Saint Patrick

Saint Patrick

Saint Patrick (386–March 17, 493 Anno Domini, see below) was a missionary and is regarded as the patron saint of Ireland along with Saint Brigid and Saint Columba). He is also the patron saint of Nigeria which was evangelized primarily by Irish missionaries, especially priests from Saint Patrick's Missionary Society also known as the Kiltegan Missionaries.

Early Life

He was born somewhere along the west coast of Britain in the little village of Bannavem of Taburnia, named vico banavem taburniae in his Confessio. The town has never been identified with certainty Kilpatrick,Scotland is thought to be his birthplace in the catholic annuls. Other suggested sites include Dumbarton, Furness[1] and Somerset. The coastline of Wales or northern France are other possibilities put forward for his birthplace as is the settlement of Bannaventa in Northamptonshire. The tiny Welsh village of Banwen has often been suggested. Patricks parents were Calphurnius and Conchessa of high Roman descent. They held the office of decurio in Gaul or Britain. When Patrick was only sixteen years old he was kidnapped by Irish mauraders who swept away, by violence, thousands of other people along with Patrick. They were sold as slaves. N Patrick was sold to an especially cruel master who was a druid priest by the name of Milchu. This capture which lasted for six years availed Patrick the mastery of the Celtic culture and language. It was there on the hillside, where Patrick tended sheep, that he formed a profound relationship with God.

Religious Pursuits

One day and angel appreared to him and admonished him telling him he should leave this place of servitude. He then escaped and travelled for about 200 miles. When he arrived at the Westport, he took a ship back to Britain. There He came under the guidance of St. Germain of Auxerre. He was appointed by Saint Germaine into the Priesthood. Patrick had a vision that he should return to Ireland. This vision was furthered when St. Germaine asked him to accompany him to Ireland as a missionary.

This is recorded in Patrick's autobiography Confessio. He and his fellow captives were sold  as slaves in Ireland. The tiny Welsh village of Banwen has often been suggested as his birth place. It was clearly occupied in Roman times, sitting on the Neath-Brecon Roman road and next to the two Roman forts in Coelbren.

Early life

Although he came from a Christian family, he was not particularly religious before his capture. Patrick's enslavement markedly strengthened his faith. It was at this time he learned the native Celtic language and the customs of the druids. His master being a druidic high priest. He escaped at the age of twenty-two, as legend has it, under the direction of an angel. Patrick spent the next twelve years in a monastery in Auxerre, where he adopted the name Patrick (Patricius, in Old Irish spelled Pádraig). One night he heard voices begging him to return to Ireland. Patrick heeded the emplore and went to Ireland, in his thirties. He became on of their first Christian missionaries there.

Britain at this time (407-410) was undergoing turmoil following the withdrawal of Roman troops and Roman central authority. Having been under the Roman cloak for over 350 years, the Romano-British were having to look after themselves. Populations were on the move on the European continent, and the recently converted British Christians were being colonised by pagan Anglo-Saxons.

Mission

His first converted patron was Saint Dichu, who made a gift of a large sabhall(barn) for a church sanctuary. This first sanctuary dedicated by St Patrick became, in later years, his chosen retreat. A monastery and church were erected there, and there Patrick died; the site, Saul County Down, retains the name Sabhall (pronounced "Sowel").

Patrick set up his Episcopal see at Armagh and organized 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.

One famous story is told of the annual vernal fire lit by the High King of Ireland at Tara. All the fires were extinguished so they could be renewed from the sacred fire from Tara. Patrick lit a rival, miraculously inextinguishable Christian bonfire on the hill of Slane, at the opposite end of the valley. This season was associated with Easter by chroniclers who followed Patrick's own account in his Confessio.

Patrick was not the first Christian missionary to Ireland, as men such as Secundus and Palladius were active there before him. However, tradition accords him the most impact. a His missions seem to have been concentrated in the provinces of Ulster and Connaught, who had never before experienced Christianity. Patrick established the Church throughout Ireland on lasting foundations. He travelled throughout the country preaching, teaching, building churches, opening schools and monasteries,and converting chiefs and bards. Everywhere he went his preaching was supported with miracles. He also threw down the idol of Crom Cruach in Leitrim.

Patrick wrote that he expected on a daily basis, to be violently killed or enslaved again. His Letter to the Soldiers of Coroticus protested British slave trading. He also protested the slaughter of Irish Christians by Coroticus's Welshmen. This is the first identified literature of the British or Celtic Catholic Church.[2]. Patrick gathered many followers, including Saint Benignus, who would become his successor. His chief concerns were the raising up of native clergy, and abolishing Paganism, idolatry, and Sun-worship. He made no distinction of classes in his preaching and was himself ready for imprisonment or death. He was the first writer to condemn all forms of slavery.

Pious legend credits Patrick with banishing snakes from the island, though post-glacial Ireland never actually had snakes [3]; One suggestion is that snakes referred to the serpent symbolism of the Druids of that time and place. One could find such symbol on coins minted in Gaul (see Carnutes). It could also have referred to beliefs such as Pelagianism, symbolized as "serpents." Legend also credits Patrick with teaching the Irish about the concept of the Trinity by showing them the shamrock, a three-leaved clover. Through this example, Patrick highlighted the Christian dogma of 'three divine persons in the one God' (as opposed to the Arian belief that was popular in Patrick's time).

In his use of Scripture and eschatological expectations, Patrick was typical of the 5th-century bishop. One of the traits which he retained as an old man was a consciousness of being an unlearned exile, a former slave and fugitive, who learned to trust God completely.

Death: a contentious date

Patrick died in AD 493 according to the latest reconstruction of the old Irish annals. Prior to the 1940s it was believed without doubt that he died in 461 and thus had lived in the first half of the 5th century. A lecture entitled "The Two Patricks", published in 1942 by T. F. O'Rahilly, caused enormous controversy by proposing that there had been two "Patricks", Palladius and Patrick, and that what we now know of St. Patrick was in fact in part a conscious effort to meld the two into one hagiographic personality. Decades of contention eventually ended with most historians now asserting that Patrick was indeed most likely to have been active in the mid-to-late 5th century.

The compiler of the Annals of Ulster stated that in the year 553:

• "I have found this in the Book of Cuanu: The relics of Patrick were placed sixty years after his death in a shrine by Colum Cille. Three splendid halidoms were found in the burial-place: his goblet, the Angel's Gospel, and the Bell of the Testament. This is how the angel distributed the halidoms: the goblet to Dún, the Bell of the Testament to Ard Macha, and the Angel's Gospel to Colum Cille himself. The reason it is called the Angel's Gospel is that Colum Cille received it from the hand of the angel."

The placement of this event under the year 553 would certainly seem to place Patrick's death in 493, or at least in the early years of that decade.

It is believed that March 17 was his death date (according to the Encyclopedia Britannica) and it is the date popularly associated with him as his feast, known as St. Patrick's Day.

For most of Christianity�s first 1,000 years, canonizations were done on the diocesan or regional level. Relatively soon after very holy people died, the local Church affirmed that they could be liturgically celebrated as saints. [4] For this reason, St. Patrick was never formally canonized by the Pope.

The cult of Patrick

Two of Patrick's biographers, Muirchú and Tírechán, are believed to have contributed to the cult of Patrick. They overemphasized Patrick's associations with the church of Armagh. This seemed to make their stronghold as the head church of Ireland more effective. They wrote Life and Times of Patrick and Memoir of Patrick in the late seventh century.

Orthodox Church

The Orthodox Church, especially English speaking orthodox Christians living in the British Isles as well as in North America, also venerate St. Patrick. There have even been icons dedicated to him[5]. All pre-schismatic saints, whether of East or West, are venerated equally.

See also

• Cathedral of Saint Patrick
• Saint Patrick Parish
• St. Patrick's Purgatory
• List of people on stamps of Ireland
• St. Patrick's Day

References

ISBN links support NWE through referral fees

• NewAdvent.org: St. Patrick
• Catholic.org: St. Patrick
• Saint Patrick Centre: Saint Patrick's Legacy
• MSN Encarta: Saint Patrick
• HistoryChannel.com: Who Was St. Patrick?
• IrishAbroad.com: Life and History of St. Patrick
• AmericanCatholic.org: The Real St. Patrick and Celtic Spirituality
• Slate.com: St. Patrick Revealed
• Saint Patrick in Orthodoxy

Further reading

• Confession of Saint Patrick, translated by John Skinner (Image 1998)
• How the Irish Saved Civilization by Thomas Cahill (Anchor 1996)

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