And
we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who
have been called according to his purpose. For those God foreknew he also
predestined to be conformed to the likeness of his Son, that he might be the
firstborn among many brothers. Romans 8:28-29
Behind the fanciful
legends of the fifth-century British missionary stands a man worthy of
embellishment.
Afleet of 50 currachs (longboats)
weaved its way toward the shore, where a young Roman Brit and his family
walked. His name was Patricius, the 16-year-old son of a civil magistrate and
tax collector. He had heard stories of Irish raiders who captured slaves and
took them "to the ends of the world," and as he studied the
longboats, he no doubt began imagining the worst.
With no Roman army to protect them (Roman
legions had long since deserted Britain to protect Rome from barbarian
invasions), Patricius and his town were unprepared for attack. The Irish
warriors, wearing helmets and armed with spears, descended on the pebbled
beach. The braying war horns struck terror into Patricius's heart, and he
started to run toward town.
The warriors quickly demolished the village,
and as Patricius darted among burning houses and screaming women, he was
caught. The barbarians dragged him aboard a boat bound for the east coast of
Ireland.
Patricius, better known as Saint
Patrick, is remembered today as the saint who drove the snakes out of
Ireland, the teacher who used the shamrock to explain the Trinity, and the namesake
of annual parades in New York and Boston. What is less well-known is that
Patrick was a humble missionary (this saint regularly referred to himself as
"a sinner") of enormous courage. When he evangelized Ireland, he set
in motion a series of events that impacted all of Europe. It all started when
he was carried off into slavery around 430.
ESCAPE
FROM SIN AND SLAVERY
Patrick was sold to a cruel warrior chief,
whose opponents' heads sat atop sharp poles around his palisade in Northern
Ireland. While Patrick minded his master's pigs in the nearby hills, he lived
like an animal himself, enduring long bouts of hunger and thirst. Worst of all,
he was isolated from other human beings for months at a time. Early
missionaries to Britain had left a legacy of Christianity that young Patrick
was exposed to and took with him into captivity. He had been a nominal
Christian to this point; he now turned to the Christian God of his fathers for
comfort.
"I would pray constantly during the
daylight hours," he later recalled. "The love of God and the fear of
him surrounded me more and more. And faith grew. And the spirit roused so that
in one day I would say as many as a hundred prayers, and at night only slightly
less."
After six years of slavery, Patrick received a
supernatural message. "You do well to fast," a mysterious voice said
to him. "Soon you will return to your homeland."
ON
THE MOUNTAIN
Legend holds that Patrick rang a large bell
(held in a reliquary, at the National Museum of Ireland) on the top of Eagle Mountain,
now called Croagh Patrick. Depending on the legend, the bell scared away either
Ireland's snakes or its demons. Patrick's other relic, a staff supposedly given
to him by Jesus, was burned as an object of superstition in 1538.
Before long, the voice spoke again: "Come
and see, your ship is waiting for you." So Patrick fled and ran 200 miles
to a southeastern harbor. There he boarded a ship of traders, probably carrying
Irish wolfhounds to the European continent.
After a three-day journey, the men landed in
Gaul (modern France), where they found only devastation. Goths or Vandals had
so decimated the land that no food was to be found in the once fertile area.
"What have you to say for yourself,
Christian?" the ship's captain taunted. "You boast that your God is
all powerful. We're starving to death, and we may not survive to see another
soul."
Patrick answered confidently. "Nothing is
impossible to God. Turn to him and he will send us food for our journey."
At that moment, a herd of pigs appeared,
"seeming to block our path." Though Patrick instantly became
"well regarded in their eyes," his companions offered their new-found
food in sacrifice to their pagan gods.
PATRICK DID NOT
PARTAKE.
THE PRODIGIOUS SON RETURNS
Many scholars believe Patrick then spent a
period training for ministry in Lerins, an island off the south of France near
Cannes. But his autobiographical Confession includes
a huge gap after his escape from Ireland. When it picks up again "after a
few years," he is back in Britain with his family.
It was there that Patrick received his call to
evangelize Ireland—a vision like the apostle Paul's at Troas, when a Macedonian
man pleaded, "Help us!"
"I had a vision in my dreams of a man who
seemed to come from Ireland," Patrick wrote. "His name was
Victoricius, and he carried countless letters, one of which he handed over to
me. I read aloud where it began: 'The Voice of the Irish.' And as I began to
read these words, I seemed to hear the voice of the same men who lived beside
the forest of Foclut … and they cried out as with one voice, 'We appeal to you,
holy servant boy, to come and walk among us.' I was deeply moved in heart and I
could read no further, so I awoke."
Despite his reputation, Patrick wasn't really
the first to bring Christianity to Ireland. Pope Celestine I sent a bishop
named Palladius to the island in 431 (about the time Patrick was captured as a
slave). Some scholars believe that Palladius and Patrick are one and the same
individual, but most believe Palladius was unsuccessful (possibly martyred) and
Patrick was sent in his place.
In any event, paganism was still dominant when
Patrick arrived on the other side of the Irish Sea. "I dwell among
gentiles," he wrote, "in the midst of pagan barbarians, worshipers of
idols, and of unclean things."
DEMONS
AND DRUIDS
Patrick did not require the native Irish to
surrender their belief in supernatural beings. They were only to regard these
beings in a new light as demons. The fear of the old deities was transformed
into hatred of demons. If Christianity had come to Ireland with only
theological doctrines, the hope of immortal life, and ethical ideas—without
miracles, mysteries, and rites—it could have never wooed the Celtic heart.
Predictably, Patrick faced the most opposition
from the druids, who practiced magic, were skilled in secular learning
(especially law and history) and advised Irish kings. Biographies of the saint
are replete with stories of druids who "wished to kill holy Patrick."
PILGRIMS
On the last Sunday of each July, between 25,000
and 30,000 pilgrims pass the saint's statue and climb to the top of Croagh
Patrick, commemorating the saint's fasting there for 40 days and nights. Carbon
dating of church ruins at the 2,710-foot summit has shown it dates from
Patrick's day, supporting the legend that says Patrick climbed it.
"Daily I expect murder, fraud or
captivity," Patrick wrote, "but I fear none of these things because
of the promises of heaven. I have cast myself into the hands of God almighty
who rules everywhere."
Indeed, Patrick almost delighted in taking
risks for the gospel. "I must take this decision disregarding risks
involved and make known the gifts of God and his everlasting consolation.
Neither must we fear any such risk in faithfully preaching God's name boldly in
every place, so that even after my death, a spiritual legacy may be left for my
brethren and my children."
Still, Patrick periodically avoided such
confrontations by paying protection money: "Patrick paid the price of 15
souls in gold and silver so that no evil persons should impede them as they
traveled straight across the whole of Ireland," wrote one biographer.
Patrick was as fully convinced as the Celts
that the power of the druids was real, but he brought news of a stronger power.
The famous Lorica (or "Patrick's
Breastplate"—see I Rise Today), a prayer of protection, may
not have been written by Patrick (at least in its current form), but it
expresses perfectly Patrick's confidence in God to protect him from "every
fierce merciless force that may come upon my body and soul; against
incantations of false prophets, against black laws of paganism, against false
laws of heresy, against deceit of idolatry, against spells of women and smiths
and druids."
According to legend, it worked. The King,
Loiguire, set up a trap to kill Patrick, but as the bishop came near, all the
king could see was a deer. (Thus the Breastplate has also been known as the
Deer's Cry.)
There was probably a confrontation between
Patrick and the druids, but scholars wonder if it was as dramatic and magical
as later stories recounted. One biographer from the late 600s, Muirchœ, described
Patrick challenging druids to contests at Tara, in which each party tried to
outdo the other in working wonders before the audience:
"The custom was that whoever lit a fire
before the king on that night of the year [Easter vigil] would be put to death.
Patrick lit the paschal fire before the king on the hill of Slane. The people
saw Patrick's fire throughout the plain, and the king ordered 27 chariots to go
and seize Patrick . …
"Seeing that the impious heathen were
about to attack him, Patrick rose and said clearly and loudly, 'May God come up
to scatter his enemies, and may those who hate him flee from his face.' By this
disaster, caused by Patrick's curse in the king's presence because of the
king's order, seven times seven men fell. … And the king, driven by fear, came
and bent his knees before the holy man . …
"[The next day], in a display of magic, a
druid invoked demons and brought about a dark fog over the land. Patrick said
to the druid, 'Cause the fog to disperse.' But he was unable to do it. Patrick
prayed and gave his blessing, and suddenly the fog cleared and the sun shone. …
And through the prayers of Patrick the flames of fire consumed the druid.
"And the king was greatly enraged at
Patrick because of the death of his druid. Patrick said to the king, 'If you do
not believe now, you will die on the spot for the wrath of God descends on your
head.'
"The king summoned his council and said,
'It is better for me to believe than to die.' And he believed as did many
others that day."
Yet to Patrick, the greatest enemy was one he
had been intimately familiar with—slavery. He was, in fact, the first Christian
to speak out strongly against the practice. Scholars agree he is the genuine
author of a letter excommunicating a British tyrant, Coroticus, who had carried
off some of Patrick's converts into slavery.
"Ravenous wolves have gulped down the
Lord's own flock which was flourishing in Ireland," he wrote, "and
the whole church cries out and laments for its sons and daughters." He
called Coroticus's deed "wicked, so horrible, so unutterable," and
told him to repent and to free the converts.
It remains unknown if he was successful in
freeing Coroticus's slaves, but within his lifetime (or shortly thereafter),
Patrick ended the entire Irish slave trade.
ROYAL
MISSIONARY
Patrick concentrated the bulk of his
missionary efforts on the country's one hundred or so tribal kings. If the king
became a Christian, he reasoned, the people would too. This strategy was a
success.
As kings converted, they gave their sons to
Patrick in an old Irish custom for educating and "fostering"
(Patrick, for his part, held up his end by distributing gifts to these kings).
Eventually, the sons and daughters of the Irish were persuaded to become monks
and nuns.
From kingdom to kingdom (Ireland did not yet
have towns), Patrick worked much the same way. Once he converted a number of
pagans, he built a church. One of his new disciples would be ordained as a
deacon, priest, or bishop, and left in charge. If the chieftain had been
gracious enough to grant a site for a monastery as well as a church, it was
built too and functioned as a missionary station.
Before departing, Patrick gave the new converts
(or their pastors) a compendium of Christian doctrine and the canons (rules).
SELF
DOUBT
Despite his success as a missionary, Patrick
was self-conscious, especially about his educational background. "I still
blush and fear more than anything to have my lack of learning brought out into
the open," he wrote in his Confession.
"For I am unable to explain my mind to learned people."
Nevertheless, he gives thanks to God,
"who stirred up me, a fool, from the midst of those who are considered
wise and learned in the practice of the law as well as persuasive in their
speech and in every other way and ahead of these others, inspired me who is so
despised by the world."
Over and over again, Patrick wrote that he was
not worthy to be a bishop. He wasn't the only one with doubts. At one point,
his ecclesiastical elders in Britain sent a deputation to investigate his
mission. A number of concerns were brought up, including a rash moment of
(unspecified) sin from his youth.
His Confession, in fact,
was written in response to this investigation. Reeling from accusations,
Patrick drew strength from God: "Indeed he bore me up, though I was
trampled underfoot in such a way. For although I was put down and shamed, not
too much harm came to me."
If Patrick was not confident about his own
shortcomings, he held a deep sense of God's intimate involvement in his life.
"I have known God as my authority, for he knows all things even before
they are done," he wrote. "He would frequently forewarn me of many
things by his divine response."
Indeed, Patrick recorded eight dreams he
regarded as personal messages from God. And scattered throughout his Confession are tributes to God's goodness to him:
"Tirelessly, I thank my God, who kept me faithful on the day I was tried,
so that today I might offer to him, the Lord Jesus Christ, the sacrifice of my
soul. He saved me in all dangers and perils . …So, whatever may come my way,
good or bad, I equally tackle it, always giving thanks to God."
According to the Irish annals, Patrick died in
493, when he would have been in his seventies. But we do not know for sure
when, where, or how he died. Monasteries at Armagh, Downpatrick, and Saul have
all claimed his remains. His feast day is recorded as early as March 17, 797,
with the annotation; "The flame of a splendid sun, the apostle of virginal
Erin [Ireland], may Patrick with many thousands be the shelter of our
wickedness."
ULTIMATE
MODEL
It is difficult to separate fact from fiction
in the stories of Patrick's biographers. It is historically clear, however,
that Patrick was one of the first great missionaries who brought the gospel
beyond the boundaries of Roman civilization. According to tradition, he had
established bishops throughout northern, central, and eastern Ireland. Only
Munster, in the south, was to remain pagan until a century after Patrick's
death.
Patrick was the ultimate model for Celtic
Christians. He engaged in continuous prayer. He was enraptured by God and loved
sacred Scripture. He also had a rich poetic imagination with the openness to
hear God in dreams and visions and a love of nature and the created.
He is, then, most worthy of the
appellation saint, as one "set apart"
for a divine mission. As such, he became an inspiring example. Hundreds of
Celtic monks, in emulation of Patrick, left their homeland to spread the gospel
to Scotland, England, and continental Europe.
It is a legacy Patrick was proud of: "For
God gave me such grace, that many people through me were reborn to God and
afterward confirmed and brought to perfection. And so then a clergy was
ordained for them everywhere."
