Legend of a Saint and Crozier

The incident is related of St. Patrick and one of the kings of Cashel, and formed the subject of the first picture exhibited by James Barry. In the *Pursuit of Knowledge under Difficulties*, London, 1831, (art. Barry, p. 159.) it is stated that: "The picture was painted in his twentieth or twenty-first year, on the baptism by St. Patrick of one of the kings of Cashel, who stands unmoved while the ceremony is performed, amidst a crowd of wondering spectators; although the saint, in setting down his crosier, has, without perceiving it, struck its iron point through the royal foot."