It
is probable that only a small percentage of people worldwide who celebrate St.
Patrick’s Day have taken the time to seriously read about St. Patrick or read
his writings. (To read what St. Patrick actually wrote in
his own words, see http://www.confessio.ie/#)
In this article Susan
Gately, who writes from Ireland, separates some facts from legends of the real
St. Patrick.
The Real St.
Patrick
Susan Gately
Ask anyone about Ireland's
national saint, St. Patrick, and invariably you will be told three facts: He
brought Christianity to Ireland, he got rid of the snakes, and he explained the
Trinity using a shamrock.
Alas, all wrong.
"In those three cases, the first
one is actually false and the other two are late legends," said Salvador Ryan,
professor of ecclesiastical history at St. Patrick's College Maynooth in
Ireland.
In fact, in 431 the pope sent
Palladius as bishop to the Irish people “believing in Christ.” So when Patrick
arrived in Ireland, there were already Christians there. The story of the snakes
first appears in “Life of St. Patrick” from the 12th century by Jocelin of
Furness. "It is maybe symbolic of banishing paganism from Ireland," said Ryan.
Then there's the shamrock. The
first image of St. Patrick holding a shamrock, now so associated with him, is on
a half-penny coin minted in Dublin in 1674.
But St. Patrick was not a legend.
He was a real man and, uniquely for the time, wrote his own life story. In
fact, he is the only Roman citizen we know from the fifth century who was taken
into slavery in a barbarian land among non-Roman peoples who lived to tell the
tale and wrote about it.
St. Patrick wrote two documents:
his Confessio (Confession) (about 6,500 words) , and “A Letter to the Soldiers
of Coroticus.” One is his declaration of faith, the other a severe reprimand to
soldiers who conducted raids on St. Patrick's newly baptised Christians.
The Confession arises from a
period of crisis. "It seems that certain allegations have been made by some
people in the Church in Britain against Patrick," Ryan said. "They claim he came
to Ireland for his own financial gain." Patrick wrote to set the record
straight, telling his own story.
He was from Roman Britain from a
well-to-do family. His father was a deacon; his grandfather a priest. At the age
of 16, he was kidnapped and taken to Ireland.
In Latin, Patrick wrote: "After I
arrived in Ireland, I tended sheep every day. More and more the love of God
increased, and my sense of awe before God. Faith grew, and my spirit was moved,
so that in one day I would pray up to one hundred times, and at night perhaps
the same. I even remained in the woods and on the mountain, and I would rise to
pray before dawn in snow and ice and rain. I never felt the worse for it, and I
never felt lazy — as I realize now, the spirit was burning in me at that time"
(Confessio 16).
Patrick escaped, but back in
Britain, in a dream, a figure came bearing letters. "They called out as it were
with one voice: 'We beg you, holy boy, to come and walk among us once again'”
(Confessio 23).
Against his family's wishes,
Patrick returned to Ireland. "It is a hard station, almost a self-imposed
exile. He tells us of the pain of emigration. It is a very human account," Ryan
said
.
Patrick refers to the conversion
of hundreds of people. While there is no tradition of martyrdom in Ireland, it
is clear that Patrick suffered, was protective of the converts and ready to lay
down his life for them.
"What comes through powerfully is
his humanity and his deep faith and humility. He says he was a stone lying in
deep mire, but that God picked him up and sat him on top of the wall," Ryan
said.
Looking at his writings rather
than his legend, you see a man aware of his weakness. For instance, he tells of
a sin he committed at age 16. He's ashamed of it and confides it to a friend.
His friend breaks the confidence and tells everyone. "Patrick has long since
confessed this particular sin and has done penance for it, but it comes back to
bite him. Sometimes that happens to us, too. He's a flesh-and-blood saint," Ryan
said.
Patrick died at the end of the
fifth century. Two centuries later, biographies sponsored by the Church in
Armagh, Ireland, appear, presenting him as a wonder-worker. But the Patrick of
the Confession is "more impressive" than his legends, Ryan said. The saint who
wrote more than 1,500 years ago said: "For this reason, may God not let it come
about that I would suffer the loss of his people who have become his in the
furthermost parts of the earth. I pray that God give me perseverance, and that
he grant me to bear faithful witness to him right up to my passing from this
life, for the sake of my God" (Confessio 58).