Today we remember St Patrick, the patron saint
of Ireland, whose feast day this is.
In the secular world, this
is a day for us to celebrate all that is right and true and beautiful in our
communities and in the homeland we share, whatever else may divide us. Many of
us I’m sure, wear a shamrock with pride, take part in or attend St Patrick’s
Day parades, and raise a glass to toast our nation. It’s allowed, you know,
even if you’ve pledged to abstain during Lent, as the Prayer Book marks only
weekdays in Lent as days of discipline and self-denial! Some no doubt will
over-indulge and get up to all sorts of ‘shamroguery’, but we shouldn’t be
afraid to join in decent, patriotic celebration.
But as Christians I
suggest we should go further. We should seek to find the real St Patrick behind
all the picturesque and fanciful legends that have grown up about him over the last
1500 years. And we should reflect
on what St Patrick’s life and mission has to say to us in Ireland today.
Much of what I was told about St Patrick as a child
is not true – it is much later legend.
Patrick did not teach
about the Trinity using the trefoil leaf of a shamrock, charming though the
story is. The story first appears in writing in 1726, though it may be somewhat
older, much later than Patrick’s time.
Patrick did not banish
all the snakes from Ireland. That story is first mentioned by Gerald of Wales
in the 13th Century, although he didn’t believe it himself. The
truth is that Ireland was separated from Britain by rising sea levels after the
last ice age, which prevented snakes from reaching Ireland from Britain.
Patrick was not the
first to convert the pagan Irish to Christianity. The narrow seas between
Britain and Ireland were a trading highway in Roman times. Archeology shows
that many Irish settled on the west coasts of Britain, and no doubt British
Christians settled here. Irish chroniclers tell us that Pope Celestine
consecrated a Gaul named Palladius to be the first bishop for Irish Christians
in 431, a little before St Patrick. And there are traditions that there are
other Irish saints who preceded Patrick, including St Kieran of Seir Keiran, Co
Offaly, St Declan of Ardmore, Co Waterford and St Ailbe of Emly, Co Tipperary.
Most of what we know about the real St Patrick
comes from his own writings.
The main source is his
Confessio, or Confession, in which Patrick gives a short account of his life
and mission.
Patrick tells us, ‘My father was
Calpornius. He was a deacon; his father was Potitus, a priest, who lived at
Bannavem Taburniae.’ We do not
know exactly where Bannavem Taburniae was, but it may have been in Cumbria, Strathclyde
in southwest Scotland, or Wales. So Patrick came from a Christian family of
Romano-British clergy. As such his native language would have been primitive
Welsh, and no doubt he would have been educated in Latin.
Patrick tells us he was
taken prisoner by an Irish raiding party, along with thousands of others, and
taken as a slave to Ireland, where he was put to work as a shepherd. There his
love and awe of God grew and grew, until after 6 years captivity a voice in a
dream urged him to run away and escape back to Britain, which he did.
After his return to
Britain, Patrick felt called to ordination. There is a tradition that he studied
in Europe, principally at Auxerre in modern France, where he was ordained by St
Germanus.
In another vision,
Patrick heard the voices of the Irish among whom he had lived calling to him, ‘We appeal to
you, holy servant boy, to come and walk among us.’ Acting on this
vision he returned to Ireland as a missionary.
Patrick was aware of
the work of other Christian missionaries in the south and east – he was not
alone. But his focus seems to have been in the north and west, where the Christian
faith had not yet arrived.
Patrick gives little
detail of his work, but tells us that he baptised thousands of people, ordained
priests to lead the new Christian communities, converted wealthy women, some of
whom became nuns, and converted the sons of kings. No doubt those he
encountered were attracted by his distinctive spirituality, expressed in St
Patrick’s Breastplate, the famous hymn attributed to him, some verses of which
we shall sing in a moment.
But his mission was
not always easy, for he tells us he met opposition. He was, beaten, robbed, put
in chains and held captive. But Patrick rejoices that ‘the sons and daughters of the leaders of
the Irish are seen to be monks and virgins of Christ.’
Patrick was a modest
man. He finishes his Confessio with these words, addressed to us, to you and me:
‘I pray for
those who believe in and have reverence for God. Some of them may happen to
inspect or come upon this writing which Patrick, a sinner without learning,
wrote in Ireland. May none of them ever say that whatever little I did or made
known to please God was done through ignorance. Instead, you can judge and
believe in all truth that it was a gift of God. This is my confession before I
die.’
What can we as Christians today take from the life
and mission of the real St Patrick?
St Patrick was passionately
dedicated to sharing with the pagan Irish his Christian faith, which he saw as
a blessing and gift from God. He echoes the words of Tobit (13:1b-7) in today’s 1st
reading: ‘Bless
the Lord of righteousness, and exalt the King of the ages. In the land of my
exile I acknowledge him, and show his power and majesty to a nation of
sinners.’ I suggest we should be more like St Patrick, eager to
share our faith in the public square in our own times, when so many seem to find
it difficult to do so.
St Patrick knew all
about economic and social oppression from an early age. He challenged these
evils and faced persecution for it. To quote from St Paul’s words in today’s epistle
(2 Corinthians 4:1-12), he was ‘afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but
not driven to despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not
destroyed’. When we in our times encounter such oppression, we should
confront it as St Patrick did, and persevere against those who seek to
perpetuate it, even if it costs us.
In today’s reading
from John’s Gospel (John: 4:31-38), Jesus tells his disciples, ‘Look around you, and see how the fields are ripe for
harvesting. The reaper is already receiving wages and is gathering fruit for eternal
life, so that sower and reaper may rejoice together … I sent you to reap that
for which you did not labour. Others have laboured, and you have entered into
their labour.’ St Patrick reaped a harvest sown by others, as he
was not the only nor the first Christian missionary to come to Ireland. In
later times the Irish Church found unity around his bishopric of Armagh. In the
same way, Christians of different traditions in Ireland today should seek unity
in our diversity. We should rejoice in the truly important things that we have
in common, rather than cling to the little things that separate us. Only then
can we gather in the fruit for eternal life that Jesus desires us to reap.
I shall finish in prayer.
Hear us,
most merciful God,
for that
part of the Church
which
through your servant Patrick you planted in our land;
that it may
hold fast the faith entrusted to the saints
and in the
end bear much fruit to eternal life:
through
Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen
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