. p. 136.