SAINT PATRICK
History gives to St. Patrick a powerful personality. The saint's own writings, sparse as they are, show him to be a sensitive, excitable, strongly spoken person - yet home loving and deeply compassionate.He is, of course, known as a complete man of God, who, through rugged self-discipline, strove to give all the strength of his heart and soul to God and to the salvation of the pagan Irish people.Both the personal story of the saint, and the story of his great "Mission to the Irish", are fascinating, even thrilling. The catch is that both are mixed in with miraculous legends, some true, some exaggerated. And modern readers want facts, and will consider wonders only when these appear to be credible.
This story, then, of Saint Patrick will base itself mainly on doubly authenticated documents which are: St Patrick's own Confession composed in A.D. 447; his Letter to Coroticus, 443: St. Secundinus, Hymn to Patrick, 445; and the Breastplate Prayer which is very ancient. (Cf. Ludwig Bieler, The Works of St. Patrick in Ancient Christian Writers, No. 17, edited 1953). Old traditions and old legends surely convey some of the truth - say the historians. So, on occasions, Muirchu and Tirechan of the 7th and 8th centuries, will be used, and texts from modern writers which depend on these. But the text will indicate when the source is 'ancient tradition'.
The Confession
A word about the "Confession". All the earlier part of Patrick's life comes from this document which he wrote down himself at the age of 62 years. So say the scholars with one voice - that is, as to the writing, but not as to the age of the man.
In itself the Confession is a long letter of 62 numbered paragraphs (for our convenience): we shall quote the paragraph No. when using it. Patrick wrote it to the Christians of Gaul and Britain who found fault with him on several scores - e.g. that he was unlearned and wrote badly, that he was ill-chosen to be bishop, that he was reckless in going to try to convert the completely barbarous Irish (then called 'Scot').
These persistent criticisms rankled in his strong but sensitive mind, so much so that he threw off his fear of being ridiculed for his clumsy way of writing to demolish them. Yet his Letter is much more a song of thanks to God for all His mercy and grace to "a sinner, a rustic, a most unlearned man", as he describes himself.
The Confession, for all its ruggedness and even obscurity, is a very moving human document. It will be often quoted in this text.
PART ONE
Early Life, Dedication, Choice as Bishop (385-432)
Birth, Abduction
Patrick, whose full 'Roman' name is Patricius Magonus Sucatus (Sucat being British) was born in Britain, most probably in Wales. The year of his birth is A.D. 385.Of his family and birthplace, he writes in his Confession No. 1: "I am Patrick, a sinner, most unlearned, the least of all the faithful, and utterly despised by many" - so does he begin, with his critics in mind. He continues: "My father was Calpornius, a deacon, son of Potitus, a priest, of the village Bannaven Taburniae; he had a country seat nearby, and there I was taken captive. A man with a 'country seat' was obviously well enough to do; the village itself is not identifiable, but all the circumstances related by Patrick, and gathered from other indications, converge to indicate that it was on the west coast of Britain near the sea, and in an area strongly 'romanised'. His mother's name was Concessa. His grandfather had become a priest in older years, say the historians - the grandmother probably being deceased - and his father became a deacon. Obviously these things were allowable in Britain at the time, and it is noted that some married men opted for church orders to escape the financial duties, such as the collecting and guaranteeing of taxes attached to municipal offices. (Patrick's father was a decurion). That their interest in church affairs was not intense is gathered from Patrick's next statement in his Confession:
There is not description of the raid on Britain's coast by these Irish sea-pirates, just the statement of fact. It is enough to allow us to
picture a fleet of vessels manned by tough men, warriors all, quickly disembarking, marauding and pillaging, and driving away some 'thousands of people'. World War II made us familiar with such lightening raids. The shiploads of captives were brought back to the 'barbarous' coast of Ireland - it is not known precisely where - and a sale and distribution of the captives was made. The year was A.D. 401.
Morsel of History
We are, in 401, at a turning point in the history of Rome and of Britain, for in 410 the last of the Roman administrators left Britain to end four hundred years of colonization. With the culture of the Romans gone, Britain and the early Christian church in that country, were soon to experience chaotic days.
The Romans never conquered the upper reaches of Scotland, the Picts. Nor did they venture into Ireland, the "Scoti". Yet there was some traffic between these places and Britain, frequently in the form of armed raids. Some areas in Britain were held for years by the Irish, and there were Irish chieftains who had British wives. Christians there were too in Ireland before Patrick - either captives in raids, or some who migrated. So when Patrick arrived, a youth and a captive, he found indeed a very hard life, but not an entirely friendless one.
The Druid Miliuc
Ancient tradition puts Patrick in the service of a druid named Miliuc maccu Boin at Slemish, Co. Antrim. He himself writes that he tended sheep daily, often in the woods and on the mountains (Slemish). And in later years he regrets, that having begun life in the civilized atmosphere of a 'roman' household, he now was turned into a rustic.
For six years the youth endured the hardships of a slave, developing strength in his body. Quite likely he had other captives for companions and some of these were Christians. It was there in Miliuc's service, while witnessing the pagan practices of this idol-worshipper, that Patrick experienced a profound Christian conversion.
"The Lord opened the sense of my unbelief (Conf. no. 2) that I might at last remember my sins and be converted with all my heart to the Lord my God. Many times a day I prayed - the love of God and His fear came to me more and more, and my faith was strengthened. And my spirit was moved so that in a single day I would say as many as a hundred prayers, and almost as many in the night, and this even when I was staying in the woods and on the mountain; and I used to get up for prayer before daylight, through snow, through frost, through rain, and I felt no harm, and there was no sloth in me - as I now see, because the spirit within me was then fervent."
Isn't it quite moving to read these words of a captive Briton youth of the years 401-407, separated from his dear ones, held in bondage by a pagan druid master? To picture him in the woods or on the mountain for weeks at a time, or within his rough-hewn hut, hearts heavy but spirit uplifted and prayer constantly on his lips through the day and the night? One feels that Our Lord had come very near, that Patrick's heart had been wounded in love, and a powerful experience of conversion was happening to him: an experience not all that uncommon.
Escape from the Captivity, 407
"And there one night (relates, Patrick, Conf. no. 17) I heard in my sleep a voice saying to me: 'It is well that you fast, soon you will go to your own country.' And again, after a short while, I heard a voice saying to me: 'See, your ship is ready'. And it was not near, but at a distance of perhaps two hundred miles, and I had never been there, nor did I know a living soul there; and then I took to flight, and I left the man with whom I had stayed for six years. And I went in the strength of God who directed my way to my good, and I feared nothing until I came to that ship."
In pondering those vivid words, one thinks of a guardian angle whispering in the young man's ear. Then of his feeling of God's presence near him, directing his way.
Two hundred miles through unknown, and sometimes hostile country is quite a journey. A runaway captive...Irish hounds prominent...we know the country abounded with them. There were no towns as such in Ireland of those days, only compounds called 'dun' that must have been something like African kraals with earth heaped high around for defense, hundreds of these. So Patrick on the run had to avoid the compounds, and find shelter no doubt with fellow captives or serfs who lived in huts clustered together on the outskirts of the compounds.
After his long and furtive journey, he may well have come to a port along the Wicklow Coastline which would be about 180 miles from Slemish.
"The day that I arrived (he relates) the ship was set afloat, and I said that I was able to pay for my passage with them". The ship was going to Gaul with a consignment of the famous Irish hounds, 'presents for a king'. "But the captain was not pleased, and with indignation he answered harshly: 'It is no use for you to ask us to go along with us'. And when I heard this, I left them in order to return to the hut where I was staying. And as I went I began to pray; and before I had ended my prayer, I heard one of them shouting behind me, 'Come, hurry, we shall take you on in good faith; make friends with us in whatever way you like'. And so on that day I refused to suck their breasts (he refers to some pagan right of protection) for fear of God, but rather hoped they would come to the faith of Jesus Christ, because they were pagans. And thus I had my way with them, and we set sail at once." (Conf. no. 18).
O. St. John Gogarty, I Follow St Patrick, makes the dry remark that some of the crewmen must have smelt sheep on Patrick's clothing, and so hurried him on board to take care of the hounds!
Gaul (France)
Historians agree that Patrick's vessel brought him to Gaul (France), and that his party found the land deserted because of the devastating wars between Roman and wild tribesmen. During their wearisome journey the ship's captain challenged our youth to pray to "his Christian God" to provide food for the starving group. "And with the help of God, so it came to pass: suddenly a herd of pigs appeared on the road before our eyes, and they killed many of them . . . and fully recovered their strength, and their hounds received their fill."
At this point in his Confessions - No. 19 - Patrick's account begins to falter. He speaks vividly of a severe demoniacal temptation that came to him, "Satan assailed me violently, a thing I shall remember as long as I be in this body", and then of their meeting after ten days with local people.
Years of Wanderings (407-432)
In St Patrick's life there now ensues a long period of twenty five years that is the subject of conjecture amongst historians. It is believed that he traveled far - in Gaul, in Italy and in the Tyrrhenian Islands, and for a lengthy period fixed on the Christian community at Auxerre under the guidance of St Germanus; it is known that he undertook clerical studies; it is also clearly known that he returned to Britain to seek out his family and spend a goodly period with them.
Out of these, Auxerre is taken for the hinge-point, and it seems quite likely that he remained there for some years. Certainly he had a long schooling in community and religious living and he relished it. Although the style at Auxerre was not the full monastic, Patrick showed a great love of the monastic style in his apostolic years.
At Auxerre he set himself to study, and found the going difficult because of his negligence as a lad when the chance was there, and because of his captive years as a herdsman. Languages did not come easy to him and his written Latin shows it. He did better with the Scriptures; it seems that he knew whole sections of the Bible by heart. He was also well acquainted with church and religious community laws, and his grasp of Christian doctrine was clear intensely firm. In his old age calls himself a "rustic", "most unlearned", but this was by contrast to the polished grammarians of the Latin and Greek tongues that he had met in Gaul. It is perfectly clear that the student Patrick had made a giant advance in the art of all arts - viz. the way of Christian living, involving self-discipline, constant toil, humility of mind, and a continued relish for the finding of God in prayer.
The Call to Ireland
One gathers from the Confession that the maturing Patrick conceived a very ardent desire to go back to the Irish pagan people, and try to bring them to Christ.
"...after a few years (following the trip to Gaul), I was in Britain with my people", he said in Conf. no. 23. "They received me as their son, and sincerely besought me that now at last, having suffered so many hardships, I should not leave them and go elsewhere."
"And there I saw in the night the vision of a man, whose name was Victoricus, coming as it were from Ireland with countless letters. And he gave me one of them, and I read the opening words of the letter, which were, 'The voice of the Irish'; and as I read the beginning of the letter I thought that at the same moment I heard their voice - they were those beside the wood of Volcut, which is near the western sea - and thus did they cry out with one month: 'We ask thee, boy, come and walk among us once more.' And I was quite broken in heart, and could read no further, and I woke up." (Conf, no. 23.)
Whether this 'private inspiration', so clearly recalled in his old age, happened soon after he escaped from Ireland, or when he was well advanced in clerical study is not made clear. What is clear is that Patrick had no doubt that God worked in these inspirations, and showed him His Will that he should return to the Irish people.
So we come to the year 429, and some exact details that lead up to Patrick's election as missionary bishop.
Election as Bishop, 431 or 432
In 429, Pope Celestine, at the instigation of his archdeacon Palladius, sent St Germanus of Auxerre on a mission to Britain to counteract Semi-Pelagianism. Germanus had speedy success, and at a clergy meeting in Britain it was also decided to send help to the scattered Christians in Ireland, mainly located in Leinster. Germanus proposed Patrick's name for this mission to the Irish, but the British bishops resisted the nomination and Palladius was chosen in his stead. Ireland's first Christian bishop was Palladius, not Patrick.
As it happened Palladius's mission was short-lived. He had some success but then lost favour with the pagan chieftain of Wicklow (?) and left the country within a year or two with a decision of no return. Germanus, it seems, made sure that Patrick was chosen and approved by Pope Celestine. In his Confessions, Patrick refers with some vigour to his rejection in 429. Obviously it rankled in his mind that a close friend, who promised to recommend him to the British meeting, had gone back on his word and had even revealed a confidence about some sin of Patrick's youth. (Cf. Nos. 26 and 27.)
So now at the age of 47 - in the year 431 or 432 - Bishop Patrick was on his way to the Irish mission with a group of helpers. The great mission, as it was to prove, was under way.
PART TWO
His Marvellous Mission in Ireland (432-461)
Dichu comes first
Patrick's ship, with his entourage of helpers, reached the East coast in the year 431 or 432. It is said that at their first anchorage for water, supplies, and hospitality, they were received unkindly and had to turn their ship north past Malahide - Dublin was not yet on the map - until they came to the present Strangford Lough. The leading chieftain of this area was a man named Dichu, a considerable leader, whose seat of authority was in the fort of Down (Dun). Even the earthwork ruins of this place are said to be impressive.
"When Dichu was informed of the secret landing of a company of strange, bald, white-robed, sandaled men who spoke a strange language - the language of Imperial Rome - he was at first minded to have them slain for robbers or pirates. But curiosity prevailed. He came with his hound to look at the strangers. He set his dog at them, but Patrick silenced it. Then to his startled interest he heard the leader address him in words of the Dalriadian district, his own tongue, (Slemish is not far away) and conversation developed". (O. St. John Gogarty, I Follow St Patrick, p. 155: it is taken from ancient legends.)
Dichu was converted and his household - Patrick's first success, and the pilgrim religious group secured a land footing in Ireland. Dichu is said to have allowed them to settle at Sabhall (Saul), and here a small church was improvised in a barn. In a short while two more were to follow at Rathcolpa and Brechan.
As this area of south Ulster is not so far away from Slemish Co. Antrim, where the young Patrick was held captive, he surely had these early days of apostolate in mind when he wrote to the Christian soldiers of Coroticus in Britain in 443: "Did I come to Ireland without God, or according to the flesh? Who compelled me? . . . Is it of my own doing that I have holy mercy on the people who once took me captive and made away with the servants and maids of my father's house? I was freeborn according to the flesh. I am the son of a decurion. But I sold my noble rank - I am neither ashamed or sorry - for the good of others." (Letter to Coroticus, No. 10)
It is narrated in old traditional sources (e.g. Muirchu), that Patrick was so encouraged by his first success that he quickly set out to revisit Slemish, and to confront Miliuc maccu Boin, his former pagan master. The legends relate how Miliuc panicked at the apostle's approach and threw himself and his idols into a funeral pyre of his own making. It is a story that has been embellished to cover the segment of truth, namely, that many of Miliuc's people - including his sons and daughters, it would seem - came over to the Christian creed.
Tara (Temoria): the Great Encounter
Historians of St. Patrick are united in stating that two of the guiding principles of his apostolate were: (1) to try to unsettle the Druids' hold on the people and their leaders; (2) to convert, if possible, the kings and chieftains - those of the royal blood. Should these two aims have success, then the conversion of thousands of people from idolatry might well follow. In fact, to do anything Patrick had to depend on a grant of safe-passage from the kings and the chieftains.
A brief word on the two institutions of Druids and Kings will help us to understand Patrick's famous encounter with pagan Ireland on Tara (Temoria) Hill, and the progress of the conversion of the Irish.
The Druids: These were a class of people, like the Levites of the Jews, or more like the Lamas of Tibet, who guarded unwritten laws, taught the nobility, conducted rites of worship and divination, practiced healing, and handed on songs and legends: they are said to have been more of teachers and diviners then priests in our meaning of the word. Some were magicians who claimed to have special powers of the forces of nature. Obviously they were important, and for the most part upright men. Each chieftain, and especially each king, retained a school of them at his court, and these were well arranged.
The Kings: the Ireland of 432 had scored of nobles and many petty kings over local areas, but only six main kings and one of these was the High King (Ard Rhi). Each noble or petty king lived in a fortified compound; the main kings had impressive large circular huts, halls, fortifications. The High King to whom the other five paid tribute and gave certain allegiances, presided at Tara (Temoria) in Co. Meath and held a large central part of Ireland based in Meath but taking in sections of the neighbouring provinces: the five lesser ones held the bulk of Ulster, Connaught, Leinster and Munster. Each of the six kept hostages to ensure allegiance.
The Contest at Tara
St. Patrick knew the Irish social system both from study and the experience of captivity. He knew the great influence of the druids in secular and religious matters; he knew the interwoven relationship of Kings, nobles and people.
So when he set out from Saul to come to Tara in the Easter of 432 - the traditional date - to meet and confront High King Laoghaire (the son of Niall), who was now four years in his office, Patrick knew full well that this encounter would be crucial for his future. It is surely no exaggeration to say that it was to prove to be one of the great religious moments of our Christian story.
Should Laoghaire be displeased, all he had to do was to order the slaying of Patrick and companions and it would be done. And one may suppose that both the High King and his best informed Druids knew something of Christianity: it had been for a long time in Britain, and Britain was so near.
What Patrick, of course, had on his side was the weight of Roman prestige. Laoghaire would hardly brush this aside. Some writers have also suggested that the considerable number of British slaves held in Ireland may have bolstered Patrick's cause, for many of them were Christians by baptism. Yet one can well believe that Bishop Patrick put his life in his hands as he approached Tara. No wonder then that stories and legends - abound in describing Patrick's meeting with High King Laoghaire and the Druids on Tara Hill.
The Christian story is that Patrick, knowing of the custom, determined to light the Easter Fire of the Christians on Slane hill before that of Tara. And to do this as a gesture of the true renewal that he brought, and as a challenge to the old order in Ireland. The story proceeds to tell of the rage of the Druids whose leader exclaims: "Unless that fire on Slane hill be quenched tonight, it will never be extinguished in Ireland!"
Events that Followed
One should love to believe - as Muirchu relates - that High King Laoghaire now summoned nine chariots to be made ready, wheeled them around by the left against the course of the Sun for good fortune, and then took off towards the hill of Slane. Halting outside the circle of the intruder's fire to avoid his magic, he ordered the offender to come to him.
"At the King's command, Patrick came out of the place that was lit up. In the shadowy dark he saw the King among his seated household. Around him his warriors seated on the ground, their chins resting on their hands which held the rims of their shields. Behind these were the guards, a semi-circle of spears.
"Patrick stood alone, light shining on the upright blade of gold which arose from the golden circle around his head to cover his forehead - the mitre of the 5th century. The flat disc was like a cooper's adze, hence the druids called him 'Adzehead'. The silence was broken by Erc the young poet who rose to do honour to him who stood alone. The Saint spoke, the druids grew uneasy.
"Why had he lighted his house before the royal palace was lighted? Patrick replied in reply the symbolism of the Sacred Fire, and dwelt on the Trinity, the Incarnation, and the Resurrection.
"The Druids answered back in rough and incredulous words. "Laoghaire commanded: 'Seize him who by his enchantments will destroy us all'. But as they rushed, Patrick cried out loudly: 'Let God arise and his enemies be scattered'.
"And immediately they were confused in a cloud, and fought one another, and the horses plunged and went wild, and the warriors were in disarray. The King, his wife, and two attendants also remained.
"And the Queen prayed: 'O just and mighty man, do not kill us; the King will bend his knee and adore thy God'. And the King remains silent except to summon Patrick to come to him at Tara on the following day, Easter Sunday. (cf. St John Gogary, I Follow St. Patrick: he uses the ancient legend of Muirchu on the telling.)
One should love to believe this, and some of the stories of Easter Day on Tara Hill with the magicians of the druids striving in contest with
Patrick for superior control over the forces of nature. The only trouble is - say the historians - there is no certain way to verify fact from legend, and obviously much of it is legend. So we must not be too credulous: we must try to ascertain fact.
True it is, and it must be that High King Laoghaire was impressed by St. Patrick and his Christian teachings: it is said, however, in the more credible traditions, that he himself would never become Christian. True again it is that the druids, for all their learning and wizardry and power, did not overwhelm the apostle. They would certainly have been called into the debate.
Now a Christian has no bother with credible miracles; he sees no special point in a contest for control of the powers of nature: and he just wonders whether the miracle of Tara was rather realized in the minds and hearts of the pagan men and women who listened to Patrick, than in the forces of nature. And he is delighted to find that in the most credible section of the legends that Conall, the brother of Laoghaire, and Fedelmid, Laoghaire's son, are soon listed as Christians, and even some of the important druids like Dubthach.
Patrick - in his Confession Nos.34 and 35 - refers to the "great divine power" given to him; to his escape from "twelve dangers in which my life was at stake - not to mention numerous plots, which I cannot express in words"; "God used to forewarn even me, poor wretch that I am, of many things by a divine message" - but he does not directly describe miracles of a physical kind performed in support of his ministry.
Tara to Taillte (Telltown)
Trim, close to Tara, gave Patrick lodging. And here Prince Conall, the high king's brother, accepted baptism, as did Fedelmid and his son Fochtern. Land was donated, a settlement made and a church begun. Lonman was left in charge.
Then after a reasonable day the Saint was on his way, with safe passage from the King and his nobles (Conf. nos. 51, 52, 53), to attend an enormous festal gathering of the heads and people of Taillte. And legend and fact again become inextricably mixed.Interesting it is to read that Patrick rode by chariot, as did the members of his retinue, and employed chariot-drivers to take him on his journeys: it was the only method of transport. Three of his chariot-drivers are given names in the ancient stories, Buadamel, Odran and
Totus Calvus (the Bald One), and intriguing stories are told of these. As, for example, how Odran persuaded Patrick to yield him the seat of honour on one occasion and himself took the spear that was meant for the Saint!
At Taillte thousands came together for warrior contests, games, songs, rituals. Old traditions speak of Patrick commanding attention as he arrived and when he spoke, and of the making of some converts: they also speak of the rough attempt of Cairbre, a relative of Laoghaire, to kill him. Near to Taillte a Christian settlement was begun and a priest put in charge.
Mag Slecht
Then on went Patrick, with some time intervening, to confront the centre of pagan worship in Ireland at Mag Slecht, the high seat of Druidism. It was a place of huge pillar stones, wells, circles of stones, circular huts, the whole dominated by a high natural platform of limestone rock sixty feet high, four hundred yards long.
Enthroned on the limestone platform stood a huge idol from the time of the Filborgs, an idol planted in silver and gold, the king idol of Erin called Crom Cruach. Around the central idol were arranged twelve stone subgods. To these gods offerings of various kinds were brought.
In front of the platform was found a large section of land that was called the "Plain of Prostration".
The old stories, mixed with fact and legend, speak of the Great Shout of St. Patrick as he drew near to these mute idols, invoking the power of the true and invisible God to smash them down. And it is narrated that the idols collapsed!
We moderns may openly smile at the story. Yet I remember personally hearing a story from a Chinese missionary, Fr. Apollinar Erdos, OFM, which happened in the year 1948 and which quite matches the Irish legend. He told us of the day when a group of large Chinese family idols collapsed and were smashed to pieces as he hurried by carrying the Blessed Sacrament to a dying man! The collapse of Crom Cruach - were there any way to be sure of its authenticity - should cause us no surprise.
Voclut Wood
"The wood of Voclut, near the western sea" is the only name place in ancient Ireland given in Patrick's Confession. Of this place, in dead of night, Patrick had a vision or a dream in which voices called out: "We ask thee, boy, come and walk among us once more."
The vision haunted Patrick and forced him to return to Ireland, and he says: "Thanks be to God, after many years the Lord gave to them according to their cry." (Conf. no. 23.) So he came as Bishop to Voclut Wood - whether to Slemish or to Sligo (at the request of Enda) - is a problem for historians. In whichever area it was, probably in Sligo, it is said that "thousands of converts" were made.
Progress of the Mission
So we have a picture of a rapidly developing Christian Mission. Within fifteen years the foundations were laid of what became the brilliant "Roman" Church of the Irish.
Saul, Tara and Trim, Taillte, Granard, Mag Slecht, Elphin, Kells, Croagh Patrick, Ardlicce, Kilkeevan), Selcae, Voclut (Killala), Drumlease ... these are some of the places where Patrick and his entourage came and worked.
According to scholars the Confessions was written in 447, just fifteen years after Patrick's mission was begun. It already speaks of "thousands of converts" (No. 50), "of those who had no knowledge of God, but until now always worshipped idols and things impure, being made a people of the Lord . . . the sons and daughters of the kings of the Irish are seen to be monks and virgins of Christ" (Conf. no. 41), and of "clerics being ordained everywhere through my unworthy person." (No. 50.)
When you think of all that was involved in even one of these solid church foundations, you may get some idea of Bishop Patrick's achievement. First, he had to have the consent of the local king or chieftain. Thus for Saul, he had Dichu's agreement. For Tara, Donaghpatrick and Taillte, he had the tolerance of the High King and of Prince Conall. And as the brothers and sons and kinsman of the high king ruled over the kingdoms of Connaught, Oirghealla, Aileach, as well as around Tara itself, it appears that Patrick confined his first great missionary efforts to these regions. They would include most of the place names given above.
Second, he had to acquire a gift of land for church and mission purposes: by no means easy. Third, he travelled with a retinue of some 24 persons including clergy, a brehon (civil judge), a strongman for bodyguard, domestics, church builders, and with cattle for provisions.
Although "no lover of pomp" - as Muirchu suggests - he was completely sure "that the lesser kings of Ireland would have scant respect for any man unable to show the same exterior symbols of power as they themselves affected. So strong was tribal settlement in the Ireland of the 5th century that any attempt to convert the people without first winning the chieftain's esteem would have been quite useless." (A. Curtayne, St Patrick - Lough Derg, p. 6-7.) Patrick knew well how to adapt his missionary method to the social state of the people.
Obviously he must have depended on steady help, both in personnel and in material aid, from Gaul and Britain in the early years of his foundations.
His Personal Work
Patrick's main mission field - where he and his entourage worked in person - was Meath and Connaught, with some time in Ulster: Down and Antrim. "Thrice did Patrick wend his way across the Shannon into the land of Connacht. Fifty bells and fifty chalices and fifty altar cloths he left in it, each in its own church. (Tripartite Life 1, p. 147.) In Meath, at Donaghpatrick (?) he made his first headquarters, then later on in south Ulster at Armagh - so many churches owe their origins in these areas to him. And the same is true of Down and Antrim.
Because of this, some historians maintain that the southern part of Ireland was evangelized by others, some of these arriving before Patrick.
On the authority of Professor Ludwig Bieler, Life and Legend of St Patrick, p. 73, such statements must be treated cautiously. The Professor writes: "I have the impression that, in his Confession, Patrick describes a country almost entirely pagan. The only exception to this opinion would seem to be Confession No. 51." Here Patrick, in referring to his going to the extremities of human habitation - probably to Cahir Ireland out from Murrisk - remarks: "I went...to the farthest districts, beyond which there lived nobody and where nobody had ever come to baptize, or to ordain clergy, or to confirm the people."
The same outstanding Gaelic scholar, after reference to Patrick's diplomatic success with the kings and his neutralizing of the druids, sums up his missionary progress in words like these:
And if it is true that Patrick's own effort was concentrated in Meath, Connaught, and Ulster, culminating at Armagh (the primatial see), he still made missionary excursions into Leinster and Munster in the south. The names of Palladius, Ibar, Ailbe and Declan are authoritative in the south, yet the Saint in person - according to ancient traditions - had a leading hand with the kings and the nobility. He is reputed to have baptized the sons of Dunlang, king of Leinster and implacable foe of High King Laoghaire. And it is claimed that he came to "Cashel of the Kings" to baptize the sons of Natfraich, King of Munster. It was at Cashel that he is said to have speared the foot of Aengus during the baptismal ceremony with the sharp end of his episcopal staff: Aengus enduring it stoically thinking it to be part of the ceremony!
Armagh: Organization, 444
Twelve years after he began the great Mission Patrick settled on Armagh, South Ulster, for his central episcopal See: some think he would have settled nearer to Tara had Laoghaire been more amenable. By this time, 444, there were at least three other bishops from the Continent - Secundinus, Auxilius, Iserninus. And over these Patrick claimed authority - Armagh was to be the "Rome" of Ireland, the clearing house for all papal enactments.
From Prince Daire he secured land for his church compound - church, houses, workplaces, surrounded by earthwork. Here his large retinue could be settled down. Some of their names are given: Sechnal or Secundinus (bishop), Mochta (priest), McCartin (bodyguard), Benen, Coeman, Sinell, Atheen ...a choir, a school (?), a building team.
Some critics across the seas must have said: "Look at him, he is feathering his own nest", for Patrick throws scorn on the thought that he claimed gifts or payments for the works of his ministry. "Pious women made me gifts and laid on the altar some of their ornaments (he writes): I gave them back to them and they were offended that I did so. But I did it for the hope of lasting success...and that I would not even in the smallest matter give the infidels an opportunity to defame or defile." (Conf. no. 49.) For baptisms, he would take not even "half a screpall" (a small silver coin); "when the Lord ordained clerics everywhere through my unworthy person I conferred the ministry upon them free...I asked none of them as much as the price of my shoes." (Conf. no. 50.)
From which words, we discern the pastoral organization of the churches, including the schooling of the neophytes and the selection of native clerics. And from a lovely passage in Confession no. 42, we recognize the Saint's joy in the Monastic Life. "Among others, a blessed Irishwoman of noble birth, beautiful, full-grown, whom I baptized, came to me after some days for a particular reason: she told us that she had received a message from a messenger of God, and he admonished her to be a virgin of Christ and draw near to God. Thanks be to God, on the sixth day after this she most laudably and eagerly chose what all virgins of Christ do. Not that their fathers agree with them; no, they often even suffer persecution and undeserved reproaches from their parents, and yet their number is ever increasing."
Detail not Satisfactory
The full extent of Patrick's personal work in Ireland cannot now be documented. Tirechan, a cleric of Armagh, tried to do this in the 8th century, only 250 years removed from the time of the Saint and he failed. So what good hope have more modern historians. Tirechan wished in his day to define the Paruchia (Parish) of St Patrick, that is all the churches and shrines which could claim the saint as their founder.
By the 8th century Ireland had produced other almost equally great Christian apostles, Columcille being the most famous. Church territories and spheres of influence followed in their wake. So when Tirechan sent forth his Patrician questionnaire from Armagh, many thought: What is behind this? Does it mean that the Prelate of Armagh shall come with his large retinue to enforce the feudal trappings of hospitality? And perhaps to impose the rulings of his area on our local dioceses?
At all events, resistance was set up, and Tirechan failed to obtain a completely accurate story of St Patrick's apostolic journeys and foundations in Ireland. Legends there are galore, here, there in everywhere in Ireland to say that Patrick was here: he lives in the living mind, which is wonderful: but it is impossible to document many of the claims.
PART THREE
The Man and the Saint
Irishman?
By birth Patrick (or Suchat) was a Briton not an Irishman. Irish culture, or lack of it, was forced upon him. In his day British and Irish (or 'Scot') were hardly national names. And it is clear from his writings that Patrick's pride of allegiance was to the Roman culture. "As Christians, so must we be Romans".
In stinging words, he rebuked his fellow Christians of Britain over Coroticus's (Ceredag) invasion of Ireland, and the killing and ravaging of some of his newly-baptized. "I do not write to my fellow citizens, or to fellow citizens of the holy Romans, but to fellow citizens of the demons, because of their evil works." (Letter to Coroticus, No. 2)
"Perhaps they do not believe that we have received one and the same baptism, or have one and the same father. For them it is a disgrace that we are Irish."
These are famous words. Bishop Patrick loudly proclaiming, despite all Roman sensitivity, that he put his allegiance with the Irish! The sentiment ties him forever to his adopted country.
Strong Character
That he was robust in character, and vigorous in temperament is clear from his own writings, as it may well be inferred from his extraordinary life. Thanking God, for calling him back, to Ireland, Confession No. 13, he exclaims:
"Be astonished then, ye great and little that fear God, and you men of letters on your estates (in Gaul), listen and pore over this. Who was it that roused me up, fool that I am, from the midst of those who in the eyes of men are wise, and expert in law, and powerful in word and everything? And He inspired me - me, the outcast of the world - before others, to be the man (if only I could!) who, with fear and reverence and without blame, should faithfully serve the people to whom the love of Christ conveyed and gave me for the duration of my life . . ."
Then addressing Coroticus (Ceredag), he shouts out: "I make no false claim. I share in the work of those whom He called and predestined to preach the Gospel amidst grave persecutions unto the end of the earth, even if the enemy shows his jealousy through the tyranny of Coroticus ..." One only needs to add that this soldier chief was defended in his actions by the British Christians! In legendary stories Patrick's ebullient temperament is illustrated by his supposed quickness to put "the curse of God" on conniving and hypocritical foes. (A rare rough Irish tradition of the curse has followed). One might say simply Patrick invited God persistently to bear witness to his actions and his judgments, but the curse is something else. And if he used it, it was to curse evil and the Satanic power behind it, rather than to condemn the sinner. Strong, vigorous, irascible in the good meaning of the word, he undoubtedly was, yet he was most generous, kindly, and tender. Stemming from
his miserable captivity as a lad, he was seldom to live again in the comfort of his own family, and we know from his writings that he missed people sorely. With utter dedication and generosity he gave his life's energies for God and for others; he blazed forth only when the innocent and defenceless were preyed upon. Witness his kindly words - ready given - for the young women who took monastic vows against the wishes of their parents, yet he added: "Greatest is the suffering of those women who live in slavery". (Conf. no. 42)
Steeped in Prayer
The Ireland that Patrick found in captivity, and came to as an apostle, has sometimes has been described as a land of warrior virtue and fair tribal law. It has also been described as a land 'reeking with heathenism', almost desperate for renewal.
So when you read the Breastplate Prayer (attributed to Patrick) and hear him saying:
you think, this was the 'Sign of the Time' in which he lived and worked and prayed. Twelve times, he says, he was in real danger of being killed. Then, moving to the next verse, you join Patrick - as he joined Paul - in a surging prayerful song for total union and protection in Christ and with Christ.
It is, one thinks, a complete account on the quality of his prayer.
Spirit of Penitence
"Strong is he (cries Patrick) who daily strives to turn me away from the faith and the purity of true religion." (Conf. no. 44.) Pagan worship, with its diabolical facets, was very near to him. "And the hostile flesh is ever dragging us unto death, that is, towards the forbidden satisfaction of one's desires; and know that in part I did not need a perfect life...but I acknowledge it to my Lord...and the fear of Him has grown in me, and up to now, thanks to the grace of God, I have kept the faith."
Consoling words for us all from a great saint! and some explanation of the almost fierce penitential episodes that punctuate the life of Patrick. Croagh Patrick, the penitential mountain of West Ireland, is still there and still witness to the climb of thousands of penitents year by year in honour of the saint - to come to the chapel, and to St Pat's Bed, to make the 'stations', to pant with exhaustion as you invoke the great man to win mercy from God for your soul. This, in tradition, was Patrick's famous promise.
Then further north in Donegal is Lough Derg, an island in the lake, connected in Irish tradition with the saint's penances and called "Patrick's Purgatory". If it is harder to produce documentary evidence for this exact spot, there can be no doubt of the centuries of devotion performed there in his honour.
"Solitude, repetitive prayer, the vigil, fasting, and sheer physical endurance" - Patrick bequeathed these elements to Celtic piety. (A. Curtayne, St. Patrick-Lough Derg, Chap. 1)
Humanity
How much it would mean to the Irish if we could detect in Patrick's own hand some reference to the fairies or the leprechauns, as well as to the pervading presence of the evil spirit! Surely superstitions were afoot in his time, probably in endless abundance. How friendly it would be to think that the broad culture of Patrick, who loved water and wells, had assured that the best of the folk-lore of Ireland would not be sat upon. After all he glorified in being a 'Roman', and the Romans had long since learned how to baptize pagan customs.
His Death and Burial, 461
Towards the end of his Confession No. 58, Patrick writes these lines: "I pray to God to give me perseverance and to deign that I be a faithful witness to Him to the end of my life for my God."
According to 7th century tradition, he came to the end of his days at Saul on March 17, 461 at the age of 76 years. It was here that he had
his first missionary success. It is also said that twelve days were given in lamentation by his devoted followers: a great Irish Wake!
At Downpatrick in Co. Down there is a grave in a Church of Ireland burial place with a huge stone slab over it on which is chiselled the one word: Padraic. It is almost a neglected place and the tourist (I judge) is disappointed with it. The Irish say, 'Maybe it his grave and maybe it isn't.' You seem to hear them add, 'The main thing is that he lives in our hearts and is alive in our land.'
O. St. John Gogarty eulogizes Patrick with these words: "To the slaves he brought a soul, to their kings a conscience." And he adds, "when Rome was going down, he prepared a people that would keep the light burning amidst general darkness." Christian Ireland was destined to play an immense part in the re-Christianizing of Britain and the Continent following the ravish of the barbarians.
History gives to St. Patrick a powerful personality. The saint's own writings, sparse as they are, show him to be a sensitive, excitable, strongly spoken person - yet home loving and deeply compassionate.He is, of course, known as a complete man of God, who, through rugged self-discipline, strove to give all the strength of his heart and soul to God and to the salvation of the pagan Irish people.Both the personal story of the saint, and the story of his great "Mission to the Irish", are fascinating, even thrilling. The catch is that both are mixed in with miraculous legends, some true, some exaggerated. And modern readers want facts, and will consider wonders only when these appear to be credible.
This story, then, of Saint Patrick will base itself mainly on doubly authenticated documents which are: St Patrick's own Confession composed in A.D. 447; his Letter to Coroticus, 443: St. Secundinus, Hymn to Patrick, 445; and the Breastplate Prayer which is very ancient. (Cf. Ludwig Bieler, The Works of St. Patrick in Ancient Christian Writers, No. 17, edited 1953). Old traditions and old legends surely convey some of the truth - say the historians. So, on occasions, Muirchu and Tirechan of the 7th and 8th centuries, will be used, and texts from modern writers which depend on these. But the text will indicate when the source is 'ancient tradition'.
The Confession
A word about the "Confession". All the earlier part of Patrick's life comes from this document which he wrote down himself at the age of 62 years. So say the scholars with one voice - that is, as to the writing, but not as to the age of the man.
In itself the Confession is a long letter of 62 numbered paragraphs (for our convenience): we shall quote the paragraph No. when using it. Patrick wrote it to the Christians of Gaul and Britain who found fault with him on several scores - e.g. that he was unlearned and wrote badly, that he was ill-chosen to be bishop, that he was reckless in going to try to convert the completely barbarous Irish (then called 'Scot').
These persistent criticisms rankled in his strong but sensitive mind, so much so that he threw off his fear of being ridiculed for his clumsy way of writing to demolish them. Yet his Letter is much more a song of thanks to God for all His mercy and grace to "a sinner, a rustic, a most unlearned man", as he describes himself.
The Confession, for all its ruggedness and even obscurity, is a very moving human document. It will be often quoted in this text.
PART ONE
Early Life, Dedication, Choice as Bishop (385-432)
Birth, Abduction
Patrick, whose full 'Roman' name is Patricius Magonus Sucatus (Sucat being British) was born in Britain, most probably in Wales. The year of his birth is A.D. 385.Of his family and birthplace, he writes in his Confession No. 1: "I am Patrick, a sinner, most unlearned, the least of all the faithful, and utterly despised by many" - so does he begin, with his critics in mind. He continues: "My father was Calpornius, a deacon, son of Potitus, a priest, of the village Bannaven Taburniae; he had a country seat nearby, and there I was taken captive. A man with a 'country seat' was obviously well enough to do; the village itself is not identifiable, but all the circumstances related by Patrick, and gathered from other indications, converge to indicate that it was on the west coast of Britain near the sea, and in an area strongly 'romanised'. His mother's name was Concessa. His grandfather had become a priest in older years, say the historians - the grandmother probably being deceased - and his father became a deacon. Obviously these things were allowable in Britain at the time, and it is noted that some married men opted for church orders to escape the financial duties, such as the collecting and guaranteeing of taxes attached to municipal offices. (Patrick's father was a decurion). That their interest in church affairs was not intense is gathered from Patrick's next statement in his Confession:
"When taken captive I was about sixteen years of age. I did not know the true God. I was taken to captivity to Ireland with many thousands of people - and deservedly so, because we turned away from God, and did not keep His commandments, and did obey our priests, who used to remind us of our salvation".
There is not description of the raid on Britain's coast by these Irish sea-pirates, just the statement of fact. It is enough to allow us to
picture a fleet of vessels manned by tough men, warriors all, quickly disembarking, marauding and pillaging, and driving away some 'thousands of people'. World War II made us familiar with such lightening raids. The shiploads of captives were brought back to the 'barbarous' coast of Ireland - it is not known precisely where - and a sale and distribution of the captives was made. The year was A.D. 401.
Morsel of History
We are, in 401, at a turning point in the history of Rome and of Britain, for in 410 the last of the Roman administrators left Britain to end four hundred years of colonization. With the culture of the Romans gone, Britain and the early Christian church in that country, were soon to experience chaotic days.
The Romans never conquered the upper reaches of Scotland, the Picts. Nor did they venture into Ireland, the "Scoti". Yet there was some traffic between these places and Britain, frequently in the form of armed raids. Some areas in Britain were held for years by the Irish, and there were Irish chieftains who had British wives. Christians there were too in Ireland before Patrick - either captives in raids, or some who migrated. So when Patrick arrived, a youth and a captive, he found indeed a very hard life, but not an entirely friendless one.
The Druid Miliuc
Ancient tradition puts Patrick in the service of a druid named Miliuc maccu Boin at Slemish, Co. Antrim. He himself writes that he tended sheep daily, often in the woods and on the mountains (Slemish). And in later years he regrets, that having begun life in the civilized atmosphere of a 'roman' household, he now was turned into a rustic.
For six years the youth endured the hardships of a slave, developing strength in his body. Quite likely he had other captives for companions and some of these were Christians. It was there in Miliuc's service, while witnessing the pagan practices of this idol-worshipper, that Patrick experienced a profound Christian conversion.
"The Lord opened the sense of my unbelief (Conf. no. 2) that I might at last remember my sins and be converted with all my heart to the Lord my God. Many times a day I prayed - the love of God and His fear came to me more and more, and my faith was strengthened. And my spirit was moved so that in a single day I would say as many as a hundred prayers, and almost as many in the night, and this even when I was staying in the woods and on the mountain; and I used to get up for prayer before daylight, through snow, through frost, through rain, and I felt no harm, and there was no sloth in me - as I now see, because the spirit within me was then fervent."
Isn't it quite moving to read these words of a captive Briton youth of the years 401-407, separated from his dear ones, held in bondage by a pagan druid master? To picture him in the woods or on the mountain for weeks at a time, or within his rough-hewn hut, hearts heavy but spirit uplifted and prayer constantly on his lips through the day and the night? One feels that Our Lord had come very near, that Patrick's heart had been wounded in love, and a powerful experience of conversion was happening to him: an experience not all that uncommon.
Escape from the Captivity, 407
"And there one night (relates, Patrick, Conf. no. 17) I heard in my sleep a voice saying to me: 'It is well that you fast, soon you will go to your own country.' And again, after a short while, I heard a voice saying to me: 'See, your ship is ready'. And it was not near, but at a distance of perhaps two hundred miles, and I had never been there, nor did I know a living soul there; and then I took to flight, and I left the man with whom I had stayed for six years. And I went in the strength of God who directed my way to my good, and I feared nothing until I came to that ship."
In pondering those vivid words, one thinks of a guardian angle whispering in the young man's ear. Then of his feeling of God's presence near him, directing his way.
Two hundred miles through unknown, and sometimes hostile country is quite a journey. A runaway captive...Irish hounds prominent...we know the country abounded with them. There were no towns as such in Ireland of those days, only compounds called 'dun' that must have been something like African kraals with earth heaped high around for defense, hundreds of these. So Patrick on the run had to avoid the compounds, and find shelter no doubt with fellow captives or serfs who lived in huts clustered together on the outskirts of the compounds.
After his long and furtive journey, he may well have come to a port along the Wicklow Coastline which would be about 180 miles from Slemish.
"The day that I arrived (he relates) the ship was set afloat, and I said that I was able to pay for my passage with them". The ship was going to Gaul with a consignment of the famous Irish hounds, 'presents for a king'. "But the captain was not pleased, and with indignation he answered harshly: 'It is no use for you to ask us to go along with us'. And when I heard this, I left them in order to return to the hut where I was staying. And as I went I began to pray; and before I had ended my prayer, I heard one of them shouting behind me, 'Come, hurry, we shall take you on in good faith; make friends with us in whatever way you like'. And so on that day I refused to suck their breasts (he refers to some pagan right of protection) for fear of God, but rather hoped they would come to the faith of Jesus Christ, because they were pagans. And thus I had my way with them, and we set sail at once." (Conf. no. 18).
O. St. John Gogarty, I Follow St Patrick, makes the dry remark that some of the crewmen must have smelt sheep on Patrick's clothing, and so hurried him on board to take care of the hounds!
Gaul (France)
Historians agree that Patrick's vessel brought him to Gaul (France), and that his party found the land deserted because of the devastating wars between Roman and wild tribesmen. During their wearisome journey the ship's captain challenged our youth to pray to "his Christian God" to provide food for the starving group. "And with the help of God, so it came to pass: suddenly a herd of pigs appeared on the road before our eyes, and they killed many of them . . . and fully recovered their strength, and their hounds received their fill."
At this point in his Confessions - No. 19 - Patrick's account begins to falter. He speaks vividly of a severe demoniacal temptation that came to him, "Satan assailed me violently, a thing I shall remember as long as I be in this body", and then of their meeting after ten days with local people.
Years of Wanderings (407-432)
In St Patrick's life there now ensues a long period of twenty five years that is the subject of conjecture amongst historians. It is believed that he traveled far - in Gaul, in Italy and in the Tyrrhenian Islands, and for a lengthy period fixed on the Christian community at Auxerre under the guidance of St Germanus; it is known that he undertook clerical studies; it is also clearly known that he returned to Britain to seek out his family and spend a goodly period with them.
Out of these, Auxerre is taken for the hinge-point, and it seems quite likely that he remained there for some years. Certainly he had a long schooling in community and religious living and he relished it. Although the style at Auxerre was not the full monastic, Patrick showed a great love of the monastic style in his apostolic years.
At Auxerre he set himself to study, and found the going difficult because of his negligence as a lad when the chance was there, and because of his captive years as a herdsman. Languages did not come easy to him and his written Latin shows it. He did better with the Scriptures; it seems that he knew whole sections of the Bible by heart. He was also well acquainted with church and religious community laws, and his grasp of Christian doctrine was clear intensely firm. In his old age calls himself a "rustic", "most unlearned", but this was by contrast to the polished grammarians of the Latin and Greek tongues that he had met in Gaul. It is perfectly clear that the student Patrick had made a giant advance in the art of all arts - viz. the way of Christian living, involving self-discipline, constant toil, humility of mind, and a continued relish for the finding of God in prayer.
The Call to Ireland
One gathers from the Confession that the maturing Patrick conceived a very ardent desire to go back to the Irish pagan people, and try to bring them to Christ.
"...after a few years (following the trip to Gaul), I was in Britain with my people", he said in Conf. no. 23. "They received me as their son, and sincerely besought me that now at last, having suffered so many hardships, I should not leave them and go elsewhere."
"And there I saw in the night the vision of a man, whose name was Victoricus, coming as it were from Ireland with countless letters. And he gave me one of them, and I read the opening words of the letter, which were, 'The voice of the Irish'; and as I read the beginning of the letter I thought that at the same moment I heard their voice - they were those beside the wood of Volcut, which is near the western sea - and thus did they cry out with one month: 'We ask thee, boy, come and walk among us once more.' And I was quite broken in heart, and could read no further, and I woke up." (Conf, no. 23.)
Whether this 'private inspiration', so clearly recalled in his old age, happened soon after he escaped from Ireland, or when he was well advanced in clerical study is not made clear. What is clear is that Patrick had no doubt that God worked in these inspirations, and showed him His Will that he should return to the Irish people.
So we come to the year 429, and some exact details that lead up to Patrick's election as missionary bishop.
Election as Bishop, 431 or 432
In 429, Pope Celestine, at the instigation of his archdeacon Palladius, sent St Germanus of Auxerre on a mission to Britain to counteract Semi-Pelagianism. Germanus had speedy success, and at a clergy meeting in Britain it was also decided to send help to the scattered Christians in Ireland, mainly located in Leinster. Germanus proposed Patrick's name for this mission to the Irish, but the British bishops resisted the nomination and Palladius was chosen in his stead. Ireland's first Christian bishop was Palladius, not Patrick.
As it happened Palladius's mission was short-lived. He had some success but then lost favour with the pagan chieftain of Wicklow (?) and left the country within a year or two with a decision of no return. Germanus, it seems, made sure that Patrick was chosen and approved by Pope Celestine. In his Confessions, Patrick refers with some vigour to his rejection in 429. Obviously it rankled in his mind that a close friend, who promised to recommend him to the British meeting, had gone back on his word and had even revealed a confidence about some sin of Patrick's youth. (Cf. Nos. 26 and 27.)
So now at the age of 47 - in the year 431 or 432 - Bishop Patrick was on his way to the Irish mission with a group of helpers. The great mission, as it was to prove, was under way.
PART TWO
His Marvellous Mission in Ireland (432-461)
Dichu comes first
Patrick's ship, with his entourage of helpers, reached the East coast in the year 431 or 432. It is said that at their first anchorage for water, supplies, and hospitality, they were received unkindly and had to turn their ship north past Malahide - Dublin was not yet on the map - until they came to the present Strangford Lough. The leading chieftain of this area was a man named Dichu, a considerable leader, whose seat of authority was in the fort of Down (Dun). Even the earthwork ruins of this place are said to be impressive.
"When Dichu was informed of the secret landing of a company of strange, bald, white-robed, sandaled men who spoke a strange language - the language of Imperial Rome - he was at first minded to have them slain for robbers or pirates. But curiosity prevailed. He came with his hound to look at the strangers. He set his dog at them, but Patrick silenced it. Then to his startled interest he heard the leader address him in words of the Dalriadian district, his own tongue, (Slemish is not far away) and conversation developed". (O. St. John Gogarty, I Follow St Patrick, p. 155: it is taken from ancient legends.)
Dichu was converted and his household - Patrick's first success, and the pilgrim religious group secured a land footing in Ireland. Dichu is said to have allowed them to settle at Sabhall (Saul), and here a small church was improvised in a barn. In a short while two more were to follow at Rathcolpa and Brechan.
As this area of south Ulster is not so far away from Slemish Co. Antrim, where the young Patrick was held captive, he surely had these early days of apostolate in mind when he wrote to the Christian soldiers of Coroticus in Britain in 443: "Did I come to Ireland without God, or according to the flesh? Who compelled me? . . . Is it of my own doing that I have holy mercy on the people who once took me captive and made away with the servants and maids of my father's house? I was freeborn according to the flesh. I am the son of a decurion. But I sold my noble rank - I am neither ashamed or sorry - for the good of others." (Letter to Coroticus, No. 10)
It is narrated in old traditional sources (e.g. Muirchu), that Patrick was so encouraged by his first success that he quickly set out to revisit Slemish, and to confront Miliuc maccu Boin, his former pagan master. The legends relate how Miliuc panicked at the apostle's approach and threw himself and his idols into a funeral pyre of his own making. It is a story that has been embellished to cover the segment of truth, namely, that many of Miliuc's people - including his sons and daughters, it would seem - came over to the Christian creed.
Tara (Temoria): the Great Encounter
Historians of St. Patrick are united in stating that two of the guiding principles of his apostolate were: (1) to try to unsettle the Druids' hold on the people and their leaders; (2) to convert, if possible, the kings and chieftains - those of the royal blood. Should these two aims have success, then the conversion of thousands of people from idolatry might well follow. In fact, to do anything Patrick had to depend on a grant of safe-passage from the kings and the chieftains.
A brief word on the two institutions of Druids and Kings will help us to understand Patrick's famous encounter with pagan Ireland on Tara (Temoria) Hill, and the progress of the conversion of the Irish.
The Druids: These were a class of people, like the Levites of the Jews, or more like the Lamas of Tibet, who guarded unwritten laws, taught the nobility, conducted rites of worship and divination, practiced healing, and handed on songs and legends: they are said to have been more of teachers and diviners then priests in our meaning of the word. Some were magicians who claimed to have special powers of the forces of nature. Obviously they were important, and for the most part upright men. Each chieftain, and especially each king, retained a school of them at his court, and these were well arranged.
The Kings: the Ireland of 432 had scored of nobles and many petty kings over local areas, but only six main kings and one of these was the High King (Ard Rhi). Each noble or petty king lived in a fortified compound; the main kings had impressive large circular huts, halls, fortifications. The High King to whom the other five paid tribute and gave certain allegiances, presided at Tara (Temoria) in Co. Meath and held a large central part of Ireland based in Meath but taking in sections of the neighbouring provinces: the five lesser ones held the bulk of Ulster, Connaught, Leinster and Munster. Each of the six kept hostages to ensure allegiance.
The Contest at Tara
St. Patrick knew the Irish social system both from study and the experience of captivity. He knew the great influence of the druids in secular and religious matters; he knew the interwoven relationship of Kings, nobles and people.
So when he set out from Saul to come to Tara in the Easter of 432 - the traditional date - to meet and confront High King Laoghaire (the son of Niall), who was now four years in his office, Patrick knew full well that this encounter would be crucial for his future. It is surely no exaggeration to say that it was to prove to be one of the great religious moments of our Christian story.
Should Laoghaire be displeased, all he had to do was to order the slaying of Patrick and companions and it would be done. And one may suppose that both the High King and his best informed Druids knew something of Christianity: it had been for a long time in Britain, and Britain was so near.
What Patrick, of course, had on his side was the weight of Roman prestige. Laoghaire would hardly brush this aside. Some writers have also suggested that the considerable number of British slaves held in Ireland may have bolstered Patrick's cause, for many of them were Christians by baptism. Yet one can well believe that Bishop Patrick put his life in his hands as he approached Tara. No wonder then that stories and legends - abound in describing Patrick's meeting with High King Laoghaire and the Druids on Tara Hill.
The Christian story is that Patrick, knowing of the custom, determined to light the Easter Fire of the Christians on Slane hill before that of Tara. And to do this as a gesture of the true renewal that he brought, and as a challenge to the old order in Ireland. The story proceeds to tell of the rage of the Druids whose leader exclaims: "Unless that fire on Slane hill be quenched tonight, it will never be extinguished in Ireland!"
Events that Followed
One should love to believe - as Muirchu relates - that High King Laoghaire now summoned nine chariots to be made ready, wheeled them around by the left against the course of the Sun for good fortune, and then took off towards the hill of Slane. Halting outside the circle of the intruder's fire to avoid his magic, he ordered the offender to come to him.
"At the King's command, Patrick came out of the place that was lit up. In the shadowy dark he saw the King among his seated household. Around him his warriors seated on the ground, their chins resting on their hands which held the rims of their shields. Behind these were the guards, a semi-circle of spears.
"Patrick stood alone, light shining on the upright blade of gold which arose from the golden circle around his head to cover his forehead - the mitre of the 5th century. The flat disc was like a cooper's adze, hence the druids called him 'Adzehead'. The silence was broken by Erc the young poet who rose to do honour to him who stood alone. The Saint spoke, the druids grew uneasy.
"Why had he lighted his house before the royal palace was lighted? Patrick replied in reply the symbolism of the Sacred Fire, and dwelt on the Trinity, the Incarnation, and the Resurrection.
"The Druids answered back in rough and incredulous words. "Laoghaire commanded: 'Seize him who by his enchantments will destroy us all'. But as they rushed, Patrick cried out loudly: 'Let God arise and his enemies be scattered'.
"And immediately they were confused in a cloud, and fought one another, and the horses plunged and went wild, and the warriors were in disarray. The King, his wife, and two attendants also remained.
"And the Queen prayed: 'O just and mighty man, do not kill us; the King will bend his knee and adore thy God'. And the King remains silent except to summon Patrick to come to him at Tara on the following day, Easter Sunday. (cf. St John Gogary, I Follow St. Patrick: he uses the ancient legend of Muirchu on the telling.)
One should love to believe this, and some of the stories of Easter Day on Tara Hill with the magicians of the druids striving in contest with
Patrick for superior control over the forces of nature. The only trouble is - say the historians - there is no certain way to verify fact from legend, and obviously much of it is legend. So we must not be too credulous: we must try to ascertain fact.
True it is, and it must be that High King Laoghaire was impressed by St. Patrick and his Christian teachings: it is said, however, in the more credible traditions, that he himself would never become Christian. True again it is that the druids, for all their learning and wizardry and power, did not overwhelm the apostle. They would certainly have been called into the debate.
Now a Christian has no bother with credible miracles; he sees no special point in a contest for control of the powers of nature: and he just wonders whether the miracle of Tara was rather realized in the minds and hearts of the pagan men and women who listened to Patrick, than in the forces of nature. And he is delighted to find that in the most credible section of the legends that Conall, the brother of Laoghaire, and Fedelmid, Laoghaire's son, are soon listed as Christians, and even some of the important druids like Dubthach.
Patrick - in his Confession Nos.34 and 35 - refers to the "great divine power" given to him; to his escape from "twelve dangers in which my life was at stake - not to mention numerous plots, which I cannot express in words"; "God used to forewarn even me, poor wretch that I am, of many things by a divine message" - but he does not directly describe miracles of a physical kind performed in support of his ministry.
Tara to Taillte (Telltown)
Trim, close to Tara, gave Patrick lodging. And here Prince Conall, the high king's brother, accepted baptism, as did Fedelmid and his son Fochtern. Land was donated, a settlement made and a church begun. Lonman was left in charge.
Then after a reasonable day the Saint was on his way, with safe passage from the King and his nobles (Conf. nos. 51, 52, 53), to attend an enormous festal gathering of the heads and people of Taillte. And legend and fact again become inextricably mixed.Interesting it is to read that Patrick rode by chariot, as did the members of his retinue, and employed chariot-drivers to take him on his journeys: it was the only method of transport. Three of his chariot-drivers are given names in the ancient stories, Buadamel, Odran and
Totus Calvus (the Bald One), and intriguing stories are told of these. As, for example, how Odran persuaded Patrick to yield him the seat of honour on one occasion and himself took the spear that was meant for the Saint!
At Taillte thousands came together for warrior contests, games, songs, rituals. Old traditions speak of Patrick commanding attention as he arrived and when he spoke, and of the making of some converts: they also speak of the rough attempt of Cairbre, a relative of Laoghaire, to kill him. Near to Taillte a Christian settlement was begun and a priest put in charge.
Mag Slecht
Then on went Patrick, with some time intervening, to confront the centre of pagan worship in Ireland at Mag Slecht, the high seat of Druidism. It was a place of huge pillar stones, wells, circles of stones, circular huts, the whole dominated by a high natural platform of limestone rock sixty feet high, four hundred yards long.
Enthroned on the limestone platform stood a huge idol from the time of the Filborgs, an idol planted in silver and gold, the king idol of Erin called Crom Cruach. Around the central idol were arranged twelve stone subgods. To these gods offerings of various kinds were brought.
In front of the platform was found a large section of land that was called the "Plain of Prostration".
The old stories, mixed with fact and legend, speak of the Great Shout of St. Patrick as he drew near to these mute idols, invoking the power of the true and invisible God to smash them down. And it is narrated that the idols collapsed!
We moderns may openly smile at the story. Yet I remember personally hearing a story from a Chinese missionary, Fr. Apollinar Erdos, OFM, which happened in the year 1948 and which quite matches the Irish legend. He told us of the day when a group of large Chinese family idols collapsed and were smashed to pieces as he hurried by carrying the Blessed Sacrament to a dying man! The collapse of Crom Cruach - were there any way to be sure of its authenticity - should cause us no surprise.
Voclut Wood
"The wood of Voclut, near the western sea" is the only name place in ancient Ireland given in Patrick's Confession. Of this place, in dead of night, Patrick had a vision or a dream in which voices called out: "We ask thee, boy, come and walk among us once more."
The vision haunted Patrick and forced him to return to Ireland, and he says: "Thanks be to God, after many years the Lord gave to them according to their cry." (Conf. no. 23.) So he came as Bishop to Voclut Wood - whether to Slemish or to Sligo (at the request of Enda) - is a problem for historians. In whichever area it was, probably in Sligo, it is said that "thousands of converts" were made.
Progress of the Mission
So we have a picture of a rapidly developing Christian Mission. Within fifteen years the foundations were laid of what became the brilliant "Roman" Church of the Irish.
Saul, Tara and Trim, Taillte, Granard, Mag Slecht, Elphin, Kells, Croagh Patrick, Ardlicce, Kilkeevan), Selcae, Voclut (Killala), Drumlease ... these are some of the places where Patrick and his entourage came and worked.
According to scholars the Confessions was written in 447, just fifteen years after Patrick's mission was begun. It already speaks of "thousands of converts" (No. 50), "of those who had no knowledge of God, but until now always worshipped idols and things impure, being made a people of the Lord . . . the sons and daughters of the kings of the Irish are seen to be monks and virgins of Christ" (Conf. no. 41), and of "clerics being ordained everywhere through my unworthy person." (No. 50.)
When you think of all that was involved in even one of these solid church foundations, you may get some idea of Bishop Patrick's achievement. First, he had to have the consent of the local king or chieftain. Thus for Saul, he had Dichu's agreement. For Tara, Donaghpatrick and Taillte, he had the tolerance of the High King and of Prince Conall. And as the brothers and sons and kinsman of the high king ruled over the kingdoms of Connaught, Oirghealla, Aileach, as well as around Tara itself, it appears that Patrick confined his first great missionary efforts to these regions. They would include most of the place names given above.
Second, he had to acquire a gift of land for church and mission purposes: by no means easy. Third, he travelled with a retinue of some 24 persons including clergy, a brehon (civil judge), a strongman for bodyguard, domestics, church builders, and with cattle for provisions.
Although "no lover of pomp" - as Muirchu suggests - he was completely sure "that the lesser kings of Ireland would have scant respect for any man unable to show the same exterior symbols of power as they themselves affected. So strong was tribal settlement in the Ireland of the 5th century that any attempt to convert the people without first winning the chieftain's esteem would have been quite useless." (A. Curtayne, St Patrick - Lough Derg, p. 6-7.) Patrick knew well how to adapt his missionary method to the social state of the people.
Obviously he must have depended on steady help, both in personnel and in material aid, from Gaul and Britain in the early years of his foundations.
His Personal Work
Patrick's main mission field - where he and his entourage worked in person - was Meath and Connaught, with some time in Ulster: Down and Antrim. "Thrice did Patrick wend his way across the Shannon into the land of Connacht. Fifty bells and fifty chalices and fifty altar cloths he left in it, each in its own church. (Tripartite Life 1, p. 147.) In Meath, at Donaghpatrick (?) he made his first headquarters, then later on in south Ulster at Armagh - so many churches owe their origins in these areas to him. And the same is true of Down and Antrim.
Because of this, some historians maintain that the southern part of Ireland was evangelized by others, some of these arriving before Patrick.
On the authority of Professor Ludwig Bieler, Life and Legend of St Patrick, p. 73, such statements must be treated cautiously. The Professor writes: "I have the impression that, in his Confession, Patrick describes a country almost entirely pagan. The only exception to this opinion would seem to be Confession No. 51." Here Patrick, in referring to his going to the extremities of human habitation - probably to Cahir Ireland out from Murrisk - remarks: "I went...to the farthest districts, beyond which there lived nobody and where nobody had ever come to baptize, or to ordain clergy, or to confirm the people."
The same outstanding Gaelic scholar, after reference to Patrick's diplomatic success with the kings and his neutralizing of the druids, sums up his missionary progress in words like these:
There were mass conversions, a growing church organization, the taking of monastic vows. Assistant bishops were installed, first from Gaul and Britain, and soon a native Irish clergy.
And if it is true that Patrick's own effort was concentrated in Meath, Connaught, and Ulster, culminating at Armagh (the primatial see), he still made missionary excursions into Leinster and Munster in the south. The names of Palladius, Ibar, Ailbe and Declan are authoritative in the south, yet the Saint in person - according to ancient traditions - had a leading hand with the kings and the nobility. He is reputed to have baptized the sons of Dunlang, king of Leinster and implacable foe of High King Laoghaire. And it is claimed that he came to "Cashel of the Kings" to baptize the sons of Natfraich, King of Munster. It was at Cashel that he is said to have speared the foot of Aengus during the baptismal ceremony with the sharp end of his episcopal staff: Aengus enduring it stoically thinking it to be part of the ceremony!
Armagh: Organization, 444
Twelve years after he began the great Mission Patrick settled on Armagh, South Ulster, for his central episcopal See: some think he would have settled nearer to Tara had Laoghaire been more amenable. By this time, 444, there were at least three other bishops from the Continent - Secundinus, Auxilius, Iserninus. And over these Patrick claimed authority - Armagh was to be the "Rome" of Ireland, the clearing house for all papal enactments.
From Prince Daire he secured land for his church compound - church, houses, workplaces, surrounded by earthwork. Here his large retinue could be settled down. Some of their names are given: Sechnal or Secundinus (bishop), Mochta (priest), McCartin (bodyguard), Benen, Coeman, Sinell, Atheen ...a choir, a school (?), a building team.
Some critics across the seas must have said: "Look at him, he is feathering his own nest", for Patrick throws scorn on the thought that he claimed gifts or payments for the works of his ministry. "Pious women made me gifts and laid on the altar some of their ornaments (he writes): I gave them back to them and they were offended that I did so. But I did it for the hope of lasting success...and that I would not even in the smallest matter give the infidels an opportunity to defame or defile." (Conf. no. 49.) For baptisms, he would take not even "half a screpall" (a small silver coin); "when the Lord ordained clerics everywhere through my unworthy person I conferred the ministry upon them free...I asked none of them as much as the price of my shoes." (Conf. no. 50.)
From which words, we discern the pastoral organization of the churches, including the schooling of the neophytes and the selection of native clerics. And from a lovely passage in Confession no. 42, we recognize the Saint's joy in the Monastic Life. "Among others, a blessed Irishwoman of noble birth, beautiful, full-grown, whom I baptized, came to me after some days for a particular reason: she told us that she had received a message from a messenger of God, and he admonished her to be a virgin of Christ and draw near to God. Thanks be to God, on the sixth day after this she most laudably and eagerly chose what all virgins of Christ do. Not that their fathers agree with them; no, they often even suffer persecution and undeserved reproaches from their parents, and yet their number is ever increasing."
Detail not Satisfactory
The full extent of Patrick's personal work in Ireland cannot now be documented. Tirechan, a cleric of Armagh, tried to do this in the 8th century, only 250 years removed from the time of the Saint and he failed. So what good hope have more modern historians. Tirechan wished in his day to define the Paruchia (Parish) of St Patrick, that is all the churches and shrines which could claim the saint as their founder.
By the 8th century Ireland had produced other almost equally great Christian apostles, Columcille being the most famous. Church territories and spheres of influence followed in their wake. So when Tirechan sent forth his Patrician questionnaire from Armagh, many thought: What is behind this? Does it mean that the Prelate of Armagh shall come with his large retinue to enforce the feudal trappings of hospitality? And perhaps to impose the rulings of his area on our local dioceses?
At all events, resistance was set up, and Tirechan failed to obtain a completely accurate story of St Patrick's apostolic journeys and foundations in Ireland. Legends there are galore, here, there in everywhere in Ireland to say that Patrick was here: he lives in the living mind, which is wonderful: but it is impossible to document many of the claims.
PART THREE
The Man and the Saint
Irishman?
By birth Patrick (or Suchat) was a Briton not an Irishman. Irish culture, or lack of it, was forced upon him. In his day British and Irish (or 'Scot') were hardly national names. And it is clear from his writings that Patrick's pride of allegiance was to the Roman culture. "As Christians, so must we be Romans".
In stinging words, he rebuked his fellow Christians of Britain over Coroticus's (Ceredag) invasion of Ireland, and the killing and ravaging of some of his newly-baptized. "I do not write to my fellow citizens, or to fellow citizens of the holy Romans, but to fellow citizens of the demons, because of their evil works." (Letter to Coroticus, No. 2)
"Perhaps they do not believe that we have received one and the same baptism, or have one and the same father. For them it is a disgrace that we are Irish."
These are famous words. Bishop Patrick loudly proclaiming, despite all Roman sensitivity, that he put his allegiance with the Irish! The sentiment ties him forever to his adopted country.
Strong Character
That he was robust in character, and vigorous in temperament is clear from his own writings, as it may well be inferred from his extraordinary life. Thanking God, for calling him back, to Ireland, Confession No. 13, he exclaims:
"Be astonished then, ye great and little that fear God, and you men of letters on your estates (in Gaul), listen and pore over this. Who was it that roused me up, fool that I am, from the midst of those who in the eyes of men are wise, and expert in law, and powerful in word and everything? And He inspired me - me, the outcast of the world - before others, to be the man (if only I could!) who, with fear and reverence and without blame, should faithfully serve the people to whom the love of Christ conveyed and gave me for the duration of my life . . ."
You pause and you think - It is not Patrick, it is the fearless Paul who speaks! And in truth Patrick was quite mindful of Paul.
Then addressing Coroticus (Ceredag), he shouts out: "I make no false claim. I share in the work of those whom He called and predestined to preach the Gospel amidst grave persecutions unto the end of the earth, even if the enemy shows his jealousy through the tyranny of Coroticus ..." One only needs to add that this soldier chief was defended in his actions by the British Christians! In legendary stories Patrick's ebullient temperament is illustrated by his supposed quickness to put "the curse of God" on conniving and hypocritical foes. (A rare rough Irish tradition of the curse has followed). One might say simply Patrick invited God persistently to bear witness to his actions and his judgments, but the curse is something else. And if he used it, it was to curse evil and the Satanic power behind it, rather than to condemn the sinner. Strong, vigorous, irascible in the good meaning of the word, he undoubtedly was, yet he was most generous, kindly, and tender. Stemming from
his miserable captivity as a lad, he was seldom to live again in the comfort of his own family, and we know from his writings that he missed people sorely. With utter dedication and generosity he gave his life's energies for God and for others; he blazed forth only when the innocent and defenceless were preyed upon. Witness his kindly words - ready given - for the young women who took monastic vows against the wishes of their parents, yet he added: "Greatest is the suffering of those women who live in slavery". (Conf. no. 42)
Steeped in Prayer
The Ireland that Patrick found in captivity, and came to as an apostle, has sometimes has been described as a land of warrior virtue and fair tribal law. It has also been described as a land 'reeking with heathenism', almost desperate for renewal.
So when you read the Breastplate Prayer (attributed to Patrick) and hear him saying:
"I summon today all the power of God between me, and these evils...
against every cruel and merciless power that may oppose my body and soul,
against incantations of false prophets,
against black laws of heathenry,
against false law of heretics,
against craft (?) of idolatry,
against smells of women and smiths and wizards,
against every knowledge - that endangers - man's body and soul . . ."
you think, this was the 'Sign of the Time' in which he lived and worked and prayed. Twelve times, he says, he was in real danger of being killed. Then, moving to the next verse, you join Patrick - as he joined Paul - in a surging prayerful song for total union and protection in Christ and with Christ.
"Christ to protect me today
against poison, against burning,
against drowning, against wounding,
so that there may come abundance of reward.
Christ with me, Christ before me, Christ behind me,
Christ in me, Christ beneath me, Christ above me,
Christ on my right, Christ on my left,
Christ where I lie, Christ where I sit, Christ where I arise,
Christ in the heart of every man who thinks of me,
Christ in every eye that sees me,
Christ in every ear that hears me."
It is, one thinks, a complete account on the quality of his prayer.
Spirit of Penitence
"Strong is he (cries Patrick) who daily strives to turn me away from the faith and the purity of true religion." (Conf. no. 44.) Pagan worship, with its diabolical facets, was very near to him. "And the hostile flesh is ever dragging us unto death, that is, towards the forbidden satisfaction of one's desires; and know that in part I did not need a perfect life...but I acknowledge it to my Lord...and the fear of Him has grown in me, and up to now, thanks to the grace of God, I have kept the faith."
Consoling words for us all from a great saint! and some explanation of the almost fierce penitential episodes that punctuate the life of Patrick. Croagh Patrick, the penitential mountain of West Ireland, is still there and still witness to the climb of thousands of penitents year by year in honour of the saint - to come to the chapel, and to St Pat's Bed, to make the 'stations', to pant with exhaustion as you invoke the great man to win mercy from God for your soul. This, in tradition, was Patrick's famous promise.
Then further north in Donegal is Lough Derg, an island in the lake, connected in Irish tradition with the saint's penances and called "Patrick's Purgatory". If it is harder to produce documentary evidence for this exact spot, there can be no doubt of the centuries of devotion performed there in his honour.
"Solitude, repetitive prayer, the vigil, fasting, and sheer physical endurance" - Patrick bequeathed these elements to Celtic piety. (A. Curtayne, St. Patrick-Lough Derg, Chap. 1)
Humanity
How much it would mean to the Irish if we could detect in Patrick's own hand some reference to the fairies or the leprechauns, as well as to the pervading presence of the evil spirit! Surely superstitions were afoot in his time, probably in endless abundance. How friendly it would be to think that the broad culture of Patrick, who loved water and wells, had assured that the best of the folk-lore of Ireland would not be sat upon. After all he glorified in being a 'Roman', and the Romans had long since learned how to baptize pagan customs.
His Death and Burial, 461
Towards the end of his Confession No. 58, Patrick writes these lines: "I pray to God to give me perseverance and to deign that I be a faithful witness to Him to the end of my life for my God."
According to 7th century tradition, he came to the end of his days at Saul on March 17, 461 at the age of 76 years. It was here that he had
his first missionary success. It is also said that twelve days were given in lamentation by his devoted followers: a great Irish Wake!
At Downpatrick in Co. Down there is a grave in a Church of Ireland burial place with a huge stone slab over it on which is chiselled the one word: Padraic. It is almost a neglected place and the tourist (I judge) is disappointed with it. The Irish say, 'Maybe it his grave and maybe it isn't.' You seem to hear them add, 'The main thing is that he lives in our hearts and is alive in our land.'
O. St. John Gogarty eulogizes Patrick with these words: "To the slaves he brought a soul, to their kings a conscience." And he adds, "when Rome was going down, he prepared a people that would keep the light burning amidst general darkness." Christian Ireland was destined to play an immense part in the re-Christianizing of Britain and the Continent following the ravish of the barbarians.
Eulogy: A Hymn to Patrick
St. Secundinus (Sechnal), who wrote his eulogy of Patrick, came to Ireland from Gaul in 439 and died there as a bishop of Dunslaughlin, Co. Meath in 447. It is thought that he wrote the hymn in defence of Patrick who was under strong attack for demanding the excommunication of the brutal Christian chieftain Coroticus.
Hear ye all, lovers of God, the holy merits
Of the man blessed in Christ, Patrick the bishop,
How for his good ways he is likened to the angels,
And because of his perfect life is deemed equal to the apostles.
Christ's holy precepts he keeps in all things,
His works shine bright among men,
And they follow his holy and wondrous example,
And thus praise God the Father in heaven.
Constant in the fear of God and steadfast in the faith,
On him the Church is built on Peter;
And his apostleship has he received from God -
The gates of hell will not prevail against him.
The Lord has chosen him to teach the barbarian tribes,
To fish with the nets of his teaching,
And to draw from the world unto grace the believers,
Men who would follow the Lord in His heavenly seat.
He sells the choice talents of Christ's Gospel
And collects them among the Irish heathens with usury;
As a reward for the great labour of his journey,
His will be the joy of heaven's kingdom in union with Christ.
Glory has he with Christ, honour in the world,
He who is venerated by all as an angel of God.
God has sent him, as He sent Paul, an apostle to the gentiles,
To offer men guidance to the kingdom of God.
These are the first seven verses. There are twenty-three in the Hymn.
This article was originally published as a pamphlet by the Australian Catholic Truth Society and has now
been reprinted with permission by the Society of Saint Peter Canisius Inc
875 Riversdale Rd Camberwell 3124
1999
SAINT PATRICK-A 0022594
The "Apostle" of Ireland
By
Rev. Ambrose Ryan
ISBN 85826-217-7
Society of St Peter Canisius Inc.
Nihil Obstat: Peter J.Kenny, S.T.D.
Diocesan Censor
Imprimatur: Peter J. Connors D.C.L.
Vicar General, Melbourne
25th September, 1981
Saint Patrick - ACTS 1753
© Society of St Peter Canisius Inc. 1999