Who was St Patrick?
This account of the life of St Patrick, written by a Madam MacEgan, was published in the Westmeath Examiner of March 17, 1945. For space reasons, we have shortened the text slightly.
St Patrick, born in Britain towards the last quarter of the 4th century, was the son of a deacon called Calpurnius. At 16, with thousands of others, he was taken captive by raiders from Ireland under the command of the then king, Niall of the Nine hostages. Having been sold as a slave to a small Pictish chieftain who owned territory at Dal Bunin near Lough Neagh, he was employed there as tender of flocks and herds. During that time, he learned to speak the Irish language.
Often, in his old age, he bitterly reproached himself for an early life of indifference to his duties as a Christian until at last the miseries of his slavery began to set his heart on God, with the result that his love for him became such a passion that day and night, when in servitude in the woods and on the mountains, his prayers rose unceasingly.
After captivity lasting six years, Patrick heard a voice: “Your ship is ready,” it said; so, leaving his master, he headed 200 miles to the coast. He found a ship about to sail but at first, the captain refused to take him aboard. Disconsolate but fervently invoking divine aid, he returned to the hut where he had sheltered, but had barely reached it when he heard shouts calling him back and he was allowed on board.
After three days at sea, he made land and tramped across a desert for 28 days. Finally provisions being exhausted, hunger assailed the party, who begged Patrick to intercede with “his great omnipotent God” on their behalf.
Patrick bade them to be converted to this all-powerful God who would send them food. At the same moment, a herd of swine crossed their path and the stranded sailors, half dead and fainting with hunger, killed several of them after, which they roasted the pork and were thoroughly refreshed. Some time later, Patrick was taken captive a second time but was eventually freed.
One night in a dream, he perceived a man coming towards him with innumerable letters from Ireland. One contained the words, ‘We beseech you, holy youth, to come and walk amongst us once again’. He doubted his vocation no longer and resolved to return to preach the gospel to the heathen Irish.
Patrick went to a monastery on an island near Provence to acquire the necessary instruction in the scriptures and later, to Auxerre to complete his studies under Saint Germanus, who consecrated him bishop. In 432, he set sail on his return journey to Ireland.
Ireland at that time was a land of lakes, mountains, fens, broad pastures and primitive agriculture. There were no towns and the country was divided into a hundred little states each governed by a petty king with a high king – the ard-rí – over all. Its ministers of religion were druids, a priesthood who presided at sacrifices of burnt offerings, lit the fire at religious festivals and acted as counsellors to the king.
The Fillid was a community of people who represented secular learning; they were proficient in the Greek and Latin languages; adept in all the arts and crafts, the professions, of medicine, the smith, founder and architect. They were, moreover, guardians of the nation’s traditions and local legends and they travelled widely through the country reciting tales of gods and heroes wherever they could find an audience.
Also they were renowned as teachers and from all over Ireland, pupils flocked to hear them.
The minstrels or bards, however, who were comparatively unlettered, were dependent for their livelihood upon their wits, but they were generally feared because of their bitter tongues and gifts of sorcery.
Having begun his labours in Down, St Patrick travelled from coast to coast, even into the remotest parts to Baptise, ordain clergy or confirm the people – whose salvation was his chief concern. Everywhere his attitude towards the people was gentle and conciliatory. He bestowed presents liberally, not only on the kings and their families, but also on the brithemin, judges whose decisions were accepted as binding.
Many perils confronted Patrick during those travels and on one occasion he was arrested and placed in irons, robbed of all his possessions and threatened with death but on the 14th day the Lord delivered him out of their power.
Travelling everywhere, he preached the gospel and in due course he arrived at the court of the Ard-Rí Laoghaire, son of Niall. At Tara Dubhtach, ‘the fil’, in disobedience to his master, was the first to rise up to greet and do him homage. Dubhtach’s pupil Fiacc became afterwards the first Bishop of Leinster.
Remarkable success attended Patrick’s labours and such were the fruits of those labours that in the year 439, three bishops, Secundinus, Auxilius and Cerninus, had to be sent to help him.
Having himself received his training in a monastery, his leanings were towards the monastic life and naturally that was the life he felt compelled to recommend to the ardent young sons and daughters of the petty Irish kings whom he had converted, so that enormous numbers of them became monks and virgins of Christ.
Before his death, Patrick had consecrated some 50 bishops but only four or five sees had been established, there being no towns in the country at that period.
As has been the case with many great men, Patrick did not escape jealousy, rancour and criticism and before his death in 461, accusations of arrogance, self-seeking, lack of education, avarice and greed were hurled at him, and, in seeking to defend himself, he indignantly declared in the short Confession which he left behind that although he had Baptised thousands, he had never accepted from anyone as much as a silver coin. The virgins of Christ to whom he had given the veil had offered him little presents, but even at the risk of giving offence, he had returned them all.
Strange to relate, little was mentioned about the great missionary after his death. There is no reference to him either in the literary remains of Columban or Bede nor in Cogitosus, who wrote the life of St Brigid. Only in his own church of Armagh, where there had been collected current traditions concerning him, was his name held in honour.
In the early 7th century, however, due recognition was accorded to his memory, all sorts of legends and marvellous tales began to be then spread about Patrick. He became the national hero, capturing the Celtic imagination to an extraordinary degree.
In the short Confession which he left behind, he tells us that he did not choose Ireland as the field of his labours; he had no natural affection for the people who enslaved him, but he came in obedience to the promptings of the spirit and to a divine command and he insists that neither ambition nor hope of worldly gain inspired his apostolate.
“Hence, therefore, I render ceaseless thanks to my God who heard me so that I, though ignorant, should in these last days undertake to set about this work so holy and so wonderful and thus I might in some degree imitate those who – as the Lord long ago foretold – would proclaim his gospel for a testimony unto all nations before the end of the world.”
The sacred flame of Catholicity which Patrick set alight in our island endures. For centuries after his death, it shone in glory.
A religious persecution almost without parallel in the history of the Church failed to dim its radiance and today, after the lapse of 1500 years, it blows as ardently as ever in the hearts of the glorious Apostles’ children throughout the world.