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Saint Patrick
It is not clear where or when Patricius Magonus Sucatus, better known as Saint Patrick, son of a wealthy official and a mother from Gaul, was born. Most probably he was born in Scotland or Britain somewhere between 385 and 390.
In his teens he was captured by Irish raiders and enslaved in Ireland. While tender his master's sheep on Slemish Mountain in County Antrim, or near Killala in County Mayo, Saint Patrick learned to pray.
Six years later he was told in dream that he should be ready for a courageous task that would take him back to his homeland. He ran away from his owner and escaped to Gaul, nowadays France. At some point he returned to his family in Britain, before he went to the monastery of Lérins on the Côte d'Azur where he studied from 412 until 415.
The actual years and places will remain in the haze for a while, but somewhere, maybe in Auxerre, France in 417, he became a priest, just as his grandfather has been.
The Cult of Patrick started in France on the Loire River around the town of modern day Saint Patrice. According to the local legend Saint Patrick lived there for twenty years as a monk in the Marmoutier Abbey.
Saint Patrick and the Blackthorn
On one day he went fishing in the area of Bréhémont-sur-Loire. Contrary to the catch of the fishermen his catch was tremendous. The fishermen became jealous and forced him to flee. He found shelter under a blackthorn bush. When he woke in the morning the bush was covered with flowers. Because it was Christmas Day and the blackthorn is supposed to bloom in March, this was considered a miracle. It was not a once-only incident: until the bush was destroyed in the First World War it is said to has bloomed every year on Christmas Day.
Voice of the Irish
Saint Patrick
(source:
Catholic Community Forum)
In France he became determined to return to the land of his slavery as a missionary and in a vision he heard the Irish people cry: Come back and walk once more among us.". This cry is called the Voice of the Irish, or The Cry of the Celts. This vision became reality when Saint Germanus consecrated him bishop and sent him to Ireland in 432 with two missions: to minister the Catholics already living in Ireland and to convert the Irish.
The first mission is interesting as it is contradicting the common phrase that Saint Patrick has brought Christianity to Ireland. In fact the bishop Palladius was the first missionary in 431.
Saint Patrick's first church was set up at Saul, near Downpatrick in County Down.
In a few years several hundred small wooden churches emerged. Saint Patrick converted not only the bards, who spread the Gospel and the legend of Saint Patrick to the most remote parts, but also some strong and important kings. Patrick choose Armagh as his see. Perhaps due to the presence of a well-disposed powerful king providing a save haven to him from which he made his missionary journeys.
Around the year 500 monasteries started to appear on Ireland. At first these monasteries were simple: an enclosure with a small stone church and some cells where the monks lived. Some monasteries evolved in towns as they attracted craftsmen and artisans, while others where positioned in remote and inaccessible areas. It is noticeable that many monasteries are build on pagan sacred sites with sacred wells or standing stones. Although worshipped by nobody anymore, the megalithic monuments were a thorn in the flesh of Saint Patrick and his followers. In retrospect it is strange that worshipping trees, which was practised on a large scale, remains unaffected.
Saint Patrick seems to had a ambiguous attitude towards the pagan religion as he did write down the oral legends on one hand and destroyed original Celtic religious works and literature on the other.
With an aversion to paganism, idolatry and sun-worshipping and preaching without any distinction in social class Saint Patrick had a hard time in Ireland. His Letter to the Soldiers of Coroticus, in which he is protesting against the British slave trading and the slaughter of a group Irish Christians by Christian Welshmen, did not made him popular in the upper-class. It was however Saint Patrick's sense of being called by God to do the work he had undertaken: I, Patrick, a sinner, am the most ignorant and of least account among the faithful, despised by many. . . . I owe it to God's grace that so many people should through me be born again to him..
Saint Patrick died probably between 460 and 466 at Saul on Strangford Lough, near Downpatrick, where he was initially entombed with Saint Brigid and Saint Columba. The anniversary of the death of the Patron Saint of Ireland on 17 March is Saint Patrick's Day, a national holiday.
The relation from the Irish towards Saint Patrick nowadays is light-hearted. Saint Paddy is considered a merry saint of the people and not rigid at all. It is allowed to impersonate Saint Patrick or to picture him as a caricature without being charged for blasphemy.