Patrick of Ireland

     I taught Confirmation Class of 7^th and 8^th graders yesterday and asked if they had ever read about St. Patrick.  Nobody had.  So I gave an off the cuff 5 minute story which I tell here.  If you are interested in further reading, there are numerous biographies and Cahill’s “How the Irish Saved Civilization”.

     Patrick was a teenager from Roman Briton swimming at the beach with his buddies one day in about the year 397.  Some fierce Irish Celts ambushed them and made them slaves and sold them to Irish Chieftains.  The Irish Celts had a system.  They gave slaves a gunny sack to wear and put them in charge of about a hundred head of cattle which were free-ranged on the Irish hills.  The slave had to herd the cows, day and night, winter snows, summer heat, rain, come what may.  If they lost too many calves, the Irish overlord beat them mercilessly.  This was Patrick’s fate for about 10 years.  He learned the land and his job, and fought loneliness by praying.  Patrick became in essence Irish. Not just a prayer a day but hundreds of prayers as he went about his work, talking to God incessantly.  And he had dreams.  Finally one day, a dream came with orders to leave, so Patrick, not knowing where he was, just walked off the plantation and eventually walked to the seashore.  It is amazing that no one bothered to stop this runaway slave.  Patrick saw a merchant ship and went to talk to the sailors, telling them plainly that he was from Breton and wanted to go home.  Sure, said the crafty sailors thinking they would sell him to another Irish tribe.  So they invited Patrick aboard and set sail first for the coast of Gaul (France), to trade a few things. 

     When they got to Gaul, it looked like all hell had broken loose.  The seaport had been burned to the ground and no longer existed. There were no inhabitants or animals.  It was the year 408 AD and the previous winter had been a record cold one.  The Rhine river rarely freezes but had frozen so solidly that the opportunistic barbarian Germans across the river could walk across.  Over a quarter million Germans swarmed over into Gaul pillaging villages which the Roman Empire, occupied with politics, could not defend.  This is what the stunned sailors confronted.  After futile searching for food, the starving sailors taunted Patrick about praying to his Christian God.  Patrick looked them squarely in the eye and said that if they would pray with him, then God would provide for them as He had done so many times for himself.  So the agnostic sailors tried a moment of faith, and in the midst of the prayer, a herd of hogs came running over the hill and down the road straight at the men.  A feast.  At which point the men began to say maybe they should take this slave kid home since he had some sort of power they dare not be against. 

    Home in Britain, Patrick struggled to catch up in school and muddled through.  He became a priest but wasn’t much good in robes.  But he still prayed tirelessly and had dreams.  One night a dream called him across to Ireland again.  And so, despite being a fugitive there, he obeyed.  He walked right into the head chief’s judgment hall and told his story boldly, bravely, passionately, and managed to share the gospel story with so many analogies from the Irish countryside, the chief was impressed.  In a warrior society, bravery, a good storyteller, passion, strength, and loyalty were the signs of a great fighter.  And the “king” decided that he wanted to be a Christian like Pat.  Patrick went out with the king’s blessing and laid the gospel on his former owner, who was moved to faith.  From top to bottom of the isle, he traveled preaching the message and converting the Irish.  But he also taught them how to read and farm as well.  For a generation, as Western Europe collapsed under the barbarian invasions, Ireland civilized. 

   Upon his death, the Irish, who now had monasteries around the country and were copying not only scriptures but also Virgil and Cato and Plato eagerly, decided that they could do no better than to become little Patricks and take the gospel message back to the continent and convert those bloodthirsty barbarians.  Over about 2 centuries this happened and much of the classic Greco-Roman literature we have today were books saved and carefully carried back to Ireland and recopied. 

     And so it is no surprise that the Irish are a bit put off by Americans who have made their patron saint’s day into a big beer bust.  Patrick of Ireland was a significant historic figure, the first Christian missionary after Paul, the guy who brought civilization and salvation to the Celts who in turn saved much of Christianity in the Dark Ages.