Saint Patrick

Saint Patrick (died March 17?, 492 or 493), patron saint of Ireland, along with Saint Brigit and Saint Columba.

Mission

His first converted patron was Dichu, who made a gift of a large sabhall (barn) for a church sanctuary. This first sanctuary dedicated by St Patrick became in later years his chosen retreat. A monastery and church were erected there, and there Patrick died; the site, Saul County Down, retains the name Sabhall (pronounced "Sowel").

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Patrick set up his see at Armagh and organized the church into territorial sees, as elsewhere in the West and East. While Patrick encouraged the Irish to become monks and nuns, it is not certain that he was a monk himself; it is even less likely that in his time the monastery became the principal unit of the Irish Church, although it was in later periods. The choice of Armagh may have been determined by the presence of a powerful king. There Patrick had a school and presumably a small familia in residence; from this base he made his missionary journeys. There seems to have been little contact with the Palladian Christianity of the southeast.

Related Topics:
See - Armagh

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The story of the annual vernal fire that was to be lit by the High King at Tara, when all the fires were extinguished, to be renewed from the sacred fire from Tara, and of Patrick's rival, miraculously inextinguishable Christian bonfire on the hill of Slane at the opposite end of the valley, is famous among his many exploits. The season was associated with Easter by chroniclers who followed Patrick's own account in his Confessio.

Related Topics:
High King - Tara - Miraculously - Bonfire - Slane

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Patrick was not the first Christian missionary to Ireland, as men such as Secundus and Palladius were active there before him. However, tradition accords him the most impact, and his missions seem to have been concentrated in the provinces of Ulster and Connaught which had never received Christians before. He established the Church throughout Ireland on lasting foundations: he travelled throughout the country preaching, teaching, building churches, opening schools and monasteries, converting chiefs and bards, and everywhere supporting his preaching with miracles. He threw down the idol of Crom Cruach in Leitrim.

Related Topics:
Secundus - Palladius - Ulster - Connaught - Crom Cruach - Leitrim

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Patrick wrote that he daily expected to be violently killed or enslaved again. His Letter to the Soldiers of Coroticus protested British slave trading and the slaughter of a group of Irish Christians by Coroticus's raiding Christian Welshmen, and is the first surely identified literature of the British or Celtic Church (see http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Saint_Patrick#Letter_to_the_Soldiers_of_Coroticus_.28c.450.3F.29 Wikiquote). Patrick gathered many followers, including Saint Benignus, who would become his successor. His chief concerns were the raising up of native clergy, and abolishing paganism, idolatry, and sun-worship. He made no distinction of classes in his preaching and was himself ready for imprisonment or death.

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Pious legend credits Patrick with banishing snakes from the island, though post-glacial Ireland never actually had snakes; one suggestion is that snakes referred to the serpent symbolism of the Druids of that time and place, as shown for instance on coins minted in Gaul (see Carnutes), or that it could have referred to heretical beliefs such as Pelagianism, symbolized as "serpents". Legend also credits Patrick with teaching the Irish about the concept of the Trinity by showing people the shamrock, a three-leaved clover, using it to highlight the Christian dogma of 'three divine persons in the one god' (as opposed to the Arian heresy that was popular in Patrick's time).

Related Topics:
Snake - Serpent - Druid - Carnutes - Pelagianism - Trinity - Dogma - Arian

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In his use of Scripture and eschatological expectations, Patrick was typical of the 5th-century bishop. One of the traits which he retained as an old man was a consciousness of his being an unlearned exile and former slave and fugitive, who learned to trust God completely.

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Patrick died in 493 AD according to the latest reconstruction of the old Irish annals. It is believed that March 17 was his death date (according to the Encyclopedia Britannica) and it is the date popularly associated with him as his feast, known as St. Patrick's Day.

Related Topics:
March 17 - Feast - St. Patrick's Day

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St. Patrick is also patron of Nigeria, which was evangelized primarily by Irish clergy, especially priests from Saint Patrick's Missionary Society (also known as the Kiltegan Missionaries).

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