The following is paraphrased from Saint Fiacc's "Hymn of Saint Patrick." St. Fiacc, commemorated on October 12th, was a bard before Saint Patrick made him a bishop. Although some modern writers believe that St. Fiacc's "Hymn of Saint Patrick" was written many centuries later, this thought is based on later additions of footnotes following the hymn. However, footnotes in Irish books copied by hand were always added by later copyists; the earlier the book, the more footnotes with Scriptural and other references. Thus, the very well footnoted "Hymn of Saint Patrick" is from a very early source, as is Saint Secundinus's "Lorica, Hymn on Saint Patrick." Whether Saint Patrick was one of the group of priests that travelled to Britain with Saint Germanus or not, it is certain from other sources that Saint Patrick was a pupil of Saint Germanus for a long time, and would have had the same theological foundation. Perhaps modern writers were uncomfortable with the miracles of Saint Germanus which occurred when he fought the heresy of Pelagius. These miracles are also recorded by Saint Bede.
Saint Patrick was born in the late fourth century. His father was Calpurnius, a Briton and a deacon; his mother, Concess, was a Frank and a close relative of Saint Martin of Tours. At sixteen years of age, Patrick and many others were kidnapped from the family estate near Bannavem Taburniae (some say this was in western Britain, others say it was in Brittany) by the seven vengeful exiled sons of a king of the Britons. This happened after Rome required that all British soldiers under Roman authority go to Rome to defend that city from barbarians, leaving Britain without any army or police, as recorded by Saint Bede. Many acts of violence and greed were recorded at that time, which Saint Bede called a terrible shame in Britain, a country which had long been Christian.
Patrick's father was killed; his sister disappeared. Patrick was sold into slavery in Ireland. His life turned from youthful simplicity into a lesson for all of us. He was a slave, but obeyed his master. He would not depart until given leave to do so.
Saint Patrick's escape from slavery was accomplished with miracles. He was visited in a dream by an angel in the form of a bird, Victor, the conqueror, who arranged a miraculous escape. Patrick said that he needed his master's permission to go home, but his master required a ransom of gold as large as his head. The angel told Patrick to follow a boar. The boar's rooting turned up the gold which was to ransom him. The angel took him to the sea coast sixty miles in one day to meet a ship, but instead the lord of the port sold Patrick to others. Then the fee, a set of brazen cauldrons, tormented the betrayer and his family. When they were admiring the cauldrons, their hands stuck to the metal. The lord of the port repented, and was forgiven by Patrick. He converted to the will of God, ransomed Patrick from the slavers, and sent Patrick home. He was baptised by Patrick later, after the saint returned. Patrick had been a slave six years.
Saint Patrick had a dream that he must preach the Gospel to the Irish, but Victor had told him to seek an education first. He found his education under Saint Germanus of Auxerre, who lived close to the southern part of Gaul which is next to the Mediterranean sea. (Saint Fiacc does not record other miracles. The town of Saint Patrice near Tours in France claims that it was visited by Saint Patrick in midwinter. He was tired and cold, and the frost-covered thorn tree he slept under burst into soft warm blooms above him. In December every year until the tree was destroyed the "flowers of Saint Patrick" bloomed there. French archaeological and agriculture societies testified to the truth of this phenomenon into this century.)
Saint Germanus took his pupil to Britain to save that country from the errors of Pelagianism. (The error of Pelagianism is the belief that we may attain salvation through our own efforts without God's help, as if the image of God in us were completely separated from the help of the Holy Spirit, the grace of the living God. This heresy is seen today in mistaking the Holy Spirit for the whims or emotions of the mob; "zeitgeist" instead of Holy Spirit.) Saint Fiacc records the work of Patrick in Britain under Saint Germanus to show the development of his saintly leadership, but Saint Patrick, in his Confession, does not mention this, perhaps because the focus of his life's work was in Ireland. Saint Germanus, with a group of priests that included Patrick, travelled through Britain convincing people to turn to God, throwing out the false Pelagian priests known as snakes. Saint Bede records in his Ecclesiastical History of the English People that this was accomplished by great miracles of healing. Saint Patrick suggested fasting to turn a city from their heresy, but it would not turn, and at nocturns the third night the earth swallowed the city. Later, the same place that Saint Germanus and Saint Patrick had fasted with their company became the location that clerics went to fast. Patrick, who obeyed God's will, defended reverence for God's grace which is necessary for Salvation.
Saint Patrick told Saint Germanus that he had often heard the voice of the Irish children calling to him, "Come, Holy Patrick, and make us saved." Saint Germanus said that Patrick must go to Pope Celestine (Bishop of Rome from 422 to 432), to be consecrated, because it was proper to do so. But another had been sent to be Bishop of Ireland before him (Bishop Palladius), and Saint Patrick had to wait. Bishop Palladius began missions, but he did not live very long.
Saint Patrick went to the island of Alanensis in the Mediterranean sea (in the Lerins district, known as Saint Honorat near Cannes in France) to pray, and was given Jesus Christ's own staff on Mount Arnum to hold him up. (An engraved stone on the side of the main monastery of the island records that Saint Patrick, Apostle of Ireland, came there to study in the fifth century the sacred sciences in preparation for his mission to Ireland. The staff of Jesus Christ was publicly burned in Dublin in 1538 during the reign of king Henry VIII of England.) In 432, Patrick went back to Saint Germanus, telling him of the vision and the staff. Patrick was then sixty years old. He was sent back to Pope Celestine, who had heard that Palladius had died. The chief consecrator of Saint Patrick was Bishop Amatorex of Autissiodorens. Pope Celestine lived only a week after Patrick's consecration, and was succeeded by Sixtus III (432-440). Celestine gave Saint Patrick relics and many books. At the moment of Patrick's consecration, the Pope also heard the voices of the children calling out: Crebriu and Lesru, two daughters of Glerand, recorded as Saints by St. Fiacc. Patrick later baptised the children. They said out of their mother's womb, "All of Ireland cries unto You." (This cry was to God, not to Saint Patrick.)
And so Saint Patrick returned to Ireland. Saint Fiacc does not record the details of what happened at Tara, but this is recorded elsewhere. In 432, Pascha (Easter) coincided with the Druid (pagan) festival. No fire was supposed to be lit but the new lighting of the pagan fire. But Saint Patrick lit the Easter fire first. The tradition warned King Laoghaire that if that fire were not stamped out, it would never afterward be extinguished in Erin. The king invited Bishop Patrick to Tara the next day. Patrick was reciting his Breastplate prayer (the "Deer's Cry") on the way from Slane to Tara on Pascha Sunday. King Laoghaire had stationed soldiers along the road, expecting to intercept Patrick before Tara. The Tripartite Life says, "Saint Patrick went with eight young clerics and Saint Benen (commemorated November 9th) as a gillie with them, and Saint Patrick gave them his blessing before they set out. A cloak of darkness went over them so that not a man of them appeared. Howbeit, the enemy who were waiting to ambush them, saw eight deer going past them, and behind them a fawn with a bundle on its back. That was Saint Patrick with his eight, and Saint Benen behind them with his tablets on his back." (The Tripartite Life was an eighth century book in three parts to be read in the three day celebration of Saint Patrick's Day.)
The wizards (Druids) before Saint Patrick's time predicted that an adze head would come over wild sea, his mantle hole-headed (vestments tailored with an opening for the head, not cloth wrapped as the Druids did), his staff crook-headed (Jesus Christ's Pastoral staff, not straight as the Druids' staves), his table in the anterior part of his house (an altar), and all his household (the church) will always answer, "Amen. Amen." They told the king that they would not hide the truth from him, that the posterity of this man would remain until doomsday, because he is the herald of the Prince of Peace.
Saint Patrick was called by the Lord and sent to Ireland. He taught that the Trinity is ever with us to sustain us, even when all is misery. He knew firsthand. He taught that God loves us, despite the buffetings of the world.
Saint Patrick was diligent until the day he died. He dispelled iniquity. He preached, he baptised, he prayed, he constantly praised God with Psalms, he sang one hundred Psalms every night, he slept on bare flagstone with a wet quilt about him, and his pillow was a pillar stone. He preached for three-score years (including the time before his consecration as bishop when he was a priest under Saint Germanus). St. Secundinus records in his hymn that Saint Patrick bore the stigmata of Christ in his righteous flesh.
The folk of Ireland used to worship "si-de" (spirits). They did not believe the true Godhead of the true Trinity. But when Saint Patrick was finished, all Ireland believed in the Holy Trinity, believed in Jesus Christ, did not follow nature spirits, and the court at Tara was replaced by the court of Christ at Armagh. In his Confession, Patrick said that he was God's debtor for the great grace of baptism given to so many thousands, for the people reborn in God and then confirmed, and clerics ordained for them everywhere. "Not wishing to bore his readers," Saint Patrick gives only a small mention of persecution even unto bonds, twelve dangers to his life, and numerous plots against him. For example, Saint Odran, a charioteer for Patrick (commemorated February 19th) was warned of danger and pretended weariness, so Patrick took the reigns, and Odran in the place of honour was killed with a lance meant for Patrick.
When Saint Patrick became ill, he decided to go to Armagh. He was met by an angel, who took him to see Victor, and Victor, speaking to him out of rushing fire, said, "Primacy to Armagh; to Christ render thanks. Unto heaven you shall go soon. Your prayers have been granted: the hymn you have chosen in your lifetime shall be a protecting corslet to all. Those men of Ireland that are with you on the day of doom shall go to judgement."
One of the clergy, Tassach (commemorated April 14), remained with him and gave him Communion. Saint Fiacc recalls Joshua: if the sun should stay still in the sky for the death of the wicked, how much more appropriate it should be for brightness to shine at the death of saints. Ireland's clerics came to wake Saint Patrick from every road; the sound of the chanting (of angels) had prostrated them. They said that the place was overrun with singing birds: as Victor had appeared as a bird, they thought the winged angels were birds. Saint Patrick's soul had separated from his body after pains. God's angels on the first night were waiting upon it without ceasing. When he departed, he went to the other Saint Patrick (of Glastonbury, called Patrick the Elder, commemorated August 24th), because Patrick, son of Calpurnius, had promised Patrick the Elder that they should go to heaven together. It is said that from the eighteenth of March to the twenty-third of August, to the end of the first month of Autumn, Saint Patrick was with angels about him awaiting old Patrick, and together they rose to Jesus, Mary's Son.
Saint Fiacc said, "Saint Patrick, without sign of vainglory, meditated much good. To be in the service of Mary's Son, it was a pious circumstance wherein he was born."
(Much later, in the twelfth century, King Henry II of England, after his part in the death of Archbishop Thomas Becket, received permission from the Pope to take over Ireland, which had by that time sent its monks to educate all of Europe. The Irish monks read Latin, Greek, Hebrew, and other languages. Henry II ruled that no Irish were allowed to attend a seminary. All Irish monasteries in Europe were taken away, mistaking the term Scot which meant the Irish from the north, with Scotland. After that, all of Europe fell into an age of illiteracy which lasted until the Renaissance.)
Mary Ryan D'Arcy notes in The Saints of Ireland that, although the staff of Jesus Christ was burned, the hand bell of Saint Patrick and a reliquary box still exist.
By Fr Kristopher and Matushka Elizabeth Dowling
Source: "The Real Saint Patrick, Bishop
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