The Most Ancient Lives of Saint Patrick/The Life and Acts of St. Patrick/Chapter 2
CHAPTER II.
How a Fountain burst forth, and how Sight and Learning were given to the Blind.
A certain man named Gormas, who had been blind even from his mother's womb, heard in a dream a voice commanding him that he should take the hand of the boy Patrick, then lately baptized, and make on the ground the sign of the cross—adding that at the touch a new fountain would burst forth, with the water whereof, if he bathed his eyes, he would forthwith receive his sight. And the blind man, instructed by the divine oracle, went to the little boy, made with his right hand on the ground the sign of salvation, and immediately did a new fountain burst forth. And his darkened eyes, being bathed with this healing stream, perceived the day poured in, and the virtue of Siloe renewed; and, that the mercies of the Lord might be acknowledged, and the wonders that he doeth for the children of men, while the outward blindness of Gormas was enlightened, his inward sight received the revealing gift of science; and he who was before unlearned, having experienced the power of the Lord, read and understood the Scriptures, and as by the outward mercy from being blind he became able to see, so by the inward grace from unlearned he became learned. But the fountain flowing forward with a more abundant stream, even unto this day pouring forth its clear waters, sweet to the draught and wholesome to the taste, is honored with the name of Saint Patrick, and, as is said, gives health or relief to many laboring with divers diseases; and it rises near the seaside, and over it the devotion of posterity has erected an oratory, with an altar built in the form of a cross.