Born in Scotland (?), c. 385-390; died at Saul, Strangford Lough,
Ireland, c. 461.
I was like a stone lying in the deep mire; and
He that is mighty came, and in His mercy lifted
me up, and verily raised me aloft and placed me
on the top of the wall.
--Saint Patrick
The historical Patrick is much more attractive than the Patrick of
legend. It is unclear exactly where Patricius Magonus Sucatus (Patrick)
was born--somewhere in the west between the mouth of the Severn and the
Clyde--but this most popular Irish saint was probably born in Scotland
of British origin, perhaps in a village called "Bannavem Taberniae."
(Other possibilities are in Gaul or at Kilpatrick near Dumbarton,
Scotland.) His father, Calpurnius, was a deacon and a civil official, a
town councillor, and his grandfather was a Christian priest.
About 405, when Patrick was in his teens (14-16), he was captured by
Irish raiders and became a slave in Ireland. There in Ballymena (or
Slemish) in Antrim (or Mayo), Patrick first learned to pray intensely
while tending his master's sheep in contrast with his early years in
Britain when he
knew not the true God
and did not heed clerical
admonitions for our salvation.
After six years, he was told in a
dream that he should be ready for a courageous effort that would take
him back to his homeland.
He ran away from his owner and travelled 200 miles to the coast. His
initial request for free passage on a ship was turned down, but he
prayed, and the sailors called him back. The ship on which he escaped
was taking dogs to Gaul (France). At some point he returned to his
family in Britain, then seems to have studied at the monastery of Lerins
on the Cote d'Azur from 412 to 415.
He received some kind of training for the priesthood in either Britain
or Gaul, possibly in Auxerre, including study of the Latin
Bible, but his learning was not of a high standard, and he was to regret
this always. He spent the next 15 years at Auxerre were he became a
disciple of
Saint Germanus (f.d. July 31)
and was possibly ordained
about 417. Germanus is also said to have consecrated him bishop. [This
is incorrect - Patrick was consecrated bishop by St Maxim of Turin
during the time he was returning from Rome to Auxerre].
Heric of Auxerre wrote in the 5th century:
Since the glory of the father shines in the training of
the children, of the many sons in Christ whom St. Germain
is believed to have had as disciples in religion, let it suffice
to make mention here, very briefly, of one most famous,
Patrick, the special Apostle of the Irish nation, as the record
of his work proves. Subject to that most holy discipleship for
18 years, he drank in no little knowledge in Holy Scripture
from the stream of so great a well-spring. Germain sent him,
accompanied by Segetius, his priest, to Celestine, Pope of Rome,
approved of by whose judgement, supported by whose
authority, and strengthened by whose blessing, he went
on his way to Ireland.
The cultus of Patrick began in France, long before Sucat received the
noble title of Patricius, which was immediately before his
departure for Ireland about 431. The centre of this cultus is a few
miles west of Tours, on the Loire, around the town of Saint-
Patrice, which is named after him. The strong, persistent legend is
that Patrick not only spent the twenty years after his escape
from slavery there, but that it was his home. The local people firmly
believe that Patrick was the nephew of
Saint Martin of Tours (f.d. November 11)
and that he became a monk in his uncle's great Marmoutier
Abbey.
Patrick's cultus there reverts to the writing, Les Fleurs de
Saint-Patrice, which relates that Patrick was sent from the abbey to
preach the Gospel in the area of Brehemont-sur-Loire. He went fishing
one day and had a tremendous catch. The local fishermen were upset and
forced him to flee. He reached a shelter on the north bank where he
slept under a blackthorn bush. When he awoke the bush was covered with
flowers. Because this was Christmas day, the incident was considered a
miracle, which recurred each Christmas until the bush was destroyed in
World War I. The phenomenon was evaluated many times and verified by
various observers, including official organisations. He is now the
patron of the fishermen on the Loire and, according to a modern French
scholar, the patron of almost every other occupation in the
neighbourhood. There is a grotto dedicated to him at Marmoutier, which
contains a stone bed, alleged to have been his.
It is said that in visions he heard voices in the wood of Focault or
that he dreamed of Ireland and determined to return to the land of his
slavery as a missionary in the footsteps of
Saint Palladius (f.d. July 6).
In that dream or vision he heard a cry from many people together
come back and walk once more among us,
and he read a writing in which
this cry was named 'the voice of the Irish.'
In his
Confessio Patrick writes:
It was not my grace, but God who
overcometh in me, so that I came to the heathen Irish to preach the
Gospel . . . to a people newly come to belief which the Lord took from
the ends of the earth.
Saint Germanus consecrated him bishop about
432, and sent him to Ireland to succeed
Saint Palladius (f.d. July 6).
the first bishop, who had died earlier that year. There was some
opposition to Patrick's appointment, probably from Britain, but Patrick
made his way to Ireland about 435.
He set up his see at Armagh about 444 and organised the church into
territorial sees, as elsewhere in the West and East. While Patrick
encouraged the Irish to become monks and nuns, it is not certain that he
was a monk himself; it is even less likely that in his time the
monastery became the principal unit of the Irish Church, although it was
in later periods. The choice of Armagh may have been determined by the
presence of a powerful king. There Patrick had a school and presumably
a small "familia" in residence; from this base he made his missionary
journeys. There seems to have been little contact with the Palladian
Christianity of the southeast.
There is no reliable account of his work in Ireland, where he had been a
captive. Legends include the stories that he drove snakes from Ireland,
and that he described the mystery of the Trinity to Laoghaire, high king
of Ireland, by referring to the shamrock, and that he singlehandedly--an
impossible task--converted Ireland. Nevertheless, Saint Patrick
established the Church throughout Ireland on lasting foundations: he
travelled throughout the country preaching, teaching, building churches,
opening schools and monasteries, converting chiefs and bards, and
everywhere supporting his preaching with miracles.
At Tara in Meath he is said to have confronted King Laoghaire on the
Celtic Feast of Tara which coincided with Easter Eve. On that day the
fires were quenched throughout the country. The penalty for infringing
the superstitious custom by kindling a fire was death. Nevertheless,
Patrick kindled the light of the Paschal fire on the hill of Slane (the
fire of Christ never to be extinguished in Ireland). When Laoghaire and
his men went to apprehend the violator of their sacred night, they were
treated to a sermon that confounded the Druids into silence, and gained
a hearing for Patrick as a man of power. During the course of the
sermon, Patrick picked up a shamrock to use it as a symbol of the triune
God.
Patrick converted the king's daughters
Saints Ethenea and Fidelmia (f.d. January 11).
He threw down the idol of Crom Cruach in Leitrim. Patrick
wrote that he daily expected to be violently killed or enslaved again.
He gathered many followers, including
Saint Benignus (f.d. November 9),
who would become his successor. That was one of his chief concerns, as
it always is for the missionary Church: the raising up of native
clergy.
He wrote:
It was most needful that we should spread our nets, so that
a great multitude and a throng should be taken for God. . . . Most
needful that everywhere there should be clergy to baptize and exhort a
people poor and needy, as the Lord in the Gospel warns and teaches,
saying: Go ye therefore now, and teach all nations. And again: Go ye
therefore into the whole world and preach the Gospel to every creature.
And again: This Gospel of the Kingdom shall be preached in the whole
world for a testimony to all nations.
In his writings and preaching, Patrick revealed a scale of values. He
was chiefly concerned with abolishing paganism, idolatry, and
sun-worship. He made no distinction of classes in his preaching and was
himself ready for imprisonment or death for following Christ. In his
use of Scripture and eschatological expectations, he was typical of the
5th-century bishop. One of the traits which he retained as an old man
was a consciousness of his being an unlearned exile and former slave and
fugitive, who learned to trust God completely.
There was some contact with the pope. He visited Rome in 442 and 444.
As the first real organiser of the Irish Church, Patrick is called the
Apostle of Ireland. According to the Annals of Ulster, the Cathedral
Church of Armagh was founded in 444, and the see became a centre of
education and administration. Patrick organised the Church into
territorial sees, raised the standard of scholarship (encouraging the
teaching of Latin), and worked to bring Ireland into a closer
relationship with the Western Church.
His writings show what solid doctrine he must have taught his listeners.
His
Confessio (his autobiography, perhaps written as
an apology against his detractors), the "Lorica" (or "Breastplate"), and
the "Letter to the Soldiers of Coroticus," protesting British slave
trading and the slaughter of a group of Irish Christians by Coroticus's
raiding Christian Welshmen, are the first surely identified literature
of the British or Celtic Church.
What stands out in his writings is Patrick's sense of being called by
God to the work he had undertaken, and his determination and modesty in
carrying it out:
I, Patrick, a sinner, am the most ignorant and of
least account among the faithful, despised by many. . . . I owe it to
God's grace that so many people should through me be born again to him.
The Annals of the Kingdom of Ireland by the Four Masters state that by
the year 438 Christianity had made such progress in Ireland that the
laws were changed to agree with the Gospel. That means that in 6 years
a 60 year old man was able to so change the country that even the laws
were amended. St. Patrick had no printing press, no finances, few
helpers and Ireland had no Roman roads to travel on. See
http://www.ireland-now.com/heritage/myths/histofpatrick.html
There are many places in Ireland associated with S. Patrick but none
more than Croagh Patrick in County Mayo where he spent the forty days of
Lent in 441 and saw devils as flocks of black birds and was sustained by
the angels of God appearing as white birds filling the sky. On the last
Sunday in July the age-long annual pilgrimage draws thousands to scale
the mountain.
The National Museum at Dublin has his bell and tooth, presumably from
the shrine at Downpatrick, where he was originally entombed with Saints
Brigid and Columba. St Patrick's Church in Belfast claims to possess an
enshrined arm.
The high veneration in which the Irish hold Patrick is evidenced by the
common salutation,
May God, Mary, and Patrick bless you.
His name
occurs widely in prayers and blessings throughout Ireland. Among the
oldest devotions of Ireland is the prayer used by travellers invoking
Patrick's protection, "An Mhairbhne Phaidriac" or "The Elegy of
Patrick." He is alleged to have promised prosperity to those who seek
his intercession on his feast day, which marks the end of winter. A
particularly lovely legend is that the Peace of Christ will reign over
all Ireland when the Palm and the Shamrock meet, which means when St.
Patrick's Day fall on Palm Sunday.
We are told that often Patrick baptized hundreds on a single day. He
would come to a place, a crowd would gather, and when he told them about
the true God, the people would cry out from all sides that they wanted
to become Christians. Then they would move to the nearest water to be
baptized.
On such a day Aengus, a prince of Munster, was baptized. When Patrick
had finished preaching, Aengus was longing with all his heart to become
a Christian. The crowd surrounded the two because Aengus was such an
important person. Patrick got out his book and began to look for the
place of the baptismal rite but his crosier got in the way.
As you know, the bishop's crosier often has a spike at the bottom end,
probably to allow the bishop to set it into the ground to free his
hands. So, when Patrick fumbled searching for the right spot in the
book so that he could baptize Aengus, he absent-mindedly stuck his
crosier into the ground just beside him--and accidentally through the
foot of poor Aengus!
Patrick, concentrating on the sacrament, never noticed what he had done
and proceeded with the baptism. The prince never cried out, nor moaned;
he simply went very white. When Patrick turned to take up his crosier
and was horrified to find that he had driven it through the prince's
foot!
But why didn't you say something? Your foot is bleeding and you'll be
lame. . . .
Poor Patrick was very unhappy
to have hurt another.
Then Aengus said in a low voice that he thought having a spike driven
through his foot was part of the ceremony. He added
something that must have brought joy to the whole court of heaven and
blessings on Ireland:
Christ,
he said slowly,
shed His blood for me, and I am glad to
suffer a little pain at baptism to be like Our Lord
(
Curtayne).
In art, Saint Patrick is represented as a bishop driving snakes before
him or trampling upon them. At times he may be shown (1) preaching with
a serpent around the foot of his pastoral staff; (2) holding a shamrock;
(3) with a fire before him; or (4) with a pen and book, devils at his
feet, and seraphim above him
(
Roeder,
White).
He is patron of Ireland
and especially venerated at Lerins
(
Roeder,
White).
Another Life of Saint Patrick
A paraphrase of Saint Fiacc's "Hymn of Saint Patrick"
http://web.archive.org/web/20031009055239/www.nireland.com/orthodox/padraig.htm
TinyUrl:
http://tinyurl.com/6se83
The Confession of Saint Patrick
(in various formats for the computer)
http://www.ccel.org/ccel/patrick/confession.html
A translation from Old Irish of Fiacc's Hymn
http://web.archive.org/web/20010524161003/http://www.ocf.org/OrthodoxPage/reading/St.Pachomius/Western/fiacc.html
TinyUrl:
http://tinyurl.com/4s36z
Icons of St. Patrick:
http://www.allmercifulsavior.com/icons/Icons-Patrick.htm##1
http://tinyurl.com/syopa
Troparion of St Patrick
Tone 4
Most glorious art Thou, O Christ our God
Who didst establish our Father Patrick
as the Enlightener of the Irish and a torch-bearer on earth,
and through him Thou didst guide many to the true Faith.
O Most Compassionate Lord, glory to Thee.