St. Patrick, Bishop of Ireland

Dear Friends,

Let us pray:

Almighty God, in your providence you chose your servant Patrick to be the apostle to the Irish people, to bring those who were wandering in darkness and error to the true light and knowledge of you: Grant us so to walk in that way that we may come at last to the light of everlasting life; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

Patrick of Ireland
17 March ca. 461

Patrick was born about 390, in southwest Britain, somewhere between the Severn and the Clyde rivers, son of a deacon and grandson of a priest. When about sixteen years old, he was kidnapped by Irish pirates and sold into slavery in Ireland. Until this time, he had, by his own account, cared nothing for God, but now he turned to God for help. After six years, he either escaped or was freed, made his way to a port 200 miles away, and there persuaded some sailors to take him onto their ship. He returned to his family much changed, and began to prepare for the priesthood, and to study the Bible.

Around 435, Patrick was commissioned, perhaps by bishops in Gaul or perhaps by the Pope, to go to Ireland as a bishop and missionary. Four years earlier, another bishop, Palladius, had gone to Ireland to preach, but he was no longer there (my sources disagree on whether he had died, or had become discouraged and left Ireland to preach in Scotland). Patrick made his headquarters at Armagh in the North, where he built a school, and had the protection of the local monarch. From this base, he made extensive missionary journeys with considerable success. To say that he single-handedly turned Ireland from a pagan to a Christian country is an exaggeration, but is not far from the truth.

Almost everything we know about him comes from his own writings, available in English in the Ancient Christian Writers series. He has left us an autobiography (called the Confession), a Letter to Coroticus in which he denounces the slave trade and rebukes the British chieftain Coroticus for taking part in it, and the Lorica (or “Breastplate” a poem of disputed authorship traditionally attributed to Patrick), a work that has been called “part prayer, part anthem, and part incantation.” The Lorica is a truly magnificent hymn, found today in many hymnals. The translation into English is by Cecil Frances Alexander, whose husband was Archbishop of Armagh, and thus the direct successor of Patrick. She published nearly 400 poems and hymns of her own, including the well-known “There is a green hill far away,” “Once in royal David’s city,” “Jesus calls us; o’er the tumult,” and “All things bright and beautiful, All creatures great and small.” (Hagiography by James Kieffer)

St Patrick’s day was the day for us to wear green and ‘Kiss me I’m Irish’ buttons, and proudly (if a shock to some) talk about our ancestors off the boat in ’54.  Only in the past decade did I find out that Marie Coakley (my great great great great) was a freed, indentured servant born in Washington DC in the 1820’s and that her family founded St Augustine’s, DC.  I’m thankful for her, her cousins who arrived in 1854, and to St Patrick and the Celtic Christianity he established in the Emerald Isle.

Blessings upon Blessings, and Amen!

Father Eric