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GLASTONBURY ABBEY.

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having in the meantime converted the Irifh nation with many-
portents and miracles—that is, in eight years. There he found
the twelve brethren, who hailed him abbot. St. Patrick
in a charter which he granted, containing an indulgence of
one hundred days to all pilgrims thither, is made to tell us
that he found in the monaftery, the A<fts of the Apoftles and
the Adds of Phaganus and Diruvianus. Patrick, fays John of
Glaftonbury, lived to the age of one hundred and eleven,
having been abbot thirty-nine years.
There has run a legend that Jofeph of Arimathea on arriving
at Glaftonbury ftruck down his walking-ftick, an Afiatic thorn,
whilft he prayed, and behold, it fhot out boughs, leaves, and
flowers, and continued to flourifli there as the famous Glafton-
bury thorn till the deftrudtion of the monaftery by Henry
VIII. But it feems that this miracle attended St. Benignus, the
adopted fon and immediate fucceflbr of St. Patrick. Benignus
having been for feven years educated in Rome, defpifing the
profpedt of pontifical dignity which it appears—he, like St.
Patrick alfo had, and warned by an angel, fet out on a pilgrimage.
He was led by God to Glaftonbury, where he found his patron
St. Patrick, and to whom he told his divine million. St.
Patrick faid, “ Go on, my beloved fon, contented with thy
ftafF. And when thou comeft to the fpot where the Lord has
predefined thee to fettle, ftrike thy ftaff" into the earth, and it
fhall (hoot forth, grow verdurous, and bloflbm.” Benignus,
therefore, made a long travel through forefts, moors, and
marfhes, but the ftick did not Ihoot into life till he came again
to Glaftonbury, where, our hiftorian tells us, it continued to
his own day growing a large and fpreading tree clofe to the
oratory of the faint.
From the time of St. Patrick and of this miracle the fame
of Glaftonbury grew rapidly. Many kings, queens, princes,
 
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